Search results for: mobile financial services

Authors: N. S. Imamverdiyev

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The transition to renewable energy sources has become a critical component of global efforts to mitigate climate change and promote sustainable development. However, the deployment of renewable energy technologies can also have significant impacts on ecosystems and the services they provide, such as carbon sequestration, soil fertility, water quality, and biodiversity. These technologies also highlight the potential co-benefits of renewable energy deployment for ecosystem services, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving air and water quality. Renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar, hydro, and biomass, are increasingly being used to meet the world's energy needs due to their environmentally friendly nature and the desire to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, the expansion of renewable energy infrastructure can also impact ecosystem services, which are the benefits that humans derive from nature, such as clean water, air, and food. This geographic assessment aims to evaluate the relationship between renewable energy infrastructure and ecosystem services. Potential solutions such as the use of ecological benefit measures, biodiversity-friendly design of renewable energy infrastructure, and stakeholder participation in decision-making processes are being investigated to determine the positive effects of renewable energy infrastructure on ecosystem services.

Keywords: Renewable energy, solar energy, climate change, energy production.

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Authors: Abbas Al-Refaie

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The research examines the factors that affect customer churn (CC) in the Jordanian telecom industry. A total of 700 surveys were distributed. Cluster analysis revealed three main clusters. Results showed that CC and customer satisfaction (CS) were the key determinants in forming the three clusters. In two clusters, the center values of CC were high, indicating that the customers were loyal and SC was expensive and time- and energy-consuming. Still, the mobile service provider (MSP) should enhance its communication (COM), and value added services (VASs), as well as customer complaint management systems (CCMS). Finally, for the third cluster the center of the CC indicates a poor level of loyalty, which facilitates customers churn to another MSP. The results of this study provide valuable feedback for MSP decision makers regarding approaches to improving their performance and reducing CC.

Keywords: Cluster analysis, telecom industry, switching cost, customer churn.

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Authors: Keonwoo Kim, Dowon Hong

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Electronic voting (E-voting) using an internet has been recently performed in some nations and regions. There is no spatial restriction which a voter directly has to visit the polling place, but an e-voting using an internet has to go together the computer in which the internet connection is possible. Also, this voting requires an access code for the e-voting through the beforehand report of a voter. To minimize these disadvantages, we propose a method in which a voter, who has the wireless certificate issued in advance, uses its own cellular phone for an e-voting without the special registration for a vote. Our proposal allows a voter to cast his vote in a simple and convenient way without the limit of time and location, thereby increasing the voting rate, and also ensuring confidentiality and anonymity.

Keywords: Voting, mobile terminal, confidentiality, anonymity.

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Authors: İlke Bereketli, Müjde Erol Genevois, H. Ziya Ulukan

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Nowadays, manufacturers are facing great challenges with regard to the production of green products due to the emerging issue of hazardous substance management (HSM). In particular, environmental legislation pressures have yielded to increased risk, manufacturing complexity and green components demands. The green principles were expanded to many departments within organization, including supply chain. Green supply chain management (GSCM) was emerging in the last few years. This idea covers every stage in manufacturing from the first to the last stage of life cycle. From product lifecycle concept, the cycle starts at the design of a product. QFD is a customer-driven product development tool, considered as a structured management approach for efficiently translating customer needs into design requirements and parts deployment, as well as manufacturing plans and controls in order to achieve higher customer satisfaction. This paper develops an Eco- QFD to provide a framework for designing Eco-mobile phone by integrating the life cycle analysis LCA into QFD throughout the entire product development process.

Keywords: Eco-design, Eco-QFD, EEE, Environmental New Product Development, Mobile Phone.

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Authors: Abdullah M. Almeshal, Mohammad R. Alenezi, Talal H. Alzanki

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This paper presents a hybrid fuzzy logic control strategy for a unicycle trajectory following robot on irregular terrains. In literature, researchers have presented the design of path tracking controllers of mobile robots on non-frictional surface. In this work, the robot is simulated to drive on irregular terrains with contrasting frictional profiles of peat and rough gravel. A hybrid fuzzy logic controller is utilised to stabilise and drive the robot precisely with the predefined trajectory and overcome the frictional impact. The controller gains and scaling factors were optimised using spiral dynamics optimisation algorithm to minimise the mean square error of the linear and angular velocities of the unicycle robot. The robot was simulated on various frictional surfaces and terrains and the controller was able to stabilise the robot with a superior performance that is shown via simulation results.

