Availability analysis of terrestrial free space optical (FSO) link using visibility data measured in tropical region

Haze and rain are the most impairments factors to free space optical (FSO) links. These weather conditions limit the visibility, and thereby causes high attenuation of the optical signal. This high attenuation reduces the availability performance of the FSO link. This study evaluates the performance of a terrestrial FSO link under tropical climate conditions. The performance analysis is evaluate over 5 km link distance. The cumulative distribution function (CDF) of the received signal to noise ratio (SNR) is used to study the outage performance of the FSO link under haze conditions. The performance analysis is based on three years measured visibility data in Malaysia. Based on the statistical analysis, link availability of 99.99% can be achieved for 37.44 dB SNR over 1 km link distance. Carrier class availability “five nine” can be achieved for 20 dBm transmission power using 1550 nm wavelength

The Utilization of the Rule of Law for Economic Development in Developing States: The Case of Egypt from Nasser to Mubarak

Neoliberal development proponents argue that the rule of law is essential for achieving economic development. It demands adjusting legislative and legal institutional practices to enforce and protect market operations, and the minimizing of state intervention. The IFIs and the developed states adopted this development approach in dealing with developing states through conditional-based lending. Through attaching structural regulative adjustments and the reformation of juristic institutions as preconditions to their fiscal assistance, the IFIs, influenced by the developed states, were able to impose a system of legal economic governance over the developing economies. Across the different development stages, developing states who did not follow the neoliberal development approach managed to achieve greater economic growth in comparison to those who followed it. This paper analyses the rule of law through the different development phases starting in the 1950s till the 2000s. It assesses their interaction with the different economic development paradigms. It defines the techniques and outcomes of adopting the rule of law by the main development actors, mainly the developed and developing states, the IFIs, and the international economic order. It evaluates the essentiality of the rule of law for achieving economic prosperity as a central neoliberal claim. As a case study, this thesis charts the economic transformation of the Egyptian economy from state-led to market-oriented as an economic adjustment transformation that was supervised by the IFIs. The paper argues that, despite the implementation of the rule of law in Egypt as required by the IFIs, the expected economic development was not achieved. Based on such study, this paper undermines the essentiality of the rule of law for economic development and deems it as a neoliberal instrument for economic governance rather than a prerequisite for development

Effective Capacity of Cognitive Radio Links: Accessing Primary Feedback Erroneously

We study the performance of a cognitive system modeled by one secondary and one primary link and operating under statistical quality of service (QoS) delay constraints. We analyze the effective capacity (EC) to quantify the secondary user (SU) performance under delay constraints. The SU intends to maximize the benefit of the feedback messages on the primary link to reduce SU interference for primary user (PU) and makes opportunistic use of the channel to transmit his packets. We assume that SU has erroneous access to feedback information of PU. We propose a three power level scheme and study the tradeoff between degradation in EC of SU and reliability of PU defined as the success rate of the transmitted packets. Our analysis shows that increase in error in feedback access causes more interference to PU and packet success rate decreases correspondingly.Comment: Accepted for publication in International Symposium on Wireless Communication Systems (ISWCS) 201

Dairy development in Ethiopia:

Ethiopia holds large potential for dairy development due to its large livestock population, the favorable climate for improved, high-yielding animal breeds, and the relatively disease-free environment for livestock. Given the considerable potential for smallholder income and employment generation from high-value dairy products, development of the dairy sector in Ethiopia can contribute significantly to poverty alleviation and nutrition in the country. Like other sectors of the economy, the dairy sector in Ethiopia has passed through three phases or turning points, following the economic and political policy in the country. In the most recent phase, characterized by the transition towards market-oriented economy, the dairy sector appears to be moving towards a takeoff stage. Liberalized markets and private sector investment and promotion of smallholder dairy are the main features of this phase. Milk production during the 1990s expanded at an annual rate of 3.0 percent compared to 1.63-1.66 percent during the preceding three decades. Review of the development of dairy sector in Ethiopia indicates that there is a need to focus interventions more coherently. Development interventions should be aimed at addressing both technological gaps and marketing problems. Integration of crossbred cattle to the sector is imperative for dairy development in the country. This can be achieved either through promotion of large private investment to introduce new technology in the sector such as improved genotypes, feed and processing, and promotion of integration of crossbred cattle into the smallholder sector through improving their access to improved cattle breeds, AI service, veterinary service, and credit. Similarly, government should also take the lead in building infrastructure and providing technical service to smallholders. Severe shortages, low quality and seasonal unavailability of feed likewise remain as major constraints to livestock production in Ethiopia. These constraints need to be addressed and technological change be promoted to increase milk production.Ethiopia, Dairy products industry, Livestock productivity Ethiopia, Africa sub-Saharan, East Africa,

E-Learning Strategy For Distance Learning Programme PACE UUM

Distance learning programme (DLP) was introduced by Universi ti Utara Malaysia (UUM) in 1998. E-learning system implementation in UUM is the Learn Care system, where students can use lectures materials, group and individual assignment. This study intends to identify the current utilization of LMS among the distance learning students, and also to design e-learning strategies of UUM for distance learning program (PJJ)