Search results for: information society
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 4377

Search results for: information society

3447 An Analysis of Abortion Laws and Sex Selective Abortion in India: A Case Study of Rajasthan

Authors: Priya Bhakat

Abstract:

A son in every Hindu society pays his own father the debt and he owes him for his own life whereas a girl child is treated as a burden mainly in case of first child. Even today in India we have many societies which does not welcome girl child. Although there is an increase in overall sex ratio, there is a continuous decline in child sex ratio. This paper focuses on issues of sex selective abortion in Rajasthan based on secondary data. It is found that 90.0 percentages of women in Rajasthan wants at least one son. Around 34.3 percentages of women wants more sons than daughters and only 1.5 percentages of women wants more daughters than sons. It is very common among the rich and educated people.

Keywords: Rajasthan, Family Planning Program (FPP), Sex Selective Abortion (SSA), Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB).

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3446 An Efficiency Measurement of E-Government Performance for United Nation Ranking Index

Authors: Yassine Jadi, Lin Jie

Abstract:

In order to serve the society in an electronic manner, many developing countries have launched tremendous e-government projects. The strategies of development and implementation e-government system have reached different levels, and to ensure consistency of development, the governments need to evaluate e-government performance. The United nation has design e-government development ranking index (EGDI) that rely on three indexes, Online service index (OSI), Telecommunication Infrastructure index (TII), and human capital index( HCI) which are not reflecting the interaction between a government and their citizens. Based on data envelopment analyses (DEA) technique, we are using E-participating index (EPI) as an output of government effort to evaluate the performance of e-government system. Therefore, the ranking index can be achieved in efficiency manner.

Keywords: E-government, DEA, efficiency measurement, EGDI.

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3445 Promoting Mathematical Understanding Using ICT in Teaching and Learning

Authors: Kamel Hashem, Ibrahim Arman

Abstract:

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in mathematical education is a very active field of research and innovation, where learning is understood to be meaningful and grasping multiple linked representation rather than rote memorization, a great amount of literature offering a wide range of theories, learning approaches, methodologies and interpretations, are generally stressing the potentialities for teaching and learning using ICT. Despite the utilization of new learning approaches with ICT, students experience difficulties in learning concepts relevant to understanding mathematics, much remains unclear about the relationship between the computer environment, the activities it might support, and the knowledge that might emerge from such activities. Many questions that might arise in this regard: to what extent does the use of ICT help students in the process of understanding and solving tasks or problems? Is it possible to identify what aspects or features of students' mathematical learning can be enhanced by the use of technology? This paper will highlight the interest of the integration of information and communication technologies (ICT) into the teaching and learning of mathematics (quadratic functions), it aims to investigate the effect of four instructional methods on students- mathematical understanding and problem solving. Quantitative and qualitative methods are used to report about 43 students in middle school. Results showed that mathematical thinking and problem solving evolves as students engage with ICT activities and learn cooperatively.

Keywords: Dynamic Geometry Software, Information and Communication Technologies, Visualization, Mathematical Education.

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3444 Entrepreneurship Game: Digital 'Catur Bistari'

Authors: A.A. Amran, S. R. M. Shukri, S. M. Taib

Abstract:

The role of entrepreneurs in generating the economy is very important. Thus, nurturing entrepreneurship skills among society is very crucial and should start from the early age. One of the methods is to teach through game such as board game. Game provides a fun and interactive platform for players to learn and play. Besides that as today-s world is moving towards Islamic approach in terms of finance, banking and entertainment but Islamic based game is still hard to find in the market especially games on entrepreneurship. Therefore, there is a gap in this segment that can be filled by learning entrepreneurship through game. The objective of this paper is to develop an entrepreneurship digital-based game entitled “Catur Bistari" that is based on Islamic business approach. Knowledge and skill of entrepreneurship and Islamic business approach will be learned through the tasks that are incorporated inside the game.

Keywords: Board game, educational game, entrepreneurship, Islamic finance and simulation.