Keywords: Fuzzy logic control, mobile robot, trajectory tracking, spiral dynamic algorithm.

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Authors: DaeWon Lee, HeonChang Yu

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Next generation wireless/mobile networks will be IP based cellular networks integrating the internet with cellular networks. In this paper, we propose a new architecture for a high speed transport system and a mobile management protocol for mobile internet users in a transport system. Existing mobility management protocols (MIPv6, HMIPv6) do not consider real world fast moving wireless hosts (e.g. passengers in a train). For this reason, we define a virtual organization (VO) and proposed the VO architecture for the transport system. We also classify mobility as VO mobility (intra VO) and macro mobility (inter VO). Handoffs in VO are locally managed and transparent to the CH while macro mobility is managed with Mobile IPv6. And, from the features of the transport system, such as fixed route and steady speed, we deduce the movement route and the handoff disruption time of each handoff. To reduce packet loss during handoff disruption time, we propose pre-registration scheme using pre-registration. Moreover, the proposed protocol can eliminate unnecessary binding updates resulting from sequence movement at high speed. The performance evaluations demonstrate our proposed protocol has a good performance at transport system environment. Our proposed protocol can be applied to the usage of wireless internet on the train, subway, and high speed train.

Keywords: Binding update, HMIPv6, packet loss, transport system, virtual organization.

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Authors: R. Poonkuzhali, M. Y. Sanavullah, A. Sabari, T. Dhivyaa

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Opportunistic Routing (OR) increases the transmission reliability and network throughput. Traditional routing protocols preselects one or more predetermined nodes before transmission starts and uses a predetermined neighbor to forward a packet in each hop. The opportunistic routing overcomes the drawback of unreliable wireless transmission by broadcasting one transmission can be overheard by manifold neighbors. The first cooperation-optimal protocol for Multirate OR (COMO) used to achieve social efficiency and prevent the selfish behavior of the nodes. The novel link-correlation-aware OR improves the performance by exploiting the miscellaneous low correlated forward links. Context aware Adaptive OR (CAOR) uses active suppression mechanism to reduce packet duplication. The Context-aware OR (COR) can provide efficient routing in mobile networks. By using Cooperative Opportunistic Routing in Mobile Ad hoc Networks (CORMAN), the problem of opportunistic data transfer can be tackled. While comparing to all the protocols, COMO is the best as it achieves social efficiency and prevents the selfish behavior of the nodes.

Keywords: CAOR, COMO, COR, CORMAN, MANET, Opportunistic Routing, Reliability, Throughput.

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Authors: Josip Visković, Josip Arnerić, Ante Rozga

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Based on the fact that volatility is time varying in high frequency data and that periods of high volatility tend to cluster, the most successful and popular models in modeling time varying volatility are GARCH type models. When financial returns exhibit sudden jumps that are due to structural breaks, standard GARCH models show high volatility persistence, i.e. integrated behavior of the conditional variance. In such situations models in which the parameters are allowed to change over time are more appropriate. This paper compares different GARCH models in terms of their ability to describe structural changes in returns caused by financial crisis at stock markets of six selected central and east European countries. The empirical analysis demonstrates that Markov regime switching GARCH model resolves the problem of excessive persistence and outperforms uni-regime GARCH models in forecasting volatility when sudden switching occurs in response to financial crisis.

Keywords: Central and east European countries, financial crisis, Markov switching GARCH model, transition probabilities.

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Authors: Sukhbaatar Dorj, Erdenebaatar Altangerel

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As alternative to existing e-government measuring models, here proposed a new customer centric, service oriented, simple approach for measuring countries e-Governments. If successfully implemented, built infrastructure will provide a single egovernment index number for countries. Main schema is as follows. Country CIO or equal position government official, at the beginning of each year will provide to United Nations dedicated web site 4 numbers on behalf of own country: 1) Ratio of available online public services, to total number of public services, 2) Ratio of interagency inter ministry online public services to total number of available online public services, 3) Ratio of total number of citizen and business entities served online annually to total number of citizen and business entities served annually online and physically on those services, 4) Simple index for geographical spread of online served citizen and business entities. 4 numbers then combined into one index number by mathematical Average function. In addition to 4 numbers 5th number can be introduced as service quality indicator of online public services. If in ordering of countries index number is equal, 5th criteria will be used. Notice: This approach is for country’s current e-government achievement assessment, not for e-government readiness assessment.

