Abstract: Learning is the acquisition of new mental schemata, knowledge, abilities and skills which can be used to solve problems potentially more successfully. The learning process is optimum when it is assisted and personalized. Learning is not a single activity, but should involve many possible activities to make learning become meaningful. Many e-learning applications provide facilities to support teaching and learning activities. One way to identify whether the e-learning system is being used by the learners is through the number of hits that can be obtained from the e-learning system's log data. However, we cannot rely solely to the number of hits in order to determine whether learning had occurred meaningfully. This is due to the fact that meaningful learning should engage five characteristics namely active, constructive, intentional, authentic and cooperative. This paper aims to analyze the e-learning activities that is meaningful to learning. By focusing on the meaningful learning characteristics, we match it to the corresponding Moodle e-learning activities. This analysis discovers the activities that have high impact to meaningful learning, as well as activities that are less meaningful. The high impact activities is given high weights since it become important to meaningful learning, while the low impact has less weight and said to be supportive e-learning activities. The result of this analysis helps us categorize which e-learning activities that are meaningful to learning and guide us to measure the effectiveness of e-learning usage.
Abstract: Mathematical and computational modeling of calcium
signalling in nerve cells has produced considerable insights into how
the cells contracts with other cells under the variation of biophysical
and physiological parameters. The modeling of calcium signaling in
astrocytes has become more sophisticated. The modeling effort has
provided insight to understand the cell contraction. Main objective
of this work is to study the effect of voltage gated (Operated)
calcium channel (VOC) on calcium profile in the form of advection
diffusion equation. A mathematical model is developed in the form
of advection diffusion equation for the calcium profile. The model
incorporates the important physiological parameter like diffusion
coefficient etc. Appropriate boundary conditions have been framed.
Finite volume method is employed to solve the problem. A program
has been developed using in MATLAB 7.5 for the entire problem
and simulated on an AMD-Turion 32-bite machine to compute the
numerical results.
Abstract: This paper focuses on assessment of air pollution in Umm-Alhyman, Kuwait, which is located south to oil refineries, power station, oil field, and highways. The measurements were made over a period of four days in March and July in 2001, 2004, and 2008. The measured pollutants included methanated and nonmethanated hydrocarbons (MHC, NMHC), CO, CO2, SO2, NOX, O3, and PM10. Also, meteorological parameters were measured, which includes temperature, wind speed and direction, and solar radiation. Over the study period, data analysis showed increase in measured SO2, NOX and CO by factors of 1.2, 5.5 and 2, respectively. This is explained in terms of increase in industrial activities, motor vehicle density, and power generation. Predictions of the measured data were made by the ISC-AERMOD software package and by using the ISCST3 model option. Finally, comparison was made between measured data against international standards.
Abstract: This study investigated the effect of cross sectional
geometry on sediment transport rate. The processes of sediment
transport are generally associated to environmental management,
such as pollution caused by the forming of suspended sediment in the
channel network of a watershed and preserving physical habitats and
native vegetations, and engineering applications, such as the
influence of sediment transport on hydraulic structures and flood
control design. Many equations have been proposed for computing
the sediment transport, the influence of many variables on sediment
transport has been understood; however, the effect of other variables
still requires further research. For open channel flow, sediment
transport capacity is recognized to be a function of friction slope,
flow velocity, grain size, grain roughness and form roughness, the
hydraulic radius of the bed section and the type and quantity of
vegetation cover. The effect of cross sectional geometry of the
channel on sediment transport is one of the variables that need
additional investigation. The width-depth ratio (W/d) is a
comparative indicator of the channel shape. The width is the total
distance across the channel and the depth is the mean depth of the
channel. The mean depth is best calculated as total cross-sectional
area divided by the top width. Channels with high W/d ratios tend to
be shallow and wide, while channels with low (W/d) ratios tend to be
narrow and deep. In this study, the effects of the width-depth ratio on
sediment transport was demonstrated theoretically by inserting the
shape factor in sediment continuity equation and analytically by
utilizing the field data sets for Yalobusha River. It was found by
utilizing the two approaches as a width-depth ratio increases the
sediment transport decreases.
