Search results for: service provider
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 3703

Search results for: service provider

3583 Carbon Pool Assessment in Community Forests, Nepal

Authors: Medani Prasad Rijal

Abstract:

Forest itself is a factory as well as product. It supplies tangible and intangible goods and services. It supplies timber, fuel wood, fodder, grass leaf litter as well as non timber edible goods and medicinal and aromatic products additionally provides environmental services. These environmental services are of local, national or even global importance. In Nepal, more than 19 thousands community forests are providing environmental service in less economic benefit than actual efficiency. There is a risk of cost of management of those forest exceeds benefits and forests get converted to open access resources in future. Most of the environmental goods and services do not have markets which mean no prices at which they are available to the consumers, therefore the valuation of these services goods and services establishment of paying mechanism for such services and insure the benefit to community is more relevant in local as well as global scale. There are few examples of carbon trading in domestic level to meet the country wide emission goal. In this contest, the study aims to explore the public attitude towards carbon offsetting and their responsibility over service providers. This study helps in promotion of environment service awareness among general people, service provider and community forest. The research helps to unveil the carbon pool scenario in community forest and willingness to pay for carbon offsetting of people who are consuming more energy than general people and emitting relatively more carbon in atmosphere. The study has assessed the carbon pool status in two community forest and valuated carbon service from community forest through willingness to pay in Dharan municipality situated in eastern. In the study, in two community forests carbon pools were assessed following the guideline “Forest Carbon Inventory Guideline 2010” prescribed by Ministry of Forest and soil Conservation, Nepal. Final outcomes of analysis in intensively managed area of Hokse CF recorded as 103.58 tons C /ha with 6173.30 tons carbon stock. Similarly in Hariyali CF carbon density was recorded 251.72 mg C /ha. The total carbon stock of intensively managed blocks in Hariyali CF is 35839.62 tons carbon.

Keywords: carbon, offsetting, sequestration, valuation, willingness to pay

Procedia PDF Downloads 332
3582 Economic Evaluation of Cataract Eye Surgery by Health Attendant of Doctor and Nurse through the Social Insurance Board Cadr at General Hospital Anutapura Palu Central Sulawesi Indonesia

Authors: Sitti Rahmawati

Abstract:

Payment system of cataract surgery implemented by professional attendant of doctor and nurse has been increasing, through health insurance program and this has become one of the factors that affects a lot of government in the budget establishment. This system has been implemented in purpose of quality and expenditure control, i.e., controlling health overpayment to obtain benefit (moral hazard) by the user of insurance or health service provider. The increasing health cost becomes the main issue that hampers the society to receive required health service in cash payment-system. One of the efforts that should be taken by the government in health payment is by securing health insurance through society's health insurance. The objective of the study is to learn the capability of a patient to pay cataract eye operation for the elders. Method of study sample population in this study was patients who obtain health insurance board card for the society that was started in the first of tri-semester (January-March) 2015 and claimed in Indonesian software-Case Based Group as a purposive sampling of 40 patients. Results of the study show that total unit cost analysis of surgery service unit was obtained $75 for unit cost without AFC and salary of nurse and doctor. The operation tariff that has been implemented today at Anutapura hospitals in eye department is tariff without AFC and the salary of the employee is $80. The operation tariff of the unit cost calculation with double distribution model at $65. Conclusion, the calculation result of actual unit cost that is much greater causes incentive distribution system provided to an ophthalmologist at $37 and nurse at $20 for one operation. The surgery service tariff is still low; consequently, the hospital receives low revenue and the quality of health insurance in eye operation department is relatively low. In purpose of increasing the service quality, it requires adequately high cost to equip medical equipment and increase the number of professional health attendant in serving patients in cataract eye operation at hospital.

Keywords: economic evaluation, cataract operation, health attendant, health insurance system

Procedia PDF Downloads 145
3581 A Web Service-Based Framework for Mining E-Learning Data

Authors: Felermino D. M. A. Ali, S. C. Ng

Abstract:

