Search results for: services markets

Authors: Samia Sadouki Chibani, Abdelkamel Tari

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Web service composition combines available services to provide new functionality. Given the number of available services with similar functionalities and different non functional aspects (QoS), the problem of finding a QoS-optimal web service composition is considered as an optimization problem belonging to NP-hard class. Thus, an optimal solution cannot be found by exact algorithms within a reasonable time. In this paper, a meta-heuristic bio-inspired is presented to address the QoS aware web service composition; it is based on Elephant Herding Optimization (EHO) algorithm, which is inspired by the herding behavior of elephant group. EHO is characterized by a process of dividing and combining the population to sub populations (clan); this process allows the exchange of information between local searches to move toward a global optimum. However, with Applying others evolutionary algorithms the problem of early stagnancy in a local optimum cannot be avoided. Compared with PSO, the results of experimental evaluation show that our proposition significantly outperforms the existing algorithm with better performance of the fitness value and a fast convergence.

Keywords: bio-inspired algorithms, elephant herding optimization, QoS optimization, web service composition

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Authors: P. Wlodarczak, J. Soar, M. Ally

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The dramatic rise in the use of Social Media (SM) platforms such as Facebook and Twitter provide access to an unprecedented amount of user data. Users may post reviews on products and services they bought, write about their interests, share ideas or give their opinions and views on political issues. There is a growing interest in the analysis of SM data from organisations for detecting new trends, obtaining user opinions on their products and services or finding out about their online reputations. A recent research trend in SM analysis is making predictions based on sentiment analysis of SM. Often indicators of historic SM data are represented as time series and correlated with a variety of real world phenomena like the outcome of elections, the development of financial indicators, box office revenue and disease outbreaks. This paper examines the current state of research in the area of SM mining and predictive analysis and gives an overview of the analysis methods using opinion mining and machine learning techniques.

Keywords: social media, text mining, knowledge discovery, predictive analysis, machine learning

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Authors: Malki Fatima Zahra Nadia, Kellal Chaimaa, Brahimi Houria

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The world has witnessed a great revolution in to field of technology and communication, especially after the opening of markets (globalization) . Which has led to a change from traditional marketing, which depends on direct selling and buying to electronic marketing, consequently different corporation have adopted this concept so as to gain time , efforts and money for the sake of the customer’s satisfaction. It is the main reason of the study, which is to know the impact of electronic marketing on the consumer’s satisfaction in the fields of communication through practical studies of Ooredoo customer’s where the descriptive analytical method has been used with statistics to analyze the results of the survey. It concluded that e-marketing effectively contributes to customer satisfaction.

Keywords: e-marketing, consumer, consumer behavior, satisfaction

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Authors: Ignatio Madanhire, Charles Mbohwa

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Efficiency in manufacturing is critical in raising the value of exports so as to gainfully trade on the regional and international markets. There seems to be increasing popularity of continuous improvement strategies availed to manufacturing entities, but this research study established that there has not been a similar popularity accorded to the Six Sigma methodology. Thus this work was conducted to investigate the applicability, effectiveness, usefulness, application and suitability of the Six Sigma methodology as a competitiveness option for discrete manufacturing entity. Development of Six-sigma center in the country with continuous improvement information would go a long way in benefiting the entire industry

Keywords: discrete manufacturing, six-sigma, continuous improvement, efficiency, competitiveness

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Authors: Alaba M. Dare, Idris A. Ayinde, Adebayo M. Shittu, Sam O. Sam-Wobo

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Households' source of water is one of the core development indicators recently gaining pre-eminence in Nigeria. This study examined rural households' sources of water, Willingness to Pay (WTP) and factors influencing mean WTP. A cross-sectional survey which involved the use of questionnaire was used. A dichotomous choice (DC) with follow up was used as elicitation method. A multi-stage random sampling technique was used to select 437 rural households. Descriptive statistics and Tobit model were used for data estimation. The result revealed that about 70% fetched from unimproved water sources. Most (74.4%) respondents showed WTP for improved water sources. Age (p < 0.01), sex (p < 0.01), education (p < 0.01), occupation (p < 0.01), income (p < 0.01), price of water (P < 0.01), quantity of water (p < 0.01), household size (p < 0.01) and distance (p < 0.01) to existing water sources significantly influenced rural households' WTP for these services. The inference from this study showed that rural dweller sources of water is highly primitive and deplorable. Governments and stakeholders should prioritize the provision of rural water at an affordable price by rural dwellers.

