“It All Goes Back to the Services”: A Rural/Urban Comparison of Service Providers’ Perceptions of Challenges and Facilitators to Disability Services

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore rural/urban differences in service providers’ perceptions of challenges and facilitators to services for children with special health care needs (CSHN) and their families in southeast Georgia. Methodology: A total of 23 individual interviews were conducted with service providers in one rural county in southeast Georgia (N = 12) and in one urban county in north central Georgia (N = 11). Interviews were based on the National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs 2009-2010 survey. All interviews were audio recorded, transcribed and coded with the intent of identifying themes and illustrative quotes. Findings: Service providers discussed a variety of challenges to accessing services related to socioeconomic status and the transition out of the school system. Urban and rural service providers’ perceptions were similar overall, with the exception of lack of transportation and access to a variety of services in rural area. Service providers overcome challenges through identifying parents’ needs and limitations and adapting service provision. Some of the facilitators mentioned by both urban and rural service providers are availability of transportation and resources. Practical Implications: The results of this study provide public health practice and policy implications that could guide the pathways of targeted interventions to improve the access and availability of variety of services for CSHCN. Originality/value of paper: This paper represents an in-depth exploration of service provider’s perceptions of challenges and facilitators related to service provision for children with special healthcare needs.

Prediction-Based Resource Assignment Scheme to Maximize the Net Profit of Cloud Service Providers

In a cloud computing environment, users using the pay-as-you-go billing model can relinquish their services at any point in time and pay accordingly. From the perspective of the Cloud Service Providers (CSPs), this is not beneficial as they may lose the opportunity to earn from the relinquished resources. Therefore, this paper tackles the resource assignment problem while considering users relinquishment and its impact on the net profit of CSPs. As a solution, we first compare different ways to predict user behavior (i.e. how likely a user will leave the system before its scheduled end time) and deduce a better prediction technique based on linear regression. Then, based on the RACE (Relinquishment-Aware Cloud Economics) model proposed in [1], we develop a relinquishment-aware resource optimization model to estimate the amount of resources to assign on the basis of predicted user behavior. Simulations performed with CloudSim show that cloud service providers can gain more by estimating the amount of resources using better prediction techniques rather than blindly assigning resources to users. They also show that the proposed prediction-based resource assignment scheme typically generates more profit for a lower or similar utilization.

Selecting a Strategic Logistics Service Provider for Subsea Engineering Companies on the Tweneboa, Enyenra and Ntomme （TEN） Project in Ghana

The research dealt with assessment of logistics service providers＇ capabilities in SECs （supporting subsea engineering companies） on the Tweneboa, Enyenra and Ntomme （TEN） project in Ghana. SECs need logistics service providers who offer consolidated services for project optimization and fulfillment of local content requirements of the project. Relevant Staffof7 SECs and 10 logistics service providers in Ghana formed part of the target group. The weighted scoring model was used in selecting a logistics service provider based on certain criteria. The selection criteria included Quality, Health, Safety and Environmental （QHSE） policies [Q], Compliance to regulations （GRA, Work permit, petroleum regulation） [C], Delivery of goods on time and response rate to deliver [D], Vessel, Cargo attendance and transportation （sea freight and air freight） [V], and Logistics （Personal logistics and Logistics base facilities） [L]. The study concluded Consolidated Shipping Agency （Conship） was the best Logistics Service Provider to offer the best consolidated services for project optimization under the TEN project.

A Study of Factors Influencing VCT Service Utilization among the Youths: A Case Study of Kapsabet Division, Nandi County, Kenya

Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) is important in controlling the spread of HIV/AIDS especially among the Youths. The aim of the study was to determine the extent, to assess the level of awareness and to describe the Youths’ attitude towards VCT Service Utilization in Kapsabet Division, Nandi Central District from 1st February to 30th April 2013. A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out among male and female Youths aged 18 - 34 years who were selected by convenience sampling, using Quantitative and Qualitative methods of data collection with mean age of 26 years. The study found that 52% of Youths had visited VCT and the majority was aware about VCT through print media, TV/radio and IEC materials. Forth-six percent (46%) said Post-Counseling was poor. Seventy seven (77%) highlighted various challengesi.e. most VCT centers were openly located within the hospital and user fee Ksh. 20 was charged. The study also found that there was high level of awareness but slightly low utilization of VCT Services with only 52% having tested. Posters in VCT rooms were stigmatizing and this could have influenced their low utilization of VCT Services. Therefore there is need for dialogue with policy-makers, Youths and Stakeholders in regards to changing strategy for future efforts to increase the uptake of services among the Youths.

