Search results for: service theft
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 3638

Search results for: service theft

2918 Reliability and Maintainability Optimization for Aircraft’s Repairable Components Based on Cost Modeling Approach

Authors: Adel A. Ghobbar

Abstract:

The airline industry is continuously challenging how to safely increase the service life of the aircraft with limited maintenance budgets. Operators are looking for the most qualified maintenance providers of aircraft components, offering the finest customer service. Component owner and maintenance provider is offering an Abacus agreement (Aircraft Component Leasing) to increase the efficiency and productivity of the customer service. To increase the customer service, the current focus on No Fault Found (NFF) units must change into the focus on Early Failure (EF) units. Since the effect of EF units has a significant impact on customer satisfaction, this needs to increase the reliability of EF units at minimal cost, which leads to the goal of this paper. By identifying the reliability of early failure (EF) units with regards to No Fault Found (NFF) units, in particular, the root cause analysis with an integrated cost analysis of EF units with the use of a failure mode analysis tool and a cost model, there will be a set of EF maintenance improvements. The data used for the investigation of the EF units will be obtained from the Pentagon system, an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system used by Fokker Services. The Pentagon system monitors components, which needs to be repaired from Fokker aircraft owners, Abacus exchange pool, and commercial customers. The data will be selected on several criteria’s: time span, failure rate, and cost driver. When the selected data has been acquired, the failure mode and root cause analysis of EF units are initiated. The failure analysis approach tool was implemented, resulting in the proposed failure solution of EF. This will lead to specific EF maintenance improvements, which can be set-up to decrease the EF units and, as a result of this, increasing the reliability. The investigated EFs, between the time period over ten years, showed to have a significant reliability impact of 32% on the total of 23339 unscheduled failures. Since the EFs encloses almost one-third of the entire population.

Keywords: supportability, no fault found, FMEA, early failure, availability, operational reliability, predictive model

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2917 Investigating the Role and Position of Tuka Sabz Manufacturing Service Company in Supplying Human Resources to Mobarakeh Steel Company

Authors: Mohammad Abbas Nejad

Abstract:

Tuka Sabz service production company (private shares), with more than 30 years of history, is considered as one of the first holding companies of Tuka Foulad, which takes steps in the direction of increasing service quality and customer satisfaction. Manpower supply is one of the most important activities of Tuka Sabz company, in addition to car supply services; light and heavy transportation services; management of entertainment, sports, tourism and accommodation centers; design, creation and maintenance services of land space; preparing, cooking, distributing and serving all kinds of personal and ceremonial foods; design, construction, repair and reconstruction of non-industrial buildings; industrial laundry services; public and industrial cleaning services are also among other activities of Tuka Sabz. This company has a high capacity of specialized and committed human resources as the main pillar of its success and spent most of its years of activity in Mobarakeh steel company as one of the reliable contractors in the field of automotive service contracts, green space, industrial cleaning, management cultural, recreational and tourism places, consulting, maintenance and repair of buildings and facilities, industrial laundry, management of cooking centers and personnel transportation. The final result of this article states that Tuka Sabz company is trying to get the satisfaction of three main groups of stakeholders, i.e., employees, customers, and shareholders, for this purpose, by improving the competence and competence of employees, trying to establish a system of meritocracy and respecting the human status of employees. On the one hand, the implementation of quality management and assurance to employers with the timely and favorable implementation of contracts takes a step in this direction.

Keywords: Mubarakeh steel company, Tuka Sabz company, human resources, industrial laundry services

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2916 Food Supply Chain Optimization: Achieving Cost Effectiveness Using Predictive Analytics

Authors: Jayant Kumar, Aarcha Jayachandran Sasikala, Barry Adrian Shepherd

Abstract:

Public Distribution System is a flagship welfare programme of the Government of India with both historical and political significance. Targeted at lower sections of society,it is one of the largest supply chain networks in the world. There has been several studies by academics and planning commission about the effectiveness of the system. Our study focuses on applying predictive analytics to aid the central body to keep track of the problem of breach of service level agreement between the two echelons of food supply chain. Each shop breach is leading to a potential additional inventory carrying cost. Thus, through this study, we aim to show that aided with such analytics, the network can be made more cost effective. The methods we illustrate in this study are applicable to other commercial supply chains as well.

Keywords: PDS, analytics, cost effectiveness, Karnataka, inventory cost, service level JEL classification: C53

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2915 Customers' Attitudes towards Marketing Mix Affecting Purchasing Behavior of Starbucks Coffee (Thailand) Customers in Bangkok

Authors: Polamorn Tamprateep, Warapong Thakanun

Abstract:

This researchs' objectives are: 1. To study the customer demographics that affects the purchasing behavior; 2. To study the marketing mix that affects the purchasing behavior; 3. To study the relationship between purchasing behavior and customers’ perception of Brand Equity. Population of this research is Starbucks Coffee (Thailand) customers in Bangkok. The tool used in this study was questionnaire created from concepts, theories and related researches. The study showed that, of 400 respondents, overall opinion received high score (xˉ= 3.77). When each item is considered, it was found that ‘Staff are knowledgeable in providing service.’, ‘ Staff are friendly.’, ‘Staff possess good communication skill with customers.’, ‘Staff know all types of coffee well.’, and ‘Staff are enthusiastic in giving service.’, all these items received high score with a mean of 3.92, 3.87, 3.77, 3.71 and 3.63, respectively.

