Search results for: Effective Decisions

Authors: Mohammed T. Taher, Usman Ghani, Ahmed S. Khan

Abstract:

This paper compares the findings of two studies conducted to determine the effectiveness of simulation-based, hands-on and feedback mechanism on students learning by answering the following questions: 1). Does the use of simulation improve students’ learning outcomes? 2). How do students perceive the instructional design features embedded in the simulation program such as exploration and scaffolding support in learning new concepts? 3.) What is the effect of feedback mechanisms on students’ learning in the use of simulation-based labs? The paper also discusses the other aspects of findings which reveal that simulation by itself is not very effective in promoting student learning. Simulation becomes effective when it is followed by hands-on activity and feedback mechanisms. Furthermore, the paper presents recommendations for improving student learning through the use of simulation-based, hands-on, and feedback-based teaching methodologies.

Keywords: Simulation-based teaching, hands-on learning, feedback-based learning, scaffolding.

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Authors: Randa I. Elanwar, Mohsen A. Rashwan, Samia A. Mashali

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The last two decades witnessed some advances in the development of an Arabic character recognition (CR) system. Arabic CR faces technical problems not encountered in any other language that make Arabic CR systems achieve relatively low accuracy and retards establishing them as market products. We propose the basic stages towards a system that attacks the problem of recognizing online Arabic cursive handwriting. Rule-based methods are used to perform simultaneous segmentation and recognition of word portions in an unconstrained cursively handwritten document using dynamic programming. The output of these stages is in the form of a ranked list of the possible decisions. A new technique for text line separation is also used.

Keywords: Arabic handwriting, character recognition, cursive handwriting, on-line recognition.

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Authors: Nicholas Kyriazis, Emmanouil Marios L. Economou, Jr, Loukas Zachilas

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In the present essay, a model of choice by actors is analysedby utilizing the theory of chaos to explain how change comes about. Then, by using ancient and modern sources of literature, the theory of the social contract is analysed as a historical phenomenon that first appeared during the period of Classical Greece. Then, based on the findings of this analysis, the practice of direct democracy and public choice in ancient Athens is analysed, through two historical cases: Eubulus and Lycurgus political program in the second half of the 4th century. The main finding of this research is that these policies can be interpreted as an implementation of a social contract, through which citizens were taking decisions based on rational choice according to economic considerations.

Keywords: Chaos theory, public choice, social contract, 4th century BC. Athens.

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Authors: Z. Ulukan, E. Demircioğlu

Abstract:

Facility location is a complex real-world problem which needs a strategic management decision. This paper provides a general review on studies, efforts and developments in Facility Location Problems which are classical optimization problems having a wide-spread applications in various areas such as transportation, distribution, production, supply chain decisions and telecommunication. Our goal is not to review all variants of different studies in FLPs or to describe very detailed computational techniques and solution approaches, but rather to provide a broad overview of major location problems that have been studied, indicating how they are formulated and what are proposed by researchers to tackle the problem. A brief, elucidative table based on a grouping according to “General Problem Type” and “Methods Proposed” used in the studies is also presented at the end of the work.

Keywords: Discrete location problems, exact methods, heuristic algorithms, single source capacitated facility location problems.

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Authors: N. F. Jamaluddin, N. A. H. Aizam

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This paper explains the educational timetabling problem, a type of scheduling problem that is considered as one of the most challenging problem in optimization and operational research. The university examination timetabling problem (UETP), which involves assigning a set number of exams into a set number of timeslots whilst fulfilling all required conditions, has been widely investigated. The limitation of available timeslots and resources with the increasing number of examinations are the main reasons in the difficulty of solving this problem. Dynamical change in the examination scheduling system adds up the complication particularly in coping up with the demand and new requirements by the communities. Our objective is to investigate these demands and requirements with subjects taken from Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT), through questionnaires. Integer linear programming model which reflects the preferences obtained to produce an effective examination timetabling was formed.

Keywords: Demands, educational timetabling, integer linear programming, scheduling, university examination timetabling problem.

