Search results for: Environmental challenges

Authors: Aabiah Nayeem, Fariha Shafiq, Mustabshra Aftab, Rabia Saman Pirzada, Samia Ghazala

Abstract:

In this modern era of technology, the concept of Internet of Things is very popular in every domain. It is a widely distributed system of things in which the data collected from sensory devices is transmitted, analyzed locally/collectively then broadcasted to network where action can be taken remotely via mobile/web apps. Today’s mobile computing is also gaining importance as the services are provided during mobility. Through mobile computing, data are transmitted via computer without physically connected to a fixed point. The challenge is to provide services with high speed and security. Also, the data gathered from the mobiles must be processed in a secured way. Mobile computing is strongly influenced by internet of things. In this paper, we have discussed security issues and challenges of internet of things and mobile computing and we have compared both of them on the basis of similarities and dissimilarities.

Keywords: Embedded computing, internet of things, mobile computing, and wireless technologies.

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Authors: Zainab S. Mahmood, Aisha H. Abdalla, Wan Haslina Hassan, Farhat Anwar

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The wide use of the Internet-based applications bring many challenges to the researchers to guarantee the continuity of the connections needed by the mobile hosts and provide reliable Internet access for them. One of proposed solutions by Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is to connect the local, multi-hop, and infrastructure-less Mobile Ad hoc Network (MANET) with Internet structure. This connection is done through multi-interface devices known as Internet Gateways. Many issues are related to this connection like gateway discovery, handoff, address auto-configuration and selecting the optimum gateway when multiple gateways exist. Many studies were done proposing gateway selection schemes with a single selection criterion or weighted multiple criteria. In this research, a review of some of these schemes is done showing the differences, the features, the challenges and the drawbacks of each of them.

Keywords: Internet Gateway, MANET, Mobility, Selection criteria.

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Authors: Akram Keramat, Behrouz Marivani, Mehdi Samsami

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Drought is a phenomenon caused by environmental and climatic changes. This phenomenon is affected by shortage of rainfall and temperature. Dust is one of important environmental problems caused by climate change and drought. With recent multi-year drought, many environmental crises caused by dust in Iran and Middle East. Dust in the vast areas of the provinces occurs with high frequency. By dust affecting many problems created in terms of health, social and economic. In this study, we tried to study the most important factors causing dust. In this way we have used the satellite images and meteorological data. Finally, strategies to deal with the dust will be mentioned.

Keywords: Drought, Environment, Dust.

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Authors: Z. Tasir, S. N. Kew, D. West, Z. Abdullah, D. Toohey

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Research on Learning Analytics is progressively developing in the higher education field by concentrating on the process of students' learning. Therefore, a research project between Malaysian and Australian Universities was initiated in 2015 to look at the use of Learning Analytics to support the development of teaching practice. The focal point of this article is to discuss and share the experiences of Malaysian and Australian universities in the process of developing the collaborative research on Learning Analytics. Three aspects of this will be discussed: 1) Establishing an international research project and team members, 2) cross-cultural understandings, and 3) ways of working in relation to the practicalities of the project. This article is intended to benefit other researchers by highlighting the challenges as well as the strategies used in this project to ensure such collaborative research succeeds.

Keywords: Academic research project, collaborative research, cross-cultural understanding, international research project.

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Authors: Nima Hatami

Abstract:

In this paper, we use Radial Basis Function Networks (RBFN) for solving the problem of environmental interference cancellation of speech signal. We show that the Second Order Thin- Plate Spline (SOTPS) kernel cancels the interferences effectively. For make comparison, we test our experiments on two conventional most used RBFN kernels: the Gaussian and First order TPS (FOTPS) basis functions. The speech signals used here were taken from the OGI Multi-Language Telephone Speech Corpus database and were corrupted with six type of environmental noise from NOISEX-92 database. Experimental results show that the SOTPS kernel can considerably outperform the Gaussian and FOTPS functions on speech interference cancellation problem.

Keywords: Environmental interference, interference cancellation of speech, Radial Basis Function networks, Gaussian and TPS kernels.

