Abstract: The recommended limit for cadmium concentration in
potable water is less than 0.005 mg/L. A continuous biosorption
process using indigenous red seaweed, Gracilaria corticata, was
performed to remove cadmium from the potable water. The process
was conducted under fixed conditions and the breakthrough curves
were achieved for three consecutive sorption-desorption cycles. A
modeling based on Artificial Neural Network (ANN) was employed
to fit the experimental breakthrough data. In addition, a simplified
semi empirical model, Thomas, was employed for this purpose. It
was found that ANN well described the experimental data (R2>0.99)
while the Thomas prediction were a bit less successful with R2>0.97.
The adjusted design parameters using the nonlinear form of Thomas
model was in a good agreement with the experimentally obtained
ones. The results approve the capability of ANN to predict the
cadmium concentration in potable water.
Abstract: Background: Taiwan now is an aging society. Research
on the elderly should not be confined to caring for seniors, but should
also be focused on ways to improve health and the quality of life.
Senior citizens who participate in volunteer services could become
less lonely, have new growth opportunities, and regain a sense of
accomplishment. Thus, the question of how to get the elderly to
participate in volunteer service is worth exploring. Objective: Apply
the Transtheoretical Model to understand stages of change in regular
volunteer service and voluntary service behaviour among the seniors.
Methods: 1525 adults over the age of 65 from the Renai district of
Keelung City were interviewed. The research tool was a
self-constructed questionnaire, and individual interviews were
conducted to collect data. Then the data was processed and analyzed
using the IBM SPSS Statistics 20 (Windows version) statistical
software program. Results: In the past six months, research subjects
averaged 9.92 days of volunteer services. A majority of these elderly
individuals had no intention to change their regular volunteer services.
We discovered that during the maintenance stage, the self-efficacy for
volunteer services was higher than during all other stages, but
self-perceived barriers were less during the preparation stage and
action stage. Self-perceived benefits were found to have an important
predictive power for those with regular volunteer service behaviors in
the previous stage, and self-efficacy was found to have an important
predictive power for those with regular volunteer service behaviors in
later stages. Conclusions/Implications for Practice: The research
results support the conclusion that community nursing staff should
group elders based on their regular volunteer services change stages
and design appropriate behavioral change strategies.
Abstract: The objective of the present study is to determine
better eye end design of a mono leaf spring used in light motor
vehicle. A conventional 65Si7 spring steel leaf spring model with
standard eye, casted and riveted eye end are considered. The CAD
model of the leaf springs is prepared in CATIA and analyzed using
ANSYS. The standard eye, casted and riveted eye leaf springs are
subjected to similar loading conditions. The CAE analysis of the leaf
spring is performed for various parameters like deflection and Von-
Mises stress. Mass reduction of 62.9% is achieved in case of riveted
eye mono leaf spring as compared to standard eye mono leaf spring
for the same loading conditions.
Abstract: This paper provides a comparative study on the
performances of standard PID and adaptive PID controllers tested on
travel angle of a 3-Degree-of-Freedom (3-DOF) Quanser bench-top
helicopter. Quanser, a well-known manufacturer of educational
bench-top helicopter has developed Proportional Integration
Derivative (PID) controller with Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR)
for all travel, pitch and yaw angle of the bench-top helicopter. The
performance of the PID controller is relatively good; however, its
performance could also be improved if the controller is combined
with adaptive element. The objective of this research is to design
adaptive PID controller and then compare the performances of the
adaptive PID with the standard PID. The controller design and test is
focused on travel angle control only. Adaptive method used in this
project is self-tuning controller, which controller’s parameters are
updated online. Two adaptive algorithms those are pole-placement
and deadbeat have been chosen as the method to achieve optimal
controller’s parameters. Performance comparisons have shown that
the adaptive (deadbeat) PID controller has produced more desirable
performance compared to standard PID and adaptive (poleplacement).
The adaptive (deadbeat) PID controller attained very fast
settling time (5 seconds) and very small percentage of overshoot (5%
to 7.5%) for 10° to 30° step change of travel angle.
