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This article centers on the specific algorithm, devised to help students select the theme of the qualifying paper. The article also reviews the contents of the customs affairs specialists qualifying paper. The method of selecting the theme of the qualifying paper using the mind-map is offered. The Mind-map offers a convenient scheme for a student to select his or her own research advisor, work experience placement, object and subject of the qualifying paper. This article represents an analysis of example of student's qualifying paper on currency control theme choice, lays out the contents of theoretical and practical parts of the qualifying paper named “Institutional analysis of currency control on the territory of the Chelyabinsk region”. Methods of currency control scientific analysis with the aid of statistical methods and graphic techniques are offered.

In this paper, we first outline the Thales EC-supported project INVENVORG, which investigates the effects of the environmental factors on non-treated organic materials, namely bone, woolen textile, parchment, paper and wood. The project planning includes an accelerated ageing study (with exposure to elevated temperatures and relative humidities, light and pollutants) and then a natural ageing study in monitored museums environments, followed by the statistical correlation analysis of the material properties after accelerated and natural ageing with the environmental stresses, in order to determine the real life relative contribution of the various environmental parameters to material ageing. After a literature review concerning the exhaustive research on the accelerated ageing of paper, the experimental design pertaining to paper is presented. Accelerated ageing will be used for the production of artificially aged samples that emulate aged paper in a controlled manner. A preliminary ageing experiment will help determine the most suitable conditions, and will provide data that will be correlated to those produced by natural ageing. Virgin and artificially aged samples will then be exposed for 2 years to closely monitored museums environments. Tearing strength, degree of polymerization determined by viscometry, pH and the color coordinates of the CIEL*a*b* colour system will be determined and used for the statistical analysis.

This paper discusses two of the established tenets in paper conservation that permeate the existing relevant literature and define the conservation practice, in the light of recent findings. The idea that washing and deacidification can only be beneficial and that effects on ink and colours excluded, there are no negative side effects to paper properties, has been openly expressed and supported in many publications. New research and scattered uncommented results in the relevant literature though indicate that aqueous treatments may have a detrimental effect on the mechanical properties of paper, especially tensile strength and folding endurance. It is suggested that according to the principle of minimum intervention, washing and deacidification should be applied to acidic paper, and then followed by consolidation. Another tenet with important implications on conservation and preservation decision making concerns the rate of ageing. Research based exclusively on accelerated ageing tests has shown that ageing is at first a linear process which decelerates after a certain point. Nevertheless, the applicability of this scheme to the natural process of paper ageing has been argued, and another model based on accelerated ageing tests done in closed environments has been proposed which is believed to simulate natural ageing better than the previous one. In the early stages of ageing, both models give similar results, but overall, the linear model dramatically overestimates the useful life of paper. The newer model indicates that natural paper ageing in libraries and archives can be an accelerating process and puts to question the foundations of conservation research and preservation practice.

This paper presents the process of developing a web-based concordance search system for supporting university students to write papers in English, their target language. The development of this system was based on a preliminary study of lexical analysis of a corpus of English graduation papers written by Japanese university students. The preliminary study is presented including a description of the data accumulated for this study consisting of approximately 900,000 words taken from 212 student graduation papers submitted over the last five years. The data compiled was divided into 10 sub-corpora by discipline, and further into four sub-corpora by rhetorical structure. 98.6% of the words in the AWL were found in the corpus, along with the 998 basic words in BWL 1, and 922 out of 988 in BWL 2, suggesting the corpus is suitable for concordance work with future students. A concordance system was developed on a self-study network accessible on and off campus. It was designed so that the users can study the collocation information for each search word or phrase in a cross-sectional way by discipline and/or rhetorical structure. The effectiveness of the system will be examined based on actual use by students after further development.

This study explored how undergraduate students and their tutors in an English Language Teaching Department of a Turkish university conceptualised a good research paper and whether there was a match between the conceptions of both parties. In line with this purpose, the study specifically sought answers to what the students’ concerns and what their tutors’ views were on students’ potential problems during the process of writing a research paper. The findings revealed a match between the students’ and tutors’ perceptions of a good research paper. However, the parties conceived the constructs valued and problems faced differently.