E-learning is an evolutionary form of distance learning and has become better over time as new technologies emerged. Today, efforts are still being made to embrace E-learning systems with emerging technologies in order to make them better. Among these advancements, Educational Data Mining (EDM) is one that is gaining a huge and increasing popularity due to its wide application for improving the teaching-learning process in online practices. However, even though EDM promises to bring many benefits to educational industry in general and E-learning environments in particular, its principal drawback is the lack of easy to use tools. The current EDM tools usually require users to have some additional technical expertise to effectively perform EDM tasks. Thus, in response to these limitations, this study intends to design and implement an EDM application framework which aims at automating and simplify the development of EDM in E-learning environment. The application framework introduces a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) that hides the complexity of technical details and enables users to perform EDM in an automated fashion. The framework was designed based on abstraction, extensibility, and interoperability principles. The framework implementation was made up of three major modules. The first module provides an abstraction for data gathering, which was done by extending Moodle LMS (Learning Management System) source code. The second module provides data mining methods and techniques as services; it was done by converting Weka API into a set of Web services. The third module acts as an intermediary between the first two modules, it contains a user-friendly interface that allows dynamically locating data provider services, and running knowledge discovery tasks on data mining services. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the overhead of the proposed framework through a combination of simulation and implementation. The experiments have shown that the overhead introduced by the SOA mechanism is relatively small, therefore, it has been concluded that a service-oriented architecture can be effectively used to facilitate educational data mining in E-learning environments.

Keywords: educational data mining, e-learning, distributed data mining, moodle, service-oriented architecture, Weka

Procedia PDF Downloads 219
3580 Service-Based Application Adaptation Strategies: A Survey

Authors: Sahba Paktinat, Afshin Salajeghe, Mir Ali Seyyedi, Yousef Rastegari

Abstract:

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) allows modeling of dynamic interaction between incongruous providers, which enables governing the development of complex applications. However, implementation of SOA comes with some challenges, including its adaptability and robustness. Dynamism is inherent to the nature of service-based applications and of their running environment. These factors lead to necessity for dynamic adaptation. In this paper, we try to describe basics and main structure of SOA adaptation process with a conceptual view to this issue. In this survey, we will review the relevant adaptation approaches. This paper allows studying how different approaches deal with service oriented architecture adaptation life-cycle and provides basic guidelines for their analysis, evaluation and comparison.

Keywords: context-aware, dynamic adaptation, quality of services, service oriented architecture, service based application

Procedia PDF Downloads 419
3579 A Study of the Effects of Nurse Innovation on Service Quality and Service Experience

Authors: Rhay-Hung Weng, Ching-Yuan Huang, Wan-Ping Chen

Abstract:

Recently, many hospitals have put much emphasis upon the development of nurse innovation. The present study aimed to clarify how nurse innovation is related to medical service quality and medical service experience. This study adopted questionnaire-survey method with nurses and customers of the inpatient wards from three Taiwanese hospitals as the research subjects. After pairing, there were 294 valid questionnaires. Hierarchical regression analysis was utilized to test the possible impact of nurse innovation on medical service quality and experience. In terms of the dimensions of nurse innovation, “innovation behavior” ranked the highest (3.24), followed by knowledge creation and innovation diffusion; in terms of the degree of the medical service quality, 'reliability' ranked the highest (4.35). As for the degree of the medical service experience, 'feel experience' ranked the highest (4.44). All dimensions of nurse innovation have no significant effects on medical service quality and medical service experience. Of these three dimensions of nurse innovation, the level of innovation behavior was perceived by the nurses as the highest. The study found that nurse innovation has no significant effects on medical service quality and medical service experience. Managers shall provide sufficient resources and budget for fostering innovation development and encourage their nurses to develop nursing innovation for patents. The education and training courses on “patient-centered ” shall be enhanced among hospital nurses. Health care managers shall also explore the difficulties about innovation diffusion and find the solutions for nurses.

Keywords: innovation, employee innovative behavior, service quality, service experience

Procedia PDF Downloads 308
3578 Improving Public Service Delivery by E-Governance

Authors: Aneri Mehta, Neeti Chaudhary

Abstract:

Governments of the countries around the world have started utilizing the potential of technology to deliver online information and services to their citizens. Using ICT in the form of e-governance could yield great benefits in the reform and modernization of the public sector. The experience of e-governance in a number of developed and developing countries has shown that ICT can be a tool for greater service delivery with the goal of improving service quality. E-governance can also promote ‘good governance’, greater civic engagement can increase opportunities for direct representation and voice, and support for increased democracy. This paper discusses and presents the survey findings that seek to test the role of e-governance in improving service delivery by altering the principal-agent relationship. It further seeks to elucidate the quality aspects of public service. Strong leadership is required to implement e-governance to capture and internalize the benefits of quality services and satisfied citizens.

