Search results for: Conceptual Framework for financial reporting
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 2352

Search results for: Conceptual Framework for financial reporting

1572 A Critical Review on the Development of a Theoretical Framework for Managing Environmental Impacts of Construction Project

Authors: Sami Mustafa M. E. Ahmed, Noor Amila Wan Abdullah Zawawi, Zulkipli B. Ghazali

Abstract:

Construction industry is considered as one of the main contributor of natural resources depletion, responsible for high level pollution and it is one of the attributes that pose climate changes and other environmental threats. A lot of efforts had and have been done to reduce and control these impacts. Project Environmental Management (PEM) includes the processes required to ensure that the impacts of the project execution to the surrounding environment will remain within the limits stated in legal permits. The main aim of most of researches conducted managing Environmental Impacts (EI) is to protect earth planet from pollution. Those researches are presenting four major environmental elements; Environmental Management Systems (EMS), Environmental Design (ED), Environmental Planning (EP) and Environmental Impacts Assessments (EIA). Although everything has been said about environmental management for construction projects, but almost everything remains to be said and therefore to be explored or rediscovered because incontestably, almost everything remains to be done. This paper aimed at reviewing some of what has been said about PEM. Also one of its objectives is to explore and rediscover the whole view of managing the EI problems by proposing a framework that based on the relation between these environmental researches.

Keywords: Environmental planning, sustainable design, EIA and EMS.

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1571 Modeling Child Development Factors for the Early Introduction of ICTs in Schools

Authors: K. E. Oyetade, S. D. Eyono Obono

Abstract:

One of the fundamental characteristics of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has been the ever-changing nature of continuous release and models of ICTs with its impact on the academic, social, and psychological benefits of its introduction in schools. However, there seems to be a growing concern about its negative impact on students when introduced early in schools for teaching and learning. This study aims to design a model of child development factors affecting the early introduction of ICTs in schools in an attempt to improve the understanding of child development and introduction of ICTs in schools. The proposed model is based on a sound theoretical framework. It was designed following a literature review of child development theories and child development factors. The child development theoretical framework that fitted to the best of all child development factors was then chosen as the basis for the proposed model. This study hence found that the Jean Piaget cognitive developmental theory is the most adequate theoretical frameworks for modeling child development factors for ICT introduction in schools.

Keywords: Child development factors, child development theories, ICTs, theory.

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1570 A Study of Distinctive Models for Pre-hospital EMS in Thailand: Knowledge Capture

Authors: R. Sinthavalai, N. Memongkol, N. Patthanaprechawong, J. Viriyanantavong, C. Choosuk

Abstract:

In Thailand, the practice of pre-hospital Emergency Medical Service (EMS) in each area reveals the different growth rates and effectiveness of the practices. Those can be found as the diverse quality and quantity. To shorten the learning curve prior to speed-up the practices in other areas, story telling and lessons learnt from the effective practices are valued as meaningful knowledge. To this paper, it was to ascertain the factors, lessons learnt and best practices that have impact as contributing to the success of prehospital EMS system. Those were formulized as model prior to speedup the practice in other areas. To develop the model, Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA), which is widely recognized as a framework for organizational quality assessment and improvement, was chosen as the discussion framework. Remarkably, this study was based on the consideration of knowledge capture; however it was not to complete the loop of knowledge activities. Nevertheless, it was to highlight the recognition of knowledge capture, which is the initiation of knowledge management.

Keywords: Emergency Medical Service, Modeling, MBNQA, Thailand.

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1569 Early Requirement Engineering for Design of Learner Centric Dynamic LMS

Authors: Kausik Halder, Nabendu Chaki, Ranjan Dasgupta

Abstract:

We present a modeling framework that supports the engineering of early requirements specifications for design of learner centric dynamic Learning Management System. The framework is based on i* modeling tool and Means End Analysis, that adopts primitive concepts for modeling early requirements (such as actor, goal, and strategic dependency). We show how pedagogical and computational requirements for designing a learner centric Learning Management system can be adapted for the automatic early requirement engineering specifications. Finally, we presented a model on a Learner Quanta based adaptive Courseware. Our early requirement analysis shows that how means end analysis reveals gaps and inconsistencies in early requirements specifications that are by no means trivial to discover without the help of formal analysis tool.