Keywords: Countries e-government index, e-government, infrastructure for measuring e-government, measuring e-government.

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Authors: Akbar F. Moghaddam, Magnus Lange, Omid Mirmotahari, Mats Høvin

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To improve HSE standards, oil and gas industries are interested in using remotely controlled and autonomous robots instead of human workers on offshore platforms. In addition to earlier reason this strategy would increase potential revenue, efficient usage of work experts and even would allow operations in more remote areas. This article is the presentation of a custom climbing robot, called Walloid, designed for offshore platform topside automation. This 4 arms climbing robot with grippers is an ongoing project at University of Oslo.

Keywords: Climbing Robots, Mobile Robots, Offshore Robotics, Offshore Platforms, Automation, Inspection, Monitoring.

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Authors: V. Narasimha Raghavan, T. Peer Meera Labbai, N. Bhalaji, Suvitha Kesavan

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In this paper, a new approach based on the extent of friendship between the nodes is proposed which makes the nodes to co-operate in an ad hoc environment. The extended DSR protocol is tested under different scenarios by varying the number of malicious nodes and node moving speed. It is also tested varying the number of nodes in simulation used. The result indicates the achieved throughput by extended DSR is greater than the standard DSR and indicates the percentage of malicious drops over total drops are less in the case of extended DSR than the standard DSR.

Keywords: Mobile Adhoc Networks, DSR, Grudger protocol, Nodes.

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Authors: Wai Phyo Aung

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Wheeled Mobile Robots (WMRs) are built with their Wheels- drive machine, Motors. Depend on their desire design of WMR, Technicians made used of DC Motors for motion control. In this paper, the author would like to analyze how to choose DC motor to be balance with their applications of especially for WMR. Specification of DC Motor that can be used with desire WMR is to be determined by using MATLAB Simulink model. Therefore, this paper is mainly focus on software application of MATLAB and Control Technology. As the driving system of DC motor, a Peripheral Interface Controller (PIC) based control system is designed including the assembly software technology and H-bridge control circuit. This Driving system is used to drive two DC gear motors which are used to control the motion of WMR. In this analyzing process, the author mainly focus the drive system on driving two DC gear motors that will control with Differential Drive technique to the Wheeled Mobile Robot . For the design analysis of Motor Driving System, PIC16F84A is used and five inputs of sensors detected data are tested with five ON/OFF switches. The outputs of PIC are the commands to drive two DC gear motors, inputs of Hbridge circuit .In this paper, Control techniques of PIC microcontroller and H-bridge circuit, Mechanism assignments of WMR are combined and analyzed by mainly focusing with the “Modeling and Simulink of DC Motor using MATLAB".

Keywords: Control System Design, DC Motors, DifferentialDrive, H-bridge control circuit, MATLAB Simulink model, Peripheral Interface Controller (PIC), Wheeled Mobile Robots.

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Authors: Selim Yannier, Asif Sabanovic, Ahmet Onat, Muhammet Bastan

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In this work, we suggested a new approach for the control of a mobile robot capable of being a building block of an intelligent agent. This approach includes obstacle avoidance and goal tracking implemented as two different sliding mode controllers. A geometry based behavior arbitration is proposed for fusing the two outputs. Proposed structure is tested on simulations and real robot. Results have confirmed the high performance of the method.

Keywords: Autonomous Mobile Robot, Behavior Based Control, Fast Local Obstacle Avoidance, Sliding Mode Control.

