bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Fetal RHD genotyping after bone marrow transplantation
Authors: Thurik Florentine F. , Page‐Christiaens Godelieve C.M.L. , Ait Soussan Aicha , Ligthart Peter C. , Cheroutre Goedele M.A.F. , Bossers Bernadette , Veldhuisen Barbera , van der Schoot C. Ellen , de Haas Masja
Published: May 2016

BACKGROUND

Fetal RHD genotyping allows targeted diagnostic testing, fetal surveillance, and eventually intrauterine treatment to D‐alloimmunized pregnant women who carry an RHD+ fetus. However, false‐positive and false‐negative results of noninvasive prenatal fetal RHD genotyping have been described due to a variety of causes. In this case report we present two cases where noninvasive fetal RHD typing was complicated by a previous bone marrow transplantation (BMT).

CASE REPORT

We describe two women with a history of allogeneic BMT in early childhood. Both were born D+ and received a transplant of their D– male sibling. Anti‐D were detected during pregnancy in one of them. The biologic father of this pregnancy was D+. In both cases polymerase chain reaction procedures specific for RHD on maternal plasma DNA were positive whereas a D– neonate was born in one case (Case 1).

CONCLUSION

False‐positive results of noninvasive fetal RHD genotyping occur in D+ women transplanted with marrow of a D– donor, due to circulating cell‐free DNA originating from nonhematopoietic tissue. The cases highlight that health care professionals and laboratories should be aware that allogeneic BMT can be a cause for false‐positive results in fetal RHD genotyping with cell‐free DNA in maternal plasma, and likewise the wrong fetal sex can be reported in the case of a male donor and a female fetus. Based on one of the cases we also recommend giving D– blood products to young female patients who receive a BMT of D– donors.
Comparison between point‐of‐care dermatophyte test medium and mycology laboratory culture for diagnosis of dermatophytosis in dogs and cats
Authors: Kaufmann Ronnie , Blum Shlomo E. , Elad Daniel , Zur Gila
Published: May 2016

Background

Point‐of‐care Dermatophyte Test Medium (PoC‐DTM) is a diagnostic procedure to rule in/rule out dermatophytosis in veterinary clinics.

Objective

To evaluate the performance of PoC‐DTM in the clinic compared to DTM plate culture in a mycology laboratory and to compare results obtained by general practitioners and referral clinicians.

Animals

Hair samples were collected from 47 cats and 54 dogs with suspected dermatophytosis and from nine healthy controls (seven cats and two dogs).

Methods

This was a multicentre blinded study. In one group (65 suspected cases, 9 healthy controls), PoC‐DTM results were evaluated by clinicians in a referral clinic (SP group) who examined the colony morphology macroscopically and microscopically. In the other group (36 suspected cases) PoC‐DTM results were evaluated by clinicians from general practice for colour change only, with no macroscopic or microscopic examination (GP group). All hair samples were also cultured on DTM plates in a mycology laboratory. Laboratory culture was considered the gold standard for comparison.

Results

Agreements between tests were 97% (two false positive; κ = 0.839) and 80.6% (five false positives and two false negatives; κ = 0.466) in the SP and GP groups, respectively. This difference between groups was significant (P = 0.024).

Conclusion and clinical importance

When applying macroscopic and microscopic evaluation of the colony, PoC‐DTM is accurate for diagnosing dermatophytes with only a 3% chance of error. However, when macroscopic and microscopic examination is not included there is significant (19.4%) chance for an incorrect diagnosis.
Variants in genes belonging to the fibroblast growth factor family are associated with lower extremity amputation in non‐Hispanic whites: Findings from the chronic renal insufficiency cohort study
Authors: Gupta Jayanta , Mitra Nandita , Townsend Raymond R. , Fischer Michael , Schelling Jeffrey R. , Margolis David J.
Published: May 2016

Diabetes is the major risk factor for nontraumatic lower extremity amputation (LEA). The role of genetic polymorphisms in predisposing diabetics to impaired wound healing leading to LEA has not been sufficiently explored. We investigated the association between a set of genes belonging to the angiogenesis/wound repair pathway with LEA in the Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort, a study of adults with chronic kidney disease (CKD) that includes a subgroup with diabetes. This study was performed on 3,772 Chronic Renal Insufficiency Cohort participants who were genotyped on the ITMAT‐Broad‐CARe array chip. A total of 1,017 single‐nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 22 genes belonging to the angiogenesis/would repair pathway were investigated. LEA was determined from patient self‐report. The association between genetic variants and LEA status was examined using logistic regression and additive genetic models after stratifying the cohort by race/ethnicity and diabetic status. Unadjusted analyses as well as analyses adjusted for age, sex, estimated glomerular filtration rate, body mass index, peripheral vascular disease, hemoglobin A1c, and population stratification were performed. In non‐Hispanic white participants with diabetes, rs11938826 and rs1960669, both intronic SNPs in the gene basic fibroblast growth factor‐2 (FGF2), were significantly associated with LEA in covariate‐adjusted analysis (OR: 2.83 (95% CI: 1.73, 4.62); p‐value: 0.000034; Bonferroni adjusted p‐value: 0.0006) and (OR: 2.61 (95% CI: 1.48, 4.61); p‐value: 0.00095; Bonferroni adjusted p‐value: 0.02). In the same subgroup, rs10883688, an FGF8 SNP of unknown functional effect, was also associated with LEA (OR: 1.72 (95% Confidence Interval: 1.14, 2.6); p‐value: 0.00999; Bonferroni adjusted p‐value: 0.04). No statistically significant associations were identified in the other ethnic groups. In conclusion, variant/s in FGF2 and FGF8 may predispose diabetics with CKD to LEA. Dysregulation of the FGF2 gene represents an opportunity to understand further, and possibly intervene upon, mechanisms of wound healing in diabetics with CKD.
Ciprofloxacin‐loaded keratin hydrogels reduce infection and support healing in a porcine partial‐thickness thermal burn
Authors: Roy Daniel C. , Tomblyn Seth , Isaac Kameel M. , Kowalczewski Christine J. , Burmeister David M. , Burnett Luke R. , Christy Robert J.
Published: May 2016

