bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Engage Me Through BigBlueButton
Authors: Turulja Lejla , Kapo Amra , Činjarević Merima
Published: December 2020

This study examines student engagement in an online environment concerning the perception regarding the course and the technology used. A research model was developed from the principal tenets of the expectancy-value theory to which values and expectations are assumed to influence how students build engagement. The model conjoins student perception related to course factors (content and rigor), technology factor (technology convenience), and student engagement (psychological, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral). The model was tested using a sample composed of 328 business undergraduate students taking the courses online using the BigBlueButton e-learning system due to the global emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, respondents did not voluntarily choose the online teaching delivery method. The results imply that both course content and perceived technology convenience predict overall student engagement, while course rigor influences student cognitive, emotional, and behavioral commitment, but not psychological engagement.
Reconfiguring Curriculum and Instruction to Teach for Understanding
Authors: Singh Kuki
Published: December 2020

This case study illuminates the application of the teaching for understanding and community of inquiry frameworks as complementary heuristics for designing curriculum and instruction in an online undergraduate course for improved student engagement and learning. A self-study methodology utilised predominantly qualitative data. The action research cycle incorporated data from course documents, teaching materials, learning analytics, and surveys, which were thematically analysed and triangulated. Five iterations of the redesigned curriculum were analysed focusing on integration of generative topics, understanding goals, performances of understanding, ongoing assessment, and reflective collaborative communities. The online instructional process was redesigned to build emotional presence, social presence, and teaching presence for improved engagement. The study concluded that the intentional curricula and instructional strategies brought about significant improvements in engagement and learning. Future research will be directed at analysing the curriculum and instructional techniques.
Five Case Studies on Tackling Real-World Problems as a Means to Increase Student Engagement
Authors: Ryan Mark Patrick
Published: December 2020

Five case studies detail teachers and professors who use a real-world problem as the basis for planning and implementing a comprehensive unit of authentic learning experiences aligned with academic content standards, instructed with high levels of rigor, and assessed authentically to determine the extent to which students mastered the standards. The text details how the instructor works with students to identify a meaningful problem, aligns appropriate work products to standards and instructional activities, and adapts the plan to address varying student learning needs. A mixed methods approach used student achievement data, student and teacher interviews, and a student survey. Increases were seen in students' self-efficacy, as well as their abilities to collaborate, communicate both verbally and in writing, engage in higher order thinking, conduct research, apply knowledge to novel circumstances, justify opinions, and assume leadership roles.
Face-to-Face vs. Online Language Courses
Authors: Kalogerou Victoria
Published: December 2020

The current pandemic experienced simultaneously worldwide has accelerated the demand for transitioning from traditional (face-to-face) education to its online equivalent. With the outbreak of COVID-19, the ubiquity of available online tools has become more apparent both for teaching and learning purposes but also for collaboration. Skepticism in relation to the use of online tools was quickly silenced not only due to the lockdown imposed by governments worldwide but also because of the major support these tools provide online, making themselves easy to use even to those who have traditionally objected to their effectiveness. Being part of this transformation of face-to-face classes and also someone with great experience in online teaching, the author explores in this chapter how this change has covertly affected students and teachers in tertiary education in relation to language classes. The study includes teachers of the languages and Literature Department and an international group of students, studying English for Academic Purposes at a private university in Nicosia, Cyprus.
Augmented and Virtual Reality and Its Applications
Authors: Jasmine S. Graceline , Anbarasi L. Jani , Narendra Modigari , Raj Benson Edwin
Published: December 2020

Augmented reality (AR) overlies manually made materials directly over the real-world materials. This chapter addresses the technological and design frameworks required to create realistic motion tracking environments, realistic audio, 3D graphical interactions, multimodal sensory integration, and user interfaces and games using virtual reality to augmented reality. Similarly, the portfolio required to build a personal VR or AR application is detailed. Virtual and augmented reality industry committed innovative technologies that can be explored in the field of entertainment, education, training, medical and industrial innovation, and the development are explored. Augmented reality (AR) allows the physical world to be enhanced by incorporating digital knowledge in real time created by virtual machine. Few applications that have used augmented and virtual reality in real-world applications are discussed.
Comparison Analysis of Prediction Model for Respiratory Diseases
Authors: R. L. Priya , Jinny S. Vinila
Published: December 2020

Millions of people around the world have one or many respiratory-related illnesses. Many chronic respiratory diseases like asthma, COPD, pneumonia, respiratory distress, etc. are considered to be a significant public health burden. To reduce the mortality rate, it is better to perform early prediction of respiratory disorders and treat them accordingly. To build an efficient prediction model for various types of respiratory diseases, machine learning approaches are used. The proposed methodology builds classifier model using supervised learning algorithms like random forest, decision tree, and multi-layer perceptron neural network (MLP-NN) for the detection of different respiratory diseases of ICU admitted patients. It achieves accuracy of nearly 99% by various machine learning approaches.
Design and Development of Small-Scale Oil Palm Waste Shredder for Achieving Environmental Sustainability
Authors: Lee Man Djun , Lee Pui San
Published: December 2020

