Development Board Research Articles

Effect of Contract Management Practices on Organizational Performance of Rwanda Development Board (2017-2022)

The general objective of this research project was to assess the effect of contract management on organizational performance. The following were specific objectives of the study: to analyze the effect of contract planning on performance of Rwanda Development Board, find out the effect of contract negotiation on performance of Rwanda Development Board, assess the effect of contract implementation on performance of Rwanda Development Board and assess the effect of contract monitoring on performance of Rwanda Development Board. To achieve these objectives, literature was reviewed on the subject matter, and then data was collected from 156 employees of RDB and they were chosen by using census sampling technique. Questionnaire, observation, interview guide and documentation were used as tools of data collection. Data was analyzed by using both quantitative data and qualitative data by presenting the findings of respondents through the mean and standard deviation. Findings indicated that there is positive link between contract management and organizational performance whereas it was found that the effect of all contract management on organizational performance will be 1.462 percent; a unit increase in the use of contract planning would lead to an increase in RDB's performance by 19.2%; a one percent increase in the use of contract implementation would lead to an increase in RDB's performance by 3.8%; a one percent increase in the use of contract monitoring would lead to an increase in RDB's performance by 11.5%; and lastly, a one percent increase in the use of contract monitoring would lead to a 35% increase in RDB’s performance. Overall, contract monitoring had the greatest effect on RDB’s performance, followed by contract implementation, while contract planning took third place, and lastly, contract negotiation. At a 5% level of significance and a 95% level of confidence, contract planning varies at a 0.010 level of significance; contract negotiation had a 0.048 level of significance; contract implementation had a 0.031 level of significance; and contract monitoring had a 0.029 level of significance. All the variables were significant (p<0.05). The study also concludes that the main objective of contract management is to ensure that the borrower's contractors, suppliers, or consultants meet agreed project specifications and completion dates.

Utilization of Sexual Reproductive Health Services Among Youths in Malaysia: A Cross-Sectional Study Applying Andersen's Behavioral Model of Healthcare Utilization.

Background The sexual well-being of youths is crucial as it establishes the foundation for their sexual health throughout their lives. Malaysia's Ministry of Health (MOH) mainly delivers sexual reproductive health (SRH) services. Besides MOH, the National Population Family Development Board (NPFDB), under the purview of the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development and Federation of Reproductive Health Association Malaysia, works closely with MOH to ensure the delivery of SRH information and services. Despite the availability of SRH services in Malaysia, it is uncertain whether youths are aware of and utilize these services. This study aims to identify factors that affect the utilization of SRH services among youths aged 18-24 years in Malaysia. Methodology This web-based, cross-sectional study was conducted from March 2022 to June 2022 using a self-administered pre-tested questionnaire. Andersen's Behavioral Model of Health Service Utilization was used to identify the variables included in the survey. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to determine factors significantly associated with the utilization of SRH services. Adjusted odds ratio (AOR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) with a p-value <0.05 were considered to denote statistical significance. Results A total of 617 youths aged 18-24 years participated in the survey. Only 20.4% (n = 126) of youths had visited SRH services in their entire life, and only 8.4% (n = 52) of youths had visited SRH services in the past year. Predisposing factors such as age, marital status, exposure to SRH information from family and governmental agencies such as the NPFDB, enabling factors such as availability and comfort of SRH services, and need factors such as youths diagnosed with SRH-related diseases were significantly associated with SRH utilization. The older age group (20-24 years old) was more likely to utilize SRH services compared to the 18-19-year age group (AOR = 1.634, 95% CI = 1.041, 2.564, p = 0.033). Married participants were three times more likely to utilize SRH services than single participants (AOR = 2.910, 95% CI = 1.356, 6.249, p = 0.006). Participants who vaped had more odds of utilizing SRH services (AOR = 1.793, 95% CI = 1.014, 3.174, p = 0.045) The group of participants exposed to information on SRH from family had more odds of utilizing SRH service than those who did not receive information on SRH from the family (AOR = 1.964, 95% CI = 1.229, 3.138, p = 0.005). Likewise, participants who received SRH information from governmental agencies were more likely to utilize SRH services (AOR = 1.929, 95% CI = 1.202, 3.095, p = 0.006). Enabling factors that were associated with SRH utilization were the availability of services, described as self-buying medicine in pharmacies (AOR = 1.830, 95% CI = 1.184, 2.855, p = 0.007), and the comfortability of services (AOR = 1.928, 95% CI = 1.250, 2.974, p = 0.003). Youths who were diagnosed with SRH diseases (need factor) were four times more likely to utilize SRH services (AOR = 4.490, 95% CI = 1.935, 10.410, p < 0.001). Conclusions There is generally poor SRH service utilization and awareness among youths in Malaysia, which could be improved. The findings of this study can be used to influence SRH providers to offer a more age-targeted awareness program to meet the various SRH needs of youths.

