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This research paper attempts to investigate the organization and effectiveness of vocabulary notebooks by distinguishing several benefits the implementation of this technique brings in the acquisition of technical terminology through an "English for Specific Purposes course". When tackling with language learning, it is needless to emphasize the noteworthiness and the importance of vocabulary in this process. Appertaining to technical terminology, this plays entirely pertinent. Various studies have concluded that vocabulary notebooks (henceforth VN) efficiently expose different learners' strategies within this single strategy, which led us to research VN. These research data were obtained mainly by applying the observational research technique, a vocabulary oral and written exam, and a comprehensive questionnaire on the effectiveness of the Vocabulary Notebook. Mechanical Engineering, Textile Engineering, and Hydrotechnical Engineering students at the Polytechnic University of Tirana were selected to obtain the data. The observation is partly overt and partly covert. Students of Mechanical Engineering and Textile Engineering (75 students) are the treatment group wherein the Mechanical Engineering students are an overt group and the Textile Engineering students serve as the covert observational group while on the other hand, the Hydrotechnical Engineering (45 students) students are the control group. The data were obtained during and at the end of the semester. Throughout the observation all along the 1st semester, it was perceived that most of the students organized their VN by utilizing mainly Microsoft Word downloaded on their Smart Phones, while the rest used the traditional paper notebook to organize their technical VN. The organization of the VN reflected the strategies each of the students implemented to learn technical terminology. At the end, students were tested on their acquired terminology through an oral and a short-written exam and then a questionnaire was handed to them. The students of the overt group making use of a digitalized form of a Notebook resulted to have acquired most of the technical vocabulary. In the main, the overt group outperformed the covert group on the acquisition of technical vocabulary, while the control group's score on the oral exam was significantly below, compared to the all-inclusive treatment group. Students' questionnaire revealed that overall students had a positive approach to this strategy and they embraced the autonomy acquired throughout the semester by implementing this strategy. With the exception of the effectiveness on vocabulary acquisition, which was on higher levels, this strategy proved itself once again to be an enhancer and promoter of learner autonomy. [Note: The page range (315-334) shown is incorrect. The correct page range is 315-333.]

It is generally perceived that a substantial number of engineering faculty are still unaware of alternative educational methods, and many who are aware of them choose not to incorporate them into their approach to teaching. There are several likely reasons for this inertia, aside from the inevitable human resistance to change. The primary focus of imparting information is restricted to fulfilling the course requirements and, the upcoming term end examination. It is imperative to adopt a change from teaching to learning paradigm engaging the students in Higher Order Thinking Skills. Knowledge and technological advancements are changing the role of engineering and engineering faculty in the society. Engineering Education reforms need to focus on inductive teaching and stimulated learning. Students should be taught critical thinking skills and creative thinking skills to keep pace with the rapidly changing engineering profession. This paper reports the study done to test and explore the faculty awareness of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives in the cognitive domain and Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) and to evaluate question papers set by engineering faculty with respect to HOTS as proposed by Bloom's Taxonomy. Various active learning strategies to enhance critical thinking skills and creative thinking skills of the students are recommended for use by the faculty in their interactions with the students.

Academic writing, particularly writing research articles, is an indispensable part of every major in higher education. Hyland (2004) argued that a valuable means of exploring academic writing, and comparing the rhetorical features and preferences of different discourse communities, is through the metadiscourse analysis of the text. The present study examines the differences in the use, type, and frequency of interactional metadiscourse markers in the introduction and conclusion sections of research papers across the two disciplines of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering. To this end, 42 research articles (21 Mechanical and 21 Electrical Engineering) written by English native speakers were randomly selected from two major international journals. The current study made use of Hyland's (2005) model for analyzing the interactional metadiscourse markers used in the selected corpus, consisting of 41484 words. To analyze the data, the frequency, patterns of use, and type of interactional metadiscourse markers were elicited both through a manual corpus analysis and concordance package. Furthermore, to examine whether there is any significant difference in the use of metadiscourse markers in the introduction and conclusion sections of these papers, a Chi-square analysis was run. The results of the quantitative analysis revealed that although there were some minor differences in the frequency and type of these metadiscourse markers, there was no statistically significant difference across the disciplines, which can be attributed to the close nature of these fields. The findings of this study may render some pedagogical implications for ESP courses and especially writing research papers.

Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) has been widely used to detect many infectious diseases. However, minor inconveniences during the steps of adding reaction ingredients and lack of simple color results hinder point-of-care detection. We therefore invented a fluorometric paper-based LAMP by incorporating LAMP reagents, including a biotinylated primer, onto a cellulose membrane paper, with a simple DNA fluorescent dye incubation that demonstrated rapid and accurate results parallel to quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) methods. This technology allows for instant paper strip detection of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in the laboratory and clinical samples. MRSA represents a major public health problem as it can cause infections in different parts of the human body and yet is resistant to commonly used antibiotics. In this study, we optimized LAMP reaction ingredients and incubation conditions following a central composite design (CCD) that yielded the shortest reaction time with high sensitivity. These CCD components and conditions were used to construct the paper-based LAMP reaction by immobilizing the biotinylated primer and the rest of the LAMP reagents to produce the ready-to-use MRSA diagnostic device. Our paper-based LAMP device could detect as low as 10 ag (equivalent to 1 copy) of the MRSA gene mecA within 36-43 min, was evaluated using both laboratory (individual cultures of MRSA and non-MRSA bacteria) and clinical blood samples to be 100% specific and sensitive compared to qPCR results, and had 35 day stability under 25 °C storage. Furthermore, the color readout allows for quantitation of MRSA copies. Hence, this device is applicable for point-of-care MRSA detection.

Industrial process heat decarbonization through electrification could contribute significantly to climate change mitigation efforts. In the US industry, thermal processes accounted for more than two-thirds of the total final energy demand in 2021. Cross-cutting electrification technologies like industrial heat pumps are suitable for the process heat supply to several industrial unit operations in a sustainable way while also improving overall energy efficiency. This study employs a bottom-up approach to investigate the techno-enviro-economic potentials of deploying high-temperature and steam-generating heat pumps in US textile, pulp and paper, and automotive sectors in different timeframes. The results show that the annual technical potential energy and CO2 savings by electrifying heat supply are 310 PJ (or 36% of the projected energy demand) and 28 MtCO2 (or 71% of the projected CO2 emissions) in 2050 respectively, however, these incur additional costs in each sector (ranging between 5 and 18 $/GJ). The required heating capacity of industrial heat pumps is estimated at 15 GW, which translates roughly into a market of over 6000 heat pump units and an investment volume of $7 billion in the studied processes. Although there may be individual cost-effective opportunities for electrifying heat supply in specific industrial sites, the overall costs are estimated to be high in the three industrial sectors due to the large disparity between electricity and natural gas prices and low heat source temperatures. To overcome the identified techno-economic barriers, comprehensive action plans for different stakeholders are also given. This study provides novel insights that should inform policymakers’ and executives’ decisions about the electrification of the current and future US industrial heat supply in relevant industrial sectors.

In the present article we report a new hybrid microfluidic device (hyFlow) comprising a disposable paper electrode and a three-dimensional (3D) printed plastic chip for the electrochemical detection of a magnetic bead-silver nanoparticle (MB-AgNP) bioconjugate. This hybrid device evolved due to the difficulty of incorporating micron-scale MBs into paper-only fluidic devices. Specifically, paper fluidic devices can entrap MB-containing conjugates within their cellulose or nitrocellulose fiber matrix. The hyFlow system was designed to minimize such issues and transport MB conjugates more efficiently to the electrochemical detection zone of the device. The hyFlow system retains the benefit of fluid transport by pressure-driven flow, however, no pump is required for its operation. The hyFlow device is capable of detecting either pre-formed MB-AgNP conjugates or conjugates formed in situ. The detection limit of AgNPs using this device is 12 pM, which represents just 22 AgNPs per MB.