Keywords: Adaptive Courseware, Early Requirement Engineering, Means End Analysis, Organizational Modeling, Requirement Modeling.

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1568 COTT – A Testability Framework for Object-Oriented Software Testing

Authors: A. Goel, S.C. Gupta, S.K.Wasan

Abstract:

Testable software has two inherent properties – observability and controllability. Observability facilitates observation of internal behavior of software to required degree of detail. Controllability allows creation of difficult-to-achieve states prior to execution of various tests. In this paper, we describe COTT, a Controllability and Observability Testing Tool, to create testable object-oriented software. COTT provides a framework that helps the user to instrument object-oriented software to build the required controllability and observability. During testing, the tool facilitates creation of difficult-to-achieve states required for testing of difficultto- test conditions and observation of internal details of execution at unit, integration and system levels. The execution observations are logged in a test log file, which are used for post analysis and to generate test coverage reports.

Keywords: Controllability, Observability, Test Coverage and Testing Tool.

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1567 The Use of Project to Enhance Learning Domains Stated by National Qualifications Framework: TQF

Authors: Duangkamol Thitivesa

Abstract:

This paper explores the use of project work in a content-based instruction in a Rajabhat University, Thailand. The use of project is to promote kinds of learning expected of student teachers as stated by Thailand Quality Framework: TQF. The kinds of learning are grouped into five domains: Ethical and moral development, knowledge, cognitive skill, interpersonal skills and responsibility, and analytical and communication skills. The content taught in class is used to lead the student teachers to relate their previously-acquired linguistic knowledge to meaningful realizations of the language system in passages of immediate relevance to their professional interests, teaching methods in particular. Two research questions are formulate to guide this study: 1) To what degree are the five domains of learning expected of student teachers after the use of project in a content class?, and 2) What is the academic achievement of the students’ writing skills, as part of the learning domains stated by TQF, against the 70% attainment target after the use of project to enhance the skill? The sample of the study comprised of 38 fourth-year English major students. The data was collected by means of a summative achievement test, student writing works, an observation checklist, and project diary. The scores in the summative achievement test were analyzed by mean score, standard deviation, and t-test. Project diary serves as students’ record of the language acquired during the project. List of structures and vocabulary noted in the diary has shown students’ ability to attend to, recognize, and focus on meaningful patterns of language forms.

Keywords: Thailand Quality Framework, Project Work, Writing skill.

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1566 The Resource Description Framework (RDF) as a Modern Structure for Medical Data

Authors: Gabriela Lindemann, Danilo Schmidt, Thomas Schrader, Dietmar Keune

Abstract:

The amount and heterogeneity of data in biomedical research, notably in interdisciplinary fields, requires new methods for the collection, presentation and analysis of information. Important data from laboratory experiments as well as patient trials are available but come out of distributed resources. The Charité - University Hospital Berlin has established together with the German Research Foundation (DFG) a new information service centre for kidney diseases and transplantation (Open European Nephrology Science Centre - OpEN.SC). Beside a collaborative aspect to create new research groups every single partner or institution of this science information centre making his own data available is allowed to search the whole data pool of the various involved centres. A core task is the implementation of a non-restricting open data structure for the various different data sources. We decided to use a modern RDF model and in a first phase transformed original data coming from the web-based Electronic Patient Record database TBase©.

Keywords: Medical databases, Resource Description Framework (RDF), metadata repository.

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1565 Framework for Delivery Reliability in European Machinery and Equipment Industry

Authors: G. Schuh, A. Kampker, A. Hoeschen, T. Jasinski

Abstract:

Today-s manufacturing companies are facing multiple and dynamic customer-supplier-relationships embedded in nonhierarchical production networks. This complex environment leads to problems with delivery reliability and wasteful turbulences throughout the entire network. This paper describes an operational model based on a theoretical framework which improves delivery reliability of each individual customer-supplier-relationship within non-hierarchical production networks of the European machinery and equipment industry. By developing a non-centralized coordination mechanism based on determining the value of delivery reliability and derivation of an incentive system for suppliers the number of in time deliveries can be increased and thus the turbulences in the production network smoothened. Comparable to an electronic stock exchange the coordination mechanism will transform the manual and nontransparent process of determining penalties for delivery delays into an automated and transparent market mechanism creating delivery reliability.

