Culturally Appropriate Acceptance Models for Civic Engagement Systems in Saudi Arabia

Information systems that support civic engagement for the public good are a promising new category of technology-mediated social participation. However, adoption of these smart-phone enabled systems varies widely across countries. Building off existing research on how culture mediates technology acceptance, we seek to develop a culturally appropriate model from the ground up that can help explain this cross-cultural difference, with a specific focus on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a test case. This process involves mapping constructs from existing models, such as UTAUT, and theories, such as the Expectancy Theory of Motivation, to the cultural context and developing new contracts when no appropriate match is available. This paper reports early results from field work conducted in Saudi Arabia to generate these mappings._x000D_ _x000D_ Keywords: Technology Acceptance, Civic Engagement, Culture, Context, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Model Development, Technology Mediated Social Participation System

Evaluation of RPL’s Single Metric Objective Functions

In this paper, we evaluate the performance of RPL (IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low Power and Lossy Networks) based on the Objective Function being used to construct the Destination Oriented Directed Acyclic Graph (DODAG). Using the Cooja simulator, we compared Objective Function Zero (OF0) with the Minimum Rank with Hysteresis Objective Function (MRHOF) in terms of average power consumption, packet loss ratio, and average end-to-end latency. Our study shows that RPL performs better in terms of packet loss ratio and average endto-end latency when MRHOF is used as an objective function. However, the average power consumption is noticeably higher compared to OF0

“It is Magic”: A Global Perspective on what Technology Means to Youth

As technology becomes ever more pervasive, it is increasingly important to understand the relationships between technology and youth. We seek to understand this bond at a global level. We have conducted focus groups and\ud video diaries with middle-school aged children in three different countries: Hungary, India, and Morocco. Our exploration has yielded five themes highlighting the emotional perspectives of youth regarding the devices in their everyday lives: 1) awe and appreciation, 2) fun and entertainment, 3) boredom, 4) communication, and 5) negativity. This paper discusses these themes and their\ud significance

Active security vulnerability notification and resolution

The early version of the Internet was designed for connectivity only, without the consideration of security, and the Internet is consequently an open structure. Networked systems are vulnerable for a number of reasons; design error, implementation, and management. A vulnerability is a hole or weak point that can be exploited to compromise the security of the system. Operating systems and applications are often vulnerable because of design errors. Software vendors release patches for discovered vulnerabilities, and rely upon system administrators to accept and install patches on their systems. Many system administrators fail to install patches on time, and consequently leave their systems vulnerable to exploitation by hackers. This exploitation can result in various security breaches, including website defacement, denial of service, or malware attacks. The overall problem is significant with an average of 115 vulnerabilities per week being documented during 2005. This thesis considers the problem of vulnerabilities in IT networked systems, and maps the vulnerability types into a technical taxonomy. The thesis presents a thorough analysis of the existing methods of vulnerability management which determine that these methods have failed to mange the problem in a comprehensive way, and show the need for a comprehensive management system, capable of addressing the awareness and patch deploymentp roblems. A critical examination of vulnerability databasess tatistics over the past few years is provided, together with a benchmarking of the problem in a reference environment with a discussion of why a new approach is needed. The research examined and compared different vulnerability advisories, and proposed a generic vulnerability format towards automating the notification process. The thesis identifies the standard process of addressing vulnerabilities and the over reliance upon the manual method. An automated management system must take into account new vulnerabilities and patch deploymentt o provide a comprehensives olution. The overall aim of the research has therefore been to design a new framework to address these flaws in the networked systems harmonised with the standard system administrator process. The approach, known as AVMS (Automated Vulnerability Management System), is capable of filtering and prioritising the relevant messages, and then downloading the associated patches and deploying them to the required machines. The framework is validated through a proof-of-concept prototype system. A series of tests involving different advisories are used to illustrate how AVMS would behave. This helped to prove that the automated vulnerability management system prototype is indeed viable, and that the research has provided a suitable contribution to knowledge in this important domain.The Saudi Government and the Network Research Group at the University of Plymouth

Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis and in vitro evaluation of antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of various solvent extracts from Citrullus colocynthis (L.) roots to control pathogen and spoilage bacteria

Citrullus colocynthis (L.) schrad is an important medicinal plant belonging to the family of Cucurbitaceae. In the present study we evaluated in vitro the antimicrobial and the antioxidant properties of various solvent extracts from C. colocynthis roots as well as the latter phytochemical characterisation. Total phenolic and flavonoid contents were determined. The highest content of total phenolic was found in extracts obtained with ethyl acetate (205 mg GAE/g) followed by methanol (85 mg GAE/g). The major phenolic compounds in ethyl acetate extract were identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). A total of 12 compounds were characterized including oleic acid, linoleic acid, caffeic acid, hexadecanoic acid and octadecanoic acids. The antioxidant activities were evaluated using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl free radical (DPPH) and lipid peroxidation methods. These tests showed that the ethyl acetate extract exhibited the best performance. The different extracts were also tested against a panel of pathogen, food-borne and spoilage bacteria and fungi in order to evaluate the antimicrobial properties of this plant. Among the tested extracts, only the ethyl acetate extract exhibited bactericidal and fungicidal activities. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the chemical composition, antioxidant and antimicrobial activities of phenolic extracts from C. colocynthis roots. The results of the present work indicate that C. colocynthis extracts could be used as natural antioxidant and antimicrobial agents in the food preservation and human health.Key words: Citrullus colocynthis, antibacterial activity, antifungal activity, antioxidant activity, phenolics composition