Keywords: mix attitude of the product, consumer, buying behavior, Starbucks

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2914 Monitoring of Hydrological Parameters in the Alexandra Jukskei Catchment in South Africa

Authors: Vhuhwavho Gadisi, Rebecca Alowo, German Nkhonjera

Abstract:

It has been noted that technical programming for handling groundwater resources is not accessible. The lack of these systems hinders groundwater management processes necessary for decision-making through monitoring and evaluation regarding the Jukskei River of the Crocodile River (West) Basin in Johannesburg, South Africa. Several challenges have been identified in South Africa's Jukskei Catchment concerning groundwater management. Some of those challenges will include the following: Gaps in data records; there is a need for training and equipping of monitoring staff; formal accreditation of monitoring capacities and equipment; there is no access to regulation terms (e.g., meters). Taking into consideration necessities and human requirements as per typical densities in various regions of South Africa, there is a need to construct several groundwater level monitoring stations in a particular segment; the available raw data on groundwater level should be converted into consumable products for example, short reports on delicate areas (e.g., Dolomite compartments, wetlands, aquifers, and sole source) and considering the increasing civil unrest there has been vandalism and theft of groundwater monitoring infrastructure. GIS was employed at the catchment level to plot the relationship between those identified groundwater parameters in the catchment area and the identified borehole. GIS-based maps were designed for groundwater monitoring to be pretested on one borehole in the Jukskei catchment. This data will be used to establish changes in the borehole compared to changes in the catchment area according to identified parameters.

Keywords: GIS, monitoring, Jukskei, catchment

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2913 A Study of Student Affairs Services across Baghdad Universities: Exploring Best Practices and Impact on Student Success

Authors: Jelena Zivkovic, Haidar Mohammed, Elaf Saeed

Abstract:

Student affairs services play a critical role in contributing to the wholistic development and success of students as they progress through their academic careers. The study encompasses a multifaceted examination of student affairs service offerings amongst 10 private and 3 public Baghdad universities. Student affairs administrators (13) were surveyed along with over 300 students to determine university-sponsored services and student satisfaction and awareness. The student affairs service research findings varied significantly between private and public institutions and those that followed a national and international curriculum. Universities need to persist to adapt to changing demographics and technological advancements to enhance students' personal and academic successes, and student affairs services are key to preparing graduates to thrive in a diverse global world.

Keywords: student affairs, student success, higher education, Iraq, universities, Baghdad

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2912 Carbon Pool Assessment in Two Community Forest in Nepal

Authors: Khemnath Kharel

Abstract:

Forest itself is a factory as well as product. It supplies tangible and intangible goods and services. It supplies timber, fuel wood, fodder, grass leaf litter as well as non timber edible goods and medicinal and aromatic products additionally provides environmental services. These environmental services are of local, national, or even global importance. In Nepal more than 19 thousands community forests are providing environmental service in less economic benefit than actual efficiency. There is a risk of cost of management of those forest exceeds benefits and forests get converted to open access resources in future. Most of the environmental goods and services don’t have markets which mean no prices at which they are available to the consumers therefore the valuation of these services goods and services establishment of paying mechanism for such services and insure the benefit to community is more relevant in local as well as global scale. There are few examples of carbon trading in domestic level to meet the country wide emission goal. In this contest the study aims to explore the public attitude towards carbon offsetting and their responsibility over service providers. This study helps in promotion of environment service awareness among general people and service provider; community forest. The research helps to unveil the carbon pool scenario in community forest and willingness to pay for carbon offsetting of people who are consuming more energy than general people and emitting relatively more carbon in atmosphere. The study has assessed the carbon pool status in two community forest. In the study in two community forests carbon pools were assessed following the guideline “Forest Carbon Inventory Guideline 2010” prescribed by Ministry of Forest and soil Conservation, Nepal. Final out comes of analysis in intensively managed area of Hokse CF recorded as 103.58 tons C /ha with 6173.30 tons carbon stock. Similarly in Hariyali CF carbon density was recorded 251.72 mg C /ha. The total carbon stock of intensively managed blocks in Hariyali CF is 35839.62 tons carbon.

Keywords: carbon, offsetting, sequestration, valuation

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2911 Determinants of the Users Intention of Social-Local-Mobile Applications

Authors: Chia-Chen Chen, Mu-Yen Chen

Abstract:

In recent years, with the vigorous growth of hardware and software technologies of smart mobile devices coupling with the rapid increase of social network influence, mobile commerce also presents the commercial operation mode of the future mainstream. For the time being, SoLoMo has become one of the very popular commercial models, its full name and meaning mainly refer to that users can obtain three key service types through smart mobile devices (Mobile) and omnipresent network services, and then link to the social (Social) web site platform to obtain the information exchange, again collocating with position and situational awareness technology to get the service suitable for the location (Local), through anytime, anywhere and any personal use of different mobile devices to provide the service concept of seamless integration style, and more deriving infinite opportunities of the future. The study tries to explore the use intention of users with SoLoMo mobile application formula, proposing research model to integrate TAM, ISSM, IDT and network externality, and with questionnaires to collect data and analyze results to verify the hypothesis, results show that perceived ease-of-use (PEOU), perceived usefulness (PU), and network externality have significant impact on the use intention with SoLoMo mobile application formula, and the information quality, relative advantages and observability have impacts on the perceived usefulness, and further affecting the use intention.

