Search results for: hedonic shopping value
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 91

Search results for: hedonic shopping value

31 A Blockchain-Based Privacy-Preserving Physical Delivery System

Authors: Shahin Zanbaghi, Saeed Samet

Abstract:

The internet has transformed the way we shop. Previously, most of our purchases came in the form of shopping trips to a nearby store. Now, it is as easy as clicking a mouse. We have to be constantly vigilant about our personal information. In this work, our proposed approach is to encrypt the information printed on the physical packages, which include personal information in plain text using a symmetric encryption algorithm; then, we store that encrypted information into a Blockchain network rather than storing them in companies or corporations centralized databases. We present, implement and assess a blockchain-based system using Ethereum smart contracts. We present detailed algorithms that explain the details of our smart contract. We present the security, cost and performance analysis of the proposed method. Our work indicates that the proposed solution is economically attainable and provides data integrity, security, transparency and data traceability.

Keywords: Blockchain, Ethereum, smart contract, commit-reveal scheme.

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30 Sustainable Development Contributions among University of Madeira (Portugal) Students

Authors: Hélder Spínola

Abstract:

Sustainable development is highly dependent on the implementation of environmental education programs, which has as its ultimate goal to produce environmentally literate citizens that undertake environmentally friendly actions. Efforts on environmental education along past years are now perceived on the increase of citizens awareness on European countries and, particularly, in Portugal. However, we still have a lack of information on the prevalence of specific behaviors that contributes to sustainability, influenced by a new attitude toward the environment. The determination of pro-environmental behaviors prevalence in higher education students is an important approach to understand to which extend the next leading generation is, in practice, committed with the goals of sustainable development. Therefore, present study evaluates the prevalence of a specific set of behaviors (water savings, energy savings, environmental criteria on shopping, and mobility) on the University of Madeira students and discusses their commitment with sustainable development.

Keywords: Pro-environmental behaviors, sustainable development, environmental education, higher education students

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29 Performance Comparison between Conventional and Flexible Box Erecting Machines Using Dispatching Rules

Authors: Min Kyu Kim, Eun Young Lee, Dong Woo Son, Yoon Seok Chang

Abstract:

In this paper, we introduce a flexible box erecting machine (BEM) that swiftly and automatically transforms cardboard into a three dimensional box. Recently, the parcel service and home-shopping industries have grown rapidly, and there is an increasing need for various box types to ship various products. However, workers cannot fold thousands of boxes manually in a day. As such, automatic BEMs are garnering greater attention. This study takes equipment operation into consideration as well as mechanical improvements in order to design a BEM that is able to outperform its conventional counterparts. We analyzed six dispatching rules – First In First Out (FIFO), Shortest Processing Time (SPT), Earliest Due Date (EDD), Setup Avoidance, EDD + SPT, and EDD + Setup Avoidance – to determine which one was most suitable for BEM operation. Consequently, SPT and Setup Avoidance were found to be the most critical rules, followed by EDD + Setup Avoidance, EDD + SPT, EDD, and FIFO. This hierarchy was valid for both our conventional BEM and our new flexible BEM from the viewpoint of processing time. We believe that this research can contribute to flexible BEM management, which has the potential to increase productivity and convenience.

Keywords: Automation, box erecting machine, dispatching rule, setup time.

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28 Limit State of Trapezoidal Metal Sheets Exposed to Concentrated Load

Authors: Kateřina Jurdová

Abstract:

In most industrial compounds are used trapezoidal metal sheets like a roof decks. These trapezoidal metal sheets are exposed by concentrated loads, usually by service loads arise from installation of air distribution, sanitary distribution, sprinkler system or wiring installation. In objects of public facilities (like shopping centre, tennis hall, etc.) they can be used for hanging advertising posters etc, too. These systems work as “building kit”. These anchoring systems are represented by clamps in shape of “V”.

This paper is occupy with recapitulation of installation systems available in trade with focus on load-bearing capacity specified by producer and on possible methods, how exactly define load bearing capacity of trapezoidal sheet loaded by concentrated load. The load bearing capacity was verified at experimental samples to determine real behavior of trapezoidal metal sheets exposed to concentrated loads.

Keywords: Clamps, concentrated load, loading test, trapezoidal metal sheet.

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27 On-Line Impulse Buying and Cognitive Dissonance: The Moderating Role of the Positive Affective State

Authors: G. Mattia, A. Di Leo, L. Principato

Abstract:

The purchase impulsiveness is preceded by a lack of self-control: consequently, it is legitimate to believe that a consumer with a low level of self-control can result in a higher probability of cognitive dissonance. Moreover, the process of purchase is influenced by the pre-existing affective state in a considerable way. With reference to on-line purchases, digital behavior cannot be merely ascribed to the rational sphere, given the speed and ease of transactions and the hedonistic dimension of purchases. To our knowledge, this research is among the first cases of verification of the effect of moderation exerted by the positive affective state in the on-line impulse purchase of products with a high expressive value such as a smartphone on the occurrence of cognitive dissonance. To this aim, a moderation analysis was conducted on a sample of 212 impulsive millennials buyers. Three scales were adopted to measure the constructs of interest: IBTS for impulsivity, PANAS for the affective state, Sweeney for cognitive dissonance. The analysis revealed that positive affective state does not affect the onset of cognitive dissonance.

