Search results for: medium of instruction

Authors: M. Alizadeh, M. Mahdavi, M.H. Jouri

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The rangelands, as one of the largest dynamic biomes in the world, have very capabilities. Regulation of greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere, particularly carbon dioxide as the main these gases, is one of these cases. The attention to rangeland, as cheep and reachable resources to sequestrate the carbon dioxide, increases after the Industrial Revolution. Rangelands comprise the large parts of Iran as a steppic area. Rudshur (Saveh), as area index of steppic area, was selected under three sites include long-term exclosure, medium-term exclosure, and grazable area in order to the capable of carbon dioxide’s sequestration of dominated species. Canopy cover’s percentage of two dominated species (Artemisia sieberi Besser & Stipa barbata Desf) was determined via establishing of random 1 square meter plot. The sampling of above and below ground biomass style was obtained by complete random. After determination of ash percentage in the laboratory; conversion ratio of plant biomass to organic carbon was calculated by ignition method. Results of the paired t-test showed that the amount of carbon sequestration in above ground and underground biomass of Artemisia sieberi Besser & Stipa barbata Desf is different in three regions. It, of course, hasn’t any difference between under and surface ground’s biomass of Artemisia sieberi Besser in long-term exclosure. The independent t-test results indicate differences between underground biomass corresponding each other in the studied sites. Carbon sequestration in the Stipa barbata Desf was totally more than Artemisia sieberi Besser. Altogether, the average sequestration of the long-term exclosure was 5.842gr/m², the medium-term exclosure was 4.115gr/m², and grazable area was 5.975gr/m² so that there isn’t valuable statistical difference in term of total amount of carbon sequestration to three sites.

Keywords: Carbon sequestration, the Industrial Revolution, greenhouse gases, Artemisia sieberi Besser, Stipa barbata Desf, steppic rangelands

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Authors: Arti Vaish, Harish Parthasarathy

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In this paper, a novel wave equation for electromagnetic waves in a medium having anisotropic permittivity has been derived with the help of Maxwell-s curl equations. The x and y components of the Maxwell-s equations are written with the permittivity () being a 3 × 3 symmetric matrix. These equations are solved for Ex , Ey, Hx, Hy in terms of Ez, Hz, and the partial derivatives. The Z components of the Maxwell-s curl are then used to arrive to the generalized Helmholtz equations for Ez and Hz.

Keywords: Electromagnetism, Maxwell's Equations, Anisotropic permittivity, Wave equation, Matrix Equation, Permittivity tensor.

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Authors: Sarantos Psycharis

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Physical Computing, as an instructional model, is applied in the framework of the Engineering Pedagogy to teach “transversal/cross-cutting ideas” in a STEM content approach. Labview and Arduino were used in order to connect the physical world with real data in the framework of the so called Computational Experiment. Tertiary prospective engineering educators were engaged during their course and Computational Thinking (CT) concepts were registered before and after the intervention across didactic activities using validated questionnaires for the relationship between self-efficacy, computer programming, and CT concepts when STEM content epistemology is implemented in alignment with the Computational Pedagogy model. Results show a significant change in students’ responses for self-efficacy for CT before and after the instruction. Results also indicate a significant relation between the responses in the different CT concepts/practices. According to the findings, STEM content epistemology combined with Physical Computing should be a good candidate as a learning and teaching approach in university settings that enhances students’ engagement in CT concepts/practices.

Keywords: STEM, computational thinking, physical computing, Arduino, Labview, self-efficacy.

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Authors: Subramaniam Chandran

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This paper explains how mobile learning assures sustainable e-education for multicultural group of students. This paper reports the impact of mobile learning on distance education in multicultural environment. The emergence of learning technologies through CD, internet, and mobile is increasingly adopted by distance institutes for quick delivery and cost-effective purposes. Their sustainability is conditioned by the structure of learners as well as the teaching community. The experimental study was conducted among the distant learners of Vinayaka Missions University located at Salem in India. Students were drawn from multicultural environment based on different languages, religions, class and communities. During the mobile learning sessions, the students, who are divided on language, religion, class and community, were dominated by play impulse rather than study anxiety or cultural inhibitions. This study confirmed that mobile learning improved the performance of the students despite their division based on region, language or culture. In other words, technology was able to transcend the relative deprivation in the multicultural groups. It also confirms sustainable e-education through mobile learning and cost-effective system of instruction. Mobile learning appropriates the self-motivation and play impulse of the young learners in providing sustainable e-education to multicultural social groups of students.

