Developing a Process Improvement Request System at SUNY Empire State College

This paper presents the Process Improvement Request System initiated at SUNY Empire State College as a case study for institutional change management. Through this system, employees can submit suggestions for improving any kind of institutional processes at the college using an Information Technology “ticketing” system like the one used for technical issues. These communications are addressed, tracked, and stored by the Process Improvement Committee which includes representatives from all areas of the college. The Process Improvement Request System addresses many critical goals including 1) the storage of process issues, concerns, and suggestions; 2) a mechanism for addressing these; 3) open access to all employees (and to students through employee representatives) to submit ideas; 4) the ability to make suggestions about all levels of process issues, from college wide to personnel specific; 5) anonymity for making a request when desired; and 6) a feedback loop about the effectiveness of new processes. In this paper, the essential aspects of this project are discussed and analyzed. The paper also enables readers to ascertain the viability of such a project at their campuses and invites them to reach out to the authors if they have questions about doing so.

Global Governance Illusions

The Glasgow reunions of the states of the world exemplify the basic logic of ocean clubs, handling public goods. The aim was to conjure up a new agreement for regulating emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) around the world. But especially China and India effectively blocked a binding regime. This paper shows how fossil fuels are too integrated in the economies of these nations.

Safety Awareness at Sea: Perspectives from Marine Unit, Royal Malaysian Custom Department

Law enforcement officers face many dangerous and stressful situations in the line of duty. Some, such as gun violence, are obvious; other dangers (e.g., fatalities while working at sea) are hidden but common and can hinder officer performance. Officer performance is also affected by training and other factors. This article uses best-practice research to examine the relationship between safety culture, safety training, employee involvement, and safety awareness at the workplace, specifically to law enforcement employees working at sea. Safety awareness considered a vital element in every organization to enhance their employees’ performance. Quantitative research methodology was applied to examine the relationship between independent variables and dependent variable. The questionnaire are divided into five sections, covering demographic factors, safety culture, marine safety training, employee involvement, and safety awareness at the workplace. A total of 30% of 550 employees from the Marine Unit of the Royal Malaysian Customs Department were selected randomly as respondents. This study indicates that safety culture, safety at sea training, and employee involvement have a significant positive relationship to safety awareness at the workplace. A recommendation is then offered for law-enforcement safety management that can apply to the Marine Enforcement Unit of Royal Malaysian Customs to eliminate accidents, injuries, and fatalities at sea in the marine enforcement profession. The Marine Customs law enforcement professionals may benefit from studying the safety practices and safety management systems implemented in other high-risk professions to develop more effective programs that prioritize safety and mitigate risk in the workplace, especially safety at sea. The high-risk environment and nature of work conducted by Marine Customs law enforcement officers demand a holistic and dedicated approach to safety to reduce fatalities and injuries throughout the profession.

Redefining the Role of the Second National Language Teacher: Existing Perceptions vs. Changing of Practices

Sri Lanka is a multicultural country with a diverse population coming from three major ethnic groups, Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims. Though they have been living together for several centuries in the country, it is not without conflict. After three decades of an atrocious war which erupted as a result of these ethnic clashes, currently the country is enjoying some peaceful times. To make this peace last for long the government has taken several important measures and teaching the second national language in the school for children, and appointing the first language speakers as the second national language teachers is one of the most important. Nevertheless, second national language teachers have a very different interaction with their students when compared to other teachers. They are required of an unusually high level of cultural nuance as members of a different culture to their students and need to develop cultural intelligence to overcome this challenge. This study attempts at finding the present cultural perceptions of these teachers and suggesting ways of changing practices to bridge this gap.

Evaluating the Impact of Organizational Culture Features on Implementing Total Quality Management (TQM) by Focusing on the Business Ethics as a Mediator (Case Study: Shirin Asal Company)

This was an applied study regarding the objective and a descriptive-correlational one concerning the data collection approach, which was focused on evaluating the impact of organizational culture on applying total quality management along with stressing the mediating role of business ethics. A total of 148 employees of Shirin Asal Company (Tehran Branch) constituted the research statistical population that Cochran’s formula was used to choose 106 subjects as the sample size by a simple random sampling method.Standard questionnaires were employed to gather the essential data. The validity and reliability of variables were also examined and approved. The reliability rates for business ethics, organizational culture, and total quality management were calculated to be equivalent to 0.78, 0.89, and 0.90, respectively. The structural equation modeling method assisted with the Smart PLS2 software was utilized for data analysis. Revealed by the research findings, organizational culture influences business ethics and total quality management. Business ethics was also found to act as a mediating variable in the relationship between organizational culture and total quality management. In conclusion, organizational culture and business ethics affect the satisfactory implementation of TQM, which somehow requires managers and stakeholders to particularly consider these components.

