Digital Commons Network^™

Changing The Negative Behavioral And Development Outcomes To A Toxic Prenatal Environment Through Maternal Education, Angela Eileen Laughlin Lebedev

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of current education materials on changing maternal smoking attitudes. Children are affected by prenatal exposure to tobacco smoke. Although there are educational efforts to discourage pregnant women from smoking, the practice continues in a significant number of pregnancies. New materials, based on current research, were also evaluated for effectiveness. The theoretical framework for this study was adult learning theory presented by Knowles which made the assumption that an individual is shaped by environmental systems, that adult learning is affected by previous knowledge they bring to the learning and that adults …

Application At The Bedside: Moving From Knowing How To Knowing Why In Nursing, Joyel J. Brule

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The nursing field is beginning to emerge as a profession with curricula that emphasis nursing as a discipline distinguished from a medically dominated paradigm. This changing focus places emphasis on professional competence upon graduation and entry into practice to foster fitness for purpose within an environment of continuously changing expectations of the nurse by society. Despite a growing body of research on transition into practice, a gap exists as to when this transition occurs and how this finding may influence educational preparation of nurses. This qualitative, exploratory study examined nurses’ perceptions of their transformation from novice to professional practitioner by …

A Performance Evaluation Of Introducing Balanced Scorecard To High-Tech Related Industries In Taiwan, Y.T. Jou, C.H. Hwang, Chung Li, S.C. Chen, J.H. Jhang

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

Balanced Scorecard (BSC) has become the most desirable performance evaluation tool for industries in Taiwan; however, difficulty or bad performance of system introduction has occurred due to an incomplete understanding of the implementation approaches and correct objectives of the BSC system, causing the risk of cost loss. Two domestic high-tech companies in the high-tech related industry were served as the object of study in this research. The contents of four perspectives of the BSC were converted to twenty key performance evaluation indicators in terms of modern business administration as the variables in the research.

Based on the DMAIC model, the …

Development Of Production Scheduling Model With Constraint Resources And Parallel Machines, M. B. Fakhrzad, H. Khademi Zare

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

In this paper, a production scheduling model with constraint resources and parallel machines has been investigated. This problem is proposed as a multi-product production problem. Shortage is not allowed and the production horizon is indefinite. The objective is to maximize the level of resource usage and support the management’s standpoint (delays reduction). In this paper, this problem is modeled as the popular Knapsack problem in 0 and 1 programming. Then due to being NP-hard type for this kind of problems to obtain an optimal solution, A heuristic approach has been used to obtain the acceptable solution. By using the branch-and …

Strategic Themes For Balanced Scorecard Construction Based On Fuzzy Logic, Adolfo Alberto Vanti, Rafael Espin, Alonso Perez-Soltero, Denise Ciotta

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

Balanced Scorecard is a methodology for strategic management with emphasis in strategic, tactic, and operational control. If you don’t measure something, you don’t manage it. Last statement is a way to emphasizes one of the most important assumptions of this methodology that is very well implemented by it. However, BSC can’t express strategy in actions, nor translate verbalization of strategic planning, important topics to build an effective Balance Scorecard. This paper defines priorities of topics about strategic planning considering the SWOT analysis - strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats – (Andrews, 1971). SWOT analysis is completed considering actions and objectives through Fuzzy …

Performance Comparison Of New Heuristic With Genetic Algorithm In Parallel Flow Line Set Up, K. Balasubramanian, A. Noorul Haq, N. Rajeswari

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

A new heuristic has been developed to solve the problem in parallel flow line scheduling. It involves the minimization of the makespan by the optimal allocation of a finite number of jobs to finite number of lines in the first phase and the optimal sequencing of allocated jobs in each line in the second phase. Here new heuristic and genetic algorithm for analyzing the parallel flow line scheduling are discussed and executed on a set of randomly generated problems. The results obtained for the test problems suggest that the developed new heuristic can be used successfully to solve large scale …

Supply Chain Collaborations Changing The Face Of Indian Automobile, Arpita Khare

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

The emphasis given on improving supply chains in organizations both by companies and academia in past two decades shows the growing importance of integrating manufacturing and marketing processes of organizations. In the recent years supply networks are being recognized as strategic tools that enable companies to fight global competitive battles.

The paper studies the nature of supplier collaborations and technology’s role in improving coordination across the supplier networks. The paper provides an insight into supplier networks of Indian automobile companies and presents some cases to demonstrate this.