Keywords: E-Education, mobile learning, multiculturalism.

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Authors: Matthew Montebello

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The way e-learning effectiveness has been notoriously measured within an academic setting is by comparing the e-learning medium to the traditional face-to-face teaching methodology. In this paper, a simple yet innovative comparison methodology is introduced, whereby the effectiveness of next generation e-learning systems are assessed in contrast not only to the face-to-face mode, but also to the classical e-learning modality. Ethical and logistical issues are also discussed, as this three-way approach to compare teaching methodologies was applied and documented in a real empirical study within a higher education institution.

Keywords: E-learning effectiveness, higher education, teaching modality comparison.

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Authors: S. B. Tende, H. L. Abubakar

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It is acknowledged that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) may encounter different ethical issues and pressures that could affect the way in which they strategize or make decisions concerning the outcome of their business. Therefore, this research aimed at assessing entrepreneurial ethics in the business of SMEs in Nigeria. Secondary data were adopted as source of corpus for the analysis. The findings conclude that a sound entrepreneurial ethics system has a significant effect on the level of performance of SMEs in Nigeria. The Nigerian Government needs to provide both guiding and physical structures; as well as learning systems that could inculcate these entrepreneurial ethics.

Keywords: Entrepreneurial ethics, culture, performance, SME.

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Authors: Alireza Changizi, Arash Rezaei, Jamal Muhammad, Jyrki Latokartano, Minna Lanz

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Offline programming (OLP) is a new method in robot programming which is used widely in the industry nowadays which is a simulation base method that can produce the robot codes for motion according to virtual world in the simulation software. In this project Delmia v5 is used as simulation software. First the work cell component was modelled by Catia v5 and all of them was imported to a process file in Delmia and placed roughly to form the virtual work cell. Then robot was added to the work cell from the Delmia library. Work cell was calibrated corresponding to real world work cell to have accurate code. Tool calibration is the first step of calibration scheme and then work cell equipment can be calibrated using 6 point calibration method. Finally generated code needs to be reformed to match related controller code instruction. At the last stage IO were set to accomplish robots cooperation and make their motion synchronized. The pros and cons also will be discussed to clarify the presented results show the feasibility of the method and its effect on production line efficiency. Finally the positive and negative points of the implementation will be discussed.

Keywords: Component, robotic, automated, production, offline programming, CAD.

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Authors: Zina Ghiloufi, Tahar Khir

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A transient three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is developed to determine the velocity and temperature distribution in different positions cold room during pre-cooling of dates. The turbulence model used is the k-ω Shear Stress Transport (SST) with the standard wall function, the air. The numerical results obtained show that cooling rate is not uniform inside the room; the product at the medium of room has a slower cooling rate. This cooling heterogeneity has a large effect on the energy consumption during cold storage.

Keywords: Numerical simulation, CFD, k-ω (SST), cold room, dates, cooling rate.

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Authors: Alibek Issakhov

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In this paper presents the mathematical model of hydrothermal processes in thermal power plant with different wind direction scenarios in the water reservoir, which is solved by the Navier - Stokes and temperature equations for an incompressible fluid in a stratified medium. Numerical algorithm based on the method of splitting by physical parameters. Three dimensional Poisson equation is solved with Fourier method by combination of tridiagonal matrix method (Thomas algorithm).

Keywords: thermal power plant, hydrothermal process, large eddy simulation, water reservoir

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Authors: N. Khiati

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The present paper attempts to report on some findings that emerged out of a larger scale doctorate research into English language needs of a renowned Algerian company of Hydrocarbon industry. From a multifaceted English for specific purposes (ESP) research perspective, the paper considers the English needs of the finance/legal department staff in the midst of the conflicting needs perspectives involving both objective needs indicators (i.e., the pressure of globalised business) and the general negative attitudes among the administrative -mainly jurists- staff towards English (favouring a non-adaptation strategy). The researcher’s unearthing of the latter’s needs is an endeavour to concretise the concepts of unmet, or unconscious needs, among others. This is why, these initially uncovered hidden needs will be detailed questioning educational background, namely previous language of instruction; training experiences and expectations; as well as the actual communicative practices derived from the retrospective interviews and preliminary quantitative data of the questionnaire. Based on these rough clues suggesting real needs, the researcher will tentatively propose some implications for both pre-service and in-service training organisers as well as for educational policy makers in favour of an English course in legal English for the jurists mainly from pre-graduate phases to in-service training.

