Search results for: Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

Authors: Hoi-Lam Ma, Sai-Ho Chung

Abstract:

In traditional integrated berth allocation with quay crane assignment models, time dimension is usually assumed in hourly based. However, nowadays, transshipment becomes the main business to many container terminals, especially in Southeast Asia (e.g. Hong Kong and Singapore). In these terminals, vessel arrivals are usually very frequent with small handling volume and very short staying time. Therefore, the traditional hourly-based modeling approach may cause significant berth and quay crane idling, and consequently cannot meet their practical needs. In this connection, a 15-minute-based modeling approach is requested by industrial practitioners. Accordingly, a Three-level Genetic Algorithm (3LGA) with Quay Crane (QC) shifting heuristics is designed to fulfill the research gap. The objective function here is to minimize the total service time. Preliminary numerical results show that the proposed 15-minute-based approach can reduce the berth and QC idling significantly.

Keywords: Transshipment, integrated berth allocation, variable-in-time quay crane assignment, quay crane assignment.

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Authors: Towards Better Quality in Healthcare, Operations Management: A Developmental Literature Review

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This work presents the various perspectives, dimensions, components and definitions given to quality in the operations management (OM) and healthcare services (HCS) literature in time, highlighting gaps and learning opportunities between the two disciplines through a thorough search into their rich and distinct body of knowledge. Greater and new insights about the general nature of quality are obtained with findings such as in OM, quality has been approached in six fairly distinct paradigms (excellence, value, conformity to specifications, attributes, satisfaction and meeting or exceeding customer expectations), whereas in HCS, two approaches are prominent (Donabedian’s structure, process and outcomes model and Lohr and Schroeder’s circumscribed definition). The two disciplines views on quality seem to have progressed much in parallel with little cross-learning from each other. This work then proposes an encompassing definition of quality as a lever and suggests further research and development avenues for a better use of the concept of quality by academics and practitioners alike toward the goals of greater organizational performance and improved management in healthcare and possibly other service domains.

Keywords: Healthcare, management, operations, quality, services.

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Authors: Mohamed T. Sorour, Mohamed A. Abdellatif, Ahmed A. Ramadan, Ahmed A. Abo-Ismail

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This paper describes the development of an autonomous robot for painting the interior walls of buildings. The robot consists of a painting arm with an end effector roller that scans the walls vertically and a mobile platform to give horizontal feed to paint the whole area of the wall. The painting arm has a planar twolink mechanism with two joints. Joints are driven from a stepping motor through a ball screw-nut mechanism. Four ultrasonic sensors are attached to the mobile platform and used to maintain a certain distance from the facing wall and to avoid collision with side walls. When settled on adjusted distance from the wall, the controller starts the painting process autonomously. Simplicity, relatively low weight and short painting time were considered in our design. Different modules constituting the robot have been separately tested then integrated. Experiments have shown successfulness of the robot in its intended tasks.

Keywords: Automated roller painting, Construction robots, Mobile robots, service robots, two link planar manipulator

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Authors: Elias O. Tembe, Hussain A. Al-Salamin

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There is decagram of strategic decisions of operations and production/service management (POSM) within operational research (OR) which must collate, namely: design, inventory, quality, location, process and capacity, layout, scheduling, maintain ace, and supply chain. This paper presents an architectural configuration conceptual framework of a decagram of sets decisions in a form of mathematical complete graph and abelian graph. Mathematically, a complete graph is undirected (UDG), and directed (DG) a relationship where every pair of vertices is connected, collated, confluent, and holomorphic. There has not been any study conducted which, however, prioritizes the holomorphic sets which of POMS within OR field of study. The study utilizes OR structured technique known as The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) analysis for organizing, sorting and prioritizing(ranking) the sets within the decagram of POMS according to their attribution (propensity), and provides an analysis how the prioritization has real-world application within the 21st century.

Keywords: AHP analysis, Decagram, Decagon, Holomorphic.