The development of highly specific biomimetic recognition material is a challenge for rapid detection of harmful residues in foodstuff. In this study, a paper-based boronate affinity metal-organic framework/molecularly imprinted polymer microfluidic chip (FZS-BA@MIP) was constructed based on the in situ construction strategy, which was also designed as a highly specific biomimetic recognition module. Here, the homogeneous zeolitic imidazole framework-8 (ZIF-8) membrane served as a great scaffold and enrichment layer. Besides, the recognition layer of MIP was prepared based on a highly oriented boronate affinity surface imprinting strategy. With the aid of the liquid flow channel, the highly specific enrichment and visual detection for antibiotic residues like kanamycin in actual products were achieved on the paper chip module of an integrated lateral flow platform. The whole analysis process could be accomplished within 30 min. In brief, this study offered a new integrated biomimetic recognition platform for visually detecting harmful veterinary residues containing cis-diols, which demonstrated promising commercial value in point-of-care testing of foodborne hazardous compounds.

Mentzer and Becker (2011) and Becker and Mentzer (2012) demonstrated that high school students engaged in engineering design problems spent more time accessing information and spent more time designing when provided with Internet access. They studied high school students engaged in an engineering design challenge. The two studies attempted to apply the same research methodology as was used in previous work by Atman to facilitate comparison between high school students and experts. The 2011 study included Internet access, but the 2012 study did not. Their work showed that with Internet access, students spent an average of 137 minutes engaged in designing a playground and students allocated 47 minutes (35%) to information access. Without Internet access, similar students from the same schools on the same design problem spent an average of 92 minutes of which, 10 minutes (10%) was dedicated to information access. With limited computer access or limited time to enable students to access a computer in some classrooms, the research questions guiding this study are: (1) What information do high school students spend time accessing during an engineering design challenge? How much information comes from paper-based resources as compared to the Internet?; and (2) How much time do they spend accessing information? What is the balance of time spent accessing information from paper-based sources as compared to the Internet? Findings and implications of this research on student learning are discussed. Recommendations for future research are also offered. (Contains 5 tables and 1 figure.)

Paper-based microfluidic devices are an attractive platform for developing low-cost, point-of-care diagnostic tools. As paper-based devices' detection chemistries become more complex, more complicated devices are required, often entailing the sequential delivery of different liquids or reagents to reaction zones. Most research into flow control has been focused on introducing delays. However, delaying the flow can be problematic due to increased evaporation leading to sample loss. We report the use of a CO2 laser to uniformly etch the surface of the paper to modify wicking speeds in paper-based microfluidic devices. This technique can produce both wicking speed increases of up to 1.1× faster and decreases of up to 0.9× slower. Wicking speeds can be further enhanced by etching both sides of the paper, resulting in wicking 1.3× faster than unetched channels. Channels with lengthwise laser-etched grooves were also compared to uniformly etched channels, with the most heavily grooved channels wicking 1.9× faster than the fastest double-sided etched channels. Furthermore, sealing both sides of the channel in packing tape results in the most heavily etched channels, single-sided, double-sided, and grooved, wicking over 13× faster than unetched channels. By selectively etching individual channels, different combinations of sequential fluid delivery can be obtained without altering any channel geometry. Laser etching is a simple process that can be integrated into the patterning of the device and requires no additional materials or chemicals, enabling greater flow control for paper-based microfluidic devices.

This paper introduces a novel software framework to support automated development of paper-based microuidic devices. Compared to existing lab-on-a-chip technologies, paper-based microuidics difiers in terms of substrate technologies and point-of-care usage across a wide variety environmental conditions. This paper addresses the contexts in which the software can address these challenges and presents several initial case studies that demonstrate the capabilities of the framework to produce workable and usable paper microuidic devices.

