Search results for: World Trade Organization

Authors: Ágota Ladó

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Miercurea Ciuc is a town in the historical region of Szeklerland in Transylvania, Romania, with a predominantly Hungarian population (its name in Hungarian being Csíkszereda) having an urban landscape and environment that has been shaped dramatically by different perceptions of urbanization during the history. The town has been part of Hungary and the Austro-Hungarian Empire before the First World War. It even got an important role, becoming in 1876 the seat and administrative center of the historical Csík county. This marks the beginning of the first urbanization process: new administrative buildings, railways, a railway station, a hospital, a Redoute and new schools have been built, new streets have been opened. However, not only the public facilities have changed: the center of the town with its private houses has also transformed, new, modern decorative and lifestyle elements have appeared. One of the streets from the town center, Kossuth street, has been featured on many postcards of the time; even a novel has mentioned it as a symbol of modern urbanization. Right after the First World War, the town became part of Romania and aside from a short interruption (between 1940 and 1944), it is still part of it. The beginning of the second major urbanization process – exactly one hundred years later - is marked by the visit of the communist leader Nicolae Ceaușescu in Miercurea Ciuc on the 6th of October 1976. In the upcoming years, he decided and started to demolish the old Kossuth street and to construct a new avenue with tall blocks of flats according to the principles of socialist urbanization. No other Transylvanian settlement has gone through such systematic abolition of its historical center and urban history during the Communist era. Not only the urban landscape has been affected. The collective memory and contemporary identity of the locals are also violated by this recent transformation of the town: important spaces, buildings, venues of activities and events simply cannot be localized, thus understood - by the younger generations.

Keywords: communist era, historical urban landscape, urban identity, urbanization

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Authors: Smita Shenoy, Amoolya Gowda, Tara Shanbhag, Krishnananda Prabhu, Venumadhav Nelluri

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The study was undertaken to assess the effect of ethanolic extract of Michelia champaca on excision wound healing in diabetic wistar rats. Excision wound was made in five groups of rats after inducing diabetes with streptozotocin in four groups. Paraffin was applied to wounds in nondiabetic and diabetic control and 2.5%, 5%, 10% ointment of extract to wounds in three diabetic test groups. Monitoring of wound contraction rate, the period of epithelization and histopathological examination of granulation tissue was done. There was a significant (p < 0.05) decrease in the period of epithelization and a significant increase in the wound contraction rate on day 12 and 16 in rats treated with 5% and 10% ointment as compared to diabetic rats. There was a better organization of collagen fibers in the granulation tissue of wounds treated with 10% ointment. The higher dose of ethanolic extract of Michelia champaca promoted wound healing in diabetic Wistar rats.

Keywords: Michelia champaca, excision wound, contraction, epithelization

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Authors: G. H. Vakhitova, E. P. Leontyev

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\Modern children experience a huge impact on their psycho-emotional state due to globalization, comprehensive informatization and digitalization. This situation aggravates the problem of children's communication. In a constantly changing world, it is quite difficult for today’s child to maintain emotional well-being, especially in the process of communicating with various participants in communication. Despite the many works of scientists considering various aspects of communication and emotional well-being, the problem remains open, discussed from various angles by philosophers, teachers, psychologists, and sociologists. The article examines the causes of emerging communication difficulties in the context of “child–adult,” and “child-parent” since it is in this logic that the experience of common emotional experiences is formed, which is the basis not only for living together but also for the full development of personality. In this case, it is important to pay special attention to the need to ensure the emotional well-being of the child, first of all, by parents who, due to their busy lives, notice less and less the changes occurring with their children. At the same time, children need constructive dialogue, but often adults do not have the patience to choose the right emotions without breaking into shouting and insults if the child displays behavior that differs from the desired one. The reason for communication difficulties, as shown by the results of the survey and long-term observations of the authors, maybe adults ignoring the characteristics of children. These features manifest themselves in children in different ways: for example, inadequate self-esteem is associated with either excessive timidity or aggressiveness. Such children, as a rule, fearing ridicule not only from their peers but even from adults, live with distrust of the world; they lack initiative, often being rude or, on the contrary, mocking others. In addition, modern children are different, not the same as their peers were twenty to twenty-five years ago. Today, the concept of “digital children” and “clip-based” children has become firmly established in the description of children. This circumstance cannot be ignored when building their communication. The authors note that only if the capabilities and originality of modern children are taken into account is it possible to ensure their emotional well-being in the process of communication.

