Efficiently observing Internet of Things resources

The Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) is a lightweight protocol that enables the implementation of RESTful embedded web services. Observe is one of the CoAP extensions, which allow servers to send every resource state change to interested clients. In this paper we present an interesting extension to the observe option, called conditional observation, where clients specify notification criteria along their observation request. We evaluate the feasibility of implementing this on a constrained device and evaluate the correct operation for a simple scenario. It is shown that the use of conditional observations can result in a reduced number of packets and power consumption compared to normal observe in combination with client-side filtering

Estimating the numbers of malaria infections in blood samples using high-resolution genotyping data

People living in endemic areas often habour several malaria infections at once. High-resolution genotyping can distinguish between infections by detecting the presence of different alleles at a polymorphic locus. However the number of infections may not be accurately counted since parasites from multiple infections may carry the same allele. We use simulation to determine the circumstances under which the number of observed genotypes are likely to be substantially less than the number of infections present and investigate the performance of two methods for estimating the numbers of infections from high-resolution genotyping data.THE SIMULATIONS SUGGEST THAT THE PROBLEM IS NOT SUBSTANTIAL IN MOST DATASETS: the disparity between the mean numbers of infections and of observed genotypes was small when there was 20 or more alleles, 20 or more blood samples, a mean number of infections of 6 or less and where the frequency of the most common allele was no greater than 20%. The issue of multiple infections carrying the same allele is unlikely to be a major component of the errors in PCR-based genotyping.Simulations also showed that, with heterogeneity in allele frequencies, the observed frequencies are not a good approximation of the true allele frequencies. The first method that we proposed to estimate the numbers of infections assumes that they are a good approximation and hence did poorly in the presence of heterogeneity. In contrast, the second method by Li et al estimates both the numbers of infections and the true allele frequencies simultaneously and produced accurate estimates of the mean number of infections

AGRICULTURE INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM AND FOOD SECURITY: STRATEGY OF ADOPTION OFAGRICULTURE MECHANIZATION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES THROUGH “BELT AND ROAD” INITIATIVE CHINA

In this article, we study the influence of Agriculture Innovation ecosystem on food security through the contribution of Belt and Road Initiative. We identify strategy which foster agriculture mechanization adoption in developing countries.  The innovation ecosystem is the large and diverse range of resources and participants that are necessary and contribute to continuous innovation in an economy. These include investors, entrepreneurs, technical and business development service providers, and researchers amongst others. We engage with agriculture Innovation Ecosystems thinking to consider the ways in which it might enhance efforts to create multi-actor, cross-sectoral innovation that are capable of supporting transitions to sustainable agricultural systems across multiple scale, hence achieving food security (Pigford, Hickey, & Klerkx, 2018). According to the world health organization (WHO) in the state of food security and nutrition in the world 2018, new evidence this year corroborates the rise in world hunger observed in this report last year, sending a warning that more action is needed if we aspire to end world hunger and malnutrition in all its forms by 2030. Through the “belt and road” initiative by the Chinese government, many international students got the opportunity to study in China, and act as a bridge between their respective countries and China (Yu, Qian, & Liu, 2019). In addition, as home country of great number of manufacturing companies, China promote agriculture mechanization and provide agricultural machinery to belt and road countries (de Soyres, Mulabdic, Murray, Rocha, & Ruta, 2019). These strategies have an impact in achieving food security worldwide (Zhang, Zhang, Tian, Liu, & Zhang, 2018). We speak of food security "when all people, at all times, have economic, social and physical access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that satisfies their nutritional needs and dietary preferences to enable them to live active and healthy lives" stated by Food and Agriculture organization. For this research, we attempted to show how “belt and road” initiative contribute to food security. Keywords: Agriculture Innovation ecosystem, Agricultural mechanization, China, belt and road, food security. DOI: 10.7176/IKM/11-4-03 Publication date:May 31st 202

