bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Digital Community Planning
Authors: Falco Enzo
Published: August 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.
Creative Industries in the Smart City
Authors: Collignon de Alba Cristobal , Haberleithner Jürgen , López Maricela Mireya Reyes
Published: August 2018

In this overview, the authors consider the political dimension of creativity on the Smart Cities. The subject is approached on a disambiguation between the concepts of creativity and innovation in which the role of the market is crucial. The main arguments depart from Realism and its international perspective, in an effort to explain the reasons why governments would consider fostering potentially disruptive creativity on their societies. The authors take the discussion to power institutions that could be considered as non-democratic or less prone to political and social change, as some countries in East Asia and Latin America seem to be. The final remarks signal that a framework for the development for Smart Cities loaded with western values and appreciation for creativity, are unlikely to take hold on the societies aforementioned. Special frameworks of reference based on different sets of values must be drawn to fit with local institutions of power and social control.
Smart City, Integrated Planning, and Multilevel Governance
Authors: Damurski Lukasz
Published: August 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.
Smart City, IT Systems, and Sustainability
Authors: Truant Elisa
Published: August 2018

With the rapid increase of the urban population worldwide, cities nowadays face complex challenges to guarantee a sustainable development and the quality of life of their inhabitants. The concept of “smart cities” is a response to these challenges. This chapter explores how three Italian smart cities have developed a fertile environment for innovative and high-tech projects. In particular, the research describes some of the main projects implemented by Italian smart cities and the impacts on the sustainability pillars. The research is based on a qualitative method and, in particular, on multiple case study analysis, where theory and empirical research are intertwined. This work shows some interesting implications as it contributes to increase the existing literature on smart city and sustainability and it provides ideas for further reflections about the effects of ICT-oriented projects on sustainable development.
Cyberbullying and Internet Safety
Authors: Kelly Deirdre M. , Arnold Chrissie
Published: August 2018

The chapter considers cyberbullying in relation to Internet safety, concentrating on recent, high quality empirical studies. The review discusses conventional debates over how to define cyberbullying, arguing to limit the term to repeated, electronically-mediated incidents involving intention to harm and a power imbalance between bully and victim. It also takes note of the critical perspective that cyberbullying—through its generic and individualistic framing—deflects attention from the racism, sexism, ableism, and heterosexism that can motivate or exacerbate the problem of such bullying. The review concludes that: (a) cyberbullying, rigorously defined, is a phenomenon that is less pervasive and dire than widely believed; and (b) cyber-aggression and online harassment are more prevalent, yet understudied. Fueled by various societal inequalities, these latter forms of online abuse require urgent public attention. The chapter's recommendations are informed by a view of young people as apprentice citizens, who learn democratic participation by practicing it.
A Study on the Prevention of Cyberbullying in Workplaces
Authors: Choi Youngkeun
Published: August 2018

The purpose of this article is to examine workplace cyberbullying as a cybercrime. Based on deterrence theory and social influence theory, this study builds a model of antecedents to prevent cyberbullying in workplaces. For this, this article conducts a survey of 305 Korean workers and uses SPSS 18.0 for hierarchical regression analysis. The results of this survey being, first, the certainty of detection prevents employees' intention to cyberbullying in the workplace while the severity of penalty and has no effect. Second, subjective norms and descriptive norms prevent employees' intention to cyberbullying in the workplace. The results show that social influence is more important to control members' behavior in workplace cyberbullying than corporate policy. And, this article is the first to investigate the preventers of employees' intentions to cyberbullying in workplace in the perspective of cybercrime.
Sticks and Stones
Authors: Wagner Carol M.
Published: August 2018

Although bullying has occurred for generations, movement to fully understand the effects of the dangerous behavior has recently been ignited. While much research has focused on the negative effects of bullying on victims, little research has focused on the effects bullying behavior has on the bully. The following is an examination of research regarding the short and long term negative effects bullying has on both bullies and victims. In addition, research regarding the influence of familial, peer and romantic relationships on the engagement of bullying behavior is also addressed, as well as the influence bullying behavior has on the formation and quality of these relationships. The utilization of this research to create anti-bullying programs in schools, homes and informal social situations may help to eradicate bullying behavior.
Exploring the Role of School Counselors in Preventing and Addressing Educator Sexual Misconduct in K-12 School Systems
Authors: Edwards Charles Charlton
Published: August 2018

