Search results for: healthcare knowledge management

Authors: Nourhan A. Saad, Sara Elgazzar, Gehan Saleh

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The food industry nowadays is becoming customer-oriented and needs faster response time to deal with food incidents. There is a deep need for good traceability systems to help the supply chain (SC) partners to minimize production and distribution of unsafe or poor quality products, which in turn will enhance the food SC performance. The current food labeling systems implemented in developing countries cannot guarantee that food is authentic, safe and of good quality. Therefore, the use of origin labels, mainly the geographical indications (GIs), allows SC partners to define quality standards and defend their products' reputation. According to our knowledge there are no studies discussed the use of GIs in developing countries. This research represents a research schema about the implementation of European quality labeling system in developing countries and its impact on enhancing SC performance. An empirical study was conducted on the Egyptian traditional food sector based on a sample of seven restaurants implementing the Med-diet labeling system. First, in-depth interviews were carried out to analyze the Egyptian traditional food SC. Then, a framework was developed to link the European quality labeling system and SC performance. Finally, a structured survey was conducted based on the applied framework to investigate the impact of Med-diet labeling system on the SC performance. The research provides an applied framework linking Med-diet quality labeling system to SC performance of traditional food sector in developing countries generally and especially in the Egyptian traditional food sector. The framework can be used as a SC performance management tool to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of food industry's SC performance.

Keywords: Food supply chain, med-diet labeling system, quality labeling system, supply chain performance.

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

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

Keywords: Assessments, evaluation, monitoring, pharmacovigilance.

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Authors: Kumar Padmanabh, Rajarshi Roy

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In this paper a special kind of buffer management policy is studied where the packet are preempted even when sufficient space is available in the buffer for incoming packets. This is done to congestion for future incoming packets to improve QoS for certain type of packets. This type of study has been done in past for ATM type of scenario. We extend the same for heterogeneous traffic where data rate and size of the packets are very versatile in nature. Typical example of this scenario is the buffer management in Differentiated Service Router. There are two aspects that are of interest. First is the packet size: whether all packets have same or different sizes. Second aspect is the value or space priority of the packets, do all packets have the same space priority or different packets have different space priorities. We present two types of policies to achieve QoS goals for packets with different priorities: the push out scheme and the expelling scheme. For this work the scenario of packets of variable length is considered with two space priorities and main goal is to minimize the total weighted packet loss. Simulation and analytical studies show that, expelling policies can outperform the push out policies when it comes to offering variable QoS for packets of two different priorities and expelling policies also help improve the amount of admissible load. Some other comparisons of push out and expelling policies are also presented using simulations.

Keywords: Buffer Management Policy, Diffserv, ATM, Pushout Policy, Expeling Policy.

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Authors: Izaz Ahmad, Farhatullah, Shahbaz Ali, Farhad Ali, Faiza, Hazrat Junaid, Farhan Zaid

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Current trends in remote health monitoring to monetize on the Internet of Things applications have been raised in efficient and interference free communications in Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) scenario. Co-existence interference in WBANs have aggravates the over-congested radio bands, thereby requiring efficient Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) strategies and improve interference management. Existing solutions utilize simplistic heuristics to approach interference problems. The scope of this research article is to investigate reinforcement learning for efficient interference management under co-existing scenarios with an emphasis on homogenous interferences. The aim of this paper is to suggest a smart CSMA/CA mechanism based on reinforcement learning called QIM-MAC that effectively uses sense slots with minimal interference. Simulation results are analyzed based on scenarios which show that the proposed approach maximized Average Network Throughput and Packet Delivery Ratio and minimized Packet Loss Ratio, Energy Consumption and Average Delay.

Keywords: WBAN, IEEE 802.15.4 Standard, CAP Super-frame, Q-Learning.

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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.

