Mobile Cloud Computing: Implications and Challenges

During the last few years, there is a revolutionary development in the field of mobile computing, multimedia communication and wireless technology. Together with an explosive growth of the mobile computing and excellent promising technology of cloud computing concept, Mobile Cloud Computing (MCC) has been introduced to be a potential technology for mobile services. MCC integrates the cloud computing into the mobile environment and overcomes opportunities and its issues related to this environment (e.g., heterogeneity, scalability, and availability), performance (e.g., storage, battery life, and bandwidth), and security (e.g., reliability and privacy). This paper will explain how cloud computing and mobile devices can be combined for future opportunities, implications and legal issues for developing countries. Keywords: Cloud computing, SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, MCC

Resistance To Brand Switching: The Elderly Consumer

In this study, the authors examine one more aspect of the elderly consumer’s brand loyalty: resistance to brand switching. This study claims that elderly consumers are not only more likely to repurchase but also actively resist switching brands once they have established a favorite brand. This study looks at the unique cognitive psychology of elderly consumers likely to cause this behavior. A better understanding of such behavior can guide efforts of firms either trying to retain their existing consumers or attempting to convert customers of rival brands to their own brands

An Improved Differential Evolution Algorithm for Data Stream Clustering

A Few algorithms were actualized by the analysts for performing clustering of data streams. Most of these algorithms require that the number of clusters (K) has to be fixed by the customer based on input data and it can be kept settled all through the clustering process. Stream clustering has faced few difficulties in picking up K. In this paper, we propose an efficient approach for data stream clustering by embracing an Improved Differential Evolution (IDE) algorithm. The IDE algorithm is one of the quick, powerful and productive global optimization approach for programmed clustering. In our proposed approach, we additionally apply an entropy based method for distinguishing the concept drift in the data stream and in this way updating the clustering procedure online. We demonstrated that our proposed method is contrasted with Genetic Algorithm and identified as proficient optimization algorithm. The performance of our proposed technique is assessed and cr eates the accuracy of 92.29%, the precision is 86.96%, recall is 90.30% and F-measure estimate is 88.60%

The Gap Between Science and Practice: How Therapists Make Their Clinical Decisions

Recent surveys have found that many patients are not receiving empirically supported treatments and that therapists may not update their knowledge of research. Studies have found that therapists prefer to use their clinical experience rather than research findings to improve their practice, although cognitive behavioral (CB) practitioners have been found to use research more frequently than therapists of other theoretical orientations. The organization in which therapists work has been shown to impact attitudes toward working practices, but studies have not examined whether workplace requirements to use research affect therapists’ practice. Studies to date have mainly been conducted in North America. These findings may not be generalizable to the United Kingdom where there is a National Health Service (NHS), which requires the use of empirically supported treatments. The first part of this study aimed to investigate which factors were influential in therapists’ choice of theoretical orientation and to see whether CB practitioners differed from other therapists in the factors that influenced their choice of theoretical orientation. The second part tested whether therapists’ theoretical orientation or their workplace influenced the frequency with which they used research in their clinical decision-making. The final part investigated whether being a CB practitioner or working in the NHS was associated with having a favorable attitude toward research. An online survey was sent to 4,144 psychological therapists in England; 736 therapists responded (18.5%). Therapists reported that research had little influence over their choice of theoretical orientation and clinical decision-making compared to other factors, specifically clinical experience and supervision. CB practitioners and NHS therapists, regardless of their orientation, were significantly more likely to use research than other therapists and were more likely to have a positive attitude toward research

Acoustic performance of soft elastic media embedded with periodic inclusions

Elastic media comprising periodic inclusions are rationally designed composite materials which exhibit acoustic properties that go qualitatively and quantitatively beyond those of their bulk ingredients. A practical application of periodic scatterers in a soft rubber-like medium is in the design of acoustic coatings for maritime vehicles. Acoustic coatings are employed to reduce underwater noise pollution as well as to absorb external sound waves for stealth purposes. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the physical mechanisms governing the performance of underwater acoustic coatings comprising voided and/or hard inclusions embedded in a soft elastic medium. Analytical and numerical models are developed to study the transmission, reflection and absorption properties of the coatings. The analytical models are based on effective medium approximation theory whereby an inhomogeneous medium is modelled as layers of homogeneous media with effective geometric and material properties. The acoustic properties of the layered composites are then obtained using the transfer matrix method. The numerical models are developed using the finite element method whereby the exact geometry and material properties of the acoustic coatings are simulated. The coatings are submerged in water and the effects of water backing and steel-air backing on their acoustic performance are examined. The effects of different material and geometric properties of the coatings on the acoustic performance are also investigated. Different combinations of layers of voids and/or layers of hard inclusions are studied in detail and found to have notably different impacts on the acoustic performance of the coating

Derek: A chatbot that shows intelligence in behavior using NLP

Chatbots are computer programs that interact with users using natural languages. Just as people use language for human communication, chatbots use natural language to communicate with human users. In this paper, we begin by introducing chatbots and emphasize their need in day-to-day activities. Then we go on to discuss existing chatbot systems, namely ELIZA, ALICE and Siri. We evaluate what we can take from each of the systems and use in our proposed system. Finally, we discuss the proposed system. Our system can be used on Android OS in a similar manner to Siri for effective information retrieval just by speaking various queries

