Search results for: new public management

Authors: Hyeon-Kyo Lim, Tong-Il Jang, Yong-Hee Lee

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For the past several decades, not a few researchers have warned that even a trivial human error may result in unexpected accidents, especially in Nuclear Power Plants. To prevent accidents in Nuclear Power Plants, it is quite indispensable to make any factors under the effective control that may raise the possibility of human errors for accident prevention. This study aimed to develop a risk management program, especially in the sense that guaranteeing Fitness-for-Duty (FFD) of human beings working in Nuclear Power Plants. Throughout a literal survey, it was found that work stress and fatigue are major psychophysical factors requiring sophisticated management. A set of major management factors related to work stress and fatigue was through repetitive literal surveys and classified into several categories. To maintain the fitness of human workers, a 4-level – individual worker, team, staff within plants, and external professional - approach was adopted for FFD management program. Moreover, the program was arranged to envelop the whole employment cycle from selection and screening of workers, job allocation, and job rotation. Also, a managerial care program was introduced for employee assistance based on the concept of Employee Assistance Program (EAP). The developed program was reviewed with repetition by ex-operators in nuclear power plants, and assessed in the affirmative. As a whole, responses implied additional treatment to guarantee high performance of human workers not only in normal operations but also in emergency situations. Consequently, the program is under administrative modification for practical application.

Keywords: fitness-for-duty (FFD), human error, work stress, fatigue, Employee-Assistance-Program (EAP)

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Authors: Radu Deju, Carmen Mustata

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The VVR-S nuclear research reactor owned by Horia Hubulei National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN-HH) was designed for research and radioisotope production, being permanently shut-down in 2002, after 40 years of operation. All amount of the nuclear spent fuel S-36 and EK-10 type was returned to Russian Federation (first in 2009 and last in 2012), and the radioactive waste resulted from the reprocessing of it will remain permanently in the Russian Federation. The decommissioning strategy chosen is immediate dismantling. At this moment, the radionuclides with half-life shorter than 1 year have a minor contribution to the contamination of materials and equipment used in reactor department. The decommissioning of the reactor has started in 2010 and is planned to be finalized in 2020, being the first nuclear research reactor that has started the decommissioning project from the South-East of Europe. The management system applied in the decommissioning of the VVR-S research reactor integrates all common elements of management: nuclear safety, occupational health and safety, environment, quality- compliance with the requirements for decommissioning activities, physical protection and economic elements. This paper presents the application of integrated management system in decommissioning of systems, structures, equipment and components (SSEC) from pumps room, including the management of the resulted radioactive waste. The primary cooling system of this type of reactor includes circulation pumps, heat exchangers, degasser, filter ion exchangers, piping connection, drainage system and radioactive leaks. All the decommissioning activities of primary circuit were performed in stage 2 (year 2014), and they were developed and recorded according to the applicable documents, within the requirements of the Regulatory Body Licenses. In the presentation there will be emphasized how the integrated management system provisions are applied in the dismantling of the primary cooling system, for elaboration, approval, application of necessary documentation, records keeping before, during and after the dismantling activities. Radiation protection and economics are the key factors for the selection of the proper technology. Dedicated and advanced technologies were chosen to perform specific tasks. Safety aspects have been taken into consideration. Resource constraints have also been an important issue considered in defining the decommissioning strategy. Important aspects like radiological monitoring of the personnel and areas, decontamination, waste management and final characterization of the released site are demonstrated and documented.

Keywords: decommissioning, integrated management system, nuclear reactor, waste management

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Authors: Odeh Linus

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The pace of globalization is increasing continuously in terms of markets for goods and services, investment opportunities across borders amongst others. Enterprises face competition from all fronts. Human resource management is not left out in this transformation crusade as it has obligation to move along with the changing demands of the globalization process. One of the objectives of this paper is to show that effective managers should constantly be aware of the changes taking place in domestic (home country) environment, as well as around the globe (international and foreign environments) on HR issues and developments. By so doing, they can scan their environment on an ongoing basis, and when they detect opportunities and/or threats, they can transform their organization to seize the opportunities and/or combat or neutralize the threats as the case may be. In this presentation, problems, issues and trends in HRM practice in Nigeria in the current period were reviewed. The factors affecting HRM and its practice in a global context and what should be the direction of the profession and its practice in Nigeria constitute the main focus of this paper.

Keywords: human resource, globalization, management, developing countries

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Authors: Somtop Keawchuer

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The objectives of this research are to compare the satisfaction of students, towards the happiness learning, sorted by their personal profiles, and to figure out the factors that affect the students’ happiness learning. This paper used survey method to collect data from 362 students. The survey was mainly conducted in the Faculty of Management Science, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, including 3,443 students. The statistics used for interpreting the results included the frequencies, percentages, standard deviations and One-way ANOVA. The findings revealed that the students are aware and satisfaction that all the factors in 3 categories (knowledge, skill and attitude) influence the happiness learning at the highest levels. The comparison of the satisfaction levels of the students toward their happiness learning leads to the results that the students with different genders, ages, years of study, and majors of the study have the similar satisfaction at the high level.

