Search results for: Performance inEnglish Language

Authors: M. Sultana, A. Rahman, S. Chowdhury

Abstract:

Road authorities have confronted problems to maintaining the serviceability of road infrastructure systems by using various traditional methods of contracting. As a solution to these problems, many road authorities have started contracting out road maintenance works to the private sector based on performance measures. This contracting method is named Performance-Based Maintenance Contracting (PBMC). It is considered more costeffective than other traditional methods of contracting. It has a substantial success records in many developed and developing countries over the last two decades. This paper discusses and analyses the potential issues to be considered before the introduction of PBMC in a country.

Keywords: Contracting, Performance-Based Maintenance, Road infrastructure

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Authors: Wanghongshu Zhou

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This study aims to explore the relationship between the second language motivational self-system (L2MSS) and the willingness to communicate (WTC) among Chinese non-English major students in order to provide pedagogical implications for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms in Chinese universities. By employing a mixed methods approach, we involved 103 Chinese non-English major students from a typical university in China, conducted questionnaire survey to measure their levels of L2WTC and L2MSS level, and then analyzed the correlation between the two above mentioned variables. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight participants to provide a deeper understanding and explanation of the questionnaire data. Findings show that 1) Chinese non-English major students’ ideal L2 self and L2 learning experience could positively predict their L2 WTC in EFL class; 2) Chinese non-English major students’ ought-to L2 self might have no significant impact on their L2 WTC in EFL class; and 3) self-confidence might be another main factor that will influence Chinese non-English major students’ L2 WTC in EFL class. These findings might shed light on the second language acquisition field and provide pedagogical recommendations for pre-service as well as in-service EFL teachers.

Keywords: Chinese non-English major students, L2 Motivation, L2 willingness to communicate, self-confidence.

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Authors: Raja Suzana Raja Kasim

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This paper attempts to highlight the significant role of knowledge management practices (KMP) and competencies in improving the performance and efficiency of public sector organizations. It appears that public sector organizations in developing countries have not received much attention in the research literature of knowledge management and competencies. Therefore, this paper seeks to explore the role of KMP and competencies in achieving superior performance among public sector organizations in Malaysia in the broader perspective. Survey questionnaires were distributed to all Administrative and Diplomatic Officers (ADS) from 28 ministries located in Putrajaya, Malaysia. This paper also examines preliminary empirical results on the relationship between support for knowledge management practices, competencies, and orientation in Malaysia-s public organizations. This paper supports the notion that the practices of knowledge management at the organizational level are a prerequisite for successful organizational performance. In conclusion, the results not only have the potential to contribute theoretically to both management strategy and knowledge management field literature but also to the area of organizational performance.

Keywords: knowledge, knowledge management practices, competencies, organizational performance

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Authors: C. Ardil

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In this study, a model, together with a software tool that implements it, has been developed to determine the performance ratings of employees in an organization operating in the information technology sector using the indicators obtained from employees' online study data. Weighted Sum (WS) Method and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method based on multidimensional decision making approach were used in the study. WS and TOPSIS methods provide multidimensional decision making (MDDM) methods that allow all dimensions to be evaluated together considering specific weights, allowing employees to objectively evaluate the problem of online performance tracking. The application of WS and TOPSIS mathematical methods, which can combine alternatives with a large number of dimensions and reach simultaneous solution, has been implemented through an online performance tracking software. In the application of WS and TOPSIS methods, objective dimension weights were calculated by using entropy information (EI) and standard deviation (SD) methods from the data obtained by employees' online performance tracking method, decision matrix was formed by using performance scores for each employee, and a single performance score was calculated for each employee. Based on the calculated performance score, employees were given a performance evaluation decision. The results of Pareto set evidence and comparative mathematical analysis validate that employees' performance preference rankings in WS and TOPSIS methods are closely related. This suggests the compatibility, applicability, and validity of the proposed method to the MDDM problems in which a large number of alternative and dimension types are taken into account. With this study, an objective, realistic, feasible and understandable mathematical method, together with a software tool that implements it has been demonstrated. This is considered to be preferable because of the subjectivity, limitations and high cost of the methods traditionally used in the measurement and performance appraisal in the information technology sector.

