Search results for: self organization feature map

Authors: Farideh Gheitasi, Amir Hossain Jaberansari, Payam Abedini

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The World Health Organization (WHO) Manifesto for Safe Communities states that "All human beings have an equal right to health and safety". The purpose of a safe Community is to minimize the damages threatening people. It seems that not sufficient attention has been given to relate environment and objectives of the safe Community. The reason for that can be assigned to the lack of enough information about environmental parameters and their relation with indices of the safe community like type and effect time of damages resulting from air pollution. Air pollution can be characterized as one of main environmental problems of Tehran. This problem is mostly due to the special geographic and climate situation, high population density and irregular growth in the number of vehicles. This paper is aimed at investigating the necessity of considering environmental factors to obtain a safe community through determining the effects of environmental pollution, particularly air pollution, on 490000 elders (+65) of Tehran. The methodology used in this study was on the basis of Random sampling and social surveying. The number of questionnaires was determined to be 321 through using Cochran method and the questionnaires were filled out by elders during personal interviews. The analysis of obtained results indicated that elders believe the major effects of air pollution include heart and respiratory diseases, obligation to stay at home on polluted days and its associated mental problems. Moreover, it was found that there is direct link between the number of polluted days and mortality frequency of elders. Having an environmental view may have an appreciable influence on the qualitative and quantitative development of activities and also facilitate obtaining the goals of the Safe Communities. In addition to reduce damages caused by pollutions, this view will encourage friends of the environment to cooperate with authorities of the safe community.

Keywords: air pollution, elderly people, environment, waste management

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Authors: Anne Jane M. Hallasgo

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This study assessed the level of job satisfaction and organizational commitment among job order personnel at the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) Regional Welfare Office Caraga. The primary objective of the study was to determine a correlation between the employees’ level of organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and their work performance. A carefully selected sample of twenty-five job orders from the OWWA Regional Welfare Office Caraga participated in the study. These individuals were chosen to represent the organization’s job order workforce. For accuracy and dependability, various types of statistical methods and instruments were employed, including advanced statistical tests like the independent sample T-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, as well as descriptive statistics like mean, frequency, and percentage. The study found an acceptable level of job satisfaction regarding work performance. It revealed a significant relationship between affective commitment and job satisfaction concerning leadership and coworkers. A correlation was observed between normative commitment and work performance. The findings suggest that organizations emphasizing positive leadership, fostering supportive coworker relationships, aligning with employee values, and promoting a culture of commitment are likely to enhance both affective and normative commitment, thereby improving overall employee satisfaction. The study recommends designing and implementing a holistic employee well-being program that addresses physical, mental, and emotional health contributing to increased job satisfaction and organizational commitment, creating a healthier and engaged workforce. This research contributes to the understanding of the dynamics of organizational commitment and job satisfaction among job order employees in the public sector.

Keywords: affective commitment, continuous commitment, normative commitment, job satisfaction

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Authors: Suphaphon Udomluck, Pannathorn Chachvarat

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Information Communication Technology (ICT) using management is essential for effective decision making in organization. The Concerns Based Adoption Model (CBAM) was employed as the conceptual framework. The purposes of the study were to assess the situation of Information Communication Technology (ICT) using management in College of Nursing under the Praboromarajchanok Institute. The samples were multi – stage sampling of 10 colleges of nursing that participated include directors, vice directors, head of learning groups, teachers, system administrator and responsible for ICT. The total participants were 280; the instrument used were questionnaires that include 4 parts, general information, Information Communication Technology (ICT) using management, the Stage of concern Questionnaires (SoC), and the Levels of Use (LoU) ICT Questionnaires respectively. Reliability coefficients were tested; alpha coefficients were 0.967for Information Communication Technology (ICT) using management, 0.884 for SoC and 0.945 for LoU. The data were analyzed by frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Multiple Regression. They were founded as follows: The high level overall score of Information Communication Technology (ICT) using management and issue were administration, hardware, software, and people. The overall score of the Stage of concern (SoC)ICTis at high level and the overall score of the Levels of Use (LoU) ICTis at moderate. The Information Communication Technology (ICT) using management had the positive relationship with the Stage of concern (SoC)ICTand the Levels of Use (LoU) ICT(p < .01). The results of Multiple Regression revealed that administration hardwear, software and people ware could predict SoC of ICT (18.5%) and LoU of ICT (20.8%).The factors that were significantly influenced by SoCs were people ware. The factors that were significantly influenced by LoU of ICT were administration hardware and people ware.

Keywords: information communication technology (ICT), management, the concerns-based adoption model (CBAM), stage of concern(SoC), the levels of use(LoU)

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Authors: Yildirim Ortaoglan

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The attempt to make thought school-like by fitting it into various frameworks with the institutionalization of it is almost simultaneous with philosophy itself. What once sprouted in the “academia” of old has institutionalized under the enlightenment's light, becoming the fundamental space reflecting the spirit of its age. However, the shift from the thinking temple where truth's knowledge was sought to functional spaces where power/power relations are constructed indicates a significant rupture in the meaning of school. Therefore, a genealogical inquiry into the meaning of the school can provide us with a path toward understanding how it should be approached in contemporary times. From this perspective, it is essential to highlight how power/power relations operate in the school in terms of disciplinary practices, temporal management, and spatial organization to construct a distinct subjectivation. Recognizing that the changing and evolving nature of education is related to the structure of space can be understood by revealing how disciplinary power and bio-power, two fundamental aspects of genealogical research, operate. In disciplinary power, the relationship of the subject with discipline, temporal management, and space is about improvement and normalization, while in biopower, it manifests in maximizing utility, increasing free time, and constructing spaces that seem more vital. These indicators not only facilitate the formation of students as a subjectivation but also enable the condition of the possibility of power/power relations. Because power is not applied to subjects but used by them for passage, and behind this lies the idea that the individual is already one of the components of power. As one of the components of power, in terms of subjectivation type, the student is one of the primary targets of power relations. Therefore, conducting a genealogical inquiry of the student as a type of subjectivation and the school as its living area from the philosophical foundations of education may offer a new opportunity for thinking about the contemporary crisis of thought. Within the framework of this possibility, our investigation will consider which aspects of the school and the student, brought together for educational purposes, can be thought of within and beyond power/power relations.

