Search results for: Software quality Metrics
4541 Simulation of the Finite Difference Time Domain in Two Dimension
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The finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method is one of the most widely used computational methods in electromagnetic. This paper describes the design of two-dimensional (2D) FDTD simulation software for transverse magnetic (TM) polarization using Berenger's split-field perfectly matched layer (PML) formulation. The software is developed using Matlab programming language. Numerical examples validate the software.Keywords: Finite difference time domain (FDTD) method, perfectly matched layer (PML), split-filed formulation, transverse magnetic (TM) polarization.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 56254540 Measured versus Default Interstate Traffic Data in New Mexico, USA
Authors: M. A. Hasan, M. R. Islam, R. A. Tarefder
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This study investigates how the site specific traffic data differs from the Mechanistic Empirical Pavement Design Software default values. Two Weigh-in-Motion (WIM) stations were installed in Interstate-40 (I-40) and Interstate-25 (I-25) to developed site specific data. A computer program named WIM Data Analysis Software (WIMDAS) was developed using Microsoft C-Sharp (.Net) for quality checking and processing of raw WIM data. A complete year data from November 2013 to October 2014 was analyzed using the developed WIM Data Analysis Program. After that, the vehicle class distribution, directional distribution, lane distribution, monthly adjustment factor, hourly distribution, axle load spectra, average number of axle per vehicle, axle spacing, lateral wander distribution, and wheelbase distribution were calculated. Then a comparative study was done between measured data and AASHTOWare default values. It was found that the measured general traffic inputs for I-40 and I-25 significantly differ from the default values.Keywords: AASHTOWare, Traffic, Weigh-in-Motion, Axle load Distribution.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17024539 Automatic Segmentation of Dermoscopy Images Using Histogram Thresholding on Optimal Color Channels
Authors: Rahil Garnavi, Mohammad Aldeen, M. Emre Celebi, Alauddin Bhuiyan, Constantinos Dolianitis, George Varigos
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Automatic segmentation of skin lesions is the first step towards development of a computer-aided diagnosis of melanoma. Although numerous segmentation methods have been developed, few studies have focused on determining the most discriminative and effective color space for melanoma application. This paper proposes a novel automatic segmentation algorithm using color space analysis and clustering-based histogram thresholding, which is able to determine the optimal color channel for segmentation of skin lesions. To demonstrate the validity of the algorithm, it is tested on a set of 30 high resolution dermoscopy images and a comprehensive evaluation of the results is provided, where borders manually drawn by four dermatologists, are compared to automated borders detected by the proposed algorithm. The evaluation is carried out by applying three previously used metrics of accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity and a new metric of similarity. Through ROC analysis and ranking the metrics, it is shown that the best results are obtained with the X and XoYoR color channels which results in an accuracy of approximately 97%. The proposed method is also compared with two state-ofthe- art skin lesion segmentation methods, which demonstrates the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed segmentation method.Keywords: Border detection, Color space analysis, Dermoscopy, Histogram thresholding, Melanoma, Segmentation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20884538 Hardware Approach to Solving Password Exposure Problem through Keyboard Sniff
Authors: Kyungroul Lee, Kwangjin Bae, Kangbin Yim
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This paper introduces a hardware solution to password exposure problem caused by direct accesses to the keyboard hardware interfaces through which a possible attacker is able to grab user-s password even where existing countermeasures are deployed. Several researches have proposed reasonable software based solutions to the problem for years. However, recently introduced hardware vulnerability problems have neutralized the software approaches and yet proposed any effective software solution to the vulnerability. Hardware approach in this paper is expected as the only solution to the vulnerabilityKeywords: Keyboard sniff, password exposure, hardware vulnerability, privacy problem, insider security.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15804537 Necessity of Risk Management of Various Industry-Associated Pollutants(Case Study of Gavkhoni Wetland Ecosystem)
Authors: Hekmatpanah, M.
