Establishment of engineering laboratories for undergraduate and postgraduate studies     

Wasim Ahmed Khan  Saad Muhammad Rasheed Al-Doussari  A. H. M. Al-Kahtani 《European Journal of Engineering Education》2002,27(4):425-435

The importance of the laboratories for the study of engineering problems is manifold. At the undergraduate level it provides an opportunity for the students to get an impression of the basic principles of engineering. At the postgraduate level it becomes an instrument for advanced level study and for the solutions to real-life engineering problems. Level of emphasis by an individual engineering institution on basic engineering, interdisciplinary aspects of engineering and relevance to international, national and local industrial trends effects the policy to establish the engineering laboratories. However, a core facility, for the teaching of the most basic principals of relevant field of engineering should be a common feature of all the laboratories associated with individual subject area. In this research paper an approach for establishing engineering laboratories is presented. It discusses the relation between the syllabus of appropriate level of study and the equipment required in the laboratory, physical planning for the laboratory, sequential and parallel approaches for establishing the laboratories, the functional capacity of laboratories, the organizational flexibility of the laboratories, the cost factor and the recurring expenditure. It suggests ways of utilizing the laboratory for effective teaching and research through optimal use of the above factors.  相似文献   

Effect of seedling age and water depth on morphological and physiological aspects of transplanted rice under high temperature   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  

Khakwani AA  Shiraishi M  Zubair M  Baloch MS  Naveed K  Awan I 《Journal of Zhejiang University. Science. B》2005,6(5):389-395

INTRODUCTION Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the most im-portant crops in Pakistan. It is the third largest crop interms of area and production after wheat and cotton.Although rice in Pakistan is consuming large acreage,Pakistan is still far behind other rice producingcountries. The average yield is very low (2 t/ha) ascompared to Egypt (8.4 t/ha) and USA (6.6 t/ha).There are many reasons for this low yield. The mostimportant are high temperature (40?50 °C), low hu-midity at …  相似文献   

What is an objective structured practical examination in anatomy?     

Ahmed Yaqinuddin  Muhammad Zafar  Muhammad Faisal Ikram  Paul Ganguly 《Anatomical sciences education》2013,6(2):125-133

Assessing teaching‐learning outcomes in anatomical knowledge is a complex task that requires the evaluation of multiple domains: theoretical, practical, and clinical knowledge. In general, theoretical knowledge is tested by a written examination system constituted by multiple choice questions (MCQs) and/or short answer questions (SAQ). The assessment of practical knowledge (three‐dimensional anatomical concepts) involves oral, spot, or objective structured practical examinations (OSPE). Finally, the application of anatomical knowledge to patients is tested mainly through objective structured clinical examinations (OSCE). The major focus of this study is the OSPE. Although many schools challenge students using this tool in practical examinations in the early phase of the curriculum, the true meaning of OSPE is frequently forgotten and it becomes, in reality, a spot examination. This article, for the first time, describes how the concept of the OSPE has evolved and is currently being used to assess the practical domain of anatomical knowledge in a problem‐based curriculum at Alfaisal University College of Medicine. In addition, it describes the main differences from the spot examination, which is normally used in traditional medical curricula. The authors believe that the OSPE remains the most efficient tool to assess the practical aspects of anatomical knowledge in a system where basic knowledge is integrated with the clinical or functional part of anatomy. However, this contention only holds true if the OSPE process revolves around structured objectives. Anat Sci Educ 6: 125–133. © 2012 American Association of Anatomists.  相似文献   

A Study of the Causes of User Dissatisfaction in Academic Libraries: A Case of University Students in a Developing Country     

Muhammad Jaber Hossain 《图书馆管理杂志》2013,53(6):462-482

ABSTRACT

This article investigates students’ perceptions and expectations of service quality to understand the causes of dissatisfaction with the services delivered by the university libraries in Bangladesh. A total of 623 usable responses were collected from ten public and private university libraries in the country. The survey data were collected using a modified five dimensional SERVQUAL-based questionnaire, consisting of 26 service items. To determine the level of user satisfaction/dissatisfaction with the service items, the study used the disconfirmation theory with slight modification. It was found that users’ unrealistically high expectation for quality services is one of the key sources of their dissatisfaction. The other causes of dissatisfaction include lack of user-employee relationships, lack of attention to users’ needs, an external communication gap between library and users, lack of attention to enhance staffs’ performance, etc. Based on the service deficiencies identified, the study offers some measures that could be used as a way to improve service quality, and thereby user satisfaction.  相似文献   