This chapter presents the design and development of an economically and technically feasible small-scale oil palm waste shredder to contribuite to oil palm waste management. Most available oil palm waste shredders are unaffordable due to high initial investment cost, large, heavy and unportable, which have been the drawbacks for small and medium enterprises to participate in the industry that relates with oil palm waste management. To address this issue, a low-cost and small-scale oil palm waste shredder were designed and produced. The central design concept deduced is to compromise acceptable efficiency with an affordable price by integrating all mandatory components of oil palm waste shredder into a comparatively small and portable support structure. The innovations made in the design are size reduction and adoption of double-shafts cutters with seven jaws technology. Preliminary calculations supported the design. The cutting force produced is up to 19.45kN with safety factor of 4.5. This design can handle other oil palm wastes as oil palm frond is harder than other oil palm wastes.
Research and Development in Automobile Windshield Waste (AWW)
Authors: Bharti Pawan Kumar , Singh R. K.
Published: December 2020

The world over, efforts are being made for the safe disposal through development of cost-effective technologies to convert fast growing solid waste into useful products. In India, one such solid waste causing concern is the automobile windshield waste. The main sources of waste are automobile windshield manufacturers, dismantlers, recyclers, processors, etc. Automobile windshield waste emanating from various sources is a mixture of glass, PVB, additives, etc. The glass layer is fused with the PVB plastic film. Automobile windshield plastic film cannot be separated and is also not being recycled. At present, the reclaiming of PVB materials from automobile windshield waste is not being carried out in India. It is presently being thrown in dumpsites and land fill sites. It has negative impact both on human health and environment.
The Plastic Waste Menace and Approaches to Its Management Through Biodegradation
Authors: Nyika Joan Mwihaki
Published: December 2020

In contemporary society, the production and use of plastics is growing due to their assorted applications. However, these tendencies result to production of plastic waste whose effects to the environment are destructive. This chapter explores the production tendencies of plastics and plastic-waste chronologically, discusses its negative environmental effects, and proposes the adoption of biodegradation as a management approach. A number of effects including death, retarded growth and development, emergence of cancers, and altered physiology are associated with ingestion of plastics in animals and humans. Water and air pollution is associated with unscientific disposal of plastic waste resulting to leaching and release of greenhouse gases. The use of microbes such as bacteria and fungi that have inherent enzymes such as lipases, esterases, hydrolases, and amylases is discussed as a sustainable solution to the plastic menace. The successful use of biodegradation must be coupled with scientific research to optimise the factors influencing the process.
Wastewater Treatment Using Microalgae
Authors: Priyadarshi Soumya Saswat
Published: December 2020

Six different concentrations of Chlorella vulgaris microalgae culture are incorporated with raw wastewater to improve treatment efficiency in three phases. In phase one of study, 30% and 40% microalgae were incorporated with raw wastewater with 24 hrs retention period for 18 days in a batch mode and these conditions are made same for all phases. During phase two and phase three of study, 20%, 25% and 35%, 45% micro-algae concentrations used to treat raw wastewater respectively. Amongst all the six concentrations, 30% microalgae behaves most efficiently and is able to reduce 34 to 81% COD, 43 to 75% nitrate, and 36 to 99% of phosphorous. Overall ammonia nitrogen reduction varies from 80% to 99%. No attempt was made to control temperature or evaporation losses. These attempts can definitely increase the growth process of microalgae and increase the removal efficiency of nutrients in wastewater.
Blockchain 2.0
Authors: Virmani Charu , Gupta Dimple Juneja , Choudhary Tanu
Published: December 2020

Blockchain is a shared and distributed ledger across an open or private processing system that expedites the process of recording transactions and data management in a business network. It empowers the design of decentralized transactions, smart contracts, and intelligent assets that can be managed over internet. It formulates the revolutionary decision-making governance systems with more egalitarian users, and autonomous organizations that can control over internet without any third-party involved. This disruptive technology has tremendous opportunities that open the doors to detract the power from centralized authorities in the sphere of communications, business, and even politics or law. This chapter outlines an introduction to the blockchain technologies and its decentralized architecture, especially from the perspective of challenges and limitations. The objective is to explore the current research topics, benefits, and drawbacks of blockchain. The study explores its potential applications for business and future directions that is all set to transfigure the digital world.
Bank Data Certification and Repurposing Using Blockchain
Authors: Ajay Usha B. , Nanjundaswamy Sangeetha K.
Published: December 2020