Keywords: delivery reliability, machinery and equipmentindustry, non-hierarchical production networks, supply chainmanagement

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1564 A Framework for Identifying the Critical Factors Affecting the Decision to Adopt and Use Inter-Organizational Information Systems

Authors: K. Bouchbout, Z. Alimazighi

Abstract:

The importance of inter-organizational system (IOS) has been increasingly recognized by organizations. However, IOS adoption has proved to be difficult and, at this stage, why this is so is not fully uncovered. In practice, benefits have often remained concentrated, primarily accruing to the dominant party, resulting in low rates of adoption and usage, and often culminating in the failure of the IOS. The main research question is why organizations initiate or join IOS and what factors influence their adoption and use levels. This paper reviews the literature on IOS adoption and proposes a theoretical framework in order to identify the critical factors to capture a complete picture of IOS adoption. With our proposed critical factors, we are able to investigate their relative contributions to IOS adoption decisions. We obtain findings that suggested that there are five groups of factors that significantly affect the adoption and use decision of IOS in the Supply Chain Management (SCM) context: 1) interorganizational context, 2) organizational context, 3) technological context, 4) perceived costs, and 5) perceived benefits.

Keywords: Business-to-Business relationships, buyer-supplier relationships, Critical factors, Interorganizational Information Systems, IOS adoption and use.

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1563 Causes of Final Account Closing Delay: A Theoretical Framework

Authors: Zarabizan Zakaria, Syuhaida Ismail, Aminah Md. Yusof

Abstract:

Delay can be defined as time overrun or extension of time to complete the project. There are high possibilities that delay issues in final account closing cannot be avoided especially in construction project in Malaysia which is unique and dynamic in the terms of nature of design and technical skill. Delay in final account closing is a situation when the actual planning (time and budget allocation) of a construction project exceeds the planned schedule or on the other hand, final account closing exceeds the time and other provisions specified in the contract. The causes of delay discussed in this paper are appraised from the literature review. There are two main types of delay: excusable delay and non-excusable delay. The literature reviews on the delay in final account closing which is then translated into a theoretical framework are summarized in the context of construction players and academician perspective. It is anticipated that the finding reported in this paper could assist the planning of future strategies and guidelines of final account closing for the betterment of construction projects in Malaysia.

Keywords: Construction industry, construction contract, final account closing, delay.

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1562 Exploring Elder Care in Different Settings in West Bengal: A Psycho-Social Study of Private Homes, Hospitals and Long-Term Care Facilities

Authors: Tulika Bhattacharyya, Suhita C. Chatterjee

Abstract:

West Bengal, one of the most rapidly ageing states in India, has inadequate structure for elder care. Therefore, there is an urgent need to improve elder care which involves focusing on different care settings where the elderly exists, like - Homes, Hospitals and Long-Term Care facilities (e.g. - Old Age Homes, Hospices). The study explores various elder care settings, with the intention to develop an understanding about them, and thereby generate comprehensive information about the entire spectrum of elder care in Kolkata. Empirical data are collected from the elderly and their caregivers in different settings. The tools for data collection are narratives, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions, along with field observations. Mixed method design is adopted to analyze the complexities of elder care in different set ups. The major challenges of elder care in private Homes are: architecturally inadequate housing conditions, paucity of financial support and scarcity of skilled caregivers. While the key factors preventing the Hospital and Long-Term Care Facilities from providing elder care services are inadequate policies and set governmental standards for elder care for the hospitalized elderly in various departments of the Hospital and the elderly residing in different kinds of Long Term Care Facilities. The limitations in each care setting results in considerable neglect and abuse of the elderly. The major challenges in elder care in West Bengal are lack of continuum between different care settings/ peripheral location of private Homes within public health framework and inadequate state Palliative policy- including narcotic regulations. The study suggests remedial measures to improve the capacity to deliver elder care in different settings.

Keywords: Elder care settings, family caregiver, home care, geriatric hospital care, long term care facility.

