ABSTRACT:
This paper presents the design of an energy harvesting wireless and battery-less silicon-on-chip (SoC) device that can be implanted in the human body to monitor certain health conditions. The proposed architecture has been designed on TSMC 0.18µm CMOS ICs and is an integrated system with a rectenna (antenna and rectifier) and transmitting circuit, all on a single chip powered by an external transmitter and that is small enough to be inserted in the human eye, heart or brain. The transmitting and receiving antennas operate in the 5.8- GHz ISM band and have a -10dB gain. The distinguishing feature of this design is the rectenna that comprises of a singlestage diode connected NMOS rectifier and a 3-D on-chip antenna that occupies only 2.5 × 1 × 2.8 mm3 of chip area and has the ability to communicate within proximity of 5 cm while giving 10% efficiency. The external source is a reader that powers up the RF rectifier in the implantable chip triggering it to start sending data back to the reader enabling an efficient method of health evaluation for the patient.

ABSTRACT:
Manufacturing is playing a significant role in its re-shoring into America. Companies are grappling with ways to obtain that competitive advantage by distinguishing themselves through their intellectual capabilities, process improvements, technology, people, shop floor management and information flows.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the effort at Farmingdale State College to educate our students in understanding Production Management and Master Production Schedule (MPS). We are trying to prepare students for entry into the workforce. By using a Real world ERP tool in the classroom while complimenting this learning with touring local manufacturers who use this tool and having production control experts in our classrooms. [1]

The opportunity presents itself for these students to visit real world manufacturers using the same tool these students use in the classroom, the Infor Visual ERP. Each semester students go to a local manufacturer to see how the product is made and the ERP system is used to make it. Each semester a subject matter expert, SME, in manufacturing comes into the class and talks about how they use their ERP to perform their functional responsibilities. Students go into these companies and sit down with these Production Manufacturing and IT SME’s to see how they use the modules in their ERP system from estimating, Production Management, MPS to delivery and payment. From the manufacturing window to the Master Schedule Window students learn from these companies SME’s just how they perform their functions, how they use this tool. Then that is replicated this in the classroom lab assignments for students to better understand Production Management, scheduling and work order integrity. They identify the desired schedule (forecast) and populate a Master Production Schedule. They create a BOM with work orders adding operations and material.

The Production Management/Control is the function of directing or regulating the movement of goods through the entire manufacturing cycle from the requisitioning of raw material to the delivery of finished products. (APICS Dictionary 13th Edition)

The Master Production Schedule is often a major component of Sales and Operations Management. The purpose of the Master Schedule is to translate the Sales forecast into a Production Plan that must be executed by the organization. The Master Schedule is the demand side of the equation and must represent the customers’ needs. In this way the Master Scheduler can give manufacturing its best chance for success.

Master Production Schedule (MPS): The MPS should be closely aligned with the Sales Forecast. Students enter a Sales Forecast into the system similar to what they have seen at the companies. Students see how it is the liaison between the Sales Forecast and a production work order. Its function is to translate the Sales Forecast into a viable production schedule that supports the customer requirements, while taking into account shop floor constraints. The MPS must support the Sales Forecast and customer demand. Students learn the importance of this in their lab assignments. They identify and enter shop floor resources.

Students learn that companies should never chase supply they should chase demand and manage supply. Supply can mean, purchased parts, and externally produced parts, internally made items, internal machine or labor constraints. The student’s comprehension of this topic, concept and knowledge is significantly enhanced due to the tours to local manufacturers and the individuals that come into the class to discuss these functional areas and the processes they perform in their organizations.

[1] J. O’Sullivan and G. Caiola, Enterprise Resource Planning a Transitional Approach from the Classroom to the Business World, The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2008.

ABSTRACT:
Deborah Hughes-Hallet has made many significant contributions to Calculus pedagogy. Among the tools she has introduced is the rule of four, which requires successful pedagogy to simultaneously address four approaches to each course concept, verbal, graphical, algebraic and numeric. We explore examples of this rule of X approach in other disciplines: i) Literary analysis is enhanced through the rule of two, a simultaneous approach of grammar and literary analysis; ii) Actuarial mathematics requires a rule of six, a simultaneous approach of verbal, graphical, algebraic, calculator, modules, and English conventions; (iii) Masters of Tic-Tac-Toe and Chess use a rule of two, simultaneously approaching the game positionally and combinatorically. We offer a unified and deep analysis of the rule of X approach by relating it to executive function, the area of the brain responsible for organizing and synthesizing multiple brain areas. We conclude the paper with an illustration of classroom activities that strengthen executive function and improve pedagogy. Our results are content independent, depending exclusively on paths of information flow, and consequently, our analysis is cybernetic in flavor [1].