Keywords: public service, service delivery, e-governance, good governance

Procedia PDF Downloads 446
3577 Developing and Validating an Instrument for Measuring Mobile Government Adoption in Saudi Arabia

Authors: Sultan Alotaibi, Dmitri Roussinov

Abstract:

Many governments recently started to change the ways of providing their services by allowing their citizens to access services from anywhere without the need of visiting the location of the service provider. Mobile government (M-government) is one of the techniques that fulfill that goal. It has been adopted by many governments. M-government can be defined as an implementation of Electronic Government (E-Government) by using mobile technology with the aim of improving service delivery to citizens, businesses and all government agencies. There have been several research projects developing models to understand the behavior of individuals towards the adoption of m-government. This paper proposes a model for adoption of m-government services in Saudi Arabia by extending Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) by introducing external factors. This paper also reports on the development of a survey instrument designed to measure user perception of mobile government acceptance. A survey instrument has been developed by using existing scales from prior instruments and a pilot study has been conducted by distributing the survey to 33 participants. As a result, a survey instrument has been refined to retain 43 items. The results also showed that the reliabilities of all the scales in the survey instrument are above the levels acceptable in current academic research, thus the instruments developed by us are capable of analyzing the factors in M-government adoption.

Keywords: TAM, m-government, e-government, model, acceptance, mobile government

Procedia PDF Downloads 224
3576 Guests’ Perceptions of Service Quality Performance in Saudi Hotels: Testing the Relation with Brand Loyalty, and Gender through SERVPERF

Authors: Mohamed Mohsen

Abstract:

The purpose of this study is to explore the level of service quality performance from the perspectives of hotel guests. The aim is to examine hotel guests’ perceptions of service quality performance and its relation with their brand loyalty and gender. The study utilized the instrument of SERVPERF developed by Cronin and Taylor (1992) to measure service quality performance. The study was conducted in three upscale hotels in Saudi Arabia. The study found that service quality performance is significantly correlated to both brand loyalty and gender of hotel guests. The study also found that loyal and female hotel guests have perceptions of service quality performance than do non-loyal and male hotel guests. This research is the first empirical study in the Middle East that links service quality performance with brand loyalty and gender of hotel guests.

Keywords: service quality, SERVPERF, customer satisfaction, brand loyalty, gender

Procedia PDF Downloads 323
3575 Exploring the Mechanisms of Quality Assurance in the Chinese Translation Industry

Authors: Youru Zhou

Abstract:

This paper seeks to unveil the quality assurance practices in the Chinese translation industry. Since China’s reform and opening up, the Chinese language service industry has enjoyed impressively rapid growth. However, while still in its early stage of professionalization, the Chinese translation industry is also facing many challenges, such as the lack of clear admission requirements, a powerful regulation authority and a great number of qualified professionals. ‘How quality is assured’ means a great deal to translation in China at this stage. In order to examine the mechanisms in which quality is assured, this paper studied four international and national standards that have gained widespread adoption by Chinese translation companies and examined the content that is relevant to translation quality assurance. Case studies with six selected Chinese translation companies of different sizes were conducted to confirm and exemplify the descriptions on the standards. It has been found that quality in the industry is a relative concept which is mainly determined by the demand of clients. Furthermore, the procedures of translation can vary from task to task dependent on the agreement made between the service provider and clients. Finally, there are companies relying on expert-oriented mechanisms to assure the quality of translation, while other companies and standards insist on process-oriented ones.

Keywords: case study, Chinese translation industry, professional practice, translation quality assurance, translation standards

Procedia PDF Downloads 118
3574 Human Errors in IT Services, HFACS Model in Root Cause Categorization

Authors: Kari Saarelainen, Marko Jantti

Abstract:

IT service trending of root causes of service incidents and problems is an important part of proactive problem management and service improvement. Human error related root causes are an important root cause category also in IT service management, although it’s proportion among root causes is smaller than in the other industries. The research problem in this study is: How root causes of incidents related to human errors should be categorized in an ITSM organization to effectively support service improvement. Categorization based on IT service management processes and based on Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS) taxonomy was studied in a case study. HFACS is widely used in human error root cause categorization across many industries. Combining these two categorization models in a two dimensional matrix was found effective, yet impractical for daily work.

Keywords: IT service management, ITIL, incident, problem, HFACS, swiss cheese model

Procedia PDF Downloads 456
3573 Using a Design Structure Method to Support Technology Roadmapping for Product-Service Integrated Systems

Authors: Heungwook Son, Sungjoo Lee

Abstract:

Recently, due to intensifying competition in several industries, the importance of meeting customer requirements has increased. The role that service plays in satisfying customer‘s requirements is key area of focus. Thus, the concept of using product development-research in the service system has been actively practiced. As strategic decision making tool, various types of the technology roadmap were suggested in the product-service system (PSS). However, the technology roadmap was configured a top-down form around the technologies of the elements. The limitation is that it hard for it to indicate a variety of interrelations. In response, this paper suggests using the planning support tool of PSS for a DSM for the technology roadmap; it consists of the relationship of product-service-technology as a bottom-up form. Therefore, nine types of the technology roadmap of PSS exist. The first defines the relationship of product-service-technology. The second phase identifies output when of the technology roadmaps are adapted to the DSM process. Finally, the DSM-based forms of each type of technology roadmap are presented through case studies.