A Study On Attitude And Intention Towards Internet Banking With Reference To Malaysian Consumers In Klang Valley Region, S. Arunkumar

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

The development of online banking technology revolution in recent years, and speed of this development is extremely rapid. Online banking technology also spreads widely and influences deeply not only economic activities of business, households and governments but also various areas of people’s daily life. With the liberalization and internalization of financial markets, in terms of the entrance of the World Trade Organization, banks in Malaysia face pressures in service quality and administrative efficiency. Predicting customers' intention towards Internet banking is an important issue. Internet banking is a new type of information system that uses the innovative resources of the Internet …

Choosing Successful Strategies: A Checklist For Executives And Entrepreneurs, William T. Evans, Clyde Eiríkur Hull

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

Every day, executives are confronted with strategic investment decisions. In this paper we draw on decades of making these decisions for a well-known Fortune 500 company to provide a straightforward way to choose successful strategic investments. A successful strategy requires a significant opportunity, the ability to extract value from that opportunity, and an investment balanced with the returns possible from that opportunity. We begin with five basic questions which should be asked of any strategic investment opportunity. The answers to these questions are often enough to indicate that the investment opportunity should not be pursued. The next step, assuming the …

Mixed-Integer Linear Programming For Vehicle Routing Problem With Simultaneous Delivery And Pick-Up With Maximum Route-Length, S. P. Anbuudayasankar, K. Mohandas

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

The vehicle routing problem with simultaneous delivery and pick-up (VRPSDP) is the problem of optimally assimilating goods collection and distribution, when no priority constraints are imposed on the order in which the vehicle must perform the operations. This paper considers an additional constraint of maximum route length in VRPSDP. We develop a mixed-integer linear programming model for VRPSDP with an additional constraint of maximum route length. The results are encouraging for a sample benchmark data set.

E-Commerce Sourcing Models, Anne Fulcher Nelson

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

Electronic commerce (EC) involves business transactions, marketing efforts, information gathering, and other functional activities with respect to information technology (IT) both within and without an organization. It provides various opportunities to a firm to adopt different business sourcing models and allows new opportunities to configure organizational structure for both private and public companies within the New Economy. Critical factors for EC success dictate that the firm must re-evaluate its business sourcing model from with complexity theory and the New Economy, thereby emphasizing the need for the firm to effectively coordinate its EC initiatives and consider all sourcing opportunities in this …

Enhancing Motivation And Work Performance Of The Salespeople: The Impact Of Supervisors’ Behavior, Mohammed S. Chowdhury

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

This study examines the importance of authoritarian and positive achievement motivation behavior of the supervisors in enhancing salespeople’s motivation and work performance. Survey data were collected from all 105 sales employees in two retail organizations. Supervisors’ ratings were collected on all 105 of the salespersons. All hypotheses were tested using regression analysis and Pearson correlations controlling for background variables of gender, marital status, and ethnicity. The findings indicated that to the extent that supervisors engaged in positive motivational behaviors, salespersons’ intrinsic motivations were increased, which, in turn, increased their performance. Implications and a number of recommendations are discussed.

Mitigating Denial-Of-Service Attacks On Voip Environment, Igor Jouravlev

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

IP telephony refers to the use of Internet protocols to provide voice, video, and data in one integrated service over LANs, BNs, MANs, not WANs. VoIP provides three key benefits compared to traditional voice telephone services. First, it minimizes the need fro extra wiring in new buildings. Second, it provides easy movement of telephones and the ability of phone numbers to move with the individual. Finally, VoIP is generally cheaper to operate because it requires less network capacity to transmit the same voice telephone call over an increasingly digital telephone network (FitzGerald & Dennis, 2007 p. 519). Unfortunately, benefits of …

A Comparative Representation Approach To Modern Heuristic Search Methods In A Job Shop, P.D.D. Dominic, Ahmad Kamil, P. Parthiban, M. Punniyamoorthy

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

The job shop problem is among the class of NP- hard combinatorial problems. This Research paper addresses the problem of static job shop scheduling on the job-based representation and the rule based representations. The popular search techniques like the genetic algorithm and simulated annealing are used for the determination of the objectives like minimizations of the makespan time and mean flow time. Various rules like the SPT, LPT, MWKR, and LWKR are used for the objective function to attain the results. The summary of results from this paper gives a conclusion that the genetic algorithm gives better results in the …

The Antecedents And Consequences Of Rfid Technology Adoption For China’S Logistics Companies, Chieh-Yu Lin, Yi-Hui Ho

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

With the fast growth in China’s economy, the logistics industry in China is set to take off, and more and more logistics companies begin to adopt innovative logistics technologies. RFID technology has been regarded as an important innovative application in logistics operations and supply chain management. This paper aims to study the antecedents and consequences of RFID technology adoption from the perspective of technological innovation by conducting a questionnaire survey on China’s logistics companies. The factors influencing RFID technology adoption consist of organizational and environmental dimensions. Research findings reveal that organizational encouragement for innovation, quality of human capital, organizational accumulation …

Ant Colony Optimization For Multilevel Assembly Job Shop Scheduling, M. Omkumar, P. Shahabudeen

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

Job shop scheduling is one of the most explored areas in the last few decades. Although it is very commonly witnessed in real-life situations, very less investigation has been carried out in scheduling operations of multi-level jobs, which undergo serial, parallel, and assembly operations in an assembly job shop. In this work, some of the dispatch rules, which have best performances in scheduling multilevel jobs in dynamic assembly job shop, are tested in static assembly job shop environment. A new optimization heuristic based on Ant Colony Algorithm is proposed and its performance is compared with the dispatch rules.

