Abstract: Second generation military Filipino Amerasians
comprise a formidable contemporary segment of the estimated
250,000-plus biracial Amerasians in the Philippines today. Overall,
they are a stigmatized and socioeconomically marginalized diaspora;
historically, they were abandoned or estranged by U.S. military
personnel fathers assigned during the century-long Colonial, Post-
World War II and Cold War Era of permanent military basing (1898-
1992). Indeed, U.S. military personnel are assigned in smaller
numbers in the Philippines today. This inquiry is an outgrowth of two
recent small sample studies. The first surfaced the impact of the U.S.
military prostitution system on formation of the ‘Derivative
Amerasian Family Construct’ on first generation Amerasians; a
second, qualitative case study suggested the continued effect of the
prostitution systems' destructive impetuous on second generation
Amerasians. The intent of this current qualitative, multiple-case study
was to actively seek out second generation sex industry toilers. The
purpose was to focus further on this human phenomenon in the postbasing
and post-military prostitution system eras. As background, the
former military prostitution apparatus has transformed into a modern
dynamic of rampant sex tourism and prostitution nationwide. This is
characterized by hotel and resorts offering unrestricted carnal access,
urban and provincial brothels (casas), discos, bars and pickup clubs,
massage parlors, local barrio karaoke bars and street prostitution. A
small case study sample (N = 4) of female and male second
generation Amerasians were selected. Sample formation employed a
non-probability ‘snowball’ technique drawing respondents from the
notorious Angeles, Metro Manila, Olongapo City ‘AMO Amerasian
Triangle’ where most former U.S. military installations were sited
and modern sex tourism thrives. A six-month study and analysis of
in-depth interviews of female and male sex laborers, their families
and peers revealed a litany of disturbing, and troublesome
experiences. Results showed profiles of debilitating human poverty,
history of family disorganization, stigmatization, social
marginalization and the ghost of the military prostitution system and
its harmful legacy on Amerasian family units. Emerging were testimonials of wayward young people ensnared in a maelstrom of
deep economic deprivation, familial dysfunction, psychological
desperation and societal indifference. The paper recommends that
more study is needed and implications of unstudied psychosocial and
socioeconomic experiences of distressed younger generations of
military Amerasians require specific research. Heretofore apathetic or
disengaged U.S. institutions need to confront the issue and formulate
activist and solution-oriented social welfare, human services and
immigration easement policies and alternatives. These institutions
specifically include academic and social science research agencies,
corporate foundations, the U.S. Congress, and Departments of State,
Defense and Health and Human Services, and Homeland Security
(i.e. Citizen and Immigration Services) It is them who continue to
endorse a laissez-faire policy of non-involvement over the entire
Filipino Amerasian question. Such apathy, the paper concludes,
relegates this consequential but neglected blood progeny to the status
of humiliating destitution and exploitation. Amerasians; thus, remain
entrapped in their former colonial, and neo-colonial habitat.
Ironically, they are unwitting victims of a U.S. American homeland
that fancies itself geo-politically as a strong and strategic military
treaty ally of the Philippines in the Western Pacific.
Abstract: For a rigid body sliding on a rough surface, a range of
uncertainty or non-uniqueness of solution could be found, which is
termed: Painlevé paradox. Painlevé paradox is the reason of a wide
range of bouncing motion, observed during sliding of robotic
manipulators on rough surfaces. In this research work, the existence
of the paradox zone during the sliding motion of a two-link (P-R)
robotic manipulator with a unilateral constraint is investigated.
Parametric study is performed to investigate the effect of friction,
link-length ratio, total height and link-mass ratio on the paradox zone.
Abstract: In this paper, synchronization of multiple chaotic
semiconductor lasers is achieved by appealing to complex system
theory. In particular, we consider dynamical networks composed by
semiconductor laser, as interconnected nodes, where the interaction
in the networks are defined by coupling the first state of each node.
An interest case is synchronized with master-slave configuration in
star topology. Nodes of these networks are modeled for the laser and
simulate by Matlab. These results are applicable to private
communication.
Abstract: MHD chemically reacting viscous fluid flow towards
a vertical surface with slip and convective boundary conditions has
been conducted. The temperature and the chemical species
concentration of the surface and the velocity of the external flow are
assumed to vary linearly with the distance from the vertical surface.
