Search results for: Information resource management (IRM)

Authors: Wanida Suwunniponth

Abstract:

The purpose of this research was to study the factors of characteristic of business, website quality and trust affected intention to use electronic payment systems for online purchasing. This survey research used questionnaire as a tool to collect the data of 300 customers who purchased online products and used an electronic payment system. The descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis were used to analyze data. The results revealed that customers had a good opinion towards the characteristic of the business and website quality. However, they have a moderate opinion towards trust and intention to repurchase. In addition, the characteristics of the business affected the purchase intention the most, followed by website quality and the trust with statistical significance at 0.05 level. For particular, the terms of reputation, communication, information quality, perceived risk and word of mouth affected the intention to use the electronic payment system. In contrast, the terms of size, system quality and service quality did not affect intention to use an electronic payment system.

Keywords: Electronic payment, intention, online purchasing, trust.

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Authors: Sadaf Khalid, Jahanzaib Sarwar, Rabia Tauseef

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No matter how much perfect we become in our practical skills regarding the implementation of learned ideas, the need of technical writing capability cannot be neglected being a professional. Technical writing is a way of communicating the ideas in written which otherwise need to be presented orally. Technical writing skills have always been the need of the time, as they are required for internal as well as external official communication in both formal and informal manner. Moreover, they are the best way to capture the attention of your customers by presenting information in effective manner. This paper aims to analyze the importance of technical writing skills in professional industries of Pakistan by conducting a survey. Survey results presented in this paper clearly depicts the importance of formal and informal written communication media used in different professional industries in Pakistan. Analysis and discussion of the extent to which the alternative ways of communication besides technical writing have got importance in Pakistan is also an important aspect of this survey.

Keywords: Technical writing, Survey, Oral communication, Globalization, Communication trends, Formal Communication Media, Informal Communication, Audience

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Authors: Faraji Sepideh

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Nowadays, purchase rate of the smart device is increasing and user authentication is one of the important issues in information security. Alphanumeric strong passwords are difficult to memorize and also owners write them down on papers or save them in a computer file. In addition, text password has its own flaws and is vulnerable to attacks. Graphical password can be used as an alternative to alphanumeric password that users choose images as a password. This type of password is easier to use and memorize and also more secure from pervious password types. In this paper we have designed a more secure graphical password system to prevent shoulder surfing, smudge and brute force attack. This scheme is a combination of two types of graphical passwords recognition based and Cued recall based. Evaluation the usability and security of our proposed scheme have been explained in conclusion part.

Keywords: Brute force attack, graphical password, shoulder surfing attack, smudge attack.

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Authors: Abdallah S. Abdallah, Mohamad A bou El-Nasr, A. Lynn Abbott

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This paper presents a new color face image database for benchmarking of automatic face detection algorithms and human skin segmentation techniques. It is named the VT-AAST image database, and is divided into four parts. Part one is a set of 286 color photographs that include a total of 1027 faces in the original format given by our digital cameras, offering a wide range of difference in orientation, pose, environment, illumination, facial expression and race. Part two contains the same set in a different file format. The third part is a set of corresponding image files that contain human colored skin regions resulting from a manual segmentation procedure. The fourth part of the database has the same regions converted into grayscale. The database is available on-line for noncommercial use. In this paper, descriptions of the database development, organization, format as well as information needed for benchmarking of algorithms are depicted in detail.

Keywords: Image database, color image analysis, facedetection, skin segmentation.

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Authors: O. S. Saulters, S. D. Goldberg, W. A. Staples, E. I. Martinez, L. M. Sanchez, D. E. Archuleta, D. L. Williams, S. D. Johnson, A. M. Baker

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To address an important set of unverified field conditions, the Los Alamos National Laboratory Waste Compliance and Tracking System (WCATS) Wall-to-Wall Team performed an unprecedented and advanced inventory. This reconciliation involved confirmation analysis for approximately 5850 hazardous, low-level, mixed low-level, and transuranic waste containers located in more than 200 staging and storage areas across 33 Technical Areas. The interdisciplinary team scoped, planned, and developed the multidimensional assessments. Through coordination with cross-functional site hosts, they were able to verify and validate data while resolving discrepancies identified in WCATS. The results were extraordinary with an updated inventory, tailored outreach, more cohesive communications, and timely closed-loop feedbacks.

