Search results for: Growth measurement constructs

Authors: Tomi Roinila, Aki Taskinen, Matti Vilkko

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Switched-mode converters play now a significant role in modern society. Their operation are often crucial in various electrical applications affecting the every day life. Therefore, the quality of the converters needs to be reliably verified. Recent studies have shown that the converters can be fully characterized by a set of frequency responses which can be efficiently used to validate the proper operation of the converters. Consequently, several methods have been proposed to measure the frequency responses fast and accurately. Most often correlation-based techniques have been applied. The presented measurement methods are highly sensitive to external errors and system nonlinearities. This fact has been often forgotten and the necessary uncertainty analysis of the measured responses has been neglected. This paper presents a simple approach to analyze the noise and nonlinearities in the frequency-response measurements of switched-mode converters. Coherence analysis is applied to form a confidence interval characterizing the noise and nonlinearities involved in the measurements. The presented method is verified by practical measurements from a high-frequency switchedmode converter.

Keywords: Switched-mode converters, Frequency analysis, CoherenceAnalysis.

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Authors: Teerada Apibunyopas, Nithinant Thammakoranonta

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Many organizations bring e-Learning to use as a tool in their training and human development department. It is getting more popular because it is easy to access to get knowledge all the time and also it provides a rich content, which can develop the employees’ skill efficiently. This study is focused on the factors that affect using e-Learning efficiently, so it will make job satisfaction increasing. The questionnaires were sent to employees in large commercial banks, which use e-Learning located in Bangkok, the results from multiple linear regression analysis showed that employee’s characteristics, characteristics of e-Learning, learning and growth have influence on job satisfaction.

Keywords: e-Learning, Job Satisfaction, Learning and growth.

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Authors: K. Krishnaprasad, Raghu V. Prakash

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Constant amplitude fatigue crack growth (FCG) tests were performed on dissimilar metal welded plates of Type 316L Stainless Steel (SS) and IS 2062 Grade A Carbon steel (CS). The plates were welded by TIG welding using SS E309 as electrode. FCG tests were carried on the Side Edge Notch Tension (SENT) specimens of 5 mm thickness, with crack initiator (notch) at base metal region (BM), weld metal region (WM) and heat affected zones (HAZ). The tests were performed at a test frequency of 10 Hz and at load ratios (R) of 0.1 & 0.6. FCG rate was found to increase with stress ratio for weld metals and base metals, where as in case of HAZ, FCG rates were almost equal at high ΔK. FCG rate of HAZ of stainless steel was found to be lowest at low and high ΔK. At intermediate ΔK, WM showed the lowest FCG rate. CS showed higher crack growth rate at all ΔK. However, the scatter band of data was found to be narrow. Fracture toughness (Kc) was found to vary in different locations of weldments. Kc was found lowest for the weldment and highest for HAZ of stainless steel. A novel method of characterizing the FCG behavior using an Infrared thermography (IRT) camera was attempted. By monitoring the temperature rise at the fast moving crack tip region, the amount of plastic deformation was estimated.

Keywords: Dissimilar metal weld, Fatigue Crack Growth, fracture toughness, Infrared thermography.

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Authors: Alicia Y. C. Tang, Rukaini Hj. Abdullah, Sharifuddin M. Zain

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This paper discusses the development of a qualitative simulator (abbreviated QRiOM) for predicting the behaviour of organic chemical reactions. The simulation technique is based on the qualitative process theory (QPT) ontology. The modelling constructs of QPT embody notions of causality which can be used to explain the behaviour of a chemical system. The major theme of this work is that, in a qualitative simulation environment, students are able to articulate his/her knowledge through the inspection of explanations generated by software. The implementation languages are Java and Prolog. The software produces explanation in various forms that stresses on the causal theories in the chemical system which can be effectively used to support learning.

