Abstract: The study was conducted to evaluate the efficiency of
Garlic and Chili combination solution on control of insect pests in
cabbage crop. The solution was sprayed at different intervals after
transplanting. The efficiency of Garlic and chili combination solution
on cabbage insect pests was measured. Results revealed that Garlic
and chili combination solution was the effectively reduced cabbage
insect pests. On other hand, the spray solution not only reduced the
number of days required for the cabbage growth but also greatly
enhanced the leaf number, head diameter, head weight, and quality of
cabbage. Garlic and chili combination solution have positive effects
on pests reduction and improve growth, yield and quality of cabbage
vegetable.
Abstract: This paper considers the characterization of a complex
electromagnetic environment due to multiple sources of
electromagnetic radiation as a five-dimensional surface which can be
described by a set of several surface sections including: instant EM
field intensity distribution maps at a given frequency and altitude,
instantaneous spectrum at a given location in space and the time
evolution of the electromagnetic field spectrum at a given point in
space. This characterization if done over time can enable the
exposure levels of Radio Frequency Radiation at every point in the
analysis area to be determined and results interpreted based on
comparison of the determined RFR exposure level with the safe
guidelines for general public exposure given by recognized body
such as the International commission on non-ionizing radiation
protection (ICNIRP), Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers
(IEEE), the National Radiation Protection Authority (NRPA).
Abstract: In this paper the effect of wall waviness of side walls
in a two-dimensional wavy enclosure is numerically investigated.
Two vertical wavy walls and straight top wall are kept isothermal and
the bottom wall temperature is higher and spatially varying with
cosinusoidal temperature distribution. A computational code based on
Finite-volume approach is used to solve governing equations and
SIMPLE method is used for pressure velocity coupling. Test is
performed for several different numbers of undulations. The Prandtl
number was kept constant and the Ra number denotes that the flow is
laminar. Temperature and velocity fields are determined. Therefore,
according to the obtained results a correlation is proposed for average
Nusselt number as a function of number of side wall waves. The
results indicate that the Nusselt number is highly affected by number
of waves and increasing it decreases the wavy walls Nusselt number;
although the Nusselt number is not highly affected by surface
waviness when the number of undulations is below one.
Abstract: Health analytics (HA) is used in healthcare systems
for effective decision making, management and planning of
healthcare and related activities. However, user resistances, unique
position of medical data content and structure (including
heterogeneous and unstructured data) and impromptu HA projects
have held up the progress in HA applications. Notably, the accuracy
of outcomes depends on the skills and the domain knowledge of the
data analyst working on the healthcare data. Success of HA depends
on having a sound process model, effective project management and
availability of supporting tools. Thus, to overcome these challenges
through an effective process model, we propose a HA process model
with features from rational unified process (RUP) model and agile
methodology.
Abstract: In this paper, thick walled Cylindrical tanks or tubes
made of functionally graded material under internal pressure and
temperature gradient are studied. Material parameters have been
considered as power functions. They play important role in the
elastoplastic behavior of these materials. To clarify their role,
different materials with different parameters have been used under
temperature gradient. Finally, their effect and loading effect have
been determined in first yield point. Also, the important role of
temperature gradient was also shown. At the end the study has been
results obtained from changes in the elastic modulus and yield stress.
Also special attention is also given to the effects of this internal
pressure and temperature gradient in the creation of tensile and
compressive stresses.
Abstract: The effect of trucks on the level of service is
determined by considering passenger car equivalents (PCE) of trucks.
The current version of Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) uses a
single PCE value for all tucks combined. However, the composition
of truck traffic varies from location to location; therefore, a single
PCE value for all trucks may not correctly represent the impact of
truck traffic at specific locations. Consequently, present study
developed separate PCE values for single-unit and combination
trucks to replace the single value provided in the HCM on different
freeways. Site specific PCE values, were developed using concept of
spatial lagging headways (that is the distance between rear bumpers
of two vehicles in a traffic stream) measured from field traffic data.
