Abstract: The lubricating properties of commercially available
mucins originating from different animal organs, namely bovine
submaxillary mucin (BSM) and porcine gastric mucin (PGM), have
been characterized at polymeric surfaces for biomedical applications.
Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and pin-on-disk tribometry have
been employed for tribological studies at nanoscale and macroscale
contacts, respectively. Polystyrene (PS) was employed to represent
‘rigid’ contacts, whereas poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) was
employed to represent ‘soft contacts’. To understand the lubricating
properties of mucins in correlation with the coverage on surfaces,
adsorption properties of mucins onto the polymeric substrates have
been characterized by means of optical waveguide light-mode
spectroscopy (OWLS). Both mucins showed facile adsorption onto
both polymeric substrates, but the lubricity was highly dependent
upon the pH change between 2 and 7.
Abstract: Successful intelligence (SI) is the integrated set of the
ability needed to attain success in life, within individual-s sociocultural
context. People are successfully intelligent by recognizing
their strengths and weaknesses. They will find ways to strengthen
their weakness and maintain their strength or even improve it. SI
people can shape, select, and adapt to the environments by using
balance of higher-ordered thinking abilities including; critical,
creative, and applicative. Aims: The purposes of this study were to;
1) develop curriculum that promotes SI for nursing students, and 2)
study the effectiveness of the curriculum development. Method:
Research and Development was a method used for this study. The
design was divided into two phases; 1) the curriculum development
which composed of three steps (needs assessment, curriculum
development and curriculum field trail), and 2) the curriculum
implementation. In this phase, a pre-experimental research design
(one group pretest-posttest design) was conducted. The sample
composed of 49 sophomore nursing students of Boromarajonani
College of Nursing, Surin, Thailand who enrolled in Nursing care of
Health problem course I in 2011 academic year. Data were carefully
collected using 4 instruments; 1) Modified essay questions test
(MEQ) 2) Nursing Care Plan evaluation form 3) Group processing
observation form (α = 0.74) and 4) Satisfied evaluation form of
learning (α = 0.82). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics
and content analysis. Results: The results revealed that the sample
had post-test average score of SI higher than pre-test average score
(mean difference was 5.03, S.D. = 2.84). Fifty seven percentages of
the sample passed the MEQ posttest at the criteria of 60 percentages.
Students demonstrated the strategies of how to develop nursing care
plan. Overall, students- satisfaction on teaching performance was at
high level (mean = 4.35, S.D. = 0.46). Conclusion: This curriculum
can promote the attribute of characteristic of SI person and was
highly required to be continued.
Abstract: Information of nodes’ locations is an important
criterion for lots of applications in Wireless Sensor Networks. In the
hop-based range-free localization methods, anchors transmit the
localization messages counting a hop count value to the whole
network. Each node receives this message and calculates its own
distance with anchor in hops and then approximates its own position.
However the estimative distances can provoke large error, and affect
the localization precision. To solve the problem, this paper proposes
an algorithm, which makes the unknown nodes fix the nearest anchor
as a reference and select two other anchors which are the most
accurate to achieve the estimated location. Compared to the DV-Hop
algorithm, experiment results illustrate that proposed algorithm has
less average localization error and is more effective.
Abstract: Rice bran has been abandoned as agricultural waste for million tonnes per year in Thailand, therefore they have been proposed to be utilized as a rich carbon source in the production of bioethanol. Many toxic compounds are possibly released during the pretreatment of rice bran prior the fermentation process. This study aims to analyze on the availability of toxic compounds and the amount of glucose obtained from 2 different pretreatments using sulfuric acid and mixed cellulase enzymes (without and with delignification/ activated charcoal). The concentration of furfural, 5- hydroxymethyl furfural (5-HMF), levulinic acid, vanillin, syringaldehyde and4-hydroxybenzaldehyde (4-HB) and the percent acetic acid were found to be 0.0517 ± 0.049 mg/L, 0.032 ± 0.06 mg/L, 21074 ± 1685.62 mg/L, 126.265 ± 6.005 mg/L, 2.89 ± 0.30 mg/L, 0.37 ± 0.031mg/L and 0.72% under the pretreatment process without delignification/ activated charcoal treatment and 384.47 ± 99.02 g/L, 0.068 mg/L, 142107.62 ± 8664.6 mg/L, 0.19 mg/L, 5.43 ± 3.29 mg/L, 4.80 ± 0.76 mg/L and 0.254% under the pretreatment process with delignification/ activated charcoal treatment respectively. The presence of high concentration of acetic acid was found to impede the growth of Zymomonas mobilis strain TISTR 551 despite the present of high concentration of levulinic acid. Z. mobilis strain TISTR 551 was found to produce 8.96 ± 4.06 g/L of ethanol under 4 days fementation period in biofilm stage in which represented 40% theoretical yield.
