Academic literature on the topic 'Backend Server'

The article discusses modern approaches and technologies in the development of server applications using the example of an online store. Methods for solving the main tasks encountered in developing the server part of the client-server application using the rest architectural style are presented. The internal structure and logic of the Spring framework and the Liquibase, Hibernate ORM, Lombock libraries are briefly presented.

An integral part of any multi-user service is its server part. Data storage, authorization logic, algorithm requiring
 security so that no user can find a vulnerability in the system. All this is assigned to the backend - the server
 logic of the application. Without exaggeration, thousands and millions of users around the world depend on
 security, stability, and continuous updating o f the server code. It is the responsibility o f each developer to ensure
 the maximum performance o f the above properties.
 The development o f any application depends on its architecture and the architecture o f each component. Previously,
 setting up the server environment and developing the backend o f the service part were inseparable. But
 applications are becoming more complex, system requirements are becoming more difficult to implement. Setting
 up a server environment, automating work processes and updates are highlighted in a separate area o f
 activity and the IT industry - DevOps. There are containerization tools, process automation tools, web servers
 and much more in the world. And none o f these technologies are used in isolation. For a software developer
 without appropriate DevOps skills, it is difficult to implement a competent server configuration

The presented paper describes the creation of a mobile application module for showing a current menu at Mendel University cafeterias. Nowadays, the students and the university staff have the menu accessible through a static webpage. The presented solution serves as a dynamic presentation of the current menu for all Mendel University in Brno cafeterias. Most cafeteria menu applications use the REST architectures for the server backend. The contribution of the paper is in usage of the Google Firebase Realtime database as a server backend. Unlike in traditional REST architecture, the data e.g. the food rating is instantaneously changed and the users have an up to date information. Part of the presented solution is also a mobile application module for both Android and iOS where university students and staff can see the current cafeterias menus.

Bagian backend adalah ruang logis dengan fungsionalitas dan pengoperasian aplikasi perangkat lunak atau sistem informasi. Salah satu implementasinya adalah sistem backend berbasis RESTful. RESTful adalah arsitektur pertukaran data menggunakan protokol HTTP. RESTful atau REST Server menyediakan data untuk diakses oleh REST Client menggunakan pertukaran data dalam format JSON. Masalah dalam penelitian ini bagaimana membangun rest server yang didukung perangkat yang aman, mendukung otomatisasi/artisan, dukungan package yang mudah, dan dukungan MVC. Tidak semua framework PHP mendukung kebutuhan tersebut kecuali Framework Laravel. Framework Laravel menyediakan mekanisme untuk membangun REST Server melalui library Rest Server yang mendukung implementasi RESTful server secara penuh. Pada penelitian ini dibangun REST Server yang dapat menjalankan fungsi dasar CRUD. Hasil dari endpoint yaitu mendapatkan respon dari server berupa JSON. Hasil dari penelitian menghasilkan restful API atau REST Server dengan menggunakan empat http request yaitu GET, POST, PUT dan DELETE yang merupakan metode dasar dari REST Server dan telah diuji responnya menggunakan Postman.

Abstract - This project is a security framework that includes a backend server, a web application firewall (WAF), and a penetration testing tool to protect web applications and identify vulnerabilities. The backend server handles data requests and responses securely using Flask. The WAF acts as a protective layer, checking requests for threats like XSS and SQL Injection, blocking malicious traffic, and forwarding safe requests to the backend. The penetration testing tool scans ports, detects services, grabs banners, and checks for known vulnerabilities like BlueKeep and SMBv3 RCE. It also generates reports with security findings and recommendations. Together, these components secure the application by blocking threats, identifying risks, and providing actionable insights for improvement.

Abstract: In an era marked by the convergence of personal and technical facets of life, the need for a versatile and intelligent companion becomes increasingly apparent. This project introduces the development of a novel Chatbot, aptly named the "Personal and Technical Companion," designed to seamlessly integrate into users' lives by offering personalized support and technical assistance. The Chatbot employs state-of-the-art Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques to engage users in natural language conversations, providing a unique blend of personal and technical guidance. The system architecture encompasses a user-friendly interface, a robust NLP engine for intent recognition, a dynamic backend server handling logic and personalization, and integration with external services to enrich the user experience. Simultaneously, it serves as a technical companion by offering code assistance, troubleshooting guidance, and recommending relevant learning resources. Implementation leverages cutting-edge technologies, including Python for backend logic, Flask for the server, TensorFlow for NLP processing, and HTML/CSS for the user interface.

With the promotion of Industry 4.0, which emphasizes interconnected and intelligent devices, several factories have introduced numerous terminal Internet of Things (IoT) devices to collect relevant data or monitor the health status of equipment. The collected data are transmitted back to the backend server through network transmission by the terminal IoT devices. However, as devices communicate with each other over a network, the entire transmission environment faces significant security issues. When an attacker connects to a factory network, they can easily steal the transmitted data and tamper with them or send false data to the backend server, causing abnormal data in the entire environment. This study focuses on investigating how to ensure that data transmission in a factory environment originates from legitimate devices and that related confidential data are encrypted and packaged. This paper proposes an authentication mechanism between terminal IoT devices and backend servers based on elliptic curve cryptography and trusted tokens with packet encryption using the TLS protocol. Before communication between terminal IoT devices and backend servers can occur, the authentication mechanism proposed in this paper must first be implemented to confirm the identity of the devices and, thus, the problem of attackers imitating terminal IoT devices transmitting false data is resolved. The packets communicated between devices are also encrypted, preventing attackers from knowing their content even if they steal the packets. The authentication mechanism proposed in this paper ensures the source and correctness of the data. In terms of security analysis, the proposed mechanism in this paper effectively withstands replay attacks, eavesdropping attacks, man-in-the-middle attacks, and simulated attacks. Additionally, the mechanism supports mutual authentication and forward secrecy. In the experimental results, the proposed mechanism demonstrates approximately 73% improvement in efficiency through the lightweight characteristics of elliptic curve cryptography. Moreover, in the analysis of time complexity, the proposed mechanism exhibits significant effectiveness.

