Influence of alleycropping microclimate on the performance of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) and sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) in the semi-desert region of northern Sudan

An alley cropping system was established at Hudieba Research Station (17.57’N and 33.8’ E) on a loamy sand soil of the semi-desert region of northern Sudan. The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of modified microclimate in 6-m wide alleys formed by Acacia ampliceps and Acacia stenophylla on growth and yield of groundnut. and sesame. Above-ground interactions were determined by measuring air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, solar energy and shade length and behaviour. Groundnut and sesame were evaluated for growth and yield by laying out sample plots at southern, central and northern part of the alleys and at control plots. Due to microclimatic modifications in the alleys, the yield of both crops in the alleys significantly (p=0.01) exceeded that of the sole crop. Yield reduction at the northern alley was fully compensated by high yield increase at southern and central alleys. The yield of groundnut increased by 37.7 and 19.6 % in the A.stenophylla and A.ampliceps alleys, respectively. On the other hand, the yield of sesame increased with the stenophylla-alley (+40.3%), while it decreased with ampliceps-alley (-51.5%). The results indicated that the competition for light was the major factor contributing to the increase or reduction of growth and yield of groundnut and sesame

Using Mobile Devices to Access Social Media Networks: Students Learning through Web Quest Technique

This study aims to explore the effect of mobile devices and social media networks supported with Web Quest on student’s communication and motivation skills. A web Quest was used for implementing the study as a way that enables learners to research on the web to navigate digital learning materials. This study presents the findings on students’ perspectives when searching the social media networks via their mobile devices following the Web Quest steps for achieving learning activities. The study follows the qualitative approach, the student’s used mobile devices to accomplish the learning tasks. The data were collected through a student questionnaire. The findings indicated that the use of mobile devices and social media networks provided opportunities for engaging in learning and increased students’ cooperation. The results also indicated that students enjoyed and appreciated the Web Quest technique. Additionally, students recognized the importance of using mobile devices as tools for education purposes, and acquired the values of group collaboration

THE ROLE OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN PROMOTING UNIVERSITY TEACHERS TEACHING PROFESSION – A CASE STUDY: KING KHALID UNIVERSITY TEACHERS, COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND ARTS, KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA, FORMER UNIVERSITY: SUDAN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, KHARTOUM, SUDAN

The purpose of this study is to investigate to what extent professional development promotes university teachers teaching profession. The researcher used the quantitative method of the research representing in interviews with university teachers at King Khalid University who is the sample of the study. The main findings of the research: firstly; high-quality professional development provides room for teachers to think outside the box and aspires for better. Secondly, teachers will interchange ideas when they collaborate in professional development sessions. Finally, professional development helps teachers’ to be creative and innovative inside classrooms.  Article visualizations

Development of controller and observer for 2D Crane System via State-space approach

This report actually presents researches and studies and progress that are being achieved for the chosen topic which is Development of controller and observer for 2D Crane Systems via State-space approach. This report contains an introduction and background studies about cranes and how does this topic it related to my studies as a final year & control system student all being represented in scope of studies section, in fact the main objectives of this research are getting the dynamic equation for the 2D crane systems and applies state-space approach to develop a controller and an observer for them. The dynamic equations for the systems are being obtained by using Euler-Langrange formulation for obtaining the state-space representation of the systems. Furthermore, control & observer canonical forms have been designed and then simulated using Matlab Simulink for testing the stability of the system before designing the controller and the observer for the syste

Study on the on-farm diversity of local date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) genetic resources grown in Northern region of Sudan

The status of the conservation of the date palm genetic resources (Phoenix dactylifera L.) in the Northern region of Sudan was assessed through morphological characterisation of mature trees on farm, by conducting interviewing farmers and by molecular analysis of samples collected from the field. The morphological characterisation was conducted on 116 date palm female farmers’ varieties and 20 male farmers’ varieties in the districts River Nile and Northern States using 18 vegetative and fruit characteristics (quantitative and qualitative). The results show that there are highly significant differences among cultivars/farmers’ variety with regard to all investigated characters. The genetic diversity in the date palm farmers’ varieties, 63 females and 12 males, was analyzed using microsatellite (SSR) loci. The investigated SSR markers exhibited a high level of polymorphism. A total of 92 alleles, with an average of 13.1 alleles per locus, were detected at 7 loci. A high level of expected heterozygosity was recorded among farmers’ varieties from River Nile., The value for the female and soft date palm farmers’ varieties were 0.804, 0.803 and 0.774, respectively. To investigate the current status of existing on-farm date palm production regarding preferred cultivars/farmers’ verities and threats facing the date palm culture, 215 date palm farmers were interviewed in River Nile and Northern State. The results show that Barakawi is the most preferred cultivar/farmers’ varieties while cvs. Um-dokan, Sakot, Berira, Sagaai and Kolmah were the least. The results show that introduction of new varieties, novel diseases and some socio-economic factors were the main problems facing date palm cultivation in the Northern region of the Sudan. The results of this study will contribute to the formulation of a national strategy for the conservation and sustainable use of date palm genetic resources in Sudan. This study suggests further studies to identify the origin of the seedling cultivars/farmers’ varieties (Jaw and males)

