Abstract: The use of Computer Aided Design (CAD)
technologies has become pervasive in the Architecture, Engineering
and Construction (AEC) industry. This has led to its inclusion as an
important part of the training module in the curriculum for
Architecture Schools in Nigeria. This paper examines the ethical
questions that arise in the implementation of Computer Aided Design
(CAD) Content of the curriculum for Architectural education. Using
existing literature, it begins this scrutiny from the propriety of
inclusion of CAD into the education of the architect and the
obligations of the different stakeholders in the implementation
process. It also examines the questions raised by the negative use of
computing technologies as well as perceived negative influence of
the use of CAD on design creativity. Survey methodology was
employed to gather data from the Department of Architecture,
Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Uli, which has been
used as a case study on how the issues raised are being addressed.
The paper draws conclusions on what will make for successful ethical
implementation.
Abstract: Project Portfolio Management (PPM) is an essential
component of an organisation’s strategic procedures, which requires
attention of several factors to envisage a range of long-term outcomes
to support strategic project portfolio decisions. To evaluate overall
efficiency at the portfolio level, it is essential to identify the
functionality of specific projects as well as to aggregate those
findings in a mathematically meaningful manner that indicates the
strategic significance of the associated projects at a number of levels
of abstraction. PPM success is directly associated with the quality of
decisions made and poor judgment increases portfolio costs. Hence,
various Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) techniques have
been designed and employed to support the decision-making
functions. This paper reviews possible options to enhance the
decision-making outcomes in organisational portfolio management
processes using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) both from
academic and practical perspectives and will examine the usability,
certainty and quality of the technique. The results of the study will
also provide insight into the technical risk associated with current
decision-making model to underpin initiative tracking and strategic
portfolio management.
Abstract: The power electronic components within Electric Vehicles (EV) need to operate in several important modes. Some modes directly influence safety, while others influence vehicle performance. Given the variety of functions and operational modes required of the power electronics, it needs to meet efficiency requirements to minimize power losses. Another challenge in the control and construction of such systems is the ability to support bidirectional power flow. This paper considers the construction, operation, and feasibility of available converters for electric vehicles with feasible configurations of electrical buses and loads. This paper describes logic and control signals for the converters for different operations conditions based on the efficiency and energy usage bases.
Abstract: The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of
Saccharomyces cerevisiae (SC) live yeast culture on microbial
protein supply to small intestine in Kivircik male yearlings when fed
with different ratio of forage and concentrate diets. Four Kivircik
male yearlings with permanent rumen canula were used in the
experiment. The treatments were allocated to a 4x4 Latin square
design. Diet I consisted of 70% alfalfa hay and 30% concentrate, Diet
II consisted of 30% alfalfa hay and 70% concentrate, Diet I and II
were supplemented with a SC. Daily urine was collected and stored at
-20°C until analysis. Calorimetric methods were used for the
determination of urinary allantoin and creatinine levels. The
estimated microbial N supply to small intestine for Diets I, I+SC, II
and II+SC were 2.51, 2.64, 2.95 and 3.43 g N/d respectively.
Supplementation of Diets I and II with SC significantly affected the
allantoin levels in μmol/W0.75 (p
Abstract: Much of the literature on research design has focused
on research conducted in developed, uni-cultural or primarily English
speaking countries. Studies of qualitative case study research, the
challenges, and prospects have been embedded in Western/Eurocentric
society and social theories. Although there have been some
theoretical studies, few empirical studies have been conducted to
explore the nature of the challenges of qualitative case study in
developing countries. These challenges include accessibility to
organizations, conducting interviews in developing countries,
accessing documents and observing official meetings, language and
cultural challenges, the use of consent forms, issues affecting access
to companies, respondent issues, and data analysis. The author, while
conducting qualitative case study research in Libya, faced all these
issues. The discussion in this paper examines these issues in order to
make a contribution toward the literature in this area.
Abstract: Poverty alleviation is one of the most difficult
challenges facing third world countries in their development efforts.
Evidences in Nigeria showed that the number of those in poverty has
continued to increase. This paper is aimed at analyzing the
performance of poverty alleviation measures undertaken by
successive administrations in Nigeria with a view to addressing the
quagmire. The study identified the whole gamut of factors that served
as stumbling blocks to the implementation of each of the strategies
and recommended the involvement of local people in the
identification and design of projects so that sufficient participation
could be achieved.
