Search results for: Visible light communications
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 1265

Search results for: Visible light communications

665 From F2F to Online Sessions: Changing Pattern of Instructions in Open and Distance Learning in India

Authors: Subramaniam Chandran

Abstract:

This paper presents an assessment study conducted among the distance learners in India. Open and distance learning systems have traveled a long way since its inception and its journey has witnessed the evolution and adoption of different generations of technology. This study focuses on the distant learners in India. Sampling for this study has been derived from the mass enrollment from Tamil Nadu area, a southern state of India. Learners were chosen from dual mode universities, private universities, Tamil Nadu Open University and IGNOU. The main focus of the study is to examine the coverage and appropriation of students support services and learning aids. It explores two aspects: the facilities available and the awareness and use of such services. It includes, self-learning materials, face-to-face counseling, multimedia learning materials, website, e-learning, radio and television services etc. While exploring the student-s perspective on these learning aspects, it is important to understand the perspectives of the teachers. Two different interests are visible among the teachers. Majority of the teachers support faceto- face counseling. However, the young teachers are in favour of online learning and multimedia supports in teaching. Through the awareness is somewhat high, the actual participation in online is very low. This is due to the inadequate infrastructure as well as the traditional attitudes of the teachers. Still the face-to-face sessions remain popular than online.

Keywords: Face-to-face session, online session, distance learning, multimedia

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1471
664 Towards Model-Driven Communications

Authors: Antonio Natali, Ambra Molesini

Abstract:

In modern distributed software systems, the issue of communication among composing parts represents a critical point, but the idea of extending conventional programming languages with general purpose communication constructs seems difficult to realize. As a consequence, there is a (growing) gap between the abstraction level required by distributed applications and the concepts provided by platforms that enable communication. This work intends to discuss how the Model Driven Software Development approach can be considered as a mature technology to generate in automatic way the schematic part of applications related to communication, by providing at the same time high level specialized languages useful in all the phases of software production. To achieve the goal, a stack of languages (meta-meta¬models) has been introduced in order to describe – at different levels of abstraction – the collaborative behavior of generic entities in terms of communication actions related to a taxonomy of messages. Finally, the generation of platforms for communication is viewed as a form of specification of language semantics, that provides executable models of applications together with model-checking supports and effective runtime environments.

Keywords: Interactions, specific languages, meta-models, model driven development.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1828
663 Cyber Security Enhancement via Software-Defined Pseudo-Random Private IP Address Hopping

Authors: Andre Slonopas, Warren Thompson, Zona Kostic

Abstract:

Obfuscation is one of the most useful tools to prevent network compromise. Previous research focused on the obfuscation of the network communications between external-facing edge devices. This work proposes the use of two edge devices, external and internal facing, which communicates via private IPv4 addresses in a software-defined pseudo-random IP hopping. This methodology does not require additional IP addresses and/or resources to implement. Statistical analyses demonstrate that the hopping surface must be at least 1e3 IP addresses in size with a broad standard deviation to minimize the possibility of coincidence of monitored and communication IPs. The probability of breaking the hopping algorithm requires a collection of at least 1e6 samples, which for large hopping surfaces will take years to collect. The probability of dropped packets is controlled via memory buffers and the frequency of hops and can be reduced to levels acceptable for video streaming. This methodology provides an impenetrable layer of security ideal for information and supervisory control and data acquisition systems.

Keywords: Moving Target Defense, cybersecurity, network security, hopping randomization, software defined network, network security theory.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 556
662 A Multimedia Telemonitoring Network for Healthcare

Authors: Hariton N. Costin, Sorin Puscoci, Cristian Rotariu, Bogdan Dionisie, Marinela C. Cimpoesu

Abstract:

TELMES project aims to develop a securized multimedia system devoted to medical consultation teleservices. It will be finalized with a pilot system for a regional telecenters network that connects local telecenters, having as support multimedia platforms. This network will enable the implementation of complex medical teleservices (teleconsulations, telemonitoring, homecare, urgency medicine, etc.) for a broader range of patients and medical professionals, mainly for family doctors and those people living in rural or isolated regions. Thus, a multimedia, scalable network, based on modern IT&C paradigms, will result. It will gather two inter-connected regional telecenters, in Iaşi and Piteşti, Romania, each of them also permitting local connections of hospitals, diagnostic and treatment centers, as well as local networks of family doctors, patients, even educational entities. As communications infrastructure, we aim to develop a combined fixmobile- internet (broadband) links. Other possible communication environments will be GSM/GPRS/3G and radio waves. The electrocardiogram (ECG) acquisition, internet transmission and local analysis, using embedded technologies, was already successfully done for patients- telemonitoring.

