Search results for: services

Authors: Aneri Mehta, Krunal Mehta

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Financial administration is part of government which deals with collection, preservation and distribution of public funds, with the coordination of public revenue and expenditure, with the management of credit operation on behalf of the state and with the general control of the financial affairs of public households. The researcher has taken the prime body of the local self government viz. Municipal Corporation. However, the number of municipal corporations in India has rapidly increased in recent years. Countries 27% of the total population are living in urban area & in recent it increasing very fast. People are moving very fast from rural area to urban area. Their demand, awareness is increasing day by day. The Municipal Corporations render many services for the development of the urban area. Thus, researcher has taken a step to know the accounting practices of the municipal corporations of Gujarat state (AMC & BMC ). The research will try to show you the status of finance of municipal corporations. Article 243(w) of the constitution of India envisaged that the state government maybe, by law , endow the municipalities with such powers and authorities as may be necessary to enable them to function as institution of self government and such law may contain provision for devolution of powers and responsibilities upon municipalities subjects to such condition as may be specified there in with respect to (i) the peroration of plans for economic development and social justice and (ii) the performance of the function and the implementation of schemes as may be entrusted to them including those in relation to the matters listed in the twelfth schedule. The three tier structure of the Indian Government i.e. Union, State & Local Self Government is the scenario of the Indian constitution. Local Self Government performs or renders many services under the direct control of state government. They (local bodies) possess autonomy within its limited sphere, raise revenue through local taxation and spend its income on local services.

Keywords: financial administration, urban local bodies, local self government, constitution

Procedia PDF Downloads 446

Authors: Karolína Vozková, Matěj Kuc

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Net fee and commission income is one of the key elements of a bank’s core income. In the current low-interest rate environment, this type of income is gaining importance relative to net interest income. This paper analyses the effects of bank and country specific determinants of net fee and commission income on a set of cooperative banks from European countries in the 2007-2014 period. In order to do that, dynamic panel data methods (system Generalized Methods of Moments) were employed. Subsequently, alternative panel data methods were run as robustness checks of the analysis. Strong positive impact of bank concentration on the share of net fee and commission income was found, which proves that cooperative banks tend to display a higher share of fee income in less competitive markets. This is probably connected with the fact that they stick with their traditional deposit-taking and loan-providing model and fees on these services are driven down by the competitors. Moreover, compared to commercial banks, cooperatives do not expand heavily into non-traditional fee bearing services under competition and their overall fee income share is therefore decreasing with the increased competitiveness of the sector.

Keywords: cooperative banking, dynamic panel data models, net fee and commission income, system GMM

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Authors: S. Boulenouar, M. Sefir, M. Benahmed

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All facilities need medication and other pharmaceuticals for their operation. Management and supply is therefore to provide the different services of the facility goods and services in required quantity and quality. The permanent availability of drugs in the facilities is very difficult because most face many difficulties at the inventory management and drug supplies. Therefore, it is necessary for each health facility to know the causes for the malfunction of its management system to cope with them. It is in this context that we have undertaken to conduct this study to know the causes which should be taken into consideration by the concerned authorities to carry out their mission, which is to provide quality health care for the population. In terms of financial resources, the budget for medicines represents a significant part of the budget of the pharmacy. Our study shows that the share of the hospital budget reserved for the drugs procurement represent on average 70% of the budget of the pharmacy. The results show a state of lack of anticancer drugs at Oran teaching hospital. The analysis of the management process allowed us to know the level that the problem of stock-outs of anti-cancer drugs is at. Suggestions were made to that effect to improve the availability for these products and to respond better to the needs of patients.

Keywords: anticancer drugs, health care facility, budget, hospital pharmacist, hospital service

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Authors: Vinod Kumar Jatav, Dr. Vrijendra Singh

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WiMAX is an emerging wireless technology designed by WiMAX forum. WiMAX technology delivers broadband internet access with QoS, mobility and robust security. WiMAX is among the prominent mobile broadband wireless technology which laid the foundation for the next generation networks (NGN). The next-generation communication system for railway should facilitate high level network availability, fast mobility for high speed trains with reliability, high handover rate, the firmness of train operations, and high QoS. The system should also be capable to provide various railway services by transmitting big data efficiently. One of the most promising technologies for the next generation railway wireless communication is Mobile WiMAX. This paper analyses some of the network architectures for railway wireless communication and considers the elementary concepts to facilitate the users with broadband internet access on trains. The paper aims to recognize the suitability of Mobile WiMAX technology for the special requirements of broadband internet facilities and wireless telecommunication services of Railways.

Keywords: Broadband internet, IEEE 802.16e, mobile WiMAX, Railway wireless communication

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Authors: Wooyoung Jung, Ghang Lee

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This paper paper reports the worldwide status of building information modeling (BIM) adoption from the perspectives of the engagement level, the Hype Cycle model, the technology diffusion model, and BIM-uses. An online survey was distributed, and 156 experts from six continents responded. Overall, North America was the most advanced continent, followed by Oceania and Europe. Countries in Asia perceived their phase mainly as slope of enlightenment (mature) in the Hype Cycle model. In the technology diffusion model, the main BIM-users worldwide were “early majority” (third phase), but those in the Middle East/Africa and South America were “early adopters” (second phase). In addition, the more advanced the country, the more number of BIM services employed in general. In summary, North America, Europe, Oceania, and Asia were advancing rapidly toward the mature stage of BIM, whereas the Middle East/Africa and South America were still in the early phase. The simple indexes used in this study may be used to track the worldwide status of BIM adoption in long-term surveys.

