Service Engineering Research Articles

An investigation into overheating in social housing dwellings in central England

Recent empirical studies have evidenced overheating in UK dwellings during hotter periods. Vulnerable people living in social housing dwellings may be less able to tolerate heat stress or to adapt. This study is the first large scale monitoring study to investigate overheating risk in social housing dwellings in central England against three overheating risk assessment criteria. Indoor temperature data for summer 2015 were analysed for 122 free-running social housing properties, of varying type and age, against the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) static guidance, and the adaptive methods of TM52 and TM59. The mean bedroom and living room temperatures were 21.2 °C and 21.7 °C, respectively. Bedrooms were more likely to overheat than living rooms using the static criteria, with 42% of bedrooms exceeding 5% of occupied hours over 24 °C, and 40% exceeding 1% of occupied hours over 26 °C. 24% of living rooms exceeded 5% of occupied hours over 25 °C, and 5% exceeded 1% of occupied hours over 28 °C. Against TM52, only 1% of bedrooms and 2% of living rooms overheated. Against TM59, 5% of bedrooms and 1% of living rooms overheated. Analysis by various property categories identified those types of property which were more prone to overheating.

Competence-driven engineering education: A case for T-shaped engineers and teachers

<span>The demand for engineering education and graduates is increasing daily because the current service and technological designs are unable to meet the needs of the society and the expected dramatic increase in the future. The emerging skill gap requires a shift in the type of expertise required of young professionals that will be needed to successfully lead organizations in the new economy. Researchers have identified various ‘shapes’ for the engineering professionals to make them relevant to the 21<sup>st</sup> century challenge, especially in the industry where their expertise is much needed. T-shaped professionals have skills that make them to be more preferred among others. The purpose of this paper is to present the need to upgrade engineering education curriculum to produce more T-shaped graduate engineers required in the changing industrial world. The potential benefits of T-shaped professionals to organizational performance are quite significant; hence, the demand for T-shaped professionals in knowledge-intensive, service-oriented economies is increasing. Unfortunately, the challenges associated with creating more T-shaped professionals are also significant. National regulatory bodies for engineering education in Nigeria are beginning to move towards integrated curriculum to break down discipline silos and produce T-shaped graduate engineers for the fast-changing industrial world. Service Science Management and Engineering (SSME) is an emerging discipline with over 250 programmes in 50 nations seeking to create more T-shaped professionals.</span>

Dynamic dispatching and repositioning policies for fast-response service networks

We address the problem of dispatching and pro-actively repositioning service resources in service networks such that fast responses to service requests are realized in a cost-efficient way. By formulating this problem as a Markov decision process, we are able to investigate the structure of the optimal policy in the application domain of service logistics. Using these insights, we then propose scalable dynamic heuristics for both the dispatching and repositioning sub-problem, based on the minimum weighted bipartite matching problem and the maximum expected covering location problem, respectively. The dynamic dispatching heuristic takes into account real-time information about both the state of equipment and the fleet of service engineers, while the dynamic repositioning heuristic maximizes the expected weighted coverage of future service requests. In a test bed with a small network, we show that our most advanced heuristic performs well with an average optimality gap of 4.3% for symmetric instances and 5.8% for asymmetric instances. To show the practical value of our proposed heuristics, extensive numerical experiments are conducted on a large test bed with service logistics networks of real-life size where significant savings of up to 56% compared to a state-of-the-art benchmark policy are attained.

Health and wellbeing in design studio briefs – Architecture and engineering graduating students’ motivations and approaches

The purpose of this paper is to reflect upon architecture and environmental engineering students’ approaches to health and wellbeing issues in design studio project briefs. The design studio project is a key aspect of the students’ fourth year programme in a dual accredited (RIBA/ARB and CIBSE) BEng course in the SW of England. Whilst the overarching site and brief are set by the studio leader, each student develops their own project agenda drawing on extensive urban and site analysis as well as precedent research. Particular detailed aspects of the brief are then further analysed and researched as part of an engineering report study. The research draws on first author’s earlier work on effects of non-prescriptive briefs on transdisciplinary studio working in architecture and engineering programmes. Drawing on visual ethnography methods, the preliminary observations drawn out of the study begin to consider key intrinsic/extrinsic motivations and assumptions students draw on to develop a health and wellbeing agenda in their projects and the way these motivations further inform analysis in the engineering reports. The implications of the research are twofold. First, the preliminary analysis enables new insights into assumptions graduating architecture and engineering students draw on to develop a health and wellbeing motivated agenda. Second the study has benefits for design studio education brief setting approaches in particular, increasingly drawn upon in engineering and multidisciplinary built environment pedagogy. Practical application: This paper enables new initial insights into ways designers (architects and building services engineers) approach health and wellbeing issues at early stages of design, drawing on a higher education empirical setting. It is particularly relevant to professionals as well as educators in the built environment.