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3443 Differences and Similarities between Concepts of Good, Great, and Leading Teacher

Authors: Vilma Zydziunaite, Vaida Jurgile, Roman Balandiuk

Abstract:

Good, great, and leading teachers are expected to be the role models for students, society, professional community. Their role model includes expertise, trustworthiness, originality, facilitating, cooperation and communication. Teachers demonstrate their professional passion through their professionalism and professional attitudes. Usually, we call them teacher(s) leaders by integrating three notions such as good, great, and leading in a one-teacher leader. Here are described essences of three concepts: ‘good teacher,’ ‘great teacher,’ ‘and teacher leader’ as they are inseparable in teaching practices, teacher’s professional life, and educational interactions with students, fellow teachers, school administration, students’ families and school communities.

Keywords: Great teacher, good teacher, leading teacher, school, student.

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3442 Teachers Leadership Dimension in History Learning

Authors: Lee Bih Ni, Zulfhikar Rabe, Nurul Asyikin Hassan

Abstract:

The Ministry of Education Malaysia dynamically and drastically made the subject of History mandatory to be in force in 2013. This is in recognition of the nation's heritage and treasures in maintaining true facts and information for future generations of the State. History reveals the civilization of a nation and the fact of national cultural heritage. Civilization needs to be preserved as a legacy of sovereign heritage. Today's generation is the catalyst for future heirs who will support the principle and direction of the country. In line with the National Education Philosophy that aims to shape the potential development of individuals holistically and uniquely in order to produce a balanced and harmonious student in terms of intellectual, spiritual, emotional and physical. Hence, understanding the importance of studying the history subject as a pillar of identity and the history of nationhood is to be a priority in the pursuit of knowledge and empowering the spirit of statehood that is nurtured through continuous learning at school. Judging from the aspect of teacher leadership role in integrating history in a combined way based on Teacher Education Philosophy. It empowers the teaching profession towards the teacher to support noble character. It also supports progressive and scientific views. Teachers are willing to uphold the State's aspirations and celebrate the country's cultural heritage. They guarantee individual development and maintain a united, democratic, progressive and disciplined society. Teacher's role as a change and leadership agent in education begins in the classroom through formal or informal educational processes. This situation is expanded in schools, communities and countries. The focus of this paper is on the role of teacher leadership influencing the effectiveness of teaching and learning history in the classroom environment. Leadership guides to teachers' perceptions on the role of teacher leadership, teaching leadership, and the teacher leadership role and effective teacher leadership role. Discussions give emphasis on aspects of factors affecting the classroom environment, forming the classroom agenda, effective classroom implementation methods, suitable climate for historical learning and teacher challenges in implicating the effectiveness of teaching and learning processes.

Keywords: Teacher leadership, leadership lessons, effective classroom, effective teacher.

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3441 Context Modeling and Reasoning Approach in Context-Aware Middleware for URC System

Authors: Chung-Seong Hong, Hyung-Sun Kim, Joonmyun Cho, Hyun Kyu Cho, Hyun-Chan Lee

Abstract:

To realize the vision of ubiquitous computing, it is important to develop a context-aware infrastructure which can help ubiquitous agents, services, and devices become aware of their contexts because such computational entities need to adapt themselves to changing situations. A context-aware infrastructure manages the context model representing contextual information and provides appropriate information. In this paper, we introduce Context-Aware Middleware for URC System (hereafter CAMUS) as a context-aware infrastructure for a network-based intelligent robot system and discuss the ontology-based context modeling and reasoning approach which is used in that infrastructure.

Keywords: CAMUS, Context-Aware, Context Model, Ontology.

