Abstract: Annihilations, phase shifts, scattering lengths and
elastic cross sections of low energy positrons scattering from
magnesium atoms were studied using the least-squares variational
method (LSVM). The possibility of positron binding to the
magnesium atoms is investigated. A trial wave function is suggested
to represent e+-Mg elastic scattering and scattering parameters were
derived to estimate the binding energy and annihilation rates. The
trial function is taken to depend on several adjustable parameters, and
is improved iteratively by increasing the number of terms. The
present results have the same behavior as reported semi-empirical,
theoretical and experimental results. Especially, the estimated
positive scattering length supports the possibility of positronmagnesium
bound state system that was confirmed in previous
experimental and theoretical work.
Abstract: Software testing has become a mandatory process in
assuring the software product quality. Hence, test management is
needed in order to manage the test activities conducted in the
software test life cycle. This paper discusses on the challenges faced
in the software test life cycle, and how the test processes and test
activities, mainly on test cases creation, test execution, and test
reporting is being managed and automated using several test
automation tools, i.e. Jira, Robot Framework, and Jenkins.
Abstract: The last two decades witnessed a movement towards
harmonization of international financial reporting standards (IFRS)
throughout the global economy. This investigation seeks to identify
the factors that could explain the adoption of IFRS by poor
jurisdictions. While there has been a considerable amount of
literature published on the effects and key drivers of IFRS adoption
in both developed and developing countries, little attention has been
paid to jurisdictions with less developed capital markets and low
income levels exclusively. Drawing upon the Institutional Isomorphism theory and analyzing
a sample of 45 poor jurisdictions between 2008 and 2013, the study
empirically shows that poor jurisdictions are driven by legitimacy
concerns rather than by economic reasoning to adopt an international
accounting perspective. This in turn has implications for the IASB, as
it should seek to influence institutional pressures within a particular
jurisdiction in order to promote IFRS adoption.
Abstract: Government reports and published research have
flagged and brought to public attention the deteriorating condition of
a large percentage of bridges in Canada and the United States. With
the increasing number of deteriorated bridges in the US, Canada, and
around the globe, condition assessment techniques of concrete
bridges are evolving. Investigation for bridges’ defects such as
cracks, spalls, and delamination and their level of severity are the
main objectives of condition assessment. Inspection and
rehabilitation programs are being implemented to monitor and
maintain deteriorated bridge infrastructure. This paper highlights the
state-of-the art of current practices being performed for concrete
bridge inspection. The information is gathered from the literature and
through a distributed questionnaire. The current practices in concrete
bridge inspection rely on the use of hummer sounding and chain
dragging tests. Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) techniques are not
being utilized fully in the process. Nonetheless, they are being
partially utilized by the recommendation of the bridge inspector after
conducting visual inspection. Lanes are usually closed during the
performance of visual inspection and bridge inspection in general.
Abstract: This study aims to assess the students' needs for the
tour planning e-guide. The study is developing on the contribution
and importance of the Educational Tour Planning Guide (ETP) is a
multimedia course ware as one of the effective methods in teaching
and learning of environmental science among the students in primary
schools of the Ministry of Education, Malaysia. It is to provide the
student with knowledge and experience about tourism, environmental
science activities and process. E-guide to ETP also hopes to
strengthen the student understanding toward the subject learn in the
tourism environmental science. In order to assess the student's needs
on the e-Guide to Educational Tour Planning in Environmental
Science, the study has produced a similar e-Guide to ETP in the form
as a course ware to be tested during the study. The study has involved
several steps in order to be completed. It is such as the formulation of
the problem, the review of the literature, the formulation of the study
methodology, the production of the e-Guide to ETP, field survey and
finally the analyses and discussion made on the data gathered during
the study. The survey has involved 100 respondents among the
students in standard six primary schools in Kluang Johor. Through
the findings, the study indicates that the current tested product is
acceptable among the students in learning environmental science as a
guide to plan for the tour. The findings also show a slight difference
between the respondents who are using the e-Guide to ETP, and those
who are not on the basis of the e-Guide to ETP results. Due the
important for the study, the researcher hopes to be having a fair
discussion and excellence, recommendation for the development of
the product of the current study. This report is written also important
to provide a written reference for the future related study.
Abstract: Polylactic acid (PLA) is the most commercially
available bio-based and biodegradable plastic at present. PLA has
been used in plastic related industries including single-used
containers, disposable and environmentally friendly packaging owing
to its renewability, compostability, biodegradability, and safety.