The governing differential equations are modeled and transformed
into systems of ordinary differential equations, which are then solved
numerically by a shooting method. The effects of various parameters
on the heat and mass transfer characteristics are discussed. Graphical
results are presented for the velocity, temperature, and concentration
profiles whilst the skin-friction coefficient and the rate of heat and
mass transfers near the surface are presented in tables and discussed.
The results revealed that increasing the strength of the magnetic field
increases the skin-friction coefficient and the rate of heat and mass
transfers toward the surface. The velocity profiles are increased
towards the surface due to the presence of the Lorenz force, which
attracts the fluid particles near the surface. The rate of chemical
reaction is seen to decrease the concentration boundary layer near the
surface due to the destructive chemical reaction occurring near the
surface.
Abstract: The moisture content of densified biomass is a
limiting parameter influencing the quality of this solid biofuel. It
influences its calorific value, density, mechanical strength and
dimensional stability as well as affecting its production process. This
paper deals with experimental research into the effect of moisture
content of the densified material on the final quality of biofuel in the
form of logs (briquettes or pellets). Experiments based on the singleaxis
densification of the spruce sawdust were carried out with a
hydraulic piston press (piston and die), where the densified logs were
produced at room temperature. The effect of moisture content on the
qualitative properties of the logs, including density, change of
moisture, expansion and physical changes, and compressive and
impact resistance were studied. The results show the moisture ranges
required for producing good-quality logs. The experiments were
evaluated and the moisture content of the tested material was
optimized to achieve the optimum value for the best quality of the
solid biofuel. The dense logs also have high-energy content per unit
volume. The research results could be used to develop and optimize
industrial technologies and machinery for biomass densification to
achieve high quality solid biofuel.
Abstract: In VLSI, testing plays an important role. Major
problem in testing are test data volume and test power. The important
solution to reduce test data volume and test time is test data
compression. The Proposed technique combines the bit maskdictionary
and 2n pattern run length-coding method and provides a
substantial improvement in the compression efficiency without
introducing any additional decompression penalty. This method has
been implemented using Mat lab and HDL Language to reduce test
data volume and memory requirements. This method is applied on
various benchmark test sets and compared the results with other
existing methods. The proposed technique can achieve a compression
ratio up to 86%.
Abstract: Polymeric micro-cantilevers (Cs) are rapidly
becoming popular for MEMS applications such as chemo- and biosensing
as well as purely electromechanical applications such as
microrelays. Polymer materials present suitable physical and
chemical properties combined with low-cost mass production. Hence,
micro-cantilevers made of polymers indicate much more
biocompatibility and adaptability of rapid prototyping along with
mechanical properties. This research studies the effects of three
process and one size factors on the filling behaviour in micro cavity,
and the role of each in the replication of micro parts using different
polymer materials i.e. polypropylene (PP) SABIC 56M10 and
acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) Magnum 8434 . In particular,
the following factors are considered: barrel temperature, mould
temperature, injection speed and the thickness of micro features. The
study revealed that the barrel temperature and the injection speed are
the key factors affecting the flow length of micro features replicated
in PP and ABS. For both materials, an increase of feature sizes
improves the melt flow. However, the melt fill of micro features does
not increase linearly with the increase of their thickness.
Abstract: Water resource systems modeling has constantly been
a challenge through history for human beings. As the innovative
methodological development is evolving alongside computer sciences
on one hand, researches are likely to confront more complex and
larger water resources systems due to new challenges regarding
increased water demands, climate change and human interventions,
socio-economic concerns, and environment protection and
sustainability. In this research, an automatic calibration scheme has
been applied on the Gilan’s large-scale water resource model using
mathematical programming. The water resource model’s calibration
is developed in order to attune unknown water return flows from
demand sites in the complex Sefidroud irrigation network and other
related areas. The calibration procedure is validated by comparing
several gauged river outflows from the system in the past with model
results. The calibration results are pleasantly reasonable presenting a
rational insight of the system. Subsequently, the unknown optimized
parameters were used in a basin-scale linear optimization model with
the ability to evaluate the system’s performance against a reduced
inflow scenario in future. Results showed an acceptable match
between predicted and observed outflows from the system at selected
hydrometric stations. Moreover, an efficient operating policy was
determined for Sefidroud dam leading to a minimum water shortage
in the reduced inflow scenario.