Infection is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in burn patients. Current therapies include silver‐based creams and dressings, which display limited antimicrobial effectiveness and impair healing. The need exists for a topical, point‐of‐injury antibiotic treatment that provides sustained antimicrobial activity without impeding wound repair. Fitting this description are keratin‐based hydrogels, which are fully biocompatible and support the slow‐release of antibiotics. Here we develop a porcine model of an infected partial‐thickness burn to test the effects of ciprofloxacin‐loaded keratin hydrogels on infection and wound healing. Partial‐thickness burns were inoculated with either Pseudomonas aeruginosa or Methicillin‐resistant Staphylococcus aureus, resulting in infections that persisted for >2 weeks that exceeded 105 and 106 cfu per gram of tissue, respectively. Compared to silver sulfadiazine, ciprofloxacin‐loaded keratin hydrogel treatment significantly reduced the amount of P. aeruginosa and S. aureus in the burn by >99% on days 4, 7, 11, and 15 postinjury. Further, burns treated with ciprofloxacin‐loaded keratin hydrogels exhibited similar healing patterns as uninfected burns with regards to reepithelialization, macrophage recruitment, and collagen deposition and remodeling. The ability of keratin hydrogels to deliver antibiotics to fight infection and support healing of partial‐thickness burns make them a strong candidate as a first‐line burn therapy.
ENHANCING TEMPERATURE CONTROL METHOD OF THERMAL VACUUM CHAMBER FOR SATELLITE TESTING USING OPTIMIZATION ALGORITHM: A REVIEW
Authors: Salleh Nor’asnilawati , Mohd Daud Salwani , Fadlie Sabri Sharizal , Ahmad@Salleh Noor Azurati , Shariff Sya Azmeela , Md Yusof Yusnaidi , Adam Mohamad Zulkefli
Published: May 2016

This paper studies a comparison of optimization algorithms to enhance temperature control method of thermal vacuum chamber (TVC) for satellite testing. The gaseous nitrogen (GN2) is used in TVC to control the temperature requirement and proportional integral derivative (PID) controller is adopted in order to realize it. However, the temperature profile is fluctuated and more time is needed before it managed to achieve the temperature set point. Therefore, a study is done to identify the algorithms that can be applied to optimize the temperature control system of TVC. The study is aim to improve the current temperature control in terms of settling time and overshoot.  The method used in the review is by comparing the optimization algorithms that have been used to optimize the temperature control system. The study will be done using other related works that had been done by other researchers. From the review that has been done, the genetic algorithm (GA) is believed to be the best method that can be implemented into the temperature control system of TVC.  In the future, the study will further analyse by using simulation tools and real time data generated by the TVC.
THE COMPARATIVE PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF WINDOW FUNCTIONS UNDER NOISY ENVIRONMENT FOR SPEECH RECOGNITION
Authors: Nafisah Syifaun , Wahyunggoro Oyas , Nugroho Lukito Edi
Published: May 2016

The accuracy and user acceptance of speech recognition systems is increasing in the last few years especially for automated identification and biomedical applications.  In implementation, it works based on the feature of utterance that will be recognized through a feature extraction process.  One process in feature extraction is windowing that is done for minimizing the disruptions at the first and last of the frame.  Basically, many window functions exist such as rectangular window, flat top window, hamming window, etc, but in the real application only hamming or Hanning function that are usually used as  a function in the windowing.  This article will analyzed the performance of all of window functions to prove the performance of those function.  The method that was used are mel-frequencies cepstral coefficients (MFCCs) as feature extractor technique and back propagation neural networks (BPNNs) as classifier.  The result shows that it can produce an accuracy at least 99%.  The optimal accuracy up to 99.86% is achieved using rectangle window with the duration of process is 15.47 msec.  This results show the superior performance of rectangle window as reference to recognize an isolated word based on speech.
APPLICATION OF PROMETHEE METHOD FOR DEMAND SIDE MANAGEMENT (DSM) OPTIONS RANKING
Authors: Mokhtar Muhamad Rasydan , Abdullah Md Pauzi , Hassan Mohammad Yusri , Hussin Faridah
Published: May 2016

Demand Side Management (DSM) is a method used to modify the electrical load profile of a consumer to reduce its electricity bill. There are various types of DSM options available but mostly involve costs to be incurred by consumers. Moreover, the effectiveness of a DSM option depends on various factors including investment cost, saved energy, payback period and more. Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) is a tool that can be applied to make decision when a lot of factors to be taken into account. In DSM, Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) is one MCDA technique that is widely used in ranking the DSM options. However, AHP requires additive aggregation that may cause lost in detailed information. This paper presents another MDCA method; Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation (PROMETHEE) to perform the ranking of DSM options. PROMETHEE (I and II) were used in a case study and the results shows that PROMETHEE give the same result as AHP. PROMETHEE has an advantage over AHP as it does not require additive aggregation even the problem is multi-dimensional and could provide visual analysis.
OPTIMIZING TIME OF USE (TOU) ELECTRICITY PRICING IN REGULATED MARKET
Authors: Abdullah Md Pauzi , Moh Nazar Nazatul Shiema , Hassan Mohammad Yusri , Hussin Faridah
Published: May 2016

