Abstract: This paper discusses a curriculum approach that will
give emphasis on practical portions of teaching network security
subjects in information and communication technology courses. As
we are well aware, the need to use a practice and application oriented
approach in education is paramount. Research on active learning and
cooperative groups have shown that students grasps more and have
more tendency towards obtaining and realizing soft skills like
leadership, communication and team work as opposed to the more
traditional theory and exam based teaching and learning. While this
teaching and learning paradigm is relatively new in Malaysia, it has
been practiced widely in the West. This paper examines a certain
approach whereby students learning wireless security are divided into
and work in small and manageable groups where there will be 2
teams which consist of black hat and white hat teams. The former
will try to find and expose vulnerabilities in a wireless network while
the latter will try their best to prevent such attacks on their wireless
networks using hardware, software, design and enforcement of
security policy and etc. This paper will try to show that the approach
taken plus the use of relevant and up to date software and hardware
and with suitable environment setting will hopefully expose students
to a more fruitful outcome in terms of understanding of concepts,
theories and their motivation to learn.
Abstract: High Performance Work Systems (HPWS) generally give rise to positive impacts on employees by increasing their commitments in workplaces. While some argued this actually have considerable negative impacts on employees with increasing possibilities of imposing strains caused by stress and intensity of such work places. Do stressful workplaces hamper employee commitment? The author has tried to find the answer by exploring linkages between HPWS practices and its impact on employees in Japanese organizations. How negative outcomes like job intensity and workplaces and job stressors can influence different forms of employees- commitments which can be a hindrance to their performance. Design: A close ended questionnaire survey was conducted amongst 16 large, medium and small sized Japanese companies from diverse industries around Chiba, Saitama, and Ibaraki Prefectures and in Tokyo from the month of October 2008 to February 2009. Questionnaires were aimed to the non managerial employees- perceptions of HPWS practices, their behavior, working life experiences in their work places. A total of 227 samples are used for analysis in the study. Methods: Correlations, MANCOVA, SEM Path analysis using AMOS software are used for data analysis in this study. Findings: Average non-managerial perception of HPWS adoption is significantly but negatively correlated to both work place Stressors and Continuous commitment, but positively correlated to job Intensity, Affective, Occupational and Normative commitments in different workplaces at Japan. The path analysis by SEM shows significant indirect relationship between Stressors and employee Affective organizational commitment and Normative organizational commitments. Intensity also has a significant indirect effect on Occupational commitments. HPWS has an additive effect on all the outcomes variables. Limitations: The sample size in this study cannot be a representative to the entire population of non-managerial employees in Japan. There were no respondents from automobile, pharmaceuticals, finance industries. The duration of the survey coincided in a period when Japan as most of the other countries is under going recession. Biases could not be ruled out completely. We must take cautions in interpreting the results of studies as they cannot be generalized. And the path analysis cannot provide the complete causality of the inter linkages between the variables used in the study. Originality: There have been limited studies on linkages in HPWS adoptions and their impacts on employees- behaviors and commitments in Japanese workplaces. This study may provide some ingredients for further research in the fields of HRM policies and practices and their linkages on different forms of employees- commitments.
Abstract: Teaching and learning about sustainability is a pedagogical endeavour with various innate difficulties and increased demands. Higher education has a dual role to play in addressing this challenge: to identify and explore innovative approaches and tools for addressing the complex and value-laden nature of sustainability in more meaningful ways, and to help teachers to integrate these approaches into their practice through appropriate professional development programs. The study reported here was designed and carried out within the context of a Masters course in Environmental Education. Eight teachers were collaboratively engaged in reconstructing a digital game microworld which was deliberately designed by the researchers to be questioned and evoke critical discussion on the idea of ‘sustainable city’. The study was based on the design-based research method. The findings indicate that the teachers’ involvement in processes of co-constructing the microworld initiated discussion and reflection upon the concepts of sustainability and sustainable lifestyles.
Abstract: The fact that traditional food safety system in the
absence of food safety culture is inadequate has recently become a
cause of concern for food safety professionals and other stakeholders.
Focusing on implementation of traditional food safety system i.e
HACCP prerequisite program and HACCP without the presence of
food safety culture in the food industry has led to the processing,
marketing and distribution of contaminated foods. The results of this
are regular out breaks of food borne illnesses and recalls of foods
from retail outlets with serious consequences to the consumers and
manufacturers alike. This article will consider the importance of food
safety culture, the cases of outbreaks and recalls that occurred when
companies did not make food safety culture a priority. Most
importantly, the food safety cultures of some food industries in South
Africa were assessed from responses to questionnaires from food
safety/food industry professionals in Durban South Africa. The
article was concluded by recommending that both food
industry employees and employers alike take food safety culture
seriously.
