bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Fuzzy Quantitative and Semi-Qualitative Risk Assessment in Projects
Authors: Abdolshah Mohamamd
Published: May 2018

Before initiating a project, risks assessment, is a process that its importance has felt in past two decades and has taken a position in project activities. Project's managers apply risk assessment as a preventive method for highly possible risks having an unfavorable influence on project objectives. Risk assessment has implemented in three ways: qualitative, semi-qualitative (semi-qualitative) and quantitative. In this paper, the author reviews quantitative and semi-qualitative risk assessment methods in associated with fuzzy sets theory (FST). Moreover, considering three steps of risk assessment process, namely: definition and measurement of parameters, fuzzy inference and defuzzification, the author classified presented articles into three groups of giving opinion methods, assessment methods and defuzzification methods. It is avoided mentioning articles with same assessment methods in this paper. Although giving opinion methods and defuzzification methods have the potential to be worked on, late risk assessment surveys, demonstrate increasing attempt on developing comprehension and reality adjustment in project risk assessment methodologies.
Application of Artificial Intelligence to Gearbox Fault Diagnosis
Authors: Parey Anand , Ahuja Amandeep Singh
Published: May 2018

Gearboxes are employed in a wide variety of applications, ranging from small domestic appliances to the rather gigantic power plants and marine propulsion systems. Gearbox failure may not only result in significant financial losses resulting from downtime of machinery but may also place human life at risk. Gearbox failure in transmission systems of warships and single engine aircraft, beside other military applications, is unacceptable. The criticality of the gearbox in rotary machines has resulted in enormous effort on the part of researchers to develop new and efficient methods of diagnosing faults in gearboxes so that timely rectification can be undertaken before catastrophic failure occurs. Artificial intelligence (AI) has been a significant milestone in automated gearbox fault diagnosis (GFD). This chapter reviews over a decade of research efforts on fault diagnosis of gearboxes with AI techniques. Some of areas of AI in GFD which still merit attention have been identified and discussed at the end of the chapter.
Investigating the Economic Vulnerability Factors of Emerging Markets After the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 With a Hybrid Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Approach
Authors: Dinçer Hasan , Hacıoğlu Ümit
Published: May 2018

The latest global financial crisis and its effects on emerging economies engaged researchers' attention to the relationship between economic vulnerability factors and financial crisis. Especially, infrastructure and growth-based factors directly impact on the economic vulnerability of emerging economies. In this study, it is aimed to investigate the economic vulnerability factors indicating the infrastructure and growth of emerging markets after the global financial crisis of 2008 with a hybrid multi criteria decision making approach. To clarify the relationship between the subjective causality structures of the real world problems DEMATEL and PROMETHEE techniques have been employed in the hybrid model. The results illustrate that (1) Nigeria has the highest degree of the economic vulnerability in each year after the global financial crisis, and (2) Mexico for 2009, Turkey for 2012, and Korea for 2015 have the lowest degree of exogenous economic and environmental shocks among the selected emerging markets.
What Constitutes a Smart City?
Authors: Kondepudi Sekhar , Kondepudi Ramita
Published: May 2018

This chapter provides an insight into what is meant by a Smart City and the underlying factors that make a city smart. The authors answer the question of “what constitutes a smart city” by presenting a multi-faceted approach including a detailed analysis of classical smart city definitions, attributes of a smart city, industry viewpoints and efforts by standards developing organizations. Through this approach, a common theme is established which best describes a smart city. The content of this chapter can therefore form the basis of developing a standard definition of a global smart city, and subsequently can be used to develop a framework to measure the performance of a smart city. The authors also propose a definition which in their view provides a reasonably holistic description of a smart city. However, they recognize that a smart city may mean different things to different stakeholders, and therefore has a strong dependence on the “lens” through which a smart city is viewed.
Modeling Urban Growth at a Micro Level
Authors: Mohapatra Rama Prasada , Wu Changshan
Published: May 2018

In this paper, the historical trend of urban growth and the associated drivers were examined through econometric analysis for the rapidly growing Grafton area in the State of Wisconsin. Specifically, panel data analysis was carried out to examine the drivers of urban growth such as demographic factors, location of jobs, travel time, housing types, property values, etc. Results reveal that panel data analysis, particularly the random effects model, was successful in analyzing the drivers of urban growth at the census block group level. This study found that population, local jobs, household income, and house price were positively associated with urban growth. The study also found that urban growth in the study area is not decided by the access to the nearest central city, but other factors, such as the rural atmosphere of the region, local jobs, and emerging centers of employment opportunities, have significant influences on urban development.
Urban Development Modelling
Authors: Gharbi Asma , De Runz Cyril , Akdag Herman
Published: May 2018