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Authors: Shishir Kumar, Chhaya Gangwal, Seema Raj

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Public health informatics (PHI) which has seen successful implementation in the developed world, become the buzzword in the developing countries in providing improved healthcare with enhanced access. In rural areas especially, where a huge gap exists between demand and supply of healthcare facilities, PHI is being seen as a major solution. There are factors such as growing network infrastructure and the technological adoption by the health fraternity which provide support to these claims. Public health informatics has opportunities in healthcare by providing opportunities to diagnose patients, provide intra-operative assistance and consultation from a remote site. It also has certain barriers in the awareness, adaptation, network infrastructure, funding and policy related areas. There are certain medico-legal aspects involving all the stakeholders which need to be standardized to enable a working system. This paper aims to analyze the potential and challenges of Public health informatics services in rural communities.

Keywords: PHI, e-health, Public health.

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Authors: Alexander Y. Vaninsky

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It is suggested to evaluate environmental performance of energy sector using Data Envelopment Analysis with nondiscretionary factors (DEA-ND) with relative indicators as inputs and outputs. The latter allows for comparison of the objects essentially different in size. Inclusion of non-discretionary factors serves separation of the indicators that are beyond the control of the objects. A virtual perfect object comprised of maximal outputs and minimal inputs was added to the group of actual ones. In this setting, explicit solution of the DEA-ND problem was obtained. Energy sector of the United States was analyzed using suggested approach for the period of 1980 – 2006 with expected values of economic indicators for 2030 used for forming the perfect object. It was obtained that environmental performance has been increasing steadily for the period from 7.7% through 50.0% but still remains well below the prospected level

Keywords: DEA with Non Discretionary Factors, Environmental Performance, Energy Sector, Explicit Solution, Perfect Object.

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Authors: Kashif Laeeq, Zubair A. Shaikh

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The paradigm of education is drastically changing from conventional to e-learning model. Due to ease of learning with various other benefits, several educational institutions are adopting the e-learning models. Some institutions are still willing to transform their educational system on to e-learning, but due to limited resources, they are still compromising on the old traditional system. The cloud computing could be one of the best solutions to overcome this problem by providing hardware, software, and infrastructure resources with cost efficient manner. The adoption of cloud computing in education will bring revolution in this paradigm. This paper introduces various positive features of e-learning and presents a way how cloud computing technology can be provisioned e-learning model. This paper also investigates the numerous challenges and opportunities that would be observed in cloud computing adoption in e-learning domain. The concept and knowledge present in this paper may create a new direction of research in the domain of cloud-based e-learning.

Keywords: Cloud-based e-learning, e-learning, cloud computing application, smart learning.

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Authors: Alexander Y. Vaninsky

Abstract:

Importance of environmental efficiency of electric power industry stems from high demand for energy combined with global warming concerns. It is especially essential for the world largest economies like that of the United States. The paper introduces a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model of environmental efficiency using indicators of fossil fuels utilization, emissions rate, and electric power losses. Using DEA is advantageous in this situation over other approaches due to its nonparametric nature. The paper analyzes data for the period of 1990 - 2006 by comparing actual yearly levels in each dimension with the best values of partial indicators for the period. As positive factors of efficiency, tendency to the decline in emissions rates starting 2000, and in electric power losses starting 2004 may be mentioned together with increasing trend of fuel utilization starting 1999. As a result, dynamics of environmental efficiency is positive starting 2002. The main concern is the decline in fossil fuels utilization in 2006. This negative change should be reversed to comply with ecological and economic requirements.

Keywords: Environmental efficiency, electric power industry, DEA, United States.

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Authors: Yuki Irie, Shota Ogawa, Hitomi Kosugi, Hiromitsu Shinozaki

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Dropout rates in higher educational institutions pose significant challenges for both students and institutions, with poor mental health (MH) emerging as a key risk factor. Healthcare college students, including medical students, are particularly vulnerable to MH issues due to the demanding academic schedules they face. Poor mental health (MH) would be considered as a key risk factor for dropout from higher educational institutions that pose significant challenges for both students and institutions. And, inadequate food access (FA) has been related to poor MH. Given that targeted students may experience multiple risk factors for poor MH and vulnerable FA, the study aims to clarify the relationship between MH and FA to enhance student well-being. A cross-sectional design was used to explore the association between MH status and FA among 421 students (147 male, 274 female). Participants completed two questionnaires assessing MH and FA during winter 2022. The mean MH score was 6.7 ± 4.6, with higher scores indicating worse MH (max. score 27). While year-round FA showed no significant association with MH, FA during winter was significantly associated with MH (p = 0.01). Although car ownership did not directly impact MH, it was significantly associated with FA (p < 0.01), thus indirectly influencing MH. Our findings underscore the importance of FA in promoting MH, particularly during winter. Adopting a lifestyle that facilitates easier FA may be beneficial for MH, given its indirect association with MH outcomes. These insights emphasize the significance of addressing FA-related challenges to enhance student’s mental well-being.