Paper contains the work done on “ARAI indigenously developed OCPP server and OCPP stack for EV Charging station”. At present, India faces the challenge to locate, monitor and control the chargers situated at different locations, as there is no backend communication. We are experiencing shortage of conventionally generated power and fluctuation in the availability of power due to heavy load during the peak hours. To overcome this, all the chargers need to have backend communication so that the maximum charging rate of the chargers upon the availability of power in the grid can be controlled and monitored. OPEN Charge Point Protocol (OCPP) is a communication protocol that help the EV charging station to communicate with the central server and update the charging details along with the information like location the total unit consumed etc. The protocol also helps the Server to remotely monitor and control the EV charging station located even at remote location of the country. ARAI have indigenously developed OCPP server for the automotive industry which is being utilized to test and validate the OCPP compliance of the EV charger and server. ARAI server and stack supports the most recent version OCPP 2.0.

The web servers (WSGI-Python) and (PHP-Apache) are in middleware tier architecture. Middleware architecture is between frontend tier and backend tier, otherwise it’s a connection between frontend tier and backend tier for three tier architecture. The ELearning systems are designed by two different dynamic web technologies. First is by Python-WSGI and the second is by Personal Home Page (PHP-Apache). The two websites were designed with different open source and cross platform web technologies programming language namely; Python and PHP in the same structure and weight will evaluate perform over two different operating systems (OSs): 1) Windows-16 and 2) Linux-Ubuntu 20.4. Both systems run over the same computer architecture (64bit) as a server side with a common backend MySQL web database for both of them. Nevertheless, the middleware for PHP is a cross Apache MySQL PHP Perl (XAMPP), but the middleware for Python is Pycharm and the web server gateway interface (WSGI). WSGI and Apache are both web servers and this paper will show which of them has a better response time (RT). On the one hand, the experimental results demonstrate that the Python-WSGI is even weightier in Mbyte than PHP-Apache, on the other hand Python is still faster and more accurate than PHP. The designed SPG is by handwriting codes: one time designed the SPG by PHP source code and the other time designed by Python source code. Both Python-WSGI and PHP-Apache results are targeted to compare by the least time in milliseconds and take in to account enhanced performance.

Lo scopo della tesi è quello di descrivere e mettere a confronto tre diversi linguaggi, e quindi approcci, alla programmazione server-side e di back-end, ovvero il linguaggio PHP, il linguaggio Python ed il linguaggio Javascript, utilizzato però per una programmazione “Server Side”, e quindi associato al framework NodeJS. Questo confronto si pone l’obiettivo di sottolineare le differenti caratteristiche di ogni linguaggio, gli scopi a cui esso maggiormente si addice e di fornire una sorta di guida per far in modo che si possa comprendere al meglio quale dei tre linguaggi maggiormente usati per la programmazione backend si conformi meglio all’obiettivo prepostosi.

Кряж, В. В. Універсальна комп‘ютерна система оренди пристроїв(backend) : випускна кваліфікаційна робота : 123 "Кoмп’ютepнa iнжeнepiя" / В. В. Кряж ; керівник роботи Є. В. Риндич ; НУ "Чернігівська політехніка", кафедра iнфopмaцiйниx тa кoмп’ютepниx cиcтeм. – Чернігів, 2021. – 59 с.<br>Розроблено бекенд частину системи на мові програмування Java в середовищі, що дозволяє обробляти запити на створення, перегляд та редагування оголошення про оренду якогось товару, також є можливість створити та редагувати інформацію про акаунт користувача. Дане АРІ надасть смогу створити надійну систему із багатьма клієнтами. В ході проекту було розроблено різні шляхи вирішення завдання та досліджено багато інструментів для розробки системи, з них виділено найбільш зручні та правильні. Також розписано всі етапи розробки бекенд застосунку.<br>Розроблено бекенд частину системи на мові програмування Java в середовищі, що дозволяє обробляти запити на створення, перегляд та редагування оголошення про оренду якогось товару, також є можливість створити та редагувати інформацію про акаунт користувача. Дане АРІ надасть смогу створити надійну систему із багатьма клієнтами. В ході проекту було розроблено різні шляхи вирішення завдання та досліджено багато інструментів для розробки системи, з них виділено найбільш зручні та правильні. Також розписано всі етапи розробки бекенд застосунку.

The purpose of this master's thesis is creation of a system capable of sharing scanners over computer network. The target scanner interfaces are TWAIN and WIA on Microsoft Windows operating system, and SANE on GNU/Linux. C++ programming language, Boost libraries and Qt framework were used to implement the programming part of this work. Several smaller helper libraries were implemented that are useful even outside this work, most notably TWAIN++ framework. The resulting system enables the user to share scanners over network, and scan using any of the aforementioned interfaces.

The Master thesis focuses on basic description of the theoretical and practical part of testing, agile development and online shopping. Aim of the paper is to specify requirements for testing scenario of online shopping and subsequently suggest suitable solution for easy integration testing process as a part of the development of online shopping within agile development.