Keywords: Healthcare, telemedicine, telemonitoring, ECG analysis.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1796
661 Foil Bearing Stiffness Estimation with Pseudospectral Scheme

Authors: Balaji Sankar, Sadanand Kulkarni

Abstract:

Compliant foil gas lubricated bearings are used for the support of light loads in the order of few kilograms at high speeds, in the order of 50,000 RPM. The stiffness of the foil bearings depends both on the stiffness of the compliant foil and on the lubricating gas film. The stiffness of the bearings plays a crucial role in the stable operation of the supported rotor over a range of speeds. This paper describes a numerical approach to estimate the stiffness of the bearings using pseudo spectral scheme. Methodology to obtain the stiffness of the foil bearing as a function of weight of the shaft is given and the results are presented.

Keywords: Foil bearing, simulation, numerical, stiffness estimation.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1211
660 On the Design of Wearable Fractal Antenna

Authors: Amar Partap Singh Pharwaha, Shweta Rani

Abstract:

This paper is aimed at proposing a rhombus shaped wearable fractal antenna for wireless communication systems. The geometrical descriptors of the antenna have been obtained using bacterial foraging optimization (BFO) for wide band operation. The method of moment based IE3D software has been used to simulate the antenna and observed that miniaturization of 13.08% has been achieved without degrading the resonating properties of the proposed antenna. An analysis with different substrates has also been done in order to evaluate the effectiveness of electrical permittivity on the presented structure. The proposed antenna has low profile, light weight and has successfully demonstrated wideband and multiband characteristics for wearable electronic applications.

Keywords: BFO, bandwidth, electrical permittivity, fractals, wearable antenna.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2819
659 Effect of Applied Voltage Frequency on Electrical Treeing in 22 kV Cross-linked Polyethylene Insulated Cable

Authors: R. Thiamsri, N. Ruangkajonmathee, A. Oonsivilaiand B. Marungsri

Abstract:

This paper presents the experimental results on effect of applied voltage stress frequency to the occurrence of electrical treeing in 22 kV cross linked polyethylene (XLPE) insulated cable.Hallow disk of XLPE insulating material with thickness 5 mm taken from unused high voltage cable was used as the specimen in this study. Stainless steel needle was inserted gradually into the specimen to give a tip to earth plane electrode separation of 2.50.2 mm at elevated temperature 105-110°C. The specimen was then annealed for 5 minute to minimize any mechanical stress build up around the needle-plane region before it was cooled down to room temperature. Each specimen were subjected to the same applied voltage stress level at 8 kV AC rms, with various frequency, 50, 100, 500, 1000 and 2000 Hz. Initiation time, propagation speed and pattern of electrical treeing were examined in order to study the effect of applied voltage stress frequency. By the experimental results, initial time of visible treeing decreases with increasing in applied voltage frequency. Also, obviously, propagation speed of electrical treeing increases with increasing in applied voltage frequency.Furthermore, two types of electrical treeing, bush-like and branch-like treeing were observed.The experimental results confirmed the effect of voltage stress frequency as well.

Keywords: Voltage stress frequency, cross-linked polyethylene, electrical treeing, treeing propagation, treeing pattern

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2593
658 Investigating the Effectiveness of Self-Shading Strategy on Overall Thermal Transfer Value and Window Size in High Rise Buildings

Authors: Mansour Nikpour, Mohd Zin kandar, Mohammad Ghomeshi, Nima Moeinzadeh, Mohsen Ghasemi

Abstract:

So much energy is used in high rise buildings to fulfill the basic needs of users such as lighting and thermal comfort. Malaysia has hot and humid climate, buildings especially high rise buildings receive unnecessary solar radiation that cause more solar heat gain. Energy use specially electricity consumption in high rise buildings has increased. There have been growing concerns about energy consumption and its effect on environment. Building, energy and the environment are important issues that the designers should consider to them. Self protected form is one of possible ways against the impact of solar radiation in high rise buildings. The Energy performance of building envelopes was investigated in term of the Overall Thermal Transfer Value (OTTV ).In this paper, the amount of OTTV reduction was calculated through OTTV Equations to clear the effectiveness of self shading strategy on minimizing energy consumption for cooling interior spaces in high rise buildings which has considerable envelope areas against solar radiation. Also increasing the optimum window area was investigated using self-shading strategy in designing high rise buildings. As result, the significant reduction in OTTV was shown based on WWR.In addition slight increase was demonstrated in WWR that can influence on visible comfort interior spaces.

