Biological characteristics of the primitive flatfish Indian halibut (Psettodes erumei) from the tropical northeastern Indian Ocean, including implications of the use of incorrect aging methods on mortality estimates

The Indian halibut (Psettodes erumei) is an important flatfish species in tropical and subtropical waters of the northern Indian Ocean. However, inappropriate aging methods used in previous studies of Indian halibut limited the use of age and growth data from those studies. This study highlights the importance of correct aging methods and identification of sexually dimorphic growth, particularly if growth characteristics are used to estimate mortality rates. Counts of opaque zones in whole otoliths of Indian halibut were almost always fewer than those in their corresponding sections, particularly for older individuals. Multiple validation methods demonstrate opaque zones form annually in otoliths of Indian halibut. Although the frequency of females increased with size, due to sexually dimorphic growth, males attained a greater maximum age (16 versus 11 years). Because of the greater ages and rapid early growth of Indian halibut described in this study, natural mortality estimates calculated by using Pauly’s equation, particularly for males, were higher than estimates derived from the same equation in previous studies, which employed growth parameter estimates based on ages derived from whole otoliths, vertebrae, or monthly length–frequency trends and, typically, did not account for sexually dimorphic growth. In northwestern Australia, spawning in Indian halibut commences when water temperature and day length begin to increase and occurs between early spring and late summer

Design and Implementation of Multiplatform Indoor and Outdoor Tracking System

RFID berupaya mengatasi kekurangan GPS dalam persekitaran yang tertutup. Manakala, WSN mampu untuk memanjangkan jarak komunikasi antara dua nod sensor dan GSM boleh menyokong komunikasi WSN semasa gangguan rangkaian. Oleh itu, satu sistem baru platform pelbagai pengesanan dalaman dan luaran (ER2G) yang beroperasi pada frekuensi 2.4 GHz berdasarkan piawaian ZigBee IEEE 802.15.4 diperkenalkan bagi mengatasi kekurangan setiap teknologi. Sistem ER2G dengan fungsi M2M menggunakan mod API untuk menghantar dan menerima data masa sebenar secara wayarles dan menyediakan pensuisan antara lokasi dalamanluaran dan platfom WSN-GSM. Semua ujikaji dijalankan dalam persekitaran sebenar sebagai POC dalam mencapai komunikasi M2M. Prestasi sistem ER2G dinilai dan dibandingkan dengan sistem RFID berdiri sendiri dan ERG, dan ianya didapati lebih cekap daripada dua sistem berkenaan. Sistem ER2G menyediakan perambatan isyarat LOS yang lebih baik daripada sistem RFID berdiri sendiri dengan 2.66 % dalaman dan 26.49 % luaran. Kadar pensuisan adalah 0.95 % dan 16.47 % lebih tinggi daripada sistem ERG dalam persekitaran dalaman dan luaran. Algoritma yang dicadangkan berdasarkan arahan permintaan AT menggunakan mod API berupaya menghantar dan menerima data dengan 10.11 % lebih cepat daripada mod AT. Purata masa pengumpulan tag bagi sistem ER2G untuk TTF dan RTF protokol adalah 14.29 % dan 7.14 % lebih tinggi daripada sistem RFID yang berdiri sendiri. Daya pemprosesan sistem RFID berdiri sendiri adalah 18.06 % lebih rendah daripada sistem ER2G untuk TTF, manakala 7.09 % lebih tinggi daripada sistem ER2G untuk RTF dalam persekitaran pelbagai hop dengan nisbah penghantaran 100 %. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ RFID has the potential to address the inadequacy of GPS inside closed environment. While, WSN is capable to extend the communication range between two sensor nodes and GSM supports WSN during network disruptions. Therefore, a new multi-platform indoor and outdoor tracking (ER2G) system that operates at 2.4 GHz based on ZigBee IEEE 802.15.4 standards is presented to overcome the disadvantages present in each technology. The ER2G system with M2M functionalities utilizes API mode to transmit and receive real time data wirelessly and provides switching between indoor-outdoor location and WSN-GSM platform. All tests are conducted in real environments as POC in achieving M2M communication. The performance of ER2G system is evaluated and compared with standalone RFID and ERG system, and it is found to be more efficient than both systems. The results indicate that the ER2G system provides better LOS signal propagation than the standalone RFID by 2.66 % indoor and 26.49 % outdoor. In addition, the switching rate between indoor and outdoor is faster than the ERG system by 0.95 % indoor and 16.47 % outdoor. The proposed algorithm based on AT command request using API mode is able to transmit and receive data by 10.11 % faster than the AT mode. The average tag collection times of ER2G system for TTF and RTF protocols are 14.29 % and 7.14 % respectively, which are higher than the standalone RFID. Furthermore, the average throughput of the standalone RFID is 18.06 % lower than ER2G system for TTF and 7.09 % higher than ER2G system for RTF in multi-hops environment with 100 % delivery ratio

