Wireless multimedia sensor networks security as a flourishing research field has caught the attention of research community with increasing multimedia applications of sensors. Image encryption is one of the ways to protect still images from unauthorized access. The paper proposes a novel still image encryption algorithm based on compressed image sensing and watermarking. We analyze the fact that image signal in WMSN holds large amount of redundancy information, and then project the captured image to the transform domain using only a few significant coefficients. Moreover, we utilize watermarking approach to achieve authentication mechanism. Results show that the proposed scheme can transmit still image signal in resource-constrained WMSN securely and economically.

Nowadays, the advanced technologies of wireless communication significantly increase the attention on Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET). This paper aims to improve the routing performance of the large scale and high mobility MANETs. Several routing protocols have been suggested to the MANET and classified as topology and location based protocols. In order to discover and maintain the routes to the destination, topology based protocols require the complete network topology information periodically. Owing to the large number of nodes with recurrent topology changes, it is hard to provide accurate topology information. Large scalability and high mobility factors make vulnerable performance over topology based routing. The routing performance can be enhanced with the aid of location based stateless routing. However, location based routing has to resolve issues such as routing overhead, the duplicate relay, and the packet loss in a void area. To overcome these issues, we propose the Location Based Directional Routing Protocol (LBDR) based on the stateless routing. In the proposed LBDR, the routing overhead is reduced using the Standardized Advance Scheme (SADV). The SADV decides optimal neighbors based on the distance and stability metrics. Together with the Greedy forwarding, the Replica Bound technique (RBT) reduces the duplicate packet transmission over the stateless communication. To overcome the void handling problem, the new idea is coupled with the void handling scheme; it assigns the higher priority forwarding member as the trigger node leads to packet loss reduction. Therefore, it provides a location based solution to the impacts of the network with large scalability and high mobility. The NS2 based simulation results reveal that the LBDR achieves better scalability and efficiency for a large scale and a high mobility network.

Ad-hoc and sensor wireless networks.Ubiquitous Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks (UU-ASN) targets to provide a comprehensive study of the technical issues related to realization of underwater environments. Technical issues comprises of fundamental sensor networking problems such as data gathering, synchronization, localization, routing protocols, energy minimization. In this paper, we have a made a detailed survey of the architectures and appropriate mobility models for UU-ASN based on nodes movement. UU-ASN relies on the use of simulations to evaluate protocol performance as real time implementation is complex. A realistic mobility model that can capture the physical movement of the sensor nodes with respect to ocean currents gives better understanding on the above problems. We study impact of the model on the coverage and connectivity of the network under different scenarios.

In this Research, we propose an image security scheme using hybrid compression techniques. In this scheme, the data is being provided twofold security by both encryption stage and hiding stage. The data/message which has to be secured undergoes encryption technique at the initial stage. In this stage, the permutation algorithm is employed which requires a pair of numbers as a key to permute the original message. Following the encryption stage, the deformed message is then embedded onto a JPEG image by considering the low and high quantization tables. The final result is an encrypted and compressed JPEG image with a different image quality. The receiver has to perform the reverse process to extract the original data/information. The performance analysis is performed in terms of PSNR for different quantization tables.

The aim of present research is trying to answer this question: “What are the roles of knowledge management and individuals, as personal knowledge management, in the organization?” In the surge of knowledge management, this research has concluded that personal knowledge management helps innovation inside organization. The success of an innovative product in notoriously connected to research activities and changing orientation. On the other hand, these two elements depend on the development of knowledge levels and he innovative efforts of knowledge workers. We have hopefully not just validated theory with practice, but also provided a reference for academic circle and business field, and hope that with this small and helpful research, enterprises will be able to understand the relationship between personal knowledge management, innovation and organization’s productivity.

