Integration of health education for sustainable development: Sabah's initiatives

Sabah, located north of Borneo, is bordered by Sarawak on its south-west and by East Kalimantan of Indonesia to the south. The area that Sabah encompasses-73,711 square kilometers-makes the state the second largest in Malaysia. Sabah is popularly known as the land below the wind

Parameter selection the powerplant with recovery system Off-gas in the refinery

Dissertation for the candidate degree in specialty 05.05.03 "Engines and Power Plants". - National Technical University "Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute ", Kharkiv 2017. The thesis is devoted to actual problem - the selection of schemes and power parameters of the power plant for utilization of associated gas. The problem of associated gas flaring continuously rising international conferences on conservation of the environment are held under the auspices of the UN and the World Bank. In particular, the World Conference on Climate in Paris (COP21) in 2015, and was nominated Global Initiatives to eradicate the practice of flaring of associated gas in the oil industry. Worldwide, it was supported by 45 oil companies, governments and other parties through which CO2 emissions can be reduced by 100 million tons per year. The adopted program "Zero Routine Flaring by 2030" provides end to the practice of burning of associated gas by 2030. This Initiatives supported and Iraq, which in 2015 take the second place in the world with the burning of associated gas in flares. Associated petroleum gas is 2% of product yield refineries in Iraq. Given the number of refineries and their power daily when they are flaring loss a lot of energy and is a significant pollution of the territory not only as chemical emissions but as a heat is released during the combustion of associated gas. The work uses a comprehensive approach to the selection circuit and power parameters power plant for utilization of associated gas. The possible options for the utilization of associated gas. According to the options two power plants are taken the first one based on gas turbine engine and the second based on gas turbine engine and a piston engine. The question examined in terms of exergic-anergy balance installation and obtain the best technical and economic performance, taking into account the climatic characteristics of Iraq The features of physical and chemical composition of associated petroleum gas in the refinery in Iraq, in particular methane determined the number, the method of firm Caterpillar. The methane number of the gas fuel affects the choice piston power plant. Significant impact on the choice of installing recycling schemes associated gas temperature features render the region. For their consideration set average temperature for the region. Conducted thermal calculations allowed to analyze the impact of environmental temperature on performance of power plants and conduct a feasibility study best selection circuit installation. Implementation exergic-anergy balance for power plants proposed scheme has allowed to confirm significant reduction in thermal pollution and show the most attractive from that perspective scheme. Economic calculations allowed to determine the payback period of the projects and installations prove the economic feasibility of their construction. The most economically attractive project. The analysis of the economic risks of sensitivity to changes in prices of electricity and to changes in ambient temperature. Similar calculations of sensitivity analysis performed for the two plants power plants. Based on the analysis, commissioned by the Iraqi side was developed based business project for energy generation capacity on the basis of energy utilization units. The results of the study will not only get the necessary electrical energy that can be used not only in the enterprise, but also to improve the environment in accordance with international agreements. The results of the research will be used in the construction of new units in the refineries in Iraq according to a letter from the Ministry of Industry and minerals.Дисертація на здобуття наукового ступеня кандидата технічних наук за спеціальністю 05.05.03 «Двигуни та енергетичні установки» (14 – Електрична інженерія). – Національний технічний університет «Харківський політехнічний інститут», Харків, 2017. Дисертаційна робота присвячена актуальному питанню - вибору схеми та параметрів силової енергетичної установки для утилізації попутного нафтового газу. Проблема спалювання попутних газів постійно підіймається на міжнародних конференціях зі збереження навколишнього середовища які проходять під егідою ООН та Всесвітнього банку. Зокрема, на Всесвітній конференції з клімату в Парижі (COP21) у 2015 році, була висунута та підтримана глобальна ініціатива з викорінення практики спалювання попутного газу в нафтовій промисловості. В усьому світі її підтримали 45 нафтових компаній, урядів та інших сторін завдяки яким викиди CO2 можуть скоротитись на 100 мільйонів тонн на рік. Прийнята програма “Zero Routine Flaring by 2030” передбачає покінчити з практикою спалювання супутнього нафтового газу до 2030 року. Цю ініціативу підтримала і держава Ірак, яка на 2015 рік займала друге місце у світі зі спалювання попутних газів у факелах. Попутний нафтовий газ складає 2% від виходу продуктів нафтопереробного підприємства в Іраку. Враховуючи кількість нафтопереробних підприємств та їх потужності, щоденно, при його спалюванні у факелах, втрачається велика кількість енергії та відбувається значне забруднення навколишньої території не тільки хімічними викидами а і теплотою яка виділяється при згорянні попутного нафтового газу. У роботі використано комплексний підхід до вибору схеми та параметрів силової енергетичної установки для утилізації попутного нафтового газу. Розглянуто можливі варіанти утилізації супутнього нафтового газу. Серед варіантів взято енергетичну установку на базі газотурбінного двигуна та установку на базі газотурбінного двигуна який діє сумісно з поршневим двигуном. Поставлене питання розглянуто з точки зору енерго-ексергетичного балансу установки та отримання найкращих техніко-економічних показників з урахуванням кліматичних особливостей регіону держави Ірак. Розглянуто особливості фізико-хімічного складу супутнього нафтового газу на нафтопереробному заводі держави Ірак, зокрема проведено визначення метанового числа, за методикою фірми Caterpillar. Метанове число газового палива впливає на вибір поршневої енергетичної установки. Значний вплив на вибір схеми установки з утилізації супутнього нафтового газу оказують температурні особливості регіону. Для їх урахування визначено середню температуру для регіону. Проведені теплові розрахунки дозволили проаналізувати вплив температури навколишнього середовища на показники енергетичних установок та провести економічне обґрунтування обрання найкращої схеми установки. Виконання енерго-ексергетичного балансу для запропонованих схем енергогенеруючих установок дозволило підтвердити значне зменшення теплового забруднення навколишнього середовища та вказати на найбільш привабливу з цієї точки зору схему. Економічні розрахунки дозволили визначити термін окупності запропонованих проектів установок та довести економічну доцільність їх побудови. Визначено найбільш економічно привабливий проект. Проведено аналіз економічних ризиків чутливості до зміни ціни електроенергії та до зміни температури навколишнього середовища. Подібні розрахунки аналізу чутливості проведено для заводів з двома енергетичними установками. На основі проведеного аналізу, на замовлення Іракської сторони, було розроблено основу бізнес проекту для енергогенеруючих потужностей на базі енергетичних утилізаційних установок. Виконання результатів дослідження дозволить не тільки отримати необхідну електричну енергію, яку можна використовувати не тільки на підприємстві, а і покращити стан навколишнього середовища у відповідності до міжнародних домовленостей. Результати дисертаційного дослідження будуть використані при будівництві нових енергоблоків на нафтопереробних заводах Іраку згідно листа від Міністерства промисловості і природних ресурсів