This paper explores the theoretical review of technological innovation on SME survival by looking at literature review with SME studies. Previous reference on survival is still scarce even it is the key benchmark to measure business performance. It has been demonstrated within the literature that the practice of technological innovation is significantly associated with business performance but its effect towards SME survival is underexplored. SME survival refers to the year of business operation, availability of future plans and diversity of product/service range. According to social scientists and management experts, among the main technological innovations highlighted in literatures are namely sophisticated machines and equipments, fusion of different technologies, gadgets machines and equipments, fusion of different technologies, and gadgets as tools of innovation. By looking at the technological innovation scope by Diaconu (2011) ; social networking, computerized record, online marketing can be categorized under the current technological innovation as these mediums are based on technology and influence the development intensity with new or improved process or products. Apart from this justification, among other approaches, these three mediums are close to the business and its potentials are yet to be optimized. In short, the critical discussion provided in this paper would help to strengthen the body of knowledge on SME studies, besides to act as a reference for research in other countries. Findings from this review shed some lights on the potential of social networking as part of online marketing; as the online customers are greater than the typical offline customers. Also, the effect of online marketing via social media is more powerful and diverse due to its ability to reach customers regardless of geographical locations.

This study was conducted to identify and analyze some significant features that influence students and teachers about computer-based tests (CBT) and paper-and-pencil tests (P&P) at the context of the PAULEX Project. In order to do that, a large experiment has been developed at the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia (Polytechnic University of Valencia), Spain, in which several students and professors have answered a validated questionnaire about their usage of technology, feelings and experiences. They also compared their preferences after doing two similar basic tests, CBT and P&P.

The aim of the scientific paper is to deepen into the domain analysis and network analysis of the bibliography about professional competences from the perspective of organizational psychology, looking for the existing relations between authors and trends, significant because of their direct influence on the members of an organization. The techniques used, network analysis and domain analysis, allow getting clusters that group data with similar features considering units of measure such as co-citation and co-occurrence. As a result, the characteristics of the competence models related to organizational psychology, their limitations, initial development, evolution and trends are presented.

In recent years, there has been an increased interest in carbon information disclosure. This research aims to examine carbon reporting practices of Malaysian companies. Further analysis will be conducted to examine the influence of internal organizational factors on the carbon reporting practices. The relationship between carbon performance, carbon reporting and firm performance will be investigated. This paper also explores the moderating effect of the corporate governance quality on the relationship between carbon reporting practices and firm performance. The findings from this study have a significant contribution to carbon reporting literature, Malaysian companies, government and accounting regulation body.

This conceptual research paper is about Malaysians’ perceptions toward products made in Malaysia versus products made in China. Local products are generally perceived as being of lesser quality compared to others. It is now common for most products to have the label “Made in China”; unfortunately, products made in China are also not renowned for their quality. With this in mind, what would Malaysians’ choices be? Products made in China are often cheaper compared to locally made products, mainly due to China's massive production industry. Apart from price, other factors that will be tested in this study are ethnocentrism and product quality (including aesthetics, performance and durability) that might affect consumers’ purchase decisions toward products made in China or Malaysia.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of accounting services and impact on SMEs performance in manufacturing sector from East Coast Region of Malaysia. This paper aims the extend of differences in service quality factors among accountant firm and SMEs. A conceptual framework was developed to highlight the relationship between SMEs in accounting services. This paper presents a gap model of services, Resource-based Theory (RBT) and Principal Agent Theory as an approach to be examined. The AMOS (SEM) and NVivo Software will be used to tabulate the data gather form the research question. There appears a relationship on service quality and performance of SMEs and also accountant firms. This paper is limited among selected manufacturing sectors and accountant firms from East Coast Region of Malaysia. This paper has implication for accountant firms, SMEs, academic and also to the company involve and handle in service quality. This paper should be contributed the gap model and the entrepreneurial development policy for SMEs and accounting firms to sustain the national economy.

d Universiti Malaysia Kelantan Abstract The recognition of training as an important development of human resource in implementing the quality of its human capital needs is no longer a new issue. However, despite several attempts trying to improve the success of training transfer onto the job, majority of the employees attending training had indicated that they had less successfully transferred the knowledge, skills and attitudes they have learnt and even further minimal change in behavior in their job-related performance. In this paper, the qualitative and quantitative investigation was conducted to examine the extent of training transfer knowledge activities (in compiling, gathering, collating and synthesising the employees experience, knowledge, skills and abilities) among executives at selected agribusiness and agro-technology based organizations. Final knowledge on training transfer performance and program were further formulated with feedback from training transfer expert. This paper contributes to the alternate model in favour of innovative and sustainable governance of a holistic agribusiness policy framework.

Realising that the National Vision and National Agricultural Policy to make Malaysia a major world producer of food and agricultural products; agricultural institutions in Malaysia have been given the task to help to improve the income of target groups that covers the rural areas farmer, and the poor income group nationwide. This is line with the National Key Result Area (NKRA), which may require all departments and agencies under the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry to improve the income levels, and hence the quality of life of these rural areas farmers. In order to enhance the level of income, and create wealth in economy among these target groups, it is critical to build innovative governance model for the rural transformation center so as to improve sales of agro-based industry products. Hence, the objective of this paper is to focus on reviewing successful governance related to managing the agribusiness products from rural farmers, planters, and low income groups of producers. The expected outcomes highlight to formulate new policy, practice and reliable ways of assessing the innovative and sustainable governance model for global agribusiness Institutions.