Modelling and simulating cities evolution has been lately the focus of scientific studies, in the urban field, as it represents a mean for effectively managing and planning land-development. Consequently, the development of urban models has known a remarkable growth. This model boom was a key driver behind many studies aiming at providing comprehensive reviews of existing urban models through classifying them based on various characteristics. In this context, this chapter reviews the different classification studies, proposes a classification of a set of most popular models based on their modelling-task, strategy, and data, then assume and argue how these three elements can majorly affect the modelling-approach choice-making. Indeed, its overall goal is to deliver a sort of “white paper” aiming at assisting researchers in their seeking for the most adequate modelling-approach for their urban modelling-task specifications.
Sustainable Parking Planning for Smart Growth of Metropolitan Cities
Authors: Ercoskun Ozge Yalciner , Akunal Ebru Vesile Ocalir
Published: May 2018

This chapter identifies main problems of parking planning in demand-oriented conventional paradigm. Parking planning principles and cost-effective programs in supply-oriented sustainable paradigm are presented in the chapter listing many economic, social and environmental benefits. The chapter describes various parking strategies for developing a sustainable parking plan for smart growth of metropolitan cities, including cases of Istanbul and Vienna. A critical perspective is drawn for the parking planning policies for these city cases. Parking is recognized as an important factor influencing accessibility. Parking planning, parking policies and pricing play a critical role in local government decision making.
Crowdsourcing and Living Labs in Support of Smart Cities' Development
Authors: Papadopoulou Chrysaida-Aliki , Giaoutzi Maria
Published: May 2018

The concept of ‘smart cities' has quite recently stimulated an alternative way of approaching urban sustainability through the extensive adoption of ICTs, harmoniously combined with human capital and city's potential in order new patterns of urban development to be generated. Crowdsourcing and living labs serve the goal of being ‘smart' by promoting the establishment of broad cooperative schemes for prototypical ideas generation and innovation production. The present paper focuses on exploring the contribution of crowdsourcing and living labs to smart cities' development. In the first part, the backbone of a smart city is presented; in the second part, a methodological approach integrating smart cities' development with crowdsourcing and living labs is elaborated; in the third part, the role of crowdsourcing in generating prototypical ideas is described; in the fourth part, the potential evaluation and implementation of such ideas in a living lab environment is examined; and finally, some conclusions are drawn.
China's Population Aging and New Urbanization
Authors: Chen Mingxing , Zhang Hua , Gong Yinghua
Published: May 2018

In recent years, fast demographic transition, urbanizationand socio-economic development in China draws attention of the world. The reproduction type of Chinese population has changed from “high rate of birth, high rate of death, and low rate of natural growth” to “low rate of birth, low rate of death, and low rate of natural growth”, which promotes the population transition, bringing the problems of aging of population. In China, the scale of aged population is large, and its developing speed is fast. Along with the increasing of aged population in China, the advantage of labor quantity in China is challenged. China regards new urbanization as the important work content of state in the future for a long time, providing a large opportunity for the study in the field of urbanization. For China, new urbanization plan is just a beginning. The sustainable development of Chinese population and urbanization has important meaning in the world.
Smart City, Integrated Planning, and Multilevel Governance
Authors: Damurski Lukasz
Published: May 2018

The interdependent concepts of smart city, integrated planning and multilevel governance greatly determine the current discussion on planning theory and practice in Europe. Each of them presents new challenges for e-planning, pushing it into a priority position in performing planning tasks on various levels of administration. Thus e-planning is not just a way of describing current tools for governing space anymore, but becomes a new philosophy of public decision-making. The paper gives a discourse analysis of the key EU policy and research directions, defines the core attributes and values of contemporary planning concepts (such as governance, sustainability, communication, participation, responsiveness, innovation and coordination) and draws a “conceptual patchwork” situating e-planning on the intersection of smart city, integrated planning and multilevel governance.
The Normative Base of Local Government
Authors: Keles Rusen
Published: May 2018

International Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences defines local government as a public entity which is a sub-unit of a state or of a region, charged with the determination and carrying out of certain public policies in a relatively small territory. Local authorities are created to respond to certain needs of the inhabitants in local communities. These are mainly administrative, political and social factors. Leaving aside a few exceptionally small states, carrying out of all the public services from a single center is almost impossible. In order to ensure efficient performance of public services and to avoid both “apoplexy” at the center on one hand, and “anemia” in the periphery, there is a need to reduce the load on the shoulders of the central government and to take necessary measures to strengthen local authorities.
Functional Reuse and Intensification of Rural-Urban Context
Authors: Cattaneo Tiziano , De Lotto Roberto , Venco Elisabetta Maria
Published: May 2018

