83 research outputs found
Engineering students\u27 preferred roles: Are they stable, are there gender differences?
Being able to situate oneself in an engineering role is a developmental process. Students may initially have idealized perceptions of a professional role and over time, they make this role more congruent with their own values and goals [1]. In light of this, Higher Education Institutions are being challenged to offer learning experiences and career exploration activities to enable students to clarify their interests, values and competencies in relation to a professional role [2]. This study compared the professional role preferences of more than 700 engineering students at TU Dublin (Ireland) and KU Leuven (Belgium). Professional role preference was measured with PREFER Explore, a personal preference test for engineers. The test aligns students to three professional roles for early career engineers: Product leadership (focus on radical innovation), Operational excellence (focus on process optimization) and Customer intimacy (focus on tailored solutions and customer satisfaction). A comparison was drawn between the role preference of first year students at TU Dublin and KU Leuven to establish if there were significant differences in preference across both universities. The results suggest that the role preference of engineering students does not shift from first to third year. There is also evidence that the PREFER Explore is sensitive to gender differences, with female students showing a greater preference for customer intimacy than males and males showing a greater preference for operational excellence than females at TU Dublin. The data have a number of implications for the labor market in Ireland and Belgium
Conceptual Design of an Integrated Smart Home System with PV Solar Power for Traditional Minahasa Wooden House
The traditional Minahasa wooden house is an integral part of Indonesia's cultural heritage. However, in this modern era, the challenge of preserving cultural authenticity while introducing it to the technological era is becoming increasingly urgent. This research aims to design a Smart Home System concept integrated with Photovoltaic (PV) Solar Power Plant for traditional Minahasa wooden houses. The objective of this study is to identify the potential for integrating smart home technology and PV Solar Power Plant in Minahasa wooden houses and to develop a concept that combines traditional elements with modern technology. The research methodology will involve a literature review to understand the concepts of smart homes, PV Solar Power Plant, and the characteristics of traditional Minahasa wooden houses. Additionally, descriptive research through interviews will be conducted in collaboration with industry partners to obtain data and examples of traditional Minahasa wooden houses to be used as benchmarks in the concept design. This research can contribute to integrating modern technology into Indonesia's cultural traditions while enhancing the competitiveness of Minahasa wooden house products in the market. The result of this research is a conceptual design for the implementation of a Smart Home System integrated with a PV rooftop solar power plant system in Minahasa wooden houses. The utilization of solar energy as electrical energy is predicted to achieve an annual energy yield of 16,775 kWh
Surface Magnetization of Aperiodic Ising Quantum Chains
We study the surface magnetization of aperiodic Ising quantum chains. Using
fermion techniques, exact results are obtained in the critical region for
quasiperiodic sequences generated through an irrational number as well as for
the automatic binary Thue-Morse sequence and its generalizations modulo p. The
surface magnetization exponent keeps its Ising value, beta_s=1/2, for all the
sequences studied. The critical amplitude of the surface magnetization depends
on the strength of the modulation and also on the starting point of the chain
along the aperiodic sequence.Comment: 11 pages, 6 eps-figures, Plain TeX, eps
Local critical behaviour at aperiodic surface extended perturbation in the Ising quantum chain
The surface critical behaviour of the semi--infinite one--dimensional quantum
Ising model in a transverse field is studied in the presence of an aperiodic
surface extended modulation. The perturbed couplings are distributed according
to a generalized Fredholm sequence, leading to a marginal perturbation and
varying surface exponents. The surface magnetic exponents are calculated
exactly whereas the expression of the surface energy density exponent is
conjectured from a finite--size scaling study. The system displays surface
order at the bulk critical point, above a critical value of the modulation
amplitude. It may be considered as a discrete realization of the Hilhorst--van
Leeuwen model.Comment: 13 pages, TeX file + 6 figures, epsf neede
Surface Magnetization of Aperiodic Ising Systems: a Comparative Study of the Bond and Site Problems
We investigate the influence of aperiodic perturbations on the critical
behaviour at a second order phase transition. The bond and site problems are
compared for layered systems and aperiodic sequences generated through
substitution. In the bond problem, the interactions between the layers are
distributed according to an aperiodic sequence whereas in the site problem, the
layers themselves follow the sequence. A relevance-irrelevance criterion
introduced by Luck for the bond problem is extended to discuss the site