Keywords: Cognitive dissonance, impulsive buying, online shopping, online consumer behavior.

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26 Effective Density for the Classification of Transport Activity Centers

Authors: Dubbale Daniel A., Tsutsumi J.

Abstract:

This research work takes a different approach in the discussion of urban form impacts on transport planning and auto dependency. Concentrated density represented by effective density explains auto dependency better than the conventional density and it is proved to be a realistic density representative for the urban transportation analysis. Model analysis reveals that effective density is influenced by the shopping accessibility index as well as job density factor. It is also combined with the job access variable to classify four levels of Transport Activity Centers (TACs) in Okinawa, Japan. Trip attraction capacity and levels of the newly classified TACs was found agreeable with the amount of daily trips attracted to each center. The trip attraction data set was drawn from a 2007 Okinawa personal trip survey. This research suggests a planning methodology which guides logical transport supply routes and concentrated local development schemes.

Keywords: Effective density, urban form, auto-dependency, transport activity centers

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25 Exploiting Global Self Similarity for Head-Shoulder Detection

Authors: Lae-Jeong Park, Jung-Ho Moon

Abstract:

People detection from images has a variety of applications such as video surveillance and driver assistance system, but is still a challenging task and more difficult in crowded environments such as shopping malls in which occlusion of lower parts of human body often occurs. Lack of the full-body information requires more effective features than common features such as HOG. In this paper, new features are introduced that exploits global self-symmetry (GSS) characteristic in head-shoulder patterns. The features encode the similarity or difference of color histograms and oriented gradient histograms between two vertically symmetric blocks. The domain-specific features are rapid to compute from the integral images in Viola-Jones cascade-of-rejecters framework. The proposed features are evaluated with our own head-shoulder dataset that, in part, consists of a well-known INRIA pedestrian dataset. Experimental results show that the GSS features are effective in reduction of false alarmsmarginally and the gradient GSS features are preferred more often than the color GSS ones in the feature selection.

Keywords: Pedestrian detection, cascade of rejecters, feature extraction, self-symmetry, HOG.

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24 Analysis of the Visual Preference of Patterns in Pedestrian Roads

Authors: Kang, Eun Sung, Song, Hyeong Wook, Kim, Hong Kyu

Abstract:

The purpose of this study is to analyze the visual preference of patterns in pedestrian roads. In this study, animation was applied for the estimation of dynamic streetscape. Six patterns of pedestrian were selected in order to analyze the visual preference. The shapes are straight, s-curve, and zigzag. The ratio of building's height and road's width are 2:1 and 1:1. Twelve adjective pairs used in the field investigation were selected from adjectives which are used usually in the estimation of streetscape. They are interesting-boring, simple-complex, calm-noisy, open-enclosed, active-inactive, lightly-depressing, regular-irregular, unique-usual, rhythmic-not rhythmic, united-not united, stable-unstable, tidy-untidy. Dynamic streetscape must be considered important in pedestrian shopping mall and park because it will be an attraction. So, s-curve pedestrian road, which is the most beautiful as a result of this study, should be designed in this area. Also, the ratio of building's height and road's width along pedestrian road should be reduced.

Keywords: Visual preference, streetscape, animation, simulation, pedestrian.

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23 The Role of Planning and Memory in the Navigational Ability

Authors: Greeshma Sharma, Sushil Chandra, Vijander Singh, Alok Prakash Mittal

Abstract:

Navigational ability requires spatial representation, planning, and memory. It covers three interdependent domains, i.e. cognitive and perceptual factors, neural information processing, and variability in brain microstructure. Many attempts have been made to see the role of spatial representation in the navigational ability, and the individual differences have been identified in the neural substrate. But, there is also a need to address the influence of planning, memory on navigational ability. The present study aims to evaluate relations of aforementioned factors in the navigational ability. Total 30 participants volunteered in the study of a virtual shopping complex and subsequently were classified into good and bad navigators based on their performances. The result showed that planning ability was the most correlated factor for the navigational ability and also the discriminating factor between the good and bad navigators. There was also found the correlations between spatial memory recall and navigational ability. However, non-verbal episodic memory and spatial memory recall were also found to be correlated with the learning variable. This study attempts to identify differences between people with more and less navigational ability on the basis of planning and memory.

Keywords: Memory, planning navigational ability, virtual reality.

