Search results for: traditional health practices

Authors: Raeesa Moolla, Ryan S. Johnson

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Air travel, and the use of airports, has experienced proliferative growth in the past few decades, resulting in the concomitant release of air pollutants. Air pollution needs to be monitored because of the known relationship between exposure to air pollutants and increased adverse effects on human health. This study monitored a group of volatile organic compounds (VOCs); specifically BTEX (viz. benzene, toluene, ethyl-benzene and xylenes), as many are detrimental to human health. Through the use of passive sampling methods, the spatial variability of BTEX within an international airport was investigated, in order to determine ‘hotspots’ where occupational exposure to BTEX may be intensified. The passive sampling campaign revealed BTEX_total concentrations ranged between 12.95–124.04 µg m^-3. Furthermore, BTEX concentrations were dispersed heterogeneously within the airport. Due to the slow wind speeds recorded (1.13 m.s^-1); the hotspots were located close to their main BTEX sources. The main hotspot was located over the main apron of the airport. Employees working in this area may be chronically exposed to these emissions, which could be potentially detrimental to their health.

Keywords: Air pollution, air quality, hotspot monitoring, volatile organic compounds.

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Authors: N. Pekin Alakoç, A. Apaydın

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Quality control charts indicate out of control conditions if any nonrandom pattern of the points is observed or any point is plotted beyond the control limits. Nonrandom patterns of Shewhart control charts are tested with sensitizing rules. When the processes are defined with fuzzy set theory, traditional sensitizing rules are insufficient for defining all out of control conditions. This is due to the fact that fuzzy numbers increase the number of out of control conditions. The purpose of the study is to develop a set of fuzzy sensitizing rules, which increase the flexibility and sensitivity of fuzzy control charts. Fuzzy sensitizing rules simplify the identification of out of control situations that results in a decrease in the calculation time and number of evaluations in fuzzy control chart approach.

Keywords: Fuzzy set theory, Quality control charts, Run Rules, Unnatural patterns.

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Authors: Yang Bao, LuJing Zhang

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Typical Intelligent Decision Support System is 4-based, its design composes of Data Warehouse, Online Analytical Processing, Data Mining and Decision Supporting based on models, which is called Decision Support System Based on Data Warehouse (DSSBDW). This way takes ETL,OLAP and DM as its implementing means, and integrates traditional model-driving DSS and data-driving DSS into a whole. For this kind of problem, this paper analyzes the DSSBDW architecture and DW model, and discusses the following key issues: ETL designing and Realization; metadata managing technology using XML; SQL implementing, optimizing performance, data mapping in OLAP; lastly, it illustrates the designing principle and method of DW in DSSBDW.

Keywords: Decision Support System, Data Warehouse, Data Mining.

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Authors: C. Slim

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Traditional techniques for analyzing time series are based on the notion of stationarity of phenomena under study, but in reality most economic and financial series do not verify this hypothesis, which implies the implementation of specific tools for the detection of such behavior. In this paper, we study nonstationary non-seasonal time series tests in a non-exhaustive manner. We formalize the problem of nonstationary processes with numerical simulations and take stock of their statistical characteristics. The theoretical aspects of some of the most common unit root tests will be discussed. We detail the specification of the tests, showing the advantages and disadvantages of each. The empirical study focuses on the application of these tests to the exchange rate (USD/TND) and the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in Tunisia, in order to compare the Power of these tests with the characteristics of the series.

Keywords: Stationarity, unit root tests, economic time series.

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Authors: M. Ricardo Lang, A. Costa, I. Iesbik, K. Haag, L. Trindade Buffara, O. Reimann Junior, C. Auswaldt Steclan

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Stroke affects not only the individual, but has significant impacts on the social and family context. Therefore, it is necessary to know the peculiarities of each region, in order to contribute to regional public health policies effectively. Thus, the present study discusses biomarkers in a post-stroke population, admitted to a stroke unit (U-stroke) of reference in the southern region of Brazil. Biomarkers were analyzed, such as age, length of stay, mortality rate, survival time, risk factors and family history of stroke in patients after ischemic stroke. In this studied population, comparing men and women, it was identified that men were more affected than women, and the average age of women affected was higher, as they also had the highest mortality rate and the shortest hospital stay. The risk factors identified here were according to the global scenario; with systemic arterial hypertension (SAH) being the most frequent and those associated with sedentary lifestyle in women the most frequent (dyslipidemia, heart disease and obesity). In view of this, the importance of studies that characterize populations regionally is evident, strengthening the strategic planning of policies in favor of health care.