Keywords: SoLoMo (social, local, and mobile), technology acceptance model, innovation diffusion theory, network externality

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2910 Time Management in the Public Sector in Nigeria

Authors: Sunny Ewankhiwimen Aigbomian

Abstract:

Time, is a scarce resource and in everything we do, time is required to accomplish any given task. The need for this presentation is predicated on the way majority of Nigerian especially in the public sector operators see “Time Management”. Time as resources cannot be regained if lost or managed badly. As a significant aspect of human life it should be handled with diligence and utmost seriousness if the public sector is to function as a coordinated entity. In our homes, private life and offices, we schedule different things to ensure that some things do not go the unexpected. When it comes to service delivery on the part of government, it ought to be more serious because government is all about effect and efficient service delivery and “Time” is a significant variable necessary to successful accomplishment. The need for Nigerian government to re-examine time management in her public sector with a view of repositioning the sector to be able to compete well with other public sectors in the world. The peculiarity of Time management in Public Sector in Nigerian context as examined and some useful recommendations of immerse assistance proffered.

Keywords: Nigeria, public sector, time management, task

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2909 Evaluation of Food Services by the Patients in Hospitals of Athens in Greece

Authors: I. Mentziou, C. Delezos, A. Nestoridou, G. Boskou

Abstract:

Introduction: The system of production and distribution of meals can have a significant impact on the food intake of hospital patients who are likely to develop malnutrition. In hospitals, the consequences of food borne infections can range from annoying to life-threatening for a patient, since they can lead up to death in vulnerable groups. Aim: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the satisfaction of the patients from the food services in Greek hospitals. Methods: Eleven hospitals of the Attica region were chosen. The sample derived from 637 adult patients who were hospitalized in those hospitals, during the period September 2009 - April 2010. Tailor made questionnaires were used to interview patients upon their satisfaction from the current food service system as well as from the total quality management system of the hospital. The number of completed questionnaires was proportional to the hospital capacity. Results: The majority of the patients seem to be pleased from the quality and the variety of the meals; they judged positively the behaviour of the food service personnel and the hygiene of serving conditions. Patients made suggestions for more frequent meals, larger variety of choices and better presented meals served under proper hygiene conditions by the personnel. Conclusions: The results indicate that the patients are satisfied in regards to the meal choices and the serving methods. However, factors like temperature and hygiene conditions are not always perceived to be in a way that fulfills the necessary prerequisite requirements. A total quality management system as a driver for better patient satisfaction is Indispensable.

Keywords: evaluation, food service, HACCP, hospital, patients

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2908 Strengthening Service Delivery to Improving Cervical Cancer Screening in Southwestern Nigeria: A Pilot Project

Authors: Afolabi K. Esther, Kuye Tolulope, Babafemi, L. Olayemi, Omikunle Yemisi

Abstract:

Background: Cervical cancer is a potentially preventable disease of public significance. All sexually active women are at risk of cervical cancer; however, the uptake and coverage are low in low-middle resource countries. Hence, the programme explored the feasibility of demonstrating an innovative and low-cost system approach to cervical cancer screening service delivery among reproductive-aged women in low–resource settings in Southwestern Nigeria. This was to promote the uptake and quality improvement of cervical cancer screening services. Methods: This study was an intervention project in three senatorial districts in Osun State that have primary, secondary and tertiary health facilities. The project was in three phases; Pre-intervention, Intervention, and Post-intervention. The study utilised the existing infrastructure, facilities and staff in project settings. The study population was nurse-midwives, community health workers and reproductive-aged women (30-49 years). The intervention phase entailed using innovative, culturally appropriate strategies to create awareness of cervical cancer and preventive health-seeking behaviour among women in the reproductive-aged group (30-49) years. Also, the service providers (community health workers, Nurses, and Midwives) were trained on screening methods and treatment of pre-cancerous lesions, and there was the provision of essential equipment and supplies for cervical cancer screening services at health facilities. Besides, advocacy and engagement were made with relevant stakeholders to integrate the cervical cancer screening services into related reproductive health services and greater allocation of resources. The expected results compared the pre and post-intervention using the baseline and process indicators and the effect of the intervention phase on screening coverage using a plausibility assessment design. The project lasted 12 months; visual Inspection with Acetic acid (VIA) screening for the women for six months and follow-up in 6 months for women receiving treatment. Results: The pre-intervention phase assessed baseline service delivery statistics in the previous 12 months drawn from the retrospective data collected as part of the routine monitoring and reporting systems. The uptake of cervical cancer screening services was low as the number of women screened in the previous 12 months was 156. Service personnel's competency level was fair (54%), and limited availability of essential equipment and supplies for cervical cancer screening services. At the post-intervention phase, the level of uptake had increased as the number of women screened was 1586 within six months in the study settings. This showed about a 100-%increase in the uptake of cervical cancer screening services compared with the baseline assessment. Also, the post-intervention level of competency of service delivery personnel had increased to 86.3%, which indicates quality improvement of the cervical cancer screening service delivery. Conclusion: the findings from the study have shown an effective approach to strengthening and improving cervical cancer screening service delivery in Southwestern Nigeria. Hence, the intervention promoted a positive attitude and health-seeking behaviour among the target population, significantly influencing the uptake of cervical cancer screening services.