Keywords: DSM, technology roadmap, PSS, product-service system, bottom-up

Procedia PDF Downloads 355
3572 Through 7S Model to Promote the Service Innovation Management

Authors: Cheng Fang Hsu

Abstract:

Call center is the core of building customer relationship management system. Under the strong competitive stress, it becomes a new profiting challenge for a successful enterprise. Call center is a department not only to provide customer service but also to bring business profit. This is the qualitative case study in Taiwan bank service industry which goes on deeper exploration, and analysis by business interviews and industrial analysis. This study starts from the establishment, development, and management after the reforming of the case call center. Through SWOT analysis, and industrial analysis, this study adopted 7S model to explain how the call center reforms from service oriented to profit oriented and from cost management to profit management. The results indicated how service innovation management promotes call center to be operated as a market profit competition center. The recommendations are indicated to support the call center on marketing profit by service innovation management.

Keywords: call center, 7S model, service innovation management, bioinformatics

Procedia PDF Downloads 460
3571 Scaffolding Pre-Service Teachers’ Experiences with Book Creator

Authors: Bekir Mugayitoglu

Abstract:

This work shares pre-service teachers' experiences with the Book Creator application during the face-to-face class. Participants for this work were pre-service teachers in a semester-long instructional technology course who developed their own e-books. The work was conducted during the Fall of 2023. Eleven pre-service teachers completed the project, producing books appropriate to their area of concentration. Analysis of participant progress reports shows, that Exemplars showcase creative ways to prepare pre-service teachers to design their own books and have an opportunity to use mobile apps to create a variety of e-material options. The findings support future opportunities for pre-service teachers to design and implement technology-supported literacy applications to integrate into their own classroom pedagogy.

Keywords: scaffolding, e-book, classroom pedagogy, face-to-face class

Procedia PDF Downloads 28
3570 Exploring Service Performance of Area-Based Bus Service for Dhaka: A Case Study of Dhaka Chaka

Authors: Md. Musfiqur Rahman Bhuiya Nidalia Islam, Hossain Mohiuddin, Md. Kawser Bin Zaman

Abstract:

Dhaka North City Corporation introduced first area-based bus service on 10 August 2016 to run through Gulshan and Banani area to dilute sufferings of the people which started with the ban on movement of the bus in these areas after Holy Artisan terrorist attack. This study explores service quality performance of Dhaka Chaka on the basis of information provided by its riders on a questionnaire survey. Total thirteen service quality indicators have been ranked on a scale of 1-5, and they have been classified under three latent variables based on their correlation using eigenvalue and rotated factor matrix derived through factor analysis process. Mean, and skewness has been calculated for each indicator. It has been found that ticket price and ticketing system have relatively poor average service quality rank than other factors. All other factors have moderately good performance. The study also suggests some recommendation to improve service quality of Dhaka Chaka based on the interrelation between considered parameters.

Keywords: area based bus service, eigen value, factor analysis, correlation

Procedia PDF Downloads 161
3569 Reliability and Maintainability Optimization for Aircraft’s Repairable Components Based on Cost Modeling Approach

Authors: Adel A. Ghobbar

Abstract:

The airline industry is continuously challenging how to safely increase the service life of the aircraft with limited maintenance budgets. Operators are looking for the most qualified maintenance providers of aircraft components, offering the finest customer service. Component owner and maintenance provider is offering an Abacus agreement (Aircraft Component Leasing) to increase the efficiency and productivity of the customer service. To increase the customer service, the current focus on No Fault Found (NFF) units must change into the focus on Early Failure (EF) units. Since the effect of EF units has a significant impact on customer satisfaction, this needs to increase the reliability of EF units at minimal cost, which leads to the goal of this paper. By identifying the reliability of early failure (EF) units with regards to No Fault Found (NFF) units, in particular, the root cause analysis with an integrated cost analysis of EF units with the use of a failure mode analysis tool and a cost model, there will be a set of EF maintenance improvements. The data used for the investigation of the EF units will be obtained from the Pentagon system, an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system used by Fokker Services. The Pentagon system monitors components, which needs to be repaired from Fokker aircraft owners, Abacus exchange pool, and commercial customers. The data will be selected on several criteria’s: time span, failure rate, and cost driver. When the selected data has been acquired, the failure mode and root cause analysis of EF units are initiated. The failure analysis approach tool was implemented, resulting in the proposed failure solution of EF. This will lead to specific EF maintenance improvements, which can be set-up to decrease the EF units and, as a result of this, increasing the reliability. The investigated EFs, between the time period over ten years, showed to have a significant reliability impact of 32% on the total of 23339 unscheduled failures. Since the EFs encloses almost one-third of the entire population.

