Search results for: local knowledge

Authors: Rogayah A. Majid, Nor Laila Md. Noor, Wan Adilah Wan Adnan

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User-Centered Design (UCD), Usability Engineering (UE) and Participatory Design (PD) are the common Human- Computer Interaction (HCI) approaches that are practiced in the software development process, focusing towards issues and matters concerning user involvement. It overlooks the organizational perspective of HCI integration within the software development organization. The Management Information Systems (MIS) perspective of HCI takes a managerial and organizational context to view the effectiveness of integrating HCI in the software development process. The Human-Centered Design (HCD) which encompasses all of the human aspects including aesthetic and ergonomic, is claimed as to provide a better approach in strengthening the HCI approaches to strengthen the software development process. In determining the effectiveness of HCD in the software development process, this paper presents the findings of a content analysis of HCI approaches by viewing those approaches as a technology which integrates user requirements, ranging from the top management to other stake holder in the software development process. The findings obtained show that HCD approach is a technology that emphasizes on human, tools and knowledge in strengthening the HCI approaches to strengthen the software development process in the quest to produce a sustainable, usable and useful software product.

Keywords: Human-Centered Design (HCD), Management Information Systems (MIS), Participatory Design (PD), User- Centered Design (UCD), Usability Engineering (UE)

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Authors: Ahmed Badawi, J. Michael Johnson, Mohamed Mahfouz

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This paper proposes new enhancement models to the methods of nonlinear anisotropic diffusion to greatly reduce speckle and preserve image features in medical ultrasound images. By incorporating local physical characteristics of the image, in this case scatterer density, in addition to the gradient, into existing tensorbased image diffusion methods, we were able to greatly improve the performance of the existing filtering methods, namely edge enhancing (EE) and coherence enhancing (CE) diffusion. The new enhancement methods were tested using various ultrasound images, including phantom and some clinical images, to determine the amount of speckle reduction, edge, and coherence enhancements. Scatterer density weighted nonlinear anisotropic diffusion (SDWNAD) for ultrasound images consistently outperformed its traditional tensor-based counterparts that use gradient only to weight the diffusivity function. SDWNAD is shown to greatly reduce speckle noise while preserving image features as edges, orientation coherence, and scatterer density. SDWNAD superior performances over nonlinear coherent diffusion (NCD), speckle reducing anisotropic diffusion (SRAD), adaptive weighted median filter (AWMF), wavelet shrinkage (WS), and wavelet shrinkage with contrast enhancement (WSCE), make these methods ideal preprocessing steps for automatic segmentation in ultrasound imaging.

Keywords: Nonlinear anisotropic diffusion, ultrasound imaging, speckle reduction, scatterer density estimation, edge based enhancement, coherence enhancement.

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Authors: Manal Mhada, BrahimEzzahiri, Ouafae Benlhabib

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Seventy-nine accessions, including two local wild species (Chenopodium album and C. murale) and several cultivated quinoa lines developed through recurrent selection in Morocco were screened for their resistance against Peronospora farinose, the causal agent of downy mildew disease. The method of artificial inoculation on detached healthy leaves taken from the middle stage of the plant was used. Screened accessions showed different levels of quantitative resistance to downy mildew as they were scored through the calculation of their area under disease progress curve and their two resistance components, the incubation period and the latent period. Significant differences were found between accessions regarding the three criteria (Incubation Period, Latent Period and Area Under Diseases Progress Curve). Accessions M2a and S938/1 were ranked resistant as they showed the longest Incubation Period (7 days) and Latent Period (12 days) and the lowest area under diseases progress curve (4). Therefore, M24 is the most susceptible accession as it has presented the highest area under diseases progress curve (34.5) and the shortest Incubation Period (1 day) and Latent Period (3 days). In parallel to this evaluation approach, the accession resistance was confirmed under the field conditions through natural infection by using the tree-leaf method. The high correlation found between detached leaf inoculation method and field screening under natural infection allows us to use this laboratory technique with sureness in further selection works.

Keywords: Detached leaf inoculation, Downy mildew, Field screening, Quinoa.

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Authors: O. Zimbili, W. Salim, M. Ndambuki

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Construction and Demolition (C&D) wastes contribute the highest percentage of wastes worldwide (75%). Furthermore, ceramic materials contribute the highest percentage of wastes within the C&D wastes (54%). The current option for disposal of ceramic wastes is landfill. This is due to unavailability of standards, avoidance of risk, lack of knowledge and experience in using ceramic wastes in construction. The ability of ceramic wastes to act as a pozzolanic material in the production of cement has been effectively explored. The results proved that temperatures used in the manufacturing of these tiles (about 900⁰C) are sufficient to activate pozzolanic properties of clay. They also showed that, after optimization (11-14% substitution); the cement blend performs better, with no morphological difference between the cement blended with ceramic waste, and that blended with other pozzolanic materials. Sanitary ware and electrical insulator porcelain wastes are some wastes investigated for usage as aggregates in concrete production. When optimized, both produced good results, better than when natural aggregates are used. However, the research on ceramic wastes as partial substitute for fine aggregates or cement has not been overly exploited as the other areas. This review has been concluded with focus on investigating whether ceramic wall tile wastes used as partial substitute for cement and fine aggregates could prove to be beneficial since the two materials are the most high-priced during concrete production.