Keywords: Circular economy, environmental performance data, social-ecological-technological systems, waste management.

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Authors: Rosmina Bustami, Charles Bong, Darrien Mah, Afnie Hamzah, Marina Patrick

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The distressing flood scenarios that occur in recent years at the surrounding areas of Sarawak River have left damages of properties and indirectly caused disruptions of productive activities. This study is meant to reconstruct a 100-year flood event that took place in this river basin. Sarawak River Subbasin was chosen and modeled using the one-dimensional hydrodynamic modeling approach using InfoWorks River Simulation (RS), in combination with Geographical Information System (GIS). This produces the hydraulic response of the river and its floodplains in extreme flooding conditions. With different parameters introduced to the model, correlations of observed and simulated data are between 79% – 87%. Using the best calibrated model, flood mitigation structures are imposed along the sub-basin. Analysis is done based on the model simulation results. Result shows that the proposed retention ponds constructed along the sub-basin provide the most efficient reduction of flood by 34.18%.

Keywords: Flood, Flood mitigation structure, InfoWorks RS, Retention pond, Sarawak River sub-basin.

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Authors: Omar A Shaneb, Adell S. Amer

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Reduction of CO2 emissions has become a priority for several countries due to increasing concerns about global warming and climate change, especially in the developed countries. Residential sector is considered one of the most important sectors for considerable reduction of CO2 emissions since it represents a significant amount of the total consumed energy in those countries. A significant CO2 reduction cannot be achieved unless some initiatives have been adopted in the policy of these countries. Introducing micro combined heat and power (!CHP) systems into residential energy systems is one of these initiatives, since such a technology offers several advantages. Moreover, !CHP technology has the opportunity to be operated not only by natural gas but it could also be operated by renewable fuels. However, this technology can be operated by different operation strategies. Each strategy has some advantages and disadvantages. This paper provides a review of different operation strategies of such a technology used for residential energy systems, especially for single dwellings. The review summarizes key points that outline the trend of previous research carried out in this field.

Keywords: Energy management, !CHP systems, residential energy systems, sustainable houses, operation strategy.

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Authors: K. E. Oyetade, S. D. Eyono Obono

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One of the fundamental characteristics of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been the ever-changing nature of continuous release and models of ICTs with its impact on the academic, social, and psychological benefits of its introduction in schools. However, there seems to be a growing concern about its negative impact on students when introduced early in schools for teaching and learning. This study aims to design a model of child development factors affecting the early introduction of ICTs in schools in an attempt to improve the understanding of child development and introduction of ICTs in schools. The proposed model is based on a sound theoretical framework. It was designed following a literature review of child development theories and child development factors. The child development theoretical framework that fitted to the best of all child development factors was then chosen as the basis for the proposed model. This study hence found that the Jean Piaget cognitive developmental theory is the most adequate theoretical frameworks for modeling child development factors for ICT introduction in schools.

Keywords: Child development factors, child development theories, ICTs, theory.

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Authors: S. Mohajer, R. M. Taha, M. Adel

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Developing our knowledge of when pineapple roots grow can lead to improved water, fertilizer applications, and more precise culture management. This paper presents current understanding of morphological traits in pineapple roots, highlighting studies using incubation periods and various solid MS media treated with different sucrose concentrations and pH, which directly assess in vitro environmental factors. Rooting parameters had different optimal sucrose concentrations and incubation periods. All shoots failed to root in medium supplemented with sucrose at 5 g/L and no roots formed within the first 45 days in medium enriched with sucrose at 10 g/L. After 75 days, all shoots rooted in medium enriched with 10 and 20 g/L sucrose. Moreover, MS medium supplied with 20 g/L sucrose resulted in the longest and the highest number of roots with 27.3 mm and 4.7, respectively. Root function, such as capacity for P and N uptake, declined rapidly with root length. As a result, the longer the incubation period, the better the rooting responses would be.