In regional and urban planning such as in design actions they are usually involved different themes and disciplines; especially when the goal is to improve, restore and re-functionalize existing minor settlements in rural-urban context. For this reason it is necessary to define integrated methodologies able to face inter-scalar issues and interdisciplinary themes. Authors propose a framework for a decision support system based on the treatment of geographical data and on the integration of the data sets that have dissimilar origin, diverse formats (they may be not only digital) and different meaning value. This complete data set refers to various disciplines and it is possible to deduce specific knowledge throughout analytical passages and assessment steps. In the paper authors describe: a methodological approach to support planning activities; the technical support to seek a (dynamic) balance between urban density and rural fragmentation; a Best Practices database to support scenarios in rural-urban context. Authors first expose the application field, then the logical framework of the whole process, then describe some related spatial analysis applications and finally they introduce comprehensive case study of the whole procedure.
The Embedded Intelligence of Smart Cities
Authors: Deakin Mark , Reid Alasdair
Published: May 2018

This paper reviews Mitchell's thesis on the transition from the city of bits to e-topia. The review finds it wanting and suggests the problems encountered with the thesis rest with the lack of critical insight e-topia offers into the embedded intelligence of smart cities. It also suggests the difficulties, which the thesis experiences in accounting for the embedded intelligence of smart cities raise serious questions about whether the e-topia demonstrators that digitally-inclusive regeneration platforms stand on are progressive. In particular, whether the demonstrators these platforms stand on are progressive in embedding the intelligence that cities need for them to be smart in not only bridging the digital divide in urban life, but also overcoming any adverse effect, which the inequalities and degradation of such exclusion have on the sense of citizenship and community they in turn construct.
Use of Qualitative Methods to Examine GIS Planning and Management in the Context of E-Governance
Authors: Mukherjee Falguni
Published: May 2018

Critical GIS recognizes that GIS technology is socially constructed and emphasizes the key role of various socio-political and institutional contexts in shaping GIS knowledge production. This article focusses on the use of GIS in the context of e-governance in India. In recent years the massive proliferation of ICTs in India has led to a transformation from traditional governance to e – governance. Several planning projects have been launched under the rubric of e-governance and have witnessed novel use of various information technologies, GIS being one of them. The theoretical framework used in this study draws from the Critical GIS body of literature that calls for taking a holistic approach to GIS examination by coupling the internal contexts with the external contextual environment shaping an organization's GIS planning and management. In order to achieve this goal qualitative methods of inquiry are adopted to investigate a municipal e-governance project launched by the Government of Karnataka to address issues of urban development using GIS.
From the Smart City to the People-Friendly City
Authors: Melis Giulia , Masala Elena , Tabasso Matteo
Published: May 2018

This chapter addresses the smart city concept as a first step towards the formulation of a new socially-improved urban concept which may be defined as that of the “people-friendly city”. This new task involves the employment of IT tools, but using new methods and pursuing different goals other than mere numerical information. In terms of the urban environment, this means that cities should be designed for people, and planning practitioners should be able to understand citizens' needs, communicate with them and involve them in a collaborative process. Therefore, an overview of the implications of smart cities for urban planning is followed by a more detailed analysis of Planning Support Systems (PSS) as innovative tools for enhancing the process of delivering a more inclusive and people-friendly urban environment. The lessons learnt from the application of the PSS tool is then illustrated in order to define the potentialities and key points for the development of similar tools.
Urban Sprawl Monitoring Using Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques of the City Jaipur, India
Authors: Sisodia Pushpendra Singh , Tiwari Vivekananda , Dahiya Anil Kumar
Published: May 2018

The rapid increase in population of India forced people to migrate from rural areas and small towns to metropolitan cities for better employment, education, and, good lifestyle. Major cities of India were industrialized and required more work force in metropolitan cities, leading to uncoordinated and unplanned growth, often termed as urban sprawl. Urban sprawl destroyed the natural resources such as open green space, agricultural land, open water bodies and ground water. In this paper, an attempt has been made to monitor urban sprawl using Shannon's Entropy model, Remote Sensing, and GIS for city Jaipur, India. The changed entropy value during the years 1972–2013 proves more dispersed growth in the city. The built-up area of Jaipur has increased from 40 km2 in 1972 to 400 km2 in 2013. Land use percentage of urban settlement is doubled as compared to the urban population of Jaipur during 1972–2013. This study shows remarkable urban sprawl in fringe areas of Jaipur city in the last 41 years.
Digital Community Planning
Authors: Falco Enzo
Published: May 2018