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22 Web Pages Aesthetic Evaluation Using Low-Level Visual Features

Authors: Maryam Mirdehghani, S. Amirhassan Monadjemi

Abstract:

Web sites are rapidly becoming the preferred media choice for our daily works such as information search, company presentation, shopping, and so on. At the same time, we live in a period where visual appearances play an increasingly important role in our daily life. In spite of designers- effort to develop a web site which be both user-friendly and attractive, it would be difficult to ensure the outcome-s aesthetic quality, since the visual appearance is a matter of an individual self perception and opinion. In this study, it is attempted to develop an automatic system for web pages aesthetic evaluation which are the building blocks of web sites. Based on the image processing techniques and artificial neural networks, the proposed method would be able to categorize the input web page according to its visual appearance and aesthetic quality. The employed features are multiscale/multidirectional textural and perceptual color properties of the web pages, fed to perceptron ANN which has been trained as the evaluator. The method is tested using university web sites and the results suggested that it would perform well in the web page aesthetic evaluation tasks with around 90% correct categorization.

Keywords: Web Page Design, Web Page Aesthetic, Color Spaces, Texture, Neural Networks

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21 Effect of the Internet on Social Capital

Authors: Safaee Safiollah , Javadi Alimohammad, Javadi Maryam

Abstract:

Internet access is a vital part of the modern world and an important tool in the education of our children. It is present in schools, homes and even shopping malls. Mastering the use of the internet is likely to be an important skill for those entering the job markets of the future. An internet user can be anyone he or she wants to be in an online chat room, or play thrilling and challenging games against other players from all corners of the globe. It seems at present time (or near future) for many people relationships in the real world may be neglected as those in the virtual world increase in importance. Internet is provided a fast mode of transportation caused freedom from family bonds and mixing with different cultures and new communities. This research is an attempt to study effect of Internet on Social capital. For this purpose a survey technique on the sample size amounted 168 students of Payame Noor University of Kermanshah city in country of Iran were considered. Degree of social capital is moderate. With the help of the Multi-variable Regression, variables of Iranian message attractive, Interest to internet with effect of positive and variable Creating a cordial atmosphere with negative effect be significant.

Keywords: Internet, Social Capital, social participation Social trust

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20 Product Features Extraction from Opinions According to Time

Authors: Kamal Amarouche, Houda Benbrahim, Ismail Kassou

Abstract:

Nowadays, e-commerce shopping websites have experienced noticeable growth. These websites have gained consumers’ trust. After purchasing a product, many consumers share comments where opinions are usually embedded about the given product. Research on the automatic management of opinions that gives suggestions to potential consumers and portrays an image of the product to manufactures has been growing recently. After launching the product in the market, the reviews generated around it do not usually contain helpful information or generic opinions about this product (e.g. telephone: great phone...); in the sense that the product is still in the launching phase in the market. Within time, the product becomes old. Therefore, consumers perceive the advantages/ disadvantages about each specific product feature. Therefore, they will generate comments that contain their sentiments about these features. In this paper, we present an unsupervised method to extract different product features hidden in the opinions which influence its purchase, and that combines Time Weighting (TW) which depends on the time opinions were expressed with Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF). We conduct several experiments using two different datasets about cell phones and hotels. The results show the effectiveness of our automatic feature extraction, as well as its domain independent characteristic.

Keywords: Opinion mining, product feature extraction, sentiment analysis, SentiWordNet.

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19 Visualized Flow Patterns around and inside a Two-Sided Wind-Catcher in the Presence of Upstream Structures

Authors: M. Afshin, A. Sohankar, M. Dehghan Manshadi, M. R. Daneshgar, G. R. Dehghan Kamaragi

Abstract:

In this paper, the influence of upstream structures on the flow patternaround and inside the wind-catcher is experimentally investigated by smoke flow visualization techniques. Wind-catchers are an important part of natural ventilation in residential buildings or public places such as shopping centers, libraries, etc. Wind-catchers might be also used in places of high urban densities; hence their potential to provide natural ventilation is dependent on the presence of upstream structures. In this study, the two-sided wind-catcher model was based on a real wind-catcher observed in the city of Yazd, Iran. The present study focuses on the flow patterns around and inside the isolated two-sided wind-catcher, and on a two-sided wind-catcher in the presence of an upstream structure. The results show that the presence of an upstream structure influences the airflow pattern force and direction. Placing a high upstream structure reverses the airflow direction inside the wind-catcher.

Keywords: Natural Ventilation, Smoke Flow Visualization, Two-Sided Wind-Catcher.

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18 Customer Relations and Use of Online Shopping Sites

Authors: Bahar Urhan Torun, Havva Nur Tarakcı

Abstract:

At the present time, online marketing has become the common target of small and full-scale organizations. Today’s humanbeing who has to spend most of their time in front of the computer because of his job, prefers to socialize by internet due to the easy access to technology. So online marketing area expands day by day. All business organizations from the smallest to the biggest are in a race in order to get a cut from the virtual market share in an extreme competitive environment. However these organizations which use the internet to reach more consumers cannot determine their target group accurately, so this is the biggest handicap of online marketing sales nowadays. The aim of this study is to determine some significant elements about need for communicating efficiently with the consumer on the internet on online marketing. The strategies that can be used in order to increase sales and the limitations of virtual environment where cannot be communicated with the consumer face to face are argued in this study’s scope. As a consequence it is thought that to study on this subject because of lacking and also being limited efficiency of researches and outputs. Within this scope suggesting some proposals about how to communicate efficiently with the consumer and also offering the consumers’ demands efficiently is the essential objective of this study.

