Search results for: mobile collaboration

Authors: Arun Kumar R. K. Gothra, Hasan Alhakamy

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With increasing expectations and demands for warehousing and distribution, Warehouse Solution Incorporated in Victoria has been looking at ways to improve on its business processes to maintain the competitive edge. To maintain the provision of high quality service standards at competitive and affordable prices, improvements in the logistics management are necessary. One such avenue is to make efficient use of space available in the warehouse. This paper is based on a study of the collaboration of Warehouse Solution Inc with Dandenong Distribution Centre (DDC) to solve congestion problem and enhance efficiency of the whole warehouse activities.

Keywords: space optimization, optimal utilization, warehouse, DDC

Procedia PDF Downloads 595

Authors: C. Fortin, D. Tokmeninova, O. Ushakova

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Among 500 Russian universities Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) is one of the youngest (established in 2011), quite small and vastly international, comprising 20 percent of international students and 70 percent of faculty with significant academic experience at top-100 universities (QS, THE). The institute has emerged from close collaboration with MIT and leading Russian universities. Skoltech is an entirely English speaking environment. Skoltech curriculum plans of ten Master programs are based on the CDIO learning outcomes model. However, despite the Institute’s unique focus on industrial innovations and startups, one of the main challenges has become an evident large proportion of nearly half of MSc graduates entering PhD programs at Skoltech or other universities rather than industry or entrepreneurship. In order to increase the share of students joining the industrial sector after graduation, Skoltech started implementing a number of unique practices with a focus on employers’ expectations incorporated into the curriculum redesign. In this sense, extended knowledge exchange with industrial partners via collaboration in learning activities, industrial projects and assessments became essential for students’ headway into industrial and entrepreneurship pathways. Current academic curriculum includes the following types of components based on extended knowledge exchange with industrial partners: innovation workshop, industrial immersion, special industrial tracks, MSc defenses. Innovation workshop is a 4 week full time diving into the Skoltech vibrant ecosystem designed to foster innovators, focuses on teamwork, group projects, and sparks entrepreneurial instincts from the very first days of study. From 2019 the number of mentors from industry and startups significantly increased to guide students across these sectors’ demands. Industrial immersion is an exclusive part of Skoltech curriculum where students after the first year of study spend 8 weeks in an industrial company carrying out an individual or team project and are guided jointly by both Skoltech and company supervisors. The aim of the industrial immersion is to familiarize students with relevant needs of Russian industry and to prepare graduates for job placement. During the immersion a company plays the role of a challenge provider for students. Skoltech has started a special industrial track comprising deep collaboration with IPG Photonics – a leading R&D company and manufacturer of high-performance fiber lasers and amplifiers for diverse applications. The track is aimed to train a new cohort of engineers and includes a variety of activities for students within the “Photonics” MSc program. It is expected to be a successful story and used as an example for similar initiatives with other Russian high-tech companies. One of the pathways of extended knowledge exchange with industrial partners is an active involvement of potential employers in MSc Defense Committees to review and assess MSc thesis projects and to participate in defense procedures. The paper will evaluate the effect and results of the above undertaken measures.

Keywords: Curriculum redesign, knowledge exchange model, learning outcomes framework, stakeholder engagement

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Authors: Sharda Kumari

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As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to leave its mark on the global business landscape, companies have had to adapt to new realities and find ways to sustain their operations amid social distancing measures, government restrictions, and heightened public health concerns. This unprecedented situation has placed considerable stress on both employees and employers, underscoring the need for innovative approaches to manage the risks associated with Covid-19 transmission in the workplace. In response to these challenges, the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital technologies, with an increasing preference for remote interactions and virtual collaboration. Customer relationship management (CRM) systems have risen to prominence as a vital resource for organizations navigating the post-pandemic world, providing a range of benefits that include acquiring new customers, generating insightful consumer data, enhancing customer relationships, and growing market share. In the context of pandemic management, CRM systems offer three primary advantages: (1) integration features that streamline operations and reduce the need for multiple, costly software systems; (2) worldwide accessibility from any internet-enabled device, facilitating efficient remote workforce management during a pandemic; and (3) the capacity for rapid adaptation to changing business conditions, given that most CRM platforms boast a wide array of remotely deployable business growth solutions, a critical attribute when dealing with a dispersed workforce in a pandemic-impacted environment. These advantages highlight the pivotal role of CRM systems in helping organizations remain resilient and adaptive in the face of ongoing global challenges.

Keywords: healthcare, CRM, customer relationship management, customer experience, digital transformation, pandemic response, patient monitoring, patient management, healthcare automation, electronic health record, patient billing, healthcare information systems, remote workforce, virtual collaboration, resilience, adaptable business models, integration features, CRM in healthcare, telehealth, pandemic management

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Authors: Lubisi L. V., Madumo M. B., Mudau N. P., Makhuvele L., Sibuyi M. M.

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Background and Aims: Learners with disabilities can be integrated into mainstream schools, whereas there are those learners that are accommodated in special schools based on the support needs they require. These needs, among others, pertain to access to high-intensity therapeutic support by physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and speech therapists. However, access to physiotherapists in low- and middle-income countries is limited, and this creates a knowledge gap in identifying, to the best of our knowledge, best practice patterns aligned with physiotherapy at special schools. This gap compromises the quality of support to be rendered towards strengthening rehabilitation and optimising the participation of learners with disabilities in special schools. The aim of the scoping review was to map the evidence on practice patterns employed by physiotherapists at special schools for learners with disabilities. Methods: The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines were followed. Key terms regarding physiotherapy practice patterns for learners with disabilities at special schools were used to search the literature on the databases. Literature was sourced from Google Scholar, EBSCO, PEDro, PubMed, and Research Gate from 2013 to 2023. A total of 28 articles were initially retrieved and after a process of screening and exclusion, nine articles were included. All the researchers reviewed the articles for eligibility. Articles were initially screened based on the titles, followed by full text. Articles written in English or translated into English mentioned physical / physiotherapy interventions in special schools, both published and unpublished, were included. A qualitative data extraction template was developed and an inductive approach to thematic data analysis was used for included articles to see which themes emerged. Results: Three themes emerged after inductive thematic data analysis. 1. Collaboration with educators, parents, and therapists 2. Family Centred Approach 3. Telehealth. Conclusion: Collaboration is key in delivering therapeutic support to learners with disabilities at special schools. Physiotherapists need to be collaborators at the level of interprofessional and transprofessional. In addition, they need to explore technology to work remotely, especially when learners become absent physically from school.