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Authors: Z. Dedovets, M. Rodionov

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The goal of the modern education system is to prepare students to be able to adapt to ever-changing life situations. They must be able to acquire required knowledge independently; apply such knowledge in practice to solve various problems by using modern technologies; think critically and creatively; competently use information; be communicative, work in a team; and develop their own moral values, intellect and cultural awareness. As a result, the status of education significantly increases; new requirements to its quality have been formed. In recent years the competency-based approach in education has become of significant interest. This approach is a strengthening of applied and practical characteristics of a school education and leads to the forming of the key students’ competencies which define their success in future life. In this article, the authors’ attention focuses on a range of key competencies, educational, informational and communicative and on the possibility to develop such competencies via STEM education. This research shows the change in students’ attitude towards scientific disciplines such as mathematics, general science, technology and engineering as a result of STEM education. Two staged analyzed questionnaires completed by students of forms II to IV in the republic of Trinidad and Tobago allowed the authors to categorize students between two levels that represent students’ attitude to various disciplines. The significance of differences between selected levels was confirmed with the use of Pearson’s chi-squared test. In summary, the analysis of obtained data makes it possible to conclude that STEM education has a great potential for development of core students’ competencies and encourage the development of positive student attitude towards the above mentioned above scientific disciplines.

Keywords: STEM-science, technology, engineering, mathematics, students’ competency, Pearson's chi-squared test.

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Authors: N. Ahmed, A.J. Day, J.L. Victory L. Zeall, B. Young

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The manufacture of large-scale precision aerospace components using CNC requires a highly effective maintenance strategy to ensure that the required accuracy can be achieved over many hours of production. This paper reviews a strategy for a maintenance management system based on Failure Mode Avoidance, which uses advanced techniques and technologies to underpin a predictive maintenance strategy. It is shown how condition monitoring (CM) is important to predict potential failures in high precision machining facilities and achieve intelligent and integrated maintenance management. There are two distinct ways in which CM can be applied. One is to monitor key process parameters and observe trends which may indicate a gradual deterioration of accuracy in the product. The other is the use of CM techniques to monitor high status machine parameters enables trends to be observed which can be corrected before machine failure and downtime occurs. It is concluded that the key to developing a flexible and intelligent maintenance framework in any precision manufacturing operation is the ability to evaluate reliably and routinely machine tool condition using condition monitoring techniques within a framework of Failure Mode Avoidance.

Keywords: Maintenance, Condition Monitoring, CNC, Machining, Accuracy, Capability, Key Process Parameters, Critical Parameters

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Authors: Steve Fish, Chris Lambert

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Cumbria is a geo-political county in Northwest England within which the Lake District National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site is located. Whilst the area has a formidable reputation for natural beauty and historic assets, the innovation ecosystem is described as ‘patchy’ for a number of reasons. The county is one of the largest in England by area and is sparsely populated. This paper describes the needs, development and delivery of an SME business-support programme funded by the European Regional Development Fund, Lancaster University and the University of Cumbria. The Cumbria Innovations Platform (CUSP) Project has been designed to respond to the nuanced needs of SMEs in this locale, whilst promoting the adoption of research and innovation. CUSP utilizes a funnel method to support rural businesses with access to university innovation intervention. CUSP has been built on a three-tier model: Communicate, Collaborate and Create. The paper describes this project in detail and presents results in terms of output indicators achieved, a beneficiary telephone survey and wider economic forecasts. From a pragmatic point-of-view, the paper provides experiences and reflections of those people who are delivering and evaluating knowledge exchange. The authors discuss some of the benefits, challenges and implications for both policy makers and practitioners. Finally, the paper aims to serve as an invitation to others who may consider adopting a similar method of university-industry collaboration in their own region.

Keywords: Regional business support, rural business support, university-industry collaboration, collaborative R&D, SMEs, knowledge exchange.