Keywords: Blended, morphological, pozzolanic properties, waste.

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Authors: Chryssa Thermolia, Ekaterini S. Bei, Stelios Sotiriadis, Kostas Stravoskoufos, Euripides G.M. Petrakis

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Moving into a new era of healthcare, new tools and devices are developed to extend and improve health services, such as remote patient monitoring and risk prevention. In this concept, Internet of Things (IoT) and Cloud Computing present great advantages by providing remote and efficient services, as well as cooperation between patients, clinicians, researchers and other health professionals. This paper focuses on patients suffering from bipolar disorder, a brain disorder that belongs to a group of conditions called affective disorders, which is characterized by great mood swings. We exploit the advantages of Semantic Web and Cloud Technologies to develop a patient monitoring system to support clinicians. Based on intelligently filtering of evidence-knowledge and individual-specific information we aim to provide treatment notifications and recommended function tests at appropriate times or concluding into alerts for serious mood changes and patient’s nonresponse to treatment. We propose an architecture as the back-end part of a cloud platform for IoT, intertwining intelligence devices with patients’ daily routine and clinicians’ support.

Keywords: Bipolar disorder, intelligent systems patient monitoring, semantic web technologies, IoT.

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Authors: Marie Pavelková, Hana Lukášová

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Pupils´ inquisitiveness at the beginning of their school attendance is reflected by characteristics of the questions they ask. Clearly most of the classroom communication sequences are initiated by the teacher. But the teaching process also includes questions initiated by pupils in the need to satisfy their need for knowledge. The purpose of our research is to present the results of our pre-research strategy of occurrence of pupil-initiated questions in math lessons at the lower elementary school level, and to reveal the extent to which they are influenced by the teacher´s teaching strategy. We used the research methods of direct and indirect observations of fifth year classes in primary school. We focused on questions asked by the pupils in their math lessons. Our research sample for the pre-research observation method was a collection of video recordings available online. We used them for analysing the nature of pupils´ questions identified there. On the basis of the analysis, we hereby present the results concerning the nature of pupils´ questions asked in math lessons on the lower elementary school level. The interpretation of the collected results will be the starting point for the selection of research strategies in the next research stages concerning pupils’ questions in the future.

Keywords: Alternative strategies, 1ower elementary school level, pupil´s question, teaching strategies.

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Authors: Estevan B. Costa, Armando M. Toda, Marcell A. A. Mesquita, Jacques D. Brancher

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The advances in technology in the last five years allowed an improvement in the educational area, as the increasing in the development of educational software. One of the techniques that emerged in this lapse is called Gamification, which is the utilization of video game mechanics outside its bounds. Recent studies involving this technique provided positive results in the application of these concepts in many areas as marketing, health and education. In the last area there are studies that covers from elementary to higher education, with many variations to adequate to the educators methodologies. Among higher education, focusing on IT courses, data structures are an important subject taught in many of these courses, as they are base for many systems. Based on the exposed this paper exposes the development of an interactive web learning environment, called DSLEP (Data Structure Learning Platform), to aid students in higher education IT courses. The system includes basic concepts seen on this subject such as stacks, queues, lists, arrays, trees and was implemented to ease the insertion of new structures. It was also implemented with gamification concepts, such as points, levels, and leader boards, to engage students in the search for knowledge and stimulate self-learning.

Keywords: Gamification, Interactive learning environment, Data structures, e-learning.

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Authors: Mia Wimala, Emma Akmalah, Ira Irawati, M. Rangga Sururi

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One way that has been aggressively implemented in creating a sustainable environment nowadays is through the implementation of green building concept. In order to ensure the success of its implementation, the support and initiation from educational institutions, especially higher education institutions are indispensable. This research was conducted to figure out the obstacles restraining the success of green campus implementation in Indonesia, as well as to propose strategies to overcome those obstacles. The data presented in this paper are mainly derived from interview and questionnaire distributed randomly to the staffs and students in 10 (ten) major institutions around Jakarta and West Java area. The data were further analyzed using ANOVA and SWOT analysis. According to 182 respondents, it is found that resistance to change, inadequate knowledge, information and understanding, no penalty for any environmental violation, lack of reward for green campus practices, lack of stringent regulations/laws, lack of management commitment, insufficient funds are the obstacles to the green campus movement in Indonesia. In addition, out of 6 criteria considered in UI GreenMetric World Ranking, education was the only criteria that had no significant difference between public and private universities in generating the green campus performance. The work concludes with recommendation of strategies to improve the implementation of green campus in the future.