Keywords: BIM adoption, BIM services, hype cycle model, technology diffusion model

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Authors: Esmeralda Hysenbelliu

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

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

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Authors: Yaa Asuaba Duopah, Lisa Moran, Khalifa Elmusharaf, Dervla Kelly

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Background: Research has identified a strong link between stress and drug use behaviours. Also, it has been established that the prolonged use of crack cocaine stimulates emotional, cognitive, neurological, and social changes. This paper examines the psychosocial stressors associated with crack cocaine use. Methodology: The study is qualitative and adopts a critical realist approach. Data was collected through 26 face-to-face, in-depth, semi-structured interviews with people who use crack cocaine. Study participants were recruited through two addiction services using purposive. Participants consisted of 15 males and 11 females between the ages of 24-57 years. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Results: Cravings, financial hardship, family breakdown, and emotional stimulation were revealed as psychosocial stressors associated with crack cocaine use. Conclusion: Addressing the psychosocial stressors identified in this paper through targeted interventions and supportive policies is crucial for improving the well-being of persons who use crack cocaine. Collaboration between addiction, mental health, and support services is recommended to develop and deliver these interventions.

Keywords: psychological stress, substance misuse disorder, mental health, coping

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Authors: Yosra Benchaabene, Noureddine Boujnah, Faouzi Zarai

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To meet the growing demand of users, the fifth generation (5G) will continue to provide services to higher data rates with higher carrier frequencies and wider bandwidths. As part of the 5G communication paradigm, Ultra Reliable Communication (URC) is envisaged as an important technology pillar for providing anywhere and anytime services to end users. Ultra Reliable Communication (URC) is considered an important technology that why it has become an active research topic. In this work, we analyze the availability of a service in the space domain. We characterize spatially available areas consisting of all locations that meet a performance requirement with confidence, and we define cell availability and system availability, individual user availability, and user-oriented system availability. Poisson point process (PPP) and Voronoi tessellation are adopted to model the spatial characteristics of a cell deployment in heterogeneous networks. Numerical results are presented, also highlighting the effect of different system parameters on the achievable link availability.

Keywords: URC, dependability and availability, space domain analysis, Poisson point process, Voronoi Tessellation

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Authors: Zhankun Wang, Timothy Makubuya

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The efficiency of public sports service of prefecture-level cities in Zhejiang from 2008 to 2012 was evaluated by applying the DEA method, then its influencing factors were also analyzed through Tobit model. Upon analysis, the results revealed the following; (i) the change in average efficiency of public sports service in Zhejiang present a smooth uptrend and at a relatively high level from 2008 to 2012 (ii) generally, the productivity of public sports service in Zhejiang improved from 2008 to 2012, the productivity efficiency varied greatly in different years, and the regional difference of production efficiency increased. (iii) The correlations for urbanization rate, aging rate, per capita GDP and the population density were significantly positive with the public sports service efficiency in Zhejiang, of which the most significant was the aging rate. However, the population density and per capita GDP had less impact on the efficiency of public sports service in Zhejiang. In addition, whether the efficiency of public sports services in different areas in Zhejiang reciprocates to overall benefits in public wellbeing in both rural and urban settings is still arguable.

Keywords: DEA model, public sports service, efficiency, Tobit model, Malmquist productivity index, Zhejiang

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Authors: Óscar Muñoz Garrigós, José Manuel Bernabeu Aubán

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Time-sensitive services are the base of the cloud services industry. Keeping low service saturation is essential for controlling response time. All auto-scalable services make use of reactive auto-scaling. However, reactive auto-scaling has few in-depth studies. This presentation shows a model for reactive auto-scaling methodologies with a MAPE-k architecture. Queuing theory can compute different properties of static services but lacks some parameters related to the transition between models. Our model uses queuing theory parameters to relate the transition between models. It associates MAPE-k related times, the sampling frequency, the cooldown period, the number of requests that an instance can handle per unit of time, the number of incoming requests at a time instant, and a function that describes the acceleration in the service's ability to handle more requests. This model is later used as a solution to horizontally auto-scale time-sensitive services composed of microservices, reevaluating the model’s parameters periodically to allocate resources. The solution requires limiting the acceleration of the growth in the number of incoming requests to keep a constrained response time. Business benefits determine such limits. The solution can add a dynamic number of instances and remains valid under different system sizes. The study includes performance recommendations to improve results according to the incoming load shape and business benefits. The exposed methodology is tested in a simulation. The simulator contains a load generator and a service composed of two microservices, where the frontend microservice depends on a backend microservice with a 1:1 request relation ratio. A common request takes 2.3 seconds to be computed by the service and is discarded if it takes more than 7 seconds. Both microservices contain a load balancer that assigns requests to the less loaded instance and preemptively discards requests if they are not finished in time to prevent resource saturation. When load decreases, instances with lower load are kept in the backlog where no more requests are assigned. If the load grows and an instance in the backlog is required, it returns to the running state, but if it finishes the computation of all requests and is no longer required, it is permanently deallocated. A few load patterns are required to represent the worst-case scenario for reactive systems: the following scenarios test response times, resource consumption and business costs. The first scenario is a burst-load scenario. All methodologies will discard requests if the rapidness of the burst is high enough. This scenario focuses on the number of discarded requests and the variance of the response time. The second scenario contains sudden load drops followed by bursts to observe how the methodology behaves when releasing resources that are lately required. The third scenario contains diverse growth accelerations in the number of incoming requests to observe how approaches that add a different number of instances can handle the load with less business cost. The exposed methodology is compared against a multiple threshold CPU methodology allocating/deallocating 10 or 20 instances, outperforming the competitor in all studied metrics.

