The validation of the rating for sustainable subdivision neighbourhood design (RSSND) in Bangkok Metropolitan Region (BMR), Thailand

In recent years, the problems resulting from unsustainable subdivision development have become significant problems in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region (BMR), Thailand. Numbers of government departments and agencies have tried to eliminate the problems by introducing the rating tools to encourage the higher sustainability levels of subdivision development in BMR, such as the Environmental Impact Assessment Monitoring Award (EIA-MA) and the Thai’s Rating for Energy and Environmental Sustainability of New construction and major renovation (TREES-NC). However, the EIA-MA has included the neighbourhood designs in the assessment criteria, but this requirement applies to large projects only. Meanwhile, TREES-NC has focused only on large scale buildings such as condominiums, office buildings, and is not specific for subdivision neighbourhood designs. Recently, the new rating tool named “Rating for Subdivision Neighbourhood Sustainability Design (RSNSD)” has been developed. Therefore, the validation process of RSNSD is still required. This paper aims to validate the new rating tool for subdivision neighbourhood design in BMR. The RSNSD has been validated by applying the rating tool to eight case study subdivisions. The result of RSNSD by data generated through surveying subdivisions will be compared to the existing results from the EIA-MA. The selected cases include of one “Excellent Award”, two “Very Good Award”, and five non-rated subdivision developments. This paper expects to prove the credibility of RSNSD before introducing to the real subdivision development practises. The RSNSD could be useful to encourage higher sustainability subdivision design level, and then protect the problems from further subdivision development in BMR

Exploring Thailand’s PDPA Implementation Approaches and Challenges

Thailand’s Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) will come into full force in 2021. Sharing many similarities with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), the PDPA could similarly severely affect private and public organisations that have to deal with personal data and its privacy in the same way that the GDPR has. While existing literature on the GDPR provides some initial information about how organisations could apply the GPDR implementation methods to the PDPA implementation process, little is known about what organisations are doing to comply with the PDPA. This research aims to bridge this gap. The objective of this research is 1) to gain an in-depth understanding of how large public and private organisations in Thailand are implementing the PDPA; 2) to determine the necessary steps that organisations must take to meet compliance; 3) to identify the challenges faced by large organisations in seeking to comply with the GDPR

Preserving talent: Employee churn prediction in higher education

Retaining employees in a knowledge-based organisation, such as a university, is a significant challenge, especially as the need to keep knowledgeable workers is key to sustaining their competitive advantage. Knowledge is the organisations’ and employees\u27 most valuable and productive asset, but this intrinsic character leads to a high employee turnover. Often, universities learn about employees\u27 imminent departure too late. To prevent the loss of high-performing employees and to detect the warning signs early, business firms have been using advanced data mining techniques to predict “customer churn”. Recently these techniques have been used with “employee churn” in various industries, but not in higher education. This research bridges this gap by applying data mining techniques to predict employee churns in a university. The contributions of this research will be: 1) to identify critical factors that lead to talent losses; 2) to help universities devise appropriate strategies to retain their employees’ talents

Performance and Thermoeconomic Analysis of a Biogas Engine Powered Ventilation System for Livestock Building

In this study, a biogas engine powered ventilation fan of a small swine farm was proposed. The research objective was to evaluate performance of, and apply a thermoeconomic analysis to an active ventilation system powered by a small biogas engine. Comparison was made against a gasoline engine and an electric motor. The engine used was a single-cylinder, four-stroke, spark ignited engine with capacity of 118 cm3. The biogas engine was found to be practically able to drive the ventilation fan with acceptable operation over a range of speeds and loads. At null price for biogas, the biogas engine proved to offer the lowest cost per product exergy unit at $0.054/MJ, which was considerably lower than the gasoline engine and electric motor

Crowdsourcing Software Requirements and Development: A Mechanism-based Exploration of ‘Opensourcing’

Many commercial software firms rely on open source software (OSS) communities as a source of innovation and skilled labor. One specific form of interaction with OSS communities, termed ‘opensourcing’, involves firms collaborating with an OSS community by ‘crowdsourcing’ software production. However, beyond the existence of the phenomenon, little is known about how opensourcing, as a model of software production, works. The objective of this study is to explore opensourcing arrangements in a vertical software domain with a view to delineating enabling mechanisms that explain how firms can collaborate with communities to crowdsource the production of software. Using an in-depth case study of the production of hospital software in Thailand, this study explores how opensourcing is used to determine requirements, identify bugs, and provide user-to-user support in addition to the more traditional approach of crowdsourcing software code. The analysis reveals the operation of six high-level mechanisms (motivation, coordination, effective communication, filtering, integration, and nurturing) and reveals how they operate in conjunction with each other to facilitate opensourcing

