Search results for: credit ratings

Authors: Ahmed Abdulghani Taha, Mohammad Abdulghani Taha

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This study aims at being acquainted with the using the body fat percentage (%BF) with body Mass Index (BMI) as input parameters in fuzzy logic decision support system to predict properly the lifted weight for students at weightlifting class lift according to his abilities instead of traditional manner. The sample included 53 male students (age = 21.38 ± 0.71 yrs, height (Hgt) = 173.17 ± 5.28 cm, body weight (BW) = 70.34 ± 7.87.6 kg, Body mass index (BMI) 23.42 ± 2.06 kg.m-2, fat mass (FM) = 9.96 ± 3.15 kg and fat percentage (% BF) = 13.98 ± 3.51 %.) experienced the weightlifting class as a credit and has variance at BW, Hgt and BMI and FM. BMI and % BF were taken as input parameters in FUZZY logic whereas the output parameter was the lifted weight (LW). There were statistical differences between LW values before and after using fuzzy logic (Diff 3.55± 2.21, P > 0.001). The percentages of the LW categories proposed by fuzzy logic were 3.77% of students to lift 1.0 fold of their bodies; 50.94% of students to lift 0.95 fold of their bodies; 33.96% of students to lift 0.9 fold of their bodies; 3.77% of students to lift 0.85 fold of their bodies and 7.55% of students to lift 0.8 fold of their bodies. The study concluded that the characteristic changes in body composition experienced by students when undergoing weightlifting could be utilized side by side with the Fuzzy logic decision support system to determine the proper workloads consistent with the abilities of students.

Keywords: fuzzy logic, body mass index, body fat percentage, weightlifting

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Authors: Muhammad Hardyan Prastyanto, Aisah Azhari Marwangi, Yulinda Rizky Pratiwi

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Globalization has become a driving force for the current technological developments. The presence of the Virtual Space provides opportunities for people to self-actualization through access to a wider world, quickly and easily. Cities that are part of the existence of life, witness the history of civilization over time, also has been the major object to upgrading on technological sector. A smart city is one where the government and citizenry are using the best available means, including ICT, to achieve their shared goals. This often includes economic development, environmental sustainability, and improved quality of life for citizens. Thus theory is the basis for research of this study. This study aimed to know the implementation of the Urban Retrofitting at Malioboro area based on Information and Communication Technologies. The method of this study is by reviewing the effectiveness of the E-commerce uses as a major system to identification the Malioboro Smart Central Business District. By using a significance level of 5 %, it can be concluded that addresses have a significant influence on the ratings obtained, namely regarding the location of the hotel establishment. But despite the use of the website does not have a significant influence on the rating of the hotel, using the website still has influence significantly on the rating, because the p -value (Sig.) of the variable website is not so much different from the significance level determined by the researcher. In the interpretation, if a hotel is located on the Pasar Kembang streets and not to use the website, so the hotel is likely to have a rating of the constant value which is 3.183. However, if a hotel located on the Sosrowijayan streets, so the hotel rating will be increased by 0,302. Then if a hotel has been using a website, so the hotel rating will increase by 0,264. It is possible to conclude the effectiveness of ICT’s (Website) uses and location to identification the urban retrofitting through increasing of building rating in Malioboro Central Business District.

Keywords: urban retrofitting, e-commerce, information and communication technology, statistic regression, SCBD, Malioboro

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Authors: A. Saha Chaudhuri, D. Sarkar

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In steel construction, there are two families of structural members. One is hot rolled steel and another is cold formed steel. Cold formed steel section includes steel sheet, strip, plate or flat bar. Cold formed steel section is manufactured in roll forming machine by press brake or bending operation. Cold formed steel (CFS), also known as Light Gauge Steel (LGS). As cold formed steel is a sustainable material, it is widely used in green building. Cold formed steel can be recycled and reused with no degradation in structural properties. Cold formed steel structures can earn credits for green building ratings such as LEED and similar programs. Cold formed steel construction satisfies international demand for better, more efficient and affordable buildings. Cold formed steel sections are used in building, car body, railway coach, various types of equipment, storage rack, grain bin, highway product, transmission tower, transmission pole, drainage facility, bridge construction etc. Various shapes of cold formed steel sections are available, such as C section, Z section, I section, T section, angle section, hat section, box section, square hollow section (SHS), rectangular hollow section (RHS), circular hollow section (CHS) etc. In building construction cold formed steel is used as eave strut, purlin, girt, stud, header, floor joist, brace, diaphragm and covering for roof, wall and floor. Cold formed steel has high strength to weight ratio and high stiffness. Cold formed steel is non shrinking and non creeping at ambient temperature, it is termite proof and rot proof. CFS is durable, dimensionally stable and non combustible material. CFS is economical in transportation and handling. At present days cold formed steel becomes a competitive building material. In this paper all these applications related present research work are described and how the CFS can be used as blast resistant structural system that is examined.

Keywords: cold form steel sections, applications, present research review, blast resistant design

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Authors: Amal Sellami, Ahlem Ammar

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Writing is acknowledged to be a cognitively demanding and complex task. Indeed, the writing process is composed of three iterative sub-processes, namely planning, translating (writing), and reviewing. Not only do second or foreign language learners need to write according to this process, but they also need to respect the norms and rules of language and writing in the text to-be-produced. Accordingly, researchers have suggested to approach writing as a collaborative task in order to al leviate its complexity. Consequently, collaboration has been implemented during the whole writing process or only during planning orreviewing. Researchers report that implementing collaboration during the whole process might be demanding in terms of time in comparison to individual writing tasks. Consequently, because of time constraints, teachers may avoid it. For this reason, it might be pedagogically more realistic to limit collaboration to one of the writing sub-processes(i.e., planning or reviewing). However, previous research implementing collaboration in planning or reviewing is limited and fails to explore the effects of the seconditionson the written text. Consequently, the present study examines the effects of collaboration in planning and collaboration in reviewing on the written text. To reach this objective, quantitative as well as qualitative methods are deployed to examine the written texts holistically and in terms of fluency, complexity, and accuracy. Participants of the study include 4 pairs in each group (n=8). They participated in two experimental conditions, which are: (1) collaborative planning followed by individual writing and individual reviewing and (2) individual planning followed by individual writing and collaborative reviewing. The comparative research findings indicate that while collaborative planning resulted in better overall text quality (precisely better content and organization ratings), better fluency, better complexity, and fewer lexical errors, collaborative reviewing produces better accuracy and less syntactical and mechanical errors. The discussion of the findings suggests the need to conduct more comparative research in order to further explore the effects of collaboration in planning or in reviewing. Pedagogical implications of the current study include advising teachers to choose between implementing collaboration in planning or in reviewing depending on their students’ need and what they need to improve.

