Digital Commons Network^™

An In Vitro Study On Skin Protection Across The Uv Spectra, Cheyenne Boone

Posters-at-the-Capitol

Skin cancer is the number one cancer in the United States. Lack of awareness of how harmful UV radiation is could be the cause of the over two million cases reported since 2012. It appears that there is not a lot information on the active ingredients used in sunscreens. Some of the compounds have been linked to birth defects, hormone disruptions, and the bleaching of coral reefs. Samples of commonly used sunscreens (both sprays and creams), cosmetic foundation, essential oils, lotions, and three pure organic actives were tested at specific concentrations and ran through a UV spectrometer. The results have …

The Impacts Of Cloud Computing And Big Data Applications On Developing World-Based Smallholder Farmers, Nir Kshetri

International Journal of Business and Technology

Cloud computing and big data applications are likely to have far-reaching and profound impacts on developing world-based smallholder farmers. Especially, the use of mobile devices to access cloudbased applications is a promising approach to deliver value to smallholder farmers in developing countries since according to the International Telecommunication Union, mobile-cellular penetration in developing countries is expected to reach 90% by the end of 2014. This article examines the contexts, mechanisms, processes and consequences associated with cloud computing and big data deployments in farming activities that could affect the lives of developing world-based smallholder farmers. We analyze the roles of big …

Efficient Algorithm For Solving 3sum Problem, Muhamed Retkoceri

International Journal of Business and Technology

In this paper is presented an algorithm for solving 3SUM problem efficiently in general computation model. The algorithm is based on sorting and splits the task into sub-tasks where this approach enables the algorithm to run concurrently at the high-level of computing. The algorithm is O(n2) and running sequentially achieves at least ~1/5 n2 number of basic necessary accesses of data structures. In this paper is also presented a comparison of running performances in practice between the new algorithm and the current most famous algorithm for 3SUM which is in-place and also based on sorting.

Using Congruence In Encoding Musical Partituras, Besim Shala, Besiana Mehmedi, Shkodran Tolaj, Azir Jusufi

International Journal of Business and Technology

Along with theoretical review of partituras and encryption systems, we have tried to conduct encryption of sheets by encoding all of its elements such as: encoding musical notes, encoding values of notes and intermissions, encoding accords, encoding tonalities and encoding rhythm whereby the original musical piece is transformed into an irregular and meaningless sheet. Information technology today has allowed for easier copying of authorial pieces; therefore, it is necessary to know encryption which allows protection of pieces from any misuse. Cryptology including knowledge of congruence deals with resolution of these insecurities. The significance of this paper lies in intertwining knowledge …

Steering Spatial Development In The Vienna Agglomeration, Thomas Dillinger

International Journal of Business and Technology

After the falling down of the “iron curtain” Vienna starts to grow again. It is now a metropolitan area with about 2.6 Mio. inhabitants. Vienna is surrounded by Lower Austria, which is one of the nine countries (Bundesländer) of Austria. Spatial Planning is based on the Austrian Constitution a complex matter. The Federal State, the Countries and the Municipalities have competences in Spatial Planning. Thus, in the agglomeration we are confronted with different spatial planning legislation, instruments and institution.In this situation basically three instruments have been developed to steer spatial development in the Vienna agglomeration: Lower Austria has passed two …

Theoretical Analysis Of Dynamic General Equilibrium Model, Mimi Kodheli, Arjeta Vokshi

International Journal of Business and Technology

Central Bank is one of the most important institutions of a country because its responsibility is to draw and implement the monetary policy. The central bank, in order to accomplish this responsibility, has to have a clearly defined main objective, the instruments that will use to achieve the objective, and it should be able to make precise or very good forecasts of macroeconomic variables. In order to make these forecasts, the central bank should first of all understand every monetary transmission mechanism and determine the most effective one. The success or non-success of monetary policy, living apart the other factors, …