Keywords: Chemical reactions, explanation, qualitative processtheory, simulation

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Authors: E. Neamatollahi, M. Bannayan, A. Souhani Darban, A. Ghanbari

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In production of medicinal plants, seed germination is very important problem. The treated seeds (control, hydro priming and ZnSO4) of Cumin (Cuminum cyminum L.) were evaluated at germination and seedling growth for tolerance to salt (NaCl and Na2SO4) conditions at the same water potentials of 0.0, -0.3, -0.6, - 0.9 and -1.2MPa. Electrical conductivity (EC) values of the NaCl solutions were 0.0, 6.5, 12.7, 18.4 and 23.5 dSm-1, respectively. The objective of the study was to determine factors responsible for germination and early seedling growth due to salt toxicity or osmotic effect and to optimize the best priming treatment for these stress conditions. Results revealed that germination delayed in both solutions, having variable germination with different priming treatments. Germination, shoot and weight, root and shoot length were higher but mean germination time and abnormal germination percentage were lower in NaCl than Na2SO4 at the same water potential. The root / shoot weight and R/S length increased with increase in osmotic potential in both NaCl and Na2SO4 solutions. NaCl had less inhibitor effect on seedling growth than the germination. It was concluded that inhibition of germination at the same water potential of NaCl and Na2SO4 resulted from salt toxicity rather than osmotic effect. Hydro priming increased germination and seedling growth under salt stress. This protocol has practical importance and could be recommended to farmers to achieve higher germination and uniform emergence under field conditions.

Keywords: Priming, Germination, Nacl, ZnSo4, Na2So4.

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Authors: Mehdi Dehghan-Banadaky, Fridoon Niazi, Mohsen Ghiasvand

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Sixteen female Holstein calves allocated in three treatments including: 1: control, 2: fed raw fiber concentrate (RFC) for 45 days and 3: fed RFC for 90 days. RFC supplement (Vitacel® 200) was added to milk immediately before feeding (10 g/L milk). Withers height and body weights of calves were measured monthly. Individual dry matter intake was recorded daily. Blood samples were taken monthly. The result showed that calves consumed RFC had significantly greater weaning and final body weight. Treatment effect on dry matter intake was not significant (p>0.05). Calves fed RFC had better feed efficiency. Withers height of calves fed RFC were taller than the control group (p<0.05). Plasma cholesterol and total proteins concentrations in calves fed RFC were less than control group. We conclude that feeding RFC for 45 or 90 days in suckling period caused to achieve better feed efficiency and higher growth performance in Holstein calves.

Keywords: Holstein calves, raw fiber concentrate, growth, blood metabolites.

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Authors: Elif Gencturk, Ekin Yurdakul, Ahmet Y. Celik, Senol Mutlu, Kutlu O. Ulgen

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Yeast cells are generally used as a model system of eukaryotes due to their complex genetic structure, rapid growth ability in optimum conditions, easy replication and well-defined genetic system properties. Thus, yeast cells increased the knowledge of the principal pathways in humans. During fermentation, carbohydrates (hexoses and pentoses) degrade into some toxic by-products such as 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (5-HMF or HMF) and furfural. HMF influences the ethanol yield, and ethanol productivity; it interferes with microbial growth and is considered as a potent inhibitor of bioethanol production. In this study, yeast single cell behavior under HMF application was monitored by using a continuous flow single phase microfluidic platform. Microfluidic device in operation is fabricated by hot embossing and thermo-compression techniques from cyclo-olefin polymer (COP). COP is biocompatible, transparent and rigid material and it is suitable for observing fluorescence of cells considering its low auto-fluorescence characteristic. The response of yeast cells was recorded through Red Fluorescent Protein (RFP) tagged Nop56 gene product, which is an essential evolutionary-conserved nucleolar protein, and also a member of the box C/D snoRNP complexes. With the application of HMF, yeast cell proliferation continued but HMF slowed down the cell growth, and after HMF treatment the cell proliferation stopped. By the addition of fresh nutrient medium, the yeast cells recovered after 6 hours of HMF exposure. Thus, HMF application suppresses normal functioning of cell cycle but it does not cause cells to die. The monitoring of Nop56 expression phases of the individual cells shed light on the protein and ribosome synthesis cycles along with their link to growth. Further computational study revealed that the mechanisms underlying the inhibitory or inductive effects of HMF on growth are enriched in functional categories of protein degradation, protein processing, DNA repair and multidrug resistance. The present microfluidic device can successfully be used for studying the effects of inhibitory agents on growth by single cell tracking, thus capturing cell to cell variations. By metabolic engineering techniques, engineered strains can be developed, and the metabolic network of the microorganism can thus be manipulated such that chemical overproduction of target metabolite is achieved along with the maximum growth/biomass yield.  