Although PLA demonstrates reasonably good optical, physical,
mechanical and barrier properties comparable to the existing
petroleum-based plastics, its brittleness and mold shrinkage as well as
its price are the points to be concerned for the production of rigid and
semi-rigid packaging. Blending PLA with other bio-based polymers
including thermoplastic starch (TPS) is an alternative not only to
achieve a complete bio-based plastic, but also to reduce the
brittleness, shrinkage during molding and production cost of the
PLA-based products. TPS is a material produced mainly from starch
which is cheap, renewable, biodegradable, compostable, and nontoxic.
It is commonly prepared by a plasticization of starch under
applying heat and shear force. Although glycerol has been reported as
one of the most plasticizers used for preparing TPS, its migration
caused the surface stickiness of the TPS products. In some cases,
mixed plasticizers or natural fibers have been applied to impede the
retrogradation of starch or reduce the migration of glycerol. The
introduction of fibers into TPS-based materials could reinforce the
polymer matrix as well. Therefore, the objective of the present
research is to study the effect of starch type (i.e. native starch and
phosphate starch), plasticizer type (i.e. glycerol and xylitol with a
weight ratio of glycerol to xylitol of 100:0, 75:25, 50:50, 25:75 and
0:100) and fiber content (i.e. in the range of 1-25 %wt) on properties
of PLA/TPS blend and composite. PLA/TPS blends and composites
were prepared using a twin-screw extruder and then converted into
dumbbell-shaped specimens using an injection molding machine. The
PLA/TPS blends prepared by using phosphate starch showed higher
tensile strength and stiffness than the blends prepared by using native
one. In contrast, the blends from native starch exhibited higher
extensibility and heat distortion temperature (HDT) than those from
the modified starch. Increasing xylitol content resulted in enhanced
tensile strength, stiffness and water resistance, but decreased
extensibility and HDT of the PLA/TPS blend. Tensile properties and
hydrophobicity of the blend could be improved by incorporating
silane treated-jute fibers.
Abstract: In the context of the handwriting recognition, we
propose an off line system for the recognition of the Arabic
handwritten words of the Algerian departments. The study is based
mainly on the evaluation of neural network performances, trained
with the gradient back propagation algorithm. The used parameters to
form the input vector of the neural network are extracted on the
binary images of the handwritten word by several methods. The
Distribution parameters, the centered moments of the different
projections of the different segments, the centered moments of the
word image coding according to the directions of Freeman, and the
Barr features applied binary image of the word and on its different
segments. The classification is achieved by a multi layers perceptron.
A detailed experiment is carried and satisfactory recognition results
are reported.
Abstract: In recent years, the power system has been changed
and a flexible power pricing system such as demand response has been
sought in Japan. The demand response system works simply in the
household sector and the owner as the decision-maker, can benefit
from power saving. On the other hand, the execution of demand
response in the office building is more complex than in the household
because various people such as owners, building administrators and
occupants are involved in the decision-making process. While the
owners benefit from demand saving, the occupants are exposed to
restricted benefits of a demand-saved environment. One of the reasons
is that building systems are usually under centralized management and
each occupant cannot choose freely whether to participate in demand
response or not. In addition, it is unclear whether incentives give
occupants the motivation to participate. However, the recent
development of IT and building systems enables the personalized
control of the office environment where each occupant can control the
lighting level or temperature individually. Therefore, it can be possible
to have a system which each occupant can make a decision of whether
or not to participate in demand response in the office building. This study investigates personal responses to demand response
requests, under the condition where each occupant can adjust their
brightness individually in their workspace. Once workers participate
in the demand response, their desk-lights are automatically turned off.
The participation rates in the demand response events are compared
among four groups, which are divided by different motivation, the
presence, or absence of incentives and the method of participation. The
result shows that there are significant differences of participation rates
in demand response event between four groups. The method of
participation has a large effect on the participation rate. The “Opt-out”
groups where the occupants are automatically enrolled in a demand
response event if they do not express non-participation have the
highest participation rate in the four groups. Incentives also have an
effect on the participation rate. This study also reports on the impact of low illumination office
environment on the occupants, such as stress or fatigue. The
electrocardiogram and the questionnaire are used to investigate the
autonomic nervous activity and subjective fatigue symptoms of the
occupants. There is no big difference between dim workspace during
demand response event and bright workspace in autonomic nervous
activity and fatigue.