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Authors: A.Mosavi

Abstract:

A novel methodology has been used to design an evaporator coil of a refrigerant. The methodology used is through a complete Computer Aided Design /Computer Aided Engineering approach, by means of a Computational Fluid Dynamic/Finite Element Analysis model which is executed many times for the thermal-fluid exploration of several designs' configuration by an commercial optimizer. Hence the design is carried out automatically by parallel computations, with an optimization package taking the decisions rather than the design engineer. The engineer instead takes decision regarding the physical settings and initializing of the computational models to employ, the number and the extension of the geometrical parameters of the coil fins and the optimization tools to be employed. The final design of the coil geometry found to be better than the initial design.

Keywords: Multi-objective shape optimization, Heat Transfer, multi-physics structures, modeFRONTIER

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Authors: N. A. Salim, M. M. Othman, I. Musirin, M. S. Serwan

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Uncertainty of system operating conditions is one of the causative reasons which may render to the instability of a transmission system. For that reason, accurate assessment of transmission reliability margin (TRM) is essential to ensure effective power transfer between areas during the occurrence of system uncertainties. The power transfer is also called as the available transfer capability (ATC) which is the information required by the utilities and marketers to instigate selling and buying the electric energy. This paper proposes a computationally effective approach to estimate TRM and ATC by considering the uncertainties of system cascading collapse and transmission line outages. In accordance to the results that have been obtained, the proposed method is essential for the transmission providers which could help the power marketers and planning sectors in the operation and reserving transmission services based on the ATC calculated.

Keywords: Available transfer capability, System cascading collapse, Transmission line outages, Transmission reliability margin.

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Authors: A. Nourbakhsh

Abstract:

A finite difference/front tracking method is used to study the motion of three-dimensional deformable drops suspended in plane Poiseuille flow at non-zero Reynolds numbers. A parallel version of the code was used to study the behavior of suspension on a reasonable grid resolution (grids). The viscosity and density of drops are assumed to be equal to that of the suspending medium. The effect of the Reynolds number is studied in detail. It is found that drops with small deformation behave like rigid particles and migrate to an equilibrium position about half way between the wall and the centerline (the Segre-Silberberg effect). However, for highly deformable drops there is a tendency for drops to migrate to the middle of the channel, and the maximum concentration occurs at the centerline. The effective viscosity of suspension and the fluctuation energy of the flow across the channel increases with the Reynolds number of the flow.

Keywords: Suspensions, Poiseuille flow, Effective viscosity, Reynolds number.

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Authors: Muhammad R. Alrabeiah, Ibrahim S. Alnomay

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The need in cognitive radio system for a simple, fast, and independent technique to sense the spectrum occupancy has led to the energy detection approach. Energy detector is known by its dependency on noise variation in the system which is one of its major drawbacks. In this paper, we are aiming to improve its performance by utilizing a weighted collaborative spectrum sensing, it is similar to the collaborative spectrum sensing methods introduced previously in the literature. These weighting methods give more improvement for collaborative spectrum sensing as compared to no weighting case. There is two method proposed in this paper: the first one depends on the channel status between each sensor and the primary user while the second depends on the value of the energy measured in each sensor.

Keywords: Cognitive radio, Spectrum sensing, Collaborative sensors, Weighted Decisions.

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Authors: Gavin Perin, Linda Matthews

Abstract:

Webcam systems now function as the new privileged vantage points from which to view the city. This transformation of CCTV technology from surveillance to promotional tool is significant because its'scopic regime' presents, back to the public, a new virtual 'site' that sits alongside its real-time counterpart. Significantly, thisraw 'image' data can, in fact,be co-optedand processed so as to disrupt their original purpose. This paper will demonstrate this disruptive capacity through an architectural project. It will reveal how the adaption the webcam image offers a technical springboard by which to initiate alternate urban form making decisions and subvert the disciplinary reliance on the 'flat' orthographic plan. In so doing, the paper will show how this 'digital material' exceeds the imagistic function of the image; shiftingit from being a vehicle of signification to a site of affect.