Abstract: Science and technology has a major impact on many
societal domains such as communication, medicine, food,
transportation, etc. However, this dominance of modern technology
can have a negative unintended impact on indigenous systems, and in
particular on indigenous foods. This problem serves as a motivation
to this study whose aim is to examine the perceptions of learners on
the usefulness of Information and Communication Technologies
(ICTs) for learning about indigenous foods. This aim will be
subdivided into two types of research objectives. The design and
identification of theories and models will be achieved using literature
content analysis. The objective on the empirical testing of such
theories and models will be achieved through the survey of
Hospitality studies learners from different schools in the iLembe and
Umgungundlovu Districts of the South African Kwazulu-Natal
province. SPSS is used to quantitatively analyze the data collected by
the questionnaire of this survey using descriptive statistics and
Pearson correlations after the assessment of the validity and the
reliability of the data. The main hypothesis behind this study is that
there is a connection between the demographics of learners, their
perceptions on the usefulness of ICTs for learning about indigenous
foods, and the following personality and eLearning related theories
constructs: Computer self-efficacy, Trust in ICT systems, and
Conscientiousness; as suggested by existing studies on learning
theories. This hypothesis was fully confirmed by the survey
conducted by this study except for the demographic factors where
gender and age were not found to be determinant factors of learners’
perceptions on the usefulness of ICTs for learning about indigenous
foods.
Abstract: Cross flow water tube heat exchanger can be designed
and made operational using methods of model building and
simulation of the system. This paper projects the design and
development of a model of cross flow water tube heat-exchanger
system, simulation and validation of control analysis of different
tuning methods. Feedback and override control system is developed
using inputs acquired with the help of sensory system. A
mathematical model is formulated for analysis of system behaviour.
The temperature is regulated at the desired set point automatically.
Abstract: Systems Engineering plays a key role during industrial
product development of complex technical systems. The need for
systems engineers in industry is growing. But there is a gap between
the industrial need and the academic education. Normally the
academic education is focused on the domain specific design,
implementation and testing of technical systems. Necessary systems
engineering expertise like knowledge about requirements analysis,
product cost estimation, management or social skills are poorly
taught. Thus there is the need of new academic concepts for teaching
systems engineering skills. This paper presents a project-orientated
training concept to prepare students from different technical degree
programs for systems engineering activities. The training concept has
been initially implemented and applied in the industrial engineering
master program of the University of Applied Sciences Offenburg.
Abstract: The problematic of gender and socioeconomic status
biased differences in academic motivation patterns is discussed.
Gender identity is understood according to symbolic interactionism
perspective: as a result of reflected appraisals, social comparisons,
self-attributions, and identifications, shaped by social environment
and family context. The effects of socioeconomic status on academic
motivation are conceptualized according to Bourdieu’s habitus
concept, reflecting the role of unconscious and internalized cultural
signals, proper to low and high socioeconomic status family contexts.
Since families differ by various socioeconomic features, the
hypothesis about possible impact of parents’ socioeconomic status on
their children’s academic motivation interfering with gender
socialization effects is held. The survey, aiming to seize gender
differences in academic motivation and self-recorded improvementoriented
efforts as a result of socialization processes operating in the
families of low and high socioeconomic status, was designed. The
results of Lithuanian higher education students’ survey are presented
and discussed.
Abstract: TiO2 thin films have been prepared by the sol-gel dipcoating
technique in order to elaborate antireflective thin films for
monocrystalline silicon (mono-Si). The titanium isopropoxyde was
chosen as a precursor with hydrochloric acid as a catalyser for
preparing a stable solution. The optical properties have been tailored
with varying the solution concentration, the withdrawn speed, and the
heat-treatment. We showed that using a TiO2 single layer with 64.5
nm in thickness, heat-treated at 450°C or 300°C reduces the mono-Si
reflection at a level lower than 3% over the broadband spectral
domains [669-834] nm and [786-1006] nm respectively. Those latter
performances are similar to the ones obtained with double layers of
low and high refractive index glasses respectively.
Abstract: In this paper a new design of a broadband microwave
power limiter is presented and validated into simulation by using
ADS software (Advanced Design System) from Agilent technologies.
The final circuit is built on microstrip lines by using identical Zero
Bias Schottky diodes. The power limiter is designed by Associating 3
stages Schottky diodes. The obtained simulation results permit to
validate this circuit with a threshold input power level of 0 dBm until
a maximum input power of 30 dBm.
