Search results for: information security systems

Authors: Deddi Nordiawan

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Effective public policy creation required a strong budget system, both in terms of design and implementation. Performance-based Budget is an evolutionary approach with two substantial characteristics; first, the strong integration between budgeting and planning, and second, its existence as guidance so that all activities and expenditures refer to measurable performance targets. There are four processes in the government that should be followed in order to make the budget become performance-based. These four processes consist of the preparation of a vision according to the bold aspiration, the formulation of outcome, the determination of output based on the analysis of organizational resources, and the formulation of Value Creation Map that contains a series of programs and activities. This is consistent with the concept of logic model which revealed that the budget performance should be placed within a relational framework of resources, activities, outputs, outcomes and impacts. Through the issuance of Law 17/2003 regarding State Finance, local governments in Indonesia have to implement performance-based budget. Central Government then issued Government Regulation 58/2005 which contains the detail guidelines how to prepare local governments budget. After a decade, implementation of performance budgeting in local government is still not fully meet expectations, though the guidance is completed, socialization routinely performed, and trainings have also been carried out at all levels. Accordingly, this study views the practice of performance-based budget at local governments as a problematic situation. This condition must be approached with a system approach that allows the solutions from many point of views. Based on the fact that the infrastructure of budgeting has already settled, the study then considering the situation as complexity. Therefore, the intervention needs to be done in the area of human activity system. Using Soft Systems Methodology, this research will reconstruct the process of performance-based budget at local governments is area of human activity system. Through conceptual models, this study will invite all actors (central government, local government, and the parliament) for dialogue and formulate interventions in human activity systems that systematically desirable and culturally feasible. The result will direct central government in revise the guidance to local government budgeting process as well as a reference to build the capacity building strategy.

Keywords: soft systems methodology, performance-based budgeting, Indonesia, public policy

Procedia PDF Downloads 244

Authors: Siti Marlia Abd Rahim, Mad Khir Johari Abdullah Sani

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The ever-increasing use of social media applications by library users has raised concerns about the purpose and effectiveness of these platforms in academic libraries. While social media has the potential to revolutionize library services, its usage for non-educational purposes and security concerns have hindered its full potential. This paper aims to address the user behavioral factors affecting social media engagement in academic libraries and examine the impact of social media engagement on user participation. Additionally, it seeks to measure the effect of user participation in social media on the development of powerful learning communities.

Keywords: social media adoption, social media engagement, academic library, social media in academic library, learning community

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Authors: Jacopo Baboni Schilingi

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We here describe the theoretical and philosophical understanding of a long term use and development of algorithmic computer-based tools applied to music composition. The findings of our research lead us to interrogate some specific processes and systems of communication engaged in the discovery of specific cultural artworks: artistic creation in the sono-musical domain. Our hypothesis is that the patterns of auditory learning cannot be only understood in terms of social transmission but would gain to be questioned in the way they rely on various ranges of acoustic stimuli modes of consciousness and how the different types of memories engaged in the percept-action expressive systems of our cultural communities also relies on these shadowy conscious entities we named “Reduced Descriptive Structures”.

Keywords: algorithmic sonic computation, corrected and self-correcting learning patterns in acoustic perception, morphological derivations in sensorial patterns, social unconscious modes of communication

Procedia PDF Downloads 149

Authors: Nandini Mukhopadhyay

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The prominence of terracotta as a building material in Bengal is well justified by its geographical location. The architectural knowledge system associated with terracotta can be comprehended in the typology of the built structures as they act as texts to interpret the knowledge. The history of Bengal has witnessed the influence of several rulers in developing the architectural vocabulary of the region. This metamorphosis of the architectural knowledge systems in the region includes the Bhakti movement, the Islamic influence, and the British rule, which led to the evolution of the use of terracotta from decorative elements to structural elements in the present-day context. This paper intends to develop an understanding of terracotta as a building material, its use in a built structure, the common problems associated with terracotta construction, and the techniques of maintenance, repair, and conservation. This paper also explores the size, shape, and geometry of the material and its varied use in temples, mosques in the region. It also takes into note that the use of terracotta was concentrated majorly to religious structures and not in the settlements of the common people. And the architectural style of temples and mosques of Bengal is hugely influenced by the houses of the common.

