Towards a sui generis systemic theory: The Three-Dimensional Spiral of Sense. A Study in Argentina Applied to Identity and Professionalisation (Part 1)

This article introduces a new theory called “Towards a Systemic Sui Generis Paradigm: The Three Dimensional Spiral of Sense Theory” applied to Identity and Professionalization”. The epistemological mainstays of the theory are stressed here, a theory supported by more than 30 years of empirical research at CONICET (National Council of Scientific Research, Argentina), with individuals belonging to different populations, some of them covering periods of over 20 years (intra-generational studies), and others covering three generations inline (inter-generational studies). This article presents the most specific theoretical frameworks – which are common to the research to be dealt with –, and it formulates the five disciplinary areas in which the new analysis of the social data was carried out: Education, Health, Science, Media, International Relations and Interculturality. After that, the firs area – Education – is dealt with through different levels (secondary level, tertiary level, University and PhD training), and some research is presented in each case in which, briefly, the theoretical frame, objectives, hypothesis/questions, variables/dimensions, material and methods, results and discussion are shown. Article 2 deals with the same, regarding the other four disciplinary areas. It shows the interpretation of results and a conclusion, from which the mainstays of this research clearly arise in vivo, i.e., from reference research works. It should be pointed out that, among the selected reference research works, some are comparative studies with European countries, others with Latin-American countries. The methodology used was quantitative (statistical analysis, a semi-structured survey) but mainly qualitative (lexicometric analysis, hierarchical evocations, interviews). The approach was macro-micromeso-macro, micro, not quite common yet. It consists of a kind of sui generis systemicism which recovers relationships (links, back and forth) between individuals and contexts, without overlooking neither the former nor the latter, thus, avoiding any type of reductionism. Individuals, organizations and frameworks interplay and feedback themselves. The results, particularly the qualitative ones, show the rich interactions underlying the continuance or innovation processes, which favor or hinder the individuals’ development and identity in times of abrupt change; at the same time, these results reveal the need for Professionalization in emerging countries. All that aiming at continuous improvement.Fil: Aparicio, Miriam Teresita. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras. Laboratorio de Investigaciones En Educacion; Argentin

A Software Engineered Voice-Enabled Job Recruitment Portal System

The inability of job seekers to get timely job information regarding the status of the application submitted via conventional job portal system which is usually dependent on accessibility to the Internet has made so many job applicants to lose their placements. Worse still, the epileptic services offered by Internet Service Providers and the poor infrastructures in most developing countries have greatly hindered the expected benefits from Internet usage. These have led to cases of online vacancies notifications unattended to simply because a job seeker is neither aware nor has access to the Internet. With an increasing patronage of mobile phones, a self-service job vacancy notification with audio functionality or an automated job vacancy notification to all qualified job seekers through mobile phones will simply provide a solution to these challenges. In this paper, we present a Voice-enabled Job Recruitment Portal (JRP) System. The system is accessed through two interfaces – the voice user’s interface (VUI) and web interface. The VUI was developed using VoiceXML and the web interface using PHP, and both interfaces integrated with Apache and MySQL as the middleware and back-end component respectively. The JRP proposed in this paper takes the hassle of job hunting from job seekers, provides job status information in real-time to the job seeker and offers other benefits such as, cost, effectiveness, speed, accuracy, ease of documentation, convenience and better logistics to the employer in seeking the right candidate for a job

How Globalisation Improves Governance

Globalisation, governance and economic performance affect each other in very complex mutual relationships. In this paper, we establish a clear and well-circumscribed hypothesis: “is there an effect of globalisation on governance?” To test this hypothesis or, even more specifically, to test how openness can affect the quality of domestic institutions, we survey available theoretical explanations of causal relationships between globalisation and governance. Microeconomic theory helps us identify trade policy, competition by foreign producers and international investors, and openness-related differences in institution building costs and benefits, as three major transmission mechanisms through which openness affects a country’s corruption levels. Examining a large sample of countries covering a 20-year long period, we found robust empirical support for the fact that increases in import openness do indeed cause reductions in corruption, a crucial aspect of governance. The magnitude of the effect is also quite strong. After controlling for many cross-country differences, openness’ influence on corruption is close to one third of that exercised by the level of development. Some cautious policy conclusions are derived.Corruption, globalisation, governance, international trade.