Abstract: Myocardial infarction is one of the leading causes of
death in the world. Some of these deaths occur even before the
patient reaches the hospital. Myocardial infarction occurs as a result
of impaired blood supply. Because the most of these deaths are due to
coronary artery disease, hence the awareness of the warning signs of
a heart attack is essential. Some heart attacks are sudden and intense,
but most of them start slowly, with mild pain or discomfort, then
early detection and successful treatment of these symptoms is vital to
save them. Therefore, importance and usefulness of a system
designing to assist physicians in early diagnosis of the acute heart
attacks is obvious. The main purpose of this study would be to enable patients to
become better informed about their condition and to encourage them
to seek professional care at an earlier stage in the appropriate
situations. For this purpose, the data were collected on 711 heart
patients in Iran hospitals. 28 attributes of clinical factors can be
reported by patients; were studied. Three logistic regression models
were made on the basis of the 28 features to predict the risk of heart
attacks. The best logistic regression model in terms of performance
had a C-index of 0.955 and with an accuracy of 94.9%. The variables,
severe chest pain, back pain, cold sweats, shortness of breath, nausea
and vomiting, were selected as the main features.
Abstract: Dead wood and habitat tree such as fallen logs, snags,
stumps and cracks and loos bark etc. are regarded as an important
ecological component of forests on which many forest dwelling
species depend on presence of them within forest ecosystems.
Meanwhile its relation to management history in Caspian forest has
gone unreported. The aim of research was to compare the amounts of
dead wood and habitat trees in the forests with historically different
intensities of management, including: forests with the long term
implication of management (PS), the short term implication of
management (NS) which were compared with semi virgin forest
(GS). The number of 405 individual dead and habitat trees were
recorded and measured at 109 sampling locations. ANOVA revealed
volume of dead tree in the form and decay classes significantly differ
within sites and dead volume in the semi virgin forest significantly
higher than managed sites. Comparing the amount of dead and
habitat tree in three sites showed that, dead tree volume related with
management history and significantly differ in three study sites.
Meanwhile, frequency of habitat trees was significantly different
within sites. The highest amount of habitat trees including cavities,
cracks and loose bark and fork split trees was recorded in virgin site
and lowest recorded in the sites with the long term implication of
management. It can be concluded that forest management cause
reduction of the amount of dead and habitat tree specially in a large
size, thus managing this forest according to ecological sustainable
principles require a commitment to maintaining stand structure that
allow, continued generation of dead trees in a full range of size.
Abstract: Red pepper (Capsicum annum L.) has long been
recognized as a good source of antioxidants, being rich in ascorbic
acid and other phytochemicals. In Turkish cuisine red pepper is
sometimes consumed raw in salads and baked as a garnish, but its
most wide consumption type is red pepper paste. The processing of
red pepper into pepper paste includes various thermal treatment steps
such as heating and pasteurizing. There are reports demonstrating an
enhancement or reduction in antioxidant activity of vegetables after
thermal treatment. So this study was conducted to investigate the
total phenolic, ascorbic acid and total carotenoids as well as free
radical scavenging activity of raw red pepper and various red pepper
pastes obtainable on the market. The samples were analyzed for
radical-scavenging activity (RSA) and total polyphenol (TP) content
using 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and Folin-Ciocalteu
methods, respectively. Total carotenoids and ascorbic acid contents
were determined spectrophotometrically. Results suggest that hot
pepper paste contained significantly (P0.05) difference in RSA, ascorbic acid and total carotenoids
content between sweet and hot red pepper paste products. It is
concluded that the red pepper paste, that has a wide range of
consumption in Turkish cuisine, presents a good dose of phenolic
compounds and antioxidant capacity and it should be regarded as a
functional food.
Abstract: The work reported through this paper is an
experimental work conducted on High Performance Concrete (HPC)
with super plasticizer with the aim to develop some models suitable
for prediction of compressive strength of HPC mixes. In this study,
the effect of varying proportions of fly ash (0% to 50% @ 10%
increment) on compressive strength of high performance concrete has
been evaluated. The mix designs studied were M30, M40 and M50 to
compare the effect of fly ash addition on the properties of these
concrete mixes. In all eighteen concrete mixes that have been
designed, three were conventional concretes for three grades under
discussion and fifteen were HPC with fly ash with varying
percentages of fly ash. The concrete mix designing has been done in
accordance with Indian standard recommended guidelines. All the
concrete mixes have been studied in terms of compressive strength at
7 days, 28 days, 90 days, and 365 days. All the materials used have
been kept same throughout the study to get a perfect comparison of
values of results. The models for compressive strength prediction
have been developed using Linear Regression method (LR), Artificial
Neural Network (ANN) and Leave-One-Out Validation (LOOV)
methods.
