Search results for: augmentative and alternative communication

Authors: Anmol Patel

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Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is medical intervention which should be considered for all inpatients; with a patient centred approach, open communication and accurate documentation of clinical decisions. National enquiries have shown that in a significant number of cases CPR was attempted when it was considered inappropriate. In these circumstances attempting to prevent a natural death and subjecting a patient to trauma at the end of life would deprive them of a dignified death. Anticipatory “do not attempt CPR (DNACPR)” decisions aim to prevent this for those considered appropriate. As a legal document, these forms are required to be completed accurately and thoroughly. The aim of this study was to evaluate the difference in quality of DNACPR forms completed using electronic versus paper formats. A retrospective review of DNACPR forms and related documentation was completed in two District General Hospitals in South-East England, one of which uses electronic forms, while the other uses paper red forms. 50 completed forms from each hospital were analysed to assess for legibility, and quality of completion of all subsections of the form, including communications with family, relatives and the Multidisciplinary team. The hospital using paper forms showed a 40-44% rate of completion of sections relating to communication with patients and family, compared to 70% with the hospital using electronic forms. Similar trends were observed with other sections of the form. Conclusion: This study suggests that the implementation of electronic DNACPR forms significantly improves clinical practice and promotes better open communication with patients, family and the MDT.

Keywords: DNACPR, resuscitation, DNAR, patient communication

Procedia PDF Downloads 79

Authors: Yin-Chen Liu, Chih-Chun Wu, Mei-He Shih

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In this technology society, using ICT(Information and communications technology) to contact each other is very common. Interpersonal ICT communication maintains social support. Therefore, the study investigated the ICT communication between undergraduates and their parents, and gender differences were also detected. The sample size was 1,209 undergraduates, including 624(51.6%) males, 584(48.3%) females, and 1 gender unidentified. In the sample, 91.8% of the sample used phones to contact their fathers and 93.8% of them use phones to contact their mothers. 78.5% and 87.6% of the sample utilized LINE to contact their fathers and mothers respectively. As for Facebook, only 13.4% and 16.5% of the sample would use to contact their fathers and mothers respectively. Aforementioned results implied that the undergraduates nowadays use phone and LINE to contact their parents more common than Facebook. According to results from Pearson correlations, the more undergraduates refused to add their fathers as their Facebook friends, the more they refused to add their mothers as Facebook friends. The possible reasons for it could be that to distinguish different social network such as family and friends. Another possible reason could be avoiding parents’ controlling. It could be why the kids prefer to use phone and LINE to Facebook when contacting their parents. Result from Pearson correlations showed that the more undergraduates actively contact their fathers, the more they actively contact their mothers. On the other hand, the more their fathers actively contact them, the more their mothers actively contact them. Based on the results, this study encourages both parents and undergraduates to contact each other, for any contact between any two family members is associated with contact between other two family members. Obviously, the contact between family members is bidirectional. Future research might want to investigate if this bidirectional contact is associated with the family relation. For gender differences, results from the independent t-tests showed that compared to sons, daughters actively contacted their parents more. Maybe it is because parents keep saying that it is dangerous out there for their daughters, so they build up the habit for their daughters to contact them more. Results from paired sample t-tests showed that the undergraduates agreed that talking to mother on the phone had more satisfaction, felt more intimacy and supported than fathers.

Keywords: family ICT communication, parent-child ICT communication, FACEBOOK and LINE, gender differences

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Authors: Pawitchaya Srijaiwong, Surin Khomfoi

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There are several solutions to supply electricity to an island in Thailand such as diesel generation, submarine power cable, and renewable energy power generation. However, each alternative has its own limitation like fuel and pollution of diesel generation, submarine power cable length resulting in loss of cable and cost of investment, and potential of renewable energy in the local area. This paper shows microgrid system which is a new alternative for power supply to an island. It integrates local power plant from renewable energy, energy storage system, and microgrid controller. The suitable renewable energy power generation on an island is selected from geographic location and potential evaluation. Thus, photovoltaic system and hydro power plant are taken into account. The capacity of energy storage system is also estimated by transient stability study in order to supply electricity demand sufficiently under normal condition. Microgrid controller plays an important role in conducting, communicating and operating for both sources and loads on an island so that its functions are discussed in this study. The conceptual design of microgrid operation is investigated in order to analyze the reliability and power quality. The result of this study shows that microgrid is able to operate in parallel with the main grid and in case of islanding. It is applicable for electricity supply to an island and a remote area. The advantages of operating microgrid on an island include the technical aspect like improving reliability and quality of power system and social aspects like outage cost saving and CO₂ reduction.