Keywords: emotional well-being, communication, emotional comfort, emotions, communication difficulties, constructive communication, dialogue

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Authors: Titanilla Komenda

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Human-machine-collaboration defines a direct interaction between humans and machines to fulfil specific tasks. Those so-called collaborative machines are used without fencing and interact with humans in predefined workspaces. Even though, human-machine-collaboration enables a flexible adaption to variable degrees of freedom, industrial applications are rarely found. The reasons for this are not technical progress but rather limitations in planning processes ensuring safety for operators. Until now, humans and machines were mainly considered separately in the planning process, focusing on ergonomics and system performance respectively. Within human-machine-collaboration, those aspects must not be seen in isolation from each other but rather need to be analysed in interaction. Furthermore, a simulation model is needed that can validate the system performance and ensure the safety for the operator at any given time. Following on from this, a holistic simulation model is presented, enabling a simulative representation of collaborative tasks – including both, humans and machines. The presented model does not only include a geometry and a motion model of interacting humans and machines but also a numerical behaviour model of humans as well as a Boole’s probabilistic sensor model. With this, error scenarios can be simulated by validating system behaviour in unplanned situations. As these models can be defined on the basis of Failure Mode and Effects Analysis as well as probabilities of errors, the implementation in a collaborative model is discussed and evaluated regarding limitations and simulation times. The functionality of the model is shown on industrial applications by comparing simulation results with video data. The analysis shows the impact of considering human factors in the planning process in contrast to only meeting system performance. In this sense, an optimisation function is presented that meets the trade-off between human and machine factors and aids in a successful and safe realisation of collaborative scenarios.

Keywords: human-machine-system, human-robot-collaboration, safety, simulation

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Authors: Soufi Saylam

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Environmental concerns, rising consumption of energy, and the high cost of mechanical systems have all contributed to increased interest in building energy efficiency and passive thermal design in recent years. This study attempts to make an evaluation of building envelope components and associated retrofits in terms of their impact on energy efficiency and occupant comfort in a sustainable context. The design of the building envelope, as a critical component of the building, has a significant impact on the organization of interior space and user comfort. In this regard, in order to achieve maximum comfort and energy savings, the design of the building envelope should include a thermal comfort system that adapts to climatic variables. This system should be developed in harmony with the environmental features, building shape, and materials used. The aim of this study is to investigate the role of the building envelope in sustainable architecture by integrating traditional envelope design principles and strategies with technological techniques, as well as to examine its role in providing physical and psychological comfort to users in the interior space.

Keywords: envelope design, functional needs, physiological comfort, sustainable architecture, traditional techniques

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Authors: Fuyang Peng, Donghong Li

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The aim of information systems integration is to make all the data sources, applications and business flows integrated into the new environment so that unwanted redundancies are reduced and bottlenecks and mismatches are eliminated. Two issues have to be dealt with to meet such requirements: the software architecture that supports resource integration, and the adaptor development tool that help integration and migration of legacy applications. In this paper, a service-enabled dependable integration environment (SDIE), is presented, which has two key components, i.e., a dependable service integration platform and a legacy application integration tool. For the dependable platform for service integration, the service integration bus, the service management framework, the dependable engine for service composition, and the service registry and discovery components are described. For the legacy application integration tool, its basic organization, functionalities and dependable measures taken are presented. Due to its service-oriented integration model, the light-weight extensible container, the service component combination-oriented p-lattice structure, and other features, SDIE has advantages in openness, flexibility, performance-price ratio and feature support over commercial products, is better than most of the open source integration software in functionality, performance and dependability support.

Keywords: application integration, dependability, legacy, SOA

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Authors: Ojo Adeshina Akinwumi

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This study investigated leadership style and organizational culture as predictors of unethical work behaviour among employees in corporate organizations. This study adopted an expo facto research design. Two Hundred and Seventy-Four (274) employees (149 males, 125 females) sampled from the organization participated in the study. Their ages ranged from 19 to 65, with a mean of 36.36 years and a standard deviation of 10.43. Unethical Work Behaviour was measured using Unethical Work Behaviour Scale (UWBC), Organizational Culture was measured using Organizational Culture Scale, (and OCS and Leadership Styles were measured using Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (LSMLQ). Two hypotheses were formulated and tested using Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Multiple Regressions Analysis. Results indicated that leadership styles had no significant relationship with unethical work behaviour (r(274)=.09;>0.05). However, organizational culture had a significant relationship with unethical work behaviour (r(274)=.15;p,0.05). Lastly, leadership style and organizational culture jointly predicted unethical work behaviour among employees. [F (2, 273) =3.65, p<0.05). Findings from this study were discussed in line with existing literature. It was also recommended that leadership styles and organizational culture should be improved upon in order to reduce unethical work behaviour by employees.

Keywords: leadership style, organizational culture, unethical work behavior, employees in corporate organisations in Nigeria

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Authors: Yan Wang; Mathis Stock

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The World Heritage Site of Honghe Hani rice terrace, also a marginal rural region in Southern China, is undergoing rapid change because of urbanization and heritage tourism. Influenced by out-migration and changing ways of living in the urbanization process, the place sees a tendency of losing its rice terrace landscape, traditional housings and other forms of cultural traditions. However, heritage tourism tends to keep the past, valorize them for tourism purposes and diversifies rural livelihood strategies. The place stands at this development trajectories, where the same resources are subjected to different uses by different actors. The research seeks to answer the questions of how the site is transformed and co-constructed by different institutions, practices and actors, and the how heritage tourism affects local livelihood. The research aims to describe the transformation of villages, rice terraces, and cultural traditions, analyze the place-making process, and assess the role of heritage tourism in local livelihood transition. The research uses a mixed of methods including direct observation, participant observation, interviews; collects various data of images, words, narratives, and statistics, and analyze them qualitatively and qualitatively. Theoretically, it is hoped that the research would reexamine the concept of heritage, the world heritage practice from UNESCO, reveal the conflicts it entails in development and brings more thoughts from a functional perspective on heritage in relation to rural development. Practically, it is also anticipated that the research could access the linkage between heritage tourism and local livelihood, and generate concrete suggestions on how tourism could engage locals and improve their livelihood.

