Developing a Conceptual Framework for GIS Audit in an Enterprise Setting

GIS plays an important role in an organization by ensuring efficiency, effectiveness and better spatial data management. It is used by a wide range of organizations that leverage location data for informed decision making. The extent to which GIS is utilized in an organization should be audited to ensure monitoring and evaluation. This provides information that allows the organization to access and improve overall GIS performance. Existing applications like Slim GIM, URISA GIS CMM and PSD GMI are used to assess GIS maturity capability in an organization. While auditing is centered on a complete monitoring and evaluation of entire GIS system establishment, maturity capability applications are designed to assess organization’s ability to carry out specific GIS operations. These tools can however be time consuming and need to be calibrated for meaningful result and customized for different domains in order to meet user’s need. The focus of this paper is to develop a conceptual model for GIS audit. Through review of literature, four main categories of parameters that can be used for GIS audit were identified namely: Data quality, Software utilization, GIS competencies and Procedures. The parameters generally relate to the basic GIS components. For each of the category, a number of minor parameters have been identified. The conceptual framework will be a good basis for developing a GIS audit checklist.

Integrative medicine for pelvic floor disorders:A conceptual framework

1.Introduction Pelvic floor disorders encompass a wide range of dysfunctions,including issues of urination,defecation,pelvic organ prolapse,pain,and sexual health.These disorders are highly prevalent,with approximately one-quarter of adult women in the United States reporting the experience of at least one of these conditions.1 The co-occurring symptoms,arising from shared pathogenesis,have a significant impact on the patient's physical and emotional well-being,as well as impose economic burdens on both the individual and the healthcare system.Traditional single-specialty practices have proven insufficient to meet the diverse needs of patients.

The conceptual framework and assessment methodology for the systematic reviews of community-based interventions for the prevention and control of infectious diseases of poverty

This paper describes the conceptual framework and the methodology used to guide the systematic reviews of community-based interventions(CBIs)for the prevention and control of infectious diseases of poverty(IDoP).We adapted the conceptual framework from the 3ie work on the‘Community-Based Intervention Packages for Preventing Maternal Morbidity and Mortality and Improving Neonatal Outcomes’to aid in the analyzing of the existing CBIs for IDoP.The conceptual framework revolves around objectives,inputs,processes,outputs,outcomes,and impacts showing the theoretical linkages between the delivery of the interventions targeting these diseases through various community delivery platforms and the consequent health impacts.We also describe the methodology undertaken to conduct the systematic reviews and the meta-analyses.

A Unified Framework of the Cloud Computing Service Model

After a comprehensive literature review and analysis, a unified cloud computing framework is proposed, which comprises MapReduce, a vertual machine, Hadoop distributed file system （HDFS）, Hbase, Hadoop, and virtualization. This study also compares Microsoft, Trend Micro, and the proposed unified cloud computing architecture to show that the proposed unified framework of the cloud computing service model is comprehensive and appropriate for the current complexities of businesses. The findings of this study can contribute to the knowledge for academics and practitioners to understand, assess, and analyze a cloud computing service application.

Analysis of a Conceptual Model and Assessment of the e-Procurement System in Bangladesh

The public procurement system in Bangladesh has been running by traditional manual process under the flagship of Public Procurement Act (PPA 2006) and Public Procurement Rules (PPR 2008). Public procurement agencies have been facing challenges in this manual tendering system. To overcome this problem and to bring reality to the “Digital Bangladesh” slogan, the Government of Bangladesh introduced the e-Procurement system under the e-GP (Electronic Government Procurement) guideline 2011. After the inception of e-procurement, there is no e-procurement assessment model to improve the e-GP system. The purpose of this research is to develop a conceptual framework and to design an e-procurement assessment model. With this view, we have considered one of the biggest entity Roads and Highways Department (RHD) of the Government of Bangladesh, for field study. Mixed methods along with FGD (Focus Group Discussion), KII (Key Informant Interview), and survey questionnaires are used to collect data from RHD, and then Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software is used for regression analysis and hypothesis testing to develop the e-Procurement assessment model. The novel contribution of the study lies in the test of the hypothesis that focuses on developing the conceptual model of the e-procurement assessment system in Bangladesh. Findings of the study are essential for all Procurement Entity (PE) and suppliers i.e. contractors of RHD who are engaged in the construction of the infrastructure project development project.

中国农村基本医疗卫生服务综合评价指标体系构建的定性系统评价

目的系统梳理新一轮医药卫生体制改革以来农村基本医疗卫生服务综合评价指标体系,基于PHCPI概念框架(primary health care performance initiative conceptual framework)探寻目前评价指标普遍关注的内容和可能被忽略的评价内容,为后续科学、全面地评价农村基本医疗卫生服务提供参考依据。方法通过中国知网、万方数据知识服务平台、维普中文科技期刊数据库检索2009—2019年有关农村基本医疗卫生服务综合评价指标体系的文献,基于SPIDER规范制定纳入排除标准,采用批判评估技术方案对纳入文献进行质量评价,运用框架合成法,选取PHCPI概念框架对纳入的文献进行归纳和总结。结果共纳入25篇文献,总体质量良好。评价体系中的指标可分为5个一级领域、16个二级领域、24个三级领域指标。综合对比各领域对应指标的文献数,卫生资金、效率等领域对应指标的文献数较多,均有20篇左右的文献,高于其他多数领域;投入、产出和结果的相应领域中,近85%的领域对应指标的文献在15篇及以上;服务提供的各领域中,仅18%左右的领域对应指标的文献达到15篇,40%以上领域对应指标的文献未超过5篇。结论农村基本医疗卫生服务综合评价体系对经济效益相关指标关注度较高,投入、产出和结果多数领域的指标重合度较高,评价体系对服务提供领域的关注度较低且内容分散。今后可加强对社会效益和服务提供相关指标的探索,以全面、综合地评价农村基本医疗卫生服务。

