Delivery of broadband services to SubSaharan Africa via Nigerian communications satellite

Africa is the least wired continent in the world in terms of robust telecommunications infrastructure and systems to cater for its more than one billion people. African nations are mostly still in the early stages of Information Communications Technology (ICT) development as verified by the relatively low ICT Development Index (IDI) values of all countries in the African region. In developing nations, mobile broadband subscriptions and penetration between 2000-2009 was increasingly more popular than fixed broadband subscriptions. To achieve the goal of universal access, with rapid implementation of ICT infrastructure to complement the sparsely distributed terrestrial networks in the hinterlands and leveraging the adequate submarine cables along the African coastline, African nations and their stakeholders are promoting and implementing Communication Satellite systems, particularly in Nigeria, to help bridge the digital hiatus. This paper examines the effectiveness of communication satellites in delivering broadband-based services

Coherent optical implementations of the fast Fourier transform and their comparison to the optical implementation of the quantum Fourier transform

Optical structures to implement the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) and fast Fourier transform (FFT) algorithms for discretely sampled data sets are considered. In particular, the decomposition of the FFT algorithm into the basic Butterfly operations is described, as this allows the algorithm to be fully implemented by the successive coherent addition and subtraction of two wavefronts (the subtraction being performed after one has been appropriately phase shifted), so facilitating a simple and robust hardware implementation based on waveguided hybrid devices as employed in coherent optical detection modules. Further, a comparison is made to the optical structures proposed for the optical implementation of the quantum Fourier transform and they are shown to be very similar

Comparison of spatial domain optimal trade-off maximum average correlation height (OT-MACH) filter with scale invariant feature transform (SIFT) using images with poor contrast and large illumination gradient

A spatial domain optimal trade-off Maximum Average Correlation Height (OT-MACH) filter has been previously developed and shown to have advantages over frequency domain implementations in that it can be made locally adaptive to spatial variations in the input image background clutter and normalised for local intensity changes. In this paper we compare the performance of the spatial domain (SPOT-MACH) filter to the widely applied data driven technique known as the Scale Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT). The SPOT-MACH filter is shown to provide more robust recognition performance than the SIFT technique for demanding images such as scenes in which there are large illumination gradients. The SIFT method depends on reliable local edge-based feature detection over large regions of the image plane which is compromised in some of the demanding images we examined for this work. The disadvantage of the SPOTMACH filter is its numerically intensive nature since it is template based and is implemented in the spatial domain. © (2015) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only

Understanding adoption of big data analytics in China: from organizational users perspective

Big data is a recent technology employed by companies to gain a competitive advantage. The investment of big data technologies in the USA was estimated at more than 30 billion USD in 2016. However, the investment of big data technologies in China was relatively small in 2016. Grounded in the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework, this study identifies the main factors affecting the organizational adoption of big data in China. The results can provide useful indicators for industries to utilize big data for a more productive business

Natural control of the mosquito population via Odonata and Toxorhynchites

The main impact of mosquito pests is the transmission of many dangerous diseases and death. Hence, the reduction of their population by the use of a natural control method is a primary objective of this research. This mosquito reduction method utilises different species of predators (Odonata) and (Toxorhynchites) to substantially improve the environment. The frequency of capturing the pest mosquitoes by the predators is determined using a Pascal distribution, whilst insect mortality is modelled using a Weibull distribution. The results from the model show that by using insect predators, a significant reduction of the mosquito population is possible in less than eighty days

Adoption of Near Field Communication in the hotel industry based on risk perspectives and individual characteristics

The emergence of the mobile phone has created great opportunities for businesses, especially those providing services to customers. Hotels are very important to a country as they provide accommodation to travelers. Better services attract more hotel customers. With the advent of NFC, a wireless mobile technology, hotel customers can use NFC to get hotel services efficiently. Previous studies found that risk and users' individual characteristics are very important in analyzing the adoption of Internet communication technologies. This paper presents a quantitative study on hotel customers' adoption of Near Field Communications (NFC) based on six dimensions of risk perspectives and individual characteristics. The results can provide useful indicators for the hotel industry to utilize NFC for a more productive business

The Mapping between Business E-Marketing Mix and Internet Consumers’ Decision-Making Styles in E-Commerce

As a result of the emergence of E-Commerce, emarketing mix has been widely adopted by most businesses and companies. Currently, the tools of e-marketing mix are provided by the company web site so that the customers can decide whether the company portfolio of products and/or services suits their needs. If we can understand the psychological factors of customer behavior, businesses can know which customers are suitable. This paper presents the relationship between e-marketing mix of particular businesses and psychological factors of customer behavior in order to provide an easier way for both businesses and customers to find their target needs

Measuring E-Marketing Mix Elements Based on Associated E-Marketing Tools in E-Commerce

E-marketing strategy is normally based and built upon the traditional 4 P\u27s (Product, Price, Promotion and Place) that forms the classic marketing mix. Nowadays, what gives e-marketing its uniqueness is a series of specific and relational functions that are combined with the 4P’s to form the e-marketing mix elements, each of which contain associated emarketing mix tools that are provided on business web sites to facilitate sales transactions. This paper evaluates the importance of each e-marketing tool related to its e-marketing mix element. Furthermore, the weight of each e-marketing mix element is determined. This paper concludes with a discussion of the relative weights of e-marketing tools

Online Consumers’ Decision-Making Styles Ontology Incorporating Factor Item Weights

Most studies about online consumer behavior have not considered the weight of each item corresponding to its particular decision-making style. As a result, there are not any measures of online consumers’ scores for each decision-making style. Research has found that online consumers have different decision-making styles when purchasing product items. Therefore, measuring online consumers’ decision-making styles is vital as it can be used to find out suitable product items for these consumers. This paper measures the score of each decision-making style based on the factor score coefficients. Finally, the factor score coefficient ontology is developed and expanded into an online consumers’ decision-making style ontology so that it can be utilized by different emarketing applications that exploit online consumer behavior

Targeting the life cycle stages of the Diamond Black Moth (Plutella Xylostella) with three different parasitoid wasps

A continuous time model of the interaction between crop insect pests and naturally beneficial pest enemies is created using a set of simultaneous, non-linear, ordinary differential equations incorporating natural death rates based on the Weibull distribution. The crop pest is present in all its life-cycle stages of: egg, larva, pupa and adult. The beneficial insects, parasitoid wasps, may be present in either or all parasitized: eggs, larva and pupa. Population modelling is used to estimate the quantity of the natural pest enemies that should be introduced into the pest infested environment to suppress the pest population density to an economically acceptable level within a prescribed number of days. The results obtained illustrate the effect of different combinations of parasitoid wasps, using the Pascal distribution to estimate their success in parasitizing different pest developmental stages, to deliver pest control to a sustainable level. Effective control, within a prescribed number of days, is established by the deployment of two or all three species of wasps, which partially destroy pest: egg, larvae and pupae stages. The selected scenarios demonstrate effective sustainable control of the pest in less than thirty days