Search results for: sustainable leadership

Authors: Abdessalam Hijab, Hafida Boulekbache, Eric Henry

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The objective of this article is to explain the use of geographic information system (GIS) and information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the real-time processing and analysis of data on the status of an urban sanitation network by integrating professional actors in sanitation for sustainable management in urban areas. Indeed, it is a smart geo-collaboration based on the complementarity of ICTs and GIS. This multi-actor reflection was built with the objective of contributing to the development of complementary solutions to the existing technologies to better protect the urban environment, with the help of a checklist with the spatial reference "E-Géo-LD" dedicated to the "professional/professional" actors in sanitation, for intelligent monitoring of liquid sanitation networks in urban areas. In addition, this research provides a good understanding and assimilation of liquid sanitation schemes in the "Lamkansa" sampling area of the city of Casablanca, and spatially evaluates these schemes. Downstream, it represents a guide to assess the environmental impacts of the liquid sanitation scheme.

Keywords: ICT, GIS, spatial checklist, liquid sanitation, environment

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Authors: Ahmed R. Ismail, Hatem A. El Tawil, Nevin G. Rezk

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Historic paths in today's cities are facing the pressure of the urban development due to the rapid urban growth. Every new development is tearing the old urban fabric and the socio-economic character of the historic paths. Furthermore, in some cases historic paths suffer from negligence and decay. Kom El Dekka historic path was one of those deteriorated paths in the city of Alexandria, Egypt, in spite of its high heritage and socio-economic value. Therefore, there was a need to develop urban regeneration strategies as a part of a wider sustainable development vision, to handle the situation and revitalize the path as a livable space in the heart of the city. This study aims to develop a comprehensive assessment methodology to evaluate the different values of the path and to create community-oriented and economic-based analysis methodology for its socio-economic values. These analysis and assessments provide strategies for any regeneration action plan for Kom El Dekka historic path.

Keywords: community-oriented, economic-based, syntactical analysis, urban regeneration

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Authors: Aswin Kumar Krishnan, Yat Choy Wong, Reiza Mukhlis, Zipeng Zhang, Arul Arulrajah

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The continuous increase in vehicle uptake escalates the number of rubber tyre waste which need to be managed to avoid landfilling and stockpiling. The present research focused on the sustainable use of rubber crumbs in clay roof tiles. The properties of roof tiles composed of clay, rubber crumbs, NaOH, and Na₂SiO₃ with a 10% alkaline activator were studied. Tile samples were fabricated by heating the compacted mixtures at 50°C for 72 hours, followed by a higher heating temperature of 200°C for 24 hours. The effect of rubber crumbs aggregates as a substitution for the raw clay materials was investigated by varying their concentration from 0% to 2.5%. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses have been conducted to study the phases and microstructures of the samples. It was found that the optimum rubber crumbs concentration was at 0.5% and 1%, while cracks and larger porosity were found at higher crumbs concentrations. Water absorption and compressive strength test results demonstrated that rubber crumbs and clay satisfied the standard requirement for the roof tiles.

Keywords: rubber crumbs, clay, roof tiles, alkaline activators

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Authors: Nicholas Aerne, John P. Parmigiani

