scholarly journals Using conjoint analysis to understand customer preferences in customized low-income housebuilding projects

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 247-262
Author(s):  
Cynthia dos Santos Hentschke ◽  
Patricia André Tillmann ◽  
Carlos Torres Formoso ◽  
Vera Lúcia Milani Martins ◽  
Marcia Elisa Soares Echeveste
Keyword(s):  
Conjoint Analysis ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Solution Space ◽  
Product Variety ◽  
Housing Projects ◽  
Construction Company ◽  
Customer Preferences ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Product Flexibility

Abstract Mass customization is a strategy to improve value generation for customers, by offering product variety and, at the same time, maintaining costs and delivery time to an acceptable level. A key problem for applying this strategy in the housebuilding sector is the definition of the solution space, i.e. the range of product alternatives that will be offered. This paper proposes an adaptation of conjoint analysis to identify customer preferences regarding customizable attributes in low-cost housing projects. The utility of this adaptation is illustrated by a case study, which was carried out in a construction company that had delivered low-income housing projects, and offered some degree of product flexibility. Results indicate that this technique was effective to understand customers' preferences out of a range of housing attributes, by providing a ranking of those attributes chosen by customers. Therefore, this technique can support decision-making when dealing with trade-offs between customers' preferences, product flexibility and costs, which is an important concern for companies that deliver customized housing units.

scholarly journals Identification of Schedule-Performance Indicators and Delay-Recovery Strategies for Low-Cost Housing Projects

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (21) ◽  
pp. 6005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elnaz Safapour ◽  
Sharareh Kermanshachi ◽  
Bahaa Alfasi ◽  
Reza Akhavian
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Design And Technology ◽  
Resource Location ◽  
Cost Overruns ◽  
Housing Projects ◽  
Schedule Delay ◽  
Low Cost Housing ◽  
Schedule Performance

Many construction projects suffer from schedule delays that ultimately lead to considerable cost overruns and defeat the purpose of low-cost housing (LCH), which is to support low-income earners. It is, therefore, vital that the schedule delays and cost overruns be minimized. The objectives of this research were to investigate, identify, and classify the schedule-delay indicators (SDIs), prioritize them based on their level of impact, and formulate constructive strategies to improve the schedule performance. To achieve the objectives set forth, 68 interviews were conducted with professionals who are active in LCH projects, and a structured survey was developed and distributed to other experts involved in LCH projects to validate the result of the interviews and collect additional data. Survey responses were collected from 101 individuals and were analyzed. The significant SDIs were identified and classified by the research team and were ranked and prioritized, using the Relative Importance Index (RII) method. The results demonstrated that the identified SDIs could be classified into the following eight main categories: legal, design and technology, project characteristic, project management, material resource, human resource, location, and finance. The outcomes of this study will help project managers and stakeholders identify the causes of schedule delays early in the project and implement effective strategies for improving project performance in low-cost housing projects.

To be or not to be sustainable in an emerging market? Conjoint analysis of customers' behavior in purchasing denim jeans

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mônica Cavalcanti Sá de Abreu ◽  
Fabiana Nogueira Holanda Ferreira ◽  
João Felipe Barbosa Araripe Silva
Keyword(s):  
Conjoint Analysis ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Emerging Market ◽  
Regression Tree ◽  
Hierarchical Bayes ◽  
Classification And Regression Tree ◽  
Sociodemographic Characteristics ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Trade Offs

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate to what extent sustainable and nonsustainable attributes can be used to characterize different clusters of consumers in an emerging market, where economic conditions can increase the relevance of price. Consumers seem reluctant to engage frequently in pro-sustainable behavior, mainly for financial reasons. However, purchasing decisions can be understood as a multidimensional process.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted quantitative and descriptive research employing a choice-based conjoint/hierarchical Bayes (CBC/HB) experiment in malls in a low-income city in northeast Brazil with 1,287 potential buyers of denim jeans. The conjoint analysis therefore collected data on preferences in the course of actual decision-making. The authors then took the individual part-utility from each respondent and ran a cluster analysis to identify similar groups in the sample. The classification and regression tree (CART) method was used to determine the relationship between the conjoint attributes and the sociodemographic characteristics.FindingsThe data demonstrate that buying decisions constitute a complex process of interplay between many different factors, often involving trade-offs between a wide variety of nonsustainable and sustainable attributes. The survey confirmed that price is still of paramount importance when it comes to consumer choices. The authors also found that sustainable attributes played a relatively more significant role than brand or origin of production. The authors identify notable differences between groups of consumers in the “pro-sustainable” and “non-pro-sustainable” clusters and different levels of importance regarding the sociodemographic characteristics.Originality/valueAlthough price emerged as the most significant attribute, the research also demonstrates that there is a market in Brazil for products and practices based on a genuine commitment to the natural environment and social issues. The findings suggest that marketing managers and policymakers should consider different combinations of concerns over sustainability with product attributes and include sociodemographic variables rather than considering the textile market as uniform or thinking that there is no space for sustainability in fashion.