Abstract: This paper reports the viability of developing Zn-27Al
alloy matrix hybrid composites reinforced with alumina, graphite and
fly ash (solid waste bye product of coal in thermal power plants).
This research work was aimed at developing low cost-high
performance Zn-27Al matrix composite with low density. Alumina
particulates (Al2O3), graphite added with 0, 2, 3, 4 and 5 wt% fly ash
were utilized to prepare 10wt% reinforcing phase with Zn-27Al alloy
as matrix using two-step stir casting method. Density measurement,
estimated percentage porosity, tensile testing, micro hardness
measurement and optical microscopy were used to assess the
performance of the composites produced. The results show that the
hardness, ultimate tensile strength, and percent elongation of the
hybrid composites decrease with increase in fly ash content. The
maximum decrease in hardness and ultimate tensile strength of
13.72% and 15.25% respectively were observed for composite grade
containing 5wt% fly ash. The percentage elongation of composite
sample without fly ash is 8.9% which is comparable with that of the
sample containing 2wt% fly ash with percentage elongation of 8.8%.
The fracture toughness of the fly ash containing composites was
however superior to those of composites without fly ash with 5wt%
fly ash containing composite exhibiting the highest fracture
toughness. The results show that fly ash can be utilized as
complementary reinforcement in ZA-27 alloy matrix composite to
reduce cost.
Abstract: The consumption of food contaminated with molds
(microscopic filamentous fungi) and their toxic metabolites results in
the development of food-borne mycotoxicosis. The spores of molds
are ubiquitously spread in the environment and can be detected
everywhere. Ochratoxin A is a toxic and potentially carcinogenic
fungal toxin found in a variety of food commodities. In this study, the
mycological quality of various ready-to-eat local and imported pork
meat and meat byproducts sold in Egyptian markets were assessed
and the presence of various molds was determined in pork used as a
raw material, edible organs as liver and kidney as well as in
fermented raw meat by-products. The study assessed the mycological
quality of pork raw meat and their by-products sold in commercial
shops in Cairo, Egypt. Mycological analysis was conducted on
(n=110) samples which included pig’s livers and kidneys from
Egyptian Bassatin slaughter house; local and imported processed
pork meat by-products from Egyptian pork markets. The isolates
were identified using traditional mycological and biochemical tests.
All kidney and liver samples were positive to molds growth while all
byproducts were negative. Ochratoxin A levels were quantitatively
analyzed using the high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)
and the highest results were present in kidney 7.51 part per billion
(ppb) followed by minced meat 6.19 ppb generally the local samples
showed higher levels than the imported ones. To the best of our
knowledge, this is the first report on mycotoxins detection and
quantification from pork by-products in Egypt.
Abstract: This paper reports on the response of a fiber-optic
sensing probe to small concentrations of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)
vapor at room temperature. H2O2 has extensive applications in industrial and medical
environments. Conversely, H2O2 can be a health hazard by itself. For
example, H2O2 induces cellular damage in human cells and its
presence can be used to diagnose illnesses such as asthma and human
breast cancer. Hence, development of reliable H2O2 sensor is of vital
importance to detect and measure this species. Ferric ferrocyanide, referred to as Prussian Blue (PB), was
deposited on the tip of a multimode optical fiber through the single
source precursor technique and served as an indicator of H2O2 in a
spectroscopic manner. Sensing tests were performed in H2O2-H2O
vapor mixtures with different concentrations of H2O2. The results of sensing tests show the sensor is able to detect H2O2
concentrations in the range of 50.6 ppm to 229.5 ppm. Furthermore,
the sensor response to H2O2 concentrations is linear in a log-log scale
with the adjacent R-square of 0.93. This sensing behavior allows us
to detect and quantify the concentration of H2O2 in the vapor phase.
Abstract: Academic libraries in Malaysia are still not prepared
for disaster even though several occasions have been reported. The
study sets out to assess the current status of preparedness in disaster
management among Malaysian academic libraries in the State of
Selangor and the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur. To obtain a
base level of knowledge on disaster preparedness of current practices,
a questionnaire was distributed to chief librarians or their assignees in
charge of disaster or emergency preparedness at 40 academic
libraries and 34 responses were received. The study revolved around
the current status of preparedness, on various issues including
existence of disaster preparedness plan among academic libraries in
Malaysia, disaster experiences by the academic libraries, funding,
risk assessment activities and involvement of library staff in disaster
management. Frequency and percentage tables were used in the
analysis of the data collected. Some of the academic libraries under
study have experienced one form of disaster or the other. Most of the
academic libraries do not have a written disaster preparedness plan.
