Search results for: mobile operators
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 1112

Search results for: mobile operators

182 Effects of Corruption and Logistics Performance Inefficiencies on Container Throughput: The Latin America Case

Authors: Fernando Seabra, Giulia P. Flores, Karolina C. Gomes

Abstract:

Trade liberalizations measures, as import tariff cuts, are not a sufficient trigger for trade growth. Given that price margins are narrow, traders and cargo operators tend to opt out of markets where the process of goods clearance is slow and costly. Excess paperwork and slow customs dispatch not only lead to institutional breakdowns and corruption but also to increasing transaction cost and trade constraints. The objective of this paper is, therefore, two-fold: First, to evaluate the relationship between institutional and infrastructural performance indexes and trade growth in container throughput; and, second, to investigate the causes for differences in container demurrage and detention fees in Latin American countries (using other emerging countries as benchmarking). The analysis is focused on manufactured goods, typically transported by containers. Institutional and infrastructure bottlenecks and, therefore, the country logistics efficiency – measured by the Logistics Performance Index (LPI, World Bank-WB) – are compared with other indexes, such as the Doing Business index (WB) and the Corruption Perception Index (Transparency International). The main results based on the comparison between Latin American countries and the others emerging countries point out in that the growth in containers trade is directly related to LPI performance. It has also been found that the main hypothesis is valid as aspects that more specifically identify trade facilitation and corruption are significant drivers of logistics performance. The exam of port efficiency (demurrage and detention fees) has demonstrated that not necessarily higher level of efficiency is related to lower charges; however, reductions in fees have been more significant within non-Latin American emerging countries.

Keywords: Container throughput, logistics performance, corruption, Latin America.

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181 A Design of an Augmented Reality Based Virtual Heritage Application

Authors: Stephen Barnes, Ian Mills, Frances Cleary

Abstract:

Augmented and Virtual Reality based applications offer many benefits for the heritage and tourism sector. This technology provides a platform to showcase the regions of interest to people without the need for them to be physically present, which has had a positive impact on enticing tourists to visit those locations. However, the technology also provides the opportunity to present historical artefacts in a form that accurately represents their original, intended appearance. Three sites of interest were identified in the Lingaun Valley in South East Ireland wherein virtual representations of site specific artefacts of interest were created via a multidisciplinary team encompassing archaeology, art history, 3D modelling, design and software development. The collated information has been presented to users via an Augmented Reality mobile based application that provides information in an engaging manner that encourages an interest in history as well as visits to the sites in the Lingaun Valley.

Keywords: Augmented Reality, Virtual Heritage, 3D modelling, archaeology, virtual representation.

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180 Handling Mobility using Virtual Grid in Static Wireless Sensor Networks

Authors: T.P. Sharma

Abstract:

Querying a data source and routing data towards sink becomes a serious challenge in static wireless sensor networks if sink and/or data source are mobile. Many a times the event to be observed either moves or spreads across wide area making maintenance of continuous path between source and sink a challenge. Also, sink can move while query is being issued or data is on its way towards sink. In this paper, we extend our already proposed Grid Based Data Dissemination (GBDD) scheme which is a virtual grid based topology management scheme restricting impact of movement of sink(s) and event(s) to some specific cells of a grid. This obviates the need for frequent path modifications and hence maintains continuous flow of data while minimizing the network energy consumptions. Simulation experiments show significant improvements in network energy savings and average packet delay for a packet to reach at sink.

Keywords: Mobility in WSNs, virtual grid, GBDD, clustering.

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179 Performance Analysis of Heterogeneous Cellular Networks with Multiple Connectivity

Authors: Sungkyung Kim, Jee-Hyeon Na, Dong-Seung Kwon

Abstract:

Future mobile networks following 5th generation will be characterized by one thousand times higher gains in capacity; connections for at least one hundred billion devices; user experience capable of extremely low latency and response times. To be close to the capacity requirements and higher reliability, advanced technologies have been studied, such as multiple connectivity, small cell enhancement, heterogeneous networking, and advanced interference and mobility management. This paper is focused on the multiple connectivity in heterogeneous cellular networks. We investigate the performance of coverage and user throughput in several deployment scenarios. Using the stochastic geometry approach, the SINR distributions and the coverage probabilities are derived in case of dual connection. Also, to compare the user throughput enhancement among the deployment scenarios, we calculate the spectral efficiency and discuss our results.