Visual Perception and Multimodal Control: A Novel Approach to Designing an Intelligent Badminton Serving Device

Addressing the current issue of limited control methods for badminton serving devices, this paper proposes a vision-based multimodal control system and method for badminton serving. The system integrates computer vision recognition technology with traditional control methods for badminton serving devices. By installing vision capture devices on the serving device, the system identifies various human body postures. Based on the content of posture information, corresponding control signals are sent to adjust parameters such as launch angle and speed, enabling multiple modes of serving. Firstly, the hardware design for the badminton serving device is presented, including the design of the actuator module through 3D modeling. Simultaneously, an embedded development board circuit is designed to meet the requirements of multimodal control. Secondly, in the aspect of visual perception for human body recognition, an improved BlazePose candidate region posture recognition algorithm is proposed based on existing posture recognition algorithms. Furthermore, mappings between posture information and hand information are established to facilitate parameter conversion for the serving device under different postures. Finally, extensive experiments validate the feasibility and stability of the developed system and method.

A bionic bird jumping grasping structure design based on stm32 development board control

During takeoff and landing, birds bounce and grab with their legs and feet. In this paper,the lower limb structure of the bionic bird is designed with reference to the function of jumping and grasping, and the PID algorithm based on the development module of stm32 development board is used to speed control the lower limb driving element, so that the motor and the bishaft steering gear move with the rate change of sine wave. According to the speed of grasping response time and the size of grasping force, the structure of the bionic bird paw is designed. Based on the photosensitive sensor fixed in the geometric center of the foot, the grasping action of the lower limb mechanism is intelligently controlled. Finally, the kinematic verification of the lower limb structure is carried out by ADAMS. Experiments show that the foot structure with four toes and three toes is more conducive to maintaining the stability of the body while realizing the fast grasping function. In addition, it can effectively improve the push-lift ratio of the bionic ornithopter by adjusting the sinusoidal waveform rate of the motor speed.

Design of interactive online teaching system for big data computer information system based on mobile sensor network

The combination of the Internet and computers has resulted in many new products, including smart homes. The emergence of smart homes can satisfy people's detection of the internal environment of the home, not only to ensure the continuity and safety of indoor monitoring, but also to provide convenience for people to manage their family life. This paper analyzes the current status of smart home research at home and abroad, and people's needs for homes, and builds and designs smart home systems based on Ethernet and ZigBee protocol wireless sensor networks connected to TCP/IP protocol. In this article, the ARM chip is used in the Android system to ensure that the system and functions are matched, and information is transmitted through the serial port of the development board. After receiving the corresponding sending signal, the wireless module will use ZigBee technology to send the corresponding signal to achieve the goal of controlling home appliances. We divides the control system into two parts, the Android Voice Control Platform and the data collection terminal. The former is based on the Android operating system and is designed for voice recognition control; the latter uses a ZigBee microcontroller to achieve control and feedback. This article uses the built-in voice control system of the smart home to subtly replace the conventional control method of the smart home. Moreover, the dialogue with users is very high, easy to use, low cost, and very practical. In addition, the research methods used in this article can also be applied to other related fields.