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Since the beginning of human history, human activities have caused many changes in the environment. Today, a particular attention should be paid to gaining knowledge about water quality of wetlands which are pristine natural environments rich in genetic reserves. If qualitative conditions of industrial areas (in terms of both physicochemical and biological conditions) are not addressed properly, they could cause disruption in natural ecosystems, especially in rivers. With regards to the quality of water resources, determination of pollutant sources plays a pivotal role in engineering projects as well as designing water quality control systems. Thus, using different methods such as flow duration curves, dischargepollution load model and frequency analysis by HYFA software package, risk of various industrial pollutants in international and ecologically important Gavkhoni wetland is analyzed. In this study, a station located at Varzaneh City is used as the last station on Zayanderud River, from where the river water is discharged into the wetland. Results showed that elements- concentrations often exceeded the allowed level and river water can endanger regional ecosystem. In addition, if the river discharge is managed on Q25 basis, this basis can lower concentrations of elements, keeping them within the normal level.Keywords: Pollutants Risk, Industry, Flow Discharge, Management, Gavkhoni Wetland
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12504536 Developing Examination Management System: Senior Capstone Project, a Case Study
Authors: S. Vasupongayya, W. Noodam, P. Kongyong
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This paper presents the result of three senior capstone projects at the Department of Computer Engineering, Prince of Songkla University, Thailand. These projects focus on developing an examination management system for the Faculty of Engineering in order to manage the examination both the examination room assignments and the examination proctor assignments in each room. The current version of the software is a web-based application. The developed software allows the examination proctors to select their scheduled time online while each subject is assigned to each available examination room according to its type and the room capacity. The developed system is evaluated using real data by prospective users of the system. Several suggestions for further improvements are given by the testers. Even though the features of the developed software are not superior, the developing process can be a case study for a projectbased teaching style. Furthermore, the process of developing this software can show several issues in developing an educational support application.
Keywords: Scheduling, Web-based, Greedy Algorithm, Engineering Education.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 70884535 Manual to Automated Testing: An Effort-Based Approach for Determining the Priority of Software Test Automation
Authors: Peter Sabev, Katalina Grigorova
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Test automation allows performing difficult and time consuming manual software testing tasks efficiently, quickly and repeatedly. However, development and maintenance of automated tests is expensive, so it needs a proper prioritization what to automate first. This paper describes a simple yet efficient approach for such prioritization of test cases based on the effort needed for both manual execution and software test automation. The suggested approach is very flexible because it allows working with a variety of assessment methods, and adding or removing new candidates at any time. The theoretical ideas presented in this article have been successfully applied in real world situations in several software companies by the authors and their colleagues including testing of real estate websites, cryptographic and authentication solutions, OSGi-based middleware framework that has been applied in various systems for smart homes, connected cars, production plants, sensors, home appliances, car head units and engine control units (ECU), vending machines, medical devices, industry equipment and other devices that either contain or are connected to an embedded service gateway.Keywords: Automated Testing, Manual Testing, Test Automation, Software testing, Test Prioritization.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 33924534 Quality of Life of the Beneficiaries of the Government’s Bolsa Família Program: A Case Study in Mateiros/TO/Brazil
Authors: Mary L. G. S. Senna, Afonso R. Aquino, Veruska C. Dutra, Carlos H. C. Tolentino
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The quality of life index, despite elucidating many discussions, the conceptual subjectivity of the term does not show precision, and consequently, many researchers seek to develop methods aiming to measure this concept, bringing it to a more concrete approach. In this study, the quality of life index method was used to analyze the population of Mateiros, Tocantins, Brazil for quality of life. After data collection, it was compared the quality of life index between the population and the group of beneficiaries of the Brazilian government assistance program Bolsa Família (Family Allowance). Some of the people interviewed receive financial aid from the federal government program Bolsa Família (22%). Comparisons were made among the final score of the quality of life index of the Mateiros population and the following factors: Gender, age, education, those working or not with tourism and those who receive or do not receive the Bolsa Família. It was observed that only the factor, Bolsa Família (p-score 0.0138), shows an association with quality of life improvement, noticing that those who have financial aid had a higher quality of life improvement than the rest of the population. It was concluded that, government assistance has shown a decisive element on the enhancement of Mateiros population quality of life, indicating that similar actions should be maintained.Keywords: Quality of life index, government aid to families, sustainable tourism, Bolsa Familia.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17964533 An Investigation of Quality Practices in Libyan Industrial Companies
