Search results for: essential services

Authors: Khaled Darwish, Islam El Madahh, Hoda Mohamed, Hadia El Hennawy

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Cloud computing has been one of the fastest growing parts in IT industry mainly in the context of the future of the web where computing, communication, and storage services are main services provided for Internet users. Mobile Cloud Computing (MCC) is gaining stream which can be used to extend cloud computing functions, services and results to the world of future mobile applications and enables delivery of a large variety of cloud application to billions of smartphones and wearable devices. This paper describes reliability for MCC by determining the ability of a system or component to function correctly under stated conditions for a specified period of time to be able to deal with the estimation and management of high levels of lifetime engineering uncertainty and risks of failure. The assessment procedures consists of determine Mean Time between Failures (MTBF), Mean Time to Failure (MTTF), and availability percentages for main components in both cloud computing and MCC structures applied on single node OpenStack installation to analyze its performance with different settings governing the behavior of participants. Additionally, we presented several factors have a significant impact on rates of change overall cloud system reliability should be taken into account in order to deliver highly available cloud computing services for mobile consumers.

Keywords: cloud computing, mobile cloud computing, reliability, availability, OpenStack

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Authors: Khemnath Kharel

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Forest itself is a factory as well as product. It supplies tangible and intangible goods and services. It supplies timber, fuel wood, fodder, grass leaf litter as well as non timber edible goods and medicinal and aromatic products additionally provides environmental services. These environmental services are of local, national, or even global importance. In Nepal more than 19 thousands community forests are providing environmental service in less economic benefit than actual efficiency. There is a risk of cost of management of those forest exceeds benefits and forests get converted to open access resources in future. Most of the environmental goods and services don’t have markets which mean no prices at which they are available to the consumers therefore the valuation of these services goods and services establishment of paying mechanism for such services and insure the benefit to community is more relevant in local as well as global scale. There are few examples of carbon trading in domestic level to meet the country wide emission goal. In this contest the study aims to explore the public attitude towards carbon offsetting and their responsibility over service providers. This study helps in promotion of environment service awareness among general people and service provider; community forest. The research helps to unveil the carbon pool scenario in community forest and willingness to pay for carbon offsetting of people who are consuming more energy than general people and emitting relatively more carbon in atmosphere. The study has assessed the carbon pool status in two community forest. In the study in two community forests carbon pools were assessed following the guideline “Forest Carbon Inventory Guideline 2010” prescribed by Ministry of Forest and soil Conservation, Nepal. Final out comes of analysis in intensively managed area of Hokse CF recorded as 103.58 tons C /ha with 6173.30 tons carbon stock. Similarly in Hariyali CF carbon density was recorded 251.72 mg C /ha. The total carbon stock of intensively managed blocks in Hariyali CF is 35839.62 tons carbon.

Keywords: carbon, offsetting, sequestration, valuation

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Authors: Rosa Hendijani, Mohammadhesam Hajighasemi

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As of late, the sharing economy has become an important type of business model. Online taxi services are one example that has grown rapidly around the world. This study examines the factors influencing the use of online taxis as one form of IT-enabled sharing services based on the theory of planned behavior (TPB). Based on the theory of planned behavior, these factors can be divided into three categories, including the ones related to attitude (e.g., image and perceived usefulness), normative believes (e.g., subjective norms), and behavioral control (e.g., technology facilitating conditions and self-efficacy). Three other factors were also considered based on the literature, including perceived economic benefits, openness towards using shared services, and perceived availability. The effect of all these variables was tested both directly and indirectly through intention as the mediating variable. A survey method was used to test the research hypotheses. In total, 361 individuals partook in the study. The results of a multiple regression analysis on behavior showed that perceived economic benefits, compatibility, and subjective norms were important factors influencing behavior among online taxi users. In addition, intention partially mediated the effect of perceived economic benefits and compatibility on behavior. It can be concluded that perceived economic benefits, compatibility, and subjective norms are the three main factors that influence behavior among online taxi users.

Keywords: collaborative consumption, IT-enabled sharing services model, online taxi, sharing economy, theory of planned behavior

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Authors: Marin Mandić, Elis Sutlović, Tonći Modrić, Luka Stanić

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With the restructuring and deregulation of the power system, storage owners, generation companies or private producers can offer their multiple services on various power markets and earn income in different types of markets, such as the day-ahead, real-time, ancillary services market, etc. During the COVID-19 pandemic, electricity prices, as well as ancillary services prices, increased significantly. The optimization of the energy storage operation was performed using a suitable model for simulating the operation of a pumped storage hydropower plant under market conditions. The objective function maximizes the income earned through energy arbitration, regulation-up, regulation-down and spinning reserve services. The optimization technique used for solving the objective function is mixed integer linear programming (MILP). In numerical examples, the pumped storage hydropower plant operation has been optimized considering the already achieved hourly electricity market prices from Nord Pool for the pre-pandemic (2019) and the pandemic (2020 and 2021) years. The impact of the electricity market prices during the COVID-19 pandemic on energy storage operation is shown through the analysis of income, operating hours, reserved capacity and consumed energy for each service. The results indicate the role of energy storage during a significant fluctuation in electricity and services prices.