Performance Analysis of Bearings-only Tracking Problems for Maneuvering Target and Heterogeneous Sensor Applications

State estimation, i.e. determining the trajectory, of a maneuvering target from noisy measurements collected by a single or multiple passive sensors (e.g. passive sonar and radar) has wide civil and military applications, for example underwater surveillance, air defence, wireless communications, and self-protection of military vehicles. These passive sensors are listening to target emitted signals without emitting signals themselves which give them concealing properties. Tactical scenarios exists where the own position shall not be revealed, e.g. for tracking submarines with passive sonar or tracking an aerial target by means of electro-optic image sensors like infrared sensors. This estimation process is widely known as bearings-only tracking. On the one hand, a challenge is the high degree of nonlinearity in the estimation process caused by the nonlinear relation of angular measurements to the Cartesian state. On the other hand, passive sensors cannot provide direct target location measurements, so bearings-only tracking suffers from poor target trajectory estimation accuracy due to marginal observability from sensor measurements. In order to achieve observability, that means to be able to estimate the complete target state, multiple passive sensor measurements must be fused. The measurements can be recorded spatially distributed by multiple dislocated sensor platforms or temporally distributed by a single, moving sensor platform. Furthermore, an extended case of bearings-only tracking is given if heterogeneous measurements from targets emitting different types of signals, are involved. With this, observability can also be achieved on a single, not necessarily moving platform. In this work, a performance bound for complex motion models, i.e. piecewisely maneuvering targets with unknown maneuver change times, by means of bearings-only measurements from a single, moving sensor platform is derived and an efficient estimator is implemented and analyzed. Furthermore, an observability analysis is carried out for targets emitting acoustic and electromagnetic signals. Here, the different signal propagation velocities can be exploited to ensure observability on a single, not necessarily moving platform. Based on the theoretical performance and observability analyses a distributed fusion system has been realized by means of heterogeneous sensors, which shall detect an event and localize a threat. This is performed by a microphone array to detect sound waves emitted by the threat as well as a radar detector that detects electromagnetic emissions from the threat. Since multiple platforms are involved to provide increased observability and also redundancy against possible breakdowns, a WiFi mobile ad hoc network is used for communications. In order to keep up the network in a breakdown OLSR (optimized link state routing) routing approach is employed

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN ROMANIA

The purpose of this paper is to identify the main opportunities and limitations of corporate social responsibility (CSR). The survey was defined with the aim to involve the highest possible number of relevant CSR topics and give the issue a more wholesome perspective. It provides a basis for further comprehension and deeper analyses of specific CSR areas. The conditions determining the success of CSR in Romania have been defined in the paper on the basis of the previously cumulative knowledge as well as the results of various researches. This paper provides knowledge which may be useful in the programs promoting CSR.Corporate social responsibility, Supportive policies, Romania

Confection de tournées de livraison dans un réseau urbain à l’aide de métaheuristiques et de méthodes de forage de données massives