Keywords: COP, HMF, ribosome biogenesis, thermoplastic microbioreactor, yeast.

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Authors: M. Malek Yarand, H. Saebi Monfared

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This study aimed at designing and developing a mechanical force gauge for the square watermelon mold for the first time. It also tried to introduce the square watermelon characteristics and its production limitations. The mechanical force gauge performance and the product itself were also described. There are three main designable gauge models: a. hydraulic gauge, b. strain gauge, and c. mechanical gauge. The advantage of the hydraulic model is that it instantly displays the pressure and thus the force exerted by the melon. However, considering the inability to measure forces at all directions, complicated development, high cost, possible hydraulic fluid leak into the fruit chamber and the possible influence of increased ambient temperature on the fluid pressure, the development of this gauge was overruled. The second choice was to calculate pressure using the direct force a strain gauge. The main advantage of these strain gauges over spring types is their high precision in measurements; but with regard to the lack of conformity of strain gauge working range with water melon growth, calculations were faced with problems. Finally the mechanical pressure gauge has advantages, including the ability to measured forces and pressures on the mold surface during melon growth; the ability to display the peak forces; the ability to produce melon growth graph thanks to its continuous force measurements; the conformity of its manufacturing materials with the required physical conditions of melon growth; high air conditioning capability; the ability to permit sunlight reaches the melon rind (no yellowish skin and quality loss); fast and straightforward calibration; no damages to the product during assembling and disassembling; visual check capability of the product within the mold; applicable to all growth environments (field, greenhouses, etc.); simple process; low costs and so forth.

Keywords: Mechanical Force Gauge, Mold, Reshaped Fruit, Square Watermelon.

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Authors: M.T. Shervani-Tabar, M. Rezaee, E. Madadi Kandjani

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Dynamics of a vapour bubble generated due to a high local energy input near a circular thin bronze plate in the absence of the buoyancy forces is numerically investigated in this paper. The bubble is generated near a thin bronze plate and during the growth and collapse of the bubble, it deforms the nearby plate. The Boundary Integral Equation Method is employed for numerical simulation of the problem. The fluid is assumed to be incompressible, irrotational and inviscid and the surface tension on the bubble boundary is neglected. Therefore the fluid flow around the vapour bubble can be assumed as a potential flow. Furthermore, the thin bronze plate is assumed to have perfectly plastic behaviour. Results show that the displacement of the circular thin bronze plate has considerable effect on the dynamics of its nearby vapour bubble. It is found that by decreasing the thickness of the thin bronze plate, the growth and collapse rate of the bubble becomes higher and consequently the lifetime of the bubble becomes shorter.

Keywords: Vapour Bubble, Thin Bronze Plate, Boundary Integral Equation Method.

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Authors: Jiantao Weng, Yujie Zhao

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With the improvement of living quality and demand for nighttime activities in China, the current situation of outdoor lighting environment at night needs to be assessed. Lighting environment at night plays an important role to guarantee night safety. Two typical residential communities in Hangzhou were selected. A comprehensive test method of outdoor lighting environment at night was established. The road, fitness area, landscape, playground and entrance were included. Field measurements and questionnaires were conducted in these two residential communities. The characteristics of residents’ habits and the subjective evaluation on different aspects of outdoor lighting environment at night were collected via questionnaire. A safety evaluation system on the outdoor lighting environment at night in the residential community was established. The results show that there is a big difference in illumination in different areas. The lighting uniformities of roads cannot meet the requirement of lighting standard in China. Residents pay more attention to the lighting environment of the fitness area and road than others. This study can provide guidance for the design and management of outdoor lighting environment at night.

Keywords: Residential community, lighting environment, night, field measurement.

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Authors: Chouvalit Khancome, Veera Boonjing

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This paper proposes a new solution to string matching problem. This solution constructs an inverted list representing a  string pattern to be searched for. It then uses a new algorithm to process an input string in a single pass. The preprocessing phase  takes 1) time complexity O(m) 2) space complexity O(1) where m is  the length of pattern. The searching phase time complexity takes 1)  O(m+α ) in average case 2) O(n/m) in the best case and 3) O(n) in  the worst case, where α is the number of comparing leading to  mismatch and n is the length of input text.

