Requirement Model for Small Agribusiness Web-Based Marketing System

The information and communication technology (ICT) provides a good channel to communicate information among businesses. By using this mean, information can be dispersed across geographical boundary and without time constraint. The major ICT applications such as email and web-sites allow businesses to expand their products to the larger market size. Email and web-site can be very cost effective product marketing strategy especially for small and medium enterprises (SME). This kind of marketing strategy has been implemented in various countries for various kinds of products and services. However, the implementation of web-based marketing for small agribusiness enterprises is quite new. This research is intended to discuss the requirement model for small agribusiness web-based marketing system

Molluscicidal Activity of Legumes, Yellow Flame (Peltophorum Pterocarpum) and Raintree (Samanea Saman) on Freshwater Snails; Indoplanorbis Exustus (Pulmonata: Planorbidae) and Radix Quadrasi (Pulmonata: Lymnaeidae)

Acute toxicity by static bioassay of ground dried leaves (medium age) of leguminoses, yellow flame (Peltophorum pterocarpum) and rain tree (Samanea saman), in the form of ground powder solution, crude water and methanol extract was determined against target freshwater snails, Indoplanorbis exustus (Planorbidae) and Radix quadrasi (Lymnaeidae), and also on non-target species, red tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus, and shrimp, Macrobrachium lanchesteri using static bioassay technique. The field-collected snails were examined for the infection of trematode larvae. 1. exustus was found to be the host to the two types of trematodes larvae (cercaria), namely furcocercous cercariae, bifurcated cercaria (schistosoma) and gymnocephalus cercariae, non-bifurcated tail cercaria (fasciola), whereas, R. quadrasi was found to be the host to the various types of gymnocephalus cercariae. The toxicity results indicated that molluscicidal and piscicidal activity is not limited to any particular plant species and that the dried ground leaves powder, crude water, and methanol extract; of P. plerocarpum and S. saman are toxic to the target and non-target species. However, toxicity of the crude methanol extracts of these plants exhibited the highest potency as compared to the crude water extract and dried ground leaves. The 24 h LC50 of crude water and methanol extract of P. pterocarpum against the target species was found to be within the standard range of World Health Organization (l00 mgtl) of being molluscicidally active. Based on the 24h LC50 values, the results indicated that the potency of P. pterocarpum treatments on the target snail species follow this trend; crude methanol extract (50.7- 55.6 mgtl) was the most potent, followed by crude water extract (64.9-72.7 mgtl) and the dried, ground powder (338.2-390.4 mgtl). Comparison test between 1. exustus and R. quadrasi showed that R. quadrasi was more sensitivity to crude methanol extract of P. pterocarpum than the S. saman, with 24h LCso value of 50.7 mg/l and 1 08 mgtl, respectively. Test carried out on the non-target species, shrimp, M lanchesteri was observed to be virtually absence of the toxic effect when exposed at the concentrations that kill 50% of the target snail species. But, red tilapia, 0. niloticus was more susceptible and LCso was obtained at the lower concentrations than the concentration that caused 50% mortality of the target snail species. The relationship of 24h LCso values to the different snail shell length of laboratory breed R. quadrasi and 1. exustus was also investigated using crude methanol extract of P. pterocarpum. Results indicated that the relationship between different shell length of R. quadrasi and 24h LCso was a positively correlated with r = 0.98, but the relationship was polynomial (quadratic) with the equation line of Y= 0.63 x2 -8.5x +42.7. In the case of 1. exuslus there was positive correlation between its sensitivity and its sizes, and relationship was linear with regression line of Y=2.77 x +8.3 and r of 0.96

Web Based Parking Management and Reservation System

Information Technology plays a vital role in people's life today. Every aspect of human life is being computerized in order to improve the efficiency of these processes. As countries develop people tend to move towards cities expecting better quality of life. This makes cities over crowed in turn creating new problems. People need to move around to get their day to day work done. Today people prefer travel by vehicles even for short distances as vehicles become cheaper and vehicles provide a comfortable commute. Because of this today's cities have become over crowded with vehicles and traffic jams are characterized as the order of the day. Finding a suitable parking space in a crowded city is very difficult today. This problem becomes more acute in places that are commonly patronized by many people like shopping malls, restaurants, theatres etc., Sometimes people drive in circles looking for a suitable parking lot. This creates more problems such as more traffic, waste of time and money and environmental degradation. In this study, the parking problem has been looked at depth and a solution using the most advanced information technologies has been developed. The Web based Parking Management and Reservation System developed in this project is an advanced system that helps users to check the availability of parking spaces and book in advance. Prior to developing the system, a thorough literature survey has been canied out in order to understand the problem properly. Then the application has been designed and developed properly by following the suitable software engineering theories and practices. System design has been done using use case diagrams, sequence diagrams and class diagrams. The diagrams are developed using Unified Modeling Language the post popular modeling language. The system has been developed using advanced technologies including JAVA as the programming language on .NET framework using JSP 2.0 as the Integrated Development Environment (IDE). The back end database was developed using MS SQL Server. Finally the system has been tested for usability and ease of use through a sample survey. The result of the survey which is given in Chapter 5 proves that the system is extremely user friendly and the interfaces provide all the necessary tools for a smooth and friendly experience

