Search results for: public employment service
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 9460

Search results for: public employment service

8140 Mood Symptom Severity in Service Members with Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms after Service Dog Training

Authors: Tiffany Riggleman, Andrea Schultheis, Kalyn Jannace, Jerika Taylor, Michelle Nordstrom, Paul F. Pasquina

Abstract:

Introduction: Posttraumatic Stress (PTS) and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) remain significant problems for military and veteran communities. Symptoms of PTSD often include poor sleep, intrusive thoughts, difficulty concentrating, and trouble with emotional regulation. Unfortunately, despite its high prevalence, service members diagnosed with PTSD often do not seek help, usually because of the perceived stigma surrounding behavioral health care. To help address these challenges, non-pharmacological, therapeutic approaches are being developed to help improve care and enhance compliance. The Service Dog Training Program (SDTP), which involves teaching patients how to train puppies to become mobility service dogs, has been successfully implemented into PTS/PTSD care programs with anecdotal reports of improved outcomes. This study was designed to assess the biopsychosocial effects of SDTP from military beneficiaries with PTS symptoms. Methods: Individuals between the ages of 18 and 65 with PTS symptom were recruited to participate in this prospective study. Each subject completes 4 weeks of baseline testing, followed by 6 weeks of active service dog training (twice per week for one hour sessions) with a professional service dog trainer. Outcome measures included the Posttraumatic Stress Checklist for the DSM-5 (PCL-5), Generalized Anxiety Disorder questionnaire-7 (GAD-7), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), social support/interaction, anthropometrics, blood/serum biomarkers, and qualitative interviews. Preliminary analysis of 17 participants examined mean scores on the GAD-7, PCL-5, and PHQ-9, pre- and post-SDTP, and changes were assessed using Wilcoxon Signed-Rank tests. Results: Post-SDTP, there was a statistically significant mean decrease in PCL-5 scores of 13.5 on an 80-point scale (p=0.03) and a significant mean decrease of 2.2 in PHQ-9 scores on a 27 point scale (p=0.04), suggestive of decreased PTSD and depression symptoms. While there was a decrease in mean GAD-7 scores post-SDTP, the difference was not significant (p=0.20). Recurring themes among results from the qualitative interviews include decreased pain, forgetting about stressors, improved sense of calm, increased confidence, improved communication, and establishing a connection with the service dog. Conclusion: Preliminary results of the first 17 participants in this study suggest that individuals who received SDTP had a statistically significant decrease in PTS symptom, as measured by the PCL-5 and PHQ-9. This ongoing study seeks to enroll a total of 156 military beneficiaries with PTS symptoms. Future analyses will include additional psychological outcomes, pain scores, blood/serum biomarkers, and other measures of the social aspects of PTSD, such as relationship satisfaction and sleep hygiene.

Keywords: post-concussive syndrome, posttraumatic stress, service dog, service dog training program, traumatic brain injury

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8139 Evaluation of Age-Friendly Nursing Service System: KKU (AFNS:KKU) Model for the Excellence

Authors: Roongtiwa Chobchuen, Siriporn Mongkholthawornchai, Boonsong Hatawaikarn, Uriwan Chaichangreet, Kobkaew Thongtid, Pusda Pukdeekumjorn, Panita Limpawattana

Abstract:

Background: Age-friendly nursing service system in Srinagarind Hospital has been developed continuously based on the value and cultural background of Thailand which corporates with the modified WHO’s Age friendly Primary Care Service System. It consists of 3 issues; 1) development of staff training, 2) age-friendly service and 3) appropriate physical environment. Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of Age-friendly Nursing Service System: KKU (AFNS:KKU) model and to evaluate factors associated with nursing perception with AFN:KKU. Study design: Descriptive study Setting: 31 wards that served older patients in Srinagarind Hospital Populations: Nursing staff from 11 departments (31 wards) Instrument: Age-friendly nursing care scale as perceived by hospitalized older person Procedure and statistical analysis: All participants were asked questions using age-friendly nursing care scale as perceived by hospitalized older person questionnaires. Descriptive statistics and multiple logistic regression analyses were used to analyse the outcomes. Results: There were 337 participants recruited in this study. The majority of them were women (92%) with the mean ages of 29 years and 77.45% were nurse practitioners. They had average nursing experiences of 5 years. The average scores of age-friendly nursing care scale were high and highest in the area of attitude and communication. Age, sex, educational level, duration of work among, and having experience in aging training were not associated with nursing perception where type of department was an independent factor. Nurses from department of Surgery and Orthopedic, Eye and ENT, special ward and Obstetrics and Gynecological had significant greater perception than nurses from Internal Medicine Department (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Nurses had high scores in all dimensions of age-friendly concept. The result indicates that nurses have good attitude to aging care which can lead to improve quality of care. Organization should support other domains of ageing care to achieve greater effectiveness in geriatric care.

Keywords: age-friendly, nursing service system, excellence model, geriatric care

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8138 First-Generation College Students and Persistence: A Phenomenological Study of Students’ Experiences in Indonesian Higher Education

Authors: Taufik Mulyadin

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The tuition reform for public colleges that the Indonesian government initiated and has implemented since 2013 resulted in the growing number of college students from low-income families, many of whose parents did not attend college. This study sought to examine the experiences of persistence for Indonesian first-generation college students in public universities utilizing social capital as a framework. It is a qualitative study with a phenomenological approach primarily to capture the essence of how Indonesian first-generation college students interpret, process, and experience their persistence during college years. Fifteen Indonesian young college graduates were involved as well as questionnaire and interview were employed for data collection in this study. It revealed certain themes from the experiences that first-generation college students attributed to their persistence: (a) family encouragement, (b) support from friends, (c) guidance from faculty and staff, (d) fund of knowledge they bring with them, (e) financial aid availability, and (f) self-motivation. By examining first-generation college students’ voices, Indonesian public universities can better support, engage, and retain this group of students who were historically struggled to persist in college and complete their degree.

