Search results for: and Social support.

Authors: Rania Sherif Abd El-Azim

Abstract:

The role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in business has evolved and led to an era where industry leaders can no longer overlook the importance of being participative corporate citizens. This is not only because of the media’s skeptical attitude toward whether or not companies’ CSR efforts are sincere but also due to key stakeholders’ ability to hold companies to a higher standard than ever before as companies can gain competitive advantage through CSR. These programs result in addressing global challenges, such as climate, and poverty, or simply improving employee retention, so it has become increasingly clear that CSR is not just the new trend for companies but a necessary tool that organizations must integrate into their overall business strategies to build a stronger reputation as well as to also increase credibility among their key audience and enhance customers’ willingness to repurchase, pay premium price and enhancing positive word of mouth. According to the literature review, the link between CSR and competitive advantage at the firm level has long been an important topic for both CSR researchers and practitioners. Thus CSR can play an important role in enhancing the firm's competitive advantage, which seems an attractive area to investigate specially in Egypt. So, this paper will investigate the role of corporate social responsibility in enhancing the firm competitive advantage.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, competitive advantage, corporate reputation, customers' willingness to repurchase, willingness to pay premium price, positive word of mouth

Procedia PDF Downloads 305

Authors: Heeyeul Kwon, Yongtae Park

Abstract:

Despite the highly touted benefits, emerging technologies have unleashed pervasive concerns regarding unintended and unforeseen social impacts. Thus, those wishing to create safe and socially acceptable products need to identify such side effects and mitigate them prior to the market proliferation. Various methodologies in the field of technology assessment (TA), namely Delphi, impact assessment, and scenario planning, have been widely incorporated in such a circumstance. However, literatures face a major limitation in terms of sole reliance on participatory workshop activities. They unfortunately missed out the availability of a massive untapped data source of futuristic information flooding through the Internet. This research thus seeks to gain insights into utilization of futuristic data, future-oriented documents from the Internet, as a supplementary method to generate social impact scenarios whilst capturing perspectives of experts from a wide variety of disciplines. To this end, network analysis is conducted based on the social keywords extracted from the futuristic documents by text mining, which is then used as a guide to produce a comprehensive set of detailed scenarios. Our proposed approach facilitates harmonized depictions of possible hazardous consequences of emerging technologies and thereby makes decision makers more aware of, and responsive to, broad qualitative uncertainties.

Keywords: emerging technologies, futuristic data, scenario, text mining

Procedia PDF Downloads 481

Authors: Saowapa Phaithayawat

Abstract:

The purposes of this study are: 1) to study the impact of the 3-community-core model: House (H), Temple (T), and School (S) with the co-operation of official departments on community development to ASEAN economic community involvement, and 2) to study the procedures and extension of the model. The research which is a qualitative research based on formal and informal interviews. Local people in a community are observed. Group interview is also operated by executors and cooperators in the school in the community. In terms of social and cultural dimension, the 3-community-core model consisting of house, temple and school is the base of Thai cultures bringing about understanding, happiness and unity to the community. The result of this research is that the official departments in accompanied with this model developers cooperatively work together in the community to support such factors as budget, plan, activities. Moreover, the need of community, and the continual result to sustain the community are satisfied by the model implementation. In terms of the procedures of the model implementation, executors and co-operators can work, coordinate, think, and launch their public relation altogether. Concerning the model development, this enables the community to achieve its goal to prepare the community’s readiness for ASEAN Economic Community involvement.

Keywords: ASEAN Economic Community, the applying models and sufficiency development, house, temple, school

Procedia PDF Downloads 299

Authors: Dessy Pinem, Rahmadian Sembiring, Adanil Bushra

Abstract:

Medan Belawan is one of the subdistricts of 21 districts in Medan. Medan Belawan Sub-district is directly adjacent to the Malacca Strait in the North. Due to its direct border with the Malacca Strait, the problem in this sub-district, which has continued for many years, is a flood of rob. In 2015, rob floods inundated Sicanang urban village, Belawan I urban village, Belawan Bahagia urban village and Bagan Deli village. The extent of inundation in the flood of rob that occurred in September 2015 reached 540, 938 ha. Rob flood is a phenomenon where the sea water is overflowing into the mainland. Rob floods can also be interpreted as a puddle of water on the coastal land that occurs when the tidal waters. So this phenomenon will inundate parts of the coastal plain or lower place of high tide sea level. Rob flood is a daily disaster faced by the residents in the district of Medan Belawan. Rob floods can happen every month and last for a week. The flood is not only the residents' houses, the flood also soaked the main road to Belawan Port reaching 50 cm. To deal with the problems caused by the flood and to prepare coastal communities to face the character of coastal areas, it is necessary to know the vulnerability of the people who are always the victims of the rob flood. Are the people of Medan Belawan sub-district, especially in the flood-affected villages, able to cope with the consequences of the floods? To answer this question, it is necessary to assess the vulnerability of the Belawan District community in the face of the flood disaster. This research is descriptive, qualitative and quantitative. Data were collected by observation, interview and questionnaires in 4 urban villages often affected by rob flood. The vulnerabilities measured are physical, economic, social, environmental, organizational and motivational vulnerabilities. For vulnerability in the physical field, the data collected is the distance of the building, floor area ratio, drainage, and building materials. For economic vulnerability, data collected are income, employment, building ownership, and insurance ownership. For the vulnerability in the social field, the data collected is education, number of family members, children, the elderly, gender, training for disasters, and how to dispose of waste. For the vulnerability in the field of organizational data collected is the existence of organizations that advocate for the victims, their policies and laws governing the handling of tidal flooding. The motivational vulnerability is seen from the information center or question and answer about the rob flood, and the existence of an evacuation plan or path to avoid disaster or reduce the victim. The results of this study indicate that most people in Medan Belawan sub-district have a high-level vulnerability in physical, economic, social, environmental, organizational and motivational fields. They have no access to economic empowerment, no insurance, no motivation to solve problems and only hope to the government, not to have organizations that support and defend them, and have physical buildings that are easily destroyed by rob floods.

