Volume 6, Issue 3

The increasingly rapid development of science and technology, as well as the influence of globalization has contributed to updates in educational so that one method taken by apply experiments in horticulture learning activities. This study aims to determine the effect of rice straw mulch on tomato production and the effectiveness of the implementation of this experiment in the horticultural learning process. This research experimental used144 of tomatoes plants that were divided into four groups. First group is the control group with the thickness of the straw 0%, second group with a thickness of mulch 5%, third group with mulch thickness 10% and fourth group with mulch thickness 15%. The results show there is a significant difference from the average weight of tomatoes after being given various mulch thickness treatments that was continued with the Least Significant Difference test with significant differences seen group 15% straw thickness where group had the highest tomato fruit weight with the average tomato fruit weight per plants 1426.72 g. This experiment is quite effective in implementing horticulture learning because this experiment takes only 116 days and can increase activity, motivation, creativity, foster students’ rational and scientific thinking.

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The design, fabrication and testing of a power availability recorder (PAR) to track the duration of electricity supply in facilities is presented. The design was executed with C-Language encoded in a microcontroller which served as the central processing unit of the device. Proteus software was, subsequently, used to simulate the real-life practicability of the device before the prototype was constructed. This device is designed to record power availability in seconds which can be converted to hours while energy consumption is recorded in kWh. Thereafter, the device was functionally tested and installed in a customers’ premises for a period of three (3) months. Energy Consumed was plotted against Availability using GraphPad Prism Software and it could be seen that Availability and Energy Consumption are directly proportional to each other. This forms a sound basis for discrediting the outrageous bills issued by the utility companies for months when there were few hours or no power availability. It follows therefore that if installed in unmetered households, this device could go a long way in curbing the excesses and checking the inefficiency of the utility companies in terms of unjustifiable estimated bills issued to their customers.

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Environmental sounds detection plays an increasing role in computer science and robotics as it simulates the human faculty of hearing. It is applied in environment research, monitoring and protection, by allowing investigation of natural reserves, and showing potential risks of damage that can be deduced from the environmental acoustic. The research presented in this paper is related to the development of an intelligent forest environment monitoring solution, which applies signal analysis algorithm to detect endangering sounds. Environmental sounds are processed using some modelling algorithms based on which the acoustic forest events can be classified into one of the categories: chainsaw, vehicle, genuine forest background noise. The article will explore and compare several methodologies for environmental sound classification, among which the dominant Deep Neural Networks, the Long Short-Term Memory, and the classical Gaussian Mixtures Modelling and Dynamic Time Warping.

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A methodology of medical signal-based biometrics has been proposed in this paper for implementing a human identification system controlled by electroencephalogram in respect of different color stimuli. The advantage of biosignal based biometrics is that they provide more efficient operation in simple experimental condition to ensure accurate identification. Red, Green, Blue (primary colors) and Yellow (secondary color) were chosen as the color stimuli for making more comfortable EEG regenerating environment. Four supervised classification models, namely, Logistic Regression (LR), K- Nearest Neighbor (KNN), Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Random Forest Classifier (RFC) were trained and tested for assessing the performance of the EEG based biometric identification, with five-fold cross-validation. Four different measures (sensitivity, specificity, accuracy and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve) were used to evaluate the overall performance. The results suggested that Blue color stimuli perform the best among all the color stimulus with an accuracy ranging from (77.2-88.9%). The classifiers identify each of the subjects with any color having an accuracy ranged from (70.9-88.9%), and the RFC shows the best accuracy which is 88.9% in the case of blue color stimuli.

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The construction industry has undergone several changes in recent years linked to new laws and international conventions aimed at protecting the environment and combating pollution. Construction industry alone produces tons of waste annually due to debris produced either during construction or during deconstruction. To combat this, companies are forced to control their debris either by reusing it on site or by sending it to specialized landfills. Thus, new materials appear constantly based on the recycled materials. Recycled aggregate concrete was thus born. It is a concrete based on the use of recycled aggregates retrieved from the demolished structures to replace natural aggregates. Characteristics of this type of concrete depends of the chosen replacement percentage of natural aggregates specially the mechanical properties. This article is part of my research studies done in the civil laboratory of the Mohammadia School of engineers. The study is based on the identification of the recycled aggregates, the determination of physicals and mechanical characteristics of the aggregates, the determination of the effect of the use of recycled aggregates on the concrete characteristics and finally the improve of the quality of the concrete to prove so that it can replace ordinary concrete. The test results described in this article show that the increase of the replacement by recycled aggregates decreases the mechanical properties especially when it is up to 25-30%. The results also prove that the ad of additives especially plasticizer with 1% replacement of cement improves the compressive strength of concrete and allows us to use up to 50% of replacement.

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Cloud is an Internet-based computing technology in which on-demand shared resources such as software, platforms, repositories, and information are delivered to customers. In the emerging era of computing cloud environment provide the use of resources with the concept of virtualization. Workflow of the tasks has vital role for the improvement of computing performance which leads to improved quality of service. As per the demand of user’s number of tasks are scheduled in such a way so that better performance is computed using partial deadline of the workflow. In this paper we have introduced with the workflow concepts, further we aim to diminish makespan for the proposed workflow scheduling algorithm. Here makespan refers to overall time duration taken for the sequence of tasks, by the resources so as to complete the execution of each and every task.