Keywords: terracotta, material, knowledge system, conservation

Procedia PDF Downloads 142

Authors: Taegyoo Woo, Jong Kang Park, Jong Tae Kim

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Visible Light Communication (VLC) provides wireless communication features in illumination systems. One of the key applications is to recognize the user location by indoor illuminators such as light emitting diodes. For localization of individual receivers in these systems, we usually assume that receivers and transmitters are placed in parallel. However, it is difficult to satisfy this assumption because the receivers move randomly in real case. It is necessary to analyze the case when transmitter is not placed perfectly parallel to receiver. It is also important to identify changes on optical gain by the tilted angles and distances of them against the illuminators. In this paper, we simulate optical gain for various cases where the tilt of the receiver and the distance change. Then, we identified changing patterns of optical gains according to tilted angles of a receiver and distance. These results can help many VLC applications understand the extent of the location errors with regard to optical gains of the receivers and identify the root cause.

Keywords: visible light communication, incident angle, optical gain, light emitting diode

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Authors: Sourabh R. Dinde, Rajshekar S. Talikoti

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According to the structural point of view Industrial Pallet rack structure can be considered typical steel framed structure. This work presents a general analysis of an industrial pallet rack structure, evaluating the influence of each of the components on the global stability. An analytical study for the sensitivity of pallet rack configuration in linear static equivalent lateral loads. The aim is to braced/unbraced frames were design and their analytical models are to be built in software. The finite element analysis is used to determine axial forces in beam and column, maximum storey displacement and buckling loads on braced/unbraced pallet rack structure. Bracing systems are mostly provided to enhance the stiffness factor of the structures with the seismic loads. Unbraced systems have mostly translational modes of failure and are very flexible due to excessive loads.

Keywords: buckling capacity, cold formed steel, finite element analysis, pallets Rrack, seismic design

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Authors: Sukaina Al-Nasrawi, Maysoun Ibrahim

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Information and communication technologies (ICT) have affected recent public administration and governance. Electronic Government (e-government) services were developed to simplify government procedures and improve interaction with citizens on one hand and to create new governance models to empower citizens and involve them in the decision-making process while increasing transparency on another hand. It is worth noting that efficient governance models enable sustainable development at the social and economic levels. Currently, the status of e-government national strategies and implementation programs vary from one country to another. This variance in the development levels of e-government initiatives and applications noted the digital divide between countries of the same region, thereby highlighting the difficulty to reach regional integration. Many Arab countries realized the need for a well-articulated e-government strategy and launched national e-government initiatives. In selected Arab countries, the focus of e-government initiatives and programs shifted from the provision of services to advanced concepts such as open data initiatives. This paper aims at over viewing the e-government achievements of Arab countries and areas for enhancement, and share best practices in the area.of the best e-government programmes from the Arab region the world. It will also shed the light on the impact of the information society in general and e-government, in specific, on the social and economic development in the Arab region.

Keywords: Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), services, e-government, development, Arab region, digital divide, citizens

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Authors: Alireza Taghdiri, Sara Ghanbarzade Ghomi

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Nowadays, steel structures are used for not only common buildings but also high-rise construction and wide span covering. The advanced methods of construction as well as the advanced structural connections have a great effect on architecture. However a better use of steel structural systems will be achieved with the deep understanding of steel structures specifications and their substantial advantages. On the other hand, the steel structures face to the different environmental factors such as air flow which cause erosion and corrosion. With the time passing, the amount of these steel mass damages and also the imposed stress will be increased. In other words, the position of erosion in steel structures related to existing stresses indicates that effective environmental conditions will gradually decrease the structural resistance of steel components and result in decreasing the durability of steel components. In this paper, the durability of different steel structural components is evaluated and on the basis of these stress, architectural strategies for designing the system and the components of steel structures is recognized in order to achieve an optimum life cycle.

Keywords: durability, bending stress, erosion in steel structure, life cycle

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Authors: Guillaume Craveur

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The evaluation of the passenger exchange time is necessary for railway operators in order to optimize and dimension rail traffic. Several influential parameters are identified and studied. Each parameter leads to a modeling completed with the buildingEXODUS software. The objective is the modelling of passenger exchanges measured by passenger counting. Population size is dimensioned using passenger counting files which are a report of the train service and contain following useful informations: number of passengers who get on and leave the train, exchange time. These information are collected by sensors placed at the top of each train door. With passenger counting files it is possible to know how many people are engaged in the exchange and how long is the exchange, but it is not possible to know passenger flow of the door. All the information about observed exchanges are thus not available. For this reason and in order to minimize inaccuracies, only short exchanges (less than 30 seconds) with a maximum of people are performed.

