Abstract: Synthesis of sulforaphane in shoots of broccoli (Brassica oleracea L var italica) had been conducted in vitro. Sulforaphane is found in abundance in broccoli shoots. The experiment was designed in three stages. Stage one was aimed to find the best concentration of naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) and benzylaminopurine acetic acid (BAP) in inducing the production of sulforaphane in broccoli cultures. In the second stage we studied the shoot propagation and analyzed the effect of combination of methionine precursor and the broccoli seed extract in increasing the sulforaphane yield. Stage three was aimed to find the best combination of methionine concentration and broccoli seed extract in producing sulforaphane in the broccoli plantlet. The results show that during the induction stage 1 ppm of NAA and 5 ppm BAP increased the sulforaphane production upto 47.76 ng/g, while the combination of 100 mg methionine and 1 g broccoli seed extract yielded 182.09 ng/g in the shoot propagation stage and 2,901 ng/g in the plantlet formation stage.

Abstract: We chose Sn10Bi, Sn10Bi10In, Sn20Bi, and Sn20Bi20In (numbers are in weight percent) rapidly solidified from melt using melt-spinning technique for intermediate –step soldering. We then investigated the structure, electrical and mechanical properties of the melt-spun ribbons using x-ray diffraction, double bridge circuit, dynamic resonance technique, and Vickers microhardeness tester. It was concluded that Sn10Bi10In as Pb-Free solder for intermediate-step soldering is the best solder in micromechanical system packaging as a hermetic sealing step.

Abstract: The flow behavior of the crude oil droplet motion within different aqueous solutions was studied in terms of several parameters. These parameters are the effect of surface active material, salt concentration, and polymer concentration. The crude oil droplet motion under low Reynolds number was investigated in terms of rising velocity, steady shapes, and dimensionless geometric parameters. Different Newtonian and Non-Newtonian aqueous solutions were used as continuous phase. The droplets motion due to buoyancy effects was examined in a capillary tube positioned vertically. The mobility of the crude oil droplet and the steady shape deformation are influenced by the presence of the surfactant which, in turn, affects surface tension of the droplets. Presence of salt in the continuous phase also affects the crude oil droplet shape.

Abstract: Polymer blending is of growing importance nowadays, because the blend can be tailored to meet the requirements of specific applications. Blends of Polystyrene (PS) and Styrene-Butadiene-Styrene (SBS), as thermoplastic elastomers are prepared in different ratios by melt blending technique using Haake Poly-Driver extruder. Tensile test, Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) are used to study the mechanical and thermal properties and morphology. The test results show that the mechanical properties depend on the SBS content, i.e. the tensile strength and Young's modulus are found to decrease with increasing SBS composition, while ultimate elongation and impact strength are found to increase with increasing SBS composition. Test results show that all mechanical properties nearly follow the rule-of-mixture behavior. The DSC test results confirm state of miscibility for all blend ratios. The SEM results fully support those results obtained from mechanical properties.

Abstract: Isolation and identification of larvicide bioactive from soursop (Annona muricata Linn) seeds against the larvae of Aedes aegypti mosquito, the transmitters of dengue fever has been done. The ethanol extract of soursop seeds was an active larvicide agent with a lethal concentration LC50 = 244.27 ppm. The soursop seed extract contains secondary metabolites compounds of saponin, alkaloid and triterpenoid groups. Test results of the activity fraction of n-hexane, ethyl acetate fraction and n-butanol fraction towards the Aedes aegypti mosquito's larvae showed that the fraction of n-hexane is more effective and has the highest toxicity with the concentration of mortality (LC50) = 73.77 ppm. Separation by column chromatography obtained 15 mg of active anti larvicide isolates (F2). Analysis and identification with GC-MS showed peaks of seven compounds, where there were three dominant compounds with a retention time relatively close and have the abundance % that are large enough which are classified as organic fatty acids, namely: methyl palmitate, methyl oleate and methyl stearate with the most dominant compound which is methyl palmitate fatty acid which has a 39.93% abundance.

Abstract: This paper is concerned with the study of the exponential barrier method for linear programming problems with the essential property that each exponential barrier method is concave when viewed as a function of the multiplier.. It presents some background of the method and its variants for the problem. Under certain assumption on the parameters of the exponential barrier function, we give a rule for choosing the parameters of the barrier function. Theorems and algorithms for the methods are also given in this paper. At the end of the paper we give some conclusions and comments on the methods.