Keywords: Self-shading strategy, high rise buildings, Overall thermal transfer value (OTTV ), Window to wall ratio (WWR).

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2796
657 Application of UV-C Irradiation on Quality and Textural Properties of Button Mushrooms

Authors: M. Ghasemi-Varnamkhasti, S. H. Yoosefian. A. Mohammad- Razdari

Abstract:

The effect of 1.0 kJ/m2 Ultraviolet-C (UV-C) light on pH, weight loss, color, and firmness of button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) tissues during 21-days storage at 4 ºC was studied. UV-C irradiation enhanced pH, weight, color parameters, and firmness of mushroom during storage compared to control treatment. However, application of 1.0 kJ/m2 UV-C treatment could effectively induce the increase of weight loss, firmness, and pH to 14.53%, 49.82%, and 10.39%, respectively. These results suggest that the application of UV-C irradiation could be an effective method to maintain the postharvest quality of mushrooms.

Keywords: Mushroom, polyethylene film, quality, UV-C irradiation.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1374
656 Recognition of Obstacles and Providing Different Guidelines and Promotion of Electronic Government in Iran

Authors: E. Asgharizadeh, M. Ajalli, S.R. Safavi.M.M, A. Medghalchi

Abstract:

Electronic Government is one of the special concepts which has been performed successfully within recent decades. Electronic government is a digital, wall-free government with a virtual organization for presenting of online governmental services and further cooperation in different political/social activities. In order to have a successful implementation of electronic government strategy and benefiting from its complete potential and benefits and generally for establishment and applying of electronic government, it is necessary to have different infrastructures as the basics of electronic government with lack of which it is impossible to benefit from mentioned services. For this purpose, in this paper we have managed to recognize relevant obstacles for establishment of electronic government in Iran. All required data for recognition of obstacles were collected from statistical society of involved specialists of Ministry of Communications & Information Technology of Iran and Information Technology Organization of Tehran Municipality through questionnaire. Then by considering of five-point Likert scope and μ =3 as the index of relevant factors of proposed model, we could specify current obstacles against electronic government in Iran along with some guidelines and proposal in this regard. According to the results, mentioned obstacles for applying of electronic government in Iran are as follows: Technical & technological problems, Legal, judicial & safety problems, Economic problems and Humanistic Problems.

Keywords: Government, Electronic Government, InformationTechnology, Obstacles, Iran.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1424
655 Cultural Anxiety and Its Impact on Students- Life: A Case Study of International Students in Wuhan University

Authors: Nadeem Akhtar, Shan Bo

Abstract:

This article illustrates that how non similar culture become a cause of constant anxiety among international students in China. For that, a survey was carried out among international students of Wuhan University, China. The association among non similar culture, non familiarity of Chinese culture, self finance students and food problem is looked at through a regression line, and in the light of empirical results, a model is anticipated which elucidates these results. Some suggestions were directed at the end which will help to mitigate the anxiety among prospective students in Chinese universities.

Keywords: Anxiety, international students, non similar culture, Wuhan University

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1921
654 The Construction of Interactive Computer Multimedia Instruction on “Basic Japanese Vocabulary“

Authors: Kongrit Jittangthammagul, Sakesun Yampinij, Thapanee Endoo, Nattapong Kramwong

Abstract:

The study entitled “The Construction of Interactive Computer Multimedia Instruction on Basic Japanese Vocabulary" was aimed: 1) To construct the interactive computer multimedia instruction on Basic Japanese Vocabulary, 2) To find out multimedia-s quality, 3) To examine the student-s satisfaction and 4) To study the learning achievement in Basic Japanese vocabulary. The sampling group used in this study was composed of 40 1st year student in Educational Communications and Technology Department, Faculty of Industrial Education and Technology, King Mongkut-s University of Technology Thonburi, in the academic year 2553 B.E. (2010). According to research results, we found that 1). The quality assessment by 3 mass media experts was at 4.72 on average or at high level. 2) In terms of contents, the evaluation by 3 experts was at 4.81 on average or at high level. 3) In terms of achievement, there was a statistical significance between before and after the treatment at the .05 level. 4) The satisfaction of students towards the interactive computer multimedia Instruction on “Basic Japanese Vocabulary" was 4.35 on average, or at high level.