Abstract: Anammox is a novel and promising technology that has changed the traditional concept of biological nitrogen removal. The process facilitates direct oxidation of ammonical nitrogen under anaerobic conditions with nitrite as an electron acceptor without addition of external carbon sources. The present study investigated the feasibility of Anammox Hybrid Reactor (AHR) combining the dual advantages of suspended and attached growth media for biodegradation of ammonical nitrogen in wastewater. Experimental unit consisted of 4 nos. of 5L capacity AHR inoculated with mixed seed culture containing anoxic and activated sludge (1:1). The process was established by feeding the reactors with synthetic wastewater containing NH4-H and NO2-N in the ratio 1:1 at HRT (hydraulic retention time) of 1 day. The reactors were gradually acclimated to higher ammonium concentration till it attained pseudo steady state removal at a total nitrogen concentration of 1200 mg/l. During this period, the performance of the AHR was monitored at twelve different HRTs varying from 0.25-3.0 d with increasing NLR from 0.4 to 4.8 kg N/m3d. AHR demonstrated significantly higher nitrogen removal (95.1%) at optimal HRT of 1 day. Filter media in AHR contributed an additional 27.2% ammonium removal in addition to 72% reduction in the sludge washout rate. This may be attributed to the functional mechanism of filter media which acts as a mechanical sieve and reduces the sludge washout rate many folds. This enhances the biomass retention capacity of the reactor by 25%, which is the key parameter for successful operation of high rate bioreactors. The effluent nitrate concentration, which is one of the bottlenecks of anammox process was also minimised significantly (42.3-52.3 mg/L). Process kinetics was evaluated using first order and Grau-second order models. The first-order substrate removal rate constant was found as 13.0 d-1. Model validation revealed that Grau second order model was more precise and predicted effluent nitrogen concentration with least error (1.84±10%). A new mathematical model based on mass balance was developed to predict N2 gas in AHR. The mass balance model derived from total nitrogen dictated significantly higher correlation (R2=0.986) and predicted N2 gas with least error of precision (0.12±8.49%). SEM study of biomass indicated the presence of heterogeneous population of cocci and rod shaped bacteria of average diameter varying from 1.2-1.5 mm. Owing to enhanced NRE coupled with meagre production of effluent nitrate and its ability to retain high biomass, AHR proved to be the most competitive reactor configuration for dealing with nitrogen laden wastewater.
Abstract: The fuel potential of six tropical hardwood species
namely: Triplochiton scleroxylon, Ceiba pentandra, Aningeria
robusta, Terminalia superba, Celtis mildbreadii and Piptadenia
africana were studied. Properties studied included species density,
gross calorific value, volatile matter, ash content, organic carbon and
elemental composition. Fuel properties were determined using
standard laboratory methods. The result indicates that the gross
calorific value (GCV) of the species ranged from 20.16 to 22.22
MJ/kg and they slightly varied from each other. Additionally, the
GCV of the biomass materials were higher than that of other biomass
materials like; wheat straw, rice straw, maize straw and sugar cane.
The ash and volatile matter content varied from 0.6075 to 5.0407%,
and 75.23% to 83.70% respectively. The overall rating of the
properties of the six biomass materials suggested that Piptadenia
africana has the best fuel property to be used as briquettes and
Aningeria robusta the worse. This study therefore suggests that a
holistic assessment of a biomass material needs to be done before
selecting it for fuel purpose.
Abstract: The present research investigated whether gender
differences affect performance in a simple math quiz in statistics
course. Participants of this study comprised a sample of 567 statistics
students in two different universities in Lebanon. Data were collected
through a simple math quiz. Analysis of quantitative data indicated
that there wasn’t a significant difference in math performance
between males and females. The results suggest that improvements in
student performance may depend on improved mastery of basic
algebra especially for females. The implications of these findings and
further recommendations were discussed.
