Decision making process in higher education institutions: the case of Saudi Arabia.

The aims of this research is to identify the factors that influence the decision making process in Saudi higher education institutions and to find the way to manage these factors so that they exert a positive influence on this process. Based on a pilot study, field work and literature review, the thesis identifies and explores five cultural factors and five structural factors. The cultural factors are: organizational environment, nepotism, innovation, social change and professionalism. The structural factors are: centralization, formalization, routinization, communication and coordination. This thesis studies the influence of these factors using a multi-method approach in order to develop and propose a new approach toward a more efficient decision making processes. The outcome of this research reveal the lack of efficiency in the decision making process in Saudi higher education institutions. Recommendations for the development of a new approach are made because of the negative influence of the factors identified. Through an understanding of cultural and structural factors, the data gathered suggests that the adaptation of this approach would lead to greater efficiency of the decision making process in Saudi higher education institutions by managing the identified factors as a mean of improving the decision making process. A further outcome is an increase in our knowledge and understanding of those factors which influence the decision making process in Saudi Arabia

Frequency Filtering Approach for Data Aggregation in Periodic Sensor Networks

International audienceThis paper presents an energy-efficient technique for data aggregation in periodic sensor networks. We investigate the problem of finding all pairs of nodes generating similar data sets such that similarity between each pair of sets is above a threshold t. We provide a frequency filtering approach to solve this problem. Our experiments demonstrate that our algorithm outperforms existing prefix filtering methods in reducing energy consumption

An Optimized In-Network Aggregation Scheme for Data Collection in Periodic Sensor Networks

International audienceIn-network data aggregation is considered an effective technique for conserving energy communication in wireless sensor networks. It consists in eliminating the inherent redundancy in raw data collected from the sensor nodes. Prior works on data aggregation protocols have focused on the measurement data redundancy. In this paper, our goal in addition of reducing measures redundancy is to identify near duplicate nodes that generate similar data sets. We consider a tree based bi-level periodic data aggregation approach implemented on the source node and on the aggregator levels. We investigate the problem of finding all pairs of nodes generating similar data sets such that similarity between each pair of sets is above a threshold t. We propose a new frequency filtering approach and several optimizations using sets similarity functions to solve this problem. To evaluate the performance of the proposed filtering method, experiments on real sensor data have been conducted. The obtained results show that our approach offers significant data reduction by eliminating in network redundancy and out-performs existing filtering techniques

Entropy for the Brain and Applied Computation

An understanding of the interplay between the brain region and the state of consciousness and the evolution of brain complexity, regarded as an entropy-enhancing process, has recently been proposed, leading to an increase in the space of states that can be visited, and to the accessibility of new channels. Nowadays, nonlinear and complex system theories are considered promising candidates for analyzing the principles of operation of neural networks and their entropic content. The concept of computational entropy, for example, has been utilized in cryptographic primitives, namely, in cryptographic algorithms that are used to create cryptographic protocols in computer security systems

Novel Order preserving encryption Scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks

International audienceAn Order-Preserving Encryption (OPE) scheme is a deterministic cipher scheme, whose encryption algorithm produces cipher texts that preserve the numerical ordering of the plain-texts. It is based on strictly increasing functions. It is a kind of homomorphic encryption where the homomorphic operation is order comparison. This means that comparing encrypted data provides the exact result than comparing the original data. It is attractive to be used in databases, especially in cloud ones as a method to enhance security, since it allows applications to perform order queries over encrypted data efficiently (without the need of decrypting the data). Wireless sensor network is another potential domain in which order preserving encryption can be adopted and used with high impact. It can be integrated with secure data aggregation protocols that use comparison operations to aggregate data (MAX, MIN, etc.) in a way that no decryption is being performed on the sensor nodes, which means directly less power consumption. In this paper, we will review many existing order-preserving encryption schemes with their related brief explanation, efficiency level, and security. Then, and based on the comparative table generated, we will propose a novel order-preserving encryption scheme that has a good efficiency level and less complexity, in order to be used in a wireless sensor network with an enhanced level of security

Amyloidosis in familial Mediterranean fever patients: correlation with MEFV genotype and SAA1 and MICA polymorphisms effects

BACKGROUND: Familial mediterranean fever (FMF) is a recessively inherited disease characterized by recurrent crises of fever, abdominal, articular and/or thoracic pain. The most severe complication is the development of renal amyloidosis. Over 35 mutations have been discovered so far in the gene responsible for the disease, MEFV. This article aims at determining a correlation between the MEFV genotype and the occurence of amyloidosis in FMF patients, in addition to the study of the modifying effects of the SAA1 (type 1 serum amyloid A protein) and MICA (Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) class-I-chain-related gene A) genes on this severe complication. METHODS: Fourteen MEFV mutations were screened and the SAA1 and MICA polymorphisms tested in 30 FMF patients with amyloidosis and 40 FMF patients without amyloidosis. RESULTS: The M694V and V726A allelic frequencies were, respectively, significantly higher and lower in the group with amyloidosis, compared to the control FMF group. The beta and gamma SAA1 alleles were more frequently encountered in the group without amyloidosis, whereas the alpha allele was significantly more observed in FMF patients with amyloidosis (p < 0.025). All the MICA alleles were encountered in both patients' groups, but none of them was significantly associated with amyloidosis. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest a protective effect of the SAA1 beta and gamma alleles on the development of amyloidosis and show the absence of a MICA modifying effect on amyloidosis development. Testing these polymorphisms on a larger sample will lead to more definite conclusions

Micromagnetic understanding of the skyrmion Hall angle current dependence in perpendicular magnetized ferromagnets

The understanding of the dynamical properties of skyrmion is a fundamental aspect for the realization of a competitive skyrmion based technology beyond CMOS. Most of the theoretical approaches are based on the approximation of a rigid skyrmion. However, thermal fluctuations can drive a continuous change of the skyrmion size via the excitation of thermal modes. Here, by taking advantage of the Hilbert-Huang transform, we demonstrate that at least two thermal modes can be excited which are non-stationary in time. In addition, one limit of the rigid skyrmion approximation is that this hypothesis does not allow for correctly describing the recent experimental evidence of skyrmion Hall angle dependence on the amplitude of the driving force, which is proportional to the injected current. In this work, we show that, in an ideal sample, the combined effect of field-like and damping-like torques on a breathing skyrmion can indeed give rise to such a current dependent skyrmion Hall angle. While here we design and control the breathing mode of the skyrmion, our results can be linked to the experiments by considering that the thermal fluctuations and/or disorder can excite the breathing mode. We also propose an experiment to validate our findings