Search results for: platform capitalism

Authors: Zoaib Mirza

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Pakistan is an Islamic country that got its partition from India in 1947 so that the people could practice the religion of Islam. The ideology of Pakistan was based on the notion that sovereignty only belonged to God Almighty (in Arabic, God means “Allah”), and Muslims will live in accordance with Islam principles. The Quran (Holy Book) and Sunnah (authentic practices of Prophet Mohammad, Peace Be Upon Him, that explains the application of the Quran) are foundations of the Islamic principles. It has been over 75 years, but unfortunately, Pakistan, due to its own political, social, and economic mistakes, is responsible for not being able to become a true Islamic nation to justify its partition from India. The rationale for writing this paper is to analyze the factors that led to changes in the democratic movements impacting the country's political, social, and economic growth. The methodology to examine the historical and political context of Pakistan’s history is by referencing the scholarly work of Israr Ahmed, a Pakistani Islamic theologian, philosopher, and Islamic scholar. While from a Western perspective, Karl Marx, Mar Weber, Hannah Arendt, Sheldon Wolin, Paulo Freire, and Jacques Ranciere's philosophies specific to totalitarianism, politics, military rule, religion, capitalism, and superpower are used as the framework to analyze Pakistan’s democracy. The study's findings conclude that Pakistan's democracy is unstable and has been impacted by military and civilian governance, which led to political, social, and economic downfall. To improve the current situation, the citizens of Pakistan have to realize that the success of a nation is only dependent on the level of consciousness of the leader and not the political system. Therefore, it is the responsibility of every citizen to be conscious of how they select their leader and take responsibility for the current situation in Pakistan.

Keywords: Pakistan, Islam, democracy, totalitarianism, military, religion, capitalism

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Authors: Alaa El-Din Rezk

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In Egypt, management of crops still away from what is being used today by utilizing the advances of mechanical design capabilities, sensing and electronics technology. These technologies have been introduced in many places and recorm, for Straight Path, Curved Path, Sine Wave ded high accuracy in different field operations. So, an autonomous robotic platform based on machine vision has been developed and constructed to be implemented in Egyptian conditions as self-propelled mobile vehicle for carrying tools for inter/intra-row crop management based on different control modules. The experiments were carried out at plant protection research institute (PPRI) during 2014-2015 to optimize the accuracy of agricultural robotic platform control using machine vision in term of the autonomous navigation and performance of the robot’s guidance system. Results showed that the robotic platform' guidance system with machine vision was able to adequately distinguish the path and resisted image noise and did better than human operators for getting less lateral offset error. The average error of autonomous was 2.75, 19.33, 21.22, 34.18, and 16.69 mm. while the human operator was 32.70, 4.85, 7.85, 38.35 and 14.75 mm Path, Offset Discontinuity and Angle Discontinuity respectively.

Keywords: autonomous robotic, Hough transform, image processing, machine vision

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Authors: Ibrahim Magaji

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WhatsApp messaging platform brings about new opportunities for users to participate in unique storytelling experiences and audience engagement, particularly to Students of Mass communication who receive training to report events and issues accurately and objectively in accordance with official controls. Also, the complex nature of society today made it possible to use the WhatsApp platform that revolutionizes the means of sharing information, ideas, and experiences. This paper examined the WhatsApp messaging platform and how it influenced the academic performance of students in the Department of Mass Communication, Abdu Gusau Polytechnic, Talata Mafara. It used in-depth interview techniques and focus group discussion with students, as well as the use of published materials as well as unpublished materials to gather related and relevant data. Also, the paper used procedures involved to analyze long interview content. This procedure includes observation of a useful utterance, development of expanded observation, the examination of the interconnection of observed comments, collective scrutiny of observation for patterns and themes, and review and analysis of the themes across all interviews for development of the thesis. The result revealed that the majority of students used WhatsApp messenger for making friends and chatting. Also, the students experienced negative effects such as poor grammar and spelling, less study time, and poor academic performance because of active participation in the use of WhatsApp messaging platform. Surprisingly, there was a high addiction rate among students in the usage of WhatsApp messenger. However, other students experienced an improvement in their readings skills as a result of participation in the use of the platform. Also, students shared ideas, discussed, and shared examination questions among themselves on WhatsApp messenger.