Keywords: collaboration, writing, collaborative planning, collaborative reviewing

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Authors: Bahram Asghari Aghdam, Ali Mahjoub

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The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of emotional intelligence on the motivation and performance of East Azarbaijan the Red Crescent staff. In this study, EI is determined as the independent variable component of self awareness, self management, social awareness, and relations management, motivation and performance as dependent variables. The research method is descriptive-survey. In this study, simple random sampling method is used and research sample consists of 130 East Azarbaijan the Red Crescent staff that uses Cochran's formula 100 of them were selected and questionnaires were filled by them. Three types of questionnaires were used in this study for emotional intelligence, consisting of the Bradbury Travis and Jane Greaves standard questionnaire; and for motivation and performance a questionnaire is regulated by the researcher with help of professionals and experts in this field that consists of 33 questions about the motivation and 15 questions about performance and content validity were used to obtain the necessary credit. Reliability by using the Cronbach's alpha coefficient /948 was approved. Also, in this study to test the hypothesis of the Spearman correlation coefficient and linear regressions and determine fitness of variables' of structural equation modeling is used. The results show that emotional intelligence with coefficient /865, motivation and performance of in East Azerbaijan the Red Crescent employees has a positive effect. Based on Friedman Test ranking the most influence in motivation and performance of staff in respondents' opinion is in order of self-awareness, relations management, social awareness and self-management.

Keywords: emotional intelligence, self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relations management, motivation, performance

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Authors: Yan Ping Chen, Hau Yin Chung

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The Ideal Profile Method (IPM) is a newly developed descriptive sensory analysis conducted by consumers without previous training. To perform this test, both the perceived and the ideal intensities from the judgements of consumers on products’ attributes, as well as their hedonic ratings were collected for formulating an ideal product (the most liked one). In addition, Ideal Profile Analysis (IPA) was conducted to check the consistency of the ideal data at both the panel and consumer levels. In this test, 12 commercial plain sufus bought from Hong Kong local market were tested by 113 consumers according to the IPM, and rated on 22 attributes. Principal component analysis was used to profile the perceived and the ideal spaces of tested products. The consistency of ideal data was then checked by IPA. The result showed that most consumers shared a common ideal. It was observed that the sensory product space and the ideal product space were structurally similar. Their first dimensions all opposed products with intense fermented related aroma to products with less fermented related aroma. And the predicted ideal profile (the estimated liking score around 7.0 in a 9.0-point scale) got higher hedonic score than the tested products (the average liking score around 6.0 in a 9.0-point scale). For the majority of consumers (95.2%), the stated ideal product considered as a potential ideal through checking the R2 coefficient value. Among all the tested products, sample-6 was the most popular one with consumer liking percentage around 30%. This product with less fermented and moldy flavour but easier to melt in mouth texture possessed close sensory profile according to the ideal product. This experiment validated that data from untrained consumers could be guided as useful information. Appreciated sensory characteristics could be served as reference in the optimization of the commercial plain sufu.

Keywords: ideal profile method, product development, sensory evaluation, sufu (fermented soybean curd)

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Authors: Orit Zeevy-Solovey

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Grammar has traditionally been taught for its own sake, emphasizing rules and drills. However, in recent years, more emphasis is given to communicative competence. Current research suggests that form-focused instruction is notably efficient when incorporated in a meaningful communicative context. It is maintained that writing tasks related to the students’ academic fields will encourage them to express themselves openly in topics that are close to their hearts, without feeling too uneasy about grammatical forms. The teacher can further reduce students’ apprehension of grammar by announcing that credit will be given for merely doing the task and that grammar mistakes will not affect the grade. Students’ linguistic errors can then be corrected by giving metalinguistic feedback which involves providing learners with some kind of explicit remark about the nature of the errors they have made. Research has also shown that learners’ developmental readiness is an important factor influencing the effectiveness of written corrective feedback. Larger effect sizes appear as the proficiency level is higher. The purposes of this paper are to demonstrate how grammar can be taught indirectly through writing tasks, and more specifically, how the use of metalinguistic written corrective feedback given to advanced English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students can raise their linguistic awareness. Since errors are not directly corrected, the students have to work out the corrections needed through exploring grammar books and websites. Longitudinal studies of metalinguistic written corrective feedback comparing the number of errors in students’ first and fourth compositions have shown a decrease in errors.

Keywords: EFL, linguistic awareness, metalinguistic corrective feedback, teaching grammar through writing

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Authors: Lidia Kowalska, Edward Arseniuk

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Glume and leaf blotch is a disease of wheat caused by necrotrophic fungus Parastagonospora nodorum. It is a serious pathogen in many wheat-growing areas throughout the world. Use of resistant cultivars is the most effective and economical means to control the above-mentioned disease. Plant breeders and pathologists have worked intensively to incorporate resistance to the pathogen in new cultivars. Conventional methods of breeding for resistance can be supported by using the biotechnological ones, i.e., somatic embryogenesis and androgenesis. Therefore, an effort was undertaken to compare genetic variation in P. nodorum resistance among winter wheat somaclones, dihaploids and conventional varieties. For the purpose, a population of 16 somaclonal and 4 dihaploid wheat lines from six crosses were used to assess their resistance to P. nodorum under field conditions. Lines were grown in disease-free (fungicide protected) and inoculated micro plots in 2 replications of a split-plot design in a single environment. The plant leaves were inoculated with a mixture of P. nodorum isolates three times. Spore concentrations were adjusted to 4 x 10⁶ of viable spores per one milliliter. The disease severity was rated on a scale, where > 90% – susceptible, < 10% - resistant. Disease ratings of plant leaves showed statistically significant differences among all lines tested. Higher resistance to P. nodorum was observed more often on leaves of somaclonal lines than on dihaploid ones. On average, disease, severity reached 15% on leaves of somaclones and 30% on leaves of dihaploids. Some of the genotypes were showing low leaf infection, e.g. dihaploid D-33 (disease severity 4%) and a somaclone S-1 (disease severity 2%). The results from this study prove that dihaploid and somaclonal variation might be successfully used as an additional source of wheat resistance to the pathogen and it could be recommended to use in commercial breeding programs. The reported results prove that biotechnological methods may effectively be used in breeding for disease resistance of wheat to fungal necrotrophic pathogens.