Keywords: power, education, space, school, student, discipline

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Authors: Karin Megheșan, Alexandra Popescu, Teodora Dobre

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In the past few years, the Russian Federation has become a central point on the security agenda of the most important international actors, due to its reloaded aggressiveness of foreign policy. Vladimir Putin, the actual president of the Russian Federation, has proven that Russia can and has the willingness to become the powerful actor that used to be during the Cold War. Russia’s new behavior on the international scene showed that Russia has not only expansionist (where expansionist is not only in terms of territory but also of ideology) intentions, but also the necessary resources, to build an empire that may have the power to counterbalance the influence of the United States and stop the expansion of the North-Atlantic Treaty Organization in an equation understood of multipolar Russian view. But in order to do this, there is necessary to follow a well-established plan or policy. Thus, the aim of the paper is to discuss how has the foreign policy of the Russian Federation evolved under the influence of the military and security strategies of the Russian nation, to briefly examine some of the factors that sculpture Russian foreign policy and behavior, in order to reshape a Russian (Soviet) profile so far considered antiquated. Our approach is an argument in favor of the analyses of the recent evolutions embedded in the course of history. In this context, the paper will include analytical thoughts about the Russian foreign policy and the latest strategic documents (security strategy and military doctrine) adopted by the Putin administration, with the purpose to highlight the main direction of action followed by all these documents together. The paper concludes that the military component is to be found in all these strategic documents, as well as at the core of Russian national interest, aspect that proves that Russia is still the adept of the traditional realist paradigm, reshaped in a Russian theory of the multipolar world.

Keywords: hybrid warfare, military component, military doctrine, Russian foreign policy, security strategy

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Authors: C. F. Jones Couto

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The implementation of quality Physical Education (PE) inspires and instils lasting healthy behavioural patterns, hence have the potential as an educational tool to teach values in today’s society. The goal of PE should be to contribute to the acceptance of the infinite qualities of South Africa’s (RSA) diversity and to claim RSA’s diversity as a source of strength that forms a universal bond of a common set of values. There is a global change in the interaction of children with their environment; their lives are shaped by forces that do not necessarily assist them in learning and applying values. In most countries today, the responsibility for developing values is assigned to schools in formal teaching settings. Values-based education offers an investment in individual and societal improvement through attendance to a values framework. The aim of this qualitative research is to develop a PE programme aligned with the current South African curriculum, enriched with values of Olympism and Ubuntuism, and to present PE teacher training workshops (TTW). Participatory action research will be used as the basis of how data will be collected, analysed, and presented on an ongoing, cyclical basis. PE teachers from different schools in the Tshwane District of RSA will participate as they can best inform the research questions and enhance the understanding of the phenomenon under study. The outcomes of using PE as a tool to teach values can propose recommendations to the Department of Basic Education of RSA to improve and implement a quality PE curriculum that is applicable to practice and that will optimize the chances of meeting the South African National Curriculum Statement standards. A PE programme with the aim of holistic development, based on the values of Olympism and Ubuntuism, can strive to ensure that the values set out in RSA’s constitution are part of PE organization, planning, and teaching at each South African school.

Keywords: olympism, physical education, teacher training, ubuntuism, values-based education

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Authors: Normah Sulaiman, Yong Zhi Kang, Nor Hayati Hussain, Abdul Rehman Khalid

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Segara Ninda owned by Din Ku Meh, the governor of the province Satul, a Malay man with a big role liaising with Thailand. This mansion is part of the legacy he left behind among other properties in George Town, Penang, besides his family. The island’s geographical location is strategic which has benefitted it through important trade routes for Europe, Middle, East, India, and China in the past. Due to this reasoning, various architectural styles were introduced in Penang; Late Straits Eclectic style is one of the forms of the Colonial Architectural style widely spread as vernacular shophouses in George Town. Segara Ninda is located among the mixture of nouveau-riche, historical and heritage sites at the most important street; Penang Road, which dated back to the late 18th century. This paper examines the strait eclectic style that Segara Ninda encompasses. Acknowledging the mixture of colonial architecture in Georgetown, we argue that the mansion faces challenging issues in conservation processes to be vindicated. This is reflected by analysing the spatial layout, visual elements quality, and its activity through interviews with the occupants of the mansion. The focus will be on the understanding of building form, features, and functions; respecting the architectural spaces and their activity. The methodology applied is to promote our understanding of the mix of culture that the mansion holds through documentation, observation and measuring exercises. This offers a positional interpretation of the mix of culture that the mansion holds. This conservation effort will further contribute exposure to the public and recognize it in the society as its essence is a deficiency character to the existing built environment.

Keywords: eclectic, heritage, spatial organization, culture

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Authors: Shariffah Dawood

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During the past decade, workplace bullying has attracted increasing attention from researchers internationally as it is reported to be a major social problem and has severe consequences towards the job satisfaction and health of victims and towards the organization. It is characterized by “systematic aggression or violence targeted towards one or more individuals by one individual or by a group, consists of repeated and enduring acts, and the target is or ends up in an inferior position from which it is difficult to defend oneself.” Despite the seriousness of workplace bullying, not all sectors have received the same degree of scholarly attention. Most studies have been undertaken in the public and private sectors, such as, in hospitals, universities, retail industry, local council, and restaurant kitchens. The nonprofit sector has received limited attention despite its significant economic and social role in the society. In order to understand the nature of workplace bullying in non-profit sector, this research explored 29 British nonprofit organizations through surveys and interviews. Despite the nonprofit sector’s emphasis on an egalitarianism ethos, their reputation to be the defenders of the most vulnerable/disadvantaged and the perception that they are protected from such negative behaviors in the workplace, the findings uncovered pertinent factors that make this sector highly vulnerable towards workplace bullying. Overall, the study identifies some organizational factors which need to be addressed in order to curb bullying in this sector: management commitment towards a zero-tolerance bullying policy; management training in areas such as conflict resolution, organizational changes, and maintenance of the commitment of a conscientious workforce. The researcher further recommends that the nonprofit organizations work towards improving relationships with voluntary board members and funding bodies. The researcher will also outline the second phase of the study, which aims to investigate bullying in the nonprofit sector across cultures (the USA, Malaysia and Japan), and implications for the research will be identified.