Keywords: WhatsApp messenger, students, participation, group

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Authors: Pradeep Peiris, Hasini Lecamwasam

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The fluid, ambiguous, and often elusive existence of caste among the Sinhalese in Sri Lanka has inspired many scholarly endeavours. Originally, Sinhalese caste was organized according to the occupational functions assigned to various groups in society. Hence cultivators came to be known as Goyigama, washers Dobi, drummers Berava, smiths Navandanna and so on. During pre-colonial times the specialized services of various groups were deployed to build water reservoirs, cultivate the land, and/or sustain the Buddhist order by material means. However, as to how and why caste prevails today in Sinhalese society when labour is in ideal terms free to move where it wants, or in other words, occupation is no longer strictly determined or restricted by birth, is a question worth exploring. Hence this paper explores how, and perhaps more interestingly why, when the nexus between traditional occupations and caste status is fast disappearing, caste itself has managed to survive and continues to be salient in politics in Sri Lanka. In answer to this larger question, the paper looks at caste from three perspectives: 1) Buddhism, whose ethical project provides a justification of social stratifications that transcends economic bases 2) Capitalism that has reactivated and reproduced archaic relations in a process of 'accumulation by subordination', not only by reinforcing the marginality of peripheral caste groups, but also by exploiting caste divisions to hinder any realization of class interests and 3) Democracy whose supposed equalizing effect expected through its ‘one man–one vote’ approach has been subverted precisely by itself, whereby the aggregate ultimately comes down to how many such votes each ‘group’ in society has. This study draws from field work carried out in Dedigama (in the District of Kegalle, Central Province) and Kelaniya (in the District of Colombo, Western Province) in Sri Lanka over three years. The choice of field locations was encouraged by the need to capture rural and urban dynamics related to caste since caste is more apparently manifest in rural areas whose material conditions partially warrant its prevalence, whereas in urban areas it exists mostly in the ideological terrain. In building its analysis, the study has employed a combination of objectivist and subjectivist approaches to capture the material and ideological existence of caste and caste politics in Sinhalese society. Therefore, methods such as in-depth interviews, observation, and collection of demographical and interpretive data from secondary sources were used for this study. The paper has been situated in a critical theoretical framework of social inquiry in an attempt to question dominant assumptions regarding such meta-labels as ‘Capitalism’ and ‘Democracy’, and also the supposed emancipatory function of religion (focusing on Buddhism).

Keywords: Buddhism, capitalism, caste, democracy, Sri Lanka

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Authors: Martina Marinelli, Samanta Vellante, Francesco Pilotti, Daniele Di Valerio, Gaetanino Paolone

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Any development in web marketing technology requires changes in information engineering to identify instruments and techniques suitable for the production of software applications for informative marketing. Moreover, for large web solutions, designing an interface that enables human interactions is a complex process that must bridge between informative marketing requirements and the developed solution. A user-friendly interface in web marketing applications is crucial for a successful business. The paper introduces mkInfo - a software platform that implements informative marketing. Informative marketing is a new interpretation of marketing which places the information at the center of every marketing action. The creative team includes software engineering researchers who have recently authored an article on automatic code generation. The authors have created the mkInfo software platform to generate informative marketing web applications. For each web application, it is possible to automatically implement an opt in page, a landing page, a sales page, and a thank you page: one only needs to insert the content. mkInfo implements an autoresponder to send mail according to a predetermined schedule. The mkInfo platform also includes e-commerce for a product or service. The stakeholder can access any opt-in page and get basic information about a product or service. If he wants to know more, he will need to provide an e-mail address to access a landing page that will generate an e-mail sequence. It will provide him with complete information about the product or the service. From this point on, the stakeholder becomes a user and is now able to purchase the product or related services through the mkInfo platform. This paper suggests a possible definition for Informative Marketing, illustrates its basic principles, and finally details the mkInfo platform that implements it. This paper also offers some Informative Marketing models, which are implemented in the mkInfo platform. Informative marketing can be applied to products or services. It is necessary to realize a web application for each product or service. The mkInfo platform enables the product or the service producer to send information concerning a specific product or service to all stakeholders. In conclusion, the technical contributions of this paper are: a different interpretation of marketing based on information; a modular architecture for web applications, particularly for one with standard features such as information storage, exchange, and delivery; multiple models to implement informative marketing; a software platform enabling the implementation of such models in a web application. Future research aims to enable stakeholders to provide information about a product or a service so that the information gathered about a product or a service includes both the producer’s and the stakeholders' point of view. The purpose is to create an all-inclusive management system of the knowledge regarding a specific product or service: a system that includes everything about the product or service and is able to address even unexpected questions.

