Archives-March 2018

The disaster management in any country is a process that works at various activities of prevention levels and operational models. An important element of the improvement of the civil protection in the individual countries and of their coordination in joint activities is the improvement of the existing Integrated Disaster Prevention Policy activity. The huge variety of organizational concepts of the systems for disaster prevention, accidents and catastrophes in the different countries, pose a lot of questions related to the improvement of the efficiency. The coordination that could benefit from the good and effective practices and produce a common, integrated and comprehensive European view and concept for the Regional Disaster Prevention Policy. This issue is getting more and more important, the large-scale emergency events and disasters are covering the territories of several regions, and- because of their magnitude and consequences- require the assistance and cooperation of international bodies working in the sphere of civil protection.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of financial determinants on firm growth. The impact of financial determinants: profitability, leverage, innovation and leverage on firm growth are studied. Firm size and firm age are also included to investigate how such variables effect firm growth. Data was collected for a sample of 373 non-financial companies listed at Karachi Stock Exchange for a period of six years from 2006 to 2011. Fixed effect model for panel data was applied for analysis and results. The results of this research show that financial determinants of profitability, leverage and innovation have a positive and significant impact on firm growth in Pakistani context. Firm size also have a significant positive effect. However, there is negative relationship of firm age on firm growth. Liquidity has a positive relationship with growth, yet its impact was non-significant. More comprehensive, detailed and extended analysis in future studies will definitely be helpful in gaining a profound understanding of different aspects of the growth of the firms, and hence in formulating better policies for economic development at micro and macro level.

In this paper, we propose a novel joint data-hiding and compression scheme for digital images using side match vector quantization (SMVQ) and image inpainting. The two functions of data hiding and image compression can be integrated into one single module seamlessly. On the sender side, except for the blocks in the leftmost and topmost of the image, each of the other residual blocks in raster-scanning order can be embedded with secret data and compressed simultaneously by SMVQ or image inpainting adaptively according to the current embedding bit. Vector quantization is also utilized for some complex blocks to control the visual distortion and error diffusion caused by the progressive compression. After segmenting the image compressed codes into a series of sections by the indicator bits, the receiver can achieve the extraction of secret bits and image decompression successfully according to the index values in the segmented sections. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.

Cloud computing promises to significantly change the way we use computers and access and store our personal and busi-ness information. With these new computing and communica-tions paradigms arise new data security challenges. Existing data protection mechanisms such as encryption have failed in preventing data theft attacks, especially those perpetrated by an insider to the cloud provider. We propose a different approach for securing data in the cloud using offensive decoy technology. We monitor data access in the cloud and detect abnormal data access patterns. When unauthorized access is suspected and then verified using challenge questions, we launch a disinformation attack by returning large amounts of decoy information to the attacker. This protects against the misuse of the user’s real data. Experiments conducted in a local file setting provide evidence that this approach may provide unprecedented levels of user data security in a Cloud environment.

Visual Secret sharing (VSS) suffer from secret transmission risk as the shares in VSS appear as meaningful image or noise like image. In order to overcome such problem a new Natural image based Visual Secret Sharing (NVSS) scheme was presented. Using NVSS scheme one can distribute a secret image using n-1 natural images and one noise image. It does not modify the contents of natural images. The encryption phase extracts features of every natural image. The secret image is converted to a share by performing computations on secret image and feature extracted from natural images. On the other hand the secret image is retrieved by performing computations on the share and the feature extracted from natural images. This scheme can be used to decrease the risk of transmission and also resolve the management problems. In our proposed system steganography is included to NVSS scheme to securely transfer data by hiding it behind the secret image. To increase the security further this secret data is encrypted before performing steganography. Hence the secret data is in encrypted format. This secret image is then converted into share which is finally embedded in cover image. This proposed scheme is able to share black and white, grey level or color images secretly. Also this scheme is easy to implement.

Visual cryptography (VC) is a technique for protecting the secret image which encodes the picture into many shares and allots them to different members. At the point when all shares are adjusted and stacked together, they uncover the secrete image. In k out of n (k, n) VC plot, the secret image is shared into n shares to such an extent that when k or more members by storing up their transparencies by methods for an overhead projector to uncovers the secret image. This paper proposed a spic and span of basic and strong (k, n) visual cryptography method which is utilized to successfully imparting the secret image to most extreme classification. In share creation process, determined new condition for arbitrary grids and after that XOR activities are performed to produce the 'n' transparencies. It is conceivable to decipher the secret image outwardly by superimposing a k subset of transparencies. All things considered no mystery information can be procured from the superposition of an unlawful subset. Trials, measurable and security evaluations are completed on the offers to approve the quality of the proposed plot by methods for a succession of examinations, for example, visual testing, encryption quality testing, security investigation and diverse assaults. The proposed (k, n) VC plot offers a reliable insurance for conveying pictures over people in general channels.

The comparative study of solvolysis of tetra ethyl lead in aqueous NaOH and aqueous KOH solution was studied with the help of ultrasonic velocity, viscosity, density and other parameters determined by using a single crystal interferometer at a frequency of 2 MHz. the ultrasonic study of tetra ethyl lead conforms that there is a significant interaction between the solute- solvent molecules and ions in aqueous alkaline solutions. The main motto of this paper is that tetra ethyl lead shows more effective interaction on which alkaline solution.

Sickle cell disease an inherited common blood disorder due to the presence of the abnormal haemoglobin S. This is a prospective study done at Kenyatta National Hospital that describes a point of care method for diagnosis of HbAS, HbSS, HbSC and HbAA using the Sickle SCAN™ test. It determines the sensitivity, specificity in comparison with haemoglobin electrophoreisis.These results validate the use of sickle Scan as a low cost method for screening and diagnosing children and adults with esickle cell disease.

The term 'political participation' has a broad inclusive meaning. It is not only related to 'Right to Vote', but simultaneously relates to participation in: decision making process, political activism, political consciousness, etc. Political activism and voting are the strongest areas of women's political participation. Participation in decision-making process is the real tool of women empowerment. Women are going to play a crucial role in selecting their political representative. Politicos can no longer ignore these sections of the society as a large number of youth and women are getting enrolled their names in voters list since 2008 assembly election. As per the electoral rolls (2015), a total of 1.33 crore people are eligible to vote in Delhi of which over 72 lakh are men and around 59 lakh are women. Out of the 673 candidates in the fray for Delhi Assembly elections, only 66 are women. While there were assurances galore on women’s safety in the national capital ahead of the polls, the number of tickets given to women candidates by the three leading political parties was in sharp contrast to the population of women voters in Delhi. In 2015 assembly election female poll percentage was 66.50% which is slightly less than the male poll percentage which was 67.64%. In this election all the Political parties emerged with a women-oriented political agenda to attract women voters. For the purpose of study spatial perspective approach and aggregate data analysis methods were applied to understand female voters’ behavior and their participation in 70 assembly constituencies of Delhi. 

In metal machining process turning operation of cylindrical parts are machined on CNC turning machine. Present work includes the machining of cylindrical component having non-concentric shape. Rotary fixture is designed for machining on CNC turning machine. To avoid unbalancing of fixture, fixture must be balanced by adding the counterweight on rotary fixture to minimize machining rejection. The fixture can be balanced by dynamic balancing machine. In project work rotary fixture will balance by Computer Aided Mass Balancing (CAMB) methodology. The methodology for balancing rotary fixture will use to calculate counterweight to be added on rotary fixture along with its position.