Keywords: learners with disabilities, special school, physiotherapists, therapeutic support

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Authors: Farhad Arian Far, Anjanette Q. Eleazar, Francis Aldrine A. Uy, Mary Joyce Anne V. Uy

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The Unified Philippine Accident Reporting and Database System (UPARDS), is a newly developed system by Dr. Francis Aldrine Uy of the Mapua Institute of Technology. The main purpose is to provide an advanced road accident investigation tool, record keeping and analysis system for stakeholders such as Philippine National Police (PNP), Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA), Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), Department of Health (DOH), and insurance companies. The system is composed of 2 components, the mobile application for road accident investigators that takes advantage of available technology to advance data gathering and the web application that integrates all accident data for the use of all stakeholders. The researchers with the cooperation of PNP’s Vehicle Traffic Investigation Sector of the City of Manila, conducted the field-testing of the application in fifteen (15) accident cases. Simultaneously, the researchers also distributed surveys to PNP, Manila Doctors Hospital, and Charter Ping An Insurance Company to gather their insights regarding the web application. The survey was designed on information systems theory called Technology Acceptance Model. The results of the surveys revealed that the respondents were greatly satisfied with the visualization and functions of the applications as it proved to be effective and far more efficient in comparison with the conventional pen-and-paper method. In conclusion, the pilot study was able to address the need for improvement of the current system.

Keywords: accident, database, investigation, mobile application, pilot testing

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Authors: Camilo Souza, Lidia Melo, Fernanda Terra, Francisco Caio, Marcelo Reis

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SIDIA is a research and development (R&D) institute that belongs to Samsung’s global software development process. The SIDIA’s Model Team (MT) is a part of Samsung’s Mobile Division Area, which is responsible for the development of Android releases embedded in Samsung mobile devices. Basically, in this software development process, the kickoff occurs in some strategic countries (e.g., South Korea) where some software requirements are applied and the initial software tests are performed. When the software achieves a more mature level, a new branch is derived, and the development continues in subsidiaries from other strategic countries (e.g., SIDIA-Brazil). However, even in the newly created branches, there are several interactions between developers from different nationalities in order to fix bugs reported during test activities, apply some specific requirements from partners and develop new features as well. Despite the GSD strategy contributes to improving software development, some challenges are also introduced as well. In this paper, we share the initial results about the application of the failure modes and effect analysis (FMEA) concept in the software development process followed by the SIDIA’s model team. The main goal was to identify and mitigate the process potential failures through the application of recommended actions. The initial results show that the application of the FMEA concept allows us to identify the potential failures in our GSD process as well as to propose corrective actions to mitigate them. Finally, FMEA encouraged members of different teams to take actions that contribute to improving our GSD process.

Keywords: global software development, potential failures, FMEA, recommended actions

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Authors: Laleh Boroumand, Muhammad Shiraz, Abdullah Gani, Rashid Hafeez Khokhar

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Cloud computing being the use of hardware and software that are delivered as a service over a network has its application in the area of health care. Due to the emergency cases reported in most of the medical centers, prompt for an efficient scheme to make health data available with less response time. To this end, we propose a mobile global healthcare village (MGHV) model that combines the components of three deployment model which include country, continent and global health cloud to help in solving the problem mentioned above. In the creation of continent model, two (2) data centers are created of which one is local and the other is global. The local replay the request of residence within the continent, whereas the global replay the requirements of others. With the methods adopted, there is an assurance of the availability of relevant medical data to patients, specialists, and emergency staffs regardless of locations and time. From our intensive experiment using the simulation approach, it was observed that, broker policy scheme with respect to optimized response time, yields a very good performance in terms of reduction in response time. Though, our results are comparable to others when there is an increase in the number of virtual machines (80-640 virtual machines). The proportionality in increase of response time is within 9%. The results gotten from our simulation experiments shows that utilizing MGHV leads to the reduction of health care expenditures and helps in solving the problems of unqualified medical staffs faced by both developed and developing countries.

Keywords: cloud computing (MCC), e-healthcare, availability, response time, service broker policy

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Authors: Neha Singh, Anuj Ranjan, Tanu Jindal

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Over the last decade, the exponential growth of mobile communication has been accompanied by a parallel increase in density of electromagnetic fields (EMF). The continued expansion of mobile phone usage raises important questions as EMF, especially radio frequency (RF), have long been suspected of having biological effects. In the present experiments, we studied the effects of RF-EMF on cell death (apoptosis) and DNA damage of a well- tested biological model, Drosophila melanogaster exposed to 2400 MHz frequency for different time duration i.e. 2 hrs, 4 hrs, 6 hrs,8 hrs, 10 hrs, and 12 hrs each day for five continuous days in ambient temperature and humidity conditions inside an exposure chamber. The flies were grouped into control, sham-exposed, and exposed with 100 flies in each group. In this study, well-known techniques like Comet Assay and TUNEL (Terminal deoxynucleotide transferase dUTP Nick End Labeling) Assay were used to detect DNA damage and for apoptosis studies, respectively. Experiments results showed DNA damage in the brain cells of Drosophila which increases as the duration of exposure increases when observed under the observed when we compared results of control, sham-exposed, and exposed group which indicates that EMF radiation-induced stress in the organism that leads to DNA damage and cell death. The process of apoptosis and mutation follows similar pathway for all eukaryotic cells; therefore, studying apoptosis and genotoxicity in Drosophila makes similar relevance for human beings as well.