Keywords: electrical market prices, electricity market, energy storage optimization, mixed integer linear programming (MILP) optimization

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Authors: O. M. M. Sabry, Abeer M. El Sayed

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The essential oils from the aerial parts and flowers of Haplophyllum tuberculatum (Forsskal) Adr. Juss (Rutaceae) growing in Libya were obtained separately by hydro-distillation using a Clevenger-type apparatus. The essential oils yield were (0.4, 1.5w/w%) respectively based on the dry weight of the plant. The oils were analyzed by GC-MS. Twenty four constituents, amounting to 96.6%, were identified in the oil of the aerial parts. The predominant compounds were among the non oxygenated terpenoids (82.4%) as monoterpene hydrocarbons, represented by sabinen (26.4 %), δ-terpinen (26 %), β-phellandrene (10.4%) and 3-carene (3.86%). Zingiberine (0.4%) and β-sesquiphellandrene (0.12%) were the major sesquiterpene hydrocarbons identified. Oxygenated monoterpenes were represented by eucalyptol (5.5%) and piperitone (5.55%). Twenty six constituents, equivalent to 99.5%, were identified in the oil of the flowers. The dominance of monoterpene hydrocarbons in the flowers oil can be attributed to the high percentage of γ-terpinen (38.44%), β-phellandrene (10.0%), α- phellandrene (2.33%), 3,4-dimethyl-1,5-cyclooctadiene (6.67%), β-myrecene (6.04%), 3-carene (5.43%) and α-pinene (1.3%).While the oxygenated monoterpenes can be contributed to the trans-piperitol (4.67%) and piperitone (2.07%). Sesquiterpene hydrocarbons were not identified in the oil of the flower of H. tuberculatum. Variation in constitution between oils of Libyan H. tuberculatum and that obtained from other countries can be due to both environmental and genetic factors. The essential oils have demonstrated variable antimicrobial activities against certain micro-organisms. Also have revealed marked in vitro cytotoxicity against lung (H1299), liver (HEPG2) carcinoma cell line and variably effective as anti-inflammatory and antioxidant.

Keywords: Halpophyllum tuberculatum, rutaceae, essential oil, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antitumor, antioxidant, Libya

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Authors: Annelyn Fatima Lopez, Ermenilda Avendano, Aileen Marie Vargas, Lara Baylon, Rorilee Angeles

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BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 resulted in a public health emergency and quarantine measures which may negatively impact psychosocial and environmental aspects of vulnerable populations. OBJECTIVES: This study intended to determine the quality of life, situations and emerging concerns of parents of children with neurodevelopmental disorders during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. METHODOLOGY: Parents of patients seen in the PCMC Neurodevelopmental Pediatrics OPD clinic were recruited to fill out questionnaires on parent and child characteristics, survey on situations and emerging concerns during the coronavirus pandemic and WHOQOL-BREF (Filipino version) for parental quality of life. RESULTS: Data from 115 respondents showed a lower score in the environmental domain. The child characteristics that are statistically comparable with the QoL scores include sex, severity of ID and ADHD while the parent characteristics that are statistically comparable with the QoL scores include educational attainment, monthly family income, father’s employment status and family structure (P-value <0.05). Most respondents reported physical distancing (82.61%) and curfew (80.87%) as measures implemented due to the pandemic. Inability to access essential services (43.48-74.48%) were further compounded by limited financial resources (51.30%) and public transport (60%). Government responses received include quarantine pass (90.43%), food allowance or relief package (86.09%), disinfection (60.87%), DSWD-SAP (42.61%) and cash distribution (41.74%). Concerns encountered include socio-environmental issues (i.e. no available transportation, effect on the ability to earn, inadequate food/medicine rations, disruptions in basic social services) and patient concerns (i.e. access to education, medical, developmental and behavioral services, nutrition and sleep). RECOMMENDATIONS: Programs and policies should be planned accordingly to provide improvement of quality of life for both parents and the child with a neurodevelopmental disorder.

Keywords: covid-19, neurodevelopmental disorder, parental quality of life, whoqol-bref

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Authors: B. Parchem, M. Watanabe, D. Modrakovic, L. Mathew, A. Franklin, M. Cao, R. E. Broudy

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Objective: Executive functioning (EF) deficits underlie several mental health diagnoses including ADHD, anxiety, and depression. Community mental health clinics face extensive waitlists for services with many referrals involving EF deficits. A pilot trial of a four-week group therapy was developed using key components from Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and mindfulness with an aim to improve EF skills and offer low-fee services. Method: Eight adults (M = 34.5) waiting for services at a community clinic were enrolled in a four-week group therapy at an in-house training clinic for doctoral trainees. Baseline EF, pre-/post-intervention ADHD and distress symptoms, group satisfaction, and curriculum helpfulness were assessed. Results: Downward trends in ADHD and distress symptoms pre/post-intervention were not significant. Favorable responses on group satisfaction and helpfulness suggest clinical utility. Conclusion: Preliminary pilot data from a brief group therapy to improve EF may be an efficacious, acceptable, and feasible intervention for adults waiting for services at community mental health and training clinics where there are high demands and limits to services and staffs.