Il Progetto XCModel, che da dieci anni si sviluppa e si perfeziona col contributo di varie persone, consente la progettazione di scene 3D e la resa fotorealistica. Esso si appoggia sulle funzionalita' grafiche di X-Window in Linux: si tratta di un ambiente in costante evoluzione, dovuta sia alle continue innovazioni hardware che ai cambiamenti degli standard. XCModel e' composto da vari pacchetti, ognuno dei quali specializzato nel trattare un particolare aspetto della modellazione o della resa (curve, superfici, textures, luci, ...) e che si presentano come applicazioni dotate di una sofisticata interfaccia grafica. Tutte attingono alle funzioni della Libreria XTools, che fornisce numerose primitive grafiche facenti uso delle potenzialita' di X-Window. I recenti cambiamenti nelle specifiche di X-Org, ed in particolare la de- standardizzazione del backing-store, ha obbligato il team di XCModel ad una consistente riprogettazione di XTools e di tutti i pacchetti che su di esso s'appoggiano. S'e' colta l'occasione per un massiccio debugging e per modificare i pacchetti in base alle impressioni emerse nel corso degli anni da parte degli utilizzatori, primi tra tutti gli studenti del corso di Grafica tenuto dal Prof. Giulio Casciola, project-manager di XCModel: questa e' un'ulteriore testimonianza del continuo adattamento e dell'aggiornabilita' del Progetto! Nella fattispecie, ci si occupera' delle modifiche effettuate in particolare al pacchetto XCSurf, finalizzato alla creazione ed alla modifica di curve e superfici 3D da utilizzarsi successivamente per la creazione delle scene: tale pacchetto e' di fatto risultato il pie' avulso dalle specifiche di XTools, il che ha costretto ad un massiccio intervento al codice del programma, ma d'altro canto ha consentito una standardizzazione del pacchetto in linea con gli altri, in particolare ridisegnandone l'interfaccia. Nel primo capitolo si effettuera' una veloce panoramica dell'ambiente XCModel e delle problematiche emerse dai cambiamenti degli standard di X-Window. Il secondo capitolo affrontera' un'ampia analisi dell'hardware, del software e dei paradigmi che caratterizzano la grafica interattiva, e gli ambienti necessari per interagire con essa ed esaminando i vari obiettivi raggiungibili. Infine, il terzo capitolo analizzera' nel dettaglio le modifiche effettuate ai pacchetti di XCModel ed in particolare ad XCSurf per l'adattamento ai nuovi standard, nel rispetto delle politiche e delle linee guida dettate dalla grafica interattiva.

Dissertação de Mestrado em Engenharia Informática apresentada à Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia<br>Os seres humanos têm tendência para fazer atividades em grupo, e fazer música não é exceção. Para produzir música juntas, as pessoas precisavam estar no mesmo lugar e tocarem instrumentos perto uns dos outros. Hoje em dia, é possível que pessoas em qualquer parte do mundo trabalhem entre si na produção de música. No entanto, os meios para o fazer são ainda bastante rudimentares, com apenas algumas ferramentas online disponíveis para fornecer um serviço eficaz capaz de facilitar a colaboração entre várias pessoas.Neste momento, o processo de produção de música amadora envolve o uso de ferramentas e serviços como Dropbox, Google Drive e Whatsapp, que não são adequados para colaboração musical. Embora já existam algumas plataformas de colaboração orientadas para músicos, ainda não são amplamente utilizadas. Isso indica que essas plataformas ainda não possuema capacidade de atrair músicos amadores. Por outro lado, os músicos amadores também têm dificuldade em promover-se e encontrar novas oportunidades.Este projeto visa resolver ambos os problemas. O foco principal é o desenvolvimento de uma plataforma online, onde os músicos podem colaborar entre si e encontrar novos projetos para trabalhar.O segundo objetivo do projeto é a versão dos projetos, em que os músicos podem seguir alguns dos princípios de desenvolvimento de software e verificar o conteúdo do projeto em qualquer momento e até reverter as mudanças.Foi feita uma análise de serviços que fornecem um ecossistema colaborativo para entender melhor o que já existe no mercado, capaz de criar música, bem como detectar suas falhas para tentar conceber uma plataforma capaz de satisfazer as necessidades do mercado da criação de música colaborativa.O processo de desenvolvimento foi Scrum, e foi criado um product backlog com todas as user stories a serem implementadas. Esta fase incluiu também a definição de tecnologias utilizadas, os riscos de implementação e um plano de teste. Posteriormente foi criada uma arquitetura de sistema capaz de satisfazer os problemas acima mencionados. A fase de implementação que se seguiu consistiu no desenvolvimento de um servidor da API REST backend usando o Ruby on Rails e um cliente frontend web usando o React Redux.<br>Humans have the tendency to do activities together, and making music is no exception. Toproduce music together, people needed to be in the same place and play instruments near each other. Nowadays, it is possible for people around the world to work with each other in the production of music. However, the means to do that are rather rudimentary, with only a few tools available online to provide an effective service capable of facilitating the collaboration between multiple people.At the moment, the process to produce music in the amateur scene involves the use of tools and services, such as Dropbox, Google Drive, and Whatsapp, that are not suited for music collaboration. Although there are already some collaboration platforms oriented for musicians, they are not widely used amongst them. This indicates that the former platformslack the capacity of attracting amateur musicians. On the other hand, amateur musicians also have difficulty promoting themselves and finding new opportunities.This project aims to solve both problems. The main focus is the development of an online platform, where musicians can collaborate with each other and find new projects to work on.The project’s second objective is the versioning of the projects, in which the musicians can follow some of the software development principles and check the contents of the project at any point in time and even revert changes.It was done an analysis of services that provide a collaborative ecosystem to better understand what already exists in the market that is capable of creating music, as well as to detect their flaws to try and conceive a platform that is capable of fulfilling the needs of the collaborative music creation.The development process was Scrum, and a product backlog with the all the features to be implemented was created. This phase also included the definition of technologies used, risks of implementation and a plan for testing. Afterwards, a system architecture capable of satisfying the problems stated above was created. The implementation phase that followed consisted of developing a backend REST API server using Ruby on Rails and a frontend web client using React Redux.

Used in moderation, many oils can be beneficial to one's diet and lifestyle. This book presents accurate information on more than two dozen oils, examining the health claims associated with popular oils along with the clinical research findings. In the past, consumers were warned to avoid eating foods made with coconut oil, but more recently opinions about this oil have shifted. Many people now consider olive oil to be the most healthful—but is there truth behind this idea? Today's consumers are constantly bombarded with claims regarding consumption of oils, yet references to the scientific studies assumedly behind these statements are rare. This book dispels the common myths about oils, examines the health claims associated with popular oils and fats, and presents useful information backed by scientific findings. The book's 47 entries cover common oils such as canola and olive oil to less commonly used oils, such as argan, avocado, and krill oil. The research results are gathered from international, peer-reviewed journals, providing readers with information from credible sources. An ideal resource for nutritionists, nutrition students, and anyone seeking scientifically backed information about the health benefits of oils, Healthy Oils: Fact versus Fiction serves as an indispensible tool for making informed health decisions.

