Abstract: Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are increasing in importance everyday, especially since the 90’s (last decade of birth for the Millennials generation). While social interactions involving the Millennials generation have been studied, a lack of investigation remains regarding the use of the ICT by this generation as well as the impact on outcomes in education and professional training. Observing and interviewing students preparing a MSc, we aimed at characterizing the interaction students-ICT during the courses. We found that up to 50% of the students (mainly female) could use ICT during courses at a rate of 0.84 occurrence/minutes for some of them, and they thought this involvement did not disturb learning, even was helpful. As recent researches show that multitasking leads people think they are much better than they actually are, further observations with assessments are needed to conclude whether or not the use ICT by students during the courses is a real strength.
Abstract: Monitoring of ecological systems is one of the major
issues in ecosystem research. The concepts and methodology of
mathematical systems theory provide useful tools to face this
problem. In many cases, state monitoring of a complex ecological
system consists in observation (measurement) of certain state
variables, and the whole state process has to be determined from the
observed data. The solution proposed in the paper is the design of an
observer system, which makes it possible to approximately recover
the state process from its partial observation. The method is
illustrated with a trophic chain of resource – producer – primary
consumer type and a numerical example is also presented.
Abstract: Cerium-doped lanthanum bromide LaBr3:Ce(5%)
crystals are considered to be one of the most advanced scintillator
materials used in PET scanning, combining a high light yield, fast
decay time and excellent energy resolution. Apart from the correct
choice of scintillator, it is also important to optimise the detector
geometry, not least in terms of source-to-detector distance in order to
obtain reliable measurements and efficiency. In this study a
commercially available 25 mm x 25 mm BrilLanCeTM 380 LaBr3: Ce
(5%) detector was characterised in terms of its efficiency at varying
source-to-detector distances. Gamma-ray spectra of 22Na, 60Co, and
137Cs were separately acquired at distances of 5, 10, 15, and 20cm. As
a result of the change in solid angle subtended by the detector, the
geometric efficiency reduced in efficiency with increasing distance.
High efficiencies at low distances can cause pulse pile-up when
subsequent photons are detected before previously detected events
have decayed. To reduce this systematic error the source-to-detector
distance should be balanced between efficiency and pulse pile-up
suppression as otherwise pile-up corrections would need to be
necessary at short distances. In addition to the experimental
measurements Monte Carlo simulations have been carried out for the
same setup, allowing a comparison of results. The advantages and
disadvantages of each approach have been highlighted.
Abstract: Quality of 2D and 3D cross-sectional images produce
by Computed Tomography primarily depend upon the degree of
precision of primary and secondary X-Ray intensity detection.
Traditional method of primary intensity detection is apt to errors.
Recently the X-Ray intensity measurement system along with smart
X-Ray sensors is developed by our group which is able to detect
primary X-Ray intensity unerringly. In this study a new smart X-Ray
sensor is developed using Light-to-Frequency converter TSL230
from Texas Instruments which has numerous advantages in terms of
noiseless data acquisition and transmission. TSL230 construction is
based on a silicon photodiode which converts incoming X-Ray
radiation into the proportional current signal. A current to frequency
converter is attached to this photodiode on a single monolithic CMOS
integrated circuit which provides proportional frequency count to
incoming current signal in the form of the pulse train. The frequency
count is delivered to the center of PICDEM FS USB board with
PIC18F4550 microcontroller mounted on it. With highly compact
electronic hardware, this Demo Board efficiently read the smart
sensor output data. The frequency output approaches overcome
nonlinear behavior of sensors with analog output thus un-attenuated
X-Ray intensities could be measured precisely and better
normalization could be acquired in order to attain high resolution.
Abstract: Larval survey was carried out in 6 localities in the
urban areas (Putrajaya) and suburban areas (Kuala Selangor) from
January until December 2010. A total of 520 representative
households in 6 localities were selected. Breeding habitats were
sampled outdoors in the surroundings of housing areas. The study
indicated that the most predominant species found in both areas was
Aedes albopictus with the gardening utensil as a preferred breeding
microhabitat for Putrajaya, in contrast to the artificial containers for
Kuala Selangor. From a total of 1083 mosquito larvae species, 984
were Aedes albopictus larvae, 67 positive larvae of Aedes aegypti
and 32 of Culex larvae. Aedes Index and Container Index were
elevated in Putrajaya with 13% and 11% respectively which is higher
than the standard given by the Ministry of Health, Malaysia. This
results implicating dengue-sensitive skewed to the urban areas.
Breteau Index result also above the standard in both study locations.
Abstract: Recently, lots of researchers are attracted to retrieving
multimedia database by using some impression words and their values.
