The Role of Social Media in Developing Online Learning Communities

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of social media in develop-ing learning communities in both formal and informal learning contexts. The study was based on a theoretical framework to examine online learning communities from three levels: individual, interactional and group. This study selected two cases: the first case was a formal learning group that used networked learning via Twitter and WhatsApp within a blended learning environment in an academic module; this for-mal learning group was controlled by the teacher of the module. The second case was an informal learning group that used Twitter and WhatsApp to learn and prac-tise English as a second language; this group was created and informally organised by an active member on Twitter who was interested in teaching and practising Eng-lish. Semi-structured interviews, focus groups and WhatsApp discussion samples were the three main data collection methods of this study. The data were analysed using three procedures. Firstly, a thematic analysis of the interviews was conducted to generate a thematic research map and create a coding scheme for analysing the content of the WhatsApp discussions. Secondly, a social network analysis (SNA) was applied to the WhatsApp group discussions to map out the interactions among group members and select the sample of WhatsApp discussion for the third data analysis procedure. The third procedure was content analysis (CA), which was ap-plied to the WhatsApp conversations that occurred during the selected sample (the three most active and connected weeks). Findings from the SNA and CA were used to triangulate the results of the thematic analysis. The findings revealed that the ex-istence of similar learning needs, interactive communication among members and using appropriate communication tools are the main factors that develop online learning communities on social media. Also, it showed that the main function of us-ing Twitter for learning purposes was to develop the academic and social presence of the students/learners, while the main learning function of using WhatsApp was to provide an instant and open communication environment for online learning com-munity members. However, there were different uses of these applications in formal and informal learning contexts, which were described in the study

Entrepreneurship and Innovation in E-business

E-businesses have been on the rise following the constant development of technology and the internet. Both on line and on site business need to incorporate the elements of entrepreneurship and innovation (Bucherer, Eisert and Gassmann 2012). Moreover, as argued in this paper firms that initially operated physical stores only are starting e-business platforms now. The main reason being that online business offers customers a series of features or conveniences, which are not found in real shops (Fillis and Wagner 2005). This means that companies operating online ventures stand to gain regarding increased sale and access to clients from all parts of the world.The primary argument of this paper is thatboth innovation and entrepreneurship are crucial to the survival of e-businesses and e-commerce ventures. The paper takes an integrative approach to analyse and discuss the synergies that exist between innovation and entrepreneurship. Further, the paper also addresses the factors that foster interaction between the two factors. The essay also looksat some empirical studies analysed will contribute towards the significanceof innovation and entrepreneurship in e-businesses. In a nutshell, the paper helps improve the glimpse of the current models and practices of innovation and entrepreneurship in organisations, specifically e-businesses

Cloud-Based Retrieval Information System Using Concept for Multi-Format Data

The need of effective and efficient method to retrieving non-Web-enabled and Web-enabled information entities is essential, due to the fact of inaccuracy of the existing search engines that still use traditional term-based indexing for text documents and annotation text for images, audio and video files. Previous works showed that incorporating the knowledge in the form of concepts into an information retrieval system may increase the effectiveness of the retrieving method. Unfortunately, most of the works that implemented the concept-based information retrieval system still focused on one information format. This paper proposes a multi-format (text, image, video and, audio) concept-based information retrieval method for Cloud environment. The proposed method is implemented in a laboratory-scale heterogeneous cloud environment using Eucalyptus middleware.  755 multi-format information is experimented and the performance of the proposed method is measured

Entrepreneurship and Innovation in E-Business

E-businesses have been on the rise following the constant development of technology and the internet. Both on line and on site business need to incorporate the elements of entrepreneurship and innovation (Bucherer, Eisert and Gassmann 2012). Moreover, as argued in this paper firms that initially operated physical stores only are starting e-business platforms now. The main reason being that online business offers customers a series of features or conveniences, which are not found in real shops (Fillis and Wagner 2005). This means that companies operating online ventures stand to gain regarding increased sale and access to clients from all parts of the world. The primary argument of this paper is that both innovation and entrepreneurship are crucial to the survival of e-businesses and e-commerce ventures. The paper takes an integrative approach to analyse and discuss the synergies that exist between innovation and entrepreneurship. Further, the paper also addresses the factors that foster interaction between the two factors. The essay also looks at some empirical studies analysed will contribute towards the significance of innovation and entrepreneurship in e-businesses. In a nutshell, the paper helps improve the glimpse of the current models and practices of innovation and entrepreneurship in organisations, specifically e-businesses