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There is an increasing desire for renewable and sustainable energy sources to replace fossil fuels. This desire is the result of several factors. First, is the role of fossil fuels in climate change. Scientific data clearly shows that global warming is occurring. It has also been concluded that it is highly likely human activity; specifically, the combustion of fossil fuels, is a major cause of this warming. Second, despite the current surplus of petroleum, fossil fuels are a finite resource and will eventually become scarce and alternatives, such as clean or renewable energy will be needed. Third, operations to obtain fossil fuels such as fracking, off-shore oil drilling, and strip mining are expensive and harmful to the environment. Given these environmental impacts, there is a need to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy sources as a primary energy source. Various sources of renewable energy exist. Many familiar sources obtain renewable energy from the sun and natural environments of the earth. Common examples include solar, hydropower, geothermal heat, ocean waves and tides, and wind energy. Often obtaining significant energy from these sources requires physically-large, sophisticated, and expensive equipment (e.g., wind turbines, dams, solar panels, etc.). Other sources of renewable energy are from the man-made environment. An example is municipal water distribution systems. The movement of water through the pipelines of these systems typically requires the reduction of hydraulic pressure through the use of pressure reducing valves. These valves are needed to reduce upstream supply-line pressures to levels suitable downstream users. The energy associated with this reduction of pressure is significant but is currently not harvested and is simply lost. While the integrity of municipal water supplies is of paramount importance, one can certainly envision means by which this lost energy source could be safely accessed. This paper provides a technical description and analysis of one such means by the technology company InPipe Energy to generate hydroelectricity by harvesting energy from municipal water distribution pressure reducing valve stations. Specifically, InPipe Energy proposes to install hydropower turbines in parallel with existing pressure reducing valves in municipal water distribution systems. InPipe Energy in partnership with Oregon State University has evaluated this approach and built a prototype system at the O. H. Hinsdale Wave Research Lab. The Oregon State University evaluation showed that the prototype system rapidly and safely initiates, maintains, and ceases power production as directed. The outgoing water pressure remained constant at the specified set point throughout all testing. The system replicates the functionality of the pressure reducing valve and ensures accurate control of down-stream pressure. At a typical water-distribution-system pressure drop of 60 psi the prototype, operating at an efficiency 64%, produced approximately 5 kW of electricity. Based on the results of this study, this proposed method appears to offer a viable means of producing significant amounts of clean renewable energy from existing pressure reducing valves.

Keywords: pressure reducing valve, renewable energy, sustainable energy, water supply

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Authors: Mitra Ghiasi, Roghayeh Ghorbani Bousari

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Nowadays, the aim of the organizations is to gain sustainable competitive. So, developing their intellectual capital, encouraging innovation, increasing suitable performance can be done by knowledge management. Knowledge turns into science if knowledge is used to improve decision making, decision quality and make effective decisions. The current research intends to investigate the relationship between cybernetics and knowledge management from the perspective of users who are members of electronic discussion groups (ALA, ALIA). The research methodology is survey method, and it is a type of correlation research. Cybernetics and knowledge management questionnaires used for collecting data. The questionnaire that was designed in electronic format, distributed among two electronic discussion groups during 30 days and completed by 100 members of each electronic discussion groups. The finding of this research showed that although cybernetics has an impact on knowledge management, there is no significant difference between the ALA and ALIA user's view regard to effect of cybernetics on knowledge management. The results also indicated that this conceptual model is consistent with the data collected from the sample.

Keywords: ALA discussion group, ALIA discussion group, cybernetics, knowledge management

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Authors: Marco Correa, Flavio Araujo, Paulo Scalize, Antonio Albuquerque

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The increasing reduction of the volumes of surface water sources which supply most municipalities, as well as the continued rise of demand for treated water, combined with the disposal of effluents from washing of decanters and filters of the water treatment plants, generates a continuous search for correct environmentally solutions to these problems. The effluents generated by the water treatment industry need to be suitably processed for return to the environment or re-use. This article shows an alternative for the dehydration of sludge from the water treatment plants (WTP) and eventual disposal of sludge drained. Using the simple design methodology, we present a case study for a drainage in tanks geotextile, full-scale, which involve five sludge drainage tanks from WTP of the Rio Verde City. Aiming to the reutilization the water drained from the sludge and enabling its reuse both at the beginning of the treatment process at the WTP and in less noble services as for watering the gardens of the local town hall. The sludge will be used to production of building materials.

Keywords: re-use, residue, sustainable, water treatment plants, sludge

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Authors: Lorenzo Maiorino, Fabio Fortuna, Giovanni Panebianco, Marco Sanzari, Gabriella Arcese, Valerio Maria Paolozzi

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It is well known that sport is a factor of social cohesion and the breaking down of barriers between people. From this point of view, the aim is to demonstrate how, through the (re)generation of sustainable structures, it is possible to give life to a new social, cultural, and economic pathway, where possible, in peripheral areas with problems of abandonment and degradation. The aim of this paper is, therefore, to study realities such as European programs and funds and to highlight the ways in which planning can be used to respond to critical issues such as urban decay, abandonment, and the mitigation of social differences. For this reason, the analysis will be carried out through the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) package, the Next Generation EU, the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), the Cohesion Fund, the European Social Fund, and other managed funds. The procedure will rely on sources and data of unquestionable origin, and the relation to the object of study in question will be highlighted. The project lends itself to be ambitious and exploring a further aspect of the sports theme, which, as we know, is one of the foundations for a healthy society.

