Search results for: government decision making

Authors: Isaac Kofi Mensah

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Governments around the world are adopting Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) because of the important opportunities it provides through E-government (EG) to modernize government public administration processes and delivery of quality and efficient public services. Almost every country in the world is adopting ICT in its public sector administration (EG) to modernize and change the traditional process of government, increase citizen engagement and participation in governance, as well as the provision of timely information to citizens. This paper, therefore, seeks to present the adoption, development and implementation of EG in regions globally, as well as the ICT indicators around the world, which are making EG initiatives successful. Europe leads the world in its EG adoption and development index, followed by the Americas, Asia, Oceania and Africa. There is a gradual growth in ICT indicators in terms of the increase in Internet access and usage, increase in broadband penetration, an increase of individuals using the Internet at home and a decline in fixed telephone use, while the mobile cellular phone has been on the increase year-on-year. Though the lack of ICT infrastructure is a major challenge to EG adoption and implementation around the world, in Africa it is very pervasive, hampering the expansion of Internet access and provision of broadband, and hence is a barrier to the successful adoption, development, and implementation of EG initiatives in countries on the continent. But with the general improvement and increase in ICT indicators around the world, it provides countries in Europe, Americas, Asia, Arab States, Oceania and Africa with the huge opportunity to enhance public service delivery through the adoption of EG. Countries within these regions cannot fail their citizens who desire to enjoy an enhanced and efficient public service delivery from government and its many state institutions.

Keywords: e-government development index, e-government, indicators, information and communication technologies (ICTs)

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Authors: Jiri Barta

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At the present time, awareness, education, computer simulation and information systems protection are very serious and relevant topics. The article deals with perspectives and possibilities of implementation of emergence or natural hazard threats into the system which is developed for communication among members of crisis management staffs. The Czech Hydro-Meteorological Institute with its System of Integrated Warning Service resents the largest usable base of information. National information systems are connected to foreign systems, especially to flooding emergency systems of neighboring countries, systems of European Union and international organizations where the Czech Republic is a member. Use of outputs of particular information systems and computer simulations on a single communication interface of information system for communication among members of crisis management staff and setting the site interoperability in the net will lead to time savings in decision-making processes in solving extraordinary events and crisis situations. Faster managing of an extraordinary event or a crisis situation will bring positive effects and minimize the impact of negative effects on the environment.

Keywords: computer simulation, communication, continuity, critical infrastructure, information systems, safety

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Authors: Pei-Ru Yang, Yu-Chen Lin, Jia-Min Wu

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Background: A 58-year-old man with a history of osteoporosis and diabetes presented with chronic pain in his left knee due to severe knee joint degeneration. The knee replacement surgery was recommended by the doctor. But the patient suffered from low pain tolerance and wondered if virtual reality could relieve acute postoperative wound pain. Methods: We used the PICO (patient, intervention, comparison, and outcome) approach to generate indexed keywords and searched systematic review articles from 2017 to 2021 on the Cochran Library, PubMed, and Clinical Key databases. Results: The initial literature results included 38 articles, including 12 Cochrane library articles and 26 PubMed articles. One article was selected for further analysis after removing duplicates and off-topic articles. The eight trials included in this article were published between 2013 and 2019 and recruited a total of 723 participants. The studies, conducted in India, Lebanon, Iran, South Korea, Spain, and China, included adults who underwent hemorrhoidectomy, dental surgery, craniotomy or spine surgery, episiotomy repair, and knee surgery, with a mean age (24.1 ± 4.1 to 73.3 ± 6.5). Virtual reality is an emerging non-drug postoperative analgesia method. The findings showed that pain control was reduced by a mean of 1.48 points (95% CI: -2.02 to -0.95, p-value < 0.0001) in minor surgery and 0.32 points in major surgery (95% CI: -0.53 to -0.11, p-value < 0.03), and the overall postoperative satisfaction has improved. Discussion: Postoperative pain is a common clinical problem in surgical patients. Research has confirmed that virtual reality can create an immersive interactive environment, communicate with patients, and effectively relieve postoperative pain. However, virtual reality requires the purchase of hardware and software and other related computer equipment, and its high cost is a disadvantage. We selected the best literature based on clinical questions to answer the patient's question and used share decision making (SDM) to help the patient make decisions based on the clinical situation after knee replacement surgery to improve the quality of patient-centered care.

