Search results for: water demand management

Authors: Chandrika M.J., Lariyah M.S., Alicia Y.C. Tang

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Ontology is widely being used as a tool for organizing information, creating the relation between the subjects within the defined knowledge domain area. Various fields such as Civil, Biology, and Management have successful integrated ontology in decision support systems for managing domain knowledge and to assist their decision makers. Gross pollutant traps (GPT) are devices used in trapping and preventing large items or hazardous particles in polluting and entering our waterways. However choosing and determining GPT is a challenge in Malaysia as there are inadequate GPT data repositories being captured and shared. Hence ontology is needed to capture, organize and represent this knowledge into meaningful information which can be contributed to the efficiency of GPT selection in Malaysia urbanization. A GPT Ontology framework is therefore built as the first step to capture GPT knowledge which will then be integrated into the decision support system. This paper will provide several examples of the GPT ontology, and explain how it is constructed by using the Protégé tool.

Keywords: Gross pollutant Trap, Ontology, Protégé.

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Authors: Cheng Fang Hsu, Shinn-Jong Lin

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This paper aims at a new challenge of customer satisfaction on mobile customer relationship management. In this paper presents a conceptualization of mCRM on its unique characteristics of customer satisfaction. Also, this paper develops an empirical framework in conception of customer satisfaction in mCRM. A single-case study is applied as the methodology. In order to gain an overall view of the empirical case, this paper accesses to invisible and important information of company in this investigation. Interview is the key data source form the main informants of the company through which the issues are identified and the proposed framework is built. It supports the development of customer satisfaction in mCRM; links this theoretical framework into practice; and provides the direction for future research. Therefore, this paper is very useful for the industries as it helps them to understand how customer satisfaction changes the mCRM structure and increase the business competitive advantage. Finally, this paper provides a contribution in practice by linking a theoretical framework in conception of customer satisfaction in mCRM for companies to a practical real case.

Keywords: Customer Satisfaction; mCRM; MobileCommunication.

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Authors: Nameesh Miglani, Rajeev Saha, R. S. Parihar

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Estimation of the quality regarding higher education within a university is practically long drawn process besides being difficult to measure primarily due to lack of a standard scale. National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) evolved a methodology of assessment which involves self-appraisal by each university/college and an assessment of performance by an expert committee. The attributes involved in assessing a university may not be totally independent from each other thereby necessitating the consideration of interdependencies. The present study focuses on evaluation of assessment criteria using graph theoretic approach and fuzzy treatment of data collected from the students. The technique will provide a suitable platform to university management team to cross check assessment of education quality by considering interdependencies of the attributes using graph theory.

Keywords: Graph theory, NAAC accreditation criteria, Indian University accreditation process.

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Authors: K. Kumpas

Abstract:

Bologna process has influenced enhancing studentcentered learning in Estonian higher education since 2009, but there is no information about what helps or hinders students to achieve learning outcomes and how quality of student-centered learning might be improved. The purpose of this study is to analyze two questions from outcome-based course evaluation questionnaire which is used in Estonian Entrepreneurship University of Applied Sciences. In this qualitative research, 384 students from 22 different courses described what helped and hindered them to achieve learning outcomes. The analysis showed that the aspects that hinder students to achieve learning outcomes are mostly personal: time management, family and personal matters, motivation and non-academic activities. The results indicate that students- learning is commonly supported by school, where teacher, teaching and characteristics of teaching methods help mostly to achieve learning outcomes, also learning material, practical assignments and independent study was brought up as one of the key elements.

Keywords: Learning outcomes, learning quality, student-centered learning

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Authors: Cherif Haddad, Faouzi Ben Charrada

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Large-scale systems such as Grids offer infrastructures for both data distribution and parallel processing. The use of Grid infrastructures is a more recent issue that is already impacting the Distributed Database Management System industry. In DBMS, distributed query processing has emerged as a fundamental technique for ensuring high performance in distributed databases. Database placement is particularly important in large-scale systems because it reduces communication costs and improves resource usage. In this paper, we propose a dynamic database placement policy that depends on query patterns and Grid sites capabilities. We evaluate the performance of the proposed database placement policy using simulations. The obtained results show that dynamic database placement can significantly improve the performance of distributed query processing.