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1561 Collaborative Environmental Management: A Case Study Research of Stakeholders’ Collaboration in the Nigerian Oil-producing Region

Authors: Favour Makuochukwu Orji, Yingkui Zhao

Abstract:

A myriad of environmental issues face the Nigerian industrial region, resulting from; oil and gas production, mining, manufacturing and domestic wastes. Amidst these, much effort has been directed by stakeholders in the Nigerian oil producing regions, because of the impacts of the region on the wider Nigerian economy. Although collaborative environmental management has been noted as an effective approach in managing environmental issues, little attention has been given to the roles and practices of stakeholders in effecting a collaborative environmental management framework for the Nigerian oil-producing region. This paper produces a framework to expand and deepen knowledge relating to stakeholders aspects of collaborative roles in managing environmental issues in the Nigeria oil-producing region. The knowledge is derived from analysis of stakeholders’ practices – studied through multiple case studies using document analysis. Selected documents of key stakeholders – Nigerian government agencies, multi-national oil companies and host communities, were analyzed. Open and selective coding was employed manually during document analysis of data collected from the offices and websites of the stakeholders. The findings showed that the stakeholders have a range of roles, practices, interests, drivers and barriers regarding their collaborative roles in managing environmental issues. While they have interests for efficient resource use, compliance to standards, sharing of responsibilities, generating of new solutions, and shared objectives; there is evidence of major barriers and these include resource allocation, disjointed policy, ineffective monitoring, diverse socio- economic interests, lack of stakeholders’ commitment and limited knowledge sharing. However, host communities hold deep concerns over the collaborative roles of stakeholders for economic interests, particularly, where government agencies and multi-national oil companies are involved. With these barriers and concerns, a genuine stakeholders’ collaboration is found to be limited, and as a result, optimal environmental management practices and policies have not been successfully implemented in the Nigeria oil-producing region. A framework is produced that describes practices that characterize collaborative environmental management might be employed to satisfy the stakeholders’ interests. The framework recommends critical factors, based on the findings, which may guide a collaborative environmental management in the oil producing regions. The recommendations are designed to re-define the practices of stakeholders in managing environmental issues in the oil producing regions, not as something wholly new, but as an approach essential for implementing a sustainable environmental policy. This research outcome may clarify areas for future research as well as to contribute to industry guidance in the area of collaborative environmental management.

Keywords: Collaborative environmental management framework, document analysis, case studies, multinational oil companies, Nigerian oil-producing region, stakeholders analysis.

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1560 A Scalable Media Job Framework for an Open Source Search Engine

Authors: Pooja Mishra, Chris Pollett

Abstract:

This paper explores efficient ways to implement various media-updating features like news aggregation, video conversion, and bulk email handling. All of these jobs share the property that they are periodic in nature, and they all benefit from being handled in a distributed fashion. The data for these jobs also often comes from a social or collaborative source. We isolate the class of periodic, one round map reduce jobs as a useful setting to describe and handle media updating tasks. As such tasks are simpler than general map reduce jobs, programming them in a general map reduce platform could easily become tedious. This paper presents a MediaUpdater module of the Yioop Open Source Search Engine Web Portal designed to handle such jobs via an extension of a PHP class. We describe how to implement various media-updating tasks in our system as well as experiments carried out using these implementations on an Amazon Web Services cluster.

Keywords: Distributed jobs framework, news aggregation, video conversion, email.

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1559 ‘Daily Speaking’: Designing an App for Construction of Language Learning Model Supporting ‘Seamless Flipped’ Environment

Authors: Zhou Hong, Gu Xiao-Qing, Lıu Hong-Jiao, Leng Jing

Abstract:

Seamless learning is becoming a research hotspot in recent years, and the emerging of micro-lectures, flipped classroom has strengthened the development of seamless learning. Based on the characteristics of the seamless learning across time and space and the course structure of the flipped classroom, and the theories of language learning, we put forward the language learning model which can support ‘seamless flipped’ environment (abbreviated as ‘S-F’). Meanwhile, the characteristics of the ‘S-F’ learning environment, the corresponding framework construction and the activity design of diversified corpora were introduced. Moreover, a language learning app named ‘Daily Speaking’ was developed to facilitate the practice of the language learning model in ‘S-F’ environment. In virtue of the learning case of Shanghai language, the rationality and feasibility of this framework were examined, expecting to provide a reference for the design of ‘S-F’ learning in different situations.

Keywords: Seamless learning, flipped classroom, seamless-flipped environment, language learning model.