Keywords: households, source of water, willingness to pay (WTP), tobit model

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Authors: Afshin Azari, Farzad Peiravian, Nazila Yousefi

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Introduction: Community pharmacies have been always played an important role in public health. Therefore, having a decent service provided by these pharmacies is of paramount importance for the healthcare system. The issue of pharmacy ownership and its possible impact on the quality of services and amount of violations has been argued for many years, and there are different opinions around this debate. Since, so far, no scientific research has been performed to investigate this issue in Iran, this study aimed to examine the differences between these two types of pharmacies ownership in terms of violations and service quality. Method: This study investigates the impact of two different kinds of pharmacy ownership (pharmacists and non-pharmacist’s ownership) on the pharmacies’ amount of violations and services quality. Pharmacies’ amount of violations was examined using “pharmacy inspection reports” between September 2018 and September 2019, in their distinguishable categories: minor, major and critical violations. Then, service quality was examined using a questionnaire from the perspective of pharmacy customers. Results: Considering violations, there was no evidence to prove a significant relationship between critical violations and major violations with the type of pharmacy ownership. However, in minor violations, the average of violations was higher in pharmacies owned by pharmacists in comparison to their non-pharmacist owned counterparts. Regarding service quality, the results showed that there is no significant relationship between the quality of service and the type of pharmacy ownership. Discussion and Conclusion: In this study, no significant relationship was found between the amount of violations and the type of pharmacy ownership. This could indicate that the pharmacy ownership would not influence the rate of violations. Considering that more inspections have been carried out in non-pharmacist owned pharmacies, it can be concluded that these pharmacies are more under control, and in fact, this monitoring has reduced violations in these pharmacies. The quality of services in the two types of pharmacies were not significantly different from each other, and this shows that non-pharmacist-owned pharmacies also try to maintain the desired level of service in competition with their competitors.

Keywords: pharmacy ownership, quality of service, violation, community pharmacy

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Authors: Rohollah Asadian Kohestani, Mustafa Hashemzadeh

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The present paper is the outcome of a field research that was conducted with the study objective of influencing factor's effect on the behavior of customers switching in the Saipa Emdad Khodro Company. To achieve this goal, six factors of service quality, service cost, waiting time to receive services, reputation of organization, costs of switching and the way to respond the needs of customers as the independent variables of research and their effect on the customer switching was studied as the variable related to the research. The statistical society of this research included all customers of the Saipa Emdad Khodro company that possess the vehicles of automobile manufacturing group of Saipa throughout the country and the statistical sample included 150 persons of such customers. The results of this research indicated that all under study factors excluding the reputation factor effect on the behavior of customer switching.

Keywords: customer services, switching cost, service price, customer switching behavior

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Authors: Ehsan Vaziri Goodarzi, Mahmood Houshmand, Omid Fatahi Valilai, Vahidreza Ghezavati, Shahrooz Bamdad

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One important paradigm of industry 4.0 is Cloud Manufacturing (CM). In CM everything is considered as a service, therefore, the CM platform should consider all service provider's capabilities and tries to integrate services in an equilibrium state. This research develops a framework for implementing manufacturing cloud service composition in the equilibrium state. The developed framework using well-known tools called axiomatic design (AD) and game theory. The research has investigated the factors for forming equilibrium for measures of the manufacturing cloud service composition. Functional requirements (FRs) represent the measures of manufacturing cloud service composition in the equilibrium state. These FRs satisfied by related Design Parameters (DPs). The FRs and DPs are defined by considering the game theory, QoS, consumer needs, parallel and cooperative services. Ultimately, four FRs and DPs represent the framework. To insure the validity of the framework, the authors have used the first AD’s independent axiom.

Keywords: axiomatic design, manufacturing cloud service composition, cloud manufacturing, industry 4.0

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Authors: Gu Sihao

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The coordinated development of "ecology-production-life" in cities has been highly concerned by the country, and the transformation development and sustainable development of resource-based cities have become a hot research topic at present. As an important part of China's resource-based cities, coal resource-based cities have the characteristics of large number and wide distribution. However, due to the adjustment of national energy structure and the gradual exhaustion of urban coal resources, the development vitality of coal resource-based cities is gradually reduced. In many studies, the deterioration of ecological environment in coal resource-based cities has become the main problem restricting their urban transformation and sustainable development due to the "emphasis on economy and neglect of ecology". Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the Central Government has been deepening territorial space planning and development. On the premise of optimizing territorial space development pattern, it has completed the demarcation of ecological protection red lines, carried out ecological zoning and ecosystem evaluation, which have become an important basis and scientific guarantee for ecological modernization and ecological civilization construction. Grasp the regional multiple ecosystem services is the precondition of the ecosystem management, and the relationship between the multiple ecosystem services study, ecosystem services cluster can identify the interactions between multiple ecosystem services, and on the basis of the characteristics of the clusters on regional ecological function zoning, to better Social-Ecological system management. Based on this cognition, this study optimizes the spatial function zoning of Gujiao, a coal resource-based city, in order to provide a new theoretical basis for its sustainable development. This study is based on the detailed analysis of characteristics and utilization of Gujiao city land space, using SOFM neural networks to identify local ecosystem service clusters, according to the cluster scope and function of ecological function zoning of space partition balance and coordination between different ecosystem services strength, establish a relationship between clusters and land use, and adjust the functions of territorial space within each zone. Then, according to the characteristics of coal resources city and national spatial function zoning characteristics, as the driving factors of land change, by cellular automata simulation program, such as simulation under different restoration strategy situation of urban future development trend, and provides relevant theories and technical methods for the "third-line" demarcations of Gujiao's territorial space planning, optimizes territorial space functions, and puts forward targeted strategies for the promotion of regional ecosystem services, providing theoretical support for the improvement of human well-being and sustainable development of resource-based cities.

