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Due to massive adoption of social media, detection of users' depression through social media analytics bears significant importance, particularly for underrepresented languages, such as Bangla. This study introduces a well-grounded approach to identify depressive social media posts in Bangla, by employing advanced natural language processing techniques. The dataset used in this work, annotated by domain experts, includes both depressive and non-depressive posts, ensuring high-quality data for model training and evaluation. To address the prevalent issue of class imbalance, we utilised random oversampling for the minority class, thereby enhancing the model's ability to accurately detect depressive posts. We explored various numerical representation techniques, including Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF), Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) embedding and FastText embedding, by integrating them with a deep learning-based Convolutional Neural Network-Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (CNN-BiLSTM) model. The results obtained through extensive experimentation, indicate that the BERT approach performed better the others, achieving a F1-score of 84%. This indicates that BERT, in combination with the CNN-BiLSTM architecture, effectively recognises the nuances of Bangla texts relevant to depressive contents. Comparative analysis with the existing state-of-the-art methods demonstrates that our approach with BERT embedding performs better than others in terms of evaluation metrics and the reliability of dataset annotations. Our research significantly contribution to the development of reliable tools for detecting depressive posts in the Bangla language. By highlighting the efficacy of different embedding techniques and deep learning models, this study paves the way for improved mental health monitoring through social media platforms.

Enhancing robot navigation efficiency is a crucial objective in modern robotics. Robots relying on external navigation systems are often susceptible to electromagnetic interference (EMI) and encounter environmental disturbances, resulting in orientation errors within their surroundings. Therefore, the study employed an internal navigation system to enhance robot navigation efficacy under interference conditions, based on the analysis of the internal parameters and the external signals. This article presents details of the robot's autonomous operation, which allows for setting the robot's trajectory using an embedded map. The robot's navigation process involves counting the number of wheel revolutions as well as adjusting wheel orientation after each straight path section. In this article, an autonomous robot navigation system has been presented that leverages an embedded control navigation map utilising cellular automata with active cells which can effectively navigate in an environment containing various types of obstacles. By analysing the neighbouring cells of the active cell, the cellular environment determines which cell should become active during the robot's next movement step. This approach ensures the robot's independence from external control inputs. Furthermore, the accuracy and speed of the robot's movement have been further enhanced using a hexagonal mosaic for navigation surface mapping. This concept of utilising on cellular automata with active cells has been extended to the navigation of a group of robots on a shared navigation surface, taking into account the intersections of the robots' trajectories over time. To achieve this, a distance control module has been used that records the travelled trajectories in terms of wheel turns and revolutions.

Although blockchain technology was first introduced in 2008 and materialised in 2009, the early usage of blockchain were mainly limited to financial technologies, particularly cryptocurrencies. Later, blockchain became a widespread emerging technology, utilised in multifaceted sectors and applications. In fact, various new and innovative application of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies are still continuously being researched and explored. On the other hand, smart-contracts were first introduced in 1990s, however, it did not gain enough popularity until being integrated with blockchain technologies lately. The duo lately been seen as the key to many innovations in various industries and sectors. So, we took data from 1445 blockchain-related patent documents and tried to map out the historical and current trends in patenting activities in the blockchain field. This helps us get a better grasp of how blockchain technologies are evolving and being tracked. In addition to serving as an indicator of science and technology growth, patents are also used to judge the research potential and development of a particular technology.