Keywords: executive functioning, cognitive-behavioral therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, mindfulness, adult group therapy

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Authors: Óscar Muñoz Garrigós, José Manuel Bernabeu Aubán

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Time-sensitive services are the base of the cloud services industry. Keeping low service saturation is essential for controlling response time. All auto-scalable services make use of reactive auto-scaling. However, reactive auto-scaling has few in-depth studies. This presentation shows a model for reactive auto-scaling methodologies with a MAPE-k architecture. Queuing theory can compute different properties of static services but lacks some parameters related to the transition between models. Our model uses queuing theory parameters to relate the transition between models. It associates MAPE-k related times, the sampling frequency, the cooldown period, the number of requests that an instance can handle per unit of time, the number of incoming requests at a time instant, and a function that describes the acceleration in the service's ability to handle more requests. This model is later used as a solution to horizontally auto-scale time-sensitive services composed of microservices, reevaluating the model’s parameters periodically to allocate resources. The solution requires limiting the acceleration of the growth in the number of incoming requests to keep a constrained response time. Business benefits determine such limits. The solution can add a dynamic number of instances and remains valid under different system sizes. The study includes performance recommendations to improve results according to the incoming load shape and business benefits. The exposed methodology is tested in a simulation. The simulator contains a load generator and a service composed of two microservices, where the frontend microservice depends on a backend microservice with a 1:1 request relation ratio. A common request takes 2.3 seconds to be computed by the service and is discarded if it takes more than 7 seconds. Both microservices contain a load balancer that assigns requests to the less loaded instance and preemptively discards requests if they are not finished in time to prevent resource saturation. When load decreases, instances with lower load are kept in the backlog where no more requests are assigned. If the load grows and an instance in the backlog is required, it returns to the running state, but if it finishes the computation of all requests and is no longer required, it is permanently deallocated. A few load patterns are required to represent the worst-case scenario for reactive systems: the following scenarios test response times, resource consumption and business costs. The first scenario is a burst-load scenario. All methodologies will discard requests if the rapidness of the burst is high enough. This scenario focuses on the number of discarded requests and the variance of the response time. The second scenario contains sudden load drops followed by bursts to observe how the methodology behaves when releasing resources that are lately required. The third scenario contains diverse growth accelerations in the number of incoming requests to observe how approaches that add a different number of instances can handle the load with less business cost. The exposed methodology is compared against a multiple threshold CPU methodology allocating/deallocating 10 or 20 instances, outperforming the competitor in all studied metrics.

Keywords: reactive auto-scaling, auto-scaling, microservices, cloud computing

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Authors: A.Assariotakis, P. Vahamidis, P. Tarantilis, G. Economou

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Greece, due to its geographical location and the particular climatic conditions, presents high biodiversity of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants. Among them, the genus Origanum not only presents a wide distribution, but it also has great economic importance. After extensive surveys in Ikaria Island (Greece), 3 species of the genus Origanum were identified, namely, Origanum vulgare ssp. hirtum (Greek oregano), Origanum onites (Turkish oregano) and Origanum x intercedens (hybrid), a naturally occurring hybrid between O. hirtum and O. onites. The purpose of this study was to determine their morphological as well as their temporal variability in essential oil yield and composition under field conditions. For this reason, a plantation of each species was created using vegetative propagation and was established at the experimental field of the Agricultural University of Athens (A.U.A.). From the establishment year and for the following two years (3 years of observations), several observations were taken during each growing season with the purpose of identifying the morphological differences among the studied species. Each year collected plant (at bloom stage) material was air-dried at room temperature in the shade. The essential oil content was determined by hydrodistillation using a Clevenger-type apparatus. The chemical composition of essential oils was investigated by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC – MS). Significant differences were observed among the three oregano species in terms of plant height, leaf size, inflorescence features, as well as concerning their biological cycle. O. intercedens inflorescence presented more similarities with O. hirtum than with O. onites. It was found that calyx morphology could serve as a clear distinction feature between O. intercedens and O. hirtum. The calyx in O. hirtum presents five isometric teeth whereas in O. intercedens two high and three shorter. Essential oil content was significantly affected by genotype and year. O. hirtum presented higher essential oil content than the other two species during the first year of cultivation, however during the second year the hybrid (O. intercedens) recorded the highest values. Carvacrol, p-cymene and γ-terpinene were the main essential oil constituents of the three studied species. In O. hirtum carvacrol content varied from 84,28 - 93,35%, in O. onites from 86,97 - 91,89%, whereas in O. intercedens it was recorded the highest carvacrol content, namely from 89,25 - 97,23%.

Keywords: variability, oregano biotypes, essential oil, carvacrol

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Authors: Andrew John Zeller, Artjoms Formulevics

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Banking and financial services are rapidly transitioning from being monolithic structures focusing merely on their own financial offerings to becoming integrated players in multiple customer journeys and supply chains. Banks themselves are refocusing on being liquidity providers and underwriters in these networks, while the general concept of ‘embeddedness’ builds on the market readily available API (Application Programming Interface) architectures to flexibly deliver services to various requestors, i.e., online retailers who need finance and insurance products to better serve their customers, respectively. With this new flexibility come new requirements for enhanced cybersecurity. API structures are more decentralized and inherently prone to change. Unfortunately, this has not been comprehensively addressed in the literature. This paper tries to fill this gap by looking at security approaches and technologies relevant to API architectures found in embedded finance. After presenting the research methodology applied and introducing the major bodies of knowledge involved, the paper will discuss six dominating technology trends shaping high-level financial services architectures. Subsequently, embedded finance and the respective usage of API strategies will be described. Building on this, security considerations for APIs in financial and insurance services will be elaborated on before concluding with some ideas for possible further research.