Keywords: energy storage, islanding, microgrid, renewable energy

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Authors: Arash Kosari, Ali Araghi

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A mathematical model for an optical-fiber communication channel is developed which results in an expression that calculates the throughput and loss of the corresponding link. The data are assumed to be transmitted by using of separate photons with different polarizations. The derived model also shows the dependency of data throughput with length of the channel and depolarization factor. It is observed that absorption of photons affects the throughput in a more intensive way in comparison with that of depolarization. Apart from that, the probability of depolarization and the absorption of radiated photons are obtained.

Keywords: absorption, data throughput, depolarization, optical fiber

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Authors: Nurcan Cetinkaya

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The aim of this paper is to bring about the utilization of Juncus acutus as an alternative roughage resource in ruminant nutrition. In Turkey, JA is prevailing plant of the natural grassland in Kizilirmak Delta, Samsun. Crude nutrient values such as crude protein (CP), ether extract (EE), organic matter (OM), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), and acid detergent lignin(ADL) including antioxidant activity, total phenolic and flavonoid compounds, total organic matter digestibility (OMD) and metabolisable energy (ME) values of Juncus acutus stem, seed, and also its mixture with maize silage were estimated. and published. Furthermore, the effects of JA over rumen cellulolitic bacteria were studied. The obtained results from different studies conducted on JA by our team show that Juncus acutus may be a new roughage source in ruminant nutrition.

Keywords: antioxidant activity, cellulolytic bacteria, Juncus acutus, organic matter digestibility

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Authors: Tayab D. Memon, Shahji Farooque, Marvi Deshi, Imtiaz Hussain Kalwar, B. S. Chowdhry

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Recently single-bit ternary FIR-like filter (SBTFF) hardware synthesize in FPGA is reported and compared with multi-bit FIR filter on similar spectral characteristics. Results shows that SBTFF dominates upon multi-bit filter overall. In this paper, an optimized adder module for ternary quantized sigma-delta modulated signal is presented. The adder is simulated using ModelSim for functional verification the area-performance of the proposed adder were obtained through synthesis in Xilinx and compared to conventional adder trees. The synthesis results show that the proposed adder tree achieves higher clock rates and lower chip area at higher inputs to the adder block; whereas conventional adder tree achieves better performance and lower chip area at lower number of inputs to the same adder block. These results enhance the usefulness of existing short word length DSP algorithms for fast and efficient mobile communication.

Keywords: short word length (SWL), DSP algorithms, FPGA, SBTFF, VHDL

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Authors: Hoorieh Darvishi, Rezaei

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Introduction: This study investigates the efficacy of computer-based interventions for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder , specifically targeting communication deficits and repetitive behaviors. The research evaluates novel software applications designed to enhance narrative capabilities and sensory integration through structured, progressive intervention protocols Method: The study evaluated two intervention software programs designed for children with autism, focusing on narrative speech and sensory integration. Twelve children aged 5-11 participated in the two-month intervention, attending three 45-minute weekly sessions, with pre- and post-tests measuring speech, communication, and behavioral outcomes. The narrative speech software incorporated 14 stories using the Cohen model. It progressively reduced software assistance as children improved their storytelling abilities, ultimately enabling independent narration. The process involved story comprehension questions and guided story completion exercises. The sensory integration software featured approximately 100 exercises progressing from basic classification to complex cognitive tasks. The program included attention exercises, auditory memory training (advancing from single to four-syllable words), problem-solving, decision-making, reasoning, working memory, and emotion recognition activities. Each module was accompanied by frequency and pitch-adjusted music that child enjoys it to enhance learning through multiple sensory channels (visual, auditory, and tactile). Conclusion: The results indicated that the use of these software programs significantly improved communication and narrative speech scores in children, while also reducing scores related to repetitive behaviors. Findings: These findings highlight the positive impact of computer-based interventions on enhancing communication skills and reducing repetitive behaviors in children with autism.