Time-of-Use (ToU) electricity price for residential consumers is receiving lots of attention lately with the increment of smart meters usage among residential customers. ToU prices reflect the actual electricity cost and the rate is commonly set base on market price of electricity. Implementing ToU pricing system on a regulated electricity system such as in Malaysia is complicated due to non existence of electricity market. The electrical utility company or the regulator will need to determine the optimum ToU prices that would give the correct price signal so that customers will react accordingly. Many factors need to be considered such as impact on electricity generation cost, load profile, load elasticity and customers’ satisfaction. This paper presents an optimization method to estimate the optimum ToU prices for given electricity demand profile and demand elasticity. The presented method able to reduce the gap between peak and off-peak demand and ensure the estimated ToU prices are fairly proportionate among hours i.e. summation of rate increments (from the fixed price) is equal to the summation of rate decrements. A simple system is used as a case study to demonstrate the application of the optimization method presented.
MODELING AND SIMULATION OF TITANIA NANOSTRUCTURES MEMRISTIVE DEVICE
Authors: Abu Bakar Raudah , Zulkefle Muhammad AlHadi , Kamarozaman Nur Syahirah , Abdullah Wan Fazlida Hanim , Herman Sukreen Hana
Published: May 2016

Study on the SPICE model for nanostructured titania based memristor was carried out. Nanostructured titania thin film was deposited and a memristive device based on the nanostructured film was fabricated and characterized. Various reported SPICE models were applied to simulate the memristive behavior. The parameters for each model were optimized. The optimization process was performed in LTSPICE circuit simulation tool. It showed that Pino’s SPICE model fits well with the deposited titania nanostructure memristive behavior.
PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF TRANSMISSION FOR MULTIUSER MIMO BROADCAST CHANNEL
Authors: Idris Mohd Syarhan , Abdul Razak Nur Idora , Idris Azlina , Ab Rahman Ruhani
Published: May 2016

Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) system has been brought a great improvement in spectral efficiency and the system capacity by serving multiple users simultaneously. The mathematical model of downlink Multi-user MIMO system and its capacity has been presented as well as different precoded transmission schemes. It is to implementing the downlink MU-MIMO system, such as channel inversion (CI), block diagonalization (BD), dirty paper coding (DPC) and tomlinsonharashimaprecoding (THP). It is because, in wireless and mobile communication system has been requires a reliable transmission of high data rates under various channel type different scenarios and reduce MU interference in the system.   These compares the method of transmission for broadcast channel (BC) and propose the best one method that outperforms existing technique with percentage improvement from the worst performance.
URINE TEST STRIP ANALYSIS USING IMAGE PROCESSING FOR MOBILE APPLICATION
Authors: Valenzuela Ira , Amado Timothy , Orillo John William
Published: May 2016

In attaining vital information for diagnostic purposes in medicine, analysis of the urine sample or urinalysis is a powerful tool. Urine test strip is commonly used in this kind of assessment. In this study, a mobile application has been developed for urine test strip analysis using image processing. Glucose, pH, specific gravity and protein levels are determined and analyzed by the system. The urine test strip is captured using an Android phone, and then the image captured is analyzed using the algorithm employed in OpenCV. Harris detection and RANSAC algorithms are utilized to provide an accurate homography estimation. A portable document format report has been generated to provide the summary of analysis. One-hundred seventy-one (171) urine test strips images are stored in the SQLite database of the mobile phone. And 54 urine samples are tested for the accuracy of the system. The study showed that the overall accuracy is 91.7%.
HYBRID ACTIVE POWER FILTER METHOD IN FREQUENCY DOMAIN FOR QUALITY IMPROVEMENT IN VARIABLE FREQUENCY DRIVE APPLICATIONS
Authors: Hac Le Minh Hoang , Nguyen Kim-Anh , Ngo Viet Hung
Published: May 2016

We present in this paper a control method of a novel hybrid parallel active power filter (HPAPF) used for harmonic currents elimination and reactive power compensation in the power system for three-phase variable frequency drives (VFDs). The HPAPF configuration is built from two filter components including harmonics tuned passive filter and active power electronics filter. The active power electronics filter of the proposed HPAPF system is controlled by a novel control algorithm that makes use of Fourier analysis to facilitate accurate selective harmonics targeting allowing the cooperation between passive and active components. In the proposed topology, a coupling of the passive filter component and the active filter allows significant reduction in current rating of the active filter component.  This rating reduction scheme implies a great economic advantage of the proposed HPAPF compared to the methods which are based only on traditional pure active power electronics filters. The hardware design and the control algorithm of the proposed HPAPF are verified by MATLAB/Simulink software.
HARDWARE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF GENETIC ALGORITHM FOR THE CONTROLLER OF A DC TO DC BOOST CONVERTER
Authors: Yap Roderick , Lam Kevin , Bugayong Rovi , Hernandez Edward , De Guzman Joey
Published: May 2016