Keywords: Large-scale systems, Grid environment, Distributed Databases, Distributed query processing, Database placement

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Authors: D. Lingam, D. R. Seenivasagam, P. Chand, C. Yee, J. Chief, R. Ananthanarayanan

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In a post-pandemic workspace, identifying the barriers, solutions, and strategies related to telecommuting becomes crucial. Amidst the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, remote work emerged as a vital business continuity measure. This study investigates telecommuting’s modern work model, exploring benefits and obstacles. Utilizing Interpretive Structural Modelling, it uncovers barriers hindering telecommuting adoption. A validated set of thirteen barriers is examined through departmental surveys, revealing interrelationships. The resulting model highlights interactions and dependencies, forming a foundational framework. By addressing dominant barriers, a domino effect on subservient barriers is demonstrated. This research fosters further exploration, proposing management strategies for successful telecommuting adoption, reshaping the traditional workspace.

Keywords: Barriers, interpretive structural modelling, post-pandemic, telecommuting.

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Authors: D. Dannehl, Z. Taylor, J. Suhl, L. Miranda, R., Ulrichs, C., Salazar, E. Fitz-Rodriguez, I. Lopez-Cruz, A. Rojano-Aguilar, G. Navas-Gomez, U. Schmidt

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Growing environmental and sustainability concerns have driven continual modernization of horticultural practices, especially for urban farming. Controlled environment and soilless production methods are increasing in popularity because of their efficient resource use and intensive cropping capabilities. However, some popular substrates used for hydroponic cultivation, particularly rock wool, represent a large environmental burden in regard to their manufacture and disposal. Substrate-less hydroponic systems are effective in producing short cropping cycle plants such as lettuce or herbs, but less information is available for the production of plants with larger root-systems and longer cropping times. Here, we investigated the viability of a hybrid aeroponic/nutrient film technique (AP/NFT) system for the cultivation of greenhouse tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum ‘Panovy’). The plants grown in the AP/NFT system had a more compact phenotype, accumulated more Na⁺ and less P and S than the rock wool grown counterparts. Due to forced irrigation interruptions, we propose that the differences observed were cofounded by the differing severity of water-stress for plants with and without substrate. They may also be caused by a higher root zone temperature predominant in plants exposed to AP/NFT. However, leaf area, stem diameter, and number of trusses did not differ significantly. The same was found for leaf pigments and plant photosynthetic efficiency. Overall, the AP/NFT system appears to be viable for the production of greenhouse tomato, enabling the environment to be relieved by way of lessening rock wool usage.

Keywords: Aeroponic/nutrient film technique, greenhouse, nutrient dynamic, soilless culture, urban farming, waste reduction.

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Authors: Modreck Gomo

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The evolution of groundwater chemistry and its quality is largely controlled by hydrogeochemical processes and their understanding is therefore important for groundwater quality assessments and protection of the water resources. A study was conducted in Bloemfontein town of South Africa to assess and compare the groundwater chemistry and quality characteristics in an alluvial aquifer and single-plane fractured-rock aquifers. 9 groundwater samples were collected from monitoring boreholes drilled into the two aquifer systems during a once-off sampling exercise. Samples were collected through low-flow purging technique and analysed for major ions and trace elements. In order to describe the hydrochemical facies and identify dominant hydrogeochemical processes, the groundwater chemistry data are interpreted using stiff diagrams and principal component analysis (PCA), as complimentary tools. The fitness of the groundwater quality for domestic and irrigation uses is also assessed. Results show that the alluvial aquifer is characterised by a Na-HCO₃ hydrochemical facie while fractured-rock aquifer has a Ca-HCO₃ facie. The groundwater in both aquifers originally evolved from the dissolution of calcite rocks that are common on land surface environments. However the groundwater in the alluvial aquifer further goes through another evolution as driven by cation exchange process in which Na in the sediments exchanges with Ca²⁺ in the Ca-HCO₃ hydrochemical type to result in the Na-HCO₃ hydrochemical type. Despite the difference in the hydrogeochemical processes between the alluvial aquifer and single-plane fractured-rock aquifer, this did not influence the groundwater quality. The groundwater in the two aquifers is very hard as influenced by the elevated magnesium and calcium ions that evolve from dissolution of carbonate minerals which typically occurs in surface environments. Based on total dissolved levels (600-900 mg/L), groundwater quality of the two aquifer systems is classified to be of fair quality. The negative potential impacts of the groundwater quality for domestic uses are highlighted.

