Search results for: Peer Review
468 The World of Great Wines: The Douro Valley Experience
Authors: A. Oliveira-Brochado, R. Silva, C. Paulino
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The aim of this paper is to use an experiential view of wine tourism to develop a battery of items that can potentially capture the overall Douro Valley experience from the tourist’s perspective. The Douro Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage region located in Portugal, was the target of this study. The research took a mixed approach using both qualitative and quantitative designs. Firstly, we combine the literature review on service quality scales with a content analysis of five in-depth interviews with winery managers and a focus group with wine tourists to identify the main dimensions of the overall tourism experience and to develop a battery of items for each dimension. Eight dimensions of the overall wine tourism experience came out, as follows: winery service and staff, winery facilities, winery service, wine product, wine region environment, wine region accessibilities, wine region´s offerings, and the wine region and winery reputation.
Keywords: Wine tourism, Douro region, survey, wineries, experience.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2443467 ERP Implementation in Iran: (A Successful Experience in DGC)
Authors: Mohammad Reza Ostad Ali Naghi Kashani
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Nowadays, the amounts of companies which tend to have an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) application are increasing. Although ERP projects are expensive, time consuming, and complex, there are some successful experiences. These days, developing countries are striving to implement ERP projects successfully; however, there are many obstacles. Therefore, these projects would be failed or partially failed. This paper concerns the implementation of a successful ERP implementation, IFS, in Iran at Dana Geophysics Company (DGC). After a short review of ERP and ERP market in Iran, we propose a three phases deployment methodology (phase 1: Preparation and Business Process Management (BPM) phase 2: implementation and phase 3: testing, golive-1 (pilot) and golive-2 (final)). Then, we present five guidelines (Project Management, Change Management, Business Process Management (BPM), Training& Knowledge Management, and Technical Management), which were chose as work streams. In this case study we present lessons learned in Project management and Business process Management.
Keywords: Business Process Management, Critical Success Factors, ERP, Project Management.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2935466 Analysis of Tourism in Chitwan National Park, Determining Its Sustainability and Development towards an Eco-Tourism Destination
Authors: S. Basnet
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Tourism is one of the largest industries in Nepal and is one of the largest sources of foreign exchange and revenues. Tourism has both negative and positive effects, and Chitwan National Park (CNP) is no different. CNP is the first national park of Nepal where tourists can enjoy many mega faunas along with other natural amenities and the indigenous Tharu culture. This research is focused on analyzing sustainability of the national park and ways to develop it as an eco-tourism destination. The methodology used are literature review, questionnaire, focus group discussion, household survey and field observation. The research reveals that, although, tourist has increased the value and economic scale of the destination, there is huge influx of population from the nearby areas in search of opportunities, which has led to various problems such as, overuse and declining of resources, side-lining of the aboriginals’ groups, modernization and pollution. Hence, analysis of tourism in the area and determining its sustainability becomes vital for protecting it from further damage.
Keywords: Culture, economy, eco-tourism, effects of tourism, environment, national park and sustainability.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 25465 Biography of the Earth in the Light of the Laws of Classical Physics
Authors: I. V. Kuzminov
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The proposed article is an analytical review of previously published articles in the series "Physics of Gravity", "The Picture of the World by Second Law of Thermodynamics" and others. The article shows the key role of the forces of gravity and the action of the second law of thermodynamics in shaping the picture of the world. In other words, the second law of thermodynamics can be called the law of matter cooling. The action in the compartment of the inverse temperature dependence of the forces of gravity and the second law of thermodynamics is carried out by the processes of separation, condensation, phase transitions, and transformation of matter. On the basis of the proposed concept, along the way, completely new versions of the development of events in the biography of the Earth are put forward. For example, new versions of the origin of planets, the origin of continents and others are being put forward. This article contains a list of articles and videos that are somehow related to the proposed topic. Articles and videos are presented in English and Russian.
