Abstract: In this paper, we introduce an e-collaborative learning circles methodology which utilizes the information and communication technologies (ICTs) in e-educational processes. In e-collaborative learning circles methodology, the teachers and students announce their research projects on various mailing lists and discussion boards using available ICTs. The teachers & moderators and students who are already members of the e-forums, discuss the project proposals in their classrooms sent out by the potential global partner schools and return the requested feed back to the proposing school(s) about their level of the participation and contribution in the research. In general, an e-collaborative learning circle project is implemented with a small and diverse group (usually 8-10 participants) from around the world. The students meet regularly over a period of weeks/months through the ICTs during the ecollaborative learning process. When the project is completed, a project product (e-book / DVD) is prepared and sent to the circle members. In this research, when taking into account the interests and motivation of the participating students with the facilitating role of the teacher(s), the students in each circle do research to obtain new data and information, thus enabling them to have the opportunity to meet both different cultures and international understandings across the globe. However, while the participants communicate along with the members in the circle they also practice and develop their communication language skills. Finally, teachers and students find the possibility to develop their skills in using the ICTs as well.
Abstract: We focus on the excitation and propagation properties
of surface plasmon polariton (SPP). We have developed a SPP
excitation device in combination with a grating structures fabricated
by using the scanning probe lithography. Perturbation approach was
used to investigate the coupling properties of SPP with a spatial
harmonic wave supported by a metallic grating. A phase shift grating
SPP coupler has been fabricated and the optical property was
evaluated by the Fraunhofer diffraction formula. We have been
experimentally confirmed the induced stop band by diffraction
measurement. We have also observed the wavenumber shift of the
resonance condition of SPP owing to effect of a phase shift.
Abstract: Theory of Constraints has been emerging as an
important tool for optimization of manufacturing/service systems.
Goldratt in his first book “ The Goal " gave the introduction on
Theory of Constraints and its applications in a factory scenario. A
large number of production managers around the globe read this book
but only a few could implement it in their plants because the book did
not explain the steps to implement TOC in the factory. To overcome
these limitations, Goldratt wrote this book to explain TOC, DBR and
the method to implement it. In this paper, an attempt has been made
to summarize the salient features of TOC and DBR listed in the book
and the correct approach to implement TOC in a factory setting. The
simulator available along with the book was actually used by the
authors and the claim of Goldratt regarding the use of DBR and
Buffer management to ease the work of production managers was
tested and was found to be correct.
Abstract: On-line (near infrared) spectroscopy is widely used to support the operation of complex process systems. Information extracted from spectral database can be used to estimate unmeasured product properties and monitor the operation of the process. These techniques are based on looking for similar spectra by nearest neighborhood algorithms and distance based searching methods. Search for nearest neighbors in the spectral space is an NP-hard problem, the computational complexity increases by the number of points in the discrete spectrum and the number of samples in the database. To reduce the calculation time some kind of indexing could be used. The main idea presented in this paper is to combine indexing and visualization techniques to reduce the computational requirement of estimation algorithms by providing a two dimensional indexing that can also be used to visualize the structure of the spectral database. This 2D visualization of spectral database does not only support application of distance and similarity based techniques but enables the utilization of advanced clustering and prediction algorithms based on the Delaunay tessellation of the mapped spectral space. This means the prediction has not to use the high dimension space but can be based on the mapped space too. The results illustrate that the proposed method is able to segment (cluster) spectral databases and detect outliers that are not suitable for instance based learning algorithms.
Abstract: This paper presents an architecture of current filesystem
implementations as well as our new filesystem SpadFS and operating
system Spad with rewritten VFS layer targeted at high performance
I/O applications. The paper presents microbenchmarks and real-world
benchmarks of different filesystems on the same kernel as well as
benchmarks of the same filesystem on different kernels – enabling
the reader to make conclusion how much is the performance of
various tasks affected by operating system and how much by physical
layout of data on disk. The paper describes our novel features–most
notably continuous allocation of directories and cross-file readahead
– and shows their impact on performance.
Abstract: In the following text, we show that by introducing
universal kinetic scheme, the origin of rate retardation and inhibition
period which observed in dithiobenzoate-mediated RAFT
polymerization can be described properly. We develop our model by
utilizing the method of moments, then we apply our model to
different monomer/RAFT agent systems, both homo- and
copolymerization. The modeling results are in an excellent
agreement with experiments and imply the validity of universal
kinetic scheme, not only for dithiobenzoate-mediated systems, but
also for different types of monomer/RAFT agent ones.