Keywords: happiness, learning satisfaction, students, Faculty of Management Science

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Authors: Mpai Mokoena, Nsenda Lukumwena

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South Africa is one of the driest countries in the world and is facing a water crisis. In addition to inadequate infrastructure and poor planning, the country is experiencing high rates of water wastage due to pipe leaks. This study outlines the level of water wastage and develops a smart solution to efficiently manage and reduce the effects of pipe leaks, while monitoring the situation before and after fixing the pipe leaks. To understand the issue in depth, a literature review of journal papers and government reports was conducted. A questionnaire was designed and distributed to the general public. Additionally, the municipality office was contacted from a managerial perspective. The analysis from the study indicated that the majority of the citizens are aware of the water crisis and are willing to participate positively to decrease the level of water wasted. Furthermore, the response from the municipality acknowledged that more practical solutions are needed to reduce water wastage, and resources to attend to pipe leaks swiftly. Therefore, this paper proposes a specific solution for municipalities, local plumbers and citizens to minimize the effects of pipe leaks. The solution provides web and mobile application platforms to report and manage leaks swiftly. The solution is beneficial to the country in achieving water security and would promote a culture of responsibility toward water usage.

Keywords: urban distribution networks, leak management, mobile application, responsible citizens, water crisis, water security

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Authors: Javed Mohammed

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As urbanization process has been and will be happening in an unprecedented scale worldwide, strong requirements from academic research and practical fields for smart management and intelligent planning of cities are pressing to handle increasing demands of infrastructure and potential risks of inhabitants agglomeration in disaster management. Geo-spatial data and Geographic Information System (GIS) are essential components for building smart cities in a basic way that maps the physical world into virtual environment as a referencing framework. On higher level, GIS has been becoming very important in smart cities on different sectors. In the digital city era, digital maps and geospatial databases have long been integrated in workflows in land management, urban planning and transportation in government. People have anticipated GIS to be more powerful not only as an archival and data management tool but also as spatial models for supporting decision-making in intelligent cities. The purpose of this project is to offer observations and analysis based on a detailed discussion of Geographic Information Systems( GIS) driven Framework towards the development of Smart and Sustainable Cities through high penetration of Renewable Energy Technologies.

Keywords: digital maps, geo-spatial, geographic information system, smart cities, renewable energy, urban planning

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Authors: Phusit Phukamchanoad

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The research studies the behaviors based on sufficiency economy philosophy at individual and community levels as well as the satisfaction of the urban community leaders by collecting data with purposive sampling technique. For in-depth interviews with 26 urban community leaders, the result shows that the urban community leaders have good knowledge and understanding about sufficiency economy philosophy. Especially in terms of money spending, they must consider the need for living and be economical. The activities in the community or society should not take advantage of the others as well as colleagues. At present, most of the urban community leaders live in a sufficient way. They often spend time with public service, but many families are dealing with debt. Many communities have some political conflict and high family allowances because of living in the urban communities with rapid social and economic changes. However, there are many communities that leaders have applied their wisdom in development for their people by gathering and grouping the professionals to form activities such as making chili sauce, textile organization, making artificial flowers worshipping the sanctity. The most prominent group is the foot massage business in Wat Pracha Rabue Tham. This professional group is supported continuously by the government. One of the factors in terms of satisfaction used for evaluating community leaders is the customary administration in brotherly, interdependent way rather than using the absolute power or controlling power, but using the roles of leader to perform the activities with their people intently, determinedly and having a public mind for people.

Keywords: performance and activities, sufficiency economy, urban communities leader, Dusit district

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Authors: Milena Lakicevic

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The paper deals with the problem of optimizing management options for urban parks within different scenarios of nature protection and tourism importance. The procedure is demonstrated on a case study example of urban parks in Novi Sad (Serbia). Six management strategies for the selected area have been processed by the decision support method PROMETHEE. Two criteria used for the evaluation were nature protection and tourism and each of them has been divided into a set of indicators: for nature protection those were biodiversity and preservation of original landscape, while for tourism those were recreation potential, aesthetic values, accessibility and culture features. It was pre-assumed that each indicator in a set is equally important to a corresponding criterion. This way, the research was focused on a sensitivity analysis of criteria weights. In other words, weights of indicators were fixed and weights of criteria altered along the entire scale (from the value of 0 to the value of 1), and the assessment has been performed in two-dimensional surrounding. As a result, one could conclude which management strategy would be the most appropriate along with changing of criteria importance. The final ranking of management alternatives was followed up by investigating the mean PROMETHEE Φ values for all options considered and when altering the importance of nature protection/tourism. This type of analysis enabled detecting an alternative with a solid performance along the entire scale, i.e., regardlessly of criteria importance. That management strategy can be seen as a compromise solution when the weight of criteria is not defined. As a conclusion, it can be said that, in some cases, instead of having criteria importance fixed it is important to test the outputs depending on the different schemes of criteria weighting. The research demonstrates the state of the final decision when the decision maker can estimate criteria importance, but also in cases when the importance of criteria is not established or known.

