Search results for: social life

Authors: Tim Engartner

Abstract:

If science is supposed to gain greater social relevance and acceptance, researchers must not only relate to the broader public, but also promote intercourse within the ivory tower itself. The latter process has been under way successfully for a number of years in the form of transdisciplinary research initiatives. What is still lacking is a broad debate about the necessity to look around properly and face up to opposing views on one and the same topic within our own discipline.

Keywords: Schools of thought, pluralism, openness, value judgements, controversy

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Authors: Nada Azhar

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This paper is drawn from a wider study of the management of gender, age and disability diversity in the banking sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), which aims to develop a framework for diversity management (DM) in this sector. The paper focuses on the management of disability diversity. The purpose of the paper is to assist in understanding disability DM in the banking sector in KSA and to make suggestions for its enhancement. Hence, it contributes to filling a research gap, as there is a dearth of literature on disability DM, in KSA in general, and in the banking sector specifically. Discrimination against people with disabilities is a social issue that has not been entirely overcome in any society. However, in KSA, Islam informs almost every aspect of daily life including work, and Islam is against discrimination. Hence, in KSA, there are regulations to accommodate people with disabilities; however, employers are still free not to hire job applicants with disabilities specifically because of their condition. Indeed, disabled people are almost entirely absent from the labour market. There are 12 Saudi-owned or part-Saudi-owned banks in KSA and two managers from each of these were interviewed, making a total of 24. The interviews aimed to investigate empirically the understanding of managers in the banking sector in KSA of diversity management, including disability DM, in the banking sector. The interview data were analysed using thematic analysis. Two interviewees stated that banks used the employment of people with disabilities to enhance their corporate image, while five expressed the opinion that disabled employees could contribute to the bank provided they did not have to deal with customers face-to-face. Nine of the interviewees perceived that disabled employees could be of value to the bank for their own sake, not only in ‘behind the scenes’ roles. Another two interviewees mentioned that employing disabled people could be part of the bank’s community service programme and one thought it would be part of the bank’s Saudisation efforts. The remaining five interviewees did not know how disabled people could contribute to the bank. The findings show that disability DM in the banking sector in KSA is a relatively new concept, and is not yet well understood. In the light of the findings, in order to achieve the purpose of the paper, the following suggestions were made for the enhancement of disability DM in the banking sector in KSA. A change in attitudes towards disabled people is necessary. Such a change in the workplace can only be achieved if a top-down approach is taken to the integration of disabled people. Hence, it is suggested that management and employees follow a course in disability awareness. Further, a diversity officer in the HR department could enhance the integration of disabled people into the banking workforce. It is also suggested that greater government support is required through closely monitored and enforced anti-discrimination legislation. Moreover, flexible working arrangements such as part-time work would facilitate the employment of disabled people and benefit other groups of employees.

Keywords: Banking, disability, diversity management, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

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Authors: Lutfurahman Aftab

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The Taliban’s relationships with the neighboring countries are a complex political issue that local people interpret one way, and politicians have different perceptions; therefore, it is a current issue that needs to be analyzed broadly and impartially. In this article, we investigate the Taliban’s current relationships with the neighboring countries, as well as look at the effects these relationships have on the current peace negotiations in Doha, which began on September 12, 2020. The issue of Taliban and the current peace process has turned to be the center-of-attention for most of the neighboring countries, and every country has opened new pages in their foreign policies because after the Taliban-US peace agreement, the neighboring countries are meticulously and closely observing the situation and they believe that the Taliban is on the verge to tighten their grips on the future political power of Afghanistan. Every neighboring country of Afghanistan has political, economic, and social interests in this land-locked country. The Taliban’s current role within the peace talks and anticipated future position within the Afghan government will have great political, economic, and social implications on countries in the region as they assess their foreign policies. As these countries move to form closer ties with the Taliban, the government of Afghanistan is worried that this may hinder the peace process. Afghanistan has long blamed Pakistan for sheltering the Taliban and providing safe havens for the terrorist groups, including Al Qaeda, and the recent visits of Taliban’s delegations to Islamabad, Pakistan, have raised concern among government officials in Afghanistan who believe that the Taliban is not independent in their decisions, and for every step they take, are consulting with Pakistan’s political leadership.

Keywords: peace process, USA, Afghanistan, Taliban

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Authors: Alpha Bolinao, Francine Rose De Castro, Jessie Kate Lumba, Raztine Mae Paeste, Hannah Grace Tosio

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The present study aimed to know the role of verbal bullying in the lives of obese teenagers exposed to it. The study employed a qualitative design specifically the phenomenological approach that focuses on the obese teenagers’ verbal bullying experiences. The study also used the social constructivism approach wherein it described the obese teenagers’ verbal bullying experiences as they interact with the social world. Through purposive and referral sampling technique, the researchers were able to choose twelve (12) respondents from different schools around the City of Manila, enrolled in the School Year 2015-2016, ages 16-21 years old, has experienced verbal bullying for the last ten (10) years and with the Body Mass Index (BMI) of equal to or greater than 30. Upon the consent of the respondents, ethical considerations were ensured. In-depth one (1) hour interviews were guided by the researchers’ aide memoir. The recorded interviews were transcribed into a field text and the responses were thoroughly analyzed through Thematic Analysis and Kelly’s Repertory Grid. It was found that the role of verbal bullying in the lives of obese teenagers exposed to it is a process and is best described through a syringe, or the 5S Responses of Obese Teenagers in Bullying, with five conceptual themes which also signify the experiences and the process that obese teenagers have gone through after experiencing verbal bullying. The themes conceptualized were: Suffering, self-doubt, suppression, self-acceptance and sanguineness. This paper may serve as a basis for a counseling program to help the obese teenagers cope with their bullying experiences.

Keywords: Obesity, obese teenagers, bullying, experiences.

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Authors: Heinz Stockinger

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Certain sciences such as physics, chemistry or biology, have a strong computational aspect and use computing infrastructures to advance their scientific goals. Often, high performance and/or high throughput computing infrastructures such as clusters and computational Grids are applied to satisfy computational needs. In addition, these sciences are sometimes characterised by scientific collaborations requiring resource sharing which is typically provided by Grid approaches. In this article, I discuss Grid computing approaches in High Energy Physics as well as in bioinformatics and highlight some of my experience in both scientific domains.

Keywords: Grid computing, Web services, physics, bioinformatics

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Authors: Renata Martins Pacheco, João Claro

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Wildfires are becoming an increasing concern worldwide, causing substantial social, economic, and environmental disruptions. This situation is especially relevant in Mediterranean-climate regions, present in all the five continents of the world, in which fire is not only a natural component of the environment but also perhaps one of the most important evolutionary forces. The rise in wildfire occurrences and their associated impacts suggests the need for identifying knowledge gaps and enhancing the basis of scientific evidence on how managers and policymakers may act effectively to address them. Considering that the main goal of a systematic map is to collate and catalog a body of evidence to describe the state of knowledge for a specific topic, it is a suitable approach to be used for this purpose. In this context, the aim of this study is to systematically map the research trends in wildfire management practices in Mediterranean-climate regions. A total of 201 wildfire management studies were analyzed and systematically mapped in terms of their: Year of publication; Place of study; Scientific outlet; Research area (Web of Science) or Research field (Scopus); Wildfire phase; Central research topic; Main objective of the study; Research methods; and Main conclusions or contributions. The results indicate that there is an increasing number of studies being developed on the topic (most from the last 10 years), but more than half of them are conducted in few Mediterranean countries (60% of the analyzed studies were conducted in Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy or France), and more than 50% are focused on pre-fire issues, such as prevention and fuel management. In contrast, only 12% of the studies focused on “Economic modeling” or “Human factors and issues,” which suggests that the triple bottom line of the sustainability argument (social, environmental, and economic) is not being fully addressed by fire management research. More than one-fourth of the studies had their objective related to testing new approaches in fire or forest management, suggesting that new knowledge is being produced on the field. Nevertheless, the results indicate that most studies (about 84%) employed quantitative research methods, and only 3% of the studies used research methods that tackled social issues or addressed expert and practitioner’s knowledge. Perhaps this lack of multidisciplinary studies is one of the factors hindering more progress from being made in terms of reducing wildfire occurrences and their impacts.

Keywords: Management Mediterranean-climate regions, policy, wildfire.

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Authors: Mona Salah El-Din Hassanein

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Faced with a sudden, unexpected, and overwhelming event, the individual's normal cognitive processing may cease to function, trapping the psyche in "speechless terror", while images, feelings and sensations are experienced with emotional intensity. Unable to master such situation, the individual becomes a trauma victim who will be susceptible to traumatic recollections like intrusive thoughts, flashbacks, and repetitive re-living of the primal event in a way that blurs the distinction between past and present, and forecloses the future. Trauma is timeless, repetitious, and contagious; a trauma observer could fall prey to "secondary victimhood". Central to the process of healing the psychic wounds in the aftermath of trauma is verbalizing the traumatic experience (i.e., putting it into words) – an act which provides a chance for assimilation, testimony, and reevaluation. In light of this paradigm, this paper proposes a reading of Oscar Wilde's The Ballad of Reading Gaol, written shortly after his release from prison, as a post-traumatic text which traces the disruptive effects of the traumatic experience of Wilde's imprisonment for homosexual offences and the ensuing reversal of fortune he endured. Post-traumatic writing demonstrates the process of "working through" a trauma which may lead to the possibility of ethical agency in the form of a "survivor mission". This paper draws on fundamental concepts and key insights in literary trauma theory which is characterized by interdisciplinarity, combining the perspectives of different fields like critical theory, psychology, psychiatry, psychoanalysis, history, and social studies. Of particular relevance to this paper are the concepts of "vicarious traumatization" and "survivor mission", as The Ballad of Reading Gaol was written in response to Wilde's own prison trauma and the indirect traumatization he experienced as a result of witnessing the execution of a fellow prisoner whose story forms the narrative base of the poem. The Ballad displays Wilde's sense of mission which leads him to recognize the social as well as ethical implications of personal tragedy. Through a close textual analysis of The Ballad of Reading Gaol within the framework of literary trauma theory, the paper aims to: (a) demonstrate how the poem's thematic concerns, structure and rhetorical figures reflect the structure of trauma; (b) highlight Wilde's attempts to come to terms with the effects of the cataclysmic experience which transformed him into a social outcast; and (c) show how Wilde manages to transcend the victim status and assumes the role of ethical agent to voice a critique of the Victorian penal system and the standards of morality underlying the cruelties practiced against wrong doers and to solicit social action.

Keywords: Ballad of Reading Gaol, post-traumatic writing, trauma theory, Wilde.

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Authors: Pibool Waijittragum

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The purpose of this research is to analyze the marketing strategies of Thai Halal products which related to the way of life for Thai Muslims. The expected benefit is the marketing strategy for brand building process for Halal products in Thailand. 4 elements of marketing strategies which necessary for the brand identity creation is the research framework: consists of Attributes, Benefits, Values and Personality. The research methodology was applied using qualitative and quantitative; 19 marketing experts with dynamic roles in Thai consumer products were interviewed. In addition, a field survey of 122 Thai Muslims selected from 175 Muslim communities in Bangkok was studied. Data analysis will be according to 5 categories of Thai Halal product: 1) Meat 2) Vegetable and Fruits 3) Instant foods and Garnishing ingredient 4) Beverages, Desserts and Snacks 5) Hygienic daily products; such as soap, shampoo and body lotion. The results will explain some suitable representation in the marketing strategies of Thai Halal products as are: 1) Benefit; the characteristics of the product with its benefit. Consumers will purchase this product with the reason of; it is beneficial nutrients product, there are no toxic or chemical residues. Fresh and clean materials 2) Attribute; the exterior images that attract to consumer. Consumers will purchase this product with the reason of; there is a standard proof mark, food and drug secure proof mark and Halal products mark. Packaging and its materials should be draw attention. Use an attractive graphic. Use outstanding images of product, material or ingredients. 3) Value; the value of products that affect to consumers perception; it is healthy products. Accumulate quality of life. It is a product of expertise, manufacturing of research result. Consumers are important. It’s sincere, honest and reliable to all. 4) Personality; reflection of consumers thought. The Personality feedback to them after they were consumes this product; they are health care persons. They are the rational person, moral person, justice person and thoughtful person like a progressive thinking.

Keywords: Marketing strategies, Product identity, Branding, Thai Halal products.

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Authors: Rayeheh Khatami, Toktam Hanaei, Mohammad Reza Mansouri Daneshvar

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The growth of the agricultural sector is known as an essential way to achieve development goals in developing countries. Urban agriculture is a way to reduce the vulnerability of urban populations of the world toward global environmental change. It is a sustainable and efficient system to respond to the environmental, social and economic needs of the city, which leads to urban sustainability. Today, many local and national governments are developing urban agriculture as an effective tool in responding to challenges such as poverty, food security, and environmental problems. In this study, we follow a perspective based on urban agriculture literature in order to indicate the urban agriculture’s benefits in environmental planning strategies in non-western countries like Iran. The methodological approach adopted is based on qualitative approach and documentary studies. A total of 35 articles (mixed quantitative and qualitative methods studies) were studied in final analysis, which are published in relevant journals that focus on this subject. Studies show the wide range of positive benefits of urban agriculture on food security, nutrition outcomes, health outcomes, environmental outcomes, and social capital. However, there was no definitive conclusion about the negative effects of urban agriculture. This paper provides a conceptual and theoretical basis to know about urban agriculture and its roles in environmental planning, and also conclude the benefits of urban agriculture for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers who seek to create spaces in cities for implementation urban agriculture in future.

Keywords: Urban agriculture, environmental planning, urban planning, literature.

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Authors: Douangmala Kounsana, Xiang Wen, Toru Takahashi

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After a strong earthquake occurs, a secondary disaster due to strong aftershocks, flood, landslide or heavy snow can possible to occur and the secondary disaster due to resident-s action also can possible to happen. However, until now seldom researchers have paid attention at it. This paper focused on the Inhabitant-s action after the strong earthquake occurs when a terrible even becomes calm. An inappropriate behavior of people with disadvantaged climate after the worse earthquake can bring a tragedy to their life.

Keywords: Sichuan Earthquake, Secondary Disaster, Inhabitant's Action, inappropriate behavior.

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Authors: Pronab Ganguly, Ahmed A. Moustafa

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Holistic management of schizophrenia involves mainstream pharmacological intervention, complimentary medicine intervention, therapeutic intervention and other psychosocial factors such as accommodation, education, job training, employment, relationship, friendship, exercise, overall well-being, smoking, substance abuse, suicide prevention, stigmatisation, recreation, entertainment, violent behaviour, arrangement of public trusteeship and guardianship, day-day-living skill, integration with community, and management of overweight due to medications and other health complications related to medications amongst others. Our review shows that there is no integrated survey by combining all these factors. An international web-based survey was conducted to evaluate the significance of all these factors and present them in a unified manner. It is believed this investigation will contribute positively towards holistic management of schizophrenia. There will be two surveys. In the pharmacological intervention survey, five popular drugs for schizophrenia will be chosen and their efficacy as well as harmful side effects will be evaluated on a scale of 0 -10. This survey will be done by psychiatrists. In the second survey, each element of therapeutic intervention and psychosocial factors will be evaluated according to their significance on a scale of 0 - 10. This survey will be done by care givers, psychologists, case managers and case workers. For the first survey, professional bodies of psychiatrists in English speaking countries will be contacted to request them to ask their members to participate in the survey. For the second survey, professional bodies of clinical psychologist and care givers in English speaking countries will be contacted to request them to ask their members to participate in the survey. Additionally, for both the surveys, relevant professionals will be contacted through personal contact networks. For both the surveys, mean, mode, median, standard deviation and net promoter score will be calculated for each factor and then presented in a statistically significant manner. Subsequently each factor will be ranked according to their statistical significance. Additionally, country specific variation will be highlighted to identify the variation pattern. The results of these surveys will identify the relative significance of each type of pharmacological intervention, each type of therapeutic intervention and each type of psychosocial factor. The determination of this relative importance will definitely contribute to the improvement in quality of life for individuals with schizophrenia.

Keywords: Schizophrenia, holistic management, antipsychotics, quality of life.

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Authors: Mohammad K. Abedin, Mohammad Shahjahan, Zeenat Sultana, Tawfique Jahan, Jesmin Akter

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To strengthen social and behavior change communication (SBCC) capacity of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) of the Government of Bangladesh, BCCP/BKMI developed two eLearning courses providing opportunities for professional development of SBCC Program Managers who have no access to training or refreshers training. The two eLearning courses – Message and Material Development (MMD) and Monitoring and Evaluation (MandE) of SBCC programs – went online in September 2015, where all users could register their participation so results could be monitored. Methodology: To assess the uses of these courses a randomly selected sample was collected to run a pre and post-test analyses and a phone survey were conducted. Systematic random sampling was used to select a sample of 75 MandE and 25 MMD course participants from a sampling frame of 179 and 51 respectively. Results: As of September 2016, more than 179 learners have completed the MandE course, and 49 learners have completed the MMD course. The users of these courses are program managers, university faculty members, and students. Encouraging results were revealed from the analysis of pre and post-test scores and a phone survey three months after course completion. Test scores suggested a substantial increase in knowledge. The pre-test scores findings suggested that about 19% learners scored high on the MandE. The post-test scores finding indicated a high score (92%) of the sample across 4 modules of MandE. For MMD course in pre-test scoring, 30% of the learners scored high, and 100% scored high at the post-test. It was found that all the learners in the phone survey have discussed the courses. Most of the sharing occurred with colleagues and friends, usually through face to face (70%) interaction. The learners reported that they did recommend the two courses to concerned people. About 67% MandE and 76% MMD learners stated that the concepts that they had to learn during the course were put into practice in their work settings. The respondents for both MandE and MMD courses have provided a valuable set of suggestions that would further strengthen the courses. Conclusions: The study showed that the initiative offered ample opportunities to build capacity in various ways in which the eLearning courses were used. It also highlighted the importance of scaling up these efforts to further strengthen the outcomes.

Keywords: E-learning course, message and material development, monitoring and evaluation, social and behavior change communication.

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Authors: Hina Gull, Farooque Azam, Wasi Haider Butt, Sardar Zafar Iqbal

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The software system goes through a number of stages during its life and a software process model gives a standard format for planning, organizing and running a project. The article presents a new software development process model named as “Divide and Conquer Process Model", based on the idea first it divides the things to make them simple and then gathered them to get the whole work done. The article begins with the backgrounds of different software process models and problems in these models. This is followed by a new divide and conquer process model, explanation of its different stages and at the end edge over other models is shown.

Keywords: Process Model, Waterfall, divide and conquer, Requirements.

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Authors: Süleyman Hakan Yılmaz, Yasemin Gülşen Yılmaz

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The Gezi Park protests of 2013 have significantly changed the Turkish agenda and its effects have been felt historically. The protests, which rapidly spread throughout the country, were triggered by the proposal to recreate the Ottoman Army Barracks to function as a shopping mall on Gezi Park located in Istanbul’s Taksim neighbourhood despite the oppositions of several NGOs and when trees were cut in the park for this purpose. Once the news that the construction vehicles entered the park on May 27 spread on social media, activists moved into the park to stop the demolition, against whom the police used disproportioned force. With this police intervention and the then prime-minister Tayyip Erdoğan's insistent statements about the construction plans, the protests turned into anti- government demonstrations, which then spread to the rest of the country, mainly in big cities like Ankara and Izmir. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ June 23rd reports, 2.5 million people joined the demonstrations in 79 provinces, that is all of them, except for the provinces of Bayburt and Bingöl, while even more people shared their opinions via social networks. As a result of these events, 8 civilians and 2 security personnel lost their lives, namely police chief Mustafa Sarı, police officer Ahmet Küçükdağ, citizens Mehmet Ayvalıtaş, Abdullah Cömert, Ethem Sarısülük, Ali İsmail Korkmaz, Ahmet Atakan, Berkin Elvan, Burak Can Karamanoğlu, Mehmet İstif, and Elif Çermik, and 8163 more were injured. Besides being a turning point in Turkish history, the Gezi Park protests also had broad repercussions in both in Turkish and in global media, which focused on Turkey throughout the events. Our study conducts content analysis of three Turkish reporting newspapers with varying ideological standpoints, Hürriyet, Cumhuriyet ve Yeni Şafak, in order to reveal their basic approach to news casting in context of the Gezi Park protests. Headlines, news segments, and news content relating to the Gezi protests were treated and analysed for this purpose. The aim of this study is to understand the social effects of the Gezi Park protests through media samples with varying political attitudes towards news casting.

Keywords: Gezi Park, media, news casting, tree.

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Authors: Nadeem Akhtar, Shan Bo

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This article illustrates that how non similar culture become a cause of constant anxiety among international students in China. For that, a survey was carried out among international students of Wuhan University, China. The association among non similar culture, non familiarity of Chinese culture, self finance students and food problem is looked at through a regression line, and in the light of empirical results, a model is anticipated which elucidates these results. Some suggestions were directed at the end which will help to mitigate the anxiety among prospective students in Chinese universities.

Keywords: Anxiety, international students, non similar culture, Wuhan University

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Authors: Ashraf Pirasteh, Alireza Hidarnia, Ali Asghari, Soghrate Faghihzadeh, Fazlollah Ghofranipour

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Background: Regular physical activity contributes positively to physical and psychological health. In the present study, the stages of change of physical activity and the total physical Aims: The aim of this study was to investigate the proportion of adolescent girls in each stages of change and the causative factors associated with physical activity such as the related social support and self efficacy in a sample of the high school students. Methods: In this study, Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) and the Transtheorical Model (TTM) guided instrument development. The data regarding the demographics, psychosocial determinants of physical activity, stage of change and physical activity was gathered by questionnaires. Several measures of psychosocial determinants of physical activity were translated from English into Persian using the back-translation technique. These translated measures were administered to 512 ninth and tenth-grade Iranian high school students for factor analysis. Results: The distribution of the stage of change for physical activity was as follow: 18/5% in precontemplation, 23.4% in contemplation, 38.2% in preparation, 4.6% in action and 15.3% in maintenance. They were in 80.1% pre-adoption stages (precontemplation stage, contemplation stage and preparation stage) and 19.9% post-adoption stages (action stage and maintenance stage) of physical activity. There was a significant relate between age and physical activity in adolescent girls (age-related decline of physical activity) p<0001. Conclusion: The findings of the present study can contribute to improve health behaviors and for administration of health promotion programs in the adolescent populations.

Keywords: Adolescent, Iranian girls, Physical activity, Stages of change

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Authors: A. Kulprasutidilok

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In order to address the social factors of elderly health care, researcher and community members have turned to more inclusive and participatory approaches to research and interventions. One such approach, community-based participatory research (CBPR) in public health, has received increased attention as the academic and public health communities struggle to address the persistent problems of disparities in the use of health care and health outcomes for several over the past decade. As Thailand becomes an ageing society, health services and proper care systems specifically for the elderly group need to be prepared and well established. The purpose of this assignment was to study the health problems and was to explore the process of community participation in elderly health care. Participants in this study were member of elderly group of Paisanee Ramintra 65 community in Bangkok, Thailand. The results indicated two important components of community participation process in elderly health care: 1) a process to develop community participation in elderly health care, and 2) outcomes resulting from such process. The development of community participation consisted of four processes. As for the outcomes of the community participation development process, they consisted of elderly in the community got jointly and formulated a group, which strengthened the project because of collaborative supervision among themselves. Moreover, inactive health care services have changed to being energetic and focus on health promotion rather than medical achievement and elderly association of community can perform health care activities for chronically illness through the achievement of this development; consequently, they increasingly gained access to physical, cognitive, and social activity.

Keywords: Community-based participatory research, elderly health care, Thailand.

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Authors: Deepika Bhalla, Raj Kumar Bansal, Hari Om Gupta

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The gases generated in oil filled transformers can be used for qualitative determination of incipient faults. The Dissolved Gas Analysis has been widely used by utilities throughout the world as the primarily diagnostic tool for transformer maintenance. In this paper, various Artificial Intelligence Techniques that have been used by the researchers in the past have been reviewed, some conclusions have been drawn and a sequential hybrid system has been proposed. The synergy of ANN and FIS can be a good solution for reliable results for predicting faults because one should not rely on a single technology when dealing with real–life applications.

Keywords: Dissolved Gas Analysis, Artificial IntelligenceTechniques, Incipient Faults, Transformer Fault Diagnosis, andHybrid Systems.

