Abstract: The reported study focuses on pre-service teachers’ professional development during the teaching practice. The cohort studied comprised participants in their final year in the Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science with Graduate Certificate in Education programmes of a university in Fiji. Analysis of the data obtained using a survey questionnaire indicates that overall, the pre-service teachers were satisfied with the practicum experience. This is assumed to demonstrate that the practicum experience contributed well towards their professional preparation for work expected of them in Fiji secondary schools. Participants also identified some concerns as needing attention. To conclude, the paper provides suggestions for improving the preparation of teachers by strengthening the identified areas of the practicum offered by the university. The study has implications for other teacher education providers in small developing island states and even beyond for the purpose of enhancing learning in student teachers’ for future work.
Abstract: Following implementation of a master’s level graduate degree program in technology, a research-based assessment of the program was undertaken to determine how well the program met its goals and objectives, and the impact of the degree program on the objectives and the needs of its graduates. Upon review of the survey data, it was concluded that the program was meeting its goals and objectives, and that the directed project option should be encouraged.
Abstract: This research paper is aimed to examine a relationship between the service marketing mix and customers’ frequency of use of service at Mercedes Benz Auto Repair Centres under Thonburi Group, Thailand. Based on 2,267 customers who used the service of Thonburi Group’s Auto Repair Centres as the population, the sampling of this research was a total of 340 samples, by use of Probability Sampling Technique. Systematic Random Sampling was applied by use of questionnaire in collecting the data at Thonburi Group’s Auto Repair Centres. Mean and Pearson’s basic statistical correlations were utilized in analyzing the data. The study discovered a medium level of customers’ perception towards product and service of Thonburi Group’s Auto Repair Centres, price, place or distribution channel and promotion. People who provided service were perceived also at a medium level, whereas the physical evidence and service process were perceived at a high level. Furthermore, there appeared a correlation between the physical evidence and service process, and customers’ frequency of use of automobile service per year.
Abstract: The objectives of this research paper was to study the influencing factors that contributed the willingness of consumers to purchase products online included quality of website, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, trust on online purchases, attitude towards online shopping and intentions to online purchases. The research was conducted in both quantitative and qualitative methods, by utilizing both questionnaire and in-depth interview. A questionnaire was used to collect data from 350 consumers who had online shopping experiences in Bangkok, Thailand. Statistics utilized in this research included descriptive statistics and path analysis.
The findings revealed that the factors concerning with quality of website, perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness played an influence on trust in online shopping. Trust also played an influence on attitude towards online purchase, whereas trust and attitude towards online purchase manipulated the intention of online purchase.
Abstract: Using the technology acceptance model (TAM), this
study examined the external variables of technological complexity
(TC) to acquire a better understanding of the factors that influence the
acceptance of computer application courses by learners at Active
Aging Universities. After the learners in this study had completed a
27-hour Facebook course, 44 learners responded to a modified TAM
survey. Data were collected to examine the path relationships among
the variables that influence the acceptance of Facebook-mediated
community learning. The partial least squares (PLS) method was used
to test the measurement and the structural model. The study results
demonstrated that attitudes toward Facebook use directly influence
behavioral intentions (BI) with respect to Facebook use, evincing a
high prediction rate of 58.3%. In addition to the perceived usefulness
(PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU) measures that are proposed in
the TAM, other external variables, such as TC, also indirectly
influence BI. These four variables can explain 88% of the variance in
BI and demonstrate a high level of predictive ability. Finally,
limitations of this investigation and implications for further research
are discussed.
Abstract: In Fiji, notable among the recent spate of educational reforms has been the Ministry of Education’s (MoEs) requirement that all schools undertake a process of school strategic planning. This preliminary study explores perceptions of a sample of Fijian teachers on the way this exercise has been conducted in their schools. The analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data indicates that school leaders’ lack of knowledge and skills in school strategic planning is a major limitation. As an unsurprising consequence, the process(es) schools adopted did not conform to what the literature suggests as best planning practices. School leaders need more training to ensure they are better prepared to carry out this strategic planning effectively, especially in widening the opportunities for all who have a stake in education to contribute to the process. Implications of the findings are likely to be pertinent to other developing contexts within and beyond the Pacific region for the training of school leaders to ensure they are better equipped to orchestrate and benefit from educational reforms thrust upon them.
Abstract: The work delineates the threats of maladjustment of the capacity of rain canals, designed and built in the early 20th century, in connection to heavy rainfall, especially in summer. This is the cause of the so called 'urban floods.' It directly relates to fierce raise of paving in the cities. Resolving this problem requires a change in philosophy of draining the rainfall by wider use of retention, infiltration and usage of rainwater.
In systemic approach to managing the safety of urban drainage systems the risk, which is directly connected to safety failures, has been accepted as a measure. The risk level defines the probability of occurrence of losses greater than the ones forecast for a given time frame. The procedure of risk modelling, enabling its numeric analysis by using appropriate weights, is a significant issue in this paper.