Keywords: informative marketing, opt in page, software platform, web application

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Authors: Islam Khalil, Amr El-Kadi

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With the increased use of web technologies, microservices, and Application Programming Interface (API) for integration between systems, and with the development of containerization of services on the operating system level as a method of isolating system execution and for easing the deployment and scaling of systems, there is a growing need as well as opportunities for providing platforms that improve the security of such services. In our work, we propose an architecture for a containerization platform that utilizes various concepts derived from the human immune system. The goal of the proposed containerization platform is to introduce the concept of slowing down or throttling suspected malicious digital pathogens (intrusions) to reduce their damage footprint while providing more opportunities for forensic inspection of suspected pathogens in addition to the ability to snapshot, rollback, and recover from possible damage. The proposed platform also leverages existing intrusion detection algorithms by integrating and orchestrating their cooperative operation for more effective intrusion detection. We show how this model reduces the damage footprint of intrusions and gives a greater time window for forensic investigation. Moreover, during our experiments, our proposed platform was able to uncover unintentional system design flaws that resulted in internal DDoS-like attacks by submodules of the system itself rather than external intrusions.

Keywords: containers, human immunity, intrusion detection, security, web services

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Authors: Telesphore Tiendrebeogo, Oumarou Sié

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Cloud computing technologies have attracted considerable interest in recent years. Thus, these latters have become more important for many existing database applications. It provides a new mode of use and of offer of IT resources in general. Such resources can be used “on demand” by anybody who has access to the internet. Particularly, the Cloud platform provides an ease to use interface between providers and users, allow providers to develop and provide software and databases for users over locations. Currently, there are many Cloud platform providers support large scale database services. However, most of these only support simple keyword-based queries and can’t response complex query efficiently due to lack of efficient in multi-attribute index techniques. Existing Cloud platform providers seek to improve performance of indexing techniques for complex queries. In this paper, we define a new cloud computing architecture based on a Distributed Hash Table (DHT) and design a prototype system. Next, we perform and evaluate our cloud computing indexing structure based on a hyperbolic tree using virtual coordinates taken in the hyperbolic plane. We show through our experimental results that we compare with others clouds systems to show our solution ensures consistence and scalability for Cloud platform.

Keywords: virtual coordinates, cloud, hyperbolic plane, storage, scalability, consistency

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Authors: K. A. Schuck, J. K. Perret, A. Mehn, K. Rommel

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Consumers increasingly consider sustainability aspects in their consumption behavior. Although, few fashion brands are already active in the second-hand luxury market with their own online platforms. Separating between base and high-end luxury brands, two online discrete choice experiments determine the drivers behind consumers’ willingness-to-pay for platform characteristics like the type of ownership, giving brands the opportunity to elicit a financial scope they can operate within.

Keywords: choice experiment, luxury, preferences, second-hand, platform, online

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Authors: Jorge R. Santos, Pedro Sebastiao

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In recent years there has been a great growth in the use of drones, being used in several areas such as security, agriculture, or research. The existence of some systems that allow the remote control of drones is a reality; however, these systems are quite simple and directed to specific functionality. This paper proposes the development of a web platform made in Vue.js and Node.js to control, manage, and monitor drones in real time. Using a microservice architecture, the proposed project will be able to integrate algorithms that allow the optimization of processes. Communication with remote devices is suggested via HTTP through 3G, 4G, and 5G networks and can be done in real time or by scheduling routes. This paper addresses the case of forest fires as one of the services that could be included in a system similar to the one presented. The results obtained with the elaboration of this project were a success. The communication between the web platform and drones allowed its remote control and monitoring. The incorporation of the fire detection algorithm in the platform proved possible a real time analysis of the images captured by the drone without human intervention. The proposed system has proved to be an asset to the use of drones in fire detection. The architecture of the application developed allows other algorithms to be implemented, obtaining a more complex application with clear expansion.

Keywords: drone control, microservices, node.js, unmanned aerial vehicles, vue.js

