Search results for: information services for mission-oriented institute

Authors: Wongsim Manirath

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In order to implement AIS adoption successfully, it is important to consider the quality of information management and understand Information Quality (IQ) factors influencing AIS adoption. This research aims to explore ways of managing AIS adoption to investigate the adoption of accounting information systems within organisations. The study has led to the development of a framework for understanding the AIS adoption process in an organisation. This research used qualitative, interpretive evidence. This framework was developed from case studies and by collecting qualitative data (interviews). This research has conducted 10 case studies to study how IQ is managed through the accounting information system adoption process. A special focus is placed on determining how organisation size influences the information quality practices. The finding is especially useful to SMEs as many SMEs have the desire to grow bigger. By better dealing with IQ issues, there could be a successful future.

Keywords: data quality, information quality, accounting information system, information management

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Authors: Mario C. Nierras

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This study aimed to determine the extension services’ needs of small farmers in Biliran province, Philippines. It also sought to find out other issues/concerns of the small farmers. Extension services’ needs of small farmers were gathered through personal interviewing and observational analysis of randomly-selected small farmers in Biliran, Philippines. Biliran small farmers extension services’ needs include: raising fruits, raising legumes, raising vegetables, raising swine, raising cattle, and raising chicken (as priority broad skills). For the specific skills, diagnosing symptoms on fertilizer deficiencies, controlling plant pests and diseases, diagnosing signs on specific pest and disease damage, controlling animal pests and diseases, and doing artificial insemination were the priority skills. They considered an on-farm trial of new technology as most needed to be coupled with industry and quality-orientedness, as positive behaviors needed in farming success. The farmers still adhere to the so-called wait-and-see attitude, thus they are more convinced to follow a particular technology if they see a concrete result of the introduced changes. Technical needs prioritization of Biliran small farmers showed that they have a real need for crop and animal production skills to include the other issues/concerns. Extension service program planning for small farmers should be patterned after their technical needs giving due attention to some issues/concerns so that extension work could deliver the right skills for the right needs of the farmers.

Keywords: extension, extension service, extension service needs, extension service program, farmers, small farmers, marginal farmers

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Authors: K. Y. S. Putri, Heri Fathurahman, Yuki Surisita, Widi Sagita, Kiki Dwi Arviani

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Society needs the assistance of academics in understanding and being skilled in health communication literacy. Information technology runs very fast while health communication literacy skills in getting health communication information during the pandemic are not as fast as the development of information technology. The research question is whether there is an influence of health communication on information technology in health information during the pandemic in Indonesia. The purpose of the study is to find out the influence of health communication on information technology in health information during the pandemic in Indonesia. The concepts of health communication literacy and information technology are used this study. Previous research is in support of this study. Quantitative research methods by disseminating questionnaires in this study. The validity and reliability test of this study is positive, so it can proceed to the next statistical analysis. Descriptive results of variable health communication literacy are of positive value in all dimensions. All dimensions of information technology are of positive value. Statistical tests of the influence of health communication literacy on information technology are of great value. Discussion of both variables in the influence of health communication literacy and high-value information technology because health communication literacy has a high effect in information technology. Respondents to this study have high information technology skills. So that health communication literacy in obtaining health information during the 2019-2022 pandemic is needed. Research advice is that academics are still very much needed by the community in the development of society during the pandemic.

Keywords: health information, health information needs, literacy health communication, information technology

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Authors: Stephen Bahooshy

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Co-producing services with the people that access them is considered best practice in the United Kingdom, with the Care Act 2014 arguing that people who access services and their carers should be involved in the design, commissioning and delivery of services. Co-production is a way of working with the community, breaking down barriers of access and providing meaningful opportunity for people to engage. Unfortunately, owing to a number of reported factors such as time constraints, practitioner experience and departmental budget restraints, this process is not always followed. In 2019, in a south London borough, d/Deaf people who access services were engaged in the design, commissioning and delivery of an information and advice service that would support their community to access local government services. To do this, sensory impairment social workers and commissioners collaborated to host a series of engagement events with the d/Deaf community. Interpreters were used to enable communication between the commissioners and d/Deaf participants. Initially, the community’s opinions, ideas and requirements were noted. This was then summarized and fed back to the community to ensure accuracy. Subsequently, a service specification was developed which included performance metrics, inclusive of qualitative and quantitative indicators, such as ‘I statements’, whereby participants respond on an adapted Likert scale how much they agree or disagree with a particular statement in relation to their experience of the service. The service specification was reviewed by a smaller group of d/Deaf residents and social workers, to ensure that it met the community’s requirements. The service was then tendered using the local authority’s e-tender process. Bids were evaluated and scored in two parts; part one was by commissioners and social workers and part two was a presentation by prospective providers to an evaluation panel formed of four d/Deaf residents. The internal evaluation panel formed 75% of the overall score, whilst the d/Deaf resident evaluation panel formed 25% of the overall tender score. Co-producing the evaluation panel with social workers and the d/Deaf community meant that commissioners were able to meet the requirements of this community by developing evaluation questions and tools that were easily understood and use by this community. For example, the wording of questions were reviewed and the scoring mechanism consisted of three faces to reflect the d/Deaf residents’ scores instead of traditional numbering. These faces were a happy face, a neutral face and a sad face. By making simple changes to the commissioning and tender evaluation process, d/Deaf people were able to have meaningful involvement in the design and commissioning process for a service that would benefit their community. Co-produced performance metrics means that it is incumbent on the successful provider to continue to engage with people accessing the service and ensure that the feedback is utilized. d/Deaf residents were grateful to have been involved in this process as this was not an opportunity that they had previously been afforded. In recognition of their time, each d/Deaf resident evaluator received a £40 gift voucher, bringing the total cost of this co-production to £160.