Keywords: passengers exchange, numerical tools, rolling stock, platforms

Procedia PDF Downloads 222

Authors: M. A. Alavianmehr, A. Tashk, A. Sodagaran

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Modeling background and moving objects are significant techniques for video surveillance and other video processing applications. This paper presents a foreground detection algorithm that is robust against illumination changes and noise based on adaptive mixture Gaussian model (GMM), and provides a novel and practical choice for intelligent video surveillance systems using static cameras. In the previous methods, the image of still objects (background image) is not significant. On the contrary, this method is based on forming a meticulous background image and exploiting it for separating moving objects from their background. The background image is specified either manually, by taking an image without vehicles, or is detected in real-time by forming a mathematical or exponential average of successive images. The proposed scheme can offer low image degradation. The simulation results demonstrate high degree of performance for the proposed method.

Keywords: image processing, background models, video surveillance, foreground detection, Gaussian mixture model

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Authors: Heny Hartono, Cecilia Titiek Murniati

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The pandemic has given teachers and students no other choice but having full online learning. In such an emergency situation as the time of the covid-19 pandemic, the application of LMS (Learner Management System) in higher education is the most reasonable solution for students and teachers. In fact, the online learning requires all elements of a higher education systems, including the human resources, infrastructure, and supporting systems such as the application, server, and stable internet connection. The readiness of the higher education institution in preparing the online system may secure those who are involved in the online learning process. It may also result in students’ self-efficacy in online learning. This research aimed to investigate how students perceive their self-efficacy in online English learning, especially in speaking classes which is considered as a productive language skill. This research collects qualitative data with narrative inquiry involving 25 students of speaking classes as the respondents. The results of this study show that students perceive their self-efficacy in speaking online classes as not very high.

Keywords: self-efficacy, online learning, speaking class, college students, e-learning

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Authors: K. Suganya Devi, P. Srinivasan, M. P. Vaishnave, G. Arutperumjothi

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Today’s internet world is highly prone to various online attacks, of which the most harmful attack is phishing. The attackers host the fake websites which are very similar and look alike. We propose an image based authentication using steganography and visual cryptography to prevent phishing. This paper presents a secure steganographic technique for true color (RGB) images and uses Discrete Cosine Transform to compress the images. The proposed method hides the secret data inside the cover image. The use of visual cryptography is to preserve the privacy of an image by decomposing the original image into two shares. Original image can be identified only when both qualified shares are simultaneously available. Individual share does not reveal the identity of the original image. Thus, the existence of the secret message is hard to be detected by the RS steganalysis.

Keywords: image security, random LSB, steganography, visual cryptography

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Authors: Heiko Diefenbach, Christoph H. Glock

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Order picking, i.e., the order-based retrieval of items in a warehouse, is an important time- and cost-intensive process for many logistic systems. Despite the ongoing trend of automation, most order picking systems are still manual picker-to-parts systems, where human pickers walk through the warehouse to collect ordered items. Human work in warehouses is not free from errors, and order pickers may at times pick the wrong or the incorrect number of items. Errors can cause additional costs and significant correction efforts. Moreover, age might increase a person’s likelihood to make mistakes. Hence, the negative impact of picking errors might increase for an aging workforce currently witnessed in many regions globally. A significant amount of research has focused on making order picking systems more efficient. Among other factors, storage assignment, i.e., the assignment of items to storage locations (e.g., shelves) within the warehouse, has been subject to optimization. Usually, the objective is to assign items to storage locations such that order picking times are minimized. Surprisingly, there is a lack of research concerned with picking errors and respective prevention approaches. This paper hypothesize that the storage assignment of items can affect the probability of pick errors. For example, storing similar-looking items apart from one other might reduce confusion. Moreover, storing items that are hard to count or require a lot of counting at easy-to-access and easy-to-comprehend self heights might reduce the probability to pick the wrong number of items. Based on this hypothesis, the paper discusses how to incorporate error-prevention measures into mathematical models for storage assignment optimization. Various approaches with respective benefits and shortcomings are presented and mathematically modeled. To investigate the newly developed models further, they are compared to conventional storage assignment strategies in a computational study. The study specifically investigates how the importance of error prevention increases with pickers being more prone to errors due to age, for example. The results suggest that considering error-prevention measures for storage assignment can reduce error probabilities with only minor decreases in picking efficiency. The results might be especially relevant for an aging workforce.

