Search results for: JMeter master and slave using cloud Services

Authors: Sukhbaatar Dorj, Erdenebaatar Altangerel

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As alternative to existing e-government measuring models, here proposed a new customer centric, service oriented, simple approach for measuring countries e-Governments. If successfully implemented, built infrastructure will provide a single e-government index number for countries. Main schema is as follows. Country CIO or equal position government official, at the beginning of each year will provide to United Nations dedicated web site 4 numbers on behalf of own country: 1) Ratio of available online public services, to total number of public services, 2) Ratio of interagency inter ministry online public services to total number of available online public services, 3) Ratio of total number of citizen and business entities served online annually to total number of citizen and business entities served annually online and physically on those services, 4) Simple index for geographical spread of online served citizen and business entities. 4 numbers then combined into one index number by mathematical Average function. In addition to 4 numbers 5th number can be introduced as service quality indicator of online public services. If in ordering of countries index number is equal, 5th criteria will be used. Notice: This approach is for country’s current e-government achievement assessment, not for e-government readiness assessment.

Keywords: countries e-government index, e-government, infrastructure for measuring e-government, measuring e-government

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Authors: Jyoti Sahu, Vinay A. Juvekar

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Electrolytes are often used to bring about salting-in and salting-out of organic molecules and polymers (e.g. polyethylene glycols/proteins) from the aqueous solutions. For quantification of these phenomena, a thermodynamic model which can accurately predict activity coefficient of electrolyte as a function of temperature is needed. The thermodynamics models available in the literature contain a large number of empirical parameters. These parameters are estimated using lower/upper critical solution temperature of the solution in the electrolyte/organic molecule at different temperatures. Since the number of parameters is large, inaccuracy can bethe creep in during their estimation, which can affect the reliability of prediction beyond the range in which these parameters are estimated. Cloud point of solution is related to its free energy through temperature and composition derivative. Hence, the Cloud point measurement can be used for accurate estimation of the temperature and composition dependence of parameters in the model for free energy. Hence, if we use a two pronged procedure in which we first use cloud point of solution to estimate some of the parameters of the thermodynamic model and determine the rest using osmotic coefficient data, we gain on two counts. First, since the parameters, estimated in each of the two steps, are fewer, we achieve higher accuracy of estimation. The second and more important gain is that the resulting model parameters are more sensitive to temperature. This is crucial when we wish to use the model outside temperatures window within which the parameter estimation is sought. The focus of the present work is to prove this proposition. We have used electrolyte (NaCl/Na2CO3)-water-organic molecule (Iso-propanol/ethanol) as the model system. The model of Robinson-Stokes-Glukauf is modified by incorporating the temperature dependent Flory-Huggins interaction parameters. The Helmholtz free energy expression contains, in addition to electrostatic and translational entropic contributions, three Flory-Huggins pairwise interaction contributions viz., and (w-water, p-polymer, s-salt). These parameters depend both on temperature and concentrations. The concentration dependence is expressed in the form of a quadratic expression involving the volume fractions of the interacting species. The temperature dependence is expressed in the form .To obtain the temperature-dependent interaction parameters for organic molecule-water and electrolyte-water systems, Critical solution temperature of electrolyte -water-organic molecules is measured using cloud point measuring apparatus The temperature and composition dependent interaction parameters for electrolyte-water-organic molecule are estimated through measurement of cloud point of solution. The model is used to estimate critical solution temperature (CST) of electrolyte water-organic molecules solution. We have experimentally determined the critical solution temperature of different compositions of electrolyte-water-organic molecule solution and compared the results with the estimates based on our model. The two sets of values show good agreement. On the other hand when only osmotic coefficients are used for estimation of the free energy model, CST predicted using the resulting model show poor agreement with the experiments. Thus, the importance of the CST data in the estimation of parameters of the thermodynamic model is confirmed through this work.

Keywords: concentrated electrolytes, Debye-Hückel theory, interaction parameters, Robinson-Stokes-Glueckauf model, Flory-Huggins model, critical solution temperature

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Authors: Osama Ahmed Ibrahim Masoud, Mohamed Ibrahim Mohamed Abdelhadi, Ahmed Mohamed Seddik Hassan

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The problem of study focuses on thermal comfort realization in a residential building during hot and dry climate periods consumes a major electrical energy for air conditioning operation. Thermal comfort realization in a residential building during such climate becomes more difficult regarding the phenomena of climate change, and the use of building and construction materials which have the feature of heat conduction as (bricks-reinforced concrete) and the global energy crises. For that, this study aims to how to realize internal thermal comfort through how to make the best use of building services (temporarily used service spaces) for reducing the electrical energy transfer and saving self-shading. In addition, the possibility of reduction traditional energy (fossil fuel) consumed in cooling through the use of building services for reducing the internal thermal comfort and the relationship between them. This study is based on measuring the consumed electrical energy rate in cooling (by using Design-Builder program) for a residential building (the place of study is: Egypt- Suez Canal- Suez City), this design model has lots of alternatives designs for the place of building services (center of building- the eastern front- southeastern front- the southern front- the south-west front, the western front). The building services are placed on the fronts with different rates for determining the best rate on fronts which realizes thermal comfort with the lowest of energy consumption used in cooling. Findings of the study indicate to that the best position for building services is on the west front then the south-west front, and the more the building services increase, the more energy consumption used in cooling of residential building decreases. Recommendations indicate to the need to study the building services positions in the new projects progress to select the best alternatives to realize ‘Energy conservation’ used in cooling or heating into the buildings in general, residential buildings particularly.

