Search results for: social services

Authors: Jasraj Meena, Malay Kumar, Manu Vardhan

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Cloud computing is a new technology in industry and academia. The technology has grown and matured in last half decade and proven their significant role in changing environment of IT infrastructure where cloud services and resources are offered over the network. Cloud technology enables users to use services and resources without being concerned about the technical implications of technology. There are substantial research work has been performed for the usage of cloud computing in educational institutes and majority of them provides cloud services over high-end blade servers or other high-end CPUs. However, this paper proposes a new stack called “CiCKAStack” which provide cloud services over unutilized computing resources, named as commodity computers. “CiCKAStack” provides IaaS and PaaS using underlying commodity computers. This will not only increasing the utilization of existing computing resources but also provide organize file system, on demand computing resource and design and development environment.

Keywords: Commodity Computers, Cloud Computing, KVM, Cloudstack, Appscale.

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Authors: Nafise Fareghzadeh

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Web services provide significant new benefits for SOAbased applications, but they also expose significant new security risks. There are huge number of WS security standards and processes. At present, there is still a lack of a comprehensive approach which offers a methodical development in the construction of secure WS-based SOA. Thus, the main objective of this paper is to address this needs, presenting a comprehensive method for Web Services Security guaranty in SOA. The proposed method defines three stages, Initial Security Analysis, Architectural Security Guaranty and WS Security Standards Identification. These facilitate, respectively, the definition and analysis of WS-specific security requirements, the development of a WS-based security architecture and the identification of the related WS security standards that the security architecture must articulate in order to implement the security services.

Keywords: Kernel, Repository, Security Standards, WS Security Policy, WS specification.

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Authors: Hironori Karachi, Haruka Yamashita

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Recently, the system of quick response (QR) code is getting popular. Many companies introduce new QR code payment services and the services are competing with each other to increase the number of users. For increasing the number of users, we should grasp the difference of feature of the demographic information, usage information, and value of users between services. In this study, we conduct an analysis of real-world data provided by Nomura Research Institute including the demographic data of users and information of users’ usages of two services; LINE Pay, and PayPay. For analyzing such data and interpret the feature of them, Nonnegative Matrix Factorization (NMF) is widely used; however, in case of the target data, there is a problem of the missing data. EM-algorithm NMF (EMNMF) to complete unknown values for understanding the feature of the given data presented by matrix shape. Moreover, for comparing the result of the NMF analysis of two matrices, there is Discriminant NMF (DNMF) shows the difference of users features between two matrices. In this study, we combine EMNMF and DNMF and also analyze the target data. As the interpretation, we show the difference of the features of users between LINE Pay and Paypay.

Keywords: Data science, non-negative matrix factorization, missing data, quality of services.

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Authors: Ogunduyile O. Oluwgbenga

Abstract:

Recent advancements in sensor technologies and Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) have led to the development of cost-effective healthcare devices which can be used to monitor and analyse a person-s physiological parameters from remote locations. These advancements provides a unique opportunity to overcome current healthcare challenges of low quality service provisioning, lack of easy accessibility to service varieties, high costs of services and increasing population of the elderly experienced globally. This paper reports on a prototype implementation of an architecture that seamlessly integrates Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) with Web services (WS) to proactively collect physiological data of remote patients to recommend diagnostic services. Technologies based upon WBAN and WS can provide ubiquitous accessibility to a variety of services by allowing distributed healthcare resources to be massively reused to provide cost-effective services without individuals physically moving to the locations of those resources. In addition, these technologies can reduce costs of healthcare services by allowing individuals to access services to support their healthcare. The prototype uses WBAN body sensors implemented on arduino fio platforms to be worn by the patient and an android smart phone as a personal server. The physiological data are collected and uploaded through GPRS/internet to the Medical Health Server (MHS) to be analysed. The prototype monitors the activities, location and physiological parameters such as SpO2 and Heart Rate of the elderly and patients in rehabilitation. Medical practitioners would have real time access to the uploaded information through a web application.

Keywords: Android Smart phone, Arduino Fio, Web application server, Wireless Body Area Networks.

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Authors: Shivakumar Krishnamurti, Ruchi Agarwal

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The study examines the influence of marital status on consumers of products and services using blogs as a source of information. A pre-designed questionnaire was used to collect the primary data from the respondents (experiences). Data were collected from one hundred and eighty seven respondents residing in and around the Emirates of Sharjah and Dubai of the United Arab Emirates. The collected data was analyzed with the help of statistical tools such as averages, percentages, factor analysis, Student’s t-test and Structural Equation Modelling Technique. Objectives of the study are to know the reasons how married and unmarried or single consumers of products and services are motivated to use blogs as a source of information, to know whether the consumers of products and services irrespective of their marital status share their views and experiences with other bloggers and to know the respondents’ future intentions towards blogging. The study revealed the following: Majority of the respondents have the motivation to blog because they are willing to receive comments on what they post about services, convenience of blogs to search for information about services and products, by blogging respondents share information on the symptoms of a disease/ disorder that may be experienced by someone, helps to share information about ready to cook mix products and are keen to spend more time blogging in the future.

Keywords: Blog, consumer, information, marital status.

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Authors: P. Prudtikul, S. Pathomsiri

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Most, if not all, public hospitals in Thailand have encountered a common problem regarding the increasing demand for medical services. The increasing number of patients causes so much strain on the hospital-s services, over-crowded, overloaded working hours, staff fatigue, medical error and long waiting time. This research studied the characteristics of operational processes of the medical care services at the medicine department in a large public university hospital. The research focuses on details regarding methods, procedures, processes, resources, and time management in overall processes. The simulation model is used as a tool to analyze the impact of various improvement strategies.

Keywords: Patient flow, medicine department, simulation, outpatient department.

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Authors: Irida Agolli Nasufi, Anxhela Bruci

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This paper presents Albanian government policies regarding the reintegration process for returning Albanian survivors of trafficking in human beings. Focusing on an in-depth analysis of governmental, non-governmental documents and semi-structured qualitative interviews conducted with service providers and trafficking survivors. Furthermore, this paper will especially focus on the governmental efforts to provide support to the survivors, focusing on their needs and challenges. This study explores the conditions and actual services provided to the survivors of trafficking in human beings that are in the reintegration process in Albania. Moreover, it examines the responsible mechanisms accountable for the reintegration process, by analysing synergies between governmental and non-governmental organisations. Also, this paper explores the governmental approach towards trafficking survivors and apprises policymakers to undertake changes and reforms in their future actions.

Keywords: Policies, social services, service user, trafficking in human beings, government.

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Authors: A. Camões, M. Ferreira Dias, M. Amorim

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In recent years, the social economy is increasingly seen as a viable means to address social problems. Social enterprises, as well as public projects and initiatives targeted to meet social purposes, offer organizational models that assume heterogeneity, flexibility and adaptability to the ‘real world and real problems’. Despite the growing popularity of social initiatives, decision makers still face a paucity in what concerns the available models and tools to adequately assess its sustainability, and its impacts, notably the nature of its contribution to economic growth. This study was carried out at the local level, by analyzing the social impact initiatives and projects promoted by the Municipality of Albergaria-a-Velha (Câmara Municipal de Albergaria-a-Velha -CMA), a municipality of 25,000 inhabitants in the central region of Portugal. This work focuses on the challenges related to the qualifications and employability of citizens, which stands out as one of the key concerns in the Portuguese economy, particularly expressive in the context of small-scale cities and inland territories. The study offers a characterization of the Municipality, its socio-economic structure and challenges, followed by an exploratory analysis of multiple sourced data, collected from the CMA's documental sources as well as from privileged informants. The purpose is to conduct detailed analysis of the CMA's social projects, aimed at characterizing its potential impact for the model of qualifications and employability of the citizens of the Municipality. The study encompasses a discussion of the socio-economic profile of the municipality, notably its asymmetries, the analysis of the social projects and initiatives, as well as of data derived from inquiry actors involved in the implementation of the social projects and its beneficiaries. Finally, the results obtained with the Better Life Index will be included. This study makes it possible to ascertain if what is implicit in the literature goes to the encounter of what one experiences in reality.

