Search results for: effective decision support and a knowledge-based system

Authors: Abdelrahim Hamadelnil

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Padeye design and analysis plays important roles during the lifting, load out and installation of heavy structures. This paper explains the disadvantages of limiting the effective thickness of the cheek plate to 75% of the main plate thickness. In addition, a sensitivity study about the impact of the out of plane force on the padeye design is discussed. This study also explains the fabrication requirements to ensure that the designed strength is achieved. The objective of this study is to elaborate and discuss the philosophy of padeye design and to propose the suitable effective cheek plate thickness to be considered in the analysis of padeye. A finite element analysis using London University Structure Analysis System (LUSAS), is conducted and compared with the hand calculation. The benefits and advantage of using FE analysis is addressed in this paper. At the end of this paper, a guideline elaborating the philosophy of the design of the padeye is developed and the suitable effective thickness of cheek plate to be considered in the design is recommended. In addition, a comparison between the finite element result and the hand calculation using beam theory is discussed as well.

Keywords: cheek plate, effective thickness, out of plane force, Padeye

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Authors: Smita Singh

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Objective: The Faculty of Chemistry Education at Humboldt University has developed ‘Studium’, a web application designed to enhance long-term self-regulated learning (SRL) and academic achievement. Leveraging advanced generative AI, ‘Studium’ offers a dynamic and adaptive educational experience tailored to individual learning preferences and languages. The application includes evolving tools for personalized notetaking from preferred sources, customizable presentation capabilities, and AI-assisted guidance from academic documents or textbooks. It also features workflow automation and seamless integration with collaborative platforms like Miro, powered by AI. This study aims to propose a model that combines generative AI with traditional features and customization options, empowering students to create personalized learning environments that effectively address the challenges of SRL. Method: To achieve this, the study included graduate and undergraduate students from diverse subject streams, with 15 participants each from Germany and India, ensuring a diverse educational background. An exploratory design was employed using a speed dating method with enactment, where different scenario sessions were created to allow participants to experience various features of ‘Studium’. The session lasted for 50 minutes, providing an in-depth exploration of the platform's capabilities. Participants interacted with Studium’s features via Zoom conferencing and were then engaged in semi-structured interviews lasting 10-15 minutes to gain deeper insights into the effectiveness of ‘Studium’. Additionally, online questionnaire surveys were conducted before and after the session to gather feedback and evaluate satisfaction with self-regulated learning (SRL) after using ‘Studium’. The response rate of this survey was 100%. Results: The findings of this study indicate that students widely acknowledged the positive impact of ‘Studium’ on their learning experience, particularly its adaptability and intuitive design. They expressed a desire for more tools like ‘Studium’ to support self-regulated learning in the future. The application significantly fostered students' independence in organizing information and planning study workflows, which in turn enhanced their confidence in mastering complex concepts. Additionally, ‘Studium’ promoted strategic decision-making and helped students overcome various learning challenges, reinforcing their self-regulation, organization, and motivation skills. Conclusion: This proposed model emphasizes the need for effective integration of personalized AI tools into active learning and SRL environments. By addressing key research questions, our framework aims to demonstrate how AI-assisted platforms like “Studium” can facilitate deeper understanding, maintain student motivation, and support the achievement of academic goals. Thus, our ideal model for AI-assisted educational platforms provides a strategic approach to enhance student's learning experiences and promote their development as self-regulated learners. This proposed model emphasizes the need for effective integration of personalized AI tools into active learning and SRL environments. By addressing key research questions, our framework aims to demonstrate how AI-assisted platforms like ‘Studium’ can facilitate deeper understanding, maintain student motivation, and support the achievement of academic goals. Thus, our ideal model for AI-assisted educational platforms provides a strategic approach to enhance student's learning experiences and promote their development as self-regulated learners.

Keywords: self-regulated learning (SRL), generative AI, AI-assisted educational platforms

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Authors: Nicole Banton

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The maternal and infant mortality rate of Blacks is three times that of Whites in the US. Research indicates that breastfeeding lowers both. In this paper, the researcher examines how the ideas that Black/African American mothers had about breastfeeding before, during, and after pregnancy (postpartum) affected whether or not they initiated breastfeeding. The researcher used snowball sampling to recruit thirty African-American mothers from the Orlando area. At the time of her interview, each mother had at least one child who was at least three years old. Through in-depth face-to-face interviews, the researcher investigated how mothers’ healthcare providers affected their decision-making about infant feeding, as well as how the type of birth that she had (e.g., preterm, vaginal, c-section, full term) affected her actual versus idealized infant feeding practice. Through our discussions, we explored how pre-pregnancy perceptions, birth and postpartum experiences, social support, and the discourses surrounding motherhood within an African-American context affected the perceptions and experiences that the mothers in the study had with their infant feeding practice(s). Findings suggest that the pregnancy and birth experiences of the mothers in the study influenced whether or not they breastfed exclusively, combined breastfeeding and infant formula use, or used infant formula exclusively. Specifically, the interplay of invocation of agency (the ability to control their bodies before, during, and after birth), birth outcomes, and the interaction that the mothers in this study had with resources, human and material, had the highest impact on the initiation, duration, and attitude toward breastfeeding.