Concept Of Online Assisted Platform For Technologies And Management In Communications – Optimek, Galia Marinova, Vassil Guliashki, Ognyan Chikov

International Journal of Business and Technology

The paper describes the concept of a Multimodular Multydisciplinary platform, contacting through unified templates in a Portal with knowledge, with Useful INTERNET resources, in order to provide advanced research and education. Usually the online resources available are mainly in the area of e- and distance education, but still an understanding is missing for the scale and the use of studying and the systematization of the online resource. The new concept has an accent of the useful INTERNET resource and the development of a System of nets to it, in the aim of solving tasks and generating new knowledge in the …

Itu-Prp: Parallel And Distributed Computing Middleware For Java Developers, Enis Spahi, D. Turgay Altilar

International Journal of Business and Technology

ITU-PRP provides a Parallel Programming Framework for Java Developers on which they can adapt their sequential application code to operate on a distributed multi-host parallel environment. Developers would implement parallel models, such as Loop Parallelism, Divide and Conquer, Master-Slave and Fork-Join by the help of an API Library provided under framework. Produced parallel applications would be submitted to a middleware called Parallel Running Platform (PRP), on which parallel resources for parallel processing are being organized and performed. The middleware creates Task Plans (TP) according to application’s parallel model, assigns best available resource Hosts, in order to perform fast parallel processing. …

Testing The Martingales Property Of Daily Exchange Rate, Rozana Liko, Artion Kashuri, Miftar Ramosaco

International Journal of Business and Technology

The purpose of this paper is to test whether the Albanian exchange rate market is weak form efficient by studying the statistical behavior of daily Euro and USD exchange rate against Albanian Lekё, which are the most influential currency in Albania market, during the period January 05, 2010 – April 30, 2015. The study seeks to examine whether this currencies follow each a martingale. The unit root tests (individually and panel) and variation ratio test are used. The various analytical tests implemented in the study provide evidence of non-martingale property of exchange market in Albania.

Understanding Residential Electricity Consumption Considering Energy Efficiency Policies And The Impact On The Electricity System, Meryem Nur Morgül Tumbaz, Hatice Tekiner Muğlkoç

International Journal of Business and Technology

Electricity consumption increases substantially over the years where residential use significantly contributes to the overall consumption. The growth in the population and variety of home appliances together with increasing comfort levels of the people results in higher levels of residential electricity use. In fact, nearly one fourth of Turkey's total electricity consumption is due to the domestic use. To achieve global sustainability targets and reduce the overall electricity use, focusing on the domestic consumption is crucial. In this research, the energy consumptions patterns of households are determined to identify the potential electricity savings existing in the residential sector. Moreover, specific …

“New” Subjects In Mechatronics Management Education, Peter Kopacek

International Journal of Business and Technology

Process – and manufacturing automation as well as robotics are currently one of the fast growing fields in automation. Advanced process control, cyber-physical systems, industry 4.0 and “advanced robots” are no longer a headline. They are in realization. As a consequence of these developments new social, ethical and human questions appear.

Therefore this contribution is a first report about the continuous “modernization” of the Mechatronics Management BSc and MSc programs which are successful running at UBT. Both programs were developed in the framework of two TEMPUS projects from an international consortium from 2006 to 2009. Since that time new “buzzwords” …

Optimal Control Of Dc Motors Using Pso Algorithm For Tuning Pid Controller, Arnisa Myrtellari, Petrika Marango, Margarita Gjonaj

International Journal of Business and Technology

The DC motors are widely used in the mechanisms that require control of speed. Different speed can be obtained by changing the field voltage and the armature voltage. The classic PID controllers are widely used in industrial process for speed control. But they aren’t suitable for high performance cases, because of the low robustness of PID controller. So many researchers have been studying various new control techniques in order to improve the system performance and tuning PID controllers. This paper presents particle swarm optimization (PSO) method for determining the optimal PID controller parameters to find the optimal parameters of DC …