problem. It involves a wandering exponent for pairs, which can be larger than
the one considered before in the bond problem. The surface magnetization of the
layered two-dimensional Ising model is obtained, in the extreme anisotropic
limit, for the period-doubling and Thue-Morse sequences.Comment: 19 pages, Plain TeX, IOP macros + epsf, 6 postscript figures, minor
correction
Anomalous Diffusion in Aperiodic Environments
We study the Brownian motion of a classical particle in one-dimensional
inhomogeneous environments where the transition probabilities follow
quasiperiodic or aperiodic distributions. Exploiting an exact correspondence
with the transverse-field Ising model with inhomogeneous couplings we obtain
many new analytical results for the random walk problem. In the absence of
global bias the qualitative behavior of the diffusive motion of the particle
and the corresponding persistence probability strongly depend on the
fluctuation properties of the environment. In environments with bounded
fluctuations the particle shows normal diffusive motion and the diffusion
constant is simply related to the persistence probability. On the other hand in
a medium with unbounded fluctuations the diffusion is ultra-slow, the
displacement of the particle grows on logarithmic time scales. For the
borderline situation with marginal fluctuations both the diffusion exponent and
the persistence exponent are continuously varying functions of the
aperiodicity. Extensions of the results to disordered media and to higher
dimensions are also discussed.Comment: 11 pages, RevTe
Surface Magnetization and Critical Behavior of Aperiodic Ising Quantum Chains
We consider semi-infinite two-dimensional layered Ising models in the extreme
anisotropic limit with an aperiodic modulation of the couplings. Using
substitution rules to generate the aperiodic sequences, we derive functional
equations for the surface magnetization. These equations are solved by
iteration and the surface magnetic exponent can be determined exactly. The
method is applied to three specific aperiodic sequences, which represent
different types of perturbation, according to a relevance-irrelevance
criterion. On the Thue-Morse lattice, for which the modulation is an irrelevant
perturbation, the surface magnetization vanishes with a square root
singularity, like in the homogeneous lattice. For the period-doubling sequence,
the perturbation is marginal and the surface magnetic exponent varies
continuously with the modulation amplitude. Finally, the Rudin-Shapiro
sequence, which corresponds to the relevant case, displays an anomalous surface
critical behavior which is analyzed via scaling considerations: Depending on
the value of the modulation, the surface magnetization either vanishes with an
essential singularity or remains finite at the bulk critical point, i.e., the
surface phase transition is of first order.Comment: 8 pages, 7 eps-figures, uses RevTex and epsf, minor correction
The Ageing Brain: Effects on DNA Repair and DNA Methylation in Mice
The Centre for Ageing & Vitality is funded by the MRC and BBSRC (Grant Reference
MR/L016354/1). This work was further supported by the Centre for Integrated Systems Biology of Ageing
and Nutrition funded by the BBSRC and EPSRC (G0700718). Part of the work was supported by BBSRC Grant
BB/K010867/1
An ECVAGâ trial on assessment of oxidative damage to DNA measured by the comet assay
The increasing use of single cell gel electrophoresis (the comet assay) highlights its popularity as a method for detecting DNA damage, including the use of enzymes for assessment of oxidatively damaged DNA. However, comparison of DNA damage levels between laboratories can be difficult due to differences in assay protocols (e.g. lysis conditions, enzyme treatment, the duration of the alkaline treatment and electrophoresis) and in the end points used for reporting results (e.g. %DNA in tail, arbitrary units, tail moment and tail length). One way to facilitate comparisons is to convert primary comet assay end points to number of lesions/106 bp by calibration with ionizing radiation. The aim of this study was to investigate the inter-laboratory variation in assessment of oxidatively damaged DNA by the comet assay in terms of oxidized purines converted to strand breaks with formamidopyrimidine DNA glycosylase (FPG). Coded samples with DNA oxidation damage induced by treatment with different concentrations of photosensitizer (Ro 19-8022) plus light and calibration samples irradiated with ionizing radiation were distributed to the 10 participating laboratories to measure DNA damage using their own comet assay protocols. Nine of 10 laboratories reported the same ranking of the level of damage in the coded samples. The variation in assessment of oxidatively damaged DNA was largely due to differences in protocols. After conversion of the data to lesions/106 bp using laboratory-specific calibration curves, the variation between the laboratories was reduced. The contribution of the concentration of photosensitizer to the variation in net FPG-sensitive sites increased from 49 to 73%, whereas the inter-laboratory variation decreased. The participating laboratories were successful in finding a doseâresponse of oxidatively damaged DNA in coded samples, but there remains a need to standardize the protocols to enable direct comparisons between laboratories
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