Keywords: Gravity, the second law of thermodynamics, electron rotation, inverse temperature dependence, inertia forces, centrifugal forces.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 95464 Design Management Applications to Improve Work Environment for Female Academics in Saudi Arabia
Authors: Nouf Saad Alnassar, Susan Grant, Ray Holland
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This research study examines cases of Saudi Arabian universities and female academics for work environment issues within the context of design management applications. The study proposes use of design research, ergonomics and systems design thinking to develop the university design which facilitates removal of physical and cognitive barriers for female academics. Review of literature demonstrates that macro and micro ergonomic combined with design management and system design strategies can significantly improve the workplace design for female academics. The university design model would be prepared based on the analyses of primary data obtained from archived documents, participants' observation logs, photo audits, focus groups and semi-structured interviews of currently employed female academics in the selected case universities.Keywords: Design management, workplace design, university design, ergonomics.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1770463 Methods of Forming Informational Culture Students
Authors: Altynbek Moshkalov
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Along with the basic features of students\' culture information, with its widely usage oriented on implementation of the new information technologies in educational process that determines the search for ways of pointing to the similarity of interdisciplinary connections content, aims and objectives of the study. In this regard, the article questions about students\' information culture, and also presented information about the aims and objectives of the information culture process among students. In the formation of a professional interest in relevant information, which is an opportunity to assist in informing the professional activities of the essence of effective use of interactive methods and innovative technologies in the learning process. The result of the experiment proves the effectiveness of the information culture process of students in training the system of higher education based on the credit technology. The main purpose of this paper is a comprehensive review of students\' information culture.Keywords: Information culture, methods of information culture of students, educational system of the credit technology, distance learning, information of interest, information and communication technologies and tools.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1649462 The Anthropological Determination of Pedagogy
Authors: Sara Kakuk
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Pedagogy has always been open to other disciplines that reflect about the educational process (philosophy, sociology, psychology, anthropology, technology, etc.). Its interdisciplinary openness puts education, as the subject of pedagogy within a broader context of the community, enabling the knowledge of other disciplines to contribute to a better understanding of the fundamental pedagogical notion of education. The purpose of pedagogy as a science serves humans, strives towards humans, must be for humans, and this is its ultimate goal. Humans are essentially dependent on education, which is also considered as a category of humans’ being, because through education an entire world develops in humans. Anthropological assumptions of humans as "deficient beings" see the solution in education, but they also indicate a wealth of shortcomings, because they provide an opportunity for enrichment and formation of culture, living and the self. In that context, this paper illustrates the determination of pedagogy through an anthropological conception of humans and the phenomenon of education. It presents a review of anthropological ideas about education, by providing an analysis of relevant literature dealing with the anthropological notion of humans, which provides fruitful conditions for a pedagogical reconsideration of education.
Keywords: Pedagogy, education, humans, anthropology, culture.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2666461 Ways to Define the Most Sustainable Actions for Water Shortage Prevention in Mega Cities, Especially in Developing Countries
Authors: Keivan Karimlou, Nemat Hassani, Abdollah Rashidi Mehrabadi
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Climate change, industrial bloom, population growth and mismanagement are the most important factors that lead to water shortages around the world. Water shortages often lead to forced immigration, war, and thirst and hunger, especially in developing countries. One of the simplest solutions to solve the water shortage issues around the world is transferring water from one watershed to another; however it may not be a suitable solution. Water managers around the world use supply and demand management methods to decrease the incidence of water shortage in a sustainable manner. But as a matter of economic constraints, they must define a method to select the best possible action to reduce and limit water shortages. The following paper recognizes different kinds of criteria to select the best possible policy for reducing water shortage in mega cities by examining a comprehensive literature review.
Keywords: Criteria, management, shortage, sustainable, water.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1106460 A Pre-Assessment Questionnaire to Identify Healthcare Professionals’ Perception on Information Technology Implementation
Authors: Y. Atilgan Şengül
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Health information technologies promise higher quality, safer care and much more for both patients and professionals. Despite their promise, they are costly to develop and difficult to implement. On the other hand, user acceptance and usage determine the success of implemented information technology in healthcare. This study provides a model to understand health professionals’ perception and expectation of health information technology. Extensive literature review has been conducted to determine the main factors to be measured. A questionnaire has been designed as a measurement model and submitted to the personnel of an in vitro fertilization clinic. The respondents’ degree of agreement according to five-point Likert scale was 72% for convenient access to data and 69.4% for the importance of data security. There was a significant difference in acceptance of electronic data storage for female respondents. Also, other significant differences between professions were obtained.
