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Investment in transportation can bring a range of economic, social, and environmental benefits. In order to manage resources effectively and to choose the best decision from a variety of investment options for the transportation projects, transportation model is normally used, moreover it can help in predicting the impact of these transportation project options on traveler’s mobility based on future changes in land uses, population, jobs, and other economic factors. Transportation modelling outputs will support in assessing transportation project options and setting the transportation investments priorities. Trip generation is considered the first step in four-stage transport modelling. It estimates the number of trips produced or attracted by households' members over one full day. In the paper, trip generation regression models were developed using household surveys for villas and apartments. The regression models for Villa is (0.357+1.3681X1+2.4914X2) were X1 and X2 and the number of people with driving license and number of active people (employees and students) respectively with an R2 of 0.65 , on the other hand the regression model for the apartment is (0.5323+0.9815X1+2.3961X2) with R2 of 0.54.

Mobile commerce, which is a relatively new channel for business, is revolutionizing the global marketplace. In Qatar, the average annual consumer expenditure is impressive. Surprisingly, only a sma...

The promotion, facilitation, and adoption of circular behaviors are extremely vital for the success of the transition toward a Circular Economy. Thus, many studies have been conducted on circular behaviors and designing for them. Nevertheless, most of the previous studies adopted a macro perspective (across different business models and product types) to investigate circular behaviors related to product purchasing, product disposal, or a particular circular strategy, such as repair or recycling. Intending to address a serious gap, this study aimed to identify a specific, important set of circular behaviors: independent user circular behaviors. These are the behaviors that can be solely performed by the same product user, during use or at the end of the product life, in relation to a shopping product owned under a product-oriented or pure product business model. After critically reviewing the key literature, we present a model for independent user circular behaviors (CURA model). It includes four behaviors: care, upgrade, repurpose, and appreciate. The latter is a concept we are introducing in this paper. We also identified and categorized the motivators of, and the barriers to, these behaviors. The study outcomes are hoped to encourage and guide researchers toward an in-depth exploration of independent user circular behaviors. Moreover, they are expected to assist researchers, product designers, and business strategists in conceptualizing and realizing products of higher circularity, and, ultimately, stimulate sustainable consumption patterns.

Guide road signs are used to help drivers. These signs should be designed properly and provided effectively to maximize the transmitted information in a short time in driving. The design of guide road signs should be made carefully when multi-languages are used, which is the case of Qatar. To compare the preference of a guide road sign design between different language speakers, an online survey was conducted. Participants rated a design using a 7-Likert scale. They preferred road signs having a background of different colors and a vertical text layout. A group t-test was conducted for comparisons between native Arabic speakers and international speakers whose native language is not Arabic. The results showed that there is no significant difference between the two groups. Based on the result, the proposed design can be effectively used for all drivers regardless of their native language in Qatar.

Global population has significantly tripled in the last 50 years. The increasing population rate has led to increasing energy consumption, consequently, increasing Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, which is the leading cause for global warming that endangers survival chances for living species. However, recent interest surged in renewable energy for clean and sustainable power production and consumption. With the deployment of renewable energy in the past years, dependence on fossil fuel was supposed to have declined, and consequently, GHG emissions, especially CO2. The aim of this research is to study the effect of population growth against fossil fuel consumption producing these emissions, in addition to the impact of renewable energy consumption that alternatively reduces GHG emissions. The outcome of the proposed topic represents comprehensive findings that relate population growth with global energy consumption against GHG emissions over the past few decades. This is achieved based on recent statistical applications and methodologies including linear regression models, and prediction models, which are applied to study the interaction of annual CO2 emissions, energy consumption, and population during, almost, the past fifty years. Additionally, according to the results, the presented null hypothesis is rejected as the current trend does not comply with the Paris agreement.

Water scarcity is increasingly encouraging water-saving techniques and urban water management schemes committed to reducing the consumption of natural resources and the effects on the ecosystem. A comprehensive understanding of the nature of water supplies is required to design strategies for safe and effective use of water. Water management networks are complex. Consumption of water is affected by various variables, and therefore, the relationship of these variables is also complex. This study examines water consumption determinants in the State of Qatar, focusing on the factors linked to seasonal months by using a multiple linear regression model. The regression model was developed to accurately estimate the water consumption in Qatar to help the government’s plan for water usage in Qatar. The results of the model shows that the temperature-related regression coefficient is associated with an increase in water consumption per capita. In addition, an increase in population density for each unit is correlated with a decrease in water consumption per capita.

