Search results for: female users

Authors: Urrutia Fernando, López Jessica, Sánchez Carlos, San Antonio Thalía

Abstract:

Ecuador, as a signatory country of the convention of the rights of persons with disabilities (CRPD) has, in the recent years, strengthened the structures and legal framework required to protect this minority comprised of 13.2% of its total population. However, the reality is that this group has disproportionately low earnings and low educational attainment in comparison with the general population. The main struggles, to promote job placement of wheelchairs users, are environmental discrimination caused by accessibility in structures and transportation, this mainly due to the cost, for private and public entities, of performing the reasonable accommodation they require. It is widely known that product development and production is needed to support effective implementation of the CRPD and that walking and standing are the major life activities, in this context the objective of this investigation is to promote job placement of wheelchair user in the province of Tungurahua by means of the design, production and marketing of a customized stand up wheelchair. Exploratory interviews and measurements were performed in a representative sample of working age wheelchairs users that develop their disability after achieving their physical maturity and that are capable of performing professional activities with their upper limbs, this in order to detect the user’s preference and determine the local economic and anthropometric parameters to be included in the wheelchair design. The findings reveal factors that uniquely impact quality of life and development for people with a mobility disability within the context of the province, first that transportation is a big issue since public buses does not have accessibility for wheelchair users and the absence of curb cuts and the presence of trash bins over the sidewalks among other hinders an economic independent mobility, second that the proposal based in the idea of modifying the wheelchairs to make it able to overcome certain obstacles helps people in wheelchair to improve their independent living and by reducing the costs of modification for the employer could improve their chances of finding work.

Keywords: anthropometrics, job placement, stand up wheelchair, user centered design

Procedia PDF Downloads 553

Authors: Atifa Mushtaq, Tanweer Khaliq, Hafiz Alam Sher, Asia Farid, Anila Kanwal, Maliha Sarfraz

Abstract:

The study was designed to assess the various pharmacokinetic parameters of a commercially available clarithromycin Tablet (Klaricid® 250 mg Abbot, Pakistan) in plasma sample of healthy adult female volunteers by applying a rapid, sensitive and accurate HPLC-UV analytical method. The human plasma samples were evaluated by using an isocratic High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) system of Sykam consisted of a pump with a column C18 column (250×4.6mn, 5µm) UV-detector. The mobile phase comprises of potassium dihydrogen phosphate (50 mM, pH 6.8, contained 0.7% triethylamine), methanol and acetonitrile (30:25:45, v/v/v) was delivered with injection volume of 20µL at flow rate of 1 mL/min. The detection was performed at λmax 275 nm. By applying this method, important pharmacokinetic parameters Cmax, Tmax, Area under curve (AUC), half-life (t1/2), , Volume of distribution (Vd) and Clearance (Cl) were measured. The parameters of pharmacokinetics of clarithromycin were calculated by software (APO) pharmacological analysis. Maximum plasma concentrations Cmax 2.78 ±0.33 µg/ml, time to reach maximum concentration tmax 2.82 ± 0.11 h and Area under curve AUC was 20.14 h.µg/ml. The mean ± SD values obtained for the pharmacokinetic parameters showed a significant difference in pharmacokinetic parameters observed in previous literature which emphasizes the need for dose adjustment of clarithromycin in Pakistani population.

Keywords: Pharmacokinetc, Clarothromycin, HPLC, Pakistan

Procedia PDF Downloads 102

Authors: Phoenix W. Y. Lam

Abstract:

As one of the most important service-oriented industries in contemporary society, tourism has increasingly seen the influence of the Internet on all aspects of travelling. Travellers nowadays habitually research online before making travel-related decisions. One platform on which such research is conducted is destination forums. The emergence of such online destination forums in the last decade has allowed tourists to share their travel experiences quickly and easily with a large number of online users around the world. As such, these destination forums also provide invaluable data for tourism bodies to better understand travellers’ views on their destinations. Collecting posts from the Hong Kong travel forum on the world’s largest travel website TripAdvisor®, the present study identifies the top questions asked by TripAdvisor users about Hong Kong through a corpus-based discourse analytic approach. Based on questions posted on the forum and their associated meta-data gathered in a one-year period, the study examines the top questions asked by travellers around the world to identify the key geographical locations in which users have shown the greatest interest in the city. Questions raised by travellers from different geographical locations are also compared to see if traveller communities by location vary in terms of their areas of interest. This analysis involves the study of key words and concordance of frequently-occurring items and a close reading of representative examples in context. Findings from the present study show that travellers who asked the most questions about Hong Kong are from North America and Asia, and that travellers from different locations have different concerns and interests, which are clearly reflected in the language of the questions asked on the travel forum. These findings can therefore provide tourism organisations with useful information about the key markets that should be targeted for promotional purposes, and can also allow such organisations to design advertising campaigns which better address the specific needs of such markets. The present study thus demonstrates the value of applying linguistic knowledge and methodologies to the domain of tourism to address practical issues.

Keywords: corpus, hong kong, online travel forum, tourism, TripAdvisor

Procedia PDF Downloads 176

Authors: Pragya Paneru, Prativa Paneru

Abstract:

This paper explores the attitude of high school Nepalese students toward scientists using a famous method named as Draw-A-Scientist-Test (DAST). A total of 145 students from Grade 11 and Grade 12 took part in this research and drew images of scientists. The findings indicated gender imbalance with male dominance in the images of scientists. The result also showed some usual stereotypes relating to hair, equipment, objects, use of eyeglasses, and lab coat in the drawings of scientists. Moreover, the influence of some mainstream western male scientists was widely seen in the drawings implying the exposure of limited male scientists to the students. In contrast to this, no real-life female scientists were mentioned by the participants demonstrating limited exposure of female scientists contributing to the gendered attitude toward the scientists. However, some of the findings also challenged the previous findings and depicted scientists with local features, positive expression, and working outdoors. Moreover, participants’ awareness that scientists could be anyone with an inquisitive mind was indicated by the variations in the characters in their drawings. The drawings indicated that scientists could be someone like a mother, themselves, a fashion icon, Buddha, or a crazy-looking person. This study recommends the inclusion of participants’ interviews, and exploration of their textbooks’ depiction of scientists to uncover additional details regarding their understanding of scientists. Also, a critical discussion of the stereotypical attitudes about scientists in class could help challenge the stereotypical assumptions of scientists.