The Role of Governance Interaction with Customer Service in Improving Banking Financial Performance

Customer satisfaction is one of the most important factors in business, when it comes to commercial banks, customer satisfaction level differentiates one bank from another, thus measuring customer satisfaction is exceedingly important. Profitable business cannot exist without satisfied customers, especially in service-oriented industries. Customer satisfaction is an important step to gain customer loyalty. The banking corporate governance is known to improve bank financial performance and value, by reducing the level of expropriation of the company’s assets done by the management, while the satisfaction of the external customers leads to retain customers and add new customers. Banking governance regulates the mechanisms and practices of the banking service engines and oriented them towards effective customer’s satisfaction investigation.  This lead to wards improved banking financial performance, more of previous studies lack to concepts and tools that are used to transform the ideas and theories of improving the quality of banking performance into actual productive practices. From this point, the study attempts to bridge this gap by disclosure the interactive role of banking governance in effectively linking theory and practice in improving the quality of banking financial performance. The paper problem was summarized with the question: to what extent can be interaction of customer services with corporate governance in improving the banking overall financial performance of the Iraqi commercial banks? The study pursues in the design and synthesis and analysis methods, deductive and inductive approach. The study use the analysis and synthesis supported by theoretical evidence in its theoretical part, and used the analysis and conclusion supported by statistical techniques in its practical part, the study was conducted at the sample of commercial banks at Basra Governorate, the study followed the method of exploratory research, using two tools to collected data, the first tool, checklist to assess the overall performance of the banks in question, the size of the respondent sample was 40 individuals and the second tool is a questionnaire with sample size (60 cases), in the light of the analysis the results, conclusions and recommendations were determined.

Software-Defined Multilayered Admission Control for Quality of Service Assurance in Mobile Ad-hoc Networks

Mobile Ad-hoc Network has emerged as a key technology for next-generation networks. Though its rapid growth inspires numerous applications, it is difficult to assure Quality of Service because of its immense scaling caused due to node’s mobility, fading radio signals, and unreliable nature of the wireless channel. To efficiently utilize network resources and accomplish guaranteed Quality of Service, a novel Software-Defined Multilayered Admission Control model that embeds an intelligent Neurofuzzy Inference-based Admission Control service engine is proposed in this paper. Each node makes use of the Neurofuzzy Inference-based Admission Control service to learn, manage, prioritize, and admit data traffic according to user requirement. The service engine exploits fuzzy inference-based admission control process to assess node’s current status using Quality of Service parameters, namely, bandwidth, queue load, and Received Signal Strength Indicator to evaluate the prediction index. The prediction index not only helps in determining the strongly connected neighbors during reliable path selection process but also solely decides whether the admission control session can be admitted or rejected. Moreover, the Neuro-Multilayered Learning process of the service engine helps to self-organize and make the complete network intelligent for instantaneous decision making. The proposed mechanism not only improves the session admission between nodes but also reduces the packet drops assuring successful session completion. Performance analysis using the simulation model proves that the proposed system shows promising gains with assured throughput and low end-to-end delay and has the potential to be applied in real-world scenarios.

Can plants be considered a building service?

Plants are utilised in many forms within indoor environments, from simple houseplants to complex and species-rich green walls. Plants offer multi-faceted services indoors including pollutant removal and reductions in building energy consumption. This review firstly identifies – by critical assessment of the literature – pollutants which are currently measured at harmful concentrations indoors – classifying them as ‘2019’s priority pollutants’ and providing thorough health assessments of each. Secondly, the authors present which indoor plants have been shown to effectively remove ‘2019’s priority pollutants’ and direct future research onto any that have not been investigated. Thirdly, the authors consolidate the current research presenting why plants should be considered a building service. Practical application: Plants are commonly used inside indoor environments. However, the benefits they bring are often overstated. This review paper looks to consolidate the current academic research on the various services plants can provide indoors including pollutant removal and relative humidity regulation. The authors hope that the paper can be used to inform and educate building service engineers and alike on the current state of play concerning indoor plants.

