Search results for: Statistical Quality Control (SQC)

Authors: Nagore Guerra Bilbao, Clemente Lobato Fraile

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This paper outlines the design and development of the MENDEPRO questionnaire, designed to analyze mentoring performance within a professional development process carried out with professors at the University of the Basque Country, Spain. The study took into account the international research carried out over the past two decades into teachers' professional development, and was also based on a thorough review of the most common instruments used to identify and analyze mentoring styles, many of which fail to provide sufficient psychometric guarantees. The present study aimed to gather empirical data in order to verify the metric quality of the questionnaire developed. To this end, the process followed to validate the theoretical construct was as follows: The formulation of the items and indicators in accordance with the study variables; the analysis of the validity and reliability of the initial questionnaire; the review of the second version of the questionnaire and the definitive measurement instrument. Content was validated through the formal agreement and consensus of 12 university professor training experts. A reduced sample of professors who had participated in a lifelong learning program was then selected for a trial evaluation of the instrument developed. After the trial, 18 items were removed from the initial questionnaire. The final version of the instrument, comprising 33 items, was then administered to a sample group of 99 participants. The results revealed a five-dimensional structure matching theoretical expectations. Also, the reliability data for both the instrument as a whole (.98) and its various dimensions (between .91 and .97) were very high. The questionnaire was thus found to have satisfactory psychometric properties and can therefore be considered apt for studying the performance of mentoring in both induction programs for young professors and lifelong learning programs for senior faculty members.

Keywords: Higher education, mentoring, professional development, university teachers.

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Authors: Yasuyuki Takahashi, Hayato Ishimura, Masao Miyagawa, Teruhito Mochizuki

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Quantitative measurement of myocardium perfusion is possible with single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) using a semiconductor detector. However, accumulation of ^99mTc-tetrofosmin in the liver may make it difficult to assess that accurately in the inferior myocardium. Our idea is to reduce the high accumulation in the liver by using dynamic SPECT imaging and a technique called time subtraction. We evaluated the performance of a new SPECT system with a cadmium-zinc-telluride solid-state semi- conductor detector (Discovery NM 530c; GE Healthcare). Our system acquired list-mode raw data over 10 minutes for a typical patient. From the data, ten SPECT images were reconstructed, one for every minute of acquired data. Reconstruction with the semiconductor detector was based on an implementation of a 3-D iterative Bayesian reconstruction algorithm. We studied 20 patients with coronary artery disease (mean age 75.4 ± 12.1 years; range 42-86; 16 males and 4 females). In each subject, 259 MBq of ^99mTc-tetrofosmin was injected intravenously. We performed both a phantom and a clinical study using dynamic SPECT. An approximation to a liver-only image is obtained by reconstructing an image from the early projections during which time the liver accumulation dominates (0.5~2.5 minutes SPECT image-5~10 minutes SPECT image). The extracted liver-only image is then subtracted from a later SPECT image that shows both the liver and the myocardial uptake (5~10 minutes SPECT image-liver-only image). The time subtraction of liver was possible in both a phantom and the clinical study. The visualization of the inferior myocardium was improved. In past reports, higher accumulation in the myocardium due to the overlap of the liver is un-diagnosable. Using our time subtraction method, the image quality of the ^99mTc-tetorofosmin myocardial SPECT image is considerably improved.

Keywords: 99mTc-tetrofosmin, dynamic SPECT, time subtraction, semiconductor detector.

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Authors: Khalid. M. O. Elmabrok, M. L. Burby, G. G. Nasr

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Flow instability during gas lift operation is caused by three major phenomena – the density wave oscillation, the casing heading pressure and the flow perturbation within the two-phase flow region. This paper focuses on the causes and the effect of flow instability during gas lift operation and suggests ways to control it in order to maximise productivity during gas lift operations. A laboratory-scale two-phase flow system to study the effects of flow perturbation was designed and built. The apparatus is comprised of a 2 m long by 66 mm ID transparent PVC pipe with air injection point situated at 0.1 m above the base of the pipe. This is the point where stabilised bubbles were visibly clear after injection. Air is injected into the water filled transparent pipe at different flow rates and pressures. The behavior of the different sizes of the bubbles generated within the two-phase region was captured using a digital camera and the images were analysed using the advanced image processing package. It was observed that the average maximum bubbles sizes increased with the increase in the length of the vertical pipe column from 29.72 to 47 mm. The increase in air injection pressure from 0.5 to 3 bars increased the bubble sizes from 29.72 mm to 44.17 mm and then decreasing when the pressure reaches 4 bars. It was observed that at higher bubble velocity of 6.7 m/s, larger diameter bubbles coalesce and burst due to high agitation and collision with each other. This collapse of the bubbles causes pressure drop and reverse flow within two phase flow and is the main cause of the flow instability phenomena.

Keywords: Gas lift instability, bubble forming, bubble collapsing, image processing.