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3440 Position Based Routing Protocol with More Reliability in Mobile Ad Hoc Network

Authors: Mahboobeh Abdoos, Karim Faez, Masoud Sabaei

Abstract:

Position based routing protocols are the kinds of routing protocols, which they use of nodes location information, instead of links information to routing. In position based routing protocols, it supposed that the packet source node has position information of itself and it's neighbors and packet destination node. Greedy is a very important position based routing protocol. In one of it's kinds, named MFR (Most Forward Within Radius), source node or packet forwarder node, sends packet to one of it's neighbors with most forward progress towards destination node (closest neighbor to destination). Using distance deciding metric in Greedy to forward packet to a neighbor node, is not suitable for all conditions. If closest neighbor to destination node, has high speed, in comparison with source node or intermediate packet forwarder node speed or has very low remained battery power, then packet loss probability is increased. Proposed strategy uses combination of metrics distancevelocity similarity-power, to deciding about giving the packet to which neighbor. Simulation results show that the proposed strategy has lower lost packets average than Greedy, so it has more reliability.

Keywords: Mobile Ad Hoc Network, Position Based, Reliability, Routing.

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3439 A Novel Web Metric for the Evaluation of Internet Trends

Authors: Radek Malinský, Ivan Jelínek

Abstract:

Web 2.0 (social networking, blogging and online forums) can serve as a data source for social science research because it contains vast amount of information from many different users. The volume of that information has been growing at a very high rate and becoming a network of heterogeneous data; this makes things difficult to find and is therefore not almost useful. We have proposed a novel theoretical model for gathering and processing data from Web 2.0, which would reflect semantic content of web pages in better way. This article deals with the analysis part of the model and its usage for content analysis of blogs. The introductory part of the article describes methodology for the gathering and processing data from blogs. The next part of the article is focused on the evaluation and content analysis of blogs, which write about specific trend.

Keywords: Blog, Sentiment Analysis, Web 2.0, Webometrics

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3438 Towards the Design of a GIS-Linked Agent-Based Model for the Lake Chad Basin Region: Challenges and Opportunities

Authors: Stephen Akuma, Isaac Terngu Adom, Evelyn Doofan Akuma

Abstract:

Generation after generation of humans has experienced conflicts leading to needless deaths. Usually, it begins as a minor argument that occasionally escalates into a full-fledged conflict. There has been a lingering crisis in the Lake Chad Basin (LCB) of Africa for over a decade leading to bloodshed that has claimed thousands of lives. The terrorist group, Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for these deaths. Efforts have been made by the governments in the LCB region to end the crisis through kinetic approaches, but the conflict persists. In this work, we explored non-kinetic methods used by social scientists in resolving conflicts, with a focus on computational approaches due to the increasing processing power of the computer. Firstly, we reviewed the innovative computational methods available for researchers working on conflict, violence, and peace. Secondly, we described how an Agent-Based Model (ABM) can be linked with a Geographic Information System (GIS) to model the LCB. Finally, this research discusses the challenges and opportunities in constructing a Geographic Information System linked Agent-Based Model of the LCB region.

Keywords: Agent-based modelling, conflict, Geographical Information Systems, Lake Chad Basin, simulation.

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3437 Status and Requirements of Counter-Cyberterrorism

Authors: Jeong-Tae Kim, Tchanghee Hyun

Abstract:

The number of intrusions and attacks against critical infrastructures and other information networks is increasing rapidly. While there is no identified evidence that terrorist organizations are currently planning a coordinated attack against the vulnerabilities of computer systems and network connected to critical infrastructure, and origins of the indiscriminate cyber attacks that infect computers on network remain largely unknown. The growing trend toward the use of more automated and menacing attack tools has also overwhelmed some of the current methodologies used for tracking cyber attacks. There is an ample possibility that this kind of cyber attacks can be transform to cyberterrorism caused by illegal purposes. Cyberterrorism is a matter of vital importance to national welfare. Therefore, each countries and organizations have to take a proper measure to meet the situation and consider effective legislation about cyberterrorism.