Keywords: Interactive Computer Multimedia on Basic Japanese Vocabulary, Learning Achievement, Quality

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1475
653 Strategies for Securing Safety Messages with Fixed Key Infrastructure in Vehicular Network

Authors: Nasser Mozayani, Maryam Barzegar, Hoda Madani

Abstract:

Vehicular communications play a substantial role in providing safety in transportation by means of safety message exchange. Researchers have proposed several solutions for securing safety messages. Protocols based on a fixed key infrastructure are more efficient in implementation and maintain stronger security in comparison with dynamic structures. These protocols utilize zone partitioning to establish distinct key infrastructure under Certificate Authority (CA) supervision in different regions. Secure anonymous broadcasting (SAB) is one of these protocols that preserves most of security aspects but it has some deficiencies in practice. A very important issue is region change of a vehicle for its mobility. Changing regions leads to change of CA and necessity of having new key set to resume communication. In this paper, we propose solutions for informing vehicles about region change to obtain new key set before entering next region. This hinders attackers- intrusion, packet loss and lessons time delay. We also make key request messages secure by confirming old CA-s public key to the message, hence stronger security for safety message broadcasting is attained.

Keywords: Secure broadcasting, Certificate authority (CA), Key exchange, Vehicular network.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1523
652 Fluorescence Quenching as an Efficient Tool for Sensing Application: Study on the Fluorescence Quenching of Naphthalimide Dye by Graphene Oxide

Authors: Sanaz Seraj, Shohre Rouhani

Abstract:

Recently, graphene has gained much attention because of its unique optical, mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties. Graphene has been used as a key material in the technological applications in various areas such as sensors, drug delivery, super capacitors, transparent conductor, and solar cell. It has a superior quenching efficiency for various fluorophores. Based on these unique properties, the optical sensors with graphene materials as the energy acceptors have demonstrated great success in recent years. During quenching, the emission of a fluorophore is perturbed by a quencher which can be a substrate or biomolecule, and due to this phenomenon, fluorophore-quencher has been used for selective detection of target molecules. Among fluorescence dyes, 1,8-naphthalimide is well known for its typical intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) and photo-induced charge transfer (PET) fluorophore, strong absorption and emission in the visible region, high photo stability, and large Stokes shift. Derivatives of 1,8-naphthalimides have found applications in some areas, especially fluorescence sensors. Herein, the fluorescence quenching of graphene oxide has been carried out on a naphthalimide dye as a fluorescent probe model. The quenching ability of graphene oxide on naphthalimide dye was studied by UV-VIS and fluorescence spectroscopy. This study showed that graphene is an efficient quencher for fluorescent dyes. Therefore, it can be used as a suitable candidate sensing platform. To the best of our knowledge, studies on the quenching and absorption of naphthalimide dyes by graphene oxide are rare.

Keywords: Fluorescence, graphene oxide, naphthalimide dye, quenching.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 724
651 Effect of Environmental Factors on Photoreactivation of Microorganisms under Indoor Conditions

Authors: Shirin Shafaei, James R. Bolton, Mohamed Gamal El Din

Abstract:

Ultraviolet (UV) disinfection causes damage to the DNA or RNA of microorganisms, but many microorganisms can repair this damage after exposure to near-UV or visible wavelengths (310–480 nm) by a mechanism called photoreactivation. Photoreactivation is gaining more attention because it can reduce the efficiency of UV disinfection of wastewater several hours after treatment. The focus of many photoreactivation research activities on the single species has caused a considerable lack in knowledge about complex natural communities of microorganisms and their response to UV treatment. In this research, photoreactivation experiments were carried out on the influent of the UV disinfection unit at a municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in Edmonton, Alberta after exposure to a Medium-Pressure (MP) UV lamp system to evaluate the effect of environmental factors on photoreactivation of microorganisms in the actual municipal wastewater. The effect of reactivation fluence, temperature, and river water on photoreactivation of total coliforms was examined under indoor conditions. The results showed that higher effective reactivation fluence values (up to 20 J/cm2) and higher temperatures (up to 25 °C) increased the photoreactivation of total coliforms. However, increasing the percentage of river in the mixtures of the effluent and river water decreased the photoreactivation of the mixtures. The results of this research can help the municipal wastewater treatment industry to examine the environmental effects of discharging their effluents into receiving waters.

