bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Study on Solutions and Roadmap of Sustainable Development of Creative Design Industry In China
Authors: Feng Weiwei , Zhang Linghao
Published: May 2018

The creative design sector is still at preliminary development stage in China. Internally, the sector faces deficiencies in design philosophy, transformation techniques, industrial chain communication, talents, and comprehensive administration. Externally, it has to deal with unfavorable environment. In order to find a way out, this chapter proposes a roadmap of sustainable development which comprises erecting a public service platform integrating system and establishing third-party public service platforms. The goals are to facilitate healthy development of China's creative design sector, chase up the transformation and upgrading of manufacturing industry, enhance creative design competency, foster micro and small startups of creative design business, help them to pick up market shares and enhance design competitiveness, and ultimately drive the transformation and upgrading of regional economy.
Impact of Widowhood and Disability Among Elderly
Authors: S. Irudaya Rajan , S. Sunitha
Published: May 2018

Aging is a natural phenomenon in which widowhood and disability are the major characteristics of concern. The main objective of the chapter is to sift the relationship between widowhood and disability by gender. It examines the factors affecting female elderly with the disability and measures both subjective and objective disabilities. This study is evidenced from the Kerala Ageing Survey (KAS), 2013, with a sample of 7668 elderly in which 58% are females. Three major physical disabilities, namely vision, hearing, and walking, and mental disabilities, such as cognitive impairment and depression, are to be analyzed through the data. Before that, disability trends and prevalence of both India and Kerala by age and sex are closely examined through census figures. It is revealed that elderly women are at risk of many factors compared to their male counterparts. They are vulnerable to multiple disabilities. The prevalence of disability is more among elderly females after the age of 70. The main physical problem of elderly is vision followed by movement and hearing impairment.
Feminization of Old Age and Experiences of Subalternity
Authors: Verma Smita
Published: May 2018

The demographic feature of twenty-first century has been the rise of the aged population, making them socially visible. However, the concern is that an aging world is also a feminized world. But this transition does not hold a very vivid future as the elderly women are the most vulnerable section of the population. They make up for the majority of the poor due to scarce access to education, property, and employment opportunities. Widowhood often leaves them impoverished and victims of abuse. Until recently, aging women have not been considered a subject requiring serious attention in India. Most of the studies on old age have adopted a gender-neutral approach to the problems of ageing. It is a paradox that the feminist movement has marginally addressed this issue even though gender along with social, economic, and political factors has a profound impact on how people age, thus making aging a gendered experience. The question remains why aging has not been taken up as a feminist issue in India. This chapter gives insight into the reasons for their vulnerability.
Gender Dimensions of Aging Among Indigenous People
Authors: Ahmmed Faisal
Published: May 2018

Researchers view older people as a homogenous group where age is a leveler of characteristics. But factors such as gender, socio-economic background, family relationships and support, living situation, physical condition, cultural practices, etc. severely influence how a person will enjoy their later life. In Khasi Indigenous community women enjoy higher status than their counterparts. Due to a strong matriarchical family system, women become the owner of property inherently and husbands stay in wives' houses. This empowers women economically and family members show their loyalty to the head of the family who is a woman. During old age, women are well cared for by family members, and elderly males are sometimes neglected, which is totally opposite to the majority people of Bangladesh. Based on an ethnographic study, this chapter explains how customs work in the creation of a special later life experience among elderly women. It also explains the challenges faced by Khasi elderly people in getting access to modern medical facilities and other government supports as citizen of Bangladesh.
Women, Ageism, and Sexism
Authors: Parmar Sumita
Published: May 2018

This chapter looks at the changing demographics of the world and examines how the needs of an aging population make it imperative for governments to factor old-age policies and programs in national planning. The chapter then interrogates the situations and problems of the elderly in India, focusing on old women and old widows who are distinct in their socio-economic and psychosocial needs. It dwells on the slowly changing perceptions and attitudes of both the old and the young towards each other in urban centers and stresses how rural India remains largely untouched by these changes.
Gender and Elderly Care in Africa
Authors: Kimaro Lucy Rafael
Published: May 2018

The aging population worldwide is growing very fast: 8.5% are aged 65 and over. This is expected to jump up to 17% by 2050, in Africa 4.5%, by 2030. The authors argue that the majority of elderly people depend on services provided by their families and religious institutions. Although the African culture encourages family members to respect and care for their elderly persons, this has not been the case due to economic challenges facing families. Many elderly men and women live in poverty. Women suffer more because of cultural beliefs and responsibilities to care for HIV AIDS orphaned grandchildren. The beliefs that associate elderly women with witchcraft lead to abuse and killing of innocent people. The authors highlight the challenges for religious institutions to give shelter and provide medical services. They struggle with limited funds to provide what elderly people need to protect their dignity. Elderly people need a lot of love and good care, and the lack of trained elderly care takers becomes a challenge.
An Electric Wheelchair Controlled by Head Movements and Facial Expressions
Authors: Rechy-Ramirez Ericka Janet , Hu Huosheng
Published: May 2018