Keywords: Communication, competition, consumer, online marketing.

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17 Exploring the Destination Image of Mainland China Tourists to Taiwan by Word-of-Mouth on Web

Authors: Y. R. Li, Y. Y. Wang

Abstract:

After allowing direct flights from Mainland China to Taiwan, Chinese tourists increased according to Tourism Bureaustatistics. There are from 0.19 to 2 million tourists from 2008 to 2011. Mainland China has become the main source of Taiwan developing tourism industry. Taiwanese government should know more about comments from Chinese tourists to Taiwan in order toproperly market Taiwan tourism and enhance the overall quality of tourism. In order to understand Chinese visitors’ comments, this study adopts content analysis to analyze electronic word-of-mouth on Web. This study collects 375 blog articles of Chinese tourists from Ctrip.com as a database during 2009 to 2011. Through the qualitative data analysis the traveling destination imagesis divided into seven dimensions, such as senic spots, shopping, food and beverages, accommodations, transportation, festivals and recreation activities. Finally, this study proposes some practical managerial implication to know both positive and negative images of the seven dimensions from Chinese tourists, providing marketing strategies and suggestions to traveling agency industry.

Keywords: Destination Image, Content Analysis, Electronic Word-of-Mouth.

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16 Re-Engineering of Traditional Indian Wadi into Ready-to-Use High Protein Quality and Fibre Rich Chunk

Authors: Radhika Jain, Sangeeta Goomer

Abstract:

In the present study an attempt has been made to re-engineer traditional wadi into wholesome ready-to-use cereal-pulse-based chunks rich in protein quality and fibre content. Chunks were made using extrusion-dehydration combination. Two formulations i.e., whole green gram dhal with instant oats and washed green gram dhal with whole oats were formulated. These chunks are versatile in nature as they can be easily incorporated in day-to-day home-made preparations such as pulao, potato curry and kadhi. Cereal-pulse ratio was calculated using NDpCal%. Limiting amino acids such as lysine, tryptophan, methionine, cysteine and threonine were calculated for maximum amino acid profile in cereal-pulse combination. Time-temperature combination for extrusion at 130oC and dehydration at 65oC for 7 hours and 15 minutes were standardized to obtain maximum protein and fibre content. Proximate analysis such as moisture, fat and ash content were analyzed. Protein content of formulation was 62.10% and 68.50% respectively. Fibre content of formulations was 2.99% and 2.45%, respectively. Using a 5-point hedonic scale, consumer preference trials of 102 consumers were conducted and analyzed. Evaluation of chunks prepared in potato curry, kadi and pulao showed preferences for colour 82%, 87%, 86%, texture and consistency 80%, 81%, 88%, flavour and aroma 74%, 82%, 86%, after taste 70%, 75%, 86% and overall acceptability 77%, 75%, 88% respectively. High temperature inactivates antinutritional compounds such as trypsin inhibitors, lectins, saponins etc. Hence, availability of protein content was increased. Developed products were palatable and easy to prepare.

Keywords: Extrusion, NDpCal%, protein quality, wadi.

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15 Development and Evaluation of a Nutraceutical Herbal Summer Drink

Authors: Munish Garg, Vinni Ahuja

Abstract:

In the past few years, high consumption of soft drinks has attracted negative attention world-wide due to its possible adverse effects, leading the health conscious people to find alternative nutraceutical or herbal health drinks. In the present study, a nutraceutical soft drink was developed utilizing some easily available and well known traditional herbs having nutritional potential. The key ingredients were selected as bael, amla, lemon juice, ashwagandha and poppy seeds based on their household routine use in the summer with proven refreshing, cooling and energetic feeling since ages. After several trials made, the final composition of nutraceutical summer soft drink was selected as most suitable combination based on the taste, physicochemical, microbial and organoleptic point of view. The physicochemical analysis of the prepared drink found to contain optimum level of titratable acidity, total soluble solids and pH which were in accordance of the commercial recommendations. There were no bacterial colonies found in the product therefore found within limits. During the nine point’s hedonic scale sensory evaluation, the drink was strongly liked for colour, taste, flavour and texture. The formulation was found to contain flavonoids (80mg/100ml), phenolics (103mg/100ml), vitamin C (250mg/100ml) and has antioxidant potential (75.52%) apart from providing several other essential vitamins, minerals and healthy components. The developed nutraceutical drink provides an economical and feasible option for the consumers with very good taste combined with potential health benefits. The present drink is potentially capable to replace the synthetic soft drinks available in the market.