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Authors: Al-Khalid Othman, Wan A. Wan Zainal Abidin, Kee M. Lee, Hushairi Zen, Tengku. M. A. Zulcaffle, Kuryati Kipli

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This paper provides an in-depth study of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) application to monitor and control the swiftlet habitat. A set of system design is designed and developed that includes the hardware design of the nodes, Graphical User Interface (GUI) software, sensor network, and interconnectivity for remote data access and management. System architecture is proposed to address the requirements for habitat monitoring. Such applicationdriven design provides and identify important areas of further work in data sampling, communications and networking. For this monitoring system, a sensor node (MTS400), IRIS and Micaz radio transceivers, and a USB interfaced gateway base station of Crossbow (Xbow) Technology WSN are employed. The GUI of this monitoring system is written using a Laboratory Virtual Instrumentation Engineering Workbench (LabVIEW) along with Xbow Technology drivers provided by National Instrument. As a result, this monitoring system is capable of collecting data and presents it in both tables and waveform charts for further analysis. This system is also able to send notification message by email provided Internet connectivity is available whenever changes on habitat at remote sites (swiftlet farms) occur. Other functions that have been implemented in this system are the database system for record and management purposes; remote access through the internet using LogMeIn software. Finally, this research draws a conclusion that a WSN for monitoring swiftlet habitat can be effectively used to monitor and manage swiftlet farming industry in Sarawak.

Keywords: Swiftlet, WSN, Habitat Monitoring, Networking.

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Authors: Sunthari Tharapan, Chockpisit Thepsithar, Kullanart Obsuwan

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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: Alaa Hussein Wadi

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The principal objective of a water treatment plant is to produce water that satisfies a set of drinking water quality standards at a reasonable price to the consumers. The gravel-bed flocculator provide a simple and inexpensive design for flocculation in small water treatment plants (less than 5000 m3/day capacity). The packed bed of gravel provides ideal conditions for the formation of compact settleable flocs because of continuous recontact provided by the sinuous flow of water through the interstices formed by the gravel. The field data which were obtained from the operation of the water supply treatment unit cover the physical, chemical and biological water qualities of the raw and settled water as obtained by the operation of the treatment unit. The experiments were carried out with the aim of assessing the efficiency of the gravel filter in removing the turbidity, pathogenic bacteria, from the raw water. The water treatment plant, which was constructed for the treatment of river water, was in principle a rapid sand filter. The results show that the average value of the turbidity level of the settled water was 4.83 NTU with a standard deviation of turbidity 2.893 NTU. This indicated that the removal efficiency of the sedimentation tank (gravel filter) was about 67.8 %. for pH values fluctuated between 7.75 and 8.15, indicating the alkaline nature of the raw water of the river Shatt Al-Hilla, as expected. Raw water pH is depressed slightly following alum coagulation. The pH of the settled water ranged from 7.75 to a maximum of 8.05. The bacteriological tests which were carried out on the water samples were: total coliform test, E-coli test, and the plate count test. In each test the procedure used was as outlined in the Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater (APHA, AWWA, and WPCF, 1985). The gravel filter exhibit a low performance in removing bacterial load. The percentage bacterial removal, which is maximum for total plate count (19%) and minimum for total coliform (16.82%).

Keywords: Gravel bed flocculator, turbidity, total coliform.

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Authors: Hassan Zarei, Ali Vahidian Kamyad, Sohrab Effati

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In this paper, a mathematical model of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is utilized and an optimization problem is proposed, with the final goal of implementing an optimal 900-day structured treatment interruption (STI) protocol. Two type of commonly used drugs in highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), reverse transcriptase inhibitors (RTI) and protease inhibitors (PI), are considered. In order to solving the proposed optimization problem an adaptive memetic algorithm with population management (AMAPM) is proposed. The AMAPM uses a distance measure to control the diversity of population in genotype space and thus preventing the stagnation and premature convergence. Moreover, the AMAPM uses diversity parameter in phenotype space to dynamically set the population size and the number of crossovers during the search process. Three crossover operators diversify the population, simultaneously. The progresses of crossover operators are utilized to set the number of each crossover per generation. In order to escaping the local optima and introducing the new search directions toward the global optima, two local searchers assist the evolutionary process. In contrast to traditional memetic algorithms, the activation of these local searchers is not random and depends on both the diversity parameters in genotype space and phenotype space. The capability of AMAPM in finding optimal solutions compared with three popular metaheurestics is introduced.

Keywords: HIV therapy design, memetic algorithms, adaptivealgorithms, nonlinear integer programming.

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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: Jacquelyn Nyenhuis, Jaroslaw W. Drelich

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Diets high in processed foods have been found to lack essential micro-nutrients for optimum human development and overall health. Some micro-nutrients such as copper (Cu) have been found to enhance the inflammatory response through its oxidative functions, thereby having a role in cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, diabetes and related complications. This research study was designed to determine if food crops could be bio-fortified with micro-nutrients by growing sprouts on mineral fortified fiber mats. In the feasibility study described in this contribution, recycled cellulose fibers and clay, saturated with either micro-nutrient copper ions or copper nanoparticles, were converted to a novel mineral-cellulose fiber carrier of essential micro-nutrient and of antimicrobial properties. Seeds of Medicago sativa (alfalfa), purchased from a commercial, organic supplier were germinated on engineered cellulose fiber mats. After the appearance of the first leaves, the sprouts were dehydrated and analyzed for Cu content. Nutrient analysis showed ~2 increase in Cu of the sprouts grown on the fiber mats with copper particles, and ~4 increase on mats with ionic copper as compared to the control samples. This study illustrates the potential for the use of engineered mats as a viable way to increase the micro-nutrient composition of locally-grown food crops and the need for additional research to determine the uptake, nutritional implications and risks of micro-nutrient bio-fortification.

Keywords: Bio-fortification, copper nutrient uptake, sprout, mineral-fortified mat, micro-nutrient uptake.