Abstract: Since 2004, we have been developing an in-situ storage image sensor (ISIS) that captures more than 100 consecutive images at a frame rate of 10 Mfps with ultra-high sensitivity as well as the video camera for use with this ISIS. Currently, basic research is continuing in an attempt to increase the frame rate up to 100 Mfps and above. In order to suppress electro-magnetic noise at such high frequency, a digital-noiseless imaging transfer scheme has been developed utilizing solely sinusoidal driving voltages. This paper presents highly efficient-yet-accurate expressions to estimate attenuation as well as phase delay of driving voltages through RC networks of an ultra-high-speed image sensor. Elmore metric for a fundamental RC chain is employed as the first-order approximation. By application of dimensional analysis to SPICE data, we found a simple expression that significantly improves the accuracy of the approximation. Similarly, another simple closed-form model to estimate phase delay through fundamental RC networks is also obtained. Estimation error of both expressions is much less than previous works, only less 2% for most of the cases . The framework of this analysis can be extended to address similar issues of other VLSI structures.
Abstract: Augmented Reality (AR) shows great promises for
its usage as a tool for simulation and verification of design proposal
of new technological systems. Main advantage of augmented reality
application usage is possibility of creation and simulation of new
technological unit before its realization. This may contribute to
increasing of safety and ergonomics and decreasing of economical
aspects of new proposed unit. Virtual model of proposed workcell
could reveal hidden errors which elimination in later stage of new
workcell creation should cause great difficulties. Paper describes
process of such virtual model creation and possibilities of its
simulation and verification by augmented reality tools.
Abstract: Soy polyol obtained from hydroxylation of soy
epoxide with ethylene glycol were prepared as pre-polyurethane. The
two step process method were applied in the polyurethane synthesis.
The blending of soy polyol with synthetic polyol then simultaneously
carried out to TDI (2,4): MDI (4,4-) (80:20), blowing agent, and
surfactant. Ethylene glycol were not taking part in the polyurethane
synthesis. The inclusion of ethylene glycol were used as a control.
Characterization of polyurethane foam through impact resillience,
indentation deflection, and density can visualize the polyurethane
classifications.
Abstract: The tracking allows to detect the tumor affections of cervical cancer, it is particularly complex and consuming time, because it consists in seeking some abnormal cells among a cluster of normal cells. In this paper, we present our proposed computer system for helping the doctors in tracking the cervical cancer. Knowing that the diagnosis of the malignancy is based in the set of atypical morphological details of all cells, herein, we present an unsupervised genetic algorithm for the separation of cell components since the diagnosis is doing by analysis of the core and the cytoplasm. We give also the various algorithms used for computing the morphological characteristics of cells (Ratio core/cytoplasm, cellular deformity, ...) necessary for the recognition of illness.
Abstract: Increasing number of vehicles and lack of awareness among road users may lead to road accidents. However no specific literature was found to rank vehicles involved in accidents based on fuzzy variables of road users. This paper proposes a ranking of four selected motor vehicles involved in road accidents. Human and non-human factors that normally linked with road accidents are considered for ranking. The imprecision or vagueness inherent in the subjective assessment of the experts has led the application of fuzzy sets theory to deal with ranking problems. Data in form of linguistic variables were collected from three authorised personnel of three Malaysian Government agencies. The Multi Criteria Decision Making, fuzzy TOPSIS was applied in computational procedures. From the analysis, it shows that motorcycles vehicles yielded the highest closeness coefficient at 0.6225. A ranking can be drawn using the magnitude of closeness coefficient. It was indicated that the motorcycles recorded the first rank.
Abstract: Interaction of inorganic water-soluble salts and building stones is studied in the paper. Two types of sandstone and one type of spongillite as representatives of materials used in historical masonry are subjected to experimental testing. Within the performed experiments, measurement of moisture and chloride concentration profiles is done in order to get input data for computational inverse analysis. Using the inverse analysis, moisture diffusivity and chloride diffusion coefficient of investigated materials are accessed. Additionally, the effect of salt presence on water vapor storage is investigated using dynamic vapor sorption device. The obtained data represents valuable information for restoration of historical masonry and give evidence on the performance of studied stones in contact with water soluble salts.