Keywords: cervical cancer, screening, nigeria, health system strengthening

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2907 Music Education is Languishing in Rural South African Schools as Revealed Through Education Students

Authors: E. N. Jansen van Vuuren

Abstract:

When visiting Foundation Phase (FP) students during their Teaching Practice at schools in rural Mpumalanga, the lack of music education is evident through the absence of musical sounds, with the exception of a limited repertoire of songs that are sung by all classes everywhere you go. The absence of music teaching resources such as posters and music instruments add to the perception that generalist teachers in the FP are not teaching music. Pre-service students also acknowledge that they have never seen a music class being taught during their teaching practice visits at schools. This lack of music mentoring impacts the quality of teachers who are about to enter the workforce and ultimately results in the perpetuation of no music education in many rural schools. The situation in more affluent schools present a contrasting picture with music education being given a high priority and generalist teachers often being supported by music specialists, paid for by the parents. When student teachers start their music course, they have limited knowledge to use as a foundation for their studies. The aim of the study was to ascertain the music knowledge that students gained throughout their school careers so that the curriculum could be adapted to suit their needs. By knowing exactly what pre-service teachers know about music, the limited tuition time at tertiary level can be used in the most suitable manner and concentrate on filling the knowledge gaps. Many scholars write about the decline of music education in South African schools and mention reasons, but the exact music knowledge void amongst students does not feature in the studies. Knowing the parameters of students’ music knowledge will empower lecturers to restructure their curricula to meet the needs of pre-service students. The research question asks, “what is the extent of the music void amongst rural pre-service teachers in a B.Ed. FP course at an African university?” This action research was done using a pragmatic paradigm and mixed methodology. First year students in the cohort studying for a B.Ed. in FP were requested to complete an online baseline assessment to determine the status quo. This assessment was compiled using the CAPS music content for Grade R to 9. The data was sorted using the elements of music as a framework. Findings indicate that students do not have a suitable foundation in music education despite supposedly having had music tuition from grade R to grade 9. Knowing the content required to fill the lack of knowledge provides academics with valuable information to amend their curricula and to ensure that future teachers will be able to provide rural learners with the same foundations in music as those received by learners in more affluent schools. It is only then that the rich music culture of the African continent will thrive.

Keywords: generalist educators, music education, music curriculum, pre-service teachers

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2906 Optimal Portfolio of Multi-service Provision based on Stochastic Model Predictive Control

Authors: Yifu Ding, Vijay Avinash, Malcolm McCulloch

Abstract:

As the proliferation of decentralized energy systems, the UK power system allows small-scale entities such as microgrids (MGs) to tender multiple energy services including energy arbitrage and frequency responses (FRs). However, its operation requires the balance between the uncertain renewable generations and loads in real-time and has to fulfill their provision requirements of contract services continuously during the time window agreed, otherwise it will be penalized for the under-delivered provision. To hedge against risks due to uncertainties and maximize the economic benefits, we propose a stochastic model predictive control (SMPC) framework to optimize its operation for the multi-service provision. Distinguished from previous works, we include a detailed economic-degradation model of the lithium-ion battery to quantify the costs of different service provisions, as well as accurately describe the changing dynamics of the battery. Considering a branch of load and generation scenarios and the battery aging, we formulate a risk-averse cost function using conditional value at risk (CVaR). It aims to achieve the maximum expected net revenue and avoids severe losses. The framework will be performed on a case study of a PV-battery grid-tied microgrid in the UK with real-life data. To highlight its performance, the framework will be compared with the case without the degradation model and the deterministic formulation.

Keywords: model predictive control (MPC), battery degradation, frequency response, microgrids

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2905 Comparative Public Administration: A Case Study of ASEAN Member States

Authors: Nattapol Pourprasert

Abstract:

This research is to study qualitative research having two objectives: 1. to study comparison of private sector of government to compare with ASEAN Member States, 2. to study trend of private enterprise administration of ASEAN Member States. The results are: (1) Thai people focus on personal resource administrative system, (2) Indonesia focuses on official system by good administrative principles, (3) Malaysia focuses on technology development to service people, (4) Philippines focuses on operation system development, (5) Singapore focuses on public service development, (6) Brunei Darussalam focuses on equality in government service of people, (7) Vietnam focuses on creating government labor base and develop testing and administration of operation test, (8) Myanmar focuses on human resources development, (9) Laos focuses on form of local administration, (10) Cambodia focuses on policy revolution in personal resources. The result of the second part of the study are: (1) Thailand created government personnel to be power under qualitative official structural event, (2) Indonesia has Bureaucracy Reform Roadmap of Bureaucracy Reform and National Development Plan Medium Term, (3) Malaysia has database for people service, (4) Philippines follows up control of units operation by government policy, (5) Singapore created reliability, participation of people to set government policy people’s demand, (6) Brunei Darussalam has social welfare to people, (7) Vietnam revolved testing system and administration including manpower base construction of government effectively, (8) Myanmar creates high rank administrators to develop country, (9) Laos distributes power to locality, and (10) Cambodia revolved personnel resource policy.

