A Cross-Disciplinary Review of Blockchain Research Trends and Methodologies: Topic Modeling Approach

Given the increasing interest in blockchain technology, we present a large-scale cross-disciplinary literature analysis of research on the blockchain using topic modelling with the goal of identifying the major research trends, research methodologies, and fruitful areas for further research. In particular, the analysis focuses on abstracting out research trends from relevant terms and topics related to the research disciplines of Business, Computer Science, Economics, Social Sciences, Engineering, Healthcare, and Law. A total of 2,125 articles published between 2008 to up until early 2019 in academic journals and conferences were analyzed. Results of our analysis reveal that research is bipartite between practical and research domains, with academic research on blockchain not clearly aligning with organizational and social benefits. Also, we found – 1) few inter-disciplinary publications, and 2) a small number of studies that use surveys, experiments, and case studies as their research method. Our findings also reveal that research on Blockchain in the social sciences and law is still in the embryonic stage, thus making it essential to develop more direct research efforts for Blockchain to thrive in all research disciplines

SEMANTIC BASED E-LEARNING RECOMMENDER SYSTEM

Introduction of new technologies in the last few decades have brought about some innovative methods in web-based education. However many of these online courses provide universal static solution which do not cater the individual needs of the learner. Recommender system has been successfully recommending items such as books, movies, news articles etc however recommendation techniques applied in the e-learning domain are relatively new. Many of the techniques applied in the e-learning domain are generic and usually derived from other domains. This paper will present semantic based recommender system for e-learner to facilitate effective learning. We use a novel alternative to conventional recommendation techniques by considering a social network tool such as twitter which is popular for information sharing. Relevant tweets are recommended to the learner as per the current learning topic of the learner

Understanding the Influence of Cultural Dimensions on the Interpretative Ability of People to Infer Personality from the Avatars: Evidence from Cultural Dimensions of Greece, Pakistan, Russia, and Singapore

Avatar is a customized cartoon representation of the self and many people develop inferences about individuals’ online representations through their avatar’s facial appearance. Research has shown that avatars can signal information about the personality and social desires of a person [1]. Nonetheless, customizing an avatar enables control of self-representation that could potentially moderate the true personality traits of an individual. The customized facial appearance of the avatar affects people’s ability to draw expressions [2], whereas, several cultural dimensions affect the interpretative ability of the people to construct personality inferences from the facial appearance of avatars. We found a significant relationship between neuroticism to uncertainty avoidance and masculinity, whereas, negative relationships were found between extraversion and masculinity, and agreeableness to uncertainty avoidance. The study uses three-dimensional avatars to capture detailed features and expressions on avatar faces

Management of Gout

Gout is an important health concern for old age people. People who are affected this disease are mostly at 40 or older. Physicians prescribed many drugs for the management of gout i.e. Uric acid lowering agent, NSAIDs etc. This study was designed to develop best medication plan to manage the gout. This study was carried out from May 2014 to September 2014.For this purpose I visited many hospitals and clinics to check the patients record and medication prescribed, also ask to patients which drug response to best and read different literatures. Then I made a plan of medication for the management of gout which is effective and economic for the patients. Keywords: Gout, Management/Treatmen

Cost effective & energy efficient intelligent smart home system based on loT

Smart Home reduces the need for active involvement of users in the process of monitoring and regulating household appliances. This study provides a method for developing Smart Home Energy Efficiency applications through integration of IoT (Internet of Things) with IP-based switching of Web services as well as Cloud Technology. The methodology embeds intelligent systems and machine learning into the design in addition to using the Poisson process along with the actuators and sensors in Arduino environment. Moreover, we apply the use fault detection to validate the efficiency and feasibility of the Smart Home implementation by assessing the home environments, taking care of home equipment, appliances and regulating home access.Akıllı Ev, kullanıcıların ev aletlerini izleme ve düzenleme sürecinde aktif katılım ihtiyacını azaltır. Bu çalışma, IoT'nin (Nesnelerin İnterneti) Internet tabanlı IP servislerinin yanı sıra Bulut Teknolojisi ile entegrasyonuyla Akıllı Ev Enerjisi Verimliliği uygulamalarının geliştirilmesi için bir yöntem sunmaktadır. Metodoloji, Poisson sürecinin Arduino ortamındaki aktüatörler ve sensörler ile birlikte kullanılmasının yanı sıra, akıllı sistemler ve makine öğrenmesini tasarıma dahil eder. Ayrıca, Akıllı Ortam uygulamasının etkinliğini ve uygulanabilirliğini doğrulamak için, ev ortamlarını değerlendirerek, ev eşyalarına, cihazlara ve ev erişimini düzenleyerek kullanım hatası tespitini sağlar

