NoSQL Data Stores In Publish/Subscribe-Based RESTful Web Services

In the era of mobile cloud computing, the consumption of virtualized software and Web-based services from super-back-end infrastructure using smartphones and tablets is gaining much research attention from both the industry and academia. Nowadays, these mobile devices generate and access multimedia data hosted in social media and other sources in order to enhance the users’ multimedia experience. However, multimedia data is unstructured which can lead to challenges with data synchronization between these mobile devices and the cloud computing back-end. The issue with data synchronization is further fueled by the fact that mobile devices can experience intermittent connectivity losses due to unstable wireless bandwidths. While previous works proposed Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) -based middleware for the Web services’ synchronization, this approach is not efficient in a mobile environment because the SOAP protocol is verbose. Thus, the Representational State Transfer (REST) standard has been proposed recently to model the Web services since it is lightweight. This thesis proposes a novel approach for implementing a REST-based mobile Web Service for multimedia file sharing that utilizes a channel-based publish/subscribe communication scheme to synchronize smartphone or tablet-hosted NoSQL databases with a cloud-hosted NoSQL database. This thesis evaluates the synchronicity and the scalability of a prototype system that was implemented according to this approach. Also, this thesis assesses the overhead of the middleware component of the system

Incidence and dietary risk factors of goitre in children in a rural area/ D.R.Congo

Background: Although deficiency in dietary iodine remains the main cause of endemic and sporadic goitre, naturally occurring goitrogens in foods are additional factors that play a major role in developing goitre. In this study we focused on the relationship of different potential goitrogenous food and the development of goitre in preschool children in the rural area of Bwamanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Objectives: First, to do a semi-systematic literature review on the incidence of goitre and the role of dietary pattern in its genesis. Second, describe the incidence of goitre in preschool children in DRC in relation to age, sex, and season. Third, examine the effects of specific food items on occurrence of goitre in these children. Methods: For the 1st objective, we used a semi- systematic method to search for relevant published articles to the topic area. We searched four online databases, three online journals, five authors and the reference lists of the identified key articles. We did a secondary analysis of the data from an original dynamic population study which was done in the rural area of Bwamanda, DRC. That study included an open cohort of 5657 children which was followed up every 3 months throughout six survey rounds, during a period of three years from 1989- 1991. All the investigations and clinical examination were done by trained doctors and interviewers at special under five clinics in the study setting. Incidence of goitre among the children who were at risk of developing goitre was calculated for 5 survey intervals. The incidence of goitre was also assessed in relation to season, sex and age of the children. For the 3rd specific objective, seven food items were selected to be investigated for their potential goitrogenic effects. The exposed group was those children who ate these foods and the unexposed group was the children who didn’t eat these foods. Age, sex, height for age Z-score (HAZ), and weight for length Z-score (WLZ) were considered as potential confounders. All selected food items and confounders were analysed using logistic regression analysis. Results: Four studies were included in the semi-systematic literature review; the conclusion was similar in all of them with iodine deficiency being the main cause of goitre in man, and cassava consumption being an important factor in addition to that. Incidence of goitre was different in each survey interval and it was higher in rainy season. The incidence of goitre increased significantly when children got older but being a male or a female was statistically unrelated. Eating cassava leaves, cassava tubers and maize played a major role in developing goitre especially in older children, while nuts reduced the risk of developing goitre in those children. Banana, fish and papaya had non-significant contributions. iv Conclusion: This study confirms that goitre incidence in children (0-5years) in a rural area in Central Africa is significantly related with age as the older children had more risk to develop goitre than the younger children, but it had no relation to gender. The incidence of goitre increased also during rainy seasons. This is the 1st longitudinal analysis showing the relationship between consumption of specific food items and the development of goitre in children (0-5 years) in a rural area in central Africa, where cassava and maize found to be important contributory factors while nuts may have a protective role in developing goitre in those children.Master of philosophy in international healthMAMD-INTHINTH39