Keywords: Surveillance, virtual, scopic, additive

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Authors: Kristina Georgoulakis

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A new blind symbol by symbol equalizer is proposed. The operation of the proposed equalizer is based on the geometric properties of the two dimensional data constellation. An unsupervised clustering technique is used to locate the clusters formed by the received data. The symmetric properties of the clusters labels are subsequently utilized in order to label the clusters. Following this step, the received data are compared to clusters and decisions are made on a symbol by symbol basis, by assigning to each data the label of the nearest cluster. The operation of the equalizer is investigated both in linear and nonlinear channels. The performance of the proposed equalizer is compared to the performance of a CMAbased blind equalizer.

Keywords: Blind equalization, channel equalization, cluster based equalisers

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Authors: M. El Mousadik, F. Elkandoussi

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The concern for increased rigor in social management has led more and more Moroccan business leaders to question the value of applying social audit as an essential tool in the management of human resources. Hotel companies are not excluded; in fact, they are expected to implement such an audit to develop sound and credible human resources management (HRM) policies. The main objective of this paper is to establish the relationship between the practice of social audit as a tool, and its impact on the tourism sector, especially on hotels at one of the Morocco’s first and most popular city for tourism, Agadir. This exploratory study of properties in Agadir has revealed that hotel executives are aware of the importance of social auditing to hone their decisions in the field of HRM.

Keywords: Social audit, hotel companies, human resources management, social piloting.

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Authors: Leila Torkaman, Nasser Ghassembaglou

Abstract:

Significant quota of Municipal Electrical Energy consumption is related to Decentralized Air Conditioning which is mostly provided by evaporative coolers. So the aim is to optimize design of air conditioners to increase their efficiencies. To achieve this goal, results of practical standardized tests for 40 evaporative coolers in different types collected and simultaneously results for same coolers based on one of EER (Energy Efficiency Ratio) modeling styles are figured out. By comparing experimental results of different coolers standardized tests with modeling results, preciseness of used model is assessed and after comparing gained preciseness with international standards based on EER for cooling capacity, aeration, and also electrical energy consumption, energy label from A (most effective) to G (less effective) is classified; finally needed methods to optimize energy consumption and coolers’ classification are provided.

Keywords: Cooler, EER, Energy Label, Optimization.

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Authors: Hussam Al-Shorman, Yosef Hasan Jbara

Abstract:

A business case is a proposal for an investment initiative to satisfy business and functional requirements. The business case provides the foundation for tactical decision making and technology risk management. It helps to clarify how the organization will use its resources in the best way by providing justification for investment of resources. This paper describes how simulation was used for business case benefits and return on investment for the procurement of 8 production machines. With investment costs of about 4.7 million dollars and annual operating costs of about 1.3 million, we needed to determine if the machines would provide enough cost savings and cost avoidance. We constructed a model of the existing factory environment consisting of 8 machines and subsequently, we conducted average day simulations with light and heavy volumes to facilitate planning decisions required to be documented and substantiated in the business case.

Keywords: Investment cost, business case, return on investment, simulation.

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Authors: Chunming Xu

Abstract:

Sparse representation which can represent high dimensional data effectively has been successfully used in computer vision and pattern recognition problems. However, it doesn-t consider the label information of data samples. To overcome this limitation, we develop a novel dimensionality reduction algorithm namely dscriminatively regularized sparse subspace learning(DR-SSL) in this paper. The proposed DR-SSL algorithm can not only make use of the sparse representation to model the data, but also can effective employ the label information to guide the procedure of dimensionality reduction. In addition,the presented algorithm can effectively deal with the out-of-sample problem.The experiments on gene-expression data sets show that the proposed algorithm is an effective tool for dimensionality reduction and gene-expression data classification.

Keywords: sparse representation, dimensionality reduction, labelinformation, sparse subspace learning, gene-expression data classification.

