Android Application for Microcontroller-based Reservoir Water Level Monitoring

A reservoir water level monitoring system was designed, constructed using a microcontroller and evaluated through functionality, reliability and accuracy. The monitoring system components consisted of a Gizduino microcontroller, Ethernet shield, serial camera and float switches which enabled the system to provide real time status and pictures of the reservoir. The monitoring system can be accessed using an Android application that can be installed in a compatible Android smartphone. An internet connection with a dedicated public IP was needed to broadcast the status and pictures of the reservoir. The specific monitoring system is fixed to a specific dam as it has a set of different float switches and camera. A back-up battery supply was integrated to the monitoring system to provide continuous power to the system. Fifty students evaluated the user acceptance of the water level monitoring system. According to the participants, the system was user-friendly, functional, reliable and accurate

Improving resilience in Critical Infrastructures through learning from past events

Modern societies are increasingly dependent on the proper functioning of Critical Infrastructures (CIs). CIs produce and distribute essential goods or services, as for power transmission systems, water treatment and distribution infrastructures, transportation systems, communication networks, nuclear power plants, and information technologies. Being resilient, where resilience denotes the capacity of a system to recover from challenges or disruptive events, becomes a key property for CIs, which are constantly exposed to threats that can undermine safety, security, and business continuity. Nowadays, a variety of approaches exists in the context of CIs’ resilience research. This dissertation starts with a systematic review based on PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) on the approaches that have a complete qualitative dimension, or that can be used as entry points for semi-quantitative analyses. The review identifies four principal dimensions of resilience referred to CIs (i.e., techno-centric, organizational, community, and urban) and discusses the related qualitative or semi-quantitative methods. The scope of the thesis emphasizes the organizational dimension, as a socio-technical construct. Accordingly, the following research question has been posed: how can learning improve resilience in an organization? Firstly, the benefits of learning in a particular CI, i.e. the supply chain in reverse logistics related to the small arms utilized by Italian Armed Forces, have been studied. Following the theory of Learning From Incidents, the theoretical model helped to elaborate a centralized information management system for the Supply Chain Management of small arms within a Business Intelligence (BI) framework, which can be the basis for an effective decision-making process, capable of increasing the systemic resilience of the supply chain itself. Secondly, the research question has been extended to another extremely topical context, i.e. the Emergency Management (EM), exploring the crisis induced learning where single-loop and double-loop learning cycles can be established regarding the behavioral perspective. Specifically, the former refers to the correction of practices within organizational plans without changing core beliefs and fundamental rules of the organization, while the latter aims at resolving incompatible organizational behavior by restructuring the norms themselves together with the associated practices or assumptions. Consequently, with the aim of ensuring high EM systems resilience, and effective single-loop and double-loop crisis induced learning at organizational level, the study examined learning opportunities that emerge through the exploration of adaptive practices necessary to face the complexity of a socio-technical work domain as the EM of Covid-19 outbreaks on Oil & Gas platforms. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches have been adopted to analyze the resilience of this specific socio-technical system. On this consciousness, with the intention to explore systems theoretic possibilities to model the EM system, the Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM) has been proposed as a qualitative method for developing a systematic understanding of adaptive practices, modelling planning and resilient behaviors and ultimately supporting crisis induced learning. After the FRAM analysis, the same EM system has also been studied adopting a Bayesian Network (BN) to quantify resilience potentials of an EM procedure resulting from the adaptive practices and lessons learned by an EM organization. While the study of CIs is still an open and challenging topic, this dissertation provides methodologies and running examples on how systemic approaches may support data-driven learning to ultimately improve organizational resilience. These results, possibly extended with future research drivers, are expected to support decision-makers in their tactical and operational endeavors

Finance for Food

Development Economics; Agricultural Economics; Finance, general; Economic Growth; Macroeconomics/Monetary Economics//Financial Economics; Microfinance; Rural Finance; Agricultural Finance; Rural Development; Developing Countrie