Automatic translation from FBD-PLC-programs to NuSMV for model checking safety-critical control systems

Programmable logic controllers (PLCs) are digital control systems, commonly used in industrial automation and safety-critical applications. Control systems used in safety-critical areas must undergo an extensive and thorough certification and verification process. In safety-critical applications, the PLC programming standard IEC 61131-3 is widely accepted in industry. PLC programmers who develop control systems for safety-critical systems are often required to verify the logic of PLCs by using formal methods such as model checking. Translating manually from a PLC program to the input language of a model checker takes times and is often error-prone. We develop a compiler to automatically translate PLC programs in the function block diagram (FBD) language, one of five industry standard PLC programming notations, to the input language of the model checker NuSMV. We have evaluated correctness, robustness, and performance of the PLC-NuSMV compiler using a case study. Evaluation results show that the compiler can translate the PLC programs correctly. The compiler can also identify several input errors and can scale to relative large PLC programs

Website Dimensions And E-Trust, Disposition, Perceived Risk, And Online Self-Efficacy: Technology Acceptance Model in China and Ivory Coast Context

Recent technological advancement and easy access to internet led to great improvements in business performances, especially the banking sector. The internet enables efficient transactions on hand-held gadgets such as smart phones and personal computers. Though there are numerous benefits, fraud and cyber-crimes via online system created scepticism from people and lack of trust in such systems has caused relatively slow growth of technology acceptance. This study model aims to examine the disposition, perceived risks, website dimensions and e-trust, and online self-efficacy influence an individual’s perception of the digitalization of the economy. For the purpose of the study, questionnaires were issued in various social platforms like Facebook and twitter to collect data and a total of 3000 respondents were sampled out of a group of millions. There was a significant difference in the results obtained from educated and uneducated individuals. Also, the male gender had an upper hand in computer skills than females. The results of the data collection method would be used to explain the effects of e-trust and the risks perceived for further research. Keywords: websites dimensions and e-trust, disposition, perceived risks, and online self-efficacy. DOI: 10.7176/IKM/9-3-10 Publication date:March 31st 201

Non-Oscillatory Pattern Learning for Non-Stationary Signals

This paper proposes a novel non-oscillatory pattern (NOP) learning scheme for several oscillatory data analysis problems including signal decomposition, super-resolution, and signal sub-sampling. To the best of our knowledge, the proposed NOP is the first algorithm for these problems with fully non-stationary oscillatory data with close and crossover frequencies, and general oscillatory patterns. NOP is capable of handling complicated situations while existing algorithms fail; even in simple cases, e.g., stationary cases with trigonometric patterns, numerical examples show that NOP admits competitive or better performance in terms of accuracy and robustness than several state-of-the-art algorithms

The Political Economy of Property Rights In China: Local Officials, Incentive Structure, And Private Enterprises