Keywords: Herbal drink, nutraceuticals, summer drink, antioxidant.

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14 The Effect of Nano-Silver Packaging on Quality Maintenance of Fresh Strawberry

Authors: Naser Valipour Motlagh, Majid Aliabadi, Elnaz Rahmani, Samira Ghorbanpour

Abstract:

Strawberry is one of the most favored fruits all along the world. But due to its vulnerability to microbial contamination and short life storage, there are lots of problems in industrial production and transportation of this fruit. Therefore, lots of ideas have tried to increase the storage life of strawberries especially through proper packaging. This paper works on efficient packaging as well. The primary material used is produced through simple mixing of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and silver nanoparticles in different weight fractions of 0.5 and 1% in presence of dicumyl peroxide as a cross-linking agent. Final packages were made in a twin-screw extruder. Then, their effect on the quality maintenance of strawberry is evaluated. The SEM images of nano-silver packages show the distribution of silver nanoparticles in the packages. Total bacteria count, mold, yeast and E. coli are measured for microbial evaluation of all samples. Texture, color, appearance, odor, taste and total acceptance of various samples are evaluated by trained panelists and based on 9-point hedonic scale method. The results show a decrease in total bacteria count and mold in nano-silver packages compared to the samples packed in polyethylene packages for the same storage time. The optimum concentration of silver nanoparticles for the lowest bacteria count and mold is predicted to be around 0.5% which has attained the most acceptance from the panelist as well. Moreover, organoleptic properties of strawberry are preserved for a longer period in nano-silver packages. It can be concluded that using nano-silver particles in strawberry packages has improved the storage life and quality maintenance of the fruit.

Keywords: Antimicrobial properties, polyethylene, silver nanoparticles, strawberry.

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13 Insights into Smoothies with High Levels of Fibre and Polyphenols: Factors Influencing Chemical, Rheological and Sensory Properties

Authors: Dongxiao Sun-Waterhouse, Shiji Nair, Reginald Wibisono, Sandhya S. Wadhwa, Carl Massarotto, Duncan I. Hedderley, Jing Zhou, Sara R. Jaeger, Virginia Corrigan

Abstract:

Attempts to add fibre and polyphenols (PPs) into popular beverages present challenges related to the properties of finished products such as smoothies. Consumer acceptability, viscosity and phenolic composition of smoothies containing high levels of fruit fibre (2.5-7.5 g per 300 mL serve) and PPs (250-750 mg per 300 mL serve) were examined. The changes in total extractable PP, vitamin C content, and colour of selected smoothies over a storage stability trial (4°C, 14 days) were compared. A set of acidic aqueous model beverages were prepared to further examine the effect of two different heat treatments on the stability and extractability of PPs. Results show that overall consumer acceptability of high fibre and PP smoothies was low, with average hedonic scores ranging from 3.9 to 6.4 (on a 1-9 scale). Flavour, texture and overall acceptability decreased as fibre and polyphenol contents increased, with fibre content exerting a stronger effect. Higher fibre content resulted in greater viscosity, with an elevated PP content increasing viscosity only slightly. The presence of fibre also aided the stability and extractability of PPs after heating. A reduction of extractable PPs, vitamin C content and colour intensity of smoothies was observed after a 14-day storage period at 4°C. Two heat treatments (75°C for 45 min or 85°C for 1 min) that are normally used for beverage production, did not cause significant reduction of total extracted PPs. It is clear that high levels of added fibre and PPs greatly influence the consumer appeal of smoothies, suggesting the need to develop novel formulation and processing methods if a satisfactory functional beverage is to be developed incorporating these ingredients.

Keywords: Apple fibre, apple and blackcurrant polyphenols, consumer acceptability, functional foods, stability.

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12 Geovisualization of Tourist Activity Travel Patterns Using 3D GIS: An Empirical Study of Tamsui, Taiwan

Authors: Meng-Lung Lin, Chien-Min Chu, Chung-Hung Tsai, Chih-Cheng Chen, Chen-Yuan Chen

Abstract:

The study of tourist activities and the mapping of their routes in space and time has become an important issue in tourism management. Here we represent space-time paths for the tourism industry by visualizing individual tourist activities and the paths followed using a 3D Geographic Information System (GIS). Considerable attention has been devoted to the measurement of accessibility to shopping, eating, walking and other services at the tourist destination. I turns out that GIS is a useful tool for studying the spatial behaviors of tourists in the area. The value of GIS is especially advantageous for space-time potential path area measures, especially for the accurate visualization of possible paths through existing city road networks. This study seeks to apply space-time concepts with a detailed street network map obtained from Google Maps to measure tourist paths both spatially and temporally. These paths are further determined based on data obtained from map questionnaires regarding the trip activities of 40 individuals. The analysis of the data makes it possible to determining the locations of the more popular paths. The results can be visualized using 3D GIS to show the areas and potential activity opportunities accessible to tourists during their travel time.