Keywords: Cyberterrorism, cyber attack, information security, legislation

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3436 Domain Driven Design vs Soft Domain Driven Design Frameworks

Authors: Mohammed Salahat, Steve Wade

Abstract:

This paper presents and compares the SSDDD “Systematic Soft Domain Driven Design Framework” to DDD “Domain Driven Design Framework” as a soft system approach of information systems development. The framework use SSM as a guiding methodology within which we have embedded a sequence of design tasks based on the UML leading to the implementation of a software system using the Naked Objects framework. This framework has been used in action research projects that have involved the investigation and modelling of business processes using object-oriented domain models and the implementation of software systems based on those domain models. Within this framework, Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) is used as a guiding methodology to explore the problem situation and to develop the domain model using UML for the given business domain. The framework is proposed and evaluated in our previous works, a comparison between SSDDD and DDD is presented in this paper, to show how SSDDD improved DDD as an approach to modelling and implementing business domain perspectives for Information Systems Development. The comparison process, the results, and the improvements are presented in the following sections of this paper.

Keywords: SSM, UML, domain-driven design, soft domain-driven design, naked objects, soft language, information retrieval, multimethodology.

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3435 Emotions in Health Tweets: Analysis of American Government Official Accounts

Authors: García López

Abstract:

The Government Departments of Health have the task of informing and educating citizens about public health issues. For this, they use channels like Twitter, key in the search for health information and the propagation of content. The tweets, important in the virality of the content, may contain emotions that influence the contagion and exchange of knowledge. The goal of this study is to perform an analysis of the emotional projection of health information shared on Twitter by official American accounts: the disease control account CDCgov, National Institutes of Health, NIH, the government agency HHSGov, and the professional organization PublicHealth. For this, we used Tone Analyzer, an International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) tool specialized in emotion detection in text, corresponding to the categorical model of emotion representation. For 15 days, all tweets from these accounts were analyzed with the emotional analysis tool in text. The results showed that their tweets contain an important emotional load, a determining factor in the success of their communications. This exposes that official accounts also use subjective language and contain emotions. The predominance of emotion joy over sadness and the strong presence of emotions in their tweets stimulate the virality of content, a key in the work of informing that government health departments have.

Keywords: Emotions in tweets emotion detection in text, health information on Twitter, American health official accounts, emotions on Twitter, emotions and content.

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3434 Suitable Partner Node Selection and Resource Allocation in Cooperative Wireless Communication Using the Trade-Off Game

Authors: Oluseye A. Adeleke, Mohd. F. M. Salleh

Abstract:

The performance of any cooperative communication system depends largely on the selection of a proper partner. Another important factor to consider is an efficient allocation of resource like power by the source node to help it in forwarding information to the destination. In this paper, we look at the concepts of partner selection and resource (power) allocation for a distributed communication network. A type of non-cooperative game referred to as Trade-Off game is employed so as to jointly consider the utilities of the source and relay nodes, where in this case, the source is the node that requires help with forwarding of its information while the partner is the node that is willing to help in forwarding the source node’s information, but at a price. The approach enables the source node to maximize its utility by selecting a partner node based on (i) the proximity of the partner node to the source and destination nodes, and (ii) the price the partner node will charge for the help being rendered. Our proposed scheme helps the source locate and select the relay nodes at ‘better’ locations and purchase power optimally from them. It also aids the contending relay nodes maximize their own utilities as well by asking proper prices. Our game scheme is seen to converge to unique equilibrium.

Keywords: Cooperative communication, game theory, node, power allocation, trade-off, utility.

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3433 FPGA Implementation of a Vision-Based Blind Spot Warning System

Authors: Yu Ren Lin, Yu Hong Li

Abstract:

Vision-based intelligent vehicle applications often require large amounts of memory to handle video streaming and image processing, which in turn increases complexity of hardware and software. This paper presents an FPGA implement of a vision-based blind spot warning system. Using video frames, the information of the blind spot area turns into one-dimensional information. Analysis of the estimated entropy of image allows the detection of an object in time. This idea has been implemented in the XtremeDSP video starter kit. The blind spot warning system uses only 13% of its logic resources and 95k bits block memory, and its frame rate is over 30 frames per sec (fps).

