Quality Enhancement of Open and Distance Teacher Education through E-Learning 2.0

Quality of teacher education in the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) has been posing a question for pretty long time. Stakeholders at different levels have been working to design innovative strategies to raise the standard to meet the demands of the children. The open teacher education scenario is passing through a paradigm shift in respect of teaching –learning process and other related dimensions. Quality enhancement of teacher education via Open and Distance Learning can be possible by adopting creative use of technology which, by a large is interlinked to e-learning 2.0. E-learning 2.0 is the use of web 2.0 technologies in teaching-learning processes visa-a-visa blogs, wikis, RSS feeds and social networking sites etc. Design of e-pedagogy along with e-learning strategies paves a path to make learning free of social-political cultural barriers and thus enhances the quality of learning. This paper discusses various aspects of e-learning 2.0 strategies in the open and distance teacher education, role of e-learning 2.0 methods in improving the quality of education and latest e-learning 2.0 tools and its application in open and distance education, especially teacher education. It helps stakeholders to build a sound knowledge in e-learning 2.0 strategies and its application for the daily teaching-learning practices at all levels of open and distance teacher education

Quantum walk-based protocol for secure communication between any two directly connected nodes on a network

The utilization of quantum entanglement as a cryptographic resource has superseded conventional approaches to secure communication. Security and fidelity of intranetwork communication between quantum devices is the backbone of a quantum network. This work presents an algorithm that generates entanglement between any two directly connected nodes of a quantum network to be used as a resource to enable quantum communication across that pair in the network. The algorithm is based on a directed discrete-time quantum walk and paves the way for private inter-node quantum communication channels in the network. We also present the simulation results of this algorithm on random networks generated from various models. We show that after implementation, the probability of the walker being at all nodes other than the source and target is negligible, and this holds independent of the random graph generation model. This constitutes a viable method for the practical realisation of secure communication over any random network topology.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures. Functionally identical to the published versio

Asymptotically Matched Spacetime Metric for Non-Precessing, Spinning Black Hole Binaries

We construct a closed-form, fully analytical 4-metric that approximately represents the spacetime evolution of non-precessing, spinning black hole binaries from infinite separations up to a few orbits prior to merger. We employ the technique of asymptotic matching to join a perturbed Kerr metric in the neighborhood of each spinning black hole to a near-zone, post-Newtonian metric farther out. The latter is already naturally matched to a far-zone, post-Minkowskian metric that accounts for full temporal retardation. The result is a 4-metric that is approximately valid everywhere in space and in a small bundle of spatial hypersurfaces. We here restrict our attention to quasi- circular orbits, but the method is valid for any orbital motion or physical scenario, provided an overlapping region of validity or buffer zone exists. A simple extension of such a metric will allow for future studies of the accretion disk and jet dynamics around spinning back hole binaries

A probabilistic polynomial-time process calculus for the analysis of cryptographic protocols

AbstractWe prove properties of a process calculus that is designed for analysing security protocols. Our long-term goal is to develop a form of protocol analysis, consistent with standard cryptographic assumptions, that provides a language for expressing probabilistic polynomial-time protocol steps, a specification method based on a compositional form of equivalence, and a logical basis for reasoning about equivalence.The process calculus is a variant of CCS, with bounded replication and probabilistic polynomial-time expressions allowed in messages and boolean tests. To avoid inconsistency between security and nondeterminism, messages are scheduled probabilistically instead of nondeterministically. We prove that evaluation of any process expression halts in probabilistic polynomial time and define a form of asymptotic protocol equivalence that allows security properties to be expressed using observational equivalence, a standard relation from programming language theory that involves quantifying over all possible environments that might interact with the protocol.We develop a form of probabilistic bisimulation and use it to establish the soundness of an equational proof system based on observational equivalences. The proof system is illustrated by a formation derivation of the assertion, well-known in cryptography, that El Gamal encryption's semantic security is equivalent to the (computational) Decision Diffie–Hellman assumption. This example demonstrates the power of probabilistic bisimulation and equational reasoning for protocol security

Inferring Group Processes from Computer-Mediated Affective Text Analysis

Political communications in the form of unstructured text convey rich connotative meaning that can reveal underlying group social processes. Previous research has focused on sentiment analysis at the document level, but we extend this analysis to sub-document levels through a detailed analysis of affective relationships between entities extracted from a document. Instead of pure sentiment analysis, which is just positive or negative, we explore nuances of affective meaning in 22 affect categories. Our affect propagation algorithm automatically calculates and displays extracted affective relationships among entities in graphical form in our prototype (TEAMSTER), starting with seed lists of affect terms. Several useful metrics are defined to infer underlying group processes by aggregating affective relationships discovered in a text. Our approach has been validated with annotated documents from the MPQA corpus, achieving a performance gain of 74% over comparable random guessers

Analysis of Blood Flow through Viscoelastic Blood Vessel

Analysis of viscoelastic material can be done through ansys multi physics software. For modelling viscoelastic materials, prony series coefficients had been generated from the stress relaxation data (shear modulus vs. time) using prony series curve fitting. Also, Ansys was used to study the fluid interaction on viscoelastic materials. First blood vessel was modelled using geometric modeller and it is exported to ansys and using prony series curve fitting, viscoelastic properties are given to the blood vessel. Blood flow was modelled in CFX. Two way coupling was established between Ansys and CFX. And the boundary conditions such as pressure pulse and mass flow rate was given to the blood flow. Then the model was solved in CFX. And the variation of pressure, von mises stress and total mesh displacement along the length of blood vessel is plotted