Keywords: scientists, drawings, stereotypes, gender, high school students

Procedia PDF Downloads 77

Authors: Jesús David Argueta Moreno, Taria Ruiz, Cesar Ortega

Abstract:

This qualitative investigation represents the first stage of the human capital engineering analysis, along the small and medium textile manufacturing companies, located on the city of Tegucigalpa, Honduras where the symptoms of the local manufacturing industry´s describe a severe gender displacement phenomenon. The evaluation of this phenomena, intends to trigger the Honduran small and medium technology manufactures into a collective performance, analysis through the development of a sectorial diagnose and the creation of a manufacturers guide, personalized. In accordance to the Honduran textile manufacturing needs, in order to strengthen their personnel capacities and thereby smoothen the gender equilibrium on this particular sector. It is worth mentioning, that on the last decade, the female gender has gathered positive statistics upon Central American job market´s, were the local business landscape describes a significant displacement of the Honduran female operators over the male gender workers that has significantly diminished their employment predominance. On the other hand, this study aims to evaluate the main features that impact on the job market local gender supplanting. On the other hand, this document aims to holistically describe the Honduran manufacturing context, as well as the current textile operator qualifications, in order to infer over the most proper human resources enforcement approaches/techniques on the industry.

Keywords: gender predominance, manufacturing, higher education institutions, emerging trends

Procedia PDF Downloads 422

Authors: Lakshmidevi Sreeramareddy, Komalpreet Kaur, Nane Pothier

Abstract:

Graphical-based passwords have existed for decades. Their major advantage is that they are easier to remember than an alphanumeric password. However, their disadvantage (especially recognition-based passwords) is the smaller password space, making them more vulnerable to brute force attacks. Graphical passwords are also highly susceptible to the shoulder-surfing effect. The gesture-based password method that we developed is a grid-free, template-free method. In this study, we evaluated the gesture-based passwords for usability and vulnerability. The results of the study are significant. We developed a gesture-based password application for data collection. Two modes of data collection were used: Creation mode and Replication mode. In creation mode (Session 1), users were asked to create six different passwords and reenter each password five times. In replication mode, users saw a password image created by some other user for a fixed duration of time. Three different duration timers, such as 5 seconds (Session 2), 10 seconds (Session 3), and 15 seconds (Session 4), were used to mimic the shoulder-surfing attack. After the timer expired, the password image was removed, and users were asked to replicate the password. There were 74, 57, 50, and 44 users participated in Session 1, Session 2, Session 3, and Session 4 respectfully. In this study, the machine learning algorithms have been applied to determine whether the person is a genuine user or an imposter based on the password entered. Five different machine learning algorithms were deployed to compare the performance in user authentication: namely, Decision Trees, Linear Discriminant Analysis, Naive Bayes Classifier, Support Vector Machines (SVMs) with Gaussian Radial Basis Kernel function, and K-Nearest Neighbor. Gesture-based password features vary from one entry to the next. It is difficult to distinguish between a creator and an intruder for authentication. For each password entered by the user, four features were extracted: password score, password length, password speed, and password size. All four features were normalized before being fed to a classifier. Three different classifiers were trained using data from all four sessions. Classifiers A, B, and C were trained and tested using data from the password creation session and the password replication with a timer of 5 seconds, 10 seconds, and 15 seconds, respectively. The classification accuracies for Classifier A using five ML algorithms are 72.5%, 71.3%, 71.9%, 74.4%, and 72.9%, respectively. The classification accuracies for Classifier B using five ML algorithms are 69.7%, 67.9%, 70.2%, 73.8%, and 71.2%, respectively. The classification accuracies for Classifier C using five ML algorithms are 68.1%, 64.9%, 68.4%, 71.5%, and 69.8%, respectively. SVMs with Gaussian Radial Basis Kernel outperform other ML algorithms for gesture-based password authentication. Results confirm that the shorter the duration of the shoulder-surfing attack, the higher the authentication accuracy. In conclusion, behavioral features extracted from the gesture-based passwords lead to less vulnerable user authentication.

Keywords: authentication, gesture-based passwords, machine learning algorithms, shoulder-surfing attacks, usability

Procedia PDF Downloads 101

Authors: Dolapo Adeyemo

Abstract:

Technology can be designed specifically for geriatrics and persons with disabilities or ICT accessibility solutions. Both solutions stand to benefit from advances in Artificial intelligence, which are computer systems that perform tasks that require human intelligence. Tasks such as decision making, visual perception, speech recognition, and even language translation are useful in both situation and will provide significant benefits to people with temporarily or permanent disabilities. This research’s goal is to review innovations focused on the use of artificial intelligence that bridges the accessibility gap in technology from a user-centered perspective. A mixed method approach that utilized a comprehensive review of academic literature on the subject combined with semi structure interviews of users, developers, and technology product owners. The internet of things and artificial intelligence technology is creating new opportunities in the assistive technology space and proving accessibility to existing technology. Device now more adaptable to the needs of the user by learning the behavior of users as they interact with the internet. Accessibility to devices have witnessed significant enhancements that continue to benefit people with disabilities. Examples of other advances identified are prosthetic limbs like robotic arms supported by artificial intelligence, route planning software for the visually impaired, and decision support tools for people with disabilities and even clinicians that provide care.

Keywords: ICT, IOT, accessibility solutions, universal design

Procedia PDF Downloads 85

Authors: R. Sudhesh Solomon, P. Y. K. L. Srinivas, Abhay Narayan, Amitava Das

Abstract:

Users in social networks either unicast or broadcast their messages. At mention is the popular way of unicasting for Twitter whereas general tweeting could be considered as broadcasting method. Understanding the information flow and dynamics within a Social Network and modeling the same is a promising and an open research area called Information Diffusion. This paper seeks an answer to a fundamental question - understanding if the at-mention network or the unicasting pattern in social media is purely random in nature or is there any user specific selectional preference? To answer the question we present an empirical analysis to understand the sociological aspects of Twitter mentions network within a social network community. To understand the sociological behavior we analyze the values (Schwartz model: Achievement, Benevolence, Conformity, Hedonism, Power, Security, Self-Direction, Stimulation, Traditional and Universalism) of all the users. Empirical results suggest that values traits are indeed salient cue to understand how the mention-based communication network functions. For example, we notice that individuals possessing similar values unicast among themselves more often than with other value type people. We also observe that traditional and self-directed people do not maintain very close relationship in the network with the people of different values traits.