Keywords: Measurement, municipalities, social economy, social impact.

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Authors: Laila Yasir Al-Harthy, Ali H. Al-Badi

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As an emerging business model, cloud computing has been initiated to satisfy the need of organizations and to push Information Technology as a utility. The shift to the cloud has changed the way Information Technology departments are managed traditionally and has raised many concerns for both, public and private sectors.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the possibility of cloud computing services replacing services provided traditionally by IT departments. Therefore, it aims to 1) explore whether organizations in Oman are ready to move to the cloud; 2) identify the deciding factors leading to the adoption or rejection of cloud computing services in Oman; and 3) provide two case studies, one for a successful Cloud provider and another for a successful adopter.

This paper is based on multiple research methods including conducting a set of interviews with cloud service providers and current cloud users in Oman; and collecting data using questionnaires from experts in the field and potential users of cloud services.

Despite the limitation of bandwidth capacity and Internet coverage offered in Oman that create a challenge in adopting the cloud, it was found that many information technology professionals are encouraged to move to the cloud while few are resistant to change.

The recent launch of a new Omani cloud service provider and the entrance of other international cloud service providers in the Omani market make this research extremely valuable as it aims to provide real-life experience as well as two case studies on the successful provision of cloud services and the successful adoption of these services.

Keywords: Cloud computing, cloud deployment models, cloud service models and deciding factors.

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Authors: Nada Azhar

Abstract:

The aim of the paper is to investigate the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) CSR on the National Commercial Bank (NCB) in Saudi Arabia. In order to achieve this, a case study was made of the CSR activities of this bank from the perspective of its branch managers. The NCB was chosen as it was one of the first Saudi banks to engage in CSR and currently has a wide range of CSR initiatives. A qualitative research method was used. Open-ended questionnaires were administered to eighty branch managers of the NCB, with fifty-five usable questionnaires returned and twenty managers were interviewed as part of the primary research. Data from both questionnaires and interviews were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Six themes emerged from the questionnaire findings were used to develop the interview questions. These themes are the following: Awareness of employees about CSR in the NCB; CSR activities as a type of investment; Government and media support; Increased employee loyalty in the NCB; Prestige and profit to the NCB; and View of CSR in Islam. This paper makes a theoretical contribution in that it investigates and increases understanding of the effect of CSR on the NCB in Saudi Arabia. In addition, it makes a practical contribution by making recommendations which can support the development of CSR in the NCB. A limitation of the paper is that it is a case study of only one bank. It is therefore recommended that future research could be conducted with other banks in Saudi Arabia, or indeed, with a range of other types of firm within the financial services area in Saudi Arabia. In this way, the same issues could be explored but with a greater potential generalisability of findings of CSR within the Saudi Arabian financial services industry. In addition, this paper takes a qualitative approach and it is suggested that future research be carried out using mixed methods, which could provide a greater depth of analysis.

Keywords: Branch managers, corporate social responsibility. national commercial bank, Saudi Arabia.

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Authors: Thiago M. R. Dias, Gray F. Moita, Paulo E. M. Almeida

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Although the World Wide Web is considered the largest source of information there exists nowadays, due to its inherent dynamic characteristics, the task of finding useful and qualified information can become a very frustrating experience. This study presents a research on the information mining systems in the Web; and proposes an implementation of these systems by means of components that can be built using the technology of Web services. This implies that they can encompass features offered by a services oriented architecture (SOA) and specific components may be used by other tools, independent of platforms or programming languages. Hence, the main objective of this work is to provide an architecture to Web mining systems, divided into stages, where each step is a component that will incorporate the characteristics of SOA. The separation of these steps was designed based upon the existing literature. Interesting results were obtained and are shown here.

Keywords: Web Mining, Service Oriented Architecture, WebServices.