Citizen participation in planning as a decision-making and future-oriented activity is still in the hands of government. New advances in Information Communication Technologies and community informatics have allowed new forms of e-participation and e-planning to emerge. The article refers to theories of social psychology and digital rationality to support the use of ICTs and Web 2.0 in planning as means to deliver more meaningful and independent participatory processes. Moreover, it looks into different planning approaches to and theories of participation to argue and conclude that a digital community and plural planning approach may provide communities with a better setting to move up Arnstein's ladder of citizen participation. The article presents three different open source software and one proprietary software which can be used in practice by citizen groups to produce planning documents. Based on these findings, future research will explore the application of the approach and tools in an urban setting in close collaboration with grass-roots and citizens organizations.
Functional Effectiveness and Modern Mechanisms for National Urban Systems Globalization
Authors: Arkhipov Alexey , Ushakov Denis
Published: May 2018

Cities' transformation into active actors of international economic relations and their participation in international competition form a complex of relevant problems about efficiency of relationships between business and government, global competitive advantages of urban economies, quality of municipal governance, and development and international integration of the urban system of the modern countries (including Russia). This chapter examines a development of the modern features of the urban system in Russia, analyzes its macroeconomic indicators, actual problems, and evaluates various scenarios for the development of both individual urban economies and the entire urban system of Russia.
In Search of Indicators for Assessing Smart and Sustainable Cities and Communities' Performance
Authors: Stratigea Anastasia , Leka Akrivi , Panagiotopoulou Maria
Published: May 2018

The goal of the paper is to elaborate on sustainability aspects of smart sustainable urban environments. More specifically, at a first step the paper aims at critically reviewing globally initiated state-of-the-art approaches for assessing smart cities' performance as to sustainability objectives. The scope of this effort is to identify sets of indicators used in different approaches as well as convergence/divergence among them. Secondly, an attempt to integrate different indicator sets into a more enriched and coherent indicator system is carried out which, by effectively embedding smart and sustainable city development into sustainability indicators' sets, can be used by various types of cities' examples. Finally, the rationale of the indicators' selection process is depicted, in order to support policy makers and planners' guidance towards choosing an appropriate, city-specific set of sustainability indicators for carrying out relevant assessments.
The English Science Cities
Authors: Charles David R. , Wray Felicity
Published: May 2018

Six English cities were designated by the UK Government as science cities in 2004 and 2005, with the intention that local consortia develop strategies for the realisation of this vision. Previous definitions of science cities are explored to show how the concept has evolved over time, with the English initiative placed within a global context to show how it adapts previous models to the specific needs of the UK and fits with academic debates on the local governance of science and the role of innovation in urban and regional development. The six cases are briefly examined as to their aims and the nature of their governance and approach and potential benefits of the initiative are outlined to show how it may contribute to a new perspective on the role of cities in science and economic development in the UK.
Past, Present and Future Population Growth and Urban Management in Zimbabwe
Authors: Chirisa Innocent , Maphosa Aaron , Zanamwe Lazarus , Bandauko Elmond , Mukarwi Liaison
Published: May 2018

The central focus of this chapter is to analyse the urban population growth–urban management nexus in Zimbabwean cities. These cities are registering rapid population growth rates, due mainly to massive rural to urban migration and natural increase. Ideally, rapid urban population growth rates should be proportionate to urban infrastructure, facilities and services. This is not in the case in Zimbabwean cities, where the development of informal settlements, rising urban poverty, dilapidated urban infrastructure and other urban developmental challenges are rampant. Drawing from Malthusian theory, the current conditions in Zimbabwean cities represents that stage where the positive and negative checks are expected. In putting together this chapter, we used archival sources such as newspapers, government reports and other secondary sources. We conclude that planning initiatives and population control measures need to be used in Zimbabwean cities to address inefficiency and urban management challenges, which may be compromising urban sustainability. This study provides evidence-based information that urban local authorities may use to formulate policies to manage urban problems.
Changing Behavioural of Patterns of Travelers to Urban Ecotourism Sites of Kuala Lumpur
Authors: Sarkar Sudipta Kiran
Published: May 2018

This underlying motivation behind this chapter is to examine and understand the changing patterns of travel behaviour of travellers to urban nature attractions of 2010 and 2015 (5 year gap period) in the context of Kuala Lumpur. Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia offers a major potential for the growth and development of urban ecotourism given the natural hotspots in both inside and on the peripheries of the city. The results emanating from the descriptive statistics employed in this study demonstrate that changes have occurred in terms of benefits of urban ecotourism, ecotourism activity, source of ecotourism knowledge and in terms of more female ecotourists than male. These results put forth a range of implications from the perspectives of understanding the evolving tourist behaviour in urban spaces and significance of urban eco-travel in Malaysia. In light of challenges and prospects faced in terms of survival of nature-based areas in and around Kuala Lumpur, the findings of the study have been discussed.
Changes in Infrastructural Condition of Slums in India
Authors: Ghosh Somenath
Published: May 2018