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Authors: David Cobham

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In higher education, a great degree of importance is placed on the internationalisation of the student experience. This is seen as a valuable contributor to elements such as building confidence, broadening knowledge, creating networks, and connections and enhancing employability for current students who will become the next generation of managers in technology and business. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all areas of people’s lives. The limitations of travel coupled with the fears and concerns generated by the health risks have dramatically reduced the opportunity for students to engage with this agenda. Institutions of higher education have been required to rethink fundamental aspects of their business model from recruitment and enrolment, through learning approaches, assessment methods and the pathway to employment. This paper presents a case study which focuses on student mobility and how the physical experience of being in another country either to study, to work, to volunteer or to gain cultural and social enhancement has of necessity been replaced by alternative approaches. It considers trans-national education as an alternative to physical study overseas, virtual mobility and internships as an alternative to international work experience and adopting collaborative on-line projects as an alternative to in-person encounters. The paper concludes that although these elements have been adopted to address the current situation, the lessons learnt and the feedback gained suggests that they have contributed successfully in new and sometimes unexpected ways, and that they will persist beyond the present to become part of the "new normal" for the future. That being the case, senior leaders of institutions of higher education will be required to revisit their international plans and to rewrite their international strategies to take account of and build upon these changes.

Keywords: Trans-national education, internationalisation, higher education management, virtual mobility.

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Authors: Antonio Espingardeiro

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It is likely that robots will cross the boundaries of industry into households over the next decades. With demographic challenges worldwide, the future ageing populations will require the introduction of assistive technologies capable of providing, care, human dignity and quality of life through the aging process. Robotics technology has a high potential for being used in the areas of social and healthcare by promoting a wide range of activities such as entertainment, companionship, supervision or cognitive and physical assistance. However such close Human Robotics Interaction (HRI) encompass a rich set of ethical scenarios that need to be addressed before Socially Assistive Robots (SARs) reach the global markets. Such interactions with robots may seem a worthy goal for many technical/financial reasons but inevitably require close attention to the ethical dimensions of such interactions. This article investigates the current HRI benchmark of social success. It revises it according to the ethical principles of beneficence, non-maleficence and justice aligned with social care ethos. An extension of such benchmark is proposed based on an empirical study of HRIs conducted with elderly groups.

Keywords: HRI, SARs, Social Success, Benchmark, Elderly care.

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Authors: Ion Baş, Claudiu Zoicaş, Angela Ioniţâ

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In most of the cases, natural disasters lead to the necessity of evacuating people. The quality of evacuation management is dramatically improved by the use of information provided by decision support systems, which become indispensable in case of large scale evacuation operations. This paper presents a best practice case study. In November 2007, officers from the Emergency Situations Inspectorate “Crisana" of Bihor County from Romania participated to a cross-border evacuation exercise, when 700 people have been evacuated from Netherlands to Belgium. One of the main objectives of the exercise was the test of four different decision support systems. Afterwards, based on that experience, software system called TEVAC (Trans Border Evacuation) has been developed “in house" by the experts of this institution. This original software system was successfully tested in September 2008, during the deployment of the international exercise EU-HUROMEX 2008, the scenario involving real evacuation of 200 persons from Hungary to Romania. Based on the lessons learned and results, starting from April 2009, the TEVAC software is used by all Emergency Situations Inspectorates all over Romania.

Keywords: Emergency evacuation, Searching Features, TEVAC(Trans Border Evacuation) software system, User Interface Design.

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Authors: Abimbola O. Aniki, Esther T. Akinlabi

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This paper proposes an effective maintenance method by considering the implementation of the Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) software to plan a maintenance activity in a manufacturing industry. Globally, maintenance is a very important activity in the manufacturing sector to prolong the life span of equipment and machinery; it is also applicable to all household items. It is obvious and well known that apart from giving long life to equipment, it reduces the substantial financial losses for repairs and save the production downtime. In some cases, appropriate maintenance of plant equipment and machinery reduces the tendencies of injuries to personnel in the job floor. But before the maintenance process can be carried out, proper and effective work order planning and scheduling must be in place in other to achieve the set goals and objectives of a maintenance shop. Brief reviews of common planning tools which include the Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) are presented. An interesting outline of analyses on planning and scheduling for effective job planning in a typical manufacturing industry using the CMMS is also presented and discussed. Finally, the steps to adhere to in making job planning effective in a manufacturing industry are also highlighted.

