Measuring the actual energy cost performance of green buildings: a test of the earned value management approach

Reduced energy consumption is a key aspect of the green building. Nonetheless, research indicates that there is a performance gap between the predicted and the actual energy performance once buildings are occupied, which implies a cost deviation from the anticipated energy cost performance. However, the cost deviation also might result from lower or higher energy rates than expected. As an appropriate research methodology for existing theory testing, case study research strategy was adopted to empirically examine the earned value management (EVM) approach to measure the actual life cycle cost performance of energy in green buildings. With slight methodological and terminological adaptations, it is found that the EVM approach can be applied to conduct a holistic cost performance measurement of the actual energy consumption in green buildings. The strength of the earned value approach is that it allows for detecting whether the energy cost saving or overrun results from lower or higher energy consumption, or from actual energy rate variations. The earned value approach allows for quantifying each cost variance independently, which is a significant aspect of actual energy cost performance measurement in green buildings

E-Commerce to Improve Homemaker Productivity (Women Entrepreneur Empowerment at Meruya Utara, Kembangan District, West Jakarta, Indonesia)

Saat ini banyak ibu rumah tangga memiliki bisnis sampingan yang sesuai dengan keterampilan dan hobi mereka. Adapun tujuan dari bisnis sampingan tersebut adalah untuk membantu kebutuhan keuangan rumah tangga mereka. Penelitian sebelumnya telah menunjukkan bahwa ibu rumah tangga yang juga pengusaha perempuan memiliki kontribusi yang signifikan terhadap kesejahteraan keluarga. Namun demikian, terdapat kesulitan dari ibu rumah tangga dalam memasarkan produk dan layanan mereka. Pengabdian ini melaksanakan sosialisasi terkait cara membuat akun e-commerce dan menggunakannya sebagai alternatif untuk menjual produk dan layanan mereka. Selain itu, hasil dari kegiatan layanan masyarakat Internasional ini adalah bahwa ibu rumah tangga dapat menjual produk dan layanan mereka melalui e-commerce. Menurut hasil survei pada kegiatan sosialisasi ini, diketahui bahwa hambatan bagi ibu rumah tangga adalah masih rendahnya pendidikan mereka dimana 65% dari mereka memiliki pendidikan sekolah menengah. Juga, kepemilikan aplikasi internet banking dan mobile banking masih rendah, yaitu 35%. Dengan demikian, kepemilikan yang rendah atas aplikasi internet banking dan mobile banking membuat mereka kesulitan untuk menjual produk dan layanannya melalui e-commerce. Semua peserta sosialisasi menyatakan bahwa kegiatan ini bermanfaat dan menambah pengetahuan mereka. Selanjutnya untuk dapat meningkatkan omset penjualan mereka adalah melalui perbaikan kemasan produk dan layanan mereka untuk membuatnya lebih menarik bagi pembeli.  Kata kunci: Ibu Rumah Tangga, Pengusaha Wanita, Mobile Banking, Internet Banking, E-Commerce. &nbsp

E-Mail Overload and Instant Messaging: Different Investigative Dimensions

While there have been extensive investigations on email overload, the main source of this business and management problem has received less attention so far. There are claims that using Instant Messaging (IM) reduces email overload, however, this has not been validated by academic research findings. This paper investigates how email overload is generated, and why IM is claimed to reduce it. Data collection was through the use of a quantitative mono-method, via an anonymous Survey Monkey online questionnaire. Respondents are members of an international professional body – The International Institute of Risk & Safety Management (IIRSM) – and work in different countries, industries and organizations. A cross-sectional Case Study, with an inductive approach is used. Results provide evidence that email overload is not externally-generated and that using IM does help reduce this internally-generated overload. A potential link between email overload, IM use and industry is observed. This study helps develop a more comprehensive understanding of email overload and contributes unique findings focused on establishing the main source of this universal workplace problem. Claims that IM reduces overload come from marketing material and newspaper articles lacking empirical evidence. This research is the first to establish whether or not these claims are true

O(αs)O(\alpha_s) Corrections to B→Xse+e−B \to X_s e^+ e^- Decay in the 2HDM

$O(\alpha_s)$ QCD corrections to the inclusive $B \to X_s e^+ e^-$ decay are investigated within the two - Higgs doublet extension of the standard model (2HDM). The analysis is performed in the so - called off-resonance region; the dependence of the obtained results on the choice of the renormalization scale is examined in details. It is shown that $O(\alpha_s)$ corrections can suppress the $B \to X_s e^+ e^-$ decay width up to $1.5 \div 3$ times (depending on the choice of the dilepton invariant mass $s$ and the low - energy scale $\mu$). As a result, in the experimentally allowed range of the parameters space, the relations between the $B \to X_s e^+ e^-$ branching ratio and the new physics parameters are strongly affected. It is found also that though the renormalization scale dependence of the $B \to X_s e^+ e^-$ branching is significantly reduced, higher order effects in the perturbation theory can still be nonnegligible.Comment: 16 pages, latex, including 6 figures and 3 table

COBE Observations of the Microwave Counterparts of Gamma Ray Bursts

We have used the data from the COBE satellite to search for delayed microwave emission (31 - 90 GHz) from Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs). The large $7^\circ$ beam of COBE is well matched to the large positional uncertainties in the GRB locations, although it also means that fluxes from (point source) GRB objects will be diluted. In view of this we are doing a statistical search of the GRBs which occurred during the currently released COBE DMR data (years 1990 and 1991), which overlap $\sim 200$ GRBs recorded by GRO. Here we concentrate on just the top 10 GRBs (in peak counts/second). We obtain the limits on the emission by comparing the COBE fluxes before and after the GRB at the GRB location. Since it is thought that the microwave emission should lag the GRB event, we have searched the GRB position for emission in the few months following the GRB occurrence.Comment: 5 pages, LaTE