Nanometer scale power amplifiers (PA) at sub-THz suffer from severe parasitic effects that lead to experience limited maximum frequency and reduced power performance at the device transceiver front end. The integrated circuits researchers proposed different PA design architecture combinations at scaled down technologies to overcome these limitations. Although the designs meet the minimum requirements, the power added efficiency (PAE) of PA is still quite low. In this paper, a W-band single-ended common-source (CS) and cascode integrated 3-stage 2-way PA design is proposed. The design integrated different key design methodologies to mitigate the parasitic; such as combined Class AB and Class A stages for gain-boosting and efficiency enhancement, Wilkinson power combiner for higher output power, linearity, and bandwidth, and transmission line (TL)-based wide band matching network for better inter-stage matching and compact size. The proposed PA design is validated using UMS 150-nm GaAs pHEMT using advanced design system (ADS) simulator. The results show that the proposed PA achieved a gain of 20.1 dB, an output power of 17.2 dBm, a PAE of 33 % and a 21 GHz bandwidth at 90 GHz Sub-THz band. The PA layout consumes only 5.66 X 2.51 mm2 die space including pads. Our proposed PA design will boost the research on sub-THz integrated circuits research and will smooth the wide spread adoption of 6G in near future.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is pivotal in transforming the way we live and interact with our surroundings. To cope with the advancement in technologies, it is vital to acquire accuracy with the speed. A phase frequency detector (PFD) is a critical device to regulate and provide accurate frequency in IoT devices. Designing a PFD poses challenges in achieving precise phase detection, minimising dead zones, optimising power consumption, and ensuring robust performance across various operational frequencies, necessitating complex engineering and innovative solutions. This study delves into optimising a PFD circuit, designed using 90 nm standard CMOS technology, aiming to achieve superior operational frequencies. An efficient and high-frequency PFD design is crafted and analysed using cadence virtuoso. The study focused on investigating the impact of optimising PFD design. With the optimised PFD, an operational frequency of 5 GHz has been achieved, along with a power consumption of only 29 {\mu}W. The dead zone of the PFD was only 25 ps.

The motion or out-of-focus effect in digital images is the main reason for the blurred regions in defocused-blurred images. It may adversely affect various image features such as texture, pixel, and region. Therefore, it is important to detect in-focused objects in defocused-blurred images after the segmentation of blurred and non-blurred regions. The state-of-the-art techniques are prone to noisy pixels, and their local descriptors for developing segmentation metrics are also complex. To address these issues, this research, therefore, proposed a novel and hybrid-focused detection approach based on Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) coefficients and PC Neural Net (PCNN) structure. The proposed approach partially resolves the limitations of the existing contrast schemes to detect in-focused smooth objects from the out-of-focused smooth regions in the defocus dataset. The visual and quantitative evaluation illustrates that the proposed approach outperformed in terms of accuracy and efficiency to referenced algorithms. The highest F-score of the proposed approach on Zhao's dataset is 0.7940 whereas on Shi's dataset is 0.9178.

Blockchain (BC), a by-product of Bitcoin cryptocurrency, has gained immense and wide scale popularity for its applicability in various diverse domains - especially in multifaceted non-monetary systems. By adopting cryptographic techniques such as hashing and asymmetric encryption - along with distributed consensus approach, a Blockchain based distributed ledger not only becomes highly secure but also immutable and thus eliminates the need for any third-party intermediators. On the contrary, innumerable IoT (Internet of Things) devices are increasingly being added to the network. This phenomenon poses higher risk in terms of security and privacy. It is thus extremely important to address the security aspects of the growing IoT ecosystem. This paper explores the applicability of BC for ensuring enhanced security and privacy in the IoT ecosystem. Recent research articles and projects or applications were surveyed to assess the implementation of BC for IoT Security and identify associated challenges and propose solutions for BC enabled enhanced security for the IoT ecosystem., Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1806.05242

With the recent popularity of Blockchain and other Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT), blockchain enabled smart contract applications has attracted increased research focus. However, the immutability of the blocks, where the smart contracts are stored, causes conflicts with the traditional Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) models usually followed by software engineers. This clearly shows the unsuitability of the application of SDLC in designing blockchain enabled smart contract based applications. This research article addresses this current problem by first exploring the six traditional SDLC models, clearly identifying the conflicts in a table with the application of smart contracts and advocates that there is an urgent need to develop new standard model(s) to address the arising issues. The concept of both block immutability and contract is introduced. This is further set in a historical context from legacy smart contracts and blockchain enabled smart contracts extending to the difference between "shallow smart contracts" and "deep smart contracts". To conclude, the traditional SDLC models are unsuitable for blockchain enabled smart contract-based applications.

The recent proliferation of Electronic Commerce (E-commerce) has been further escalated by multifaceted emerging payment solutions such as cryptocurrencies, mobile, peer-to-peer (P2P) and social media payment platforms. While these technological advancements are gaining tremendous popularity, mostly for their ease of use, various impediments such as security and privacy concerns, societal and cultural norms etc. forbear the users' adoption trends to some extents. This article examines the current status of the social media payment platforms as well as the projection of future adoption trends. Our research underlines the motivations and obstacles to the adoption of social media platforms.