[1] American Society of Cybernetics, www.asc-cybernetics.org/

ABSTRACT:
Over a period of three years, 360 teachers at 26 resource constrained schools in Cofimvaba, which lies in the Nciba district of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, have received training on how to integrate mobile tablets in their classrooms to support teaching and learning. The training modules combined the use of teaching strategies and fun with practical hands-on exercises which can be used in any type of subject for any grade when training teachers. Teachers embarked on a learning path attached to badges to reward their efforts and evidence of how they have applied their training in their classrooms. The purpose of this paper is to share this novel approach to teacher training in a unique context where schools are deprived of resources but still managed to successfully integrate mobile tablets in their classroom practices. These practices have changed the way teachers teach from standing with a textbook and chalk in front of a class sitting in rows, to standing with a tablet and learners are engaged in group work and using the tablets as a resource in a disconnected environment. The success of these training modules lies in the application of an approach of teach with and not to, earn as you learn and not just give technology, respect and humility, flexibility, innovation, creativity and co-creation.

ABSTRACT:
The current paper demonstrates the use of on-line multi-media, i.e. “chlorination of natural waters” and “dissociation of weak acids” from Merlot database, to enhance teaching and learning for Water Treatment Technology IV course material. This database focuses on fundamental concepts for chlorination as one of the most prominent disinfection treatment technology processes in the world and in South Africa. The course is part of the curriculum for the bachelor of technology degree in civil engineering, water specialisation at the University of South Africa (Unisa). The evaluation of these Merlot learning objects shows that accessibility, interaction usability, learning goal alignment, adaptation and motivation may be achieved during learning.

ABSTRACT:
This study was set to investigate the Impact of Information Communication Technology resources and learning outcome of secondary school students in Ondo State, Nigeria. Thirty public secondary schools and thirty private secondary schools, thus a total of 1200 students after stratification were randomly selected for the study. A self constructed and validated Questionnaire was used for data collection. The title is, Impact of ICT on Educational Resources and Learning Outcome Questionnaire" (ICTERLOQ). This was validated and subjected to reliability of r= 0.76. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and oneway ANOVA to answer questions raised and hypotheses formulated in the study. The findings showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between availability of ICT resources and learning outcomes in Ondo State secondary schools (r = .999, P< 0.05). It was also revealed that that there is no significant difference in the provision of ICT resources and learning between private and public secondary schools in Ondo State (t (1,199) = .002; P> 0.05). The study discovered that there are challenges of fund for ICT provision and maintenance to aid learning outcome in Ondo State secondary schools. In view of the findings, recommendations were made to help improve the financing of ICT resources in public and private secondary schools. There should be urgent need for an inter-sectoral budget restructuring to release more resources for education. This will go a long way in meeting both students and teachers requirement for effective service delivery in improving the school system effectiveness and efficiency.

ABSTRACT:
The American sociologist Charles Horton Cooley defined public opinion “as a process of interaction and mutual influence rather than a state of broad agreement” in 1918. On the other hand, according to the American political scientist V.O. Key, public opinion was “opinions held by private persons which governments find it prudent to heed,” in 1961. During the 1990s, advances in statistical and demographic analysis helped the development of an understanding of public opinion as the collective view of a defined population, such as a particular demographic or ethnic group. In this view, the influence of public opinion is not restricted to politics and elections. Public opinion is considered a powerful force in many other spheres, such as culture, fashion, literature and the arts, consumer spending, and marketing and public relations.1 Attitudes and values play a crucial role in the development of public opinion. Different variables embedded in the political, social and media structure of the country also have potential to make an impact on public opinion. These dynamics vary from the economics to the judicial system and democratic principles functioning in that country. On the other hand, public opinion has a power to shape politics and media’s priorities in reporting. The interaction among politics, public opinion and media of one country can be better analyzed with the findings of public opinion research administered regularly.

In Turkey, the research on and analysis of public opinion are most frequent during the election times. Therefore, it seems necessary to measure the public opinion more regularly to test the relationships among political, public and media agendas. Accordingly, the current study seeks to fill this gap. It is argued that in the absence of timely feedback from public surveys, decisions and policies for improving different services and institutions functioning in the country might not achieve their expected goal. The findings of surveys may not only yield important insights into public’s opinion regarding contemporary agendas of the country, but also into the correlates shaping public policies.

This article focuses on variables setting the current agenda in Turkey. For that purpose, two surveys were carried out in December of 2014 and consecutively in April 2015 to determine the social and political trends and perceptions on gender issues in Turkey.

ABSTRACT:
How do communities and group-based efforts create, learn and evolve? This paper argues that communities are dynamic, continuously creating connections through cyclical learning processes, regardless of how tight or loosely formulated group based efforts are (Hall et al. 2012).