Keywords: Green campus, obstacles, sustainable, higher education institutions.

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Authors: F. L. Motta, M. H. A. Santana

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Humic acids (HA) were produced by a Trichoderma viride strain under submerged fermentation in a medium based on the oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) and the main variables of the process were optimized by using response surface methodology. A temperature of 40°C and concentrations of 50g/L EFB, 5.7g/L potato peptone and 0.11g/L (NH4)2SO4 were the optimum levels of the variables that maximize the HA production, within the physicochemical and biological limits of the process. The optimized conditions led to an experimental HA concentration of 428.4±17.5 mg/L, which validated the prediction from the statistical model of 412.0mg/L. This optimization increased about 7–fold the HA production previously reported in the literature. Additionally, the time profiles of HA production and fungal growth confirmed our previous findings that HA production preferably occurs during fungal sporulation. The present study demonstrated that T. viride successfully produced HA via the submerged fermentation of EFB and the process parameters were successfully optimized using a statistics-based response surface model. To the best of our knowledge, the present work is the first report on the optimization of HA production from EFB by a biotechnological process, whose feasibility was only pointed out in previous works.

Keywords: Empty fruit bunch, humic acids, submerged fermentation, Trichoderma viride.

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Authors: Apoorva Vinod, Archana Mathur, Snehanshu Saha

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Though there exists a plethora of Activation Functions (AFs) used in single and multiple hidden layer Neural Networks (NN), their behavior always raised curiosity, whether used in combination or singly. The popular AFs – Sigmoid, ReLU, and Tanh – have performed prominently well for shallow and deep architectures. Most of the time, AFs are used singly in multi-layered NN, and, to the best of our knowledge, their performance is never studied and analyzed deeply when used in combination. In this manuscript, we experiment on multi-layered NN architecture (both on shallow and deep architectures; Convolutional NN and VGG16) and investigate how well the network responds to using two different AFs (Sigmoid-Tanh, Tanh-ReLU, ReLU-Sigmoid) used alternately against a traditional, single (Sigmoid-Sigmoid, Tanh-Tanh, ReLU-ReLU) combination. Our results show that on using two different AFs, the network achieves better accuracy, substantially lower loss, and faster convergence on 4 computer vision (CV) and 15 Non-CV (NCV) datasets. When using different AFs, not only was the accuracy greater by 6-7%, but we also accomplished convergence twice as fast. We present a case study to investigate the probability of networks suffering vanishing and exploding gradients when using two different AFs. Additionally, we theoretically showed that a composition of two or more AFs satisfies Universal Approximation Theorem (UAT).

Keywords: Activation Function, Universal Approximation function, Neural Networks, convergence.

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Authors: Remica Aggarwal, Sanjeet Singh

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The decision to recruit manpower in an organization requires clear identification of the criteria (attributes) that distinguish successful from unsuccessful performance. The choice of appropriate attributes or criteria in different levels of hierarchy in an organization is a multi-criteria decision problem and therefore multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) techniques can be used for prioritization of such attributes. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is one such technique that is widely used for deciding among the complex criteria structure in different levels. In real applications, conventional AHP still cannot reflect the human thinking style as precise data concerning human attributes are quite hard to be extracted. Fuzzy logic offers a systematic base in dealing with situations, which are ambiguous or not well defined. This study aims at defining a methodology to improve the quality of prioritization of an employee-s performance measurement attributes under fuzziness. To do so, a methodology based on the Extent Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process is proposed. Within the model, four main attributes such as Subject knowledge and achievements, Research aptitude, Personal qualities and strengths and Management skills with their subattributes are defined. The two approaches conventional AHP approach and the Extent Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process approach have been compared on the same hierarchy structure and criteria set.

Keywords: AHP, Extent analysis method, Fuzzy AHP, Prioritization.

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Authors: S. Ziaran, M. Musil, M. Cekan, O. Chlebo

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The paper analyzes the response of buildings and industrially structures on seismic waves (low frequency mechanical vibration) generated by blasting operations. The principles of seismic analysis can be applied for different kinds of excitation such as: earthquakes, wind, explosions, random excitation from local transportation, periodic excitation from large rotating and/or machines with reciprocating motion, metal forming processes such as forging, shearing and stamping, chemical reactions, construction and earth moving work, and other strong deterministic and random energy sources caused by human activities. The article deals with the response of seismic, low frequency, mechanical vibrations generated by nearby blasting operations on a residential home. The goal was to determine the fundamental natural frequencies of the measured structure; therefore it is important to determine the resonant frequencies to design a suitable modal damping. The article also analyzes the package of seismic waves generated by blasting (Primary waves – P-waves and Secondary waves S-waves) and investigated the transfer regions. For the detection of seismic waves resulting from an explosion, the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and modal analysis, in the frequency domain, is used and the signal was acquired and analyzed also in the time domain. In the conclusions the measured results of seismic waves caused by blasting in a nearby quarry and its effect on a nearby structure (house) is analyzed. The response on the house, including the fundamental natural frequency and possible fatigue damage is also assessed.