Keywords: cultural landscape, Hani rice terraces, heritage tourism, livelihood strategy, place making, rural development, transformation

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Authors: Amin Nazifi, Amir Raki, Doga Istanbulluoglu

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The incorporation of technological advancements into financial services, commonly referred to as Fintech, is primarily aimed at promoting services that are accessible, convenient, and inclusive, thereby benefiting both consumers and businesses. Fintech services employ a variety of technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), blockchain, and big data, to enhance the efficiency and productivity of traditional services. Cryptocurrency, a component of Fintech, is projected to be a trillion-dollar industry, with over 320 million consumers globally investing in various forms of cryptocurrencies. However, these potentially transformative services can also lead to adverse outcomes. For instance, recent Fintech innovations have been increasingly linked to misconduct and disservice, resulting in serious implications for consumer well-being. This could be attributed to the ease of access to Fintech, which enables adults to trade cryptocurrencies, shares, and stocks via mobile applications. However, there is little known about the darker aspects of technological advancements, such as Fintech. Hence, this study aims to generate scholarly insights into the design of robust and resilient Fintech services that can add value to businesses and enhance consumer well-being. Using a mixed-method approach, the study will investigate the personal and contextual factors influencing consumers’ adoption and usage of technology innovations and their impacts on consumer well-being. First, semi-structured interviews will be conducted with a sample of Fintech users until theoretical saturation is achieved. Subsequently, based on the findings of the first study, a quantitative study will be conducted to develop and empirically test the impacts of these factors on consumers’ well-being using an online survey with a sample of 300 participants experienced in using Fintech services. This study will contribute to the growing Transformative Service Research (TSR) literature by addressing the latest priorities in service research and shedding light on the impact of fintech services on consumer well-being.

Keywords: consumer well-being, financial literacy, Fintech, service innovation

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Authors: Gulfam Hasan, Ijaz Ashraf, Saleem Ashraf, Muhammad Rafay Muzammil, Salman Asghar, Shafiq-Ur-Rehman Zia

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The word “climate change” has become the most popular term when anyone observes any uncertain climate variation in their respective region. Asian countries are more prone to the impact of this phenomenon, and Pakistan is the leading affected country. Last few years, governments all over the world have been trying to cater to this issue for the best entrust of their population, especially agriculture. Now the farmers in Pakistan are fully aware of the term “climate change” and are more concerned about its solutions. On the other hand, developed countries like the USA are setting a benchmark for developing countries in every sphere of life. Based on cultural and other variations, the research was carried out to identify the behavior of farmers regarding the same issue. Cross-sectional survey research was designed for an in-depth study of relevant research questions. Face-to-face interviews were conducted in Pakistan, while virtual and face-to-face interviews were conducted in the Indiana State of the USA. The results of the present study and the responses of farmers were very interesting. The common climate change mitigation strategies suggested by farmers of both countries were less use of motor vehicles (replacement with bicycles in the circle of 10 Km), less dependency on chemical fertilizers (increased use of Manure, Bio-fertilizer, Compost), and plantation of the tree. The difference of opinion was in less government interest, lack of farmers’ education, political instability (views of Pakistani farmers), awareness of local communities, self-satisfaction, and economic disparities (views of USA farmers). Based on the given evidence, it was recommended that there is a dire need to address the climate change issue all over the world without discrimination of race, color, region, or religion. Because it will affect not only agriculture but also the real effect will be on HUMANITY.

Keywords: climate change, mitigation strategies, forests, biodiversity

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Authors: Ghulamhossein Nezami

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Civilizations based in Iran, especially in the south, have always realized the all-around importance of the Persian Sea and for various reasons, have paid full attention to it. The first of these was the pre-Aryan government, Ilam in the coastal province of Sharihum and the city of Lian (now the port of Bushehr) in terms of trade, defense and religion. With the establishment of the Achaemenids on the entire plateau of Iran to the center of Persia, they created several communication routes from Parseh to the shores of the Persian Gulf, which ended in the present Bushehr province. This coastal area was extended by a road in the coastal plain to the more southern parts of the ports of Ausinze - according to Ptolemy the port of Siraf before the Sassanids - and Epstane and Hormozia in the present-day Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, the ancient city of Temukknana, whose new historical documents testify to its extraordinary importance in the Achaemenid period, especially Darius I of the Achaemenids, from a strategic position with the coastal areas, the coasts and on the other hand with the gamers, the political center. - Achaemenid administration, had. New archeological evidence, research, and excavations show that both the famous Achaemenid kings and courtiers paid special attention to Tamukknana. The discovery of a tomb and three Achaemenid palaces from before the reign of Cyrus to Xerxes in this region showed the importance of the strategic, security-defense and commercial position of this region, extraordinary for the Achaemenids. Therefore, the city of Temukkana in the Dashtestan region of present-day Bushehr province became an important Achaemenid center on the Persian Gulf coast and became the political-economic center of gravity of the Achaemenids and the regulator of communication networks on the Persian Gulf coast. This event showed that the Achaemenids attached importance to their economic goals and oversight of their vast territory by the Persian Gulf. Methods: Book resources and field study.