RÉSUMÉ: La confection de tournées de livraison dans un réseau urbain est un problème qui peut faire appel à la recherche opérationnelle, au forage de données, à l’intelligence artificielle et à la géomatique, entre autres disciplines. Il s’agit de trouver une affectation des clients aux véhicules de livraison et un ordre de visite des clients pour chacun des véhicules afin d’optimiser une certaine fonction objectif. La considération d’une version dynamique du problème, où le processus d’optimisation doit aussi tenir compte de nouvelles données qui affluent en temps réel, rend la résolution encore plus complexe. De tels problèmes se retrouvent, par exemple, dans les entreprises qui offrent des services de livraison à domicile. Dans un contexte d’intégration, de globalisation et de compétitivité, ces entreprises se doivent de prendre les décisions menant aux meilleures tournées de livraison possibles. La recherche d’une solution optimale est souvent impossible pour des instances de taille réaliste. Afin d’obtenir de bonnes solutions dans des temps de calcul raisonnables, des approches heuristiques et métaheuristiques ont été proposées dans la littérature. Cependant, la majorité des travaux se basent sur des instances synthétiques qui, entre autres, négligent la topologie des réseaux routiers rencontrés dans la pratique. Cette thèse vise, dans un premier temps, à contribuer à l’intégration des méthodes de forage de données et d’apprentissage automatique dans la prédiction des vitesses de parcours dans un réseau routier réel. Grâce à la collaboration d’un partenaire industriel, nous disposons d’une base de données de points GPS recueillis dans la région métropolitaine de Montréal à partir de dispositifs embarqués dans des véhicules de livraison, couvrant une période de plus de deux ans. Nous proposons une méthode de prédiction des vitesses sur les arcs de ce réseau en faisant appel au forage de données massives et à l’apprentissage automatique : techniques de réduction de dimensionnalité, méthodes d’imputation et d’apprentissages supervisé et non supervisé. L’ensemble de cette méthodologie a fait l’objet d’un article, actuellement en révision, soumis à la revue scientifique EURO Journal on Transportation and Logistics. Cette thèse vise aussi à contribuer à l’avancement des métaheuristiques pour la résolution de problèmes de tournées de livraisons à domicile définies sur un réseau routier, avec des vitesses et temps de parcours qui dépendent du moment de la journée, des fenêtres de temps pour le service aux clients et une capacité maximale pour les véhicules. Plus précisément, nous proposons une recherche tabou qui remet en question l’ordre de visite des clients ainsi que le chemin utilisé dans le réseau routier pour se rendre d’un client à un autre, en fonction du moment de la journée. Un développement majeur de ce travail est la conception de techniques d’évaluation en temps constant de la réalisabilité ainsi que du coût approximatif des solutions dans le voisinage de la solution courante. Ces techniques permettent de réduire l’effort computationnel et de résoudre des instances avec 200 noeuds et 580 arcs dans des temps de calcul très raisonnables. L’approche de résolution incluant la description des techniques d’évaluation en temps constant de la réalisibilité des solutions dans le voisinage et de leurs coûts approximatifs a fait l’objet d’un article soumis à la revue scientifique Transportation Science. Enfin, la thèse s’attaque à une variante dynamique du problème précédent, dans un contexte où les vitesses sur les arcs du réseau routier varient de façon dynamique due à des incidents imprévus. Un simulateur a été développé pour générer les perturbations dynamiques aux vitesses sur les arcs, tout en respectant les relations spatio-temporelles entre ces derniers. Une procédure permet ensuite de réagir aux perturbations en modifiant la solution courante de façon plus ou moins importante selon l’importance des perturbations. La démarche développée pour résoudre ce problème dynamique de confection de tournées qui inclut l’ajustement à des plans de livraison déjà optimisés dans un contexte statique est présentée dans un article ayant été soumis à la revue scientifique European Journal of Operational Research.----------ABSTRACT: Fleet management for home deliveries in an urban context is at the crossroads between several disciplines such as operations research, data mining, artificial intelligence, geomatic, etc. The objective is to find 1) assignment of customers to vehicles and 2) sequence of customers visited by each vehicle to optimize a certain objective function. Since accurate travel time predictions are of foremost importance in urban environments, it is important to address dynamic variants of vehicle routing problems, because they better model the problems faced by transportation companies like home delivery services. In an era where companies have to integrate their supply chain, face globalization and competitiveness, it is important for them to make decisions leading to the best possible delivery routes. Therefore, in this thesis, we first consider the prediction of travel speeds using as input GPS traces of commercial vehicles collected over a significant period of time. We propose a forecasting framework based on machine learning and data mining techniques: dimensionality reduction techniques, imputation methods, unsupervised and supervised learning. Secondly, we propose a solution approach to solve a time-dependent vehicle routing problem with time windows in which travel speeds are defined on the road network itself. The solution approach involves a tabu search heuristic that considers different shortest paths between pairs of customers at different times of the day. A major contribution of this work is the development of techniques to evaluate the feasibility as well as the approximate cost of a solution in constant time, thus allowing the overall solution approach to handle instances with up to 200 nodes and 580 arcs in very reasonable computing times. Finally, we consider a dynamic vehicle routing problem motivated from home delivery applications that can adapt to changes in speeds by modifying the paths used in the road network to go from one customer to the next and by modifying the sequences of customers in the planned routes. Here, uncertainty comes from a single source, namely, the occurrence of new traffic information that affects speeds. To mimic real-time perturbations in the road network, we developed a simulator that generates traffic events and updates the speeds accordingly

Modelling the relationship between project payment systems, financial management strategies and construction organisation performance in South Africa