Ikezoe-s research is one of the representatives and uses eight pairs of
opposite impression words. We had modified its retrieval interface and
proposed '2D-RIB'. In '2D-RIB', after a retrieval person selects a
single basic music, the system visually shows some other music
around the basic one along relative position. He/she can select one of
them fitting to his/her intention, as a retrieval result. The purpose of
this paper is to improve his/her satisfaction level to the retrieval result
in 2D-RIB. One of our extensions is to define and introduce the
following two measures: 'melody goodness' and 'general acceptance'.
We implement them in different five combinations. According to an
evaluation experiment, both of these two measures can contribute to
the improvement. Another extension is three types of customization.
We have implemented them and clarified which customization is
effective.
Abstract: Lipases are enzymes particularly amenable for
immobilization by entrapment methods, as they can work equally
well in aqueous or non-conventional media and long-time stability of
enzyme activity and enantioselectivity is needed to elaborate more
efficient bioprocesses. The improvement of Pseudomonas
fluorescens (Amano AK) lipase characteristics was investigated by
optimizing the immobilization procedure in hybrid organic-inorganic
matrices using ionic liquids as additives. Ionic liquids containing a
more hydrophobic alkyl group in the cationic moiety are beneficial
for the activity of immobilized lipase. Silanes with alkyl- or aryl
nonhydrolizable groups used as precursors in combination with
tetramethoxysilane could generate composites with higher
enantioselectivity compared to the native enzyme in acylation
reactions of secondary alcohols. The optimal effect on both activity
and enantioselectivity was achieved for the composite made from
octyltrimethoxysilane and tetramethoxysilane at 1:1 molar ratio (60%
increase of total activity following immobilization and enantiomeric
ratio of 30). Ionic liquids also demonstrated valuable properties as
reaction media for the studied reactions, comparable with the usual
organic solvent, hexane.
Abstract: In this work study the location of interface in a stirred vessel with a Concave impeller by computational fluid dynamic was presented. To modeling rotating the impeller, sliding mesh (SM) technique was used and standard k-ε model was selected for turbulence closure. Mean tangential, radial and axial velocities and also turbulent kinetic energy (k) and turbulent dissipation rate (ε) in various points of tank was investigated. Results show sensitivity of system to location of interface and radius of 7 to 10cm for interface in the vessel with existence characteristics cause to increase the accuracy of simulation.
Abstract: The selection of parents and breeding strategies for
the successful maize hybrid production will be facilitated by
heterotic groupings of parental lines and determination of combining
abilities of them. Fourteen maize inbred lines, used in maize breeding
programs in Iran, were crossed in a diallel mating design. The 91 F1
hybrids and the 14 parental lines were studied during two years at
four locations of Iran for investigation of combining ability of
gentypes for grain yield and to determine heterotic patterns among
germplasm sources, using both, the Griffing-s method and the biplot
approach for diallel analysis. The graphical representation offered by
biplot analysis allowed a rapid and effective overview of general
combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA)
effects of the inbred lines, their performance in crosses, as well as
grouping patterns of similar genotypes. GCA and SCA effects were
significant for grain yield (GY). Based on significant positive GCA
effects, the lines derived from LSC could be used as parent in crosses
to increase GY. The maximum best- parent heterosis values and
highest SCA effects resulted from crosses B73 × MO17 and A679 ×
MO17 for GY. The best heterotic patterns were LSC × RYD, which
would be potentially useful in maize breeding programs to obtain
high-yielding hybrids in the same climate of Iran.
Abstract: An efficient architecture for low jitter All Digital
Phase Locked Loop (ADPLL) suitable for high speed SoC
applications is presented in this paper. The ADPLL is designed using
standard cells and described by Hardware Description Language
(HDL). The ADPLL implemented in a 90 nm CMOS process can
operate from 10 to 200 MHz and achieve worst case frequency
acquisition in 14 reference clock cycles. The simulation result shows
that PLL has cycle to cycle jitter of 164 ps and period jitter of 100 ps
at 100MHz. Since the digitally controlled oscillator (DCO) can
achieve both high resolution and wide frequency range, it can meet
the demands of system-level integration. The proposed ADPLL can
easily be ported to different processes in a short time. Thus, it can
reduce the design time and design complexity of the ADPLL, making
it very suitable for System-on-Chip (SoC) applications.
Abstract: The aim of current study was to investigate the
changes in the quality parameters of Holstein bull semen during the
heat stress and the effect of feeding a source of omega-3 fatty acids
in this period. Samples were obtained from 19 Holstein bulls during
the expected time of heat stress in Iran (June to September 2009).