Keywords: String matching, inverted list, inverted index, pattern, algorithm.

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Authors: Ganiyu Amuda Yusuf, Sarajul Fikri Mohamed

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The procurement and cost management approach adopted for mechanical and electrical (M&E) services in Malaysian construction industry have been criticized for its inefficiency. The study examined early cost estimating practices adopted for mechanical and electrical services (M&E) in Malaysia so as to understand the level of compliance of the current techniques with best practices. The methodology adopted for the study is a review of bidding documents used on both completed and on – going building projects awarded between 2008 – 2010 under 9th Malaysian Plan. The analysis revealed that, M&E services cost cannot be reliably estimated at pre-contract stage; the bidding techniques adopted for M&E services failed to provide uniform basis for contractors to submit tender; detailed measurement of items were not made which could complicate post contract cost control and financial management. The paper concluded that, there is need to follow a structured approach in determining the pre-contract cost estimate for M&E services which will serve as a virile tool for post contract cost control.

Keywords: Cost Management, Mechanical and Electrical Services, Procurement, Standard Method of Measurement

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Authors: H. Arabi, A.R. Kamali Asl

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The purpose of this work is measurement of the system presampling MTF of a variable resolution x-ray (VRX) CT scanner. In this paper, we used the parameters of an actual VRX CT scanner for simulation and study of effect of different focal spot sizes on system presampling MTF by Monte Carlo method (GATE simulation software). Focal spot size of 0.6 mm limited the spatial resolution of the system to 5.5 cy/mm at incident angles of below 17º for cell#1. By focal spot size of 0.3 mm the spatial resolution increased up to 11 cy/mm and the limiting effect of focal spot size appeared at incident angles of below 9º. The focal spot size of 0.3 mm could improve the spatial resolution to some extent but because of magnification non-uniformity, there is a 10 cy/mm difference between spatial resolution of cell#1 and cell#256. The focal spot size of 0.1 mm acted as an ideal point source for this system. The spatial resolution increased to more than 35 cy/mm and at all incident angles the spatial resolution was a function of incident angle. By the way focal spot size of 0.1 mm minimized the effect of magnification nonuniformity.

Keywords: Focal spot, Spatial resolution, Monte Carlosimulation, Variable resolution x-ray (VRX) CT.

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Authors: Wei Lei, Hui Chen, Lin Lu

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Microscopic emission and fuel consumption models have been widely recognized as an effective method to quantify real traffic emission and energy consumption when they are applied with microscopic traffic simulation models. This paper presents a framework for developing the Microscopic Emission (HC, CO, NOx, and CO2) and Fuel consumption (MEF) models for light-duty vehicles. The variable of composite acceleration is introduced into the MEF model with the purpose of capturing the effects of historical accelerations interacting with current speed on emission and fuel consumption. The MEF model is calibrated by multivariate least-squares method for two types of light-duty vehicle using on-board data collected in Beijing, China by a Portable Emission Measurement System (PEMS). The instantaneous validation results shows the MEF model performs better with lower Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) compared to other two models. Moreover, the aggregate validation results tells the MEF model produces reasonable estimations compared to actual measurements with prediction errors within 12%, 10%, 19%, and 9% for HC, CO, NOx emissions and fuel consumption, respectively.

Keywords: Emission, Fuel consumption, Light-duty vehicle, Microscopic, Modeling.

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Authors: F. Elashhab, L. Sheha, R. Fawzi Elsupikhe, A. E. A. Youssef, R. M. Sheltami, T. Alfazani