Keywords: Photoreactivation, reactivation fluence, river water, temperature, ultraviolet disinfection, wastewater effluent.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1379
650 Experimental Inspection of Damage and Performance Evaluation after Repair and Strengthening of Jiamusi Highway Prestressed Concrete Bridge in China

Authors: Ali Fadhil Naser, Wang Zonglin

Abstract:

The main objectives of this study are to inspect and identify any damage of jaimusi highway prestressed concrete bridge after repair and strengthening of damaged structural members and to evaluate the performance of the bridge structural members by adopting static load test. Inspection program after repair and strengthening includes identifying and evaluating the structural members of bridge such as T-shape cantilever structure, hanging beams, corbels, external tendons, anchor beams, sticking steel plate, and piers. The results of inspection show that the overall state of the bridge structural member after repair and strengthening is good. The results of rebound test of concrete strength show that the average strength of concrete is 46.31Mpa. Whereas, the average value of concrete strength of anchor beam is 49.82Mpa. According to the results of static load test, the experimental values are less than theoretical values of internal forces, deflection, and strain, indicating that the stiffness of the experimental structure, overall deformation and integrity satisfy the designed standard and the working performance is good, and the undertaking capacity has a certain surplus. There is not visible change in the length and width of cracks and there are not new cracks under experimental load.

Keywords: Jiamusi Bridge, Damage inspection, deflection, strain.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1784
649 The Intersubjective Dynamic Regarding Commercial Failures of Foreign Migration of Brands in Food Industry

Authors: Philippe Fauquet-Alekhine, Elena Fauquet-Alekhine-Pavlovskaia

Abstract:

On the basis of questionnaires and interviews of two samples of subjects (French and Anglo-Saxon) for which two food products were presented (one of the subject’s country and one of the foreign country), we have shown how consumers could be sensitive to the label or brand written on the package of the food product. Furthermore, in the light of Intersubjectivity theory, we have shown the necessity for the consumer to find congruence between the direct and meta perspective towards the product for which the producer and especially the marketer is responsible. Taking into account these findings may help to avoid the commercial failure of a brand while exported abroad.

Keywords: Brand, failure, food industry.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1687
648 A Comparative Study of Fine Grained Security Techniques Based on Data Accessibility and Inference

Authors: Azhar Rauf, Sareer Badshah, Shah Khusro

Abstract:

This paper analyzes different techniques of the fine grained security of relational databases for the two variables-data accessibility and inference. Data accessibility measures the amount of data available to the users after applying a security technique on a table. Inference is the proportion of information leakage after suppressing a cell containing secret data. A row containing a secret cell which is suppressed can become a security threat if an intruder generates useful information from the related visible information of the same row. This paper measures data accessibility and inference associated with row, cell, and column level security techniques. Cell level security offers greatest data accessibility as it suppresses secret data only. But on the other hand, there is a high probability of inference in cell level security. Row and column level security techniques have least data accessibility and inference. This paper introduces cell plus innocent security technique that utilizes the cell level security method but suppresses some innocent data to dodge an intruder that a suppressed cell may not necessarily contain secret data. Four variations of the technique namely cell plus innocent 1/4, cell plus innocent 2/4, cell plus innocent 3/4, and cell plus innocent 4/4 respectively have been introduced to suppress innocent data equal to 1/4, 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4 percent of the true secret data inside the database. Results show that the new technique offers better control over data accessibility and inference as compared to the state-of-theart security techniques. This paper further discusses the combination of techniques together to be used. The paper shows that cell plus innocent 1/4, 2/4, and 3/4 techniques can be used as a replacement for the cell level security.

Keywords: Fine Grained Security, Data Accessibility, Inference, Row, Cell, Column Level Security.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1449
647 Performance Evaluation of Energy Efficient Communication Protocol for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

Authors: Toshihiko Sasama, Kentaro Kishida, Kazunori Sugahara, Hiroshi Masuyama

Abstract:

A mobile ad hoc network is a network of mobile nodes without any notion of centralized administration. In such a network, each mobile node behaves not only as a host which runs applications but also as a router to forward packets on behalf of others. Clustering has been applied to routing protocols to achieve efficient communications. A CH network expresses the connected relationship among cluster-heads. This paper discusses the methods for constructing a CH network, and produces the following results: (1) The required running costs of 3 traditional methods for constructing a CH network are not so different from each other in the static circumstance, or in the dynamic circumstance. Their running costs in the static circumstance do not differ from their costs in the dynamic circumstance. Meanwhile, although the routing costs required for the above 3 methods are not so different in the static circumstance, the costs are considerably different from each other in the dynamic circumstance. Their routing costs in the static circumstance are also very different from their costs in the dynamic circumstance, and the former is one tenths of the latter. The routing cost in the dynamic circumstance is mostly the cost for re-routing. (2) On the strength of the above results, we discuss new 2 methods regarding whether they are tolerable or not in the dynamic circumstance, that is, whether the times of re-routing are small or not. These new methods are revised methods that are based on the traditional methods. We recommended the method which produces the smallest routing cost in the dynamic circumstance, therefore producing the smallest total cost.

