Search results for: digital economy
916 Saving Energy through Scalable Architecture
Authors: John Lamb, Robert Epstein, Vasundhara L. Bhupathi, Sanjeev Kumar Marimekala
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In this paper, we focus on the importance of scalable architecture for data centers and buildings in general to help an enterprise achieve environmental sustainability. The scalable architecture helps in many ways, such as adaptability to the business and user requirements, promotes high availability and disaster recovery solutions that are cost effective and low maintenance. The scalable architecture also plays a vital role in three core areas of sustainability: economy, environment, and social, which are also known as the 3 pillars of a sustainability model. If the architecture is scalable, it has many advantages. A few examples are that scalable architecture helps businesses and industries to adapt to changing technology, drive innovation, promote platform independence, and build resilience against natural disasters. Most importantly, having a scalable architecture helps industries bring in cost-effective measures for energy consumption, reduce wastage, increase productivity, and enable a robust environment. It also helps in the reduction of carbon emissions with advanced monitoring and metering capabilities. Scalable architectures help in reducing waste by optimizing the designs to utilize materials efficiently, minimize resources, decrease carbon footprints by using low-impact materials that are environmentally friendly. In this paper we also emphasize the importance of cultural shift towards the reuse and recycling of natural resources for a balanced ecosystem and maintain a circular economy. Also, since all of us are involved in the use of computers, much of the scalable architecture we have studied is related to data centers.
Keywords: Scalable Architectures, Sustainability, Application Design, Disruptive Technology, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, AI, Social Media Platform, Cloud Computing, Advanced Networking, Storage Devices, Advanced Monitoring, Metering Infrastructure, Climate change.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 59915 Robotics, Education and Economy
Authors: David G. Maxínez, Francisco Javier Sánchez Rangel, Guillermo Castillo Tapia, Petra Baldovinos Noyola, M. Antonieta García Galván, Moisés G Sierra
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Describes the current situation of educational Robotics "the State of the art" its concept, its evolution their niches of opportunity, academic and business and the importance of education and academic outreach. It shows that the development of high-tech automated educational materials influence the teaching-learning process and that communication between machines and humans is a reality.Keywords: Education, robotics, robots, technology, innovation, educational constructivism
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1895914 On the Factors Affecting Computing Students’ Awareness of the Latest ICTs
Authors: O. D. Adegbehingbe, S. D. Eyono Obono
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The education sector is constantly faced with rapid changes in technologies in terms of ensuring that the curriculum is up to date and in terms of making sure that students are aware of these technological changes. This challenge can be seen as the motivation for this study, which is to examine the factors affecting computing students’ awareness of the latest Information Technologies (ICTs). The aim of this study is divided into two sub-objectives which are: the selection of relevant theories and the design of a conceptual model to support it as well as the empirical testing of the designed model. The first objective is achieved by a review of existing literature on technology adoption theories and models. The second objective is achieved using a survey of computing students in the four universities of the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. Data collected from this survey is analyzed using Statistical package for the Social Science (SPSS) using descriptive statistics, ANOVA and Pearson correlations. The main hypothesis of this study is that there is a relationship between the demographics and the prior conditions of the computing students and their awareness of general ICT trends and of Digital Switch Over (DSO) a new technology which involves the change from analog to digital television broadcasting in order to achieve improved spectrum efficiency. The prior conditions of the computing students that were considered in this study are students’ perceived exposure to career guidance and students’ perceived curriculum currency. The results of this study confirm that gender, ethnicity, and high school computing course affect students’ perceived curriculum currency while high school location affects students’ awareness of DSO. The results of this study also confirm that there is a relationship between students prior conditions and their awareness of general ICT trends and DSO in particular.Keywords: Education, Information Technologies, IDT, awareness.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2230913 Children’s Literature in Primary School: An Opportunity to Develop Soft Skills
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Emotions are manifestations of everything that happens around us, influencing, consequently, our actions. People experience emotions continuously when socialize with friends, when facing complex situations, and when at school, among many other situations. Although the influence of emotions in the teaching and learning process is nothing new, its study in the academic field has been more popular in recent years, distinguishing between positive (e.g., enjoyment and curiosity) and negative emotions (e.g., boredom and frustration). There is no doubt that emotions play an important role in the students’ learning process since the development of knowledge involves thoughts, actions, and emotions. Nowadays, one of the most significant changes in acquiring knowledge, accessing information, and communicating is the way we do it through technological and digital resources. Faced with an increasingly frequent use of technological or digital means with different purposes, whether in the acquisition of knowledge or in communicating with others, the emotions involved in these processes change naturally. The speed with which the Internet provides information reduces the excitement for searching for the answer, the gratification of discovering something through our own effort, the patience, the capacity for effort, and resilience. Thus, technological and digital devices are bringing changes to the emotional domain. For this reason and others, it is essential to educate children from an early age to understand that it is not possible to have everything with just one click and to deal with negative emotions. Currently, many curriculum guidelines highlight the importance of the development of so-called soft skills, in which the emotional domain is present, in academic contexts. Within the scope of the Portuguese reality, the “Students’ profile by the end of compulsory schooling” and the “Health education reference” also emphasize the importance of emotions in education. There are several