Globalization and Poverty: A Divisional Study on Bangladesh (1990-2010)

This paper investigates the nexus between economic aspect of globalization and poverty across the six key divisions of Bangladesh Arguments are based on theories of dualistic development and structural transformation process in low income countries In this model economic globalization of Bangladesh is measured by three major features which are trade of merchandise and services FDI and remittance inflow Additionally a control variable is taken which is population So for this statistical panel regression is used i e fixed-effect model and random-effect model The lack of data deficiency did not let us execute any statistical procedure to choose any specific model In this paper both the model have uniform outcome The empirical findings in both the model are consistent with conventional wisdom for remittance inflow Population and trade have traditional affiliation with poverty but statistically insignificant in both model However the positive FDI link implies that it totally contradicts with normal norm Then the emphasis is on dummy variable analysis In the dummy variable analysis Dhaka division is excluded to get rid of the dummy variable trap and to make comparison with five other divisions Each of the division has directly proportional relationship with poverty Additionally it was found to be statistically significant apart from Khulna division To conclude the fruits from economic globalization are unequally divided across division

Value of enterprise risk management: cross-sectional study of management perceptions at eThekwini Municipality.

Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.Key issue that this study addresses is the perceptions over enterprise risk management. Existing, are various debates over the value of enterprise risk management. There are compliance requirements and good governance recommendations for the implementation of enterprise risk management, however, organisations are constantly faced with the challenge of demonstrating the value of enterprise risk management to the end that executives are questioning the contribution, especially in times of rationalization and cost containment. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to explore the perceptions of enterprise risk management at eThekwini Municipality. This was a cross-sectional study conducted among 43 Risk Champions at eThekwini Municipality using a self-administered questionnaire. The entire population of Risk Champions was surveyed and hence the sample is the same as the population. The data lead to the following constructs of study: Resources relates to the level of establishment of enterprise risk management, Factors that affect implementation regarding enterprise risk management and adding of value, Alignment of ERM and governance process together with strategic thinking. These constructs are useful to understanding the perceptions of managers at eThekwini Municipality. Results found a significant relationship between resources and the implementation of enterprise risk management. There was also a relationship between value and the implementation of enterprise risk management. Most respondents was in agreement that risk features in the strategy process of their departments with a significant portion remain neutral, perhaps indicating that they are not sure regarding risk’s involvement in the strategy process of the department. The findings assisted in informing the enterprise risk management policy and strategy at eThekwini Municipality

Speedes: A Case Study Of Space Operations

This thesis describes the application of parallel simulation techniques to represent the structured functional parallelism present within the Space Shuttle Operations Flow using the Synchronous Parallel Environment for Emulation and Discrete-Event Simulation (SPEEDES), an object-oriented multi-computing architecture. SPEEDES is a unified parallel simulation environment, which allocates events over multiple processors to get simulation speed up. Its optimistic processing capability minimizes simulation lag time behind wall clock time, or multiples of real-time. SPEEDES accommodates an increase in process complexity with additional parallel computing nodes to allow sharing of processing loads. This thesis focuses on the process of translating a model of Space Shuttle Operations from a procedural oriented and single processor approach to one represented in a process-driven, object-oriented, and distributed processor approach. The processes are depicted by several classes created to represent the operations at the space center. The reference model used is the existing Space Shuttle Model created in ARENA by NASA and UCF in the year 2001. A systematic approach was used for this translation. A reduced version of the ARENA model was created, and then used as the SPEEDES prototype using C++. The prototype was systematically augmented to reflect the entire Space Shuttle Operations Flow. It was then verified, validated, and implemented

Tuning the torque-speed characteristics of bacterial flagellar motor to enhance the swimming speed

In a classic paper, Edward Purcell analysed the dynamics of flagellated bacterial swimmers and derived a geometrical relationship which optimizes the propulsion efficiency. Experimental measurements for wild-type bacterial species E. coli have revealed that they closely satisfy this geometric optimality. However, the dependence of the flagellar motor speed on the load and more generally the role of the torque-speed characteristics of the flagellar motor is not considered in Purcell's original analysis. Here we derive a tuned condition representing a match between the flagella geometry and the torque-speed characteristics of the flagellar motor to maximize the bacterial swimming speed for a given load. This condition is independent of the geometric optimality condition derived by Purcell and interestingly this condition is not satisfied by wild-type E. coli which swim 2-3 times slower than the maximum possible speed given the amount of available motor torque. Our analysis also reveals the existence of an anomalous propulsion regime, where the swim speed increases with increasing load (drag). Finally, we present experimental data which supports our analysis