Keywords: Environmental factors, in vitro rooting, pineapple, tissue culture.

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Authors: D. K. Lee, S. M. Shin, J. H. Lee

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Topology optimization technique utilizes constant element densities as design parameters. Finally, optimal distribution contours of the material densities between voids (0) and solids (1) in design domain represent the determination of topology. It means that regions with element density values become occupied by solids in design domain, while there are only void phases in regions where no density values exist. Therefore the void regions of topology optimization results provide design information to decide appropriate depositions of web-opening in structure. Contrary to the basic objective of the topology optimization technique which is to obtain optimal topology of structures, this present study proposes a new idea that topology optimization results can be also utilized for decision of proper web-opening’s position. Numerical examples of linear elastostatic structures demonstrate efficiency of methodological design processes using topology optimization in order to determinate the proper deposition of web-openings.

Keywords: Topology optimization, web-opening, structure, element density, material.

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Authors: Byung-Wan Jo, Kwang-Won Yoon, Ji-Sun Choi

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Load managing method on road became necessary since overloaded vehicles occur damage on road facilities and existing systems for preventing this damage still show many problems.Accordingly, efficient managing system for preventing overloaded vehicles could be organized by using the road itself as a scale by applying genetic algorithm to analyze the load and the drive information of vehicles.Therefore, this paper organized Ubiquitous sensor network system for development of intelligent overload vehicle regulation system, also in this study, to use the behavior of road, the transformation was measured by installing underground box type indoor model and indoor experiment was held using genetic algorithm. And we examined wireless possibility of overloaded vehicle regulation system through experiment of the transmission and reception distance.If this system will apply to road and bridge, might be effective for economy and convenience through establishment of U-IT system..

Keywords: Overload Vehicle. Genetic Algorithm, EmbeddedSystem, Wim Sensor, overload vehicle regulation

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Authors: Sandhya Rijal, Saroj Adhikari, Ramesh R. Pant

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Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) have attracted substantial interest in the recent years with the increasing recognition that these can provide essential community needs for improved and diversified rural livelihood and support the objectives of biodiversity conservation. Nevertheless, various challenges are witnessed in their sustainable harvest and management. Assuming that sustainable management with community stewardship can offer one of the solutions to existing challenges, the study assesses the linkages between NTFPs and rural livelihood in Lamabagar village of Dolakha, Nepal. The major objective was to document the status of NTFPs and their contributions in households of Lamabagar. For status documentation, vegetation sampling was done using systematic random sampling technique. 30 plots of 10 m × 10 m were laid down in six parallel transect lines at horizontal distance of 160 m in two different community forests. A structured questionnaire survey was conducted in 76 households (excluding non-response rate) using stratified random sampling technique for contribution analysis. Likewise, key informant interview and focus group discussions were also conducted for data triangulations. 36 different NTFPs were recorded from the vegetation sample in two community forests of which 50% were used for medicinal purposes. The other uses include fodder, religious value, and edible fruits and vegetables. Species like Juniperus indica, Daphne bholua Aconitum spicatum, and Lyonia ovalifolia were frequently used for trade as a source of income, which was sold in local market. The protected species like Taxus wallichiana and Neopicrorhiza scrophulariiflora were also recorded in the area for which the trade is prohibited. The protection of these species urgently needs community stewardship. More than half of the surveyed households (55%) were depending on NTFPs for their daily uses, other than economic purpose whereas 45% of them sold those products in the market directly or in the form of local handmade products as a source of livelihood. NTFPs were the major source of primary health curing agents especially for the poor and unemployed people in the study area. Hence, the NTFPs contributed to livelihood under three different categories: subsistence, supplement income and emergency support, depending upon the economic status of the households. Although the status of forest improved after handover to the user group, the availability of valuable medicinal herbs like Rhododendron anthopogon, Swertia nervosa, Neopicrorhiza scrophulariiflora, and Aconitum spicatum were declining. Inadequacy of technology, lack of easy transport access, and absence of good market facility were the major limitations for external trade of NTFPs in the study site. It was observed that people were interested towards conservation only if they could get some returns: economic in terms of rural settlements. Thus, the study concludes that NTFPs could contribute rural livelihood and support conservation objectives only if local communities are provided with the easy access of technology, market and capital.