Authors: Mostafa A. Shokshok, Omran Ali Abu Krais
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This paper describes the collection and analysis of data obtained from face-to-face interviews conducted in selected Libyan industrial companies. The objectives of the interviews are to enhance understanding, and generate explanations of current issues in culture and quality management systems in Libyan companies. The method used in analyzing the questions, as well as the main finding of each question are explained. The interviews probed areas identify national and organizational culture, quality management systems, current methods, effects, barriers and other factors affecting the success of quality management implementation. Eleven questions are prepared and been discussed with the interviewees.Keywords: Interviews, quality, culture, Libyan industrial companies.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19534532 Recurrent Radial Basis Function Network for Failure Time Series Prediction
Authors: Ryad Zemouri, Paul Ciprian Patic
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An adaptive software reliability prediction model using evolutionary connectionist approach based on Recurrent Radial Basis Function architecture is proposed. Based on the currently available software failure time data, Fuzzy Min-Max algorithm is used to globally optimize the number of the k Gaussian nodes. The corresponding optimized neural network architecture is iteratively and dynamically reconfigured in real-time as new actual failure time data arrives. The performance of our proposed approach has been tested using sixteen real-time software failure data. Numerical results show that our proposed approach is robust across different software projects, and has a better performance with respect to next-steppredictability compared to existing neural network model for failure time prediction.Keywords: Neural network, Prediction error, Recurrent RadialBasis Function Network, Reliability prediction.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18224531 Impact of Safety and Quality Considerations of Housing Clients on the Construction Firms’ Intention to Adopt Quality Function Deployment: A Case of Construction Sector
Authors: Saif Ul Haq
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The current study intends to examine the safety and quality considerations of clients of housing projects and their impact on the adoption of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) by the construction firm. Mixed method research technique has been used to collect and analyze the data wherein a survey was conducted to collect the data from 220 clients of housing projects in Saudi Arabia. Then, the telephonic and Skype interviews were conducted to collect data of 15 professionals working in the top ten real estate companies of Saudi Arabia. Data were analyzed by using partial least square (PLS) and thematic analysis techniques. Findings reveal that today’s customer prioritizes the safety and quality requirements of their houses and as a result, construction firms adopt QFD to address the needs of customers. The findings are of great importance for the clients of housing projects as well as for the construction firms as they could apply QFD in housing projects to address the safety and quality concerns of their clients.Keywords: Construction industry, quality considerations, quality function deployment, safety considerations.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9074530 Three-Stage Mining Metals Supply Chain Coordination and Product Quality Improvement with Revenue Sharing Contract
Authors: Hamed Homaei, Iraj Mahdavi, Ali Tajdin
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One of the main concerns of miners is to increase the quality level of their products because the mining metals price depends on their quality level; however, increasing the quality level of these products has different costs at different levels of the supply chain. These costs usually increase after extractor level. This paper studies the coordination issue of a decentralized three-level supply chain with one supplier (extractor), one mineral processor and one manufacturer in which the increasing product quality level cost at the processor level is higher than the supplier and at the level of the manufacturer is more than the processor. We identify the optimal product quality level for each supply chain member by designing a revenue sharing contract. Finally, numerical examples show that the designed contract not only increases the final product quality level but also provides a win-win condition for all supply chain members and increases the whole supply chain profit.