Keywords: Achaemenids, Bushehr, Persian Gulf, Tamukkana

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Authors: Katie Temple

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This paper investigates how corporate actors forge commensurability between Buddhist-based mindfulness techniques and day-to-day organizational life. In-depth interviews were conducted with mindfulness instructors certified through Google’s Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute (SIYLI), an organization that designs corporate mindfulness program curricula based on their experiences guiding courses in Fortune 500 companies. Drawing from anti-essentialist sociology and interpretive data analysis, this paper describes instructors’ use of their standardized teacher guidebooks, a regulatory script all SIYLI-certified instructors must adhere to, and instructors’ reinterpretations of teaching protocols at the local level. Instructors mediate standardized rules through their embodied knowledge, perceived receptivity and effect of a given audience, and their political values. Instructors also resist standardizing practices by developing creative, under-the-radar tactics to deviate from the guidebook and assert their own spiritual autonomy. This research contributes to growing debates challenging critical and neoliberal accounts of capitalist abstraction.

Keywords: anti-essentialism, corporate culture, interpretive methods, mindfulness and meditation, relational sociology

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Authors: S. H. Iranmanesh, L. Aliabadi, A. Mollajan

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Integrated resilience engineering (IRE) is capable of returning banking systems to the normal state in extensive economic circumstances. In this study, information system of a large bank (with several branches) is assessed and optimized under severe economic conditions. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) models are employed to achieve the objective of this study. Nine IRE factors are considered to be the outputs, and a dummy variable is defined as the input of the DEA models. A standard questionnaire is designed and distributed among executive managers to be considered as the decision-making units (DMUs). Reliability and validity of the questionnaire is examined based on Cronbach's alpha and t-test. The most appropriate DEA model is determined based on average efficiency and normality test. It is shown that the proposed integrated design provides higher efficiency than the conventional RE design. Results of sensitivity and perturbation analysis indicate that self-organization, fault tolerance, and reporting culture respectively compose about 50 percent of total weight.

Keywords: banking system, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), Integrated Resilience Engineering (IRE), performance evaluation, perturbation analysis

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Authors: Suleiman Musa, Shuaibu Sidi Safiyanu

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This study examined the digital preservation in Nigeria university libraries. A comparison between the university of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) and Ahmadu Bello University Zaria (ABU, Zaria). The study utilized primary source of data obtained from two selected institution librarians. Finding revealed varying results in terms of skills acquired by librarians before and after digitization of the two institutions. The study reports that journals publication, text book, CD-ROMS, conference papers and proceedings, theses, dissertations and seminar papers are among the information resources available for digitization. The study further documents that copyright issue, power failure, and unavailability of needed materials are among the challenges facing the digitization of library of the institution. On the basis of the finding, the study concluded that digitization of library enhances efficiency in organization and retrieval of information services. The study therefore recommended that software should be upgraded with backup, training of the librarians on digital process, installation of antivirus and enhancement of technical collaboration between the library and MIS.

Keywords: digitalization, preservation, libraries, comparison

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Authors: J. K. Adedeji, M. O. Oyekanmi

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This paper has critically examined the use of Machine Learning procedures in curbing unauthorized access into valuable areas of an organization. The use of passwords, pin codes, user’s identification in recent times has been partially successful in curbing crimes involving identities, hence the need for the design of a system which incorporates biometric characteristics such as DNA and pattern recognition of variations in facial expressions. The facial model used is the OpenCV library which is based on the use of certain physiological features, the Raspberry Pi 3 module is used to compile the OpenCV library, which extracts and stores the detected faces into the datasets directory through the use of camera. The model is trained with 50 epoch run in the database and recognized by the Local Binary Pattern Histogram (LBPH) recognizer contained in the OpenCV. The training algorithm used by the neural network is back propagation coded using python algorithmic language with 200 epoch runs to identify specific resemblance in the exclusive OR (XOR) output neurons. The research however confirmed that physiological parameters are better effective measures to curb crimes relating to identities.

Keywords: biometric characters, facial recognition, neural network, OpenCV

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Authors: Aleksandra Chiniaeva

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The following paper describes the activity of national and international parliamentary assemblies of the European region in protection and promotion of human rights. It may be said that parliamentarians have a “double mandate” — as members of the international assembly and of their respective national parliaments. In other words, parliamentarization at both international and national level provides a situation for parliamentarians, where they link people, national governments and international organizations. The paper is aimed towards demonstrating that the activity of the main international parliamentary assemblies of the European region have a real positive impact on the human rights situation in the European region. In addition, the paper describes the assemblies that include protection of human rights in their Agenda as one of the main subjects: the EP, the PACE, the OSCE PA and the IPA CIS. Co-operation activities such as joint election observation; participation in inter-parliamentary associations, such as the IPU; conclusion agreements allow assemblies to provide observation of human right situation in the states that are not members of the particular organization and as consequence make their impact broader.