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This paper is an extended version of the work presented at a conference held in Kyiv, Ukraine, in October 2020, which reported the result of the numeric simulation on the artificial antigravity. This paper further describes the derivation of the idea of the artificial antigravity, and adds the simulation of angular momentum that is needed to describe the antigravity. Also, because the angular momentum is the perpendicular movement to a three-dimensional curved surface in a four-dimensional space-time, this paper challenges the limit of applying the curvature tensor in quantum mechanics; while, current quantum mechanics has been established on the flat surface. The artificial rotation of a hypothetical object is simulated, in which the gravity is so strong that the time-space can be distorted. The spherical polar coordinate system is selected to describe the curvature of the space, and the curvature tensor is formulated. Then the tensor is multiplied by the Euler’s rotation matrix to make the inner product for the gravitational energy and the outer cross-product for the angular momentum of the rotation. To simulate the distorted time-space, two cases are selected: the linear distortion and the non-linear distortion upon the distance from the center of the strong gravity; also, the speed of the rotation is set in two options: the slower and the faster. Then the equation of motion is set by the curvature tensor to calculate the coefficient of the gravitational energy on the surface of the sphere in the spherical polar coordinates, and to calculate the coefficient of the angular momentum in the perpendicular direction to the sphere. The result shows that the antigravity can be produced by rotating the object, and the angular momentum can show the opposite directions by the selection of the rotation speed.

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Fuel Cells (FCs) and Combined Cooling, Heating and Power (CCHP) systems are becoming very popular due to their environmental friendliness and immense applications. This extended review paper commenced by introducing the rampant South Africa’s electricity crisis as the basis for the study, followed by some structural analyses of up to forty-four miscellaneous power electronics converters case studies applicable to fuel cells including at least sixteen FCs energy management systems (EMS) applicable case studies. The review rationale is to determine innovative best practices that can be applied to devise an efficient power converter and EMS for an energy efficient FC CCHP system. From these analyses, it is realized that each power converter and EMS scheme has its merits and demerits depending on the targeted applications and most importantly the research project objectives ? that is, whether the goals are to reduce costs, enhance efficiency, reduce size, boost performance, simplicity, durability, reliability, safety etc. Therefore, the conclusion drawn is, there is no “one size fits all” approach, as all the various reviewed case studies reported relatively good results based on their chosen schemes for their targeted applications. Notwithstanding, this review highlights are, i) the interleaved boost converter and variants as well as ii) the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) technique; are the most widely used schemes, as they are reasonably effective and simple to implement. The contributions brought forward are i) an apt single reference study that presents a quick topological insight and synopsis of assorted FCs power converters as well as EMS and ii) our proffered FC CCHP system undergoing research to offer an innovative energy efficient solution for basic household energy needs such as electricity, heating, cooling and lighting.

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This paper details an extension to the SLIP model named spring-loaded inverted pendulum model with swing legs (SLIP-SL). SLIP-SL extends the SLIP model by introducing swing leg dynamics while keeping its passive nature. This way, reference trajectories for the center of mass and swing foot trajectories can be simultaneously obtained which was not possible with the SLIP. This makes implementation easier and can increase tracking performance. We show how a variety of feasible two-phased walking trajectories can be obtained for this template model using direct collocation optimization methods. It is also shown through simulation studies that reference SLIP-SL trajectories can be used to control a fully actuated bipedal robot with the proposed feedback linearization controller to reach a stable cyclic gait.

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Air Navigation Aids (NAVAIDs) whether implemented on the ground or in space and the Precision Approach Path Indicator (PAPI) system need to be checked in flight to ensure compliance with the standards set by International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). This activity has been carried out for decades by conventional aircraft and is usually done at low altitude around airports. This makes the task very dangerous and costly in terms of human lives. The use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAVs) or Drone to provide flight inspection and to progressively replace conventional aircraft through two measurement methods are described in this paper. We also propose an improved real-time trajectography system based on a Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS) correction, a comparative cost study between aircraft and UAV, while proposing levers for reducing flight inspection time and thus reducing costs. Study of environmental impact of flight inspection is discussed and strategies for using drones to reduce flight inspection costs are also discussed. From this study we draw the conclusions that flight inspection by drone allows first of all the risk of accident reduction for the navigation personnel on board and therefore a completely safe conduct of flight inspection; also it is cheaper for the air navigation services to use drones in addition to the fact that they are ecological solutions as they produces less greenhouse gases unlike the aircraft.