Keywords: supportability, no fault found, FMEA, early failure, availability, operational reliability, predictive model

Procedia PDF Downloads 103
3568 Functionality Based Composition of Web Services to Attain Maximum Quality of Service

Authors: M. Mohemmed Sha Mohamed Kunju, Abdalla A. Al-Ameen Abdurahman, T. Manesh Thankappan, A. Mohamed Mustaq Ahmed Hameed

Abstract:

Web service composition is an effective approach to complete the web based tasks with desired quality. A single web service with limited functionality is inadequate to execute a specific task with series of action. So, it is very much required to combine multiple web services with different functionalities to reach the target. Also, it will become more and more challenging, when these services are from different providers with identical functionalities and varying QoS, so while composing the web services, the overall QoS is considered to be the major factor. Also, it is not true that the expected QoS is always attained when the task is completed. A single web service in the composed chain may affect the overall performance of the task. So care should be taken in different aspects such as functionality of the service, while composition. Dynamic and automatic service composition is one of the main option available. But to achieve the actual functionality of the task, quality of the individual web services are also important. Normally the QoS of the individual service can be evaluated by using the non-functional parameters such as response time, throughput, reliability, availability, etc. At the same time, the QoS is not needed to be at the same level for all the composed services. So this paper proposes a framework that allows composing the services in terms of QoS by setting the appropriate weight to the non-functional parameters of each individual web service involved in the task. Experimental results show that the importance given to the non-functional parameter while composition will definitely improve the performance of the web services.

Keywords: composition, non-functional parameters, quality of service, web service

Procedia PDF Downloads 306
3567 Carbon Pool Assessment in Two Community Forest in Nepal

Authors: Khemnath Kharel

Abstract:

Forest itself is a factory as well as product. It supplies tangible and intangible goods and services. It supplies timber, fuel wood, fodder, grass leaf litter as well as non timber edible goods and medicinal and aromatic products additionally provides environmental services. These environmental services are of local, national, or even global importance. In Nepal more than 19 thousands community forests are providing environmental service in less economic benefit than actual efficiency. There is a risk of cost of management of those forest exceeds benefits and forests get converted to open access resources in future. Most of the environmental goods and services don’t have markets which mean no prices at which they are available to the consumers therefore the valuation of these services goods and services establishment of paying mechanism for such services and insure the benefit to community is more relevant in local as well as global scale. There are few examples of carbon trading in domestic level to meet the country wide emission goal. In this contest the study aims to explore the public attitude towards carbon offsetting and their responsibility over service providers. This study helps in promotion of environment service awareness among general people and service provider; community forest. The research helps to unveil the carbon pool scenario in community forest and willingness to pay for carbon offsetting of people who are consuming more energy than general people and emitting relatively more carbon in atmosphere. The study has assessed the carbon pool status in two community forest. In the study in two community forests carbon pools were assessed following the guideline “Forest Carbon Inventory Guideline 2010” prescribed by Ministry of Forest and soil Conservation, Nepal. Final out comes of analysis in intensively managed area of Hokse CF recorded as 103.58 tons C /ha with 6173.30 tons carbon stock. Similarly in Hariyali CF carbon density was recorded 251.72 mg C /ha. The total carbon stock of intensively managed blocks in Hariyali CF is 35839.62 tons carbon.

Keywords: carbon, offsetting, sequestration, valuation

Procedia PDF Downloads 295
3566 In-service High School Teachers’ Experiences On Blended Teaching Approach Of Mathematics

Authors: Lukholo Raxangana

Abstract:

Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR)-era teaching offers in-service mathematics teachers opportunities to use blended approaches to engage learners while teaching mathematics. This study explores in-service high school teachers' experiences with a blended teaching approach to mathematics. This qualitative case study involved eight pre-service teachers from four selected schools in the Sedibeng West District of the Gauteng Province. The study used the community of inquiry model as its analytical framework for data analysis. Data collection was through semi-structured interviews and focus-group discussions to explore in-service teachers' experiences with the influence of blended teaching (BT) on learning mathematics. The study results are the impact of load-shedding, benefits of BT, and perceptions of in-service and hindrances of BT. Based on these findings, the study recommends that further research should focus on developing data-free BT tools to assist during load-shedding, regardless of location.