Keywords: sport, social inclusion, urban regeneration, sports facilities, European funds

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Authors: Rabia Almas

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Today’s world is demanding natural and biological colorants on priority bases as an alternative to toxic and unsustainable synthetic dyes. Sustainable natural colors from plants and/or living organisms such as bacteria's and fungi attracted the world research scholars and textile industries recently due to the excitement and opportunities they covered. So, in the present study, natural colors from food waste, such as orange peels and peanuts, were extracted and applied to cotton fabric. The dyeing recipes were optimized in terms of dye concentration, processing temperature and time for higher color strength. The characterization of the dyes and fabric, such as Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy, and fastness properties were measured for the identification of the chemical groups involved for a better understanding of the dyeing behavior. The results revealed that proper mordanting and concentration of dye on cotton fabric could give high color strength and good fastness to wash and light and these natural dyes can be used as an alternative to synthetic toxic colorants.

Keywords: textile, textile dyes, natural dyes, bio colors

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Authors: Rozanne Janet Smith

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This article examined the corporate governance disclosures of the large and medium-sized auditing firms in South Africa. It is important that auditing firms disclose their practice of good corporate governance to the public, as they serve the public interest. The auditing profession has been criticized due to many corporate scandals in recent years. This has undermined the reputation of the profession, with experts and the public questioning whether auditing firms have corporate governance structures in place, and whether they are taking public interest into consideration. In South Africa there is no corporate governance code specifically for audit firms. Auditing firms are encouraged by IRBA to issue a transparency report in which they disclose corporate governance structures and application, but this is not compulsory in South Africa. Moreover, the information issued in these transparency reports is limited and often only focuses on audit quality, and not governance. Through a literature review it was found that the UK is one of only a few countries who has a corporate governance code for audit firms. As South Africa initially used the UK Cadbury report to develop the King IV Code, it was fitting to use the UK Audit Firm Governance Code as a benchmark to determine if audit firms in South Africa are disclosing relevant corporate governance information in their transparency reports and/or integrated reports. This study contributes to the existing body of knowledge by pursuing the following objective: To determine the improvement in the corporate governance disclosures of large and medium-sized auditing firms in South Africa through comparative research. Available data from 2019 will be used and compared to the disclosures in the 2023/2024 transparency and or integrated reports of the large and medium-sized auditing firms in South Africa. To achieve this objective a constructivist research paradigm was applied. Qualitative secondary information was gathered for the analysis. A content analysis was selected to collect the qualitative data by analyzing the integrated reports and/or transparency reports of large and medium-sized auditing firms with 20 or more partners and to determine what is disclosed on their corporate governance practices. These transparency reports and integrated reports were then read and analyzed in depth and compared to the principles stated in the UK Code. Since there are only nine medium-sized and large auditing firms in South Africa, the researcher was able to conduct the content analysis by reading each report in depth. The following six principles which are found in the UK Code were assessed for disclosure. (1) Leadership, (2) Values, (3) INED, (4) Operations, (5) Reporting, and (6) Dialogue. The results reveal that the auditing firms are not disclosing the corporate governance principles and practices to the necessary extent. Although there has been some improvement, the disclosure is not to the extent which it should be. There is still a need for a South African audit firm governance code.

Keywords: auditing firms, corporate governance, South Africa, disclosure

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Authors: Mohamed Chakroun

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In this paper, we analyze the macroeconomic impacts of Oman’s strategy to transition to a green economy by 2050. Our objective is to determine the most effective climate policy instrument to facilitate this transition. By utilizing a Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model, we assess the effectiveness of three climate policy tools: a carbon tax, subsidies to green assets, and taxes on brown assets. Our results indicate that a combination of a carbon tax, along with differentiated taxes and subsidies on green and brown assets, proves to the most effective policy in reducing emissions while maintaining macroeconomic stability. The findings of this study demonstrate the need for policymakers to balance the immediate goals of reducing emissions with the economic costs involved. Implementing a gradual transition strategy may be preferable as it allows for mitigating the negative economic impacts while facilitating the shift towards a green economy.

