Design of a seed extractor using the physical and mechanical properties of cucumber fruits

AbstractThe aim of this investigation is to study some physical and mechanical properties of cucumber fruits to help the design of handling machines for seed production. The physical and mechanical properties of cucumber fruits are used to develop of a seed-extractor.The main results in this study can be summarized as follows:Physical properties of cucumber fruits: fruit diameter = 50 -  68, 60 - 76 and 56  - 75 mm, fruit length = 169 – 291, 230 – 315 and 180 – 295 mm, fruit mass = 210 – 540, 235 – 595 and 290 – 585 g/ fruit, number of seeds per fruit in = 350 – 580, 410 – 590 and 355 – 560, bulk density = 1.37, 1.30 and 1.40 g/cm3  and real density =   0.49, 0.44 and 0.45 g/cm3 for  “Beta-alpha”, “Hayel” and “Bahi” varieties respectively, bulb mass per fruit = 250 – 550 g/fruit, seed mass per fruit= 15 – 40 g/fruit, rind thickness = 7 – 10 mm and fruit volume = 200 – 500 cm3 for all tested varieties, .Mechanical properties of cucumber fruits: penetration forces = 39.2 – 42.5, N, firmness = 90.1 99.1 100.9 N/cm2 and axial shear-force = 41.5 - 43 N for tested “Beta-alpha”, “Hayel” and “Bahi” varieties.The physical and mechanical properties are used to design of a seed-extractor is given also in this paper

An evaluation of geographical information systems for surface water studies in the Badia region of Jordan

Three applications of Geographical Information Systems for surface water studies in the Badia region of Jordan are presented, hi the first application, a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the study area was generated from the available contour maps. The channel drainage network was enforced into the created DEM to ensure accurate emplacement of the extracted drainage network. The channel drainage network was extracted from the DEM at a threshold value of 250 pixels. At this threshold, the drainage density of the extracted channel network is equivalent to the wadis network on the topographic maps In the second application, a hydrologically-oriented GIS database was developed. The database aimed to provide detailed description of the watershed characteristics and the hydrological processes relevant to surface water studies. A menu-driven application was built on the database to extract and analyse the database information at the sub- watershed level. The third application involved building a spatial model for generating surface runoff hydrographs from the rainfall data. The model applies GIS data structure and the raster processing techniques to simulate the rainfall-excess generation and flow routing processes. The distributed structure of the model allows for representing the hydrological processes and modelling the watershed response at the level of details that fits the resolution of the available data

Color based image segmentation using different versions of k-means in two spaces

In this paper color based image segmentation is done in two spaces. First in LAB color space and second in RGB space all that done using three versions of K-Means: K-Means, Weighted K-Means and Inverse Weighted K-Means clustering algorithms for different types of images: biological images (tissues and blood cells) and ordinary full colored images. Comparison and analysis are done between these three algorithms in order to differentiate between them

An Investigation of the Linkage between Minimum Household Water Requirement and Health in the Greater Irbid Area

The quantities of water secured for humans for their daily domestic use including hydration and hygiene requirements have an effect on their health conditions. Guidance on the minimum household water requirement to assure good health is lacking. This study aims at the development of such guidance using data for daily water consumption and diarrhea incidences in children below five as an indicator for health conditions. The study area selected is the Greater Irbid area in the northern part of Jordan. Statistical analysis of these data led to the development of a mathematical relationship between the daily water consumption and diarrhea incidences. Using this relationship, a minimum household water requirement can be determined corresponding to an acceptable diarrhea incidence rate as an indication for good health conditions. Data of the study area reflect a need to increase the share of water supplied to the citizens of Greater Irbid area

Role of School Administration in Solving Students' Problems among Bedouin Schools within the Green Line in Palestine

The present study aimed to identify the role of the school administration in solving the students' problems and differences according to gender, scientific qualification, years of experience and job title. The sample consisted of (300) staff from those who are working in the Bedouin schools within the Green Line of Palestine. The author used a questionnaire in collecting data after verifying its validity and reliability. The results showed that the school administration in the Bedouin schools within the Green Line plays a moderate role in solving the problems of students. The domain of “the role of school administration in solving academic problems” ranked the first, and the results showed that there are no statistically significant differences due to the variables of gender scientific qualification, years of experience and job title in all domains of the questionnaire and the total questionnaire. The study concluded with some recommendations. Key words: School administration, student problems, Bedouin schools