A bio-signal-based human machine interface is proposed for hands-free control of a wheelchair. An Emotiv EPOC sensor is used to detect facial expressions and head movements of users. Nine facial expressions and up-down head movements can be chosen to form five commands: move-forward and backward, turn-left and right, and stop. Four uni-modal modes, three bi-modal modes, and three fuzzy bi-modal modes are created to control a wheelchair. Fuzzy modes use the users' strength in making the head movement and facial expression to adjust the wheelchair speed via a fuzzy logic system. Two subjects tested the ten modes with several command configurations. Means, minimum, and maximum values of the traveling times achieved by each subject in each mode were collected. Results showed that both subjects achieved the lowest mean, minimum and maximum traveling times using fuzzy modes. Statistical tests showed that there were significant differences between traveling times of fuzzy modes of subject B and traveling times of bi-modal modes and those of the respective fuzzy modes of both subjects.
Reassessing Underlying Spatial Relations in Pedestrian Navigation
Authors: Wang Jia , Li Rui
Published: May 2018

This chapter assesses underlying spatial relations for pedestrian wayfinding by examining navigational directions given in both forms of sketch maps and verbal descriptions. An experiment was conducted to investigate characteristics of navigational directions provided by participants in the form of sketch maps and verbal descriptions. The authors were specifically interested in the landmarks and spatial relationships such as route topology, linear order relation, and relative orientation extracted from the navigational directions. A new ontological approach to sketch and verbal interpretations was adopted for spatial analysis. The results pointed to the advantage of including sketch components into pedestrian navigation systems over solely turn-by-turn instructions. In addition, the results showed the differences between visual and verbal directions, which suggest the necessity of having different levels of directions for giving specific types of navigational instructions.
What Is It Like to Be a Cyborg?
Authors: Warwick Kevin
Published: May 2018

In this chapter, the author describes his personal experience in experimenting as a cyborg (part biology/part technology) by having technology implanted in his body, which he lived with over a period. A look is also taken at the author's experiments into creating cyborgs by growing biological brains which are subsequently given a robot body. The experiments are dealt with in separate sections. In each case the nature of the experiment is briefly described along with the results obtained and this is followed by an indication of the experience, including personal feelings and emotions felt in and around the time of the experiments and subsequently as a result of the experiments. Although the subject can be treated scientifically from an external perspective, it is really through individual, personal experience that a true reflection can be gained on what might be possible in the future.
Agent-Based Software Engineering, Paradigm Shift, or Research Program Evolution
Authors: Wautelet Yves , Schinckus Christophe , Kolp Manuel
Published: May 2018

Information systems are deeply linked to human activities. Unfortunately, development methodologies have been traditionally inspired by programming concepts and not by organizational and human ones. This leads to ontological and semantic gaps between the systems and their environments. The adoption of agent orientation and multi-agent systems (MAS) helps to reduce these gaps by offering modeling tools based on organizational concepts (actors, agents, goals, objectives, responsibilities, social dependencies, etc.) as fundamentals to conceive systems through all the development process. Moreover, software development is becoming increasingly complex. Stakeholders' expectations are growing higher while the development agendas have to be as short as possible. Project managers, business analysts, and software developers need adequate processes and models to specify the organizational context, capture requirements, and build efficient and flexible systems.
Application of Fuzzy Sets and Shadowed Sets in Predicting Time Series Data
Authors: Bose Mahua , Mali Kalyani
Published: May 2018

In recent years, several methods for forecasting fuzzy time series have been presented in different areas, such as stock price, student enrollments, climatology, production sector, etc. Choice of data partitioning technique is a central factor and it highly influences the forecast accuracy. In all existing works on fuzzy time series model, cluster with highest membership is used to form fuzzy logical relationships. But the position of the element within the cluster is not considered. The present study incorporates the idea of fuzzy discretization and shadowed set theory in defining intervals and uses the positional information of elements within a cluster in selection of rules for decision making. The objective of this work is to show the effect of the elements, lying outside the core area on forecast. Performance of the presented model is evaluated on standard datasets.
Hybrid Term-Similarity-Based Clustering Approach and Its Applications
Authors: Kumara Banage T. G. S. , Paik Incheon , Koswatte Koswatte R. C.
Published: May 2018