Performance Indicators Analysis Inside A Call Center Using A Simulation Program, Ditila Ekmekçiu, Markela Muça, Adrian Naço

International Journal of Business and Technology

This paper deals with and shows the results of different performance indicators analyses made utilizing the help of Simulation and concentrated on dimensioning problems of handling calls capacity in a call center. The goal is to measure the reactivity of the call center’s performance to potential changes of critical variables. The literature related to the employment of this kind of instrument in call centers is reviewed, and the method that this problem is treated momentarily is precisely described. The technique used to obtain this paper’s goal implicated a simulation model using Arena Contact Center software that worked as a key …

Exploring The Role Of Sentiments In Identification Of Active And Influential Bloggers, Mohammad Alghobiri, Umer Ishfaq, Hikmat Ullah Khan, Tahir Afzal Malik

International Journal of Business and Technology

The social Web provides opportunities for the public to have social interactions and online discussions. A large number of online users using the social web sites create a high volume of data. This leads to the emergence of Big Data, which focuses on computational analysis of data to reveal patterns, and associations relating to human interactions. Such analyses have vast applications in various fields such as understanding human behaviors, studying culture influence, and promoting online marketing. The blogs are one of the social web channels that offer a way to discuss various topics. Finding the top bloggers has been a …

Perfect Metamaterial Absorber Based Energy Harvesting Application In Ism Band, Furkan Dincer, Mehmet Bakir, Muharrem Karaaslan, Kemal Delihacioglu, Cumali Sabah

International Journal of Business and Technology

An electromagnetic (EM) energy harvesting application based on metamaterial absorber (MA) is introduced and discussed in this paper. This application is operating at ISM band (2.40 GHz) which is especially chosen due to its wide usage area. Square ring resonator (SRR) which has two gaps and resistors across the gaps on it is used. Chips resistors are used to deliver power to any active component. Transmission and reflection characteristics of metamaterial absorber (MA) for energy harvesting application are investigated. 83.6% efficient for energy harvesting application is realized in this study.

The Analytic Hierarchic Process: A Model To Evaluate The Risk Of Getting Cancer, Daniela (Halidini) Qendraj, Markela Muça

International Journal of Business and Technology

The aim of this study is to classify the risk factors of being with a type of cancer by applying the AHP (analytic hierarchy process) scale. The Saaty’s analytic hierarchy process is applied for computing weights for the factors, is a modeling for classification. A case study of QSUT Tirana hospital data base is presented to rank four cancer types. By the data collect from the hospital during the years 2011-2015, the results show that lung cancer is mostly spread in humans, and the prostate cancer is lower spread in humans.

Internet Of Things: From Applications, Challenges And Standardization To Industry Implementations, Xhafer Krasniqi

International Journal of Business and Technology

The Internet of Things that is defined as anything that can be accessible anytime and anywhere provides connectivity to different objects and sensors around us and which will enable the transfer of different data between these objects and devices. A thing in the Internet of Things can be any natural or man-made object that can be assigned an IP address with a capability to exchange date over a network. There is a huge number of applications of IoT to benefit users, such as health monitors, smart homes, connected cars etc.

If everything around us is connected and information about these …

Modelling Business And Management Systems Using Fuzzy Cognitive Maps: A Critical Overview, Peter P. Groumpos

International Journal of Business and Technology

A critical overview of modelling Business and Management (B&M) Systems using Fuzzy Cognitive Maps is presented. A limited but illustrative number of specific applications of Fuzzy Cognitive Maps in diverse B&M systems, such as e business, performance assessment, decision making, human resources management, planning and investment decision making processes is provided and briefly analyzed. The limited survey is given in a table with statics of using FCMs in B&M systems during the last 15 years. The limited survey shows that the applications of Fuzzy Cognitive Maps to today’s Business and Management studies has been steadily increased especially during the last …