Keywords: residential buildings, energy conservation, thermal comfort, building services, temporary used service spaces, DesignBuilder

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Authors: Soori Nnko, Zaina Mchome, John Dusabe, Angela Obasi

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In sub-Saharan Africa, adolescent girls living in urban and periurban settings are among the groups at increased risk of getting sexually transmitted infections. One of the challenges to improve uptake of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services among adolescents is linked to little appreciation about their vulnerability and the knowledge on availability of the SRH services. Objective: This study assesses adolescents’ perceptions on risks for SRH problems and the availability of services to prevent against SRH problems. Methodology: The study was conducted in March 2011 in Mwanza region, Tanzania. Data collection techniques included 18 Participatory Group Discussions and 17 In-depth Interviews with adolescents and young mothers aged 15-20 years. Results: Adolescents indicated that risk places included their homes, bushes, commercial centers, roadsides as well as school settings. Risk for having unprotected sex varied depending on where you are, and the time of the day. For example, collection of firewood in the bushes or water from the wells exposed girls to men who forced or lured them to have sex. The girls reported to encounter motorcyclists who offered the ride in exchange for sex. Girls also knew myriads places to seek SRH services, including public and private clinics, drug shops and traditional healers. Despite being aware of risky environment, and places to seek the services, access to SRH services were limited due to the stigma and negative attitude of community regarding adolescents’ utilization of SRH services. Conclusion: Adolescents are exposed to various risky environments, yet due to social stigma they have difficult to access the available SRH services.

Keywords: adolescent girls, sexual and reproductive health, AIDS, risk, opportunities, interventions, sub Saharan africa

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Authors: Ivan N. Gallegos, Merle Dawn Comidoy, Mira Sol Cabal, Paul Martin Acol, Arnie Polistico

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Barangay Health Workers (BHWs) are the lead health advocates who provide basic health care services at the grass-roots level. Hence, adequate skills and training are needed to deliver these services effectively. The study aimed at identifying the communication needs of Barangay health workers situated at the dumpsite of Davao City, Philippines, gravitating towards designing a communication plan tailor-fitted to their needs. It employed a qualitative research design, particularly an in-depth interview of the health workers. Several communication problems were identified, including the lack of participation of BHWs in the Barangay development plan, the lack of a continuous skills enhancement program, ineffective communication strategies resulting in insufficient knowledge of proper personal hygiene, and the inactive participation of community members in health services. Based on these communication problems, the following activities and training were suggested: capacitating BHWs on writing proposals and plans; basic communication skills training; educational seminars for parents; and a sanitation campaign.

Keywords: communication planning, health care services, Barangay health workers, communication strategies

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Authors: Eva Nedeliakova, Michal Panak

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This article describes the results of research focused on progressive view on quality management. It characterizes a research of improving services in railway transport. Improvement of these services has a strong importance in customer considering on the future use of railway transport. The research provides quality characteristics of transportation, defines critical points of technological processes and specifies the quality model supported by software solution. Main principles and results of the research have a significant importance and belong to numerous initiatives aimed to develop and support railway transport.

Keywords: quality, service, software solution, railway transport

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Authors: Amin Nazifi, Amir Raki, Doga Istanbulluoglu

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The incorporation of technological advancements into financial services, commonly referred to as Fintech, is primarily aimed at promoting services that are accessible, convenient, and inclusive, thereby benefiting both consumers and businesses. Fintech services employ a variety of technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), blockchain, and big data, to enhance the efficiency and productivity of traditional services. Cryptocurrency, a component of Fintech, is projected to be a trillion-dollar industry, with over 320 million consumers globally investing in various forms of cryptocurrencies. However, these potentially transformative services can also lead to adverse outcomes. For instance, recent Fintech innovations have been increasingly linked to misconduct and disservice, resulting in serious implications for consumer well-being. This could be attributed to the ease of access to Fintech, which enables adults to trade cryptocurrencies, shares, and stocks via mobile applications. However, there is little known about the darker aspects of technological advancements, such as Fintech. Hence, this study aims to generate scholarly insights into the design of robust and resilient Fintech services that can add value to businesses and enhance consumer well-being. Using a mixed-method approach, the study will investigate the personal and contextual factors influencing consumers’ adoption and usage of technology innovations and their impacts on consumer well-being. First, semi-structured interviews will be conducted with a sample of Fintech users until theoretical saturation is achieved. Subsequently, based on the findings of the first study, a quantitative study will be conducted to develop and empirically test the impacts of these factors on consumers’ well-being using an online survey with a sample of 300 participants experienced in using Fintech services. This study will contribute to the growing Transformative Service Research (TSR) literature by addressing the latest priorities in service research and shedding light on the impact of fintech services on consumer well-being.