Keywords: co-production, community engagement, deaf and hearing impaired, service design

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Authors: I. K. Sharma

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Over the years world over system are being developed by research labs continuously monitor under water parameters in the coastal waters of sea such as conductivity, salinity, pressure, temperature, chlorophyll and biological blooms at different levels of water column. The research institutions have developed profilers which are launched by ship connected through cable, glider type profilers following underwater trajectory, buoy any driven profilers, wire guided profilers etc. In all these years, the effect was to design autonomous profilers with no cable quality connection, simple operation and on line date transfer in terms accuracy, repeatability, reliability and consistency. Hence for the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, India sponsored research project to National Institute of Oceanography, GOA, India to design and develop autonomous vertical profilers, it has taken system and AVP has been successfully developed and tested.

Keywords: oceanography, water column, autonomous profiler, buoyancy

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Authors: Aurelija Burinskienė, Dalė Dzemydienė, Arūnas Miliauskas

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This research aims at developing the approach for more effective freight delivery and transportation process management. The road congestions and the identification of causes are important, as well as the context information recognition and management. The measure of many parameters during the transportation period and proper control of driver work became the problem. The number of vehicles per time unit passing at a given time and point for drivers can be evaluated in some situations. The collection of data is mainly used to establish new trips. The flow of the data is more complex in urban areas. Herein, the movement of freight is reported in detail, including the information on street level. When traffic density is extremely high in congestion cases, and the traffic speed is incredibly low, data transmission reaches the peak. Different data sets are generated, which depend on the type of freight delivery network. There are three types of networks: long-distance delivery networks, last-mile delivery networks and mode-based delivery networks; the last one includes different modes, in particular, railways and other networks. When freight delivery is switched from one type of the above-stated network to another, more data could be included for reporting purposes and vice versa. In this case, a significant amount of these data is used for control operations, and the problem requires an integrated methodological approach. The paper presents an approach for providing e-services for drivers by including the assessment of the multi-component infrastructure needed for delivery of freights following the network type. The construction of such a methodology is required to evaluate data flow conditions and overloads, and to minimize the time gaps in data reporting. The results obtained show the possibilities of the proposing methodological approach to support the management and decision-making processes with functionality of incorporating networking specifics, by helping to minimize the overloads in data reporting.

Keywords: transportation networks, freight delivery, data flow, monitoring, e-services

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Authors: Shahbaz Pervez, Aljawharah Almuhana, Zahida Parveen, Samina Naz, Hira Tariq, Seyed Hosseini, Muhammad Awais Azam

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With the latest development in the field of cutting-edge technologies, there is a rapid increase in the use of technology-oriented gadgets. In a recent scenario of the tech era, there is increasing demand to fulfill our day-to-day routine tasks with the help of technological gadgets. We are living in an era of technology where trends have been changing, and a race to introduce a new technology gadget has already begun. Smart cities are getting more popular with every passing day; city councils and governments are under enormous pressure to provide the latest services for their citizens and equip them with all the latest facilities. Thus, ultimately, they are going more into smart cities infrastructure building, providing services to their inhabitants with a single click from their smart devices. This trend is very exciting, but on the other hand, if some incident of security breach happens due to any weaker link, the results would be catastrophic. This paper addresses potential security and privacy breaches with a possible solution by using Blockchain technology in IoT enabled environment.

Keywords: blockchain, cybersecurity, DDOS, intrusion detection, IoT, RFID, smart devices security, smart services