The risk assessments and staff involvement in disaster preparedness
by these libraries were generally adequate.
Abstract: The Gezi Park protests of 2013 have significantly changed the Turkish agenda and its effects have been felt historically. The protests, which rapidly spread throughout the country, were triggered by the proposal to recreate the Ottoman Army Barracks to function as a shopping mall on Gezi Park located in Istanbul’s Taksim neighbourhood despite the oppositions of several NGOs and when trees were cut in the park for this purpose. Once the news that the construction vehicles entered the park on May 27 spread on social media, activists moved into the park to stop the demolition, against whom the police used disproportioned force. With this police intervention and the then prime-minister Tayyip Erdoğan's insistent statements about the construction plans, the protests turned into anti- government demonstrations, which then spread to the rest of the country, mainly in big cities like Ankara and Izmir. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ June 23rd reports, 2.5 million people joined the demonstrations in 79 provinces, that is all of them, except for the provinces of Bayburt and Bingöl, while even more people shared their opinions via social networks. As a result of these events, 8 civilians and 2 security personnel lost their lives, namely police chief Mustafa Sarı, police officer Ahmet Küçükdağ, citizens Mehmet Ayvalıtaş, Abdullah Cömert, Ethem Sarısülük, Ali İsmail Korkmaz, Ahmet Atakan, Berkin Elvan, Burak Can Karamanoğlu, Mehmet İstif, and Elif Çermik, and 8163 more were injured. Besides being a turning point in Turkish history, the Gezi Park protests also had broad repercussions in both in Turkish and in global media, which focused on Turkey throughout the events. Our study conducts content analysis of three Turkish reporting newspapers with varying ideological standpoints, Hürriyet, Cumhuriyet ve Yeni Şafak, in order to reveal their basic approach to news casting in context of the Gezi Park protests. Headlines, news segments, and news content relating to the Gezi protests were treated and analysed for this purpose. The aim of this study is to understand the social effects of the Gezi Park protests through media samples with varying political attitudes towards news casting.
Abstract: The practical efficient approach is suggested to estimate the high-speed objects instant bounds in C-OTDR monitoring systems. In case of super-dynamic objects (trains, cars) is difficult to obtain the adequate estimate of the instantaneous object localization because of estimation lag. In other words, reliable estimation coordinates of monitored object requires taking some time for data observation collection by means of C-OTDR system, and only if the required sample volume will be collected the final decision could be issued. But it is contrary to requirements of many real applications. For example, in rail traffic management systems we need to get data of the dynamic objects localization in real time. The way to solve this problem is to use the set of statistical independent parameters of C-OTDR signals for obtaining the most reliable solution in real time. The parameters of this type we can call as «signaling parameters» (SP). There are several the SP’s which carry information about dynamic objects instant localization for each of COTDR channels. The problem is that some of these parameters are very sensitive to dynamics of seismoacoustic emission sources, but are non-stable. On the other hand, in case the SP is very stable it becomes insensitive as rule. This report contains describing of the method for SP’s co-processing which is designed to get the most effective dynamic objects localization estimates in the C-OTDR monitoring system framework.
Abstract: In this paper, we present a quantum statistical
mechanical formulation from our recently analytical expressions for
partial-wave transition matrix of a three-particle system. We report
the quantum reactive cross sections for three-body scattering
processes 1+(2,3)→1+(2,3) as well as recombination
1+(2,3)→1+(3,1) between one atom and a weakly-bound dimer. The
analytical expressions of three-particle transition matrices and their
corresponding cross-sections were obtained from the threedimensional
Faddeev equations subjected to the rank-two non-local
separable potentials of the generalized Yamaguchi form. The
equilibrium quantum statistical mechanical properties such partition
function and equation of state as well as non-equilibrium quantum
statistical properties such as transport cross-sections and their
corresponding transport collision integrals were formulated
analytically. This leads to obtain the transport properties, such as
viscosity and diffusion coefficient of a moderate dense gas.
Abstract: We report the design and characterization of ultra high
quality factor filter based on one-dimensional photonic-crystal Thue-
Morse sequence structure. The behavior of aperiodic array of
photonic crystal structure is numerically investigated and we show
that by changing the angle of incident wave, desired wavelengths
could be tuned and a tunable filter is realized. Also it is shown that
high quality factor filter be achieved in the telecommunication
window around 1550 nm, with a device based on Thue-Morse
structure. Simulation results show that the proposed structure has a
quality factor more than 100000 and it is suitable for DWDM
communication applications.