Association between diabetes and infection

Background: The objective of the study was to assess the association between diabetes and infection. Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to summarize and quantify the association between diabetes and the risk of infections in the existing literature. Second, a cohort study was done to estimate the association between diabetes and infections occurring in primary care. Results: The systematic review and meta-analysis demonstrated that diabetes is associated with an increased risk of infection. Results were generally consistent across types of infections. Findings from the cohort study suggest that patients with diabetes have a small increased risk of developing certain infections compared to patients without diabetes in primary care. Conclusion: Diabetes is associated with an increased risk of infections. The relationship varies according to type of infection present. However, more research is needed to determine the implications of patient characteristics such as BMI and glycemic control on the risk of infections

Assessing socio-economic determinants of energy-saving behavior in Waterloo Region

The residential sector is responsible for significant amounts of energy consumption; leading to several important social, economic, and environmental issues. The expected future population growth will require additional residential units to be built, and thus, more energy is expected to be consumed. Different sources of energy are consumed by households for many purposes, and the amount of consumed energy by the different household activities varies widely. Therefore, households are considered as an important target group that can help reduce the levels of energy consumption and mitigate several sustainability concerns through energy-saving behavior. The energy-saving behavior is regarded as a sub-set of larger and more general environment-friendly or pro-environmental behaviors and it can be categorized into two broad categories: energy conservation behaviors and energy efficiency behaviors. In this study, which aims at providing a better understanding of households’ energy conservation and efficiency behaviors and identifying the various determinates or characteristics that predict people who are likely to engage in such behaviors, the relationships between the number of reported energy saving behaviors by 401 respondents and several psychological, situational, and socio-demographic determinants were examined. The findings of the study underscore the complexity associated with examining and understanding households’ energy-related behaviors and the various determinants that are able to influence such behaviors. According to the findings of this thesis, except for the moderate relationship that was identified between the independent variable (home ownership) and the number of reported energy efficiency behaviors, the relationships between all the examined independent variables and the number of reported energy conservation and efficiency behaviors were found either weak or statistically insignificant. More specifically, the independent variables (knowledge, cost-benefit appraisal, information, dwelling type, year home was built, income, number of people in the home, and the relationship status of the participants) were found to have statistically significant, but weak relationships with both the number of reported energy conservation and efficiency behaviors. However, other determinants like (gender, age, employment, having children at home, and the city/township that the study participants reside in) were found to have no statistically significant relationship with both the number of reported energy conservation and efficiency behaviors. Moreover, independent variables like (attitude of the study participants, subjective norms, and the level of education) were found to have statistically significant weak relationship with the number of reported energy conservation behaviors, but not with the number of reported energy efficiency behaviors. Given the complexity and heterogeneity of human behavior that can be affected by a number of interacting intrinsic and extrinsic variables, this study recommends that future research should examine additional determinants that were not addressed in this work. It is also recommended and advisable to measure the actual energy conservation and efficiency behaviors of households whenever possible, as this will help provide better and more accurate understanding of households’ energy related behaviors. This means that more effective interventions can be designed and implemented in order to achieve the desired sustainable behavior patterns and lower the levels of energy consumption in the residential sector

THE USE OF SIMULATION TO EVALUATE AND ENHANCE THE PERFORMANCE OF PASSPORTS AND CIVIL AFFAIRS SECTOR

In this thesis, the proposed project intends to study the use of Decision Support Systems in simulating Gaza Civil Affairs and Passports Directorate (GCAPD) through identifying the current environment, analyzing the status, and proposing a new system using simulation to determine the optimal number of service providers for the system in order to reduce the postponement of the public services

Developing Accreditation Standards for Jordanian Universities

Higher Educatio

Clustering Algorithms in Echo State Networks

In this work, we develop a new method of setting the input to reservoir and reservoir to reservoir weights in echo state machines. We use a clustering technique which we have previously developed as a pre-processing stage to set the reservoir parameters which at this stage are prototypes. We then use these prototypes as weights in the standard architecture while setting the reservoir to output weights in a standard manner. We show results on a variety of data sets in the literature which show that this method out-performs a standard random echo state machine