Keywords: autism, narrative speech, persian, SI, repetitive behaviors, communication

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Authors: Sanjay Upadhyay, Om Prakash Pandey

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Hydrogen has been promoted as an alternative source of energy, which is renewable, cost-effective, and nature-friendly. Hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) can be used for mass production of hydrogen at a very low cost through electrochemical water splitting. An active and efficient electrocatalyst is required to perform this reaction. Till date, platinum (Pt) is a stable and efficient electrocatalyst towards HER. But its high cost and low abundance hiders its large scale uses. Molybdenum carbide having a similar electronic structure to platinum can be a great alternative to costly platinum. In this study, pure phase molybdenum carbide (Mo₂C) has been synthesized in a single step. Synthesis temperature and holding time have been optimized to obtain pure phases of Mo₂C. The surface, structural and morphological properties of as-synthesized compounds have been studied. The HER activity of as-synthesized compounds has been explored in detail.

Keywords: capacitance, hydrogen fuel, molybdenum carbide, nanoparticles

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Authors: Syeda Mainaaz Unnisa, Deepa Suresh

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Due to the increase in usage of public domain channels, such as the internet, and communication technology, there is a concern about the protection of intellectual property and security threats. This interest has led to growth in researching and implementing techniques for information hiding. Steganography is the art and science of hiding information in a private manner such that its existence cannot be recognized. Communication using steganographic techniques makes not only the secret message but also the presence of hidden communication, invisible. Steganalysis is the art of detecting the presence of this hidden communication. Parallel to steganography, steganalysis is also gaining prominence, since the detection of hidden messages can prevent catastrophic security incidents from occurring. Steganalysis can also be incredibly helpful in identifying and revealing holes with the current steganographic techniques, which makes them vulnerable to attacks. Through the formulation of new effective steganalysis methods, further research to improve the resistance of tested steganography techniques can be developed. Feature-based steganalysis method for JPEG images calculates the features of an image using the L1 norm of the difference between a stego image and the calibrated version of the image. This calibration can help retrieve some of the parameters of the cover image, revealing the variations between the cover and stego image and enabling a more accurate detection. Applying this method to various steganographic schemes, experimental results were compared and evaluated to derive conclusions and principles for more protected JPEG steganography.

Keywords: cover image, feature-based steganalysis, information hiding, steganalysis, steganography

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Authors: Edward P. Guillen, A. Karina Martinez Barliza

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Powerline Communications (PLC) as last mile solution to provide communication services, has the advantage of transmitting over channels already used for electrical distribution. However these channels have been not designed with this purpose, for that reason telecommunication companies in Colombia want to know how good would be using PLC in costs and network performance in comparison to cable modem or DSL. This paper analyzes PLC throughput for residential complex scenarios using a PLC network scenarios and some statistical results are shown.

Keywords: home network, power line communication, throughput analysis, power factor, cost, last mile solution

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Authors: L. Masilionyte, S. Maiksteniene

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Alternative farming systems are used to cultivate high quality food products and retain the viability and fertility of soil. The field experiments of different farming systems were conducted at Joniškėlis Experimental Station of the Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry in 2006–2013. The soil of the experimental site was Endocalcari-Endohypogleyic Cambisol (CMg-n-w-can). In different farming systems, farmyard manure, straw and green manure catch crops used for fertilization both in the soil low in humus and in the soil moderate in humus. In the 0–20 cm depth layer, it had a more significant effect on soil moisture than on other physical soil properties. In the agricultural systems, in which catch crops had been grown, soil physical characteristics did not differ significantly before their biomass incorporation, except for the moisture content, which was lower in rainy periods and higher in drier periods than in the soil without catch crops. Soil bulk density and porosity in the topsoil layer were more dependent on soil humus content than on agricultural measures used: in the soil moderate in humus content, compared with the soil low in humus, bulk density was by 1.4 % lower, and porosity by 1.8 % higher. The research findings create a possibility to make improvements in alternative cropping systems by choosing organic fertilizers and catch crops’ combinations that have the sustainable effect on soil and that maintain the sustainability of soil productivity parameters. Rational fertilization systems, securing the stability of soil productivity parameters and crop rotation productivity will promote a development of organic agriculture.