With the large number of web services now available via the internet, service discovery, recommendation, and selection have become a challenging and time-consuming task. Organizing services into similar clusters is a very efficient approach. A principal issue for clustering is computing the semantic similarity. Current approaches use methods such as keyword, information retrieval, or ontology-based methods. These approaches have problems that include discovering semantic characteristics, loss of semantic information, and a shortage of high-quality ontologies. Thus, the authors present a method that first adopts ontology learning to generate ontologies via the hidden semantic patterns existing within complex terms. Then, they propose service recommendation and selection approaches based on proposed clustering approach. Experimental results show that the term-similarity approach outperforms comparable existing clustering approaches. Further, empirical study of the prototyping recommendation and selection approaches have proved the effectiveness of proposed approaches.
Dimension Reduction Using Image Transform for Content-Based Feature Extraction
Authors: De Sourav , Singha Madhumita , Kumari Komal , Selot Ritika , Gupta Akshat
Published: May 2018

Technological advancements in the field of machine learning have attempted classification of the images of gigantic datasets. Classification with content-based image feature extraction categorizes the images based on the image content in contrast to conventional text-based annotation. The chapter has presented a feature extraction technique based on application of image transform. The method has extracted meaningful features and facilitated feature dimension reduction. A technique, known as fractional coefficient of transforms, is adopted to facilitate feature dimension reduction. Two different color spaces, namely RGB and YUV, are considered to compare the classification metrics to figure out the best possible reduced feature dimension. Further, the results are compared to state-of-the-art techniques which have revealed improved performance for the proposed feature extraction technique.
Earnings Management and Institutional Ownership in Turkey
Authors: Aybars Aslı , Ataünal Levent
Published: May 2018

Earnings management is an important factor that considerably affects the reporting quality of firms and conceivably results in suboptimal investor decisions. The presence of active institutional investors among the equity holders is generally accepted as an external control mechanism that moderates earnings management problems. This chapter aimed to evaluate the role of institutional investors on earnings management with a data of firms listed on Borsa Istanbul between 2005 and 2011. The study found a significant and negative relation between institutional ownership level and managerial discretion exercised in opportunistic management of accruals and confirmed the substantial role played by institutional investors in monitoring and disciplining corporate managers. In other words, the managers' tendency for earnings management practices is observed to be mitigated by institutional shareholdings.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in China
Authors: Davidson D. Kirk , Yin Juelin
Published: May 2018

Despite a growing recognition of national contexts in predicting the dynamics of corporate social responsibility (CSR), the limited prior research has failed to disaggregate national institutions to specify the mechanisms between aspects of national institutional contexts and elements of CSR practices. In this paper we offer a framework for analyzing the nature and status of CSR, which is made up of eight elements: history, religions/ideologies, social norms, geography, political structures, the level of economic development, civil society institutions, and the country's “safety net” provisions. We apply the framework to explain how and why China's understanding of CSR differs from that in Western countries.
Corporate Sustainability Programs and Reporting
Authors: Kay Mark J.
Published: May 2018

Building upon the thesis of Baden and Harwood (2013) that “terminology matters” in describing sustainability programs and corporate social responsibility reporting efforts, this chapter examines how an organization rhetorically self-defines its specific degree or level of “responsibility” in a particular industry or within an industry sector in its actions as well as its non-financial reporting efforts. Starbucks's evolution in developing sustainability programs and their sustainability reporting over a 12-year period are examined as a case example. Being both praised and criticized, Starbucks provides an instructive example of the evolution of corporate responsibility in a customer-facing enterprise. A model of both internal and external drivers of corporate social responsibility and sustainability progress is proposed and applied to the Starbucks case.
CSR Initiatives
Authors: Duca Ioana , Gherghina Rodica
Published: May 2018

The authors propose an analysis of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) concept together with an emphasis on the role it plays in the context of sustainable development. As this is a concept with a relatively brief history in the Romanian business environment, the authors include references to relevant papers in the specialised literature throughout this chapter. The chapter includes a synthesis of the various theoretical approaches to CSR, an overview of the CSR practices development at national and international level, certain authors' for and against arguments related to generalising these practices, trends regarding CSR practices at international level, as well as an analysis of the CSR practices in Romania. The research conclusions express own points of view on the development of corporate social responsibility initiatives at company level and the related benefits thereof.
The Market for CSR Practices
Authors: Daskalopoulou Irene
Published: May 2018