Keywords: Biomarkers, population, stroke, sex, stroke unit.

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Authors: Noor Azlina Mohd Salleh, Salmiah Kasolang, Ahmed Jaffar

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Integrated Total Quality Management (TQM) with Lean Manufacturing (LM) is a system comprises of TQM with LM principles and is associated with financial and nonfinancial performance measurement indicators. The ultimate goal of this system is to focus on achieving total customer satisfaction by removing eight wastes available in any process in an organization. A survey questionnaire was developed and distributed to 30 highly active automotive vendors in Malaysia and analyzed by PASW Statistics 18. It was found out that these vendors have been practicing and measuring the effectiveness TQM and LM implementation. More involvement of all Malaysian automotive vendors will represent the exact status of current Malaysian automotive industry in implementing TQM and LM and can determine whether the industry is ready for integrated TQM and LM system. This is the first study that combined 4 awards practices, ISO/TS16949, Toyota Production System and SAEJ4000.

Keywords: Automotive Industry, Lean Manufacturing, Operational Engineering Management, Total Quality Management

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Authors: Maissom Qanber Abbasi, Philip Lew, Irfan Rafique, Zhang Li

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Perceptions of quality from both designers and users perspective have now stretched beyond the traditional usability, incorporating abstract and subjective concepts. This has led to a shift in human computer interaction research communities- focus; a shift that focuses on achieving user experience (UX) by not only fulfilling conventional usability needs but also those that go beyond them. The term UX, although widely spread and given significant importance, lacks consensus in its unified definition. In this paper, we survey various UX definitions and modeling frameworks and examine them as the foundation for proposing a UX evolution lifecycle framework for understanding UX in detail. In the proposed framework we identify the building blocks of UX and discuss how UX evolves in various phases. The framework can be used as a tool to understand experience requirements and evaluate them, resulting in better UX design and hence improved user satisfaction.

Keywords: Usability, user experience lifecycle, user satisfaction

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Authors: Clifford De Raffaele, Luana Bugeja, Serengul Smith

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The adaptation of social networking sites within higher education has garnered significant interest in the recent years with numerous researches considering it as a possible shift from the traditional classroom based learning paradigm. Notwithstanding this increase in research and conducted studies however, the adaption of SNS based modules have failed to proliferate within Universities. This paper commences its contribution by analyzing the various models and theories proposed in literature and amalgamate together various effective aspects for the inclusion of social technology within e-Learning. A three phased framework is further proposed which details the necessary considerations for the successful adaptation of SNS in enhancing the students learning experience. This proposal outlines the theoretical foundations which will be analyzed in practical implementation across international university campuses.

Keywords: eLearning, higher education, social network sites, student learning.

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Authors: Z. Karakus, Z. Ozer

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Nurses are responsible for the care and treatment of individuals, as well as health maintenance and education. Medication administration is an important part of health promotion. The administration of a medicine is a common but important clinical procedure for nurses because of its complex structure. Therefore, medication errors are inevitable for nurses or nursing students. Medication errors can cause ineffective treatment, patient’s prolonged hospital stay, disablement or death. Additionally, medication errors affect the global economy adversely by increasing health costs. Hence, preventing or decreasing of medication errors is a critical and essential issue in nursing. Nurse educators are in pursuit of new teaching methods to teach students significance of medication application. In the light of technological developments of this age, e-learning has started to be accepted as an important teaching method. E-learning is the use of electronic media and information and communication technologies in education. It has advantages such as flexibility of time and place, lower costs, faster delivery and lower environmental impact. Students can make their own schedule and decide the learning method. This study is conducted to determine the impact of e-learning on medication administration of nursing students.

Keywords: E-Learning, Medication Administration, Nursing, Nursing Students.

