Towards a Measurement-Based E-Government Portals Maturity Model

The e-government emerging concept transforms the way in which the citizens are dealing with their governments. Thus, the citizens can execute the intended services online anytime and anywhere. This results in great benefits for both the governments (reduces the number of officers) and the citizens (more flexibility and time saving). Therefore, building a maturity model to assess the egovernment portals becomes desired to help in the improvement process of such portals. This paper aims at proposing an egovernment maturity model based on the measurement of the best practices’ presence. The main benefit of such maturity model is to provide a way to rank an e-government portal based on the used best practices, and also giving a set of recommendations to go to the higher stage in the maturity model.

Green Building Materials: Hemp Oil Based Biocomposites

Novel acrylated epoxidized hemp oil (AEHO) based bioresins were successfully synthesised, characterized and applied to biocomposites reinforced with woven jute fibre. Characterisation of the synthesised AEHO consisted of acid number titrations and FTIR spectroscopy to assess the success of the acrylation reaction. Three different matrices were produced (vinylester (VE), 50/50 blend of AEHO/VE and 100% AEHO) and reinforced with jute fibre to form three different types of biocomposite samples. Mechanical properties in the form of flexural and interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) were investigated and compared for the different samples. Results from the mechanical tests showed that AEHO and 50/50 based neat bioresins displayed lower flexural properties compared with the VE samples. However when applied to biocomposites and compared with VE based samples, AEHO biocomposites demonstrated comparable flexural performance and improved ILSS. These results are attributed to improved fibre-matrix interfacial adhesion due to surface-chemical compatibility between the natural fibres and bioresin.

Tissue Composition and Muscularity of Lamb Legs Fed with Sunflower Seeds and Vitamin E

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the tissue composition and carcass muscularity of 32 legs of Ile de France lambs fed with diets containing sunflower seeds and vitamin E, with mean body weight of 15 kg, lodged in individual pens at 15 kg and slaughtered at 32 kg of body weight. The treatments influenced (P0,05) by the treatments. The interaction of the sunflower and vitamin E was positive for bone total weights and intermuscular fat.

Water Boundary Layer Flow Over Rotating Sphere with Mass Transfer

An analysis is performed to study the influence of nonuniform double slot suction on a steady laminar boundary layer flow over a rotating sphere when fluid properties such as viscosity and Prandtl number are inverse linear functions of temperature. Nonsimilar solutions have been obtained from the starting point of the streamwise co-ordinate to the exact point of separation. The difficulties arising at the starting point of the streamwise co-ordinate, at the edges of the slot and at the point of separation have been overcome by applying an implicit finite difference scheme in combination with the quasi-linearization technique and an appropriate selection of the finer step sizes along the stream-wise direction. The present investigation shows that the point of ordinary separation can be delayed by nonuniform double slot suction if the mass transfer rate is increased and also if the slots are positioned further downstream. In addition, the investigation reveals that double slot suction is found to be more effective compared to a single slot suction in delaying ordinary separation. As rotation parameter increase the point of separation moves upstream direction.

Spatial Structure and Spatial Impacts of the Jakarta Metropolitan Area: A Southeast Asian EMR Perspective

This paper investigates the spatial structure of employment in the Jakarta Metropolitan Area (JMA), with reference to the concept of the Southeast Asian extended metropolitan region (EMR). A combination of factor analysis and local Getis-Ord (Gi*) hot-spot analysis is used to identify clusters of employment in the region, including those of the urban and agriculture sectors. Spatial statistical analysis is further used to probe the spatial association of identified employment clusters with their surroundings on several dimensions, including the spatial association between the central business district (CBD) in Jakarta city on employment density in the region, the spatial impacts of urban expansion on population growth and the degree of urban-rural interaction. The degree of spatial interaction for the whole JMA is measured by the patterns of commuting trips destined to the various employment clusters. Results reveal the strong role of the urban core of Jakarta, and the regional CBD, as the centre for mixed job sectors such as retail, wholesale, services and finance. Manufacturing and local government services, on the other hand, form corridors radiating out of the urban core, reaching out to the agriculture zones in the fringes. Strong associations between the urban expansion corridors and population growth, and urban-rural mix, are revealed particularly in the eastern and western parts of JMA. Metropolitan wide commuting patterns are focussed on the urban core of Jakarta and the CBD, while relatively local commuting patterns are shown to be prevalent for the employment corridors.