Abstract: The globalization of markets, the need to develop
competitive advantages and core competencies, among other things,
lead organizations to increasingly cross borders to operate in other
countries. The expatriation of professionals who go to work in
another country besides their own becomes increasingly common. In
order to generate data about this issue, research was conducted
concerning the perception of expatriate employees concerning
expatriation success. The research method used was case study
through a qualitative approach. This research was done through
interviews with five India expatriates and five China expatriates,
interview with expatriate department heads and analysis of company
documents. It was found that there are differences between the
organizational perception and perception of expatriates of what
constitutes mission success. The paper also provides suggestions for
further research and suggestions for future expatriates.
Abstract: In recent years, the compression of date (Phoenix
dactylifera L.) fruit powders (DP) to obtain date tablets (DT) has
been suggested as a promising form of valorization of non
commercial valuable date fruit (DF) varieties. To further improve
and characterize DT, the present study aims to investigate the
influence of the DP particle size and compression force on some
physical properties of DT. The results show that independently of
particle size, the hardness (y) of tablets increases with the increase of
the compression force (x) following a logarithmic law (y = a ln (bx)
where a and b are the constants of model). Further, a full factorial
design (FFD) at two levels, applied to investigate the erosion %,
reveals that the effects of time and particle size are the same in
absolute value and they are beyond the effect of the compression.
Regarding the disintegration time, the obtained results also by means
of a FFD show that the effect of the compression force exceeds 4
times that of the DP particle size. As final stage, the color parameters
in the CIELab system of DT immediately after their obtaining are
differently influenced by the size of the initial powder.
Abstract: Taking the design tolerance into account, this paper
presents a novel efficient approach to generate iso-scallop tool path for
five-axis strip machining with a barrel cutter. The cutter location is
first determined on the scallop surface instead of the design surface,
and then the cutter is adjusted to locate the optimal tool position based
on the differential rotation of the tool axis and satisfies the design
tolerance simultaneously. The machining strip width and error are
calculated with the aid of the grazing curve of the cutter. Based on the
proposed tool positioning algorithm, the tool paths are generated by
keeping the scallop height formed by adjacent tool paths constant. An
example is conducted to confirm the validity of the proposed method.
Abstract: In this study, we are interested in a species of the
family of Asteraceae (Tagetes erecta). This family is considered as a
source of antimicrobial extracts with strong capacity. The extraction
of the flavonoids is carried out by the method of liquid/liquid with the
use of successive solvents. Afterwards, we evaluated the biological
activity of the flavonoids on five pathogenic bacterial stocks such as
Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Klebsiella pneumoniae,
Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus and two stocks
of yeasts to knowing Candida albicans) and Saccharomyces
cerevisiae, by employing the method of the aromatogramme starting
from a solid disc. The result of the antimicrobial activity shows an
action and a variable degree of sensitivity according to bacterial
stocks tested. It will be noted that the flavonoids have an inhibiting
effect on E. coli, B. subtilis, K. pneumoniae and S. aureus. But a
resistance with respect to the extract by P. aeruginosa, C. albicans
and S. cerevisiae is to be mentioned.
Abstract: A field experiment was carried out at Arab El-
Awammer Research Station, Agric. Res. Center. Assiut Governorate
during summer seasons of 2013 and 2014. The present study assessed
the effect of cowpea with maize intercropping on yield and its
components. The experiment comprised of three treatments (sole
cowpea, sole maize and cowpea-maize intercrop). The experimental
design was a randomized complete block with four replications.
Results indicated that intercropped maize plants with cowpea,
exhibited greater potentiality and resulted in higher values of most of
the studied criteria viz., plant height, number of ears/plant, number of
rows/ear, number of grains/row, grains weight/ear, 100–grain weight
and straw and grain yields. Fresh and dry forage yields of cowpea
were lower in intercropping with maize than sole. Furthermore, the
combined of the two seasons revealed that the total Land Equivalent
Ratio (LER) between cowpea and maize was 1.65. The Aggressivity
(A) maize was 0.45 and cowpea was -0.45. This showed that maize
was the dominant crop, whereas cowpea was the dominated. The
Competitive Ratio (CR) indicated that maize more competitive than
cowpea, maize was 1.75 and cowpea was 0.57. The Actual Yield
Loss (AYL) maize was 0.05 and cowpea was -0.40. The Monetary
Advantage Index (MAI) was 2360.80.