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Authors: Harriet Koshie Lamptey, Richard Boateng

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Mobile learning (m-learning) is a novel approach to knowledge acquisition and dissemination and is gaining global attention. Steady progress in wireless technologies and the portability of communication devices continue to broaden the scope and use of mobiles. With the convergence of Web functionality onto mobile platforms and the affordability and availability of mobile technology, m-learning has the potential of being the next prevalent channel of education in both formal and informal settings. There is substantive literature on developed countries but the state in developing countries (DCs) however appears vague. This paper is a synthesis of extant literature on mobile learning in DCs. The research interest is based on the fact that in DCs, mobile communication and internet connectivity are popular. However, its use in education is under explored. There are some reviews on the state, conceptualizations, trends and teacher education, but to the authors’ knowledge, no study has focused on mobile learning adoption and integration issues. This study examines issues and gaps associated with its adoption and integration in DCs higher education institutions. A qualitative build-up of literature was conducted using articles pooled from electronic databases (Google Scholar and ERIC). To enable criteria for inclusion and incorporate diverse study perspectives, search terms used were m-learning, DCs, higher education institutions, challenges, benefits, impact, gaps and issues. The synthesis revealed that though mobile technology has diffused globally, its pedagogical pursuit in DCs remains quite low. The absence of a mobile Web and the difficulty of resource conversion into mobile format due to lack of funding and technical competence is a stumbling block. Again, the lack of established design and implementation rules to guide the development of m-learning platforms in DCs is a hindrance. The absence of access restrictions on devices poses security threats to institutional systems. Negative perceptions that devices are taking over faculty roles lead to resistance in some situations. Resistance to change can be a hindrance to the acceptance and success of new systems. Lack of interest for m-learning is also attributed to lower technological literacy levels of the underprivileged masses. Scholarly works on m-learning in DCs is yet to mature. Most technological innovations are handed down from developed countries, and this constantly creates a lag for DCs. Lack of theoretical grounding was also identified which reduces the objectivity of study reports. The socio-cultural terrain of DCs results in societies with different views and needs that have been identified as a hindrance to research. Institutional commitment decisions, adequate funding for the necessary infrastructural development as well as multiple stakeholder participation is important for project success. Evidence suggests that while adoption decisions are readily made, successful integration of the concept for its full benefits to be realized is often neglected. Recommendations to findings were made to provide possible remedies to identified issues.

Keywords: Developing countries, higher education institutions, mobile learning, literature review.

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Authors: Vinicius Binotte, Guilherme Baldo, Christiane Goulart, Carlos Valadão, Eliete Caldeira, Teodiano Bastos

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Socially assistive robotic has become increasingly active and it is present in therapies of people affected for several neurobehavioral conditions, such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). In fact, robots have played a significant role for positive interaction with children with ASD, by stimulating their social and cognitive skills. This work introduces a mobile socially-assistive robot, which was built for interaction with children with ASD, using non-linear control techniques for this interaction.

Keywords: Socially assistive robotics, mobile robot, autonomous control, autism.

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Authors: Hyung-Nam Kim, Won-Yong Chae, Dong-Sul Shin, Ho-Sung Kim, Hee-Je Kim

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A wireless power transfer system can attribute to the fields in robot, aviation and space in which lightening the weight of device and improving the movement play an important role. A wireless power transfer system was investigated to overcome the inconvenience of using power cable. Especially a wireless power transfer technology is important element for mobile robots. We proposed the wireless power transfer system of the half-bridge resonant converter with the frequency tracking and optimized power transfer control unit. And the possibility of the application and development system was verified through the experiment with LED loads.

Keywords: Wireless Power Transmission (WPT), resonancefrequency, protection circuit. LED.

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Authors: Komlan Sedzro

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We apply the non-parametric, unconditional, hyperbolic order-α quantile estimator to appraise the relative efficiency of Microfinance Institutions in Africa in terms of outreach. Our purpose is to verify if these institutions, which must constantly try to strike a compromise between their social role and financial sustainability are operationally efficient. Using data on African MFIs extracted from the Microfinance Information eXchange (MIX) database and covering the 2004 to 2006 periods, we find that more efficient MFIs are also the most profitable. This result is in line with the view that social performance is not in contradiction with the pursuit of excellent financial performance. Our results also show that large MFIs in terms of asset and those charging the highest fees are not necessarily the most efficient.

Keywords: Data envelopment analysis, microfinance institutions, quantile estimation of efficiency, social and financial performance.

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Authors: M. Tamilarasi, T.G. Palanivelu

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Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) are multi-hop wireless networks in which all nodes cooperatively maintain network connectivity. In such a multi-hop wireless network, every node may be required to perform routing in order to achieve end-to-end communication among nodes. These networks are energy constrained as most ad hoc mobile nodes today operate with limited battery power. Hence, it is important to minimize the energy consumption of the entire network in order to maximize the lifetime of ad hoc networks. In this paper, a mechanism involving the integration of load balancing approach and transmission power control approach is introduced to maximize the life-span of MANETs. The mechanism is applied on Ad hoc On-demand Vector (AODV) protocol to make it as energy aware AODV (EA_AODV). The simulation is carried out using GloMoSim2.03 simulator. The results show that the proposed mechanism reduces the average required transmission energy per packet compared to the standard AODV.