resources to stimulate good emotions in articulation with cognitive development. One of the most predictable and not very used resources in the most diverse areas of knowledge after pre-school education is the literature. Due to its characteristics, in the narrative or in the illustrations, literature provides the reader with a journey full of emotions. On the other hand, literature makes it possible to establish bridges between narrative and different areas of knowledge, reconciling the cognitive and emotional domains. This study results from the presentation session of a children's book, entitled “From the Outside to Inside and from the Inside to Outside”, to children attending the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th years of basic education in the Portuguese education system. In this book, rationale and emotion are in constant dialogue, so in this session, based on excerpts from the book dramatized by the authors, some questions were asked to the children in a large group, with an aim to explore their perception regarding certain emotions or events that trigger them. According to the aim of this study, qualitative, descriptive, and interpretative research was carried out based on participant observation and audio records.
Keywords: Emotions, children’s literature, basic education, soft skills.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 351912 Defect Prevention and Detection of DSP-software
Authors: Deng Shiwei
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The users are now expecting higher level of DSP(Digital Signal Processing) software quality than ever before. Prevention and detection of defect are critical elements of software quality assurance. In this paper, principles and rules for prevention and detection of defect are suggested, which are not universal guidelines, but are useful for both novice and experienced DSP software developers.Keywords: defect detection, defect prevention, DSP-software, software development, software testing.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1811911 The Study on the Conversed Remediation between Old and New Media in Case of Smart Phone and PC in South Korea
Authors: Jinhwan Yu, Jooyeon Yook
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After Apple's first introduction its smart phone, iPhone in the end of 2009 in Korea, the number of Korean smarphone users had been rapidly increasing so that the half of Korean population became smart phone users as of February, 2012. Currently, smart phones are positioned as a major digital media with powerful influences in Korea. And, now, Koreans are leaning new information, enjoying games and communicating other people every time and everywhere. As smart phone devices' performances increased, the number of usable services became more while adequate GUI developments are required to implement various functions with smart phones. The strategy to provide similar experiences on smart phones through familiar features based on employment of existing media's functions mostly contributed to smart phones' popularization in connection with smart phone devices' iconic GUIs. The spread of Smart phone increased mobile web accesses. Therefore, the attempts to implement PC's web in the smart phone's web are continuously made. The mobile web GUI provides familiar experiences to users through designs adequately utilizing the smart phone's GUIs. As the number of users familiarized to smart phones and mobile web GUIs, opposite to reversed remediation from many parts of PCs, PCs are starting to adapt smart phone GUIs. This study defines this phenomenon as the reversed remediation, and reviews the reversed remediation cases of Smart phone GUI' characteristics of PCs. For this purpose, the established study issues are as under: · what is the reversed remediation? · what are the smart phone GUI's characteristics? · what kind of interrelationship exist s between the smart phone and PC's web site? It is meaningful in the forecast of the future GUI's change by understanding of characteristics in the paradigm changes of PC and smart phone's GUI designs. This also will be helpful to establish strategies for digital devices' development and design.Keywords: Graphic User Interface, Remediation, Smart Phone, South Korea, Web Site
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1546910 Digital Twins: Towards an Overarching Framework for the Built Environment
Authors: Astrid Bagireanu, Julio Bros-Williamson, Mila Duncheva, John Currie
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Digital Twins (DTs) have entered the built environment from more established industries like aviation and manufacturing, although there has never been a common goal for utilising DTs at scale. Their assimilation into the built environment lacked its very own handover documentation: how should DTs be implemented into a project and what responsibilities should each project stakeholder hold in the realisation of a DT vision. What is needed is an approach to translate these requirements into actionable DT dimensions. This paper presents a foundation for an overarching framework specific to the built environment. For the purposes of this research, the project timeline is established by referencing the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Plan of Work from 2020, providing a foundation for delineating project stages. The RIBA Plan of Work consists of eight stages designed to inform on the definition, briefing, design, coordination, construction, handover, and use of a built asset. Similar project stages are utilised in other countries; therefore, the recommendations from the interviews presented in this paper are applicable internationally. Simultaneously, there is not a single mainstream software resource that leverages DT abilities. This ambiguity meets an unparalleled ambition from governments and industries worldwide to achieve a national grid of interconnected DTs. For the construction industry to access these benefits, it necessitates a defined starting point. This research aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the potential applications and ramifications of DT in the context of the built environment. This paper is an integral part of a larger research aimed at developing a conceptual framework for the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) sector following a conventional project timeline. Therefore, this paper plays a pivotal role in providing practical insights and a tangible foundation for developing a stage-by-stage approach to assimilate the potential of DT within the built environment. First, the research focuses on a review of relevant literature, albeit acknowledging the inherent constraint of limited sources available. Secondly, a qualitative study compiling the views of 14 DT experts is presented, concluding with an inductive analysis of the interview findings - ultimately highlighting the barriers and strengths of DT in the context of framework development. As parallel developments aim to progress net-zero-centred design and improve project efficiencies across the built environment, the limited resources available to support DTs should be leveraged to propel the industry to reach its digitalisation era, in which AEC stakeholders have a fundamental role in understanding this, from the earliest stages of a project.
