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 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data obtained from integrating heterogeneous data sources are often multi-valued, uncertain, imprecise, error-prone, outdated, and have different degrees of accuracy and correctness.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