GSTF Digital Library (GSTF-DL): Open Journal Systems (Global Science and Technology Forum)
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Business IT Strategy in Action: Case Study of #PUPRU
Get PDFPredicted key business IT trends through to 2020acknowledge there will be increased adoption of disruptivetechnologies that will impact within business contexts (Gartner(1), 2015). These include moves to small-screen marketing,rising value of big data intelligence and increased use of socialsystems. However, IT penetration and literacy gaps betweenadvanced and emerging economies, as well as social andorganisational issues associated with technologicalimplementation of business strategy, provide challenges toadoption of these trends. Strategy As Practice (SAP) presentsa potential solution. It is concerned with the practice ofstrategising, including both the formulation of strategy andimplementation that delivers strategic renewal and change.Through the “doing of strategyâ€, organisations not only gain aninsight into strategic management from a theoretical level, butalso can focus on micro-level social activities, process andpractices that characterise both organisational strategy andstrategising. In this paper, the Pop-Up Research Unit(#PUPRU), a newly-established mobile research centre in theSalford Business School (SBS) will be discussed. It aims toadopt a SAP approach to inform business strategy. Threedisruptive technologies - Beacon, Raspberry Pi and 3D printer- available as part of #PUPRU will be examined. Futureexperiments in various business scenarios and live projectsevaluating how these digital disrupters can be employed willalso be considered
CAREGIVERS CHALLENGES AND QUALITY OF CARE TOWARDS MENTALLY RETARDED CHILDREN
Get PDFMental retardation is a lifetime disability witha considerable impact on the lives around them. Thechallenge of caregivers in attending mentally retardedchildren is multidimensional involving physical, emotional,financial, social and physical burden. Parents and/orcaregivers playing an important part in the family have todeal not only with the concerns associated with child’simpairment but also have to maintain the household. As aresult, the high quality of care needed by a mentally retardedchild may become psychologically, emotionally andphysically stressful to caregivers. Although there have beennumerous studies conducted to determine the burdens offamilies with a mentally retarded member around the globe,little was known about the association of the caregiverscare-related constraints and their quality of care
The Role of Metacognitive Strategies in Second Language Writing
Get PDFAbstract - Metacognition is defined as one’s own awareness ofthe thought process; specifically it concerns the ability toregulate the cognitive processes of the learners in their learning.In the context of writing, it refers to ‘thinking about one’s ownwriting’ or ‘awareness of one’s own writing processes. Thisexperimental study investigates the role of metacognitive strategiesin promoting effective English writing. The data was collectedfrom 27 Indian ESL learners using strategy questionnaire,writing tasks and classroom observation. It is found that successfulemployment of Metacognitive strategies facilitates to meet thechallenges in writing in producing comprehensive content. Theresults of the differential and correlation analysis reveal thatthe employment of effective metacognitive strategies hassignificantly correlated with the development of writing skills
Study of Significant Factors Affecting Labor Productivity at Construction Sites in Jordan: Site Survey
No full textProductivity is one of the most important factorsaffecting the overall performance of any construction project.The objective of this study is identifying and ranks the factorsthat affect the productivity on Jordanian construction projects.To achieve this objective, data collection was carried out througha structured questionnaire survey. The questionnaire formconsisting of 37 factors identified through a comprehensiveliterature review. These factors are grouped into five categories.These are labor, technical, project, financial, and material andequipment. A total of 150 respondents consisting of 50 clients, 50consultants, and 50 contractors participated to this survey. Datawas analyzed using statistical package SPSS.Relative importance index method was used to find out the mostsignificant factors affecting the productivity on construction sites.The results accomplished from the survey revealed that themajor factors negatively affecting the labor productivity are:Poor planning and scheduling, material shortage at project site,equipment and tools shortage, lack of skilled labor, poor sitemanagement, rework due to construction errors, old andinefficient equipment, lack of supervisor’s experience, paymentdelay to suppliers and slow response of consulting staff inspectingthe work.Based upon these findings, the study recommends the key driversthat will be beneficial for organizations that are planning toenhance the productivity of their workforce
The Effects of Ant Colony Optimization on Graph Anonymization
Get PDFThe growing need to address privacy concerns whensocial network data is released for mining purposes hasrecently led to considerable interest in varioustechniques for graph anonymization. These techniquesand definitions, although robust are sometimes difficultto achieve for large social net-works. In this paper, welook at applying ant colony opti-mization (ACO) to twoknown versions of social network anonymization,namely k-label sequence anonymity, known to be NPhardfor k ≥ 3. We also apply it to the more recent workof [23] and Label Bag Anonymization. Ants of the artificialcolony are able to generate successively shortertours by using information accumulated in the form ofpheromone trails deposited by the edge colonies ant.Computer simu-lations have indicated that ACO arecapable of generating good solutions for known hardergraph problems.The contributions of this paper are two fold: welook to apply ACO to k-label sequence anonymity andk=label bag based anonymization, and attempt to showthe power of ap-plying ACO techniques to socialnetwork privacy attempts. Furthermore, we look tobuild a new novel foundation of study, that althoughat its preliminary stages, can lead it ground breakingresults down the road