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Authors: Elisa Pautasso, Matteo Castagno, Michele Osella

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In the last decade the emergence of new social needs as an effect of the economic crisis has stimulated the flourishing of business endeavours characterised by explicit social goals. Social start-ups, social enterprises or Corporate Social Responsibility operations carried out by traditional companies are quintessential examples in this regard. This paper analyses these kinds of initiatives in order to discover the main characteristics of social business models and to provide insights to social entrepreneurs for developing or improving their strategies. The research is conducted through the integration of literature review and case study analysis and, thanks to the recognition of the importance of both profits and social impacts as the key success factors for a social business model, proposes a framework for identifying indicators suitable for measuring the social impacts generated.

Keywords: Business model, case study, impacts, social business.

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Authors: Sulaiman A. Alateyah, Richard M Crowder, Gary B Wills

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This paper discusses E-government, in particular the challenges that face its development and widespread adoption in Saudi Arabia. E-government can be defined based on an existing set of requirements. E-government has been implemented for a considerable time in developed countries. However, E-government services still face many challenges in their implementation and general adoption in Saudi Arabia. In addition, the literature review and the discussion identify the influential factors, such as quality of service, diffusion of innovation, computer and information literacy, culture, lack of awareness, technical infrastructure, website design, and security, that affect the citizens’ intention to adopt E-government services in Saudi Arabia. Consequently, these factors have been integrated in a new model that would influence citizen to adopt E- government services. Therefore, this research presents an integrated model for ascertaining the intention to adopt E-government services and thereby aiding governments in accessing what is required to increase adoption.

Keywords: Adoption, citizens’ intention, E-government, G2C, influential factors.

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Authors: F. Sarabchi, A. H. Darvishan, H. Yeganeh, H. Ahmadian

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Next generation networks with the idea of convergence of service and control layer in existing networks (fixed, mobile and data) and with the intention of providing services in an integrated network, has opened new horizon for telecom operators. On the other hand, economic problems have caused operators to look for new source of income including consider new services, subscription of more users and their promotion in using morenetwork resources and easy participation of service providers or 3rd party operators in utilizing networks. With this requirement, an architecture based on next generation objectives for service layer is necessary. In this paper, a new architecture based on IMS model explains participation of 3rd party operators in creation and implementation of services on an integrated telecom network.

Keywords: Service model, IMS, API, Scripting language, JAIN, Parlay.

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Authors: Tasneem Halawani, Yamen Khateeb

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With customers’ ever-increasing expectations for fast services provisioning for all their business needs, information technology (IT) organizations, as business partners, have to cope with this demanding environment and deliver their services in the most effective and efficient way. The purpose of this paper is to identify optimization and automation opportunities for the top requested IT services in a heterogenic digital environment and widely spread customer base. In collaboration with systems, processes, and subject matter experts (SMEs), the processes in scope were approached by analyzing four-year related historical data, identifying and surveying stakeholders, modeling the as-is processes, and studying systems integration/automation capabilities. This effort resulted in identifying several pain areas, including standardization, unnecessary customer and IT involvement, manual steps, systems integration, and performance measurement. These pain areas were addressed by standardizing the top five requested IT services, eliminating/automating 43 steps, and utilizing a single platform for end-to-end process execution. In conclusion, the optimization of IT service request processes in a heterogenic digital environment and widely spread customer base is challenging, yet achievable without compromising the service quality and customers’ added value. Further studies can focus on measuring the value of the eliminated/automated process steps to quantify the enhancement impact. Moreover, a similar approach can be utilized to optimize other IT service requests, with a focus on business criticality.

Keywords: Automation, customer value, heterogenic, integration, IT services, optimization, processes.

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Authors: Christos E. Alexakos, Konstantinos C. Giotopoulos, Eleni J. Thermogianni, Grigorios N. Beligiannis, Spiridon D. Likothanassis

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In this contribution an innovative platform is being presented that integrates intelligent agents in legacy e-learning environments. It introduces the design and development of a scalable and interoperable integration platform supporting various assessment agents for e-learning environments. The agents are implemented in order to provide intelligent assessment services to computational intelligent techniques such as Bayesian Networks and Genetic Algorithms. The utilization of new and emerging technologies like web services allows integrating the provided services to any web based legacy e-learning environment.