How Tippecanoe County is Improving a Local Intersection by Using an RSA and Federal Funds

Road safety audits can be an integral tool to support an application for HSIP funds. In this session we will present how an RSA is used to document the need for a project requesting an HSIP eligibility determination. Attendees will learn how to conduct an RSA, who is needed on the RSA review team, how safety concerns are identified and documented, and how an RSA is used as part of the application for eligibility determination of HSIP funds. A sample RSA will be presented

The toxicity effects of water based mud with different additives on aquatic life

Water based muds (WBMs) are by far the most commonly used muds, both onshore and offshore. It can be provided with various additives, such as fluid loss control agents, corrosion inhibitors, weighting materials, and viscosifiers, to develop the key properties of the mud to meet some functional requirements. Even though the overall environmental impact of mud additives in WBMs is minimal, it can contaminate and harm the marine life that inhabits the surrounding waters where drilling operation take place. A state environmental agency designated by EPA, regulates discharges of drilling muds and cuttings to state and federal waters of the U.S. Current National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits allow discharge of WBM and cuttings to federal, but not state, waters if they meet restrictions in the Effluent Limitation Guidelines (ELG) 1. Drilling and operating companies nowadays have been forced to review their mud additives selection guidelines to control the use of non-environmentally friendly and toxic mud additives in the formulation of WBMs. It is important to take account of environmental factors to eliminate any environmental impact. Therefore, experiments were conducted by using several of WBMs additives which are Barite, Potassium Chloride, Hydro Pac, CMC, Hydrozan and Guar Gum to determine their toxicity on aquatic life in which the test organisms for this research are Guppy fish and Neon Tetra fish. The procedure for toxicity test for this study follows the standard procedure recommended by US EPA. In this experiment the test organisms were exposed to the WBM that contain drilling fluid additives with three different concentrations of contaminants for 96 hours. The numbers of survived organisms at the observation time were recorded. From the results obtained, clearly there are no significant effects on aquatic life after being exposed to each drilling fluid additives. Thus the LC50 value for all additives that being tested is above 50000ppm. This means that all these additives are considered non-toxic and environmentally friendly

A Comparative Study on Improvement of Image Compression Method using Hybrid DCT - DWT Techniques with Huffman Encoding for Wireless Sensor Network Application

Nowadays, the demands on the usage of wireless network are increasing rapidly from year to year. Wireless network is a large scale of area where many nodes are connecting to each other to communicate using a device. Primarily, wireless network also tend to be as a link to transmit and receive any multimedia such as image, sound, video, document and etc. In order to receive the transmitted media correctly, most type of media must be compressed before being transmitted and decompressed after being received by the device or else the device used must have the ability to read the media in a compressed way. In this paper, a hybrid compression of Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) and Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) with Huffman encoding technique are proposed for Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) application. Data compression is very useful to remove the redundant data and reduce the size of image. After conducting a comprehensive observation, it is found that hybrid compression is suitable due to the process consist of the combination of multiple compression techniques which suits for Wireless Sensor Network’s application focusing on ZigBee platform

How to Conduct a Sidewalk Condition Inventory

In absence of a national rating system for concrete sidewalks, a modified PASER rating system was adapted to create sidewalk asset management plans. This modified PASER uses the same rating scale as the previous system but with descriptions of conditions and defects relevant to concrete pedestrian walks. In late 2019, the rating system was used in a survey of Battle Ground, Indiana. Join us for a discussion about the details of the rating system and its application

A comparative study on image compression method using stand-alone DWT techniques and hybrid of DWT with huffman coding technique for WSN application