Keywords: Weighted sum, entropy ınformation, standard deviation, online performance tracking, performance evaluation, performance management, multidimensional decision making.

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Authors: Jeļena Tretjakova

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Metaphor has recently gained extensive interest most probably due to developments in cognitive sciences and the study of language as the reflection of humans- world perception. Metaphor is no longer reckoned as solely literary expressive means. Nowadays it is studied in a whole number of discourses, such as politics, law, medicine, sports, etc. with the purpose of the analysis and determining its role. The scientific language is not an exception. It might seem that metaphor cannot suit it; we would dare to draw a hypothesis that metaphor has indeed found its stable place in terminology. In comprehension of metaphorically represented terms the stage of visualization plays a significant role. We proceeded on the assumption that this stage is the main in provision of better term comprehension and would try to exemplify it with metaphoricallyoriented terms.

Keywords: Comprehension, metaphor, terminology, visualization.

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Authors: Archit Yajnik

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Part of Speech Tagging has always been a challenging task in the era of Natural Language Processing. This article presents POS tagging for Nepali text using Hidden Markov Model and Viterbi algorithm. From the Nepali text, annotated corpus training and testing data set are randomly separated. Both methods are employed on the data sets. Viterbi algorithm is found to be computationally faster and accurate as compared to HMM. The accuracy of 95.43% is achieved using Viterbi algorithm. Error analysis where the mismatches took place is elaborately discussed.

Keywords: Hidden Markov model, Viterbi algorithm, POS tagging, natural language processing.

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Authors: Canan Aslan

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The aim of this research is to determine how preservice Turkish teachers perceive themselves in terms of problem solving skills. Students attending Department of Turkish Language Teaching of Gazi University Education Faculty in 2005-2006 academic year constitute the study group (n= 270) of this research in which survey model was utilized. Data were obtained by Problem Solving Inventory developed by Heppner & Peterson and Personal Information Form. Within the settings of this research, Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient of the scale was found as .87. Besides, reliability coefficient obtained by split-half technique which splits odd and even numbered items of the scale was found as r=.81 (Split- Half Reliability). The findings of the research revealed that preservice Turkish teachers were sufficiently qualified on the subject of problem solving skills and statistical significance was found in favor of male candidates in terms of “gender" variable. According to the “grade" variable, statistical significance was found in favor of 4th graders.

Keywords: Problem Solving, problem solving skills, PreserviceTurkish Language Teachers.

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Authors: Sobia T. Javed, Sarmad Hussain, Ameera Maqbool, Samia Asloob, Sehrish Jamil, Huma Moin

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The electronically available Urdu data is in image form which is very difficult to process. Printed Urdu data is the root cause of problem. So for the rapid progress of Urdu language we need an OCR systems, which can help us to make Urdu data available for the common person. Research has been carried out for years to automata Arabic and Urdu script. But the biggest hurdle in the development of Urdu OCR is the challenge to recognize Nastalique Script which is taken as standard for writing Urdu language. Nastalique script is written diagonally with no fixed baseline which makes the script somewhat complex. Overlap is present not only in characters but in the ligatures as well. This paper proposes a method which allows successful recognition of Nastalique Script.

Keywords: HMM, Image processing, Optical CharacterRecognition, Urdu OCR.

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Authors: Abhishek Priyam, Prabha Chand

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A theoretical investigation on the effect of collector aspect ratio on the thermal performance of wavy finned absorber solar air heaters has been performed. For the constant collector area, the various performance parameters have been calculated for plane and wavy finned solar air heaters. It has been found that the performance of wavy finned solar air heater improved with the increase in the collector aspect ratio. The performance of wavy finned solar air heater has been found 30 percent higher than those of plane solar air heater. The obtained results for wavy fin solar air heaters are compared with the available experimental data of most common type solar air heaters.