The sociotechnical regime of the print-on-paper prevails as the main medium of textual communication despite concerns on its environmental implications. Radical innovation in the form of application of generic technologies is required to address these sustainability concerns. Electronic book technologies are seen as those applications of IT providing an alternative form of textual display. According to sociotechnical transitions theory the electronic book is positioned as a niche in relation to the print-on-paper regime. SNA is applied in order to describe the niche as a sociotechnical network. It emerges that network substructures indicate potential sociotechnical trajectories regarding the development of the electronic book niche.

SMEs in Malaysia are an important segment of the nation s wealth creation and for employment. Approximately 99.2% of the total established businesses in Malaysia are SMEs and the total employment share is 59.5%. The Malaysian government is confident that the Economic Transformation Plan framework will boost the SMEs to become the driving force in building the nation. In view of this, the primary aim of this research is to delve into the predictor that encourages the practice of market orientation from the perspective of entrepreneurial attitude orientation of the Malaysian entrepreneurs. This research contributes to the body of knowledge on market orientation by having a better understanding of the specific factors which are crucial for SMEs to assist in the nation wealth creation.

Solid waste always produce negative impacts to the environment, thus effective solutions must be implemented. However, most people are not concerned of the importance of recycling. At the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) which has already launched the sustainable campus programme in 2007, the initiative to managing the solid waste and conducting the recycling programs were advocated through the Zero Waste Campus Initiative (ZWCI), where the team are committed to do the awareness, practices and enforcement regarding solid waste management in UKM. It would be undesirable if these initiatives to educate the majority of the community of UKM were not put into practice. To solve this problem, a study has been conducted to determine an effective method of recycling management at UKM in providing quality service that encouraged UKM's community to recycle. The effectiveness of recycling programs is influenced by a number of factors such as proper service facilities and good management system. Paper recycling boxes in each office which is one of recycling component that play important role to educate UKM staff and awareness of importance recycling system in waste management campus. This paper discusses the efforts carried out at UKM to create an operational system and implement efficient recycling management by improving the current management system.

This paper reports on an on-going action research that enquires into the academic writing of a project paper by international post-graduate students enrolled at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Preliminary observations reveal that many of these students are underprepared for the task, citing cross-cultural limitations stemming from differences in teaching and learning styles vis-avis here and their home countries. They also claim that they are not prepared for the autonomy that is presented in the data collecting process and the writing of the paper. This action research aims to address the problem with a focus on the Statement of Problem. Data for the study were collected through semi-structured questionnaires, interviews and document analysis. The researchers believe that if intervention is provided at the early stages of the writing, these novice writers should be able to achieve academic socialization.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between users’ characteristics towards adopting the LLMTG. These relations were found correlated in its intention to adopt this type of glass in building structures. Despite the indication provided by numerous empirical studies, the organizations that adopt the LLMTG will gain more competitive advantage and improvement. It is strongly believed that this attempt would contribute both to knowledge of the diffusion of innovation and to implications for practice by assisting the industry to understand the important factors when adopting innovation. Rich data will be collected using questionnaire among managers from all industrial in Malaysia.

Thus far no effort has been undertaken to facilitate foodservice operators to measure their performance, identify and deploy appropriate measures to improve the requirements and expectations of a Halalan Toyyiban Foodservice modus operandi. This paper looks into developing the tools to measure the Halal Foodservice Service Quality based on previous literature and in-depth interviews to be conducted among selected Muslim Clergies and the general public followed by validation process using statistical analysis. This tool could be used to minimize the occurrence of halal service failures, improve recovery efforts, increase customer satisfaction, and generate positive re-patronage behaviour at food service establishments.

Current studies agree on the need of training university students in various competences. Among them, writing stands out as an essential competence. This study analyzes the abstract produced by Spanish PhD candidates in the context of an academic writing workshop. These abstracts were rewritten as a result of peers’ and supervisors’ reviews. The purpose is to analyze the construction of this type of text in relation to its content categories. The results attest a series of challenges faced by students and help teachers in the design of their teaching instruction.

Negotiation is a pervasive feature of relationships among auditor-clients, buyer-sellers, as well as being a part of tax audits. Various forms of negotiations occur between the taxpayer and the tax authorities but nothing is mentioned in the literatures on the processes and procedures of how both parties arrive at a settlement that is amicable to both parties. This study reviews the literature on how concession timing negotiation strategies adopted by the tax authorities and the tax practitioners’ aggressiveness impact negotiation outcomes.