Abstract: Air bubbles have been detected in human circulation
of end-stage renal disease patients who are treated by hemodialysis.
The consequence of air embolism, air bubbles, is under recognized
and usually overlooked in daily practice. This paper shows results of
a capacitor based detection method that capable of detecting the
presence of air bubbles in the blood stream in different frequencies.
The method is based on a parallel plates capacitor made of platinum
with an area of 1.5 cm2 and a distance between the two plates is 1cm.
The dielectric material used in this capacitor is Dextran70 solution
which mimics blood rheology. Simulations were carried out using
RC circuit at two frequencies 30Hz and 3 kHz and results compared
with experiments and theory. It is observed that by injecting air
bubbles of different diameters into the device, there were significant
changes in the capacitance of the capacitor. Furthermore, it is
observed that the output voltage from the circuit increased with
increasing air bubble diameter. These results demonstrate the
feasibility of this approach in improving air bubble detection in
Hemodialysis.
Abstract: The emergence of networked information and communication has transformed the accessibility and delivery of scholarly information and fundamentally impacted on the processes of research and scholarly communication. The purpose of this study is to investigate disciplinary differences in the use of networked information for research and scholarly communication at Sultan Qaboos University, Oman. This study has produced quantitative data about how and why academics within different disciplines utilize networked information that is made available either internally through the university library, or externally through networked services accessed by the Internet. The results indicate some significant differences between the attitudes and practice of academics in the science disciplines when compared to those from the social sciences and humanities. While respondents from science disciplines show overall longer and more frequent use of networked information, respondents from humanities and social sciences indicated more positive attitudes and a greater degree of satisfaction toward library networked services.
Abstract: This study examines the relevance of disclosure
practices in improving the accountability and transparency of
religious nonprofit organizations (RNPOs). The assessment of
disclosure is based on the annual returns of RNPOs for the financial
year 2010. In order to quantify the information disclosed in the
annual returns, partial disclosure indexes of basic information (BI)
disclosure index, financial information (FI) disclosure index and
governance information (GI) disclosure index have been built which
takes into account the content of information items in the annual
returns. The empirical evidence obtained revealed low disclosure
practices among RNPOs in the sample. The multiple regression
results showed that the organizational attribute of the board size
appeared to be the most significant predictor for both partial index on
the extent of BI disclosure index, and FI disclosure index. On the
other hand, the extent of financial information disclosure is related to
the amount of donation received by RNPOs. On GI disclosure index,
the existence of an external audit appeared to be significant variable.
This study has contributed to the academic literature in providing
empirical evidence of the disclosure practices among RNPOs.
Abstract: As is known, one of the priority directions of research
works of natural sciences is introduction of applied section of
contemporary mathematics as approximate and numerical methods to
solving integral equation into practice. We fare with the solving of
integral equation while studying many phenomena of nature to whose
numerically solving by the methods of quadrature are mainly applied.
Taking into account some deficiency of methods of quadrature for
finding the solution of integral equation some sciences suggested of
the multistep methods with constant coefficients. Unlike these papers,
here we consider application of hybrid methods to the numerical
solution of Volterra integral equation. The efficiency of the suggested
method is proved and a concrete method with accuracy order p = 4
is constructed. This method in more precise than the corresponding
known methods.
Abstract: Eco-driving allows the driver to optimize his/her behaviour in order to achieve several types of benefits: reducing pollution emissions, increasing road safety, and fuel saving. One of the main rules for adopting eco-driving is to anticipate the traffic events by avoiding strong acceleration or braking and maintaining a steady speed when possible. Therefore, drivers have to comply with speed limits and time headway. The present study explored the role of three types of motivation and social norms in predicting French drivers- intentions to comply with speed limits and time headway as eco-driving practices as well as examine the variations according to gender and age. 1234 drivers with ages between 18 and 75 years old filled in a questionnaire which was presented as part of an online survey aiming to better understand the drivers- road habits. It included items assessing: a) behavioural intentions to comply with speed limits and time headway according to three types of motivation: reducing pollution emissions, increasing road safety, and fuel saving, b) subjective and descriptive social norms regarding the intention to comply with speed limits and time headway, and c) sociodemographical variables. Drivers expressed their intention to frequently comply with speed limits and time headway in the following 6 months; however, they showed more intention to comply with speed limits as compared to time headway regardless of the type of motivation. The subjective injunctive norms were significantly more important in predicting drivers- intentions to comply with speed limits and time headway as compared to the descriptive norms. In addition, the most frequently reported type of motivation for complying with speed limits and time headway was increasing road safety followed by fuel saving and reducing pollution emissions, hence underlining a low motivation to practice eco-driving. Practical implications of the results are discussed.