This guide provides library directors, managers, and administrators in all types of libraries with complete and up-to-date instructions on how to evaluate library services in order to improve them. It's a fact: today's libraries must evaluate their services in order to find ways to better serve patrons and prove their value to their communities. In this greatly updated and expanded edition of Matthews' seminal text, you'll discover a breadth of tools that can be used to evaluate any library service, including newer tools designed to measure customer and patron outcomes. The book offers practical advice backed by solid research on virtually every aspect of evaluation, including quantitative and qualitative tools, data analysis, and specific recommendations for measuring individual services, such as technical services and reference and interlibrary loan. New chapters give readers effective ways to evaluate critical aspects of their libraries such as automated systems, physical space, staff, performance management frameworks, eBooks, social media, and information literacy. The author explains how broader and more robust adoption of evaluation techniques will help library managers combine traditional internal measurements, such as circulation and reference transactions, with more customer-centric metrics that reflect how well patrons feel they are served and how satisfied they are with the library. By applying this comprehensive strategy, readers will gain the ability to form a truer picture of their library's value to its stakeholders and patrons.

Abstract This paper introduces MobiVitalsConnect, a novel platform-agnostic mobile healthcare system designed for both bedside and remote monitoring of patients. Central to our system is its integration with the Vitaliti ™ wearable, equipped with biosensors for real-time monitoring of vital signs such as heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, body temperature, and oxygen saturation, along with physiological signals including ECG, PPG, Respiratory waveforms, and accelerometer data. MobiVitalsConnect provides advanced visualizations, including real-time data and 15-min trend lines, facilitating rapid clinical decision-making. The system employs colour coding to enhance data interpretation and supports seamless data transfer to a backend server, making it a robust solution for personalized healthcare management and improved patient outcomes. MobiVitalsConnect distinguishes itself by providing advanced visualizations with medical data, facilitating rapid clinical decision-making through access to vital signs and trends with intuitive graphs and real-time physiological signals.

Abstract Distributing gamified educational content, including media and executables, and conducting multi-user groupwork activities are challenging because of technological, logistical, ethical, and financial concerns. We address these questions by proposing a cloud-based solution that allows safe and controlled management of educational activities without the need for an on-premises server array. While technology to manage student and educator data, authentication, and grading exist in the forms of LMSs, extending these to online multiplayer games and virtual reality environments is lacking. We introduce a framework integrated with an LMS capable of managing such games, which also includes fine-grained handling of user consent regarding access and use of assets. We also explain how the setup ensures safe and secure data management, especially when recording sensitive data in educational experiments. We detail the design of the web interface that allows teachers and students to set up groups that work together in separate virtual environments, backed by dynamically allocated cloud servers, with automated acquisition of all prerequisite software and assets. An evaluation session with 15 students is analyzed to verify whether the system can meet the above goals in the time constraints of a class activity.

Abstract Heat shrinkable sleeves are often used for coating girth-weld joints in 3 layer polyolefin coated pipelines and tapes are sometimes used for repairing damaged pipeline coatings in the field. These field applied coating systems usually consist of at least two different layers – an outer polyolefin backing layer and an inner adhesive layer. For heat shrinkable sleeves, an epoxy primer layer is also used with the coating. The adhesive layer is often much softer than the polyolefin backing layer, especially at higher temperatures. The soft adhesive layer serves to facilitate field application of heat shrinkable sleeves and tapes onto pipelines. For some buried pipelines, wrinkling of polyolefin backings has been observed after the pipelines have been in service for some time. Wrinkling in the polyolefin backing allows the adhesive to flow out; enables soil and water to trap underneath the backing; and subsequently leading to corrosion of the steel substrate. The purpose of this paper is to present simple models to describe the wrinkling behavior of the polyolefin backing under backfill loads. These models are then used to relate the wrinkling phenomenon to the mechanical properties and thicknesses of the polyolefin backing and adhesive layers. Simple formulae are developed which could be used to guide the development and selection of appropriate heat shrinkable sleeve and tape products to meet specific application requirements.

Abstract In a case that coating like heat shrinkable sheet (HSS) or cold tape is detached from buried pipeline surface, cathodic protection current can’t penetrate into the pipeline surface enough to polarize cathodically due to the impervious characteristic of outer backing layer. Microbiologically induced corrosion can develop seriously at the pipeline inside the failed coating under the favorable environment for sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB) proliferation. A series of works have been performed in order to develop the antibacterial coating against SRB. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and thermal treatment effect on the antibacterial activity simulating the temperature of production and application were evaluated for the optimal biocide selection. Coating properties as well as antibacterial efficacy of HSS adhesives incorporated with reagent graded agents and industrial biocides were tested. Prototypes of antibacterial HSS system fabricated at factory have shown that the antibacterial coating could be developed to the level of commercial product.

Abstract A corrosion assessment survey was conducted with the objective of facilitating the selection of repair methods for the corrosion control of two reinforced concrete bridges. The work completed during the evaluation consisted of visual inspections, depth of cover determinations, concrete resistivity measurements, chloride analyses, carbonation depth measurements, and cathodic protection feasibility tests. Results from preliminary field-testing indicated that these 75+ year old historically significant structures both exhibited widespread corrosion distress throughout most of the substructure components due to carbonation of the concrete matrix. These areas were generally associated with shallow concrete cover over the steel reinforcement. Consequently, the concrete resistivity values measured at the two bridges were high in comparison to resistivity values observed in various other Florida locations. Tests to assess the prospect of using cathodic protection (CP) as a means of controlling the state of corrosion were preformed using a series of zinc foil anodes with an ionically conductive adhesive backing. Results from the CP tests indicated that although anode current outputs were low, the steel was cathodicaly protected due to a rapid high potential shift observed. Based on the field results and an economic analysis, the use of a sacrificial metalized zinc CP system, applied directly unto the spalled areas, emerged as the leading restoration option.

В данной статье рассмотрены технологии для разработки мобильных приложений для операционных iOS, а именно языки программирования Swift и Objective-C, и архитектура MVVM, а также актуальность вышеописанных языков программирования. Рассмотрены технологии реализации backend части для мобильных приложений. This article discusses technologies for developing mobile applications for operating iOS, namely the Swift and Objective-C programming languages, and the MVVM architecture, as well as the relevance of the above programming languages. The technologies for the implementation of the server side for mobile applications are considered.