Abstract: Precursors and near misses are well known for providing a major source of useful information for safety risk management. They are more frequent events than accidents and their causes may potentially result in an accident under slightly different circumstances. Despite the importance of this type of feedback, there is little knowledge on the characteristics of precursors and near misses, and on the use of this information in safety risk management. This paper focuses on differentiating the concepts of precursors related and evaluating the risk of precursors, near misses. First, precursors, near misses related concepts are reviewed and the relationships between the concepts are presented. Furthermore, the importance of precursors and near misses to further improve safety margins are emphasized. Eventually, risk-based evaluation of precursors, near misses is performed and the impacts of precursors, near misses on quantitative risk estimates are emphasized. By describing the precursors, near misses incidents with related probabilities and consequences, proactive management can be mobilized. Furthermore, a deeper understanding of the precursors and near misses will give the potential to control variability rather than by constraining it. Moreover, the investigation of precursors and near misses incidents can be used as a source of information for the construction of a structured methodological approach for decision-making. Information from precursors and near misses incidents investigations can also be important tools for improved risk communication.

Abstract: Seepagecrude oil and oil-impregnated sand were sampled in the surroundings of Miri, Sarawak, and mixed/extracted with Toluene in the laboratory.  The oil produced a characteristic staining of the Toluene, and it was noticed that the colour of the oil/Toluene mix and oil sand/Toluene extraction appeared to be proportional to the concentration of oil dissolved in the Toluene. The liquid colour changed from faint yellow/green in low concentrations to deep orange, and later at rising oil concentration to orange-brown. Therefore it is concluded that the colour of the Toluene/oil mix can be used to estimate oil saturation (So, %) of oil sands, onceoil concentrations in Toluene are calibratedwith a colour index chart. The method might also be used to quickly assess the amount of crude oil contamination in the aftermath of an oil spill.

Abstract: With the exponential development of mobile communications and the miniaturization of radio frequency transceivers, the need for small and low profile antennas at mobile frequencies is constantly growing.  Therefore, new antennas should be developed to provide both larger bandwidth and small dimensions. This paper presents an intelligent optimisation technique using a hybridized Genetic Algorithms (GA) coupled with the intelligence of the Binary String Fitness Characterization (BSFC) technique. The aim of this project is to design and optimize the bandwidth of a Planar Inverted-F Antenna (PIFA) in order to achieve a larger bandwidth in the 2 GHz band.  The optimization technique used is based on the Binary Coded GA (BCGA) and Real-Coded GA (RCGA).  The optimisation process has been enhanced by using a Clustering Algorithm to minimize the computational cost.  During the optimization process, the different PIFA models are evaluated using the finite-difference time domain (FDTD) method.

Abstract: Recent technologies have made real-time high data rate communication a reality. Long Term Evolution (LTE) is one of them. In this paper we discuss the performance of Transmit Diversity (TxD) and Spatial multiplexing (SM) using Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) communication in comparison with Single Input Single Output (SISO) communication to achieve high date rates in LTE communication. Vehicular A (VehA) and Vehicular B (VehB) tapped delay channel model are used to model the high speed outdoor movements of the LTE user. Soft Sphere Decoder (SSD) with Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE) equalization is used. Sphere decoder (SD) gives a sub optimal Maximum Likelihood (ML) solution with reduced complexity. Complexity is reduced as compared to the ML decoder as the solution is chosen by considering the values that are enclosed by the radius of the sphere. Soft decisions are incorporated to have reduced error probability. The comparison is performed between transmission modes to select the mode of communication based upon the SNR and throughput to achieve optimal utilization of the resources. It is observed that at lower values of SNR, TxD performs better, giving higher throughput and reduced Block Error Rate (BLER). As the SNR values are increased beyond a certain threshold, the performance of Closed Loop Spatial Multiplexing (CLSM) and Open Loop Spatial Multiplexing (OLSM) performs better than the TxD in terms of throughput therefore making TxD not suitable for higher values of SNR. The Least Square (LS) estimation for feedback provides no improvement at high speed to compensate the rapid change of the channel behavior.