Keywords: Contribution, medicinal, subsistence, sustainable harvest.

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Authors: Peng-Hui Maffee Wan, Klarissa Ting Ting Chang, Rax Suen Chun Lung

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Icons, or pictorial and graphical objects, are commonly used in human-computer interaction (HCI) fields as the mediator in order to communicate information to users. Yet there has been little studies focusing on a majority of the world’s population – semi-literate communities – in terms of the fundamental knowhow for designing icons for such population. In this study, two sets of icons belonging in different icon taxonomy – abstract and concrete – are designed for a mobile application for semi-literate agricultural communities. In this paper, we propose a triadic relationship of an icon, namely meaning, task and mental image, which inherits the triadic relationship of a sign. User testing with the application and a post-pilot questionnaire are conducted as the experimental approach in two rural villages in India. Icons belonging to concrete taxonomy perform better than abstract icons on the premise that the design of the icon fulfills the underlying rules of the proposed triadic relationship.

Keywords: Icon, GUI, mobile app, semi-literate.

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Authors: Pei-Te Chiueh, Hsiao-Ting Wu, Shang-Lien Lo

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Protecting is the sources of drinking water is the first barrier of contamination of drinking water. The Feitsui Reservoir watershed of Taiwan supplies domestic water for around 5 million people in the Taipei metropolitan area. Understanding the spatial patterns of water quality trends in this watershed is an important agenda for management authorities. This study examined 7 sites in the watershed for water quality parameters regulated in the standard for drinking water source. The non-parametric seasonal Mann-Kendall-s test was used to determine significant trends for each parameter. Significant trends of increasing pH occurred at the sampling station in the uppermost stream watershed, and in total phosphorus at 4 sampling stations in the middle and downstream watershed. Additionally, the multi-scale land cover assessment and average land slope were used to explore the influence on the water quality in the watershed. Regression models for predicting water quality were also developed.

Keywords: Seasonal Mann-Kendall's test, Flow-adjusted concentrations, Water quality trends, Land-use

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Authors: Seyed Mehran Kazemi, Bahare Fatemi

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Sudoku is a logic-based combinatorial puzzle game which is popular among people of different ages. Due to this popularity, computer softwares are being developed to generate and solve Sudoku puzzles with different levels of difficulty. Several methods and algorithms have been proposed and used in different softwares to efficiently solve Sudoku puzzles. Various search methods such as stochastic local search have been applied to this problem. Genetic Algorithm (GA) is one of the algorithms which have been applied to this problem in different forms and in several works in the literature. In these works, chromosomes with little or no information were considered and obtained results were not promising. In this paper, we propose a new way of applying GA to this problem which uses more-informed chromosomes than other works in the literature. We optimize the parameters of our GA using puzzles with different levels of difficulty. Then we use the optimized values of the parameters to solve various puzzles and compare our results to another GA-based method for solving Sudoku puzzles.

Keywords: Genetic algorithm, optimization, solving Sudoku puzzles, stochastic local search.

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Authors: Ghada S. Moussa

Abstract:

With the increase in population along with economic prosperity, an enormous increase in the number and types of vehicles on the roads occurred. This fact brings a growing need for efficiently yet effectively classifying vehicles into their corresponding categories, which play a crucial role in many areas of infrastructure planning and traffic management.