Keywords: first-generation student, Indonesian higher education, persistence, public universities

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8137 The Impacts of Technology on Operations Costs: The Mediating Role of Operation Flexibility

Authors: Fazli Idris, Jihad Mohammad

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The study aims to determine the impact of technology and service operations flexibility, which is divided into external flexibility and internal robustness, on operations costs. A mediation model is proposed that links technology to operations costs via operation flexibility. Drawing on a sample of 475 of operations managers of various service sectors in Malaysia and South Africa, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was employed to test the relationship using Smart-PLS procedures. It was found that a significant relationship was established between technologies to operations costs via both operations flexibility dimensions. Theoretical and managerial implications are offered to explain the results.

Keywords: Operations flexibility, technology, costs, mediation

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8136 Sudanese Dietitian’s Role in the Provision of Parenteral Nutrition: The Past, Present, and Future

Authors: Reem Osama Yousif Ali, Osama Yousif Ali Al Gibali

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Introduction: Balanced nutrition is undeniably essential for maintaining health, body functions, and integrity of cell metabolism; however, some sick patients cannot tolerate oral or enteral feeding to meet their nutritional needs, so partial or total parenteral nutrition (PN) may be the most suitable alternative route in such situations. Dietitians are fundamental personnel among the medical team to ensure the proper provision of PN service, which was introduced in Sudan in the 1980s. Objective: The study aimed to recognize the dietitians' awareness of parenteral nutrition and their role in providing this service in Sudan – Khartoum State. Methodology: Formulated questionnaire forms composed of twelve questions were distributed to the dietitians working in four tertiary level hospitals. Results: The majority (75%) of the responded dietitians had reasonable knowledge about the importance of PN, its advantages, and its indications. Sixty percent of them were mindful of the PN side effects. Most of the dietitians were aware of the different assessment measurements and PN calculations and were exposed in their clinical practice to patients who were in need of PN, but only a few of them (about 30%) had the actual chance to participate in the formulation and application of PN therapy. The unavailability of the multidisciplinary team, lack of the required equipment and financial support, and associated complications were basic obstacles to the provision of long-term PN service in Khartoum state hospitals. Conclusion: Although dietitians in Khartoum state hospitals have good information about PN definition, indications, accesses, and assessment measures, they do not have enough knowledge and clinical exposure that make them confident to provide the PN service. Establishing a few models of parenteral nutrition units in tertiary hospitals will be of great help, as well as providing the dietitian's training in the area of parenteral nutrition. Further study can explore more requirements to run this service.

Keywords: nutrition support, dietitian, Sudan, parenteral nutrition, nutrition support team

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8135 Customers’ Satisfaction of ASEAN Camp: A Camp to Provide Training and Knowledge to Faculty and Staff Members

Authors: Kevin Wongleedee, Atcharapun Daiporn

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This research paper was aimed to examine the level of satisfaction of the faculty and staff members who participated in the ASEAN camp. The population of this study included all the faculty and staff members who participated in the activities of the ASEAN camp during January 2014. Based on 106 faculty and staff members who answered the questionnaire, the data were complied by using SPSS. Mean and standard deviation were utilized in analyzing the data. The findings revealed that the average mean of satisfaction was 4.16, and standard deviation was 0.6634. Moreover, the mean average can be used to rank the level of satisfaction from each of the following factors: useful knowledge, technique of explaining knowledge, understanding materials, appropriateness of knowledge, document available, time of activities, service from staff, and public relation.

Keywords: ASEAN camp, customer, satisfaction, faculty and staff members

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8134 The Study of Thai Millennial Attitude toward End-of-Life Planning, Opportunity of Service Design Development

Authors: Mawong R., Bussracumpakorn C.

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Millions of young people around the world have been affected by COVID-19 to their psychological and social effects. Millennials’ stresses have been shaped by a few global issues, including climate change, political instability, and financial crisis. In particular, the spread of COVID-19 has become laying psychological and socioeconomic scars on them. When end-of-life planning turns into more widely discussed, the stigma and taboos around this issue are greatly lessened. End-of-life planning is defined as a future life plan, such as financial, legacy, funeral, and memorial planning. This plan would help millennials to discover the value and meaning of life. This study explores the attitudes of Thai Millennials toward end-of-life planning as a new normal awareness of life in order to initiate an innovative service concept to fit with their value and meaning. The study conducts an in-depth interview with 12 potential participants who have awareness or action on the plan. The framework of the customer journey map is used to analyze the responses to examine trigger points, barriers, beliefs, and expectations. The findings pointed to a service concept that is suggested for a new end-of-life planning service that is suited to Thai Millennials in 4 different groups, which are 1. Social -Conscious as a socially aware who to donate time and riches to make the world and society a better place, their end-of-life planning value is inspired by the social impact of giving something or some action that they will be able to do after life or during life which provides a variety of choice based on their preference to give to society, 2. Life Fulfillment who make a life goal for themselves and attempt to achieve it before the time comes to their value will be to inspire life value with a customized plan and provide guidance to suggest, 3. Prevention of the After-Death Effect who want to plan to avoid the effects of their death as patriarch, head of the family, and anchor of someone, so they want to have a plan that brings confidence and feel relief while they are still alive and they want to find some reliable service that they can leave the death will or asset, and 4. No Guilty Planning who plan for when they wish to be worry-free as a self-responsible they want to have the plan which is easy to understand and easy to access. The overall finding of the study is to understand the new service concept of end-of-life planning which to improve knowledge of significant life worth rather than death planning, encouraging people to reassess their lives in a positive way, leading to higher self-esteem and intrinsic motivation for this generation in this time of global crisis.