Keywords: African American mothers, maternal health, breastfeeding, birth, midwives, obstetricians, hospital birth, breast pumps, formula use, infant feeding, lactation consultant, postpartum, vaginal birth, c-section, familial support, social support, work, pregnancy

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Authors: Raymond Feng, Shadi Ghiasi

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An electroencephalogram (EEG) is a non-invasive technique that records electrical activity in the brain using scalp electrodes. Researchers have studied the use of EEG to detect emotions and moods by collecting signals from participants and analyzing how those signals correlate with their activities. In this study, researchers investigated the relationship between EEG signals and music enjoyment. Participants listened to music while data was collected. During the signal-processing phase, power spectral densities (PSDs) were computed from the signals, and dominant brainwave frequencies were extracted from the PSDs to form a comprehensive feature matrix. A machine learning approach was then taken to find correlations between the processed data and the music enjoyment level indicated by the participants. To improve on previous research, multiple machine learning models were employed, including K-Nearest Neighbors Classifier, Support Vector Classifier, and Decision Tree Classifier. Hyperparameters were used to fine-tune each model to further increase its performance. The experiments showed that a strong correlation exists, with the Decision Tree Classifier with hyperparameters yielding 85% accuracy. This study proves that EEG is a reliable means to detect music enjoyment and has future applications, including personalized music recommendation, mood adjustment, and mental health therapy.

Keywords: EEG, electroencephalogram, machine learning, mood, music enjoyment, physiological signals

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Authors: Cesar Augusto Hoil Rosas, José Luis Vázquez Burgos, José Juan Carbajal Hernandez

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White fish (Chirostoma estor estor) is an endemic species that habits in the Patzcuaro Lake, located in Michoacan, Mexico; being an important source of gastronomic and cultural wealth of the area. Actually, it have undergone an immense depopulation of individuals, due to the high fishing, contamination and eutrophication of the lake water, resulting in the possible extinction of this important species. This work proposes a new computational model for monitoring and assessment of critical environmental parameters of the white fish ecosystem. According to an Analytical Hierarchy Process, a mathematical model is built assigning weights to each environmental parameter depending on their water quality importance on the ecosystem. Then, a development of an advanced system for the monitoring, analysis and control of water quality is built using the virtual environment of LabVIEW. As results, we have obtained a global score that indicates the condition level of the water quality in the Chirostoma estor ecosystem (excellent, good, regular and poor), allowing to provide an effective decision making about the environmental parameters that affect the proper culture of the white fish such as temperature, pH and dissolved oxygen. In situ evaluations show regular conditions for a success reproduction and growth rates of this species where the water quality tends to have regular levels. This system emerges as a suitable tool for the water management, where future laws for white fish fishery regulations will result in the reduction of the mortality rate in the early stages of development of the species, which represent the most critical phase. This can guarantees better population sizes than those currently obtained in the aquiculture crop. The main benefit will be seen as a contribution to maintain the cultural and gastronomic wealth of the area and for its inhabitants, since white fish is an important food and economical income of the region, but the species is endangered.

Keywords: Chirostoma estor estor, computational system, lab view, white fish

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Authors: Cristina Galván-Fernández, Elena Barberà, Jingjing Zhang

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In recent years, MOOCs have been in the spotlight for its high drop-out rates, which potentially impact on the quality of the learning experience. This study attempts to explore how learning support can be used to keep student retention, and in turn to improve the quality of learning in MOOCs. In this study, the patterns of learning support were identified from a total of 4202592 units of video sessions, clickstream data of 25600 students, and 382 threads generated in 10 forums (optional and mandatory) in five different types of MOOCs (e.g. conventional MOOCs, professional MOOCs, and informal MOOCs). The results of this study have shown a clear correlation between the types of MOOCs, the design framework of the MOOCs, and the learning support. The patterns of tutor-peer interaction are identified, and are found to be highly correlated with student retention in all five types of MOOCs. In addition, different patterns of ‘good’ students were identified, which could potentially inform the instruction design of MOOCs.

Keywords: higher education, learning support, MOOC, retention

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Authors: T. Rocha, P. Carvalho, S. Paredes, J. Henriques, A. Bianchi, V. Traver, A. Martinez

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The main goal of LINK project is to join competences in intelligent processing in order to create a research ecosystem to address two central scientific and technical challenges for personal health care (PHC) deployment: i) how to merge clinical evidence knowledge in computational decision support systems for PHC management and ii) how to provide achieve personalized services, i.e., solutions adapted to the specific user needs and characteristics. The final goal of one of the work packages (WP2), designated Sustainable Linking and Synergies for Excellence, is the definition, implementation and coordination of the necessary activities to create and to strengthen durable links between the LiNK partners. This work focuses on the strategy that has been followed to achieve the definition of the Research Tracks (RT), which will support a set of actions to be pursued along the LiNK project. These include common research activities, knowledge transfer among the researchers of the consortium, and PhD student and post-doc co-advisement. Moreover, the RTs will establish the basis for the definition of concepts and their evolution to project proposals.

Keywords: LiNK Twin European Project, personal health care, cardiovascular diseases, research tracks

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Authors: Shreyas Gambhirrao, Aditya Vichare, Aniket Tembhurne, Shahuraj Bhosale

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In today's rapidly evolving environment, stress has emerged as a significant health concern across different age groups. Stress that isn't controlled, whether it comes from job responsibilities, health issues, or the never-ending news cycle, can have a negative effect on our well-being. The problem is further aggravated by the ongoing connection to technology. In this high-tech age, identifying and controlling stress is vital. In order to solve this health issue, the study focuses on three key metrics for stress detection: body temperature, heart rate, and galvanic skin response (GSR). These parameters along with the Support Vector Machine classifier assist the system to categorize stress into three groups: 1) Stressed, 2) Not stressed, and 3) Moderate stress. Proposed training model, a NodeMCU combined with particular sensors collects data in real-time and rapidly categorizes individuals based on their stress levels. Real-time stress detection is made possible by this creative combination of hardware and software.