Keywords: agro-measures, soil physical parameters, organic farming, sustainable farming

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Authors: Stephanie Yun Yu Law

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Background: This study aims to investigate into communication between trainee doctors and patients, especially how doctor’s reaction to patient’s emotional issues expressed in the consultation affect patient’s satisfaction. Objectives: Thus, there are three aims in this study, 1.) how do trainee doctors react to patients emotional cues in OSCE station? 2.) Any differences in the respond type to emotional cues between first year students and third year students? 3.) Is response type (reducing space) related to OSCE outcome (patient satisfaction and expert rating)? Methods: Fifteen OSCE stations was videotaped, in which 9 were stations with first-year students and 6 were with third-year students. OSCE outcomes were measured by Communication Assessment Tool and Examiners Checklist. Analyses: All patient’s cues/concerns and student’s reaction were coded by Verona Coding Definitions of Emotional Sequence. Descriptive data was gathered from Observer XT and logistic regression (two-level) was carried out to see if occurrence of reducing space response can be predicted by OSCE outcomes. Results: Reducing space responses from all students were slightly less than a half in total responses to patient’s cues. The mean percentage of reducing space behaviours was lower among first year students when compared to third year students. Patient’s satisfaction significantly (p<0.05) and negatively predicted reducing space behaviours. Conclusions: Most of the medical students, to some extent, did not provide adequate responses for patient’s emotional cues. But first year students did provide more space for patients to talk about their emotional issues when compared to third year students. Lastly, patients would feel less satisfied if trainee doctors use more reducing space responses in reaction to patient’s expressed emotional cues/concerns. Practical implications: Firstly, medical training programme can be tailored on teaching students how to detect and respond appropriately to emotional cues in order to improve underperformed student’s communication skills in healthcare setting. Furthermore, trainee doctor’s relationship with patients in clinical practice can also be improved by reacting appropriately to patient’s emotive cues in consultations (such as limit the use of reducing space behaviours).

Keywords: doctors-patients communication, applied clinical psychology, health psychology, healthcare professionals

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Authors: Krishan P. Sharma, T. P. Sharma

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Wireless sensor nodes are resource constrained battery powered devices usually deployed in hostile and ill-disposed areas to cooperatively monitor physical or environmental conditions. Due to their limited power supply, the major challenge for researchers is to utilize their battery power for enhancing the lifetime of whole network. Communication and sensing are two major sources of energy consumption in sensor networks. In this paper, we propose a deployment strategy for enhancing the average lifetime of a sensor network by effectively utilizing communication and sensing energy to provide full coverage. The proposed scheme is based on the fact that due to heavy relaying load, sensor nodes near to the sink drain energy at much faster rate than other nodes in the network and consequently die much earlier. To cover this imbalance, proposed scheme finds optimal communication and sensing ranges according to effective load at each node and uses a non-uniform deployment strategy where there is a comparatively high density of nodes near to the sink. Probable relaying load factor at particular node is calculated and accordingly optimal communication distance and sensing range for each sensor node is adjusted. Thus, sensor nodes are placed at locations that optimize energy during network operation. Formal mathematical analysis for calculating optimized locations is reported in present work.

Keywords: load factor, network lifetime, non-uniform deployment, sensing range

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Authors: Pisit Potjanajaruwit

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The objective of this research was to study the influence of Integrated Marketing Communication on Buying Decision of Consumers in Bangkok. A total of 397 respondents were collected from customers who drive in Bangkok. A questionnaire was utilized as a tool to collect data. Statistics utilized in this research included frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and multiple regression analysis. Data were analyzed by using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. The findings revealed that the majority of respondents were male with the age between 25-34 years old, hold undergraduate degree, married and stay together. The average income of respondents was between 10,001-20,000 baht. In terms of occupation, the majority worked for private companies. The effect to the Buying Decision of Consumers in Bangkok to including sale promotion with the low interest and discount for an installment, selling by introducing and gave product information through sales persons, public relation by website, direct marketing by annual motor show and advertisement by television media.