Keywords: energy aware routing, load balance, Mobile Ad HocNetworks, MANETs , on demand routing, transmission power control.

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Authors: Roberto Iglesias, Theocharis Kyriacou, Ulrich Nehmzow, Steve Billings

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Fundamental sensor-motor couplings form the backbone of most mobile robot control tasks, and often need to be implemented fast, efficiently and nevertheless reliably. Machine learning techniques are therefore often used to obtain the desired sensor-motor competences. In this paper we present an alternative to established machine learning methods such as artificial neural networks, that is very fast, easy to implement, and has the distinct advantage that it generates transparent, analysable sensor-motor couplings: system identification through nonlinear polynomial mapping. This work, which is part of the RobotMODIC project at the universities of Essex and Sheffield, aims to develop a theoretical understanding of the interaction between the robot and its environment. One of the purposes of this research is to enable the principled design of robot control programs. As a first step towards this aim we model the behaviour of the robot, as this emerges from its interaction with the environment, with the NARMAX modelling method (Nonlinear, Auto-Regressive, Moving Average models with eXogenous inputs). This method produces explicit polynomial functions that can be subsequently analysed using established mathematical methods. In this paper we demonstrate the fidelity of the obtained NARMAX models in the challenging task of robot route learning; we present a set of experiments in which a Magellan Pro mobile robot was taught to follow four different routes, always using the same mechanism to obtain the required control law.

Keywords: Mobile robotics, system identification, non-linear modelling, NARMAX.

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Authors: Giani Gradinaru

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Biodiversity crisis is one of the many crises that started at the turn of the millennia. Concrete form of expression is still disputed, but there is a relatively high consensus regarding the high rate of degradation and the urgent need for action. The strategy of action outlines a strong economic component, together with the recognition of market mechanisms as the most effective policies to protect biodiversity. In this context, biodiversity and ecosystem services are natural assets that play a key role in economic strategies and technological development to promote development and prosperity. Developing and strengthening policies for transition to an economy based on efficient use of resources is the way forward. To emphasize the co-viability specific to the connection economyecosystem services, scientific approach aimed on one hand how to implement policies for nature conservation and on the other hand, the concepts underlying the economic expression of ecosystem services- value, in the context of current technology. Following the analysis of business opportunities associated with changes in ecosystem services was concluded that development of market mechanisms for nature conservation is a trend that is increasingly stronger individualized within recent years. Although there are still many controversial issues that have already given rise to an obvious bias, international organizations and national governments have initiated and implemented in cooperation or independently such mechanisms. Consequently, they created the conditions for convergence between private interests and social interests of nature conservation, so there are opportunities for ongoing business development which leads, among other things, the positive effects on biodiversity. Finally, points out that markets fail to quantify the value of most ecosystem services. Existing price signals reflect at best, only a proportion of the total amount corresponding provision of food, water or fuel.

Keywords: ecosystem services, economic evaluation, nature conservation

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Authors: Hossam el-ddin Mostafa, Pavel Čičak

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IETF RFC 2002 originally introduced the wireless Mobile-IP protocol to support portable IP addresses for mobile devices that often change their network access points to the Internet. The inefficiency of this protocol mainly within the handoff management produces large end-to-end packet delays, during registration process, and further degrades the system efficiency due to packet losses between subnets. The criterion to initiate a simple and fast full-duplex connection between the home agent and foreign agent, to reduce the roaming duration, is a very important issue to be considered by a work in this paper. State-transition Petri-Nets of the modeling scenario-based CIA: communication inter-agents procedure as an extension to the basic Mobile-IP registration process was designed and manipulated. The heuristic of configuration file during practical Setup session for registration parameters, on Cisco platform Router-1760 using IOS 12.3 (15)T is created. Finally, stand-alone performance simulations results from Simulink Matlab, within each subnet and also between subnets, are illustrated for reporting better end-to-end packet delays. Results verified the effectiveness of our Mathcad analytical manipulation and experimental implementation. It showed lower values of end-to-end packet delay for Mobile-IP using CIA procedure. Furthermore, it reported packets flow between subnets to improve packet losses between subnets.