Keywords: public administration development, ASEAN member states, private sector, government

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2904 Patient Service Improvement in Public Emergency Department Using Discrete Event Simulation

Authors: Dana Mohammed, Fatemah Abdullah, Hawraa Ali, Najat Al-Shaer, Rawan Al-Awadhi, , Magdy Helal

Abstract:

We study the patient service performance at the emergency department of a major Kuwaiti public hospital, using discrete simulation and lean concepts. In addition to the common problems in such health care systems (over crowdedness, facilities planning and usage, scheduling and staffing, capacity planning) the emergency department suffered from several cultural and patient behavioural issues. Those contributed significantly to the system problems and constituted major obstacles in maintaining the performance in control. This led to overly long waiting times and the potential of delaying providing help to critical cases. We utilized the visual management tools to mitigate the impact of the patients’ behaviours and attitudes and improve the logistics inside the system. In addition a proposal is made to automate the date collection and communication within the department using RFID-based barcoding system. Discrete event simulation models were developed as decision support systems; to study the operational problems and assess achieved improvements. The simulation analysis resulted in cutting the patient delays to about 35% of their current values by reallocating and rescheduling the medical staff. Combined with the application of the visual management concepts, this provided the basis to improving patient service without any major investments.

Keywords: simulation, visual management, health care system, patient

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2903 Evaluating Bus System as a Transportation Mode in Gaza Strip–Palestine Using GIS

Authors: Mohammed Alokshiya, Alaeddinne D. Eljamassi

Abstract:

This study discusses the condition of bus service in Gaza Strip through testing certain hypotheses assuming that public is not satisfied with bus system in Gaza. This testing is proceeded using questionnaire. The study also includes the evaluation of ten bus stops in Gaza city as a case study using GIS, and suggests a design case study for the bus system in the university zone in Gaza city. The research indicates that there is a general dissatisfaction with bus system in Gaza Strip, with respect to buses in service, drivers and bus stops. The study also gives a design for a bus stop and its frequency in university zone in Gaza city. Finally, the researcher recommends that more interest should be given to bus system, through actual procedures such as insuring the suitability of bus for transferring passengers before updating bus license, decreasing taxes of importing new buses, and holding awareness raising sessions for bus drivers.

Keywords: public transport, bus system, public satisfaction, bus stop locating

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2902 Self-Efficacy and Attitude of the Graduating Pre-Service Teachers as Influenced in Their Student Teaching Performance

Authors: Sonia Arradaza-Pajaron, Maria Aida Manila

Abstract:

Teaching is considered the noblest yet believed to be one of the most complicated and challenging professions. Along this view, every teacher-producing institution should look into producing quality pre-service graduates who are efficacious enough with the right attitude and to deal with the task accorded to them. This study investigated the association between self-efficacy and attitude of graduating pre-service teachers with their actual student teaching performance. Survey questionnaires on self-efficacy and attitude toward practice teaching were fielded to the 90 actual respondents while their practice teaching grade was extracted to serve as the other main variable. Data were analyzed and treated statistically utilizing weighted mean and Pearson r to determine the relationship of variables of the study. Findings revealed that attitude of respondents of the three curricular programs was favorable, and they are self-efficacious. Their practice teaching performance was interpreted as very good. Results further showed a significant positive relationship between their self-efficacy and practice teaching performance. It showed that their rating was a manifestation of self- efficacious group. Although they exude positive attitude towards practice teaching, yet no significant relationship was seen with their attitude and performance. Moreover, data manifested that most of them can pay attention during their conduct of lessons in the class, as well as, listen attentively to their cooperating teachers during post conferences. They can perform student teaching tasks better even when there were other interesting things to do. Most of all, they can regulate or suppress not so pleasant thoughts or feelings and take things lightly even in most challenging situations. As gleaned from the results, it can be concluded that there was an association between self-efficacy and practice teaching performance of the respondents.

Keywords: academic achievement, attitude, self-efficacy, student teaching performance

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2901 Deploying a Platform as a Service Cloud Solution to Support Student Learning

Authors: Jiangping Wang

Abstract:

This presentation describes the design and implementation of PaaS (platform as a service) cloud-based labs that are used in database-related courses to teach students practical skills. Traditionally, all labs are implemented in a desktop-based environment where students have to install heavy client software to access database servers. In order to release students from that burden, we have successfully deployed the cloud-based solution to support database-related courses, from which students and teachers can practice and learn database topics in various database courses via cloud access. With its development environment, execution runtime, web server, database server, and collaboration capability, it offers a shared pool of configurable computing resources and comprehensive environment that supports students’ needs without the complexity of maintaining the infrastructure.