Keywords: coal resource-based city, territorial spatial planning, ecosystem service cluster, gmop model, geosos-FLUS model, functional zoning optimization and upgrading

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Authors: Stefanie J. Huber, Tobias Schmidt

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Cross-country differences in homeownership rates are large and very persistent over time, ranging between 35% in Switzerland to 80% in Spain. In this project, we test the hypothesis that these cross-country differences are driven by cultural tastes. To isolate the effect of culture from the effects of institutions and economic factors, we investigate the homeownership attitudes of second-generation immigrants in the United States. We find robust evidence that cross-country differences in cultural preferences are an important explanatory factor for the observed persistent differences in homeownership rates across countries.

Keywords: housing markets, homeownership rates, country heterogeneity, preferences, cultural transmission, migration

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Authors: Mohammad H. Yarmohammadian, Reza Safdari, Mahmoud Keyvanara, Nahid Tavakoli

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One of the greatest challenges in disaster and emergencies is patient tracking. The concept of tracking has different denotations. One of the meanings refers to tracking patients’ physical locations and the other meaning refers to tracking patients ‘medical needs during emergency services. The main goal of patient tracking is to provide patient safety during disaster and emergencies and manage the flow of patient and information in different locations. In most of cases, there are not sufficient and accurate data regarding the number of injuries, medical conditions and their accommodation and transference. The objective of the present study is to survey on patient tracking issue in natural disaster and emergencies. Methods: This was a narrative study in which the population was E-Journals and the electronic database such as PubMed, Proquest, Science direct, Elsevier, etc. Data was gathered by Extraction Form. All data were analyzed via content analysis. Results: In many countries there is no appropriate and rapid method for tracking patients and transferring victims after the occurrence of incidents. The absence of reliable data of patients’ transference and accommodation, even in the initial hours and days after the occurrence of disasters, and coordination for appropriate resource allocation, have faced challenges for evaluating needs and services challenges. Currently, most of emergency services are based on paper systems, while these systems do not act appropriately in great disasters and incidents and this issue causes information loss. Conclusion: Patient tracking system should update the location of patients or evacuees and information related to their states. Patients’ information should be accessible for authorized users to continue their treatment, accommodation and transference. Also it should include timely information of patients’ location as soon as they arrive somewhere and leave therein such a way that health care professionals can be able to provide patients’ proper medical treatment.

Keywords: patient tracking, challenges, disaster, emergency

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Authors: Maria Sonto Maputle, Rhulani C. Shihundla, Rachel T. Lebese

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Background: Patients’ information must be complete and accurately documented in order to foster quality and continuity of care. The multidisciplinary health care members use patients’ documentation to communicate about health status, preventive health services, treatment, planning and delivery of care. The purpose of this study was to determine the practice of nursing documentation of patients’ information at selected Primary Health Care (PHC) facilities in Vhembe District, Limpopo Province, South Africa. Methods: The research approach adopted was qualitative while exploratory and descriptive design was used. The study was conducted at selected PHC facilities. Population included twelve professional nurses. Non-probability purposive sampling method was used to sample professional nurses who were willing to participate in the study. The criteria included participants’ whose daily work and activities, involved creating, keeping and updating nursing documentation of patients’ information. Qualitative data collection was through unstructured in-depth interviews until no new information emerged. Data were analysed through open–coding of, Tesch’s eight steps method. Results: Following data analysis, it was found that professional nurses’ had knowledge deficit related to insufficient training on updates and rendering multiple services daily had negative impact on accurate documentation of patients’ information. Conclusion: The study recommended standardization of registers, books and forms used at PHC facilities, and reorganization of PHC services into open day system.