Keywords: glume and leaf blotch, somaclonal, androgenic variation, wheat, resistance breeding

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Authors: G. Erkomaishvili, M. Kobalava, T. Lazariashvili, N. Damenia

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Current state of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Georgia is analyzed and evaluated in the paper, the existing legislative background for regulating investments and stimulating policies to attract investments are shown. It is noted that in developing countries encouragement of investment activity, support and implementation are of the most important tasks, implying a consistent investment policy, investor-friendly tax regime and the legal system, reducing administrative barriers and restrictions, fare competitive conditions and business development infrastructure. The work deals with the determining factor of FDIs and the main directions of stimulation, as well as prospective industries where new investments are needed. Contributing and hindering factors and stimulating measures are analyzed. As a result of the research, the direct and indirect factors attracting FDI have been identified. Facilitating factors to FDI inflow are as follows: simplicity of starting business, geopolitical location, low taxes, access to credit, ease of ownership registration, natural resources, low burden of regulations, low level of corruption and low crime rates. Hindering factors to FDI inflow are as follows: small market, lack of policy for attracting investments, low qualification of the workforce (despite the large number of unemployed people it is difficult to find workers with necessary special skills and qualifications), high interest rates, instability of national currency exchange rate, presence of conflict zones within the country and so forth.

Keywords: foreign direct investment, investor, investment attracting marketing policies, reinvestment

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Authors: Mehwish Sarfaraz Ahmad

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Background: There is a prevailing perception in Pakistan that private hospitals offer better services than government hospitals. Unfortunately, Pakistan faces challenges in providing efficient healthcare due to limited resources and management capabilities, resulting in demotivation among healthcare workers. Aim: The purpose of this study was to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the occupational health and well-being of healthcare workers in both public and private sector tertiary care hospitals in Lahore, Pakistan, to compare the well-being of healthcare professionals in these two sectors and investigate the influence of workplace culture and experiences on their overall health. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a validated International Questionnaire, and data from 440 participants was collected using a stratified random sampling technique from a diverse group of healthcare professionals from the public and private tertiary care hospitals in Lahore, Pakistan. The researcher conducted a comparative analysis using appropriate statistical tests, such as Anova, t-tests, chi-square tests, and regression analysis, to explore potential relationships between various factors. Results: The majority of respondents (70.2%) reported their health as "Good" or "Very good, a small percentage (8.2%) rated their health as "Poor," while 24.1% considered their health as "Fair". 39.6% reported being satisfied with their workplace culture, while a majority of 60.4% indicated being unsatisfied with their workplace culture. Results showed that workplace culture has a positive correlation with the overall health and well-being of healthcare professionals. The study found significant differences in health ratings, prevalence of chronic health conditions, workplace culture, and safety perceptions between healthcare professionals in public and private sector tertiary care hospitals. Conclusion: The study's findings emphasize the significance of promoting a positive workplace culture, ensuring workplace safety, and addressing chronic health conditions among healthcare workers.

Keywords: occupational health and well-being, workplace culture, frequency of fatigue, availabity of benefits

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Authors: Busiswa Madikazi

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This systematic mapping study explores the underrepresentation of women's contributions to farming in the Global South within the development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)-based extension methods. Despite women farmers constituting 70% of the agricultural labour force, their productivity is hindered by various constraints, including illiteracy, household commitments, and limited access to credit and markets. A systematic mapping approach was employed with the aim of identifying evidence gaps in existing ICT extension for women farmers. The data collection protocol follows a structured approach, incorporating key criteria for inclusion, exclusion, search strategy, and coding and the PICO strategy (Population, Intervention, Comparator, and Outcome). The results yielded 119 articles that qualified for inclusion. The findings highlight that mobile phone apps (WhatsApp) and radio/television programming are the primary extension methods employed while integrating ICT with training, field visits, and demonstrations are underutilized. Notably, the study emphasizes the inadequate attention to critical issues such as food security, gender equality, and attracting youth to farming within ICT extension efforts. These findings indicate a significant policy and practice gap, neglecting community-driven approaches that cater to women's specific needs and enhance their agricultural production. Map highlights the importance of refocusing ICT extension efforts to address women farmers’ unique challenges, thereby contributing to their empowerment and improving agricultural practices.

Keywords: agricultural extension, ICT, women farmers, smallholders

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Authors: Susan P. Teru, Jerome Nyameh

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Many contemporary organizations are placing a greater emphasis on business enterprise systems as a means of generating higher levels of economic development and sustainability. Many business research and literature has also concur that enterprise drive economic development, giving little or no credit to social enterprise, whose profit is reinvest to the community development compare to the business enterprise that share their profit to shareholders. Economic development and corporate sustainability includes economic policies that affect the beneficiaries of the economic entity and how it support corporate sustainability as a multifaceted concept that requires organizational change and adaptation on different levels. In this paper, we provide a closer examination of this suggested link between the social enterprise orientation of an organization and the pursuit of corporate sustainability. We suggest that producing social enterprise increments may be best achieved by orienting social enterprise entrepreneurs system to promote economic development and corporate sustainability, which is the new approach to organizational excellent. To this end, we describe a new approach to the social enterprise process that includes social entrepreneur and the key drivers of economic development and corporate sustainability at each stage. We present a model of social enterprise that incorporates the main ideas of the paper and suggests a new perspective for thinking about how to foster and manage social enterprise to achieve high levels of economic development and corporate sustainability as a new ways of achieving organizational excellence. Specifically, we seek to assess (1) what constitutes a corporate sustainability-oriented organization culture, (2) whether it is possible for organizations to display a unified corporate sustainability as a result of social enterprise (3) whether organizations can become more sustainable through social enterprise change.

