Search results for: quality assurance and accreditation

Authors: Rouighi Mustapha, Bouzid Laghaa Souad, Rouighi Tahar

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Due to rain Shortage and the increase of population in the last years, wells excavation and groundwater use for different purposes had been increased without any planning. This is a great challenge for our country. Moreover, this scarcity of water resources in this region is unfortunately combined with rapid fresh water resources quality deterioration, due to salinity and contamination processes. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct the studies about groundwater quality in Algeria. In this work consists in the identification of the factors which influence the water quality parameters in Laghouat region by using statistical analysis Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA) and geographic information system (GIS) in an attempt to discriminate the sources of the variation of water quality variations. The results of PCA technique indicate that variables responsible for water quality composition are mainly related to soluble salts variables; natural processes and the nature of the rock which modifies significantly the water chemistry. Inferred from the positive correlation between K+ and NO3-, NO3- is believed to be human induced rather than naturally originated. In this study, the multivariate statistical analysis and GIS allows the hydrogeologist to have supplementary tools in the characterization and evaluating of aquifers.

Keywords: cluster, analysis, GIS, groundwater, laghouat, quality

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Authors: M. S. V. K. V. Prasad, G. Siva Praveena, P. V. V. Prasada Rao

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It is known that the groundwater quality is very important parameter because it is the main factor determining its suitability for drinking, agricultural and industrial purposes. Water Quality Index (WQI) has been calculated for ground water samples taken from Narsapur-Mogalthur mandals, West Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh, India, from 10 different locations in the pre-monsoon season as well as post monsoon. The water samples were analyzed for pH, Electrical Conductivity (EC), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), Total Hardness (TH), major cations like calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium and anions like chloride, nitrate and sulphate in the laboratory using the standard methods given by the American Public Health Association (APHA). The overall quality of water in the study area is somewhat good for all constituents. Drinking water at almost all the locations was found to be slightly contaminated, except a few locations during the year 2014. It was found that some effective measures are urgently required for water quality management in this region.

Keywords: Water Quality Index, Physico-chemical parameters, Quality rating, monsoon

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Authors: William Thomas Worster

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This paper will highlight the failure of international adjudication to prevent a state from evading an order of provisional measures by simply issuing a diplomatic assurance to the court. This practice changes the positions of the litigants as equals before a court, prevents the court from inquiring into the reliability of the political pledge as it would with assurances from a state to an individual, and diminishes the court’s ability to control its own proceedings in the face of concerns over sovereignty. Both the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) and International Court of Justice (ICJ) will entertain these kinds of unilateral pledges, but they consider them differently when the declaration is made between states or between a state and an individual, and when made directly to the court. In short, diplomatic assurances issued between states or to individuals are usually considered not to be legally binding and are essentially questions of fact, but unilateral assurances issued directly to an international court are questions of law, and usually legally binding. At the same time, orders for provisional measures are now understood also to be legally binding, yet international courts will sometimes permit a state to substitute an assurance in place of an order for provisional measures. This emerging practice has brought the nature of a state as a sovereign capable of creating legal obligations into the forum of adjudication where the parties should have equality of arms and permitted states to create legal obligations that escape inquiry into the reliability of the outcome. While most recent practice has occurred at the ICJ in state-to-state litigation, there is some practice potentially extending the practice to human rights courts. Especially where the litigants are factually unequal – a state and an individual – this practice is problematic since states could more easily overcome factual failings in their pledges and evade the control of the court. Consider, for example, the potential for evading non-refoulement obligations by extending the current diplomatic assurances practice from the state-to-state context to the state-to-court context. The dual nature of assurances, as both legal and factual instruments, should be considered as addressed to distinct questions, each with its own considerations, and that we need to be more demanding about their precise legal and factual effects.