Keywords: Alluvial aquifer, fractured-rock aquifer, groundwater quality, hydrogeochemical processes.

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Authors: Farzaneh Tahmoorian, Bijan Samali, John Yeaman

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Road networks are increasingly expanding all over the world. The construction and maintenance of the road pavements require large amounts of aggregates. Considerable usage of various natural aggregates for constructing roads as well as the increasing rate at which solid waste is generated have attracted the attention of many researchers in the pavement industry to investigate the feasibility of the application of some of the waste materials as alternative materials in pavement construction. Among various waste materials, construction and demolition wastes, including Recycled Construction Aggregate (RCA) constitute a major part of the municipal solid wastes in Australia. Creating opportunities for the application of RCA in civil and geotechnical engineering applications is an efficient way to increase the market value of RCA. However, in spite of such promising potentials, insufficient and inconclusive data and information on the engineering properties of RCA had limited the reliability and design specifications of RCA to date. In light of this, this paper, as a first step of a comprehensive research, aims to investigate the feasibility of the application of RCA obtained from construction and demolition wastes for the replacement of part of coarse aggregates in asphalt mixture. As the suitability of aggregates for using in asphalt mixtures is determined based on the aggregate characteristics, including physical and mechanical properties of the aggregates, an experimental program is set up to evaluate the physical and mechanical properties of RCA. This laboratory investigation included the measurement of compressive strength and workability of RCA, particle shape, water absorption, flakiness index, crushing value, deleterious materials and weak particles, wet/dry strength variation, and particle density. In addition, the comparison of RCA properties with virgin aggregates has been included as part of this investigation and this paper presents the results of these investigations on RCA, basalt, and the mix of RCA/basalt.

Keywords: Asphalt, basalt, pavement, recycled aggregate.

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Authors: Dimitrios J. Dimitriou

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It is widely recognised that the assets portfolio development is helping to enhance economic growth, productivity and competitiveness. While numerous studies and reports certify the positive effect of investments in large infrastructure investments on the local economy, still, the methodology to estimate the contribution in economic development is a challenging issue for researchers and economists. The key question is how to estimate those economic impacts in each economic system. This paper provides a compact and applicable methodological framework providing quantitative results in terms of the overall jobs and income generated into the project life cycle. According to a deterministic mathematical approach, the key variables and the modelling framework are presented. The numerical case study highlights key results for a new motorway project in Greece, which is experienced economic stress for many years, providing the opportunity for comparisons with similar cases.

Keywords: Quantitative modelling, economic impact; large transport infrastructure; economic assessment.

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Authors: Steven Whittle, Ingrida Valiusaityte

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Within the domain of Systems Engineering the need to perform property aggregation to understand, analyze and manage complex systems is unequivocal. This can be seen in numerous domains such as capability analysis, Mission Essential Competencies (MEC) and Critical Design Features (CDF). Furthermore, the need to consider uncertainty propagation as well as the sensitivity of related properties within such analysis is equally as important when determining a set of critical properties within such a system. This paper describes this property breakdown in a number of domains within Systems Engineering and, within the area of CDFs, emphasizes the importance of uncertainty analysis. As part of this, a section of the paper describes possible techniques which may be used within uncertainty propagation and in conclusion an example is described utilizing one of the techniques for property and uncertainty aggregation within an aircraft system to aid the determination of Critical Design Features.

Keywords: Complex Systems, Critical Design Features, Property Aggregation, Uncertainty.

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Authors: Rebecca Angeles

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Radio frequency identification (RFID) has been recognized as a key enabler of efficient and effective supply chains. Recently, with increasing concern for environmental sustainability, researchers and practitioners have been exploring the role of RFID in supporting “green supply chains.” This qualitative study uses the technology-organization-environment framework of Tornatzky and Fleischer, and Zuboff’s concepts of automating-informating-transformating in analyzing two case studies involving RFID use: the recycling of Hewlett Packard inkjet printers and the garbage and recycling program of the City of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Keywords: Environmental sustainability, green supply chain management, radio frequency identification, technology-organization-environment framework, Zuboff’automate-informate-transformate concepts.