Keywords: Digital twins, decision making, design, net-zero, built environment.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 517909 High-Efficiency Comparator for Low-Power Application
Authors: M. Yousefi, N. Nasirzadeh
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In this paper, dynamic comparator structure employing two methods for power consumption reduction with applications in low-power high-speed analog-to-digital converters have been presented. The proposed comparator has low consumption thanks to power reduction methods. They have the ability for offset adjustment. The comparator consumes 14.3 μW at 100 MHz which is equal to 11.8 fJ. The comparator has been designed and simulated in 180 nm CMOS. Layouts occupy 210 μm2.Keywords: Comparator, low, power, efficiency.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1620908 Statistical Texture Analysis
Authors: G. N. Srinivasan, G. Shobha
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This paper presents an overview of the methodologies and algorithms for statistical texture analysis of 2D images. Methods for digital-image texture analysis are reviewed based on available literature and research work either carried out or supervised by the authors.Keywords: Image Texture, Texture Analysis, Statistical Approaches, Structural approaches, spectral approaches, Morphological approaches, Fractals, Fourier Transforms, Gabor Filters, Wavelet transforms.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 938907 Synthesis of Digital Circuits with Genetic Algorithms: A Fractional-Order Approach
Authors: Cecília Reis, J. A. Tenreiro Machado, J. Boaventura Cunha
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This paper analyses the performance of a genetic algorithm using a new concept, namely a fractional-order dynamic fitness function, for the synthesis of combinational logic circuits. The experiments reveal superior results in terms of speed and convergence to achieve a solution.
Keywords: Circuit design, fractional-order systems, genetic algorithms, logic circuits.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1424906 Software Architecture and Support for Patient Tracking Systems in Critical Scenarios
Authors: Gianluca Cornetta, Abdellah Touhafi, David J. Santos, Jose Manuel Vazquez
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In this work a new platform for mobile-health systems is presented. System target application is providing decision support to rescue corps or military medical personnel in combat areas. Software architecture relies on a distributed client-server system that manages a wireless ad-hoc networks hierarchy in which several different types of client operate. Each client is characterized for different hardware and software requirements. Lower hierarchy levels rely in a network of completely custom devices that store clinical information and patient status and are designed to form an ad-hoc network operating in the 2.4 GHz ISM band and complying with the IEEE 802.15.4 standard (ZigBee). Medical personnel may interact with such devices, that are called MICs (Medical Information Carriers), by means of a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) or a MDA (Medical Digital Assistant), and transmit the information stored in their local databases as well as issue a service request to the upper hierarchy levels by using IEEE 802.11 a/b/g standard (WiFi). The server acts as a repository that stores both medical evacuation forms and associated events (e.g., a teleconsulting request). All the actors participating in the diagnostic or evacuation process may access asynchronously to such repository and update its content or generate new events. The designed system pretends to optimise and improve information spreading and flow among all the system components with the aim of improving both diagnostic quality and evacuation process.Keywords: IEEE 802.15.4 (ZigBee), IEEE 802.11 a/b/g (WiFi), distributed client-server systems, embedded databases, issue trackers, ad-hoc networks.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2039905 Adaptive Car Safety System
Authors: Shahram Jafari, Mohammad-Ali Nikouei Mahani, Mohammad Arabnezhad, Mahdi Sharifi
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Car accident is one of the major causes of death in many countries. Many researchers have attempted to design and develop techniques to increase car safety in the past recent years. In spite of all the efforts, it is still challenging to design a system adaptive to the driver rather than the automotive characteristics. In this paper, the adaptive car safety system is explained which attempts to find a balance.