Keywords: an aging workforce, error prevention, order picking, storage assignment

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Authors: Ionel Zagan, Vasile Gheorghita Gaitan

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The development of CPUs and of real-time systems based on them made it possible to use time at increasingly low resolutions. Together with the scheduling methods and algorithms, time organizing has been improved so as to respond positively to the need for optimization and to the way in which the CPU is used. This presentation contains both a detailed theoretical description and the results obtained from research on improving the performances of the nMPRA (Multi Pipeline Register Architecture) processor by implementing specific functions in hardware. The proposed CPU architecture has been developed, simulated and validated by using the FPGA Virtex-7 circuit, via a SoC project. Although the nMPRA processor hardware structure with five pipeline stages is very complex, the present paper presents and analyzes the tests dedicated to the implementation of the CPU and of the memory on-chip for instructions and data. In order to practically implement and test the entire SoC project, various tests have been performed. These tests have been performed in order to verify the drivers for peripherals and the boot module named Bootloader.

Keywords: hardware scheduler, nMPRA processor, real-time systems, scheduling methods

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Authors: Amjad Abdullah, Amjad Yahya, Bushra Aljohani, Amani Alghamdi

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Change point detection is an important part of data analysis. The presence of a change point refers to a significant change in the behavior of a time series. In this article, we examine the detection of multiple change points of parameters of the exponential Lomax distribution, which is broad and flexible compared with other distributions while fitting data. We used the Schwarz information criterion and binary segmentation to detect multiple change points in publicly available data on the average temperature in the ozone layer. The change points were successfully located.

Keywords: binary segmentation, change point, exponentialLomax distribution, information criterion

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Authors: Radia Bernaoui, Mohamed Hassoun

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Our survey deals a theme of the measurement of the management knowledge of actors in Algerian agricultural sector, through a study carried out with professionals affiliated to agro-alimentary 'agribusinesses'. Taking into account the creation of a national device of information on the agronomic research in Algeria, the aim is to analyze their informational practices and to assess how they rate the sharing of knowledge and the process of collective intelligence. The results of our study reveal a more crucial need: The creation a suitable framework to the division of the knowledge, to produce 'knowledge shared social' where the scientific community could interact with firms. It is a question of promoting processes for the adaptation and the spreading of knowledge, through a partnership between the R&D sector and the production one, to increase the competitiveness of the firms, even the sustainable development of the country.

Keywords: knowledge management, pole of competitiveness, knowledge management, economy of knowledge, agro-alimentary, agribusiness, information system, Algeria

Procedia PDF Downloads 323

Authors: Adenike Akinrotimi

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Globally, education has been identified as vital tool for any form of development for any society (community); be it economic, social, political and cultural development. It is the determinant level of prosperity, welfare, security and sustenance of the people of a particular community. Education could be formal, informal and non-formal. Cultural development of an individual and of the community as it were is a lifelong process, where individual learns from daily experiences, exposure to the environment at home, at work, at play and it enriches human and environmental potentials. This type of education can be referred to as cultural heritage. It is built on learner participation and assimilation. Preschool programme also referred to as Early Childhood Education is critical to holistic development of a child cultural development inclusive. This paper examines the impact that technology has on cultural heritage among preschool children.

Keywords: cultural heritage, education, pre-school, technology

Procedia PDF Downloads 390

Authors: Babak Forouraghi

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A genetic circuit is a collection of interacting genes and proteins that enable individual cells to implement and perform vital biological functions such as cell division, growth, death, and signaling. In cell engineering, synthetic gene circuits are engineered networks of genes specifically designed to implement functionalities that are not evolved by nature. These engineered networks enable scientists to tackle complex problems such as engineering cells to produce therapeutics within the patient's body, altering T cells to target cancer-related antigens for treatment, improving antibody production using engineered cells, tissue engineering, and production of genetically modified plants and livestock. Construction of computational models to realize genetic circuits is an especially challenging task since it requires the discovery of flow of genetic information in complex biological systems. Building synthetic biological models is also a time-consuming process with relatively low prediction accuracy for highly complex genetic circuits. The primary goal of this study was to investigate the utility of a pre-trained bidirectional encoder transformer that can accurately predict gene expressions in genetic circuit designs. The main reason behind using transformers is their innate ability (attention mechanism) to take account of the semantic context present in long DNA chains that are heavily dependent on spatial representation of their constituent genes. Previous approaches to gene circuit design, such as CNN and RNN architectures, are unable to capture semantic dependencies in long contexts as required in most real-world applications of synthetic biology. For instance, RNN models (LSTM, GRU), although able to learn long-term dependencies, greatly suffer from vanishing gradient and low-efficiency problem when they sequentially process past states and compresses contextual information into a bottleneck with long input sequences. In other words, these architectures are not equipped with the necessary attention mechanisms to follow a long chain of genes with thousands of tokens. To address the above-mentioned limitations of previous approaches, a transformer model was built in this work as a variation to the existing DNA Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (DNABERT) model. It is shown that the proposed transformer is capable of capturing contextual information from long input sequences with attention mechanism. In a previous work on genetic circuit design, the traditional approaches to classification and regression, such as Random Forrest, Support Vector Machine, and Artificial Neural Networks, were able to achieve reasonably high R2 accuracy levels of 0.95 to 0.97. However, the transformer model utilized in this work with its attention-based mechanism, was able to achieve a perfect accuracy level of 100%. Further, it is demonstrated that the efficiency of the transformer-based gene expression classifier is not dependent on presence of large amounts of training examples, which may be difficult to compile in many real-world gene circuit designs.

