Search results for: service behavior

Authors: Myla Zenaida Cabrillas-Torio, Von Anthony G. Torio

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Homework is defined as an additional task that a student does outside of the school. This added activity is in recognition of the necessity to spend additional time for subjects such as Mathematics. The dilemma comes in the form of the advantages and disadvantages that can be derived from homework. Studies have revealed varying effects to students on academic and non-academic areas. Teachers are at the forefront of the decision towards the giving or not of homework. Pre-service teachers at the elementary level represent the future leaders of the educational system and should be acquainted and involved at the onset of the dilemma. The main objective of this study is to determine the perspective of pre-service elementary teachers towards homework. The anatomy of their belief can be key towards addressing the issue via teacher training. Salient results revealed that the subjects favor the giving homework on the following grounds: it helps add knowledge and confidence. Those who do not favor homework find it as an additional burden. Difficulties in complying with homework are usually associated with lack of references and performance of other household chores. Students usually spend late nights to comply with homework and are unable to perform at the best of their potentials.

Keywords: attitude, homework, pre-service teachers, mathematics education, Philippines

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Authors: Airy Huang, Fuji Foo, Aries Prasetya Wibowo

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In recent years, the focus of Natural Language Processing (NLP) development has been gradually shifting from the semantics-based approach to deep learning one, which performs faster with fewer resources. Although it performs well in many applications, the deep learning approach, due to the lack of semantics understanding, has difficulties in noticing and expressing a novel business case with a pre-defined scope. In order to meet the requirements of specific robotic services, deep learning approach is very labor-intensive and time consuming. It is very difficult to improve the capabilities of conversational AI in a short time, and it is even more difficult to self-learn from experiences to deliver the same service in a better way. In this paper, we present an adaptive conversational AI algorithm that combines both semantic knowledge and deep learning to address this issue by learning new business cases through conversations. After self-learning from experience, the robot adapts to the business cases originally out of scope. The idea is to build new or extended robotic services in a systematic and fast-training manner with self-configured programs and constructed dialog flows. For every cycle in which a chat bot (conversational AI) delivers a given set of business cases, it is trapped to self-measure its performance and rethink every unknown dialog flows to improve the service by retraining with those new business cases. If the training process reaches a bottleneck and incurs some difficulties, human personnel will be informed of further instructions. He or she may retrain the chat bot with newly configured programs, or new dialog flows for new services. One approach employs semantics analysis to learn the dialogues for new business cases and then establish the necessary ontology for the new service. With the newly learned programs, it completes the understanding of the reaction behavior and finally uses dialog flows to connect all the understanding results and programs, achieving the goal of self-learning process. We have developed a chat bot service mounted on a kiosk, with a camera for facial recognition and a directional microphone array for voice capture. The chat bot serves as a concierge with polite conversation for visitors. As a proof of concept. We have demonstrated to complete 90% of reception services with limited self-learning capability.

Keywords: conversational AI, chatbot, dialog management, semantic analysis

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Authors: Yu-Chen Wei

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This study integrated the need fulfillment theory and affective event theory to investigate the effects of the interaction of job involvement and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) on well-being. Data from 196 paired samples of employees and their supervisors in one supplementary school in Taiwan were analyzed. This study found that while neither job involvement nor OCB directly affects well-being, the interaction of job involvement and OCB can predict well-being. The findings of this study suggest that management can assist employees in improving their well-being by balancing job involvement and OCB.

Keywords: job involvement, organizational citizenship behavior, well-being, need fulfillment

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Authors: Yu Hua Yan

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Background: This research attempts to extend and apply the concept of service dominant logic on My Health Bank platform, analyzed to find out are there any significant difference in wills to participate (potential factors for value) on the results of value co-creation? Methods: The questionnaires were delivered from August 2017 to October 2017 in hospitals. 167 valid ones were received, with an effective response rate of 98.2%. Results: This research employed the questionnaire method in collecting research data, with patients that have used My Health Bank as objects, to whom questionnaires were sent. Regarding the factors influencing therapeutic effects, in the statistics of capability and interaction, it reached a significant level (p <0.1). Regarding the factors influencing satisfaction on medical service, in the statistics of capability and interaction, it reached a significant level (p <0.001). Conclusion: Regarding the contributions of this research, it is possible to clarify its contents with the studies on value co-creation to enrich the literature of the studies of service dominant logic and value co-creation in Taiwan. Regarding its contribution in practice, the results of this research allows the value advocator – the government, to have a broader view in the consideration of making the policies on value co-creation.

