Performance Evaluation Of Services Research Articles

Impacts of personality, emotional intelligence and adaptiveness on service performance of casino hosts: A hierarchical approach

The premium player segment is a major source of revenues and profit for the casino sector. In their roles as providers of personalised services casino hosts are an important determinant in attracting and retaining this market segment. The service performance of such hosts impacts on both player retention and casino profitability. In seeking to explain these relationships, the present study identifies the antecedents of host service performance by using the five factor model of personality (FFM) and the concepts of emotional intelligence and adaptiveness. The researchers test the proposed relationships by adopting a hierarchical approach to FFM and emotional intelligence as basic personality traits or independent variables, adaptiveness as a surface trait or mediator, and host performance as the dependent variable. A sample of casino hosts at a large Australasia-based casino responded to a questionnaire-based survey which considered the five factors of personality, emotional intelligence, adaptiveness and service performance ratings. The results indicate that the FFM, emotional intelligence and adaptiveness have a significant influence on host performance. Structural equation modelling confirmed the existence of a hierarchical relationship between the basic personality traits, adaptiveness and performance outcomes and demonstrates that the inclusion of a mediator contributes to an enhanced evaluation of service performance. These findings enrich the literature by identifying new traits and provide insights that will support practitioners with their selection and training-related activities.

Performance Modeling of Broadcast Polling in IEEE 802.16 Networks with Finite-Buffered Subscriber Stations

In this paper, an approximated model is proposed to analyze the performance of the contention based services via broadcast polling in unsaturated IEEE 802.16 networks with channel errors. The main idea is that each subscriber station with buffer capacity K can be treated as a M/G/1/K queue with service time determined by the backoff process of broadcast polling. Using this model, the normalized network throughput and the distribution of the packet delay are derived. This proposed analytical model is useful for performance evaluation and optimization of best effort or contention-based non-real time polling services. Our simulator written in C++ verifies the accuracy of the proposed analytical model. Furthermore, we show that the model gives good approximations for network performance with a more realistic bursty arrival process at light load, while providing conservative performance measures at medium and high loads.

Performance Evaluation of Rajasthan Handloom Development Corporation (RHDC) with Respect to Jaipur District

The present study highlights the performance evaluation of services provided by the Rajasthan Handloom Development Corporation (RHDC), a state government body working for the development of handloom weavers working in clusters in Jaipur District. The sample of the study comprised of senior officials (n = 20) and beneficiaries (n = 320) of RHDC. The results show that the organization is facing a financial crunch, which has adversely affected the growth of the weavers. The cluster approach got crumpled and weavers had to merge into the cooperative fold for their survival. Thus, there is an urgent need to review the performance of the organization and work on certain strategies to develop the organization, so that successful fulfillment of the objectives, i.e. the development of the handloom sector, for which this organization was established, can be done.

Avaliação de Desempenho de Sistemas de Saúde: um modelo de análise

This paper presents a review of the Dimension Matrix for Evaluation of the Brazilian Health System that was initially developed in 2003, as well as a conceptual update of some of the sub-dimensions for the evaluation of health service performance, namely effectiveness, access, efficiency and appropriateness of health care. It also describes the indicator selection process as well as the results obtained in each performance dimension. The behavior of the indicators used to assess the performance of health services in Brazil, with respect to each sub-dimension, was not uniform. Areas of marked improvement were found in indicators that are influenced by activities in the field of primary care. The most significant improvements were seen in the sub-dimensions of Effectiveness and Access. With respect to the Efficiency of health services, situations of high efficiency coexist with others with substandard performance. The performance of health services in the sub-dimension of Appropriateness of Health Care was the lowest of all indicators.

The Performance Prediction of Cloud Service via JOGM(1,1) Model

With the rapid development of cloud computing, more and more cloud services are provided to users. Faced with multiple cloud services, how to scientifically predict and assess the performance of cloud service is an imperative task. To cope with the challenge, an prediction scheme via JOGM(1,1) model is proposed based on grey system theory, in which the performance of cloud service is quantified as the response time. Thus cloud users and the third-party institutes of cloud service performance evaluation can predict and assess the performance of cloud service as accurate as possible. In return, this will contribute to the cloud service provider selection for better performance on behalf of cloud consumers. The simulation results show that the proposed scheme has higher prediction precision compared with classic GM(1,1) model and weighted moving average model, which verifies the effectiveness of the proposed prediction scheme and the feasibility of forecasting the performance of cloud service employing grey system theory.