Learning cycles or epicycles processes are relevant for action-based investigation within organizational and social structures. The question of behaviors across boundaries or groups maybe influenced by their positioning within a larger adaptive system, including the type of focus, determined goals and the type of connections that have been developed over time (longitudinally).

These types of community or group efforts can be described as autopoietic systems, which operate within larger adaptive societal webs (Nousala 2014). The learning methodologies involved in investigating these types of dynamic phenomena need themselves to be dynamic. These methods can be viewed through longitudinal cycles, (which are essentially feedback loops that include extensive reflective time lines, integration before repetition) exposing these epicycles at work. The continuous recording of various processes through epicycles (which are the basis for learning cycles) provide a means to “qualitatively measuring” change, which would normally go unseen (Hall et. al 2012; Hall et al. 2005; Nousala and Hall 2008; Wenger and Synder 2000; Garduno et al. 2015).

ABSTRACT:
An algorithm featuring multiple local search operators and multiple neighborhood structures is applied to the uncapacitated exam proximity problem. The use of multiplicity is to enable effective interplay between intensification and diversification during the search process. The algorithmic design is inspired by Hansen and Mladenovic’s Variable Neighborhood Descent algorithm and the “one operator, one landscape” point of view. Its performance was evaluated using publicly available datasets. For the uncapacitated exam proximity problem, the multi-neighborhood and multi-operator algorithm compared favorably against other search techniques. These results should encourage further research on the application of multiple operator approach as solution techniques to the uncapacitated exam proximity problem.

ABSTRACT:
In this paper, we consider the problem of modeling application scenarios characterized by variability over time and involving heterogeneous kinds of knowledge. The evolution of distributed technologies creates new and challenging possibilities of integrating different kinds of problem solving methods, obtaining many benefits from the user point of view. In particular, we propose here a multilayer modeling system and adopt the Knowledge Artifact concept to tie together statistical and Artificial Intelligence rule-based methods to tackle problems in ubiquitous and distributed scenarios.

ABSTRACT:
The objective of this paper is to evaluate information quality processes and text mining methods that can be used to improve the extraction of numerical information from scientific articles about the commodity agricultural crop corn. Specifically, this paper focuses on extraction of crude protein content of corn, an important special case illuminating the general problem.

ABSTRACT:
Semiconductor process variation and reliability aging effect on CMOS VCO performance has been studied. A technique to mitigate the effect of process variations on the performances of nano-scale CMOS LC-VCO is presented. The LC-VCO compensation uses a process invariant current source. VCO parameters such as phase noise and core power before and after compensation over a wide range of variability are examined. Analytical equations are derived for physical insight. ADS and Monte-Carlo simulation results show that the use of invariant current source improves the robustness of the VCO performance against process variations and device aging.

ABSTRACT:
Biodegradation is an environmentally friendly and cost-effective alternative that proved to be efficient for the removal of toxic phenol compounds from aqueous solutions. However, it has been reported that phenol is inhibitory to bacterial growth at concentrations above 0.05 g/L. This study was undertaken to study the degradation of phenol at initial concentrations of 20 mg/L by Bacillus cells individually immobilized in two different matrices including polyvinyl alcohol-sodium alginate (PVA-SA) and polyvinyl alcohol-guar gum (PVA-GG). Results of batch experiments demonstrated that complete removal of phenol was obtained using immobilized cells in the first cycle after 270 and 300 min using cells immobilized in PVA-SA and PVA-GG. Additional cycles were conducted to evaluate the validity of recycling the beads of immobilized cells for phenol biodegradation. Results revealed that the phenol percentage removals were 96, 90, 83, and 75% for the second, third, fourth, and fifth cycles, respectively after 270 min. However, complete removal of phenol was obtained at extended time durations up to 300, 360, and 390 for the second, third, and fourth cycles, respectively. Also, the potential of immobilized cells versus free cells for the degradation of higher phenol concentration up to 50 mg/L was investigated.

ABSTRACT:
This theoretical paper aimed to explicit, through the rescue of theoretical assumptions, the innovation, the innovation system, and the research and development (R&D) activities. The innovation, especially technological innovation, is now seen as essential in differentiation strategies, competitiveness and growth in a greater number of businesses. Innovation is not only the result of financial investments by companies. For it to exist, it is necessary the existence of innovative capacity that should be present at all stages of the innovation process, and a favorable institutional environment and, increasingly, of specific incentive policies. That is, there are internal and external factors to companies and other institutions involved in the process. Innovation systems were discovered to resolve the variations in the degree of competitiveness of different economies and, above all, in relation to the technological performance and the ability to innovate these economies face the growing importance of international markets for high-tech products. Thus, it was found that successful innovators are not successful just because of their personal qualities and actions but as a result of their interaction with research and innovation systems that inhabit the quality of such systems.