Keywords: consumer well-being, financial literacy, Fintech, service innovation

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Authors: Bengi Demirci

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Out-of-pocket payments have become one of the common models adopted by health care reforms all over the world, and they have serious implications for not only the financial set-up of the health care systems in question but also for the people involved in terms of their access to the health care services provided. On the one hand, out-of-pocket payments are used in raising resources for the finance of the health care system and in decreasing non-essential health care expenses by having a deterrent role on the patients. On the other hand, out-of-pocket payment model causes regressive distribution effect by putting more burdens on the lower income groups and making them refrain from using health care services. Being a relatively incipient country having adopted the out-of-pocket payment model within the context of its Health Transformation Program which has been ongoing since the early 2000s, Turkey provides a good case for re-evaluating the pros and cons of this model in order not to sacrifice equality in access to health care for raising revenue for health care finance and vice versa. Therefore this study aims at analyzing the impact of out-of-pocket payments on the health finance system itself and on the patients’ access to healthcare services in Turkey where out-of-pocket payment model has been in use for a while. In so doing, data showing the revenue obtained from out-of-pocket payments and their share in health care finance are analyzed. In addition to this, data showing the change in the amount of expenditure made by patients on health care services after the adoption of out-of-pocket payments and the change in the use of various health care services in the meanwhile are examined. It is important for the incipient countries like Turkey to be careful in striking the right balance between the objective of cost efficiency and that of equality in accessing health care services while adopting the out-of-pocket payment model.

Keywords: health care access, health care finance, health reform, out-of-pocket payments

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Authors: Diego Sánchez, Sandra M. Aguilar, José F. Gómez, Gustavo Montaño, Laura P. Otero, Carlos V. Rey, José A. Martínez, Juliana Robles, Jorge E. Burgos, Juan S. López

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Bogota is making efforts towards urban resilience through Nature-based Solutions (NbS) incorporation in public projects as a climate change resilience strategy. The urban renovation project on the Alhambra square includes Green Infrastructure (GI), like Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) and Urban Trees (UT), as ecosystem services (ES) boosters. This study analyzes 3 scenarios: (1) the initial situation without NbS, (2) the expected situation including NbS in the design and (3) the projection of the second one after 30 years, calculating the ecosystem services, the stormwater management benefits provided by SUDS and the cultural services. The obtained results contribute to the understanding of the urban NbS benefits in public spaces, providing valuable information to foster investment in sustainable projects and encouraging policy makers to integrate NbS in urban planning.

Keywords: ecosystem services, nature-based solutions, stormwater management, sustainable urban drainage systems

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Authors: R. W. C. Devindi, S. M. Buddika Harshanath

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E-learning is a widely used technology for learning in the modern world. With the pandemic situation the popularity of using e-learning has been increased in a larger capacity. The e-learning educational systems require software resources as well as hardware usually but it is hard for most of the education institutions to afford those resources. Also with the massive user load e-learning has to broaden the server side resources as well. Therefore, in the present cloud computing was implemented in order to make the e – learning systems more efficient. The researcher has analyzed the quality of the e-learning systems on the perception of the learners and the teachers with the aid of hypothesis and has given the analyzed results and the discussion in this report. Therefore, the future research will be able to get some steps to increase the quality of the online learning systems furthermore. In the case of e-learning, quality assurance and cost effectiveness are essential. A complex quality assurance system is used in the stated project. There are no well-defined standard evaluation measures in this field. As a result, accurately assessing the e-learning system's overall quality is challenging. The researcher has done the analysis with the aid of standard methods and software.

Keywords: LMS–learning management system, SPSS–statistical package for social sciences (software), eigen value, hypothesis

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Authors: Muhammad Ilham Agus Salim, Muhammad Ikbal

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The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) was set up in 2003 with the objectives of creating a single market and production base, enhancing equitable economic development as well as facilitating the integration into the global economy. The AEC involves liberalization and facilitation of trade in goods, skilled labour, services, and investment, as well as protection and promotion of investment. The thesis outlines the AEC Blueprint actions in scope of globalization of investment and capital market. Free flows of investment and freer flows of capital market urge countries in South East Asia to coordinate and to collaborate in securing the interest of public, and this leads to the importance of financial services authorities in ASEAN to prepare the mechanism of guarding the flows of investment. There is no exception, especially for Indonesian Financial Services Authority (OJK) as one of the authorized body in capital market supervision, to enforce its authorities as supervisory body.

