Search results for: Export and import of tourist and educational services

Authors: Eliza Mazmee Mazlan, K.S. Savita, Amir Hamzah Zalfakhar

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This paper demonstrates an effort of a serviceoriented engineering department in improving the sharing and transfer of knowledge. Although the department consist of only six employees, but it provides services in various chemical application in an oil and gas business. The services provided span across Asia Pacific region mainly Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Brunei, Thailand and Singapore. Currently there are no effective tools or integrated systems that support the sharing or transfer and maintenance of knowledge so the department has considered preserving this valuable knowledge by developing a Knowledge Management System (KMS). This paper presents the development of a KMS to support the sharing of knowledge in a service-oriented engineering department of an oil and gas company. The embedded features in the KMS like blog and forum will encourage iterative process of knowledge sharing among the employees in the department. The information and knowledge being shared, discussed and communicated will be then achieved for future re-use. The re-use of the knowledge allows the department to reduce redundant efforts in providing consistent, up-to-date and cost effective of the best solution to the its clients.

Keywords: Knowledge management, knowledge managementsystem, knowledge barrier, knowledge sharing.

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Authors: Zuraida Alwadood, Adibah Shuib, Norlida Abd Hamid

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This paper presents the review of past studies concerning mathematical models for rescheduling passenger railway services, as part of delay management in the occurrence of railway disruption. Many past mathematical models highlighted were aimed at minimizing the service delays experienced by passengers during service disruptions. Integer programming (IP) and mixed-integer programming (MIP) models are critically discussed, focusing on the model approach, decision variables, sets and parameters. Some of them have been tested on real-life data of railway companies worldwide, while a few have been validated on fictive data. Based on selected literatures on train rescheduling, this paper is able to assist researchers in the model formulation by providing comprehensive analyses towards the model building. These analyses would be able to help in the development of new approaches in rescheduling strategies or perhaps to enhance the existing rescheduling models and make them more powerful or more applicable with shorter computing time.

Keywords: Mathematical modelling, Mixed-integer programming, Railway rescheduling, Service delays.

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Authors: G. S. Walia, H. P. Singh, Padma D.

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The integration of wide variety of communication services is made possible with invention of 3G technology. Code Division Multiple Access 2000 operates on various RF channel bandwidths 1.2288 or 3.6864 Mcps (1x or 3x systems). It is a 3G system which offers high bandwidth and wireless broadband services but its efficiency is lowered due to various factors like fading, interference, scattering, absorption etc. This paper investigates the effect of diversity (MRC), roll off factor in Root Raised Cosine (RRC) filter for the BPSK and QPSK modulation schemes. It is possible to transmit data with minimum Inter symbol Interference and within limited bandwidth with proper pulse shaping technique. Bit error rate (BER) performance is analyzed by applying diversity technique by varying the roll off factor for BPSK and QPSK. Roll off factor reduces the ISI and diversity reduces the Fading.

Keywords: CDMA2000, Diversity, Root Raised Cosine, Roll off factor.

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Authors: Vivek Agrawal, Vikas Tripathi, Nitin Seth

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E-service quality plays a significant role to achieve success or failure in any organization, offering services online. It will increase the competition among the organizations, to attract the customers on the basis of the quality of service provided by the organization. Better e-service quality will enhance the relationship with customers and their satisfaction. So the measurement of eservice quality is very important but it is a complex process due to the complex nature of services. Literature predicts that there is a lack of universal definition of e-service quality. The e-service quality measures in banking have great importance in achieving high customer base. This paper proposes a conceptual model for measuring e-service quality in Indian Banking Industry. Nine dimensions reliability, ease of use, personalization, security and trust, website aesthetic, responsiveness, contact and fulfillment had been identified. The results of this paper may help to develop a proper scale to measure the e-service quality in Indian Banking Industry, which may assist to maintain and improve the performance and effectiveness of e-service quality to retain customers.

Keywords: Banking, Service Quality, e-service quality, Dimensions.