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PT XYZ has an Enterprise Resource Planning application that is used by the Planning Department to view stocks and plan production materials. Currently calculation of production materials takes more than 30 seconds just to export to Excel then a few minutes to adjust the data format to the planning form and the data used is not real-time. Each item needs to be calculated one by one per period, then the size of the Excel file used varies according to the time period and requires more storage. To support real-time integration and process efficiency planning and storage reduction, an integration between Enterprise Resource Planning application and web applications has been made using a Service Oriented Architecture approach. The Web service uses RESTful and has been tested using Quality of Service and the Vulnerability Test. Based on the test results using the Jmeter simulation with 10 users, it is obtained Latency 1.2 seconds and Load Time 1.2 seconds with an average amount of data sent 1280.73 bytes. The test results using OWASP ZAP show vulnerability to the web service header made from the web server version used by PHP version 5.6.40. With the results of these tests, the web service is able to replace the export and import process as well as create real-time data connectivity and replace storage media with databases, thereby reducing the time needed for planning activities.

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General relativity and its modified theories are unable to account for quantum mechanics and cannot explain dark matter or the origin of the gravitation. This paper presents a theory that describes how Newtonian gravitation originates at the level of the particle, and how particles induce gravitation and respond to the source of gravitation. This paper provides a deeper understanding of gravitation and a complete derivation of Newtonian gravitation from the level of particles; and shows how some particles can act like being massless and does not follow the Newtonian gravitation. In addition, This paper provides a new method, which determines a steep spacetime curvature and provides a new aspect of the galactic center. Past measurements of light-bending during total eclipses are consistent with the proposed theory.

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The rapid transformation of the energy sector in South Africa towards renewable energy (RE) production calls for the management of assets to keep pace with the ongoing developments in a reliable manner. Aging assets, increasing energy needs and reliable supply of energy without load shedding are some of the challenges utilities are facing in South Africa. In resolving these challenge, imaginative solutions are required to maintain the installed assets and determining the viability of refurbishment, replacement or upgrading. In the current work, an extension of the author’s previous work, a novel approach for estimating the service lifetime of transformers within Distributed Solar Photovoltaic (DSPV) Systems in South Africa is introduced. This experiential form has been derived by extensive experimental trials. The proposed approach is initially employed to evaluate the Degree of polymerization (DP) of cellulose insulation based on measured furan (2FAL) contents of 9 case scenarios. The calculated DP is then used to evaluate the service lifetime of these units. In efforts to authenticate the proposed approach, a comparative study is conducted against 5 other models. Finally, the proposed approach is compared with the results of the measured DP. It is observed that the proposed approach produce accurate estimates with an approximation not exceeding 1% and 2.2% from the measured DP and service lifetime respectively.

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Distributed Solar Photovoltaic (DSP) Plants are one of the fastest growing renewable energy systems in South Africa. The primary components forming an integral part of the point of common coupling (PCC) are, the inverter used to convert dc voltage to ac voltage and step-up transformers which step-up low voltage input to the desired output level. However, DSP plant step-up transformers are considered to be one of the most sensitive equipment on the plant. These transformers are challenged with various electrical problems including abnormal levels of harmonics. The presence of harmonics in these transformers results in higher service losses thereby raising the hotspot (HS) temperature, in which, consequently introduce the stray gassing phenomena of the insulating oils. This calls for understanding of the nature of the problem and possible remediation to ensure enhanced power quality. Present work, an extension of previous work, investigate a reported case of peculiar stray gassing of transformer insulation oils during service. Initially, the harmonic spectrum of the DSP plant is presented and the related service losses at fundamental and under harmonic conditions are computed. Furthermore, the thermal performance of the transformer under these conditions is investigated. Lastly, the Dissolved Gas Analysis (DGA) results of the oil samples are presented. Novelty, findings of this work indicate that the generation of hydrogen arising from stray gassing may stem from severely hydro-treated mineral oil, but is also strenuously affected by transformer thermal aging of polymers, choice of core steel grade, zinc tank walls and vanishes. The production surplus of methane and ethane are also witnessed in the first years of service and reaches substantial concentration levels. Potentially, these occurrences also arises from the thermal aging of polymers. The authors make some recommendations to utility owners to make a distinction of stray gassing from transformer fault by means of routine inspection aside from DGA value basis withal to the increase in gas diffusion rate. Further, the authors make some significant contribution by further recommending procedures that can be employed as remedies during the design phase and manufacturing processes. Lastly, the authors highlight the need to establish standards that will provide support for transformers intended to operate in DSP applications.

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The TAM is a model that is widely used to understand IT adoption and usage process accordingly and the reason for its popularity is that the model clarifies variances like behavioral intention (BI) relevant to IT appropriation and use over a broad range of settings. The model’s main factors for system use is perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU). Likewise, the T-O-E framework is a popular framework for three stimuli that influence organizational adoption namely technology, organization, and environment. Much literature has dealt with the use of TAM and T-O-E frameworks together with their derivatives without looking at the shortfall of these models. This paper reviewed one hundred and seventeen papers that used or reviewed TAM or TOE models. The contribution of this paper is the address of the usefulness, limitations, and criticism of the two models and also how the TAM and the T-O-E frameworks can be integrated into a hybrid model using a generic framework. In conclusion these models can be used separately or as a hybrid depending on the situation at hand. In future it important to harmonize the so many factors of the models that have been suggested and used in literature.