Blockchain, as well as Internet of Things (IoT), is considered as two major disruptive emerging technologies. However, both of them suffer from innate technological limitations to some extent. IoT requires strengthening its security features while Blockchain inherently possesses them due to its extensive use of cryptographic mechanisms and Blockchain, in an inverted manner, needs contributions from the distributed nodes for its P2P (Peer-to-Peer) consensus model while IoT rudimentarily embodies them within its architecture. This chapter, therefore, acutely dissects the viability, along with prospective challenges, of incorporating Blockchain with IoT technologies,inducing the notion of Blockchain of Things (BCoT), as well as the benefits such consolidation can offer.

While data from Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems is sent upstream, it is both the length of pulses as well as their frequency present an excellent opportunity to incor-porate statistical fingerprinting. This is so, because datagrams in SCADA traffic follow a poison distribution. Although wrapping the SCADA traffic in a protective IPsec stream is an obvious choice, thin clients and unreliable communication channels make is less than ideal to use crypto-graphic solutions for security SCADA traffic. In this paper, we propose a smart alternative of data obfuscation in the form of Impulsive Statistical Fingerprinting (ISF). We provide important insights into our research in healthcare SCADA data security and the use of ISF. We substantiate the conversion of sensor data through the ISF into HL7 format and define policies of a seamless switch to a non HL7-based non-secure HIS to a secure HIS.

Both blockchain technologies and cloud computing are contemporary emerging technologies. While the application of Blockchain technologies is being spread beyond cryptocurrency, cloud computing is also seeing a paradigm shift to meet the needs of the 4th industrial revolution (Industry 4.0). New technological ad-vancement, especially by the fusion of these two, such as Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS), is considered to be able to significantly generate values to the en-terprises. This article surveys the current status of BaaS in terms of technological development, applications, market potentials and so forth. An evaluative judge-ment, comparing amongst various BaaS platforms, has been presented, along with the trajectory of adoption, challenges and risk factors. Finally, the study suggests standardisation of available BaaS platforms.

Following in the footsteps of pioneer Bitcoin, many altcoins as well as coloured coins have been being developed and merchandised adopting blockchain as the core enabling technology. However, since interoperability and scalability, due to high and capped (in particular cases) transaction latency are deep-rooted in the architecture of blockchain technology, they are by default inherited in any blockchain based applications. Lightning Network (LN) is one of the supporting technologies developed to eliminate this impediment of blockchain technology by facilitating instantaneous transfers of cryptos. Since the potentials of LN is still relatively unknown, this paper investigates the current states of development along with possible non-monetary usage of LN, especially in settlement coloured coins such as securities, as well as creation of new business models based on Lightning Applications (LApps) and microchannel payments as well as micro-trades. The legal challenges that may act as impediment to the adoption of LN is also discussed., Comment: ICISDM 2019, published by ACM

In the domain of Software Engineering, program analysis and understanding has been considered to be a very challenging task since decade, as it demands dedicated time and efforts. The analysis of source code may occasionally be comparatively easier due to its static nature, however, the back end code (Bytecode), especially in terms of Java programming, is complicated to be analysed. In this paper, we present a methodological approach towards understanding the Bytecode of Java programs. We put forward a framework for the debugging process of Java Bytecode. Furthermore, we discuss the debugging process of Bytecode understanding from simple to multiple statements with regards to data flow analysis. Finally, we present a comparative analysis of Bytecode along with the simulation of the proposed framework for the debugging process, Comment: 6 pages, 2018 International Conference on Computing, Electronics & Communications Engineering (iCCECE)

Since the introduction of Bitcoin in 2008, many other cryptocurrencies have been introduced and gained popularity. Lack of interoperability and scalability amongst these cryptocurrencies was and still is, acting as a significant impediment to the general adoption of cryptocurrencies and coloured tokens. Atomic Swaps, a smart exchange protocol for cryptocurrencies, is designed to facilitate a wallet-to-wallet transfer enabling direct trades amongst different cryptocurrencies. Since swaps between cryptocurrencies are still relatively unknown, this article will investigate the operation and market development thus far and query the advantages they offer and the future challenges they face. The paper contains detailed literature and technology reviews, followed by the main analysis and findings.