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Authors: Gulsevim Yumuk Gunay, Suleyman Gokhan Gunay

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Corporate social responsibility (CSR) can be defined as the management of social, environmental, economical and ethical concepts and firms sensivities to the expectations of the social stakeholders. CSR is seen as an important competitive advantage in the textile sector because this sector has an important impact on the environment and it is labor extensive. Textile sector has a strong advantage when compared with other sectors in Turkey due to its low labor costs and abundancy of raw materials. Turkey was a producer and an exporter of cotton, and an importer of fiber, clothes and dresses until 1950s. After 1950s, Turkey has begun to export fiber, ready-made clothes and become one of the most important textile producers in the world recently. CSR practices of the textile firms that are quoted in Istanbul Stock Exchange and these firms sensivities to their internal and external stakeholders and environment will be presented in this study.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, Istanbul Stock Exchange, textile sector, Turkey

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Authors: Şule Turhan, Özlem Turan

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Permanence in the international markets for many global companies is about being known as having effective logistics which targets customer satisfaction management and lower costs. Under competitive conditions, the necessity of providing the products to customers quickly and on time for the companies which constantly aim to improve their profitability increased the strategic importance of the logistics concept. Food logistic is one of the most difficult areas in logistics. In the process from manufacturer to final consumer, quality and hygiene standards must be provided constantly. In food logistics, reliable and extensive service network has great importance and on time delivery is the target. Developing logistics industry provide the supply of foods in the country and the development of export markets more quickly and has an important role in providing added value to the country's economy. Turkey that creates a bridge between the east and the west is an attractive market for logistics companies. In this study, by examining both the place and the importance of logistics in Turkish food sector, recommendations will be made for the food industry.

Keywords: Logistics, Turkish food industry, competition, food industry.

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Authors: T. Spiegel, J. Siegmann, C. F. Durach

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Challenges resulting from an international and dynamic business environment are increasingly being passed on from manufacturing companies to external service providers. Especially providers of complex, customer-specific industry services have to cope with continuously changing requirements. This is particularly true for contract logistics service providers. They are forced to develop efficient and highly flexible structures and strategies to meet their customer’s needs. One core element they have to focus on is the reorganization of their service development and sales process. Based on an action research approach, this study develops and tests a concept to streamline tender management for contract logistics service providers. The concept of modularized service architecture is deployed in order to derive a practice-oriented approach for the modularization of complex service portfolios and the design of customized quotes. These findings are evaluated regarding their applicability in other service sectors and practical recommendations are given.

Keywords: Contract Logistics, Modularization, Service Development, Tender Management.

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Authors: Imran S.Bajwa

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The trends of design and development of information systems have undergone a variety of ongoing phases and stages. These variations have been evolved due to brisk changes in user requirements and business needs. To meet these requirements and needs, a flexible and agile business solution was required to come up with the latest business trends and styles. Another obstacle in agility of information systems was typically different treatment of same diseases of two patients: business processes and information services. After the emergence of information technology, the business processes and information systems have become counterparts. But these two business halves have been treated under totally different standards. There is need to streamline the boundaries of these both pillars that are equally sharing information system's burdens and liabilities. In last decade, the object orientation has evolved into one of the major solutions for modern business needs and now, SOA is the solution to shift business on ranks of electronic platform. BPM is another modern business solution that assists to regularize optimization of business processes. This paper discusses how object orientation can be conformed to incorporate or embed SOA in BPM for improved information systems.

Keywords: Object Oriented Business Solutions, Services forBusiness Processes; Mixing SOA and BPM.

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Authors: Christian Castro Samaniego, Daniel Icaza Alvarez, Juan Portoviejo Brito

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For this research work, hybrid wind-photovoltaic (SHEF) systems were considered as renewable energy sources that take advantage of wind energy and solar radiation to transform into electrical energy. In the present research work, the feasibility of a wind-photovoltaic hybrid generation system was analyzed for the La Tranca tourist viewpoint of the Chordeleg canton in Ecuador. The research process consisted of the collection of data on solar radiation, temperature, wind speed among others by means of a meteorological station. Simulations were carried out in MATLAB/Simulink based on a mathematical model. In the end, we compared the theoretical radiation-power curves and the measurements made at the site.

