Water Accountability Model under Emergency Cases and for Areas Gained New Access to Water Services

We present a reference accountability model for water utilities that consists of five major components, namely organization, systems, data, communication, and quality management. The model has been discussed with water officials, experts, and stakeholders in order to build and customize the model for each utility through a pre-prepared questionnaire and focused groups. Results have shown that water utilities have different accountability systems with several drawbacks. There was a need for actions taken to secure regular customers’ data updates as well as activate e-services in order to access vital information during emergencies. It was therefore our strong recommendation to the water utilities to move forward with some measures to support and sustain their bi-directional communication with customers. Further recommendations encouraging water utilities to enhance the accountability mechanism such as the deployment of e- services complaints management and tracking, expanding the Enterprise Resources Planning system, improving staff communication skills, training staff on the procedures used in analyzing customers’ feedback, and moving to performance- based management system

Analyzing Information Security Model for Small-Medium Sized Businesses

As large organizations invest heavily in security frameworks, cyber criminals and malicious insiders are turning their attention to smaller businesses to steal or damage sensitive information. Unlike large enterprises, small businesses often pay little attention to hackers, cyber criminals, and malicious insiders. Furthermore, small-medium sized organizations are challenged to implement proper information security strategies due to insufficient resources. Very few methods and publications focus on information security for small and medium sized organizations._x000D_ This paper reviews the National Institute of Standards and technology (NIST) framework for security in small and medium-sized businesses. After discussing several concerns with NIST’s approach, our proposed methodology is introduced and examined to provide an information security framework suited for small and medium sized businesses

Advanced use of the urban metabolism model in rapidly changing cities

For the calculation of energy and other flows in urban environments, we should take as a starting point relatively stable urban settlements. This makes it possible to calculate in and outgoing flows accurately, but only at a single moment in time. In this paper an adjusted approach to urban metabolism is proposed in which dynamic circumstances can be incorporated, suitable for urban settlements under pressure of rapid and unprecedented change. As examples we take the nearly uncontrollable growth of Almafraq in Jordan as a result of Syrian refugees and the changes in the population of Vlagtwedde in the Netherlands under influence from natural shrinkage and influx of (temporary) asylum seekers. The core questions answered here are: the way to calculate energy flows as input for sustainable urban design when population change is serious and the way to design cities when incorporating the results of dynamic urban metabolism. The research is ongoing and promises innovative results in the near future. © 2014 WIT Press

South Korean’s Auto Industry: The Influence Of Design, Fuel Efficiency, Price, Quality, And Technology On US Consumers’ Purchasing Decision

The purpose of this quantitative research was to identify whether there were correlations between U.S. automobile consumers’ perceived value and South Korean automobiles’ price, quality, fuel efficiency, design, and technologies. The sample size of the current study was 538. A questionnaire was used to collect data from automobile consumers in 50 states and in the District of Columbia. The results show that consumers’ perceived value were positively related to South Korean automobiles’ price, quality, fuel efficiency, design, and technologies. The result of a multiple regression analysis shows that South Korean automobiles’ quality, fuel efficiency, design, and technologies were significant predictors of consumers’ perceived value. On the other hand, price was only a marginally significant predictor of consumers’ perceived value. In the second multiple regression analysis which considers the participants’ gender, age, education level, and income level, results indicated that none of the four variables had any effect on consumers’ perceived value. Implications for South Korean automobiles’ pricing, quality control, and manufacturing strategy are discussed. Directions for future research are also proposed

Assessing Local Community Involvement in Tourism Development around a Proposed World Heritage Site in Jerash, Jordan