The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) National Model for School Counseling highlights the role of professional school counselors in supporting the academic, personal social and career development of students. The ASCA Model further emphasizes the role of school counselors as leaders, advocates, consultants and collaborators for student development. The 2010 Ethical Standards for School Counselors further highlights students' rights to be treated with respect and dignity as well as their entitlement to a safe school environment that is free from abuse. This chapter explores the role of school counselors in working collaboratively to prevent and address sexual misconduct in schools. The author takes the position that the existence of sexual misconduct in any form hinders student development and directly undermines the efforts of educators to support their growth. The chapter emphasizes the importance collaboration, collective responsibility and the adoption of policies that effectively prevent and address sexual misconduct in schools.
Etiological Factors and Theories of Sexual Abuse
Authors: Mukund Bhavna , Dehuri Bijoy Kumar
Published: August 2018

This chapter describes how sexual abuse could be simply put as an unwanted sexual activity, with the perpetrators using force and/or making threats or taking advantage inability of victims to give consent. Sexual abuse is an extremely common and very serious problem affecting millions of people each year all over the world, but unfortunately in most countries there has been very little research conducted on the problem. Rationally speaking, to prevent or stop social evils like sexual abuse, the scientific method would be arguably one of the most powerful methodology in critical thinking and towards this, understanding causes of sexual abuse is extremely important. In this backdrop, this chapter addresses various psycho social factors, environmental factors and theories of sexual abuse to understand and appreciate the causes of sexual abuse. This concludes that with this aid in developing appropriate legal and policy reforms and interventions that would work on strategy to prevent sexual abuses in the society.
Psychological Maltreatment and Internet Addiction
Authors: Arslan Gökmen
Published: August 2018

Internet use enhances one's quality of life; yet, excessive use may lead to various problems for their healthy development and wellbeing. Understanding the risk and protective factors in internet addiction has importance to promote individuals' positive development and wellbeing. Therefore, the purpose of the present chapter is to explore the role of psychological maltreatment in the development of the internet addiction. Psychological maltreatment is a significant public health problems associated with a range of short and long–term undesirable mental health and wellbeing outcomes in childhood to adulthood. Considering the outcomes supporting the significant role of child maltreatment on the development of internet addiction, it is clear that maltreated individuals are at–risk to develop internet addiction, and psychological maltreatment, as a risk factor, has a crucial role in the development of internet addiction. However, evidences here are relatively limited, and there is need further research investigated long–term impacts of psychological maltreatment on internet addiction.
The Play Therapist in the Courtroom
Authors: Sullivan Jeffrey M. , Akay Sinem
Published: August 2018

This chapter addresses what is often the most anxiety inducing experience most play therapists will encounter in their professional career: appearing in court. Play therapists who work with cases of child abuse face a higher chance of appearing in court on behalf of their child client. The purpose this chapter is to detail some ways play therapists can best prepare for the court process, which often begins at the moment the client relationship is established, how to prepare for court once a subpoena is received, and best practices for testifying in court on behalf of the child client. Finally, this chapter discusses the effects of court on the child and how to best help children recover from courtroom experiences.
Child Protection, “Dirty Work,” and Interagency Collaboration
Authors: Flaherty Annette
Published: August 2018

Working in partnership is considered a key mechanism for effective delivery of services to children and families. However, child protection system inquiries in Australia and internationally repeatedly highlight strained relationships and poor collaboration within the child protection service system. Despite organisational, technological, legislative, and procedural changes to enhance and facilitate interagency working, these interventions have generally failed to realise this goal. Trust and shared values are considered integral to effective interagency working. Developing trust and thus effective working relationships is fraught when one group of workers in the service system is perceived to be “dirty workers.” This chapter explores the concept of “dirty work.” It suggests that the way in which failure to attend to belief systems at the organisational, professional, and community level, particularly as they relate to the professional stigma which attaches to the practice of child protection work, inhibits the ability of agencies to work successfully together.
Violence Against Children in Botswana
Authors: Jankey Odireleng Mildred , Maundeni Tapologo
Published: August 2018

Violence against children is a profound violation of human rights that has far-reaching consequences for children's well-being. Experiences of violence can lead to lasting physical, mental, and emotional harm, regardless of whether a child is a direct victim or witness. Violence against children cuts across geographic boundaries, culture, race, class, religion, educational and socio-economic backgrounds. Yet, it is under- researched in the context of developing countries such as Botswana. Most research on interpersonal violence in developing countries has been conducted on women. This chapter analyses the complex and multifaceted issue of violence against children (VaC) in Botswana. It discusses the types and contexts of violence that children are exposed to; the effects of violence on children; the risk factors for VaC; and the existing approaches to addressing the issue. The chapter uses documents as source materials. It concludes by charting the way forward for research, practice, and policy.
Management of Elder Abuse Through Social Support
Authors: Husain Akbar , Alee Nongzaimayum Tawfeeq
Published: August 2018