Keywords: Hybrid system, wind turbine, modeling, simulation, validation, experimental data, panel, Ecuador.

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Authors: F. Simba, L. Trojer, N.H. Mvungi, B.M. Mwinyiwiwa, E.M. Mjema

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Rural areas of Tanzania are still disadvantaged in terms of diffusion of IP-based services; this is due to lack of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructures, especially lack of connectivity. One of the limitations for connectivity problems in rural areas of Tanzania is the high cost to establish infrastructures for IP-based services [1-2]. However the cost of connectivity varies from one technology to the other and at the same time, the cost is also different from one operator (service provider) to another within the country. This paper presents development of software system to calculate cost of connectivity to rural areas of Tanzania. The system is developed to make an easy access of connectivity cost from different technologies and different operators. The development of the calculator follows the V-model software development lifecycle. The calculator is used to evaluate the economic viability of different technologies considered as being potential candidates to provide rural connectivity. In this paper, the evaluation is based on the techno-economic analysis approach.

Keywords: rural, connectivity, cost, V-model, techno economic analysis.

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Authors: A. Zimnas, D. Kleftouris, N. Valkanos

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Today-s Information and Knowledge Society has placed new demands on education and a new paradigm of education is required. Learning, facilitated by educational systems and the pedagogic process, is globally undergoing dramatic changes. The aim of this paper is the development of a simple Instructional Design tool for E-Learning, named IDEL (Instructional Design for Electronic Learning), that provides the educators with facilities to create their own courses with the essential educational material and manage communication with students. It offers flexibility in the way of learning and provides ease in employment and reusability of resources. IDEL is a web-based Instructional System and is designed to facilitate course design process in accordance with the ADDIE model and the instructional design principles with emphasis placed on the use of technology enhanced learning. An example case of using the ADDIE model to systematically develop a course and its implementation with the aid of IDEL is given and some results from student evaluation of the tool and the course are reported.

Keywords: Education, E-learning, Instructional Design.

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Authors: Mohammed-Aminu Sanda, Emmanuel K. Mawuena

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Frontline workers performing client service duties in finance-oriented firms in most sub-Saharan African countries, such as Ghana, are known to be challenged in the conduct of their activities. The challenge is attributed to clients’ continued demand for real-time services from such workers, despite the introduction of technological interventions to offset the situation. This has caused such frontline workers to experience increases in their work-induced emotions with consequential effects on their work-induced happiness. This study, therefore, explored the effect of frontline workers’ work-induced emotions on their worked-induced happiness when providing tellering services to clients. A cross-sectional design and quantitative technique were used. Data were collected from a sample of 280 frontline workers using questionnaire. Based on the analysis, it was found that an increase in the frontline workers’ work-induced emotions, caused by their feelings of strain, burnout, frustration, and hard work, had consequential effect on their work-induced happiness. This consequential effect was also found to be aggravated by the workers’ senses of being stretched beyond limit, being emotionally drained, and being used up by their work activities. It is concluded that frontline workers in finance-oriented firms can provide quality real-time services to clients without increases in their work-induced emotions, but with enhanced work-induced happiness, when the psychological and physiological emotional factors associated with the challenged work activities are understood and remedied. Management of the firms can use such understanding to redesign the activities of their frontline workers and improve the quality of their service delivery interactivity with clients.

Keywords: Client-service activity, finance industrial sector, frontline workers, work-induced emotion, work-induced happiness.

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Authors: Fernanda T. Orsati, Julie Causton

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Discursive practices enacted by educators in kindergarten create a blueprint for how the educational trajectories of students with disabilities are constructed. This two-year ethnographic case study critically examines educators’ relationships with students considered to present challenging behaviors in one kindergarten classroom located in a predominantly White middle class school district in the Northeast of the United States. Focusing on the language and practices used by one special education teacher and three teaching assistants, this paper analyzes how teacher responses to students’ behaviors constructs and positions students over one year of kindergarten education. Using a critical discourse analysis it shows that educators understand students’ behaviors as deficit and needing consequences. This study highlights how educators’ responses reflect students' individual characteristics including family background, socioeconomics and ability status. This paper offers in depth analysis of two students’ stories, which evidenced that the language used by educators amplifies the social positioning of students within the classroom and creates a foundation for who they are constructed to be. Through exploring routine language and practices, this paper demonstrates that educators outlined a blueprint of kindergartners, which positioned students as learners in ways that became the ground for either a limited or a promising educational pathway for them.

