Training students to develop creative and innovative talents

Creativity is the ability of a person that enables him/her to think of, dream up or visualize unusual solution to a problem. It plays an important part in the development of a nation. Generally, a creative process involves five significant steps: first insight, preparation, incubation, illumination and verification. Innovation, on the other hand, is the process of reducing creative ideas to practice, making some systems, components or equipment. The success of a creative process depends to a great extent on the individual, and the environment that exists around him / her. The generation of ideas is considered one of the most important elements, where brain-storming plays an important role, which is subjected to stringent evaluation process before being implemented. An encouragement and support from educators towards creative signs of students would help in the development of creativity. An awareness of creative and innovative process and an involvement in the solution of a creative problem may help students to develop creative and innovative talents. To promote creativity and innovation, areas e.g. projects, laboratory experiments, design of systems and components, where opportunities exist for the development of creativity, should be identified to play an active role in it

Desalination: conversion of seawater to freshwater

Desalination methods are used to convert saline/brackish water to drinkable freshwater. Major processes use either thermal energy (conventional distillation) or pressure energy (Reverse osmosis). Different methods of desalination are discussed and their influence on overall water production has been highlighted. With the increase in appreciation for a green technology, desalination methods using renewable/waste energy are drawing significant attention in recent years. Applying different methods of desalination for coastal areas in Peninsular Malaysia can be very promising in terms of overall public health and economy

LARVICIDAL EFFECT OF SELECTED SALTS AGAINST THE DENGUE VECTOR MOSQUITO AEDES AEGYPTI (DIPTERA: CULICIDAE) IN BANGLADESH

The container breeding mosquito Aedes aegypti (Linnaeus) is the major universal vector of dengue viruses that cause dengue fever (DF), dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) and dengue shock syndrome (DSS). Vector control has an important role in reducing human cases of DHF/DSS. The purpose of this work was to evaluate the larvicidal effect of salt solutions against the larvae of Ae. aegypti. Freshly collected larvae were transferred to the laboratory and reared using rainwater as the rearing medium, with yeast granules as larval food. Five salts, AgNO3, HgCl2, CdCl2, CuSO4, and CuCl2, were tested to assess the larvicidal effect on both the 1st and 3rd instar larvae of Ae. aegypti. Serial concentrations (0, 1, 3, 5, 7 and 10 ppm) of each salt were prepared using distilled water as the solvent. Silver nitrate (AgNO3) was noted as the most effective larvicide, followed by HgCl2, CdCl2, CuSO4, and CuCl2. The LC50 values of AgNO3 against 1st and 3rd instar larvae were 0.118 and 1.659 ppm, and the LC90 values were 2 and 3.347 ppm, respectively. The LT50 values of AgNO3 (1 ppm) against 1st and 3rd instar larvae were 0.575 and 30.42 h, and the LT90 values were 6.00 and 67.49 h, respectively. All 1st instar larvae died, failing to pupate in every salt concentration (1-10 ppm) within 7 days. Third instar larvae were also unable to pupate entirely in AgNO3 and HgCl2 solutions but a very few (5.00-36.66%) pupations were found at 7 ppm, with higher concentrations of CdCl2, CuSo4 and CuCl2 salts. In addition, CdCl2, CuSo4 and CuCl2 prevented 66.66%, 57.14% and 50% of adult emergences from pupae at 5 ppm concentration, respectively. The order of decrease of toxicity for larval mortality was AgNO3>HgCl2>CdCl2>CuSO4>CuCl2, and in preventing pupation and adult emergence it was AgNO3≥HgCl2>CdCl2>CuSO4>CuCl2. AgNO3 was found to have very good potential in the killing of Aedes aegypti larvae, prevention of pupae formation and adult emergence. Therefore, the results obtained could be considered a contribution to the search for eco-friendly larvicides of natural origin. Further studies are needed to understand the residual aquatic toxicity of this salt in the field

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Lumber Corset Wearing in Low Back Ache: A Rehabilitation Center Based Cross-sectional Study

Patients are most commonly advised by medical practitioners even after remaining wide range of controversy regarding wearing of lumber corset in low backache (LBA). Therefore, this study aimed to determine the potential evidence of using lumber orthosis in LBA. The study adopted 50 participants (21 male and 29 female) ages ranging between 20 to 60 years as sample selecting randomly from September to December 2015. Outcome evaluated by calculating and presenting descriptive statistics at 0.05 p-value and x2 test with confidence intervals (95%), Odd Ratio (OR), and Relative Risk (RR). Age and sex were not statistically significant determinants (x2 1.172, p 0.279 and x2 0.593, p 0.441, respectively). Wearing orthosis and reduce pain in a journey found as protective (RR 0.79 and RR 0.94) also poor relationship discovered in considering OR (OR 0.242, 95% CI 0.021-2.780 and OR 0.857, 95% CI 0.164-4.467). Our data were unable to provide adequate proof that wearing lumber corset bring any clinical or therapeutic benefit in managing LBA to the patients

