Evaluating the Adoption of Education-Based Information System Using Extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)

The aim of this study was to evaluate teachers' acceptance of Student Information System (SMM) and Examination Analysis System (SAP). The research model created based on prior research to address the factors of perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU), IT literacy level, information richness, product offering, complexity and facilitating conditions towards intention to use and actual use of these systems. Based on the previous study, Augmented Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) has been to determine the teachers intention to use SMM and SAP. This study has been carried out in primary schools in Kota Setar, Kedah Darulaman as case studies. Questionnaire has been used as instrument in this descriptive survey method and the raw data is preprocessed and analyzed using statistical analysis. Statistical analysis software (PASW SPSS 18.0) were used to analyze the primary data using descriptive analysis including cross-tabulation, chi-square and logistic regression analysis. The results from the statistical analysis indicate the significant contribution of these independent variables towards intention to use these systems. Thus, this analysis reveals that there are six factors significantly contribute and influence the intention to use SMM and SAP in education institution

Catalytic non-thermal plasma reactor for decomposition of dilute chlorobenzene

Oxidative decomposition of low concentrations of chlorobenzene (CB) in air was carried out in a NTP reactor. Typical results indicated the better performance on addition of metal oxide catalysts in plasma zone. It may be concluded that catalytic plasma approach has promise, especially for the removal of low concentraions of CB, where conventional techniques are not energetically feasible. Among the metal oxides studied, AgOx/MnOx showed the better performance than MnOx and CoOx. During the removal of 50 ppm of CB, AgOx/MnOx under humid conditions showed 100% selectivity to total oxidadtion at 260 J L-1, which may be assigned due to the formation of hydroxyl radical and/or due to in situ ozone decomposition on the catalyst surface that may lead to the formation of a powerful oxidant atomic oxygen. Oxidative decomposition of low concentrations of chlorobenzene in air was carried out in a NTP reactor. Results indicated the improved performance on addition of catalysts in plasma zone. It has been observed that the integration of metal oxides, promoted the total oxidation, whose activity was further enhanced on addition of water vapor. During the abatement of 50 ppm of CB, selectivity to CO2 was 100% at 260 J L-1 with AgOx/MnOx/SMF catalytic electrode

Nanoscale Friction Switches: Friction Modulation of Monomolecular Assemblies Using External Electric Fields

This paper presents experimental investigations to actively modulate the nanoscale friction properties of a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) assembly using an external electric field that drives conformational changes in the SAM. Such “friction switches” have widespread implications in interfacial energy control in micro/nanoscale devices. Friction response of a low-density mercaptocarboxylic acid SAM is evaluated using an atomic force microscope (AFM) in the presence of a DC bias applied between the sample and the AFM probe under a nitrogen (dry) environment. The low density allows reorientation of individual SAM molecules to accommodate the attractive force between the −COOH terminal group and a positively biased surface. This enables the surface to present a hydrophilic group or a hydrophobic backbone to the contacting AFM probe depending upon the direction of the field (bias). Synthesis and deposition of the low-density SAM (LD-SAM) is reported. Results from AFM experiments show an increased friction response (up to 300%) of the LD-SAM system in the presence of a positive bias compared to the friction response in the presence of a negative bias. The difference in the friction response is attributed to the change in the structural and crystalline order of the film in addition to the interfacial surface chemistry and composition presented upon application of the bias

人の集団に関する新たな評価方法の考察

九州大学応用力学研究所研究集会報告 No.20ME-S7 「非線形波動の数理と物理」RIAM Symposium No.20ME-S7 Mathematics and Physics in Nonlinear waves本研究では、金融工学の手法を用いて人の混雑を評価する理論の構築を試みた。我々は、人の混雑を表すダイナミクスは確率項を含むLogistic 方程式に従うと仮定し、この動きを正味現在価値やリアルオプション法によって評価した。また、金融工学では、割引率を用いることによってタイミングによる価値の違いが表現されるが今回のモデルでは、割引率を人の効用を割り引くために導入し、実データに基づく推定・考察もあわせて行った

A novel energy-efficient sybil node detection algorithm for intrusion detection system in wireless sensor networks

A Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is vulnerable to different types of security attacks where the attackers could easily intrude into the network and could cause inexplicable destruction by disrupting the expected functionalities of the network. Severe drainage of battery may occur due to the attacks and as a result, the lifetime of the network may decrease drastically. In this paper, an energy-efficient integrated Intrusion Detection System (IDS) is proposed to detect network layer Sybil attack. Our scheme spots out accurately and purges out the Sybil node which may falsely behave as a genuine node. The experimental results show that the critical factor in WSN, energy is conserved more efficiently by the proposed scheme than the existing alternative methods. Also, accurate detection of the malicious node is possible spending relatively less energy

Catalytic non-thermal plasma reactor for the decomposition of a mixture of volatile organic compounds