Controllers for DC to DC Boost Converters have evolved from simple control method to those that involve the use of fuzzy logic controllers.   In many implementations, Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) controllers are commonly employed.  In this paper, a genetic algorithm for tuning the PID controller of a DC to DC Boost Converter is hardware modelled and implemented on a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) using Verilog as tool for the design entry.  The goal of embedding genetic algorithm into the controller is to search for the best PID parameters that will yield fast settling time of the booster at an output of 6V.  The hardware implementation allows the controller to tune itself by searching for the best Kp, Ki and Kd values that will give the best settling time.  Significantly, this eliminates the need for a separate computer to do the searching routine.   Test results of the circuit implemented yielded promising results.   When compared to previous researches, the genetic algorithm employed yielded good PID parameters that resulted to a settling time as low as less than 60msec.
RICE PLANT DISEASE IDENTIFICATION AND DETECTION TECHNOLOGY THROUGH CLASSIFICATION OF MICROORGANISMS USING FUZZY NEURAL NETWORK
Authors: Orillo John William , M. Amado Timothy , M. Arago Nilo , Fernandez Edmon
Published: May 2016

This paper describes a method of using sound signal processing system to efficiently detect and identify the three common microorganisms that cause diseases in the rice farmland of the Philippines: (1) Xanthomonas oryzae, (2) Thanatephorus cucumeris and (3) Magnaporthe oryzae. Sound signals from samples of rice leaves infected by the above mentioned bacteria were recorded using a designed anechoic chamber through an electret condenser microphone and were processed via spectral subtraction to eliminate the effects of noise. Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficient was used to extract the needed features of each input for the ANFIS learning algorithm. The Fuzzy neural network was applied to train the system based on 450 recorded sound data where 80% were used for training and 20% for testing. A program was also developed that will generate a report in PDF format showing the diagnosis and curing methods for the infected sample to prevent its further infestation. Test results showed recognition accuracy of the bacteria, Xanthomonas oryzae, Magnaporthe oryzae, and Thanatephorus cucumeris, of 93.33%, 100% and 96.67% repectively.
CHARACTERIZATION OF ZNO/TIO2 BILAYER FILM FOR EXTENDED GATE FIELD-EFFECT TRANSISTOR (EGFET) BASED PH SENSOR
Authors: Abdul Rahman Rohanieza , Zulkefle Muhammad AlHadi , Yusof Khairul Aimi , Abdullah Wan Fazlida Hanim , Mahmood Mohamad Rusop , Herman Sukreen Hana
Published: May 2016

An extended gate field-effect transistor (EGFET) of ZnO/TiO2 bilayer film as pH sensor was demonstrated in this paper. The sol-gel zinc oxide (ZnO) and titanium dioxide (TiO2) were prepared and spin coated onto indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass substrate. After deposition process, this bilayer film then was annealed from 200⁰C up to 700⁰C. EGFET measurement employed to obtain the sensitivity of the bilayer thin film towards pH buffer solution, which is pH4, pH7 and pH10. According to the measurement process, we obtained that bilayer film annealed at 400⁰C produced highest sensitivity among other bilayer film, which is 66.8 mV/pH.
PH SENSITIVITY DEPENDENCY ON THE ANNEALING TEMPERATURE OF SPIN-COATED TITANIUM DIOXIDE THIN FILMS
Authors: Yusof Khairul Aimi , Abdul Rahman Rohanieza , Zulkefle Muhammad AlHadi , Herman Sukreen Hana , Abdullah Wan Fazlida Hanim
Published: May 2016

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) thin films were fabricated on indium tin oxide (ITO) glass substrates using the spin coating technique and further were implemented as sensing membranes of the extended gate field effect transistor (EGFET) based pH sensor. The as-deposited thin films were annealed at different temperatures from 200 - 600 °C in room ambient for 20 min. The effects of different annealing temperatures on electrical and crystalline properties were analyzed by I-V two point probes measurement and X-ray diffraction respectively. Meanwhile, the surface morphology of thin films was observed by field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM). We then measured the transfer characteristics (ID-VG) of the TiO2/ITO sensing membrane using a semiconductor parametric device analyzer for sensor characterization. It was found that, TiO2/ITO sensing membrane annealed at 300 °C achieved higher sensitivity and good linearity of 51.48 mV/pH and 0.99415, respectively in the pH buffer solutions of 4, 7, 10, and 12. Thin film annealed at 300 °C gives higher conductivity thin film of 384.62 S/m. We found that the conductivity of TiO2/ITO thin films was proportional with the sensitivity of sensing membrane.
PREDICTION OF TOTAL ELECTRON CONTENT OF THE IONOSPHERE USING NEURAL NETWORK
Authors: Homam Mariyam Jamilah
Published: May 2016

This paper presents the prediction of hourly Vertical Total Electron Content (VTEC) using a neural network by utilizing the data from a GPS Ionospheric Scintillation and TEC Monitor (GISTM) receiver for six years (from 2005 to 2010) during low to medium solar activity (Sunspot number (SSN) between 0.0 and 42.6). Several network configurations were investigated to observe the effect of the number of neurons, and hidden layers. Overall testing process for several network set-up yielded Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) value of 3 to 7 TECU, absolute error of 2 to 6 TECU and relative error of 8% to 28%.  Testing using April 2010 to November 2010 data (SSN from 8.0 to 25.2) produced RMSE value of 2.95 to 3.88 TECU,absolute error of 2.39 to 3.09 TECU and relative error of 8.11% to 16.18%, which are within the acceptable range.
STUDY ON FEED-IN-TARIFF (FIT) FOR BIPV SYSTEM; A MALAYSIA SCENARIO
Authors: Thanakodi S. , Nazar N.S.M. , Othman N.A. , Hidzir H.D.M. , Shah S.S.H.
Published: May 2016