Keywords: Analog to Digital Converter (ADC), AdaptiveCar Safety System, Multi-Media Card (MMC).
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1897904 UEFA Super Cup: Economic Effects on Georgian Economy
Authors: Giorgi Bregadze
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Tourism is the most viable and sustainable economic development option for Georgia and one of the main sources of foreign exchange earnings. Events are considered as one of the most effective ways to attract foreign visitors to the country, and, recently, the government of Georgia has begun investing in this sector very actively. This article stresses the necessity of research based economic policy in the tourism sector. In this regard, it is of paramount importance to measure the economic effects of the events which are subsidized by taxpayers’ money. The economic effect of events can be analyzed from two perspectives; financial perspective of the government and perspective of economic effects of the tourism administration. The article emphasizes more realistic and all-inclusive focus of the economic effect analysis of the tourism administration as it concentrates on the income of residents and local businesses, part of which generate tax revenues for the government. The public would like to know what the economic returns to investment are. In this article, the methodology used to describe the economic effects of UEFA Super Cup held in Tbilisi, will help to answer this question. Methodology is based on three main principles and covers three stages. Using the suggested methodology article estimates the direct economic effect of UEFA Super cup on Georgian economy. Although the attempt to make an economic effect analysis of the event was successful in Georgia, some obstacles and insufficiencies were identified during the survey. The article offers several recommendations that will help to refine methodology and improve the accuracy of the data. Furthermore, it is very important to receive the correct standard of measurement of events in Georgia. In this caseü non-ethical acts of measurement which are widely utilized by different research companies will not trigger others to show overestimated effects. It is worth mentioning that to author’s best knowledge, this is the first attempt to measure the economic effect of an event held in Georgia.
Keywords: Biased economic effect analysis, expenditure of local citizens, time switchers and casuals, UEFA super cup.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 703903 Comparative Analysis of Tax Systems: Some Evidence from CEE Countries
Authors: Marie Paseková, Jiří Strouhal, Lehte Alver, Arturs Praulinš
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During last decades is widely discussed the international harmonization of financial reporting. This harmonization is also affected by national tax systems in analyzed countries. This paper provides some evidence on current national tax systems in selected countries in Central and Eastern Europe. The linkage of accounting profit as a tax base might decrease the administrative burden for majority of SMEs, which are the most important engine of each national economy.Keywords: International harmonization, tax system, SMEs, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1924902 CBIR Using Multi-Resolution Transform for Brain Tumour Detection and Stages Identification
Authors: H. Benjamin Fredrick David, R. Balasubramanian, A. Anbarasa Pandian
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Image retrieval is the most interesting technique which is being used today in our digital world. CBIR, commonly expanded as Content Based Image Retrieval is an image processing technique which identifies the relevant images and retrieves them based on the patterns that are extracted from the digital images. In this paper, two research works have been presented using CBIR. The first work provides an automated and interactive approach to the analysis of CBIR techniques. CBIR works on the principle of supervised machine learning which involves feature selection followed by training and testing phase applied on a classifier in order to perform prediction. By using feature extraction, the image transforms such as Contourlet, Ridgelet and Shearlet could be utilized to retrieve the texture features from the images. The features extracted are used to train and build a classifier using the classification algorithms such as Naïve Bayes, K-Nearest Neighbour and Multi-class Support Vector Machine. Further the testing phase involves prediction which predicts the new input image using the trained classifier and label them from one of the four classes namely 1- Normal brain, 2- Benign tumour, 3- Malignant tumour and 4- Severe tumour. The second research work includes developing a tool which is used for tumour stage identification using the best feature extraction and classifier identified from the first work. Finally, the tool will be used to predict tumour stage and provide suggestions based on the stage of tumour identified by the system. This paper presents these two approaches which is a contribution to the medical field for giving better retrieval performance and for tumour stages identification.