Keywords: Bangkok metropolis, ECO car, integrated marketing communication, international standard

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Authors: Indhumathi Gopal, Ashley Johnson

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Social media use for communication among college student-athletes is growing. There is little research on student-athletes use of Blogs, one of the online communication tool outlets. Twenty-seven student-athletes, aged 18-24 years completed a student perception questionnaire which assessed demographics, the effect of blogging on college student-athletes self-concept, the correlation of age, GPA and blogging as well as the training students received in the use of social media. Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlations were analyzed examined. Results indicated a significant correlation between use of Blogs and student age (p < .01) and student GPA earned (p < .01). With respect to self-concept, results suggest that blogging could be a useful tool for communication but can present challenges, could affect student self-esteem either, positively or negatively. The training student-athletes received in the use of social media was not adequate. College athletes’ can more easily divulge information about their personal lives and opinions on social media and challenge the athletic programs and their own future. The findings of the study suggest implications for student-athletes to be better prepared for the current media climate.

Keywords: college student-athletes, self-concept, use of social media training, social networking

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Authors: Ranya Elkhayat

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This paper aims at offering a futures study for higher education in the Middle East. Paying special attention to the negative impacts of neoliberalism, the paper will demonstrate how higher education is now commodified, corporatized and how arts and humanities are eschewed in favor of science and technology. This conceptual paper argues against the neoliberal agenda and aims at providing an alternative exemplified in the Capabilities Approach with special reference to Martha Nussbaum’s theory. The paper is divided into four main parts: the current state of higher education under neoliberal values, a prediction of the conditions of higher education in the near future, the future of higher education using the theoretical framework of the Capabilities Approach, and finally, some areas of concern regarding the approach. The implications of the study demonstrate that Nussbaum’s Capabilities Approach will ensure that the values of education are preserved while avoiding the pitfalls of neoliberalism.

Keywords: capabilities approach, education future, higher education, MENA

Procedia PDF Downloads 197

Authors: I. O. Oladipo, Olusegun Adewale Ajayi, Omoniyi Oladipupo Adigun

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Information Communication Technology (ICT) have the potential to contribute to different facets of educational development and effective learning; expanding access, promoting efficiency, improve the quality of learning, enhancing the quality of teaching and provide important mechanism for the economic crisis. Considering the prevalence of unemployment among the higher institution graduates in this nation, in which much seems not to have been achieved in this direction. In view of this, the purpose of this study is to create an awareness and enlightenment of ICT for empowerment opportunities after school. A self-developed modified 4-likert scale questionnaire was used for data collection among Colleges of Education, Physical and Health Education students in Oyo State. Inferential statistical analysis of chi-square set at 0.05 alpha levels was used to analyze the stated hypotheses. The study concludes that awareness and enlightenment of ICT significantly influence empowerment opportunities and recommended that college of education students should be encouraged on the application of ICT for job opportunity after school.

Keywords: employment, empowerment, information communication technology, physical education

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Authors: Muhammad Waqas Baqai, Noman Shahzad, Rehman Alvi

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Communication among health care givers is the essence of quality patient care and any compromise results in errors and inefficiency leading to cumbersome outcomes. The use of smartphone among health professionals has increased tremendously. Almost every health professional carries it and majority of them uses a third party communication software called whatsApp for work related communications. It gives instant access to the person responsible for any particular query and therefore helps in efficient and timely decision making. It is also an easy way of sharing medical documents, multimedia and provides platform for consensual decision making through group discussions. However clinical communication through whatsApp has some demerits too including reduction in verbal communication, worsening professional relations, unprofessional behavior, risk of confidentiality breach and threats from cyber-attacks. On the other hand the traditional pager device being used in many health care systems is a unidirectional communication that lacks the ability to convey any information other than the number to which the receiver has to respond. Our study focused on these two widely used modalities of communication among doctors of the largest tertiary care center of Pakistan i.e. The Aga Khan University Hospital. Our aim was to note which modality is considered better and has fewer threats to medical data. Approval from ethical review committee of the institute was taken prior to conduction of this study. We submitted an online survey form to all the interns and residents working at our institute and collected their response in a month’s time. 162 submissions were recorded and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Only 20% of them were comfortable with using pagers exclusively, 52% with whatsApp and 28% with both. 65% think that whatsApp is time-saving and quicker than pager. 54% of them considered whatsApp to be causing nuisance from work related notifications in their off-work hours. 60% think that they are more likely to miss information through pager system because of the unidirectional nature. Almost all (96%) of residents and interns found whatsApp to be useful in terms of saving information for future reference. For urgent issues, majority (70%) preferred pager over whatsApp and also pager was considered more valid in terms of hospital policies and legal issues. Among major advantages of whatsApp as listed by them were; easy mass communication, sharing of clinical pictures, universal access and no need of carrying additional device. However the major drawback of using whatsApp for clinical communication that everyone shared was threat to patients’ confidentiality as clinicians usually share pictures of wounds, clinical documents etc. Lastly we asked them if they think there is a need of a separate application for instant communication dedicated to clinical communication only and 90% responded positively. Therefore, we concluded that both modalities have their merits and demerits but the greatest drawback with whatsApp is the risk of breach in patients’ confidentiality and off-work disturbance. Hence, we recommend a more secure, institute-run application for all intra hospital communications where they can share documents, pictures etc. easily under a controlled environment.