Keywords: reactive auto-scaling, auto-scaling, microservices, cloud computing

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Authors: Susan Marie R. De La Cruz, Bernadette F. De La Cruz, Georgia D. Demavibas

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This study determined the top 10 perceived students’ academic needs, personal needs, personal obstacles in achieving their academic goals, are as they need assistance, and their perceived feelings in math, reading and writing. The North Carolina State College, Student Support Services needs assessment survey was used. The respondents were the randomly chosen122Graduate school students. The top 10 academic needs are as follows: need to improve memory, communication skills, study habits, time management skills, career decisions, vocabulary, math skills, test taking skills, reading comprehension, and the need to reduce math anxiety. Top 10 personal needs are as follows: difficulty meeting deadline, difficulty managing money, inadequate computer skills, afraid of failing graduate school, difficulty participating in class/group discussions, absence from school, anxiety during exams, little or no experience with internet, personal counseling needs, and unsure of university academic procedures. Students’ top 10 perceived personal obstacles were as follows: issues surrounding sickness in family, lack of time management, lack of money, feeling tired, fears to speak in class, poor study habits, problems at home, late in class, too shy, and always feeling sick and easily distracted. Students felt need assistance in areas surrounding personal budget, stress management, motivation, anxiety, depressions, leadership development and goals/decision making. It is recommended that enrichment activities be provided to respond to students’ academic and personal needs. Also, Graduate School Guidance Counselor collaborates with other licensed Guidance Counselors in other colleges to have a well-coordinated and effective delivery of services responsive to students’ needs.

Keywords: academic needs, guidance counsellors, guidance service, needs assessment survey, personal needs, student services

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Authors: Nawal Alawad, Passent Ibrahim Tantawi, Mohamed Abdel Salam Ragheb

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Providing customers with quality experiences has been confirmed to be a sustainable, competitive advantage with a distinct financial impact for companies. The success of service providers now relies on their ability to provide customer-centric services. The importance of perceived service quality and customer experience is widely recognized. The focus of this research is in the area of mobile and fixed broadband services. This study is of dual importance both academically and practically. Academically, this research applies a new model investigating the impact of customer experience quality on loyalty based on modifying the multiple-item scale for measuring customers’ service experience in a new area and did not depend on the traditional models. The integrated scale embraces four dimensions: service experience, outcome focus, moments of truth and peace of mind. In addition, it gives a scientific explanation for this relationship so this research fill the gap in such relations in which no one correlate or give explanations for these relations before using such integrated model and this is the first time to apply such modified and integrated new model in telecom field. Practically, this research gives insights to marketers and practitioners to improve customer loyalty through evolving the experience quality of broadband customers which is interpreted to suggested outcomes: purchase, commitment, repeat purchase and word-of-mouth, this approach is one of the emerging topics in service marketing. Data were collected through 412 questionnaires and analyzed by using structural equation modeling.Findings revealed that both outcome focus and moments of truth have a significant impact on loyalty while both service experience and peace of mind have insignificant impact on loyalty.In addition, it was found that 72% of the variation occurring in loyalty is explained by the model. The researcher also measured the net prompters score and gave explanation for the results. Furthermore, assessed customer’s priorities of broadband services. The researcher recommends that the findings of this research will extend to be considered in the future plans of Telecom Egypt Group. In addition, to be applied in the same industry especially in the developing countries that have the same circumstances with similar service settings. This research is a positive contribution in service marketing, particularly in telecom industry for making marketing more reliable as managers can relate investments in service experience directly with the performance closest to income for instance, repurchasing behavior, positive word of mouth and, commitment. Finally, the researcher recommends that future studies should consider this model to explain significant marketing outcomes such as share of wallet and ultimately profitability.

Keywords: broadband services, customer experience quality, loyalty, net promoters score

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Authors: Dolly Kumari, H. Lhungdim