Keywords: cluster, mobile ad hoc network, re-routing cost, simulation

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1325
646 Gender Discrimination in Education in Croatia

Authors: Ivana Šalinović

Abstract:

The term gender emerged in the second half of the last century and since then a growing body of research dealing with the topic demonstrates its importance. Primarily, the research and the theories that were addressing the topic were focused on stating the differences between the terms sex and gender, where sex refers to the biological aspect of a person, while gender refers to the socially ascribed roles, attitudes, behaviors, and etc., and on gender discrimination whose visible and invisible repercussions are harming society and one of the agents of change should be educators on all educational levels since they are emotionally sculpting their students, that is why considerable effort should be put into implementing education about this topic into the standard curriculum. Not only educators, but it is also necessary to change the mindset of the younger generations because they will be important agents in the further elimination of gender discrimination, thus causing societal changes. Therefore, it is very important to hear their voices and their experiences and for these reasons, this research has been done, to see what the students of the second year at a private college university Aspira in Croatia have gone through in their educational ladder. The hypothesis was that the findings would most certainly show a huge difference between female and male students’ experiences and effects of gender discrimination, but the results have actually shown a very mixed picture and the original hypothesis was somewhat disapproved. Instead of finding out that girls experienced a lot of gender discrimination, it turned out that it was the boys who believed that in their previous and current education, there was no equal time distribution between genders, they noticed that the language was not gender-sensitive, teaching aids were not adopted to the genders. They were also the ones that pointed out that the discipline path was not the same for everyone, and they were the ones that the teacher’s gender had more influence on and were also the ones that experienced more gender discrimination.

Keywords: Gender, discrimination, elementary school, high school.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 400
645 An Efficient Burst Errors Combating for Image Transmission over Mobile WPANs

Authors: Mohsen A. M. El-Bendary, Mostafa A. R. El-Tokhy

Abstract:

This paper presents an efficient burst error spreading tool. Also, it studies a vital issue in wireless communications, which is the transmission of images over wireless networks. IEEE ZigBee 802.15.4 is a short-range communication standard that could be used for small distance multimedia transmissions. In fact, the ZigBee network is a Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN), which needs a strong interleaving mechanism for protection against error bursts. Also, it is low power technology and utilized in the Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) implementation. This paper presents the chaotic interleaving scheme as a data randomization tool for this purpose. This scheme depends on the chaotic Baker map. The mobility effects on the image transmission are studied with different velocity through utilizing the Jakes’ model. A comparison study between the proposed chaotic interleaving scheme and the traditional block and convolutional interleaving schemes for image transmission over a correlated fading channel is presented. The simulation results show the superiority of the proposed chaotic interleaving scheme over the traditional schemes.

Keywords: WPANs, Burst Errors, Mobility, Interleaving Techniques, Fading channels.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2009
644 A Grey-Fuzzy Controller for Optimization Technique in Wireless Networks

Authors: Yao-Tien Wang, Hsiang-Fu Yu, Dung Chen Chiou

Abstract:

In wireless and mobile communications, this progress provides opportunities for introducing new standards and improving existing services. Supporting multimedia traffic with wireless networks quality of service (QoS). In this paper, a grey-fuzzy controller for radio resource management (GF-RRM) is presented to maximize the number of the served calls and QoS provision in wireless networks. In a wireless network, the call arrival rate, the call duration and the communication overhead between the base stations and the control center are vague and uncertain. In this paper, we develop a method to predict the cell load and to solve the RRM problem based on the GF-RRM, and support the present facility has been built on the application-level of the wireless networks. The GF-RRM exhibits the better adaptability, fault-tolerant capability and performance than other algorithms. Through simulations, we evaluate the blocking rate, update overhead, and channel acquisition delay time of the proposed method. The results demonstrate our algorithm has the lower blocking rate, less updated overhead, and shorter channel acquisition delay.