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Authors: Valentina Ndou, Laura Schina, Giuseppina Passiante, Pasquale Del Vecchio, Marco De Maggio

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The aim of this paper is to propose a dynamic integrated approach, based on modularity concept and on the business ecosystem approach, that exploit different eBusiness services for SMEs under an open business network platform. The adoption of this approach enables firms to collaborate locally for delivering the best product/service to the customers as well as globally by accessing international markets, interrelate directly with the customers, create relationships and collaborate with worldwide actors. The paper will be structured as following: We will start by offering an overview of the state of the art of eBusiness platforms among SME of food and tourism firms and then we discuss the main drawbacks that characterize them. The digital business ecosystem approach and the modularity concept will be described as the theoretical ground in which our proposed integrated model is rooted. Finally, the proposed model along with a discussion of the main value creation potentialities it might create for SMEs will be presented.

Keywords: component, Complexity; Digital Business Ecosystem, e Business Platforms, Modularity, Networks.

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Authors: Shuen-Tai Wang, Yu-Ching Lin, Hsi-Ya Chang

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Cloud computing is the innovative and leading information technology model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort. This paper presents our development on enabling an individual user's desktop in a virtualized environment, which is stored on a remote virtual machine rather than locally. We present the initial work on the integration of virtual desktop and application sharing with virtualization technology. Given the development of remote desktop virtualization, this proposed effort has the potential to positively provide an efficient, resilience and elastic environment for online cloud service. Users no longer need to burden the cost of software licenses and platform maintenances. Moreover, this development also helps boost user productivity by promoting a flexible model that lets users access their desktop environments from virtually anywhere.

Keywords: Cloud Computing, Virtualization, Virtual Desktop, Elastic Environment.

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Authors: Muhammad Atif, Cang Yan

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The enhancement of low-light images is a significant area of study aimed at enhancing the quality of captured images in challenging lighting environments. Recently, methods based on Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) have gained prominence as they offer state-of-the-art performance. However, many approaches based on CNN rely on increasing the size and complexity of the neural network. In this study, we propose an alternative method for improving low-light images using an Autoencoders-based multiscale knowledge transfer model. Our method leverages the power of three autoencoders, where the encoders of the first two autoencoders are directly connected to the decoder of the third autoencoder. Additionally, the decoder of the first two autoencoders is connected to the encoder of the third autoencoder. This architecture enables effective knowledge transfer, allowing the third autoencoder to learn and benefit from the enhanced knowledge extracted by the first two autoencoders. We further integrate the proposed model into the Pix-to-Pix GAN framework. By integrating our proposed model as the generator in the GAN framework, we aim to produce enhanced images that not only exhibit improved visual quality but also possess a more authentic and realistic appearance. These experimental results, both qualitative and quantitative, show that our method is better than the state-of-the-art methodologies.

Keywords: Low light image enhancement, deep learning, convolutional neural network, image processing.

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Authors: Bhavneet Sidhu, Hardeep Singh

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Cellular networks provide voice and data services to the users with mobility. To deliver services to the mobile users, the cellular network is capable of tracking the locations of the users, and allowing user movement during the conversations. These capabilities are achieved by the location management. Location management in mobile communication systems is concerned with those network functions necessary to allow the users to be reached wherever they are in the network coverage area. In a cellular network, a service coverage area is divided into smaller areas of hexagonal shape, referred to as cells. The cellular concept was introduced to reuse the radio frequency. Continued expansion of cellular networks, coupled with an increasingly restricted mobile spectrum, has established the reduction of communication overhead as a highly important issue. Much of this traffic is used in determining the precise location of individual users when relaying calls, with the field of location management aiming to reduce this overhead through prediction of user location. This paper describes and compares various location management schemes in the cellular networks.

Keywords: Cellular Networks, Location Area, MobilityManagement, Paging.

