Social Learning over Weakly-Connected Graphs

In this paper, we study diffusion social learning over weakly-connected graphs. We show that the asymmetric flow of information hinders the learning abilities of certain agents regardless of their local observations. Under some circumstances that we clarify in this work, a scenario of total influence (or "mind-control") arises where a set of influential agents ends up shaping the beliefs of non-influential agents. We derive useful closed-form expressions that characterize this influence, and which can be used to motivate design problems to control it. We provide simulation examples to illustrate the results.Comment: To appear in 2017 in the IEEE Transactions on Signal and Information Processing over Network

Energy inputs and outputs in a chickpea production system in Kurdistan, Iran

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is one of the most important grain legumes which traditionally cultivated in marginal areas and saline soils. In this study, chickpea production in Kurdistan, Iran and the energy equivalencesof input used in production were investigated. The aims of this study were to determine the amount of input–output energy used in chickpea production, to investigate the efficiency of energy consumption, to make an economic analysis of chickpea production, and to establish a relation between energy inputs and yield. Data were collected through a survey using a face-to-face questionnaire. Diesel energy engrossed 37.9% of total energy, followed by chemical fertiliser 29.6% during production period. Energy efficiency was 1.04, and energy productivity was 0.07 kg MJ-1. The profit-cost ratio of the farms was 1.17. Calculated net return was 42.2 $ ha-1 in the investigated farms. The Cobb–Douglas function,, and the linear function, , were selected to establish the best fitness relations between the production and various energy inputs. Whereas the R squares in both models are close, but it has shown that the Cobb–Douglas model was better than linear model

Microextraction in packed sorbent for determination of sulfonamides in egg samples by liquid chromatography and spectrophotometric detection

The present work describes a successful application of microextraction packed sorbent and liquid chromatography with diode array detection (MEPS/LC-DAD) for simultaneous determination of the sulfonamides (sulfacetamide, sulfadiazine, sulfathiazole, sulfamethazine, sulfamethoxypiridazine and sulfamethoxazole) in egg samples. The MEPS variables (pH of the sample, draw-eject cycles, ionic strength, and desorption procedure) were optimized, in order to improve the sensitivity of the proposed method. The method was shown to be linear at concentrations ranging from 30 ng g-1 (limit of quantification, LOQ) to 300 ng g-1. This LOQ value is lower than those established as the maximum residue limit (MRL) for egg samples (100 µg kg-1). The accuracy values were adequate for all analytes (> 94%), as well as the inter-day precision data, with coefficient of variation lower than 10%. On the basis of analytical validation, the MEPS/LC methodology has been shown to be a promising alternative for analysis of sulfonamides in egg samples.O presente trabalho descreve a aplicação bem sucedida da microextração em sorvente empacotado e cromatografia líquida com detecção de arranjo de diodos (MEPS/LC-DAD) para a determinação simultânea das sulfonamidas (sulfacetamida, sulfadiazina, sulfatiazol, sulfametazina sulfametoxipiridazina e sulfametoxazol) em amostras de ovos. As variáveis MEPS (pH da amostra, número de ciclos aspirar/dispensar, força iônica e procedimento de dessorção) foram otimizados para aumentar a sensibilidade analítica do método. O método apresentou linearidade na faixa de concentração de 30 ng g-1 (limite de quantificação, LOQ) a 300 ng g-1. Este valor de LOQ é inferior ao limite máximo de resíduo (LMR) preconizado para sulfonamidas em amostras de ovos (100 µg kg-1). As taxas de recuperação foram adequadas para todos os analitos (> 94%), bem como os dados de precisão inter-ensaio, com coeficientes de variação inferiores a 10%. Com base na validação analítica, a metodologia MEPS/LC é adequada para a determinação de sulfonamidas em amostras de ovos.Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)FAPES

The Impact of Academic Satisfaction as a Mediator on International Conferences

Scientists have lately discovered that the quality of services has a significant influence on academic satisfaction and academic loyalty. Universities in Erbil are competing attract academics by conducting international conferences. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the service quality in international conferences. A statistical analysis was provided based on data collected from 150 responses from academics at Cihan University-Erbil and other universities in the region. A structured questionnaire was conducted by the respondents in order to analyze their general expectations on conference services and the actual service performance they perceived with the conference. The study also assessed the impact of respondents’ past experiences on their expectations. The findings of this study show that we have positive effect between the total effect of (SQ) the independent variable on (CI) the dependent variable is highly significant with (t = 6.02, p< 0.05), also the effect of the mediator variable (AS) was significant with (t = 7.01, p< 0.05), and finally both the independent variable and the mediator variable (SQ) and (AS) have a significant effect on the dependent variable (CI). We found that the meditation effect was partial but not complete effect

The Role of Workplace Enviousness on Individual Productivity and Organizational Behavior