Keywords: knee replacement surgery, postoperative pain, share decision making, virtual reality

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Authors: Paraskevi Liosatou

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Climate change is considered to be of global concern being amplified by the fact that by its nature, cannot be spatially limited. This fact makes necessary the intergovernmental decision-making procedures. In the intergovernmental level, the institutions such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change develop efforts, methods, and practices in order to plan and suggest climate mitigation and adaptation measures. These measures are based on specific scientific findings and methods making clear the strong connection between science and policy. In particular, these scientific recommendations offer a series of practices, methods, and choices mitigating the problem by aiming at the indirect mitigation of the causes and the factors amplifying climate change. Moreover, modern production and economic context do not take into consideration the social, political, environmental and spatial dimensions of the problem. This work studies the decision-making process working in international and European level. In this context, this work considers the policy tools that have been implemented by various intergovernmental organizations. The methodology followed is based mainly on the critical study of standards and process concerning the connections and cooperation between science and policy as well as considering the skeptic debates developed. The finding of this work focuses on the links between science and policy developed by the institutional and scientific mechanisms concerning climate change mitigation. It also analyses the dimensions and the factors of the science-policy framework; in this way, it points out the causes that maintain skepticism in current scientific circles.

Keywords: climate change, climate change mitigation, climate change skepticism, IPCC, skepticism

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Authors: Haitham Assiri, Priyadarsi Nanda

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The world is gradually entering the fourth industrial revolution. E-Government services are scaling government operations across the globe. However, as promising as an e-Government system would be, it is also susceptible to malicious attacks if not properly secured. This study found out that, in Saudi Arabia, the e-Government website, Yesser is vulnerable to external attacks. Obviously, this can lead to a breach of data integrity and privacy. In this paper, a Systematic Literature Review was conducted to explore possible ways the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia can take necessary measures to strengthen its e-Government system using Blockchain. Blockchain is one of the emerging technologies shaping the world through its applications in finance, elections, healthcare, etc. It secures systems and brings more transparency. A total of 28 papers were selected for this SLR, and 19 of the papers significantly showed that blockchain could enhance the security and privacy of Saudi’s e-government system. Other papers also concluded that blockchain is effective, albeit with the integration of other technologies like IoT, AI and big data. These papers have been analysed to sieve out the findings and set the stage for future research into the subject.

Keywords: blockchain, data integrity, e-government, security threats

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Authors: Cecilia Kunseh Betek

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Managing rural water supply systems effectively and efficiently is a challenge in the O R Tambo District Municipality due to the long distances between consumers and municipal centres. This is a couple with the low income of most residents and the government's policy of free basic water which is making rural water provision very difficult. With regard to cartage, the results reveal that the majority (84.4%) of the population covers distances of about 1kilometre to fetch water, and 15.6% travel up kilometer to access water facilities. This means that the water sources are located very far from households, outside the officially legislated array of 200metres. These are many reasons to account for this situation. Firstly, this implies that there are inadequate stand pipes to cater for all the homesteads scattered across the rugged terrain of OR Tambo District municipality. Secondly, and following from the first explanation, it would be seen that funding that is made available is not adequate, or is not efficiently spent on the targeted projects. The situation in the rural areas of South Africa is fraught with cumbersome complexity when it comes to service delivery.

Keywords: water, management, government, rural

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Authors: Almas Athif Fathin Wiyantoro, Fransiskus Xaverius Ivan Budiman, Fithra Faisal Hastiadi

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The growth of clothing and technology as a marketing tool has a great influence on online business owners to know how much the characteristics and psychology of consumers in influencing purchasing decisions made by Indonesian women consumers. One of the most important issues faced by Indonesian women consumers is the suitability of clothing. The suitability of clothing can affect the body cathexis, identity, and confidence. So the thematic analysis of clothing fitness and body cathexis of women consumers when and after using virtual fitting room technology to purchase decision is important to do. This research using group method of pre-post treatment and considers how the recruitment technique of snowball sampling, which uses interpersonal relations and connections between people, both includes and excludes individuals into 39 participants' social networks to access specific populations. The results obtained from the study that the results of body scans and photos of virtual fitting room results can be made an intervention in women consumers in assessing their body cathexis objectively in the process of making purchasing decisions. The study also obtained a regression equation Y = 0.830 + 0.290X1 + 0.292X2, showing a positive relationship between suitability of clothing and body cathexis which influenced purchasing decisions on women consumers and after (personal and psychological factors) using virtual fitting room, meaning that all independent variables influence Positive towards the purchasing decision of the women consumers.