Keywords: Heterogeneous networks, multiple connectivity, small cell enhancement, stochastic geometry.

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178 Economic Effects of Maritime Environmental Legislation in the North and Baltic Sea Area: An Exploratory Sequential Mixed Methods Approach

Authors: Thea Freese

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Environmental legislation to protect North and Baltic Sea areas from harmful vessel-source emissions has received increased political attention in recent years. Legislative measures are expected to show positive effects on the health of the marine environment and society. At the same time, compliance might increase the costs to industry and have effects on freight rates and volumes shipped with potential negative repercussions on the environment. Building on an exploratory sequential mixed methods approach, this research project will study the economic effects of maritime environmental legislation in two phases. In Phase I, exploratory in-depth interviews were conducted with 12 experts from various stakeholder groups aiming at identifying variables influencing the relationship between environmental legislation, freight rates and volumes shipped. Influencing factors like compliance, enforcement and modal shift were identified and studied. Phase II will comprise of a quantitative study conducted with the aim of verifying the theory build in Phase I and quantifying economic effects of rules on shipping pollution. Research in this field might inform policy-makers about determinants of behaviour of ship operators in the face of the law and might further the development of a comprehensive legal system for marine environmental protection. At the present stage of research, first tentative results from the qualitative phase may be examined and open research questions to be addressed in the quantitative phase as well as possible research designs for phase II may be discussed. Input from other researchers will be highly valuable at this point.

Keywords: Clean shipping operations, compliance, maritime environmental legislation, maritime law and economics, mixed methods research, North and Baltic Sea area.

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177 Place Recommendation Using Location-Based Services and Real-time Social Network Data

Authors: Kanda Runapongsa Saikaew, Patcharaporn Jiranuwattanawong, Patinya Taearak

Abstract:

Currently, there is excessively growing information about places on Facebook, which is the largest social network but such information is not explicitly organized and ranked. Therefore users cannot exploit such data to recommend places conveniently and quickly. This paper proposes a Facebook application and an Android application that recommend places based on the number of check-ins of those places, the distance of those places from the current location, the number of people who like Facebook page of those places, and the number of talking about of those places. Related Facebook data is gathered via Facebook API requests. The experimental results of the developed applications show that the applications can recommend places and rank interesting places from the most to the least. We have found that the average satisfied score of the proposed Facebook application is 4.8 out of 5. The users’ satisfaction can increase by adding the app features that support personalization in terms of interests and preferences.

Keywords: Mobile computing, location-based services, recommendation system, social network analysis.

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176 Head-Mounted Displays for HCI Validations While Driving

Authors: D. Reich, R. Stark

Abstract:

To provide reliable and valid findings when evaluating innovative in-car devices in the automotive context highly realistic driving environments are recommended. Nowadays, in-car devices are mostly evaluated due to driving simulator studies followed by real car driving experiments. Driving simulators are characterized by high internal validity, but weak regarding ecological validity. Real car driving experiments are ecologically valid, but difficult to standardize, more time-robbing and costly. One economizing suggestion is to implement more immersive driving environments when applying driving simulator studies. This paper presents research comparing non-immersive standard PC conditions with mobile and highly immersive Oculus Rift conditions while performing the Lane Change Task (LCT). Subjective data with twenty participants show advantages regarding presence and immersion experience when performing the LCT with the Oculus Rift, but affect adversely cognitive workload and simulator sickness, compared to non-immersive PC condition.

Keywords: LCT, immersion, oculus rift, presence, situation awareness.

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175 Re-Examination of Louis Pasteur’s S-Shaped Flask Experiment

Authors: Ming-Hua Fu

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No negative control nor control to prevent microbes from escaping was set when the S-shaped flask experiments were performed by Pasteur. Microscope was not used to observe the media in the flasks. Louis Pasteur’s S-shaped flask experiment was re-examined by using U-shaped flasks, modified S-shaped flasks and microscope. A mixture of microbes was isolated from the room air, from which one rod-shaped Bacillus species with proposed name Bacillus gaso-mobilis sp nov and one grape-shaped Staphylococcus species with proposed name of Staphylococcus gaso-mobilis sp nov were identified. Their penicillin and ampicillin resistant strains containing plasmids were isolated. These bacteria could change color, produce odor and automatically move in the air. They did not form colonies on solid media. They had a high suspension capacity in liquid media. Their light absorbance peaked at the wave length of 320 nm.  It was concluded that there were flaws with Louis Pasteur’s S-shaped flask experiments. 