Keywords: Advanced Downtime Analysis Programme (ADAP), Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS), Corrective Maintenance (CM), Executing Department (ED), Maintenance Department (MD), Preventive Maintenance (PM).

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Authors: Firouzeh Keshavarzi

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Although a picture can be automatically a graphic work, but especially in the field of graphics and images based on the idea of advertising and graphic design will be prepared and photographers to realize the design using his own knowledge and skills to help does. It is evident that knowledge of photography, photographer and designer of the facilities, fields of reaching a higher level of quality offers. At the same time do not have a graphic designer is also skilled photographer, but can execute your idea may delegate to an expert photographer. Using technology and methods in all fields of photography, graphic art may be applicable. But most of its application in Iran, in works such as packaging, posters, Bill Board, advertising, brochures and catalogs are. In this study, we review how the images and techniques in the chart should be used in Iranian graphic photo what impact has left. Using photography techniques and procedures can be designed and helped advance the goals graphic. Technique could not determine the idea. But what is important to think about design and photography and his creativity can flourish as a tool to be effective graphic designer in mind. Computer software to help it's very promotes creativity techniques shall graphic designer but also it is as a tool. Using images in various fields, especially graphic arts and only because it is not being documented, but applications are beautiful. As to his photographic style from today is graphics. Graphic works try to affect impacts on their audience. Hence the photo as an important factor is attention. The other hand saw the man with the extent of forgiving and understanding people's image, instead of using the word to your files, allows large messages and concepts should be sent in the shortest time. Posters, advertisements, brochures, catalog and packaging products very diverse agricultural, industrial and food could not be self-image. Today, the use of graphic images for a big score and the photos to richen the role graphic design plays a major.

Keywords: Photo, Photography Techniques, Contacts, GraphicDesigner, Visual Communications, Iran.

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Authors: U. Kalay, O. Kalıpsız

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For a spatiotemporal database management system, I/O cost of queries and other operations is an important performance criterion. In order to optimize this cost, an intense research on designing robust index structures has been done in the past decade. With these major considerations, there are still other design issues that deserve addressing due to their direct impact on the I/O cost. Having said this, an efficient buffer management strategy plays a key role on reducing redundant disk access. In this paper, we proposed an efficient buffer strategy for a spatiotemporal database index structure, specifically indexing objects moving over a network of roads. The proposed strategy, namely MONPAR, is based on the data type (i.e. spatiotemporal data) and the structure of the index structure. For the purpose of an experimental evaluation, we set up a simulation environment that counts the number of disk accesses while executing a number of spatiotemporal range-queries over the index. We reiterated simulations with query sets with different distributions, such as uniform query distribution and skewed query distribution. Based on the comparison of our strategy with wellknown page-replacement techniques, like LRU-based and Prioritybased buffers, we conclude that MONPAR behaves better than its competitors for small and medium size buffers under all used query-distributions.

Keywords: Buffer Management, Spatiotemporal databases.

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Authors: Umber Iqbal, Shaleeza Sohail, Muhammad Younas Javed

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True integration of multimedia services over wired or wireless networks increase the productivity and effectiveness in today-s networks. IP Multimedia Subsystems are Next Generation Network architecture to provide the multimedia services over fixed or mobile networks. This paper proposes an extended SIP-based QoS Management architecture for IMS services over underlying IP access networks. To guarantee the end-to-end QoS for IMS services in interconnection backbone, SIP based proxy Modules are introduced to support the QoS provisioning and to reduce the handoff disruption time over IP access networks. In our approach these SIP Modules implement the combination of Diffserv and MPLS QoS mechanisms to assure the guaranteed QoS for real-time multimedia services. To guarantee QoS over access networks, SIP Modules make QoS resource reservations in advance to provide best QoS to IMS users over heterogeneous networks. To obtain more reliable multimedia services, our approach allows the use of SCTP protocol over SIP instead of UDP due to its multi-streaming feature. This architecture enables QoS provisioning for IMS roaming users to differentiate IMS network from other common IP networks for transmission of realtime multimedia services. To validate our approach simulation models are developed on short scale basis. The results show that our approach yields comparable performance for efficient delivery of IMS services over heterogeneous IP access networks.