Keywords: Behavior, early education, special education, critical discourse analysis.

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Authors: K. Matušínská, H. Starzyczná, M. Stoklasa

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The paper deals with behaviour of the segment 50+ in the financial market in the Czech Republic. This segment could be said as the strong market power and it can be a crucial business potential for financial business units. The main defined objective of this paper is analysis of the customers´ behaviour of the segment 50- 60 years in the financial market in the Czech Republic and proposal making of the suitable marketing approach to satisfy their demands in the area of product, price, distribution and marketing communication policy. This paper is based on data from one part of primary marketing research. Paper determinates the basic problem areas as well as definition of financial services marketing, defining the primary research problem, hypothesis and primary research methodology. Finally suitable marketing approach to selected sub segment at age of 50-60 years is proposed according to marketing research findings.

Keywords: Population aging in the Czech Republic, Segment 50-60 years, Financial services marketing, Marketing research, Marketing approach.

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Authors: Towards Better Quality in Healthcare, Operations Management: A Developmental Literature Review

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This work presents the various perspectives, dimensions, components and definitions given to quality in the operations management (OM) and healthcare services (HCS) literature in time, highlighting gaps and learning opportunities between the two disciplines through a thorough search into their rich and distinct body of knowledge. Greater and new insights about the general nature of quality are obtained with findings such as in OM, quality has been approached in six fairly distinct paradigms (excellence, value, conformity to specifications, attributes, satisfaction and meeting or exceeding customer expectations), whereas in HCS, two approaches are prominent (Donabedian’s structure, process and outcomes model and Lohr and Schroeder’s circumscribed definition). The two disciplines views on quality seem to have progressed much in parallel with little cross-learning from each other. This work then proposes an encompassing definition of quality as a lever and suggests further research and development avenues for a better use of the concept of quality by academics and practitioners alike toward the goals of greater organizational performance and improved management in healthcare and possibly other service domains.

Keywords: Healthcare, management, operations, quality, services.

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Authors: Bundit Pungnirund

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This research aimed to investigate the relationship between attitude towards marketing mix, brand image and consumer behavior of the passengers of low-cost airlines service. This study employed by quantitative research and the questionnaire was used to collect the data from 400 sampled of the passengers who have ever used the low-cost airline services based in Bangkok, Thailand. The descriptive statistics and Pearson’s correlation analysis were used to analyze data. The research results revealed that the attitude of the marketing mix of the low-cost airline services including product, price, place, promotion and process had related to the consumer behavior on the aspects of duration of service and frequency of service. While, the brand image of the low cost airline including the characteristics of organization, service quality and company identity had related to the consumer behavior on duration of service, frequency of service and cost of service at the significant statistically acceptable levels.

Keywords: Brand image, consumer behavior, low-cost airlines, marketing mix.

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Authors: Sedigheh Zarei

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The aim of this research is to identify the key factors in shipping company’s port selection in order to providing their requirement. To identify and rank factors that play the main role in selecting port for providing the ship requirement, at the first step, data were collected via Semi-structured interviews, the aim was to generate knowledge on how shipping company select the port and suppliers for providing their needs. 37 port selection factors were chosen from the previous researches and field interviews and have been categorized into two groups of port's factor and the factors of services of suppliers companies. The current study adopts a questionnaire survey to the main shipping companies' operators in Iran. Their responses reveal that level of services of supplying companies and customs rules play the important role in selecting the ports. Our findings could affect decisions made by port authorities to consider that supporting the privet sections for ship chandelling business could have the best result in attracting ships.

Keywords: Port selection, ship supplier, ship chandler, provision.