Abstract: The rapid improvement of the microprocessor and network has made it possible for the PC cluster to compete with conventional supercomputers. Lots of high throughput type of applications can be satisfied by using the current desktop PCs, especially for those in PC classrooms, and leave the supercomputers for the demands from large scale high performance parallel computations. This paper presents our development on enabling an automated deployment mechanism for cluster computing to utilize the computing power of PCs such as reside in PC classroom. After well deployment, these PCs can be transformed into a pre-configured cluster computing resource immediately without touching the existing education/training environment installed on these PCs. Thus, the training activities will not be affected by this additional activity to harvest idle computing cycles. The time and manpower required to build and manage a computing platform in geographically distributed PC classrooms also can be reduced by this development.
Abstract: This study proposes a hybrid minimal repair policy
which combines periodic maintenance policy with age-based maintenance policy for a serial production system. Parameters of such policy are defined as and which indicate as hybrid minimal
repair time and planned preventive maintenance time
respectively . Under this hybrid policy, the system is
repaired minimally if it fails during , . A perfect repair is
conducted on the first failure after at any machines. At the same time, we take opportunity to advance the preventive maintenance of
other machines simultaneously. If the system is still operating
properly up to , then the preventive maintenance is carried out as its
predetermined schedule. For a given , we obtain the optimal value which minimizes the expected cost per time unit. Numerical
example is presented to illustrate the properties of the optimal solution.
Abstract: The vast amount of information hidden in huge
databases has created tremendous interests in the field of data
mining. This paper examines the possibility of using data clustering
techniques in oral medicine to identify functional relationships
between different attributes and classification of similar patient
examinations. Commonly used data clustering algorithms have been
reviewed and as a result several interesting results have been
gathered.
Abstract: An automatic method for the extraction of feature points for face based applications is proposed. The system is based upon volumetric feature descriptors, which in this paper has been extended to incorporate scale space. The method is robust to noise and has the ability to extract local and holistic features simultaneously from faces stored in a database. Extracted features are stable over a range of faces, with results indicating that in terms of intra-ID variability, the technique has the ability to outperform manual landmarking.
Abstract: The Malaysian government is promoting
entrepreneurship development skills amongst farmers through informal
courses. These courses will concentrate on teaching managerial skills as
inevitable means for small farms to succeed by making farmers more
creative and innovative. Therefore it is important to assess the effect of
informal agri-entrepreneurial training in developing entrepreneurship
among the farmers in Malaysia. Seven hundred and ninety six farmers
(796) farmers were interviewed via structured questionnaire to define
their opinion on whether the current informal educational and training
establishments are sufficient to teach and develop entrepreneurial
skills. Factor analysis and logic regression analysis were used to
determine the motivating factors and predict their impact on the
development of entrepreneurial skills. The result from the factor analysis
led us to investigate the association between these factors and farmers-
opinions about the development of entrepreneurial skills and traits
through participating in informal entrepreneurship training or education.
The outcome has shown us that the importance of informal training to
promote entrepreneurship among farmers is crucial. The training should
be intensified to encourage farmers to not only focus on the modern
technologies but also on the fundamental changes in their attitude towards
agriculture as a business.