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Maternal health is one of the crucial health indicators for any country. 5th goal of Millennium Development Goals is also emphasising on improvement of maternal health. Soon after Independence government of India realizing the importance of maternal and child health care services, and took steps to strengthen in 1st and 2nd five year plans. In past decade the other health indicator which is life expectancy at birth has been observed remarkable improvement. But still maternal mortality is high in India and in some states it is observe much higher than national average. Government of India pour lots of fund and initiate National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) in 2005 to improve maternal health in country by providing affordable and accessible health care services. Accredited Social Heath Activist (ASHA) is one of the key components of the NRHM. Mainly ASHAs are selected female aged 25-45 years from village itself and accountable for the monitoring of maternal health care for the same village. ASHA are trained to works as an interface between the community and public health system. This study tries to assess the role of ASHA in utilizing maternal health care services and to see the level of awareness about benefits given under JSY scheme and utilization of those benefits by eligible women. For the study concurrent evaluation data from National Rural health Mission (NRHM), initiated by government of India in 2005 has been used. This study is based on 78205 currently married women from 70 different districts of India. Descriptive statistics, chi2 test and binary logistic regression have been used for analysis. The probability of institutional delivery increases by 2.03 times (p<0.001) while if ASHA arranged or helped in arranging transport facility the probability of institutional delivery is increased by 1.67 times (p<0.01) than if she is not arranging transport facility. Further if ASHA facilitated to get JSY card to the pregnant women probability of going for full ANC is increases by 1.36 times (p<0.05) than reference. However if ASHA discuses about institutional delivery and approaches to get register than probability of getting TT injection is 1.88 and 1.64 times (p<0.01) higher than that if she did not discus. Further, Probability of benefits from JSY schemes is 1.25 times (p<0.001) higher among women who get married after 18 years. The probability of benefits from JSY schemes is 1.25 times (p<0.001) higher among women who get married after 18 year of age than before 18 years, it is also 1.28 times (p<0.001) and 1.32 times (p<0.001) higher among women have 1 to 8 year of schooling and with 9 and above years of schooling respectively than the women who never attended school. Those women who are working have 1.13 times (p<0.001) higher probability of getting benefits from JSY scheme than not working women. Surprisingly women belongs to wealthiest quintile are .53times (P<0.001) less aware about JSY scheme. Results conclude that work done by ASHA has great influence on maternal health care utilization in India. But results also show that still substantial numbers of needed population are far from utilization of these services. Place of delivery is significantly influenced by referral and transport facility arranged by ASHA.

Keywords: institutional delivery, JSY beneficiaries, referral faculty, public health

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Authors: Nezmin Kayedpour, Arash E. Samani, Siavash Asiaban, Jeroen M. De Kooning, Lieven Vandevelde, Guillaume Crevecoeur

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The growing adoption of renewable energy sources, such as wind power, in electricity generation is a significant step towards a sustainable and decarbonized future. However, the inherent intermittency and uncertainty of wind resources pose challenges to the reliable and stable operation of power grids. To address this, hydrogen storage systems have emerged as a promising and versatile technology to support grid balancing services in wind energy conversion systems. In this study, we propose a supplementary control design that enhances the performance of the hydrogen storage system by integrating wind turbine (WT) pitch and torque control systems. These control strategies aim to optimize the hydrogen production process, ensuring efficient utilization of wind energy while complying with grid requirements. The wind turbine pitch control system plays a crucial role in managing the turbine's aerodynamic performance. By adjusting the blade pitch angle, the turbine's rotational speed and power output can be regulated. Our proposed control design dynamically coordinates the pitch angle to match the wind turbine's power output with the optimal hydrogen production rate. This ensures that the electrolyzer receives a steady and optimal power supply, avoiding unnecessary strain on the system during high wind speeds and maximizing hydrogen production during low wind speeds. Moreover, the wind turbine torque control system is incorporated to facilitate efficient operation at varying wind speeds. The torque control system optimizes the energy capture from the wind while limiting mechanical stress on the turbine components. By harmonizing the torque control with hydrogen production requirements, the system maintains stable wind turbine operation, thereby enhancing the overall energy-to-hydrogen conversion efficiency. To enable grid-friendly operation, we introduce a cascaded controller that regulates the electrolyzer's electrical power-current in accordance with grid requirements. This controller ensures that the hydrogen production rate can be dynamically adjusted based on real-time grid demands, supporting grid balancing services effectively. By maintaining a close relationship between the wind turbine's power output and the electrolyzer's current, the hydrogen storage system can respond rapidly to grid fluctuations and contribute to enhanced grid stability. In this paper, we present a comprehensive analysis of the proposed supplementary control design's impact on the overall performance of the hydrogen storage system in wind energy conversion systems. Through detailed simulations and case studies, we assess the system's ability to provide grid balancing services, maximize wind energy utilization, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Keywords: active power control, electrolyzer, grid balancing services, wind energy conversion systems

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Authors: M. Lu

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The paper presents part of the results of EU-funded projects: SoCool@EU (Sustainable Organisation between Clusters Of Optimized Logistics @ Europe), DG-RTD (Research and Innovation), Regions of Knowledge Programme (FP7-REGIONS-2011-1). It will provide an in-depth review of emerging technologies for further improving urban mobility and freight transport systems, such as (information and physical) infrastructure, ICT-based Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), vehicles, advanced logistics, and services. Furthermore, the paper will provide an analysis of the barriers and will review business models for the market uptake of innovations. From a perspective of science and technology, the challenges of urbanization could be mainly handled through adequate (human-oriented) solutions for urban planning, sustainable energy, the water system, building design and construction, the urban transport system (both physical and information aspects), and advanced logistics and services. Implementation of solutions for these domains should be follow a highly integrated and balanced approach, a silo approach should be avoided. To develop a sustainable urban transport system (for people and goods), including inter-hubs and intra-hubs, a holistic view is needed. To achieve a sustainable transport system for people and goods (in terms of cost-effectiveness, efficiency, environment-friendliness and fulfillment of the mobility, transport and logistics needs of the society), a proper network and information infrastructure, advanced transport systems and operations, as well as ad hoc and seamless services are required. In addition, a road map for an enhanced urban transport system until 2050 will be presented. This road map aims to address the challenges of urban transport, and to provide best practices in inter-city and intra-city environments from various perspectives, including policy, traveler behaviour, economy, liability, business models, and technology.