Keywords: body cathexis, clothing fitness, purchasing decision making and virtual fitting room

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Authors: Abeer Alkhwaldi, Mumtaz Kamala

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On the inception of the third millennium, there is much evidence that cloud technologies have become the strategic trend for many governments not only developed countries (e.g., UK, Japan, and USA), but also developing countries (e.g. Malaysia and the Middle East region), who have launched cloud computing movements for enhanced standardization of IT resources, cost reduction, and more efficient public services. Therefore, cloud-based e-government services considered as one of the high priorities for government agencies in Jordan. Although of their phenomenal evolution, government cloud-services still suffering from the adoption challenges of e-government initiatives (e.g. technological, human-aspects, social, and financial) which need to be considered carefully by governments contemplating its implementation. This paper presents a pilot study to investigate the citizens' perception of the extent in which these challenges affect the acceptance and use of cloud computing in Jordanian public sector. Based on the data analysis collected using online survey some important challenges were identified. The results can help to guide successful acceptance of cloud-based e-government services in Jordan.

Keywords: challenges, cloud computing, e-government, acceptance, Jordan

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Authors: Shahid Nishat, Keith Thomas

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E-government initiatives attract substantial public investments around the world. These investments are based on the premise of digital transformation of the public services, improved efficiency and transparency, and citizen participation in the social democratic processes. However, many e-Government projects, especially in developing countries, fail to achieve their intended outcomes, and a strong disparity exists between the investments made and outcomes achieved, often referred to as e-Government paradox. Further, there is lack of research on evaluating the impacts of e-Government in terms of public value it creates, which ultimately drives usage. This study aims to address these gaps by identifying key enablers of e-Government success and by proposing a public value based framework to examine impact of e-Government services. The study will extend Delone and McLean Information System (IS) Success model by integrating Technology Readiness (TR) characteristics to develop an integrated success model. Level of analysis will be mobile government applications, and the framework will be empirically tested using quantitative methods. The research will add to the literature on e-Government success and will be beneficial for governments, especially in developing countries aspiring to improve public services through the use of Information Communication Technologies (ICT).

Keywords: e-Government, IS success model, public value, technology adoption, technology readiness

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Authors: Pataraporn Kheawwan

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Preceptorship represents an important aspect in new nurse orientation. However, there was no formal preceptor training program developed for nurse preceptor in Thailand. The purposes of this study were to develop and evaluate formal preceptor training program for nurse preceptors in King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, Thailand. A research and development study design was utilized in this study. Participants were 37 nurse preceptors. The program contents were delivered by e-learning material, class lecture, group discussion followed by simulation training. Knowledge of the participants was assessed pre and post program. Skill and critical thinking were assessed using Preceptor Skill and Decision Making Evaluation form at the end of program. Statistical significant difference in knowledge regarding preceptor role and coaching strategies between pre and post program were found. All participants had satisfied skill and decision making score after completed the program. Most of participants perceived benefits of preceptor training course. In conclusion, The results of this study reveal that the newly developed preceptorship course is an effective formal training course for nurse preceptors.

Keywords: preceptor, preceptorship, new nurse, clinical education

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Authors: Ali A. Aldosari

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Change detection of Earth surface features is extremely important for better understanding of our environment in order to promote better decision making. Al-Jawf is remarkable for its abundant agricultural water where there is fertile agricultural land due largely to underground water. As result, this region has large areas of cultivation of dates, olives and fruits trees as well as other agricultural products such as Alfa Alfa and wheat. However this agricultural area was declined due to the reduction of government supports in the last decade. This reduction was not officially recorded or measured in this region at large scale or governorate level. Remote sensing data are primary sources extensively used for change detection in agriculture applications. This study is applied the technology of GIS and used the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) which can be used to measure and analyze the spatial and temporal changes in the agriculture areas in the Aljouf region.

Keywords: spatial analysis, geographical information system, change detection

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Authors: Mohammad Daud Ali

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For the past decade, marketing ethics has been a central point for academic researchers and practitioners. In particular, the development of frameworks and models to help in the analysis of marketing decisions are the focus of research. The current study aims at finding whether ethical decisions (honesty, fairness, responsibility, and respect) affect organizational marketing decisions. A selection of 250 respondents was purposely made from the telecommunication industry of Pakistan, out of which 204 responses were induced at an acceptable rate of 81.6%. A five-point Likert Scale, itemized with 12 items, was adopted from Taylor-Dunlop & Lester (2000) and used to draw responses regarding ethics.

