bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The ontological approach to Internet knowledge portals design
Authors: Novohrudska R.L.
Published: April 2021

The paper presents the approach to Internet knowledge portals design based on ontologies. Internet knowledge portals provide users with access to heterogeneous loosely coupled data and information resources of various subject domains. Using such portals as a single access point greatly simplifies the work with information presented on the Internet. In the case of Internet portals representing engineering subject domains information their environment concentrate not only information resources and data, but also a large number of computing resources and web-services that are used to perform certain calculation tasks of engineering subject domains. The ontological approach to Internet knowledge portals design allows to represent and integrate heterogeneous information and computing resources in the process of such portals data and knowledge structuring and systematizing. It is proposed to use ontology as portal knowledge representation model. The Internet knowledge portal general ontology is represented by a system of four interconnected components. The structure of such a system is described, the basic elements of its ontologies, as well as the relations between them, are distinguished. The ontology elements are formalized that allows to organize and optimize semantic search through the Internet knowledge portals information space.
Cognitive ergonomics of educational ontology
Authors: Popova M.A.
Published: April 2021

The article provides a brief analysis of studies on the use of ontologies for developing curricula, creating descriptions of their contents in the form of courses and information resources, improving the mechanisms for recommending academic sources and resources, academic assessment, management of a higher educational institution, integrating academic data and ontology-based repositories, which showed that ontology is a useful means of organizing information in the educational process. Criteria and methods for ontology metric evaluation for compliance with application requirements, increasing the availability of information for assimilation and gaining the possibility of their reuse in order to reduce the time and financial costs of modernizing existing and developing new knowledge base models are considered. A brief description of cognitive ergonomics metrics that affect the perception and ability to remember information presented in ontologies is given. The dependence of the ontology efficiency on its metrics, on the basis of which a list of cognitive-perceptual principles of developing an educational ontology is presented, is determined. The basics of the cognitive load theory and its application in the development of training resources based on ontologies are considered. A description of the cognitive load types that an educational ontology can cause to determine ways to optimize it is given. Practical advice for developers of educational ontology for the most effective presentation of information for its assimilation is given. A list of ontology creating tools, including educational purposes, is provided. The main ways of representing knowledge by means of the cognitive IT platform “Polyhedron” taking into account the features of cognitive ergonomics in the process of developing an educational ontology are described.
Virtual environments for the design of electronic devices as a means of instrumental digital didactics
Authors: Atamas A. I. , Slipukhina I.A. , Chernetckyi I.S. , Shykhovtsev Y.S.
Published: April 2021

Instrumental digital didactics reflects the application to education of various digital means of obtaining, processing and interpreting experimental data in accordance with the logic of the scientific method and engineering design. An important component of a modern STEM-oriented educational environment are innovative software products for modelling and simulation of electronic circuits. In educational research projects on their basis, the parameters of the components of electrical circuits created in virtual environments are compared with the technical characteristics of similar devices available for sale. This technique allows not only to demonstrate the similarities and differences of idealized and real artifacts, to identify sources and magnitude of possible errors, but also to obtain electrical characteristics sufficient to build equivalent schemes for substituting devices without prior experimental research. The proposed approach is demonstrated on the example of studying the parameters of a device of current interest — a photoelectric converter (determining the point of its maximum power and the fill factor). Learning by means of using equivalent substitution schemes demonstrates one of the variants of the engineering design process to students. In addition, the proposed method, due to the possibility of development from an algorithmic training procedure to an engineering research, allows for an individual approach to the teaching of electrical engineering and electronics. Research of didactic features of the study of electricity and the basics of electronics, in particular with the use of NI “Multisim 11.0”, is one of the activities of the STEM-laboratory of “MANLab” National centre “Junior academy of sciences of Ukraine”. Some of the tested methods are designed as a workbook and placed in free access in the form of instructions on the online resource stemua.science.
Formation of social competence in adolescence
Authors: Flіarkovska O. V.
Published: April 2021

The article highlights the formation of adolescents’ social competence. The definitions of the concepts “socialization”, “competence”, “social competence” are given. The focus is on the concept of “social competence”, which is important in adolescence. The term “socialization” in the scientific literature of different branches of science is analyzed. The psychological and pedagogical principles of the organization of the pedagogical process aimed at the development of a healthy personality that can learn through life, think critically, set goals and achieve them, work in a team, communicate in a multicultural environment are considered. The conditions for forming social competence of adolescents are defined. The priorities of the educational process at the New Ukrainian School are described. It is determined that the formation of adolescents’ social competence is through the formation of the ability

of educators to make their own decisions, with the ability to communicate without conflict and tolerance with others, to admit their mistakes, to defend their dignity, rights, to realize their natural opportunities, to lead a healthy lifestyle, to plan their personal and a professional future. The algorithm of professional activity of pedagogical workers is investigated, which provides for revision of methodology of work with participants of educational process; changing emphasis and priority from process to outcome using effective methods of practical psychology and social work. It is proved that a reboot should be psychologically correct, gradually and gradually, with appropriate explanations and instructions. It is determined that the coordinated work of teachers and parents plays an important role in shaping the social competence of adolescents. It is emphasized that the psychological service is intended to teach how to live in peace with oneself and with others, how to enter into relations with the world, so that life is pleasurable.
Theoretical basis of integrative approaches studying of STEM-education programs implementation in secondary educational institutions of Ukraine
Authors: Voronkin O. S.
Published: April 2021