Keywords: documentation, knowledge, patient care, patient’s information, training

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Authors: Abul Bashar

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The recent surge in the adoption of cloud computing systems by various organizations has brought forth the challenge of evaluating their performance. One of the major issues faced by the cloud service providers and customers is to assess the ability of cloud computing systems to provide the desired services in accordance to the QoS and SLA constraints. To this end, an opportunity exists to develop means to ensure that the desired performance levels of such systems are met under simulated environments. This will eventually minimize the service disruptions and performance degradation issues during the commissioning and operational phase of cloud computing infrastructure. However, it is observed that several simulators and modelers are available for simulating the cloud computing systems. Therefore, this paper presents a critical evaluation of the state-of-the-art modeling and simulation frameworks applicable to cloud computing systems. It compares the prominent simulation frameworks in terms of the API features, programming flexibility, operating system requirements, supported services, licensing needs and popularity. Subsequently, it provides recommendations regarding the choice of the most appropriate framework for researchers, administrators and managers of cloud computing systems.

Keywords: cloud computing, modeling framework, performance evaluation, simulation tools

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Authors: Umut Erksan Senalp

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The aim of this study is to examine the link between firm level productivity heterogeneity and firm’s decision to export. Thus, we test the self selection hypothesis which suggests only more productive firms self select themselves to export markets. We analyze UK manufacturing sector by using firm-level data for the period 2003-2011. Although our preliminary results suggest that exporters outperform non-exporters when we pool all manufacturing industries, when we examine each industry individually, we find that self-selection hypothesis does not hold for each industries.

Keywords: total factor productivity, firm heterogeneity, international trade, decision to export

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Authors: Yaroslav Pavlov

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In the modern world, ensuring quality has become increasingly important in various fields of human activity. One universal approach to quality management, proven effective in the food industry, is the HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) concept. Based on principles of preventing potential hazards to consumers at all stages of production, from raw materials to the final product, HACCP offers a systematic approach to identifying, assessing risks, and managing critical control points (CCPs). Initially used primarily for food production, it was later effectively adapted to the food service sector. Implementing HACCP provides organizations with a reliable foundation for improving food safety, covering all links in the food chain from producer to consumer, making it an integral part of modern quality management systems. The main principles of HACCP—hazard identification, CCP determination, effective monitoring procedures, corrective actions, regular checks, and documentation—are universal and can be adapted to other areas. The adaptation of the HACCP concept is relevant for continuing professional education (CPE) with certain reservations. Specifically, it is reasonable to abandon the term ‘hazards’ as deviations in CCPs do not pose dangers, unlike in food production. However, the approach through CCP analysis and the use of HACCP's main principles for educational services are promising. This is primarily because it allows for identifying key CCPs based on the value creation model of a specific educational organization and consequently focusing efforts on specific CCPs to manage the quality of educational services. This methodology can be called the Analysis of Critical Points in Educational Services (ACPES). ACPES offers a similar approach to managing the quality of educational services, focusing on preventing and eliminating potential risks that could negatively impact the educational process, learners' achievement of set educational goals, and ultimately lead to students rejecting the organization's educational services. ACPES adapts proven HACCP principles to educational services, enhancing quality management effectiveness and student satisfaction. ACPES includes identifying potential problems at all stages of the educational process, from initial interest to graduation and career development. In ACPES, the term "hazards" is replaced with "problematic areas," reflecting the specific nature of the educational environment. Special attention is paid to determining CCPs—stages where corrective measures can most effectively prevent or minimize the risk of failing educational goals. The ACPES principles align with HACCP's principles, adjusted for the specificities of CPE. The method of the learner's journey map (variation of Customer Journey Map, CJM) can be used to overcome the complexity of formalizing the production chain in educational services. CJM provides a comprehensive understanding of the learner's experience at each stage, facilitating targeted and effective quality management. Thus, integrating the learner's journey map into ACPES represents a significant extension of the methodology's capabilities, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of the educational process and forming an effective quality management system focused on meeting learners' needs and expectations.

Keywords: quality management, continuing professional education, customer journey map, HACCP

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Authors: Muhammad Izzam Bin Mohd Khazar, Nur Adibah Binti Zainudin

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Islamic banking as one of the financial institutions is highly required to maintain a prudent approach to ensure that any financing given is able to generate income to their respective shareholders. As the default payment of customers is probably occurred in the financing, having a prudent approach in the recovery process is a must to ensure that financing losses are within acceptable limits. The objective of this research is to provide the best practice of recovery which is anticipated to benefit both bank and customers. This study will address arising issue on the current practice of recovery process and followed by providing humanising recovery solutions in the light of the Maqasid Shariah. The study identified main issues pertaining to Islamic recovery process which can be categorized into knowledge crisis, process issues, specific treatment cases and system issues. Knowledge crisis is related to direct parties including judges, solicitors and salesperson, while the recovery process issues include the process of issuance of reminder, foreclosure and repossession of asset. Furthermore, special treatment for particular cases also should be observed since different contracts in Islamic banking products will need different treatment. Finally, issues in the system used in the recovery process are still unresolved since the existing technology is still young in this area to embraced Islamic finance requirements and nature of calculation. In order to humanize the financial services in Islamic banking recovery process, we have highlighted four main recommendation to be implemented by Islamic Financial Institutions namely; 1) early deterrent by improving the awareness, 2) improvement of the internal process, 3) reward mechanism, and 4) creative penalty to provide awareness to all stakeholders.