Keywords: Wavy fin, aspect ratio, solar air heater, thermal efficiency, collector efficiency factor, temperature rise.

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Authors: Duangkamol Thitivesa, Abigail Melad Essien

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This paper explores the use of project work in a content-based instruction in a Rajabhat University, a teacher college, where student teachers are instructed to perform teaching roles mainly in basic education level. Its aim is to link theory to practice, and to help language teachers maximize the full potential of project work for genuine communication and give real meaning to writing activity. Two research questions are formulated to guide this study: a) What is the academic achievement of the students- writing skill against the 70% attainment target after the use of project to enhance the skill? and b) To what degree is the development of the students- writing skills during the course of project to enhance the skill? The sample of the study comprised of 38 fourth-year English major students. The data was collected by means of achievement test, student writing works, and project diary. The scores in the summative achievement test were analyzed by mean score, standard deviation, and t-test. Project diary serves as students- record of the language acquired during the project. List of structures and vocabulary noted in the diary has shown students- ability to attend to, recognize, and focus on meaningful patterns of language forms.

Keywords: EFL classroom, Project-Based Learning, project work, writing skill.

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Authors: M. A. Elghorab, A. Abou El-Azm Aly, A. S. Elwetedy, M. A. Kotb

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Later marine propeller is the main component of ship propulsion system. For a non-series propeller, it is difficult to indicate the open water marine propeller performance without an experimental study to measure the marine propeller parameters. In the present study, the open water performance of a non-series marine propeller has been carried out experimentally. The geometrical aspects of a commercial non-series marine propeller have been measured for a propeller blade area ratio of 0.3985. The measured propeller performance parameters were the thrust and torque coefficients for different propeller rotational speed and different water channel flow velocity, then the open water performance for the propeller has been plotted. In addition, a direct comparison between the obtained experimental results and a theoretical study of a B-series marine propeller of the same blade area ratio has been carried out. A correction factor has been introduced to apply the operating conditions of the experimental results to that of the theoretical study for the studied marine propeller.

Keywords: Advance speed, marine propeller, open water performance, thrust coefficient, torque coefficient.

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Authors: Noorfakhriah Yaakub, Madzlan Napiah

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Public bus service plays a significant role in our society as people movers and to facilitate travels within towns and districts. The quality of service of public bus is always being regarded as poor, or rather, underestimated as second class means of transportation. Reliability of service, or the ability to deliver service as planned, is one key element in perceiving the quality of bus service and the punctuality index is one of the performance parameters in determining the service reliability. This study concentrates on evaluating the reliability performance of bus operation using punctuality index assessment. A week data for each of six city bus routes is recorded using the on-board methodology to calculate the punctuality index for city bus service in Kota Bharu. The results revealed that the punctuality index for the whole city bus network is 94.25% (LOS B).

Keywords: Punctuality Index, Reliability Performance, Service Performance.

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Authors: Ashly Joseph, Jithu Paulose

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In an era where misleading information may quickly circulate on digital news channels, it is crucial to have efficient and trustworthy methods to detect and reduce the impact of misinformation. This research proposes an innovative framework that combines Natural Language Processing (NLP), Reinforcement Learning (RL), and Blockchain technologies to precisely detect and minimize the spread of false information in news articles on social media. The framework starts by gathering a variety of news items from different social media sites and performing preprocessing on the data to ensure its quality and uniformity. NLP methods are utilized to extract complete linguistic and semantic characteristics, effectively capturing the subtleties and contextual aspects of the language used. These features are utilized as input for a RL model. This model acquires the most effective tactics for detecting and mitigating the impact of false material by modeling the intricate dynamics of user engagements and incentives on social media platforms. The integration of blockchain technology establishes a decentralized and transparent method for storing and verifying the accuracy of information. The Blockchain component guarantees the unchangeability and safety of verified news records, while encouraging user engagement for detecting and fighting false information through an incentive system based on tokens. The suggested framework seeks to provide a thorough and resilient solution to the problems presented by misinformation in social media articles.