Keywords: nonprofit sector, workplace bullying, harassment, management, HRM

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Authors: Emilia Klepczarek

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The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and the OECD found problems with the mechanisms of corporate governance as one of the major causes of destabilization of the financial system and the subprime crisis in the years 2007-2010. In response to these allegations, there were formulated a number of recommendations aimed at improving the quality of supervisory standards in financial institutions. They relate mainly to risk management, remuneration policy, the competence of managers and board members and transparency issues. Nevertheless, a review of the empirical research conducted by the author does not allow for an unambiguous confirmation of the positive impact of the postulated standards on the stability of banking entities. There is, therefore, a presumption of the existence of hidden variables determining the effectiveness of the governance mechanisms. According to the author, this involves concepts arising from behavioral economics and economic anthropology, which allow for an explanation of the effectiveness of corporate governance institutions on the basis of the socio-cultural profile of its members. The proposed corporate governance culture theory indicates that the attributes of the members of the organization and organizational culture can determine the different effectiveness level of the governance processes in similar formal corporate governance structures. The aim of the presentation is, firstly, to draw attention to the vast discrepancies existing within the results of research on the effectiveness of the standards of corporate governance in the banking sector. Secondly, the author proposes an explanation of these differences on the basis of governance theory breaking with common paradigms. The corporate governance culture theory is focused on the identity of the individual and the scope of autonomy offered within his or her institution. The coexistence of these two conditions - the adequate behavioral profile and enough freedom to decide - is a prerequisite for the efficient functioning of the institutions of corporate governance, which can contribute to rehabilitating and strengthening the stability of the financial sector.

Keywords: autonomy, corporate governance, efficiency, governance culture

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Authors: Linqing Ma, Huiling Feng, Jihong Liang, Yi Qian

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In China, some villages have survived in the long history of changes and remain until today with their unique styles and featured culture developed in the past. Those ancient villages, usually aged for hundreds or thousands of years, are the mirror for traditional Chinese culture, especially the farming-studying culture represented by the Confucianism. Gaoqian, an ancient village with a population of 3,000 in Zhejiang province, is such a case. With a history dating back to Yuan Dynasty, Gaoqian Village has 13 well-preserved traditional Chinese houses with a courtyard, which were built in the Ming and Qing Dynasty. It is a fine specimen to study traditional rural China. In China, some villages have survived in the long history of changes and remain until today with their unique styles and featured culture developed in the past. Those ancient villages, usually aged for hundreds or thousands of years, are the mirror for traditional Chinese culture, especially the farming-studying culture represented by the Confucianism. Gaoqian, an ancient village with a population of 3,000 in Zhejiang province, is such a case. With a history dating back to Yuan Dynasty, Gaoqian Village has 13 well-preserved traditional Chinese houses with a courtyard, which were built in the Ming and Qing Dynasty. It is a fine specimen to study traditional rural China. Then a repository for the memory of the Village will be completed by doing arrangement and description for those multimedia resources such as texts, photos, videos and so on. Production of Creative products with digital technologies is also possible based a thorough understanding of the culture feature of Gaoqian Village using research tools for literature and history studies and a method of comparative study. Finally, the project will construct an exhibition platform for the Village and its culture by telling its stories with completed structures and treads.

Keywords: ancient villages, digital exhibition, multimedia, traditional culture

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Authors: Mehran Nasiri, Ardeshir Poornemat

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The aim of this study was to investigate the current and ideal situations of the process of talent identification in Iranian football from the point of view of Iranian instructors of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). This research was a descriptive-analytical study; in data collection phase a questionnaire was used, whose face validity was confirmed by experts of Physical Education and Sports Science. The reliability of questionnaire was estimated through the use of Cronbach's alpha method (0.91). This study involved 122 participants of Iranian instructors of the AFC who were selected based on stratified random sampling method. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the variables and inferential statistics (Chi-square) were used to test the hypotheses of the study at significant level (p ≤ 0.05). The results of Chi-square test related to the point of view of Iranian instructors of the AFC showed that the grass-roots scientific method was the best way to identify football players (0.001), less than 10 years old were the best ages for talent identification (0.001), the Football Federation was revealed to be the most important organization in talent identification (0.002), clubs were shown to be the most important institution in developing talents (0.001), trained scouts of Football Federation were demonstrated to be the best and most appropriate group for talent identification (0.001), and being referred by the football academy coaches was shown to be the best way to attract talented football players in Iran (0.001). It was also found that there was a huge difference between the current and ideal situation of the process of talent identification in Iranian football from the point of view of Iranian instructors of the AFC. Hence, it is recommended that the policy makers of talent identification for Iranian football provide a comprehensive, clear and systematic model of talent identification and development processes for the clubs and football teams, so that the talent identification process helps to nurture football talents more efficiently.