Keywords: SIP-Based QoS Management Architecture, IPMultimedia Subsystems, IP Access Networks

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Authors: Meet Shah, Ankita Aditya, Dhruv Bindra, V. S. Omkar, Aashruti Seervi

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In today's world, we need documents everywhere for a smooth workflow in the identification process or any other security aspects. The current system and techniques which are used for identification need one thing, that is ‘proof of existence’, which involves valid documents, for example, educational, financial, etc. The main issue with the current identity access management system and digital identification process is that the system is centralized in their network, which makes it inefficient. The paper presents the system which resolves all these cited issues. It is based on ‘blockchain’ technology, which is a 'decentralized system'. It allows transactions in a decentralized and immutable manner. The primary notion of the model is to ‘have everything with nothing’. It involves inter-linking required documents of a person with a single identity card so that a person can go anywhere without having the required documents with him/her. The person just needs to be physically present at a place wherein documents are necessary, and using a fingerprint impression and an iris scan print, the rest of the verification will progress. Furthermore, some technical overheads and advancements are listed. This paper also aims to layout its far-vision scenario of blockchain and its impact on future trends.

Keywords: Blockchain, decentralized system, fingerprint impression, identity management, iris scan.

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Authors: Jorge Cardoso

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Workflow Management Systems (WfMS) alloworganizations to streamline and automate business processes and reengineer their structure. One important requirement for this type of system is the management and computation of the Quality of Service(QoS) of processes and workflows. Currently, a range of Web processes and workflow languages exist. Each language can be characterized by the set of patterns they support. Developing andimplementing a suitable and generic algorithm to compute the QoSof processes that have been designed using different languages is a difficult task. This is because some patterns are specific to particular process languages and new patterns may be introduced in future versions of a language. In this paper, we describe an adaptive algorithm implemented to cope with these two problems. The algorithm is called adaptive since it can be dynamically changed as the patterns of a process language also change.

Keywords: quality of service, web processes, workflows, web services

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Authors: Saidu Ibrahim, Winston M. W. Shakantu

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The problem of construction material waste remains unresolved, as a significant percentage of the materials delivered to some project sites end up as waste which might result in additional project cost. Cost overrun is a problem which affects 90% of the completed projects in the world. The argument on how to eliminate it has been on-going for the past 70 years, but there is neither substantial improvement nor significant solution for mitigating its detrimental effects. Research evidence has proposed various construction cost overruns and material-waste management approaches; nonetheless, these studies failed to give a clear indication on the framework and the equation for managing construction material waste and cost overruns. Hence, this research aims to develop a conceptual framework and a mathematical equation for managing material waste and cost overrun in the construction industry. The paper adopts the desktop methodological approach. This involves comparing the causes of material waste and those of cost overruns from the literature to determine the possible relationship. The review revealed a relationship between material waste and cost overrun that; increase in material waste would result to a corresponding increase in the amount of cost overrun at both the pre-contract and the post contract stages of a project. It was found from the equation that achieving an effective construction material waste management must ensure a “Good Quality-of-Planning, Estimating, and Design Management” and a “Good Quality- of-Construction, Procurement and Site Management”; a decrease in “Design Complexity” which would reduce “Material Waste” and subsequently reduce the amount of cost overrun by 86.74%. The conceptual framework and the mathematical equation developed in this study are recommended to the professionals of the construction industry.

Keywords: Conceptual framework, cost overrun, material waste, project stags.

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Authors: Feng-Chuan Pan, Fang-Yue Liu

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Hospitals in southern Hualien teamed with the Hypertension Joint Care Network. Working with the network, the team provided a special designed health education to the individual who had been identified as a hypertension patient in the outpatient department. Some metabolism improvements achieved. This is a retrospective study by purposively taking 106 patients from a hospital between 2008 and 2010. Records of before and after education intervention of the objects was collected and analyzed to see the how the intervention affected the patients- hypertension control via clinical parameter monitoring. The results showed that the clinical indicators, the LDL-C, the cholesterol and the systolic blood pressure were significantly improved. The study provides evidence for the effectiveness of the network in controlling hypertension.