Binding of circulating autoantibodies in breast cancer to native and peroxynitrite-modified RNA     

Sheereen TARANNUM  Zarina ARIF  Khursheed ALAM 《Journal of Zhejiang University. Science. B》2013,14(1):40-46

Peroxynitrite(ONOO) is a powerful oxidant and nitrosative agent and has in vivo existence.The half life of ONOO at physiological pH is less than 1 s.It can react with nucleic acids,proteins,lipoproteins,saccharides,cardiolipin,etc.,and can modify their native structures.Action of ONOO,synthesized in the authors’ laboratory by a rapid quenched flow process,on structural changes of commercially available RNA was studied by ultraviolet(UV),fluorescence,and agarose gel electrophoresis.Compared to native RNA,the ONOO-modified RNA showed hyperchromicity at 260 nm.Furthermore,the ethidium bromide(EtBr) assisted emission intensities of ONOO-modified RNA samples were found to be lower than the emission intensity of native RNA-EtBr complex.Agarose gel electrophoresis of ONOO-modified RNA showed a gradual decrease in band intensities compared to native RNA,an observation clearly due to the poor intercalation of EtBr with ONOO-modified RNA.Native and ONOO-modified RNA samples were used as an antigen to detect autoantibodies in sera of patients with clinically defined breast cancer.Both direct binding and inhibition enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA) confirmed the prevalence of native and 0.8 mmol/L ONOO-modified RNA specific autoantibodies in breast cancer patients.Moreover,the progressive retardation in the mobility of immune complexes formed with native or 0.8 mmol/L ONOO-modified RNA and affinity purified immunoglobulin G(IgG) from sera of breast cancer patients supports the findings of the direct binding and inhibition ELISAs.The peroxynitrite treatment to RNA at a higher concentration appears to have damaged or destroyed the typical epitopes on RNA and thus there was a sharp decrease in autoantibodies binding to 1.4 mmol/L ONOO-modified RNA.It may be interpreted that cellular nitrosative stress can modify and confer immunogenicity on RNA molecules.Higher concentrations of nitrogen reactive species can be detrimental to RNA.However,the emergence of native as well as 0.8 mmol/L ONOO-modified RNA as a novel antigen/substrate for autoantibodies in breast cancer patients indicates that,in future,these molecules might find a place on the panel of antigens for early diagnosis of breast cancer.  相似文献   

Sorption of ammonium and phosphate from aqueous solution by biochar derived from phytoremediation plants   总被引：2，自引：0，他引：2  

Zheng ZENG  Song-da ZHANG  Ting-qiang LI  Feng-liang ZHAO  Zhen-li HE  He-ping ZHAO  Xiao-e YANG  Hai-long WANG  Jing ZHAO  Muhammad Tariq RAFIQ 《Journal of Zhejiang University. Science. B》2013,14(12):1152-1161

The study on biochar derived from plant biomass for environmental applications is attracting more and more attention. Twelve sets of biochar were obtained by treating four phytoremediation plants, Salix rosthornii Seemen, Thalia dealbata, Vetiveria zizanioides, and Phragmites sp., sequentially through pyrolysis at 500 °C in a N2 environment, and under different temperatures(500, 600, and 700 °C) in a CO2 environment. The cation exchange capacity and specific surface area of biochar varied with both plant species and pyrolysis temperature. The magnesium(Mg) content of biochar derived from T. dealbata(TC) was obviously higher than that of the other plant biochars. This biochar also had the highest sorption capacity for phosphate and ammonium. In terms of biomass yields, adsorption capacity, and energy cost, T. dealbata biochar produced at 600 °C(TC600) is the most promising sorbent for removing contaminants(N and P) from aqueous solution. Therefore, T. dealbata appears to be the best candidate for phytoremediation application as its biomass can make a good biochar for environmental cleaning.  相似文献   