Keywords: Three-stage supply chain, product quality improvement, channel coordination, revenue sharing.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 11084529 Effects of Temperature and Enzyme Concentration on Quality of Pineapple and Pawpaw Blended Juice
Authors: Ndidi F. Amulu, Calistus N. Ude, Patrick E. Amulu, Nneka N. Uchegbu
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The effects of temperature and enzyme concentration on the quality of mixed pineapple and pawpaw blended fruits juice were studied. Extracts of the two fruit juices were separately treated at 70 for 15 min each so as to inactivate micro-organisms. They were analyzed and blended in different proportions of 70% pawpaw and 30% pineapple, 60% pawpaw and 40% pineapple, 50% pineapple and 50% pawpaw, 40% pawpaw and 60% pineapple. The characterization of the fresh pawpaw and pineapple juice before blending showed that the juices have good quality. The high water content of the product may have affected the viscosity, vitamin C content and total soluble solid of the blended juice to be low. The effects of the process parameters on the quality showed that better quality of the blended juice can be obtained within the optimum temperature range of (50-70 °C) and enzyme concentration range (0.12-0.18 w/v). The ratio of mix 60% pineapple juice: 40% pawpaw juice has better quality. This showed that pawpaw and pineapple juices can blend effectively to produce a quality juice.Keywords: Clarification, pawpaw, pineapple, viscosity, vitamin C.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18284528 Investigation of the Main Trends of Tourist Expenses in Georgia
Authors: Nino Abesadze, Marine Mindorashvili, Nino Paresashvili
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The main purpose of the article is to make complex statistical analysis of tourist expenses of foreign visitors. We used mixed technique of selection that implies rules of random and proportional selection. Computer software SPSS was used to compute statistical data for corresponding analysis. Corresponding methodology of tourism statistics was implemented according to international standards. Important information was collected and grouped from the major Georgian airports. Techniques of statistical observation were prepared. A representative population of foreign visitors and a rule of selection of respondents were determined. We have a trend of growth of tourist numbers and share of tourists from post-soviet countries constantly increases. Level of satisfaction with tourist facilities and quality of service has grown, but still we have a problem of disparity between quality of service and prices. The design of tourist expenses of foreign visitors is diverse; competitiveness of tourist products of Georgian tourist companies is higher.
Keywords: Tourist, expenses, methods, statistics, analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9504527 The Impact of Occupational Stress on Quality of Work Life among the Staff of e-Workspace
Authors: Alireza Bolhari, Ali Rezaeean, Jafar Bolhari, Fatemeh Zare
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With the advent of new technologies, factors related to mental health in e-workspaces are taken into consideration more than ever. Studies have revealed that one of the factors affecting the productivity of employees in an organization is occupational stress. Another influential factor is quality of work life which is important in the improvement of work environment conditions and organizational efficiency. In order to uncover the quality of work life level and to investigate the impact of occupational stress on quality of work life among information technology employees in Iran, a cross-sectional study design was applied and data were gathered using a questionnaire validated by a group of experts. The results of the study showed that information technology staffs have average level of both occupational stress and quality of work life. Furthermore, it was found that occupational stress has a negative impact on quality of work life. In addition, the same results were observed for role ambiguity, role conflict, role under-load, work-pace, work repetitiveness and tension toward quality of work life. No significant relation was found between role overload and quality of work life. Finally, directions for future research are proposed and discussed.Keywords: Information Technology, e-Workspace, Healthcare, IT Staff, Occupational Stress, Quality of Work Life
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 57654526 Software Evolution Based Sequence Diagrams Merging
Authors: Zine-Eddine Bouras, Abdelouaheb Talai
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The need to merge software artifacts seems inherent to modern software development. Distribution of development over several teams and breaking tasks into smaller, more manageable pieces are an effective means to deal with the kind of complexity. In each case, the separately developed artifacts need to be assembled as efficiently as possible into a consistent whole in which the parts still function as described. In addition, earlier changes are introduced into the life cycle and easier is their management by designers. Interaction-based specifications such as UML sequence diagrams have been found effective in this regard. As a result, sequence diagrams can be used not only for capturing system behaviors but also for merging changes in order to create a new version. The objective of this paper is to suggest a new approach to deal with the problem of software merging at the level of sequence diagrams by using the concept of dependence analysis that captures, formally, all mapping, and differences between elements of sequence diagrams and serves as a key concept to create a new version of sequence diagram.Keywords: System behaviors, sequence diagram merging, dependence analysis, sequence diagram slicing.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17644525 A Mapping Approach of Code Generation for Arinc653-Based Avionics Software
Authors: Lu Zou, Dianfu MA, Ying Wang, Xianqi Zhao
