Search results for: destination marketing organizations
1315 New Opportunities in Business as a Result of the Corona Virus
Authors: Lasha Kamashidze
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COVID19 has already become one of the biggest challenges in the modern world. The virus has also had a significant impact on the world economy, which has faced a major crisis. Each crisis and challenge creates new opportunities. Changes in the world have allowed us to see business in a new light. The aim of the article is to explore new opportunities in the business that have arisen as a result of the Corona virus. Now, organizations with a service profile are working to meet the rapidly changing needs of their staff and customers. Due to the situation created by the pandemic, it became necessary to make some changes in people's daily lives. It became necessary to adapt to the new reality. The changes caused by Coronavirus require in-depth research and analysis in the world economy, as the current situation is not ruled out to be repeated in the future. Many companies have resorted to remote work methods, which require organizational changes. The form of remote work is not new to the Georgian reality. In Georgia, as well as in the rest of the world, the business sector has undergone changes. It will be beneficial for many Georgian companies to make organizational changes that will allow them to work remotely. The current situation has shown the managers of both Georgian and other companies to have "weak points" in organizing modern business. A survey was conducted (online survey), as a result of which it received important information about the problems of remote work in Georgia.Keywords: organizational change, coronomics, remote work, management
Procedia PDF Downloads 931314 National Agency for Control of HIV/AIDS and International Response to its Scourge in Nigeria, 2000-2010
Authors: Ugwu Blessing Nkiruka
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This paper seeks to examine Nigerian National Agency for the control of AIDS (NACA) and international response to the control of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria. The paper adopted the Functionalist theory alongside Liberalism and Idealism, but anchored extensively on functionalism. On the response of HIV/AIDS, Functionalist theory advocated for international corporation of both intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations as the basis for the reduction of the virus. the study adopted secondary source of data i.e journals, articles, newspapers and policy briefs to discuss the reduction of the pandemic (HIV/AIDS).This paper discovered that although HIV/AIDS is a global threat, especially to developing countries where the prevalence rate is still very high, yet international governmental and non-governmental organisation have been able to collaborate with National agencies like NACA in Nigeria and respond speedily through diverse initiatives and action plans to curb the spread of the virus. The study therefore recommends greater awareness on testing and early introduction of antiretroviral therapy, proper screening of blood before transfusion, absolute faithfulness among partners. Similarly, sharing of sharp objects like needles, knives and syringes should be avoided at all cost.Keywords: HIV/AIDS, developing countries, Nigeria, international organizations, NACA
Procedia PDF Downloads 1931313 Collaborative Leadership in a Post-COVID-19 Era in Saudi Arabia
Authors: Norah Alshayhan
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Dealing with public problems is one of the struggles that may face the leaders in the public sector. Collaborative leadership is one of the most important approaches in dealing with difficult situations that affect both public, private, and nonprofit organizations. Current literature does not show exactly the extent of utilizing collaborative leadership during the post-COVID-19 world in Saudi Arabia. This study is worth exploring in order to examine collaborative leadership in similar environments. This research will utilize both integrative public leadership and transformational leadership theories to guide the researcher in answering the research question. The researcher utilizes content analysis and reviews government documents, plans, and reports to gain more information about collaborative leadership in Saudi Arabia. The researcher analyzes the data in themes and sub-themes to categorize the data in answering the research question. Leader’s behavior and performance in the public sector will be the focus of this study. Findings from this research will benefit leaders in both public, private, and nonprofit sectors in their leadership during a post-disaster time. Findings from this study support collaborative leadership practices and performance in leading future post-crises/disasters.Keywords: collaborative leadership, post-COVID-19, Saudi Arabia, performance, skills
Procedia PDF Downloads 741312 The Turkish Anti-Nuclear Platform: A Counter-Hegemonic Struggle
Authors: Sevgi Balkan-Sahin
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The Justice and Development Party (AKP) government has included nuclear power as a major component of Turkey’s new energy strategy by promoting it as the only alternative for Turkey to diversify energy resources, trigger economic growth, and boost competitiveness of the country. The effective promotion of such a framing has created a hegemonic discourse around nuclear energy in Turkey. However, fiercely opposing the nuclear initiative of the government, the Turkish anti-nuclear platform (ANP) composed of more than 50 civil society groups has challenged the hegemonic discourse of the AKP government by presenting nuclear energy as dangerous for human health, human rights, and the protection of environment. Based on an engagement between Gramscian perspective and Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory, this paper considers the discourses of the Turkish anti-nuclear platform and its associated activities as a counter-hegemonic strategy to change the ‘common sense’ on nuclear energy in Turkey. Analyzing the data from interviews with the representatives of the anti-nuclear platform coupled with primary sources, such as Parliamentary Records and official statements by civil society organizations, the paper highlights how the anti-nuclear platform exercises power through counter-hegemonic discourses in terms of the delegitimization of nuclear energy in Turkey.Keywords: counter-hegemony, discourse, nuclear energy, Turkey
Procedia PDF Downloads 3561311 Ranking Effective Factors on Strategic Planning to Achieve Organization Objectives in Fuzzy Multivariate Decision-Making Technique
Authors: Elahe Memari, Ahmad Aslizadeh, Ahmad Memari