Application of Information Technology (IT) in the domain of Human Resource Management (HRM) systems is a sine qua non for any organization for successfully adopting and implementing Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0). However, these systems are required to ensure non-biased, efficient, transparent and secure environment. Blockchain, a technology based on distributed digital ledgers, can help facilitate the process of successfully effectuating these specifications. A detailed literature review has been conducted to identify the current status of usage of Information Technology in the domain of Human Resource Management and how Blockchain can help achieve a smart, cost-effective, efficient, transparent and secure factory management system. A Blockchain based Recruitment Management System (BcRMS) as well as Blockchain based Human Resource Management System (BcHRMS) algorithm have been proposed. From the analysis of the results obtained through the case study, it is evident that the proposed system holds definite advantages compared to the existing recruitment systems. Future research directions have also been identified and advocated., Comment: Onik, M. M. H., Miraz, M. H., & Kim, C. S. (2018, April). A recruitment and human resource management technique using Blockchain technology for Industry 4.0. In Proceedings of the Smart Cities Symposium (SCS-2018), Manama, Bahrain (pp. 11-16). IET

The current statuses and future promises of the Internet of Things (IoT), Internet of Everything (IoE) and Internet of Nano-Things (IoNT) are extensively reviewed and a summarized survey is presented. The analysis clearly distinguishes between IoT and IoE, which are wrongly considered to be the same by many commentators. After evaluating the current trends of advancement in the fields of IoT, IoE and IoNT, this paper identifies the 21 most significant current and future challenges as well as scenarios for the possible future expansion of their applications. Despite possible negative aspects of these developments, there are grounds for general optimism about the coming technologies. Certainly, many tedious tasks can be taken over by IoT devices. However, the dangers of criminal and other nefarious activities, plus those of hardware and software errors, pose major challenges that are a priority for further research. Major specific priority issues for research are identified.

Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the emerging technologies of this century and its various aspects, such as the Infrastructure, Security, Architecture and Privacy, play an important role in shaping the future of the digitalised world. Internet of Things devices are connected through sensors which have significant impacts on the data and its security. In this research, we used IoT five layered architecture of the Internet of Things to address the security and private issues of IoT enabled services and applications. Furthermore, a detailed survey on Internet of Things infrastructure, architecture, security, and privacy of the heterogeneous objects were presented. The paper identifies the major challenge in the field of IoT; one of them is to secure the data while accessing the objects through sensing machines. This research advocates the importance of securing the IoT ecosystem at each layer resulting in an enhanced overall security of the connected devices as well as the data generated. Thus, this paper put forwards a security model to be utilised by the researchers, manufacturers and developers of IoT devices, applications and services.

A Certificate Authority (CA) provides the critical authentication and security services for Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) which are used for the Internet and wired networks. In MANETs (wireless and ad hoc) there is an inability to offer a centralized CA to provide these security services. Recent research has looked to facilitate the use of CAs within MANETs through the use of a Distributed Certificate Authority (DCA) for wireless and ad hoc networks. This paper presents a number of different types of DCA protocols and categorizes them into groups based on their factors and specifications. The paper concludes by proposing the best DCA security services in terms of performance and level of security.

The Internet of Things anticipates the conjunction of physical gadgets to the In-ternet and their access to wireless sensor data which makes it expedient to restrain the physical world. Big Data convergence has put multifarious new opportunities ahead of business ventures to get into a new market or enhance their operations in the current market. considering the existing techniques and technologies, it is probably safe to say that the best solution is to use big data tools to provide an analytical solution to the Internet of Things. Based on the current technology deployment and adoption trends, it is envisioned that the Internet of Things is the technology of the future, while to-day's real-world devices can provide real and valuable analytics, and people in the real world use many IoT devices. Despite all the advertisements that companies offer in connection with the Internet of Things, you as a liable consumer, have the right to be suspicious about IoT advertise-ments. The primary question is: What is the promise of the Internet of things con-cerning reality and what are the prospects for the future., Comment: Proceedings of the International Conference on International Conference on Emerging Technologies in Computing 2018 (iCETiC '18), 23rd -24th August, 2018, at London Metropolitan University, London, UK, Published by Springer-Verlag

Securities exchange being digitalised and online, security of information and data has become a major concern. Blockchain (BC) technology, being distributed and immutable in nature, has proved to the "Trust Machine" eliminating the need for third-parties. Authors of this paper investigate how Blockchain can be used to secure stock exchange transactions, with an especial focus to the technological as well as legal aspects of such applications. Considering the intricate operational structure of the securities exchange, the research proposes to design, develop and implement a hybrid BC, customised according to the need of the respective stock exchange. The study suggests that the use of such BC can bring many benefits which the other technologies currently being used cannot offer. However, during the design process of any such application using BC, the relevant laws and regulations of the corresponding country need to be considered.