Information systems support organizations to achieve strategic competitiveness over other organizations and assist senior management in the decision-making process. In addition, they help organizations in timely implementation of projects and effective risk management. A reliable and coherent Information System requires a solid security framework that ensures Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability, Authenticity and Auditability of the critical information assets; therefore, managing security is essential for organizations doing business in a globally networked and competitive environment whilst seeking to achieve their objectives and goals and ensuring the continuity of business. This paper provides an integrated framework that classifies and holistic view of challenges in Information Security Systems, and their interrelationships. The framework is expected to provide a basis that can be used to evaluate individual organizational members' behavior and the adequateness of existing security measures. Scopus

Manufacturing flexibility has become a competitive strategy to deal with market uncertainty. The application of advanced automation technology in manufacturing systems has tremendously increased manufacturing flexibility; however, this creates significant mental pressure for operators who must deal with a series of decisions, and this decreases their job satisfaction. In this study, we primarily investigated how cognitive automation and mechanical automaton in the material handling system affect manufacturing flexibility. Cognitive automation is defined as a computerized system that provides relevant information to operators, thereby reducing the cognitive workload; mechanical automation refers to an automated system to reduce the physical workload. The case of a truck-body production line of a truck company was investigated by applying modified DYNAMO++ for the material handling system. Then, a simulation program, AnyLogic 6.9.0 was used to investigate the effect of the cognitive and mechanical automation in the material handling system on manufacturing flexibility. The research results showed that the levels of cognitive and mechanical automation of the material handling system were increased by 52.4% and 48.0%, respectively, which resulted in improving manufacturing flexibility by 14.2% in cycle time, 53.3% in downtime, and 26.3% in the number of tasks. Cognitive automation, in particular, contributed total improvements in cycle time and downtime of 64.2% and 74.1%, respectively, which showed that cognitive automation has a very critical effect on manufacturing flexibility in the material handling system.

The design of guide road signs becomes challenging when multiple languages are written on them, and this is the case in Qatar. Text should be oriented in a convenient way to process the information in a short time while driving, and a suitable background colour should be selected to maximise the sign's visibility. Based on these two factors: text layout and background colour, four signs were compared using an online survey. Respondents preferred guide road signs having different background colours for information in multiple languages. They also preferred having the two languages displayed in a vertical layout. ANOVA results showed that layout and background colour is significant in their preference, and there was no interaction effect. The result also showed that there is no significant difference between Arabic and non-Arabic drivers.

Objective: This study investigates the influences of vibrations on hedonic satisfaction based on four kinds of perceptions (perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment, cognitive concentration) when mobile gaming. Background: As mobile gaming is becoming more and more popular for smartphone users, they might want to have more hedonic satisfaction instead of focusing on traditional usability criteria such as efficiency, effectiveness, and satisfaction. Method: We conducted a human-factors experiment with 35 male subjects to evaluate hedonic satisfaction in the mobile game configured by 7 vibration types having different levels of intensity and length. Results: The results revealed that the use of vibration significantly increases the perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and cognitive concentration. In addition, the intensity of vibration makes differences of perceived usefulness and cognitive concentration. Conclusion: Vibration can be effectively used to improve hedonic satisfaction of smartphone users in mobile gaming when they are not allowed to turn the sound effects on. Application: This study helps game designers effectively provide vibration feedback of mobile games for smartphone users.

Global restaurant franchises are becoming more and more popular in China, Japan, and South Korea. Understanding target customers’ needs for restaurant franchises is considered one of the most important factors for their business success. In this study, four domains-food-related domain (FRD), interior-related domain (IRD), staffrelated domain (SRD), and convenience-related domain (CRD)-and 24 elements were classified. A survey with 450 respondents in the three capital cities (Beijing, Tokyo, and Seoul) was then conducted to examine the effect of the factors influencing customer satisfaction. After statistical analysis, thirteen main elements were found as factors influencing customer satisfaction. The analysis result showed that the food-related domain (FRD) was the most important in Beijing. The interior-related domain (IRD) and the convenience-related domain (CRD) were considered the most important in Tokyo and Seoul. Some cultural differences in customer satisfaction were also found. The results provide a guideline for better customer experience management of a restaurant franchise in the three cities.

Objective: This study investigates user performance and user perceptions of dynamic Chinese text displays (Leading display and RSVP display) when users search for target information. Background: Today, information searching with dynamic displays is widely used in TV programs, on Internet advertisements, for traffic information systems, and more. Method: A human factors experiment was conducted to compare both displays. Eighteen subjects participated in evaluating two simulated interfaces for the leading display and the RSVP display. Results: The results show that the leading display was better in terms of search time and certain subjective measurements (Easiness, frustration, anxiety). The latter results are consistent with the conclusions of other research efforts showing that dynamic displays are more effective and efficient when reading information. Conclusion: The leading display is more useful for Chinese users in terms of both information searching and information reading. Application: This study helps design dynamic displays written in Chinese texts.

The number of airline passengers in China has rapidly increased, so understanding the relationship between brand equity of airlines in China and ticket purchase intention of Chinese passengers is important for airline business success in China. Using the structural equation modeling, this study explores the relationships among determinants of brand equity as well as the relationships between brand equity, transition cost, and purchase intention. The major findings are: brand equity of airlines directly influences purchase intention; transition cost directly influences brand equity; and transition cost indirectly influences purchase intention in China. In addition, the results show that marketing strategies using the airline brand can be more effective for certain customer groups, including high income customers, married customers, government servants, and businessmen.