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Authors: Hao Huang

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INTRODUCTION: The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU) recommends the development of ‘high-impact practices,’ in an effort to increase rates of student retention and student engagement at undergraduate institutions. To achieve these goals, the Scripps College Humanities Institute and HI Fellows Seminar not only featured distinguished academics presenting their scholarship about current immigration policy and its consequences in the USA and around the world but integrated socially significant community leaders and creative activists/artivists in public talks, student workshops and collaborative art events. Students participated in experiential learning that involved guest personal presentations and discussions, oral history interviews that applied standard oral history methodologies, detailed cultural documentation, collaborative artistic interventions, and weekly posts in Internet Digital Learning Environment Sakai collaborative course forums and regular responses to other students’ comments. Our teaching pedagogies addressed the four learning styles outlined in Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory. PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Over the academic year 2017-18, the Scripps College Humanities Institute and HI Fellows Seminar presented a Fall 2017 topic, ‘The World at Our Doorsteps: Immigration and Deportation in Los Angeles’. Our purpose was to address how current federal government anti-immigration measures have affected many students of color, some of whom are immigrants, many of whom are related to and are friends with people who are impacted by the attitudes as well as the practices of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. In Spring 2018, we followed with the topic, ‘Exclusive Nationalisms: Global Migration and Immigration’. This addresses the rise of white supremacists who have ascended to position of power worldwide, in America, Europe, Russia, and xenophobic nationalisms in China, Myanmar and the Philippines. Recent scholarship has suggested the existence of categories of refugees beyond the political or social, who fit into the more inclusive category of migrants. ASSESSMENT METHODOLOGIES: Assessment methodologies not only included qualitative student interviews and quantitative student evaluations in standard rubric format, but also Outcome Assessments, Formative Evaluations, and Outside Guest Teacher feedback. These indicated that the most effective educational practices involved collaborative inquiry in undergraduate research, community-based learning, and capstone projects. Assessments of E-portfolios, written and oral coursework, and final creative projects with associated 10-12 page analytic paper revealed that students developed their understanding of how government and social organizations work; they developed communication skills that enhanced working with others from different backgrounds; they developed their ability to thoughtfully evaluate their course performance by adopting reflective practices; they gained analytic and interpretive skills that encouraged self-confidence and self- initiative not only academically, but also with regards to independent projects. CONCLUSION: Most importantly, the Scripps Humanities Institute experiential learning project spurred on real-world actions by our students, such as a public symposium on how to cope with bigots, a student tutoring program for immigrant staff children, student negotiations with the administration to establish meaningful, sustainable diversity and inclusion programs on-campus. Activism is not only to be taught to and for our students– it has to be enacted by our students.

Keywords: immigration, migration, human rights, learning assessment

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Authors: Jayanta Bora, Sukhvinder Kaur, Ashok Agarwal, Sangeeta Kaul

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Background: It is important for targeted interventions to consider vulnerabilities of female sex workers (FSWs) such as poverty, work-related mobility and literacy for effective human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention. This paper examines the association between vulnerability and behavioural outcomes among FSWs in Thane district, Maharashtra under USAID PHFI-PIPPSE project. Methods: Data were used from the Behavioural Tracking Survey, a cross-sectional behavioural study conducted in 2015 with 503 FSWs randomly selected from 12 TI-NGOs which were functioning and providing services to FSWs in Thane district prior to April 2014 in Thane district of Maharashtra. We have created the “vulnerability index”, a composite index of literacy, factors of dependence (alternative livelihood options, current debt), and aspects of sex work (mobility and duration in sex work) as a dependent variable. The key independent measures used were program exposure to intervention, service uptake, self-confidence, and self-identity. Bi-variate and multivariate logistic regressions were used to examine the study objectives. Results: A higher proportion of FSWs who were in the age-group 18–25 years from brothel/street /home/ lodge-based were categorized as highly vulnerable to HIV risk as compared to bar-based sex worker (74.1% versus 59.8%, P,0.002); regression analysis highlighted lower odds of vulnerability among FSWs who were aware of services and visited NGO clinic for medical check-up and counselling for STI [AOR= 0.092, 95% CI 0.018-0.460; P,0.004], However, lower odds of vulnerability on confident in supporting fellow sex worker in crisis [AOR= 0.601, 95% CI 0.476-0.758; P, 0.000] and were able to turn away clients when they refused to use a condom during sex [AOR= 0.524, 95% CI 0.342-0.802; P, 0.003]. Conclusion: The results highlight that FSWs associated with TIs and getting services are less vulnerable and highly empowered. As a result of behavioural change communication and other services provided by TIs, FSWs were able to successfully negotiate about condom use with their clients and manage solidarity in the crisis situation for fellow FSWs. Therefore, it is evident from study paper that TI prevention programs may transform the lives of masses considerably and may open a window of opportunity to infuse the information and awareness about HIV risk.

Keywords: female sex worker, HIV prevention, HIV service uptake, vulnerability

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Authors: Rasim M. Alguliyev, Alovsat G. Aliyev

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In the paper information on economic development trends in developed countries are analyzed. The current status of information society and economy of the country is reviewed and some recommendations are given for future development. The problems of Information Society and establishment of its innovative economy are studied. In this turn, development trends information economy in developed countries are analyzed.