Addressing the importance of infrastructure development towards inclusive city, the study aims to see the change in the condition of housing, road, latrine, drainage, sewerage, etc. within the slums across states and over time in India. The study has been done with the help of three rounds (49th, 58th and 69th) of NSSO data on slum. Though the condition of slums seems to have improved over time, but it is not satisfactory. However, it seems the improvement of one infrastructural aspect in slum is very much associated with the improvement of others. The factors like ‘Workforce Participation Rate of slums' and overall infrastructure of the state have a positive influence on the infrastructural condition of slums, whereas, per capita NSDP is affecting it negatively. The ‘associations made by the residents of slum for improvement' within the slums seems to have played no role to improve it.
Smart Urbanism and Digital Activism in Southern Italy
Authors: Di Bella Arturo
Published: May 2018

This chapter debates the competing approaches of the smart city model. It starts by critically discussing top-down approaches, focusing on influence of neoliberal urban experimentation, the role of dominant social interests, the reduction of the city and of urban citizenship, and the risks linked with its uncritical assumption. Then, attention shifts on counter-geographies of digital urbanism drawn from below by citizens, communities, and social movements, as part of a fragmented landscape of activism engaged in building alternative and bottom-up approaches of the smart city. Making use of the case study of a city in southern Italy, Catania, the aim of the chapter is threefold since it discusses the critical aspects linked with dissemination of smart city model as a means for investigating the evolutionary neoliberalization developed in southern Italy during last decades, the influence of neoliberal scripts of urban planning on policy practices, and then the potential alternative activities of digital urbanism hold for a more human-centered and socially embedded smart city.
Managing Urbanisation Through Planned Government Expenditure Evidence From Nigeria
Authors: Kyari Adam Konto
Published: May 2018

Over the past 50 years the world has witnessed a very rapid urban growth and projections have shown that by the year 2050 two-third of the world population will be living in urban centres, with Africa's urban population projected to reach 67% from its current 40%. Nigeria, being the most populous country in Africa, is projected to have an urban population of 67%. There are number of challenges that go with urbanisation. This chapter examined the effectiveness of Nigeria's budgetary expenditure in managing Nigeria's urbanisation threats. The chapter found that Nigeria's urbanisation management strategy is more of system maintenance based than system development, and therefore, in spite of the huge expenditure government incurred over the years, the urban challenges Nigeria is facing are still alarming. Accordingly, the chapter concludes by recommending that Nigeria plan its urban expenditure in to ensure that it is sustainable.
Internet of Things
Authors: Kumar Sumit , Raza Zahid
Published: May 2018

Internet of Things (IoT) is a novel approach of connecting things/objects and thus transmitting information between various entities of the physical world or to the control centers where this information can be interpreted. IoT has been poised as the next evolution of internet promising to change our lives by involving a seamless access to people and devices in a ubiquitous way leading to a smart world. These devices, often referred to as smart items or intelligent things can be home appliances, healthcare devices, vehicles, buildings, factories and almost anything networked and fitted with sensors, actuators, and/or embedded computers. IoT promises to make the world smarter and proactive by enabling things to talk and others to understand. This work first presents an insight into the origin of IoT and its network as well as data centric architecture while listing the major possibilities. The seemingly important role and challenges of using Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) which acts as the base in sensing and monitoring has been discussed. Since, the future lies in utility computing, best realized in the form of cloud computing, a cloud centric view of IoT is also presented.
Cloud-Based IoT System Control Problems
Authors: Kim Sungwook
Published: May 2018

Cloud computing and IoT are two very different technologies that are both already part of our life. Their adoption and use are expected to be more and more pervasive, making them important components of the Future Internet. A novel paradigm where Cloud and IoT are merged together is foreseen as disruptive and as an enabler of a large number of application scenarios. In this chapter, we focus our attention on the integration of Cloud and IoT. Reviewing the rich and articulate state of the art in this field, some issues are selected; Cloud Radio Access Network (C-RAN), Mobile Cloud IoT (MCIoT), Social Cloud (SC) and Fog Radio Access Network (F-RAN). C-RAN provides infrastructure layer services to mobile users by managing virtualized infrastructure resources. SC is a service or resource sharing framework on top of social networks, and built on the trust-based social relationships. In recent years, the idea of SC has been gaining importance because of its potential applicability. With an explosive growth of Mobile Cloud (MC) and IoT technologies, the MCIoT concept has become a new trend for the future Internet. MCIoT paradigm extends the existing facility of computing process to different mobile applications executing in mobile and portable devices. As a promising paradigm for the 5G wireless communication system, a new evolution of the cloud radio access network has been proposed, named as F-RANs. It is an advanced socially-aware mobile networking architecture to provide a high spectral and energy efficiency while alleviating backhaul burden. With the ubiquitous nature of social networks and cloud computing, IoT technologies exploit these developing new paradigms.
Fog Computing
Authors: Bhatt Chintan M. , Bhensdadia C. K.
Published: May 2018