Keywords: criteria weights, PROMETHEE, sensitivity analysis, urban parks

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Authors: Sharifah I. N. A. Syed Azmi, Nazarina Mohd Nasir

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The Billing & Customer Relationship Management (BCRM) project is an important enabler towards realizing customer experience transformation. It involves technological shifts for future scalability, revision of multiple business processes and adoption of change by the users and impacted employees. This massive transition, if not managed properly, may result in the decline of business performance due to productivity drop. Organizational change management is an essential element in BCRM project implementation to ensure the system is well understood and embraced by all stakeholders. In order to move impacted employees from unaware state or denial mode to full-acceptance mindset and committing themselves in using the new system, their involvement in the whole change process starting from the initial stage is imperative. Through the BCRM Change Management Plan, a holistic approach was taken whereby the strategy and program for five key components namely executive sponsorship, continuous communication, process change readiness, organizational readiness and individual readiness were all carefully established. Roles of the project sponsor, change agents, change ambassadors and community of practice (CoP) were clearly defined in gaining high commitment and support across the entire organization. Continuous communication and engagement initiatives throughout project implementation have been carried out to reach all stakeholders. The business readiness was constantly monitored and assessed including effectiveness of end-user training, thorough review of process documentation and completion of roles realignment exercise.

Keywords: BCRM, change management, organizational change, transformation project

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Authors: Muhlisin, Moh. Sofyan Budiarto

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Corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives based on charity and philanthropy have not alleviated many sustainable environmental issues, particularly in industrial towns. The collaborative governance strategy is seen to be an option for resolving difficulties of coordination and communication between businesses, the government, and the community so that the goals of urban environmental management can be met via collaborative efforts. The purpose of this research is to identify the different forms of environmental CSR implementation by corporate entities and to create a CSR collaborative governance model in environmental management. This qualitative investigation was carried out in 2020 in Cilegon City, one of Indonesia’s industrial cities. To investigate their support, a total of 20 informants from three stakeholder groups, namely the government, corporate entities, and the community, were questioned. According to the study’s findings, cleaner production, eco-office, energy and natural resource conservation, waste management, renewable energy, climate change adaptation, and environmental education are all examples of CSR application in the environmental sector. The environmental potential of CSR implementation is to create collaborative governance. The role of business entities in providing the beginning circumstances is critical, while the government offers facilitative leadership and the CSR forum launches institutional design. These three factors are crucial to the efficiency of collaborative governance in industrial cities' environmental management.

Keywords: collaborative governance, CSR forum, environmental CSR, industrial city

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Authors: Sandesh Achar

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Cloud computing security is a broad term that covers a variety of security concerns for organizations that use cloud services. Multi-cloud service providers must consider several factors when addressing security for their customers, including identity and access management, data at rest and in transit, egress and ingress traffic control, vulnerability and threat management, and auditing. This paper explores each of these aspects of cloud security in detail and provides recommendations for best practices for multi-cloud service providers. It also discusses the challenges inherent in securing a multi-cloud environment and offers solutions for overcoming these challenges. By the end of this paper, readers should have a good understanding of the various security concerns associated with multi-cloud environments in the context of today’s modern cyber threats and how to address them.

Keywords: multi-cloud service, system organization control, data loss prevention, identity and access management

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Authors: Vani Chintapally

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The expansion of modest and minimized Global Positioning System (GPS) beneficiaries has prompted most Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) frameworks today depending solely on satellite-based finding frameworks, as GPS is the most stable usage of these. This paper shows the attributes of a proposed framework for following and dissecting open transport in a run of the mill medium-sized city and complexities the qualities of such a framework to those of broadly useful AVL frameworks. Particular properties of the courses broke down by the AVL framework utilized for the examination of open transport in our study incorporate cyclic vehicle courses, the requirement for particular execution reports, and so forth. This paper particularly manages vehicle movement forecasts and the estimation of station landing time, combined with consequently produced reports on timetable conformance and other execution measures. Another side of the watched issue is proficient exchange of information from the vehicles to the control focus. The pervasiveness of GSM bundle information exchange advancements combined with decreased information exchange expenses have brought on today's AVL frameworks to depend predominantly on parcel information exchange administrations from portable administrators as the correspondences channel in the middle of vehicles and the control focus. This methodology brings numerous security issues up in this conceivably touchy application field.

