Abstract: Urbanization, population growth, climate change and the current increase in water demand have made the adoption of innovative demand management strategies crucial to the water industry. Water conservation in urban areas has to be improved by encouraging consumers to adopt more sustainable habits and behaviours. This includes informing and educating them about their households’ water consumption and advising them about ways to achieve significant savings on a daily basis. This paper presents a study conducted in the context of the European FP7 WISDOM Project. By integrating innovative Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) frameworks, this project aims at achieving a change in water savings. More specifically, behavioural change will be attempted by implementing smart meters and in-home displays in a trial group of selected households within Cardiff (UK). Using this device, consumers will be able to receive feedback and information about their consumption but will also have the opportunity to compare their consumption to the consumption of other consumers and similar households. Following an initial survey, it appeared necessary to implement these in-home displays in a way that matches consumer's motivations to save water. The results demonstrated the importance of various factors influencing people’s daily water consumption. Both the relevant literature on the subject and the results of our survey therefore led us to include within the in-home device a variety of elements. It first appeared crucial to make consumers aware of the economic aspect of water conservation and especially of the significant financial savings that can be achieved by reducing their household’s water consumption on the long term. Likewise, reminding participants of the impact of their consumption on the environment by making them more aware of water scarcity issues around the world will help increasing their motivation to save water. Additionally, peer pressure and social comparisons with neighbours and other consumers, accentuated by the use of online social networks such as Facebook or Twitter, will likely encourage consumers to reduce their consumption. Participants will also be able to compare their current consumption to their past consumption and to observe the consequences of their efforts to save water through diverse graphs and charts. Finally, including a virtual water game within the display will help the whole household, children and adults, to achieve significant reductions by providing them with simple tips and advice to save water on a daily basis. Moreover, by setting daily and weekly goals for them to reach, the game will expectantly generate cooperation between family members. Members of each household will indeed be encouraged to work together to reduce their water consumption within different rooms of the house, such as the bathroom, the kitchen, or the toilets. Overall, this study will allow us to understand the elements that attract consumers the most and the features that are most commonly used by the participants. In this way, we intend to determine the main factors influencing water consumption in order to identify the measures that will most encourage water conservation in both the long and short term.
Abstract: Governments constantly seek to offer faster, more secure, efficient and effective services for their citizens. Recent changes and developments to communication services and technologies, mainly due the Internet, have led to immense improvements in the way governments of advanced countries carry out their interior operations Therefore, advances in e-government services have been broadly adopted and used in various developed countries, as well as being adapted to developing countries. The implementation of advances depends on the utilization of the most innovative structures of data techniques, mainly in web dependent applications, to enhance the main functions of governments. These functions, in turn, have spread to mobile and wireless techniques, generating a new advanced direction called m-government. This paper discusses a selection of available m-government applications and several business modules and frameworks in various fields. Practically, the m-government models, techniques and methods have become the improved version of e-government. M-government offers the potential for applications which will work better, providing citizens with services utilizing mobile communication and data models incorporating several government entities. Developing countries can benefit greatly from this innovation due to the fact that a large percentage of their population is young and can adapt to new technology and to the fact that mobile computing devices are more affordable. The use of models of mobile transactions encourages effective participation through the use of mobile portals by businesses, various organizations, and individual citizens. Although the application of m-government has great potential, it does have major limitations. The limitations include: the implementation of wireless networks and relative communications, the encouragement of mobile diffusion, the administration of complicated tasks concerning the protection of security (including the ability to offer privacy for information), and the management of the legal issues concerning mobile applications and the utilization of services.
Abstract: Green and renewable energy is getting extraordinary
consideration today, because of ecological concerns made by blazing
of fossil powers. Photovoltaic and wind power generation are the
basic decisions for delivering power in this respects. Producing
power by the sun based photovoltaic systems is known to the world,
yet control makers may get confounded to pick between on-grid and
off-grid systems. In this exploration work, an endeavor is made to
compare the off-grid (stand-alone) and on-grid (grid-connected)
frameworks. The work presents relative examination, between two
distinctive PV frameworks situated at V.V.P. Engineering College,
Rajkot. The first framework is 100 kW remain solitary and the
second is 60 kW network joined. The real-time parameters compared
are; output voltage, load current, power in-flow, power output,
performance ratio, yield factor, and capacity factor. The voltage
changes and the power variances in both frameworks are given
exceptional consideration and the examination is made between the
two frameworks to judge the focal points and confinements of both
the frameworks.