Keywords: Tourist activity analysis, space-time path, GIS, geovisualization, activity-travel pattern.

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11 Hybrid Authentication System Using QR Code with OTP

Authors: Salim Istyaq

Abstract:

As we know, number of Internet users are increasing drastically. Now, people are using different online services provided by banks, colleges/schools, hospitals, online utility, bill payment and online shopping sites. To access online services, text-based authentication system is in use. The text-based authentication scheme faces some drawbacks with usability and security issues that bring troubles to users. The core element of computational trust is identity. The aim of the paper is to make the system more compliable for the imposters and more reliable for the users, by using the graphical authentication approach. In this paper, we are using the more powerful tool of encoding the options in graphical QR format and also there will be the acknowledgment which will send to the user’s mobile for final verification. The main methodology depends upon the encryption option and final verification by confirming a set of pass phrase on the legal users, the outcome of the result is very powerful as it only gives the result at once when the process is successfully done. All processes are cross linked serially as the output of the 1st process, is the input of the 2nd and so on. The system is a combination of recognition and pure recall based technique. Presented scheme is useful for devices like PDAs, iPod, phone etc. which are more handy and convenient to use than traditional desktop computer systems.

Keywords: Graphical Password, OTP, QR Codes, Recognition based graphical user authentication, usability and security.

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10 Recommender Systems Using Ensemble Techniques

Authors: Yeonjeong Lee, Kyoung-jae Kim, Youngtae Kim

Abstract:

This study proposes a novel recommender system that uses data mining and multi-model ensemble techniques to enhance the recommendation performance through reflecting the precise user’s preference. The proposed model consists of two steps. In the first step, this study uses logistic regression, decision trees, and artificial neural networks to predict customers who have high likelihood to purchase products in each product group. Then, this study combines the results of each predictor using the multi-model ensemble techniques such as bagging and bumping. In the second step, this study uses the market basket analysis to extract association rules for co-purchased products. Finally, the system selects customers who have high likelihood to purchase products in each product group and recommends proper products from same or different product groups to them through above two steps. We test the usability of the proposed system by using prototype and real-world transaction and profile data. In addition, we survey about user satisfaction for the recommended product list from the proposed system and the randomly selected product lists. The results also show that the proposed system may be useful in real-world online shopping store.

Keywords: Product recommender system, Ensemble technique, Association rules, Decision tree, Artificial neural networks.

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9 Analysis Model for the Relationship of Users, Products, and Stores on Online Marketplace Based on Distributed Representation

Authors: Ke He, Wumaier Parezhati, Haruka Yamashita

Abstract:

Recently, online marketplaces in the e-commerce industry, such as Rakuten and Alibaba, have become some of the most popular online marketplaces in Asia. In these shopping websites, consumers can select purchase products from a large number of stores. Additionally, consumers of the e-commerce site have to register their name, age, gender, and other information in advance, to access their registered account. Therefore, establishing a method for analyzing consumer preferences from both the store and the product side is required. This study uses the Doc2Vec method, which has been studied in the field of natural language processing. Doc2Vec has been used in many cases to analyze the extraction of semantic relationships between documents (represented as consumers) and words (represented as products) in the field of document classification. This concept is applicable to represent the relationship between users and items; however, the problem is that one more factor (i.e., shops) needs to be considered in Doc2Vec. More precisely, a method for analyzing the relationship between consumers, stores, and products is required. The purpose of our study is to combine the analysis of the Doc2vec model for users and shops, and for users and items in the same feature space. This method enables the calculation of similar shops and items for each user. In this study, we derive the real data analysis accumulated in the online marketplace and demonstrate the efficiency of the proposal.

Keywords: Doc2Vec, marketing, online marketplace, recommendation system.

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8 Efficiency in Urban Governance towards Sustainability and Competitiveness of City : A Case Study of Kuala Lumpur

Authors: Hamzah Jusoh, Azmizam Abdul Rashid

Abstract:

Malaysia has successfully applied economic planning to guide the development of the country from an economy of agriculture and mining to a largely industrialised one. Now, with its sights set on attaining the economic level of a fully developed nation by 2020, the planning system must be made even more efficient and focused. It must ensure that every investment made in the country, contribute towards creating the desirable objective of a strong, modern, internationally competitive, technologically advanced, post-industrial economy. Cities in Malaysia must also be fully aware of the enormous competition it faces in a region with rapidly expanding and modernising economies, all contending for the same pool of potential international investments. Efficiency of urban governance is also fundamental issue in development characterized by sustainability, subsidiarity, equity, transparency and accountability, civic engagement and citizenship, and security. As described above, city competitiveness is harnessed through 'city marketing and city management'. High technology and high skilled industries, together with finance, transportation, tourism, business, information and professional services shopping and other commercial activities, are the principal components of the nation-s economy, which must be developed to a level well beyond where it is now. In this respect, Kuala Lumpur being the premier city must play the leading role.