Keywords: synchromodality, multimodal transport, logistics, Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS)

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Authors: Sara Sousa

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The environmental goods and services have often been neglected in crucial decisions affecting the environment mainly because the difficulty in estimating their economic value, since we are dealing with non-market goods and, thus, without a price associated. Nevertheless, the inexistence of prices does not necessarily mean these goods have no value. The environment is a key element in today's society that seeks to be as sustainable as possible, where the environmental assets have both use and non-use values. To estimate the use value, researchers may apply the revealed preference methods. This paper provides a theoretical review of the main concepts and methodologies on the economic valuation of the environment, with particular emphasis on the revealed preference techniques. Based on a detailed literature review, this study concludes that, despite some inherent limitations, the revealed preference methodologies – travel cost, hedonic price, and averting behaviour – represent essential tools for the researchers who accept the challenge to estimate the use value of environmental goods and services based on the actual individuals` behaviour. The main purpose of this study is to contribute to an increased theoretical information on the economic valuation of environmental assets, allowing researchers and policymakers to improve future decisions regarding the environment.

Keywords: economic valuation, environmental goods, revealed preference methods, total economic value

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Authors: Armando Cartenì, Ilaria Henke

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The perceived public transport quality is an important driver that influences both customer satisfaction and mobility choices. The competition among transport operators needs to improve the quality of the services and identify which attributes are perceived as relevant by passengers. Among the “traditional” public transport quality attributes there are, for example: travel and waiting time, regularity of the services, and ticket price. By contrast, there are some “non-conventional” attributes that could significantly influence customer satisfaction jointly with the “traditional” ones. Among these, the beauty/aesthetics of the transport terminals (e.g. rail station and bus terminal) is probably one of the most impacting on user perception. Starting from these considerations, the point stressed in this paper was if (and how munch) the travel experience of the overall travel (e.g. how long is the travel, how many transport modes must be used) influences the perception of the public transport quality. The aim of this paper was to investigate the weight of the terminal quality (e.g. aesthetic, comfort and service offered) within the overall travel experience. The case study was the extra-urban Italian bus network. The passengers of the major Italian terminal bus were interviewed and the analysis of the results shows that about the 75% of the travelers, are available to pay up to 30% more for the ticket price for having a high quality terminal. A travel experience effect was observed: the average perceived transport quality varies with the characteristic of the overall trip. The passengers that have a “long trip” (travel time greater than 2 hours) perceived as “low” the overall quality of the trip even if they pass through a high quality terminal. The opposite occurs for the “short trip” passengers. This means that if a traveler passes through a high quality station, the overall perception of that terminal could be significantly reduced if he is tired from a long trip. This result is important and if confirmed through other case studies, will allow to conclude that the “travel experience impact" must be considered as an explicit design variable for public transport services and planning.

Keywords: transportation planning, sustainable mobility, decision support system, discrete choice model, design problem

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Authors: Ripudaman S. Minhas, Pardeep K. Benipal, Aisha K. Yousafzai

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Background: Children of refugee or asylum-seeking background have multiple, complex needs (e.g. trauma, mental health concerns, separation, relocation, poverty, etc.) that places them at an increased risk for developing learning problems. Families encounter challenges accessing support during resettlement, preventing children from achieving their full developmental potential. There are very few studies in literature that examine the unique parenting challenges refugee families’ face. Providing appropriate support services and educational resources that address these distinctive concerns of refugee parents, will alleviate these challenges allowing for a better developmental outcome for children. Objective: To identify the characteristics of effective parenting interventions that address the unique needs of refugee families. Methods: English-language articles published from 1997 onwards were included if they described or evaluated programmes or interventions for parents of refugee or asylum-seeking background, globally. Data were extracted and analyzed according to Arksey and O’Malley’s descriptive analysis model for scoping reviews. Results: Seven studies met criteria and were included, primarily studying families settled in high-income countries. Refugee parents identified parenting to be a major concern, citing they experienced: alienation/unwelcoming services, language barriers, and lack of familiarity with school and early years services. Services that focused on building the resilience of parents, parent education, or provided services in the family’s native language, and offered families safe spaces to promote parent-child interactions were most successful. Home-visit and family-centered programs showed particular success, minimizing barriers such as transportation and inflexible work schedules, while allowing caregivers to receive feedback from facilitators. The vast majority of studies evaluated programs implementing existing curricula and frameworks. Interventions were designed in a prescriptive manner, without direct participation by family members and not directly addressing accessibility barriers. The studies also did not employ evaluation measures of parenting practices or the caregiving environment, or child development outcomes, primarily focusing on parental perceptions. Conclusion: There is scarce literature describing parenting interventions for refugee families. Successful interventions focused on building parenting resilience and capacity in their native language. To date, there are no studies that employ a participatory approach to program design to tailor content or accessibility, and few that employ parenting, developmental, behavioural, or environmental outcome measures.