Abstract: Pentachlorophenol (PCP) is a polychlorinated
aromatic compound that is widespread in industrial effluents and is
considered to be a serious pollutant. Among the variety of industrial
effluents encountered, effluents from tanning industry are very
important and have a serious pollution potential. PCP is also formed
unintentionally in effluents of paper and pulp industries. It is highly
persistent in soils and is lethal to a wide variety of beneficial
microorganisms and insects, human beings and animals. The natural
processes that breakdown toxic chemicals in the environment have
become the focus of much attention to develop safe and environmentfriendly
deactivation technologies. Microbes and plants are among
the most important biological agents that remove and degrade waste
materials to enable their recycling in the environment. The present
investigation was carried out with the aim of developing a microbial
system for bioremediation of PCP polluted soils. A number of plant
species were evaluated for their ability to tolerate different
concentrations of pentachlorophenol (PCP) in the soil. The
experiment was conducted for 30 days under pot culture conditions.
The toxic effect of PCP on plants was studied by monitoring seed
germination, plant growth and biomass. As the concentration of PCP
was increased to 50 ppm, the inhibition of seed germination, plant
growth and biomass was also increased. Although PCP had a
negative effect on all plant species tested, maize and groundnut
showed the maximum tolerance to PCP. Other tolerating crops
included wheat, safflower, sunflower, and soybean. From the
rhizosphere soil of the tolerant seedlings, as many as twenty seven
PCP tolerant bacteria were isolated. From soybean, 8; sunflower, 3;
safflower 8; maize 2; groundnut and wheat, 3 each isolates were
made. They were screened for their PCP degradation potentials.
HPLC analyses of PCP degradation revealed that the isolate MAZ-2
degraded PCP completely. The isolate MAZ-1 was the next best
isolate with 90 per cent PCP degradation. These strains hold promise
to be used in the bioremediation of PCP polluted soils.
Abstract: This paper presents an approach which is based on the
use of supervised feed forward neural network, namely multilayer
perceptron (MLP) neural network and finite element method (FEM)
to solve the inverse problem of parameters identification. The
approach is used to identify unknown parameters of ferromagnetic
materials. The methodology used in this study consists in the
simulation of a large number of parameters in a material under test,
using the finite element method (FEM). Both variations in relative
magnetic permeability and electrical conductivity of the material
under test are considered. Then, the obtained results are used to
generate a set of vectors for the training of MLP neural network.
Finally, the obtained neural network is used to evaluate a group of
new materials, simulated by the FEM, but not belonging to the
original dataset. Noisy data, added to the probe measurements is used
to enhance the robustness of the method. The reached results
demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed approach, and encourage
future works on this subject.
Abstract: Because today-s media centric students have adopted
digital as their native form of communication, teachers are having
increasingly difficult time motivating reluctant readers to read and
write. Our research has shown these text-averse individuals can learn
to understand the importance of reading and writing if the instruction
is based on digital narratives. While these students are naturally
attracted to story, they are better at consuming them than creating
them. Therefore, any intervention that utilizes story as its basis needs
to include instruction on the elements of story making. This paper
presents a series of digitally-based tools to identify potential
weaknesses of visually impaired visual learners and to help motivate
these and other media-centric students to select and complete books
that are assigned to them
Abstract: Breast carcinoma is the most common form of cancer
in women. Multicolour fluorescent in-situ hybridisation (m-FISH) is
a common method for staging breast carcinoma. The interpretation
of m-FISH images is complicated due to two effects: (i) Spectral
overlap in the emission spectra of fluorochrome marked DNA probes
and (ii) tissue autofluorescence. In this paper hyper-spectral images of
m-FISH samples are used and spectral unmixing is applied to produce
false colour images with higher contrast and better information
content than standard RGB images. The spectral unmixing is realised
by combinations of: Orthogonal Projection Analysis (OPA), Alterating
Least Squares (ALS), Simple-to-use Interactive Self-Modeling
Mixture Analysis (SIMPLISMA) and VARIMAX. These are applied
on the data to reduce tissue autofluorescence and resolve the spectral
overlap in the emission spectra. The results show that spectral unmixing
methods reduce the intensity caused by tissue autofluorescence by
up to 78% and enhance image contrast by algorithmically reducing
the overlap of the emission spectra.
Abstract: This paper reviews recent studies and particularly the
effects of Climate Change in the North Tropical Atlantic by studying
atmospheric conditions that prevailed in 2005 ; Coral Bleaching
HotSpot and Hurricane Katrina. In the aim to better understand and
estimate the impact of the physical phenomenon, i.e. Thermal
Oceanic HotSpot (TOHS), isotopic studies of δ18O and δ13C on
marine animals from Guadeloupe (French Caribbean Island) were
carried out. Recorded measures show Sea Surface Temperature (SST)
up to 35°C in August which is much higher than data recorded by
NOAA satellites 32°C. After having reviewed the process that led to
the creation of Hurricane Katrina which hit New Orleans in August
29, 2005, it will be shown that the climatic conditions in the
Caribbean from August to October 2005 have influenced Katrina
evolution. This TOHS is a combined effect of various phenomenon
which represent an additional factor to estimate future climate
changes.
