Search results for: national threat

Authors: Jaehun Joo, Mie-jung Kim, Ismatilla Normatov, Lyunhwa Kim

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The purpose of this paper is to analyze determinants of information security affecting adoption of the Web-based integrated information systems (IIS). We introduced Web-based information systems which are designed to formulate strategic plans for Peruvian government. Theoretical model is proposed to test impact of organizational factors (deterrent efforts and severity; preventive efforts) and individual factors (information security threat; security awareness) on intentions to proactively use the Web-based IIS .Our empirical study results highlight that deterrent efforts and deterrent severity have no significant influence on the proactive use intentions of IIS, whereas, preventive efforts play an important role in proactive use intentions of IIS. Thus, we suggest that organizations need to do preventive efforts by introducing various information security solutions, and try to improve information security awareness while reducing the perceived information security threats.

Keywords: Information security, Deterrent efforts, deterrentseverity, preventive efforts, information security awareness, information security threats, integrated information systems

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Authors: S. Sutin, M. Pollar, M. Jaroensutasinee, K. Jaroensutasinee

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This study investigated morphology of the Spanner Barb (Puntius lateristriga Valenciennes, 1842) and water quality at Thepchana waterfall. This study was conducted at Thepchana Waterfall, Khao Nan National Park from March to May 2007. There were 40 Spanner Barb collected with 20 males and 20 females. Males had an average of 5.57 cm in standard length, 6.62 cm in total length and 5.18 g in total body weight. Females had an average of 7.25 cm in standard length, 8.24 cm in total length and 10.96 g in total body weight. The length (L) – weight (W) relationships for combining sexes, males and females were LogW = -2.137 + 3.355logL, log W = -0.068 + 3.297logL, and log W = -2.068 + 3.297logL, respectively. The Spanner Barb were smaller size fish with a compressed form; terminal mouth; villiform teeth; ctenoid scale; concave tail; general body color yellowish olive, with slight reddish tint to fins; vertical band beginning below dorsal and horizontal stripe from base of tail almost to vertical band. They also had a vertical band midway between the eye and first vertical band. There was a black spot above anal fin. The bladder looked like J-shape. Inside of the bladder was found small insects and insect lava. The body length and the bowels length was 1:1 ratio. The water temperature ranged from 25.00 – 27.00 °C which was appropriate for their habitat characteristics. Acid - alkalinity ranged from 6.65 – 6.90 mg/l. Dissolved oxygen ranged from 4.55 – 4.70 mg/l. Water hardness ranged from 31.00 – 48.00 mg/l. The amount of ammonia was about 0.25 mg/l.

Keywords: Spanner barb, morphology, water quality.

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Authors: Mohammed Sani Abdulai

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Government budgets are the primary instruments for formulating and implementing a country’s fiscal policy objectives, development priorities, and the overall socio-economic aspirations of its people. Thus, in this paper, the author examined the Government of Ghana’s budgets with respect to their functions, coverage, classifications, and integration with the country’s chart of accounts. The author did so by amalgamating the research findings of extant literature with (a) the operational and procedural guidelines underpinning the formulation and execution of the government’s budgets; (b) the recommendations made by various development partners and thinktanks on reforming the country’s budgeting processes and procedures; and (c) the lessons Ghana could learn from the budget reform efforts of other countries. By way of research findings, the paper showed that the Government of Ghana’s budgets in terms of function are both eclectic and multidimensional. On coverage, the paper showed that the country’s budgets duly cover the revenues and expenditures of the general government (i.e., both the central and sub-national governments). Finally, on classifications, the paper noted with delight the Government of Ghana’s effort in providing classificatory codes to both its national development agenda and such international development goals as the AU’s Agenda 2063 and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. However, the paper found some significant lapses that require a complete overhaul and structuring on the integrations of its budget classifications with its chart of accounts. Thus, the paper concluded with a detailed examination of the challenges confronting the country’s current chart of accounts and recommendations for addressing them.

Keywords: Budget, budgetary transactions, budgetary governance, Chart of Accounts, classification, composition, coverage, Public Financial Management.

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Authors: Wenqing Fan, Yixuan Cheng, Wei Huang

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The diversity and complexity of modern IT systems make it almost impossible for internal teams to find vulnerabilities in all software before the software is officially released. The emergence of threat intelligence and vulnerability reporting policy has greatly reduced the burden on software vendors and organizations to find vulnerabilities. However, to prove the existence of the reported vulnerability, it is necessary but difficult for security incident response team to build a deliberated vulnerable environment from the vulnerability report with limited and incomplete information. This paper presents a structured, standardized, machine-oriented vulnerability intelligence format, that can be used to automate the orchestration of Deliberated Vulnerable Environment (DVE). This paper highlights the important role of software configuration and proof of vulnerable specifications in vulnerability intelligence, and proposes a triad model, which is called DIR (Dependency Configuration, Installation Configuration, Runtime Configuration), to define software configuration. Finally, this paper has also implemented a prototype system to demonstrate that the orchestration of DVE can be automated with the intelligence.

