The integration of the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) with the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) plays a significant role in ensuring safe and efficient traffic management. However, communication signals may encounter natural or artificial obstacles that result in uncovered road segments, where connectivity is lost. Even minor collisions in these unprotected areas can escalate into major incidents or traffic bottlenecks, especially when vehicles are traveling at high speeds on highways. Therefore, it is crucial to promptly inform the ITS of any adverse events occurring in these unnoticed areas. The importance of Store-Carry-Forward (SCF) techniques increases in such scenarios when uncovered patches exist and intervehicle distances exceed the communication range. Store-Carry-Forward (SCF) is a technique where vehicles temporarily store data and forward it when a connection is available. To address improved coverage and reduced latency using SCF, we propose a beacon-based Store-Carry-Forward Scheme to Deliver Emergency Messages via vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) Communication for Highways (SCF-EMD). The proposed method aims to minimize congestion and delays in disseminating information about adverse events. It involves selecting high-mobility vehicles to travel across both covered and uncovered highway segments. The scheme integrates V2V and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication to ensure rapid delivery of emergency alerts to ITS. SCF-EMD demonstrated significant improvements over existing schemes in Network Simulator (NS-3) , achieving over 10% , 16% and 5% gains in information coverage, end-to-end delay, and packet delivery ratio (PDR), respectively.
Acoustic communication has been traditional for Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs), particularly in ocean monitoring and resource exploration applications. It runs at the low end of speed with high-latency sensitivity to temperature, salinity, and pressure variations-conditions usually found in distortions of signals hence rendering reliability rather low. Electromagnetic (EM) waves can for example be an alternative means of fast and stable short-range underwater communications. There are higher data rates, a lower communication delay, and less influence by underwater noise or multipath interference than the acoustic case therefore suitable for today’s UWSN applications. This study develops a channel modeling framework using actual channel data from the NCEI oceanographic database for years 1955–2012 driven by a true world. Variations in temperature, salinity, and depth at 101 depth points between 5 and 5500 m are applied by mathematical modeling which analyses the behavior of EM waves in underwater environments. This channel characterization is then put into a scheme that autonomously optimizes the movement of courier nodes for collecting information with minimized energy consumption together with enhanced reliability of the whole scheme of underwater communications. Simulation results of existing scheme cooperative and path-aware reliable routing (EPRR) compared with proposed scheme proved that shallow waters to be the best medium for underwater communication using electromagnetic waves with most nodes alive till 4000 rounds, delivering more than 154,000 packets maintaining lowest transmission loss (3.38 dB) with minimum energy used at 0.6 kJ. Networks in shallow water last 48
Children's participation in assessment practices in Early Childhood Education (ECE) has immense significance. A child's participation has been acknowledged by the UN Act Article 12 as the right to participate as a contemporary member of the ECE academic setting. This study strived to understand the real face of ECE assessment practices in public and private educational settings in Islamabad. For an in-depth understanding of ECE assessment practices, a qualitative research approach was employed, which enabled the interpretation of the lived experiences of teachers through a phenomenological lens. The participants consisted of six teachers, three from public schools and three from private schools in Islamabad. In-depth, structured, and semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted in their respective schools. After transcription and revised coding exercises, themes and sub-themes were generated and interpreted. Audit trials were conducted twice to verify the authenticity of the themes and transcriptions. Teachers described the lack of practicality in children's participation in assessment practices. The overall findings of the study emphasize the need for revision of ECE assessment practices in both public and private participating schools, aligning them with global ECE practices that prioritize the child's participation and authority in decision-making, as well as the teacher's role in assessment practices. All six teachers highly recommend awareness and training on ECE assessment practices for all stakeholders.
Drawing upon Social Cognitive Career Theory, this study examines if academic behavioral confidence improves business students' ability to tolerate ambiguity in career decisions, with critical thinking disposition acting as a mediating factor. The survey involved two samples of business and management students from one country in Asia and one in Europe (N = 1707 participants). The data were analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation modeling approach (PLS-SEM). Students' academic behavioral confidence is positively associated with their tolerance for ambiguity in career decisions, both directly and through their critical thinking disposition. Findings were consistent across samples. Current research on Social Cognitive Career Theory has concentrated on self-efficacy, overlooking the influence of cognitive skills in transforming confidence into ambiguity tolerance. To fill this gap, the study advances Social Cognitive Career Theory by showing that critical thinking disposition is a cognitive mechanism that connects students' academic behavioral confidence to their ability to cope with uncertainty in career choices. Moreover, the study incorporates critical thinking from educational psychology into career theory, highlighting its importance in addressing modern career challenges, including the gig economy and nonlinear career trajectories. Overall, the findings offer important implications for management educators seeking to enhance students' career readiness.
The primary objective of this study is to investigate the role of media in shaping people’s perceptions of climate change and their subsequent adaptation strategies for coping with it. The study applied the agenda-setting theory to explain how social media has influenced the perceptions of young people about climate change. Uses and gratifications theory was employed to examine the accuracy of information about climate change from media sources. For this purpose, this study collected data from university students through a structured questionnaire with 406 valid responses. This study employed the Heckman econometric model and revealed that media awareness had a positive and significant coefficient (0.129), implying that increased media awareness develops perceptions and can help to mitigate the impact of climate change. Education also had a positive and significant coefficient (0.481), suggesting that higher education can help to improve individuals’ perceptions, resulting in coping strategies taken to mitigate the impact of climate change. The combined effect of social media and education was almost 80 %. Students had a higher degree of agreement that government initiatives to tackle climate change supported their coping strategies. Furthermore, social media significantly influenced the respondents' perceptions, which supported them in combating climate change. The study recommends establishing specialized climate desks in newsrooms and engaging social media influencers for climate advocacy campaigns to foster climate change awareness. Government-funded training for fact-based journalism, and conditional incentivization on advertisement allocation to media, public awareness campaigns, climate education, and collaborative research will counter misinformation, foster informed action, and build country-wide environmental responsibility.