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1558 A Signature-Based Secure Authentication Framework for Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

Authors: J. Jenefa, E. A. Mary Anita

Abstract:

Vehicular Ad hoc NETwork (VANET) is a kind of Mobile Ad hoc NETwork (MANET). It allows the vehicles to communicate with one another as well as with nearby Road Side Units (RSU) and Regional Trusted Authorities (RTA). Vehicles communicate through On-Board Units (OBU) in which privacy has to be assured which will avoid the misuse of private data. A secure authentication framework for VANETs is proposed in which Public Key Cryptography (PKC) based adaptive pseudonym scheme is used to generate self-generated pseudonyms. Self-generated pseudonyms are used instead of real IDs for privacy preservation and non-repudiation. The ID-Based Signature (IBS) and ID-Based Online/Offline Signature (IBOOS) schemes are used for authentication. IBS is used to authenticate between vehicle and RSU whereas IBOOS provides authentication among vehicles. Security attacks like impersonation attack in the network are resolved and the attacking nodes are rejected from the network, thereby ensuring secure communication among the vehicles in the network. Simulation results shows that the proposed system provides better authentication in VANET environment.

Keywords: Non-repudiation, privacy preservation, public key cryptography, self- generated pseudonym.

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1557 Mean-Square Performance of Adaptive Filter Algorithms in Nonstationary Environments

Authors: Mohammad Shams Esfand Abadi, John Hakon Husøy

Abstract:

Employing a recently introduced unified adaptive filter theory, we show how the performance of a large number of important adaptive filter algorithms can be predicted within a general framework in nonstationary environment. This approach is based on energy conservation arguments and does not need to assume a Gaussian or white distribution for the regressors. This general performance analysis can be used to evaluate the mean square performance of the Least Mean Square (LMS) algorithm, its normalized version (NLMS), the family of Affine Projection Algorithms (APA), the Recursive Least Squares (RLS), the Data-Reusing LMS (DR-LMS), its normalized version (NDR-LMS), the Block Least Mean Squares (BLMS), the Block Normalized LMS (BNLMS), the Transform Domain Adaptive Filters (TDAF) and the Subband Adaptive Filters (SAF) in nonstationary environment. Also, we establish the general expressions for the steady-state excess mean square in this environment for all these adaptive algorithms. Finally, we demonstrate through simulations that these results are useful in predicting the adaptive filter performance.

Keywords: Adaptive filter, general framework, energy conservation, mean-square performance, nonstationary environment.

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1556 The Proof of Analogous Results for Martingales and Partial Differential Equations Options Price Valuation Formulas Using Stochastic Differential Equation Models in Finance

Authors: H. D. Ibrahim, H. C. Chinwenyi, A. H. Usman

Abstract:

Valuing derivatives (options, futures, swaps, forwards, etc.) is one uneasy task in financial mathematics. The two ways this problem can be effectively resolved in finance is by the use of two methods (Martingales and Partial Differential Equations (PDEs)) to obtain their respective options price valuation formulas. This research paper examined two different stochastic financial models which are Constant Elasticity of Variance (CEV) model and Black-Karasinski term structure model. Assuming their respective option price valuation formulas, we proved the analogous of the Martingales and PDEs options price valuation formulas for the two different Stochastic Differential Equation (SDE) models. This was accomplished by using the applications of Girsanov theorem for defining an Equivalent Martingale Measure (EMM) and the Feynman-Kac theorem. The results obtained show the systematic proof for analogous of the two (Martingales and PDEs) options price valuation formulas beginning with the Martingales option price formula and arriving back at the Black-Scholes parabolic PDEs and vice versa.

Keywords: Option price valuation, Martingales, Partial Differential Equations, PDEs, Equivalent Martingale Measure, Girsanov Theorem, Feyman-Kac Theorem, European Put Option.

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1555 Migration among Multicities

Authors: Ming Guan

Abstract:

This paper proposes a simple model of economic geography within the Dixit-Stiglitz-Iceberg framework that may be used to analyze migration patterns among three cities. The cost–benefit tradeoffs affecting incentives for three types of migration, including echelon migration, are discussed. This paper develops a tractable, heterogeneous-agent, general equilibrium model, where agents share constant human capital, and explores the relationship between the benefits of echelon migration and gross human capital. Using Chinese numerical solutions, we study the manifestation of echelon migration and how it responds to changes in transportation cost and elasticity of substitution. Numerical results demonstrate that (i) there are positive relationships between a migration-s benefit-and-wage ratio, (ii) there are positive relationships between gross human capital ratios and wage ratios as to origin and destination, and (iii) we identify 13 varieties of human capital convergence among cities. In particular, this model predicts population shock resulting from the processes of migration choice and echelon migration.