Keywords: DIR Triad Model, DVE, vulnerability intelligence, vulnerability recurrence.

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Authors: S. Zeković, M. Vujošević, T. Maričić

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The paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the sustainable development in the Belgrade Metropolitan Region - BMA (level NUTS 2) preliminary evaluating the three chosen components: 1) economic growth and developmental changes; 2) competitiveness; and 3) territorial concentration and industrial specialization. First, we identified the main results of development changes and economic growth by applying Shift-share analysis on the metropolitan level. Second, the empirical evaluation of competitiveness in the BMA is based on the analysis of absolute and relative values of eight indicators by Spider method. Paper shows that the consideration of the national share, industrial mix and metropolitan/regional share in total Shift share of the BMA, as well as economic/functional specialization of the BMA indicate very strong process of deindustrialization. Allocative component of the BMA economic growth has positive value, reflecting the above-average sector productivity compared to the national average. Third, the important positive role of metropolitan/regional component in decomposition of the BMA economic growth is highlighted as one of the key results. Finally, comparative analysis of the industrial territorial concentration in the BMA in relation to Serbia is based on location quotient (LQ) or Balassa index as a valid measure. The results indicate absolute and relative differences in decrease of industry territorial concentration as well as inefficiency of utilizing territorial capital in the BMA. Results are important for the increase of regional competitiveness and territorial distribution in this area as well as for improvement of sustainable metropolitan and sector policies, planning and governance on this level.

Keywords: Belgrade Metropolitan Area (BMA), Comprehensive analysis/evaluation, economic growth and competitiveness, sustainable development.

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Authors: Beatrix Faragó, Zsolt Szakály, Ágnes Kovácsné Tóth, Csaba Konczos, Norbert Kovács, Zsófia Pápai, Tamás Kertész

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The future of the nation is the embodiment of a healthy society. A key segment of government policy is the development of health and a health-oriented environment. As a result, sport as an activator of health is an important area for development. In Hungary, sport is a strategic sector with the aim of developing a sports nation. The function of sport in the global society is multifaceted, which is manifested in both social and economic terms. The economic importance of sport is gaining ground in the world, with implications for Central and Eastern Europe. Smaller states, such as Hungary, cannot ignore the economic effects of exploiting the effects of sport. The relationship between physical activity and health is driven by the health economy towards the nation's economic factor. In our research, we analyzed sport as a national strategy sector and its impact on age groups. By presenting the current state of health behavior, we get an idea of the directions where development opportunities require even more intervention. The foundation of the health of a nation is the young age group, whose shaping of health will shape the future generation. Our research was attended by university students from the Faculty of Health and Sports Sciences who will be experts in the field of health in the future. The other group is the elderly, who are a growing social group due to demographic change and are a key segment of the labor market and consumer society. Our study presents the health behavior of the two age groups, their differences, and similarities. The survey also identifies gaps in the development of a health management strategy that national strategies should take into account.

Keywords: Competitiveness, health behavior, health economy, health management, sports nation.

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Authors: Yongsheng Guo, Xiaoxian Zhu, Mandella Osei-Assibey Bonsu

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This study explores the effects of national culture on consumer behaviour by identifying the characteristics of Chinese consumers’ decision making in Europe. It offers a better understanding of how cultural factors affect consumers’ behaviour, and how consumers make decisions in other nations with different culture. It adopted a grounded theory approach and conducted 24 in-depth interviews. Grounded theory models are developed to link the causal conditions, process, and consequences. Results reveal that some cultural factors including conservatism, emotionality, acquaintance community, long-term orientation and principles affect Chinese consumers when making purchase decisions in Europe. Most Chinese consumers plan and prepare their expenditure and stay in Europe as cultural learners, and purchase durable products or assets as investment, and share their experiences within a community. This study identified potential problems such as political and social environment, complex procedures, and restrictions. This study found that external factors influence internal factors and then internal characters determine consumer behaviour. This study proposes that cultural traits developed in convergence evolution through social selection and Chinese consumers persist most characters but adapt some perceptions and actions overtime in other countries. This study suggests that cultural marketing could be adopted by companies to reflect consumers’ preferences. Agencies, shops, and the authorities could take actions to reduce the complexity and restrictions.

