General Objective Research Articles

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Purpose: the general objective was to determine the effect of GE on the CS of public transportation companies in Bagua. Theoretical framework: The existing literature provided new findings on both strategic management and service quality. However, there is still much to be researched and learned about these variables as it is a constantly evolving development. Design/methodology/approach: Under a mixed descriptive-correlational, phenomenological, and non-experimental methodology, interviews were conducted with five managers and surveys with fifty-two clients. Findings: The SG is inadequate; the CS is inadequate by thirty-three and thirty percent and moderate by sixty-six and seventy percent. Similarly, when it is adequate, the quality of service improves by one hundred percent and rises to the moderate level. In addition, they got a p value of less than zero point zero five which consented to accept Hi, thus indicating that they maintain a highly significant relationship and the Pearson confirms it with zero point seven hundred and fourteen. Research, Practical & Social implications: For strategic management to work properly, it is necessary to have clear and precise policies on how to encourage teamwork, as this facilitates strategy planning and allows the proper use of allocated resources in the interest of the company and its customers, ultimately ensuring service. quality in all processes. Originality/value: Concluding that While companies strive to ensure that their employees have a social learning experience, that they are integrated in all aspects of the organization, that they interact effectively with customers and that they complete assigned tasks correctly, there will be improvements in the organization's commitment and achievement. because customers will trust the services that these companies provide in the market, which will have a positive impact on the organization.

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Purpose: The general objective was to determine the relationship between internal control and the acquisition of goods and services under eight tax units in a Peruvian municipality. Theoretical framework: The information previously studied by several authors and the contribution made visible in the findings of this work will allow future researchers to obtain the best possible understanding of the subject in question. Design/methodology/approach: A basic, non-experimental, cross-sectional, descriptive-correlational research study was used; the population and the sample consisted of 50 workers of a municipality; in addition, the survey technique was used and the instrument was the questionnaire. Findings: Internal control was found to be 90% deficient, while the acquisition of goods and services was found to be 94% deficient; in addition, a p=0.000<0.05 was obtained, allowing the acceptance of the alternative hypothesis and Rho=88%, showing that internal control and the acquisition of goods and services have a very strong positive correlation. It can be observed that internal control is 90% deficient, as well as the minimum technical requirements, contractual compliance and inspection mechanisms are deficient. On the other hand, the acquisition of goods and services reached 94% in the deficient level, and it is also observed that the improvement of selection processes (92%), the adequate execution of contracts (90%) and the annual contracting programming process (84%) are deficient. Research, Practical & Social implications: It is concluded that as long as the internal control office follows all inspection mechanisms, reviews contracts to ensure that they meet minimum technical requirements and ensures that all contractual obligations are fully complied with, the process, selection and procurement of goods and services will run smoothly, furthermore, as long as all inspection procedures are followed at the appropriate times, the procurement of goods and services will be effective. Originality/value: In this work we studied the prior and subsequent mechanisms that should be considered in internal control since this allows minimizing the risks of misappropriation of funds in the acquisition of goods and services in the public sector.

Generative Artificial Intelligence

The general objective of the research is to determine the advances related to Generative Artificial Intelligence. Methodology, in this research, 47 documents have been selected, carried out in the period 2014 - 2023; including: scientific articles, review articles and information from websites of recognized organizations. Results, Generative Artificial Intelligence is demonstrating its importance in various human activities, making it necessary to use it ethically and responsibly. Conclusions, the general objective of the research is to determine the advances related to Generative Artificial Intelligence. Artificial intelligence has evolved from predictive to generative. Key Techniques: Variational Autoencoders (VAEs), Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), Autoregressive Models. Countries are establishing standards for the ethical use of AI, while respecting human rights. Currently, AI has many applications in human activity, but the ethical use of AI is necessary. Various countries are establishing regulations in this regard. Generative Artificial Intelligence is demonstrating its importance in various human activities, making it necessary to use it ethically and responsibly. The specific objectives of the research are to identify the applications and the software of Generative Artificial Intelligence. Applications: Generating realistic images, creating natural language text, composing music. Generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools, such as Bard, ChatGPT, and GitHub CoPilot.