Design and performance analysis of concentrated photovoltaic cooling.

Kahagala Gamage, Upul - Associate SupervisorThe use of solar energy as a global energy source has increased over the past two decades. Photovoltaic cells, which utilise the sun to generate electricity, are a promising alternative to fossil fuels that contribute to climate change. However, the high intensity of concentrated solar radiation can cause overheating in photovoltaic cells, reducing their efficiency and power output. Researchers worldwide are improving cooling in concentrated photovoltaic cells (CPV) to enhance temperature uniformity and improve power output. Previous studies have demonstrated that pulsating flow can effectively enhance heat transfer in various fields, including electronics, mechanical engineering, and medicine. In this research, three flow patterns (continuous flow, uniform pulsating flow, and bio-inspired pulsating flow) were studied in both simulation and experimental designs. Two cooling designs were considered: the conventional design (C- Design) and the parallel design with baffles (W-B) and without baffles (Wout-B). With the implementation of 30 pulses per minute bio-inspired pulsating flow a reduction of 1.96% in solar cell temperature was observed when compared to continuous flow. This reduction in temperature was consistently observed across a range of flow rates from 0.5 to 2.5 L/m, employing the parallel Wout-B design. Notably, the bio-inspired pulsating flow shows better performance in comparison to uniform pulsating flow, as well as the conventional designs with continuous flow and uniform pulsating flow, resulting in notable improvements in cooling efficiency of 1.22%, 2.14%, and 4.00%, respectively. In terms of a direct comparison, the implementation of uniform pulsating flow in the parallel Wout-B design exhibited a maximum cooling improvement of 0.74% when contrasted with continuous flow. Furthermore, when assessing uniform pulsating flow against the C-design with uniform pulsating flow in the parallel Wout-B design, a noteworthy enhancement of 0.93% was observed. Remarkably, the C-design with uniform pulsating flow demonstrated a superior effectiveness of 1.90% when compared to the C-design with continuous flow.MSc by Research in Energy and Powe

Ceramic Nanotubes For Applications In Solar To Fuel Conversion, Batteries, and Chemical Gas Sensing