Keywords: Bacteria, gaso-mobile, re-examine, S-shaped flasks.

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174 Controllable Electrical Power Plug Adapters Made As A ZigBee Wireless Sensor Network

Authors: Toshihiko Sasama, Takao Kawamura, Kazunori Sugahara

Abstract:

Using Internet communication, new home electronics have functions of monitoring and control from remote. However in many case these electronics work as standalone, and old electronics are not followed. Then, we developed the total remote system include not only new electronics but olds. This systems node is a adapter of electrical power plug that embed relay switch and some sensors, and these nodes communicate with each other. the system server was build on the Internet, and users access to this system from web browsers. To reduce the cost to set up of this system, communication between adapters are used ZigBee wireless network instead of wired LAN cable[3]. From measured RSSI(received signal strength indicator) information between each nodes, the system can estimate roughly adapters were mounted on which room, and where in the room. So also it reduces the cost of mapping nodes. Using this system, energy saving and house monitoring are expected.

Keywords: outlet, remote monitor, remote control, mobile ad hocnetwork, sensor network, zigbee.

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173 Low Latency Routing Algorithm for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Ad-Hoc Networks

Authors: Abdel Ilah Alshabtat, Liang Dong

Abstract:

In this paper, we proposed a new routing protocol for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) that equipped with directional antenna. We named this protocol Directional Optimized Link State Routing Protocol (DOLSR). This protocol is based on the well known protocol that is called Optimized Link State Routing Protocol (OLSR). We focused in our protocol on the multipoint relay (MPR) concept which is the most important feature of this protocol. We developed a heuristic that allows DOLSR protocol to minimize the number of the multipoint relays. With this new protocol the number of overhead packets will be reduced and the End-to-End delay of the network will also be minimized. We showed through simulation that our protocol outperformed Optimized Link State Routing Protocol, Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) protocol and Ad- Hoc On demand Distance Vector (AODV) routing protocol in reducing the End-to-End delay and enhancing the overall throughput. Our evaluation of the previous protocols was based on the OPNET network simulation tool.

Keywords: Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks, Ad-Hoc RoutingProtocols, Optimized link State Routing Protocol, Unmanned AerialVehicles, Directional Antenna.

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172 Multi-Sensor Target Tracking Using Ensemble Learning

Authors: Bhekisipho Twala, Mantepu Masetshaba, Ramapulana Nkoana

Abstract:

Multiple classifier systems combine several individual classifiers to deliver a final classification decision. However, an increasingly controversial question is whether such systems can outperform the single best classifier, and if so, what form of multiple classifiers system yields the most significant benefit. Also, multi-target tracking detection using multiple sensors is an important research field in mobile techniques and military applications. In this paper, several multiple classifiers systems are evaluated in terms of their ability to predict a system’s failure or success for multi-sensor target tracking tasks. The Bristol Eden project dataset is utilised for this task. Experimental and simulation results show that the human activity identification system can fulfil requirements of target tracking due to improved sensors classification performances with multiple classifier systems constructed using boosting achieving higher accuracy rates.

Keywords: Single classifier, machine learning, ensemble learning, multi-sensor target tracking.

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171 An Application-Based Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) Calculator for Residential Buildings

Authors: Kwok W. Mui, Ling T. Wong, Chin T. Cheung, Ho C. Yu

Abstract:

Based on an indoor environmental quality (IEQ) index established by previous work that indicates the overall IEQ acceptance from the prospect of an occupant in residential buildings in terms of four IEQ factors - thermal comfort, indoor air quality, visual and aural comforts, this study develops a user-friendly IEQ calculator for iOS and Android users to calculate the occupant acceptance and compare the relative performance of IEQ in apartments. “IEQ calculator” is easy to use and it preliminarily illustrates the overall indoor environmental quality on the spot. Users simply input indoor parameters such as temperature, number of people and windows are opened or closed for the mobile application to calculate the scores in four areas: the comforts of temperature, brightness, noise and indoor air quality. The calculator allows the prediction of the best IEQ scenario on a quantitative scale. Any indoor environments under the specific IEQ conditions can be benchmarked against the predicted IEQ acceptance range. This calculator can also suggest how to achieve the best IEQ acceptance among a group of residents. 