Keywords: My Health Bank, interactive, participation, value creation

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Authors: Yuri Teraoka, Cheerawit Rattanapan, Aroonsri Mongkolchati

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This cross sectional analytic study was carried out to determine factors related to protective behavior on indoor pollution among pregnant women in Nakhon Pathom province, Thailand. A total of 319 pregnant women were enrolled at three antenatal care clinics in community hospital. Data were collected using simple random sampling from April 2015 to May 2015 using a structured self-administration questionnaire by well-trained research assistants. The result showed that around 73% pregnant women showed low level of low protective behavior on indoor pollution. Chi-square and multiple logistic regression were used to examine the factors and protective behavior on indoor pollution. After adjusting for confounding factors, this study found that tobacco smoking before pregnancy (AOR=2.15, 95% CI: 0.78-5.95) and low environmental health hazard (AOR=1.94, 95% CI: 1.09-3.49) were significant factors related to protective behavior on indoor pollution among pregnant women (p-value < 0.05). In conclusion, this study suggested that environmental health education campaign and environmental implementation program among pregnant woman are needed.

Keywords: Thailand, environmental health, protective behavior, pregnant women

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Authors: Yananda Siraphatthada

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The objectives of this research were to study the level of influencing factors, leadership, supply chain management, innovation, competitive advantages, business success, and affecting factors to the business success of the mobile phone system service providers in Bangkok Metropolitan. This research was done by the quantitative approach and the qualitative approach. The quantitative approach was used for questionnaires to collect data from the 331 mobile service shop managers franchised by AIS, Dtac and TrueMove. The mobile phone system service providers/shop managers were randomly stratified and proportionally allocated into subgroups exclusive to the number of the providers in each network. In terms of qualitative method, there were in-depth interviews of 6 mobile service providers/managers of Telewiz and Dtac and TrueMove shop to find the agreement or disagreement with the content analysis method. Descriptive Statistics, including Frequency, Percentage, Means and Standard Deviation were employed; also, the Structural Equation Model (SEM) was used as a tool for data analysis. The content analysis method was applied to identify key patterns emerging from the interview responses. The two data sets were brought together for comparing and contrasting to make the findings, providing triangulation to enrich result interpretation. It revealed that the level of the influencing factors – leadership, innovation management, supply chain management, and business competitiveness had an impact at a great level, but that the level of factors, innovation and the business, financial success and nonbusiness financial success of the mobile phone system service providers in Bangkok Metropolitan, is at the highest level. Moreover, the business influencing factors, competitive advantages in the business of mobile system service providers which were leadership, supply chain management, innovation management, business advantages, and business success, had statistical significance at .01 which corresponded to the data from the interviews.

Keywords: mobile service providers, facilitating factors, Bangkok Metropolitan, business success

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Authors: Li-Wei Wu, Chung-Yu Wang

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Recently, interest has been generated in the search for a new reference framework for value creation that is centered on the co-creation process. Co-creation implies cooperative value creation between service firms and customers and requires the building of experiences as well as the resolution of problems through the combined effort of the parties in the relationship. For customers, values are always co-created through their participation in services. Customers can ultimately determine the value of the service in use. This new approach emphasizes that a customer’s participation in the service process is considered indispensable to value co-creation. An important feature of service in the context of exchange is co-production, which implies that a certain amount of participation is needed from customers to co-produce a service and hence co-create value. Co-production no doubt helps customers better understand and take charge of their own roles in the service process. Thus, this proposal is to encourage co-production, thus facilitating value co-creation of that is reflected in both customers and service firms. Four determinants of co-production are identified in this study, namely, commitment, trust, asset specificity, and decision-making uncertainty. Commitment is an essential dimension that directly results in successful cooperative behaviors. Trust helps establish a relational environment that is fundamental to cross-border cooperation. Asset specificity motivates co-production because this determinant may enhance return on asset investment. Decision-making uncertainty prompts customers to collaborate with service firms in making decisions. In other words, customers adjust their roles and are increasingly engaged in co-production when commitment, trust, asset specificity, and decision-making uncertainty are enhanced. Although studies have examined the preceding effects, to our best knowledge, none has empirically examined the simultaneous effects of all the curvilinear relationships in a single study. When these determinants are excessive, however, customers will not engage in co-production process. In brief, we suggest that the relationships of commitment, trust, asset specificity, and decision-making uncertainty with co-production are curvilinear or are inverse U-shaped. These new forms of curvilinear relationships have not been identified in existing literature on co-production; therefore, they complement extant linear approaches. Most importantly, we aim to consider both the bright and the dark sides of the determinants of co-production.