The article examines integrative approaches of educational STEM programs implementation in secondary educational institutions. The concept of “STEM education” is not stable. The views of experts on its content are revealed through such generalized components as pedagogical technology (pedagogical process), focus on practical tasks and problem-based learning. At the same time, integrative approaches find application in the disciplines, the sequence of courses, and in a separate course. Generalization of the definitions of the concept “STEM education”, proposed by various experts, made it possible to understand it as a joint activity, interaction and cooperation of teachers, students and stakeholders, aimed at overcoming the fragmentation of knowledge by eliminating boundaries between them, integrating content components. It provides the formation of key competencies necessary for further employment and life activity in the conditions of the formation and development of new branches of knowledge. The article describes the general features of the learning organization in accordance with disciplinary, multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches. In the context of transdisciplinarity, the prospects for the development of educational programs in secondary educational institutions of Ukraine is considered. It is possible to single out a number of problems accompanying the process of STEM courses developing and implementing. There are the problem of systematizing the structural and logical links between disciplines to be merged, the problem of professional readiness of teachers specializing in teaching one or two disciplines to take responsibility for mentoring and supporting student’s transdisciplinary projects and modernization of educational laboratories and making of modern STEM centres at secondary educational institution.
Science education: searching of the effective publication practices
Authors: Svyrydenko D.B. , Aleksandrova Yu. M.
Published: April 2021

The article attempts to propose the agenda of problems related to the requirements of the Ukrainian legislation in the research field regarding publications in journals indexed by the Scopus and Web of Science scientific databases to foreign readers of the journal. The provisions of the article have been pre-tested within the framework of the 12th international scientific conference on “Gifted children — intellectual potential of the state” (2019) and have been expanded to take into account the trends of 2020. As a result of the analysis, a number of approaches that could update the publishing strategies of Ukrainian researchers in the field of scientific education were identified. In particular, without claiming the completeness of the recommendations, a number of key recommendations have been formed that can guide potential authors. These include the following principles: authors need to develop a level of English in order to qualitatively develop a source base, to learn to work with English texts from the perspective of the future reader and from the position of the author; writing articles in international journals that are part of scientometric databases requires a distance from the tradition of writing articles in academic journals of Ukraine; for domestic researchers of science education, there is ample opportunity for publications both in specialized journals as well as in journals with related topics (development of giftedness; information technologies in education, etc.); researchers should develop international contacts with experienced authors in the field of science education and initiate joint research and publications as a result; mastering search tools of scientometric databases is a necessary requirement for preparatory steps that precede the preparation of the text; reseacrchers should get used to long and painstaking work with reviewers, which precedes the acceptance of the article to print; authors should avoid predatory models when presenting research results through developed awareness of international standards of publication ethics and academic integrity.
Policing the Pedal Rebels: A Case Study of Environmental Activism Under COVID-19
Authors: Lee Murray
Published: April 2021

Australia, along with nation-states internationally, has entered a new phase of environmentally focused activism, with globalised, coordinated and social media–enabled environmental social movements seeking to address human-induced climate change and related issues such as the mass extinction of species and land clearing. Some environmental protest groups such as Extinction Rebellion (XR) have attracted significant political, media and popular commentary for their sometimes theatrical and disruptive forms of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience. Drawing on green and cultural criminology, this article constitutes an autoethnographic account of environmental protest during the final stages of the initial COVID-19 lockdown in NSW, Australia. It takes as a case study a small protest by an XR subgroup called the Pedal Rebels. The article explores the policing of environmental protest from an activist standpoint, highlighting the extraordinary police resources and powers mobilised to regulate a small peaceful group of ‘socially distanced’ protesters operating within the existing public health orders. It places an autoethnographic description of this protest in the context of policing practice and green and cultural criminology. Additionally, it outlines the way in which such policing is emboldened by changes to laws affecting environmental protest, making activism an increasingly risky activity.
Gestión de RR.PP. Internacionales: la aventura de Sentir Canario Gobcan.es
Authors: Álvarez Díaz Araceli
Published: April 2021

Este trabajo analiza los contenidos, las fuentes y la dinámica de funcionamiento de un proyecto de comunicación institucional que inició su andadura en el mes de julio de 2017 de la mano de la Dirección General de Emigración del Gobierno de Canarias con el objetivo de crear comunidad entre los emigrantes canarios y sus descendientes que residen fuera de Canarias. Dicho proyecto, denominado Sentir Canario Gobcan.es, que consta de una página de Facebook de actualización diaria en la que se inserta, además, un programa de radio semanal, persigue fomentar el vínculo de pertenencia de las comunidades de canarios que viven fuera de las islas. Se trata de un canal participativo en el que se da voz a dichos colectivos a través de la publicación de contenidos relacionados con las actividades que desarrollan, tanto de forma grupal como individualmente. Los objetivos del estudio son analizar, por un lado, los contenidos de esta red social, de actualización diaria, aunque con distintos ritmos los fines de semana; determinar cuáles son los criterios de selección de dichos contenidos así como las fuentes; y concretar cuál es el nivel de participación de estas entidades canarias en los contenidos publicados en la página.
Actos anticipados de campaña presidencial y efectos en la opinión pública: El caso de Rafael Moreno Valle en Puebla
Authors: Hermida Quezada Rosa María
Published: April 2021