Nutrition Management: Use of New Methodologies in the Development of Competencies for Dietetic Practice

In the field of nutrition management, new methodologies are currently being used for the knowledge of dietetics, which allows nutritionists to prepare for optimal performance, facing the reality of populations with dietary needs. The general objective was to determine the influence of the use of new methodologies in the development of competencies for dietetic practice in clients of a Peruvian company in the area of nutrition. A hypothetical deductive method with a quantitative approach, non-experimental design, cross-sectional scope, and explanatory level was followed. The study sample consisted of 260 nutritionist clients. The technique used was the survey and the instrument was a questionnaire. In general, it is concluded that there is a significant influence between the use of new methodologies and the development of competencies for dietetic practice in nutrition clients since the Chi-square contrast statistic obtained a value of 146.539 and a high level of significance of 0.000 < 0.05. The goodness of fit of the models was also identified with a high significance level of 0.001 < 0.05, a Nagelkerke’s pseudo-R2 with a significant value of 0.625, and parameter estimation with a Wald value of 44.357 and a significance level of 0.000 < 0.05. Finally, it is concluded that by managing new methodologies through processes, with agile and continuous improvement methodologies, competencies for the dietetic practice of clients in the area of nutrition are developed.

3D Keypoint Estimation Using Implicit Representation Learning

AbstractIn this paper, we tackle the challenging problem of 3D keypoint estimation of general objects using a novel implicit representation. Previous works have demonstrated promising results for keypoint prediction through direct coordinate regression or heatmap‐based inference. However, these methods are commonly studied for specific subjects, such as human bodies and faces, which possess fixed keypoint structures. They also suffer in several practical scenarios where explicit or complete geometry is not given, including images and partial point clouds. Inspired by the recent success of advanced implicit representation in reconstruction tasks, we explore the idea of using an implicit field to represent keypoints. Specifically, our key idea is employing spheres to represent 3D keypoints, thereby enabling the learnability of the corresponding signed distance field. Explicit key‐points can be extracted subsequently by our algorithm based on the Hough transform. Quantitative and qualitative evaluations also show the superiority of our representation in terms of prediction accuracy.

Spanish media coverage of youth mental health issues during the COVID-19 pandemic

BackgroundThe media portrayal of mental health is relevant in shaping the population’s attitudes towards mental disorders. However, there is little information about the representation of young mental health issues in the Spanish-language press, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The general objective of this study was to analyse the tone and content of Spanish newspaper articles about mental disorders in youth during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsWe collected media articles from the 10 most read news sources over a 6 month period (January-June 2021). These articles were coded for content using a standardised codebook, followed by an inductive thematic analysis. A total of 205 news items were evaluated.ResultsResults showed that the majority of the news items had an overall positive tone (68.3%), only 5.4% were stigmatising and only 7.3% were related to violence. However, few articles offered help seeking information (6%), adolescents were rarely quoted (14%) and children were never quoted. Substantial differences are described in terms of age, gender and disorder. The thematic analysis led to three emergent themes: (i) violence and victimisation; (ii) the COVID-19 pandemic; and (iii) technology and social media.ConclusionsThe percentage of news in the Spanish media that refer to young people’s mental health in a stigmatising way or in a way associated with violence is very low. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic may have promoted more positive discussion about youth mental health. However, major challenges remain to be addressed, as patients are seldom quoted, very few articles offer help-seeking information, and a narrative of victimisation without appropriate discussion of resilience regularly occurs.

The Potential of Brazilian Beef Production from the Perspective of Effectiveness and Efficiency