Keywords: cell death, apoptosis, Comet Assay, DNA damage, Drosophila, electromagnetic fields, EMF, radio frequency, RF, TUNEL assay

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Authors: Irene T. Ho

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Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) studying in mainstream schools often face difficulties adjusting to school life and teachers often find it challenging to meet the needs of these students. The Hong Kong Jockey Club Autism Support Network (JC A-Connect) is an initiative launched in 2015 to enhance support for students with ASD as well as their families and schools. The School Support Programme of the Project aims at building the capacity of schools to provide quality education for these students. The present report provides a summary of the main features of the support model and the related evaluation results. The school support model was conceptualized in response to four observed needs: (1) inadequate teacher expertise in dealing with the related challenges, (2) the need to promote evidence-based practices in schools, (3) less than satisfactory home-school collaboration and whole-school participation, and (4) lack of concerted effort by different parties involved in providing support to schools. The resulting model had partnership and capacity building as two guiding tenets for the School Support Programme. There were two levels of partnership promoted in the project. At the programme support level, a platform that enables effective collaboration among major stakeholders was established, including the funding body that provides the necessary resources, the Education Bureau that helps to engage schools, university experts who provide professional leadership and research support, as well as non-governmental organization (NGO) professionals who provide services to the schools. At the programme implementation level, tripartite collaboration among teachers, parents and professionals was emphasized. This notion of partnership permeated efforts at capacity building targeting students with ASD, school personnel, parents and peers. During 2015 to 2018, school-based programmes were implemented in over 400 primary and secondary schools with the following features: (1) spiral Tier 2 (group) training for students with ASD to enhance their adaptive skills, led by professionals but with strong teacher involvement to promote transfer of knowledge and skills; (2) supplementary programmes for teachers, parents and peers to enhance their capability to support students with ASD; and (3) efforts at promoting continuing or transfer of learning, on the part of both students and teachers, to Tier 1 (classroom practice) and Tier 3 (individual training) contexts. Over 5,000 students participated in the Programme, representing about 50% of students diagnosed with ASD in mainstream public sector schools in Hong Kong. Results showed that the Programme was effective in helping students improve to various extents at three levels: achievement of specific training goals, improvement in adaptive skills in school, and change in ASD symptoms. The sense of competence of teachers and parents in dealing with ASD-related issues, measured by self-report rating scales, was also significantly enhanced. Moreover, effects on enhancing the school system to provide support for students with ASD, assessed according to indicators of inclusive education, were seen. The process and results of this Programme illustrate how obstacles to inclusive education for students with ASD could be overcome by strengthening the necessary partnerships and building the required capabilities of all parties concerned.

Keywords: autism, school support, skills training, teacher development, three-tier model

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Authors: Corneliu-Ioan Dimitriu, Gheorghe Frățilă

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Romania and Bulgaria have high rates of road deaths per million inhabitants. Directive (EU) 2019/1936, known as the RISM Directive, has been transposed into national law by each Member State. The research focuses on the amendments made to Romanian legislation through Government Ordinance no. 3/2022, which aims to improve road safety management on infrastructure. The aim of the research is two-fold: to sensitize the Romanian Government and decision-making entities to develop an integrated and competitive management system and to establish a safe and proactive mobility system that ensures efficient and safe roads. The research includes a critical analysis of European and Romanian legislation, as well as subsequent normative acts related to road infrastructure safety management. Public data from European Union and national authorities, as well as data from the Romanian Road Authority-ARR and Traffic Police database, are utilized. The research methodology involves comparative analysis, criterion analysis, SWOT analysis, and the use of GANTT and WBS diagrams. The Excel tool is employed to process the road accident databases of Romania and Bulgaria. Collaboration with Bulgarian specialists is established to identify common road infrastructure safety issues. The research concludes that the legislative changes have resulted in a relaxation of road safety management in Romania, leading to decreased control over certain management procedures. The amendments to primary and secondary legislation do not meet the current safety requirements for road infrastructure. The research highlights the need for legislative changes and strengthened administrative capacity to enhance road safety. Regional cooperation and the exchange of best practices are emphasized for effective road infrastructure safety management. The research contributes to the theoretical understanding of road infrastructure safety management by analyzing legislative changes and their impact on safety measures. It highlights the importance of an integrated and proactive approach in reducing road accidents and achieving the "zero deaths" objective set by the European Union. Data collection involves accessing public data from relevant authorities and using information from the Romanian Road Authority-ARR and Traffic Police database. Analysis procedures include critical analysis of legislation, comparative analysis of transpositions, criterion analysis, and the use of various diagrams and tools such as SWOT, GANTT, WBS, and Excel. The research addresses the effectiveness of legislative changes in road infrastructure safety management in Romania and the impact on control over management procedures. It also explores the need for strengthened administrative capacity and regional cooperation in addressing road safety issues. The research concludes that the legislative changes made in Romania have not strengthened road safety management and emphasize the need for immediate action, legislative amendments, and enhanced administrative capacity. Collaboration with Bulgarian specialists and the exchange of best practices are recommended for effective road infrastructure safety management. The research contributes to the theoretical understanding of road safety management and provides valuable insights for policymakers and decision-makers in Romania.

Keywords: management, road infrastructure safety, legislation, amendments, collaboration

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Authors: Anna Siuda-Bak

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This paper adopts a comparative approach to examining the determinants of international mobility of German, Italian and British researchers who completed their doctoral education in the UK. Structured sampling and data collection techniques have been developed in order to retrieve information on participants from publicly available sources. This systematically collected data was supplemented with an on-line survey which captures participants’ job trajectories, including movements between positions, institutions and countries. In total, data on 949 German, Italian and British PhDs was collected. Logistic regression was employed to identify factors associated with one’s probability of moving outside the UK after his or her graduation. The predictor variables included factors associated with one’s PhD (field of study, ranking of the university which awarded the PhD degree) and family factors (having a child, nationality of the partner). Then, 9 constrained models were estimated to test the effect each variable has on probability of going to a specific destination, being English-speaking country, non-English speaking country or returning to the home country. The results show that females, arts and humanities graduates, and respondents with a partner from the UK are less mobile than their counterparts. The effect of the ranking of the university differed in two groups. The UK graduates from higher ranked universities were more likely to move abroad than to stay in the UK after their graduation. In contrast, non-UK natives from the same universities were less likely to be internationally mobile than non-UK natives from lower ranked universities. The nationality of the partner was the most important predictor of the specific destination choices. Graduates with partner from the home county were more likely to return home and those with a partner from the third country least likely to return.

