Technology to enhance learning: The Jordanian experience

The rapidly growth of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has changed the routine life in the world. Developing nations see the economic prosperity in developed nations by development of associated information technology and development of a knowledge society.Jordan, as one of the developing countries, highly values the importance of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and their role in achieving an economic prosperity through the development of human resources.Unfortunately, the adoption and usage of ICT in teaching and learning process is quite low among the academic staff in the public HEIs in Jordan.The main purpose of this study is to present the differences between academic staffs’ demographic characteristics and the usage of common technologies such as computers, Internet, mobile phone, and personal digital assistant (PDA) that affects their adoption and usage of ICT in the teaching and learning process. The results show there are some significant differences between demographic factors and such common technologies.Besides, the study presents the current status of ICT usage in public HEIs in Jordan among academicians

Proposed model of persuasive visual design for web design

This paper presents the foundation for systematically investigating the possibility of influencing users' motivation with visual persuasion which the constructs are divided into two factors; hygiene and motivation. Visual persuasion is identified as the design triggers that affect users’ first impression, which are seen as the conceptualization of motivation. While past research studied the effect of web design toward users’ motivation; not many are looking into the persuasive value of the design. It is foreseen that the power of visual persuasion would produce a more persuasive website and consequently give impact on the users' first impression, and thus motivate them to stay at a site long enough to influence specific behavioral intentions. The proposed model aims to discover the potential of visual persuasion in influencing web users’ motivation. This paper offers new insights into the role of visual persuasion in a web design with respect to the relationships between the dimensions of motivation and behavioral intention

Proposed model of persuasive visual design for web design

This paper presents the foundation for systematically investigating the possibility of influencing users' motivation with visual persuasion which the constructs are divided into two factors; hygiene and motivation. Visual persuasion is identified as the design triggers that affect users’ first impression, which are seen as the conceptualization of motivation. While past research studied the effect of web design toward users’ motivation; not many are looking into the persuasive value of the design. It is foreseen that the power of visual persuasion would produce a more persuasive website and consequently give impact on the users' first impression, and thus motivate them to stay at a site long enough to influence specific behavioral intentions. The proposed model aims to discover the potential of visual persuasion in influencing web users’ motivation. This paper offers new insights into the role of visual persuasion in a web design with respect to the relationships between the dimensions of motivation and behavioral intention

Comparing the influence of non-persuasive and persuasive visual on a website and their impact on users behavioural intention

Research related to first impression formation has highlighted the importance of visual appeal in influencing favourable attitude towards a website. It is proposed that users are actually drawn to specific characteristics or aspects of visual design of a website, and tend to disregard other features. Therefore, this study aims to investigate which visual design strongly appeals to the users by comparing the impact of common visuals with persuasive visuals.The principles of social influence are proposed as added value to the persuasiveness of the web visuals.An experimental study is conducted and the PLS-SEM method is employed to analyse the obtained data. The result of the exploratory and confirmatory analyses demonstrated that the structural model displays better quality when tested with persuasive data sample compared to non-persuasive data sample. Thus, it is concluded that persuasive visual helps to better explain the relationship between users' attitude and intention. This means that exposure to persuasive visuals brings about consistent favourable perception to the web design

Soda anthraquinone pulping of oil palm male flower spikes

This study was carried out to investigate the effect of beating process to the characteristics of pulp and paper produced from oil palm oil male flower spikes (OPMFS). OPMFS pulp was prepared according to chemical Soda-AQ pulping process. 60 gsm papersheet of oil palm male flower spiked were prepared from unbeaten and unbleached OPMFS Soda-AQ pulp. All optical, physical and mechanical characteristics were investigated according to TAPPI and MS ISO standards. OPMFS pulp recorded value of 6.42 s, 353 ml, 76.5 %, 36.7 % and 9.35 for drainage time, freeness, moisture content, screened yield percentage and Kappa number respectively..