Keywords: design management, end-of-life planning, millennial generation, service design solution

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8133 Equity in Public Health: Perception from the Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) Program for HIV- Patients in India

Authors: Koko Wangjam, Naresh Kumar Sharma

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The concern for most public health policies and decision- makers is the equitable distribution of health care resource of the nation. Also, in public health care system, the primary aim is assuaging the burden of the disease. Objective: This paper captures and evaluates some important theories in equity in health with its relevance with the ART program in India. Methodology: The paper is exploratory and descriptive study based on secondary data. The sources of secondary data are published official reports from NACO (National AIDS Control Organisation), United Nations AIDS Program (UNAIDS), World Health Organisation (WHO) etc. Observation: The roll-out of the ART program in 2004 by the Govt. of India made a paradigm shift in HIV/AIDS scenario in the country. Conclusion: There are many theoretical injunctions in most of the principles and approaches in existing theories of health equity. The enervation of HIV infection by taking ART drugs had helped in curbing the prevalence and the fact that it is provided at free of cost has proven this program to be an epitome in distributive justice in public health.

Keywords: art program, burden of the disease, health equity, hiv/aids

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8132 Utilizing Street Medicine to Reduce Communicable Disease Prevalence in a Cost-Effective Way

Authors: Bailey Hall, Athena Hoppe, Tevyn Kagele, Anna Nichols, Breeanna Messner

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The Spokane Street Medicine (SSM) Program aims to deliver medical care to people experiencing homelessness in Spokane, Washington. Street medicine is designed to function in a non-traditional setting to help deliver healthcare to a largely underserved population. In this analysis, the SSM Program’s medical charts from street and shelter encounters in early 2021 were reviewed in order to identify illness and diseases in people experiencing homelessness in Spokane. More than half of the prescriptions written during these encounters were for either an antibacterial, an antibiotic, or an antifungal. Estimates of the cost to the local healthcare system are included. Initiating treatment for communicable diseases in people experiencing homelessness via street medicine efforts greatly reduces economic costs while improving health outcomes.

Keywords: ethical issues in public health, equity issues in public health, health economics, health disparities, healthcare costs, medical public health, public health ethics, street medicine

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8131 Comparative Analysis of Teachers’ Performance in Private and Public Primary Schools in Oyo State

Authors: Babajide Solomon Faloore

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This study on the comparative analysis of the performance of teachers in private and public schools was carried out in Ibadan North West Local Government Area of Oyo State. This study examined the justification for the claim that there is a difference in the performance of teachers in private and public primary schools and at the same time identified factors responsible for the difference in the performance of these teachers. A descriptive survey research design was used for the study. Data generated were analyzed using t-test and regression analysis. The findings of the study revealed that there is significance difference in the performance of teachers in private and private primary schools in Ibadan North West Local Government Area of Oyo State( t=64.09; df=459; p,.05). The findings also revealed that the method of teaching in private primary schools is significantly different from the method of teaching in public primary schools in Ibadan North West Local Government Area of Oyo State (t=73.08; df=459; p,.05). Findings revealed that school leadership and management have a significant contribution on the performance of private and public primary school teachers in Ibadan North West Local Area of Oyo State. Based on the finding, the following recommendations were made: Primary school teachers need to be motivated and rewarded for excellent performance. Primary schools should be properly equipped with teaching–aid facilities, laboratories, and libraries. The government should use the findings of this study to improve on teaching materials provided to the primary school teachers in Nigeria. Public primary schools should be designed by education planners, administrators, and government. Headmasters, proprietors, and teachers of primary schools should look inward and give a performance appraisal and evaluation of themselves from time to time based on the subject they taught. Finally, school administrators should be conscious of the way they manage the teachers in schools not only in informal situations but also in formal settings.

Keywords: private education, public education, school leadership, school management, teachers performance

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8130 Role of Spatial Variability in the Service Life Prediction of Reinforced Concrete Bridges Affected by Corrosion

Authors: Omran M. Kenshel, Alan J. O'Connor

Abstract:

Estimating the service life of Reinforced Concrete (RC) bridge structures located in corrosive marine environments of a great importance to their owners/engineers. Traditionally, bridge owners/engineers relied more on subjective engineering judgment, e.g. visual inspection, in their estimation approach. However, because financial resources are often limited, rational calculation methods of estimation are needed to aid in making reliable and more accurate predictions for the service life of RC structures. This is in order to direct funds to bridges found to be the most critical. Criticality of the structure can be considered either form the Structural Capacity (i.e. Ultimate Limit State) or from Serviceability viewpoint whichever is adopted. This paper considers the service life of the structure only from the Structural Capacity viewpoint. Considering the great variability associated with the parameters involved in the estimation process, the probabilistic approach is most suited. The probabilistic modelling adopted here used Monte Carlo simulation technique to estimate the Reliability (i.e. Probability of Failure) of the structure under consideration. In this paper the authors used their own experimental data for the Correlation Length (CL) for the most important deterioration parameters. The CL is a parameter of the Correlation Function (CF) by which the spatial fluctuation of a certain deterioration parameter is described. The CL data used here were produced by analyzing 45 chloride profiles obtained from a 30 years old RC bridge located in a marine environment. The service life of the structure were predicted in terms of the load carrying capacity of an RC bridge beam girder. The analysis showed that the influence of SV is only evident if the reliability of the structure is governed by the Flexure failure rather than by the Shear failure.

