Search results for: Egharevba Mathew

Authors: Ben-Caleb Egbide, Egharevba Mathew, Achugamonu Uzoma, Faboyede Samuel

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The importance of budgeting in government and corporate entities as medium for the efficient management of scarce resources is self-evident. But when it comes to home or personal budgeting, there seem to be lingering misconceptions as regards its relevance. While most people view personal budgeting merely as a tool for tracking expenses and schedule for paying bills and indebtedness, very few consider it as one of the most important device for sound financial planning, money management instrument and/or wealth-creation mechanism. This paper is conceptualised to investigate the association between personal budgeting and financial well-being among staffers of tertiary institution in the South West Nigeria. Underpinned by the individualistic/cultural theory of well-being and the adoption of a survey research design, a structured questionnaire was used to gather data from a cross section of staff of tertiary Institutions in Ogun State. A Spearman Rank Correlation was utilised for analysis of data. The result indicates a high positive relationship between personal budgeting and tendencies for enhanced financial well-being among staff. The paper established that a change of value and behavioural pattern by individuals and household, especially in the areas of personal spending and budgeting could drastically reduce the incidence of the severity of financial stress, hence, enhanced wellness among staff.

Keywords: personal budgeting, financial well-being, tertiary institutions staffers, Nigeria

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Authors: Ben-Caleb Egbide, Iyoha Francis, Egharevba Mathew, Oduntan Emmanuel

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The prosperity of any nation is determined not just by the availability of resources, but also by the discipline exercised in the management of those resources. This paper examines the functional association between adherence to budgetary estimates or budget discipline (BDISC) and national prosperity proxied by Real Gross Domestic Product (RGDP) and Relative Poverty Index (RPI)/Human Development Index (HDI). Adopting a longitudinal retrospective research strategy, time series data relating to both the endogenous and exogenous variables were extracted from official government publications for 36 years’ (1980-2015 in the case of RGDP and RPI), and for 26 years (1990-2015 in the case of HDI). Ordinary Least Square (OLS), as well as cointegration regressions, were employed to gauge both the short term and long term impact of BDISC on RPI/HDI and RGDP. The results indicated that BDISC is directly related with RGDP but indirectly related with RPI. The implication is that while adherence to budgetary estimate can enhance economic growth, it has the capacity to slow down the rate of poverty in the long run. The paper, therefore, recommend stricter adherence to budgets as a way out of economic under performance in Nigeria and engender the process of promoting human development and national prosperity.

Keywords: budget discipline, human development index, national prosperity, Nigeria

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Authors: Aarati Susan Mathew, Radhika Narendra Patel, Jiji Mathew

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A retrospective study conducted at Christian Medical College (CMC) Teaching Hospital, Vellore, India on 14th August 2014 to assess the accuracy of clinically estimated foetal weight upon labour admission. Estimating foetal weight is a crucial factor in assessing maternal and foetal complications during and after labour. Medical notes of ninety-eight postnatal women who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were studied to evaluate the correlation between their recorded Estimated Foetal Weight (EFW) on admission and actual birth weight (ABW) of the newborn after delivery. Data concerning maternal and foetal demographics was also noted. Accuracy was determined by absolute percentage error and proportion of estimates within 10% of ABW. Actual birth weights ranged from 950-4080g. A strong positive correlation between EFW and ABW (r=0.904) was noted. Term deliveries (≥40 weeks) in the normal weight range (2500-4000g) had a 59.5% estimation accuracy (n=74) compared to pre-term (<40 weeks) with an estimation accuracy of 0% (n=2). Out of the term deliveries, macrosomic babies (>4000g) were underestimated by 25% (n=3) and low birthweight (LBW) babies were overestimated by 12.7% (n=9). Registrars who estimated foetal weight were accurate in babies within normal weight ranges. However, there needs to be an improvement in predicting weight of macrosomic and LBW foetuses. We have suggested the use of an amended version of the Johnson’s formula for the Indian population for improvement and a need to re-audit once implemented.