Abstract: Silver additions between 0.03 wt.% to 0.50 wt.% were made to the Zn-20Sn (wt.%) in an attempt to develop Zinc based alloy for application and improvement in giftware industry. In this study, we investigated the effect of Ag addition on Zn based alloy and mechanical properties of Zn-Sn-Ag alloys with variation of Ag contents. The measured mechanical properties are tensile strength and percentage elongation. It was found that addition of Ag over the entire range of concentrations has a useful effect on tensile properties of the alloy. Furthermore, the percentage elongation and tensile strength of the samples also increases with further increase in Ag content. Alloy containing 0.50 wt.% showed the highest value in both tensile strength and percentage elongation. Thus, the mechanical properties of the alloy improved with increasing Ag percentage up to 0.50 wt. %. On the other hand, increasing Ag content also significantly affected the fracture surface of the alloys. The surface showed a mixed mode of fracture exhibiting ductile failure and brittle failure. Metallographic studies showed that the addition of Ag resulted in microstructure modifications of the alloy involving the formation of intermetallic compound identified as Ag3Sn and AgZn which decrease the precipitation of Zn in Sn matrix. The microstructure results also affected the mechanical properties of alloy by the presence of the elements.

Abstract: This paper proposes a terminal crowbar protection technique for Doubly Fed Induction Generators (DFIG) to protect the rotor converter and enhance network stability during grid disturbances. Simulation test using MATLAB-Simulink toolbox is implemented on a 9 MW wind farm exports its power to 120 KV grid. The simulation is performed using different values of crowbar resistances. The variations of rotor current, rotor speed, DC-link voltage, active power and reactive power of the wind farm are investigated. Also, a comparison between the conventional crowbar and the proposed crowbar protection techniques is investigated.

Abstract: This paper attempts to analyze the utilization of container yards of major ports in Indonesian Eastern Region for current condition. In this regard, the study focused on ten major ports available in the region. Yard occupation ratio (YOR), a performance indicator of container yard utilization is calculated using a general standard model. Furthermore, the paper forecasts the demand of the container yard using growth method in order to evaluate the container yards capacity in the future. The analysis results show that the utilization of the container yards is not optimal in serving the container throughput. In considering the current and future growth of the demand, most of the container yards of the major ports in the region need improvement and development efforts in order to increase their serving in the future.

Abstract: Denial-of-Service (DoS) is a network security problem that constitutes a serious challenge to reliability of services deployed on the servers. The aim of DoS attacks is to exhaust a resource in the target system, reducing or completely subverting the availability of the service provided. Threat of DoS attacks has become even more severe with DDoS (Distributed Denial-of-Service) attack. It is an attempt by malicious users to carry out DoS attack indirectly with the help of many compromised computers on the Internet. Service providers are under mounting pressure to prevent, monitor and mitigate DoS/DDoS attacks directed toward their customers and their infrastructure. Defending against those types of attacks is not a trivial job, mainly due to the use of IP spoofing and the destination-based routing of the Internet, though there are many proposed methods which aim to alleviate the problem like Firewalls, Intrusion Detection Systems, Ingress filtering, IP Traceback, SYN Proxy etc. This paper discusses the efficient packet filtering technique using firewall to defend against DoS/DDoS attacks. Firewall scripts are written using command-line tool iptables in Linux to deny the suspicious traffic. Packet analyzer tool used to showcase the effectiveness of the scripts in mitigating the various kinds of DoS/DDoS attacks.

Abstract: Diverse benthic and planktic Foraminiferal assemblages of Cretaceous age occur within the shales that intercalates the New Netim Marl in the Calabar Flank, South Eastern Nigeria. This formation forms marl ridges across the Calabar Flank from Ikot Nyong (Northeast) to Mbebu village (southwest) . Fifteen fresh samples were collected from the highly fissile shales that intercalate the marl units (fig 1). They were subjected to foraminiferal (micropaleontological) and palynological analysis to determine the age and study the paleoecology of the New Netim Formation. Foraminiferal analysis reveals the occurrence of the following index benthic forms: Ammobaculites jessensis, Ammobaculites benuensis and Haplophragmodies bauchensis. Also, the planktic foraminiferal species identified include: Whiteinella inornata, Whiteinella baltica and Heterohelix reussi. These foraminiferal assemblages point to a Turonian – Coniacian age for the New Netim Formation. Palynomorphs recovered from the palynological analysis are generally long-ranging microspores. However, the occurrence of Mid – Upper Cretaceous Trifossapollenites sp. and Cicatricosisporites sp. indicates a Turonian – Coniacian age for the marl unit under investigation. The above foraminiferal and palynological assemblages suggest a Turonian- Coniacian age for the New Netim Formation and  a shallow inner- neritic paleo- bathymetric environment for the carbonate build-up.