Lyme rashes disease classification using deep feature fusion technique

Automatic classification of Lyme disease rashes on the skin helps clinicians and dermatologists’ probe and investigate Lyme skin rashes effectively. This paper proposes a new in-depth features fusion system to classify Lyme disease rashes. The proposed method consists of two main steps. First, three different deep learning models, Densenet201, InceptionV3, and Exception, were trained independently to extract the deep features from the erythema migrans (EM) images. Second, a deep feature fusion mechanism (meta classifier) is developed to integrate the deep features before the final classification output layer. The meta classifier is a basic deep convolutional neural network trained on original images and features extracted from base level three deep learning models. In the feature fusion mechanism, the last three layers of base models are dropped out and connected to the meta classifier. The proposed deep feature fusion method significantly improved the classification process, where the classification accuracy was 98.97%, which is particularly impressive than the other state-of-the-art models.© 2023 The Authors. Skin Research and Technology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Job Satisfaction Through Organizational Citizenship Behaviour: A Case of University Teachers of Pakistan

Teachers’ job satisfaction leads to job continuity, which in turn affects teacher performance as well as the effectiveness of their institutions. The purpose of this study was to identify if there was a relationship between the Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) and Job Satisfaction (JS) of teachers since discretionary behaviours have a significant impact on performances, yet are not considered in evaluations. Descriptive correlational research was carried out using a multi-stage stratified random sampling technique, where participants came from Higher Education Commission (HEC) recognized public and private sector universities in Lahore, Pakistan. After data cleaning, statistical analyses were applied to the data from 232 questionnaires, using SPSS. Correlations between the factors of organizational citizenship behaviour (altruism, courtesy, sportsmanship, conscientiousness, and civil virtue) and job satisfaction were found to be moderately significantly positive. Job satisfaction through the factors of OCB was determined to be 21.3%, where only altruism and civil virtue were factors. Significant differences were revealed in the OCB and job satisfaction of university teachers in terms of gender, university type, job type, marital status, age groups, academic qualifications, teaching experiences, faculties, and universities. Results of the study provide implications for educational administrators, teachers, and policy makers for incorporating OCBs in their organizations and strengthening factors that contribute toward job satisfaction. La satisfaction professionnelle chez les enseignants entraine la continuité au travail, ce qui affecte le rendement des enseignants et l’efficacité de leurs établissements d’enseignement. L’objectif de cette étude était d’établir s’il existe un lien entre la citoyenneté organisationnelle (CO) et la satisfaction professionnelle (SF) des enseignants car, même si le comportement discrétionnaire a un impact significatif sur le rendement, les évaluations n’en tiennent pas compte. Une recherche descriptive corrélationnelle basée sur une méthodologie d’échantillonnage aléatoire stratifié à plusieurs degrés a impliqué des participants d’universités publiques et privées reconnues par le Conseil de l’enseignement supérieur à Lahore, au Pakistan. Suivant un nettoyage des données, nous avons soumis les données provenant de 232 questionnaires à des analyses statistiques avec le logiciel SPSS. Des corrélations légèrement positives se sont révélées entre les caractéristiques de la citoyenneté organisationnelle (altruisme, courtoisie, esprit sportif, conscience professionnelle, sens civique) et la satisfaction professionnelle. La satisfaction professionnelle, telle qu’évaluée par les caractéristiques de la CO, était de 21,3% et seulement l’altruisme et le sens civique y jouaient un rôle. Les résultats ont révélé des différences significatives quant à la CO et la satisfaction professionnelle chez les professeurs d’université en ce qui concerne les sexes, le type d’université, le type d’emploi, le statut civil, les groupes d’âge, les titres universitaires, l’expérience en enseignement, les facultés et les universités. Ces résultats ont des implications susceptibles d’intéresser les administrateurs, les enseignants et les décideurs par rapport à l’intégration de la CO au sein de leur établissement et au renforcement des facteurs qui contribuent à la satisfaction professionnelle.

