Web Interactive Multimedia Technology Implementation: A University Context

Elluminate a web interactive multimedia technology (WIMT), was introduced in a large metropolitan university. The system incorporates several interactive and multimedia features, such as chat, audio, video, polling, screen-board and desktop sharing. This system provides real time collaboration when used in a university teaching and learning environment as it enables immediate feedback between participants across physical space. This provides opportunities for interactivity and relationship building between academics and students, a vital component of learning. However, there are also several constraints in using WIMT. This paper discusses the findings from a case study conducted using design science research approach employing semi-structured interviews to gather the implementer’s and adopter’s perspective on their use of WIMT. The findings demonstrate a practical approach used as well as the benefits and challenges in using WIMT for teaching and learning activities that can be used as a guide for others

The Scenario of Buffalo Production and Research in Bangladesh

Background: This study aimed to characterize the scenario of buffalo production in the northern part of Bangladesh and review the published scientific literature on buffalo from Bangladesh. Methods: The study was conducted from August to December 2022. A draft questionnaire was prepared and modified before the final one based on the study's objectives. Data were collected through personal interviews with individual respondents. In addition, the review article was collected on buffalo from Google, Google Scholar, Research Gate, Scopus, Bangladesh Journal-Online (BJO), and PubMed. Results: Data was collected from 1099 animals from the northern part of the Natore and Lalmonirhat districts of Bangladesh. Most of the farmers were illiterate, and the age was above 40 years. Regarding the purpose of buffalo production, 69.16% (n=83) of the farmers narrated that they are motivated to milk with calves selling. The average herd size was about 9 and consisted of indigenous and crossbred buffaloes. Most of the farmers kept their buffalo in the Bathan. The coat color was predominantly black, with brown hair. Farmers 94.16% (n=113) practice de-worming, and the frequency was thrice a year. Wallowing is performed at least once a day in the pond or river for the thermal regulation of the buffalo. Among the farmers, 67.50% (n=81) have no training in rearing buffalo. Farmers practice natural mating by their own or neighbor bull to serve the heated cow. Sometimes it’s free, or sometimes, with payment on an average of BDT 400-500 or 3.79-4.73 US dollars. In some areas, AI is being practiced in buffalo under different organizations (LAL Teer, BRAC), and the cost of AI was recorded as about BDT 600-700 or 5.68-6.63 US dollars per cow. The average daily milk yield was 3.0 liter, whereas the lactation length was recorded at 179.9±3.84 days. The major constraints were high feed price 91.66% (n=110), shortage of land 41.08% (n=51), and lack of suitable marketing facilities 50.82% (n=62). 100% of farmers stated that they need improved grass production technology and reduced feed and medicine price; 24.16% (n=29) need good quality semen. From 2004 to 2022, 51 studies were found related to buffalo, where the highest 27.45% (n=14) belonged to performance studies, and 54.90% (n=28) studies were carried out in the southern part of Bangladesh. Conclusion: It can be concluded that buffalo has great potential with different areas of improvement. Therefore, more research is needed from different perspectives on production, reproduction, nutrition, quality of milk/meat/products, health, and sustainability of buffalo farming in Bangladesh

The probabilistic component of outdoor millimeter wave propagation path loss model considering rain fade

The close-in free space reference distance model CI can be extended to account for the channel shadow fading SF and rain attenuation factors as a different time probability function. Robustness and performance motivated the adoption of combining rain fade and shadowing using the CI model at exceedance probability (0.001%≤P%≤1.0%) and weighing the path losses using a probabilistic distribution of rain fade shadowing as a function of link distance. A probabilistic CI model is proposed considering rain attenuation and shadowing at different probabilities. The mean estimated path loss in this new "hybrid" path loss model is probabilistic. The model can give a close prediction compared to path loss analytically estimated from measured data at 38 GHz at 300m (χσ = 5.22 dB). The difference between path loss predicted from the proposed probabilistic model and path loss analytically estimated from measured path loss at 38 GHz over 300 m at (0.001%≤p%≤1.0%) has been calculated at the tropical region. The findings show a 20 dB per decade loss in signal strength in the equatorial region more than in the temperate areas by considering rain fade for 300 m at 38 GHz. The proposed hybrid probabilistic path loss model can be used as an alternative to conventional propagation path loss models to calculate the directional path loss by increasing the prediction accuracy. The effect of log�normal shadowing, which essentially accounts for the randomness in the shadowing factor around the cell because of the large obstacles, has also been analysed. Additional transmit power is proposed to maintain the fade margin during the rains. Probbilistic path loss models are commonly used in the design and evaluation of millimeter wave wireless systems, which operate at high frequencies and are highly sensitive to the propagation environment. By accounting for the probabilistic nature of the path loss, these models can help to improve the accuracy of predictions and reduce the risk of unexpected performance degradation in real-world deployments

A systematic literature review of cloud computing adoption and impacts among Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

Although cloud computing is one of the most significant trends in information technology acquisition today, its adoption amongst the SMEs is still behind the larger conterparts. Additionally, among those that use, many face challenges to gain benefits as what is normally claimed. More research is needed to understand the issue. The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) conducted related to cloud computing adoption among SMEs, particularly focusing on the post adoption stage. SLR method was employed as this method enable the review been done in a more comprehensive and rigorous manner. A total of 39 relevant articles were reviewed and the findings indicate that most past researches on cloud computing and SMEs focused on adoption, exploring factors that affect the adoption. Very few studies looked at the post adoption stage or the impacts of cloud computing on SMEs

