Abstract: Securing the confidential data transferred via wireless
network remains a challenging problem. It is paramount to ensure
that data are accessible only by the legitimate users rather than by the
attackers. One of the most serious threats to organization is jamming,
which disrupts the communication between any two pairs of nodes.
Therefore, designing an attack-defending scheme without any packet
loss in data transmission is an important challenge. In this paper,
Dependence based Malicious Route Defending DMRD Scheme has
been proposed in multi path routing environment to prevent jamming
attack. The key idea is to defend the malicious route to ensure
perspicuous transmission. This scheme develops a two layered
architecture and it operates in two different steps. In the first step,
possible routes are captured and their agent dependence values are
marked using triple agents. In the second step, the dependence values
are compared by performing comparator filtering to detect malicious
route as well as to identify a reliable route for secured data
transmission. By simulation studies, it is observed that the proposed
scheme significantly identifies malicious route by attaining lower
delay time and route discovery time; it also achieves higher
throughput.
Abstract: Lead being a toxic heavy metal that mankind is
exposed to the highest levels of this metal from environmental
pollutants. A total of 180 Male scalp hair samples were collected
from different environments in Greater Cairo (GC), i.e. industrial,
heavy traffic and rural areas (60 samples from each) having different
activities during the period of, 1/5/2010 to 1/11/2012. Hair samples
were collected during five stages. Data proved that the concentration
of lead in male industrial areas of Cairo ranged between 6.2847 to
19.0432 μg/g, with mean value of 12.3288 μg/g. On the other hand,
lead content of hair samples of residential-traffic areas ranged
between 2.8634 to 16.3311 μg/g with mean value of 9.7552 μg/g.
While lead concentration on the hair of the male residents living in
rural area ranged between 1.0499-9.0402μg/g with mean value of
4.7327 μg/g. The Pb concentration in scalp hair of Cairo residents of
residential-traffic and rural traffic areas was observed to follow the
same pattern. The pattern was that of decrease concentration of
summer and its increase in winter. Then, there was a marked increase
in Pb concentration of summer 2012, and this increase was
significant. These were obviously seen for the residential-traffic and
rural areas residents. Pb pollution in residents of industrial areas
showed the same seasonal pattern, but there was marked to decrease
in Pb concentration of summer 2012, and this decrease was
significant. Lead pollution in residents of GC was serious. It is worth
noting that the atmosphere is still contaminated by lead despite a
decade of using unleaded gasoline. Strong seasonal variation in
higher Pb concentration on winter than in summer was found. Major
contributions to the pollution with Pb could include industry
emissions, motor vehicle emissions and long transported dust from
outside Cairo. More attention should be paid to the reduction of Pb
content of the urban aerosol and to the Pb pollution health.
Abstract: This paper presents the application of the Discrete
Component Model for heating and evaporation to multi-component
biodiesel fuel droplets in direct injection internal combustion engines.
This model takes into account the effects of temperature gradient,
recirculation and species diffusion inside droplets. A distinctive
feature of the model used in the analysis is that it is based on the
analytical solutions to the temperature and species diffusion
equations inside the droplets. Nineteen types of biodiesel fuels are
considered. It is shown that a simplistic model, based on the
approximation of biodiesel fuel by a single component or ignoring
the diffusion of components of biodiesel fuel, leads to noticeable
errors in predicted droplet evaporation time and time evolution of
droplet surface temperature and radius.
Abstract: According to the demand of the power and
refrigeration industry, the theoretical and practical teachings of the
Thermal Energy and Power Engineering characteristic specialty in
china are studied. The teaching reform and practice of the Thermal
Energy and Power Engineering specialty have been carried out,
including construction and reform measures, teaching reform and
practice, features, and achievements. Proved by practices, the
theoretical and practical teaching effects are obvious. The study results
can provides certain reference experience for theoretical and practical
teachings of the related specialties in china.
Abstract: Applied industrial engineering is concerned with
imparting employable skills to improve the productivity for current
situation of products and services. The purpose of this case study is to
present the results of an initial research study conducted to identify
the desired professional characteristics of an industrial engineer with
an undergraduate degree and the emerging topic areas that should be
incorporated into the curriculum to prepare industrial engineering
(IE) graduates for the future workforce. Conclusions and
recommendations for applied industrial engineering syllabus have
been gathered and reported below. A two-pronged approach was
taken which included a method of benchmarking by comparing the
applied industrial engineering curricula of various universities and an
industry survey to identify job market requirements. This
methodology produced an analysis of the changing nature of
industrial engineering from learning to practical education. A
curriculum study for engineering is a relatively unexplored area of
research in the Middle East, much less for applied industrial
engineering. This work is an effort to bridge the gap between
theoretical study in the classroom and the real world work
applications in the industrial and service sectors.