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Today strategic planning is counted as the most important duties of senior directors in each organization. Strategic planning allows the organizations to implement compiled strategies and reach higher competitive benefits than their competitors. The present research work tries to prepare and rank the strategies form effective factors on strategic planning in fulfillment of the State Road Management and Transportation Organization in order to indicate the role of organizational factors in efficiency of the process to organization managers. Connection between six main factors in fulfillment of State Road Management and Transportation Organization were studied here, including Improvement of Strategic Thinking in senior managers, improvement of the organization business process, rationalization of resources allocation in different parts of the organization, coordination and conformity of strategic plan with organization needs, adjustment of organization activities with environmental changes, reinforcement of organizational culture. All said factors approved by implemented tests and then ranked using fuzzy multivariate decision-making technique.Keywords: Fuzzy TOPSIS, improvement of organization business process, multivariate decision-making, strategic planning
Procedia PDF Downloads 4281310 Discussion of Leadership Styles and Performance Management in MNEs
Authors: Yin-Tsuo Huang
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Most leadership theories focus on leader's development. However, in reality, the led is also very important in the leadership process. Development relates to ensure the individual to grow in the skills, knowledge, and abilities to perform at leaders’ highest possible level now and for the future. The topic area of the relationships among leadership styles, subordinate maturity, and information distinction was identified because it is a practical problem and personal experiences occurring in multinational enterprises. Some questions to be answered through this critical analysis of the literature are: (1) What are the effective leadership styles in the leader-member and member-member relationships? (2) How do the subordinates react to leaders’ managerial style? (3) What are the relationships among leadership styles, subordinate maturity, and resulting information distinction? (4) What kinds of information distinction effects the relationships between leadership styles and subordinate maturity? (5) Where do leaders and subordinates can get information, and how? (6) In what areas are leaders’ or subordinates’ knowledge weakest, and how can they get others to prove the information they need? (7) How important is that information to the subordinates? (8) Do the leaders keep too much information for their subordinates because it is inconvenient? The main purpose of this review is to explore the theoretical and empirical literature about the relationships among leadership style, subordinates maturity, and information distinction implications in multinational Taiwanese organizations to identify areas of future scholarly inquiry.Keywords: leadership style, subordinate maturity, information distinction, multinational organization
Procedia PDF Downloads 5181309 An Investigation into the Strategies Adopted by Women Entrepreneurs to Ensure Small Business Success in Nkonkobe Municipality, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa
Authors: Agholor Deborah Ewere, Emmanuel Ade, Seriki Idowu
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The role women entrepreneur plays to combat unemployment should not be underestimated, especially in countries with growing unemployment rates such as South Africa. Women entrepreneurs contribute significantly to economic development in South Africa, but their contribution has not been adequately studied and developed. Hence, the study identified business strategies adopted by women entrepreneurs to sustain growth and development of entrepreneurship. Survey research design approach was adopted and convenience sampling method was used for sample selection. The structured questionnaire was used to elicit information from the respondents. The findings revealed some of the operational challenges women entrepreneur faced to include lack of finance, marketing skills and planning and also showed that the strategies adopted by women entrepreneurs have a positive effect on the success of small businesses. It was recommended among others that the women entrepreneurs should take some time to study the nature of challenges other women have faced in business and possibly provide solutions to such issues before starting their own business. It was however concluded that unless the operational challenges named above are resolved, the role of women entrepreneurs in the developing nations will continue to experience deprived economic growth, development and display substandard competitiveness.Keywords: business, entrepreneurs, small, strategies, success, women
Procedia PDF Downloads 4641308 Lean Environmental Management Integration System (LEMIS) Framework Development
Authors: A. P. Puvanasvaran, Suresh A. L. Vasu, N. Norazlin
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The Lean Environmental Management Integration System (LEMIS) framework development is integration between lean core element and ISO 14001. The curiosity on the relationship between continuous improvement and sustainability of lean implementation has influenced this study toward LEMIS. Characteristic of ISO 14001 standard clauses and core elements of lean principles are explored from past studies and literature reviews. Survey was carried out on ISO 14001 certified companies to examine continual improvement by implementing the ISO 14001 standard. The study found that there is a significant and positive relationship between Lean Principles: value, value stream, flow, pull and perfection with the ISO 14001 requirements. LEMIS is significant to support the continuous improvement and sustainability. The integration system can be implemented to any manufacturing company. It gives awareness on the importance on why organizations need to sustain its Environmental management system. At the meanwhile, the lean principle can be adapted in order to streamline daily activities of the company. Throughout the study, it had proven that there is no sacrifice or trade-off between lean principles with ISO 14001 requirements. The framework developed in the study can be further simplified in the future, especially the method of crossing each sub requirements of ISO 14001 standard with the core elements of Lean principles in this study.Keywords: LEMIS, ISO 14001, integration, framework
Procedia PDF Downloads 4091307 Customer Behavior and Satisfaction of Domestic Low Cost Carrier in Chiang Mai, Thailand
Authors: Thiraporn Chumphuming, Nuttida Boonmathi, Supattra Thanomsiang, Tawatchai Noree, Suthee Boonchaloem, Rinyaphat Kecharananta