Keywords: Dixit-Stiglitz-Iceberg framework, elasticity , echelonmigration, trade-off

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1554 AGENTMAP: A Conceptual Meta-Model of Interacting Simulations

Authors: Thomas M. Prinz Wilhelm R. Rossak, Kai Gebhardt

Abstract:

A straightforward and intuitive combination of single simulations into an aggregated master-simulation is not trivial. There are lots of problems, which trigger-specific difficulties during the modeling and execution of such a simulation. In this paper we identify these problems and aim to solve them by mapping the task to the field of multi agent systems. The solution is a new meta-model named AGENTMAP, which is able to mitigate most of the problems and to support intuitive modeling at the same time. This meta-model will be introduced and explained on basis of an example from the e-commerce domain.

Keywords: Multi Agent System, Agent-based Simulation, Distributed Systems, Meta-models.

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1553 Social Media as a ‘Service’ for Value Co-Creation by Integrating Sponsoring Companies, Sports Entities and Fans

Authors: Harri Jalonen

Abstract:

Social media has changed the ways we communicate, collaborate and connect with each other. It has also influenced our habits of consuming sports. Social media has allowed direct interaction between sponsoring companies, athletes/players and fans. Drawing on the service dominant logic of value co-creation, the conceptual paper identifies three operant resources which are beneficial for value co-creation: i) social identity and sense of community, ii) congruence and brand personality, and iii) participatory culture and fan activation. The paper contributes to the theoretical discussion on how social can be media used for value co-creation purposes in the sports industry.

Keywords: Sport, value co-creation, social media, service.

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1552 An Adaptive Hand-Talking System for the Hearing Impaired

Authors: Zhou Yu, Jiang Feng

Abstract:

An adaptive Chinese hand-talking system is presented in this paper. By analyzing the 3 data collecting strategies for new users, the adaptation framework including supervised and unsupervised adaptation methods is proposed. For supervised adaptation, affinity propagation (AP) is used to extract exemplar subsets, and enhanced maximum a posteriori / vector field smoothing (eMAP/VFS) is proposed to pool the adaptation data among different models. For unsupervised adaptation, polynomial segment models (PSMs) are used to help hidden Markov models (HMMs) to accurately label the unlabeled data, then the "labeled" data together with signerindependent models are inputted to MAP algorithm to generate signer-adapted models. Experimental results show that the proposed framework can execute both supervised adaptation with small amount of labeled data and unsupervised adaptation with large amount of unlabeled data to tailor the original models, and both achieve improvements on the performance of recognition rate.

Keywords: sign language recognition, signer adaptation, eMAP/VFS, polynomial segment model.

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1551 ADABeV: Automatic Detection of Abnormal Behavior in Video-surveillance

Authors: Nour Charara, Iman Jarkass, Maria Sokhn, Elena Mugellini, Omar Abou Khaled

Abstract:

Intelligent Video-Surveillance (IVS) systems are being more and more popular in security applications. The analysis and recognition of abnormal behaviours in a video sequence has gradually drawn the attention in the field of IVS, since it allows filtering out a large number of useless information, which guarantees the high efficiency in the security protection, and save a lot of human and material resources. We present in this paper ADABeV, an intelligent video-surveillance framework for event recognition in crowded scene to detect the abnormal human behaviour. This framework is attended to be able to achieve real-time alarming, reducing the lags in traditional monitoring systems. This architecture proposal addresses four main challenges: behaviour understanding in crowded scenes, hard lighting conditions, multiple input kinds of sensors and contextual-based adaptability to recognize the active context of the scene.

Keywords: Behavior recognition, Crowded scene, Data fusion, Pattern recognition, Video-surveillance

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1550 Defect Management Life Cycle Process for Software Quality Improvement

Authors: Aedah A. Rahman, Nurdatillah Hasim

Abstract:

Software quality issues require special attention especially in view of the demands of quality software product to meet customer satisfaction. Software development projects in most organisations need proper defect management process in order to produce high quality software product and reduce the number of defects. The research question of this study is how to produce high quality software and reducing the number of defects. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to provide a framework for managing software defects by following defined life cycle processes. The methodology starts by reviewing defects, defect models, best practices, and standards. A framework for defect management life cycle is proposed. The major contribution of this study is to define a defect management roadmap in software development. The adoption of an effective defect management process helps to achieve the ultimate goal of producing high quality software products and contributes towards continuous software process improvement.