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Chitosans, CSs, in solution are increasingly used in a range of geometric properties in various academic and industrial sectors, especially in the domain of pharmaceutical and biomedical engineering. In order to provide a tailoring guide of CSs to the applicants, gamma (γ)-irradiation technology and simple viscosity measurements have been used in this study. Accordingly, CS solid discs (0.5 cm thickness and 2.5 cm diameter) were exposed in air to Cobalt-60 (γ)-radiation, at room temperature and constant 50 kGy dose for different periods of exposer time (tγ). Diluted solutions of native and different irradiated CS were then prepared by dissolving 1.25 mg cm-3 of each polymer in 0.1 M NaCl/0.2 M CH3COOH. The single-concentration relative viscosity (ƞr) measurements were employed to obtain their intrinsic viscosity ([ƞ]) values and interrelated parameters, like: the molar mass (Mƞ), hydrodynamic radiuses (RH,ƞ), radius of gyration (RG,ƞ), and second virial coefficient (A2,ƞ) of CSs in the solution. The results show an exponential decrease of ƞr, [ƞ], Mƞ, RH,ƞ and RG,ƞ with increasing tγ. This suggests the influence of random chain-scission of CSs glycosidic bonds, with rate constant kr and kr-1 (lifetime τr ~ 0.017 min-1 and 57.14 min, respectively). The results also show an exponential decrease of A2ƞ with increasing tγ, which can be attributed to the growth of excluded volume effect in CS segments by tγ and, hence, better solution quality. The results are represented in following scaling laws as a tailoring guide to the applicants: RH,ƞ = 6.98 x 10-3 Mr0.65; RG,ƞ = 7.09 x 10-4 Mr0.83; A2,ƞ = 121.03 Mƞ,r-0.19.

Keywords: Gamma irradiation, geometric properties, kinetic model, scaling laws, viscosity measurement.

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Authors: Arshaluys Mushkambaryan

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The purpose of this study is to explore how the emotions at the moment of conflict escalation are expressed nonverbally and how it can be detected by the parties involved in the conflicting situation. The study consists of two parts, in the first part it starts with the definition of "conflict" and "nonverbal communication". Further it includes the analysis of emotions and types of emotions, which may bring to the conflict escalation. Four types of emotions and emotion constructs are analyzed, particularly fear, anger, guilt and frustration. The second part of the study analyses the general role of nonverbal behavior in interaction and communication, which information it may give during communication to the person, who sends or receives those signals. The study finishes with the analysis of the nonverbal expression of analyzed emotions and on how it can be used during interaction.

Keywords: Conflict Escalation, Emotions, Nonverbal communication,

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Authors: H. Azan T., R. W. Lovitt, Nur K. T., N. Azwa. M. B.

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Carbohydrate can be used as a substrate that can be consumed by C. butyricum and converted to useful chemicals such as acetic and butyric acid. Influence of concentration and types of carbohydrate to cell growth, carbohydrate consumed, productivity and carbon balance have been explored. Batch reactor was selected in this study to avoid contamination due to simpler operation system. Glucose was preferred as first types of carbohydrate to be tested. Six concentrations were studied from 0 to 28g/L. Eventually, 15g/L has shown the best concentration for glucose in term of growth rate (2.63h^-1) and carbon balance (99.76% recovery). Comparison for types of carbohydrate was also conducted. 15g/L of xylose (monosaccharide) and starch (complex carbohydrate) was tested.  In term of growth rate and productivity, glucose showed the best carbohydrates. Results for this study showed that glucose and xylose produced more than 80% of acetic acid and less than 20% of butyric acid. Meanwhile, 63.1% of acetic acid and 36.9% of butyric acid were produced from starch. 

Keywords: C. butyricum, glucose, starch, xylose, carbohydrate.

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Authors: Jehad Al Dallal

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Class cohesion is a key object-oriented software quality attribute that is used to evaluate the degree of relatedness of class attributes and methods. Researchers have proposed several class cohesion measures. However, the effect of considering the special methods (i.e., constructors, destructors, and access and delegation methods) in cohesion calculation is not thoroughly theoretically studied for most of them. In this paper, we address this issue for three popular connectivity-based class cohesion measures. For each of the considered measures we theoretically study the impact of including or excluding special methods on the values that are obtained by applying the measure. This study is based on analyzing the definitions and formulas that are proposed for the measures. The results show that including/excluding special methods has a considerable effect on the obtained cohesion values and that this effect varies from one measure to another. For each of the three connectivity-based measures, the proposed theoretical study recommended excluding the special methods in cohesion measurement.

Keywords: Object-oriented class, software quality, class cohesion measure, class cohesion, special methods.

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Authors: Mubina Nazmeen, Iram Rubab

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Formal Specification languages are being widely used for system specification and testing. Highly critical systems such as real time systems, avionics, and medical systems are represented using Formal specification languages. Formal specifications based testing is mostly performed using black box testing approaches thus testing only the set of inputs and outputs of the system. The formal specification language such as VDMµ can be used for white box testing as they provide enough constructs as any other high level programming language. In this work, we perform data and control flow analysis of VDMµ class specifications. The proposed work is discussed with an example of SavingAccount.