Keywords: Mental health, food access, co-medical students, lifestyle.

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Authors: Jin Fan, M. Ala Saadeghvaziri

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Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), also referred to as drones, equipped with various kinds of advanced detecting or surveying systems, are effective and low-cost in data acquisition, data delivery and sharing, which can benefit the building of infrastructures. This paper will give an overview of applications of drones in planning, designing, construction and maintenance of infrastructures. The drone platform, detecting and surveying systems, and post-data processing systems will be introduced, followed by cases with details of the applications. Challenges from different aspects will be addressed. Opportunities of drones in infrastructure include but not limited to the following. Firstly, UAVs equipped with high definition cameras or other detecting equipment are capable of inspecting the hard to reach infrastructure assets. Secondly, UAVs can be used as effective tools to survey and map the landscape to collect necessary information before infrastructure construction. Furthermore, an UAV or multi-UVAs are useful in construction management. UVAs can also be used in collecting roads and building information by taking high-resolution photos for future infrastructure planning. UAVs can be used to provide reliable and dynamic traffic information, which is potentially helpful in building smart cities. The main challenges are: limited flight time, the robustness of signal, post data analyze, multi-drone collaboration, weather condition, distractions to the traffic caused by drones. This paper aims to help owners, designers, engineers and architects to improve the building process of infrastructures for higher efficiency and better performance.

Keywords: Bridge, construction, drones, infrastructure, information.

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Authors: P. Saravanan, A. Vasumathi

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The authors conducted a study for the sample size of 75 HR managers from an Indian IT company through systematic sampling method. This study identifies that the female employees are facing lesser conflict than the male employees against their managers within the organization. There is a positive correlation between gender and conflict management with the superior towards the work. There is a significant variance between age and response towards appraisal system, succession planning and employee engagement. The education qualification plays a major role in determining the compensation factor for the employees working in the organization. The study determines the impact of demographic profile on strategic HRM practices and its challenges faced by HR managers in IT firm, India.

Keywords: Strategic Human resource management, Change agent, Employee engagement, Performance management, Succession planning and Conflict management.

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Authors: Hycham Aboutaleb, Bruno Monsuez

Abstract:

Current systems complexity has reached a degree that requires addressing conception and design issues while taking into account environmental, operational, social, legal and financial aspects. Therefore, one of the main challenges is the way complex systems are specified and designed. The exponential growing effort, cost and time investment of complex systems in modeling phase emphasize the need for a paradigm, a framework and an environment to handle the system model complexity. For that, it is necessary to understand the expectations of the human user of the model and his limits. This paper presents a generic framework for designing complex systems, highlights the requirements a system model needs to fulfill to meet human user expectations, and suggests a graphbased formalism for modeling complex systems. Finally, a set of transformations are defined to handle the model complexity.

Keywords: Higraph-based, formalism, system engineering paradigm, modeling requirements, graph-based transformations.

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Authors: Ravindra Mallya, B. Satish Shenoy, B. Raghuvir Pai

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The study deals with the challenges in developing a test rig to test the performance of water lubricated journal bearing. The test rig is designed to simulate the working conditions of the bearing in order to understand their performance before they are put in operation. The bearing that is studied is the commercially available water lubricated bearing which has a rubber liner bonded with a rigid metal shell. The lubricant enters the bearing axially through a pressurized inlet tank and exits to an outlet tank which is at sufficiently low pressure. The load on the bearing is applied through the dead weight system which acts both in upward and downward direction so that net load acts on the bearing. The issues in feeding the lubricant into the bearing from the inlet side and preventing the leakage of the lubricant is discussed. The application of the load on the test bearing while maintaining the bearing afloat is also discussed.

Keywords: Axial groove, hydrodynamic pressure, journal bearing, test rig, water lubrication.