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Authors: Bhavneet Sidhu, Hardeep Singh

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Cellular networks provide voice and data services to the users with mobility. To deliver services to the mobile users, the cellular network is capable of tracking the locations of the users, and allowing user movement during the conversations. These capabilities are achieved by the location management. Location management in mobile communication systems is concerned with those network functions necessary to allow the users to be reached wherever they are in the network coverage area. In a cellular network, a service coverage area is divided into smaller areas of hexagonal shape, referred to as cells. The cellular concept was introduced to reuse the radio frequency. Continued expansion of cellular networks, coupled with an increasingly restricted mobile spectrum, has established the reduction of communication overhead as a highly important issue. Much of this traffic is used in determining the precise location of individual users when relaying calls, with the field of location management aiming to reduce this overhead through prediction of user location. This paper describes and compares various location management schemes in the cellular networks.

Keywords: Cellular Networks, Location Area, MobilityManagement, Paging.

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Authors: Rodrigo Barreiros Leal, Aracéli Cristina de Sousa Ferreira

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This study examines the possibility to apply the theory of multidimensional accounting (momentum accounting) in a Brazilian Navy-s Services Provider Military Organization (Organização Militar Prestadora de Serviços - OMPS). In general, the core of the said theory is the fact that Accounting does not recognize the inertia of transactions occurring in an entity, and that occur repeatedly in some cases, regardless of the implementation of new actions by its managers. The study evaluates the possibility of greater use of information recorded in the financial statements of the unit of analysis, within the strategic decisions of the organization. As a research strategy, we adopted the case study. The results infer that it is possible to use the theory in the context of a multidimensional OMPS, promoting useful information for decision-making and thereby contributing to the strengthening of the necessary alignment of its administration with the current desires of the Brazilian society.

Keywords: Multidimensional Accounting, Public Management, Decision Making.

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Authors: P. P. S. Sifolo, M. J. Maimela M. P. Tladi

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This article investigates technology used by Tshwane residents intended for tourism purposes. The aim is to contribute information for planning and management concerning technology within the tourism sector in the city of Tshwane, South Africa. This study identified the types of tourist related technologies used by the Tshwane residents, be it for business purposes or personal use. The study connected the exploitation of technology for tourism purposes through unpacking the tourism sector as it utilizes technology. Quantitative research methodology was used whereby self-completed questionnaires were chosen as research instruments. The research study carried out a search for knowledge on technology for tourism and the Tshwane residents; however the study revealed that technology has certainly imprinted tourism massively because of its effectiveness and efficiency. Technology has assisted tourism businesses stay abreast of competition with integrated communication technology (ICT) and because of that, SA is on the map as one of the economically performing countries in Africa. Moreover, technology and tourism make a meaningful impact on job creation and Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Keywords: Information and Communication Technology, Technology for tourism, Tshwane residents.

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Authors: Patrick B. Cobbinah, Clifford Amoako

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Kumasi is Ghana’s second largest and fastest growing city with an annual population growth rate of 5.4 percent. A major result of this phenomenon is a growing sprawl at the fringes of the city. This paper assesses the nature, extent and impact of sprawl on Kumasi and examines urban planning efforts at addressing this phenomenon. Both secondary and empirical data were collected from decentralized government departments of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly and residents of some sprawling communities. The study reveals that sprawl in the metropolis is rapidly consuming fringe rural communities. This situation has weakened effective management of the metropolis causing problems such as congestion and conversion of peri-urban land into residential use without ancillary infrastructure and social services. The paper recommends effective and timely planning and provision of services as well as an overall economic development and spatial integration through regional planning as a way of achieving a long term solution to sprawl.

Keywords: Kumasi, peri-urban, urban planning, urban sprawl.