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Authors: A. Sunkar, Y. Santosa, S. B. Rushayati

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Indonesia has experienced annual forest fires that have rapidly destroyed and degraded its forests. Fires in the peat swamp forests of Riau Province, have set the stage for problems to worsen, this being the ecosystem most prone to fires (which are also the most difficult, to extinguish). Despite various efforts to curb deforestation, and forest degradation processes, severe forest fires are still occurring. To find an effective solution, the basic causes of the problems must be identified. It is therefore critical to have an indepth understanding of the underlying causal factors that have contributed to deforestation and forest degradation as a whole, in order to attain reductions in their rates. An assessment of the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation was carried out, in order to design and implement measures that could slow these destructive processes. Research was conducted in Giam Siak Kecil–Bukit Batu Biosphere Reserve (GSKBB BR), in the Riau Province of Sumatera, Indonesia. A biosphere reserve was selected as the study site because such reserves aim to reconcile conservation with sustainable development. A biosphere reserve should promote a range of local human activities, together with development values that are in line spatially and economically with the area conservation values, through use of a zoning system. Moreover, GSKBB BR is an area with vast peatlands, and is experiencing forest fires annually. Various factors were analysed to assess the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in GSKBB BR; data were collected from focus group discussions with stakeholders, key informant interviews with key stakeholders, field observation and a literature review. Landsat satellite imagery was used to map forest-cover changes for various periods. Analysis of landsat images, taken during the period 2010-2014, revealed that within the non-protected area of core zone, there was a trend towards decreasing peat swamp forest areas, increasing land clearance, and increasing areas of community oilpalm and rubber plantations. Fire was used for land clearing and most of the forest fires occurred in the most populous area (the transition area). The study found a relationship between the deforested/ degraded areas, and certain distance variables, i.e. distance from roads, villages and the borders between the core area and the buffer zone. The further the distance from the core area of the reserve, the higher was the degree of deforestation and forest degradation. Research findings suggested that agricultural expansion may be the direct cause of deforestation and forest degradation in the reserve, whereas socio-economic factors were the underlying driver of forest cover changes; such factors consisting of a combination of sociocultural, infrastructural, technological, institutional (policy and governance), demographic (population pressure) and economic (market demand) considerations. These findings indicated that local factors/problems were the critical causes of deforestation and degradation in GSKBB BR. This research therefore concluded that reductions in deforestation and forest degradation in GSKBB BR could be achieved through ‘local actor’-tailored approaches such as community empowerment.

Keywords: Actor-led solution, community empowerment, drivers of deforestation and forest degradation, Giam Siak Kecil– Bukit Batu Biosphere Reserve.

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Authors: H.B. Nguendo Yongsi

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An epidemiological cross sectional study was undertaken in Yaoundé in 2002 and updated in 2005. Focused on health within the city, the objectives were to measure diarrheal prevalence and to identify the risk factors associated with them. Results of microbiological examinations have revealed an urban average prevalence rate of 14.5%. Access to basic services in the living environment appears to be an important risk factor for diarrheas. Statistical and spatial analyses conducted have revealed that prevalence of diarrheal diseases vary among the two main types of settlement (informal and planned). More importantly, this study shows that, diarrhea prevalence rates (notably bacterial and parasitic diarrheas) vary according to the sub- category of settlements. The study draws a number of theoretical and policy implications for researchers and policy decision makers.

Keywords: Cameroon, diarrheal diseases, health risk factor, planned and spontaneous settlement, urban policy, urbanization.

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Authors: Hamid Reza Alipour, Ali Mohammadi Torkashvand

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In composting process, N high-organic wastes loss the great part of its nitrogen as ammonia; therefore, using compost amendments can promote the quality of compost due to the decrease in ammonia volatilization. With regard to the effect of pH on composting, microorganisms- activity and ammonia volatilization, sulfuric acid and alkaline wastewater of paper mill (as liming agent with Ca and Mg ions) were used as compost amendments. Study results indicated that these amendments are suitable for reclamation of compost quality properties. These held nitrogen in compost caused to reduce C/N ratio. Both amendments had a significant effect on total nitrogen, but it should be used sulfuric acid in fewer amounts (20 ml/kg fresh organic wastes); and the more amounts of acid is not proposed.