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Authors: T. Gómez-Navarro, M. García-Melón, D. Díaz-Martín, S. Acuna-Dutra,

Abstract:

In this paper a new approach to prioritize urban planning projects in an efficient and reliable way is presented. It is based on environmental pressure indices and multicriteria decision methods. The paper introduces a rigorous method with acceptable complexity of rank ordering urban development proposals according to their environmental pressure. The technique combines the use of Environmental Pressure Indicators, the aggregation of indicators in an Environmental Pressure Index by means of the Analytic Network Process method and interpreting the information obtained from the experts during the decision-making process. The ANP method allows the aggregation of the experts- judgments on each of the indicators into one Environmental Pressure Index. In addition, ANP is based on utility ratio functions which are the most appropriate for the analysis of uncertain data, like experts- estimations. Finally, unlike the other multicriteria techniques, ANP allows the decision problem to be modelled using the relationships among dependent criteria. The method has been applied to the proposal for urban development of La Carlota airport in Caracas (Venezuela). The Venezuelan Government would like to see a recreational project develop on the abandoned area and mean a significant improvement for the capital. There are currently three options on their table which are currently under evaluation. They include a Health Club, a Residential area and a Theme Park. The participating experts coincided in the appreciation that the method proposed in this paper is useful and an improvement from traditional techniques such as environmental impact studies, lifecycle analysis, etc. They find the results obtained coherent, the process seems sufficiently rigorous and precise, and the use of resources is significantly less than in other methods.

Keywords: Environmental pressure indicators, multicriteria decision analysis, analytic network process.

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Authors: Ali Alotaibi, Francis Edum-Fotwe, Andrew Price /

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Mega construction projects create buildings and major infrastructure to respond to work and life requirements while playing a vital role in promoting any nation’s economy. However, the industry is often criticised for not balancing economic, environmental and social dimensions of their projects, with emphasis typically on one aspect to the detriment of the others. This has resulted in many negative impacts including environmental pollution, waste throughout the project lifecycle, low productivity, and avoidable accidents. The identification of comprehensive Social Responsibility (SR) indicators, which combine social, environmental and economic aspects, is urgently needed. This is particularly the case in the context of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), which often has mega public construction projects. The aim of this paper is to develop a set of wide-ranging SR indicators which encompass social, economic and environmental aspects unique to the KSA. A qualitative approach was applied to explore relevant indicators through a review of the existing literature, international standards and reports. A list of appropriate indicators was developed, and its comprehensiveness was corroborated by interviews with experts on mega construction projects working with SR concepts in the KSA. The findings present 39 indicators and their metrics, covering 10 economic, 12 environmental and 17 social aspects of SR mapped against their references. These indicators are a valuable reference for decision-makers and academics in the KSA to understand factors related to SR in mega construction projects. The indicators are related to mega construction projects within the KSA and require validation in a real case scenario or within a different industry to demonstrate their generalisability.

Keywords: Social responsibility, construction projects, economic, social, environmental, indicators.

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Authors: Sandesh Achar

Abstract:

Cloud computing security is a broad term that covers a variety of security concerns for organizations that use cloud services. Multi-cloud service providers must consider several factors when addressing security for their customers, including identity and access management, data at rest and in transit, egress and ingress traffic control, vulnerability and threat management, and auditing. This paper explores each of these aspects of cloud security in detail and provides recommendations for best practices for multi-cloud service providers. It also discusses the challenges inherent in securing a multi-cloud environment and offers solutions for overcoming these challenges. By the end of this paper, readers should have a good understanding of the various security concerns associated with multi-cloud environments in the context of today’s modern cyber threats and how to address them.

Keywords: Multi-cloud service, SOC, system organization control, data loss prevention, DLP, identity and access management, IAM.

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Authors: Ghanima Al-Sharrah, Haitham M. Lababidi, Yusuf I. Ali

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The main objective of the current work is to introduce sustainability factors in optimizing the supply chain model for process industries. The supply chain models are normally based on purely economic considerations related to costs and profits. To account for sustainability, two additional factors have been introduced; environment and risk. A supply chain for an entire petroleum organization has been considered for implementing and testing the proposed optimization models. The environmental and risk factors were introduced as indicators reflecting the anticipated impact of the optimal production scenarios on sustainability. The aggregation method used in extending the single objective function to multi-objective function is proven to be quite effective in balancing the contribution of each objective term. The results indicate that introducing sustainability factor would slightly reduce the economic benefit while improving the environmental and risk reduction performances of the process industries.

Keywords: Supply chain, optimization, LP models, risk, environmental indicators, multi-objective.