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In this paper a synchronization methodology of two fractional-order chaotic oscillators under the framework of identical synchronization and master-slave configuration is introduced. The proposed methodology is based on a fractional-order feedback control design under the frame of control theory, the feedback controllers provide synchronization convergence. A comparative study between a proportional control, a nonlinear fractional-order proportional-integral control and an active control is presented. The above is showed via an analysis of the dynamic of the called synchronization error. Numerical experiments using the mathematical model of the fractional-order unified chaotic system and its equivalent electronic circuit corroborate the satisfactory results of the proposed schemes.

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During the past years, a lot of research work have been done on the topic of smart grids and more specifically on the charging of electric vehicles (EVs), which will become an essential aspect in the coming years. The various works carried out on these themes have allowed the development of efficient tools to organize energy exchanges within these networks and to make this energy available to electric vehicles on certain time intervals. However, the problems related to the compatibility between the different elements of these networks seem to be largely underestimated. The collaborative work between IETR and Dropbird highlights the technological challenges that significantly hinder the deployment of relevant charging algorithms and experiments with dynamic programming-based algorithms to circumvent these obstacles.

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Encouraged by the huge publicly available genomic databases, research in the field of steganography was recently extended to utilize DNA sequence data to conceal secret information. As an extension of the work presented earlier by the author, this paper proposes an approach for a secure data communication channel between two parties. At one side of the communication, the sender starts the hiding process by encrypting the secret message using a bio-inspired 8×8 play-fair ciphering algorithm. Next, the secret sequence is randomly spliced and merged into the cover sequence replacing its non-coding regions. Using the secret key shared in advance, the receiver, on the other side of communication, can extract and concatenate the segments of the encrypted message and reveals the original message after deciphering. The method was proven to be robust to brute-force attacks while providing a hiding capacity up to two bit-per-nucleotide. A comparison with some existing techniques showed that the proposed method outperforms most of them not only in terms of the hiding capacity but also for the feature of blind extraction.

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A competitive manufacturing environment dictates to be conscious of the real cost of production to increase profitability, to have a precise cost estimation, and to avoid cost distortion. Activity-Based Costing (ABC) is one choice to achieve these objectives. This paper aims to build an ABC method, consequently, to explore its application for a local Aluminum extrusion factory that producing variant Aluminum profiles. The considered Aluminum extrusion factory is investigated carefully. Production resources, processes, and activities are identified for each product type, cost rates for each processing step are estimated, cost- estimating relationship model that mathematically describes the cost of the extruded product as a function of all consumable properties is created. Cost stream mapping through the production centers is analyzed then costs of existing resources are assigned, cost rates are obtained, accordingly results are discussed and presented. A comparison between the traditional costing method and the ABC is conducted, the comparison reveals that the ABC Estimates of the unit production costs are closer to reality than those obtained by the traditional costing method, contributing to the determination of realistic profit margins that are appropriate to the competitive market situation. Finally, recommendations and avenues for future works are suggested.

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The article further extends the researched issue of the unmanned aircraft use in the pre-flight and post-flight visual check of aircraft. Procedures of pre-flight inspection are fulfilled by the aircraft maintenance certified staff or the crew member before flight. The process is similar for all categories of aircraft, but its implementation differs for individual specific types of aircraft. Therefore, the article will deal only with small training aircraft, which will be used to verify the use of UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) in normal operation. It identifies and defines the problem of using multiple UAV in swarms and their usage in standard activities in aircraft operation. The outcome should be a reduction of the number of possible failures cause by the human factor with impact on the safety in operations. Proportionately important fact is the desirable minimization in the time necessary to carry out a pre-flight inspection process, which will improve the final indicator of the efficiency in aeroplane operations.

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Data mined from social media can be used in a variety of methods. The goal of this paper is to explore some of the various methods of mining data from social media and the different areas of its applications. From the analysis of other studies, it was clear that methods such as text analysis, classification, clustering, mapping, testing/validity methods, regression, and research methods were the overarching themes of the previously done research. Pros, cons, and possible extensions were examined for the current research evaluated in the social media data mining area. At the conclusion of this survey, our research team found that text analysis, sentiment analysis, and support vector machine classifiers were among the most common themes of the research methods in this field. In most cases, multiple methods were attempted for each topic to be able to cross compare results.

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The effectiveness and suitability for the reliability and test of the embedded software of the automotive EHPS (Electrical Hydraulic Power Steering) pump are extensively explored in this paper. The Crow-AMSAA analysis has been applied to evaluate the embedded software reliability growth based on the failure data collected in the prototype phase and in the field. The slope ? of the Crow-AMSAA plot is smaller than 1 which indicates that the reliability of the embedded software is increasing and failure rate is decreasing. The field performance and reliability of the embedded software, which is the key indicator to evaluate the effectiveness and suitability of the reliability management and testing methods used in design and development, are also summarized in this paper. Using the real field and zero mileage data to evaluate the effectiveness and suitability of DFR (Design for Reliability) is also beneficial for the company to make the continuous improvement for the future embedded system/software design and development.

