The Usability Testing of SSAAT, a Bioinformatic Web Application for DNA Analysis at a Nucleotide Level

This research article published by Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research, Vol. 11, No. 3, 2021Sanger sequencing remains the cornerstone method for Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) sequencing due to its high accuracy in targeting smaller genomic regions in a larger number of samples. The analysis of Sanger sequence DNA data requires powerful and intelligent software tools. Most of the preferred tools are proprietary licensed tools that offer a user-friendly interface and have many features, however, their affordability, especially to individual scientists or students, is limited. On the other hand, a few free and open-source licensed tools are available but have limited features. This study focuses on the usability testing of the developed Sanger Sequence Automatic Analysis Tool (SSAAT), a free and open-source web tool for Sanger sequence analysis. Usability tests were conducted with potential users and the results demonstrate that the participants were able to use the tool easily and accomplish the test tasks at the given time. Moreover, the participants were excited with the easy-to-use interface and agreed that most users could use the tool with no need for technical assistance. However, the participants also identified some issues that require more development effort

Coverage Prediction of an AP by using SINR Analysis and Users Density Estimation

In W-LANs a single hop is all that is necessary or in fact acceptable. The region of connectivity around a given source is known as its coverage area. Commonly, a source and a destination may communicate using one or more intermediate relays, in which case a path through the network must be found where each hop has a SINR greater than ß. There are several ways to portray and quantify network connectivity, but at the core, they all require that individual pairs be are able to communicate, which is dictated by the SINR. This paper is going to take a survey on AP coverage based on interference analysis (within a cell for connected nodes) and user density estimation but also it will try to determine the radial distance where the far distance user is tolerable to interfere with a near user (Near far effect) to the AP in perspective of received signal strength and channel fading. Keywords: SINR, users’ density, ß, coverage  

A Deep Learning-based Mobile Application for Segmenting Tuta Absoluta’s Damage on Tomato Plants

This research article was published by Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research, Volume: 11, Issue: 5, October 2021With the advances in technology, computer vision applications using deep learning methods like Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) have been extensively applied in agriculture. Deploying these CNN models on mobile phones is beneficial in making them accessible to everyone, especially farmers and agricultural extension officers. This paper aims to automate the detection of damages caused by a devastating tomato pest known as Tuta Absoluta. To accomplish this objective, a CNN segmentation model trained on a tomato leaf image dataset is deployed on a smartphone application for early and real-time diagnosis of the pest and effective management at early tomato growth stages. The application can precisely detect and segment the shapes of Tuta Absoluta-infected areas on tomato leaves with a minimum confidence of 70% in 5 seconds only

A Price Based Spectrum Sharing Scheme in Wireless Cellular Networks

Radio frequency spectrum scarcity has become a high priority research area over the past few years. The huge increase of network subscribers with multimedia applications coupled with underutilization of radio frequency spectrum motivates the search for other measures to address the scarcity of radio frequency spectrum. This work investigates on a price based spectrum sharing scheme for connection-oriented traffic in wireless cellular networks as a solution to address the scarcity of radio frequency spectrum. Dynamic pricing approach is applied with traffic overflows into neighbor networks. Performance evaluations of the scheme at steady state using MATLAB simulations reveal significant gains to the quality of service. Application of the scheme to highly loaded network traffic improves both network revenue and traffic channel utilizations. Keywords?Pricing, spectrum sharing, traffic overflows, Quality of service, channel utilizations, Wireless cellular networks

A Battery Voltage Level Monitoring System for Telecommunication Towers

This research article was published by Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research, Vol. 11, No. 6, 2021Voltage fluctuations in batteries form a major challenge the telecommunication towers face. These fluctuations mostly occur due to poor management and the lack of a battery voltage level monitoring system. The current paper presents a battery voltage-level monitoring system to be used in telecommunication towers. The proposed solution is incorporated with a centralized mobile application dashboard for accessing the live data of the installed battery, integrated with voltage-level, current, temperature, fire, and gas sensors. An Arduino Uno microcontroller board is used to process and analyze the collected data from the sensors. The Global Service Message (GSM) module is used to monitor and store data to the cloud. Users are alerted in the case of low voltage, fire, and increase in harmful gases in the tower through Short Message Service (SMS). The experiment was conducted at Ngorongoro and Manyara telecommunication towers. The developed system can be used in accessing battery information remotely while allowing real-time continuous monitoring of battery usage. The proposed battery voltage-level monitoring system contributes to the elimination of battery hazards in towers. Therefore, the proposed battery voltage level monitoring system can be adopted by telecommunication tower engineers for the reduction of voltage fluctuation risks