Keywords: asylum-seekers, developmental pediatrics, parenting interventions, refugee families

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Authors: Yen-Jong Chen, Jei-An Su

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Public use facilities provide the basic infrastructure supporting the needs of urban sustainable development. These facilities include roads (streets), parking areas, green spaces, public schools, and city parks. However, how to acquire land with the proper location and size still remains uncertain in a capitalist economy where land is largely privately owned, such as in cities in Taiwan. The issue concerning the proper acquisition of reserved land for local public facilities (RLPF) policies has been continuously debated by the Taiwanese government for more than 30 years. Lately, the government has been re-evaluating projects connected with existing RLPF policies from the viewpoints of the needs of local residents, including the living environments of older adults. This challenging task includes addressing the requests of official bureau administrators, citizens whose property rights and current use status are affected, and other stakeholders, along with the means of development. To simplify the decision to acquire or release public land, we selected only public facilities that are needed for living in the local community, including parks, green spaces, plaza squares, and land for kindergartens, schools, and local stadiums. This study categorized these spaces as the community’s “leisure public facilities” (LPF). By constructing an accessibility index of the services of such multi-function facilities, we computed and produced a GIS map of spatial buffer zones for each LPF. Through these procedures, the service needs provided by each LPF were clearly identified. We then used spatial buffer zone envelope mapping to evaluate these service areas. The results obtained can help decide which RLPF should be acquired or released so that community services can be maximized under a limited budget.

Keywords: urban public facilities, community demand, accessibility, spatial buffer zone, Taiwan

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Authors: Remus Pravalie, Georgeta Bandoc

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Forests are crucial for humanity and biodiversity, through the various ecosystem services and functions they provide all over the world. Forest ecosystems are vital in Romania as well, through their various benefits, known as provisioning (food, wood, or fresh water), regulating (water purification, soil protection, carbon sequestration or control of climate change, floods, and other hazards), cultural (aesthetic, spiritual, inspirational, recreational or educational benefits) and supporting (primary production, nutrient cycling, and soil formation processes, with direct or indirect importance for human well-being) ecosystem services. These ecological benefits are of great importance in Romania, especially given the fact that forests cover extensive areas countrywide, i.e. ~6.5 million ha or ~27.5% of the national territory. However, the diversity and functionality of these ecosystem services fundamentally depend on certain key attributes of forests, such as biomass, which has so far not been studied nationally in terms of potential changes due to climate change and other driving forces. This study investigates, for the first time, changes in forest biomass in Romania in recent decades, based on a high volume of satellite data (Landsat images at high spatial resolutions), downloaded from the Google Earth Engine platform and processed (using specialized software and methods) across Romanian forestland boundaries from 1987 to 2018. A complex climate database was also investigated across Romanian forests over the same 32-year period, in order to detect potential similarities and statistical relationships between the dynamics of biomass and climate data. The results obtained indicated considerable changes in forest biomass in Romania in recent decades, largely triggered by the climate change that affected the country after 1987. Findings on the complex pattern of recent forest changes in Romania, which will be presented in detail in this study, can be useful to national policymakers in the fields of forestry, climate, and sustainable development.

Keywords: forests, biomass, climate change, trends, romania

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Authors: Ubaidillah Zuhdi, Shunsuke Mori, Kazuhisa Kamegai

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The purpose of this study is to forecast the influences of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on the structural changes of Japanese economies based on Leontief Input-Output (IO) coefficients. This study establishes a statistical analysis to predict the future interrelationships among industries. We employ the Constrained Multivariate Regression (CMR) model to analyze the historical changes of input-output coefficients. Statistical significance of the model is then tested by Likelihood Ratio Test (LRT). In our model, ICT is represented by two explanatory variables, i.e. computers (including main parts and accessories) and telecommunications equipment. A previous study, which analyzed the influences of these variables on the structural changes of Japanese industrial sectors from 1985-2005, concluded that these variables had significant influences on the changes in the business circumstances of Japanese commerce, business services and office supplies, and personal services sectors. The projected future Japanese economic structure based on the above forecast generates the differentiated direct and indirect outcomes of ICT penetration.

Keywords: forecast, ICT, industrial structural changes, statistical analysis

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Authors: Jiaqi Zhang, Zhi Dong, Pan Xing

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With the continuous development of urban agglomerations, higher demands are placed on intercity public transport travel services. To improve these services, it is necessary to comprehensively understand the views and evaluations of travelers. Taking the Guanzhong Plain urban agglomeration in China as the object, this study explores subjective attitude indicators from self-administrated survey data and examines the relationship among perceived accessibility, preference, and satisfaction for intercity public transport using a structural equation model. The results show that perceived service quality has a direct positive impact on perceived accessibility and satisfaction. Perceived accessibility and preference significantly affect satisfaction. In addition, perceived accessibility mediates the effect of service quality on satisfaction. This study provides valuable insights from a policy perspective to improve the subjective evaluation of intercity public transport travelers while emphasizing the importance of subjective variables in transport system evaluation and advocates for their subdivision to more comprehensively improve the travel experience.