Keywords: disaster, rob flood, Medan Belawan, vulnerability

Procedia PDF Downloads 113

Authors: Mohammad Besharatloo

Abstract:

Intrusion detection is an important research topic in network security because of increasing growth in the use of computer network services. Intrusion detection is done with the aim of detecting the unauthorized use or abuse in the networks and systems by the intruders. Therefore, the intrusion detection system is an efficient tool to control the user's access through some predefined regulations. Since, the data used in intrusion detection system has high dimension, a proper representation is required to show the basis structure of this data. Therefore, it is necessary to eliminate the redundant features to create the best representation subset. In the proposed method, a hybrid model of differential evolution and firefly algorithms was employed to choose the best subset of properties. In addition, decision tree and support vector machine (SVM) are adopted to determine the quality of the selected properties. In the first, the sorted population is divided into two sub-populations. These optimization algorithms were implemented on these sub-populations, respectively. Then, these sub-populations are merged to create next repetition population. The performance evaluation of the proposed method is done based on KDD Cup99. The simulation results show that the proposed method has better performance than the other methods in this context.

Keywords: intrusion detection system, differential evolution, firefly algorithm, support vector machine, decision tree

Procedia PDF Downloads 71

Authors: Issamaldin Mohammed, Ahmed Abdalla, Hatim Elobied

Abstract:

Soil erosion is globally known for adverse effects on social, environmental and economical aspects which directly or indirectly influence the human life. The area under study suffers from problems like water quality, river and agricultural canals bed rise due to high sediment load brought by Algash River from upstream (Eritrea high land), the current study utilized from remote sensing and Geographical Information System (GIS) to estimate the annual soil loss using Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE). The USLE is widely used over the world which basically relies on rainfall erosivity factor (R), soil erodibility factor (K), topographic factor (LS), cover management factor (C) and support practice factor (P). The result of the study showed high soil loss in the study area, this result was illustrated in a form of map presenting the spatial distribution of soil loss amounts which classified into seven zones ranging from very slight zone (less than 2 ton/ha.year) to very severe (100-500 ton/ha.year), also the total soil loss from the whole study area was found to be 32,916,840.87 ton/ha.year. These kinds of results will help the experts of land management to give a priority for the severely affected zones to be tackled in an appropriate way.

Keywords: Geographical Information System, remote sensing, sedimentation, soil loss

Procedia PDF Downloads 278

Authors: Anita Yus

Abstract:

Several Elementary Schools (SD) ‘favored’ by parents, especially those live in big cities in Indonesia, implicitly demand each child enrolled in the first grade of SD to be able to read, write and calculate. This condition urges the parents to push the teachers in PAUD (Kindergarten) to train their children to read, write, and calculate so they have a set of knowledge. According to Piaget, each child is capable of acquiring knowledge when he is given the opportunity to interact with his environment (things, people, and atmosphere). Teachers can make the interaction occur. There are several learning approaches suitable for the characteristics and needs of child’s growth. This paper talks about a research result conducted to investigate how twelve teachers of early childhood program comprehend the constructivist theory of Piaget, and how they inquire, how the children acquire and construct a number of knowledge through occurred interactions. This is a qualitative research with an observation method followed up by a focus group discussion (FGD). The research result shows that there is a reciprocal interaction between the behaviors of teachers and children affected by the size of the classroom and learning source, teaching experiences, education background, teachers’ attitude and motivation, as well as the way the teachers interpret and support the children’s needs. The teachers involved in this research came up with varied perspective on how knowledge acquired by children at first and how they construct it. This research brings a new perspective in understanding children as scientists.

Keywords: constructivist approach, young children as a scientist, teacher practice, teacher education

Procedia PDF Downloads 237

Authors: Rose Mini Agoes Salim, Shahnaz Safitri

Abstract:

The aim of this study is to test the effectiveness of teaching kindness in preschool children by using several techniques. Kindness is a physical act or emotional support aimed to build or maintain relationships with others. Kindness is known to be essential in the development of moral reasoning to distinguish between the good and bad things. In this study, kindness is operationalized as several acts including helping friends, comforting sad friends, inviting friends to play, protecting others, sharing, saying hello, saying thank you, encouraging others, and apologizing. It is mentioned that kindness is crucial to be developed in preschool children because this is the time the children begin to interact with their social environment through play. Furthermore, preschool children's cognitive development makes them begin to represent the world with words, which then allows them to interact with others. On the other hand, preschool children egocentric thinking makes them still need to learn to consider another person's perspective. In relation to social interaction, preschool children need to be stimulated and assisted by adult to be able to pay attention to other and act with kindness toward them. On teaching kindness to children, the quality of interaction between children and their significant others is the key factor. It is known that preschool children learn about kindness by imitating adults on their two way interaction. Specifically, this study examines two types of teaching techniques that can be done by parents as a way to teach kindness, namely the picture-storybook reading and hand-puppet storytelling. These techniques were examined because both activities are easy to do and both also provide a model of behavior for the child based on the character in the story. To specifically examine those techniques effectiveness in teaching kindness, two studies were conducted. Study I involves 31 children aged 5-6 years old with picture-storybook reading technique, where the intervention is done by reading 8 picture books for 8 days. In study II, hand-puppet storytelling technique is examined to 32 children aged 3-5 years old. The treatments effectiveness are measured using an instrument in the form of nine colored cards that describe the behavior of kindness. Data analysis using Wilcoxon Signed-rank test shows a significant difference on the average score of kindness (p < 0.05) before and after the intervention has been held. For daily observation, a ‘kindness tree’ and observation sheets are used which are filled out by the teacher. Two weeks after interventions, an improvement on all kindness behaviors measured is intact. The same result is also gained from both ‘kindness tree’ and observational sheets.