Privacy protection is one of the basic needs for supporting a good interaction in a globally interconnected society. It is important not just for business and government but also to a huge and increasing body of electronic or online societies. In such situations, a traditional digital ledger storage systems seems more centralized. Security of traditional digital ledger system has always been a greater concern when considered for implementing at a huge scale. When such sensitive data is at stake, there should be nothing doubtable about the system's strength to secure data and withhold itself against any potential attacks. Blockchain is one way through which such potential security issues can be solved. A blockchain, actually block chain, is basically a continuously increasing list of records, which are called blocks; these blocks are linked and secured mainly using cryptography. Every block typically has a cryptographic hash of the block previous to it, along with a timestamp and data of the transaction.
Born Global Market Dominators and Implications for the Blockchain Avantgarde
Authors: Wurster Simone , Böhmecke-Schwafert Moritz , Hofmann Frank , Blind Knut
Published: December 2020

Issues of dominance in the market place, “standards wars,” and “battles for dominance” between large companies are frequently addressed by researchers and the business press alike. The existence of companies that could establish internationally dominant solutions to customers' problems within a few years after their founding is quite unknown and the reasons for their success are hardly investigated so far. Therefore, they are not covered by traditional stage models for the establishment of dominant solutions. Presenting 22 cases and a new success factors model, this chapter shows how young companies can successfully establish their technologies as dominant solutions in the global market. Based on the studies' result, the authors then have a look at the groundbreaking IT invention of blockchain that is expected to disrupt many industries. The most prevalent success factors of the study are discussed along with the current blockchain innovation system. Their degree of significance for the success of international blockchain innovators is hypothesised for further empirical analyses.
Framework and Model for Cryptocurrency Innovation and its Impact on Economic Transformation
Authors: Ashoor Ahmed , Sandhu Kamaljeet
Published: December 2020

Cryptocurrency has gained an increasing interest as a new type of technology that is potentially both a leader and a destroyer to the payment industry on a global scale. However, the future of cryptocurrency is unclear because there are many different usage scenarios and different needs of the stakeholders. Blockchain technology is the infrastructure-enabling technology for the cryptocurrency. Blockchain technology has become very powerful and created the backbone of a new type of internet. This research article will give a better future perspective to study the conceptual framework and model for cryptocurrency acceptance and the continued usage of digital finance. This is by using potential business innovations by combining the theory of the innovation diffusion (IDT) and the technology acceptance model (TAM).
A Quantum Key Distribution Technique Using Quantum Cryptography
Authors: Sharma Meenakshi , Thind Sonia
Published: December 2020

In order to protect and secure the sensitive data over the internet, the current data security methods typically depend on the cryptographic systems. Recent achievements in quantum computing is a major challenge to such cryptography systems. In this way, the quantum key distribution (QKD) technique evolves as a very important technique which gives un-conditional data security. This technique is based on the laws of quantum physics for its security. This article gives a detailed description of the QKD technique. This technique secures the encryption key delivery between the two authenticated parties from the unauthorized access. In the next phase, quantum cryptography model is discussed. Finally, some important application areas and limitations of this technology are be discussed.
Implementation of Algorithms for Identity Based Encryption and Decryption
Authors: Balasubramanian Kannan , Rajakani M.
Published: December 2020

Identity-based cryptosystems were introduced to overcome one of the main problems in public key encryption, the generation of public and private keys. In the identity-based cryptosystem, an identifier such as an e-mail address of a user can be used to generate public and private keys by a trusted third party. The trusted third party uses a system-wide master secret to provide private keys to a user. Identity-based cryptosystems can be constructed using the idea of pairings. This article discusses four different identity-based cryptosystems: the Boneh-Franklin scheme, the Cock's scheme, the Authenticated IBE scheme and the Hierarchical IBE scheme. This article also discusses the security notions considered for the identity-based cryptosystem. The security notions considered are: one-wayness, indistinguishability, semantic security and non-malleability. An architecture consisting of a public parameter server and private key generator for the implementation of the identity-based cryptosystems is also discussed.
Security Framework for Smart Visual Sensor Networks
Authors: Suseela G. , Phamila Y. Asnath Victy
Published: December 2020

Due to the significance of image data over the scalar data, the camera-integrated wireless sensor networks have attained the focus of researchers in the field of smart visual sensor networks. These networks are inexpensive and found wide application in surveillance and monitoring systems. The challenge is that these systems are resource deprived systems. The visual sensor node is typically an embedded system made up of a light weight processor, low memory, low bandwidth transceiver, and low-cost image sensor unit. As these networks carry sensitive information of the surveillance region, security and privacy protection are critical needs of the VSN. Due to resource limited nature of the VSN, the image encryption is crooked into an optimally lower issue, and many findings of image security in VSN are based on selective or partial encryption systems. The secure transmission of images is more trivial. Thus, in this chapter, a security frame work of smart visual sensor network built using energy-efficient image encryption and coding systems designed for VSN is presented.
Experiments with the Cryptool Software
Authors: Balasubramanian Kannan
Published: December 2020