Keywords: unilateral, diplomacy, assurances, undertakings, provisional measures, interim measures

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Authors: Rahman Mofidi, Sina Rahimi, Farnoosh Darban

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Communication plays a key role in today’s world, and to support it, the quality of service has the highest priority. It is very important to differentiate between traffic based on priority level. Some traffic classes should be a higher priority than other classes. It is also necessary to give high priority to customers who have more payment for better service, however, without influence on other customers. So to realize that, we will require effective quality of service methods. To ensure the optimal performance of the network in accordance with the quality of service is an important goal for all operators in the mobile network. In this work, we propose an algorithm based on control parameters which it’s based on user feedback that aims at minimizing the access to system transmit power and thus improving the network key performance indicators and increasing the quality of service. This feedback that is known as channel quality indicator (CQI) indicates the received signal level of the user. We aim at proposing an algorithm in control parameter criterion to study improving the quality of service and throughput in a cellular network at the simulated environment. In this work we tried to parameter values have close to their actual level. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm improves the system throughput and thus satisfies users' throughput and improves service to set up a successful call.

Keywords: quality of service, key performance indicators, control parameter, channel quality indicator

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Authors: A. Ali, V. Strezov, P. Davies, I. Wright, T. Kan

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The environmental impacts arising from mining activities affect the air, water, and soil quality. Impacts may result in unexpected and adverse environmental outcomes. This study reports on the impact of coal production on sediment in Sydney region of Australia. The sediment samples upstream and downstream from the discharge points from three mines were taken, and 80 parameters were tested. The results were assessed against sediment quality based on presence of metals. The study revealed the increment of metal content in the sediment downstream of the reference locations. In many cases, the sediment was above the Australia and New Zealand Environment Conservation Council and international sediment quality guidelines value (SQGV). The major outliers to the guidelines were nickel (Ni) and zinc (Zn).

Keywords: coal mine, environmental impact, produced water, sediment quality guidelines value (SQGV)

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Authors: Ibrahim Abdel Gadir Malik, Dafalla Siddig Dafalla, Osama Abdelgadir El-Bushra

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Geological and engineering characteristics of intact rock and the discontinuity surfaces was used to describe and classify rock mass into zones based on mechanical and physical properties. Many conditions terms that affect the rock mas; such as Rock strength, Rock Quality Designation (RQD) value, joint spacing, and condition of joint, water condition with block size, joint roughness, separation, joint hardness, friction angle and weathering were used to classify the rock mass into: Good quality (class II) (RMR values range between 75% and 56%), Good to fair quality (class II to III) (RMR values range between 70% and 55%), Fair quality (class III) (RMR values range between 60% and 50%) and Fair to poor quality (Class III to IV) (RMR values, range between (50% and 35%).

Keywords: rock strength, RQD, joints, weathering

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Authors: Yulmaida Amir, Fahrul Rozi, Insany C. Kamil, Fanny Aryani

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ODAPUS (Orang dengan Lupus) is an Indonesian term for people with Lupus, a chronic autoimmune disease in which immune system of the body becomes hyperactive and attacks normal tissue. The number of ODAPUS indicate an increase in Indonesia, thereby helping to improve their quality of life to be important to help their recovery. This study aims to examine the effect of resilience, self-esteem, and social support on the quality of life of women who had been diagnosed as having Lupus. Data were collected from 64 ODAPUS in Indonesia, using the World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL), Resilience Scale from Wagnil and Young (1993), self-esteem scale (developed from Coopersmith’s theory), and Social Support Questioner from Northouse (1988). Regression data analysis showed that resilience, social support, and self-esteem predict the quality of life of the ODAPUS simultaneously. If the variable was analysed individually, self-esteem did not significantly contribute to the quality of life. Resilience contributed most significantly to the quality of life, followed by social support. Of five sources of social supports included in the research, support from family members (parents and brother/sisters) has the most significant contribution to the quality of life, followed by support from spouse, and from friends. Interestingly, social support from medical personnel (medical doctors and nurses) had not a significant contribution to the quality of life of ODAPUS. As a conclusion, this research showed that the ability of ODAPUS to cope with difficulty in life, and support from family members, spouse, and friends were the significant predictors for their quality of life.