Keywords: English for specific purposes, ESP, legal and finance staff, needs analysis, unmet/unconscious needs, training implications.

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Authors: N. Neysani Samany, M.R. Delavar, N. Chrisman, M.R. Malek

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Location-aware computing is a type of pervasive computing that utilizes user-s location as a dominant factor for providing urban services and application-related usages. One of the important urban services is navigation instruction for wayfinders in a city especially when the user is a tourist. The services which are presented to the tourists should provide adapted location aware instructions. In order to achieve this goal, the main challenge is to find spatial relevant objects and location-dependent information. The aim of this paper is the development of a reusable location-aware model to handle spatial relevancy parameters in urban location-aware systems. In this way we utilized ontology as an approach which could manage spatial relevancy by defining a generic model. Our contribution is the introduction of an ontological model based on the directed interval algebra principles. Indeed, it is assumed that the basic elements of our ontology are the spatial intervals for the user and his/her related contexts. The relationships between them would model the spatial relevancy parameters. The implementation language for the model is OWLs, a web ontology language. The achieved results show that our proposed location-aware model and the application adaptation strategies provide appropriate services for the user.

Keywords: Spatial relevancy, Context-aware, Ontology, Modeling

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Authors: K. Reitner, F. Staberhofer, W. Ortner, M. Gerschberger

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The purpose of this paper is to identify the main challenges faced by companies in the timber construction sector and to provide improvement opportunities that can be implemented on a short-, medium- and long-term basis. To identify the challenges and propose actions for each company a literature review and a multiple case research were conducted using the Quick Scan Audit Methodology. Finally, the findings and outcomes are compared with each other to support companies in the timer construction sector when implementing and restructuring their day-to-day activities.

Keywords: Supply chain management, supply chain challenges and opportunities, timber construction sector.

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Authors: Manjusha R. Vagal, Shyam K. Shrivastava, Umesh Mahantshetty, Sudeep Gupta, Supriya Chopra, Reena Engineer, Amita Maheshwari, Atul Buduk

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Vaginal stenosis is a common side effect associated with pelvic radiotherapy in cervical cancer patients which contributes negatively to woman’s health and prevents adequate vaginal/cervical examination. Vaginal dilation with a dilator is routine practice and is internationally advocated as a prophylactic measure to preserve vaginal patency. This retrospective study was carried out with the aim to know the usefulness of vaginal dilation following pelvic radiation therapy in cervical cancer patients in India. Data from medical records of 183 cervical cancer patients, which met the study criteria, were collected related to the stage of the disease, treatment received, commencement period of dilation post radiation therapy, sexual status and side effects associated to dilation practice. Data related to vaginal dimensions as per the length of insertion of a small, medium and large dilator were collected on regular follow-ups until 36 months and/or more. Vaginal dimensions as measured with the length of medium dilator insertion were used for analysis of dilation therapy results using paired t-test. Patients who underwent vaginal dilation with dilator maintained vaginal patency, also the mean vaginal length significantly increased, from 8.02 cm ± 2.69 to 9.96 ± 2.89 cm with a p value <0.001. There was no significant difference found on vaginal patency with different intervals of initiation of dilation therapy. At the third year and more following dilation therapy, significant increase in vaginal length observed with a p value of 0.0001 in both sexually active and inactive patients. Compilation of vaginal dosage during brachytherapy was inadequate, and hence, the secondary objective of the study to determine the effect of radiotherapy on the outcome of rehabilitation intervention was not studied in detail. This retrospective study has found that dilation therapy with vaginal dilators post pelvic radiotherapy is effective in preventing vaginal stenosis and improving vaginal patency and cannot be substituted with vaginal intercourse. Sexual quality of life assessment in the Indian population needs much attention.

Keywords: Dilator, sexually active, vaginal dilation, vaginal stenosis.