Keywords: AEC blueprint, OJK, capital market, integration

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Authors: Mohamed Abdalla Khalil Mahmoud, Omnia Haidar Suliman

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Information and Communication technologies have revolutionized the way services are developed and offered to customers and have achieved evident success in a variety of vital sectors and widely contributed to the growth and resilience of the economy worldwide. Consequently, governments, especially of developing countries, have turned their attention to examine possible ways to utilize contemporary technology advances to offer essential governmental services to citizens, especially in areas where government agencies are not present. This paper investigates the challenges that impede governments of developing countries to provide basic services to its constituents nationwide. Sudan, as a case study, has taken major steps to provide essential governmental services via electronic channels. However, these services are still not widely used by the citizens, resulting in waste of financial and human resources and efforts that could have been invested more appropriately. This paper examines the challenges that hinder the Sudan’s government in their pursuit of availing its services via electronic channels. Different categories of e-government challenges, such as organizational, technological, social and, demographic, and financial and economic, have been explored in order to pinpoint the major challenges. A structured questionnaire is used to survey the target population of e-government professionals and executives who have direct involvement in the implementation of this nationwide endeavor in Sudan. The survey has successfully identified the main challenges that have high impact on the government’s effort to offer its services via electronic channels, such as Lack of coordination between public and private sectors and Lack of the benefits recognition of the e-government program. The findings of this paper can be used as a solid foundation for improving the way governmental services are offered to citizens in Sudan, resulting in a successful investment of financial and human resources and benefiting the targeted customers of all types.

Keywords: citizen, digital, e-channels, public sector, Sudan, technology

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Authors: Erika Takidah, Salina Kassim

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Digital transformation has accelerated in the new millennium. It is reshaping the financial services industry from a traditional system to financial technology. Moreover, the number of financial inclusion rates in Indonesia is less than 60%. An innovative model needed to elucidate this national problem. On the other hand, the Islamic financial service industry and financial technology grow fast as a new aspire in economic development. An Islamic bank, takaful, Islamic microfinance, Islamic financial technology and Islamic social finance institution could collaborate to intensify the financial inclusion number in Indonesia. The primary motive of this paper is to examine the strategy of collaboration-based Islamic financial services to enhance financial inclusion in Indonesia, particularly facing the digital era. The fundamental findings for the main problems are the foundations and key ecosystems aspect involved in the development of collaboration-based Islamic financial services. By using the Interpretive Structural Model (ISM) approach, the core problems faced in the development of the models have lacked policy instruments guarding the collaboration-based Islamic financial services with fintech work process and availability of human resources for fintech. The core strategies or foundations that are needed in the framework of collaboration-based Islamic financial services are the ability to manage and analyze data in the big data era. For the aspects of the Ecosystem or actors involved in the development of this model, the important actor is government or regulator, educational institutions, and also existing industries (Islamic financial services). The outcome of the study designates that strategy collaboration of Islamic financial services institution supported by robust technology, a legal and regulatory commitment of the regulators and policymakers of the Islamic financial institutions, extensive public awareness of financial inclusion in Indonesia. The study limited itself to realize financial inclusion, particularly in Islamic finance development in Indonesia. The study will have an inference for the concerned professional bodies, regulators, policymakers, stakeholders, and practitioners of Islamic financial service institutions.

Keywords: collaboration, financial inclusion, Islamic financial services, Islamic fintech

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Authors: Y. Benabid, K. Benfriha, V. Rieuf, J. F. Omhover

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This paper describes an approach to create custom concepts for innovative products; this approach describes relations between innovation tools and Computer Aided Design environment (use creativity session and design tools). A model for the design process is proposed and explored in order to describe the power tool used to create and ameliorate an innovative product all based upon a range of data (cloud points) in this study. Comparison between traditional method and innovative method we help to generate and put forward a new model of the design process in order to create a custom Ankle Foot Orthosis (AFO) in a CAD environment in order to ameliorate and controlling the motion. The custom concept needs big development in different environments; the relation between these environments is described. The results can help the surgeons in the upstream treatment phases. CAD models can be applied and accepted by professionals in the design and manufacture systems. This development is based on the anatomy of the population of North Africa.

Keywords: ankle foot orthosis, CAD, reverse engineering, sketch

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Authors: Mohammad Ibrahim

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The study was conducted at Albasar international foundation ophthalmic hospitals in Sudan to study the burden and patterns of ophthalmic disorder in the sector. Review of the hospitals records revealed that the total number of patient examined in the hospitals and outreached camps conducted by the hospitals is 10,513,874, the total number of surgeries is 694,015 and the total number of pupils at school program is 230,382. The organization working with the highest management system and standards and quality result based planning. The study yielded that the ophthalmic problem in Sudan are of great percentage and the temporal blindness disorder are high since major cases and surgeries were Cataract (57.8%). Retinal problem (2.9%), Glaucoma (2.4%), Orbit and Occulo-plastic disorders (2.2%) other disorders are refractive errors, squint and strabismus, Corneal, Pediatrics and minor ophthalmic disorders.

Keywords: hospitals and outreach ophthalmic services, largest coverage of ophthalmic services, nonprofitable ophthalmic services, strong management system and standards

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Authors: Adekunle K. O, Adeniyi A. E, Kolawole E

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One of the most dramatic trends in the communications market in recent years has been the growth of prepaid services. Today, prepaid no longer constitutes the low-revenue, basic-service segment. It is driven by a high margin, value-add service customers who view it as a convenient way of retaining control over their usage and communication spending while expecting high service levels. To service providers, prepaid services offer the advantage of reducing bad accounts while allowing them to predict usage and plan network resources. Yet, the real-time demands of prepaid services require a scalable, real-time platform to manage customers through their entire life cycle. It delivers integrated real-time rating, voucher management, recharge management, customer care and service provisioning for the generation of new prepaid services. It carries high scalability that can handle millions of prepaid customers in real-time through their entire life cycle.

