Novel cyclic voltammetry behavior of 3-((benzothiazol-2- diazenylnaphthalene-2,7-diol and use it for spectrophotometric determination of copper (II )in honey sample

The azo reagent 3-((benzothiazol-2-diazenylnaphthalene-2,7-diol] was synthesized and characterized by FT-IR ,1H-NMRand 13CNMR spectral techniques. The electrochemical behavior of the azo reagent and its complex with Cu (II) has beenstudied at glassy carbon disk GCE electrode in different supporting electrolyte at concentration (1M) and scan rate(100mv.s-1). Spectrophotometric determination of copper (II ) is based on the formation of a 2:1 complex with abovereagent. The complex has λmax at(588) nm and Ômax of( 1.436x104)L.mol-1.cm-1 .A linear correlation (0.1 – 3.0 μg. ml-1) was found between absorbance at λmax and concentration . The effect of diverseions on the determination of copper (II) to investigate the selectivity of the method were also studied . The stabilityconstant of the product was (1.1x108 ) . The proposed method was successfully applied to the analysis of honey sample

Design and Performance of Adaptive Antenna System in LTE 3GPP Transceivers Based Fourier Signals in ITU Channels

3G LTE is next generation step in mobile communications with the promise of peak download rates of at least 100 Mbit/s and upload rates 50 Mbit/s. The evolved version of Long Term Evolution is LTE-Advanced which is being developed by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). LTE-Advanced will meet or go beyond the requirements of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for the fourth generation (4G) radio communication standard. In this paper, we investigate the performance of Adaptive Antenna System in the LTE 3GPP Transceivers. Adaptive Antenna System (AAS) has been developed to adaptively correct antenna impedance mismatch for the LTE 3GPP Transceivers. (AAS)  has been deployed at the receiver module to reduce the fading effects caused by proposed channels model. (AAS) uses various beamforming techniques to focus the wireless beam between the base station and the subscriber station. In this work, the transmitter (SS) and receiver (BS) are fixed and AAS installed at the receiver is used to direct the main beam towards the desired LOS signal and nulls to the multipath signals. Least Mean Square (LMS) algorithm is used. It has been proved through MATLAB simulations that the performance of the system significantly improves by AAS in  International Telecommunication Union (ITU) channels , where beamforming is implemented in the direction of desired user. The performance of the system more increases by increasing the number of antennas at receiver. Keywords: OFDM, LTE 3GPP, LMS, ITU, AAS

Symptoms of anxiety and depression among adolescents with seizures in Irbid, Northern Jordan

AbstractIn Jordan, individuals with epilepsy commonly attend neuropsychiatric clinics. The objective of this study was to assess the psychosocial outcome of epilepsy among adolescents. The study included 101 epileptic adolescents who attended the neurology clinic at the Princess Basma Teaching Hospital in Northern Jordan and 101 non-epileptic controls. Sociodemographic characteristics and all relevant clinical data were collected through interviewing the cases and controls. Identification of the symptoms of anxiety and depression was made according to DSM-IV criteria. The patients were age and sex matched with the controls. The controls had achieved a significantly better education ( >12 years education) than the patients with epilepsy. The adolescents with epilepsy were also shown to be disadvantaged in their living circumstances. Some of them were dependent on their parents in some daily physical activities, such as bathing, which might be a sign of overprotection by their parents. Those with epilepsy had a significantly higher tendency to develop symptoms of anxiety and depression than the control group. Moreover these psychiatric symptoms, especially anxiety symptoms, were more likely to happen when seizures had not been properly medically controlled. Overprotective parental behaviour towards their ill children could also delay their psychosocial maturation. Therefore, counselling of patients and parents about epilepsy is an important factor in the control of seizures and their sequelae

Tracking course design and delivery: using a home grown project management tool in flexible learning

Course design and delivery in the context of flexible learning at the University of the South Pacific (USP) is over 40 years young. Over that time, course development and delivery methodologies progressed almost parallel to the educational technologies of the day, diverse learner characteristics and changing landscape of higher education among other things. Course design and delivery has arguably been a constant challenge in terms of monitoring progress and ensuring that more than 500 courses are delivered annually, on time and with fewer issues as possible to a regional student base encompassing 12 Pacific Island Countries. The Centre for Flexible Learning Course Manager (CFLCM), a home grown project management tool was developed to better manage the course design and delivery process. The primary users of this tool are a team of 25 specialists comprising Instructional Designers, Education Technologists and Electronic Publishers coordinated by the Senior Instructional Designer. It has been a year since the tool was developed and introduced to the team. This paper presents the experiences of the team in terms of the implementation and use of the CFLCM and implications for future use

Uplink Design in VLC Systems with IR Sources and Beam Steering

The need for high-speed local area networks to meet the recent developments in multimedia and video transmission applications has recently focused interest on visible light communication (VLC) systems. Although VLC systems provide lighting and communications simultaneously from light emitting diodes, LEDs, the uplink channel design in such a system is a challenging task. In this paper, we propose a solution in which the uplink challenge in indoor VLC is resolved by the use of an Infrared (IR) link. We introduce a novel fast adaptive beam steering IR system (FABS-IR) to improve the uplink performance at high data rates while providing security for applications. The goal of our proposed system is to enhance the received optical power signal, speed up the adaptation process and mitigate the channel delay spread when the system operates at a high transmission rate. The channel delay spread is minimised from 0.22 ns given by hybrid diffuse IR link to almost 0.07 ns. At 2.5 Gb/s, our results show that the imaging FABS-IR system accomplished about 11.7 dB signal to noise ratio (SNR) in the presence of multipath dispersion, receiver noise and transmitter mobility

e - proctoring exams at a Regional University during Covid-19: understanding the challenges