An Integrated Model For Optimization Of Production-Distribution Inventory Levels And Routing Structure For A Multi-Period, Multi-Product, Bi-Echelon Supply Chain, P. Parthiban, M. Punniyamoorthy, P.D.D. Dominic

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

In many multi-stage manufacturing supply chains, transportation related costs are a significant portion of final product costs. It is often crucial for successful decision making approaches in multi-stage manufacturing supply chains to explicitly account for non-linear transportation costs. In this paper, we have explored this problem by considering a Two-Stage Production-Transportation (TSPT). A two- stage supply chain that faces a deterministic stream of external demands for a single product is considered. A finite supply of raw materials, and finite production at stage one has been assumed. Items are manufactured at stage one and transported to stage two, where the storage …

Improved Decision Tree Methodology For The Attributes Of Unknown Or Uncertain Characteristics – Construction Project Prospective, Vijaya S. Desai

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

Increasing use of computers, leads to accumulation of data of an organization, demanding the need of sophisticated data handling techniques. Many data handling concepts have evolved that support data analysis, and knowledge discovery. Data warehouse and Data mining techniques are playing an important role in the area of data analysis for knowledge discovery. These techniques typically address the four basic applications such as data classification, data clustering, association between data and finding sequential patterns between the data. Various algorithms that address to classification on large data sets have proved to be efficient in classifying the variables of known or certain …

Modeling And Analysis Of Resource Sharing Approach In Common Platform Strategy Using Petri Net Theory, M.A. Shafia, M. Saidi-Mehrabad, M. Fathollah

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

The most competitive advantages in business and manufacturing is resource-sharing.We must share common resources to produce a group of product family with using common platform strategy. This strategy helps us to increase profit and value in business. It is necessary to apply this strategy to model and analyze resource achievability in different situations. In this paper we try to develop a practical model for analyzing common resource behavioral in platform area with using Petri net theory. Petri Nets have been successfully used for modeling and control the dynamics of flexible manufacturing systems.This paper presents some important concepts about common platform …

The Adoption And Diffusion Of Computing And Internet Technologies In Historically Black Colleges And Universities, Lawrence Joseph

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

The rapid growth of technologies is providing the opportunity for innovative design and delivery of curriculum and instructional materials to college students; yet many college faculty members, especially in historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), are not using this technology. With a widening gap in access to technologies for minorities, this is a significant issue. In this study, specific research questions focused on HBCU faculty’s current use of technology, desire to incorporate new technology, view of organizational support, and potential gender or age differences. Surveys were conducted at five HBCU with established records of leadership in education. Using quantitative statistics, …

Quality Improvement In Higher Education Through Normalization Of Student Feedback Data Using Evolutionary Algorithm, S. Vishnupriyan, L. Govindarajan, G. Prabhakaran, K. P. Ramachandran

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

Student Feedback is a vital information that helps not only to evaluate the existing academic practices but also to rectify the discrepancies if any, enabling continuous quality improvement. Often the educational institutions make decisions on the teaching and delivery strategies and requirements of the students based on the students’ Feedback. Due to various factors like the composition of the class in terms of student background, personal relationship with the teacher and other factors, the Feedback generally remains so scattered that at times it may not be possible to arrive at a conclusion based on the feedback. Any decision, based on …

Attachment Styles And Male Sex Addiction, James L. Zapf, Jay Greiner Jay.Greiner@Mail.Waldenu.Edu, James Carroll

Walden Faculty and Staff Publications

This study addresses the adult romantic attachment styles of sexually addicted men. The Sexual Addiction Screening Test and the Experiences in Close Relationships Revised were used to determine the presence of a sexual addiction and the participants’ style of romantic attachment. ANOVA revealed that sexually addicted men are more likely to relate with insecure attachment styles. Specifically, sexually addicted men were found to have higher anxiety F(1, 38) = 6.122, p < .05 and avoidance F(1, 37) = 4.685, p < .05 in their romantic relationships. Treatment for male sexual addicts should address both addiction and relationship insecurity.