Lactate Clearance at 24 of Hours as Predictors of Outcome in Children with Shock

Background: Monitoring of tissue perfusion markers like lactate and its clearance is necessary for early recognition of shock in sick children which will enable the caregiver to initiate an appropriate and timely therapy. Objective: To study the blood lactate clearance at 24 hours of admission and its prognostic importance in predicting the outcomes in children with shock. Methods: This was a “prospective observational” study, conducted in NICU and PICU at Sparsh multispeciality hospital, Bhilai and Jagannath hospital, Bhubaneswar over 80 children presented with shock, from January 2018 to December 2020. Blood lactate level at admission and after 24 hours were evaluated and lactate clearance was compared with mortality. Results: In lactate clearance >20% group, mortality was only 3.8% wherein LC<20% group, mortality was 52.17%. In Lactate clearance < 10% group, inotropes (p0.0002), ventilator support (p-0.0015) were needed more than Lactate clearance > 20% group. When initial lactate >6mmol/dl, 35% of neonates died in comparison to 11.76% in the group having initial lactate <6mmol/dl. The average lactate clearance among the survivors was 28.35% and among the non-survivors was 5.73% (P <0.001). AUC between lactate clearance and mortality was 0.73 suggestive of a good correlation. Conclusion: Lactate clearance of less than 10% at 24 hours of admission showed a good correlation in predicting the mortality in children with shock

Electrical structure of the Himalaya of Central Nepal: high conductivity around the mid-crustal ramp along the MHT

Twelve broadband magnetotelluric (MT) soundings were performed across the Himalaya of Central Nepal in 1996 in order to determine the electrical structure of the crust and its relation to geological structures and active tectonics. The MT impedance tensors were obtained for frequencies between 0.001 and 500 Hz. The 2‐D section, derived from joint inversion of TE‐ and TM mode after RRI and Groom/Bailey decomposition, shows high conductivity in the foreland basin (∼30 Ω.m) that contrasts with the resistive Indian basement (>300 Ω.m) and Lesser Himalaya (>1000 Ω.m). In addition, our MT sounding reveals a major conductive feature beneath the front of the Higher Himalaya, also characterized by intense microseismic activity, and the position of a mid‐crustal ramp along the major active thrust fault (MHT). This high conductivity zone probably reflects metamorphic fluids, released during underthrusting of the Indian basement and pervading well connected microcracks induced by interseismic stress build‐up, or distributed brittle deformation around the ramp

Acoustic performance of a metascreen-based coating for maritime applications

Time and frequency domain numerical models are developed to investigate the acoustic performance of metascreen-based coatings for maritime applications. The coating designs are composed of periodic air-filled cavities embedded in a soft elastic medium, which is attached to a hard backing and submerged in water. Numerical results for an acoustic coating with cylindrical cavities are favourably compared with analytical and experimental results from the literature. Frequencies associated with peak sound absorption as a function of the geometric parameters of the cavities and material properties of the host medium are predicted. Variation in the cavity dimensions that modifies the cylindrical-shaped cavities to flat disks or thin needles is modelled. Results reveal that high sound absorption occurs when either the diameter or length of the cavities is reduced. Physical mechanisms governing sound absorption for the various cavity designs are described

Philosophy of Sikhism.

It is the first attempt at the philosophisation of the Sikh religion on Western lines. The material from which this philosophy is constructed lay scattered in the Sikh scriptures written in Medieval Panjabi in the Gurmukhi script. The work containing about 85 thousand words is divided into four main parts. The introductory part begins with a brief review of different literary movements dealing with Sikhism from the days of its origin in the 16th. century down to our own times. Then follows a chapter on the founders of Sikhism with a description of the environments in which they conceived their ideals and a discussion of some traditions and biographical controversies. The third chapter of this part gives an account of the sources of the material for this work. The second part is devoted to a discussion of the sources of Sikhism. The alleged notion of Sikhism being a branch of Hinduism has been disputed, By means of comparison and on the basis of internal and external evidence an has been made to show that Sikhism Whilst presenting a new synthesis of ideas has as its background not Hinduism which, is a vague notion, but Vedantism, Saivism,Vaisnavism, Buddhism, Siddhism (the system of Gorakh), Islam, and perhaps Christianity and other systems of thought both of Indian and non-Indian origin. Then comes a critical survey of the philosophy of Sikhism both theoretical and practical. In part III after a careful analysis of the Franthic hymns the Guru's ideas have been systematised on the following subjects: God, His historical and attributive names and their implications; Cosmology; Man and his destiny. It has been shown that the distinctive contribution of the Guru towards the concept of God from the mddern critic's point of view is two fold: the socialised nature of God and and the aesthetic notion of the deity. These are new facts and have been overlooked by all writers. In the field of practical philosophy there is again a striking departure from the traditional three margas of India: Kama, Bhakti and Gyan. Here it is the Wismad marga of the Guru which is expounded in the fourth part. It is communion with God-not with Nature but through nature-by means of aesthetic intuition This is quite a new line of approach. Different stages and steps of the marga have been briefly described in the last few pages