Abstract: In this paper, a set of experimental data has been used to assess the influence of abrasive water jet (AWJ) process parameters in cutting 6063-T6 aluminum alloy. The process variables considered here include nozzle diameter, jet traverse rate, jet pressure and abrasive flow rate. The effects of these input parameters are studied on depth of cut (h); one of most important characteristics of AWJ. The Taguchi method and regression modeling are used in order to establish the relationships between input and output parameters. The adequacy of the model is evaluated using analysis of variance (ANOVA) technique. In the next stage, the proposed model is embedded into a Simulated Annealing (SA) algorithm to optimize the AWJ process parameters. The objective is to determine a suitable set of process parameters that can produce a desired depth of cut, considering the ranges of the process parameters. Computational results prove the effectiveness of the proposed model and optimization procedure.
Abstract: Energy consumption is a very important topic these
days especially regarding air conditioning in residential buildings,
since this takes the biggest amount of energy in buildings total
consumption, residential buildings constitute the biggest percentage
of energy consumption in Bahrain.
This research reflects on the effects of shading percentage in
different solar orientations on the energy consumption inside
residential buildings (domestic dwellings).
The research as found that, there are different effects of shading in
changing building orientation:
• 0.69% for the shading percentage 25% when the building is
oriented to the north (0º);
• 18.59% for 75% of shading in north-west orientation
(325º);
• The best effect for shading is in north-west orientation
(315º);
• The less effect for shading was in case of the building
orientation is the north (0º).
Abstract: This paper studied the synthesis of monoacylglycerol (monolaurin) by glycerolysis of coconut oil and crude glycerol, catalyzed by Carica papaya lipase. Coconut oil obtained from cold pressed extraction method and crude glycerol obtained from the biodiesel plant in Department of Chemistry, Uttaradit Rajabhat University, Thailand which used oils were used as raw materials for biodiesel production through transesterification process catalyzed by sodium hydroxide. The influences of the following variables were studied: (i) type of organic solvent, (ii) molar ratio of substrate, (iii) reaction temperature, (iv) reaction time, (v) lipase dosage, and (vi) initial water activity of enzyme. High yields in monoacylglycerol (58.35%) were obtained with molar ratio of glycerol to oil at 8:1 in ethanol, temperature was controlled at 45oC for 36 hours, the amount of enzyme used was 20 wt% of oil and initial water activity of enzyme at 0.53.
Abstract: Formulation of biological profile is one of the modern roles of forensic anthropologist. The present study was conducted to estimate height using foot and shoeprint length of Malaysian population. The present work can be very useful information in the process of identification of individual in forensic cases based on shoeprint evidence. It can help to narrow down suspects and ease the police investigation. Besides, stature is important parameters in determining the partial identify of unidentified and mutilated bodies. Thus, this study can help the problem encountered in cases of mass disaster, massacre, explosions and assault cases. This is because it is very hard to identify parts of bodies in these cases where people are dismembered and become unrecognizable. Samples in this research were collected from 200 Malaysian adults (100 males and 100 females) with age ranging from 20 to 45 years old. In this research, shoeprint length were measured based on the print of the shoes made from the flat shoes. Other information like gender, foot length and height of subject were also recorded. The data was analyzed using IBM® SPSS Statistics 19 software. Results indicated that, foot length has a strong correlation with stature than shoeprint length for both sides of the feet. However, in the unknown, where the gender was undetermined have shown a better correlation in foot length and shoeprint length parameter compared to males and females analyzed separately. In addition, prediction equations are developed to estimate the stature using linear regression analysis of foot length and shoeprint length. However, foot lengths give better prediction than shoeprint length.
Abstract: Numerical design optimization is a powerful tool that
can be used by engineers during any stage of the design process.
There are many different applications for structural optimization. A
specific application that will be discussed in the following paper is
experimental data matching. Data obtained through tests on a physical
structure will be matched with data from a numerical model of that
same structure. The data of interest will be the dynamic characteristics
of an antenna structure focusing on the mode shapes and modal
frequencies. The structure used was a scaled and simplified model of
the Karoo Array Telescope-7 (KAT-7) antenna structure.
This kind of data matching is a complex and difficult task. This
paper discusses how optimization can assist an engineer during the
process of correlating a finite element model with vibration test data.