Keywords: doctoral graduates, international mobility, nationality, UK

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Authors: Pui-Lai To, Chechen Liao, Ming-Chi Sung

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Work and family life are the most important areas for men and women today. Every professional is required to meet and fulfill the responsibilities of work and family roles. Although the development and popularity of communication technology bring a lot of benefits, including effective and efficient communication, may also generate conflicts between work and family life. Since mobile devices and the applications of mobile devices, such as instant messages, are ubiquitous, the boundaries of work and family roles are increasingly blurred. Professionals may be in the risk of work over-loading and work-family conflict. This study examines the impact of work stress on professionals’ life and health in the context of instant messaging application of smart phone. This study uses a web-based questionnaire to collect samples. The questionnaires are sent via virtual community sites, instant messaging applications, and e-mail. The study develops and empirically validates a work-family conflict model by integrating the pressure theory and technostress factors. The causal relationship between variables in the research model is tested. In terms of data analysis, Partial Least Square (PLS) in Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is used for sample analysis and research model testing. The results of this study are as follows. First, both the variables of work-related stress and technological violations positively affect the work-family conflict. Second, both the variables of work-loading and technology-overloading have no effect on work-family conflict. Third, work-family conflict has negative effect on job satisfaction, family satisfaction, physical health, and mental health.

Keywords: mental health, physical health, technostress, work-family conflict, work-related stress

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Authors: Aly Audu Fada

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The mono-economic structure of Nigerian economy has made it depend on oil for so many years. Apart from the negative effect of its exploitation, relying solely on oil as the major source of revenue for peddling the ship of development is myopic. The crumbling oil price in the world market is one proof of the dangers of this over-dependence. This paper highlights the consequences of the oil-driven economy and explores the various opportunities that are accessible in tourism through a contextual analysis. It is recommended that those at the helm of affairs should initiate collaboration between the public and private sectors to explore and harness the rich tourism resources naturally dispersed across the country to achieve the objectives of economic transformation agenda of the Federal Government.

Keywords: diversifying, economic, tourism, oil

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Authors: Nadeem Yousuf Khan

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This paper proposes the formation of a digital emergency response system (dERS) in the aged, long-term care, and chronic disease setups in the post-COVID healthcare ecosystem, focusing on the Asia Pacific market where the aging population is increasing significantly. It focuses on the use of digital technologies such as wearables, a global positioning system (GPS), and mobile applications to build an integrated care system for old folks with co-morbidities and other chronic diseases. The paper presents a conceptual framework of a connected digital health ecosystem that not only provides proactive care to registered patients but also prevents the damages due to sudden conditions such as strokes by alerting and treating the patients in a digitally connected and coordinated manner. A detailed review of existing digital health technologies such as wearables, GPS, and mobile apps was conducted in context with the new post-COVID healthcare paradigm, along with a detailed literature review on the digital health policies and usability. A good amount of research papers is available in the application of digital health, but very few of them discuss the formation of a new framework for a connected digital ecosystem for the aged care population, which is increasing around the globe. A connected digital emergency response system has been proposed by the author whereby all registered patients (chronic disease and aged/long term care) will be connected to the proposed digital emergency response system (dERS). In the proposed ecosystem, patients will be provided with a tracking wrist band and a mobile app through which the control room will be monitoring the mobility and vitals such as atrial fibrillation (AF), blood sugar, blood pressure, and other vital signs. In addition to that, an alert in case if the patient falls down will add value to this system. In case of any variation in the vitals, an alert is sent to the dERS 24/7, and dERS clinical staff immediately trigger that alert which goes to the connected hospital and the adulatory service providers, and the patient is escorted to the nearest connected tertiary care hospital. By the time, the patient reaches the hospital, dERS team is ready to take appropriate clinical action to save the life of the patient. Strokes or myocardial infarction patients can be prevented from disaster if they are accessible to engagement healthcare. This dERS will play an effective role in saving the lives of aged patients or patients with chronic co-morbidities.

Keywords: aged care, atrial fibrillation, digital health, digital emergency response system, digital technology

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Authors: B. Kriheli, E. Levner, T. C. E. Cheng, C. T. Ng

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During the last decades, research interest in planning, scheduling, and control of emergency response operations, especially people rescue and evacuation from the dangerous zone of marine accidents, has increased dramatically. Until the survivors (called ‘targets’) are found and saved, it may cause loss or damage whose extent depends on the location of the targets and the search duration. The problem is to efficiently search for and detect/rescue the targets as soon as possible with the help of intelligent mobile robots so as to maximize the number of saved people and/or minimize the search cost under restrictions on the amount of saved people within the allowable response time. We consider a special situation when the autonomous mobile robots (AMR), e.g., unmanned aerial vehicles and remote-controlled robo-ships have no operator on board as they are guided and completely controlled by on-board sensors and computer programs. We construct a mathematical model for the search process in an uncertain environment and provide a new fast algorithm for scheduling the activities of the autonomous robots during the search-and rescue missions after an accident at sea. We presume that in the unknown environments, the AMR’s search-and-rescue activity is subject to two types of error: (i) a 'false-negative' detection error where a target object is not discovered (‘overlooked') by the AMR’s sensors in spite that the AMR is in a close neighborhood of the latter and (ii) a 'false-positive' detection error, also known as ‘a false alarm’, in which a clean place or area is wrongly classified by the AMR’s sensors as a correct target. As the general resource-constrained discrete search problem is NP-hard, we restrict our study to finding local-optimal strategies. A specificity of the considered operational research problem in comparison with the traditional Kadane-De Groot-Stone search models is that in our model the probability of the successful search outcome depends not only on cost/time/probability parameters assigned to each individual location but, as well, on parameters characterizing the entire history of (unsuccessful) search before selecting any next location. We provide a fast approximation algorithm for finding the AMR route adopting a greedy search strategy in which, in each step, the on-board computer computes a current search effectiveness value for each location in the zone and sequentially searches for a location with the highest search effectiveness value. Extensive experiments with random and real-life data provide strong evidence in favor of the suggested operations research model and corresponding algorithm.