Keywords: Building structure, seismic waves, spectral analysis, structural response.

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Authors: Norfishah Mat Rabi, Rosma Osman, Norziana Mat Rabi

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It is difficult for autistic children to mix with and be around with other people. Language difficulties are a problem that affects their social life. A lack of knowledge and ability in language are factors that greatly influence their behavior, and their ability to communicate and interact. Autistic children need to be assisted to improve their language abilities through the use of suitable learning resources. This study is conducted to identify weather graphic animation resources can help autistic children learn and use transitive verbs more effectively. The study was conducted in a rural secondary school in Penang, Malaysia. The research subject comprised of three autistic students ranging in age from 14 years to 16 years. The 14-year-old student is placed in A Class and two 16-year-old students placed in B Class. The class placement of the subjects is based on the diagnostic test results conducted by the teacher and not based on age. Data collection is done through observation and interviews for the duration of five weeks; with the researcher allocating 30 minutes for every learning activity carried out. The research finding shows that the subjects learn transitive verbs better using graphic animation compared to static pictures. It is hoped that this study will give a new perspective towards the learning processes of autistic children.

Keywords: Autistic, graphic animation, language learning, transitive verbs.

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Authors: Salam Saudagar, Ankit Kamboj, Niraj Mohan, Satgounda Patil, Nilesh Powar

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Task Assignment and Scheduling is a challenging Operations Research problem when there is a limited number of resources and comparatively higher number of tasks. The Cost Management team at Cummins needs to assign tasks based on a deadline and must prioritize some of the tasks as per business requirements. Moreover, there is a constraint on the resources that assignment of tasks should be done based on an individual skill level, that may vary for different tasks. Another constraint is for scheduling the tasks that should be evenly distributed in terms of number of working hours, which adds further complexity to this problem. The proposed greedy approach to solve assignment and scheduling problem first assigns the task based on management priority and then by the closest deadline. This is followed by an iterative selection of an available resource with the least allocated total working hours for a task, i.e. finding the local optimal choice for each task with the goal of determining the global optimum. The greedy approach task allocation is compared with a variant of Hungarian Algorithm, and it is observed that the proposed approach gives an equal allocation of working hours among the resources. The comparative study of the proposed approach is also done with manual task allocation and it is noted that the visibility of the task timeline has increased from 2 months to 6 months. An interactive dashboard app is created for the greedy assignment and scheduling approach and the tasks with more than 2 months horizon that were waiting in a queue without a delivery date initially are now analyzed effectively by the business with expected timelines for completion.

Keywords: Assignment, deadline, greedy approach, hungarian algorithm, operations research, scheduling.

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Authors: Satyanadh Gundimada, Vijayan K Asari

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A novel feature selection strategy to improve the recognition accuracy on the faces that are affected due to nonuniform illumination, partial occlusions and varying expressions is proposed in this paper. This technique is applicable especially in scenarios where the possibility of obtaining a reliable intra-class probability distribution is minimal due to fewer numbers of training samples. Phase congruency features in an image are defined as the points where the Fourier components of that image are maximally inphase. These features are invariant to brightness and contrast of the image under consideration. This property allows to achieve the goal of lighting invariant face recognition. Phase congruency maps of the training samples are generated and a novel modular feature selection strategy is implemented. Smaller sub regions from a predefined neighborhood within the phase congruency images of the training samples are merged to obtain a large set of features. These features are arranged in the order of increasing distance between the sub regions involved in merging. The assumption behind the proposed implementation of the region merging and arrangement strategy is that, local dependencies among the pixels are more important than global dependencies. The obtained feature sets are then arranged in the decreasing order of discriminating capability using a criterion function, which is the ratio of the between class variance to the within class variance of the sample set, in the PCA domain. The results indicate high improvement in the classification performance compared to baseline algorithms.

Keywords: Discriminant analysis, intra-class probability distribution, principal component analysis, phase congruency.

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Authors: Mutiyaporn Puangbut, Ratanaporn Leesing

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The objective of this research is to study of microbial lipid production by locally photosynthetic microalgae and oleaginous yeast via integrated cultivation technique using CO2 emissions from yeast fermentation. A maximum specific growth rate of Chlorella sp. KKU-S2 of 0.284 (1/d) was obtained under an integrated cultivation and a maximum lipid yield of 1.339g/L was found after cultivation for 5 days, while 0.969g/L of lipid yield was obtained after day 6 of cultivation time by using CO2 from air. A high value of volumetric lipid production rate (QP, 0.223 g/L/d), specific product yield (YP/X, 0.194), volumetric cell mass production rate (QX, 1.153 g/L/d) were found by using ambient air CO2 coupled with CO2 emissions from yeast fermentation. Overall lipid yield of 8.33 g/L was obtained (1.339 g/L of Chlorella sp. KKU-S2 and 7.06g/L of T. maleeae Y30) while low lipid yield of 0.969g/L was found using non-integrated cultivation technique. To our knowledge this is the unique report about the lipid production from locally microalgae Chlorella sp. KKU-S2 and yeast T. maleeae Y30 in an integrated technique to improve the biomass and lipid yield by using CO2 emissions from yeast fermentation.