Keywords: green economy, carbon tax, DSGE model, climate policy, sustainable growth

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Authors: Paulo Cumbe

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This work analyzes the economic and environmental impact of the exploitation of forest resources on populations and their sustainability in the regions where it occurs. There is an intensive and continuous activity of charcoal production, in the Massingir and Mabalane districts, in Gaza, Mozambique, to supply the most used fuel that is used by the population of the capital city, Maputo. Charcoal production is one of the sources of income for several families. However, it causes a negative environmental impact on biodiversity. We have analyzed different studies carried out in these communities that measure the speed, the level, and the impact of deforestation involving different actors, to deepen our understanding of this issue. The results of these studies reveal that the degraded area in five years would need one hundred years to be restored, which is unsustainable from an environmental point of view it is. Populations seek new areas for the same practice to maintain their livelihood, progressing with ecosystem degradation and increasing carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere. It is believed that environmental education, creation, and dissemination of new forms of charcoal production that are more profitable and less aggressive to the environment and forest repopulation actions need to be carried out to guarantee the sustainable development of the populations in these regions.

Keywords: deforestation, emissions, sustainability, charcoal

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Authors: Lama Yaseen, Nourah Al-Hosain

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A Multi-modal system in urban mobility is an essential framework for an optimized urban transport network. Many cities are still heavily dependent on vehicle transportation, dominantly using conventional fuel-based cars for daily travel. With the reliance on motorized vehicles in large cities such as Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia, traffic congestion is eminent, which ultimately results in an increase in road emissions and loss of time. Saudi Arabia plans to undergo a massive transformation in mobility infrastructure and urban greening projects, including introducing public transport and other massive urban greening infrastructures that enable alternative mobility options. This paper uses a Geographic Information System (GIS) approach that analyzes the accessibility of current and planned public transport stations and how they intertwine with massive urban greening projects that may play a role as an enabler of micro-mobility and walk-ability options in the city.

Keywords: urban development, urban mobility, sustainable mobility, Middle East

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Authors: M. Aruna

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Emphasis on the advancement of new materials and technology has been there for the past few decades. The global development towards using cheap and durable materials from renewable resources contributes to sustainable development. An experimental investigation of mechanical behaviour of sisal fiber-reinforced concrete is reported for making a suitable building material in terms of reinforcement. Fibre reinforced composite is one such material, which has reformed the concept of high strength. Sisal fibres are abundantly available in the hot areas. The sisal fiber has emerged as a reinforcing material for concretes, used in civil structures. In this work, properties such as hardness and tensile strength of sisal fibre reinforced cement composites with 6, 12, 18, and 24% by weight of sisal fibres were assessed. Sisal fiber reinforced cement composite slabs with long sisal fibers were manufactured using a cast hand layup technique. Mechanical response was measured under tension. The high energy absorption capacity of the developed composite system was reflected in high toughness values under tension respectively.

Keywords: sisal fibre, fiber-reinforced concrete, mechanical behaviour, composite materials

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Authors: Rolf Katzenbach, Frithjof Clauss, Jie Zheng

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The final energy use can be divided mainly in four sectors: commercial, industrial, residential, and transportation. The trend in final energy consumption by sector plays as a most straightforward way to provide a wide indication of progress for reducing energy consumption and associated environmental impacts by different end use sectors. According to statistics the average share of end use energy for residential sector in the world was nearly 20% until 2011, in Germany a higher proportion is between 25% and 30%. However, it remains less studied than energy use in other three sectors as well its impacts on climate and environment. The reason for this involves a wide range of fields, including the diversity of residential construction like different housing building design and materials, living or energy using behavioral patterns, climatic condition and variation as well other social obstacles, market trend potential and financial support from government. This paper presents an extensive and in-depth analysis of the manner by which projects researched and operated by authors in the fields of energy efficiency primarily from the perspectives of both technical potential and initiative energy saving consciousness in the residential sectors especially in social housing buildings.