The Extent of Partograph Use and Associated Factors among Obstetric Care Providers in Government Hospitals in Southern Ethiopia: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Prolonged labor is a significant contributor to maternal morbidity and mortality. The World Health Organization encourages using the partograph to keep track and solve this issue. The extent of partograph use in Ethiopia, however, is hardly understood. This study aimed to ascertain the level of partograph use and related variables among obstetric care providers in government hospitals in southern Ethiopia. Methods: A cross-sectional institutional study was conducted among obstetric care providers in government hospitals in southern Ethiopia, from March to December 2015. The data were collected using a pre-tested questionnaire and format. To establish a statistical relationship, an odds ratio with a 95% confidence interval was utilized. Results: A total of 212 (55.1%) obstetric providers reported routine use of partograph to monitor labor. Midwives [AOR: 3.4, 95% CI: (1.2, 9.4)], clinical nurses [AOR: 3.0, 95% CI: (1.1, 7.6)], knowledge of partographs [AOR: 2.0, 95% CI: (1.2, 3.5)], positive attitudes toward partograph use [AOR: 3.7, 95% CI: (1.7, 7.7)], service of 2 - 5 years [AOR: 3.4, 95% CI: (2.8, 4.4)] and service of more than five years [AOR: 2.3, 95% CI: (2.0, 3.3)] were associated with partograph use. Conclusion: This study has shown that the use of partographs to monitor labor among obstetricians is consistent with other studies from developing countries. However, this does not mean that obstetric care does not need to be strengthened, as a significant proportion of obstetricians still do not use the partograph for labor monitoring. Therefore, it is recommended that midwives and nurses be given preference in the delivery of obstetric services, the knowledge and attitudes of providers be improved, and mechanisms be developed that can help keep senior care providers.

Respecting Each Other and Being Loyal to ZTE Career Providing Refined Service and Focusing on Customers' Requirements Working Hard to Create Famous ZTE Brand Improving ZTE Efficiency with Scientific Management

ZTE Corporation is China’s largest listedtelecommunications equipment provider spe-cialized in offering a full range of tailor-madesolutions for customers in high-,middle-andlow-end markets.

A Selection Algorithm of Service Providers for Optimized Data Placement in Multi-Cloud Storage Environment

The benefits of cloud storage come along with challenges and open issues about availability of services, vendor lock-in and data security, etc. One solution to mitigate the problems is the multi-cloud storage, where the selection of service providers is a key point. In this paper, an algorithm that can select optimal provider subset for data placement among a set of providers in multicloud storage architecture based on IDA is proposed, designed to achieve good tradeoff among storage cost, algorithm cost, vendor lock-in, transmission performance and data availability. Experiments demonstrate that it is efficient and accurate to find optimal solutions in reasonable amount of time, using parameters taken from real cloud providers.

基于组合赋权和灰色关联TOPSIS的电子商务代运营服务商选择研究

专业的电子商务代运营服务商能较好地降低电商服务成本,提高电商运营效率,成为众多中小实体企业进入电商行业的必然选择。为便捷有效地对电子商务代运营服务商进行综合评价与选择,建立了基于DEMATEL、熵权法组合赋权与灰色关联TOPSIS相结合的多属性综合决策方法。首先,将DEMATEL计算的权重和熵权法计算的熵权采用乘法合成法组合赋权;其次,将TOPSIS计算的相对接近程度和灰色关联分析计算的灰色关联度进行混合计算,通过灰色关联贴近度完成备选方案的排序和优选;最后,利用建立的评价方法对婴儿床制造企业Q公司选择电子商务代运营服务商开展了实证分析。从实证分析可以看出,这种评价方法可以为中小企业选择电子商务代理运营服务商提供一种更加便捷有效的优化方法。

A Study on the Multi-Task Incentive Mechanism for the Service Provider

Both conflict and asymmetric information exist betweenthe telecom operators and the service provider,and result in illegal behaviors of the service provider.The relationship between the telecom operators andthe service provider is classical multi-task principalagentrelationship. The multi-task incentive for theservice provider is considered in the design of theprincipal-agent incentive contract, and it is necessaryto add the multi-task incentive to the serviceproviders through the analysis of the risk costs andthe agency costs of this problem.