Paper microfluidic devices (including lateral flow assays) offer an excellent combination of utility and low cost. Many paper microfluidic devices are fabricated using the Xerox ColorQube line of commercial wax-based color printers; the wax ink serves as a hydrophobic barrier to fluid flow. These printers are capable of depositing four different colors of ink, cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), and black (K), plus 11 combinations of these colors (CM, CY, CK, MY, MK, YK, CMY, CMK, CYK, MYK, and CMYK), although most researchers use only black ink to print paper microfluidic devices. Recently, as part of a project to develop a computer-aided design framework for use with paper microfluidics devices, we unexpectedly observed that different colors of wax ink behave differently in paper microfluidics. We found that among the single colors of ink, black ink actually had the most barrier failures, and magenta ink had the fewest barrier failures. In addition, some combinations of colors performed even better than magenta: the combinations CY, MK, YK, CMY, CYK and MYK had no barrier failures in our study. We also found that the printer delivers significantly different amounts of ink to the paper for the different color combinations, and in general, the color combinations that formed the strongest barriers to fluid flow were the ones that had the most ink delivered to the paper. This suggests that by simply weighing paper samples printed with all 15 combinations of colors, one can easily find the color combinations most likely to form a strong barrier for a given printer. Finally, to show that deliberate choices of ink colors can actually be used to create new functions in paper microfluidics, we designed and tested a new color-based "antifuse" structure that protects paper microfluidic devices from a typical operator error (addition of too much fluid to the device). Our results provide a set of color choice guidelines that designers can use to control the behavior of their paper microfluidics.

Questions are used to obtain information, stimulate thinking, and redirect reasoning. Academics in higher education use questions on a daily basis to stimulate thinking and reasoning in students. Final examination papers are used by academics to assess the retention and application skills of students. The assumption, however, exists that questions relating to application skills at universities of technology should start to dominate the higher academic levels in education, with a subsequent drop in questions regarding retention skills. These questions may be categorized as either higher order or lower order questions. This article attempts to distinguish between these two types of questions in light of Bloom's taxonomy, with similar concepts such as deep and surface learning being examined. The literature review is applied to an electrical engineering module titled Electronics, which serves as the case study. The results of this study indicate that a high percentage of the final examination papers dealt with the objective "Application," where students had to make use of numerous mathematical equations to solve various unknowns. The results also indicated that academics in electronics are using more lower order than higher order questions in their final examination papers. A balance is suggested between these two types of questions for various academic levels at universities of technology. (Contains 3 tables and 1 figure.)

Engineering has been playing an important role in serving and advancing healthcare. The term "Healthcare Engineering" has been used by professional societies, universities, scientific authors, and the healthcare industry for decades. However, the definition of "Healthcare Engineering" remains ambiguous. The purpose of this position paper is to present a definition of Healthcare Engineering as an academic discipline, an area of research, a field of specialty, and a profession. Healthcare Engineering is defined in terms of what it is, who performs it, where it is performed, and how it is performed, including its purpose, scope, topics, synergy, education/training, contributions, and prospects.

In papers in areas such as engineering and the physical sciences, figures, tables and formulae are the basic elements to communicate the authors' core ideas, workings and results. As a computational text-matching tool, CrossCheck cannot work on these non-textual elements to detect plagiarism. Consequently, when comparing engineering or physical sciences papers, CrossCheck may return a low similarity index even when plagiarism has in fact taken place. A case of demonstrated plagiarism involving engineering papers with a low similarity index is discussed, and editor's experiences and suggestions are given on how to tackle this problem. The case shows a lack of understanding of plagiarism by some authors or editors, and illustrates the difficulty of getting some editors and publishers to take appropriate action. Consequently, authors, journal editors, and reviewers, as well as research institutions all are duty-bound not only to recognize the differences between ethical and unethical behavior in order to protect a healthy research environment, and also to maintain consistent ethical publishing standards.