Keywords: Brain tumour detection, content based image retrieval, classification of tumours, image retrieval.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 775901 A Compact Via-less Ultra-Wideband Microstrip Filter by Utilizing Open-Circuit Quarter Wavelength Stubs
Authors: Muhammad Yasir Wadood, Fatemeh Babaeian
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By developing ultra-wideband (UWB) systems, there is a high demand for UWB filters with low insertion loss, wide bandwidth, and having a planar structure which is compatible with other components of the UWB system. A microstrip interdigital filter is a great option for designing UWB filters. However, the presence of via holes in this structure creates difficulties in the fabrication procedure of the filter. Especially in the higher frequency band, any misalignment of the drilled via hole with the Microstrip stubs causes large errors in the measurement results compared to the desired results. Moreover, in this case (high-frequency designs), the line width of the stubs are very narrow, so highly precise small via holes are required to be implemented, which increases the cost of fabrication significantly. Also, in this case, there is a risk of having fabrication errors. To combat this issue, in this paper, a via-less UWB microstrip filter is proposed which is designed based on a modification of a conventional inter-digital bandpass filter. The novel approaches in this filter design are 1) replacement of each via hole with a quarter-wavelength open circuit stub to avoid the complexity of manufacturing, 2) using a bend structure to reduce the unwanted coupling effects and 3) minimising the size. Using the proposed structure, a UWB filter operating in the frequency band of 3.9-6.6 GHz (1-dB bandwidth) is designed and fabricated. The promising results of the simulation and measurement are presented in this paper. The selected substrate for these designs was Rogers RO4003 with a thickness of 20 mils. This is a common substrate in most of the industrial projects. The compact size of the proposed filter is highly beneficial for applications which require a very miniature size of hardware.
Keywords: Band-pass filters, inter-digital filter, microstrip, via-less.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 834900 A Research on Determining the Viability of a Job Board Website for Refugees in Kenya
Authors: Prince Mugoya, Collins Oduor Ondiek, Patrick Kanyi Wamuyu
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Refugee Job Board Website is a web-based application that provides a platform for organizations to post jobs specifically for refugees. Organizations upload job opportunities and refugees can view them on the website. The website also allows refugees to input their skills and qualifications. The methodology used to develop this system is a waterfall (traditional) methodology. Software development tools include Brackets which will be used to code the website and PhpMyAdmin to store all the data in a database.
Keywords: Information technology, refugee, skills, utilization, economy, jobs.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 779899 Image Segmentation Using 2-D Histogram in RGB Color Space in Digital Libraries
Authors: El Asnaoui Khalid, Aksasse Brahim, Ouanan Mohammed
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This paper presents an unsupervised color image segmentation method. It is based on a hierarchical analysis of 2-D histogram in RGB color space. This histogram minimizes storage space of images and thus facilitates the operations between them. The improved segmentation approach shows a better identification of objects in a color image and, at the same time, the system is fast.Keywords: Image segmentation, hierarchical analysis, 2-D histogram, Classification.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1626898 Women’s Unemployment in India: Comparative Analysis of Indian States Having Low and High Female Labour Force Participation
Authors: Anesha Atul Shende
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When we are aiming at high goals for economic development such as sustainable growth and development of economy, poverty reduction, and reduction in inequality etc., we must not forget to include each and everyone in the society in process of achieving these goals. This study particularly talks about women’s participation in economic activities with the special focus on the analysis of female labour force participation rate in the states of India. It makes comparison between the states having low female labour force participation with the states that have comparatively high female labour population. The study began with review of data on the current state of gender biases in employment. It has been found that the male workforce is dominant all across India. Further, the study highlights the major reasons for low women participation in economic activities in some of the backward Indian states like Bihar, etc. Reasons for low female participation are related to economic, cultural and social factors that are responsible for women’s unemployment. Afterwards, it analyses the reasons behind comparatively higher female participation in some of the other states in India. The case of the north-eastern region and state of Telangana and Tamil Nadu have been analysed in brief. These states show improvements in female labour force participation over a few decades. This is due to the government policies that have been adopted, women-friendly workplaces, availability of quality jobs for women etc. UN women has recognized the social and economic benefits of having an active female labour force in a country; if female unemployment declines, it will improve the growth rate of the nation as well as the welfare of the society. The study discusses the reasons why an economy must try to increase female workforce participation. It further provides suggestions to improve the conditions in backward states in India where the unemployment rate for women is high. The policy interventions and government schemes are some of the ways to recognise poor women workforce participation issues and work on it. The condition will improve when the changes would take place from regional level with social and moral support to the women.