Ethics and communication with patients are basic transversal skills for the Degrees in Medicine, Physiotherapy and Nutrition. In this model, senior students use video to create simulated clinical cases with ethics and communication components, and conduct academic mentoring using these cases. To ensure quality video recordings, the students are introduced to visual language by students of the Master's in Communication, thus completing the learning cycle.

Eucalyptus forest area and total production of eucalyptus oil on Buru Island are the largest in Indonesia. The revenue of eucalyptus oil industry in Buru decreased in the last 5 years and is still managed conventionally. The increasing production capacity and value added is necessary, because eucalyptus oil is the leading commodity in Buru. Therefore, the development of agro-processing eucalyptus oil is one solution to the economic development in Buru. This research which is done through: determining the factors that influence the development of agro-processing eucalyptus oil; clustering potential development of agro-processing; and the preparation of the development of agro-processing of eucalyptus oil. The result of this research, there are 6 development clusters and 2 phases of the roadmap, namely: establishment of new industrial cluster, optimization of raw materials cluster, and the increasing of production capacity efficiently cluster (Factor-Driven); raw material efficiency cluster, industrial activity maintenance cluster, and product differentiation cluster (Capital-Driven).

This publication presents subject matter connected with the role of seaports as integrated logistics centers in the development of sustainable distribution of goods in urban areas. Seaports as integrated logistics centers and multifunctional socio-economic spaces are the key components of the European and global transport system. They carry out the functions and services necessary for the efficiency of supply chains, and their final elements include the distribution of goods from the places of production to places of consumption. Seaports cover the transport, logistic, distribution and spatial functions, which influence city development, while logistics centers cover the distribution function. The development of seaports is a result of their multifunctionality and multimodality focused on the widening of the range of services, which allows them to meet different demands of the environment. Thus, seaports and logistics centers have become elements of urban transport systems included in the EU policy of sustainable development of transport. Particularly important here is the latest implementation of the objectives of the EU White Paper on the development of resource-efficient and low-carbon transport in ecological urban transport. The publication presents existing solutions and possible directions concerning the activity of seaports as logistics centers in the area of urban logistics.

Employability denotes skills and attributes that make an individual desirable to potential employers. Owing to the dramatic increase in enrollment rate of higher education, a diploma is no longer a guarantee of employment and higher education institutes are expected to equip students with employability skills and attributes. However, the mandatory inclusion of employability skills and attributes in higher education has provoked considerable debate and controversy. Although the connection between employability and employment is well-documented, it is not clear whether employability skills have potential impacts on academic performance of graduate students. This study investigated the relationship between academic publication and perceived employability of graduate students in business and management by analyzing data from Graduate Destination Survey (GDS) in Taiwan. Of the 6,876 graduate students in business and management responding to the survey, 2,015 (29.3%) and 508 (7.4%) of them submitted at least one conference paper or peer-reviewed journal article, respectively. Logistic regression was used to evaluate the associations between paper/article submission and perceived employability of graduate students, controlled for student attributes. The findings suggest that 4 employability skills are significantly associated with academic publication of graduate students, including “foreign language ability”, “computer literacy”, “application of theory to work”, and “stability and pressure resistance”. All control factors, including “school type”, “gender”, “entrance exam for graduate school”, “years in graduate school”, “full-time student”, and “participation in academic community”, have significantly connection with academic publication. The results imply that employability is not only associated with employment processes but also related to academic publication of graduate students and provide insights into the potential benefits of enhancing employability to both students and universities.

At the end of 2011, the Association of Lithuanian Serials initiated a survey, which aimed to ascertain whether Lithuanian journal editors, reviewers and authors encountered plagiarism, self-plagiarism and how they understood originality of a paper. Additionally, the survey looked at methods used for plagiarism prevention by editors and reviewers as well as ways, in which editors managed issues related to plagiarism. The survey suggests that no unanimous decision exists regarding the originality of a manuscript and that editors expect reviewers to identify plagiarism with little use of technologies. While answering to survey questions, respondents provided numerous comments. This demonstrates that plagiarism is a burning issue and scientific misconduct policy is needed in Lithuania. The survey was conducted during the period when the Lithuanian Research Council initiated the procedure for establishing the Ombudsman position. The Lithuanian Research Council funded several projects in 2012 and 2013, the aim of which was to familiarise the Lithuanian academic community with plagiarism prevention technologies and ethical aspects in academic publishing. The projects administrated by the Association of Lithuanian Serials provide research journal publishers and researchers related to journal publishing with a possibility of using CrossCheck system and discussing editorial policies.