Keywords: National culture, consumer behaviour, cultural marketing, decision making.

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Authors: Miracle Ajah

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One of the biggest challenges facing Theological/ Religious Education in Nigeria is access to quality learning materials. For instance at the Trinity (Union) Theological College, Umuahia, it was difficult for lecturers to access suitable and qualitative materials for instruction especially the ones that would suit the African context and stimulate a deep rooted interest among the students. Some textbooks written by foreign authors were readily available in the School Library, but were lacking in the College bookshops for students to own copies. Even when the College was able to order some of the books from abroad, it did not usher in the needed enthusiasm expected from the students because they were either very expensive or very difficult to understand during private studies. So it became necessary to develop contextual materials which were affordable and understandable, though with little success. The National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN)’s innovation in the development and sharing of learning resources through its Open Courseware is a welcome development and of great assistance to students. Apart from NOUN students who could easily access the materials, many others from various theological/religious institutes across the nation have benefited immensely. So, the thesis of this paper is that the promotion of open educational resources in theological/religious education in Nigeria would facilitate a better informed/equipped religious leadership, which would in turn impact its adherents for a healthier society and national development. Adopting a narrative and historical approach within the context of Nigeria’s educational system, the paper discusses: educational traditions in Nigeria; challenges facing theological/religious education in Nigeria; and benefits of open educational resources. The study goes further to making recommendations on how OER could positively influence theological/religious education in Nigeria. It is expected that theologians, religious educators, and ODL practitioners would find this work very useful.

Keywords: Nigeria, OER, religious education, theological education.

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Authors: P. U. S. Peiris

Abstract:

The butterflies are ecologically very important insects. The adults generally feed on nectar and are important as pollinators of flowering plants. However, these pollinators are under threat with their habitat loss. One reason for habitat loss is spread of invasive plants. However, there are even beneficial exotic plants which can directly support for Butterfly Conservation Action Plan of Sri Lanka by attracting butterflies for nectar. Stachytarpheta jamaicensis (L.) is an important nectar plant which attracts a diverse set of butterflies in higher number. It comprises a violet color inflorescence which last for about 37 hours where it attracted a peak of butterflies around 9.00am having around average of 15 butterflies. There were no butterflies in early and late hours where the number goes to very low values as 2 at 1.00pm. it was found that a diverse group of butterflies were attracted from around 15 species including 01 endemic species, 02 endemic subspecies and 02 vulnerable species. Therefore, this is a beneficial exotic plant that could be used in butterfly attraction and conservation however with adequate monitoring of the plant population.

Keywords: Butterflies, exotic plants, pollinators, Stachytarpheta jamaicensis (L.), butterfly conservation

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Authors: Ammal M. Metwally, Lobna A. El Etreby, Rehan M. Saleh, Ghada Abdrabou, Somia I. Salama, Amira Orabi, Mohamed Abdelrahman

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Hepatitis C virus infection is a public health threat in Egypt. To control infection, efforts should be spent to encourage healthy behavior. This study aimed to assess the level of behavioral development in order to create a positive environment for the adoption of the recommended behaviors. The study was conducted over one year from Jan. 2011 till Jan. 2012.Knowledge, attitude and behavior of 540 HCV patients and 102 of their contacts were assessed and the level of behavioral development was determined. The study revealed that the majority of patients and contacts knew that HCV infection is dangerous with perceived concern for early diagnosis and treatment. More than 75% knew the correct modes of transmission. The assessment showed positive attitudes towards the recommended practices with intention to adopt those practices. Strategies of creating opportunities to continue the recommended behaviors should be adopted together with the reinforcement of social support.

Keywords: Hepatitis C virus, Level of behavioral development, recommended behaviors.

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Authors: Paschalis Koutalakis, George N. Zaimes, Valasia Iakovoglou, Konstantinos Ioannou

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Mitigating soil erosion, especially in Mediterranean countries such as Greece, is essential in order to maintain environmental and agricultural sustainability. In this paper, scientific publications related to soil erosion studies in Greece were reviewed and categorized. To accomplish this, the online search engine of Scopus was used. The key words were “soil”, “erosion” and “Greece.” An analysis of the published articles was conducted at three levels: i) type of publication, ii) chronologic and iii) thematic. A hundred and ten publications published in scientific journals were reviewed. The results showed that the awareness regarding the soil erosion in Greece has increased only in the last decades. The publications covered a wide range of thematic categories such as the type of studied areas, the physical phenomena that trigger and influence the soil erosion, the negative anthropogenic impacts on them, the assessment tools that were used in order to examine the threat and the proper management. The analysis of these articles was significant and necessary in order to find the scientific gaps of soil erosion studies in Greece and help enhance the sustainability of soil management in the future.