Keywords: embedded finance, embedded banking strategy, cybersecurity, API management, data security, cybersecurity, IT management

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Authors: Saifurahman Fayiz

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E-government has become a widespread focus of government efforts in various countries around the world. Many governments around the world have been adopted and introduced e-government systems. This research examines the implementation of the Information& communication technology (ICTS) Model in the Kabul Municipality. The objective of this research is to propose an ICT model in the Kabul Municipality to prevent revenue leakage. The research methodology consists qualitative research method based on a comparative case study. The research findings propose that implementing ICT prevent revenue leakage, increases transparency and paves the way for better services. The key conclusion of this research is that the practice of advanced technology in revenue collection paves the way for transparency and provides services in a decent way. The usage of experiences from other Municipalities, especially Jakarta province and Mitaka Municipality Helps KM to improve revenue and provide better services to the citizens

Keywords: E-government, ICT, municipality, revenue

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Authors: Florian Pfeffel, Christoph A. Kexel, Peter Kexel, Maria Ratz

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The parallel usage of different media channels has increased recently owing to technological advances. Second Screen describes the use of a second device by television viewers to consume further content which is related to the program they are watching. This study analysed the characteristics of football spectators regarding their media consumption in relation to Second Screen usage while watching a football match on TV. The existing literature on Second Screen usage is still very limited, especially in the context of particular broadcasting settings such as sport or even more specific such as football matches. Therefore, the primary research objective was to reveal first insights into the user behaviour of football spectators regarding Second Screen services. The survey, which was conducted among German football supporters in 2015, revealed some characteristics such as the identification and involvement into the sports which are related to an increased use of Second Screen services. One important finding for football supporters was that at the time of a match they have a lower parallel media usage compared to other TV broadcastings. Nevertheless, if supporters used a second device while watching a match on TV, then they were using specific Second Screen services. This means they searched for more content related information. The findings on the habits and characteristics of people who are using Second Screen services are relevant for future developments in that area as well as for marketing decisions.

Keywords: media consumption, second screen, sport marketing, user behaviour

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Authors: Sa’ed Abed, Mohammad H. Al Shayeji, Ovais Ahmed, Sahel Alouneh

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Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is a signaling layer protocol for building, adjusting and ending sessions among participants including Internet conferences, telephone calls and multimedia distribution. SIP facilitates user movement by proxying and forwarding requests to the present location of the user. In this paper, we provide a formal Specification and Description Language (SDL) and Message Sequence Chart (MSC) to model and define the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) SIP protocol and its sample services resulted from informal SIP specification. We create an “Abstract User Interface” using case analysis so that can be applied to identify SIP services more explicitly. The issued sample SIP features are then used as case scenarios; they are revised in MSCs format and validated to their corresponding SDL models.

Keywords: modeling, MSC, SDL, SIP, validating

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Authors: Ke Yang, QiHan, Bauke de Veirs

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This study addresses the need for coordinated management of natural resources in urban agglomeration. Using ecosystem services theory, The study explore the relationship between land use in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (B-T-H) region and the Food-Water-Energy (F-W-E) nexus from 2000 to 2030. We assess ecosystem services using the InVEST: Habitat Quality (HQ), Water Yield (WY), Carbon Sequestration (CS), Soil Retention (SDR), and Food Production (FP). The study find an annual expansion of construction land alongside a significant decline in cultivated land. Additionally, HQ, CS, and per capita FP decline annually until 2020 and are expected to persist through 2030. In contrast, WY and SDR grow annually but may decline by 2030. Spearman coefficient analysis reveals synergies between HQ and CS, SDR and CS, and SDR and HQ, with trade-offs between CS and WY and HQ and WY. Utilizing the K-means clustering analysis method, we introduce county-based spatial planning for the F-W-E system, offering valuable insights and recommendations for sustainable resource management.

Keywords: food-water-energy (F-W-E), ecosystem services, trade-offs and synergies, ecosystem service bundle, county-based

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Authors: Ari Alamäki, Timo Kaski

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The value of co-creation has gained much attention in sales research, but less is known about how salespeople and customers interact in the authentic business to business (B2B) sales meetings. The study presented in this paper empirically contributes to existing research by presenting authentic B2B sales meetings that were video recorded and analyzed using observation and qualitative content analysis methods. This paper aims to study key elements of successful sales interactions between salespeople and customers/buyers. This study points out that salespeople are selling value rather than the products or services themselves, which are only enablers in realizing business benefits. Therefore, our findings suggest that promoting and easing open discourse is an essential part of a successful sales encounter. A better understanding of how salespeople and customers successfully interact would help salespeople to develop their interpersonal sales skills.