Abstract: BioEnergy is an archetypal appropriate technology
and alternate source of energy in rural areas of China, and can meet
the basic need for cooking fuel in rural areas. The paper introduces
with an alternate mean of research that can accelerate the biogas
energy production. Tithonia diversifolia or the Tree marigold can be
hailed as mesophillic anaerobic digestion to increase the production
of more Bioenergy. Tithonia diversifolia is very native to Mexico and
Central America, which can be served as ornamental plants- green
manure and can prevent soil erosion. Tithonia diversifolia is widely
grown and known to Asia, Africa, America and Australia as well.
Nowadays, Considering China’s geographical condition it is found
that Tithonia diversifolia is widely growing plant in the many tropical
and subtropical regions of southern Yunnan- which can have great
usage in accelerating and increasing the Bioenergy production
technology. The paper discussed aiming at proving possibility that
Tithonia diversifolia can be applied in biogas fermentation and its
biogas production potential, the research carried experiment on
Tithonia diversifolia biogas fermentation under the mesophilic
condition (35 Celsius Degree). The result revealed that Tithonia
diversifolia can be used as biogas fermentative material, and 6%
concentration can get the best biogas production, with the TS biogas
production rate 656mL/g and VS biogas production rate 801mL/g. It
is well addressed that Tithonia diversifolia grows wildly in 53
Counties and 9 cities of Yunnan Province, which mainly grows in
form of the road side plants, the edge of the field, countryside, forest
edge, open space; of which demersum-natures can form dense
monospecific beds -causing serious harm to agricultural production
landforms threatening the ecological system as a potentially harmful
exotic plant. There are also found the three types of invasive daisy
alien plants -Eupatorium adenophorum, Eupatorium Odorata and
Tithonia diversifolia in Yunnan Province of China-among them the
Tithonia diversifolia is responsible for causing serious harm to
agricultural production. In this paper we have designed the
experimental explanation of Biogas energy production that requires
anaerobic environment and some microbes; Tithonia diversifolia
plant has been taken into consideration while carrying experiments
and with successful resulting of generating more BioEnergy
emphasizing on the practical applications of Tithonia diversifolia.
This paper aims at- to find a new mechanism to provide a more
scientific basis for the development of this plant herbicides in Biogas
energy and to improve the utilization throughout the world as well.
Abstract: In this work, we used the single Langmuir probe to
measure the plasma density distribution in an geometrically
asymmetric capacitive coupled plasma discharge system. Because of
the frame structure of powered electrode, the plasma density was not
homogeneous in the discharge volume. It was higher under the frame,
but lower in the centre. Finite element simulation results showed a
good agreement with the experiment results. To increase the electron
density in the central volume and improve the homogeneity of the
plasma, we added an auxiliary electrode, powered by DC voltage, in
the simulation geometry. The simulation results showed that the
auxiliary electrode could alter the potential distribution and improve
the density homogeneity effectively.
Abstract: Heterogeneity of solid waste characteristics as well as the complex processes taking place within the landfill ecosystem motivated the implementation of soft computing methodologies such as artificial neural networks (ANN), fuzzy logic (FL), and their combination. The present work uses a hybrid ANN-FL model that employs knowledge-based FL to describe the process qualitatively and implements the learning algorithm of ANN to optimize model parameters. The model was developed to simulate and predict the landfill gas production at a given time based on operational parameters. The experimental data used were compiled from lab-scale experiment that involved various operating scenarios. The developed model was validated and statistically analyzed using F-test, linear regression between actual and predicted data, and mean squared error measures. Overall, the simulated landfill gas production rates demonstrated reasonable agreement with actual data. The discussion focused on the effect of the size of training datasets and number of training epochs.
Abstract: Statistics indicate that more than 1000 phishing attacks are launched every month. With 57 million people hit by the fraud so far in America alone, how do we combat phishing?This publication aims to discuss strategies in the war against Phishing. This study is an examination of the analysis and critique found in the ways adopted at various levels to counter the crescendo of phishing attacks and new techniques being adopted for the same. An analysis of the measures taken up by the varied popular Mail servers and popular browsers is done under this study. This work intends to increase the understanding and awareness of the internet user across the globe and even discusses plausible countermeasures at the users as well as the developers end. This conceptual paper will contribute to future research on similar topics.