Keywords: marketing, ethics, decisions making, telecommunication, Pakistan

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Authors: Karam Al-Assaf, Israa Al Khaffaf, Ryan Al Tayeb, Ayman Alzaatreh

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A significant, manageable hazard to public health, happiness, and the achievement of sustainable development is air pollution. Outdoor air pollution has increased globally over the previous years, exposing billions of people worldwide to hazardous air. With UAE being no different, there are a variety of pollution-related problems that need to be addressed. Therefore, to gain insights from the government and decision makers, this study aims to analyze the annual trends of the five major air pollutants (NO2, SO2, O3, CO, and PM10) across five emirates in the UAE (Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, and Ras AL Khaimah) from 2013 to 2020. The results of the analysis revealed that air pollutants NO2, SO2, and PM10 were significantly different across the years and states. Moreover, it was found that the levels of NO2 are significantly different in Dubai across the years. Moreover, the levels of SO2 are significantly different in Sharjah across the years. Furthermore, it was found that PM10 was significantly different in Ajman across the years. Moreover, the analysis of the significant difference in the pollutants in the three areas (Downtown, Residential, Industrial) revealed that there is no significant difference in the pollutant levels across the years in the three different areas. This tool has shown its effectiveness in monitoring pollutant trends, providing valuable data for government investigations and control measures across the UAE. Additionally, it serves as a valuable resource for decision-makers to develop and implement policies aimed at improving pollutant levels.

Keywords: air pollution, air pollutant, repeated measures, MANOVA, UAE

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Authors: Thorsten Auer, Sumaya Islam, Sabrina Plaß, Colin Wooldridge

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Whether individuals are more likely to forgo some ethical values if it is for a “great” social mission remains questionable. Research interest in the mechanism of moral disengagement has risen sharply in the organizational context over the last decades. Moral disengagement provides an explanatory approach to why individuals decide against their moral intent and describes the tendency to make unethical decisions due to a lack of self-regulation given various actions and their consequences. In our study, we examine the differences between individual decision-making given a commercial and social entrepreneurial context. Thereby, we investigate whether individuals in a social entrepreneurial context, characterized by pro-social goals and purpose beyond profit maximization, tend to make more or less “unethical” decisions in trade-off situations than those given a profit-focused commercial, entrepreneurial context. While a general priming effect may explain the tendency for individuals to make less unethical decisions given a social context, it remains unclear how individuals decide given a trade-off in that specific context. The trade-off in our study is characterized by the option to decide (un-) ethically to enhance the business purpose (in the social context, a social purpose, in the commercial context, a profit-maximization purpose). To investigate which characteristics of the context –and specifically of a trade-off – lead individuals to disregard and override their ethical values for a “greater good”, we design a conjoint analysis. This approach allows us to vary the attributes and scenarios and to test which attributes of a trade-off increase the probability of making an unethical choice. We add survey data to examine the individual propensity to morally disengage as an influencing factor to prefer certain attributes. Currently, we are in the final process of designing the conjoint analysis and plan to conduct the study by December 2022. We contribute to a better understanding of the role of moral disengagement in individual decision-making in a (social) entrepreneurial trade-off.

Keywords: moral disengagement, social entrepreneurship, unethical decision, conjoint analysis

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Authors: Comfort Mokgothu

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This study investigated the relation between processing information and fitness level of active (fit) and sedentary (unfit) children drawn from rural and urban areas in Botswana. It was hypothesized that fit children would display faster simple reaction time (SRT), choice reaction times (CRT) and movement times (SMT). 60, third grade children (7.0 – 9.0 years) were initially selected and based upon fitness testing, 45 participated in the study (15 each of fit urban, unfit urban, fit rural). All children completed anthropometric measures, skinfold testing and submaximal cycle ergometer testing. The cognitive testing included SRT, CRT, SMT and Choice Movement Time (CMT) and memory sequence length. Results indicated that the rural fit group exhibited faster SMT than the urban fit and unfit groups. For CRT, both fit groups were faster than the unfit group. Collectively, the study shows that the relationship that exists between physical fitness and cognitive function amongst the elderly can tentatively be extended to the pediatric population. Physical fitness could be a factor in the speed at which we process information, including decision making, even in children.

Keywords: decision making, fitness, information processing, reaction time, cognition movement time

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Authors: Balasaheb Bansode, L. Ladusingh

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The public distribution system is an important component of food security. It is a massive welfare program undertaken by Government of India and implemented by state government since India being a federal state; for achieving multiple objectives like eliminating hunger, reduction in malnutrition and making food consumption affordable. This program reaches at the community level through the various agencies of the government. The paper focuses on the accessibility of PDS at household level and how the present policy framework results in exclusion and inclusion errors. It tries to explore the sanctioned food grain quantity received by differentiated ration cards according to income criterion at household level, and also it has highlighted on the type of corruption in food distribution that is generated by the PDS system. The data used is of secondary nature from NSSO 68 round conducted in 2012. Bivariate and multivariate techniques have been used to understand the working and consumption of food for this paper.