Handicrafts, essentially, are activities resulting from the wish to satisfy the basic needs of humans; which can be built by very simple tools and appliances, uses easily obtainable materials or leftovers as raw materials, demands intense effort and creation power. Moreover, handicrafts are work fields, which merge features of being functional, aesthetical, and economical, and mostly are free tune activities that can also be main activities. IIandicrafts matter in country development and promotion. Therefore the education given about handicrafts becomes prominent. Private and public institutions conduct handicrafts educations. In this research, the education given by profession acquirement courses organized by Ankara Kecioren Municipality branch's of his action (wire breaking, five needles lace knitting, decorative wood adornments, needle lace, stone dolls and tragacanth dolls, jeweler design, felt making, leather processing, paper marbling (ebru in Turkish), ornamentation, calligraphy, ceramic glaze, patchwork etc.), the produces obtained from courses will be categorized and presented with photographs. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.

Forecasts indicate that it is not possible to reduce total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transport to fulfill the target of two degrees global warming with technology means alone. It is possible to reduce GHG-emissions for all modes but still rail will be the most efficient mode by 2050. Rail has a modest market share in the European Union (EU) in comparison with ‘best practice’ rail systems in the world. There is a big potential if the rail system is developed with new high speed rail and freight corridors as well as an upgraded conventional network and intermodal systems. This paper presents an estimation of the effects of a partial mode shift to rail transport applying world's ‘best practice’ by the year 2050. It is shown that such a mode shift to rail can reduce EU transport GHG emissions over land by about 20%, compared with a baseline scenario. In combination with low-carbon electricity production a reduction of about 30% may be achieved. A developed rail system can thus substantially contribute to the EU target of reducing GHG emissions in the transport sector by 60% below 1990 levels. To enable such a mode shift and to manage the demand for capacity, there is a need for investments. This will also maintain and increase mobility for passengers and freight transport.

This study investigates the effect of hypermedia-hypertext and paper-pencil type concept maps created in the Basic Chemistry I course for the subject of atom and bonding on students’ meaningful learning. The research was conducted with a total of 30 students enrolled in Basic Chemistry I at Hacettepe University, Faculty of Education. An atom-bonding knowledge test and concept maps were used as data collection tools in this study. It was established that concept maps created using the hypermedia-hypertext technique contribute to the students’ meaningful learning.

The rise of the Internet has drastically changed the means by which people obtain information and communicate in the Malaysian society. The Internet has become possibly the most popular medium to connect with others particularly through social networking tools, like Facebook, Twitter and other. For the field of counseling, the Internet offers a new way to reach, facilitate and communicate with individuals who need help from all over the world. Little is known, however, about the implications of interacting with clients online. The purpose of this writing, therefore, is to address the possible advantages and disadvantages of online counseling, as well as ethical and legal considerations in the use of online counseling by summarizing the past research. Additionally, suggestions for better practice are also discussed so that counselors and therapists are able to have a better preparation before practicing online counseling. Overall, this writing has several important implications for counseling practitioners in Malaysia and beyond. It contributes to a better understanding of the role of the Internet in counseling practice in an increasingly electronic world.

The differences in communicating methods between teachers who have learned to study in paper based context and students who are more familiar with screen based context can cause problems in classrooms. This paper discusses issues and concerns in interacting with students who grew up surrounded by multimedia and digital devices, in other words, screenagers, in classrooms. Based on the recent projects and research findings, four key themes are discussed regarding interacting through personal learning devices, communicating with the students in the way they do using social media, appropriate amount of exposure when using audiovisual resources, and possible side effects of using personal learning devices. Finally, teachers’ roles and responsibilities in dealing with screenagers are discussed, and suggestion for using teaching models and teacher training are provided.

The Resource-based View (RBV) of the firm is a strategic management theory that is widely used by managers in project management. The RBV has to date been a promising theory that examines how resources can drive competitive advantage, especially project management (PM) capabilities that have been customized to a specific organizational environment and developed over time. However, Despite the advantages offered by the RBV to practitioners and scholars alike, the theory has been under attack by opponents claiming that there is an overenthusiasm for what the theory can deliver, especially concerning a lack of criteria for generalizability and definitional ailments. This position paper will give an overview of the supporters and opponents of the application of the RBV in PM practice and research. The position of the authors of this paper, which is in favour of the continued application of the theory to PM contexts, will be detailed and supported by conceptual and empirical findings from the literature. This paper will end with future research recommendations that will highlight research that can be done to curb criticisms of the theory and enhance and rejuvenate its use in practice.