Abstract: We have experimentally demonstrated bright-dark
pulses in a nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) based mode-locked
Erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) with a long cavity configuration.
Bright–dark pulses could be achieved when the laser works in the
passively mode-locking regime and the net group velocity dispersion
is quite anomalous. The EDFL starts to generate a bright pulse train
with degenerated dark pulse at the mode-locking threshold pump
power of 35.09 mW by manipulating the polarization states of the
laser oscillation modes using a polarization controller (PC). A split
bright–dark pulse is generated when further increasing the pump
power up to 37.95 mW. Stable bright pulses with no obvious
evidence of a dark pulse can also be generated when further adjusting
PC and increasing the pump power up to 52.19 mW. At higher pump
power of 54.96 mW, a new form of bright-dark pulse emission was
successfully identified with the repetition rate of 29 kHz. The bright
and dark pulses have a duration of 795.5 ns and 640 ns, respectively.
Abstract: Domestic goats (Capra hircus) are extremely diverse
species and principal animal genetic resource of the developing
world. These facilitate a persistent supply of meat, milk, fibre, and
skin and are considered as important revenue generators in small
pastoral environments. This study aimed to fingerprint β-LG gene at
PCR-RFLP level in native Saudi goat breeds (Ardi, Habsi and Harri)
in an attempt to have a preliminary image of β-LG genotypic patterns
in Saudi breeds as compared to other foreign breeds such as Indian
and Egyptian. Also, the Phylogenetic analysis was done to investigate
evolutionary trends and similarities among the caprine β-LG gene
with that of the other domestic specie, viz. cow, buffalo and sheep.
Blood samples were collected from 300 animals (100 for each breed)
and genomic DNA was extracted. A fragment of the β-LG gene
(427bp) was amplified using specific primers. Subsequent digestion
with Sac II restriction endonuclease revealed two alleles (A and B)
and three different banding patterns or genotypes i.e. AA, AB and
BB. The statistical analysis showed a general trend that β-LG AA
genotype had higher milk yield than β-LG AB and β-LG BB
genotypes. Nucleotide sequencing of the selected β-LG fragments
was done and submitted to GenBank NCBI (Accession No.
KJ544248, KJ588275, KJ588276, KJ783455, KJ783456 and
KJ874959). Phylogenetic analysis on the basis of nucleotide
sequences of native Saudi goats indicated evolutional similarity with
the GenBank reference sequences of goat, Bubalus bubalis and Bos
taurus. However, the origin of sheep which is the most closely
related from the evolutionary point of view, was located some
distance away.
Abstract: Many studies have revealed the fact of the complexity
of ontology building process. Therefore there is a need for a new
approach which one of that addresses the socio-technical aspects in the
collaboration to reach a consensus. Meta-design approach is
considered applicable as a method in the methodological model of
socio-technical ontology engineering. Principles in the meta-design
framework are applied in the construction phases of the ontology. A
web portal is developed to support the meta-design principles
requirements. To validate the methodological model semantic web
applications were developed and integrated in the portal and also used
as a way to show the usefulness of the ontology. The knowledge based
system will be filled with data of Indonesian medicinal plants. By
showing the usefulness of the developed ontology in a semantic web
application, we motivate all stakeholders to participate in the
development of knowledge based system of medicinal plants in
Indonesia.
Abstract: Food contamination occurs during post process
handling. This leads to spoilage and growth of pathogenic
microorganisms in the food, thereby reducing its shelf life or
spreading of food borne diseases. Several methods are tried and one
of which is use of antimicrobial packaging. Here, papain, a protease
enzyme, is covalently immobilized with the help of glutarldehyde on
polyurethane and used as a food wrap to protect food from microbial
contamination. Covalent immobilization of papain was achieved at a
pH of 7.4; temperature of 4°C; glutaraldehyde concentration of 0.5%;
incubation time of 24h; and 50mg of papain. The formation of -C=Nobserved
in the Fourier transform infrared spectrum confirmed the
immobilization of the enzyme on the polymer. Immobilized enzyme
retained higher activity than the native free enzyme. The modified
polyurethane showed better reduction of Staphylococcus aureus
biofilm than bare polymer film (eight folds reduction in live colonies,
two times reduction in protein and 6 times reduction in
carbohydrates). The efficacy of this was studied by wrapping it over
S. aureus contaminated cottage cheese (paneer) and cheese and
stored at a temperature of 4°C for 7days. The modified film reduced
the bacterial contamination by eight folds when compared to the bare
film. FTIR also indicated reduction in lipids, sugars and proteins in
the biofilm.