Keywords: radio resource management, grey prediction, fuzzylogic control, wireless networks, quality of service.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1697
643 Descriptive Study of Libyan Steles of Grande Kabylia, Algeria

Authors: Samia Ait Ali Yahia

Abstract:

The Libyan steles contain a good number of inscriptions. We find them on blocks of sandstone in the northern part of Grande Kabylia, Algeria. Three Libyan steles recently discovered are added to the currently known and published documents which enrich the Libyan heritage of this region. The aim of this article is to make a descriptive study of the Libyan inscriptions of these steles in order to better understand the characteristics of each stele by comparing them to the different stele already known in the region. It is certain that if other similar specimens were to be added to those we already possess, knowledge of the Libyan would gradually become clearer. The Kabylia region is certainly full of these remains that have not yet been brought to light.

Keywords: Libyan stele, Libyan inscriptions, Paintings, Engraving, Kaylie.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 285
642 Impacts of E-learning in Nursing Education: In the Light of Recent Studies

Authors: A.Ö. İlkay, C.O. Zeynep

Abstract:

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has changed our life and learn. ICT bares doors to new innovative methods to deliver education. E-learning is a part of ICT and has been endorsed as a tool for developing “21st century skills” in higher education. The aim of this review is to establish the impacts of e-learning in undergraduate nursing education. A systematic literature review was conducted to assess the impacts of e-learning in nursing education by using Akdeniz University electronic databases. According to results, we can decelerate that the nursing faculties cannot treat e-learning methods as a single tool. E-learning should be used with a good understanding of learners’ needs.

Keywords: E-learning, nursing education, systematic literature review.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4588
641 Performance Study on Audio Codec and Session Transfer of Open Source VoIP applications

Authors: Cheng-Suan Lee, Khong Neng Choong, So Gean Koh, Chee Onn Chow, Mazlan Abbas

Abstract:

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) application or commonly known as softphone has been developing an increasingly large market in today-s telecommunication world and the trend is expected to continue with the enhancement of additional features. This includes leveraging on the existing presence services, location and contextual information to enable more ubiquitous and seamless communications. In this paper, we discuss the concept of seamless session transfer for real-time application such as VoIP and IPTV, and our prototype implementation of such concept on a selected open source VoIP application. The first part of this paper is about conducting performance evaluation and assessments across some commonly found open source VoIP applications that are Ekiga, Kphone, Linphone and Twinkle so as to identify one of them for implementing our design of seamless session transfer. Subjective testing has been carried out to evaluate the audio performance on these VoIP applications and rank them according to their Mean Opinion Score (MOS) results. The second part of this paper is to discuss on the performance evaluations of our prototype implementation of session transfer using Linphone.

Keywords: audio codec, softphone, session transfer.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1659
640 Ameliorating Effects of Silver Nanoparticles Synthesized Using Chlorophytum borivillianum against Gamma Radiation Induced Oxidative Stress in Testis of Swiss Albino Mice

Authors: Ruchi Vyas, Sanjay Singh, Rashmi Sisodia

Abstract:

Chlorophytum borivillianum root extract (CBE) was chosen as a reducing agent to fabricate silver nanoparticles with the aim of studying its radioprotective efficacy. The formation of synthesized nanoparticles was characterized by UV–visible analysis (UV–vis), Fourier transform infra-red (FT-IR), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Scanning electron microscope (SEM). TEM analysis showed particles size in the range of 20-30 nm. For this study, Swiss albino mice were selected from inbred colony and were divided into 4 groups: group I- control (irradiated-6 Gy), group II- normal (vehicle treated), group III- plant extract alone and group IV- CB-AgNPs (dose of 50 mg/kg body wt./day) administered orally for 7 consecutive days before irradiation to serve as experimental. CB-AgNPs pretreatment rendered significant increase in body weight and testes weight at various post irradiation intervals in comparison to irradiated group. Supplementation of CB-AgNPs reversed the adverse effects of gamma radiation on biochemical parameters as it notably ameliorated the elevation in lipid peroxidation and decline in glutathione concentration in testes. These observations indicate the radio-protective potential of CB-AgNPs in testicular constituents against gamma irradiation in mice.