Keywords: automatic vehicle location (AVL), expectation of landing times, AVL security, data administrations, wise transport frameworks (ITS), guide coordinating

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Authors: Juan-Gabriel Cegarra-Navarro, Alexeis Garcia-Perez, Denise Bedford

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This paper provides guidelines for what constitutes a knowledge worker. Many graduates from non-managerial domains adopt, at some point in their professional careers, management roles at different levels, ranging from team leaders through to executive leadership. This is particularly relevant for professionals from an engineering background. Moving from a technical to an executive-level requires an understanding of those behaviour management techniques that can motivate and support individuals and their performance. Further, the transition to management also demands a shift of contextual enablers from tangible to intangible resources, which allows individuals to create new capacities, competencies, and capabilities. In this dynamic process, the knowledge worker becomes that key individual who can help members of the management board to transform information into relevant knowledge. However, despite its relevance in shaping the future of the organization in its transition to the knowledge economy, the role of a knowledge worker has not yet been studied to an appropriate level in the current literature. In this study, the authors review both the contextual enablers and behaviour outputs related to the role of the knowledge worker and relate these to their ability to deal with everyday management issues such as knowledge heterogeneity, varying motivations, information overload, or outdated information. This study highlights that the aggregate of capacities, competences and capabilities (CCCs) can be defined as knowledge structures, the study proposes several contextual enablers and behaviour outputs that knowledge workers can use to work cooperatively, acquire, distribute and knowledge. Therefore, this study contributes to a better comprehension of how CCCs can be managed at different levels through their contextual enablers and behaviour outputs.

Keywords: knowledge workers, capabilities, capacities, competences, knowledge structures

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Authors: Yendo Hu, Xu-Yu Wu, Dylan Oh

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GPS-Denied drones open the possibility of indoor applications, including dynamic arial surveillance, inspection, safety enforcement, and discovery. Indoor swarming further enhances these applications in accuracy, robustness, operational time, and coverage. For micro-drones, power management becomes a critical issue, given the battery payload restriction. This paper proposes an application enabling battery replacement solution that extends the micro-drone active phase without human intervention. First, a framework to quantify the effectiveness of a power management solution for a drone fleet is proposed. The operation-to-non-operation ratio, ONR, gives one a quantitative benchmark to measure the effectiveness of a power management solution. Second, a survey was carried out to evaluate the ONR performance for the various solutions. Third, through analysis, this paper proposes a solution tailored to the indoor micro-drone, suitable for swarming applications. The proposed automated battery replacement solution, along with a modified micro-drone architecture, was implemented along with the associated micro-drone. Fourth, the system was tested and compared with the various solutions within the industry. Results show that the proposed solution achieves an ONR value of 31, which is a 1-fold improvement of the best alternative option. The cost analysis shows a manufacturing cost of $25, which makes this approach viable for cost-sensitive markets (e.g., consumer). Further challenges remain in the area of drone design for automated battery replacement, landing pad/drone production, high-precision landing control, and ONR improvements.

Keywords: micro-drone, battery swap, battery replacement, battery recharge, landing pad, power management

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Authors: Jareeluk Ratanaphan

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The purposed of this research were; 1. To survey the teacher’s needs on knowledge about special education management for special needs student 2. Development of distance training packages for teacher on special education management for special needs student 3. to study the effects of using the packages on trainee’s achievement 4. to study the effects of using the packages on trainee’s opinion on the distance training packages. The design of the experiment was research and development. The research sample for survey were 86 teachers, and 22 teachers for study the effects of using the packages on achievement and opinion. The research instrument comprised: 1) training packages on special education management for special needs student 2) achievement test 3) questionnaire. Mean, percentage, standard deviation, t-test and content analysis were used for data analysis. The findings of the research were as follows: 1. The teacher’s needs on knowledge about teaching for a learner with learning disability, mental retardation, autism, physical and health impairment and research in special education. 2. The package composed of special education management for special needs student document and manual of distance training packages. The document consisted by the name of packages, the explanation for the educator, content’s structure, concept, objectives, content and activities. Manual of distance training packages consisted by the explanation about a document, objectives, explanation about using the package, training schedule, and evaluation. The efficiency of packages was established at 79.50/81.35. 3. The results of using the packages were the posttest average scores of trainee’s achievement were higher than the pretest. 4. The trainee’s opinion on the package was at the highest level.

Keywords: distance training package, teacher, learner with special needs

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Authors: Beryl Apondi Obola

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Introduction: Mosquitoes are known to transmit various diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, and Zika virus. Mosquito repellents are commonly used to prevent mosquito bites. However, some of these repellents contain chemicals that can be harmful to human health and the environment. Therefore, there is a need to find alternative mosquito repellents that are safe and effective. Objective: The objective of this research is to investigate the effectiveness of banana leaves as an alternative mosquito repellent on Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax. Methodology: The research will be conducted in two phases. In the first phase, the repellent properties of banana leaves will be tested in a laboratory setting. The leaves will be crushed and mixed with water to extract the active ingredients. The extract will be tested against mosquitoes in a controlled environment. The number of mosquitoes that are repelled by the extract will be recorded. In the second phase, the effectiveness of the banana leaf extract will be tested in the field. The extract will be applied to the skin of human volunteers, and the number of mosquito bites will be recorded. The results will be compared to a commercially available mosquito repellent. Expected Outcomes: The expected outcome of this research is to determine whether banana leaves can be used as an effective mosquito repellent. If the results are positive, banana leaves could be used as an alternative to chemical-based mosquito repellents. Conclusion: Banana leaves have been used for various purposes in traditional medicine. This research aims to investigate the potential of banana leaves as an alternative mosquito repellent. The results of this research could have significant implications for public health and the environment