Keywords: information diffusion, personality and values, social network analysis, twitter mentions network

Procedia PDF Downloads 372

Authors: Emil Danehorn, Ulla Peterson, Marie Oscarsson, Goldina Smirthwaite, Katarina Swahnberg

Abstract:

Swedish students who choose to study abroad are common, but there has been limited research on exchange students. There are indications that some Swedish exchange students have been exposed to violence, but it is not known if they, already before their semester abroad, are more exposed to violence than students who remain on campus. Our aim was to investigate potential differences in exposure to physical, sexual, and emotional violence between prospective exchange students and campus students and between male and female students in general, as well as to determine any associations between mental health and exposure to violence among students in the total sample. Method: Comparative cross-sectional design using an online survey containing the NorVold Abuse Questionnaire and the General Health Questionnaire 12. A total of 565 participants took part in the study. Results: Prospective exchange students were less exposed to emotional violence compared to campus students. About one-half of all the participating female students had been exposed to sexual violence and about one-third of all the male students had been exposed to physical violence. The results also indicated that exposure to more than one form of violence was associated with poor mental health for students as a group. Conclusion: Prospective exchange students as a group do not report more exposure to physical and sexual violence than campus students but do report less exposure to emotional violence. However, the overall frequency of exposure to violence among the students was high. This highlights the need for proactive efforts for everyone, not least for exchange students who will be staying in a new environment unknown to them.

Keywords: sexual violence, physical violence, emotional violence, exchange students, mental health

Procedia PDF Downloads 118

Authors: Ismail Okur, Betul Taspinar, Turkan Pasali Kilit, Eda O. Okur, Ferruh Taspinar

Abstract:

Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is one of the most important global health emergencies and every year more and more people are affected by T2DM. T2DM causes life-changing complications by affecting organ and systems. Although diet and exercise are the best way to treat patients with T2DM, those patients generally have a sedentary life style. This study was planned to determine whether patients with T2DM have kinesiophobia (fear of movement). A controlled trial was conducted on 87 adults. Forty-one individuals with T2DM (study group, 34 female and 7 male) and 46 nondiabetic individuals (control group, 39 female and 7 male) were included in the study. Patients were screened for fear of movement using the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia (TSK). The data including age, sex, weight, height, and TSK scores were obtained. Mann Whitney U test were used to analyse the data. The mean ages and BMI of study and control groups were 51.98 ± 6.03 year and 49.52 ± 5.61 year and 31.82 ± 2.88 kg/m2 and 30.22 ± 2.91 kg/m2, respectively. The groups have similar demographic properties. The kinesiophobia scores of study and control groups were 42.78 ± 5.50 and 39.48 ± 5.05, respectively and the difference was statistically significant (p=0.05). This study showed that patients with T2DM had high kinesiophobia scores rather than nondiabetics. Those patients might avoid to do exercise. In other words, patients with T2DM might have lower physical activity level. Therefore the authors suggest that to evaluate and interfere with kinesiophobia before conducting exercise therapy will be useful for diabetes care.

Keywords: diabetes, fear of movement, kinesiophobia, type 2 diabetes mellitus

Procedia PDF Downloads 374

Authors: Jorge Cortés, Alejandra Martínez, Carlos Pérez, Anaid Simón

Abstract:

The presence of government, news media, and general citizenry in social media allows considering interactions between them as a form of political communication (i.e. the public exchange of contradictory discourses about politics). Twitter’s asymmetrical following model (users can follow, mention or reply to other users that do not follow them) could foster alternative democratic practices and have an impact on Mexican political culture, which has been marked by a lack of direct communication channels between these actors. The research aim is to assess Twitter’s role in political communication practices through the analysis of interaction dynamics between government, news media, and citizens by extracting and visualizing data from Twitter’s API to observe general behavior patterns. The hypothesis is that regardless the fact that Twitter’s features enable direct and horizontal interactions between actors, users repeat traditional dynamics of interaction, without taking full advantage of the possibilities of this medium. Through an interdisciplinary team including Communication Strategies, Information Design, and Interaction Systems, the activity on Twitter generated by the controversy over the presence of Uber in Mexico City was analysed; an issue of public interest, involving aspects such as public opinion, economic interests and a legal dimension. This research includes techniques from social network analysis (SNA), a methodological approach focused on the comprehension of the relationships between actors through the visual representation and measurement of network characteristics. The analysis of the Uber event comprised data extraction, data categorization, corpus construction, corpus visualization and analysis. On the recovery stage TAGS, a Google Sheet template, was used to extract tweets that included the hashtags #UberSeQueda and #UberSeVa, posts containing the string Uber and tweets directed to @uber_mx. Using scripts written in Python, the data was filtered, discarding tweets with no interaction (replies, retweets or mentions) and locations outside of México. Considerations regarding bots and the omission of anecdotal posts were also taken into account. The utility of graphs to observe interactions of political communication in general was confirmed by the analysis of visualizations generated with programs such as Gephi and NodeXL. However, some aspects require improvements to obtain more useful visual representations for this type of research. For example, link¬crossings complicates following the direction of an interaction forcing users to manipulate the graph to see it clearly. It was concluded that some practices prevalent in political communication in Mexico are replicated in Twitter. Media actors tend to group together instead of interact with others. The political system tends to tweet as an advertising strategy rather than to generate dialogue. However, some actors were identified as bridges establishing communication between the three spheres, generating a more democratic exercise and taking advantage of Twitter’s possibilities. Although interactions in Twitter could become an alternative to political communication, this potential depends on the intentions of the participants and to what extent they are aiming for collaborative and direct communications. Further research is needed to get a deeper understanding on the political behavior of Twitter users and the possibilities of SNA for its analysis.