Keywords: Microbial lipid, Chlorella sp. KKU-S2, Torulaspora maleeae Y30, oleaginous yeast, biodiesel, CO2 emissions

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Authors: Jatinderkumar R. Saini, Apurva A. Desai

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e-mail has become an important means of electronic communication but the viability of its usage is marred by Unsolicited Bulk e-mail (UBE) messages. UBE consists of many types like pornographic, virus infected and 'cry-for-help' messages as well as fake and fraudulent offers for jobs, winnings and medicines. UBE poses technical and socio-economic challenges to usage of e-mails. To meet this challenge and combat this menace, we need to understand UBE. Towards this end, the current paper presents a content-based textual analysis of nearly 3000 winnings-announcing UBE. Technically, this is an application of Text Parsing and Tokenization for an un-structured textual document and we approach it using Bag Of Words (BOW) and Vector Space Document Model techniques. We have attempted to identify the most frequently occurring lexis in the winnings-announcing UBE documents. The analysis of such top 100 lexis is also presented. We exhibit the relationship between occurrence of a word from the identified lexisset in the given UBE and the probability that the given UBE will be the one announcing fake winnings. To the best of our knowledge and survey of related literature, this is the first formal attempt for identification of most frequently occurring lexis in winningsannouncing UBE by its textual analysis. Finally, this is a sincere attempt to bring about alertness against and mitigate the threat of such luring but fake UBE.

Keywords: Lexis, Unsolicited Bulk e-mail (UBE), Vector SpaceDocument Model, Winnings, Lottery

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Authors: B. Suárez, G. Forman

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Kombucha (a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) produces material capable of acquiring multiple shapes and textures that change significantly under different environment or temperature variations (e.g., when it is exposed to wet conditions), properties that may be explored in the scenic industry. This paper presents an analysis of its specific characteristics, exploring them as a non-conventional material for arts and performance. Costume Design uses surfaces as a powerful way of expression to represent concepts and stories; it may apply the unique features of nano bacterial cellulose (NBC) as assets in this artistic context. A mix of qualitative and quantitative (interventionist) methodology approaches were used such as review of relevant literature to deepen knowledge on the research topic (crossing bibliography from different fields of studies: biology, art, costume design, etc.); as well as descriptive methods: laboratorial experiments, document quantities, observation to identify material properties and possibilities used to express a multiple narrative ideas, concepts and feelings. The results confirmed that NBC is an interactive and versatile material viable to be used in an alternative scenic context; its unique aesthetic and performative qualities, which change in contact to moisture, are resources that can be used to show a visual and poetic impact on stage.

Keywords: Biotechnological materials, contemporary dance, costume design, nano bacterial cellulose, performing arts.

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Authors: Efthymios Chondrogiannis, Vassiliki Andronikou, Efstathios Karanastasis, Theodora Varvarigou

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A large amount of data is typically stored in relational databases (DB). The latter can efficiently handle user queries which intend to elicit the appropriate information from data sources. However, direct access and use of this data requires the end users to have an adequate technical background, while they should also cope with the internal data structure and values presented. Consequently the information retrieval is a quite difficult process even for IT or DB experts, taking into account the limited contributions of relational databases from the conceptual point of view. Ontologies enable users to formally describe a domain of knowledge in terms of concepts and relations among them and hence they can be used for unambiguously specifying the information captured by the relational database. However, accessing information residing in a database using ontologies is feasible, provided that the users are keen on using semantic web technologies. For enabling users form different disciplines to retrieve the appropriate data, the design of a Graphical User Interface is necessary. In this work, we will present an interactive, ontology-based, semantically enable web tool that can be used for information retrieval purposes. The tool is totally based on the ontological representation of underlying database schema while it provides a user friendly environment through which the users can graphically form and execute their queries.

Keywords: Ontologies, Relational Databases, SPARQL, Web Interface.