The development of alternative energy fuel technology at present many are produced from biological resources, eg the manufacture of biodiesel and biodiesel as a fuel substitute for gasoline. This study aims to obtain biogas from chocolate rind that can be used as an alternative energy and find operating conditions that produce appropriate levels of CH4 in the standard Indonesian. The first stage is done by preparing 1 liter of raw materials chocolate rind and water are then mixed with a starter (cow dung) 10% of the volume of raw materials and the addition of yeast and grass after it is mixed until blended. Then put into containers/bottles that have been fitted hose, water manometer, and the gas holder. The research was done in stages with the conditions that you run. Variables that run is a comparison of raw material (1:1; 1:1.5; 1:2; 1.5:1; 2:1), observation time (5 days, 10 days, 15 days, 20 days, 25 days, 30 days), and the variable addition of grass (50 gr, 100 gr, 150 gr, 200 gr). From the results of this reasearch found the greatest level of 74.22% in comparison 1 (water): 1.5 (chocolate rind) with the addition of 150 g of grass while low levels of 60.04% in comparison 2 (water): 1 (chocolate rind) with the addition of 200 g of grass.

The purpose of this work is to confirm theoretical findings in the field of management of higher education (institutions) and contribute with our own findings on the elements, mechanisms and instruments that affect the quality and effectiveness of managing and organizing higher education at the national and institutional level, and thus contribute to a more efficient and effective higher education. This work will also clarify interdisciplinary connections between various segments of the above mentioned management of higher education (institutions) field, which has not been explained yet. In the introduction of the paper, the impact of higher education on economic development and on knowledge society is explained briefly. Further on, the background of the work is illustrated and the definition of the working problem is explained, which basically refers to the inefficiency of (mostly) publicly-funded higher education and lack of proper managerial solutions and skills at higher education institutions. Furthermore, the role of higher education and major trends in higher education are introduced and discussed. The main contribution of the paper is the matrix of higher education objectives which have to be realized in order to implement a successful higher education and institutions, mainly from managerial and financial perspectives.

Knowledge management started to be perceived as a scientific discipline relatively recently. Since its beginnings in the 1990s, the interest for this research field has been constantly growing especially in the past two decades. However, it seems that the peak of interest has already passed. In this paper, we provided the review of the most important research documents that are related with this topic, all collected from the Web of Science. The most important scholars and journals in the field are identified via documents and citations among them. In addition, the purpose of this paper is also to analyse the existing linkage between knowledge management and innovation. For this purpose, a network of keywords was constructed with keywords performing as actors in the network and the co-occurrence as a relation. The network obtained of keywords is undirected and weighted by the number of documents in which adjacent keywords which co-occurred on the topic of knowledge management. The content analysis with traditional network analytic techniques was used. In other fields, similar methods were already applied; however, this is the first attempt to construct this kind of research in knowledge management related to the topic of innovation. The results revealed significant linkage between knowledge management and innovation in the documents which were analyzed. We believe that the network analytic procedures used in this paper provide an excellent tool to study such a relevant phenomenon.

This paper presents an investigation on the current market conditions in sales based in the automotive industry and a new approache triggered by the digitization in this industry. Various studies prove that the behavior of the customers has changed drastically. By this customer experience, management becomes a central strategy in the digital age to reach long-term customer loyalty and enterprise growth. It is therefore necessary to adapt the function of the car dealers and, in general, innovative sales formats and technologies for communication with the customer. This paper describes how Daimler AG is reacting to these market changes with the concept of “Mercedes Me”.

Changing technologies, where development time for a new work product must be decreased with each year due to a higher customer competition, also leads to a change in mindset in the way in which product development is currently done. Gamification models are one of this “game-changing” strategies that was considered suitable to also be implemented in the automotive software product development topic, but not only in this area. This paper describes the current situation in adopting on large scale the product development phases as gamified scenario, together with the presentation of the results of several questionnaires applied on automotive project team members. The aim of the paper is to present a procedure for obtaining a gamification application on an automotive project describing in detail each step which needs to be fulfilled in an iterative way. As a starting point for the model, the DMA (Design – Mechanics – Aesthetic) procedure was used, supported with elements from the PC/game console development, but also the existing tools/frameworks were taken into consideration. The obtained method can be applied on each automotive project, but there are the steps/iterations which still need to be performed, while also the positive and negative aspects are presented.

Cloud computing is today's edge of ICT, being present in quite all fields of economy, society and human life: education, medicine, industry, communication, etc., offering services and applications that are used daily by everyone connected to the internet. The quality of these services is a cutting subject for all stakeholders. This paper synthesizes some relevant researches focusing on quality management approaches in software services using remote assistance as tool and cloud as support of this service. As first step, the literature review focuses on cloud as being the most emerging and comprehensive subject on the deck, then extends the research on software services supported by cloud, identifying quality interventions in these cases and in the end, is looking for quality related demarches in remote assistance of these services. The research tries to identify how quality could influence cloud products in favor of the customer, targeting better cloud-connected services and applications. Proposing an exploratory research, the paper's intended contribution is placed mainly in clarifying the mentioned concepts and the way they are correlated in the practical world.