Research on community involvement in development has been conducted in diverse fields of study including planning, geography, community development, anthropology, and others. In the disciplines of tourism, many attempts have been made to shift from a conventional form of tourism towards a more sustainable form. Sustainable tourism calls for a greater role for local communities to engage in its planning, development, and management. The ultimate goal of community engagement in tourism is to strive for sustainable practices that balance the needs and interests of local communities with broader industry needs. Various efforts have been made, particularly in developing countries, to promote community participation and translate it from concept to practice. However, its appropriateness and success are the major points of debate among tourism practitioners and scholars. The difficult financial and economic situation facing Jordan calls for a renewed focus on how best to provide social and economic initiatives and opportunities for communities in the country. It is argued that involving local communities in tourism leads to sustainable tourism development, but surprisingly very few studies have been conducted to understand local communities’ views and their involvement in tourism in the Arab countries (Middle East Region). Using Jerash as the study area, this research examines local communities' perspectives on tourism development and prospects for improvements in community engagement in Jordan. The dissertation objectives are to: 1) to assess local views about tourism in Jerash and their interest in its success; 2) to document the type and level of prevailing local involvement in tourism; 3) to examine local perspectives on the role of the government in tourism development; 4) to examine local perspectives on community contributions to tourism. Data employed in this research were collected using mixed methods, including participant observation, household questionnaire, and semi-structured interviews. Field work was conducted during July – October 2013, and in October 2014. Results show that the tourism sector is performing at a level far below its potential. In particular, hotels and restaurants in Jerash need to be increased to meet demands from tourist and domestic visitors. Also, tourism development projects would not have been possible without the support of the local communities. Some projects were successful in providing meaningful employment to local people. The study findings conclude that residents agreed that the local community in Jerash supports tourism, and they think that tourism is an important tool to enhance and develop the community, economy, and the environment. The respondents agreed that community-oriented tourism initiatives might be one of the best solutions to solve issues such as poverty and unemployment. In addition to the lack of information about tourism development projects among local residents in their area, it was found that decisions related to tourism development were made without consultations with the local community as the level of local residents’ involvement in tourism was limited, and tourism benefits were not shared fairly among all areas in Jerash. Most residents believe that only people who are close to the archeological site are able to establish or work in tourism businesses such as restaurants, souvenir shops and tourist guides. A fair distribution of tourism benefits could be achieved if the government focused on expanding tourism development to other areas in Jerash Governorate instead of concentrating around the archeological site only. In general, the study concludes that residents support tourism and seek more tourism development in their areas

Consequences of Design Decisions on Material Waste during Construction Survey of Architects’ Point of View, the Case of Jordan

The price of crude oil is ever increasing in Jordan. Energy is the main and most fundamental source for economy and construction industries. Given the fact that material manufacturing and construction in building sector need certain amounts of energy, which is called “embodied energy”. The increase of energy prices is reflected on material manufacturing and therefore, any waste means energy waste and more environmental pollution. Construction waste minimization and management are considered as indicators for sustainable construction. Construction industry is considered as one of the major pillars in the Jordanian economy; consequently, it contributes to a high percent of the national energy bill among many other sectors. This may be considered one of the major reasons to consider the study of building materials in the Jordanian construction sector. Construction waste increases the cost of building as the energy and natural resources are consumed during manufacturing. The construction industry fundamental aims are to reduce the wastage of construction materials. This study addresses the incidence of material waste in the Jordanian construction industry and sheds light on decision making during the design phase and its effect on material wastage during construction. This study is intended for the material wastage reduction during construction as a tool to reduce construction costs in Jordan and consequently to reduce the oil bill. At the end, this paper points out the design related major causes of material wastage during construction through a questionnaire designed by the authors

Big Data LifeCycle: Threats and Security Model

Big data is an emerging term referring to the process of managing huge amount of data from different sources, such as, DBMS, log files, postings of social media, and sensor data. Big data (text, number, images... etc.) could be divided into different forms: structured, semi-structured, and unstructured. Big data could be further described by some attributes like velocity, volume, variety, value, and complexity. The emerging big data technologies also raise many security concerns and challenges. In this paper, we present big data lifecycle framework. The lifecycle includes four phases, i.e., data collection, data storage, data analytics, and knowledge creation. We briefly introduce each phase. We further summarize the security threats and attacks for each phase. The big data lifecycle integrated with security threats and attacks to propose a security thread model to conduct research in big data security. Our work could be further used towards securing big data infrastructure

Characterizing realistic signature-based intrusion detection benchmarks

© 2018 Association for Computing Machinery. Speeding up pattern matching for intrusion detection systems has been a growing field of research. There has been a flux of new algorithms, modifications to existing algorithms and even hardware architectures aimed at improving pattern matching performance. Establishing an accurate comparison to related work is a real challenge because researchers use different datasets and metrics to evaluate their work. The purpose of this paper is to characterize and identify realistic workloads, propose standard benchmarks, and establish common metrics to better compare work in the area of pattern matching for intrusion detection. We collect traffic traces and attack signatures from popular open source platforms. The datasets are processed, cleansed and studied, to give the researchers a better understanding of their characteristics. The final datasets along with detailed information about their origins, contents, features, statistical analysis and performance evaluation using well-known pattern-matching algorithms are available to the public. In addition, we provide a generic parser capable of parsing different intrusion detection systems rule formats and extract attack signatures. Finally, a pattern-matching engine that enables researchers to plug-and-play their new pattern matching algorithms and compare to existing algorithms using the predefined metrics