Keywords: co-production, commitment, trust, asset specificity, decision-making uncertainty

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Authors: Nadjet Brahmia

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The evolution of urban forms, the new aspects of mobility, the ways of life and economic models make public transport conventional collective low-performing on the majority of largest Algerian cities, particularly in the west of Algeria. On the other side, the information and communication technologies (ICT) open new eventualities to develop a new mode of transport which brings together both the tenders offered by the public service collective and those of the particular vehicle, suitable for urban requirements, social and environmental. Like the concrete examples made in the international countries in terms of on-demand transport systems (ODT) more particularly in the developed countries, this article has for objective the opportunity analysis to establish a service of ODT at the level of a few towns of Oran Wilaya, such a service will be subsequently spread on the totality of the Wilaya if not on the whole of Algeria. In this context, we show the different existing means of transport in the current network whose aim to illustrate the points of insufficiency accented in the present transport system, then we discuss the solutions that may exhibit a service of ODT to the problem studied all around the transport sector, to carry at the end to highlight the capabilities of ODT replying to the transformation of mobilities, this in the light of well-defined cases.

Keywords: mobility, on-demand transport, public transport collective, transport system

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Authors: Pimporn Thongmuang

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The purpose of this research is to study sport and exercise behavior of students in Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University in September of 2012. The sample group used in this research was a group of regular students in undergraduate school enrolled in faculty of science and technology. This sample group consisted of 1,858 students. The research tool used to collect result was the checklist. The data was calculated by statistical percentage. From the research, it was discovered that most students did exercise in previous month. 71.6% of students exercised by running. 61.1% of students exercised in their neighborhood. 60.4% of students exercised in order to keep fit. 60.2% of students agreed that the result from this research can be educational and inspirational for students in campus in terms of living healthily by exercise.

Keywords: exercise behavior, sport behavior, students, health

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Authors: Raphael Rehmet, Armin Lohrengel, Prof Dr-Ing

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In terms of making machines more silent and convenient, it is necessary to analyze the transmission path of mechanical vibrations and structure-bone noise. A typical solution for the elimination of structure-bone noise would be to simply add stiffeners or additional masses to change the transmission behavior and, thereby, avoid the propagation of vibrations. Another solution could be to use materials with a different damping behavior, such as elastomers, to isolate the machine dynamically. This research approach investigates the damping behavior of additive printed components made from structural steel or titanium, which have been manufactured in the “Laser Powder Bed Fusion“-process. By using the design flexibility which this process comes with, it will be investigated how a local impedance difference will affect the transmission behavior of the specimens.

Keywords: 3D-printed, acoustics, dynamics, impedance

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Authors: Mustafina-Bredikhina Diana, Kuznetsova Olga

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Corruption as a social phenomenon is obviously a serious barrier to the development of a prosperous society and the economic development of the country as a whole. It is extremely important to analyze the influence of culture on the level of corruption in different countries and assesses the influence of culture, religion, and mentality on corrupt behavior and their perception in society. Corruption should be considered in relation to the public consciousness, which is formed in certain socio-historical conditions and cultural traditions. Often, society, formally condemning corruption, reproduces obvious corrupt behavior at the personal level of its individual members. Based on a brief analysis of the major corruption scandals and the corruption counting system of countries, the authors conclude that culture, mentality, and religion, while playing an important role in the formation of public consciousness of the concept of "corrupt behavior" are not decisive. It is more important to build a dialogue between the authorities and society, creating a uniform rejection of corrupt behavior.

Keywords: corruption, culture, corrupt behavior, perception of corruption, religion

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Authors: Farah Al-Shatti, Elsayed El-Khamisi, Nabel Suleiman

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The study aimed at identifying the relationship between self-injury behavior and social skills among children with mild intellectual disability (ID) in the state of Kuwait. The sample of the study consisted of 65 males and females with ID; their ages ranged between 8 to 12 years. The study used a measure for rating self-injury behavior designed by the researcher; and a measure for rating social skills was designed. The results of the study showed that there was an increase in the percentages of the two dimensions of the self-injury behavior for children with ID; the self-injury behavior by child’s own body was higher than the self-injury behavior by environmental tools, additionally the results showed that there were statistically significant differences between males and females on the dimensions and total scorer of self-injury scale favor the males, and there were statistically significant differences between them on the dimensions of the social skills and total score favor the females, It also indicated that there was statistically significant negative relationship between the dimensions of the self-injury and the dimensions of the social skills for children with intellectual disability.