Model-based integration testing technique using formal finite state behavioral models for component-based software

Many issues and challenges could be identified when considering integration testing of Component-Based Software Systems (CBSS). Consequently, several research have appeared in the literature, aimed at facilitating the integration testing of CBSS. Unfortunately, they suffer from a number of drawbacks and limitations such as difficulty of understanding and describing the behavior of integrated components, lack of effective formalism for test information, difficulty of analyzing and validating the integrated components, and exposing the components implementation by providing semi-formal models. Hence, these problems have made it in effective to test today’s modern complex CBSS. To address these problems, a model-based approach such as Model-Based Testing (MBT) tends to be a suitable mechanism and could be a potential solution to be applied in the context of integration testing of CBSS. Accordingly, this thesis presents a model-based integration testing technique for CBSS. Firstly, a method to extract the formal finite state behavioral models of integrated software components using Mealy machine models was developed. The extracted formal models were used to detect faulty interactions (integration bugs) or compositional problems between integrated components in the system. Based on the experimental results, the proposed method had significant impact in reducing the number of output queries required to extract the formal models of integrated software components and its performance was 50% better compared to the existing methods. Secondly, based on the extracted formal models, an effective model-based integration testing technique (MITT) for CBSS was developed. Finally, the effectiveness of the MITT was demonstrated by employing it in the air gourmet and elevator case studies, using three evaluation parameters. The experimental results showed that the MITT was effective and outperformed Shahbaz technique on the air gourmet and elevator case studies. In terms of learned components for air gourmet and elevator case studies respectively, the MITT results were better by 98.14% and 100%, output queries based on performance were 42.13% and 25.01%, and error detection capabilities were 70.62% and 75% for each of the case study

Aceptación del usuario de registros de salud personales en Malasia: prueba piloto

The importance of Personal health records (PHRs) can be illustrated from its ability to improve information exchange among the patients, physicians, and healthcare service providers. PHRs enroll the patients directly to their health decision making by giving them the authority to control and share their health information. The user acceptance of PHRs is a vital issue. A combination of UTAUT2 and PMT models is going to be tested in this study to test the user acceptance of PHRs in Malaysia in the future. This paper involves the pilot testing of the proposed model to find out its validity and reliability using Smart PLS. La importancia de los registros personales de salud (PHR) puede ilustrarse por su capacidad para mejorar el intercambio de información entre los pacientes, los médicos y los proveedores de servicios de salud. Los PHR inscriben a los pacientes directamente en la toma de decisiones de salud dándoles la autoridad de controlar y compartir su información de salud. La aceptación de los usuarios de las PHRs es una cuestión vital. Una combinación de los modelos UTAUT2 y PMT se va a probar en este estudio para comprobar la aceptación de los usuarios de PHR en Malasia en el futuro. Este trabajo implica la prueba piloto del modelo propuesto para averiguar su validez y fiabilidad usando Smart PLS.  &nbsp

Development of controller and observer for 2D Crane System via State-space approach

This report actually presents researches and studies and progress that are being achieved for the chosen topic which is Development of controller and observer for 2D Crane Systems via State-space approach. This report contains an introduction and background studies about cranes and how does this topic it related to my studies as a final year & control system student all being represented in scope of studies section, in fact the main objectives of this research are getting the dynamic equation for the 2D crane systems and applies state-space approach to develop a controller and an observer for them. The dynamic equations for the systems are being obtained by using Euler-Langrange formulation for obtaining the state-space representation of the systems. Furthermore, control & observer canonical forms have been designed and then simulated using Matlab Simulink for testing the stability of the system before designing the controller and the observer for the syste

Performance of newly developed concretes incorporating WO₃ and barite as radiation shielding material

The preparation of suitable materials with satisfactory nuclear and mechanical properties to shield the ionizing radiation is a major concern in design the radiation protection. In this work, a group of heavy concrete samples were prepared containing varying concentrations of Tungsten oxide, and the mechanical and radiation shielding properties of the resulting samples was studied using theoretical and experimental techniques. Good agreement between the experimental test and the theoretical data was confirmed at all examined energies. Using WO₃ in the present concretes increases the density of specimens as well as the photons shielding capability. The increase in the amount of WO₃ caused a reduction in the half value layer and an increase in the radiation protection efficiency for the prepared concretes. The linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) for the control concrete reduces from 0.665 to 0.127 cm-1 over the selected energy range, while it is reduced from 1.803 to 0.134 cm-1 and from 2.014 to 0.138 cm-1 for Conc-1 and Conc-2 samples. The mean free path results demonstrated that all the specimens with additive materials (i.e. WO₃ and barite) have lower MFP than the control concrete. Thus, incorporating WO₃ and barite into the concrete significantly decreases the MFP of the specimens. The high-density concrete (i.e. Conc-5) absorbs gamma photons more efficaciously than the lower density samples. The radiation protection efficiency (RPE) for Concr-5 is 99% at 0.122 MeV, which suggests that this concrete can stop almost all the incoming photons with low energy.The authors express their gratitude to Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University Researchers Supporting Project number (PNURSP2022R28), Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia