Search results for: Literature Survey.
1521 Creating Maintenance Cost Model for University Buildings
Authors: AbdulLateef A. Olanrewaju, Arazi Idrus, Mohd F. Khamidi
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Maintenance costs incurred on building differs. The difference can be as results of the types, functions, age, building health index, size, form height, location and complexity of the building. These are contributing to the difficulty in maintenance development of deterministic maintenance cost model. This paper is concerns with reporting the preliminary findings on the creation of building maintenance cost distributions for universities in Malaysia. This study is triggered by the need to provide guides on maintenance costs distributions for decision making. For this purpose, a survey questionnaire was conducted to investigate the distribution of maintenance costs in the universities. Altogether, responses were received from twenty universities comprising both private and publicly owned. The research found that engineering services, roofing and finishes were the elements contributing the larger segment of the maintenance costs. Furthermore, the study indicates the significance of maintenance cost distribution as decision making tool towards maintenance management.Keywords: Performance matrix, university buildings, costmodel, Malaysia
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20371520 Non-Circular Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers Chainring Failure Analysis
Authors: A. Elmikaty, Z. Thanawarothon, L. Mezeix
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This paper presents a finite element model to simulate the teeth failure of non-circular composite chainring. Model consists of the chainring and a part of the chain. To reduce the size of the model, only the first 11 rollers are simulated. In order to validate the model, it is firstly applied to a circular aluminum chainring and evolution of the stress in the teeth is compared with the literature. Then, effect of the non-circular shape is studied through three different loading positions. Strength of non-circular composite chainring and failure scenario is investigated. Moreover, two composite lay-ups are proposed to observe the influence of the stacking. Results show that composite material can be used but the lay-up has a large influence on the strength. Finally, loading position does not have influence on the first composite failure that always occurs in the first tooth.
Keywords: CFRP, composite failure, FEA, non-circular chainring.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 11691519 Prevalence of Psychological Resistance to Voluntary Counselling and Testing of HIV/AIDS among Students of Tertiary Institutions in Kano State, Nigeria
Authors: A. S. Haruna
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The incessant discomfort for Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) exhibited by students in some tertiary institutions in Kano State, Nigeria is capable of causing Psychological Resistance as well as jeopardizing the purpose of HIV intervention. This study investigated the Prevalence of Psychological Resistance to VCT of HIV/AIDS among students of tertiary institutions in the state. Two null hypotheses were postulated and tested. Cross- Sectional Survey Design was employed in which 1512 sample was selected from a student population of 104,841 following Stratified Random Sampling technique. A self-developed 20-item scale whose reliability coefficient is 0.83 was used for data collection. Data analyzed via Chi-square and t-test reveals a prevalence of 38% with males (Mean=0.34; SD=0.475) constituting 60% and females (Mean=0.45; SD=0.498) 40%. Also, the calculated chi-square and ttest were not significant at 0.05 as such the null hypotheses were upheld. Recommendation offered suggests the use of reinforcement and social support for students who patronize HIV/AIDS counselling.
Keywords: HIV/AIDS, Prevalence rate, Psychological Resistance, VCT.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 26091518 Issues in Procurement of Castings
Authors: T. Saarelainen, O. Piha, J. Orkas, P. E. Makkonen
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The aim of this paper is to present current and future procedures in castings procurement. Differences in procurement are highlighted. The supplier selection criteria used in practice is compared to literature findings. Different trends related to supply chains are presented and it is described how they are reflected in reality to castings procurement. To fulfil the aim, interviews were conducted in nine companies using castings. It was found that largest casting users have the most subcontractor foundries and it is more typical that they have multiple suppliers for the same parts. Currently only two companies out of nine purchase castings outside Europe, but the others are also progressing in the same direction. The main reason is the need to lower purchasing costs. Another trend is that all companies want to buy cast components or sub-assemblies instead of raw castings from foundries. It was found that price is a main supplier selection criterion. All companies use competitive bidding in supplier selection.Keywords: Casting, interview study, procurement, supplytrends.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19731517 The Functionality and Usage of CRM Systems
Authors: Michael Torggler
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Modern information and communication technologies offer a variety of support options for the efficient handling of customer relationships. CRM systems have been developed, which are designed to support the processes in the areas of marketing, sales and service. Along with technological progress, CRM systems are constantly changing, i.e. the systems are continually enhanced by new functions. However, not all functions are suitable for every company because of different frameworks and business processes. In this context the question arises whether or not CRM systems are widely used in Austrian companies and which business processes are most frequently supported by CRM systems. This paper aims to shed light on the popularity of CRM systems in Austrian companies in general and the use of different functions to support their daily business. First of all, the paper provides a theoretical overview of the structure of modern CRM systems and proposes a categorization of currently available software functionality for collaborative, operational and analytical CRM processes, which provides the theoretical background for the empirical study. Apart from these theoretical considerations, the paper presents the empirical results of a field survey on the use of CRM systems in Austrian companies and analyzes its findings.Keywords: CRM systems, CRM system adoption, CRM system diffusion, CRM functionality, Market study.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 40491516 Analyzing the Effects of Resource Relatedness on Strategic Alliances Performance
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Very few studies have examined performance implications of strategic alliance announcements in the information technologies industry from a resource-based view. Furthermore, none of these studies have investigated resource congruence and alliance motive as potential sources of abnormal firm performance. This paper extends upon current resource-based literature to discover and explore linkages between these concepts and the practical performance of strategic alliances. This study finds that strategic alliance announcements have provided overall abnormal positive returns, and that marketing alliances with marketing resource incongruence have also contributed to significant firm performance.Keywords: Event study methodology, resource-based theory, resource relatedness, strategic alliance.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16421515 Seven step Adams Type Block Method With Continuous Coefficient For Periodic Ordinary Differential Equation
Authors: Olusheye Akinfenwa
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We consider the development of an eight order Adam-s type method, with A-stability property discussed by expressing them as a one-step method in higher dimension. This makes it suitable for solving variety of initial-value problems. The main method and additional methods are obtained from the same continuous scheme derived via interpolation and collocation procedures. The methods are then applied in block form as simultaneous numerical integrators over non-overlapping intervals. Numerical results obtained using the proposed block form reveals that it is highly competitive with existing methods in the literature.Keywords: Block Adam's type Method; Periodic Ordinary Differential Equation; Stability.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15841514 Environmental Management System for Tourist Accommodations in Amphawa, Samut Songkram,Thailand
Authors: T. Utarasakul
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Amphawa is the most popular weekend destination for both domestic and international tourists in Thailand. More than 112 homestays and resorts have been developed along the water resources. This research aims to initiate appropriate environmental management system for riverside tourist accommodations in Amphawa by investigating current environmental characteristics. Eighty-eight riverside tourist accommodations were survey from specific questionnaire, GPS data were also gathered for spatial analysis. The results revealed that the accommodations are welled manage in regards to some environmental aspects. In order to reduce economic costs, energy efficiency equipment is utilized. A substantial number of tourist accommodations encouraged waste separation, followed by transfer to local administration organization. Grease traps also utilized in order to decrease chemical discharged, grease and oil from canteen and restaurants on natural environment. The most notable mitigation is to initiate environmental friendly cleansers for tourist accommodation along the riverside in tourism destinations.Keywords: Environmental Management System, Tourist Accommodations, Amphawa, Samut Songkram
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 24211513 A Quantitative Study on Japanese Internet User's Awareness to Information Security: Necessity and Importance of Education and Policy
Authors: Toshihiko Takemura, Atsushi Umino
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In this paper, the authors examine whether or not there Institute for Information and Communications Policy shows are differences of Japanese Internet users awareness to information security based on individual attributes by using analysis of variance based on non-parametric method. As a result, generally speaking, it is found that Japanese Internet users' awareness to information security is different by individual attributes. Especially, the authors verify that the users who received the information security education would have rather higher recognition concerning countermeasures than other users including self-educated users. It is suggested that the information security education should be enhanced so that the users may appropriately take the information security countermeasures. In addition, the information security policy such as carrying out "e- net caravan" and "information security seminars" are effective in improving the users' awareness on the information security in Japan.
Keywords: Information security education, variance of analysis, Internet users, information security policy, Web-based survey.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14081512 System Reduction by Eigen Permutation Algorithm and Improved Pade Approximations
Authors: Jay Singh, Kalyan Chatterjee, C. B. Vishwakarma
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A mixed method by combining a Eigen algorithm and improved pade approximations is proposed for reducing the order of the large-scale dynamic systems. The most dominant Eigen value of both original and reduced order systems remain same in this method. The proposed method guarantees stability of the reduced model if the original high-order system is stable and is comparable in quality with the other well known existing order reduction methods. The superiority of the proposed method is shown through examples taken from the literature.
Keywords: Eigen algorithm, Order reduction, improved pade approximations, Stability, Transfer function.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20941511 A Survey of Business Component Identification Methods and Related Techniques
Authors: Zhongjie Wang, Xiaofei Xu, Dechen Zhan
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With deep development of software reuse, componentrelated technologies have been widely applied in the development of large-scale complex applications. Component identification (CI) is one of the primary research problems in software reuse, by analyzing domain business models to get a set of business components with high reuse value and good reuse performance to support effective reuse. Based on the concept and classification of CI, its technical stack is briefly discussed from four views, i.e., form of input business models, identification goals, identification strategies, and identification process. Then various CI methods presented in literatures are classified into four types, i.e., domain analysis based methods, cohesion-coupling based clustering methods, CRUD matrix based methods, and other methods, with the comparisons between these methods for their advantages and disadvantages. Additionally, some insufficiencies of study on CI are discussed, and the causes are explained subsequently. Finally, it is concluded with some significantly promising tendency about research on this problem.Keywords: Business component, component granularity, component identification, reuse performance.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19741510 Determinants of Enterprise Risk Management Adoption: An Empirical Analysis of Malaysian Public Listed Firms
Authors: Nargess Mottaghi Golshan, Siti Zaleha Abdul Rasid
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Purpose:This paper aims to gain insights to the influential factors of ERM adoptions by public listed firms in Malaysia. Findings:The two factors of financial leverage and auditor type were found to be significant influential factors for ERM adoption. In other words the findings indicated that firms with higher financial leverage and with a Big Four auditor are more likely to have a form of ERM framework in place. Originality/Value:Since there are relatively few studies conducted in this area and specially in developing economies like Malaysia, this study will broaden the scope of literature by providing novel empirical evidence.
Keywords: Enterprise risk management, risk, public listed company.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 25911509 Towards a Standardization in Scheduling Models: Assessing the Variety of Homonyms
Authors: Marcel Rojahn, Edzard Weber, Norbert Gronau
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Terminology is a critical instrument for each researcher. Different terminologies for the same research object may arise in different research communities. By this inconsistency, many synergistic effects get lost. Theories and models will be more understandable and reusable if a common terminology is applied. This paper examines the terminological (in)consistence for the research field of job-shop scheduling by a literature review. There is an enormous variety in the choice of terms and mathematical notation for the same concept. The comparability, reusability and combinability of scheduling methods is unnecessarily hampered by the arbitrary use of homonyms and synonyms. The acceptance in the community of used variables and notation forms is shown by means of a compliance quotient. This is proven by the evaluation of 240 scientific publications on planning methods.
Keywords: Job-shop scheduling, JSP, terminology, notation, standardization.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3121508 The Relationship between Students- Socio-Economic Backgrounds and Student Residential Satisfaction
Authors: Nurul ‘Ulyani Mohd Najib, Nor’ Aini Yusof, Zulkifli Osman
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Debates on residential satisfaction topic have been vigorously discussed in family house setting. Nonetheless, less or lack of attention was given to survey on student residential satisfaction in the campus house setting. This study, however, tried to fill in the gap by focusing more on the relationship between students- socio-economic backgrounds and student residential satisfaction with their on-campus student housing facilities. Two-stage cluster sampling method was employed to classify the respondents. Then, self-administered questionnaires were distributed face-to-face to the students. In general, it was confirmed that the students- socioeconomic backgrounds have significantly influence the students- satisfaction with their on-campus student housing facilities. The main influential factors were revealed as the economic status, sense of sharing, and the ethnicity of roommates. Likewise, this study could also provide some useful feedback for the universities administration in order to improve their student housing facilities.Keywords: Malaysia, Socio-economic, Student housing, Studentresidential satisfaction
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20031507 Job Shop Scheduling: Classification, Constraints and Objective Functions
Authors: Majid Abdolrazzagh-Nezhad, Salwani Abdullah
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The job-shop scheduling problem (JSSP) is an important decision facing those involved in the fields of industry, economics and management. This problem is a class of combinational optimization problem known as the NP-hard problem. JSSPs deal with a set of machines and a set of jobs with various predetermined routes through the machines, where the objective is to assemble a schedule of jobs that minimizes certain criteria such as makespan, maximum lateness, and total weighted tardiness. Over the past several decades, interest in meta-heuristic approaches to address JSSPs has increased due to the ability of these approaches to generate solutions which are better than those generated from heuristics alone. This article provides the classification, constraints and objective functions imposed on JSSPs that are available in the literature.Keywords: Job-shop scheduling, classification, constraints, objective functions.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19281506 Perceptions of Teachers toward Inclusive Education Focus on Hearing Impairment
Authors: Chalise Kiran
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The prime idea of inclusive education is to mainstream every child in education. However, it will be challenging for implementation when there are policy and practice gaps. It will be even more challenging when children have disabilities. Generally, the focus will be on the policy gap, but the problem may not always be with policy. The proper practice could be a challenge in the countries like Nepal. In determining practice, the teachers’ perceptions toward inclusive will play a vital role. Nepal has categorized disability in 7 types (physical, visual, hearing, vision/hearing, speech, mental, and multiple). Out of these, hearing impairment is the study realm. In the context of a limited number of researches on children with disabilities and rare researches on CWHI and their education in Nepal, this study is a pioneering effort in knowing basically the problems and challenges of CWHI focused on inclusive education in the schools including gaps and barriers in its proper implementation. Philosophically, the paradigm of the study is post-positivism. In the post-positivist worldview, the quantitative approach with the description of the situation and inferential relationship are revealed out in the study. This is related to the natural model of objective reality. The data were collected from an individual survey with the teachers and head teachers of 35 schools in Nepal. The survey questionnaire was prepared and filled by the respondents from the schools where the CWHI study in 7 provincial 20 districts of Nepal. Through these considerations, the perceptions of CWHI focused inclusive education were explored in the study. The data were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential tools on which the Likert scale-based analysis was done for descriptive analysis, and chi-square mathematical tool was used to know the significant relationship between dependent variables and independent variables. The descriptive analysis showed that the majority of teachers have positive perceptions toward implementing CWHI focused inclusive education, and the majority of them have positive perceptions toward CWHI focused inclusive education, though there are some problems and challenges. The study has found out the major challenges and problems categorically. Some of them are: a large number of students in a single class; availability of generic textbooks for CWHI and no availability of textbooks to all students; less opportunity for teachers to acquire knowledge on CWHI; not adequate teachers in the schools; no flexibility in the curriculum; less information system in schools; no availability of educational consular; disaster-prone students; no child abuse control strategy; no disabled-friendly schools; no free health check-up facility; no participation of the students in school activities and in child clubs and so on. By and large, it is found that teachers’ age, gender, years of experience, position, employment status, and disability with him or her show no statistically significant relation to successfully implement CWHI focused inclusive education and perceptions to CWHI focused inclusive education in schools. However, in some of the cases, the set null hypothesis was rejected, and some are completely retained. The study has suggested policy implications, implications for educational authority, and implications for teachers and parents categorically.Keywords: Children with hearing impairment, disability, inclusive education, perception.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 6781505 The Effect of Culture on User Interface Design of Social Media - A Case Study on Preferences of Saudi Arabians on the Arabic User Interface of Facebook
Authors: Hana Almakky, Reza Sahandi, Jacqui Taylor
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Social media continues to grow, and user interfaces may become more appealing if cultural characteristics are incorporated into their design. Facebook was designed in the west, and the original language was English. Subsequently, the words in the user interface were translated to other languages, including Arabic. Arabic words are written from right to left, and English is written from left to right. The translated version may misrepresent the original design and users’ preferences may be influenced by their culture, which should be considered in the user interface design. Previous research indicates that users are more comfortable when interacting with a user interface, which relates to their own culture. Therefore, this paper, using a survey, investigates the preferences of Saudi Arabians on the Arabic version of the user interface of Facebook.
Keywords: Culture, Facebook, Saudi Arabia, Social media, User Interface Design.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 36551504 Approximating Maximum Weighted Independent Set Using Vertex Support
Authors: S. Balaji, V. Swaminathan, K. Kannan
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The Maximum Weighted Independent Set (MWIS) problem is a classic graph optimization NP-hard problem. Given an undirected graph G = (V, E) and weighting function defined on the vertex set, the MWIS problem is to find a vertex set S V whose total weight is maximum subject to no two vertices in S are adjacent. This paper presents a novel approach to approximate the MWIS of a graph using minimum weighted vertex cover of the graph. Computational experiments are designed and conducted to study the performance of our proposed algorithm. Extensive simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can yield better solutions than other existing algorithms found in the literature for solving the MWIS.Keywords: weighted independent set, vertex cover, vertex support, heuristic, NP - hard problem.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20341503 An Augmented Beam-search Based Algorithm for the Strip Packing Problem
Authors: Hakim Akeb, Mhand Hifi
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In this paper, the use of beam search and look-ahead strategies for solving the strip packing problem (SPP) is investigated. Given a strip of fixed width W, unlimited length L, and a set of n circular pieces of known radii, the objective is to determine the minimum length of the initial strip that packs all the pieces. An augmented algorithm which combines beam search and a look-ahead strategies is proposed. The look-ahead is used in order to evaluate the nodes at each level of the tree search. The best nodes are then retained for branching. The computational investigation showed that the proposed augmented algorithm is able to improve the best known solutions of the literature on most instances used.
Keywords: Combinatorial optimization, cutting and packing, beam search, heuristic, look-ahead strategy.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13571502 Facilitating Familial Support of Saudi Arabians Living with HIV/AIDS
Authors: Noor Attar
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This paper provides an overview of the current situation of HIV/AIDS patients in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and a literature review of the concepts of stigma communication, communication of social support. These concepts provide the basis for the proposed methods, which will include conducting a textual analysis of materials that are currently distributed to family members of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHIV/A) in KSA and creating an educational brochure. The brochure will aim to help families of PLWHIV/A in KSA (1) understand how stigma shapes the experience of PLWHIV/A, (2) realize the role of positive communication as a helpful social support, and (3) develop the ability to provide positive social support for their loved ones.Keywords: HIV/AIDS, Saudi Arabia, social support, stigma communication.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13241501 The Attitudes of Pre-Service Teachers towards Analytical Thinking Skill Development Based On Miller’s Model
Authors: Thassanant Unnanantn, Suttipong Boonphadung
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This research study aimed to survey and analyze the attitudes of pre-service teachers’ the analytical thinking development based on Miller’s Model. The informants of this study were 22 third year teacher students majoring in Thai. The course where the instruction was conducted was English for Academic Purposes in Thai Language 2. The instrument of this research was an open-ended questionnaire with two dimensions of questions: academic and satisfaction dimensions. The investigation revealed the positive attitudes. In the academic dimension, the majority of 12 (54.54%), the highest percentage, reflected that the method of teaching analytical thinking and language simultaneously was their new knowledge and the similar percentage also belonged to text cohesion in writing. For the satisfaction, the highest frequency count was from 17 of them (77.27%) and this majority favored the openness or friendliness of the teacher.
Keywords: Analytical thinking development, Attitudes, Miller’s Model, Pre-service teachers.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21141500 Sexual Health and Reproductive Ageing among Rural Women of Marrakech (Morocco)
Authors: R. Lotfi, M. Loukid, M.K. Hilali
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The reproductive aging of women is a biological process which is expressed by the loss of ovarian function and therefore the loss of the possibility of procreation. The present work aims to evaluate the effect of menopause on sexual health of rural women and to examine the determinants of female sexuality after menopause. A survey was conducted among 527 women in the rural area of Marrakech. The average age of women was 51.92 ± 7.24 years. It appears from this study that sexual activity in menopausal women decreases with age, 20% of women had no sexual activity after menopause. 72% of respondents reported having sex by obligation, 71% of women say they are not satisfied with their sexuality, while 29 % are very satisfied. The most common sexual complaints are represented by the decreased libido (81%), vaginal dryness (54%), and pain (22,7%). Of the 511 women with sexual dysfunction, only 34 (6, 4%) consulted for this disorder. Many factors may influence sex include menopause and all the biological changes but also the roles of culture, social constructions and perception of sexuality after menopause are complicated.
Keywords: Keywords—Reproductive aging, menopause, sexuality, rural women.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17561499 Management Control Systems in Post-Incubation: An Investigation of Closed Down High-Technology Start-Ups
Authors: Jochen Edmund Kerschenbauer, Roman Salinger, Daniel Strametz
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Insufficient informal communication systems can lead to the first crisis (‘Crisis of Leadership’) for start-ups. Management Control Systems (MCS) are one way for high-technology start-ups to successfully overcome these problems. So far the literature has investigated the incubation of a start-up, but focused less on the post-incubation stage. This paper focuses on the use of MCS in post-incubation and, if failed start-ups agree, on how MCS are used. We conducted 14 semi-structured interviews for this purpose, to obtain our results. The overall conclusion is that the majority of the companies were closed down due to a combination of strategic, operative and financial reasons.
Keywords: Closed down, high-technology, incubation, Levers of Control, management control systems, post-incubation, start-ups.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17551498 Predictions Using Data Mining and Case-based Reasoning: A Case Study for Retinopathy
Authors: Vimala Balakrishnan, Mohammad R. Shakouri, Hooman Hoodeh, Loo, Huck-Soo
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Diabetes is one of the high prevalence diseases worldwide with increased number of complications, with retinopathy as one of the most common one. This paper describes how data mining and case-based reasoning were integrated to predict retinopathy prevalence among diabetes patients in Malaysia. The knowledge base required was built after literature reviews and interviews with medical experts. A total of 140 diabetes patients- data were used to train the prediction system. A voting mechanism selects the best prediction results from the two techniques used. It has been successfully proven that both data mining and case-based reasoning can be used for retinopathy prediction with an improved accuracy of 85%.Keywords: Case-Based Reasoning, Data Mining, Prediction, Retinopathy.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 30221497 A New Analytic Solution for the Heat Conduction with Time-Dependent Heat Transfer Coefficient
Authors: Te Wen Tu, Sen Yung Lee
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An alternative approach is proposed to develop the analytic solution for one dimensional heat conduction with one mixed type boundary condition and general time-dependent heat transfer coefficient. In this study, the physic meaning of the solution procedure is revealed. It is shown that the shifting function takes the physic meaning of the reciprocal of Biot function in the initial time. Numerical results show the accuracy of this study. Comparing with those given in the existing literature, the difference is less than 0.3%.