Keywords: Chloride-induced corrosion, Monte-Carlo simulation, reinforced concrete, spatial variability

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8129 The Role of Organizational Culture in Facilitating Employee Job Satisfaction in Emerald Group

Authors: Mohamed Haffar, Muhammad Abdul Aziz, Ahmad Ghoneim

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The importance of having a good organizational culture that supports employee job satisfaction has fascinated both the business and academic world because of a tantalizing promise: culture can be fundamental to the enhancement of financial performance. This promise has led to growing interest for both researchers and practitioners in attempting to understand the influence of organizational culture on employees’ satisfaction and organizational performance. Even though the relationship between organizational culture and employee job satisfaction have gained attention in the literature, the majority of studies have been conducted within manufacturing organizations and tend to oversee the impact of culture on employee job satisfaction in a service-based environment. Thus, the main driving force of this study was to explore the role of organizational culture types in facilitating employee job satisfaction at Emerald Publishing Group. Interviews qualitative data analysis indicated that Emerald’s culture dominated by adhocracy and clan culture values. In addition, the findings provided evidence, which demonstrated that group and adhocracy organizational culture types play key roles in facilitating employee job satisfaction in a service-based environment.

Keywords: employee satisfaction, organizational culture, performance, service based environment

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8128 Platform-as-a-Service Sticky Policies for Privacy Classification in the Cloud

Authors: Maha Shamseddine, Amjad Nusayr, Wassim Itani

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In this paper, we present a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) model for controlling the privacy enforcement mechanisms applied on user data when stored and processed in Cloud data centers. The proposed architecture consists of establishing user configurable ‘sticky’ policies on the Graphical User Interface (GUI) data-bound components during the application development phase to specify the details of privacy enforcement on the contents of these components. Various privacy classification classes on the data components are formally defined to give the user full control on the degree and scope of privacy enforcement including the type of execution containers to process the data in the Cloud. This not only enhances the privacy-awareness of the developed Cloud services, but also results in major savings in performance and energy efficiency due to the fact that the privacy mechanisms are solely applied on sensitive data units and not on all the user content. The proposed design is implemented in a real PaaS cloud computing environment on the Microsoft Azure platform.

Keywords: privacy enforcement, platform-as-a-service privacy awareness, cloud computing privacy

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8127 Copper Content in Daily Food Rations Planned and Served to Students from Selected Military Academies and Soldiers Doing Compulsory Military Service in the Polish Army

Authors: J. Bertrandt, A. Kłos, R. Waszkowski, T. Nowicki, R. Pytlak, E. Stęzycka, A. Gazdzinska

Abstract:

The aim of the work was estimation of copper intake with the daily food rations used for alimentation of students of military high schools and soldiers doing compulsory military service in the Polish Army. An average planned copper content in daily food rations used for alimentation of students and soldiers amounted to 2.49±0.35 mg, and 2.44±0.25 mg respectively. The copper content in the daily food ration given for consumption to students amounted from 1.81±0.14 mg to 2.58±0.44 mg while daily food rations served to soldiers delivered from 2.06±0.45 mg to 2.13±0.33 mg. The copper content in the rations planned for students and soldiers’ alimentation was within the limits of the norms obligatory in Poland. Daily food rations given for consumption, except rations served for students, were within the limits of the recommended norms, but food rations really eaten by examined men didn’t cover the requirements for copper.

Keywords: copper, daily food ration, military service, food security, nutrition

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8126 Methodology of the Turkey’s National Geographic Information System Integration Project

Authors: Buse A. Ataç, Doğan K. Cenan, Arda Çetinkaya, Naz D. Şahin, Köksal Sanlı, Zeynep Koç, Akın Kısa

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With its spatial data reliability, interpretation and questioning capabilities, Geographical Information Systems make significant contributions to scientists, planners and practitioners. Geographic information systems have received great attention in today's digital world, growing rapidly, and increasing the efficiency of use. Access to and use of current and accurate geographical data, which are the most important components of the Geographical Information System, has become a necessity rather than a need for sustainable and economic development. This project aims to enable sharing of data collected by public institutions and organizations on a web-based platform. Within the scope of the project, INSPIRE (Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community) data specifications are considered as a road-map. In this context, Turkey's National Geographic Information System (TUCBS) Integration Project supports sharing spatial data within 61 pilot public institutions as complied with defined national standards. In this paper, which is prepared by the project team members in the TUCBS Integration Project, the technical process with a detailed methodology is explained. In this context, the main technical processes of the Project consist of Geographic Data Analysis, Geographic Data Harmonization (Standardization), Web Service Creation (WMS, WFS) and Metadata Creation-Publication. In this paper, the integration process carried out to provide the data produced by 61 institutions to be shared from the National Geographic Data Portal (GEOPORTAL), have been trying to be conveyed with a detailed methodology.

Keywords: data specification, geoportal, GIS, INSPIRE, Turkish National Geographic Information System, TUCBS, Turkey's national geographic information system

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8125 Potential Contribution of Combined High-Resolution and Fluorescence Remote Sensing to Coastal Ecosystem Service Assessments

Authors: Yaner Yan, Ning Li, Yajun Qiao, Shuqing An

Abstract:

Although most studies have focused on assessing and mapping terrestrial ecosystem services, there is still a knowledge gap on coastal ecosystem services and an urgent need to assess them. Lau (2013) clearly defined five types of costal ecosystem services: carbon sequestration, shoreline protection, fish nursery, biodiversity, and water quality. While high-resolution remote sensing can provide the more direct, spatially estimates of biophysical parameters, such as species distribution relating to biodiversity service, and Fluorescence information derived from remote sensing direct relate to photosynthesis, availing in estimation of carbon sequestration and the response to environmental changes in coastal wetland. Here, we review the capabilities of high-resolution and fluorescence remote sesing for describing biodiversity, vegetation condition, ecological processes and highlight how these prodicts may contribute to costal ecosystem service assessment. In so doing, we anticipate rapid progress to combine the high-resolution and fluorescence remote sesing to estimate the spatial pattern of costal ecosystem services.