Keywords: VDM-SL, VDMµ, data flow graph, control flowgraph, testing, formal specification.

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Authors: R. Yoganathan, H. K. L. K. Gunasekera, R. Hariharan

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Field experiment was conducted to investigate the combine use of animal manure and inorganic fertilizer on growth and yield performance of vegetable cowpea. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with seven treatments. Poultry manure, cattle manure and goat manure were evaluated with recommended level of inorganic fertilizer for vegetable cowpea. The highest crop yield was obtained by the application of poultry manure combined with the recommended level of inorganic fertilizer. The lowest yield was obtained by the application of goat manure only. In addition, the results revealed that the goat manure and cattle manure were inferior to poultry manure as a source of organic manure for vegetable cowpea cultivation. The animal manure combine with chemical fertilizer gave a higher yield when compared to the sole application of animal manure. The soil analysis showed that the nitrogen content and phosphorus content of poultry manure treated plots were higher than other treatments tested. But potassium content was higher in goat manure treated plots. The results further revealed that the poultry manure has a beneficial effect on crop growth and yield compared with other treatments. Therefore, the combined use of poultry manure with inorganic fertilizer application has been recognized as the most suitable way of ensuring high crop yield.

Keywords: Animal manure, inorganic fertilizer, vegetable cowpea, growth and yield performance.

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Authors: Hyun-Koo Kim, Sangmoon Lee, Ho-Youl Jung, Ju H. Park

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We present a system that finds road boundaries and constructs the virtual lane based on fusion data from a laser and a monocular sensor, and detects forward vehicle position even in no lane markers or bad environmental conditions. When the road environment is dark or a lot of vehicles are parked on the both sides of the road, it is difficult to detect lane and road boundary. For this reason we use fusion of laser and vision sensor to extract road boundary to acquire three dimensional data. We use parabolic road model to calculate road boundaries which is based on vehicle and sensors state parameters and construct virtual lane. And then we distinguish vehicle position in each lane.

Keywords: Vehicle Detection, Adaboost, Haar-like Feature, Road Boundary Detection

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Authors: Blesson Varghese, Gerard McKee

Abstract:

The work reported in this paper proposes Swarm-Array computing, a novel technique inspired by swarm robotics, and built on the foundations of autonomic and parallel computing. The approach aims to apply autonomic computing constructs to parallel computing systems and in effect achieve the self-ware objectives that describe self-managing systems. The constitution of swarm-array computing comprising four constituents, namely the computing system, the problem/task, the swarm and the landscape is considered. Approaches that bind these constituents together are proposed. Space applications employing FPGAs are identified as a potential area for applying swarm-array computing for building reliable systems. The feasibility of a proposed approach is validated on the SeSAm multi-agent simulator and landscapes are generated using the MATLAB toolkit.

Keywords: Swarm-Array computing, Autonomic computing, landscapes.

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Authors: R. Abdulrahman, A. Eardley, A. Soliman

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The proliferation in the development of mobile learning (m-learning) has played a vital role in the rapidly growing electronic learning market. This relatively new technology can help to encourage the development of in learning and to aid knowledge transfer a number of areas, by familiarizing students with innovative information and communications technologies (ICT). M-learning plays a substantial role in the deployment of learning methods for nursing students by using the Internet and portable devices to access learning resources ‘anytime and anywhere’. However, acceptance of m-learning by students is critical to the successful use of m-learning systems. Thus, there is a need to study the factors that influence student’s intention to use m-learning. This paper addresses this issue. It outlines the outcomes of a study that evaluates the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model as applied to the subject of user acceptance in relation to m-learning activity in nurse education. The model integrates the significant components across eight prominent user acceptance models. Therefore, a standard measure is introduced with core determinants of user behavioural intention. The research model extends the UTAUT in the context of m-learning acceptance by modifying and adding individual innovativeness (II) and quality of service (QoS) to the original structure of UTAUT. The paper goes on to add the factors of previous experience (of using mobile devices in similar applications) and the nursing students’ readiness (to use the technology) to influence their behavioural intentions to use m-learning. This study uses a technique called ‘convenience sampling’ which involves student volunteers as participants in order to collect numerical data. A quantitative method of data collection was selected and involves an online survey using a questionnaire form. This form contains 33 questions to measure the six constructs, using a 5-point Likert scale. A total of 42 respondents participated, all from the Nursing Institute at the Armed Forces Hospital in Saudi Arabia. The gathered data were then tested using a research model that employs the structural equation modelling (SEM), including confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The results of the CFA show that the UTAUT model has the ability to predict student behavioural intention and to adapt m-learning activity to the specific learning activities. It also demonstrates satisfactory, dependable and valid scales of the model constructs. This suggests further analysis to confirm the model as a valuable instrument in order to evaluate the user acceptance of m-learning activity.