Keywords: kindness, moral teaching, storytelling, hand puppet

Procedia PDF Downloads 239

Authors: Sri Suryaningsum

Abstract:

The achievement ‘Best Practice Model’ holds by the government on behalf of the success implementation corporate social responsibility program that held on PT. Kaltim Prima Coal which had operation located in the isolated district in Sanggata, it could be the reference for the other companies to improve the social welfare in surrounding area, especially for the companies that have operated in the isolated area in Indonesia. The rule of Kaltim Prima Coal as the catalyst in the development progress to push up the independence of district especially for the district which has located in surrounding mining operation from village level to the regency level, those programs had written in the 7 field program in Corporate Social Responsibility, it was doing by stakeholders. The stakeholders are village government, sub-district government, Regency and citizen. One of the best programs that implement at PT. Kaltim Prima Coal is Regarding Resettlement that was completed based on Asian Development Bank Resettlement Best Practice and International Financial Corporation Resettlement Action Plan. This program contributed on the resettlement residences to develop the isolated and the neglected district.

Keywords: CSR, isolated, neglected, poverty, mining industry

Procedia PDF Downloads 237

Authors: Masoud Mahdavi

Abstract:

The structure is made using different members and combining them with each other. These members are basically based on technical and engineering principles and are combined in different ways and have their own unique effects on the building. Trusses are one of the most common and important members of the structure, accounting for a large percentage of the power transmission structure in the building. Different types of trusses are based on structural needs and evaluating and making complete comparisons between them is one of the most important engineering analyses. In the present study, four types of trusses have been studied; 1) Hawe truss, 2) Pratt truss, 3) k truss, and 4) warren truss, under cyclic loading for 80 seconds. The trusses are modeled in 3d using st₃₇ steel. The results showed that Hawe trusses had higher values ​​than all other trusses (k, Pratt and Warren) in all the studied indicators. Indicators examined in the study include; 1) von Mises stresses, 2) displacement, 3) support force, 4) velocity, 5) acceleration, 6) capacity (hysteresis curve) and 7) energy diagram. Pratt truss in indicators; Mises stress, displacement, energy have the least amount compared to other trusses. K truss in indicators; support force, speed and acceleration are the lowest compared to other trusses.

Keywords: hawe truss, pratt truss, K truss, warren truss, cyclic loading, finite element method

Procedia PDF Downloads 132

Authors: M. Karaman, H. Catalkaya

Abstract:

Due to the complex nature of cyber attacks and their effects ranging from personal to governmental level, it becomes one of the priority tasks for operation planners to take into account the risks, influences and effects of cyber attacks. However it can also be embedded or integrated technically with electronic warfare planning, cyber operation planning is needed to have a sole and broadened perspective. This perspective embodies itself firstly in operational design and then military decision making process. In order to find out the ill-structured problems, understand or visualize the operational environment and frame the problem, operational design can help support cyber operation planners and commanders. After having a broadened and conceptual startup with cyber operational design, military decision making process will follow the principles of design into more concrete elements like reaching results after risk management and center of gravity analysis of our and the enemy. In this paper we tried to emphasize the importance of cyber operational design, cyber operation planning and its integration to military decision making problem. In this foggy, uncertain and unaccountable cyber security environment, it is inevitable to stay away from cyber attacks. Therefore, a cyber operational design should be formed with line of operations, decisive points and end states in cyber then a tactical military decision making process should be followed with cyber security focus in order to support the whole operation.

Keywords: cyber operational design, military decision making process (MDMP), operation planning, end state

Procedia PDF Downloads 572

Authors: Eman AbuKhousa, Marwan Z. Bataineh

Abstract:

The 21^st century higher education and globalization challenge new faculty members to build effective professional networks and partnership with industry in order to accelerate their growth and success. This creates the need for community of practice (CoP)-oriented development approaches that focus on cognitive apprenticeship while considering individual predisposition and future career needs. This work adopts data mining, clustering analysis, and social networking technologies to present the CoP-Network as a virtual space that connects together similar career-aspiration individuals who are socially influenced to join and engage in a process for domain-related knowledge and practice acquisitions. The CoP-Network model can be integrated into higher education to extend traditional graduate and professional development programs.