The advent of wireless technologies nowadays gives high impact toward many users to communicate to each other. Wireless Sensor Net-work is a network of nodes which connect to each other by using a device. In addition, transmitting and receiving messages and files are common in most users. There are many platform of network which contributes the same aim that is communication purposes. A ZigBee network is known as one of a platform with its own Standard (IEEE 802.15.4). Unfortunately, ZigBee has a low data rate which limits the capacity of storage in transmitting data. Thus, a large multimedia such as image data are hard to transmit via ZigBee network. Therefore, image compression are necessary in transmission process due to the ability in reducing dimension size and removing redundant image data. In this paper, three method are observed which are stand-alone DWT, stand-alone Huffman, and Hybrid of DWT and Huffman Coding. After conducting a comprehensive observation, it is found that DWT technique are able to compress the image data with less time taken while Huffman technique are suitable in maintaining the quality of image but need a long time to process. Hence, hybrid of DWT with Huffman method are proposed to support each other in terms of compression, computing time and quality of image

Spectroscopic study of the benchmark Mn+-H2 complex

We have recorded the rotationally resolved infrared spectrum of the weakly bound Mn+-H2 complex in the H-H stretch region (4022-4078 cm(-1)) by monitoring Mn+ photodissociation products. The band center of Mn+-H2, the H-H stretch transition, is shifted by -111.8 cm(-1) from the transition of the free H2 molecule. The spectroscopic data suggest that the Mn+-H2 complex consists of a slightly perturbed H2 molecule attached to the Mn+ ion in a T-shaped configuration with a vibrationally averaged intermolecular separation of 2.73 A. Together with the measured Mn+...H2 binding energy of 7.9 kJ/mol (Weis, P.; et al. J. Phys. Chem. A 1997, 101, 2809.), the spectroscopic parameters establish Mn+-H2 as the most thoroughly characterized transition-metal cation-dihydrogen complex and a benchmark for calibrating quantum chemical calculations on noncovalent systems involving open d-shell configurations. Such systems are of possible importance for hydrogen storage applications

The relationship between job satisfactions and turnover intentions among associates in Putrajaya Marriott Hotel / Nurul Syafawani Mohd Poad

This quantitative research aims to examine the impact of job satisfaction through work value, compensation and benefits, and working environment that influence turnover intention among associates in Putrajaya Marriott Hotel. This includes the objectives as follows, to investigate the relationship between work value and turnover intentions among associate in Putrajaya Marriott Hotel, to examine the relationship between compensation and benefits and turnover intentions among associate in Putrajaya Marriott Hotel, to study the relationship between work environment and turnover intentions among associate in Putrajaya Marriott Hotel, and to identify the most significant factors that influence turnover intentions among associate in Putrajaya Marriott Hotel. Most of the intention of associates’ to have turnover intentions are influence by surrounding factors such their compensation and benefits. This factor are the main factor that always seen roughly by the organization. But there are other factors that influence to turnover intentions such work value and work environment. The data has been collected from in Putrajaya Marriott Hotel which include executive and non-executive associates by distributing questionnaire to the 200 associates that been simple random sampling. The results showed that all independent variables for this study which are work value, compensation and benefits, and working environment are significant with turnover intentions. This study is said to be beneficial to the organization in order to reduce the number of associates’ turnover intention. Recommendation for future is also have been discussed

Pembinaan Konsep Psiko-Hisbat Untuk Pengurusan Insan Berteraskan Islam

Islamic-based human management is a method of human management based on Islamic teachings that includes internal and external aspects. Among the main aspects that has been focussed in the human management based on Islam is the aspect of surveillance which consists of the spiritual surveillance, intellect, heart and desires of a human being. These four aspects are specific components of psychology which is an important aspect to be monitored to produce a good well-being in terms of emotional, spiritual and physical. However, until now, problems related to human psychology are seen to be increasingly worried to some extent that there are some issues involving extreme stress or depression that lead to suicide and so on. The question arised, is there an existing concept of Islamic psychological surveillance? how can a psychological surveillance approach in Islamic -based human management be done? and how can Islamic concept of hisbat can be integrated as a concept of human psychological surveillance? Based on these questions, this study aims to achieve three objectives. First, to identify the basic concepts of Islamic psychology and accountability in Islamic -based human management. Second, to analyze the concept of Islamic psychology and hisbat to build the concept of psycho-hisbat for Islamic-based human management. Third, to formulate the concept of psycho-mathematics for human management based on Islam. To achieve all these objectives, this study uses a basic qualitative research design through an inductive approach conducted in two phases