Todo mensaje transmitido por líderes políticos, como parte del intercambio de símbolos y representaciones cognitivas que comprende la comunicación política, incide en la opinión pública a través del mensaje. El discurso político se ha estudiado en distintas dimensiones, pero existe una delgada línea entre los mensajes de la campaña permanente, parte de la comunicación gubernamental y los mensajes persuasivos dentro de la comunicación electoral. En México, aunque esto ha sido tan recurrente, se ha examinado ocasionalmente a pesar de que mediante diferentes mecanismos es posible profundizar en el análisis del mensaje, argumentar con mayor solidez su objetivo y ponderar los efectos que inciden en la opinión pública. El presente trabajo reporta un estudio de caso sobre presuntos actos anticipados de precampaña por un servidor público en funciones expuestos y busca confirmar, a través de una metodología cualitativa, que el discurso político de un servidor público durante actos anticipados de campaña constituye una violación a la ley e incide en la opinión pública.
Tratamiento informativo y cobertura electoral en Querétaro: Una mirada a la elección estatal de 2015
Authors: Corral-Velazquez Gabriel Alfonso
Published: April 2021

El estado de Querétaro cuenta con tres alternancias electorales (1997, 2009, 2015) Lo cual podría mostrar al exterior una pluralidad política y una madurez electoral. A partir de lo expuesto se puede sostener que en la prensa y, en los espacios de deliberación, prevalecen prácticas políticas contradictorias muestran continuidades propias del régimen político autoritario. Más allá de los nuevos marcos regulatorios en los medios electrónicos, en la prensa diaria continúan los convenios y los acuerdos publicitarios enfatizados en los procesos electorales.El presente trabajo tiene el propósito de mostrar un acercamiento a la cobertura informativa durante el proceso electoral del año 2015 en el estado de Querétaro. A partir de los discursos presentados en la prensa diaria de la capital del estado, se pretende poner en perspectiva cómo se configura la esfera pública en un contexto de alternancia electoral.
Modelos de gobernanza y desarrollo sustentable: Una propuesta instrumental para los municipios de Puebla
Authors: Meyer Rodríguez Jose Antonio , Lumbreras Hernández Margarita
Published: April 2021

A partir de los principios de un gobierno incluyente, el presente trabajo desarrolla un modelo de gobernanza local para los municipios del Estado de Puebla. En un contexto de graves contrastes, donde las principales evaluaciones sobre desarrollo humano destacan rezagos en materia salud, educación, nutrición y vivienda, el modelo plantea nuevas formas de gestión pública municipal con la participación de la ciudadanía y un proceso constante de evaluación y rendición de cuentas. El modelo tiene un enfoque sistémico, aglutinador, abierto y democrático que busca alcanzar el pleno ejercicio de la gobernanza y producir mejoras sustantivas en las condiciones de vida de las diversas comunidades del territorio.
Impacto potencial de la reducción de diputaciones plurinominales en México
Authors: De la Peña Ricardo
Published: April 2021

Al proponer una reforma electoral en el ámbito electoral, como en muchos otros ámbitos de la vida comunitaria, el principal problema es estimar cuál será su impacto potencial. En cada proceso de revisión de una propuesta de reforma hay actores a favor y actores en contra, cada uno de los cuales responde a una visión de lo que debe ser el (sub)sistema que se podría afectar y lo que les es conveniente, aunque detrás de las expectativas que se formen en torno a los efectos de una reforma puedan detectar correctamente sus consecuencias o sólo ver fantasmas inexistentes en realidad. Se profundiza en este texto, sobre la propuesta de reducción de diputados plurinominales en México y su impacto potencial.
Sesajen sebagai Nilai hidup bermasyarakat di Kampung Cipicung Girang Kota Bandung
Authors: Adam Ujang Kusnadi , Yusup Andreian , Fadlullah Salma Fauziyyah , Nurbayani Siti
Published: April 2021