Towards An Effective Urban Growth Management Strategy In Qatar (1)

Control and management of urban growth is currently a subject of intense debate in both professional and academic planning circles, as suburban sprawl, pollution, and the decline of the urban environment particularly in city centres have become more sensitive public issues. The desire to control growth versus an increasing public need for housing and other related facilities has created a serious dilemma for planning agencies in their efforts to facilitate for better living environment. Growth management can be defined as the mitigation of the impacts of growth in order to improve or maintain the quality of life in a community. By clearly articulating the values of the community and identifying those items that contribute to the quality of life through the creation of a growth management strategy and implementation plan, it is possible to establish an effective approach to manage future growth. Increasing demands for urban growth with decreasing satisfaction in the resulting quality of life is the dilemma of most countries including the State of Qatar. The inefficient use of economic and physical resources results in development that generates new problems, such as sprawl, traffic congestion and rising demands for increased government spending on new infrastructure and services. The lack of comprehensive planning and development control may also results in infrastructure installation costs that are much higher than what they would be with a growth management strategy in place. The land allocation policies that are uncoordinated with physical development plans in Qatar exacerbate the problem by directing development to areas without appropriate infrastructure and services. This paper aim at reviews the current problems associated with the lack of an urban growth management strategy in the State of Qatar and outlines the process of creating a comprehensive system to effectively handle urban growth. The paper will also attempt to formulate an outline for an effective strategy to mitigate the impacts of growth in order to maintain and improve the quality of life in the State of Qatar

Synthesis and Evaluation Antibacterial Activity of Some New Substituted 5-Bromoisatin Containing Five, Six Heterocyclic Ring

This research includes the synthesis of some new different heterocyclic derivatives of 5-Bromoisatin. New sulfonylamide, diazine, oxazole, thiazole and 1,2,3-triazole derivatives of 5-Bromoisatin have been synthesized. The synthesis process started by the reaction of 5-Bromoisatin with different reagents to obtain schiff bases of 5-Bromoisatin intermediate compounds(1, 8, 19) by using glacial acetic acid as a catalyst in three routes. The first route, 5-Bromoisatin reacted with p-aminosulfonylchloride to product compound(1), then converted to sulfonyl amide derivatives(2-7) by the reaction of compound(1) with different substituted primary aromatic amine in absolute ethanol. The second route includes the reaction of 5-Bromoisatin reacted with ethyl glycinate to give 5-bromo-3-(Ethyl imino acetate)-2-oxo indole(8), which undergo react with hydrazine hydrate 80% to obtain hydrazine derivatives(9) that react with different acid anhydrides to obtain diazine derivatives(10-14). Also compound(8) reacts with urea and thiourea to give compounds(15,16) which undergo cyclization with p-bromophenacylbromide in absolute ethanol as a solvent to obtain oxazole (17) and thiazole (18), respectively. The third route included the reaction of 5-Bromoisatin with p-phenylenediamine in ethanol to obtain compound(19) which is converted to new substitutes 1,2,3-triazole derivatives(22,23) by diazotation of compound(19) and treating the resulted salt(20) with sodium azid, then acetylaceton or ethylacetoacetate, respectively. Newly synthesized compounds were identified by spectral methods. (FTIR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR) and measurements of some of its physical properties and also some specific reactions. Furthermore the effects of the synthesized compounds were studied on some strains of bacteria