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Authors: Saule Mussabekova, Samal Abzhanova

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The Kazakh Language Fluency Test, based on the IELTS exam, was implemented in 2012 at Nazarbayev University in Astana, Kazakhstan. We would like to share our experience in developing this exam and some exam results with other language instructors. In this paper, we will cover all these peculiarities and their related issues. The Kazakh Language Fluency Test is a young exam. During its development, we faced many difficulties. One of the goals of the university and the country is to encourage fluency in the Kazakh language for all citizens of the Republic. Nazarbayev University has introduced a Kazakh language program to assist in achieving this goal. This policy is one-step in ensuring that NU students have a thorough understanding of the Kazakh language through a fluency test based on the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). The Kazakh Language Fluency Test exam aims to determine student’s knowledge of Kazakh language. The fact is that there are three types of students at Nazarbayev University: Kazakh-speaking heritage learners, Russian-speaking and English-speaking students. Unfortunately, we have Kazakh students who do not speak Kazakh. All students who finished school with Russian language instruction are given Kazakh Language Fluency Test in order to determine their Kazakh level. After the test exam, all students can choose appropriate Kazakh course: Basic Kazakh, Intermediate Kazakh and Upper-Intermediate Kazakh. The Kazakh Language Fluency Test consists of four parts: Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking. They are taken on the same day in the abovementioned order.

Keywords: Diagnostic language test, Kazakh language, placement test, test result.

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Authors: K. Beheshti Maal, R. Shafiee

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Vinegar is a precious food additive and complement as well as effective preservative against food spoilage. Recently traditional vinegar production has been improved using various natural substrates and fruits such as grape, palm, cherry, coconut, date, sugarcane, rice and balsam. These neoclassical fermentations resulted in several vinegar types with different tastes, fragrances and nutritional values because of applying various acetic acid bacteria as starters. Acetic acid bacteria include genera Acetobacter, Gluconacetobacter and Gluconobacter according to latest edition of Bergy-s Manual of Systematic Bacteriology that classifies genera on the basis of their 16s RNA differences. Acetobacter spp as the main vinegar starters belong to family Acetobacteraceae that are gram negative obligate aerobes, chemoorganotrophic bacilli that are oxidase negative and oxidize ethanol to acetic acid. In this research we isolated and identified a native Acetobacter strain with high acetic acid productivity and tolerance against high ethanol concentrations from Iranian peach as a summer delicious fruit that is very susceptible to food spoilage and decay. We used selective and specific laboratorial culture media such as Standard GYC, Frateur and Carr medium. Also we used a new industrial culture medium and a miniature fermentor with a new aeration system innovated by Pars Yeema Biotechnologists Co., Isfahan Science and Technology Town (ISTT), Isfahan, Iran. The isolated strain was successfully cultivated in modified Carr media with 2.5% and 5% ethanol simultaneously in high temperatures, 34 - 40º C after 96 hours of incubation period. We showed that the increase of ethanol concentration resulted in rising of strain sensitivity to high temperature. In conclusion we isolated and characterized a new Acetobacter strain from Iranian peach that could be considered as a potential strain for production of a new vinegar type, peach vinegar, with a delicious taste and advantageous nutritional value in food biotechnology and industrial microbiology.

Keywords: Acetobacter, Acetic Acid Bacteria, Vinegar, Peach, Food Biotechnology, Industrial Microbiology, Fermentation

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Authors: Anwar Kashgari

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COVID-19 has severe impacts on business all over the world. The great lockdown of many business owners requires a sage deal with this pandemic. This paper seeks to support business leaders with a standpoint about the COVID-19 situation and provides implications for the SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) and companies. The paper reflects the author's view about the impact of COVID-19 on business activities. We discussed the impact of COVID-19 upon three aspects, namely, startups, SMEs, and e-commerce. The KSA is taken as an example of the developing countries about which we present the current situation. Finally, recommendations to policy and decision-makers are given.

Keywords: COVID-19, business networking, globalization, Saudi Arabia.

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Authors: Jaroslav Pavlíček

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Company strategy expresses a basic idea of how to reach company objectives. A whole range of models of strategic management are used in practice. The concept of strategic management should fulfill some basic requirements to make it applicable for both the typical, but also more specific company environment. The financial strategy plays an important role in corporate strategy. The paper develops a methodology of strategic model implementing into the category of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Furthermore, the methodology recommends procedures while solving an up-to-date worldwide task of the definition of the company strategy and its financial strategy.

