Modelling Driving Forces of Urban Growth with Fuzzy Sets and GIS

Urban growth occurs in conjunction with a series of decision-making processes and is, on the whole, not deterministic but rather is the outcome of competing local demands and uncontrolled, chaotic processes. Fuzzy sets theory is ideally suited to treat the complexity and uncertainties in the decision-making process. This chapter presented an example of how fuzzy sets can be applied to model urban growth driving forces within geographical information system environment. The mathematical models for measuring, computing and defining 10 fuzzy urban growth factors to form fuzzy driving forces of urban growth in Riyadh City, Saudi Arabia, were discussed. Four factors were considered as the driving forces for urban growth in Riyadh City: the transport support factor, urban agglomeration and attractiveness factor, topographical constraints factor, and planning policies and regulations factor. The urban growth factors were established using fuzzy set theory, which quantified the effect of distance decay using fuzziness. This approach is a transparent method of interpreting the curve of distance decay using linguistic variables. This feature does not exist in the linear, negative exponential or inverse power functions. The results indicate that fuzzy accessibility and fuzzy urban density factors are capable of mimicking and representing the uncertainty in the behaviour of the human decision-making process in land development in a very efficient manner

Perubahan Kurikulum di Madrasah Aliyah Negeri 2 Ponorogo Sebagai Upaya Peningkatan Kualitas Lembaga Pendidikan Islam

AbstractQuality education today is an essential necessity in human life. The purposes of this research are to describe how the dynamics of curriculum goes on. It used a qualitative descriptive approach. The instruments of collecting data are observation, interview, and  document. The data must be analyzed by the following cycles: reduction, display and verification. It showed that; curriculum religious teacher training is different with the curriculum of Islamic High School. The implementation of the curriculum has to improve some knowledge and policy continuously, especially, to master the curriculum component system supported to the vision. Those are; setting up teachers and education staffs with the standards of educational, structuring teachers to teach according to their field of study, and involving them in any kinds of training and curriculum development policy. It faces several obstacles lacking of curriculum development experiences and theories, educational personnel should contribute more than before in curriculum development.Key words; Curriculum, education system, Islamic education, madrasah. AbstrakPendidikan yang berkualitas merupakan keperluan esensi yang amat penting dalam kehidupan manusia masa sekarang. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengkonstruk bagaimana dinamika kurikulum berlangsung. Penelitian menggunakan pendekatan studi kasus. Gambaran fakta data diperoleh melalui teknik pengamatan, wawancara, dan dokumen. Data dianalisa dengan siklus; reduksi, pemaparan dan simpulan. Hasil riset menunjukan; kurikulum Pendidikan Guru Agama  berbeda dengan Madrasah Aliyah, implementasi kurikulum madrasah meningkatkan pengetahuan dan komponen kurikulum yang mendukung terhadap visi. Proses tahapan tersebut; menyiapkan guru dan staff perkantoran yang  sesuai dengan kualifikasi pendidikan, guru mengajar sesuai dengan bidangnya, mengikutsertakan mereka dalam kebijakan program pelatihan dan pengembangan kurikulum. Implementasi menghadapi beberapa kendala; kurang pengalaman dalam pengembangan dan pengasaan teori, pelaksana kurikulum seharusnya dapat berkonstribusi lebih dalam pengembangannya

Pesticides, Anthropogenic Activities, and the Health of Our Environment Safety

Mankind depends on agricultural products for food consumption. Increasing population (more than 7 billion) requires significant growth in crop yield to meet essential demand. This aim was achieved through the use of pesticides to protect crops from diseases. Pesticides are toxic by design for organisms that can threaten food products. Their mode of action is by targeting systems or enzymes in the pests that may be similar to human system and therefore pose risks to human health and the environment as well. The WHO recommended classifying pesticides according to their toxicity and chemicals according to their chronic health and environmental hazards

Evaluating the Usage of Augmented Reality in General Education Schools of Saudi Arabia