Keywords: WhatsApp, pager, clinical communication, confidentiality

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Authors: Karandeep Kaur

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This paper presents the design of power amplifier (PA) for mmWave communication systems. The designed amplifier uses GlobalFoundries 22 FDX technology and works at an operational frequency of 140 GHz in the D-Band. With a supply voltage of 0.8V for the super low threshold voltage transistors, the amplifier is biased in class AB and has a total current consumption of 50 mA. The measured saturated output power from the power amplifier is 5.6 dBm with an output-referred 1dB-compression point of 1.6dBm. The measured gain of PA is 19 dB with 3 dB-bandwidth ranging from 120 GHz to 140 GHz. The chip occupies an area of 795µm × 410µm.

Keywords: mmWave communication system, power amplifiers, 22FDX, D-Band, cross-coupled capacitive neutralization

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Authors: Mohammed Benlemlih

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Using a sample of 22,839 US firm-year observations over the 1991-2012 period, we find that high CSR firms pay more dividends than low CSR firms. The analysis of individual components of CSR provides strong support for this main finding: five of the six individual dimensions are also associated with high dividend payout. When analyzing the stability of dividend payout, our results show that socially irresponsible firms adjust dividends more rapidly than socially responsible firms do: dividend payout is more stable in high CSR firms. Additional results suggest that firms involved in two controversial activities -the military and alcohol - are associated with low dividend payouts. These findings are robust to alternative assumptions and model specifications, alternative measures of dividend, additional control, and several approaches to address endogeneity. Overall, our results are consistent with the expectation that high CSR firms may use dividend policy to manage the agency problems related to overinvestment in CSR.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, dividend policy, Lintner model, agency theory, signaling theory, dividend stability

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Authors: Marko Niinimaki

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Cryptocurrencies are getting increasingly popular, but very few of them can be conveniently used in daily mobile phone purchases. To solve this problem, we demonstrate how to build a functional prototype of a mobile cryptocurrency-based e-commerce application the communicates with Near-Field Communication (NFC) tags. Using the system, users are able to purchase physical items with an NFC tag that contains an e-commerce URL. The payment is done simply by touching the tag with a mobile device and accepting the payment. Our method is constructive: we describe the design and technologies used in the implementation and evaluate the security and performance of the solution. Our main finding is that the analysis and measurements show that our solution is feasible for e-commerce.

Keywords: cryptocurrency, e-commerce, NFC, mobile devices

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Authors: Fahed Alrshoudi

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Saudi Arabia is ranked the third of the largest suppliers of Dates worldwide (about 28.5 million palm trees), producing more than 2 million tons of dates yearly. These trees produce large quantity of dates palm seeds (DPS) which can be considered literally as a waste. The date seeds are stiff, therefore, it is possible to utilize DPS as coarse aggregates in lightweight concrete for certain structural applications and to participate at reusing the waste. The use of DPS as coarse aggregate in concrete can be an alternative choice as a partial replacement of the stone aggregates (SA). This paper reports the influence of partially replaced stone aggregates with DPS on the hardened properties of concrete performance. Based on the experimental results, the DPS has the potential use as an acceptable alternative aggregates in producing structural lightweight concrete members, instead of stone aggregates.