In the trend toward globalization, cross-cultural teams in organizations are becoming more and more common. In particular, the influence of China and Western Europe on the global economy is getting increased. With this trend, it is important to understand cross-cultural characteristics for group decision making in managerial environments. This study aims at analyzing cross-cultural differences between China and Western Europe in light of the effect of group discussion in group decision making. An experiment simulating a decision of a car purchase was conducted. A total of 48 subjects (24 Chinese and 24 Western Europeans) assigned in decision groups were asked to judge relative importance ratios of nine factors affecting their purchase decisions using the AHP program developed for the experiment. Three dependent variables (consistency, satisfaction, and consensus) were measured. Chinese were slightly more consistent than Western Europeans in discussion-involved group decision making. In terms of decision satisfaction, Western Europeans were more satisfied with discussion-included decisions than discussion-excluded decisions. Chinese, on the contrary, did not show a significant difference. There was no significant difference between two cultures in decision consensus.

Objective: This study proposes an alarm display and compares it with the one(alarm tile display) widely used in main control rooms(MCRs) of nuclear power plants. Background: Catching up with the rapid development of computer technologies, advanced MCRs has been required. Using modern technologies of computers and visual displays, we have a lot of potential to improve user performance and satisfaction as well as safety in MCRs. Method: The alarm bar display has been proposed to reduce some potential problems of the alarm tile display in this study. Human factors evaluations were conducted to compare both types of displays. Two interfaces of bar alarm and tile alarm were simulated on the desktop computer for the user-involved experiment. Eight students participated in the experiment with the within-subject design. Results: The alarm bar was slightly better in terms of situation awareness, and preferred to understand alarm dynamics. The alarm tile was slightly or significantly better in other measures. Conclusion: Both alarm displays have their own advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, combining benefits of both displays can be used to optimize the design of alarm displays. Application: The proposed display is expected to compensate the existing displays for certain purposes.

Customisation of mobile phones is a process of producing products according to individual needs on design, cost, and easiness of the phones. With the aim of identifying the most important features in customising mobile phones, 288 questionnaires were collected and analysed. The result showed that ‘text message’, ‘battery’, ‘contacts’, ‘software updates’, and ‘display size’ were highly required to customise. Among six factors physical design, technical design, cost of entertainment, cost of information, cost of durability, easiness of use obtained from a factor analysis, the most important reason for users to customise mobile phones was that they wanted to use a mobile phone easily. Cost of durability and cost of information were also important motivations for customisation of mobile phones. Finally, this research showed that gender and user experience were significant factors for customisation.

This paper examines the feasibility of extracting useful information from customer comments using a Naive Bayes classifier. This was done for a database, obtained from a large Korean mobile telephone service provider, of 533 customer calls to call centers in 2009. After eliminating calls not containing customer complaints or comments, the remaining 383 comments were classified by an expert panel into four domains and 27 complaint categories. The four domains were Transaction-related 189 comments, 49%, Product-related 120 comments, 31%, Customer Service or Support-related 38 comments, 10% and Customer Outreach and Marketing-related 36 comments, 9%. The comments were then randomly assigned to either a training set 257 cases, 67% or test set 126 cases, 33%. The training set was used to develop a Naive Bayes classifier that correctly predicted the domain 75% of the time and the specific subcategory 51% of the time for the test set. Prediction accuracy was strongly related to prediction strength for both sets of predictions, suggesting that simple filtering strategies where difficult to understand comments are flagged for expert review and easy comments are automatically classified are both technically feasible and likely to be practically valuable. Several strong predictors were also identified that corresponded to categories more detailed than those originally assigned. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

In the context of this study the usability of the first blood glucose meter that is connectable to a smartphone has been investigated by the use through diabetic patients of different ages and with different technical experiences. According to DIN ISO 2028-1 the participants had to solve usabilitytasks with the think-aloud-method. Additionally the cognitive load has been measured for each task. As control variables we asked for age and gender as well as technical affinity and Health Literacy. A total of 12 participants (mean age = 60.17 years) took part in this study. The results show that elderly diabetic patients are willing and able to use modern blood glucose meters. A blood glucose meter for elderly should store data for about three months and should be able to export data easily to the physician by a file type like CSV. The blood glucose testing strip should have a mark which describes the orientation and way it should be inserted into the blood glucose meter. The testing strip should also be illuminated to improve blood glucose measurements during nighttime. Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016. Scopus

The importance of human factors is widely recognized. In this article, research of human factors was classified with the mobile commerce (m-commerce) as an application of human factors. The m-commerce market recently grows fast, and m-commerce has been diversely studied accordingly. Human factors in m-commerce, in particular, become more and more important for a business success. Based on a literature review on human factors in m-commerce, the research classification was made. It is expected to provide some useful information to readers who are interested in human factors or human computer interactions in m-commerce as well as the classification of human factors in research.

Print quality is an important factor for customer satisfaction. Resolving print quality issues poses special challenges for a manufacturer's support organization. The authors have developed a troubleshooting website to enable customers to self-solve many of their print quality issues. The diagnosis is based on images of printed test pages that contain highly accurate simulations of potential print quality defects. The authors review the process for developing the website, the organization of its content, a validation framework to efficiently verify its correctness, and the steps to simulate print quality issues. The tool has been deployed for more than a dozen color laser printers and used by hundreds of thousands of customers.