Keywords: humanizing financial services, Islamic Finance, Maqasid Syariah, recovery process

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Authors: Mahmoud Almasri, Xavier Marjou, Fanny Parzysz

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The demand for services provided by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is increasing pervasively across several sectors including potential public safety, economic, and delivery services. As the number of applications using UAVs grows rapidly, more and more powerful, quality of service, and power efficient computing units are necessary. Recently, cellular technology draws more attention to connectivity that can ensure reliable and flexible communications services for UAVs. In cellular technology, flying with a high speed and altitude is subject to several key challenges, such as frequent handovers (HOs), high interference levels, connectivity coverage holes, etc. Additional HOs may lead to “ping-pong” between the UAVs and the serving cells resulting in a decrease of the quality of service and energy consumption. In order to optimize the number of HOs, we develop in this paper a Q-learning-based algorithm. While existing works focus on adjusting the number of HOs in a static network topology, we take into account the impact of cells deployment for three different simulation scenarios (Rural, Semi-rural and Urban areas). We also consider the impact of the decision distance, where the drone has the choice to make a switching decision on the number of HOs. Our results show that a Q-learning-based algorithm allows to significantly reduce the average number of HOs compared to a baseline case where the drone always selects the cell with the highest received signal. Moreover, we also propose which hyper-parameters have the largest impact on the number of HOs in the three tested environments, i.e. Rural, Semi-rural, or Urban.

Keywords: drones connectivity, reinforcement learning, handovers optimization, decision distance

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Authors: Sameer Ansari, Suhas Nitsure

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Biomimicry has made a big move into the built environment by adapting nature's solutions to human designs and inventions. We can examine numerous aspects of the built environment right from generating energy, fed by rainwater and powered by sun to over all land use impacts. This paper discusses the potential of a man made building which will work for the welfare of humans and reduce the impact of the harmful environment on us which we ourselves created for us. Building services inspired by nature such as building walls from homeostasis in organisms, natural ventilation from termites, artificial aggregates from natural aggregates, solar panels from photosynthesis and building structure itself compared to tree as a cantilever. Environmental services such as using CO2 as a feedstock for construction related activities, using Ornilux glasses and  saving birds from collision with buildings, using prefabricated steel for fast building members- save time and also negligible waste as no formwork is used. Maglev inspired car elevators in building which is unique and giving all together new direction to technology.

Keywords: biomimicry, green technology, maglev car elevator, civil engineering

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Authors: Eva Nedeliakova, Juraj Camaj, Jaroslav Masek

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This contribution is focused on the methodology for identifying levels of quality and improving quality through new logistics model in railway transport. It is oriented on the application of dynamic quality models, which represent an innovative method of evaluation quality services. Through this conception, time factor, expected, and perceived quality in each moment of the transportation process within logistics chain can be taken into account. Various models describe the improvement of the quality which emphases the time factor throughout the whole transportation logistics chain. Quality of services in railway transport can be determined by the existing level of service quality, by detecting the causes of dissatisfaction employees but also customers, to uncover strengths and weaknesses. This new logistics model is able to recognize critical processes in logistic chain. It includes service quality rating that must respect its specific properties, which are unrepeatability, impalpability, their use right at the time they are provided and particularly changeability, which is significant factor in the conditions of rail transport as well. These peculiarities influence the quality of service regarding the constantly increasing requirements and that result in new ways of finding progressive attitudes towards the service quality rating.

Keywords: logistics model, quality, railway transport

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Authors: K. D. Mroczek

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In the study presented institutional context is discussed in terms of companies’ entry mode choice. In contrary to many previous analyses, instead of using one or two aggregated variables, a set of eleven determinants is used to establish equity and non-equity internationalization friendly conditions. Based on secondary data, 140 countries are analysed and grouped into clusters revealing similar framework. The range of the economies explored is wide as it covers all regions distinguished by The World Bank. The results can prove a useful alternative for operationalization of institutional variables in further research concerning entry modes or strategic management in international markets.