Control group (n=10) were fed a standard concentrate feed while
treatment group (n=9) had this feed top dressed with 100 g of an
omega-3 enriched nutriceutical. Semen quality was assessed on
ejaculates collected after 1, 5, 9 and 12 weeks of supplementation.
Computer-assisted assessment of sperm motility, viability (eosinnigrosin)
and hypo-osmotic swelling test (HOST) were conducted.
Heat stress affected sperm quality parameters by week 5 and 9
(p
Abstract: A free-trade agreement is found to increase Thailand-s
agricultural imports from New Zealand, despite the short span of
time for which the agreement has been operational. The finding is
described by autoregressive estimates that correct for possible unit
roots in the data. The agreement-s effect upon imports is also
estimated while considering an error-correction model of imports
against gross domestic product.
Abstract: Bangladesh is a developing country with large
population. Demand of electrical energy is increasing day by day
because of increasing population and industrialization. But due to
limited resources, people here are suffering from power crisis
problem which is considered as a major obstacle to the economic
development. In most of the cases, it is extremely difficult to extend
high tension transmission lines to some of the places that are
separated from the mainland. Renewable energy is considered to be
the right choice for providing clean energy to these remote
settlements. This paper proposes a cost effective design of off-grid
wind-diesel hybrid power system using combined heat and power
(CHP) technology in a grid isolated island, Sandwip, Bangladesh.
Design and simulation of the wind-diesel hybrid power system is
performed considering different factors for the island Sandwip.
Detailed economic analysis and comparison with solar PV system
clearly reveals that wind-diesel hybrid power system can be a cost
effective solution for the isolated island like Sandwip.
Abstract: The past decade has witnessed a good opportunities
for city development schemes in UK. The government encouraged
restoration of city centers to comprise mixed use developments with
high density residential apartments. Investments in regeneration areas
were doing well according to the analyses of Property Databank
(IPD). However, more recent analysis by IPD has shown that since
2007, property in regeneration areas has been more vulnerable to the
market downturn than other types of investment property. The early
stages of a property market downturn may be felt most in
regeneration where funding, investor confidence and occupier
demand would dissipate because the sector was considered more
marginal or risky when development costs rise. Moreover, the Bank
of England survey shows that lenders have sequentially tightened the
availability of credit for commercial real estate since mid-2007. A
sharp reduction in the willingness of banks to lend on commercial
property was recorded. The credit crunch has already affected
commercial property but its impact has been particularly severe in
certain kinds of properties where residential developments are
extremely difficult, in particular city centre apartments and buy-to-let
markets. Commercial property – retail, industrial leisure and mixed
use were also pressed, in Birmingham; tens of mixed use plots were
built to replace old factories in the heart of the city. The purpose of
these developments was to enable young professionals to work and
live in same place. Thousands of people lost their jobs during the
recession, moreover lending was more difficult and the future of
many developments is unknown. The recession casts its shadow upon
the society due to cuts in public spending by government, Inflation,
rising tuition fees and high rise in unemployment generated anger and
hatred was spreading among youth causing vandalism and riots in
many cities. Recent riots targeted many mixed used development in
the UK where banks, shops, restaurants and big stores were robbed
and set into fire leaving residents with horror and shock. This paper
examines the impact of the recession and riots on mixed use
development in UK.
Abstract: In this paper, we propose a Perceptually Optimized Embedded ZeroTree Image Coder (POEZIC) that introduces a perceptual weighting to wavelet transform coefficients prior to control SPIHT encoding algorithm in order to reach a targeted bit rate with a perceptual quality improvement with respect to the coding quality obtained using the SPIHT algorithm only. The paper also, introduces a new objective quality metric based on a Psychovisual model that integrates the properties of the HVS that plays an important role in our POEZIC quality assessment. Our POEZIC coder is based on a vision model that incorporates various masking effects of human visual system HVS perception. Thus, our coder weights the wavelet coefficients based on that model and attempts to increase the perceptual quality for a given bit rate and observation distance. The perceptual weights for all wavelet subbands are computed based on 1) luminance masking and Contrast masking, 2) the contrast sensitivity function CSF to achieve the perceptual decomposition weighting, 3) the Wavelet Error Sensitivity WES used to reduce the perceptual quantization errors. The new perceptually optimized codec has the same complexity as the original SPIHT techniques. However, the experiments results show that our coder demonstrates very good performance in terms of quality measurement.
Abstract: Bones are dynamic and responsive organs, they
regulate their strength and mass according to the loads which they are subjected. Because, the Wnt/β-catenin pathway has profound
effects on the regulation of bone mass, we hypothesized that mechanical loading of bone cells stimulates Wnt/β-catenin signaling, which results in the generation of new bone mass.