Interference Cancellation with Beamforming and Power Control in Cooperative Networks
Get PDFThe interference cancellation (IC) technique for cooperative networks is investigated, if the relay and the destination are disturbed by the co-channel interference (CCI) from neighborhood system. In order to solve such interference problem, the beamforming algorithm with the appropriate weight estimation of the array smart antenna at the source (S), the power control technique at interfering source and signal combining algorithms at the destination (D). The maximum ratio combining (MRC) and the cooperative maximum ration combining (C-MRC) are used to combine the received signals arrived at D. We can also control the transmitted power at the source from interfering system, and maintain nearly the diversity gain compare with CCI and no CCI. Therefore, the proposed scheme achieves the maximum diversity gain and lower probability of error in comparison with the conventional decodeand- forward protocol (DF). And it is able to provide the power control strategy from interfering source to the relay and the destination nodes in order to achieve the minimum symbol error rate (SER) based on the experimental results from computer simulations
Content Validity of the Geriatric Depression Scale in Inpatient Health Care Settings
Get PDFThe content validity of the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) for use in inpatient health care settings was evaluated. Clinical experience has shown that one or more questions may not be appropriate in such settings. These questions ask about behaviors or feelings with which the examinee may not be able to identify with because they have been in an inpatient setting during the past week. Twenty-five Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) evaluated the GDS-30 as to whether each item appropriately assesses the construct of depression for inpatients in a medical care setting. SMEs were identified by an online search of the Florida Division of Medical Quality Assurance database; inclusion criteria are presented. Nineteen SMEs held a Ph.D. and six held a Psy.D. Years of post-licensure practice experience ranged from 10 to 48 years with a mean of 23.12 years (SD = 10.07). Using the Content Validity Ratio, four questions emerged as inappropriate (statistically significant at, or below, an alpha level of .025). The lack of content validity of these questions necessitates their omission when psychometrically assessing depression in elderly inpatients. Recommended revised cutoff values are presented. Utilizing the recommended modification to the GDS presented here should reduce false positives when psychometrically assessing depression in elderly inpatients
Understanding Clustering in Creative-Knowledge Cities
No full textCreative-Knowledge Cities have been adopted as tools for urban-regeneration by many post-modern cities. This paper, initially, outlines the concept of creativity as ‘driver’ for urban development; and underlines the components of a creative economy. Further, it discusses the tendency of creative industries to cluster; and how such creative clusters begin to shape the urban morphology to a large extent. The paper argues that cities of today need to adopt a knowledge-driven planning process, based on its creative-capital. Case studies of two creative economic hubs from Kolkata – Kumartuli and Boipara - have been discussed exemplifying the clustering tendencies
Correlation between Work-Family Conflict and Job Stress among Government Public Service Employees: The Moderating Role of Psychological Capital
Get PDFThe purpose of this study is to explore the correlation between work-family conflict (WFC) and job stress among government public service employees, along with the moderating role of psychological capital (PsyCap) in this correlation. Data were collected from 204 respondents. Respondents working in the government public service in Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta spread in 5 district office. The result showed there are WFC and PsyCap able to predict the job stress levels of employees. In addition, PsyCap can also be moderated the correlation between WFC and job stress. The result indicates that if there is WFC experienced by employees with low PsyCap it can increased the job stress. The results of this research can be used to help employees develop their potentials in preparing to cope with problems that appeared because of the demands in the workplace and family responsibilities
Efficacy of paliperidone palmitate in the treatment of schizophrenia and its effect on psychosocial and occupational functioning in patients: 2 Case studies
Get PDFSchizophrenia is a chronic recurrent illness with positive, negative and cognitive symptoms, which can lead to severe impairment of psychosocial and occupational functioning. Antipsychotic medications have been available for decades in both oral (PO) and long-acting injectable (LAI) formulations, with demonstrated efficacy in treating positive symptoms of schizophrenia. Most antipsychotic medications, however, have only limited success in improving psychosocial and occupational functioning for patients. Paliperidone palmitate (PP) LAI has been available for the treatment of schizophrenia in Canada since 2010[1] and has shown some promising results in improving psychosocial and occupational functioning. In this article we examine the role of patient adherence to antipsychotic medication, the resulting effect on relapse, and the socioeconomic impact of schizophrenia. We also present 2 case studies where two adult female patients diagnosed with schizophrenia are examined in the context of economic, functional, cognitive and psychosocial outcomes, before and after treatment with PP LAI. Both patients and caregivers demonstrated an improvement in their quality of life over a relatively short period of time. This paper indicates that PP LAI has had great impact on patients’ quality of life and further studies should be conducted to verify its effectiveness