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Authors: J.-C. Créput, A. Koukam, A. Hajjam

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We present a non standard Euclidean vehicle routing problem adding a level of clustering, and we revisit the use of self-organizing maps as a tool which naturally handles such problems. We present how they can be used as a main operator into an evolutionary algorithm to address two conflicting objectives of route length and distance from customers to bus stops minimization and to deal with capacity constraints. We apply the approach to a real-life case of combined clustering and vehicle routing for the transportation of the 780 employees of an enterprise. Basing upon a geographic information system we discuss the influence of road infrastructures on the solutions generated.

Keywords: Evolutionary algorithm, self-organizing map, clustering and vehicle routing.

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Authors: Sema Müge Özdemiray

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In line with the new public management approach to provide effective and efficient services necessary to achieve the social goals of public institutions, employees must have the knowledge and skills required by the age. In conjunction with the transition from personnel management to human resources management, it is seen that there is a change in the understanding of in-service training, the understanding of "required in-service training" has switched to the understanding of "continuous in-service training". However, in terms of in-service training in Turkey, it seems to be trouble at the point of adopting to change. The main purpose of this study is to primarily create a conceptual framework of in-service training and subsequently determine, analyze and discuss the developments and problems faced by in-service training in Turkey in the transition from personnel management to human resources management. In accordance with this purpose, the necessary data of this study were collected using qualitative approaches. Observation and document analysis was used and content analysis was performed on the data gathered in the study. The results of this study, according to data such as the number of institutions requesting in-service training, allocated budget of in-service training, the number of people participating in such training, transition of personnel management to human resources management should not lead to a paradigm shift in Turkey’s understanding of in-service training, although this is compulsory for public institutions in accordance with the law in Turkey. In-service training in Turkish public administration is still not implemented effectively and is seen as a social activity for employees and a formality for institutions.

Keywords: Human resources management, in-service training, personnel management, public institutions.

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Authors: Wenbin Zhang, Hantian Wu, Jian Tang

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An artificial neural network is a mathematical model inspired by biological neural networks. There are several kinds of neural networks and they are widely used in many areas, such as: prediction, detection, and classification. Meanwhile, in day to day life, people always have to make many difficult decisions. For example, the coach of a soccer club has to decide which offensive player to be selected to play in a certain game. This work describes a novel Neural Network using a combination of the General Regression Neural Network and the Probabilistic Neural Networks to help a soccer coach make an informed decision.

Keywords: General Regression Neural Network, Probabilistic Neural Networks, Neural function.

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Authors: Shankar Kambhampaty, Venkata Srinivas Modali

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When architecting an application, key nonfunctional requirements such as performance, scalability, availability and security, which influence the architecture of the system, are some times not adequately addressed. Performance of the application may not be looked at until there is a concern. There are several problems with this reactive approach. If the system does not meet its performance objectives, the application is unlikely to be accepted by the stakeholders. This paper suggests an approach for performance modeling for web based J2EE and .Net applications to address performance issues early in the development life cycle. It also includes a Performance Modeling Case Study, with Proof-of-Concept (PoC) and implementation details for .NET and J2EE platforms.

Keywords: Performance Measures, Performance Modeling, Performance Testing, Resource Utilization, Response Time, Throughput.

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Authors: S. Rao, S. Khavtasi, C. Chassot, N. Van Wambeke, F. Armando, S. P. Romano, T. Castaldi

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The talks about technological convergence had been around for almost twenty years. Today Internet made it possible. And this is not only technical evolution. The way it changed our lives reflected in variety of applications, services and technologies used in day-to-day life. Such benefits imposed even more requirements on heterogeneous and unreliable IP networks. Current paper outlines QoS management system developed in the NetQoS [1] project. It describes an overall architecture of management system for heterogeneous networks and proposes automated multi-layer QoS management. Paper focuses on the structure of the most crucial modules of the system that enable autonomous and multi-layer provisioning and dynamic adaptation.

Keywords: Automated QoS management, multi-layerprovisioning and adaptation, QoS, QoE.

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Authors: A. Marcengo, A. Rapp, E. Guercio

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This work aims to describe the process of developing services and applications of seamless communication within a Telecom Italia long-term research project, which takes as central aim the design of a wearable communication device. In particular, the objective was to design a wrist phone integrated into everyday life of people in full transparency. The methodology used to design the wristwatch was developed through several subsequent steps also involving the Personas Layering Framework. The data collected in this phases have been very useful for designing an improved version of the first two concepts of wrist phone going to change aspects related to the four critical points expressed by the users.