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Authors: Gopi Kandaswamy, P. Balamuralidhar

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Fully autonomous small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are increasingly being used in many commercial applications. Although a lot of research has been done to develop safe, reliable and durable UAVs, accidents due to electronic and structural failures are not uncommon and pose a huge safety risk to the UAV operators and the public. Hence there is a strong need for an automated health monitoring system for UAVs with a view to minimizing mission failures thereby increasing safety. This paper describes our approach to monitoring the electronic and structural components in a small UAV without the need for additional sensors to do the monitoring. Our system monitors data from four sources; sensors, navigation algorithms, control inputs from the operator and flight controller outputs. It then does statistical analysis on the data and applies a rule based engine to detect failures. This information can then be fed back into the UAV and a decision to continue or abort the mission can be taken automatically by the UAV and independent of the operator. Our system has been verified using data obtained from real flights over the past year from UAVs of various sizes that have been designed and deployed by us for various applications.

Keywords: Fault detection, health monitoring, unmanned aerial vehicles, vibration analysis.

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Authors: Elisa Pautasso, Matteo Castagno, Michele Osella

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In the last decade the emergence of new social needs as an effect of the economic crisis has stimulated the flourishing of business endeavours characterised by explicit social goals. Social start-ups, social enterprises or Corporate Social Responsibility operations carried out by traditional companies are quintessential examples in this regard. This paper analyses these kinds of initiatives in order to discover the main characteristics of social business models and to provide insights to social entrepreneurs for developing or improving their strategies. The research is conducted through the integration of literature review and case study analysis and, thanks to the recognition of the importance of both profits and social impacts as the key success factors for a social business model, proposes a framework for identifying indicators suitable for measuring the social impacts generated.

Keywords: Business model, case study, impacts, social business.

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Authors: M. R. Mohamadshafiee, L. Taghavi

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Trihalomethanes (THMs) were among the first disinfection byproducts to be discovered in chlorinated water. The substances form during a reaction between chlorine and organic matter in the water. Trihalomethanes are suspected to have negative effects on birth such as, low birth weight, intrauterine growth retardation in term births, as well as gestational age and preterm delivery. There are also some evidences showing these by-products to be mutagenic and carcinogenic, the greatest amount of evidence being related to the bladder cancer. However, there exist inconsistencies regarding such effects of THMs as different studies have provided different results in this regard. The aim of the present study is to provide a review of the related researches about the above mentioned health effects of THMs.

Keywords: Trihalomethans, by-products, disinfection, carcinogenic

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Authors: Sándor Juhász, Renáta Iváncsy

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This paper describes an enhanced cookie-based method for counting the visitors of web sites by using a web log processing system that aims to cope with the ambitious goal of creating countrywide statistics about the browsing practices of real human individuals. The focus is put on describing a new more efficient way of detecting human beings behind web users by placing different identifiers on the client computers. We briefly introduce our processing system designed to handle the massive amount of data records continuously gathered from the most important content providers of the Hungary. We conclude by showing statistics of different time spans comparing the efficiency of multiple visitor counting methods to the one presented here, and some interesting charts about content providers and web usage based on real data recorded in 2007 will also be presented.

Keywords: Cookie based identification, real data, user activitytracking, web auditing, web log processing

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Authors: I. Kulyk, M. Stefan

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Atmospheric plasma is emerging as a promising technology for many industrial sectors, because of its ecological and economic advantages respect to the traditional production processes. For textile industry, atmospheric plasma is becoming a valid alternative to the conventional wet processes, but the plasma machines realized so far do not allow the treatment of fibrous mechanically weak material. Novel atmospheric plasma machine for industrial applications, developed by VenetoNanotech SCpA in collaboration with Italian producer of corona equipment ME.RO SpA is presented. The main feature of this pre-industrial scale machine is the possibility of the inline plasma treatment of delicate fibrous substrates such as fibre sleeves, for example wool tops, cotton fibres, polymeric tows, mineral fibers and so on, avoiding burnings and disruption of the faint materials.

Keywords: Atmospheric plasma, industrial machine, fibrous materials.

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Authors: M. S. Baazzim, M. S. Al-Saud, M. A. El-Kady

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In this paper, steady-state ampacity (current carrying capacity) evaluation of underground power cable system by using analytical and numerical methods for different conditions (depth of cable, spacing between phases, soil thermal resistivity, ambient temperature, wind speed), for two system voltage level were used 132 and 380 kV. The analytical method or traditional method that was used is based on the thermal analysis method developed by Neher-McGrath and further enhanced by International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and published in standard IEC 60287. The numerical method that was used is finite element method and it was recourse commercial software based on finite element method. 