Mechanical loading triggers the secretion of the Wnt molecule, which after binding to transmembrane proteins, causes GSK-3β (Glycogen synthase kinase 3 beta) to cease the phosphorylation of β-catenin. β-catenin accumulation in the cytoplasm, followed by its
transport into the nucleus, binding to transcription factors (TCF/LEF)
that initiate transcription of genes related to bone formation. To test this hypothesis, we used TOPGAL (Tcf Optimal Promoter
β-galactosidase) mice in an experiment in which cyclic loads were
applied to the forearm. TOPGAL mice are reporters for cells effected
by the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. TOPGAL mice are genetically engineered mice in which transcriptional activation of β-
catenin, results in the production of an enzyme, β-galactosidase. The
presence of this enzyme allows us to localize transcriptional
activation of β-catenin to individual cells, thereby, allowing us to quantify the effects that mechanical loading has on the Wnt/β-catenin pathway and new bone formation. The ulnae of loaded TOPGAL
mice were excised and transverse slices along different parts of the
ulnar shaft were assayed for the presence of β-galactosidase.
Our results indicate that loading increases β-catenin transcriptional
activity in regions where this pathway is already primed (i.e. where basal activity is already higher) in a load magnitude dependent
manner. Further experiments are needed to determine the temporal and spatial activation of this signaling in relation to bone formation.
Abstract: Crime is a major societal problem for most of the
world's nations. Consequently, the police need to develop new
methods to improve their efficiency in dealing with these ever increasing crime rates. Two of the common difficulties that the police
face in crime control are crime investigation and the provision of crime information to the general public to help them protect themselves. Crime control in police operations involves the use of
spatial data, crime data and the related crime data from different organizations (depending on the nature of the analysis to be made).
These types of data are collected from several heterogeneous sources
in different formats and from different platforms, resulting in a lack of standardization. Moreover, there is no standard framework for
crime data collection, integration and dissemination through mobile
devices. An investigation into the current situation in crime control was carried out to identify the needs to resolve these issues. This
paper proposes and investigates the use of service oriented
architecture (SOA) and the mobile spatial information service in crime control. SOA plays an important role in crime control as an
appropriate way to support data exchange and model sharing from
heterogeneous sources. Crime control also needs to facilitate mobile
spatial information services in order to exchange, receive, share and release information based on location to mobile users anytime and
anywhere.
Abstract: An interesting method to produce calcium carbonate is based in a gas-liquid reaction between carbon dioxide and aqueous solutions of calcium hydroxide. The design parameters for gas-liquid phase are flow regime, individual mass transfer, gas-liquid specific interfacial area. Most studies on gas-liquid phase were devoted to the experimental determination of some of these parameters, and more specifically, of the mass transfer coefficient, kLa which depends fundamentally on the superficial gas velocity and on the physical properties of absorption phase. The principle investigation was directed to study the effect of the vibration on the mass transfer coefficient kLa in gas-liquid phase during absorption of CO2 in the in aqueous solution of calcium hydroxide. The vibration with a higher frequency increase the mass transfer coefficient kLa, but vibration with lower frequency didn-t improve it, the mass transfer coefficient kLa increase with increase the superficial gas velocity.
Abstract: Recently, a great amount of interest has been shown
in the field of modeling and controlling hybrid systems. One of the
efficient and common methods in this area utilizes the mixed logicaldynamical
(MLD) systems in the modeling. In this method, the
system constraints are transformed into mixed-integer inequalities by
defining some logic statements. In this paper, a system containing
three tanks is modeled as a nonlinear switched system by using the
MLD framework. Comparing the model size of the three-tank system
with that of a two-tank system, it is deduced that the number of
binary variables, the size of the system and its complexity
tremendously increases with the number of tanks, which makes the
control of the system more difficult. Therefore, methods should be
found which result in fewer mixed-integer inequalities.
Abstract: Tool Tracker is a client-server based application. It is essentially a catalogue of various network monitoring and management tools that are available online. There is a database maintained on the server side that contains the information about various tools. Several clients can access this information simultaneously and utilize this information. The various categories of tools considered are packet sniffers, port mappers, port scanners, encryption tools, and vulnerability scanners etc for the development of this application. This application provides a front end through which the user can invoke any tool from a central repository for the purpose of packet sniffing, port scanning, network analysis etc. Apart from the tool, its description and the help files associated with it would also be stored in the central repository. This facility will enable the user to view the documentation pertaining to the tool without having to download and install the tool. The application would update the central repository with the latest versions of the tools. The application would inform the user about the availability of a newer version of the tool currently being used and give the choice of installing the newer version to the user. Thus ToolTracker provides any network administrator that much needed abstraction and ease-ofuse with respect to the tools that he can use to efficiently monitor a network.