The aim of the paper is to stimulate a discussion about the market for CSR practices. This entails a shift of focus from contemporary approaches of analyzing the phenomenon that largely focus on the way in which CSR actions affect businesses and the markets. In contrast, the present paper proposes an analysis of the market for CSR actions and activities as a more integrative approach to conceptualizing the complex nature of the phenomenon. Three critical dimensions are identified as determinants of CSR market outcomes, namely the content of the demand and supply forces, the origin of the market, and the institutional terrain within which the market is developed. A tentative application of the proposed context is discussed with reference to the food sector.
The Impact of Social Business Strategies in Creating Empirical Social Business Models
Authors: Moheb Siavash , Golrokh Ali
Published: May 2018

The purpose of this chapter is to define social business and its difference with conventional business type. Governments could not address all the social problems. Because they don't have the knowledge ore the money to do so .however big enterprises have much more resources. Social business is form at the intersection pf social needs and business expertise. Also corporates want to have a good publicity through social responsibility .social business can help them to run social responsibility process through a sustainable approach. The articles reviews the recent literature about social business evolution and definition. And then it goes through social business model literature review to run a social business the definition and models of conventional business models should be redefined. Finally it compare the different Social business models and introduces the social business components in the end there are two cases from Grameen group one of the leading social groups in the word.
Serving the Purpose?
Authors: Zebregs Anya , Moratis Lars
Published: May 2018

Firms tend to approach corporate social responsibility (CSR) from a business case perspective. This study examines whether communicating CSR through self-serving direct motives (increasing profit) or self-serving indirect motives (enhancing corporate image), can lead to more credibility and whether corporate reputation, firms' prior CSR beliefs, and perceived honesty of the message influence this relationship. The research focuses on the financial industry, using an existing mainstream bank (ING) as example. Data was collected using a survey. From the results, a rather nuanced picture emerges about the relationship between perceived CSR motive and the credibility of corporate CSR claims. Partly in contrast to extent literature, communicating self-serving motives may increase perceived credibility. Moreover, this effect is stronger for the indirect self-serving motive than for the direct self-serving motive and results vary based on whether or not respondents are customer of the bank. For customers, image and mixed motives appear to be relevant, whereas non-customers also consider economic benefits when attributing a CSR motive. Further, prior CSR beliefs only function as moderator when participants had to form an opinion of a bank that was not their own. Lastly, corporate reputation is not found as a moderator but appears to mediate the relationship between self-serving motives and perceived credibility. An implication of this study is that marketers should be aware of the motives for engaging in CSR as perceived by the public (both customers and non-customers) and realize that the business case for non-customers is a broader concept than for customers.
From Corporate Social Responsibility to Social Entrepreneurship
Authors: Asensio Eva , Perán Jesús , Rodríguez Yolanda
Published: May 2018

Corporate Social Responsibility has become more significant among companies and other institutions. Nevertheless, the traditional approach of corporate social responsibility, based on preventing the possible negative impact of irresponsible and unethical practices, is no longer enough. The profound socio-economic changes, accelerated as a result of the global economic crisis, demand a further step respect to corporate social responsibility paradigm linking to the so-called social entrepreneurship, understood here as the incorporation of new social demands to business models. This chapter aims to redefine the concept of social entrepreneurship from an eclectic point of view and present a methodological approach for their measurement as a tool for business strategic planning. The theoretical proposal of social entrepreneurship tries to link creating shared value concept with the stakeholder theory, paying special attention to the Social Return on Investment (SROI) method, together with neuroscientific approach, as tools for the measurement of social value.
Balancing the Old With the New
Authors: Peters Richard , Caro Cary , Golden Peggy
Published: May 2018

In this article the authors articulate four separate models that consider the inter-relationships between Explicit and Implicit Corporate Social Responsibility. These models suggest that the transition from a traditional and 'quiet' social responsibility approach to a strategic and more expressive communication is design is variable and influenced by both institutional and firm level factors. At the institutional level, market liberalization, social legacy, localization forces and cultural legitimacy may all help predict where firms exist along the Explicit-Implicit continuum. Organizationally, strategy, social significance, market size and space, and self-determinism to moderate the extent to which firm adopts or resists Explicit CSRS. By considering these models and their related factors individually, the authors present a rich framework to educate future research in social responsibility and social change.
Corporate Social, Environmental, and Governance Reporting and Firm's Characteristics
Authors: Islam Md. Nazrul , Chowdhury Mohammad Ashraful Ferdous , Tuhin Mehedi Hasan , Sarker Md. Masud
Published: May 2018