Keywords: Women unemployment, labour force participation, women empowerment, economic growth and development, gender disparity.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 521897 Management Challenges and Product Quality of Fish Farms in Greece
Authors: S. Anastasiou, C. Nathanailides, P. Logothetis, G. Kanlis
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The purpose of the present work is to review some data for the management challenges that the aquaculture industry in Greece is currently facing. The results indicate that Greek aquaculture fish farms apply Human Resources Management (HRM) practices which can increase motivation, commitment and job satisfaction of their personnel. In turn, these practices can increase the productivity of the business. The Greek fish farms appear to invest in research and technological innovation with a good record in research activities and the generation of patents. Interestingly, the results of the present work were carried out during the period of the recent economic crisis in Greece. Several sectors of the Greek economy were severely affected by the financial problems of the Greek government and the Greek banks. Under the adverse economical conditions created by the Greek economic crisis, even the Greek aquaculture industry, which historically is considered as a thriving national exporting business sector, experienced harsh economic and market conditions. As a result of the global, European and national economic crisis, consumption of fish dropped while companies had to hold most of their stocked fish in order to regulated the flow to the market and the price. This occurred at a time where Banks in Greece had their own financial crisis – banking crisis - which resulted in limited access to lending for the all business sectors of the national economy including the Greek aquaculture industry. In spite of these economic conditions, the Greek aquaculture industry, after a series of mergers and acquisitions, has now stabilized production and exhibits very good prospects for future growth. Evidently, the firms had to cut salaries and on some occasions even pay their staff in arrears. Nevertheless, the results presented in this paper indicate that during the economic crisis, the surveyed fish farms maintained their HRM practices, investing in their human capital and technological input. In fact, human capital and technological input are the ticket for future success of companies in any business sector.
Keywords: Aquaculture, Human Resources Management.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2841896 Modernization of the People's Republic of China: History and Complexities
Authors: N.A. Aldabek, M.B. Assyl, D.B. Dauyen, A.E. Serikkaliyeva
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The aim of this paper is to investigate a process of modernization of the People-s Republic of China. The theme of scientific research is interesting, first, because the Chinese model of development is recognized as successful and most dynamically developing. They are obliged by these successes of the modernization spent in the country. Economy modernization as the basic motive power of progress of the country is a priority direction of development in the Republic of Kazakhstan. So the example of successful development modernization processes in China can be rather useful to use in working out of the Kazakhstan national reforms.
Keywords: Modernization, the People's Republic of China, social and economic development.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3174895 Creating Smart and Healthy Cities by Exploring the Potentials of Emerging Technologies and Social Innovation for Urban Efficiency: Lessons from the Innovative City of Boston
Authors: Mohammed Agbali, Claudia Trillo, Yusuf Arayici, Terrence Fernando
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The wide-spread adoption of the Smart City concept has introduced a new era of computing paradigm with opportunities for city administrators and stakeholders in various sectors to re-think the concept of urbanization and development of healthy cities. With the world population rapidly becoming urban-centric especially amongst the emerging economies, social innovation will assist greatly in deploying emerging technologies to address the development challenges in core sectors of the future cities. In this context, sustainable health-care delivery and improved quality of life of the people is considered at the heart of the healthy city agenda. This paper examines the Boston innovation landscape from the perspective of smart services and innovation ecosystem for sustainable development, especially in transportation and healthcare. It investigates the policy implementation process of the Healthy City agenda and eHealth economy innovation based on the experience of Massachusetts’s City of Boston initiatives. For this purpose, three emerging areas are emphasized, namely the eHealth concept, the innovation hubs, and the emerging technologies that drive innovation. This was carried out through empirical analysis on results of public sector and industry-wide interviews/survey about Boston’s current initiatives and the enabling environment. The paper highlights few potential research directions for service integration and social innovation for deploying emerging technologies in the healthy city agenda. The study therefore suggests the need to prioritize social innovation as an overarching strategy to build sustainable Smart Cities in order to avoid technology lock-in. Finally, it concludes that the Boston example of innovation economy is unique in view of the existing platforms for innovation and proper understanding of its dynamics, which is imperative in building smart and healthy cities where quality of life of the citizenry can be improved.