Keywords: quality of life, resilience, self-esteem, social supports

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Authors: Rodrigo Guimarães Santos

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The quality of public transport services has been considered as a critical factor by their users and also by users of individual transport. Thus, this dissertation aims to adapt a model that assesses the quality of public transport and determines its level of service based on the views of its users. The methodology is widely used by marketers and allows measuring the quality of services by assessing the perceptions and expectations of users. The adapted SERVQUAL was tested with users of public transport service users and car in Brasília-DF, city of Brazil. This research involved 241 questionnaires answered by people living in the various administrative regions of Brasília-DF. The analysis of the determinants pointed out that the quality of the public transport service offered in the city is low and users of public transport and cars have a high degree of expectations for improvement in all tested determinants. This method enabled the identification of the most critical determinants and those needing strategic actions for continuous improvement of quality. Adapting the SERVQUAL for a public transport service was satisfactory and demonstrated applicability to internal and external services, including measuring the public transport services in other cities with the opinion of the users.

Keywords: transportation services, quality services, servqual scale and marketing services

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Authors: Aklilu Alemu, Tak Cheung Chan

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Following the intensification of secondary education in the developing world, the attention of Ethiopia has currently shifted to its quality education and its management. This study is aimed to explore experts’ perceptions of quality management challenges in secondary education in Ethiopia. The researchers employed a case study design recruiting participating supervisors from the Ministry of Education, region, zone, wereda, and cluster by using a purposeful sampling technique. Twenty-six interviewees took part in this study. The researchers employed NVivo 8 versions together with a thematic analysis process to analyze the data. This study revealed that major problems that affected quality management practices in Ethiopia were: lack of qualified experts at all levels; lack of accountability in every echelon; the changing nature of teacher education; the ineffectiveness of teacher-licensing programs; and lack of educational budget and the problem of utilizing this limited budget. The study concluded that the experts at different levels were not genuinely fulfilling their roles and responsibilities. Therefore, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, together with the concerned parties, needs to reconsider budget allocation for secondary education.

Keywords: education quality, Ethiopia, quality challenge, quality management, secondary education

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Authors: Olu Ale, Olugbenga Aribisala, Sanmi Awopetu

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Groundwater (Wells) is obtained from several well-defined and different water-bearing geological layers or strata. The physical, chemical and bacteriological quality of the water contributed from each of these water-bearing formations and resultant effects of indiscriminate wastes disposal will be dependent on the dissolution of material within the formation. Therefore, water withdrawn from any ground water source will be a composite of these individual aquifers. The water quality was determined by actual sampling and analysis of the completed wells. This study attempted to examine the physicochemical and bacteriological water quality of twenty five selected wells comprising twenty boreholes (deep wells) and five hand dug wells (shallow wells). The twenty five wells cut across the entire Ado Ekiti Metropolitan area. The water samples collected using standard method was promptly taken to water laboratory at the Federal Polytechnic Ado-Ekiti for analysis, physical, chemical and bacteriological tests were carried out. Quality characteristics tested were found to meet WHO’s standard and generally acceptable, making it potable for drinking in most situations, thus encouraging the use of groundwater. Possible improvement strategies to groundwater exploitation were highlighted while remedies to poor quality water were suggested.

Keywords: bacteriological, physicochemical, quality, wells, Ado Ekiti

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Authors: Zainab Khalifah, Wong Chiet Bing, Noor Hazarina Hashim

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The evolution of customer behavior in purchasing products or services through the Internet leads to airline companies engaging in the e-ticketing process in order to maintain their business. A well-designed website is vitally significant for the airline companies to provide effective communication, support, and competitive advantage. This study was conducted to identify the dimensions of website quality for low cost airline and to investigate the relationship between the website quality and customer e-satisfaction at low cost airline. A total of 381 responses were conveniently collected among local passengers at Low Cost Carrier Terminal, Kuala Lumpur via questionnaire distribution. This study found that the five determinant factors of website quality for AirAsia were Information Content, Navigation, Responsiveness, Personalization, and Security and Privacy. The results of this study revealed that there is a positive relationship between the five dimensions of website quality and customer e-satisfaction, and also information content was the most significant contributor to customer e-satisfaction.