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This research aims to study about the formats of low-cost airlines’ services in domestic route by surveying customers’ requirements and satisfactions in choosing low-cost airlines to travel domestically. Chiang Mai International Airport and other regions in Chiang Mai are the bases where the information is quantitatively collected. Passengers and questionnaires of 400 are the data base in which the researchers collected information from. Statistic units used are Percentage, Weighted Average, and Standard Deviation. The result of the study reveals that the group of 400 representative samples chooses Air Asia the most from overall six low-cost airlines that provide domestic services. Most of the representative samples book plane tickets for their traveling and they book tickets during the promotion time that provides cheap-priced tickets. Averagely, the price for a seat in one flight is around 501-1,000 Thai baht. The result of the satisfaction’s survey analyzed by the Marketing Mix Factors (7Ps) of low-cost airlines, which is divided into 4 parts including services before ticket reservations, services before boarding/purchasing tickets (ground), In-flight services, and Services after boarding they are satisfied with the baggage claim point informing, also gives the information that the passengers are highly satisfied with every process or the services.Keywords: low-cost airline, service, satisfaction, customers' behavior
Procedia PDF Downloads 2271306 Seafarers Safety, Watch-Keeping and Navigation
Authors: Sunday Moses Ojelabi
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Safety is the protection of the crew, passenger and equipment itself, as well as those living and working near bodies of water, from hazardous situations. To assure safety, watch keeping is paramount because neglecting your watchkeeping can lead to hazardous situations. Navigation is the assignment of a sailor to a specific route on a vessel to operate. Navigation is the process of planning, managing, and directing a vessel safely to the desired destination with the aid of intense and efficient watch keeping. Safety, i,e, all measures done to preserve the welfare of marine life, maritime infrastructure, facilities, ships, offshore installations, crew, and passengers, as well as the preservation of navigation and the ease of maritime trade, are referred to as safety measures;. When it comes to health, the absence of a proper first aid kit will affect injured sailors and passengers. Not using goggles while shipping, ear muffs, etc., in the course of maintenance can be hazardous. Watchkeeping: i.e the specific dutiies assigned to a personnel in a vessel to see to its continous smooth functionality. Your lookout or watch officer [officer on navigational duty] must be active at all times in the course of duty. Navigation refers to the technique of precisely determining a craft or vehicle's position and directing its motion along a particular course. The seafarers are not being put through regular seminars, training, and orientations. In parts of West Africa, sailors go to school without being able to secure jobs until their papers expire. For that, they won’t go for another Standard Trainning Certification and Watch keeping for Seafarers to upgrade their certificate. In light of this, they are not familiar with the new vessels in the country, and for this, they can`t meet the safety, watch keeping, and navigation standards. Also, shipping companies and ship owners are being selfish by not putting the proper things needed onboard regarding safety, watchkeeping, and navigational equipment. The questions raised in these presentations are the breakdown of the safety activities, watch keeping effectiveness, and navigational accuracy. All safety and watch keeping regulations should be applied efficiently. The problem identified includes a lack of safety instruments onboard vessels in African waters. Also, inadequate proper watchkeeping due to the excess workload on the seafarers can lead to an improper lookout, which gives room to collision, hijacking, and piracy. The impact of this research is to inform African seafarers, shipping companies, and ship owners of the necessary information concerning the safety of their lives and that of their passengers, cargo, and equipment.Keywords: standard of training, certification, watch keeping for seafarers, navigation, safety, watchkeeping
Procedia PDF Downloads 801305 Dynamic Software Product Lines for Customer Centric Context Aware Business Process Management
Authors: Bochra Khiari, Lamia Labed
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In the new digital marketplace, organizations are striving for a proactive position by leveraging the great potential of disruptive technologies to seize the full opportunity of the digital revolution in order to reshape their customer value propositions. New technologies such as big data analytics, which provide prediction of future events based on real-time information, are being integrated into BPM which urges the need for additional core values like capabilities for dynamic adaptation, autonomic behavior, runtime reconfiguration and post-deployment activities to manage unforeseen scenarios at runtime in a situated and changeable context. Dynamic Software Product Lines (DSPL) is an emerging paradigm that supports these runtime variability mechanisms. However, few works exploiting DSPLs principles and techniques in the BPM domain have been proposed so far. In this paper, we propose a conceptual approach DynPL4CBPM, which integrates DSPLs concepts along with the entire related dynamic properties, to the whole BPM lifecycle in order to dynamically adapt business processes according to different context conditions in an individual environment.Keywords: adaptive processes, context aware business process management, customer centric business process management, dynamic software product lines
Procedia PDF Downloads 1651304 Reinventing Urban Governance: Sustainable Transport Solutions for Mitigating Climate Risks in Smart Cities
Authors: Jaqueline Nichi, Leila Da Costa Ferreira, Fabiana Barbi Seleguim, Gabriela Marques Di Giulio, Mariana Barbieri
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The transport sector is responsible for approximately 55% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, in addition to pollution and other negative externalities, such as road accidents and congestion, that impact the routine of those who live in large cities. The objective of this article is to discuss the application and use of distinct mobility technologies such as climate adaptation and mitigation measures in the context of smart cities in the Global South. The documentary analysis is associated with 22 semi structured interviews with managers who work with mobility technologies in the public and private sectors and in civil society organizations to explore solutions in multilevel governance for smart and low-carbon mobility based on the case study from the city of São Paulo, Brazil. The hypothesis that innovation and technology to mitigate and adapt to climate impacts are not yet sufficient to make mobility more sustainable has been confirmed. The results indicate four relevant aspects for advancing a climate agenda in smart cities: integrated planning, coproduction of knowledge, experiments in governance, and new means of financing to guarantee the sustainable sociotechnical transition of the sector.Keywords: urban mobility, climate change, smart cities, multilevel governance