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and their effect on learners motivation

Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) have become a new form innovation whose development has shown great challenges to the traditional classroom mode of teaching, they have also proven to be an alternative way of delivering interactive teaching as well as learning. The aim of this paper is to determine the key factors affecting student motivation in course completion as well as the approaches used by teachers to ensure that the students complete the course. To help in building a better understanding, an in-depth interview was conducted with a course facilitator at the International Islamic University. To get the students perspective on learning through MOOCS, a survey was distributed among students from several universities across Malaysia. The purpose of this survey was to probe students motivation, learning perceptions, and experiences towards MOOCS, focusing on MOOCS affordances and challenges that may lead to high dropout rates. This research paper has helped identify the learning motivations, learning styles, and a number of factors that appear to influence student motivation. © 2018 IEEE

A Case Study on the Adoption of Cloud Computing in Malaysia from The Perspectives of Cloud Providers

The objective of this study is to discover the perspectives of cloud providers towards cloud computing adoption in Malaysia in terms of the challenges faced by cloud providers and reasons for the adoption. Data were collected through semi structured interviews with three cloud providers. The findings indicated security concern, difficulties in learning cloud computing infrastructure, changes in IT roles, high cost of bandwidth and life span of IT equipment as challenges faced by cloud providers in providing cloud service in Malaysia. This study also discovered cloud scalability, end-to-end management, high level security, and customizable as the reasons on cloud computing adoption. The findings of this study help people to understand more about the current situation of cloud computing adoption in Malaysia. Keywords—cloud adoption, cloud computing, cloud providers, Malaysia

Performance analysis of rain attenuation on earth-to-satellite microwave links design in Libya

Performances of earth-to-satellite microwave links operating in Ku, Ka, and V-bands are degraded by the environment and strongly attenuated by rain. Rain attenuation is the most significant consideration and challenge to design a reliable earth-to-satellite microwave links for these frequency bands. Hence, it is essential for satellite link designer to take into account rain fade margin accurately before system implementation. Rain rate is the main measured parameter to predict of rain attenuation. Rainfall statistical data measured and recorded in Libya for the period of 30 years are collected from 5 locations. The prediction methods require one minute integration time rain intensity. Therefore, collected data were analyzed and processed to convert into one–minute rain rate cumulative distribution in Libya. The model proposed by ITU-R is used to predict and investigate rain fade based on converted 1-minute rain rate data. Rain fade predicted at two locations are used for performance analysis in terms of link spectral efficiency and throughput. V-band downlink shows that 99.99% availability is possible in all the Southern part stations in Libya at 0.29 bps/Hz spectral efficiency and 20.74 Mbps throughput when 72 MHz transponder band width is used which is not feasible in Northern part. Results of this paper will be a very useful resource to design highly reliable earth-to-satellite communication links in Libya

Information security awareness through the use of social media

The proliferation of online social media use amongst employees has been reported to be incriminating organizational information security. Despite the benefits of social media to organizations, there were cases of information leakage, malware, identity theft, espionage and sabotage through such use. This paper explores employees' awareness of information security around social media and presents the initial findings of a study on a tertiary education institution in Malaysia. As an extension to a previous study, this study also found that employees were not only disclosing personal information but they are also disclosing organizational information on social media. This indicates there is a potential for information security threats to organizations through employees' use of social media. Nevertheless, the findings demonstrate that some participants were aware about the implications of employees' use of social media to information security

A model to assess the impacts of cloud computing use on SME performance: a resource-based view

Currently, cloud computing services that are available in the market are very appealing to SMEs. This is because these services are not only up-to-date in terms of ICT but more importantly they are affordable to them. However, the adoption of the cloud computing services presents significant challenges to the SMEs. They need to determine the appropriate path in order to ensure their sustainable presence in the cloud computing environment. Additionally, SMEs have to assess whether cloud services can provide value to their business. Past research has focused on cloud computing adoption by SMEs; the post-adoption and impacts of cloud computing was not thoroughly investigated. Using the Resource-Based theory, this paper discusses a conceptual model developed to assess the impact of cloud computing on SME performance, mediated by cloud computing benefits. The role of environmental turbulence is also included in the model which is postulated to moderate the effect of cloud infrastructure capability on cloud computing benefits. The model contributes towards understanding the impacts of cloud computing on SMEs from the lens of Resource-based View, and practically can guide SME managers in planning their cloud migration initiative

Undergraduate students acceptance of library online database system to support studies and research

This paper reports on the user acceptance test (UAT) result that examine participants’ acceptance of a library online database system that has been developed to support the process of studies and research among under graduate students. The objectives of the user acceptance test are to ensure the new system does what it set out to do and meets the requirements the business has of it. In order to test the system that is expected to cooperate with user demands and expectations, certain variables have been taken into consideration. The variables were taken from the requirements collected from a survey that has been collected earlier. The variables were then categorized into four categories mainly People, System Usability, System Features and User Satisfaction. A single case study has been employed in this evaluation which included undergraduate students from International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) as participants. These participants are directly involved in the usage of an online database system in IIUM. The user evaluation is carried out in two phases. The first phase involves a task-based approach where participants are given several tasks to perform while using the system. The second phase is a questionnaire to elicit the participants' feedback on the perceived usefulness of the system after they have completed the tasks given. The user acceptance test of the Library Online Database System (LODS) in serving the undergraduate students has been reflected by the positive feedback from the 15 participants. The findings signify a positive reaction from participants towards the system. The system, in general, has been perceived as useful to support studies and research works among undergraduate students electronically