Abstract: This research intended to develop the model of community management for sustainable utilization by investigating on 2 groups of population, the family heads and the community management team. The population of the former group consisted of family heads from 511 families in 12 areas to complete the questionnaires which were returned at 479 sets. The latter group consisted of the community management team of 12 areas with 1 representative from each area to give the interview. The questionnaires for the family heads consisted of 2 main parts; general information such as occupations, etc. in the form of checklist. The second part dealt with the data on self reliance community development based on 4P Framework, i.e., People (human resource) development, Place (area) development, Product (economic and income source) development, and Plan (community plan) development in the form of rating scales. Data in the 1st part were calculated to find frequency and percentage while those in the 2nd part were analyzed to find arithmetic mean and SD. Data from the 2nd group of population or the community management team were derived from focus group to find factors influencing successful management together with the in depth interview which were analyzed by descriptive statistics. The results showed that 479 family heads reported that the aspect on the implementation of community plan to self reliance community activities based on Sufficient Economy Philosophy and the 4P was at the average of 3.28 or moderate level. When considering in details, it was found that the 1st aspect was on the area development with the mean of 3.71 or high level followed by human resource development with the mean of 3.44 or moderate level, then, economic and source of income development with the mean of 3.09 or moderate level. The last aspect was community plan development with the mean of 2.89. The results from the small group discussion revealed some factors and guidelines for successful community management as follows: 1) on the People (human resource) development aspect, there was a project to support and develop community leaders. 2) On the aspect of Place (area) development, there was a development on conservative tourism areas. 3) On the aspect of Product (economic and source of income) development, the community leaders promoted the setting of occupational group, saving group, and product processing group. 4) On the aspect of Plan (community plan) development, there was a prioritization through public hearing.
Abstract: This research aims to study species, abundance, status
of birds, the similarities and activity characteristics of birds which
reap benefits from the research area in boat touring routes in Tha Ka
sub-district, Amphawa District, Samut Songkram Province, Thailand.
from October 2012 – September 2013. The data was analyzed to find
the abundance, and similarity index of the birds. The results from the
survey of birds on all three routes found that there are 33 families and
63 species. Route 3 (traditional coconut sugar making kiln – resort)
had the most species; 56 species. There were 18 species of commonly
found birds with an abundance level of 5, which calculates to 28.57%
of all bird species. In August, 46 species are found, being the greatest
number of bird species benefiting from this route. As for the status of
the birds, there are 51 resident birds, 7 resident and migratory birds,
and 5 migratory birds. On Route 2 and Route 3, the similarity index
value is equal to 0.881. The birds are classified by their activity
characteristics i.e. insectivore, piscivore, granivore, nectrivore and
aquatic invertebrate feeder birds. Some birds also use the area for
nesting.
Abstract: Wetlands are one of the most important ecosystems on
Earth. Nevertheless, various challenges threaten these ecosystems
and disrupt their ecological character. Among these, the effects of
human-based threats are more devastating. Following mass
degradation of wetlands during 1970s, the Ramsar Convention on
Wetlands (Ramsar, Iran, 1971) was concluded to conserve wetlands
of international importance and prevent destruction and degradation
of such ecosystems through wise use of wetlands as a mean to
achieve sustainable development in all over the world. Therefore, in
this paper, efforts have been made to analyze threats to wetlands and
then investigate solutions in the framework of the Ramsar
Convention. Finally, in order to operate these mechanisms, this study
concludes that all states should in turn make their best effort to
improve and restore global wetlands through preservation of
environmental standards and close contribution and also through
taking joint measures with other states effectively.
Abstract: String matching also known as pattern matching is
one of primary concept for network security. In this area the
effectiveness and efficiency of string matching algorithms is
important for applications in network security such as network
intrusion detection, virus detection, signature matching and web
content filtering system. This paper presents brief review on some of
string matching techniques used for network security.
Abstract: This paper presents the gain improvement of a sector antenna for mobile phone base station by using the new technique to enhance its gain for microstrip antenna (MSA) array without construction enlargement. The curved woodpile Electromagnetic Band Gap (EBG) has been utilized to improve the gain instead. The advantages of this proposed antenna are reducing the length of MSAs array but providing the higher gain and easy fabrication and installation. Moreover, it provides a fan-shaped radiation pattern, wide in the horizontal direction and relatively narrow in the vertical direction, which appropriate for mobile phone base station. The paper also presents the design procedures of a 1x8 MSAs array associated with U-shaped reflector for decreasing their back and side lobes. The fabricated curved woodpile EBG exhibits bandgap characteristics at 2.1 GHz and is utilized for realizing a resonant cavity of MSAs array. This idea has been verified by both the Computer Simulation Technology (CST) software and experimental results. As the results, the fabricated proposed antenna achieves a high gain of 20.3 dB and the half-power beam widths in the E- and H-plane of 36.8 and 8.7 degrees, respectively. Good qualitative agreement between measured and simulated results of the proposed antenna was obtained.
