DECENTRALIZATION AND POVERTY REDUCTION: A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR EXPLORING THE LINKAGES

SAJJAD ALI KHAN 한국행정학회 2013 International Review of Public Administration Vol.18 No.2

This study explores the relationship between decentralization and poverty reduction. It seeks to identify the potential links between decentralization (devolution) and three specified dimensions of poverty by working out a conceptual framework. The framework upholds that through regional targeting and economic efficiency, decentralization might lead to improvements in economic growth, which may in turn reduce absolute poverty (1st link). Regional targeting and economic efficiency may at the same time also accrue in improved provision of public services, which may result a decrease in the prevailing extent of relative deprivation (2nd link). In addition, through increased participation and representation,decentralization might empower the impoverished and disadvantaged and give them a voice in the decision-making process, which may ultimately lead to a reduction in deprivation of certain capabilities (e.g., political,economic, and sociocultural capabilities) (3rd link). It is interesting to point out that the various benefits accruing from decentralization not only directly relate to a specific dimension of poverty but are, at the same time,also indirectly correlated to other dimensions.

Tissue distribution and functional characterization of odorant binding proteins in Chilo suppressalis (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae)

Sajjad Ali Khuhro,Hui Liao,Guan-Heng Zhu,Shuang-Mei Li,Zhan-Feng Ye,Shuang-Lin Dong 한국응용곤충학회 2017 Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology Vol.20 No.4

Odorant binding proteins (OBPs) play important roles in the insect olfaction and other diverse physiological processes. Forty OBP genes have been molecularly identified from Chilo suppressalis (Walker), a notorious rice pest in Asian countries, but little is known about the olfactory function for most of these genes. In the present study, we first determined the tissue expression profiles of 34 OBPs (excluding two general odorant bonding proteins (GOBPs) and four pheromone binding protein (PBPs)) by quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR), and found that 9 genes (OBP1, 3, 4, 11, 15, 17, 19, 20 and 24) were specifically or predominantly expressed in antennae of both sexes, suggesting their roles in olfaction, while three genes (OBP29, 30 and 32) were almost not expressed in antennae. Focusing on olfactory roles, the ligand specificities of six antenna specifically or predominantly expressed genes were further investigated for 35 plant volatiles, using the fluorescence competitive binding assays. The results revealed that six OBPs displayed different ligand preference, suggesting a differentiation of OBPs in ligand binding spectrum. Of six tested OBPs, OBP3, 11, 17, 19 and 31 showed moderate (Ki =10.21–19.85 μM) or high (Ki < 10.00 μM) binding affinity for 11 and one plant volatiles, respectively. In particular, a plant volatile β-ionone had high or moderate binding to all five OBPs. Our study suggests that these five OBP genes play important roles in the perception of different host plant volatiles, providing insight into the olfactory mechanism in C. suppressalis.

Microservices based Framework to Support Interoperable IoT Applications for Enhanced Data Analytics

Sajjad Ali,Muhammad Aslam Jarwar,Ilyoung Chong 한국통신학회 2019 한국통신학회 학술대회논문집 Vol.2019 No.1

Internet of things is growing with a large number of diverse objects which generate billions of data streams by sensing, actuating and communicating. Management of heterogeneous IoT objects with existing approaches and processing of myriads of data from these objects using monolithic services have become major challenges in developing effective IoT applications. The heterogeneity can be resolved by providing interoperability with semantic virtualization of objects. Moreover, monolithic services can be substituted with modular microservices. This article presents an architecture that enables the development of IoT applications using semantically interoperable microservices and virtual objects. The proposed framework supports analytic features with knowledge-driven and data-driven techniques to provision intelligent services on top of interoperable microservices in Web Objects enabled IoT environment. The knowledge driven aspects are supported with reasoning on semantic ontology models and the data-driven aspects are realized with machine learning pipeline. The development of service functionalities is supported with microservices to enhance modularity and reusability. To evaluate the proposed framework a proof of concept implementation with a use case are discussed.

