Consumer Attitude towards Counterfeit Products: With Reference to Pakistani Consumers

The main purpose of this research is to develop and test a model that shows the main predictors of consumer’s attitude toward counterfeit products and to help companies to realize the main factors that are influencing consumer attitude towards counterfeit products and build successful anti-piracy policy. Population was all the students of the Bahawalpur District. Sample unit was the students of Islamia University of Bahawalpur as regular or private students. Sample frame was all the students of DMS which are at the level of Bachelor, Master and MS. We have used the convenience and non-probability sampling techniques in this study.  Sample size140 for this study conducted in Bahawalpur district. The main part of the paper is to show that consumer buy counterfeited products are dependent on the attitudes they have toward counterfeit products, which is influenced by price-quality inference, perceived risk, subjective norm, integrity, and personal gratification

Hepatoprotektivno djelovanje ekstrakta biljke Calotropis gigantea na oštećenje jetre štakora tetraklormetanom

Ethanolic extract (50 %) of stems of Calotropis gigantea R. Br. (Asclepiadaceae) at doses of 250 and 500 mg kg1 were studied for hepatoprotective activity in male Wistar rats with liver damage induced using carbon tetrachloride, 2 mL kg-1 twice a week. The protective effect of C. gigantea extract was compared with the standard drug silymarin. Various biochemical parameters such as aspartate amino transferase (AST), alanine amino transferase (ALT), glutathione (GSH), lipid peroxide (LPO), superoxidedismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and catalase (CAT) were evaluated. The results revealed that the C. gigantea extract significantly decreased AST, ALT (p < 0.001) and lipid peroxide (p < 0.01) levels. The antioxidant parameters GSH, GPx, SOD and catalase levels were increased considerably compared to the levels in groups treated with carbon tetrachloride onlyEtanolni ekstrakt (50 %) stabljika biljke Calotropis gigantea R. Br. (Asclepiadaceae) u dozi 250 i 500 mg kg1 testiran je na hepatoprotektivno djelovanje oštećenje jetre mužjaka Wistar štakora inducirano tetraklormetanom, 2 mL kg1 dva puta tjedno. Zaštitni učinak ekstrakta biljke C. gigantea uspoređivan je sa standarnim lijekom silimarinom. Evaluirani su različiti biokemijski parametri kao što su aspartat amino transferaza (AST), alanin amino transferaza (ALT), glutation (GSH), lipidni peroksidi (LPO), superoksiddismutaza (SOD), glutation peroksidaze (GPx) i katalaza (CAT). Rezultati ukazuju da ekstrakt biljke C. gigantea značajno smanjuje koncentracije AST, ALT (p < 0.001) i lipidnih peroksida (p < 0.01). Koncentracije antioksidativnih parametara GSH, GPx, SOD i katalaze bile su značajno povišene u usporedbi sa skupinom tretiranom samo tetraklormetanom

Architecture reseau sans fil pour de la téléopération long distance d'un systeme embarqué