Keywords: interaction, political communication, social network analysis, Twitter

Procedia PDF Downloads 219

Authors: Donghun Lee, Jiyoung Shin, Youjin Kim, Jin Joo Kim

Abstract:

The sinking of Sewol ferry occurred in Korea on the morning of 16 April 2014 while carrying 476 people. In all, 304 passengers, mostly secondary school students from Danwon High School in Ansan City died in the disaster. The sinking of Sewol ferry has resulted in widespread social and political turmoil within South Korea. Many criticize the actions of the captain and crews of the ferry as well as the ferry operator and the regulators who oversaw its operations. However, huge criticism has been directed at the South Korean government for its national disaster response system. This disaster has made Korean government build up a new disaster management and psychological support system. The purpose of this study was to understand developmental and change process of a female counselor in her late fifties participated in Sewol ferry disaster counseling for a year. She has participated in providing as a counselor counseling and psychological support for the victims' families of Sewol ferry disaster, additionally as a director of community youth counseling center operated by local government by establishing governmental psychological supports plan for recovering collective trauma in the community, through which she have gotten self-reflection of whole her life. For in-depth interview data analysis, Mandelbaum’s three conceptual frameworks were employed; dimensions, turnings, and adaptation. The result of the study indicates extracted categories of life dimension, turning point and adaptation. The details of these categories are ‘having a self-image in youth’, ‘marriage in fairy-tale’, ‘unexpected death of husband’, ‘taking a step forward from darkness’, the way of counselor’, nice grown child’, ‘Sewol ferry disaster’ in life dimension, ‘death in front of life’, ‘milestone in life, counseling’ in turning points, ‘before Sewol ferry disaster’, ‘after Sewol ferry disaster’ in adaptation. Life history methods revealed the counselor’s internal developmental process by analyzing what Sewol ferry disaster influenced on an individual life, especially a counselor's one, what changes she went through, and how she adapted herself to that. Based on the results, discussions and suggestions are provided.

Keywords: development and change, disaster counseling, identity of female counselor, Mandelbaum’s life history, Sewol ferry

Procedia PDF Downloads 332

Authors: Kim Ji-Hyun, Jeon Hye-Seon, Kwon Oh-Yun, Park Eun-Young, Hwang Ui-Jae, Gwak Gyeong-Tae, Yoon Hyeo-Bin

Abstract:

Stress urinary incontinence (SUI), a common women health problem, is an involuntary leakage of urine while sneezing, coughing, or physical exertion caused by insufficient strength of the pelvic floor and sphincter muscles. SUI also leads to decrease in quality of life and limits sexual activities. SUI is related to the increased bladder neck angle, bladder neck movement, funneling index, urethral width, and decreased urethral length. Various pelvic floor muscle electrical stimulation (ES) interventions have been applied to improve the symptoms of the people with SUI. ES activates afferent fibers of pudendal nerve and smoothly induces contractions of the pelvic floor muscles such as striated periurethral muscles and striated pelvic floor muscles. ES via intravaginal electrodes are the most frequently used types of the pelvic floor muscle ES for the female SUI. However, inserted electrode is uncomfortable and it increases the risks of infection. The purpose of this preliminary study was to determine if the 8-week transcutaneous pelvic floor ES would be effective to improve the symptoms and satisfaction of the females with SUI. Easy-K, specially designed ES equipment for the people with SUI, was used in this study. The oval shape stimulator can be placed on a toilet seat, and the surface has invaded electrode fit to contact with the entire vulva area while users are sitting on the stimulator. Five women with SUI were included in this experiment. Prior to the participation, subjects were instructed about procedures and precautions in using the ES. They have used the stimulator once a day for 20 minutes for each session at home. Outcome data was collected 3 times at the baseline, 4 weeks and 8 weeks after the intervention. Intravaginal sonography was used to measure the bladder neck angle, bladder neck movement, funneling index, thickness of an anterior rhabdosphincter and a posterior rhabdosphincter, urethral length, and urethral width. Leavator ani muscle (LAM) contraction strength was assessed by manual palpation according to the oxford scoring system. In addition, incontinence quality of life (IQOL) and female sexual function index (FSFI) questionnaires were used to obtain addition subjective information. Friedman test, a nonparametric statistical test, was used to determine the effectiveness of the ES. The Wilcoxon test was used for the post-hoc analysis and the significance level was set at .05. The bladder neck angle, funneling index and urethral width were significantly decreased after 8-weeks of intervention (p<.05). LAM contraction score, urethral length and anterior and posterior rhabdosphicter thickness were statistically increased by the intervention (p<.05). However, no significant change was found in the bladder neck movement. Although total score of the IQOL did not improve, the score of the ‘avoidance’ subscale of IQOL had significant improved (p<.05). FSFI had statistical difference in FSFI total score and ‘desire’ subscale (p<.05). In conclusion, 8-week use of a transcutaneous ES on peri-vulva area improved dynamic mechanical structures of the pelvic floor musculature as well as IQOL and conjugal relationship.

Keywords: electrical stimulation, Pelvic floor muscle, sonography, stress urinary incontinence, women health

Procedia PDF Downloads 148

Authors: A. Alyami, S. Christmas, K. Neeltje, G. Pollakis, B. Paxton, Z. Al-Bayati

Abstract:

The Human leukocyte antigen-G (HLA-G) molecule plays an important role in immunomodulation. To date, 16 untranslated regions (UTR) HLA-G haplotypes have been previously defined by sequenced SNPs in the coding region. From these, UTR-1, UTR-2, UTR-3, UTR-4, UTR-5, UTR-6 and UTR-7 are the most frequent 3’UTR haplotypes at the global level. UTR-1 is associated with higher levels of soluble HLA-G and HLA-G expression, whereas UTR-5 and UTR-7 are linked with low levels of soluble HLA-G and HLA-G expression. Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection results in the progressive loss of immune function in infected individuals. The virus escape mechanism typically includes T lymphocytes and NK cell recognition and lyses by classical HLA-A and B down-regulation, which has been associated with non-classical HLA-G molecule up-regulation, respectively. We evaluated the haplotypes of the HLA-G 3′ untranslated region frequencies observed in three HIV-1 groups from the Netherlands and their susceptibility to develop infection. The three groups are made up of mainly men who have sex with men (MSM), injection drug users (IDU) and a high-risk-seronegative (HRSN) group. DNA samples were amplified with published primers prior sequencing. According to our results, the low expresser frequencies show higher in HRSN compared to other groups. This is indicating that 3’UTR polymorphisms may be identified as potential prognostic biomarkers to determine susceptibility to HIV.

Keywords: Human leukocyte antigen-G (HLA-G) , men who have sex with men (MSM), injection drug users (IDU), high-risk-seronegative (HRSN) group, high-untranslated region (UTR)

Procedia PDF Downloads 152

Authors: Nuur Ezaini Akmar Ismail, Norbazilah Rahim, Norul Huda Md Rasdi, Maslina Daud

Abstract:

A web application is the most targeted by the attacker because the web application is accessible by the end users. It has become more advantageous to the attacker since not all the end users aware of what kind of sensitive data already leaked by them through the Internet especially via social network in shake on ‘sharing’. The attacker can use this information such as personal details, a favourite of artists, a favourite of actors or actress, music, politics, and medical records to customize phishing attack thus trick the user to click on malware-laced attachments. The Phishing attack is one of the most popular attacks for social engineering technique against web applications. There are several methods to detect phishing websites such as Blacklist/Whitelist based detection, heuristic-based, and visual similarity-based detection. This paper illustrated a comparison between the heuristic-based technique using features of a uniform resource locator (URL) and visual similarity-based detection techniques that compares the content of a suspected phishing page with the legitimate one in order to detect new phishing sites based on the paper reviewed from the past few years. The comparison focuses on three indicators which are false positive and negative, accuracy of the method, and time consumed to detect phishing website.