Abstract: This research was made during the 2015 growing
periods in the trial filed of "Research Station for Department of Field
Crops, Agricultural Faculty, Selcuk University" according to
“Randomized Blocks Design” with 3 replications. Research material
was the following pea lines; PS16, PS18, PS21, PS23, PS24, PS25,
PS36, PS47, PS49, PS51, PS54, PS58, PS67, PS69, PS71, PS73,
PS83, PS84, PS87 and PSKY and three cultivars and other 2
commercial varieties named as Bolero, Rondo and Ultrello. Some
agronomical characteristics such as plant height (cm) number of pod
per plant number of seed per pod number of seed per plant 100 seed
weight (g) and seed yield (kg ha-1) were determined. The highest seed
yield was obtained 2727.0 kg ha-1 in the PS71 line and the lowest
value was obtained 1238.0 kg ha-1 in the commercial variety of
Bolero. Results of the research implicated that the new developed
lines were superior compared with the control (commercial) varieties
by means of most of the characteristics. Nevertheless, similar
researches should be continued in different locations and years.
Abstract: This study aims to examine the sensory quality of
meatballs made from Balinese beef and buffalo meat after the
addition of smoke powder prior to storage at the temperatures of 2-
5°C for 7 days. This study used meat from Longissimus dorsi muscle
of male Balinese cattle aged 3 years and of male buffalo aged 5 years
as the main raw materials, and smoke powder as a binder and
preservative in making meatballs. The study was based on completely
randomized design (CRD) of factorial pattern of 2 x 3 x 2 where
factors 1, 2 and 3 included the types of meat (cattle and buffalo),
types of smoke powder (oven dried, freeze dried and spray dried)
with a level of 2% of the weight of the meat (w/w), and storage
duration (0 and 7 days) with three replications, respectively. The
parameters measured were the meatball sensory quality (scores of
tenderness, firmness, chewing residue, and intensity of flavor). The
results of this study show that each type of meat has produced
different sensory characteristics. The meatballs made from buffalo
meat have higher tenderness and elasticity scores than the Balinese
beef. Meanwhile, the buffalo meatballs have a lower residue
mastication score than the Balinese beef. Each type of smoke
powders has produced a relatively similar sensory quality of
meatballs. It can be concluded that the smoke powder of 2% of the
weight of the meat (w/w) could maintain the sensory quality of the
meatballs for 7 days of storage.
Abstract: The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of
supplementing broiler starter diet with different levels of an essential
oil blend (EOB) containing capsaicin, carvacrol and cinnamaldehyde
on the performance of broilers. A total of 300 day-old straight-run
Cobb broiler chicks were randomly assigned to three treatments after
7-day group brooding following a completely randomized design
(CRD). Birds assigned in treatment 1 were given starter basal diet
while those in treatments 2 and 3 were given starter basal diet with
400 mg/kg antibiotic growth promoter (AGP) and 150 mg/kg EOB,
respectively, until the 28th day. Basal finisher feed were given for all
the treatments until harvest. Following 37 d feeding, body weight
gain, feed consumption, feed efficiency, dressing percentage,
livability and jejunal villi height were determined. Results showed no
significant differences (P>0.05) in growth performance. However,
villi height and crypt depth was significantly lower for birds fed
EOB.
Abstract: Finding the optimal 3D path of an aerial vehicle under
flight mechanics constraints is a major challenge, especially when
the algorithm has to produce real time results in flight. Kinematics
models and Pythagorian Hodograph curves have been widely used
in mobile robotics to solve this problematic. The level of difficulty
is mainly driven by the number of constraints to be saturated at the
same time while minimizing the total length of the path. In this paper,
we suggest a pragmatic algorithm capable of saturating at the same
time most of dimensioning helicopter 3D trajectories’ constraints
like: curvature, curvature derivative, torsion, torsion derivative, climb
angle, climb angle derivative, positions. The trajectories generation
algorithm is able to generate versatile complex 3D motion primitives
feasible by a helicopter with parameterization of the curvature and the
climb angle. An upper ”motion primitives’ concatenation” algorithm
is presented based. In this article we introduce a new way of designing
three-dimensional trajectories based on what we call the ”Dubins
gliding symmetry conjecture”. This extremely performing algorithm
will be soon integrated to a real-time decisional system dealing with
inflight safety issues.
Abstract: The photovoltaic and the semiconductor industries are
in growth and it is necessary to supply a large amount of silicon to
maintain this growth. Since silicon is still the best material for the
manufacturing of solar cells and semiconductor components so the
pure silicon like solar grade and semiconductor grade materials are
demanded. There are two main routes for silicon production:
metallurgical and chemical. In this article, we reviewed the
electrotecnological installations and systems for semiconductor
manufacturing. The main task is to design the installation which can
produce SOG Silicon from river sand by one work unit.