The general objective of the research is to analyze the national bovine protein market in order to compare the Brazilian production and productivity in relation to the main world producers of bovine livestock, in order to discuss, under the prism of effectiveness and efficiency in the perspective of rural administration. For the analysis procedure of this work, the SWOT Matrix tool was applied, focusing on the criteria of "strength", "weakness", "threat" and "opportunity". Based on the results found in the research, it was possible to conclude that Brazil has significant chances of growth for this sector of the economy, but it will only be able to sustain itself in this market when efficiency is also part of the decision-making process. Based on the SWOT Matrix, it was observed that the “strength” of the country in this segment is concentrated, in general, in the significant available agricultural production areas and in the hegemonic technologies existing at the national level. In the field of “weakness”, it was observed that the concentration of technologies in a certain group of rural producers reduces the diversification of production technologies, which may represent a loss of competitiveness in certain market niches, mainly in those more demanding sectors. In addition, high production costs were also perceived as a “weakness” that impacts the country's competitive power. The “opportunities”, on the other hand, are more linked to the growing global demand for food, placing Brazil at the forefront of food on the planet. The “threats”, in turn, observed in this study are linked to food safety and more demanding production criteria in competitive markets, which impose, in the Brazilian reality, the need to adopt a strategic vision and greater investments in science and technology, aiming to improve the development, in the national territory, of technologies more adapted to the realities of different biomes, such as the Amazonian biome.
 Keywords: Effectiveness, Efficiency, Livestock, Cattle, Brazil.

Social work and quality: advantages and difficulties for implementation in Spain

ABSTRACT Quality management is a methodology used in all types of organisations. It focuses on aspects such as continuous improvement, process-based work and evaluation. It has been observed that in certain fields and professions, quality management has been less developed. For this reason, research has been carried out with the general objective of exploring the advantages and disadvantages of implementing quality management systems from the perspective of Social Work professionals in Spain. An exploratory and descriptive methodology with a qualitative approach was used. The opinions of 90 professionals from all over Spain employed in different welfare systems were taken into account. The results show the prevailing ambivalence between the profession's recognition of the added value and legitimacy that quality practices give to social intervention, as well as the resistance to change and the feeling of initial complexity that these processes provoke in the discipline. Issues such as bureaucracy, lack of time and burnout are pointed out as possible limitations to the development of quality by social workers. It would be appropriate to strengthen the training and culture of quality in order to enhance its operational application in practice.

Building ethical guidelines to produce official statistics: the statistical ethics system (SETE) for the national administrative department of statistics (DANE) in Colombia

ABSTRACT This article describes and analyzes the design and functioning of the Statistical Ethics System (SETE) in Colombia’s National Statistical Office. It presents the methodology and general process of planning and implementation of the System, supported by a conceptual analysis of the requirements for an ethical functioning of official statistics. The general objective of the article is to make a practical contribution to the understanding of conceptual and practical features that ought to be considered in the implementation of an ethical system in the operation of the public sector, particularly in the area of the production of official statistics. The text is divided into five parts. In the first part, we make a general introduction to the ethical value of official statistics. In the second and third parts, we make a presentation and analysis of the principles and risks that were selected as the basic ethical framework for the production of official statistics at the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE). The fourth section presents the conceptual and practical bases of how SETE operates. The fifth section we present some concluding remarks.

Analysis of Information and Communication Technologies and Digital Competences in Professors and Undergraduate Students

We can observe changes made during and post pandemic according to the use of digital tools to achieve education at all levels, this was at the beginning a hard reality for not being able to help all students from different nations who were not prepared in this way. This research had as general objective, to analyze and understand the use of ICT and the development of digital competences of professors and undergraduate students in times of pandemic of a particular university in Cusco, 2023. The study was of qualitative approach, with a basic type and descriptive design at a phenomenological level. The data collection technique applied was the in-depth interview, working with 6 professors and 6 students in total. In order to obtain the results, the inductive method was implemented for the information analysis of the two study categories; triangulation was carried out considering the students- professors -researcher. As results, it was obtained that the educational stakeholders have been forced to use digital tools to continue with their teaching or learning process; during the pandemic, the computer, laptop, tablet or cellphone were the devices applied by professors and students; using a series of software and platforms. To access to ICT, professors and students solved the problem of the internet through their own resources, the digital services they accessed were the ERP system and the virtual platform to continue with the classes.

The reverse logistics operation of solid waste pos-consumption of electronic products for domestic use in Brazil

Purpose: The general objective of this research is to present a framework aimed at structuring the operation of the RLS – Reverse Logistics System in the context of the post-consumer solid waste of products electrical and electronics segment in Brazil. Design/Methodology/Approach: Exploratory research qualitative, operationalized through individual interviews with a semi-structured approach, with fourteen respondents, in addition to documentary research. Findings: The cost for the operation of this structure must also be treated as a critical point for the success of this system, mainly due to the lack of a vision focused on the circular economy of EEE – Electrical Equipment and Electronics. Implications for theory and practice: The study addressed some research gaps in relation to post-consumer reverse logistics. Regarding practical implementations, the development of a framework for the operacionalization of RLS stands out, and the evidence of this research concerns the lack of alignment, on the part of manufacturers and importers on issues related to EEE reverse logistics issues. Originality/Value: An emphasis on an advanced view of how to treat the solid waste consumer electronics segment (EEE) in Brazil.