Keywords: clustering analysis, community of practice, data mining, higher education, new faculty challenges, social network, social influence, professional development

Procedia PDF Downloads 170

Authors: Zhao Xinlei

Abstract:

The outbreak of the Ukraine crisis has had an important impact on the global political and economic order, especially the global food crisis and energy crisis, thus aggravating social and political conflicts. At the same time, with the intensification of the Ukraine crisis, the United States and European countries have imposed severe economic sanctions on Russia to prevent and contain Russia's special military operations against Ukraine. The essence of the Ukraine crisis is a geopolitical conflict and competition between Russia and the United States. For a long time, the United States has always regarded Russia as a serious strategic crisis and challenge. Therefore, for the United States, the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis is an extremely important opportunity to condemn and stop Russia's actions from an international perspective. In this process, China plays a very special role. This special positioning is not only reflected in the long-term friendly relationship between China and Russia and mutual support and assistance on the international stage but also in the complex economic relationship and interdependence between China and the United States. Therefore, China has adopted a "hedging strategy" in dealing with the Ukrainian crisis, and the use of the hedging strategy not only plays a special role in safeguarding China's own security and interests but also because China can act as an intermediary to coordinate Russia and the United States to promote the resolution of the Ukrainian crisis in a peaceful manner.

Keywords: Ukraine crisis Russia-Ukraine conflict balanced strategy Sino-US competition

Procedia PDF Downloads 68

Authors: Jakub Stelina, Janina Ciechanowicz-McLean

Abstract:

Fifty years of existence and development of international environmental law brought a deep disappointment with efficiency and effectiveness of traditional command and control mechanisms of environmental regulation. Agenda 21 agreed during the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro 1992 was one of the first international documents, which explicitly underlined the importance of public participation in environmental protection. This participation includes also the initiatives undertaken by business corporations in the form of private environmental standards setting. Twenty years later during the Rio 20+ Earth Summit the private sector obligations undertaken during the negotiations have proven to be at least as important as the ones undertaken by the governments. The private sector has taken the leading role in environmental standard setting. Among the research methods used in the article two are crucial in the analysis. The comparative analysis of law is the instrument used in the article to analyse the practice of states and private business companies in the field of sustainable development. The article uses economic analysis of law to estimate the costs and benefits of Corporate Social Responsibility Projects in the field of environmental protection. The study is based on the four premises. First is the role of social dialogue, which is crucial for both Corporate Social Responsibility and modern environmental protection regulation. The Aarhus Convention creates a procedural environmental human right to participate in administrative procedures of law setting and environmental decisions making. The public participation in environmental impact assessment is nowadays a universal standard. Second argument is about the role of precaution as a principle of modern environmental regulation. This principle can be observed both in governmental regulatory undertakings and also private initiatives within the Corporate Social Responsibility environmental projects. Even in the jurisdictions which are relatively reluctant to use the principle of preventive action in environmental regulation, the companies often use this standard in their own private business standard setting initiatives. This is often due to the fact that soft law standards are used as the basis for private Corporate Social Responsibility regulatory initiatives. Third premise is about the role of ecological education in environmental protection. Many soft law instruments underline the importance of environmental education. Governments use environmental education only to the limited extent due to the costs of such projects and problems with effects assessment. Corporate Social Responsibility uses various means of ecological education as the basis of their actions in the field of environmental protection. Last but not least Sustainable development is a goal of both legal protection of the environment, and economic instruments of companies development. Modern environmental protection law uses to the increasing extent the Corporate Social Responsibility. This may be the consequence of the limits of hard law regulation. Corporate Social Responsibility is nowadays not only adapting to soft law regulation of environmental protection but also creates such standards by itself, showing new direction for development of international environmental law. Corporate Social Responsibility in environmental protection can be good investment in future development of the company.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, environmental CSR, environmental justice, stakeholders dialogue

Procedia PDF Downloads 279

Authors: Seyed Reza Naghibulsadat

Abstract:

The nature of communication includes various forms of media productions, which include film and theater. In the current situation, since social networks have emerged, they have brought their own communication capabilities and have features that show speed, public access, lack of media organization and the production of extensive content, and the development of critical thinking; Also, they contain capabilities to develop access to all kinds of media productions, including movies and theater shows; Of course, this works differently in different conditions and communities. In terms of the scale of exploitation, the film has a more general audience, and the theater has a special audience. The film industry is more developed based on more modern technologies, but the theater, based on the older ways of communication, contains more intimate and emotional aspects. ; But in general, the main focus is the development of access to movies and theater shows, which is emphasized by those involved in this field due to the capabilities of social networks. In this research, we will look at these 2 areas and the relevant components for both areas through social networks and also the common points of both types of media production. The main goal of this research is to know the strengths and weaknesses of using social networks for the marketing of movies and theater shows and, at the same time are, also considered the opportunities and threats of this field. The attractions of these two types of media production, with the emergence of social networks, and the ability to change positions, can provide the opportunity to become a media with greater exploitation and higher profitability; But the main consideration is the opinions about these capabilities and the ability to use them for film and theater marketing. The main question of the research is, what are the marketing components for movies and theaters using social media capabilities? What are its strengths and weaknesses? And what opportunities and threats are facing this market? This research has been done with two methods SWOT and meta-analysis. Non-probability sampling has been used with purposeful technique. The results show that a recent approach is an approach based on eliminating threats and weaknesses and emphasizing strengths, and exploiting opportunities in the direction of developing film and theater marketing based on the capabilities of social networks within the framework of local cultural values and presenting achievements on an international scale or It is universal. This introduction leads to the introduction of authentic Iranian culture and foreign enthusiasts in the framework of movies and theater art. Therefore, for this issue, the model for using the capabilities of social networks for movie or theater marketing, according to the results obtained from Respondents, is a model based on SO strategies and, in other words, offensive strategies so that it can take advantage of the internal strengths and made maximum use of foreign situations and opportunities to develop the use of movies and theater performances.