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Authors: M. H. Sedaghat, A. Zamani, S. Morshedi, R. Janamiri, M. Safdari, I. Mahdavi, A. Hosseini, A. Hatampour

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Although lots of experiments have been done in enhanced oil recovery, the number of experiments which consider the effects of local and global heterogeneity on efficiency of enhanced oil recovery based on the polymer-surfactant flooding is low and rarely done. In this research, we have done numerous experiments of water flooding and polymer-surfactant flooding on a five spot glass micromodel in different conditions such as different positions of layers. In these experiments, five different micromodels with three different pore structures are designed. Three models with different layer orientation, one homogenous model and one heterogeneous model are designed. In order to import the effect of heterogeneity of porous media, three types of pore structures are distributed accidentally and with equal ratio throughout heterogeneous micromodel network according to random normal distribution. The results show that maximum EOR recovery factor will happen in a situation where the layers are orthogonal to the path of mainstream and the minimum EOR recovery factor will happen in a situation where the model is heterogeneous. This experiments show that in polymer-surfactant flooding, with increase of angles of layers the EOR recovery factor will increase and this recovery factor is strongly affected by local heterogeneity around the injection zone.

Keywords: Layered Reservoir, Micromodel, Local Heterogeneity, Polymer-Surfactant Flooding, Enhanced Oil Recovery.

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Authors: Davide Pierattoni, Ivan Macor, Pier Luca Montessoro

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In the recent years multimedia traffic and in particular VoIP services are growing dramatically. We present a new algorithm to control the resource utilization and to optimize the voice codec selection during SIP call setup on behalf of the traffic condition estimated on the network path. The most suitable methodologies and the tools that perform realtime evaluation of the available bandwidth on a network path have been integrated with our proposed algorithm: this selects the best codec for a VoIP call in function of the instantaneous available bandwidth on the path. The algorithm does not require any explicit feedback from the network, and this makes it easily deployable over the Internet. We have also performed intensive tests on real network scenarios with a software prototype, verifying the algorithm efficiency with different network topologies and traffic patterns between two SIP PBXs. The promising results obtained during the experimental validation of the algorithm are now the basis for the extension towards a larger set of multimedia services and the integration of our methodology with existing PBX appliances.

Keywords: Integrated voice-data communication, computernetwork performance, resource optimization.

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Authors: Judy Yarwood, Lesley Seaton, Philippa Seaton

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A catastrophic earthquake measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale struck the Christchurch, New Zealand Central Business District on February 22, 2012, abruptly disrupting the business of teaching and learning at Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology. This paper presents the findings from a study undertaken about the complexity of delivering an educational programme in the face of this traumatic natural event. Nine interconnected themes emerged from this multiple method study: communication, decision making, leader- and follower-ship, balancing personal and professional responsibilities, taking action, preparedness and thinking ahead, all within a disruptive and uncertain context. Sustainable responses that maximise business continuity, and provide solutions to practical challenges, are among the study-s recommendations.

Keywords: Business continuity, earthquake, education, sustainability

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Authors: Serena Alvino, Paola Forcheri, Maria Grazia Ierardi, Luigi Sarti

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One of the main advantages of the LO paradigm is to allow the availability of good quality, shareable learning material through the Web. The effectiveness of the retrieval process requires a formal description of the resources (metadata) that closely fits the user-s search criteria; in spite of the huge international efforts in this field, educational metadata schemata often fail to fulfil this requirement. This work aims to improve the situation, by the definition of a metadata model capturing specific didactic features of shareable learning resources. It classifies LOs into “teacher-oriented" and “student-oriented" categories, in order to describe the role a LO is to play when it is integrated into the educational process. This article describes the model and a first experimental validation process that has been carried out in a controlled environment.

Keywords: Learning object, pedagogical metadata, experimental validation.

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Authors: Thanasit Suksutdhi

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This survey research aims to study the standard of service quality of food and beverage service staffs in hotel business by studying the service standard of three sample hotels, Siam Kempinski Hotel Bangkok, Four Seasons Resort Chiang Mai, and Banyan Tree Phuket. In order to find the international service standard of food and beverage service, triangular research, i.e. quantitative, qualitative, and survey were employed. In this research, questionnaires and in-depth interview were used for getting the information on the sequences and method of services. There were three parts of modified questionnaires to measure service quality and guest’s satisfaction including service facilities, attentiveness, responsibility, reliability, and circumspection. This study used sample random sampling to derive subjects with the return rate of the questionnaires was 70% or 280. Data were analyzed by SPSS to find arithmetic mean, SD, percentage, and comparison by t-test and One-way ANOVA. The results revealed that the service quality of the three hotels were in the international level which could create high satisfaction to the international customers. Recommendations for research implementations were to maintain the area of good service quality, and to improve some dimensions of service quality such as reliability. Training in service standard, product knowledge, and new technology for employees should be provided. Furthermore, in order to develop the service quality of the industry, training collaboration between hotel organization and educational institutions in food and beverage service should be considered.