Networked teleoperation (NT) is an emerging area of technology, where human assisted Master and remote Slave devices communicate over a communication network for the exchange of command and sensor feedback information. For long range mobile teleoperation, this information travels over different types of heterogeneous/hybrid networks interconnected together with a compulsory network segment over wireless to permit increased mobility. The independent design of control and network promotes the isolated objectives and the performance is degraded after an integration. It is also challenging if internet is used for teleoperation, instead of point to point communication. The mechanisms of QoS in one network protocol of the heterogeneous network needs mapping on any other network which is usually carried out with a multimedia point of view and not for the critical teleoperation data. The approach for networked teleoperation can be given a new dimension by adding quality of service (QoS) to different flows on need based priority and as a function of control and transparence criteria. This means to alter the network resources for teleoperation objective in order to transport the information to satisfy the end-to-end application needs. The network QoS perspective is important to consider in the co-design approach for teleoperation. However, the true meaning of end to end QoS must be defined for teleoperation. If we consider the QoS from the network point of view, it refers to the management of various flows or users as per their need and precedence. Whereas, from the teleoperation perspective, QoS is related to the quality of control (QoC) which includes stability, transparence and telepresence. Moreover, the human interface may have different requirements as per telepresence feeling which will result in varying network load. To control network QoS, we need to measure or estimate it. Therefore, classification of QoS is performed with a fuzzy inference system which is able to distinguish between varying levels of QoS. In addition, it is also a challenging task for online decision for reconfiguration of network and control performance. We have used supervised methods for classification and prediction of QoS to be used in the proposed approach. Thus, data communication networks treat control information as best effort most of the time. conclusion the communication used in teleoperation uses a dedicated network/communication. In short, a co-design approach is formulated to treat the network QoS as a function of teleoperation objectives which are related to the quality of transparence and control. Alternatively, the video flow is managed in order to effectively reduce the necessary throughput for instants when the network quality is not sufficient. We have considered two cases. First, without taking into account any network QoS mechanism (best effort flows only) and adapting application needs as per the teleoperation objectives. The second one considers a QoS oriented network in between the master and slave, where different priorities can be assigned to the teleoperation flows as per need. In the end, the proposed methodology is implemented on the NeCS-Car benchmark.La téléopération en réseau est une thématique émergente, où un humain (le maître) communique avec un esclave commandé à distance à travers un réseau de communication, pour l'échange des données de commande et de mesure. Pour la téléopération longue distance, ces informations traversent divers réseaux hétérogènes ou hybrides interconnectés ensemble. Nous traitons également le cas où un segment sera sans fil, ce qui permet d'envisager que l'esclave soit mobile (véhicule télé-opéré par exemple). Une étude indépendante des aspects commande et des aspects réseau entraîne l'atteinte d'objectifs locaux, qui peuvent le cas échéant être ensuite fortement dégradés après l'intégration des deux aspects. L'utilisation de réseaux partagés, comme internet, en lieu et place d'une liaison dédiée (point à point, liaison virtuelle) est également un défi, en particulier dans le cas de la longue distance. Les mécanismes de qualité de service (QdS) d'un réseau, en particulier du réseau hétérogène, doivent pouvoir être traités par les autres réseaux ; ces points sont assez souvent traités avec un point de vue d'applications multimedia, plus rarement avec le point de vue de la téléopération critique. L'approche de téléopération en réseau peut profiter de ces mécanismes de qualité de service en utilisant des priorités ou des réservations de bandes passantes en fonction des critères de commande et de transparence. Cela peut entraîner une adaptation des ressources réseau en fonction des besoins des objectifs de téléopération afin de transporter l'information en satisfaisant les besoins bout en bout de l'application, cette notion devant être précisée. Lorsqu'on considère la QdS avec un point de vue réseau, elle consiste principalement à la gestion de flux de communication, en prenant en compte des paramètres de besoin et d'ordonnancement. Si l'on prend en compte le point de vue de la téléopération, la QdS entraîne des conséquences sur la qualité de commande (QdC) ce qui inclut la stabilité, la transparence et la téléprésence. De plus, l'interface humaine peut également avoir des besoins spécifiques en termes de téléprésence, ce qui peut entraîner des conséquences sur la répartition de la charge du réseau. Afin d'intégrer les deux approches de QdS et de QdC pour apporter une meilleure réponse au problème posé, nous proposons une approche de coconception avec d'une part une adaptation de la QdS aux besoins de la Qdc (qualité de la transparence) et d'autre part une adaptation de la Qdc (par exemple dégradation de la qualité du flux vidéo) à la disponibilité du réseau. Nous avons considéré deux cas de figures. Dans un premier temps, sans tenir compte des mécanismes de QdS du réseau (approche dite du meilleur effort ou best effort) et par l'adaptation au mieux de l'application, pour répondre aux besoins de la téléopération. La seconde approche considère un réseau orienté QdS entre le maître et l'esclave, où différentes priorités peuvent être attribuées aux flux nécessaires à la téléopération, en fonction des contextes. L'approche proposée est finalement mise en oeuvre sur NeCS-Car, la voiture téléopérée disponible au Laboratoire

The potential role of renewable energy sources in robot's power system: A case study of Pakistan