Researchers have developed many different types of software for implementing Cryptography algorithms. One such software is Cryptool. This software can be used to demonstrate many Classical Cryptosystems and symmetric-Key Cryptosystems like DES and AES. This software can be used to demonstrate Public Key Cryptosystems like RSA and ECC as well as many hash algorithms like MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256, and SHA-512. The usage of the algorithms and sample input and outputs obtained from the software are included for the beginners and learners to the area of Cryptography.
CoPS - Cooperative Provenance System with ZKP using Ethereum Blockchain Smart Contracts
Authors: Gouru Navya , Vadlamani NagaLakshmi
Published: December 2020

The redesign of cloud storage with the amalgamation of cooperative cloud and an immutable and unhackable distributed database blockchain thrives towards a strong CIA triad and secured data provenance. The conspiracy ideology associated with the traditional cloud has economized with cooperative cloud storage like Storj and Sia, decentralized storage, which allows renting the unused hard drive space and getting monetary compensation in an exchange with cryptocurrency. In this article, the authors explain how confidentiality, integrity and availability can be progressed with cooperative cloud storage along with tamper-proof data provenance management with ethereum smart contracts using zero-knowledge proof (ZKP). A contemporary architecture is proposed with regards to storing data on the cooperative cloud and collecting and verifying the provenance data from the cloud and publishing the provenance data into blockchain network as transactions.
Blockchain for Islamic Financial Services Institutions
Authors: Zaka Fatima , Shaikh Shazib Ehsan
Published: December 2020

By enabling better traceability of funds against specific assets, technologies should appeal to a significant segment of the lending market – one that is religiously conscientious. Such Islamic FinTechs should therefore be disruptive for the existing regime of Islamic financial services institutions who have problems managing credit risk and compliance. Islamic financial instruments are no stranger to controversy. It emerged from the scandals that gaining investor confidence for Islamic financial instruments such as the Sukuk, which is the Islamic alternative to bonds and securities, investors demand more transparency in Sukuk to make sure they are Shariah-compliant, thus making traceability to assets a special hindrance to current schemes of Sukuk. In this chapter, the authors will discuss how technology could be disruptive in Islamic banking and finance sector keeping Sukuk as a case. The authors will further elaborate on it by discussing the proposed model of blockchain that could solve the issue of traceability which could also boost investor confidence in Sukuk.
A Hybrid Concept of Cryptography and Dual Watermarking (LSB_DCT) for Data Security
Authors: Singh Ranjeet Kumar , Shaw Dilip Kumar
Published: December 2020

Now a days, in communication technology safety of digital data in the form of text, image, and video, audio is a biggest problem. With the rapid development of the network multimedia systems, security is the biggest issue. Digital watermarking is one of the solutions to these problems. It hides some secret data into the original image and this information is use for image authentication and security. This paper Focus an application using Hybrid approach of Cryptography technique and dual watermarking for the purpose of Providing highly security and authentication of digital data. This paper use cryptography and QR Code in combined approach of LSB and DCT Digital image water marking technique. The Experimental results are given in the form of table and graph. This algorithm provides more security and data authentication compare to other image data security approach.
Security Mechanisms in Cloud Computing-Based Big Data
Authors: Krishna Addepalli V. N. , M. Balamurugan
Published: December 2020

In the existent system, data is encrypted and stored when passed to the cloud. During any operations on the data, it is decrypted and then the computation is done. This decrypted data is vulnerable and prone to be misused. After the computations are done, the data and the result are encrypted and stored back in the cloud. This creates an overhead to the system as well as increases time complexity. With this chapter, the authors aim to reduce the overhead of the systems to perform repeated encryptions and decryptions. This can be done by allowing the computations to happen directly on the encrypted text. The result obtained by performing computations on encrypted data will be the same as the ones done on the original plain text. This new security solution is fully fit for processing and retrieval of encrypted data, effectively leading to the broad applicable project, the security of data transmission, and the storage of data. The work is secured further with additional concepts like probabilistic and time stamp-based encryption processes.
Blockchains
Authors: Easton John M.
Published: December 2020

In recent years, the UK railway industry has struggled with the effects of poor integration of data across ICT systems, particularly when that data is being used across organizational boundaries. Technical progress is being made by the industry towards enabling data sharing, but an open issue remains around how the costs of gathering and maintaining pooled information can be fairly attributed across the stakeholders who draw on that shared resource. This issue is particularly significant in areas such as Remote Condition Monitoring, where the ability to analyse the network at a whole-systems level is being blocked by the business cases around the purchase of systems as silos. Blockchains are an emerging technology that have the potential to revolutionize the management of transactions in a number of industrial sectors. This chapter will address the outstanding issues around the fair attribution of costs and benefits of data sharing in the rail industry by proposing blockchains as a forth enabler of the rail data revolution, alongside ESB, ontology, and open data.
Attacks and Countermeasures
Authors: Sharma Mukta
Published: December 2020