Keywords: clinical palpation, estimated foetal weight, pregnancy, India, Johnson’s formula

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Authors: Peter J. Fusco, Dave M. Mathew, Chris Mathew, Kenneth H. Levy, Kathryn S. Varghese, Stephanie Salazar-Restrepo, Serena M. Mathew, Sofia Khaja, Eamon Vega, Mia Polizzi, Alyssa Mullane, Adham Ahmed

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Background: Laparoscopic (LS) removal of neuroblastomas in children has been reported to offer favorable outcomes compared to the conventional open thoracotomy (OT) procedure. Critical perioperative measures such as blood loss, operative time, length of stay, and time to postoperative chemotherapy have all supported laparoscopic use rather than its more invasive counterpart. Herein, a pairwise meta-analysis was performed comparing perioperative outcomes between LS and OT in thoracoabdominal neuroblastoma cases. Methods: A comprehensive literature search was performed on PubMed, Ovid EMBASE, and Scopus databases to identify studies comparing the outcomes of pediatric patients with thoracoabdominal neuroblastomas undergoing resection via OT or LS. After deduplication, 4,227 studies were identified and subjected to initial title screening with exclusion and inclusion criteria to ensure relevance. When studies contained overlapping cohorts, only the larger series were included. Primary outcomes include estimated blood loss (EBL), hospital length of stay (LOS), and mortality, while secondary outcomes were tumor recurrence, post-operative complications, and operation length. The “meta” and “metafor” packages were used in R, version 4.0.2, to pool risk ratios (RR) or standardized mean differences (SMD) in addition to their 95% confidence intervals in the random effects model via the Mantel-Haenszel method. Heterogeneity between studies was assessed using the I² test, while publication bias was assessed via funnel plot. Results: The pooled analysis included 209 patients from 5 studies (141 OT, 68 LS). Of the included studies, 2 originated from the United States, 1 from Toronto, 1 from China, and 1was from a Japanese center. Mean age between study cohorts ranged from 2.4 to 5.3 years old, with female patients occupying between 30.8% to 50% of the study populations. No statistically significant difference was found between the two groups for LOS (SMD -1.02; p=0.083), mortality (RR 0.30; p=0.251), recurrence(RR 0.31; p=0.162), post-operative complications (RR 0.73; p=0.732), or operation length (SMD -0.07; p=0.648). Of note, LS appeared to be protective in the analysis for EBL, although it did not reach statistical significance (SMD -0.4174; p= 0.051). Conclusion: Despite promising literature assessing LS removal of pediatric neuroblastomas, results showed it was non-superior to OT for any explored perioperative outcomes. Given the limited comparative data on the subject, it is evident that randomized trials are necessary to further the efficacy of the conclusions reached.

Keywords: laparoscopy, neuroblastoma, thoracoabdominal, thoracotomy

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Authors: Mathew Hoyes

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This paper is a collation of data, studies and anecdotes on the way education is funded in New Zealand, the ideals which have lead to this method, as well as the issues it has created when combined with other factors and government policy on education over the last two decades. The purpose of this paper is to provide a historical perspective of this situation and to contribute to the global discussion of how to fund schools in an equitable manner, given that the world has become increasingly more globalised and the perception of widening gaps between the rich and the poor in the western world.

Keywords: education funding equity, egalitarianism, socio-economic, New Zealand colonialism

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Authors: Tapas Kumar Sinha, Joseph Mathew

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At the moment earth is in grave danger due to threats of global warming. The temperature of the earth has risen by almost 20C. Glaciers in the Arctic have started to melt. It would be foolhardy to think that this is a small effect and in time it would go away. Global warming is caused by a number of factors. However, one sure and simple way to totally eliminate this problem is to put programmable shields in space. Just as an umbrella blocks sunlight, a programmable shield in space will block sun rays from reaching the earth as in a solar eclipse and cause cooling in the penumbral region just as it happens during an eclipse.