Keywords: banana leaf extract, mosquito repellant, plasmodium falciparum, public health

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Authors: A. Kulprasutidilok

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In order to address the social factors of elderly health care, researcher and community members have turned to more inclusive and participatory approaches to research and interventions. One such approach, community-based participatory research (CBPR) in public health, has received increased attention as the academic and public health communities struggle to address the persistent problems of disparities in the use of health care and health outcomes for several over the past decade. As Thailand becomes an ageing society, health services and proper care systems specifically for the elderly group need to be prepared and well established. The purpose of this assignment was to study the health problems and was to explore the process of community participation in elderly health care. Participants in this study were member of elderly group of Paisanee Ramintra 65 community in Bangkok, Thailand. The results indicated two important components of community participation process in elderly health care: 1) a process to develop community participation in elderly health care, and 2) outcomes resulting from such process. The development of community participation consisted of four processes. As for the outcomes of the community participation development process, they consisted of elderly in the community got jointly and formulated a group, which strengthened the project because of collaborative supervision among themselves. Moreover, inactive health care services have changed to being energetic and focus on health promotion rather than medical achievement and elderly association of community can perform health care activities for chronically illness through the achievement of this development; consequently, they increasingly gained access to physical, cognitive, and social activity.

Keywords: community-based participatory research, elderly, heath care, Thailand.

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Authors: Diego Espinoza-Piedra, David Duran

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All architectural and land use processes are framed in a cultural, social and geographical context. The present study analyzes the Andean culture before the Spanish conquest in southern Ecuador, in the province of Azuay. This area has been habited for more than 10.000 years. The Canari and the Inca cultures occupied Azuay close to the arrival of the Spanish conquers. The Inca culture was settled in the Andes Mountains. The Canari culture was established in the south of Ecuador, on the actual provinces of Azuay and Canar. In contrast with history and archeology, to the best of our knowledge, their architecture has not yet been studied in this area because of the lack of architectural structures. Consequently, the present research reviewed the land use and culture for architectonic interpretations. The two main architectural objects in these cultures were dwellings and public buildings. In the first case, housing was conceived as temporary. It had to stand as long as its inhabitants lived. Therefore, houses were built when a couple got married. The whole community started the construction through the so-called ‘minga’ or collective work. The construction materials were tree branches, reeds, agave, ground, and straw. So that when their owners aged and then died, this house was easily disarmed and overthrown. Their materials become part of the land for agriculture. Finally, this cycle was repeated indefinitely. In the second case, the buildings, which we can call public, have presented erroneous interpretations. They have been defined as temples. But according to our conclusions, they were places for temporary accommodation, storage of objects and products, and in some special cases, even astronomical observatories. These public buildings were settled along the important road system called ‘Capac-Nam’, currently declared by UNESCO as World Cultural Heritage. The buildings had different scales at regular distances. Also, they were established in special or strategic places, which constituted a system of observatories. These observatories allowed to determine the cycles or calendars (solar or lunar) necessary for the agricultural production, as well as other natural phenomena. Most of the current minimal existence of physical structures in quantity and state of conservation is at the level of foundations or pieces of walls. Therefore, this study was realized after the identification of the history and culture of the inhabitants of this Andean region.

Keywords: Andean, pre-Colombian architecture, Southern Ecuador, sustainable

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Authors: Saul Emilio Rivero Mejia, Estefanya Marin Tabares, Carlos Andres Rodriguez Toro, Katherine Bolano Restrepo, Sarita Santa Cortes

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Medellin is the Colombian city with the best public transportation system in the country, which is composed of two subway lines, five metro cables, two Bus Rapid Transit lines, and a streetcar. But despite the above, the Aburra Valley, the area in which the city is located, comparatively speaking, has a lower number of urban roads per inhabitant built, compared to the national average. In addition, since there is approximately one vehicle for every three inhabitants in Medellin, the problems of congestion and environmental pollution have become more acute over the years, and it has even been necessary to implement restrictive measures to the use of private vehicles on a permanent basis. In that sense, due to the limitations of physical space, the low public investment in road infrastructure, it is necessary to opt for mobility alternatives according to the above. Within the options for the city, there is what is known as micromobility. Micromobility is understood as those small and light means of transport used to travel short distances, which use electrical energy, such as skateboards and bicycles. These transport alternatives have a high potential for use by the city's young population, but this requires an adequate infrastructure and also state regulation. Taking into account the above, this paper will analyze the current state and future of micro mobility in the city of Medellin, making a prospective analysis, supported by a PEST (political, economic, social and technological) analysis. Based on the above, it is expected to identify the growth of demand for these alternative means and its impact on the mobility of the city in the medium and short term.