Keywords: website quality, customer e-satisfaction, low cost airline, e-ticketing

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Authors: Halimi Mohamed Taher, Kordoghli Bassem, Ben Hassen Mohamed, Sakli Faouzi

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Textile industry has been an important part of many developing countries economies such as Tunisia. This industry is confronted with a challenging and increasing competitive environment. Good quality management in production process is the key factor for retaining existence especially in raw material exploitation. The present work aims to develop an intelligent system for fabric inspection. In the first step, we have studied the method used for fabric control which takes into account the default length and localization in woven. In the second step, we have used a method based on the fuzzy logic to minimize the Demerit point indicator with appropriate total rollers length, so that the quality problem becomes multi-objective. In order to optimize the total fabric quality, we have applied the genetic algorithm (GA).

Keywords: fabric control, Fuzzy logic, genetic algorithm, quality management

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Authors: M. G. Dirodi, G. Gugliotta, C. Leonardi

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The member states shall establish zones and agglomerations throughout their territory to assess and manage air quality in order to comply with European directives. In Italy decree 155/2010, transposing Directive 2008/50/EC on ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe, merged into a single act the previous provisions on ambient air quality assessment and management, including those resulting from the implementation of Directive 2004/107/EC relating to arsenic, cadmium, nickel, mercury, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in ambient air. Decree 155/2010 introduced stricter rules for identifying zones on the basis of the characteristics of the territory in spite of considering pollution levels, as it was in the past. The implementation of such new criteria has reduced the great variability of the previous zoning, leading to a significant reduction of the total number of zones and to a complete and uniform ambient air quality assessment and management throughout the Country. The present document is related to the new zones definition in Italy according to Decree 155/2010. In particular, the paper contains the description and the analysis of the outcome of zoning and classification.

Keywords: zones, agglomerations, air quality assessment, classification

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Authors: Mehrnoosh Askarizadeh

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People, process and IT are the most important assets of any organization. Optimal utilization of these resources has been the question of research in business for many decades. The business world have responded by inventing various methodologies that can be used for addressing problems of quality improvement, efficiency of processes, continuous improvement, reduction of waste, automation, strategy alignments etc. Some of these methodologies can be commonly called as Business Process Quality Management methodologies (BPQM). In essence, the first references to the process management can be traced back to Frederick Taylor and scientific management. Time and motion study was addressed to improvement of manufacturing process efficiency. The ideas of scientific management were in use for quite a long period until more advanced quality management techniques were developed in Japan and USA. One of the first prominent methods had been Total Quality Management (TQM) which evolved during 1980’s. About the same time, Six Sigma (SS) originated at Motorola as a separate method. SS spread and evolved; and later joined with ideas of Lean manufacturing to form Lean Six Sigma. In 1990’s due to emerging IT technologies, beginning of globalization, and strengthening of competition, companies recognized the need for better process and quality management. Business Process Management (BPM) emerged as a novel methodology that has taken all this into account and helped to align IT technologies with business processes and quality management. In this article we will study various aspects of above mentioned methods and identified their relations.

Keywords: e-process, quality, TQM, BPM, lean, six sigma, CPI, information technology, management

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Authors: Adhimoolam Saravana Kumar, K. N. Govindarajan, B. Devanand, R. Rajakumar

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The quality of Computed Tomography (CT) procedures has improved in recent years due to technological developments and increased diagnostic ability of CT scanners. Due to the fact that CT doses are the peak among diagnostic radiology practices, it is of great significance to be aware of patient’s CT radiation dose whenever a CT examination is preferred. CT radiation dose delivered to patients in the form of volume CT dose index (CTDIvol) values, is displayed on scanner monitors at the end of each examination and it is an important fact to assure that this information is accurate. The objective of this study was to estimate the CTDIvol values for great number of patients during the most frequent CT examinations, to study the comparison between CT dose monitor values and measured ones, as well as to highlight the fluctuation of CTDIvol values for the same CT examination at different centres and scanner models. The output CT dose indices measurements were carried out on single and multislice scanners for available kV, 5 mm slice thickness, 100 mA and FOV combination used. The 100 CT scanners were involved in this study. Data with regard to 15,000 examinations in patients, who underwent routine head, chest and abdomen CT were collected using a questionnaire sent to a large number of hospitals. Out of the 15,000 examinations, 5000 were head CT examinations, 5000 were chest CT examinations and 5000 were abdominal CT examinations. Comprehensive quality assurance (QA) was performed for all the machines involved in this work. Followed by QA, CT phantom dose measurements were carried out in South India using actual scanning parameters used clinically by the hospitals. From this study, we have measured the mean divergence between the measured and displayed CTDIvol values were 5.2, 8.4, and -5.7 for selected head, chest and abdomen procedures for protocols as mentioned above, respectively. Thus, this investigation revealed an observable change in CT practices, with a much wider range of studies being performed currently in South India. This reflects the improved capacity of CT scanners to scan longer scan lengths and at finer resolutions as permitted by helical and multislice technology. Also, some of the CT scanners have used smaller slice thickness for routine CT procedures to achieve better resolution and image quality. It leads to an increase in the patient radiation dose as well as the measured CTDIv, so it is suggested that such CT scanners should select appropriate slice thickness and scanning parameters in order to reduce the patient dose. If these routine scan parameters for head, chest and abdomen procedures are optimized than the dose indices would be optimal and lead to the lowering of the CT doses. In South Indian region all the CT machines were routinely tested for QA once in a year as per AERB requirements.