Keywords: disaster management, intelligent robots, scheduling algorithm, search-and-rescue at sea

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Authors: Francisco Julio Batle Lorente

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The present paper aims at presenting a new category of role for academia: proactive creator/promoter of communities of practice in emerging areas of innovation. It is based in research among practitioners in three different areas: social entrepreneurship, alumni engaged in entrepreneurship and innovation, and digital nomads. The concept of CoP is related to an intentionally created space to share experiences and collectively reflect on the cases arising from practice. Such an endeavour is not contemplated in the literature on academic roles in an explicit way. The goal of the paper is providing a framework for this function and throw some light on the perception and priorities of members of emerging communities (78 alumni, 154 social entrepreneurs, and 231 digital nomads) regarding community, learning, engagement, and networking, areas in which the university can help and, by doing so, contributing to signal the emerging area and creating new opportunities for the academia. The research methodology was based in Survey research. It is a specific type of field study that involves the collection of data from a sample of elements drawn from a well-defined population through the use of a questionnaire. It was considered that survey research might be valuable to the present project and help outline the utility of various study designs and future projects with the emerging communities that are the object of the investigation. Open questions were used for different topics, as well as critical incident technique. It was used a standard technique for survey sampling and questionnaire design. Finally, it was defined a procedure for pretesting questionnaires and for data collection. The questionnaire was channelled by means of google forms. The results indicate that the members of emerging, innovative CoPs and learning such the ones that were selected for this investigation lack cohesion, inspiration, networking, opportunities for creation of social capital, opportunities for collaboration beyond their existing and close network. The opportunity that arises for the academia from proactively helping articulate CoP (and Communities of learning) are related to key elements of any CoP/ CoL: community construction approaches, technological infrastructure, benefits, participation issues and urgent challenges, trust, networking, technical ability/training/development and collaboration. Beyond training, other three areas (networking, collaboration and urgent challenges) were the ones in which the contribution of universities to the communities were considered more interesting and workable to practitioners. The analysis of the responses for the open questions related to perception of the universities offer options for terra incognita to be explored for universities (signalling new areas, establishing broader collaborations with research, government, media and corporations, attracting investment). Based on the findings from this research, there is some evidence that CoPs can offer a formal and informal method of professional and interprofessional development for member of any emerging and innovative community and can decrease social and professional isolation. The opportunity that it offers to academia can increase the entrepreneurial and engaged university identity. It also moves to academia into a realm of civic confrontation of present and future challenges in a more proactive way.

Keywords: social innovation, new roles of academia, community of learning, community of practice

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Authors: Safak Isik, Ozalp Vayvay

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Strategic partnerships with suppliers play a vital role for the long-term value-based supply chain. This strategic collaboration keeps still being one of the top priority of many business organizations in order to create more additional value; benefiting mainly from supplier’s specialization, capacity and innovative power, securing supply and better managing costs and quality. However, many organizations encounter difficulties in initiating, developing and managing those partnerships and many attempts result in failures. One of the reasons for such failure is the incompatibility of members of this partnership or in other words wrong supplier selection which emphasize the significance of the selection process since it is the beginning stage. An effective selection process of strategic suppliers is critical to the success of the partnership. Although there are several research studies to select the suppliers in literature, only a few of them is related to strategic supplier selection for long-term partnership. The purpose of this study is to propose a conceptual model for the selection of strategic partnership suppliers. A two-stage approach has been used in proposed model incorporating first segmentation and second selection. In the first stage; considering the fact that not all suppliers are strategically equal and instead of a long list of potential suppliers, Kraljic’s purchasing portfolio matrix can be used for segmentation. This supplier segmentation is the process of categorizing suppliers based on a defined set of criteria in order to identify types of suppliers and determine potential suppliers for strategic partnership. In the second stage, from a pool of potential suppliers defined at first phase, a comprehensive evaluation and selection can be performed to finally define strategic suppliers considering various tangible and intangible criteria. Since a long-term relationship with strategic suppliers is anticipated, criteria should consider both current and future status of the supplier. Based on an extensive literature review; strategical, operational and organizational criteria have been determined and elaborated. The result of the selection can also be used to determine suppliers who are not ready for a partnership but to be developed for strategic partnership. Since the model is based on multiple criteria for both stages, it provides a framework for further utilization of Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) techniques. The model may also be applied to a wide range of industries and involve managerial features in business organizations.

Keywords: Kraljic’s matrix, purchasing portfolio, strategic supplier selection, supplier collaboration, supplier partnership, supplier segmentation

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Authors: S. MacDonald, A. Manuel, R. Law, N. Bandruak, A. Dubrowski, V. Curran, J. Smith-Young, K. Simmons, A. Warren

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High fidelity human patient simulation has been used for many years by health sciences education programs to foster critical thinking, engage learners, improve confidence, improve communication, and enhance psychomotor skills. Unfortunately, there is a paucity of research on the use of high fidelity human patient simulation to foster teamwork among nursing, medicine and pharmacy undergraduate students. This study compared the impact of high fidelity and low fidelity simulation education on teamwork among nursing, medicine and pharmacy students. For the purpose of this study, two innovative teaching scenarios were developed based on the care of an adult patient experiencing acute anaphylaxis: one high fidelity using a human patient simulator and one low fidelity using case based discussions. A within subjects, pretest-posttest, repeated measures design was used with two-treatment levels and random assignment of individual subjects to teams of two or more professions. A convenience sample of twenty-four (n=24) undergraduate students participated, including: nursing (n=11), medicine (n=9), and pharmacy (n=4). The Interprofessional Teamwork Questionnaire was used to assess for changes in students’ perception of their functionality within the team, importance of interprofessional collaboration, comprehension of roles, and confidence in communication and collaboration. Student satisfaction was also assessed. Students reported significant improvements in their understanding of the importance of interprofessional teamwork and of the roles of nursing and medicine on the team after participation in both the high fidelity and the low fidelity simulation. However, only participants in the high fidelity simulation reported a significant improvement in their ability to function effectively as a member of the team. All students reported that both simulations were a meaningful learning experience and all students would recommend both experiences to other students. These findings suggest there is merit in both high fidelity and low fidelity simulation as a teaching and learning approach to foster teamwork among undergraduate nursing, medicine and pharmacy students. However, participation in high fidelity simulation may provide a more realistic opportunity to practice and function as an effective member of the interprofessional health care team.