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Authors: Jung Ho Yang, Yong Soo Kim

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Electrical units are operated by electrical and electronic components. An environmental test sequence is useful for testing electrical units to reduce reliability issues. This study introduces test sequence guidelines based on relevant principles and considerations for electronic testing according to International Standard IEC-60068-1 and the United States Military Standard MIL-STD-810G. Test sequences were then proposed based on the descriptions for each test. Finally, General Motors (GM) specification GMW3172 was interpreted and compared to IEC-60068-1 and MIL-STD-810G.

Keywords: Reliability, Environmental test sequence, Electrical units, IEC 60068-1, MIL-STD-810G.

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Authors: Kwok Tak Kit

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The government and community have raised their awareness of the benefits of water reuse. Deforestation has a significant effect to climate change as it causes the drying out of the tropical rainforest and hence increases the chance of natural threaten the storage and supply of clean water. This paper focuses on discussion of the relationship of the natural water collection system, afforestation and country parks towards environmental sustainability and circular economy, with a case study of water conservation policy and strategy in Hong Kong and Singapore for further research.

Keywords: Afforestation, environmental sustainability, water conservation, circular economy, climate change.

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Authors: M. Balestrieri, C. Pusceddu

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Issues relating to the destructive phenomena that can damage people and goods have returned to the centre of debate in Italy with the increase in catastrophic episodes in recent years in a country which is highly vulnerable to hydrological risk. Environmental factors and geological and geomorphological territorial characteristics play an important role in determining the level of vulnerability and the natural tendency to risk. However, a territory has also been subjected to the requirements of and transformations of society and this brings other relevant factors. The reasons for the increase in destructive phenomena are often to be found in the territorial development models adopted. Stewardship of the landscape and management of risk are related issues. This study aims to summarize the most relevant elements about this connection and at the same time to clarify the role of environmental risk assessment as a tool to aid in the sustainable management of landscape. Finally, the study reflects on how regional and urban planners deal with environmental risk and which aspects should be monitored in order to adopt responsible and useful interventions.

Keywords: Assessment, landscape, risk, planning.

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Authors: Rıza Gürhan Korkut, Metin Çelik, Süleyman Özkaynak

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The early-stage design and development projects for the freight village initiatives require a comprehensive analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data. Considering the literature review on structural and operational management requirements, this study proposed an original taxonomy on criterion structure to assess freight village conceptualization. The potential challenges and uncertainties of the developed taxonomy are extended. Besides requirement analysis, this study is also expected to contribute to forthcoming research on benchmarking of freight villages in different regions. The methodology used in this research is a systematic review on several articles as per their modelling approaches, sustainability, entities and decisions made together with the uncertainties and features of their models taken into consideration. The major findings of the study that are the categories for assessing the projects attributes on their environmental, socio-economical, accessibility and location aspects.

Keywords: Freight village, logistics centers, operational management, taxonomy.

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Authors: Sushovan Sarkar, Debabrata Mazumder

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Solid waste management in steel industry is broadly classified in “4 Rs” i.e. reduce, reuse, recycle and restore the materials. Reuse and recycling the entire solid waste generated in the process of steel making is a viable solution in targeting a clean, green and zero waste technology leading to sustainable development of the steel industry. Solid waste management has gained importance in steel industry in view of its uncertainty, volatility and speculation due to world competitive standards, rising input costs, scarcity of raw materials and solid waste generated like in other sectors. The challenges that the steel Industry faces today are the requirement of a sustainable development by meeting the needs of our present generation without compromising the ability of future generations. Technologies are developed not only for gainful utilization of solid wastes in manufacture of conventional products but also for conversion of same in to completely new products.

Keywords: Reuse, recycle, solid waste, sustainable development.

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Authors: Y. Benjelloun Touimi, N. Faddouli, S. Bennani, M. Khalidi Idrissi

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The pedagogy project has been proven as an active learning method, which is used to develop learner-s skills and knowledge.The use of technology in the learning world, has filed several gaps in the implementation of teaching methods, and online evaluation of learners. However, the project methodology presents challenges in the assessment of learners online. Indeed, interoperability between E-learning platforms (LMS) is one of the major challenges of project-based learning assessment. Firstly, we have reviewed the characteristics of online assessment in the context of project-based teaching. We addressed the constraints encountered during the peer evaluation process. Our approach is to propose a meta-model, which will describe a language dedicated to the conception of peer assessment scenario in project-based learning. Then we illustrate our proposal by an instantiation of the meta-model through a business process in a scenario of collaborative assessment on line.