Keywords: blind-spot area, image, FPGA

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3432 Electronic Government around the World: Key Information and Communication Technology Indicators

Authors: Isaac Kofi Mensah

Abstract:

Governments around the world are adopting Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) because of the important opportunities it provides through E-government (EG) to modernize government public administration processes and delivery of quality and efficient public services. Almost every country in the world is adopting ICT in its public sector administration (EG) to modernize and change the traditional process of government, increase citizen engagement and participation in governance, as well as the provision of timely information to citizens. This paper, therefore, seeks to present the adoption, development and implementation of EG in regions globally, as well as the ICT indicators around the world, which are making EG initiatives successful. Europe leads the world in its EG adoption and development index, followed by the Americas, Asia, Oceania and Africa. There is a gradual growth in ICT indicators in terms of the increase in Internet access and usage, increase in broadband penetration, an increase of individuals using the Internet at home and a decline in fixed telephone use, while the mobile cellular phone has been on the increase year-on-year. Though the lack of ICT infrastructure is a major challenge to EG adoption and implementation around the world, in Africa it is very pervasive, hampering the expansion of Internet access and provision of broadband, and hence is a barrier to the successful adoption, development, and implementation of EG initiatives in countries on the continent. But with the general improvement and increase in ICT indicators around the world, it provides countries in Europe, Americas, Asia, Arab States, Oceania and Africa with the huge opportunity to enhance public service delivery through the adoption of EG. Countries within these regions cannot fail their citizens who desire to enjoy an enhanced and efficient public service delivery from government and its many state institutions.

Keywords: E-government development index, e-government, indicators, information and communication technologies.

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3431 Sensor and Actuator Fault Detection in Connected Vehicles under a Packet Dropping Network

Authors: Z. Abdollahi Biron, P. Pisu

Abstract:

Connected vehicles are one of the promising technologies for future Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). A connected vehicle system is essentially a set of vehicles communicating through a network to exchange their information with each other and the infrastructure. Although this interconnection of the vehicles can be potentially beneficial in creating an efficient, sustainable, and green transportation system, a set of safety and reliability challenges come out with this technology. The first challenge arises from the information loss due to unreliable communication network which affects the control/management system of the individual vehicles and the overall system. Such scenario may lead to degraded or even unsafe operation which could be potentially catastrophic. Secondly, faulty sensors and actuators can affect the individual vehicle’s safe operation and in turn will create a potentially unsafe node in the vehicular network. Further, sending that faulty sensor information to other vehicles and failure in actuators may significantly affect the safe operation of the overall vehicular network. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to take these issues into consideration while designing the control/management algorithms of the individual vehicles as a part of connected vehicle system. In this paper, we consider a connected vehicle system under Co-operative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC) and propose a fault diagnosis scheme that deals with these aforementioned challenges. Specifically, the conventional CACC algorithm is modified by adding a Kalman filter-based estimation algorithm to suppress the effect of lost information under unreliable network. Further, a sliding mode observer-based algorithm is used to improve the sensor reliability under faults. The effectiveness of the overall diagnostic scheme is verified via simulation studies.

Keywords: Fault diagnostics, communication network, connected vehicles, packet drop out, platoon.

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3430 Strategies for E-Waste Management: A Literature Review

Authors: Linh Thi Truc Doan, Yousef Amer, Sang-Heon Lee, Phan Nguyen Ky Phuc

Abstract:

During the last few decades, with the high-speed upgrade of electronic products, electronic waste (e-waste) has become one of the fastest growing wastes of the waste stream. In this context, more efforts and concerns have already been placed on the treatment and management of this waste. To mitigate their negative influences on the environment and society, it is necessary to establish appropriate strategies for e-waste management. Hence, this paper aims to review and analysis some useful strategies which have been applied in several countries to handle e-waste. Future perspectives on e-waste management are also suggested. The key findings found that, to manage e-waste successfully, it is necessary to establish effective reverse supply chains for e-waste, and raise public awareness towards the detrimental impacts of e-waste. The result of the research provides valuable insights to governments, policymakers in establishing e-waste management in a safe and sustainable manner.

Keywords: E-waste, e-waste management, life cycle assessment, recycling regulations.