Keywords: heuristic-based technique, phishing detection, social engineering and visual similarity-based technique

Procedia PDF Downloads 171

Authors: Stephen Vera, Tabitha Black, Charalambos Cleanthous, Ryan Sain

Abstract:

A gender comparison of USA commercial pilots’ demographics and views of CRM, social desirability and locus of control were surveyed. The Aviation safety locus of control (ASLOC) was used to measure external (ASLOC-E) or internal (ASLOC-I) aviation safety locus of control. The gender differences were explored using the ASLOC scores as a categorical variable. A differential comparison of crew resource management (CRM), based on the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) guidelines was conducted. The results indicated that the proportion of female to male respondents matches the current ratio of USA commercial pilots. Moreover, there were no significant differences regarding overall education and the total number of communication classes one took. Regarding CRM issues, there were no significant differences on their views regarding the roles of the PIC, stress, time management, and managing a flight team. The females scored significantly lower on aeronautical decision making (ADM) and communications. There were no significant differences on either the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR) impression management (IM) or self-deceptive enhancement (SDE). Although there were no overall significant differences on the ASLOC, the females did score higher on the internal subscale than did the males. An additional comparison of socially desirable responding indicates that all scores may be invalid, especially from the female respondents.

Keywords: social desirability, safety locus of control, crew resource management, commercial pilots

Procedia PDF Downloads 254

Authors: Chaitanya Kanakamedala, Hansa Pradhan, Carter Gilbert

Abstract:

Social media platforms, such as Twitter, are excellent datasets for understanding human interactions and sentiments. This report explores social dynamics among US Congressional members through a network analysis applied to a dataset of tweets spanning 2008 to 2017 from the ’US Congressional Tweets Dataset’. In this report, we preform network analysis where connections between users (edges) are established based on a similarity threshold: two tweets are connected if the tweets they post are similar. By utilizing the Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK) and NetworkX, we quantified tweet similarity and constructed a graph comprising various interconnected components. Each component represents a cluster of users with closely aligned content. We then preform sentiment analysis on each cluster to explore the prevalent emotions and opinions within these groups. Our findings reveal that despite the initial expectation of distinct ideological divisions typically aligning with party lines, the analysis exposed a high degree of topical convergence across tweets from different political affiliations. The analysis preformed in this report not only highlights the potential of social media as a tool for political communication but also suggests a complex layer of interaction that transcends traditional partisan boundaries, reflecting a complicated landscape of politics in the digital age.

Keywords: natural language processing, sentiment analysis, centrality analysis, topic modeling

Procedia PDF Downloads 23

Authors: Mulugeta Shegaze, Mekitie Wondafrash, Alemayehu A. Alemayehu, Shikur Mohammed, Zewdu Shewangezaw, Mukerem Abdo, Gebresilasea Gendisha

Abstract:

Background: The 2004 World Health Assembly called for specific actions to halt the overweight and obesity epidemic that is currently penetrating urban populations in the developing world. Adolescents require particular attention due to their vulnerability to develop obesity and the fact that adolescent weight tracks strongly into adulthood. However, there is scarcity of information on the modifiable risk factors to be targeted for primary intervention among urban adolescents in Ethiopia. This study was aimed at determining the magnitude and risk factors of overweight and obesity among high school adolescents in Addis Ababa. Methods: An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted in February and March 2014 on 456 randomly selected adolescents from 20 high schools in Addis Ababa city.  Demographic data and other risk factors of overweight and obesity were collected using self-administered structured questionnaire, whereas anthropometric measurements of weight and height were taken using calibrated equipment and standardized techniques. The WHO STEPS instrument for chronic disease risk was applied to assess dietary habit and physical activity. Overweight and obesity status was determined based on BMI-for-age percentiles of WHO 2007 reference population. Results: The prevalence rates of overweight, obesity, and overall overweight/ obesity among high school adolescents in Addis Ababa were 9.7% (95%CI = 6.9-12.4%), 4.2% (95%CI = 2.3-6.0%), and 13.9% (95%CI = 10.6-17.1%), respectively. Overweight/obesity prevalence was highest among female adolescents, in private schools, and in the higher wealth category. In multivariable regression model, being female [AOR(95%CI) = 5.4(2.5,12.1)], being from private school [AOR(95%CI) = 3.0(1.4,6.2)], having >3 regular meals [AOR(95%CI) = 4.0(1.3,13.0)], consumption of sweet foods [AOR(95%CI) = 5.0(2.4,10.3)] and spending >3 hours/day sitting [AOR(95%CI) = 3.5(1.7,7.2)] were found to increase overweight/ obesity risk, whereas high Total Physical Activity level [AOR(95%CI) = 0.21(0.08,0.57)] and better nutrition knowledge [AOR(95%CI) = 0.160.07,0.37)] were found protective. Conclusions: More than one in ten of the high school adolescents were affected by overweight/obesity with dietary habit and physical activity are important modifiable risk factors. Well-tailored nutrition education program targeting lifestyle change should be initiated with more emphasis to female adolescents and students in private schools.