Information technology has benefitted the society enormously in all spheres of life. Medical sciences have not been left untouched, rather it is using information technology extensively for storing, retrieving, transmitting, and manipulating data. There are various simulators and software designed using virtual reality explicitly to train the medical students like computer-assisted learning (CAL). Biomedical science is a discipline that connects information science, computer science, and healthcare. Biomedical science is critically analyzing, understanding, and knowing the human body. Real-time monitoring can help studying and analyzing the chronic diseases and managing it before the adverse events. Information technology has been proven as a boon in all areas, but it has certain limitations, making it vulnerable to attacks. Information security is a matter of great concern, especially when the data is traveling through the internet, which is an insecure channel. This chapter focuses on varied attacks and their countermeasures.
Gambling Behaviour in the Cryptocurrency Market
Authors: Senarathne Chamil W.
Published: December 2020

This article examines whether the investment strategies of cryptocurrency market involve high-risk gambling. Results show that the cryptocurrency risk premiums co-move closely with the return on CBOE Volatility Index (VIX). As such, the strategies of cryptocurrency trading closely resemble that of high-risk gambling. In other words, traders' expectations co-move closely (significantly) with the expected future payoffs from gambling. The co-movement is more pronounced when the gambling offers gains rather than losses and the payoffs are above average. VIX index returns significantly Granger-cause CSAD of returns (with and without Bitcoin) indicates that the cryptocurrency trading constitutes a form of gambling where the motivation for gambling comes from the amount of variation (i.e. riskiness) in the gambling payoffs. These findings warrant policymakers of countries to revisit the existing regulatory framework governing the conduct of electronic finance in the financial services industry.
Can Blockchain Really Help the Poor?
Authors: Thomason Jane , Bernhardt Sonja , Kansara Tia , Cooper Nichola
Published: December 2020

It is the firm belief of the authors that Blockchain and other frontier technologies will be an important tool for social impact globally. It is now possible, with technology, to envision a world where everyone has an identity, where everyone can be connected to the economic system, where farmers get fair deals for their crops, and land registration is incorruptible. Advances in solar, battery, and digital commerce make it possible to imagine even the smallest village in Africa being able to produce and trade small amounts of energy. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were a visionary leap to a future state where the world can be a better place for humankind. However, they will not be achieved without harnessing the potential of technology. Nor will they be reached alone. In this chapter, the authors profile innovative case studies in Blockchain, which, if brought to scale, may realise the technology's potential. It is through this learning and experimentation that we will learn how to deploy this technology globally for social impact.
New Era in the Supply Chain Management With Blockchain
Authors: Alvarado Jesus , Halgamuge Malka N.
Published: December 2020

The results show that transparency and auditability, security and indelibility, and distribution and sustainability are the key attributes of blockchain-based solutions in 56% of the articles reviewed. These three aspects represent the foundation of blockchain technologies which may contribute positively to improve supply management processes. Moreover, immutability, tracking and tracing, and smart contracts are also included in nearly a third of the cases. Moreover, efficiencies and costs through this technology would reduce the costs in payment of intermediaries, reduce paperwork, and help in the shipment of physical documents. Supply chain plays a critical role in the global trade and urgently needs to reassess its models in searching for greater efficiencies. Moreover, better results in visibility across the chain will increase trust for the customers and all interested parties. Secure transactions, strong security mechanisms that prevent fraud and illegal practices, could be achieved through the blockchain.
Multi-Feature Fusion and Machine Learning
Authors: Elziaat Hadeer , El-Bendary Nashwa , Moawad Ramadan
Published: December 2020

Freezing of gait (FoG) is a common symptom of Parkinson's disease (PD) that causes intermittent absence of forward progression of patient's feet while walking. Accordingly, FoG momentary episodes are always accompanied with falls. This chapter presents a novel multi-feature fusion model for early detection of FoG episodes in patients with PD. In this chapter, two feature engineering schemes are investigated, namely time-domain hand-crafted feature engineering and convolutional neural network (CNN)-based spectrogram feature learning. Data of tri-axial accelerometer sensors for patients with PD is utilized to characterize the performance of the proposed model through several experiments with various machine learning (ML) algorithms. Obtained experimental results showed that the multi-feature fusion approach has outperformed typical single feature sets. Conclusively, the significance of this chapter is to highlight the impact of using feature fusion of multi-feature sets through investigating the performance of a FoG episodes early detection model.
VNS Metaheuristic Based on Thresholding Functions for Brain MRI Segmentation
Authors: Miledi Mariem , Dhouib Souhail
Published: December 2020