Hybrid Modelling In System Simulation, Andreas Körner

International Journal of Business and Technology

In times of increasing power and capacity in computer, simulation mathematical models are getting more and more important. For different technical applications and in natural science but also in economic systems and management processes appropriate mathematical model descriptions are necessary. Hybrid modelling is a special technique for more complex model descriptions in order to reduce the degree of complexity. In different fields of interest, the behavior of a model is dependent on the active state. When the model description is changing from one state to another, a so-called state event takes place. State event modelling is the overall term to …

E-Learning Systems In Higher Education Institutions: An Outlook Of Their Use In The Western Balkan Region, Blerta Abazi Chaushi, Agron Chaushi, Florije Ismaili

International Journal of Business and Technology

This study provides a review of the literature on e-learning systems evolution and environments. The argument is that e-learning systems should be embedded in the core strategy of the institution. To support this premise, studies for e-learning are analyzed and six recommendations are drawn for universities to follow in order to have successful e-learning environments. The main contribution of this study, however, is the identification of the trends and statistics regarding the e-learning usage in the Balkan region. These stats are identified through a survey conducted in 40 universities in 10 countries from this region. The results show that more …

Definition, Validation And Comparison Of Two Population Models For Austria, Martin Bicher, Barbara Glock, Florian Miksch, Niki Popper, Günter Schneckenreither

International Journal of Business and Technology

In this work we present two structurally different mathematical models for the prognostic simulation of Austria’s population: A time-continuous, macroscopic system dynamics approach and a time-discrete, microscopic agent-based approach. Both models were developed as case studies of a series of population concepts in order to support models for decision-support in Austria’s health care system. In the present work we want to focus on the definition, the parametrisation as well as especially the validation process of both population-models. The latter was of special interest as it included a cross-model validation with Statistics Austria’s own prognostic model SIKURS.

Case Studies For A Markov Chain Approach To Analyze Agent-Based Models, Florian Kitzler, Martin Bicher

International Journal of Business and Technology

Agent-Based Models have become a widely used tool in social sciences, health care management and other disciplines to describe complex systems from a bottom-up perspective. Some reasons for that are the easy understanding of Agent-Based Models, the high flexibility and the possibility to describe heterogeneous structures. Nevertheless problems occur when it comes to analyzing Agent-Based Models. This paper shows how to describe Agent-Based Models in a macroscopic way as Markov Chains, using the random map representation. The focus is on the implementation of this method for chosen examples of a Random Walk and Opinion Dynamic Models. It is also shown …

Microsimulation Models For Simulating Pathways Of Patients With Mental Diseases, Andreas Bauer, Felix Breitenecker, Christoph Urach

International Journal of Business and Technology

Predicting demand for care is necessary to provide sufficient capacities in hospitals and enable better planning to cope with challenges like changes in the structure of the population. Emphasis in this work is put on the analysis of the data and on the parametrization of a simulation model for the paths of patients with mental diseases through the health care system. Survival analysis and model selection methods are used for this purpose. Data on patients and their treatments is analyzed with methods of survival analysis. Different methods for modelling the survival and hazard function are presented and compared. Hereby, the …

Implementation Of The Aodv Routing In An Energy-Constrained Mesh Network, Altin Zejnullahu, Zhilbert Tafa

International Journal of Business and Technology

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) compose the fundamental platform for a number of Internet of Things (IoT) applications, especially those related to the environmental, health, and military surveillance. While being autonomous in power supply, the main challenge in node’s processing and communication architecture design remains the energy efficiency. However, this goal should not limit the main functionality of the system which is often related to the network coverage and connectivity.