Keywords: PaaS, database environment, e-learning, web server

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2900 Nuclear Terrorism Decision Making: A Comparative Study of South Asian Nuclear Weapons States

Authors: Muhammad Jawad Hashmi

Abstract:

The idea of nuclear terrorism is as old as nuclear weapons but the global concerns of likelihood of nuclear terrorism are uncertain. Post 9/11 trends manifest that terrorists are believers of massive causalities. Innovation in terrorist’s tactics, sophisticated weaponry, vulnerability, theft and smuggling of nuclear/radiological material, connections between terrorists, black market and rough regimes are signaling seriousness of upcoming challenges as well as global trends of “terror-transnationalism.” Furthermore, the International-Atomic-Energy-Agency’s database recorded 2734 incidents regarding misuse, unauthorized possession, trafficking of nuclear material etc. Since, this data also includes incidents from south Asia, so, there is every possibility to claim that such illicit activities may increase in future, mainly due to expansion of nuclear industry in South Asia. Moreover, due to such mishaps the region is vulnerable to threats of nuclear terrorism. This is also a reason that the region is in limelight along with issues such as rapidly growing nuclear arsenals, nuclear safety and security, terrorism and political instability. With this backdrop, this study is aimed to investigate the prevailing threats and challenges in South Asia vis a vis nuclear safety and security. A comparative analysis of the overall capabilities would be done to identify the areas of cooperation to eliminate the probability of nuclear/radiological terrorism in the region.

Keywords: nuclear terrorism, safety, security, South Asia, india, Pakistan

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2899 The Effect of Observational Practice on the Volleyball Service Learning with Emphasis on the Role of Self–Efficacy

Authors: Majed Zobairy, Payam Mohammadpanahi

Abstract:

Introduction: Skill movement education is one of extremely important duty for sport coaches and sport teachers. Researchers have done lots of studies in this filed to gain the best methodology in movement learning. One of the essential aspects in skill movement education is observational learning. Observational learning, or learning by watching demonstrations, has been characterized as one of the most important methods by which people learn variety of skill and behaviours.The purpose of this study was determined the effect of observational practice on the volleyball service learning with emphasis on the Role of Self–Efficacy. Methods: The Sample consisted of100 male students was assigned accessible sampling technique and homogeneous manner with emphasis on the Role of Self–Efficacy level to 4 groups. The first group performed physical training, the second group performed observational practice task, the third practiced physically and observationally and the fourth group served as the control group. The experimental groups practiced in a one day acquisition and performed the retention task, after 72 hours. Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and independent t-test were used for Statistical analyses. Results and Discussion: Results shows that observation practice task group can significantly improve volleyball services skills acquisition (T=7.73). Also mixed group (physically and observationally) is significantly better than control group regarding to volleyball services skills acquisition (T=7.04). Conclusion: Results have shown observation practice task group and mixed group are significantly better than control group in acquisition test. The present results are in line with previous studies, suggesting that observation learning can improve performance. On the other hand, results shows that self-efficacy level significantly effect on acquisition movement skill. In other words, high self-efficacy is important factor in skill learning level in volleyball service.

Keywords: observational practice, volleyball service, self–efficacy, sport science

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2898 Real Time Detection of Application Layer DDos Attack Using Log Based Collaborative Intrusion Detection System

Authors: Farheen Tabassum, Shoab Ahmed Khan

Abstract:

The brutality of attacks on networks and decisive infrastructures are on the climb over recent years and appears to continue to do so. Distributed Denial of service attack is the most prevalent and easy attack on the availability of a service due to the easy availability of large botnet computers at cheap price and the general lack of protection against these attacks. Application layer DDoS attack is DDoS attack that is targeted on wed server, application server or database server. These types of attacks are much more sophisticated and challenging as they get around most conventional network security devices because attack traffic often impersonate normal traffic and cannot be recognized by network layer anomalies. Conventional techniques of single-hosted security systems are becoming gradually less effective in the face of such complicated and synchronized multi-front attacks. In order to protect from such attacks and intrusion, corporation among all network devices is essential. To overcome this issue, a collaborative intrusion detection system (CIDS) is proposed in which multiple network devices share valuable information to identify attacks, as a single device might not be capable to sense any malevolent action on its own. So it helps us to take decision after analyzing the information collected from different sources. This novel attack detection technique helps to detect seemingly benign packets that target the availability of the critical infrastructure, and the proposed solution methodology shall enable the incident response teams to detect and react to DDoS attacks at the earliest stage to ensure that the uptime of the service remain unaffected. Experimental evaluation shows that the proposed collaborative detection approach is much more effective and efficient than the previous approaches.