Keywords: adolescents, NCDs, overweight, obesity

Procedia PDF Downloads 304

Authors: Young Ik Suh, Tywan G. Martin

Abstract:

Sports apps in a smartphone provide up-to-date information and fast and convenient access to live games. The market of sports apps has emerged as the second fastest growing app category worldwide. Further, many sports fans use their smartphones to know the schedule of sporting events, players’ position and bios, videos and highlights. In recent years, a growing number of scholars and practitioners alike have emphasized the importance of interactivity with sports apps, hypothesizing that interactivity plays a significant role in enticing sports apps users and that it is a key component in measuring the success of sports apps. Interactivity in sports apps focuses primarily on two functions: (1) two-way communication and (2) active user control, neither of which have been applicable through traditional mass media and communication technologies. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine whether the interactivity function on sports apps leads to positive outcomes such as intent to revisit. More specifically, this study investigates how three major functions of interactivity (i.e., two-way communication, active user control, and real-time information) influence the attitude of sports apps users and their intent to revisit the sports apps. The following hypothesis is proposed; interactivity functions will be positively associated with both attitudes toward sports apps and intent to revisit sports apps. The survey questionnaire includes four parts: (1) an interactivity scale, (2) an attitude scale, (3) a behavioral intention scale, and (4) demographic questions. Data are to be collected from ESPN apps users. To examine the relationships among the observed and latent variables and determine the reliability and validity of constructs, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is conducted. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is utilized to test hypothesized relationships among constructs. Additionally, this study compares the proposed interactivity model with a rival model to identify the role of attitude as a mediating factor. The findings of the current sports apps study provide several theoretical and practical contributions and implications by extending the research and literature associated with the important role of interactivity functions in sports apps and sports media consumption behavior. Specifically, this study may improve the theoretical understandings of whether the interactivity functions influence user attitudes and intent to revisit sports apps. Additionally, this study identifies which dimensions of interactivity are most important to sports apps users. From practitioners’ perspectives, this findings of this study provide significant implications. More entrepreneurs and investors in the sport industry need to recognize that high-resolution photos, live streams, and up-to-date stats are in the sports app, right at sports fans fingertips. The result will imply that sport practitioners may need to develop sports mobile apps that offer greater interactivity functions to attract sport fans.

Keywords: interactivity, two-way communication, active user control, real time information, sports apps, attitude, intent to revisit

Procedia PDF Downloads 145

Authors: Mansour F. Hussein, Mohammed A. Alshaikh, Riyadh S. Al-Jumaah, A. GarelNabi, I. Al-Khalifa, Osama B. Mohammed

Abstract:

Serum samples from 489 male and female camels were tested for antibodies against C. burnetii using indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Antibodies to C. burnetii were recorded in sera of 252 (51.64%) camels. Significant differences in prevalence were found between male and female camels, juvenile and adult camels, different ecotypes and different sampling locations. 307 camels were simultaneously tested for C. burnetii antibodies by ELISA and indirect immunofluorescence (IFA). Close agreement was found between the results of the two tests. A high prevalence of C. burnetii antibodies was also recorded in milk samples tested by ELISA. Clinical samples from serologically positive camels were subjected to PCR analysis using primers which amplify the repetitive transposon-like and transposase gene regions of C. burnetii. Positive DNA amplification was obtained from both regions, with highest shedding of C. burnetii in faecal samples (27.59%) followed, in descending order, by urine (23.81%), blood (15.85%) and milk (6.5%). The present results indicate that camels are a major reservoir of C. burnetii in Saudi Arabia. The high prevalence of infection in camels, the poor sanitary standards under which the animals are kept and the consumption of raw camel milk indicate that camels could also be a major source of transmission of Q fever to humans in Saudi Arabia.

Keywords: Arabian camel, Camelus dromedarius, Coxiella brunetii, ELISA, immunofluoresence, PCR

Procedia PDF Downloads 648

Authors: Sohail Ahmad Umer

Abstract:

Since last few decades a question is raising on the subject of the importance of women in different societies of the world particularly in the developing societies of Asia and Africa. Female population constitutes almost 50% of the total population of the world and is playing a significant role in the economy with male population. In Pakistan, a developing country of Asia with majority of Muslim population, working women role is more focused. Women of rural background who are working as voluntary workers and their working hours are neither recorded nor recognized. Agricultural statistics shows that the female participation rate is below 40% while other sources claim them below 20%. Here in present study, another effort has been made to compare the women role in two different provinces of Pakistan to analyze the participation of women in agricultural activities like sowing, picking, irrigating the fields, harvesting and threshing of crops, caring and feeding of the animals, collecting the firewood and etc,as without these activities the farming would be incomplete. One hundred villages in the district Khushab (Punjab) and one hundred villages in district D.I.Khan (KPK) were selected and 33% of the families of each village have been interviewed to study their input in agriculture work. Another important feature is the social stratification therefore the contribution by different variables like the ownership, tenancy, education and caste has also been studied.

Keywords: caste, social stratification, tenancy, voluntary workers

Procedia PDF Downloads 368

Authors: Endalew Jibat, Feyera Senbeta, Tesfaye Zeleke, Fitsum Hagos

Abstract:

Institutions can play a key role in coordinating how natural resources are effectively used without over-exploitation. Institutions are the laws, policies, and organizational arrangements that permit, forbid or regulate human action. The aim of this study was to look into the roles of formal and informal institutions, as well as their interactions, in water resource governance in Ethiopia's Central Rift Valley (CRV), where water scarcity is a concern. Key informant interviews, group discussions, in depth-interview, and secondary data sources were used to generate relevant data. The study revealed that formal and informal institutions were involved in water resource governance in the study area. However, the influence of informal institutions on formal institutions or vice versa is trivial to change the action of water users. Lack of clear roles and responsibilities of actors, weak capacity and lack of meaningful decentralization and participation of key actors in policy development, lack of synergy and incongruence between formal and informal institutions, and absence of enforcement mechanisms including incentives are attributed to inefficient use of water resources in the CRV. Enhancing the interplay of formal and informal institutions in the water resource policy development and meaningful decentralization and key stakeholders' engagement is recommended for sustainable water use.

Keywords: institutions, governance, institutional interplay, water users

Procedia PDF Downloads 173

Authors: Omar Faruqe Hamim, M. Shamsul Hoque, Rich C. McIlroy, Katherine L. Plant, Neville A. Stanton

Abstract:

Road safety has become an alarming issue, especially in low-middle income developing countries. The traditional approaches lack the out of the box thinking, making engineers confined to applying usual techniques in making roads safer. A socio-technical approach has recently been introduced in improving road intersections through designing with intent. This Design With Intent (DWI) approach aims to give practitioners a more nuanced approach to design and behavior, working with people, people’s understanding, and the complexities of everyday human experience. It's a collection of design patterns —and a design and research approach— for exploring the interactions between design and people’s behavior across products, services, and environments, both digital and physical. Through this approach, it can be seen that how designing with people in behavior change can be applied to social and environmental problems, as well as commercially. It has a total of 101 cards across eight different lenses, such as architectural, error-proofing, interaction, ludic, perceptual, cognitive, Machiavellian, and security lens each having its own distinct characteristics of extracting ideas from the participant of this approach. For this research purpose, a three-legged accident blackspot intersection of a national highway has been chosen to perform the DWI workshop. Participants from varying fields such as civil engineering, naval architecture and marine engineering, urban and regional planning, and sociology actively participated for a day long workshop. While going through the workshops, the participants were given a preamble of the accident scenario and a brief overview of DWI approach. Design cards of varying lenses were distributed among 10 participants and given an hour and a half for brainstorming and generating ideas to improve the safety of the selected intersection. After the brainstorming session, the participants spontaneously went through roundtable discussions regarding the ideas they have come up with. According to consensus of the forum, ideas were accepted or rejected. These generated ideas were then synthesized and agglomerated to bring about an improvement scheme for the intersection selected in our study. To summarize the improvement ideas from DWI approach, color coding of traffic lanes for separate vehicles, channelizing the existing bare intersection, providing advance warning traffic signs, cautionary signs and educational signs motivating road users to drive safe, using textured surfaces at approach with rumble strips before the approach of intersection were the most significant one. The motive of this approach is to bring about new ideas from the road users and not just depend on traditional schemes to increase the efficiency, safety of roads as well and to ensure the compliance of road users since these features are being generated from the minds of users themselves.

Keywords: design with intent, road safety, human experience, behavior

Procedia PDF Downloads 136

Authors: Esmail Sadipour

Abstract:

The use of social networks is increasing day by day in all societies. The purpose of this research was to know the relationship between the use of social networks (Instagram, WhatsApp, and Telegram) with executive functions and academic performance in first-year female high school students. This research was applied in terms of purpose, quantitative in terms of data type, and correlational in terms of technique. The population of this research consisted of all female high school students in the first year of district 2 of Tehran. Using Green's formula, the sample size of 150 people was determined and selected by cluster random method. In this way, from all 17 high schools in district 2 of Tehran, 5 high schools were selected by a simple random method and then one class was selected from each high school, and a total of 155 students were selected. To measure the use of social networks, a researcher-made questionnaire was used, the Barclay test (2012) was used for executive functions, and last semester's GPA was used for academic performance. Pearson's correlation coefficient and multivariate regression were used to analyze the data. The results showed that there is a negative relationship between the amount of use of social networks and self-control, self-motivation and time self-management. In other words, the more the use of social networks, the fewer executive functions of students, self-control, self-motivation, and self-management of their time. Also, with the increase in the use of social networks, the academic performance of students has decreased.

Keywords: social networks, executive function, academic performance, working memory

Procedia PDF Downloads 89

Authors: Mumtaz Begum Mustafa, Siti Salwah Salim, Feizal Dani Rahman

Abstract:

Recently, Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) systems were used to assist children in language acquisition as it has the ability to detect human speech signal. Despite the benefits offered by the ASR system, there is a lack of ASR systems for Malay-speaking children. One of the contributing factors for this is the lack of continuous speech database for the target users. Though cross-lingual adaptation is a common solution for developing ASR systems for under-resourced language, it is not viable for children as there are very limited speech databases as a source model. In this research, we propose a two-stage adaptation for the development of ASR system for Malay-speaking children using a very limited database. The two stage adaptation comprises the cross-lingual adaptation (first stage) and cross-age adaptation. For the first stage, a well-known speech database that is phonetically rich and balanced, is adapted to the medium-sized Malay adults using supervised MLLR. The second stage adaptation uses the speech acoustic model generated from the first adaptation, and the target database is a small-sized database of the target users. We have measured the performance of the proposed technique using word error rate, and then compare them with the conventional benchmark adaptation. The two stage adaptation proposed in this research has better recognition accuracy as compared to the benchmark adaptation in recognizing children’s speech.

Keywords: Automatic Speech Recognition System, children speech, adaptation, Malay

Procedia PDF Downloads 390

Authors: Dariusz M. Trzmielak, William Bradley Zehner, Elin Oftedal, Ilona Lipka-Matusiak

Abstract:

The use of new technologies should create new value for all stakeholders in the healthcare system. The article focuses on demonstrating that technologies or products typically enable new functionality, a higher standard of service, or a higher level of knowledge and competence for clinicians. It also highlights the key benefits that can be achieved through the use of artificial intelligence, such as relieving clinicians of many tasks and enabling the expansion and greater specialisation of healthcare services. The comparative analysis allowed the authors to create a classification of new technologies in e-health according to health needs and benefits for patients, doctors, and healthcare systems, i.e., the main stakeholders in the implementation of new technologies and products in healthcare. The added value of the development of new technologies in healthcare is diagnosed. The work is both theoretical and practical in nature. The primary research methods are bibliographic analysis and analysis of research data and market potential of new solutions for healthcare organisations. The bibliographic analysis is complemented by the author's case studies of implemented technologies, mostly based on artificial intelligence or telemedicine. In the past, patients were often passive recipients, the end point of the service delivery system, rather than stakeholders in the system. One of the dangers of powerful new technologies is that patients may become even more marginalised. Healthcare will be provided and delivered in an increasingly administrative, programmed way. The doctor may also become a robot, carrying out programmed activities - using 'non-human services'. An alternative approach is to put the patient at the centre, using technologies, products, and services that allow them to design and control technologies based on their own needs. An important contribution to the discussion is to open up the different dimensions of the user (carer and patient) and to make them aware of healthcare units implementing new technologies. The authors of this article outline the importance of three types of patients in the successful implementation of new medical solutions. The impact of implemented technologies is analysed based on: 1) "Informed users", who are able to use the technology based on a better understanding of it; 2) "Engaged users" who play an active role in the broader healthcare system as a result of the technology; 3) "Innovative users" who bring their own ideas to the table based on a deeper understanding of healthcare issues. The authors' research hypothesis is that the distinction between informed, engaged, and innovative users has an impact on the perceived and actual quality of healthcare services. The analysis is based on case studies of new solutions implemented in different medical centres. In addition, based on the observations of the Polish author, who is a manager at the largest medical research institute in Poland, with analytical input from American and Norwegian partners, the added value of the implementations for patients, clinicians, and the healthcare system will be demonstrated.