This chapter is an attempt to highlight the numerous ways in which elders are abused in our society and the ways to support them. A concise account in ways elders are vulnerable and how they are exploited are discussed in the chapter as well as remedies to these problems. The chapter includes types of abuse faced by elders and the consequences they face due to it. It also discusses Social Support as the main remedy, social support as an acronym of 13 types of social support. The chapter concludes by recommendation of how elder abuse can be stopped or at least controlled.
Sexual Harassment Laws and Their Impact on the Work Environment
Authors: Zgheib Philippe W.
Published: August 2018

This chapter examines the impact of sexual harassment laws in a work environment. Different contexts are examined with different sexual harassment laws. The most vulnerable individuals are identified. The particular case of Lebanon is inspected where few laws regulate this matter. A comparison is established with the USA. Lebanon and the United States have a different view of sexual harassment. In Lebanon, no clear laws protect women. In addition, Lebanon is more tolerant than the United States. The difference in cultures also contributes in people's willingness to disclose harassment. In the United States, people are used to the concept of right and a judicial system that preserves it. In Lebanon, such a matter is taboo, and people are discouraged from disclosing to preserve their reputation.
Women's Commuting Environment in Public Buses in Dhaka City
Authors: Das Arunima Kishore
Published: August 2018

The constitution of Bangladesh aims to ensure a discrimination free world guaranteeing women equal access to political and public life. The ratification of CEDAW, adaptation of both MDG and SDG by the government also promote this goal. Dhaka requires an efficient transportation system to ensure the freedom of mobility for all. However, the public buses of Dhaka are insecure, unreliable, congested and unsafe. As a result, the women and children suffer the most while boarding a bus. They have to face both physical and emotional pain. This consequently restricts women's mobility rights. As men are responsible for creating a gender insensitive commuting environment inside public buses, their perceptions on the fact is to be explored. This chapter with the help of the researcher' research data (for Masters' thesis) from 2015-2016, highlights on men's perceptions of commuting environment women experience in public buses in Dhaka city. How these perceptions are shaped as an outcome of hegemonic masculinity is also analysed in this chapter using Connell's theory of hegemonic masculinity.
An Overview and Therapeutic Applications of Nutraceutical and Functional Foods
Authors: Keservani Raj K. , Sharma Anil K. , Kesharwani Rajesh K.
Published: August 2018

Healthy nutrition is important for human beings for good health provided by global industry. Nutraceutical and functional food provide a prospect to reduce health care costs and improve the human health. Researchers carried out plenty of work for the preparation of nutraceutical and functional food product. This article also focused on recent advances on the nutraceutical and functional foods product on health benefits and their application in prevention of disease. Here we discussed about the health benefit of recently introduced nutraceutical and functional food products. With the modernised, competitive lifestyle and ever increasing stressful conditions this product is the need of the day.
Pomegranate Peel and Fruit Extracts
Authors: Ismail Tariq , Akhtar Saeed , Riaz Muhammad
Published: August 2018

Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.), the fruit and its peel have been shown to hold tremendous potential for the treatment of various ailments. Incorporation of pomegranate, peel and their extracts, as key functional ingredients in various ethnopharmacological formulations are widely accepted in almost all cultures of the World. In addition to their disease ameliorating features, pomegranate and the peel extracts have gained significant popularity in functional food market as ingredient of choice in foods designed to prevent onset of various non-communicable diseases. Health promoting features of the pomegranate peel and fruit extracts define the scope of this natural reserve in global nutraceutical and functional food industry. On account of their unique phytochemicals profile, plentiful pool of antioxidants, dietary fibers, minerals and natural colors, both the valuable reserves have been remained as highly explored plant material in last two decades. Building levels of interest in this fruit has created a deeper insight among researchers to understand actual potential and pathways of pomegranate biomolecules reactivity in human models. The chapter in hand meticulously deals with pomegranate and its extracts as source of innovative healthy components responsible for averting cardiovascular diseases, inflammatory and non-inflammatory disorders, type 2 diabetes, gastric ulcers, various types of cancers and neurodegenerative disorders.
The Effects of Probiotic Cultures in Functional Foods
Authors: Kilic Gulden Basyigit
Published: August 2018

Functional foods are an important part of an overall healthy lifestyle that includes a balanced diet and physical activity. The consumption of probiotic foods has many benefits. Dairy products that contain probiotic bacteria are those that are produced with various fermentation methods, especially lactic acid fermentation, by using starter cultures and those that have various textures and aromas. Fermented dairy probiotic products are popular due to their differences in taste and their favourable physiological effects. However, recent upsurge in interest of consumers towards dairy alternatives has opened up new research areas for developing non-dairy probiotic products. Different substrates such as cereals, fruit juices, vegetables can be used utilized for delivering these beneficial microorganisms. This chapter provides an insight on the recent research/developments about selection criteria of bacteria as probiotics and in the field of technological properties of probiotics.
Antioxidants as Functional Foods in Metabolic Syndrome
Authors: Santhakumar Abishek B. , Singh Indu
Published: August 2018

In the recent years, there has been a great deal of attention in investigating the disease preventive properties of functional foods. Particularly, impact of the antioxidant property of functional foods in reducing the risk or progression of chronic diseases has gained considerable interest amongst researchers and practitioners. Free radicals such as reactive oxygen species are generated in the body by exposure to a number of physiochemical or pathological mechanisms. It is imperative to preserve a balance between the levels of free radicals and antioxidants for routine physiological function, a disparity of which would accelerate oxidative stress. Increased oxidative stress and associated consequences in metabolic disorders such as obesity, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes has warranted the need for exogenous antioxidant concentrates derived from natural foods to alleviate the adverse effects. This chapter provides an overview on the efficacy of functional foods in reducing free radical-mediated damage in metabolic syndrome.
Narratives of Integrative Health Coaching
Authors: Bird Jennifer Lynne , Wanner Eric T.
Published: August 2018

Integrative health coaching incorporates vision and values into the goal setting process in order for change to occur. While health coaches frequently work with healthy people who want to make changes in their lives such as finding time to exercise or getting more sleep, this narrative focuses on the role of a health coach when working with physical therapy patients at a hospital. Health coaching, a new addition to the field of health education, provides a missing link in the healing journeys of patients.
Yoga in the Treatment of Trauma-Related Disorders
Authors: Olsen Elin-Kristin Hem
Published: August 2018

Objective: This research review aimed to investigate yoga as an alternative treatment to trauma-related disorders as depression, anxiety and PTSD. Method: We searched different databases as Oria, PsychNet, and PubMed, and a hand search of relevant papers. Only quantitative studies were included as there were few good qualitative studies. Results: The results are somewhat varying in yoga as an effective intervention for trauma-related disorders or symptoms. In some studies the yoga group show greater improvements than the passive control group. When the control group is active there seems to be less of a difference between the groups. Even though most of these studies have small sample sizes there is an indication that yoga may improve trauma-related disorders such as anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Since yoga is a time-effective and have low costs it may be considered as an alternative when more time consuming and expensive treatment is not available or possible. Yoga may also be implemented as an adjunctive treatment.
Implementation of a Reversible Watermarking Technique for Medical Images
Authors: Karmakar Ranit , Basu Abhishek
Published: August 2018

Electronic health records (EHR) contain patients' medical as well as personal details. With the increased use of digital media, these data are stored and transferred through the electronic media all over the world. This makes it vulnerable to unauthorized people. Digital image watermarking can be a useful process of protecting these data from attacker but causes severe and unrecoverable damage to cover media. In the case of highly sensitive images like medical images, this might creates a problem during further diagnosis. In this chapter, a reversible data hiding algorithm is proposed which also is capable of holding a large chunk of data without affecting the cover media. The main cover image is first reconstructed and hidden behind a bigger media and then the extra pixels are used to hide encrypted forms of EHR data along with an authentication signature. As EHR data and the digital signature is passed through various encryption stages while encoding, it is made more secure. The algorithm is developed on the spatial domain adding some cautious measures which made it fragile as well.
Reversible Data Hiding
Authors: Raval Mehul S.
Published: August 2018

The chapter presents an application of reversible data hiding for the authentication of image travelling over a hostile and insecure communication channel. The reversible data resides in the image and tracks any changes done to it on a communication channel. The extraction of data and any modification to its structure reveals changes in the image. This allows the use of data hiding for forensic purpose. The reversible data hiding provides an additional advantage along with active forensics. The image regains original form after removal of the embedded data. However, reversible data hiding is an interplay between the image quality and watermarking capacity. The chapter presents the generic framework for data hiding and discusses its special case reversible data hiding. It presents capacity-behavior analysis of the difference expansion scheme. It performs in-depth analysis on the type of predictor and its impact on the capacity of the reversible data hiding scheme. Finally, the chapter presents a case study to showcase the use of reversible data hiding for image authentication.
Analysis of Human Gait for Designing a Recognition and Classification System
Authors: Dastidar Jayati Ghosh , Chakraborty Debangshu , Mukherjee Soumen , Bhattacharjee Arup Kumar
Published: August 2018

Identification and recognition of a human subject by monitoring a video/image by using various biometric features such as fingerprints, retina/iris scans, palm prints have been of interest to researches. In this chapter, an attempt has been made to recognize a human subject uniquely by monitoring his/her gait. This has been done by analyzing sampled frames of a video sequence to first detect the presence of a human form and then extract the silhouette of the subject in question. The extracted silhouette is then used to find the skeleton from it. The skeleton contains a set of points that retains the connectivity of the form and maintains the geometric properties of the silhouette. From the skeleton, a novel method has been proposed involving the neighborhood of interest pixels to identify the end points representing the heel, toe, etc. These points finally lead to the calculation of gait attributes. The extracted attributes represented in the form of a pattern vector are matched using cosine distance with features stored in the database resulting in identification/rejection.
Optimizing Knowledge-Work Through Personal Knowledge Management
Authors: Hosseingholizadeh Rezvan , El-Farr Hadi , Mahdi Somayyeh Ebrahimi Koushk
Published: August 2018

Knowledge-work is a discretionary behavior, and knowledge-workers should be viewed as investors of their intellectual capital. That said, effective knowledge-work is mostly dependent on the performance of individual knowledge-workers who drive the success of knowledge-intensive organizations. Therefore, the study takes the perspective of personal knowledge management in enforcing the effectiveness of knowledge-work activities. This study empirically demonstrates that knowledge-workers' behaviors are dependent on their motivation, ability and opportunity to perform knowledge-work activities. This study provides insights and future directions for research on knowledge-work as a discretionary behavior in organization and the factors influencing it. Scholars can investigate the effect of empowerment of individuals on their tendency to knowledge-creation, knowledge-sharing and knowledge-application. Since personal-knowledge often raise the issue of knowledge ownership, further attention to ethical issues may bring valuable insights for KM in organizations.
Building Organizations Image
Authors: Al-Jenaibi Badreya
Published: August 2018

It is crucial for a company to maintain its image and reputation, and public relations (PR) plays a vital role in doing so. This study investigates strategies that help an organization rejuvenate its image after damage from ineffective PR. It is important to know which PR strategies engage stakeholders because it is critical for the survival of a company that it maintains healthy relationships with all entities. A case study was conducted to explore what ruins a company's image and what role a PR department plays in rejuvenating it. To gain valuable insights into this topic, interviews were conducted with fourteen PR professionals including people who are working in the mentioned case studies places and organizations that faced some crisis in this chapter. Results suggest PR plays a critical role during crisis management; through PR teams, organizations can turn adverse situations to their favor and reconstruct reputations that would otherwise be tarnished.
Baran
Authors: Barkhordari Mohammadhossein , Niamanesh Mahdi , Bakhshmandi Parastoo
Published: August 2018

The MapReduce method is widely used for big data solutions. This method solves big data problems on distributed hardware platforms. However, MapReduce architectures are inefficient. Data locality, network congestion, and low hardware performance are the main issues. In this chapter, the authors introduce a method that solves these problems. Baran is a method that, if an algorithm can satisfy its conditions, can dramatically improve performance and solve the data locality problem and consequences such as network congestion and low hardware performance. The authors apply this method to previous works on data warehouse, graph, and data mining problems. The results show that applying Baran to an algorithm can solve it on the MapReduce architecture properly.
Culture and Internet Banking Technology
Authors: Huang Leelien Ken
Published: August 2018

The interaction between the cultural value of long-term orientation and internet banking technology acceptance is examined. A survey involving a total of 376 potential users was conducted in an internet banking setting in Taiwan. The results confirm previous TAM findings that both efficacy and belief variables have significantly positive direct and in-direct effects on the usage, but under the cultural influence of long-term orientation, users remain hesitant to accept internet banking technology because they are more concerned with face-to-face long-term bank relationships to ensure future gratification than with current social status influence to obtain immediate benefits (e.g., convenience). Practitioners may refer this cultural influence on users' behavior in Fin-tech development. The implications of the study are discussed.
Comprehensive Internet Youth Protection Policies by Private Organizations and Effectiveness Verification
Authors: Saito Nagayuki , Tanaka Ema , Yatsuzuka Eri , Aragaki Madoka
Published: August 2018

Seeking a safer internet environment for minors, the Japanese government enacted a new law in 2008 to promote both protective measures and empowerment activities. Under the law, many entities—including newly established non-profit organizations (NPOs)—are working to bring a safer internet environment to Japan. The Japan Internet Safety Promotion Association (JISPA), one such NPO established in February 2007, has been promoting a safer internet environment for minors by providing non-formal learning opportunities through educational materials and events. Efforts to improve children's online safety have evolved from offering e-learning content and guidelines to holding workshops in the real world. This chapter presents various measures taken by JISPA for the protection of children using the internet and verifies the effectiveness of these measures based on evidence. Measures to be verified are e-learning contents, workshop programs, and internet literacies among young people and parents.
Ethical Dilemmas Associated With Social Network Advertisements
Authors: Smith Alan D. , Offodile Onyebuchi Felix
Published: August 2018

A significant amount information can be relayed on Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, but the question remains whether or not organizations are using this to their advantage, especially in the era of big data. The present study used a sample of working professionals that were knowledgeable in the various options of social networking to test these assumptions. The three hypotheses dealt with the interplay of online social networking, advertising effectiveness, gender and age trends, and remaining the interplay with positive comments of the use of the “like” function and its impacts on consumer behavior, as derived from the review of relevant operations literature and from applying the basic tenants of uses and gratification theory. All three specific research hypotheses were accepted in the null form.
Strategic Planning for Information Technology
Authors: Silva Wagner N. , Vaz Marco Antonio , Moreira Casa de Oswaldo Cruz Jano
Published: August 2018

Information technology (IT) is strategic for organization management, although many companies lack IT governance and planning, skilled people, defined and institutionalized methods and procedures, internal controls and indicators, and structures for agreement service levels and information security, legality, and economy. In this scenario, a minimum organization and control in the use of resources is needed to boost technical and administrative efficiency, with a focus on IT governance. An information technology strategic plan (ITSP) aims at discovering the resources and IT in an organization to direct the technological and information architecture to its strategic objectives. The Brazilian government issued a normative instruction (NI04) for public organizations to develop IT strategic plans so that they can purchase products and services. In order to help organizations develop, control, and manage their ITSPs, a model was created that defines a set of auxiliary steps in the construction of the ITSP.
E-Waste, Chemical Toxicity, and Legislation in India
Authors: Mehta Prashant
Published: August 2018

In present digital age, we constantly upgrade or replace our numerous electronic devices due to continuous technological advances and short product life cycles. With increasing “market penetration” in developing countries, “replacement market” in developed countries, and “high obsolescence rate,” a large pile of e-waste is generated either internally or it is generated in developed countries and often ends up for recycling in developing countries. The current practices of e-waste management and poor awareness in India is posing a huge challenge to the environment regulators, governments, and policy makers as much work needs to be done at ground level to achieve sustainable results This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of India's current e-waste scenario, analyzes hazardous metals and considers environmental and health risks posed by them, understands existing legal framework and strategic interventions, and explores immediate technical solutions to manage and minimize its impact on all.
Load Flow Analysis in Smart Grids
Authors: Hasan Osman , Mahmood Awais , Hasan Syed Rafay
Published: August 2018

Load flow analysis is widely used to estimate the flow of various electrical parameters such as the voltage, current, and power in power grids. These estimates allow us to effectively and reliably manage the given grid under random and uncertain conditions. Given the enormous amount of randomness and uncertainties in the factors that affect the smart grids, compared to traditional power grids, a complete and rigorous load flow analysis holds a vital role in ensuring the reliability of this safety-critical domain. In this chapter, the authors describe smart grids in terms of their basic components and then categorize the factors that affect the loads in smart grids. This is followed by a comprehensive survey of various existing load flow analysis techniques (i.e., numerical, computational intelligence, and probabilistic).
Archaeological GIS for Land Use in South Etruria Urban Revolution in IX-VIII Centuries B.C.
Authors: Pelfer Giuliano
Published: August 2018

