Related Information Systems Research Articles

LEAN MANUFACTURING PRACTICES AND SUPPLY CHAIN PERFORMANCE OF SUGAR MANUFACTURING FIRMS IN WESTERN KENYA

Introduction: Western Kenya is the largest producer of sugar in Kenya, supporting about 170,000 smallholder farming households and contributing about 80 percent of the total sugar produced in Kenya. This contribution is however threatened given that the sugar firms in that region are producing sub optimally with obsolete technology. Comparing to related sector, other firms in Kenya such as the tea manufacturing firms have implemented energy efficiency practices so as to manage energy wastage and reduce production costs. Were they to employ effective production methods, they could increase their production significantly. While that is the case, scholars have suggested that adoption of lean manufacturing practices is a panacea to quality addition and waste minimization. Perhaps what these firms need are lean practices.
 Purpose: This study interrogated the extent to which the firms have adopted lean manufacturing practices, just-in-time and total quality control and if they have, its effect on supply chain performance.
 Methodology: The study targeted and conducted a census on the 11 sugar manufacturing firms in the Western Kenya belt where the procurement managers, line managers, finance managers, production managers, production engineers, quality assurance officers and operations managers of each of the 11 firms (total 87) were targeted. The study employed a descriptive research design to collect quantitative data. Quantitative primary data was collected through questionnaires and analyzed using statistical package for social sciences.
 Findings: The findings of the study indicated that the just in time productionand total quality control are positively and significantly associated with supply chain performance of the sugar manufacturing firms.
 Unique Contribution to Practice and Policy: The study recommended adoption of just in time production practices such as availing labor on demand in order to manage labor costs, availing resources on demand in order to manage wastage, production on demand in order to manage inventory costs, ordering raw materials from the suppliers only when there is demand for production from customers, having a simplified production design to ensure timely production and having multiple skilled workers to ensure faster production. In addition, in order for the sugar manufacturing firms to increase supply chain performance, there is need to adopt total quality control practices such as having manageable defect prevention costs related to quality planning, putting in place manageable defect prevention costs related to investment in quality related information systems, having manageable appraisal costs related to test and inspection of purchased materials, having manageable appraisal costs related to quality audits, having controllable internal failure costs related to reworks and having manageable internal failure costs related to scrap.

A Mechanism for Verifying the Integrity and Immutability of Tuberculosis Data Using IOTA Distributed Ledger Technology.

Intensified research and innovation and rapid uptake of new tools, interventions, and strategies are crucial to fight Tuberculosis, the world's deadliest infectious disease. The sharing of health data remains a significant challenge. Data consumers must be able to verify the consistency and integrity of data. Solutions based on distributed ledger technologies may be adequate, where each member in a network holds a unique credential and stores an identical copy of the ledger and contributes to the collective process of validating and certifying digital transactions. This work proposes a mechanism and presents a use case in Digital Health to allow the verification of integrity and immutability of TB electronic health records. IOTA was selected as a supporting tool due to its data immutability, traceability and tamper-proof characteristics. A mechanism to verify the integrity of data through hash functions and the IOTA network is proposed. Then, a set of TB related information systems was integrated with the network. IOTA technology offers performance and flexibility to enable a reliable environment for electronic health records.

On the concept of RNPLS&T’s Open Archive

The authors examine the principles and technologies of RNPLS&T’s Open Archive development. Special attention is given to the urgency of the task under the circumstances of digitalization. The main goal is seen as building the Single Open Archive of Information (SOAI) of the Russian National Public Library for Science and Technology that is to accumulate every digital full-text resources designed or acquired legally by the Library. The key principles of SOAI as an integrated information system are specified. The functionalities and protocol table structure for RNPLS&T’s SOAI soft- and hardware are discussed. The projected functional structure of the archive is described and explained. Possible software and hardware solutions for SOAI application and metadata server are discussed along with the interaction with large related information systems like the National Electronic Library (NEL). The system implementation will become the next important stage in building the typical model of e-library as a player in the open archive system. This is to facilitate the technology of data exchange in library information systems, units of science information within research organizations, universities, general educational institutions, and to support information retrieval via the single access point at web-portals. The article is prepared within the framework of the State Order № 075-01300-20-00 “Design and development of RNPLS&T’s Open Archive of Integrated Information Library Resources as a modern system of knowledge management within the digital environment: On the way to Open Science” for the years 2020–2022.