Keywords: bended teaching, teachers, in-service, and mathematics

Procedia PDF Downloads 28
3565 A System Framework for Dynamic Service Deployment in Container-Based Computing Platform

Authors: Shuen-Tai Wang, Yu-Ching Lin, Hsi-Ya Chang

Abstract:

Cloud computing and virtualization technology have brought an innovative way for people to develop and use software nowadays. However, conventional virtualization comes at the expense of performance loss for applications. Container-based virtualization could be an option as it potentially reduces overhead and minimizes performance decline of the service platform. In this paper, we introduce a system framework and present an implementation of resource broker for dynamic cloud service deployment on the container-based platform to facilitate the efficient execution and improve the utilization. We target the load-aware service deployment approach for task ranking scenario. This proposed effort can collaborate with resource management system to adaptively deploy services according to the different requests. In particular, our approach relies on composing service immediately onto appropriate container according to user’s requirement in order to conserve the waiting time. Our evaluation shows how efficient of the service deployment is and how to expand its applicability to support the variety of cloud service.

Keywords: cloud computing, container-based virtualization, resource broker, service deployment

Procedia PDF Downloads 142
3564 Metamodel for Artefacts in Service Engineering Analysis and Design

Authors: Purnomo Yustianto, Robin Doss

Abstract:

As a process of developing a service system, the term ‘service engineering’ evolves in scope and definition. To achieve an integrated understanding of the process, a general framework and an ontology are required. This paper extends a previously built service engineering framework by exploring metamodels for the framework artefacts based on a foundational ontology and a metamodel landscape. The first part of this paper presents a correlation map between the proposed framework with the ontology as a form of evaluation for the conceptual coverage of the framework. The mapping also serves to characterize the artefacts to be produced for each activity in the framework. The second part describes potential metamodels to be used, from the metamodel landscape, as alternative formats of the framework artefacts. The results suggest that the framework sufficiently covers the ontological concepts, both from general service context and software service context. The metamodel exploration enriches the suggested artefact format from the original eighteen formats to thirty metamodel alternatives.

Keywords: artefact, framework, service, metamodel

Procedia PDF Downloads 176
3563 Importance of Field Hospitals in Trauma Management: An Experience from Nepal Earthquake

Authors: Krishna Gopal Lageju

Abstract:

On 25th April 2015, a 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck Gorkha district of Nepal, which resulted over 8,790 deaths and 22,300 injuries. In addition, almost one-third of the country’s healthcare service has been disrupted. A total of 1,211 health facilities became non-operational, due to 446 completely and other 765 partially damaged. Nearly 84 percent (375 out of 446) of the completely damaged health facilities are in the 14 most affected districts. As a result, the ability of health facilities to respond to health care needs has been harshly affected. In addition, 18 health workers lost their lives and 75 are injured, which added further challenges in the delivery of health services. Thus, to address the immediate health needs in the most devastated areas, Nepal Red Cross Society (NRCS) in coordination with IFRC and Nepal Government, 8 Field hospitals established with surgical capacities, where around 492 international Emergency Response Units (ERUs) Members are mobilized for 3 months period. More than 54,000 patients have been treated in the Red Cross operated field hospitals. Trauma cases accounted 9,180 (17%) of the total patients off which 1,285 (14%) are major surgical cases. Most of the case loads 44,830 (83%) are outpatients and 9,180 patients got inpatients service. Similarly, 112 births have been performed in the field hospitals. Inpatient mortality rate remained 1.5% (21 deaths), many of them are presented with critical injuries or illnesses. No outbreak has been seen during the ERU operation. Deployment of ERUs together with national health workers are very important to address the immediate health needs of the affected communities. This will ease for transition and handover of emergency service and equipments to local provider. Likewise, capacity building of local staff as on the job training on various clinical teachings would be another important issue to look at before phasing out such services.

Keywords: trauma management, critical injuries, earthquake, health

Procedia PDF Downloads 221
3562 Determinants of Service Quality on Thai Passengers’ Repeated Purchase of Domestic Flight Service with Thai Airways International

Authors: Nattapong Techarattanased

Abstract:

This research paper aimed to identify determinants of airline service quality on passengers’ repeated purchase of service. The population of this study was Thai passengers flying domestic flights with Thai Airways, making a total of 300 samples. These 300 samples participated in this research by answering a collection of questions by means of a questionnaire. An analysis of means score and multiple regression revealed that perceived service quality for tangible elements, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy had determined repeated purchase of flight service of the passengers at a high level. Moreover, reliability and responsiveness factors could predict the passengers’ repeated purchase of flight service at the percentage of 30.6. The findings gave a signal that Thai Airways may consider a development of route network and fleet strategy as well as an establishment of aircraft and seat qualification to meet passengers’ needs and requirements. Passengers’ level of satisfaction could also be maximized by offering service value through various kinds of special deals and programs, whereas value- added pricing strategy should be considered in order to differentiate from and beat other leading airline competitors.