Keywords: glaciers, green house, global warming space, satellites

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Authors: Francis O. Iyoha, Daniel E. Gberevbie, Charles T. Iruonagbe, Matthew E. Egharevba

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Cost of governance in Nigeria has become a challenge to development and concern to practitioners and scholars alike in the field of business and social science research. It has been observed that it takes 70 percent of the nation’s revenue to maintain less than 20 percent of the Nigerian population that are public servants. Furthermore, it has been observed that on a consistent yearly basis, the recurrent expenditure of government from the national budget keeps rising, while capital expenditure meant for development keeps falling. The implication is that development is stagnated in the country. For instance, in the 2010 national budget of NGN4.60tn or USD28.75b, only NGN1.80tn or USD11.15b was set aside for capital expenditure. Also, in the 2013 national budget of NGN4.92tn or USD30.75b, only NGN1.50tn or USD9.38b was set aside for capital expenditure. Therefore, with the analysis of secondary data, this study examined the reasons for the high cost of governance in Nigeria. It observed that the high cost of governance in the country is in the interest of the ruling class, arising from their unethical behaviour – corrupt practices and the poor management of public resources. As a result, the study recommends the need to intensify the war against corruption and mismanagement of public resources by government officials as possible solution to overcome the high cost of governance in Nigeria. This could be achieved by strengthening the constitutional powers of the various anti-corruption agencies in the area of arrest, investigation and prosecution of offenders without the interference of the executive arm of government either at the local, state or federal level.

Keywords: cost of governance, capital expenditure, recurrent expenditure, unethical behavior, Nigeria

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Authors: Jaya Mathew

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Many organizations are faced with the challenge of how to analyze and build Machine Learning models using their sensitive telemetry data. In this paper, we discuss how users can leverage the power of R without having to move their big data around as well as a cloud based solution for organizations willing to host their data in the cloud. By using ScaleR technology to benefit from parallelization and remote computing or R Services on premise or in the cloud, users can leverage the power of R at scale without having to move their data around.

Keywords: predictive maintenance, machine learning, big data, cloud based, on premise solution, R

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Authors: Mathew Tran, Deepa Patel, Breann Prophete, Irandokht Khaki Najafabadi

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Status epilepticus is a neurological disorder requiring emergent control with medical therapy. Based on guideline recommendations for adults with status epilepticus, the first-line treatment is to start a benzodiazepine, as they are quick at seizure control. The second step is to initiate a non-benzodiazepine anti-epileptic drug to prevent refractory seizures. Studies show that the anti-epileptic drugs are approximately equivalent in status epilepticus control once a benzodiazepine has been given. This review provides a brief overview of the management of status epilepticus based on evidence from the literature and evidence-based guidelines.

Keywords: neurological disorder, seizure, status epilepticus, benzo diazepines, antiepileptic agents

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Authors: Adetunji A. Adeyanju., Mathew O. Omeike, Johnson O. Adeniran, Biodun S. Badmus

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In this paper, we discuss certain conditions for uniform asymptotic stability and uniform ultimate boundedness of solutions to some systems of Aizermann-type of differential equations by means of second method of Lyapunov. In achieving our goal, some Lyapunov functions are constructed to serve as basic tools. The stability results in this paper, extend some stability results for some Aizermann-type of differential equations found in literature. Also, we prove some results on uniform boundedness and uniform ultimate boundedness of solutions of systems of equations study.

Keywords: Aizermann, boundedness, first order, Lyapunov function, stability

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Authors: Richu J. Babu, Sony Mathew, Sharon Rony Jacob, Soney C. George, Jibin C. Jacob

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Human hair is a non-biodegradable waste available in plenty throughout the world but is rarely explored for applications in engineering fields. Tensile strength of human hair ranges from 170 to 220 MPa. This property of human hair can be made use in the field of making bio-composites[1]. The composite is prepared by commixing the human hair and natural rubber in a two roll mill along with additives followed by vulcanization. Here the concentration of the human hair is varied by fine-tuning the fiber length as 20 mm and sundry tests like tensile, abrasion, tear and hardness were conducted. While incrementing the fiber length up to a certain range the mechanical properties shows superior amendments.