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Authors: Sylvia Mac

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This ethnographic case study examines disaster capitalism, neoliberal market-based school reforms, and disability through the lens of Disability Studies in Education. More specifically, it explores neoliberalism and special education at a small, urban charter school in a large city in California and the (re)production of social inequality. The study uses Sociology of Special Education to examine the ways in which special education is used to sort and stratify disabled students. At a time when rhetoric surrounding public schools is framed in catastrophic and dismal language in order to justify the privatization of public education, small urban charter schools must be examined to learn if they are living up to their promise or acting as another way to maintain economic and racial segregation. The study concludes that neoliberal contexts threaten successful inclusive education and normalize poor, disabled students’ continued low achievement and poor post-secondary outcomes. This ethnographic case study took place at a small urban charter school in a large city in California. Participants included three special education students, the special education teacher, the special education assistant, a regular education teacher, and the two founders and charter writers. The school claimed to have a push-in model of special education where all special education students were fully included in the general education classroom. Although presented as fully inclusive, some special education students also attended a pull-out class called Study Skills. The study found that inclusion and neoliberalism are differing ideologies that cannot co-exist. Successful inclusive environments cannot thrive while under the influences of neoliberal education policies such as efficiency and cost-cutting. Additionally, the push for students to join the global knowledge economy means that more and more low attainers are further marginalized and kept in poverty. At this school, neoliberal ideology eclipsed the promise of inclusive education for special education students. This case study has shown the need for inclusive education to be interrogated through lenses that consider macro factors, such as neoliberal ideology in public education, as well as the emerging global knowledge economy and increasing income inequality. Barriers to inclusion inside the school, such as teachers’ attitudes, teacher preparedness, and school infrastructure paint only part of the picture. Inclusive education is also threatened by neoliberal ideology that shifts the responsibility from the state to the individual. This ideology is dangerous because it reifies the stereotypes of disabled students as lazy, needs drains on already dwindling budgets. If these stereotypes persist, inclusive education will have a difficult time succeeding. In order to more fully examine the ways in which inclusive education can become truly emancipatory, we need more analysis on the relationship between neoliberalism, disability, and special education.

Keywords: case study, disaster capitalism, inclusive education, neoliberalism

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Authors: Leonardo Herrera, Shield B. Lin, Stephen J. Montgomery-Smith, Ziraguen O. Williams

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Three control algorithms: Proportional-Integral-Derivative, Linear-Quadratic-Gaussian, and Linear-Quadratic-Gaussian with the shift, were applied to the computer simulation of a one-directional dynamic model of a Stewart Platform. The goal was to compare the dynamic system responses under the three control algorithms and to minimize the impact energy when simulating spacecraft docking operations. Equations were derived for the control algorithms and the input and output of the feedback control system. Using MATLAB, Simulink diagrams were created to represent the three control schemes. A switch selector was used for the convenience of changing among different controllers. The simulation demonstrated the controller using the algorithm of Linear-Quadratic-Gaussian with the shift resulting in the lowest impact energy.

Keywords: controller, Stewart platform, docking operation, spacecraft

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Authors: Francisco M. Silva

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Technology is evolving, creating an impact on our everyday lives and the telehealth industry. Telehealth encapsulates the provision of healthcare services and information via a technological approach. There are several benefits of using web-based methods to provide healthcare help. Nonetheless, few health and psychological help approaches combine this method with wearable sensors. This paper aims to create an online platform for users to receive self-care help and information using wearable sensors. In addition, researchers developing a similar project obtain a solid foundation as a reference. This study provides descriptions and analyses of the software and hardware architecture. Exhibits and explains a heart rate dynamic and efficient algorithm that continuously calculates the desired sensors' values. Presents diagrams that illustrate the website deployment process and the webserver means of handling the sensors' data. The goal is to create a working project using Arduino compatible hardware. Heart rate sensors send their data values to an online platform. A microcontroller board uses an algorithm to calculate the sensor heart rate values and outputs it to a web server. The platform visualizes the sensor's data, summarizes it in a report, and creates alerts for the user. Results showed a solid project structure and communication from the hardware and software. The web server displays the conveyed heart rate sensor's data on the online platform, presenting observations and evaluations.

Keywords: Arduino, heart rate BPM, microcontroller board, telehealth, wearable sensors, web-based healthcare

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Authors: Fawzia Abujalala, Asma Elmangoush, Majdi Ashibani

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The adoption of Blockchain technology introduces the possibility to decentralize cold chain systems. This adaptation enhances them to be more efficient, accessible, verifiable, and data security. Additionally, the Internet of Things (IoT) concept is considered as an added-value to various application domains. Cargo tracking and cold chain are a few to name. However, the security of the IoT transactions and integrated devices remains one of the key challenges to the IoT application’s success. Consequently, Blockchain technology and its consensus protocols have been used to solve many information security problems. In this paper, the researchers discussed the advantages of integrating Blockchain technology into IoT platform to improve security and provide an overview of existing literature on integrating Blockchain and IoT platforms. Then, presented the immunization cold chain solution as a use-case that could apply to any critical goods based on integrating hyperledger fabric platform and IoT platform.