Keywords: Cisco configuration, handoff, packet delay, Petri-Nets, registration process, Simulink.

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Authors: Olayinka Gafar Okeola, Akinola Muyiwa Moore

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Urban population is rapidly increasing in Ilorin, (the capital of Kwara State of Nigeria) along with related increased water demand. The inadequacies of water supply services have forced the populace to depend on dug wells, boreholes, water tankers, street vendors etc. for their water needs. People spend hours daily carrying jerry can all around to collect and queue for water at the public water tap with high opportunity cost both in time and economic wastage. This situation motivated this study to assess the sustainability of an urban water supply services to unravel the factors undermining the effective delivery of services. Contingent Valuation Method was used to place value on water supply services using the Double Bounded Dichotomous Choice format for willingness to pay elicitation. A database was created with Microsoft Excel and Stata 12 Software to model and evaluate the variables that affect household willingness to pay. The results of the study reveal that about 92% of the total households surveyed were connected to the Government water supply out of which 87% reported that they were not satisfied with the existing services. The results furthered revealed that respondents are willing to pay ₦2500 monthly to enjoy sustainable water supply service delivery.

Keywords: Willingness-to-pay, contingent valuation method, Nigeria, service, delivery.

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Authors: Jalal Khan, Daniyal Ali Sehrai, Shakeel Ahmad

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This paper presents the design and performance evaluation of multiband metamaterial based antenna operating in the 3.6 GHz (4G), 14.33 GHz, and 28.86 GHz (5G) frequency bands, for future mobile and handheld devices. The radiating element of the proposed design is made up of a conductive material supported by a 1.524 mm thicker Rogers-4003 substrate, having a relative dielectric constant and loss tangent of 3.55 and 0.0027, respectively. The substrate is backed by truncated ground plane. The future mobile communication system is based on higher frequencies, which are highly affected by the atmospheric conditions. Therefore, to overcome the path loss problem, essential enhancements and improvements must be made in the overall performance of the antenna. The traditional ground plane does not provide the in-phase reflection and surface wave suppression due to which side and back lobes are produced. This will affect the antenna performance in terms of gain and efficiency. To enhance the overall performance of the antenna, a metamaterial acting as a high impedance surface (HIS) is used as a reflector in the proposed design. The simulated gain of the metamaterial based antenna is enhanced from {2.76-6.47, 4.83-6.71 and 7.52-7.73} dB at 3.6, 14.33 and 28.89 GHz, respectively relative to the gain of the antenna backed by a traditional ground plane. The proposed antenna radiated efficiently with a radiated efficiency (>85 %) in all the three frequency bands with and without metamaterial surface. The total volume of the antenna is (L x W x h=45 x 40 x 1.524) mm³. The antenna can be potentially used for wireless handheld devices and mobile terminal. All the simulations have been performed using the Computer Simulation Technology (CST) software.

Keywords: Multiband, fourth generation (4G), fifth generation (5G), metamaterial, CST MWS.

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Authors: Mehdi Alilou, Mehdi Dehghan

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Routing in mobile ad hoc networks is a challenging task because nodes are free to move randomly. In DSR like all On- Demand routing algorithms, route discovery mechanism is associated with great delay. More Clearly in DSR routing protocol to send route reply packet, when current route breaks, destination seeks a new route. In this paper we try to change route selection mechanism proactively. We also define a link stability parameter in which a stability value is assigned to each link. Given this feature, destination node can estimate stability of routes and can select the best and more stable route. Therefore we can reduce the delay and jitter of sending data packets.

Keywords: DSR, MANET, proactive, routing.

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Authors: Jasraj Meena, Malay Kumar, Manu Vardhan

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Cloud computing is a new technology in industry and academia. The technology has grown and matured in last half decade and proven their significant role in changing environment of IT infrastructure where cloud services and resources are offered over the network. Cloud technology enables users to use services and resources without being concerned about the technical implications of technology. There are substantial research work has been performed for the usage of cloud computing in educational institutes and majority of them provides cloud services over high-end blade servers or other high-end CPUs. However, this paper proposes a new stack called “CiCKAStack” which provide cloud services over unutilized computing resources, named as commodity computers. “CiCKAStack” provides IaaS and PaaS using underlying commodity computers. This will not only increasing the utilization of existing computing resources but also provide organize file system, on demand computing resource and design and development environment.