Image segmentation is a very crucial step in medical image analysis which is the first and the most important task in many clinical interventions. The authors propose in this paper to apply the variable neighborhood search (VNS) metaheuristic on the problem of brain magnetic resonance images (MRI) segmentation. In fact, by reviewing the literature, they notice that when the number of classes increases the computational time of the exhaustive methods grows exponentially with the number of required classes. That's why they exploit the VNS algorithm to optimize two maximizing thresholding functions which are the between-class variance (the Otsu's function) and the entropy thresholding (the Kapur's function). Thus, two versions of the VNS metaheuristic are respectively obtained: the VNS-Otsu and the VNS-Kapur. These two novel proposed thresholding methods are tested on a set of benchmark brain MRI to show their robustness and proficiency.
Short-Term Load Forecasting Using Hybrid Neural Network
Authors: Nadeem Muhammad , Altaf Muhammad , Ahmad Ayaz
Published: December 2020

One of the important factors in generating low cost electrical power is the accurate forecasting of electricity consumption called load forecasting. The major objective of the load forecasting is to trim down the error between actual load and forecasted load. Due to the nonlinear nature of load forecasting and its dependency on multiple variables, the traditional forecasting methods are normally outperformed by artificial intelligence techniques. In this research paper, a robust short term load forecasting technique for one to seven days ahead is introduced based on particle swarm optimization (PSO) and Levenberg Marquardt (LM) neural network forecast model, where the PSO and LM algorithm are used for the training process of neural network. The proposed methods are tested to predict the load of the New England Power Pool region's grid and compared with the existing techniques using mean absolute percentage errors to analyze the performance of the proposed methods. Forecast results confirm that the proposed LM and PSO-based neural network schemes outperformed the existing techniques.
Disaster Economic Loss and Income
Authors: Azad Md. Abul Kalam , Mia Md. Juel , Islam A. K. M. Nazrul
Published: December 2020

Disaster assessment is quite complicated considering the nature of the disaster and methodological ambiguity generated due to different guidelines of different institutions. This study analyzed various available techniques and, after that, proposed a model to estimate both direct and indirect losses with a single equation. The study used multidisciplinary tools and techniques to assess the 2017 flood in a micro-level area in Bangladesh. The analysis found that the flood inundating around 78.37% of the area, damaged crops, and various infrastructures. The cost of damages accounts for 2.44% of the income of the people, whereas they experience a 21.49% reduction in their yearly income. The study explains how a flood creates obstacles in accessing land, labor, and capital in such a way that people experience significant losses in their income, beyond the damage. Hence, if these access factors can be kept operating during any disaster, a huge amount of loss can be avoided. The study at the end proposed a solution to overcome such losses.
Learning Programming Fundamentals via Music
Authors: Lavy Ilana
Published: December 2020

This article describes a unique ongoing experience of learning programming via engagement in music programming of known melodies. Seventh and eighth graders participated in 10 lessons of weekly activity. Via the programming of melodies, using the Scratch 2.0 environment, they became acquainted with basic concepts of programming such as methods, variables, repetition and control commands, parallel processes, and more. The study was conducted in the form of an action research. The study units were designed in the spirit of the spiral learning method, in which the learning concepts are revisited several times while their level of complexity rises. From the data analyzed so far, four categories emerged: enjoyment, interest, gaining programming knowledge, and experiencing feelings of success. The students were enthusiastic during the learning lessons, and they were curious to learn and use advanced concepts. The music programming provided them with practical meaning for the learned programming structures and concepts.
The Influence of Technical and Social Factors in Mitigating Threats in a BYOD-Enabled Environment
Authors: Ofusori Lizzy Oluwatoyin , Subramaniam Prabhakar Rontala
Published: December 2020

As the adoption of bring your own device (BYOD) phenomenon by businesses and other sectors continues to grow. Employees find it desirable to use their personally owned mobile devices for work without the need to differentiate between their carrier services and their organizations' network. However, this practice makes such businesses vulnerable to various security threats. Nigeria banking institutions, like other businesses globally, have adopted the BYOD phenomenon. However, BYOD trend constitutes heterogeneity, and there is large diversity in mobile devices, hence the risk of corporate data being exposed to threats increases. Thus, this paper investigates the influence of technical and social threats as it relates to BYOD phenomenon in the banking institutions. Data was collected from the employees of four banks in Nigeria that supported BYOD trend. The study found out that there are some security threats that are integrated, and the existing security measures are not sufficient to mitigate those threats. Hence, this study has presented an integrated solution to curb these threats.
Factors Predicting the Behavioral Adoption of Electronic Payment System (EPS)
Authors: Mensah Isaac Kofi , Zeng Guohua , Luo Chuanyong , Zhi-wu Xiao , Lu Mengqiu
Published: December 2020