From Little Things Big Things Grow: Australia’s Evolving Site Blocking Regime

Australia’s website blocking regime, introduced in 2015 and expanded in 2018, is a work-in-progress. The regime provides an avenue for rights-holders to seek injunctions requiring Internet service and search engine providers to block access to overseas websites that have the ‘primary effect’ or ‘primary purpose’ of infringing or facilitating the infringement of copyright. Furthermore, rights-holders and service providers may by agreement extend the injunction to new web addresses that provide access to the same online location without returning to court (thereby addressing the whack-a-mole problem of mirror sites). This article critically analyses the trajectory of this so-called ‘no fault’ enforcement regime and the potential problems that could arise if we continue on this path. It challenges the conception of the regime as a form of proprietary protection and, as a result, the uncritical reliance on private ordering as a keystone of online copyright enforcement. It highlights the lack of transparency fostered by the current regime and recommends measures for addressing these flaws in the design of Australia’s copyright site blocking regime.

Characterization of Thermo-Physical Properties of Cement-Based Blocks of Varied Sand Types Using Cost-Effective Enhancement Approach

The dominant property of building envelope fabric which contributes significantly to minimize electricity utilization in building is the thermo-physical properties. There is inadequate literature on representative practical data of thermo-physical properties of the dominant building envelope components in Ghana. This study aims to use cost-effective approach to characterize the thermo-physical properties of only cement-based mortar and concrete blocks used in Ghana for building components specifically wall design. Mixed methods research design was employed to achieving the aim. A questionnaire survey was used among sampled building fabric components manufacturers to pick representative data on thermos-physical properties of their mortar and concrete blocks. Also, an experimental procedure employing a transient technique with a TCi Thermal Analyser was used to determine the thermo-physical properties of selected mortar and concrete blocks from Ghana in addition to designed parametric mortar and concrete blocks with varied ratios obtained from the survey were undertaken at University of Nottingham. From the study, a trend of decreasing thermal conductivity and thermal effusivity with corresponding decreasing sand content was observed with all the different sand types. The thermal conductivities of both mortar and concrete parametric blocks meet the range of expected standard values outlined in Chattered Institute of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) Guide A. The major limitation of the work is the dimension of the sample size; which is not inconsistent with standard block size due to the experimental setup used. It is expected that, the characterization of the predominant cement-based building fabrics components will contribute to improved building performance analysis with significant savings in electricity utilization for space cooling.

A Reliable Agent System for Cloud Service Discovery using MFA Technique

Reliable Agent system for discovering suitable cloud services are very interesting and challenging process. In this research work, the proposed reliable agents’ authentication is enforced to provide security for cloud data’s. In this proposed method the agent client requires service with specific functional and technical requirements. For privacy concern, we provide authentication for each agent in cloud by using Multifactor authentication process. By using authentication id agents discover the cloud service based on service engine. In our system, we enhance the privacy of the cloud search engine by introducing new authentication technique. The authentication process is done by the use of multi factors such the secret key which is generated based on AES algorithm, biometric of user and the user’s password credentials. Focused Selection Contract Net Protocol is performed to find the relevant cloud service and it plays multiple roles in cloud service discovery. The similarity between the agent’s request and cloud service is computed based on service specifications and consumer service using Cloud ontology. Each legitimate agent provides reliable cloud services for agent clients (users).Service capability Table records the list of cloud service and their corresponding ID and services for reliable cloud discovery

Semantic web service composition using semantic similarity measures and formal concept analysis

One of the main assets of the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is composition, which consists in developing higher-level services by re-using well-known functionality provided by other services in a low-cost and rapid development process. In this paper, we present IDECSE a new integrated approach for composite services engineering. By considering semantic Web services, IDECSE addresses the challenge of fully automating the classification, discovery and composition while reducing development time and cost. The classification and the discovery processes rely on adequate semantic similarity measures. Both semantic and syntactic descriptions are integrated through specific techniques for computing similarity measures between services. Formal Concept Analysis (FCA) is used then to classify Web services into concept lattices in order to facilitate relevant services identification. A graph based semantic Web service composition process was proposed within the IDECSE framework. Using semantic similarities in grouping classes of services and in composing services shows a significant improvement compared to other approaches.