Keywords: human rights, international parliamentary assembly, IPU, EP, PACE, OSCE, international election observation

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Authors: Dilliram Paudyal

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The history of taxation in Nepal dates back to antiquity. However, the modern tax system gained its momentum after the establishment of democracy in 1951, which initially focused only land tax and tariff on foreign trade. In the due time, several taxes were introduced, such as direct taxes, indirect taxes, and non-taxes. However, the tax structure in Nepal is heavily dominated by indirect taxes that contribute more than 60 % of the total revenue. The government has been mobilizing revenues through a series of tax reforms during the Tenth Five-year Plan (2002 – 2007) and successive Three-year Interim Development Plans by introducing several tax measures. However, these reforms are regressive in nature, which does not lead the overall economy towards short-run stability as well as in the long run development. Based on the literature review and discussion among government officials and few taxpayers individually and groups, this paper aims to major issues and challenges that hinder the tax reform effective in Nepal. Additionally, this paper identifies potential way and process of tax reform in Nepal. The results of the study indicate that transparency in a major problem in Nepalese tax system in Nepal, where serious structural constraints with administrative and procedural complexities envisaged in the Income Tax Act and taxpayers are often unaware of the specific size of tax which is to comply them. Some other issues include high tax rate, limited tax base, leakages in tax collection, rigid and complex Income Tax Act, inefficient and corrupt tax administration, limited potentialities of direct taxes and negative responsiveness of land tax with higher administrative costs. In the context, modality of tax structure and mobilize additional resources is to be rectified on a greater quantum by establishing an effective, dynamic and highly power driven Autonomous Revenue Board.

Keywords: corrupt, development, inefficient, taxation

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Authors: Fatemeh Parhizkar, Mojtaba Yamani, Abdolla Behboodi, Masoomeh Hashemi

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The mangrove forests are natural and valuable gifts that exist in some parts of the world, including Iran. Regarding the threats faced by these forests and the declining area of them all over the world, as well as in Iran, it is very necessary to manage and monitor them. The current study aimed to investigate the changes in mangrove forests and the relationship between these changes and the marine hydrodynamics and coastal morphology in the area between qeshm island and the west coast of the Hormozgan province (i.e. the coastline between Mehran river and Bandar-e Pol port) in the 49-year period. After preprocessing and classifying satellite images using the SVM, MLC, and ANN classifiers and evaluating the accuracy of the maps, the SVM approach with the highest accuracy (the Kappa coefficient of 0.97 and overall accuracy of 98) was selected for preparing the classification map of all images. The results indicate that from 1972 to 1987, the area of these forests have had experienced a declining trend, and in the next years, their expansion was initiated. These forests include the mangrove forests of Khurkhuran wetland, Muriz Deraz Estuary, Haft Baram Estuary, the mangrove forest in the south of the Laft Port, and the mangrove forests between the Tabl Pier, Maleki Village, and Gevarzin Village. The marine hydrodynamic and geomorphological characteristics of the region, such as average intertidal zone, sediment data, the freshwater inlet of Mehran river, wave stability and calmness, topography and slope, as well as mangrove conservation projects make the further expansion of mangrove forests in this area possible. By providing significant and up-to-date information on the development and decline of mangrove forests in different parts of the coast, this study can significantly contribute to taking measures for the conservation and restoration of mangrove forests.

Keywords: mangrove forests, marine hydrodynamics, coastal morphology, west of strait of Hormuz, Iran

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Authors: Sanjar Davronov

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Linguistic research of food discourse helps to analyze gastronomic picture of the world which plays important role in cross-cultural communications. 20 hours lecture can’t provide broad knowledge about national picture of the world of native speakers whose language being studied by future translator students. This abstract analyses how to research food discourse in “Cross-cultural (or lingvo-cultural) communication” lectures for ESL students. During compare Uzbek and American national meals, we found some specific features of food names in both countries. For example: If names of food includes advertising character in USA restaurant menus like: New York strip Sirloin crowned with Fresh – squeezed orange and lemon with a hint of garlic; Uzbek meals names are too simple, short and force general afford in underlining action – preparation process like: “Dimlama” (dimla(verb-to stew)+ma(suffix of past perfect like- stew- stewed). “Qovurdoq” (qovur (verb- to fry)+ doq (suffix of adverb like “fried one”) but these are the most delicious and difficult in preparing national meals however it is heritage of national cuisine. There are also similarity between US and Uzbek food names which has geographical color - South African Lobster tail; Qashqadaryo tandiri (lamb prepared in “tandir” typical national oven with pine leafs in Qashkadarya region). Food for European people contains physical context more than spiritual but in Asian literature especially Uzbek food has some pragmatic stuff: salt and bread (associates with hospitality and humanity), don’t be faithlessness 40 for owners of house where you where a guest. We share some teaching techniques for food discourse analyzing lectures.