Abstract: This paper introduces a method to optimal design of a
hybrid Wind/Photovoltaic/Fuel cell generation system for a typical
domestic load that is not located near the electricity grid. In this
configuration the combination of a battery, an electrolyser, and a
hydrogen storage tank are used as the energy storage system. The aim
of this design is minimization of overall cost of generation scheme
over 20 years of operation. The Matlab/Simulink is applied for
choosing the appropriate structure and the optimization of system
sizing. A teaching learning based optimization is used to optimize the
cost function. An overall power management strategy is designed for
the proposed system to manage power flows among the different
energy sources and the storage unit in the system. The results have
been analyzed in terms of technical and economic. The simulation
results indicate that the proposed hybrid system would be a feasible
solution for stand-alone applications at remote locations.
Abstract: This research paper presents the current practices of
teacher professional development, perceived as beneficial by teachers
themselves, in a private secondary school in Brunei Darussalam. This
is part of the findings of a larger qualitative study on teacher
empowerment, using ethnographic methods for data collection, i.e.
participant observation, interviews and document analysis. The field
work was carried out over a period of six months in 2013. An
analysis of the field data revealed multiple pathways of teacher
professional development existing in the school. The results indicate
that school leaders, the teacher community in the school, students,
and the teachers themselves were the agents in a school that
facilitated teacher empowerment. Besides contributing to the
knowledge base on teacher professional development, the results of
this study provide directions for educational policy makers in their
efforts to enhance professional development in secondary schools of
similar characteristics. For school leaders and the teacher community,
these findings offer guidelines for maximizing the opportunities for
these professional development practices, by strengthening
collegiality and by using the existing structures optimally for the
benefit of all concerned.
Abstract: Despite the financial crisis and ongoing need for cost
cutting, companies all around the world heavily invest in Information
Systems (IS) and underlying Information Technology (IT).
Proliferation of governance of enterprise IT helps companies manage,
or rather, governs IS as a primary business function with executive
management involved in making decision about IS and IT. The
business value of IT is raising with the involvement of the executive
management in IT decision making process and quality IT
governance mechanisms in place. In this paper the practice of
governing the enterprise IT will be investigated on a sample of the
largest 100 Croatian companies. Research questions posed here will
reveal if there are some formal IT governance mechanisms, are there
any differences in perceived role of IS and IT between CIOs (Chief
Information Officers) and CEOs (Chief Executive Officers) of the
sampled companies and what are the mechanisms to govern massive
investment in enterprise IT.
Abstract: Computer aided diagnosis systems provide vital
opinion to radiologists in the detection of early signs of breast cancer
from mammogram images. Architectural distortions, masses and
microcalcifications are the major abnormalities. In this paper, a
computer aided diagnosis system has been proposed for
distinguishing abnormal mammograms with architectural distortion
from normal mammogram. Four types of texture features GLCM
texture, GLRLM texture, fractal texture and spectral texture features
for the regions of suspicion are extracted. Support vector machine
has been used as classifier in this study. The proposed system yielded
an overall sensitivity of 96.47% and an accuracy of 96% for
mammogram images collected from digital database for screening
mammography database.
Abstract: Batch production plants provide a wide range of
scheduling problems. In pharmaceutical industries a batch process
is usually described by a recipe, consisting of an ordering of tasks
to produce the desired product. In this research work we focused
on pharmaceutical production processes requiring the culture of
a microorganism population (i.e. bacteria, yeasts or antibiotics).
Several sources of uncertainty may influence the yield of the culture
processes, including (i) low performance and quality of the cultured
microorganism population or (ii) microbial contamination. For
these reasons, robustness is a valuable property for the considered
application context. In particular, a robust schedule will not collapse
immediately when a cell of microorganisms has to be thrown away
due to a microbial contamination. Indeed, a robust schedule should
change locally in small proportions and the overall performance
measure (i.e. makespan, lateness) should change a little if at all.
In this research work we formulated a constraint programming
optimization (COP) model for the robust planning of antibiotics
production. We developed a discrete-time model with a multi-criteria
objective, ordering the different criteria and performing a
lexicographic optimization. A feasible solution of the proposed
COP model is a schedule of a given set of tasks onto available
resources. The schedule has to satisfy tasks precedence constraints,
resource capacity constraints and time constraints. In particular
time constraints model tasks duedates and resource availability
time windows constraints. To improve the schedule robustness, we
modeled the concept of (a, b) super-solutions, where (a, b) are input
parameters of the COP model. An (a, b) super-solution is one in
which if a variables (i.e. the completion times of a culture tasks)
lose their values (i.e. cultures are contaminated), the solution can be
repaired by assigning these variables values with a new values (i.e.
the completion times of a backup culture tasks) and at most b other
variables (i.e. delaying the completion of at most b other tasks).