Keywords: electric, micromobility, transport, sustainable

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Authors: Ivana Tadic, Snjezana Pivac

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Although human resources are recognized as the crucial companies’ resources and their positive influence on companies’ performances has been confirmed through different researches, scientists are still debating it. In order to contribute this debate, this paper firstly discusses the most important human resource management elements and practices and its influence on companies’ success. Afterwards it defines human resource “bundles” – interrelated and internally consistent human resource practices, complementary to each other, or the most important human resource practices and elements regarding Croatian companies and its human resource management activities. Finally, the paper provides empirical results; more precisely it reveals the relation of the level of development of human resource management function (“bundles”) and companies’ financial performances (using profitability ratios, liquidity ratios, solvency ratios and a group of additional ratios related to employees’ indicators).

Keywords: companies’ performances, human resource bundles, multivariate statistical analysis, marketing

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Authors: Karish Thavabalan, Aman Sutaria, Alistair Ovenell, Annabelle Parkhouse, Numan Baydemir, Theodore Lally

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Background: Open discussions surrounding menopause are often associated with stigma, with many women feeling uncomfortable engaging in them with friends, colleagues, and healthcare professionals. Though the barriers regarding safe discussions of symptom management experienced by menopausal women are well documented, existing research offers little insight into whether these were shared by pre-menopausal women. This study aimed to explore the barriers regarding safe discussions about menopausal symptom management as perceived or experienced by pre-menopausal and menopausal women. Methods: This qualitative study was conducted over a 2-month period (March 2022 - April 2022) under the auspices of Imperial College Business School, London, UK. Snowball sampling was used to recruit both menopausal (age 45-70) and pre-menopausal participants (age <45) and sampling continued until data saturation was achieved. Sixteen semi-structured online interviews were conducted, and transcripts were thematically analyzed following Braun and Clarke’s six-step methodology. Results: A total of 7 higher themes regarding safe discussion of menopausal symptom management were identified by both pre-menopausal and menopausal women, including: “ineffective coping mechanisms,” “perceived onus to self-endure,” “lack of workplace support,” “poor knowledge of management approaches,” “poor healthcare infrastructure,” “poor support from friends and family,” “lack of knowledge and interest from a young age.” Conclusion: Identifying the barriers regarding safe discussion helped to highlight which areas require the most significant intervention. Alongside tackling the barriers, menopausal women face, ultimately, there is a pertinent need to address the lack of insight into menopause from a younger age and to encourage earlier discussions so as to not propagate the cycle of stigma.

Keywords: menopause, safe discussion, symptom management, stigma

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Authors: Suneet Jagdev, Hrishabh Amrodia, Siddharth Menon, Abhishek Singh, Mansi Shivhare

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Delhi, the National Capital, has undergone a surge in development rate, consequently engendering an unprecedented increase in population. Over the years the city has transformed into a car-centric infrastructure with high-speed corridors, flyovers and fast lanes. A considerable section of the population is hankering to rehabilitate to the good old cycling days, in order to contribute towards a green environment as well as to maintain their physical well-being. Furthermore, an extant section of Delhi’s population relies on cycles as their primary means of commuting in the city. Delhi has the highest number of cyclists and second highest number of pedestrians in the country. However, the tumultuous problems of unregulated traffic, inadequate space on roads, adverse weather conditions stifle them to opt for cycling. Lately, the city has been facing a conglomeration of problems such as haphazard traffic movement, clogged roads, congestion, pollution, accidents, safety issues, etc. In 1957, Delhi’s cyclists accounted for 36 per cent of trips which dropped down to a mere 4 per cent in 2008. The declining rate is due to unsafe roads and lack of proper cycle lanes. Now as the 10 percent of the city has cycle tracks. There is also a lack of public recreational activities in the city. These conundrums incite the need of a covered elevated cycling bridge track to facilitate the safe and smooth cycle commutation in the city which would also serve the purpose of an alternate urban public space over the cycle bridge reducing the cost as well as the space requirement for the same, developing a user–friendly transportation and public interaction system for urban areas in the city. Based on the archival research methodologies, the following research draws information and extracts records from the data accounts of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. as well as the Centre for Science and Environment, India. This research will predominantly focus on developing a prototype design for high speed elevated bicycle lanes based on different road typologies, which can be replicated with minor variations in similar situations, all across the major cities of our country including the proposed smart cities. Furthermore, how these cycling lanes could be utilized for the place making process accommodating cycle parking and renting spaces, public recreational spaces, food courts as well as convenient shopping facilities with appropriate optimization. How to preserve and increase the share of smooth and safe cycling commute cycling for the routine transportation of the urban community of the polluted capital which has been on a steady decline over the past few decades.