Keywords: real time stress detection, NodeMCU, sensors, heart-rate, body temperature, galvanic skin response (GSR), support vector machine

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Authors: M. Macchiaroli, V. Pellecchia, L. Dolores

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Within any European and world model of management of the integrated water service (in Italy only since 2012 is regulated by a national Authority, that is ARERA), a significant part is covered by the development of assets in terms of hydraulic networks and wastewater collection networks, including all their relative building works. The process of selecting the investments to be made starts from the preventive analysis of critical issues (water losses, unserved areas, low service standards, etc.) who occur in the managed territory of the Operator. Through the Program of Interventions (Provision by ARERA n. 580/2019/R/idr), the Operator provides to program the projects that can meet the emerged needs to determine the improvement of the water service levels. This phase (analyzed and solved by the author with a work published in 2019) involves the use of evaluation techniques (cost-benefit analysis, multi-criteria, and multi-objective techniques, neural networks, etc.) useful in selecting the most appropriate design answers to the different criticalities. However, at this point, the problem of establishing the time priorities between the various works deemed necessary remains open. That is, it is necessary to hierarchize the investments. In this decision-making moment, the interests of the private Operator are often opposed, which favors investments capable of generating high profitability, compared to those of the public controller (ARERA), which favors investments in greater social impact. In support of the concertation between these two actors, the protocol set out in the research has been developed, based on the AHP and capable of borrowing from the programmatic documents an orientation path for the settlement of the conflict. The protocol is applied to a case study of the Campania Region in Italy and has been professionally applied in the shared decision process between the manager and the local Authority.

Keywords: analytic hierarchy process, decision making, economic evaluation of projects, integrated water service

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Authors: A. Alem, Y. Dahmani, A. Hadjali, A. Boualem

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Managing the problem of the conflict, either by using the Dempster-Shafer theory, or by the application of the fusion process to push researchers in recent years to find ways to get to make best decisions especially; for information systems, vision, robotic and wireless sensor networks. In this paper we are interested to take account of the conflict in the combination step that took the conflict into account and tries to manage such a way that it does not influence the decision step, the conflict what from reliable sources. According to [1], the conflict lead to erroneous decisions in cases where was with strong degrees between sources of information, if the conflict is more than the maximum of the functions of belief mass K > max1...n (mi (A)), then the decision becomes impossible. We will demonstrate in this paper that the multiplication of mass functions by coefficients of reliability is a decreasing function; it leads to the reduction of conflict and a good decision. The definition of reliability coefficients accurately and multiply them by the mass functions of each information source to resolve the conflict and allow deciding whether the degree of conflict. The evaluation of this technique is done by a use case; a comparison of the combination of springs with a maximum conflict without, and with reliability coefficients.

Keywords: Dempster-Shafer theory, fusion process, conflict managing, reliability factors, decision

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Authors: Ouardi Okkacha, Kaarour Abedlkrim, Meskine Mohamed

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The effective Hamiltonians are widely used in molecular spectroscopy for the interpretation of the vibration-rotation spectra. Their construction is an ambiguous procedure due to the existence of unitary transformations that change the effective Hamiltonian but do not change its eigenvalues. As a consequence of this ambiguity, it may happen that some parameters of effective Hamiltonians cannot be recovered from experimental data in a unique way. The type of admissible transformations which keeps the operator form of the effective Hamiltonian unaltered and the number of empirically determinable parameters strongly depend on the symmetry type of a molecule (asymmetric top, spherical top, and so on) and on the degeneracy of the vibrational state. In this work, we report the study of the ambiguity of effective Hamiltonian for the fundamental degenerate states v3 of the Molecule 12CD4.

Keywords: 12CD4, high-resolution infrared spectra, tetrahedral tensorial formalism, vibrational states, rovibrational line position analysis, XTDS, SPVIEW

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Authors: R. R. Dewi Rahmawaty Aktyani Putri, Earmporn Thongkrajai, Dedy Purwito

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There were many instruments have been developed to assess social support which has the different dimension in breast cancer patients. The Issue of measurement is a challenge to determining the component of dimensional concept, defining the unit of measurement, and establishing the validity and reliability of the measurement. However, the instruments where need to know how much support which obtained and perceived among women with breast cancer who undergone chemotherapy which it can help nurses to prevent of non-adherence in chemotherapy. This study aimed to measure the reliability of BC-SSAS instrument among 30 Indonesian women with breast cancer aged 18 years and above who undergone chemotherapy for six cycles in the oncological unit of Outpatient Department (OPD), Margono Soekardjo Hospital, Central Java, Indonesia. Data were collected during October to December 2015 by using modified the Breast Cancer Social Support Assessment (BC-SSAS). The Cronbach’s alpha analysis was carried out to measure internal consistency for reliability test of BC-SSAS instrument. This study used five experts for content validity index. The results showed that for content validity, I-CVI was 0.98 and S-CVI was 0.98; Cronbach’s alpha value was 0.971 and the Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the subscales were high, with 0.903 for emotional support, 0.865 for informational support, 0.901 for tangible support, 0.897 for appraisal support and 0.884 for positive interaction support. The results confirmed that the BC-SSAS instrument has high reliability. BC-SSAS instruments were reliable and can be used in health care services to measure the social support received and perceived among women with breast cancer who undergone chemotherapy so that preventive interventions can be developed and the quality of health services can be improved.