Keywords: hypertension, joint care management network, cardiovascular diseases, metabolic syndrome.

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Authors: A. Felimban, A. Prieto, U. Knaack, T. Klein

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This study aims to present an overview of recent research in building energy-retrofitting strategy applications and analyzing them within the context of hot arid climate regions which is in this case study represented by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The main goal of this research is to do an analytical study of recent research approaches to show where the primary gap in knowledge exists and outline which possible strategies are available that can be applied in future research. Also, the paper focuses on energy retrofitting strategies at a building envelop level. The study is limited to specific measures within the hot arid climate region. Scientific articles were carefully chosen as they met the expression criteria, such as retrofitting, energy-retrofitting, hot-arid, energy efficiency, residential buildings, which helped narrow the research scope. Then the papers were explored through descriptive analysis and justified results within the Saudi context in order to draw an overview of future opportunities from the field of study for the last two decades. The conclusions of the analysis of the recent research confirmed that the field of study had a research shortage on investigating actual applications and testing of newly introduced energy efficiency applications, lack of energy cost feasibility studies and there was also a lack of public awareness. In terms of research methods, it was found that simulation software was a major instrument used in energy retrofitting application research. The main knowledge gaps that were identified included the need for certain research regarding actual application testing; energy retrofitting strategies application feasibility; the lack of research on the importance of how strategies apply first followed by the user acceptance of developed scenarios.

Keywords: Energy efficiency, energy retrofitting, hot arid climate, Saudi Arabia.

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Authors: P. Sanzo

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Increased physical fitness participation has been paralleled by increasedoveruse injuries such as insertional Achilles tendinosis (AT). Treatment has provided inconsistentresults. The use of extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ECSWT) offers a new treatment consideration.The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of ECSWTon pain, function, range of motion (ROM), joint mobility and strength in patients with AT. Thirty subjects were treated with ECSWT and measures were takenbefore and three months after treatment. There was significant differences in visual analog scale (VAS) scores for pain at rest (p=0.002); after activity (p= 0.0001); overall improvement(p=0.0001); Lower Extremity Functional Scale (LEFS) scores (p=0.002); dorsiflexion range of motion (ROM) (p=0.0001); plantarflexion strength (p=0.025); talocrural joint anterior glide (p=0.046); and subtalar joint medial and lateral glide (p=0.025).ECSWT offers a new intervention that may limit the progression of the disorder and the long term healthcare costs associated with AT.

Keywords: Extracorporeal shockwave therapy, shockwave therapy, Achilles tendinosis, range of motion, strength, joint mobility