Keywords: Compost, Paper mill wastewater, sulfuric acid, Ammonia Volatilization.

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Authors: Stefan Bauer, Josef Frysak

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According to the scientific information management literature, the improper use of information technology (e.g. personal computers) by employees are one main cause for operational and information security loss events. Therefore, organizations implement information security awareness programs to increase employees’ awareness to further prevention of loss events. However, in many cases these information security awareness programs consist of conventional delivery methods like posters, leaflets, or internal messages to make employees aware of information security policies. We assume that a viral information security awareness video might be more effective medium than conventional methods commonly used by organizations. The purpose of this research is to develop a viral video artifact to improve employee security behavior concerning information technology.

Keywords: Information Security Awareness, Delivery Methods, Viral Videos, Employee Security Behavior.

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Authors: Florian Mach, Eric Hund, Malte Stonis

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The dismantling of disused industrial facilities such as nuclear power plants or refineries is an enormous challenge for the planning and control of the logistic processes. Existing control models do not meet the requirements for a proper dismantling of industrial plants. Therefore, the paper presents an approach for the control of dismantling and post-processing processes (e.g. decontamination) in plant decommissioning. In contrast to existing approaches, the dismantling sequence and depth are selected depending on the capacity utilization of required post-processing processes by also considering individual characteristics of respective dismantling tasks (e.g. decontamination success rate, uncertainties regarding the process times). The results can be used in the dismantling of industrial plants (e.g. nuclear power plants) to reduce dismantling time and costs by avoiding bottlenecks such as capacity constraints.

Keywords: Dismantling management, logistics planning and control models, nuclear power plant dismantling, reverse logistics.

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Authors: T. Vigneswari, M. A. Maluk Mohamed

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Job Scheduling plays an important role for efficient utilization of grid resources available across different domains and geographical zones. Scheduling of jobs is challenging and NPcomplete. Evolutionary / Swarm Intelligence algorithms have been extensively used to address the NP problem in grid scheduling. Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) has been proposed for optimization problems based on foraging behaviour of bees. This work proposes a modified ABC algorithm, Cluster Heterogeneous Earliest First Min- Min Artificial Bee Colony (CHMM-ABC), to optimally schedule jobs for the available resources. The proposed model utilizes a novel Heterogeneous Earliest Finish Time (HEFT) Heuristic Algorithm along with Min-Min algorithm to identify the initial food source. Simulation results show the performance improvement of the proposed algorithm over other swarm intelligence techniques.

Keywords: Grid Computing, Grid Scheduling, Heterogeneous Earliest Finish Time (HEFT), Artificial Bee colony (ABC) Algorithm, Resource Management.

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Authors: Christin Tønseth

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The Norwegian ‘knowledge promotion reform’ was implemented in elementary schools and upper secondary schools in 2006. The goal of the reform was that all pupils should develop basic skills and competencies in order to take an active part in the knowledge society. This paper discusses how governmentality as a management principle is demonstrated through the Norwegian ‘knowledge promotion reform’. Evaluation reports and political documents are the basis for the discussion. The ‘knowledge promotion reform’ was including quality assurance for schools, teachers, and students and the authorities retained control by using curricula and national tests. The reform promoted several intentions that were not reached. In light of governmentality, it seemed that thoughts and intentions by the authorities differed from those in the world of practice. The quality assurances did not motivate the practitioners to be self-governing. The relationship between the authorities and the implementation actors was weak, and the reform was, therefore, difficult to implement in practice.

Keywords: Education politics, governance, governmentality, the Norwegian knowledge promotion reform.

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Authors: Saleh Abu Dabous, Khaled Hamad, Rami Al-Ruzouq

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Bridge condition assessment and rating provide essential information needed for bridge management. This paper reviews bridge inspection and condition rating practices and introduces a defect-based urgency index. The index is estimated at the element-level based on the extent and severity of the different defects typical to the bridge element. The urgency index approach has the following advantages: (1) It facilitates judgment submission, i.e. instead of rating the bridge element with a specific linguistic overall expression (which can be subjective and used differently by different people), the approach is based on assessing the defects; (2) It captures multiple defects that can be present within a deteriorated element; and (3) It reflects how critical the element is through quantifying critical defects and their severity. The approach can be further developed and validated. It is expected to be useful for practical purposes as an early-warning system for critical bridge elements.