A GIS is developed for analysis of formation, growth, and collapse of past societies. The Urban Revolution in the Mediterranean area between 9th and 13th centuries B.C. pushed by development of Mediterranean market area is a good case study. The process leads to the growth of urban centers and of population. In Ancient Etruria the changes produced the abandonment of older sites and the origin of proto-urban centers on hill plateaus. The GIS is developed for explaining the factors affecting the urbanization process in Tarquinia. Settlement strategy was linked to available resources in the territory. The research focused on land use for ancient agriculture by reconstructing features of land use. The results show that the selection of plateau allowed a better resources management, required by population growth as well by the Mediterranean market demand. The changes explain the transition from a subsistence economy to a production of agrarian surplus in cereals. A new organization based on the private household property of agrarian plots could satisfy a better resource allocation.
Geographic Information System (GIS) Modeling Analysis and the Effects of Spatial Distribution and Environmental Factors on Breast Cancer Incidence
Authors: Gasmelseed Akram , Alharbi Ali H.
Published: August 2018

Breast cancer is a public health problem among women in the United States. According to the American Cancer Society, about 40,290 women in the United States are expected to die in 2015 from breast cancer. This chapter contains an analysis of the breast cancer distribution in the United States by comparing the spatial distribution of breast cancer cases against physical environmental factors using geographic information system (GIS). Results show that the exposure to some spatial environmental factors seems likely to have a major impact on the overall trends in breast cancer rates. Moreover, the possibility to develop cancer is existing naturally through the environment factors.
Cuckoo Search Algorithm for Solving Real Industrial Multi-Objective Scheduling Problems
Authors: Marichelvam Mariappan Kadarkarainadar , Geetha Mariappan
Published: August 2018

A multistage hybrid flow shop scheduling problem is considered in this chapter with the objective of minimizing the makespan and mean flow time. Since the problem is NP-hard in nature, many heuristics and meta-heuristics were developed by the researchers. Cuckoo search algorithm is one of the recently developed meta-heuristic algorithms inspired by the social behavior of cuckoos. The cuckoo search algorithm is presented in this chapter to solve the hybrid flow shop scheduling problems. To illustrate the proposed algorithm, data sets from a steel furniture manufacturing company are used. The computational results show that the proposed algorithm is better than many other algorithms.
The Effect of a Resistance Training Program on Passive and Active En Dehors
Authors: Medeiros Fabiola Bertu , Lapas Luciana Celia Bruschi , Tomaz Cecilia Barroso
Published: August 2018

This article evaluates the effect of a supplementary resistance training program on passive and active hip external rotation on a ballet group. Fifteen Brazilian ballet dancers participated in the study. The passive hip external rotation was evaluated by a hip articular mobility test and the active hip external rotation in the first position en dehors in a self-selected angle. The resistance training protocol was based on The Best Performance Movement exercise method. Four 20-minute sessions per week were performed for three months. The paired t-test was performed to compare the passive and active hip external rotation pre- and post-training, with a significance level of 0.05. The paired t test showed that hip active external rotation improved after the resistance training, suggesting that the hip external rotation is muscle strength dependent.
Introduce Self-Paced Learning in Military Technical Trades Training
Authors: Wang Jun , Egudo Richard
Published: August 2018

Using a case study, this article identifies the factors that are important in the effective implementation of mixing self-paced and lock-step learning (a specific type of blended learning (BL)) in the context of training military technicians. Due to budget and time constraints, the training authorities in most worldwide organisations, and in military organisations in particular, face a challenge in the increase of training demand to deliver and sustain a qualified workforce. This study explored the advantages of this type of BL to address the challenge. The data was collected by group interviewing stakeholders, i.e. the course managers and instructors. The interview workshops identified the features of the designed course structure and trainee flow process that would impact on the effective operation of BL learning. The trainees' data in training hours was analyzed to examine the BL impact on the training throughput. The management science concepts from, e.g. Lean thinking and Queuing theory, are used to recognize enabling factors that make this implementation work. This article concludes that the BL discussed here can help to address the training challenge for organisations to build workforce capability by catering to diverse learning needs, especially for motivated trainees in their career education. It is hoped that the lessons learned from this study will contribute to the knowledge in the field of adult education and workplace learning in the designing and implementation of more flexible training programs.
An Evaluation of Experiential Learning Strategies for an Entrepreneurship Boot Camp
Authors: Ramkissoon-Babwah Natasha
Published: August 2018