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Authors: Yuki Kondo, Takanori Nagano, Yuki Takeda, Young-Bok Choi, Hiromi Okada

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Optical burst switching(OBS) is considered as one of preferable network technologies for the next generation Internet. The Internet has two traffic classes, i.e. real-time bursts and reliable bursts. It is an important subject for OBS to achieve cooperated operation of real-time bursts and reliable bursts. In this paper, we proposes a new effective traffic control method named Separate TB+LB (Token Bucket + Leaky Bucket : TB+LB) method. The proposed method presents a new Token Bucket scheme for real-time bursts called as RBO-TB (Real-time Bursts Oriented Token Bucket). The method also applies the LB method to reliable bursts for obtaining better performance. This paper verifies the effectiveness of the Separate TB+LB method through the performance evaluation.

Keywords: leaky bucket, OBS, traffic control, token bucket.

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Authors: M. Osipova

Abstract:

Thanks to informational technologies development every sphere of economics is becoming more and more datacentralized as people are generating huge datasets containing information on any aspect of their life. Applying research of such data to human resources management allows getting scarce statistics on labor market state including salary expectations and potential employees’ typical career behavior, and this information can become a reliable basis for management decisions. The following article presents results of career behavior research based on freely accessible resume data. Information used for study is much wider than one usually uses in human resources surveys. That is why there is enough data for statistically significant results even for subgroups analysis.

Keywords: Human resources management, labor market, salary expectations, statistics, turnover.

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Authors: Halil Fidan

Abstract:

In this work, the autoregressive vectors are used to know dynamics of the Agricultural export and import, and the real effective exchange rate (REER). In order to analyze the interactions, the impulse- response function is used in decomposition of variance, causality of Granger as well as the methodology of Johansen to know the relations co integration. The REER causes agricultural export and import in the sense of Granger. The influence displays the innovations of the REER on the agricultural export and import is not very great and the duration of the effects is short. It displays that REER has an immediate positive effect, after the tenth year it displays smooth results on the agricultural export. Evidence of a vector exists co integration, In short run, REER has smaller effects on export and import, compared to the long-run effects.

Keywords: Agricultural import, agricultural export, autoregressive causality of granger, impulse-response function, long run, short run.

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Authors: A. Alsaadi, B. Gholami

Abstract:

An effective approach for unbalanced three-phase distribution power flow solutions is proposed in this paper. The special topological characteristics of distribution networks have been fully utilized to make the direct solution possible. Two matrices–the bus-injection to branch-current matrix and the branch-current to busvoltage matrix– and a simple matrix multiplication are used to obtain power flow solutions. Due to the distinctive solution techniques of the proposed method, the time-consuming LU decomposition and forward/backward substitution of the Jacobian matrix or admittance matrix required in the traditional power flow methods are no longer necessary. Therefore, the proposed method is robust and time-efficient. Test results demonstrate the validity of the proposed method. The proposed method shows great potential to be used in distribution automation applications.

Keywords: Distribution power flow, distribution automation system, radial network, unbalanced networks.

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Authors: Benjamin Y. M. Kwan, Hon Keung Kwan

Abstract:

Noise contamination in a magnetic resonance (MR) image could occur during acquisition, storage, and transmission in which effective filtering is required to avoid repeating the MR procedure. In this paper, an iterative asymmetrical triangle fuzzy filter with moving average center (ATMAVi filter) is used to reduce different levels of salt and pepper noise in a brain MR image. Besides visual inspection on filtered images, the mean squared error (MSE) is used as an objective measurement. When compared with the median filter, simulation results indicate that the ATMAVi filter is effective especially for filtering a higher level noise (such as noise density = 0.45) using a smaller window size (such as 3x3) when operated iteratively or using a larger window size (such as 5x5) when operated non-iteratively.

Keywords: Brain images, Fuzzy filters, Magnetic resonance imaging, Salt and pepper noise reduction.