Mining and Modelling the Dynamic Patterns of Service Providers in Cellular Data Network Based on Big Data Analysis

Understanding the dynamic traffic and usage characteristics of data services in cellular networks is important for optimising network resources and improving user experience.Recent studies have illustrated traffic characteristics from specific perspectives,such as user behaviour,device type,and applications.In this paper,we present the results of our study from a different perspective,namely service providers,to reveal the traffic characteristics of cellular data networks.Our study is based on traffic data collected over a five-day period from a leading mobile operator's core network in China.We propose a Zipf-like model to characterise the distributions of the traffic volume,subscribers,and requests among service providers.Nine distinct diurnal traffic patterns of service providers are identified by formulating and solving a time series clustering problem.Our work differs from previous related works in that we perform measurements on a large quantity of data covering 2.2 billion traffic records,and we first explore the traffic patterns of thousands of service providers.Results of our study present mobile Internet participants with a better understanding of the traffic and usage characteristics of service providers,which play a critical role in the mobile Internet era.

It’s Not Just the Money: Why Consumers Do Not Purchase Pharmacist-Provided Services

The reimbursement model for pharmaceutical care remains a barrier to successful widespread implementation of pharmacist-provided services. In some instances, community pharmacists have been successful in obtaining direct compensation for services from patients;however, evidence suggests that lack of patient demand for pharmacist-services may ultimately undermine the campaign for widespread third-party payment. The purpose of this study is to conduct a secondary analysis of data indicating consumer/patients’ rationale for not purchasing pharmacist-provided disease management services when offered the opportunity to do so in community pharmacies. Our review of the data indicates that while financial concerns are clearly important in consumer demand for pharmacist-provided services, other considerations exist. The consumer/patient belief that pharmacist-provided services are duplicative or that these services are not needed are significant barriers to overcome. Intensive education and marketing campaigns are needed to sway consumer opinion on the value of pharmacist-provided services.

The Relationship between Size and Performance of Palestinian Water Service Providers

Studies investigating the relationship between size and performance of water service providers are abundant. Yet, this relationship has not been fully addressed in Palestinian water sector, particularly, after the issuance of water law 2014 which calls for merging water providers into large regional utilities. This research evaluates the significant effect of the size of Palestinian water service providers on non-revenue water, staff productivity, collection efficiency, average consumption, average price, operating and maintenance cost, working ratio, and gross profit. The multivariate analysis shows that there are significant differences in working ratio, non-revenue water, staff productivity, average price, and gross profit based on the size. On the other side, no significant differences have been found in average daily consumption, operating and maintenance cost per unit, and collection efficiency based on those providers’ size. The small service providers perform better in non-revenue water, staff productivity, and collection efficiency;wherein, large service providers are more profitable than small service providers. Implications of these findings by conducting further studies will add the value for better merging of the Palestinian water providers and the reforming process.

Identifying Service Needs from the Perspective of Service Providers—A Qualitative Study

The provision of high-quality medical care has become a key challenge in many countries. At the same time, there is a growing awareness that the early detection of chronic diseases can reduce mortality rates. Therefore, it is important to identify service needs which influence to participate in health screening. To date, little research has been conducted into the perspectives of service providers on this topic. In this preliminary study, we aimed to explore the perspectives of service providers who work in a community-based setting in order to identify perceived barriers to chronic disease screening and incentives which can increase participation rates. In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 experienced health service providers from October 2017 to December 2017. Interviewees included physicians and community health representatives who had been working in a community-based health screening service for at least 3 years. The study identified several aspects of health screening services for chronic diseases that are in need of improvement, including a shortage of appropriate health service providers, inadequate attendance promoting measures, a lack of continually accessible and affordable medical services, healthcare professionals who possess inadequate communication skills, and rural-urban health care disparities. Service providers believe that current services do not fulfill community needs. Older adults who live in rural areas experience especially significant screening-related health disparities, which are mainly affected by structural service barriers. To improve the quality of medical services, healthcare screening services should be evaluated according to the perspectives of both participants and service providers.

Cloud Services Quality Enhancement through Control &Monitoring of Service Level Agreements at Server and Consumer Side