Keywords: information economy, ICT sector, ICT infrastructure, innovation, innovation system hi-tech products, antimonopoly policy

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Authors: Mohammad A. Alia

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With the rapid evolution of the internet applications, cloud computing becomes one of today’s hottest research areas due to its ability to reduce costs associated with computing. Cloud is, therefore, increasing flexibility and scalability for computing services in the internet. Cloud computing is Internet based computing due to shared resources and information which are dynamically delivered to consumers. As cloud computing share resources via the open network, hence cloud outsourcing is vulnerable to attack. Therefore, this paper will explore data security of cloud computing by implementing chaotic cryptography. The proposal scenario develops a problem transformation technique that enables customers to secretly transform their information. This work proposes the chaotic cryptographic algorithms have been applied to enhance the security of the cloud computing accessibility. However, the proposed scenario is secure, easy and straightforward process. The chaotic encryption and digital signature systems ensure the security of the proposed scenario. Though, the choice of the key size becomes crucial to prevent a brute force attack.

Keywords: chaos, cloud computing, security, cryptography

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Authors: Š. Čemerková, M. Wilczková

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The paper deals with the importance of information flow for providing of defined level of customer service in the firms. Setting of the criteria for the selection and implementation of logistics information system is a prerequisite for ensuring of the flow of information in firms. The decision on the selection and implementation of logistics information system is linked to the investment costs and operating costs, which are included in the total logistics costs. The article also deals with the conclusions of the research focused on the logistics information system selection in companies in the Czech Republic.

Keywords: customer service, information system, logistics, research

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Authors: Sagwata A. Manyike, Hulisani Magada

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The South African National Biodiversity Institute is in the process of developing a guideline which sets out how biodiversity can be incorporated into land use (zoning) schemes. South Africa promulgated its Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act in 2015 and the act seeks, amongst other things, to bridge the gap between spatial planning and land use management within the country. In addition, the act requires local governments to develop wall-to-wall land use schemes for their entire jurisdictions as they had previously only developed them for their urban areas. At the same time, South Africa has a rich history of systematic conservation planning whereby Critical Biodiversity Areas and Ecological Support Areas have been spatially delineated at a scale appropriate for spatial planning and land use management at the scale of local government. South Africa is also in the process of spatially delineating ecological infrastructure which is defined as naturally occurring ecosystems which provide valuable services to people such as water and climate regulation, soil formation, disaster risk reduction, etc. The Biodiversity and Land Use Project, which is funded by the Global Environmental Facility through the United Nations Development Programme is seeking to explore ways in which biodiversity information and ecological infrastructure can be incorporated into the spatial planning and land use management systems of local governments. Towards this end, the Biodiversity and Land Use Project have developed a guideline which sets out how local governments can integrate biodiversity into their land-use schemes as a way of not only ensuring sustainable development but also as a way helping them prepare for climate change. In addition, by incorporating biodiversity into land-use schemes, the project is exploring new ways of protecting biodiversity through land use schemes. The Guideline for Incorporating Biodiversity into Land Use Schemes was developed as a response to the fact that the National Land Use Scheme Guidelines only indicates that local governments needed to incorporate biodiversity without explaining how this could be achieved. The Natioanl Guideline also failed to specify which biodiversity-related layers are compatible with which land uses or what the benefits of incorporating biodiversity into the schemes will be for that local government. The guideline, therefore, sets out an argument for why biodiversity is important in land management processes and proceeds to provide a step by step guideline for how schemes can integrate priority biodiversity layers. This guideline will further be added as an addendum to the National Land Use Guidelines. Although the planning act calls for local government to have wall to wall schemes within 5 years of its enactment, many municipalities will not meet this deadline and so this guideline will support them in the development of their new schemes.

Keywords: biodiversity, climate change, land use schemes, local government

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Authors: Ana María Rojas Chaparro, Cristian Camilo Sarmiento Chaves

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Given the growing importance of logistics as a discipline for efficient management of materials flow and information, the adoption of tools that permit to create facilities in making decisions based on a global perspective of the system studied has been essential. The article shows how from a concepts-based model is possible to organize and represent in appropriate way the reality, showing accurate and timely information, features that make this kind of models an ideal component to support an information system, recognizing that information as relevant to establish particularities that allow get a better performance about the evaluated sector.

Keywords: system, information, conceptual model, logistics

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Authors: Tomasz Komornicki

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The primary aim of the presentation is to try to model border traffic and, at the same time to explain on which economic variables the intensity of border traffic depended in the long term. For this purpose, long series of traffic data on the Polish borders were used. Models were estimated for three variants of explanatory variables: a) for total arrivals and departures (total movement of Poles and foreigners), b) for arrivals and departures of Poles, and c) for arrivals and departures of foreigners. Each of the defined explanatory variables in the models appeared as the logarithm of the natural number of persons. Data from 1994-2017 were used for modeling (for internal Schengen borders for the years 1994-2007). Information on the number of people arriving in and leaving Poland was collected for a total of 303 border crossings. On the basis of the analyses carried out, it was found that one of the main factors determining border traffic is generally differences in the level of economic development (GDP) and the condition of the economy (level of unemployment) and the degree of border permeability. Also statistically significant for border traffic are differences in the prices of goods (fuels, tobacco, and alcohol products) and services (mainly basic ones, e.g., hairdressing services). Such a relationship exists mainly on the eastern border (border traffic determined largely by differences in the prices of goods) and on the border with Germany (in the first analysed period, border traffic was determined mainly by the prices of goods, later - after Poland's accession to the EU and the Schengen area - also by the prices of services). The models also confirmed differences in the set of factors shaping the volume and structure of border traffic on the Polish borders resulting from general geopolitical conditions, with the year 2007 being an important caesura, after which the classical population mobility factors became visible. The results obtained were additionally related to changes in traffic that occurred as a result of the CPOVID-19 pandemic and as a result of the Russian aggression against Ukraine.

