Novus Ordo Seclorum: The Reality of Orwell’s 1984

Are we currently living in the reality of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four? The novel has a definite ring due to the many Orwellian words and concepts that have become part of our parlance, especially the political vocabulary – terms like “Big Brother”, “Doublethink” and “Newspeak” that have gained enormous significance in the present dispensation. The central theme of Nineteen Eighty-Four is the State’s imposition of will upon thought and truth. The world that Orwell envisages does not allow privacy for the individual and does not allow the individual to have a personal identity and also aspires to falsify history. The novel in essence raises disturbing nevertheless pertinent questions with regard to power structure, motives behind the moves of the governments, war, and class distinctions based on economic criteria. There is an invasion on our privacy as the Government is closely monitoring us constantly and more so with the advent of Aadhaar card and the seeding of bank accounts, Pan cards, etc. And quite significantly, we perceive the exact scenario that has been portrayed in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. The novel has elements of postmodernism because the reader is left in a quandary questioning, whether “Big Brother is real?” and “what apparently is real and what is not”, as a matter of fact, perceptible realities are only social constructs. This paper proposes to revisit Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four by highlighting these pertinent questions of the past– with special reference to the power structure, Big Brother”, “Doublethink” and “Newspeak” and its contemporary significance to today’s society

Location Intelligent IS: GIS Decision-making and GISc Innovations

Enhancing an IS (Information System) with GIS (Geographic Information System) decision-making software creates, manipulates, compares, and analyzes high resolution, spatial-temporal data-events like sales and census data on digital maps that improve the customer value chain. When this robust GIS insight (i.e., WHO is involved, WHAT the consequences are, WHEN events occur, WHERE events occur, and perhaps WHY events occur) is fused with a rigorous theoretical foundation in GISc (Geospatial Information Sciences) and other disciplinary theory and knowledge, the IS becomes a powerful predictor of demand chain management challenges and opportunities related to Marketing, Sales and Service. The paper demonstrates these linkages for the benefit of IS practitioners interested in understanding the effects of such an IS enhancement

A Study of User Perception of the Quality of Video Content Rendered Inside a 3-D Virtual Environment

© 2016 IEEE. This paper reports on the result of a user study to assess the impact of resolution and frame rate of video on the quality of experience of the users, when the video is rendered inside a 3-D virtual space, and consequently viewed from arbitrary perspectives. A mathematical model for video rate is presented that expresses the total rate as the product of separate functions of spatial and temporal resolutions. Results from the user study are combined with the model to predict the rate parameters which will result in perceptually acceptable quality using the 3-D features of the virtual environment. The results show that by exploiting the insensitivity of users to controlled quality degradation, the downstream network load for the client can be significantly reduced with little or no perceptual impact on the clients

Minimisation of video downstream bit rate for large scale immersive video conferencing by utilising the perceptual variations of quality

© 2014 IEEE. This paper aims at minimising the video downstream bit rate of immersive video conferencing (IVC) applications by judiciously modifying the video quality based on the relative virtual positions of participants in the virtual environment. The paper reports on the results of a user study to assess the influence of participants' perspectives on the perceptual impact of relevant video parameters, such as resolution and frame rate. A mathematical model for video rate is proposed that expresses the total rate as the product of spatial resolution and frame rate. Results from the user study are combined with the proposed model to predict the rate parameters which will result in perceptually acceptable quality for a given user perspective. The simulation results show that by exploiting the proposed method, the downstream network load for the client can be significantly reduced with little or no impact on the perceived quality

Multi-Feature Learning Model for Epilepsy Classification Supervised by a Highly Robust Heterogeneous Deep Ensemble

In this present work, we propose a novel heterogeneous deep ensemble-based multi-feature learningenvironment for epilepsy classification. The proposed model is built to deal with the present prominent issues like data imbalance, low accuracy, and most importantly the need for a reliable classification model. To accomplish this, a multi-level enhancing technique is used to address the problem of class imbalance, which included data sampling with a 95% confidence interval. A variety of sample techniques are used, including random sampling, down - sampling, and the synthetic minority oversampling technique (SMOTE). We have used algorithms like significant predictor test(SPR), Cross-Correlation Analysis (CRA) and Principle Component Analysis (PCA) to select features after retrieving samples data. The main goal of using various feature selection methods was to keep the best features for high accuracy and minimal computation. Using Decision Tree (DT), Logistic Regression (LR), Artificial Neural Network (ANN) with Radial Basis Function (RBF) and Levenberg Marquardt (LM) learning methods and Probabilistic Neural Network (PNN) algorithms as the base classifier, we created a first-of-its-kind heterogeneous deep ensemble model. Maximum Voting Ensemble (MVE) and Best Trained Ensemble (BTE) were used as ensemble decisions for two-classclassification, determining if each sample in the dataset is epileptic or not. The proposed system's superiority over main existing techniques was validated by simulation-based performance comparisons in terms of accuracy (93.88%), F-measure (0.91), and AUC (0.94)