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3429 Software Architecture and Support for Patient Tracking Systems in Critical Scenarios

Authors: Gianluca Cornetta, Abdellah Touhafi, David J. Santos, Jose Manuel Vazquez

Abstract:

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.

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3428 Application of a Novel Audio Compression Scheme in Automatic Music Recommendation, Digital Rights Management and Audio Fingerprinting

Authors: Anindya Roy, Goutam Saha

Abstract:

Rapid progress in audio compression technology has contributed to the explosive growth of music available in digital form today. In a reversal of ideas, this work makes use of a recently proposed efficient audio compression scheme to develop three important applications in the context of Music Information Retrieval (MIR) for the effective manipulation of large music databases, namely automatic music recommendation (AMR), digital rights management (DRM) and audio finger-printing for song identification. The performance of these three applications has been evaluated with respect to a database of songs collected from a diverse set of genres.

Keywords: Audio compression, Music Information Retrieval, Digital Rights Management, Audio Fingerprinting.

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3427 Interruption Overload in an Office Environment: Hungarian Survey Focusing on the Factors that Affect Job Satisfaction and Work Efficiency

Authors: Fruzsina Pataki-Bittó, Edit Németh

Abstract:

On the one hand, new technologies and communication tools improve employee productivity and accelerate information and knowledge transfer, while on the other hand, information overload and continuous interruptions make it even harder to concentrate at work. It is a great challenge for companies to find the right balance, while there is also an ongoing demand to recruit and retain the talented employees who are able to adopt the modern work style and effectively use modern communication tools. For this reason, this research does not focus on the objective measures of office interruptions, but aims to find those disruption factors which influence the comfort and job satisfaction of employees, and the way how they feel generally at work. The focus of this research is on how employees feel about the different types of interruptions, which are those they themselves identify as hindering factors, and those they feel as stress factors. By identifying and then reducing these destructive factors, job satisfaction can reach a higher level and employee turnover can be reduced. During the research, we collected information from depth interviews and questionnaires asking about work environment, communication channels used in the workplace, individual communication preferences, factors considered as disruptions, and individual steps taken to avoid interruptions. The questionnaire was completed by 141 office workers from several types of workplaces based in Hungary. Even though 66 respondents are working at Hungarian offices of multinational companies, the research is about the characteristics of the Hungarian labor force. The most important result of the research shows that while more than one third of the respondents consider office noise as a disturbing factor, personal inquiries are welcome and considered useful, even if in such cases the work environment will not be convenient to solve tasks requiring concentration. Analyzing the sizes of the offices, in an open-space environment, the rate of those who consider office noise as a disturbing factor is surprisingly lower than in smaller office rooms. Opinions are more diverse regarding information communication technologies. In addition to the interruption factors affecting the employees' job satisfaction, the research also focuses on the role of the offices in the 21st century.

Keywords: Information overload, interruption, job satisfaction, office environment, work efficiency.

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3426 An E-learning System Architecture based on Cloud Computing

Authors: Md. Anwar Hossain Masud, Xiaodi Huang

Abstract:

The massive proliferation of affordable computers, Internet broadband connectivity and rich education content has created a global phenomenon in which information and communication technology (ICT) is being used to transform education. Therefore, there is a need to redesign the educational system to meet the needs better. The advent of computers with sophisticated software has made it possible to solve many complex problems very fast and at a lower cost. This paper introduces the characteristics of the current E-Learning and then analyses the concept of cloud computing and describes the architecture of cloud computing platform by combining the features of E-Learning. The authors have tried to introduce cloud computing to e-learning, build an e-learning cloud, and make an active research and exploration for it from the following aspects: architecture, construction method and external interface with the model.