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Authors: Robert Grzeszczak

Abstract:

The article deals with one of the most significant issues concerning the functioning of the public sector in the European Union. The objectives of good governance were formulated by the EU itself and also the Scholars in reaction to the discussion that started a decade ago and concerned the role of the government in 21st century, the future of integration processes and globalization challenges in Europe. Currently, the concept of good governance is mainly associated with the improvement of management of public policies in the European Union, concerning both domestic and EU policies. However, it goes beyond the issues of state capacity and effectiveness of management. Good governance relates also to societal participation in the public administration and verification of decisions made in public authorities’ (including public administration). Indirectly, the concept and practice of good governance are connected to societal legitimisation of public bodies in the European Union.

Keywords: Good governance, Government, European law, European Union.

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Authors: E. J. Cilliers

Abstract:

It is the living conditions in the cities that determine the future of our livelihood. “To change life, we must first change space"- Henri Lefebvre. Sustainable development is a utopian aspiration for South African cities (especially the case study of the Gauteng City Region), which are currently characterized by unplanned growth and increasing urban sprawl. While the reasons for poor environmental quality and living conditions are undoubtedly diverse and complex, having political, economical and social dimensions, it is argued that the prevailing approach to layout planning in South Africa is part of the problem. This article seeks a solution to the problem of sustainability, from a spatial planning perspective. The spatial planning tool, the urban development boundary, is introduced as the concept that will ensure empty talk being translated into a sustainable vision. The urban development boundary is a spatial planning tool that can be used and implemented to direct urban growth towards a more sustainable form. The urban development boundary aims to ensure planned urban areas, in contrast to the current unplanned areas characterized by urban sprawl and insufficient infrastructure. However, the success of the urban development boundary concept is subject to effective implementation measures, as well as adequate and efficient management. The concept of sustainable development can function as a driving force underlying societal change and transformation, but the interface between spatial planning and environmental management needs to be established (as this is the core aspects underlying sustainable development), and authorities needs to understand and implement this interface consecutively. This interface can, however, realize in terms of the objectives of the planning tool – the urban development boundary. The case study, the Gauteng City Region, is depicted as a site of economic growth and innovation, but there is a lack of good urban and regional governance, impacting on the design (layout) and function of urban areas and land use, as current authorities make uninformed decisions in terms of development applications, leading to unsustainable urban forms and unsustainable nodes. Place and space concepts are thus critical matters applicable to planning of the Gauteng City Region. The urban development boundary are thus explored as a planning tool to guide decision-making, and create a sustainable urban form, leading to better environmental and living conditions, and continuous sustainability.

Keywords: Urban planning, sustainable urban form, urbandevelopment boundary, planning tool.

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Authors: J. Šejnoha, D. Jarušková, O. Špačková, E. Novotná

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Construction of tunnels is connected with high uncertainty in the field of costs, construction period, safety and impact on surroundings. Risk management became therefore a common part of tunnel projects, especially after a set of fatal collapses occurred in 1990's. Such collapses are caused usually by combination of factors that can be divided into three main groups, i.e. unfavourable geological conditions, failures in the design and planning or failures in the execution. This paper suggests a procedure enabling quantification of the excavation risk related to extraordinary accidents using FTA and ETA tools. It will elaborate on a common process of risk analysis and enable the transfer of information and experience between particular tunnel construction projects. Further, it gives a guide for designers, management and other participants, how to deal with risk of such accidents and how to make qualified decisions based on a probabilistic approach.

Keywords: risk quantification, tunnel collapse, ETA, FTA, geotechnical risk

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Authors: S. Gharbi, S. Labidi, M. Mars, M. Chelli, F. Ladeb