Abstract: Students often adopt routine practicing as learning
strategy for mathematics. The reason is they are often bound and
trained to solving conventional-typed questions in Mathematics in
high school. This will be problematic if students further consolidate
this practice in university. Therefore, the Department of Mathematics
emphasized and integrated the Discovery-enriched approach in the
undergraduate curriculum. This paper presents the details of
implementing the Discovery-enriched Curriculum by providing
adequate platform for project-learning, expertise for guidance and
internship opportunities for students majoring in Mathematics. The
Department also provided project-learning opportunities to
mathematics courses targeted for students majoring in other science or
engineering disciplines. The outcome is promising: the research
ability and problem solving skills of students are enhanced.
Abstract: The production of glass, ceramic materials and many non-ferrous metals (Zn, Cu, Pb, etc.), ferrous metals (pig iron) and others is connected with the use of a considerable number of initial solid raw materials. Before carrying out the basic technological processes (oxidized roasting, melting, agglomeration, baking) it is necessary to mix and homogenize the raw materials that have different chemical and phase content, granulometry and humidity. For this purpose zinc sulfide concentrates differing in origin are studied for their more complete characteristics using chemical, X-ray diffraction analyses, DTA and TGA as well as Mössbauer spectroscopy. The phases established in most concentrates are: β-ZnS, mZnS.nFeS, FeS2, CuFeS2, PbS, SiO2 (α-quartz). With the help of the developed by us a Web-based information system for a continued period of time different mix proportions from zinc concentrates are calculated and used in practice (roasting in fluidized bed reactor), which have to conform to the technological requirements of the zinc hydrometallurgical technological scheme.
Abstract: Landscape connectivity combines a description of the
physical structure of the landscape with special species- response to
that structure, which forms the theoretical background of applying
landscape connectivity principles in the practices of landscape
planning and design. In this study, a residential development project in
the southern United States was used to explore the meaning of
landscape connectivity and its application in town planning. The vast
rural landscape in the southern United States is conspicuously
characterized by the hedgerow trees or groves. The patchwork
landscape of fields surrounded by high hedgerows is a traditional and
familiar feature of the American countryside. Hedgerows are in effect
linear strips of trees, groves, or woodlands, which are often critical
habitats for wildlife and important for the visual quality of the
landscape. Based on geographic information system (GIS) and
statistical analysis (FRAGSTAT), this study attempts to quantify the
landscape connectivity characterized by hedgerows in south Alabama
where substantial areas of authentic hedgerow landscape are being
urbanized due to the ever expanding real estate industry and high
demand for new residential development. The results of this study
shed lights on how to balance the needs of new urban development and
biodiversity conservation by maintaining a higher level of landscape
connectivity, thus will inform the design intervention.
Abstract: This paper deals with a novel approach of power
transformers diagnostics. This approach identifies the exact location
and the range of a fault in the transformer and helps to reduce
operation costs related to handling of the faulty transformer, its
disassembly and repair. The advantage of the approach is a
possibility to simulate healthy transformer and also all faults, which
can occur in transformer during its operation without its
disassembling, which is very expensive in practice. The approach is
based on creating frequency dependent impedance of the transformer
by sweep frequency response analysis measurements and by 3D FE
parametrical modeling of the fault in the transformer. The parameters
of the 3D FE model are the position and the range of the axial short
circuit. Then, by comparing the frequency dependent impedances of
the parametrical models with the measured ones, the location and the
range of the fault is identified. The approach was tested on a real
transformer and showed high coincidence between the real fault and
the simulated one.
Abstract: Analytical seismic response of multi-story building
supported on base isolation system is investigated under real
earthquake motion. The superstructure is idealized as a shear type
flexible building with lateral degree-of-freedom at each floor. The
force-deformation behaviour of the isolation system is modelled by
the bi-linear behaviour which can be effectively used to model all
isolation systems in practice. The governing equations of motion of
the isolated structural system are derived. The response of the system
is obtained numerically by step-by-method under three real recorded
earthquake motions and pulse motions associated in the near-fault
earthquake motion. The variation of the top floor acceleration, interstory
drift, base shear and bearing displacement of the isolated
building is studied under different initial stiffness of the bi-linear
isolation system. It was observed that the high initial stiffness of the
isolation system excites higher modes in base-isolated structure and
generate floor accelerations and story drift. Such behaviour of the
base-isolated building especially supported on sliding type of
isolation systems can be detrimental to sensitive equipment installed
in the building. On the other hand, the bearing displacement and base
shear found to reduce marginally with the increase of the initial
stiffness of the initial stiffness of the isolation system. Further, the
above behaviour of the base-isolated building was observed for
different parameters of the bearing (i.e. post-yield stiffness and
characteristic strength) and earthquake motions (i.e. real time history
as well as pulse type motion).