Keywords: current situation, talent finding, ideal situation, instructors (AFC)

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Authors: Said Rashid Aal Abdulsallam

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The purpose of this paper is to measure ISO 9001:2008 effectiveness and determines its impact on the performance dimensions in terms of service quality, operational performance and customer satisfaction from the perspectives of both service providers and receivers. The paper is based on an empirical study carried out on all the ISO 9001:2008 certified departments in the Ministry of Education in the Sultanate of Oman. Data were obtained from the certified departments and their equivalent clients through two structured online questionnaires. Exploratory factor analyses are applied to extract the underlying factors of the indicators of ISO 9001 objectives and performance dimensions. Multiple linear regression analyses are also applied in order to determine the impact of ISO 9001 effectiveness on the performance dimensions of the certified departments. The study sample includes all the ISO 9001 certified departments in the Ministry of Education. The study instruments used target both the service providers as well as the service receivers with the purpose of alleviating the subjective nature of the data collected from the service providers who may be biased in favour of ISO 9001 quality management system or their performance. The findings of the study verify the effectiveness of the application of ISO 9001:2008 quality management system. Additionally, the study reveals that the ISO 9001 certified departments have achieved the ISO 9001 the standard's objectives including prevention of nonconformities, continuous improvement and customer satisfaction focus at different rates. The study also proves that there is a significant relation between the achievement of the ISO 9001 standard objectives and the operational performance of the departments. Even though the operational performance service quality of the ISO 9001 certified departments has substantially improved from the perspective of the departments, the customer satisfaction has not notably increased from the perspective of the service receivers.

Keywords: iso 9001, customer satisfaction, operational performance, public organization, quality management

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Authors: Nushrat Khan, Mike Thelwall, Kayvan Kousha

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Making research data openly accessible has been mandated by most funders over the last 5 years as it promotes reproducibility in science and reduces duplication of effort to collect the same data. There are evidence that articles that publicly share research data have higher citation rates in biological and social sciences. However, how and whether shared data is being reused is not always intuitive as such information is not easily accessible from the majority of research data repositories. This study aims to understand the practice of data citation and how data is being reused over the years focusing on biodiversity since research data is frequently reused in this field. Metadata of 38,878 datasets including citation counts were collected through the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) API for this purpose. GBIF was used as a data source since it provides citation count for datasets, not a commonly available feature for most repositories. Analysis of dataset types, citation counts, creation and update time of datasets suggests that citation rate varies for different types of datasets, where occurrence datasets that have more granular information have higher citation rates than checklist and metadata-only datasets. Another finding is that biodiversity datasets on GBIF are frequently updated, which is unique to this field. Majority of the datasets from the earliest year of 2007 were updated after 11 years, with no dataset that was not updated since creation. For each year between 2007 and 2017, we compared the correlations between update time and citation rate of four different types of datasets. While recent datasets do not show any correlations, 3 to 4 years old datasets show weak correlation where datasets that were updated more recently received high citations. The results are suggestive that it takes several years to cumulate citations for research datasets. However, this investigation found that when searched on Google Scholar or Scopus databases for the same datasets, the number of citations is often not the same as GBIF. Hence future aim is to further explore the citation count system adopted by GBIF to evaluate its reliability and whether it can be applicable to other fields of studies as well.

Keywords: data citation, data reuse, research data sharing, webometrics

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Authors: Eszter Hamza

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The competitiveness of economic operators is based on interoperability, which is relatively low in Hungary. The development of co-operation is high priority in Common Agricultural Policy 2014-2020. The aim of the paper to assess co-operations in Hungarian agriculture, estimate the economic outputs and benefits of co-operations, based on statistical data processing and literature. Further objective is to explore the potential of agricultural co-operation with the help of interviews and questionnaire survey. The research seeks to answer questions as to what fundamental factors play role in the development of co-operation, and what are the motivations of the actors and the key success factors and pitfalls. The results were analysed using econometric methods. In Hungarian agriculture we can find several forms of co-operation: cooperatives, producer groups (PG) and producer organizations (PO), machinery cooperatives, integrator companies, product boards and interbranch organisations. Despite the several appearance of the agricultural co-operation, their economic weight is significantly lower in Hungary than in western European countries. Considering the agricultural importance, the integrator companies represent the most weight among the co-operations forms. Hungarian farmers linked to co-operations or organizations mostly in relation to procurement and sales. Less than 30 percent of surveyed farmers are members of a producer organization or cooperative. The trust level is low among farmers. The main obstacle to the development of formalized co-operation, is producers' risk aversion and the black economy in agriculture. Producers often prefer informal co-operation instead of long-term contractual relationships. The Hungarian agricultural co-operations are characterized by non-dynamic development, but slow qualitative change. For the future, one breakout point could be the association of producer groups and organizations, which in addition to the benefits of market concentration, in the dissemination of knowledge, advisory network operation and innovation can act more effectively.

Keywords: agriculture, co-operation, producer organisation, trust level

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Authors: Amber Shahi, Ayesha Tazeen, Abdus Samad, Shama Parveen

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Nanoparticles (NPs) are tiny particles. According to the International Organization for Standardization, the size range of NPs is in the nanometer range (1-100 nm). They show distinct properties that are not shown by larger particles of the same material. NPs are currently being used in different fields due to their unique physicochemical nature. NPs are a boon for medical sciences, environmental sciences, electronics, and textile industries. However, there is growing concern about their potential adverse effects on human health. This poster presents a comprehensive review of the current literature on the pros and cons of NPs on human health. The poster will discuss the various types of interactions of NPs with biological systems. There are a number of beneficial uses of NPs in the field of health and environmental welfare. NPs are very useful in disease diagnosis, antimicrobial action, and the treatment of diseases like Alzheimer’s. They can also cross the blood-brain barrier, making them capable of treating brain diseases. Additionally, NPs can target specific tumors and be used for cancer treatment. To treat environmental health, NPs also act as catalytic converters to reduce pollution from the environment. On the other hand, NPs also have some negative impacts on the human body, such as being cytotoxic and genotoxic. They can also affect the reproductive system, such as the testis and ovary, and sexual behavior. The poster will further discuss the routes of exposure of NPs. The poster will conclude with a discussion of the current regulations and guidelines on the use of NPs in various applications. It will highlight the need for further research and the development of standardized toxicity testing methods to ensure the safe use of NPs in various applications. When using NPs in diagnosis and treatment, we should also take into consideration their safe concentration in the body. Overall, this poster aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the pros and cons of NPs on human health and to promote awareness and understanding of the potential risks and benefits associated with their use.