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Authors: Kamel Hashem, Ibrahim Arman

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Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in mathematical education is a very active field of research and innovation, where learning is understood to be meaningful and grasping multiple linked representation rather than rote memorization, a great amount of literature offering a wide range of theories, learning approaches, methodologies and interpretations, are generally stressing the potentialities for teaching and learning using ICT. Despite the utilization of new learning approaches with ICT, students experience difficulties in learning concepts relevant to understanding mathematics, much remains unclear about the relationship between the computer environment, the activities it might support, and the knowledge that might emerge from such activities. Many questions that might arise in this regard: to what extent does the use of ICT help students in the process of understanding and solving tasks or problems? Is it possible to identify what aspects or features of students' mathematical learning can be enhanced by the use of technology? This paper will highlight the interest of the integration of information and communication technologies (ICT) into the teaching and learning of mathematics (quadratic functions), it aims to investigate the effect of four instructional methods on students- mathematical understanding and problem solving. Quantitative and qualitative methods are used to report about 43 students in middle school. Results showed that mathematical thinking and problem solving evolves as students engage with ICT activities and learn cooperatively.

Keywords: Dynamic Geometry Software, Information and Communication Technologies, Visualization, Mathematical Education.

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Authors: Dilshad G.A. Ganjo, Ahmed I. Khwakaram

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An attempt was made for availability of wastewater reuse/reclamation for irrigation purposes using phytoremediation “the low cost and less technology", using six local aquatic macrophytes “e.g. T. angustifolia, B. maritimus, Ph. australis, A. donax, A. plantago-aquatica and M. longifolia (Linn)" as biological waste purifiers. Outdoor experiments/designs were conducted from May 03, 2007 till October 15, 2008, close to one of the main sewage channels of Sulaimani City/Iraq*. All processes were mainly based on conventional wastewater treatment processes, besides two further modifications were tested, the first was sand filtration pots, implanted by individual species of experimental macrophytes and the second was constructed wetlands implanted by experimental macrophytes all together. Untreated and treated wastewater samples were analyzed for their key physico-chemical properties (only heavy metals Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu with particular reference to removal efficiency by experimental macrophytes are highlighted in this paper). On the other hand, vertical contents of heavy metals were also evaluated from both pots and the cells of constructed wetland. After 135 days, macrophytes were harvested and heavy metals were analyzed in their biomass (roots/shoots) for removal efficiency assessment (i.e. uptake/ bioaccumulation rate). Results showed that; removal efficiency of all studied heavy metals was much higher in T. angustifolia followed by Ph. Australis, B. maritimus and A. donax in triple experiment sand pots. Constructed wetland experiments have revealed that; the more replicated constructed wetland cells the highest heavy metal removal efficiency was indicated.

Keywords: Aquatic Macrophytes, Heavy Metals (Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu), Phytoremediation and Removal Efficiency.

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Authors: A. F. Ali, D. M. Shawky

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Discovering new biological knowledge from the highthroughput biological data is a major challenge to bioinformatics today. To address this challenge, we developed a new approach for protein classification. Proteins that are evolutionarily- and thereby functionally- related are said to belong to the same classification. Identifying protein classification is of fundamental importance to document the diversity of the known protein universe. It also provides a means to determine the functional roles of newly discovered protein sequences. Our goal is to predict the functional classification of novel protein sequences based on a set of features extracted from each protein sequence. The proposed technique used datasets extracted from the Structural Classification of Proteins (SCOP) database. A set of spectral domain features based on Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is used. The proposed classifier uses multilayer back propagation (MLBP) neural network for protein classification. The maximum classification accuracy is about 91% when applying the classifier to the full four levels of the SCOP database. However, it reaches a maximum of 96% when limiting the classification to the family level. The classification results reveal that spectral domain contains information that can be used for classification with high accuracy. In addition, the results emphasize that sequence similarity measures are of great importance especially at the family level.

Keywords: Bioinformatics, Artificial Neural Networks, Protein Sequence Analysis, Feature Extraction.

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Authors: Miguel García-Ferrús, Ana González, María A. Ferrús

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The most demanded organic foods worldwide are those that are consumed fresh, such as fruits and vegetables. However, there is a knowledge gap about some aspects of organic food microbiological quality and safety. Organic fruits and vegetables are more exposed to pathogenic microorganisms due to surface contact with natural fertilizers such as animal manure, wastes and vermicompost used during farming. Therefore, the objective of this work was to study the contamination of organic fresh green leafy vegetables by two emergent pathogens, Arcobacter spp. and Helicobacter pylori. For this purpose, a total of 24 vegetable samples, 13 lettuce and 11 spinach were acquired from 10 different ecological supermarkets and greengroceries and analyzed by culture and PCR. Arcobacter spp. was detected in five samples (20%) by PCR, four spinach and one lettuce. One spinach sample was found to be also positive by culture. For H. pylori, the H. pylori VacA gene-specific band was detected in 12 vegetable samples (50%), 10 lettuces and two spinach. Isolation in the selective medium did not yield any positive result, possibly because of low contamination levels together with the presence of the organism in its viable but non-culturable form. Results showed significant levels of H. pylori and Arcobacter contamination in organic vegetables that are generally consumed raw, which seems to confirm that these foods can act as transmission vehicles to humans.