Abstract: This paper proposes the development and design of
double layer metamaterials based on electromagnetic band gap
(EBG) rods as a superstrate of a resonator antenna to enhance
required antenna characteristics for the mobile base station. The
metallic rod type metamaterial can partially reflect wave of a primary
radiator. The antenna was designed and analyzed by a simulation
result from CST Microwave Studio and designed technique could be
confirmed by a measurement results from prototype antenna that
agree with simulation results. The results indicate that the antenna
can also generate a dual polarization by using a 45˚ oriented curved
strip dipole located at the center of the reflector plane with double
layer superstrate. It can be used to simplify the feed system of an
antenna. The proposed antenna has a bandwidth covering the
frequency range of 1920 – 2200 MHz, the gain of the antenna
increases up to 14.06 dBi. In addition, an interesting sectoral 60˚
pattern is presented in horizontal plane.
Abstract: By running transactions under the SNAPSHOT isolation
we can achieve a good level of concurrency, specially in databases
with high-intensive read workloads. However, SNAPSHOT is not
immune to all the problems that arise from competing transactions
and therefore no serialization warranty exists. We propose in this
paper a technique to obtain data consistency with SNAPSHOT by using
some special triggers that we named DAEMON TRIGGERS. Besides
keeping the benefits of the SNAPSHOT isolation, the technique is
specially useful for those database systems that do not have an
isolation level that ensures serializability, like Firebird and Oracle. We
describe all the anomalies that might arise when using the SNAPSHOT
isolation and show how to preclude them with DAEMON TRIGGERS.
Based on the methodology presented here, it is also proposed the
creation of a new isolation level: DAEMON SNAPSHOT.
Abstract: This study examined the predictive effects of moral competence, prosocial norms and positive behavior recognition on school misbehavior among Chinese junior secondary school students. Results of multiple regression analysis showed that students were more likely to misbehave in school when they had lower levels of moral competence and prosocial norms, and when they perceived their positive behavior being less likely recognized. Practical implications were discussed on how to guide students to make the right choices to behave appropriately in school. Implications for future research were also discussed.
Abstract: The aim of this research is to evaluate the effectiveness of software quality assurance approaches of Sri Lankan offshore software development organizations, and to propose a framework which could be used across all offshore software development organizations.
An empirical study was conducted using derived framework from popular software quality evaluation models. The research instrument employed was a questionnaire survey among thirty seven Sri Lankan registered offshore software development organizations.
The findings demonstrate a positive view of Effectiveness of Software Quality Assurance – the stronger predictors of Stability, Installability, Correctness, Testability and Changeability. The present study’s recommendations indicate a need for much emphasis on software quality assurance for the Sri Lankan offshore software development organizations.
Abstract: We have developed a polyimide based neural interface electrode to record nerve signals from the sciatic nerve of a rat. The neural interface electrode has a split-ring shape, with four protruding gold electrodes for recording, and two reference gold electrodes around the split-ring. The split-ring electrode can be opened up to encircle the sciatic nerve. The four electrodes can be bent to sit on top of the nerve and hold the device in position, while the split-ring frame remains flat. In comparison, while traditional cuff electrodes can only fit certain sizes of the nerve, the developed device can fit a variety of rat sciatic nerve dimensions from 0.6 mm to 1.0 mm, and adapt to the chronic changes in the nerve as the electrode tips are bendable. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurement was conducted. The gold electrode impedance is on the order of 10 kΩ, showing excellent charge injection capacity to record neural signals.
Abstract: This research was to analyze personality’s activities based on sufficiency economy philosophy of people and community leaders in urban communities. The data were collected through questionnaires administered to 392 people and interviewed with community leaders. It was found that most people revealed that their lives depend on activities in accordance with the sufficiency economy philosophy in high level especially, being honest and aware on sufficiency, occupations, peacefulness in the community leaders’ side, they reported on extravagant reduction, planting home vegetable garden, having household accounting, expense planning by dividing into 3 categories; 1) saving for illness cover 2) saving for business cover, and 3) household daily expense. The samples were also adjusted their livings quite well with the rapid change of urbanization. Although those people have encountered with any hardships, their honesty in occupations and awareness on sufficiency remain to survive happily.
Abstract: In the process of information transmission (concept verbalization) we deal mostly with the substance (contents), and then pay attention to the form. Recalling events from the remote past, often we cannot exactly reproduce specific heard or pronounced words, as well as the syntactic structures. We remember events, feelings, images; we recall the general contents of the discourse. The thought gets a specific language form only during the concept verbalization phase. With minimum time for pondering, depending on the language competence level, the grammar and syntactic shaping often occurs automatically with the use of famous models and stereotypes. This means that the language form adapts itself to the consciousness, and not vice versa.
Abstract: The cloud computing is an innovative paradigm that introduces several changes in technology that have resulted a new ways for cloud providers to deliver their services to cloud consumers mainly in term of security risk assessment, thus, adapting a current risk assessment tools to cloud computing is a very difficult task due to its several characteristics that challenge the effectiveness of risk assessment approaches. As consequence, there is a need of risk assessment model adapted to cloud computing. This paper requires a new risk assessment model based on multi-agent system and AHP model as fundamental steps towards the development of flexible risk assessment approach regarding cloud consumers.