Influencing Factors of e‐Commerce Enterprise Development Based on Mobile Computing Big Data Analysis

With the development of increasingly advanced information technology and electronic technology, especially with regard to physical information systems, cloud computing systems, and social services, big data will be widely visible, creating benefits for people and at the same time facing huge challenges. In addition, with the advent of the era of big data, the scale of data sets is getting larger and larger. Traditional data analysis methods can no longer solve the problem of large‐scale data sets, and the hidden information behind big data is digging out, especially in the field of e‐commerce. We have become a key factor in competition among enterprises. We use a support vector machine method based on parallel computing to analyze the data. First, the training samples are divided into several working subsets through the SOM self‐organizing neural network classification method. Compared with the ever‐increasing progress of information technology and electronic equipment, especially the related physical information system finally merges the training results of each working set, so as to quickly deal with the problem of massive data prediction and analysis. This paper proposes that big data has the flexibility of expansion and quality assessment system, so it is meaningful to replace the double‐sidedness of quality assessment with big data. Finally, considering the excellent performance of parallel support vector machines in data mining and analysis, we apply this method to the big data analysis of e‐commerce. The research results show that parallel support vector machines can solve the problem of processing large‐scale data sets. The emergence of data dirty problems has increased the effective rate by at least 70%.

Link prediction in heterogeneous information networks: An improved deep graph convolution approach

Heterogeneous information networks (HINs) refer to logical networks involving entities of multiple types and their multiple relations, which are widely used for modeling real-world systems with rich features and intricate patterns. Link prediction in such networks is a consistent interesting research question due to its methodological and practical implications in the business field. This study develops an improved spatial graph convolution network to learn predictive vertex embeddings with minimal information loss based on local community discovery and to handle the complexity of link predictions in the context of HINs. An optimizable kernel layer is designed to measure the similarity of pairwise vertex embeddings. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated using four real-world HINs: WordNet, MovieLens, DBLP, and Douban. The results of the experiments demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms several benchmark algorithms, achieving F1-scores of 87.65%, 84.27%, 82.99%, and 89.96% on the four HINs, respectively. The findings of this study can inform the design and improvement of related information systems.

From national to sector level biometric systems: the case of Ghana

ABSTRACT Biometric systems offer opportunities for developing countries to address citizen identification challenges. In recent years, biometric systems have been deployed at the national and sector levels or both. However, related information systems research has focused on either the national or sector levels. Less knowledge thus exists on the relationship between the two levels. To address this gap, this study employs interpretive case study methodology and activity theory to investigate a failed national biometric project in Ghana and its relationship with emergent sector level biometric systems. The findings show that lack of political consensus and conflicting laws can lead to national biometric system failure and multiple sector level systems. Moreover, implementation of multiple biometric systems leads to duplication of resources, infrastructure, and biometric data for individuals. Based on the findings, the paper discusses implications for theory, research, and national development.

Aim and purpose of Consensus Conference follow up Task-Force

Abstract Background Experts of the high-level Consensus Conference (Pécs, 7-8 October 2019) agreed that there is a need for greater harmonisation and international cooperation on migrant health information systems. In order to facilitate the realization of this goal the formation of a multi-stakeholder scientific task force (TF) was proposed. Objectives The Consensus Conference Follow up Task-Force is an informal, voluntary scientific body, aiming to assist and facilitate the realization of the Statement of the Conference. More specifically: Calling the attention about the needfor reliable, migrants/migration related health, public health and occupational health data;for the harmonisation of the migrants/migration related health information systems;for the establishment of international cooperation;Design and work out unified definitions and technical guidance on taxonomy and methodologies of data collection;Facilitate and assist both individual researchers' and teams' endowers for the international harmonisation of target group variables and indicators in order to ensure comparability of data;Call the attention for and initiate the establishment of a European level migrant health database, and provide scientific and technical assistance for its realization. Results The WHO Collaborating Centre at the University of Pécs Medical School (UPMS) has offered to coordinate this initiative, worked out the Terms of Reference (ToR) of this new body and asked the leading international organizations and individual experts to participate in the work of this innovative endower. WHO, IOM, ECDC and the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights has appointed delegates and twelve experts joint to the initiative. On 11 February an internet-based conference was organized where participants approved the ToR and with consensus Prof. Dr. Kayvan Bozorgmehr has been elected for president. UPMS runs its secretariat. The work plan of the TF will be presented during the conference.