This paper presents two vehicle-type classification approaches; 1) geometric-based and 2) appearance-based. The two classification approaches are used for two tasks: multi-class and intra-class vehicle classifications. For the evaluation purpose of the proposed classification approaches’ performance and the identification of the most effective yet efficient one, 10-fold cross-validation technique is used with a large dataset. The proposed approaches are distinguishable from previous research on vehicle classification in which: i) they consider both geometric and appearance attributes of vehicles, and ii) they perform remarkably well in both multi-class and intra-class vehicle classification. Experimental results exhibit promising potentials implementations of the proposed vehicle classification approaches into real-world applications.

Keywords: Appearance attributes, Geometric attributes, Support vector machine, Vehicle classification.

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Authors: Gemma García López

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The goal of this study is to analyze if search queries carried out in search engines such as Google, can offer emotional information about the user that performs them. Knowing the emotional state in which the Internet user is located can be a key to achieve the maximum personalization of content and the detection of worrying behaviors. For this, two studies were carried out using tools with advanced natural language processing techniques. The first study determines if a query can be classified as positive, negative or neutral, while the second study extracts emotional content from words and applies the categorical and dimensional models for the representation of emotions. In addition, we use search queries in Spanish and English to establish similarities and differences between two languages. The results revealed that text search queries performed by users on the Internet can be classified emotionally. This allows us to better understand the emotional state of the user at the time of the search, which could involve adapting the technology and personalizing the responses to different emotional states.

Keywords: Emotion classification, text search queries, emotional analysis, sentiment analysis in text, natural language processing.

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Authors: C.F. Cheung, Ricky Ma, W.Y. Wong, Y.L. Tse

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Knowledge capabilities are increasingly important for the innovative technology enterprises to enhance the business performance in terms of product competitiveness, innovation and sales. Recognition of the company capability by auditing allows them to further pursue advancement, strategic planning and hence gain competitive advantages. This paper attempts to develop an Organizations- Knowledge Capabilities Assessment (OKCA) method to assess the knowledge capabilities of technology companies. The OKCA is a questionnaire-based assessment tool which has been developed to uncover the impact of various knowledge capabilities on different organizational performance. The collected data is then analyzed to find out the crucial elements for different technological companies. Based on the results, innovative technology enterprises are able to recognize the direction for further improvement on business performance and future development plan. External environmental factors affecting organization performance can be found through the further analysis of some selected reference companies.

Keywords: Audit and Assessment, Innovation, Intellectual Capital, Knowledge and Technology Management, Knowledge Capability

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Authors: Aline Alves Bandeira, Maria Cecília de Paula Silva

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The existing legal gap regarding thes treatment and final disposal of industrial effluents in Brazil promotes legal uncertainty. The government has not structured itself to guarantee environmental protection. The current legal system and public policies must guarantee the protection of bodies of water and an effective treatment of industrial effluents. This is because economic progress, eco-efficiency and industrial ecology are inseparable. The lack of protection for the water bodies weakens environmental protection, with abuses by companies that do not give due treatment to their effluents, or fail to present the water balance of their factories. It is considered necessary to enact a specific law on industrial effluents related to a National Industrial Effluent Policy, because it is the location of the largest Integrated Industrial Complex in the Southern Hemisphere. The regulation of this subject cannot be limited by decrees of the local Executive Branch, allowing the inspection of the industrial activity or enterprise to be affected fundamentally by environmental self-control, or by private institutions.

Keywords: Effluent policy, environmental law, environmental management, industrial effluents.

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Authors: Fury Khristianty Fitriyah

Abstract:

This study aims to identify the extent of the role of the Satuan Pengawas Intern (Internal Audit Unit) in detecting and preventing fraud in public universities in West Java under the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education. The research method applied was a qualitative case study approach, while the unit of analysis for this study is the Internal Audit Unit at each public university. Results of this study indicate that the Internal Audit Unit is able to detect and prevent fraud within a public university environment by means of red flags to mark accounting anomalies. These stem from inaccurate budget planning that prompts inappropriate use of funds, exacerbated by late disbursements of funds, which potentially lead to fictitious transactions, and discrepancies in recording state-owned assets into a state property management system (SIMAK BMN), which, if not conducted properly, potentially causes loss to the state.