Some physiological characteristics to estimate species potential as a mine reclamation ground cover

In finding what physiological characteristics can be used to predict ground cover success on mine reclamation sites, 14 herb and grass species were tested. Establishment and early growth was tested on three different soils, ie vermiculate and quartz sand mixture, quarry overburden and coal mine overburden in a greenhouse. The results indicate that plant height and cover, transpiration rate and foliar pigments may be used to select plant adaptability to mined soil. White clover (Trifolium repens L.) showed the greatest potential as ground cover for mined soils. Species most widely used in reclamation tended to be perennials of moderate rate

The safe insertion of peripheral intravenous catheters : a mixed methods descriptive study of the availability of the equipment needed

Background: Intravenous cannulation is undertaken in a high proportion of hospitalised patients. Much international attention has been given to the use of care bundles to reduce the incidence of infection in these patients. However, less attention has been given to the systems required to ensure availability of the equipment needed to support these care bundles. Our objectives were to assess how reliably the equipment recommended for a peripheral intravenous care bundle was available for use, and to explore factors which contributed to its non-availability. Methods: We studied 350 peripheral cannula insertions in three NHS hospital organisations across the UK. Staff inserting cannulae were asked to report details of all equipment problems. Key staff were then interviewed to identify the causes of problems with equipment availability, using semi-structured qualitative interviews and a standard coding frame. Results: 47 equipment problems were recorded during 46 of 350 cannulations, corresponding to a reliability of 87%, or 94% if problems with sharps disposal were excluded. Overall reliability was similar in all three organisations, but the types of problem varied. Interviews revealed a variety of causes including issues associated with purchasing policies, storage facilities, and lack of teamwork and communication in relation to reordering. The many human factors related to the supply chain were highlighted. Often staff had adopted work-arounds to deal with these problems. Conclusions: Overall, 87% of cannulations had the correct and functional equipment available. Different problems were identified in different organisations, suggesting that each had resolved some issues. Supply chain management principles may be useful to support best practice in care bundle delivery. Keywords: Cannulation, Patient safety, Equipment, Care bundles, Hospital acquired bacteraemia, Systems reliabilit

An Efficient Opportunistic Cooperative Diversity Protocol for IEEE 802.11 Networks

Opportunistic cooperation promises to enhance the user experience when streaming media over wireless devices by improving wireless network reliability at the link level. This paper presents DAFMAC, an efficient cooperative diversity partner selection algorithm for IEEE 802.11 devices. Simulation results show DAFMAC provides a significantly higher transmission reliability in poor channel conditions than traditional ARQ techniques without modifying the device hardware. Further analysis shows the low overhead of DAFMAC makes it highly competitive with other proposed cooperative retransmission mechanisms in an ad-hoc network

The Impact of tin mining in Bangka Belitung and its reclamation studies

Tin mining in Bangka Belitung has been exploited for hundred years. The province is the second largest tin producer in the world. Secondary data from studies which took place in all four regencies in Bangka Island were discussed to show the impact of mining activities and its reclamation studies. In order to add plant selection criteria for regevetate mined soil, the greenhouse and laboratory experiment was carried out with fourteen herbs and grass species in Tennessee. The mining activities increase the wealth of the community, but the other hand they change and decrease the environmental stability, and cause horizontal conflicts. Offshore mining reduced water quality, change sea bed caused the change of biodiversity. Onshore mining activity reduces biodiversity and causes floods and damages infrastructure. While the more economic species are demanded, planting local tree species is challenging. An evaluation with local tree species concluded that best adapted species based on anatomical and physiological measurements was not those that showed the best performance in the field. The greenhouse and laboratory findings indicate that some physiological characteristics i.e. plant height and cover, transpiration rate, and foliar pigments may be used to select plant adaptability to mined soil

A STUDY ON SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT AT MANUFACTURING AND CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRIES HOSUR

Our goals are to guarantee just-in-time manufacturing, promote transparency, strengthen supplier ties, and cost-effectively optimise logistics. By performing frequent audits and reviews, we carefully choose our suppliers based on their quality, dependability, and cost-effectiveness. On-time delivery, inventory turnover, supplier performance, and cost-to-revenue ratios are some important performance indicators. Continuous progress is ensured via frequent evaluations and benchmarking. Delivering high-quality goods while meeting changing market needs and maintaining accountable, robust supply chain operations is a priority for Micro Tech CNC Pvt Lt