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Authors: M. Rodionov, Z. Dedovets

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The article describes the theoretical concept of teaching secondary school students proof demonstration skills in mathematics. It describes in detail different levels of mastery of the concept of proof-which correspond to Piaget’s idea of there being three distinct and progressively more complex stages in the development of human reflection. Lessons for each level contain a specific combination of the visual-figurative components and deductive reasoning. It is vital at the transition point between levels to carefully and rigorously recalibrate teaching to reflect the development of more complex reflective understanding. This can apply even within the same age range, since students will develop at different speeds and to different potential. The authors argue that this requires an aware and adaptive approach to lessons to reflect this complexity and variation. The authors also contend that effective teaching which enables students to properly understand the implementation of proof arguments must develop specific competences. These are: understanding of the importance of completeness and generality in making a valid argument; being task focused; having an internalised locus of control and being flexible in approach and evaluation. These criteria must be correlated with the systematic application of corresponding methodologies which are best likely to achieve success. The particular pedagogical decisions which are made to deliver this objective are illustrated by concrete examples from the existing secondary school mathematics courses. The proposed theoretical concept formed the basis of the development of methodological materials which have been tested in 47 secondary schools.

Keywords: Education, teaching of mathematics, proof, deductive reasoning, secondary school.

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Authors: Dabyltayeva R. Y., Smatova K.B., Кabekenov G., Toleshova U., Shagyrbayeva M.

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In recent years in Kazakhstan, as well as in all countries, we have been talking not only about the professional stress, but also professional Burnout Syndrome of employees. Burnout is essentially a response to chronic emotional stress – manifests itself in the form of chronic fatigue, despondency, unmotivated aggression, anger, and others. This condition is due to mental fatigue among teachers as a sort of payment for overstrain when professional commitments include the impact of “heat your soul", emotional investment. The emergence of professional Burnout among teachers is due to the system of interrelated and mutually reinforcing factors relating to the various levels of the personality: individually-psychological level is psychodynamic special subject characteristics of valuemotivational sphere and formation of skills and habits of selfregulation; the socio-psychological level includes especially the Organization and interpersonal interaction of a teacher. Signs of the Burnout were observed in 15 testees, and virtually a symptom could be observed in every teacher. As a result of the diagnosis 48% of teachers had the signs of stress (phase syndrome), resulting in a sense of anxiety, mood, heightened emotional susceptibility. The following results have also been got:-the fall of General energy potential – 14 pers. -Psychosomatic and psycho vegetative syndrome – 26 pers. -emotional deficit-34 pers. -emotional Burnout Syndrome-6 pers. The problem of professional Burnout of teachers in the current conditions should become not only meaningful, but particularly relevant. The quality of education of the younger generation depends on professional development; teachers- training level, and how “healthy" teachers are. That is why the systematic maintenance of pedagogic-professional development for teachers (including disclosure of professional Burnout Syndrome factors) takes on a special meaning.

Keywords: Professional burnout syndrome, adaptive syndrome, stage of depletion syndrome, symptoms and characteristics of burnout, prophylactic of professional destruction techniques.

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Authors: S. Shalaweh, P. Bouic, F. Weitz, R. Henkel

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More than 3000 plants of notable phyto-therapeutic value grow in South Africa; these include Cissampelos capensis, commonly known in Afrikaans as dawidjie or dawidjiewortel. C. capensis is the most significant and popular medicinal plant used by the Khoisan as well as other rural groups in the Western region of South Africa. Its rhizomes are traditionally used to treat male fertility problems. Yet, no studies have investigated the effects of this plant or its extracts on human spermatozoa. Therefore, this study aimed at investigating the effects of C. capensis rhizome extract (CRE) fractions on ejaculated human spermatozoa in vitro. Spermatozoa from a total of 77 semen samples were washed with human tubular fluid medium supplemented with bovine serum albumin (HTF-BSA) and incubated for 2 hours with 20 μg/ml progesterone (P4) followed by incubation with different concentrations (0, 0.05, 0.5, 5, 50, 200 μg/ml) of fractionated CRE (F1=0% MeOH, F2=30% MeOH, F3=60% MeOH and F4=100% MeOH) for 1.5 hours at 37°C. A sample without addition of CRE fractions served as control. Samples were analyzed for sperm motility, reactive oxygen species (ROS), DNA-fragmentation, acrosome reaction and capacitation. Results showed that F1 resulted in significantly higher values for ROS, capacitation and hyper-activation compared to F2, F3, and F4 with P4-stimulated samples generally having higher values. No significant effect was found for the other parameters. In conclusion, alkaloids present in F1 of CRE appear to have triggered sperm intrinsic ROS production leading to sperm capacitation and acrosome reaction induced by P4.

Keywords: Capacitation, acrosome reaction, Cissampelos capensis, DNA fragmentation, ROS.