Keywords: Defects, defect management, life cycle process, software quality.

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1549 Borderline Personality Organization and the Interpersonal Components of Perfectionism: A Review of Two Overlapping Personality Pathologies

Authors: Heather M. Roxborough, Paul L. Hewitt, Gordon L. Flett, Jasmin Abizadeh

Abstract:

This work represents the first review paper to explore the relationship between perfectionistic personality and borderline personality organization. The developmental origins, identity diffusion, interpersonal difficulties, and defense mechanisms that are common to both borderline personality and the interpersonal components of perfectionism are explored, and existing research on perfectionism and borderline personality is reviewed. The importance of the link between perfectionism and borderline features is discussed in terms of its contribution to the conceptual understanding of personality pathology as well as to applied clinical practices.

Keywords: Borderline personality organization, defenses, identity, interpersonal problems, perfectionism.

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1548 IT/IS Organisation Design in the Digital Age – A Literature Review

Authors: Dominik Krimpmann

Abstract:

Information technology and information systems are currently at a tipping point. The digital age fundamentally transforms a large number of industries in the ways they work. Lines between business and technology blur. Researchers have acknowledged that this is the time in which the IT/IS organisation needs to re-strategize itself. In this paper, the author provides a structured review of the IS and organisation design literature addressing the question of how the digital age changes the design categories of an IT/IS organisation design. The findings show that most papers just analyse single aspects of either IT/IS relevant information or generic organisation design elements but miss a holistic ‘big-picture’ onto an IT/IS organisation design. This paper creates a holistic IT/IS organisation design framework bringing together the IS research strand, the digital strand and the generic organisation design strand. The research identified four IT/IS organisation design categories (strategy, structure, processes and people) and discusses the importance of two additional categories (sourcing and governance). The authors findings point to a first anchor point from which further research needs to be conducted to develop a holistic IT/IS organisation design framework.

Keywords: IT/IS strategy, IT/IS organisation design, digital age, organisational effectiveness, literature review.

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1547 Deep Reinforcement Learning Approach for Trading Automation in the Stock Market

Authors: Taylan Kabbani, Ekrem Duman

Abstract:

Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) algorithms can scale to previously intractable problems. The automation of profit generation in the stock market is possible using DRL, by combining  the financial assets price ”prediction” step and the ”allocation” step of the portfolio in one unified process to produce fully autonomous systems capable of interacting with its environment to make optimal decisions through trial and error. This work represents a DRL model to generate profitable trades in the stock market, effectively overcoming the limitations of supervised learning approaches. We formulate the trading problem as a Partially observed Markov Decision Process (POMDP) model, considering the constraints imposed by the stock market, such as liquidity and transaction costs. We then solved the formulated POMDP problem using the Twin Delayed Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (TD3) algorithm and achieved a 2.68 Sharpe ratio on the test dataset. From the point of view of stock market forecasting and the intelligent decision-making mechanism, this paper demonstrates the superiority of DRL in financial markets over other types of machine learning and proves its credibility and advantages of strategic decision-making.

Keywords: Autonomous agent, deep reinforcement learning, MDP, sentiment analysis, stock market, technical indicators, twin delayed deep deterministic policy gradient.

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1546 Willingness and Attitude Towards Organ Donation of Nurses in Taiwan

Authors: Min-Chuan Huang, I-Ping Chen, Shu-Ying Chung

Abstract:

Taking the medical staff in an emergency ward of a medical center in Central Taiwan as the research object, the questionnaire data were collected by anonymous and voluntary reporting methods with structured questionnaires to explore organ donation’s actual situation, willingness, and attitude. Only 80 valid questionnaires were gathered. Of the 8 questions, the correct mean rate was 5.9 and the correct rate was 73.13%. According to the statistics of organ donation survey, only 8.7% have signed the consent for organ donation, 21.3% are willing but have not yet signed the consent for organ donation, 62.5% have not yet decided, and 7.5% are unwilling. The average total score (standard deviation) of attitude towards organ donation was 36.2. There is no significant difference between the demographic variables and the awareness and willingness of organ donation, but there is a significant correlation between marital status and the attitude toward organ donation.