Warehouse Management System Enhancement: A Case Study of ATOZ Textiles Limited

This conference paper was published by IEEE, 2021With technology advancement, the application of technology in conglomerate companies is crucial for company performance.Technology utilization in industry in developing countries is a challenge. Often there is a crisis of equipment, goods, and items destruction or loss in warehouses. The enhancement of the warehouse management system for the company helps to utilize resources effectively, thus improving company performance.This study aimed to enhance the management of warehouses through the use of information communication and technology. The study developed mobile applications for customer registration, order management, and stock management. The study also extended the web applications for account management, order management, invoice generation, client registration, and stock management. The study was conducted at AtoZ Textiles Company Limited located in the Kisongo area, Arusha Region

A Survey of Machine Learning Approaches and Techniques for Student Dropout Prediction

School dropout is absenteeism from school for no good reason for a continuous number of days. Addressing this challenge requires a thorough understanding of the underlying issues and effective planning for interventions. Over the years machine learning has gained much attention on addressing the problem of students dropout. This is because machine learning techniques can effectively facilitate determination of at-risk students and timely planning for interventions. In order to collect, organize, and synthesize existing knowledge in the field of machine learning on addressing student dropout; literature in academic journals, books and case studies have been surveyed. The survey reveal that, several machine learning algorithms have been proposed in literature. However, most of those algorithms have been developed and tested in developed countries. Hence, developing countries are facing lack of research on the use of machine learning on addressing this problem. Furthermore, many studies focus on addressing student dropout using student level datasets. However, developing countries need to include school level datasets due to the issue of limited resources. Therefore, this paper presents an overview of machine learning in education with the focus on techniques for student dropout prediction. Furthermore, the paper highlights open challenges for future research directions

Mobile Application for Gate Pass Management System Enhancement

This Conference paper was published by IEEE, 2021Gate pass management is a vital measure to keep records of people’s entrance and exit of company premises. Technological improvement steered gate pass management from paper-based logbooks to web-based systems that rely on the internet. Usually, a web-based system can be accessed through a computer browser or mobile browser. The technological evolution of smartphones lures many users in using mobile phones for access internet and web-based systems. The use of smart phone offers portability, flexibility, and a good user experience. Due to the small screen size and input method of smartphones, it’s challenging to use mobile phones to access web-based gate pass management systems. The development of mobile applications introduces a better user experience and easy access to gate pass users. The application provides added advantage in simplifying the whole process of gate pass management. Mobile phone portability and accessibility are utilized to ensure users can have access to gate pass management at any time and anywhere. Mobile application camera is an added feature utilized for scanning gate pass barcodes and taking pictures of gate pass users for more security records. Therefore, the enhancement of the gate pass management system brings an easy way for the user to manage the gate pass process through their smartphone phones

Usability Testing of a Web Portal for Ornamental Plants and Flowers in Arusha, Tanzania

This research article published by Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research Vol. 10 No. 3 (2020): June 2020The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) adoption has steadily advanced in the horticulture sector in Tanzania. This study aims to test and give feedback regarding the usability of a developed web portal prototype for ornamental plants and flowers in Arusha City. The stakeholders are botanists and researchers who search for plant and flower information (taxonomy), small scale farmers, herbalists, and the Arusha City Council. The assessments were organized and conducted in groups where each stakeholder was given access to the web portal for 2 days. Questionnaires were distributed to get feedback from each participant (a total of 48 participants). Multicriteria satisfaction analysis was chosen to measure user satisfaction measuring usability factors such as service quality, technical quality, information quality, and system quality. The overall obtained results had a mean score above 3.5 (70%) on a five-point scale Likert scale analysis