Keywords: personal selling, relationship, sales management, value co-creation

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Authors: Muhammad Rafiullah Khan, Vanee Chonhenchob

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The effect of sodium alginate (1%) based edible coating incorporated natural essential oils; thymol, carvone and carvacrol as antimicrobial agents at different concentrations (0.1, 0.5 and 1.0 %) on the quality changes of fresh-cut pineapple were investigated. Pineapple dipped in distilled water was served as control. After coating, fruit were sealed in a modified atmosphere package (MAP) using high permeable film; and stored at 5 °C. Gas composition in package headspace, color values (L*, a*, b*, C*), TSS, pH, ethanol, browning, and microbial decay were monitored during storage. Oxygen concentration continuously decreased while carbon dioxide concentration inside all packages continuously increased over time. Color parameters (L*, b*, c*) decreased and a* values increased during storage. All essential oils significantly (p ≤ 0.05) prevented microbial growth than control. A significantly higher (p ≤ 0.05) ethanol content was found in the control than in all other treatments. Visible microbial growth, high ethanol, and low color values limited the shelf life to 6 days in control as compared to 9 days in all other treatments. Among all essential oils, thymol at all concentrations maintained the overall quality of the pineapple and could potentially be used commercially in fresh fruit industries for longer storage.

Keywords: essential oils, antibrowning agents, antimicrobial agents, modified atmosphere packaging, pineapple, microbial decay

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Authors: Muhammad Rafiullah Khan, Vanee Chonhenchob

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The effect of sodium alginate (1%) based edible coating incorporated natural essential oils, thymol, carvone, and carvacrol as antimicrobial agents at different concentrations (0.1, 0.5, and 1.0%) on the quality changes of fresh-cut pineapple was investigated. Pineapple dipped in distilled water was served as control. After coating, the fruit was sealed in a modified atmosphere package (MAP) using high permeable film and stored at 5°C. Gas composition in package headspace, color values (L*, a*, b*, C*), TSS, pH, ethanol, browning, and microbial decay were monitored during storage. Oxygen concentration continuously decreased while carbon dioxide concentration inside all packages continuously increased over time. Color parameters (L*, b*, c*) decreased, and a* values increased during storage. All essential oils significantly (p ≤ 0.05) prevented microbial growth than control. A significantly higher (p ≤ 0.05) ethanol content was found in the control than in all other treatments. Visible microbial growth, high ethanol, and low color values limited the shelf life to 6 days in control as compared to 9 days in all other treatments. Among all essential oils, thymol at all concentrations maintained the overall quality of the pineapple and could potentially be used commercially in fresh fruit industries for longer storage.

Keywords: essential oils, antibrowning agents, antimicrobial agents, modified atmosphere packaging, microbial decay, pineapple

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Authors: Najla Alhkalaf

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The focus of this study is answering the following question: How do e-government services in Bahrain support the productivity of SMEs? This study examines the current E-government function in enhancing SME productivity in Bahrain through analysing the efficiency of e- government by viewing its facilitators and barriers from the perspective of different stakeholders. The study aims to identify and develop best practice guidelines with the end-goal of creating a standardised channel of communication between e-government and SMEs that fulfil the requirement of SME owners, and thus achieve the prime objective of e-government. E-government services for SMEs have been offered in Bahrain since 2005. However, the current services lack the required mechanism for SMEs to fully take advantage of these services because of lagging communication between service provider and end-user. E-government employees believe that a lack of awareness and trust are the main stumbling block, whereas the SME owners believe that there is a lack of sufficiency in the content and efficiency provided through e- services. A questionnaire has been created based on a pilot study that highlighted the main indicators of e-government efficiency and SMEs productivity as well as previous studies conducted on this subject. This allowed for quantitative data to be extracted. Also interviews were conducted with SME owners and government employees from both case studies, which formed the qualitative data for this study. The findings portray that both the service provider and service receiver largely agree on the existence of most of the technical and administrative barriers. However, the data reflects a level of dissatisfaction from the SME side, which contradicts with the perceived level of satisfaction from the government employees. Therefore, the data supports the argument that assures the existence of a communication gap between stakeholders. To this effect, this research would help build channels of communication between stakeholders, and then induces a plan unlocking the potential of e-government application. The conclusions of this study will help devise an optimised E-government strategy for Bahrain.

Keywords: e-government, SME, e-services, G2B, government employees' perspective, entrepreneurs' perspective, enterprise

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Authors: Mario Spremić, Natalija Kokolek, Božidar Jaković, Jurica Šimurina

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This paper deals with various questions related to functionality and providing banking services in the European union on the Internet. Due to the fact that we live in the information technologies era, the Internet become a new space for doing economic and business activities in all areas, and especially important in banking. Accepting the busy tempo of life, in the past several years electronic banking has become necessity and a must for most users of banking services. On a sample of 300 web sites of the banks operating in European union (EU) we conduct the research on the functionality of e-banking services offered through banks web sites with the key objective to reveal to what extent the information technologies are used in their business operations. Characteristics of EU banks websites will be examined and compared to the basic groups of business activities on the web. Also some recommendations for the successful bank web sites will be provided.