This scientific paper conducts a study meant to improve the quality management of the thermosonic welding process of gold wires in the automotive industry. Within the large amount of electronic products manufactured worldwide, the gold wire bonding is the preferred technology for creating the needed interconnections in the microelectronic industry. In this paper, the quality management improving starts with an experimental research in the automotive industry, based on the gold wire thermosonic bonding, in terms of: conformal structuring, robustness and integrity of the electrical contacts. The experimental research is based on the processing parameters and on the independent variables and objective processing functions. In order to highlight the impact which one or more factors have on the quality of the thermosonic bonding, the dispersion analysis method was used. According to this, the importance of each factor, but also each factor's optimization, was underlined. The final goal was to reach a high reliability and quality of the finished goods.

Sustainability is a concept adopted and approached in public and private organizations as a guiding principle that contributes to organizational development. However, the greatest challenge for organizations is its real implementation and the steps to be taken in this respect. At the same time, another challenge is how this sustainable development performance can be measured (for products and processes). These concepts are addressed in a competitive business environment, where differentiation and attraction of customers are among the main directions of action. In this context, the present paper presents Life cycle sustainability assessment of products in the context of competitiveness. At the end of the paper, an approach for the interpretation of the results obtained from the Life cycle sustainability assessment is presented.

Crisis management represents a multidisciplinary topic in many sciences. Social sciences, state affairs, medicine, engineering and many others are interested to handle unforeseen major great impact events. The paper presents some differences and common topics of crisis management using two different approaches. The first is Public Relations (PR), as part of the communication sciences; and the second is the Holonic Multi-Agent (HMAS) Concept, which is a research topic belonging to software engineering and computational sciences. We have two different approaches, but one common goal: providing the feasible support for the crisis management team under abnormal working conditions. Dealing with the holonic approach, the paper suggests a centralized distributed crises management, a non-linear approach in which the human factor's intuition, skills and expertise are key elements.

Rural population migration in the urban area attracts a high rate of mobility, especially in cities with university centers and renowned companies. The emergence of these transitions also generates some saturation problems, such as socio-economic and social issues. The need for improvement in transport services are mandatory to change the travel behaviour. This paper provides solutions and ways to improve public transport services by using intermodal passenger transport. Transport services for the population need to be met at a higher level, both quantitatively and qualitatively. The paper illustrates the steps of integrating the Theory of Constraints Thinking Process (TOCTP) by diagnosing the problems encountered, designing the solution plan, and integrating the solution plan to resolve constraints. The paper explains how the TOCTP application detects reliable solutions to solve urban population saturation problems by identifying alternatives to public transport mobility benefits using intermodal passenger transport.

The paper presents the model of training for preschool and primary school teachers with the aim of preparing them to become the mentors for their colleagues at school - novice teachers in Zlin region in Czech Republic. The project includes sixteen differentiated instructional modules regarding the actual needs of teachers' professional development. The project is implemented by the Faculty of Humanities at Tomas Bata University in Zlin in Czech Republic since 2014 so this paper presents already the experiences with creating a platform for teachers' training as well with results from selected modules. The author concentrates on the instructional module focused on the case of creating a school team for good working and healthy school climate and the paper also presents the partial outcomes of the project evaluation. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd., Education Policy of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic

Applied informatics engineering students of the undergraduate course Programming I get acquainted with the basic programming knowledge (structured programming) in C. Our earlier personal experiences in Higher Education showed that the majority of the students can not acquire the algorithmic thinking by following the traditional teaching process and they do not have too much chance to pass it. Our starting hypothesis was that the group where the students followed the game oriented exercises would achieve better results in the papers. After the semester we collected the paper results by groups and we tried to analyze whether this method was helpful or not for the students. The traditional way to teach programming for applied informatics engineering students was not so successful than the game-based examples. The students were more motivated to write game programs and more students could pass the test. It means by same learning material and test exercises the student who learned programming in game-based method could get more than one mark better paper results and pass the test in higher percent.

The paper explores the potential of ICT-based visual resources for developing non-language students’ skills in the area of language and culture mediation in domain specific area. The legal administrative settings are taken as an example. The paper integrates the previous research findings regarding the visualization role in education and latest developments in the field under study. The research framework maps the concepts of visualization and cross-cultural mediation within the educational environment that is supposed to meet the multicultural society needs and challenges. The paper highlights qualitative analysis findings regarding the students’ use of visual resources with the view to their academic progress and professional development. The paper argues the ICT-based visualization in training language and culture mediation skills could facilitate information processing and domain specific knowledge acquisition in a foreign language$ the relevant resources use could enhance students’ professional background, their abilities to meet the labor market requirements regarding applied and research-focused task. The paper provides the relevant literature analysis, a detailed description of the research methodology, and commentary students’ pilot training outcomes, including the data of cluster and factor types of analysis and students’ survey results.

