An Automatic Driver Deployment Mechanism In The Osgi Gateway For Smart Homes

Smart home consists of smart appliances that provide services to home users. Home users should be able to purchase additional new smart appliance anytime and use it instantly at home without any configuration involved. In this thesis, we explore a typical scenario for smart homes that utilizes an OSGi-powered residential gateway that provides interoperation between heterogeneous smart appliances. Drivers play a significant role in OSGi gateway to provide an integral aspect of services to users, as interoperation can only be possible if the gateway recognizes all heterogeneous smart appliances. An enhancement to OSGi Device Manager named A-ODM (Advance-OSGi Device Manager) is proposed to provide a zeroconfiguration environment to smart homes. A-ODM is an automatic driver deployment mechanism for OSGi gateway to resolve driver dependency externally.A smart home simulation with driver provisioning architecture have been designed and implemented to demonstrate the feasibility of a network delivery of driver provisioning through web service architecture. A-ODM is tested on several OSGi implementations to compare its performance. We observed that A-ODM performed better in OSGi implementations with smaller footprint

Studies on tableting properties of lactose. Part III. The consolidation behaviour of sieve fractions of crystalline a-lactose\ud monohydrate

The consolidation and compaction behaviour of sieve fractions of crystalline α-lactose monohydrate were studied. From mercury porosimetry measurements tablet pore surface areas were derived. At a certain compaction load it appeared that tablets compressed from small particles were generally stronger and showed a larger surface area than compacts prepared from coarse sieve fractions. By plotting compact strength against pore surface area, a unique linear relationship was obtained. From these results it can be concluded that the actual tablet surface area, being a function of both the initial particle size and applied compaction pressure, is responsible for the compact strength

Mutarotational Kinetics and Glass Transition of Lactose

We report for the first time real time in situ and quantitative measurements of the mutarotation reaction of lactose in the solid state. The experiments have been performed by 13C NMR. We show that mutarotation is initiated on heating the amorphous state, and reaches chemical equilibrium close above the glass transition temperature Tg. We do not observe this transformation when starting from stable crystalline states. The final ratio of and anomers is 1:1, which suggests that the energy profile of the mutarotation reaction pathway in the solid state is actually different from the mechanism proposed for aqueous solution. This chemical equipartition is reached before the crystallization into the corresponding 1:1 molecular compound. These new data clearly illustrate the interrelation between the chemical molecular properties, the physical state of the material, and the relaxational dynamics of the glass

A Study to Investigate the Influence of Work Safety Scale (WSS) on Compliance with Safety Behavior Among Foreign Workers in Construction Industry

There were limited studies on safety being carried out involving the foreign worker compared to local employees. Safety trainings and awareness programmes had been aggressively put into actions to get the staffs involvement and commitment over safety yet there are still incidents and accidents at construction site involving foreign workers. This study was conducted to determine the influence of the five facets of Work Safety Scale (WSS) on compliance with safety behavior among foreign worker and their perception on safety. A total of 278 guidance questionnaires were distributed to the sample chosen on the study consisting of five independent variables of Work Safety Scale that are: (a) job safety, (b) co-worker safety, (c) supervisor safety, (d) management safety practices and (e) satisfaction of the safety programme and compliance safety behavior as the dependent variables. The result revealed the mean of WSS among the foreign workers are moderate with mean value is 3.016. Finally, the finding of the study also shows that job safety, co-worker safety, supervisor safety and management safety practices are significantly related to compliance safety behavior whilst safety programme have no any intercorrelation to safety behavior in this study

Comparative Content of Harmful Substances Contained In the Raw Material for Various Types of Printing Ink

Printing ink is one of the chemical industry that can be considered as a high risk industry due to it is a manufacture industry that involved all kinds of chemical materials. Thus, reliability data is important for the environmental safety in chemical industries. This study aims to compare the hazardous substances in raw materials for various printing ink production and propose the control measures in the ink production process. Three types of printing ink raw material i.e sheet-fed ink, cold-set ink and heat-set ink were considered in this study. This study was conducted by using a quantitative approaches. Data were collected through Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS). Hazardous substances were identified from the Chemical Abstract Service (CAS) registry number of the raw materials. The result of the study shown that there are eight hazardous chemical substances in sheet-fed ink, cold-set ink and heat-set ink. The hazardous raw materials identified are mainly from the category of pigment, solvents and additives. From the study of the three types of ink printing, sheet-fed inks contain harmful chemicals that are the lowest of 33.27%, followed by thermal ink-set of 41.73% and cold-set inks of 61.86%. The results also shown that solvents are identified to contribute highest percentage as hazardous chemical substances in the printing ink, followed by additives and pigment. The results of the research shown that the production workers in the printing ink production process are at highly exposed to the hazards. The hierarchy of hazard control based on Department Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) are proposed to control the hazardous chemical substances. The recommended control measures of possible hazards and risks based on the work activities are elimination, engineering control, administration control and personal protective equipment. This research is very important as it will enhance the precautions and safety knowledge of the employer and employee in handling the chemical substances in the printing ink production process