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Collaborative E-learning is highly dependent on the well functioning of a complex socio-technical system that comprises information technology and various social processes. Large-scale infrastructures like the National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) provide access to research and educational resources and provide collaboration between educational and research organizations, thus providing a set of essential services for e-learning. Currently, the lack of data integration between e-learning systems is still a problem in NREN domains, and a hurdle to collaborative e-learning. We address systematic cross-organizational collaboration and data integration between large-scale e-learning systems by designing an architecture for NREN e-learning systems to support open access education and learning. In particular, we design and provide a reference implementation for an e-learning broker that can provide the needed data integration and processes, and takes into consideration the strategies and policies for open access in education and training. We develop the architecture and reference implementation applying the eXtreme Model-Driven Development (XMDD) paradigm for software design and development, using the DIME low-code development environment for modelling data, processes, and user interface. We consider here two specific application settings: The national network of e-learning collaboration in AfgREN, centered on the Kabul University in Afghanistan, and the newly started collaboration between the Athlone Institute of Technology (AIT) and Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT) in Ireland, that are forming a new consortium under the newly introduced Technological University structure.

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Virtual reality (VR) is finding applications in a wide range of industries; however, a significant number of users find VR experience considerably different from the real-world experience. To match the real-world experience, the VR experience should look real, should be immersive, and be in line with the users’ anticipation. Achieving realism in the virtual representation of objects, however, presents several technical challenges. This study presents a new approach, “Smooth Transition and Hybrid Reality (STHR),” to easily enhance VR realism. In this approach, the participants are exposed to a mix of real-world objects (RWO) and virtual objects (VO), and a smooth transitioning from the real world to the VR space is obtained by making the real-space highly relevant to the VR space and vice-versa. To test the effectiveness of STHR, different experiments on spatial awareness were conducted, and finally, a virtual art gallery was created for the public. A total of 21 participants were included in the study and were randomized into experiment and control groups. The results indicated that the interaction with an RWO in the initial phase of VR significantly increases the task completion time and the attention (both, p<0.05). It was found that almost 50% of the participants relied on prior knowledge of the real space even when different visual information is delivered through VR. STHR based virtual art gallery (VAG) was created for the public, and the experience of random visitors was noted. In VAG, haptic feedback was provided by using an RWO (3D printed artwork), and the smooth transition from RW to VR was maintained. The average time spent in the VAG more than 5 minutes, and the feedback of visitors was highly positive.

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Erosion affects large parts of Moroccan land, particularly in the mountains leading to soil quality deterioration and less vegetation cover. Located in the South-west of Morocco, the Site of Biological and Ecological Interest (SBEI) of Ain Asmama, where erosion threatens a major part of the region was investigated. The site has a terraced transitional bioclimate, between arid to sub-humid, of local conservation importance. The varied, dense, continuous, and well-preserved vegetation of the area is crucial to protect the soils against erosion. Qualitative observations show that soils are increasingly degraded, water erosion is developing, and sediments accumulate in dams and ponds. In this study we have used the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) to assess the erosion risk in this area. It helped to develop a synthetic map of erosion susceptibility. Our results show that the integration of the different parameters in the water erosion process estimated the loss of soil amounting 339,03 tons/ha/year over the whole site. This is equivalent to a value of soil lowering of 2,82 cm which is considered extremely high.

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The field of view (FOV) and spatial resolution (SR) are the major image quality parameters which are being optimized in neutron radiography (NR) technique. This requires effective components selection during the design of NR detector systems. The selection is a discouraging task owing to often having conflicting experimental requirements and related constraints. In this work, models were developed to study the relationship between detector system components. These allow the simulation of detector system components whilst taking cognizance of specific experimental requirements and constraints in order to aid the design. Various commercial detector system components combinations were simulated to evaluate their performance. Results were benchmarked with the result from secondary data. 100% agreement between these data demonstrated the accuracy of the models, allowing purposeful selection. The ?90% negative correlation between SR and FOV was identified as a tradeoff between these variables. Currently selected best combination offers a monotonic SR range of 25.5 – 170.92 µm pixel size, over FOV range of 52.3 × 52.3 mm2 – 350 × 350 mm2. The results also show that components can be selected for design of desired detector system within constraints to manage the field of view effectively; thereby optimizing the SR.

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In this study, 6 unique microstrip patch antennas with quarter-circular and semi-circular slots in patches are proposed. It is aimed to investigate the effect of these slots in the designed topologies. The antennas operate for wireless applications including Personal Communication Service (PCS), 3rd Generation (3G), The Standard for Wireless Fidelity (WiFi)/Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN)/Bluetooth, Long Term Evolution (LTE) and Global System for Mobile Communications at 1.8 GHz (GSM-1800). Simulation results for antenna performance parameters such as fractional bandwidth, gain, radiation pattern, radiation efficiency and total efficiency are presented.