Mining movies for song sequences with video based music genre identification system     

Sher Muhammad Doudpota  Sumanta Guha  Junaid Baber 《Information processing & management》2013

Musical sequences with actors dancing and lip-synching to songs sung by playback singers are integral parts, particularly of South Asian movies. Fans seek out movies for their songs and they often seek songs of a particular genre. In fact, song and dance sequence of South Asian movies are an industry of their own. Given the huge numbers of movies produced in South Asia over the past decades, most of which are in digital archives, it is an important problem to automatically extract and categorise their musical sequences. This paper proposes a system for musical sequences extraction from movies. Our method invokes an SVM-based classifier and makes as well a novel application of probabilistic timed automaton to distinguish musical sequences from non-musical. Our system analyses both audio and video signals to give a classifier that not only extracts musical sequences from movies but identifies their genre. We achieved a recall of 93.24% with precision of 87.34% in song extraction when applied on 10 popular Bollywood movies. An accuracy of 89.5% has been achieved on Bollywood song genre identification.  相似文献   

Variations in perceptions of the learning environment and approaches to studying among university students in Pakistan     

Raza Ullah  John T. E. Richardson  Muhammad Hafeez 《Prospects》2013,43(2):165-186

In Western countries, university students adopt various approaches to studying depending on how they perceive their learning environment. Their perceptions and approaches are related to demographic and contextual factors such as age, subject of study, gender, and year of study. This study looked for similar relationships in Pakistani students. A survey, administered to 494 male and 418 female undergraduates in four subject areas across four years of study at two universities in Pakistan, addressed their perceptions of the learning environment, learning preferences, motivation, and approaches to studying. Consistent with Western research, students in the arts and social sciences perceived their programmes more positively and were more likely to adopt a deep approach to studying, compared to students in science and technology or business and management. Contrary to Western research, students’ perceptions of their learning environment varied with age and year of study, but their approaches to studying did not. Gender differences were found in their perceptions and motivation. These variations appear to be specific to the context of Pakistan.  相似文献   

Dynamic voltage regulation and power export in a distribution system using distributed generation     

Aamir Hanif  Muhammad Ahmed Choudhry 《浙江大学学报(A卷英文版)》2009,10(10):1523-1531

The major aim of power quality （PQ） enhancing techniques is to maintain a specified voltage magnitude at a desired frequency for sensitive loads irrespective of faults on the power distribution network. The dynamic voltage restorer （DVR） is a device used to mitigate voltage sags to regulate load voltage. This paper presents a mathematical model for leading series voltage injection to mitigate sags thereby achieving the improvement of the utility power factor as well as power sharing between the DVR and utility. The power sharing will be as per requirement to compensate the sags considering the available distributed generation （DG）. The approach of mitigating voltage sags using the concept of leading series voltage injection is suitable for those locations where phase shift in the voltage will not cause any problem. The MATLAB/SIMULINK SimPowerSystem toolbox has been used to obtain simulation results to verify the proposed mathematical model.  相似文献   

Critical considerations for planning and implementing a CALL program     

Muhammad Kamarul Kabilan 《美中教育评论》2009,6(11):65-74,86

The field of Computer Assisted Language Learning （CALL） has transformed dramatically--from the days of the behaviourist approach that dominated CALL in the 1970s to the dynamism of Interactive approach in the 1990s under the immense influence of information communication technology （ICT）. Regardless of these periodic changes and improvements, successful implementation of CALL programs in schools decisively hinges on critical assessment and decisions that are undertaken by schools. As such, the responsibility of the technology adopters in this respect must reflect school＇s aspirations and understandably, students＇ abilities, interests and needs This paper attempts to clarify these issues through a case study of implementation of CALL in an urban secondary school in Malaysia. The outcome of the case study establishes critical considerations that need to be arbitrated to successfully implement CALL programs for English language teaching （ELT） at the school level.  相似文献