Keywords: Climate change, agricultural sustainability, environmental sustainability, soil management.

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Authors: Jatinderkumar R. Saini, Apurva A. Desai

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Email has become a fast and cheap means of online communication. The main threat to email is Unsolicited Bulk Email (UBE), commonly called spam email. The current work aims at identification of unigrams in more than 2700 UBE that advertise body-enhancement drugs. The identification is based on the requirement that the unigram is neither present in dictionary, nor is a slang term. The motives of the paper are many fold. This is an attempt to analyze spamming behaviour and employment of wordmutation technique. On the side-lines of the paper, we have attempted to better understand the spam, the slang and their interplay. The problem has been addressed by employing Tokenization technique and Unigram BOW model. We found that the non-lexicon words constitute nearly 66% of total number of lexis of corpus whereas non-slang words constitute nearly 2.4% of non-lexicon words. Further, non-lexicon non-slang unigrams composed of 2 lexicon words, form more than 71% of the total number of such unigrams. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to analyze usage of non-lexicon non-slang unigrams in any kind of UBE.

Keywords: Body Enhancement, Lexicon, Medicinal, Slang, Unigram, Unsolicited Bulk e-mail (UBE)

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Authors: Ahmad H. Abdelgwad, Ahmed A. Nashat

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Landmine detection is an important and yet challenging problem remains to be solved. Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) is a powerful and rapidly maturing technology for subsurface threat identification. The detection methodology of GPR depends mainly on the contrast of the dielectric properties of the searched target and its surrounding soil. This contrast produces a partial reflection of the electromagnetic pulses that are being transmitted into the soil and then being collected by the GPR.  One of the most critical hardware components for the performance of GPR is the antenna system. The current paper explores the design and simulation of a pyramidal horn antenna operating at L-band frequencies (1- 2 GHz) to detect a landmine. A prototype model of the GPR system setup is developed to simulate full wave analysis of the electromagnetic fields in different soil types. The contrast in the dielectric permittivity of the landmine and the sandy soil is the most important parameter to be considered for detecting the presence of landmine. L-band horn antenna is proved to be well-versed in the investigation of landmine detection.

Keywords: Full wave analysis, ground penetrating radar, horn antenna design, landmine detection.

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Authors: T. T. Manikandan, Rajeev Sukumaran

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Coral Reefs are very important for the majority of marine ecosystems. But, such vital species are under major threat due to the factors such as ocean acidification, overfishing, and coral bleaching. To conserve the coral reefs, reef restoration activities are carried out across the world. After reef restoration, various parameters have to be monitored in order to ensure the overall effectiveness of the reef restoration. Underwater Wireless Sensor Network (UWSN) based  monitoring is widely adopted for such long monitoring activities. Since monitoring of coral reef restoration activities is time sensitive, the QoS guarantee offered by the network with respect to delay is vital. So this research focuses on the analytical modeling of network layer delay using Stochastic Network Calculus (SNC). The core focus of the proposed model will be on the analysis of stochastic dependencies between the network flow and deriving the stochastic delay bounds for the flows that traverse in tandem in UWSNs. The derived analytical bounds are evaluated for their effectiveness using discrete event simulations.

Keywords: Coral Reef Restoration, SNC, SFA, PMOO, Tandem of Queues, Delay Bound.

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Authors: Paisarn Larpsomboonchai

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Agro-industry is one of major industries that have strong impacts on national economic incomes, growth, stability, and sustainable development. Moreover, this industry also has strong influences on social, cultural and political issues. Furthermore, this industry, as producing primary and secondary products, is facing challenges from such diverse factors such as demand inconsistency, intense international competition, technological advancements and new competitors. In order to maintain and to improve industry’s competitiveness in both domestics and international markets, science and technology are key factors. Besides hard sciences and technologies, modern industrial engineering concepts such as Just in Time (JIT) Total Quality Management (TQM), Quick Response (QR), Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Lean can be very effective to support to increase efficiency and effectiveness of these agricultural products on world stage. Onion is one of Thailand’s major export products which bring back national incomes. But, it is also facing challenges in many ways. This paper focused its interests in onion packing process and its related activities such as storage and shipment from one of major packing plant and storage in Mae Wang District, Chiang Mai, Thailand, by applying Toyota Production System (TPS) or Lean concepts, to improve process capability throughout the entire packing and distribution process which will be profitable for the whole onion supply chain. And it will be beneficial to other related agricultural products in Thailand and other ASEAN countries.