An Improved Software Project Monitoring Task Model of Agile Kanban Method: A Practitioners’ Perspective

Monitoring software project development is essential to ensure that the project progress is according to budget, schedule, and quality expectations. Currently, Agile Methods (AMs) have received wide recognition within the software engineering (SE) field due to their flexibility and effectiveness. One of the AMs methods used in managing software project development is Kanban method. This method is gaining attention due to its ability to enhance understanding, visibility, and controlling the project workflow. Thus, this paper aims to discuss the initial result of the proposed model for improving the software project monitoring task of the Agile Kanban method (i-KAM). To achieve this aim, the expert review method was used to ensure that suitable components and associated criteria have been included in i-KAM. In this study, six domain experts, which are software practitioners, have been identified based on predefined characteristics. The proposed model was verified based on five dimensions, which are understandability, relevance, feasibility, organization, and comprehensiveness. The experts’ opinions and comments were obtained and subsequently quantified by using descriptive analysis. Findings revealed that this study has fulfilled its objective and has acquired constructive suggestions from the practitioners’ perspective. Future work will continue to enhance i-KAM according to the recommendations and remarks from the experts. A focus group and case study methods could be conducted in order to validate the revised i-KAM. Besides, a prototype will be developed and then implemented within a real software development setting

Towards an Improved Software Project Monitoring Task Model of Agile Kanban Method

Agile Kanban method recently is gaining increasing attention and popularity in software development organizations (SDOs). This method has numerous advantages that make it performs better than other Agile methods in terms of managing software projects. However, different studies revealed that this method has significant challenges that negatively impact the scheduling of the development process. Therefore, late delivery of software projects may occur, thus the rate of projects failures will be increased. In response, this paper aims to explicate the current challenges in progress monitoring task of Agile Kanban method. Accordingly, the results gave insights to bridge that gap by developing an improved software project monitoring task model of Agile Kanban method. To do so, we identified the components and criteria that affect software project monitoring task, and then an initial model has proposed. The initial model consists of three main components, which are (1) extending progress tracking, (2) generating optimum WIP limits, and (3) visualizing useful insights for workflow. Further research can be focused on developing and evaluating the proposed model through discussion with the knowledge and domain experts