Keywords: mild intellectual disability, self injury behavior, social skills, state of Kuwait

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Authors: B. Manoj Kumar, C. Malavika, E. S. Kannan

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The objective of this study is to investigate the switching behavior of two vertically aligned memristors connected by a shared top electrode, a configuration that significantly deviates from the conventional single oxide layer sandwiched between two electrodes. The device is fabricated by bridging copper electrodes with mechanically exfoliated van der Waals metal (specifically tantalum disulfide and tantalum diselenide). The device demonstrates threshold-switching behavior in its I-V characteristics. When the input voltage signal is ramped with voltages below the threshold, the output current shows spiking behavior, resembling integrated and firing actions without extra circuitry. We also investigated the self-reset behavior of the device. Using a continuous constant voltage bias, we activated the device to the firing state. After removing the bias and reapplying it shortly afterward, the current returned to its initial state. This indicates that the device can spontaneously return to its resting state. The outcome of this investigation offers a fresh perspective on memristor-based device design and an efficient method to construct hardware for neuromorphic computing systems.

Keywords: integrated and firing, memristor, spiking behavior, threshold switching

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Authors: Minna-Maari Harmaala, Hanna Harilainen

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Estimates of the economic value of transitioning to circular economy models vary but it has been estimated to represent $1 trillion worth of new business into the global economy. In Europe alone, estimates claim that adopting circular-economy principles could not only have environmental and social benefits but also generate a net economic benefit of €1.8 trillion by 2030. Proponents of a circular economy argue that it offers a major opportunity to increase resource productivity, decrease resource dependence and waste, and increase employment and growth. A circular system could improve competitiveness and unleash innovation. Yet, most companies are not capturing these opportunities and thus the even abundant circular opportunities remain uncaptured even though they would seem inherently profitable. Service design in broad terms relates to developing an existing or a new service or service concept with emphasis and focus on the customer experience from the onset of the development process. Service design may even mean starting from scratch and co-creating the service concept entirely with the help of customer involvement. Service design methodologies provide a structured way of incorporating customer understanding and involvement in the process of designing better services with better resonance to customer needs. A business model is a depiction of how the company creates, delivers, and captures value; i.e. how it organizes its business. The process of business model development and adjustment or modification is also called business model innovation. Innovating business models has become a part of business strategy. Our hypothesis is that in addition to linear models still being easier to adopt and often with lower threshold costs, companies lack an understanding of how circular models can be adopted into their business and how customers will be willing and ready to adopt the new circular business models. In our research, we use robust service design methodology to develop circular economy solutions with two case study companies. The aim of the process is to not only develop the service concepts and portfolio, but to demonstrate the willingness to adopt circular solutions exists in the customer base. In addition to service design, we employ business model innovation methods to develop, test, and validate the new circular business models further. The results clearly indicate that amongst the customer groups there are specific customer personas that are willing to adopt and in fact are expecting the companies to take a leading role in the transition towards a circular economy. At the same time, there is a group of indifferents, to whom the idea of circularity provides no added value. In addition, the case studies clearly show what changes adoption of circular economy principles brings to the existing business model and how they can be integrated.

Keywords: business model innovation, circular economy, circular economy business models, service design

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Authors: Grmanesh Gidey Kahsay

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In modern technical engineering applications, quality is defined in two ways. The first one is that quality is the parameter that measures a product or service’s characteristics to meet and satisfy the pre-stated or fundamental needs (reliability, durability, serviceability). The second one is the quality of a product or service free of any defect or deficiencies. The American Society for Quality (ASQ) describes quality as a pursuit of optimal solutions to confirm successes and fulfillment to be accountable for the product or service's requirements and expectations. This article focuses on quality engineering tools in modern industrial applications. Quality engineering is a field of engineering that deals with the principles, techniques, models, and applications of the product or service to guarantee quality. Including the entire activities to analyze the product’s design and development, quality engineering emphasizes how to make sure that products and services are designed and developed to meet consumers’ requirements. This episode acquaints with quality tools such as quality systems, auditing, product design, and process control. The finding presents thoughts that aim to improve quality engineering proficiency and effectiveness by introducing essential quality techniques and tools in some selected industries.