Keywords: human hair, natural rubber, composite, vulcanization, fiber loading

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Authors: Mekha Mathew, Varun P Gopi

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Wireless Capsule Endoscopy (WCE) has become a great device in Gastrointestinal (GI) tract diagnosis, which can examine the entire GI tract, especially the small intestine without invasiveness and sedation. Bleeding in the digestive tract is a symptom of a disease rather than a disease itself. Hence the detection of bleeding is important in diagnosing many diseases. In this paper we proposes a novel method for distinguishing bleeding regions from normal regions based on Contourlet transform and Local Binary Pattern (LBP). Experiments show that this method provides a high accuracy rate of 96.38% in CIE XYZ colour space for k-Nearest Neighbour (k-NN) classifier.

Keywords: Wireless Capsule Endoscopy, local binary pattern, k-NN classifier, contourlet transform

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Authors: Emil Mathew

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Liberalisation policies adopted by a large number of countries, implementation of technological innovations with development in communication networks and continuous reduction in transport costs contributed towards the growth of international transportation of goods over the last 50 to 60 years. The present paper examines the environmental externalities of maritime transportation, that is, externalities associated with the movement of cargoes, as distinct from those emanate from production and consumption of goods. Though shipping is less polluting compared to other modes of transportation, considering the huge volume of goods transported and future growth prospects, it is important to examine environmental externalities of maritime transportation. It focuses on varied types of environmental externalities of maritime transportation and suggests that appropriate policies may be adopted by international agencies to address this issue without adversely affecting the course of international trade and also its possibility to get diverted to alternate modes of transportation.

Keywords: externalities of globalisation, maritime environment, maritime externality, transportation externality

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Authors: Asish O. Mathew, Lewlyn L. R. Rodrigues

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The organizations in the knowledge economy era have recognized the importance of building knowledge assets for sustainable growth and development. In comparison to other industries, Information Technology (IT) enterprises, holds an edge in developing an effective Knowledge Management (KM) program, thanks to their in-house technological abilities. This paper tries to study the various knowledge-based incentive programs and its effect on Knowledge Sharing and Learning in the context of the Indian IT sector. A conceptual model is developed linking KM incentives, knowledge sharing, and learning. A questionnaire study is conducted to collect primary data from the knowledge workers of the IT organizations located in India. The data was analysed using Structural Equation Modeling using Partial Least Square method. The results show a strong influence of knowledge management incentives on knowledge sharing and an indirect influence on learning.

Keywords: knowledge management, knowledge management incentives, knowledge sharing, learning

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Authors: Lopamudra Malek

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Bangladesh continues a compacted bilateral relationship with Japan since 1971, but the seed of this vital relationship had been sown much earlier in 1863 when MadhushudhonMukhapaddhay translated Commodore Mathew’s book, and the seed was nourished and nurtured by Rabindranath and other writers by translating Japanese literature in Bengali. Sano Jinnotsuke translated Rabindranath’s novel ‘Gora’ in 1924. Concentrating on formal literary translation, Jyotirmoy Mukhopadhyay, Jalal Ahmed continued to translate important novels, short poems, and short stories as well. Kyoko Niwa - GouriAiyub and Monjurul Huq and Swandip Tagore had translated one of the master pieces of Matsuo Basho and 万葉集. Gita A. Keeni has translated few stories from Kenji Miyazawa and in contemporary literature, Abhijit Mukherjee translating Yukio Mishima and Haruki Murakami in Bengali language.