Keywords: calories intake, entitle food quantity, poverty aliviation through PDS, target error

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Authors: Naznin Sultana Daisy, Mohammad Hesam Hafezi, Lei Liu

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Nowadays, oily solid waste management has become an important issue for many countries due to frequent oil spill accidents and the increase of industrial oily wastewater. The historical oil spill data show that marine oil spills that affect the shoreline can, in extreme cases, produce up to 30 or 40 times more waste than the volume of oil initially released. Hence, responsive authorities aim to develop the most effective oily waste management solution in a timely manner to manage and minimize the waste generated. In this study initially, we tried to develop the roadmap of oily waste management for three-tiered spill scenarios for Atlantic Canada. For that purpose, three oily waste disposal scenarios are evaluated via six criteria which are determined according to the opinions of the experts from the field. Consequently, through sustainable response strategies, the most appropriate and feasible scenario is determined. The results of this study will assist to develop an integrated oily waste management system for identifying the optimal waste-generation-allocation-disposal schemes and generating the optimal management alternatives based on the holistic consideration of environmental, technological, economic, social, and regulatory factors.

Keywords: oily waste management, marine oil spill, multi-criteria decision making, oil spill response

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Authors: Rachel Goh, Alexander McNab, Brent Alsop, David O'Hare

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In a busy airport, the decision whether to take passengers aside and search their luggage for dangerous items can have important consequences. If an officer fails to search and stop a bag containing a dangerous object, a life-threatening incident might occur. But stopping a bag unnecessarily means that the officer might lose time searching the bag and face an angry passenger. Passengers’ bags, however, are often cluttered with personal belongings of varying shapes and sizes. It can be difficult to determine what is dangerous or not, especially if the decisions must be made quickly in cases of busy flight schedules. Additionally, the decision to search bags is often made with input from the surrounding officers on duty. This scenario raises several questions: 1) Past findings suggest that humans are more reliant on an automated aid when under time pressure in a visual search task, but does this translate to human-human reliance? 2) Are humans more likely to agree with another person if the person is assumed to be an expert or a novice in these ambiguous situations? In the present study, forty-one participants performed a simulated luggage-screening task. They were partnered with an advisor of two different statuses (expert vs. novice), but of equal accuracy (90% correct). Participants made two choices each trial: their first choice with no advisor input, and their second choice after advisor input. The second choice was made within either 2 seconds or 8 seconds; failure to do so resulted in a long time-out period. Under the 2-second time pressure, participants were more likely to disagree with their own first choice and agree with the expert advisor, regardless of whether the expert was right or wrong, but especially when the expert suggested that the bag was safe. The findings indicate a tendency for people to assume less responsibility for their decisions and defer to their partner, especially when a quick decision is required. This over-reliance on others’ opinions might have negative consequences in real life, particularly when relying on fallible human judgments. More awareness is needed regarding how a stressful environment may influence reliance on other’s opinions, and how better techniques are needed to make the best decisions under high stress and time pressure.

Keywords: advisors, decision-making, time pressure, trust

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Authors: Cinzia Colapinto, Davide La Torre

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Goal Programming (GP) and its variants were applied to marketing and specific marketing issues, such as media scheduling problems in the last decades. The concept of satisfaction functions has been widely utilized in the GP model to explicitly integrate the Decision-Maker’s preferences. These preferences can be guided by the available information regarding the decision-making situation. A GP model with satisfaction functions for media planning decisions is proposed and then illustrated through a case study related to a marketing/media campaign in the Italian market.

Keywords: goal programming, satisfaction functions, media planning, tourism management

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Authors: Mohanad Alhabo, Naveed Nawaz

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The ongoing call or data session must be maintained to ensure a good quality of service. This can be accomplished by performing the handover procedure while the user is on the move. However, the dense deployment of small cells in 5G networks is a challenging issue due to the extensive number of handovers. In this paper, a neighbour cell list method is proposed to reduce the number of target small cells and hence minimizing the number of handovers. The neighbour cell list is built by omitting cells that could cause an unnecessary handover and handover failure because of short time of stay of the user in these cells. A multi-attribute decision making technique, simple additive weighting, is then applied to the optimized neighbour cell list. Multi-tier small cells network is considered in this work. The performance of the proposed method is analysed and compared with that of the existing methods. Results disclose that our method has decreased the candidate small cell list, unnecessary handovers, handover failure, and short time of stay cells compared to the competitive method.