Keywords: Calculator, indoor environmental quality (IEQ), residential buildings, 5-star benchmarks.

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170 A Cohesive Lagrangian Swarm and Its Application to Multiple Unicycle-like Vehicles

Authors: Jito Vanualailai, Bibhya Sharma

Abstract:

Swarm principles are increasingly being used to design controllers for the coordination of multi-robot systems or, in general, multi-agent systems. This paper proposes a two-dimensional Lagrangian swarm model that enables the planar agents, modeled as point masses, to swarm whilst effectively avoiding each other and obstacles in the environment. A novel method, based on an extended Lyapunov approach, is used to construct the model. Importantly, the Lyapunov method ensures a form of practical stability that guarantees an emergent behavior, namely, a cohesive and wellspaced swarm with a constant arrangement of individuals about the swarm centroid. Computer simulations illustrate this basic feature of collective behavior. As an application, we show how multiple planar mobile unicycle-like robots swarm to eventually form patterns in which their velocities and orientations stabilize.

Keywords: Attractive-repulsive swarm model, individual-based swarm model, Lagrangian swarm model, Lyapunov stability, Lyapunov-like function, practical stability, unicycle.

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169 Challenges and Proposed Solutions toward Successful Dealing with E-Waste in Kuwait

Authors: Salem Alajmi, Bader Altaweel

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Kuwait, like many parts of the world, has started facing the dangerous growth of electrical and electronic waste. This growth has been noted in last two decades, emerging with the development of mobile phones, computers, TVs, as well as other electronic devices and electrical equipment. Kuwait is already among the highest global producers of electronic waste (e-waste) in kg per capita. Furthermore, Kuwait is among the global countries that set high-level future targets in renewable energy projects. Accumulation of this electronic waste, as well as accelerated renewable energy projects, will lead to the increase of future threats to the country. In this research, factors that lead to the increase the e-waste in Kuwait are presented. Also, the current situations of dealing with e-waste in the country as well as the associated challenges are examined. The impact of renewable energy projects on future e-waste accumulation is considered. Moreover, this research proposes the best strategies and practices toward successfully dealing with the waste of electronic devices and renewable energy technologies.

Keywords: E-waste, landfill, environmental management, valuable metals, hazardous materials.

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168 Transmitter Design for LMS-MIMO-MCCDMA Systems with Pilot Channel Estimates and Zero Forcing Equalizer

Authors: S.M. Bahri, F.T. Bendimerad

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We propose a downlink multiple-input multipleoutput (MIMO) multi-carrier code division multiple access (MCCDMA) system with adaptive beamforming algorithm for smart antennas. The algorithm used in this paper is based on the Least Mean Square (LMS), with pilot channel estimation (PCE) and the zero forcing equalizer (ZFE) in the receiver, requiring reference signal and no knowledge channel. MC-CDMA is studied in a multiple antenna context in order to efficiently exploit robustness against multipath effects and multi-user flexibility of MC-CDMA and channel diversity offered by MIMO systems for radio mobile channels. Computer simulations, considering multi-path Rayleigh Fading Channel, interference inter symbol and interference are presented to verify the performance. Simulation results show that the scheme achieves good performance in a multi-user system.

Keywords: Adaptive Beamforming, LMS Algorithm, MCCDMA, MIMO System, Smart Antenna.

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167 Microbial Assessment of Dairy Byproducts in Albania as a Basis for Consumer Safety