Keywords: marketing, movies, theatrical show, social network potentials

Procedia PDF Downloads 60

Authors: Steffy Maria Joseph, Abdu Rahiman V, Abdul Hameed K. M.

Abstract:

Online handwritten character recognition is a challenging field in Artificial Intelligence. The classification success rate of current techniques decreases when the dataset involves similarity and complexity in stroke styles, number of strokes and stroke characteristics variations. Malayalam is a complex south indian language spoken by about 35 million people especially in Kerala and Lakshadweep islands. In this paper, we consider the significant feature extraction for the similar stroke styles of Malayalam. This extracted feature set are suitable for the recognition of other handwritten south indian languages like Tamil, Telugu and Kannada. A classification scheme based on support vector machines (SVM) is proposed to improve the accuracy in classification and recognition of online malayalam handwritten characters. SVM Classifiers are the best for real world applications. The contribution of various features towards the accuracy in recognition is analysed. Performance for different kernels of SVM are also studied. A graphical user interface has developed for reading and displaying the character. Different writing styles are taken for each of the 44 alphabets. Various features are extracted and used for classification after the preprocessing of input data samples. Highest recognition accuracy of 97% is obtained experimentally at the best feature combination with polynomial kernel in SVM.

Keywords: SVM, matlab, malayalam, South Indian scripts, onlinehandwritten character recognition

Procedia PDF Downloads 559

Authors: Z. Sun

Abstract:

Health communication is essential in promoting healthy lifestyles, managing disease conditions, and eventually reducing health disparities. The key elements of successful health communication always include the development of communication strategies to engage people in thinking about their health, inform them about healthy choices, persuade them to adopt safe and healthy behaviours, and eventually achieve public health objectives. The use of 'Narrative' is recognised as a kind of health communication strategy to enhance personal and public health due to its potential persuasive effect in motivating and supporting individuals change their beliefs and behaviours by inviting them into a narrative world, breaking down their cognitive and emotional resistance and enhance their acceptance of the ideas portrayed in narratives. Meanwhile, the popularity of social media has provided a novel means of communication for both healthcare stakeholders, and a special group of active social media users (influencers) have started playing a pivotal role in providing health ‘solutions’. Such individuals are often referred to as ‘influencers’ because of their central position in the online communication system and the persuasive effect their actions may have on audiences. They may have established a positive rapport with their audience, earned trust and credibility in a specific area, and thus, their audience considers the information they delivered to be authentic and influential. To our best knowledge, to date, there is no published research that examines the effect of diabetes narratives presented by social media influencers and their impacts on health-related outcomes. The primary aim of this study is to investigate the diabetes narratives presented by social media influencers in the UK because of the new dimension they bring to health communication and the potential impact they may have on audiences' health outcomes. This study is situated within the interpretivist and narrative paradigms. A mixed methodology combining both quantitative and qualitative approaches has been adopted. Qualitative data has been derived to provide a better understanding of influencers’ personal experiences and how they construct meanings and make sense of their world, while quantitative data has been accumulated to identify key social media influencers in the UK and measure the impact of diabetes narratives on audiences. Twitter has been chosen as the social media platform to initially identify key influencers. Two groups of participants are the top 10 key social media influencers in the UK and 100 audiences of each influencer, which means a total of 1000 audiences have been invited. This paper is going to discuss, first of all, the background of the research under the context of health communication; Secondly, the necessity and contribution of this research; then, the major research questions being explored; and finally, the methods to be used.

Keywords: diabetes, health communication, narratives, social media influencers

Procedia PDF Downloads 90

Authors: Nieto Bernal Wilson, Carmona Suarez Edgar

Abstract:

The organizations have structured and unstructured information in different formats, sources, and systems. Part of these come from ERP under OLTP processing that support the information system, however these organizations in OLAP processing level, presented some deficiencies, part of this problematic lies in that does not exist interesting into extract knowledge from their data sources, as also the absence of operational capabilities to tackle with these kind of projects.  Data Warehouse and its applications are considered as non-proprietary tools, which are of great interest to business intelligence, since they are repositories basis for creating models or patterns (behavior of customers, suppliers, products, social networks and genomics) and facilitate corporate decision making and research. The following paper present a structured methodology, simple, inspired from the agile development models as Scrum, XP and AUP. Also the models object relational, spatial data models, and the base line of data modeling under UML and Big data, from this way sought to deliver an agile methodology for the developing of data warehouses, simple and of easy application. The methodology naturally take into account the application of process for the respectively information analysis, visualization and data mining, particularly for patterns generation and derived models from the objects facts structured.

Keywords: data warehouse, model data, big data, object fact, object relational fact, process developed data warehouse

Procedia PDF Downloads 391

Authors: Chang Hung Chen

Abstract:

Typically the Cause-Related Marketing (CRM) is effective for promoting products, and is also accepted as a role of communication tool for creating a positive image of the corporate. Today, companies are taking Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as core activities to build a goal of sustainable development. CRM is not a synonym of CSR. Actually, CRM is a part of CSR, or a type of marketing strategy in CSR framework. This article focuses on the relationship between CSR and CRM, and how the CRM improves the CSR performance of the corporate. The research was conducted through review of literature on the subject area.