Over the last decade the swift evolution of technology has introduced new ways to develop applications and learning environment. It has been argued that, using technology in education can broaden the horizon of students and help them thinking interactively. This paper aims to evaluate the usage of augmented reality in education, especially in general education schools of Saudi Arabia. In this study, some factors have been considered such as, students’ type (i.e., primary, intermediate and secondary), the main courses that apply the AR technology, the possible effect of using it in SA education, and challenges of using AR in educational settings. The most reported motive of using AR in Saudi Arabia schools is improving the quality of education skills. Some noted challenges imposed by AR are usability issues and lack of technical support. Other several challenges and effects of AR usage are founded, which will be discussed in detail

A comparison of derivatisation procedures for the detection of multiple analytes in systematic forensic toxicology

Three different derivatisation procedures were evaluated for their general applicability to systematic toxicological analysis (STA) involving (a) acylation with pentafluoropropionyl anhydride (PFPA) and pentafluoropropanol (PFP-OH), (b) acylation/esterification (methylation) with pentafluoropropionyl anhydride (PFPA) and a novel methylating agent trimethylsilyldiazomethane (TMS-diazomethane), used as a chromatographic derivatisation reagent for the first time in this study, and (c) silylation with tertiary-butyldimethylsilyl-trifluoroacetamide (MTBSTFA). Model compounds were selected for the evaluation process including a primary amine (amphetamine), a secondary amine (methamphetamine), alicyclic and aromatic hydroxy compounds (morphine, tetrahydrocannabinol), and carboxylic acids (benzoylecgonine, 11-nor tetrahydrocannabinol-9-carboxylic acid). For method (a) derivatisation was successful for all of the test compounds and mass spectra were obtained for each of them. For method (b), the novel methylating agent trimethylsilyl-diazomethane was used to convert carboxylic acids into the corresponding methyl esters. This reaction was found to proceed rapidly and quantitatively at room temperature and holds potential for future use in toxicology to replace diazomethane, a hazardous and toxic material. Method (c) gave derivatives with all test compounds except the secondary amine, methamphetamine, and the alcohol, morphine. The gas chromatographic behaviour of these derivatives was good and the mass spectra had prominent ions suitable for GC-MS-SIM. The extraction of multiple drugs from blood was evaluated using the novel polymeric SPE sorbent Strata-X. The same test compounds were used to assess the extraction step in terms of recovery and variation (within day and between days). The extracts were analysed by GC-MS-SIM using each of the three types of derivative. Recoveries of the test compounds were in the range of 50-100 percent depending on the analyte and its concentration in blood. All calibration curves were linear and had correlation coefficients higher than 0.99. Within day variations and between day variations were in the range of 2-22% relative standard deviation. Limits of detection and quantitation were measured for the model compounds and were found to be in the ranges of 0.4-7.3 ng/ml and 1.1-24.4 ng/ml respectively. The full method, combining extraction with each of the derivatisation reactions was finally evaluated for the presence of interferences with real case blood samples. The three derivatisation procedures were evaluated using four test compounds comprising diazepam plus its three metabolites nordiazepam, temazepam and oxazepam. The hydroxylated metabolites (temazepam and oxazepam) formed derivatives readily with all three reagent mixtures but nordiazepam (secondary aromatic amine) did not react except with MTBSTFA. Based on the work of this study it is concluded that a method is possible for STA based on a polymeric sorbent, to give a general extract, followed by a generalised derivatisation procedure such as acylation, with PFPA/PFP-OH prior to GC-MS

The Effects of Mode Perceptions on Intercity Mode-Choice Behavior in Saudi Arabia

The conventional mode choice models mostly consider quantitative variables in their model estimation although mode choice may be affected by the qualitative perception levels of service variables. This study aimed to investigate the effect of incorporating mode perception into the modeling of mode choice process for intercity travel in Saudi Arabia after developing and testing scales for quantifying the perceptions of mode privacy, convenience, comfort and reliability. In order to investigate the effects of mode perceptions, multinomial logit mode choice models were calibrated for business trips as well as social/recreational trips. This study reveals that the perception of mode comfort significantly affects the choice of the travelers for the mentioned three types of trips but perception of mode is significant for business trips only. The study concluded that it is not worthy to use these variables in planning stages due to the difficulty and cost in obtaining the mode perceptions. However, the variables could be quite useful in identifying deficiencies of the intercity modes as perceived by travelers and therefore could help operators in improving the required services. Keywords: mode perception, mode choice