The Key Factors of Evaluating Agile Approaches: A Systematic Literature Review

Currently, Agile Methods (AMs) are extensively being used in projects of various sizes and in different environments, thus surpassing their primary intended scope. For instance, they have been executed in distributed and non-distributed projects. In addition, AMs have been implemented in different project fields, such as engineering, medicine, banking, and manufacturing. Consequently, different Agile approaches have been proposed and integrated with other approaches in order to support the increased demand for diverse project environments. In this direction, various authors have examined the process of developing those approaches; however, the focus on explaining evaluation phases is scarce and scattered. Therefore, this study aims to review pertinent literature to identify the key factors and methodologies used to evaluate the proposed approaches in the Agile domain. The systematic literature review (SLR) methodology was adopted to identify, evaluate, and interpret all existing studies relevant to the research objective. SLR provides in-depth and more thorough results than an ordinary literature review. Forty-eight studies were selected and analyzed. The results show that applicability, effectiveness, and efficiency are the three most frequently examined evaluation factors, whereas case studies and surveys are the most frequently used research methods in evaluation studies. Factors identified in this review provide the evidence and the opportunity to design instruments or assessment forms that meet the needs of those researchers who are planning to evaluate their proposed Agile approaches

Adaptive chebyshev fusion of vegetation imagery based on SVM classifier

A novel adaptive image fusion method by using Chebyshev polynomial analysis (CPA), for applications in vegetation satellite imagery, is introduced in this paper. Fusion is a technique that enables the merging of two satellite cameras: panchromatic and multi-spectral, to produce higher quality satellite images to address agricurtural and vegetation issues such as soiling, floods and crop harvesting. Recent studies show Chebyshev polynomials to be effective in image fusion mainly in medium to high noise conditions, as per real-life satellite conditions. However, its application was limited to heuristics. In this research, we have proposed a way to adaptively select the optimal CPA parameters according to user specifications. Support vector machines (SVM) is used as a classifying tool to estimate the noise parameters, from which the appropriate CPA degree is utilised to perform image fusion according to a look-up table. Performance evaluation affirms the approach’s ability in reducing the computational complexity to perform fusion. Overall, adaptive CPA fusion is able to optimize an image fusion system’s resources and processing time. It therefore may be suitably incorporated onto real hardware for use on vegetation satellite imagery

A Review on the Methods of Evaluating the New Approaches Proposed in the Agile Context

In the recent years, Agile is being one of the emerging technologies adopted by numerous organizations.  The Agile methods have not received a wide acceptance within the software development organizations (SDOs), but they are also being extensively employed in different fields and environments. Accordingly, new approaches have been proposed by researchers and practitioners based on the Agile context, however, there is scarce and – sometimes - absence of describing the evaluation process of these approaches. Therefore, this paper reports the findings of an extensive literature search on how the new proposed approaches are being evaluated. The narrative review methodology was employed to criticize and summarize a body of literature retrieved from various scientific sources. The results reveal that there are various methods used for evaluating the proposed Agile approaches. Nevertheless, this review focuses on explaining the five common methods, which are: (1) case study, (2) survey, (3) interview, (3) focus group, and (5) expert review. Thereafter, the authors discuss the key findings and highlight directions for future researches. This study tends to help researchers and practitioners to select the suitable evaluation methods when constructing new Agile approaches.

BRIDGING THE REAL WORLD ENGLISHES IN THE RURAL ESL CLASSROOM THROUGH TRANSLATION

Translation can play a role in the development of communicative abilities since speakers are often engaged in the work of sharing and negotiating meaning. It fosters speculation and discussion, apart from developing abilities considered fundamental for communication, such as interpretation, negotiation, and expression of meaning. However, there are views against translation in the ESL classrooms even though the method has been applied in the pedagogical process. As a result, ESL students who are weak in English are not given the opportunity to excel in the second language from their own bilingual strength. This paper attempts to study and disclose in what ways pedagogogical translation in rural ESL classrooms in Sabah is reflected into practice, thereby assessing whether the gap between pedagogical translation and translation pedagogy has beeen been bridged. In this case study, five primary teachers were selected and their knowledge and practice of translation were assessed through qualitative content analysis in pre- teaching, while teaching and post-teaching activities. A translation framework has been designed and used in assessing the teachers’ performances in using translation. This pilot study reveals that teachers have translated from the first language (L1) into the second language (L2) as a means to help students to understand the content of the English lesson. They did not have adequate knowedge on translation strategies. Thus, the designed translation framework may be used by teachers as a guide in using translation in the ESL context