The study aimed to explore the social, environmental and governance (SEG) reporting practices of Banking sector of Bangladesh. In conducting the study, the longitudinal data has been used over the period 2000-2015 taking all the 30listed private commercial banks in Dhaka Stock Exchange Limited. Three separate reporting index for social, environmental and governance have been developed to measure reporting practices using the dichotomous method from the published annual reports of banks. The analysis found that corporate social, environmental and governance reporting has been increased over the study period. The statistical measure showed that social, governance and environmental reporting were made 46%, 49% and 1% respectively over the period while total SEGwas 39% over the period. The econometrics models using fixed effects showed that corporate profitability, size, age and leverage have positive impact on SEG reporting. The main cause of low SEG reporting could be due to the insufficient laws and framework of SEG reporting.
An Evaluation of the State of the CSR Field in Australia
Authors: de Burgh-Woodman Hélène , Bressan Alessandro , Torrisi Angela
Published: May 2018

While Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become established in the managerial lexicon, its meaning and application varies according to geographical and sector contexts. In this chapter, we focus on the application of CSR across the banking and mining sectors in Australia to analyse the ways in which this managerial mechanism, with its theoretical underpinnings of social, environmental and economic balance, has been strategically appropriated and applied. We pose the key questions of how has CSR been implemented in Australia's largest industries and, secondarily, why has CSR not been more effective in transforming business practice in Australia? To demonstrate the alternative purposes to which CSR has been put, we use two case studies drawn from Australia's two most visible industries. The purpose of these case studies is to illustrate the larger conceptual ambiguity or fragmentation endemic to CSR and how this ambiguity affects its application – and therefore effectiveness – across different contexts.
CSR in Hotel Industry in India
Authors: Kaur Inderjot
Published: May 2018

The objective of this study is to know the role of hotel industry in revenue generation and to know the CSR activities expected from the hotel industry in India. The present study highlights the significance of hotel industry in Indian economy, their demand and supply forces, and various challenges before hotel Industry and Government efforts to remove the problem associated with this industry. The Indian business environment has many its merits and it is therefore the CSR has a large role to play because it has guidelines to help in its progression and the guidelines require playing up India's strengths like innovation. Inter-alia, the CSR should encourage exchange of ideas, systems thinking and problem solving. Further the CSR should support transparency in work culture, innovation, stakeholder engagement besides consumer empowerment, all in order to make businesses do better with new products and services that put human and environmental health at the forefront. We cannot consider these goals as policy because it will result in a stagnation of CSR. These are the mandatory spend encourages. The business sector in India for the development of the society as a whole has to share responsibility with government.
Facilitating Trust
Authors: Stoll Mary Lyn
Published: May 2018

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is highly valuable for transnational corporations, but entails special requirements of heightened honesty in the marketing of CSR as compared to other goods and services. Because trust is essential to communicating the value of CSR effectively, companies must attend to the unique benefits and challenges that online communication of CSR commitments pose. While the Internet is ideal in allowing for global reach and greater capacity than the confines of standard advertisements, the Internet also poses special challenges in terms of facilitating trust with consumers and other stakeholders. This chapter highlights both the problems and benefits of marketing good corporate conduct online and provides moral guidelines for marketers of good corporate conduct.
The Role Corporate Social Responsibility Has in the Smart City Project in Spain
Authors: López-Arranz Mª Asunción
Published: May 2018

The object and justification of this chapter is to analyse how Smart Cities will have an impact on workers' social welfare. Another aspect is the opportunity for businesses immersed in Smart Cities to improve working conditions through corporate social responsibility, reverting in this way to the society all that they have to offer. The future of employment in Smart Cities is analysed. Anyway, the realisation of the present work also has allowed to check how finds Spain in the implantation of this model of Cities and as they are involved the Spanish companies. In this sense, the investigation after an unproductive analysis and conceptual of the terms business social responsibility and smart quote analyses the implication of the right of the work in the new cities through the repercussion of these in the conditions of work of the workers taken by the companies so much of the small, of the average as of the big company, to finish with conclusions. It analyses the normative activity that Spain has developed specifically in this regard and his plans in the aim 20/20.
Motivators to Adopt Green Supply Chain Initiatives
Authors: Kohli Amarpreet S. , Hawkins Ellen
Published: May 2018

There are several factors that drive organizations to consider implementing green supply chain (GSC) initiatives. This paper refines an instrument to empirically test the significance of the following drivers for participation in GSC initiatives: Government Regulation, Buyer/Supply Chain Influence, Internal Readiness, Competitive Advantage, and Corporate Social Responsibility. Corporate Social Responsibility emerged as the most significant variable that effected the decision making of the organizations around green supply chain management practices. Surprisingly, Competitive Advantage, which has been found to be a significant contributor in prior research when studied in isolation, did not emerge as a significant factor in this study. The emergent high correlation between the Corporate Social Responsibility and Competitive Advantage could imply that the Competitive Advantage could be embedded within the Corporate Social Responsibility when agencies focus on greening their supply chains.
The Social Role of Human Resources Teachers
Authors: Garcia Agustin Galan , Villarino Roberto Fernandez
Published: May 2018