Keywords: blockchain, hyperledger fabric, internet of things, security, traceability

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Authors: Ziraguen O. Williams, Shield B. Lin, Fouad N. Matari, Leslie J. Quiocho

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Simulation for seated row exercise was a continued task to assist NASA in analyzing a one-dimensional vibration isolation and stabilization system for astronaut’s exercise platform. Feedback delay and signal noise were added to the model as previously done in simulation for squat exercise. Simulation runs for this study were conducted in two software simulation tools, Trick and MBDyn, software simulation environments developed at the NASA Johnson Space Center. The exciter force in the simulation was calculated from the motion capture of an exerciser during a seated row exercise. The simulation runs include passive control, active control using a Proportional, Integral, Derivative (PID) controller, and active control using a Piecewise Linear Integral Derivative (PWLID) controller. Output parameters include displacements of the exercise platform, the exerciser, and the counterweight; transmitted force to the wall of spacecraft; and actuator force to the platform. The simulation results showed excellent force reduction in the actively controlled system compared to the passive controlled system, which showed less force reduction.

Keywords: control, counterweight, isolation, vibration.

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Authors: Thomas Meier

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One of the major challenges for sustainable smart building systems is to support device interoperability, i.e. connecting sensor or actuator devices from different vendors, and present their functionality to the external applications. Furthermore, smart building systems are supposed to connect with devices that are not available yet, i.e. devices that become available on the market sometime later. It is of vital importance that a sustainable smart building platform provides an appropriate external interface that can be leveraged by external applications and smart services. An external platform interface must be stable and independent of specific devices and should support flexible and scalable usage scenarios. A typical approach applied in smart home systems is based on a generic device interface used within the smart building platform. Device functions, even of rather complex devices, are mapped to that generic base type interface by means of specific device drivers. Our new approach, presented in this work, extends that approach by using the smart building system’s rule engine to create complex virtual devices that can represent the most diverse properties of real devices. We examined and evaluated both approaches by means of a practical case study using a smart building system that we have developed. We show that the solution we present allows the highest degree of flexibility without affecting external application interface stability and scalability. In contrast to other systems our approach supports complex virtual device configuration on application layer (e.g. by administration users) instead of device configuration at platform layer (e.g. platform operators). Based on our work, we can show that our approach supports almost arbitrarily flexible use case scenarios without affecting the external application interface stability. However, the cost of this approach is additional appropriate configuration overhead and additional resource consumption at the IoT platform level that must be considered by platform operators. We conclude that the concept of complex virtual devices presented in this work can be applied to improve the usability and device interoperability of sustainable intelligent building systems significantly.

Keywords: Internet of Things, smart building, device interoperability, device integration, smart home

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Authors: Ji Xi, Cheng Song Chin, Ehsan Mesbahi

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Structure-borne noise is an important aspect of offshore platform sound field. It can be generated either directly by vibrating machineries induced mechanical force, indirectly by the excitation of structure or excitation by incident airborne noise. Therefore, limiting of the transmission of vibration energy throughout the offshore platform is the key to control the structure-borne noise. This is usually done by introducing damping treatment to the steel structures. Two types of damping treatment using on-board are presented. By conducting a statistical energy analysis (SEA) simulation on a jack-up rig, the noise level in the source room, the neighboring rooms, and remote living quarter cabins are compared before and after the damping treatments been applied. The results demonstrated that, in the source neighboring room and living quarter area, there is a significant noise reduction with the damping treatment applied, whereas in the source room where air-borne sound predominates that of structure-borne sound, the impact is not obvious. The subsequent optimization design of damping treatment in the offshore platform can be made which enable acoustic professionals to implement noise control during the design stage for offshore crews’ hearing protection and habitant comfortability.

Keywords: statistical energy analysis, damping treatment, noise control, offshore platform

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Authors: Ramona Moldovan, Doina Cosman, Sebastian Moldovan, Radu Popp, Victor Pop

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MENTALICA is a project aimed at developing and evaluating a platform that can assist individuals diagnosed with severe mental disorders and their families in managing the consequences associated with severe mental disorders, recurrence risks, prevention strategies and treatment options. MENTALICA is a platform based on guidance issued by some of the most prominent scientific organizations in the world. In order to personalize the information provided, the program explores details about the personal and family history of mental disorders. MENTALICA summarizes the answers and gives respondents a personal assessment. This includes personalized information and support about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and schizoaffective disorder. MENTALICA includes several modules: Family history tools, Risk assessment tools and Risk factor sheets, Practical guides for patients, Practical guides for families, Guidelines for clinicians. Currently, there are no available guidelines for genetic counselling for mental disorders. Respondents can print out their reports and discuss them with family members or their doctors. We will briefly present the current status of MENTALICA and its implications for patients, professionals and the community.

Keywords: genetic counseling, mental disorders, platform

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Authors: Robert Vanderburg, Nicholas Gibson

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Objectives: There has been an increased focus in education students’ mathematics skills in the last two years. Universities have, specifically, had problems teaching students struggling with mathematics. This paper focuses on the ability of a digital platform to significantly improve mathematics skills for struggling students. Methods: 32 students who demonstrated low scores on a mathematics test were selected to take part in a one-month tutorial program using a digital mathematics portal. Students were provided feedback for questions posted on the portal and a fortnightly tutorial session. Results: A pre-test post-test design was analyzed using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The analysis suggested that students improved skills in algebra, geometry, statistics, probability, ratios, fractions, and probability. Conclusion: Distance university students can improve their mathematics skills using a digital platform.

Keywords: digital education, distance education, higher education, mathematics education

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Authors: Mark Davey

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Communications on a Network on Chip (NoC) produce timing information, i.e., network injection delays, packet traversal times, throughput metrics, and other attributes relating to the traffic being sent across the chip. The security requirements of a platform encompass each node to operate with confidentiality, integrity, and availability (ISO 27001). Inherently, a shared NoC interconnect is exposed to analysis of timing patterns created by contention for the network components, i.e., links and switches/routers. This phenomenon is defined as information leakage, which represents a ‘side channel’ of sensitive information that can be correlated to platform activity. The key algorithm presented in this paper evaluates how an adversary can control two platform neighbouring nodes of a target node to obtain sensitive information about communication with the target node. The actual information obtained is the period value of a periodic task communication. This enacts a breach of the expected confidentiality of a node operating in a multiprocessor platform. An experimental investigation of the side channel is undertaken to judge the level and significance of inferred information produced by access times to the NoC. Results are presented with a series of expanding task set scenarios to evaluate the efficacy of the side channel detection algorithm as the network load increases.

Keywords: embedded systems, multiprocessor, network on chip, side channel

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Authors: Wang Xiaoqing, Fang Youyuan, Zheng Yanxing, Gu Tianyang, Zong Jianjian, Tong Jinrong

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Compared with traditional distributed environment, the net-centric environment brings on more demanding challenges for information sharing with the characteristics of ultra-large scale and strong distribution, dynamic, autonomy, heterogeneity, redundancy. This paper realizes an information sharing model and a series of core services, through which provides an open, flexible and scalable information sharing platform.

Keywords: net-centric environment, information sharing, metadata registry and catalog, cross-domain data access control

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Authors: Shuen-Tai Wang, Hsi-Ya Chang

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Cloud virtualization technologies are becoming more and more prevalent, cloud users usually encounter the problem of how to access to the virtualized remote desktops easily over the web without requiring the installation of special clients. To resolve this issue, we took advantage of the HTML5 technology and developed web-based remote desktop. It permits users to access the terminal which running in our cloud platform from anywhere. We implemented a sketch of web interface following the cloud computing concept that seeks to enable collaboration and communication among users for high performance computing. Given the development of remote desktop virtualization, it allows to shift the user’s desktop from the traditional PC environment to the cloud platform, which is stored on a remote virtual machine rather than locally. This proposed effort has the potential to positively provide an efficient, resilience and elastic environment for online cloud service. This is also made possible by the low administrative costs as well as relatively inexpensive end-user terminals and reduced energy expenses.

Keywords: virtualization, remote desktop, HTML5, cloud computing

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Authors: Leonardo Herrera, Shield B. Lin, Stephen J. Montgomery-Smith, Ziraguen O. Williams

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A one-directional dynamic model of a Stewart Platform was developed to assist NASA in analyzing the dynamic response in spacecraft docking operations. A simplified mechanical drawing was created, capturing the physical structure's main features. A simplified schematic diagram was developed into a lumped mass model from the mechanical drawing. Three differential equations were derived according to the schematic diagram. A Simulink diagram was created using MATLAB to represent the three equations. System parameters, including spring constants and masses, are derived in detail from the physical system. The model can be used for further analysis via computer simulation in predicting dynamic response in its main docking direction, i.e., up-and-down motion.

Keywords: stewart platform, docking operation, spacecraft, spring constant

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Authors: Ahmed Tawfik, Fausto Giunchiglia, Vincenzo Maltese

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Ontologies provide a common understanding of a specific domain of interest that can be communicated between people and used as background knowledge for automated reasoning in a wide range of applications. In this paper we address the design of multilingual ontologies following well-defined knowledge engineering methodologies with the support of novel collaborative development approaches. In particular, we present a collaborative platform which allows ontologies to be developed incrementally in multiple languages. This is made possible via an appropriate mapping between language independent concepts and one lexicalization per language (or a lexical gap in case such lexicalization does not exist). The collaborative platform has been designed to support the development of the Universal Knowledge Core, a multilingual ontology currently in English, Italian, Chinese, Mongolian, Hindi, and Bangladeshi. Its design follows a workflow-based development methodology that models resources as a set of collaborative objects and assigns customizable workflows to build and maintain each collaborative object in a community driven manner, with extensive support of modern web 2.0 social and collaborative features.