Keywords: bicycle track, prototype, road safety, urban spaces

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Authors: Hermann Luecken, Young Won Park, Judith M. Puetter

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Quality is known to be the accordance of product characteristics and customer requirements. Both the customer requirements and the assessment of the characteristics of the product with regard to the fulfillment of customer requirements are subject to cultural influences. Of course, the processes itself which lead to product manufacturing is also subject to cultural influences. In the first point, the cultural background of the customer influences the quality, in the second point, it is the cultural background of the employees and the company that influences the process itself. In times of globalization products are manufactured at different locations around the world, but typically the quality management system of the country in which the mother company is based is used. This leads to significantly different results in terms of productivity, product quality and process efficiency at the different locations, although the same quality management system is in use. The aim of an efficient and effective quality management system is therefore not doing the same at all locations, but to have the same result at all locations. In the past, standardization was used to achieve the same results. Recent investigations show that this is not the best way to achieve the same characteristics of product quality and production performance. In the present work, it is shown that the consideration of cultural aspects in the design of processes, production systems, and quality management systems results in a significantly higher efficiency and a quality improvement. Both Japanese and German companies were investigated with comparative interviews. The background of this selection is that in most cases the cultural difference regarding industrial processes between Germany and Japan is high. At the same time, however, the customer expectations regarding the product quality are very similar. Interviews were conducted with experts from German and Japanese companies; in particular, companies were selected that operate production facilities both in Germany and in Japan. The comparison shows that the cultural influence on the respective production performance is significant. Companies that adapt the design of their quality management and production systems to the country where the production site is located have a significantly higher productivity and a significantly higher quality of the product than companies that work with a centralized system.

Keywords: comparison of German and Japanese production systems, cultural influence on quality management, expert interviews, process efficiency

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Authors: Sanjivrao Katakam, Thanumoorthi I., Antony Gerald, Ratan Kulkarni, Shaju Nair

Abstract:

With increasing energy costs and its impact on the business, sustainability today has evolved from a social expectation to an economic imperative. Therefore, finding methods to reduce cost has become a critical directive for Industry leaders. Effective energy management is the only way to cut costs. However, Energy Management has been a challenge because it requires a change in old habits and legacy systems followed for decades. Today exorbitant levels of energy and operational data is being captured and stored by Industries, but they are unable to convert these structured and unstructured data sets into meaningful business intelligence. It must be noted that for quick decisions, organizations must learn to cope with large volumes of operational data in different formats. Energy analytics not only helps in extracting inferences from these data sets, but also is instrumental in transformation from old approaches of energy management to new. This in turn assists in effective decision making for implementation. It is the requirement of organizations to have an established corporate strategy for reducing operational costs through visibility and optimization of energy usage. Energy analytics play a key role in optimization of operations. The paper describes how today energy data analytics is extensively used in different scenarios like reducing operational costs, predicting energy demands, optimizing network efficiency, asset maintenance, improving customer insights and device data insights. The paper also highlights how analytics helps transform insights obtained from energy data into sustainable solutions. The paper utilizes data from an array of segments such as retail, transportation, and water sectors.

Keywords: energy analytics, energy management, operational data, business intelligence, optimization

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Authors: Funmilayo L. Amao, Amos O. Amao

Abstract:

It has been observed that majority of the people are living in poor housing quality or totally homeless in urban center despite all governmental policies to provide housing to the public. On the supply side, various government policies in the past have been formulated towards overcoming the huge shortage through several Housing Reform Programmes. Despite these past efforts, housing continues to be a mirage to ordinary Nigerian. Currently, there are various mass housing delivery programmes such as the affordable housing scheme that utilize the Public Private Partnership effort and several Private Finance Initiative models could only provide for about 3% of the required stock. This suggests the need for a holistic solution in approaching the problem. The aim of this research is to find out the problems hindering the delivery of housing in Nigeria and its effects on housing affordability. The specific objectives are to identify the causes of housing delivery problems, to examine different housing policies over years and to suggest a way out for sustainable housing delivery. This paper also reviews the past and current housing delivery programmes in Nigeria and analyses the demand and supply side issues. It identifies the various housing delivery mechanisms in current practice. The objective of this paper, therefore, is to give you an insight into the delivery option for the sustainability of housing in Nigeria, given the existing delivery structures and the framework specified in the New National Housing Policy. The secondary data were obtained from books, journals and seminar papers. The conclusion is that we cannot copy models from other nations, but should rather evolve workable models based on our socio-cultural background to address the huge housing shortage in Nigeria. Recommendations are made in this regard.

Keywords: housing, sustainability, housing delivery, housing policy, housing affordability

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Authors: R. Gupta, P. Jain, S. Das

Abstract:

One way to approach construction scheduling optimization problem is to focus on the individual aspects of planning, which can be broadly classified as time scheduling, crew and resource management, and cost control. During the last four decades, construction planning has seen a lot of research, but to date, no paper had attempted to summarize the literature available under important heads. This paper addresses each of aspects separately, and presents the findings of an in-depth literature of the various planning techniques. For techniques dealing with time scheduling, the authors have adopted a rough chronological documentation. For crew and resource management, classification has been done on the basis of the different steps involved in the resource planning process. For cost control, techniques dealing with both estimation of costs and the subsequent optimization of costs have been dealt with separately.

Keywords: construction planning techniques, time scheduling, resource planning, cost control

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Authors: Chen Xi, LIU Xuebin, Kuan Sinman, LI Haofeng, Huang Hongming, Zeng Chengyu, Lao Xuerui

Abstract:

Stray animals are on the rise in mainland China's cities. There are legal reasons for this, namely the lack of protection for domestic pets in mainland China, where only wildlife protection laws exist. At a social level, the ease with which families adopt pets and the lack of a social view of animal nature have led to the frequent abandonment and loss of stray animals. If left unmanaged, conflicts between humans and stray animals can also increase. This project provides an inexpensive and widely applicable management tool for urban management by collecting videos and pictures of stray animals captured by surveillance or transmitted by humans and using artificial intelligence technology (mainly using Yolov5 recognition technology) and recording and managing them in a database.