Budaya sesajen menjadi salah satu contoh akulturasi budaya Hindu-Islam. Kebudayaan ini menjadi identitas masyarakat lokal. Kebudayaan sesajen menjadi identitas dan akulturasi serta menjaga kearifan lokal seluruh sistem kehidupan. Akan tetapi hal ini bertolak belakang dengan budaya islam modern yang memgang teguh al-qur’an dan Hadist. Masyarakat awam tidak mengetahui makna serta nilai yang terkandung dalam budaya sesajen. Tujuan penelitian ini ialah 1) menganalisis kebudayaan sesajen, 2) mendeskripsikan kebudayaan sesajen sebagai identitas, 3) menganalisis sesajen sebagai akulturasi budaya, 4) menemukan model pelestarian sebagai kearifan lokal. Metode yang di gunakan dalam penelitian ini menggunakan deskriptif pendekatan kualitatif, intrumen penelitian ini menggunakan observasi partisipasif, catatatan lapangan dan wawancara mendalam. Observasi dilakukan dengan catatan lapangan dan wawancara mendalam dengan tokoh adat, masyarakat, remaja, serta tokoh agama. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan 1) budaya sesajen mulai luntur seiring berkembangnya zaman,serta tidak diminati oleh kalangan muda., 2) Penampilan sesajen pun sangat sederhana dengan balutan kopi,rujak,rokok,bara api 3) model pelestarian dengan cara menurunkan ilmunya ke generasi selanjutnya. Kebudayaan sesajen menjadi dwi fungsi makna dalam hidup bermasyarakat, menjadi sebuah identitas budaya serta kearifan lokal masyarakat yang hanya dapat dilakukan oleh semua pihak yang terlibat baik kalangan masyarakat tertentu dan keluarga tokoh adat.
Peran Paguyuban Duta Wisata “Sekargading” dalam Mengembangkan Pariwisata di Kabupaten Batang
Authors: Agung Deby Prasetio , Wijaya Atika
Published: April 2021

Tulisan ini membahas peran Paguyuban Sekargading dalam mengembangkan pariwisata di Kabupaten Batang. Pariwisata merupakan sektor yang memiliki dampak positif pada berbagai sektor kehidupan manusia lainnya, untuk mengoptimalkan hal itu Dinas Pariwisata Kepemudaan dan Olahraga Kabupaten Batang kembali mengaktifkan Paguyuban Duta Wisata “Sekargading”. Tulisan ini menggunakan teori peranan oleh David Berry dan metode penulisan kualitatif. Tulisan ini memberikan hasil bahwa terdapat pandangan dari masyarakat yang mengamati Paguyuban Sekargading hanya digunakan sebagai among tamu dan masih mengikuti aktivitas dari Disparpora, masyarakat yang pernah mengikuti kegiatan Paguyuban Sekargading menganggap beberapa kegiatan yang dilakukan oleh paguyuban memiliki pengaruh terhadap pariwisata di Kabupaten Batang. Peranan yang dilakukan oleh Paguyuban Sekargading untuk mengembangkan pariwisata di Kabupaten Batang diwujudkan melalui beberapa program kerja, seperti Mas Mbak Batang Berbagi, Mas Mbak Batang Goes To School, dan Mbolang Mbatang. Secara keseluruhan peran ganda anggota paguyuban merupakan kendala terbesar yang dirasakan oleh Paguyuban Sekargading.
Vulkanologi
Authors:   MIPA Fisika, Universitas Syiah Kuala, Isa Muhammad
Published: April 2021

This book discusses about volcanoes. It provides extensive information on the formation process, magma activity, and type of volcanoes. It also presents the impact of volcanic eruption and its mitigation effort. Then it describes the process of a volcanic eruption, which are before, during, and after it occurs. It is hoped that readers will be able to explore the knowledge inside the book in order to reduce the impact of volcanic activity. This book may become one of references on a disaster course. This book is written well as such it is very easy to understand.
Sistem Informasi Geografis Kelautan
Authors: Azief Haridhi Haekal
Published: April 2021

Sistem Informasi Geografis Kelautan (SIG) merupakan sistem terintegrasi yang didesain untuk menghasilkan, mengambil, menyimpan, menganalisis, mengatur, dan memvisualisasi seluruh jenis data spasial atau geospasial dan informasi. SIG saat ini dimanfaatkan secara luas dalam berbagai sektor dan tersedia secara personal pada komputer dan smartphone. Buku ajar Sistem Informasi Geografis Kelautan ini menyajikan secara rinci tentang dasar-dasar SIG yaitu definisi, komponen, dan unsur esensial. Buku ini juga mengulas penggunaan software dan hardware SIG seperti Pembuatan Peta Digital, Pengenalan Generic Mapping Tools (GMT), dan Bahasa Pemograman Shell atau Bash. Penyajian materi dalam buku ini didukung dengan gambar-gambar informatif, Bahasa pemograman yang sangat rinci, dan situs-situs penting untuk menunjang kegiatan belajar mahasiswa.
Analysis of Tensile Strength, Hardness and Impact Energy of SAE1040 Steel Using Heat Treatment Processes
Authors: Jamali Qadir Bakhsh , Siyal Muswar Ali Farhad , Jamali Abdul Sattar , Jamali Muhammad Sharif , Hussain Arshad , Hussain Fida
Published: April 2021