Keywords: Mobile learning, nursing institute, unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model.

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Authors: A. Shebani, S. Iwnicki

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Understanding the nature of wheel and rail wear in the railway field is of fundamental importance to the safe and cost effective operation of the railways. Twin disc wear testing is used extensively for studying wear of wheel and rail materials. The University of Huddersfield twin disc rig was used in this paper to examine the effect of surface conditions on wheel and rail wear measurement under a range of wheel/rail contact conditions, with and without contaminants. This work focuses on an investigation of the effect of dry, wet, and lubricated conditions and the effect of contaminants such as sand on wheel and rail wear. The wheel and rail wear measurements were carried out by using a replica material and an optical profilometer that allows measurement of wear in difficult location with high accuracy. The results have demonstrated the rate at which both water and oil reduce wheel and rail wear. Scratches and other damage were seen on the wheel and rail surfaces after the addition of sand and consequently both wheel and rail wear damage rates increased under these conditions. This work introduced the replica material and an optical instrument as effective tools to study the effect of surface conditions on wheel and rail wear.

Keywords: Railway wheel/rail wear, surface conditions, twin disc test rig, replica material, Alicona profilometer.

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Authors: Dixit Garg, S. Luthra, A. Haleem

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During recent years, the natural environment has become a challenging topic that business organizations must consider due to the economic and ecological impacts and increasing awareness of environment protection among society. Organizations are trying to achieve the goals of improvement in environment, low cost, high quality, flexibility and more customer satisfaction. Performance measurement frameworks are very useful to monitor the performance of any organization. The basic goal of this paper is to identify performance measures and ranking of these performance measures of GSCM performance measurement towards sustainability framework. Five perspectives (Environment, Economic, Social, Operational and Cost performances) and nineteen performance measures of GSCM performance towards sustainability have been have been identified from extensive literature review. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique has been utilized for ranking of these performance perspectives and measures. All pair comparisons in AHP have been made on the basis on the experts’ opinions (selected from academia and industry). Ranking of these performance perspectives and measures will help to understand the importance of environmental, economic, social, operational performances and cost performances in the supply chain.

Keywords: Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), Green Supply Chain Management, Performance Measures (PM), Sustainability.

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Authors: Hyun-Woo Cho

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Detection of incipient abnormal events is important to improve safety and reliability of machine operations and reduce losses caused by failures. Improper set-ups or aligning of parts often leads to severe problems in many machines. The construction of prediction models for predicting faulty conditions is quite essential in making decisions on when to perform machine maintenance. This paper presents a multivariate calibration monitoring approach based on the statistical analysis of machine measurement data. The calibration model is used to predict two faulty conditions from historical reference data. This approach utilizes genetic algorithms (GA) based variable selection, and we evaluate the predictive performance of several prediction methods using real data. The results shows that the calibration model based on supervised probabilistic principal component analysis (SPPCA) yielded best performance in this work. By adopting a proper variable selection scheme in calibration models, the prediction performance can be improved by excluding non-informative variables from their model building steps.

Keywords: Prediction, operation monitoring, on-line data, nonlinear statistical methods, empirical model.