Keywords: Chlorophytum borivillianum, gamma radiation, radioprotective, silver nanoparticles.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 904
639 When Construction Material Traders Goes Electronic: Analysis of SMEs in Malaysian Construction Industry

Authors: Dzul Fahmi Nordin, Rosmini Omar

Abstract:

This paper analyzed the perception of e-commerce application services by construction material traders in Malaysia. Five attributes were tested: usability, reputation, trust, privacy and familiarity. Study methodology consists of survey questionnaire and statistical analysis that includes reliability analysis, factor analysis, ANOVA and regression analysis. The respondents were construction material traders, including hardware stores in Klang Valley, Kuala Lumpur. Findings support that usability and familiarity with e-commerce services in Malaysia have insignificant influence on the acceptance of e-commerce application. However, reputation, trust and privacy attributes have significant influence on the choice of e-commerce acceptance by construction material traders. E-commerce applications studied included customer database, e-selling, emarketing, e-payment, e-buying and online advertising. Assumptions are made that traders have basic knowledge and exposure to ICT services. i.e. internet service and computers. Study concludes that reputation, privacy and trust are the three website attributes that influence the acceptance of e-commerce by construction material traders.

Keywords: Electronic Commerce (e-Commerce), Information and Communications Technology (ICT), Small Medium Enterprise (SME)

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1819
638 EU, US and Tax Incentives: An Application

Authors: Carlos F. Liard-Muriente

Abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the controversial subject of tax incentives to promote regional development. Although extensive research has been conducted, a review of the literature gives an inconclusive answer to whether economic incentives are effective. One reason is the fact that for some researchers “effective" means the significant location of new firms in targeted areas, while for others the creation of jobs regardless if new firms are arriving in a significant fashion. We present this dichotomy by analyzing a tax incentive program via both alternatives: location and job creation. The contribution of the paper is to inform policymakers about the potential opportunities and pitfalls when designing incentive strategies. This is particularly relevant, given that both the US and Europe have been promoting incentives as a tool for regional economic development.

Keywords: Employment, Foreign Investment, Tax Incentives.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1382
637 Application of Molecular Materials in the Manufacture of Flexible and Organic Devices for Photovoltaic Applications

Authors: M. Gómez-Gómez, M. E. Sánchez-Vergara

Abstract:

Many sustainable approaches to generate electric energy have emerged in the last few decades; one of them is through solar cells. Yet, this also has the disadvantage of highly polluting inorganic semiconductor manufacturing processes. Therefore, the use of molecular semiconductors must be considered. In this work, allene compounds C24H26O4 and C24H26O5 were used as dopants to manufacture semiconductor films based on PbPc by high-vacuum evaporation technique. IR spectroscopy was carried out to determine the phase and any significant chemical changes which may occur during the thermal evaporation. According to UV-visible spectroscopy and Tauc’s model, the deposition process generated thin films with an activation energy range of 1.47 eV to 1.55 eV for direct transitions and 1.29 eV to 1.33 eV for indirect transitions. These values place the manufactured films within the range of low bandgap semiconductors. The flexible devices were manufactured: polyethylene terephthalate (PET), Indium tin oxide (ITO)/organic semiconductor/Cubic Close Packed (CCP). The characterization of the devices was carried out by evaluating electrical conductivity using the four-probe collinear method. I-V curves were obtained under different lighting conditions at room temperature. OS1 (PbPc/C24H26O4) showed an Ohmic behavior, while OS2 (PbPc/C24H26O5) reached higher current values at lower voltages. The results obtained show that the semiconductor devices doped with allene compounds can be used in the manufacture of optoelectronic devices.

Keywords: Electrical properties, optical gap, phthalocyanine, thin film.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 372
636 Direction of Arrival Estimation Based on a Single Port Smart Antenna Using MUSIC Algorithm with Periodic Signals

Authors: Chen Sun, Nemai Chandra Karmakar

Abstract:

A novel direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation technique, which uses a conventional multiple signal classification (MUSIC) algorithm with periodic signals, is applied to a single RF-port parasitic array antenna for direction finding. Simulation results show that the proposed method gives high resolution (1 degree) DOA estimation in an uncorrelated signal environment. The novelty lies in that the MUSIC algorithm is applied to a simplified antenna configuration. Only one RF port and one analogue-to-digital converter (ADC) are used in this antenna, which features low DC power consumption, low cost, and ease of fabrication. Modifications to the conventional MUSIC algorithm do not bring much additional complexity. The proposed technique is also free from the negative influence by the mutual coupling between elements. Therefore, the technique has great potential to be implemented into the existing wireless mobile communications systems, especially at the power consumption limited mobile terminals, to provide additional position location (PL) services.

Keywords: Direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation, electronically steerable parasitic array radiator (ESPAR), multiple single classifications (MUSIC), position location.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2966