Keywords: ecosystem services, high resolution, remote sensing, chlorophyll fluorescence

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8124 Community Opinions on Cable Car System Construction at Upper Esaan Wild Animal Adventure Park (Khon Kaen – Udon Thani) in Khao Suan Kwang District, Khon Kaen Province (Khon Kaen Zoo), Thailand

Authors: Ruchirat Patanathabutr

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This applied research has adopted descriptive social science research methodology to interpret, analyze and assess the data and used descriptive analysis to present the research results. The objective of this research is to investigate the behaviors and opinions on the service and construction of cable car system at the Upper Esaan Wild Animal Adventure Park (Khon Kaen – Udon Thani) in Khao Suan Kwang District, Khon Kaen Province (Khon Kaen Zoo) of people in the local and distant communities as well as the service users. The research results have revealed that the main target group is the residents in the upper northeastern region of Thailand, especially those who have resided in the immediate vicinity of the cable car project and in nearby districts for more than 10 years. They are men and women at the age of 20-60 with high school diploma and higher levels of education, working as traders/entrepreneurs, government officers/state enterprise employees, and freelancers/self-employed, with the average monthly income of no more than 30,000 baht. Khon Kaen Zoo should improve its 4 organizational images as a tourist attraction, an animal display enclosure, an educational institution and as a provincial symbol; however, the zoo should mainly be presented as an important tourist attraction. The service should focus on maintaining the service standards in both the animal display area and the ocean park. The attention should also be directed at the types and numbers of animals, service quality, service fee, convenient access and transportation, promotions and the standards of other services. Regarding the community involvement in the cable car system construction project, it is strongly agreed that there should be a cable car service between the animal display area and the ocean park and a round-trip ticket should cost 20 baht, 50 baht or 100 baht, respectively. Khon Kaen Zoo or responsible entity must provide related groups of people, such as people in the local and distant communities as well as the service users, with accurate information about the community management guidelines. This is because the community opinions have showed the uncertainty about the cable car system construction at Khon Kaen Zoo and the 4 principles of management, including planning, organizing, leading and controlling, are indicated as uncertain as there is no statistically significant difference at 0.05. In addition, the social, economic, and environmental impacts of the cable car system construction at Khon Kaen Zoo on the communities must be considered carefully.

Keywords: community opinion, cable car system, Khon Kaen Zoo, Thailand

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8123 A Scenario-Based Experiment Comparing Managerial and Front-Line Employee Apologies in Terms of Customers' Perceived Justice, Satisfaction, and Commitment

Authors: Ioana Dallinger, Vincent P. Magnini

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Due to the many moving parts and high human component, mistakes and failures sometimes occur during transactions in service environments. Because a certain portion of such failures is unavoidable, many service providers constantly look for guidance regarding optimal ways by which they should manage failures and recoveries. Through the use of a scenario-based experiment, the findings of this study run counter to the empowerment approach (i.e. that frontline employees should be empowered to resolve failure situations on their own doing). Specifically, this study finds that customers’ perceptions of distributive, procedural, and interactional justice are significantly higher [p-values < .05] when a manager delivers an apology as opposed to the frontline provider. Moreover, customers’ satisfaction with the recovery and commitment to the firm are also significantly stronger [p-values < .05] when a manager apologizes. Interestingly, this study also empirically tests the effects of combined apologies of both the manager and employee and finds that the combined approach yields better results for customers’ interactional justice perceptions and for their satisfaction with recovery, but not for their distributive or procedural justice perceptions or consequent commitment to the firm. This study can serve a springboard for further research. For example, perceptions and attitudes regarding employee empowerment vary based upon country culture. Furthermore, there are likely a number of factors that can moderate the cause and effect relationship between a failure recovery and customers’ post-recovery perceptions [e.g. the severity of the failure].

Keywords: apology, empowerment, service failure recovery, service recovery

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8122 Research on the United Navigation Mechanism of Land, Sea and Air Targets under Multi-Sources Information Fusion

Authors: Rui Liu, Klaus Greve

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The navigation information is a kind of dynamic geographic information, and the navigation information system is a kind of special geographic information system. At present, there are many researches on the application of centralized management and cross-integration application of basic geographic information. However, the idea of information integration and sharing is not deeply applied into the research of navigation information service. And the imperfection of navigation target coordination and navigation information sharing mechanism under certain navigation tasks has greatly affected the reliability and scientificity of navigation service such as path planning. Considering this, the project intends to study the multi-source information fusion and multi-objective united navigation information interaction mechanism: first of all, investigate the actual needs of navigation users in different areas, and establish the preliminary navigation information classification and importance level model; and then analyze the characteristics of the remote sensing and GIS vector data, and design the fusion algorithm from the aspect of improving the positioning accuracy and extracting the navigation environment data. At last, the project intends to analyze the feature of navigation information of the land, sea and air navigation targets, and design the united navigation data standard and navigation information sharing model under certain navigation tasks, and establish a test navigation system for united navigation simulation experiment. The aim of this study is to explore the theory of united navigation service and optimize the navigation information service model, which will lay the theory and technology foundation for the united navigation of land, sea and air targets.