Introduction: Breast cancer is most common cancer among women and the second leading cause of cancer deaths among them. Reaction to cancer can include fear, anxiety and depression. Several methods are used to treat depression which one of them is cognitive therapy. This study was conducted with aim examined the effect of group cognitive therapy on depression in women with breast cancer.\nMaterials and Methods: This is a quasi experimental study (before- after design). 78 women with breast cancer were selected by convenience sampling. 42 of them were depressed based on Beck depression inventory. They divided into seven groups each consist of 6 people and they participated in group cognitive therapy sessions (15 sessions each 60 minutes once a week for each group). After 6 months, depression was measured again. Data was analyzed by SPSS using paired T tests.\nResults: findings showed that the mean age of patients was 45.88 years, 84.61% were married, 85.90% housewives and most of occupied women were teachers. The comparison of mean depression score before and after intervention was significantly different (p<0.05). \nConclusion: Our study showed that cognitive therapy can be useful in decrease of depression. Finding will help in planning for women with breast cancer. Also, further research in this area suggested.\nKey words: Breast cancer, Cognitive therapy, women, depression

A Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) is usually assumed to be homogeneous, where each mobile node shares the same radio capacity. However, a homogeneous ad hoc network suffers from poor scalability. Building a physically hierarchical ad hoc network is a promising way to achieve good scalability. Routing is critical to operate such a hierarchical structure efficiently. Most routing protocols in MANETs are designed for a homogeneous wireless network. It has been proven that current routing protocols work well in small size networks. However, the large-scale ad hoc networks are more and more desired in many application scenarios, especially the mobile military networks. In this paper, we propose a novel self-organizing hierarchical architecture for improving the scalability properties of ad-hoc wireless networks. This paper focuses on the design and evaluation of routing protocol applicable to this class of hierarchical ad-hoc networks. The performance of modified Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) protocol in a two level hierarchical network is evaluated and compared with that of conventional DSR in a flat ad-hoc networks using NS-2 simulator. Simulation results using NS-2 show that our proposed schemes achieve good performance.

Today, service processes are usually slow processes which are\nconsequently prone to poor service quality. In addition, service has the inherent\ncharacteristic of heterogeneity, which means there is variation in service quality\nthat is unsatisfactory to the customer. Fortunately, these issues can be addressed\nby combining the speed advantage of Lean discipline with Six Sigma’s capability\nof uniform process output. This paper aims to develop and apply an integrated\nLean Six Sigma methodology in a service-quality improvement endeavour.\nAn empirical case study of IT (Information Technology) help-desk service was\nutilised to examine the effectiveness of the methodology.

Increasing the competition between organizations in the field of productions and services leads them to use\nthe samples and patterns to assess their activities and performance. Appearing this kind of needs and\ninefficiency of measuring systems with traditional activities assessment causes to create new models of\nactivities assessment in organizations. These models are divided in two groups. The first group is based on\nself assessment and the second group is based on measurement and improvement of business trade\nprocess. Among mentioned models, Balanced Score Card (BSC) and European Foundation for Quality\nManagement (EFQM) have had more chance to be used by many companies. Regarding the high\nacceptance of these two models in the world and existence many similarities between them; this study is\ngoing to present a glance of these two models and address comparison between them. Moreover, after\nrecognizing the weaknesses and powers of them, the possibility of using them at the same time will be\nevaluated. In order to gain this goal, an IT Company’s performance has been assessed based on BSC and\nEFQM and the results are analyzed using TOPSIS method.

There is an integral link between theory and measurement suggesting that validation of measures should be the first stage of theory testing. The aim of the present study was to validate the factorial validity of needs and expectations features as determinants of low-income residents’ housing satisfaction in South Africa. Data were collected by a face-to-face administered questionnaire survey conducted among 751 low-income housing residents’ in three metropolitan and one district municipality in the Gauteng Province of South Africa. Data gathered via the questionnaire survey were analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM) which was used to assess the factor structure of the constructs. SEM analysis revealed that the internal consistency coefficients were over 0.70 criterions for acceptability and the constructs show a good mode fit to the sample data. The Z-statistics analysis revealed that the construct (needs and expectations) have direct influence in determining low-income residents’ satisfaction with their houses. The result advocates a practical consideration of the construct and its respective indicator variables in future development of low-income housing in South Africa.