E-learning: Designing new business education

Business Schools are under intense competitive pressure, and one way for them to differentiate themselves and compete distinctively is by adopting innovative uses of information technology. However, incorporating information technology in business education is no trivial undertaking. This research is intended to provide some guidance about the effect that new information technologies can have in the field of high-level executive education and provide a conceptual framework of the key factors that need to be taken into account for efficient and effective course design in executive education.e-learning; information & communication technology; execute education; learning; business schools; on-line teaching; residential learning; ethnography;

Analyzing Energy-efficiency and Route-selection of Multi-level Hierarchal Routing Protocols in WSNs

The advent and development in the field of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) in recent years has seen the growth of extremely small and low-cost sensors that possess sensing, signal processing and wireless communication capabilities. These sensors can be expended at a much lower cost and are capable of detecting conditions such as temperature, sound, security or any other system. A good protocol design should be able to scale well both in energy heterogeneous and homogeneous environment, meet the demands of different application scenarios and guarantee reliability. On this basis, we have compared six different protocols of different scenarios which are presenting their own schemes of energy minimizing, clustering and route selection in order to have more effective communication. This research is motivated to have an insight that which of the under consideration protocols suit well in which application and can be a guide-line for the design of a more robust and efficient protocol. MATLAB simulations are performed to analyze and compare the performance of LEACH, multi-level hierarchal LEACH and multihop LEACH.Comment: NGWMN with 7th IEEE Inter- national Conference on Broadband and Wireless Computing, Communication and Applications (BWCCA 2012), Victoria, Canada, 201

A Semantic-Based Platform for Efficient Online Communication

To achieve an effective and efficient way of disseminating information to ever growing communication channels, we propose an ap proach that separates the information and communication channels and interlinks them with an intermediary component. The separation enables various dimensions to reuse the information and communication chan nels in transactional communication. In this paper we introduce our on line communication platform, which is comprised of several components. The important roles of semantic web technologies to the platform are explained in detail, including a use case to show the contributions of se mantic web in supporting the effectiveness and efficiency of information dissemination.European Union (UE) EU FP7 no. 600663 (Prelida)European Union EU FP7 257641 (PlanetData)European Union (UE) EU FP7 284860 (MSEE

Enabling Scalable Multi-channel Communication through Semantic Technologies

With the advance of the Web in the direction Social Media the number of communication possibilities has exponentially increased bringing new challenges and opportunities for companies to build and shape their reputation online as well as to engage and maintain the relationships to their customers. In this paper we describe how semantic technologies enable scalable, effective and efficient on-line communication. We illustrate four different ways in which semantics can be used for this purpose. First, we discuss semantic analysis of communication items based on 'classical' semantic, such as natural language processing. Second, we look at semantics as a channel, viewing Linked Open Data vocabularies not only as terminological assets but as communication channels. Third, semantics provide the methodologies and tools for content modeling by means of ontologies. Finally, semantics through semantic matchmaking enable semi-automatic assignment and distribution of content to channels and vice-versa

Digital Media and Information Dissemination in Tertiary Institutions in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

This study digital Media and Information Dissemination in Tertiary Institutions Akwa lbom State. Nigeria sought to determine the extent to which electronic media (e-mail, voice-mail, picture message. and live calls) influence organizational communication in tertiary institutions in the study area. The study adopted the descriptive survey design. Four specify objectives, and a research question were raised and translated into a research hypothesis for testing at .05 level of significance. Conceptual and empirical review of literature indicated that digital media is likely to affect organization communication among staff of tertiary institutions at horizontal and vertical communication patterns. A researcher made instrument called Digital Media Interaction Scale (DMIS) with reliability coefficient of .87 using cronbach Alpha was 752 respondents representing 10% of the study population was used. They were selected using stratified and random sampling techniques where the five governments owned tertiary educational institutions in the study area formed strata. Data collected were analyzed using percentages and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The results show that digital communication media have significant influence, ensure more effective and transactional organizational communication at diverse degrees of intensity and reach depending on authority structure and line staff within the institutions examined. Based on the findings of the study, it is recommended among others that staff of tertiary academic institutions should be encouraged to use digital communication media to boost effective and efficient communication

Enhanced Performance of Narrowband Power Line Communications using Recursive Least Squares Filter