Keywords: corporate strategy, financial strategy, corporate planning

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Authors: Sofien Chtourou, Mohamed Chtourou, Omar Hammami

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Embedded systems need to respect stringent real time constraints. Various hardware components included in such systems such as cache memories exhibit variability and therefore affect execution time. Indeed, a cache memory access from an embedded microprocessor might result in a cache hit where the data is available or a cache miss and the data need to be fetched with an additional delay from an external memory. It is therefore highly desirable to predict future memory accesses during execution in order to appropriately prefetch data without incurring delays. In this paper, we evaluate the potential of several artificial neural networks for the prediction of instruction memory addresses. Neural network have the potential to tackle the nonlinear behavior observed in memory accesses during program execution and their demonstrated numerous hardware implementation emphasize this choice over traditional forecasting techniques for their inclusion in embedded systems. However, embedded applications execute millions of instructions and therefore millions of addresses to be predicted. This very challenging problem of neural network based prediction of large time series is approached in this paper by evaluating various neural network architectures based on the recurrent neural network paradigm with pre-processing based on the Self Organizing Map (SOM) classification technique.

Keywords: Address, data set, memory, prediction, recurrentneural network.

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Authors: Muhibul Haque Bhuyan, Md. Refat Sarder

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If a person can monitor his/her oxygen saturation level intermittently then he/she can identify his/her condition early and thus he/she can seek a doctor’s help. This paper reports the design, simulation, and implementation of a low-cost pulse oxygen saturation measurement device based on a reflective photoplethysmography (PPG) system using an integrated circuit sensor as the fundamental component of this health status checking device. The measurement of the physiological parameter is the blood oxygen saturation level (SpO₂) in the peripheral capillary. This work has been implemented using an Arduino Uno R3 microcontroller along with this sensor integrated circuit (IC). The system is designed in the Proteus environment and then simulated to check its performance. After that, the hardware implementation is performed. We used a clipping type optical sensor to sense the arterial oxygen saturation level of blood signal from the fingertips of an individual and then transformed it into the digital data in the microcontroller through its programming its instruction. The designed system was tested by measuring the SpO₂ level for several people of different ages, from 12 to 57 years of age. Besides, the same people were tested using a standard machine purchased from the market. Test results were found very satisfactory as the average percentage of error was very low, 1.59% only.

Keywords: Digital pulse oxygen saturation level, oximeter, measurement, design, simulation, implementation, proteus, Arduino Uno microcontroller.

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Authors: Y. El Kaissi, M. Allam, A. Koulou, M. Galai, M. Ebn Touhami

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The aim of our work is to develop an industrial bath of nickel alloy deposit on mild steel. The optimization of the operating parameters made it possible to obtain a stable Ni-P alloy deposition formulation. To understand the reaction mechanism of the deposition process, a kinetic study was performed by cyclic voltammetry and by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The coatings obtained have a very high corrosion resistance in a very aggressive acid medium which increases with the heat treatment.

Keywords: Ni–P coating, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, heat treatment, cyclic voltammetry, potentiodynamic polarization.

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Authors: S. Raja Ratna, R. Ravi

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Wireless networks are built upon the open shared medium which makes easy for attackers to conduct malicious activities. Jamming is one of the most serious security threats to information economy and it must be dealt efficiently. Jammer prevents legitimate data to reach the receiver side and also it seriously degrades the network performance. The objective of this paper is to provide a general overview of jamming in wireless network. It covers relevant works, different jamming techniques, various types of jammers and typical prevention techniques. Challenges associated with comparing several anti-jamming techniques are also highlighted.

Keywords: Channel, Cryptography, Frequency, Jamming, Legitimate, Security, Wavelength.

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Authors: Kazunori Nomura, Hiromichi Ogi, Masaumi Nakahara, Sou Watanabe, Atsuhiro Shibata

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Chemical Processing Facility of Japan Atomic Energy Agency is a basic research field for advanced back-end technology developments with using actual high-level radioactive materials such as irradiated fuels from the fast reactor, high-level liquid waste from reprocessing plant. In the nature of a research facility, various kinds of chemical reagents have been offered for fundamental tests. Most of them were treated properly and stored in the liquid waste vessel equipped in the facility, but some were not treated and remained at the experimental space as a kind of legacy waste. It is required to treat the waste in safety. On the other hand, we formulated the Medium- and Long-Term Management Plan of Japan Atomic Energy Agency Facilities. This comprehensive plan considers Chemical Processing Facility as one of the facilities to be decommissioned. Even if the plan is executed, treatment of the “legacy” waste beforehand must be a necessary step for decommissioning operation. Under this circumstance, we launched a collaborative research project called the STRAD project, which stands for Systematic Treatment of Radioactive liquid waste for Decommissioning, in order to develop the treatment processes for wastes of the nuclear research facility. In this project, decomposition methods of chemicals causing a troublesome phenomenon such as corrosion and explosion have been developed and there is a prospect of their decomposition in the facility by simple method. And solidification of aqueous or organic liquid wastes after the decomposition has been studied by adding cement or coagulants. Furthermore, we treated experimental tools of various materials with making an effort to stabilize and to compact them before the package into the waste container. It is expected to decrease the number of transportation of the solid waste and widen the operation space. Some achievements of these studies will be shown in this paper. The project is expected to contribute beneficial waste management outcome that can be shared world widely.