Kenya Medical Training College laboratory student perception on adequacy of teaching and learning resources in the advent of COVID-19

The emergence of COVID-19 presented a big challenge in medical education, especially with regard to the adequacy of teaching and learning resources. In addition, an increase in student intake and demand for Kenya Medical Training College courses could compromise these resources. This study investigated the perceptions of students towards the adequacy of teaching and learning resources at Kenya Medical Training College in the advent of COVID-19. The general objective was to determine the perceived adequacy of teaching and learning resources in the advent of COVID-19 by students in the department of Medical Laboratory Sciences at Kenya Medical Training College. A descriptive cross-sectional study design using mixed methods (triangulation) was used. Simple random sampling of the eight regions in the country was used to select one region (the Eastern Region). Census sampling was used to select all the four campuses in the region namely Machakos, Meru, Embu, and Kitui, which offer medical laboratory sciences. The study population was students in the department of medical laboratory sciences on these campuses, with 220 students participating. The data collection instrument was a self- administered closed- and open-ended questionnaires. Quantitative data collected was analysed using SPSS software, while qualitative data was analysed using themes. The response rate was 100% (220 students). The gender distribution among students showed a higher percentage in male (58%). Majority of the students were 21-23 years (35%). One-way ANOVA presented a statistically significance between and within groups (P<0.05). Majority of students (51.8%) were not satisfied with adequacy of human resources. Majority of students perceived the state of physical facilities to be in poor state with a mean of 1.76, while the satisfaction level of majority of students’ on teaching aids was below 3.40 representing very inadequate to neutral. Ordinal regression tests on satisfaction level on teaching aids in relation to gender, year of study and campus was significant (chi-square test p<0.000) while the goodness of fit model was (p=1.000) indicating it was a good model. R^2 value (Nagelkerke=99%) indicated that the study factors had great variations. The spearman’s rank test showed that laboratory equipment and computer assisted aids, internet, learning systems have negative correlation but with very strong coefficient correlation of 1.0000. Satisfaction levels with teaching aids in relation to gender, year of study, and campus were significant with a chi-square test of P < 0.000. The study concluded that there were inadequate teaching and learning resources on the four KMTC campuses before COVID-19.

Harmonized Portrait‐Background Image Composition

AbstractPortrait‐background image composition is a widely used operation in selfie editing, video meeting, and other portrait applications. To guarantee the realism of the composited images, the appearance of the foreground portraits needs to be adjusted to fit the new background images. Existing image harmonization approaches are proposed to handle general foreground objects, thus lack the special ability to adjust portrait foregrounds. In this paper, we present a novel end‐to‐end network architecture to learn both the content features and style features for portrait‐background composition. The method adjusts the appearance of portraits to make them compatible with backgrounds, while the generation of the composited images satisfies the prior of a style‐based generator. We also propose a pipeline to generate high‐quality and high‐variety synthesized image datasets for training and evaluation. The proposed method outperforms other state‐of‐the‐art methods both on the synthesized dataset and the real composited images and shows robust performance in video applications.

Role of Public Procurement Preference Scheme on the Growth of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in Nyamira County, Kenya

The focus of the study is to investigate the role of public procurement preference schemes in enhancing the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises. The general objective of the study was: To investigate the role of public procurement preference schemes in enhancing the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises in Nyamira County, Kenya. The specific objectives included; establishing the role of 30% preference on the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises, to investigate the role of waiver of bid bond on the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises, to establish the role of local firm preference on the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises and to assess the role of easy access to procurement opportunities registration on the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises. The study was guided by agency theory. A descriptive research design was applied to the study. The study population included 35700 registered and licensed SMEs, from where a sample of 391 was arrived at by Yamane’s formula. Data collection involved the use of self-administered questionnaires. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to perform data analysis. The results of the model summary indicate that R2 equals 0.498 at a 0.05 significance level, thus revealing that 49.8 % of the SME growth can be accounted for by the public procurement preference scheme. The study concluded that there was a positive influence of public procurement preference schemes on the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises. The study recommended that SMEs may team up with one another under joint bidding in order to get higher chances of preference and also compete with large-sized firms for public procurement opportunities