Keywords: transformers, generative ai, gene expression design, classification

Procedia PDF Downloads 51

Authors: J. Al-Dmour, A. Sagahyroon, A. Al-Ali, S. Abusnana

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Radio Frequency Based Identification Systems have emerged as one of the possible valuable solutions that can be utilized in healthcare systems. Nowadays, RFID tags are available with built-in human vital signs sensors such as Body Temperature, Blood Pressure, Heart Rate, Blood Sugar level and Oxygen Saturation in Blood. This work proposes the design, implementation, and testing of an integrated mobile RFID-based health care system. The system consists of a wireless mobile vital signs data acquisition unit (RFID-DAQ) integrated with a fuzzy-logic–based software algorithm to monitor and assess patients conditions. The system is implemented and tested in ‘Rashid Center for Diabetes and Research’, Ajman, UAE. System testing results are compared with the Modified Early Warning System (MEWS) that is currently used in practice. We demonstrate that the proposed and implemented system exhibits an accuracy level that is comparable and sometimes better than the widely adopted MEWS system.

Keywords: healthcare, fuzzy logic, MEWS, RFID

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Authors: Lakshmi N. Reddi, Akanksha Varma Sagi

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Studies on biomimetics are largely developed, deriving inspiration from natural processes in our objective world to develop novel technologies. Recent studies are diverse in nature, making their categorization quite challenging. Based on an exhaustive survey, we developed categorizations based on either the essential elements of nature - air, water, land, fire, and space, or on form/shape, functionality, and process. Such diverse studies as aircraft wings inspired by bird wings, a self-cleaning coating inspired by a lotus petal, wetsuits inspired by beaver fur, and search algorithms inspired by arboreal ant path networks lend themselves to these categorizations. Our categorizations of biomimetic studies allowed us to define a different dimension of biomimetics. This new dimension is not restricted to inspiration from the objective world. It is based on the premise that the biological processes observed in the objective world find their reflections in our human bodies in a variety of ways. For example, the lungs provide the most efficient example for liquid-gas phase exchange, the heart exemplifies a very efficient pumping and circulatory system, and the kidneys epitomize the most effective cleaning system. The main focus of this paper is to bring out the magnificence of the cerebro-spinal system (CSS) insofar as it relates to our current computer architecture. In particular, the paper uses four key measures to analyze the differences between CSS and human- engineered computational systems. These are adaptability, sustainability, energy efficiency, and resilience. We found that the cerebrospinal system reveals some important challenges in the development and evolution of our current computer architectures. In particular, the myriad ways in which the CSS is integrated with other systems/processes (circulatory, respiration, etc) offer useful insights on how the human-engineered computational systems could be made more sustainable, energy-efficient, resilient, and adaptable. In our paper, we highlight the energy consumption differences between CSS and our current computational designs. Apart from the obvious differences in materials used between the two, the systemic nature of how CSS functions provides clues to enhance life-cycles of our current computational systems. The rapid formation and changes in the physiology of dendritic spines and their synaptic plasticity causing memory changes (ex., long-term potentiation and long-term depression) allowed us to formulate differences in the adaptability and resilience of CSS. In addition, the CSS is sustained by integrative functions of various organs, and its robustness comes from its interdependence with the circulatory system. The paper documents and analyzes quantifiable differences between the two in terms of the four measures. Our analyses point out the possibilities in the development of computational systems that are more adaptable, sustainable, energy efficient, and resilient. It concludes with the potential approaches for technological advancement through creation of more interconnected and interdependent systems to replicate the effective operation of cerebro-spinal system.