In this paper, we present an experimental study on measurement of the thermal conductivity and heat pipe effect in both hydrophilic and hydrophobic (Toray TGP-H60) carbon papers (around 200 μm thickness) with/out liquid water. An experimental setup is developed for measuring thermal conductance at different liquid water contents and temperatures without dissembling the testing device for water addition. Theoretical analysis is also performed to evaluate the apparent conductance of heat pipe effect. We found that liquid water presence inside these materials increases the overall thermal conductivity. At high temperature around 80 °C, the heat pipe effect is evident for the hydrophilic paper; while for the hydrophobic one, the heat pipe effect is found to be smaller. The distinction is likely due to the different patterns of the capillary liquid flow in the two media. For the hydrophobic paper, liquid water flows back to the evaporation side when the breakthrough pressure is reached and flow is through preferred routes of small flow resistance. As a result, heat pipe effect is active only in part of the medium, therefore smaller than that in the hydrophilic one. The results are important for understanding the heat transfer phenomena occurring in porous media and effects of material surface property. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Documents the development of electronic paper focusing on significant events and inventors. Includes a graphic of the process of making electronic paper. Illustrates the multidisciplinary nature of the development of electronic paper. (DDR)

Engineers make things, make things work, and make things work better and easier. This kind of knowledge is crucial for innovation, and much of the explicit knowledge developed by engineers is embodied in scientific publications. In this paper, we analyze the evolution of publications and citations in engineering in a middle-income country such as Mexico. Using a database of all Mexican publications in Web of Science from 2004 to 2017, we explore the characteristics of publications that tend to have the greatest impact; this is the highest number of citations. Among the variables studied are the type of collaboration (no collaboration, domestic, bilateral, or multilateral), the number of coauthors and countries, controlling for a coauthor from the USA, and the affiliation institution of the Mexican author(s). Our results emphasize the overall importance of joint international efforts and suggest that publications with the highest number of citations are those with multinational collaboration (coauthors from three or more countries) and when one of the coauthors is from the USA. Another interesting result is that single-authored papers have had a higher impact than those written through domestic collaboration.

Understanding the use of English in the workplace is essential for developing effective English language education programs in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). However, workplace language needs are still understudied, particularly in Vietnam. Therefore, this paper reports on part of a task-based needs analysis research project carried out by a Vietnamese university to improve its institutional English language education programs to effectively prepare students for employment. In particular, it investigates the tasks undertaken in English by professional engineers in the workplace and the relevance of English language education at HEIs for addressing those communicative needs. The data were collected using two parallel versions of a needs analysis questionnaire delivered to 291 professional engineers and 40 employers and backed up by interviews with 39 of the engineers. Results identify 30 workplace tasks that professional engineers frequently dealt with in English, indicating a discrepancy between those identified workplace requirements and the English language training at HEIs, and providing practical suggestions to improve engineering students' readiness for employment. This paper provides useful information for researchers and practitioners interested in improving the effectiveness of English language education for professional purposes at HEIs in Vietnam and possibly across the Asia-Pacific region.

The integration of online platforms in (bio)chemical engineering education has increasingly become a matter of fact at all educational levels. Examples such as virtual laboratories in tertiary education have shown their benefits, such as the decreased cost and resources needed as well as providing a safer environment for practical experimentation. However, students or stakeholders are not usually involved in developing the virtual laboratory, even if, when given the opportunity, they can provide valuable feedback for improvement and acquire ownership over the platform. Hence, when proposing a novel educational process virtual laboratory that targets teaching bioprocess modeling to undergraduate students, the best approach is to involve the students in the development as its future users. To this end, in this work, four co-participatory design experiences are presented that show the journey from a paper prototype to an online educational virtual laboratory (www.biovl.com). Qualitative and quantitative data have been collected in two different universities through surveys, semi-structured interviews, and informal conversations among the students and the developer. The students’ perspectives were found to provide valuable feedback about the platform’s content, usability, and functionality. For example, interest in adding bioprocess-related coding activities, or suggesting to change the platform name, were opinions collected and carefully considered. These suggestions can be easily integrated since the software is at the early stages of the virtual laboratory prototype. Although the usability and functionality features of the platform are under continuous advancement, this work’s findings show that the students are interested in contributing to the virtual laboratory’s development. Therefore, it opens the door to modifications and improvements, which are strongly based on the users’/students’ perceptions and perspectives as the virtual laboratory’s co-designers. Although the primary target of the BioVL prototype is to teach bioprocessing modelling, several advanced tools such as virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR) are being considered to be included at a future stage. Furthermore, the educational strategy proposed in this work can be replicated by those who want to develop other virtual laboratories.