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Authors: Yung C. Ho, Hui C. Fang, Ming J. Hsieh

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When consistently innovative business-models can give companies a competitive advantage, longitudinal empirical research, which can reflect dynamic business-model changes, has yet to prove a definitive connection. This study consequently employs a dynamic perspective in conjunction with innovation theory to examine the relationship between the types of business-model innovation and firm value. This study tries to examine various types of business-model innovation in high-end and low-end technology industries such as HTC and the 7-Eleven chain stores with research periods of 14 years and 32 years, respectively. The empirical results suggest that adopting radical business-model innovation in addition to expanding new target markets can successfully lead to a competitive advantage. Sustained advanced technological competences and service/product innovation are the key successful factors in high-end and low-end technology industry business-models respectively. In sum up, the business-model innovation can yield a higher market value and financial value in high-end technology industries than low-end ones.

Keywords: Business-model, Dynamic Perspective, Firm Value, Innovation

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Authors: Violeta Damjanovic-Behrendt

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This paper presents an approach for optimal cyber security decisions to protect instances of a federated Internet of Things (IoT) platform in the cloud. The presented solution implements the repeated Stackelberg Security Game (SSG) and a model called Stochastic Human behaviour model with AttRactiveness and Probability weighting (SHARP). SHARP employs the Subjective Utility Quantal Response (SUQR) for formulating a subjective utility function, which is based on the evaluations of alternative solutions during decision-making. We augment the repeated SSG (including SHARP and SUQR) with a reinforced learning algorithm called Naïve Q-Learning. Naïve Q-Learning belongs to the category of active and model-free Machine Learning (ML) techniques in which the agent (either the defender or the attacker) attempts to find an optimal security solution. In this way, we combine GT and ML algorithms for discovering optimal cyber security policies. The proposed security optimization components will be validated in a collaborative cloud platform that is based on the Industrial Internet Reference Architecture (IIRA) and its recently published security model.

Keywords: Security, internet of things, cloud computing, Stackelberg security game, machine learning, Naïve Q-learning.

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Authors: Emelia Akashah P.A, Sharifah Nadiah S.A

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Knowledge sharing enables the information or knowledge to be transmitted from one source to another. This paper demonstrates the needs of having the online book catalogue which can be used to facilitate disseminating information on textbook used in the university. This project is aimed to give access to the students and lecturers to the list of books in the bookstore and at the same time to allow book reviewing without having to visit the bookstore physically. Research is carried out according to the boundaries which accounts to current process of new book purchasing, current system used by the bookstore and current process the lecturers go through for reviewing textbooks. The questionnaire is used to gather the requirements and it is distributed to 100 students and 40 lecturers. This project has enabled the improvement of a manual process to be carried out automatically, through a web based platform. It is shown based on the user acceptance survey carried out that target groups found that this web service is feasible to be implemented in Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP), and they have shown positive signs of interest in utilizing it in the future.

Keywords: bookstore, knowledge sharing, online bookcatalogue, textbook

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Authors: F. Gökgöz, M. E. Atmaca

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Electricity has an indispensable role in human daily life, technological development and economy. It is a special product or service that should be instantaneously generated and consumed. Sources of the world are limited so that effective and efficient use of them is very important not only for human life and environment but also for technological and economic development. Competitive electricity market is one of the important way that provides suitable platform for effective and efficient use of electricity. Besides benefits, it brings along some risks that should be carefully managed by a market player like Electricity Generation Company. Risk management is an essential part in market players’ decision making. In this paper, risk management through diversification is applied with the help of Value at Risk methods for case studies. Performance of optimal electricity sale solutions are measured and the portfolio performance has been evaluated via Sharpe-Ratio, and compared with conventional approach. Biennial historical electricity price data of Turkish Day Ahead Market are used to demonstrate the approach.

Keywords: Electricity market, portfolio optimization, risk management, Sharpe ratio, value at risk.

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Authors: Muhamad Nugraha

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Economic growth always correlate positively with the magnitude of the unemployment rate. This is caused by labor which one of important variable to keep growth in the real sector of the region. Meanwhile, the economic structure in districts of Jember showed an increase of economic activity began to shift towards the industrial sector and some other economic sectors, so they have an affects to considerations for policy makers to increase economic growth in Jember as an autonomous region in East Java Province. At the fact, SMEs is among the factors driving economic growth in the region. This is shown by the high amount of SMEs. However, employment in the sector grew slightly slowed. It is caused by a lack of productivity in SMEs. Through the analysis of the transformation of economic structure theory, and the theory of Triple Helix using descriptive analytical method Location Quotient and Shift - Share, found that the results of the economic structure in Jember slowly shifting from the agricultural sector to the industrial sector, because it is dominated by trade sector, hotel and restaurant sector. In addition, SMEs is the potential sector of economic growth in Jember. While to maximizing role and functions of the institution's Research and Development Center of SMEs, there are three points to be known, that are Business Landscape, Business Architecture and Value Added.

Keywords: Economic Growth, SMEs, Labor, Research and Development Center of SMEs.

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

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

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

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Authors: Chummanond Natchaya, Rotchanakitumnuai Siriluck

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The objective of this study is to identify the factors that influence the online purchasing loyalty for Thai herbal products. Survey research is used to gather data from Thai herb online merchants to assess factors that have impacts on enhancing loyalty. Data were collected from 300 online customers who had experience in online purchasing of Thai Herbal products. Prior experience consists of data from previous usage of online herbs, herb purchase and internet usage. E-Quality data consists of information quality, system quality, service quality and the product quality of Thai herbal products sold online. The results suggest that prior experience, Equality, attitude toward purchase and trust in online merchant have major impacts on loyalty. The good attitude and E-Quality of purchasing Thai herbal product online are the most significant determinants affecting loyalty.

Keywords: e-Commerce, Thai herb, E-Quality, satisfaction, loyalty.

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Authors: G. H. B. Dilhari, A. A. D. T. Saparamadu

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Sri Lanka is one of the prominent countries for the coir production. The coir is one of the by-products of the coconut and the coir industry is considered to be one of the traditional industries in Sri Lanka. Because of the inherent nature of the coir industry, labourers play a significant role in the coir production process. The study has analyzed the determinants of the income of the household level coir yarn labourers. The study was conducted in the Kumarakanda Grama Niladhari division. Simple random sampling was used to generate a sample of 100 household level coir yarn labourers and structured questionnaire, personal interviews, and discussion were performed to gather the required data. The obtained data were statistically analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software. Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis test were performed for mean comparison. The findings revealed that the household level coir yarn industry is dominated by the female workers and it was identified that fewer numbers of workers have engaged in this industry as the main occupation. In addition to that, elderly participation in the industry is higher than the younger participation and most of them have engaged in the industry as a source of extra income. Level of education, the methods of engagement, satisfaction, engagement in the industry by the next generation, support from the government, method of government support, working hours per day, employed as a main job, number of completed units per day, suffering from job related diseases and type of the diseases were related with income level of household level coir yarn laboures. The recommendations as to flourish in future includes, technological transformation for coir yarn production, strengthening the raw material base and regulating the raw material supply, introduction of new technologies, markets and training programmes, the establishment of the labourers’ association, the initiation of micro credit schemes and better consideration about the job oriented diseases.

Keywords: Coir, Income, Sri Lanka.

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Authors: Yasin Bilim, Alaaddin Başoda

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The recent growth of internet applications on hospitality and tourism provokes on-line consumer comments and reviews. Many researchers and practitioners have named this enormous potential as “e-WOM (electronic word of mouth)”. Travel comments are important experiential information for the potential travellers. Many researches have been conducted to analyse the effects of e-WOM on hotel consumers. Broadly quantitative methods have been used for analysing online comments. But, a few studies have mentioned about the positive practical aspects of the comments for hotel marketers. The study aims to show different usage and effects of hotel consumers’ comments. As qualitative analysis method, grounded theory, content and discourse analysis, were used. The data based on the 10 resort hotel consumers’ on-line comments. Results show that consumers tend to write comments about service person, rooms, food services and pool in their online space. These indicators can be used by hotel marketers as a marketing information tool.