Keywords: acute anaphylaxis, high fidelity human patient simulation, low fidelity simulation, interprofessional education

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Authors: Hosam A. Shawky, Amr A. Abdel Fatah, Moustafa M. S. Abo ElFad, Abdel Hameed M. El-Aassar

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Water desalination projects based on reverse osmosis technology are being introduced in Egypt to combat drinking water shortage in remote areas. Reverse osmosis (RO) desalination is a pressure driven process. This paper focuses on the design of an integrated brackish water and seawater RO desalination and solar Photovoltaic (PV) technology. A small Mobile PV driven RO desalination plant prototype without batteries is designed and tested. Solar-driven reverse osmosis desalination can potentially break the dependence of conventional desalination on fossil fuels, reduce operational costs, and improve environmental sustainability. Moreover, the innovative features incorporated in the newly designed PV-RO plant prototype are focusing on improving the cost effectiveness of producing drinkable water in remote areas. This is achieved by maximizing energy yield through an integrated automatic single axis PV tracking system with programmed tilting angle adjustment. An autonomous cleaning system for PV modules is adopted for maximizing energy generation efficiency. RO plant components are selected so as to produce 4-5 m3/day of potable water. A basic criterion in the design of this PV-RO prototype is to produce a minimum amount of fresh water by running the plant during peak sun hours. Mobility of the system will provide potable water to isolated villages and population as well as ability to provide good drinking water to different number of people from any source that is not drinkable.

Keywords: design, reverse osmosis, photovoltaic, energy, desalination, Egypt

Procedia PDF Downloads 558

Authors: M. Yosra, A. Mohamed, T. Sami

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Over the past few years, mobile communication technologies have seen significant evolution. This fact promoted the implementation of many systems in a multi-technological setting. From one system to another, the Quality of Service (QoS) provided to mobile consumers gets better. The growing number of normalized standards extends the available services for each consumer, moreover, most of the available radio frequencies have already been allocated, such as 3G, Wifi, Wimax, and LTE. A study by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) found that certain frequency bands are partially occupied in particular locations and times. So, the idea of Cognitive Radio (CR) is to share the spectrum between a primary user (PU) and a secondary user (SU). The main objective of this spectrum management is to achieve a maximum rate of exploitation of the radio spectrum. In general, the CR can greatly improve the quality of service (QoS) and improve the reliability of the link. The problem will reside in the possibility of proposing a technique to improve the reliability of the wireless link by using the CR with some routing protocols. However, users declared that the links were unreliable and that it was an incompatibility with QoS. In our case, we choose the QoS parameter "bandwidth" to perform a supervised classification. In this paper, we propose a comparative study between some routing protocols, taking into account the variation of different technologies on the existing spectral bandwidth like 3G, WIFI, WIMAX, and LTE. Due to the simulation results, we observe that LTE has significantly higher availability bandwidth compared with other technologies. The performance of the OLSR protocol is better than other on-demand routing protocols (DSR, AODV and DSDV), in LTE technology because of the proper receiving of packets, less packet drop and the throughput. Numerous simulations of routing protocols have been made using simulators such as NS3.

Keywords: cognitive radio, multi technology, network simulator (NS3), routing protocol

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Authors: Mohammad Ehson Rangiha, Bill Karakostas

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Social Business Process Management (SBPM) promises to overcome limitations of traditional BPM by allowing flexible process design and enactment through the involvement of users from a social community. This paper proposes a meta-model and architecture for socially driven business process management systems. It discusses the main facets of the architecture such as goal-based role assignment that combines social recommendations with user profile, and process recommendation, through a real example of a charity organization.

Keywords: business process management, goal-based modelling, process recommendation social collaboration, social BPM

Procedia PDF Downloads 479

Authors: G. C. Almiranez, J. Mercado, L. U. Aumentado, J. M. Mahaguay, J. P. Cruz, M. L. Saballe

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This research project focused on the development of an application that aids the university administrators to establish an efficient and effective system in managing faculty attendance and discourage unnecessary absences. The Faculty Attendance Management System (FAMS) is a web based and mobile application which is proven to be efficient and effective in handling and recording data, generating updated reports and analytics needed in managing faculty attendance. The FAMS can facilitate not only a convenient and faster way of gathering and recording of data but it can also provide data analytics, immediate feedback system mechanism and analysis. The software database architecture uses MySQL for web based and SQLite for mobile applications. The system includes different modules that capture daily attendance of faculty members, generate faculty attendance reports and analytics, absences notification system for faculty members, chairperson and dean regarding absences, and immediate communication system concerning the absences incurred. Quantitative and qualitative evaluation showed that the system satisfactory meet the stakeholder’s requirements. The functionality, usability, reliability, performance, and security all turned out to be above average. System testing, integration testing and user acceptance testing had been conducted. Results showed that the system performed very satisfactory and functions as designed. Performance of the system is also affected by Internet infrastructure or connectivity of the university. The faculty analytics generated from the system may not only be used by Deans and Chairperson in their evaluation of faculty performance but as well as the individual faculty to increase awareness on their attendance in class. Hence, the system facilitates effective communication between system stakeholders through FAMS feedback mechanism and up to date posting of information.

