173 research outputs found
Modern Slavery in Projects: A Systematic Literature Review and Research Agenda
It is estimated that 40.3 million individuals are victims of modern slavery, including those exploited in projects. In project studies, there are growing research streams on topics, such as ethics, sustainability and fairness, yet modern slavery is vastly ignored. This article presents a systematic literature review on modern slavery. After summarizing the main forms and consequences of modern slavery, it focuses on construction projects explaining the structural conditions making construction projects prone to modern slavery, the kafala system, and what can be done to address modern slavery. Lastly, the article introduces propositions, a research agenda, and implications for practice
A Review of Literature of Initial Trust in E-Services: The Case of Internet Banking Services in Jordanian Context
A Probabilistic Data Fusion Modeling Approach for Extracting True Values from Uncertain and Conflicting Attributes
Real-world data obtained from integrating heterogeneous data sources are often multi-valued, uncertain, imprecise, error-prone, outdated, and have different degrees of accuracy and correctness. It is critical to resolve data uncertainty and conflicts to present quality data that reflect actual world values. This task is called data fusion. In this paper, we deal with the problem of data fusion based on probabilistic entity linkage and uncertainty management in conflict data. Data fusion has been widely explored in the research community. However, concerns such as explicit uncertainty management and on-demand data fusion, which can cope with dynamic data sources, have not been studied well. This paper proposes a new probabilistic data fusion modeling approach that attempts to find true data values under conditions of uncertain or conflicted multi-valued attributes. These attributes are generated from the probabilistic linkage and merging alternatives of multi-corresponding entities. Consequently, the paper identifies and formulates several data fusion cases and sample spaces that require further conditional computation using our computational fusion method. The identification is established to fit with a real-world data fusion problem. In the real world, there is always the possibility of heterogeneous data sources, the integration of probabilistic entities, single or multiple truth values for certain attributes, and different combinations of attribute values as alternatives for each generated entity. We validate our probabilistic data fusion approach through mathematical representation based on three data sources with different reliability scores. The validity of the approach was assessed via implementation into our probabilistic integration system to show how it can manage and resolve different cases of data conflicts and inconsistencies. The outcome showed improved accuracy in identifying true values due to the association of constructive evidence
Automatic Detection of Thyroid Nodule Characteristics From 2D Ultrasound Images
Thyroid cancer is one of the common types of cancer worldwide, and Ultrasound (US) imaging is a modality normally used for thyroid cancer diagnostics. The American College of Radiology Thyroid Imaging Reporting and Data System (ACR
TIRADS) has been widely adopted to identify and classify US image characteristics for thyroid nodules. This paper presents novel methods for detecting the characteristic descriptors derived from TIRADS. Our methods return descriptions of the nodule margin irregularity, margin smoothness, calcification as well as shape and echogenicity using conventional computer vision and deep learning techniques. We evaluate our methods using datasets of 471 US images of thyroid nodules acquired from US machines of different makes and labeled by multiple radiologists. The proposed methods achieved overall accuracies of 88.00%, 93.18%, and 89.13% in classifying nodule calcification, margin irregularity, and margin smoothness respectively.
Further tests with limited data also show a promising overall accuracy of 90.60% for echogenicity and 100.00% for nodule
shape. This study provides an automated annotation of thyroid nodule characteristics from 2D ultrasound images. The
experimental results showed promising performance of our methods for thyroid nodule analysis. The automatic detection of correct characteristics not only offers supporting evidence for diagnosis, but also generates patient reports rapidly, thereby decreasing the workload of radiologists and enhancing productivity
ON THE BASIS NUMBER OF THE COMPOSITION OF DIFFERENT LADDERS WITH SOME GRAPHS
The basis number b(G) of a graph G is defined to be the least integer k such that G has a k-fold basis for its cycle space. In this paper, we investigate the basis number of the composition of paths and cycles with ladders, circular ladders, and Möbius ladders
Structural and Optoelectronic Characterization of Synthesized Undoped CZTS and Cd-doped CZTS Thin Films
138-149Copper zinc tin sulfide (CZTS) thin films with different doping ratios of Cadmium (Cd) were successfully fabricated
using the sol-gel method by dip-coating technique. The surface morphology, the crystal structure properties as well the
optical properties of undoped CZTS thin film and Cd- doped CZTS thin films were investigated using scanning electron
microscopy (SEM), x-ray diffraction (XRD), and UV-Vis spectrophotometer. SEM micrographs demonstrated that the size
and morphology of the particles improve due to increasing the Cd concentration in CZTS thin films. In addition, the XRD
patterns exhibited the crystalline nature for CZTS thin films with kesterite crystal structure and showed improvement in
some crystal structure properties such as crystal size and volume of unit cell with the incorporation of Cd into CZTS thin
films. Moreover, optical bandgap energy , in addition to several optoelectronic parameters such as refractive index (),
extinction coefficient (), dispersion energy, high-frequency dielectric constant, density of state, Plasma frequency, and
relaxation time have been estimated. Remarkably, the bandgap energy of CZTS thin films ranges from 1.594 to 1.529
depending on the Cd content; it increases with increases the concentration of Cd into CZTS thin films
Understanding Work Practices of Autonomous Agile Teams: A Social-psychological Review
The purpose of this paper is to suggest additional aspects of social
psychology that could help when making sense of autonomous agile teams. To make
use of well-tested theories in social psychology and instead see how they
replicated and differ in the autonomous agile team context would avoid
reinventing the wheel. This was done, as an initial step, through looking at
some very common agile practices and relate them to existing findings in
social-psychological research. The two theories found that I argue could be
more applied to the software engineering context are social identity theory and
group socialization theory. The results show that literature provides
social-psychological reasons for the popularity of some agile practices, but
that scientific studies are needed to gather empirical evidence on these
under-researched topics. Understanding deeper psychological theories could
provide a better understanding of the psychological processes when building
autonomous agile team, which could then lead to better predictability and
intervention in relation to human factors
The contemporary management accounting practices adoption in the public industry: Evidence from Jordan
The present study examines the effect of variables on contemporary management accounting practices' adoption in the public sector. The present research further investigates the relationship between the uptake of contemporary management accounting practices and organizational performance and change. 520 surveys were mailed to the public sector in Jordan to gather data, which was subsequently analyzed employing SEM. The findings of the research indicate that there are substantial relationships between accounting staff qualifications and management accounting practices. Results indicate that modern management accounting practices could help public sector practitioners enhance performance and promote organizational change. The investigation offers concrete insight into the public sector's uptake of management accounting practices. The research conducted offers a field study of the impact of implementing a suite of management accounting practices in the public sector
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