scholarly journals 662 PAP Therapy: A Review of Resources for the Uninsured during COVID-19

SLEEP ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. A259-A259
Author(s):  
Melissa Malinky ◽  
Abigail Oberla ◽  
Meena Khan ◽  
M Melanie Lyons
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Web Search ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Wait Time ◽  
The United States ◽  
Fixed Cost ◽  
United States Census ◽  
Lower Socioeconomic ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Available Resources

Abstract Introduction In 2019, the United States Census estimated 8% (26.1 million) people were without health insurance. Further, an estimated 3.5 million people became/remained uninsured from COVID-19-related job losses. Patients with OSA that belong to a lower socioeconomic status (SES) are less likely to have access to healthcare and may be under or uninsured. Untreated OSA can lead to increased risk of symptoms and associated co-morbidities. Resources to help the uninsured to obtain PAP therapy were available pre-COVID, including two main sources, American Sleep Apnea Association (ASAA) and our local branch serving central Ohio, The Breathing Association. However, the COVID pandemic limited access or closed these programs. Our Sleep Medicine clinics saw 148 uninsured OSA patients between March-December, 2020. Given these difficulties, we re-evaluated available resources for the uninsured. Methods We conducted a search for current low cost ($100 or less) PAP therapy options for the uninsured, March 15, 2020-December 3, 2020, by: (1) contacting pre-COVID-19 resources, including Durable Medical Equipment (DME) providers, (2) consulting social work, and (3) completing a librarian assisted web-search not limited to PubMed, Embase, CINAHL for academic related articles and electronic searches using a combination of English complete word and common keywords: OSA, PAP, uninsured, no insurance, cheap, medically uninsured, resources, self-pay, low-income, financial assistance, US. Resources such as private sellers were not investigated. Results During COVID-19, assistance for PAP machines/supplies have closed or required a protracted wait-time. Options including refurbished items range from low, one-time fixed cost or income-based discounts from: one local charity (Joint Organization for Inner-City Needs) and DME (Dasco), and four national entities (ASAA, Second Wind CPAP, Reggie White Foundation, CPAP Liquidators). An Electronic Health Record-based tool was developed and distributed to increase provider awareness of pandemic available resources. Conclusion Untreated OSA is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular co-morbidities. Access and cost may limit treatment in OSA patients from a lower SES. The COVID-19 pandemic has shuttered programs providing discount PAP and supplies, leaving fewer resources for these patients, thus further widening this health care disparity. Alternatives are needed and current resources are not easily accessible for providers and patients. Support (if any):

scholarly journals Housing Programs for the Poor in Addis Ababa: Urban Commons as a Bridge between Spatial and Social

2021 ◽  
pp. 009614422198997
Author(s):  
Marianna Charitonidou
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Urban Planning ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Addis Ababa ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Development Program ◽  
Housing Program ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Government

The article presents the reasons for which the issue of providing housing to low-income citizens has been a real challenge in Addis Ababa during the recent years and will continue to be, given that its population is growing extremely fast. It examines the tensions between the universal aspirations and the local realities in the case of some of Ethiopia’s most ambitious mass pro-poor housing schemes, such as the “Addis Ababa Grand Housing Program” (AAGHP), which was launched in 2004 and was integrated in the “Integrated Housing Development Program” (IHDP) in 2006. The article argues that the quotidian practices of communities and their socio-economic and cultural characteristics are related to the spatial attributes of co-housing practices. Drawing upon the idea that there is a mutual correspondence between social and spatial structures, it places particular emphasis on the analysis of the IHDP and aims to show that to shape strategies that take into account the social and cultural aspects of daily life of the poor citizens of Addis Ababa, it is pivotal to invite them to take part in the decision-making processes regarding their resettlement. Departing from the fact that a large percentage of the housing supply in Addis Ababa consists of informal unplanned housing, the article also compares the commoning practices in kebele houses and condominium units. The former refers to the legal informal housing units owned by the government and rented to their dwellers, whereas the latter concerns the housing blocks built in the framework of the IHDP for the resettlement of the kebele dwellers. The article analyzes these processes of resettlement, shedding light of the fact that kebele houses were located at the inner city, whereas the condominiums are located in the suburbs. Despite the fact that the living conditions in the condominium units are of a much higher quality than those in the kebele houses, their design underestimated or even neglected the role of the commoning practices. The article highlights the advantages of commoning practices in architecture and urban planning, and how the implementation of participation-oriented solutions can respond to the difficulties of providing housing. It argues that understanding the significance of the endeavors that take into account the opinions of dwellers during the phase of decision-making goes hand in hand with considering commoning practices as a source of architecture and urban planning frameworks for low-cost housing in this specific context. The key argument of the article is that urban planning and architecture solutions in Addis Ababa should be based on the principles of the so-called “negotiated planning” approach, which implies a close analysis of the interconnections between planning, infrastructure, and land.