Abstract: Signalized intersections on high-volume arterials are
often congested during peak hours, causing a decrease in through
movement efficiency on the arterial. Much of the vehicle delay
incurred at conventional intersections is caused by high left-turn
demand. Unconventional intersection designs attempt to reduce
intersection delay and travel time by rerouting left-turns away from
the main intersection and replacing it with right-turn followed by Uturn.
The proposed new type of U-turn intersection is geometrically
designed with a raised island which provides a protected U-turn
movement. In this study several scenarios based on different
distances between U-turn and main intersection, traffic volume of
major/minor approaches and percentage of left-turn volumes were
simulated by use of AIMSUN, a type of traffic microsimulation
software. Subsequently some models are proposed in order to
compute travel time of each movement. Eventually by correlating
these equations to some in-field collected data of some implemented
U-turn facilities, the reliability of the proposed models are approved.
With these models it would be possible to calculate travel time of
each movement under any kind of geometric and traffic condition. By
comparing travel time of a conventional signalized intersection with
U-turn intersection travel time, it would be possible to decide on
converting signalized intersections into this new kind of U-turn
facility or not. However comparison of travel time is not part of the
scope of this research. In this paper only travel time of this innovative
U-turn facility would be predicted. According to some before and
after study about the traffic performance of some executed U-turn
facilities, it is found that commonly, this new type of U-turn facility
produces lower travel time. Thus, evaluation of using this type of
unconventional intersection should be seriously considered.
Abstract: In this manuscript, the LBM is applied for simulating of Mixed Convection in a Lid-Driven cavity with an open side. The cavity horizontal walls are insulated while the west Lid-driven wall is maintained at a uniform temperature higher than the ambient. Prandtl number (Pr) is fixed to 0.71 (air) while Reynolds number (Re) , Richardson number (Ri) and aspect ratio (A) of the cavity are changed in the range of 50-150 , of 0.1-10 and of 1-4 , respectively. The numerical code is validated for the standard square cavity, and then the results of an open ended cavity are presented. Result shows by increasing of aspect ratio, the average Nusselt number (Nu) on lid- driven wall decreases and with same Reynolds number (Re) by increasing of aspect ratio (A), Richardson number plays more important role in heat transfer rate.
Abstract: In this paper, algorithms for the automatic localisation
of two anatomical soft tissue landmarks of the head the medial
canthus (inner corner of the eye) and the tragus (a small, pointed,
cartilaginous flap of the ear), in CT images are describet. These
landmarks are to be used as a basis for an automated image-to-patient
registration system we are developing. The landmarks are localised
on a surface model extracted from CT images, based on surface
curvature and a rule based system that incorporates prior knowledge
of the landmark characteristics. The approach was tested on a dataset
of near isotropic CT images of 95 patients. The position of the
automatically localised landmarks was compared to the position of
the manually localised landmarks. The average difference was 1.5
mm and 0.8 mm for the medial canthus and tragus, with a maximum
difference of 4.5 mm and 2.6 mm respectively.The medial canthus
and tragus can be automatically localised in CT images, with
performance comparable to manual localisation
Abstract: The prediction of transmembrane helical segments
(TMHs) in membrane proteins is an important field in the
bioinformatics research. In this paper, a new method based on discrete
wavelet transform (DWT) has been developed to predict the number
and location of TMHs in membrane proteins. PDB coded as 1KQG
was chosen as an example to describe the prediction of the number and
location of TMHs in membrane proteins by using this method. To
access the effect of the method, 80 proteins with known 3D-structure
from Mptopo database are chosen at random as the test objects
(including 325 TMHs), 308 of which can be predicted accurately, the
average predicted accuracy is 96.3%. In addition, the above 80
membrane proteins are divided into 13 groups according to their
function and type. In particular, the results of the prediction of TMHs
of the 13 groups are satisfying.
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to determine in what
ways elementary education prospective teachers are being informed
about innovations and to explain the role of social influence in the
usage process of a technological innovation in terms of genders. The
study group consisted of 300 prospective teachers, including 234
females and 66 males. Data have been collected by a questionnaire
developed by the researchers. The result of the study showed that,
while prospective teachers are being informed about innovations
most frequently by mass media, they rarely seek to take expert
advice. In addition, analysis of results showed that the social
influence on females were significantly higher than males in usage
process of a technological innovation.