Keywords: prepaid billing, voucher management, customers, automated, security

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Authors: Ł. Morawiński, C. Jasiński, M. Jurkiewicz, S. Bou Habib, M. Bondyra

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With the development of optics, electronics, and computers, vision systems are increasingly used in various areas of life, science, and industry. Vision systems have a huge number of applications. They can be used in quality control, object detection, data reading, e.g., QR-code, etc. A large part of them is used for measurement purposes. Some of them make it possible to obtain a 3D reconstruction of the tested objects or measurement areas. 3D reconstruction algorithms are mostly based on creating depth maps from data that can be acquired from active or passive methods. Due to the specific appliance in airfield technology, only passive methods are applicable because of other existing systems working on the site, which can be blinded on most spectral levels. Furthermore, reconstruction is required to work long distances ranging from hundreds of meters to tens of kilometers with low loss of accuracy even with harsh conditions such as fog, rain, or snow. In response to those requirements, HRESS (Heliport REmote Safeguard System) was developed; which main part is a rotational head with a two-camera stereovision rig gathering images around the head in 360 degrees along with stereovision 3D reconstruction and point cloud combination. The sub-pixel analysis introduced in the HRESS system makes it possible to obtain an increased distance measurement resolution and accuracy of about 3% for distances over one kilometer. Ultimately, this leads to more accurate and reliable measurement data in the form of a point cloud. Moreover, the program algorithm introduces operations enabling the filtering of erroneously collected data in the point cloud. All activities from the programming, mechanical and optical side are aimed at obtaining the most accurate 3D reconstruction of the environment in the measurement area.

Keywords: airfield monitoring, artificial intelligence, stereovision, 3D reconstruction

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Authors: Sayantan Khanra, Rojers P. Joseph

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Background and Significance: This study is aimed at analyzing the role of demographic and service quality variables in the adoption and diffusion of e-government services among the users in India. The study proposes to examine the users' perception about e-Government services and investigate the key variables that are most salient to the Indian populace. Description of the Basic Methodologies: The methodology to be adopted in this study is Hierarchical Regression Analysis, which will help in exploring the impact of the demographic variables and the quality dimensions on the willingness to use e-government services in two steps. First, the impact of demographic variables on the willingness to use e-government services is to be examined. In the second step, quality dimensions would be used as inputs to the model for explaining variance in excess of prior contribution by the demographic variables. Present Status: Our study is in the data collection stage in collaboration with a highly reliable, authentic and adequate source of user data. Assuming that the population of the study comprises all the Internet users in India, a massive sample size of more than 10,000 random respondents is being approached. Data is being collected using an online survey questionnaire. A pilot survey has already been carried out to refine the questionnaire with inputs from an expert in management information systems and a small group of users of e-government services in India. The first three questions in the survey pertain to the Internet usage pattern of a respondent and probe whether the person has used e-government services. If the respondent confirms that he/she has used e-government services, then an aggregate of 15 indicators are used to measure the quality dimensions under consideration and the willingness of the respondent to use e-government services, on a five-point Likert scale. If the respondent reports that he/she has not used e-government services, then a few optional questions are asked to understand the reason(s) behind the same. Last four questions in the survey are dedicated to collect data related to the demographic variables. An indication of the Major Findings: Based on the extensive literature review carried out to develop several propositions; a research model is prescribed to start with. A major outcome expected at the completion of the study is the development of a research model that would help to understand the relationship involving the demographic variables and service quality dimensions, and the willingness to adopt e-government services, particularly in an emerging economy like India. Concluding Statement: Governments of emerging economies and other relevant agencies can use the findings from the study in designing, updating, and promoting e-government services to enhance public participation, which in turn, would help to improve efficiency, convenience, engagement, and transparency in implementing these services.

Keywords: adoption and diffusion of e-government services, demographic variables, hierarchical regression analysis, service quality dimensions

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Authors: Alexander Suuk Laar, Emmanuel Bekyieriya, Sylvester Isang, Benjamin Baguune