Keywords: faculty attendance management system, MySQL, SQLite, FAMS, analytics

Procedia PDF Downloads 427

Authors: Yuan-Jye Tseng, Ching-Yen Chen

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In the design cycle, a main design task is to determine the external shape of the product. The external shape of a product is one of the key factors that can affect the customers’ preferences linking to the motivation to buy the product, especially in the case of a consumer electronic product such as a mobile phone. The relationship between the external shape and the customer preferences needs to be studied to enhance the customer’s purchase desire and action. In this research, a design for customer preferences model is developed for investigating the relationships between the external shape and the customer preferences of a product. In the first stage, the names of the geometric features are collected and evaluated from the data of the specified internet web pages using the developed text miner. The key geometric features can be determined if the number of occurrence on the web pages is relatively high. For each key geometric feature, the numerical values are explored using the text miner to collect the internet data from the web pages. In the second stage, a cluster analysis model is developed to evaluate the numerical values of the key geometric features to divide the external shapes into several groups. Several design suggestion cases can be proposed, for example, large model, mid-size model, and mini model, for designing a mobile phone. A customer preference index is developed by evaluating the numerical data of each of the key geometric features of the design suggestion cases. The design suggestion case with the top ranking of the customer preference index can be selected as the final design of the product. In this paper, an example product of a notebook computer is illustrated. It shows that the external shape of a product can be used to drive customer preferences. The presented design for customer preferences model is useful for determining a suitable external shape of the product to increase customer preferences.

Keywords: cluster analysis, customer preferences, design evaluation, design for customer preferences, product design

Procedia PDF Downloads 172

Authors: Mingxin Li, Liya Ni

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Autonomous parking is a valuable feature applicable to many robotics applications such as tour guide robots, UV sanitizing robots, food delivery robots, and warehouse robots. With auto-parking, the robot will be able to park at the charging zone and charge itself without human intervention. As compared to self-driving vehicles, auto-parking is more challenging for a small-scale mobile robot only equipped with a front camera due to the camera view limited by the robot’s height and the narrow Field of View (FOV) of the inexpensive camera. In this research, auto-parking of a small-scale mobile robot with a front camera only was achieved in a four-step process: Firstly, transfer learning was performed on the AlexNet, a popular pre-trained convolutional neural network (CNN). It was trained with 150 pictures of empty parking slots and 150 pictures of occupied parking slots from the view angle of a small-scale robot. The dataset of images was divided into a group of 70% images for training and the remaining 30% images for validation. An average success rate of 95% was achieved. Secondly, the image of detected empty parking space was processed with edge detection followed by the computation of parametric representations of the boundary lines using the Hough Transform algorithm. Thirdly, the positions of the entrance point and center of available parking space were predicted based on the robot kinematic model as the robot was driving closer to the parking space because the boundary lines disappeared partially or completely from its camera view due to the height and FOV limitations. The robot used its wheel speeds to compute the positions of the parking space with respect to its changing local frame as it moved along, based on its kinematic model. Lastly, the predicted entrance point of the parking space was used as the reference for the motion control of the robot until it was replaced by the actual center when it became visible again by the robot. The linear and angular velocities of the robot chassis center were computed based on the error between the current chassis center and the reference point. Then the left and right wheel speeds were obtained using inverse kinematics and sent to the motor driver. The above-mentioned four subtasks were all successfully accomplished, with the transformed learning, image processing, and target prediction performed in MATLAB, while the motion control and image capture conducted on a self-built small scale differential drive mobile robot. The small-scale robot employs a Raspberry Pi board, a Pi camera, an L298N dual H-bridge motor driver, a USB power module, a power bank, four wheels, and a chassis. Future research includes three areas: the integration of all four subsystems into one hardware/software platform with the upgrade to an Nvidia Jetson Nano board that provides superior performance for deep learning and image processing; more testing and validation on the identification of available parking space and its boundary lines; improvement of performance after the hardware/software integration is completed.

Keywords: autonomous parking, convolutional neural network, image processing, kinematics-based prediction, transfer learning

Procedia PDF Downloads 124

Authors: S. Ithai, A. Oloo

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The emergence of globalization has cultivated an international consensus that without economic development; it is very unlikely that a country may realize social or political development. It is equally important to note that the economic effect on social development automatically influence the country healthcare services as healthcare systems are improved and adopted. For decades and before 1980's, the colonial and the Governments of Kenya had pursued a goal to provide free healthcare services to its citizen with minimal success; but as population increased, this endeavor became almost a mirage. The challenge called for a change of strategy with introduction of cost sharing which also could not guarantee sustainability of healthcare services in the country due to increased number of poor people and poverty. An involvement of multisectral approach to provision of health individual, collaboration and adoption of all dimensions through globalization provides a ray of hope to not only economic, political and social development but also guaranteed equitable and reliable healthcare systems in Kenya and specifically referral healthcare services at KNH. With the advent of globalization, KNH has made positive strides that have guaranteed patients with reliable healthcare services. These include increased donor funding, collaboration levels, training and research as well as enhanced the hospital relations with international partners. During this period, the hospital has increased number of local doctors and nurses, enhanced transfer of skills, innovations and technologies which are driving forces to quality and efficient healthcare services. The period has also brought in challenges for the hospital which include increased competition, attraction of qualified nurses and doctors to international are some the issues that have made the hospital to spend more resources in research and development in order to stay afloat. This paper reveals the link between globalization and healthcare and its influence on institution policy choice. However, the process is not expected to take place automatically without institutional initiatives if KNH is to reap the benefits of globalization. KNH need to make use of the existing infrastructure, human resources and donor confidence, the opportunities that are indeed important in propelling KNH toward Vision 2030 and achieving the desired Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Keywords: globalization, Kenyatta National Hospital, native, healthcare

Procedia PDF Downloads 327

Authors: O. Mohamed Amine, A. Khireddine

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Telecoms operators are always looking to meet their share of the other customers, they try to gain optimum utilization of the deployed equipment and network optimization has become essential. This project consists of optimizing UMTS network, and the study area is an urban area situated in the center of Algiers. It was initially questions to become familiar with the different communication systems (3G) and the optimization technique, its main components, and its fundamental characteristics radios were introduced.