Keywords: cerebrospinal system, computer architecture, adaptability, sustainability, resilience, energy efficiency

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Authors: Nkwanyang L. Takem, Christopher M. Agyingi

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Background and aim: An integrated interpretation of wireline logs and lithology of two selected wells (KF-1 and KF-2) of Kribi oil field within the southeastern offshore Douala/Kribi Campo Basin was carried out for sequence stratigraphic analysis of sediments penetrated by the wells. Methods: The stratigraphic units within the wells were subdivided into depositional sequences using characteristic well log patterns that were deposited between Tertiary Miocene to lower Cretaceous. Results: Nine (9) and eight (8) depositional sequences were identified respectively for KF-1 and KF-2. The sequences comprise LST (progradational packages), TSTs (retrogradational packages) and HSTs (aggradational packages), which reflect depositional systems deposited during different phases of base-level changes. The (LST) consists of Basin Floor Fans (BFF), Slope Fans and Channel Sands deposited when sea level was low and accommodation space lower than rate of sediment influx. TST consists of retrogradational marine shales deposited during high relative sea levels and when accommodation space was higher than rate of sediment influx. HST consisted of shoreface sands displaying mostly aggradational to progradational stacking patterns. Conclusion: The rapid facies changes between successive systems tracts provide potential stratigraphic traps. Reservoir stratification and continuity vary greatly between systems tracts and this enhanced development of stratigraphic traps in the area. Basin floor fans comprise sandstone of good reservoir quality, thus huge accumulation of HC can be trapped in this reservoirs.

Keywords: Douala-Kribi-Campo Basin, reservoirs, sequence strastigraphyy, system tracks

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Authors: Chukiat Chaiboonsri, Satawat Wannapan

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This paper used an asymmetric informative concept to apply in the macroeconomic model estimation of the tourism sector in Thailand. The variables used to statistically analyze are Thailand international and domestic tourism revenues, the expenditures of foreign and domestic tourists, service investments by private sectors, service investments by the government of Thailand, Thailand service imports and exports, and net service income transfers. All of data is a time-series index which was observed between 2002 and 2015. Empirically, the tourism multiplier and accelerator were estimated by two statistical approaches. The first was the result of the Generalized Method of Moments model (GMM) based on the assumption which the tourism market in Thailand had perfect information (Symmetrical data). The second was the result of the Maximum Entropy Bootstrapping approach (MEboot) based on the process that attempted to deal with imperfect information and reduced uncertainty in data observations (Asymmetrical data). In addition, the tourism leakages were investigated by a simple model based on the injections and leakages concept. The empirical findings represented the parameters computed from the MEboot approach which is different from the GMM method. However, both of the MEboot estimation and GMM model suggests that Thailand’s tourism sectors are in a period capable of stimulating the economy.

Keywords: TThailand tourism, Maximum Entropy Bootstrapping approach, macroeconomic model, asymmetric information

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Authors: Josiah O. Carter, Charlotte Hayden, Elizabeth Arthurs

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Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, hospital management policies have changed frequently and rapidly. This has created novel challenges in keeping the workforce abreast of these changes to enable them to deliver safe and effective care. Traditional communication methods, e.g. email, do not keep pace with the rapidly changing environment in the hospital, resulting in inaccurate, irrelevant, or outdated information being communicated, resulting in inefficiencies in patient care. Methods: The creation of a WhatsApp messaging group within the medical division at the Bristol Royal Infirmary has enabled senior clinicians and the hospital management team to update the medical workforce in real-time. It has two primary functions: (1) To enable dissemination of a concise, important operational summary. This comprises information on bed status and infection control procedural changes. It is fed directly from a daily critical incident briefing (2) To facilitate a monthly scheduled question and answer (Q&A) session for junior doctors to clarify issues with clinical directors, rota, and management staff. Additional ad-hoc updates are sent out for time-critical information; otherwise, it mainly functions as a broadcast-only group to prevent important information from being lost amongst other communication. All junior doctors within the medical division were invited to join the group. At present, the group comprises 131 participants, of which 10 are administrative staff (rota coordinators, management staff & clinical directors); the remaining 121 are junior clinicians working within the medical division. An electronic survey via Microsoft forms was sent out to junior doctors via the WhatsApp group and via email to assess its utilisation and effectiveness with the aim of quality improvements. Results: Of the 121 group participants, 19 completed the questionnaire (response rate 15.7%). Of these, 16/19 (84.2%) used it regularly, and 12/19 (63.2%) rated it as the most useful source for reliable updates relating to the hospital response to the COVID-19 pandemic, whereas only 2/19 (10.5%) found the trust intranet and the trust COVID-19 operational email update most useful. Respondents rated the WhatsApp group more useful as an information source (mean score 7.7/10) than as a means of providing feedback to management staff (mean score 6.3/10). Qualitative feedback suggested information around ward closures and changes to COVID cohorting, along with updates on staffing issues, were most useful. Respondents also noted the Q&A sessions were an efficient way of relaying feedback about management decisions but that it would be preferable if these sessions could be delivered more frequently. Discussion: During the current global COVID-19 pandemic, there is an increased need for rapid dissemination of critical information within NHS trusts; this includes communication between junior doctors, managers, and senior clinicians. The versatility of WhatsApp permits a variety of functions allowing for regular updates, the dissemination of time-critical information, and enables conversing and feedback. The project has demonstrated that reserved and well-managed use of a WhatsApp group is a welcome, efficient and practical means of communication between the senior management team and the junior medical workforce.