Keywords: clustering, entry mode choice, institutional environment, transaction costs

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Authors: R. M. Kilonzo, S. Bedingfield, K. Smith, K. Hudgins Smith, K. Couper, R. Ratley, Z. Taylor, A. Engelman, M. Renne

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Introduction: The mental health needs of university students continue to evolve, necessitating a strategic approach to service delivery. The East Tennessee State University (ETSU) Counseling Center developed its inaugural Strategic Plan (2024-2028) to enhance student mental health services. The plan focuses on improving access, quality of care, and service visibility, aligning with the university’s mission to support academic success and student well-being. Aim: This strategic plan aims to establish a comprehensive framework for delivering high-quality, evidence-based mental health services to ETSU students, addressing current challenges, and anticipating future needs. Methods: The development of the strategic plan was a collaborative effort involving the Counseling Center’s leadership, staff, with technical support from Doctor of Public Health-community and behavioral health intern. Multiple workshops, online/offline reviews, and stakeholder consultations were held to ensure a robust and inclusive process. A SWOT analysis and stakeholder mapping were conducted to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges. Key performance indicators (KPIs) were set to measure service utilization, satisfaction, and outcomes. Results: The plan resulted in four strategic priorities: service application, visibility/accessibility, safety and satisfaction, and training programs. Key objectives include expanding counseling services, improving service access through outreach, reducing stigma, and increasing peer support programs. The plan also focuses on continuous quality improvement through data-driven assessments and research initiatives. Immediate outcomes include expanded group therapy, enhanced staff training, and increased mental health literacy across campus. Conclusion and Recommendation: The strategic plan provides a roadmap for addressing the mental health needs of ETSU students, with a clear focus on accessibility, inclusivity, and evidence-based practices. Implementing the plan will strengthen the Counseling Center’s capacity to meet the diverse needs of the student population. To ensure sustainability, it is recommended that the center continuously assess student needs, foster partnerships with university and external stakeholders, and advocate for increased funding to expand services and staff capacity.

Keywords: strategic plan, university counseling center, mental health, students

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Authors: Michael Postert

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The Studierendenwerke are legally independent public foundations with a one-century-old history in the German university community. Like the French CROUS, the Italian ANDISU or the Japanese University COOPs, they are set-up to serve the university and student needs. They are legally independent of their client institutions and student stakeholders. Initially set up as a support organization by students for students they have evolved to public business institutions with an annual turnover of EUR 100 Million or more. They are usually engaged in business areas such as student housing, restaurants, student grants, governmental scholarships and counselling services. These institutions are facing major changes over the next few years. The COVID19 pandemic and its impact on the educational system will unavoidably have an immense impact on the German student service organizations (Studierendenwerke). Issues such as digitalization and sustainability will have a huge impact on how the future business model of the Studierendenwerke will look like. The paper will discuss the aims and challenges of this development that started already before the COVID19 pandemic. In light of the way the educational system of the future will look like, the Studierendenwerke have to develop as well.

Keywords: business model, digitalization, education, student services

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Authors: Khader Titi

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Information technology developments have changed the way how businesses are working. Organizations are required to become visible online and stay connected to take advantages of costs reduction and improved operation of existing resources. The approval and the application areas of the cloud computing has significantly increased since it was presented by Google in 2007. Internet Cloud computing has attracted the IT enterprise attention especially the e-business enterprise. At this time, there is a great issue of environmental costs during the enterprises apply the e- business, but with the coming of cloud computing, most of the problem will be solved. Organizations around the world are facing with the continued budget challenges and increasing in the size of their computational data so, they need to find a way to deliver their services to clients as economically as possible without negotiating the achievement of anticipated outcomes. E- business companies need to provide better services to satisfy their clients. In this research, the researcher proposed a paradigm that use and deploy cloud computing technology environment to be used for e-business in small enterprises. Cloud computing might be a suitable model for implementing e-business and e-commerce architecture to improve efficiency and user satisfaction.

Keywords: E-commerce, cloud computing, B2C, SaaS

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Authors: Clemens Pizzinini, Philipp Rosner, David Ziegler, Markus Lienkamp

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Transportation is a constitutional part of most supply and value chains in modern economies. Smallholder farmers in rural Ethiopia face severe challenges along their supply and value chains. In particular, suitable, affordable, and available transport services are in high demand. To develop a context-specific technical solutions, a problem-to-solution methodology based on the interaction with technology is developed. With this approach, we fill the gap between proven transportation assessment frameworks and general user-centered techniques. Central to our approach is an electric test vehicle that is implemented in rural supply and value chains for research, development, and testing. Based on our objective and the derived methodological requirements, a set of existing methods is selected. Local partners are integrated into an organizational framework that executes major parts of this research endeavour in the Arsi Zone, Oromia Region, Ethiopia.