My dissertation tries to solve two puzzling questions in China’s economic miracle: why some private firms enjoy better property rights protection than others under similar political and economic institutional conditions. Secondly, under the incentive structure designed by the central government, why some local officials in some localities actively protected private property rights than others hence foster local economic development. Existing literature either emphasizes social networks or focuses on fiscal decentralization and personnel control system. But neither these accounts is able to systematically explain the considerable variation of private property rights protection across regions and over time. I develop a game-theoretical model to study the political economy of property rights in China, that is, a bargaining game between a firm and a local political official to explain these empirical puzzles. Under the current institutional arrangements, resources and constraints created by the incentive structure of the Cadre Evaluation System (CES) affect goals and strategies of both local political officials and private investors in that bargaining relationship. A firm with a high level of Firm Specific Assets (FSAs) may possess strong post-entry bargaining power, and thus enjoy better protection of the local official, but a weak firm is vulnerable to the local officials’ predatory activities, and therefore needs to rely on other mechanisms, such as their social networks or bribery, to overcome the commitment problem. In particular, all else being equal, the availability of an exit option greatly enhances the private firms’ post-entry bargaining power vis-à-vis local political actors. In addition, the degree of symbiotic relationship between the local officials and indigenous private entrepreneurs determines the level of private property protection. Compared to rotated officials, native local officials have fewer political connections with higher-level officials and therefore have less chance to be promoted in the power hierarchy. This condition makes them seek the support of local economic actors for their political survival. Moreover, native local political leaders who were born in their jurisdiction have lower transaction costs, and therefore a symbiotic relationship between native local officials and local private entrepreneurs is feasible. The chances were high that the native leaders would have close ties to local economic actors and face more strict social constraints; therefore, they were more likely to protect local property rights. I statistically test the effects of firms’ characteristics on the security of property rights using different types of evidence including a nationwide survey data in 2012 and media reports on government-related property rights expropriation cases. With the proxy of property rights protection, I also provide systematic empirical evidence from Guangdong province both cross-sectionally and over time to test the effects of different types of local political leaders by investigating the characteristics of 203 prefecture-level political leaders between 1992 and 2008. A detailed case study of local B&B industry policymaking in Xiamen, Fujian province, utilizing government reports, news reports, as well as interview notes of fieldwork, further supports the model

Social Relations and Institutional Structures in Modern American Political Campaigns

The art of rhetoric (Aristotle) is the art of persuasion: using forms of talk to gather people together - to forge agreement and thereby stimulate [positive] action. How one gets others to agree (with them) - and act on that agreement - is of prominent concern for politicians and those aiming to influence social policy, and is inevitably done through interaction. The campaign speeches during the US Presidential Election Campaign of 2008 have attracted the attention of a wide range of scholars in Sociology, Political Science, and Communication studies. Although Atkinson (1984), Heritage and Greatbatch (1986), Clayman (1993), and others have radically transformed our understanding of the devices speechmakers use to coordinate audience response ("clap trap"), to date no social or political scientist has described how these moments are stitched together, in real time, to organize the speeches - presidential or otherwise; and we know little about the differences between alternative forms of collective appreciation (e.g., applause versus chanting), and what this might tell us about the different social relations that speakers can establish with audience members by varying specific components of their speech. As a consequence, we understand very little about how politicians compose specific political messages, or how these are shaped by the changing [media] landscape of modern political campaigns. This research tackles these issues directly by developing a detailed analysis of campaign rally speeches as well as the audience's responses using the tools of Conversation Analysis. Through a descriptive and analytic account of the underlying normative organization of campaign speeches and the contingencies facing both speakers and audience members, this research considers how speakers use these occasions to shape - even transform - the opportunities and bases for public participation in the political process; demonstrating how the distinctive turn-taking system and its relationship to the "institutional occasion" (c.f., Sacks, Schegloff, and Jefferson, 1974; Atkinson and Drew, 1979; Atkinson, 1982; Heritage 1984; Heritage and Greatbatch, 1991; Drew and Heritage, 1992; ) - and the forms of political expression they enable - are consequential for the social relations built through them. In this respect, this research offers a novel approach to a basic question posed by politicians and social/political scientists: What sort of social relations do political leaders establish with the constituents they serve? And how are modern campaign events used to establish such relations? Specifically, an account of the orderliness, structure, and sequential patterns of talk-in-interaction reveals the ways candidates exploit the interactive organization of speech giving in different ways: how different rhetorical forms were used to make relevant different forms of collective appreciation by audience members (e.g., applause versus chants), which allowed candidates to establish different relations with the public (e.g., did the audience agree with the speaker, or did the speaker agree with the audience?); which building blocks used over the course of a speech (and the entire campaign) could be used to mobilize audience members' participation in events beyond the campaign event, and which caused others' speeches to be more inert? This research offers the most complex (and complete) understanding of modern campaign speeches to date, as well as compelling new findings to help understand why some speeches campaigns are more successful than others