This paper presents the development and evaluation of PhotoGleam, a mobile application designed to enhance image quality through AI-generated filters.The app addresses the common issue of aesthetically unappealing colors in mobile phone photography by leveraging advanced AI models to create custom filters tailored to each image. The paper details the implementation of the AI-driven image processing engine, the backend Flask server, and the Flutter frontend user interface. Through two key experiments, the effectiveness of AI-generated filters was assessed in terms of both image quality and user engagement. Results showed that users consistently preferred AI-generated filters over standard ones, and the introduction of these filters led to increased time spent on the app and more images edited. While there are areas for improvement, such as server scalability and AI model reliance, PhotoGleam demonstrates significant potential as a valuable tool for enhancing mobile photography.

Aplikasi chat room merupakan hasil dari pengembangan teknologi informasi dan komunikasi. Aplikasi ini memungkinkan pengguna untuk berdiskusi dalam sebuah room atau group chatting yang bisa diakses dimanapun dan kapanpun dan menggunakan perangkat apapun (perangkat mobile atau komputer). Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengembangkan sebuah aplikasi chat room dengan menerapkan kedua teknologi tersebut. Metode pengembangan sistem yang akan digunakan adalah dengan metode pengembangan sistem Prototype yang dipa,ndang cocok dengan aplikasi yang akan dibuat. Hasil yang diperoleh adalah sebuah aplikasi chat room yang dapat digunakan atau diterapkan ke aplikasi lain yang lebih besar yang membutuhkan sebuah fitur chat room. Dalam pengembangannya, React.js akan berperan sebagai library di sisi klien dan Javascript akan beran di sisi backend atau server dibantu library lainnya.

As adolescent suicide rates grew significantly in the past decade, depression, anxiety, and other mental disorders were largely held responsible for the growth [9]. However, these medical conditions are often overlooked during their early stages where symptoms are still remediable. Delayed or inattentive response to address the issue usually results in higher suicides rates or in lesser cases, mental ailments carried into adulthood. In an attempt to remedy the mental health crisis, countless mental health interventions are being introduced as means to mitigate the circumstances. In this project, we developed a mobile application that serves as a comprehensive therapy—journal and group therapy—for those struggling with mild to moderate depressive symptoms [10]. The application utilizes both the Sentimental AI and natural language processing in its backend server to generate accurate matches of users who share similar struggles, allowing users to connect and resonate with each other emotionally [11]. The application also provides a private and safe space for users to openly express their thoughts, alleviating their stress through daily journal entries.

Real-time ray tracing is an important tool in computational research. Among other things, it is used to model sensors for autonomous vehicle simulation, efficiently simulate radiative energy propagation, and create effective data visualizations. However, raytracing libraries currently offered for GPU platforms have a high level of complexity to facilitate the detailed configuration needed by gaming engines and high-fidelity renderers. A researcher wishing to take advantage of the performance gains offered by the GPU for simple ray casting routines would need to learn how to use these ray tracing libraries. Additionally, they would have to adapt this code to each GPU platform they run on. Therefore, a C++ API has been developed that exposes simple ray casting endpoints that are implemented in GPU-specific code for several contemporary device platforms. This API currently supports the NVIDIA OptiX ray tracing library, Vulkan, AMD Radeon Rays, and even Intel Embree. Benchmarking tests using this API provide insight to help users determine the optimal backend library to select for their ray tracing needs. HPC research will be well-served by the ability to perform general purpose raytracing on the increasing amount of graphics and machine learning nodes offered by the DoD High Performance Computing Modernization Program.

Climate change-induced sea level rise and storm surge pose a threat to the cultural resources and facilities located at the Charlestown Navy Yard, which is part of Boston National Historical Park within National Parks of Boston. In response to initiatives at the presidential, departmental, and agency level to collect scientific data, especially geospatial data, to make science-backed adaptation and response decisions, National Parks of Boston launched a novel geospatial mapping project to create point clouds of the facilities and cultural resources at the Charlestown Navy Yard. The scanning was completed using a Trimble R12i GNSS receiver and a Trimble SX12 scanning total station, and the data were analyzed using Trimble Business Center. Critical elevation data for potential flood entryways, such as basement windows and doorways, were extracted and compared to sea level rise projections for the 2030s, 2050s, and 2070s and will be used to inform climate change adaptation planning. The methods and applications will ideally serve as a model for other National Park Service units in informing their climate change adaptation strategies.

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) have important implications for pregnancy outcomes and the subsequent health of women and their children. The aim of this study is to determine the status of NCD and maternal health program integration, identify barriers to integration, and explore what would be required to deepen integration of NCD care into antenatal care in Cameroon. We used two methods of data collection and synthesis: a desk review of policy documents and protocols and a series of key informant interviews with health system experts and managers working in public, private, and faith-based health facilities at central, regional, and district levels. Although screening for blood glucose and blood pressure occurs during antenatal care, post-diagnosis management is not well-integrated and often requires referral to specialists in higher-level health facilities. Key barriers to integration include lack of guidelines for the management of NCDs, financial constraints for facilities and patients, and shortages of health workers, medications, and supplies for laboratory investigations. Further integration of services for NCDs during pregnancy will require national guidelines backed up by system-wide strengthening of health information systems, insurance coverage, supply chain management, and human resource capacity, particularly in remote areas.

As natural disasters have increased in frequency and magnitude, there has been a growing need to understand the underlying factors that are likely to lead to faster recovery and more resilient communities. One way of addressing this need has been to develop sets of indicators or indicator indices that serve as proxy measurements for resilience, which is an emergent system property and cannot be directly measured. Since the application of indicators can have profound effects on community well-being, it is important that indicator selection involves stakeholders and is based on the best available science. Previous reviews of resilience indicator frameworks have attempted to gauge the state of science used for indicator selection by looking for consensus of indicator choices across different frameworks. Using a novel categorization methodology based in systems science, this study reviews a small set of resilience frameworks for indicator consensus. Compared to previous reviews, this methodology allows for a distinction between consensus of concepts and consensus of indicators to measure concepts. Our results show two new insights. First, common usage of an indicator does not mean that agreement exists on what the indicator is actually measuring. Second, even if there is agreement on what concepts are measured by an indicator, it is not guaranteed that this consensus is backed by high quality evidence. These results call into question the practice of reviewing many frameworks to identify common indicators during model development, and instead point to the need for more detailed assessment of background evidence and indicator validation.

