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State of the Art and Gap Analysis of Precision Agriculture: A Case Study of Indian Farmers
No full textPrecision Agriculture (PA) is now becoming the base for rapid development of a nation. So many technologies are used in precision agriculture such as Global Positioning System (GPS), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Sensor Network and Geographical Information System (GIS). This manuscript per the authors will review all the factors that influence the precision agriculture. This article describes the major endeavors in the past of precision agriculture. The noble intention behind this literature review and analogy is to figure out the gap between theoretical research and actual needs of farmers. In order to find out the actual requirements manuscripts per the authors have conducted a questionnaire in Rajasthan State of India. This gap analysis would be helpful for researchers to design an effective and efficient decision support system for irrigation and fertilization can be designed for Indian farmers
A Method of Sanitizing Privacy-Sensitive Sequence Pattern Networks Mined From Trajectories Released
No full textMobility patterns mined from released trajectories can help to allocate resources and provide personalized services, although these also pose a threat to personal location privacy. As the existing sanitization methods cannot deal with the problems of location privacy inference attacks based on privacy-sensitive sequence pattern networks, the authors proposed a method of sanitizing the privacy-sensitive sequence pattern networks mined from trajectories released by identifying and removing influential nodes from the networks. The authors conducted extensive experiments and the results were shown that by adjusting the parameter of the proportional factors, the proposed method can thoroughly sanitize privacy-sensitive sequence pattern networks and achieve the optimal values for security degree and connectivity degree measurements. In addition, the performance of the proposed method was shown to be stable for multiple networks with basically the same privacy-sensitive node ratio and be scalable for batches of networks with different sensitive nodes ratios
A Dynamic Performance Evaluation Model for SMEs Based on Fuzzy DEMATEL and Fuzzy ANP
No full textPerformance evaluation is a systematic way for companies to analyze their current status and progress to reach their goals. Companies constantly evaluate their processes in research and development, purchasing, production, sales and marketing departments in order to determine new ways to improve their capabilities. In this study, the authors proposed an evaluation model to evaluate the performance of small and medium enterprises (SME) which play a major role in country's economy under given high attention to “Production Process.” In the proposed model, Fuzzy Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (F-DEMATEL) and Fuzzy Analytic Network Process (F-ANP) methods were used to calculate the weights of performance criteria. A case study has been conducted in a manufacturing SME for empirical evidence. The results from this study indicate that C5.1 (new processes on the current or new products are developed and applied expeditiously), C3.3 (products are delivered on time) and C5.3 (products are appropriate to environment, health, safety and regulatory policies) are the most important criteria for the company to which the model was applied. “C5 Process Management” and “C3 Production Planning” are declared as two important main criteria relevance to others
Voices in the Desert: Black Women Faculty in the American Southwest
No full textThe experiences of Black women educators are important, and yet their personal and professional experiences are rarely included as part of the faculty narrative at most North American higher education institutions. The continued normalization of White Supremacy and androcentricity, within North American higher education, maintain systems of oppression that perpetuate the systematic marginalization of Black women within the faculty ranks. The purpose of this study was to understand the experiences of Black women educators in New Mexico's higher education institutions. With a grounding in Black Womanist and Critical Race Theories, this qualitative research study employed snowball sampling as a means to engage ten Black women faculty members, via semi-structured interviews, in critical inquiry about their professional experiences with higher education. Study participants testified about experiences with microaggressions, discrimination, and racial battle fatigue as well as feeling intellectual, campus, and community isolation
Facebook, Social Comparison, and Subjective Well-Being: An Examination of the Interaction Between Active and Passive Facebook Use on Subjective Well-Being
No full textFacebook use has implications for subjective well-being. Previous research has revealed that passive Facebook use is typically related to deficits in subjective well-being, which is thought to be linked through upward social comparison. In contrast, active Facebook use is typically related to enhancements in subjective well-being. The main objective of the present study was to synthesize findings related to Facebook use and subjective well-being and to expand by proposing and testing whether the benefits associated with active Facebook use compensate for the negative effects associated with passive use. The second objective was to discuss policy and research directions. A total of 310 undergraduate students completed an online survey with questions regarding Facebook use, social comparison, and subjective well-being. Bootstrapping analyses revealed that active Facebook use did not buffer the negative effects for subjective well-being that occur during passive Facebook use. Recommendations for future research and education programs are discussed