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Introduction: In Ghana, despite the implementation of strategies and initiatives to ensure universal access to reproductive health and family planning (FP) services for the past two decades, interventions have not adequately addressed the access and utilization needs of women of reproductive age, especially in rural Ghana. To improve access and use of reproductive and maternal health services in Ghana, a free maternal care exemption policy under the universal health coverage of the National Health Insurance Scheme was implemented in 2005. Despite the importance of FP, this service was left out of the benefit package of the policy. Low or no use of FP services is often associated with poor health among women. However, to date, there has been limited research on perspectives of women for not making FP services as part of the benefit package of the free maternal health services. This qualitative study explored perceptions of women on the comprehensiveness of the free maternal health benefit package and the effects on utilisation of services in the rural Upper West region of Ghana to improve services. Methods: This exploratory qualitative study used focus group discussions with pregnant and lactating women in three rural districts in the Upper West region of Ghana. Six focus groups were held with both pregnant women and lactating mothers at the time of the interview. Three focus group discussions were organised with the same category of women in each district. We used a purposive sampling procedure to select the participants from the districts. The interviews with the written consent of the participants lasted between 60 minutes and 120 minutes. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analysed using Braun and Clarke thematic framework guidelines. Results: This research presents an in-depth account of women's perceptions on the effects associated with the uptake of FP services and its exclusion from the benefit package of the free maternal health policy. Our study found that participants did not support the exclusion of FP services in the benefit package. Participants mentioned factors hampering their access to and use of FP and contraceptive services to include the cost of services, distance and cost of transport to health facilities, lack of knowledge about FP services, socio-cultural norms and negative attitude of healthcare professionals. Participants are of the view that making FP services part of the benefit package could have addressed the cost aspect of services which act as the main barrier to improve the use of services by poor rural women. Conclusion: Women of reproductive age face cost barriers that limit their access to and use of FP and contraception services in the rural Upper West region of Ghana and need health policymakers to revise the free maternal health package to include FP services. It is essential for policymakers to begin considering revising the free maternal health policy benefit package to include FP services to help address the cost barrier for rural poor women to use services.

Keywords: benefit package, free maternal policy, women, Ghana, rural Upper West Region, Universal Health Coverage.

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Authors: Rachel Tambyah, Katarzyna Olcoń, Julaine Allan, Pete Destry, Thomas Astell-Burt

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The rising social and financial burden of mental illness indicates an urgent need to explore interventions that can be used as well as or instead of traditional treatments. Although there is growing evidence of the positive mental health outcomes of spending time in nature, the implementation of nature-based interventions (NBIs) within mental health services remains minimal. Based on interviews with mental health clinicians in Australia, this study demonstrated that clinicians supported the use of NBIs and would promote them to their clients.

Keywords: nature, nature-based interventions, mental health, mental health services, mental health clinicians

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Authors: Rania Khadim, Mohammed Erritali, Abdelhakim Maaden

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Nowadays Wireless Sensor Networks have attracted worldwide research and industrial interest, because they can be applied in various areas. Geographic routing protocols are very suitable to those networks because they use location information when they need to route packets. Obviously, location information is maintained by Location-Based Services provided by network nodes in a distributed way. In this paper we choose to evaluate the performance of two hierarchical rendezvous location based-services, GLS (Grid Location Service) and HLS (Hierarchical Location Service) coupled to the GPSR routing protocol (Greedy Perimeter Stateless Routing) for Wireless Sensor Network. The simulations were performed using NS2 simulator to evaluate the performance and power of the two services in term of location overhead, the request travel time (RTT) and the query Success ratio (QSR). This work presents also a new scalability performance study of both GLS and HLS, specifically, what happens if the number of nodes N increases. The study will focus on three qualitative metrics: The location maintenance cost, the location query cost and the storage cost.

Keywords: location based-services, routing protocols, scalability, wireless sensor networks

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Authors: Yakubu Nkom Bityong, A. I. Kabido, K. Venkateswarlu

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The influence of branding and consultancy services on sports development and marketing mix has been a matter of interest among coaches athletes and sports managers in Nigeria. Marketers use sports as a promotional vehicle towards attracting customers to their products and services. The use of images, names, and photographs of sports personalities to advertise beverages, cars, and a whole range of other products and services as it is clearly noticed all over the television, radio and print media has generated a lot of argument among consumers who have vested interest and are more drawn to their favorite teams and sports personalities than they are to many company products This paper examines the influence of branding and consultancy services on sports Performance of coaches, athletes and sports managers in Nigeria. From a population of 7,441 made up of coaches, athletes and sports managers, 372 respondents were sampled for the study. A self developed and standardized questionnaire was the instrument used for data collection. One-tailed t-test was used to test the hypothesis. Results revealed that branding and consultancy services influence the performances of coaches, athletes and sports managers in Nigeria. It was concluded that the establishment of the National Institute of Sports (NIS) in Lagos with affiliated sports training programmes in Nigerian Universities is responsible for boosting the performance of sports personalities in Nigeria. It was recommended that National Policy on Sports should be reviewed in order to inculcate new methods and strategies towards enhancing sports development initiatives in the country while stakeholders should intensify regular training and retraining programmes for coaches, athletes and sports managers to update their knowledge and skills.

Keywords: branding, consultancy, sports performance, sports development

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Authors: Natalia Khvorostianov, Nelly Elias

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The present study seeks to analyze representation of social work in immigrant media, focusing on the case of online newspapers established by immigrants from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) in Israel. This immigrant population is particularly interesting because social work did not exist as a profession practiced in the USSR and hence most FSU immigrants arrive in Israel without a basic knowledge of the essence of social work, the services it provides and the logic behind its treatment methods. The sample of 37 items was built through a Google search of the Russian online newspapers and portals originated in Israel by using keywords such as “social worker,” “social work services” and the like. All items were analyzed by using qualitative content analysis. Principal analytical categories used for the analysis were: Assessment of social work services (negative, positive, neutral); social workers’ professionalism and effectiveness; goals and motives underlying their activity; cross-cultural contact with immigrants and methods used in working with immigrants. On this basis, four dominant images used to portray Israeli social work services and social workers were identified: Lack of professionalism, cultural gaps between FSU immigrants and Israeli social workers, repressive character of social work services and social workers’ involvement in corruption and crime.