A review of relay network on UAVS for enhanced connectivity

One of the best evolution in technology breakthroughs is the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). This aerial system is able to perform the mission in an agile environment and can reach the hard areas to perform the tasks autonomously. UAVs can be used in post-disaster situations to estimate damages, to monitor and to respond to the victims. The Ground Control Station can also provide emergency messages and ad-hoc communication to the Mobile Users of the disaster-stricken community using this network. A wireless network can also extend its communication range using UAV as a relay. Major requirements from such networks are robustness, scalability, energy efficiency and reliability. In general, UAVs are easy to deploy, have Line of Sight options and are flexible in nature. However, their 3D mobility, energy constraints, and deployment environment introduce many challenges. This paper provides a discussion of basic UAV based multi-hop relay network architecture and analyses their benefits, applications, and tradeoffs. Key design considerations and challenges are investigated finding fundamental issues and potential research directions to exploit them. Finally, analytical tools and frameworks for performance optimizations are presented

Analysing Econometric Bias and Non-linearity in Returns to Education of Pakistan

This study estimates the returns to education while controlling endogeneity and sample selection biases in Pakistan, over a time period using Ordinary Least Square (OLS), simultaneous approach using both Heckman Sample Selection and Instrumental Variable, and Fixed Effect techniques. Household Integrated Economic Survey (HIES) data for 2004-05 and 2011-12 time periods have been used in this study. The returns to education have been found downward biased in OLS estimates for both time periods. The unbiased real returns to education have increased on average for wage workers over time period. Landholding and Non-earned income have been used as exclusion restrictions to control for sample selection bias in the Heckman Sample Selection technique. The endogeneity bias has been controlled for with the help of parental education as instrument in Instrumental Variable technique. Both techniques have also been used collectively or simultaneously to get more efficient estimate in simultaneous approach. Household Fixed Effect technique has also been used with the assumption that ability and family characteristics largely remain same within family or household. The increase in the unbiased and real returns to education shows that profitability still exists in investing in education whereas experience via skill enhancement reinforces this rise in wage. Sadly, the historic gender and regional discriminations persist or aggravate in wage market. Married persons are getting more in returns relative to the unmarried individuals. Having negative implications for income inequality, Convexity in education-earning relationship in Pakistan has been confirmed by Indicator Function technique for both time periods. Low education prompt low-earning workers who would be unable to bear the schooling cost of their children. This seriously inhibits earning potential making income inequality worse. JEL Classification: I26, I24, J24 Keywords: Returns to Education, Human Capita

Metastatic pancreatic carcinoma and experience with FOLFIRINOX - a cross sectional analysis from a developing country

Background: Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer related death with median survival ranging from 3 to 6 months for metastatic disease. Palliative chemotherapy has been the backbone of treatment in advanced stage and has evolved over time. Data pertaining to the disease are scarce from our part of the world where treatment poses a significant challenge due to lack of resources.MATERIALS AND Methods: A retrospective chart review was performed for all patients presenting with stage IV pancreatic carcinoma at a tertiary care hospital in Karachi, Pakistan between January 2008 and December 2012. Data were collected using a pre-designed, coded questionnaire looking at patient characteristics, treatment given and outcome.Results: 101 patients were found to be eligible. Mean age was 56.7 ± 12.8 years, the male to female ratio was 2:1 and most patients had a good performance status. More than half of the tumors were located in the head (57%, n=58) and almost all were adenocarcinomas (95%, n=96). Some 58% (n=59) received first line chemotherapy of which 49% (n=29) received gemcitabine-based regimens and 39% (n=23) received FOLFIRINOX. The median progression free survival for gemcitabine based treatment was 2.9 months (IQR=1.6-5.6) as opposed to 7.3 months (IQR=4.5-9.2) for FOLFIRINOX (P=0.02). Median overall survival was 4.9 months (IQR=2.3-9.5) for first line gemcitabine based treatment and 10.5 months (IQR=7.0-13.2) for first line FOLFIRINOX therapy (P=0.002). Patients on FOLFIRINOX had better survival across all subgroups. Inpatient admissions and dose reductions were more frequent with FOLFIRINOX but the difference between the two regimens was not statistically significant. FOLFIRINOX could be successfully administered as outpatient therapy to a number of patients.CONCLUSIONS: FOLFIRINOX remains a suitable first line option in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer with good performance status even in a resource-poor country where diagnostic and supportive care facilities may be less than optimal and cost is a limitation