Keywords: literary translation, bengali, Japanese, book

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Authors: N. Nagalakshmi, Indira Bairy, M. Atulya, Jesil Mathew

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S. aureus has the ability to colonize and form biofilms on implanted biomaterials, which is difficult to disrupt, and current antimicrobial therapies for biofilms have largely proven unsuccessful in complete eradication of biofilm. The present study is aimed to determine the lysostaphin activity against biofilm producing MRSA clinical strains. The minimum biofilm inhibition activity of lysostaphin was studied against twelve strong biofilm producing isolates. The biofilm was produced in 96-wells micro-titer plate and biofilm was treated with lysostaphin (0.5 to 16 µg/ml), vancomycin (0.5 to 64 µg/ml) and linezolid (0.5 to 64 µg/ml). The biofilm inhibitory concentration of lysostaphin was found between 4 to 8 µg/ml whereas vancomycin and linezolid inhibited at concentration between 32 to 64 µg/ml. Results indicate that lysostaphin as potential antimicrobial activity against biofilm at lower concentration is comparable with routine antibiotics like vancomycin and linezolid.

Keywords: biofilm, lysostaphin, MRSA, minimum biofilm inhibitory concentration

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Authors: Upasna Bhandari, Indranil Saha, Deepak John Mathew

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The green fashion market is growing rapidly as eco-friendly consumers are willing to expand their organic lifestyle to include clothing. With an increasing share of fashion consumers globally, Indian consumers are observed to consider the social and environmental ethics while making purchasing decisions. While some research clearly identifies the efforts of responsible consumers towards green fashion, some argue that fashion-orientated consumers who are sensitive towards environment do not actively participate towards supporting green fashion. This study aims to analyze the current perception of green fashion among Indian consumers. A small-scale exploratory study is conducted where consumers’ perception of green fashion is examined followed by an analysis of translation of this perception into purchase decision making. This research paper gives insight into consumer awareness on green fashion and provides scope towards the expansion of ethical fashion consumption within the demography of India.

Keywords: consumer perception, environmental attitudes, fashion retailing, green fashion, sustainability

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Authors: Ayodeji Emmanuel Oke, Mathew O. Ikuabe, Clinton O. Aigbavboa, Douglas O. Aghimien

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The call for sustainable construction has received significant drive in recent time considering the overwhelming impacts of its adoption. However, not much has been deliberated on this subject with regards to the roles of organisational leadership in delivering sustainable construction. To this end, the study empirically scrutinised the roles of organisational leadership in delivering sustainable construction. The study adopted a quantitative approach while construction professionals formed the population of the study. A well-articulated questionnaire was used in eliciting responses from the respondents, while appropriate methods of data analysis were used. Findings from the study depicted that the major role of organisational leadership in the delivery of sustainable construction is acting as sustainability integrators. Equally revealed are the internal and external factors affecting organisational leadership in delivering sustainable construction. The study concluded by emphasizing the core roles for delivering sustainable construction by organisational leadership and further recommended that sustainable construction should serve as a prominent and focal organisation goal by organisational leadership when steering the organisation towards meeting its objectives

Keywords: organisational leadership, project delivery, roles, sustainable construction

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Authors: Hadi Ghasemi, Mark Leonard, Spiliopoulos Spiro, Phil Cummins, Mathew Moihoi, Felix Taranu, Eric Buri, Chris Mckee

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In this study the level of seismic hazard in terms of Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) was calculated for return period of 475 years, using modeled seismic sources and assigned ground-motion equations. The calculations were performed for bedrock site conditions (Vs30=760 m/s). From the results it is evident that the seismic hazard reaches its maximum level (i.e. PGA≈1g for 475 yr return period) at the Huon Peninsula and southern New Britain regions. Disaggregation analysis revealed that moderate to large earthquakes occurring along the New Britain Trench mainly control the level of hazard at these locations. The open-source computer program OpenQuake developed by Global Earthquake Model foundation was used for the seismic hazard computations. It should be emphasized that the presented results are still preliminary and should not be interpreted as our final assessment of seismic hazard in PNG.