Keywords: Commodity Computers, Cloud Computing, KVM, Cloudstack, Appscale.

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Authors: Safa Ougoujil, Sidi Mohamed Rigar

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Economics is not an exact science. It cannot be from the moment it is a social science that concerns society organization, a human science that depends on the behavior of the men and women who make a part of this society. Therefore, it cannot ignore morality, the instinctive sense of good and evil, the natural order which place us between certain values, and which religion often sheds light on. In terms of finance, the reference to ethics is becoming more popular than ever. This is naturally due to the growing financial crises. Finance is less and less ethical, but some financial practices have continued to do so. This is the case of ethical finance and Islamic finance. After attempting to define the concepts of ethical finance and Islamic finance, in a period when financial innovation seeks to encourage differentiation in order to create more profit margins, this article attempts to expose the particularities, the convergences and the potentialities of development of these two sensibilities.

Keywords: Convergences, ethical finance, Islamic finance, potential development.

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Authors: Nafise Fareghzadeh

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Web services provide significant new benefits for SOAbased applications, but they also expose significant new security risks. There are huge number of WS security standards and processes. At present, there is still a lack of a comprehensive approach which offers a methodical development in the construction of secure WS-based SOA. Thus, the main objective of this paper is to address this needs, presenting a comprehensive method for Web Services Security guaranty in SOA. The proposed method defines three stages, Initial Security Analysis, Architectural Security Guaranty and WS Security Standards Identification. These facilitate, respectively, the definition and analysis of WS-specific security requirements, the development of a WS-based security architecture and the identification of the related WS security standards that the security architecture must articulate in order to implement the security services.

Keywords: Kernel, Repository, Security Standards, WS Security Policy, WS specification.

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Authors: Maohai Li, Bingrong Hong, Zesu Cai, Ronghua Luo

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This paper presents the novel Rao-Blackwellised particle filter (RBPF) for mobile robot simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) using monocular vision. The particle filter is combined with unscented Kalman filter (UKF) to extending the path posterior by sampling new poses that integrate the current observation which drastically reduces the uncertainty about the robot pose. The landmark position estimation and update is also implemented through UKF. Furthermore, the number of resampling steps is determined adaptively, which seriously reduces the particle depletion problem, and introducing the evolution strategies (ES) for avoiding particle impoverishment. The 3D natural point landmarks are structured with matching Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT) feature pairs. The matching for multi-dimension SIFT features is implemented with a KD-Tree in the time cost of O(log2 N). Experiment results on real robot in our indoor environment show the advantages of our methods over previous approaches.

Keywords: Mobile robot, simultaneous localization and mapping, Rao-Blackwellised particle filter, evolution strategies, scale invariant feature transform.

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Authors: Kazunari Meguro, Daisuke Yamamoto, Shinichi Motomura, Toshihiko Sasama, Takao Kawamura, Kazunori Sugahara

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We have developed a distributed asynchronous Web based training system. In order to improve the scalability and robustness of this system, all contents and functions are realized on mobile agents. These agents are distributed to computers, and they can use a Peer to Peer network that modified Content-Addressable Network. In the proposed system, only text data can be included in a exercise. To make our proposed system more useful, the mechanism that it not only adapts to multimedia data but also it doesn-t influence the user-s learning even if the size of exercise becomes large is necessary.

Keywords: e-Learning, multimedia, Mobile Agent.

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Authors: Hao Wang, Yanming Zou

Abstract:

Two-dimensional (2D) bar codes were designed to carry significantly more data with higher information density and robustness than its 1D counterpart. Thanks to the popular combination of cameras and mobile phones, it will naturally bring great commercial value to use the camera phone for 2D bar code reading. This paper addresses the problem of specific 2D bar code design for mobile phones and introduces a low-level encoding method of matrix codes. At the same time, we propose an efficient scheme for 2D bar codes decoding, of which the effort is put on solutions of the difficulties introduced by low image quality that is very common in bar code images taken by a phone camera.

Keywords: 2D bar code reading, camera phone, low-level encoding, mixed model

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