Keywords: Bayesian Networks, Computational Intelligence techniques, E-learning legacy systems, Service Oriented Integration, Intelligent Agents

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Authors: Mahmood Niroobakhsh

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This article deals with special structuralism approaches to explain a certain kind of social problem. Widespread presence of poverty is a reminder of deep-rooted unresolved problems of social relations. The expected role from an individual for the social system recognizes poverty derived from an interrelated social structure. By the time, enabled to act on his role in the course of social interaction, reintegration of the poor in society may take place. Poverty and housing type are reflections of the underlying social structure, primarily structure’s elements, systemic interrelations, and the overall strength or weakness of that structure. Poverty varies based on social structure in that the stronger structures are less likely to produce poverty.

Keywords: Absolute poverty, relative poverty, social structure, urban poverty.

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Authors: Jolanta Brodowska-Szewczuk

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The article includes the results and conclusions from empirical researches that had been done. The research focuses on the impact of investments made in small and medium-sized enterprises financed from EU funds on the competitiveness of these companies. The researches includes financial results in sales revenue and net income, expenses, and many other new products/services on offer, higher quality products and services, more modern methods of production, innovation in management processes, increase in the number of customers, increase in market share, increase in profitability of production and provision of services. The main conclusions are that, companies with direct investments under this measure shall apply the modern methods of production. The consequence of this is to increase the quality of our products and services. Furthermore, both small and medium-sized enterprises have introduced new products and services. Investments were carried out, thus enabling better work organization in enterprises. Entrepreneurs would guarantee higher quality of service, which would result in better relationships with their customers, what is more, noting the rise in number of clients. More than half of the companies indicated that the investments contributed to the increase in market share. Same thing as for market reach and brand recognition of particular company. An interesting finding is that, investments in small enterprises were more effective than medium-sized enterprises.

Keywords: Competitiveness, efficiency, EU funds, small and medium-sized enterprises.

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Authors: Sherif G. Aly

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In this article, we introduce a mechanism by which the same concept of differentiated services used in network transmission can be applied to provide quality of service levels to pervasive systems applications. The classical DiffServ model, including marking and classification, assured forwarding, and expedited forwarding, are all utilized to create quality of service guarantees for various pervasive applications requiring different levels of quality of service. Through a collection of various sensors, personal devices, and data sources, the transmission of contextsensitive data can automatically occur within a pervasive system with a given quality of service level. Triggers, initiators, sources, and receivers are four entities labeled in our mechanism. An explanation of the role of each is provided, and how quality of service is guaranteed.

Keywords: Pervasive systems, quality of service, differentiated services, mobile devices.

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Authors: A. Petz, S. Duckwitz, C. Schmalz, S. Meyer, S. Mütze-Niewöhner, C.M. Schlick

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Although services play a crucial role in economy, service did not gain as much importance as productivity management in manufacturing. This paper presents key findings from literature and practice. Based on an initial definition of complex services, seven productivity concepts are briefly presented and assessed by relevant, complex service specific criteria. Following the findings a complex service productivity model is proposed. The novel model comprises of all specific dimensions of service provision from both, the provider-s as well as costumer-s perspective. A clear assignment of identified value drivers and relationships between them is presented. In order to verify the conceptual service productivity model a case study from a project engineering department of a chemical plant development and construction company is presented.

Keywords: assessment model, complex services, service productivity model, value driver.

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Authors: Linda Sau-ling LAI

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This paper aims to address the new trend of social commerce as electronic commerce leverages Web 2.0 technologies and online social media. The infusions of new technologies on the World Wide Web connect users in their homes and workplaces, thus transforming social formations and business transactions. An in-depth study of the growth and success of a social commerce site, Facebook was conducted. The investigation is finalized with a triad relational model which reflects socioeconomic life in the Internet today. The following three concepts work jointly to form a global community that has already started to take the place of traditional commerce and socialization: Web 2.0 technology, E-commerce, and online social media. A discussion of the research findings indicates that social commerce networks are sustainable because of the various incentives given to users as they collaborate with others regardless of their identity and location. The focus of this article is to increase understanding on quickly developing Web 2.0 based social media and their subsequent effects on the emerging social commerce.