Keywords: knowledge diversity, knowledge representation, ontology, development

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Authors: Aaron J. Small, Craig A. Fletcher

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This study investigates the effect of closed circuit television (CCTV) image patch layout on performance of a simulated train-platform departure task. The within-subjects experimental design measures target detection rate and response latency during a CCTV visual search task conducted as part of the procedure for safe train dispatch. Three interface designs were developed by manipulating CCTV image patch layout. Eye movements, perceived workload and system usability were measured across experimental conditions. Task performance was compared to identify significant differences between conditions. The results of this study have not been determined.

Keywords: rail human factors, workload, closed circuit television, platform departure, attention, information processing, interface design

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Authors: Louis Hickman

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Stakeholder theory is a powerful conception of the firm based on the notion that a primary focus on shareholders is inadequate and, in fact, detrimental to the long-term health of the firm. As such it represents a departure from prevalent business school teachings with their focus on accounting and cost controls. Herein, it is argued that stakeholder theory can be better conceptualized as a critical theory, or one which represents a fundamental change in business behavior and can transform the behavior of businesses if accepted. By arguing that financial interests underdetermine the success of the firm, stakeholder theory further democratizes business by endorsing an increased awareness of the importance of non-shareholder stakeholders. Stakeholder theory requires new, non-financial, measures of success that provide a new consciousness for management and businesses when conceiving their actions and place in society. Thereby, stakeholder theory can show individuals through self-reflection that the capitalist impulses to generate wealth cannot act as primary drivers of business behavior, but rather, that we would choose to support interests outside ourselves if we made the decision in free discussion. This is due to the false consciousness embedded in our capitalism that the firm’s finances are the foremost concern of modern organizations at the expense of other goals. A focus on non-shareholder stakeholders in addition to shareholders generates greater benefits for society by improving the state of customers, employees, suppliers, the community, and shareholders alike. These positive effects generate further positive gains in well-being for stakeholders and translate into increased health for the future firm. Additionally, shareholders are the only stakeholder group that does not provide long-term firm value since there are not always communities with qualified employees, suppliers capable of providing the quality of product needed, or persons with purchasing power for all conceivable products. Therefore, the firm’s long-term health is benefited most greatly by improving the greatest possible parts of the society in which it inhabits, rather than solely the shareholder.

Keywords: capitalism, critical theory, self-reflection, stakeholder theory

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Authors: Mahmoud Roushdy, Mohamed El Naggar, Ahmed Yehia Abdelaziz

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Anchored sheet pile has been used worldwide as front quay walls for decades. With the increase in vessel drafts and weights, those sheet pile walls need to be upgraded by increasing the depth of the dredging line in front of the wall. A system has recently been used to increase the depth in front of the wall by installing a separated platform supported on a deep foundation (so called Relieving Platform) behind the sheet pile wall. The platform is structurally separated from the front wall. This paper presents a numerical investigation utilizing finite element analysis on the behavior of separated relieve platforms installed within existing anchored sheet pile quay walls. The investigation was done in two steps: a verification step followed by a parametric study. In the verification step, the numerical model was verified based on field measurements performed by others. The validated model was extended within the parametric study to a series of models with different backfill soils, separation gap width, and number of pile rows supporting the platform. The results of the numerical investigation show that using stiff clay as backfill soil (neglecting consolidation) gives better performance for the front wall and the first pile row adjacent to sandy backfills. The degree of compaction of the sandy backfill slightly increases lateral deformations but reduces bending moment acting on pile rows, while the effect is minor on the front wall. In addition, the increase in the separation gap width gradually increases bending moments on the front wall regardless of the backfill soil type, while this effect is reversed on pile rows (gradually decrease). Finally, the paper studies the possibility of reducing the number of pile rows along with the separation to take advantage of the positive separation effect on piles.

Keywords: anchored sheet pile, relieving platform, separation gap, upgrade quay wall

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Authors: Carole Salis, Marie F. Wilson, Fabrizio Murgia, Cristian Lai, Franco Atzori, Giulia M. Orrù

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ANDASA is a knowledge management platform for the capitalization of knowledge and cultural assets for the artistic and cultural sectors. It was built based on the priorities expressed by the participating artists. Through mapping artistic activities and specificities, it enables to highlight various aspects of the artistic research and production. Such instrument will contribute to create networks and partnerships, as it enables to evidentiate who does what, in what field, using which methodology. The platform is accessible to network participants and to the general public.