On the Management of Accounting Files in Public Institutions Based on Informatization

In this paper, the necessity that public institutions should build a comprehensive information platform combined with other related information systems was analyzed, with the Internet+, big data, cloud computing, and other information technology as the means, internal control as the core, business information, and financial information systems as the support, to improve the management level and governance capacity of public institutions.

Analysis of the perception that students have of a subject. Application to Integrated Information Systems of the Industrial Engineering Degree

The main purpose of this work is to establish and analyze the perception that students of the Degree in Industrial Engineering (GIOI) have about the subject Integrated Information Systems (IIS) in relation to the Task Value, and how this perception varies by taking a subject of the subject-matter analyzed. To achieve the objective, two surveys have been carried out on the students of the subject “Integrated Information Systems in Industrial Organizations” of GIOI. The first survey was passed to the students at the beginning of the course, prior to taking the classes of the subject. The survey was repeated at the end of the course, once the subject was completed, to see the changes in the assessment of the students. GIOI Students have a relatively low initial assessment of IIS subject, especially when compared to other subjects of the degree. However, after taking a subject in this area, its relative assessment increases, and its perception of Utility and Cost improves significantly. The course gets the students to perceive the IIS as something key for their future work. This did not happen before the course. Consequently, it can be concluded that taking the subject changes positively the perception of the students about IIS. Once this result is obtained and validated that it is positive, the research should deepen in which activities, contents or methodologies of the course help to achieve this result, with the objective of enhancing them with respect to those that are not so effective. This work allows teachers to find out the students' perception of a particular matter-subject, and its variation after taking a subject in that matter-subject. With this information, it will be possible to design and carry out the most appropriate teaching-learning actions to the given situation, to develop, as far as possible, a deep learning of the subject.

Information Security Responsibilities of Critical (Information) Infrastructures in the Aspect of Human Risk Factors

With regard to the threats of information society nowadays, the digital asset management and the safety of the related information systems as well as critical infrastructure elements became highly important. The defence of cyberspace itself evolved as a social necessity. This paper aims to provide an overview of how each of the occurring human risk factors influence the effectuation of information security purposes of firms and/or organisations operating critical infrastructure or critical information infrastructure, as well as the engineering of their data processing and data analytics procedures. Moreover, the helpful role of the possible methodological toolset (connected to HR, management and risk management) is also assessed in the context of managing and improving information security awareness.

Final Products: a regional integrated output assessment in Public Health services, 2017-19 Italy

Abstract Issue/problem The classification of Public Health services (PHS) and related healthcare information systems (HIS) in Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy, are complex and non-homogeneous. Since 2017 the Region has been realigning HIS according to the new Final Products (FP) System to classify PHS. The aim is to implement an integrated FP-based HIS, easing data transmission and improving the quality of planning, scheduling and expense reporting activities. Description of the problem From June 2017 to October 2018 68 Public Health professionals (PHP) from 10 Public Health areas outlined 102 PF from HIS through flowcharts and technical dossiers. Afterwards (10/5th-10/29th 2018) they assessed HIS through a questionnaire of 24 items. Statistical analysis was performed with Fisher’s Exact Test, stratifying 4 categories (physician, veterinarian, prevention technician, other professional). In June-July 2019, through a matrix-based assessment, PHP of regional PHS were invited to weight each FP activity on the basis of involved personnel and possible required transfer (valorisation phase). Results The questionnaire got 45/68 responses (66%). Among responders, 27% reported a HIS for their PHS not being available at all; 65% of responders agreed on the usefulness of an integrated regional HIS for PHS. Fisher’s Test showed significant differences in HIS features according to profession, as interoperability with national/regional databases (p = 0.0144), mobile usability for external activities (p = 0.0302), real correspondence between monitored data and performed activities (p = 0.0215). Valorisation was performed by 445/557 PHP (80%). Lessons PHS currently often deal with functional flaws or inappropriateness of HIS when compared to real activities. Valorisation data will be submitted to the attention of policymakers in October 2019 in order to apply an integrated classification of PHS considering both effectiveness and generation of value of activities performed in Public Health. Key messages Healthcare is a multilayered product and measuring healthcare outputs requires managerial skills and tools, to assess need of resources and to plan activities. The regional Final Products project defines a uniform classification of Public Health services and implements a standardised accounting system for activities performed in Public Health.