Keywords: essential quality tools, quality systems and models, quality management systems, and quality assurance

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Authors: Moses Aron, Elias Mwakilama, Jimmy Namangale

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Spending more time on long queues for a basic service remains a common challenge to most developing countries, including Malawi. For health sector in particular, Out-Patient Department (OPD) experiences long queues. This puts the lives of patients at risk. However, using queuing analysis to under the nature of the problems and efficiency of service systems, such problems can be abated. Based on a kind of service, literature proposes different possible queuing models. However, unlike using generalized assumed models proposed by literature, use of real time case study data can help in deeper understanding the particular problem model and how such a model can vary from one day to the other and also from each case to another. As such, this study uses data obtained from one urban HC for BP, Pediatric and General OPD cases to investigate an average queuing time for patients within the system. It seeks to highlight the proper queuing model by investigating the kind of distributions functions over patient’s arrival time, inter-arrival time, waiting time and service time. Comparable with the standard set values by WHO, the study found that patients at this HC spend more waiting times than service times. On model investigation, different days presented different models ranging from an assumed M/M/1, M/M/2 to M/Er/2. As such, through sensitivity analysis, in general, a commonly assumed M/M/1 model failed to fit the data but rather an M/Er/2 demonstrated to fit well. An M/Er/3 model seemed to be good in terms of measuring resource utilization, proposing a need to increase medical personnel at this HC. However, an M/Er/4 showed to cause more idleness of human resources.

Keywords: health care, out-patient department, queuing model, sensitivity analysis

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Authors: Arifuzzaman Nayeem, Tafannum Torsha, Tanvir Manzur, Shaurav Alam

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Performance evaluation of reinforced concrete (RC) beams subjected to accidental fire is significant for post-fire capacity measurement. Mechanical properties of any RC beam degrade due to heating since the strength and modulus of concrete and reinforcement suffer considerable reduction under elevated temperatures. Moreover, fire-induced thermal dilation and shrinkage cause internal stresses within the concrete and eventually result in cracking, spalling, and loss of stiffness, which ultimately leads to lower service life. However, conducting full-scale comprehensive experimental investigation for RC beams exposed to fire is difficult and cost-intensive, where the finite element (FE) based numerical study can provide an economical alternative for evaluating the post-fire capacity of RC beams. In this study, an attempt has been made to study the fire behavior of RC beams using FE software package ABAQUS under different durations of fire. The damaged plasticity model of concrete in ABAQUS was used to simulate behavior RC beams. The effect of temperature on strength and modulus of concrete and steel was simulated following relevant Eurocodes. Initially, the result of FE models was validated using several experimental results from available scholarly articles. It was found that the response of the developed FE models matched quite well with the experimental outcome for beams without heat. The FE analysis of beams subjected to fire showed some deviation from the experimental results, particularly in terms of stiffness degradation. However, the ultimate strength and deflection of FE models were similar to that of experimental values. The developed FE models, thus, exhibited the good potential to predict the fire behavior of RC beams. Once validated, FE models were then used to analyze several RC beams having different strengths (ranged between 20 MPa and 50 MPa) exposed to the standard fire curve (ASTM E119) for different durations. The post-fire performance of RC beams was investigated in terms of load-deflection behavior, flexural strength, and deflection characteristics.

Keywords: fire durations, flexural strength, post fire capacity, reinforced concrete beam, standard fire

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Authors: Nimit Soonsan

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Hotel image is a key business issue in today’s hotel market and has been increasingly been recognized as a valuable and inimitable source of competitive advantage by many hotel. The current study attempted to develop and test a relationship of hotel image, overall satisfaction, and future behavior. Based on the above concepts, this paper hypothesizes the correlations among four constructs, namely, hotel image and overall satisfaction as antecedents of future behavior that positive word-of-mouth and intention to revisit. This study surveyed for a sample of 244 international customers staying budget hotel in Phuket, Thailand and using a structural equation modeling identified relationship between hotel image, overall satisfaction and future behavior. The major finding of structural equation modeling indicates that hotel image directly affects overall satisfaction and indirectly affects future behavior that positive word-of-mouth and intention to revisit. In addition, overall satisfaction had significant influence on future behavior that positive word-of-mouth and intention to revisit, and the mediating role of overall satisfaction is also confirmed in this study. Managerial implications are provided, limitations noted, and future research directions suggested.