Keywords: disease diagnosis, human health, nanoparticles, toxicity testing

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Authors: Berkan Ural, Arif Eser, Sinan Apaydin

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Medical image processing is generally become a challenging task nowadays. Indeed, processing of brain MRI images is one of the difficult parts of this area. This study proposes a hybrid well-defined approach which is consisted from tumor detection, extraction and analyzing steps. This approach is mainly consisted from a computer aided diagnostics system for identifying and detecting the tumor formation in any region of the brain and this system is commonly used for early prediction of brain tumor using advanced image processing and probabilistic neural network methods, respectively. For this approach, generally, some advanced noise removal functions, image processing methods such as automatic segmentation and morphological operations are used to detect the brain tumor boundaries and to obtain the important feature parameters of the tumor region. All stages of the approach are done specifically with using MATLAB software. Generally, for this approach, firstly tumor is successfully detected and the tumor area is contoured with a specific colored circle by the computer aided diagnostics program. Then, the tumor is segmented and some morphological processes are achieved to increase the visibility of the tumor area. Moreover, while this process continues, the tumor area and important shape based features are also calculated. Finally, with using the probabilistic neural network method and with using some advanced classification steps, tumor area and the type of the tumor are clearly obtained. Also, the future aim of this study is to detect the severity of lesions through classes of brain tumor which is achieved through advanced multi classification and neural network stages and creating a user friendly environment using GUI in MATLAB. In the experimental part of the study, generally, 100 images are used to train the diagnostics system and 100 out of sample images are also used to test and to check the whole results. The preliminary results demonstrate the high classification accuracy for the neural network structure. Finally, according to the results, this situation also motivates us to extend this framework to detect and localize the tumors in the other organs.

Keywords: image processing algorithms, magnetic resonance imaging, neural network, pattern recognition

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Authors: V. R. Sadasivam, M. Vipin, P. Vineeth, M. Sajith, G. Sathiskumar, R. Manikandan, N. Vijayarangan

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Global positioning system technology is what leads to such things as navigation systems, GPS tracking devices, GPS surveying and GPS mapping. All that GPS does is provide a set of coordinates which represent the location of GPS units with respect to its latitude, longitude and elevation on planet Earth. It also provides time, which is accurate. The tracking devices themselves come in different flavors. They will contain a GPS receiver, and GPS software, along with some way of transmitting the resulting coordinates. GPS in mobile tend to use radio waves to transmit their location to another GPS device. The purpose of this prototype “Mobi Navi Tour for Rescue Operation” timely communication, and lightning fast decision-making with a group of people located in different places with a common goal. Timely communication and tracking the people are a critical issue in many situations, environments. Expedited can find missing person by sending the location and other related information to them through mobile. Information must be drawn from the caller and entered into the system by the administrator or a group leader and transferred to the group leader. This system will locate the closest available person, a group of people working in an organization/company or vehicle to determine availability and their position to track them. Misinformation cannot lead to the wrong decision in the rapidly paced environment in a normal and an abnormal situation. In “Mobi Navi Tour for Rescue Operation” we use Google Cloud Messaging for android (GCM) which is a service that helps developers send data from servers to their android applications on android devices. The service provides a simple, lightweight mechanism that servers can use to tell mobile applications to contact the server directly, to fetch updated application or user data.

Keywords: android, gps, tour, communication, service

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Authors: Theresa Slump, Paula Neumeister, Katharina Feldker, Carina Y. Heitmann, Thomas Straube

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A characteristic feature of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the automatic processing of disorder-specific stimuli that expresses itself in intrusive symptoms such as intense physical and psychological reactions to trauma-associated stimuli. That automatic processing plays an essential role in the development and maintenance of symptoms. The aim of our study was, therefore, to investigate the behavioral and neural correlates of automatic processing of trauma-related stimuli in PTSD. Although interpersonal traumatization is a form of traumatization that often occurs, it has not yet been sufficiently studied. That is why, in our study, we focused on patients suffering from interpersonal traumatization. While previous imaging studies on PTSD mainly used faces, words, or generally negative visual stimuli, our study presented complex trauma-related and neutral visual scenes. We examined 19 female subjects suffering from PTSD and examined 19 healthy women as a control group. All subjects did a geometric comparison task while lying in a functional-magnetic-resonance-imaging (fMRI) scanner. Trauma-related scenes and neutral visual scenes that were not relevant to the task were presented while the subjects were doing the task. Regarding the behavioral level, there were not any significant differences between the task performance of the two groups. Regarding the neural level, the PTSD patients showed significant hyperactivation of the hippocampus for task-irrelevant trauma-related stimuli versus neutral stimuli when compared with healthy control subjects. Connectivity analyses revealed altered connectivity between the hippocampus and other anxiety-related areas in PTSD patients, too. Overall, those findings suggest that fear-related areas are involved in PTSD patients' processing of trauma-related stimuli even if the stimuli that were used in the study were task-irrelevant.

Keywords: post-traumatic stress disorder, automatic processing, hippocampus, functional magnetic resonance imaging

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Authors: Abeer K. Jameel, Harry Evdorides

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Iraq is a middle income country where the road safety issue is considered one of the leading causes of deaths. To control the road risk issue, the Iraqi Ministry of Planning, General Statistical Organization started to organise a collection system of traffic accidents data with details related to their causes and severity. These data are published as an annual report. In this paper, a review of the available crash data in Iraq will be presented. The available data represent the rate of accidents in aggregated level and classified according to their types, road users’ details, and crash severity, type of vehicles, causes and number of causalities. The review is according to the types of models used in road safety studies and research, and according to the required road safety data in the road constructions tasks. The available data are also compared with the road safety dataset published in the United Kingdom as an example of developed country. It is concluded that the data in Iraq are suitable for descriptive and exploratory models, aggregated level comparison analysis, and evaluation and monitoring the progress of the overall traffic safety performance. However, important traffic safety studies require disaggregated level of data and details related to the factors of the likelihood of traffic crashes. Some studies require spatial geographic details such as the location of the accidents which is essential in ranking the roads according to their level of safety, and name the most dangerous roads in Iraq which requires tactic plan to control this issue. Global Road safety agencies interested in solve this problem in low and middle-income countries have designed road safety assessment methodologies which are basing on the road attributes data only. Therefore, in this research it is recommended to use one of these methodologies.