Keywords: Social Commerce, Web 2.0, ElectronicCommerce, Social Media

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Authors: Dominika Crnjac Milic, Martina Martinovic, Vladimir Simovic

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The case study method in this paper shows the implementation of Information Technology (IT) and the Serial Shipping Container Code (SSCC) in a Croatian company that deals with logistics operations and provides logistics services in the cold chain segment. This company is aware of the sensitivity of the goods entrusted to them by the user of the service, as well as of the importance of speed and accuracy in providing logistics services. To that end, it has implemented and used the latest IT to ensure the highest standard of high-quality logistics services to its customers. Looking for efficiency and optimization of supply chain management, while maintaining a high level of quality of the products that are sold, today's users of outsourced logistics services are open to the implementation of new IT products that ultimately deliver savings. By analysing the positive results and the difficulties that arise when using this technology, we aim to provide an insight into the potential of this approach of the logistics service provider.

Keywords: Logistics operations, serial shipping container code, SSCC, information technology, cost optimization.

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Authors: A. Kulprasutidilok

Abstract:

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

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

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Authors: Patrick B. Cobbinah, Clifford Amoako

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Kumasi is Ghana’s second largest and fastest growing city with an annual population growth rate of 5.4 percent. A major result of this phenomenon is a growing sprawl at the fringes of the city. This paper assesses the nature, extent and impact of sprawl on Kumasi and examines urban planning efforts at addressing this phenomenon. Both secondary and empirical data were collected from decentralized government departments of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly and residents of some sprawling communities. The study reveals that sprawl in the metropolis is rapidly consuming fringe rural communities. This situation has weakened effective management of the metropolis causing problems such as congestion and conversion of peri-urban land into residential use without ancillary infrastructure and social services. The paper recommends effective and timely planning and provision of services as well as an overall economic development and spatial integration through regional planning as a way of achieving a long term solution to sprawl.

Keywords: Kumasi, peri-urban, urban planning, urban sprawl.

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Authors: Wan-Yu Liu, Yen-Hsiang Liu, Shing-Yi Huang, Hao-Zhi Wen

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The private theme parks are gradually surpassing public-owned scenic areas after many years of development and have become a mainstream choice for domestic tourists. Previous studies show that visitors from different backgrounds differ in consumer behavior and satisfaction factors. An understanding of visitor satisfaction is therefore of extreme importance to operators of privately-owned theme parks. Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) is used to measure consumer's potential satisfaction with services and has become a widely used management tool for strength and weakness analysis for brands, products, services and point of sales. As IPA has so far not been used to evaluate the visitor satisfaction with privately-owned theme parks, in this study the IPA method is used to analyze visitor satisfaction with Janfusun Fancyworld (one of the most popular private theme parks in Taiwan) and to rank visitor focus and satisfaction on/in theme park facilities and services. Results of the analysis provide private theme park operators with an understanding of user or consumer demands as well as an assessment of the quality of services currently offered.

Keywords: Satisfaction, Importance-Performance Analysis, Theme Parks, Janfusun Fancyworld.

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Authors: Jeong Hoon Lee, Jin Hwan Yu

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The number of people using SNS with their mobile devices is soaring. This research focuses on the Twitter service that has the most third-party applications and delved into the fact that there were not sufficient studies on the UX design aspects of Twitter applications. Among social network services which have emerged as a major social topic lately, this research try to analyze the UX design of the Twitter application which is also called micro-blogging service. Therefore this research sets its goal to draw components of the UX design aspect of the Tweeter application on which there are not enough analysis yet. Moreover, this research suggests improvement of mobile application which will assure better users- experience. In order to analyze the UX design aspect of the mobile twitter application, with relevant document and user research, evaluating factors of the UX Design which would affect users- experience were organized. The subjects for cases were selected among six paid and free social networking applications that had been consistently ranked from 1st to 100th in the Korean application store during May, 2012 after closely monitoring the rank. From May 15th to May 11th in 2012, in accordance with the evaluating standard, surveys were conducted in a form of interviews with 20 subjects who have used the Twitter application to find out problems and solutions for the UX design of the mobile Twitter application.