Feed-In Tariff (FiT) was introduced in Malaysia in 2004 and has been undergone many stages to make its implementation in Malaysia successful. The first Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) introduced in Malaysia is Suria 1000 under the supervision of Pusat Tenaga Malaysia (PTM). The aim of this paper was to study the FiT and BIPV implementation in Malaysia. It is observed that Malaysian did not invest in BIPV due to its expensive investment. The FiT Calculator was developed to prove the benefits of FiT in BIPV by practically calculating the investment and profit in the long run which was after 21 years of implementation.  FiT Calculator was developed using Microsoft Visual Basic 2010 and variable parameter such as the solar irradiation, types of solar panel and inverter were studied to obtain the estimation of power output, the annual income, net income and the payback period of BIPV. Results of all case studies were verified with MBIPV mileage report and the built FiT Calculator has shown up to 96.89% accuracy against the case study done.
DOMAIN BASED WEB RETRIEVAL DRIVEN BY SEMANTIC REPRESENTATION OF PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE ORGANIZER
Authors: Istiadi Istiadi , Edi Nugroho Lukito , Santosa Paulus Insap
Published: May 2016

One important aspect in self-directed learning is to find learning resources, which can be referenced from the Internet. In the process of finding the resources, users have experience in accessing certain sites for specific information. But, when they want to refer back to related information, usersare supposed to recall the domain of sites and to determine the proportion of priority on a number of sites. The experience of accessing the Internet is mapped into semantic representation of Knowledge Organization (KO) like a memory thatit can be exploited to support in gaining new resources in the same domain of knowledge. This study aims to develop a web retrieval application to assist users based on their experience. The application will identify the domains of the sites that were previously accessed by tracing the representation. The domains are used as references to direct the search. Searching the web resources is undertaken by the composition of domain based search and search without domain limitation. The composition ofboth searchescan be determined by the users according to their expectations. The domain based search composition is determined by the resourcecontributions within the scope of a knowledge domain. The test results show that the system is able to identify the domain’s location and the proportions as preferences for searching. The performance of the system in searching shows thatthe query returnsof relevant documents are dominant.
CONCEPT STUDY OF MICROGRID DISPATCH STRATEGY FOR SOLAR THERMAL POWER PLANT WITH THERMAL STORAGE
Authors: Sharifmuddin Noor Bazila , Suwa Tohru , Shaikh Salim Sheikh Ahmad Zaki
Published: May 2016

Complex grid systems have been gradually replaced by smaller and simpler grid systems called Microgrids. Integration of a solar thermal power generation systems into Microgrids open a new horizon of renewable energy power generation to achieve the supply and demand balance of electricity. Microgrid dispatch strategy is a control method of energy balance between power generation and electricity consumption. A thermal storage integrated into the system buffers the intermittency of solar radiation used as the heat source of the power generation system. The daily starting time for the power generation is determined by the dispatch strategy in search of minimum power from the conventional grid and maximum electricity generation from the solar thermal power generation system. In the simulation stage, the heat energy available for power generation and amount of thermal energy saved in the thermal storage is calculated at each time step using measured solar radiation data as the heat source and load profile data as the consumption required. Based on the simulation result, the power generation starting time for the next day is determined. The effectiveness of the proposed dispatch strategy is demonstrated by obtaining the best starting time and identifying minimum power requiredfrom the conventional grid. The power supply from the conventional grid is reduced by 10% by applying the proposed methodology.
RF ATTENUATION CALIBRATION SYSTEM IN THE FREQUENCY RANGE OF 9 KHZ TO 10 MHZ
Authors: Widarta Anton
Published: May 2016

An accurate RF attenuation calibration system in the frequency range of 9 kHz to 10 MHz is developed at NMIJ, to meet the demand in recent EMC regulations that require traceability of measurements to national standard. The system works based on the RF substitution technique, in which a resistive step-attenuator is used as a reference standard and a general-purpose receiver as a precision level detector. Attenuation values of the standard are determined by calibration at single frequency, i.e., 1 MHz using the NMIJ Primary Attenuation Standard system based on the voltage ratio of the IVD.  The system is very simple and higher dynamic range (>100 dB) is obtained by introducing toroidal ferrite chokes in the circuit to minimize the common mode current effects.
SOLAR-POWERED ADSORPTION REFRIGERATION CYCLE OPTIMIZATION
Authors: Ahmad Junaidi Norhafizah , Suwa Tohru
Published: May 2016

Solar energy is an attractive energy source among various renewable energy resources in Malaysia as relatively high solar radiation is available throughout the year. This solar energy can be utilized for air-conditioning by using solar-powered adsorption refrigeration cycle. Intermittent nature of the solar radiation leads to a challenge for continuous air-conditioning operation. In the present study, a combination of solar-powered adsorption refrigeration system and thermal storage is studied. Activated carbon-ammonia and activated carbon-methanol are the working pairs of the adsorption reaction. Analytical calculation results show that activated carbon-methanol pair indicates higher coefficient of performance (COP) than activated carbon-ammonia pair, while adsorption chiller system with hot water thermal storage has higher COP than the system with ice thermal storage. For the activated carbon-methanol case with hot water thermal storage, the COP is 0.79. Since this COP analysis is based on the ideal case with uniform temperature distribution within the reactor beds, which achieves equilibrium states at the end of the reactions. In more realistic situation, the reaction process will be terminated before reaching to the equilibrium states because of the non-uniform temperature distribution and the time required for the reaction. Transient simulation in which heat transfer and reaction equation are combined will be performed to model actual reactors.
GENETIC ALGORITHM-BASED ADMISSION TEST FORVEHICLE-TO-GRID ELECTRICITY TRADE SERVICES
Authors: Lee Junghoon , Park Gyung-Leen
Published: May 2016