Keywords: handover, HetNets, multi-attribute decision making, small cells

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Authors: Amanda Kenny, Virginia Dickson-Swift, Jane Farmer, Sarah Larkins, Karen Carlisle, Helen Hickson

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Rural ECOH (Engaging Communities in Oral Health) is a collaborative project that connects policy makers, service providers and community members. The aim of the project is to empower community members to determine what is important for their community and to design the services that they need. This three-year project is currently underway in six rural communities across Australia. This study is specifically focused on Remote Services Futures (RSF), an evidence-based method of community participation that was developed in Scotland. The findings highlight the complexities of community participation in health service planning. We assumed that people living in rural communities would welcome participation in oral health planning and engage with their community to discuss these issues. We found that to understand the relationships between community members and health service providers, it was essential to identify the formal and informal community leaders and to engage stakeholders from the various community governance structures. Our study highlights the sometimes ‘messiness’ of decision making in rural communities as well as ways to ensure that community members have the training and practical skills necessary to participate in community decision making.

Keywords: community participation, health planning, rural ECOH, Remote Services Futures

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Authors: Sabina Akter, Osiris Valdez Banda, Pentti Kujala, Jani Romanoff

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This paper examines the relationship between on-board environmental factors and customer overall satisfaction in the context of the cruise on-board experience. The on-board environmental factors considered are ambient, layout/design, social, product/service and on-board enjoyment factors. The study presents a data-driven framework and model for the on-board cruise experience. The data are collected from 893 respondents in an application of a self-administered online questionnaire of their cruise experience. This study reveals the cruise passengers’ on-board experience through the customer decision journey based on the publicly available data. Pearson correlation and regression analysis have been applied, and the results show a positive and a significant relationship between the environmental factors and on-board experience. These data help understand the cruise passengers’ on-board experience, which will be used for the ultimate decision-making process in cruise ship design.

Keywords: cruise behavior, customer activities, on-board environmental factors, on-board experience, user or customer satisfaction

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Authors: Omyma Alosaimi, Asma Alsumait

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The website developer and designer should follow usability guidelines to provide a user-friendly interface. Many guidelines and heuristics have been developed by previous studies to help both the developer and designer in this task, but E-government websites are special cases that require specialized guidelines. This paper introduces a set of eighteen guidelines for evaluating the usability of e-government websites in general and Arabic e-government websites specifically, along with a check list of how to apply them. The validity and effectiveness of these guidelines were evaluated against a variety of user characteristics. The results indicated that the proposed set of guidelines can be used to identify qualitative similarities and differences with user testing and that the new set is best suited for evaluating general and e-governmental usability.

Keywords: e-government, human computer interaction, usability evaluation, usability guidelines

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Authors: Wai Ho Darrell Kwok

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Building entities are valuable assets of a society, however, all of them are suffered from the ravages of weather and time. Facilitating onerous maintenance activities is the only way to either maintain or enhance the value and contemporary standard of the premises. By the way, maintenance budget is always bounded by the corresponding threshold limit. In order to optimize the limited resources allocation in carrying out maintenance, there is a substantial need to prioritize maintenance work. This paper reveals the application of Fuzzy AHP in a Facilities Management Company determining the maintenance priorities on the basis of predetermined criteria, viz., Building Status (BS), Effects on Fabrics (EF), Effects on Sustainability (ES), Effects on Users (EU), Importance of Usage (IU) and Physical Condition (PC) in dealing with categorized 8 predominant building components maintenance aspects for building premises. From the case study, it is found that ‘building exterior repainting or re-tiling’, ‘spalling concrete repair works among exterior area’ and ‘lobby renovation’ are the top three maintenance priorities from facilities manager and maintenance expertise personnel. Through the application of the Fuzzy AHP for maintenance priorities decision algorithm, a more systemic and easier comparing scalar linearity factors being explored even in considering other multiple criteria decision scenarios of building maintenance issue.

Keywords: building maintenance, fuzzy AHP, maintenance priority, multi-criteria decision making

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Authors: Zahid Ullah, Atlas Khan

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The rapid advancements in data collection, storage, and processing capabilities have led to an explosion of data in various domains. In this era of big data, mathematical sciences play a crucial role in uncovering valuable insights and driving informed decision-making through data analytics. The purpose of this abstract is to present the latest advances in mathematical sciences and their application in harnessing the power of data analytics. This abstract highlights the interdisciplinary nature of data analytics, showcasing how mathematics intersects with statistics, computer science, and other related fields to develop cutting-edge methodologies. It explores key mathematical techniques such as optimization, mathematical modeling, network analysis, and computational algorithms that underpin effective data analysis and interpretation. The abstract emphasizes the role of mathematical sciences in addressing real-world challenges across different sectors, including finance, healthcare, engineering, social sciences, and beyond. It showcases how mathematical models and statistical methods extract meaningful insights from complex datasets, facilitating evidence-based decision-making and driving innovation. Furthermore, the abstract emphasizes the importance of collaboration and knowledge exchange among researchers, practitioners, and industry professionals. It recognizes the value of interdisciplinary collaborations and the need to bridge the gap between academia and industry to ensure the practical application of mathematical advancements in data analytics. The abstract highlights the significance of ongoing research in mathematical sciences and its impact on data analytics. It emphasizes the need for continued exploration and innovation in mathematical methodologies to tackle emerging challenges in the era of big data and digital transformation. In summary, this abstract sheds light on the advances in mathematical sciences and their pivotal role in unveiling the power of data analytics. It calls for interdisciplinary collaboration, knowledge exchange, and ongoing research to further unlock the potential of mathematical methodologies in addressing complex problems and driving data-driven decision-making in various domains.