Keywords: Comments, E-WOM, hotel consumer, qualitative.

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Authors: Swapneel U. Naphade, Dushyant A. Patil, Satyabodh M. Kulkarni

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In this work, we propose the concept and geometrical design of a soil moisture control system (SMCS) module by following the product development approach to develop an inexpensive, easy to use and quick to install product targeted towards agriculture practitioners. The module delivers water to the agricultural land efficiently by sensing the soil moisture and activating the delivery valve. We start with identifying the general needs of the potential customer. Then, based on customer needs we establish product specifications and identify important measuring quantities to evaluate our product. Keeping in mind the specifications, we develop various conceptual solutions of the product and select the best solution through concept screening and selection matrices. Then, we develop the product architecture by integrating the systems into the final product. In the end, the geometric design is done using human factors engineering concepts like heuristic analysis, task analysis, and human error reduction analysis. The result of human factors analysis reveals the remedies which should be applied while designing the geometry and software components of the product. We find that to design the best grip in terms of comfort and applied force, for a power-type grip, a grip-diameter of 35 mm is the most ideal.

Keywords: Agriculture, human factors, product design, soil moisture control.

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Authors: Cherryl Lowe

Abstract:

Background - The TrendCare Patient Dependency System is currently used by a large number of maternity Services across Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. In 2012, 2013 and 2014 validation studies were initiated in all three countries to validate the acuity tools used for women in labour, and postnatal mothers and babies. This paper will present the findings of the validation study. Aim - The aim of this study was to; identify if the care hours provided by the TrendCare acuity system was an accurate reflection of the care required by women and babies; obtain evidence of changes required to acuity indicators and/or category timings to ensure the TrendCare acuity system remains reliable and valid across a range of maternity care models in three countries. Method - A non-experimental action research methodology was used across maternity services in four District Health Boards in New Zealand, a large tertiary and a large secondary maternity service in Singapore and a large public maternity service in Australia. Standardised data collection forms and timing devices were used to collect midwife contact times, with women and babies included in the study. Rejection processes excluded samples when care was not completed/rationed, and contact timing forms were incomplete. The variances between actual timed midwife/mother/baby contact and the TrendCare acuity category times were identified and investigated. Results - Thirty two (88.9%) of the 36 TrendCare acuity category timings, fell within the variance tolerance levels when compared to the actual timings recorded for midwifery care. Four (11.1%) TrendCare categories provided less minutes of care than the actual timings and exceeded the variance tolerance level. These were all night shift category timings. Nine postnatal categories were not able to be compared as the sample size for these categories was statistically insignificant. 100% of labour ward TrendCare categories matched actual timings for midwifery care, all falling within the variance tolerance levels. The actual time provided by core midwifery staff to assist lead maternity carer (LMC) midwives in New Zealand labour wards showed a significant deviation to previous studies. The findings of the study demonstrated the need for additional time allocations in TrendCare to accommodate an increased level of assistance given to LMC midwives. Conclusion - The results demonstrated the importance of regularly validating the TrendCare category timings with actual timings of the care hours provided. It was evident from the findings that variances to models of care and length of stay in maternity units have increased midwifery workloads on the night shift. The level of assistance provided by the core labour ward staff to the LMC midwife has increased substantially. Outcomes - As a consequence of this study, changes were made to the night duty TrendCare maternity categories, additional acuity indicators were developed and times for assisting LMC midwives in labour ward increased. The updated TrendCare version was delivered to maternity services in 2014.

Keywords: Maternity, acuity, midwifery research, midwifery workloads.