Keywords: Economic planning, sustainability, efficiency, urban governance and city competitiveness.

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7 Privacy Protection Principles of Omnichannel Approach

Authors: Renata Mekovec, Dijana Peras, Ruben Picek

Abstract:

The advent of the Internet, mobile devices and social media is revolutionizing the experience of retail customers by linking multiple sources through various channels. Omnichannel retailing is a retailing that combines multiple channels to allow customers to seamlessly leverage all the distribution information online and offline while shopping. Therefore, today data are an asset more critical than ever for all organizations. Nonetheless, because of its heterogeneity through platforms, developers are currently facing difficulties in dealing with personal data. Considering the possibilities of omnichannel communication, this paper presents channel categorization that could enhance the customer experience of omnichannel center called hyper center. The purpose of this paper is fundamentally to describe the connection between the omnichannel hyper center and the customer, with particular attention to privacy protection. The first phase was finding the most appropriate channels of communication for hyper center. Consequently, a selection of widely used communication channels has been identified and analyzed with regard to the effect requirements for optimizing user experience. The evaluation criteria are divided into 3 groups: general, user profile and channel options. For each criterion the weight of importance for omnichannel communication was defined. The most important thing was to consider how the hyper center can make user identification while respecting the privacy protection requirements. The study carried out also shows what customer experience across digital networks would look like, based on an omnichannel approach owing to privacy protection principles.

Keywords: Personal data, privacy protection, omnichannel communication, retail.

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6 Urban Citizenship in a Sensor Rich Society

Authors: Mike Dee

Abstract:

Urban public spaces are sutured with a range of surveillance and sensor technologies that claim to enable new forms of ‘data based citizen participation’, but also increase the tendency for ‘function-creep’, whereby vast amounts of data are gathered, stored and analysed in a broad application of urban surveillance. This kind of monitoring and capacity for surveillance connects with attempts by civic authorities to regulate, restrict, rebrand and reframe urban public spaces. A direct consequence of the increasingly security driven, policed, privatised and surveilled nature of public space is the exclusion or ‘unfavourable inclusion’ of those considered flawed and unwelcome in the ‘spectacular’ consumption spaces of many major urban centres. In the name of urban regeneration, programs of securitisation, ‘gentrification’ and ‘creative’ and ‘smart’ city initiatives refashion public space as sites of selective inclusion and exclusion. In this context of monitoring and control procedures, in particular, children and young people’s use of space in parks, neighbourhoods, shopping malls and streets is often viewed as a threat to the social order, requiring various forms of remedial action. This paper suggests that cities, places and spaces and those who seek to use them, can be resilient in working to maintain and extend democratic freedoms and processes enshrined in Marshall’s concept of citizenship, calling sensor and surveillance systems to account. Such accountability could better inform the implementation of public policy around the design, build and governance of public space and also understandings of urban citizenship in the sensor saturated urban environment.

Keywords: Citizenship, Public Space, Surveillance, Young People.

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5 The Reason of Principles of Construction Engineering and Management Being Necessary for Contracting Firms and Their Projects Managers

Authors: Mamoon Mousa Atout

Abstract:

The industries of construction are in continuous growth not only in Middle East rejoin but almost all over the world. For the last fifteen years, big expansion and increase of different types of projects has been observed. Many infrastructural projects have been developed, high rise buildings, big shopping malls, power sub-stations, roads, bridges, schools, universities and developing many of new cities with full and complete facilities. The growth and enlargement of the mentioned developed projects has been accomplished through many international and local contracting organizations. Senior management of these organizations depend on their qualified and experienced team whom are aware of the implications of project management, construction management, engineering management and resource management during tendering till final completion of the project. This research aims to find out why reasons of principles of construction engineering and management are necessary for contracting firms and their managers. Principles of construction management help contracting organizations to accomplish and deliver projects without delay. This can be maintained by establishing guidelines’ details for updating the adopted system of construction management that they have through qualified and experienced project managers. The research focuses on benefits of other essential skills of projects planning, monitoring and control. Defining roles and responsibilities of contractor project managers during tendering and execution is a part of the investigated factors that will be analyzed. Other skills like optimizing and utilizing the obtainable project resources to deliver the project within time, cost and quality will be also investigated to find out how these factors are affecting the performance of contracting firms, projects managers and projects. The conclusion of the research will help senior management team and the contractors project managers about the benefits of implications and benefits construction management system and its effect upon the performance and knowledge of contract values that they have, and the optimal profit margin of the firm it.

Keywords: Construction management, contracting firms, project managers, planning processes, roles and responsibilities.