Keywords: urban planning, urban governance, artificial intelligence, convolutional neural network, machine vision

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Authors: Nita Mitra, Pranab Chanda

Abstract:

In this paper, the issue of attitude-behavior consistency has been addressed in the context of climate change. Scientists (about 98 percent) opine that human behavior has a significant role in climate change. Such climate changes are harmful for human life. Thus, it is natural to conclude that only change of human behavior can avoid harmful consequences. Government and Non-Government Organizations are taking steps to bring in the desired changes in behavior. However, it seems that although the efforts are achieving changes in the attitudes to some degree, those steps are failing to materialize the corresponding behavioral changes. This has been a great concern for environmentalists. Psychologists have noticed the problem as a particular case of the general psychological problem of making attitude and behavior consistent with each other. The present study is in continuation of a previous work of the same author based upon descriptive research on the status of attitude and behavior of the people of a foot-hill region of the Himalayas in India regarding climate change. The observations confirm the mismatch of attitude and behavior of the people of the region with respect to climate change. While doing so an attitude-behavior mismatch has been noticed with respect to the acceptance of psychological findings by the public. People have been found to be interested in Psychology as an important subject, but they are reluctant to take the observations of psychologists seriously. A comparative study in this regard has been made with similar studies done elsewhere. Finally, an attempt has been made to perceive observations in the framework of observational learning due to Bandura's and behavior change due to Lewin.

Keywords: acceptance of psychological variables, attitude-behavior consistency, behavior change, climate change, observational learning

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Authors: Gruffydd E. Jones

Abstract:

The world’s largest collection of historical, cultural, and heritage material is unarchived and undocumented in the hands of the public. Not only does this material represent the missing collections in heritage sector archives today, but it is also the key to providing a diverse range of communities with the means to express their history in their own words and to celebrate their unique, personal heritage. The People’s Collection Wales (PCW) acts as a platform on which the heritage of Wales and her people can be collated and shared, at the heart of which is a thriving community engagement programme across a network of museums, archives, and libraries. By providing communities with the archival skillset commonly employed throughout the heritage sector, PCW enables local projects, societies, and individuals to express their understanding of local heritage with their own voices, empowering communities to embrace their diverse and complex identities around Wales. Drawing on key examples from the project’s history, this paper will demonstrate the successful way in which museums have been developed as hubs for community engagement where the public was at the heart of collection and documentation activities, informing collection and curatorial policies to benefit both the institute and its local community. This paper will also highlight how collections from marginalised, under-represented, and minority communities have been published and celebrated extensively around Wales, including adoption by the education system in classrooms today. Any activity within the heritage sector, whether of collection, preservation, digitisation, or accessibility, should be considerate of community engagement opportunities not only to remain relevant but in order to develop as community hubs, pivots around which local heritage is supported and preserved. Attention will be drawn to our digitisation workflow, which, through training and support from museums and libraries, has allowed the public not only to become involved but to actively lead the contemporary evolution of documentation strategies in Wales. This paper will demonstrate how the PCW online access archive is promoting museum collections, encouraging user interaction, and providing an invaluable platform on which a broader community can inform, preserve and celebrate their cultural heritage through their own archival material too. The continuing evolution of heritage engagement depends wholly on placing communities at the heart of the sector, recognising their wealth of cultural knowledge, and developing the archival skillset necessary for them to become archival practitioners of their own.

Keywords: social history, cultural heritage, community heritage, museums, archives, libraries, community engagement, oral history, community archives

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Authors: Amany A. Ragheb, Ghada Ragheb, Abd ElRahman A.

Abstract:

Egypt has a countless heritage of mansions, castles, cities, towns, villages, industrial and manufacturing sites. This richness of heritage provides endless and matchless prospects for culture. Despite being famous worldwide, Egypt’s heritage still is in constant need of protection. Political conflicts and religious revolutions form a direct threat to buildings in various areas, historic, archaeological sites, and religious monuments. Egypt has witnessed two revolutions in less than 60 years; both had an impact on its architectural heritage. In this paper, the authors aim to review legal and policy framework to protect the cultural heritage and present the risk management strategy for cultural heritage in conflict. Through a review of selected international models of devastated architectural heritage in conflict zones and highlighting some of their changes, we can learn from the experiences of other countries to assist towards the development of a methodology to halt the plundering of architectural heritage. Finally, the paper makes an effort to enhance the formulation of a risk management strategy for protection and conservation of cultural heritage, through which to end the plundering of Egypt’s architectural legacy in the Egyptian community (revolutions, 1952 and 2011); and by presenting to its surrounding community the benefits derived from maintaining it.

Keywords: cultural heritage, legal regulation, risk management, preservation

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