Keywords: social enterprise orientation, organization, the pursuit of corporate sustainability, business and management

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Authors: Lokesh Harshe

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The building construction sector is using 36% of global energy consumption with 39% of CO₂ emission. Professionals in the Built Environment Sector have long been aware of the industry’s contribution towards CO₂ emissions and are now moving towards more sustainable practices. As a result of this, many organizations have introduced rating systems to address the issue of global warming in the construction sector by ranking construction projects based on sustainability parameters. The pre-construction phase of any building project is the most essential time to make decisions for addressing the sustainability aspects. Traditionally, it is very difficult to collect data from different stakeholders and bring it together to form a decision based on factual data to perform sustainability analyses in the pre-construction phase. Building Information Modelling (BIM) is the solution where one single model is the result of the collaborative approach of BIM processes where all the information is shared, extracted, communicated, and stored on a single platform that everyone can access and make decisions based on real-time data. The focus of this research is on the Indian Green Rating System IGBC® with the objective of understanding IGBC® requirements and developing a framework to create the relationship between the rating processes and BIM. A Hypothetical (Architectural) model of a hostel building is developed using AutoCAD 2019 & Revit Arch. 2019, where the framework is applied to generate results on sustainability analysis using Green Building Studio (GBS) and Revit Add-ins. The results of any sustainability analysis are generated within a fraction of a minute, which is very quick in comparison with traditional sustainability analysis. This may save a considerable amount of time as well as cost. The future scope is to integrate Architectural, Structural, and MEP Models to perform accurate sustainability analyses with inputs from industry professionals working on real-life Green BIM projects.

Keywords: sustainability analyses, BIM, green rating systems, IGBC®, LEED

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Authors: Mustafa Tevfik Hebebci, Ismail Sahin, Sirin Kucuk, Ismail Celik, Ahmet Oguz Akturk

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ADDIE is an instructional design model which has the five core elements: analyze, design, develop, implement, and evaluate. The ADDIE approach provides a systematic process for the analysis of instructional needs, the design and development of instructional programs and materials, implementation of a program, and the evaluation of the effectiveness of an instruction. The case-based study is an instructional design model that is a variant of project-oriented learning. Collecting and analyzing stories can be used in two primary ways -perform task analysis and as a learning support during instruction- by instructional designers. Besides, teachers use technology to develop students’ thinking, enriching the learning environment and providing permanent learning. The purpose of this paper is to introduce an interactive online case-study library website developed in a national project. The design goal of the website is to provide interactive, enhanced, case-based and online educational resource for educators through the purpose and within the scope of a national project. The ADDIE instructional design model was used in the development of the website for the interactive case-based library. This web-based library contains the navigation menus as the follows: “Homepage”, "Registration", "Branches", "Aim of The Research", "About TPACK", "National Project", "Contact Us", etc. This library is developed on a web-based platform, which is important in terms of manageability, accessibility, and updateability of data. Users are able to sort the displayed case-studies by their titles, dates, ratings, view counts, etc. In addition, they encouraged to rate and comment on the case-studies. The usability test is used and the expert opinion is taken for the evaluation of the website. This website is a tool to integrate technology in education. It is believed that this website will be beneficial for pre-service and in-service teachers in terms of their professional developments.

Keywords: design, ADDIE, case based library, technology integration

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Authors: Ankit Nagar, Dinesh Kumar Nauriyal, Sukhpal Singh

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This paper examines the key determinants of farmers’ access to agricultural extension services, sources of agricultural extension services preferred and accessed by the farmers. An ordered logistic regression model was used to analyse the data of the 360 sample households based on a primary survey conducted in western Uttar Pradesh, India. The study finds that farmers' decision to engage in the agricultural extension programme is significantly influenced by factors such as education level, gender, farming experience, social group, group membership, farm size, credit access, awareness about the extension scheme, farmers' perception, and distance from extension sources. The most intriguing finding of this study is that the progressive farmers, which have long been regarded as a major source of knowledge diffusion, are the most distrusted sources of information as they are suspected of withholding vital information from potential beneficiaries. The positive relationship between farm size and ‘Access’ underlines that the extension services should revisit their strategies for targeting more marginal and small farmers constituting over 85 percent of the agricultural households by incorporating their priorities in their outreach programs. The study suggests that marginal and small farmers' productive potential could still be greatly augmented by the appropriate technology, advisory services, guidance, and improved market access. Also, the perception of poor quality of the public extension services can be corrected by initiatives aimed at building up extension workers' capacity.

Keywords: agriculture, access, extension services, ordered logistic regression

Procedia PDF Downloads 183

Authors: Rao Fu, Jie Chen, Shutian Zeng, Yiping Zhuang, Agus Sudjianto

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Generative Adversarial Net (GAN) has proved to be a powerful machine learning tool in image data analysis and generation. In this paper, we propose to use Conditional Generative Adversarial Net (CGAN) to learn and simulate time series data. The conditions include both categorical and continuous variables with different auxiliary information. Our simulation studies show that CGAN has the capability to learn different types of normal and heavy-tailed distributions, as well as dependent structures of different time series. It also has the capability to generate conditional predictive distributions consistent with training data distributions. We also provide an in-depth discussion on the rationale behind GAN and the neural networks as hierarchical splines to establish a clear connection with existing statistical methods of distribution generation. In practice, CGAN has a wide range of applications in market risk and counterparty risk analysis: it can be applied to learn historical data and generate scenarios for the calculation of Value-at-Risk (VaR) and Expected Shortfall (ES), and it can also predict the movement of the market risk factors. We present a real data analysis including a backtesting to demonstrate that CGAN can outperform Historical Simulation (HS), a popular method in market risk analysis to calculate VaR. CGAN can also be applied in economic time series modeling and forecasting. In this regard, we have included an example of hypothetical shock analysis for economic models and the generation of potential CCAR scenarios by CGAN at the end of the paper.