Abstract: E-learning has become an efficient and widespread
means of education at all levels of human activities. Statistics is no
exception. Unfortunately the main focus in statistics teaching is
usually paid to the substitution in formulas. Suitable websites can
simplify and automate calculations and provide more attention and
time to the basic principles of statistics, mathematization of real-life
situations and following interpretation of results. We now introduce
our own web-site for hypothesis testing. Its didactic aspects, the
technical possibilities of the individual tools, the experience of use
and the advantages or disadvantages are discussed in this paper. This
web-site is not a substitute for common statistical software but should
significantly improve the teaching of statistics at universities.
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: Real time image and video processing is a demand in
many computer vision applications, e.g. video surveillance, traffic
management and medical imaging. The processing of those video
applications requires high computational power. Thus, the optimal
solution is the collaboration of CPU and hardware accelerators. In
this paper, a Canny edge detection hardware accelerator is proposed.
Edge detection is one of the basic building blocks of video and image
processing applications. It is a common block in the pre-processing
phase of image and video processing pipeline. Our presented
approach targets offloading the Canny edge detection algorithm from
processing system (PS) to programmable logic (PL) taking the
advantage of High Level Synthesis (HLS) tool flow to accelerate the
implementation on Zynq platform. The resulting implementation
enables up to a 100x performance improvement through hardware
acceleration. The CPU utilization drops down and the frame rate
jumps to 60 fps of 1080p full HD input video stream.
Abstract: The tomato is a very important crop, whose
cultivation in the Mediterranean basin is severely affected by the
phytoparasitic weed Phelipanche ramosa. The semiarid regions of
the world are considered the main areas where this parasitic weed is
established causing heavy infestation as it is able to produce high
numbers of seeds (up to 500,000 per plant), which remain viable for
extended period (more than 20 years). In this paper the results
obtained from eleven treatments in order to control this parasitic
weed including chemical, agronomic, biological and biotechnological
methods compared with the untreated test under two plowing depths
(30 and 50 cm) are reported. The split-plot design with 3 replicates
was adopted. In 2014 a trial was performed in Foggia province
(southern Italy) on processing tomato (cv Docet) grown in the field
infested by Phelipanche ramosa. Tomato seedlings were transplant
on May 5, on a clay-loam soil. During the growing cycle of the
tomato crop, at 56-78 and 92 days after transplantation, the number
of parasitic shoots emerged in each plot was detected. At tomato
harvesting, on August 18, the major quantity-quality yield parameters
were determined (marketable yield, mean weight, dry matter, pH,
soluble solids and color of fruits). All data were subjected to analysis
of variance (ANOVA) and the means were compared by Tukey's test.
Each treatment studied did not provide complete control against
Phelipanche ramosa. However, among the different methods tested,
some of them which Fusarium, gliphosate, radicon biostimulant and
Red Setter tomato cv (improved genotypes obtained by Tilling
technology) under deeper plowing (50 cm depth) proved to mitigate
the virulence of the Phelipanche ramose attacks. It is assumed that
these effects can be improved combining some of these treatments
each other, especially for a gradual and continuing reduction of the
“seed bank” of the parasite in the soil.
Abstract: This paper investigates the viability of using carbon
fiber reinforced epoxy composites modified with carbon nanotubes to
strengthening reinforced concrete (RC) columns. Six RC columns
was designed and constructed according to ASCE standards. The
columns were wrapped using carbon fiber sheets impregnated with
either neat epoxy or CNTs modified epoxy. These columns were then
tested under concentric axial loading. Test results show that;
compared to the unwrapped specimens; wrapping concrete columns
with carbon fiber sheet embedded in CNTs modified epoxy resulted
in an increase in its axial load resistance, maximum displacement,
and toughness values by 24%, 109% and 232%, respectively. These
results reveal that adding CNTs into epoxy resin enhanced the
confinement effect, specifically, increased the axial load resistance,
maximum displacement, and toughness values by 11%, 6%, and
19%, respectively compared with columns strengthening with carbon
fiber sheet embedded in neat epoxy.