Keywords: Healthcare, health informatics, medical record system, questionnaire.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1385459 Analysis of the Evolution of Social and Economic Indicators of the Mercosur´s Members: 1980-2012
Authors: L. Aparecida Bastos, J. Leige Lopes, J. Crepaldi, R. Monteiro da Silva
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The objective of this study is to analyze the evolution of some social and economic indicators of Mercosur´s economies from 1980 to 2012, based on the statistics of the Latin American Integration Association (LAIA). The objective is to observe if after the accession of these economies to Mercosur (the first accessions occurred in 1994) these indicators showed better performance, in order to demonstrate if economic integration contributed to improved trade, macroeconomic performance, and level of social and economic development of member countries. To this end, the methodologies used will be a literature review and descriptive statistics. The theoretical framework that guides the work are the theories of Integration: Classical Liberal, Marxist and structural-proactive. The results reveal that most social and economic indicators showed better performance in those economies that joined Mercosur after 1994. This work is the result of an investigation already completed.Keywords: Economic integration, mercosur, social indicators, economic indicators.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1206458 The Aspect of the Human Bias in Decision Making within Quality Management Systems & LEAN Theory
Authors: Adriana Ávila Zúñiga Nordfjeld
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This paper provides a literature review to document the state of the art with respect to handling “human bias” in decision making within the established quality management systems (QMS) and LEAN theory, in the context of shipbuilding. Previous research shows that in shipbuilding there is a huge deviation from the planned man-hours under the project management to the actual man-hours used because of errors in planning and reworks caused by human bias in the information flows, among others. This reduces the efficiency, and increases operational costs. Thus, the research question is how QMS and LEAN handle biases. The findings show the gap in studying the integration of methods to handle human bias in decision making into QMS and lean, not only within shipbuilding, but in general. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed for researchers and practitioners in the areas of decision making, QMS and LEAN, and future research is suggested.
Keywords: Human bias, decision making, LEAN Shipbuilding, quality management systems.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2951457 Understanding How Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism Are Conducted through the Real Estate Sector in the Middle East and North Africa Region
Authors: Haytham Yassine
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This research seeks to identify how money laundering activities are executed through the real estate sector. This article provides academics with literature on the topic and provides scholars, and practitioners with a better understanding of the risks and challenges involved. Data are gathered through survey in the Middle East and North Africa region and review of the available research. The results of the analysis will help identifying the factors attracting criminals to the real estate sector and develop an understanding of the methods used to launder illicit funds through this sector and the indicators of suspicion for reporting entities. Further analysis reveals the risks posed by money laundering and terrorist financing on the real estate sector and challenges facing states in this regard.
Keywords: Money laundering, terrorism financing, real estate sector, Middle East and North Africa.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 961456 Tax Innovation, Administration and Revenue Generation in Nigeria: Case of Cross River State
Authors: Ifere, Eugene Okoi, Eko, Eko Omini
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Taxation as a potent fiscal policy instrument through which infrastructures and social services that drive the development process of any society has been ineffective in Nigeria. The adoption of appropriate measures is, however, a requirement for the generation of adequate tax revenue. This study set out to investigates efficiency and effectiveness in the administration of tax in Nigeria, using Cross River State as a case-study. The methodology to achieve this objective is a qualitative technique using structured questionnaires to survey the three senatorial districts in the state; the central limit theory is adopted as our analytical technique. Result showed a significant degree of inefficiency in the administration of taxes. It is recommended that periodic review and update of tax policy will bring innovation and effectiveness in the administration of taxes. Also proper appropriation of tax revenue will drive development in needed infrastructural and social services.
Keywords: Administration, Efficiency, Effectiveness, Taxation
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4553455 Perceptions of Corporate Social Responsibility Concept in Greece
Authors: Grigoris Giannarakis, Nikolaos Litinas, Ioannis Theotokas
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This study attempts to clarify major perspectives of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the Greek market related to companies that have sufficient CSR. An empirical analysis was undertaken, based on literature review and previous observations and surveys, in order to provide a general analysis of the CSR concept in Greece. The results of Accountability Rating institution were used in order to identify companies that adopt an integrated social responsibility approach. Companies that responded to the survey are both regional and international and belong to different industrial fields. Some of the main survey results reveal: multiple aspects for the CSR concept, weak consensus as regards the importance of stakeholders and benefits from the CSR implementation, the important role of CSR in the decision procedure and CSR practices concerning social issues that affect mostly company-s competitiveness. Sharing companies- experience could address common social issues through CSR best practices and develop new knowledge.
Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility, Greece, Kendall's co-efficient of concordance.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2231454 Association of Overweight and Obesity with Breast Cancer
Authors: Amir Ghasemlouei, Alireza Khalaj
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Breast cancer is in the top rate of cancer. We analyzed the prevalence of obesity and its association with breast cancer and finally we reviewed 25 article that 320 patient and 320 control which enrolled to our study. The distribution of breast cancer patients and controls with respect to their anthropometric indices in patients with higher weight, which was statistically significant (60.2 ± 10.2 kg) compared with control group (56.1 ± 11.3 kg). The body mass index of patients was (26.06+/-3.42) and significantly higher than the control group (24.1+/-1.7). Obesity leads to increased levels of adipose tissue in the body that can be stored toxins and carcinogens to produce a continuous supply. Due to the high level of fat and the role of estrogen in a woman which is endogenous estrogen of the tumor and regulates the activities of growth steroids, obesity has confirmed as a risk factor for breast cancer. Our study and other studies have shown that obesity is a risk factor for breast cancer. And it can be prevented with a weight loss intervention for breast cancer in the future.Keywords: Breast cancer, review study, obesity, overweight.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2091453 Object Speed Estimation by using Fuzzy Set
Authors: Hossein Pazhoumand-Dar, Amir Mohsen Toliyat Abolhassani, Ehsan Saeedi
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Speed estimation is one of the important and practical tasks in machine vision, Robotic and Mechatronic. the availability of high quality and inexpensive video cameras, and the increasing need for automated video analysis has generated a great deal of interest in machine vision algorithms. Numerous approaches for speed estimation have been proposed. So classification and survey of the proposed methods can be very useful. The goal of this paper is first to review and verify these methods. Then we will propose a novel algorithm to estimate the speed of moving object by using fuzzy concept. There is a direct relation between motion blur parameters and object speed. In our new approach we will use Radon transform to find direction of blurred image, and Fuzzy sets to estimate motion blur length. The most benefit of this algorithm is its robustness and precision in noisy images. Our method was tested on many images with different range of SNR and is satisfiable.
Keywords: Blur Analysis, Fuzzy sets, Speed estimation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1870452 Consensus on Climate Change Adaptation among Government and Populace
Authors: Tsung-Hsien Yu, Ya-Hsuan Chou, Ming-Wei Chen, Chi-Ming Chen, Yi-Hsuan Li
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Observations and long-term trends indicate that climate change impacts would be significant and affects Taiwan directly and severely. Taiwan engages not only in mitigation, but also in adaptation. However, there are cognitive gaps on adaptation between government and populace. Besides, a vision of zero-carbon and renewable energy 100% will be adopted in future. Therefore, the objectives of this article are to 1) hold a National Forum for knowing differences between the strategies of zero-carbon and renewable energy 100% and cognitions of general populace, and 2) plan a clear roadmap for the vision, strategy, and measures. In this forum, we set 5 group topics, 5 presumed themes, and issues mentioned review for concluding the critical issues. Finally, there are 4 strategies and 14 critical issues which correlate with the vision and strategy of government and the cognition of the general populace.