Keywords: BC-SSAS, women with breast cancer, chemotherapy, Indonesia

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Authors: Maryam Ghoreishi, Christian Larsen

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In this paper, we investigate the effect of stochastic inputs on problem of joint optimal pricing and lot-sizing decisions where the inventory cycle is divided into advance and spot sales periods. During the advance sales period, customer can make reservations while customer with reservations can cancel their order. However, during the spot sales period customers receive the order as soon as the order is placed, but they cannot make any reservation or cancellation during that period. We assume that the inter arrival times during the advance sales and spot sales period are exponentially distributed where the arrival rate is decreasing function of price. Moreover, we assume that the number of cancelled reservations is binomially distributed. In addition, we assume that deterioration process follows an exponential distribution. We investigate two cases. First, we consider two-state case where we find the optimal price during the spot sales period and the optimal price during the advance sales period. Next, we develop a generalized case where we extend two-state case also to allow dynamic prices during the spot sales period. We apply the Markov decision theory in order to find the optimal solutions. In addition, for the generalized case, we apply the policy iteration algorithm in order to find the optimal prices, the optimal lot-size and maximum advance sales amount.

Keywords: inventory control, pricing, Markov decision theory, advance sales system

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Authors: Jingjing Yan, Gengen He, Anahid Basiri

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The design of an indoor navigation system for fire evacuation support requires not only physical feasibility but also a relatively thorough consideration of the human factors. This study has taken a survey to investigate the fire response performances (FRP) of the indoor occupants in age of 20s, virtually in an environment for their routine life, focusing on the aspects of indoor familiarity (spatial cognition), psychological stress and decision makings. For indoor familiarity, it is interested in three factors, i.e., the familiarity to exits and risky places as well as the satisfaction degree of the current indoor sign installation. According to the results, males have a higher average familiarity with the indoor exits while both genders have a relatively low level of risky place awareness. These two factors are positively correlated with the satisfaction degree of the current installation of the indoor signs, and this correlation is more evident for the exit familiarity. The integration of the height factor with the other two indoor familiarity factors can improve the degree of indoor sign satisfaction. For psychological stress, this study concentrates on the situated cognition of moving difficulty, nervousness, and speed reduction when using a bending posture during the fire evacuation to avoid smoke inhalation. The results have shown that both genders have a similar mid-level of hardness sensation. The females have a higher average level of nervousness, while males have a higher average level of speed reduction sensation. This study has assumed that the growing indoor spatial cognition can help ease the psychological hardness and nervousness. However, it only seems to be true after reaching a certain level. When integrating the effects from indoor familiarity and the other two psychological factors, the correlation to the sensation of speed change can be strengthened, based on a stronger positive correlation with the integrated factors. This study has also investigated the participants’ attitude to the navigation support during evacuation, and the majority of the participants have shown positive attitudes. For following the guidance under some extreme cases, i.e., changing to a longer path and to an alternative exit, the majority of the participants has shown the confidence of keeping trusting the guidance service. These decisions are affected by the combined influences from indoor familiarity, psychological stress, and attitude of using navigation service. For the decision time of the selected extreme cases, it costs more time in average for deciding to use a longer route than to use an alternative exit, and this situation is more evident for the female participants. This requires further considerations when designing a personalized smartphone-based navigation app. This study has also investigated the calming factors for people being trapped during evacuation. The top consideration is the distance to the nearest firefighters, and the following considerations are the current fire conditions in the surrounding environment and the locations of all firefighters. The ranking of the latter two considerations is very gender-dependent according to the results.

Keywords: fire response performances, indoor spatial cognition, situated cognition, survey analysis

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Authors: Shauma L. Tamba

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This study examined whether morality is the most important aspect in actual behavior. The prediction was that people tend to behave in line with moral (as compared to competence) norms, especially when such norms are presented by their ingroup. The actual behavior that was tested was support for a military intervention without a mandate from the UN. In addition, this study also examined whether identification with the ingroup and religion moderated the effect of group and norm on support for the norm that was prescribed by their ingroup. The prediction was that those who identified themselves higher with the ingroup moral would show a higher support for the norm. Furthermore, the prediction was also that those who have religion would show a higher support for the norm in the ingroup moral rather than competence. In an online survey, participants were asked to read a scenario in which a military intervention without a mandate was framed as either the moral (but stupid) or smart (but immoral) thing to do by members of their own (ingroup) or another (outgroup) society. This study found that when people identified themselves with the smart (but immoral) norm, they showed a higher support for the norm. However, when people identified themselves with the moral (but stupid) norm, they tend to show a lesser support towards the norm. Most of the results in the study did not support the predictions. Possible explanations and implications are discussed.

Keywords: morality, competence, ingroup identification, religion, group norm

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Authors: Hsuan Yu Lai, Hsuan Hsuan Chang