Keywords: cross-cultural communications, food discourse, ESL lectures, linguistic research

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Authors: Shih-Ming Wang, Chun-Kai Yeh, Ming-Hwang Shie, Tai-Wei Lin, Chieh-Fu Chang

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This paper introduces a FPGA-based baseband signals generator (BSG) of X-band transmitter developed by National Space Organization (NSPO), Taiwan, for earth observation. In order to gain more flexibility for various applications, a number of modulation schemes, QPSK, DeQPSK and 8PSK 4D-TCM are included. For micro satellite scenario, the maximum symbol rate is up to 150Mbsps, and the EVM is as low as 1.9%. For CubeSat scenario, the maximum symbol rate is up to 60Mbsps, and the EVM is less than 1.7%. The maximum data rates are 412.5Mbps and 165Mbps, respectively. Besides, triple modular redundancy (TMR) scheme is implemented in order to reduce single event effect (SEE) induced by radiation. Finally, the theoretical error performance is provided based on comprehensive analysis, especially when BER is lower and much lower than 10⁻⁶ due to low error bit requirement of modern high-resolution earth remote-sensing instruments.

Keywords: X-band transmitter, FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array), CubeSat, micro satellite

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Authors: Seyong Jeong, Jinmo Park, Jinhyoun Park, Boram Kim, Kyoungsoo Ahn

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Energy management in the maritime industry is being required by economics and in conformity with new legislative actions taken by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the European Union (EU). In response, the various performance monitoring methodologies and data collection practices have been examined by different stakeholders. While many assorted advancements in operation and technology are applicable, their adoption in the shipping industry stays small. This slow uptake can be considered due to many different barriers such as data analysis problems, misreported data, and feedback problems, etc. This study presents a conceptual design of an energy management system (EMS) and proposes the methodology to resolve the limitations (e.g., data normalization using naval architectural evaluation, management of misrepresented data, and feedback from shore to ship through management of performance analysis history). We expect this system to make even short-term charterers assess the ship performance properly and implement sustainable fleet control.

Keywords: data normalization, energy management system, naval architectural evaluation, ship performance analysis

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Authors: Dimpy Shah

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The global economy has substantially changed in last three decades. Now almost all markets are transparent and visible for global customers. The corporates are now no more reliant on local markets for trade. The information technology revolution has changed business dynamics and marketing practices of corporate. The markets are divided into two different formats: traditional and virtual. In very short span of time, many e-commerce portals have captured global market. This strategy is well supported by global delivery system of multinational logistic companies. Now the markets are dealing with global supply chain networks, which are more demand driven and customer oriented. The corporate have realized importance of supply chain integration and marketing in this competitive environment. The Indian markets are also significantly affected with all these changes. In terms of population, India is in second place after China. In terms of demography, almost half of the population is of youth. It has been observed that the Indian youth are more inclined towards e-commerce and prefer to buy goods from web portal. Initially, this trend was observed in Indian service sector, textile and electronic goods and now further extended in other product categories. The FMCG companies have also recognized this change and started integration of their supply chain with e-commerce platform. This paper attempts to understand contemporary marketing practices of corporate in e-commerce business in Indian food and beverages segment and also tries to identify innovative marketing practices for proper execution of their strategies. The findings are mainly focused on supply chain re-integration and brand building strategies with proper utilization of social media.

Keywords: FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods), ISCM (Integrated supply chain management), RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), traditional and virtual formats

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Authors: Samaneh Pouyanfar, Michael Oliff

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The industry of home appliances may beone of theindustries which has the highest competition, and actually what can guarantee the survival of this industry is discovering the superior services. A trend to provide quality products and services plays an important role in this industry because discovering the services is counted as a vital affair for Manufacturing Organizations’ survival and profitability. Given the importance of the topic, this paper attempts to investigate the relative priority of the factors influencing the customer satisfaction in gaining the competitive advantage in Pars-Khazar Company. In sum, 96 executives of Pars-Khazar Company where investigated in a census. For this purpose, after reviewing the research literature and performing deep interviews between pundits and experts active in the industry, the research questionnaire was made based on variables affecting customer satisfaction and components determining business competitive advantage. Determining the content validity took place by judgement of the experts. The reliability of each structure was measured based on Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. Since the value of Cronbach's alpha was higher than 0.7 for each structure, internal consistency of statements was high and the reliability of the questionnaire was acceptable. The data analysis was also done with Kulmgrf-asmyrnf test and Friedman test using SPSS software. The results showed that in dimension of factors affecting customer satisfaction, the History of trade name (brand), Familiarity with the product brand, Brand reputation and Safety have the highest value of priority respectively, and the variable of firm growth has the highest value of priority among the components determining the performance of competitive advantage.