There has been a global movement to support the creation of sustainable business enterprises via entrepreneurial activity. To encourage the growth and supply of entrepreneurs, training programmes have been designed to deliver knowledge at various stages along the entrepreneurship continuum. The pedagogical approaches of experiential education has been making its way into the delivery of entrepreneurship education programmes as a unique variable in programme implementation. This research article investigated the impact of the deployment of experiential learning into the delivery of an Entrepreneurship Boot Camp. It was revealed that the experiential techniques made a positive impact on the delivery of the curriculum and it was recommended that future Camps adopt a customized approach by an entrepreneurial assessment at the application process, the provision of mentoring services, a post after care support programme including an agency referral system and an expansion of the programme into the Secondary School system
Process Synthesis and the G-H Space for Analysing and Optimising Biomass Gasification
Authors: Ngubevana Lwazi
Published: August 2018

Biomass is a key source of energy to power the world's growing hunger for energy, whilst replacing fossil fuels as the fight against greenhouse gas emissions intensifies. This has led to a significant focus on not only using biomass as a source of energy, but also on the need to use it optimally. Using graphical methods in process synthesis and using thermodynamic regions in the Enthalpy-Gibbs free energy (g-h) space has also become a fast-growing research field. The approach used in this article to optimise the conversion of biomass and minimise carbon dioxide production and energy consumption shows that the best place to operate the biomass gasification process is in a region where heat and work are required to be added to the process. Using the g-h approach allows one to determine whether or not heat at an appropriate temperature is sufficient to meet the work requirements of a chemical process and identify an optimum point in the gasification region where the work requirements of the process is zero, no carbon dioxide emissions and a minimum amount of heat is required to be added.
Adaptive Threshold Based Scheduler for Batch of Independent Jobs for Cloud Computing System
Authors: ALAM TAJ , DUBEY PARITOSH , KUMAR ANKIT
Published: August 2018

Distributed systems are efficient means of realizing high-performance computing (HPC). They are used in meeting the demand of executing large-scale high-performance computational jobs. Scheduling the tasks on such computational resources is one of the prime concerns in the heterogeneous distributed systems. Scheduling jobs on distributed systems are NP-complete in nature. Scheduling requires either heuristic or metaheuristic approach for sub-optimal but acceptable solutions. An adaptive threshold-based scheduler is one such heuristic approach. This work proposes adaptive threshold-based scheduler for batch of independent jobs (ATSBIJ) with the objective of optimizing the makespan of the jobs submitted for execution on cloud computing systems. ATSBIJ exploits the features of interval estimation for calculating the threshold values for generation of efficient schedule of the batch. Simulation studies on CloudSim ensures that the ATSBIJ approach works effectively for real life scenario.
Artificial Intelligence
Authors: Marinchak Christina McDowell , Forrest Edward , Hoanca Bogdan
Published: August 2018

As marketers and consumers simultaneously adopt artificial intelligence (AI) services and applications, the dynamic of the process of exchange between the buyer and seller in the marketplace is being fundamentally altered. This article reviews the emerging patterns of adoption and rates of diffusion of AI applications by both marketers and consumers. On the marketers' side the authors will address the single most defining phenomenon that is affecting the marketer's role and function in the marketing process: the exponential increase in the number, variety and capability of marketing applications, platforms and services that perform, control, influence and/or integrate virtually every marketing task and decision.
Developing A Model for Transforming Government in the Digital Age
Authors: Fan Qiuyan
Published: August 2018

This research reviews digital government development at the local level in Australia and proposes a connected digital government model that aims to transform government and to enable local governments migrate to a higher level of digital government. A framework for developing more connected and responsive digital government at the local level is of paramount importance. Connected government requires not only a user-centric focus for the development of digital services but also government business process integration and a whole of government platform. Information integration, and open government data, reusable services and connected IT architecture are essential characteristics of connected digital government. The proposed model links to third party efforts (intermediaries), which provide more effective ways of developing a more connected digital government by potentially breaking down bureaucratic barriers. As digital technology evolves, people are demanding access to government information and services via various digital channels. The proposed model adopts an integrated multichannel service delivery approach to connected digital governments.
Society of Agents
Authors: Walczak Steven
Published: August 2018

The development of multiple agent systems faces many challenges, including agent coordination and collaboration on tasks. Minsky's The Society of Mind provides a conceptual view for addressing these multi-agent system problems. A new classification ontology is introduced for comparing multi-agent systems. Next, a new framework called the Society of Agents is developed from Minsky's conceptual foundation. A Society of Agents framework-based problem-solving and a Game Society is developed and applied to the domain of single player logic puzzles and two player games. The Game Society solved 100% of presented Sudoku and Kakuro problems and never lost a tic-tac-toe game. The advantage of the Society of Agents approach is the efficient re-utilization of agents across multiple independent game domain problems and a centralized problem-solving architecture with efficient cross-agent information sharing.