This study explored the behavioral adoption of electronic payment systems (EPS) among college students in China based on the UTAUT framework as the theoretical foundation of the study. The analysis was conducted using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique. The results have demonstrated that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, and perceived security were all significant in predicting the intention to use electronic payment systems. Perceived trust however was not a significant determinant of the intention to use. The individual user past experience was found to predict significantly the performance expectancy, effort expectancy, perceived security, and perceived trust of EPS. The managerial and theoretical implications of these findings on the design and diffusion of electronic payment systems are discussed.
Social Media Advertising Influence on Users' Responses
Authors: Sadek Heba
Published: December 2020

This research aims to extend the knowledge of social media advertising by providing a deep understanding of the elements of social networking sites advertising (SNS ad) effectiveness that help create favorable users' responses via their attitude toward empathy expression in the Egyptian context. Qualitative research was developed. Sixteen semi-structured interviews were conducted which were analyzed by using thematic analysis. Findings indicate that the crucial elements that generate an effective SNS ad in Egypt particularly on Facebook are the advertising creativity and simplicity, followed by the advertising entertainment specifically the emotional appeal of joy, the interactivity, the clear information, and the trustworthiness derived from users' generated content. These elements influence on users' attitude toward empathy expression and lead to favorable users' responses. Additionally, it has been found that brand loyalty plays a vital role on influencing users' responses. Based on these findings, this research offers implications and proposes further research directions.
Dual-Level Evaluation Framework for Airport User Satisfaction
Authors: Dimitriou Dimitrios , Sartzetaki Maria , Kalenteridou Iliana
Published: December 2020

Passenger's satisfaction evaluation is very complicated for transport infrastructure services that accommodate high demand, mainly due to international passenger's quality attitudes, expectations, and experiences. This paper focuses on the development of the methodological framework to assessing level of service quality at airports, adopting two evaluation layers: the level of service (efficiency to manage traffic demand) and the level of expectation (performance to accommodate traveler's needs). The conceptual framework develops a holistic approach to evaluate overall level of service quality of an airport. A modeling framework then is developed to test the reliability of the level of quality and the consistency of airport level of service and level of passengers expectation. The methodology is applied in a small sized airport the Democritus Airport in Alexandroupolis, in Northern Greece. The analysis explores the passenger's satisfaction level for Greek regional airports and highlights the consistency of level of airport service and passenger's level of expectations.
A Semiotic Approach Through Panofsky's Image Text
Authors: Bolat Nursel
Published: December 2020

While visual emerges as a concept based on seeing in a narrow sense, it defines everything that can be seen with a broader meaning. The idea of seeing is not limited to taking images only by the eye, but also includes the interpretation of images by the brain. Mansions that are used in a television series shot in Turkey are presented to the viewer as a visual narrative text. In this context, these mansions are intended to be read semiotically. In the study, the placement of the mansion building style, which has an important place in Turkish culture, as a visual space and the meanings attributed to it are examined. Based on Panofsy's method of semiotic iconographic analysis, the use of these mansions is discussed in the context of the semiotic narrative. The narratives that exist through the meaning and visual narrative in which Turkish society has positioned the traditional living environments, as well as the narratives that it tries to place in the audience, are tried to be evaluated.
Price Strategy, Market Orientation, and Business Performance in the Hotel Industry
Authors: Sampaio Carlos A. F. , Rodrigues Ricardo Gouveia , Hernández-Mogollón José M.
Published: December 2020

This study seeks to study the relationship between market orientation and business performance and to evaluate the mediating effect of adopting a low-price strategy in this relationship in the hotel industry. A sample from the Spanish and Portuguese hotel industry is used. Results show that the effect of market orientation on business performance is positive and direct. On the other hand, the results do not confirm the mediating effect of a strategy based on low-price in the strength of this relationship. Moreover, results indicate that a price strategy based on low-price is negatively related to hotel business performance.
New range records and life history observations of insects (Diptera: Dryomyzidae, Chironomidae; Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) associated with barnacles (Balanomorpha: Balanidae, Chthamalidae) on the Pacific coasts of North America and Japan
Authors: Gibson Joel F. , Choong Henry H.C.
Published: December 2020

Insects are usually considered to be excluded from the marine environment. A small number of species, however, are considered to be marine, due to spending some portion of their life cycle in salt water. We use natural history collection specimens, in-field observations, and molecular analysis to generate new locale records and natural history data for seven insect species. All seven species are associated with barnacles (Balanomorpha: Balanidae, Chthamalidae) along the Pacific coast of Canada, the United States of America, or Japan. Use of DNA barcode analysis confirms the monophyly of three species of Oedoparena (Diptera: Dryomyzidae). Natural history collection specimens expand the geographical range and illuminate the phenology of Oedoparena spp. In-field observations record direct associations between three species of Thalassosmittia (Diptera: Chironomidae), Diaulota densissima (Casey) (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae), and intertidal barnacles from various locations in British Columbia, Canada. Barnacle host associations and microhabitat preferences are proposed for all species. A new definition of what constitutes a marine insect is offered.
A capacity approach to box and packing dimensions of projections of sets and exceptional directions
Authors: Falconer Kenneth J.
Published: December 2020