Religious populism and radicalism are hardly new to Pakistan. Since its birth in 1947, the country has suffered through an ongoing identity crisis. Under turbulent political conditions, religion has served as a surrogate identity for Pakistan, masking the country’s evident plurality, and over the years has come to dominate politics. Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) is the latest face of religious extremism merged with populist politics. Nevertheless, its sporadic rise from a national movement defending Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy laws to a “pious” party is little understood. This paper draws on a collection of primary and secondary sources to piece together an account of the party’s evolution that sheds light on its appeal to “the people” and its marginalization and targeting of the “other.” The analysis reveals that the TLP has evolved from a proxy backed by the establishment against the mainstream parties to a full-fledged political force in its own right. Its ability to relate to voters via its pious narrative hinges on exploiting the emotional insecurities of the largely disenfranchised masses. With violence legitimized under the guise of religion, “the people” are afforded a new sense of empowerment. Moreover, the party’s rhetoric has given rise to a vigilante-style mob culture so much so that individuals inspired by this narrative have killed in plain sight without remorse. To make matters worse, the incumbent government of Imran Khan — itself a champion of Islamist rhetoric — has made repeated concessions and efforts to appease the TLP that have only emboldened the party. Today, the TLP poses serious challenges to Pakistan’s long-standing, if fragile, pluralistic social norms and risks tipping the country into an even deadlier cycle of political radicalization.

How much does money drive legislative outcomes in the United States? In this article, we use aggregated campaign finance data as well as a Transformer based text embedding model to predict roll call votes for legislation in the US Congress with more than 90% accuracy. In a series of model comparisons in which the input feature sets are varied, we investigate the extent to which campaign finance is predictive of voting behavior in comparison with variables like partisan affiliation. We find that the financial interests backing a legislator’s campaigns are independently predictive in both chambers of Congress, but also uncover a sizable asymmetry between the Senate and the House of Representatives. These findings are cross-referenced with a Representational Similarity Analysis (RSA) linking legislators’ financial and voting records, in which we show that “legislators who vote together get paid together”, again discovering an asymmetry between the House and the Senate in the additional predictive power of campaign finance once party is accounted for. We suggest an explanation of these facts in terms of Thomas Ferguson’s Investment Theory of Party Competition: due to a number of structural differences between the House and Senate, but chiefly the lower amortized cost of obtaining individuated influence with Senators, political investors prefer operating on the House using the party as a proxy.

When considering countries of phenomenal economic development and growth, Korea is among the top tiers. While there are other economies with similar economic growth, including those of Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, the economic growth of Korea is exceptional considering that the country lacked basic economic foundation in the past. R. Lucas Jr. (1993), a Nobel Laureate in economics and also a renowned scholar of the respective field, praised the country's economic success, by stating that "I do not think it is in any way an exaggeration to refer to this continuing transformation of Korean society as a miracle". As an evidence for his argument, he asserted "Never before have the lives of so many people undergone so rapid an improvement over so long a period, nor is there any sign that this progress is near its end". Yet, the history of Korea is more than just its outcome; it is the history of continuous national ordeal, a series of challenges and crisis that required people to toil night and day to overcome the situation. If it were not for today's splendid economic success, it would have been more appropriate to describe the history of Korea as that of wretchedness and misery. The fact that South Korea became one of the leading nations in the world is nothing less than a miracle, considering that it underwent many hardships after its independence such as fratricidal Korean War, a long period of dictatorship, 4.19 revolution as a reactionary to the dictatorship, 5.16 military coup, the engagement in the Vietnam War, two oil crises, another military coup afterwards, civil revolutions, a foreign exchange crisis, and the global economic crisis. Economic growth means value-added increase in a certain period of time. To boost this value-added increase, the elements of production such as labor, capital, and land must be both accumulated and invested. Furthermore, it requires the effective use of these elements by combining them when necessary, so that the best value can be drawn out. In other words, the vital factor in economic growth is raising productivity. Then, given similar situations, how come some countries show different performance in factor accumulation or productivity improvement? The accumulation of resources and increase of productivity depend on economic incentive. Proper institution in an economy that provides incentives for economic agents enables factors to flow and to be accumulated where productivity is high. It also gives motivation for innovation and improvement of productivity. Competition in product markets and acquisition of resources and raw materials with low cost through an open-door policy can induce the accumulation of elements and improvement of technology, where in a broader perspective, open-door policy can also be considered as a part of institution.The growth of the Korean economy is unique since only a few economies could demonstrate compatibly high growth rates for a long period. However, at the same time, Korea's case is never unique as its success story is based on factor accumulation, productivity enhancement and, most of all, a fundamental called institution. Its growth was possible due to the fact that there was a proper functioning of market backed by the establishment of proper institutions. The Korean government indeed worked favorably towards the establishment of institution and running of economy in a market-friendly manner. Some features of its growth pattern are worthwhile to be illustrated as there are still a large number of developing countries and high income countries with unstable institutions worldwide, which could gain from a part of Korea's story, at least, and collect substantial knowledge for their future growth.