Keywords: hotel image, satisfaction, word-of-mouth, revisit

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Authors: Ashkan Shafee, Ahamd Fahimifar, Sajjad V. Maghvan

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Promotion of the Fiber Reinforced Concrete (FRC) as a construction material for civil engineering projects has invoked numerous researchers to investigate their mechanical behavior. Even though there is satisfactory information about the effects of fiber type and length, concrete mixture, casting type and other variables on the strength and deformability parameters of FRC, the numerical modeling of such materials still needs research attention. The focus of this study is to investigate the feasibility of Concrete Damaged Plasticity (CDP) model in prediction of Macro-synthetic FRC structures behavior. CDP model requires the tensile behavior of concrete to be well characterized. For this purpose, a series of uniaxial direct tension and four point bending tests were conducted on the notched specimens to define bilinear tension softening (post-peak tension stress-strain) behavior. With these parameters obtained, the flexural behavior of macro-synthetic FRC beams were modeled and the results showed a good agreement with the experimental measurements.

Keywords: concrete damaged plasticity, fiber reinforced concrete, finite element modeling, macro-synthetic fibers, uniaxial tensile test

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Authors: T. Arudchelvam, W. W. E. N. Fernando

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Mobile phone has become as an essential thing in our life. Therefore, security is the most important thing to be considered in mobile communication. Short message service is the cheapest way of communication via the mobile phones. Therefore, security is very important in the short message service as well. This paper presents a method to maintain the security at user level. Different types of encryption methods are used to implement the user level security in mobile phones. Caesar cipher, Rail Fence, Vigenere cipher and RSA are used as encryption methods in this work. Caesar cipher and the Rail Fence methods are enhanced and implemented. The beauty in this work is that the user can select the encryption method and the key. Therefore, by changing the encryption method and the key time to time, the user can ensure the security of messages. By this work, while users can safely send/receive messages, they can save their information from unauthorised and unwanted people in their own mobile phone as well.

Keywords: SMS, user level security, encryption, decryption, short message service, mobile communication

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Authors: Nicolas Haber

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The study addresses the conceptual design of Product-Service Systems (PSSs) as a means of innovating solutions with the aim of reducing the environmental load of conventional product based solutions. Functional approaches targeting PSS solutions are developed in instinctive methods within the constraints of the setting in which they are conceived. Adopting morphological matrices in designing PSS concepts allows a thorough understanding of the settings, stakeholders, and functional requirements. Additionally, such a methodology is robust and adaptable to product-oriented, use-oriented and result-oriented systems. The research is based on a functional decomposition of the task in a similar way as in product design; while extended to include service components, providers, and receivers, while assessing the adaptability and homogeneity of the selected components and actors. A use-oriented concept is presented via a practical case study at an agricultural boom-sprayer manufacturer to demonstrate the effectiveness of the morphological approach to justify its viability. Additionally, a life cycle analysis is carried out in order to evaluate the environmental advantages inherited in a PSS solution versus a conventional solution. In light of the applications presented, the morphological approach appears to be a valid and generic tactic to conceiving integrated solutions whilst capturing the interrelations between the actors and elements of an integrated product-service system.

Keywords: conceptual design, design for sustainability, functional decomposition, product-service systems

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Authors: Habtamu Tkubet Ebuy

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Purpose Conventional dynamic energy simulation tools go beyond the static dimension of simplified methods by providing better and more accurate prediction of building performance. However, their ability to forecast actual performance is undermined by a low representation of human interactions. The purpose of this study is to examine the potential benefits of incorporating information on occupant diversity into occupant behavior models used to simulate building performance. The co-simulation of the stochastic behavior of the occupants substantially increases the accuracy of the simulation. Design/methodology/approach In this article, probabilistic models of the "opening and closing" behavior of the window of inhabitants have been developed in a separate multi-agent platform, SimOcc, and implemented in the building simulation, TRNSYS, in such a way that the behavior of the window with the interconnectivity can be reflected in the simulation analysis of the building. Findings The results of the study prove that the application of complex behaviors is important to research in predicting actual building performance. The results aid in the identification of the gap between reality and existing simulation methods. We hope this study and its results will serve as a guide for researchers interested in investigating occupant behavior in the future. Research limitations/implications Further case studies involving multi-user behavior for complex commercial buildings need to more understand the impact of the occupant behavior on building performance. Originality/value This study is considered as a good opportunity to achieve the national strategy by showing a suitable tool to help stakeholders in the design phase of new or retrofitted buildings to improve the performance of office buildings.