scholarly journals Evaluation of a Low-Cost Commercial Actigraph and Its Potential Use in Detecting Cultural Variations in Physical Activity and Sleep

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (11) ◽  
pp. 3774
Author(s):  
Pavlos Topalidis ◽  
Cristina Florea ◽  
Esther-Sevil Eigl ◽  
Anton Kurapov ◽  
Carlos Alberto Beltran Leon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Time Data ◽  
Cultural Variations ◽  
Step Counts ◽  
Scale Step ◽  
Potential Use

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the performance of a low-cost commercial smartwatch, the Xiaomi Mi Band (MB), in extracting physical activity and sleep-related measures and show its potential use in addressing questions that require large-scale real-time data and/or intercultural data including low-income countries. We evaluated physical activity and sleep-related measures and discussed the potential application of such devices for large-scale step and sleep data acquisition. To that end, we conducted two separate studies. In Study 1, we evaluated the performance of MB by comparing it to the GT3X (ActiGraph, wGT3X-BT), a scientific actigraph used in research, as well as subjective sleep reports. In Study 2, we distributed the MB across four countries (Austria, Germany, Cuba, and Ukraine) and investigated physical activity and sleep among these countries. The results of Study 1 indicated that MB step counts correlated highly with the scientific GT3X device, but did display biases. In addition, the MB-derived wake-up and total-sleep-times showed high agreement with subjective reports, but partly deviated from GT3X predictions. Study 2 revealed similar MB step counts across countries, but significant later wake-up and bedtimes for Ukraine than the other countries. We hope that our studies will stimulate future large-scale sensor-based physical activity and sleep research studies, including various cultures.

scholarly journals Adsorptive Removal of Phosphate from Aqueous Solutions Using Low-Cost Volcanic Rocks: Kinetics and Equilibrium Approaches

Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 1312
Author(s):  
Dereje Tadesse Mekonnen ◽  
Esayas Alemayehu ◽  
Bernd Lennartz
Keyword(s):  
Aqueous Solutions ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Volcanic Rocks ◽  
Phosphate Removal ◽  
Phosphate Adsorption ◽  
Adsorptive Capacity ◽  
Batch Adsorption ◽  
Order Kinetic ◽  
Adsorptive Removal

The contamination of surface and groundwater with phosphate originating from industrial and household wastewater remains a serious environmental issue in low-income countries. Herein, phosphate removal from aqueous solutions was studied using low-cost volcanic rocks such as pumice (VPum) and scoria (VSco), obtained from the Ethiopian Great Rift Valley. Batch adsorption experiments were conducted using phosphate solutions with concentrations of 0.5 to 25 mg·L−1 to examine the adsorption kinetic as well as equilibrium conditions. The experimental adsorption data were tested by employing various equilibrium adsorption models, and the Freundlich and Dubinin-Radushkevich (D-R) isotherms best depicted the observations. The maximum phosphate adsorption capacities of VPum and VSco were calculated and found to be 294 mg·kg−1 and 169 mg·kg−1, respectively. A pseudo-second-order kinetic model best described the experimental data with a coefficient of correlation of R2 > 0.99 for both VPum and VSco; however, VPum showed a slightly better selectivity for phosphate removal than VSco. The presence of competitive anions markedly reduced the removal efficiency of phosphate from the aqueous solution. The adsorptive removal of phosphate was affected by competitive anions in the order: HCO3− >F− > SO4−2 > NO3− > Cl− for VPum and HCO3− > F− > Cl− > SO4−2 > NO3− for VSco. The results indicate that the readily available volcanic rocks have a good adsorptive capacity for phosphate and shall be considered in future studies as test materials for phosphate removal from water in technical-scale experiments.

scholarly journals Assessing Inequitable Urban Heat Islands and Air Pollution Disparities with Low-Cost Sensors in Richmond, Virginia