Keywords: customer satisfaction, competitive advantage, brand history, safety, growth

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Authors: Ping Ren, Mao Wen, Kan Zhang, Weitao Zheng

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The improvement of comprehensive properties including hardness, toughness, wear, and corrosion resistance in the transition metal carbides/nitrides TMCN films, especially avoiding the trade-off between hardness and toughness, is strongly required to adapt to various applications. Although incorporating ductile metal DM phase into the TMCN via thermally-induced phase separation has been emerged as an effective approach to toughen TMCN-based films, the DM is just limited to some soft ductile metal (i.e. Cu, Ag, Au immiscibility with the TMCN. Moreover, hardness is highly sensitive to soft DM content and can be significantly worsened. Hence, a novel preparation method should be attempted to broaden the DM selection and assemble much more ordered nanocomposite structure for improving the comprehensive properties. Here, we provide a new strategy, by activating solid-state dewetting during layered deposition, to accomplish the self-assembly of ordered TaC@Ta core-shell-like nanocomposite film consisting of TaC nanocrystalline encapsulated with thin pseudocrystal Ta tissue. That results in the superhard (~45.1 GPa) dominated by Orowan strengthening mechanism and high toughness attributed to indenter-induced phase transformation from the pseudocrystal to body-centered cubic Ta, together with the drastically enhanced wear and corrosion resistance. Furthermore, very thin pseudocrystal Ta encapsulated layer (~1.5 nm) in the TaC@Ta core-shell-like structure helps for promoting the formation of lubricious TaOₓ Magnéli phase during sliding, thereby further dropping the coefficient of friction. Apparently, solid-state dewetting may provide a new route to construct ordered TMC(N)@TM core-shell-like nanocomposite capable of combining superhard, high toughness, low friction, superior wear with corrosion resistance.

Keywords: corrosion, nanocomposite film, solid-state dewetting, tribology

Procedia PDF Downloads 138

Authors: Bereket Amare Mulu

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Ethiopia is one of the countries that consists of a huge variety of botanical resources as compared to the world. The agroclimatic is suitable for a variety of plants to grow effectively throughout the year. Sources of food plants are basic items for people in the world. Production of food items is a prior activity and needs more resources and attention to produce a huge amount of production. The local food is rich in nutrition and healthful foods. The local food is fresh and not exposed to infections easily. The community can easily get the food items in their surroundings. The local food sources are not expensive when it is compared to the other proceed food items, and it is affordable to the community purchasing power. The food is very tasty and palatable capacity by the whole community categories. The basic problems in Ethiopia are the community experiences some of the common food source items. On the contrary, inefficient food production, low economic growth, and climate variability affected food production. This leads to serious food shortages and acute health problems. The objective of the study is to identify local food sources and analyze the advantage and benefits of local food sources. Casava is one of the root crop plants in Ethiopia and easily adapts to any type of agroecology in every place in the country. 50 community members have been identified to prepare casava in different forms of food items. They have prepared in the forms of Bread, Injera, Porridge, Boiled casava, fried chips Casava, and Cocktails. The prepared food items have been exposed to the community as a food festival to eat and taste how much interesting Even though there is a cultural barrier to eating the food items, the community had the food and tasted it the food. The result showed that community awareness is still not addressed the benefits of local food sources yet. The local food has high nutritional value and healthful foods. The local food sources are fresh and easily produced in every place of the country.

Keywords: bread, cassava, injera, nutrition

Procedia PDF Downloads 111

Authors: Camila Penido Gomes

Abstract:

Over the past decade, an emerging body of research has been pointing to artificial intelligence´s great potential to improve the use of open data, increase transparency and curb corruption in the public sector. Nonetheless, studies on this subject are scant and usually lack evidence to validate AI-based technologies´ effectiveness in addressing corruption, especially in developing countries. Aiming to fill this void in the literature, this paper sets out to examine how AI has been deployed by civil society to improve the use of open data and prevent congresspeople from misusing public resources in Brazil. Building on the current debates and carrying out a systematic literature review and extensive document analyses, this research reveals that AI should not be deployed as one silver bullet to fight corruption. Instead, this technology is more powerful when adopted by a multidisciplinary team as a civic tool in conjunction with other strategies. This study makes considerable contributions, bringing to the forefront discussion a more accurate understanding of the factors that play a decisive role in the successful implementation of AI-based technologies in anti-corruption efforts.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, civil society organization, corruption, open data, transparency

Procedia PDF Downloads 208

Authors: Mohd Tariq, Shyamal K. Nandi, Indra D. Bhatt

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Paris polyphylla Smith (Family- Liliaceae; English name-Love apple: Local name- Satuwa) is an important folk medicinal herb of the Indian subcontinent, being a source of number of bioactive compounds for drug formulation. The rhizomes are widely used as antihelmintic, antispasmodic, digestive stomachic, expectorant and vermifuge, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, heart and vascular malady, anti-fertility and sedative. Keeping in view of this, the species is being constantly removed from nature for trade and various pharmaceuticals purpose, as a result, the availability of the species in its natural habitat is decreasing. In this context, it would be pertinent to conserve this species and reintroduce them in its natural habitat. Predictive distribution modelling of this species was performed in Western Himalayan Region. One such recent method is Ecological Niche Modelling, also popularly known as Species distribution modelling, which uses computer algorithms to generate predictive maps of species distributions in a geographic space by correlating the point distributional data with a set of environmental raster data. In case of P. polyphylla, and to understand its potential distribution zones and setting up of artificial introductions, or selecting conservation sites, and conservation and management of their native habitat. Among the different districts of Uttarakhand (28°05ˈ-31°25ˈ N and 77°45ˈ-81°45ˈ E) Uttarkashi, Rudraprayag, Chamoli, Pauri Garhwal and some parts of Bageshwar, 'Maximum Entropy' (Maxent) has predicted wider potential distribution of P. polyphylla Smith. Distribution of P. polyphylla is mainly governed by Precipitation of Driest Quarter and Mean Diurnal Range i.e., 27.08% and 18.99% respectively which indicates that humidity (27%) and average temperature (19°C) might be suitable for better growth of Paris polyphylla.