Migrant's access to immunization in Mediterranean Countries

Countries bordering the Mediterranean are part of a major migration system. The aim of this study is to assess the main access barriers to immunization of mobile populations in the region and propose an action based framework to decrease health access inequalities.A survey on formal and informal barriers to immunization among mobile communities was conducted among public health officials formally appointed as focal points of the EpiSouth Network by 26 Mediterranean countries. Twenty-two completed the questionnaire.Thirteen countries reported at least one vaccine preventable disease (VPD) outbreak occurring among mobile populations since 2006 even though their legal entitlement to immunization is mostly equivalent to the general population's. Informal barriers, particularly lack of information and lack of trust in authorities, and disaggregation of data collection are the major issues still to be addressed.Mediterranean countries need to fill the gap in immunization coverage among pockets of susceptible individuals in order to prevent VPD outbreaks. Having for the most part ensured free entitlement, introducing more migrant friendly approaches, increasing information availability among mobile communities, building trust in public health services and disaggregating data collection to monitor and evaluate service performance among mobile groups are key aspects to address in the region.

Design and performance evaluation of mobile web services in libraries

PurposeThis research aims to use the Oriental Institute of Technology Library (the OIT Library) in Taiwan as a case to introduce some of the mobile web services which can be provided by a library, as well as to investigate and discuss the first two mobile web services offered by the OIT Library, the due‐day reminder and renewal‐request services, at length. Furthermore, the performance evaluation of the two services is conducted.Design/methodology/approachThis research employs system logs and patron questionnaires to understand the effectiveness of, and patron satisfaction toward, the two services.FindingsResults of system log analysis show that the usage of the two services improves the average number of overdue occurrences, average amount of overdue fines, average amount of overdue fines per transaction, and average overdue rate; furthermore, the use of the services also indirectly increases the number of items borrowed by patrons, which corresponds with the questionnaire analysis as well. Results of questionnaire analysis show that 71.3 per cent and 87.5 per cent of the respondents are strongly satisfied with the due‐day reminder and renewal‐request services, respectively.Practical implicationsAs a case study, this research provides a direction on designing mobile web services for a library. In addition, it points out how to evaluate the performance and patron satisfaction of mobile web services through system log analysis and patron questionnaire.Originality/valueThis research increases the understanding of what mobile web services can be offered by a library. In addition, many previous studies only describe certain kinds of mobile web services without showing their efficacy; however, this research evaluates the efficacy of two mobile web services in the OIT Library by an unobtrusive system log analysis, which is then complemented by a patron questionnaire.

Performance assessment of IP over vehicular delay-tolerant networks through the VDTN@Lab testbed

Abstract Vehicular delay-tolerant network (VDTN) is a network architecture based on the delay-tolerant network paradigm, which was designed to provide low-cost asynchronous vehicular communications in environments with disruptions, intermittency, variable delays, and network partition. This article proposes a laboratory testbed for VDTNs, called VDTN@Lab. It aims to support research studies related with the design, emulation, performance evaluation, and diagnose of new VDTN protocols, services, and applications. It intends to demonstrate the applicability of VDTNs over multiple application environments. VDTN@Lab features an emulation capability, allowing live experiments with prototyped hardware and software embedded into robotic cards, desktop, and netbooks computers. The proposed prototype is demonstrated and evaluated with Epidemic, and Spray, and Wait routing protocols, using different combinations of scheduling and dropping policies, in scenarios with different vehicular mobility models (bus movement and random movement across roads).

Performance evaluation of the hospital services - a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process model

Healthcare sector is a complex area unique in all its characteristics. Due to its multi dimensional nature it is very difficult to approach the measurement of the performance of healthcare by using any one method. Healthcare sector is evaluated by three categories of measurement namely, structure, process and outcome. The structure of a healthcare unit is assessed by the human and material resources available. But, process of healthcare units is difficult to measure by specific metrics, even though it is considered as the primary aspect of assessment among the measures of quality. Fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP) can be used to evolve such a model. The conventional AHP method is incapable of handling the uncertainty and vagueness involved in the mapping of one’s preference to an exact number or ratio. In recent years it has been observed that due to confusion in the decision makers mind, probable deviations should be integrated to the decision making process. The fuzzy model can deal with this incap...