Keywords: information fusion, united navigation, dynamic path planning, navigation information visualization

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8121 Automatic Lexicon Generation for Domain Specific Dataset for Mining Public Opinion on China Pakistan Economic Corridor

Authors: Tayyaba Azim, Bibi Amina

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The increase in the popularity of opinion mining with the rapid growth in the availability of social networks has attracted a lot of opportunities for research in the various domains of Sentiment Analysis and Natural Language Processing (NLP) using Artificial Intelligence approaches. The latest trend allows the public to actively use the internet for analyzing an individual’s opinion and explore the effectiveness of published facts. The main theme of this research is to account the public opinion on the most crucial and extensively discussed development projects, China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), considered as a game changer due to its promise of bringing economic prosperity to the region. So far, to the best of our knowledge, the theme of CPEC has not been analyzed for sentiment determination through the ML approach. This research aims to demonstrate the use of ML approaches to spontaneously analyze the public sentiment on Twitter tweets particularly about CPEC. Support Vector Machine SVM is used for classification task classifying tweets into positive, negative and neutral classes. Word2vec and TF-IDF features are used with the SVM model, a comparison of the trained model on manually labelled tweets and automatically generated lexicon is performed. The contributions of this work are: Development of a sentiment analysis system for public tweets on CPEC subject, construction of an automatic generation of the lexicon of public tweets on CPEC, different themes are identified among tweets and sentiments are assigned to each theme. It is worth noting that the applications of web mining that empower e-democracy by improving political transparency and public participation in decision making via social media have not been explored and practised in Pakistan region on CPEC yet.

Keywords: machine learning, natural language processing, sentiment analysis, support vector machine, Word2vec

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8120 Development and Implementation of E-Disease Surveillance Systems for Public Health Southern Africa: A Critical Review

Authors: Taurai T. Chikotie, Bruce W. Watson

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The manifestation of ‘new’ infectious diseases and the re-emergence of ‘old’ infectious diseases now present global problems and Southern Africa has not been spared from such calamity. Although having an organized public health system, countries in this region have failed to leverage on the proliferation in use of Information and Communication Technologies to promote effective disease surveillance. Objective: The objective of this study was to critically review and analyse the crucial variables to consider in the development and implementation of electronic disease surveillance systems in public health within the context of Southern Africa. Methodology: A critical review of literature published in English using, Google Scholar, EBSCOHOST, Science Direct, databases from the Centre for Disease Control (CDC and articles from the World Health Organisation (WHO) was undertaken. Manual reference and grey literature searches were also conducted. Results: Little has been done towards harnessing the potential of information technologies towards disease surveillance and this has been due to several challenges that include, lack of funding, lack of health informatics experts, poor supporting infrastructure, an unstable socio-political and socio-economic ecosystem in the region and archaic policies towards integration of information technologies in public health governance. Conclusion: The Southern African region stands to achieve better health outcomes if they adopt the use of e-disease surveillance systems in public health. However, the dynamics and complexities of the socio-economic, socio-political and technical variables would need addressing to ensure the successful development and implementation of e-disease surveillance systems in the region.

Keywords: critical review, disease surveillance, public health informatics, Southern Africa

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8119 Longitudinal Assessment on the Economic Impacts of Hosting Major Sports Events

Authors: Huei-Fu Lu

Abstract:

Hosting international major sports events (MSEs) has become a globalized strategy for many countries. Most modern countries believe that MSEs can bring the hosting countries with substantial and considerable economic and non-economic benefits; so many cities also input a huge of resources to bid for hosting MSEs. Despite the growing importance of MSEs, limited longitudinal analysis has been carried out to understand and explain the long term economic effects of such events. This paper is to continue the focus of previous literature on the economic effects of hosting MSEs. The study periods are from 1950 to 2014 and the secondary macro-economic data are selected from the countries that have hosted the Asian Games and the Olympic Games (including summer and winter) to precede a longitudinal analysis. A comparison of the real economic growth rate, investment, employment and international trade of hosting countries and the duration of these economic effects are also explored and discussed. Based on the countries’ attributes and locating area, aiming to ascertain whether hosting MSEs is economically worthwhile and whether the economic effects from MSEs are realized as anticipated. The results indicate that hosting MSEs to create positive economic effects like GDP growth or long-term employment may be a myth even for developing countries. However, the empirical findings can provide the sport management or authority with longitudinal and comprehensive elaboration for biding or hosting MSEs in the future.

Keywords: Asian Games, economic effects, major sports events (MSEs), olympic games

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8118 Brazilian Public Security: Governability and Constitutional Change

Authors: Gabriel Dolabella, Henrique Rangel, Stella Araújo, Carlos Bolonha, Igor de Lazari

Abstract:

Public security is a common subject on the Brazilian political agenda. The seventh largest economy in the world has high crime and insecurity rates. Specialists try to explain this social picture based on poverty, inequality or public policies addressed to drug trafficking. This excerpt approaches State measures to handle that picture. Therefore, the public security - law enforcement institutions - is at the core of this paper, particularly the relationship among federal and state law enforcement agencies, mainly ruled by a system of urgency. The problems are informal changes on law enforcement management and public opinion collaboration to these changes. Whenever there were huge international events, Brazilian armed forces occupied streets to assure law enforcement - ensuring the order. This logic, considered in the long time, could impact the federal structure of the country. The post-madisonian theorists verify that urgency is often associated to delegation of powers, which is true for Brazilian law enforcement, but here there is a different delegation: States continuously delegate law enforcement powers to the federal government throughout the use of Armed Forces. Therefore, the hypothesis is: Brazil is under a political process of federalization of public security. The political framework addressed here can be explained by the disrespect of legal constraints and the failure of rule of law theoretical models. The methodology of analysis is based on general criteria. Temporally, this study investigates events from 2003, when discussions about the disarmament statute begun. Geographically, this study is limited to Brazilian borders. Materially, the analysis result from the observation of legal resources and political resources (pronouncements of government officials). The main parameters are based on post-madisonianism and federalization of public security can be assessed through credibility and popularity that allow evaluation of this political process of constitutional change. The objective is to demonstrate how the Military Forces are used in public security, not as a random fact or an isolated political event, in order to understand the political motivations and effects that stem from that use from an institutional perspective.