Keywords: Lean Concepts, Lean in Agro-industries Activities, Packing Process, Toyota Production System (TPS), Waste Reduction.

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Authors: Zohreh Bang Tavakoli, Shuktika Chatterjee

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This study is investigating the impact of ideological structures in terms of conservative and liberal on shaping immigration acceptance attitudes under the contribution of socio-economic status. According to motivated reasoning theory, political ideology is identified as a recurrent impact on the formation of attitude, while conservatives tend to express more hostility toward immigrants in comparison to liberals which are proposed to be more tolerant towards immigrants. Our finding suggests that political ideology will structure individual attitudes when citizens socio-economic vulnerability and level of education are low enough to consider immigrants as a threat. Therefore, economic vulnerability is proposed to weaken the ideological predispositions’ resistance. There has been some threats and factors such as level of education and economic condition proposed by group competition theory and labor market competition theory as fundamental factors which can strengthen or weaken the effects of political ideology on individuals’ attitudes towards immigration; those mechanisms for liberals and conservatives will be operated differently.

Keywords: Conservative, immigration, liberal, political ideology.

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Authors: Fatemeh Amiri, Caro Lucas, Nasser Yazdani

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As the network based technologies become omnipresent, demands to secure networks/systems against threat increase. One of the effective ways to achieve higher security is through the use of intrusion detection systems (IDS), which are a software tool to detect anomalous in the computer or network. In this paper, an IDS has been developed using an improved machine learning based algorithm, Locally Linear Neuro Fuzzy Model (LLNF) for classification whereas this model is originally used for system identification. A key technical challenge in IDS and LLNF learning is the curse of high dimensionality. Therefore a feature selection phase is proposed which is applicable to any IDS. While investigating the use of three feature selection algorithms, in this model, it is shown that adding feature selection phase reduces computational complexity of our model. Feature selection algorithms require the use of a feature goodness measure. The use of both a linear and a non-linear measure - linear correlation coefficient and mutual information- is investigated respectively

Keywords: anomaly Detection, feature selection, Locally Linear Neuro Fuzzy (LLNF), Mutual Information (MI), liner correlation coefficient.

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Authors: Pearl K. Atuhaire, Sylvia Kaye

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While the need for equal access to civil, political as well as economic, social and cultural rights is clear under the international law, the adoption of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against women in 1979 made this even clearer. Despite this positive progress, the abuse of refugee women's rights is one of the basic underlying root causes of their marginalisation and violence in their countries of asylum. This paper presents a critical review on the development of refugee women's rights at the international levels and national levels. It provides an array of scholarly literature on this issue and examines the measures taken by the international community to curb the problem of violence against women in their various provisions through the instruments set. It is cognizant of the fact that even if conflict affects both refugee women and men, the effects on women refugees are deep-reaching, due to the cultural strongholds they face. An important aspect of this paper is that it is conceptualised against the fact that refugee women face the problem of sexual and gender based first as refugees and second as women, yet, their rights are stumbled upon. Often times they have been rendered "worthless victims" who are only in need of humanitarian assistance than active participants committed to change their plight through their participation in political, economic and social participation in their societies. Scholars have taken notice of the fact that women's rights in refugee settings have been marginalized and call for a need to incorporate their perspectives in the planning and management of refugee settings in which they live. Underpinning this discussion is feminism theory which gives a clear understanding of the root cause of refugee women's problems. Finally, this paper suggests that these policies should be translated into action at local, national international and regional levels to ensure sustainable peace.

Keywords: Feminism theory, human rights, refugee women, sexual and gender based violence.

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Authors: Hakan Gürkan, Ahmet Denker

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The Ministry of Defense (MoD) spends hundreds of millions of dollars on software to support its infrastructure, operate its weapons and provide command, control, communications, computing, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) functions. These and other all new advanced systems have a common critical component is information technology. Defense and Aerospace environment is continuously striving to keep up with increasingly sophisticated Information Technology (IT) in order to remain effective in today-s dynamic and unpredictable threat environment. This makes it one of the largest and fastest growing expenses of Defense. Hundreds of millions of dollars spent a year on IT projects. But, too many of those millions are wasted on costly mistakes. Systems that do not work properly, new components that are not compatible with old once, trendily new applications that do not really satisfy defense needs or lost though poorly managed contracts. This paper investigates and compiles the effective strategies that aim to end exasperation with low returns and high cost of Information Technology Acquisition for defense; it tries to show how to maximize value while reducing time and expenditure.

Keywords: Iterative Process, Acquisition Management, Project management, Software Economics, Requirement analysis.