Procedia PDF Downloads 611303 "Good" Discretion Among Private Sector Street Level Bureaucrats
Authors: Anna K. Wood, Terri Friedline
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In April and May 2020, the private banking industry approved over 1.7 million emergency small business loans, totaling over $650 billion in federal relief funds as part of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Since the program’s rollout, the extensive evidence of discriminatory lending and misuse of funds has been revealed by investigative journalism and academic studies. This study is based on 41 interviews with frontline banking industry professionals conducted during the days and weeks of the PPP rollout, presenting a real-time narrative of the program rollout through the eyes of those in the role of a street-level bureaucrat. We present two themes from this data about the conditions under which these frontline workers experienced the PPP: Exigent Timelines and Defaulting to Existing Workplace Norms and Practices. We analyze these themes using literature on street-level organizations, bureaucratic discretion, and the differences between public and private sector logic. The results of this study present new directions for theorizing sector-level differences in street-level bureaucratic discretion in the context of mixed-sector collaboration on public service delivery, particularly under conditions of crisis and urgency.Keywords: street level bureaucracy, social policy, bureaucratic discretion, public private partnerships
Procedia PDF Downloads 1091302 Community Resilience to Violent Extremism: A Case Study of Swat in the Wake of Operation Rah-E-Raast
Authors: Khushboo Ejaz
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Community Resilience to Violent Extremism gain importance in the post 9/11 scenario. Resilience is a word that came from the engineering domain. Prior to 9/11, this word community resilience has been used in disasters and natural hazards. The literature on Community Resilience has been published in different multiethnic and multi-religious communities. There is less data and research done on Pakistan’s Community resilience experience. This research is a case study; how local community showed resilience against violent extremism of Tehrik-e-Taliban Swat in the wake of Operation Rah-e- Raast. Qualitative research based on interviews and focus group discussions from male and female groups of different Tehsils of Swat has been carried out to highlight the Community Resilience to Violent Extremism of Tehrik- e- Taliban and Tehrik- e- Nifaz- e -Shariat- e-Muhamadi (TNSM) .NVivo software has been used for data analysis and highlighting all factors of Community Resilience to Violent extremism (CRVE) in Swat . Recommendations has been made in the end to suggest Civil Society Organizations, NGOs and government departments in order to facilitate and enhance community resilience of tribal and rural areas affected by violent elements in Pakistan. This study will fill the gap in literature related to CRVE policies in Pakistani context.Keywords: community resilience, operation Rah -e Raast, counter extremism, swat, Pakistan
Procedia PDF Downloads 1491301 Issues and Challenges for Plantation Agriculture in Cameron Highlands: Interpretations from Socio-Anthropological Viewpoints
Authors: A. H. M. Zehadul Karim
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Cameron Highlands (4°28’N, 101°23’E) is an attractive mountainous region with steep slopes located in the state of Pahang, Malaysia stretching between 1070 and 1830m above sea level with a total land area of 71,218ha. It is one of the few places in Malaysia that has a tropical highland climate as the mean annual temperature of it is 18 °C (64 °F) thus making the atmosphere perfect for specialized agriculture. Being ecologically suitable, Cameron Highlands has recently been identified as a very strategic farming area, producing multifarious vegetables, flowers and tea with a commercial motive of marketing them to Singapore and all over the urban areas of Malaysia to meet the domestic and international demands. The main intricacies of this plantation agriculture are fully dependent on the policies formulated by a group of emerging entrepreneurs who employ foreign labourers to make these agricultural activities a success in the agrarian sector in Malaysia. Based on the socio-anthropological perspective, the paper entirely relies on empirical field data generated by interviewing 10 farm owners and 200 foreign workers to find out the intricacies of this plantation agriculture which makes the research innovative and pragmatically significant. The paper deals with important issues relating to this productive plantation agriculture of Cameron Highlands and as such, narrates the various exceptional and holistic skills adopted for this type of farming.Keywords: Cameron Highlands Malaysia, plantation agriculture, issues and challenges, mechanisms
Procedia PDF Downloads 2081300 Opportunities for Reducing Post-Harvest Losses of Cactus Pear (Opuntia Ficus-Indica) to Improve Small-Holder Farmers Income in Eastern Tigray, Northern Ethiopia: Value Chain Approach
Authors: Meron Zenaselase Rata, Euridice Leyequien Abarca