Keywords: Arcobacter spp., Helicobacter pylori, organic vegetables, Polymerase Chain Reaction, PCR.

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Authors: G. V. Byrd, B. B. Ghaley, E. Hayashi

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In urban farming, research and innovation are taking place at an unprecedented pace, and soilless growing technologies are emerging at different rates motivated by different objectives in various parts of the world. Local food production is ultimately a main objective everywhere, but adoption rates and expressions vary with socio-economic drivers. Herein, the status of hydroponics and aquaponics is summarized for four countries with diverse socio-economic settings: Europe (Denmark), Asia (Japan and Nepal) and North America (US). In Denmark, with a strong environmental ethic, soilless growing is increasing in urban agriculture because it is considered environmentally friendly. In Japan, soil-based farming is being replaced with commercial plant factories using advanced technology such as complete environmental control and computer monitoring. In Nepal, where rapid loss of agricultural land is occurring near cities, dozens of hydroponics and aquaponics systems have been built in the past decade, particularly in “non-traditional” sites such as roof tops to supplement family food. In the US, where there is also strong interest in locally grown fresh food, backyard and commercial systems have proliferated. Nevertheless, soilless growing is still in the research and development and early adopter stages, and the broad contribution of hydroponics and aquaponics to food security is yet to be fully determined. Nevertheless, current adoption of these technologies in diverse environments in different socio-economic settings highlights the potential contribution to food security with social and environmental benefits which contribute to several Sustainable Development Goals.

Keywords: Aquaponics, hydroponics, soilless agriculture, urban agriculture.

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Authors: Vishnu Raj, Chockalingam Prathap

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The objective of this study was to explore the impact of variation in the exit annular area on the local flow field features and the flame stability of an annular premixed swirl burner (unconfined) operated with a premixed n-butane air mixture at an equivalence ratio (Φ) = 1, 1 bar, and 300K. A swirl burner with an axial swirl generator having a swirl number of 1.5 was used. Three different burner heads were chosen to have the exit area increased from 100%, 160%, and 220% resulting in inner and outer diameters and cross-sectional areas as (1) 10 mm & 15 mm, 98 mm2 (2) 17.5 mm & 22.5 mm, 157 mm2 and (3) 25 mm & 30 mm, 216 mm2. The bulk velocity and Reynolds number based on the hydraulic diameter and unburned gas properties were kept constant at 12 m/s and 4000. (i) Planar Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) with TiO2 seeding particles and (ii) CH* chemiluminescence was used to measure the velocity fields and reaction zones of the swirl flames at 5 Hz, respectively. Velocity fields and the jet spreading rates measured at the isothermal and reactive conditions revealed that the presence of a flame significantly altered the flow field in the radial direction due to the gas expansion. Important observations from the flame measurements were: the height and maximum width of the recirculation bubbles normalized by the hydraulic diameter, and the jet spreading angles for the flames for the three exit area cases were: (a) 4.52, 1.95, 34◦, (b) 6.78, 2.37, 26◦, and (c) 8.73, 2.32, 22◦. The lean blowout (LBO) was also measured, and the respective equivalence ratios were: 0.80, 0.92, and 0.82. LBO was relatively narrow for the 157 mm2 case. For this case, PIV measurements showed that Turbulent Kinetic Energy and turbulent intensity were relatively high compared to the other two cases, resulting in higher stretch rates and narrower LBO.

Keywords: Chemiluminescence, jet spreading rate, lean blow out, swirl flow.

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Authors: T. Aydin, M. F. Alaeddinoglu

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People, throughout the history, have made estimates and inferences about the future by using their past experiences. Developing information technologies and the improvements in the database management systems make it possible to extract useful information from knowledge in hand for the strategic decisions. Therefore, different methods have been developed. Data mining by association rules learning is one of such methods. Apriori algorithm, one of the well-known association rules learning algorithms, is not commonly used in spatio-temporal data sets. However, it is possible to embed time and space features into the data sets and make Apriori algorithm a suitable data mining technique for learning spatiotemporal association rules. Lake Van, the largest lake of Turkey, is a closed basin. This feature causes the volume of the lake to increase or decrease as a result of change in water amount it holds. In this study, evaporation, humidity, lake altitude, amount of rainfall and temperature parameters recorded in Lake Van region throughout the years are used by the Apriori algorithm and a spatio-temporal data mining application is developed to identify overflows and newlyformed soil regions (underflows) occurring in the coastal parts of Lake Van. Identifying possible reasons of overflows and underflows may be used to alert the experts to take precautions and make the necessary investments.

Keywords: Apriori algorithm, association rules, data mining, spatio-temporal data.