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4 Study on Optimization of Air Infiltration at Entrance of a Commercial Complex in Zhejiang Province

Authors: Yujie Zhao, Jiantao Weng

Abstract:

In the past decade, with the rapid development of China's economy, the purchasing power and physical demand of residents have been improved, which results in the vast emergence of public buildings like large shopping malls. However, the architects usually focus on the internal functions and streamlines of these buildings, ignoring the impact of the environment on the subjective feelings of building users. Only in Zhejiang province, the infiltration of cold air in winter frequently occurs at the entrance of sizeable commercial complex buildings that have been in operation, which will affect the environmental comfort of the building lobby and internal public spaces. At present, to reduce these adverse effects, it is usually adopted to add active equipment, such as setting air curtains to block air exchange or adding heating air conditioners. From the perspective of energy consumption, the infiltration of cold air into the entrance will increase the heat consumption of indoor heating equipment, which will indirectly cause considerable economic losses during the whole winter heating stage. Therefore, it is of considerable significance to explore the suitable entrance forms for improving the environmental comfort of commercial buildings and saving energy. In this paper, a commercial complex with apparent cold air infiltration problem in Hangzhou is selected as the research object to establish a model. The environmental parameters of the building entrance, including temperature, wind speed, and infiltration air volume, are obtained by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation, from which the heat consumption caused by the natural air infiltration in the winter and its potential economic loss is estimated as the objective metric. This study finally obtains the optimization direction of the building entrance form of the commercial complex by comparing the simulation results of other local commercial complex projects with different entrance forms. The conclusions will guide the entrance design of the same type of commercial complex in this area.

Keywords: Air infiltration, commercial complex, heat consumption, CFD simulation.

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3 Use of Smartphones in 6th and 7th Grade (Elementary Schools) in Istria: Pilot Study

Authors: Maja Ruzic-Baf, Vedrana Keteles, Andrea Debeljuh

Abstract:

Younger and younger children are now using a smartphone, a device which has become ‘a must have’ and the life of children would be almost ‘unthinkable’ without one. Devices are becoming lighter and lighter but offering an array of options and applications as well as the unavoidable access to the Internet, without which it would be almost unusable. Numerous features such as taking of photographs, listening to music, information search on the Internet, access to social networks, usage of some of the chatting and messaging services, are only some of the numerous features offered by ‘smart’ devices. They have replaced the alarm clock, home phone, camera, tablet and other devices. Their use and possession have become a part of the everyday image of young people. Apart from the positive aspects, the use of smartphones has also some downsides. For instance, free time was usually spent in nature, playing, doing sports or other activities enabling children an adequate psychophysiological growth and development. The greater usage of smartphones during classes to check statuses on social networks, message your friends, play online games, are just some of the possible negative aspects of their application. Considering that the age of the population using smartphones is decreasing and that smartphones are no longer ‘foreign’ to children of pre-school age (smartphones are used at home or in coffee shops or shopping centers while waiting for their parents, playing video games often inappropriate to their age), particular attention must be paid to a very sensitive group, the teenagers who almost never separate from their ‘pets’. This paper is divided into two sections, theoretical and empirical ones. The theoretical section gives an overview of the pros and cons of the usage of smartphones, while the empirical section presents the results of a research conducted in three elementary schools regarding the usage of smartphones and, specifically, their usage during classes, during breaks and to search information on the Internet, check status updates and 'likes’ on the Facebook social network.

Keywords: Education, smartphone, social networks, teenagers.

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2 TheAnalyzer: Clustering-Based System for Improving Business Productivity by Analyzing User Profiles to Enhance Human-Computer Interaction

Authors: D. S. A. Nanayakkara, K. J. P. G. Perera

Abstract:

E-commerce platforms have revolutionized the shopping experience, offering convenient ways for consumers to make purchases. To improve interactions with customers and optimize marketing strategies, it is essential for businesses to understand user behavior, preferences, and needs on these platforms. This paper focuses on recommending businesses to customize interactions with users based on their behavioral patterns, leveraging data-driven analysis and machine learning techniques. Businesses can improve engagement and boost the adoption of e-commerce platforms by aligning behavioral patterns with user goals of usability and satisfaction. We propose TheAnalyzer, a clustering-based system designed to enhance business productivity by analyzing user-profiles and improving human-computer interaction. TheAnalyzer seamlessly integrates with business applications, collecting relevant data points based on users' natural interactions without additional burdens such as questionnaires or surveys. It defines five key user analytics as features for its dataset, which are easily captured through users' interactions with e-commerce platforms. This research presents a study demonstrating the successful distinction of users into specific groups based on the five key analytics considered by TheAnalyzer. With the assistance of domain experts, customized business rules can be attached to each group, enabling TheAnalyzer to influence business applications and provide an enhanced personalized user experience. The outcomes are evaluated quantitatively and qualitatively, demonstrating that utilizing TheAnalyzer’s capabilities can optimize business outcomes, enhance customer satisfaction, and drive sustainable growth. The findings of this research contribute to the advancement of personalized interactions in e-commerce platforms. By leveraging user behavioral patterns and analyzing both new and existing users, businesses can effectively tailor their interactions to improve customer satisfaction, loyalty and ultimately drive sales.

Keywords: Data clustering, data standardization, dimensionality reduction, human-computer interaction, user profiling.

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