Global politisk islam? : Muslimska brödraskapet & Islamiska förbundet i Sverige

This thesis puts the question if the Islamic Association of Sweden (Islamiska förbundet I Sverige) can be considered to be a branch of the global, Islamist movement The Muslim Brotherhood. This question is highly controversial in Swedish political and academic conversation. To answer it, an investigation is carried through of the organization, ideology, and practical politics of the two movements. The primary sources used are Arabic as well as Swedish websites, messages in media, ideological platforms, works in Islamic theology or political theory, as well as administrative archives and records in Sweden. Especially, interviews are not used. Methodologically, traditional source critical historical method is used Eight indicators of affiliation are developed, like historical origin, organizational and personal contacts as well as ideological or strategic similarity. But also ideology analysis from Political Science when the political ideology of the two is analysed, using a distinction between fundamental and operative levels of political thought, and according to basic ideological themes like: view of (wo)man, worldview, fundamental values, view of the state, and view on political strategy. The result is that there are obvious similarities and connections between the two. The Islamic Association of Sweden is deeply involved in the global Muslim Brotherhood network, an can be regarded as its Swedish branch or “national organization”.Regarding organization the two movements have a similar organizational structure, with an “inner circle” that holds leading positions in a wide organizational network. Regarding ideology there is a striking similarity of fundamental ideas between the two: Islam is interpreted politically – “the Brotherhood’s Islam” – as a comprehensive blue-print for the society ruled by sharia; not as a pietist system for private worship. Their basic values, their views on women, sexuality or the utopian Islamic society are the same. Their views of social change and political strategy are also the same. The basic political strategy is to spread a step-wise, permeating calling to “Islam”, starting from individual to individual, then to the families, companies and authorities, ultimately leading to the total islamization of society and state. The Brotherhood shall act from aside as a presssure group on the regime to support the islamization, not start its own party. In practical politics the Swedish IFiS strictly follows the “European strategy” developed by the main MB ideologist Yusuf al-Qaradawi from 1995 with the four main pillars: da’wah, enclavism, lobbyism and entryism

World Water Development Report 4: Managing Water Under Uncertainty and Risk

Building on the comprehensive approach taken in World Water Development Reports (WWDRs) 1 and 2, and the holistic view taken in WWDR3, this fourth edition gives an account of the critical issues facing water's challenge areas and different regions and incorporates a deeper analysis of the external forces (i.e. drivers) linked to water. In doing so, the WWDR4 seeks to inform readers and raise awareness of the new threats arising from accelerated change and of the interconnected forces that create uncertainty and risk - ultimately emphasizing that these forces can be managed effectively and can even generate vital opportunities and benefits through innovative approaches to allocation, use and management of water

Knowledge Management practices in Malaysian Higher Learning Institutions: a review on selected cases

This article underlines the fact that Malaysian Higher Learning Institutions are seriously geared in approaching its academic excellence status, becoming an international education hub attracting students from different parts of the world..

Knowledge Management practices in Malaysian Higher Learning Institutions: a review on selected cases

This article underlines the fact that Malaysian Higher Learning Institutions are seriously geared in approaching its academic excellence status, becoming an international education hub attracting students from different parts of the world..

Winona Daily News

https://openriver.winona.edu/winonadailynews/2055/thumbnail.jp

Unmet goals of tracking: within-track heterogeneity of students' expectations for

Educational systems are often characterized by some form(s) of ability grouping, like tracking. Although substantial variation in the implementation of these practices exists, it is always the aim to improve teaching efficiency by creating homogeneous groups of students in terms of capabilities and performances as well as expected pathways. If students’ expected pathways (university, graduate school, or working) are in line with the goals of tracking, one might presume that these expectations are rather homogeneous within tracks and heterogeneous between tracks. In Flanders (the northern region of Belgium), the educational system consists of four tracks. Many students start out in the most prestigious, academic track. If they fail to gain the necessary credentials, they move to the less esteemed technical and vocational tracks. Therefore, the educational system has been called a 'cascade system'. We presume that this cascade system creates homogeneous expectations in the academic track, though heterogeneous expectations in the technical and vocational tracks. We use data from the International Study of City Youth (ISCY), gathered during the 2013-2014 school year from 2354 pupils of the tenth grade across 30 secondary schools in the city of Ghent, Flanders. Preliminary results suggest that the technical and vocational tracks show more heterogeneity in student’s expectations than the academic track. If tracking does not fulfill the desired goals in some tracks, tracking practices should be questioned as tracking occurs along social and ethnic lines, causing social inequality