Keywords: Chemical Processing Facility, medium- and long-term management plan of JAEA Facilities, STRAD project, treatment of radioactive waste.

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Authors: Hui Fang Huang Su, Jia Borror

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This study compared two different interventions for math instruction among preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The first intervention, a combination of discrete trial teaching and Strategies for Teaching Based on Autism Research (STAR), was the regular math curriculum utilized at the preschool. The second activity-based, naturalistic intervention was Project Mind, also known as Math is Not Difficult. The curricular interventions were randomly assigned to four preschool classrooms with ASD students and implemented over three months for Project MIND. Measurements gained during the same three months for the STAR intervention were used. A quasi-experimental, pre-test/post-test design was selected to compare which intervention was the most effective in increasing mathematical knowledge and skills among preschoolers with ASD. Standardized pre and post-test instruments included the Bracken Basic Concept Scale-3 Receptive, the Applied Problems and Calculation subtests of the Woodcock-Johnson IV Tests of Achievement, and the TEMA 3: Test of Early Mathematics Ability – Third Edition. The STAR assessment is typically administered to all preschoolers at the study site three times per year, and those results were used in this study. We anticipated that the implementation of these two approaches would lead to improvement in the mathematical knowledge and skills of children with ASD. Still, it is essential to see whether a behavioral or naturalistic teaching approach leads to more significant results.

Keywords: Autism, mathematics, preschool, special education.

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Authors: Adrienne Kline, Jaydip Desai

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Electroencephalogram (EEG) is a noninvasive technique that registers signals originating from the firing of neurons in the brain. The Emotiv EEG Neuroheadset is a consumer product comprised of 14 EEG channels and was used to record the reactions of the neurons within the brain to two forms of stimuli in 10 participants. These stimuli consisted of auditory and visual formats that provided directions of ‘right’ or ‘left.’ Participants were instructed to raise their right or left arm in accordance with the instruction given. A scenario in OpenViBE was generated to both stimulate the participants while recording their data. In OpenViBE, the Graz Motor BCI Stimulator algorithm was configured to govern the duration and number of visual stimuli. Utilizing EEGLAB under the cross platform MATLAB®, the electrodes most stimulated during the study were defined. Data outputs from EEGLAB were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics® Version 20. This aided in determining the electrodes to use in the development of a brain-machine interface (BMI) using real-time EEG signals from the Emotiv EEG Neuroheadset. Signal processing and feature extraction were accomplished via the Simulink® signal processing toolbox. An Arduino™ Duemilanove microcontroller was used to link the Emotiv EEG Neuroheadset and the right and left Mecha TE™ Hands.

Keywords: Brain-machine interface, EEGLAB, emotiv EEG neuroheadset, openViBE, simulink.

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Authors: Suphat Rittirat, Sutha Klaocheed, Kanchit Thammasiri

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The effects of thidiazuron (TDZ) and benzyladenine (BA) on protocorm-like bodies (PLBs) induction from leaf explants was investigated. It was found that TDZ was superior to BA. The highest percentage and number of PLBs per leaf explant at 30 and 5.3, respectively were obtained on ½ MS medium supplemented with 9µM TDZ. The regenerated plantlets were potted and acclimatized in the greenhouse. These plants grew well and developed into normal plants after 3 month of transplantation. The 100% survival of plantlets was achieved when planted on pots containing sphagnum moss. 

Keywords: Orchid, PLBs, sphagnum moss, thidiazuron.

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Authors: Fernanda M. Bastos, Teógenes A. da Silva

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Extrapolation chambers were designed to be used as primary standard dosimeter for measuring absorbed dose in a medium in beta radiation and low energy x-rays. The International Organization for Standardization established series of reference x-radiation for calibrating and determining the energy dependence of dosimeters that are to be reproduced in metrology laboratories. Standardization of the low energy x-ray beams with tube potential lower than 30 kV may be affected by the instrument used for dosimetry. In this work, parameters of a 23392 model PTW extrapolation chamber were determined aiming its use in low energy x-ray beams as a reference instrument.