Keywords: occupant behavior, co-simulation, energy consumption, thermal comfort

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Authors: Kidist Mesfin Nguse

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Ethiopia is the second most densely populated nation in Africa, and about 121 million people as the 2022 Ethiopia population live report recorded. In recent years, the Ethiopian government (GOE) has been gradually growing its road network. With 138,127 kilometers (85,825 miles) of all-weather roads as of the end of 2018–19, Ethiopia possessed just 39% of the nation's necessary road network and lacked a well-organized system. The Ethiopian urban population report recorded that about 21% of the population lives in urban areas, and the high population, coupled with growth in various infrastructures, has led to the migration of the workforce from rural areas to cities across the country. In main roads, the heterogeneous traffic flow with various operational features makes it more unfavorable, causing frequent congestion in the stretch of road. The Level of Service (LOS), a qualitative measure of traffic, is categorized based on the operating conditions in the traffic stream. Determining the capacity and LOS for this city is very crucial as this affects the planning and design of traffic systems and their operation, and the allocation of route selection for infrastructure building projects to provide for a considerably good level of service.

Keywords: capacity, level of service, traffic volume, free flow speed

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Authors: Renata Hrecska

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This research seeks to fully examine the internal employment law of international organizations by comparing it with the characteristics of the national civil service. The aim of the research is to compare the legal system that has developed over many centuries and the relatively new internal staffing regulations to find out what solution schemes can help each other through mutual legal development in order to respond effectively to the social challenges of everyday life. Generally, the rules of civil service of any country or international entity have in common that they have, in their pragmatics inherently, the characteristic that makes them serving public interests. Though behind the common base there are many differences: there is the clear fragmentation of state regulation and the unity of organizational regulation. On the other hand, however, this difference disappears to some extent: the public service regulation of international organizations can be considered uniform until we examine it within, but not outside an organization. As soon as we compare the different organizations we may find many different solutions for staffing regulations. It is clear that the national civil service is a strong model for international organizations, but the question may be whether the staffing policy of international organizations can serve the national civil service as an example, too. In this respect, the easiest way to imagine a legislative environment would be to have a single comprehensive code, the general part of which is the Civil Service Act itself, and the specific part containing specific, necessarily differentiating rules for each layer of the civil service. Would it be advantageous to follow the footsteps of the leading international organizations, or is there any speciality in national level civil service that we cannot avoid during regulating processes? In addition to the above, the personal competencies of officials working in international organizations and public administrations also show a high degree of similarity, regardless of the type of employment. Thus, the whole public service system is characterized by the fundamental and special values that a person capable of holding a public office must be able to demonstrate, in some cases, even without special qualifications. It is also interesting how we can compare the two spheres of employment in light of the theory of Lawyer Louis Brandeis, a judge at the US Supreme Court, who formulated a complex theory of profession as distinguished from other occupations. From this point of view we can examine the continuous development of research and specialized knowledge at work; the community recognition and social status; that to what extent we can see a close-knit professional organization of altruistic philosophy; that how stability grows in the working conditions due to the stability of the profession; and that how the autonomy of the profession can prevail.

Keywords: civil service, comparative law, international organizations, regulatory systems

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Authors: Ujjal Chattaraj, M. Raviteja, Chaitanya Aemala

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Over the years vehicular traffic has been given priority over pedestrian traffic. With the increase of population in cities, pedestrian traffic is increasing day by day. Pedestrian safety has become a matter of concern for the Traffic Engineers. Pedestrian comfort is primary important for the Engineers who design different pedestrian facilities. Pedestrian comfort and safety can be measured in terms of different level of service (LOS) of the facilities. In this study video data on pedestrian movement have been collected from different railway foot over bridges (FOB) in India. The level of service of those facilities has been analyzed. A cellular automata based model has been formulated to mimic the route choice behaviour of the pedestrians on the foot over bridges.

Keywords: cellular automata model, foot over bridge, level of service, pedestrian

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Authors: Prof. Ragea Alqahtani

Abstract:

The purpose of the study was to measure the effectiveness of the Goldstein’s social skill streaming model based on the special and general pre-service teachers’ knowledge about controlling their emotions in conflict situations. A review of previous pieces of literature guided the design and measurement of the effectiveness of the approach to the control of emotions. The teachers were assessed using the coping strategy, adult anger, and Goldstein’s skill streaming inventories. Lastly, the paper provides various recommendations on the sensitization of the Goldstein’s Social Skill streaming model to both the special and pre-service teachers to promote their knowledge about controlling emotions in conflicts.