Keywords: Condition rating, deterioration, inspection, maintenance.

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Authors: D. Triantakonstantis, D. Stathakis

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Urban areas have been expanded throughout the globe. Monitoring and modelling urban growth have become a necessity for a sustainable urban planning and decision making. Urban prediction models are important tools for analyzing the causes and consequences of urban land use dynamics. The objective of this research paper is to analyze and model the urban change, which has been occurred from 1990 to 2000 using CORINE land cover maps. The model was developed using drivers of urban changes (such as road distance, slope, etc.) under an Artificial Neural Network modelling approach. Validation was achieved using a prediction map for 2006 which was compared with a real map of Urban Atlas of 2006. The accuracy produced a Kappa index of agreement of 0,639 and a value of Cramer's V of 0,648. These encouraging results indicate the importance of the developed urban growth prediction model which using a set of available common biophysical drivers could serve as a management tool for the assessment of urban change.

Keywords: Artificial Neural Networks, CORINE, Urban Atlas, Urban Growth Prediction.

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Authors: Elke Mackensen

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Systems Engineering plays a key role during industrial product development of complex technical systems. The need for systems engineers in industry is growing. But there is a gap between the industrial need and the academic education. Normally the academic education is focused on the domain specific design, implementation and testing of technical systems. Necessary systems engineering expertise like knowledge about requirements analysis, product cost estimation, management or social skills are poorly taught. Thus there is the need of new academic concepts for teaching systems engineering skills. This paper presents a project-orientated training concept to prepare students from different technical degree programs for systems engineering activities. The training concept has been initially implemented and applied in the industrial engineering master program of the University of Applied Sciences Offenburg.

Keywords: Educational systems engineering training, requirements analysis, system modelling, SysML.

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Authors: Roshan Jelal, Charles Mbohwa

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In today’s world, internal fraud remains one of the most challenging problems within companies worldwide and despite investment in controls and attention given to the problem, the instances of internal fraud has not abated. To the contrary it appears that internal fraud is on the rise especially in the wake of the economic downturn.

Leadership within companies believes that the more sophisticated the controls employed the less likely it would be for employees to pilfer. This is a very antiquated view as investment in controls may not be enough to curtail internal fraud; however, ensuring that a company drives the correct culture and behavior within the organization is likely to yield desired results.

This research aims to understand how creating a strong ethical culture and embedding the principle of good corporate governance impacts on levels of internal fraud with an organization (a South African Bank).

Keywords: Internal Fraud, Corporate Governance, Ethics, South African Reserve Bank, The King Code.

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Authors: Ali Serhan Koyuncugil, Nermin Ozgulbas

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In this paper, a data mining model to SMEs for detecting financial and operational risk indicators by data mining is presenting. The identification of the risk factors by clarifying the relationship between the variables defines the discovery of knowledge from the financial and operational variables. Automatic and estimation oriented information discovery process coincides the definition of data mining. During the formation of model; an easy to understand, easy to interpret and easy to apply utilitarian model that is far from the requirement of theoretical background is targeted by the discovery of the implicit relationships between the data and the identification of effect level of every factor. In addition, this paper is based on a project which was funded by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK).

Keywords: Risk Management, Financial Risk, Operational Risk, Financial Early Warning System, Data Mining, CHAID Decision Tree Algorithm, SMEs.

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Authors: Margarita Zavala, Julio Rolón, Gabriel Chavira, José González, Jorge Orozco, Roberto Pichardo

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Adolescence is a neuralgic stage in the formation of every human being, generally at this stage is when the middle school level is studied. In 2006 in Mexico incorporated “mentoring" space to assist students in their integration and participation in life. In public middle schools, is sometimes difficult to be aware of situations that affect students because of the number of them and traditional records management. Whit this they lose the opportunity to provide timely support as a preventive way. In order to provide this support, it is required to know the students by detecting the relevant information that has greater impact on their learning process. This research is looking to check if it is possible to identify student’s relevant information to detect when it is at risk, and then to propose a model to manage in a proper way such information.