Keywords: innovation, management, medicine, e-health, artificial intelligence

Procedia PDF Downloads 12

Authors: Madia Safdar, G. Amjad Hussain, Mashhood Ahmad

Abstract:

One of the major challenges of today’s era is peak demand which causes stress on the transmission lines and also raises the cost of energy generation and ultimately higher electricity bills to the end users, and it was used to be managed by the supply side management. However, nowadays this has been withdrawn because of existence of potential in the demand side management (DSM) having its economic and- environmental advantages. DSM in domestic load can play a vital role in reducing the peak load demand on the network provides a significant cost saving. In this paper the potential of demand response (DR) in reducing the peak load demands and electricity bills to the electric users is elaborated. For this purpose the domestic appliances are modeled in MATLAB Simulink and controlled by a module called energy management controller. The devices are categorized into controllable and uncontrollable loads and are operated according to real-time tariff pricing pattern instead of fixed time pricing or variable pricing. Energy management controller decides the switching instants of the controllable appliances based on the results from optimization algorithms. In GAMS software, the MILP (mixed integer linear programming) algorithm is used for optimization. In different cases, different constraints are used for optimization, considering the comforts, needs and priorities of the end users. Results are compared and the savings in electricity bills are discussed in this paper considering real time pricing and fixed tariff pricing, which exhibits the existence of potential to reduce electricity bills and peak loads in demand side management. It is seen that using real time pricing tariff instead of fixed tariff pricing helps to save in the electricity bills. Moreover the simulation results of the proposed energy management system show that the gained power savings lie in high range. It is anticipated that the result of this research will prove to be highly effective to the utility companies as well as in the improvement of domestic DR.

Keywords: controllable and uncontrollable domestic loads, demand response, demand side management, optimization, MILP (mixed integer linear programming)

Procedia PDF Downloads 299

Authors: A. Sathiya Susuman, Hamisi F. Hamisi

Abstract:

Background: Many socio-economic and demographic data are age-sex attributed. However, a variety of irregularities and misstatement are noted with respect to age-related data and less to sex data because of its biological differences between the genders. Noting the misstatement/misreporting of age data regardless of its significance importance in demographics and epidemiological studies, this study aims at assessing the quality of 2012 Tanzania Population and Housing Census Results. Methods: Data for the analysis are downloaded from Tanzania National Bureau of Statistics. Age heaping and digit preference were measured using summary indices viz., Whipple’s index, Myers’ blended index, and Age-Sex Accuracy index. Results: The recorded Whipple’s index for both sexes was 154.43; male has the lowest index of about 152.65 while female has the highest index of about 156.07. For Myers’ blended index, the preferences were at digits ‘0’ and ‘5’ while avoidance were at digits ‘1’ and ‘3’ for both sexes. Finally, Age-sex index stood at 59.8 where sex ratio score was 5.82 and age ratio scores were 20.89 and 21.4 for males and female respectively. Conclusion: The evaluation of the 2012 PHC data using the demographic techniques has qualified the data inaccurate as the results of systematic heaping and digit preferences/avoidances. Thus, innovative methods in data collection along with measuring and minimizing errors using statistical techniques should be used to ensure accuracy of age data.

Keywords: age heaping, digit preference/avoidance, summary indices, Whipple’s index, Myer’s index, age-sex accuracy index

Procedia PDF Downloads 470

Authors: Maryam Nzari

Abstract:

Today, with the advancement of Internet technology, one of the tools used by humans is a tool that allows them to do what they need easily. Online platforms in different forms and by providing different services make it possible for users to communicate with each other and users with platforms. Audience communication with mass media is not the same as in the past. Today the conditions are different; With online platforms that provide the latest news minute by minute, he has access to all the content and can choose more quickly and easily. According to professionals Galloway, Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google companies create a wide range. They are among the products and services that are connected with the daily life of billions of people all over the planet. Over time, platforms gain high economic value and in this way gain power that will influence the social, cultural, economic and political aspects of people’s lives. As a result of the effects of the process of platformization on all areas of individual and collective life, we now live in a platform society, which communicates It is close to “platform politics”. Nowadays, with social media platforms, users can interact with many people and people can share their data on various topics with others in this space. In this research, what will be investigated is the role of these online platforms in economic growth and the introduction of local culture areas in tourist areas. Tourism in a region is linked with various factors; One of the important factors that attract tourists to a region is its culture, and on the other hand, this culture can also affect economic growth. Without a proper understanding of the culture of these tourist areas, it is not possible to plan properly for the growth of the tourism industry and the subsequent increase in economic growth. The interaction of local people and tourists will have social and cultural effects on each other and will give them the opportunity to get to know each other. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to examine issues such as the role that online platforms play in cultural interaction in tourist areas and to understand that online platforms are only seeking to show the good aspects of a region and then generate enough extra income or that platforms can They play a role beyond what we imagine and introduce the culture of a region in a proper way so that we don’t see disagreements in the tourism planning of that region. in this article It has been tried by using library and field methods Answer the questions.

Keywords: online platforms, economic growth, culture Indigenous, tourism

Procedia PDF Downloads 55

Authors: Sultan Ahmad Azizi, Gaurang J. Joshi

Abstract:

Urban transportation has come to lime light in recent times due to deteriorating travel quality. The economic growth of India has boosted significant rise in private vehicle ownership in cities, whereas public transport systems have largely been ignored in metropolitan cities. Even though there is latent demand for public transport systems like organized bus services, most of the metropolitan cities have unsustainably low share of public transport. Unfortunately, Indian metropolitan cities have failed to maintain balance in mode share of various travel modes in absence of timely introduction of mass transit system of required capacity and quality. As a result, personalized travel modes like two wheelers have become principal modes of travel, which cause significant environmental, safety and health hazard to the citizens. Of late, the policy makers have realized the need to improve public transport system in metro cities for sustaining the development. However, the challenge to the transit planning authorities is to design a transit system for cities that may attract people to switch over from their existing and rather convenient mode of travel to the transit system under the influence of household socio-economic characteristics and the given travel pattern. In this context, the fast-growing industrial city of Surat is taken up as a case for the study of likely shift to bus transit. Deterioration of public transport system of bus after 1998, has led to tremendous growth in two-wheeler traffic on city roads. The inadequate and poor service quality of present bus transit has failed to attract the riders and correct the mode use balance in the city. The disaggregate travel behavior for trip generations and the travel mode choice has been studied for the West Adajan residential sector of city. Mode specific utility functions are calibrated under multi-nominal logit environment for two-wheeler, cars and auto rickshaws with respect to bus transit using SPSS. Estimation of shift to bus transit is carried indicate an average 30% of auto rickshaw users and nearly 5% of 2W users are likely to shift to bus transit if service quality is improved. However, car users are not expected to shift to bus transit system.

Keywords: bus transit, disaggregate travel nehavior, mode choice Behavior, public transport

Procedia PDF Downloads 257