Keywords: Natural Language Processing, Reinforcement Learning, Blockchain, fake news mitigation, misinformation detection.

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Authors: Bruno Henrique Rocha Fernandes, Amir Rezaee, Jucelia Appio

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The relation between Human Resource Management (HRM) practices and organizational performance remains the subject of substantial literature. Though many studies demonstrated positive relationship, still major influencing variables are not yet clear. This study considers the Person-Environment Fit (PE Fit) and its components, Person-Supervisor (PS), Person-Group (PG), Person-Organization (PO) and Person-Job (PJ) Fit, as possible explanatory variables. We analyzed PE Fit as a moderator between HRM practices and financial performance in the “best companies to work” in Brazil. Data from HRM practices were classified through the High Performance Working Systems (HPWS) construct and data on PE-Fit were obtained through surveys among employees. Financial data, consisting of return on invested capital (ROIC) and price earnings ratio (PER) were collected for publicly traded best companies to work. Findings show that PO Fit and PJ Fit play a significant moderator role for PER but not for ROIC.

Keywords: Financial performance, human resource management, high performance working systems, person-environment fit.

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Authors: Pradip Peter Dey, Ronald F. Gonzales, Gordon W. Romney, Mohammad Amin, Bhaskar Raj Sinha

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Natural language processing systems pose a unique challenge for software architectural design as system complexity has increased continually and systems cannot be easily constructed from loosely coupled modules. Lexical, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic aspects of linguistic information are tightly coupled in a manner that requires separation of concerns in a special way in design, implementation and maintenance. An aspect oriented software architecture is proposed in this paper after critically reviewing relevant architectural issues. For the purpose of this paper, the syntactic aspect is characterized by an augmented context-free grammar. The semantic aspect is composed of multiple perspectives including denotational, operational, axiomatic and case frame approaches. Case frame semantics matured in India from deep thematic analysis. It is argued that lexical, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic aspects work together in a mutually dependent way and their synergy is best represented in the aspect oriented approach. The software architecture is presented with an augmented Unified Modeling Language.

Keywords: Language engineering, parsing, software design, user experience.

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Authors: Supattra Kanchanopast

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The purpose of this paper was to study motivation factors affecting job performance effectiveness. This paper drew upon data collected from an Internal Audit Staffs of Internal Audit Line of Head Office of Krung Thai Public Company Limited. Statistics used included frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation, t-test, and one-way ANOVA test. The finding revealed that the majority of the respondents were female of 46 years of age and over, married and live together, hold a bachelor degree, with an average monthly income over 70,001 Baht. The majority of respondents had over 15 years of work experience. They generally had high working motivation as well as high job performance effectiveness. The hypotheses testing disclosed that employees with different working status had different level of job performance effectiveness at a 0.01 level of significance. Working motivation factors had an effect on job performance in the same direction with high level. Individual working motivation included working completion, reorganization, working progression, working characteristic, opportunity, responsibility, management policy, supervision, relationship with their superior, relationship with co-worker, working position, working stability, safety, privacy, working conditions, and payment. All of these factors related to job performance effectiveness in the same direction with medium level.

Keywords: Internal Audit Staffs, Job Performance Effectiveness, Working Motivation.

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Authors: Jiraporn Adchariyaprasit

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Thai language is difficult in all four language skills, especially reading. The first year students may have different abilities in reading, so a teacher is required to find out a student’s reading level so that the teacher can help and support them till they can develop and resolve each problem themselves. This research is aimed to study the prosody problem among Thai students and will be focused on first year Thai students in the second semester. A total of 58 students were involved in this study. Four obstacles were found: 1. Interpretation from what they read and write 2. Incorrectness Pronunciation of Prosody 3. Incorrectness in Rhythm of the Poem 4. Incorrectness of the Thai Poem Pronunciation

Keywords: Interpretation, Pronunciation, Prosody, Reading.