Keywords: repeated purchase, service quality, domestic flight, Thai Airways

Procedia PDF Downloads 264
3561 Pre-Service Teachers’ Opinions on Disabled People

Authors: Sinem Toraman, Aysun Öztuna Kaplan, Hatice Mertoğlu, Esra Macaroğlu Akgül

Abstract:

This study aims to examine pre-service teachers’ opinions on disabled people taking into consideration various variables. The participants of the study are composed of 170 pre-service teachers being 1st year students of different branches at Education Department of Yıldız Technical, Yeditepe, Marmara and Sakarya Universities. Data of the research was collected in 2013-2014 fall term. This study was designed as a phenomenological study appropriately qualitative research paradigm. Pre-service teachers’ opinions about disabled people were examined in this study, open ended question form which was prepared by researcher and focus group interview techniques were used as data collection tool. The study presents pre-service teachers’ opinions about disabled people which were mentioned, and suggestions about teacher education.

Keywords: pre-service teachers, disabled people, teacher education, teachers' opinions

Procedia PDF Downloads 425
3560 19th Century Exam, 21st Century Policing: An Examination of the New York State Civil Service and Police Officer Recruitment Efforts

Authors: A. Edwards

Abstract:

The civil service was created to reform the hiring process for public officials, changing the patronage system to a merit-based system. Though exam reforms continued throughout the 20th century, there have been few during the 21st century, particularly in New York state. In the case of police departments, the civil service exam has acted as a hindrance to its ‘21st Century Policing’ goals and new exam reform efforts have left out officers voices and concerns. Through in-depth interviews of current and retired police officers and local and state civil service administrators in Albany County in New York, this study seeks to understand police influence and insight regarding the civil service exam, placing some of the voice and input for civil service reform on police departments, instead of local and state bureaucrats. The study also looks at the relationship between civil service administrators and police departments. Using practice theory, the study seeks to understand the ways in which the civil service exam was defined in the 20th century and how it is out of step with current thinking while examining possible changes to the civil service exam that would lead to a more equitable hiring process and successful police departments.

Keywords: civil service, hiring, merit, policing

Procedia PDF Downloads 170
3559 A Design for Application of Mobile Agent Technology to MicroService Architecture

Authors: Masayuki Higashino, Toshiya Kawato, Takao Kawamura

Abstract:

A monolithic service is based on the N-tier architecture in many cases. In order to divide a monolithic service into microservices, it is necessary to redefine a model as a new microservice by extracting and merging existing models across layers. Refactoring a monolithic service into microservices requires advanced technical capabilities, and it is a difficult way. This paper proposes a design and concept to ease the migration of a monolithic service to microservices using the mobile agent technology. Our proposed approach, mobile agents-based design and concept, enables to ease dividing and merging services.

Keywords: mobile agent, microservice, web service, distributed system

Procedia PDF Downloads 136
3558 The Impact of Level and Consequence of Service Co-Recovery on Post-Recovery Satisfaction and Repurchase Intent

Authors: Chia-Ching Tsai

Abstract:

In service delivery, interpersonal interaction is the key to customer satisfaction, and apparently, the factor of human is critical in service delivery. Besides, customers quite care about the consequences of co-recovery. Thus, this research focuses on service failure caused by other customers and uses a 2x2 factorial design to investigate the impact of consequence and level of service co-recovery on post-recovery satisfaction and repurchase intent. 150 undergraduates were recruited as participants, and assigned to one of the four cells randomly. Every participant was requested to read the scenario and then rated the post-recovery satisfaction and repurchase intent. The results show that under the condition of failed co-recovery, level of co-recovery has no effect on post-recovery satisfaction, while under the condition of successful co-recovery, high-level co-recovery causes significantly higher post-recovery satisfaction than low-level co-recovery. Moreover, post-recovery satisfaction has significantly positive impact on repurchase intent. In the system of service delivery, customers interact with other customers frequently. Therefore, comparing with the literature, this research focuses on the service failure caused by other customers. This research also supplies a better understanding of customers’ view on consequences of different levels of co-recovery, which is helpful for the practitioners to make use of co-recovery.