Keywords: Smart city, social innovation, eHealth, innovation hubs, emerging technologies, equitable healthcare, healthy cities.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1729894 Democratization, Market Liberalization and the Raise of Vested Interests and Its Impacts on Anti-Corruption Reform in Indonesia
Authors: Ahmad Khoirul Umam
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This paper investigates the role of vested interests and its impacts on anti-corruption agenda in Indonesia following the collapse of authoritarian regime in 1998. A pervasive and rampant corruption has been believed as the main cause of the state economy’s fragility. Hence, anti-corruption measures were implemented by applying democratization and market liberalization since the establishment of a consolidated democracy which go hand in hand with a liberal market economy is convinced to be an efficacious prescription for effective anti-corruption. The reform movement has also mandated the establishment of the independent, neutral and professional special anti-corruption agency namely Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) to more intensify the fight against the systemic corruption. This paper will examine whether these anti-corruption measures have been effective to combat corruption, and investigate to what extend have the anti-corruption efforts, especially those conducted by KPK, been impeded by the emergence of a nexus of vested interests as the side-effect of democratization and market liberalization. Based on interviews with key stakeholders from KPK, other law enforcement agencies, government, prominent scholars, journalists and NGOs in Indonesia, it is found that since the overthrow of Soeharto, anti-corruption movement in the country have become more active and serious. After gradually winning the hearth of people, KPK successfully touched the untouchable corruption perpetrators who were previously protected by political immunity, legal protection and bureaucratic barriers. However, these changes have not necessarily reduced systemic and structural corruption practices. Ironically, intensive and devastating counterattacks were frequently posed by the alignment of business actors, elites of political parties, government, and also law enforcement agencies by hijacking state’s instruments to make KPK deflated, powerless, and surrender. This paper concludes that attempts of democratization, market liberalization and the establishment of anti-corruption agency may have helped Indonesia to reduce corruption. However, it is still difficult to imply that such anti-corruption measures have fostered the more effective anti-corruption works in the newly democratized and weakly regulated liberal economic system.
Keywords: Vested interests, democratization, market liberalization, anti-corruption, leadership.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1156893 Trade Policy Incentives and Economic Growth in Nigeria
Authors: Emmanuel Dele Balogun
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This paper analyzes, using descriptive statistics and econometrics data which span the period 1981 to 2014 to gauge the effects of trade policy incentives on economic growth in Nigeria. It argues that the provided incentives penalize economic growth during pre-trade liberalization eras, but stimulated a rapid increase in total factor productivity during the post-liberalization period of 2000 to 2014. The trend analysis shows that Nigeria maintained high tariff walls in economic regulation eras which became low in post liberalization era. The protections were in favor of infant industries, which were mainly appendages of multinationals but against imports of competing food and finished consumer products. The trade openness index confirms the undue exposure of Nigeria’s economy to the vagaries of international market shocks; while banking sector recapitalization and new listing of telecommunications companies deepened the financial markets in post-liberalization era. The structure of economic incentives was biased in favor of construction, trade and services, but against the real sector despite protectionist policies. Total Factor Productivity (TFP) estimates show that the Nigerian economy suffered stagnation in pre-liberalization eras, but experienced rapid growth rates in post-liberalization eras. The regression results relating trade policy incentives to TFP growth rate yielded a significant but negative intercept suggesting that a non-interventionist policy could be detrimental to economic progress, while protective tariff which limits imports of competing products could spur productivity gains in domestic import substitutes beyond factor growth with market liberalization. The main constraint to the effectiveness of trade policy incentives is the failure of benefiting industries to leverage on the domestic factor endowments of the nation. This paper concludes that there is the need to review the current economic transformation strategies urgently with a view to provide policymakers with a better understanding of the most viable options that could make for rapid success.
Keywords: Trade Policies, macroeconomic incentives, total factor productivity and economic growth.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1598892 An Improved Design of Area Efficient Two Bit Comparator
Authors: Shashank Gautam, Pramod Sharma
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In present era, development of digital circuits, signal processors and other integrated circuits, magnitude comparators are challenged by large area and more power consumption. Comparator is most basic circuit that performs comparison. This paper presents a technique to design a two bit comparator which consumes less area and power. DSCH and MICROWIND version 3 are used to design the schematic and design the layout of the schematic, observe the performance parameters at different nanometer technologies respectively.
Keywords: Chip design, consumed power, layout area, two bit comparator.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1218891 An Analysis of the Representation of the Translator and Translation Process into Brazilian Social Networking Groups
Authors: Érica Lima
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In the digital era, in which we have an avalanche of information, it is not new that the Internet has brought new modes of communication and knowledge access. Characterized by the multiplicity of discourses, opinions, beliefs and cultures, the web is a space of political-ideological dimensions where people (who often do not know each other) interact and create representations, deconstruct stereotypes, and redefine identities. Currently, the translator needs to be able to deal with digital spaces ranging from specific software to social media, which inevitably impact on his professional life. One of the most impactful ways of being seen in cyberspace is the participation in social networking groups. In addition to its ability to disseminate information among participants, social networking groups allow a significant personal and social exposure. Such exposure is due to the visibility of each participant achieved not only on its personal profile page, but also in each comment or post the person makes in the groups. The objective of this paper is to study the representations of translators and translation process on the Internet, more specifically in publications in two Brazilian groups of great influence on the Facebook: "Translators/Interpreters" and "Translators, Interpreters and Curious". These chosen groups represent the changes the network has brought to the profession, including the way translators are seen and see themselves. The analyzed posts allowed a reading of what common sense seems to think about the translator as opposed to what the translators seem to think about themselves as a professional class. The results of the analysis lead to the conclusion that these two positions are antagonistic and sometimes represent conflict of interests: on the one hand, the society in general consider the translator’s work something easy, therefore it is not necessary to be well remunerated; on the other hand, the translators who know how complex a translation process is and how much it takes to be a good professional. The results also reveal that social networking sites such as Facebook provide more visibility, but it takes a more active role from the translator to achieve a greater appreciation of the profession and more recognition of the role of the translator, especially in face of increasingly development of automatic translation programs.