Obstacle Detection Based on 3D Lidar Euclidean Clustering

Environment perception is the basis of unmanned driving and obstacle detection is an important research area of environment perception technology. In order to quickly and accurately identify the obstacles in the direction of vehicle travel and obtain their location information, combined with the PCL (Point Cloud Library) function module, this paper designed a euclidean distance based Point Cloud clustering obstacle detection algorithm. Environmental information was obtained by 3D lidar, and ROI extraction, voxel filtering sampling, outlier point filtering, ground point cloud segmentation, Euclide clustering and other processing were carried out to achieve a complete PCL based 3D point cloud obstacle detection method. The experimental results show that the vehicle can effectively identify the obstacles in the area and obtain their location information.

An Analysis of Psycho-cognitive Factors in Relation to Postpartum Depression and Anxiety in Women with and without Changes in Body Weight

The aim of this study is firstly to analyze the differences in postpartum self-acceptance, patterns of beliefs (rationality) and perfectionism in women with and without changes in body weight and secondly to identify the relationships among self-acceptance, rationality, and perfectionism on the one hand and postpartum depression and anxiety on the other hand. The study involved 123 women, newly mothers, aged between 20 and 46 years, M = 32.29, SD = 6.56. The instruments used were Unconditional Self-Acceptance Questionnaire, Inventory of Ideas II, Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, Hamilton Depression Scale, and Inventory of State-Trait Anxiety. The results showed that the level of rationality and self-acceptance was lower in women with higher body weight, while the level of perfectionism was higher in same tier. At the same time, the results obtained by regression and mediation analyzes showed that self-acceptance is negatively associated with both depression and anxiety, rationality is also negatively associated with both depression and anxiety, and perfectionism mediates the relationship between rationality and depression, but not the relationship between rationality and anxiety. The conclusions of the study highlighted the women’s need for support to regain their pre-pregnancy emotional balance and well-being.

The Research on Traffic Congestion Problem in Beijing Based on Random Effect Model

With the advancement of urbanization and the rapid development of the economy, the number of motor vehicles has also increased sharply, which has led to the increasingly heavy traffic congestion problem, especially in the international metropolis like Beijing. It is more serious, bringing economic loss and seriously affecting its further development. Therefore, it is of great importance to solve the problem in Beijing. In response to the above issue, despite the introduction and implementation of a series of measures in Beijing, it is still unable to properly solve the traffic congestion problem. Today, traffic congestion in Beijing still exists. This paper will mainly start from the causes of traffic congestion, and analyze the problems and phenomena based on the random effects model to obtain the reasons. According to the goal of relieving the traffic congestion problem, we will use the traffic supply and demand theory combined with the actual traffic situation, establish the traffic light model, the travel optimization model and the automobile demand curve model. With the hypothesis, simulation and analysis, we drew the corresponding conclusions. At the same time, the corresponding policy recommendations were put forward to relieve the traffic congestion problem in Beijing.

Research Status of High Clearance Sprayer and Its Steering System at Home and Abroad

This paper introduces the representative domestic and foreign high-gap sprayer models, and expounds the current research status of the steering system of the high-gap sprayer, which provides reference for the further development of high-gap sprayer and other products in domestic enterprises and universities.

Development Status and Trend of Industrial Robot in China

With the continuous development of the times, technology is flourishing and the world is entering the era of artificial intelligence, industrial robots will replace humans as the backbone of the manufacturing industry. The continuous development and application of industrial robotics is conducive to building a new advantage for China’s manufacturing, promoting the transformation and upgrading of China’s industry, accelerating the construction of China’s manufacturing power, and making an important contribution to China’s economic development. Based on this, the article describes the current situation of industrial robots in China, the challenges faced, and the future development trend.