Blockchain (BC), the technology behind the Bitcoin cryptocurrency system, is starting to be adopted for ensuring enhanced security and privacy in the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem. Fervent research is currently being focused in both academia and industry in this domain. Proof of Work (PoW), a cryptographic puzzle, plays a vital role in ensuring BC security by maintaining a digital ledger of transactions, which are considered to be incorruptible. Furthermore, BC uses a changeable Public Key (PK) to record the identity of users, thus providing an extra layer of privacy. Not only in cryptocurrency has the successful adoption of the BC been implemented, but also in multifaceted non-monetary systems, such as in: distributed storage systems, proof of location and healthcare. Recent research articles and projects or applications were surveyed to assess the implementation of the BC for IoT Security and identify associated challenges and propose solutions for BC enabled enhanced security for the IoT ecosystem.

This paper gives an overview of electronic learning (E-Learning) and mobile learning (M-Learning) adoption and diffusion trends, as well as their particular traits, characteristics and issues, especially in terms of cross-cultural and universal usability. E-Learning and M-Learning models using web services and cloud computing, as well as associated security concerns are all addressed. The benefits and enhancements that accrue from using mobile and other internet devices for the purposes of learning in academia are discussed. The differences between traditional classroom-based learning, distance learning, E-Learning and M-Learning models are compared and some conclusions are drawn.

Debugging is considered as a rigorous but important feature of software engineering process. Since more than a decade, the software engineering research community is exploring different techniques for removal of faults from programs but it is quite difficult to overcome all the faults of software programs. Thus, it is still remains as a real challenge for software debugging and maintenance community. In this paper, we briefly introduced software anomalies and faults classification and then explained different fault localization models using theory of diagnosis. Furthermore, we compared and contrasted between value based and dependencies based models in accordance with different real misbehaviours and presented some insight information for the debugging process. Moreover, we discussed the results of both models and manifested the shortcomings as well as advantages of these models in terms of debugging and maintenance., Comment: 58-62

Blockchain (BC), the technology behind the Bitcoin crypto-currency system, is considered to be both alluring and critical for ensuring enhanced security and (in some implementations, non-traceable) privacy for diverse applications in many other domains including in the Internet of Things (IoT) eco-system. Intensive research is currently being conducted in both academia and industry applying the Blockchain technology in multifarious applications. Proof-of-Work (PoW), a cryptographic puzzle, plays a vital role in ensuring BC security by maintaining a digital ledger of transactions, which is considered to be incorruptible. Furthermore, BC uses a changeable Public Key (PK) to record the users' identity, which provides an extra layer of privacy. Not only in cryptocurrency has the successful adoption of BC been implemented but also in multifaceted non-monetary systems such as in: distributed storage systems, proof-of-location, healthcare, decentralized voting and so forth. Recent research articles and projects/applications were surveyed to assess the implementation of BC for enhanced security, to identify associated challenges and to propose solutions for BC enabled enhanced security systems.

This research proposes Finger Based Technique (FBT) for non-visual touch screen device interaction designed for blind users. Based on the proposed technique, the blind user can access virtual keys based on finger holding positions. Three different models have been proposed. They are Single Digit Finger-Digit Input (FDI), Double Digit FDI for digital text entry, and Finger-Text Input (FTI) for normal text entry. All the proposed models were implemented with voice feedback while enabling touch as the input gesture. The models were evaluated with 7 blind participants with Samsung Galaxy S2 apparatus. The results show that Single Digit FDI is substantially faster and more accurate than Double Digit FDI and iPhone voice-over. FTI also looks promising for text entry. Our study also reveals 11 accessible regions to place widgets for quick access by blind users in flat touch screen based smartphones. Identification of these accessible regions will promote dynamic interactions for blind users and serve as a usability design framework for touch screen applications., Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1708.05073