Energy and utilities consumption – an appraisal in sustainable buildings

The rate of use of energy and utilities in cities is of great concern and necessitates appraisal especially when fossil fuel has been largely blamed for the global warming and climate change threats. This study investigates the involvement of professionals in the built environment during the design, operation and maintenance activities associated with energy and utilities consumption in buildings with a view to improving their management performance. Survey was directed to the building services engineers, estates and facilities managers within healthcare and educational sectors in the United Kingdom in pursuit of gathering energy and utilities consumption data. Issues that influence and support sustainable energy and utilities management practices were also sought during this study. A functional unit size of 100 m 2 in each of the investigated buildings was considered as basis for analysis and comparison thus, the achievable results using sustainability indices option as an indicator for both healthcare and educational sectors are 0.74 and 0.64. At the decommissioning stage of this buildings, the critical levels of service delivery are 0.27 and 0.24 respectively from both healthcare and educational sectors. These results are considerably satisfactory of the energy and utilities usage performance. Keywords: Building services engineers, energy and utilities, maintenance, operation, sustainability

Time constants for understanding building dynamics

Building dynamics are key to summer overheating, plant sizing and ventilation strategies. Building designers need to consider the thermal mass of a building explicitly to understand fully a building’s response. Simulation programs readily show the dynamic responses but they are deduced from the solution of embedded intrinsic differential equations without simple understanding for initial design and appreciation. The admittance method gives such a simple understanding but the thermal mass effects are not obvious. Added to which the admittance is limited to a regular 24 h cycles of heat gains and losses. The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) response factor is an approximation to the response of a building but it is limited to defining just slow or fast responses. Frequently, designers refer to heavyweight and lightweight buildings or even long and short time constants. The latter are simple and understandable. This paper explores the time constants and derives a simple multiple time constant equation to indicate thermal storage in a building. It is suggested that the simple time constant for building components is added to the data in the next edition of the CIBSE Guide A. This will aid designers in understanding a building’s winter heating and potential summer overheating and plant size implications.

Service Science: Past, Present, and Future

Research in Service Science has evolved significantly for the past decade, and the current research reviews research in this area. Specifically, I investigated research from the past, present, which focused on the definition of topics of Service Science research, and discuss future research directions for the topic. In earlier years, research in Service Science was defined as a convergence discipline for service innovation, and the research was based on service-dominant logic against goods-dominant logic. These narrow definitions and studies are not consistent with the essence of the service, and are not enough to lead the tremendous changes in the current economy where service is dominant. Therefore, I have incorporated the essence of service to redefine Service Science as a new discipline. Service studies that renew the paradigm of existing disciplines, including profound research on the nature of human life, are defined in the new Service Science discipline. Topics such as service theory/philosophy, service economy/society, service management, service engineering, service technology, and service design are defined as specific topics for research in Service Science. In the near future, I expect more active research in service theory/philosophy, and therefore, I provide results from primary research in this area. We expect this to be a foundation for future research in this area. Taken together, we believe Service Science would be one of the new disciplines that would lead the future.

The Quest for the Ideal Darcy-Weisbach Friction Factor Equation from the Perspective of a Building Services Engineer

Abstract The calculation of the friction factor involved in the Darcy-Weisbach equation has a key role in the accurate assessment of distributed head losses. For the turbulent flow regime, this friction factor was mathematically expressed in the form of the Colebrook-White (C-W) equation, widely accepted by engineers and scientists. Nevertheless, the C-W equation is an implicit one and must be solved using numerical methods. This is a major disadvantage for the average engineer, who always prefers an explicit equation which could be easily integrated into his familiar spreadsheet environment. The present paper is investigating some of the most used explicit alternatives to the C-W equation, with respect to several case scenarios taken from typical Building Services hydraulic calculations.