Keywords: cause-related marketing, corporate social responsibility, corporate image, consumer behavior

Procedia PDF Downloads 338

Authors: Deepak Deshpande, Vikas Minchekar

Abstract:

Day by day in modern India communal forces became stronger and stronger. Each and every caste group trying to show their strength through massive marches. Such kind of marches or ralliesruinous national integrity in India. To test this assumption present investigation has been carried out. This research was undertaken by using survey techniques. The study has been carried out in two phases. In the first stage, the students’ attitudes were collected while in the second phase the views of the members of the historical association were collected. The social dominance orientation scale and sources of social dominance inventory have been administered on 200 college students belonging to Maratha caste. Analyzed data revealed ahigh level of social dominance in Maratha caste students. Approximately, 80 percent students have reported that they have learned such dominance from the medieval history. The other sources disappear very less prominent. These results and present Indian social situation have been communicated with the members of the historical association of India. The majority members of this association agreed with this reality. The consensus also received on that Maratha caste person experiencing dominance due to the misinterpretation of the King Shivaji Empire; synchronize by politicians. The survey monkey app was used through electronic mail to collect the views on ‘The attitude towards the modification of curricula questionnaire’. The maximum number of members of the historical association agreed to employ to teach the medieval Indian history accordingly the secular perspectives.

Keywords: social dominance orientation, secular perceptive, national integrity, Maratha caste and medieval Indian history

Procedia PDF Downloads 241

Authors: Mikel Niño, Roberto V. Zicari, Todor Ivanov, Kim Hee, Naveed Mushtaq, Marten Rosselli, Concha Sánchez-Ocaña, Karsten Tolle, José Miguel Blanco, Arantza Illarramendi, Jörg Besier, Harry Underwood

Abstract:

One of the application fields for data analysis techniques and technologies gaining momentum is the area of social good or “common good”, covering cases related to humanitarian crises, global health care, or ecology and environmental issues, among others. The promotion of data-driven projects in this field aims at increasing the efficacy and efficiency of social initiatives, improving the way these actions help humanity in general and people in need in particular. This application field, however, poses its own barriers and challenges when developing data-driven projects, lagging behind in comparison with other scenarios. These challenges derive from aspects such as the scope and scale of the social issue to solve, cultural and political barriers, the skills of main stakeholders and the technological resources available, the motivation to be engaged in such projects, or the ethical and legal issues related to sensitive data. This paper analyzes the application of data projects in the field of social good, reviewing its current state and noteworthy initiatives, and presenting a framework covering the key aspects to analyze in such projects. The goal is to provide guidelines to understand the main challenges and opportunities for this type of data project, as well as identifying the main differential issues compared to “classical” data projects in general. A case study is presented on the initial steps and stakeholder analysis of a data project for the inclusion of refugees in the city of Frankfurt, Germany, in order to empirically confront the framework with a real example.

Keywords: data-driven projects, humanitarian operations, personal and sensitive data, social good, stakeholders analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 316

Authors: Jack Wippell

Abstract:

This paper explores the role of social relations in explaining far-right actors' decisions over whether to travel down the process of radicalization and terrorism alone or in a group. To this end, a joint comparative method of difference and agreement is applied to four case studies across key temporal points on the radicalization and terrorism pathway to generate a theory of why individuals decide to radicalize and/or act alone or within a group. While social relations are identified as playing some moderate role in explaining why certain individuals radicalize alone versus within a group, this paper argues they play a significant role in affecting decisions over whether to act alone versus in a group. These findings suggest new avenues of distinction and understanding of far-right actors' processes of radicalization and terrorism, in turn, offering potential new avenues for counter-terrorism policy and important areas for future research.

Keywords: far-right, lone-actor, terrorism, United States, radicalization

Procedia PDF Downloads 77

Authors: Chuks Odiegwu-Enwerem

Abstract:

The classical notion of opinion leadership presupposes that the media is at the center of an effective and successful opinion leadership. Under this idea, an opinion leader is an active media user who consumes, understands, digests and interprets the messages for the understanding and acceptance/adoption by lower-end media users – whose access and understanding of media content are supposedly low. Because of their unique access to and presumed understanding of media functions and their content, opinion leaders are typically esteemed by those who look forward to and accept their opinions. Lazarsfeld and Katz’s two-step flow of communication theory is the basis of opinion leadership – propelled by limited access to the media. With the emergence and spread of social media and its unlimited access by all and sundry, however, the study interrogates the relevance and application of opinion leaders and, by implication, the two-step flow communication theory in Nigeria’s Northcentral region. It seeks to determine whether opinion leaders still exist in the picture and if they still exert considerable influence, especially in matters of political conversations and decision-making among the citizens of this area. It further explores whether the diffusion of social media is a reality and how the ‘low-end’ media users react to the new-found freedom of access to media, and how they are using it to inform their decisions on important matters as well as examines if they are still glued to their opinion leaders. This study explores the empirical dimensions of the two-step flow hypothesis in relation to the activities of social media to determine if a change has occurred and in what direction, using mixed methos of Survey and in-depth interviews. Our understanding and belief in some theoretical assumptions may be enhanced or challenged by the study outcome.