Keywords: CT dose index, weighted CTDI, volumetric CTDI, radiation dose

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Authors: Marlon B. Espedillon

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This qualitative study examines practice teaching as an important component of teacher education and its entanglement with the teacher quality discourse. How the key actors -student teachers, supervising instructors, cooperating teachers, and school principals- construe teacher quality is essential in understanding how the student teachers articulate their voices and challenge the cultural myths in teacher education. The ethnographic method of research was used to provide an ecological picture of field experiences. Three cultural myths were uncovered based on the thematic analysis of the interview transcripts, observations, and documents.

Keywords: teacher quality, practice teaching, student teacher agency, cultural myths

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Authors: Wanida Suwunniponth

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The purpose of this research was to study the factors of characteristic of business, website quality and trust affected intention to use electronic payment systems for online purchasing. This survey research used questionnaire as a tool to collect the data of 300 customers who purchased online products and used an electronic payment system. The descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis were used to analyze data. The results revealed that customers had a good opinion towards the characteristic of the business and website quality. However, they have a moderate opinion towards trust and intention to repurchase. In addition, the characteristics of the business affected the purchase intention the most, followed by website quality and the trust with statistical significance at 0.05 level. For particular, the terms of reputation, communication, information quality, perceived risk and word of mouth affected the intention to use the electronic payment system. In contrast, the terms of size, system quality and service quality did not affect intention to use an electronic payment system.

Keywords: electronic payment, intention, online purchasing, trust

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Authors: Wim Zeiler

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The indoor quality of occupied space is very important for the well-being of its occupants, especially in the case of babies. The lungs of a young child are still growing and adverse conditions could affect this development. Presently little children spend a lot of their time in day care centers while parents are at work. Little is known about the effects of different indoor environmental factors present in these day care centers and the quality of air of baby cots in which the babies are accommodated in these day care centers. Therefore this research investigated the quality of the accommodation of Dutch day care centers. Besides an extensive literature research actual measurements were performed in baby cots within three-day care center. Some experiments were performed to find out the importance of the configuration and types of baby cots. This research investigated the quality of the accommodation of a Dutch day care center which led to a tool describing the quality needs (e.g., quality standard) for the accommodation of day care centers. The results of our detailed studies were compared with the results of earlier Dutch more global studies in day care centers, in which more than 60 day care centers were investigated. Also the results are compared with the outcomes of research on school ventilation. The results proved that the situation in day care centers is even worse than that of schools within the Netherlands. More attention is needed to improve the current situation.

Keywords: ventilation, baby cots, day care centers, case study

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Authors: Naga Velamakuri, Jyothi K. Reddy

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Quality must be designed into a product and not inspected has become the main motto of all the companies globally. Due to the rapidly increasing technology in the past few decades, the nature of demands from the consumers has become more sophisticated. To sustain this global revolution of innovation in production systems, companies have to take steps to accommodate this technology growth. In this process of understanding the customers' expectations, all the firms globally take steps to deliver a perfect output. Most of these techniques also concentrate on the consistent development and optimization of the product to exceed the expectations. Quality Function Deployment(QFD) and Modular Function Deployment(MFD) are such techniques which rely on the voice of the customer and help deliver the needs. In this paper, Quality Function Deployment and Modular Function Deployment techniques which help in converting the quantitative descriptions to qualitative outcomes are discussed. The area of interest would be to understand the scope of each of the techniques and the application range in product development when these are applied together to any problem. The research question would be mainly aimed at comprehending the limitations using modularity in product development.