An Inductance-Capacitance Measurement Method Based On Auto-Balancing Bridge

Modern measurement modules are extremely demanding on the hardware and must accurately capture the relevant parameters of capacitance and inductance. The inductance and its quality factor, capacitance and its loss angle tangent value are very important parameters, but also the current testing difficulties. To efficiently and accurately measure the inductance and its quality factor, capacitance and its loss angle tangent, this paper developed a capacitance-inductance testing method based on automatic balanced bridge circuit. Firstly, based on the DSP development board, test capacitance and inductance by switching dip switches; Then, the use of self-excited oscillation method to generate a fixed frequency sinusoidal signal, through the amplifier to increase the amplitude of its signal, and the use of adder to the signal to provide a certain bias to meet the amplitude requirements; Finally, based on the automatic balanced bridge method, through the full-wave rectification plus filter will be converted into the average of the signal to be tested, and then use the amplifier circuit to control the average value of the signal to be tested, and then use the amplifier circuit to control the average value. Then use the amplifier circuit to control the average value within the AD sampling range, and use the micro-controller to collect the test amplitude, phase and other related parameters. The test results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

AuNi bimetallic aerogel with ultra-high stability applied in smart and portable biosensing

Glucose detection is of significant importance in providing information to the human health management. However, conventional enzymatic glucose sensors suffer from a limited long-term stability due to the losing activity of the enzymes. In this work, the AuNi bimetallic aerogel with a well-defined nanowire network is synthesized and applied as the sensing nanomaterial in the non-enzymatic glucose detection. The three-dimensional (3D) hierarchical porous structure of the AuNi bimetallic aerogel ensures the high sensitivity of the sensor (40.34 μA mM−1 cm−2). Theoretical investigation unveiled the mechanism of the boosting electrocatalytic activity of the AuNi bimetallic aerogel toward glucose. A better adhesion between the sensing nanomaterial and the screen-printing electrodes (SPEs) is obtained after the introduction of Ni. On the basis of a wide linearity in the range of 0.1–5 mM, an excellent selectivity, an outstanding long-term stability (90 days) as well as the help of the signal processing circuit and an M5stack development board, the as-prepared glucose sensor successfully realizes remote monitoring of the glucose concentration. We speculate that this work is favorable to motivating the technological innovations of the non-enzymatic glucose sensors and intelligent sensing devices.

A Novel Experimental Apparatus for Characterizing Flow Regime in Mechanically Stirred Tanks through Force Sensors.

Pressure fluctuations in a mixing tank can provide valuable information about the existing flow regime within the tank, which in turn influences the degree of mixing that can be achieved. In the present work, we propose a prototype for identifying the flow regime in mechanically stirred tanks equipped with four vertical baffles through the characterization of pressure fluctuations. Our innovative proposal is based on force sensors strategically placed in the baffles of the mixing tank. The signals coming from the sensors are transmitted to an electronic module based on an Arduino UNO development board. In the electronic module, the pressure signals are conditioned, amplified and sent via Bluetooth to a computer. In the computer, the signals can be plotted or stored in an Excel file. In addition, the proposed system includes a moving average filtering and a hierarchical bottom-up clustering analysis that can determine the real-time flow regime (i.e., the Reynolds number, Re) in which the tank was operated during the mixing process. Finally, to demonstrate the versatility of the proposed prototype, experiments were conducted to identify the Reynolds number for different flow regimes (static, laminar, transition and turbulent), i.e., 0≤Re≤ 42,955. Obtained results were in agreement with the prevailing consensus on the onset and developed from different flow regimes in mechanically stirred tanks.

Implementation and Comparison of Wearable Exoskeleton Arm Design with Fuzzy Logic and Machine Learning Control

In this study, a wearable exoskeleton arm was designed and controlled with different control methods to help people with muscle disorders in their arms and support treatment. The developed robot arm was transferred to Simulink software with the Simmechanics application. Two electromyography (EMG) muscle sensors and the ADXL335 position and acceleration sensors attach to the human arm’s biceps and triceps muscle areas. As the human moved the arm, data were obtained from the EMG muscle sensors and the ADXL335 position and acceleration sensor. The received data were first trained with the fuzzy logic algorithm. The same data were then trained with machine learning algorithms in Simulink software. It has been determined that the best result is the quadratic support vector machine (SVM) algorithm. The fuzzy logic algorithm trained with the PID controller block and the received sensor data have been added to the degrees of freedom regions that will enable rotation in the block diagram of the previously exported system. Later, the fuzzy logic block was removed and the machine learning algorithm, the quadratic SVM algorithm, was added. The designed system was operated with two different control systems, and the control algorithm closest to the human arm movement was determined. In addition, each part of the system, whose design was prepared, was removed and assembled separately with a 3D printer. ESP32 microcontroller development board was used to control the system, and it was run in real-time with EMG muscle sensors and position sensors.