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The production of major crops in Northern Ethiopia, especially the Tigray Region, is at subsistence level due to drought, erratic rainfall, and poor soil fertility. Since cactus pear is a drought-resistant plant, it is considered as a lifesaver fruit and a strategy for poverty reduction in a drought-affected area of the region. Despite its contribution to household income and food security in the area, the cactus pear sub-sector is experiencing many constraints with limited attention given to its post-harvest loss management. Therefore, this research was carried out to identify opportunities for reducing post-harvest losses and recommend possible strategies to reduce post-harvest losses, thereby improving production and smallholder’s income. Both probability and non-probability sampling techniques were employed to collect the data. Ganta Afeshum district was selected from Eastern Tigray, and two peasant associations (Buket and Golea) were also selected from the district purposively for being potential in cactus pear production. Simple random sampling techniques were employed to survey 30 households from each of the two peasant associations, and a semi-structured questionnaire was used as a tool for data collection. Moreover, in this research 2 collectors, 2 wholesalers, 1 processor, 3 retailers, 2 consumers were interviewed; and two focus group discussion was also done with 14 key farmers using semi-structured checklist; and key informant interview with governmental and non-governmental organizations were interviewed to gather more information about the cactus pear production, post-harvest losses, the strategies used to reduce the post-harvest losses and suggestions to improve the post-harvest management. To enter and analyze the quantitative data, SPSS version 20 was used, whereas MS-word were used to transcribe the qualitative data. The data were presented using frequency and descriptive tables and graphs. The data analysis was also done using a chain map, correlations, stakeholder matrix, and gross margin. Mean comparisons like ANOVA and t-test between variables were used. The analysis result shows that the present cactus pear value chain involves main actors and supporters. However, there is inadequate information flow and informal market linkages among actors in the cactus pear value chain. The farmer's gross margin is higher when they sell to the processor than sell to collectors. The significant postharvest loss in the cactus pear value chain is at the producer level, followed by wholesalers and retailers. The maximum and minimum volume of post-harvest losses at the producer level is 4212 and 240 kgs per season. The post-harvest loss was caused by limited farmers skill on-farm management and harvesting, low market price, limited market information, absence of producer organization, poor post-harvest handling, absence of cold storage, absence of collection centers, poor infrastructure, inadequate credit access, using traditional transportation system, absence of quality control, illegal traders, inadequate research and extension services and using inappropriate packaging material. Therefore, some of the recommendations were providing adequate practical training, forming producer organizations, and constructing collection centers.Keywords: cactus pear, post-harvest losses, profit margin, value-chain
Procedia PDF Downloads 1421299 Selecting the Best Risk Exposure to Assess Collision Risks in Container Terminals
Authors: Mohammad Ali Hasanzadeh, Thierry Van Elslander, Eddy Van De Voorde
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About 90 percent of world merchandise trade by volume being carried by sea. Maritime transport remains as back bone behind the international trade and globalization meanwhile all seaborne goods need using at least two ports as origin and destination. Amid seaborne traded cargos, container traffic is a prosperous market with about 16% in terms of volume. Albeit containerized cargos are less in terms of tonnage but, containers carry the highest value cargos amongst all. That is why efficient handling of containers in ports is very important. Accidents are the foremost causes that lead to port inefficiency and a surge in total transport cost. Having different port safety management systems (PSMS) in place, statistics on port accidents show that numerous accidents occur in ports. Some of them claim peoples’ life; others damage goods, vessels, port equipment and/or the environment. Several accident investigation illustrate that the most common accidents take place throughout transport operation, it sometimes accounts for 68.6% of all events, therefore providing a safer workplace depends on reducing collision risk. In order to quantify risks at the port area different variables can be used as exposure measurement. One of the main motives for defining and using exposure in studies related to infrastructure is to account for the differences in intensity of use, so as to make comparisons meaningful. In various researches related to handling containers in ports and intermodal terminals, different risk exposures and also the likelihood of each event have been selected. Vehicle collision within the port area (10-7 per kilometer of vehicle distance travelled) and dropping containers from cranes, forklift trucks, or rail mounted gantries (1 x 10-5 per lift) are some examples. According to the objective of the current research, three categories of accidents selected for collision risk assessment; fall of container during ship to shore operation, dropping container during transfer operation and collision between vehicles and objects within terminal area. Later on various consequences, exposure and probability identified for each accident. Hence, reducing collision risks profoundly rely on picking the right risk exposures and probability of selected accidents, to prevent collision accidents in container terminals and in the framework of risk calculations, such risk exposures and probabilities can be useful in assessing the effectiveness of safety programs in ports.Keywords: container terminal, collision, seaborne trade, risk exposure, risk probability
Procedia PDF Downloads 3801298 Analysis Model for the Relationship of Users, Products, and Stores on Online Marketplace Based on Distributed Representation
Authors: Ke He, Wumaier Parezhati, Haruka Yamashita
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Recently, online marketplaces in the e-commerce industry, such as Rakuten and Alibaba, have become some of the most popular online marketplaces in Asia. In these shopping websites, consumers can select purchase products from a large number of stores. Additionally, consumers of the e-commerce site have to register their name, age, gender, and other information in advance, to access their registered account. Therefore, establishing a method for analyzing consumer preferences from both the store and the product side is required. This study uses the Doc2Vec method, which has been studied in the field of natural language processing. Doc2Vec has been used in many cases to analyze the extraction of semantic relationships between documents (represented as consumers) and words (represented as products) in the field of document classification. This concept is applicable to represent the relationship between users and items; however, the problem is that one more factor (i.e., shops) needs to be considered in Doc2Vec. More precisely, a method for analyzing the relationship between consumers, stores, and products is required. The purpose of our study is to combine the analysis of the Doc2vec model for users and shops, and for users and items in the same feature space. This method enables the calculation of similar shops and items for each user. In this study, we derive the real data analysis accumulated in the online marketplace and demonstrate the efficiency of the proposal.Keywords: Doc2Vec, online marketplace, marketing, recommendation systems