Development of Skill Assessment Instrument Service Volly 6th Grade in Physical Education

This research aims to develop instruments for assessing lower and upper service engineering skills in volleyball games for 6th-grade students in elementary schools. This research uses research and development methods, with the following development steps: (1) information gathering in the field, (2) analyze the information collected, (3) developing initial products, (4) expert validation and revision, (5) small-scale trials and revisions, (6) large-scale trials and revisions, (7) manufacturing of final products. The subject of this research is 6th-grade students of elementary students. Data analysis for the validity test was carried out with CVR (content validity ratio) and reliability using Alpha Cronbach. This research resulted in a handbook of instrument assessment tools for service techniques of lower and upper service in volleyball games for 6th-grade elementary school students, which contained instructions for use, student assignments sheets, assessment guidelines, assessment rubrics, and scoring tables, which have high validity. (1) And under service reliability initial attitude: r = 0.975, implementation: r = 0.961, follow-up motion: r = 0, 955. Upper Service for initial attitude: r = 0.961, implementation: r = 0.974, follow-up motion: r = 0.989.

Effects of Lighting Quality on Working Efficiency of Workers in Office Building in Tanzania.

Background In this era of Information Communication Technology, a high-quality working environment is essential to the occupants. Providing quantity rather the quality of work environments is very common in most of the least developed countries, including Tanzania. Existing research asserts that poor indoor environmental quality such as lighting has a detrimental effect on human health, and in case of the office working population, it also affects their work performance. This study aims to analyze the effects of the lighting quality on working efficiency of workers in Tanzania. Methods Four representative offices from the administration building at Mbeya University of Science and Technology were investigated from June to September 2018. The customized questionnaire survey tool was administered to the randomly selected occupants to survey their perceptions about the quality of lighting in their workplace and its influence on their health and work efficiency. Physical observation and illuminance distribution measurements were also conducted. Results The statistical analysis indicates that the majority of the occupants are less satisfied with the lighting quality in their working environment, and some respondents reported that it significantly affected their work efficiency and wellbeing. The average desk illuminance and uniformity level were found to be below the recommended values of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) and the International Commission on lighting (CIE). Conclusion Despite the suggested improvement measures, this research emphasizes that poorly articulated work environment can adversely affect the productivity and work efficiency of the workers. The workers in such condition are also exposed to occupational diseases. Thus, providing a healthy work environment should be a fundamental right of the workers.

Smart education: educational service system for equal quality education

The problem of unequal quality of high school education in West Java with the viewpoint of Senior High School (SMA) due to the assessment of the quality of education in Indonesia is still focused on Students, Teachers, Principals, and Parents separately. Supposedly the assessors of high school quality are assessed based on an education service system (ESS). Research studies related to high school as an educational service are well suited to a service science approach, and the term educational service system. The ESS study discusses educational sector issues in the perspective of a service system consisting of components, functions, interfaces, component linkages, inputs, processes, and outputs. The purpose of this research is to create educational service system model to improve the quality of high school education services in West Java. Creation of ESS Model with service engineering method with stages: service innovation, service engineering, and service measurement. Output of Educational Service model System in the form of learning management system (LMS) based on Moodle. The prototype measurement result ESS model shows the efficiency of high school education service system. The research output is expected to solve the problem of equalization of high school education quality in West Java.

Maturity Model for Service Engineering

Maturity Model for Service Engineering

Reliability score evaluation of continuous assessment tests: A longitudinal study

In this paper, a longitudinal study is presented about the score reliability in continuous assessment tests of the subject Network Architecture II, which is taught in the Telecommunication Technologies and Services Engineering degree, offered at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain. It is important to evaluate if scores in tests are reliable, because it shows if the phenomenon under study is measured with precision and low error, which are necessary conditions for a fair assessment. Thus, an analysis is provided about the scores obtained in the 28 continuous assessment tests taken across seven years. Correlation, corrected correlation and Cronbach’s α are used as psychometric indicators. Results show that, in general, there is a high correlation in the students’ scores among the different assessment tests every year, which let us confirm that they have been correctly set out. Additionally, the results are compared among different years, showing that they are similar in the different cohorts. However, variations have also been observed over the years, with tests with poor correlation. Finally, based on the analysed data, a novel method is proposed to early detect problems in the tests’ evaluation before the course ends, by correlating their scores in pairs. A low correlation between two tests in the same year, empirically below 0.2, would imply issues in the evaluation.