Keywords: probabilistic seismic hazard assessment, Papua New Guinea, building code, OpenQuake

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Authors: J. Pantoja Enríquez, G. P. Hernández, G. I. Duharte, X. Mathew, J. Moreira, P. J. Sebastian

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Cadmium sulfide films were deposited onto glass substrates by chemical bath deposition (CBD) from a bath containing cadmium acetate, ammonium acetate, thiourea, and ammonium hydroxide. The CdS thin films were annealed in air, argon, hydrogen and nitrogen for 1 h at various temperatures (300, 350, 400, 450 and 500 °C). The changes in optical and electrical properties of annealed treated CdS thin films were analyzed. The results showed that, the band-gap and resistivity depend on the post-deposition annealing atmosphere and temperatures. Thus, it was found that these properties of the films, were found to be affected by various processes with opposite effects, some beneficial and others unfavorable. The energy gap and resistivity for different annealing atmospheres was seen to oscillate by thermal annealing. Recrystallization, oxidation, surface passivation, sublimation and materials evaporation were found the main factors of the heat-treatment process responsible for this oscillating behavior. Annealing over 400 °C was seen to degrade the optical and electrical properties of the film.

Keywords: cds, thin films, annealing, optical, electrical properties

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Authors: Khaled Ibrahim, Mathew Parackal, Damien Mather, Paul Hansen

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The integration between marketing and technology has given brands unprecedented opportunities to reach accurate customer data and competence to change customers' behaviour. Technology has generated a transformation within brands from traditional branding to algorithmic branding. However, brands have utilised customer data in non-cognitive programmatic targeting. This algorithmic persuasion may be effective in reaching the targeted audience. But it may encounter a moral conflict simultaneously, as it might not consider our social principles. Moral branding is a critical topic; particularly, with the increasing interest in commercial settings to teaching machines human morals, e.g., autonomous vehicles and chatbots; however, it is understudied in the marketing literature. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the recent moral branding literature. Furthermore, applying human-like mind theory as initial framing to this paper explores a more comprehensive concept involving human morals, machine behaviour, and branding.

Keywords: brand machines, conceptual framework, moral branding, moral machines

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Authors: Stuart Bradley, Mathew Legg, Lilyan Panton

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Ultrasonic remote sensing is a useful tool for assessing the interior structure of complex targets. For these methods, significantly enhanced spatial resolution is obtained if the pulse is coded, for example using a linearly changing frequency during the pulse duration. Such pulses have a time-dependent spectral structure. Interpretation of the backscatter from targets is, therefore, complicated if the scattering is frequency-dependent. While analytic models are well established for steady sinusoidal excitations applied to simple shapes such as spheres, such models do not generally exist for temporally evolving excitations. Therefore, models are developed in the current paper for handling such signals so that the properties of the targets can be quantitatively evaluated while maintaining very high spatial resolution. Laboratory measurements on simple shapes are used to confirm the validity of the models.

Keywords: linear FM chirp, time-dependent acoustic scattering, ultrasonic remote sensing, ultrasonic scattering

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Authors: Hima Elizabeth Mathew, V. VijayalakshmI

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All of us know what it is like to experience humor. Humor and laughter are universal aspects of human experience, occurring in all cultures and virtually in all individuals throughout the world. For people today, the workplace is associated more with the cubicles they sit, than with the co-workers around them. With reference to the current generation and the work context, the paper aims to understand the concept of humor at the workplace and its influence on team creativity in organizations. Humor is a multi-disciplinary topic that has been investigated for many years by researchers from fields such as anthropology, psychology, physiology and linguistics but significantly less thoroughly by management researchers. Researchers in the field of creativity also had their initial focus on the individual differences leading to creativity. Although the studies yielded some important findings regarding creative people, it provided the little help to practitioners in helping people develop creativity and almost ignored the role of social environment in enhancing creativity. After a review the relevant literature of the key variables, a theoretical framework is proposed linking workplace humor, emotional contagion, and team creativity. The findings of the study are expected to help academicians gain clarity on Workplace Humor for future research.