Keywords: mathematical sciences, data analytics, advances, unveiling

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Authors: Memory Ranga, Phillip Pretorious

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The South African Government has invested a lot of money in Information Technology Governance (ITG) within the Government departments. The ITG framework was spearheaded by the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA). This led to the development of a governing ITG DPSA framework and later the Government Wide Enterprise Architecture (GWEA) Framework for assisting the departments to implement ITG. In addition to this, the government departments have adopted the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology (COBIT) for ITG processes. Despite all these available frameworks, departments fail to fully capitalise and improve the ITG processes mainly as these are too generic and difficult to apply for specific governance needs. There has been less research done to evaluate the progress on ITG initiatives within the government departments. This paper aims to evaluate the existing ITG frameworks within selected government departments in South Africa. A quantitative research approach was used in this study. Data was collected through an online questionnaire targeting ICT Managers and Directors from government departments. The study is undertaken within a case study and only the Eastern Cape Province was selected for the research. Document review mainly on ITG framework and best practices was also used. Data was analysed using the Google Analytic tools and SPSS. A one–sample Chi-Squared Test was used to verity the evaluation findings. Findings show that there is evidence that the current guiding National governance framework (DPSA) is out dated and does not accommodate the new changes in other governance frameworks. The Eastern Cape Government Departments have spent huge amount of money on ITG but not yet able to identify the benefits of the ITG initiatives. The guiding framework is rigid and does to address some of the departmental needs making it difficult to be flexible and apply the DPSA framework. Furthermore, despite the large budget on ITG, the departments still find themselves with many challenges and unable to improve some of the processes and services. All the engaged Eastern Cape departments have adopted the COBIT framework, but none has been conducting COBIT maturity Assessment which is a functionality of COBIT. There is evidence of too many the ITG frameworks and underutilisation of these frameworks. The study provides a comprehensive evaluation of the ITG frameworks that have been adopted by the South African Government Departments in the Eastern Cape Province. The evaluation guides and recommends the government departments to rethink and adopt ITG frameworks that could be customised to accommodate their needs. The adoption and application of ITG by government departments should assist in better governance and service delivery to the citizens.

Keywords: information technology governance, COBIT, evaluate, framework, governance, DPSA framework

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Authors: Udeh Nneka Evelyn

Abstract:

The shortcoming of traditional costing system in terms of validity, accuracy, consistency, and Relevance increased the need for modern management accounting system. Activity –Based Costing (ABC) can be used as a modern tool for planning, Control and decision making for management. Past studies on ABC system have focused on manufacturing firms thereby making the studies on service firms scanty to some extent. This paper reviewed the application and relevance of activity-based costing technique in service oriented business organizations by employing a qualitative research method which relied heavily on literature review of past and current relevant articles focusing on ABC. Findings suggest that ABC is not only appropriate for use in a manufacturing environment; it is also most appropriate for service organizations such as financial institutions, the healthcare industry and government organization. In fact, some banking and financial institutions have been applying the concept for years under other names. One of them is unit costing, which is used to calculate the cost of banking services by determining the cost and consumption of each unit of output of functions required to deliver the service. ABC in very basic terms may provide very good payback for businesses. Some of the benefits that relate directly to the financial services industry are: identification the most profitable customers: more accurate product and service pricing: increase product profitability: Well organized process costs.