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The consumer decision process steps through problems by weighing evidence, examining alternatives, and choosing a decision path. Currently, the COVID 19 made the tourism industry encounter a huge challenge and suffer the biggest amount of economic loss. It would be very important to reexamine the decision-making process model, especially after the pandemic, and consider the differences among different generations. The tourism industry has been significantly impacted by the global outbreak of COVID-19, but as the pandemic subsides, the sector is recovering. This study addresses the scarcity of research on travel decision-making patterns among generations in Taiwan. Specifically targeting individuals who frequently traveled abroad before the pandemic, the study explores differences in decision-making at different stages post-outbreak. So this study investigates differences in travel decision-making among individuals from different generations during/after the COVID-19 pandemic and examines the moderating effects of social media usage and individuals' perception of health risks. The study hypotheses are “there are significant differences in the decision-making process including travel motivation, information searching preferences, and criteria for decision-making” and that social-media usage and health-risk perception would moderate the results of the previous study hypothesis. The X, Y, and Z generations are defined and categorized based on a literature review. The survey collected data including their social-economic background, travel behaviors, motivations, considerations for destinations, travel information searching preferences, and decision-making criteria before/after the pandemic based on the reviews of previous studies. Data from 656 online questionnaires were collected between January to May 2023 and from Taiwanese travel consumers who used to travel at least one time abroad before Covid-19. SPSS is used to analyze the data with One-Way ANOVA and Two-Way ANOVA. The analysis includes demand perception, information gathering, alternative comparison, purchase behavior, and post-travel experience sharing. Social media influence and perception of health risks are examined as moderating factors. The findings show that before the pandemic, the Y Generation preferred natural environments, while the X Generation favored historical and cultural sites compared to the Z Generation. However, after the outbreak, the Z Generation displayed a significant preference for entertainment activities. This study contributes to understanding changes in travel decision-making patterns following COVID-19 and the influence of social media and health risks. The findings have practical implications for the tourism industry.

Keywords: consumer decision-making, generation study, health risk perception, post-pandemic era, social media

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Authors: Dana Pugach, Michal Tamir

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Most criminal cases end with a plea agreement, an issue whose many aspects have been discussed extensively in legal literature. One important feature, however, has gained little notice, and that is crime victims’ place in plea agreements following the federal Crime Victims Rights Act of 2004. This law has provided victims some meaningful and potentially revolutionary rights, including the right to be heard in the proceeding and a right to appeal against a decision made while ignoring the victim’s rights. While victims’ rights literature has always emphasized the importance of such right, references to this provision in the general literature about plea agreements are sparse, if existing at all. Furthermore, there are a few cases only mentioning this right. This article purports to bridge between these two bodies of legal thinking – the vast literature concerning plea agreements and victims’ rights research– by using behavioral economics. The article will, firstly, trace the possible structural reasons for the failure of this right to be materialized. Relevant incentives of all actors involved will be identified as well as their inherent consequential processes that lead to the victims’ rights malfunction. Secondly, the article will use nudge theory in order to suggest solutions that will enhance incentives for the repeat players in the system (prosecution, judges, defense attorneys) and lead to the strengthening of weaker group’s interests – the crime victims. Behavioral psychology literature recognizes that the framework in which an individual confronts a decision can significantly influence his decision. Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein developed the idea of ‘choice architecture’ - ‘the context in which people make decisions’ - which can be manipulated to make particular decisions more likely. Choice architectures can be changed by adjusting ‘nudges,’ influential factors that help shape human behavior, without negating their free choice. The nudges require decision makers to make choices instead of providing a familiar default option. In accordance with this theory, we suggest a rule, whereby a judge should inquire the victim’s view prior to accepting the plea. This suggestion leaves the judge’s discretion intact; while at the same time nudges her not to go directly to the default decision, i.e. automatically accepting the plea. Creating nudges that force actors to make choices is particularly significant when an actor intends to deviate from routine behaviors but experiences significant time constraints, as in the case of judges and plea bargains. The article finally recognizes some far reaching possible results of the suggestion. These include meaningful changes to the earlier stages of criminal process even before reaching court, in line with the current criticism of the plea agreements machinery.

Keywords: plea agreements, victims' rights, nudge theory, criminal justice

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Authors: Maria Granados

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Information technology (IT) facilitates the management of knowledge in organisations through the effective leverage of collective experience and knowledge of employees. This supports information processing needs, as well as enables and facilitates sense-making activities of knowledge workers. The study of IT support for knowledge management (KM) has been carried out mainly in larger organisations where resources and competitive conditions can trigger the use of KM. However, there is still a lack of understanding on how IT can support the management of knowledge under different organisational settings influenced by: constant tensions between social and economic objectives, more focus on sustainability than competiveness, limited resources, and high levels of democratic participation and intrinsic motivations among employees. All these conditions are presented in Social Enterprises (SEs), which are normally micro and small businesses that trade to tackle social problems, improve communities, people’s life chances, and the environment. Thus, their importance to society and economies is increasing. However, there is still a need for more understanding of how these organisations operate, perform, innovate and scale-up. This knowledge is crucial to design and provide accurate strategies to enhance the sector and increase its impact and coverage. To obtain a conceptual and empirical understanding of how IT can facilitate KM in the particular organisational conditions of SEs, a quantitative study was conducted with 432 owners and senior members of SEs in UK, underpinned by 21 interviews. The findings demonstrated how IT was supporting more the recovery and storage of necessary information in SEs, and less the collaborative work and communication among enterprise members. However, it was established that SEs were using cloud solutions, web 2.0 tools, Skype and centralised shared servers to manage informally their knowledge. The possible impediments for SEs to support themselves more on IT solutions can be linked mainly to economic and human constraints. These findings elucidate new perspectives that can contribute not only to SEs and SE supporters, but also to other businesses.

