Engineering design concept generation: The effect of concept combination and classification

World economic forum reported that creativity is one of the most sought after skills by employers globally. Preliminary research lead to multiple initiatives on enhancing creativity and innovation. To contribute in this field, we investigated the effect of two interventions on the creativity of undergraduate engineering students, particularly on engineering design concept generation. The primary focus of this investigation was on assessing the effect of two interventions, combining and classifying concepts, on the originality and quantity of the concepts produced. In this research, we used the Decision Tree for Originality Assessment in Design (DTOAD) as a measure of concept originality. Statistical analysis showed that both the combine and the classify interventions lead to concept generation with higher originality. We also found that students produced higher number of the radically different concept, i.e. concepts with originality score 7.5 and above, however this effect was observed in all the test groups. These interventions made improvements and thus can be encouraged as a part of an ideation or an engineering problem solving task in the undergraduate engineering education to help the students develop creative skills

Dynamic Policy Update on Cloud for File Access

In today’s era of digitalization everyone stores and access data online. Cloud computing has become prominent in data storage and access any where globally, but there is concern by data owners regarding data ownership. It is monotonous to assign access rights and simultaneously provide security in real time is a concern. To resolve this issue of access control in recent times Attribute based encryption method is widely preferred. One of the most popular method to handle access rights is by used is Attribute-based Encryption (ABE) method, the two ways for performing the implementation of ABE are ciphertext-policy and key-policy ABE. One of the widely practiced methods of safe communication is through cryptography. In this work we are proposing a method to handle access rights dynamically on the outlines of Ciphertext-policy attribute-based encryption (CP-ABE) scheme along with this we are using two symmetric encryption algorithm namely AES and Serpent for providing better security to the system. This work implements a new policy update method which helps to manage data access control in the dynamic policy update for data in the cloud storage. In this, same input key is utilized for the both encryption and decryption operation. Here two types of files are handled as an input such as Text file and image file. In experimental result, comparison of both algorithms is shown with the help of graphs with different parameters such as Time, Number of files, file size. And we have also shown the comparison of system having dynamic update policy and system with out in tabular form. We have also shown the comparative analysis of both algorithms that shows SERPENT encryption algorithm gives superior performance in Encryption

AUTOMATIC RECOGNITION OF TRAFFIC SIGNS USING FANN AND OPEN CV

Automation Recognition of Traffic Signs is integrated and automation software for Traffic Symbol Recognition. The proposed system detects candidate regions as Maximally Stable Extremely Region (MSERs), which offers robustness to variations in lighting conditions. Recognition is based on Artificial Neural Network (ANN) classifiers. The training data are generated from real footage road signs which will be fetched using camera board and by applying threshold values we get proper training data for each frame. By applying thinning mechanism like erode and corrode and segmentation we can recognize proper shape and symbol. The proposed system is accurate at high vehicle speeds, operates under a range of weather conditions, runs at an average speed of 10 frames per second, and recognizes all classes of ideogram-based (non-text) traffic symbols from real footage road signs. Comprehensive comparative results to illustrate the performance of the system are presented. https://journalnx.com/journal-article/2015023

Antioxidant, Cytotoxic and Antibacterial Activities of Methanol Extracts from Smilax zeylanica L. Root and Rhizome

Root and rhizomes of Smilax zeylanica (Family: Similaceae; Kabarossa in Sinhala; Kumarika in English) is widely used as a traditional remedy to manage cancer. Yet, its ethnomedical usage is not scientifically proven. Present study aimed to evaluate the antioxidant, cytotoxic and antibacterial activities of root and rhizome (RR) of S. zeylanica. Dried RR was refluxed with methanol and the phytochemical screening was conducted using standard methods and was confirmed by thin layer chromatography. Total phenols and flavonoids were quantified with Gallic acid and Quarcetine as respective standards. Antioxidant activity was evaluated using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl free radical scavenging assay, while cytotoxic activity was tested (n=50) with Brine shrimp lethality assay. Antibacterial activity against two gram-positive (Bacillus subtilis and Streptooccus aureus) and two gram-negative (Escherichia coli and Proteus sp.) bacteria conducted using disk diffusion method. Phytochemical screening revealed the presence of unsaturated sterols, terpenes, saponins, flavonoids, pro-anthocynidines, anthraquinones, tannins, and polyphenols. The free radical scavenging potential of the extract increased with increasing concentration in a linear fashion. Further, the extract found to be a strong free radical scavenger (IC50: 6.53±0.02 μg/ml) compared to the standard ascorbic acid (IC50: 2.59±0.02 μg/ml). Cytotoxic effect of S. zeylanica showed a significant different with the standard Potassium dichromate (p<0.05). The IC50 value exhibited by the extract was 90±2.8 μg/ml compared to the standard (32 μg/ml). The extract did not exhibit any antibacterial activity against the tested bacterial strains. The present study confirms ethnomedical use of RR of S. zeylanica against cancer. It is suggested that the active compounds of methanol extraction of RR of S. zeylanica play a role to inhibit free radical activity and kill Artemiasalina nauplii. The substances can be considered as potential antioxidant and cytotoxic agents as well as imminent candidate for cancer therapy. Further investigations on chemical composition and possible isolation of active ingredients are required.Keywords: Smilax zeylanica, Methanol extract, Antioxidant activity, Cytotoxicity, Antibacterial activit

KSHV LANA and EBV LMP1 induce the expression of UCH-L1 following viral transformation