The failure of construction projects to be delivered successfully – the root of poor performance in the construction industry – is attributed by scholars to the improper payment (or no payment at all) of contractors, and subsequently, of sub-contractors and suppliers. Therefore, proficient payment systems, adequate cash flow and effective financial management strategies are required for the success of construction projects. However, there is limited or no objective research that explores the impact of financial management strategies and project payment systems on construction company performance in South Africa. Also, previous research efforts have focused on various modelling approaches and their success/failure; thus, a model is yet to be developed for South Africa that will assist the construction industry practitioners in South Africa to have a reliable payment system and financial management strategy. Such a model might improve project/organisational performance. This study investigated the project payment systems and financial management strategies used by large construction organisations in achieving better performance within the business and project environment. The study further examined whether financial management strategies mediate the relationship between project payment systems and construction organisation performance. The study made use of a sequential mixed-method research approach that involves the collection of both quantitative and qualitative data to achieve the research objectives. The sample size for the study consisted of 176 contractors listed in Grades 7 to 9 on the Construction Industry Development Board (cidb) Register of Contractors. Data on the financial performance of the construction companies was obtained by gathering historical information on past projects undertaken within a five-year period (2013-2017), the payment systems used, financial management strategies adopted by the companies, and project and organisation performance data. Quantitative data analysis was carried out using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics, such as percentiles and mean scores, were used to analyse the background information of the respondents and how the study population responded to the questionnaires, the typical payment systems used on construction projects and financial strategies, and the level of project and organisation performance. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was employed in modelling the extent to which project payment systems and financial management strategies in business and project environments influence, and are associated with, construction organisation performance. It emerged from the study that construction organisations that lack effective financial management strategies accept the use of the interim project payment system by clients on construction projects; and that financial management strategies adopted by construction companies indirectly affect their financial performance. The research also revealed that the interim payment system mediates the impact of the financial management strategies adopted, on the financial performance of construction organisations. Based on these findings, the study concluded that the failure of construction projects and organisations would be reduced through the adoption of effective financial management strategies by construction organisations and appropriate payment systems by the clients. The study highlighted channels of improving project payment systems in the construction industry, by recommending appropriate methods that suit the project environment. Also, the research proposed financial strategies and measures relating to payment and usage of the funds in the contract, so that payment and construction company performance problems in projects may be reduced. The research extends the theory on financial management strategies and its impact on financial organisational performance in the context of construction companies and the construction industry. The study contributes to the knowledge of payment systems and construction company performance, and the research and practical implications of the payment systems for the operations and performance of construction firms

Human Factors Considerations in System Design

Human factors considerations in systems design was examined. Human factors in automated command and control, in the efficiency of the human computer interface and system effectiveness are outlined. The following topics are discussed: human factors aspects of control room design; design of interactive systems; human computer dialogue, interaction tasks and techniques; guidelines on ergonomic aspects of control rooms and highly automated environments; system engineering for control by humans; conceptual models of information processing; information display and interaction in real time environments

Immunization and Autism of Children 3 to 16 Years Old in Rumah Autis Bekasi

Autism is defined as neurology disorder affecting brain functionalities so that resulting communication, social interaction, behavior difficulties and the symptom appears before age 3. This study is aimed at understanding the factors related to autism cases in Rumah Autis Bekasi. Methods: There variables in this study namely, independent variable was immunization and dependent variable was autism and confounding variable were genetic, parents’ age, maternal health history during pregnancy, and medication during pregnancy. Primary data collected through questionaire and interview to the families of autism. This is a case study on 60 samples divided into 30 samples of autism in Rumah Autis and 30 samples of normal people living nearby with the proportion 1:1. The data were analyzed using univariate, bivariate using chi square test, and multivariate statistical analysis using regresi logistic. The results show that there is no correlation between immunization history and the autism with p-value 0.774>0.05. There is a correlation between the father’s age and the autism with p-value 0.038<0.05 and OR 0.333,there is a significant relationship between maternal health history and autism with p-value 0.038<0.05 and OR 3.763 and multivariate analysis shows that the most dominant variable is maternal health history with p-value 0.019 and OR 13.496. This study suggests that the pregnant women should check up their condition if there are some health problems and taking medication without doctor’s prescription. Keyword: Immunization, Autism, Children 3 to 16 years ol