Using Technologlical Tools to Solve Group Work Problems in Higher Education of Under Developing Countries: A Case Study

Group work activities are one of the main point or task in the high education. Switzer and Shriner (2000) were of the view that students are the most obvious party who benefit from group work among students, faculty members, and the community. According to them there are four overlapping types of benefits for students. These are: 1) immediate educational benefits, 2) immediate social benefits, 3) critical thinking benefits, and 4) long-term career benefits. Lawrance (1992) , and Yates (2001) were of the opinion that face to face communication will not solve the empowerment problems in group work activities. As, through FTF interaction male dominant role can be produced due to identity of speaker, eye contact, nodding, moving the hands , and facial expressions etc. In this situation suitable adoption of technology can be consider as an alternative mode of communication, where there is a chance of discrimination. This case study will be a further step in addition to the previous technological tools & group work related researches. In this researcher will try to explore that how suitable technological tools can play a role to over come the group work problems and to increase the performance of the students in the developing countries like Oman

Big data analytics: does organizational factor matters impact technology acceptance?

Ever since the emergence of big data concept, researchers have started applying the concept to various fields and tried to assess the level of acceptance of it with renown models like technology acceptance model (TAM) and it variations. In this regard, this paper tries to look at the factors that associated with the usage of big data analytics, by synchronizing TAM with organizational learning capabilities (OLC) framework. These models are applied on the construct, intended usage of big data and also the mediation effect of the OLC constructs is assessed. The data for the study is collected from the students pertaining to information technology disciplines at University of Liverpool, online programme. Though, invitation to participate e-mails are sent to 1035 students, only 359 members responded back with filled questionnaires. This study uses structural equation modelling and multivariate regression using ordinary least squares estimation to test the proposed hypotheses using the latest statistical software R. It is proved from the analysis that compared to other models, model 4 (which is constructed by using the constructs of OLC and TAM frameworks) is able to explain 44% variation in the usage pattern of big data. In addition to this, the mediation test performed revealed that the interaction between OLC dimensions and TAM dimensions on intended usage of big data has no mediation effect. Thus, this work provided inputs to the research community to look into the relation between the constructs of OLC framework and the selection of big data technology. - 2017, The Author(s).Scopu

Serious Games in Science Education. A Systematic Literature Review

publishedVersio

Production of Indigenous and Enriched Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Coal Briquettes: Combustion and Disintegration Strength Analysis

Khyber Pakhtun Khwa province of Pakistan has considerable amounts of low ranked coal. However, due to the absence of any centrally administered power generation system there is a need to explore indigenous methods for effectively using this valuable energy resource. In the present study an indigenous coal briquetting technology has been developed and evaluated in terms of combustion characteristics such as moisture content, volatile matter, ash, fixed carbon and calorific value of the resulting coal briquette and disintegration strength using polyvinyl acetate (PVA) in combination with calcium carbonate (sample no 3 with highest disintegration strength value of 2059N). Comparison of test samples with the commercially available coal briquettes revealed improved combustion characteristics for the PVA bonded (sample no 1 and 5) coal briquettes having higher fixed carbon content and calorific value, lower ash contents as well as lower initial ignition time

Challenges and Their Practices in Adoption of Hybrid Cloud Computing: An Analytical Hierarchy Approach

Cloud computing adoption provides various advantages for companies. In particular, hybrid cloud shares the advantages of both the public and private cloud technologies because it combines the private in-house cloud with the public on-demand cloud. In order to obtain benefits from the opportunities provided by the hybrid cloud, organizations want to adopt or develop novel capabilities. Maturity models have proved to be an exceptional and easily available method for evaluating and improving capabilities. However, there is a dire need for a robust framework that helps client organizations in the adoption and assessment of hybrid cloud. Therefore, this research paper aims to present a taxonomy of the challenging factors faced by client organizations in the adoption of hybrid cloud. Typically, such a taxonomy is presented on the basis of obtained results from the empirical analysis with the execution of analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method. From the review of literature and empirical study, in total 13 challenging factors are recognized and plotted into four groups: "Lack of Inclination,""Lack of Readiness,""Lack of Adoption,"and "Lack of Satisfaction."The AHP technique is executed to prioritize the identified factors and their groups. By this way, we found that "Lack of Adoption"and "Lack of Satisfaction"are the most significant groups from the identified challenging factors. Findings from AHP also show that "public cloud security concern"and "achieving QoS"are the upper ranking factors confronted in the adoption of hybrid cloud mechanism by client organizations because their global weight (0.201) is greater than those of all the other reported challenging factors. We also found out 46 practices to address the identified challenges. The taxonomy developed in this study offers a comprehensive structure for dealing with hybrid cloud computing issues, which is essential for the success and advancement of client and vendor organizations in hybrid cloud computing relationships.Qatar University Internal Grant No. IRCC-2021-010

Identity and Aggregate Signature-Based Authentication Protocol for IoD Deployment Military Drone