Keywords: compressive strength, tensile Strength, date palm seeds, aggregate

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Authors: Azizah Hashim, Rohana Ngah

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Transformation of Economic Development is aimed to transform Malaysia to become a high-income developed nation with a knowledge-based economy by 2020. To achieve this national agenda, the country needs to further strengthen its economic development, growth and well-being. Therefore, this study aspires to examine the relationship between market orientation, human resource management and adoption of information communication technology and SMEs performance and cash management as a mediator. This study will employ quantitative approaches. Questionnaires will be distributed to managers and owners in service sectors. The data collected will be analyzed using SPSS and Structural Equation Modelling. Resource Based Theory (RBT) adopts as an integral part of management literature that explains the performance of organizations through building resources and implement of their strategies.

Keywords: small medium enterprises (SMEs), market orientation, human resource management, adoption of information communication technology

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Authors: Dae Il Kim, Jungho Moon, Tae Yun Chung

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This paper presents a car parking monitoring system using a wireless sensor network. The presented sensor network has a line-shaped topology and adopts a TDMA-based protocol for allowing multi-hop communications. Sensor nodes are deployed in the ground of an outdoor parking lot in such a way that a sensor node monitors a parking space. Each sensor node detects the availability of the associated parking space and transmits the detection result to a sink node via intermediate sensor nodes existing between the source sensor node and the sink node. We evaluate the feasibility of the presented sensor network and the TDMA-based communication protocol through experiments using 11 sensor nodes deployed in a real parking lot. The result shows that the presented car parking monitoring system is robust to changes in the communication environments and efficient for monitoring parking spaces of outdoor parking lots.

Keywords: multi-hop communication, parking monitoring system, TDMA, wireless sensor network

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Authors: Chong Ling Ling

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In the Malaysian polytechnic, there are concerns about language proficiency, communicative competence, and employability among Malaysian polytechnic ESL engineering students. This study examined the relationships between communicative competence, language proficiency, and employability using descriptive analysis and inferential statistics. Next, Pearson’s Correlation determines the correlation between communication competence, language proficiency, and employability skills of Malaysian Polytechnic ESL engineering students. The total number of participants was 81 final-year engineering students. The findings revealed high positive correlations between the communicative competence -'I can talk with a friend in English.' and employability skill (r = 0.854, p = .031), also, language proficiency -'I can understand the English songs I listen to' and employability skill (r = 0.887, p = .038). The result is consistent with the theories. The result revealed that for the 81 students, communication competence and language proficiency, and employability skills are firmly and significantly correlated. Thus, it concluded that both communicative competence and language proficiency equally essential to ensure a higher employability rate among Malaysian polytechnic ESL engineering students.

Keywords: communicative competence, employability, language proficiency, Malaysian polytechnic

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Authors: S. R. Nikhashemi, Laily Haj Paim, Ali Khatibi

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Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to test a hypothesized model explaining Malaysian hypermarket customers’ perceptions of brand trust (BT), customer perceived value (CPV) and perceived service quality (PSQ) on building their brand loyalty (CBL) and generating positive word-of-mouth communication (WOM). Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data from 374 Malaysian hypermarket customers from Mydin, Tesco, Aeon Big and Giant in Kuala Lumpur, a metropolitan city of Malaysia. The data strongly supported the model exhibiting that BT, CPV and PSQ are prerequisite factors in building customer brand loyalty, while PSQ has the strongest effect on prediction of customer brand loyalty compared to other factors. Besides, the present study suggests the effect of the aforementioned factors via customer brand loyalty strongly contributes to generate positive word of mouth communication.

Keywords: brand trust, perceived value, Perceived Service Quality, Brand loyalty, positive word of mouth communication

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Authors: Guangyan Chen

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This study examined Chinese teachers’ perceptions of assessing U.S. college students’ L2 (second language) Chinese oral performances at different levels. Ten oral performances were videotaped from which three were chosen as samples to represent three different proficiency levels based on professionals’ judgments according to the ACTFL proficiency guidelines. The three samples were shown to L2 Chinese teachers who completed questionnaires about their assessments for each speech sample. In total, 104 L2 Chinese teachers responded to each of the three samples. The Exploratory Factor Analyses (EFA) of the teachers’ responses revealed three similar rating criteria patterns for assessing the three levels of oral performances. The teachers’ responses to Samples 2 and 3 revealed five rating criteria: Global proficiency, Chinese conceptual framework, content richness, communication appropriateness, and communication clarity. The teachers’ responses to Sample 1 revealed four rating criteria: global proficiency, Chinese conceptual framework, communication appropriateness/content richness, and communication clarity. However, the analyses of variance (ANOVAs) revealed that the proficiency levels of the three oral performances differed significantly across all rating criteria. Therefore, the data suggests that L2 classroom teachers could use the similar rating criteria pattern to assess college-level L2 Chinese students’ oral performances at different proficiency levels.