Authors: Klementina Puto, Ermelinda Nexhipi, Evi Llaka

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Dairy by-products are a fairly good environment for microorganisms due to their composition for their growth. Microbial populations have a significant impact in the production of cheese, butter, yogurt, etc. in terms of their organoleptic quality and at the same time some also cause their breakdown. In this paper, the microbiological contamination of soft cheese, butter and yogurt produced in the country (domestic) and imported is assessed, as an indicator of hygiene with impact on public health. The study was extended during September 2018-June 2019 and was divided into three periods, September-December, January-March, and April-June. During this study, a total of 120 samples were analyzed, of which 60 samples of cheese and butter locally produced, and 60 samples of imported soft cheese and butter productions. The microbial indicators analyzed are Staphylococcus aureus and E. coli. Analyzes have been conducted at the Food Safety Laboratory (FSIV) in Tirana in accordance with EU Regulation 2073/2005. Sampling was performed according to the specific international standards for these products (ISO 6887 and ISO 8261). Sampling and transport of samples were done under sterile conditions. Also, coding of samples was done to preserve the anonymity of subjects. After the analysis, the country's soft cheese products compared to imports were more contaminated with S. aureus and E. coli. Meanwhile, the imported butter samples that were analyzed, resulted within norms compared to domestic ones. Based on the results, it was concluded that the microbial quality of samples of cheese, butter and yogurt analyzed remains a real problem for hygiene in Albania. The study will also serve business operators in Albania to improve their work to ensure good hygiene on the basis of the HACCP plan and to provide a guarantee of consumer health.

Keywords: Consumer, health, dairy, by-products, microbial.

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166 Aerodynamic Bicycle Torque Augmentation with a Wells Turbine in Wheels

Authors: Tsuyoshi Yamazaki, Etsuo Morishita

Abstract:

Cyclists often run through a crosswind and sometimes we experience the adverse pressure. We came to an idea that Wells turbine can be used as power augmentation device in the crosswind something like sails of a yacht. Wells turbine always rotates in the same direction irrespective of the incoming flow direction, and we use it in the small-scale power generation in the ocean where waves create an oscillating flow. We incorporate the turbine to the wheel of a bike. A commercial device integrates strain gauges in the crank of a bike and transmitted force and torque applied to the pedal of the bike as an e-mail to the driver’s mobile phone. We can analyze the unsteady data in a spreadsheet sent from the crank sensor. We run the bike with the crank sensor on the rollers at the exit of a low-speed wind tunnel and analyze the effect of the crosswind to the wheel with a Wells turbine. We also test the aerodynamic characteristics of the turbine separately. Although power gain depends on the flow direction, several Watts increase might be possible by the Wells turbine incorporated to a bike wheel.

Keywords: Aerodynamics, wells turbine, bicycle, wind engineering.

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165 A Signature-Based Secure Authentication Framework for Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

Authors: J. Jenefa, E. A. Mary Anita

Abstract:

Vehicular Ad hoc NETwork (VANET) is a kind of Mobile Ad hoc NETwork (MANET). It allows the vehicles to communicate with one another as well as with nearby Road Side Units (RSU) and Regional Trusted Authorities (RTA). Vehicles communicate through On-Board Units (OBU) in which privacy has to be assured which will avoid the misuse of private data. A secure authentication framework for VANETs is proposed in which Public Key Cryptography (PKC) based adaptive pseudonym scheme is used to generate self-generated pseudonyms. Self-generated pseudonyms are used instead of real IDs for privacy preservation and non-repudiation. The ID-Based Signature (IBS) and ID-Based Online/Offline Signature (IBOOS) schemes are used for authentication. IBS is used to authenticate between vehicle and RSU whereas IBOOS provides authentication among vehicles. Security attacks like impersonation attack in the network are resolved and the attacking nodes are rejected from the network, thereby ensuring secure communication among the vehicles in the network. Simulation results shows that the proposed system provides better authentication in VANET environment.

Keywords: Non-repudiation, privacy preservation, public key cryptography, self- generated pseudonym.

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164 Information Technologies in Human Resources Management - Selected Examples

Authors: A. Karasek

Abstract:

Rapid growth of Information Technologies (IT) has had huge influence on enterprises, and it has contributed to its promotion and increasingly extensive use in enterprises. Information Technologies have to a large extent determined the processes taking place in an enterprise; what is more, IT development has brought the need to adopt a brand new approach to human resources management in an enterprise. The use of IT in human resource management (HRM) is of high importance due to the growing role of information and information technologies. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the use of information technologies in human resources management in enterprises. These practices will be presented in the following areas: recruitment and selection, development and training, employee assessment, motivation, talent management, personnel service. Results of conducted survey show diversity of solutions applied in particular areas of human resource management. In the future, further development in this area should be expected, as well as integration of individual HRM areas, growing mobile-enabled HR processes and their transfer into the cloud. Presented IT solutions applied in HRM are highly innovative, which is of great significance due to their possible implementation in other enterprises.

Keywords: E-HR, human resources management, HRM practices, HRMS, information technologies.