Keywords: road safety, Iraq, crash data, road risk assessment, The International Road Assessment Program (iRAP)

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Authors: Soumiya Bhattacharjee, P. K. Champati Ray, Shovan L. Chattoraj, Mrinmoy Dhara

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The entire Himalayan range is globally renowned for rainfall-induced landslides. The prime focus of the study is to determine rainfall based threshold for initiation of landslides that can be used as an important component of an early warning system for alerting stake holders. This research deals with temporal dimension of slope failures due to extreme rainfall events along the National Highway-58 from Karanprayag to Badrinath in the Garhwal Himalaya, India. Post processed 3-hourly rainfall intensity data and its corresponding duration from daily rainfall data available from Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) were used as the prime source of rainfall data. Landslide event records from Border Road Organization (BRO) and some ancillary landslide inventory data for 2013 and 2014 have been used to determine Intensity Duration (ID) based rainfall threshold. The derived governing threshold equation, I= 4.738D^-0.025, has been considered for prediction of landslides of the study region. This equation was validated with an accuracy of 70% landslides during August and September 2014. The derived equation was considered for further prediction of landslides of the study region. From the obtained results and validation, it can be inferred that this equation can be used for initiation of landslides in the study area to work as a part of an early warning system. Results can significantly improve with ground based rainfall estimates and better database on landslide records. Thus, the study has demonstrated a very low cost method to get first-hand information on possibility of impending landslide in any region, thereby providing alert and better preparedness for landslide disaster mitigation.

Keywords: landslide, intensity-duration, rainfall threshold, TRMM, slope, inventory, early warning system

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Authors: Meghry Nazarian, Ibrahim Duyar

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Effective management of a diverse workforce in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) presents peculiar importance as two-thirds of residents are expatriates who have diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Like any other organization in the country, UAE schools have become upmost diverse settings in the world. The purpose of this study was to examine whether principals’ cultural intelligence has direct and indirect (moderating) influences on teachers’ perceived diversity climate. A quantitative causal-comparative research design was employed to analyze the data. Participants included random samples of principals and teachers working in the private and charter schools in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. The data-gathering online questionnaires included previously developed and validated scales as the measures of study variables. More specifically, the multidimensional short-form measure of Cultural Intelligence (CQ) and the diversity climate scale were used to measure the study variables. Multivariate statistics, including the analysis of multivariate analysis of variance (MANCOVA) and structural equation modeling (SEM), were employed to examine the relationships between the study variables. The preliminary analyses of data showed that principals and teachers have differing views of diversity management and climate in schools. Findings also showed that principals’ cultural intelligence has both direct and moderating influences on teachers’ perceived diversity climate. The study findings are expected to inform policymakers and practicing educational leaders in addressing diversity management in a country where the majority of the residents are the minority who have diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

Keywords: diversity management, united arab emirates, school principals’ cultural intelligence (CQ), teachers’ perceived diversity climate

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Authors: Davide D’Aria, Paolo Falcone, Luigi Maggi, Aldo Cero, Giovanni Amoroso

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The paper presents a methodology for real-time structural health monitoring and geophysical applications. The key elements of the system are a high performance MIMO RADAR sensor, an optical camera and a dedicated set of software algorithms encompassing interferometry, tomography and photogrammetry. The MIMO Radar sensor proposed in this work, provides an extremely high sensitivity to displacements making the system able to react to tiny deformations (up to tens of microns) with a time scale which spans from milliseconds to hours. The MIMO feature of the system makes the system capable of providing a set of two-dimensional images of the observed scene, each mapped on the azimuth-range directions with noticeably resolution in both the dimensions and with an outstanding repetition rate. The back-scattered energy, which is distributed in the 3D space, is projected on a 2D plane, where each pixel has as coordinates the Line-Of-Sight distance and the cross-range azimuthal angle. At the same time, the high performing processing unit allows to sense the observed scene with remarkable refresh periods (up to milliseconds), thus opening the way for combined static and dynamic structural health monitoring. Thanks to the smart TX/RX antenna array layout, the MIMO data can be processed through a tomographic approach to reconstruct the three-dimensional map of the observed scene. This 3D point cloud is then accurately mapped on a 2D digital optical image through photogrammetric techniques, allowing for easy and straightforward interpretations of the measurements. Once the three-dimensional image is reconstructed, a 'repeat-pass' interferometric approach is exploited to provide the user of the system with high frequency three-dimensional motion/vibration estimation of each point of the reconstructed image. At this stage, the methodology leverages consolidated atmospheric correction algorithms to provide reliable displacement and vibration measurements.

Keywords: interferometry, MIMO RADAR, SAR, tomography

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Authors: Javad Sadidi, Ehsan Babaei, Hani Rezayan

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The advent of web 2.0 gives a possibility to scale down the costs of data collection and mapping, specifically if the process is done by volunteers. Every volunteer can be thought of as a free and ubiquitous sensor to collect spatial, descriptive as well as multimedia data for tourist services. The lack of large-scale information, such as real-time climate and weather conditions, population density, and other related data, can be considered one of the important challenges in developing countries for tourists to make the best decision in terms of time and place of travel. The current research aims to design and implement a spatiotemporal web map service using volunteer-submitted data. The service acts as a tourist-guide service in which tourists can search interested places based on their requested time for travel. To design the service, three tiers of architecture, including data, logical processing, and presentation tiers, have been utilized. For implementing the service, open-source software programs, client and server-side programming languages (such as OpenLayers2, AJAX, and PHP), Geoserver as a map server, and Web Feature Service (WFS) standards have been used. The result is two distinct browser-based services, one for sending spatial, descriptive, and multimedia volunteer data and another one for tourists and local officials. Local official confirms the veracity of the volunteer-submitted information. In the tourist interface, a spatiotemporal search engine has been designed to enable tourists to find a tourist place based on province, city, and location at a specific time of interest. Implementing the tourist-guide service by this methodology causes the following: the current tourists participate in a free data collection and sharing process for future tourists, a real-time data sharing and accessing for all, avoiding a blind selection of travel destination and significantly, decreases the cost of providing such services.