Development of artificial intelligence edge computing based wearable device for fall detection and prevention of elderly people

Elderly falls are a major concerning threat resulting in over 1.5–2 million elderly people experiencing severe injuries and 1 million deaths yearly. Falls experienced by Elderly people may lead to a long‐term negative impact on their physical and psychological health conditions. Major healthcare research had focused on this lately to detect and prevent the fall. In this work, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) edge computing based wearable device is designed and developed for detection and prevention of fall of elderly people. Further, the various deep learning algorithms such as Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), Recurrent Neural Network (RNN), Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) are utilized for activity recognition of elderly. Also, the CNN-LSTM, RNN-LSTM and GRU-LSTM with and without attention layer respectively are utilized and the performance metrics are analyzed to find the best deep learning model. Furthermore, the three different hardware boards such as Jetson Nano developer board, Raspberry PI 3 and 4 are utilized as an AI edge computing device and the best deep learning model is implemented and the computation time is evaluated. Results demonstrate that the CNN-LSTM with attention layer exhibits the accuracy, recall, precision and F1_Score of 97%, 98%, 98% and 0.98 respectively which is better when compared to other deep learning models. Also, the computation time of NVIDIA Jetson Nano is less when compared to other edge computing devices. This work appears to be of high societal relevance since the proposed wearable device can be used to monitor the activity of elderly and prevents the elderly falls which improve the quality of life of elderly people.

Analysis of the Post-Cyclonic Physical Flood Susceptibility and Changes of Mangrove Forest Area Using Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Process and Geospatial Analysis in Indian Sundarbans

Tropical cyclones, one of the most extreme and destructive meteorological incidents, cause extensive damage to lives and livelihoods worldwide. This study utilized remotely sensed data along with multi-criteria decision-making, geospatial techniques, and major cyclonic events Aila, Amphan, and Yaas to identify the changes in the vulnerability of cyclone-induced floods in the 19 community development blocks of Indian Sundarbans in the years 2009–2010, 2020–2021, and 2021–2022 (the post-cyclonic timespan). The Sundarbans are a distinctive bioclimatic region located in a characteristic geographical setting along the West Bengal and Bangladesh coasts. In this area, several cyclonic storms had an impact between 2009 and 2022. Using the variables NDVI, MNDWI, NDMI, NDBI, BSI, and NDTI, Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager, Thermal Infrared Sensor, Resourcesat LISS-III, and AWiFS data were primarily utilized to map the cyclonic flood-effective zones in the research area. The findings indicated that the coastline, which was most impacted by tropical storms, has significant physical susceptibility to floods, as determined by the AHP-weighted overlay analysis. Significant positive relationships (p &lt; 0.05, n = 19 administrative units) were observed between mangrove damage, NDFI, and physical flood susceptibility indicators. Mangrove damage increased with an increase in the flood index, and vice versa. To mitigate the consequences and impacts of the vulnerability of cyclonic events, subsequent flood occurrences, and mangrove damage in the Sundarbans, a ground-level implementation of disaster management plans proposed by the associated state government, integrated measures of cyclone forecasting, mangrove plantation, coastal conservation, flood preparedness, mitigation, and management by the Sundarban Development Board are appreciably recommended.