Comparison of Ageing Deterioration of Silicone Rubber Housing Material for Outdoor Polymer Insulators

This paper presents the comparison ageing deterioration of silicone rubber housing material for outdoor polymer insulators by using salt fog ageing test based on IEC 61109 and outdoor exposure test.Four types of high temperature silicone vulcanized silicone rubber sheet with different amount of ATH were used as testing specimen. For salt fog ageing test, the specimens were tested continuously 1000 hours with energized in test chamber. For outdoor exposure test, the specimens were hung continuously 18 months without energized. Physical and chemical analyses were conducted to evaluate degree of ageing deterioration of tested specimens. Slightly surface erosion was observed on specimen surface after salt fog ageing test and no erosion was observed on surface of outdoor exposure specimen. However, comparable degree of ageing deterioration can be seen from surface analysis results.

Simulation of Roughness Shape and Distribution Effects on Rarefied and Compressible Flows at Slip Flow Regime

A numerical simulation of micro Poiseuille flow has performed for rarefied and compressible flow at slip flow regimes. The wall roughness is simulated in two cases with triangular microelements and random micro peaks distributed on wall surfaces to study the effects of roughness shape and distribution on flow field. Two values of Mach and Knudsen numbers have used to investigate the effects of rarefaction as well as compressibility. The numerical results have also checked with available theoretical and experimental relations and good agreements has achieved. High influence of roughness shape can be seen for both compressible and incompressible rarefied flows. In addition it is found that rarefaction has more significant effect on flow field in microchannels with higher relative roughness. It is also found that compressibility has more significant effects on Poiseuille number when relative roughness increases.

A Vortex Plate Theory of Hovering Animal Flight

A model of vortex wake is suggested to determine the induced power during animal hovering flight. The wake is modeled by a series of equi-spaced rigid rectangular vortex plates, positioned horizontally and moving vertically downwards with identical speeds; each plate is generated during powering of the functionally wing stroke. The vortex representation of the wake considered in the current theory allows a considerable loss of momentum to occur. The current approach accords well with the nature of the wingbeat since it considers the unsteadiness in the wake as an important fluid dynamical characteristic. Induced power in hovering is calculated as the aerodynamic power required to generate the vortex wake system. Specific mean induced power to mean wing tip velocity ratio is determined by solely the normal spacing parameter (f) for a given wing stroke amplitude. The current theory gives much higher specific induced power estimate than anticipated by classical methods.

Numerical Solution of a Laminar Viscous Flow Boundary Layer Equation Using Uniform Haar Wavelet Quasi-linearization Method

In this paper, we have proposed a Haar wavelet quasilinearization method to solve the well known Blasius equation. The method is based on the uniform Haar wavelet operational matrix defined over the interval [0, 1]. In this method, we have proposed the transformation for converting the problem on a fixed computational domain. The Blasius equation arises in the various boundary layer problems of hydrodynamics and in fluid mechanics of laminar viscous flows. Quasi-linearization is iterative process but our proposed technique gives excellent numerical results with quasilinearization for solving nonlinear differential equations without any iteration on selecting collocation points by Haar wavelets. We have solved Blasius equation for 1≤α ≤ 2 and the numerical results are compared with the available results in literature. Finally, we conclude that proposed method is a promising tool for solving the well known nonlinear Blasius equation.

Design and Analysis of a Novel 8-DOF Hybrid Manipulator

This paper presents kinematic and dynamic analysis of a novel 8-DOF hybrid robot manipulator. The hybrid robot manipulator under consideration consists of a parallel robot which is followed by a serial mechanism. The parallel mechanism has three translational DOF, and the serial mechanism has five DOF so that the overall degree of freedom is eight. The introduced manipulator has a wide workspace and a high capability to reduce the actuating energy. The inverse and forward kinematic solutions are described in closed form. The theoretical results are verified by a numerical example. Inverse dynamic analysis of the robot is presented by utilizing the Iterative Newton-Euler and Lagrange dynamic formulation methods. Finally, for performing a multi-step arc welding process, results have indicated that the introduced manipulator is highly capable of reducing the actuating energy.