Abstract: Geological and tectonic framework indicates that
Bangladesh is one of the most seismically active regions in the world.
The Bengal Basin is at the junction of three major interacting plates:
the Indian, Eurasian, and Burma Plates. Besides there are many
active faults within the region, e.g. the large Dauki fault in the north.
The country has experienced a number of destructive earthquakes due
to the movement of these active faults. Current seismic provisions of
Bangladesh are mostly based on earthquake data prior to the 1990.
Given the record of earthquakes post 1990, there is a need to revisit
the design provisions of the code. This paper compares the base shear
demand of three major cities in Bangladesh: Dhaka (the capital city),
Sylhet, and Chittagong for earthquake scenarios of magnitudes
7.0MW, 7.5MW, 8.0MW, and 8.5MW using a stochastic model. In
particular, the stochastic model allows the flexibility to input region
specific parameters such as shear wave velocity profile (that were
developed from Global Crustal Model CRUST2.0) and include the
effects of attenuation as individual components. Effects of soil
amplification were analysed using the Extended Component
Attenuation Model (ECAM). Results show that the estimated base
shear demand is higher in comparison with code provisions leading to
the suggestion of additional seismic design consideration in the study
regions.
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to propose an effective method to improve frictional coefficient between shoe rubber soles with added glass fibers and the surfaces of icy and snowy road in order to prevent slip-and-fall accidents by the users. The additional fibers into the rubber were uniformly tilted to the perpendicular direction of the frictional surface, where tilting angles were -60, -30, +30, +60, 90 degrees and 0 (as normal specimen), respectively. It was found that parallel arraignment was effective to improve the frictional coefficient when glass fibers were embedded in the shoe rubber, while perpendicular to normal direction of the embedded glass fibers on the shoe surface was also effective to do that once after they were exposed from the shoe rubber with its abrasion. These improvements were explained by the increase of stiffness against the shear deformation of the rubber at critical frictional state and adequate scratching of fibers when fibers were protruded in perpendicular to frictional direction, respectively. Most effective angle of tilting of frictional coefficient between rubber specimens and a stone was perpendicular (= 0 degree) to frictional direction. Combinative modified rubber specimen having 2 layers was fabricated where tilting angle of protruded fibers was 0 degree near the contact surface and tilting angle of embedded fibers was 90 degrees near back surface in thickness direction to further improve the frictional coefficient. Current study suggested that effective arraignments in tilting angle of the added fibers should be applied in designing rubber shoe soles to keep the safeties for users in regions of cold climates.
Abstract: The understanding of geotechnical characteristics of
near-surface material and the effects of the groundwater is very
important problem in such as site studies. For showing the relations
between seismic data and groundwater, we selected about 25 km2 as
the study area. It has been presented which is a detailed work of
seismic data and groundwater depths of Gokpinar Damp area.
Seismic waves velocity (Vp and Vs) are very important parameters
showing the soil properties. The seismic records were used the
method of the multichannel analysis of surface waves near area of
Gokpinar Damp area. Sixty sites in this area have been investigated
with survey lines about 60 m in length. MASW (Multichannel
analysis of surface wave) method has been used to generate onedimensional
shear wave velocity profile at locations. These shear
wave velocities are used to estimate equivalent shear wave velocity in
the study area at every 2 and 5 m intervals up to a depth of 45 m.
Levels of equivalent shear wave velocity of soil are used the
classified of the study area. After the results of the study, it must be
considered as components of urban planning and building design of
Gokpinar Damp area, Denizli and the application and use of these
results should be required and enforced by municipal authorities.
Abstract: This paper describes the design and implementation of
a hardware setup for online monitoring of 24 refrigerators inside
blood bank center using the microcontroller and CAN bus for
communications between each node. Due to the security of locations
in the blood bank hall and difficulty of monitoring of each
refrigerator separately, this work proposes a solution to monitor all
the blood bank refrigerators in one location. CAN-bus system is used
because it has many applications and advantages, especially for this
system due to easy in use, low cost, providing a reduction in wiring,
fast to repair and easily expanding the project without a problem.
Abstract: A theoretical study of a humidification
dehumidification solar desalination unit has been carried out to
increase understanding the effect of weather conditions on the unit
productivity. A humidification-dehumidification (HD) solar
desalination unit has been designed to provide fresh water for
population in remote arid areas. It consists of solar water collector
and air collector; to provide the hot water and air to the desalination
chamber. The desalination chamber is divided into humidification
and dehumidification towers. The circulation of air between the two
towers is maintained by the forced convection. A mathematical
model has been formulated, in which the thermodynamic relations
were used to study the flow, heat and mass transfer inside the
humidifier and dehumidifier. The present technique is performed in
order to increase the unit performance. Heat and mass balance has
been done and a set of governing equations has been solved using the
finite difference technique. The unit productivity has been calculated
along the working day during the summer and winter sessions and
has compared with the available experimental results. The average
accumulative productivity of the system in winter has been ranged
between 2.5 to 4 (kg/m2)/day, while the average summer productivity
has been found between 8 to 12 (kg/m2)/day.