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Authors: M.H. Ahmad Fadzil, Esa Prakasa, Hurriyatul Fitriyah, Hermawan Nugroho, Azura Mohd Affandi, S.H. Hussein

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Psoriasis is a widespread skin disease affecting up to 2% population with plaque psoriasis accounting to about 80%. It can be identified as a red lesion and for the higher severity the lesion is usually covered with rough scale. Psoriasis Area Severity Index (PASI) scoring is the gold standard method for measuring psoriasis severity. Scaliness is one of PASI parameter that needs to be quantified in PASI scoring. Surface roughness of lesion can be used as a scaliness feature, since existing scale on lesion surface makes the lesion rougher. The dermatologist usually assesses the severity through their tactile sense, therefore direct contact between doctor and patient is required. The problem is the doctor may not assess the lesion objectively. In this paper, a digital image analysis technique is developed to objectively determine the scaliness of the psoriasis lesion and provide the PASI scaliness score. Psoriasis lesion is modelled by a rough surface. The rough surface is created by superimposing a smooth average (curve) surface with a triangular waveform. For roughness determination, a polynomial surface fitting is used to estimate average surface followed by a subtraction between rough and average surface to give elevation surface (surface deviations). Roughness index is calculated by using average roughness equation to the height map matrix. The roughness algorithm has been tested to 444 lesion models. From roughness validation result, only 6 models can not be accepted (percentage error is greater than 10%). These errors occur due the scanned image quality. Roughness algorithm is validated for roughness measurement on abrasive papers at flat surface. The Pearson-s correlation coefficient of grade value (G) of abrasive paper and Ra is -0.9488, its shows there is a strong relation between G and Ra. The algorithm needs to be improved by surface filtering, especially to overcome a problem with noisy data.

Keywords: psoriasis, roughness algorithm, polynomial surfacefitting.

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Authors: Guclu Insel, Efe Gumuslu, Gulten Yuksek, Nilay Sayi Ucar, Emine Ubay Cokgor, Tugba Olmez Hanci, Didem Okutman Tas, Fatos Germirli Babuna, Derya Firat Ertem, Okmen Yildirim, Ozge Erturan, Betul Kirci

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In order to eliminate water scarcity problems, effective precautions must be taken. Growing competition for water is increasingly forcing facilities to tackle their own water scarcity problems. At this point, application of wastewater reclamation and reuse results in considerable economic advantageous. In this study, an enamel coating facility, which is one of the high water consumed facilities, is evaluated in terms of its wastewater reuse potential. Wastewater reclamation and reuse can be defined as one of the best available techniques for this sector. Hence, process and pollution profiles together with detailed characterization of segregated wastewater sources are appraised in a way to find out the recoverable effluent streams arising from enamel coating operations. Daily, 170 m³ of process water is required and 160 m³ of wastewater is generated. The segregated streams generated by two enamel coating processes are characterized in terms of conventional parameters. Relatively clean segregated wastewater streams (reusable wastewaters) are separately collected and experimental treatability studies are conducted on it. The results reflected that the reusable wastewater fraction has an approximate amount of 110 m³/day that accounts for 68% of the total wastewaters. The need for treatment applicable on reusable wastewaters is determined by considering water quality requirements of various operations and characterization of reusable wastewater streams. Ultra-filtration (UF), Nano-filtration (NF) and Reverse Osmosis (RO) membranes are subsequently applied on reusable effluent fraction. Adequate organic matter removal is not obtained with the mentioned treatment sequence.

Keywords: enamel coating, membrane, reuse, wastewater

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Authors: Yoshitaka Fujiwara, Jun-ichirou Fukushima, Yasunari Maeda

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Keys to high-quality face-to-face education are ensuring flexibility in the way lectures are given, and providing care and responsiveness to learners. This paper describes a face-to-face education support system that is designed to raise the satisfaction of learners and reduce the workload on instructors. This system consists of a lecture adaptation assistance part, which assists instructors in adapting teaching content and strategy, and a Q&A assistance part, which provides learners with answers to their questions. The core component of the former part is a “learning achievement map", which is composed of a Bayesian network (BN). From learners- performance in exercises on relevant past lectures, the lecture adaptation assistance part obtains information required to adapt appropriately the presentation of the next lecture. The core component of the Q&A assistance part is a case base, which accumulates cases consisting of questions expected from learners and answers to them. The Q&A assistance part is a case-based search system equipped with a search index which performs probabilistic inference. A prototype face-to-face education support system has been built, which is intended for the teaching of Java programming, and this approach was evaluated using this system. The expected degree of understanding of each learner for a future lecture was derived from his or her performance in exercises on past lectures, and this expected degree of understanding was used to select one of three adaptation levels. A model for determining the adaptation level most suitable for the individual learner has been identified. An experimental case base was built to examine the search performance of the Q&A assistance part, and it was found that the rate of successfully finding an appropriate case was 56%.

Keywords: Bayesian network, face-to-face education, lecture adaptation, Q&A assistance.

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Authors: R.N.Pise, S.A.Kulkarni, R.V.Pawar

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MultiProtocol Label Switching (MPLS) is an emerging technology that aims to address many of the existing issues associated with packet forwarding in today-s Internetworking environment. It provides a method of forwarding packets at a high rate of speed by combining the speed and performance of Layer 2 with the scalability and IP intelligence of Layer 3. In a traditional IP (Internet Protocol) routing network, a router analyzes the destination IP address contained in the packet header. The router independently determines the next hop for the packet using the destination IP address and the interior gateway protocol. This process is repeated at each hop to deliver the packet to its final destination. In contrast, in the MPLS forwarding paradigm routers on the edge of the network (label edge routers) attach labels to packets based on the forwarding Equivalence class (FEC). Packets are then forwarded through the MPLS domain, based on their associated FECs , through swapping the labels by routers in the core of the network called label switch routers. The act of simply swapping the label instead of referencing the IP header of the packet in the routing table at each hop provides a more efficient manner of forwarding packets, which in turn allows the opportunity for traffic to be forwarded at tremendous speeds and to have granular control over the path taken by a packet. This paper deals with the process of MPLS forwarding mechanism, implementation of MPLS datapath , and test results showing the performance comparison of MPLS and IP routing. The discussion will focus primarily on MPLS IP packet networks – by far the most common application of MPLS today.