A systematic study was carried out to improve the mechanical properties of medium carbon steel grade SAE 1040 by heat treatment processes. Test specimen were prepared according to ASTM standards. Test specimen were heat treated in Gas furnace at austenitization temperature of 700C to obtain fully austenite structure, soaked for 90 minutes, cooled in air and furnace, and quenched in water separately. Mechanical properties such as hardness, tensile strength, yield strength, breaking strength, Young’s Modulus, elongation and impact energy were investigated in this study. It was observed that water quenching enhances materials’ hardness, tensile strength, yield strength, breaking strength and Young’s Modulus while reducing the elongation and impact energy as compared with untreated specimen. Furnace cooling decreases materials’ hardness, tensile strength, yield strength, breaking strength, Young’s Modulus while increasing the elongation and impact energy as compared with untreated specimen. Air cooling improved the materials’ mechanical properties such as hardness, tensile strength, yield strength, breaking strength, Young’s Modulus, elongation and impact energy as compared with untreated specimen. The results of this study show that the heat treatment technique greatly influences the mechanical properties of medium carbon steel grade SAE 1040.
Influence of Long Polypropylene Fibre on the Properties of Concrete
Authors: Jhatial Ashfaque Ahmed , Mastoi Aamir Khan , Siyal Zafar Ali , Rind Touqeer Ali , Memon Imtiaz Ahmed
Published: April 2021

Concrete is the most used building and construction material globally due to the ease of availability and durability. It is a well-known fact that concrete can easily withstand compressive stresses; however, it fails under tension. To improve this deficiency, steel bar reinforcement has been used. However, with the steel reinforcement, additional permanent self-weight is transferred on the structure and is prone to corrosion. Hence, engineers and researchers have been working to search for more sustainable reinforcing material that could be cost-effective and simultaneously increase tensile strength. This experimental work was carried out to study the influence of long (38.1 mm) polypropylene (PP) fibres on the workability and mechanical strengths (compressive and flexural) of concrete. Three different fibre fraction content, 0.20%, 0.25% and 0.30% were selected to reinforce concrete. A total of 12 cylinders of 300mm×150mm dimension (3 cylinders per mix) and 12 beams of 609.6mm×304.8mm×101.6mm dimension (3 beams per mix) were used to determine the compressive strength and flexural strength after the samples achieved 28 days curing. Based on the results, it can be observed that longer fibres do not significantly influence the compressive strength as much as they do on flexural strength. Furthermore, longer length fibres, like shorter fibres, obstruct the workability of concrete. Comparing with previous findings, it can be concluded that for patching of macrocracks, longer length PP fibres should be used.
Effect of Blending ratio on Co-Combustion of Coal and Biomass Through Emission Analysis
Authors: Suri Saadat Ullah Khan , Siddique Mohammad
Published: April 2021

The environmental problems caused by industrial pollutants and global warming are on the rise. There is a need to develop a technology for reducing harmful pollutants. The co-combustion is getting serious attention by the scientists regarding its key facets to reduce the environmental pollutants. Its function is based on utilization of biomass with coal. In this work different types of biomass were used with coal samples to identify the suitable methodology. The biomass resource fulfills the requirement with reducing environmental pollutants and overcome energy crises. The ratios of biomass with coal samples were analyzed using stack gas analyzer. The banana tree waste (BTW) was found to be effective for reducing CO2 and CO emission. While, Cow dung manure (CDM) was found to be efficacious to decrease NOx. LC 80%+BTW 20% for SO2 and CDM for NO. To conclude, CDM and BTW decreases the emissions keeping blending ratio 80:20 with lignite coal to biomass in co-combustion respectively.
Effect of Short Term Aging on Unmodified and Local Crumb Rubber (LCR) Modified Bitumen
Authors: Waheed Muhammad Saad , Elahi Manzoor
Published: April 2021

Two grades of bitumen, (60/70 and 80/100), were modified by addition of Local Crumb Rubber (LCR) by weight of base bitumen. To investigate the effects of short-term aging on modified and LCR modified bitumen, Rolling Thin Film Oven (RTFO) test was used to simulate the short term aging. Dynamic shear rheometer (DSR) was used to assess the rheological properties of bitumen, both before and after aging. It was observed that at 65 degree Celcius on aging, the phase angle (sigma) of unmodified bitumen decreased by 3 and 4% for 60/70 and 80/100 bitumen respectively; whereas, for 60/70 LCR modified bitumen, the phase angle (sigma) on RTFO aging decreased by 7% for all LCR content (10, 15 and 20%) by weight of base bitumen. However, on RTFO aging (sigma), values for LCR modified 80/100 bitumen varied across different LCR content and could not be generalized. The complex modulus |G*| of LCR modified 60/70 bitumen increased on aging for both modified and unmodified bitumen at 65C, but with the increase in LCR content, the difference between bitumen aged and un-aged values of |G*| was considerably lowered. An interesting finding was for 80/100 bitumen modified with 20% LCR content by weight, which showed a reduction in |G*| values and an increase in (sigma) values on aging. This shows that to some extent, LCR compensates for the stiffening effects of aging.
Geotechnical Investigations of an Earth-Filled Site for Construction of a Building
Authors: Bhanbhro Riaz , Siyal Zafar Ali , Memon Bashir Ahmed , Zardari Shahnawaz , Bhutto Amjad Hussain , Zardari Muhammad Auchar
Published: April 2021