Keywords: Opinion Leadership, Active Media User, Two-Step-Flow, Social media, Northcentral Nigeria

Procedia PDF Downloads 54

Authors: Sheriff Muhammad Ibrahim, Tijjani Muhammad

Abstract:

The study assesses the Islamic Microfinance Bank's role in promoting customers' social welfare, using the newly developed products of Yobe Microfinance Bank to encourage inclusion and alleviate poverty in the Yobe communities. Yobe state is ranked bottom as the poorest in the region and scores low on human development and poverty alleviation. It is clearly indicated low education rates, poor implementation of government policies on poverty, and a high rate of financial exclusion. The study adopted a qualitative approach using random sampling to collect data from customers of Yobe Microfinance Bank. Using the acceptability of the newly introduced sharia complaint products of Yobe Microfinance among the people in Yobe state, using the Structural Equation Modelling, a total of 300 respondents completed the survey using a Likert scale. The study employed Structural Equation Modeling to analyze and test reliability and validity to provide accuracy of respondents' information. The finding indicates the positive relationship between Islamic banking products and customer satisfaction. The study concludes that introducing and consistently managing Islamic products can improve social welfare and reduce poverty through financial inclusion in the state.

Keywords: islamic microfinance, social welfare, products, poverty

Procedia PDF Downloads 111

Authors: Omran Alharbi, Victor Lally

Abstract:

In recent decades, a number of educational institutions around the world have come to depend on technology such as the Blackboard system to improve their educational environment. On the other hand, there are many factors that delay the usage of this technology, especially in developing nations such as Saudi Arabia. The goal of this study was to investigate learner’s views of the use of Blackboard in one Saudi university in order to gain a comprehensive view of the factors that delay the implementation of technology in Saudi institutions. This study utilizes a qualitative approach, with data being collected through semi-structured interviews. Six participants from different disciplines took part in this study. The findings indicated that there are two levels of factors that affect students’ use of the Blackboard system. These are factors at the institutional level, such as lack of technical support and lack of training support, which lead to insufficient training related to the Blackboard system. The second level of factors is at the individual level, for example, a lack of teacher motivation and encouragement. In addition, students do not have sufficient levels of skills or knowledge related to how to use the Blackboard in their learning. Conclusion: learners confronted and faced two main types of factors (at the institution level and individual level) that delayed and impeded their learning. Institutions in KSA should take steps and implement strategies to remove or reduce these factors in order to allow students to benefit from the latest technology in their learning.

Keywords: blackboard, factors, KSA, learners

Procedia PDF Downloads 204

Authors: Song Shengli, Tan Zhitao, Li Qing, Fang Husheng, Ye Qing, Zhang Xinglong

Abstract:

Lower extremity power-assisted exoskeleton (LEPEX) is a kind of wearable electromechanical integration intelligent system, walking in synchronization with the wearer, which can assist the wearer walk by means of the driver mounted in the exoskeleton on each joint. In this paper, dynamic analysis and design of the LEPEX are performed. First of all, human walking process is divided into single leg support phase, double legs support phase and ground collision model. The three kinds of dynamics modeling is established using the Lagrange method. Then, the flat walking and climbing stairs dynamic information such as torque and power of lower extremity joints is derived for loading 75kg according to scholar Stansfield measured data of flat walking and scholars R. Riener measured data of climbing stair respectively. On this basis, the joint drive way in the sagittal plane is determined, and the structure of LEPEX is designed. Finally, the designed LEPEX is simulated under ADAMS by using a person’s joint sports information acquired under flat walking and climbing stairs. The simulation result effectively verified the correctness of the structure.

Keywords: kinematics, lower extremity exoskeleton, simulation, structure

Procedia PDF Downloads 414

Authors: Jukka Törrönen

Abstract:

In the article, we examine the interplay between the practices of heavy drinking and exercise among young people as patterned around the ‘social’ and ‘physical health’ approaches. The comparison helps us to clarify why young people are currently drinking less than earlier and how the neoliberal healthism discourse, as well as the feminine tradition of taking care of one’s body, are modifying young people’s heavy drinking practices. The data is based on interviews (n = 56) in Sweden among 15-16-year-olds and 18˗19-year-olds. By drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, field, and capital, we examine what kinds of resources of wellbeing young people accumulate in the fields of heavy drinking and exercise, how these resources carry symbolic value for distinction, and what kind of health-related habitus they imply. The analysis suggests that as heavy drinking is no longer able to stand as a practice through which one may acquire capital that is more valuable than the capital acquired in other fields, this lessens peer pressure to drink among young people. Our analysis further shows that the healthism discourse modifies young people’s heavy drinking practices both from inside and from outside. The interviewees translate the symbolic value of healthism discourse to social vulnerability and deploy it for the purposes of increasing one’s social status among peers. Moreover, our analysis demonstrates that the social spaces and positions in intoxication and exercise are shaped by gendered dualisms of masculine dominance. However, while the interviewees naturalize the gender binaries in intoxication as based on biological drives, they understand gender binaries in exercise as normative social constructions of neoliberal society. As these binaries emphasize the struggle for recognition of the symbolic value of bodily look, they may shift young men’s attention from risk-taking to issues that traditionally have been female concerns.