Executive Summary This report describes a series of experiments carried out by PRICE Lab, a research programme at the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) jointly funded by the Central Bank of Ireland, the Commission for Energy Regulation, the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission and the Commission for Communications Regulation. The experiments were conducted with samples of Irish consumers aged 18-70 years and were designed to answer the following general research question: At what point do products become too complex for consumers to choose accurately between the good ones and the bad ones? BACKGROUND AND METHODS PRICE Lab represents a departure from traditional methods employed for economic research in Ireland. It belongs to the rapidly expanding area of ‘behavioural economics’, which is the application of psychological insights to economic analysis. In recent years, behavioural economics has developed novel methods and generated many new findings, especially in relation to the choices made by consumers. These scientific advances have implications both for economics and for policy. They suggest that consumers often do not make decisions in the way that economists have traditionally assumed. The findings show that consumers have limited capacity for attending to and processing information and that they are prone to systematic biases, all of which may lead to disadvantageous choices. In short, consumers may make costly mistakes. Research has indeed documented that in several key consumer markets, including financial services, utilities and telecommunications, many consumers struggle to choose the best products for themselves. It is often argued that these markets involve ‘complex’ products. The obvious question that arises is whether consumer policy can be used to help them to make better choices when faced with complex products. Policies are more likely to be successful where they are informed by an accurate understanding of how real consumers make decisions between products. To provide evidence for consumer policy, PRICE Lab has developed a method for measuring the accuracy with which consumers make choices, using techniques adapted from the scientific study of human perception. The method allows researchers to measure how reliably consumers can distinguish a good deal from a bad one. A good deal is defined here as one where the product is more valuable than the price paid. In other words, it offers good value for money or, in the jargon of economics, offers the consumer a ‘surplus’. Conversely, a bad deal offers poor value for money, providing no (or a negative) surplus. PRICE Lab’s main experimental method, which we call the ‘Surplus Identification’ (S-ID) task, allows researchers to measure how accurately consumers can spot a surplus and whether they are prone to systematic biases. Most importantly, the S-ID task can be used to study how the accuracy of consumers’ decisions changes as the type of product changes. For the experiments we report here, samples of consumers arrived at the ESRI one at a time and spent approximately one hour doing the S-ID task with different kinds of products, which were displayed on a computer screen. They had to learn to judge the value of one or more products against prices and were then tested for accuracy. As well as people’s intrinsic motivation to do well when their performance on a task like this is tested, we provided an incentive: one in every ten consumers who attended PRICE Lab won a prize, based on their performance. Across a series of these experiments, we were able to test how the accuracy of consumers’ decisions was affected by the number and nature of the product’s characteristics, or ‘attributes’, which they had to take into account in order to distinguish good deals from bad ones. In other words, we were able to study what exactly makes for a ‘complex’ product, in the sense that consumers find it difficult to choose good deals. FINDINGS Overall, across all ten experiments described in this report, we found that consumers’ judgements of the value of products against prices were surprisingly inaccurate. Even when the product was simple, meaning that it consisted of just one clearly perceptible attribute (e.g. the product was worth more when it was larger), consumers required a surplus of around 16-26 per cent of the total price range in order to be able to judge accurately that a deal was a good one rather than a bad one. Put another way, when most people have to map a characteristic of a product onto a range of prices, they are able to distinguish at best between five and seven levels of value (e.g. five levels might be thought of as equivalent to ‘very bad’, ‘bad’, ‘average’, ‘good’, ‘very good’). Furthermore, we found that judgements of products against prices were not only imprecise, but systematically biased. Consumers generally overestimated what products at the top end of the range were worth and underestimated what products at the bottom end of the range were worth, typically by as much as 10-15 per cent and sometimes more. We then systematically increased the complexity of the products, first by adding more attributes, so that the consumers had to take into account, two, three, then four different characteristics of the product simultaneously. One product might be good on attribute A, not so good on attribute B and available at just above the xii | PRICE Lab: An Investigation of Consumers’ Capabilities with Complex Products average price; another might be very good on A, middling on B, but relatively expensive. Each time the consumer’s task was to judge whether the deal was good or bad. We would then add complexity by introducing attribute C, then attribute D, and so on. Thus, consumers had to negotiate multiple trade-offs. Performance deteriorated quite rapidly once multiple attributes were in play. Even the best performers could not integrate all of the product information efficiently – they became substantially more likely to make mistakes. Once people had to consider four product characteristics simultaneously, all of which contributed equally to the monetary value of the product, a surplus of more than half the price range was required for them to identify a good deal reliably. This was a fundamental finding of the present experiments: once consumers had to take into account more than two or three different factors simultaneously their ability to distinguish good and bad deals became strikingly imprecise. This finding therefore offered a clear answer to our primary research question: a product might be considered ‘complex’ once consumers must take into account more than two or three factors simultaneously in order to judge whether a deal is good or bad. Most of the experiments conducted after we obtained these strong initial findings were designed to test whether consumers could improve on this level of performance, perhaps for certain types of products or with sufficient practice, or whether the performance limits uncovered were likely to apply across many different types of product. An examination of individual differences revealed that some people were significantly better than others at judging good deals from bad ones. However the differences were not large in comparison to the overall effects recorded; everyone tested struggled once there were more than two or three product attributes to contend with. People with high levels of numeracy and educational attainment performed slightly better than those without, but the improvement was small. We also found that both the high level of imprecision and systematic bias were not reduced substantially by giving people substantial practice and opportunities to learn – any improvements were slow and incremental. A series of experiments was also designed to test whether consumers’ capability was different depending on the type of product attribute. In our initial experiments the characteristics of the products were all visual (e.g., size, fineness of texture, etc.). We then performed similar experiments where the relevant product information was supplied as numbers (e.g., percentages, amounts) or in categories (e.g., Type A, Rating D, Brand X), to see whether performance might improve. This question is important, as most financial and contractual information is supplied to consumers in a numeric or categorical form. The results showed clearly that the type of product information did not matter for the level of imprecision and bias in consumers’ decisions – the results were essentially the same whether the product attributes were visual, numeric or categorical. What continued to drive performance was how many characteristics the consumer had to judge simultaneously. Thus, our findings were not the result of people failing to perceive or take in information accurately. Rather, the limiting factor in consumers’ capability was how many different factors they had to weigh against each other at the same time. In most of our experiments the characteristics of the product and its monetary value were related by a one-to-one mapping; each extra unit of an attribute added the same amount of monetary value. In other words, the