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The Present work is to investigate effect of dry sliding wear behaviour of ZA27 base alloy, after reinforcing it with Molybdenum Di Sulphide (MoS2) particles from 0% to 4% in five steps. To examine the wear behaviour of both reinforced and un-reinforced material, dry or unlubricated pin on disc tests were conducted. These tests were conducted at varying speeds and loads of 1.5m/s,3m/s, 4.6m/s, 6.15 m/s and 5N, 10N, 20N and 25Nrespectively with a constant sliding distance of 1000m. The results revealed that, MoS2 reinforced ZA27 alloy showed less wear loss as compared to base ZA27 alloy. Delamination, abrasion, and adhesive wear were observed at high speed and load. Worn surface of tested specimen were analysed and examined through Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). To confirm presence of Molybdenum disulphide in prepared material, Energy Dispersion X-ray (EDX) test is carried out for 4% of Molybdenum disulphide reinforced ZA-27 material.

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The Present work is to investigate effect of dry sliding wear behaviour of ZA27 base alloy, after reinforcing it with Molybdenum Di Sulphide (MoS2) particles from 0% to 4% in five steps. To examine the wear behaviour of both reinforced and un-reinforced material, dry or unlubricated pin on disc tests were conducted. These tests were conducted at varying speeds and loads of 1.5m/s,3m/s, 4.6m/s, 6.15 m/s and 5N, 10N, 20N and 25Nrespectively with a constant sliding distance of 1000m. The results revealed that, MoS2 reinforced ZA27 alloy showed less wear loss as compared to base ZA27 alloy. Delamination, abrasion, and adhesive wear were observed at high speed and load. Worn surface of tested specimen were analysed and examined through Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). To confirm presence of Molybdenum disulphide in prepared material, Energy Dispersion X-ray (EDX) test is carried out for 4% of Molybdenum disulphide reinforced ZA-27 material.

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In the context of globalization and the crises that we are experiencing today, innovation becomes the engine of acceleration and resolution of all kinds of organizational dysfunctions. Different alternatives have been proposed by all researchers and practitioners. The role of this paper is to determine the peculiarities of innovation, including the role played by organizational, technological, and medical innovation in improving management practices within healthcare establishments. Although innovation is generally recognized as a vital point for the health sector, it is also crucial to study the place that these three forms of innovation can occupy in improving the quality of service and safety in care. This study assessed the impact of organizational, technological and medical innovations on the organizational performance of Moroccan health institutions. The data was collected using a structured questionnaire suitable for the Moroccan hospital environment, and 143 health professionals were managed at the Hassan II Hospital Center in Fez, Morocco. The broadcast data was analyzed using SPSS and structural partial least (PLS SEM). The results show that organizational innovation has a positive impact on hospital performance.

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Efficient real-time clustering is a relevant topic in big data streams. Data stream clustering needs necessarily a short time execution frame with bounded memory utilizing a one-scan process. Because of the massive volumes and dynamics of data streams, parallel clustering solutions are urgent. This paper presents a new approach for this trend, with advantages to overcome the main challenges of huge data streams, time, and memory resources. A framework is proposed reliant on a data clustering parallel implementation that divides most recent incoming data streams within a sliding window mechanism to distribute them across a multi-core structure for processing. Every core is responsible for the processing and generation of intermediate micro-clusters for one data partition. The resulting micro clusters are consolidated utilizing the additive property of the micro-cluster data structure to merge those parallel clusters and obtain the final clusters. The proposed approach has been tested on two sorts of datasets: KDD-CUP’99 and KDD-CUP’98. The results show that the proposed optimized parallel window-based clustering approach is efficient for online cluster generation for big data streaming with regard to the performance measures processing time and scheduling delay. The processing time is 1.5 times faster, and the scheduling delay is approximately between 1.3 to 1.7 times less than the sequential implementation. Most important is that the clustering quality is equal to that of the non-parallel implementation.

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Aiming at the problem of fatigue driving, this paper proposed a driver fatigue tracking and detection method combined with OpenMV. OpenMV is used for image acquisition, and the Dlib feature point model is used to locate the detected driver’s face. The aspect ratio of eyes is calculated to judge the opening and closing of eyes, and then fatigue detection is performed by PERCLOS (Percentage of Eyelid Closure over the Pupil). The cradle head system is mounted for driver fatigue tracking and detection. The results show that the dynamic tracking system can improve the accuracy to 92.10% for relaxation and 85.20% for fatigue of driver fatigue detection. This system can be applied to the monitoring of fatigue driving very effectively.

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Organizations make use of different tools and methods to test and evaluate software, for quality and appropriateness purposes. However, many organizations are unable to perform multiple testing activities (manual, automation and performance testing), using a single tool. As a result of limitation of some tools, some organizations are hampered in their attempt to test software, which affect productivities. This is a challenge that has for many years, caused severe problems for some organizations, affecting their time to respond to business change. The challenge is associated with the lack of framework to guide complementary use of multiple tools when carrying out software testing. This study employs the case study and the interpretivist approaches. From the findings, a decision support system (DSS) framework was developed, which can be used guide testing and evaluation of software in an organization. Also, the DSS is intended to support and assist software engineers, developers and managers in identifying the factors that influence their decisions from both, technical and non-technical perspectives, when testing software.

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The paper presents the technique for the user-friendly numerical simulation of coupled oscillators described by the Kuramoto model. Oscillators couplings are defined as arbitrary 2?-periodic functions given by the Fourier series. Matlab procedure was developed to generate netlist for the equivalent electrical circuit diagram of the Kuramoto model. The input data of the procedure include the natural frequencies of oscillators and the amplitudes of the couplings harmonics. Kirchhoff equations of the equivalent circuit coincide with the equations of the Kuramoto model. The generated netlists provide obtaining the simulation results using standard circuit simulator. These results numerically coincide with the transients computed using the original Kuramoto model. The presented examples confirm the convenience and effectiveness of the proposed approach.

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At the conference “System timing, shaping and signal processing” “SYNCHRONO-2020” there was report: “Simulation of steady state microwave oscillator with dielectric resonator” and “Microwave generators, driven by voltage-based microassemblies with dielectric resonators”. An algorithm for calculating a generator with an open dielectric resonator is described. Based on the DesignLab 8.0 simulation environment, the analysis of the stationary mode of generators with electric control (voltage) of the oscillation frequency with parallel and serial feedback circuits is carried out. Analysis of the characteristics of the developed generators in the X-band of voltage-controlled oscillators (VCO) indicated the prospects for using a device with sequential feedback, characterized by a lower level of phase noise (depending on the frequency tuning range, having values from minus 85 to minus 95 dB/Hz when tuning from the generation frequency by 10 kHz). However, this noise level is significantly (by 15…20 dB) worse than world analogues in this frequency range (the C and X frequency ranges are considered). The purpose of creating the device is to use it in generators with analog phase frequency adjustment based on a frequency discriminator. This article describes the characteristics of the VCO and calculates the topology of the phase locked loop (PLL) circuit based on a discriminator formed by a high-quality open dielectric resonator. Such a technical solution is promising as stable generators alternative to highly stable free oscillator. The prototype of the generator under consideration described in the work of A.V. Gorevoy.

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The recent advances in geoscience technologies and earth observation tools have evolved in recent years in a fast cadence. Since 1980 with the apparition of Landsat mission firstly named the Earth Resources Technology Satellite, with 80 m spatial resolution; the ability to capture finest details was limited. The emergence of new concepts in agriculture like digital agriculture and precision agriculture (PA) was challenging the capacity of satellite images to capture the variation within the field. The domain that was firstly more dedicated to aerial and handheld remote sensing is now accessible to satellite remote sensing thanks to recent advancements that had provided more satisfactory spatial resolution reaching 0.3 m in a daily revisit frequency. Different providers have launched commercial, very high-resolution nanosatellite constellations to respond to more precise needs, and increasing the availability of remotely sensed images expands the horizon of our choices of imagery sources. The present work intends to compare spatial, temporal, spectral, and radiometric resolution, considering the farmer’s requirements and precision agriculture application’s requirements nowadays available and the future generation satellite missions, and benchmark the major satellite images providers. It exposes the characteristics and future missions to facilitate adequate choice. The criterion of selecting the appropriate sensors among the considerable amount of providers was limited to optical data, with less than 10 m spatial resolution and frequent revisit time. The offer of imagery is majorly commercial missions; the available open and accessible alternative is limited in the sentinel mission with 10 m spatial resolution.

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The following document analyzes the current situation in mobility and intelligent transportation in Colombia and in some cities around the world. Presenting several cases of success and implementation of technologies and protocols that seek to improve the problems with the greatest impact in today’s cities, such as traffic congestion, environmental impact, accessibility, and road safety. The main objective of this research is to propose recommendations appropriate for transportation systems in Colombian cities, identifying the present challenges; therefore, through this article we will expand the panorama on ITS (Intelligent Transport System) that can be developed taking into account the needs of each territory; optimizing the strategies proposed and in turn considering the solutions that are being carried out; taking them as a guide for cities that are still in search of better mobility plans.

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Microcontrollers have revolutionized the field of Engineering Education. Their popularity and cost-effectiveness have opened a large door of activity for innovative projects at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The purpose of this article is to review this activity in terms of where two of these microcontrollers have been used in Engineering Education so as to recommend further possible applications. Focus is limited to papers presented at three IEEE-based conferences over the past 10 years that mentioned the Arduino or Raspberry Pi. Documentary analysis is thus used where the abstracts of the conference papers were reviewed. Results indicate that EDUCON dominated the field of microcontroller education from 2013 to 2016, while the last three years have seen more papers dedicated to this topic being presented at the FIE series of conferences. A total of nine papers relating to microcontroller education has also been presented at TALE between 2012 and 2019. The main application of these microcontrollers has been in the field of Robotics, with general electronics and design-based learning following suit. At least 11 conference papers focusing on the use of these microcontrollers at school level were found. Overall, the Arduino outranks the Raspberry Pi by almost 4:1, with the most cited papers relating to Robotics education, to helping students at home to complete science and technology experiments and to programming. Further applications can extend to energy monitoring and academic development workshops.