Keywords: Internal Audit Unit, efficiency, fraud, public university.

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Authors: P. Waiyawuththanapoom

Abstract:

This research is objected to study the pattern and channel of distribution of Ang Thong’s court doll OTOP product and try to develop the quality of distribution of the court doll product. The population of this research is 50 court doll manufacturers of Ang Thong’s court doll. The data and information was collected by using the questionnaire and use percentage, mean and standard deviation as an analysis tools. The distribution channel of Ang Thong’s court doll can be separated into 3 channels which are direct distribution from the manufacturer, via the middleman and via the co-operated manufacturing group. In the direct distribution from the manufacturer channel, it was found that the manufacturer is given the highest rate of importance to how they keep the inventory. In the distribution via the middleman channel, it was found that the manufacturer is given the highest rate of importance to the distribution efficiency. But in the distribution via the co-operated manufacturing group, it was found that the manufacturer is given the highest rate of importance to the public relationship.

Keywords: Distribution, Court Doll, Ang Thong Province.

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Authors: H. B. Nguendo Yongsi, Thora M. Herrmann, A. Lutumba Ntetu, Rémy Sietchiping, Christopher Bryant

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Health problems linked to urban growth are current major concerns of developing countries. In 2002 and 2005, an interdisciplinary program “Populations et Espaces ├á Risques SANitaires" (PERSAN) was set up under the patronage of the Development and Research Institute. Centered on health in Cameroon-s urban environment, the program mainly sought to (i) identify diarrhoea risk factors in Yaoundé, (ii) to measure their prevalence and apprehend their spatial distribution. The crosssectional epidemiological study that was carried out revealed a diarrheic prevalence of 14.4% (437 cases of diarrhoea on the 3,034 children examined). Also, among risk factors studied, household refuse management methods used by city dwellers were statistically associated to these diarrhoeas. Moreover, it happened that levels of diarrhoeal attacks varied consistently from one neighbourhood to another because of the discrepancy urbanization process of the Yaoundé metropolis.

Keywords: Diarrhea, health risk, household refuses handling, sanitation, Yaoundé.

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Authors: Mallikarjun B. Channappagoudar, Pallapa Venkataram

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As a node monitoring protocol, which is a part of network management, operates in distributed manner, conformance testing of such protocols is more tedious than testing a peer-to-peer protocol. Various works carried out to give the methodology to do conformance testing of distributed protocol. In this paper, we have presented a formal approach for conformance testing of a Node Monitoring Protocol, which uses both static and mobile agents, for MANETs. First, we use SDL to obtain MSCs, which represent the scenario descriptions by sequence diagrams, which in turn generate test sequences and test cases. Later, Testing and Test Control Notation Version-3 (TTCN-3) is used to execute test cases with respect to generated test sequences to know the conformance of protocol against the given specification. This approach shows, the effective conformance testing of the distributed protocols for the network with varying node density and complex behavior. Experimental results for the protocol scenario represent the effectiveness of the method used.

Keywords: Conformance Testing, FSM, Mobile agent, TTCN, Test sequence.

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Authors: Rio G. L. D'Souza, K. Chandra Sekaran, A. Kandasamy

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The goal of Gene Expression Analysis is to understand the processes that underlie the regulatory networks and pathways controlling inter-cellular and intra-cellular activities. In recent times microarray datasets are extensively used for this purpose. The scope of such analysis has broadened in recent times towards reconstruction of gene networks and other holistic approaches of Systems Biology. Evolutionary methods are proving to be successful in such problems and a number of such methods have been proposed. However all these methods are based on processing of genotypic information. Towards this end, there is a need to develop evolutionary methods that address phenotypic interactions together with genotypic interactions. We present a novel evolutionary approach, called Phenomic algorithm, wherein the focus is on phenotypic interaction. We use the expression profiles of genes to model the interactions between them at the phenotypic level. We apply this algorithm to the yeast sporulation dataset and show that the algorithm can identify gene networks with relative ease.