Keywords: intercity public transport, perceived accessibility, satisfaction, structural equation model

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Authors: Maulita Sari Hani, Abraham B. Sianipar, Abdi Hasan, Erfa Canistya, Ismail Alaydrus, Asril Djunaidi

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Whale shark tourism offer potential benefits to support economic alternative livelihood. Since 2017, Conservation International Indonesia worked in Sumbawa to monitor whale shark distribution and identified species aggregation in Teluk Saleh. We conducted a survey on May 23th-27th, 2018 and involved 86 local community from five hamlets in Labuan Jambu village. Furthermore, forum group discussion (FGD) held with 20 village representative on July 30th, 2018. The result of frequency distribution demonstrated 95% of respondents show positive perceptions towards sustainable development of whale shark tourism with 40% willing to participate in boat rental services. The community also proposes to participate in providing other tourism services including the local guide (12%), food and beverage or F&B (8%), local transport (8%), and homestay (6%). 34% of respondents agreed to establish a new institution (under village officials) to coordinate tourism services provided by the local community. We also conducted participatory mapping with 15 key informants where the result confirmed 13 areas of whale shark aggregation with all-year-round sightings. The FGD results in 20 participants ready to start the pilot project of community-based whale shark tourism in August 2018, including 4 boat rental (3 speedboats and 1 floating cage boat), 6 homestays, 4 car rentals, 1 F&B, 1 gear rental, 2 guides, and 2 local products. In addition, we facilitate village official in establishing policy and regulations for whale shark conservation and sustainable community-based tourism through village regulation, code of conduct, best practices, and capacity building program.

Keywords: marine wildlife tourism, elasmobranch, conservation, sustainable tourism, co-management

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Authors: Hadeer Hegazy, Wael Ewieda, Ranin Soliman, Samah Elway, Asmaa Tawfik, Ragaa Sayed, Sahar Mousa

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The current healthcare system is facing major challenges in terms of cost, quality of care, and access to services. In response, the concept of value-based healthcare has emerged as a new approach to healthcare delivery. This concept puts the focus on patient values rather than on the traditional medical model of care. To achieve this, healthcare organizations must be agile and able to anticipate and respond quickly to changing needs. Agile management is essential for healthcare organizations to achieve value-based care, as it allows them to rapidly adjust their strategies to changing circumstances. Additionally, it is argued that agile management can help healthcare organizations gain a better understanding of the needs of their patients and develop better care delivery models. Besides, it can help healthcare organizations develop new services, innovate, and become more efficient. The authors provide evidence to support their argument, drawing on examples from successful value-based healthcare initiatives at children’s cancer hospital Egypt-57357. The paper offers insight into how agile management can be used to facilitate the shift towards value-based healthcare and how it can be used to maximize value in the healthcare system.

Keywords: value-based healthcare, agility in healthcare, nursing department, patients outcomes

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Authors: Ari Lindeman, Melina Maunula, Jani Kiviranta, Ronja Pölkki

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The aim of this paper is to build a vision of the utilization of creative industry competences in industrial and services firms connected to Kymenlaakso region, Finland, smart specialization focus areas. Research indicates that creativity and the use of creative industry’s inputs can enhance innovation and competitiveness. Currently creative methods and services are underutilized in regional businesses and the added value they provide is not well grasped. Methodologically, the research adopts a qualitative exploratory approach. Data is collected in multiple ways including a survey, focus groups, and interviews. Theoretically, the paper contributes to the discussion about the use creative industry competences in regional development, and argues for building regional creative economy ecosystems in close co-operation with regional strategies and traditional industries rather than as treating regional creative industry ecosystem initiatives separate from them. The practical contribution of the paper is the creative vision for the use of regional authorities in updating smart specialization strategy as well as boosting industrial and creative & cultural sectors’ competitiveness. The paper also illustrates a research-based model of vision building.

Keywords: business, cooperation, creative economy, regional development, vision

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Authors: A. W. Chalmers, O. M. van den Broek

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This article examines the relationship between the global financial crisis and corporate social responsibility activities of financial services firms. It challenges the general consensus in existing studies that firms, when faced with economic hardship, tend to jettison CSR commitments. Instead, and building on recent insights into the institutional determinants of CSR, it is argued that firms are constrained in their ability to abandon CSR by the extent to which they are subject to intense public scrutiny by regulators and the news media. This argument is tested in the context of the European sovereign debt crisis drawing on a unique dataset of 170 firms in 15 different countries over a six-year period. Controlling for a battery of alternative explanations and comparing financial service providers to firms operating in other economic sectors, results indicate considerable evidence supporting the main argument. Rather than abandoning CSR during times of economic hardship, financial industry firms ramp up their CSR commitments in order to manage their public image and foster public trust in light of intense public scrutiny.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility (CSR), public scrutiny, global financial crisis, financial services firms

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Authors: Keith Diamond, Tracy Collier, Ciara Sterling, Ben Kraal