Keywords: social enterprises, knowledge management, information technology, collaboration, small firms

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Authors: Ahmad Zulfahmi Mohd Kamaruzaman, Mohd Ismail Ibrahim, Ariffin Marzuki Mokhtar, Maizun Mohd Zain, Saiful Nazri Satiman, Mohd Najib Majdi Yaacob

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Background: Aftermath any patient safety incidents, the involved healthcare providers possibly sustained second victim-related distress (second victim distress and reduced their professional efficacy), with subsequent negative work-related outcomes or vice versa cultivating resilience. This study aimed to investigate the factors affecting negative work-related outcomes and resilience, with the triad of support; colleague, supervisor, and institutional support as the hypothetical mediators. Methods: This was a cross sectional study recruiting a total of 733 healthcare providers from three tertiary care in Kelantan, Malaysia. Three steps of hierarchical linear regression were developed for each outcome; negative work-related outcomes and resilience. Then, four multiple mediator models of support triad were analyzed. Results: Second victim distress, professional efficacy, and the support triad contributed significantly for each regression model. In the pathway of professional efficacy on each negative work-related outcomes and resilience, colleague support partially mediated the relationship. As for second victim distress on negative work related outcomes, colleague and supervisor support were the partial mediator, and on resilience; all support triad also produced a similar effect. Conclusion: Second victim distress, professional efficacy, and the support triad influenced the relationship with the negative work-related outcomes and resilience. Support triad as the mediators ameliorated the effect in between and explained the urgency of having good support for recovery post encountering patient safety incidents.

Keywords: second victims, patient safety incidents, hierarchical linear regression, mediation, support

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Authors: Prajamitra Bhuyan

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Transport operators have a range of intervention options available to improve or enhance their networks. But often such interventions are made in the absence of sound evidence on what outcomes may result. Cycling superhighways were promoted as a sustainable and healthy travel mode which aims to cut traffic congestion. The estimation of the impacts of the cycle superhighways on congestion is complicated due to the non-random assignment of such intervention over the transport network. In this paper, we analyse the causal effect of cycle superhighways utilising pre-innervation and post-intervention information on traffic and road characteristics along with socio-economic factors. We propose a modeling framework based on the propensity score and outcome regression model. The method is also extended to doubly robust set-up. Simulation results show the superiority of the performance of the proposed method over existing competitors. The method is applied to analyse a real dataset on the London transport network, and the result would help effective decision making to improve network performance.

Keywords: average treatment effect, confounder, difference-in-difference, intelligent transportation system, potential outcome

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Authors: Ali Taher Othman Ali

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The aim of this research is to provide a draft proposal for the professional development of mathematics teachers in accordance with the orientation of science, technology, engineering and mathematics which is known by the abbreviation STEM, as a modern and contemporary orientation in the teaching and learning of mathematics and in order to achieve the objective of the research, the researcher used the theoretical descriptive method through the induction of the literature of education and the previous studies and experiments related to the topic. The researcher concluded by providing the proposal according to five basic axes, the first axe: professional development as a system, and its requirements include: development of educational systems, and allocate sufficient budgets to support the requirements of teaching STEM, identifying mechanisms for incentives and rewards for teachers attending professional development programs based on STEM; the second: development of in-depth knowledge content and its requirements include: basic sciences content development for STEM, linking the scientific understanding of teachers with real-world issues and problems, to provide the necessary resources to expand teachers' knowledge in this area; the third: the necessary pedagogical skills of teachers in the field of STEM, and its requirements include: identification of the required training and development needs and the mechanism of determining these needs, the types of professional development programs and the mechanism of designing it, the mechanisms and places of execution, evaluation and follow-up; the fourth: professional development strategies and mechanisms in the field of STEM, and its requirements include: using a variety of strategies to enable teachers to design and transfer effective educational experiences which reflect their scientific mastery in the fields of STEM, provide learning opportunities, and developing the skills of procedural research to generate new knowledge about the STEM; the fifth: to support professional development in the area of STEM, and its requirements include: support leadership within the school, provide a clear and appropriate opportunities for professional development for teachers within the school through professional learning communities, building partnerships between the Ministry of education and the local and international community institutions. The proposal includes other factors that should be considered when implementing professional development programs for mathematics teachers in the field of STEM.

Keywords: professional development, mathematics teachers, the orientation of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)

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Authors: Xiaoyun Zhao, Rami Darwish, Anna Pernestål

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Automated vehicles (AVs) have the potential to enhance road capacity, improving road safety and traffic efficiency. Research and development on AVs have been going on for many years. However, when the complicated traffic rules and real situations interacted, AVs fail to make decisions on contradicting situations, and are not able to have control in all conditions due to highly dynamic driving scenarios. This limits AVs’ usage and restricts the full potential benefits that they can bring. Furthermore, regulations, infrastructure development, and public acceptance cannot keep up at the same pace as technology breakthroughs. Facing these challenges, this paper proposes automated vehicle traffic control tower (AVTCT) acting as a safe, efficient and integrated solution for AV control. It introduces a concept of AVTCT for control, management, decision-making, communication and interaction with various aspects in transportation. With the prototype demonstrations and simulations, AVTCT has the potential to overcome the control challenges with AVs and can facilitate AV reaching their full potential. Possible functionalities, benefits as well as challenges of AVTCT are discussed, which set the foundation for the conceptual model, simulation and real application of AVTCT.

Keywords: automated vehicle, connectivity and automation, intelligent transport system, traffic control, traffic safety

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Authors: Panpan Feng

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The concept of green infrastructure originated in Europe and the United States. It aims to ensure smart growth of urban and rural ecosystems and achieve sustainable urban and rural ecological, social, and economic development by combining it with gray infrastructure in traditional planning. Based on the literature review of the theoretical origin, value connotation, and measurement methods of green infrastructure, this study summarizes the research content of green infrastructure at different scales from the three spatial levels of region, city, and block and divides it into functional dimensions, spatial dimension, and strategic dimension. The results show that in the functional dimension, from region-city-block, the research on green infrastructure gradually shifts from ecological function to social function. In the spatial dimension, from region-city-block, the research on the spatial form of green infrastructure has shifted from two-dimensional to three-dimensional, and the spatial structure of green infrastructure has shifted from single ecological elements to multiple composite elements. From a strategic perspective, green infrastructure research is more of a spatial planning tool based on land management, environmental livability and ecological psychology, providing certain decision-making support.