Keywords: quality function deployment, modular function deployment, house of quality, methodology

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Authors: Fred Fudah Moveh, Muhammad Abba Jallo

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Electoral fraud remains a persistent threat to democracy in Nigeria, undermining public trust and stalling political development. This study explores the role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in curbing electoral fraud, focusing on its application in recent Nigerian elections. The paper identifies the main forms of electoral fraud, evaluates the effectiveness of ICT-based interventions like the Permanent Voter Card (PVC) and the Bi-modal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), and discusses challenges such as poor infrastructure, voter intimidation, and legal inadequacies. Data was collected through structured questionnaires and interviews and analyzed using SPSS software. Results reveal that while ICT has mitigated some forms of fraud, systemic issues continue to hinder its full potential. The study concludes with recommendations for enhancing the application of ICT in Nigeria’s electoral process.

Keywords: ICT, electoral fraud, election process, Nigeria, political instability

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Authors: Prateep Wajeetongratana

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This research aims to study the audit quality that affected to the reputation of the certified public accountants in Thailand. The researcher defined the population for this research as a group of the certified public accountants in Thailand who are the member of the federation of accounting professions under the royal patronage of his majesty the king also disclose their information .The total sampling size is 325. The results showed the audit quality factor has influence to the reputation of the certified public accountants in Thailand by accuracy auditing, objectiveness auditing and clearness auditing .These factors show by y1 = 1.381 + .372x1.1 + .309x1.2 + .305x1.3 can be describe as professional standard strictly factor (Y.1.1) and the new clients raised from word of mount of old clients regularly factor (Y.1.2) by regression coefficient (R2) as.242, this shows that such variables could predict the audit quality variable as 24.2 percent.

Keywords: audit quality, certified public accountants in Thailand, reputation

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Authors: Nadia Yaghoobi, Seyed Majid Esmaeilzadeh

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Due to advancements in wireless communication, new sensor capabilities have been created. In addition to the automation industry, the Internet of Things (IoT) has been used in environmental issues and has provided the possibility of communication between different devices for data collection and exchange. Water quality depends on many factors which are essential for maintaining the minimum sustainability of water. Regarding the great dependence of fishes on the quality of the aquatic environment, water quality can directly affect their activity. Therefore, monitoring water quality is an important issue to consider, especially in the fish farming industry. The conventional method of water quality testing is to collect water samples manually and send them to a laboratory for testing and analysis. This time-consuming method is a waste of manpower and is not cost-effective. The water quality measurement system implemented in this project monitors water quality in real-time through various sensors (parameters: water temperature, water level, dissolved oxygen, humidity and ambient temperature, water turbidity, PH). The Wi-Fi module, ESP8266, transmits data collected by sensors wirelessly to ThingSpeak and the smartphone app. Also, with the help of these instantaneous data, water temperature and water level can be controlled by using a heater and a water pump, respectively. This system can have a detailed study of the pollution and condition of water resources and can provide an environment for safe fish farming.

Keywords: dissolved oxygen, IoT, monitoring, ThingSpeak, water level, water quality, WiFi module

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Authors: Shatha Ghareeb, Rawaa Al-Jumeily, Thar Baker

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In Abu Dhabi, there are many different education curriculums where sector of private schools and quality assurance is supervising many private schools in Abu Dhabi for many nationalities. As there are many different education curriculums in Abu Dhabi to meet expats’ needs, there are different requirements for registration and success. In addition, there are different age groups for starting education in each curriculum. In fact, each curriculum has a different number of years, assessment techniques, reassessment rules, and exam boards. Currently, students that transfer curriculums are not being placed in the right year group due to different start and end dates of each academic year and their date of birth for each year group is different for each curriculum and as a result, we find students that are either younger or older for that year group which therefore creates gaps in their learning and performance. In addition, there is not a way of storing student data throughout their academic journey so that schools can track the student learning process. In this paper, we propose to develop a computational framework applicable in multicultural countries such as UAE in which multi-education systems are implemented. The ultimate goal is to use cloud and fog computing technology integrated with Artificial Intelligence techniques of Machine Learning to aid in a smooth transition when assigning students to their year groups, and provide leveling and differentiation information of students who relocate from a particular education curriculum to another, whilst also having the ability to store and access student data from anywhere throughout their academic journey.