Keywords: public security, governability, rule of law, federalism

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8117 Ibadan-Nigeria Citizenship Behavior Scale: Development and Validation

Authors: Benjamin O. Ehigie, Aderemi Alarape, Nyitor Shenge, Sylvester A. Okhakhume, Timileyin Fashola, Fiyinfunjah Dosumu

Abstract:

Organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) is a construct in industrial and organisational behaviour that explains a person's voluntary commitment within an organisation, which is outside the scope of his or her contractual tasks. To attain organisational effectiveness the human factor of production is inevitable, hence the importance of employee behaviour. While the concept of organisational citizenship behavior is mostly discussed in the context of the workplace, it is reasoned that the idea could be reflective in relation to national commitment. Many developing countries in Africa, including Nigeria, suffer economic hardship today not necessarily due to poor resources but bad management of the resources. The mangers of their economies are not committed to the tenets of economic growth but engrossed in fraud, corruption, bribery, and other economic vices. It is this backdrop that necessitated the development and validation of the Ibadan-Nigeria Citizenship Behaviour (I-NCB) Scale. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey (online) research design, using 2404 postgraduate students in the Premier University of the country, with 99.2% being Nigerians and 0.8% non-Nigerians. Gender composition was 1,439 (60%) males and 965 (40%) females, 1201 (50%) were employed while 1203 50% unemployed, 74.2% of the employed were in public paid employment, 19.5% in private sector, and 6.3% were self-employed. Through literature review, 78 items were generated. Using 10 lecturers and 21 students, content and face validity were established respectively. Data collected were subjected to reliability and factor analytic statistics at p < .05 level of significance. Results of the content and face validity at 80% level of item acceptance resulted to 60 items; this was further reduced to 50 after item-total correlation using r=.30 criterion. Divergent validity of r= -.28 and convergent validity of r= .44 were obtained by correlating the I-NCB scale with standardized Counterproductive work behaviour (CWB) scale and Organisational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB) scale among the workers. The reliability coefficients obtained were; Cronbach alpha of internal consistency (α = 0.941) and split-half reliability of r = 0.728. Factor analyses of the I-NCB scale with principal component and varimax rotation yielded five factors when Eigenvalue above 1 were extracted. The factors which accounted for larger proportions of the total variance were given factor names as; Altruistic, Attachment, Affective, Civic responsibility and Allegiance. As much as there are vast journals on citizenship behaviour in organisations, there exists no standardized tool to measure citizenship behaviour of a country. The Ibadan-Nigeria Citizenship Behaviour (I-NCB) scale was consequently developed. The scale could be used to select personnel into political positions and senior administrative positions among career workers in Nigeria, with the aim of determining national commitment to service.

Keywords: counterproductive work behaviour, CWB, Nigeria Citizenship Behaviour, organisational citizenship behaviour, OCB, Ibadan

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8116 Influence of the Seat Arrangement in Public Reading Spaces on Individual Subjective Perceptions

Authors: Jo-Han Chang, Chung-Jung Wu

Abstract:

This study involves a design proposal. The objective of is to create a seat arrangement model for public reading spaces that enable free arrangement without disturbing the users. Through a subjective perception scale, this study explored whether distance between seats and direction of seats influence individual subjective perceptions in a public reading space. This study also involves analysis of user subjective perceptions when reading in the settings on 3 seats at different directions and with 5 distances between seats. The results may be applied to public chair design. This study investigated that (a) whether different directions of seats and distances between seats influence individual subjective perceptions and (b) the acceptable personal space between 2 strangers in a public reading space. The results are shown as follows: (a) the directions of seats and distances between seats influenced individual subjective perceptions. (b) subjective evaluation scores were higher for back-to-back seat directions with Distances A (10 cm) and B (62 cm) compared with face-to-face and side-by-side seat directions; however, when the seat distance exceeded 114 cm (Distance C), no difference existed among the directions of seats. (c) regarding reading in public spaces, when the distance between seats is 10 cm only, we recommend arranging the seats in a back-to-back fashion to increase user comfort and arrangement of face-to-face and side- by-side seat directions should be avoided. When the seat arrangement is limited to face-to-face design, the distance between seats should be increased to at least 62 cm. Moreover, the distance between seats should be increased to at least 114 cm for side- by-side seats to elevate user comfort.

Keywords: individual subjective perceptions, personal space, seat arrangement, direction, distances

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8115 Immigrants in the Polish Labour Market

Authors: Jagoda Przybysz

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The main objective of this paper is to provide a comprehensive description of the immigrants in Poland, especially situation at the labour market. The paper will provide descriptive information on the composition of immigrants in Poland, and how this has changed over time, their socio-economic characteristics, their industry allocation and their labour market outcomes. Then we will investigate various labour market performance indicators (labour force participation, employment, wages and self-employment) for immigrants of different origins based on reached statistics. Individual interviews with immigrants will indicate areas of problems of living in Poland, mostly on labour market. The article shows that immigrants from some ethnic minority groups are more active in selected sectors of labour market. The empirical basis for the work related to the situation on the labor market of foreigners who came to the Poland and live in Lodz. The studies assumed that foreigners work in Poland and operate in different ways being integrated / excluded in varying degrees. Theoretical framework for analysis are: concepts of inclusion and exclusion, the concept of a dual labour market and the concept of social anchors. Completed in the 2014-2016, a pilot study (The forms of individual interviews) with 32 foreigners arrived in the last decade to Lodz. Preliminary studies have enabled the formulation of research issues and have set the future direction of research revealing to the personal experiences of respondents, a group of factors hindering integration and exclusion areas.