Dimension profiles were introduced in [8, 11] to give a formula for the box-counting and packing dimensions of the orthogonal projections of a set

E \subset \mathbb R^n

onto almost all

m

-dimensional subspaces. However, these definitions of dimension profiles are indirect and are hard to work with. Here we firstly give alternative definitions of dimension profiles in terms of capacities of

E

with respect to certain kernels, which lead to the boxcounting and packing dimensions of projections fairly easily, including estimates on the size of the exceptional sets of subspaces where the dimension of projection is smaller than the typical value. Secondly, we argue that with this approach projection results for different types of dimension may be thought of in a unified way. Thirdly, we use a Fourier transform method to obtain further inequalities on the size of the exceptional subspaces.
Prototype Alat Pendeteksi Kebakaran Berbasis Internet Of Things Dengan Aktifasi Flame Sensor Menggunakan Arduino
Authors: Rizky Abrar Alridho , Mariadi Kaharmen Herman , Nur Hakim Iman
Published: December 2020

Kebakaran merupakan bencana yang dapat disebabkan oleh faktor manusia, faktor teknis maupun faktor alam yang tidak dapat diperkirakan kapan terjadinya. Internet of Things, atau dikenal juga dengan singkatan (IoT) merupakan sebuah konsep yang bertujuan untuk memperluas manfaat dari konektifitas internet yang tersambung secara terus-menerus. Dengan menggabungkan konsep Internet of Things kedalam suatu alat, akan mempermudah komunikasi sehingga lebih efektif. Metode penelitian yang digunakan merupakan jenis penelitian dan pengembangan atau Research and Development (R&D). Penelitian Research and Development (R&D) pada penelitian ini merupakan metode untuk menghasilkan dan menyempurnakan produk yang pernah diteliti sebelumnya yang hanya memakai satu sensor yaitu sensor asap. Pengujian responsifitas flame sensor dilakukan untuk mengetahui kinerja sensor, dilakukan 5 kali percobaan dengan titik yang berbeda dengan jarak ± 25 cm, semakin besar api yang diuji maka tingkat ke sensitifitasan akan semakin meningkat. Responsifitas sensor untuk melakukan pendeteksian asap dengan jarak maksimal terhadap sumber asap dalam penelitian ini yaitu 25 cm membutuhkan waktu 10,2 detik ini menunjukkan penempatan sensor pada jarak 25 cm terhadap sumber masih aman. Semakin banyak dan tebal asap yang dihasilkan objek yang diuji maka jangkauan sensor MQ-2 akan semakin jauh, berarti prototype berjalan sesuai program yang telah di rancang.
Efisiensi Rem Kendaraan Isuzu Tld 24 C Dengan Variasi Beban Dan Tekanan Angin Ban
Authors: Halimatus Sa'diyah Nur , Mariadi Kaharmen Herman , Shofiah Siti
Published: December 2020

Abstrak
Kendaraan adalah suatu sarana angkut di jalan yang terdiri atas kendaraan bermotor dan kendaraan tidak bermotor sesuai dengan PP nomor 55 tahun 2012 pasal 1. Tekanan angin ban yang kurang pada kendaraan menimbulkan dampak negatif yaitu pengereman tidak maksimal. Penelitian ini membahas pengaruh perbedaan tekanan angin ban terhadap hasil pengujian rem di UPTD Pengujian Kendaraan Bermotor Wiyung Kota Surabaya, pada mobil barang Isuzu TLD 24 C bak terbuka menggunakan alat uji brake tester guna menentukan nilai pengaruh perbedaan tekanan ban terhadap efisiensi pengereman. Metode yang digunakan eksperimental pada kendaraan tanpa beban, beban < 10% JBI dan beban > 10% JBI. Efisiensi rem paling besar bernilai 80.5% dan paling kecil bernilai 41%. Nilai efisiensi rem kendaraan tanpa beban terdapat penyimpangan besar, sumbu 1 bernilai 18.8% dan sumbu 2 bernilai 8.5%. Keduanya tidak memenuhi standar yang ditetapkan JIS. Oleh karena itu, perlunya peninjauan kembali pada PM 134 tahun 2015 pasal 26 ayat 6 mengenai toleransi pemuatan beban kendaraan dan PP nomor 55 tahun 2012 pasal 67 ayat 1 mengenai kelulusan pengujian rem tidak hanya mencantumkan efisiensi rem tetapi juga mencantumkan peraturan mengenai penyimpangan rem pada kendaraan agar tidak membahayakan keselamatan di jalan.
 
Kata Kunci : efisiensi rem, Isuzu TLD 24 C, brake tester