Keywords: green infrastructure, multi-scale, social and ecological functions, spatial strategic decision-making tools

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Authors: Pui-Lai To, Chechen Liao, Hen-Yi Huang

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Twenty years after Internet development, scholars have started to identify the negative impacts brought by the Internet. Overuse of Internet could develop Internet dependency and in turn cause addiction behavior. Therefore understanding the phenomenon of Internet addiction is important. With the joint efforts of experts and scholars, Internet addiction has been officially listed as a symptom that affects public health, and the diagnosis, causes and treatment of the symptom have also been explored. On the other hand, in the area of smartphone Internet usage, most studies are still focusing on the motivation factors of smartphone usage. Not much research has been done on smartphone Internet addiction. In view of the increasing adoption of smartphones, this paper is intended to find out whether smartphone Internet addiction exists in modern society or not. This study adopted the research methodology of online survey targeting users with smartphone Internet experience. A total of 434 effective samples were recovered. In terms of data analysis, Partial Least Square (PLS) in Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is used for sample analysis and research model testing. Software chosen for statistical analysis is SPSS 20.0 for windows and SmartPLS 2.0. The research result successfully proved that smartphone users who access Internet service via smartphone could also develop smartphone Internet addiction. Factors including flow experience, depression, virtual social support, smartphone Internet affinity and maladaptive cognition all have significant and positive influence on smartphone Internet addiction. In the scenario of smartphone Internet use, descriptive norm has a positive and significant influence on perceived playfulness, while perceived playfulness also has a significant and positive influence on flow experience. Depression, on the other hand, is negatively influenced by actual social support and positive influenced by the virtual social support.

Keywords: internet addiction, smartphone usage, social support, perceived playfulness

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Authors: Okay Gunes

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Unsatisfactory experiences due to an information shortage regarding the future pay-offs of actual choices, yield satisficing decision-making. This research will examine, for the first time in the literature, the motivation behind suboptimal decisions due to uncertainty by subjecting Adam Smith’s and Jeremy Bentham’s assumptions about the nature of the actions that lead to satisficing behavior, in order to clarify the theoretical background of a “consumption-based satisfactory time” concept. The contribution of this paper with respect to the existing literature is threefold: Firstly, it is showed in this paper that Adam Smith’s uncertainty is related to the problem of the constancy of ideas and not related directly to beliefs. Secondly, possessions, as in Jeremy Bentham’s oeuvre, are assumed to be just as pleasing, as protecting and improving the actual or expected quality of life, so long as they reduce any displeasure due to the undesired outcomes of uncertainty. Finally, each consumption decision incurs its own satisfactory time period, owed to not feeling hungry, being healthy, not having transportation…etc. This reveals that the level of satisfaction is indeed a behavioral phenomenon where its value would depend on the simultaneous satisfaction derived from all activities.

Keywords: decision-making, idea and belief, satisficing, uncertainty

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Authors: Robin C. Ladwig

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The future of work becomes less predictable, which requires increasing the adaptability of organizations to social and work changes. Society is transforming regarding gender identity in the sense that more people come forward to identify as trans and gender diverse (TGD). Organizations are ill-equipped to provide a safe and encouraging work environment by lacking inclusive organizational structures. The qualitative multi-method research about TGD inclusivity in the workplace explores the enablers and barriers for TGD individuals to satisfactory engage in the work environment and organizational culture. Furthermore, these TGD insights are analyzed about their organizational implications and awareness from a leadership and management perspective. The semi-structured online interviews with TGD individuals and the photo-elicit open-ended questionnaire addressed to leadership and management in diversity, career development, and human resources have been analyzed with a critical grounded theory approach. Findings demonstrated the significance of TGD voices, the support of leadership and management, as well as the synergy between voices and leadership. Hence, it indicates practical implications such as the revision of exclusive language used in policies, data collection, or communication and reconsideration of organizational decision-making by leaders to include TGD voices.

Keywords: future of work, occupational identity, organisational decision-making, trans and gender diverse identity

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Authors: S. Aswath, Chinmaya Krishna Tilak, Amal Suresh, Ganesh Udupa

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There are technologies to control a humanoid robot in many ways. But the use of Electromyogram (EMG) electrodes has its own importance in setting up the control system. The EMG based control system helps to control robotic devices with more fidelity and precision. In this paper, development of an electromyogram based interface for human gesture recognition for the control of a humanoid robot is presented. To recognize control signs in the gestures, a single channel EMG sensor is positioned on the muscles of the human body. Instead of using a remote control unit, the humanoid robot is controlled by various gestures performed by the human. The EMG electrodes attached to the muscles generates an analog signal due to the effect of nerve impulses generated on moving muscles of the human being. The analog signals taken up from the muscles are supplied to a differential muscle sensor that processes the given signal to generate a signal suitable for the microcontroller to get the control over a humanoid robot. The signal from the differential muscle sensor is converted to a digital form using the ADC of the microcontroller and outputs its decision to the CM-530 humanoid robot controller through a Zigbee wireless interface. The output decision of the CM-530 processor is sent to a motor driver in order to control the servo motors in required direction for human like actions. This method for gaining control of a humanoid robot could be used for performing actions with more accuracy and ease. In addition, a study has been conducted to investigate the controllability and ease of use of the interface and the employed gestures.