The Internet of Things could be a recent computing paradigm, defined by networks of extremely connected things – sensors, actuators and good objects – communication across networks of homes, buildings, vehicles, and even individuals whereas cloud computing could be ready to keep up with current processing and machine demands. Fog computing provides architectural resolution to deal with some of these issues by providing a layer of intermediate nodes what's referred to as an edge network [26]. These edge nodes provide interoperability, real-time interaction, and if necessary, computational to the Cloud. This paper tries to analyse different fog computing functionalities, tools and technologies and research issues.
Social Space or Pedagogic Powerhouse
Authors: Rutherford Stephen M. , Standley Henrietta J.
Published: May 2018

The recent development of Web 2.0 technologies has the potential to transform the learning environment of Higher Education (HE). Web 2.0 technologies are already commonplace within the social space, with the use of social media, co-authored online resources and encyclopaedias, blogs and video sources. Web 2.0 tools also have the potential to greatly enhance activity in educational environments. However, learners are not using Web 2.0 technology to its optimum potential outside of formal learning situations. Findings suggest that despite being digital natives and being aware of the technologies themselves, students may be naïve of the potential of Web 2.0 technologies as tools for the development of their learning. Educators in HE therefore need to actively expose our learners to the range of potentials of Web 2.0 technologies, if our students are to be able to innovate and engage with technology to its full extent.
A Model for Mobile Social Media Integration in Constructivist ESL Classrooms
Authors: Yeh Ellen , Swinehart Nicholas
Published: May 2018

Social media, with its ability to create opportunities for interaction, presents a platform for applying technology into social constructivist learning contexts in innovative and meaningful ways. This chapter proposes a model for integrating mobile social media in a content-based ESL curriculum. Newly-arrived international art students were introduced to popular social media platforms and were trained on how to use these tools to conduct research and document their experiences in the field during a summer intensive program. Results are discussed in terms of effects on students' academic English knowledge and abilities, knowledge of local academic and creative cultures, and technology literacy. Finally, limitations and implications for future studies are explored.
Tourism Strategy in the Sun Triangle
Authors: Vargas-Hernández José G. , Arias-Orozco Ana Yanetly
Published: May 2018

The aim of this chapter is to analyze the tourism strategy used in the Triángulo Del Sol (Sun Triangle), Guerrero, by the theories of resources and institutions to generate proposals for their improvement. The methodology used was descriptive and analytical statistical contrasting theories and empirical evidence. Large amounts of public resources by the three levels of government have been earmarked; however, the results have not been significant.
Product Diversification in the Restaurant Industry as a Competitive Advantage
Authors: Vargas-Hernández José G. G. , Rivera-Fernández Rogelio , Martínez-Padilla Juan Luis
Published: May 2018

In this chapter, product diversification is analyzed in the restaurant industry. The restaurant industry is competitive and companies are constantly on the move, seeking competitive advantage. The result is that product diversification gives companies a competitive advantage.
Sustainable Development and Entrepreneurship in Hotel and Resorts
Authors: Seal Partho Pratim
Published: May 2018

Sustainable tourism has been a focus of tourism worldwide. As the hospitality industry is a part of tourism which includes hotels and resorts and contributes a lot towards food and lodging, sustainability is a concern for the industry. Individuals have a perspective that hotelier's relationship toward environmental and societal concerns is rather secluded and intangible. Considering the size and the rapid growth of the hospitality industry, it makes it clear that environmentally sustainable action is essential. For sustainability to be effective, the best way is to engage the people from local communities. The aim is to promote socio-economic development of the tourist destination and the community considering the ecology best cared for by the locals. Tourism has to be developed in a manner so that the ecosystem is conserved with diversification of the economy leading to dispersal of ownership.
Visitor Management for Ecotourism
Authors: Das Dillip Kumar
Published: May 2018

Managing visitors and their activities in a destination is an indispensable function of destination management and marketing and the same is given more impetus to associate and ascertain impact studies for sustainable tourism development. Most ecotourism spots are environmentally fragile and need intensive attention and care by all stakeholders. This chapter is an attempt in a Tsunami-affected ecotourism site, Pichavaram, and surrounding in Tamil Nadu where the source of income was found in either agriculture or marine resource collections. The search for eco-tourists is a challenging task along with the activities for which they travel. Considering the review of literature for the same areas around the world, the detailed activities have been studied and all possible have been added for the survey. The findings of the study are a contribution to the visitor management strategy in this bio-geographic region.
Managing the Engagement of Sustainable Tourism in Natural Protected Areas Through Social Media
Authors: Galán-Valdivieso Federico , Alonso-Cañadas Juana , Saraite-Sariene Laura , Caba-Pérez Carmen
Published: May 2018