Keywords: VGI, tourism, spatiotemporal, browser-based, web mapping

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Authors: Montserrat Crespi-Vallbona; Oscar Mascarilla-Miró

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Mature destinations have different challenges trying to attract tourism and please its citizens. Hence, they have to maintain their touristic interest to standard demand and also not to undeceive those tourists with more advanced experiences. Second, they have to be concerned for the daily life of citizens and avoid the negative effects of touristification. This balance is quite delicate and often has to do with the sensitivity and commitment of the party in the local government. However, what is a general consensus is the need for destinations to differentiate from the homogeneous rest of regions and create new content, consumable resources or marketing events to guarantee their positioning. In this sense, the main responsibility of destinations is to satisfy users, tourists and citizens. Hence, its aim has to do with holistic experiences, which collect these wide approaches. Specifically, this research aims to analyze the volume and growth of tourist houses in the central touristic neighborhoods of Barcelona (this is Ciutat Vella) as the starting point to identify the behavior of tourists regarding their interests in searching for local heritage attractiveness and community atmosphere. Then, different cases are analyzed in order to show how Barcelona struggles to keep its attractive brand for the visitors, as well as for its inhabitants. Methodologically, secondary data used in this research comes from official registered tourist houses (Catalunya Government), Open Data (Barcelona municipality), the Airbnb tourist platform, from the Incasol Data and Municipal Register of Inhabitants. Primary data are collected through in-depth interviews with neighbors, social movement managers and political representatives from Turisme de Barcelona (local DMO, Destination Management Organization). Results show what the opportunities and priorities are for key actors to design policies to find a balance between all different interests.

Keywords: touristification, tourist houses, governance, tourism demand, airbnbfication

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Authors: Michael N. O'Sullivan, Con Sheahan

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Mass customization is the idea of offering custom products or services to satisfy the needs of each individual customer while maintaining the efficiency of mass production. Technologies like 3D printing and artificial intelligence have many start-ups hoping to capitalize on this dream of creating personalized products at an affordable price, and well established companies scrambling to innovate and maintain their market share. However, the majority of them are failing as they struggle to understand one key question – where does customization make sense? Customization and personalization only make sense where the value of the perceived benefit outweighs the cost to implement it. In other words, will people pay for it? Looking at the Kano Model makes it clear that it depends on the product. In products where customization is an inherent need, like prosthetics, mass customization technologies can be highly beneficial. However, for products that already sell as a standard, like headphones, offering customization is likely only an added bonus, and so the product development team must figure out if the customers’ perception of the added value of this feature will outweigh its premium price tag. This can be done through the use of a ‘serious game,’ whereby potential customers are given a limited budget to collaboratively buy and bid on potential features of the product before it is developed. If the group choose to buy customization over other features, then the product development team should implement it into their design. If not, the team should prioritize the features on which the customers have spent their budget. The level of customization purchased can also be translated to an appropriate production method, for example, the most expensive type of customization would likely be free-form design and could be achieved through digital fabrication, while a lower level could be achieved through short batch production. Twenty-five teams of final year students from design, engineering, construction and technology tested this methodology when bringing a product from concept through to production specification, and found that it allowed them to confidently decide what level of customization, if any, would be worth offering for their product, and what would be the best method of producing it. They also found that the discussion and negotiations between players during the game led to invaluable insights, and often decided to play a second game where they offered customers the option to buy the various customization ideas that had been discussed during the first game.

Keywords: Kano model, mass customization, new product development, serious game

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Authors: Helnaz Soltani, J. N. Reddy

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Presence of fluid medium interacting with a structure can lead to failure of the structure. Since developing efficient computational model for fluid-structure interaction (FSI) problems has broader impact to realistic problems encountered in aerospace industry, ship industry, oil and gas industry, and so on, one can find an increasing need to find a method in order to investigate the effect of fluid domain on structural response. A coupled finite element formulation of problems involving FSI issue is an accurate method to predict the response of structures in contact with a fluid medium. This study proposes a finite element approach in order to study the transient response of the structures interacting with a fluid medium. Since beam and plate are considered to be the fundamental elements of almost any structure, the developed method is applied to beams and plates benchmark problems in order to demonstrate its efficiency. The formulation is a combination of the various structure theories and the solid-fluid interface boundary condition, which is used to represent the interaction between the solid and fluid regimes. Here, three different beam theories as well as three different plate theories are considered to model the solid medium, and the Navier-Stokes equation is used as the theoretical equation governed the fluid domain. For each theory, a coupled set of equations is derived where the element matrices of both regimes are calculated by Gaussian quadrature integration. The main feature of the proposed methodology is to model the fluid domain as an added mass; the external distributed force due to the presence of the fluid. We validate the accuracy of such formulation by means of some numerical examples. Since the formulation presented in this study covers several theories in literature, the applicability of our proposed approach is independent of any structure geometry. The effect of varying parameters such as structure thickness ratio, fluid density and immersion depth, are studied using numerical simulations. The results indicate that maximum vertical deflection of the structure is affected considerably in the presence of a fluid medium.