Keywords: emotional contagion, humor, team creativity, workplace humor

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Authors: Aiswarea Mathew, Smita Mohanty, Jr., S. K. Nayak

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Polyurethane networks based on castor oil (CO) as a renewable resource polyol were synthesized. Polyurethane/epoxy resin interpenetrating network nanocomposites containing modified montmorillonite organoclay (C30B-PU/EP nanocomposites) were prepared by an in situ intercalation method. The conventional spectroscopic characterization of the synthesized samples using FT-IR confirms the existence of the proposed castor oil based PU structure and also showed that strong interactions existed between C30B and EP/PU matrix. The dispersion degree of C30B in EP/PU matrix was characterized by X-Ray diffraction (XRD) method. Scanning electronic microscopy analysis showed that the interpenetrating process of PU and EP increases the exfoliation degree of C30B, and it improves the compatibility and the phase structure of polyurethane/epoxy resin interpenetrating polymer networks (PU/EP IPNs). The thermal stability improves compared to the polyurethane when the PU/EP IPN is formed. Mechanical properties including the Young’s modulus and tensile strength reflected marked improvement with addition of C30B.

Keywords: castor oil, epoxy, montmorillonite, polyurethane

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Authors: L. Mathew, D. Thomas

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Qatar is a desert country with scarce fresh water resources, low rainfall and very high evaporation rate. It meets the majority of its water requirement through desalination process which is very expensive. Pressures are expected to mount on account of high population growth rate and demands posed by being the venue for 2022 FIFA World cup. This study contributes towards advancing the knowledge of the factors affecting sustainable water consumption in water-challenged societies by examining the case of Doha, Qatar. Survey research methods have been predominantly used for this research. Surveys were conducted using self-administered questionnaires. Focused group interviews and personal interviews with Qatar’s residents were also used to obtain deeper insights. Salient socio-cultural factors that drive the water consumption behavior of the public and which in turn affect sustainable water management practices are determined. Suggestions for reducing water consumption as well as fiscal and punitive measures to curb overuse and misuse of water are also identified.

Keywords: Middle East, Qatar, water consumption, water management, sustainability

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Authors: Jonathan Olusegun Famoroti, Mathew Ekundayo Rotimi, Mishelle Doorasamy

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This study offers an empirical investigation into some selected macroeconomic drivers of the monetary policy rate in member countries of the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ), considering both internal and external variables. We employed Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) to carry out the investigation between monetary policy and some macroeconomic variables in both the long-run and short-run relationship. The results suggest that the drivers of the policy rate in this zone, in the long run, include, among others, global oil price, exchange rate, inflation rate, and gross domestic product, while in the short run, federal fund rate, trade openness, exchange rate, inflation rate, and gross domestic product are core determinants of the policy rate. Therefore, in order to ensure long-run stability in the policy rate among the members’ states, these drivers should be given closer consideration so that the trajectory for effective structure can be designed and fused into the economic structure and policy frameworks accordingly.

Keywords: monetary policy rate, macroeconomic variables, WAMZ, ARDL

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Authors: V. S. Binu, Amitha Puranik, Sintomon Mathew, Sebin Thomas

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Globally, women are more vulnerable to various forms of crimes than males. The crimes that are directed specifically towards women are classified as crime against women. Crime against women in India is observed to increase year after year and according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report, in 2014 there was an increase of 9.2% cases of crime against women compared to the previous year. The violence in a population depends on socio-demographic factors, unemployment, poverty, number of police officials etc. There are very few studies that explored to identify hotspots of various types of crime against women in India. Hotspots are geographical regions where the number of observed cases is more than the expected number for that region. It is important to identify the hotspots of crime against women in India in order to control and prevent violence against women in that region. The goal of this study is to identify the hotspots of crime against women in India using spatial data analysis techniques. For the present study, we used the district level data of various types of crime against women in India in the year 2011 published by NCRB and the 2011 Census population in each of these districts. The study used spatial scan statistic to identify the hotspots using SaTScan software.