There is a growing need of construction around the globe. This need tends to provide newer opportunities for construction of buildings over reclaimed lands or earth filled areas. Mostly, the earth is filled with soils as it is an easily available material. Soil is a complex materials, and its properties can vary due to several reasons. If not understood properly, it can damage undisturbed samples collected from earth-filled soils. The basic properties of soils, the stress-strain behavior and strength parameters are presented and discussed. Results show that soil exhibits strain hardening and normally consolidated behavior in direct shear and oedometer test respectively. It is observed that the compression index values are in the range of 0.157 to 0.182 which indicates that the material is silty soils with low plasticity. The allowable bearing capacity in our study was 305 kPa and allowable load on footing was 987 kN. The strength parameters, i.e., friction angle and cohesion are 37 degree and 2 kPa respectively.
Characterization & Batch Sorption Study for Chromium (VI) Removal fromAqueous Solutions by Activated Carbon Adsorbent Prepared from Indigenous Sugarcane Bagasse
Authors: Solangi Zulfiqar Ali , Bhatti Zulfiqar Ali , Mangi Kashif Hussain , Qureshi Khadija , Soni Hira Lal
Published: April 2021

Chromium being a carcinogenic element present in drinking water in the less developed areas in the poor countries contributes to many infectious diseases. The removal of chromium traces from water needs to have an easy and efficient way for poor countries. Concerning this, a low-cost industrial bio-adsorbent based on bagasse (the sugar industry waste) is prepared and characterized for Cr (VI) removal from aqueous solutions. Preparation of the absorbent is performed by carbonization and steam activation of sugarcane bagasse (SCB). The FTIR spectra and the morphology of the adsorbent before and after Cr (VI) removal was studied using FTIR and SEM. All the experiments were carried out in a batch process with laboratory-prepared samples to study the effects of pH, adsorbent dose, adsorbate concentration, shaking time and shaking speed. It was observed that the highest removal efficiency was achieved at pH=2, adsorbent dose=0.75 g, adsorbate concentration=60 mg/L, shaking speed=150 rpm, and shaking time=20 minutes. These results suggest that this bio-adsorbent can provide a simple, effective, and cheap method for removing Cr (VI) ions from effluents and water resources.
Physicochemical Characteristics of Landfill Leachate from Simpang Renggam Landfill Site, Johor, Malaysia
Authors: Detho Amir Ali , Daud Zawawi , Samo Saleem Raza , Khan Zohaib , Memon Dansish Ali , Awang Halizah
Published: April 2021

The worldwide increasing amount of municipal solid waste causes a major problem in managing waste as well as requires an effective solution to manage the waste generation. In Malaysia, landfilling is the main alternative technique for managing solid waste. In the same way, the main advantage of having a landfill is that it is easy to operate and comparatively lower in cost. Thus, in Malaysia, total 296 municipal solid waste landfills are open to overcome this issue. Drawbacks of landfilling can includes; i) generation of noxious gases, ii) leachate wastewater contamination of both ground and surface water, iii) problems such as odor, noise, and dust, iv) attraction of disease vectors and, v) the requirement for considerable land area. This present research study focuses on the characterization of Simpang Renggam Landfill (SRLS) Site such as its organic constitutes (mg/L), Ammoniacal Nitrogen (mg/L), SS (mg/L), BOD5/COD, BOD5 (mg/L), and pH. All the analyzed results were compared with the past researchers’ researches and also were compared with Malaysian Environmental Quality Act 1974. From the results, it is concluded that the Simpang Renggam Landfill Site was characterized old (stabilized) landfill leachate wastewater with BOD5/COD > 0.1. For the SRL site, it is recommended that physical-chemical method is better fitted for the leachate wastewater treatment and the aerated lagoon technique does not support the treatment of aging leachate.
LL (1) Parser versus GNF inducted LL (1) Parser on Arithmetic Expressions Grammar: A Comparative Study
Authors: Ali Hassan , Naveed Muhammad Shumail , Naseem Dilawar , Shabbir Jawaid
Published: April 2021

The prime objective of the proposed study is to determine the induction of Greibach Normal Form (GNF) in Arithmetic Expression Grammars to improve the processing speed of conventional LL(1) parser. Conventional
arithmetic expression grammar and its equivalent LL(1) is used in the study which is converted. A transformation method is defined which converts the selected grammar into a Greibach normal form that is further converted into a GNF based parser through a method proposed in the study. These two parsers are analyzed by considering 399 cases of arithmetic expressions. During statistical analysis, the results are initially examined with the Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk test. The statistical significance of the proposed method is evaluated with the Mann-Whitney U test. The study described that GNF based LL(1) parser for arithmetic take fewer steps than conventional LL(1) grammar. The ranks and asymptotic significance depict that the GNF based LL(1) method is significant than the conventional LL(1) approach. The study adds to the knowledge of parsers itself, parser expression grammars (PEG’s), LL(1) grammars, Greibach Normal Form (GNF) induced grammar structure, and the induction of Arithmetic PEG’s LL(1) to GNF based grammar.
Effect of Polyester Fiber on Workability Property of High Strength Concrete
Authors: Ali Mohsin , Kumar Aneel , Rizvi Samar Hussain , Ali Sabir , Ahmed Israr
Published: April 2021