A retrospective study of demographic parameters and major health referrals among Afghan refugees in Iran

IntroductionFor nearly three decades, the two neighboring countries of Iran and Pakistan hosted millions of Afghans. Today, Afghans still represent the largest group of refugees in the world. This feature has greatly influenced provision of health care for this population. Due to a paucity of research on the health status of Afghan refugees in Iran, this study aim to make a vista on the pattern of different common diseases among Afghan refugees in Iran and use it as an index for performance evaluation of future health services to them.MethodsThis is a retrospective cross sectional study, in which we collected the demographic and medical data between 2005 and 2010 from referrals to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) offices in Iran. We also considered a comparative review of the burden of disease estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO) for Afghanistan and Iran.ResultsTotal numbers of referrals were 23,152 with 52.6% Female and 47.66% male. 29% were 0–14 years of age, 54% were 15–59, and 17% were 60+. The most common health referral for females and males (0–14) was perinatal diseases (15.16%, 15.2%, respectively). In the females (15–59) it was ophthalmic diseases (13.65%), and for males it was nephropathies (21.4%), and in both sexes (60+) age range it was ophthalmic diseases (21.3%, 19.9%, respectively). The largest ethnic group of afghan refugees in this study was Hazara (55%) followed by Tajik (14%), Fars (12%), Sadat (9%), and 10% others. Ophthalmic diseases were the major cause of referrals by Hazara, Tajik, Fars, and Sadat groups with 26%, 20%, 26%, and 27% respectively. Referrals by pashtun group were mostly for neoplasms (17%), among Uzbek group it was nephropathies (26%), and in Baluch group Hematopoietic disorders (25%).ConclusionThese data indicate higher referral rate for women 15–59 years of old and people in 60+ with ophthalmic diseases, neoplasms, and nephropathies. Even given certain intrinsic limitations of such a study, we believe these unique findings are worth further explanation. This implies the need for public health researchers to pursue prospective studies in these areas.

Design and Performance Evaluation of OFDM-Based Wireless Services Employing Radio over Optical Wireless Link

This paper studies an Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) based wireless services employing Radio over Optical Wireless (RoOW) to get a high performance transmission while eliminating the drawback of possible radio wave interference to electro-medical apparatus in indoor communication system. An optical Intensity-modulated Direct-detection (IM/DD) system using RF subcarrier modulation is considered and OFDM RF signals are assumed as the subcarrier. The transmission performance is evaluated by simulation considering the influence of peak clip of OFDM signal and different radio fading scenarios. Simulation result shows that the modulation index m, optical transmit power, radio environments are important factors which affect the communication performance significantly. It also shows when the received optical power is larger than -20dBm, which is a very practical power level, the value of BER becomes almost independent of the optical power and the radio environment becomes more important. That means the indoor optical wireless communication (OWC) has high transmission performance and the proposed relay system is a very available system as long as the radio environment is eligible. We believe that the proposed system is a practical system and can provide a low-cost, high-quality wireless services for RF sensitive areas.

Evaluation of Airport Pavement Service Performance Based on Fuzzy Matter Element and Combination Weights Method

The evaluation of airport pavement service performance plays an important role in pavement maintenance, rehabilitation and overlay. A systematic pavement performance evaluation model was established using the Fuzzy Complex Matter Element and combination weights. Firstly, the indices for evaluation such as Pavement Condition Index, Friction Coefficient, roughness performance and Bearing Capability were chose to evaluat the airport pavement service performance. Secondly, the synthesis weight of each evaluation index was determined using Entropy Method and Analytic Hierarchy Process Method. Finally, the relevancy degree fuzzy complex matter element was determined, and the degree of the airport pavement service performance can be determined according to the largest relevancy degree principle. This evaluation method has a broader applicable scope, because it is not only capable in considering subjective factors based on experts and experience, but also capable in considering the precision of objective information from the actual measuring reasonably. Finally, three regions of an airport pavement are evaluated by this method, and the evaluation results agree well with the actual pavement condition.

A theatrical perspective on service performance evaluation: The customer-critic approach

In this article, the customer-critic approach is presented as a complementary approach to existing service performance evaluation. It is based on methods, derived originally by Patrice Pavis, that have a distinguished pedigree in the evaluation of theatrical performances. An adaptation of Pavis's evaluation framework is illustrated in the context of a restaurant service performance. A focus on the work of Pavis directs attention to the mise-en-scène or metatext of a performance as a vehicle for consumer analysis, and explicitly acknowledges the value of nurturing and enhancing the critical capacity of an audience. Although an audience should be made aware of the main components of a performance, most importantly they should be encouraged to take a holistic, rather than fragmented, view of what is being presented. In addition, unlike other research approaches, the customer-critic process involves customers before, during, and after the performance, and builds in the opportunity for both reporting and reconstruction. It is an approach to data collection and analysis more closely aligned to the Service-Dominant Logic of marketing than methods currently adopted by service managers, recognising consumers as operant resources and the ‘value in use’ of the performance from a consumer experience perspective.