Abstract: In this study, we develop a performance evaluation
model based on a multi-attribute utility approach aiming at reaching
the sustainable banking (SB) status. This model is built accounting
for various banks’ stakeholders in a win-win paradigm. In addition, it
offers the opportunity for adopting a global measure of performance
as an indication of a bank’s sustainability degree. This measure is
referred to as banking sustainability performance index (BSPI). This
index may constitute a basis for ranking banks. Moreover, it may
constitute a bridge between the assessment types of financial and
extra-financial rating agencies. A real application is performed on
three French banks.
Abstract: This study is an attempt to raise the awareness of the
stakeholders and the authorities on the sensitivity of Algerian
secondary school teachers of English as a Foreign Language about
the students’ loss of English language skills learned during formal
schooling with effort and at expense and the supposed measures to
arrest that loss. Data was collected from secondary school teachers of
EFL and analyzed quantitatively using a questionnaire containing
open-ended and close-ended questions. The results advocate a
consensus about the need for actions to be adopted to make
assessment techniques outcome-oriented. Most of the participants
were in favor of including curricular activities involving
contextualized learning, problem-solving learning critical selfawareness,
self and peer-assisted learning, use of computers and
internet so as to make learners autonomous.
Abstract: The fundamental issues in ICT Governance (ICTG)
implementation for Malaysian Public Sector (MPS) is how ICT be
applied to support improvements in productivity, management
effectiveness and the quality of services offered to its citizens. Our
main concern is to develop and adopt a common definition and
framework to illustrate how ICTG can be used to better align ICT
with government’s operations and strategic focus. In particular, we
want to identify and categorize factors that drive a successful ICTG
process. This paper presents the results of an exploratory study to
identify, validate and refine such Critical Success Factors (CSFs) and
confirmed seven CSFs and nineteen sub-factors as influential factors
that fit MPS after further validated and refined. The Delphi method
applied in validation and refining process before being endorsed as
appropriate for MPS. The identified CSFs reflect the focus areas that
need to be considered strategically to strengthen ICT Governance
implementation and ensure business success.
Abstract: Web search engines are designed to retrieve and
extract the information in the web databases and to return dynamic
web pages. The Semantic Web is an extension of the current web in
which it includes semantic content in web pages. The main goal of
semantic web is to promote the quality of the current web by
changing its contents into machine understandable form. Therefore,
the milestone of semantic web is to have semantic level information
in the web. Nowadays, people use different keyword- based search
engines to find the relevant information they need from the web.
But many of the words are polysemous. When these words are
used to query a search engine, it displays the Search Result Records
(SRRs) with different meanings. The SRRs with similar meanings are
grouped together based on Word Sense Disambiguation (WSD). In
addition to that semantic annotation is also performed to improve the
efficiency of search result records. Semantic Annotation is the
process of adding the semantic metadata to web resources. Thus the
grouped SRRs are annotated and generate a summary which
describes the information in SRRs. But the automatic semantic
annotation is a significant challenge in the semantic web. Here
ontology and knowledge based representation are used to annotate
the web pages.
Abstract: Recently, to cope with the rapidly changing
construction trend with aging infrastructures, modular bridge
technology has been studied actively. Modular bridge is easily
constructed by assembling standardized precast structure members in
the field. It will be possible to construct rapidly and reduce
construction cost efficiently. However, the shape of the transverse
connection of T-type girder newly developed between the segmented
modules is not verified. Therefore, the verification of the connection
shape is needed. In this study, shape of the modular T-girder bridge
transverse connection was analyzed by finite element model that was
verified in study which was verified model of transverse connection
using Abaqus. Connection angle was chosen as the parameter. The
result of analyses showed that optimal value of angle is 130 degree.
Abstract: The study examines the influence of marital status on
consumers of products and services using blogs as a source of
information. A pre-designed questionnaire was used to collect the
primary data from the respondents (experiences). Data were collected
from one hundred and eighty seven respondents residing in and
around the Emirates of Sharjah and Dubai of the United Arab
Emirates. The collected data was analyzed with the help of statistical
tools such as averages, percentages, factor analysis, Student’s t-test
and Structural Equation Modelling Technique.
Objectives of the study are to know the reasons how married and
unmarried or single consumers of products and services are
motivated to use blogs as a source of information, to know whether
the consumers of products and services irrespective of their marital
status share their views and experiences with other bloggers and to
know the respondents’ future intentions towards blogging.