Keywords: Forwarding equivalence class, incoming label map, label, next hop label forwarding entry.

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Authors: Inci Develioglu, Hasan Firat Pulat

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Sustainable development is one of the most important topics in today's world, and it is also an important research topic for geoenvironmental engineering. Dredging process is performed to expand the river and port channel, flood control and accessing harbors. Every year large amount of sediment are dredged for these purposes. Dredged marine soils can be reused as filling materials, road and foundation embankments, construction materials and wildlife habitat developments. In this study, geotechnical engineering properties and compressibility behavior of dredged soil obtained from the Izmir Bay were investigated. The samples with four different organic matter contents were obtained and particle size distributions, consistency limits, pH and specific gravity tests were performed. The consolidation tests were conducted to examine organic matter content (OMC) effects on compressibility behavior of dredged soil. This study has shown that the OMC has an important effect on the engineering properties of dredged soils. The liquid and plastic limits increased with increasing OMC. The lowest specific gravity belonged to sample which has the maximum OMC. The specific gravity values ranged between 2.76 and 2.52. The maximum void ratio difference belongs to sample with the highest OMC (De_11% = 0.38)_. As the organic matter content of the samples increases, the change in the void ratio has also increased. The compression index increases with increasing OMC.

Keywords: Compressibility, consolidation, geotechnical properties, organic matter content, organic soils.

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Authors: Marc Sango, Olimpia Hoinaru, Christophe Gransart, Laurence Duchien

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Ontologies offer a means for representing and sharing information in many domains, particularly in complex domains. For example, it can be used for representing and sharing information of System Requirement Specification (SRS) of complex systems like the SRS of ERTMS/ETCS written in natural language. Since this system is a real-time and critical system, generic ontologies, such as OWL and generic ERTMS ontologies provide minimal support for modeling temporal information omnipresent in these SRS documents. To support the modeling of temporal information, one of the challenges is to enable representation of dynamic features evolving in time within a generic ontology with a minimal redesign of it. The separation of temporal information from other information can help to predict system runtime operation and to properly design and implement them. In addition, it is helpful to provide a reasoning and querying techniques to reason and query temporal information represented in the ontology in order to detect potential temporal inconsistencies. To address this challenge, we propose a lightweight 3-layer temporal Quality of Service (QoS) ontology for representing, reasoning and querying over temporal and non-temporal information in a complex domain ontology. Representing QoS entities in separated layers can clarify the distinction between the non QoS entities and the QoS entities in an ontology. The upper generic layer of the proposed ontology provides an intuitive knowledge of domain components, specially ERTMS/ETCS components. The separation of the intermediate QoS layer from the lower QoS layer allows us to focus on specific QoS Characteristics, such as temporal or integrity characteristics. In this paper, we focus on temporal information that can be used to predict system runtime operation. To evaluate our approach, an example of the proposed domain ontology for handover operation, as well as a reasoning rule over temporal relations in this domain-specific ontology, are presented.

Keywords: System Requirement Specification, ERTMS/ETCS, Temporal Ontologies, Domain Ontologies.

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Authors: Amjad Alsulami, Farah Albishri, Kholod Alzubidi, Lama Almehemadi, Salma Elhag

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Food allergy is a common and rising problem among children. Many students have their first allergic reaction at school, one of these is anaphylaxis, which can be fatal. This study discovered that several schools' processes lacked safety regulations and information on how to handle allergy issues and chronic diseases like diabetes where students were not supervised or monitored during the cafeteria purchasing process. Academic institutions have no obvious prevention or effort when purchasing food containing allergens or negatively impacting the health status of students who suffer from chronic diseases. The stability of students' health must be maintained because it greatly affects their performance and educational achievement. To address this issue, this paper uses a business reengineering process to propose the automation of the whole food-purchasing process, which will aid in detecting and avoiding allergic occurrences and preventing any side effects from eating foods that are conflicting with students' health. This may be achieved by designing a smart card with an embedded QR code that reveals which foods cause an allergic reaction in a student. A survey was distributed to determine and examine how the cafeteria will handle allergic children and whether any management or policy is applied in the school. Also, the survey findings indicate that the integration of QR technology into the food purchasing process would improve health condition detection. The family supported that the suggested solution would be advantageous because it ensured their children avoided eating not allowed food. Moreover, by analyzing and simulating the as-is process and the suggested process, the results demonstrate that there is an improvement in quality and time.

Keywords: QR code, smart card, food allergies, Business Process reengineering, health condition detection.

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Authors: Paola Comella, Vincenzo Francani, Paola Gattinoni

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This paper presents the Colzate-Vertova landslide, a Deep Seated Gravitational Slope Deformation (DSGSD) located in the Seriana Valley, Northern Italy. The paper aims at describing the development as well as evaluating the factors that influence the evolution of the landslide. After defining the conceptual model of the landslide, numerical simulations were developed using a finite element numerical model, first with a two-dimensional domain, and later with a three-dimensional one. The results of the 2-D model showed a displacement field typical of a sackung, as a consequence of the erosion along the Seriana Valley. The analysis also showed that the groundwater flow could locally affect the slope stability, bringing about a reduction in the safety factor, but without reaching failure conditions. The sensitivity analysis carried out on the strength parameters pointed out that slope failures could be reached only for relevant reduction of the geotechnical characteristics. Such a result does not fit the real conditions observed on site, where a number of small failures often develop all along the hillslope. The 3-D model gave a more comprehensive analysis of the evolution of the DSGSD, also considering the border effects. The results showed that the convex profile of the slope favors the development of displacements along the lateral valley, with a relevant reduction in the safety factor, justifying the existing landslides.

