E-learning adoption in higher education in Jordan: vision, reality and change

This paper discusses the implementation of an e-learning program at a Jordanian University (Al-Ahliyya Amman University). The program originally aimed to establish a virtual university which offers totally online courses but due to a number of reasons there had to be some changes in the implementation process. The paper discusses such changes and challenges faced by AAU in implementing its e-learning program from an IS project management point of view. Findings suggest that implementing such projects needs careful consideration of a variety of issues to ensure that the objectives are achieved. The case provides rich insights to other educational institutions wishing to implement such projects

Design of a Simple Dust Removal System for a Solar Street Light System

يعد الغبار ومخلفات الطيور من المشاكل التي تعيق عمل منظومات الانارة للشوارع وخاصة في المناطق شبه الصحراوية  ومنها العراق. وفي هذه الورقة ، تم تصنيع المنظومة محليا من مكونات   بسيطة ورخيصة . يعمل النظام تلقائيا  , يربط مع الالواح الشمسية المستخدمة في انارة الشوارع، ويحصل على الكهرباء المطلوبة من نفس النظام الشمسي يعمل  النظام على غسل الالواح الشمسية بالمياه المقطرة ومسحها ، وبوقت قصير لا يتجاوز نصف دقيقة  كما يمكن  التحكم بفترة التنظيف , كما يمكن ايضا التحكم , والاستشعار بكمية الغبار التي يعمل عندها النظام. كما تمت دراسة تأثير انواع مختلفة للغبار الساقط على الالواح والذي تم جمعه من رياح مختلفة ودراسة تأثيرها على أداء الألواح الشمسية. كما درست النفاذية مع الطول الموجي لثلاث انواع من الاتربة. المنظومة استهلاكها للتيار والفولتية قليل نسبيا ,ممكن تعميمها لسهولة تصنيعها وتوفر مكوناته محليا وهي فعالة بشكل جيد.      Dust and bird residue are problems impeding the operation of solar street lighting systems, especially in semi-desert areas, such as Iraq. The system in this paper was designed and developed locally using simple and inexpensive materials. The system runs automatically. It Connects to solar panels used in solar street lighting, and gets the required electricity from the same solar system. Solar panels are washed with dripping water in less than half a minute by this system. The cleaning period can also be controlled. It can also control, sensing the amount of dust the system operates. The impact of different types of falling dust on panels has also been studied. This was collected from different winds and studied their impact on solar panel performance. Also it studied permeability with the wavelength of three types of soil. The system has relatively low current and voltage consumption; it can be generalized for easy manufacturing and locally available components and is well effective

Critical care management of severe traumatic brain injury in adults

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major medical and socio-economic problem, and is the leading cause of death in children and young adults. The critical care management of severe TBI is largely derived from the "Guidelines for the Management of Severe Traumatic Brain Injury" that have been published by the Brain Trauma Foundation. The main objectives are prevention and treatment of intracranial hypertension and secondary brain insults, preservation of cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP), and optimization of cerebral oxygenation. In this review, the critical care management of severe TBI will be discussed with focus on monitoring, avoidance and minimization of secondary brain insults, and optimization of cerebral oxygenation and CPP

Advanced Flowrate Control of Petroleum Products in Transportation: An Optimized Modified Model Reference PID Approach

Efficient flowrate control is paramount for the seamless operation and reliability of petroleum transportation systems, where precise control of fluid movement ensures not only operational efficiency but also safety and cost-effectiveness. The main aim of this paper is to develop a highly effective modified model reference PID controller, tailored to ensure optimal flowrate control of petroleum products throughout their transportation. Initially, the petrol transportation process is analyzed to establish a suitable mathematical model based on vital factors like pipeline diameter, length, and pump attributes. However, using a basic first-order time delay model for petrol transportation systems is limiting due to inaccuracies, variable delay issues, safety oversights, and real-time control complexities. To improve this, the delay portion is approximated as a third-order transfer function to better reflect complex physical conditions. Subsequently, the PID controller is synthesized by modifying its structure to address flowrate control issues. These modifications primarily focus on the controller’s derivative component, involving the addition of a first-order filter and alterations to its structure. To optimize the proposed controller, the genetic, black hole, and zebra optimization techniques are employed, aiming to minimize an integral time absolute error cost function and ensure that the outlet flow of the controlled system closely follows the response of an appropriate reference model. They are chosen for their proficiency in complex optimization to enhance the controller's effectiveness by optimizing parameters within constraints, adapting to system dynamics, and ensuring optimal conditions. Through simulations, it is demonstrated that the proposed controller significantly enhances the stability and efficiency of the control system, while maintaining practical control signals. Moreover, the proposed modifications and intelligent tuning of the PID controller yield remarkable improvements compared to previous related work, resulting in a 36% reduction in rise time, a 63% reduction in settling time, an 80% reduction in overshoot, and a 98% reduction in cost value