The paper explores the higher education institution experience activities regarding minors’ protection against abuse and exploitation within the international framework of the challenge under study. The research stands on the comparative analysis of the Lanzarote Committee documents, explored Parties’ replies to Question 2 (Education for children) of the Thematic Questionnaire and Question 8(a) (Education, awareness raising and training), first indent, of the General Overview Questionnaire. The analysis also took into account Academia's publications on the issue under study. The Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University) faculty members’ participation in the Lanzarote Committee work also contributed to the research. The paper highlights qualitative analysis findings that cover such issues as the education contexts for preventive information delivery, their contents, tools and forms of disseminating preventive information, terminology used, parents’ engagement, situations of risks, etc. The above aspects are considered through the lenses of university engagement in the analysis. The paper argues that the university can contribute to capacity-building measures for minors’ education to prevent their abuse and exploitation; the university capacity to perform the relevant activities rests on its multiprofiled structure, comprehensive nature, and opportunities to collaborate with various agencies and engage specialists in pedagogy, law, medicine, psychology and psychiatry, etc. The research findings reveal that the university might play a significant role in shaping information, bridging institutional responses, coordinating the legislation, government policies and the public initiatives to promote action plans towards the nation-wide and international levels to protect minors and combat against their abuse and exploitation.

The paper presents a descriptive study that analyzes the relationship between science and common culture in the social representations of problems arising from climate change, stressing the importance of promoting adequate communication and education on climate risks and their implications for health. The global climate change on Earth due to natural and anthropogenic causes that occurs at different time scales is a matter of controversy among scientists, policy makers and especially among ordinary citizens who are informed, generally, for the most common means of communication, creating a common culture in relation to this aspect that reveals very interesting facts about what is meant and is known for Climate Change and the consequences that such knowledge can lead to mitigate or otherwise increase. The construction of the common culture on climate change and the problems that entails is comprised of different construction way scientific element; so that knowledge of the common culture on Climate Change can improve education and communication about the threat of it to health. The study was conducted from the selection of a significant sample of 512 university students taking as independent variables the branch of knowledge and the course. Has been used as a tool for data collection a questionnaire with 45 questions of closed type, of which the first 32 questions are made with the intention of assessing students' knowledge regarding Climate Change and the remaining 13 questions are related personal and subjective aspects This paper is part of the research RESCLIMA project supported by the Ministry of Economy & Competitiveness, Government of Spain (EDU2015-63572-P) SI

The paper examines the potential of flipped classroom applying in foreign language teaching. The authors look back at the history of emerging of the method, analyse its advantages over other traditional approaches. Among the advantages it should be mentioned time extension between the teacher and the student; increase of responsibility and self-reliance of the latter; personified approach to each learner; teacher's capability to create authorized mini lectures, taking into account the peculiarities of vocationally-orientated teaching, as well as age peculiarities and other features of each learning group; possibility for each student to work according to his/her personal pace, using time more effectively relative to the students and the teacher; increasing creativity and critical thinking; potential for permanent data archiving; positive transformation of teacher/students’ role relations when a student becomes a protagonist and creator of his/her own knowledge, at the same time the teacher becomes the guide and councilor; advancement of the learner's motivation; improvement of the atmosphere in the classroom that becomes more friendly and comfortable; chance for better concentration in the classroom. The paper describes flipped classroom method in graphics and proposes some practical examples of its application.

This paper revisits the existing literature on the concept of citizenship in digital age. It provides a detailed discussion on the proponents and opponents of technological determinism. The paper should be read as an effort to reinitiate an important debate in the scholarship, which has been largely undermined while studying the Internet phenomenon in the information age. Thus, instead of offering a solution-oriented conclusion, the paper sets the stage to invite mass media and communication scholars’ attention back to revisit the important ideological concepts, so as to evolve and improve our existing theories on communication and change in the society.

Today's highly competitive and rapidly changing environment makes innovation more challenging, costly and risky for companies. To overcome these challenges and to decrease the cost and the risk of innovation, companies, including SMEs, have adopted a new approach called Open Innovation, which was proven by academic studies to be useful for SMEs to improve their innovativeness. However, studies about the openness of SMEs or the adoption level of open innovation approach by SMEs give conflicting results. We argue that these conflicting results stem from the different conditions in developing countries and developed countries. Main aim of this paper is to define factors that motivate or prevent the adoption of open innovation approach by SMEs operating in developing countries, and to suggest policy requirements and actions need to be taken to ease the creation of an open innovation ecosystems that support SMEs. Incentive to leverage SME-university and SME-LE collaboration, creating innovation hubs to improve networking ability of SMEs, free IP consulting, conducting external search on behalf of SMEs are some of the actions suggested in this paper.