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Avionic software architecture has transit from a federated avionics architecture to an integrated modular avionics (IMA) .ARINC 653 (Avionics Application Standard Software Interface) is a software specification for space and time partitioning in Safety-critical avionics Real-time operating systems. Methods to transform the abstract avionics application logic function to the executable model have been brought up, however with less consideration about the code generating input and output model specific for ARINC 653 platform and inner-task synchronous dynamic interaction order sequence. In this paper, we proposed an AADL-based model-driven design methodology to fulfill the purpose to automatically generating Cµ executable model on ARINC 653 platform from the ARINC653 architecture which defined as AADL653 in order to facilitate the development of the avionics software constructed on ARINC653 OS. This paper presents the mapping rules between the AADL653 elements and the elements in Cµ language, and define the code generating rules , designs an automatic C µ code generator .Then, we use a case to illustrate our approach. Finally, we give the related work and future research directions.Keywords: IMA, ARINC653, AADL653, code generation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 30444524 Investigation of Organizational Work-Life Imbalance of Thai Software Developers in a Multinational Software Development Firm using Fishbone Diagram for Knowledge Management
Authors: N. Mantalay, N. Chakpitak, W. Janchai, P. Sureepong
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Work stress causes the organizational work-life imbalance of employees. Because of this imbalance, workers perform with lower effort to finish assignments and thus an organization will experience reduced productivity. In order to investigate the problem of an organizational work-life imbalance, this qualitative case study focuses on an organizational work-life imbalance among Thai software developers in a German-owned company in Chiang Mai, Thailand. In terms of knowledge management, fishbone diagram is useful analysis tool to investigate the root causes of an organizational work-life imbalance systematically in focus-group discussions. Furthermore, fishbone diagram shows the relationship between causes and effects clearly. It was found that an organizational worklife imbalance among Thai software developers is influenced by management team, work environment, and information tools used in the company over time.Keywords: knowledge management, knowledge worker, worklife imbalance, fishbone diagram
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 28744523 Extended Study on Removing Gaussian Noise in Mechanical Engineering Drawing Images using Median Filters
Authors: Low Khong Teck, Hasan S. M. Al-Khaffaf, Abdullah Zawawi Talib, Tan Kian Lam
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In this paper, an extended study is performed on the effect of different factors on the quality of vector data based on a previous study. In the noise factor, one kind of noise that appears in document images namely Gaussian noise is studied while the previous study involved only salt-and-pepper noise. High and low levels of noise are studied. For the noise cleaning methods, algorithms that were not covered in the previous study are used namely Median filters and its variants. For the vectorization factor, one of the best available commercial raster to vector software namely VPstudio is used to convert raster images into vector format. The performance of line detection will be judged based on objective performance evaluation method. The output of the performance evaluation is then analyzed statistically to highlight the factors that affect vector quality.Keywords: Performance Evaluation, Vectorization, Median Filter, Gaussian Noise.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17054522 Quantitative Ranking Evaluation of Wine Quality
Authors: A. Brunel, A. Kernevez, F. Leclere, J. Trenteseaux
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Today, wine quality is only evaluated by wine experts with their own different personal tastes, even if they may agree on some common features. So producers do not have any unbiased way to independently assess the quality of their products. A tool is here proposed to evaluate wine quality by an objective ranking based upon the variables entering wine elaboration, and analysed through principal component analysis (PCA) method. Actual climatic data are compared by measuring the relative distance between each considered wine, out of which the general ranking is performed.Keywords: Wine, grape, vine, weather conditions, rating, climate, principal component analysis, metric analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21354521 Quality as an Approach to Organizational Change and Its Role in the Reorganization of Enterprises: Case of Four Moroccan Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises
Authors: A. Boudiaf
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The purpose of this paper is to analyze and apprehend, through four case studies, the interest of the project of the implementation of the quality management system (QMS) at four Moroccan small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This project could generate significant organizational change to improve the functioning of the organization. In fact, quality is becoming a necessity in the current business world. It is considered to be a major component in companies’ competitive strategies. It should be noted that quality management is characterized by a set of methods and techniques that can be used to solve malfunctions and reorganize companies. It is useful to point out that the choice of the adoption of the quality approach could be influenced by the circumstances of the business context, it could also be derived from its strategic vision; this means that this choice can be characterized as either a strategic aspect or a reactive aspect. This would probably have a major impact on the functioning of the QMS and also on the perception of the quality issue by company managers and their employees.