Keywords: admissions, algorithms, cloud computing, differentiation, fog computing, levelling, machine learning

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Authors: Ana L. Martins, Rita S. Saraiva, João C. Ferreira

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Much effort has been placed on the assessment of perceived service quality. Several models can be found in literature, but these are mainly focused on business-to-consumer (B2C) relationships. Literature on how to assess perceived quality in business-to-business (B2B) contexts is scarce both conceptually and in terms of its application. This research aims at filling this gap in literature by applying INDSERV to a case study situation. Under this scope, this research aims at analyzing the adequacy of the proposed assessment tool to other context besides the one where it was developed and by doing so analyzing the perceive quality of the advertisement service provided by a specific television network to its B2B customers. The INDSERV scale was adopted and applied to a sample of 33 clients, via questionnaires adapted to interviews. Data was collected in person or phone. Both quantitative and qualitative data collection was performed. Qualitative data analysis followed content analysis protocol. Quantitative analysis used hypotheses testing. Findings allowed to conclude that the perceived quality of the television service provided by television network is very positive, being the Soft Process Quality the parameter that reveals the highest perceived quality of the service as opposed to Potential Quality. To this end, some comments and suggestions were made by the clients regarding each one of these service quality parameters. Based on the hypotheses testing, it was noticed that only advertisement clients that maintain a connection to the television network from 5 to 10 years do show a significant different perception of the TV advertisement service provided by the company in what the Hard Process Quality parameter is concerned. Through the collected data content analysis, it was possible to obtain the percentage of clients which share the same opinions and suggestions for improvement. Finally, based on one of the four service quality parameter in a B2B context, managerial suggestions were developed aiming at improving the television network advertisement perceived quality service.

Keywords: B2B, case study, INDSERV, perceived service quality

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Authors: Muhammad Rehan Usman, Muhammad Arslan Usman, Soo Young Shin

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The new era of digital communication has brought up many challenges that network operators need to overcome. The high demand of mobile data rates require improved networks, which is a challenge for the operators in terms of maintaining the quality of experience (QoE) for their consumers. In live video transmission, there is a sheer need for live surveillance of the videos in order to maintain the quality of the network. For this purpose objective algorithms are employed to monitor the quality of the videos that are transmitted over a network. In order to test these objective algorithms, subjective quality assessment of the streamed videos is required, as the human eye is the best source of perceptual assessment. In this paper we have conducted subjective evaluation of videos with varying spatial and temporal impairments. These videos were impaired with frame freezing distortions so that the impact of frame freezing on the quality of experience could be studied. We present subjective Mean Opinion Score (MOS) for these videos that can be used for fine tuning the objective algorithms for video quality assessment.

Keywords: frame freezing, mean opinion score, objective assessment, subjective evaluation

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Authors: Gbenga Martins, Christopher J. Olowookere, Lateef Bamidele, Kehinde O. Olatunji

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The aims of this research are to measure the scattered dose rate during an X-ray examination in an X-ray room, compare the scattered dose rate with exposure parameters based on the body region examined, and examine the X-ray examination done with an over couch tube. The research was carried out using Gamma Scout software installation on the computer system (Laptop) to record the radiation counts, pulse rate, and dose rate. The measurement was employed by placing the detector at 900 to the incident X-ray. Proforma was used for the collection of patients’ data such as age, sex, examination type, and initial diagnosis. Data such as focus skin distance (FSD), body mass index (BMI), body thickness of the patients, the beam output (kVp) were collected at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Western Nigeria. Total number of 136 patients was considered during this research. Dose rate range between 14.21 and 86.78 µSv/h for the plain abdominal region, 85.70 and 2.86 µSv/h for the lumbosacral region,1.3 µSv/yr and 3.6 µSv/yr in the pelvis region, 2.71 µSv/yr and 28.88 µSv/yr for leg region, 3.06 µSv/yr and 29.98 µSv/yr in hand region. The results of this study were compared with those of other studies carried out in other countries. The findings of this study indicated that the number of exposure parameters selected for each diagnostic examination contributed to the dose rate recorded. Therefore, these results call for a quality assurance program (QAP) in diagnostic X-ray units in Nigerian hospitals.