DOA:
KMO: Kaiser- Meyer- Olkin Test
MOA: Ministry of Agriculture
NMP: Ninth Malaysia Plan
NAP: Third National Agricultural Policy (2000-2010)
Abstract: The Baltic States regained independence and started
the pathway from command economy to market economy and
entered European Union at the same time. Latter internationally
recognized evaluations for the countries are diverse. The present
diversity of the Baltic States -Economic Development is a subject of
interest because of the similarities – all three are small, open
economies, countries have similar geographic location and initially
likewise historical and political backgrounds. This article explains
relationship between social environment, business environment and
economic growth. It argues that the elements of social environment
underlie more successful economic development. It researches the
causes, why Estonia has performed better in economic outcomes and
development. The article analyses selection of socio-economic
indicators of all three Baltic States – Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia
for the time period of ten years to include the influence of economic
cycles.
Abstract: This study assessed the productivity and performance of the barangays in the Heritage City of Vigan in terms of the barangays- resource requirements, management of resources, produced goods and services, and outcomes of service delivery. The descriptive research design was used in the study employing the input-process-output-outcomes model. Findings of this study showed that the barangays were strong in terms of resource requirements which enabled them to produce goods and services. The barangays were also strong in terms of management of resources in development planning. They also showed great potential along fiscal administration, and had a moderately high capability in organization and management. However, the barangays appeared to be most wanting in the area of barangay legislation, but they were strong in community mobilization and they had strong linkages with POs, NGOs and educational institutions. In the delivery of social services, the barangays favored the maintenance of day care centers. However, the barangays seem to be weak in the delivery of economic services. They fared well along providing protective services such as in establishing a Barangay Disaster Coordinating Council and organizing a group of Barangay Tanod. In terms of environmental services, the barangays performed garbage collection and disposal; however, garbage still found their way in the streets in some barangays. The services delivered had effected an improved status of the barangays. However, the barangays are still facing some problems.
Abstract: Recently, the issue of machine condition monitoring
and fault diagnosis as a part of maintenance system became global
due to the potential advantages to be gained from reduced
maintenance costs, improved productivity and increased machine
availability. The aim of this work is to investigate the effectiveness
of a new fault diagnosis method based on power spectral density
(PSD) of vibration signals in combination with decision trees and
fuzzy inference system (FIS). To this end, a series of studies was
conducted on an external gear hydraulic pump. After a test under
normal condition, a number of different machine defect conditions
were introduced for three working levels of pump speed (1000, 1500,
and 2000 rpm), corresponding to (i) Journal-bearing with inner face
wear (BIFW), (ii) Gear with tooth face wear (GTFW), and (iii)
Journal-bearing with inner face wear plus Gear with tooth face wear
(B&GW). The features of PSD values of vibration signal were
extracted using descriptive statistical parameters. J48 algorithm is
used as a feature selection procedure to select pertinent features from
data set. The output of J48 algorithm was employed to produce the
crisp if-then rule and membership function sets. The structure of FIS
classifier was then defined based on the crisp sets. In order to
evaluate the proposed PSD-J48-FIS model, the data sets obtained
from vibration signals of the pump were used. Results showed that
the total classification accuracy for 1000, 1500, and 2000 rpm
conditions were 96.42%, 100%, and 96.42% respectively. The results
indicate that the combined PSD-J48-FIS model has the potential for
fault diagnosis of hydraulic pumps.
Abstract: Silicon nanowire (SiNW) based thermoelectric device (TED) has potential applications in areas such as chip level cooling/ energy harvesting. It is a great challenge however, to assemble an efficient device with these SiNW. The presence of parasitic in the form of interfacial electrical resistance will have a significant impact on the performance of the TED. In this work, we explore the effect of the electrical contact resistance on the performance of a TED. Numerical simulations are performed on SiNW to investigate such effects on its cooling performance. Intrinsically, SiNW individually without the unwanted parasitic effect has excellent cooling power density. However, the cooling effect is undermined with the contribution of the electrical contact resistance.