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Authors: Mohammed Alonazi, Natalia Beloff, Martin White

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This paper presents a proposal for a mobile government adoption and utilization model (MGAUM), which is a framework designed to increase the adoption rate of m-government services in Saudi Arabia. Recent advances in mobile technologies such are Mobile compatibilities, The development of wireless communication, mobile applications and devices are enabling governments to deliver services in new ways to citizens more efficiently and economically. In the last decade, many governments around the globe are utilizing these advances effectively to develop their next generation of e-government services. However, a low adoption rate of m-government services by citizens is a common problem in Arabian countries, including Saudi Arabia. Yet, to our knowledge, very little research has been conducted focused on understanding the factors that influence citizen adoption of these m-government services in this part of the world. A set of social, cultural and technological factors have been identified in the literature, which has led to the formulation of associated research questions and hypotheses. These hypotheses will be tested on Saudi citizens using questionnaires and interview methods based around the technology acceptance model. A key objective of the MGAUM framework is to investigate and understand Saudi citizens perception towards adoption and utilization of m-government services.

Keywords: E-Government, M-Government, citizen services quality, technology acceptance model, Saudi Arabia, adoption framework.

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Authors: Zayed N. Alsulami, Asma F. Aldosseri, Ahmed S. Ezziden, Abdulrahman K. Alonazi

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Children are more susceptible to medication errors than adults. Medication administration process is the last stage in the medication treatment process and most of the errors detected in this stage. Little research has been undertaken about medication errors in children in the Middle East countries. This study was aimed to evaluate how the paediatric nurses adhere to the medication administration policy and also to identify any medication preparation and administration errors or any risk factors. An observational, prospective study of medication administration process from when the nurses preparing patient medication until administration stage (May to August 2014) was conducted in Saudi Arabia. Twelve paediatric nurses serving 90 paediatric patients were observed. 456 drug administered doses were evaluated. Adherence rate was variable in 7 steps out of 16 steps. Patient allergy information, dose calculation, drug expiry date were the steps in medication administration with lowest adherence rates. 63 medication preparation and administration errors were identified with error rate 13.8% of medication administrations. No potentially life-threating errors were witnessed. Few logistic and administrative factors were reported. The results showed that the medication administration policy and procedure need an urgent revision to be more sensible for nurses in practice. Nurses’ knowledge and skills regarding to the medication administration process should be improved.

Keywords: Double checking, Medication administration errors, Medication safety, Nurses.

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Authors: Grygorii Kostromin, Vladyslav Povoroznyuk

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Chronic venous diseases (CVD) are one of the common, though controversial problems in medicine. It is generally accepted that this pathology predominantly occurs in women. The issue of excessive weight as a risk factor for CVD is still considered debatable. To the author's best knowledge, today in Ukraine, there are barely any studies that describe the relationship between CVD and obesity. Our study aims to determine the association between age, body composition, obesity and CVD in postmenopausal women. The study was conducted in D. F. Chebotarev Institute of Gerontology, National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine. We have examined 96 postmenopausal women aged 46-85 years (mean age – 66.19 ± 0.96 years), who were divided into two groups depending on the presence of CVD. The women were examined by vascular surgeons. For the diagnosis of CVD, we used clinical, anatomic and pathophysiologic classifications. We also performed clinical, ultrasound and densitometry examinations. We found that the CVD frequency in postmenopausal women increased with age (from 72% in those aged 45-59 years to 84% in those aged 75-89 years). A significant correlation between the total fat mass and age was determined in postmenopausal women with CVD. We also observed a significant correlation between the lower extremities’ fat mass and age in both examined groups. A significant correlation between body mass index and age was determined only in postmenopausal women without CVD.

Keywords: Chronic venous disease, risk factors, age, obesity, postmenopausal women.

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Authors: Badiossadat Hassanpour, Nangkula Utaberta, Azami Zaharim, Nurakmal Goh Abdullah

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Architecture education was based on apprenticeship models and its nature has not changed much during long period but the Source of changes was its evaluation process and system. It is undeniable that art and architecture education is completely based on transmitting knowledge from instructor to students. In contrast to other majors this transmitting is by iteration and practice and studio masters try to control the design process and improving skills in the form of supervision and criticizing. Also the evaluation will end by giving marks to students- achievements. Therefore the importance of the evaluation and assessment role is obvious and it is not irrelevant to say that if we want to know about the architecture education system, we must first study its assessment procedures. The evolution of these changes in western countries has literate and documented well. However it seems that this procedure has unregarded in Malaysia and there is a severe lack of research and documentation in this area. Malaysia as an under developing and multicultural country which is involved different races and cultures is a proper origin for scrutinizing and understanding the evaluation systems and acceptability amount of current implemented models to keep the evaluation and assessment procedure abreast with needs of different generations, cultures and even genders. This paper attempts to answer the questions of how evaluation and assessments are performed and how students perceive this evaluation system in the context Malaysia. The main advantage of this work is that it contributes in international debate on evaluation model.

Keywords: Architecture, assessment, design studio, learning

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