(In Press) A new house wall system for residential buildings

The residential housing sector consumes a significant amount of fossil fuel energy and thereby produces a large percentage of greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming and climate change. At present, approximately 40% of the total household energy used is required for space heating/cooling and a substantial amount of that energy is lost through the house walls. Despite the importance of house walls for energy efficiency, most published literature focuses mainly on thermal comfort, environmental impact and economic costs of residential buildings. Little information is available on energy efficient house wall systems that can be used and adapted for varied climate conditions with minimal design change and associated cost. Therefore, the primary objective of this paper was to undertake a thermal performance study of two house wall systems with single and double glazed windows under variable climate conditions. The study was undertaken using thermal performance simulation software AccuRate®. The findings indicate that a significant energy saving can be achieved using the new house wall system compared to currently used brick veneer house wall system

Energy efficient residential house wall system

The energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission by the residential housing sector are considered to be one of the largest in economically developed countries. The larger energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission not only put additional pressure on finite fossil fuel resources but also cause global warming and climate change. Additionally, the residential housing sector will be consuming more energy as the house demand and average house floor area are progressively increasing. With currently used residential house wall systems, it is hard to reduce energy consumption for ongoing house space heating and cooling. A smart house wall envelope with optimal thermal masses and insulation materials is vital for reducing our increasing energy consumption. The major aim of this study is to investigate thermal performance and energy saving potential of a new house wall system for variable climate conditions. The thermal performance modelling was carried out using commercially developed software AccuRate®. The findings indicate that a notable energy savings can be accomplished if a smart house wall system is used

Gender recognition from unconstrained selfie images: a convolutional neural network approach

Human gender recognition is an essential demographic tool. This is reflected in forensic science, surveillance systems and targeted marketing applications. This research was always driven using standard face images and hand-crafted features. Such way has achieved good results, however, the reliability of the facial images had a great effect on the robustness of extracted features, where any small change in the query facial image could change the results. Nevertheless, the performance of current techniques in unconstrained environments is still inefficient, especially when contrasted against recent breakthroughs in different computer vision research. This paper introduces a novel technique for human gender recognition from non-standard selfie images using deep learning approaches. Selfie photos are uncontrolled partial or full-frontal body images that are usually taken by people themselves in real-life environment. As far as we know this is the first paper of its kind to identify gender from selfie photos, using deep learning approach. The experimental results on the selfie dataset emphasizes the proposed technique effectiveness in recognizing gender from such images with 89% accuracy. The performance is further consolidated by testing on numerous benchmark datasets that are widely used in the field, namely: Adience, LFW, FERET, NIVE, Caltech WebFaces andCAS-PEAL-R1

HIGH PERFORMANCE LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHIC DETERMINATION OF GLIMEPIRIDE AND TIMOLOL IN PHARMACEUTICAL FORMULATIONS USING BRITTON -ROBINSON BUFFER IN MOBILE PHASES

Actually, Glimepiride (GLI) and Timolol (TIM) are analysed by several analytical techniques such as HPLC, Uv Vis and electrochemical methods, but in this study these compounds were determined by use Britton-Robinson (B-R) buffer pH3 in mobile phases as a new work. B-R pH3 : Acetonitrile : Water : Methanol (10 : 30 : 10 : 50 % v/v/v/v) and B-R pH3 : Acetonitrile : Methanol (30 : 15 : 55 % v/v/v), were used as mobile phases for chromatographic studies of GLI and TIM respectively. 1´10-3 mol L-1 of GLI and TIM were prepared  by dissolving the suitable weight of analyte in methanol and distilled water respectively, in 50 ml volumetric flask. GLI and TIM were HPLC separated from interferences and analytical determined using C-18 (5µm) with UV detector at 254 nm and 1.00 mL min-1 flow rate by 10 µL injection volume. The calibration curves for GLI and TIM  were studied over the range 1×10-4 to 1×10-3 mol L-1 (correlation coefficient = 0.994, n=6) for GLI and (correlation coefficient = 0.996, n=6) for TIM. The HPLC reproducibility and stability were evaluated for 5×10-4 mol L-1 of GLI and TIM , yielded good results for ten HPLC measurements with relative standard deviations RSD% were 0.43 and 1.1%, and good stability observed. The developed HPLC was applied to determine of GLI and TIM in pharmaceutical formulations with mean recoveries 103% ±0.71 and 99% ±1.0, respectively.  

Evaluating Teaching Strategies in Higher Education From Students\u27 Perspectives

This study was conducted to investigate students\u27 perception of learning experiences at one of the largest government universities in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia. The sample consisted of male and female students and their instructors enrolled in four main colleges (Arts, Education, Preparatory year, and Science). Data were collected through a survey and focus group interviews during the fall semester of 2014-2015 academic year. The results provide feedback to faculty members about the quality of content, format, and structure of their courses, and can contribute to teaching and learning processes by facilitating faculty growth, development, and self-improvement