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Authors: M. Mansouri, P. Jaklitsch, E. Teiniker

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SQL injection on web applications is a very popular kind of attack. There are mechanisms such as intrusion detection systems in order to detect this attack. These strategies often rely on techniques implemented at high layers of the application but do not consider the low level of system calls. The problem of only considering the high level perspective is that an attacker can circumvent the detection tools using certain techniques such as URL encoding. One technique currently used for detecting low-level attacks on privileged processes is the tracing of system calls. System calls act as a single gate to the Operating System (OS) kernel; they allow catching the critical data at an appropriate level of detail. Our basic assumption is that any type of application, be it a system service, utility program or Web application, “speaks” the language of system calls when having a conversation with the OS kernel. At this level we can see the actual attack while it is happening. We conduct an experiment in order to demonstrate the suitability of system call analysis for detecting SQL injection. We are able to detect the attack. Therefore we conclude that system calls are not only powerful in detecting low-level attacks but that they also enable us to detect highlevel attacks such as SQL injection.

Keywords: Linux system calls, Web attack detection, Interception.

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Authors: Clare Watsford, Debra Rickwood

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Client expectations and preferences about therapy represent an important area of investigation as research shows they are linked to engagement in therapy and therapy outcomes. Studies examining young people-s expectations and preferences of therapy remain a neglected area of research. The present study explored what expectations and preferences young people seeking professional help held regarding: their role as a client, their therapist-s role, their therapeutic outcomes, and the processes of therapy. Gender and age differences were also examined. Participants included 188 young people aged 12-25 who completed a survey while attending their initial session at a youth mental health service. Data were analysed using quantitative methods. Results found the young people held significantly more pessimistic expectations around therapy when compared to what they had wanted therapy to be like. Few age and gender differences were found. Results highlight the importance of a collaborative therapy approach when working with young people.

Keywords: Client expectations, mental health services, preferences, young people

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Authors: Susmita Das, Kala Praveen Bagadi

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SDMA (Space-Division Multiple Access) is a MIMO (Multiple-Input and Multiple-Output) based wireless communication network architecture which has the potential to significantly increase the spectral efficiency and the system performance. The maximum likelihood (ML) detection provides the optimal performance, but its complexity increases exponentially with the constellation size of modulation and number of users. The QR decomposition (QRD) MUD can be a substitute to ML detection due its low complexity and near optimal performance. The minimum mean-squared-error (MMSE) multiuser detection (MUD) minimises the mean square error (MSE), which may not give guarantee that the BER of the system is also minimum. But the minimum bit error rate (MBER) MUD performs better than the classic MMSE MUD in term of minimum probability of error by directly minimising the BER cost function. Also the MBER MUD is able to support more users than the number of receiving antennas, whereas the rest of MUDs fail in this scenario. In this paper the performance of various MUD techniques is verified for the correlated MIMO channel models based on IEEE 802.16n standard.

Keywords: Multiple input multiple output, multiuser detection, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, space division multiple access, Bit error rate

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Authors: Aboamama Atahar Ahmed, Muhammad Shafie Abd Latiff, Kamalrulnizam Abu Bakar, Zainul AhmadRajion

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Distance visualization of large datasets often takes the direction of remote viewing and zooming techniques of stored static images. However, the continuous increase in the size of datasets and visualization operation causes insufficient performance with traditional desktop computers. Additionally, the visualization techniques such as Isosurface depend on the available resources of the running machine and the size of datasets. Moreover, the continuous demand for powerful computing powers and continuous increase in the size of datasets results an urgent need for a grid computing infrastructure. However, some issues arise in current grid such as resources availability at the client machines which are not sufficient enough to process large datasets. On top of that, different output devices and different network bandwidth between the visualization pipeline components often result output suitable for one machine and not suitable for another. In this paper we investigate how the grid services could be used to support remote visualization of large datasets and to break the constraint of physical co-location of the resources by applying the grid computing technologies. We show our grid enabled architecture to visualize large medical datasets (circa 5 million polygons) for remote interactive visualization on modest resources clients.