Noises presented in a power line communication channel tend to distort the message signals, leading towards the reception of erroneous data at the receiver end. Mitigation of noise existent in power line has always been of prime interest and helped to improve the BER performance of a communication system as it accounts for efficient data transmission. In this work, adaptive filters based on the Recursive Least Squares (RLS) algorithm and Least Mean Square (LMS) algorithms have been implemented in Simulink to investigate the effectiveness of an Adaptive Noise Canceller for the mitigation of Gaussian and Impulsive Noises present in a narrowband power line channel model. The performance of the RLS algorithm against that of the LMS algorithm was compared in adaptive filtering for the same channel conditions. The error performances of BPSK and FSK schemes for the channel model in a generic digital communication system were also compared in Simulink. Furthermore, the use of convolutional codes and interleaving for the correction of random bit errors and for condensing the negative effect of burst errors respectively were investigated during the transmission of data signals over the generic communication system designed in Simulink. From the findings of the study, it has been concluded that the RLS algorithm proves to be more effective than the LMS algorithm. For a BER of 10-5, a coding gain of less than 10 dB is achievable for both Binary Phase Shift Keying and Binary Frequency Shift Keying. With the addition of convolutional coding and convolutional interleaving, the error performance of the channel is further improved, rendering the power line channel more reliable for data communication

How does your viewing perspective matter for decision-making with flood risk maps?*

The globally increasing frequency of flood events highlights the importance of effective flood risk communication. The influence of the viewing perspective of mapped flood events on human risk perception has not yet been a research focus of the geovisualization community. This empirical study aims to fill this gap by investigating how the viewing perspective of flood risk maps, that is, 2D orthographic vs. 2.5D oblique views, influence human flood risk perception and decision-making. Results on how viewing perspective might influence measured risk perception are in line with prior inconclusive research on the utility and usability of adding a third viewing dimension on static maps. Unlike prior research would have suggested, we find that the individual risk attitude of our participants had no direct influence on their risk ratings in the context of this study. With additional empirical evidence on how static 2D and oblique 2.5D hazard maps might influence the public’s risk perception and decision-making, we hope to further inform policy and decision makers on the critical importance of well-designed cartographic displays for effective and efficient hazard and risk communication. We also provide an open-source code repository for making reproducible experiments with our static maps

Nicosia-Concerted Retailing and Tourism Strategies to Awaken a Neglekted and Sleeping Beauty

Nicosia, the last divided European city, is only able to skim a small portion of the tourist purchasing power compared to the other tourism strongholds of the island and, at the same time, does not utilize the existing cultural potential in an efficient way. Therefore, this paper aims to contribute to the valorisation of the existing potential in a customer oriented manner. Concerted international (UN Nicosia Master Plan) and national (Strategic Plan 2010) strategies reflect the intended revival endeavours. For this new orientation to be successful the paper hypothesizes an effective interplay between tourism and retailing to happen and, for this reason, analyses the motives and satisfaction levels of tourists to Nicosia with regards to both, tourism and retailing offers. The paper focuses on the tourist segment with higher educational levels (and implicitly higher financial potential) as the communication objectives foresee to position the island mainly in the mind of this segment. The paper concludes, in line with recent developments with regard to tourist consumer profiles, that the concept of authenticity plays an increasing role when explaining the satisfaction levels of this specific segment and provides practical recommendations.Retail, Tourism, Culture, Authenticty, Nicosia, Cyprus

Automated Production Line Monitoring System Using Embedded Rfid

In industrial manufacturing, wireless network can be used in supply-chain, retail stock management, electronic security keys, and theft prevention. Manufacturers require an efficient communication and real time feedback to maximize uptime, improve productivity, and provide cost effective solution advancement. This research proposed automated production line monitoring system using embedded RFID through wireless mesh sensor network (WMSN) platform and smart data processing adopted through web-based monitoring system. Embedded devices in the automated production line monitoring system is capable to work as individual units or work together with multiple terminal links such as in WMSN and provide Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication solution. The reading range capabilities of the proposed system have been tested in the WMSN platform in real world industrial environment. The results obtained shows that the reading range is able to achieve 123 m with the highest power of +3 dBm in Line-of-Sight (LOS). In data collision evaluation with WMSN platform, the average percentage of data received achieved merely 100%. In multi-hop network, the overall proposed system collection time is about 37% lower than the existing RFID tags. Response time within the same specifications shows that the developed server is faster by 30% compared to the existing database. Hence, this is compatible with the output monitoring system since the input is continuously fed based on the standard time of a certain product. The proposed integrated wireless infrastructures are able to minimize approximately 50% of cost compared to other local vendor with wired solutions. In addition, 75% reduction of downtime in the production line which causes the increase in productivity and yield is recorded due to the effective monitoring