Keywords: language assessment, L2 Chinese, oral performance, rating criteria

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Authors: Karim Sobh, Khaled El-Ayat, Fady Morcos, Amr El-Kadi

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Distributed applications deployed on LEO satellites and ground stations require substantial communication between different members in a constellation to overcome the earth coverage barriers imposed by GEOs. Applications running on LEO constellations suffer the earth line-of-sight blockage effect. They need adequate lab testing before launching to space. We propose a scalable cloud-based net-work simulation framework to simulate problems created by the earth line-of-sight blockage. The framework utilized cloud IaaS virtual machines to simulate LEO satellites and ground stations distributed software. A factorial ANOVA statistical analysis is conducted to measure simulator overhead on overall communication performance. The results showed a very low simulator communication overhead. Consequently, the simulation framework is proposed as a candidate for testing LEO constellations with distributed software in the lab before space launch.

Keywords: LEO, cloud computing, constellation, satellite, network simulation, netfilter

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Authors: Seyed Alireza Mirmohammadi

Abstract:

Tehran Metro vendors are one of the working minorities in the capital, which is an essential cross-cultural case study. Today, with difficult economic conditions, subway vendors are increasing. Tehran metro vendors are in daily contact with many people in different metro stations. Due to the ban on their activities in this place and sometimes the humiliating look of some people, they experience special conditions compared to other people in the community. One of the most critical sources of shaping people's mentality toward their social status and identity in the media and, in the meantime, virtual social networks, due to various communication facilities such as Dualism and the possibility of high activity of users have a special place. Statistics have shown that virtual social networks have become an indispensable source of communication, information, and entertainment today. In this study, 15 semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 metro vendors in Tehran about their membership in various virtual social networks and their mental perception of using them. The research results indicate that the obtained mentality of metro peddlers towards themselves is negative in virtual social networks, and they do not receive a good image of themselves in these networks.

Keywords: metro, tehran, intercultural communication, metro vendors, self image

Procedia PDF Downloads 117

Authors: Barbara Pittau, Piergiorgio Palla, Antonio Mastino

Abstract:

Communication is fundamental to health education. The proper use of medicinal products is a crucial aspect of the health of citizens that affects both safety and health care spending. Therefore, encouraging/promoting communication, concerning the importance of proper use of pharmaceuticals, has substantial implications in terms of individual health, health care, and health care system sustainability. In view of these considerations, in the context of two projects, one of which is still in progress, a relational database-backed web application named COLLABORAFARMACISOLA has been designed and developed as a tool to analyze and visualize how people approach the use of medicinal products, with the aim of improving and enhancing communication efficacy. The software application is being used to collect information (anonymously and voluntarily) from the citizens of Sardinia, an Italian region, regarding their knowledge, experiences, and opinions towards pharmaceuticals. This study that was conducted to date on thousand of interviewed people, has focused on different aspects such as: the treatment interruption and the "self-prescription” without medical consultation, the attention paid to reading the leaflets, the awareness of the economic value of the pharmaceuticals, the importance of avoiding the waste of medicinal products and the attitudes towards the use of generics. To this purpose, our software application provides a set of ad hoc parsing routines, to store information into the structure of a relational database and to process and visualize it through a set of interactive tools aimed to emphasize the findings and the insights obtained. The results of our preliminary analysis show the efficacy of the awareness plan and, at the same time, the criticality and the needs of the territory under examination. The ultimate goal of our study is to provide a contribution to the community by improving communication that can result in a benefit for public health in a context strictly connected to the reality of the territory.

Keywords: communication, pharmaceuticals, public health, relational database, tool, web application

Procedia PDF Downloads 138