Abstract: The question of legal liability over injury arising out
of the import and the introduction of GM food emerges as a crucial
issue confronting to promote GM food and its derivatives. There is a
greater possibility of commercialized GM food from the exporting
country to enter importing country where status of approval shall not
be same. This necessitates the importance of fixing a liability
mechanism to discuss the damage, if any, occurs at the level of
transboundary movement or at the market. There was a widespread consensus to develop the Cartagena
Protocol on Biosafety and to give for a dedicated regime on liability
and redress in the form of Nagoya Kuala Lumpur Supplementary
Protocol on the Liability and Redress (‘N-KL Protocol’) at the
international context. The national legal frameworks based on this
protocol are not adequately established in the prevailing food
legislations of the developing countries. The developing economy
like India is willing to import GM food and its derivatives after the
successful commercialization of Bt Cotton in 2002. As a party to the
N-KL Protocol, it is indispensable for India to formulate a legal
framework and to discuss safety, liability, and regulatory issues
surrounding GM foods in conformity to the provisions of the
Protocol. The liability mechanism is also important in the case where
the risk assessment and risk management is still in implementing
stage. Moreover, the country is facing GM infiltration issues with its
neighbors Bangladesh. As a precautionary approach, there is a need
to formulate rules and procedure of legal liability to discuss any kind
of damage occurs at transboundary trade. In this context, the
proposed work will attempt to analyze the liability regime in the
existing Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 from the applicability
and domestic compliance and to suggest legal and policy options for
regulatory authorities.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to analyze the impact of
literature review software on researchers. The aim of this study was
achieved by analyzing models in terms of perceived usefulness,
perceived ease of use, and acceptance level. Collected data were
analyzed using WarpPLS 4.0 software. This study used two
theoretical frameworks, namely, Technology Acceptance Model and
the Training Needs Assessment Model. The study was experimental
and was conducted at a public university in South Africa. The results
of the study showed that acceptance level has a high impact on
research productivity followed by perceived usefulness and perceived
ease of use.
Abstract: One of the fundamental characteristics of Information
and Communication Technology (ICT) has been the ever-changing
nature of continuous release and models of ICTs with its impact on
the academic, social, and psychological benefits of its introduction in
schools. However, there seems to be a growing concern about its
negative impact on students when introduced early in schools for
teaching and learning. This study aims to design a model of child
development factors affecting the early introduction of ICTs in
schools in an attempt to improve the understanding of child
development and introduction of ICTs in schools. The proposed
model is based on a sound theoretical framework. It was designed
following a literature review of child development theories and child
development factors. The child development theoretical framework
that fitted to the best of all child development factors was then chosen
as the basis for the proposed model. This study hence found that the
Jean Piaget cognitive developmental theory is the most adequate
theoretical frameworks for modeling child development factors for
ICT introduction in schools.
Abstract: The environmental, cultural, social, and technological
changes have led higher education institutes to question their
traditional roles. Many declarations and frameworks highlight the
importance of fulfilling social responsibility of higher education
institutes. The study aims at developing a framework of university
social responsibility and sustainability (USR&S) with focus on South
Valley University (SVU) as a case study of Egyptian Universities.
The study used meetings with 12 vice deans of community services
and environmental affairs on social responsibility and environmental
issues. The proposed framework integrates social responsibility with
strategic management through the establishment and maintenance of
the vision, mission, values, goals and management systems;
elaboration of policies; provision of actions; evaluation of services
and development of social collaboration with stakeholders to meet
current and future needs of the community and environment. The
framework links between different stakeholders internally and
externally using communication and reporting tools. The results show
that SVU integrates social responsibility and sustainability in its
strategic plans. It has policies and actions however fragmented and
lack of appropriate structure and budgeting. The proposed framework
could be valuable for researchers and decision makers of the
Egyptian Universities. The study proposed recommendations and
highlighted building on the results and conducting future research.
Abstract: In light of the technological development and its
introduction into the field of education, an online course was
designed in parallel to the 'conventional' course for teaching the
''Qualitative Research Methods''. This course aimed to characterize
learning-teaching processes in a 'Qualitative Research Methods'
course studied in two different frameworks. Moreover, its objective
was to explore the difference between the culture of a physical
learning environment and that of online learning. The research
monitored four learner groups, a total of 72 students, for two years,
two groups from the two course frameworks each year. The courses
were obligatory for M.Ed. students at an academic college of
education and were given by one female-lecturer. The research was
conducted in the qualitative method as a case study in order to attain
insights about occurrences in the actual contexts and sites in which
they transpire. The research tools were open-ended questionnaire and
reflections in the form of vignettes (meaningful short pictures) to all
students as well as an interview with the lecturer. The tools facilitated
not only triangulation but also collecting data consisting of voices
and pictures of teaching and learning. The most prominent findings
are: differences between the two courses in the change features of the
learning environment culture for the acquisition of contents and
qualitative research tools. They were manifested by teaching
methods, illustration aids, lecturer's profile and students' profile.