Keywords: Evolutionary computing, gene expression analysis, gene networks, microarray data analysis, phenomic algorithms.

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Authors: Javad Elkaie Behjati, Mehrzad Minouei

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The present study aimed to assess the cost of money based on separating deposits and identifying actions and costs affecting in the process of cost of money in EN Bank of Iran (also known as Eghtesad Novin Bank). The method to calculate the cost of money is based on Activity-Based Costing (ABC). To conduct the study, the required data including deposits in banks and absorbed costs related to the same deposits were extracted from the financial statements of the bank. In order to cost the bank services properly as well as determining the commercial strategies required by commercial units, the data are precisely studied and the cost of each deposit is calculated according to the ABC. Eventually, the factors helping to improve the cost management and also a new model to calculate the cost of money in the bank are presented by some applicable formulas. Furthermore, some offers have been provided for users of both sections, in the practical section in commercial units and the theoretical one in universities.

Keywords: The cost of money, activity-based costing, banking, bank deposits, bank fees, services bank.

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Authors: Brandy Yee, Dianne Yee

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Through the exploration of the lived experiences, beliefs and values of instructional leaders, teachers and students in Finland, Germany and Canada, we investigated the factors which contribute to developmentally responsive, intellectually engaging middle-level learning environments for early adolescents. Student-centred leadership dimensions, effective instructional practices and student agency were examined through the lens of current policy and research on middle-level learning environments emerging from the Canadian province of Manitoba. Consideration of these three research perspectives in the context of early adolescent learning, placed against an international backdrop, provided a previously undocumented perspective on leading, teaching and learning in the middle years. Aligning with a social constructivist, qualitative research paradigm, the study incorporated collective case study methodology, along with constructivist grounded theory methods of data analysis. Data were collected through semi-structured individual and focus group interviews and document review, as well as direct and participant observation. Three case study narratives were developed to share the rich stories of study participants, who had been selected using maximum variation and intensity sampling techniques. Interview transcript data were coded using processes from constructivist grounded theory. A cross-case analysis yielded a conceptual framework highlighting key factors that were found to be significant in the establishment of developmentally responsive, intellectually engaging middle-level learning environments. Seven core categories emerged from the cross-case analysis as common to all three countries. Within the visual conceptual framework (which depicts the interconnected nature of leading, teaching and learning in middle-level learning environments), these seven core categories were grouped into Essential Factors (student agency, voice and choice), Contextual Factors (instructional practices; school culture; engaging families and the community), Synergistic Factors (instructional leadership) and Cornerstone Factors (education as a fundamental cultural value; preservice, in-service and ongoing teacher development). In addition, sub-factors emerged from recurring codes in the data and identified specific characteristics and actions found in developmentally responsive, intellectually engaging middle-level learning environments. Although this study focused on 12 schools in Finland, Germany and Canada, it informs the practice of educators working with early adolescent learners in middle-level learning environments internationally. The authentic voices of early adolescent learners are the most important resource educators have to gauge if they are creating effective learning environments for their students. Ongoing professional dialogue and learning is essential to ensure teachers are supported in their work and develop the pedagogical practices needed to meet the needs of early adolescent learners. It is critical to balance consistency, coherence and dependability in the school environment with the necessary flexibility in order to support the unique learning needs of early adolescents. Educators must intentionally create a school culture that unites teachers, students and their families in support of a common purpose, as well as nurture positive relationships between the school and its community. A large, urban school district in Canada has implemented a school cohort-based model to begin to bring developmentally responsive, intellectually engaging middle-level learning environments to scale.

Keywords: Developmentally responsive learning environments, early adolescents, middle-level learning, middle years, instructional leadership, instructional practices, intellectually engaging learning environments, leadership dimensions, student agency.