Keywords: electronic banking, electronic business, European union banks, internet

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Authors: O. Soji-Omoniwa, N. O. Muhammad, L. A. Usman, B. P. Omoniwa

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This study was conducted to investigate the effect of the leaf essential oil of C. sinensis harvested at 7.00a.m and 4.00p.m on some Liver and Kidney function indices of diabetic rats as well as investigate the effect of time of harvest on the observed effect. Experimental animals were divided into 4 groups (A, B, C and D). Diabetes mellitus was induced in all animals, except the normal control group (Group A), by injecting 150mg/kg body weight of alloxan monohydrate intraperitoneally. Group A received distilled water while group B (diabetic control group) was not treated. Group C and D were treated with leaf essential oil of C. sinensis harvested at 7.00 a.m and 4.00 p.m respectively at a dose of 110 mg/kg body weight every other day for 15 days. Alkaline phosphatase (ALP), Alanine Transaminase (ALT) and Aspartate Transaminase (AST) activity was evaluated in the serum, Liver and Kidney of studied animals. Total and Direct Bilirubin level, Total Protein and Globulin, Creatinine and Urea level were also evaluated. Result showed that creatinine and urea, serum ALP, AST and ALT levels was significantly reduced (p < 0.05), while the levels of total Protein and Globulin increased significantly (p < 0.05) for the treated animals compared to the diabetic control group. In conclusion, the leaf essential oil of Citrus sinensis ameliorated the impaired renal and liver function; however, the time of harvest of the leaf does not significantly affect its ameliorative effect.

Keywords: C. sinensis, function indices, harvest time, leaf essential oil.

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Authors: Sabraoui Abdelhadi, El Bouhssini Mustapha, Lhaloui Saadia, El Fakhouri Karim, Bouchelta Aziz

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The surveys carried out in 2014, 2015 in the regions of Abda- Doukala, Chaouia- Ouardigha, Zemour- Zair and Fes- Sais have confirmed that the leaf miner was the main insect pest attacking chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) in Morocco. The grain yield losses caused by this pest could be more than 20% for winter planting and more than 42% for spring-sown crop. To reduce the chickpea leaf miner infestations, four essential oils, as biopesticide alternatives, were tested for their insecticidal effect on L. ciccerina, adults and larvae under laboratory conditions. In addition, we assessed the efficacy of these essential oils with and without adjuvant against this pest in comparison to three insecticides under field conditions. Mentha pulegium, with a dose of 33 µl/l of air caused 100% mortality on adults and larvae, after three hours and six hours of exposure, respectively. Eucalyptus showed 100% mortality on adults and larvae, with doses of 33 and 83 µl/l, after six and three hours of exposure, respectively. In the field conditions M. pulegium and E. globulus with adjuvant showed promising results compared with Abamectin, Azadirachtin and Spinetoram respectively. Essential oils could be used as one of the IPM components for the control of chickpea leaf miner.

Keywords: Liriomyza cicerina, chickpea, essential oils, insecticidal activity, Morocco

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Authors: Archil Undilashvili, Ketevan Stvilia, Dustin Gilbreath, Giorgi Dzneladze, Gordon Charchward

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Introduction: In recent years, diverse types of wheelchairs, both local production and imported, have been made available on the Georgian market for wheelchair users. Some types of wheelchairs are sold together with a service package, while the others, including the State Program, Supported locally-produced ones, don’t provide adjustment and maintenance service packages to users. Within the USAID Physical Rehabilitation Project in Georgia, a study was conducted to assess the impact of the wheelchair service provision in line with the WHO guidelines on the health and overall satisfaction of wheelchair users in Georgia. Methodology: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in May 2021. A structured questionnaire was used for telephone interviews that, along with socio-demographic characteristics, included questions for assessment of accessibility, availability, timeliness, cost and quality of wheelchair services received. Out of 1060 individuals listed in the census of wheelchair users, 752 were available for interview, with an actual response rate of 73.4%. 552 wheelchair users (31%) or their caregivers (69%) agreed to participate in the survey. In addition to using descriptive statistics, the study used multivariate matching of wheelchair users who received wheelchair services and who did not (control group). In addition, to evaluate satisfaction with service provision, respondents were asked to assess services. Findings: The majority (67%) of wheelchair users included in the survey were male. The average age of participants was 43. The three most frequently named reasons for using a wheelchair were cerebral palsy (29%), followed by stroke (18%), and amputation (12%). Users have had their current chair for four years on average. Overall, 60% of respondents reported that they were assessed before providing a wheelchair, but only half of them reported that their preferences and needs were considered. Only 13% of respondents had services in line with WHO guidelines and only 22% of wheelchair users had training when they received their current chair. 16% of participants said they had follow-up services, and 41% received adjustment services after receiving the chair. A slight majority (56%) of participants were satisfied with the quality of service provision and the service provision overall. Similarly, 55% were satisfied with the accessibility of service provision. A slightly larger majority (61%) were satisfied with the timeliness of service provision. The matching analysis suggests that users that received services in line with WHO guidelines were more satisfied with their chairs (the difference 17 point/0-100 scale) and they were four percentage points less likely to have health problems attributed to the chair. The regression analysis provides a similar finding of a 21 point increase in satisfaction attributable to services. Conclusion: The provision of wheelchair services in line with WHO guidelines and with follow-up services is likely to have a positive impact on the daily lives of wheelchair users in Georgia. Wheelchair services should be institutionalized as a standard component of wheelchair provision in Georgia.