Keywords: emotional control, goldstein social skillstreaming model, modeling technique, self-as-a-model, self-efficacy, self-regulation

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Authors: Yoshiaki Shikata

Abstract:

A prioritized processor-sharing (PS) system with a maximum permissible sojourn time (MPST) is proposed. In this PS system, a higher-priority request is allocated a larger service ratio than a lower-priority request. Moreover, each request receiving service is guaranteed the maximum permissible sojourn time determined by each priority class, regardless of its service time. Arriving requests that cannot receive service due to this guarantee are rejected. We further propose a guarantee method for implementing such a system, and discuss performance evaluation procedures for the resulting system. Practical performance measures, such as the relationships between the loss probability or mean sojourn time of each class request and the maximum permissible sojourn time are evaluated via simulation. At the arrival of each class request, its acceptance or rejection is judged using extended sojourn times of all requests receiving service in the server. As the MPST increases, the mean sojourn time increases almost linearly. However, the logarithm of the loss probability decreases almost linearly. Moreover with an MPST, the difference in the mean sojourn time for different MPSTs increases with the traffic rate. Conversely, the difference in the loss probability for different MPSTs decreases as the traffic rate increases.

Keywords: prioritized processor sharing, priority ratio, permissible sojourn time, loss probability, mean sojourn time, simulation

Procedia PDF Downloads 173

Authors: Michael Eickermann, Juergen Junk

Abstract:

The Western honey (Apis mellifera) is threatened by a number of parasites, especially the devastating Varroa mite (Varroa destructor) is responsible for a high level of mortality over winter, e.g., in Europe and USA. While the use of synthetic pesticides or organic acids has been preferred so far to control this parasite, breeding strategies for less susceptible honey bees are in early stages. Hygienic behavior can be an important tool for controlling Varroa destructor. Worker bees with a high level of this behavior are able to detect infested brood in the cells under the wax lid during pupation and remove them out of the hive. The underlying processes of this behavior are only partly investigated, but it is for sure that hygienic behavior is heritable and therefore, can be integrated into commercial breeding lines. In a first step, breeding lines with a high level of phenotypic hygienic behavior have been identified by using a bioassay for accurate assessment of this trait in a long-term national breeding program in Luxembourg since 2015. Based on the artificial infestation of nucleus colonies with 150 phoretic Varroa destructor mites, the level of phenotypic hygienic behavior was detected by counting the number of mites in all stages, twelve days after infestation. A nucleus with a high level of hygienic behavior was overwintered and used for breeding activities in the following years. Artificial insemination was used to combine different breeding lines. Buckfast lines, as well as Carnica lines, were used. While Carnica lines offered only a low increase of hygienic behavior up to maximum 62.5%, Buckfast lines performed much better with mean levels of more than 87.5%. Some mating ends up with a level of 100%. But even with a level of 82.5% Varroa mites are not able to reproduce in the colony anymore. In a final step, a nucleus with a high level of hygienic behavior were build up to full colonies and located at two places in Luxembourg to build up a drone congregation area. Local beekeepers can bring their nucleus to this location for mating the queens with drones offering a high level of hygienic behavior.

Keywords: agiculture, artificial insemination, honey bee, varroa destructor

Procedia PDF Downloads 109

Authors: Rodrigo Guimarães Santos

Abstract:

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

Procedia PDF Downloads 362

Authors: Esmeralda Hysenbelliu

Abstract:

The aim of this paper is to present the QoE (Quality of Experience) IPTV SDN-based media streaming server enhanced architecture for configuring, controlling, management and provisioning the improved delivery of IPTV service application with low cost, low bandwidth, and high security. Furthermore, it is given a virtual QoE IPTV SDN-based topology to provide an improved IPTV service based on QoE Control and Management of multimedia services functionalities. Inside OpenFlow SDN Controller there are enabled in high flexibility and efficiency Service Load-Balancing Systems; based on the Loading-Balance module and based on GeoIP Service. This two Load-balancing system improve IPTV end-users Quality of Experience (QoE) with optimal management of resources greatly. Through the key functionalities of OpenFlow SDN controller, this approach produced several important features, opportunities for overcoming the critical QoE metrics for IPTV Service like achieving incredible Fast Zapping time (Channel Switching time) < 0.1 seconds. This approach enabled Easy and Powerful Transcoding system via FFMPEG encoder. It has the ability to customize streaming dimensions bitrates, latency management and maximum transfer rates ensuring delivering of IPTV streaming services (Audio and Video) in high flexibility, low bandwidth and required performance. This QoE IPTV SDN-based media streaming architecture unlike other architectures provides the possibility of Channel Exchanging between several IPTV service providers all over the word. This new functionality brings many benefits as increasing the number of TV channels received by end –users with low cost, decreasing stream failure time (Channel Failure time < 0.1 seconds) and improving the quality of streaming services.

Keywords: improved quality of experience (QoE), OpenFlow SDN controller, IPTV service application, softwarization

Procedia PDF Downloads 129