Keywords: young people, decline in drinking , health, intoxication, exercise, Bourdieu

Procedia PDF Downloads 100

Authors: Nathan Moran, Robert Hanser, Attapol Kuanliang

Abstract:

The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between personal and social resources and burnout for police officers. Current conceptualizations of the condition of burnout are challenged as being too phenomenological and ambiguous, and consequently, not given to direct empirical testing. The conservation of resources model is based on the supposition that people strive to retain, protect, and build resources as a means to protect them from the impacts of burnout. The model proposes that the effects of stress (i.e. burnout) can be manifested in personal and professional attitudes and attributes, which can measure burnout using self-reports to provide strong support for the conservation of resources model, in that, personal and professional demands are related to the exhaustion component of burnout, whereas personal and professional resources can be compiled to counteract the negative impact of the burnout condition. Highly similar patterns of burnout resistance factors were witnessed in police officers in two department precincts (N:81). In addition, results confirmed the positive influence of key demographic variables in burnout resistance using the conservation of resources model. Participants in this study are all sheriff’s deputies with a populous county in a Pacific Northwestern state (N = 274). Four instruments will be used in this quantitative study for data collection (a) a series of demographic questions, (b) the Organizational Citizenship Behavior, (c) the PANAS-X Scale (OCB: Watson& Clark, 1994), and (d) The Maslach Burnout Inventory.

Keywords: behavioral, burnout, law enforcement, quantitative

Procedia PDF Downloads 267

Authors: Inkeri Jääskeläinen

Abstract:

The purpose of this study is to shed light on what is it like to study in apprenticeship training using Finnish as second language. This study examines the stories and experiences of apprenticeship students learning and studying Finnish as part of their vocational studies. Also, this pilot study examines the effects of learning to pronounce Finnish through body motions and gestures. Many foreign students choose apprenticeships and start vocational training too early, while their language skills in Finnish are still very weak. Both duties at work and school assignments require reasonably good general language skills (B1.1) and, especially at work, language skills are also a safety issue. At work students should be able to simultaneously learn Finnish and do vocational studies in a noisy, demanding, and stressing environment. Learning and understanding new things is very challenging under these circumstances and sometimes students get exhausted and experience a lot of stress - which makes learning even more difficult. Students are different from each other and so are their ways to learn. Thereafter, one of the most important features of apprenticeship training and second language learning is good understanding of adult learners and their needs. Kinaesthetic methods are an effective way to support adult students’ cognitive skills and make learning more relaxing and fun. Empirical findings show that language learning can indeed be supported physical ways, by body motions and gestures. The method used here, named TFFL (Touch and Feel Foreign Languages), was designed to support adult language learning, to correct or prevent language fossilization and to help the student to manage emotions. Finnish is considered as a difficult language to learn, mostly because it is so different from nearly all other languages. Many learners complain that they are lost or confused and there is a need to find a way to simultaneously learn the language and to handle negative emotion which come from Finnish language and the learning process itself. Due to the nature of Finnish language good pronunciation skills are needed just to understand the way the language work. Movements (body movements etc.) are a natural part of many cultures but not Finnish – In Finland students have traditionally been expected to stay still and that is not a natural way for many foreign students. However, kinaesthetic TFFL method proved out to be a useful way to help some L2 students to feel phonemes, rhythm and intonation, to improve their Finnish and, thereby, also to successfully complete their vocational studies.

Keywords: Finnish, fossilization, interference, kinaesthetic method

Procedia PDF Downloads 95

Authors: Oto J. Okwu, Ornan Henry, Victor A. Otene

Abstract:

The agricultural sector contributes a great deal to the sustenance of Nigeria’s food security and economy, with an attendant impact on rural development. In spite of the relatively high number of farmers in the country, self-sufficiency in food production is still a challenge. Farmers are faced with myriad problems which hinder their production efficiency, one of which is their access to agricultural inputs required for optimum production. To meet the challenges faced by farmers, the government at the federal level has come up with many agricultural policies, one of which is the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA). The Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GESS) is one of the critical components of ATA, which is aimed at ensuring the effective distribution of agricultural inputs delivered directly to farmers, and at a regulated cost. After about 8 years of launching this policy, it will be necessary to carry out an assessment of GESS and determine the impact it has made on rural farmers with respect to their access to farm inputs. This study was carried out to assess the Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GESS) in Adamawa State, Nigeria. Crop farmers who registered under the GESS in Adamawa State, Nigeria, formed the population for the study. Primary data for the study were obtained through a survey, and the use of a structured questionnaire. A sample size of 167 respondents was selected using multi-stage, purposive, and random sampling techniques. The validity and reliability of the research instrument (questionnaire) were obtained through pilot testing and test-retest method, respectively. The objectives of the study were to determine the difference in the level of access to agricultural inputs before and after GESS, determine the difference in cost of agricultural inputs before and after GESS, and to determine the challenges faced by rural farmers in accessing agricultural inputs through GESS. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used in analyzing the collected data. Specifically, Mann-Whitney, student t-test, and factor analysis were used to test the stated hypotheses. Research findings revealed there was a significant difference in the level of access to farm inputs after the introduction of GESS (Z=14.216). Also, there was a significant difference in the cost of agro-inputs after the introduction of GESS (Pr |T| > |t|= 0.0000). The challenges faced by respondents in accessing agro-inputs through GESS were administrative and technical in nature. Based on the findings of the research, it was recommended that efforts be made by the government to sustain the GESS, as it has significantly improved the level of farmers’ access to agricultural inputs and has reduced the cost of agro-inputs, while administrative challenges faced by the respondents in accessing inputs be addressed by the government, and extension agents assist the farmers to overcome the technical challenges they face in accessing inputs.

Keywords: agricultural policy, agro-inputs, assessment, growth enhancement support scheme, rural farmers

Procedia PDF Downloads 96