Keywords: Online project based learning, meta-model, peer assessment process.

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Authors: Haytham Yassine

Abstract:

This research seeks to identify how money laundering activities are executed through the real estate sector. This article provides academics with literature on the topic and provides scholars, and practitioners with a better understanding of the risks and challenges involved. Data are gathered through survey in the Middle East and North Africa region and review of the available research. The results of the analysis will help identifying the factors attracting criminals to the real estate sector and develop an understanding of the methods used to launder illicit funds through this sector and the indicators of suspicion for reporting entities. Further analysis reveals the risks posed by money laundering and terrorist financing on the real estate sector and challenges facing states in this regard.

Keywords: Money laundering, terrorism financing, real estate sector, Middle East and North Africa.

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Authors: Sabina Akter, Osiris Valdez Banda, Pentti Kujala, Jani Romanoff

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This paper examines the relationship between on-board environmental factors and customer overall satisfaction in the context of the cruise on-board experience. The on-board environmental factors considered are ambient, layout/design, social, product/service and on-board enjoyment factors. The study presents a data-driven framework and model for the on-board cruise experience. The data are collected from 893 respondents in an application of a self-administered online questionnaire of their cruise experience. This study reveals the cruise passengers’ on-board experience through the customer decision journey based on the publicly available data. Pearson correlation and regression analysis have been applied, and the results show a positive and a significant relationship between the environmental factors and on-board experience. These data help understand the cruise passengers’ on-board experience, which will be used for the ultimate decision-making process in cruise ship design.

Keywords: Cruise behavior, on-board environmental factors, on-board experience, user or customer satisfaction.

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Authors: Victor Oluwaseyi Olowonisi

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The paper aimed at presenting an overview on the concept of e-learning as it relates to higher education and how it provides opportunities for students, instructors and the government in developing the educational sector. It also touched on the benefits and challenges attached to e-learning as a new medium of reaching more students especially in the Nigerian context. The opportunities attributed to e-learning in the paper includes breaking boundaries barriers, reaching a larger number of students, provision of jobs for ICT experts, etc. In contrary, poor power supply, cost of implementation, poor computer literacy, technophobia (fear of technology), computer crime and system failure were some of the challenges of e-learning discussed in the paper. The paper proffered that the government can help the people gain more from e-learning through its financing. Also, it was stated that instructors/lecturers and students need to undergo training on computer application in order for e-learning to be more effective in developing higher education in Nigeria.

Keywords: E-Learning, education, higher education, increasing literacy.

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

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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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Authors: Ngoc Dang Khoa Nguyen, Imran Ali

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The cloud customer relationship management (CRM) has emerged as an innovative tool to augment the customer satisfaction and performance of banking systems. Cloud CRM allows to collect, analyze and utilize customer-associated information and update the systems, thereby offer superior customer service. Cloud technologies have invaluable potential to ensure innovative customer experiences, successful collaboration, enhanced speed to marketplace and IT effectiveness. As such, many leading banks have been attracted towards adoption of such innovative and customer-driver solutions to revolutionize their existing business models. Chief Information Officers (CIOs) are already implemented or in the process of implementation of cloud CRM. However, many organizations are still reluctant to take such initiative due to the lack of information on the factors influencing its implementation. This paper, therefore, aims to delve into the strategies, benefits and challenges intertwined in the implementation of cloud CRM in banking sector and provide reliable solutions.

Keywords: Banking sector, cloud computing, cloud CRM, strategy.

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Authors: S. Ntalampiras, I. Potamitis, N. Fakotakis, S. Kouzoupis

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The present work faces the problem of automatic enumeration and recognition of an unknown and time-varying number of environmental sound sources while using a single microphone. The assumption that is made is that the sound recorded is a realization of sound sources belonging to a group of audio classes which is known a-priori. We describe two variations of the same principle which is to calculate the distance between the current unknown audio frame and all possible combinations of the classes that are assumed to span the soundscene. We concentrate on categorizing environmental sound sources, such as birds, insects etc. in the task of monitoring the biodiversity of a specific habitat.

Keywords: automatic recognition of multiple sound sources, enumeration of sound sources, computational ecology.

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