Abstract: Steel extended end plate bolted connections are
recommended to be widely utilized in special moment-resisting frame
subjected to monotonic loading. Improper design of steel beam to
column connection can lead to the collapse and fatality of structures.
Therefore comprehensive research studies of beam to column
connection design should be carried out. Also the performance and
effect of corrugated on the strength of beam column end plate
connection up to failure under monotonic loading in horizontal
direction is presented in this paper. The non-linear elastic–plastic
behavior has been considered through a finite element analysis using
the multi-purpose software package LUSAS. The effect of vertically
and horizontally types of corrugated web was also investigated.
Abstract: Machine visualization is an area of interest with fast
and progressive development. We present a method of machine
visualization which will be applicable in real industrial conditions
according to current needs and demands. Real factory data were
obtained in a newly built research plant. Methods described in this
paper were validated on a case study. Input data were processed and
the virtual environment was created. The environment contains
information about dimensions, structure, disposition, and function.
Hardware was enhanced by modular machines, prototypes, and
accessories. We added functionalities and machines into the virtual
environment. The user is able to interact with objects such as testing
and cutting machines, he/she can operate and move them. Proposed
design consists of an environment with two degrees of freedom of
movement. Users are in touch with items in the virtual world which
are embedded into the real surroundings. This paper describes development of the virtual environment. We
compared and tested various options of factory layout virtualization
and visualization. We analyzed possibilities of using a 3D scanner in
the layout obtaining process and we also analyzed various virtual
reality hardware visualization methods such as: Stereoscopic (CAVE)
projection, Head Mounted Display (HMD) and augmented reality
(AR) projection provided by see-through glasses.
Abstract: The aim of the study is to describe and analyze design
of mobile teaching for students collaborative learning in distance
higher education with a focus on mobile technologies as online
webinars (web-based seminars or conferencing) by using laptops,
smart phones, or tablets. These multimedia tools can provide face-toface
interactions, recorded flipped classroom videos and parallel chat
communications. The data collection consists of interviews with 22
students and observations of online face-to-face webinars, as well
two surveys. Theoretically, the study joins the research tradition of
Computer Supported Collaborative learning, CSCL, as well as
Computer Self-Efficacy, CSE concerned with individuals’ media and
information literacy. Important conclusions from the study
demonstrated mobile interactions increased student centered
learning. As the students were appreciating the working methods,
they became more engaged and motivated. The mobile technology
using among student also contributes to increased flexibility between
space and place, as well as media and information literacy.
Abstract: Lateral Geniculate Nucleus (LGN) is the relay center
in the visual pathway as it receives most of the input information
from retinal ganglion cells (RGC) and sends to visual cortex. Low
threshold calcium currents (IT) at the membrane are the unique
indicator to characterize this firing functionality of the LGN neurons
gained by the RGC input. According to the LGN functional
requirements such as functional mapping of RGC to LGN, the
morphologies of the LGN neurons were developed. During the
neurological disorders like glaucoma, the mapping between RGC and
LGN is disconnected and hence stimulating LGN electrically using
deep brain electrodes can restore the functionalities of LGN. A
computational model was developed for simulating the LGN neurons
with three predominant morphologies each representing different
functional mapping of RGC to LGN. The firings of action potentials
at LGN neuron due to IT were characterized by varying the
stimulation parameters, morphological parameters and orientation. A
wide range of stimulation parameters (stimulus amplitude, duration
and frequency) represents the various strengths of the electrical
stimulation with different morphological parameters (soma size,
dendrites size and structure). The orientation (0-1800) of LGN
neuron with respect to the stimulating electrode represents the angle
at which the extracellular deep brain stimulation towards LGN
neuron is performed. A reduced dendrite structure was used in the
model using Bush–Sejnowski algorithm to decrease the
computational time while conserving its input resistance and total
surface area. The major finding is that an input potential of 0.4 V is
required to produce the action potential in the LGN neuron which is
placed at 100 μm distance from the electrode. From this study, it can
be concluded that the neuroprostheses under design would need to
consider the capability of inducing at least 0.4V to produce action
potentials in LGN.