Two general odorant binding proteins display high bindings to both host plant volatiles and sex pheromones in a pyralid moth Chilo suppressalis (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae)

Sajjad Ali Khuhro,Hui Liao,Xiao-Tong Dong,Qi Yu,Qi Yan,Shuang-Lin Dong 한국응용곤충학회 2017 Journal of Asia-Pacific Entomology Vol.20 No.2

Odorant sensitivity and selectivity play a crucial role in insects for finding host plants,mates and oviposition sites. General odorant binding proteins (GOBPs) are thought to be involved in the detection of general odorants released by foods and host plants. However, recent studies suggest GOBPs may also play some role in detection of sex pheromones. In the present study with the rice striped stem borer Chilo suppressalis (Walker) real time quantitative PCR (qPCR) measurements showed that both GOBP genes were specifically expressed in the antennae of both sexes, proposing their important roles in olfaction. To examine their specific functions, binding affinities to three sex pheromones and 35 plant volatiles were measured using fluorescence competitive binding assays. As a result, both GOBPs showed very strong binding affinities (Ki=0.33–1.50 μM) to all three sex pheromone components (Z11–16:Ald, Z9–16:Ald and Z13–18:Ald). In addition, GOBP1 and GOBP2 displayed high binding affinities (Ki b 10 μM) to two volatiles (farnesol and oleic acid) and five volatiles (+)-cedrol, farnesol, myrcene, β-ionone and linoleic acid), respectively; GOBP1 and GOBP2 also displayed moderate binding affinities (Ki = 10–20 μM) to two and one compounds, respectively. Furthermore, electroantennogram (EAG) measurements indicated that except oleic acid and myrcene, all volatiles of high binding affinity could elicit significant EAG response in moths of one or both sexes. Our study suggests that two CsupGOBPs tune to different array of plant volatiles, and also play roles in perception of the female sex pheromones, providing insights in to the mechanisms of olfaction in C. suppressalis.

Peak-to-Average Power Ratio Reduction Using N-tuple Selective Mapping Method for MC-CDMA

Sajjad Ali,Zhe Chen,Fuliang Yin 한국전자통신연구원 2015 ETRI Journal Vol.37 No.2

The multi-carrier transmission signal in Multi-Carrier Code Division Multiple Access (MC-CDMA) has a high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR), which results in nonlinear distortion and deteriorative system performance. An n-tuple selective mapping method is proposed to reduce the PAPR, in this paper. This method generates 2n sequences of an original data sequence by adding n-tuple of n PAPR control bits to it followed by an interleaver and error-control code (ECC) to reduce its PAPR. The convolutional, Golay, and Hamming codes are used as ECCs in the proposed scheme. The proposed method uses different numbers of the n PAPR control bits to accomplish a noteworthy PAPR reduction and also avoids the need for a side-information transmission. The simulation results authenticate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

The Role of Risk-sharing Mechanisms in Finance Health Care and Towards Universal Health Coverage in Low-and Middle-income Countries of World Health Organization Regions

Ali Ahangar,Ali Mohammad Ahmadi,Amir Hossein Mozayani,Sajjad Faraji Dizaji 대한예방의학회 2018 Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health Vol.51 No.1

A Comparison of Spectrum-Sensing Algorithms Based on Eigenvalues

Ali, Syed Sajjad,Liu, Jialong,Liu, Chang,Jin, Minglu The Korea Institute of Information and Commucation 2015 Journal of information and communication convergen Vol.13 No.4

Cognitive radio has been attracting increased attention as an effective approach to improving spectrum efficiency. One component of cognitive radio, spectrum sensing, has an important relationship with the performance of cognitive radio. In this paper, after a summary and analysis of the existing spectrum-sensing algorithms, we report that the existing eigenvalue-based semi-blind detection algorithm and blind detection algorithm have not made full use of the eigenvalues of the received signals. Applying multi-antenna systems to cognitive users, we design a variety of spectrum-sensing algorithms based on the joint distribution of the eigenvalues of the received signal. Simulation results validate that the proposed algorithms in this paper are able to detect whether the signal of the primary user exists or not with high probability of detection in an environment with a low signal-to-noise ratio. Compared with traditional algorithms, the new algorithms have the advantages of high detection performance and strong robustness