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Authors: Maria Inês Pinho

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Recent literature on issues of Cultural Management (also called Strategic Management for cultural organizations) systematically seeks for models that allow such equipment to adapt to the constant change that occurs in contemporary societies. In the last decade, the world, and in particular Europe has experienced a serious financial problem that has triggered defensive mechanisms, both in the direction of promoting the balance of public accounts and in the sense of the anonymous loss of the democratic and cultural values of each nation. If in the first case emerged the Troika that led to strong cuts in funding for Culture, deeply affecting those organizations; in the second case, the commonplace citizen is seen fighting for the non-closure of cultural equipment. Despite this, the cultural manager argues that there is no single formula capable of solving the need to adapt to change. In another way, it is up to this agent to know the existing scientific models and to adapt them in the best way to the reality of the institution he coordinates. These actions, as a rule, are concerned with the best performance vis-à-vis external audiences or with the financial sustainability of cultural organizations. They forget, therefore, that all this mechanics cannot function without its internal public, without its Human Resources. The employees of the cultural organization must then have an entrepreneurial posture - must be intrapreneurial. This paper intends to break this form of action and lead the cultural manager to understand that his role should be in the sense of creating value for society, through a good organizational performance. This is only possible with a posture of strategic entrepreneurship. In other words, with a link between: Cultural Management, Cultural Entrepreneurship and Cultural Intrapreneurship. In order to prove this assumption, the case study methodology was used with the symbol of the European Capital of Culture (Casa da Música) as well as qualitative and quantitative techniques. The qualitative techniques included the procedure of in-depth interviews to managers, founders and patrons and focus groups to public with and without experience in managing cultural facilities. The quantitative techniques involved the application of a questionnaire to middle management and employees of Casa da Música. After the triangulation of the data, it was proved that contemporary management of cultural organizations must implement among its practices, the concept of Strategic Entrepreneurship and its variables. Also, the topics which characterize the Cultural Intrapreneurship notion (job satisfaction, the quality in organizational performance, the leadership and the employee engagement and autonomy) emerged. The findings show then that to be sustainable, a cultural organization should meet the concerns of both external and internal forum. In other words, it should have an attitude of citizenship to the communities, visible on a social responsibility and a participatory management, only possible with the implementation of the concept of Strategic Entrepreneurship and its variable of Cultural Intrapreneurship.

Keywords: Cultural entrepreneurship, cultural intrapreneurship, cultural organizations, strategic management.

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Authors: Zahra Lashgari, Naghmeh Sadat MaghamiTekiyeh

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Recent evidences on liquidity and valuation of securities in the capital markets clearly show the importance of stock market liquidity and valuation of firms. In this paper, relationship between transparency, liquidity, and valuation is studied by using data obtained from 70 companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange during2003-2012. In this study, discriminatory earnings management, as a sign of lack of transparency and Tobin's Q, was used as the criteria of valuation. The results indicate that there is a significant and reversed relationship between earnings management and liquidity. On the other hand, there is a relationship between liquidity and transparency.The results also indicate a significant relationship between transparency and valuation. Transparency has an indirect effect on firm valuation alone or through the liquidity channel. Although the effect of transparency on the value of a firm was reduced by adding the variable of liquidity, the cumulative effect of transparency and liquidity increased.

Keywords: Firm valuation, Earnings management, Liquidity, Tobin's Q, Transparency.

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Authors: Edelyn Alicar-Cadorna

Abstract:

This study assessed the productivity and performance of the barangays in the Heritage City of Vigan in terms of the barangays- resource requirements, management of resources, produced goods and services, and outcomes of service delivery. The descriptive research design was used in the study employing the input-process-output-outcomes model. Findings of this study showed that the barangays were strong in terms of resource requirements which enabled them to produce goods and services. The barangays were also strong in terms of management of resources in development planning. They also showed great potential along fiscal administration, and had a moderately high capability in organization and management. However, the barangays appeared to be most wanting in the area of barangay legislation, but they were strong in community mobilization and they had strong linkages with POs, NGOs and educational institutions. In the delivery of social services, the barangays favored the maintenance of day care centers. However, the barangays seem to be weak in the delivery of economic services. They fared well along providing protective services such as in establishing a Barangay Disaster Coordinating Council and organizing a group of Barangay Tanod. In terms of environmental services, the barangays performed garbage collection and disposal; however, garbage still found their way in the streets in some barangays. The services delivered had effected an improved status of the barangays. However, the barangays are still facing some problems.

Keywords: Barangays, Performance and Productivity.

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Authors: Tanya N. Beran, Michelle A. Drefs, Ghazwan Altabbaa, Nouf Al Harbi, Noof Al Baz, Elizabeth Oddone Paolucci

Abstract:

Although interprofessional practice is a collaborative approach for problem solving among health professionals, its implementation can present challenges to its team members. In particular, they may feel pressured to agree with or conform to other members who share information that is contrary to their own understanding. Obtaining evidence of this phenomenon is challenging, as team members may underreport their conformity behaviors due to reasons such as social desirability. In this paper, a series of studies are reviewed in which several approaches to assessing conformity in the health care professions are tested. Simulations, questionnaires, and behavior checklists can be used to measure conformity behaviors. Insights from these studies show that a significant proportion of people conform either in the presence or absence of others, express a variety of verbal and nonverbal behaviors when considering whether to conform to others, may shift between conforming and moments later not conforming (and vice versa), and may not accurately report whether they conformed. A method of measuring conformity using the implicit bias test is also discussed. People at all levels in the healthcare system are encouraged to develop both formal and informal strategies to manage the conformity pressures that people face.