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Authors: David Cobham

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In higher education, a great degree of importance is placed on the internationalisation of the student experience. This is seen as a valuable contributor to elements such as building confidence, broadening knowledge, creating networks, and connections and enhancing employability for current students who will become the next generation of managers in technology and business. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all areas of people’s lives. The limitations of travel coupled with the fears and concerns generated by the health risks have dramatically reduced the opportunity for students to engage with this agenda. Institutions of higher education have been required to rethink fundamental aspects of their business model from recruitment and enrolment, through learning approaches, assessment methods and the pathway to employment. This paper presents a case study which focuses on student mobility and how the physical experience of being in another country either to study, to work, to volunteer or to gain cultural and social enhancement has of necessity been replaced by alternative approaches. It considers trans-national education as an alternative to physical study overseas, virtual mobility and internships as an alternative to international work experience and adopting collaborative on-line projects as an alternative to in-person encounters. The paper concludes that although these elements have been adopted to address the current situation, the lessons learnt and the feedback gained suggests that they have contributed successfully in new and sometimes unexpected ways, and that they will persist beyond the present to become part of the "new normal" for the future. That being the case, senior leaders of institutions of higher education will be required to revisit their international plans and to rewrite their international strategies to take account of and build upon these changes.

Keywords: Trans-national education, internationalisation, higher education management, virtual mobility.

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Authors: Nidal F. Shilbayeh, Sameh T. Khuffash, Mohammad H. Allymoun, Reem Al-Saidi

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There is a real threat on the VIPs personal pages on the Social Network Sites (SNS). The real threats to these pages is violation of privacy and theft of identity through creating fake pages that exploit their names and pictures to attract the victims and spread of lies. In this paper, we propose a new secure architecture that improves the trusting and finds an effective solution to reduce fake pages and possibility of recognizing VIP pages on SNS. The proposed architecture works as a third party that is added to Facebook to provide the trust service to personal pages for VIPs. Through this mechanism, it works to ensure the real identity of the applicant through the electronic authentication of personal information by storing this information within content of their website. As a result, the significance of the proposed architecture is that it secures and provides trust to the VIPs personal pages. Furthermore, it can help to discover fake page, protect the privacy, reduce crimes of personality-theft, and increase the sense of trust and satisfaction by friends and admirers in interacting with SNS.

Keywords: Social Network Sites, Online Social Network, Privacy, Trust, Security and Authentication.

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Authors: Nicola Gualandi, Luca Mantecchini, Davide Serrau

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Airport capacity has always been perceived in the traditional sense as the number of aircraft operations during a specified time corresponding to a tolerable level of average delay and it mostly depends on the airside characteristics, on the fleet mix variability and on the ATM. The adoption of the Directive 2002/30/EC in the EU countries drives the stakeholders to conceive airport capacity in a different way though. Airport capacity in this sense is fundamentally driven by environmental criteria, and since acoustical externalities represent the most important factors, those are the ones that could pose a serious threat to the growth of airports and to aviation market itself in the short-medium term. The importance of the regional airports in the deregulated market grew fast during the last decade since they represent spokes for network carriers and a preferential destination for low-fares carriers. Not only regional airports have witnessed a fast and unexpected growth in traffic but also a fast growth in the complaints for the nuisance by the people living near those airports. In this paper the results of a study conducted in cooperation with the airport of Bologna G. Marconi are presented in order to investigate airport acoustical capacity as a defacto constraint of airport growth.

Keywords: Airport acoustical capacity, airport noise, air traffic noise, sustainability of regional airports.

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Authors: May A. Massoud

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The availability of water in adequate quantity and quality is imperative for sustainable development. Worldwide, significant imbalance exists with regards to sustainable development particularly from a water and sanitation perspective. Water is a critical component of public health, and failure to supply safe water will place a heavy burden on the entire population. Although the 21st century has witnessed wealth and advanced development, it has not been realized everywhere. Billions of people are still striving to access the most basic human needs which are food, shelter, safe drinking water and adequate sanitation. The global picture conceals various inequalities particularly with regards to sanitation coverage in rural and urban areas. Currently, water scarcity and in particular water governance is the main challenge which will cause a threat to sustainable development goals. Within the context of water, sanitation and health, sustainable development is a confusing concept primarily when examined from the viewpoint of policy options for developing countries. This perspective paper aims to summarize and critically evaluate evidence of published studies in relation to water, sanitation and health and to identify relevant solutions to reduce public health impacts. Evidently, improving water and sanitation services will result in significant and lasting gains in health and economic development.