Keywords: Deep seated gravitational slope deformation, Italy, landslide, numerical modeling.

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Authors: L. Plošek, F. Nsanganwimana, B. Pourrut, J. Elbl, J. Hynšt, A. Kintl, D. Kubná, J. Záhora

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Land degradation is of concern in many countries. People more and more must address the problems associated with the degradation of soil properties due to man. Increasingly, organic soil amendments, such as compost are being examined for their potential use in soil restoration and for preventing soil erosion. In the Czech Republic, compost is the most used to improve soil structure and increase the content of soil organic matter. Land reclamation / restoration is one of the ways to evaluate industrially produced compost because Czech farmers are not willing to use compost as organic fertilizer. The most common use of reclamation substrates in the Czech Republic is for the rehabilitation of landfills and contaminated sites.

This paper deals with the influence of reclamation substrates (RS) with different proportions of compost and sand on selected soil properties–chemical characteristics, nitrogen bioavailability, leaching of mineral nitrogen, respiration activity and plant biomass production. Chemical properties vary proportionally with addition of compost and sand to the control variant (topsoil). The highest differences between the variants were recorded in leaching of mineral nitrogen (varies from 1.36mg dm^-3 in C to 9.09mg dm^-3). Addition of compost to soil improves conditions for plant growth in comparison with soil alone. However, too high addition of compost may have adverse effects on plant growth. In addition, high proportion of compost increases leaching of mineral N. Therefore, mixture of 70% of soil with 10% of compost and 20% of sand may be recommended as optimal composition of RS.

Keywords: Biomass, Compost, Reclamation, Respiration.

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Authors: K. Aravindhan, Trishit Bandyopadhyay, Mahesh Mehendale, Supriya Kumar De

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The inherent iterative nature of product design and development poses significant challenge to reduce the product design and development time (PD). In order to shorten the time to market, organizations have adopted concurrent development where multiple specialized tasks and design activities are carried out in parallel. Iterative nature of work coupled with the overlap of activities can result in unpredictable time to completion and significant rework. Many of the products have missed the time to market window due to unanticipated or rather unplanned iteration and rework. The iterative and often overlapped processes introduce greater amounts of ambiguity in design and development, where the traditional methods and tools of project management provide less value. In this context, identifying critical metrics to understand the iteration probability is an open research area where significant contribution can be made given that iteration has been the key driver of cost and schedule risk in PD projects. Two important questions that the proposed study attempts to address are: Can we predict and identify the number of iterations in a product development flow? Can we provide managerial insights for a better control over iteration? The proposal introduces the concept of decision points and using this concept intends to develop metrics that can provide managerial insights into iteration predictability. By characterizing the product development flow as a network of decision points, the proposed research intends to delve further into iteration probability and attempts to provide more clarity.

Keywords: Decision Points, Iteration, Product Design, Rework.

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Authors: Lebari B. Gboeloh

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Ficus exasperata is a plant used in the traditional management of malaria in south-south Nigeria. An investigation into the effects of the ethanolic extract of the leaf of the plant on some biochemical indices in albino mice infected with Plasmodium berghei (NK 65) was conducted. 48 mice with weight range of 13-23 g were grouped into six (A, B, C, D, E, and F). Each group contained 8 mice. Groups A, B, C, D and E were infected with blood containing the parasite. Group F was not infected and served as the normal control. On the 6^th day after infection, 4 mice from each group were sacrificed and blood samples are collected for investigation. The remaining mice in each group were treated. Mice in Groups A, B and C were administered orally with 200, 300 and 500 mg/kg body weight of Ficus exasperata respectively for six days. Group D was not treated while Group F was given distilled water. Group E was treated with 5 mg/kg body weight of chloroquine. On the 6^th day post treatment, these mice were sacrificed and blood samples were collected for biochemical analysis. The results indicated that on the 6^th day post inoculation, the levels of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) in all the mice infected with the parasite were significantly (p < 0.05) elevated. However, on the 6^th day post administration of extract, the increased levels of AST, ALP and ALT were significantly (p < 0.05) reduced in groups administered with 300 and 500 mg/kg body weight of the extract compared with groups D and F. The reduction in the levels of these enzymes is an indication that F. exasperata have no hepatotoxic effect on the mice at the dose levels administered.

Keywords: Ficus exasperata, albino mice, Plasmodium berghei, biochemical parameters.