As a result of its negative consequences for college academics, workplace envy is one of the important areas to study and investigate its results. Thus, this study attempts to find out individuals’ productivity affected by envy in the workplace (CWBI) and organizational citizenship behavior directly benefi ts individuals (OCBI) in the context of Iraqi colleges. A survey was conducted among the lecturers at Baghdad University’s colleges in Iraq, with 182 lecturers representing a response rate of 50%. The researcher used two-step approach with partial least squares-structural equation modeling by Smart PLS to test the hypotheses. As anticipated, the research findings point that workplace envy positively influenced CWBI (accepting H1). Furthermore, results indicated that workplace envy negatively influenced OCBI (accepting H2). The results of this research have various implications for colleges in general and Iraqi colleges in particular. The scientific impact that the results of the present study will contribute to practitioners is demonstrated by highlighting the factors that lead to reducing CWBI and strengthening OCBI in colleges. To enhance the OCBI and minimize the CWBI in colleges, it is advised that the management should encourage academic cooperation and create a work environment suitable for the academics. This can be achieved by forming research teams to work on joint scientific projects and by allowing qualified academics to participate in teaching, supervising postgraduate students, and discussion committees. Providing positive organizational support can motivate the academics to perform better, exhibit responsible behavior, and become productive members of the college community

Principal Component Analysis Technique for Finding the Best Applicant for a Job

This paper focuses on the use of principal component analysis technique (PCA) in choosing the best applicant for a job in Cihan University-Erbil. Cihan University has a panel of judges (University staff) to help in choosing the applicants for a job by evaluating or rating each one on different scale of preference and different type of characteristics. This process usually creates complicated multivariate data structure, which consists of 25 applicants for a job rated by a panel of judges on 17 characteristics [25 rows, applicants, and 17 columns, characteristics]. PCA plays a crucial role in conducting impactful research as it offers a potent technique for analyzing multivariate data. Researchers can utilize this method to extract valuable information that aids decision-makers in problem-solving. To ensure the appropriateness of data for PCA, certain testing procedures are necessary. In this study, two tests, namely the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) Measure of Sampling Adequacy and Bartlett's Test of Sphericity, were performed, and their significance is vital. The findings indicate that the data employed in this research are suitable for PCA. Scoring and ranking procedures as extra tools were used to see that applicant No. (1) is the first accepted for a job, applicant No. (17) is the second, applicant No. (12) is the third, and so on

A Frequency Bin Analysis of Distinctive Ranges Between Human and Deepfake Generated Voices

Deepfake technology has advanced rapidly in recent years. The widespread availability of deepfake audio technology has raised concerns about its potential misuse for malicious purposes, and a need for more robust countermeasure systems is becoming ever more important. Here we analyse the differences between human and deepfake audio and introduce a novel audio pre-processing approach. Our analysis aims to show the specific locations in the frequency spectrum where these artefacts and distinctions between human and deepfake audio can be found. Our approach emphasises specific frequency ranges that we show are transferable across synthetic speech datasets. In doing so, we explore the use of a bespoke filter bank derived from our analysis of the WaveFake dataset to exploit commonalities across algorithms. Our filter bank was constructed based on a frequency bin analysis of the WaveFake dataset, we apply this filter bank to adjust gain/attenuation to improve the effective signal-to-noise ratio, doing so we reduce the similarities while accentuating differences. We then take a baseline performing model and experiment with improving the performance using these frequency ranges to show where these artefacts lie and if this knowledge is transferable across mel-spectrum algorithms. We show that there exist exploitable commonalities between deepfake voice generation methods that generate audio in the mel-spectrum and that artefacts are left behind in similar frequency regions. Our approach is evaluated on the ASVSpoof 2019 Logical Access dataset of which the test set contains unseen generative methods to test the efficacy of our filter bank approach and transferability. Our experiments show that there is enhanced classification performance to be gained from utilizing these transferable frequency bands where there are more artefacts and distinctions. Our highest-performing model provided a 14.75% improvement in Equal Error Rate against our baseline model

Customer Satisfaction on Quality of ISO Standard 9126 Services in Electronic Banking in Libya

Despite the availability of some electronic banking (e-banking) services in Libya, these services are still facing difficulties in many ways, they have advantages and disadvantages, and so far, they have not been understood by some customers to get their satisfaction.  This research aims to know the extent of customer satisfaction (CS) with e-banking services in Libya through ISO 9126 standards.  The research population consisted of all customers of (Al-Wahda) and (Commerce & Development (C&D)) bank in Benghazi city, a random sample of 180 and 207 clients were selected respectively. Research hypotheses have been tested, and we noticed a relationship between the existence of a strong significant correlation between the quality services of e-banking according to quality standards ISO 9126 software and CS among the banks under study. The value of this research comes from the new scientific results to study the impact of the quality of e-banking services on CS in Libyan banks, and its originality lies because of the lack of this research applied to Libyan banks in general and Benghazi city in particular