Keywords: developing countries, health, sanitation, sustainability, water

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Authors: M. S. Indati, H. A. Bekhet

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Global CO₂ emission and increasing fuel consumption to meet energy demand has become a threat in recent decades. Effort to reduce the CO₂ emission is now a matter of priority in most countries of the world including Malaysia. Transportation has been identified as the most intensive sector of carbon-based fuels and achievement of the voluntary target to meet 40% carbon intensity reduction set at the 15^th Conference of the Parties (COP15) means that the emission from the transport sector must be reduced accordingly. This posed a great challenge to Malaysia and effort has to be made to embrace suitable and appropriate energy policy for sustainable energy and emission reduction of this sector. The focus of this paper is to analyze the trends of Malaysia’s energy consumption and emission of four different transport sub-sectors (road, rail, aviation and maritime). Underlying factors influencing the growth of energy consumption and emission trends are discussed. Besides, technology status towards energy efficiency in transportation sub-sectors is presented. By reviewing the existing policies and trends of energy used, the paper highlights prospective policy options towards achieving emission reduction in the transportation sector.

Keywords: CO2 Emission, Energy policy, Fuel consumption, Transportation sector, Malaysia.

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Authors: N. David, H. O. Gao

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Air pollution is a serious environmental threat on a global scale and can cause harm to human health, morbidity and premature mortality. Reliable monitoring and control systems are therefore necessary to develop coping skills against the hazards associated with this phenomenon. However, existing environmental monitoring means often do not provide a sufficient response due to practical and technical limitations. Commercial microwave links that form the infrastructure for transmitting data between cell phone towers can be harnessed to map rain at high tempo-spatial resolution. Rainfall causes a decrease in the signal strength received by these wireless communication links allowing it to be used as a built-in sensor network to map the phenomenon. In this study, we point to the potential that lies in this system to indirectly monitor areas where air pollution is reduced. The relationship between pollutant wash-off and rainfall provides an opportunity to acquire important spatial information about air quality using existing cell-phone tower signals. Since the density of microwave communication networks is high relative to any dedicated sensor arrays, it could be possible to rely on this available observation tool for studying precipitation scavenging on air pollutants, for model needs and more.

Keywords: Air pollution, commercial microwave links, rainfall.

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Authors: S. Alotaibi, S. Omer, Y. Su

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The conventional Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) based vehicles are a threat to the environment as they account for a large proportion of the overall greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the world. Hence, it is required to replace these vehicles with more environment-friendly vehicles. Electric Vehicles (EVs) are promising technologies which offer both human comfort “noise, pollution” as well as reduced (or no) emissions of GHGs. In this paper, different types of EVs are reviewed and their advantages and disadvantages are identified. It is found that in terms of fuel economy, Plug-in Hybrid EVs (PHEVs) have the best fuel economy, followed by Hybrid EVs (HEVs) and ICE vehicles. Since Battery EVs (BEVs) do not use any fuel, their fuel economy is estimated as price per kilometer. Similarly, in terms of GHG emissions, BEVs are the most environmentally friendly since they do not result in any emissions while HEVs and PHEVs produce less emissions compared to the conventional ICE based vehicles. Fuel Cell EVs (FCEVs) are also zero-emission vehicles, but they have large costs associated with them. Finally, if the electricity is provided by using the renewable energy technologies through grid connection, then BEVs could be considered as zero emission vehicles.

Keywords: Electric vehicle, fuel cell electric vehicle, hybrid electric vehicle, internal combustion engine.

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Authors: Mohammad Gholizadeh, Khairun Yahya, Anita Talib, Omar Ahmad

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The distribution of macrobenthic polychaetes along the coastal waters of Penang National Park was surveyed to estimate the effect of various environmental parameters at three stations (200m, 600m and 1200m) from the shoreline, during six sampling months, from June 2010 to April 2011.The use of polychaetes in descriptive ecology is surveyed in the light of a recent investigation particularly concerning the soft bottom biota environments. Polychaetes, often connected in the former to the notion of opportunistic species able to proliferate after an enhancement in organic matter, had performed a momentous role particularly with regard to effected soft-bottom habitats. The objective of this survey was to investigate different environment stress over soft bottom polychaete community along Teluk Ketapang and Pantai Acheh (Penang National Park) over a year period. Variations in the polychaete community were evaluated using univariate and multivariate methods. The results of PCA analysis displayed a positive relation between macrobenthic community structures and environmental parameters such as sediment particle size and organic matter in the coastal water. A total of 604 individuals were examined which was grouped into 23 families. Family Nereidae was the most abundant (22.68%), followed by Spionidae (22.02%), Hesionidae (12.58%), Nephtylidae (9.27%) and Orbiniidae (8.61%). It is noticeable that good results can only be obtained on the basis of good taxonomic resolution. We proposed that, in monitoring surveys, operative time could be optimized not only by working at a highertaxonomic level on the entire macrobenthic data set, but by also choosing an especially indicative group and working at lower taxonomic and good level.