Keywords: foreigners, immigrants, labour market, migration, Poland

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8114 SHIFT: Examining Preservice Teachers’ Perceptions on Digital Citizenship Education

Authors: Cachanda K. Orellana

Abstract:

This study examined preservice teachers’ perceptions of their role in digital citizenship education. Data was gathered via surveys and coursework from the preservice teachers’ instructional technology course. Pre-service teachers were asked about their role in digital citizenship education during a unit on digital dilemmas. Findings suggest that teacher education programs should consider digital citizenship education as more than the acquisition of a set of skills and behaviors and prepare preservice teachers to support students’ ability to engage in ethical decision-making in digital spaces.

Keywords: digital citizenship, digital dilemmas, pre-service teachers, teacher education

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8113 The Evloution of LGBTQ Right in the U. S.: The Vaugries of Presidential Leadership and Followership

Authors: Michael A. Genovese

Abstract:

The struggle for LGBTQ rights in the United States began in Greenwich Village, New York, in 1967, when police tried to break up a gathering of mostly gay men who were partying at the Stonewall Bar in NYC. As unlikely as it may sound, this “riot” proved to be consequential in raising the political consciousness of gay men in America. From that point on, gays engaged in a political battle to achieve the rights to which they were entitled. This essay examines changes in popular opinion regarding LGBTQ rights from the late 1960s through the Trump administration, and examines the role public pressure played on presidential politics. For most of this period, presidents “followed” public opinion. This was true even during the administration of Barack Obama when gay Americans finally achieved some clearly spelled out rights (e.g. same-sex marriage). The findings of this paper call into question certain assumptions about presidential leadership, and underline the power of public opinion in shaping policy.

Keywords: presidential leadership, gay rights, LGBTQ, popular opinion

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8112 Hong Kong Artists Public Communication of Mental Health Disorders and Coping Techniques - Analysis

Authors: Patricia Portugal Marques de Carvalho Lourenco

Abstract:

Money, status, beauty, popularity, widespread public adulation, glitz and glamour portray a perfumed stress-free existence yet not every rock that glitters is a gold nugget and mental disorders are not an exclusivity of middle/low societal classes. Mental illnesses do not discriminate, and behind the superficial visual wealth of the upper-class, there are human beings who experience the ups and downs of life like any other person, except that publicly rather than privately and with an array of fingers pointing at them instead of a mere few. Sammi Cheung, Carina Lau, Fiona Sit, Kara Hui and Louis Cheung are a number of Hong Kong artists that have battled mental disorders, overcame them and used the process to openly discuss the still existing taboo.

Keywords: mental disorders, mental health, public communication, depression, hong kong artists

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8111 The Role of the Corporate Social Responsibility in Poverty Reduction

Authors: M. Verde, G. Falzarano

Abstract:

The paper examines the connection between corporate social responsibility (CSR), capability approach and poverty reduction; in particular, the local employment development (LED) by way of CSR initiatives. The joint action of LED/CSR results in a win-win situation, not only for the enterprises but also for all the stakeholders involved; in this regard, subsidiarity and coordination between national and regional/local authorities are central to a socially-oriented market economy. In the first section, the CSR is analysed on the basis of its social function in the fight against poverty, as a 'capabilities deprivation'. In the central part, the attention is focused on the relationship between CSR and LED; ergo, on the role of the enterprises in fostering capabilities development (the employment). Besides, all the potential solutions are presented, stressing the possible combinations, in the last part. The benchmark is the enterprise as an economic and a social institution: the business should not be combined with profit merely, paying more attention to its sustainable impact and social contribution. In which way could it be possible? The answer is the CSR. The impact of CSR on poverty reduction is still little explored. The companies help to reduce poverty through economic contribution, human rights and social inclusion; hence, the business becomes an 'agent of development' in order to fight against 'inequality'. The starting point is the pyramid of social responsibility, where ethic and philanthropic responsibilities involve programmes and actions aimed at personal development of the individuals, improving human standard of living in all forms, including poverty, when people do not have a choice between different 'life options', ranging from level of education to employment. At this point, CSR comes into play and works on two dimensions: poverty reduction and poverty prevention, by means of a series of initiatives: first of all, job creation and precarious work reduction. Empowerment of the local actors, financial support and combination of top down and bottom up initiatives are some of CSR areas of activity. Several positive effects occur on individual levels of educations, access to capital, individual health status, empowerment of youth and woman, access to social networks and it was observed that these effects depend on the type of CSR strategy. Indeed, CSR programmes should take into account fundamental criteria, such as the transparency, the information about benefits, a coordination unit among institutions and more clear guidelines. In this way, the advantages to the corporate reputation and to the community translate into a better job matching on the labour market, inter alia. It is important to underline that the success depends on the specific measures of the areas in question, by adapting them to the local needs, in light of general principles and index; therefore, the concrete commitment of the all stakeholders involved is decisive in order to achieve the goals. The enterprise would represent a concrete contribution for the pursuit of sustainable development and for the dissemination of a social and well being awareness.

Keywords: capability approach, local employment development, poverty, social inclusion

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