Keywords: electromyogram, gesture, muscle sensor, humanoid robot, microcontroller, Zigbee

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Authors: Haydar Teymourlouei

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Cybersecurity is one of the greatest challenges society faces in an age revolving around technological development. With cyber-attacks on the continuous rise, the nation needs to understand and learn ways that can prevent such attacks. A major contribution that can change the education system is to implement laboratories and competitions into academia. This method can improve and educate students with more hands-on exercises in a highly motivating setting. Considering the fact that students are the next generation of the nation’s workforce, it is important for students to understand concepts not only through books, but also through actual hands-on experiences in order for them to be prepared for the workforce. An effective cybersecurity education system is critical for creating a strong cyber secure workforce today and for the future. This paper emphasizes the need for awareness and the need for competitions and cybersecurity laboratories to be implemented into the education system.

Keywords: awareness, competition, cybersecurity, laboratories, workforce

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Authors: Lotha Valan, Åsa Hörnsten, Ulf Isaksson

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Introduction: Sweden has a national child health care program (CHCP) where all parents are offered support to raise their children and support them for lifelong health. A systematic review concludes that there is a request for guidance in using the internet effectively for the health purposes of their children. However, a study about internet use among young mothers means that the internet is not always easy to navigate for parents, and they may need support. To fill this gap and develop a digital channel to complement the child health care (CHC) for the support of parents of children within CHC, there is a demand to investigate parents' needs in relation to this purpose. Methods: The study had a qualitative approach using focus group interviews with parents. The interview data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results: The main theme highlights that parents expected that a digital support channel would be something that might strengthen them toward independence concerning the care of their children in a positive way. However, they also felt that they needed personal support and that relationships with other parents and the child health care nurse were significant and meaningful. Another parental desire that emerged was that a future digital channel would facilitate and simplify access to care, and they suggested having both planned and urgent times available for parents to book. The digital channel was expected to make this possible and be a good complement to the physical contacts the traditional child healthcare currently offers. Discussion/conclusions: The parents in this study believed that digital solutions could increase their parental power in relation to the care of their children. Examples were given as nurse-led parent groups where parents with similar problems and experiences around their children could support each other and were expected to strengthen them over time. The parents stressed that a planned digital support channel also needs satisfactory solutions for both contact and response. It was suggested that there should be bookable times for both planned and urgent needs and also the possibility of rescheduling visits.

Keywords: child healthcare, parents, digital support, nursing

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Authors: Diana González, Marta Gràcia, Ana Luisa Adam-Alcocer

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Incorporating digital tools into educational practices represents a valuable approach for enriching the quality of teachers' educational practices in oral competence and fostering improvements in student learning outcomes. This study aims to promote a collaborative and culturally sensitive approach to professional development between teachers and a speech therapist to enhance their self-awareness and reflection on high-quality educational practices that integrate school components to strengthen children’s oral communication and pragmatic skills. The study involved five bilingual teachers fluent in both English and Spanish, with three specializing in special education and two in general education. It focused on Spanish-English bilingual students, aged 3-6, who were experiencing speech delays or disorders in a New York City public school, with the collaboration of a speech therapist. Using EVALOE-DSS (Assessment Scale of Oral Language Teaching in the School Context - Decision Support System), teachers conducted self-assessments of their teaching practices, reflect and make-decisions throughout six classes from March to June, focusing on students' communicative competence across various activities. Concurrently, the speech therapist observed and evaluated six classes per teacher using EVALOE-DSS during the same period. Additionally, professional development meetings were held monthly between the speech therapist and teachers, centering on discussing classroom interactions, instructional strategies, and the progress of both teachers and students in their classes. Findings highlight the digital tool EVALOE-DSS's value in analyzing communication patterns and trends among bilingual children in inclusive settings. It helps in identifying improvement areas through teacher and speech therapist collaboration. After self-reflection meetings, teachers demonstrated increased awareness of student needs in oral language and pragmatic skills. They also exhibited enhanced utilization of strategies outlined in EVALOE-DSS, such as actively guiding and orienting students during oral language activities, promoting student-initiated communicative interactions, teaching students how to seek and provide information, and managing turn-taking to ensure inclusive participation. Teachers participating in the professional development program have shown positive progress in assessing their classes across all dimensions of the training tool, including instructional design, teacher conversation management, pupil conversation management, communicative functions, teacher strategies, and pupil communication functions. This includes aspects related to both teacher actions and child actions, particularly in child language development. This progress underscores the effectiveness of individual reflection (conducted weekly or biweekly using EVALOE-DSS) as well as collaborative reflection among teachers and the speech therapist during meetings. The EVALOE-SSD has proven effective in supporting teachers' self-reflection, decision-making, and classroom changes, leading to improved development of students' oral language and pragmatic skills. It has facilitated culturally sensitive evaluations of communication among bilingual children, cultivating collaboration between teachers and speech therapist to identify areas of growth. Participants in the professional development program demonstrated substantial progress across all dimensions assessed by EVALOE-DSS. This included improved management of pupil communication functions, implementation of effective teaching strategies, and better classroom dynamics. Regular reflection sessions using EVALOE-SSD supported continuous improvement in instructional practices, highlighting its role in fostering reflective teaching and enriching student learning experiences. Overall, EVALOE-DSS has proven invaluable for enhancing teaching effectiveness and promoting meaningful student interactions in diverse educational settings.

Keywords: bilingual students, collaboration, culturally sensitive, oral communication skills, self-reflection

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