This paper designs and evaluates a vehicle-to-grid (V2G) electricity trader capable of selecting an appropriate subset out of a large number of electric vehicles (EVs) which want to sell their energy to a microgrid. A genetic algorithm, tailored for this trade coordination, reduces the amount of unmet demand forecasted one day advance in the microgrid. Each subset is encoded to an integer r vector whose element has either 1 or 0 according to whether the associated EV is included in the subset or not. The evaluation function estimates the fitness of a feasible solution, employing a fast heuristic-based unit scheduler. Its lightweight-ness allows the genetic algorithm to calculate the fitness of the massive number of feasible subsets, each of which has a fixed number of EVs. This admission test gives a chance for EVs to contact with other microgrids when they are not accepted to the final trade schedule. The performance measurement result obtained from a prototype implementation reveals that the proposed scheme achieves up to 20.8 % performance improvement over the random selection scheme in terms of unmet demand. Moreover, the proposed scheme can efficiently cope with overload condition, that is, many EVs are concentrated in a single microgrid, judging from its stable performance curve.
ANALYSIS OF POWER CONSUMPTION SAR-ADC DYNAMIC COMPARATOR
Authors: R. Rusli Julie , Salleh Noor Shelida , M. Isa Masnita , Tan KY , Shafie Suhaidi
Published: May 2016

Due to the high demand of ultra-low power in digital application, the needs of energy efficient analog-to-digital converter (ADC) are really essential. The comparator being an important part of successive approximation register (SAR)-ADC needs to have optimum performance under low power condition. This paper presents the comparison on power consumption together with the output performance flow power SAR-ADC dynamic comparators from three different design proposed by previous researchers. The three circuits is simulated and compared in terms of power consumption, regeneration time, reset time and output transient.  The simulation is using Cadence Spectre and setup with 0.18µm CMOS technology, VDD at 0.8V and clock speed 2 at MHz.  The analysis results obtained provides the lowest voltage input different (ΔVin) possible for double tail dynamic comparator using 0.18µm CMOS technology while adhering to the 45 corner process requirement.  The results can be used as references for further design of ultra-low power dynamic comparator.
UTILIZATION OF HIGH-SPEED DSP ALGORITHMS OF CYCLIC REDUNDANCY CHECKING (CRC-15) ENCODER AND DECODER FOR CONTROLLER AREA NETWORK
Authors: Serfa Juan Ronnie O. , Kim Hi Seok
Published: May 2016

Advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) performs an increasing improvement in active road safety and driving convenience. Controller Area Network (CAN) is now getting popular because of its expanding applications and widely utilizations in low-cost embedded systems from automation to medical industry. While implementing an effective and efficient mechanism for clock synchronization, serial operation causes the reduction of CAN transmission rate can have an adverse impact on the real-time applications of systems employing this protocol. Also, maintaining the reliability of this technology especially in safety services, a reliable system needs certain requirements like glitches management and troubleshooting in order to avoid certain occurrences of transmission error.  In this paper we present a simulated Cyclic Redundancy Checking (CRC) encoder and decoder that perform high speed error detection for CAN using CRC-15. Digital Signal Processing (DSP) algorithms were used, namely pipelining, unfolding and retiming to attain the feasible iteration bound and critical path that is appropriate for CAN system. The source code for Encoder and Decoder has been formulated in Verilog Hardware Description Language (HDL) from actual simulation to implementation of this CRC-15 for CAN system.
NEW ARCHITECTURE OF LOW AREA AES S-BOX/ INV S-BOX USING VLSI IMPLEMENTATION
Authors: Ahmad Nabihah
Published: May 2016

The Substitution box (S-box) is one of the core of Advanced Encryption System (AES) implementation and the only non-linear transformation. It is consumed most of the power in AES hardware. This paper present a low-complexity design methodology for the S-box/ InvS-box which includes minimising the comprehensive circuit size and critical path delay, scaling down the transistor size, along with selecting an advanced technology for an optimised CMOS full custom design. The area of the circuit is about 39.44 µm2, while the hardware cost of the S-box/InvS-box is about 147 logic gates, with a critical path propagation delay of 3.235ns.
DATA AND ENERGY USAGE REDUCTION FOR LIVE STREAMING ON SMART PHONE USING FUZZY LOGIC
Authors: Termritthikuna Chakkrit , Tangkawanit Settha , Kanprachar Surachet
Published: May 2016

Currently, the live-streaming application running with real-time messaging protocol (RTMP) plays an important role in mobile smart devices. However, two main problems in running such application in the smart devices are the high bandwidth and large amount of energy requirements. In this paper, the available bandwidth and amount of energy in the battery are used simultaneously as input parameters for suitably selecting the video quality in the live-streaming application using Fuzzy logic. It is found that the developed system can select the appropriate video streaming quality accordingly. Using such system, a significant improvement is achieved; that is, the bandwidth and battery usages are reduced by 23 and 24 percent, respectively.
TRANSIENT THERMAL PERFORMANCE PREDICTION METHOD FOR PARABOLIC TROUGH SOLAR COLLECTOR UNDER FLUCTUATING SOLAR RADIATION
Authors: Suwa Tohru , Heng ShyeYunn
Published: May 2016