Procedia PDF Downloads 1151297 Macroeconomic Measure of Projectification: An Empirical Study of Pakistani Economy
Authors: Shafaq Rana, Hina Ansar
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Projectification is an emerging phenomenon in Western economies. The projects have become the key driver of the economic actions. The impact of projectification is understudy for over a decade. A methodology was developed to measure the degree of projectification at economical level, which was later adapted to measure the degree of projectification in Germany, Norway, and Iceland; and compared the differences in these project societies, considering their industrial structure, organizational size, and the share of project work. Using the same methodology, this study aims to provide empirical evidence of the project work in the context of Pakistan –a developing nation, keeping into consideration the macroeconomic measures, qualitative and quantitative measures of the project i/c GDP, monetary measures, and project success. The research includes a qualitative pre-study to define these macro-measures in the country-specific context and a quantitative study to measure the project work w.r.t hours working in the organizations on projects. The outcome of this study provides the key data on the projectification in a developing economy, which will help industry practitioners and decision-makers to examine the consequences of projectification and strategize, respectively. This study also provides a foundation for further research in individual sectors of the country while exploring different macroeconomic questions, including the effect of projectification on project productivity, income effects, and labor market.Keywords: developing economy, Pakistan, project work, projectification
Procedia PDF Downloads 1181296 A Review on Existing Challenges of Data Mining and Future Research Perspectives
Authors: Hema Bhardwaj, D. Srinivasa Rao
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Technology for analysing, processing, and extracting meaningful data from enormous and complicated datasets can be termed as "big data." The technique of big data mining and big data analysis is extremely helpful for business movements such as making decisions, building organisational plans, researching the market efficiently, improving sales, etc., because typical management tools cannot handle such complicated datasets. Special computational and statistical issues, such as measurement errors, noise accumulation, spurious correlation, and storage and scalability limitations, are brought on by big data. These unique problems call for new computational and statistical paradigms. This research paper offers an overview of the literature on big data mining, its process, along with problems and difficulties, with a focus on the unique characteristics of big data. Organizations have several difficulties when undertaking data mining, which has an impact on their decision-making. Every day, terabytes of data are produced, yet only around 1% of that data is really analyzed. The idea of the mining and analysis of data and knowledge discovery techniques that have recently been created with practical application systems is presented in this study. This article's conclusion also includes a list of issues and difficulties for further research in the area. The report discusses the management's main big data and data mining challenges.Keywords: big data, data mining, data analysis, knowledge discovery techniques, data mining challenges
Procedia PDF Downloads 1141295 Statistical Randomness Testing of Some Second Round Candidate Algorithms of CAESAR Competition
Authors: Fatih Sulak, Betül A. Özdemir, Beyza Bozdemir
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In order to improve symmetric key research, several competitions had been arranged by organizations like National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR). In recent years, the importance of authenticated encryption has rapidly increased because of the necessity of simultaneously enabling integrity, confidentiality and authenticity. Therefore, at January 2013, IACR announced the Competition for Authenticated Encryption: Security, Applicability, and Robustness (CAESAR Competition) which will select secure and efficient algorithms for authenticated encryption. Cryptographic algorithms are anticipated to behave like random mappings; hence, it is important to apply statistical randomness tests to the outputs of the algorithms. In this work, the statistical randomness tests in the NIST Test Suite and the other recently designed randomness tests are applied to six second round algorithms of the CAESAR Competition. It is observed that AEGIS achieves randomness after 3 rounds, Ascon permutation function achieves randomness after 1 round, Joltik encryption function achieves randomness after 9 rounds, Morus state update function achieves randomness after 3 rounds, Pi-cipher achieves randomness after 1 round, and Tiaoxin achieves randomness after 1 round.Keywords: authenticated encryption, CAESAR competition, NIST test suite, statistical randomness tests
Procedia PDF Downloads 3181294 Data Security and Privacy Challenges in Cloud Computing
Authors: Amir Rashid
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Cloud Computing frameworks empower organizations to cut expenses by outsourcing computation resources on-request. As of now, customers of Cloud service providers have no methods for confirming the privacy and ownership of their information and data. To address this issue we propose the platform of a trusted cloud computing program (TCCP). TCCP empowers Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) suppliers, for example, Amazon EC2 to give a shout box execution condition that ensures secret execution of visitor virtual machines. Also, it permits clients to bear witness to the IaaS supplier and decide if the administration is secure before they dispatch their virtual machines. This paper proposes a Trusted Cloud Computing Platform (TCCP) for guaranteeing the privacy and trustworthiness of computed data that are outsourced to IaaS service providers. The TCCP gives the deliberation of a shut box execution condition for a client's VM, ensuring that no cloud supplier's authorized manager can examine or mess up with its data. Furthermore, before launching the VM, the TCCP permits a client to dependably and remotely acknowledge that the provider at backend is running a confided in TCCP. This capacity extends the verification of whole administration, and hence permits a client to confirm the data operation in secure mode.Keywords: cloud security, IaaS, cloud data privacy and integrity, hybrid cloud