Keywords: X-radiation, exposure parameters, dose rate, pulse rate, number of counts, tube current, tube potential, diagnostic examination, scattered radiation

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Authors: Hoong C. Chin, Soon H. Chew, Zhaoxia Wang

Abstract:

Work on sustainable developments and the call for action in education for sustainable development have been ongoing for a number of years. Training engineering students with the relevant competencies, particularly in sustainable development literacy, has been identified as an urgent task in universities. This requires not only a holistic, multi-disciplinary approach to education but also a suitable training environment to develop the needed skills and to inculcate the appropriate attitudes in students towards sustainable development. To demonstrate how this can be done, a module involving an overseas field trip was introduced in 2013 at the National University of Singapore. This paper provides details of the module and describes its training philosophy and methods. Measured against the student learning outcomes, stipulated by the Engineering Accreditation Board, the module scored well on all of them, particularly those related to complex problem solving, environmental and sustainability awareness, multi-disciplinary team work and varied-level communications.

Keywords: civil engineering education, socio-economically sustainable infrastructure, student learning outcome, sustainable development

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Authors: L. Miranda

Abstract:

The requirements of the engineering education are nowadays very broad and demand a set of skills which demands not only technical knowledge but also the ability to lead and innovate and personal and interpersonal skills. A framework for the assessment of a potential curricular change is necessary to guide the analysis of the program with respect to the stakeholders and the legislation of the country, in order to develop appropriate learning outcomes. A Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate (CDIO) approach was chosen for an evaluation conducted in a mechanical engineering degree in Brazil. The work consisted in the application of a survey with students and professors and a literature review of the legislation and studies that raised the required competences and skills for the modern engineer. The results show a great potential for a CDIO set of skills in engineering degrees in Brazil and reveal the frequent demands of stakeholders before a curricular change.

Keywords: curriculum change, conceive design implement operate, accreditation, personal and interpersonal skills

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Authors: Kuo-C. Lo, Chung-H. Hung

Abstract:

Invasion of foreign air pollutants to deteriorate local air quality has become an emerging international issue of concern. This study aimed to apply meteorological and air quality model, WRF-Chem (V3.1), for simulating and analyzing the phenomenon of forming of high-concentrated particulate matters, PM10 and PM2.5, in ambient air of Taiwan during January 17th to 19th, 2014. The foreign air pollutants were mainly from long-distance transport of air pollutants of China being transported with a strong continental cold high. It was observed that PM10 and PM2.5 peaked as high as 182~588 μg/m3 and 95~165 μg/m3, respectively, in the ambient air of west side of Taiwan. They were about 2~3 folds higher than the usual concentrations of particulate matters in these seasons.

Keywords: WRF-Chem, air pollution, PM2.5, ambient air quality

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Authors: Shahbaz G. Hassan

Abstract:

Water quality models are very important to predict the changes in surface water quality for environmental management. The aim of this paper is to give an overview of the water qualities, and to provide directions for selecting models in specific situation. Water quality models include one kind of model based on a mechanistic approach, while other models simulate water quality without considering a mechanism. Mechanistic models can be widely applied and have capabilities for long-time simulation, with highly complexity. Therefore, more spaces are provided to explain the principle and application experience of mechanistic models. Mechanism models have certain assumptions on rivers, lakes and estuaries, which limits the application range of the model, this paper introduces the principles and applications of water quality model based on the above three scenarios. On the other hand, mechanistic models are more easily to compute, and with no limit to the geographical conditions, but they cannot be used with confidence to simulate long term changes. This paper divides the empirical models into two broad categories according to the difference of mathematical algorithm, models based on artificial intelligence and models based on statistical methods.

Keywords: empirical models, mathematical, statistical, water quality

Procedia PDF Downloads 264