The efficiency and applicability of the proposed model is
demonstrated by solving instances taken from a real-life
pharmaceutical company. Computational results showed that
the determined super-solutions are near-optimal.
Abstract: An investigation has been presented to analyze the
effect of internal heat source on the onset of Hadley-Prats flow in
a horizontal fluid saturated porous medium. We examine a better
understanding of the combined influence of the heat source and mass
flow effect by using linear stability analysis. The resultant eigenvalue
problem is solved by using shooting and Runga-Kutta methods for
evaluate critical thermal Rayleigh number with respect to various
flow governing parameters. It is identified that the flow is switch from
stabilizing to destabilizing as the horizontal thermal Rayleigh number
is enhanced. The heat source and mass flow increases resulting a
stronger destabilizing effect.
Abstract: In order to obtain efficient pollutants removal in
small-scale wastewater treatment plants, uniform water flow has to be
achieved. The experimental setup, designed for treating high-load
wastewater (leachate), consists of two aerobic biological reactors and
a lamellar settler. Both biological tanks were aerated by using three
different types of aeration systems - perforated pipes, membrane air
diffusers and tube ceramic diffusers. The possibility of homogenizing
the water mass with each of the air diffusion systems was evaluated
comparatively. The oxygen concentration was determined by optical
sensors with data logging. The experimental data was analyzed
comparatively for all three different air dispersion systems aiming to
identify the oxygen concentration variation during different
operational conditions. The Oxygenation Capacity was calculated for
each of the three systems and used as performance and selection
parameter. The global mass transfer coefficients were also evaluated
as important tools in designing the aeration system. Even though
using the tubular porous diffusers leads to higher oxygen
concentration compared to the perforated pipe system (which
provides medium-sized bubbles in the aqueous solution), it doesn’t
achieve the threshold limit of 80% oxygen saturation in less than 30
minutes. The study has shown that the optimal solution for the
studied configuration was the radial air diffusers which ensure an
oxygen saturation of 80% in 20 minutes. An increment of the values
was identified when the air flow was increased.
Abstract: Determination of genetic variation is useful for plant
breeding and hence production of more efficient plant species under
different conditions, like drought stress. In this study a sample of 28
recombinant inbred lines (RILs) of wheat developed from the cross of
Norstar and Zagross varieties, together with their parents, were
evaluated for two years (2010-2012) under normal and water stress
conditions using split plot design with three replications. Main plots
included two irrigation treatments of 70 and 140 mm evaporation
from Class A pan and sub-plots consisted of 30 genotypes. The effect
of genotypes and interaction of genotypes with years and water
regimes were significant for all characters. Significant genotypic
effect implies the existence of genetic variation among the lines
under study. Heritability estimates were high for 1000 grain weight
(0.87). Biomass and grain yield showed the lowest heritability values
(0.42 and 0.50, respectively). Highest genotypic and phenotypic
coefficients of variation (GCV and PCV) belonged to harvest index.
Moderate genetic advance for most of the traits suggested the
feasibility of selection among the RILs under investigation. Some
RILs were higher yielding than either parent at both environments.
Abstract: This paper presents a methodology for probabilistic
assessment of bearing capacity and prediction of failure mechanism
of masonry vaults at the ultimate state with consideration of the
natural variability of Young’s modulus of stones. First, the
computation model is explained. The failure mode corresponds to the
four-hinge mechanism. Based on this consideration, the study of a
vault composed of 16 segments is presented. The Young’s modulus of
the segments is considered as random variable defined by a mean
value and a coefficient of variation. A relationship linking the vault
bearing capacity to the voussoirs modulus variation is proposed. The
most probable failure mechanisms, in addition to that observed in the
deterministic case, are identified for each variability level as well as
their probability of occurrence. The results show that the mechanism
observed in the deterministic case has decreasing probability of
occurrence in terms of variability, while the number of other
mechanisms and their probability of occurrence increases with the
coefficient of variation of Young’s modulus. This means that if a
significant change in the Young’s modulus of the segments is proven,
taking it into account in computations becomes mandatory, both for
determining the vault bearing capacity and for predicting its failure
mechanism.