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Authors: Muhammad Safi, Abdul Manan

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In recent years, research in aircraft avionics systems (i.e., radars and antennas) has grown revolutionary. Aircraft technology is experiencing an increasing inclination from all mechanical to all electrical aircraft, with the introduction of inhabitant air vehicles and drone taxis over the last few years. This develops an overriding need to summarize the history, latest trends, and future development in aircraft avionics research for a better understanding and development of new technologies in the domain of avionics systems. This paper focuses on the future trends in antennas and phased arrays for avionics systems. Along with the general overview of the future avionics trend, this work describes the review of around 50 high-quality research papers on aircraft communication systems. Electric-powered aircrafts have been a hot topic in the modern aircraft world. Electric aircrafts have supremacy over their conventional counterparts. Due to increased drone taxi and urban air mobility, fast and reliable communication is very important, so concepts of Broadband Integrated Digital Avionics Information Exchange Networks (B-IDAIENs) and Modular Avionics are being researched for better communication of future aircraft. A Ku-band phased array antenna based on a modular design can be used in a modular avionics system. Furthermore, integrated avionics is also emerging research in future avionics. The main focus of work in future avionics will be using integrated modular avionics and infra-red phased array antennas, which are discussed in detail in this paper. Other work such as reconfigurable antennas and optical communication, are also discussed in this paper. The future of modern aircraft avionics would be based on integrated modulated avionics and small artificial intelligence-based antennas. Optical and infrared communication will also replace microwave frequencies.

Keywords: AI, avionics systems, communication, electric aircrafts, Infra-red, integrated avionics, modular avionics, phased array, reconfigurable antenna, UAVs.

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Authors: Monisha Isaac

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Biotechnology is a discipline which explains the use of living organisms and systems to construct a product, or we can define it as an application or technology developed to use biological systems and organisms processes for a specific use. Particularly, it includes cells and its components use for new technologies and inventions. The tools developed can be further used in diverse fields such as agriculture, industry, research and hospitals etc. The 21^st century has seen a drastic development and advancement in biotechnology in India. Significant increase in Government of India’s outlays for biotechnology over the past decade has been observed. A sectoral break up of biotechnology-based companies in India shows that most of the companies are agriculture-based companies having interests ranging from tissue culture to biopesticides. Major attention has been given by the companies in health related activities and in environmental biotechnology. The biopharmaceutical, which comprises of vaccines, diagnostic, and recombinant products is the most reliable and largest segment of the Indian Biotech industry. India has developed its vaccine markets and supplies them to various countries. Then there are the bio-services, which mainly comprise of contract researches and manufacturing services. India has made noticeable developments in the field of bio industries including manufacturing of enzymes, biofuels and biopolymers. Biotechnology is also playing a crucial and significant role in the field of agriculture. Traditional methods have been replaced by new technologies that mainly focus on GM crops, marker assisted technologies and the use of biotechnological tools to improve the quality of fertilizers and soil. It may only be a small contributor but has shown to have huge potential for growth. Bioinformatics is a computational method which helps to store, manage, arrange and design tools to interpret the extensive data gathered through experimental trials, making it important in the design of drugs.

Keywords: Biotechnology, advancement, agriculture, bio-services, bio-industries, bio-pharmaceuticals.

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Authors: Se Kyung Oh, Young Hwan Yoon, Ary Bachtiar Krishna

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Nowadays, a passenger car suspension must has high performance criteria with light weight, low cost, and low energy consumption. Pilot controlled proportional valve is designed and analyzed to get small pressure change rate after blow-off, and to get a fast response of the damper, a reverse damping mechanism is adapted. The reverse continuous variable damper is designed as a HS-SH damper which offers good body control with reduced transferred input force from the tire, compared with any other type of suspension system. The damper structure is designed, so that rebound and compression damping forces can be tuned independently, of which the variable valve is placed externally. The rate of pressure change with respect to the flow rate after blow-off becomes smooth when the fixed orifice size increases, which means that the blow-off slope is controllable using the fixed orifice size. Damping forces are measured with the change of the solenoid current at the different piston velocities to confirm the maximum hysteresis of 20 N, linearity, and variance of damping force. The damping force variance is wide and continuous, and is controlled by the spool opening, of which scheme is usually adapted in proportional valves. The reverse continuous variable damper developed in this study is expected to be utilized in the semi-active suspension systems in passenger cars after its performance and simplicity of the design is confirmed through a real car test.

Keywords: Blow-off, damping force, pilot controlledproportional valve, reverse continuous damper.

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Authors: Astiaj Khoramshahi, Hossein Ahmadi Danesh Ashtiani, Ahmad Khoshgard, Hamidreza Damghani, Leila Damghani

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Solar energy systems using various storages are required to be evaluated based on energy requirements and applications. Also, modeling and analysis of storage systems are necessary to increase the effectiveness of combinations of these systems. In this paper, analysis based on the MATLAB software has been analyzed to evaluate the response of the hybrid energy system considering various technologies of renewable energy and energy storage. In the present study, three different simulation scenarios are presented. Simulation output results using software for the first scenario show that the battery is effective in smoothing the overall power demand to the consumer studied during a day, but temporary loads on the grid with high frequencies, effectively cannot be canceled due to the limited response speed of battery control. Simulation outputs for the second scenario using the energy storage system show that sudden changes in demand power are paved by super saving. The majority of these sudden changes in power demand are caused by sewing consumers and receiving variable solar power (due to clouds passing through the solar array). Simulation outputs for the third scenario show the effects of the hybrid system for the same consumer and the output of the solar array, leading to the smallest amount of power demand fed into the grid, as well as demand at peak times. According to the "battery only" scenario, the displacement technique of the peak load has been significantly reduced.

Keywords: Storage system, super storage, standalone, microgrid.