Keywords: border, modal structure, transport, Ukraine

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Authors: Andrey Norov

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In the recent years, Samoilov Research Institute for Mineral Fertilizers JSC “NIUIF”, the oldest (established in September 1919) industry-oriented institute in Russia, has developed a range of sustainable, environment-friendly, zero-waste technologies that ensure minimal consumption of materials and energy resources and fully consistent with the principles of Green Chemistry that include: - Ecofriendly energy and resource saving technology of sulfuric acid from sulfur according to DC-DA scheme (double conversion - double absorption); - Improved zero-waste technology of wet phosphoric acid (WPA) by dihydrate-hemihydrate process applicable to various types of phosphate raw materials; - Flexible, efficient, zero-waste, universal technology of NP / NPS / NPK / NPKS fertilizers with maximum heat recovery from chemical processes; - Novel, zero-waste, no-analogue technology of granular PK / PKS / NPKS fertilizers with controlled dissolution rate and nutrient supply into the soil, which allows to process a number of wastes and by-products; - Innovative resource-saving joint processing of wastes from the production of phosphogypsum and fluorosilicic acid (FSA) into ammonium sulfate with simultaneous neutralization of fluoride compounds with no lime used. - New fertilizer technology of increased environmental and agrochemical efficiency (currently under development). All listed green technologies are patented with Russian and Eurasian patents. The development of ecofriendly, safe, green technologies is ongoing in JSC “NIUIF”.

Keywords: NPKS fertilizers, FSA, sulfuric acid, WPA

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Authors: Pradeep Kumar, Shibashish Chakraborty, Sasadhar Bera

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In the anticipation of demand fluctuations, services cannot be inventoried and hence it creates a difficult problem in marketing of services. The inability to meet customers (patients) requirements in healthcare context has more serious consequences than other service sectors. In order to meet patient requirements in the current uncertain environment, healthcare organizations are seeking ways for improved service delivery. Flexibility provides a mechanism for reducing variability in service encounters and improved performance. Flexibility is defined as the ability of the organization to cope with changing circumstances or instability caused by the environment. Patient satisfaction is an important performance outcome of healthcare organizations. However, the paucity of information exists in healthcare delivery context to examine the impact of flexibility on patient satisfaction and behavioral intention. The present study is an attempt to develop a conceptual foundation for investigating overall impact of flexibility on patient satisfaction and behavioral intention. Several dimensions of flexibility in healthcare context are examined and proposed to have a significant impact on patient satisfaction and intention. Furthermore, the study involves a critical examination of determinants of patient satisfaction and development of a comprehensive view the relationship between flexibility, patient satisfaction and behavioral intention. Finally, theoretical contributions and implications for healthcare professionals are suggested from flexibility perspective.

Keywords: healthcare, flexibility, patient satisfaction, behavioral intention

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Authors: Iwuchukwu J. C., Mbah C.

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There seems to be dearth on information on how oil bean is being exploited, processed and conserved locally. This gap stifles initiatives on the evaluation of the suitability of the methods used and the invention of new and better methods. The study; therefore, assesses activities of processors in domestication/conservation and processing of oil bean (Pentaclethra macrophylla) Enugu State, South East Nigeria. Three agricultural zones, three blocks, nine circles and seventy-two respondents that were purposively selected made up the sample for the study. Data were presented in percentage, chart and mean score. The result shows that processors of oil bean in the area were middle-aged, married with relatively large household size and long years of experience in processing. They sourced oil bean they processed from people’s farmland and sourced information on processing of oil bean from friends and relatives. Activities involved in processing of oil bean were boiling, dehulling, washing, sieving, slicing, wrapping. However, the sequence of these activities varies among these processors. Little or nothing was done by the processors towards the conservation of the crop while poor storage and processing facilities and lack of knowledge on modern preservation technique were major constraints to processing of oil bean in the area. The study concluded that efforts should be made by governments and processors through cooperative group in provision of processing and storage facility for oil bean while research institute should conserve and generate improved specie of the crop to arouse interest of the farmers and processors on the crop which will invariably increase productivity.