Keywords: communication, COVID-19, hospital management, WhatsApp

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Authors: Hugh Byrd, Steve Matthewnan

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The devastation of the city centre of Christchurch, New Zealand, after the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes presented an opportunity to rebuild infrastructure in a coordinated and efficient manner to allow for a city that was energy efficient, low carbon, resilient and provided both energy security and justice. The research described in this paper records the processes taken to attempt to rebuild the energy infrastructure. The story is one of political decisions overriding appropriate technology and ultimately is a lesson in how not to handle the implementation of post-disaster energy infrastructure. Lack of clarity in decision making by central government and then not pursuing consultant’s recommendations led to a scheme that was effectively abandoned in 2016 and described as ‘a total failure’. The paper records the critical events that occurred and explains why the proposed energy infrastructure was both politically and technologically inappropriate.

Keywords: energy infrastructure, policy and governance, post-disaster rebuilding

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Authors: Hooriya Sadr Dadras, Shiva Seyed Erfani

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Speaking skills merit meticulous attention both on the side of the learners and the teachers. In particular, accuracy is a critical component to guarantee the messages to be conveyed through conversation because a wrongful change may adversely alter the content and purpose of the talk. Different types of tasks have served teachers to meet numerous educational objectives. Besides, negotiation of meaning and the use of different strategies have been areas of concern in socio-cultural theories of SLA. Negotiation of meaning is among the conversational processes which have a crucial role in facilitating the understanding and expression of meaning in a given second language. Conversational strategies are used during interaction when there is a breakdown in communication that leads to the interlocutor attempting to remedy the gap through talk. Therefore, this study was an attempt to investigate if there was any significant difference between the effect of reasoning gap tasks and information gap tasks on the frequency of conversational strategies used in negotiation of meaning in classrooms on one hand, and on the accuracy in speaking of Iranian intermediate EFL learners on the other. After a pilot study to check the practicality of the treatments, at the outset of the main study, the Preliminary English Test was administered to ensure the homogeneity of 87 out of 107 participants who attended the intact classes of a 15 session term in one control and two experimental groups. Also, speaking sections of PET were used as pretest and posttest to examine their speaking accuracy. The tests were recorded and transcribed to estimate the percentage of the number of the clauses with no grammatical errors in the total produced clauses to measure the speaking accuracy. In all groups, the grammatical points of accuracy were instructed and the use of conversational strategies was practiced. Then, different kinds of reasoning gap tasks (matchmaking, deciding on the course of action, and working out a time table) and information gap tasks (restoring an incomplete chart, spot the differences, arranging sentences into stories, and guessing game) were manipulated in experimental groups during treatment sessions, and the students were required to practice conversational strategies when doing speaking tasks. The conversations throughout the terms were recorded and transcribed to count the frequency of the conversational strategies used in all groups. The results of statistical analysis demonstrated that applying both the reasoning gap tasks and information gap tasks significantly affected the frequency of conversational strategies through negotiation. In the face of the improvements, the reasoning gap tasks had a more significant impact on encouraging the negotiation of meaning and increasing the number of conversational frequencies every session. The findings also indicated both task types could help learners significantly improve their speaking accuracy. Here, applying the reasoning gap tasks was more effective than the information gap tasks in improving the level of learners’ speaking accuracy.

Keywords: accuracy in speaking, conversational strategies, information gap tasks, reasoning gap tasks

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Authors: Zainab Ajab Mohideen, Kiran Kaur, A. Basheer Ahamadhu, Noor Azlinda Wan Jan, Sukmawati Muhammad

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The corpus in the digital library is to provide an overview and evidence from library automation that can be used to justify the needs of the digital library. This paper disperses the approach and implementation of the digital library as part of best practices by the Automation Division at Hamzah Sendut Library of the University Science Malaysia (USM). The implemented digital library model emphasizes on the entire library collections, technical perspective, and automation solution. This model served as a foundation for digital library services as part of information delivery in the USM digital library. The approach to digital library includes discussion on key factors, design, architecture, and pragmatic model that has been collected, captured, and identified during the implementation stages. At present, the USM digital library has achieved the status of an Institutional Repository (IR).