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163 Efficient Detection Using Sequential Probability Ratio Test in Mobile Cognitive Radio Systems

Authors: Yeon-Jea Cho, Sang-Uk Park, Won-Chul Choi, Dong-Jo Park

Abstract:

This paper proposes a smart design strategy for a sequential detector to reliably detect the primary user-s signal, especially in fast fading environments. We study the computation of the log-likelihood ratio for coping with a fast changing received signal and noise sample variances, which are considered random variables. First, we analyze the detectability of the conventional generalized log-likelihood ratio (GLLR) scheme when considering fast changing statistics of unknown parameters caused by fast fading effects. Secondly, we propose an efficient sensing algorithm for performing the sequential probability ratio test in a robust and efficient manner when the channel statistics are unknown. Finally, the proposed scheme is compared to the conventional method with simulation results with respect to the average number of samples required to reach a detection decision.

Keywords: Cognitive radio, fast fading, sequential detection, spectrum sensing.

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162 Parameters Influencing Human-Machine Interaction in Hospitals

Authors: Hind Bouami, Patrick Millot

Abstract:

Handling life-critical systems complexity requires to be equipped with appropriate technology and the right human agents’ functions such as knowledge, experience, and competence in problem’s prevention and solving. Human agents are involved in the management and control of human-machine system’s performance. Documenting human agent’s situation awareness is crucial to support human-machine designers’ decision-making. Knowledge about risks, critical parameters and factors that can impact and threaten automation system’s performance should be collected using preventive and retrospective approaches. This paper aims to document operators’ situation awareness through the analysis of automated organizations’ feedback. The analysis of automated hospital pharmacies feedback helps identify and control critical parameters influencing human machine interaction in order to enhance system’s performance and security. Our human machine system evaluation approach has been deployed in Macon hospital center’s pharmacy which is equipped with automated drug dispensing systems since 2015. Automation’s specifications are related to technical aspects, human-machine interaction, and human aspects. The evaluation of drug delivery automation performance in Macon hospital center has shown that the performance of the automated activity depends on the performance of the automated solution chosen, and also on the control of systemic factors. In fact, 80.95% of automation specification related to the chosen Sinteco’s automated solution is met. The performance of the chosen automated solution is involved in 28.38% of automation specifications performance in Macon hospital center. The remaining systemic parameters involved in automation specifications performance need to be controlled. 

Keywords: Life-critical systems, situation awareness, human-machine interaction, decision-making.

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161 Partnering with Stakeholders to Secure Digitization of Water

Authors: Sindhu Govardhan, Kenneth G. Crowther

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Modernisation of the water sector is leading to increased connectivity and integration of emerging technologies with traditional ones, leading to new security risks. The convergence of Information Technology (IT) with Operation Technology (OT) results in solutions that are spread across larger geographic areas, increasingly consist of interconnected Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) devices and software, rely on the integration of legacy with modern technologies, use of complex supply chain components leading to complex architectures and communication paths. The result is that multiple parties collectively own and operate these emergent technologies, threat actors find new paths to exploit, and traditional cybersecurity controls are inadequate. Our approach is to explicitly identify and draw data flows that cross trust boundaries between owners and operators of various aspects of these emerging and interconnected technologies. On these data flows, we layer potential attack vectors to create a frame of reference for evaluating possible risks against connected technologies. Finally, we identify where existing controls, mitigations, and other remediations exist across industry partners (e.g., suppliers, product vendors, integrators, water utilities, and regulators). From these, we are able to understand potential gaps in security, the roles in the supply chain that are most likely to effectively remediate those security gaps, and test cases to evaluate and strengthen security across these partners. This informs a “shared responsibility” solution that recognises that security is multi-layered and requires collaboration to be successful. This shared responsibility security framework improves visibility, understanding, and control across the entire supply chain, and particularly for those water utilities that are accountable for safe and continuous operations.

Keywords: Cyber security, shared responsibility, IIOT, threat modelling.

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160 Augmenting History: Case Study Measuring Motivation of Students Using Augmented Reality Apps in History Classes

Authors: Kevin. S. Badni

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Due to the rapid advances in the use of information technology and students’ familiarity with technology, learning styles in higher education are being reshaped. One of the technology developments that has gained considerable attention in recent years is Augmented Reality (AR), where technology is used to combine overlays of digital data on physical real-world settings. While AR is being heavily promoted for entertainment by mobile phone manufacturers, it has had little adoption in higher education due to the required upfront investment that an instructor needs to undertake in creating relevant AR applications. This paper discusses a case study that uses a low upfront development approach and examines the impact on generation-Z students’ motivation whilst studying design history over a four-semester period. Even though the upfront investment in creating the AR support was minimal, the results showed a noticeable increase in student motivation. The approach used in this paper can be easily transferred to other disciplines and other areas of design education.