The diverse range of Internet enabled devices both mobile and fixed has not only impacted the global economy but the very fabric of human communications and lifestyles. The ease of access and lowered cost has enabled hitherto diametrically opposed people to interact and influence each other globally. The consequence of which is the dire need to address the way culture affects interaction with information systems across the world. The many facets of which encompasses human behaviour, socio-economic and cultural factors including lifestyles and the way of interaction with the information system. The study group involved participants from Bangladesh and the United Kingdom to ascertain the users'behavioural patterns and mobile broadband technology diffusion trends., Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1708.02798

The current prominence and future promises of the Internet of Things (IoT), Internet of Everything (IoE) and Internet of Nano Things (IoNT) are extensively reviewed and a summary survey report is presented. The analysis clearly distinguishes between IoT and IoE which are wrongly considered to be the same by many people. Upon examining the current advancement in the fields of IoT, IoE and IoNT, the paper presents scenarios for the possible future expansion of their applications.

A multitude of web and desktop applications are now widely available in diverse human languages. This paper explores the design issues that are specifically relevant for multilingual users. It reports on the continued studies of Information System (IS) issues and users' behaviour across cross-cultural and transnational boundaries. Taking the BBC website as a model that is internationally recognised, usability tests were conducted to compare different versions of the website. The dependant variables derived from the questionnaire were analysed (via descriptive statistics) to elucidate the multilingual UI design issues. Using Principal Component Analysis (PCA), five de-correlated variables were identified which were then used for hypotheses tests. A modified version of Herzberg's Hygiene-motivational Theory about the Workplace was applied to assess the components used in the website. Overall, it was concluded that the English versions of the website gave superior usability results and this implies the need for deeper study of the problems in usability of the translated versions.

Android is Google's latest open source software platform for mobile devices which has already attained enormous popularity. The purpose of this paper is to describe the development of mobile application for shopping mall using Android platform. A prototype was developed for the shoppers of Bashundhara Shopping Mall of Bangladesh. This prototype will serve as a framework for any such applications (apps). The paper presents a practical demonstration of how to integrate shops' information, such as names, categories, locations, descriptions, floor layout and so forth, with map module via an android application. A summary of survey results of the related literature and projects have also been included. Critical Evaluation of the prototype along with future research and development plan has been revealed. The paper will serve as a guideline for the researchers and developers to introduce and develop similar apps.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been playing a pivotal role since the last decade in developing countries that brings citizen services to the doorsteps and connecting people. With this aspiration ICT has introduced several technologies of citizen services towards all categories of people. The purpose of this study is to examine the Governance technology perspectives for political party, emphasizing on the basic critical steps through which it could be operationalized. We call it P-Governance. P-Governance shows technologies to ensure governance, management, interaction communication in a political party by improving decision making processes using big data. P-Governance challenges the competence perspective to apply itself more assiduously to operationalization, including the need to choose and give definition to one or more units of analysis (of which the routine is a promising candidate). This paper is to focus on research challenges posed by competence to which P-Governance can and should respond include different strategy issues faced by particular sections. Both the qualitative as well as quantitative research approaches were conducted. The standard of citizen services, choice & consultation, courtesy & consultation, entrance & information, and value for money have found the positive relation with citizen's satisfaction. This study results how can be technology make important roles on political movements in developing countries using big data.

In a contemporary world, people become dependent on electronic devices. Technologies help to clarification and structure life in many ways to meet the need of the children oriented requirements. The children suffering from disabilities (e.g. autism) has desperate needs for elucidation and structures their life. MumIES is a research based system facilitates to support and manage their living. This paper works on MumIES system to evaluate usability of the system in extraordinary environment for extraordinary people. The paper shows from the survey observation users need supporting tools to access the children's potential and challenges and to give the full support to overcome disabilities. Usability evaluation has been considered one of the key challenges to MumIES system. The paper represents analysis, design of usability studies for the extraordinary user in environment.