Procedia PDF Downloads 3011293 Dialogue Meetings as an Arena for Collaboration and Reflection among Researchers and Practitioners
Authors: Kerstin Grunden, Ann Svensson, Berit Forsman, Christina Karlsson, Ayman Obeid
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The research question of the article is to explore whether the dialogue meetings method could be relevant for reflective learning among researchers and practitioners when welfare technology should be implemented in municipalities, or not. A testbed was planned to be implemented in a retirement home in a Swedish municipality, and the practitioners worked with a pre-study of that testbed. In the article, the dialogue between the researchers and the practitioners in the dialogue meetings is described and analyzed. The potential of dialogue meetings as an arena for learning and reflection among researchers and practitioners is discussed. The research methodology approach is participatory action research with mixed methods (dialogue meetings, focus groups, participant observations). The main findings from the dialogue meetings were that the researchers learned more about the use of traditional research methods, and the practitioners learned more about how they could improve their use of the methods to facilitate change processes in their organization. These findings have the potential both for the researchers and the practitioners to result in more relevant use of research methods in change processes in organizations. It is concluded that dialogue meetings could be relevant for reflective learning among researchers and practitioners when welfare technology should be implemented in a health care organization.Keywords: dialogue meetings, implementation, reflection, test bed, welfare technology, participatory action research
Procedia PDF Downloads 1511292 Topics of Blockchain Technology to Teach at Community College
Authors: Penn P. Wu, Jeannie Jo
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Blockchain technology has rapidly gained popularity in industry. This paper attempts to assist academia to answer four questions. First, should community colleges begin offering education to nurture blockchain-literate students for the job market? Second, what are the appropriate topical areas to cover? Third, should it be an individual course? And forth, should it be a technical or management course? This paper starts with identifying the knowledge domains of blockchain technology and the topical areas each domain has, and continues with placing them in appropriate academic territories (Computer Sciences vs. Business) and subjects (programming, management, marketing, and laws), and then develops an evaluation model to determine the appropriate topical area for community colleges to teach. The evaluation is based on seven factors: maturity of technology, impacts on management, real-world applications, subject classification, knowledge prerequisites, textbook readiness, and recommended pedagogies. The evaluation results point to an interesting direction that offering an introductory course is an ideal option to guide students through the learning journey of what blockchain is and how it applies to business. Such an introductory course does not need to engage students in the discussions of mathematics and sciences that make blockchain technologies possible. While it is inevitable to brief technical topics to help students build a solid knowledge foundation of blockchain technologies, community colleges should avoid offering students a course centered on the discussion of developing blockchain applications.Keywords: blockchain, pedagogies, blockchain technologies, blockchain course, blockchain pedagogies
Procedia PDF Downloads 1351291 [Keynote Talk]: Swiss Scientific Society for Developing Countries: A Concept of Relationship
Authors: Jawad Alzeer
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Cultural setup is varied from country to country and nation to nation, but the ability to adapt successfully to the new cultural setup may pave the way toward the development of cultural intelligence. Overcoming differences may require to build up our personality with the ability to learn, exchange thoughts, and have a constructive dream. Adaptation processes can be accelerated if we effectively utilize our cultural diversity. This can be done through a unified body or society; people with common goals can collectively work to satisfy their values. Narrowing the gap between developed and developing countries is of prime importance. Many international organizations are trying to resolve these issues by rational and peaceful means. Failing to understand the cultural differences, mentalities, strengths and weaknesses of developed and developing countries led to the collapse of many partnerships. Establishment of a neutral body influenced by developed countries intellectuality and developing countries personality may offer a better understanding and reasonable solutions, suggestions, advice that may assist in narrowing gaps and promote-strengthening relationship between developed and developing countries. The key issues, goals, and potential concepts associated with initiating Swiss scientific society for developing countries as a model to facilitate integration of highly skilled scientists are discussed.Keywords: cultural diversity, developing countries, integration, Switzerland
Procedia PDF Downloads 8111290 Survey Based Data Security Evaluation in Pakistan Financial Institutions against Malicious Attacks
Authors: Naveed Ghani, Samreen Javed
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In today’s heterogeneous network environment, there is a growing demand for distrust clients to jointly execute secure network to prevent from malicious attacks as the defining task of propagating malicious code is to locate new targets to attack. Residual risk is always there no matter what solutions are implemented or whet so ever security methodology or standards being adapted. Security is the first and crucial phase in the field of Computer Science. The main aim of the Computer Security is gathering of information with secure network. No one need wonder what all that malware is trying to do: It's trying to steal money through data theft, bank transfers, stolen passwords, or swiped identities. From there, with the help of our survey we learn about the importance of white listing, antimalware programs, security patches, log files, honey pots, and more used in banks for financial data protection but there’s also a need of implementing the IPV6 tunneling with Crypto data transformation according to the requirements of new technology to prevent the organization from new Malware attacks and crafting of its own messages and sending them to the target. In this paper the writer has given the idea of implementing IPV6 Tunneling Secessions on private data transmission from financial organizations whose secrecy needed to be safeguarded.Keywords: network worms, malware infection propagating malicious code, virus, security, VPN