The study used data from four locations on a single urban freeway
and three different rural freeways in Indiana. Three-stage-leastsquares
(3SLS) regression techniques were used to generate models
that predicted lagging headways for passenger cars, single unit trucks
(SUT), and combination trucks (CT). The estimated PCE values for
single-unit and combination truck for basic urban freeways (level
terrain) were: 1.35 and 1.60, respectively. For rural freeways the
estimated PCE values for single-unit and combination truck were:
1.30 and 1.45, respectively. As expected, traffic variables such as
vehicle flow rates and speed have significant impacts on vehicle
headways. Study results revealed that the use of separate PCE values
for different truck classes can have significant influence on the LOS
estimation.
Abstract: Different order modulations combined with different
coding schemes, allow sending more bits per symbol, thus achieving
higher throughputs and better spectral efficiencies. However, it must
also be noted that when using a modulation technique such as 64-
QAM with less overhead bits, better signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) are
needed to overcome any Inter symbol Interference (ISI) and maintain
a certain bit error ratio (BER). The use of adaptive modulation allows
wireless technologies to yielding higher throughputs while also
covering long distances. The aim of this paper is to implement an
Adaptive Modulation and Coding (AMC) features of the WiMAX
PHY in MATLAB and to analyze the performance of the system in
different channel conditions (AWGN, Rayleigh and Rician fading
channel) with channel estimation and blind equalization. Simulation
results have demonstrated that the increment in modulation order
causes to increment in throughput and BER values. These results
derived a trade-off among modulation order, FFT length, throughput,
BER value and spectral efficiency. The BER changes gradually for
AWGN channel and arbitrarily for Rayleigh and Rician fade
channels.
Abstract: Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)
are pervasive nowadays, including in education where they are
expected to improve the performance of learners. However, the hope
placed in ICTs to find viable solutions to the problem of poor
academic performance in schools in the developing world has not yet
yielded the expected benefits. This problem serves as a motivation to
this study whose aim is to examine the perceptions of educators on
the advantages and disadvantages of e-learning. This aim will be
subdivided into two types of research objectives. Objectives on the
identification and design of theories and models will be achieved
using content analysis and literature review. However, the objective
on the empirical testing of such theories and models will be achieved
through the survey of educators from different schools in the
Pinetown District of the South African Kwazulu-Natal province.
SPSS is used to quantitatively analyse the data collected by the
questionnaire of this survey using descriptive statistics and Pearson
correlations after assessing the validity and the reliability of the data.
The main hypothesis driving this study is that there is a relationship
between the demographics of educators’ and their adherence to
learning theories on one side, and their perceptions on the advantages
and disadvantages of e-learning on the other side, as argued by
existing research; but this research views these learning theories
under three perspectives: educators’ adherence to self-regulated
learning, to constructivism, and to progressivism. This hypothesis
was fully confirmed by the empirical study except for the
demographic factor where teachers’ level of education was found to
be the only demographic factor affecting the perceptions of educators
on the advantages and disadvantages of e-learning.
Abstract: Ongoing landscape transformation is one of the major
causes behind disappearance of traditional landscapes, and lead to
species and resource loss. Tree in paddy fields in the northeast of
Thailand is one of those traditional landscapes. Using three different
historical time layers, we acknowledged the severe deforestation and
rapid urbanization happened in the region. Despite the general
thinking of decline in tree density as consequences, the heterogeneous
trend of changes in total tree density in three studied landscapes denied
the hypothesis that number of trees in paddy field depend on the length
of land use practice. On the other hand, due to selection of planting
new trees on levees, existence of trees in paddy field now relies on
their values for human use. Besides, changes in land use and landscape
structure had a significant impact on decision of which tree density
level is considered as suitable for the landscape.
Abstract: The effect of Zn2+, Mg2+, and Ba2+ on Saccharomyces
pastorianus performance was evaluated in this study at independent
and three variable combinations. After 96 h of fermentation, high
wort fermentability (%F) = 29.53 was obtained in medium containing
900:4 ppm Mg2+ + Ba2+. Increased ethanol yield 7.35 %(v/v) and
7.13 %(v/v) were obtained in media containing 900:4 ppm Mg2+ +
Ba2+ and 12:900 ppm Zn2+ + Mg2+. Decrease %F = 22.54 and ethanol
yield 6.18 % (v/v) was obtained in medium containing 12:4 ppm Zn2+
+ Ba2+. In media containing the individual ions, increased %F =
27.94 and 26.03 were recorded for media containing 700 ppm Mg2+
and 2 ppm Ba2+ , with ethanol yield of 7.88% (v/v) and 7.62% (v/v)
respectively. Reduced %F and ethanol yield was observed for 10 ppm
Zn2+ and 4 ppm Ba2+ media. The impact of Ba2+ at 1 and 2 ppm was
significant.