Keywords: Business context, organizational change, quality, reorganization.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 8124520 Corporate Governance Practices and Audit Quality: An Empirical Study of the Listed Companies in Egypt
Authors: Mohamed Moustafa Soliman, Mohamed Abd Elsalam
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Recent financial international scandals around the world have led to a number of investigations into the effectiveness of corporate governance practices and audit quality. Although evidence of corporate governance practices and audit quality exists from developed economies, very scanty studies have been conducted in Egypt where corporate governance is just evolving. Therefore, this study provides evidence on the effectiveness of corporate governance practices and audit quality from a developing country. The data for analysis are gathered from the top 50 most active companies in the Egyptian Stock Exchange, covering the three year period 2007-2009. Logistic regression was used in investigating the questions that were raised in the study. Findings from the study show that board independence; CEO duality and audit committees significantly have relationship with audit quality. The results also, indicate that institutional investor and managerial ownership have no significantly relationship with audit quality. Evidence also exist that size of the company; complexity and business leverage are important factors in audit quality for companies quoted on the Egypt Stock Exchange.
Keywords: Corporate governance, Boards of directors, corporate ownership, Audit Committees, Audit quality, and Egypt.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 39274519 Quality of Non-Point Source Pollutant Identification using Digital Image and Remote Sensing Image
Authors: Riki Mukhaiyar
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The integration between technology of remote sensing, information from the data of digital image, and modeling technology for the simulation of water quality will provide easiness during the observation on the quality of water changes on the river surface. For example, Ciliwung River which is contaminated with non-point source pollutant from household wastes, particularly on its downstream. This fact informed that the quality of water in this river is getting worse. The land use for settlements and housing ranges between 62.84% - 81.26% on the downstream of Ciliwung River, give a significant picture in seeing factors that affected the water quality of Ciliwung River.Keywords: Digital Image, Digitize, Landuse, Non-Point SourcePollutant, Qual2e Simulation
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17154518 Comparison of S-transform and Wavelet Transform in Power Quality Analysis
Authors: Mohammad Javad Dehghani
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In the power quality analysis non-stationary nature of voltage distortions require some precise and powerful analytical techniques. The time-frequency representation (TFR) provides a powerful method for identification of the non-stationary of the signals. This paper investigates a comparative study on two techniques for analysis and visualization of voltage distortions with time-varying amplitudes. The techniques include the Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT), and the S-Transform. Several power quality problems are analyzed using both the discrete wavelet transform and S–transform, showing clearly the advantage of the S– transform in detecting, localizing, and classifying the power quality problems.Keywords: Power quality, S-Transform, Short Time FourierTransform , Wavelet Transform, instantaneous sag, swell.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 28184517 Comparing the Quality of Service of Bus Companies Operating in two Cities in Brazil
Authors: D. I. De Souza, D. Kipper, G. P. Azevedo
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The main objective of this work is to compare the quality of service of the bus companies operating in the city of Rio Branco, located in the state of Acre with the quality of service of the bus companies operating in the city of Campos, situated in the state of Rio de Janeiro, both cities in Brazil. This comparison, based on the opinion of the bus users, will determine their degree of satisfaction with the service available in both cities. The outcome of this evaluation shows the users unhappy with the quality of the service provided by the bus companies operating in both cities and the need to identify alternative solutions that may minimize the consequences caused by the main problems detected in this work. With these alternatives available, the bus companies will be able to better understand the needs of their customers in terms of manpower, service cost, time schedule, etc.Keywords: PubicTransportation, Quality of Service, Riders' Opinion, Bus Companies
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12914516 Quality-Driven Business Process Refactoring
Authors: María Fernández-Ropero, Ricardo Pérez-Castillo, Ismael Caballero, Mario Piattini
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Appropriate description of business processes through standard notations has become one of the most important assets for organizations. Organizations must therefore deal with quality faults in business process models such as the lack of understandability and modifiability. These quality faults may be exacerbated if business process models are mined by reverse engineering, e.g., from existing information systems that support those business processes. Hence, business process refactoring is often used, which change the internal structure of business processes whilst its external behavior is preserved. This paper aims to choose the most appropriate set of refactoring operators through the quality assessment concerning understandability and modifiability. These quality features are assessed through well-proven measures proposed in the literature. Additionally, a set of measure thresholds are heuristically established for applying the most promising refactoring operators, i.e., those that achieve the highest quality improvement according to the selected measures in each case.Keywords: business process model, modifiability, refactoring, understandability
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15304515 Online Programme of Excellence Model (OPEM)
Authors: Luis M. Villar, Olga M. Alegre
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Finding effective ways of improving university quality assurance requires, as well, a retraining of the staff. This article illustrates an Online Programme of Excellence Model (OPEM), based on the European quality assurance model, for improving participants- formative programme standards. The results of applying this OPEM indicate the necessity of quality policies that support the evaluators- competencies to improve formative programmes. The study concludes by outlining how faculty and agency staff can use OPEM for the internal and external quality assurance of formative programmes.