Keywords: clinical psychology, organ donation, factors affecting psychological disorders, commitment

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1545 Feature Vector Fusion for Image Based Human Age Estimation

Authors: D. Karthikeyan, G. Balakrishnan

Abstract:

Human faces, as important visual signals, express a significant amount of nonverbal info for usage in human-to-human communication. Age, specifically, is more significant among these properties. Human age estimation using facial image analysis as an automated method which has numerous potential real‐world applications. In this paper, an automated age estimation framework is presented. Support Vector Regression (SVR) strategy is utilized to investigate age prediction. This paper depicts a feature extraction taking into account Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM), which can be utilized for robust face recognition framework. It applies GLCM operation to remove the face's features images and Active Appearance Models (AAMs) to assess the human age based on image. A fused feature technique and SVR with GA optimization are proposed to lessen the error in age estimation.

Keywords: Support vector regression, feature extraction, gray level co-occurrence matrix, active appearance models.

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1544 Adverse Drug Reactions Monitoring in the Northern Region of Zambia

Authors: Ponshano Kaselekela, Simooya O. Oscar, Lunshano Boyd

Abstract:

The Copperbelt University Health Services (CBUHS) was designated by the Zambia Medicines Regulatory Authority (ZAMRA), formally the Pharmaceutical Regulatory Authority (PRA) as a regional pharmacovigilance centre to carryout activities of drug safety monitoring in four provinces in Zambia. CBUHS’s mandate included stimulating the reporting of adverse drug reactions (ADRs), as well as collecting and collating ADR reports from health institutions in the four provinces. This report covers the researchers’ experiences from May 2008 to September, 2016. The main objectives are 1) to monitor ADRs in the Zambian population, 2) to disseminate information to all health professionals in the region advising that the CBU health was a centre for reporting ADRs in the region, 3) to monitor polypharmacy as well as the benefit-risk profile of medicines, 4) to generate independent, evidence based recommendations on the safety of medicines, 5) to support ZAMRA in formulating safety related regulatory decisions for medicines, and 6) to communicate findings with all key stakeholders. The methodology involved monthly visits, beginning in early May 2008 to September, 2016, by the CBUHS to health institutions in the programme areas. Activities included holding discussions with health workers, distribution of ADR forms and collection of ADRs reports. These reports, once collected, were documented and assessed at the CBUHS. A report was then prepared for ZAMRA on quarterly basis. At ZAMRA, serious ADRs were noted and recommendations made to the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Zambia. The results show that 2,600 ADRs reports were received at the pharmacovigilance regional centre. Most of the ADRs reports that received were due to antiretroviral drugs, as well as a few from anti-malarial drugs like Artemether/Lumefantrine – Coartem®. Three hundred and twelve ADRs were entered in the Uppsala Monitoring Centre WHO Vigiflow for further analysis. It was concluded that in general, 2008-16 were exciting years for the pharmacovigilance group at CBUHS. From a very tentative beginning, a lot of strides were made and contacts established with healthcare facilities in the region. The researchers were encouraged by the support received from the Copperbelt University management, the motivation provided by ZAMRA and most importantly the enthusiasm of health workers in all the health care facilities visited. As a centre for drug safety in Zambia, the results show it achieves its objectives for monitoring ADRs, Pharmacovigilance (drug safety monitoring), and activities of monitoring ADRs as well as preventing them. However, the centre faces critical challenges caused by erratic funding that prevents the smooth running of the programme.

Keywords: Assessments, evaluation, monitoring, pharmacovigilance.

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1543 Biosensor Measurement of Urea Coonncentration in Human Blood Serum

Authors: O. L. Kukla, S. V. Marchenko, O. A. Zinchenko, O. S. Pavluchenko, O. M. KKuukla, S. V. Dzyadevych, O. P. Soldatkin

Abstract:

An application of the highly biosensor based on pH-sensitive field immobilized urease for urea analysis was demo The main analytical characteristics of the bios determined; the conditions of urea measureme blood were optimized. A conceptual possibility biosensor for detection of urea concentratio patients suffering from renal insufficiency was sensitive and selective effect transistor and monstrated in this work. iosensor developed were ment in real samples of ility of application of the tion in blood serum of as shown.

Keywords: Biosensor, blood serum, pH transistor, urea, urease, field-effect

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