Abstract: As the human race will continue to explore the space
by creating new space transportation means and sending them to other
planets, the enhance of atmospheric reentry study is crucial. In this
context, an analysis of mass recession rate of ablative materials for
thermal shields of reentry spacecrafts is important to be carried out.
The paper describes a new estimation method for calculating the mass
recession of an ablator system made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic
materials. This method is based on Arrhenius equation for low
temperatures and, for high temperatures, on a theory applied for the
recession phenomenon of carbon fiber reinforced plastic materials,
theory which takes into account the presence of the resin inside the
materials. The space mission of USERS spacecraft is considered as a
case study.
Abstract: One- and two-dimensional carbon nanostructures with
sp2 hybridization of carbon atoms (single walled carbon nanotubes
and graphene) are promising materials in future electronic and
spintronics devices due to specific character of their electronic
structure. In this paper we present a comparative study of graphene
and single-wall carbon nanotubes by Raman spectro-microscopy in
strong magnetic field. This unique method allows to study changes in
electronic band structure of the two types of carbon nanostructures
induced by a strong magnetic field.
Abstract: Advances technology in the field of photogrammetry
replaces analog cameras with reflection on aircraft GPS/IMU system
with a digital aerial camera. In this system, when determining the
position of the camera with the GPS, camera rotations are also
determined by the IMU systems. All around the world, digital aerial
cameras have been used for the photogrammetry applications in the
last ten years. In this way, in terms of the work done in
photogrammetry it is possible to use time effectively, costs to be
reduced to a minimum level, the opportunity to make fast and
accurate.
Geo-referencing techniques that are the cornerstone of the GPS /
INS systems, photogrammetric triangulation of images required for
balancing (interior and exterior orientation) brings flexibility to the
process. Also geo-referencing process; needed in the application of
photogrammetry targets to help to reduce the number of ground
control points. In this study, the use of direct and indirect georeferencing
techniques on the accuracy of the points was investigated
in the production of photogrammetric mapping.
Abstract: This article presents summary on preparation and
characterization of zinc, copper, cadmium and cobalt chromite
nanocrystals, embedded in an amorphous silica matrix. The
ZnCr2O4/SiO2, CuCr2O4/SiO2, CdCr2O4/SiO2 and CoCr2O4/SiO2
nanocomposites were prepared by a conventional sol-gel method
under acid catalysis. Final heat treatment of the samples was carried
out at temperatures in the range of 900−1200 ◦C to adjust the
phase composition and the crystallite size, respectively. The resulting
samples were characterized by Powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD),
High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HRTEM),
Raman/FTIR spectroscopy and magnetic measurements. Formation
of the spinel phase was confirmed in all samples. The average size of
the nanocrystals was determined from the PXRD data and by direct
particle size observation on HRTEM; both results were correlated.
The mean particle size (reviewed by HRTEM) was in the range from
∼4 to 46 nm. The results showed that the sol-gel method can be
effectively used for preparation of the spinel chromite nanoparticles
embedded in the silica matrix and the particle size is driven by the
type of the cation A2+ in the spinel structure and the temperature
of the final heat treatment. Magnetic properties of the nanocrystals
were found to be just moderately modified in comparison to the bulk
phases.
Abstract: Metal-enhanced Luminescence of silicon nanocrystals
(SiNCs) was determined using two different particle sizes of silver
nanoparticles (AgNPs). SiNCs have been characterized by scanning
electron microscopy (SEM), high resolution transmission electron
microscopy (HRTEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy
(FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). It is found that
the SiNCs are crystalline with an average diameter of 65 nm and FCC
lattice. AgNPs were synthesized using photochemical reduction of
AgNO3 with sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS). The enhanced
luminescence of SiNCs by AgNPs was evaluated by confocal Raman
microspectroscopy. Enhancement up to x9 and x3 times were
observed for SiNCs that mixed with AgNPs which have an average
particle size of 100 nm and 30 nm, respectively. Silver NPs-enhanced
luminescence of SiNCs occurs as a result of the coupling between the
excitation laser light and the plasmon bands of AgNPs; thus this
intense field at AgNPs surface couples strongly to SiNCs.