Keywords: Facebook, social representation, translation, translator.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 818890 A Multi-Signature Scheme based on Coding Theory
Authors: Mohammed Meziani, Pierre-Louis Cayrel
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In this paper we propose two first non-generic constructions of multisignature scheme based on coding theory. The first system make use of the CFS signature scheme and is secure in random oracle while the second scheme is based on the KKS construction and is a few times. The security of our construction relies on a difficult problems in coding theory: The Syndrome Decoding problem which has been proved NP-complete [4].Keywords: Post-quantum cryptography, Coding-based cryptography, Digital signature, Multisignature scheme.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1880889 Reduce the Complexity of Material Requirement Planning on Excel by an Algorithm
Authors: Sumitra Nuanmeesri, Kanate Ploydanai
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Many companies have excel, it is economy and well perform to use in material requirement planning (MRP) on excel. For several products, it, however, is complex problem to link the relationship between the tables of products because the relationship depends on bill of material (BOM). This paper presents algorithm to create MRP on excel, and links relationship between tables. The study reveals MRP that is created by the algorithm which is easier and faster than MRP that created by human. By this technique, MRP on excel might be good ways to improve a productivity of companies.
Keywords: Material requirement planning, Algorithm, Spreadsheet.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3273888 The Importance of Intellectual Property for Universities of Technology in South Africa: Challenges Faced and Proposed Way Forward
Authors: Martha E. Ikome, John M. Ikome
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Intellectual property should be a day-to-day business decision due to its value, but increasingly, a number of institution are still not aware of the importance. Intellectual Property (IP) and its value are often not adequately appreciated. In the increasingly knowledge-driven economy, IP is a key consideration in day-to-day business decisions because new ideas and products appear almost daily in the market, which results in continuous innovation and research. Therefore, this paper will focus on the importance of IP for universities of technology and also further demonstrates how IP can become an economic tool and the challenges faced by these universities in implementing an IP system.Keywords: Intellectual property, institutions, challenges, protection.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1702887 Transforming Health Information from Manual to Digital (Electronic) World–Reference and Guide
Authors: S. Karthikeyan, Naveen Bindra
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Introduction: To update ourselves and understand the concept of latest electronic formats available for Health care providers and how it could be used and developed as per standards. The idea is to correlate between the patients Manual Medical Records keeping and maintaining patients Electronic Information in a Health care setup in this world. Furthermore, this stands with adapting to the right technology depending upon the organization and improve our quality and quantity of Healthcare providing skills. Objective: The concept and theory is to explain the terms of Electronic Medical Record (EMR), Electronic Health Record (EHR) and Personal Health Record (PHR) and selecting the best technical among the available Electronic sources and software before implementing. It is to guide and make sure the technology used by the end users without any doubts and difficulties. The idea is to evaluate is to admire the uses and barriers of EMR-EHR-PHR. Aim and Scope: The target is to achieve the health care providers like Physicians, Nurses, Therapists, Medical Bill reimbursements, Insurances and Government to assess the patient’s information on easy and systematic manner without diluting the confidentiality of patient’s information. Method: Health Information Technology can be implemented with the help of Organisations providing with legal guidelines and help to stand by the health care provider. The main objective is to select the correct embedded and affordable database management software and generating large-scale data. The parallel need is to know how the latest software available in the market. Conclusion: The question lies here is implementing the Electronic information system with healthcare providers and organization. The clinicians are the main users of the technology and manage us to “go paperless”. The fact is that day today changing technologically is very sound and up to date. Basically, the idea is to tell how to store the data electronically safe and secure. All three exemplifies the fact that an electronic format has its own benefit as well as barriers.
Keywords: Medical records, digital records, health information, electronic record system.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1361