Keywords: Conformity, decision-making, interprofessional teams, medical simulation.

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Authors: Andrus Pedai, Igor Astrov

Abstract:

The focus of this paper is to compare common approaches for Systems of Innovation (SI) and identify proactive alternatives for driving the innovation. Proactive approaches will also consider short and medium term perspectives with developments in the field of Computer Technology and Artificial Intelligence. Concerning Computer Technology and Large Connected Information Systems, it is reasonable to predict that during current or the next century intelligence and innovation will be separated from the constraints of human driven management. After this happens, humans will be no longer driving the innovation and there is possibility that SI for new intelligent systems will set its own targets and exclude humans. Over long time scale these developments could result in scenario, which will lead to the development of larger, cross galactic (universal) proactive SI and Intelligence.

Keywords: Artificial intelligence, DARPA, Moore’s law, proactive innovation, singularity, systems of innovation.

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Authors: Benjamin Kuester, Bjoern Eilert, Malte Stonis, Ludger Overmeyer

Abstract:

Increasing quality requirements make reliable and effective quality management indispensable. This includes the complaint handling in which the 8D method is widely used. The 8D report as a written documentation of the 8D method is one of the key quality documents as it internally secures the quality standards and acts as a communication medium to the customer. In practice, however, the 8D report is mostly faulty and of poor quality. There is no quality control of 8D reports today. This paper describes the use of natural language processing for the automated evaluation of 8D reports. Based on semantic analysis and text-mining algorithms the presented system is able to uncover content and formal quality deficiencies and thus increases the quality of the complaint processing in the long term.

Keywords: 8D report, complaint management, evaluation system, text-mining.

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Authors: Ae Hee Park, So Hyun Park, Hee Yong Youn

Abstract:

Multi-agent system is composed by several agents capable of reaching the goal cooperatively. The system needs an agent platform for efficient and stable interaction between intelligent agents. In this paper we propose a flexible and scalable agent platform by composing the containers with multiple hierarchical agent groups. It also allows efficient implementation of multiple domain presentations of the agents unlike JADE. The proposed platform provides both group management and individual management of agents for efficiency. The platform has been implemented and tested, and it can be used as a flexible foundation of the dynamic multi-agent system targeting seamless delivery of ubiquitous services.

Keywords: Agent platform, container, multi-agent system, services, ubiquitous computing

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Authors: S. Rozhkova, O. Rozhkova, A. Harlova, V. Lasukov

Abstract:

For optimal unbiased filter as mean-square and in the case of functioning anomalous noises in the observation memory channel, we have proved insensitivity of filter to inaccurate knowledge of the anomalous noise intensity matrix and its equivalence to truncated filter plotted only by non anomalous components of an observation vector.

Keywords: Mathematical expectation, filtration, anomalous noise, memory.

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Authors: Ingrid Göpfert, Michael Stephan, Wanja Wellbrock, Malte Ackermann

Abstract:

Empirical insights into the implementation of logistics competencies at the top management level are scarce. This paper addresses this issue with an explorative approach which is based on a dataset of 872 observations in the years 2000, 2004 and 2008 using quantitative content analysis from annual reports of the 500 publicly listed firms with the highest global research and development expenditures according to the British Department for Business Innovation and Skills. We find that logistics competencies are more pronounced in Asian companies than in their European or American counterparts. On an industrial level the results are quite mixed. Using partial point-biserial correlations we show that logistics competencies are positively related to financial performance.

Keywords: Logistics, supply chain management, content analysis, executive boards, multinational corporations.

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