Keywords: agricultural value chain, participatory methods, agile methods, sub-Saharan Africa, Ethiopia, electric vehicle, transport service

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Authors: Samrat Vikramaditya Tiwari, Atul Sewaiwar, Yeon-Ho Chung

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Device-to-device (D2D) communication is considered a promising technique to provide wireless peer-to-peer communication services. Due to increasing demand on mobile services, available spectrum for radio frequency (RF) based communications becomes scarce. Recently, visible light communications (VLC) has evolved as a high speed wireless data transmission technology for indoor environments with abundant available bandwidth. In this paper, a novel VLC based D2D communication that provides wireless peer-to-peer communication is proposed. Potential low operating power devices for an efficient D2D communication over increasing distance of separation between devices is analyzed. Optical repeaters (OR) are also proposed to enhance the performance in an environment where direct D2D communications yield degraded performance. Simulation results show that VLC plays an important role in providing efficient D2D communication up to a distance of 1 m between devices. It is also found that the OR significantly improves the coverage distance up to 3.5 m.

Keywords: visible light communication, light emitting diode, device-to-device, optical repeater

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Authors: Asma Inge-Hanif, Ayyub Ansari Hanif

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The impact of conflicts, the subsequent refugee migration to America and their attempted use of societal resources implicate the lack of further humanitarian aid as a consequence of the abrupt decrease in services and policy changes stemming from new governmental mandates and Executive Orders. Statistical research data indicates a substantial decline in access to standardized health services by refugee women creating a significant alteration in the management of their maternal health care in America, previously shown to result in decreased mortality and morbidity. Studying nursing at Howard University in Washington, D.C., observed doctors were not always sensitive to the needs and modesty concerns of immigrant Muslim women - often unintentionally. Among health care professionals, the prevailing belief should be that every man, woman and child has the right to quality care in a dignified manner and the achievement of optimal health and well-being, regardless of race, creed, socio-economic level or status. In 1987 Muslimat Al Nisaa Health and Social Services Center was established to care for underserved and uninsured women and children. This Center, plus the subsequent shelter, provided direct access to those homeless, refugees, human trafficking and women victims of domestic violence was established and provides the data for this study. Understanding specific culture, social, economic and religious nuances respects their diversity and addressing their basic human needs that they achieve optimal success. The ultimate goal being to facilitate the rescue and housing of those whom escaped from a country/communities where girls are devalued, brought, sold and abused.

Keywords: women, refugee, domestic violence, health care

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Authors: Sonja Giese, Tess N. Peacock

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South African based Innovation Edge is experimenting with technology to drive positive behavior change, enable data-driven decision making, and scale quality early years services. This paper uses five case studies to illustrate how technology can be used in resource-constrained environments to first, encourage parenting practices that build early language development (using a stage-based mobile messaging pilot, ChildConnect), secondly, to improve the quality of ECD programs (using a mobile application, CareUp), thirdly, how to affordably scale services for the early detection of visual and hearing impairments (using a mobile tool, HearX), fourthly, how to build a transparent and accountable system for the registration and funding of ECD (using a blockchain enabled platform, Amply), and finally enable rapid data collection and feedback to facilitate quality enhancement of programs at scale (the Early Learning Outcomes Measure). ChildConnect and CareUp were both developed using a design based iterative research approach. The usage and uptake of ChildConnect and CareUp was evaluated with qualitative and quantitative methods. Actual child outcomes were not measured in the initial pilots. Although parents who used and engaged on either platform felt more supported and informed, parent engagement and usage remains a challenge. This is contrast to ECD practitioners whose usage and knowledge with CareUp showed both sustained engagement and knowledge improvement. HearX is an easy-to-use tool to identify hearing loss and visual impairment. The tool was tested with 10000 children in an informal settlement. The feasibility of cost-effectively decentralising screening services was demonstrated. Practical and financial barriers remain with respect to parental consent and for successful referrals. Amply uses mobile and blockchain technology to increase impact and accountability of public services. In the pilot project, Amply is being used to replace an existing paper-based system to register children for a government-funded pre-school subsidy in South Africa. Early Learning Outcomes Measure defines what it means for a child to be developmentally ‘on track’ at aged 50-69 months. ELOM administration is enabled via a tablet which allows for easy and accurate data collection, transfer, analysis, and feedback. ELOM is being used extensively to drive quality enhancement of ECD programs across multiple modalities. The nature of ECD services in South Africa is that they are in large part provided by disconnected private individuals or Non-Governmental Organizations (in contrast to basic education which is publicly provided by the government). It is a disparate sector which means that scaling successful interventions is that much harder. All five interventions show the potential of technology to support and enhance a range of ECD services, but pathways to scale are still being tested.