Keywords: Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS), Collaborative Intrusion Detection System (CIDS), Slowloris, OSSIM (Open Source Security Information Management tool), OSSEC HIDS

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2897 The Importance of Mental Health Literacy: Interventions in a Psychiatry Service of Hospital José Joaquim Fernandes, Portugal

Authors: Mariana Mangas, Yaroslava Martins, Ana Charraz, Ana Matos Pires

Abstract:

Introduction: Health literacy empowers people of knowledge, motivation and skills to access, understand, evaluate and mobilize information relating to health. Although the benefits of public knowledge of physical disease are widely accepted, knowledge about mental disorder has been compatibly neglected. Nowadays there is considerably evidence that literacy is of great importance for the promotion of health and prevention of mental illness. Objective: Disclosure the concept and importance of mental health literacy and introduce the literacy program of Psychiatry Service of Hospital José Joaquim Fernandes. Methodology: A search was conducted on PubMed, using keywords “literacy” and “mental health”. A description of mental health literacy interventions implemented on Psychiatry Service of Hospital José Joaquim Fernandes was performed, namely, psychoeducation programs for depression and bipolar disorder. Results and discussion: Health literacy enables patient to be able to actively participate in his treatment. The improving of mental health literacy can promote early identification of mental disorders, improve treatment results, increase the use of health services and allow the community to take action to achieve better mental health. Psychoeducation is very useful in improving the course of disease and in reducing the number of episodes and hospitalizations. Bipolar patients who received psychoeducation and pharmacotherapy have no relapses during the program and last year. Conclusion: Mental health literacy is not simply a matter of having knowledge, rather, it is knowledge linked to action which can benefit mental health.

Keywords: mental health, literacy, psychoeducation, knowledge, empowerment

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2896 Performance, Scalability and Reliability Engineering: Shift Left and Shift Right Approach

Authors: Jyothirmayee Pola

Abstract:

Ideally, a test-driven development (TDD) or agile or any other process should be able to define and implement performance, scalability, and reliability (PSR) of the product with a higher quality of service (QOS) and should have the ability to fix any PSR issues with lesser cost before it hits the production. Most PSR test strategies for new product introduction (NPI) include assumptions about production load requirements but never accurate. NPE (New product Enhancement) include assumptions for new features that are being developed whilst workload distribution for older features can be derived by analyzing production transactions. This paper talks about how to shift left PSR towards design phase of release management process to get better QOS w.r.t PSR for any product under development. It also explains the ROI for future customer onboarding both for Service Oriented Architectures (SOA) and Microservices architectures and how to define PSR requirements.

Keywords: component PSR, performance engineering, performance tuning, reliability, return on investment, scalability, system PSR

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2895 The Role of Public Management Development in Enhancing Public Service Delivery in the South African Local Government

Authors: Andrew Enaifoghe

Abstract:

The study examined the role of public management development in enhancing public service delivery in the South African local government. The study believes that the ultimate empowerment of the third tier sphere of governments in South Africa remains the instrument required to enhance both national and continental development. This over the year has been overwhelmed with problems and imbalance related to ethical practice, accountability and the functional local government system and the machinery itself. The study finds that imbalances are being strengthened by a lack of understanding and unanimity as to what a public management development in a democratic system is and how it should work to achieve the dividends of democracy in delivering public goods. Studies indicated that the magnitudes are widespread corruption and misrepresentations of government priorities; both of which weaken the ability of governments to enhance broad-based economic growth and social well-being of the people. This study addressed the problem of public management and accountable local government. The study indicates the need for citizens’ participation in the decision-making process in delivering public service in South Africa and how its accountability mechanism supports good governance. The study concludes that good and ethical watersheds in South Africa have since reached such proportions that social pressure, the pressure from the government and various institutions have to re-consider where they stand regarding ethics, ethical behaviour, accountability and professionalism in delivering public goods to the people at the local municipal government.

Keywords: accountability, development, democratic system, South Africa

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2894 Resource Allocation Scheme For IEEE802.16 Networks

Authors: Elmabruk Laias

Abstract:

IEEE Standard 802.16 provides QoS (Quality of Service) for the applications such as Voice over IP, video streaming and high bandwidth file transfer. With the ability of broadband wireless access of an IEEE 802.16 system, a WiMAX TDD frame contains one downlink subframe and one uplink subframe. The capacity allocated to each subframe is a system parameter that should be determined based on the expected traffic conditions. a proper resource allocation scheme for packet transmissions is imperatively needed. In this paper, we present a new resource allocation scheme, called additional bandwidth yielding (ABY), to improve transmission efficiency of an IEEE 802.16-based network. Our proposed scheme can be adopted along with the existing scheduling algorithms and the multi-priority scheme without any change. The experimental results show that by using our ABY, the packet queuing delay could be significantly improved, especially for the service flows of higher-priority classes.

Keywords: IEEE 802.16, WiMAX, OFDMA, resource allocation, uplink-downlink mapping

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2893 Predicting Data Center Resource Usage Using Quantile Regression to Conserve Energy While Fulfilling the Service Level Agreement

Authors: Ahmed I. Alutabi, Naghmeh Dezhabad, Sudhakar Ganti

Abstract:

Data centers have been growing in size and dema nd continuously in the last two decades. Planning for the deployment of resources has been shallow and always resorted to over-provisioning. Data center operators try to maximize the availability of their services by allocating multiple of the needed resources. One resource that has been wasted, with little thought, has been energy. In recent years, programmable resource allocation has paved the way to allow for more efficient and robust data centers. In this work, we examine the predictability of resource usage in a data center environment. We use a number of models that cover a wide spectrum of machine learning categories. Then we establish a framework to guarantee the client service level agreement (SLA). Our results show that using prediction can cut energy loss by up to 55%.