The domain of ‘robotics’ is undergoing a major transformation in dimension as well as scope. Recent advances in various disciplines of technology have revolutionized this domain at an incredible pace far beyond the contemporary state of the art. Highlighting the forecasted population of robots in future and the resulting demand of massive energy consumption, this review addresses the application of renewable energy sources in uninterruptible supply for robots. The study analyzes the extensive field of renewable energy technology and discovers that comparing with traditional sources; green energies like solar, wind and biological have significant potential to drive robots. Listing the world-wide achievements attained by the applications of renewable energy technology for robots, the review finally presents the subject matter in context of Pakistan. It is shown that being rich in renewable energy resources, broad possibilities for robot technologies exist here. With a discussion on challenges to exploit this potential, suggestions are outlined. It is anticipated that wider dissemination of research developments in the integration of these streams will stimulate more exchanges and collaborations among the research community and contribute to further advancements

Popularity-aware content caching for distributed wireless helper nodes

Content caching enables end users to obtain contents in a short time. To further reduce the time to access a mobile wireless network, we consider a device-to-device communication scenario where contents are distributed and users may obtain contents directly from neighbors instead of accessing the base station. For maximizing the cache hit rate per unit of bandwidth consumed, we derive a theoretical model based on the probability distribution of content popularity. To make the problem tractable, we propose a popularity-aware content caching mechanism using the modified weighted Zipf distribution. Through our simulation with a real YouTube trace, the proposed algorithm is compared with the existing well-known least-recently-used algorithm in terms of the achieved hit rate, caching time, cache eviction rate, and consumed bandwidth. The results show that our approach is able to achieve near-optimal performances and at the same time approximate the optimal cache time a cached content resides at the device

Screening of phytoconstituents and antibacterial effects of leaf & stem of Ailanthus excelsa against E. Coli, S. Aureus, A. Niger & A. Flavus

The research was aimed as screening of phytoconstituents and antibacterial effects of Leaf &amp; Stem of Ailanthus excelsa against E. Coli, S. Aureus, A. Niger &amp; A. Flavus. The plants were collected from Bareilly region, Uttar Pradesh and authentication was done by CIMAP, Lucknow. The collected plant material was dried in shade and ground in the grounder. The dried powdered drug material was extracted by 9 different solvents by cold maceration for 12 hrs at room temperature. Mayer’s, Hager’s tests, Fehling’s Wager’s and Molisch test were used for detection of alkaloids, glycosides, saponins, terpenoids etc. After the extraction was complete, it was tested against various species such as E. coli, S. aureus, S. niger and A. Flavus for its antimicrobial potential. The results indicate that methanolic extract showed highest level of phytoconstituents such as alkaloids, glucosides, saponins, terpenoids, flavonoids, and carbohydrates. Extract showed significant antibacterial potential against all the species tested with. In conclusion, this research suggests, that novel molecules should be identified and isolated responsible for specific pharmacological activity

Design and Implementation of a Low Cost USB Duplicator

USB devices and flash disks are the most common storage device being used but very little work has been done on it at university project level. Considering the increasing capacity and popularity of USB flash disks, it is believed that in the near future they will replace CDs/DVDs and will be used as a primary storage medium. For this purpose, a USB flash disk duplicator will also be required just as a CD/DVD duplicator is required today. The aim of the present work is to develop a portable and stand-alone device capable of copying the contents of one USB flash disk/mass storage device to another USB flash drive without the use of an intermediary computer

Computational intelligence for decision support in cyber-physical systems

This book is dedicated to applied computational intelligence and soft computing techniques with special reference to decision support in Cyber Physical Systems (CPS), where the physical as well as the communication segment of the networked entities interact with each other. The joint dynamics of such systems result in a complex combination of computers, software, networks and physical processes all combined to establish a process flow at system level. This volume provides the audience with an in-depth vision about how to ensure dependability, safety, security and efficiency in real time by making use of computational intelligence in various CPS applications ranging from the nano-world to large scale wide area systems of systems. Key application areas include healthcare, transportation, energy, process control and robotics where intelligent decision support has key significance in establishing dynamic, ever-changing and high confidence future technologies. A recommended text for graduate students and researchers working on the applications of computational intelligence methods in CPS