Abstract: This paper reviews the model-based qualitative and
quantitative Operations Management research in the context of
Construction Supply Chain Management (CSCM). Construction
industry has been traditionally blamed for low productivity, cost and
time overruns, waste, high fragmentation and adversarial
relationships. The construction industry has been slower than other
industries to employ the Supply Chain Management (SCM) concept
and develop models that support the decision-making and planning.
However the last decade there is a distinct shift from a project-based
to a supply-based approach of construction management. CSCM
comes up as a new promising management tool of construction
operations and improves the performance of construction projects in
terms of cost, time and quality. Modeling the Construction Supply
Chain (CSC) offers the means to reap the benefits of SCM, make
informed decisions and gain competitive advantage. Different
modeling approaches and methodologies have been applied in the
multi-disciplinary and heterogeneous research field of CSCM. The
literature review reveals that a considerable percentage of the CSC
modeling research accommodates conceptual or process models
which present general management frameworks and do not relate to
acknowledged soft Operations Research methods. We particularly
focus on the model-based quantitative research and categorize the
CSCM models depending on their scope, objectives, modeling
approach, solution methods and software used. Although over the last
few years there has been clearly an increase of research papers on
quantitative CSC models, we identify that the relevant literature is
very fragmented with limited applications of simulation,
mathematical programming and simulation-based optimization. Most
applications are project-specific or study only parts of the supply
system. Thus, some complex interdependencies within construction
are neglected and the implementation of the integrated supply chain
management is hindered. We conclude this paper by giving future
research directions and emphasizing the need to develop optimization
models for integrated CSCM. We stress that CSC modeling needs a
multi-dimensional, system-wide and long-term perspective. Finally,
prior applications of SCM to other industries have to be taken into
account in order to model CSCs, but not without translating the
generic concepts to the context of construction industry.
Abstract: Offering a Product-Service System (PSS) is a
well-accepted strategy that companies may adopt to provide a set of
systemic solutions to customers. PSSs were initially provided in a
simple form but now take diversified and complex forms involving
multiple services, products and technologies. With the growing
interest in the PSS, frameworks for the PSS development have been
introduced by many researchers. However, most of the existing
frameworks fail to examine various relations existing in a complex
PSS. Since designing a complex PSS involves full integration of
multiple products and services, it is essential to identify not only
product-service relations but also product-product/ service-service
relations. It is also equally important to specify how they are related
for better understanding of the system. Moreover, as customers tend to
view their purchase from a more holistic perspective, a PSS should be
developed based on the whole system’s requirements, rather than
focusing only on the product requirements or service requirements.
Thus, we propose a framework to develop a complex PSS that is
coordinated fully with the requirements of both worlds. Specifically,
our approach adopts a multi-domain matrix (MDM). A MDM
identifies not only inter-domain relations but also intra-domain
relations so that it helps to design a PSS that includes highly desired
and closely related core functions/ features. Also, various dependency
types and rating schemes proposed in our approach would help the
integration process.
Abstract: It is widely believed that mobile device is a promising technology for lending the opportunity for the third wave of electronic commerce. Mobile devices have changed the way companies do business. Many applications are under development or being incorporated into business processes. In this day, mobile applications are a vital component of any industry strategy.One of the greatest benefits of selling merchandise and providing services on a mobile application is that it widens a company’s customer base significantly.Mobile applications are accessible to interested customers across regional and international borders in different electronic business (e-business) area. But there is a dark side to this success story. The security risks associated with mobile devices and applications are very significant. This paper introduces a broad risk analysis for the various threats, vulnerabilities, and risks in mobile e-business applications and presents some important risk mitigation approaches. It reviews and compares two different frameworks for security assurance in mobile e-business applications. Based on the comparison, the paper suggests some recommendations for applications developers and business owners in mobile e-business application development process.