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The increased frequency and intensity of disaster events in the Asia-Pacific region is likely to require organisations to better understand how their initiatives, and the support they provide to their customers, intersect with other organisations aiming to support communities in achieving disaster resilience. While there is a growing awareness that disaster response and recovery rebuild programmes need to adapt to more integrated, community-led approaches, there is often a discrepancy between how programmes intend to work and how they are collectively experienced in the community, creating undesired effects on community resilience. Following Australia’s North Queensland Monsoon Disaster of 2019, this research set out to understand and evaluate how the service and support ecosystem impacted on the local community’s experience and influenced their ability to respond and recover. The purpose of this initiative was to identify actionable, cross-sector, people-centered improvements that support communities to recover and thrive when faced with disaster. The challenge arose as a group of organisations, including utility providers, banks, insurers, and community organisations, acknowledged that improving their own services would have limited impact on community wellbeing unless the other services people need are also improved and aligned. The research applied human-centred service design methods, typically applied to single products or services, to design a new way to understand a whole-of-community journey. Phase 1 of the research conducted deep contextual interviews with residents and small business owners impacted by the North Queensland Monsoon and qualitative data was analysed to produce community journey maps that detailed how individuals navigated essential services, such as accommodation, finance, health, and community. Phase 2 conducted interviews and focus groups with frontline workers who represented industries that provided essential services to assist the community. Data from Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the research was analysed and combined to generate a systems map that visualised the positive and negative impacts that occurred across the disaster response and recovery service ecosystem. Insights gained from the research has catalysed collective action to address future Australian disaster events. The case study outlines a transformative way for sectors and industries to rethink their corporate social responsibility activities towards a cross-sector partnership model that shares responsibility and approaches disaster response and recovery as a single service that can be designed to meet the needs of communities.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, cross sector partnerships, disaster resilience, human-centred design, service design, systems change

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Authors: Mohamed R. Mhereeg

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The paper discusses the implementation of the MultiAgent classification System (MACS) and utilizing it to provide an automated and accurate classification of end users developing applications in the spreadsheet domain. However, different technologies have been brought together to build MACS. The strength of the system is the integration of the agent technology with the FIPA specifications together with other technologies, which are the .NET widows service based agents, the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) services, the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), and Oracle Data Mining (ODM). Microsoft's .NET windows service based agents were utilized to develop the monitoring agents of MACS, the .NET WCF services together with SOA approach allowed the distribution and communication between agents over the WWW. The Monitoring Agents (MAs) were configured to execute automatically to monitor excel spreadsheets development activities by content. Data gathered by the Monitoring Agents from various resources over a period of time was collected and filtered by a Database Updater Agent (DUA) residing in the .NET client application of the system. This agent then transfers and stores the data in Oracle server database via Oracle stored procedures for further processing that leads to the classification of the end user developers.

Keywords: MACS, implementation, multi-agent, SOA, autonomous, WCF

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Authors: Budi Purnomo, Karen M. Fernandez

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The creation of an ASEAN Community in 2015 is definitely one thing to look forward to. Integration may have birth pains in the beginning but at the end of the day, there are many opportunities that each member-state can take advantage that will benefit the people of ASEAN. Once fully integrated in 2015, ASEAN-certified tourism professionals who pass the common competency standards may find employment in various divisions of labor that are common across various sectors of tourism in member countries. At present, there are six labor divisions where tourism professionals may find employment in ASEAN member countries: namely Front Office; Housekeeping; Food Production; Food and Beverage Services (for Hotel Services); Travel Agency; and Tour Operations (for Travel Services Division). The study attempts to assess the readiness of Indonesian and Filipino students prospective skilled and educated tourism labors to work in ASEAN member countries by 2015. The data sources are obtained from a researcher-designed questionnaire and in-depth interview to reveal the interest of Indonesian and Filipino students to work in other ASEAN member states. The questionnaires were distributed to 240 third and fourth year students who are currently enrolled at the leading tourism institutes/universities in Indonesia and Philippines. The findings of the study will reveal the fulfillment of the requirements to work in ASEAN member-states, the comparison of existing tourism management curricula of Indonesia and Philippines to the Common ASEAN Curriculum (CATC) and Regional Qualifications Framework and Skills Recognition System (RQFSRS) which supports the policies of the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy of the Republic of Indonesia and the Department of Tourism and Department of Labor and Employment of the Republic of the Philippines.

Keywords: ASEAN economic community, prospective skilled and educated tourism labors, tourism labor movement, ASEAN certified-tourism professionals

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Authors: Naomi Huang Wenya, Xin Xiaohui, Vijaya Rao, Wong Ting Hway, Chow Kah Hoe Pierce, Tan Hiang Khoon

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Background: The majority of the cancelled elective surgeries caused by the COVID-19 pandemic globally were estimated to occur in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where surgical services had long been in short supply even before the pandemic. Therefore, minimising disruption to existing surgical care in LMICs is of crucial importance during a pandemic. This study aimed to explore contributory factors to the continuity of surgical care in LMICs, in the face of a pandemic. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted over zoom, with surgical leaders of 25 tertiary hospitals from 11 LMICs in South and Southeast Asia, from September to October 2020. Key themes were subsequently identified from the interview transcripts, using Braun and Clarke's method of thematic analysis. Results: The COVID-19 pandemic affected all surgical services of participating institutions but to varying degrees. Overall, elective surgeries suffered the gravest disruption, followed by outpatient surgical care, and finally, emergency surgeries. Keeping healthcare workers safe and striving for continuity of essential surgical care emerged as notable response strategies observed across all participating institutions. Conclusion: This study suggested that four factors are important for the resilience of surgical care against COVID-19: adequate COVID-19 testing capacity and effective institutional infection control measures, designated COVID-19 treatment facilities, a whole-system approach to balancing pandemic response and meeting essential surgical needs, and active community engagement. These findings can inform healthcare institutions in other countries, especially LMICs, in their effort to tread a fine line between preserving healthcare capacity for pandemic response and protecting surgical services against pandemic disruption.

Keywords: COVID-19, pandemic, LMICs, continuity of surgical service

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