The effect of trust, IT knowledge, and entrepreneur’s innovativeness to embrace or shun the internet of things

This study examines critical factors influencing Omani entrepreneurs’ adoption of the internet of things (IoT) by expanding the constructs at the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) with entrepreneurs’ innovativeness, IT knowledge (ITK), and trust. A cross-sectional survey questionnaire was used to collect data from 158 entrepreneurs in Oman. Data were analyzed through the structural equation modeling technique using SmartPLS. The results indicated that performance expectancy, habit, social influence, trust (TR), ITK, and entrepreneurs’ innovativeness (PI) significantly affect Omani entrepreneurs’ intention to adopt IoT. Nonetheless, the results show that there is no significant relationship between hedonic motivation, effort expectancy, price value, and facilitating conditions to adopt IoT. This study contributes to previous literature by incorporating entrepreneurs’ innovativeness, ITK, and trust into UTAUT2. Furthermore, this study was conducted in a Middle Eastern country with solid support from the government for entrepreneurs; also, there is a gap in such studies in this area. This study helps practitioners in the field better understand how to influence entrepreneurs, push them toward using IoT applications further, and encourage non-users to start using them

Breathing Movement Classification using MFCCs

Detecting the breath and classifying breathing movements such as inhale and exhale has settled importance in manybiomedical research areas. To this end, monitoring the breathing movements for lung cancer patients tends to remain one of the breath detection applications which have received much attention. On the other hand, virtual reality (VR) revolution has a lot of implications in many fields, which could also be used as a simulation technology for healing purposes. This has been an indication to use VR to assist the lung cancer patients. In this work, a novel method is proposed to detect and classify breathing movements. In our technique, we employ Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCCs) to the acoustic signal of respiration captured using a microphone to depict the differences between the inhale and the exhale in frequency domain. MFCC features are widely used in depicting the different acoustic and physical traits of voices. For each subject, the acoustic signal of breath is captured and then split into inhale and exhale durations. We have applied 13- MFCCs for each inhale and exhale timeframe, and plotted the i-th MFCC for all subjects individually. We classify the Detecting the breath and classifying breathing movements such as inhale and exhale has settled importance in many biomedical research areas. To this end, monitoring the breathing movements for lung cancer patients tends to remain one of the breath detection applications which have received much attention. On the other hand, virtual reality (VR) revolution has a lot of implications in many fields, which could also be used as a simulation technology for healing purposes. This has been an indication to use VR to assist the lung cancer patients.In this work, a novel method is proposed to detect and classify breathing movements. In our technique, we employ Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCCs) to the acoustic signal of respiration captured using a microphone to depict the differences between the inhale and the exhale in frequency domain. MFCC features are widely used in depicting the different acoustic and physical traits of voices.For each subject, the acoustic signal of breath is captured and then split into inhale and exhale durations. We have applied 13-MFCCs for each inhale and exhale timeframe, and plotted the i-th MFCC for all subjects individually

A Conceptual Smart-phone-based Virtual Reality Framework to Monitor Respiration Movements

This thesis is being archived as a Digitized Shelf Copy for campus access to current students and staff only. We currently cannot provide this open access without the author's permission. If you are the author of this work and desire to provide it open access or wish access removed please contact the Wahlstrom Library to discuss permission.Breathing is one of the most essential bodily functions that humans perform involuntarily. Nowadays, research on breathing/respiratory functionality has received much attention across the medical fields as well as various cognitive/meditation, and systems/engineering research aspects. As lungs distribute oxygen to the entire body through blood flow via blood cells, any form of exercise that regulates the respiratory system, can improve the lung functionality in providing oxygen to the rest of the body, and as a result, can help diminish breathing/lung disorder symptoms. Breathing is one of the most essential bodily functions that humans perform involuntarily. Nowadays, research on breathing/respiratory functionality has received much attention across the medical fields as well as various cognitive/meditation, and systems/engineering research aspects. As lungs distribute oxygen to the entire body through blood flow via blood cells, any form of exercise that regulates the respiratory system, can improve the lung functionality in providing oxygen to the rest of the body, and as a result, can help diminish breathing/lung disorder symptoms. In this dissertation, a novel conceptual virtual reality framework is presented that monitors breathing movements in real time. The acoustic signal of respiration of the user is used as the major input to this framework. An efficient, yet feasible technique is introduced to identify breathing movements (i.e. inhale and exhale), and a model is developed for lung capacity estimation through time and frequency analysis of the acoustic signal of breath. The developmental framework integrates these components along with a visualization feature where users can observe a virtually real animation of their lungs inflate and deflate as they inhale and exhale. One direct application of this framework is to aid users regulate their breath through real-time analysis of the respiration movements in a breathing exercise session. Users will be virtually/cognitively motivated to take the next coming breath more deeply if the previous one was insufficient. The theories, methodologies and approaches of this conceptual virtual reality framework using the smart-phone are discussed in this dissertation. The architecture and technical aspects of the offshore platform are also presented. Experimental results of the implemented framework on a number of subjects yield high accuracies for the breathing movement classification and lung capacity estimation modules

Realizing Sustainable Value from ERP Systems Implementation

This paper investigates enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementations to improve the ability to realize outstanding value from such systems. In particular, it aims to provide a deep understanding of realizing sustainable value from ERP systems and to examine the relevance of benefits management (BM) in this context. To do so, this research applied a qualitative case study approach to investigate the implementation of Tier-1 ERP systems in two firms. Key findings initially suggest five considerations to better understand the realization of benefits from ERP implementation. Consequently, this research outlines the key activities undertaken by the investigated organizations and aligns them with activities suggested by benefits management literature. In conclusion, this research conjectures that while benefits management is a good practice and a systematic approach to realizing benefits from information systems, it may be ineffective in addressing the benefits that emerge in practice, i.e., when integrating the ERP system with modern digital technologies. Therefore, this research advocates either revisiting the current BM techniques or improving the implementation of digital technologies, including ERP systems with BM concepts and principles by incorporating such BM concepts within the implementation process. This study responds to research calls for maximizing the returned value from the implemented ERP systems by providing insightful recommendations