Keywords: Analytic solution, heat transfer coefficient, shifting function method, time-dependent boundary condition.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 30121496 Total Quality Management: The Socio- Demographic and Operational-Financial Determinants for Users- Perception of the Services Quality
Authors: H. Silvestre
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The aim of this paper is to know the sociodemographic and operational-financial determinants of the services quality perceived by users of the national health services. Through the use of an inquiry conducted by the Ministry of Health, comprehending 16.936 interviews in 2006, we intend to find out if there is any characteristic that determines the 2006 inquiry results. With the revision of the literature we also want to know if the operational-financial results have implications in hospitals users- perception on the quality of the received services. In order to achieve our main goals we will make use of the regression analysis to find out the possible dimensions that determine those results.Keywords: Management by Results, Quality Approach, Tableau de Bord, Total Quality Management, Services quality.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14091495 The Entrepreneur's General Personality Traits and Technological Developments
Authors: Bostjan Antoncic
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Technological newness and innovativeness are important aspects of small firm development, growth and wealth creation. The contribution of the study to entrepreneurship personality research and to technology-related research in entrepreneurship is that the model of the general personality driven technological development was developed and empirically tested. Hypotheses relating the big five personality factors (OCEAN: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism) and technological developments were tested by using multiple regression analysis on survey data from a sample of 160 entrepreneurs from Slovenia. The model reveals two personality factors, which are predictive of technological developments: openness (positive impact) and neuroticism (negative impact). In addition, a positive impact of firm age on technological developments was found. Other personality factors (conscientiousness, extraversion and agreeableness) of entrepreneurs may not be considered important for their firm technological developments.Keywords: Big five factors, entrepreneur, personality, technology development.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 31571494 A Study on the Circumstances Affecting Elementary School Students in Their Familyand School Lives and Their Consequential Emotions
Authors: Osman Samancı, Ramazan Kaya
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The purpose of this study is to determine the circumstances affecting elementary school students in their family and school lives and what kind of emotions children may feel because of these circumstances. The study was carried out according to the survey model. Four Turkish elementary schools provided 123 fourth grade students for participation in the study. The study-s data were collected by using worksheets for the activity titled “Important Days in Our Lives", which was part of the Elementary School Social Sciences Course 4th Grade Education Program. Data analysis was carried out according to the content analysis technique used in qualitative research. The study detected that circumstances of their family and school lives caused children to feel emotions such as happiness, sadness, anger, fear and jealousy. The circumstances and the emotions caused by these circumstances were analyzed according to gender and interpreted by presenting them with their frequencies.Keywords: Elementary school students, emotional development, family and school, social development.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13891493 Present Energy Scenario and Potentiality of Wind Energy in Bangladesh
Authors: Md. Alamgir Hossain, Md. Raju Ahmed
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Scarcity in energy sector is a major problem, which can hamper the growing development of a country. Bangladesh is one of the electricity-deprived countries; however, the energy demand of Bangladesh is increasing day by day. Due to the shortage of natural resources and environmental issues, many nations are now moving towards renewable energy. Among various form of renewable energy, wind energy is one of most potential source. In this paper, the present energy condition of Bangladesh is discussed and the necessity of moving towards renewable energy is clarified. The wind speed found at different locations at different heights and different years from the survey of several organizations are presented. Although, the results of installed low capacity wind turbines (from few kW to few tens of kW) operated by private or government organization at different places in Bangladesh are not so encouraging; however, it is shown that Bangladesh has a high potential of using large wind turbine (MW range) for capturing wind energy at different places. The present condition of wind energy in Bangladesh and other countries in the world are also presented to emphasize the requisite of moving towards wind energy.
Keywords: Renewable energy, wind speed, wind power, modern wind turbine, scarcity of power and gas crisis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 35691492 Transverse Vibration of Non-Homogeneous Rectangular Plates of Variable Thickness Using GDQ
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The effect of non-homogeneity on the free transverse vibration of thin rectangular plates of bilinearly varying thickness has been analyzed using generalized differential quadrature (GDQ) method. The non-homogeneity of the plate material is assumed to arise due to linear variations in Young’s modulus and density of the plate material with the in-plane coordinates x and y. Numerical results have been computed for fully clamped and fully simply supported boundary conditions. The solution procedure by means of GDQ method has been implemented in a MATLAB code. The effect of various plate parameters has been investigated for the first three modes of vibration. A comparison of results with those available in literature has been presented.
Keywords: Bilinear thickness, generalized differential quadrature (GDQ), non-homogeneous, Rectangular.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2471