Keywords: Cognitive gap, world café, renewable energy, zero-carbon.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1725451 Appraisal of Humanitarian Supply Chain Risks Using Best-Worst Method
Authors: Ali Mohaghar, Iman Ghasemian Sahebi, Alireza Arab
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In the last decades, increasing in human and natural disaster occurrence had very irreparable effects on human life. Hence, one of the important issues in humanitarian supply chain management is identifying and prioritizing the different risks and finding suitable solutions for encountering them at the time of disaster occurrence. This study is an attempt to provide a comprehensive review of humanitarian supply chain risks in a case study of Tehran Red Crescent Societies. For this purpose, Best-Worst method (BWM) has been used for analyzing the risks of the humanitarian supply chain. 22 risks of the humanitarian supply chain were identified based on the literature and interviews with four experts. According to BWM method, the importance of each risk was calculated. The findings showed that culture contexts, little awareness of people, and poor education system are the most important humanitarian supply chain risks. This research provides a useful guideline for managers so that they can benefit from the results to prioritize their solutions.Keywords: Best worst method, humanitarian logistics, humanitarian supply chain, risk management.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2324450 A Study on the Application of TRIZ to CAD/CAM System
Authors: Yuan L. Lai, Jian H. Chen, Jui P. Hung
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This study created new graphical icons and operating functions in a CAD/CAM software system by analyzing icons in some of the popular systems, such as AutoCAD, AlphaCAM, Mastercam and the 1st edition of LiteCAM. These software systems all focused on geometric design and editing, thus how to transmit messages intuitively from icon itself to users is an important function of graphical icons. The primary purpose of this study is to design innovative icons and commands for new software. This study employed the TRIZ method, an innovative design method, to generate new concepts systematically. Through literature review, it then investigated and analyzed the relationship between TRIZ and idea development. Contradiction Matrix and 40 Principles were used to develop an assisting tool suitable for icon design in software development. We first gathered icon samples from the selected CAD/CAM systems. Then grouped these icons by meaningful functions, and compared useful and harmful properties. Finally, we developed new icons for new software systems in order to avoid intellectual property problem.Keywords: Icon, TRIZ, CAD/CAM.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1781449 The Qualitative Methodology Exposure and Experiences of Journal Reviewers: A Qualitative Exploration
Authors: Salomé Elizabeth Scholtz
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Reviewers are the gatekeepers of knowledge dissemination and promote the scientific validity of the research. However, authors often receive questionable feedback on qualitative manuscripts. Thus, this qualitative descriptive study sought to explore the qualitative knowledge and experiences of reviewers of psychology journals. A purposive and snowball sample (n = 27) of psychology journal reviewers completed an online questionnaire, and data were analysed using thematic analysis. Reviewers felt their postgraduate education, reading, and the process of reviewing qualitative articles equipped them to review qualitative manuscripts. Less than half of the reviewer’s published articles were qualitative and male reviewers published more than females. Despite not expecting authors to have the same level of research skills, reviewers still experienced authors as unskilled and biased, creating difficulty in accepting and reviewing qualitative articles. The applicability of the qualitative method and recommendations in preparing qualitative manuscripts for reviewing are reported.
Keywords: Journal reviewers, psychology, qualitative research, research method, research skills.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 183448 A Literature Review of Servant Leadership and Criticism of Advanced Research
Authors: So-Jung Kim, Kyoung-Seok Kim, Yeong-Gyeong Choi
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Although there are many theories and discussion of leadership, the necessity of having a new leadership paradigm was emphasized. The existing leadership characteristic of instruction and control revealed its limitations. Market competition becomes fierce and economic recession never ends worldwide. Of the leadership theories, servant leadership was introduced recently and is in line with the environmental changes of the organization. Servant leadership is a combination of two words, 'servant' and 'leader' and can be defined as the role of the leader who focuses on doing voluntary work for others with altruistic ethics, makes members, customers, and local communities a priority, and makes a commitment to satisfying their needs. This leadership received attention as one field of leadership in the late 1990s and secured its legitimacy. This study discusses the existing research trends of leadership, the concept, behavior characteristics, and lower dimensions of servant leadership, compares servant leadership with the existing leadership researches and diagnoses if servant leadership is a useful concept for further leadership researches. Finally, this study criticizes the limitations in the existing researches on servant leadership.
Keywords: Leadership Philosophy, Leadership Theory, Servant Leadership, Traditional Leadership.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 11793447 Green Technologies and Sustainability in the Care and Maintenance of Protective Textiles
Authors: R. Nayak, T. Panwar, R. Padhye
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Protective textiles get soiled, stained and even worn during their use, which may not be usable after a certain period due to the loss of protective performance. They need regular cleaning and maintenance, which helps to extend the durability of the clothing, retains their useful properties and ensures that fresh clothing is ready to wear when needed. Generally, the cleaning processes used for various protective clothing include dry-cleaning (using solvents) or wet cleaning (using water). These cleaning processes can alter the fabric surface properties, dimensions, and physical, mechanical and performance properties. The technology of laundering and dry-cleaning has undergone several changes. Sustainable methods and products are available for faster, safer and improved cleaning of protective textiles. We performed a comprehensive and systematic review of green technologies and eco-friendly products for sustainable cleaning of protective textiles. Special emphasis is given on the care and maintenance procedures of protective textiles for protection from fire, bullets, chemical and other types of protective clothing.