With the rapid miniaturization in sensor technology, ruddervator, arduino, and multi-rotor system, drone technology has fascinated researchers in the field of network security. It is of critical significance given the advancement in modern strategic narratives. This has special relevance to drone-related operations. This technology can be controlled remotely by an invisible yet credible operator sitting to a powerful intelligence computer system (PICS) or an airborne control and command platform (AC2P). The two types of drones (reconnaissance and attacking) can communicate with each other and with the PICS or AC2P through wireless network channels referred to as Flying Ad Hoc Network or Unmanned Aerial Vehicular Network (FANET or UAVN). This mode of communication is not without some inconvenience. For instance, when the line of sight is broken, communication is mainly carried out through satellite using GPS (Global Positioning System) signals. Both GPS and UAVN/FANET use open network channels for data broadcasting, which are exposed to several threats, thus making security risky and challenging. This risk is specifically eminent in monitoring data transmission traffic, espionage, troop movement, border surveillance, searching, and warfare battlefield phenomenon, etc. This issue of security risk can be minimized conspicuously by developing a robust authentication scheme for IoD deployment military drones. Therefore, this research illustrates the designing of two separate protocols based on the aggregate signature, identity, pairing cryptography, and Computational Diffie-Hellman Problem (CDHP) to guarantee data integrity, authorization, and confidentiality among drones and AC2P/PICS. More importantly, the outdated data transmission flaw has also been tackled, which is of obvious concern to the past designed protocols. The security of the proposed designs is formally verified using a random oracle model (ROM), a real-or-random (ROR) model, and by informally using pragmatic illustration and mathematical lemmas. Nonetheless, the performance analysis section will be executed using the algorithmic big-O notation. The results show that these protocols are verifiably protected in the ROM and ROR model using the CDHP

The Dialogue of the Messengers with the Community of the Town (Rhetorical and analytical study of Qur‘ānic verses from Sūrah Yāsīn) (Arabic)

ABSTRACT This article encompasses specifically the five verses of Sūrah Yāsīn with respect to rhetorical point of view. I tried my best to dig out mysteries of these verses rhetorically in addition to the sum of knowledge in the rhetorical Qur‘ānic studies. I have discussed the semantic aspects and elaborated these verses in the light of Qur‘ānic eloquence and also compared these verses with the verses of Sūrah Qasas to derive the arguments of Qur‘ān 's miracles in the shades of rhetoric and eloquence. At the end of this article I concluded the exegesis of these verses with the best scientific consequences

Analysis of Australia’s Fiscal Vulnerability to Crisis

Fiscal vulnerability, like a contagion, poses a threat to financial sector stability, which can lead towards sovereign default. This study aimed to assess fiscal vulnerability to crisis by investigating the Australian economy’s gross public debt, net public debt, and net financial liabilities. We used a threshold regression model and compared results with the baseline deficit–debt framework of analysis. The results of the base model suggested that the economy is fiscally sustainable, and that the primary surplus remains unaffected by increasing levels of public debt. In contrast, the threshold regression model indicated that the increasing level of debt has eroded primary surplus below the threshold level of 30.89% of public debt to GDP. These results need further investigation. Therefore, we modified our basic threshold model to capture budget deficit and surplus as a threshold in response to changes in public debt. The results from the sequential threshold regression model using the debt to GDP ratio and primary budget surplus identifying the periods of 1991, 1992, 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2019 as times of likely vulnerability to fiscal crisis. The overall results confirmed that the primary surplus remained sustainable over the estimated threshold level of public debt in all other sample periods and these findings persisted across alternative measures of public debt

Evaluation of antagonistic fungi against charcoal rot of sunflower caused by Macrophomina phaseolina (Tassi) Goid.

In vitro, sensitivity of Macrophomina phaseolina (Tassi) Goid determined through inhibition zone technique to various antagonistic fungi viz., Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Trichoderma viride, Trichoderma harzianum and Penicillium capsulatum amended into PDA medium. All the antagonists reduced the colony growth of M. Phaseolina significantly compared to the control A. flavus was proved to be the most effective (66.00%) in reducing the colony growth of M. Phaseolina followed by A. niger (55.55%), T. viride (51.11%), T. harzianum (26.67%) and P. capsulatum (11.11%) respectively over control. A. flavus due to it antifungal metabolites activities was the most effective while P. capsulatum was the least effective. Seeds of four varieties treated with the culture of A. flavus, A. niger, T. viride and P. capsulatum and there combinations were sown in pots having infested soil (M. phaseolina). Results showed reduction in disease incidence of charcoal rot on sunflower cultivar G-66 with antagonist, A. flavus (100%) followed by A. niger (64.86%) P. capsulatum (63.79%) and T. viride (31.89%) over control. Decrease in disease incidence over control was 100% where seed was treated with combination of A. niger and A. flavus while A. niger and T. viride combination was least effective on G-66 (30.80%). All antagonists reduced the disease incidence on G-66 (Highly resistant), HRBS-1, (Resistant), G-72 (Moderately susceptible) and G-51 (susceptible) but were most effective on highly resistant variety (G-66) while least effective on susceptible variety (G-51).Key words: Sunflowers, Macrophomina phaseolina, antagonistic fungi