Keywords: machine learning, artificial intelligence, prediction, data center, resource allocation, green computing

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2892 Identifying Strategies for Improving Railway Services in Bangladesh

Authors: Armana Sabiha Huq, Tahmina Rahman Chowdhury

Abstract:

In this paper, based on the stated preference experiment, the service quality of Bangladesh Railway has been assessed, and particular importance has been given to investigate if there exists a relationship between service quality and safety. For investigation purposes, environmental and organizational factors were assumed to determine the safety performance of the railway. Data collected from the survey has been analyzed by importance-performance analysis (IPA). In this paper, a modification of the well-known importance-performance analysis (IPA) has been done by adopting the importance of the weights determined through a structural equation modeling (SEM) approach and by plotting the gap between importance and performance on a visual graph. It has been found that there exists a relationship between safety and serviceability to some extent. Limited resources are an important factor to improve the safety and serviceability condition of the BD railway. Moreover, it is observed that the limited resources available to monitor and improve the safety performance of railway.

Keywords: importance-performance analysis, GAP-IPA, SEM, serviceability, safety, factor analysis

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2891 Electronic Government Services Adoption from Multi-Nationalities Perspectives

Authors: Isaac Kofi Mensah, Jianing Mi, Cheng Feng

Abstract:

Electronic government is the application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) by the government to improve public service delivery to citizens and businesses. The purpose of this study is to investigate factors influencing the adoption and use of e-government services from different nationalities perspectives. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) will be used as the theoretical framework for the study. A questionnaire would be developed and administered to 500 potential respondents who are students from different nationalities in China. Predictors such as perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, computer self-efficacy, trust in both the internet and government, social influence and perceived service quality would be examined with regard to their impact on the intention to use e-government services. This research is currently at the design and implementation stage. The completion of this study will provide useful insights into understanding factors impacting the decision to use e-government services from a cross and multi nationalities perspectives.

Keywords: different nationalities, e-government, e-government services, technology acceptance model (TAM)

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2890 The Effect of Electronic Platform Service Usage on Customer Satisfaction and WOM

Authors: Shui Lien Chen, Yi-Fen Tsai, Jim Shih-Chiao Chin

Abstract:

—In this study, using Chunghwa Telecom as a case. The company accounted for the highest proportion of the telecommunications company in Taiwan. First, this paper would like to understand the effect of convenience performance on perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. Further, the perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) are adopted as the factors on the company's brand perception. Afterward, the brand perception influence on customer satisfaction, and finally whether producing a good reputation and recommendation are tested. The study participants are people who have used electronic platform service of Chunghwa Telecom. A total of 478 valid questionnaires were used and AMOS 20.0 statistical software programs were adopted to analyze.

Keywords: technology acceptance model, brand association, brand awareness, brand attachment, customer satisfaction, word-of-mouth (WOM)

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2889 Data Analytics in Hospitality Industry

Authors: Tammy Wee, Detlev Remy, Arif Perdana

Abstract:

In the recent years, data analytics has become the buzzword in the hospitality industry. The hospitality industry is another example of a data-rich industry that has yet fully benefited from the insights of data analytics. Effective use of data analytics can change how hotels operate, market and position themselves competitively in the hospitality industry. However, at the moment, the data obtained by individual hotels remain under-utilized. This research is a preliminary research on data analytics in the hospitality industry, using an in-depth face-to-face interview on one hotel as a start to a multi-level research. The main case study of this research, hotel A, is a chain brand of international hotel that has been systematically gathering and collecting data on its own customer for the past five years. The data collection points begin from the moment a guest book a room until the guest leave the hotel premises, which includes room reservation, spa booking, and catering. Although hotel A has been gathering data intelligence on its customer for some time, they have yet utilized the data to its fullest potential, and they are aware of their limitation as well as the potential of data analytics. Currently, the utilization of data analytics in hotel A is limited in the area of customer service improvement, namely to enhance the personalization of service for each individual customer. Hotel A is able to utilize the data to improve and enhance their service which in turn, encourage repeated customers. According to hotel A, 50% of their guests returned to their hotel, and 70% extended nights because of the personalized service. Apart from using the data analytics for enhancing customer service, hotel A also uses the data in marketing. Hotel A uses the data analytics to predict or forecast the change in consumer behavior and demand, by tracking their guest’s booking preference, payment preference and demand shift between properties. However, hotel A admitted that the data they have been collecting was not fully utilized due to two challenges. The first challenge of using data analytics in hotel A is the data is not clean. At the moment, the data collection of one guest profile is meaningful only for one department in the hotel but meaningless for another department. Cleaning up the data and getting standards correctly for usage by different departments are some of the main concerns of hotel A. The second challenge of using data analytics in hotel A is the non-integral internal system. At the moment, the internal system used by hotel A do not integrate with each other well, limiting the ability to collect data systematically. Hotel A is considering another system to replace the current one for more comprehensive data collection. Hotel proprietors recognized the potential of data analytics as reported in this research, however, the current challenges of implementing a system to collect data come with a cost. This research has identified the current utilization of data analytics and the challenges faced when it comes to implementing data analytics.

Keywords: data analytics, hospitality industry, customer relationship management, hotel marketing

Procedia PDF Downloads 164