Keywords: beam and plate, finite element analysis, fluid-structure interaction, transient response

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Authors: Tigabu Dagne Akal

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While advances in computer and communications technology have made the network ubiquitous, they have also rendered networked systems vulnerable to malicious attacks devised from a distance. These attacks or intrusions start with attackers infiltrating a network through a vulnerable host and then launching further attacks on the local network or Intranet. Nowadays, system administrators and network professionals can attempt to prevent such attacks by developing intrusion detection tools and systems using data mining technology. In this study, the experiments were conducted following the Knowledge Discovery in Database Process Model. The Knowledge Discovery in Database Process Model starts from selection of the datasets. The dataset used in this study has been taken from Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory. After taking the data, it has been pre-processed. The major pre-processing activities include fill in missed values, remove outliers; resolve inconsistencies, integration of data that contains both labelled and unlabelled datasets, dimensionality reduction, size reduction and data transformation activity like discretization tasks were done for this study. A total of 21,533 intrusion records are used for training the models. For validating the performance of the selected model a separate 3,397 records are used as a testing set. For building a predictive model for intrusion detection J48 decision tree and the Naïve Bayes algorithms have been tested as a classification approach for both with and without feature selection approaches. The model that was created using 10-fold cross validation using the J48 decision tree algorithm with the default parameter values showed the best classification accuracy. The model has a prediction accuracy of 96.11% on the training datasets and 93.2% on the test dataset to classify the new instances as normal, DOS, U2R, R2L and probe classes. The findings of this study have shown that the data mining methods generates interesting rules that are crucial for intrusion detection and prevention in the networking industry. Future research directions are forwarded to come up an applicable system in the area of the study.

Keywords: intrusion detection, data mining, computer science, data mining

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Authors: M. S. Nikitenko, S. A. Kizilov, D. Y. Khudonogov

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The paper considers an approach to a machine vision operating system combined with using a grid of light markers. This approach is used to solve several scientific and technical problems, such as measuring the capability of an apron feeder delivering coal from a lining return port to a conveyor in the technology of mining high coal releasing to a conveyor and prototyping an autonomous vehicle obstacle detection system. Primary verification of a method of calculating bulk material volume using three-dimensional modeling and validation in laboratory conditions with relative errors calculation were carried out. A method of calculating the capability of an apron feeder based on a machine vision system and a simplifying technology of a three-dimensional modelled examined measuring area with machine vision was offered. The proposed method allows measuring the volume of rock mass moved by an apron feeder using machine vision. This approach solves the volume control issue of coal produced by a feeder while working off high coal by lava complexes with release to a conveyor with accuracy applied for practical application. The developed mathematical apparatus for measuring feeder productivity in kg/s uses only basic mathematical functions such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Thus, this fact simplifies software development, and this fact expands the variety of microcontrollers and microcomputers suitable for performing tasks of calculating feeder capability. A feature of an obstacle detection issue is to correct distortions of the laser grid, which simplifies their detection. The paper presents algorithms for video camera image processing and autonomous vehicle model control based on obstacle detection machine vision systems. A sample fragment of obstacle detection at the moment of distortion with the laser grid is demonstrated.

Keywords: machine vision, machine vision operating system, light markers, measuring capability, obstacle detection system, autonomous transport

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Authors: Jared Abuga, Wesley Too

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Medical error is the third leading cause of death in US, with approximately 98,000 deaths occurring every year as a result of medical errors. The world financial burden of medication errors is roughly USD 42 billion. Medication errors may lead to at least one death daily and injure roughly 1.3 million people every year. Medical error reporting is essential in creating a culture of accountability in our healthcare system. Studies have shown that attitudes and practice of healthcare workers in reporting medical errors showed that the major factors in under-reporting of errors included work stress and fear of medico-legal consequences due to the disclosure of error. Further, the majority believed that increase in reporting medical errors would contribute to a better system. Most hospitals depend on nurses to discover medication errors because they are considered to be the sources of these errors, as contributors or mere observers, consequently, the nurse’s perception of medication errors and what needs to be done is a vital feature to reducing incidences of medication errors. We sought to explore knowledge among nurses on medical errors and factors affecting or hindering reporting of medical errors among nurses working at the emergency unit, KNH. Critical care nurses are faced with many barriers to completing incident reports on medication errors. One of these barriers which contribute to underreporting is a lack of education and/or knowledge regarding medication errors and the reporting process. This study, therefore, sought to determine the availability and the use of reporting systems for medical errors in critical care unity. It also sought to establish nurses’ perception regarding medical errors and reporting and document factors facilitating timely identification and reporting of medical errors in critical care settings. Methods: The study used cross-section study design to collect data from 76 critical care nurses from Kenyatta Teaching & Research National Referral Hospital, Kenya. Data analysis and results is ongoing. By October 2022, we will have analysis, results, discussions, and recommendations of the study for purposes of the conference in 2023

Keywords: errors, medical, kenya, nurses, safety

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Authors: B. O. Diyaolu

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The stadium transcends a field of play to cultural heritage of a club especially when there is security of life and property and a conducive environment with exciting media facilities, CCTV and adequate field of play. Football fans love watching their clubs’ matches especially when nothing discourages their presence in the stadium. This study investigated the influence of security on fans’ attendance during Nigeria Professional Football League matches. Descriptive survey research design was used and the population consists of all Nigeria Professional Football League fans. Simple random sampling technique was used to pick a state from the six geo-political zones. 600 respondents comprising male and female fans were sampled from the ten selected vendors’ stands in each selected state. A structured questionnaire on Security and Fan attendance scale (SFAS) was used. The instrument consists of two sections. Section A seeks information on demographic data of the respondents, while section B was used to elicit information on security and fans’ attendance. The modified instrument which consists of 20 items has a reliability coefficient of 0.73. The hypothesis was tested at 0.05 significance level. The completed questionnaire was collated, coded and analyzed using descriptive statistics of frequency counts and percentage and inferential statistics of chi-square (X²). Findings of this study revealed that adequate security significantly influences fan attendance during Nigeria Professional Football League matches. There is no sport that can develop if the facilities in use are inadequate. Improving the condition of the stadium in Nigeria is paramount to the development of the Nigeria Professional Football League. All stakeholders in the organization of the League must put into consideration the need to improve the standard of the stadium as it will help to increase the attendance of fans during matches. Only the standard ones should be used during matches.

Keywords: adequate security, fans attendance, football fans, football stadium, Nigeria professional football league

Procedia PDF Downloads 99