Abstract: Reno-pin contact test is a method that is controlled by
DC motor used to characterize electronic chips. This method is used in
electronic and telecommunication devices. A new electric
performance testing system is developed in which the testing method
is controlled by using Piezoelectric Transducer (PZT) instead of DC
motor which reduces vibration and noise. The vertical displacement of
the Reno-pin is very short in the Reno-pin contact testing system. Now
using a flexible guide in the new Reno-pin contact system, the vertical
movement of the Reno-pin is increased many times of the existing
Reno-pin contact testing method using DC motor. Using the present
electric performance testing system with a flexible hinge and PZT
instead of DC motor, manufacturing of electronic chips are able to
characterize chips with low cost and high speed.
Abstract: Analytically the effect of polarization dependent loss on a high speed fiber optic communication link has been investigated. PDL and the signal's incoming state of polarization (SOP) have a significant co-relation between them and their various combinations produces different effects on the system behavior which has been inspected. Pauli's spin operator and PDL parameters are combined together to observe the attenuation effect induced by PDL in a link containing multiple PDL elements. It is found that in the presence of PDL the Q-factor and BER at the receiver undergoes fluctuation causing the system to be unstable and results show that it is mainly due to optical-signal-to-parallel-noise ratio (OSNItpar) that these parameters fluctuate. Generally the Q-factor, BER deteriorates as the value of average PDL in the link increases except for depolarized light for which the system parameters improves when PDL increases.
Abstract: A biocompatible ferrofluid have been prepared by coprecipitation
of FeCl2.4H2O and FeCl3.6H2O under ultrasonic
irradiation and with NaOH as alkaline agent. Cystein was also used
as capping agent in the solution. Magnetic properties of the produced
ferrofluid were then determined by VSM test and magnetite
nanoparticles were characterized by XRD and TEM techniques. The
effect of surfactant to Fe ion weight ratio was also studied during this
project by using two different amount of Dextran. Results showed the
presence of a biocompatible superparamagnetic ferrofluid including
magnetite nanoparticles with particle size ranging under 20 nm. The
increase in the surfactant content results in the narrowing of the size
distribution and reduction of the particle size and more solution
stability.
Abstract: Establishing pumping stations is one of the most common ways of providing water from rivers. There are many issues involved in the design and operation of pumping stations most important of which is the problem of sedimentation. One of the significant issues which must be taken into consideration in designing pumping stations is the operation method and technical matters related to it. Safety and convenience of operation is one of the issues that must be always considered by the designer. Some of the major issues in making decisions regarding the type of design for the station are geographical condition, the location of the station and availability of experts in maintenance and operation of the station. Dimensions of the station must allow free movement for checking and operating pumps after installation of pumps and plumbing system.
Abstract: This paper proposes a location-aware system for
household robots which allows users to paste predefined paper tags at
different locations according to users- comprehension of the house. In this system a household robot may be aware of its location and the
attributes thereof by visually recognizing the tags when the robot is moving. This paper also presents a novel user interface to define a
moving path of the robot, which allows users to draw the path in the air
with a finger so as to generate commands for following motions.
Abstract: The approaches to make an agent generate intelligent actions in the AI field might be roughly categorized into two ways–the classical planning and situated action system. It is well known that each system have its own strength and weakness. However, each system also has its own application field. In particular, most of situated action systems do not directly deal with the logical problem. This paper first briefly mentions the novel action generator to situatedly extract a set of actions, which is likely to help to achieve the goal at the current situation in the relaxed logical space. After performing the action set, the agent should recognize the situation for deciding the next likely action set. However, since the extracted action is an approximation of the action which helps to achieve the goal, the agent could be caught into the deadlock of the problem. This paper proposes the newly developed hybrid architecture to solve the problem, which combines the novel situated action generator with the conventional planner. The empirical result in some planning domains shows that the quality of the resultant path to the goal is mostly acceptable as well as deriving the fast response time, and suggests the correlation between the structure of problems and the organization of each system which generates the action.
Abstract: We fabricated multi-walled carbon nanotube (MCNT)
emitters by an electroporetic deposition (EPD) method using a
MCNT-sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) suspension. MCNT films were
prepared on graphite tip using EPD. We observe field emission
properties of MCNT film after heat treatment. Consequently, The
MCNT film on graphite tip exhibit good electron emission current.