Keywords: Cable ampacity, Finite element method, underground cable, thermal rating.

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Authors: Lynne Chester

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Governments around the world are expending considerable time and resources framing strategies and policies to deliver energy security. The term 'energy security' has quietly slipped into the energy lexicon without any meaningful discourse about its meaning or assumptions. An examination of explicit and inferred definitions finds that the concept is inherently slippery because it is polysemic in nature having multiple dimensions and taking on different specificities depending on the country (or continent), timeframe or energy source to which it is applied. But what does this mean for policymakers? Can traditional policy approaches be used to address the problem of energy security or does its- polysemic qualities mean that it should be treated as a 'wicked' problem? To answer this question, the paper assesses energy security against nine commonly cited characteristics of wicked policy problems and finds strong evidence of 'wickedness'.

Keywords: Energy security, policy making, wicked problems.

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Authors: Nagmani Lnu

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Often, quality engineering refers to testing the applications that either have a User Interface (UI) or an Application Programming Interface (API). We often find mature test practices, standards, and automation regarding UI or API testing. However, another kind is present in almost all types of industries that deal with data in bulk and often get handled through something called a batch application. This is primarily an offline application companies develop to process large data sets that often deal with multiple business rules. The challenge gets more prominent when we try to automate batch testing. This paper describes the approaches taken to test a batch application from a financial industry to test the payment settlement process (a critical use case in all kinds of FinTech companies), resulting in 100% test automation in test creation and test execution. One can follow this approach for any other batch use cases to achieve a higher efficiency in their testing process.

Keywords: Batch testing, batch test automation, batch test strategy, payments testing, payments settlement testing.

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Authors: Alexander V. Libin, Manon Schladen, Assya Pascalev, Nawar Shara, Miriam Philmon, Yuri Millo, Joseph Verbalis

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Chronic conditions carry with them strong emotions and often lead to charged relationships between patients and their health providers and, by extension, patients and health researchers. Persons are both autonomous and relational and a purely cognitive model of autonomy neglects the social and relational basis of chronic illness. Ensuring genuine informed consent in research requires a thorough understanding of how participants perceive a study and their reasons for participation. Surveys may not capture the complexities of reasoning that underlies study participation. Contradictory reasons for participation, for instance an initial claim of altruism as rationale and a subsequent claim of personal benefit (therapeutic misconception), affect the quality of informed consent. Individuals apply principles through the filter of personal values and lived experience. Authentic autonomy, and hence authentic consent to research, occurs within the context of patients- unique life narratives and illness experiences.

Keywords: ethical dilemmas, open source technology, patient education, psychology of decision making

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Authors: Abhinav Kumar, Raja Sekhar Bandaru, B Madhusudan Rao, Saket Kulkarni, Nilesh Ghatpande

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This paper proposes an algorithm which automatically aligns and stitches the component medical images (fluoroscopic) with varying degrees of overlap into a single composite image. The alignment method is based on similarity measure between the component images. As applied here the technique is intensity based rather than feature based. It works well in domains where feature based methods have difficulty, yet more robust than traditional correlation. Component images are stitched together using the new triangular averaging based blending algorithm. The quality of the resultant image is tested for photometric inconsistencies and geometric misalignments. This method cannot correct rotational, scale and perspective artifacts.

Keywords: Histogram Matching, Image Alignment, ImageStitching, Medical Imaging.

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Authors: R. A. Isabel, E. Baburaj

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Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) are essential for real-time health monitoring of patients and in diagnosing of many diseases. WBANs comprise many sensors to monitor a large range of ambient conditions. Quality of Service (QoS) is a key challenge in WBAN, because the different state information of the neighboring nodes has to be monitored in an accurate manner. However, energy consumption gets increased while predicting and maintaining the exact information in highly dynamic environments. In order to reduce energy consumption and end to end delay, Markov Chain Based Quality of Service Support (MC-QoSS) method is designed in the health monitoring services of WBAN communication. The energy consumption gets reduced by forming a Markov chain with high energy nodes in the sensor networks communication path. The low energy level sensor nodes are removed using transitional probability in order to reduce end to end delay. High energy nodes are formed in the chain structure of its corresponding path to enhance communication. After choosing the communication path through high energy nodes, the packets are sent to the sink node from the source node with a higher Packet Delivery Ratio. The simulation result shows that MC-QoSS method improves the packet delivery ratio and reduces energy consumption with minimum end to end delay, compared to existing methods.