Keywords: academic digital library, digital information system, digital library best practice, digital library model

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Authors: Inayah Hidayati

Abstract:

Innovation in communication technology has opened up opportunities for student to migrate and study abroad. The increasing number of Indonesian students migrating to study abroad suggests the importance of understanding the reason underline their movements. Objective: This research aims to explain the migration decision-making process of Indonesian student migrants in Europe. In detail, this research will consider the innovation in communication technology in the migration decision-making process of students who emigrated from Indonesia and how they use that in the context of the migration decision-making process. Methods: The data collected included qualitative data from in-depth interviews. An interview guide was formulated to facilitate the in-depth interviews and generate a better understanding of migration behavior. Expectation: 1). Innovation in communication technology help Indonesian student migrants on migration decision making process. 2). Student migrants use communication technology platforms for searching information about destination area. Result: Student migrant in Europe use their communication technology platforms to gain information before they choose that country for study. They use WhatsApp and LINE to making contact with their friends and colleagues in the destination country. WhatsApp and LINE group help Indonesian student to get information about school and daily life.

Keywords: international migration, student, decision making process, communication technology platforms

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Authors: Saidu I. Rambo, Emmanuel O. Ibam, Sunday O. Adewale

Abstract:

The configuration of routers for effective communication in the Nigerian Navy (NN) enables the navy to improve on the current communication systems. The current system is faced with challenges that make the systems partially effective. The major implementation of the system is to configure routers using hierarchical model and obtaining a VSAT option on C-band platform. These routers will act as a link between Naval Headquarters and the Commands under it. The routers main responsibilities are to forward packets from source location to destination using a Link State Routing Protocol (LSRP). Also using the Point to Point Protocol (PPP), creates a strong encrypted password using Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP) which uses one-way hash function of Message Digest 5 (MD5) to provide complete protection against hackers/intruders. Routers can be configured using a Linux operating system or internet work operating system in the Microsoft platform. With this, system packets can be forwarded to various locations more effectively than the present system being used.

Keywords: C-band, communication, router, VSAT

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Authors: Umut Tac, Leyla Tavacioglu, Pelin Bolat

Abstract:

Human factor has been one of the elements that cause vulnerabilities which can be resulted with accidents in maritime transportation. When the roots of human factor based accidents are analyzed, gaps in performing cognitive abilities (reaction time, attention, memory…) are faced as the main reasons for the vulnerabilities in complex environment of maritime systems. Thus cognitive processes in maritime systems have arisen important subject that should be investigated comprehensively. At this point, neurocognitive tests such as reaction time analysis tests have been used as coherent tools that enable us to make valid assessments for cognitive status. In this respect, the aim of this study is to evaluate the reaction time (response time or latency) of seafarers due to their occupational experience and age. For this study, reaction time for different maneuverers has been taken while the participants were performing a sea voyage through a simulator which was run up with a certain scenario. After collecting the data for reaction time, a statistical analyze has been done to understand the relation between occupational experience and cognitive abilities.

Keywords: cognitive abilities, human factor, neurocognitive test battery, reaction time

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Authors: Mohammad S. Razai, Jan Williams, Rachel Nestel, Dermot Dalton

Abstract:

Purpose: This descriptive qualitative study aimed to obtain parents recommendations for improving the notification process and communication of positive newborn screening result for cystic fibrosis (CF). Methods: Thematic analysis of semi-structured open-ended interviews with 11 parents of 7 children with confirmed diagnosis of CF between 2 months — 2 years of age. Results: Parents preferred face to face disclosure of positive NBS results by a pediatrician with CF professional qualification. They trusted a pediatrician more than any other professional in providing accurate, credible and comprehensive information about the diagnosis and its implications. Parents recommended that health professionals be knowledgeable and provide clear, succinct and understandable information. Providers should also explore parents concerns and acknowledge feelings and emotions. Most parents reported that they preferred to be notified immediately as soon as the results were available. Several parents preferred to be told once the diagnosis was certain. Most parents regarded open access to CF team as the most significant part of care coordination. In addition to health professionals, most parents used internet as an important source of information, interaction and exchange of experiences. Most parents also used social networking sites such as Facebook groups and smart phone apps. Conclusion: This study provides significant new evidence from parental perspective in emphasizing the pivotal role of good communication skills deployed by a knowledgeable CF specialist in person. Parents use of social media and internet has replaced some traditional methods of information exchange and may reduce the need for professional input for newly diagnosed CF patients.

Keywords: care coordination, cystic fibrosis, newborn screening, notification process, parental preferences, professional-paren communication

Procedia PDF Downloads 395