Uticaj dostignutog stepena razvoja telekomunikaciono-informacionog sistema Vojske Srbije na odbranu Republike Srbije

Information, as one of the important factors of armed conflicts, greatly influences the physiognomy, the direction and the speed of the development of contemporary conflicts. It expresses the availability of knowledge and data necessary for successful command and control at all levels. Its availability reduces the uncertainty in military activity and enables a better assessment of the situation, as well as making relevant decisions in real time. In the paper, the Telecommunications and Information System (TkIS) of the Serbian Armed Forces (SAF) is looked at from several aspects, and the issue of the need for improvement of the existing system, imposed by constant development of information technologies, is being updated. The concept, purpose, structure and level of development of the TkIS are dealt with in the paper, particularly the level of development of the SAF TkIS and its cause-effect relation with the defense of the Republic of Serbia, with a focus on military defense. The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of the Serbian Armed Forces telecommunications and information system on the defense of the Republic of Serbia with the emphasis on military defense, and to point out the need for continuous improvement of the TkIS and continuous education, i.e. adequate and timely training of the personnel for its use for military defense. The importance of the work is in the analyzed state of the Serbian Telecommunications and Information System in relation to the needs of the military defense of the Republic of Serbia in the context of contemporary security challenges.

Product and supply chain related data, processes and information systems for product portfolio management

Traditional product data management (PDM) systems have evolved to support the product lifecycle management (PLM). The combination, also referred to as PDM/PLM has developed into a product master data (PMD) repository. The PMD and business process related data are utilised in product portfolio management (PPM). However, companies' tendency to have productrelated data in silos among multiple business processes and information systems (IS) results in uncertain information for PPM. This study focuses on data, processes and information systems related to PMD and supply chain product data (SCPD), PPM and supply chain (SC) processes and information systems. The study highlights the related challenges in providing fact-based data for PPM analysis and decision-making. The results indicate that the key PMD and SCPD have not been connected back to PPM as automated and integrated data flow from enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to the PDM/PLM system. The key SCPD consists of product-related volume and cost information that should be linked to PPM analysis and decision making. These findings are critical to further develop data, processes and IS to support strategic and financial PPM analysis and decision making on what products a company should have in the portfolio.

Product and supply chain related data, processes and information systems for product portfolio management

Traditional product data management (PDM) systems have evolved to support the product lifecycle management (PLM). The combination, also referred to as PDM/PLM has developed into a product master data (PMD) repository. The PMD and business process related data are utilised in product portfolio management (PPM). However, companies' tendency to have productrelated data in silos among multiple business processes and information systems (IS) results in uncertain information for PPM. This study focuses on data, processes and information systems related to PMD and supply chain product data (SCPD), PPM and supply chain (SC) processes and information systems. The study highlights the related challenges in providing fact-based data for PPM analysis and decision-making. The results indicate that the key PMD and SCPD have not been connected back to PPM as automated and integrated data flow from enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to the PDM/PLM system. The key SCPD consists of product-related volume and cost information that should be linked to PPM analysis and decision making. These findings are critical to further develop data, processes and IS to support strategic and financial PPM analysis and decision making on what products a company should have in the portfolio.

Uncertainty measurement for a fuzzy relation information system

A fuzzy relation information system may be viewed as an information system with fuzzy relations. Uncertainty measurement is a critical evaluating tool. This paper investigates uncertainty measurement for a fuzzy relation information system. The concept of information structures in a fuzzy relation information system is first described by using set vectors. Then, dependence between information structures in a fuzzy relation information system is given. Next, the axiom definition of the granularity measurement of the uncertainty for fuzzy relation information systems is proposed by means of its information structures. Based upon this axiom definition, information granulation and rough entropy in a fuzzy relation information system are proposed. Moreover, information entropy, information amount, joint entropy, and condition entropy in a fuzzy relation information system are also considered. To show the feasibility of the proposed measures for uncertainty of a fuzzy relation information system, effectiveness analysis is conducted from the angle of statistics. Finally, characterizations of fuzzy relation information systems under a compatible homomorphism are obtained. These results will be helpful for understanding the essence of uncertainty in a fuzzy relation information system.