Keywords: Wireless body area networks, quality of service, Markov chain, health monitoring services.

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Authors: C. Mătusescu, C. Mares, C. Gilia

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The Implementation of the Union law faces major challenges today. If for a long period of time, the Community and the Union have persevered in their legislative vocation, now one can notice that this large legislative quantity has complicated the task of knowledge and of application the European standards. Under these circumstances, it became necessary, in order to give effectiveness to the European legislation, the development of some operational application criteria and the generation of some new implementation tools. The correct application of the European Union legislation by the national public administrations was considered by the European Commission as being crucial for further integration and proper functioning of the internal market. Among the initiatives launched in the past years to promote the exchange of good administrative practices in the correct application of European Union legislation, SOLVIT net has proved to be one of the most effective.

Keywords: Cooperation, European law, informal mechanisms, internal market, SOLVIT.

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Authors: Khalid Khan, Atique Ahmad Zafar, Mohammed A. Alnuem, Hashim Khan

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Global Software Development (GSD) projects are passing through different boundaries of a company, country and even in other continents where time zone differs between both sites. Beside many benefits of such development, research declared plenty of negative impacts on these GSD projects. It is important to understand problems which may lie during the execution of GSD project with different time zones. This research project discussed and provided different issues related to time delays in GSD projects. In this paper, authors investigated some of the time delay factors which usually lie in GSD projects with different time zones. This investigation is done through systematic review of literature. Furthermore, the practices to overcome these delay factors which have already been reported in literature and GSD organizations are also explored through literature survey and case studies.

Keywords: Case Studies, Global Software Development, Global Software Engineering, Temporal Difference, Time Delay

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Authors: Okorowo Cyril Agochi

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The Niger Delta Region of Nigeria is home to about 20 million people and 40 different ethnic groups. The region has an area of seventy thousand square kilometers (70,000 KM2) of wetlands, formed primarily by sediments deposition and makes up 7.5 percent of Nigeria's total landmass. The notable ecological zones in this region includes: coastal barrier islands; mangrove swamp forests; fresh water swamps; and lowland rainforests. This incredibly naturally-endowed ecosystem region, which contains one of the highest concentrations of biodiversity on the planet, in addition to supporting abundant flora and fauna, is threatened by the inhuman act known as gas flaring. Gas flaring is the combustion of natural gas that is associated with crude oil when it is pumped up from the ground. In petroleum-producing areas such as the Niger Delta region of Nigeria where insufficient investment was made in infrastructure to utilize natural gas, flaring is employed to dispose of this associated gas. This practice has impoverished the communities where it is practiced, with attendant environmental, economic and health challenges. This paper discusses the adverse environmental and health implication associated with the practice, the role of Government, Policy makers, Oil companies and the Local communities aimed at bring this inhuman practice to a prompt end.

Keywords: Combustion, Emission, Environment, Flaring, Gas, Health, Niger Delta.

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Authors: Josef Brychta, Jiri Kratochvil, Marek Pagac

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The group of progressive cutting materials can include non-traditional, emerging and less-used materials that can be an efficient use of cutting their lead to a quantum leap in the field of machining. This is essentially a “superhard” materials (STM) based on polycrystalline diamond (PCD) and polycrystalline cubic boron nitride (PCBN) cutting performance ceramics and development is constantly "perfecting" fine coated cemented carbides. The latter cutting materials are broken down by two parameters, toughness and hardness. A variation of alloying elements is always possible to improve only one of each parameter. Reducing the size of the core on the other hand doing achieves "contradictory" properties, namely to increase both hardness and toughness.

Keywords: Grained cutting materials difficult to machine materials, optimum utilization.

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Authors: Haydar Teymourlouei

Abstract:

Cybersecurity is one of the greatest challenges society faces in an age revolving around technological development. With cyber-attacks on the continuous rise, the nation needs to understand and learn ways that can prevent such attacks. A major contribution that can change the education system is to implement laboratories and competitions into academia. This method can improve and educate students with more hands-on exercises in a highly motivating setting. Considering the fact that students are the next generation of the nation’s workforce, it is important for students to understand concepts not only through books, but also through actual hands-on experiences in order for them to be prepared for the workforce. An effective cybersecurity education system is critical for creating a strong cyber secure workforce today and for the future. This paper emphasizes the need for awareness and the need for competitions and cybersecurity laboratories to be implemented into the education system.