A Model For Managing Civil Construction Company Systems, Carlos Alberto Pereira Soares, Christine Kowal Chinelli

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

At the beginning of the 20th century, organizations in a globalized and highly competitive environment face two options—either they stagnate by keeping their traditional old fashioned procedures, or they make the decision to look forward and change their current procedure, as they attempt to survive competition and become new competitive organizations that can play a more active role in the future market. Organizational changes are naturally linked to risks, and risks mean opportunities, as well as losses. However, as companies try to modify their procedures and adapt their staff and routine to some novelty, they have a good chance to …

Decomposition Heuristic With Partial Assignment Approach For Mlclsp-M Problem, Supakanya Chinprateep, Rein Boondiskulchok

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

This research proposes a heuristic method, which decomposes the Multi-level Multi-item Capacitated Lot Sizing Problem with Multi-workstation (MLCLSP-M) into two phases which are an assignment with given lot size and a partial lot size with given assignment. Each iteration, the sub problem mathematical models are solved with AMPL/CPLEX 8.0.0 solver. An example is present for demonstration of the heuristic. The result indicate that the proposed heuristic (Partial Assignment – Lot size: PA-LS) give a satisfactory solution within faster solving time on comparison with the original mathematical model solving.

Exploring Information Technology Flexibility And Increased Complexity: Is Management Prepared?, Lawrence R. Ness

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

Information technology (IT) flexibility has become a key enabler of increased IT effectiveness, towards improved IT-business alignment and sustained competitive advantage (Ness, 2005). However, as has been shown through this exploratory literature review, higher levels of IT flexibility also increase the level of complexity to be managed (Young, 2007; Rettig, 2007). Unfortunately, it was also found that management does not appear to be aware and/or prepared to manage the increased complexity (Wheatley, 2000; Lee, 2003), possibly resulting in more harm than good. This study are hoped to alert both IT and business management as to the opportunities existing within the …

A Hybrid Differential Evolution Approach For Simultaneous Schedulingproblems In A Flexible Manufacturing Environment, M. V. Satish Kumar, C.S.P Rao, G. Rangajanardhan

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

Scheduling of machines and transportation devices like Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) in a Flexible Manufacturing System(FMS) is a typical N-P hard problem. Even though several algorithms were employed to solve this combinatorial optimization problem, most of the work concentrated on solving the problems of machines and material handling independently. In this paper the authors have attempted to schedule both the machines and AGVs simultaneously, with makespan minimization as objective, for which Differential Evolution (DE) is applied. Operations based coding is employed to represent the solution vector, which is further modified to suit the DE application. The authors have proposed two …

Exploring Fuzzy Set Concept In Priority Theory For Maintenance Strategy Selection Problem, Rajesh S. Prabhu Gaonkar, A. K. Verma, A. Srividya

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

This paper proposes and presents a different approach of choosing an appropriate maintenance strategy using Saaty’s priority theory and fuzzy sets. As per the priority theory, weights are assigned to the decision criteria via pair wise comparison of criteria. Basic three types of maintenance strategies specifically corrective maintenance, preventive maintenance and predictive maintenance and eight maintenance decision criteria namely low maintenance cost, improved reliability, improved safety, high product quality, minimum inventory, return on investment, acceptance by labor, enhanced competitiveness have been considered to evaluate the most favorable strategy. Instead of usual practice of considering single value for “intensity of importance” …

Nonprofit Organizations: An Introduction To Charity Rating Sources And Cautions In Their Use, Diana Stork, Jill Woodilla

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

We describe services that rate the performance of charitable organizations in the United States as a potential source of data for comparisons by donors and may be of interest and use to researchers. Such services have the potential to be considered as a surrogate for quality metrics in the nonprofit sector. The three services considered, The American Institute of Philanthropy, Charity Navigator, and the Wise Giving Alliance of the Better Business Bureau, create different rating schemes. Statistical analyses of a dataset comprised of charities in the Nonprofit Times Top 100 clarify points of similarity and difference among the services. We …

Alternative Energy Choices, Conservation, And Management: A Primer For Advanced Manufacturing Managers, Jeffrey M. Ulmer, Troy E. Ollison

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

Manufacturing managers need to understand the interrelated links between advanced manufacturing technology, primary and alternative energy choices, energy output values and costs, and energy conservation over the life of a project. Through an overview of these topics and the manager’s energy conservation processing optimization model developed in this paper, manufacturing managers, engineering technologists, and academics gain greater insight to the impacts of energy technologies upon manufacturing activities.

Measuring Agility Of Organizations – A Comprehensive Agility Measurement Tool (Camt), Ameya S. Erande, Alok K. Verma

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

Since “Agility” is ability to respond to unpredictable changes with quick response and profitability, it is not industry specific. This “not industry specific” nature of agility makes it hard to assess and measure it on a fixed scale. Measurement of agility of an enterprise has been a major topic of research since inception of agility in 1991. Though some methods have been developed to measure agility, they mainly remain tied to manufacturing industry. As agility is present in all the industries, comprehensive tool to measure it is a necessity in order to determine responsiveness of an enterprise to external turbulences. …