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Authors: Hyung Jong Ko, Kyoung Hoon Kim

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In this study thermodynamic performance analysis of a combined organic Rankine cycle and ejector refrigeration cycle is carried out for use of low-grade heat source in the form of sensible energy. Special attention is paid to the effects of system parameters including the turbine inlet temperature and turbine inlet pressure on the characteristics of the system such as ratios of mass flow rate, net work production, and refrigeration capacity as well as the coefficient of performance and exergy efficiency of the system. Results show that for a given source the coefficient of performance increases with increasing of the turbine inlet pressure. However, the exergy efficiency has an optimal condition with respect to the turbine inlet pressure.

Keywords: Coefficient of performance, ejector refrigeration cycle, exergy efficiency, low-grade energy, organic rankine cycle.

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Authors: Thomas Jin-Chee Liu, Yu-Shen Chen

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Using the numerical and experimental methods, this paper discusses some primary studies on the vibration and cooling performances of the piezoelectric cooling fan with the rectangular blade. When the fan works at its natural frequency, the vibrating displacement is largest and the cooling performance is best. Due to the vibration behavior, the cooling performance is affected by the geometry, material property, and working frequency of the piezoelectric cooling fan. 

Keywords: Piezoelectric cooling fan, finite element, vibration, natural frequency.

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Authors: Mohd. Hasan, Ajmal Kafeel, S. D. Pable

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Ultra-low-power (ULP) circuits have received widespread attention due to the rapid growth of biomedical applications and Battery-less Electronics. Subthreshold region of transistor operation is used in ULP circuits. Major research challenge in the subthreshold operating region is to extract the ULP benefits with minimal degradation in speed and robustness. Process, Voltage and Temperature (PVT) variations significantly affect the performance of subthreshold circuits. Designed performance parameters of ULP circuits may vary largely due to temperature variations. Hence, this paper investigates the effect of temperature variation on device and circuit performance parameters at different biasing voltages in the subthreshold region. Simulation results clearly demonstrate that in deep subthreshold and near threshold voltage regions, performance parameters are significantly affected whereas in moderate subthreshold region, subthreshold circuits are more immune to temperature variations. This establishes that moderate subthreshold region is ideal for temperature immune circuits.

Keywords: Subthreshold, temperature variations, ultralow power.

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Authors: Eleni Galiotou, Angela Ralli

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In this paper we propose a computational model for the representation and processing of morpho-phonological phenomena in a natural language, like Modern Greek. We aim at a unified treatment of inflection, compounding, and word-internal phonological changes, in a model that is used for both analysis and generation. After discussing certain difficulties cuase by well-known finitestate approaches, such as Koskenniemi-s two-level model [7] when applied to a computational treatment of compounding, we argue that a morphology-based model provides a more adequate account of word-internal phenomena. Contrary to the finite state approaches that cannot handle hierarchical word constituency in a satisfactory way, we propose a unification-based word grammar, as the nucleus of our strategy, which takes into consideration word representations that are based on affixation and [stem stem] or [stem word] compounds. In our formalism, feature-passing operations are formulated with the use of the unification device, and phonological rules modeling the correspondence between lexical and surface forms apply at morpheme boundaries. In the paper, examples from Modern Greek illustrate our approach. Morpheme structures, stress, and morphologically conditioned phoneme changes are analyzed and generated in a principled way.

Keywords: Morpho-Phonology, Natural Language Processing.

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Authors: László Lengyel, Tihamér Levendovszky, Hassan Charaf

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This paper presents the visual control flow support of Visual Modeling and Transformation System (VMTS), which facilitates composing complex model transformations out of simple transformation steps and executing them. The VMTS Visual Control Flow Language (VCFL) uses stereotyped activity diagrams to specify control flow structures and OCL constraints to choose between different control flow branches. This work discusses the termination properties of VCFL and provides an algorithm to support the termination analysis of VCFL transformations.