Keywords: conservation, domestication, oil bean, processing

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Authors: Yasin Bilim, Alaaddin Başoda

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The recent growth of internet applications on hospitality and tourism provokes on-line consumer comments and reviews. Many researchers and practitioners have named this enormous potential as “e-WOM (electronic word of mouth)”. Travel comments are important experiential information for the potential travellers. Many researches have been conducted to analyse the effects of e-WOM on hotel consumers. Broadly quantitative methods have been used for analysing online comments. But, a few studies have mentioned about the positive practical aspects of the comments for hotel marketers. The study aims to show different usage and effects of hotel consumers’ comments. As qualitative analysis method, grounded theory, content and discourse analysis, were used. The data based on the 10 resort hotel consumers’ on-line comments. Results show that consumers tend to write comments about service person, rooms, food services and pool in their online space. These indicators can be used by hotel marketers as a marketing information tool.

Keywords: comments, E-WOM, hotel consumer, qualitative

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Authors: Essam Mansour

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The key purpose of this study is to show information-seeking behaviour of Kuwaiti Judges (KJs). Being one of the few studies about the information needs and information-seeking behaviour conducted in Arab and developing countries, this study is a pioneer one among many studies conducted in information seeking, especially with this significant group of information users. The authors tried to investigate this seeking behavior in terms of KJs' thoughts, perceptions, motivations, techniques, preferences, tools and barriers met when seeking information. The authors employed a questionnaire, with a response rate 77.2 percent. This study showed that most of KJs were likely to be older, educated and with a work experience ranged from new to old experience. There is a statistically reliable significant difference between KJs' demographic characteristics and some sources of information, such as books, encyclopedias, references and mass media. KJs were using information moderately to make a decision, to be in line with current events, to collect statistics and to make a specific/general research. The office and home were the most frequent location KJs were accessing information from. KJs' efficiency level of the English language is described to be moderately good, and a little number of them confirmed that their efficiency level of French was not bad. The assistance provided by colleagues, followed by consultants, translators, sectaries and librarians were found to be most strong types of assistance needed when seeking information. Mobile apps, followed by PCs, information networks (the Internet) and information databases were the highest technology tool used by KJs. Printed materials, followed by non-printed and audiovisual materials were the most preferred information formats KJs use. The use of languages, the recency of information and the place of information, the deficit role of the library to deliver information were at least significant barriers to KJs when seeking information.

Keywords: information users, information-seeking behaviour, information needs, judges, Kuwait

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Authors: Ziba R. Tehrani, Sanaz Moayer

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In the age of the knowledge-based economy, knowledge management has become a key factor in sustainable competitive advantage. Knowledge management is discovering, acquiring, developing, sharing, maintaining, evaluating, and using right knowledge in right time by right person in organization; which is accomplished by creating a right link between human resources, information technology, and appropriate structure, to achieve organisational goals. Studying knowledge management financial institutes shows the knowledge management in banking system is not different from other industries but because of complexity of bank’s environment, the implementation is more difficult. The bank managers found out that implementation of knowledge management will bring many advantages to financial institutes, one of the most important of which is reduction of threat to lose subsequent information of personnel job quit. Also Special attention to internal conditions and environment of the financial institutes and avoidance from copy-making in designing the knowledge management is a critical issue. In this paper, it is tried first to define knowledge management concept and introduce existing models of knowledge management; then some of the most important models which have more similarities with other models will be reviewed. In second step according to bank requirements with focus on knowledge management approach, most major objectives of knowledge management are identified. For gathering data in this stage face to face interview is used. Thirdly these specified objectives are analysed with the response of distribution of questionnaire which is gained through managers and expert staffs of ‘Karafarin Bank’. Finally based on analysed data, some features of exiting models are selected and a new conceptual model will be proposed.

Keywords: knowledge management, financial institute, knowledge management model, organisational knowledge

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Authors: Eric Lee G. Escobedo-Wu, Nidhi Rohatgi, Fouzel Dhebar

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It is challenging for patients to navigate through healthcare systems after-hours. This leads to delays in care, patient/provider dissatisfaction, inappropriate resource utilization, readmissions, and higher costs. It is important to provide patients and providers with effective clinical decision-making tools to allow seamless connectivity and coordinated care. In August 2015, patient-centric Stanford Health Care established Clinical Advice Services (CAS) to provide clinical decision support after-hours. CAS is founded on key Lean principles: Value stream mapping, empathy mapping, waste walk, takt time calculations, standard work, plan-do-check-act cycles, and active daily management. At CAS, Clinical Assistants take the initial call and manage all non-clinical calls (e.g., appointments, directions, general information). If the patient has a clinical symptom, the CAS nurses take the call and utilize standardized clinical algorithms to triage the patient to home, clinic, urgent care, emergency department, or 911. Nurses may also contact the on-call physician based on the clinical algorithm for further direction and consultation. Since August 2015, CAS has managed 228,990 calls from 26 clinical specialties. Reporting is built into the electronic health record for analysis and data collection. 65.3% of the after-hours calls are clinically related. Average clinical algorithm adherence rate has been 92%. An average of 9% of calls was escalated by CAS nurses to the physician on call. An average of 5% of patients was triaged to the Emergency Department by CAS. Key learnings indicate that a seamless connectivity vision, cascading, multidisciplinary ownership of the problem, and synergistic enterprise improvements have contributed to this success while striving for continuous improvement.