Keywords: assessment, behavior change, communication, data, disabilities, mobile, scale, technology, quality

Procedia PDF Downloads 135

Authors: M. Jaculine Mary

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Today electronic resources are considered as an integral part of information sources to impart efficient services to the people aspiring to acquire knowledge in different fields. E-resources are those resources which include documents in e-format that can be accessed via the Internet in a digital library environment. The present study focuses on accessibility and use of e-resources by faculty and research scholars of academic libraries of Coimbatore, TamilNadu, India. The main objectives are to identify their purpose of using e-resources, know the users’ Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills, identify satisfaction level of availability of e-resources, use of different e-resources, overall user satisfaction of using e-resources, impact of e-resources on their research and problems faced by them in the access of e-resources. The research methodology adopted to collect data for this study includes analysis of survey reports carried out by distributing questionnaires to the users. The findings of the research are based on the study of responses received from questionnaires distributed to a sample population of 200 users. Among the 200 respondents, 55 percent of research students and 45 percent of faculty members were users of e-resources. It was found that a majority of the users agreed that relevant, updated information at a fast pace had influenced them to use e-resources. Most of the respondents were of the view that more numbers of computers in the library would facilitate quick learning. Academic libraries have to take steps to arrange various training and orientation programmes for research students and faculty members to use the availability of e-resources. This study helps the librarian in planning and development of e-resources to provide modern services to their users of libraries. The study recommends that measures should be taken to increase the accessibility level of e-resource services among the information seekers for increasing the best usage of available electronic resources in the academic libraries.

Keywords: academic libraries, accessibility, electronic resources, satisfaction level, survey

Procedia PDF Downloads 145

Authors: Anne T. Herr, Clemens Lorei

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Employees of organizations with security tasks, such as emergency services, public order services, or police forces, work every day to ensure people's safety. Violence against police is, therefore, a relevant topic both socially and politically. An increase in violence is often discussed without there being any verifiable and generally valid data. So far, scientific research has mainly focused on offender characteristics and crime statistics. These surveys are mostly subjective, retrospective, and neglect the dynamics and interactions in concrete violent situations. Therefore, more recent research methods attempt to capture the issue of violence against emergency forces more comprehensively. However, the operationalization of the constructs and the methodological approach pose particular challenges. This contribution provides an overview of new perspectives on the understanding of violent assaults and identifies current research gaps. In addition, a new research project of the Hessian University of Police and Administration in Germany is presented. In the 'AMBOSafe' study, different theoretical backgrounds for understanding violence against police and emergency services personnel will be combined in order to capture as many different perspectives of violent assaults as possible in a multimodal research approach. In a retrospective as well as in a longitudinal survey, the conditions of escalation dynamics in the assaults are recorded and supplemented by the current and valid prevalence of physical and verbal assaults in a period of four months. In addition, qualitative interviews with those affected will be used to record more detailed descriptions of and the feelings during the assaults, as well as possible causes and connections between the different groups of people. In addition to the reports of the police forces, the motives of the attackers will be collected and supplemented by analyzing the criminal case files. This knowledge can contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of violent assaults against police forces in order to be able to derive scientifically based preventive measures.

Keywords: assaults, crime statistics, escalation dynamics, police

Procedia PDF Downloads 115

Authors: Mohamad Mahdi Namdari

Abstract:

In today's rapidly changing and evolving business competition, companies and organizations require advanced and efficient tools to manage their markets and sales networks. Big data analysis, quick response in competitive markets, process and operations optimization, and forecasting customer behavior are among the concerns of executive managers. Artificial intelligence, as one of the emerging technologies, has provided extensive capabilities in this regard. The use of artificial intelligence in market and sales network management can lead to improved efficiency, increased decision-making accuracy, and enhanced customer satisfaction. Specifically, AI algorithms can analyze vast amounts of data, identify complex patterns, and offer strategic suggestions to improve sales performance. However, many companies are still distant from effectively leveraging this technology, and those that do face challenges in fully exploiting AI's potential in market and sales network management. It appears that the general public's and even the managerial and academic communities' lack of knowledge of this technology has caused the managerial structure to lag behind the progress and development of artificial intelligence. Additionally, high costs, fear of change and employee resistance, lack of quality data production processes, the need for updating structures and processes, implementation issues, the need for specialized skills and technical equipment, and ethical and privacy concerns are among the factors preventing widespread use of this technology in organizations. Clarifying and explaining this technology, especially to the academic, managerial, and elite communities, can pave the way for a transformative beginning. The aim of this research is to elucidate the capacities of artificial intelligence in market and sales network management, identify its opportunities and benefits, and examine the existing challenges and obstacles. This research aims to leverage AI capabilities to provide a framework for enhancing market and sales network performance for managers. The results of this research can help managers and decision-makers adopt more effective strategies for business growth and development by better understanding the capabilities and limitations of artificial intelligence.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, market management, sales network, big data analysis, decision-making, digital marketing

Procedia PDF Downloads 45