Modeling Cost Structure for Assessment Production Cost of Algal - Biofue

Algae-based fuel are considered a promising sources of clean energy, and because it has many advantages over traditional biofuel, research and business ventures have driven into developing and producing Algal-biofuel. But its production stages create a cost structure that it is not competitive with traditional fuels. Therefore, cost becomes the main obstacle in commercial production purpose. However, the present research which aims at using cost structure model, and designed MS-Dose program, to investigate the a mount of production cost and determined the parameter had great effect on it, second to measured the amount of contribution rate of algae in process the pollution by capturing Co2 from air . The result generated from the model shows that the production cost of biomass is between $0.137 /kg for 100 ha and $0.132 /kg for 500 ha which was less than cost of other studies, while gallon costs between $3.4 - 3.5, more than traditional sources of oil about $1 ,which regarded as a rate of contribution of algal in capturing CO2 from air.

3D Quantum Numerical Simulation of Horizontal Rectangular Dual Metal Gate\Gate All Around MOSFETs

The integrity and issues related to electrostatic performance associated with scaling Si MOSFET bulk sub 10nm channel length promotes research in new device architectures such as SOI, double gate and GAA MOSFET. In this paper, we present some novel characteristic of horizontal rectangular gate\gate all around MOSFETs with dual metal of gate we obtained using SILVACO TCAD tools. We will also exhibit some simulation results we obtained relating to the influence of some parameters variation on our structure, that having a direct impact on their threshold voltage and drain current. In addition, our TFET showed reasonable ION/IOFF ratio of (104) and low drain induced barrier lowering (DIBL) of 39 mV/V.

The Application of Hadamard Matrixes in the SNR Enhancement of Optical Time-Domain Reflectometry(OTDR)

Results in one field necessarily give insight into the others, and all have much potential for scientific and technological application. The Hadamard-transform technique once been applied to the spectrometry also has its use in the SNR Enhancement of OTDR. In this report, a new set of code (Simplex-codes) is discussed and where the addition gain of SNR come from is implied.

Distributed e-Learning System with Client-Server and P2P Hybrid Architecture

We have developed a distributed asynchronous Web based training system. In order to improve the scalability and robustness of this system, all contents and a function are realized on mobile agents. These agents are distributed to computers, and they can use a Peer to Peer network that modified Content-Addressable Network. In this system, all computers offer the function and exercise by themselves. However, the system that all computers do the same behavior is not realistic. In this paper, as a solution of this issue, we present an e-Learning system that is composed of computers of different participation types. Enabling the computer of different participation types will improve the convenience of the system.

Structure and Magnetic Properties of Nanocomposite Fe2O3/TiO2 Catalysts Fabricated by Heterogeneous Precipitation

The aim of our work is to study phase composition, particle size and magnetic response of Fe2O3/TiO2 nanocomposites with respect to the final annealing temperature. Those nanomaterials are considered as smart catalysts, separable from a liquid/gaseous phase by applied magnetic field. The starting product was obtained by an ecologically acceptable route, based on heterogeneous precipitation of the TiO2 on modified g-Fe2O3 nanocrystals dispersed in water. The precursor was subsequently annealed on air at temperatures ranging from 200 oC to 900 oC. The samples were investigated by synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction (S-PXRD), magnetic measurements and Mössbauer spectroscopy. As evidenced by S-PXRD and Mössbauer spectroscopy, increasing the annealing temperature causes evolution of the phase composition from anatase/maghemite to rutile/hematite, finally above 700 oC the pseudobrookite (Fe2TiO5) also forms. The apparent particle size of the various Fe2O3/TiO2 phases has been determined from the highquality S-PXRD data by using two different approaches: the Rietveld refinement and the Debye method. Magnetic response of the samples is discussed in considering the phase composition and the particle size.

