The impact of organizational learning, on firm performance in the context of manufacturing SMES in Malaysia, mediating role of innovation capability

There is a considerable signal from empirical studies that many factors influence firm performance. The purpose of this conceptual paper is to review the impact of one (1) important variable which is (organizational learning) on the performance of manufacturing SMEs operating in Malaysia. This conceptual paper explored the mediation role of innovation capability. The conceptual framework was developed after a systematic review of past literature. The present paper found the important influence of the study’s variables on firm performance. Furthermore, the study provided some understanding of how organizational learning affects SMEs' performance in Malaysia. Organizational learning plays an important role in influencing a Manufacturing SME's firm performance. Despite that, the mediation role of innovation capability is expected to strengthen the relationship between organizational learning and firm performance. The paper emphasizes the critical value of organizational learning and innovation capability for SMEs owner/managers consideration when acting on behalf of their company; failing which the SMEs could experience poor performance. Resource-Based View (RBV) theory was used to underlie the conceptual framework. In addition, some implications of this conceptual model for theory and practice are discussed

Evaluation of graft uptake in underlay myringoplasty using dry and wet temporalis fascia graft

Chronic otitis media (COM) is a vital cause of deafness worldwide. Myringoplasty is one of the best treatment options for COM (inactive mucosal variety). Temporalis Fascia is the most favored grafting material among various autografts, which can be used as dry or wet depending upon the Surgeon's choice. The main focus of this study is to compare the graft uptake rate by using dry and wet temporalis fascia by underlay technique. This cross-sectional comparative study was directed from January 2018 to June 2019 at the Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery of BSMMU, Dhaka. All consecutive cases of COM (inactive mucosal) who underwent surgery were randomly assigned either into the dry (Group-A) or wet temporalis fascia group (Group-B). At 12 weeks follow-up, the density of graft failure (4.4% vs. 8.8%) and retraction pocket (0% vs. 2.2%) were higher in the wet procedure. However anterior blunting (2.2% vs. 2.2%) were the same in both procedures, and medialization (2.2% vs. 0%) were more in the dry procedure. Air Bone Gap (ABG) improved significantly in both groups following operation but reduced in Group-A more significantly than Group-B. On the other hand, there was no remarkable difference in successful graft uptake between the groups (Dry group-91.12% vs. wet group-84.44%, p>0.05). No graft material is superior to others in terms of graft uptake. BSMMU J 2022; 15(2): 84-8

FogAuthChain: A secure location-based authentication scheme in fog computing environments using Blockchain

Fog computing is an emerging computing paradigm which expands cloud-based computing services near the network edge. With this new computing paradigm, new challenges arise in terms of security and privacy. These concerns are due to the distributed ownership of Fog devices. Because of the large scale distributed nature of devices at the Fog layer, secure authentication for communication among these devices is a major challenge. The traditional authentication methods (password-based, certificate-based and biometric-based) are not directly applicable due to the unique architecture and characteristics of the Fog. Moreover, the traditional authentication methods consume significantly more computation power and incur high latency, and this does not meet the key requirements of the Fog. To fill this gap, this article proposes a secure decentralised location-based device to device (D2D) authentication model in which Fog devices can mutually authenticate each other at the Fog layer by using Blockchain. We considered an Ethereum Blockchain platform for the Fog device registration, authentication, attestation and data storage. We presented the overall system architecture, various participants and their transactions and message interaction between the participants. We validated the proposed model by comparing it with the existing method results showed that the proposed authentication mechanism was efficient and secure. From the performance evaluation, it was found that the proposed method is computationally efficient and secure in a highly distributed Fog network

New Method for Removal of Organic Dyes Using Supported Iron Oxide as a Catalyst

In this study, we perform a catalytic decomposition of organic dye over Fe2O3-CeO2-TiO2-γ-Al2O3 catalyst in the presence of molecular oxygen and chlorate ions. The results showed that organic dye acts as a sensitizer during this process. The mechanism of the allover process is hypothesized. Several techniques were employed for the characterization of the catalyst, including XRD, SEM, EDAX, and thermal analysis and catalytic activity. The analysis showed that iron is the main active centers, and we have two types of active centers in this process: surface iron and dissolved iron in titanium dioxide. The dissolved iron was found to be the most active center; however, after Fe/Ti = 2.76, a synergism was observed to be occurring between the two active centers

Towards secure fog computing: A survey on trust management, privacy, authentication, threats and access control

Fog computing is an emerging computing paradigm that has come into consideration for the deployment of Internet of Things (IoT) applications amongst researchers and technology industries over the last few years. Fog is highly distributed and consists of a wide number of autonomous end devices, which contribute to the processing. However, the variety of devices offered across different users are not audited. Hence, the security of Fog devices is a major concern that should come into consideration. Therefore, to provide the necessary security for Fog devices, there is a need to understand what the security concerns are with regards to Fog. All aspects of Fog security, which have not been covered by other literature works, need to be identified and aggregated. On the other hand, privacy preservation for user’s data in Fog devices and application data processed in Fog devices is another concern. To provide the appropriate level of trust and privacy, there is a need to focus on authentication, threats and access control mechanisms as well as privacy protection techniques in Fog computing. In this paper, a survey along with a taxonomy is proposed, which presents an overview of existing security concerns in the context of the Fog computing paradigm. Moreover, the Blockchain-based solutions towards a secure Fog computing environment is presented and various research challenges and directions for future research are discussed