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Authors: R. Haddad, K. Morris, V. Buchanan-Wollaston

Abstract:

Biochemical and molecular analysis of some antioxidant enzyme genes revealed different level of gene expression on oilseed (Brassica napus). For molecular and biochemical analysis, leaf tissues were harvested from plants at eight different developmental stages, from young to senescence. The levels of total protein and chlorophyll were increased during maturity stages of plant, while these were decreased during the last stages of plant growth. Structural analysis (nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequence, and phylogenic tree) of a complementary DNA revealed a high level of similarity for a family of Catalase genes. The expression of the gene encoded by different Catalase isoforms was assessed during different plant growth phase. No significant difference between samples was observed, when Catalase activity was statistically analyzed at different developmental stages. EST analysis exhibited different transcripts levels for a number of other relevant antioxidant genes (different isoforms of SOD and glutathione). The high level of transcription of these genes at senescence stages was indicated that these genes are senescenceinduced genes.

Keywords: Biochemical analysis, Oilseed, Expression pattern, Growth phases

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Authors: Rajkishore Nayak, Tarun Panwar, Majo George, Irfan Ulhaq, Soumik Parida

Abstract:

Factors related to the growth of fashion and textile manufacturing in the Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries are analyzed in this paper. Important factors associated with the growth of fashion and textile manufacturing in the SSA countries are being identified, underlined, and evaluated in this study. This research performed a SWOT analysis of the garment industries in the SSA region by exploring into various literature in the garment manufacturing and export data. SSA countries need to grow a lot in the fashion and textile manufacturing and export to come in par with the developments in the sector globally. Unlike the developing countries such as Vietnam and Bangladesh, the total export to the US, the EU and other parts of the world has declined. On the other hand, the total supply of fashion and textiles to the domestic market has been in rise. However, the local communities still need to rely on other countries to meet their demand. Import of cheaper clothes from countries like Bangladesh China and Vietnam is one of the main challenges local manufacturers are facing as it is very difficult to be competitive in pricing.

Keywords: Sub-Saharan Africa, apparel industry, sustainable fashion, developing countries, fashion, textiles.

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Authors: Sunthari Tharapan, Chockpisit Thepsithar, Kullanart Obsuwan

Abstract:

This study was aimed to investigate the effect of various organic supplements on growth and development of Dendrobium discolor’s protocorms and seedlings growth of Dendrobium Judy Rutz. Protocorms of Dendrobium discolor with 2.0 cm. in diameter and seedlings of Dendrobium Judy Rutz at the same size (0.5 cm. height) were sub-cultured on Hyponex medium supplemented with cow milk (CM), soy milk (SM), potato extract (PE) and peptone (P) for 2 months. The protocorms were developed to seedlings in all treatments after cultured for 2 months. However, the best results were found on Hyponex medium supplemented with P was the best in which the maximum fresh and dry weight and maximum shoot height were obtained in this treatment statistically different (p ≤ 0.05) to other treatments. Moreover, Hyponex medium supplemented with P also stimulated the maximum mean number of 5.7 shoots per explant which also showed statistically different (p ≤ 0.05) when compared to other treatments. The results of growth of Dendrobium Judy Rutz seedlings indicated the medium supplemented with 100 mL/L PE enhanced the maximum fresh and dry weigh per explants with significantly different (p ≤ 0.05) in fresh weight from other treatments including the control medium without any organic supplementation. However, the dry weight was not significantly different (p ≤ 0.05) from medium supplemented with SM and P. There was multiple shoots induction in all media with or without organic supplementation ranging from 2.6 to 3 shoots per explants. The maximum shoot height was also obtained in the seedlings cultured on medium supplemented with PE while the longest root length was found in medium supplemented with SM.

Keywords: Fresh weight, in vitro propagation, orchid, plant height.

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Authors: Saman Ghaffarian, Ilgın Gökasar

Abstract:

This paper presents a new automatic vehicle detection method from very high resolution aerial images to measure traffic density. The proposed method starts by extracting road regions from image using road vector data. Then, the road image is divided into equal sections considering resolution of the images. Gradient vectors of the road image are computed from edge map of the corresponding image. Gradient vectors on the each boundary of the sections are divided where the gradient vectors significantly change their directions. Finally, number of vehicles in each section is carried out by calculating the standard deviation of the gradient vectors in each group and accepting the group as vehicle that has standard deviation above predefined threshold value. The proposed method was tested in four very high resolution aerial images acquired from Istanbul, Turkey which illustrate roads and vehicles with diverse characteristics. The results show the reliability of the proposed method in detecting vehicles by producing 86% overall F1 accuracy value.

Keywords: Aerial images, intelligent transportation systems, traffic density measurement, vehicle detection.

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