Keywords: Design, Interaction, User Centred Design, Wristphone.

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Authors: Alejandro Gomez Suarez, H. Srikanth Kamath

Abstract:

In this paper, SFQ (Start Time Fair Queuing) algorithm is analyzed when this is applied in computer networks to know what kind of behavior the traffic in the net has when different data sources are managed by the scheduler. Using the NS2 software the computer networks were simulated to be able to get the graphs showing the performance of the scheduler. Different traffic sources were introduced in the scripts, trying to establish the real scenario. Finally the results were that depending on the data source, the traffic can be affected in different levels, when Constant Bite Rate is applied, the scheduler ensures a constant level of data sent and received, but the truth is that in the real life it is impossible to ensure a level that resists the changes in work load.

Keywords: Cbq, Cbr, Nam, Ns2.

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Authors: A.Ö. İlkay, C.O. Zeynep

Abstract:

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has changed our life and learn. ICT bares doors to new innovative methods to deliver education. E-learning is a part of ICT and has been endorsed as a tool for developing “21st century skills” in higher education. The aim of this review is to establish the impacts of e-learning in undergraduate nursing education. A systematic literature review was conducted to assess the impacts of e-learning in nursing education by using Akdeniz University electronic databases. According to results, we can decelerate that the nursing faculties cannot treat e-learning methods as a single tool. E-learning should be used with a good understanding of learners’ needs.

Keywords: E-learning, nursing education, systematic literature review.

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Authors: Ilqar Ramazanli

Abstract:

The matrix completion problem has been studied broadly under many underlying conditions. In many real-life scenarios, we could expect elements from distinct columns or distinct positions to have a different cost. In this paper, we explore this generalization under adaptive conditions. We approach the problem under two different cost models. The first one is that entries from different columns have different observation costs, but, within the same column, each entry has a uniform cost. The second one is any two entry has different observation cost, despite being the same or different columns. We provide complexity analysis of our algorithms and provide tightness guarantees.

Keywords: Matrix completion, adaptive learning, heterogeneous cost, Matroid optimization.

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Authors: Ahmad M. Shafiee, Mehrdad Montazeri, Mahdi Nikdast

Abstract:

Every day human life experiences new equipments more automatic and with more abilities. So the need for faster processors doesn-t seem to finish. Despite new architectures and higher frequencies, a single processor is not adequate for many applications. Parallel processing and networks are previous solutions for this problem. The new solution to put a network of resources on a chip is called NOC (network on a chip). The more usual topology for NOC is mesh topology. There are several routing algorithms suitable for this topology such as XY, fully adaptive, etc. In this paper we have suggested a new algorithm named Intermittent X, Y (IX/Y). We have developed the new algorithm in simulation environment to compare delay and power consumption with elders' algorithms.

Keywords: Computer architecture, parallel computing, NOC, routing algorithm.

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Authors: M. Ward, J. Franz, B. Adkins

Abstract:

The lack of inclusive housing in Australia contributes to the marginalization and exclusion of people with disability and older people from family and community life. The Australian government has handed over the responsibility of increasing the supply of inclusive housing to the housing industry through an agreed national access standard and a voluntary strategy. Voluntary strategies have not been successful in other constituencies and little is known about what would work in Australia today. Findings from a research project into the voluntariness of the housing industry indicate that a reliable and consistent supply is unlikely without an equivalent increase in demand. The strategy has, however, an important role to play in the task of changing housing industry practices towards building more inclusive communities.

Keywords: Australia, housing, inclusion, voluntary, industry

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Authors: George Karkavitsas, Maria Rangoussi

Abstract:

We present a genetic algorithm application to the problem of object registration (i.e., object detection, localization and recognition) in a class of medical images containing various types of blood cells. The genetic algorithm approach taken here is seen to be most appropriate for this type of image, due to the characteristics of the objects. Successful cell registration results on real life microscope images of blood cells show the potential of the proposed approach.

Keywords: Genetic algorithms, object registration, pattern recognition, blood cell microscope images.

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