Abstract: Global Software Development (GSD) projects are
passing through different boundaries of a company, country and even
in other continents where time zone differs between both sites.
Beside many benefits of such development, research declared plenty
of negative impacts on these GSD projects. It is important to
understand problems which may lie during the execution of GSD
project with different time zones. This research project discussed and
provided different issues related to time delays in GSD projects. In
this paper, authors investigated some of the time delay factors which
usually lie in GSD projects with different time zones. This
investigation is done through systematic review of literature.
Furthermore, the practices to overcome these delay factors which
have already been reported in literature and GSD organizations are
also explored through literature survey and case studies.
Abstract: The creation of a sustainable future depends on the knowledge and involvement of the people, as well as an understanding of the consequences of individual actions. Construction industry has long been associated with the detrimental effects to our mother earth. In Malaysia, the government, professional bodies and private companies are beginning to take heed in the necessity to reduce this environmental problem without restraining the need for development. This paper focuses on the actions undertaken by the Malaysian government, non-government organizations and construction players in promoting sustainability in construction. To ensure that those concerted efforts are not only skin deep in its impact, a survey was conducted to investigate the awareness of the developers regarding this issue and whether those developers has absorb the concept of sustainable construction in their current practices. The survey revealed that although the developers are aware of the rising issues on sustainability, little efforts are generated from them in implementing it. More effort is necessary to boost this application and further stimulate actions and strategies towards a sustainable built environment.
Abstract: Soccer simulation is an effort to motivate researchers and practitioners to do artificial and robotic intelligence research; and at the same time put into practice and test the results. Many researchers and practitioners throughout the world are continuously working to polish their ideas and improve their implemented systems. At the same time, new groups are forming and they bring bright new thoughts to the field. The research includes designing and executing robotic soccer simulation algorithms. In our research, a soccer simulation player is considered to be an intelligent agent that is capable of receiving information from the environment, analyze it and to choose the best action from a set of possible ones, for its next move. We concentrate on developing a two-phase method for the soccer player agent to choose its best next move. The method is then implemented into our software system called Nexus simulation team of Ferdowsi University. This system is based on TsinghuAeolus[1] team that was the champion of the world RoboCup soccer simulation contest in 2001 and 2002.
Abstract: In the management of industrial waste, conversion from the use of paper invoices to electronic forms is currently under way in developed countries. Difficulties in such computerization include the lack of synchronization between the actual goods and the corresponding data managed by the server. Consequently, a system which utilizes the incorporation of a QR code in connection with the waste material has been developed. The code is read at each stage, from discharge until disposal, and progress at each stage can be easily reported. This system can be linked with Japanese public digital authentication service of waste, taking advantage of its good points, and can be used to submit reports to the regulatory authorities. Its usefulness was confirmed by a verification test, and put into actual practice.
Abstract: Arguments on a popular microblogging site were analysed by means of a methodological approach to business rhetoric focusing on the logos communication technique. The focus of the analysis was the 100 day countdown to the 2011 Rugby World Cup as advanced by the organisers. Big sporting events provide an attractive medium for sport event marketers in that they have become important strategic communication tools directed at sport consumers. Sport event marketing is understood in the sense of using a microblogging site as a communication tool whose purpose it is to disseminate a company-s marketing messages by involving the target audience in experiential activities. Sport creates a universal language in that it excites and increases the spread of information by word of mouth and other means. The findings highlight the limitations of a microblogging site in terms of marketing messages which can assist in better practices. This study can also serve as a heuristic tool for other researchers analysing sports marketing messages in social network environments.
Abstract: This study examines the structural and systematic processes of the Human Resources Division at The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago for evidence of incorporation of the University's 2012- 2017 Strategic Plan. In conducting the study the structure of the Human Resources Management Division and its functions were carefully reviewed and measured against the strategic direction of the organisation. Findings indicate disconnect between these areas as there is apparent failure of the Human Resources Division to totally align its mandate with that of the organisation-s strategic direction. This action serves to threaten the viability of the organisation and its efficiency and effectiveness as an institution. The recommendations being put forward are for the realignment of the Human Resources Management Division and for its focus to mirror that of the organisation and the organisation-s goals and objectives. This may entail a restructuring of the Division.