Domestic Tourists’ Perceived Value on ASEAN Vernacular Standard Homestay

The main objective of this studywas to investigate the construct validity of ameasurement scale for domestic tourists’ perceived value on the ASEAN vernacular homestay standard, when considering the ASEAN homestay standard for the year 2015 including the vernacular accommodations and surroundings in Ban Mae Kampong community based tourism center, Chiang Mai, Thailand. This is the only Thai vernacular homestay that conformed to the three-main qualifications (1) ASEAN standard homestay, (2) Thai standard homestay and (3) named in the official ASEAN tourism website as arepresentative of an ASEAN standard homestay. The reference population was domestic homestay tourists who visited Ban Mae Kampong. A total of 320 tourists completed the questionnaires. An exploratory factor analysis was used to explore the factors, while a confirmatory factor analysis and a structural equation modeling procedure were performed by utilizing the LISREL procedure to assess the factor structure of the domestic tourists’ perceived value of the ASEAN vernacular homestay standard. The results showed that a single latent factor structure was fitted and acceptable. The five factors from highest to lowest loadings were (1) activities (experiential value), (2) management (functional value), (3) host-guest interaction (experiential value), (4) amenities (functional value) and (5) accommodation (functional value). The constructed reliability estimates of the five factors were 0.69, 0.77, 0.68, 0.61, and 0.50, respectively. The results indicate that functional and experiential factors are important determinants of the perceived value of ASEAN vernacular homestay tourism. It is thereforerecommended that homestay providers, homestay leaders, and local governments should payattention to the order of importance of these value dimensions to increase overall tourists’ perceived value as well as to better develop position strategies and to preserve the authenticity of this tourism niche

Measuring Influences of Residence Decision to Buy Factors by Modified Analytic Hierarchy Process

Although there have been several research works studying the factors in homebuyers’ decisions to buy, the individual contribution of each factor in the decision to buy is yet to be measured. This information can help real estate developers compare all factors and determine how projects should be designed. This research aimed to study the factors affecting the decision to buy a residence in the Bangkok Metropolitan area, and the weights of the influences of each factor utilizing the Modified Analytic Hierarchy Process (Modified AHP). The research was conducted by acquiring data from 480 respondents who purchased various types of residences at various price levels by the Quota Sampling Method. Data were analyzed by Modified AHP, with the analysis ended when all factor weights were obtained. The results provide information regarding the key factors and their weights of affect in the decision to buy a residence in the Bangkok Metropolitan area. It was also found that the higher the residence price, the less concerned customers are about location and residence design. On the other hand, they will focus more on the project design, construction, after-sales service, and the common fee. Developers, therefore, should design their projects to match these influences in order to respond to their customers’ demands, which will result in greater success in the long run

Physicochemistry and Utilization of Wood Vinegar from Carbonization of Tropical Biomass Waste

Pyroligneous acid also called wood vinegar is an aqueous liquid produced from pyrolysis of lignocellulose waste and biomass. In general, the pyrolysis types are classified base on heating rate mainly either fast or slow pyrolysis. The characteristic and properties of wood vinegar are primarily influenced by the type of carbonaceous feedstocks as well as the production techniques. Wood vinegar is a complex mixture of polar and non-polar chemicals with various molecular weights and compositions. Its major constituent is water (80–90%). Some physical properties; such as pH, specific gravity, dissolved tar content are, respectively, within the range of 2–4, 1.005–1.016 g/mL, 0.23–0.89% wt, and color, odor and transparency have been reported. In addition, the degree of oBrix was ranged between 1.7 and 6.6. Besides water, the chemical compositions of wood vinegars consisted of acetic acid with the largest component (30.45–70.60 mg.mL−1). A high number of phenol derivatives have been found and those in higher concentrations were 4-propyl-2-methoxyphenol (5–11 mg.mL−1) followed by 2-methylphenol (2–4 mg.mL−1). Wood vinegar has been regarded as a natural product, which claimed to be capable in several fields of application. In agriculture, wood vinegar has been used in vegetable cropping in order to combat disease, pest control, improve growth and fruit quality, seed germination accelerator as well as herbicide. In pharmaceutical and medical applications, it is used for the preparation of detoxification pad while in veterinary and animal production, incorporation of the wood vinegar in feed could promote acidity in large intestine to inhibit growth of enteropathogenic microbes. In food processing, wood vinegar has a characteristic smoke flavor, and also exhibits microbial growth inhibition. In addition, several investigators reported that bio-oil and wood vinegar obtained from fast pyrolysis and carbonization showed a high potential on organic wood preservative. In summary, the wood vinegar prepared from the tropical wood and/or biomass waste is widely beneficial. The chapter attempts to provide essential knowledge relevant to physicochemical characteristics of wood vinegar and its applications

Design and Performance Analysis of a Biodiesel Engine Driven Refrigeration System for Vaccine Storage

A compact, stand-alone, refrigeration module powered by a small biodiesel engine for vaccine storage in rural use was proposed. The engine was of single cylinder, four-stroke, directinjection with displacement of 0.296 cm3 and compression ratio of 20:1. The refrigeration system was modified from an automotive vapor compression system. The system performance was analytically investigated. From the simulation, it was found to have acceptable operation over a range of speeds and loads. Performance of the system in terms of fuel consumption and torque tended to decrease with an increase in engine speed. The modular system was able to operate at cooling loads above 4.6 kW, with proper speed ratio between the engine and the compressor. Overall, primary energy ratio of the refrigeration was found to be maximum at 0.54