Improved Lightweight Head Detection Based on GhostNet-SSD

This abstract proposes an algorithm for human head detection in elevator cabins that addresses the challenges of improving detection accuracy, reducing detection speed, and decreasing the number of parameters. The algorithm is based on GhostNet-SSD and includes several improvements, such as an efficient coordinate attention mechanism to replace the Squeeze-and-Excitation attention mechanism, optimization of auxiliary convolutional layer with large parameter weight, and adjustment of anchor ratio based on the statistical results of human head labeling frame. In addition, data normalization and convolutional fusion methods are used for inference acceleration. The algorithm was tested on JETSON XAVIER NX development board and achieved a new state-of-the-art 97.91% AP at 61FPS, outperforming other detectors with similar inference speed. The effectiveness of each component was validated through careful experimentation.

Building Sustainable Social Housing System: A Singapore Case from New Institutionalism Economics Approach

Policymakers worldwide currently face challenges in planning, regulating, and managing the housing market. One of the primary solutions is the provision of affordable social housing fostering economic development, culture integration, technology empowerment, and social stability. Singapore is recognized as a successful model of well-balanced centralized legislation and market-augmented governance. However, current studies have mainly focused on urban planning and real estate finance fields. A holistic approach should be conducted to understand the effectiveness of the whole framework and policy conduit including affordability, inclusiveness, and connectivity. This study emphasizes the importance of the Housing and Development Board (HDB) governance and analyzes what policies make social housing schemes robust and sustainable by combining the Singapore case with the New Institutionalism Economics (NIE) approach. HDB decreases transaction costs by centralized planning and establishes a transparent system to increase housing affordability and ownership. Inclusiveness is achieved by inter-departmental joint force so that social capital can be maximized for diverse community cohesion. Socio-technical change and institutional evolution have mutual effects on each other for efficiency and connectivity. Digital innovations make sustainable communities and smart cities. As a result, this study proposes a practical framework for learning from Singapore's implications for national governance, institutional development, and policy formulation that holds universal reference value.

Implementation of a Cross-Platform Development Board for Embedded Internet-of-Things Systems

A prototype of a printed circuit board (PCB) with radio frequency electromagnetic compatibility specifications is designed using the top-down methodology for the two-layer Internet of Things with free open-source hardware and software, using the following techniques: requirements, analysis, modular design, schematics, manufacturing and functional testing. The study of the influence of the design parameters is carried out applying the standards of the Printed Circuit Institute and the characteristics of the technological production process for a free multiplatform for wireless networks. Finally, functional tests of the universal asynchronous transmit and receive (UART) communication with the microcontroller, the radio modules, the general-purpose input and output pins, and the over-the-air (OTA) configuration are performed to program the board wirelessly, without the need of a universal serial bus (USB) interface.

Teaching Reform and Practice of Embedded System Design Based on Outcome-Based Education

Embedded system design is the core course of the telecommunication major in engineering universities, which combines software and hardware through embedded development boards. Aiming at the problems existing in traditional teaching, this paper proposes curriculum teaching reform based on the outcome-based education (OBE) concept, including determining course objectives, reforming teaching modes and methods, and improving the curriculum assessment and evaluation system. After two semesters of practice, this method not only enhances students’ learning initiative but also improves teaching quality.

Growth and Instability Analysis of Coconut in Kerala and India

The present study was carried out to analyze the growth trends and to observe magnitude of variations in area, production and productivity of coconut in India, Kerala and two major coconut growing districts (Kozhikode and Malappuram) of Kerala. This study is based on secondary data on area, production and productivity of coconut in India, Kerala and two districts of Kerala state collected from the website of Coconut Development Board (CDB) for a period of 20 years, i.e., from 2000-01 to 2019-20. The study used averages, coefficient of variation, instability index and compound annual growth rate for the analysis of the data. The growth trend was estimated using Compound Annual Growth Rate while the instability was measured using Cuddy Della Valle Instability index with the aid of coefficient of variation. The entire study period was further divided into two sub-periods: Period I (2000-01 to 2009-10) and Period II (2010-11 to 2019-20). The results of the growth rate analysis indicated that the highest growth rate was observed in production (3.85 %) followed by productivity (3.07 %) and area (0.75 %) at one per cent level of significance in the overall period in India. Whereas in Kerala, the area (-1.05 %) and production (-0.49 %) registered negative growth in the overall study period, but the productivity (0.57 %) showed a positive growth rate which was significant at five per cent level of probability. The results of the instability index reveal that the production of coconut in India experienced a highest variation of 10.59 per cent, followed by productivity (9.89 %) and area (3.36 %). Similarly, in Kerala, the instability index was found to be highest in production (11.12 %) followed by productivity (7.57 %) and area (5.71 %).