Keywords: conditional generative adversarial net, market and credit risk management, neural network, time series

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Authors: Ang Chia Hong, Julian Khoo Xubin, Burra Venkata Durga Kumar

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Distributed systems offer many benefits to the healthcare industry. From big data analysis to business intelligence, the increased computational power and efficiency from distributed systems serve as an invaluable resource in the healthcare sector to utilize. However, as the usage of these distributed systems increases, many issues arise. The main focus of this paper will be on security issues. Many security issues stem from distributed systems in the healthcare industry, particularly information security. The data of people is especially sensitive in the healthcare industry. If important information gets leaked (Eg. IC, credit card number, address, etc.), a person’s identity, financial status, and safety might get compromised. This results in the responsible organization losing a lot of money in compensating these people and even more resources expended trying to fix the fault. Therefore, a framework for a blockchain-based healthcare data management system for healthcare was proposed. In this framework, the usage of a blockchain network is explored to store the encryption key of the patient’s data. As for the actual data, it is encrypted and its encrypted data, called ciphertext, is stored in a cloud storage platform. Furthermore, there are some issues that have to be emphasized and tackled for future improvements, such as a multi-user scheme that could be proposed, authentication issues that have to be tackled or migrating the backend processes into the blockchain network. Due to the nature of blockchain technology, the data will be tamper-proof, and its read-only function can only be accessed by authorized users such as doctors and nurses. This guarantees the confidentiality and immutability of the patient’s data.

Keywords: distributed, healthcare, efficiency, security, blockchain, confidentiality and immutability

Procedia PDF Downloads 158

Authors: C. Nathanailides, S. Anastasiou, A. Dimitroglou, P. Logothetis, G. Kanlis

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In the present work we reviewed historical data of the Greek Marine aquaculture industry including adoption of new methods and technological innovation. The results indicate that the industry exhibited a rapid rise in production efficiency, employment and adoption of new technologies which reduced outbreaks of diseases, reduced production risk and the price of the farmed fish. The improvements of total quality practices and technological input on the Greek Aquaculture industry include improved survival, growth and body shape of farmed fish, which resulted from development of new aquaculture feeds and the genetic selection of the bloodstock. Also improvements in the quality of the final product were achieved via technological input in the methods and technology applied during harvesting, packaging, and transportation-preservation of farmed fish ensuring high quality of the product from the fish farm to the plate of the consumers. These parameters (health management, nutrition, genetics, harvesting and post-harvesting methods and technology) changed significantly over the last twenty years and the results of these improvements are reflected in the production efficiency of the Aquaculture industry and the quality of the final product. It is concluded that the Greek aquaculture industry exhibited a rapid growth, adoption of technologies and supply was stabilized after the global financial crisis, nevertheless, the development of the Greek aquaculture industry is currently limited by international trade sanctions, credit crunch, and increased taxation and not by limited technology or resources.

Keywords: innovation, aquaculture, total quality, management

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Authors: Birgit Schmid, Brigitte Liebig, Susanne Burren, Maritza Le Breton, Martin Boehnel, Celestina Porta

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Internationalization of students is part of the agenda of many universities worldwide. Yet, how well do universities achieve to guarantee educational success for male and female students of migrant background? This contribution aims on analyzing the effects of the Swiss university environment on perceived educational outcome of migrant students from a gender sensitive perspective. Social selectivity and gender inequalities strongly influence students’ access and success at universities. However, the complex interaction between universities and their disciplinary environments, and educational success of migrant students of both sex remains rarely examined so far. Starting from an intersectional perspective and neo-institutional approaches on higher education organizations, this contribution addresses formal/informal factors in the university environment in its impact on male/female students’ perception of well-being, success and dropout motivation. The paper starts from a most recent Swiss online-survey of Bachelor-students in two Universities of Applied Science and a University of Education in Switzerland. It compares students’ perspectives in four large BA degree courses with different male/female ratio, i.e. educational science, technical/computer science, economy, and social work (N=9`608). Results highlight the complex interplay of gender, migrant background and further dimensions of social differentiation on students’ perception in these different fields of education. Further, they illustrate correlations between students’ perception of discriminatory contexts, poor ratings of social integration and study success, as well a higher rate of dropout ideas. The paper lines out, that formal aspects of internationalization are less important for successfully integrating male/female migrant students than informal university conditions, such as a culture of diversity, which has to become integral part of internationalization strategies.

Keywords: gender and migration, higher education, internationalization, success

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Authors: Wang Chung-Kwei, Lo Kuo Ying

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This study is aimed to examine main and moderation effect of Chinese traditional social wisdom ‘Ren-qing Shi-kuo’ on the adjustment of insurance workers. Rationale: Ren-qing Shi-ku as a social wisdom has been emphasized and practiced by collective-oriented Chinese for thousand years. The concept of‘Ren-qing Shi-ku’includes values, beliefs and behavior rituals, which helps Chinese to cope with interpersonal conflicts in a sophisticated and closely tied collective society. Based on interview and literature review, we found out Chinese still emphasized the importance of ‘Ren-qing Shi-ku’. The concepts contains five factors, including ‘proper emotion display’, ‘social ritual abiding’, ‘ make empathetic concession’, ‘harmonious and proper behavior’ and ‘tolerance for the interest of the whole’. We developed an indigenous ‘Ren-qing Shi-ku’scale based on interview data and a survey on social worker students. Research methods: We conduct a dyad survey between 294 insurance worker and their supervisors. Insurance workers’ response on ‘Ren-qing Shi-ku,emotion labor, emotional exhaustion, work stress and load, work satisfaction and well-being were collected. We also ask their supervisors to rate these workers ‘empathy, social rule abiding, work performance, and Ren-qing Shi-ku performance. Results: Students’self-ratings on Ren-qing Shi-ku scale are positively correlated with rating from their supervisors on all above indexes. Workers who have higher Ren-qing Shi-ku score also have lower work stress and emotion exhaustion, higher work satisfaction and well-being, more emotion deep acting. They also have higher work performance, social rule abiding, and Ren-qing Shi-ku performance rating from their supervisor. The finding of this study suggested Ren-qing Shi-ku is an effective indicator on insurance workers ‘adjustment. Since Ren-qing Shi-ku is trainable, we suggested that Ren-qing Shi-ku training might be beneficial to service industry in a collective-oriented culture.