Keywords: physical rehabilitation, wheelchair users, persons with disabilities, wheelchair production

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Authors: Chonlakorn Wiboonsiriruk, Ekachai Phaisangittisagul, Chadchai Srisurangkul, Itsuo Kumazawa

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Public transportation is a crucial aspect of passenger transportation, with buses playing a vital role in the transportation service. Passenger counting is an essential tool for organizing and managing transportation services. However, manual counting is a tedious and time-consuming task, which is why computer vision algorithms are being utilized to make the process more efficient. In this study, different object detection algorithms combined with passenger tracking are investigated to compare passenger counting performance. The system employs the EfficientDet algorithm, which has demonstrated superior performance in terms of speed and accuracy. Our results show that the proposed system can accurately count passengers in varying conditions with an accuracy of 94%.

Keywords: computer vision, object detection, passenger counting, public transportation

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Authors: K. W. Nam, B. J. Kim, S. J. Lee

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Along with the development of network infrastructures, such as high-speed Internet and mobile environment, the explosion of multimedia data is expanding the range of multimedia services beyond voice and data services. Amid this flow, research is actively being done on the creation, management, and transmission of metadata on digital content to provide different services to users. This paper proposes a system for the insertion, storage, and retrieval of metadata about digital content. The metadata server with Binary XML was implemented for efficient storage space and retrieval speeds, and the transport data size required for metadata retrieval was simplified. With the proposed system, the metadata could be inserted into the moving objects in the video, and the unnecessary overlap could be minimized by improving the storage structure of the metadata. The proposed system can assemble metadata into one relevant topic, even if it is expressed in different media or in different forms. It is expected that the proposed system will handle complex network types of data.

Keywords: video, multimedia, metadata, editing tool, XML

Procedia PDF Downloads 149

Authors: Pelin Sonmez

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Health services provided to refugees and asylum seekers are very important and of priority due to their physical damages during the war and conflict situation, possible diseases in migration journey and negative psychological mood. However, there are very poor international standards in regards to providing health services to these people, which in return cause each country to differ their regulations. United Nations Sustainable Development Goals that are in effect as of 2016 assure that attention should be provided to non-citizen vulnerable groups in terms of health policies and they should be included in the global development, thereby aims to decrease the problems arising from providing health services to refugees. Though, we should not forget that these are the recent and yet uncertain attempts, mostly, as a result of Syrian War's forced migration wave. As an attempt to reveal different attitudes of international actors, this study compares/analyzes health services provided to refugees and asylum seekers on the basis of Turkey-EU policy implementations. While doing so, two research data will be focused upon. In this globe, results of the focus group interviews and a field study in a specific work (from its health related section) which was done in 2017 to 5000 Syrian women living in Turkey and presented to Republic of Turkey Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency will be utilized.

Keywords: European Union, health policies, refugee, Syrian women, Turkey

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Authors: Mary Kiviiri Nakawuka, Mary Namugalu, Andrew Otiti

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BACKGROUND Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women and seventh overall among all cancers worldwide. It accounts for about 7.5% of all female-cancer deaths with 85% occurring in low and middle-income countries and the first most common female cancer in women aged 15 to 44 years in Uganda with an annual number of new cases at 3,915 and 2,275 annual number of cervical cancer deaths in 2012 (ICO INFORMATION CENTRE ON HPV AND CANCER, 2017).Despite the available free cervical cancer screening services whose uptake has been documented to improve the chances of successful treatment of pre-cancers and cancers among women of reproductive age, there is a low uptake of these services thus we sought to examine the uptake of cervical cancer services and associated factors among women of reproductive age (25-49) attending the ART clinic of KISWA HCII in Kampala, Uganda METHODS The research was carried out in the ART clinic of KISWA HCII among 385 participants. An analytical, cross-sectional study with quantitative methods of data collection was used. The study adopted a non-probability convenience sampling method to select participants. Quantitative data was collected through structured questionnaires. RESULTS 72.2% of the participants were found to have been screened for cervical cancer. 36 % of the screened women had a positive HPV or VIA result ,59.2% of the screened women had a negative HPV or VIA result and 4.8% had an invalid HPV test result. Only 39.5% of the participants had adequate overall knowledge about cervical cancer, more than a third of the participants (50%) had moderate or low knowledge and minority of them (10.5%) had no knowledge. There was no significant association between the uptake of cervical cancer screening services among participants and their socio-demographic characteristics. CONCLUSIONS Although majority of the women surveyed had been screened for cervical cancer, a comparatively large number of participants had inadequate knowledge about cervical cancer and therefore there is still need to continue teaching about cervical cancer and this may include education campaigns, improvements to the accessibility and convenience of the screening services.