The paper reports on an ongoing research project into the development of "Mobile Academy", an Android-based mobile learning (mLearning) application (app). The project comprises three major phases: requirement analysis, application development and testing and evaluation. To satisfy the user requirement analysis, a detailed ethnographic study was conducted to investigate how people from different background use mobile devices for learning purposes. The initial analysis and evaluation of the first version of the projected app demonstrates very promising results. Making use of the app seemed to have, in general, a positive dimension in facilitating educational use of mobile devices.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has made a large investment in deploying technology to develop the infrastructure and resources for special education. The aims of the present research were to find out the rate of return of these investments in terms of success and, based on the findings, to propose a framework for success criteria. To achieve these aims, a mixed methodology-based research was conducted. Our study found that the use of technology in special education could not reach the desired level of implementation. We found that various success criteria such as professional experience and technology skills of special educators, administrative support, assistive hardware issues and assistive software issues, pedagogical issues, and teaching style are the key influencing factors of the implementation process.

A study was undertaken to determine the important usability factors (UF) used in the English and the non-English version of a website. The important usability factors were determined, based on a detailed questionnaire used in an international survey. Analysis of the questionnaire found inequalities in the user satisfaction and a general dissatisfaction with the non-English version of the website. The study concluded that more care should be taken in creating the text, taking into account the cultural and linguistic background of the users and the use of graphics in multilingual websites.

This paper presents Finger Based Technique (FBT) prototypes, a novel interaction system for blind users, which is especially designed and developed for non-visual touch screen devices and their applications. The FBT prototypes were developed with virtual keys to be identified based on finger holding positions. Two different models namely the single digit FBT and double digit FBT were propounded. FBT technique were applied using two different phone dialer applications: a single digit virtual key for the single digit FBT model and a double digit virtual key with audio feedback enabling touch as input gesture for the later one. An evaluation with 7 blind participants showed that single digit FBT was significantly faster and more accurate than double digit FBT. In addition to that, single digit FBT was found to be much faster than iPhone VoiceOver entry speeds in performing similar tasks. Furthermore, our research also suggests 11 accessible regions for quick access or navigation in flat touch screen based smart phones for blind users. These accessible regions will serve as a usability design framework and facilitate the developers to place the widget for the blind user for dynamic interaction with the touch screen devices. As far as is known to the authors, this is a novel suggestion.

Simulation of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) traffic through UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) and WiFi (IEEE 802.11x) alone and together are analysed for Quality of Service (QoS) performance. The average jitter of VoIP transiting the WiFi-UMTS network has been found to be lower than that of either solely through the WiFi and the UMTS networks. It is normally expected to be higher than traversing through the WiFi network only. Both the MOS (Mean Opinion Score) and the packet end-to-end delay were also found to be much lower than expected through the heterogeneous WiFi-UMTS network.

The use of Internet and Internet-based services on PCs, Laptops, Net Pads, Mobile Phones, PDAs etc have not only changed the global economy but also the way people communicate and their life styles. It also has evolved people from different origins, cultures, beliefs across the national boundaries. As a result it has become an absolute necessity to address the cross-cultural issues of information systems (IS) reflecting the user behaviours and influencing the way the mobile broadband technology is being accepted as well as the way it is changing the life styles of different groups of people. This paper reports on an on-going research effort which studies the impacts of culture and socio-economic circumstances on users' behavior and mobile broadband technology diffusion trends., Comment: Cross-cultural IS issues, Users' behavior, Mobile Broadband, Internet-based services, Wireless Broadband Access (WBA), Proceedings of the fourth international conferences on Internet Technologies and Applications 2011 (ITA 11)

Identifying those causes and parameters that affect the Quality of Service (QoS) of Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) through heterogeneous networks such as WiFi, WiMAX and between them are carried out using the OPNET simulation tool. Optimization of the network for both intra- and intersystem traffic to mitigate the deterioration of the QoS are discussed. The average value of the jitter of the VoIP traffic traversing through the WiFi-WiMAX network was observed to be higher than that of utilizing WiFi alone at some points in time. It is routinely surmised to be less than that of transiting across the WiFi network only and obviously higher than passing through the increased bandwidth network of WiMAX. Moreover, both the values of the packet end-to-end delay and the Mean Opinion Score (MOS) were considerably higher than expected. The consequences of this optimization, leading to a solution, which can ameliorate the QoS over these networks are analyzed and offered as the conclusion of this ongoing research., Comment: Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP); Quality of Service (QoS); Mean Opinion Score (MOS); simulation