Keywords: Architecture, Cloud Computing, E-learning, Information Technology

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3425 Thermal Performance Rating of Solar Water Heating Systems in ASEAN

Authors: E. Halawa

Abstract:

Solar water heating (SWH) systems are gaining popularity in ASEAN in the midst of increasing number of affluent population in society and environmental concerns from seemingly unchanged reliance on fossil-based fuels. The penetration of these systems and technologies into ASEAN markets is a welcome development; however there is a need for the method of assessment of their thermal performances. This paper discusses the reasons for this need and a suitable method for thermal performance evaluation of SWH systems in ASEAN. The paper also calls on research to be focused on the establishment of reliable data to be entered into the performance rating software. The establishment of accredited solar systems testing facilities can help boost the competitiveness of ASEAN solar industry.

Keywords: ASEAN, solar industry, solar water heating systems, thermal performance rating.

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3424 Aspects to Motivate users of a Design Engineering Wiki to Share their Knowledge

Authors: Regine W. Vroom, Lysanne E. Vossen, Anoek M. Geers

Abstract:

Industrial design engineering is an information and knowledge intensive job. Although Wikipedia offers a lot of this information, design engineers are better served with a wiki tailored to their job, offering information in a compact manner and functioning as a design tool. For that reason WikID has been developed. However for the viability of a wiki, an active user community is essential. The main subject of this paper is a study to the influence of the communication and the contents of WikID on the user-s willingness to contribute. At first the theory about a website-s first impression, general usability guidelines and user motivation in an online community is studied. Using this theory, the aspects of the current site are analyzed on their suitability. These results have been verified with a questionnaire amongst 66 industrial design engineers (or students industrial design engineering). The main conclusion is that design engineers are enchanted with the existence of WikID and its knowledge structure (taxonomy) but this structure has not become clear without any guidance. In other words, the knowledge structure is very helpful for inspiring and guiding design engineers through their tailored knowledge domain in WikID but this taxonomy has to be better communicated on the main page. Thereby the main page needs to be fitted more to the target group preferences.

Keywords: Industrial Design Engineering Knowledge, SemanticWiki, User Willingness to Contribute Knowledge to a Wiki, Influence of Website Content to User Activation.

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3423 Strategies of Education and Training Practice of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises

Authors: A. Bencsik, - A. Sólyom

Abstract:

The role of knowledge is a determinative factor in the life of economy and society. To determine knowledge is not an easy task yet the real task is to determine the right knowledge. From this view knowledge is a sum of experience, ideas and cognitions which can help companies to remain in markets and to realize a maximum profit. At the same time changes of circumstances project in advance that contents and demands of the right knowledge are changing. In this paper we will analyse a special segment on the basis of an empirical survey. We investigated the behaviour and strategies of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the area of knowledge-handling. This survey was realized by questionnaires and wide range statistical methods were used during processing. As a result we will show how these companies are prepared to operate in a knowledge-based economy and in which areas they have prominent deficiencies.

Keywords: education, knowledge, knowledgemanagement, strategy, SME

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3422 Implementing a Database from a Requirement Specification

Authors: M. Omer, D. Wilson

Abstract:

Creating a database scheme is essentially a manual process. From a requirement specification the information contained within has to be analyzed and reduced into a set of tables, attributes and relationships. This is a time consuming process that has to go through several stages before an acceptable database schema is achieved. The purpose of this paper is to implement a Natural Language Processing (NLP) based tool to produce a relational database from a requirement specification. The Stanford CoreNLP version 3.3.1 and the Java programming were used to implement the proposed model. The outcome of this study indicates that a first draft of a relational database schema can be extracted from a requirement specification by using NLP tools and techniques with minimum user intervention. Therefore this method is a step forward in finding a solution that requires little or no user intervention.

Keywords: Information Extraction, Natural Language Processing, Relation Extraction.

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3421 Knowledge Sharing based on Semantic Nets and Mereology to Avoid Risks in Manufacturing

Authors: Ulrich Berger, Yuliya Lebedynska, Veronica Vargas

Abstract:

The right information at the right time influences the enterprise and technical success. Sharing knowledge among members of a big organization may be a complex activity. And as long as the knowledge is not shared, can not be exploited by the organization. There are some mechanisms which can originate knowledge sharing. It is intended, in this paper, to trigger these mechanisms by using semantic nets. Moreover, the intersection and overlapping of terms and sub-terms, as well as their relationships will be described through the mereology science for the whole knowledge sharing system. It is proposed a knowledge system to supply to operators with the right information about a specific process and possible risks, e.g. at the assembly process, at the right time in an automated manufacturing environment, such as at the automotive industry.