Keywords: biodiversity conservation, Indian Himalayan region, Paris polyphylla, predictive distribution modelling

Procedia PDF Downloads 334

Authors: Kaznah Alshammari, Thomas Beach, Yacine Rezgui

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Technological advances in the construction sector are helping to make smart cities a reality by means of cyber-physical systems (CPS). CPS integrate information and the physical world through the use of information communication technologies (ICT). An increasingly common goal in the built environment is to integrate building information models (BIM) with the Internet of Things (IoT) and sensor technologies using CPS. Future advances could see the adoption of digital twins, creating new opportunities for CPS using monitoring, simulation, and optimisation technologies. However, researchers often fail to fully consider the security implications. To date, it is not widely possible to assimilate BIM data and cybersecurity concepts, and, therefore, security has thus far been overlooked. This paper reviews the empirical literature concerning IoT applications in the built environment and discusses real-world applications of the IoT intended to enhance construction practices, people’s lives and bolster cybersecurity. Specifically, this research addresses two research questions: (a) how suitable are the current IoT and CPS security stacks to address the cybersecurity threats facing digital twins in the context of smart buildings and districts? and (b) what are the current obstacles to tackling cybersecurity threats to the built environment CPS? To answer these questions, this paper reviews the current state-of-the-art research concerning digital twins in the built environment, the IoT, BIM, urban cities, and cybersecurity. The results of these findings of this study confirmed the importance of using digital twins in both IoT and BIM. Also, eight reference zones across Europe have gained special recognition for their contributions to the advancement of IoT science. Therefore, this paper evaluates the use of digital twins in CPS to arrive at recommendations for expanding BIM specifications to facilitate IoT compliance, bolster cybersecurity and integrate digital twin and city standards in the smart cities of the future.

Keywords: BIM, cybersecurity, digital twins, IoT, urban cities

Procedia PDF Downloads 173

Authors: Radek Richtr, Petr Pauš

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Social media nowadays connects people more tightly and intensively than ever, but simultaneously, some sort of social distance, incomprehension, lost of social integrity appears. People can be strongly connected to the person on the other side of the world but unaware of neighbours in the same district or street. The Stoa is a type of application from the ”serious games” genre- it is research augmented reality experiment masked as a gaming environment. In the Stoa environment, the player can plant and grow virtual (organic) structure, a Pillar, that represent the whole suburb. Everybody has their own idea of what is an acceptable, admirable or harmful visual intervention in the area they live in; the purpose of this research experiment is to find and/or define residents shared subconscious spirit, genius loci of the Pillars vicinity, where residents live in. The appearance and evolution of Stoa’s Pillars reflect the real world as perceived by not only the creator but also by other residents/players, who, with their actions, refine the environment. Squares, parks, patios and streets get their living avatar depictions; investors and urban planners obtain information on the occurrence and level of motivation for reshaping the public space. As the project is in product conceptual design phase, the function is one of its most important factors. Function-based modelling makes design problem modular and structured and thus decompose it into sub-functions or function-cells. Paper discuss the current conceptual model for Stoa project, the using of different organic structure textures and models, user interface design, UX study and project’s developing to the final state.

Keywords: augmented reality, urban computing, interaction design, mixed reality, social engineering

Procedia PDF Downloads 234

Authors: Freda E. Asem, R. D. Osei, D. B. Sarpong, J. K. Kuwornu

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While market access remains important, Ghana’s major handicap is her inability to sustain export growth on the open market. The causes of these could be attributed to inefficiency, lack of competitiveness and supply-side constraints. This study examined the challenges faced by smallholder horticultural farmers and how it relates to their technical efficiency. The study employed mixed methods to address the problem. Using the Millennium Development Account (MiDA) Farmer Based Organization survey data on farm households in 23 districts in Ghana, the study assessed the technical efficiency of smallholder horticultural farmers (taking into account production risks). Focus group discussions (FGDs) and in-depth interviews were also conducted on smallholder mango, pineapple, and chilli pepper farmers selected districts in Ghana. Results revealed the constraints faced by smallholder horticultural farmers to be marketing, training, funding, accessibility, and affordability of inputs, land, access to credit, and the disconnect between themselves and policy makers and implementers.

Keywords: productivity, gender, policy, efficiency, constraints

Procedia PDF Downloads 488