Strategi Komunikasi Baznas Kabupaten Batu Bara dalam Program Pinjaman Modal Kelompok Tani di Desa Sumber Tani Kecamatan Datuk Tanah Datar

The general objective of this research was to seek and discover the communication strategy of BAZNAS for Batu Bara Regency in carrying out agricultural productive loan programs. The specific objective of this study was to see how the efforts or efforts were made by BAZNAS of Batu Bara Regency in introducing a productive agricultural loan program to farmer groups in Sumber Tani Village, Datuk Tanah Datar District; obstacles that occur in the implementation of the program; and the benefits felt by the community while participating in the agricultural productive loan program from BAZNAS. This study uses a qualitative approach with the aim of obtaining an in-depth description of the data. The research results obtained showed that in the process of implementing the agricultural productive loan program: (1) The planning that was built by BAZNAS of Batu Bara Regency to run the program used a personal approach to someone who was considered to have influence in farmer groups. In addition, BAZNAS also conducts socialization activities which are carried out simultaneously with the distribution of zakat from the farmers' harvest to farmer groups. (2) The obstacles experienced by BAZNAS of Batu Bara Regency in implementing the program are seen from two perspectives. First, the process of providing assistance and returning assistance to BAZNAS has never experienced any problems. Second, in the program introduction process, farmers still have doubts about participating in making loans. (3) The benefit felt by the community from the implementation of the program is that farmers have institutions that can provide interest-free loans so that farmers' crops can be sold to any party.

Internal Control and Procurement of Goods and Services in a Peruvian Municipality

Purpose: Purpose: The general objective was to determine the relationship between internal control and the acquisition of goods and services under eight tax units in a Peruvian municipality. 
 
 Theoretical framework: The information previously studied by several authors and the contribution made visible in the findings of this work will allow future researchers to obtain the best possible understanding of the subject in question.
 
 Design/methodology/approach: A basic, non-experimental, cross-sectional, descriptive-correlational research study was used; the population and the sample consisted of 50 workers of a municipality; in addition, the survey technique was used and the instrument was the questionnaire.
 
 Findings: Internal control was found to be 90% deficient, while the acquisition of goods and services was found to be 94% deficient; in addition, a p=0.000<0.05 was obtained, allowing the acceptance of the alternative hypothesis and Rho=88%, showing that internal control and the acquisition of goods and services have a very strong positive correlation. It can be observed that internal control is 90% deficient, as well as the minimum technical requirements, contractual compliance and inspection mechanisms are deficient. On the other hand, the acquisition of goods and services reached 94% in the deficient level, and it is also observed that the improvement of selection processes (92%), the adequate execution of contracts (90%) and the annual contracting programming process (84%) are deficient.
 
 Research, Practical & Social implications: It is concluded that as long as the internal control office follows all inspection mechanisms, reviews contracts to ensure that they meet minimum technical requirements and ensures that all contractual obligations are fully complied with, the process, selection and procurement of goods and services will run smoothly, furthermore, as long as all inspection procedures are followed at the appropriate times, the procurement of goods and services will be effective. 
 
 Originality/value: In this work we studied the prior and subsequent mechanisms that should be considered in internal control since this allows minimizing the risks of misappropriation of funds in the acquisition of goods and services in the public sector.