Keywords: Control Flow, Metamodel-Based Visual Model Transformation, OCL, Termination Properties, UML.

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Authors: Darwin Gouwanda, S. G. Ponnambalam

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Set covering problem is a classical problem in computer science and complexity theory. It has many applications, such as airline crew scheduling problem, facilities location problem, vehicle routing, assignment problem, etc. In this paper, three different techniques are applied to solve set covering problem. Firstly, a mathematical model of set covering problem is introduced and solved by using optimization solver, LINGO. Secondly, the Genetic Algorithm Toolbox available in MATLAB is used to solve set covering problem. And lastly, an ant colony optimization method is programmed in MATLAB programming language. Results obtained from these methods are presented in tables. In order to assess the performance of the techniques used in this project, the benchmark problems available in open literature are used.

Keywords: Set covering problem, genetic algorithm, ant colony optimization, LINGO.

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Authors: Narasimhaiah Gorla, Annibal Scavarda

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Nowadays, where most of the leading economies are service oriented and e-business is being widely used for their management, supply chain management has become one of the most studied and practiced fields. Quality has an important role on today-s business processes, so it is important to understand the impact of IT service quality on the performance of supply chains. This paper will start by analyzing the Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model and each of its five activities: Plan, Source, Make, Delivery, and Return. This article proposes a framework for analyzing Effect of IT Service Quality on Supply Chain Performance. Using the proposed framework, hypotheses are framed for the direct effect of IT service quality on Supply Chain Performance and its indirect effect through effective Supply Chain Management. The framework will be validated empirically based on the surveys of executives of various organizations and statistical analyses of the data collected.

Keywords: IT service quality, SCOR model, Supply Chain Management, Supply Chain Performance

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Authors: Micheli Anna Paola, Intrisano Carmelo, Calce Anna Maria

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This research focused on the capability of health tourism to improve the economic and financial performance of healthcare companies. It is assumed that health tourism companies have better profitability and financial efficiency because they can also count on cross-border demand differently from no health tourism companies. A three-level gap analysis was conducted: the first concerns health tourism companies located in Italy and in the other EU28 states; in the second Italian and EU28, no health tourism companies were compared; the third level is about the Italian system with a comparison between health tourism and no health tourism companies. Findings highlighted that Italian healthcare companies have better profitability performance if compared to European ones, but they present weaknesses in the financial position given the illiquidity and excessive leverage. Furthermore, studying the Italian system, we found that health tourism companies are more profitable than no health tourism companies.

Keywords: Financial performance, gap analysis, health tourism, profitability performance, value creation.

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Authors: Jo Rhodes, Peter Lok, Zahra Sadeghinejad

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The aim of this study is to determine the impact of metacognition on top management team members and firm performance based on full team integration. A survey of 1500 small to medium enterprises (SMEs) was initiated and 140 firms were obtained in this study (with response rate of 9%). The result showed that different metacognitive abilities of managers [knowledge and experience] could enhance team decision-making and problem solving, resulting in greater firm performance. This is a significant finding for SMEs because these organisations have small teams with owner leadership and entrepreneurial orientation.

Keywords: Metacognition, behavioural integration, top management team, performance.

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Authors: S. H. J. Liu

Abstract:

This paper aims to explore the role of peer Corrective Feedback (CF) in improving written productions by English-as-a- foreign-language (EFL) learners who work together via Wikispaces. It attempted to determine the effect of peer CF on form accuracy in English, such as grammar and lexis. Thirty-four EFL learners at the tertiary level were randomly assigned into the experimental (with peer feedback) or the control (without peer feedback) group; each group was subdivided into small groups of two or three. This resulted in six and seven small groups in the experimental and control groups, respectively. In the experimental group, each learner played a role as an assessor (providing feedback to others), as well as an assessee (receiving feedback from others). Each participant was asked to compose his/her written work and revise it based on the feedback. In the control group, on the other hand, learners neither provided nor received feedback but composed and revised their written work on their own. Data collected from learners’ compositions and post-task interviews were analyzed and reported in this study. Following the completeness of three writing tasks, 10 participants were selected and interviewed individually regarding their perception of collaborative learning in the Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) environment. Language aspects to be analyzed included lexis (e.g., appropriate use of words), verb tenses (e.g., present and past simple), prepositions (e.g., in, on, and between), nouns, and articles (e.g., a/an). Feedback types consisted of CF, affective, suggestive, and didactic. Frequencies of feedback types and the accuracy of the language aspects were calculated. The results first suggested that accurate items were found more in the experimental group than in the control group. Such results entail that those who worked collaboratively outperformed those who worked non-collaboratively on the accuracy of linguistic aspects. Furthermore, the first type of CF (e.g., corrections directly related to linguistic errors) was found to be the most frequently employed type, whereas affective and didactic were the least used by the experimental group. The results further indicated that most participants perceived that peer CF was helpful in improving the language accuracy, and they demonstrated a favorable attitude toward working with others in the CMC environment. Moreover, some participants stated that when they provided feedback to their peers, they tended to pay attention to linguistic errors in their peers’ work but overlook their own errors (e.g., past simple tense) when writing. Finally, L2 or FL teachers or practitioners are encouraged to employ CMC technologies to train their students to give each other feedback in writing to improve the accuracy of the language and to motivate them to attend to the language system.

Keywords: Peer corrective feedback, computer-mediated communication, second or foreign language learning, Wikispaces.

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Authors: Mojtaba Molaahmadi, Morteza Raei Dehaghi, Abdolrahim Arghavan

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The present study aims to explore the effect of computerization on marketing performance in Snowa Company. In other words, this study intends to respond to this question that whether or not, is there any relationship between utilization of computerization in marketing activities and marketing performance? The statistical population included 60 marketing managers of Snowa Company. In order to test the research hypotheses, Pearson correlation coefficient was employed. The reliability was equal to 96.8%. In this study, computerization was the independent variable and marketing performance was the dependent variable with characteristics of market share, improving the competitive position, and sales volume. The results of testing the hypotheses revealed that there is a significant relationship between utilization of computerization and market share, sales volume and improving the competitive position.

Keywords: Computerization, e-marketing information, information technology, marketing performance.

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Authors: Anita S. Gangal, P. K. Kalra, D. S. Chauhan

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The backpropagation algorithm in general employs quadratic error function. In fact, most of the problems that involve minimization employ the Quadratic error function. With alternative error functions the performance of the optimization scheme can be improved. The new error functions help in suppressing the ill-effects of the outliers and have shown good performance to noise. In this paper we have tried to evaluate and compare the relative performance of complex valued neural network using different error functions. During first simulation for complex XOR gate it is observed that some error functions like Absolute error, Cauchy error function can replace Quadratic error function. In the second simulation it is observed that for some error functions the performance of the complex valued neural network depends on the architecture of the network whereas with few other error functions convergence speed of the network is independent of architecture of the neural network.

Keywords: Complex backpropagation algorithm, complex errorfunctions, complex valued neural network, split activation function.

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Authors: Ntantos P.N, Karpouzos D.K

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In this paper, a benchmarking framework is presented for the performance assessment of irrigations systems. Firstly, a data envelopment analysis (DEA) is applied to measure the technical efficiency of irrigation systems. This method, based on linear programming, aims to determine a consistent efficiency ranking of irrigation systems in which known inputs, such as water volume supplied and total irrigated area, and a given output corresponding to the total value of irrigation production are taken into account simultaneously. Secondly, in order to examine the irrigation efficiency in more detail, a cross – system comparison is elaborated using a performance indicators set selected by IWMI. The above methodologies were applied in Thessaloniki plain, located in Northern Greece while the results of the application are presented and discussed. The conjunctive use of DEA and performance indicators seems to be a very useful tool for efficiency assessment and identification of best practices in irrigation systems management.

Keywords: Benchmarking, D.E.A, Performance Indicators, Irrigation systems.

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