We consider it urgent to reflect on the need to build a new Corporate Social Responsibility that will in turn have a direct impact on a comprehensive human resources executive on a personal level. This professional will be competent in social skills, proactive, a specialist in avoiding conflict and a true part of the company's social aspect. Training is the essential tool to achieve this. This training must focus on thinking about values, must delve into the two-way humanist ideal that education gives, must value it and transform it afterwards. Also, it must take into account the student's interests, motifs and willingness so they may be able to establish the necessary interrelations that will allow for the connection between the individual's personal life and society.
A Research of the Influence on the Consumer Behavior From CSR Information Embedded in the Process of Online Purchasing
Authors: Yu Li , Tsai Sang-Binge , Li Dakai , Teng Limei , Li Guodong
Published: May 2018

As the online purchasing is becoming prevalent, more and more corporates started to show their CSR information in the processes of online retail. For example: some CSR information could be showed in the “COMMODITY DETAILS”. Could this kind of information affect consumer behavior? By recognizing three types of embedded CSRC information, according to the consumer behavior experiments, this paper will show CSR's influences on the consumer behavior such as evaluation of the company, purchasing intention, and purchasing intention. By the comparison of the results after three types' CSR communication, we found that CSR information could significantly affect consumer behavior and the consumer response will differ from different types of CSR information embedded.
Corporate Social Responsibility in SMEs
Authors: Ganesan Yuvaraj , Haron Hasnah , Amran Azlan , Ooi Say Keat
Published: May 2018

Given the increasing importance of the role played by small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) within the developing economy, this paper intends to provide further insight into corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices among SMEs. Within this context, the purpose is to propose the role of non-audit services (NAS), which contribute to the possible explanation of the SME adoption of CSR practices. A conceptual approach is taken whereby this paper is based on an extensive literature review of NAS and CSR practices in the SME context. Then, based on the knowledge-based view (KBV), this paper set to explain and highlight the role of NAS play to enhance CSR practices among SMEs. This paper provides a theoretical discussion on the importance of CSR in ensuring the survival of the SMEs. Although the proposition of NAS is relatively new, it provides an interesting and remarkable avenue for further research especially in the developing country. Overall, this paper draws attention to the importance of NAS in enhancing the survival and performance of the SMEs.
Mobile Health Care
Authors: Mangu Veda Prakash
Published: May 2018

This chapter gives a high-level view of the technology involved in the solution of Mobile Health Care with Cloud Computing as back-bone. It emphasizes on Hardware elements, Computation requirements when the solution covers huge scope of medical problems at the mega scales across wide areas. This chapter discusses sub-systems of the solution, that include Smart Phones, Computation Engines, High End Transportation Systems, Multi-Specialty Hospitals, Smart Phones/Digital Personal Assistants used by Medical Practitioners. Discusses on the accuracies, bandwidth requirements and latencies present in the systems, also emphasizes on the required accuracies as the problem area is Human Life. To address the challenges that arises when the solution gets high degree of maturity, this chapter proposes review of the current day protocols in the systems. Also proposes to integrate intelligent applications and different eco-systems like Big Data, Data Analytics and Internet of Things, and best adaptability of these areas with Nano-technologies to result in increased average life time of humans.
Mobile Health Systems and Electronic Health Record
Authors: Kasemsap Kijpokin
Published: May 2018

This chapter reveals the overview of mobile health systems; the adoption of mobile health systems; mobile health systems and patient monitoring; the overview of mobile health technology; the advanced issues of Electronic Health Record (EHR); and the challenges of EHR in global health care. Mobile health helps deliver the health care services with quality care, improved workflow, and increased patient interaction while minimizing complexity and cost to achieve the desired goals in health care settings. EHR systems are the real-time and patient-centered records that make information available instantly and securely to authorized users. The chapter argues that applying mobile health systems and EHR has the potential to improve health care efficiency and gain sustainable competitive advantage in global health care.
Promoting Better Healthcare for Patients in Critical Condition
Authors: Barroca Itamir , Aquino Gibeon , Lima Maria Alzete
Published: May 2018

The high cost of healthcare services, the aging population and the increase of chronic disease is becoming a global concern. Several studies have indicated the need to minimize the process of hospitalization and the high cost of patient care. A promising trend in healthcare is to move the routines of medical checks from a hospital to the patient's home. Moreover, recent advances in microelectronics have boosted the advent of a revolutionary model involving systems and communication technology. This new paradigm, the Internet of Things (IoT), has a broad applicability in several areas, including healthcare. Based on this context, this chapter aims to describe a computer platform based on IoT for the remote monitoring of patients in critical condition. Furthermore, it is planned to approach the current advances and challenges of conceiving and developing a set of technology-centric, targeting issues relevant to underdeveloped countries, particularly in regards to Brazil's health infrastructure.
Strategic Healthcare Service Management
Authors: Sangamnere Bhagyashri Subhash , C Kalyani Srinivas
Published: May 2018

Healthcare is a service industry and it consists of health organizations (hospitals, clinics etc.), people (patients, doctors and nurses) and health technologies. Healthcare organizations are complex in nature and need to improve quality while maintaining optimum cost. Patient is final consumer of health services and he is the customer hence healthcare service quality is nothing but perceived satisfaction by patient. Prevalent trends in healthcare industry such as emerging healthcare technology, increasing demand, changing disease patterns and growing government support are contributing to a need to achieve efficiency and set benchmarks by overcoming challenges in healthcare service sector being underserved and under-consumed. There is a scope to improve quality and efficiency using various strategies like adopting advanced technologies and positioning in order to achieve delight in delivery of healthcare services. Major healthcare players are adopting unique strategies irrespective of their diverse geographical presence and range of services from single specialty, super-specialty or multispecialty to deliver healthcare services efficiently.
Modelling Factors Affecting Patient-Doctor-Computer Communication in Primary Care
Authors: Assis-Hassid Shiri , Heart Tsipi , Reychav Iris , Pliskin Joseph S.
Published: May 2018

This work presents a conceptual model aimed at explaining factors affecting the formation of effective patient-doctor-computer communication at the primary care clinic. The authors define a new construct – patient-doctor-computer communication (PDCC), aimed to replace the traditional concept of dyad patient-doctor communication (PDC). PDC has been characterized as one of the most significant factors affecting healthcare outcomes. To better understand PDCC and its antecedents, the authors integrate theories from the patient-centered care and the Information Systems domains and suggest that the characteristics of the EMR, the user (doctor) and the task determine the doctor's perception of fit between the EMR and the medical task, which in turn positively affects PDCC. The suggested conceptual model contributes to both theory and practice. On the theoretical side, it opens several new research trajectories. For practice, the model implies that there is a need for a tighter collaboration between experts from both the information systems and medicine domains in designing EMR systems that are aligned with and support the medical task at hand.
Personal Health Systems for Diabetes Management, Early Diagnosis and Prevention
Authors: Zarkogianni Konstantia , Nikita Konstantina S.
Published: May 2018

This chapter aims at the presentation and comparative assessment of tools and methodologies used for the development of Personal Health Systems (PHSs) for diabetes management, early diagnosis and prevention. Medical decision support systems such as glucose prediction models, risk assessment models for long-term diabetes complications, models for early diagnosis of diabetes and closed-loop glucose controllers along with integrated systems for diabetes management are described. The outcomes of a wide range of research studies demonstrate the feasibility of providing safe, reliable and cost-effective solutions towards improving patients' quality of life through the application of PHSs. Specific limitations that prevent these systems from being fully adopted in clinical practice are highlighted, while challenges and future research directions are summarized.
Hadoop Map Only Job for Enciphering Patient-Generated Health Data
Authors: Jain Arushi , Bhatnagar Vishal
Published: May 2018

Today, Big Data is being leveraged in many industries from criminal justice to health care to real estate with powerful outcomes. Organizations are using Big Data to predict the future in turn making them smarter and efficient. All the health care data such as discharge and transfer patient data maintained in Computer based Patient Records (CPR), Personal Health Information (PHI), and Electronic Health Records (EHR). The use of Big Data analytics is becoming increasingly popular at health care centres, in clinical research, and consumer based medical product development. The biggest challenge with implementation of big data is that the nature of information of public health sector is of very sensitive nature and needs to be protected from unauthorized access and release of contents. Therefore, to provide solution to the deidentifying personal health big data in this paper we author make use of only mapper job framework for data encryption.
Why Do People Resist Patient Portal Systems?
Authors: Samhan Bahae
Published: May 2018