The impact of information technologies in increasing the efficiency of the operational management of electrical networks (case study based on “Red-Nord” JS Company)

The present paper represents a methodological foray into the elucidation of the human factor contribution in the efficiency of the operative management of electrical networks. The study is pursuing the role of information technologies in the efficiency of the management of electrical networks on the example of the “Red-Nord” JS company. In order to achieve the general objective of the research, we have analyzed the main information technologies that can be applied in the operative management of the energy enterprise. At the same time, the ANRE (the National Agency for Energy Regulation of the Republic of Moldova) regulations regarding the efficiency of the operative management of electrical networks were reviewed, with the elucidation of the role of dispatchers in the operative management of electrical networks. As a result, the main activity indicators of the “Red-Nord” JS company were analyzed, along with the operational management indicators of the electricity networks in the period of 2019-2021. At the same time, conclusions and recommendations were drawn regarding the efficiency of the operative management of electrical networks through the lens of the human factor development and the introduction of information technologies. The research methods used to elaborate this study are: analysis and synthesis, induction, deduction, empirical research, comparative analysis, which helped us to identify the contribution of the human factor in the operative management of electrical networks. In conclusion, we can note that in the last 5 years, “Red-Nord” JS company has implemented modern software in order to make the operational management of electric networks more efficient, such as: the information system of planned records, the implementation of the SCADA system, the reorganization of the dispatching system. However, we consider it necessary to make the following optimizations: making the call reception system more efficient, in order to introduce new functions that would allow reducing the response time from of company to the final consumers. Consequently, the improvement of the SCADA/OMS software would allow the efficiency of the company’s activity and increase the organizational performance.

Minimizing the mean slowdown in the M/G/1 queue

We consider the optimal scheduling problem in the M/G/1 queue. While this is a thoroughly studied problem when the target is to minimize the mean delay, there are still open questions related to some other objective functions. In this paper, we focus on minimizing mean slowdown among non-anticipating polices, which may utilize the attained service of the jobs but not their remaining service time when making scheduling decisions. By applying the Gittins index approach, we give necessary and sufficient conditions for the jobs’ service time distribution under which the well-known scheduling policies first come first served and foreground background are optimal with respect to the mean slowdown. Furthermore, we characterize the optimal non-anticipating policy in the multi-class case for certain types of service time distributions. In fact, our results cover a more general objective function than just the mean slowdown, since we allow the holding costs for a job to depend on its own service time S via a generic function c(S). When minimizing the mean slowdown, this function reads as c(x) = 1/x.

Decentralized Energy Generation for Sustainable Energy Development in EU

Human history has been the story of the constant search for energy, e.g., in terms of food conversion to energy. Early on in its origins, humankind has had to satisfy its energy demand through available energy resources. Although the use of non-renewable energy sources has been perpetuated over time, there are currently many strategies implemented by states to develop energy transition for sustainable development. An example of this is the emergence of decentralization initiatives such as prosumers and energy communities. Within the European Union, the Directives 2018/2001 and 2019/944 open a broad regulatory framework for this type of practice. In the face of the challenges imposed by the so-called energy transition towards more environmentally friendly forms of energy (= ‘green energy’) and climate change, energy democracy plays a key role. These initiatives have currently yielded important results where individuals and communities have become increasingly empowered and have become important actors in energy generation from renewable energy sources. The general objective of this research is to substantiate the need for decentralized energy generation transitions. The main results of the research are the assessment of the legal framework for initiatives in decentralized energy generation in the European Union and the identification of good practices in the European context. energy decentralization initiatives, sustainable energy development, European Union, Energy Law, Energy Policy, energy prosumerism, energy communities, EU Law, energy market, energy consumer empowerment

An Object SLAM Framework for Association, Mapping, and High-Level Tasks

Object SLAM is considered increasingly significant for robot high-level perception and decision-making. Existing studies fall short in terms of data association, object representation, and semantic mapping and frequently rely on additional assumptions, limiting their performance. In this paper, we present a comprehensive object SLAM framework that focuses on object-based perception and object-oriented robot tasks. First, we propose an ensemble data association approach for associating objects in complicated conditions by incorporating parametric and nonparametric statistic testing. In addition, we suggest an outlier-robust centroid and scale estimation algorithm for modeling objects based on the iForest and line alignment. Then a lightweight and object-oriented map is represented by estimated general object models. Taking into consideration the semantic invariance of objects, we convert the object map to a topological map to provide semantic descriptors to enable multi-map matching. Finally, we suggest an object-driven active exploration strategy to achieve autonomous mapping in the grasping scenario. A range of public datasets and real-world results in mapping, augmented reality, scene matching, relocalization, and robotic manipulation have been used to evaluate the proposed object SLAM framework for its efficient performance.