Keywords: business, costing, organizations, planning, techniques

Procedia PDF Downloads 241

Authors: Gulhan Sen

Abstract:

Disasters could result in many deaths and injuries. In these difficult times, accessible resources are limited, demand and supply balance is distorted, and there is a need to make urgent interventions. Disproportionateness between accessible resources and intervention capacity makes triage a necessity in every stage of disaster response. Healthcare professionals, who are in charge of triage, have to evaluate swiftly and make ethical decisions about which patients need priority and urgent intervention given the limited available resources. For such critical times in disaster triage, 'doing the greatest good for the greatest number of casualties' is adopted as a code of practice. But there is no guide for healthcare professionals about ethical decision-making during disasters, and this study is expected to use as a source in the preparation of the guide. This study aimed to examine whether the qualities healthcare professionals in Izmir related to disaster triage were adequate and whether these qualities influence their capacity to make ethical decisions. The researcher used a survey developed for data collection. The survey included two parts. In part one, 14 questions solicited information about socio-demographic characteristics and knowledge levels of the respondents on ethical principles of disaster triage and allocation of scarce resources. Part two included four disaster scenarios adopted from existing literature and respondents were asked to make ethical decisions in triage based on the provided scenarios. The survey was completed by 215 healthcare professional working in Emergency-Medical Stations, National Medical Rescue Teams and Search-Rescue-Health Teams in Izmir. The data was analyzed with SPSS software. Chi-Square Test, Mann-Whitney U Test, Kruskal-Wallis Test and Linear Regression Analysis were utilized. According to results, it was determined that 51.2% of the participants had inadequate knowledge level of ethical principles of disaster triage and allocation of scarce resources. It was also found that participants did not tend to make ethical decisions on four disaster scenarios which included ethical dilemmas. They stayed in ethical dilemmas that perform cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, manage limited resources and make decisions to die. Results also showed that participants who had more experience in disaster triage teams, were more likely to make ethical decisions on disaster triage than those with little or no experience in disaster triage teams(p < 0.01). Moreover, as their knowledge level of ethical principles of disaster triage and allocation of scarce resources increased, their tendency to make ethical decisions also increased(p < 0.001). In conclusion, having inadequate knowledge level of ethical principles and being inexperienced affect their ethical decision-making during disasters. So results of this study suggest that more training on disaster triage should be provided on the areas of the pre-impact phase of disaster. In addition, ethical dimension of disaster triage should be included in the syllabi of the ethics classes in the vocational training for healthcare professionals. Drill, simulations, and board exercises can be used to improve ethical decision making abilities of healthcare professionals. Disaster scenarios where ethical dilemmas are faced should be prepared for such applied training programs.

Keywords: disaster triage, medical ethics, ethical principles of disaster triage, ethical decision-making

Procedia PDF Downloads 245

Authors: R. S. Vikaash, S. Vinodh, T. S. Sai Prashanth

Abstract:

Six sigma is a defect reduction strategy enabling modern organizations to achieve business prosperity. The practitioners are in need to select best six sigma project among the available alternatives to achieve customer satisfaction. In this circumstance, this article presents a study in which six sigma project selection is formulated as Multi-Criteria Decision-Making(MCDM) problem and the best project has been found using AHP. Five main governing criteria and 14 sub criteria are being formulated. The decision maker’s inputs were gathered and computations were performed. The project with the high values from the set of projects is selected as the best project. Based on calculations, Project “P1”is found to be the best and further deployment actions have been undertaken in the organization.

Keywords: six Sigma, project selection, MCDM, analytic hierarchy process, business prosperity

Procedia PDF Downloads 342

Authors: K. S. Vedasingha, K. K. M. T. Perera, K. I. Hathurusinghe, H. W. I. Akalanka, Nelum Chathuranga Amarasena, Nalaka R. Dissanayake

Abstract:

Railways provide the most convenient and economically beneficial mode of transportation, and it has been the most popular transportation method among all. According to the past analyzed data, it reveals a considerable number of accidents which occurred at railways and caused damages to not only precious lives but also to the economy of the countries. There are some major issues which need to be addressed in railways of South Asian countries since they fall under the developing category. The goal of this research is to minimize the influencing aspect of railway level crossing accidents by developing the “railway process automation system”, as there are high-risk areas that are prone to accidents, and safety at these places is of utmost significance. This paper describes the implementation methodology and the success of the study. The main purpose of the system is to ensure human safety by using the Internet of Things (IoT) and image processing techniques. The system can detect the current location of the train and close the railway gate automatically. And it is possible to do the above-mentioned process through a decision-making system by using past data. The specialty is both processes working parallel. As usual, if the system fails to close the railway gate due to technical or a network failure, the proposed system can identify the current location and close the railway gate through a decision-making system, which is a revolutionary feature. The proposed system introduces further two features to reduce the causes of railway accidents. Railway track crack detection and motion detection are those features which play a significant role in reducing the risk of railway accidents. Moreover, the system is capable of detecting rule violations at a level crossing by using sensors. The proposed system is implemented through a prototype, and it is tested with real-world scenarios to gain the above 90% of accuracy.

Keywords: crack detection, decision-making, image processing, Internet of Things, motion detection, prototype, sensors

Procedia PDF Downloads 177