Cache-timing attack against aes crypto system - countermeasures review

Side channel attacks are based on side channel information, which is information that is leaked from encryption systems. Implementing side channel attacks is possible if and only if an attacker has access to a cryptosystem (victim) or can interact with cryptosystem remotely to compute time statistics of information that collected from targeted system. Cache timing attack is a special type of side channel attack. Here, timing information caused by cache effect is collected and analyzed by an attacker to guess sensitive information such as encryption key or plaintext. Cache timing attack against AES was known theoretically until Bernstein carry out a real implementation of the attack. Fortunately, this attack can be a success only by exploiting bad implementation in software or hardware, not for algorithm structure weaknesses, and that means attack could be prevented if proper implementation has been used. For that reason, modification in software and hardware has been proposed as countermeasures. This paper reviews the technique applied in this attack, surveys the countermeasures against it, and evaluates the feasibility and usability of each countermeasure. We made comparison between these countermeasure based on certain aspect furthermore

Lubrication at physiological pressures by polyzwitterionic brushes

The very low sliding friction at natural synovial joints, which have friction coefficients of mu < 0.002 at pressures up to 5 megapascals or more, has to date not been attained in any human-made joints or between model surfaces in aqueous environments. We found that surfaces in water bearing polyzwitterionic brushes that were polymerized directly from the surface can have m values as low as 0.0004 at pressures as high as 7.5 megapascals. This extreme lubrication is attributed primarily to the strong hydration of the phosphorylcholine-like monomers that make up the robustly attached brushes, and may have relevance to a wide range of human-made aqueous lubrication situations

Small Horizontal Wind Turbine Design and Aerodynamic Analysis Using Q-Blade Software

Wind energy is one of the most common and natural resources that play a huge role in energy sector, and due to the increasing demand to improve the efficiency of wind turbines and the development of the energy field, improvements have been made to design a suitable wind turbine and obtain the most energy efficiency possible from wind. In this paper, a horizontal wind turbine blade operating under low wind speed was designed using the (BEM) theory, where the design of the turbine rotor blade is a difficult task due to the calculations involved in the design process. To understand the behavior of the turbine blade, the QBlade program was used to design and simulate the turbine rotor blade during working conditions. The design variables such as (chord length and torsion angle) affecting the performance of wind turbines were studied. Aileron (NACA4711) was selected for sixteen different sections of the blade with a length of (155 cm) both (power factor, torque coefficient, lift coefficient, drag coefficient, lift-to-drag coefficient ratio) where high-accuracy results were obtained and it was found that the best performance in which the turbine rotor can operate is when the(tip speed ratio) is equal to (7). In addition, a power factor was obtained (Cp = 0.4742), not exceeding the Betz limit (0.59%). It is good efficiency for a small wind turbine, and it turns out that the design of a small horizontal wind turbine with three blades is suitable for working in areas with low wind speed

Decrease of Phenolic Preservatives in Insulin Preparations at Different Storing Conditions and after Ending their Expiry Date

Determination of phenolic compounds in insulin preparations includes extraction with ethyl acetate (phases ratio organic to aqueous is 1:5 with one batch or 1:10 with two batches) in acidic medium (PH =1.5-2), and then quantification by GC or UV spectrophotometric techniques. This study leads to ensure that the preservatives concentrations are effected by different conditions in the store of insulin preparations. The concentration of methyl paraben was (0.808)mgml after expiry date by (150-170) days . When the insulin preparations stored at freezing point for (9-10) days, the concentration of methyl paraben reduced to (0.37)mgml, and to (0)mgml , after (16-18)days at freezing point . Uv-Vis method was proposed and applied for drawing calibration curve at 272 nm. for mcresol which is used as preservative in insulin preparations. While methyl paraben was determined by GC technique