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The purpose of this study is to reduce radiation dose for chest CT examination by including Tube Current Modulation (TCM) to a standard CT protocol. A scan of an anthropomorphic male Alderson phantom was performed on a 128-slice scanner. The estimation of effective dose (ED) in both scans with and without mAs modulation was done via multiplication of Dose Length Product (DLP) to a conversion factor. Results were compared to those measured with a CT-Expo software. The size specific dose estimation (SSDE) values were obtained by multiplication of the volume CT dose index (CTDIvol) with a conversion size factor related to the phantom’s effective diameter. Objective assessment of image quality was performed with Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) measurements in phantom. SPSS software was used for data analysis. Results showed including CARE Dose 4D; ED was lowered by 48.35% and 51.51% using DLP and CT-expo, respectively. In addition, ED ranges between 7.01 mSv and 6.6 mSv in case of standard protocol, while it ranges between 3.62 mSv and 3.2 mSv with TCM. Similar results are found for SSDE; dose was higher without TCM of 16.25 mGy and was lower by 48.8% including TCM. The SNR values calculated were significantly different (p=0.03<0.05). The highest one is measured on images acquired with TCM and reconstructed with Filtered back projection (FBP). In conclusion, this study proves the potential of TCM technique in SSDE and ED reduction and in conserving image quality with high diagnostic reference level for thoracic CT examinations.

Keywords: Anthropomorphic phantom, computed tomography, CT-expo, radiation dose.

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Authors: Shuen-Tai Wang, Chin-Hung Li, Ying-Chuan Chen

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In recent years there has been renewal of interest in the relation between Green IT and Cloud Computing. The growing use of computers in cloud platform has caused marked energy consumption, putting negative pressure on electricity cost of cloud data center. This paper proposes an effective mechanism to reduce energy utilization in cloud computing environments. We present initial work on the integration of resource and power management that aims at reducing power consumption. Our mechanism relies on recalling virtualization services dynamically according to user-s virtualization request and temporarily shutting down the physical machines after finish in order to conserve energy. Given the estimated energy consumption, this proposed effort has the potential to positively impact power consumption. The results from the experiment concluded that energy indeed can be saved by powering off the idling physical machines in cloud platforms.

Keywords: Green IT, Cloud Computing, virtualization, power consumption.

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Authors: G. Feletti, D. Tedesco, P. Trucco

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The present study aims to develop a dashboard of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to enhance information and predictive capabilities in Emergency Medical Services (EMS) systems, supporting both operational and strategic decisions of different actors. The employed research methodology consists of a first phase of revision of the technical-scientific literature concerning the indicators currently in use for the performance measurement of EMS. It emerges that current studies focus on two distinct areas and independent objectives: the ambulance service, a fundamental component of pre-hospital health treatment, and the patient care in the Emergency Department (ED). Conversely, the perspective proposed by this study is to consider an integrated view of the ambulance service process and the ED process, both essential to ensure high quality of care and patient safety. Thus, the proposal covers the end-to-end healthcare service process and, as such, allows considering the interconnection between the two EMS processes, the pre-hospital and hospital ones, connected by the assignment of the patient to a specific ED. In this way, it is possible to optimize the entire patient management. Therefore, attention is paid even to EMS aspects that in current literature tend to be neglected or underestimated. In particular, the integration of the two processes enables to evaluate the advantage of an ED selection decision having visibility on EDs’ saturation status and therefore considering, besides the distance, the available resources and the expected waiting times. Starting from a critical review of the KPIs proposed in extant literature, the design of the dashboard was carried out: the high number of analyzed KPIs was reduced by eliminating firstly the ones not in line with the aim of the study and then the ones supporting a similar functionality. The KPIs finally selected were tested on a realistic dataset, which draw us to exclude additional indicators due to unavailability of data required for their computation. The final dashboard, that was discussed and validated by experts in the field, includes a variety of KPIs able to support operational and planning decisions, early warning, and citizens’ awareness on EDs accessibility in real time. The association of each KPI to the EMS phase it refers to enabled the design of a well-balanced dashboard, covering both efficiency and effectiveness performance objectives of the entire EMS process. Indeed, just the initial phases related to the interconnection between ambulance service and patient care are covered by traditional KPIs. Future developments could be directed to building a hierarchical dashboard, composed by a high-level minimal set of KPIs for measuring the basic performance of the EMS system, at an aggregate level, and lower levels of KPIs that bring additional and more detailed information on specific performance dimensions or EMS phases.