The ongoing Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has had an effect on most sectors in the countries affected by Covid-19 cases. Even in the South Pacific region, countries were forced to go under lockdown, flights were cancelled, businesses, schools and universities closed. Similar to most institutes in the region that were forced to close, the University of the South Pacific (USP) cancelled its face-to-face (F2F) studies and instead switched to Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) at all its 14 regional campuses. It is undeniable that teaching using ERT has challenges. However, teaching using ERT at a one-campus university may be easier than teaching at a regional university since it brings with it more challenges due to the geographical distance and the gap in support available at these campuses. USP faced similar challenges since academics could not travel to regional campuses for tutorial support. All support, tutorials and lectures were conducted online using BigBlueButton (BBB) or Zoom. That, in itself led to additional online training of staff and students to better familiarize them with online learning and teaching. Courses offered at USP have used Moodle as its learning management system (LMS) since 2006. ERT during COVID-19 lockdowns meant courses that were offered F2F were switched to online. Switching from F2F, courses to Online mode during lockdowns in 2022 and 2021 did not hinder much with the staff and student preparedness since all courses were on the LMS. The only major change that needed to be introduced was the inclusion of online assessments in these courses. One of the components for online assessment included the introduction of e-proctoring as a system to supervise students attempting online exams to meet the requirements of the accrediting bodies. There are various e-proctoring software that can be used for such supervisions. USP used Proctorio during the recent lockdowns. This paper shares the experience of testing, reviewing and getting students ready for online assessments using e-proctoring, as well as adjusting the LMS to support the online assessment navigation system. The paper additionally discusses the success and challenges faced while using e-proctoring for such online assessments

An evaluation of online proctoring tools

COVID'19 is hastening the adoption of online learning and teaching worldwide, and across all levels of education. While many of the typical learning and teaching transactions such as lecturing and communicating are easily handled by contemporary online learning technologies, others, such as assessment of learning outcomes with closed book examinations are fraught with challenges. Among other issues to do with students and teachers, these challenges have to do with the ability of teachers and educational organizations to ensure academic integrity in the absence of a live proctor when an examination is being taken remotely and from a private location. A number of online proctoring tools are appearing on the market that portend to offer solutions to some of the major challenges. But for the moment, they too remain untried and tested on any large scale. This includes the cost of the service and their technical requirements. This paper reports on one of the first attempts to properly evaluate a selection of these tools and offer recommendations for educational institutions. This investigation, which was carried out at the University of the South Pacific, comprised a four-phased approach, starting with desk research that was followed with pilot testing by a group of experts as well as students. The elimination of a tool in every phase was based on the ‘survival of the fittest’ approach with each phase building upon the milestones and deliverables from the previous phase. This paper presents the results of this investigation and discusses its key findings

Influence of preload and nonlinearity of railpads on vibration of railway tracks under stationary and moving harmonic loads

In railway track dynamics, the stiffness and damping properties of railpads have a significant effect on track vibration, decay rates as well forces transmitted to the track supporting structure. Many studies have shown that railpads exhibit pronounced nonlinear behaviour, with preload and frequency dependent properties. This paper presents a three parameter railpad model, together with its differential equation of motion and the required model parameters obtained from experimental data. A time domain model of a rail discretely supported on these railpads is then formulated using the finite element method. The model is subjected to static and dynamic loading in order to study the effects of preload and frequency on its dynamic behaviour. Results are shown as time histories and frequency spectra for the track displacements and reaction forces for various preload levels. They emphasise the necessity of accounting for nonlinear behaviour based on the large disparities (up to 20 dB) observed between the linear and nonlinear cases for the parameters used in this study

Clinical Prediction of Blood Parameters Associated with Breast, Colon, Thyroid, Ovarian, and Prostate Cancer

Cancer is a cellular change caused by uncontrolled cell growth and division. This disease develops from the growth of abnormal cells that have the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between blood parameters (e.g., Mean corpuscular volume (MCV), Mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), Mean Corpuscular Hemoglobin Concentration (MCHC), Haemoglobin (HGB), White Blood Cell (WBC), and Red Blood Cell (RBC)) and different types of cancer. Breast cancer, thyroid gland cancer, ovarian cancer, testicular cancer, brain tumors as well as other types of cancer are based on the cell of the tissue found on or in the body. Any of these types of cancer are associated with a variety of health issues that put the patient's life in danger. Performing the complete blood count (CBC) test prior to or after a cancer diagnosis is necessary as abnormalities in the body can cause blood component rates to either increase or decrease, depending on the type of cancer, the patient's physiological mechanism, and the structural component. Since the CBC test belongs to hematology, drawing a blood sample and putting it into the anticoagulant tube for testing were preferred. In this study, the blood components of almost all patients were normal except for a few of them which may be due to other medical and biological factors. There is a significant relationship between blood parameters and cancer types.&nbsp

AXISYMMETRIC FREE VIBRATION OF THIN PROLATE SPHEROIDAL SHELLS

In this paper a detailed study of the theory of free axisymmetric vibration of thin isotropic prolate spheroidal shells is presented. The analysis is performed according to Rayleigh – Ritz method. This method as well as an approximate modeling technique were attempted to estimate the natural frequencies for the shell. This technique is based on considering the prolate spheroidal as a continuous system constructed from two spherical shell elements matched at the continuous boundaries. Through out the obtained results it is found that this method predicted fairly well the natural frequencies of a prolate spheroidal shell for all values of eccentricities.