Keywords: Polychaete families, environment parameters, Bioindicators, Pantai Acheh, Teluk Ketapang.

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Authors: A. Balbo, G. Colucci, M. Nicoli, L. Savoldi

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Hydrogen is expected to become an undisputed player in the ecological transition throughout the next decades. The decarbonization potential offered by this energy vector provides various opportunities for the so-called “hard-to-abate” sectors, including industrial production of iron and steel, glass, refineries and the heavy-duty transport. In this regard, Italy, in the framework of decarbonization plans for the whole European Union, has been considering a wider use of hydrogen to provide an alternative to fossil fuels in hard-to-abate sectors. This work aims to assess and compare different options concerning the pathway to be followed in the development of the future Italian energy system in order to meet decarbonization targets as established by the Paris Agreement and by the European Green Deal, and to infer a techno-economic analysis of the required asset alternatives to be used in that perspective. To accomplish this objective, the Energy System Optimization Model TEMOA-Italy is used, based on the open-source platform TEMOA and developed at PoliTo as a tool to be used for technology assessment and energy scenario analysis. The adopted assessment strategy includes two different scenarios to be compared with a business-as-usual one, which considers the application of current policies in a time horizon up to 2050. The studied scenarios are based on the up-to-date hydrogen-related targets and planned investments included in the National Hydrogen Strategy and in the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan, with the purpose of providing a critical assessment of what they propose. One scenario imposes decarbonization objectives for the years 2030, 2040 and 2050, without any other specific target. The second one (inspired to the national objectives on the development of the sector) promotes the deployment of the hydrogen value-chain. These scenarios provide feedback about the applications hydrogen could have in the Italian energy system, including transport, industry and synfuels production. Furthermore, the decarbonization scenario where hydrogen production is not imposed, will make use of this energy vector as well, showing the necessity of its exploitation in order to meet pledged targets by 2050. The distance of the planned policies from the optimal conditions for the achievement of Italian objectives is clarified, revealing possible improvements of various steps of the decarbonization pathway, which seems to have as a fundamental element Carbon Capture and Utilization technologies for its accomplishment. In line with the European Commission open science guidelines, the transparency and the robustness of the presented results are ensured by the adoption of the open-source open-data model such as the TEMOA-Italy.

Keywords: Decarbonization, energy system optimization models, hydrogen, open-source modeling, TEMOA.

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Authors: Ludk Benada, Jindika Sedova

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The current situation in the eurozone raises a number of topics for discussion and to help in finding an answer to the question of whether a common currency is a more suitable means of coping with the impact of the financial crisis or whether national currencies are better suited to this. The economic situation in the EU is now considerably volatile and, due to problems with the fulfilment of the Maastricht convergence criteria, it is now being considered whether, in their further development, new member states will decide to distance themselves from the euro or will, in an attempt to overcome the crisis, speed up the adoption of the euro. The Czech Republic is one country with little interest in adopting the euro, justified by the fact that a better alternative to dealing with this crisis is an independent monetary policy and its ability to respond flexibly to the economic situation not only in Europe, but around the world. One attribute of the crisis in the Czech Republic and its mitigation is the freely floating exchange rate of the national currency. It is not only the Czech Republic that is attempting to alleviate the impact of the crisis, but also new EU member countries facing fresh questions to which theory have yet to provide wholly satisfactory answers. These questions undoubtedly include the problem of inflation targeting and the choice of appropriate instruments for achieving financial stability. The difficulty lies in the fact that these objectives may be contradictory and may require more than one means of achieving them. In this respect we may assume that membership of the euro zone might not in itself mitigate the development of the recession or protect the nation from future crises. We are of the opinion that the decisive factor in the development of any economy will continue to be the domestic economic policy and the operability of market economic mechanisms. We attempt to document this fact using selected countries as examples, these being the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia.

Keywords: Currency exchange rate, Maastricht convergence criteria, monetary union, public finances.

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Authors: M. Kargar, F.Fartash, T. Saderi, M. Abdar-e Bakhshayesh

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In this paper we have suggested a new system for egovernment. In this method a government can design a precise and perfect system to control people and organizations by using five major documents. These documents contain the important information of each member of a society and help all organizations to do their informatics tasks through them. This information would be available by only a national code and a secure program would support it. The suggested system can give a good awareness to the society and help it be managed correctly.

Keywords: E-Government, Internet, Web-Based System, Society.

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