Keywords: Visualization, Grid computing, Medical datasets, visualization techniques, thin clients, Globus toolkit, VTK.

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Authors: Robin Becker, Maike Eilers, Nane Roetmann, Manfred Helmus

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The shortage of junior staff in the construction industry is a problem that will be further exacerbated in the coming years by the retirement of the baby-boom generations (1955-1969) from employment. In addition, the current working conditions in the field of construction management are not attractive for young professionals. A survey of students as part of the paper revealed a desire for an increase in flexibility and an improved work-life balance in everyday working life. Students of civil engineering and architecture are basically interested in a career in construction management but have reservations due to the image of the profession and the current working conditions. A survey among experts from the construction industry, also as a part of the paper, shows that the profession can become more attractive. This report provides recommendations for action in the form of working modules to improve the working conditions of employees. If these are taken into account, graduates can be attracted to the profession of construction management, and existing staff can be retained more effectively. The aim of this report is to show incentives for employers to respond to the wishes and needs of their current and future employees to the extent that can be implemented.

Keywords: Modern construction management, construction industry, work modules, shortage of junior staff, sustainable personnel management, making construction management more attractive, working time model.

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Authors: Azza Taha Zaki

Abstract:

Technology-enhanced teaching has been in the limelight since the 90s when educators started investigating and experimenting with using computers in the classroom as a means of building 21^st. century skills and motivating students. The concept of technology-enhanced strategies in education is kaleidoscopic! It has meant different things to different educators. For the purpose of this paper, however, it will be used to refer to the diverse technology-based strategies used to support and enrich the flipped learning process, in the classroom and outside. The paper will investigate how technology is put in the service of teaching and learning to improve the students’ learning experience as manifested in students’ attendance and engagement, achievement rates and finally, students’ projects at the end of the semester. The results will be supported by a student survey about relevant specific aspects of their learning experience in the modules in the study.

Keywords: Attendance, British University, Egypt, flipped, student achievement, student-centred, student engagement, students’ projects.

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Authors: Ahmed Ebian, Mona Shokair, Kamal Awadalla

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Mobile WiMAX is a broadband wireless solution that enables convergence of mobile and fixed broadband networks through a common wide area broadband radio access technology and flexible network architecture. It adopts Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) for improved multi-path performance in Non-Line-Of-Sight (NLOS) environments. Scalable OFDMA (SOFDMA) is introduced in the IEEE 802e[1]. WIMAX system uses one of different types of channel coding but The mandatory channel coding scheme is based on binary nonrecursive Convolutional Coding (CC). There are other several optional channel coding schemes such as block turbo codes, convolutional turbo codes, and low density parity check (LDPC). In this paper a comparison between the performance of WIMAX using turbo code and using convolutional product code (CPC) [2] is made. Also a combination between them had been done. The CPC gives good results at different SNR values compared to both the turbo system, and the combination between them. For example, at BER equal to 10-2 for 128 subcarriers, the amount of improvement in SNR equals approximately 3 dB higher than turbo code and equals approximately 2dB higher than the combination respectively. Several results are obtained at different modulating schemes (16QAM and 64QAM) and different numbers of sub-carriers (128 and 512).

Keywords: Turbo Code, Convolutional Product Code (CPC), Convolutional Product Code (CPC).

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Authors: Javad Elkaie Behjati, Mehrzad Minouei

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The present study aimed to assess the cost of money based on separating deposits and identifying actions and costs affecting in the process of cost of money in EN Bank of Iran (also known as Eghtesad Novin Bank). The method to calculate the cost of money is based on Activity-Based Costing (ABC). To conduct the study, the required data including deposits in banks and absorbed costs related to the same deposits were extracted from the financial statements of the bank. In order to cost the bank services properly as well as determining the commercial strategies required by commercial units, the data are precisely studied and the cost of each deposit is calculated according to the ABC. Eventually, the factors helping to improve the cost management and also a new model to calculate the cost of money in the bank are presented by some applicable formulas. Furthermore, some offers have been provided for users of both sections, in the practical section in commercial units and the theoretical one in universities.