The design and development of a new class of material is urgently needed today to meet the current challenge of finding safe, reliable, renewable and environment-friendly energy sources. Also, developing new, safe and reliable energy storage system is needed to store the excess and unused energy produced by a renewable energy source such as solar or wind source. In addition, fabricating sensitive, portable and low-temperature gas sensor material is currently required to reduce the sensor&rsquo; energy consumption, detect toxic and combustible gases and analyze human exhaled breath for medical diagnosis. Fortunately, recent breakthroughs in the fabrication of quasi one-dimensioned metal oxide and ceramic-fiber composites have opened the door to investigate new materials as a potential candidate for the applications of energy and gas sensors. In this thesis we aim to: i) develop new, simple and cost-effective technique to synthesize doped and undoped inorganic metal oxide nanotube architecture for application in solar to fuel conversion, energy storage batteries, and chemical gas sensing, ii) synthesize and characterize a composite material made from Polymer Derived Ceramics (PDCs) and graphite fiber as high capacity, reliable and cost-effective lithium-ion battery negative electrode. In the first part of the current work, we explain in detail a new technique of synthesis and doping transition metal oxide, TiO2, nanotube via electrochemical anodization of titanium metal sheet in organic electrolytes containing a small amount of fluoride ion. We were able to simultaneously incorporate several anions and cation elements into the TiO2 nanotube crystal lattice by modifying the electrolyte composition in the anodization electrochemical cell. Several analytical techniques such as X-Ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) were employed to study the structure, morphology and the elemental composition of the fabricated nanotube. The undoped, N-doped, Fe-doped, N-Fe co-doped and N-C co-doped TiO2&nbsp;nanotubes were investigated as possible photoanodes candidate for photocatalytic water splitting application. The obtained results showed an improvement in; i) the nanotubes light absorption, especially the N and N-C doped samples, ii) the nanotubes charge transfer efficiency with N and N-Fe doped nanotubes as the most efficient samples, iii) the charge transport efficiency of the doped samples. In the second part, we investigated N-doped and undoped TiO2 nanotubes as possible reliable, safe and durable lithium-ion battery anode material. The results showed high and save lithium intercalation/deintercalation potential profile and relatively good cycling stability of both samples besides about a 25% increase in the specific capacity of N-doped nanotube. Also, we fabricate and study the electrochemical behavior of composite material made from polymer‐derived ceramics and graphite fiber as possible high capacity lithium-ion battery anode material. The anode electrochemical behavior was evaluated based on the thickness of the SiCO films. Thick films exhibited the typical behavior of bulk SiCO with high first cycle loss. However, thin films, 100 nm thick, show low first cycle as well as high capacity. In the last part, an effort has been to improve the performance of TiO2 nanotube as a room temperature gas sensor by modifying its surface properties with anion and cation dopant materials. The investigated gases were; i) Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) such as acetone, methanol, ethanol, ii) water, iii) gases such as nitric oxide and carbon monoxide. The results of the study revealed that the sensitivity and selectivity of cation or/and anion doped TiO2 nanotubes have increased toward specific target gases such as acetone. It was also observed that undoped and Nb-doped TiO2 nanotubes detected NO and CO at room temperature.</p

Seismic Response of Seismic Isolated Structures subject to Near Fault &Far Fault Ground Motions

Seismic isolation systems are one of the most effective technologies for protecting structures from lateral loading, improving the seismic performance of the buildings against dynamic loads and base-isolated buildings have benefits in mitigating damage to the superstructure. Non-linear time history analysis is used to investigate the seismic response of fixed base and base-isolated building frames under far-fault ground motions and near-fault ground motions with fling step and forward directivity characteristics. Peak floor displacement, inter-story drift, absolute acceleration, base shear, and isolator displacement are some of the response characteristics that have been studied and examined as results of the analysis. The results demonstrated that using base isolators improves the seismic behavior of the used building, but it found that the isolator displacement is very large, during near-fault ground motion with the fling step effect particularly. For mitigating large isolator displacement during near-field earthquakes, the influence of a combination of the isolator and friction supplemental damper on the seismic response of a base-isolated 2D building frame is studied, and results demonstrated that using base isolators combined with viscous dampers can reduce the isolator\u27s displacement

The impact of multiple caries and its treatment by multiple exodontias under GA, on quality of life of children and their families.

Aims To quantify the impact of Early Childhood Caries on the quality of life of life of children referred to the Day Care Unit, in the Department of Paediatric Dentistry at Leeds Dental Institute (LDI), for extraction of decayed teeth under general anaesthesia. Another aim is to study the change in the quality of life of those children and their families after treatment under general anaesthesia. Materials and methods Parents of 3-7 year old, paediatric patients, attending the ODU at LDI for extraction of carious teeth under general anaesthesia, were given the Child Oral Health-Related Quality of Life (COHRQoL) questionnaire. The COHRQoL questionnaire has two components: the Parent-Caregivers Perceptions questionnaire (P-CPQ) and Family Impact Scale (FIS). The children then were reassessed, 6- 8 weeks later, following completion of treatment under general anaesthesia, using the same questionnaire. Parents answered the follow-up questionnaire by phone Results Showed statistically significant changes in the scores of the P-CPQ and FIS (p<0.05). The effect size was medium (0.32) in the social wellbeing domain of the P-CPQ and large in all of the other domains of both P-CPQ and Family Impact Scale (FIS). Conclusions Early Childhood Caries has a negative impact on the oral health-related quality of life of both, children and their families. The provision of dental treatment under general anaesthesia for young children with Early Childhood Caries resulted in substantial improvement to their oral health-related quality of life as reported by their parents

Influence of the analysis technique on estimating hepatic iron content using MRI

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134998/1/jmri25317.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134998/2/jmri25317_am.pd

Corporate governance of Islamic banks : its characteristics and effects on stakeholders and the role of Islamic banks' supervisors

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Corporate governance of Islamic banks : its characteristics and effects on stakeholders and the role of Islamic banks' supervisors

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo