Search results for: communication technique
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 4399

Search results for: communication technique

1429 Study on Evaluating the Utilization of Social Media Tools (SMT) in Collaborative Learning Case Study: Faculty of Medicine, King Khalid University

Authors: Vasanthi Muniasamy, Intisar Magboul Ejalani, M. Anandhavalli, K. Gauthaman

Abstract:

Social Media (SM) is websites increasingly popular and built to allow people to express themselves and to interact socially with others. Most SMT are dominated by youth particularly College students. The proliferation of popular social media tools, which can accessed from any communication devices has become pervasive in the lives of today’s student life. Connecting traditional education to social media tools are a relatively new era and any collaborative tool could be used for learning activities. This study focuses (i) how the social media tools are useful for the learning activities of the students of faculty of medicine in King Khalid University (ii) whether the social media affects the collaborative learning with interaction among students, among course instructor, their engagement, perceived ease of use and perceived ease of usefulness (TAM) (iii) overall, the students satisfy with this collaborative learning through Social media.

Keywords: Social Media, Web 2.0, Perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, Collaborative Learning.

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1428 Process Optimisation for Internal Cylindrical Rough Turning of Nickel Alloy 625 Weld Overlay

Authors: Lydia Chan, Islam Shyha, Dale Dreyer, John Hamilton, Phil Hackney

Abstract:

Nickel-based superalloys are generally known to be difficult to cut due to their strength, low thermal conductivity, and high work hardening tendency. Superalloy such as alloy 625 is often used in the oil and gas industry as a surfacing material to provide wear and corrosion resistance to components. The material is typically applied onto a metallic substrate through weld overlay cladding, an arc welding technique. Cladded surfaces are always rugged and carry a tough skin; this creates further difficulties to the machining process. The present work utilised design of experiment to optimise the internal cylindrical rough turning for weld overlay surfaces. An L27 orthogonal array was used to assess effects of the four selected key process variables: cutting insert, depth of cut, feed rate, and cutting speed. The optimal cutting conditions were determined based on productivity and the level of tool wear.

Keywords: Cylindrical turning, nickel superalloy, turning of overlay, weld overlay.

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1427 The SEMONT Monitoring and Risk Assessment of Environmental EMF Pollution

Authors: Dragan Kljajic, Nikola Djuric, Karolina Kasas-Lazetic, Danka Antic

Abstract:

Wireless communications have been expanded very fast in recent decades. This technology relies on an extensive network of base stations and antennas, using radio frequency signals to transmit information. Devices that use wireless communication, while offering various services, basically act as sources of non-ionizing electromagnetic fields (EMF). Such devices are permanently present in human vicinity and almost constantly radiate, causing EMF pollution of the environment. This fact has initiated development of modern systems for observation of the EMF pollution, as well as for risk assessment. This paper presents the Serbian electromagnetic field monitoring network – SEMONT, designed for automated, remote and continuous broadband monitoring of EMF in the environment. Measurement results of the SEMONT monitoring at one of the test locations, within the main campus of the University of Novi Sad, are presented and discussed, along with corresponding exposure assessment of the general population, regarding the Serbian legislation.

Keywords: EMF monitoring, exposure assessment, sensor nodes, wireless network.

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1426 Determination of Second Airport for Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in a Multi Airports System Greater Jakarta: Karawang Airport or Majalengka Airport

Authors: Suwardo, I. Haryanto, Wiryanta

Abstract:

Soekarno-Hatta International Airport (Soetta IA) is a primary airport of Greater Jakarta, the busiest airport in Indonesia and the 12th rank of busiest airport in the world. In 2010, the number of air passengers significantly grows and being the second highest one in the world. To anticipate the demand, Greater Jakarta needs a multi airports system (MAS). Ministry of Communication and Government of West Java Province choose different airport for being positioned as the second airport, whether Karawang Airport or Majalengka Airport. The present study predicts that, in 2019, the number of air passengers origin from Greater Jakarta and departure from Karawang IA is going to be considered, namely between 5-20 million passengers, meanwhile that of Majalengka Airport is going to be less than two million passengers. The present study concludes that Karawang Airport is more suitable for being positioned as the second airport in MAS Greater Jakarta than such plan for Majalengka Airport.

Keywords: Greater Jakarta, multi airports system, second airport.

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1425 A Generalized Sparse Bayesian Learning Algorithm for Near-Field Synthetic Aperture Radar Imaging: By Exploiting Impropriety and Noncircularity

Authors: Pan Long, Bi Dongjie, Li Xifeng, Xie Yongle

Abstract:

The near-field synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging is an advanced nondestructive testing and evaluation (NDT&E) technique. This paper investigates the complex-valued signal processing related to the near-field SAR imaging system, where the measurement data turns out to be noncircular and improper, meaning that the complex-valued data is correlated to its complex conjugate. Furthermore, we discover that the degree of impropriety of the measurement data and that of the target image can be highly correlated in near-field SAR imaging. Based on these observations, A modified generalized sparse Bayesian learning algorithm is proposed, taking impropriety and noncircularity into account. Numerical results show that the proposed algorithm provides performance gain, with the help of noncircular assumption on the signals.

Keywords: Complex-valued signal processing, synthetic aperture radar (SAR), 2-D radar imaging, compressive sensing, Sparse Bayesian learning.

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1424 Wireless Sensor Networks for Long Distance Pipeline Monitoring

Authors: Augustine C. Azubogu, Victor E. Idigo, Schola U. Nnebe, Obinna S. Oguejiofor, Simon E.

Abstract:

The main goal of this seminal paper is to introduce the application of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) in long distance infrastructure monitoring (in particular in pipeline infrastructure monitoring) – one of the on-going research projects by the Wireless Communication Research Group at the department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. The current sensor network architectures for monitoring long distance pipeline infrastructures are previewed. These are wired sensor networks, RF wireless sensor networks, integrated wired and wireless sensor networks. The reliability of these architectures is discussed. Three reliability factors are used to compare the architectures in terms of network connectivity, continuity of power supply for the network, and the maintainability of the network. The constraints and challenges of wireless sensor networks for monitoring and protecting long distance pipeline infrastructure are discussed.

Keywords: Connectivity, maintainability, reliability, wireless sensor networks.

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1423 Effect of Curing Temperature on Mechanical Properties of Jute Fiber Reinforced Polylactic Acid Based Green Composite

Authors: Sehijpal Singh Khangura, Jai Inder Preet Singh, Vikas Dhawan

Abstract:

Global warming, growing awareness of the environment, waste management issues, dwindling fossil resources, and rising oil prices resulted to increase the research in the materials that are friendly to our health and environment. Due to these reasons, green products are increasingly being promoted for sustainable development. In this work, fully biodegradable green composites have been developed using jute fibers as reinforcement and poly lactic acid as matrix material by film stacking technique. The effect of curing temperature during development of composites ranging from 160 °C, 170 °C, 180 °C and 190 °C was investigated for various mechanical properties. Results obtained from various tests indicate that impact strength decreases with an increase in curing temperature, but tensile and flexural strength increases till 180 °C, thereafter both the properties decrease. This study gives an optimum curing temperature for the development of jute/PLA composites.

Keywords: Natural fibers, polymer matrix composites, jute, compression molding, biodegradation.

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1422 Validity and Reliability of Competency Assessment Implementation (CAI) Instrument Using Rasch Model

Authors: Nurfirdawati Muhamad Hanafi, Azmanirah Ab Rahman, Marina Ibrahim Mukhtar, Jamil Ahmad, Sarebah Warman

Abstract:

This study was conducted to generate empirical evidence on validity and reliability of the item of Competency Assessment Implementation (CAI) Instrument using Rasch Model for polythomous data aided by Winstep software version 3.68. The construct validity was examined by analyzing the point-measure correlation index (PTMEA), infit and outfit MNSQ values; meanwhile the reliability was examined by analyzing item reliability index. A survey technique was used as the major method with the CAI instrument on 156 teachers from vocational schools. The results have shown that the reliability of CAI Instrument items were between 0.80 and 0.98. PTMEA Correlation is in positive values, in which the item is able to distinguish between the ability of the respondent. Statistical data obtained show that out of 154 items, 12 items from the instrument suggested to be omitted. This study is hoped could bring a new direction to the process of data analysis in educational research.

Keywords: Competency Assessment, Reliability, Validity, Item Analysis.

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1421 Secured Session Based Profile Caching for E-Learning Systems Using WiMAX Networks

Authors: R. Chithra, B. Kalaavathi

Abstract:

E-Learning enables the users to learn at anywhere at any time. In E-Learning systems, authenticating the E-Learning user has security issues. The usage of appropriate communication networks for providing the internet connectivity for E-learning is another challenge. WiMAX networks provide Broadband Wireless Access through the Multicast Broadcast Service so these networks can be most suitable for E-Learning applications. The authentication of E-Learning user is vulnerable to session hijacking problems. The repeated authentication of users can be done to overcome these issues. In this paper, session based Profile Caching Authentication is proposed. In this scheme, the credentials of E-Learning users can be cached at authentication server during the initial authentication through the appropriate subscriber station. The proposed cache based authentication scheme performs fast authentication by using cached user profile. Thus, the proposed authentication protocol reduces the delay in repeated authentication to enhance the security in ELearning.

Keywords: Authentication, E-Learning, WiMAX, Security, Profile caching.

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1420 Statistical Modeling of Mobile Fading Channels Based on Triply Stochastic Filtered Marked Poisson Point Processes

Authors: Jihad S. Daba, J. P. Dubois

Abstract:

Understanding the statistics of non-isotropic scattering multipath channels that fade randomly with respect to time, frequency, and space in a mobile environment is very crucial for the accurate detection of received signals in wireless and cellular communication systems. In this paper, we derive stochastic models for the probability density function (PDF) of the shift in the carrier frequency caused by the Doppler Effect on the received illuminating signal in the presence of a dominant line of sight. Our derivation is based on a generalized Clarke’s and a two-wave partially developed scattering models, where the statistical distribution of the frequency shift is shown to be consistent with the power spectral density of the Doppler shifted signal.

Keywords: Doppler shift, filtered Poisson process, generalized Clark’s model, non-isotropic scattering, partially developed scattering, Rician distribution.

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1419 Denoising by Spatial Domain Averaging for Wireless Local Area Network Terminal Localization

Authors: Diego Felix, Eugene Hyun, Michael McGuire, Mihai Sima

Abstract:

Terminal localization for indoor Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) is critical for the deployment of location-aware computing inside of buildings. A major challenge is obtaining high localization accuracy in presence of fluctuations of the received signal strength (RSS) measurements caused by multipath fading. This paper focuses on reducing the effect of the distance-varying noise by spatial filtering of the measured RSS. Two different survey point geometries are tested with the noise reduction technique: survey points arranged in sets of clusters and survey points uniformly distributed over the network area. The results show that the location accuracy improves by 16% when the filter is used and by 18% when the filter is applied to a clustered survey set as opposed to a straight-line survey set. The estimated locations are within 2 m of the true location, which indicates that clustering the survey points provides better localization accuracy due to superior noise removal.

Keywords: Position measurement, Wireless LAN, Radio navigation, Filtering

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1418 Developing Student Teachers to Be Professional Teachers

Authors: Suttipong Boonphadung

Abstract:

Practicum placements are an critical factor for student teachers on Education Programs. How can student teachers become professionals? This study was to investigate problems, weakness and obstacles of practicum placements and develop guidelines for partnership in the practicum placements. In response to this issue, a partnership concept was implemented for developing student teachers into professionals. Data were collected through questionnaires on attitude toward problems, weaknesses, and obstacles of practicum placements of student teachers in Rajabhat universities and included focus group interviews. The research revealed that learning management, classroom management, curriculum, assessment and evaluation, classroom action research, and teacher demeanor are the important factors affecting the professional development of Education Program student teachers. Learning management plan and classroom management concerning instructional design, teaching technique, instructional media, and student behavior management are another important aspects influencing the professional development for student teachers.

Keywords: Developing student teacher, Partnership concepts, Professional teachers.

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1417 Incidence of Disasters and Coping Mechanism among Farming Households in South West Nigeria

Authors: Fawehinmi Olabisi Alaba, Adeniyi O. R.

Abstract:

Farming households faces lots of disaster which contribute to endemic poverty. Anticipated increases in extreme weather events will exacerbate this. Primary data was administered to farming household using multi-stage random sampling technique. The result of the analysis shows that majority of the respondents (69.9%) are male, have mean household size, years of formal education and age of 5±1.14, 6±3.41, and 51.06±10.43 respectively. The major (48.9%) type of disaster experienced is flooding. Major coping mechanism adopted is sourcing for support from family and friends. Age, education, experience, access to extension agent, and mitigation control method contribute significantly to vulnerability to disaster. The major adaptation method (62.3%) is construction of drainage.

The study revealed that the coping mechanisms employed may become less effective as increasingly fragile livelihood systems struggle to withstand disaster shocks. Thus there is need for training of the farmers on measures to adapt to mitigate the shock from disasters

Keywords: Adaptation, Disasters, Flooding, Vulnerability.

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1416 Map Matching Performance under Various Similarity Metrics for Heterogeneous Robot Teams

Authors: M. C. Akay, A. Aybakan, H. Temeltas

Abstract:

Aerial and ground robots have various advantages of usage in different missions. Aerial robots can move quickly and get a different sight of view of the area, but those vehicles cannot carry heavy payloads. On the other hand, unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) are slow moving vehicles, since those can carry heavier payloads than unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). In this context, we investigate the performances of various Similarity Metrics to provide a common map for Heterogeneous Robot Team (HRT) in complex environments. Within the usage of Lidar Odometry and Octree Mapping technique, the local 3D maps of the environment are gathered.  In order to obtain a common map for HRT, informative theoretic similarity metrics are exploited. All types of these similarity metrics gave adequate as allowable simulation time and accurate results that can be used in different types of applications. For the heterogeneous multi robot team, those methods can be used to match different types of maps.

Keywords: Common maps, heterogeneous robot team, map matching, informative theoretic similarity metrics.

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1415 Using the PGAS Programming Paradigm for Biological Sequence Alignment on a Chip Multi-Threading Architecture

Authors: M. Bakhouya, S. A. Bahra, T. El-Ghazawi

Abstract:

The Partitioned Global Address Space (PGAS) programming paradigm offers ease-of-use in expressing parallelism through a global shared address space while emphasizing performance by providing locality awareness through the partitioning of this address space. Therefore, the interest in PGAS programming languages is growing and many new languages have emerged and are becoming ubiquitously available on nearly all modern parallel architectures. Recently, new parallel machines with multiple cores are designed for targeting high performance applications. Most of the efforts have gone into benchmarking but there are a few examples of real high performance applications running on multicore machines. In this paper, we present and evaluate a parallelization technique for implementing a local DNA sequence alignment algorithm using a PGAS based language, UPC (Unified Parallel C) on a chip multithreading architecture, the UltraSPARC T1.

Keywords: Partitioned Global Address Space, Unified Parallel C, Multicore machines, Multi-threading Architecture, Sequence alignment.

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1414 Establishing Pairwise Keys Using Key Predistribution Schemes for Sensor Networks

Authors: Y. Harold Robinson, M. Rajaram

Abstract:

Designing cost-efficient, secure network protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is a challenging problem because sensors are resource-limited wireless devices. Security services such as authentication and improved pairwise key establishment are critical to high efficient networks with sensor nodes. For sensor nodes to correspond securely with each other efficiently, usage of cryptographic techniques is necessary. In this paper, two key predistribution schemes that enable a mobile sink to establish a secure data-communication link, on the fly, with any sensor nodes. The intermediate nodes along the path to the sink are able to verify the authenticity and integrity of the incoming packets using a predicted value of the key generated by the sender’s essential power. The proposed schemes are based on the pairwise key with the mobile sink, our analytical results clearly show that our schemes perform better in terms of network resilience to node capture than existing schemes if used in wireless sensor networks with mobile sinks.

Keywords: Wireless Sensor Networks, predistribution scheme, cryptographic techniques.

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1413 Optimal Peer-to-Peer On-Orbit Refueling Mission Planning with Complex Constraints

Authors: Jing Yu, Hongyang Liu, Dong Hao

Abstract:

On-Orbit Refueling is of great significance in extending space crafts' lifetime. The problem of minimum-fuel, time-fixed, Peer-to-Peer On-Orbit Refueling mission planning is addressed here with the particular aim of assigning fuel-insufficient satellites to the fuel-sufficient satellites and optimizing each rendezvous trajectory. Constraints including perturbation, communication link, sun illumination, hold points for different rendezvous phases, and sensor switching are considered. A planning model has established as well as a two-level solution method. The upper level deals with target assignment based on fuel equilibrium criterion, while the lower level solves constrained trajectory optimization using special maneuver strategies. Simulations show that the developed method could effectively resolve the Peer-to-Peer On-Orbit Refueling mission planning problem and deal with complex constraints.

Keywords: Mission planning, orbital rendezvous, on-orbit refueling, space mission.

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1412 Blood Cell Dynamics in a Simple Shear Flow using an Implicit Fluid-Structure Interaction Method Based on the ALE Approach

Authors: Choeng-Ryul Choi, Chang-Nyung Kim, Tae-Hyub Hong

Abstract:

A numerical method is developed for simulating the motion of particles with arbitrary shapes in an effectively infinite or bounded viscous flow. The particle translational and angular motions are numerically investigated using a fluid-structure interaction (FSI) method based on the Arbitrary-Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) approach and the dynamic mesh method (smoothing and remeshing) in FLUENT ( ANSYS Inc., USA). Also, the effects of arbitrary shapes on the dynamics are studied using the FSI method which could be applied to the motions and deformations of a single blood cell and multiple blood cells, and the primary thrombogenesis caused by platelet aggregation. It is expected that, combined with a sophisticated large-scale computational technique, the simulation method will be useful for understanding the overall properties of blood flow from blood cellular level (microscopic) to the resulting rheological properties of blood as a mass (macroscopic).

Keywords: Blood Flow, Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI), Micro-Channels, Arbitrary Shapes, Red Blood Cells (RBCs)

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1411 Scientific Workflow Interoperability Evaluation

Authors: Ahmed Alqaoud

Abstract:

There is wide range of scientific workflow systems today, each one designed to resolve problems at a specific level. In large collaborative projects, it is often necessary to recognize the heterogeneous workflow systems already in use by various partners and any potential collaboration between these systems requires workflow interoperability. Publish/Subscribe Scientific Workflow Interoperability Framework (PS-SWIF) approach was proposed to achieve workflow interoperability among workflow systems. This paper evaluates the PS-SWIF approach and its system to achieve workflow interoperability using Web Services with asynchronous notification messages represented by WS-Eventing standard. This experiment covers different types of communication models provided by Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC). These models are: Chained processes, Nested synchronous sub-processes, Event synchronous sub-processes, and Nested sub-processes (Polling/Deferred Synchronous). Also, this experiment shows the flexibility and simplicity of the PS-SWIF approach when applied to a variety of workflow systems (Triana, Taverna, Kepler) in local and remote environments.

Keywords: Publish/subscribe, scientific workflow, web services, workflow interoperability.

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1410 The Potential of Roof Top Rain Water Harvesting as a Water Resource in Jordan: Featuring Two Application Case Studies

Authors: Zain M. Al-Houri, Oday K. Abu-Hadba, Khaled A. Hamdan

Abstract:

Roof top rainwater harvesting (RWH) has been carried out worldwide to provide an inexpensive source of water for many people. This research aims at evaluating the potential of roof top rain water harvesting as a resource in Jordan. For the purpose of this work, two case studies at Al-Jubiha and Shafa-Badran districts in Amman city were selected. All existing rooftops in both districts were identified by digitizing 2012 satellite images of the two districts using Google earth and ArcGIS tools. Rational method was used to estimate the potential volume of rainwater that can be harvested from the digitized rooftops. Results indicated that 1.17 and 0.526 MCM/yr can be harvested in Al-Jubiha and Shafa-Badran districts, respectively. This study should increase the attention to the importance of implementing RWH technique in Jordanian residences as a viable alternative for ensuring a continued source of non-potable water.

Keywords: Amman districts, ArcGIS, Rational method, Roof top rain water harvesting.

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1409 An Efficient and Secure Solution for the Problems of ARP Cache Poisoning Attacks

Authors: Md. Ataullah, Naveen Chauhan

Abstract:

The Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) is used by computers to map logical addresses (IP) to physical addresses (MAC). However ARP is an all trusting protocol and is stateless which makes it vulnerable to many ARP cache poisoning attacks such as Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) and Denial of service (DoS) attacks. These flaws result in security breaches thus weakening the appeal of the computer for exchange of sensitive data. In this paper we describe ARP, outline several possible ARP cache poisoning attacks and give the detailed of some attack scenarios in network having both wired and wireless hosts. We have analyzed each of proposed solutions, identify their strengths and limitations. Finally get that no solution offers a feasible solution. Hence, this paper presents an efficient and secure version of ARP that is able to cope up with all these types of attacks and is also a feasible solution. It is a stateful protocol, by storing the information of the Request frame in the ARP cache, to reduce the chances of various types of attacks in ARP. It is more efficient and secure by broadcasting ARP Reply frame in the network and storing related entries in the ARP cache each time when communication take place.

Keywords: ARP cache poisoning, MITM, DoS

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1408 The Design of the Multi-Agent Classification System (MACS)

Authors: Mohamed R. Mhereeg

Abstract:

The paper discusses the design of a .NET Windows Service based agent system called MACS (Multi-Agent Classification System). MACS is a system aims to accurately classify spreadsheet developers competency over a network. It is designed to automatically and autonomously monitor spreadsheet users and gather their development activities based on the utilization of the software multi-agent technology (MAS). This is accomplished in such a way that makes management capable to efficiently allow for precise tailor training activities for future spreadsheet development. The monitoring agents of MACS are intended to be distributed over the WWW in order to satisfy the monitoring and classification of the multiple developer aspect. The Prometheus methodology is used for the design of the agents of MACS. Prometheus has been used to undertake this phase of the system design because it is developed specifically for specifying and designing agent-oriented systems. Additionally, Prometheus specifies also the communication needed between the agents in order to coordinate to achieve their delegated tasks.

Keywords: Classification, Design, MACS, MAS, Prometheus.

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1407 Cursive Handwriting in an Internet Age

Authors: Karen Armstrong

Abstract:

Recent concerns about the value of teaching cursive handwriting in the classroom are based on the belief that cursive handwriting or penmanship is an outdated and unnecessary skill in today’s online world. The discussion of this issue begins with a description of current initiatives to eliminate handwriting instruction in schools. This is followed by a brief history of cursive writing through the ages. Next considered is a description of its benefits as a preliminary process for younger children as compared with immediate instruction in keyboarding, particularly in the areas of vision, cognition, motor skills and automatic fluency. Also considered, is cursive’s companion, paper itself, and the impact of a paperless, “screen and keyboard” environment. The discussion concludes with a consideration of the unique contributions of cursive and keyboarding as written forms of communication, along with their respective surfaces, paper and screen. Finally, an assessment of the practical utility of each skill is followed by an informal assessment of what is lost and what remains as we move from a predominantly paper and pen world of handwriting to texting and keyboarding in an environment of screens.

Keywords: Asemic writing, cursive, handwriting, keyboarding, paper.

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1406 Millimeter Wave I/Q Generation with the Inductive Resonator Matched Poly-Phase Filter

Authors: Ki-Jin Kim, Sanghoon Park, K. H. Ahn

Abstract:

A way of generating millimeter wave I/Q signal using inductive resonator matched poly-phase filter is suggested. Normally the poly-phase filter generates quite accurate I/Q phase and magnitude but the loss of the filter is considerable due to series connection of passive RC components. This loss term directly increases system noise figure when the poly-phase filter is used in RF Front-end. The proposed matching method eliminates above mentioned loss and in addition provides gain on the passive filter. The working algorithm is illustrated by mathematical analysis. The generated I/Q signal is used in implementing millimeter wave phase shifter for the 60 GHz communication system to verify its effectiveness. The circuit is fabricated in 90 nm TSMC RF CMOS process under 1.2 V supply voltage. The measurement results showed that the suggested method improved gain by 6.5 dB and noise by 2.3 dB. The summary of the proposed I/Q generation is compared with previous works.

Keywords: Millimeter Wave Circuits, Local Distribution, I/Q Generator.

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1405 Agent-based Simulation for Blood Glucose Control in Diabetic Patients

Authors: Sh. Yasini, M. B. Naghibi-Sistani, A. Karimpour

Abstract:

This paper employs a new approach to regulate the blood glucose level of type I diabetic patient under an intensive insulin treatment. The closed-loop control scheme incorporates expert knowledge about treatment by using reinforcement learning theory to maintain the normoglycemic average of 80 mg/dl and the normal condition for free plasma insulin concentration in severe initial state. The insulin delivery rate is obtained off-line by using Qlearning algorithm, without requiring an explicit model of the environment dynamics. The implementation of the insulin delivery rate, therefore, requires simple function evaluation and minimal online computations. Controller performance is assessed in terms of its ability to reject the effect of meal disturbance and to overcome the variability in the glucose-insulin dynamics from patient to patient. Computer simulations are used to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed technique and to show its superiority in controlling hyperglycemia over other existing algorithms

Keywords: Insulin Delivery rate, Q-learning algorithm, Reinforcement learning, Type I diabetes.

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1404 The Influence of Website Quality on Customer E-Satisfaction in Low Cost Airline

Authors: Zainab bt Khalifah, Wong Chiet Bing, Noor Hazarina Hashim

Abstract:

The evolution of customer behavior in purchasing products or services through the Internet leads to airline companies engaging in the e-ticketing process in order to maintain their business. A well-designed website is vitally significant for the airline companies to provide effective communication, support, and competitive advantage. This study was conducted to identify the dimensions of website quality for low cost airline and to investigate the relationship between the website quality and customer esatisfaction at low cost airline. A total of 381 responses were conveniently collected among local passengers at Low Cost Carrier Terminal, Kuala Lumpur via questionnaire distribution. This study found that the five determinant factors of website quality for AirAsia were Information Content, Navigation, Responsiveness, Personalization, and Security and Privacy. The results of this study revealed that there is a positive relationship between the five dimensions of website quality and customer e-satisfaction, and also information content was the most significant contributor to customer e-satisfaction.

Keywords: Website Quality, Customer E-Satisfaction, Low Cost Airline.