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With the advent of internet technology and social media, patterns of social communication in daily lives have changed whereby people use different social networking platforms. Microblog is a new platform for sharing opinions by means of emblematic expressions, which has become a resource for research on emotion analysis. Recognition of emotion from microblogs (REM) is an emerging research area in machine learning as the graphical emotional icons, known as emoticons, are becoming widespread with texts in microblogs. Studies hitherto have ignored emoticons for REM, which led to the current study where emoticons are translated into relevant emotional words and a REM method is proposed preserving the semantic relationship between texts and emoticons. The recognition is implemented using a Long-Short-Term Memory (LSTM) for the classification of emotions. The proposed REM method is verified on Twitter data and the recognition performances are compared with existing methods. The higher recognition accuracy unveils the potential of the emoticon-based REM for Microblogs applications.

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Experiments to investigate the performance of a thermoelectric cooler box powered using a solar panel with a mini pin fin as the heat removal unit was conducted at the un-condition ambient temperature. Due to solar power, the power given to the thermoelectric on different days was different. However, the power on the day of the experiment was nearly stable because the solar panel was connected to a battery. The parameters tested were the cooler box temperatures and COP (coefficient of performance)and there were four Cases examined in this study: Case A (the cooler box was empty), Case B (the cooler box was filled with water of 3000 ml), Case C (the cooler box was charged with 6000 ml of water), and Case D (the cooler box was filled with 9000 ml of water). For these experimental conditions, the maximum COP was 0.51. This was obtained for the run with 9000 ml of water. Increasing the water volume raises the temperatures inside the cooler box and the optimum performance is discussed.

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This article examines the operational performance of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) before the pandemic and a new normal life. Overview of BRT operational performance in terms of the number of passengers transported, load factor and operating ratio. The method used is to compare the conditions before the pandemic and the new era of life. The findings of overall operations performance have decreased since the pandemic. However, BRT operations services are keep running by prioritizing health protocols. Efforts to control the spread of Covid-19 in BRT operations carried out by the policy steps presented. The government needs effort and consistency with BRT services in community services and strategies to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

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This paper studied the influence of using hybrid additives of Nano Clay (NC) and Marble Powder (MP) on the structural behavior of columns, in terms of ultimate capacity, axial strain, lateral strain, toughness, and failure pattern. For this purpose, ten column specimens were made from reinforced concrete (RC), either normal or high strength, and were tested under axial compressive loading. It was concluded that, regardless of the concrete strength of the RC columns, the presence of the optimum ratio of the hybrid additives (NC and MP) promotes more ductile behavior of the columns with enhancement in ultimate load capacity. Furthermore, it was found that NC particles act as additional ties on the micro scale level and increase the confinement in the RC columns. Also, the filling effect of MP particles, that strengthened the cement matrix, led to higher increment in the lateral strain and toughness. Briefly, Higher axial load capacity, better ductile performance, greater reduction in the ties ratio and larger dissipation of energy can be achieved by using the optimum hybrid additions of NC and MP in the RC columns.

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FPGAs constitute a flexible and increasingly popular controlling solution for robotic applications. Their core advantages regarding high computational performance and software-like flexibility make them suitable controller platforms for robots. These robotic applications include localization / navigation, image processing, industrial or even more complex procedures such as operating on medical or human assistant tasks. This paper provides an overview of the publications regarding different robotic FPGA application fields as well as the most commonly-used robot types used for those applications for the 10-year period of 2010-2019. A short description of each paper reviewed is also included, providing a total view of FPGA technology trends in robotic applications over the last decade.

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The purpose of this study is to evaluate the factors affecting the decisions of factors affecting the decision of individual customers to choose a savings bank at commercial banks in Da Nang city. . Through the use of appropriate research methods, the authors have found that there are 5 factors with 5 groups of factors that greatly affect the decision of individual customers to choose a savings bank. Service quality, safety, stakeholder influence, financial benefit, convenience. Through this result, it will help opinions, orientations and solutions to improve individual customers’ decisions on choosing a savings bank at joint stock commercial banks in Da Nang city.

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Genome-wide association studies, or GWAS, have reported associations between SNPs and specific diseases/traits. GWAS results contain variants located in different genomic regions, including variants in the 3’UTR. MicroRNAs, or miRNAs, are small noncoding RNAs that bind to the 3’UTRs of genes to regulate gene expression. However, variant(s) that are located in the 3’UTR could impact miRNA binding, thus affecting expression of its targeted gene(s). To specifically elucidate miRNA targeting pairs and binding site variants associated with a specific trait, well-designed downstream analysis along with careful experimental design are necessary. Currently, there is no available state-of-the-art methodology for identifying miRNA targeting pairs and associated variants that could contribute to phenotypes using GWAS. Moreover, it is unrealistic to conduct experiments for elucidating all possible miRNA targeting pairs and binding site variants across the entire genome. In this project, we developed a bioinformatic pipeline to computationally identify genes and their targeting miRNA pairs that are enriched over the miRNA-gene tissue expression network for the studied genetic traits and examined the binding site variants’ impact on Body Mass Index (BMI).

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