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (23) ◽  
pp. 10089
Author(s):  
Andre M. Eanes ◽  
Todd R. Lookingbill ◽  
Jeremy S. Hoffman ◽  
Kelly C. Saverino ◽  
Stephen S. Fong
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Green Space ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Early Morning ◽  
Urban Heat Islands ◽  
Urban Heat ◽  
Adverse Environmental Conditions ◽  
East End ◽  
The City

Air pollution and the urban heat island effect are consistently linked to numerous respiratory and heat-related illnesses. Additionally, these stressors disproportionately impact low-income and historically marginalized communities due to their proximity to emissions sources, lack of access to green space, and exposure to other adverse environmental conditions. Here, we use relatively low-cost stationary sensors to analyze PM2.5 and temperature data throughout the city of Richmond, Virginia, on the ten hottest days of 2019. For both hourly means within the ten hottest days of 2019 and daily means for the entire record for the year, the temperature was found to exhibit a positive correlation with PM2.5. Analysis of hourly means on the ten hottest days yielded a diurnal pattern in which PM2.5 levels peaked in the early morning and reached their minima in the mid-afternoon. Spatially, sites exhibiting higher temperatures consistently had higher PM2.5 readings, with vulnerable communities in the east end and more intensely developed parts of the city experiencing significantly higher temperatures and PM2.5 concentrations than the suburban neighborhoods in the west end. These findings suggest an uneven distribution of air pollution in Richmond during extreme heat events that are similar in pattern but less pronounced than the temperature differences during these events, although further investigation is required to verify the extent of this relationship. As other studies have found both of these environmental stressors to correlate with the distribution of green space and other land-use factors in cities, innovative and sustainable planning decisions are crucial to the mitigation of these issues of inequity going forward.

A simulation optimisation tool for planning of low-income housing projects

2013 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed Marzouk ◽  
Osama Omar ◽  
Manal Abdel Hamid ◽  
Moheeb El-Said
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Housing Projects ◽  
Simulation Optimisation ◽  
Low Income Housing

AND-OR-XOR NETWORK SYNTHESIS WITH AREA-POWER TRADE-OFF

2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (06) ◽  
pp. 1019-1035 ◽  
Author(s):  
SAMBHU NATH PRADHAN ◽  
M. TILAK KUMAR ◽  
SANTANU CHATTOPDHYAY
Keyword(s):  
Boolean Function ◽  
Solution Space ◽  
Leakage Power ◽  
Total Power ◽  
Synthesis Process ◽  
Network Synthesis ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Delay Performance ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Power Trade

In this paper, a heuristic based on genetic algorithm to realize multi-output Boolean function as three-level AND-OR-XOR network performing area power trade-off is presented. All the previous works dealt with the minimization of number of product terms only in the two sum-of-product-expressions representing a Boolean function during AND-OR-XOR network synthesis. To the best of knowledge this is the first ever effort to incorporate total power, that is, dynamic and leakage power along with the area (in terms of number of product terms) during three-level AND-OR-XOR networks synthesis. The synthesis process, without changing the delay performance results in lesser number of product terms compared to those reported in the literature. It also enumerates the trade-offs present in the solution space for different weights associated with area, dynamic power, and leakage power of the resulting circuit.

scholarly journals Multidisciplinary Approach to Neoadjuvant Endocrine Therapy in Breast Cancer: A Comprehensive Review

2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (12) ◽  
pp. 615-622 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomás Reinert ◽  
Susana Ramalho ◽  
Rodrigo Gonçalves ◽  
Carlos Barrios ◽  
Marcia Graudenz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Endocrine Therapy ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Hormone Receptor ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Locally Advanced Breast Cancer ◽  
Locally Advanced ◽  
Breast Cancers ◽  
Neoadjuvant Endocrine Therapy

AbstractBreast cancer is the most common type of cancer and the leading cause of cancer-related death among women worldwide. Hormone receptor-positive (HR+) tumors represent the most common form of this disease, with more than 70% of breast cancers expressing these receptors. Response and benefit to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NCT) varies according to HR expression, with lower responses in luminal tumors as compared with hormone receptor-negative (HR-) and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-positive (HER2+) tumors. Neoadjuvant endocrine therapy (NET) is an option for selected patients with HR+ locally advanced breast cancer. Neoadjuvant endocrine therapy has a favorable toxicity profile, and is associated with benefits such as having low cost and being more easily available even for cancer care professionals outside major urban areas or tertiary centers. These factors are particularly relevant, as 70% of breast cancer deaths occur in women from low-income and middle-income countries. Additionally, NET is being increasingly explored, not simply to allow for less extensive surgery, but also as a scientific tool, with the use of biomarkers to predict outcomes in adjuvant trials and for the individual patient. This review details the current and most relevant evidence about NET for breast cancer as well as the future directions of this field.

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