A Systems Dynamics Simulation Study of Network Public Opinion Evolution Mechanism
No full textThe factors that affect formation and dissemination of public opinion have been studied for a long time. However, the findings are disparate and fragmented, given the characteristics of netizens and new media in the Big Data era. To this end, this article introduces eight mechanisms working on formation and dissemination of public opinion on network. Based on system dynamics, this article further proposes a comprehensive causal relationship model to explore the factors affecting the consequence of public opinion on network. Particularly, the role of government is taken into consideration in this model. A simulation with Vensim PLE is conducted. The results of the simulation indicate that group polarization among netizens, opinion leaders, the quantity of media audience, the frequency of media report, government attention, and warning mechanism for public opinion crisis affect the consequence of public opinion on network significantly. Implications of the findings are discussed
Seller Reviews and Consumers' Perceptions of Trust, Risks, and Uncertainty
No full textBased on the principal-agent theory, the authors posit that seller-related uncertainty is derived from buyer (the principal) fears of hidden information (information asymmetry) and hidden action (seller opportunism) on the part of sellers (the agents). The study evaluates the effects of the three antecedents of trust in the seller reviews context with a quasi-experiment. The authors enhance the validity of the research manipulation through a unique approach of creating reviews through a text mining process of actual seller reviews. This allows control over the content of reviews while retaining their realism. The findings validate that the principal-agent theory provides a good fit for understanding seller-related uncertainty in e-commerce transactions. Second, buyers appear to be more concerned about seller opportunism than with information asymmetry. Third, while assessments of integrity and competence of the vendor, assessed through reviews, play a role, benevolence does not
A Novel Behavior Steganography Model Based on Secret Sharing
No full textThis article proposes a novel behavior steganography model based on secret sharing, the main idea of which is to use secret messages as random elements in the secret sharing process to generate shadow images. Based on the introduced model and analyzing two secret image sharing algorithms — threshold secret image sharing (SIS) and threshold visual secret sharing (VSS), two specific behavior steganography schemes are presented, which are implemented by utilizing secret sharing behavior. In the embedding phase, the random selection behavior is employed to hide secret messages. In the extraction phase, when the secret image is recovered from shadow images, secret messages can also be extracted successfully. The contribution of the authors model is that two secret information transmission channels are opened, which provides a large amount of hidden capacity and has loss tolerance and so on. Experimental results and analyses demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme. It has both good imperceptibility and large capacity, but the robustness of their scheme is poor
Preparing Teachers to Formatively Assess: Connecting the Initial Capabilities of Preservice Teachers With Visions of Teaching Practice
No full textTo engage in formative assessment, preservice teachers (PSTs) need to develop skill with the practice of interpretation. The initial preparation of teachers would benefit from having a sense of the interpretation skills brought by PSTs to teacher preparation. We articulate the nature of interpreting as a teaching practice including: articulating inferences, sampling evidence, developing and applying guiding criteria, and monitoring and redressing bias and distortion. We use a teaching simulation to identify the assets of PSTs' initial interpretive skills and areas in which PSTs might need to reconsider and change. An investigation with a group of PSTs from one teacher education program suggests that many PSTs bring skills with making evidence-based interpretations about a student's process for solving a mathematics problem. However, their skills are much more limited for making interpretations about a student's understanding and have potential for bias and distortion. Implications for teacher education are discussed
Utilizing Radio Frequency Identification in Libraries: The Case of Qatar
No full textNowadays, RFID technology is widely being used in libraries across the world. This study is in line with global literature pertaining to the implementation of RFID technology in libraries and intends to explore and examine the perceptions of employees from two libraries in Qatar. Data was collected from both staff and managers using two separate surveys. The perceptions of both sets of employees were analyzed and compared to highlight the differences in benefits, drawbacks, and issues concerning the implementation of RFID in contrast to barcode. ‘Shelf management of resources,' ‘perceived RFID contributions,' and ‘workplace efficiency' were the top 3 rated dimensions pertaining to the use of RFID. Additionally, ‘increased customer satisfaction' was rated the highest among the reasons as to why RFID is adopted in libraries and the fact that all negative decision determinants were moderately perceived when compared to the positive ones indicates the overall positive attitude of managers in these libraries towards RFID technology. Further conclusions and future work are proposed at the end of the study