Abstract: The problem on the conservation programme of the Royal Thai Navy Sea Turtle Nursery, Phang-nga Province, Thailand is high mortality rate of juvenile green sea turtle (Cheloniamydas) on nursing period. So, during May to October 2012, postmortem examinations of juvenile green sea turtle were performed to determine the causes of dead. Fresh tissues of postmortem of 15 juvenile green sea turtles (1-3 months old) were investigated using paraffin section technique. The results showed normal ultrastructure of all tissue organs. These instances reviewed the health and stability of the environments in which juvenile green sea turtles live and concern for the survival rate. The present article also provides guidance for a review of the biology, guidelines for appropriate postmortem tissue, normal histology and sampling collection and procedures. The data also provides information for conservation of this endangered species in term of acknowledging and encouraging people to protect the animals and their habitats in nature.
Abstract: In order to realize long-lived electric propulsion
systems, we have been investigating an electrodeless plasma thruster.
In our concept, a helicon plasma is accelerated by the magnetic nozzle
for the thrusts production. In addition, the electromagnetic thrust can
be enhanced by the additional radio-frequency rotating electric field
(REF) power in the magnetic nozzle. In this study, a direct
measurement of the electromagnetic thrust and a probe measurement
have been conducted using a laboratory model of the thruster under the
condition without the REF power input. Fromthrust measurement, it is
shown that the thruster produces a sub-milli-newton order
electromagnetic thrust force without the additional REF power. The
thrust force and the density jump are observed due to the discharge
mode transition from the inductive coupled plasma to the helicon wave
excited plasma. The thermal thrust is theoretically estimated, and the
total thrust force, which is a sum of the electromagnetic and the
thermal thrust force and specific impulse are calculated to be up to 650
μN (plasma production power of 400 W, Ar gas mass flow rate of 1.0
mg/s) and 210 s (plasma production power of 400 W, Ar gas mass flow
rate of 0.2 mg/s), respectively.
Abstract: Double-diffusive natural convection in an open top
square cavity and heated from the side is studied numerically.
Constant temperatures and concentration are imposed along the right
and left walls while the heat balance at the surface is assumed to obey
Newton-s law of cooling. The finite difference method is used to
solve the dimensionless governing equations. The numerical results
are reported for the effect of Marangoni number, Biot number and
Prandtl number on the contours of streamlines, temperature and
concentration. The predicted results for the average Nusselt number
and Sherwood number are presented for various parametric
conditions. The parameters involved are as follows; the thermal
Marangoni number, 0 ≤ MaT ≤1000 , the solutal Marangoni number,
0 1000 c ≤ Ma ≤ , the Biot number, 0 ≤ Bi ≤ 6 , Grashof number,
5 Gr = 10 and aspect ratio 1. The study focused on both flows; thermal
dominated, N = 0.8 , and compositional dominated, N = 1.3 .
Abstract: Physiological control of a left ventricle assist device (LVAD) is generally a complicated task due to diverse operating environments and patient variability. In this work, a tracking control algorithm based on sliding mode and feed forward control for a class of discrete-time single input single output (SISO) nonlinear uncertain systems is presented. The controller was developed to track the reference trajectory to a set operating point without inducing suction in the ventricle. The controller regulates the estimated mean pulsatile flow Qp and mean pulsatility index of pump rotational speed PIω that was generated from a model of the assist device. We recall the principle of the sliding mode control theory then we combine the feed-forward control design with the sliding mode control technique to follow the reference trajectory. The uncertainty is replaced by its upper and lower boundary. The controller was tested in a computer simulation covering two scenarios (preload and ventricular contractility). The simulation results prove the effectiveness and the robustness of the proposed controller
Abstract: In this study, solid phase micro-extraction (SPME)
was optimized to improve the sensitivity and accuracy in
formaldehyde determination for plywood panels. Further work has
been carried out to compare the newly developed technique with
existing method which reacts formaldehyde collected in desiccators
with acetyl acetone reagent (DC-AA). In SPME, formaldehyde was
first derivatized with O-(2,3,4,5,6 pentafluorobenzyl)-hydroxylamine
hydrochloride (PFBHA) and analysis was then performed by gas
chromatography in combination with mass spectrometry (GC-MS).
SPME data subjected to various wood species gave satisfactory
results, with relative standard deviations (RSDs) obtained in the
range of 3.1-10.3%. It was also well correlated with DC values,
giving a correlation coefficient, RSQ, of 0.959. The quantitative
analysis of formaldehyde by SPME was an alternative in wood
industry with great potential