Performance evaluation of PV module using water filters and infrared reflective glass covers

The Photovoltaic (PV) system converts only a selected band (0.35μm to 0.82 μm) of solar radiation to electricity. The absorption of radiation outside this band leads to a temperature raise of PV module which affects its performance. Experiments were performed to prevent radiation outside the selected to reach the PV panel using water filtersand different types of infrared reflective pigments. The results of the experiments showed that the optimum water filter panel was the one with thickness of 10 mm. It led to about 4% improvement in the open circuit voltage of the module, and a significant reduction in the module’s average operating temperature up to 21oC. The optimum coated cover glass was 10 micron IRR glass cover which led to about 50% reduction in solar radiation, 22o In 1994, Beauchamp [6] used blue-red reflecting cover glasses to reduce the absorptance of infrared radiation in GaAs and amorphous solar cells. He found out that three percent of output power increased due to lowering the temperature of solar cells by using blue-red coated cover glasses. Sopian et al. [7] improved the thermal and the electrical efficiency of the thermal photovoltaic system by designing and testing a double pass air PV/T collector.Tripanagnostopoulos et al.[8] added thin flat metallic sheet (TFMS) in the middle of the air channel in the PV/T-air collector but its effect on the operating temperature of the photovoltaic cells was not significant.Russell et al.[9] conducted experiments on triple junction solar cell using Ultra violet reflective (UVR) and infrared reflective (IRR) coatings on glasses in order to reflect the ultraviolet and infrared radiation C reduction in the average temperature of the module, and 5.3% improvement in its open circuit voltage

Waste heat recovery in heat pump systems: solution to reduce global warming

Energy conversion technologies, where waste heat recovery systems are included, have received significant attention in recent years due to reasons that include depletion of fossil fuel, increasing oil prices, changes in climatic conditions, and global warming. For low temperature applications, there are many sources of thermal waste heat, and several recovery systems and potential useful applications have been proposed by researchers [1-4]. In addition, many types of equipment are used to recover waste thermal energy from different systems at low, medium, and high temperature applications, such as heat exchangers, waste heat recovery boiler, thermo-electric generators, and recuperators. In this paper, the focus is on waste heat recovery from air conditioners, and an efficient application of these energy resources. Integration of solar energy with heat pump technologies and major factors that affect the feasibility of heat recovery systems have been studied and reviewed as well

Desalination of seawater to provide fresh water

A comparative study of MSF, MED and RO processes has been made and the relative performance of different methods has been discussed in this study. RO has been showing a great promise, and further developments of new membrane materials and pre-treatment processes are likely to reduce the cost of water production dramatically. MED is making good progress. as shown by reccnt findings, and the production cost of water is less than MSF in certain cases. Cogeneration, water and power, and hybrid system are likely to be the future direction

Engineering design: an approach to the development creativity

In a competitive world with limited resources, it is important to train our students in creativity. To maintain an edge over others, it is essential to produce unusual solutions to problems and challenges. Training students in divergent thinking is considered an essential element in the development of creativity. Ideas, whatever the nature may be, must be respected and encouraged. Engineering design enables students to be trained in creativity. Torrance tests provide a measure of originality, fluency, flexibility and elaboration

Examination on Time-Dependent Soil Models in One-Dimensional Consolidation

This paper reviews the performance of two time-dependent constitutive models in predictions of one-dimensional consolidation. The Soft-Soil Creep model [1] is an example of an elastic-viscoplastic formulation that incorporates a time-dependent state variable to estimate viscoplastic deformation. We show that the SSC model is equivalent to the isotache formulation proposed by Imai [2], as both are based on a unique relationship between stress, void ratio and the viscoplastic component of void ratio rate. Simulations of 1-D consolidation confirm that both models represent Hypothesis B behavior, where the axial strain at the End of Primary (EOP) consolidation is dependent on the depth of the clay layer. The effects of specimen thickness and the phenomenon of pore pressure increase at the start of consolidation are discussed in detail. Our interpretation highlights the importance of assumptions regarding the initial strain rate on the behavior observed at different scales under a given applied increment of loading