Keywords: cultural promotion, knowledge representation, cultural maping, ICT

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Authors: Carlo Gozzelino

Abstract:

Since the early 2000s, the phenomenon of the two-sided markets has been of growing interest in academic literature as such kind of markets differs by having cross-side network effects and same-side network effects characterizing the transactions, which make the analysis different when compared to traditional seller-buyer concept. Due to such externalities, pricing strategies can be based on subsidizing the participation of one side (i.e. considered key for the platform to attract the other side) while recovering the loss on the other side. In recent years, several players of the Italian financial intermediation industry moved from an integrated landscape (i.e. selling their own products) to an open one (i.e. intermediating third party products). According to academic literature such behavior can be interpreted as a merchant move towards a platform, operating in a two-sided market environment. While several application of two-sided market framework are available in academic literature, purpose of this paper is to use a two-sided market concept to suggest a new framework applied to financial intermediation. To this extent, a model is developed to show how competitors behave when vertically integrated and how the peculiarities of a two-sided market act as an incentive to disintegrate. Additionally, we show that when all players act as a platform, the dynamics of a two-sided markets can allow at least a Nash equilibrium to exist, in which platform of different sizes enjoy positive profit. Finally, empirical evidences from Italian market are given to sustain – and to challenge – this interpretation.

Keywords: financial intermediation, network externalities, two-sided markets, vertical differentiation

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Authors: M. Kobylanski, D. Buskulic, P.-H. Duron, D. Revuz, F. Ruggieri, E. Sandier, C. Tijus

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In order to design a cooperative e-learning platform, we observed teams of Teacher [T], Computer Scientist [CS] and exerciser's programmer-designer [ED] cooperating for the conception of a self-correcting exercise, but without the use of such a device in order to catch the kind of interactions a useful platform might provide. To do so, we first run a task analysis on how T, CS and ED should be cooperating in order to achieve, at best, the task of creating and implementing self-directed, self-paced, repeatable self-correcting exercises (RSE) in the context of open educational resources. The formalization of the whole process was based on the “objectives, activities and evaluations” theory of educational task analysis. Second, using the resulting frame as a “how-to-do it” guide, we run a series of three contrasted Hackathon of RSE-production to collect data about the cooperative process that could be later used to design the collaborative e-learning platform. Third, we used two complementary methods to collect, to code and to analyze the adequate survey data: the directional flow of interaction among T-CS-ED experts holding a functional role, and the Means-End Problem Solving analysis. Fourth, we listed the set of derived recommendations useful for the design of the exerciser as a cooperative e-learning platform. Final recommendations underline the necessity of building (i) an ecosystem that allows to sustain teams of T-CS-ED experts, (ii) a data safety platform although offering accessibility and open discussion about the production of exercises with their resources and (iii) a good architecture allowing the inheritance of parts of the coding of any exercise already in the data base as well as fast implementation of new kinds of exercises along with their associated learning activities.

Keywords: editorialization, open educational resources, pedagogical alignment, produsage, repeatable self-correcting exercises, team roles

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Authors: Emmanuel Mkambankhani, Tiwonge Manda

Abstract:

Software platform architecture includes system components, their relationships, and design, as well as evolution principles. Software architecture and documentation affect a platform's customizability and openness to external innovators, thus affecting developer productivity. Malawi Point of Care (POC) Electronic Medical Records System (EMRS) follows some architectural design standards, but it lacks third-party innovators and is difficult to customize as compared to CommCare and District Health Information System 2 (DHIS2). Improving software architecture and documentation for the Malawi POC will increase productivity and third-party contributions. A conceptual framework based on Generativity and Boundary Resource Model (BRM) was used to compare the three platforms. Interviews, observations, and document analysis were used to collect primary and secondary data. Themes were found by analyzing qualitative and quantitative data, which led to the following results. Configurable, flexible, and cross-platform software platforms and the availability of interfaces (Boundary Resources) that let internal and external developers interact with the platform's core functionality, hence boosting developer productivity. Furthermore, documentation increases developer productivity, while its absence inhibits the use of resources. The study suggests that the architecture and openness of the Malawi POC EMR software platform will be improved by standardizing web application program interfaces (APIs) and making interfaces that can be changed by the user. In addition, increasing the availability of documentation and training will improve the use of boundary resources, thus improving internal and third-party development productivity.

Keywords: health systems, configurable platforms, software architecture, software documentation, software development productivity

Procedia PDF Downloads 60