As the effect of the global warming is becoming noticeable, the importance for environmental sustainability has been raised. Parabolic trough solar thermal collector system, which is one of the solutions to reduce the carbon dioxide emission, is a mature technology for electricity generation. Malaysia is a tropical country with long daytime, which makes suitable for solar thermal applications with parabolic trough solar thermal collectors. However, the high humidity causes the solar radiation to fluctuate. In order to simulate the solar thermal collectors’ performance at an early design stage of solar thermal power generation systems, fast still accurate transient thermal performance prediction methodis required. Although multiple transient thermal simulation methodologies exist, they are not suited especially at an early design stage where quick but reasonably accurate thermal performance prediction is needed because of their long calculation time.  In this paper, a transient thermal prediction method is developed to predict exit temperature of parabolic trough collectors under fluctuating solar radiation. The method is governed by simple summation operations and requires much less calculating time than the existing numerical methods. If the radiation heat loss at the parabolic trough collector tube surface is small, the working fluid temperature rise may be approximated as proportional to the receiving heat flux. The fluctuating solar radiation is considered as a series of heat flux pulses applied for a short period of time. The time dependent solar collector exit temperature is approximated by superimposing the exit temperature rise caused by each heat flux pulse. To demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed methodology, the solar collector exit temperature for one-day operation is predicted. The predicted solar collector exit temperature captures the trend of a finite element analysis result well. Still, the largest temperature difference is 38.8K and accuracy is not satisfactory. Currently, the accuracy of the proposed method is being improved. At the same time, its capabilities are being expanded.
HORTICULTURE OF LETTUCE (LACTUVASATIVA L.) USING RED AND BLUE LED WITH PULSE LIGHTING TREATMENT AND TEMPERATURE CONTROL IN SNAP HYDROPONICS SETUP
Authors: M. Amado Timothy , C. Valenzuela Ira , F. Orillo John William
Published: May 2016

Among the major concerns of agricultural production includes food safety, environmental impact, efficient energy usage and climate change. To give response to this, the paper introduced the devised indoor farming methodology that utilized red and blue light-emitting diode (LED) as light source for the horticulture of lettuce in Simple Nutrient Addition Program (SNAP) hydroponics setup. The study focused on the evaluation of two experimental setups comparing the conventional SNAP hydroponics to the SNAP hydroponics using LED lights. At the end of the main experiment, the results suggested that LED as light source have a significant effect on the number of leaves (t (41.7) = 6.07, p < 0.05) and leaf area (t (48) = 4.39, p = 0.05) of a lettuce. Specifically, the results showed that when the environment of the lettuce was controlled, their capability to grow significantly more and larger leaves increases. Also, the weight obtained using the SNAP with LED lights setup (3.04 kg) was 30% greater than the weight obtained using conventional (2.18 kg) hydroponics setup.
DESIGN AND CHARACTERIZATION OF THE LIQUID METAL ANTENNA OPTIMALLY EMBEDDED IN CONCRETE BEAM PROTOTYPE AS AN ALTERNATIVE STRAIN SENSOR
Authors: O. Fernandez Edmon , Valenzuela Ira , Orillo John William
Published: May 2016

This paper presents the implementation of the novel dipole liquid metal antenna as an alternative strain sensor when embedded in the optimal location of a concrete beam prototype. The antenna is made up of eutectic Indium Gallium, a fluid metal alloy, encased in a microfluidic channel, namely, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) elastomer fabricated using McGyver-esque technique to microfabrication. The fluidic dipole antenna being highly flexible, stretchable, and reversibly deformable mimics the basic characteristics of the strain sensor where its resonant frequency is inversely related to its length. The concrete specimen was subjected to center – point loading tests where the resonant frequency of the liquid antenna embedded in it was measured simultaneously. Statistical analysis of the results show that there is a significant relationship between the displacement of the concrete specimen and the resonant frequency of the embedded antenna.
DEVELOPMENT OF A FLEXIBLE SERPENTINE ROBOT FOR DISASTER SURVEILLANCE OPERATIONS
Authors: A. Bandala Argel , F. Orillo John William
Published: May 2016

This paper presents the development of a snake robot with vision system. This can be used for disaster aid and lessen the danger that the rescuers may encounter. The design of the snake robot considers the use of its own body segments for motion using rectilinear motion rather than using wheels. The use of segments enables the snake to move on flat and uneven terrain. Servo motors will be used for the movement of each joint and it will be powered by a lithium-polymer battery. Accelerometers and gyroscopes will serve as the input and orientation sensors, a head-mounted camera will be used to detect its location and where it is moving. An Arduino Pro Mini will be used for the controller and will be configured to receive commands from an XBee wireless transmission transceiver from the base computer. A graphical user interface in a base computer will serve as the interface of the robot’s operator and the robot. Its main movement will be based on a biological snake’s rectilinear motion which is embedded in the robot’s control system.
GENERATION OF Q-SWITCHED THULIUM-DOPED FIBER LASER (TDFL) USING DIFFERENTSATURABLE ABSORBERS
Authors: Sharif N. Mohd , Yusoff N. Md. , Mohd. Izhar M. A. , Ahmad F. , Harun S. W. , Ahmad H.
Published: May 2016