The utilization of (HSC) high strength concrete in the construction industry is increasing all over the world because it reduces the cross-section of structural members and increases floor area. High strength concrete can be produced by using high cement content with low w/c ratio, mineral admixtures, and chemical admixture, and with suitable fiber. Nevertheless, in this research, HSC mix was achieved with the use of a special type BASF Master (M)/Polyheed 996 super-plasticizer based on polycarboxylic ether available in the market which reduced the w/c of concrete mixes, albeit attaining adequate workability. Compressive strength, up to 63 Mpa at 28 days, was achieved at slump value 178 mm by utilizing locally available materials like cement, sand, and coarse aggregates with a maximum 1.2% (by weight of cement) dosage of super-plasticizers. HSC has high workability, and to control the workability, different percentages of polyester fiber length 32 mm were also added to HSC. Polyester fiber controls the workability and improves the properties of HSC. There were four mixes designed with polyester fiber. The addition of polyester fiber content was 0.2%, 0.3%, 0.4%, and 0.5% (by weight of cement) in HSC, and the slump value were 153mm, 127mm, 102mm and 76mm respectively. It was observed that the usage of polyester fiber (0.2% to 0.5%) decreases workability by 14% to 57% of HSC. Therefore, it was concluded that increasing the percentage of fiber decreases the slump to the required value.
The Impact of Gamiﬁed Recruitment on Team Eﬀectiveness in Telecom Sector of Pakistan
Authors: Abro Sanaullah , Hussain Nazar , . Shumaila , Maher Shoukat , Rehman Mujeeb Ur , Zardari Muhammad Auchar , Shabbir Jawaid
Published: April 2021

This study has been designed to evaluate the impact of gamified recruitment on team effectiveness in the telecom sector of Pakistan. The sample of 120 respondents was designed to collect the data. This includes 30 respondents each from 4 telecom sector organizations of Pakistan. 110 responses returned complete feedback which gave the response rate of 91.66%. The results reveal that there is a positive impact of the gamified recruitment on team effectiveness at the telecom sector of Pakistan. As the model fitness is highly appreciated which is 0.850 at alpha is equals to 0.000 while beta is 92.3%. Similarly, the persuasive, economic, and informative value of gamified recruitment has been tested on virtual teams’ dimension of team effectiveness of the telecom sector of Pakistan. The model fitness was found 73% and the values found to be significant and influencing to accept the hypothesis. Moreover, similar results have also been identified after testing the persuasive, economic, and informative value of the gamified recruitment to the physical and project teams’ effectiveness at the telecom sector of Pakistan.
A Comparative Study of Sentiment Analysis on Mask-Wearing Practices during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Authors: Haq Bishrul , Mujtaba Ghulam , Khand Zahid Hussain , Ahmad Javed , Ali Zafar
Published: April 2021

COVID-19 has become one of the most highly orated subject matter in these days. Countries have taken many viable actions to prevent the spread of the virus directed by international recommendations, which led to many disputes concerning wearing a face mask as a preventive measure against the virus. This study aims to assess and compare the overall accuracy, macro precision, macro F-measure and macro recall of the different decision models towards the COVID-19 mask-wearing practices via sentiment analysis. Tweets are labeled and text pre-processing techniques are applied as stemming, normalization, tokenization, and stop-word removal. Subsequently, the tweets are transformed into master feature vectors by applying various feature extraction, feature representation, feature selection and word embedding techniques with five supervised machine learning decision models to predict mask wearing practices reinforced from Twitter tweets. Moreover, the highest macro F-measure and macro precision are found with feature extraction as hybrid-grams, feature representation as TF-IDF, feature selection as Chi-Squared Test, and highest macro recall with feature extraction as BOW, feature representation as TF-IDF, feature selection as ANOVA F-value. Hence, this study concludes that the Naive Bayes (NB) algorithm outperforms other decision models with master feature vectors applied. In addition, it also outperforms word embedding techniques.
Two Tone Analysis of Magnesium Oxide Based Magnetic Tunnel Junctions
Authors: Bughio Ahsin Murtaza , Buriro Ehsan Ali , Ansari Muhammad Adil , Nizamani Nasreen , Siyal Shahid Hussain
Published: April 2021

The magnetic tunnel junction based on magnesium oxide is a device consisting of two ferromagnetic layers separated by the insulating layer of magnesium oxide which has proved to be the foundation of contemporary magnetic read sensors in hard disk drives (HDD). This paper sheds light on the usage of Two-Tone Testing method for the complete treatment of the non-linear impact of sensors related to dynamic ones which is not possible with conventional linear as well as one-tone measurement techniques. Two-tone technique is considered novel, but is challenging in the area of magnetic materials and magnetism because of the device’s nature. However, the experimental results demonstrate the usage of “Two-Tone Testing” to characterize the non-linear properties of a magnetic sensor. Addressing non-linear properties of a magnetic sensor helps proper design of magnetic sensors before the production, thereby signifying the importance of this approach.
The Automatic Oxygen Saturation Control System by Adaptive Learning Controller for COVID-19 Patients
Authors: Farhi Lubna , Rehman Farhan Ur , Yasir Agha , Rehman Rija
Published: April 2021