Procedia PDF Downloads 3601289 Supplier Selection in a Scenario Based Stochastic Model with Uncertain Defectiveness and Delivery Lateness Rates
Authors: Abeer Amayri, Akif A. Bulgak
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Due to today’s globalization as well as outsourcing practices of the companies, the Supply Chain (SC) performances have become more dependent on the efficient movement of material among places that are geographically dispersed, where there is more chance for disruptions. One such disruption is the quality and delivery uncertainties of outsourcing. These uncertainties could lead the products to be unsafe and, as is the case in a number of recent examples, companies may have to end up in recalling their products. As a result of these problems, there is a need to develop a methodology for selecting suppliers globally in view of risks associated with low quality and late delivery. Accordingly, we developed a two-stage stochastic model that captures the risks associated with uncertainty in quality and delivery as well as a solution procedure for the model. The stochastic model developed simultaneously optimizes supplier selection and purchase quantities under price discounts over a time horizon. In particular, our target is the study of global organizations with multiple sites and multiple overseas suppliers, where the pricing is offered in suppliers’ local currencies. Our proposed methodology is applied to a case study for a US automotive company having two assembly plants and four potential global suppliers to illustrate how the proposed model works in practice.Keywords: global supply chains, quality, stochastic programming, supplier selection
Procedia PDF Downloads 4631288 Degree Tracking System (DTS) to Improve the Efficiency and Effectiveness of Open Distance Learning System: A Case Study of Islamabad Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU)
Authors: Hatib Shabbir
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Student support services play an important role in providing technical and motivational support to distance learner. ICT based systems have improved the efficiency and effectiveness of support services. In distance education, students being at distant require quick responses from their institution. In the manual system, it is practically hard to give prompt response to each and every student, so as a result student has to suffer a lot. The best way to minimize inefficiencies is to use automated systems. This project involves the development of centralized automated software that would not only replace the manual degree issuance system of 1.3 million students studying at AIOU but also provide online tracking to all the students applying for Degrees. DTS is also the first step towards the paperless culture which is adopted by the major organizations of the world. DTS would not only save university cost but also save students cost and time too by conveying all the information/objection through email and SMS. Moreover, DTS also monitors the performance of each and every individual working in the exam department AIOU and generates daily, monthly and yearly reports of every individual which helps a lot in continuous performance monitoring of the employees.Keywords: aiou dts, dts aiou, dts, degree tracking aiou
Procedia PDF Downloads 2231287 Importance of Standards in Engineering and Technology Education
Authors: Ahmed S. Khan, Amin Karim
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During the past several decades, the economy of each nation has been significantly affected by globalization and technology. Government regulations and private sector standards affect a majority of world trade. Countries have been working together to establish international standards in almost every field. As a result, workers in all sectors need to have an understanding of standards. Engineering and technology students must not only possess an understanding of engineering standards and applicable government codes, but also learn to apply them in designing, developing, testing and servicing products, processes and systems. Accreditation Board for Engineering & Technology (ABET) criteria for engineering and technology education require students to learn and apply standards in their class projects. This paper is a follow-up of a 2006-2009 NSF initiative awarded to IEEE to help develop tutorials and case study modules for students and encourage standards education at college campuses. It presents the findings of a faculty/institution survey conducted through various U.S.-based listservs representing the major engineering and technology disciplines. The intent of the survey was to the gauge the status of use of standards and regulations in engineering and technology coursework and to identify benchmark practices. In light of survey findings, recommendations are made to standards development organizations, industry, and academia to help enhance the use of standards in engineering and technology curricula.Keywords: standards, regulations, ABET, IEEE, engineering, technology curricula
Procedia PDF Downloads 2941286 Impact of Artificial Intelligence in Some Sectors: Opportunities and Ethical Considerations
Authors: Umar Mohammed Pakra, Hayatu Saidu Alhaji
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This paper explores the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in various sectors, emphasizing its opportunities and ethical considerations. As AI technologies become increasingly integrated into daily life, understanding their implications is crucial for ensuring responsible use. The study analyzes literature on AI's impact on meaningful work, healthcare, and education, highlighting both the potential benefits—such as improved efficiency and personalized services—and the ethical challenges, including privacy concerns, bias in decision-making, and the risk of dehumanization in the workplace. Employing thematic analysis, the research identifies key themes that emerge from the literature, including the need for ethical frameworks, human-centric design, and proactive measures to address privacy and bias issues. The findings underscore the importance of balancing innovation with ethical considerations to foster a more equitable and sustainable future in an AI-driven world. Recommendations for organizations and policymakers are provided, advocating for transparency, interdisciplinary collaboration, and user-centered approaches to AI development. By addressing these challenges, stakeholders can harness the full potential of AI while safeguarding human values and promoting societal well-being.Keywords: artificial intelligence, ethical considerations, meaningful work, privacy human-centric design
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