Several researches and case studies have been revealing a repetitive issue and that is monopolization of controlling, measuring, and metering of the consumer’s billing for the consumed Cloud Services. The Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) have been hiding, or monopolizing the controlling, metering tools and ignoring the calculation and consideration of the service defects like downtime, service outage, poor performance and client service migration delays during overloads of the servers. The main issues behind these discrepancies are the Service Level Agreement (SLA), its violation, and the monopolized Cloud Governance. Till now there is a lack of parallel monitoring and metering system of the consumed cloud services at the customer level under the provisions of SLAs. The Cloud Governance Tier has not given any flexibility or utility to monitor such consumed cloud services at the client tier in parallel to the CSP tier. This research is an effort to develop a SLA controlling/monitoring framework to solve the identified problems other than the CSP level. Further the E_Draw max was used for designing the framework. The framework consists of the components like;SLA_CSP, SLA_CSC, SLA_M&C and Cloud Services and Delivery Models. After designing the framework, a prototype was developed using CloudSim on java net beans, and MySQL database. This prototype was implemented using four scenarios to evaluate its performance and the functionalities. 1) Checking the SLA under CSP whether the resources to the consumer in the same manner with promised. 2) To check if the request from cloud consumer is less than what is expected in SLA. 3) To check by increasing the request of cloud consumer more than what is expected in SLA and 4) Using the SLA_M&C mechanism. After execution it was observed that, in the first and the second cases there is no violation, but there is violation in the third and fourth cases. This implied that there are chances of the discrepancies in resources provided to make the selves beneficiary beyond SLA under CSP and CSC was discriminated while receiving services from CSP.

The Impact of Water Price on the Financial Sustainability of the Palestinian Water Service Providers

The impactof water sales price on the performance of water service providers is typically something of a mystery. High prices mean more revenue and profit;but it may lead to less bills collection and encourage the illegal connections. Yet, this argument has not been fully addressed in the Palestinian water sector;this research evaluates the effect of average water prices on the financial sustainability key indicators as collection efficiency, profit or loss percentage, non-revenue water, staff productivity, daily consumption, operating, and maintenance cost. The average price of cubic meter sold is segmented into low, medium, and high categories. Multivariate analysis shows that there are significant differences in profit or working ratio, daily consumption, and operating cost based on the different price categories. Further significant differences have been found in non-revenue water, collection efficiency, and water production based on low and high price categories. On the other hand, no significant difference has been found in staff productivity. The results show high price set by Palestinian water providers, leads to an increase in the bill collection rate and profit margin. However, negative relationship has been found between the price on one hand, and non-revenue water, average daily consumption, and water production on the other hand. The implication of these findings reveal that the Palestinian water providers should increase water prices gradually to cover operating and maintenance cost for better financial performance and sustainability.

Service Networks Topological Design

Topological design of service networks is studied in the paper. Quantitative model and algorithm minimizing cost of processing and delivery is described. Algorithm solving combinatorial problem of optimal design based on binary partitioning, a parametric search and dynamic programming optimization of a binary tree is described and demonstrated in numeric example.

A Multi-Factor Authentication-Based Framework for Identity Management in Cloud Applications

User’s data is considered as a vital asset of several organizations.Migrating data to the cloud computing is not an easy decision for any organization due to the privacy and security concerns.Service providers must ensure that both data and applications that will be stored on the cloud should be protected in a secure environment.The data stored on the public cloud will be vulnerable to outside and inside attacks.This paper provides interactive multi-layer authentication frameworks for securing user identities on the cloud.Different access control policies are applied for verifying users on the cloud.A security mechanism is applied to the cloud application that includes user registration,granting user privileges,and generating user authentication factor.An intrusion detection system is embedded to the security mechanism to detect malicious users.The multi factor authentication,intrusion detection,and access control techniques can be used for ensuring the identity of the user.Finally,encryption techniques are used for protecting the data from being disclosed.Experimental results are carried out to verify the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed frameworks and mechanism.The results recorded high detection rate with low false positive alarms.

An Integrated Framework for Cloud Service Selection Based on BOM and TOPSIS

Many businesses have experienced difficulties in selecting a cloud service provider(CSP)due to the rapid advancement of cloud computing services and the proliferation of CSPs.Many independent criteria should be considered when evaluating the services provided by different CSPs.It is a case of multi-criteria decision-making(MCDM).This paper presents an integrated MCDM cloud service selection framework for determining the most appropriate service provider based on the best only method(BOM)and technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution(TOPSIS).To obtain the weights of criteria and the relative importance of CSPs based on each criterion,BOM performs pairwise comparisons of criteria and also for alternatives on each criterion,and TOPSIS uses these weights to rank cloud alternatives.An evaluation and validation of the proposed framework have been carried out through a use-case model to prove its efficiency and accuracy.Moreover,the developed framework was compared with the analytical hierarchical process(AHP),a popular MCDM approach,based on two perspectives:efficiency and consistency.According to the research results,the proposed framework only requires 25%of the comparisons needed for the AHP approach.Furthermore,the proposed framework has a CR of 0%,whereas AHP has 38%.Thus,the proposed framework performs better than AHPwhen it comes to computation complexity and consistency,implying that it is more efficient and trustworthy.