A Q-switched Thulium-doped Fiber Laser (TDFL) operating at approximately 2 μm wavelength is successfully generated by using four different saturable absorbers (SAs) which are nitrogen-doped graphene in PVA (NG:PVA), nitrogen-doped graphene in PEO (NG:PEO), single-walled carbon nanotube in PVA (SWCNT:PVA), and high pressure carbon monoxide carbon nanotube in PVA (CNTHiPCO:PVA). The SAs integrated in the cavity were able to provide the real saturable absorption in modulating the intra-cavity losses. SWCNT gives the best results with the highest repetition rate and lowest pulse width of 57.45 kHz and 1.958 nJ correspondingly as compared to the other three SAs.
BLOCK DIAGONALIZATION PRECODING FOR MULTIUSER –MIMO DOWNLINK CHANNEL
Authors: Mat Zain Nur Asniffah , Abdul Razak Nur Idora , Idris Mohd Syarhan
Published: May 2016

The transmission of data in broadcast channel is not a straightforward process; on the receiver side, there could be difficulties in coordinating signal detection. In this paper, the use of Block Diagonalization (BD) to mitigate the inter-user interferences for this work will be investigated. This paper will probe the bit error rate (BER) performances of BD within various parameters number of antennas,   and the number of users, K. Computer simulation, matrix laboratory (MATLAB) tools will be utilised and the result of simulation will be shown through demonstrating uses by more users and lesser antennas, which is better than having more antennas with fewer users in the BD precoding method.
ANALYSIS PERFORMANCE OF SINGLY-FED CIRCULARLY POLARIZED MICROSTRIP ANTENNA FOR WIRELESS COMMUNICATION
Authors: Edy Purnomo Muhammad Fauzan , Suyono Hadi , Mudjirahardjo Panca , Nur Hasanah Rini
Published: May 2016

The circularly polarized (CP) microstrip antennas, both of singly- and doubly-fed types, possess inherent limitation in gain, impedance and axial-ratio bandwidths. These limitations are caused mainly by the natural resonance of the patch antenna which has a high unloaded Q-factor and the frequency-dependent excitation of two degenerative modes (TM01 and TM10) when using a single feed. Many applications which require circular polarization, large bandwidth, and good performance, especially in the field of wireless communication, are still difficult to be designed by using antenna software. Some consideration to take will include the application target and design specification, the materials to be used, and the method to choose (formula, numerical analysis, etc). This paper explains and analyzes the singly-fed microstrip antenna with circular polarization and large bandwidth. This singly-fed type of microstrip antenna provides certain advantage of requiring no external circular polarizer, e.g. the 900 hybrid, as it only needs to apply some perturbation or modification to a patch radiator with a standard geometry. The design of CP and large-bandwidth microstrip antenna is done gradually, by firstly truncating one tip, then truncating the whole three tips, and finally modifying it into a pentagonal patch structure and adding an air-gap to obtain larger bandwidths of impedance, gain and axial ratio. The last one antenna structure results in a novelty because it is a rare design of antenna which includes all types of bandwidth (impedance, gain, and axial ratio) being simultaneously larger than the origin antenna. The resulted characteristic performance of the 1-tip (one-tip) antenna shows respectively 1.9% of impedance bandwidth, 3.1% of gain bandwidth, and 0.45% of axial-ratio bandwidth. For the 3-tip (three-tip) step, the resulted bandwidths of respectively impedance, gain, and axial ratio are 1.7%, 3.3% and 0.5%. The pentagonal structure resulted in the bandwith values of 15.67%, 52.16% and 4.11% respectively for impedance, gain, and axial ratio.
Reviewer Acknowledgements
Authors: Smith Robert
Published: May 2016

Journal of Education and Training Studies (JETS) would like to acknowledge the following reviewers for their assistance with peer review of manuscripts for this issue. Many authors, regardless of whether JETS publishes their work, appreciate the helpful feedback provided by the reviewers. Their comments and suggestions were of great help to the authors in improving the quality of their papers. Each of the reviewers listed below returned at least one review for this issue. Reviewers for Volume 4, Number 6   Cynthia M. Compton David A. Compton Donna Smith Elena Jerves Enisa Mede Hoi-yung Leung Intakhab Khan Laima Kyburiene Lorna Enerva Mara Carsote Marcie Zaharee Mustafa Çakır Richard Beresford Richard H. Martin Richard Penny Sahar Younes Othman Torok Marianna Wang Kin Chiu Yerlan Seisenbekov   Robert Smith Editorial Assistant On behalf of, The Editorial Board of Journal of Education and Training Studies Redfame Publishing 9450 SW Gemini Dr. #99416 Beaverton, OR 97008, USA URL: http://jets.redfame.com
Reviewer Acknowledgements
Authors: Johnson Patricia
Published: May 2016

Studies in Media and Communication (SMC) would like to acknowledge the following reviewers for their assistance with peer review of manuscripts for this issue. Many authors, regardless of whether SMC publishes their work, appreciate the helpful feedback provided by the reviewers. Their comments and suggestions were of great help to the authors in improving the quality of their papers. Each of the reviewers listed below returned at least one review for this issue. Reviewers for Volume 4, Number 1   Antonio García Gómez Arash Riasi Aslı Sezgin Begoña Montero-Fleta Camelia Cmeciu Christian Lamour Diego Santos Vieira de Jesus Dorina Ticu Kunle Olufemi Aramide Muharrem Eksi Nina Gunnarsson Philemon Bantimaroudis Simone Tosoni Xin Shuai Young Joon Lim   Patricia Johnson Editorial Assistant On behalf of, The Editorial Board of Studies in Media and Communication Redfame Publishing 9450 SW Gemini Dr. #99416 Beaverton, OR 97008, USA URL: http://smc.redfame.com