Keywords: The cost of money, activity-based costing, banking, bank deposits, bank fees, services bank.

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Authors: A. Karasek

Abstract:

Rapid growth of Information Technologies (IT) has had huge influence on enterprises, and it has contributed to its promotion and increasingly extensive use in enterprises. Information Technologies have to a large extent determined the processes taking place in an enterprise; what is more, IT development has brought the need to adopt a brand new approach to human resources management in an enterprise. The use of IT in human resource management (HRM) is of high importance due to the growing role of information and information technologies. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the use of information technologies in human resources management in enterprises. These practices will be presented in the following areas: recruitment and selection, development and training, employee assessment, motivation, talent management, personnel service. Results of conducted survey show diversity of solutions applied in particular areas of human resource management. In the future, further development in this area should be expected, as well as integration of individual HRM areas, growing mobile-enabled HR processes and their transfer into the cloud. Presented IT solutions applied in HRM are highly innovative, which is of great significance due to their possible implementation in other enterprises.

Keywords: E-HR, human resources management, HRM practices, HRMS, information technologies.

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Authors: M. A. Rashed, A. S. Mansour, H. Faris, W. Afify

Abstract:

The calcarenites carbonate rocks of the Quaternary ridges, which extend along the northwestern Mediterranean coastal plain of Egypt, represent an excellent model for the transformation of loose sediments to real sedimentary rocks by the different stages of meteoric diagenesis. The depositional and diagenetic fabrics of the rocks, in addition to the strata orientation, highly affect their ultimate compressive strength and other geotechnical properties.

There is a marked increase in the compressive strength (UCS) from the first to the fourth ridge rock samples. The lowest values are related to the loose packing, weakly cemented aragonitic ooid sediments with high porosity, besides the irregularly distributed of cement, which result in decreasing the ability of these rocks to withstand crushing under direct pressure. The high (UCS) values are attributed to the low porosity, the presence of micritic cement, the reduction in grain size and the occurrence of micritization and calcretization processes.

The strata orientation has a notable effect on the measured (UCS). The lowest values have been recorded for the samples cored in the inclined direction; whereas the highest values have been noticed in most samples cored in the vertical and parallel directions to bedding plane. In case of the inclined direction, the bedding planes were oriented close to the plane of maximum shear stress. The lowest and highest anisotropy values have been recorded for the first and the third ridges rock samples, respectively, which may attributed to the relatively homogeneity and well sorted grainstone of the first ridge rock samples, and relatively heterogeneity in grain and pore size distribution and degree of cementation of the third ridge rock samples, besides, the abundance of shell fragments with intraparticle pore spaces, which may produce lines of weakness within the rock.

Keywords: Compressive strength, Anisotropy, Calcarenites, Egypt.

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Authors: Gül Çevik

Abstract:

This paper summarizes the work conducted to assess the root cause of the failure of a medium commercial vehicle leaf spring failed in service. Macro- and micro-fractographic analyses by scanning electron microscope as well as material verification tests were conducted in order to understand the failure mechanisms and root cause of the failure. Findings from the fractographic analyses indicated that failure mechanism is fatigue. Crack initiation was identified to have occurred from a point on the top surface near to the front face and to the left side. Two other crack initiation points were also observed, however, these cracks did not propagate. The propagation mode of the fatigue crack revealed that the cyclic loads resulting in crack initiation and propagation were unidirectional bending. Fractographic analyses have also showed that the root cause of the fatigue crack initiation and propagation was loading the part above design stress. Material properties of the part were also verified by chemical composition analysis, microstructural analysis by optical microscopy and hardness tests.

Keywords: Leaf spring, failure analysis, fatigue, fractography.

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