Keywords: cervical cancer uptake, cervical cancer screening, women of reproductive age., cervical cancer knowledge

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Authors: Şenay Pehli̇van, Gülümser Kublay

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Female inmates placed in a Correctional Institution (CI) have more physical health problems than other women and their male counterparts. Thus, they require more health care services in the CI and nursing services in particular. CI nurses also have the opportunity to teach behaviors which will protect and improve their health to these women who are difficult to reach in the community. The aim of this study was to evaluate effect of nursing services provided in a CI on the physical health levels and health behaviors of female inmates. The study has a quasi-experimental design. The study was done in Female Closed CI in Ankara, Turkey. The study was conducted on 30 female inmates. Before the implementation of nursing interventions in the initial phase of the study, female inmates were evaluated in terms of physical health problems and health behavior using forms, a physical examination, medical history, health files (file containing medical information related to prisons) and the Omaha System (OS). Findings obtained from evaluations were grouped and symptoms-findings were expressed with OS diagnosis codes. Knowledge, behavior and status scores of prisoners in relation to health problems were determined. After the implementation of the nursing interventions, female inmates were evaluated in terms of physical health problems and health behavior using OS. The research data were collected using the Female Evaluation Form developed by the researcher and the OS. It was found that knowledge, behavior and status scores of prisoners significantly increased after the implementation of nursing interventions (p < 0.05).

Keywords: prison nursing, health promotion and protecting, nursi̇ng servi̇ces, omaha system

Procedia PDF Downloads 239

Authors: Witthaya Mekhum, Jinjutha Srihera

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This research aims to study customer satisfaction towards the services of Baan Bueng Resort in Nongprue Subdistrict, Baanlamung District, Chonburi Province. 108 sample were drawn by random sampling from Thai and foreign tourists at Baan Bueng Resort. Questionnaires were distributed. Data were analyzed using frequency, percentage, mean (X) and standard deviation (S.D.). The tool used in this research was questionnaire on satisfaction towards the services of Baan Bueng Resort in Nongprue Subdistrict, Baanlamung District, Chonburi Province. The questionnaire can be divided into 3 parts; i.e. Part 1: General information i.e. gender, age, educational level, occupation, income, and nationality, Part 2: Customer satisfaction towards the services of Baan Bueng Resort; and Part 3: Suggestions of respondents. It can be concluded that most of the respondents are male, aged between 25 – 35 years old with bachelor degree. Most of them are private company employees with income 10,000–20,000 Baht per month. The majority of customers are satisfied with the services at Baan Beung Resort. Overall satisfaction is at good level. Considering each item, the item with the highest satisfaction level is personality and manner of employees and promptness and accuracy of cashier staff. Overall satisfaction towards the cleanliness of the rooms is at very good level. When considering each item, the item with the highest satisfaction level is that the guest room is cleaned everyday, while the satisfaction towards the quality of food and beverages at Baan Bueng Resort in Nongprue Subdistrict, Baanlamung District, Chonburi Province is at very good level. The item with the highest satisfaction is hotel facilities.

Keywords: satisfaction study, service, hotel, customer

Procedia PDF Downloads 313

Authors: Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah, Vasilis Peristeras, Ioannis Magnisalis

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Organizations, including governments, generate (big) data that are high in volume, velocity, veracity, and come from a variety of sources. Public Administrations are using (big) data, implementing base registries, and enforcing data sharing within the entire government to deliver (big) data related integrated services, provision of insights to users, and for good governance. Government (Big) data ecosystem actors represent distinct entities that provide data, consume data, manipulate data to offer paid services, and extend data services like data storage, hosting services to other actors. In this research work, we perform a systematic literature review. The key objectives of this paper are to propose a robust definition of government (big) data ecosystem and a classification of government (big) data ecosystem actors and their roles. We showcase a graphical view of actors, roles, and their relationship in the government (big) data ecosystem. We also discuss our research findings. We did not find too much published research articles about the government (big) data ecosystem, including its definition and classification of actors and their roles. Therefore, we lent ideas for the government (big) data ecosystem from numerous areas that include scientific research data, humanitarian data, open government data, industry data, in the literature.

Keywords: big data, big data ecosystem, classification of big data actors, big data actors roles, definition of government (big) data ecosystem, data-driven government, eGovernment, gaps in data ecosystems, government (big) data, public administration, systematic literature review

Procedia PDF Downloads 139

Authors: Francis Edum-Fotwe, Tony Thorpe, Charles Afetornu

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Risk perception informs the outcome of how issues are responded to in either solving or overcoming a problem or improving a situation. Risk perception is established to be affected by some key factors reflecting in the varying ways in which work is done as well as the level of efficiency achieved. These factors potentially would influence risk perception to different extents. Such that if these factors are said to determine risk perception, how does a change in any affect risk perception. Since the ability to address risk is influenced by risk perception, establishing and developing awareness of that perception should enable construction professionals to make viable decisions. Any act to improve the construction industry cannot be overemphasised, considering its contribution to national development. A survey questionnaire was conducted in Ghana to elicit data that measures the risk perception and the essential factors as well as the necessary demographics of the respondents, who are construction professionals. This study finds out the sensitivity of the critical factors of risk perception. It uses the Relative Importance Index analysis tool to investigate the differential effect of these essential factors on risk perception, such that a slight change in a factor makes a significant change in risk perception, having established that it is influenced by essential factors. The findings can lead to policy formation for employers on the prioritisation factors to undertake to improve the risk perception of employees. Other areas in which this study can be useful in team formation for sensitive and complex projects where efficient risk management is critical.

Keywords: construction industry, risk, risk management, risk perception

Procedia PDF Downloads 119