Keywords: Sustainable cleaning, protective textiles, eco-friendly cleaning, ozone laundering, ultrasonic cleaning.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1313446 Vision Based Hand Gesture Recognition
Authors: Pragati Garg, Naveen Aggarwal, Sanjeev Sofat
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With the development of ubiquitous computing, current user interaction approaches with keyboard, mouse and pen are not sufficient. Due to the limitation of these devices the useable command set is also limited. Direct use of hands as an input device is an attractive method for providing natural Human Computer Interaction which has evolved from text-based interfaces through 2D graphical-based interfaces, multimedia-supported interfaces, to fully fledged multi-participant Virtual Environment (VE) systems. Imagine the human-computer interaction of the future: A 3Dapplication where you can move and rotate objects simply by moving and rotating your hand - all without touching any input device. In this paper a review of vision based hand gesture recognition is presented. The existing approaches are categorized into 3D model based approaches and appearance based approaches, highlighting their advantages and shortcomings and identifying the open issues.Keywords: Computer Vision, Hand Gesture, Hand Posture, Human Computer Interface.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 6323445 Analysis of Dropped Call Rate for Long Term Evolution Networks in Bayelsa State, Nigeria
Authors: Chibuzo Emeruwa, Nnamdi N. Omehe
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This work attempts to effectively compare Dropped Call Rate (DCR) against industry benchmarks and competitor networks to identify areas for improvement and sets performance targets. Four mobile telecommunication networks operational in Bayelsa State Nigeria were considered. Results obtained shows that MTN and Airtel performed well within the regulator’s benchmark of ≤ 1% in all cases, while Globacom and 9moblie had instances where their performance fell outside the benchmark. The maximum values obtained within the period in view was 18.52% and it was in March 2016 for Globacom while the least value recorded is 0.00% and it was in September 2018 for 9mobile. In the seven years period under review, MTN and Airtel performed within the Nigerian Communication Commission’s (NCC) benchmark all through. This affirms that it is possible for the networks to perform optimally if adequate measures are put in place for improved Quality of Service (QoS).
Keywords: Attempted calls, data, dropped call rate, handover failure rate, key performance indicator, mobile network.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 97444 Simulation of a Sustainable Cement Supply Chain; Proposal Model Review
Authors: Tarek Elhasia, Bernd Noche, Lima Zhao
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In recent years, sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) has been widely researched in academic domain. However, due to the traditional operational role and the complexity of supply chain management in the cement industry, a relatively small amount of research has been conducted on cement supply chain simulation integrated with sustainability criteria. This paper analyses the cement supply chain operations using the Push-Pull supply chain frameworks, the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology; and proposal integration approach, proposes three supply chain scenarios based on Make-To-Stock (MTS), Pack-To-Order (PTO) and Grind- To-Order (GTO) strategies. A Discrete-Event Simulation (DES) model of SSCM is constructed using Arena software to implement the three-target scenarios. We conclude with the simulation results that (GTO) is the optimal supply chain strategy that demonstrates the best economic, ecological and social performance in the cement industry.Keywords: Cement industry, simulation, supply chain management (SCM), sustainability.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 6946443 Multidimensional Sports Spectators Segmentation and Social Media Marketing
Authors: B. Schmid, C. Kexel, E. Djafarova
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Understanding consumers is elementary for practitioners in marketing. Consumers of sports events, the sports spectators, are a particularly complex consumer crowd. In order to identify and define their profiles different segmentation approaches can be found in literature, one of them being multidimensional segmentation. Multidimensional segmentation models correspond to the broad range of attitudes, behaviours, motivations and beliefs of sports spectators, other than earlier models. Moreover, in sports there are some well-researched disciplines (e.g. football or North American sports) where consumer profiles and marketing strategies are elaborate and others where no research at all can be found. For example, there is almost no research on athletics spectators. This paper explores the current state of research on sports spectators segmentation. An in-depth literature review provides the framework for a spectators segmentation in athletics. On this basis, additional potential consumer groups and implications for social media marketing will be explored. The findings are the basis for further research.Keywords: Multidimensional segmentation, social media, sports marketing, sports spectators segmentation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2599442 Privacy Issues in Pervasive Healthcare Monitoring System: A Review