Analytical Hierarchy Process Multi-Metric Objective Function for RPL

IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low Power and Lossy Networks (RPL), is based on building an acyclic graph where an Objective Function (OF) is responsible for selecting the preferred parent during Destination Oriented Directed Acyclic Graph (DODAG) construction. In this paper, we propose a new multi-metric OF based on Analytical Hierarchy Processes decision masking algorithm. AHP-OF, combines a set of routing metrics aiming to provide the best routing decision for RPL to satisfy the different application requirements for LLN s such as reliable applications, real time applications and highly available applications. Here we focus on the theoretical aspect of AHP-OF, and finally we evaluate the performance of AHP-OF compared to other OFs using Cooja simulator

Synthesis, Characterization and DFT Studies on Some 2,3-Dihydro-4-Methyl-1H-1,5-Benzodiazepinone and N-Isopropenyl Benzimidazolone Derivatives

Benzodiazepinones and benzimidazolones have been synthesized by the reaction of o-phenylenediamine with ethylacetoacetate in boiling xylene. Alkylation of the obtained compounds was carried out by reaction with excess of ethyl iodide. The reaction of alkylated compounds with aromatic aldehyde leads to the formation of aryldinodiazepinone and/or arylidinone derivatives. The prepared compounds were tested for antibacterial and fungicidal activity. Gram-negative bacteria (Bacillus cereus), as well as the fungus was used for this purpose. The newly prepared compounds have been characterized by IR, MS, elemental analysis and 1H NMR spectroscopies and as well as theoretical level (DFT/B3LYP)

Impact of E-Marketing on Consumer Buying Behavior

In this modern and mechanized world the businesses area doping a number of tools and techniques for marketing. However all the tools are deriving results but the most updated method of marketing is the electronic marketing. It is the method of marketing that derives more target customers as compared to the other techniques. Researchers have sown that since the technology has updated and today the customers are aware of the technology. The customers are more interested in the social media websites and the applications. Hence these applications have becomea good spot of advertisements and promotion. Similarly the search engines are offering adds policy that derives the customers in thebusiness and ultimately maximizes the revenues for the business

Temperature rise in photopolymerized adhesively-bonded resin composite: A thermography study

ObjectivesTo assess visually and quantitatively the contributions of the adhesive layer photopolymerization and the subsequent resin composite increment to spatio-temporal maps of temperature at five different cavity locations, subjected to two irradiance curing protocols: standard and ultra-high.MethodsCaries-free molars were used to obtain 40, 2 mm thick dentin slices, randomly assigned to groups (n = 5). These slices were incorporated within 3D-printed model cavites, 4 mm deep, restored with Adhese® Universal bonding agent and 2 mm thick Tetric® Powerfill resin composite, and photocured sequentially, as follows: G1: control-empty cavity; G2: adhesive layer; G3 composite layer with no adhesive; and G4 composite layer with adhesive. The main four groups were subdivided based on two curing protocols, exposed either to standard 10 s (1.2 W/cm2) or Ultra high 3 s (3 W/cm2) irradiance modes using a Bluephase PowerCure LCU. Temperature maps were obtained, via a thermal imaging camera, and numerically analyzed at 5 locations. The data were analyzed using two-way ANOVA followed by multiple one-way ANOVA, independent t-tests and Tukey post-hoc tests (α = 0.05). Tmax, ΔT, Tint (integrated area under the curve) and time-to-reach-maximum-temperature were evaluated.ResultsTwo-way ANOVA showed that there was no significant interaction between light-curing time and location on the measured parameters (p > 0.05), except for the time-to-reach-maximum-temperature (p < 0.05). Curing the adhesive layer alone with the 10 s protocol resulted in a significantly increased pulpal roof temperature compared to 3 s cure (p < 0.05). Independent T-tests between G3 and G4, between 3 s and 10 s, confirmed that the adhesive agent caused no significant increases (p > 0.05) on the measured parameters. The ultra-high light-curing protocol significantly increased ΔT in composite compared to 10 s curing (p < 0.05).SignificanceWhen the adhesive layer was photocured alone in a cavity, with a 2 mm thick dentin floor, the exothermal release of energy resulted in higher temperatures with a 10 s curing protocol, compared to a 3 s high irradiance. But when subsequently photocuring a 2 mm layer of composite, the resultant temperatures generated at pulpal roof location from the two curing protocols were similar and therefore there was no increased hazard to the dental pulp from the immediately prior adhesive photopolymerization, cured via the ultra-high irradiation protocol