Keywords: after hours phone calls, clinical advice services, nurse triage, Stanford Health Care

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Authors: Malathi Balakrishnan, Gananathan M. Nadarajah, Saraswathy Vellasamy, Evelyn Gnanam William George

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The purpose of the study is to explore how the fun game-learning approach enhances teacher trainers’ higher order thinking skills. Two-day fun filled fun game learning-approach was introduced to teacher trainers as a Continuous Professional Development Program (CPD). 26 teacher trainers participated in this Transformation of Teaching and Learning Fun Way Program, organized by Institute of Teacher Education Malaysia. Qualitative research technique was adopted as the researchers observed the participants’ higher order thinking skills developed during the program. Data were collected from observational checklist; interview transcriptions of four participants and participants’ reflection notes. All the data were later analyzed with NVivo data analysis process. The finding of this study presented five main themes, which are critical thinking, hands on activities, creating, application and use of technology. The studies showed that the teacher trainers’ higher order thinking skills were enhanced after the two-day CPD program. Therefore, Institute of Teacher Education will have more success using the fun way game-learning approach to develop higher order thinking skills among its teacher trainers who can implement these skills to their trainee teachers in future. This study also added knowledge to Constructivism learning theory, which will further highlight the prominence of the fun way learning approach to enhance higher order thinking skills.

Keywords: constructivism, game-learning approach, higher order thinking skill, teacher trainer

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Authors: Prescott C. Ensign

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Social enterprises play a vital role in Canada’s rural and northern communities. Most operate as non-profit organizations, use market approaches, and generate revenue from services or goods to support goals that address social, cultural, and environmental issues. As provincial and federal governments make reductions to programs providing social services to local communities, rural and northern residents who already have fewer resources from which to draw will be especially affected. Social enterprises will be called on to take up the slack. The aim of this paper is to provide a more comprehensive picture of the social enterprise as an organization and to understand the impact that context/ecosystem has on a social enterprise as it develops.

Keywords: social enterprises, structuration, embeddedness, ecosystem

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Authors: H. Nur Görkemli, Mehmet Fidan

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After the first acquaintance with internet in April 1993, number of internet users increased rapidly in Turkey. According to Turkish Statistical Institute’s 2013 data, internet usage in Turkey between 16-74 age group is 48,9%. Hospitals are one of the areas where internet is being intensively used like many other businesses. As a part of public relations application, websites are important tools for hospitals to reach a wide range of target audience within and outside the organization. With their websites, hospitals have opportunities to give information about their organization, strengthen their image, compete with their rivals, interact with shareholders, reflect their transparency and meet with new audiences. This study examines web sites of totally 31 hospitals which are located in Konya. Institutions are categorized as public and private hospitals and then three main research categories are determined: content, visual and technical. Main and sub categories are examined by using content analysis method. Results are interpreted in terms of public and private institutions.

Keywords: websites, hospital, health communication, internet, webpages

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Authors: Imran Badshah

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Pedestrian service time reflects the performance of the facility, and it’s a key parameter to analyze the capability of facilities provided to serve pedestrians. The level of service of pedestrians (LOS) mainly depends on pedestrian time and safety. The pedestrian time utilized by taking a service is mainly influenced by the number of available services and the time utilized by each pedestrian in receiving a service; that is called a delay time. In this paper, we analyzed the simulated pedestrian service time with different delay times. A simulation is performed in AnyLogic by developing a model that reflects the real scenario of pedestrian services such as ticket machine gates at rail stations, airports, shopping malls, and cinema halls. The simulated pedestrian time is determined for various delay values. The simulated result shows how pedestrian time changes with the delay pattern. The histogram and time plot graph of a model gives the mean, maximum and minimum values of the pedestrian time. This study helps us to check the behavior of pedestrian time at various services such as subway stations, airports, shopping malls, and cinema halls.