The Defend – A Collision Based Detection iOS Game

The overall concept of The Defend is to save the Puppies which are in danger from the Puppy monster. The Dog is the hero of the game and the important thing to remember while playing the game is that whenever there is a collision between the dog and puppies, then a chain is formed behind the dog with puppies. Another rule is that whenever there is collision between the dog and puppy monster, there is a decrease of two puppies from the chain. The most challenging part of this development was to detect the collisions, interpreting the User’s touch location on the screen, and implementing various actions to the sprites like sound, enabling movement and most importantly providing the animation. The Defend is a two dimensional Universal mobile game developed for all IOS platforms. The implementation of this game is done using the SpriteKit framework. To develop a two dimensional IOS game SpriteKit is one of the best available frameworks. The language used for this development is SWIFT. The collisions are detected whenever there is intersection between the frames of different sprites in the game. As this game is a Universal game, the design of this game is done in such a way that the images are compatible and adjusted automatically with in the screen on any device it is installed. This was implemented with the help of some Auto Layout constraints. This game has been successfully submitted to the Apple App store and has been approved

Design and Architecture of an Ontology-driven Dialogue System for HPV Vaccine Counseling

Speech and conversational technologies are increasingly being used by consumers, with the inevitability that one day they will be integrated in health care. Where this technology could be of service is in patient-provider communication, specifically for communicating the risks and benefits of vaccines. Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, in particular, is a vaccine that inoculates individuals from certain HPV viruses responsible for adulthood cancers - cervical, head and neck cancers, etc. My research focuses on the architecture and development of speech-enabled conversational agent that relies on series of consumer-centric health ontologies and the technology that utilizes these ontologies. Ontologies are computable artifacts that encode and structure domain knowledge that can be utilized by machines to provide high level capabilities, such as reasoning and sharing information. I will focus the agent’s impact on the HPV vaccine domain to observe if users would respond favorably towards conversational agents and the possible impact of the agent on their beliefs of the HPV vaccine. The approach of this study involves a multi-tier structure. The first tier is the domain knowledge base, the second is the application interaction design tier, and the third is the feasibility assessment of the participants. The research in this study proposes the following questions: Can ontologies support the system architecture for a spoken conversational agent for HPV vaccine counseling? How would prospective users’ perception towards an agent and towards the HPV vaccine be impacted after using conversational agent for HPV vaccine education? The outcome of this study is a comprehensive assessment of a system architecture of a conversational agent for patient-centric HPV vaccine counseling. Each layer of the agent architecture is regulated through domain and application ontologies, and supported by the various ontology-driven software components that I developed to compose the agent architecture. Also discussed in this work, I present preliminary evidence of high usability of the agent and improvement of the users’ health beliefs toward the HPV vaccine. All in all, I introduce a comprehensive and feasible model for the design and development of an open-sourced, ontology-driven conversational agent for any health consumer domain, and corroborate the viability of a conversational agent as a health intervention tool

A Scalable and Low-Cost Interactive Shape-Changing Display

Research in new display technologies has garnered great interest in the recent years. Curved screens and foldable displays have already been commercialized. However a relatively new field of research is in dynamic shape-changing or shape-shifting displays. These displays utilize the ability to change their shape dynamically as another dimension of representing visual data. These displays potentially augmented with colors, can help visualize three dimensional data such as terrains, city and building plans, and medical data. They can also be used in new ways of Human-Computer Interaction by developing user interfaces that transform physically based on the scenario. While there is research being done on new ways of using shape displays for interaction and manipulation, not much focus has been given to the issue of cost and scalability. The general shape displays which are currently being developed have individual pixels which need to be actuated. The commercial linear actuators which are used in these displays are extremely expensive and are not meant for such purposes. This thesis presents a design for a dynamic pixel-based shape changing display which focuses on cost and scalability by using custom designed modular actuators and sensor packages