Micropropagation of Arisaema spp. (filiforme and brinchangense): Explant selection and surface sterilization insights

Arisaema filiforme and A. brichangense are a perennial herbaceous plant (family Araceae) found distributed in mossy forest, Cameron Highlands, with the elevation of 1,900 meters above sea level (a.s.l). The unique inflorescence formation resembling cobra has given this plant the name Cobra lilies, and suitable to be planted as ornamental plant. In addition, it has been used traditionally as a herb. However, the population of these two species are very limited, only thrive in higher elevation and also considered as an endangered. Therefore, realizing its potential in the future as one of the new ornamental plant and materials for the herb bioindustry, a micropropagation approach was employed to produce these species in mass production. Seeds, rhizomes, and petioles were used as the explant materials, cultured onto Murashige and Skoog (MS) media supplemented with different concentrations (0, 0.5, 1, 2 mg L-1) of 6-Benzylaminopurine (BAP). The findings revealed rhizomes and seeds to be significant explants for micropropagation, where the survival rate for these two are more than 80%. Petioles had 0% of survivability after week eight of culture due to the fungi infection and tissue necrosis. This study provides an insight into explant selection, where different plant organs have different survival rate due to the tissue mechanical strength. Also, optimum surface sterilization process is very critical in micropropagation to avoid the contamination of the culture and also necrotizing

Professional identity formation amongst peer-mentors in a research-based mentoring programme.

BackgroundMentoring plays a pivotal yet poorly understood role in shaping a physician's professional identity formation (PIF) or how they see, feel and act as professionals. New theories posit that mentoring nurtures PIF by functioning as a community of practice through its structured approach and its support of a socialisation process made possible by its assessment-directed personalized support. To test this theory and reshape the design, employ and support of mentoring programs, we evaluate peer-mentor experiences within the Palliative Medicine Initiative's structured research mentoring program.MethodsSemi-structured interviews with peer mentors under the Palliative Medicine Initiative (PMI) at National Cancer Centre Singapore were conducted and triangulated against mentoring diaries to capture longitudinal data of their PMI experiences. The Systematic Evidence-Based Approach (SEBA) was adopted to enhance the trustworthiness of the data. SEBA employed concurrent content and thematic analysis of the data to ensure a comprehensive review. The Jigsaw Perspective merged complementary themes and categories identified to create themes/categories. The themes/categories were compared with prevailing studies on mentoring in the Funnelling Process to reaffirm their accuracy.ResultsTwelve peer-mentors participated in the interviews and eight peer-mentors completed the mentoring diaries. The domains identified were community of practice and identity work.ConclusionsThe PMI's structured mentoring program functions as a community of practice supporting the socialisation process which shapes the peer-mentor's belief system. Guided by a structured mentoring approach, stage-based assessments, and longitudinal mentoring and peer support, peer-mentors enhance their detection and evaluation of threats to their regnant belief system and adapt their self-concepts of identity and personhood to suit their context. These insights will help structure and support mentoring programs as they nurture PIF beyond Palliative Medicine

Assessing the effects of a mentoring program on professional identity formation.

BackgroundMedical education has enjoyed mixed fortunes nurturing professional identity formation (PIF), or how medical students think, feel and act as physicians. New data suggests that structured mentoring programs like the Palliative Medicine Initiative (PMI) may offer a means of developing PIF in a consistent manner. To better understand how a well-established structured research mentoring program shapes PIF, a study of the experiences of PMI mentees is proposed.MethodologyAcknowledging PIF as a sociocultural construct, a Constructivist approach and Relativist lens were adopted for this study. In the absence of an effective tool, the Ring Theory of Personhood (RToP) and Krishna-Pisupati Model (KPM) model were used to direct this dual Systematic Evidence-Based Approach (Dual-SEBA) study in designing, employing and analysing semi-structured interviews with PMI mentees and mentoring diaries. These served to capture changes in PIF over the course of the PMI's mentoring stages. Transcripts of the interviews and mentoring diaries were concurrently analysed using content and thematic analysis. Complementary themes and categories identified from the Split Approach were combined using the Jigsaw Approach and subsequently compared with mentoring diaries in the Funnelling Process. The domains created framed the discussion.ResultsA total of 12 mentee interviews and 17 mentoring diaries were analysed, revealing two domains-PMI as a Community of Practice (CoP) and Identity Formation. The domains confirmed the centrality of a structured CoP capable of facilitating longitudinal mentoring support and supporting the Socialisation Process along the mentoring trajectory whilst cultivating personalised and enduring mentoring relationships.ConclusionThe provision of a consistent mentoring approach and personalised, longitudinal mentoring support guided along the mentoring trajectory by structured mentoring assessments lay the foundations for more effective mentoring programs. The onus must now be on developing assessment tools, such as a KPM-based tool, to guide support and oversight of mentoring relationships