Keywords: work stress, Ren-qing Shi-ku, emotional exhaustion, work satisfaction, well-being

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Authors: Musa Ogah Ari

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Poverty has engaged the attention of the global community. Both the rich and poor countries are concerned about its prevalence and impacts. This phenomenon is more pervasive among developing countries with the greater challenges manifesting among African countries. In Nigeria people live with very low income, and so decent three-square meals, clothes, shelter and other basic necessities are very difficult to come by for most of the population. Qualitative health facilities are seriously lacking to over 160 million population in the state. Equally lacking are educational and social infrastructures that can be available to the people at affordable rates. Roads linking the interior parts of the state are generally in deplorable conditions, particularly in the rainy season. Safe drinking water is hard to come by as the state is not properly placed and equipped to function in full capacity to serve the interest of the people. The challenges of poverty is definitely enormous for both the national and state governments consequently, debilitating scourge of poverty. As the ruling elites in Nigeria claim to reduce the rising profile of poverty through series of policies and programmes, food production, promotion and funding of co-operatives for agriculture, improvement of infrastructures at the rural areas to guaranteeing employment through skill acquisition, assistance of rural women to break away from poverty and the provision of small scale credit facilities to poor members of the public were abysmally low. It is observed that the poverty alleviation programmes and policies failed because they were by nature, character and implementation pro-elites and anti-masses. None of the programmes or policies engaged the rural poor either in terms of formulation or implementation.

Keywords: the state, poverty, government policies, strategies, social amenities, corruption

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Authors: Lizinis Cassendra Frederick Dony, Jirom Jeremy Frederick Dony, Cyril Supain Christopher

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The purpose of this paper is to improve the devotion to leadership through HR practices implementation at the PETRONAS stations. This emphasize the importance of personal grooming and Customer Care hospitality training for their front line working individuals and teams’ at PETRONAS stations in Sabah. Based on Thomas Edison, International Leadership Journal, theory, research, education and development practice and application to all organizational phenomena may affect or be affected by leadership. FINDINGS – PETRONAS in short called Petroliam Nasional Berhad is a Malaysian oil and gas company that was founded on August 17, 1974. Wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia, the corporation is vested with the entire oil and gas resources in Malaysia and is entrusted with the responsibility of developing and adding value to these resources. Fortune ranks PETRONAS as the 68th largest company in the world in 2012. It also ranks PETRONAS as the 12th most profitable company in the world and the most profitable in Asia. As of the end of March 2005, the PETRONAS Group comprised 103 wholly owned subsidiaries, 19 partly owned outfits and 57 associated companies. The group is engaged in a wide spectrum of petroleum activities, including upstream exploration and production of oil and gas to downstream oil refining, marketing and distribution of petroleum products, trading, gas processing and liquefaction, gas transmission pipeline network operations, marketing of liquefied natural gas; petrochemical manufacturing and marketing; shipping; automotive engineering and property investment. PETRONAS has growing their marketing channel in a competitive market. They have combined their resources to pursue common goals. PETRONAS provides opportunity to carry out Industrial Training Job Placement to the University students in Malaysia for 6-8 months. The effects of the Industrial Training have exposed them to the real working environment experience acting representing on behalf of General Manager for almost one year. Thus, the management education and reward incentives schemes have aspire the working teams transformed to gain their good leadership. Furthermore, knowledge and experiences are very important in the human capital development transformation. SPSS extends the accurate analysis PETRONAS achievement through 280 questionnaires and 81 questionnaires through excel calculation distributed to interview face to face with the customers, PETRONAS dealers and front desk staffs stations in the 17 stations in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Hence, this research study will improve its service quality innovation and business sustainability performance optimization. ORIGINALITY / VALUE – The impact of Transformational Leadership practices have influenced the working team’s behaviour as a Brand Ambassadors of PETRONAS. Finally, the findings correlation indicated that PETRONAS stations needs more HR resources practices to deploy more customer care retention resources in mitigating the business challenges in oil and gas industry. Therefore, as the business established at stiff competition globally (Cooper, 2006; Marques and Simon, 2006), it is crucial for the team management should be capable to minimize noises risk, financial risk and mitigating any other risks as a whole at the optimum level. CONCLUSION- As to conclude this research found that both transformational and transactional contingent reward leadership4 were positively correlated with ratings of platoon potency and ratings of leadership for the platoon leader and sergeant were moderately inter correlated. Due to this identification, we recommended that PETRONAS management should offers quality team management in PETRONAS stations in a broader variety of leadership training specialization in the operation efficiency at the front desk Customer Care hospitality. By having the reliability and validity of job experiences, it leverages diversity teamwork and cross collaboration. Other than leveraging factor, PETRONAS also will strengthen the interpersonal front liners effectiveness and enhance quality of interaction through effective communication. Finally, through numerous CSR correlation studies regression PETRONAS performance on Corporate Social Performance and several control variables.1 CSR model activities can be mis-specified if it is not controllable under R & D which evident in various feedbacks collected from the local communities and younger generation is inclined to higher financial expectation from PETRONAS. But, however, it created a huge impact on the nation building as part of its social adaptability overreaching their business stakeholders’ satisfaction in Sabah.

Keywords: human resources practices implementation (hrpi), source of competitive advantage in people’s development (socaipd), corporate social responsibility (csr), service quality at front desk stations (sqafd), impacts of petronas leadership (iopl)

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Authors: Marie Madeleine Sarzi Inacio, Ligiane Carolina Leite Dauzacker, Rodrigo Henriques Lopes Da Silva

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The climate changes resulting from human activity have increased interest in more sustainable production practices to reduce and offset pollutant emissions. Brazil, with its vast areas capable of carbon absorption, holds a significant advantage in this context. However, to optimize the country's sustainable potential, it is important to establish a robust carbon market with clear rules for the eligibility and validation of projects aimed at reducing and offsetting Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. In this study, our objective is to conduct a feasibility analysis through a case study to evaluate the implementation of an urban forest credits standard in Brazil, using the Urban Forest Credits (UFC) model implemented in the United States as a reference. Thus, the city of Ribeirão Preto, located in Brazil, was selected to assess the availability of green areas. With the CO2 emissions value from the metalworking industry, it was possible to analyze information in the case study, considering the activity. The QGIS software was used to map potential urban forest areas, which can connect to various types of geospatial databases. Although the chosen municipality has little vegetative coverage, the mapping identified at least eight areas that fit the standard definitions within the delimited urban perimeter. The outlook was positive, and the implementation of projects like Urban Forest Credits (UFC) adapted to the Brazilian reality has great potential to benefit the country in the carbon market and contribute to achieving its Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission reduction goals.