Keywords: Social network service, twitter, user experience design, interface design.

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Authors: Dezhi Li, Peng Cui, Bo Zhang, Tengyuan Chang

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In order to solve the housing problem for the low-income families, the construction of affordable housing is booming in China. However, due to various reasons, the service facilities and systems in the indemnificatory residential community meet many problems. This article established a Satisfaction Evaluation System of the Fundamental Public Services for Large-scale Indemnificatory Residential Community based on the national standards and local criteria and developed evaluation methods and processes. At last, in the case of Huagang project in Nanjing, the satisfaction of basic public service is calculated according to a survey of local residents.

Keywords: Indemnificatory residential community, public services, satisfaction evaluation, structural equation modeling.

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Authors: Sulaiman A. Alateyah, Richard M Crowder, Gary B Wills

Abstract:

This paper discusses E-government, in particular the challenges that face adoption in Saudi Arabia. E-government can be defined based on an existing set of requirements. In this research we define E-government as a matrix of stakeholders: governments to governments, governments to business and governments to citizens, using information and communications technology to deliver and consume services. E-government has been implemented for a considerable time in developed countries. However, E-government services still face many challenges in their implementation and general adoption in many countries including Saudi Arabia. It has been noted that the introduction of E-government is a major challenge facing the government of Saudi Arabia, due to possible concerns raised by its citizens. In addition, the literature review and the discussion identify the influential factors that affect the citizens’ intention to adopt E-government services in Saudi Arabia. Consequently, these factors have been defined and categorized followed by an exploratory study to examine the importance of these factors. Therefore, this research has identified factors that determine if the citizen will adopt E-government services and thereby aiding governments in accessing what is required to increase adoption.

Keywords: E-government, adoption, factors, G2C, intention, citizens’ intention, influential factors.

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Authors: Yosia Mulumba, Klaus Schmidt

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Financial Inclusion is considered a key pillar for development in most countries around the world. Access to affordable financial services in a country’s economy can be a driver to overcome poverty and reduce income inequalities, and thus increase economic growth. Nevertheless, the number of financially excluded populations in developing countries continues to be very high. This paper explores the role of Financial Technology (Fintech) as a key driver for achieving financial inclusion in developing countries post the COVID-19 pandemic with an emphasis on four East African countries: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Rwanda. The research paper is inspired by the positive disruption caused by the pandemic, which has compelled societies in East Africa to adapt and embrace the use of financial technology innovations, specifically Mobile Money Services (MMS), to access financial services. MMS has been further migrated and integrated with other financial technology innovations such as Mobile Banking, Micro Savings, and Loans, and Insurance, to mention but a few. These innovations have been adopted across key sectors such as commerce, health care, or agriculture. The research paper will highlight the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) that are behind MMS, along with numerous innovative products and services being offered to the customers. It will also highlight the regulatory framework under which these innovations are being governed to ensure the safety of the customers' funds.

Keywords: Financial inclusion, financial technology, regulatory framework, mobile money services.

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Authors: Sašo Pečnik, Borut Žalik

Abstract:

Cloud Computing is an approach that provides computation and storage services on-demand to clients over the network, independent of device and location. In the last few years, cloud computing became a trend in information technology with many companies that transfer their business processes and applications in the cloud. Cloud computing with service oriented architecture has contributed to rapid development of Geographic Information Systems. Open Geospatial Consortium with its standards provides the interfaces for hosted spatial data and GIS functionality to integrated GIS applications. Furthermore, with the enormous processing power, clouds provide efficient environment for data intensive applications that can be performed efficiently, with higher precision, and greater reliability. This paper presents our work on the geospatial data services within the cloud computing environment and its technology. A cloud computing environment with the strengths and weaknesses of the geographic information system will be introduced. The OGC standards that solve our application interoperability are highlighted. Finally, we outline our system architecture with utilities for requesting and invoking our developed data intensive applications as a web service.

Keywords: Cloud Computing, Geographic Information System, Open Geospatial Consortium, Interoperability, Spatial data, Web- Services.

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