Ubiquitin C-terminal Hydrolase L1 (UCH-L1) has oncogenic properties and is highly expressed during malignancies. We recently documented that Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection induces uch-l1 expression. Here we show that Kaposi's Sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) infection induced UCH-L1 expression, via cooperation of KSHV Latency-Associated Nuclear Antigen (LANA) and RBP-Jκ and activation of the uch-l1 promoter. UCH-L1 expression was also increased in Primary Effusion Lymphoma (PEL) cells co-infected with KSHV and EBV compared with PEL cells infected only with KSHV, suggesting EBV augments the effect of LANA on uch-l1. EBV latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1) is one of the few EBV products expressed in PEL cells. Results showed that LMP1 was sufficient to induce uch-l1 expression, and co-expression of LMP1 and LANA had an additive effect on uch-l1 expression. These results indicate that viral latency products of both human γ-herpesviruses contribute to uch-l1 expression, which may contribute to the progression of lymphoid malignancies

KSHV LANA and EBV LMP1 induce the expression of UCH-L1 following viral transformation

Ubiquitin C-terminal Hydrolase L1 (UCH-L1) has oncogenic properties and is highly expressed during malignancies. We recently documented that Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection induces uch-l1 expression. Here we show that Kaposi's Sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) infection induced UCH-L1 expression, via cooperation of KSHV Latency-Associated Nuclear Antigen (LANA) and RBP-Jκ and activation of the uch-l1 promoter. UCH-L1 expression was also increased in Primary Effusion Lymphoma (PEL) cells co-infected with KSHV and EBV compared with PEL cells infected only with KSHV, suggesting EBV augments the effect of LANA on uch-l1. EBV latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1) is one of the few EBV products expressed in PEL cells. Results showed that LMP1 was sufficient to induce uch-l1 expression, and co-expression of LMP1 and LANA had an additive effect on uch-l1 expression. These results indicate that viral latency products of both human γ-herpesviruses contribute to uch-l1 expression, which may contribute to the progression of lymphoid malignancies

Waste Water Treatment: A Bibliometric Study of Scopus and Web of Science publications

A bibliographic study of the different publication trends in waste water treatment have been carried out from 2000-2019, and presented in the manuscript. The study revolves around publications considering waste water treatment of insecticide, pesticide, dyes, heavy metals, containing waste water. The growth of research in waste water treatment in the past decade, as evident from the publication databases, has led to the development of interest and curiosity in the growing area of water treatment. The reference points for the analysis in the present study have been Scopus and Web of Science databases, which have been considered and referred to as renowned sources in the research community. Several parameters such as year of publication, citations, country of publication, funding agencies, etc. have been discussed in detail. The manuscripts in the domain of waste water have shown a percentage distribution of 56.25 %, 39.58 % and 4.17 % for research articles, review papers and conference publications in Scopus database, whereas 73.53 %, 25.00 % and 1.47 %, in Web of Science database, in the period ranging from 2000 to 2019. India shows almost 35.29 % of these publications whereas China 22.06 %, out of all the publications in the mentioned period. The authors have analyzed the publication pattern till date thereby determining the coverage and impact, highlighting the importance of the domain chosen

Service providers’ experience and response behaviours towards Chinese tourists: Evidence from Sri Lanka : A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Lincoln University

Chinese tourists are now replacing the traditional tourist source markets in many destinations around the world because of the spectacular growth in the numbers of these tourists in recent years. Consequently, the Chinese tourist market has received extensive attention to understand their motives, expectations, experiences, and travel behaviours from the perspective of the tourists themselves. However, limited attention has been given to understanding the supply-side experience or the servicing hosts’ perspectives and how the service providers adjust and respond to this new tourist market. This research applied a qualitative emic approach to explore hosts’ experiences and responses towards Chinese tourists in two key tourist locations in Sri Lanka: Kandy and Galle. The findings show that Sri Lankan hosts have different experiences with Chinese tourists depending on the service provided and the type of Chinese tourist. This is different from the models proposed in the demand-side tourism literature. Hosts construct their perception of these tourists by observing the tourist behaviour and respond accordingly. As Chinese tourists’ behaviour changes, the initial responses are amended. Similarly, the changes taking place in the Chinese tourist market are much faster than the responses adopted by Sri Lankan service providers despite the best efforts of those service providers. The findings have resulted in interlinked theoretical insights. The concept of Chinese tourist 1.0 and 2.0 is amended to a continuum model that provides a nuanced level of changes that is patchy, uneven, and lacking uniformity. The hosts’ observations/perceptions of and responses towards the Chinese tourist market are considerably influenced by the Chinese cultural value driven behaviours. Following these observations, it becomes apparent that there are a number of ‘gazes’ in operation: the service providers gaze at different types of tourists, the tourists gaze at the service providers, and the tourists gaze at each other

PCB Defect Detection, Classification and Localization using Mathematical Morphology and Image Processing Tools

An automated visual printed circuit board (PCB) inspection is an approach used to counter difficulties occurred in human’s manual inspection that can eliminates subjective aspects and then provides fast, quantitative, and dimensional assessments. Various concentrated work on detection of defects on printed circuit boards (PCBs) have been done, but it is also crucial to classify these defects in order to analyze and identify the root causes of the defects. This project proposes a PCB defect detection and classification system using a morphological image segmentation algorithm and simple the image processing theories. However, besides the need to detect the defects, it is also essential to classify and locate these defects so that the source and location of these defects can be identified. Based on initial studies, some PCB defects can only exist in certain groups. Thus, it is obvious that the image processing algorithm could be improved by applying a segmentation exercise. This project uses template and test images of single layer, bare, grayscale computer generated PCBs