relationships were all linear. Because other findings in behavioural economics suggest that consumers might struggle more with non-linear relationships, we designed experiments to test them. For example, the monetary value of a product might increase more when the amount of one attribute moves from very low to low, than when it moves from high to very high. We found that this made no difference to either the imprecision or bias in consumers’ decisions provided that the relationship was monotonic (i.e. the direction of the relationship was consistent, so that more or less of the attribute always meant more or less monetary value respectively). When the relationship involved a turning point (i.e. more of the attribute meant higher monetary value but only up to a certain point, after which more of the attribute meant less value) consumers’ judgements were more imprecise still. Finally, we tested whether familiarity with the type of product improved performance. In most of the experiments we intentionally used products that were new to the experimental participants. This was done to ensure experimental control and so that we could monitor learning. In the final experiment reported here, we used two familiar products (Dublin houses and residential broadband packages) and tested whether consumers could distinguish good deals from bad deals any better among these familiar products than they could among products that they had never seen before, but which had the same number and type of attributes and price range. We found that consumers’ performance was the same for these familiar products as for unfamiliar ones. Again, what primarily determined the amount of imprecision and bias in consumers’ judgments was the number of attributes that they had to balance against each other, regardless of whether these were familiar or novel. POLICY IMPLICATIONS There is a menu of consumer polices designed to assist consumers in negotiating complex products. A review, including international examples, is given in the main body of the report. The primary aim is often to simplify the consumer’s task. Potential policies, versions of which already exist in various forms and which cover a spectrum of interventionist strength, might include: the provision and endorsement of independent, transparent price comparison websites and other choice engines (e.g. mobile applications, decision software); the provision of high quality independent consumer advice; ‘mandated simplification’, whereby regulations stipulate that providers must present product information in a simplified and standardised format specifically determined by regulation; and more strident interventions such as devising and enforcing prescriptive rules and regulations in relation to permissible product descriptions, product features or price structures. The present findings have implications for such policies. However, while the experimental findings have implications for policy, it needs to be borne in mind that the evidence supplied here is only one factor in determining whether any given intervention in markets is likely to be beneficial. The findings imply that consumers are likely to struggle to choose well in markets with products consisting of multiple important attributes that must all be factored in when making a choice. Interventions that reduce this kind of complexity for consumers may therefore be beneficial, but nothing in the present research addresses the potential costs of such interventions, or how providers are likely to respond to them. The findings are also general in nature and are intended to give insights into consumer choices across markets. There are likely to be additional factors specific to certain markets that need to be considered in any analysis of the costs and benefits of a potential policy change. Most importantly, the policy implications discussed here are not specific to Ireland or to any particular product market. Furthermore, they should not be read as criticisms of existing regulatory regimes, which already go to some lengths in assisting consumers to deal with complex products. Ireland currently has extensive regulations designed to protect consumers, both in general and in specific markets, descriptions of which can be found in Section 9.1 of the main report. Nevertheless, the experiments described here do offer relevant guidance for future policy designs. For instance, they imply that while policies that make it easier for consumers to switch providers may be necessary to encourage active consumers, they may not be sufficient, especially in markets where products are complex. In order for consumers to benefit, policies that help them to identify better deals reliably may also be required, given the scale of inaccuracy in consumers’ decisions that we record in this report when products have multiple important attributes. Where policies are designed to assist consumer decisions, the present findings imply quite severe limits in relation to the volume of information consumers can simultaneously take into account. Good impartial Executive Summary | xv consumer advice may limit the volume of information and focus on ensuring that the most important product attributes are recognised by consumers. The findings also have implications for the role of competition. While consumers may obtain substantial potential benefits from competition, their capabilities when faced with more complex products are likely to reduce such benefits. Pressure from competition requires sufficient numbers of consumers to spot and exploit better value offerings. Given our results, providers with larger market shares may face incentives to increase the complexity of products in an effort to dampen competitive pressure and generate more market power. Where marketing or pricing practices result in prices or attributes with multiple components, our findings imply that consumer choices are likely to become less accurate. Policymakers must of course be careful in determining whether such practices amount to legitimate innovations with potential consumer benefit. Yet there is a genuine danger that spurious complexity can be generated that confuses consumers and protects market power. The results described here provide backing for the promotion and/or provision by policymakers of high-quality independent choice engines, including but not limited to price comparison sites, especially in circumstances where the number of relevant product attributes is high. A longer discussion of the potential benefits and caveats associated with such policies is contained in the main body of the report. Mandated simplification policies are gaining in popularity internationally. Examples include limiting the number of tariffs a single energy company can offer or standardising health insurance products, both of which are designed to simplify the comparisons between prices and/or product attributes. The present research has some implications for what might make a good mandate. Consumer decisions are likely to be improved where a mandate brings to the consumer’s attention the most important product attributes at the point of decision. The present results offer guidance with respect to how many key attributes consumers are able simultaneously to trade off, with implications for the design of standardised disclosures. While bearing in mind the potential for imposing costs, the results also suggest benefits to compulsory ‘meta-attributes’ (such as APRs, energy ratings, total costs, etc.), which may help consumers to integrate otherwise separate sources of information. FUTURE RESEARCH The experiments described here were designed to produce findings that generalise across multiple product markets. However, in addition to the results outlined in this report, the work has resulted in new experimental methods that can be applied to more specific consumer policy issues. This is possible because the methods generate experimental measures of the accuracy of consumers’ decision-making. As such, they can be adapted to assess the quality of consumers’ decisions in relation to specific products, pricing and marketing practices. Work is underway in PRICE Lab that applies these methods to issues in specific markets, including those for personal loans, energy and mobile phones.

In 1993, a landslide and widespread flooding devastated the region around the city of Paute in southern Ecuador, taking lives and destroying property in its path. Out of a belief that the community itself was best able to determine what was needed to help it not only rebuild but grow and prosper, the Jardin Azuayo Cooperative was founded in 1996 as a savings and loans co-op dedicated to meeting the needs of this under-served region.Today, the cooperative's microloans support a wide variety of projects, such as educational programs, development of small businesses, and infrastructure improvements. The co-op boasts US$175 million in assets and some 180,000 co-op members. Now, with a $US9 million loan package from the Inter- American Development Bank's Opportunities for the Majority (OMJ) initiative and three impact investment co-lenders, Jardin Azuayo will be able to increase its activities.