Keywords: Emergency Medical Services, Key Performance Indicators, Dashboard, Decision Support.

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Authors: Beata Wentura-Dudek

Abstract:

In the United States in 2007-2010 before the crisis, the US labour market policy focused mainly on providing residents with unemployment insurance, after the recession this policy changed. The aim of the article was to present quantitative research presenting the most effective labor market instruments contributing to reducing unemployment during the crisis in the USA. The article presents research based on the analysis of available documents and statistical data. The results of the conducted research show that the most effective forms of counteracting unemployment at that time were: direct job creation, job search assistance, subsidized employment, training and employment promotion using new technologies, including social media.

Keywords: United States, financial crisis, unemployment, employment promotion, social media, job creation, training, labour market, employment agencies, lifelong learning, job search assistance, subsidized employment, companies, tax.

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Authors: S. Ayub, S.N. Danish, S.R. Qureshi

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The world's population continues to grow at a quarter of a million people per day, increasing the consumption of energy. This has made the world to face the problem of energy crisis now days. In response to the energy crisis, the principles of renewable energy gained popularity. There are much advancement made in developing the wind and solar energy farms across the world. These energy farms are not enough to meet the energy requirement of world. This has attracted investors to procure new sources of energy to be substituted. Among these sources, extraction of energy from the waves is considered as best option. The world oceans contain enough energy to meet the requirement of world. Significant advancements in design and technology are being made to make waves as a continuous source of energy. One major hurdle in launching wave energy devices in a developing country like Pakistan is the initial cost. A simple, reliable and cost effective wave energy converter (WEC) is required to meet the nation-s energy need. This paper will present a novel design proposed by team SAS for harnessing wave energy. This paper has three major sections. The first section will give a brief and concise view of ocean wave creation, propagation and the energy carried by them. The second section will explain the designing of SAS-2. A gear chain mechanism is used for transferring the energy from the buoy to a rotary generator. The third section will explain the manufacturing of scaled down model for SAS-2 .Many modifications are made in the trouble shooting stage. The design of SAS-2 is simple and very less maintenance is required. SAS-2 is producing electricity at Clifton. The initial cost of SAS-2 is very low. This has proved SAS- 2 as one of the cost effective and reliable source of harnessing wave energy for developing countries.

Keywords: Clean Energy, Wave energy

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Authors: Daniel C. S. Lim

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There are numerous nutritional supplements, such as multivitamins and nutrition drinks, in the market today. Many of these supplements are expensive and tend to be driven commercially by business decisions and big marketing budgets. Many of the costs are ultimately borne by the end user in the quest for keeping to a healthy lifestyle. This paper proposes a system with a list of ten determinants to gauge how to decide the value of various supplements. It suggests variables such as composition, safety, efficacy and bioavailability, as well as several other considerations. These guidelines can help to tackle many of the issues that people of all ages face in the way that they receive essential nutrients. The system also aims to promote and improve the safety and choice of foods and supplements. In so doing, the system aims to promote the individual’s or population’s control over their own health and reduce the growing health care burden on the society.

Keywords: Nutritional supplements, vitamins and minerals, bioavailability, supplementation determinants, nutrition guidelines.

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Authors: Ni Hong, Wu Guobin, Wu Gang, Pan Liang

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Interactive push VOD system is a new kind of system that incorporates push technology and interactive technique. It can push movies to users at high speeds at off-peak hours for optimal network usage so as to save bandwidth. This paper presents effective software-based solution for processing mass downstream data at terminals of interactive push VOD system, where the service can download movie according to a viewer-s selection. The downstream data is divided into two catalogs: (1) the carousel data delivered according to DSM-CC protocol; (2) IP data delivered according to Euro-DOCSIS protocol. In order to accelerate download speed and reduce data loss rate at terminals, this software strategy introduces caching, multi-thread and resuming mechanisms. The experiments demonstrate advantages of the software-based solution.

Keywords: DSM-CC, data carousel, Euro-DOCSIS, push VOD.

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