Keywords: Awareness, competition, cybersecurity, laboratories, workforce.

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Authors: Bella Llego

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The purpose of this research is: a) to investigate how the HR practices influence psychological contracts, b) to examine the influence of psychological contracts to individual behavior and to contribute individually, c) to study the psychological contact through leadership. This research using mixed methods, qualitative and quantitative research methods were utilized to gather the data collected using a qualitative method by the HR Manager who is in charge of the trainings from the staffs and quantitative method (survey) by using questionnaire was utilized to draw upon and to elaborate on the recurring themes present during the interviews. The survey was done to 400 staffs of the company. The study found that leadership styles supporting the firm’s HR strategy is the key in making psychological contracts that benefit both the firm and its members.

Keywords: Human Resource Performance Practice, and Leadership, Psychological Contacts, Relationship of Managers and staffs.

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Authors: B. G. Sampath, K. C. R. Perera, W. A. S. I. Wijesuriya, V. P. C. Dassanayake

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In this paper the design, development and testing of a stabilizer control system for a Quad-rotor is presented which is focused on the maneuverability. The mechanical design is performed along with the design of the controlling algorithm which is devised using fuzzy logic controller. The inputs for the system are the angular positions and angular rates of the Quad-rotor relative to three axes. Then the output data is filtered from an accelerometer and a gyroscope through a Kalman filter. In the development of the stability controlling system Mandani fuzzy model is incorporated. The results prove that the fuzzy based stabilizer control system is superior in high dynamic disturbances compared to the traditional systems which use PID integrated stabilizer control systems.

Keywords: Fuzzy stabilizer, maneuverability, PID, Quad-rotor.

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Authors: Masrour Dowlatabadi, Jalil Shirazi

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In this paper, an improved edge detection algorithm based on fuzzy combination of mathematical morphology and wavelet transform is proposed. The combined method is proposed to overcome the limitation of wavelet based edge detection and mathematical morphology based edge detection in noisy images. Experimental results show superiority of the proposed method, as compared to the traditional Prewitt, wavelet based and morphology based edge detection methods. The proposed method is an effective edge detection method for noisy image and keeps clear and continuous edges.

Keywords: Edge detection, Wavelet transform, Mathematical morphology, Fuzzy logic.

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Authors: Naushad Mamode Khan, Cheika Jahangeer, Maleika Heenaye-Mamode Khan

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Breastfeeding is an important concept in the maternal life of a woman. In this paper, we focus on exclusive breastfeeding. Exclusive breastfeeding is the feeding of a baby on no other milk apart from breast milk. This type of breastfeeding is very important during the first six months because it supports optimal growth and development during infancy and reduces the risk of obliterating diseases and problems. Moreover, in Mauritius, exclusive breastfeeding has decreased the incidence and/or severity of diarrhea, lower respiratory infection and urinary tract infection. In this paper, we give an overview of exclusive breastfeeding in Mauritius and the factors influencing it. We further analyze the local practices of exclusive breastfeeding using the Generalized Poisson regression model and the negative-binomial model since the data are over-dispersed.

Keywords: Exclusive breast feeding, regression model, generalized poisson, negative binomial.

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Authors: B. S. Saini, Dilbag Singh, Moin Uddin, Vinod Kumar

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The RR interval series is non-stationary and unevenly spaced in time. For estimating its power spectral density (PSD) using traditional techniques like FFT, require resampling at uniform intervals. The researchers have used different interpolation techniques as resampling methods. All these resampling methods introduce the low pass filtering effect in the power spectrum. The lomb transform is a means of obtaining PSD estimates directly from irregularly sampled RR interval series, thus avoiding resampling. In this work, the superiority of Lomb transform method has been established over FFT based approach, after applying linear and cubicspline interpolation as resampling methods, in terms of reproduction of exact frequency locations as well as the relative magnitudes of each spectral component.

Keywords: HRV, Lomb Transform, Resampling, RR-intervals.

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