Keywords: Automated manufacturing, knowledge sharing, mereology, risk management, semantic net.

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3420 The Impact of Information and Communication Technology on Bilateral Trade in Goods

Authors: Christina Tay

Abstract:

This paper investigates the impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on bilateral trade in goods. Empirical analysis is performed on the United States and 34 partnering countries from 2000 to 2013. Our econometric model fits the data well, explaining 52% of the variation in trade flows for goods trade, 53.2% of the variation in trade flows for goods export and 48% of the variation in trade flows for goods import. For every 10% increase in fixed broadband Internet subscribers per 100 people increases, goods trade by 7.9% and for every 5% increase in fixed broadband Internet subscribers per 100 people, goods export increases by 11%. For every 1% increase in fixed telephone line penetration per 100 people, goods trade increases by 26.3%, goods export increases by 24.4% and goods import increases by 24.8%. For every 1% increase in mobile-cellular telephone subscriptions, goods trade decreases by 29.6% and goods export decreases by 27.1%, whilst for every 0.01% increase in mobile-cellular telephone subscriptions, goods import decreases by 34.3%. For every 1% increase in the percentage of population who used the Internet from any location in the last 12 months Internet, goods trade increases by 32.5%, goods export increases by 38.9%, goods import increases by 33%. All our trade determinants as well as our ICT variables have significances on goods exports for the US. We can also draw from our study that the US relies more rather heavily on ICT for its goods export compared to goods import.

Keywords: Bilateral trade, goods trade, information and communication technologies, Internet.

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3419 Application of Generalized Stochastic Petri Nets(GSPN) in Modeling and Evaluating a Resource Sharing Flexible Manufacturing System

Authors: Aryanejad Mir Bahador Goli, Zahra Honarmand Shah Zileh

Abstract:

In most study fields, a phenomenon may not be studied directly but it will be examined indirectly by phenomenon model. Making an accurate model of system, there is attained new information from modeled phenomenon without any charge, danger, etc... there have been developed more solutions for describing and analyzing the recent complicated systems but few of them have analyzed the performance in the range of system description. Petri nets are of limited solutions which may make such union. Petri nets are being applied in problems related to modeling and designing the systems. Theory of Petri nets allow a system to model mathematically by a Petri net and analyzing the Petri net can then determine main information of modeled system-s structure and dynamic. This information can be used for assessing the performance of systems and suggesting corrections in the system. In this paper, beside the introduction of Petri nets, a real case study will be studied in order to show the application of generalized stochastic Petri nets in modeling a resource sharing production system and evaluating the efficiency of its machines and robots. The modeling tool used here is SHARP software which calculates specific indicators helping to make decision.

Keywords: Flexible manufacturing system, generalizedstochastic Petri nets, Markov chain, performance evaluation.

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3418 The Use of Complex Contourlet Transform on Fusion Scheme

Authors: Dipeng Chen, Qi Li

Abstract:

Image fusion aims to enhance the perception of a scene by combining important information captured by different sensors. Dual-Tree Complex Wavelet (DT-CWT) has been thouroughly investigated for image fusion, since it takes advantages of approximate shift invariance and direction selectivity. But it can only handle limited direction information. To allow a more flexible directional expansion for images, we propose a novel fusion scheme, referred to as complex contourlet transform (CCT). It successfully incorporates directional filter banks (DFB) into DT-CWT. As a result it efficiently deal with images containing contours and textures, whereas it retains the property of shift invariance. Experimental results demonstrated that the method features high quality fusion performance and can facilitate many image processing applications.

Keywords: Complex contourlet transform, Complex wavelettransform, Fusion.

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