Keywords: crime, hotspots, India, Satscan, Women

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Authors: D. Latha, V. Sunitha, Samson Mathew

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In India, most of the pavement is laid by bituminous road and the consumption of binder is high for pavement construction and also modified binders are used to satisfy any specific pavement requirement. Since the binders are visco-elastic material which is having the mechanical properties of binder transition from visco-elastic solid to visco-elastic fluid. In this paper, two different protocols were used to measure the viscosity property of binder using a Brookfield Viscometer and there is a need to find the appropriate mixing and compaction temperatures of various types of binders which can result in complete aggregate coating and adequate field density of HMA mixtures. The aim of this work is to find the transition temperature from Non-Newtonian behavior to Newtonian behavior of the binder by adopting a steady shear protocol and the shear rate ramp protocol. The transition from non-Newtonian to Newtonian can occur through an increase of temperature and shear of the material. The test has been conducted for unmodified binder VG 30. The transition temperature was found in the unmodified binder VG is 120oC. So the application of both modified binder and unmodified binder in the pavement construction needs to be studied properly by considering temperature and traffic loading factors of the respective project site.

Keywords: unmodified and modified binders, Brookfield viscometer, transition temperature, steady shear and shear rate protocol

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Authors: Adedokun Mathew Adewale, Ayandiran Samuel Kola, Adekunle Ibironke

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Pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) seeds contain about 20–22 percent protein and appreciable amounts of essential amino acids and minerals. Hence, this study evaluated the blood profile of weaner rabbits fed Cajanus cajan meal (CCM) as a replacement for groundnut cake. Forty weaner rabbits of mixed breed aged 5 - 6 weeks were used for the study, which lasted for 8 weeks. The rabbits were randomly allocated to four treatments (10 rabbits per treatment) in a completely randomized design. Four concentrate diets were compounded by direct replacement of groundnut cake with Cajanus cajan meal (CCM) at 0, 50, 75, and 100%, respectively. There were no significant differences (p>0.05) among the mean counts of packed cell volume, red blood cell, haemoglobin, and monocyte. The 75% CCM diet had significantly the highest (p<0.05). However, rabbits fed diets containing CCM had significantly higher (p<0.05) eosinophil than 0%CCM. Rabbits fed diets containing 100%CCM had significantly highest (p<0.05) total protein followed by 0%CCM, 75%CCM, and least 50%CCM, while 0%CCM and 75%CCM diets were significantly higher (p<0.05) in albumin. However, animals fed diets containing CCM had significantly lower (p<0.05) cholesterol content than 0%CCM diet. It could be concluded that Cajanus cajan meal could replace groundnut cake up to 100% in the diets of rabbits without any deleterious effect on the blood profile of the animals.

Keywords: blood profile, groundnut cake, pigeon pea, weaner rabbits

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Authors: Numair A. Siddiqui, Usman Muhammad, Manoj J. Mathew, Ramkumar M., Benjamin Sautter, Muhammad A. K. El-Ghali, David Menier, Shiqi Zhang

Abstract:

The sedimentological parameterization of shallow-marine siliciclastic reservoirs in terms of reservoir quality and heterogeneity from outcrop study can help improve the subsurface reservoir prediction. An architectural analysis has documented variations in sandstone geometry and rock properties within shallow-marine sandstone exposed in the Miocene Sandakan Formation of Sabah, Borneo. This study demonstrates reservoir sandstone quality assessment for subsurface rock evaluation, from well-exposed successions of the Sandakan Formation, Borneo, with which applicable analogues can be identified. The analyses were based on traditional conventional field investigation of outcrops, grain-size and petrographic studies of hand specimens of different sandstone facies and gamma-ray and permeability measurements. On the bases of these evaluations, the studied sandstone was grouped into three qualitative reservoir rock classes; high (Ø=18.10 – 43.60%; k=1265.20 – 5986.25 mD), moderate (Ø=17.60 – 37%; k=21.36 – 568 mD) and low quality (Ø=3.4 – 15.7%; k=3.21 – 201.30 mD) for visualization and prediction of subsurface reservoir quality. These results provided analogy for shallow marine sandstone reservoir complexity that can be utilized in the evaluation of reservoir quality of regional and subsurface analogues.

Keywords: architecture and sedimentology, subsurface rock evaluation, reservoir quality, borneo

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