The decomposition of mixture of selected volatile organic compounds (VOCs) has been studied in a catalytic non-thermal plasma dielectric barrier discharge reactor. The VOCs mixture consisting n-hexane, cyclo-hexane and p-xylene was chosen for the present study. The decomposition characteristics of mixture of VOCs by the DBD reactor with inner electrode modified with metal oxides of Mn and Co was studied. The results indicated that the order of the removal efficiency of VOCs followed as p-xylene > cyclo-hexane > n-hexane. Among the catalytic study, MnOx/SMF (manganese oxide on sintered metal fibres electrode) shows better performance, probably due to the formation of active oxygen species by in situ decomposition of ozone on the catalyst surface. Water vapour further enhanced the performance due to the in situ formation of OH radicals. [Figure not available: see fulltext.

Key Challenges to Sustainable Humanitarian Supply Chains: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 has had a major impact on health, economic, social, and industrial activities. It has disrupted supply chain management and affected the movement of essential supplies to a large extent. This study aims to identify and evaluate the challenges hampering sustainable humanitarian supply chain management (SHSCM). Twenty critical challenges to SHSCM are identified using a comprehensive literature review, and three strategies were developed. The challenges and strategies were verified using expert input. The challenges were evaluated using the neutrosophic analytic hierarchical process (AHP) method. The neutrosophic TODIM (an acronym in Portuguese for interactive multicriteria decision making) method was then used to select the best strategy. The findings reveal that facility location problems, short lead times for emergency supplies, spread of rumors, rapid emergence of new clusters, and doubt concerning the available remedy are five critical challenges in SHSCM during COVID-19. Public–private partnerships are identified as the best strategy in SHSCM. Finally, this paper discusses the implications to sustainable development goals in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era.</jats:p

Bucky Tubes Induce Oxidative Stress Mediated Cell Death in Human Lung Cells

Unique physicochemical properties of carbon nanomaterials (CNMs) have opened a new era for therapeutics and diagnosis (known as theranostics) of various diseases. This exponential increase in application makes them important for toxicology studies. The present study was aimed at exploring the toxic potential of one of the CNMs, that is, bucky tubes (BTs), in human lung adenocarcinoma (A549) cell line. BTs were characterised by electron microscopy (TEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), Fourier transform spectroscopy (FTIR), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Flow cytometric study showed a concentration and time dependent increase in intracellular internalization as well as reduction in cell viability upon exposure to BTs. However, a significant increase in intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) production was observed as evident by increased fluorescence intensity of 2',7' - dichlorofluorescein (DCF). BTs induced oxidative stress in cells as evident by depletion in glutathione with concomitant increase in lipid peroxidationwith increasing concentrations. Asignificant increase in micronucleus formation and apoptotic cell population and loss of mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) as compared to control were observed. Moreover, in the present study, BTs were found to be mild toxic and it is encouraging to conclude that BTs having outer diameter in the range of 7-12 nm and length 0.5-10 mu m can be used for theranostics

Ergonomic interventions: comparisons between footrest and anti-fatigue mat in reducing lower leg muscle discomforts during prolonged standing

Ergonomics is a science focusing on the study of human fit, decreasing human fatigue and discomfort through the design of new product. Prevention related to workers injury and illness such as muscle discomfort is part of the main goals in ergonomics interventions. Thus, this present study investigates the effectiveness of ergonomic interventions such as footrest and floor conditions in reducing workers lower leg muscle discomforts during prolonged standing. The main objective of this study was to determine and compare the lower leg muscles discomfort (exertion percentage (%)) of Gastrocnemius and Tibialis Anterior among the respondents using the two ergonomic interventions (footrest and anti-fatigue mat). About 60 healthy subjects were recruited to stand for 2 hours (120 minutes) while using the two interventions in different session with one week interval between each test session. During standing, lower leg muscle discomfort of Gastrocnemius and Tibialis Anterior muscles were continuously monitored. Changes in lower leg muscle discomforts over standing time were measured using the surface Electromyography (sEMG). In this study, the sEMG readings showed that the percentage of exertion (%) were increasing with time (within 120 minutes) on muscles for both legs with the usage of the interventions (footrest and anti-fatigue mat). However, the percentage of exertion (%) from the sEMG readings were lower compared to previous studies. The independent t-test was used to find the mean changes on exertion percentage (%) between each muscles of both legs for the two interventions. Results found that there were significant exertion percentage at certain time with 15 minutes time period within the 120 minutes standing. This study showed that the ergonomic interventions (anti-fatigue mat and footrest) gives a low number of exertion percentage (%), showing a reduced muscle discomfort to the lower leg muscles compared to previous studies and interventions. In comparisons with footrest, this study showed that anti-fatigue mat is more applicable for the assembly workers in the industrial factory. The data produced by the comparisons between the two interventions can be useful especially to the Department of Occupational Safety and Health Malaysia (DOSH) in enhancing the safety and wellbeing of industrial workers in Malaysia