The study revealed the following: Majority of the respondents
have the motivation to blog because they are willing to receive
comments on what they post about services, convenience of blogs to
search for information about services and products, by blogging
respondents share information on the symptoms of a disease/ disorder
that may be experienced by someone, helps to share information
about ready to cook mix products and are keen to spend more time
blogging in the future.
Abstract: As Malaysia aims to be a developed country by year 2020; the construction industry has since been identified as a major catalyst for the country to attain the status. It is one of the sectors that contribute to most environmental pollutions. It is, therefore, important for the industry to implement sustainable construction practices to reduce the negative impacts that it has on the environment. However, most Malaysian developers have placed much focus on market demand and economic factors; neglecting the need for attention on environmental issues. The practice of sustainable construction is deemed to be an obstacle to achieve short-term economic goals due to the higher cost incurred in the operations. Hence, choices need to be made and a balance needs to be struck in weighing the long-term environmental benefits against immediate economic factors. This paper discusses the challenges faced by Malaysian developers in adopting sustainable practices in the construction industry and the cause of these challenges. It also looks into the achievements and breakthroughs that developers in Malaysia have achieved so far. The paper aims explores the long-term benefits of sustainable practices that would potentially raise awareness on the feasibility and economic potential of sustainable construction.
Abstract: Biometallic materials are the most important materials for use in biomedical applications especially in manufacturing a variety of biological artificial replacements in a modern worlds, e.g. hip, knee or shoulder joints, due to their advanced characteristics. Titanium (Ti) and its alloys are used extensively in biomedical applications based on their high specific strength and excellent corrosion resistance. Beta-Ti alloys containing completely biocompatible elements are exceptionally prospective materials for manufacturing of bioimplants. They have superior mechanical, chemical and electrochemical properties for use as biomaterials. These biomaterials have the ability to introduce the most important property of biochemical compatibility which is low elastic modulus. This review examines current information on the recent developments in alloying elements leading to improvements of beta Ti alloys for use as biomaterials. Moreover, this paper focuses mainly on the evolution, evaluation and development of the modulus of elasticity as an effective factor on the performance of beta alloys.
Abstract: This study aimed to analyse the application of
sufficiency economy in students’ ways of life on campus at Suan
Sunandha Rajabhat University. Data was gathered through 394
questionnaires. The study results found that the majority of students
were confident that “where there’s a will, there’s a way.” Overall, the
students applied the sufficiency economy at a great level, along with
being persons who do not exploit others, were satisfied with living
their lives moderately, according to the sufficiency economy.
Importance was also given to kindness and generosity. Importantly,
students were happy with living according to their individual
circumstances and status at the present. They saw the importance of
joint life planning, self-development, and self-dependence, always
learning to be satisfied with “adequate”. As for their practices and
ways of life, socially relational activities rated highly, especially
initiation activities for underclassmen at the university and the
seniority system, which are suitable for activities on campus.
Furthermore, the students knew how to build a career and find
supplemental income, knew how to earnestly work according to
convention to finish work, and preferred to study elective subjects
which directly benefit career-wise. The students’ application of
sufficiency economy philosophy principles depended on their lives in
their hometowns. The students from the provinces regularly applied
sufficiency economy philosophy to their lives, for example, by being
frugal, steadfast, determined, avoiding negligence, and making
economical spending plans; more so than the students from the
capital.
Abstract: The purposes of this research are to investigate Thai teens’ attitude toward prostitution on the internet, to discover the causes of teenage prostitution and to study the relationship between teenage promiscuity and the causes of teenage prostitution. This study is a mixed research which utilized both qualitative and quantitative approach. The population of this study included teenagers and early adults between 14-21 years old who were studying in high schools, colleges, or universities. A total of 600 respondents was sampled for interviews using a questionnaire, and 48 samples were chosen for an in-depth interview.
The findings revealed that the majority of respondents recognized that teenage prostitution on line was real. The reasons for choosing the internet to contact with customers included easy, convenient, safe, and anonymous. Moreover, the internet allowed teen prostitutes to contact customers anywhere and anytime. The correlation showed that promiscuity was related to the trend of teen prostitution. Other factors that contributed to increasing widespread teen prostitution online included their need for quick money to buy luxurious products and to support their extravagant behavior.
Abstract: Catalytic cracking of butene to propylene was carried out in a continuous-flow fixed-bed reactor over HZSM-5 catalysts modified by nickel and phosphorus. The structure and acidity of catalysts were measured by N2 adsorption, NH3-TPD and XPS. The results revealed that surface area and strong acid sites both decreased with increasing phosphorus loadings. The increment of phosphorus loadings reduced the butene conversion but enhanced the propylene selectivity and catalyst stability.