Keywords: agent-based simulation, anylogic model, pedestrian behavior, time delay

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Authors: J. Cadby, K. Miyazawa

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Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been widely adopted into the agricultural landscape with advancements of mobile connectivity and data accessibility. In developed nations, mobile-technology is well integrated into marketing transactions, and also plays a crucial role in making data-driven decisions on-farm. In developing nations, mobile banking and access to agricultural extension services allow for informed decision-making and smoother transactions. In addition, the availability of updated and readily available market and climate data provides a negotiation platform, reducing economic risks for farmers worldwide. The total usage of mobile technology has risen over the past 20 years, and almost three-quarters of the world’s population subscribes to mobile technology. This study reviewed mobile technology integration into agricultural systems in developing and developed nations. Data from secondary sources were collected and investigated. The objectives of the study include a review of the success of mobile banking transactions in developing nations, and a review of application and SMS based services for direct marketing in both developed and developing nations. Rural farmers in developing countries with access to diverse m-banking options experienced increased access to farm investment resources with the use of mobile banking technology. Rural farmers involved in perishable crop production were also more likely to benefit from mobile platform sales participation. ICT programs reached through mobile application and SMS increased access to agricultural extension materials and marketing tools for demographics that faced literacy-challenges and isolated markets. As mobile technology becomes more ubiquitous in the global agricultural system, training and market opportunities to facilitate mobile usage in developing agricultural systems are necessary. Digital skills training programs are necessary in order to improve equal global adoption of ICT in agriculture.

Keywords: market participation, mobile banking, mobile technology, rural farming

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Authors: Ali Kharazi, Hassanali Aghajani, Hesami Azizi

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Tourism entrepreneurship is a growing field that has the potential to create new opportunities for sustainable development. The purpose of this study is to identify and classify the entrepreneurial opportunities in the blind tourism industry in Khuzestan Province of Iran that can be created through the operation of blinds’ tours. This study used a mixed methods approach. The qualitative data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 15 tourist guides and tourism activists, while the quantitative data was collected through a questionnaire survey of 40 blind people who had participated in blinds’ tours. The findings of this study suggest that there are a number of entrepreneurial opportunities in the blind tourism industry in Khuzestan Province, including (1) developing and providing accessible tourism services, such as tours, accommodations, restaurants, and transportation, (2) creating and marketing blind-friendly tourism products and experiences (3) training and educating tourism professionals on how to provide accessible and inclusive tourism services. This study contributes to the theoretical understanding of tourism entrepreneurship by providing insights into the entrepreneurial opportunities in the blind tourism industry. The findings of this study can be used to develop policies and programs that support the development of the blind tourism industry. The qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis. The quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. This study examines the entrepreneurial opportunities within the blind tourism industry in Khuzestan Province, Iran. In addition, Khuzestan province has made relatively good development in the field of blinds’ tourism. Blind tourists have become loyal customers of blinds’ tours, which has increased their self-confidence and social participation. Tourist guides and centers of tourism services are interested in participating in blinds’ tours more than before, and even other parts outside the tourism field have encouraged sponsorship. Education had a great impact on the quality of tourism services, especially for the blind. It has played a significant role in improving the quality of tourism services for the blind. However, the quality and quantity of infrastructure should be increased in different sectors of tourism services to foster future growth. These opportunities can be used to create new businesses and jobs and to promote sustainable development in the region.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, tourism, blind, sustainable development, Khuzestan

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Authors: Ahmed Krobba, Meriem Touzene, Mohamed Debeyche

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The wireless communications system (5G) will provide more diverse applications and higher quality services for users compared to the long-term evolution 4G (LTE). 5G uses a higher carrier frequency, which suffers from information loss in 5G coverage. Most 5G users often cannot obtain high-quality communications due to transmission channel noise and channel complexity. Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH-NR: Physical Uplink Control Channel New Radio) plays a crucial role in 5G NR telecommunication technology, which is mainly used to transmit link control information uplink (UCI: Uplink Control Information. This study based of evaluating the performance of channel physical uplink control PUCCH-NR under low Signal-to-Noise Ratios with various antenna numbers reception. We propose the artificial intelligence approach based on deep neural networks (Deep Learning) to estimate the PUCCH-NR channel in comparison with this approach with different conventional methods such as least-square (LS) and minimum-mean-square-error (MMSE). To evaluate the channel performance we use the block error rate (BLER) as an evaluation criterion of the communication system. The results show that the deep neural networks method gives best performance compared with MMSE and LS

Keywords: 5G network, uplink (Uplink), PUCCH channel, NR-PUCCH channel, deep learning

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Authors: A. Drong, K. S. Kerkhoff

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Migration affects women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights. This paper reports on the social constructs of gender, and livelihood pursuits as beauty parlours workers amongst the young Garo women in Bangladesh, and studies changes in their accessibility to the healthcare services due to migration and livelihood. The paper is based on in-depth interviews and participant-led group discussions with 30 women working in various beauty parlours across the city. The data indicate that social perceptions of ‘good’, ‘bad’ and ‘respectable’ determine the expression of sexuality, and often dictates sexual and reproductive practices for these women. This study also reveals that unregulated work conditions, and the current cost of local healthcare services, have a strong impact on the women’s accessibility to the healthcare services; thus often limiting their choices to only customary and/or unqualified practitioners for abortions and child-births. Development programmes on migrant indigenous women’s health must, therefore, take the contextual gender norms and livelihood choices into account.

Keywords: gender, indigenous women, reproductive rights, sexual rights, Garo, migration, livelihood, healthcare

Procedia PDF Downloads 134