Keywords: Augmented reality, history, motivation, technology.

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159 Multihop Cooperative Transmissions for Asymmetric Traffic Accommodation in CDMA/FDD Cellular Networks

Authors: Kazuo Mori, Takeo Saga, Katsuhiro Naito, Hideo Kobayashi

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The asymmetric trafc between uplink and downlink over recent mobile communication systems has been conspicuous because of providing new communication services. This paper proposes an asymmetric trafc accommodation scheme adopting a multihop cooperative transmission technique for CDMA/FDD cellular networks. The proposed scheme employs the cooperative transmission technique in the already proposed downlink multihop transmissions for the accommodation of the asymmetric trafc, which utilizes the vacant uplink band for the downlink relay transmissions. The proposed scheme reduces the transmission power at the downlink relay transmissions and then suppresses the interference to the uplink communications, and thus, improves the uplink performance. The proposed scheme is evaluated by computer simulation and the results show that it can achieve better throughput performance.

Keywords: asymmetric traffic, cooperative transmissions, multihop transmissions, CDMA, FDD, cellular systems

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158 Implementation of Channel Estimation and Timing Synchronization Algorithms for MIMO-OFDM System Using NI USRP 2920

Authors: Ali Beydoun, Hamzé H. Alaeddine

Abstract:

MIMO-OFDM communication system presents a key solution for the next generation of mobile communication due to its high spectral efficiency, high data rate and robustness against multi-path fading channels. However, MIMO-OFDM system requires a perfect knowledge of the channel state information and a good synchronization between the transmitter and the receiver to achieve the expected performances. Recently, we have proposed two algorithms for channel estimation and timing synchronization with good performances and very low implementation complexity compared to those proposed in the literature. In order to validate and evaluate the efficiency of these algorithms in real environments, this paper presents in detail the implementation of 2 × 2 MIMO-OFDM system based on LabVIEW and USRP 2920. Implementation results show a good agreement with the simulation results under different configuration parameters.

Keywords: MIMO-OFDM system, timing synchronization, channel estimation, STBC, USRP 2920.

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157 Production and Market of Certified Organic Products in Thailand

Authors: Chaiwat Kongsom, Vitoon Panyakul

Abstract:

The objective of this study was to assess the production and market of certified organic products in Thailand. A purposive sampling technique was used to identify a sample group of 154 organic entrepreneurs for the study. A survey and in-depth interview were employed for data collection. Also, secondary data from organic agriculture certification body and publications was collected. Then descriptive statistics and content analysis technique were used to describe about production and market of certified organic products in Thailand. Results showed that there were 9,218 farmers on 213,183.68 Rai (83,309.2 acre) of certified organic agriculture land (0.29% of national agriculture land). A total of 57.8% of certified organic agricultural lands were certified by the international certification body. Organic farmers produced around 71,847 tons/year and worth around THB 1,914 million (Euro 47.92 million). Excluding primary producers, 471 operators involved in the Thai organic supply chains, including processors, exporters, distributors, green shops, modern trade shops (supermarket shop), farmer’s markets and food establishments were included. Export market was the major market channel and most of organic products were exported to Europe and North America. The total Thai organic market in 2014 was estimated to be worth around THB 2,331.55 million (Euro 58.22 million), of which, 77.9% was for export and 22.06% was for the domestic market. The largest exports of certified organic products were processed foods (66.1% of total export value), followed by organic rice (30.4%). In the domestic market, modern trade was the largest sale channel, accounting for 59.48% of total domestic sales, followed by green shop (29.47%) and food establishment (5.85%). To become a center of organic farming and trading within ASEAN, the Thai organic sector needs to have more policy support in regard to agricultural chemicals, GMO, and community land title. In addition, appropriate strategies need to be developed.

Keywords: Certified organic products, production, market, Thailand.