Keywords: Extrapolation chamber, low energy x-rays, standardization, x-ray dosimetry.

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Authors: K. T. Sun, Y. H. Tai, H. W. Yang, H. T. Lin

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This paper presented the technique of robot control by event-related potentials (ERPs) of brain waves. Based on the proposed technique, severe physical disabilities can free browse outside world. A specific component of ERPs, N2P3, was found and used to control the movement of robot and the view of camera on the designed brain-computer interface (BCI). Users only required watching the stimuli of attended button on the BCI, the evoked potentials of brain waves of the target button, N2P3, had the greatest amplitude among all control buttons. An experimental scene had been constructed that the robot required walking to a specific position and move the view of camera to see the instruction of the mission, and then completed the task. Twelve volunteers participated in this experiment, and experimental results showed that the correct rate of BCI control achieved 80% and the average of execution time was 353 seconds for completing the mission. Four main contributions included in this research: (1) find an efficient component of ERPs, N2P3, for BCI control, (2) embed robot's viewpoint image into user interface for robot control, (3) design an experimental scene and conduct the experiment, and (4) evaluate the performance of the proposed system for assessing the practicability.

Keywords: Brain-computer interface (BCI), event-related potentials (ERPs), robot control, severe physical disabilities.

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Authors: Olimpia Matarazzo, Ivana Baldassarre

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The main aim of this study was to examine whether people understand indicative conditionals on the basis of syntactic factors or on the basis of subjective conditional probability. The second aim was to investigate whether the conditional probability of q given p depends on the antecedent and consequent sizes or derives from inductive processes leading to establish a link of plausible cooccurrence between events semantically or experientially associated. These competing hypotheses have been tested through a 3 x 2 x 2 x 2 mixed design involving the manipulation of four variables: type of instructions (“Consider the following statement to be true", “Read the following statement" and condition with no conditional statement); antecedent size (high/low); consequent size (high/low); statement probability (high/low). The first variable was between-subjects, the others were within-subjects. The inferences investigated were Modus Ponens and Modus Tollens. Ninety undergraduates of the Second University of Naples, without any prior knowledge of logic or conditional reasoning, participated in this study. Results suggest that people understand conditionals in a syntactic way rather than in a probabilistic way, even though the perception of the conditional probability of q given p is at least partially involved in the conditionals- comprehension. They also showed that, in presence of a conditional syllogism, inferences are not affected by the antecedent or consequent sizes. From a theoretical point of view these findings suggest that it would be inappropriate to abandon the idea that conditionals are naturally understood in a syntactic way for the idea that they are understood in a probabilistic way.

Keywords: Conditionals, conditional probability, conditional syllogism, inferential task.

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Authors: Aree Thongpukdee, Ekasit Nisayan, Chockpisit Thepsithar

Abstract:

Shoots, with three leaves, of Paphiopedilum 'Delrosi' were used as explants for multiple shoot induction. Modified Hyponex medium was supplemented with thidiazuron (TDZ), N6- benzyladenine (BA) or kinetin (Kn) alone and in combinations with 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D). All explants were cultured for 15 weeks. It was found that TDZ alone at the concentration of 0.45μM or in combination with 4.52μM 2,4-D and 8.88μM BA in combination with 13.56μM 2,4-D promoted multiple shoots. The highest shoot sprouting efficiencies (80.0, 90.0 and 80.0%) and new shoot numbers (1.5, 1.3 and 1.1) were obtained, respectively. Fresh weight, height, numbers of leaf and root of new shoots and initial explants were discussed.

Keywords: Paphiopedilum, terrestrial orchids, in vitro culture, micropropagation, multiple shoot induction

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Authors: Jiří Primas, Michal Malík, Darina Jašíková, Václav Kopecký

Abstract:

When a high DC voltage is applied to a capacitor with strongly asymmetrical electrodes, it generates a mechanical force that affects the whole capacitor. This phenomenon is most likely to be caused by the motion of ions generated around the smaller of the two electrodes and their subsequent interaction with the surrounding medium. A method to measure this force has been devised and used. A formula describing the force has also been derived. After comparing the data gained through experiments with those acquired using the theoretical formula, a difference was found above a certain value of current. This paper also gives reasons for this difference.

Keywords: Capacitor with asymmetrical electrodes, Electricalfield, Mechanical force, Motion of ions.

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