This paper proposes an adaptive learning control and monitoring of oxygen for patients with breathing complexities and respiratory diseases. By recording the oxygen saturation levels in real-time, this system uses an adaptive learning controller (ALC) to vary the oxygen delivered to the patient and maintains it in an optimum range. In the presented approach, the PID controller gain is tuned with the learning technique to provide improved response time and a proactive approach to oxygen control for the patient. A case study is performed by monitoring the time varying health vitals across different age groups to gain a better understanding of the relationship between these parameters for COVID-19 patients. This information is then used to improve the standard of care provided to patients and reducing the time to recovery. Results show that ALC controls the oxygen saturation within the target range of 90% to 94% SpO2, 77% and 80.1% of the time in patients of age groups 40-50 years old and 50-60 years old, respectively. It also had faster time to recovery to target SpO2 range when the concentration dropped rapidly or when the patient becomes hypoxic as compared to the manual control of the oxygen saturation by the healthcare staff.
Effect of Silica Fume as Partial Replacement of Cement on Compressive Strength of Roller Compacting Concrete
Authors: Ahmed Israr , Kumar Aneel , Rizvi Samar Hussain , Ali Mohsin , Ali Sabir
Published: April 2021

Silica fume is an industrial by-product that can be used as a partial replacement of cement to enhance the strength related properties of roller compacting concrete. In past, industrial wastes were used to dump on earth, river, and sea that creates a hazardous environment for aquatic life as well as for humans. Nowadays, the use of industrial by-products as cement replacement is popular in the construction industry because it protects the environment from hazards. In this research, the effect of silica fume as partial replacement of sulphate resisting cement is investigated on the compressive strength of roller compacting concrete. Total four types of mix proportions were casted using concert mix ratio as 1:2:4 to investigate the compressive strength of roller compacting concrete at 7 and 28 days of curing age. The sulphate resisting cement was partially replaced with silica fume by 0%, 5%, 10%, and 15% by weight of cement. The zero slump was maintained in all mixes. It was observed that the mix proportions containing 5% and 15% silica fume replacement showed maximum and minimum compressive strength of roller compacting concrete respectively.
The Autoregressive Moving Average with Exogenous Excitation Model for Acoustic Scattering from Underwater Objects
Authors: Farhi Lubna , Rehman Farhan Ur , Ali Agha Yasir
Published: April 2021

This study aims to identify and predict objects underwater using the autoregressive moving average with exogenous excitation (ARMX) model in such a way that the outcome of the model is similar to actual measurements. It is used for parameter estimation. This model is validated by comparing results in actual model with ARMX model, autoregressive with an exogenous variables, and Box Jenkins (BJ) model. The results are analyzed in frequency and time domain by using mean square error criterion. Initial results show that ARMX predicts the acoustic scattering response with an accuracy of 96%, while ARX provides an accuracy of 78%, and BJ model poorly estimates the signal with an accuracy of 35%. ARMX also provides higher accuracy of detection by 7-8% as compared to the existing techniques.
Privacy Preserving Location based Services Through K-Anonymized Vehicular Social Network
Authors: Rajput Dr. Ubaidullah , Ansari Ahsan , Zai Sammer , Narwani Aakash
Published: April 2021

Location-based services (LBS) are the services that are used through users’ mobile devices and provide them the information regarding nearby restaurants, hospitals, gas stations, shopping malls, cinema (to name a few). While using LBS, a user needs to provide his/her location coordinates (geo-coordinates) to the LBS server. The revelation of a user’s location may seriously jeopardize his/her privacy. A common solution to this problem is the use of an intermediate anonymizer server that obfuscate the real location of a user among k other users. However, in this scenario, the anonymizer server must be a trusted and therefore, inherits the trust related issue and may also become a single point of failure. Moreover, if anonymizer compromises then the privacy of all the users is compromised. A vehicular adhoc network (VSN) is a subset of a mobile adhoc network (MANET) with some unique characteristics such as rapid speed of nodes (vehicles) that quickly change topologies. A vehicular social network is a combination of VANET and online social network. A VSN is formed by likeminded drivers/passengers or by common location. Like mobile nodes, the vehicles also utilize LBS services. However, an anonymizer cannot be used in this scenario because it needs to be updated with current locations of vehicles and therefore, jeopardizes the privacy of vehicles. A VSN can significantly help in this scenario. This research proposes a distributed k-anonymity based scheme that considers the social ties between the users of VSN and enable vehicles to use LBS in a privacy preserving manner. The proposed scheme uses a trusted authority (TA) such as a government law enforcement agency, that registers vehicles. However, the TA does not know what services are requested by a vehicle. On the other hand, the LBS server does not know which vehicle is requesting the service. In the end, the computational and communication overhead of the scheme is presented. The low computational overhead of TA, LBS server and vehicles shows that LBS can serve several vehicles in a very short time. Similarly, the TA can register and provide pseudo-identities to a number of vehicles without any significant delays.