Parallel construction of binary tree based on sorting

Introduction. Algorithms for the parallel binary tree construction are developed. The algorithms are based on sorting and described in a constructive form. For the Nelement set, the time complexity has T(R) = O(1) and T(R) = O(log2 N) estimates, where R = (N2-N)/2 is the number of processors. The tree is built with the uniqueness property. The algorithms are invariant with respect to the input sequence type. The work objective is to develop and study ways of accelerating the process of organizing and transforming the tree-like data structures on the basis of the stable maximum parallel sorting algorithms for their application to the basic operations of information retrieval on databases.Materials and Methods. A one-to-one relation between the input element set and the binary tree built for it is established using a stable address sorting. The sorting provides maximum concurrency, and, in an operator form, establishes a one-to-one mapping of input and output indices. On this basis, methods for the mutual transformation of the binary data structures are being developed.Research Results. An efficient parallel algorithm for constructing a binary tree based on the address sorting with time complexity of T(N2) = O(log2 N) is obtained. From the well-known analogues, the algorithm differs in structure and logarithmic estimation of time complexity, which makes it possible to achieve the acceleration of O(Nα), α≥1 order analogues. As an advanced version, an algorithm modification, which provides the maximum parallel construction of the binary tree based on a stable address sorting and a priori calculation of the stored subtree root indices is suggested. The algorithm differs in structure and estimation of T(1) = O(1) time complexity. A similar estimate is achieved in a sequential version of the modified algorithm, which allows obtaining the acceleration of known analogs O(Nα), α>1 order.Discussion and Conclusions. The results obtained are focused on the creation of effective methods for the dynamic database processing. The proposed methods and algorithms can form an algorithmic basis for an advanced deterministic search on the relational databases and information systems.

Real-Time Monitoring of Bone Fracture Recovery by Using Aware, Sensing, Smart, and Active Orthopedic Devices

Although external fixation is being widely used by orthopedic surgeons in the treatment of bone fractures, the surgical procedure and recovery are still followed by a number of possible complications which can significantly decrease the treatment’s efficiency (cost) and effectiveness (optimal healing). Inability of the physician to have continuous insight into different data, fracture healing process, patient’s behavior, and environmental factors could be considered as a reason for these complications. In this paper, we propose the improvement of a fixation device design, which implements paradigms of aware, sensing, smart, and active devices and thus, enables real-time monitoring of bone fracture healing. Such a design is considered as IoT gateway, capable to classify occurrences of events and milestones in patient recovery process, based on the data from different sensors, and report those to the specialists or related healthcare information system. The design is implemented in the example of classifying patient’s compliance to the prescribed behavior in the postoperative treatment of bone fractures.

Penerapan Analisis SWOT Dalam Menentukan Strategi Pengembangan Sistem Informasi STIKOM Yos Sudarso Purwokerto

This research is useful for identifying basic potential information of internal and external factors of strategy determinant that can be used in strategy development. And the results of the analysis describes the related internal business analysis and Information Systems / Information Technology institutions as well as external factors of business and Information Systems / Information Technology institution STIKOM Yos Sudaro Purwokerto. From the analysis result, it is concluded that STIKOM Yos Sudarso Purwokerto need to adopt an aggressive strategy policy in the framework of developing information system to take advantage of the high strength and opportunity in the midst of computer-based college competition in Banyumas Regency.

Invariant characterizations of fuzzy relation information systems under homomorphisms

A homomorphism is an important mathematical tool to study relationships between fuzzy relation information systems. This paper is devoted to investigating reduction in a fuzzy relation information system and its invariant characterizations under homomorphisms. Intersection-reduction, union-reduction, and reduction in a fuzzy relation information system are first proposed. Then, properties of intersection-reduction, union-reduction, and reduction are given. Next, fuzzy relations in a fuzzy relation information system are divided into necessary, relatively necessary, and unnecessary fuzzy relations according to the importance. Finally, some invariant and inverse invariant characterizations of fuzzy relation information systems under consistency and compatible homomorphisms are obtained, respectively. It is worth mentioning that by means of homomorphism, we can get the relatively smaller image system that has the same data structures (i.e., invariant characterizations) as a given original system.

Agricultural recommendation system for crop protection

Pests in crops produce important economic loses all around the world. To deal with them without damaging people or the environment, governments have established strict legislation and norms describing the products and procedures of use. However, since these norms frequently change to reflect scientific and technological advances, it is needed to perform a frequent review of affected norms in order to update pest related information systems. This is not an easy task because they are usually human-oriented, so intensive manual labour is required. To facilitate the use of this information, this work proposes the construction of a recommendation system that facilitates the identification of pests and the selection of suitable treatments. The core of this system is an ontology that models the interactions between crops, pests and treatments.