A Model of Socially Connected Web Objects for IoT Applications

Ali, Sajjad,Kibria, Muhammad Golam,Jarwar, Muhammad Aslam,Lee, Hoon Ki,Chong, Ilyoung WILEY INTERSCIENCE 2018 WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS AND MOBILE COMPUTING Vol.2018 No.-

<P>The Internet of Things (IoT) is evolving with the connected objects at an unprecedented rate, bringing about enormous opportunities for the future IoT applications as well as challenges. One of the major challenges is to handle the complexity generated by the interconnection of billions of objects. However, Social Internet of Things (SIoT), emerging from the conglomeration of IoT and social networks, has realized an efficient way to facilitate the development of complex future IoT applications. Nevertheless, to fully utilize the benefits of SIoT, a platform that can provide efficient services using social relations among heterogeneous objects is highly required. The web objects enabled IoT environment promotes SIoT features by enabling virtualization using virtual objects and supporting the modularity with microservices. To realize SIoT services, this article proposes an architecture that provides a foundation for the development of lightweight microservices based on socially connected web objects. To efficiently discover web objects and reduce the complexity of service provisioning processes, a social relationship model is presented. To realize the interoperable service operations, a semantic ontology model has been developed. Finally, to evaluate the proposed design, a prototype has been implemented based on a use case scenario.</P>

The Moderating Role of Environmental Turbulence between Learning Orientation and SME Performance in the Manufacturing Sector of Pakistan

Ali SAJJAD,Yusnidah IBRAHIM,Jauriyah SHAMSUDDIN 한국유통과학회 2022 유통과학연구 Vol.20 No.5

Purpose: This study attempts to investigate the moderating effects of environmental turbulence (ET) between learning orientation (LO) and SMEs' performance. Research design, data, and Methodology: To gain insights and provide implications for manufacturing SMEs in Pakistan, this study adopted simple random sampling to collect 379 valid responses. Data were collected through a self-administrative questionnaire from manufacturing SMEs owners/managers. Partial least squares of structural equation modeling have been used to test research hypotheses by using SmartPLS® 3.0 software. Results: The study's primary finding is that LO has a significantly positive effect on SMEs' performance and this relationship is strengthened under the moderating influence of environmental turbulence (ET). Conclusion: Environmental turbulence (ET) enables SMEs to focus on learning capability to get a more competitive advantage. Moreover, SMEs owner/managers ought to emphasize continuous learning that accentuates the capability to compete with environmental changes. Findings support notifying Pakistan’s Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (SMEDA) in dealings with Manufacturing SMEs in terms of improving their internal capabilities. This research contributes to the literature as it provides a more detailed and in-depth explanation of distribution management-related issues faced by SMEs. This research carries a significant influence on literature and relevant Resource-based view and contingency theories.

More Generalized fuzzy subsemigroups/ideals in semigroups

Muhammad Sajjad Ali Khan,Saleem Abdullah,전영비,Khaista Rahman 호남수학회 2017 호남수학학술지 Vol.39 No.4

The main motivation of this article is to generalized the concept of fuzzy ideals, $(\alpha ,\beta )$-fuzzy ideals, $(\in ,\in \vee q_{k})$-fuzzy ideals of semigroups. By using the concept of $q_{K}^{\delta }$% -quasi-coincident of a fuzzy point with a fuzzy set, we introduce the notions of $(\in ,\in \vee q_{k}^{\delta })$-fuzzy left ideal, $(\in ,\in \vee q_{k}^{\delta })$-fuzzy right ideal of a semigroup. Special sets, so called $Q_{k}^{\delta }$-set and $\left[ \lambda _{k}^{\delta }\right] _{t}$-set, condition for the $Q_{k}^{\delta }$-set and $\left[ \lambda _{k}^{\delta }\right] _{t}$-set to be left (resp. right) ideals are considered. We finally characterize different classes of semigroups (regular, left weakly regular, right weakly regular) in term of $(\in ,\in \vee q_{k}^{\delta })$-fuzzy left ideal, $(\in ,\in \vee q_{k}^{\delta })$% -fuzzy right ideal and $(\in ,\in \vee q_{k}^{\delta })$-fuzzy ideal of semigroup $S$.