Keywords: Service standard, food and beverage department, sequence of service, service method.

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Authors: Hsiao-Ming Chang, Jui-Liang Hsu

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The purpose of this study is to analyze the cognitive and travel experience the situation of the tourist attraction of the sport tourism in Penghu. This study used a questionnaires, the main island of Taiwan to Penghu in the way of marine sports tourists adopted the designated convenience sampling method, a total of 1447 valid questionnaires. After statistical analysis, this study found that: 1. Tourists to Penghu sports tourism attraction cognitive as “good air quality, suitable for water activities". 2. Tourists in Penghu's tourism experience, “Let me taste the delicious specialties and snacks". 3. The attraction of the sport tourism, travel experience and perceived value are correlated, and both the perceived value with a high degree of predictive ability. Based on the findings of this study not only for Penghu's tourism industry with the unit in charge of the proposed operating and suggestions for future research to other researchers.

Keywords: Sport tourism, travel experience, perceived value, sport attraction.

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Authors: Yolanda Bolea, Antoni Grau, Alberto Sanfeliu

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When industrial robotics subject is taught in a degree in robotics, social and humanoid robotics concepts are rarely mentioned because this field of robotics is not used in industry. In this paper, an educational project related with industrial robotics is presented which includes social and humanoid robotics. The main motivations to realize this research are: i) humanoid robotics will be appearing soon in industry, the experience, based on research projects, indicates their deployment sooner than expected; ii) its educational interest, technology is shared with industrial robotics; iii) it is very attractive, students are interested in this part of the subject and thus they are interested in the whole subject. As a pedagogical methodology, the use of the problem-based learning is considered. Those concepts are introduced in a seminar during the last part of the subject and developed as a set of practices in the laboratory.

Keywords: Higher education in robotics, humanoid robotics, problem-based learning, social robotics.

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Authors: Javad Elkaie Behjati, Mehrzad Minouei

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The present study aimed to assess the cost of money based on separating deposits and identifying actions and costs affecting in the process of cost of money in EN Bank of Iran (also known as Eghtesad Novin Bank). The method to calculate the cost of money is based on Activity-Based Costing (ABC). To conduct the study, the required data including deposits in banks and absorbed costs related to the same deposits were extracted from the financial statements of the bank. In order to cost the bank services properly as well as determining the commercial strategies required by commercial units, the data are precisely studied and the cost of each deposit is calculated according to the ABC. Eventually, the factors helping to improve the cost management and also a new model to calculate the cost of money in the bank are presented by some applicable formulas. Furthermore, some offers have been provided for users of both sections, in the practical section in commercial units and the theoretical one in universities.

Keywords: The cost of money, activity-based costing, banking, bank deposits, bank fees, services bank.

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Authors: Samia Sadouki Chibani, Abdelkamel Tari

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Web service composition combines available services to provide new functionality. Given the number of available services with similar functionalities and different non functional aspects (QoS), the problem of finding a QoS-optimal web service composition is considered as an optimization problem belonging to NP-hard class. Thus, an optimal solution cannot be found by exact algorithms within a reasonable time. In this paper, a meta-heuristic bio-inspired is presented to address the QoS aware web service composition; it is based on Elephant Herding Optimization (EHO) algorithm, which is inspired by the herding behavior of elephant group. EHO is characterized by a process of dividing and combining the population to sub populations (clan); this process allows the exchange of information between local searches to move toward a global optimum. However, with Applying others evolutionary algorithms the problem of early stagnancy in a local optimum cannot be avoided. Compared with PSO, the results of experimental evaluation show that our proposition significantly outperforms the existing algorithm with better performance of the fitness value and a fast convergence.

Keywords: Elephant herding optimization, web service composition, bio-inspired algorithms, QoS optimization.

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