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1403 Determining Cluster Boundaries Using Particle Swarm Optimization

Authors: Anurag Sharma, Christian W. Omlin

Abstract:

Self-organizing map (SOM) is a well known data reduction technique used in data mining. Data visualization can reveal structure in data sets that is otherwise hard to detect from raw data alone. However, interpretation through visual inspection is prone to errors and can be very tedious. There are several techniques for the automatic detection of clusters of code vectors found by SOMs, but they generally do not take into account the distribution of code vectors; this may lead to unsatisfactory clustering and poor definition of cluster boundaries, particularly where the density of data points is low. In this paper, we propose the use of a generic particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm for finding cluster boundaries directly from the code vectors obtained from SOMs. The application of our method to unlabeled call data for a mobile phone operator demonstrates its feasibility. PSO algorithm utilizes U-matrix of SOMs to determine cluster boundaries; the results of this novel automatic method correspond well to boundary detection through visual inspection of code vectors and k-means algorithm.

Keywords: Particle swarm optimization, self-organizing maps, clustering, data mining.

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1402 A Balanced Cost Cluster-Heads Selection Algorithm for Wireless Sensor Networks

Authors: Ouadoudi Zytoune, Youssef Fakhri, Driss Aboutajdine

Abstract:

This paper focuses on reducing the power consumption of wireless sensor networks. Therefore, a communication protocol named LEACH (Low-Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy) is modified. We extend LEACHs stochastic cluster-head selection algorithm by a modifying the probability of each node to become cluster-head based on its required energy to transmit to the sink. We present an efficient energy aware routing algorithm for the wireless sensor networks. Our contribution consists in rotation selection of clusterheads considering the remoteness of the nodes to the sink, and then, the network nodes residual energy. This choice allows a best distribution of the transmission energy in the network. The cluster-heads selection algorithm is completely decentralized. Simulation results show that the energy is significantly reduced compared with the previous clustering based routing algorithm for the sensor networks.

Keywords: Wireless Sensor Networks, Energy efficiency, WirelessCommunications, Clustering-based algorithm.

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1401 Kinematic Parameters for Asa River Routing

Authors: A. O. Ogunlela, B. Adelodun

Abstract:

Flood routing is used in estimating the travel time and attenuation of flood waves as they move downstream a river or channel. The routing procedure is usually classified as hydrologic or hydraulic. Hydraulic methods utilize the equations of continuity and motion. Kinematic routing, a hydraulic technique was used in routing Asa River at Ilorin. The river is of agricultural and industrial importance to Ilorin, the capital of Kwara State, Nigeria. This paper determines the kinematic parameters of kinematic wave velocity, time step, time required to traverse, weighting factor and change in length. Values obtained were 4.67 m/s, 19 secs, 21 secs, 0.75 and 100 m, respectively. These parameters adequately reflect the watershed and flow characteristics essential for the routing. The synthetic unit hydrograph was developed using the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) method. 24-hr 10yr, 25yr, 50yr and 100yr storm hydrographs were developed from the unit hydrograph using convolution procedures and the outflow hydrographs were obtained for each of 24-hr 10yr, 25yr, 50yr and 100yr indicating 0.11 m3/s, 0.10 m3/s, 0.10 m3/s and 0.10 m3/s attenuations respectively.

Keywords: Asa River, Kinematic parameters, Routing

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1400 Key Factors Influencing Individual Knowledge Capability in KIFs

Authors: Salman Iqbal

Abstract:

Knowledge management (KM) literature has mainly focused on the antecedents of KM. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of specific human resource management (HRM) practices on employee knowledge sharing and its outcome as individual knowledge capability. Based on previous literature, a model is proposed for the study and hypotheses are formulated. The cross-sectional dataset comes from a sample of 19 knowledge intensive firms (KIFs). This study has run an item parceling technique followed by Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) on the latent constructs of the research model. Employees’ collaboration and their interpersonal trust can help to improve their knowledge sharing behaviour and knowledge capability within organisations. This study suggests that in future, by using a larger sample, better statistical insight is possible. The findings of this study are beneficial for scholars, policy makers and practitioners. The empirical results of this study are entirely based on employees’ perceptions and make a significant research contribution, given there is a dearth of empirical research focusing on the subcontinent.

Keywords: Employees’ collaboration, individual knowledge capability, knowledge sharing, monetary rewards, structural equation modelling.

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