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156 Determining Cluster Boundaries Using Particle Swarm Optimization

Authors: Anurag Sharma, Christian W. Omlin

Abstract:

Self-organizing map (SOM) is a well known data reduction technique used in data mining. Data visualization can reveal structure in data sets that is otherwise hard to detect from raw data alone. However, interpretation through visual inspection is prone to errors and can be very tedious. There are several techniques for the automatic detection of clusters of code vectors found by SOMs, but they generally do not take into account the distribution of code vectors; this may lead to unsatisfactory clustering and poor definition of cluster boundaries, particularly where the density of data points is low. In this paper, we propose the use of a generic particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm for finding cluster boundaries directly from the code vectors obtained from SOMs. The application of our method to unlabeled call data for a mobile phone operator demonstrates its feasibility. PSO algorithm utilizes U-matrix of SOMs to determine cluster boundaries; the results of this novel automatic method correspond well to boundary detection through visual inspection of code vectors and k-means algorithm.

Keywords: Particle swarm optimization, self-organizing maps, clustering, data mining.

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155 Performance Analysis of an Adaptive Threshold Hybrid Double-Dwell System with Antenna Diversity for Acquisition in DS-CDMA Systems

Authors: H. Krouma, M. Barkat, K. Kemih, M. Benslama, Y. Yacine

Abstract:

In this paper, we consider the analysis of the acquisition process for a hybrid double-dwell system with antenna diversity for DS-CDMA (direct sequence-code division multiple access) using an adaptive threshold. Acquisition systems with a fixed threshold value are unable to adapt to fast varying mobile communications environments and may result in a high false alarm rate, and/or low detection probability. Therefore, we propose an adaptively varying threshold scheme through the use of a cellaveraging constant false alarm rate (CA-CFAR) algorithm, which is well known in the field of radar detection. We derive exact expressions for the probabilities of detection and false alarm in Rayleigh fading channels. The mean acquisition time of the system under consideration is also derived. The performance of the system is analyzed and compared to that of a hybrid single dwell system.

Keywords: Adaptive threshold, hybrid double-dwell system, CA-CFAR algorithm, DS-CDMA.

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154 Optical Repeater Assisted Visible Light Device-to-Device Communications

Authors: Samrat Vikramaditya Tiwari, Atul Sewaiwar, Yeon-Ho Chung

Abstract:

Device-to-device (D2D) communication is considered a promising technique to provide wireless peer-to-peer communication services. Due to increasing demand on mobile services, available spectrum for radio frequency (RF) based communications becomes scarce. Recently, visible light communications (VLC) has evolved as a high speed wireless data transmission technology for indoor environments with abundant available bandwidth. In this paper, a novel VLC based D2D communication that provides wireless peer-to-peer communication is proposed. Potential low operating power devices for an efficient D2D communication over increasing distance of separation between devices is analyzed. Optical repeaters (OR) are also proposed to enhance the performance in an environment where direct D2D communications yield degraded performance. Simulation results show that VLC plays an important role in providing efficient D2D communication up to a distance of 1 m between devices. It is also found that the OR significantly improves the coverage distance up to 3.5 m.

Keywords: Visible light communication, light emitting diode, device-to-device, optical repeater.

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153 An Impairment Sensitive and Reliable SR-ARQ Mechanism for Unreliable Feedback in GPRS

Authors: Mansab Ali, Muhammad Khalid Khan

Abstract:

The advances in wireless communication have opened unlimited horizons but there are some challenges as well. The Nature derived air medium between MS (Mobile Station) and BS (Base Station) is beyond human control and produces channel impairment. The impact of the natural conditions at the air medium is the biggest issue in wireless communication. Natural conditions make reliability more cumbersome; here reliability refers to the efficient recovery of the lost or erroneous data. The SR-ARQ (Selective Repeat-Automatic Repeat Request) protocol is a de facto standard for any wireless technology at the air interface with its standard reliability features. Our focus in this research is on the reliability of the control or feedback signal of the SR-ARQ protocol. The proposed mechanism, RSR-ARQ (Reliable SR-ARQ) is an enhancement of the SR-ARQ protocol that has ensured the reliability of the control signals through channel impairment sensitive mechanism. We have modeled the system under two-state discrete time Markov Channel. The simulation results demonstrate the better recovery of the lost or erroneous data that will increase the overall system performance.

Keywords: ISR-ARQ, MAA, RSR-ARQ, SAA.

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