Keywords: service failure, service co-recovery, consequence of co-recovery, level of co-recovery, post-recovery satisfaction, repurchase intent

Procedia PDF Downloads 394
3557 Using Confirmatory Factor Analysis to Test the Dimensional Structure of Tourism Service Quality

Authors: Ibrahim A. Elshaer, Alaa M. Shaker

Abstract:

Several previous empirical studies have operationalized service quality as either a multidimensional or unidimensional construct. While few earlier studies investigated some practices of the assumed dimensional structure of service quality, no study has been found to have tested the construct’s dimensionality using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). To gain a better insight into the dimensional structure of service quality construct, this paper tests its dimensionality using three CFA models (higher order factor model, oblique factor model, and one factor model) on a set of data collected from 390 British tourists visited Egypt. The results of the three tests models indicate that service quality construct is multidimensional. This result helps resolving the problems that might arise from the lack of clarity concerning the dimensional structure of service quality, as without testing the dimensional structure of a measure, researchers cannot assume that the significant correlation is a result of factors measuring the same construct.

Keywords: service quality, dimensionality, confirmatory factor analysis, Egypt

Procedia PDF Downloads 559
3556 Visitors’ Attitude towards the Service Marketing Mix and Frequency of Visits to Bangpu Recreation Centre, Thailand

Authors: Siri-Orn Champatong

Abstract:

This research paper was aimed to examine the relationship between visitors’ attitude towards the service marketing mix and visitors’ frequency of visit to Bangpu Recreation Centre. Based on a large and uncalculated population, the number of samples was calculated according to the formula to obtain a total of 385 samples. In collecting the samples, systematic random sampling was applied and by using of a Likert five-scale questionnaire for, a total of 21 days to collect the needed information. Mean, Standard Deviation, and Pearson’s basic statistical correlations were utilized in analyzing the data. This study discovered a high level of visitors’ attitude product and service of Bangpu Recreation Centre, price, place, promotional activities, people who provided service and physical evidence of the centre. The attitude towards process of service was discovered to be at a medium level. Additionally, the finding of an examination of a relationship between visitors’ attitude towards service marketing mix and visitors’ frequency of visit to Bangpu Recreation Centre presented that product and service, people, physical evidence and process of service provision showed a relationship with the visitors’ frequency of visit to the centre per year.

Keywords: frequency of visit, visitor, service marketing mix, Bangpu Recreation Centre

Procedia PDF Downloads 346
3555 Inclusive Education in South African Universities: Pre-Service Teachers’ Experiences

Authors: Cina Mosito, Toyin Mary Adewumi, Charlene Nissen

Abstract:

One of the goals of inclusive education is to provide learners with suitable learning environments and prospects to best attain their potential. This study sought to determine the experiences of studying inclusive education on pre-service teachers’ teaching within the South African education context. A purposeful sample comprising 6 pre-service teachers was selected from a university of technology located in the Western Cape South Africa. Data were collected using open-ended questionnaires, which were exploratory in nature and analyzed thematically. The findings supported significant proportions of experiences as self-reported by pre-service teachers. The pre-service teachers’ experiences of studying inclusive education included inclusive education as an “eye-opener” to the fact that learners experiencing various barriers to learning can be accommodated in the regular classrooms, exposure to some aspects of inclusive education, such as diversity, learners’ rights, and curriculum differentiation. It was also revealed that studying inclusive education made pre-service teachers love and enjoy teaching more. The study shows that awareness of inclusive education has influenced pre-service teachers in South African schools.

Keywords: experience, inclusive education, pre-service teacher, South Africa

Procedia PDF Downloads 180
3554 A Cloud-Based Spectrum Database Approach for Licensed Shared Spectrum Access

Authors: Hazem Abd El Megeed, Mohamed El-Refaay, Norhan Magdi Osman

Abstract:

Spectrum scarcity is a challenging obstacle in wireless communications systems. It hinders the introduction of innovative wireless services and technologies that require larger bandwidth comparing to legacy technologies. In addition, the current worldwide allocation of radio spectrum bands is already congested and can not afford additional squeezing or optimization to accommodate new wireless technologies. This challenge is a result of accumulative contributions from different factors that will be discussed later in this paper. One of these factors is the radio spectrum allocation policy governed by national regulatory authorities nowadays. The framework for this policy allocates specified portion of radio spectrum to a particular wireless service provider on exclusive utilization basis. This allocation is executed according to technical specification determined by the standard bodies of each Radio Access Technology (RAT). Dynamic access of spectrum is a framework for flexible utilization of radio spectrum resources. In this framework there is no exclusive allocation of radio spectrum and even the public safety agencies can share their spectrum bands according to a governing policy and service level agreements. In this paper, we explore different methods for accessing the spectrum dynamically and its associated implementation challenges.

Keywords: licensed shared access, cognitive radio, spectrum sharing, spectrum congestion, dynamic spectrum access, spectrum database, spectrum trading, reconfigurable radio systems, opportunistic spectrum allocation (OSA)

Procedia PDF Downloads 396