Tourism in protected natural areas is one of the main economic drivers of rural economies in Europe, and Spain is the European country with the highest number of protected areas awarded as sustainable destinations by the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism in Protected Areas. The involvement of both local businesses and tourists is vital to the effective management of sustainable tourism, and social media is increasingly becoming a relevant tool to this task. Taking these considerations into account, this chapter has two goals: first is to examine the online activities performed by tourists in Facebook pages of local tourist businesses, aiming to enhance customer engagement with sustainable tourism; second is to perform a comparative analysis on the impact and degree of engagement achieved of firms from different Spanish regions. Findings will contribute significantly to our understanding of the influence of social media in fostering citizen engagement with sustainable tourism.
Destabilizing the Activity System of Online Teaching Through Critical Theory
Authors: Wang Victor C. X. , Torrisi-Steele Geraldine
Published: May 2018

Despite the rapid and prolific uptake of online learning across higher education, the promised positive impact of digital technologies on the quality of learning has mostly failed to materialize. The need for change or reshaping of teaching practice in online environments is well documented, and there is much literature encouraging educators to exploit the affordances of digital media to provide rich learning experiences. However, efforts to affect the needed changes in practice are not very successful. In the present chapter, the authors adopt a framework of activity theory and integrate it with principles of critical theory and transformative practice to better understand why change in teaching practices in online environments has been difficult to realize. The authors also provide a theoretical framework that may be applied to driving change in online teaching practices.
Work and Emancipation in the Age of Precarious Labor
Authors: Welton Michael R.
Published: May 2018

The domain and status of work in the writings of Jurgen Habermas is highly controversial. Some of his critics accuse him of abandoning the emancipatory potential of non-alienated labor, a central axiom of classical Marxism. After analyzing his critics' arguments, the chapter examines the influential commentary of Axel Honneth. He provides a new philosophical grounding for thinking about emancipation and work. To translate this provocative philosophical argument into practice, the author considers Guy Standing's vision of occupational security and citizenship.
U.S. Army Trainers
Authors: Schmidt Steven W.
Published: May 2018

Training in the U.S. military has evolved, and it has taken on new significance and priority as key in helping the military move forward. While the topic of training in the military has been discussed extensively in many different publications, there has not been as much discussion regarding those who are actually involved in that training, including curriculum designers and trainers. This chapter focuses on the experiences and identities of those who do that training. It discusses the experiences of civilian (non-enlisted) Army trainers (or educators), including how they got involved with training in the Army, their experiences in learning how to be a trainer, and their professional identities as trainers for the Army.
The Role of Critical Theory in the Development of Multicultural Psychology and Counseling
Authors: Chen Joseph C.
Published: May 2018

The discipline of psychology has historically been based upon Western, Eurocentric perspectives on human behavior. Critical theory has played a central role in pushing psychology out from its insularity and perceived objectivity. This chapter examines the role of critical pedagogist Paolo Freire and liberation psychologist Ignacio Martín-Baró in the shaping of a multicultural perspective within psychology that has revolutionized the way that psychologists understand and treat mental health conditions. Freire and Martín-Baró gave voice to the marginalized and disenfranchised and pushed psychologists to engage in their own conscientization of their history and complicitness in perpetuating oppression. Implications of their work are examined in light of their contributions to theoretical underpinnings, clinical diagnosis, and treatment approaches.
Selecting an MRI System: A Multi Criteria Decision Making Model for MRI Technicians
Authors: Koksalmis Gulsah Hancerliogullari , Calisir Cuneyt , Durucu Murat , Calisir Fethi
Published: May 2018

This article describes how magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems play a crucial role in radiology, specifically in the diagnosis of diseases and management of patient treatment. The objective of this article is to present MRI technicians' perspective on the relative importance of the required factors when selecting and purchasing an MRI system. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) methodology was used to determine the relative priorities for different criteria along with the consistency of responses. A set of criteria for MRI system were identified based on the literature and interviews with experts (i.e., MRI technicians), and organized into a rational hierarchical framework consisting of the five main criteria and nineteen sub-criteria. An online survey including demographic questions was conducted to identify the relative weights of these criteria. Survey responses from 87 technicians indicate that brand is found to be the most important criteria, followed by patient comfort, usability, technical issues, and performance. Among the sub-criteria, the highest weights are assessed for country of origin, user-friendly independent workstation, reputation, software support. The findings demonstrate the factors that can be critical discriminators between different MRI systems.
Multi Criteria Decision Model for Risk Assessment of Transmission and Distribution Assets
Authors: Chattopadhyay Bijoy , Rodriguez Angelica
Published: May 2018