Abstract: Nowadays, the successful implementation of ICTs is
vital for almost any kind of organization. Good governance and ICT
management are essential for delivering value, managing
technological risks, managing resources and performance
measurement. In addition, outsourcing is a strategic IT service
solution which complements IT services provided internally in
organizations. This paper proposes the measurement tools of a new
holistic maturity model based on standards ISO/IEC 20000 and
ISO/IEC 38500, and the frameworks and best practices of ITIL and
COBIT, with a specific focus on IT outsourcing. These measurement
tools allow independent validation and practical application in the
field of higher education, using a questionnaire, metrics tables, and
continuous improvement plan tables as part of the measurement
process. Guidelines and standards are proposed in the model for
facilitating adaptation to universities and achieving excellence in the
outsourcing of IT services.
Abstract: Maturity models, used descriptively to explain
changes in reality or normatively to guide managers to make
interventions to make organizations more effective and efficient, are
based on the principles of statistical quality control and PDCA
continuous improvement (Plan, Do, Check, Act). Some frameworks
developed over the concept of maturity models include COBIT,
CMM, and ITIL.
This paper presents some limitations of traditional maturity
models, most of them related to the mechanistic and reductionist
principles over which those models are built. As systems theory helps
the understanding of the dynamics of organizations and
organizational change, the development of a systemic maturity model
can help to overcome some of those limitations.
This document proposes a systemic maturity model, based on a
systemic conceptualization of organizations, focused on the study of
the functioning of the parties, the relationships among them, and their
behavior as a whole. The concept of maturity from the system theory
perspective is conceptually defined as an emergent property of the
organization, which arises as a result of the degree of alignment and
integration of their processes. This concept is operationalized through
a systemic function that measures the maturity of organizations, and
finally validated by the measuring of maturity in some organizations.
For its operationalization and validation, the model was applied to
measure the maturity of organizational Governance, Risk and
Compliance (GRC) processes.
Abstract: Recent perceived climate variability raises concerns
with unprecedented hydrological phenomena and extremes.
Distribution and circulation of the waters of the Earth become
increasingly difficult to determine because of additional uncertainty
related to anthropogenic emissions. The world wide observed
changes in the large-scale hydrological cycle have been related to an
increase in the observed temperature over several decades. Although
the effect of change in climate on hydrology provides a general
picture of possible hydrological global change, new tools and
frameworks for modelling hydrological series with nonstationary
characteristics at finer scales, are required for assessing climate
change impacts. Of the downscaling techniques, dynamic
downscaling is usually based on the use of Regional Climate Models
(RCMs), which generate finer resolution output based on atmospheric
physics over a region using General Circulation Model (GCM) fields
as boundary conditions. However, RCMs are not expected to capture
the observed spatial precipitation extremes at a fine cell scale or at a
basin scale. Statistical downscaling derives a statistical or empirical
relationship between the variables simulated by the GCMs, called
predictors, and station-scale hydrologic variables, called predictands.
The main focus of the paper is on the need for using statistical
downscaling techniques for projection of local hydrometeorological
variables under climate change scenarios. The projections can be then
served as a means of input source to various hydrologic models to
obtain streamflow, evapotranspiration, soil moisture and other
hydrological variables of interest.
Abstract: Recent changes in supply chains, especially globalization and collaboration, have created new risks for enterprises of all sizes. A variety of complex frameworks, often based on enterprise risk management strategies have been presented under the heading of Supply Chain Risk Management (SCRM). The literature on promotes the benefits of a robust SCRM strategy; however, implementing SCRM is difficult and resource demanding for Large Enterprises (LEs), and essentially out of reach for Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs). This research debunks the idea that SCRM is necessary for all enterprises and instead proposes a simple and effective Vendor Selection Template (VST). Empirical testing and a survey of supply chain practitioners provide a measure of validation to the VST. The resulting VSTis a valuable contribution because is easy to use, provides practical results, and is sufficiently flexible to be universally applied to SMEs.
Abstract: During recent years, the natural environment has become a challenging topic that business organizations must consider due to the economic and ecological impacts and increasing awareness of environment protection among society. Organizations are trying to achieve the goals of improvement in environment, low cost, high quality, flexibility and more customer satisfaction. Performance measurement frameworks are very useful to monitor the performance of any organization. The basic goal of this paper is to identify performance measures and ranking of these performance measures of GSCM performance measurement towards sustainability framework. Five perspectives (Environment, Economic, Social, Operational and Cost performances) and nineteen performance measures of GSCM performance towards sustainability have been have been identified from extensive literature review. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique has been utilized for ranking of these performance perspectives and measures. All pair comparisons in AHP have been made on the basis on the experts’ opinions (selected from academia and industry). Ranking of these performance perspectives and measures will help to understand the importance of environmental, economic, social, operational performances and cost performances in the supply chain.