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Authors: Areej M. Abduldaim, Nadia M. G. Al-Saidi

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Algebra is one of the important fields of mathematics. It concerns with the study and manipulation of mathematical symbols. It also concerns with the study of abstractions such as groups, rings, and fields. Due to the development of these abstractions, it is extended to consider other structures, such as vectors, matrices, and polynomials, which are non-numerical objects. Computer algebra is the implementation of algebraic methods as algorithms and computer programs. Recently, many algebraic cryptosystem protocols are based on non-commutative algebraic structures, such as authentication, key exchange, and encryption-decryption processes are adopted. Cryptography is the science that aimed at sending the information through public channels in such a way that only an authorized recipient can read it. Ring theory is the most attractive category of algebra in the area of cryptography. In this paper, we employ the algebraic structure called skew -Armendariz rings to design a neoteric algorithm for zero knowledge proof. The proposed protocol is established and illustrated through numerical example, and its soundness and completeness are proved.

Keywords: Cryptosystem, identification, skew π-Armendariz rings, skew polynomial rings, zero knowledge protocol.

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Authors: Md Shohidul Islam, Jongmyon Kim, Ui-pil Chong

Abstract:

Medical image is an integral part of e-health care and e-diagnosis system. Medical image watermarking is widely used to protect patients’ information from malicious alteration and manipulation. The watermarked medical images are transmitted over the internet among patients, primary and referred physicians. The images are highly prone to corruption in the wireless transmission medium due to various noises, deflection, and refractions. Distortion in the received images leads to faulty watermark detection and inappropriate disease diagnosis. To address the issue, this paper utilizes error correction code (ECC) with (8, 4) Hamming code in an existing watermarking system. In addition, we implement the high complex ECC on a graphics processing units (GPU) to accelerate and support real-time requirement. Experimental results show that GPU achieves considerable speedup over the sequential CPU implementation, while maintaining 100% ECC efficiency.

Keywords: Medical Image Watermarking (MIW), e-health system, error correction, Hamming code, GPU.

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Authors: Armando Calabrese, Roberta Costa, Tamara Menichini, Francesco Rosati

Abstract:

As a company competitiveness depends more and more on the relationship with its stakeholders, the topic of companystakeholder fit is becoming increasingly important. This fit affects the extent to which a stakeholder perceives CSR company commitment, values and behaviors and, therefore, stakeholder identification in a company and his/her loyalty to it. Consequently, it is important to measure the alignment or the gap between stakeholder CSR demands, values, preferences and perceptions, and the company CSR disclosed commitment, values and policies. In this paper, in order to assess the company-stakeholder fit about corporate responsibility, an innovative CSR fit positioning matrix is proposed. This matrix is based on the measurement of a company CSR disclosed commitment and stakeholder perceived and required commitment. The matrix is part of a more complex methodology based on Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) indicators, content analysis and stakeholder questionnaires. This methodology provides appropriate indications for helping companies to achieve CSR company-stakeholder fit, by leveraging both CSR commitment and communication. Moreover, it could be used by top management for comparing different companies and stakeholders, and for planning specific CSR strategies, policies and activities.

Keywords: Company-Stakeholder fit, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), CSR Positioning Matrix, Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Stakeholder Orientation.

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Authors: S. V. Kogilavani, C. S. Kanimozhiselvi, S. Malliga

Abstract:

Fast changing knowledge systems on the Internet can be accessed more efficiently with the help of automatic document summarization and updating techniques. The aim of multi-document update summary generation is to construct a summary unfolding the mainstream of data from a collection of documents based on the hypothesis that the user has already read a set of previous documents. In order to provide a lot of semantic information from the documents, deeper linguistic or semantic analysis of the source documents were used instead of relying only on document word frequencies to select important concepts. In order to produce a responsive summary, meaning oriented structural analysis is needed. To address this issue, the proposed system presents a document summarization approach based on sentence annotation with aspects, prepositions and named entities. Semantic element extraction strategy is used to select important concepts from documents which are used to generate enhanced semantic summary.

Keywords: Aspects, named entities, prepositions, update summary.

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