Keywords: UMTS, UTRAN, WCDMA, optimization

Procedia PDF Downloads 364

Authors: C. Vogeler

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Change processes such as individualization and digitalization have an impact on higher education. Graduates are expected to cooperate in creative work processes in their professional life. During their studies, they need to be prepared accordingly. This includes modern learning scenarios that integrate the benefits of digital media. Therefore, design thinking and blended learning have been combined in the project-based seminar conception introduced here. The presented seminar conception has been realized and evaluated with students of information sciences since September 2017. Within the seminar, the students learn to work on a project. They apply the methods in a problem-based learning scenario. Task of the case study is to arrange a conference on the topic gaming in libraries. In order to collaborative develop creative possibilities of realization within the group of students the design thinking method has been chosen. Design thinking is a method, used to create user-centric, problem-solving and need-driven innovation through creative collaboration in multidisciplinary teams. Central characteristics are the openness of this approach to work results and the visualization of ideas. This approach is now also accepted in the field of higher education. Especially in problem-based learning scenarios, the method offers clearly defined process steps for creative ideas and their realization. The creative process can be supported by digital media, such as search engines and tools for the documentation of brainstorming, creation of mind maps, project management etc. Because the students have to do two-thirds of the workload in their private study, design thinking has been combined with a blended learning approach. This supports students’ preparation and follow-up of the joint work in workshops (flipped classroom scenario) as well as the communication and collaboration during the entire project work phase. For this purpose, learning materials are provided on a Moodle-based learning platform as well as various tools that supported the design thinking process as described above. In this paper, the seminar conception with a combination of design thinking and blended learning is described and the potentials and limitations of the chosen strategy for the development of a course with a multimedia approach in higher education are reflected.

Keywords: blended learning, design thinking, digital media tools and methods, flipped classroom

Procedia PDF Downloads 186

Authors: Aanshika Puri, Sakshi Mehrotra

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Technology has always been a double edged sword. The constant rut of updating oneself to a better and newer version is the new norm. ‘Being Online’ is the latest addition to one’s everyday routine. Availability of various social online platforms being served on a platter topped with easy and cheap access to the internet makes it simple and doable for people of all social backgrounds. Interestingly, in India, a recent development is the line of demarcation between people from varied backgrounds, doing the vanishing act. One finds everybody on at least one, if not more, social platforms in a desire to stay connected. For instance, this ranges from sending a ‘WhatsApp’ message to a vegetable vendor for ordering your daily needs to vendors and small entrepreneurs. Even a rickshaw puller now has access to a mobile phone, an internet connection and apps/ platforms to stay connected. Recent observations show the extent to which everyone is hooked on to their mobile phones/ tabs/ laptops/ etc. Young mothers use them to distract their children and keep them busy while they finish the task at hand. Exposure to this part of the technology at such a tender age requires responsible and careful handling. Talking of adolescents, their self- image depends on their online social image to a large extent. There is a desire to be liked and accepted by the peer group at all times. Cyber-bullying is a by-product of the 24/7 availability of these resources. There is enough research-based evidence to prove the psychosocial and emotional impact on the development and well-being of the victim. The present paper attempts to understand the dynamics of cyber bullying vis-à-vis the developmental and mental health issues faced by the bully.

Keywords: Developmental Psychology, Empathy & Resilience Based Interventions, Mental Well-Being of Cyber Bully, Positive Psychology

Procedia PDF Downloads 239

Authors: Maria Hopkins

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Research on student engagement is founded on a desire to improve the quality of online instruction in both course design and delivery. A high level of student engagement is associated with a wide range of educational practices including purposeful student-faculty contact, peer to peer contact, active and collaborative learning, and positive factors such as student satisfaction, persistence, achievement, and learning. By encouraging student engagement, institutions of higher education can have a positive impact on student success that leads to retention and degree completion. The current research presents the results of an online student engagement survey which support faculty teaching practices to maximize the learning experience for online students. The ‘Indicators of Engaged Learning Online’ provide a framework that measures level of student engagement. Social constructivism and collaborative learning form the theoretical basis of the framework. Social constructivist pedagogy acknowledges the social nature of knowledge and its creation in the minds of individual learners. Some important themes that flow from social constructivism involve the importance of collaboration among instructors and students, active learning vs passive consumption of information, a learning environment that is learner and learning centered, which promotes multiple perspectives, and the use of social tools in the online environment to construct knowledge. The results of the survey indicated themes that emphasized the importance of: Interaction among peers and faculty (collaboration); Timely feedback on assignment/assessments; Faculty participation and visibility; Relevance and real-world application (in terms of assignments, activities, and assessments); and Motivation/interest (the need for faculty to motivate students especially those that may not have an interest in the coursework per se). The qualitative aspect of this student engagement study revealed what instructors did well that made students feel engaged in the course, but also what instructors did not do well, which could inform recommendations to faculty when expectations for teaching a course are reviewed. Furthermore, this research provides evidence for the connection between higher student engagement and persistence and retention in online programs, which supports our rationale for encouraging student engagement, especially in the online environment because attrition rates are higher than in the face-to-face environment.

Keywords: instructional design, learning effectiveness, online learning, student engagement

Procedia PDF Downloads 281

Authors: Ahmad Almohana

Abstract:

Technology has led to rapid changes in the world, and most importantly to education, particularly in the 21st century. Technology has enhanced teachers’ potential and has resulted in the provision of greater interaction and choices for learners. In addition, technology is helping to improve individuals’ learning experiences and building their capacity to read, listen, speak, search, analyse, memorise and encode languages, as well as bringing learners together and creating a sense of greater involvement. This paper has been organised in the following way: the first section provides a review of the literature related to the implementation of CALL (computer assisted learning language), and it explains CALL and its phases, as well as attempting to highlight and analyse Warschauer’s article. The second section is an attempt to describe the move from CALL to mobilised systems of edutainment, which challenge existing forms of teaching and learning. It also addresses the role of the teacher and the curriculum content, and how this is affected by the computerisation of learning that is taking place. Finally, an empirical study has been conducted to collect data from teachers in Saudi Arabia using quantitive and qualitative method tools. Connections are made between the area of study and the personal experience of the researcher carrying out the study with a methodological reflection on the challenges faced by the teachers of this same system. The major findings were that it is worth spelling out here that despite the circumstances in which students and lecturers are currently working, the participants revealed themselves to be highly intelligent and articulate individuals who were constrained from revealing this criticality and creativity by the system of learning and teaching operant in most schools.

Keywords: CALL, computer assisted learning language, EFL, English as a foreign language, ELT, English language teaching, ETL, enhanced technology learning, MALL, mobile assisted learning language

Procedia PDF Downloads 156