Effect of beating process to soda anthraquinone pulp of oil palm male flower spikes fibre

This study was carried out to investigate the effect of beating process to the characteristics of pulp and paper produced from oil palm oil male flower spikes (OPMFS). OPMFS pulp was prepared according to chemical Soda-AQ pulping process. 60 gsm handsheet of oil palm male flower spikes paper were prepared from OPMFS pulp with four different beating times which are O revolution, 1000 revolutions, 2000 revolutions and 3000 revolutions. All physical and mechanical characteristics were investigated according to T APPi and MS ISO standards. The results show that overall physical and mechanical characteristics of POMPS paper were influenced and enhanced by beating process between O until 3000 revolutions. This research demonstrate some potential characteristics of palm oil male flower spikes (OPMFS) paper to be investigated as a newly explored non-wood based raw material for papermaking raw material for papermaking

Non-Intrusive Electrodynamic Characteristic Measurement for Circular Shape Electrode

Abstract—The electrostatic sensor was used in process industry because of low cost and robust designed.Three types of electrode available in particular application such as pin shape, quarter ring shape and ring shape. The paper was focused on the investigation of the pin shape structure and the characteristic of the circular shape by using different size of structure. Non-instrusive method with circular electrode will be designed and applied to the shape.The sensitivity and spatial filtering effect of sensor will be investigated by using different size of electrodes.Then, the model will be proposed and compared with experimental result

Comparative study of feeding frequencies on growth characteristics of four strains of broiler chickens

The poultry industry has evolved in recent years owing to the high demand for chicken meat. However, about 60 to 70% of broiler production cost is on feed. Thus, it becomes critical to make concerted efforts to reduce feed cost without compromising overall poultry productivity. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of feeding the birds twice (12 hourly) or thrice (8 hourly) on some growth characteristics of the birds. The birds were fed using commercially compounded broiler feeds [Starter (0-4 weeks) and Finisher (5-10 weeks)]. Data collected on weight was subjected to preliminary exploratory boxplot and normality analyses, and at the end of the study total of 211 of the original 304 birds were statistically evaluated. Strain, feeding frequency and sex all exerted significant (P<0.05) influence albeit at varying levels, on growth parameters. The model explained 36.2 percent of total variation with each of the factors respectively accounting for 33.23%, 1.37% and 1.60%. The largest source of variation was from the differences in strain, while the least was recorded on the feeding frequency. The study revealed that twice daily (12 hourly) feeding had a better impact on the parameters studied, while the male had superior performance over the female and difference due to strain was only pronounced in the Marshall which had the least values in all parameters studied. It is therefore recommended that broiler birds are fed twice daily (12 hourly), thereby reducing labour cost and frequency of disturbance to the birds

Prevalence of gastrointestinal helminthes eggs of public health importance in house-hold dogs presented to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State

Dogs have a close association with humans providing companionship, security and a source of dietary protein. However, dogs are also potential carriers of zoonotic pathogens. To determine the prevalence of gastrointestinal helminths eggs in faeces of house-hold dogs presented to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, ninety-eight (98) faecal samples were collected and processed by formol-ether concentration technique and examined for helminths eggs. The overall prevalence of gastrointestinal helminths eggs in dogs presented was 22.4% (22/98). The Gastrointestinal helminths eggs observed from the study comprises of Ancylostoma caninum (4.1%), Strongyloides stercoralis (2.0%), Toxocara canis (8.2%) and Dipylidium caninum (8.2%). Higher prevalence of gastrointestinal helminths eggs was observed in male dogs (31.0%) than in female dogs (10.0%). Also, higher prevalence was observed in dogs less than six (6) months of age (23.1%) than in dogs of at least six (6) months (22.2%). The prevalence of gastrointestinal helminths eggs was 26.7% and 23.1% for local and exotic breeds of dogs respectively. Higher prevalence was observed in dogs with diarrhoeic faeces (25.0%) and in dogs non-confined (33.3%). This study has shown the presence of zoonotic gastrointestinal helminths eggs in dogs presented to the VTH ABU, Zaria which is of public health significance. Therefore, clinicians, pet owners, animal handlers and laboratory technicians need to be aware of the risk of contracting an infection in the course of handling dogs or their faecal samples.Keywords: Dogs, eggs, faeces, formol-ether, Gastrointestinal helminths, zoonotic helminth

Geological Effect on GPR System Due to Soil Properties in Malaysia

This paper present the measurement of dielectric properties of soil in Malaysia in three differences condition which are normal condition  (ambience), heated (up to 50 OC) and wet condition (10 % water content). Eight (8) samples of soil have been collected in the local region and was measured in the frequency range from 0.5 GHz to 3.5 GHz for Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) applications. The measurement of the dielectric properties has been conducted using Agilent high temperature probe (Model) integrated with Performance Network Analyzer (PNA E8362B). The uncertainties in measurement process, especially dealing with measurement data have been considered in order to eliminate the probability of error during the measurement. The measured result for permittivity and loss factor of the measured samples are tabulated in graphs and the analysis of the measured data are discussed in this paper