Logistics Factors Affecting Cross-border Ecommerce Implementation

The purpose of this paper is to provide a structured literature review of cross-border e-logistics research,uncover existing gaps and opportunities,try to find practical strategies to balance logistics costs and service levels,and improve logistics efficiency and customer satisfaction for future cross-border e-logistics research.Meanwhile this paper also uses the real data to test the tradeoff between transportation and warehousing cost.In addition,regression empirical analysis is used to make up for the lack of empirical drawbacks of many articles in the field and the result can be instructive and referential for cross-border e-commerce enterprises to make decisions on weighing logistics cost and service level to improve logistics efficiency.

Research on Self-Supervised Comparative Learning for Computer Vision

In recent years,self-supervised learning which does not require a large number of manual labels generate supervised signals through the data itself to attain the characterization learning of samples.Self-supervised learning solves the problem of learning semantic features from unlabeled data,and realizes pre-training of models in large data sets.Its significant advantages have been extensively studied by scholars in recent years.There are usually three types of self-supervised learning:"Generative,Contrastive,and GeneTative-Contrastive."The model of the comparative learning method is relatively simple,and the performance of the current downstream task is comparable to that of the supervised learning method.Therefore,we propose a conceptual analysis framework:data augmentation pipeline,architectures,pretext tasks,comparison methods,semisupervised fine-tuning.Based on this conceptual framework,we qualitatively analyze the existing comparative self-supervised learning methods for computer vision,and then further analyze its performance at different stages,and finally summarize the research status of sei supervised comparative learning methods in other fields.

Is onchocerciasis elimination in Africa feasible by 2025:a perspective based on lessons learnt from the African control programmes

Background:Onchocerciasis is found predominantly in Africa where large scale vector control started in 1974.Registration and donation of ivermectin by Merck&Co in 1987 enabled mass treatment with ivermectin in all endemic countries in Africa and the Americas.Although elimination of onchocerciasis with ivermectin was considered feasible only in the Americas,recently it has been shown possible in Africa too,necessitating fundamental changes in technical and operational approaches and procedures.Main body:The American programme(OEPA)operating in onchocerciasis epidemiological settings similar to the mild end of the complex epidemiology of onchocerciasis in Africa,has succeeded in eliminating onchocerciasis from 4 of its 6 endemic countries.This was achieved through biannual mass treatment with ivermectin of 85%of the eligible population,and monitoring and evaluation using serological tests in children and entomological tests.The first African programme(OCP)had a head start of nearly two decades.It employed vector control and accumulated lots of knowledge on the dynamics of onchocerciasis elimination over a wide range of epidemiological settings in the vast expanse of its core area.OCP made extensive use of modelling and operationalised elimination indicators for entomological evaluation and epidemiological evaluation using skin snip procedures.The successor African programme(APOC)employed mainly ivermectin treatment.Initially its objective was to control onchocerciasis as a public health problem but that objective was later expanded to include the elimination of onchocerciasis where feasible.Building on the experience with onchocerciasis elimination of the OCP,APOC has leveraged OCP’s vast modelling experience and has developed operational procedures and indicators for evaluating progress towards elimination and stopping ivermectin mass treatment of onchocerciasis in the complex African setting.Conclusions:Following the closure of APOC in 2015,implementation of onchocerciasis elimination in Africa appears to overlook all the experience that has been accumulated by the African programmes.It is employing predominantly American processes that were developed in a dissimilar setting from the complex African onchocerciasis setting.This is impeding progress towards decisions to stop intervention in many areas that have reached the elimination point.This article summarizes lessons learned in Africa and their importance for achieving elimination in Africa by 2025.

Does the ecological concept of disturbance have utility in urban social-ecological-technological systems?

The ecological concept of disturbance has scarcely been applied in urban systems except in the erroneous but commonplace assumption that urbanization itself is a disturbance and cities are therefore perennially disturbed systems.We evaluate the usefulness of the concept in urban ecology by exploring how a recent conceptual framework for disturbance(Peters et al.2011,Ecosphere,2,art 81)applies to these social-ecological-technological systems(SETS).Case studies,especially from the Long-Term Ecological Research sites of Baltimore and Phoenix,are presented to show the applicability of the framework for disturbances to different elements of these systems at different scales.We find that the framework is easily adapted to urban SETS and that incorporating social and technological drivers and responders can contribute additional insights to disturbance research beyond urban systems.