A Secure Quorum Based Multi-Tag RFID System

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology has been expanded to be used in different fields that need automatic identifying and verifying of tagged objects without human intervention. RFID technology offers a great advantage in comparison with barcodes by providing accurate information, ease of use and reducing of labour cost. These advantages have been utilised by using passive RFID tags. Although RFID technology can enhance the efficiency of different RFID applications systems, researchers have reported issues regarding the use of RFID technology. These issues are making the technology vulnerable to many threats in terms of security and privacy. Different RFID solutions, based on different cryptography primitives, have been developed. Most of these protocols focus on the use of passive RFID tags. However, due to the computation feasibility in passive RFID tags, these tags might be vulnerable to some of the security and privacy threats. , e.g. unauthorised reader can read the information inside tags, illegitimate tags or cloned tags can be accessed by a reader. Moreover, most consideration of reserchers is focus on single tag authentication and mostly do not consider scenarios that need multi-tag such as supply chain management and healthcare management. Secret sharing schemes have been also proposed to overcome the key management problem in supply chain management. However, secret sharing schemes have some scalability limitations when applied with high numbers of RFID tags. This work is mainly focused on solving the problem of the security and privacy in multi-tag RFID based system. In this work firstly, we studied different RFID protocols such as symmetric key authentication protocols, authentication protocols based on elliptic curve cryptography, secret sharing schemes and multi-tag authentication protocols. Secondly, we consider the significant research into the mutual authentication of passive RFID tags. Therefore, a mutual authentication scheme that is based on zero-knowledge proof have been proposed . The main object of this work is to develop an ECC- RFID based system that enables multi-RFID tags to be authenticated with one reader by using different versions of ECC public key encryption schemes. The protocol are relied on using threshold cryptosystems that operate ECC to generate secret keys then distribute and stored secret keys among multi RFID tags. Finally, we provide performance measurement for the implementation of the proposed protocols.Ministry of higher education and scientific research, Baghdad-Ira

A comprehensive approach to the study of the housing sector in Iraq with special reference to needs, standards, inputs, density and costs as factors in the analysis of housing problems in Baghdad

Iraq has a stock of buildings, particularly dwellings, many of which are neither physically fit nor capable of meeting the economic and social needs of today. Many people, particularly in the cities, live in overcrowded and insanitary conditions. Many dwellings are badly located and mixed with derelict land. Population is expected to grow and even without any rise in standards, this would greatly increase the need for building and works of all kinds. At the macro level the main cause of the housing problem must be attributed to the process of migration and urbanization, which have contributed to the creation of slums and squatter settlements. At the policy level, the existing machinery of planning is scarcely adequate. Housing has conventionally received only scant attention in national development plans and this central neglect is mirrored by a similar failure at the municipal level. At the micro level, with which this study has primarily been concerned, it must be emphasised that housing is not simply an economic commodity but has deep social and political as well as environmental implications. The increasing gap between incomes and housing costs has to be contained and this can only be done by operating on a number of fronts simultaneously. The purpose of this study is to examine the housing sector in Iraq with special reference to the city of Baghdad-from the point of view that housing is not only a shelter which provides protection from the elements but a synthesis in which social, economic, physical and political forces interact. The study also develops an argument that housing density is not simply another planning index to be used with others in the formulation of town plans but a crucial variable which once fixed will have far reaching effects not only to the inhabitants of the housing areas but also to the social, economic and physical environment of the urban structure as a whole. The study adopts two related approaches. The first approach is a general survey of the causes and effects of housing problems and the interrelationships of housing aspects. Then, having identified particular topics of concern, the study examines some of these, such as housing needs, standards, housing inputs, i. e. land, finance building materials, labour and the construction industry, housing densities and costs relationships, in some detail. The study stresses the need to establish principles and processes of comprehensive analysis stems from the importance of housing as a community problem area, since housing is a major land use and its form reflects and influences, in a critical way, the pattern of urban experience and activity. Throughout, the aim has not been to produce a model or concrete figures so much as to analyse present trends and suggest some likely future developments in the hope that, with modification and. improvement, this study could act as a basis for further detailed study of the housing sector and assist in the formulation of long - term housing programme