Authors: Rusyaizila Ramli, Nasriah Zakaria, Putra Sumari
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Privacy issues commonly discussed among researchers, practitioners, and end-users in pervasive healthcare. Pervasive healthcare systems are applications that can support patient-s need anytime and anywhere. However, pervasive healthcare raises privacy concerns since it can lead to situations where patients may not be aware that their private information is being shared and becomes vulnerable to threat. We have systematically analyzed the privacy issues and present a summary in tabular form to show the relationship among the issues. The six issues identified are medical information misuse, prescription leakage, medical information eavesdropping, social implications for the patient, patient difficulties in managing privacy settings, and lack of support in designing privacy-sensitive applications. We narrow down the issues and chose to focus on the issue of 'lack of support in designing privacysensitive applications' by proposing a privacy-sensitive architecture specifically designed for pervasive healthcare monitoring systems.Keywords: Human Factors, Pervasive Healthcare, PrivacyIssues
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2909441 An Interactive Web-based Simulation Tool for Surgical Thread
Authors: A. Ruimi, S. Goyal, B. M. Nour
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Interactive web-based computer simulations are needed by the medical community to replicate the experience of surgical procedures as closely and realistically as possible without the need to practice on corpses, animals and/or plastic models. In this paper, we offer a review on current state of the research on simulations of surgical threads, identify future needs and present our proposed plans to meet them. Our goal is to create a physics-based simulator, which will predict the behavior of surgical thread when subjected to conditions commonly encountered during surgery. To that end, we will i) develop three dimensional finite element models based on the Cosserat theory of elasticity ii) test and feedback results with the medical community and iii) develop a web-based user interface to run/command our simulator and visualize the results. The impacts of our research are that i) it will contribute to the development of a new generation of training for medical school students and ii) the simulator will be useful to expert surgeons in developing new, better and less risky procedures.Keywords: Cosserat rod-theory, FEM simulations, Modeling, Surgical thread.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1647440 Organisational Blogging: Reviewing Its Effectiveness as an Organisational Learning Tool
Authors: Gavin J. Baxter, Mark H. Stansfield
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This paper reviews the internal use of blogs and their potential effectiveness as organisational learning tools. Since the emergence of the concept of ‘Enterprise 2.0’ there remains a lack of empirical evidence associated with how organisations are applying social media tools and whether they are effective towards supporting organisational learning. Surprisingly, blogs, one of the more traditional social media tools, still remains under-researched in the context of ‘Enterprise 2.0’ and organisational learning. The aim of this paper is to identify the theoretical linkage between blogs and organisational learning in addition to reviewing prior research on organisational blogging exploring why this area remains underresearched. Through a literature review, one of the principal findings of this paper is that organisational blogs have a mutual compatibility with the interpretivist aspect of organisational learning. This paper further advocates that further empirical work in this subject area is required to substantiate this theoretical assumption.
Keywords: Blogs, Enterprise 2.0, Organisational Learning, Social Media Tools.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2113439 Extensions to Some AOSE Methodologies
Authors: Louay M. Jeroudaih, Mohamed S. Hajji
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This paper looks into areas not covered by prominent Agent-Oriented Software Engineering (AOSE) methodologies. Extensive paper review led to the identification of two issues, first most of these methodologies almost neglect semantic web and ontology. Second, as expected, each one has its strength and weakness and may focus on some phases of the development lifecycle but not all of the phases. The work presented here builds extensions to a highly regarded AOSE methodology (MaSE) in order to cover the areas that this methodology does not concentrate on. The extensions include introducing an ontology stage for semantic representation and integrating early requirement specification from a methodology which mainly focuses on that. The integration involved developing transformation rules (with the necessary handling of nonmatching notions) between the two sets of representations and building the software which automates the transformation. The application of this integration on a case study is also presented in the paper. The main flow of MaSE stages was changed to smoothly accommodate the new additions.Keywords: Agents, Intelligent Agents, Software Engineering(SE), UML, AUML, and Design Patterns.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1878