Abstract: In the present work, the effect of load and sliding
distance on the performance tribology of commercially used
aluminium-silicon engine block and piston was evaluated at ambient
conditions with humidity of 80% under dry sliding conditions using a
pin-on-disc with two different loads of 5N and 20N yielding applied
pressure of 0.30MPa and 1.4MPa, respectively, at sliding velocity of
0.29ms-1 and with varying sliding distance ranging from 260m-
4200m. Factors and conditions that had significant effect were
identified. The results showed that the load and the sliding distance
affect the wear rate of the alloys and the wear rate increased with
increasing load for both the alloys. Wear rate also increases almost
linearly at low loads and increase to a maximum then attain a plateau
with increasing sliding distance. For both applied loads the piston
alloy showed the better performance due to higher Ni and Mg
content. The worn surface and wear debris was characterized by
optical microscope, SEM and EDX analyzer. The worn surface was
characterized by surface with shallow grooves at loads while the
groove width and depth increased as the loads increases. Oxidative
wear was found to be the predominant mechanisms in the dry sliding
of Al-Si alloys at low loads.
Abstract: The aim of the paper was to elaborate a novel calculator BasWilCalc, that allows to estimate the actual amount of biomass on the basket willow plantations. The proposed method is based on the results of field experiment conducted during years 2011-2013 on basket willow plantation in the south-western part of Poland. As input data the results of destructive measurements of the diameter, length and weight of willow stems and non-destructive biometric measurements of diameter in the middle of stems and their length during the growing season performed at weekly intervals were used. Performed analysis enabled to develop the algorithm which, due to the fact that energy plantations are of known and constant planting structure, allows to estimate the actual amount of willow basket biomass on the plantation with a given probability and accuracy specified by the model, based on the number of stems measured and the age of the plantation.
Abstract: The article presents the concept of an electromagnetic
circuit generator with permanent magnets mounted on the surface
rotor core designed for single phase work. Computation field-circuit
model was shown. The spectrum of time course of voltages in the
idle work was presented. The cross section with graphically
presentation of magnetic induction in particular parts of
electromagnetic circuits was presented. Distribution of magnetic
induction at the rated load point for each phase was shown. The time
course of voltages and currents for each phases for rated power were
displayed. An analysis of laboratory results and measurement of load
characteristics of the generator was discussed. The work deals with
three electromagnetic circuits of generators with permanent magnet
where output voltage characteristics versus rated power were
expressed.
Abstract: The discarded clam shell waste, fossil and edible oil
as biolubricant feedstocks create environmental impacts and food
chain dilemma, thus this work aims to circumvent these issues by
using activated saltwater clam shell waste (SCSW) as solid catalyst
for conversion of Jatropha curcas oil as non-edible sources to ester
biolubricant. The characterization of solid catalyst was done by
Differential Thermal Analysis-Thermo Gravimetric Analysis (DTATGA),
X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD),
Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), Field Emission Scanning Electron
Microscopy (FESEM) and Fourier Transformed Infrared
Spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis. The calcined catalyst was used in the
transesterification of Jatropha oil to methyl ester as the first step, and
the second stage was involved the reaction of Jatropha methyl ester
(JME) with trimethylolpropane (TMP) based on the various process
parameters. The formated biolubricant was analyzed using the
capillary column (DB-5HT) equipped Gas Chromatography (GC).
The conversion results of Jatropha oil to ester biolubricant can be
found nearly 96.66%, and the maximum distribution composition
mainly contains 72.3% of triester (TE).
Abstract: Nanotechnology is the new cyber, according to several major leaders in this field. Just as cyber is entrenched across global society now, nano is poised to be major capabilities enabler of the next decades. Expert members from the National Nanotechnology Initiative (in U.S.) representing government and science disciplines say nano has great significance for the military and the general public. It is predicted that after next 15 years nanotechnology will replace information technology as the most economic technology platform. Nanotechnology has even wider applications than information technology.