The development of a real-time energy prediction framework in domestic buildings

The construction industry consumed 35% of worldwide energy, with domestic buildings accounting for 22%. Providing a healthy, positive environment in domestic buildings raised energy demand by around 80% in building operations, with thermal comfort accounting for about half of that increase. Furthermore, building energy consumption is 5 to 10 times greater than predictions given during the design phase. The discrepancy between the actual and intended design is called the performance gap. Although the term is widely used in the context of energy performance, it can also be found in indoor environmental parameters such as temperature, relative humidity, air quality, noise, and illumination. This thesis connects building performance simulation to building operational performance, focusing on real-time energy prediction for space heating in an indoor environment of domestic buildings. The work presented in this research is a technical implementation framework for examining the energy consumption of indoor space heating in real-time, focusing on energy-related thermal comfort conditions at the zone level. Unlike building performance simulation tools, The developed framework can be used beyond the design phase to encompass operations and assist in diagnosing and detecting building underperformance or performance discrepancy over time. Focusing on zone level can offer a greater understanding of the thermal state and energy usage of specific individual spaces, which can also assist in identifying performance disparity. Buildings with good indoor environmental quality are objectively assessed using simulation tools. However, the indoor environmental quality, especially thermal comfort, is experienced subjectively, making the building energy and thermal performance evaluation task challenging. The developed framework extends the use of the energy model to the operational stage by predicting thermal and energy performance based on indoor and outdoor environmental parameters. Moreover, using a parametric energy simulation and machine learning approach connected to an IoT sensor system enable users to identify thermal comfort conditions in the indoor environment and the amount of energy consumed for space heating. Finally, the research identified several lessons that can potentially inform and improve the existing domestic buildings, especially winter space heating. Following the framework, an innovative device was developed and validated using an experimental approach that focuses on real-time energy prediction of space heating. In this process, the experimental case studies' thermal comfort conditions and energy consumption were monitored and analysed to identify thermal-energy performance-related issues, also used for validating the proposed real-time energy prediction module

A comprehensive approach to the study of the housing sector in Iraq with special reference to needs, standards, inputs, density and costs as factors in the analysis of housing problems in Baghdad

Iraq has a stock of buildings, particularly dwellings, many of which are neither physically fit nor capable of meeting the economic and social needs of today. Many people, particularly in the cities, live in overcrowded and insanitary conditions. Many dwellings are badly located and mixed with derelict land. Population is expected to grow and even without any rise in standards, this would greatly increase the need for building and works of all kinds. At the macro level the main cause of the housing problem must be attributed to the process of migration and urbanization, which have contributed to the creation of slums and squatter settlements. At the policy level, the existing machinery of planning is scarcely adequate. Housing has conventionally received only scant attention in national development plans and this central neglect is mirrored by a similar failure at the municipal level. At the micro level, with which this study has primarily been concerned, it must be emphasised that housing is not simply an economic commodity but has deep social and political as well as environmental implications. The increasing gap between incomes and housing costs has to be contained and this can only be done by operating on a number of fronts simultaneously. The purpose of this study is to examine the housing sector in Iraq with special reference to the city of Baghdad-from the point of view that housing is not only a shelter which provides protection from the elements but a synthesis in which social, economic, physical and political forces interact. The study also develops an argument that housing density is not simply another planning index to be used with others in the formulation of town plans but a crucial variable which once fixed will have far reaching effects not only to the inhabitants of the housing areas but also to the social, economic and physical environment of the urban structure as a whole. The study adopts two related approaches. The first approach is a general survey of the causes and effects of housing problems and the interrelationships of housing aspects. Then, having identified particular topics of concern, the study examines some of these, such as housing needs, standards, housing inputs, i. e. land, finance building materials, labour and the construction industry, housing densities and costs relationships, in some detail. The study stresses the need to establish principles and processes of comprehensive analysis stems from the importance of housing as a community problem area, since housing is a major land use and its form reflects and influences, in a critical way, the pattern of urban experience and activity. Throughout, the aim has not been to produce a model or concrete figures so much as to analyse present trends and suggest some likely future developments in the hope that, with modification and. improvement, this study could act as a basis for further detailed study of the housing sector and assist in the formulation of long - term housing programme