Keywords: carbon neutrality, metalworking industry, carbon credits, urban forestry credits

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Authors: Wanderson Goncalves e Goncalves, José Alberto Silva de Sá

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Human actions are a threat to the balance and conservation of the Amazon forest. Therefore the environmental monitoring services play an important role as the preservation and maintenance of this environment. This study classified forest types using data from a forest inventory provided by the 'Florestal e da Biodiversidade do Estado do Pará' (IDEFLOR-BIO), located between the municipalities of Santarém, Juruti and Aveiro, in the state of Pará, Brazil, covering an area approximately of 600,000 hectares, Bands 3, 4 and 5 of the TM-Landsat satellite image, and Self - Organizing Maps. The information from the satellite images was extracted using QGIS software 2.8.1 Wien and was used as a database for training the neural network. The midpoints of each sample of forest inventory have been linked to images. Later the Digital Numbers of the pixels have been extracted, composing the database that fed the training process and testing of the classifier. The neural network was trained to classify two forest types: Rain Forest of Lowland Emerging Canopy (Dbe) and Rain Forest of Lowland Emerging Canopy plus Open with palm trees (Dbe + Abp) in the Mamuru Arapiuns glebes of Pará State, and the number of examples in the training data set was 400, 200 examples for each class (Dbe and Dbe + Abp), and the size of the test data set was 100, with 50 examples for each class (Dbe and Dbe + Abp). Therefore, total mass of data consisted of 500 examples. The classifier was compiled in Orange Data Mining 2.7 Software and was evaluated in terms of the confusion matrix indicators. The results of the classifier were considered satisfactory, and being obtained values of the global accuracy equal to 89% and Kappa coefficient equal to 78% and F1 score equal to 0,88. It evaluated also the efficiency of the classifier by the ROC plot (receiver operating characteristics), obtaining results close to ideal ratings, showing it to be a very good classifier, and demonstrating the potential of this methodology to provide ecosystem services, particularly in anthropogenic areas in the Amazon.

Keywords: artificial neural network, computational intelligence, pattern recognition, unsupervised learning

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Authors: Franklin N. Mabe, Samuel A. Donkoh, Seidu Al-Hassan

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In order to increase and bridge the differences in rice yield, many farmers have resorted to adopting Farmer Innovation Systems (FISs) and Improved Agricultural Technologies (IATs). This study econometrically analysed the impacts of adoption of FISs and IATs on rice yield using multinomial endogenous switching regression (MESR). Nine-hundred and seven (907) rice farmers from Guinea Savannah Zone (GSZ), Forest Savannah Transition Zone (FSTZ) and Coastal Savannah Zone (CSZ) were used for the study. The study used both primary and secondary data. FBO advice, rice farming experience and distance from farming communities to input markets increase farmers’ adoption of only FISs. Factors that increase farmers’ probability of adopting only IATs are access to extension advice, credit, improved seeds and contract farming. Farmers located in CSZ have higher probability of adopting only IATs than their counterparts living in other agro-ecological zones. Age and access to input subsidy increase the probability of jointly adopting FISs and IATs. FISs and IATs have heterogeneous impact on rice yield with adoption of only IATs having the highest impact followed by joint adoption of FISs and IATs. It is important for stakeholders in rice subsector to champion the provision of improved rice seeds, the intensification of agricultural extension services and contract farming concept. Researchers should endeavour to researched into FISs.

Keywords: farmer innovation systems, improved agricultural technologies, multinomial endogenous switching regression, treatment effect

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Authors: Niranjan Das

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‘Geographical indication’ is a sign which is used on products that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that origin. Geographical Indication is primarily granted to agricultural, natural, manufactured, handicrafts originating from a definite geographical territory. It is defined in Article 22(1) of the World Trade Organization's (WTO) 1995 Agreement on ‘Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)’. Assam is literally a ‘Silk country’ where silk culture is rooted in the rural life and culture of Assamese people. This is the only state in India and the world where Muga silk (Antheraea assamensis) is grown. Out of the total production of India’s Muga silk, Assam has the credit of being the sole producer of this 100 percent output, and thus occupies a unique position in the sericulture map of the world. Muga production has been an effective means for generating gainful employment in rural Assam and it has enormous potential in the context of building the rural economy and generating livelihood of this region. Muga, the unique golden-yellow silk of Assam was granted the ‘Geographical Indication (GI)’ registration in 2007. It is the first item from the state of Assam to obtain the GI tag. Besides manufacturing of Muga Silk cloths, the industry is also giving employment to thousands of people, and the silk industry is playing a leading role in the economy of the state. As Brahmaputra Valley is also known for tourist destination, tourists are visiting the valley every year and now the Muga Silk has reached each corner of the country and also in the other parts of the world. This paper tries to emphasizes how the Geographical Indication tag is protecting the traditional right of the Muga Silk of Assam as it has been practised by the Assamese people since times immemorial.

Keywords: Geographical Indication, environment, Muga silk, traditional right and livelihood

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Authors: Shehu Isyaku

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The general objective of the study was to investigate ‘the relationship between the external business environment and the sustainability of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Jigawa state’, Nigeria. Specifically, the study was to examine the relationship between 1) the economic environment, 2) the social environment, 3) the technological environment, and 4) the political environment and the sustainability of MSMEs in Jigawa state, Nigeria. The study was drawn on Resource-Based View (RBV) Theory and Knowledge-Based View (KBV). The study employed a descriptive cross-sectional survey design. A researcher-made questionnaire was used to collect data from the 350 managers/owners who were selected using stratified, purposive and simple random sampling techniques. Data analysis was done using means and standard deviations, factor analysis, Correlation Coefficient, and Pearson Linear Regression analysis. The findings of the study revealed that the sustainability potentials of the managers/owners were rated as high potential (economic, environmental, and social sustainability using 5 5-point Likert scale. Mean ratings of effectiveness of the external business environment were; as highly effective. The results from the Pearson Linear Regression Analysis rejected the hypothesized non-significant effect of the external business environment on the sustainability of MSMEs. Specifically, there is a positive significant relationship between 1) economic environment and sustainability; 2) social environment and sustainability; 3) technological environment and sustainability and political environment and sustainability. The researcher concluded that MSME managers/owners have a high potential for economic, social and environmental sustainability and that all the constructs of the external business environment (economic environment, social environment, technological environment and political environment) have a positive significant relationship with the sustainability of MSMEs. Finally, the researcher recommended that 1) MSME managers/owners need to develop marketing strategies and intelligence systems to accumulate information about the competitors and customers' demands, 2) managers/owners should utilize the customers’ cultural and religious beliefs as an opportunity that should be utilized while formulating business strategies.