This paper shows the implementation of the Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV) routing algorithm in an XBee based platform. As shown, the network can achieve low power consumption per node primarily …

Security Concerns Of New Alternative Telecommunication Services, Arbnora Hyseni, Krenare Pireva, Miranda Kajtazi

International Journal of Business and Technology

With the advancing new era of communication, the so-called era of ‘being always online’ many providers offer their services for free. In that sense a small company or a virtual company becomes a huge competitor for different traditional telecommunication providers. Using the same services such as: voice calls, video calls, chat and similar services, the internet technology has made huge changes how users make use of such services . Instead of using these services, users shall install applications that are specialized for offering these services via applications, such as: Viber, WhatsApp, Facebook, Google Talk etc.. During the installation and update …

Labeled-Image Captcha: Concept Of A Secured And Universally Useful Captcha, Mokter Hossain, Ken Nguyen, Muhammad Asadur Rahman

International Journal of Business and Technology

Captcha (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) is a widely used online security tool that ensures that a computer program is not posing as a human user. While smart programs with advanced image processing capability have already cracked picture based captcha systems there is a need for making the test harder. This paper presents a design prototype of a simplified type of labeled-image captcha where a picture of a common animal or household item is marked with a number of different labels and the users will be asked to provide the correct label for specific …

A Policeless Traffic Ticketing System With Autonomous Vehicles, Mükremin Özkul, Ilir Çapuni

International Journal of Business and Technology

Besides being expensive, traffic violation monitoring systems rely heavily on a huge infrastructure that incurs installation, operational, and maintenance costs.

Developing countries — where people do exhibit less traffic safety aware- ness — deployment of such systems becomes a daunting task. A police- men cannot be everywhere, and a policeman can also be bribed.

With the above goals in mind, in this paper we present an infrastructure- less and police-less traffic violation detection system that relies solely on the broadcast messages between the vehicles and secure communication of the vehicles with the transportation authority. Each vehicle should be equipped with …

New Proposals For The Direct Strength Method Of Design Of Cold-Formed Steel Beams With Holes In Shear, Song Hong Pham, Cao Hung Pham, Colin A. Rogers, Gregory J. Hancock

CCFSS Proceedings of International Specialty Conference on Cold-Formed Steel Structures (1971 - 2018)

In the latest North American Specification for the design of cold-formed steel structural members AISI S100-16, an empirical approach is specified to design beams with web holes in shear. Recently, a Direct Strength Method (DSM) of design for shear for perforated beams with the aspect ratio (shear span / web depth) of 1.0 has been proposed. This paper presents a comprehensive review of the proposal and an experimental validation using a test series on beams with the aspect ratio of 2.0 and with various square and circular web opening sizes conducted at the University of Sydney, and other experimental data …

On-Site, Ongoing, And Individualized Professional Development: A Case Study At Rural Charter School, Ashley Funderburke

Doctor of Education in Teacher Leadership Dissertations

The current model of mass professional development for all teachers does not address the individual needs of each teacher (Berckenmeyer, 2014; Darling-Hammond et al., 2009; DeMonte, 2013). This case study research focused on reaching a deeper understanding of an on-site, ongoing, individualized professional development innovation implemented at Rural Charter School for eight primary teachers as they began to apply a new instructional model; the integration of English-Language Arts standards into the science, social studies, and mathematics. My role within the study fluctuated between that of the researcher, an informant, and a teacher leader in delivering the personalized professional development.

Two …

Evidence For A Partially Stalled Γ Rotor In F, Angela Murcia Rios, Siavash Vahidi, Stanley D Dunn, Lars Konermann

Chemistry Publications

F₁-ATPase uses ATP hydrolysis to drive rotation of the γ subunit. The γ C-terminal helix constitutes the rotor tip that is seated in an apical bearing formed by α₃β₃. It remains uncertain to what extent the γ conformation during rotation differs from that seen in rigid crystal structures. Existing models assume that the entire γ subunit participates in every rotation. Here we interrogated E. coli F₁-ATPase by hydrogen-deuterium exchange (HDX) mass spectrometry. Rotation of γ caused greatly enhanced deuteration in the γ C-terminal helix. The HDX kinetics implied that most F_{1 …}