Case Study of Emerging Groundwater Management Issues at the Forefront of Large-scale Production from a Confined Aquifer: The Vista Ridge Project

Continued population growth, increased demands for water and declining water availability are statewide water concerns in Texas. The development and movement of water from where it is to where it is needed brings with it benefits to the receiving area and concerns for the area of origin. The Vista Ridge project serves as an on-point example and case study of such concerns and processes that can mitigate, in part, negative impacts that are informative to other Texans who will soon be facing similar pressures.. Impacts on the water levels in existing wells made the Vista Ridge Project a focus of significant public discussion in 2022, including Texas House and Senate interim session hearings. This paper spotlights groundwater management issues prominent in the Vista Ridge Project that will likely be of concern with other Texas groundwater projects in the near future. These issues involve well mitigation, significant impacts from groundwater production across groundwater conservation district boundaries, meaningful consideration of nine factors in Texas Water Code §36.108(d), the balance between limiting groundwater production, development of fair share doctrines, the role of the Texas Water Development Board in the

Techno-economic analysis of commercial-scale 15 MW on-grid ground solar PV systems in Bakalia: A feasibility study proposed for BPDB

Renewable energy systems, such as solar power, are becoming increasingly important worldwide due to the limited supply of non-renewable energy sources. Solar power stands out as a practical choice for electricity generation because it's simple to set up and costs less than other renewable options. Solar-based on-grid or grid-tied systems are more effective compared to other PV grid systems due to their more reasonable installation system, favorable maintenance, and less complex system. This study was designed with a solar-based grid-tied system. This study evaluates the performance and economic viability of a 15 MW on-grid photovoltaic (PV) system in Bakalia Char, Chittagong, Bangladesh, and will propose this study for the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB). Developing a clean energy system in Bangladesh is the main purpose of this study. This system performed efficiently, with an 84.03 % performance ratio, produced energy of 21,510.186 MWh/year and proved economically attractive with a 4.5-year payback period, a competitive electricity cost of 0.024 USD/kWh, and a 389 % return on investment(ROI%). Using software like PVsyst and SketchUp ensures precise system design and optimal module placement. Also, use a better PV panel system whose efficiency is higher than that of another PV panel system designed for a similar project. This system boosts local electricity production and aligns with sustainable energy goals. Its success is a valuable model for future solar projects in similar regions facing energy challenges. The system also shows significant environmental benefits, with a projected reduction of approximately 252,168.5 tons of CO2 emissions over its operational lifespan.

IoT Based Smart Irrigation System

Smart irrigation refers to an advanced agricultural and landscaping technique that leverages technology, data, and automation to optimize water usage for irrigation. It encompasses the use of sensors, weather forecasts, and automation systems to monitor soil moisture levels, weather conditions, and plant requirements. By employing real-time data and intelligent algorithms, smart irrigation systems aim to deliver precise amounts of water to plants, reducing water wastage, conserving resources, and improving crop yields or landscape health. This approach holds the promise of addressing water scarcity issues and enhancing sustainable agriculture and landscaping practices. Keywords: 1.Arduino IDE program software. 2.Development board ESP8266. 3.Communication devices. 4.Sensors. 5.Watering devices. 6.Drip irrigation.

IoT based Smart Parking System Using Bluetooth

This paper presents an IoT-based smart parking system utilizing Bluetooth technology to efficiently manage parking spaces in urban environments. The system integrates Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) sensors installed in parking spots with a central server and a mobile application. BLE sensors detect the presence of vehicles and transmit this information to the server, which updates the availability status in real-time. Users can access the availability status via a mobile app, allowing them to locate and reserve parking spaces conveniently. The system improves parking efficiency, reduces congestion, and enhances the overall urban mobility experience. Keywords: 1.Arduino IDE program software. 2.Development board ESP8266. 3.Communication devices. 4.Sensors.