Keywords: FSU immigrants, immigrant media, media images, social workers

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Authors: Shivkumar Krishnamurti, Ruchi Agarwal

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The study examines the influence of marital status on consumers of products and services using blogs as a source of information. A pre-designed questionnaire was used to collect the primary data from the respondents (experiences). Data were collected from one hundred and eighty seven respondents residing in and around the Emirates of Sharjah and Dubai of the United Arab Emirates. The collected data was analyzed with the help of statistical tools such as averages, percentages, factor analysis, student’s t-test and structural equation modeling technique. Objectives of the study are to know the reasons how married and unmarried or single consumers of products and services are motivated to use blogs as a source of information, to know whether the consumers of products and services irrespective of their marital status share their views and experiences with other bloggers and to know the respondents’ future intentions towards blogging. The study revealed the following: Majority of the respondents have the motivation to blog because they are willing to receive comments on what they post about services, convenience of blogs to search for information about services and products, by blogging respondents share information on the symptoms of a disease/ disorder that may be experienced by someone, helps to share information about ready to cook mix products and are keen to spend more time blogging in the future.

Keywords: blog, consumer, information, marital status

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Authors: Jefriza, Habibah Lateh, Saumi Syahreza

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The 2016 Mw 6.5 Pidie Jaya earthquake is one of the biggest disasters that has occurred in Aceh within the last five years. This earthquake has caused severe damage to many infrastructures such as schools, hospitals, mosques, and houses in the district of Pidie Jaya and surrounding areas. Earthquakes commonly occur in Aceh Province due to the Aceh-Sumatra is located in the convergent boundaries of the Sunda Plate subducted beneath the Indo-Australian Plate. This convergence is responsible for the intensification of seismicity in this region. The plates are tilted at a speed of 63 mm per year and the right lateral component is accommodated by strike- slip faulting within Sumatra, mainly along the great Sumatran fault. This paper presents preliminary findings of InSAR study aimed at investigating the co-seismic surface deformation pattern in Pidie Jaya, Aceh-Indonesia. Coseismic surface deformation is rapid displacement that occurs at the time of an earthquake. Coseismic displacement mapping is required to study the behavior of seismic faults. InSAR is a powerful tool for measuring Earth surface deformation to a precision of a few centimetres. In this study, two radar images of the same area but at two different times are required to detect changes in the Earth’s surface. The ascending and descending Sentinel-1A (S1A) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data and Sentinels application platform (SNAP) toolbox were used to generate SAR interferogram image. In order to visualize the InSAR interferometric, the S1A from both master (26 Nov 2016) and slave data-sets (26 Dec 2016) were utilized as the main data source for mapping the coseismic surface deformation. The results show that the fringes of phase difference have appeared in the border region as a result of the movement that was detected with interferometric technique. On the other hand, the dominant fringes pattern also appears near the coastal area, this is consistent with the field investigations two days after the earthquake. However, the study has also limitations of resolution and atmospheric artefacts in SAR interferograms. The atmospheric artefacts are caused by changes in the atmospheric refractive index of the medium, as a result, has limitation to produce coherence image. Low coherence will be affected the result in creating fringes (movement can be detected by fringes). The spatial resolution of the Sentinel satellite has not been sufficient for studying land surface deformation in this area. Further studies will also be investigated using both ALOS and TerraSAR-X. ALOS and TerraSAR-X improved the spatial resolution of SAR satellite.

Keywords: earthquake, InSAR, interferometric, Sentinel-1A

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Authors: Dipendra Kumar Yadav, Rajani Ghimire, Saroj Yadav

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Background: The concern about adolescent on reproductive health has grown due to unprecedented increasing rates of early pregnancies and sexually transmitted Infections and they do not have adequate awareness and knowledge about it. Access to these services as well as information about them is, therefore, crucial for adolescents to utilize and benefit from sexual and reproductive health services. The objective of the study was to assess the reproductive health knowledge, attitude and health services utilization among adolescents in rural and urban areas of Kaski district. Materials and Methods: A community-based descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among adolescents (10-19 years of age) in rural and urban areas of Kaski district, Nepal. The period of data collection was October to November, 2014. Altogether 419 participants were taken for the study. Results: The mean age of the respondents was 15.86 and standard deviation was ±2.305. More than half (58.7 %) of the respondents were females and 41.3 % were males. Out of 419, majority (78.8%) of the respondents were known about family planning, among them only 70 % of respondents were aware about family planning methods. Fifty-one percentages of the respondents were aware about the sexually transmitted diseases. Before giving a birth there is need to consult with partner with this fact 68.7 % of the respondents were agree, 23.6 % of them were neutral and very few (7.6%) of them were disagree. Nearly twenty six percentage of the respondents were faced the reproductive health problems within one month. Out of 107 respondents, 57.9 % did not utilize reproductive health services because of different reasons. Conclusions: The overall level of knowledge towards reproductive health among adolescents was found low. However, levels of attitude towards different reproductive health components were found favorable. Only 42.1% of the respondents were utilized reproductive health services among those who was faced the reproductive health problems within one month which was low coverage of reproductive health services utilization.