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Authors: I. Hosni, L. Bennaceur Farah, N. Saber, R Bennaceur

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Soil moisture content is a key variable in many environmental sciences. Even though it represents a small proportion of the liquid freshwater on Earth, it modulates interactions between the land surface and the atmosphere, thereby influencing climate and weather. Accurate modeling of the above processes depends on the ability to provide a proper spatial characterization of soil moisture. The measurement of soil moisture content allows assessment of soil water resources in the field of hydrology and agronomy. The second parameter in interaction with the radar signal is the geometric structure of the soil. Most traditional electromagnetic models consider natural surfaces as single scale zero mean stationary Gaussian random processes. Roughness behavior is characterized by statistical parameters like the Root Mean Square (RMS) height and the correlation length. Then, the main problem is that the agreement between experimental measurements and theoretical values is usually poor due to the large variability of the correlation function, and as a consequence, backscattering models have often failed to predict correctly backscattering. In this study, surfaces are considered as band-limited fractal random processes corresponding to a superposition of a finite number of one-dimensional Gaussian process each one having a spatial scale. Multiscale roughness is characterized by two parameters, the first one is proportional to the RMS height, and the other one is related to the fractal dimension. Soil moisture is related to the complex dielectric constant. This multiscale description has been adapted to two-dimensional profiles using the bi-dimensional wavelet transform and the Mallat algorithm to describe more correctly natural surfaces. We characterize the soil surfaces and sub-surfaces by a three layers geo-electrical model. The upper layer is described by its dielectric constant, thickness, a multiscale bi-dimensional surface roughness model by using the wavelet transform and the Mallat algorithm, and volume scattering parameters. The lower layer is divided into three fictive layers separated by an assumed plane interface. These three layers were modeled by an effective medium characterized by an apparent effective dielectric constant taking into account the presence of air pockets in the soil. We have adopted the 2D multiscale three layers small perturbations model including, firstly air pockets in the soil sub-structure, and then a vegetable canopy in the soil surface structure, that is to simulate the radar backscattering. A sensitivity analysis of backscattering coefficient dependence on multiscale roughness and new soil moisture has been performed. Later, we proposed to change the dielectric constant of the multilayer medium because it takes into account the different moisture values of each layer in the soil. A sensitivity analysis of the backscattering coefficient, including the air pockets in the volume structure with respect to the multiscale roughness parameters and the apparent dielectric constant, was carried out. Finally, we proposed to study the behavior of the backscattering coefficient of the radar on a soil having a vegetable layer in its surface structure.

Keywords: Multiscale, bi-dimensional, wavelets, SPM, backscattering, multilayer, air pockets, vegetable.

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Authors: Nazmul Huda, Ashik Mosaddik, Abdul Awal, Shafiqur Rahman, Rukhsana Shaheen, Mustofa Nabi

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Polyherbal formulation Sharbat Deenar is a very popular unani medicine in Bangladesh. It is usually used for different kinds of liver disorders. In absence of reliable and inadequate hepatoprotective agents in conventional medicine, the herbal preparations are preferred for liver diseases. The present study was designed to evaluate the hepatoprotective activity of Sharbat Deenar on carbon tetrachloride (CCl₄) induced hepatotoxicity in male Long-Evans albino rats. Group I served as normal control and received neither formulation nor carbon tetrachloride. Group II received only CCl₄ 1mL/kg body weight of rat intraperitoneally for consecutive 14 days. Group III received CCl₄ 1mL/kg body weight of rat intraperitoneally and Silymarin, in dose 50mg/kg body weight of rat orally. Group IV received CCl₄ 1mL/kg body weight of rat intraperitoneally and Sharbat Deenar 1mL/kg body weight of rat for the same 14 consecutive days. At the end of the study, hepatoprotective activity was evaluated by the levels of total bilirubin, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP). Histopathological study of rat liver was also carried out. The results showed that polyherbal formulation Sharbat Deenar exhibited a significant hepatoprotective effect. Such an outcome seems to be the synergistic effect of all ingredients of tested herbal formulation. Although this study suggests that Sharbat Deenar may be used to cure or minimize various liver diseases, it needs further study to attain the clarity of mechanism and safety.

Keywords: Carbon tetrachloride, Hepatoprotective, Sharbat Deenar, Silymarin.

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Authors: Denise Levy, Helen J. Khoury

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Nuclear technology is a controversial issue among a great share of the Brazilian population. Misinformation and common wrong beliefs confuse public’s perceptions and the scientific community is expected to offer a wider perspective on the benefits and risks resulting from ionizing radiation in everyday life. Attentive to the need of new approaches between science and society, the Nuclear Energy Museum, in northeast Brazil, is an initiative created to communicate the growing impact of the beneficial applications of nuclear technology in medicine, industry, agriculture and electric power generation. Providing accessible scientific information, the museum offers a rich learning environment, making use of different educational strategies, such as films, interactive panels and multimedia learning tools, which not only increase the enjoyment of visitors, but also maximize their learning potential. Developed according to modern active learning instructional strategies, multimedia materials are designed to present the increasingly role of nuclear science in modern life, transforming science education into a meaningful learning experience. In year 2016, nine different interactive computer-based activities were developed, presenting curiosities about ionizing radiation in different landmarks around the world, such as radiocarbon dating works in Egypt, nuclear power generation in France and X-radiography of famous paintings in Italy. Feedback surveys have reported a high level of visitors’ satisfaction, proving the high quality experience in learning nuclear science at the museum. The Nuclear Energy Museum is the first and, up to the present time, the only permanent museum in Brazil devoted entirely to nuclear science.

Keywords: Nuclear technology, multimedia learning tools, science museum, society and education.

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