Keywords: Adolescence, mentoring, middle school students, mentoring system support.

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Authors: Zhizhong Jiang, Peter Naudé

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Effective evaluation of software development effort is an important aspect of successful project management. Based on a large database with 4106 projects ever developed, this study statistically examines the factors that influence development effort. The factors found to be significant for effort are project size, average number of developers that worked on the project, type of development, development language, development platform, and the use of rapid application development. Among these factors, project size is the most critical cost driver. Unsurprisingly, this study found that the use of CASE tools does not necessarily reduce development effort, which adds support to the claim that the use of tools is subtle. As many of the current estimation models are rarely or unsuccessfully used, this study proposes a parsimonious parametric model for the prediction of effort which is both simple and more accurate than previous models.

Keywords: Development effort, function points, team size, development language, CASE tool, rapid application development.

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Authors: Samira Malekmohammadi Golsefid, Mehdi Ghazanfari, Somayeh Alizadeh

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The goal of this paper is to segment the countries based on the value of export from Iran during 14 years ending at 2005. To measure the dissimilarity among export baskets of different countries, we define Dissimilarity Export Basket (DEB) function and use this distance function in K-means algorithm. The DEB function is defined based on the concepts of the association rules and the value of export group-commodities. In this paper, clustering quality function and clusters intraclass inertia are defined to, respectively, calculate the optimum number of clusters and to compare the functionality of DEB versus Euclidean distance. We have also study the effects of importance weight in DEB function to improve clustering quality. Lastly when segmentation is completed, a designated RFM model is used to analyze the relative profitability of each cluster.

Keywords: Customers segmentation, Customer relationship management, Clustering, Data Mining

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Authors: Diego Tlapa, Jorge Limón, Yolanda Báez, Julián Aguilar

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This work is about Six Sigma (SS) implementation in Mexico by using an empirical study. Main goals are to analyze the degree of importance of the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) of SS and to examine if these factors are grouped in some way. A literature research and a survey were conducted to capture SS practitioner’s viewpoint about CSFs in SS implementation and their impact on the performance within manufacturing companies located in Baja California, Mexico. Finally, a Principal Component Analysis showed that nine critical success factors could be grouped in three components, which are: management vision, implementation strategy, and collaborative team. In the other hand, SS’s success is represented by cost reduction, variation reduction, experience and self-esteem of the workers, and quality improvement. Concluding remarks arising from the study are that CSFs are changing through time and paying attention to these nine factors can increase SS’s success likelihood.

Keywords: Six sigma, Critical Success Factors, Factor Analysis.

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Authors: Stuart Palmer, Dale Holt

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This paper presents a large scale, quantitative investigation of the impact of discipline differences on the student experience of using an online learning environment (OLE). Based on a representative sample of 2526 respondents, a number of significant differences in the mean rating by broad discipline area of the importance of, and satisfaction with, a range of elements of an OLE were found. Broadly speaking, the Arts and Science and Technology discipline areas reported the lowest importance and satisfaction ratings for the OLE, while the Health and Behavioural Sciences area was the most satisfied with the OLE. A number of specific, systematic discipline differences are reported and discussed. Compared to the observed significant differences in mean importance ratings, there were fewer significant differences in mean satisfaction ratings, and those that were observed were less systematic than for importance ratings.

Keywords: Discipline difference, learning management system, online learning environment, student evaluation.

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Authors: Amirhossein Karamoozian, Desheng Wu, Behzad Abbasnejad

Abstract:

Building information modelling (BIM) is a new technology to enhance the efficiency of project management in the construction industry. In addition to the potential benefits of this useful technology, there are various risks and obstacles to applying it in construction projects. In this study, a decision making approach is presented for risk assessment in BIM adoption in construction projects. Various risk factors of exerting BIM during different phases of the project lifecycle are identified with the help of Delphi method, experts’ opinions and related literature. Afterward, Shannon’s entropy and Fuzzy TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Situation) are applied to derive priorities of the identified risk factors. Results indicated that lack of knowledge between professional engineers about workflows in BIM and conflict of opinions between different stakeholders are the risk factors with the highest priority.

Keywords: Risk, BIM, Shannon’s entropy, Fuzzy TOPSIS, construction projects.

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