Keywords: reproductive health knowledge, reproductive health attitudes, adolescent, service utilization

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Authors: Anant Deogaonkar, Archana Nanoty

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The term civil service plays a vital role in functioning of any government. In today’s modern era of globalization civil services essentially contribute for the success of the good governance system. The civil service in India refers to the body of government officials employed in civil occupations that are neither political nor judicial. The Indian Civil Services were created to foster the idea of unity in diversity with the expectation of giving continuity and change in administration independent of the political scenario and turmoil affecting the country. The civil service is an integral part of administration and the structures of administration to determine the way civil service functions. The concept of good governance necessarily precludes the effective human resource management ensuring the root level reach of the good governance. The serious matter of concern is the element of change. The civil service in general has maintained status quo instead of sweeping changes in social and economic scenario. One may disagree for this but it is a fact on the street that the Indian civil service was not able to deliver up to the expectations of the people and was lacking on the service front. The effective management of human resources at civil service needs to be prioritized and will form a key factor in successful delivery of the desired results may be in minimum duration. This paper focuses on the various ways of effective management of human resources in civil services. It also highlights the importance of improvement in human resource management in civil services with the detailed discussion of positives and negatives if any of the human resource management in civil services.

Keywords: civil services, human resources management, India, governance

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Authors: Yizhen Zhao, Adam S. Z. Belloum, Goncalo Maia Da Costa, Zhiming Zhao

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Machine learning has evolved from an area of academic research to a real-word applied field. This change comes with challenges, gaps and differences exist between common practices in academic environments and the ones in production environments. Following continuous integration, development and delivery practices in software engineering, similar trends have happened in machine learning (ML) systems, called MLOps. In this paper we propose a framework that helps to streamline and introduce best practices that facilitate the ML lifecycle in an industrial setting. This framework can be used as a template that can be customized to implement various machine learning experiment. The proposed framework is modular and can be recomposed to be adapted to various use cases (e.g. data versioning, remote training on cloud). The framework inherits practices from DevOps and introduces other practices that are unique to the machine learning system (e.g.data versioning). Our MLOps practices automate the entire machine learning lifecycle, bridge the gap between development and operation.

Keywords: cloud computing, continuous development, data versioning, DevOps, industrial setting, MLOps

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Authors: Thuy Hang Le

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Traditional agroforestry systems are land-use practices still widespread in tropical and subtropical countries, while in Europe have significantly decreased due to land-use intensification, land abandonment, and urbanization. Nevertheless, scientific evidence reveals that traditional agroforestry systems significantly support biodiversity and ecosystem services and may positively contribute to socioeconomic rural regional development. We worked out a review that follows the PRISMA approach and compiled comprehensive information on traditional agroforestry systems in Europe. Based on the differentiation of different land-use systems, also considering the agricultural as well as forestry components, we compiled information regarding current distribution, management (agrodiversity), biodiversity and agrobiodiversity, ecosystem and landscape services, threats, and restoration initiatives. From a total of 3,304 studies that dealt with agroforestry systems in Europe, both “modern” (e.g., buffer strip) and “traditional” (e.g., meadow orchards), we filtered out 158 studies from 35 European countries which represent the basis for in-depth investigation. We found, for example, that the traditional pastoral agroforestry system in the Mediterranean region, the so-called Dehesa, can harbor up to 300 plant species as well as 238 bird species, of which 134 are breeding birds. With regard to carbon storage, the traditional orchard agroforestry system in Germany stocks ranged between 6.5 and 9.8 Mg C ha−1, showing significantly higher values compared to an intensively used grassland with around 3.4 to 6.7 Mg C ha−1. With the remarkably high benefit for biodiversity and ecosystem services provided, the important role and multifunctionality of traditional agroforestry systems in Europe should be acknowledged and promoted.

Keywords: biodiversity, ecosystem services, landscape services, traditional agroforestry systems

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Authors: Zeynep Karacor, Rahime Hulya Ozturk

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In recent years, the rise of population density and the problem of aging population took attention to the health expenditures. In Turkey, some regulations and infrastructure changes in health sector have occurred. These changes are called Health Transformation Program. The productivity of health services, patient satisfaction, quality of services are tried to be improved with this program. Some radical changes are applied in Turkish economy in this context. The aim of this paper is to present the effects of Health Transformation Program on health expenditures. In the first part of the paper, some information’s about health system and applications in Turkey are discussed. In the second part, the aims of Health Transformation Program are explained. And in the third part the effects of Health Transformation Program on health expenditures are examined.

Keywords: health transformation program, Turkey, health services, health expenditures

Procedia PDF Downloads 381