Abstract: The transfer rate of messages in distributed sensor network applications is a critical factor in a system's performance. The Sensor Abstraction Layer (SAL) is one such system. SAL is a middleware integration platform for abstracting sensor specific technology in order to integrate heterogeneous types of sensors in a network. SAL uses Java Remote Method Invocation (RMI) as its connection method, which has unsatisfying transfer rates, especially for streaming data. This paper analyses different connection methods to optimize data transmission in SAL by replacing RMI. Our results show that the most promising Java-based connections were frameworks for Java New Input/Output (NIO) including Apache MINA, JBoss Netty, and xSocket. A test environment was implemented to evaluate each respective framework based on transfer rate, resource usage, and scalability. Test results showed the most suitable connection method to improve data transmission in SAL JBoss Netty as it provides a performance enhancement of 68%.
Abstract: Real-time or in-line process monitoring frameworks are designed to give early warnings for a fault along with meaningful identification of its assignable causes. In artificial intelligence and machine learning fields of pattern recognition various promising approaches have been proposed such as kernel-based nonlinear machine learning techniques. This work presents a kernel-based empirical monitoring scheme for batch type production processes with small sample size problem of partially unbalanced data. Measurement data of normal operations are easy to collect whilst special events or faults data are difficult to collect. In such situations, noise filtering techniques can be helpful in enhancing process monitoring performance. Furthermore, preprocessing of raw process data is used to get rid of unwanted variation of data. The performance of the monitoring scheme was demonstrated using three-dimensional batch data. The results showed that the monitoring performance was improved significantly in terms of detection success rate of process fault.
Abstract: This paper presents content-based image retrieval (CBIR) frameworks with relevance feedback (RF) based on combined learning of support vector machines (SVM) and AdaBoosts. The framework incorporates only most relevant images obtained from both the learning algorithm. To speed up the system, it removes irrelevant images from the database, which are returned from SVM learner. It is the key to achieve the effective retrieval performance in terms of time and accuracy. The experimental results show that this framework had significant improvement in retrieval effectiveness, which can finally improve the retrieval performance.
Abstract: —‘MEDICINE’ is a new project funded under the EC Horizon 2020 Marie-Sklodowska Curie Actions, to determine concepts of health and healing from a culturally specific indigenous context, using a framework of interdisciplinary methods which integrates archaeological-historical, ethnographic and modern health sciences approaches. The study will generate new theoretical and methodological approaches to model how peoples survive and adapt their traditional belief systems in a context of alien cultural impacts. In the immediate wake of the conquest of Peru by invading Spanish armies and ideology, native Andeans responded by forming the Taki Onkoy millenarian movement, which rejected European philosophical and ontological teachings, claiming “you make us sick”. The study explores how people’s experience of their world and their health beliefs within it, is fundamentally shaped by their inherent beliefs about the nature of being and identity in relation to the wider cosmos. Cultural and health belief systems and related rituals or behaviors sustain a people’s sense of identity, wellbeing and integrity. In the event of dislocation and persecution these may change into devolved forms, which eventually inter-relate with ‘modern’ biomedical systems of health in as yet unidentified ways. The development of new conceptual frameworks that model this process will greatly expand our understanding of how people survive and adapt in response to cultural trauma. It will also demonstrate the continuing role, relevance and use of TM in present-day indigenous communities. Studies will first be made of relevant pre-Colombian material culture, and then of early colonial period ethnohistorical texts which document the health beliefs and ritual practices still employed by indigenous Andean societies at the advent of the 17th century Jesuit campaigns of persecution - ‘Extirpación de las Idolatrías’. Core beliefs drawn from these baseline studies will then be used to construct a questionnaire about current health beliefs and practices to be taken into the study population of indigenous Quechua peoples in the northern Andean region of Ecuador. Their current systems of knowledge and medicine have evolved within complex historical contexts of both the conquest by invading Inca armies in the late 15th century, followed a generation later by Spain, into new forms. A new model will be developed of contemporary Andean concepts of health, illness and healing demonstrating the way these have changed through time. With this, a ‘policy tool’ will be constructed as a bridhging facility into contemporary global scenarios relevant to other Indigenous, First Nations, and migrant peoples to provide a means through which their traditional health beliefs and current needs may be more appropriately understood and met. This paper presents findings from the first analytical phases of the work based upon the study of the literature and the archaeological records. The study offers a novel perspective and methods in the development policies sensitive to indigenous and minority people’s health needs.