Profile of Viral Hepatitis in Saudi Arabia

The study was conducted to investigate the profile of hepatitis in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and to determine which age group hepatitis viruses most commonly infect. The epidemiology of viral hepatitis in Saudi Arabia has undergone major changes, concurrent with major socioeconomic developments over the last two to three decades. This disease represents a major public health problem in Saudi Arabia resulting in the need for considerable healthcare resources. A retrospective cross sectional analysis of the reported cases of viral hepatitis was conducted based on the reports of The Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia about Hepatitis A, B and C infections in all regions from the period of January 2006 to December 2010. The study demonstrated that incidence of viral Hepatitis is decreasing, except for Hepatitis B that showed minimal increase. Of hepatitis A, B, and C, Hepatitis B virus (HBV) was the most predominant type, accounting for (53%) of the cases, followed by Hepatitis C virus (HCV) (30%) and HAV (17%). HAV infection predominates in children (5–14 years) with 60% of viral hepatitis cases, HBV in young adults (15–44 years) with 69% of viral hepatitis cases, and HCV in older adults (>45 years) with 59% of viral hepatitis cases. Despite significant changes in the prevalence of viral hepatitis A, B and C, it remains a major public health problem in Saudi Arabia; however, it showed a significant decline in the last two decades that could be attributed to the vaccination programs and the improved health facilities. Further researches are needed to identify the risk factors making a specific age group or a specific region in Saudi Arabia targeted for a specific type of hepatitis viruses.

Sway Reduction on Gantry Crane System using Delayed Feedback Signal and PD-type Fuzzy Logic Controller: A Comparative Assessment

This paper presents the use of anti-sway angle control approaches for a two-dimensional gantry crane with disturbances effect in the dynamic system. Delayed feedback signal (DFS) and proportional-derivative (PD)-type fuzzy logic controller are the techniques used in this investigation to actively control the sway angle of the rope of gantry crane system. A nonlinear overhead gantry crane system is considered and the dynamic model of the system is derived using the Euler-Lagrange formulation. A complete analysis of simulation results for each technique is presented in time domain and frequency domain respectively. Performances of both controllers are examined in terms of sway angle suppression and disturbances cancellation. Finally, a comparative assessment of the impact of each controller on the system performance is presented and discussed.

Investigation of Undular Hydraulic Jump over Smooth Beds

Undular hydraulic jumps are illustrated by a smooth rise of the free surface followed by a train of stationary waves. They are sometimes experienced in natural waterways and rivers. The characteristics of undular hydraulic jumps are studied here. The height, amplitude and the main characteristics of undular jump is depended on the upstream Froude number and aspect ratio. The experiments were done on the smooth bed flume. These results compared with other researches and the main characteristics of the undular hydraulic jump were studied in this article.

Effect of Endplate Shape on Performance and Stability of Wings-in Ground (WIG) Craft

Numerical analysis for the aerodynamic characteristics of the WIG (wing-in ground effect) craft with highly cambered and aspect ratio of one is performed to predict the ground effect for the case of with- and without- lower-extension endplate. The analysis is included varying angles of attack from 0 to10 deg. and ground clearances from 5% of chord to 50%. Due to the ground effect, the lift by rising in pressure on the lower surface is increased and the influence of wing-tip vortices is decreased. These two significant effects improve the lift-drag ratio. On the other hand, the endplate prevents the high-pressure air escaping from the air cushion at the wing tip and causes to increase the lift and lift-drag ratio further. It is found from the visualization of computation results that two wing-tip vortices are generated from each surface of the wing tip and their strength are weak and diminished rapidly. Irodov-s criteria are also evaluated to investigate the static height stability. The comparison of Irodov-s criteria shows that the endplate improves the deviation of the static height stability with respect to pitch angles and heights. As the results, the endplate can improve the aerodynamic characteristics and static height stability of wings in ground effect, simultaneously.

An Investigation of Adjustment of Solar Shading Devices in Office Buildings

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the adjust- ment of solar shading devices in office buildings in two different seasons by occupants, and its influence on the lighting control and indoor illuminance levels. The results show that occupants take inappropriate measures both in reducing solar radiation in summer and in admitting solar gains in winter, resulting in an increase in lighting energy and a reduction in indoor illuminance. Therefore, movable shading devices, controlled automatically, are suitable for building applications to reduce energy consumption.