Keywords: business environment, sustainability, small and medium enterprises, external business environment

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Authors: Tamar Lazariashvili

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Introduction: The agro-insurance has great importance for agricultural development in the country. In the article, the insurance market of the Georgian agricultural sector has been studied, the level of interest of farmers with insurance products and the trend of demand for those products are revealed; also, the importance of insurance is substantiated. Methodology: The following research methods are applied in the presented paper: statistical (selection, grouping, observation, trend) and qualitative research (in-depth interview with farmers). They claim that the main reason for aggravation is the low level of trust, less awareness about the conditions of the insurance contract. In order to eradicate distrust towards agro-insurance, it is recommended to increase awareness of insured farmers in terms of an insurance agreement. In the case of disputable issues between insurance companies and the customers (farmers), it is advisable to enact the Mediation Service, which will be able to protect the rights of insured farmers. Main Findings: Insurance companies prefer to deal with large farmers, the number of them is very small in Georgia as the credit market. The government interference in this sector is also a very cautious topic. However, the government can strengthen the awareness of farmers about the characteristics and advantages of the insurance system in order to increase the number of insured and reduce insurance premiums for farmers. Conclusion: Enactment of agro-insurance will increase the interest and confidence of financial institutions in the farming sector, financial resources will be accessible to the farmers that will facilitate the stable development of the sector in the country. The size of the agro-insurance market in the country should be increased, and the new territories should be covered. The State must have an obligation to ensure the risk of farmers and subsidize insurance companies. Based on the analysis of the insurance market, the conclusions on agro-insurance issues and the relevant recommendations are proposed.

Keywords: Agro-insurance, agricultural product, Agro-market, farming

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Authors: Florian Tille, Heide Weishaar, Bernhard Gibis, Susanne Schnitzer

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Introduction: The quality of patient-doctor communication and of written health information is central to organizational health literacy (HL). Whether patients understand their doctors’ explanations and textual material on health, however, is understudied. This study identifies the overall levels of patient understanding of health information and its associations with patients’ social characteristics in outpatient health care in Germany. Materials & Methods: This analysis draws on data collected via a 2017 national health survey with a sample of 6,105 adults. Quality of communication was measured for consultations with general practitioners (GPs) and specialists (SPs) via the Ask Me 3 program questions, and through a question on written health material. Correlations with social characteristics were explored employing bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses. Results: Over 90% of all respondents reported that they had understood their doctors’ explanations during the last consultation. Failed understanding was strongly correlated with patients’ very poor health (Odds Ratio [OR]: 5.19; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.23–12.10; ref. excellent/very good health), current health problem (OR: 6.54, CI: 1.70–25.12; ref. preventive examination) and age 65 years and above (OR: 2.97, CI: 1.10–8.00; ref. 18 to 34 years). Fewer patients answered they understood written material well (86.7% for las visit at GP, 89.7% at SP). Understanding written material poorly was highly associated with basic education (OR: 4.20, CI: 2.76–6.39; ref. higher education) and 65 years old and above (OR: 2.66, CI: 1.43–4.96). Discussion: Overall ratings of oral patient-doctor communication and written communication of health information are high. Yet, a considerable share of patients reports not-understanding their doctors and poor understanding of the written health-related material. Interventions that can contribute to improving organizational HL in outpatient care in Germany include HL training for doctors, reducing system barriers to easily-accessible health information for patients and combining oral and written health communication means. Conclusion: This work adds to the study of organizational HL in Germany. To increase patient understanding of health-relevant information and thereby possibly reduce health disparities, meeting the communication needs especially of persons in different age groups, with basic education and in very poor health is suggested.

Keywords: health survey, organizational health literacy, patient-doctor communication, social characteristics, outpatient care, Ask Me 3

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Authors: Kougioumtzis Konstantin, Rylander Pär, Karlsteen Magnus

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Ball skills as a subset of fundamental motor skills are predictors for performance in sports. Currently, most tools evaluate ball skills utilizing subjective ratings. The aim of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of a newly developed instrument to objectively measure ball handling skills (BHS-test) utilizing digital instrument. Participants were a convenience sample of 213 adolescents (age M = 17.1 years, SD =3.6; 55% females, 45% males) recruited from upper secondary schools and invited to a sports hall for the assessment. The 8-item instrument incorporated both accuracy-based ball skill tests and repetitive-performance tests with a ball. Testers counted performance manually in the four tests (one throwing and three juggling tasks). Furthermore, assessment was technologically enhanced in the other four tests utilizing a ball machine, a Kinect camera and balls with motion sensors (one balancing and three rolling tasks). 3D printing technology was used to construct equipment, while all results were administered digitally with smart phones/tablets, computers and a specially constructed application to send data to a server. The instrument was deemed reliable (α = .77) and principal component analysis was used in a random subset (53 of the participants). Furthermore, latent variable modeling was employed to confirm the structure with the remaining subset (160 of the participants). The analysis showed good factorial-related validity with one factor explaining 57.90 % of the total variance. Four loadings were larger than .80, two more exceeded .76 and the other two were .65 and .49. The one factor solution was confirmed by a first order model with one general factor and an excellent fit between model and data (χ² = 16.12, DF = 20; RMSEA = .00, CI90 .00–.05; CFI = 1.00; SRMR = .02). The loadings on the general factor ranged between .65 and .83. Our findings indicate good reliability and construct validity for the BHS-test. To develop the instrument further, more studies are needed with various age-groups, e.g. children. We suggest using the BHS-test for diagnostic or assessment purpose for talent development and sports participation interventions that focus on ball games.

Keywords: ball-handling skills, ball-handling ability, technologically-enhanced measurements, assessment

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