Keywords: Formative assessment, Online faculty excellence program, Teaching competencies, University quality assurance.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13194514 The Relationship between Human Values and Service Quality with the Mediating Role of Motivation: A Quantitative Study on Malaysian Commercial Banks
Authors: Kuppusamy Singaravelloo, Zahra Kamiab
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This study explores the mediating effects of motivation in the relationship between human values and service quality. To examine the fundamental relationships among human values, motivation, and service quality, a Structural Equation Model (SEM) with a full mediation model was adopted. The model was designed and subsequently analyzed by utilizing the Partial Least Squares (PLS) procedure on data collected from a survey that yielded 936 usable questionnaires. The survey was sent to all 117 branches of two local commercial banks (CIMB and Maybank) operating in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Both banks ranked the highest in terms of asset size and market capitalization. The mediating role of motivation was examined in the relationship between four dimensions of human values and bank service quality, whereby human values initiate service quality. The results support the notion that employee motivation fully mediates the relationship between self-enhancement values and service quality in commercial banks. These results demonstrate the unpredictable role of the interaction structures of human values on bank service quality.
Keywords: Human values, service quality, mediation, motivation, commercial bank.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 8794513 Evaluation of the Role of Advocacy and the Quality of Care in Reducing Health Inequalities for People with Autism, Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals
Authors: Jonathan Sahu, Jill Aylott
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Individuals with Autism, Intellectual and Developmental disabilities (AIDD) are one of the most vulnerable groups in society, hampered not only by their own limitations to understand and interact with the wider society, but also societal limitations in perception and understanding. Communication to express their needs and wishes is fundamental to enable such individuals to live and prosper in society. This research project was designed as an organisational case study, in a large secondary health care hospital within the National Health Service (NHS), to assess the quality of care provided to people with AIDD and to review the role of advocacy to reduce health inequalities in these individuals. Methods: The research methodology adopted was as an “insider researcher”. Data collection included both quantitative and qualitative data i.e. a mixed method approach. A semi-structured interview schedule was designed and used to obtain qualitative and quantitative primary data from a wide range of interdisciplinary frontline health care workers to assess their understanding and awareness of systems, processes and evidence based practice to offer a quality service to people with AIDD. Secondary data were obtained from sources within the organisation, in keeping with “Case Study” as a primary method, and organisational performance data were then compared against national benchmarking standards. Further data sources were accessed to help evaluate the effectiveness of different types of advocacy that were present in the organisation. This was gauged by measures of user and carer experience in the form of retrospective survey analysis, incidents and complaints. Results: Secondary data demonstrate near compliance of the Organisation with the current national benchmarking standard (Monitor Compliance Framework). However, primary data demonstrate poor knowledge of the Mental Capacity Act 2005, poor knowledge of organisational systems, processes and evidence based practice applied for people with AIDD. In addition there was poor knowledge and awareness of frontline health care workers of advocacy and advocacy schemes for this group. Conclusions: A significant amount of work needs to be undertaken to improve the quality of care delivered to individuals with AIDD. An operational strategy promoting the widespread dissemination of information may not be the best approach to deliver quality care and optimal patient experience and patient advocacy. In addition, a more robust set of standards, with appropriate metrics, needs to be developed to assess organisational performance which will stand the test of professional and public scrutiny.Keywords: Autism, intellectual developmental disabilities, advocacy, health inequalities, quality of care.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 8954512 Load Modeling for Power Flow and Transient Stability Computer Studies at BAKHTAR Network
Authors: M. Sedighizadeh, A. Rezazadeh
Abstract:
A method has been developed for preparing load models for power flow and stability. The load modeling (LOADMOD) computer software transforms data on load class mix, composition, and characteristics into the from required for commonly–used power flow and transient stability simulation programs. Typical default data have been developed for load composition and characteristics. This paper defines LOADMOD software and describes the dynamic and static load modeling techniques used in this software and results of initial testing for BAKHTAR power system.Keywords: Load Modelling, Static, Power Flow.
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