The implementation of patient portal systems (PPS) has potential benefits to both healthcare providers and their patients. However, evidence shows that PPS are being resisted by patients. Little research in IS has addressed this phenomenon. To understand PPS resistance, this study uses the dual factor model of IT usage to develop an integration of the user resistance model (URM) with the universal theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). Survey data were used to test the integrative model. A total of 265 responses were gathered from patients at a large international hospital. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (EQM). The results revealed resistance to change as an inhibitor to intentions to use the PPS. This study demonstrated the importance of integrating resistance to change with the technology use research, especially in healthcare settings. Moreover, this study is considered to be among the few studies in IS to incorporate patients' perspectives regarding new healthcare technology.
Using Facebook's Open Source Capture the Flag Platform as a Hands-on Learning and Assessment Tool for Cybersecurity Education
Authors: Chicone Rhonda , Burton Tina Marie , Huston Julie A.
Published: May 2018

There is a high demand for skilled cybersecurity professionals, however, entry-level employees and college graduates often lack the hands-on and real-world experience they need to be successful in the cybersecurity industry. This high demand has led educators to pursue innovative and smart application technologies as a way for students to gain hands-on skills and to practice those skills in a safe and fun environment. Cybergames are now being used by educational institutions and in private and public industry sectors. One popular game in the cybersecurity space is called Capture the Flag (CTF). This study investigates Facebook's CTF platform as a cost-effective learning and assessment tool for undergraduate and graduate cybersecurity adult students for an online university.
The Educational Contribution of Interactive Whiteboards
Authors: Davis James W.
Published: May 2018

Interactive whiteboards (IWBs) are a key element of smart technology being used in classrooms. The principal concern when using interactive whiteboards in an educational setting is how effectively IWB's serve the student and the instructor. A key question is whether the high cost of interactive whiteboards is providing enough value to justify the cost. The purpose of this article is to provide a preliminary exploration of the perceptions of students and teachers regarding their use of IWBs. The study also discusses the factor of bias that might influence these perceptions. This study reported preliminary results of what will be a larger report on the full content analysis. However, preliminary results showed wide variance between teacher and student perceptions of interactive whiteboard use that suggests a need for further research.
Attitudes Toward Game Adoption
Authors: Sardone Nancy B.
Published: May 2018

Gaming has become a core activity with children and more teachers are using games for learning than five years ago. Yet, teachers report that they learn about game titles, impact studies, and facilitation techniques through their own initiatives or from other teachers rather than from their teacher education program. This article reports on a combined curricular approach built on game strategy research that asked teacher candidates (n= 102) to discuss headlines news about gaming, play games, review games and game research, teach others how to play games, and then construct games. Findings revealed that candidates saw value in using games in K-12 to teach content, were able to develop assessments based on game content at a novice level, and were able to construct games either alone or in small groups. Educators contemplating gaming as an instructional strategy may be interested in the espoused combination strategy to encourage game adoption in K-12 settings.
A Review of Migration Processes to Open Source Software
Authors: Sobhani Razieh , Seifzadeh Habib , Gandomani Taghi Javdani
Published: May 2018

With regard to the increasing spread of information technology in the world, access to this technology is of great importance. Due to their competitive advantages, open source software are more popular than the close ones and they are more widely used, as well. Having an appropriate process for migrating, identifying and ranking activities to prepare and perform the migration design in the organization, prevents the failure of the performance in organizations. Today, there are lots of migration processes in review of literature and this will confuse the managers to choose the most appropriate process for their organization. This article studies the presented processes of migration to open source software in the world and by presenting novel factors. It also attempts to introduce an appropriate framework to select the most efficient process in migration to open source software. So that organizations do not have a concern to choose the best migration process and IT managers are able to select the appropriate process for their organizations quickly and with no confusion.
Effect of User Sessions on the Heuristic Usability Method
Authors: Alqurni Jehad , Alroobaea Roobaea , Alqahtani Mohammed
Published: May 2018

Heuristic evaluation (HE) is a widely used method for assessing software systems. Several studies have sought to improve the effectiveness of HE by developing its heuristics and procedures. However, few studies have involved the end-user, and to the best of the authors' knowledge, no HE studies involving end-users with non-expert evaluators have been reported. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the impact of end-users on the results obtained by a non-expert evaluator within the HE process, and through that, to explore the number of usability problems and their severity. This article proposes introducing two sessions within the HE process: a user exploration session (UES-HE) and a user review session (URS-HE). The outcomes are compared with two solid benchmarks in the usability-engineering field: the traditional HE and the usability testing (UT) methods. The findings show that the end-user has a significant impact on non-expert evaluator results in both sessions. In the UES-HE method, the results outperformed all usability evaluation methods (UEMs) regarding the usability problems identified, and it tended to identify more major, minor, and cosmetic problems than other methods.