This article describes how in order to prioritize the risks for a large number of assets, various criteria are used for ranking the asset risk. Since the criteria used for developing the risk rank is a mixture of quantitative and qualitative, a method was required to handle both the quantitative and qualitative criteria with varying scales that can be used for the electrical industry's assets. This article proposes a hybrid multi-criteria decision model (MCDM) that combines both weighted sum model (WSM) and analytical hierarchy process (AHP). The hybrid model is then applied to the strategic asset management plan for the electric power industry for ranking the assets risk. In this application, a large number of criteria reflecting asset conditions with their numerical values are available for which WSM method worked quite efficiently. The AHP method was applied to the criteria where qualitative criteria were available. Both methods were then synthesized, and the proposed hybrid method was formulated which resulted in a computationally efficient outcome with robust mathematical framework. The results show that the proposed method exhibited optimal results for the electric industry's asset where qualitative criteria are for AHP method was limited to 3 to 5. In the case of WSM, a larger number of quantitative criteria could be accommodated although for the application only six criteria were utilized.
Spatial OLAP and Multicriteria Integrated Approach for Decision Support System
Authors: Bensalloua Charef Abdallah , Hamdadou Djamila
Published: May 2018

This article describes how Spatial On-Line Analytical Processing, such a decisional technology, offers the possibilities of spatial and multidimensional analysis of data stored in multidimensional structure namely spatial data warehouse. However, this technology is limited in the quality aspect of the decision related to the multicriteria consideration. In the current article, the objective is to propose a Spatial Decision Support System namely “Silvicultura” for facilitating decision making in complex situations. This approach is based on integrating multicriteria analysis with SOLAP in order to enrich the spatial and multidimensional analysis with the contribution of MCA tools for mitigating conflict situations. The authors have based their proposal modeling on Unified Modeling language, since it is a well-known standard modeling language and can be easily extended for multidimensional modeling. Finally, in order to validate their proposal, the authors present a case study to show how to use it in the agroforestry management.
Measuring the Impact of Extreme Weather Phenomena on Total Factor Productivity of General Cropping Farms in East Anglia
Authors: Gadanakis Yiorgos , Areal Francisco Jose
Published: May 2018

One of the main challenges of climate change on agriculture in UK is how to adapt to the potential changes to the availability of water. Changes in rainfall distribution may potentially lead to an increase in drought frequency, magnitude and duration. In this research a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and a Malmquist Index (MI) are combined with a double bootstrap methodology to measure changes in Total Factor Productivity of general cropping farms in East Anglia. More specifically, the DEA technique was used to measure the year by year efficiency score for the farms in the sample and the MI and its components used to derive information on productivity over time. Data for the input – output models was obtained from the Farm Business Survey. Climate change is taken into consideration by using data for water cost as a proxy indicator of water consumption per farm. Results reveal changes in total, technical and scale efficiency and provide information on how the 2011 drought affect the TFP of the farms in the sample.
Modelling and Analyzing Consumer Behaviour Employing Observational Data
Authors: Kyrdoda Yuliia , Hammami A.Malek , Periklis Drakos , Kaldis Panagiotis
Published: May 2018

The purpose of this article is to investigate and model retail consumer purchase behavior and determine factors affecting the purchasing decision. The following hypotheses were verified: H1 tests the influence of “Decision-making Time” over “Final Purchase”. H2 tests “Promotion” over “Final Purchase”. H3, H4 and H5 were established to test the influence of demographic characteristics (respectively: Age, Nationality, Gender) over “Final Purchase”. SPSS 23 was used to analyze the collected data from the observations completed in the supermarket. In order to identify the explanatory power of the variables, a Logistic Regression model was developed. Empirical findings indicated that demographic characteristics (Age, Nationality, Gender), as well as “Time” and “Promotion,” have a significant effect on “Purchase” and that “Time” has a greater impact on “Purchase.” These results could be used to design marketing strategies in order to increase sales. However, a few limitations occurred during the study such as observation timing, the unicity of location and observers' subjectivity.
An Innovative Spreadsheet Application to Teach Management Science Decision Criteria
Authors: Hozak Kurt
Published: May 2018

This article describes a Microsoft Excel-based application that uses humorous voice synthesis and timed competition to make it more fun and engaging to learn management science decision criteria. In addition to providing immediate feedback and easily customizable tips that facilitate self-learning, the software randomly generates both the problem data and the sequence of cells to complete as a means of keeping the process fresh during repeated practice. It can be configured to prevent the entering of cell formulas as a means of encouraging students to use calculators and think about the individual calculations. Faculty benefit from a system that facilitates automatic problem generation, and grading, and helps prevent and detect undesirable behavior. Student feedback and assessment results provide empirical evidence of the application's value.