Performance evaluation of cloud service considering fault recovery

Cloud computing is a recent trend in IT, which has attracted lots of attention. In cloud computing, service reliability and service performance are two important issues. To improve cloud service re...

A fuzzy MCDM model of service performance for container ports

To achieve the aim of management control function and monitor the service systems at container ports, it is essential to study the evaluation of service performance. The main purpose of this paper is to develop a fuzzy MCDM algorithm (multiple criteria decision-making model) to evaluate the service performance for container ports. Firstly, some concepts and methods used to develop a fuzzy MCDM algorithm are briefly introduced. Secondly, a step-by-step fuzzy MCDM algorithm based on the concept of α-cut is proposed. Finally, a numerical example with a hierarchy structure of five criteria, thirty-one sub-criteria and three alternatives is illustrated, by using the proposed fuzzy MCDM approach. Furthermore, the numerical example shows that the proposed approach can successfully accomplish the study’s goal. Key words: Fuzzy MCDM, service performance, container ports.

The Study Of Airline Service Quality In The Qeshm Free Zone By Fuzzy Logic

This paper applies the fuzzy set theory for evaluating service quality of three airlines are active in Qeshm free zone in Iran via customer survey. Service quality is a composite of various attributes among them many intangible attributes are difficult to measure. So we invite fuzzy set theory to reflect the inherent subjectiveness and resolve the ambiguity of concepts that are associated with human beings'subjective judgments vaguely measured with linguistic terms. By applying AHP in obtaining criteria weight and TOPSIS in ranking, we find the relative ranking position of each airline and provide an adequate alternative to performance evaluation of airline services which usually involve subjective judgments of qualitative attributes.

Performance analysis and optimization of network server based on queuing network

In order to solve the problem that the performance of network server cannot be analyzed in relatively complex situations of number and status,the authors proposed a method of server performance evaluation based on queuing network.This method could effectively reduce the time and space complexity and make performance analysis of server more accurately and efficiently.The experimental results show that using this method to analyze server performance and optimizing the server program by the results can make good use of system resources and improve server performance.

Performance Evaluation of Web Services Orchestrated with WS-BPEL4 People

WS-BPEL Extension for People (BPEL4People) introduces human activity to Web Services Business Process Execution Language (WS-BPEL/BPEL). Some works have been done on the performance verification of WS-BPEL, but there aren't works on the performance verification of WS-BPEL4People. In this paper, we propose a model method for the transformation of WS-BPEL4People/BPEL4People into Generalized Stochastic Petri Nets (GSPN) and this way evaluate its performance. During the transformation, Petri Net is used to model BPEL activities and the human activity of a human task. Then, by validating the generated model, some potential problems with performance of WS-BPEL4People can be detected.

Context aware service provisioning in mobile grid

In mobile grid, it is necessary to maintain end users’ needs while addressing issues such as rapid, unpredictable changes of highly mobile contexts in which wireless mobile devices operate. Context-aware mobile grid services that exploit information about user and device context are becoming one of the core components in mobile grid environment. This paper presents a contexts aware service provisioning in mobile grid. The paper describes device context information for context-aware services in the mobile device collaboration. An algorithm is proposed to dynamically deliver services to mobile grid users according to both user needs and current contexts. The algorithm decomposes global optimization problem into sub-optimizations. In the experiment, the performance evaluation of context aware service provisioning algorithm is conducted.

A Decentralized Deployment Strategy and Performance Evaluation of LCG File Catalog Service

The LHC Computing Grid (LCG) leads by CERN, has solved with the LCG File Catalog (LFC) the major problem of scaling the data management catalog. However, additional performance issues should be faced to deploy a painless catalog service. With this aim, we present a decentralized LFC server configuration, and its performance evaluation compared with the traditional LFC deployment. A performance analysis is shown, including not only the catalog server, but also analysing the client side overhead. We find that the LFC service has in the clients a relevant workload of the overall service. The experimental results show that the proposed LFC deployment for servers and clients, improves the performance of the service.