Keywords: energy efficiency, renewable energy, retro-commissioning, social housing, sustainability

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Authors: Granch Berhe Tseghai, Lodrick Wangatia Makokha

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Cotton dyeing using reactive dyes is one of the major water polluter; this is due to large amount of dye and salt remaining in effluent. Recent adverse climate change and its associated effect to human life have lead to search for more sustainable industrial production. Cationization of cotton to improve its affinity for reactive dye has been earmarked as a major solution for dyeing of cotton with no or less salt. Synthetic cationizing agents of ammonium salt have already been commercialized. However, in nature there are proteinous products which are rich in amino and ammonium salts which can be carefully harnessed to be used as cationizing agent for cotton. The hoofs and horns have successfully been used to cationize cotton so as to improve cotton affinity to the dye. The cationization action of the hoof and horn extract on cotton was confirmed by dyeing the pretreated fabric without salt and comparing it with conventionally dyed and untreated salt free dyed fabric. UV-VIS absorption results showed better dye absorption (62.5% and 50% dye bath exhaustion percentage for cationized and untreated respectively) while K/S values of treated samples were similar to conventional sample.

Keywords: cationization, cotton, proteinous products, reactive dyes

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Authors: Elmahdi Elgharbaoui, Tamou Nasser, Ahmed Essadki

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In the era of sustainable development, photovoltaic (PV) technology has shown significant potential as a renewable energy source. Photovoltaic generators (GPV) have a non-linear current-voltage characteristic, with a maximum power point (MPP) characterized by an optimal voltage, and depends on environmental factors such as temperature and irradiation. To extract each time the maximum power available at the terminals of the GPV and transfer it to the load, an adaptation stage is used, consisting of a boost chopper controlled by a maximum power point tracking technique (MPPT) through a stage of pulse width modulation (PWM). Our choice has focused on three techniques which are: the perturbation and observation method (P&O), the incremental conductance method (InCond) and the last is that of control using the fuzzy logic. The implementation and simulation of the system (photovoltaic generator, chopper boost, PWM and MPPT techniques) are then performed in the Matlab/Simulink environment.

Keywords: photovoltaic generator, technique MPPT, boost chopper, PWM, fuzzy logic, P&O, InCond

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Authors: A. G. More

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Bioelectrochemical system (BES) is an alternative technology for chromium Cr (VI) removal from industrial wastewater to overcome the existing drawbacks of high chemical and energy consumption by conventional metal removal technologies. A well developed anaerobic sludge was developed in laboratory and used in the batch study of BES at different Cr (VI) concentrations (10, 20, 50, and 50 mg/L) with different COD concentrations (500, 1000, 1500 and 2000 mg/L). Sodium acetate was used as carbon source, whereas Cr (VI) contaminated synthetic wastewater was prepared and added to the cathode chamber. Initially, operating conditions for the BES experiments were optimized. During the study, optimum cathode pH of 2, whereas optimum HRT of 72 hr was obtained. During the study, cathode pH 2 ± 0.1 showed maximum chromium removal efficicency (CRE) of 88.36 ± 8.16% as compared to other pH (1-7) in the cathode chamber. Maximum CRE obtained was 85.93 ± 9.62% at 40°C within the temperature range of 25°C to 45°C. Conducting the BES experiments at optimized operating conditions, CRE of 90.2 %, 93.7 %, 83.75 % and 74.6 % were obtained at cathodic Cr concentration of 10, 20, 50, and 50 mg/L, respectively. BES is a sustainable, energy efficient technology which can be suitably used for metal removal from industrial wastewater.

Keywords: bioelectrochemical system, metal removal, microorganisms, pH and temperature, substrate

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Authors: M. Mehani, N. Salhi, T. Valeria, S. Ladjel

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Red River Gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) is a tree of the genus Eucalyptus widely distributed in Algeria and in the world. The value of its aromatic secondary metabolites offers new perspectives in the pharmaceutical industry. This strategy can contribute to the sustainable development of our country. Preliminary tests performed on the essential oil of Eucalyptus camendulensis showed that this oil has antibacterial activity vis-à-vis the bacterial strains (Enterococcus feacalis, Enterobacter cloaceai, Proteus microsilis, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and antifungic (Fusarium sporotrichioide and Fusarium graminearum). The culture medium used was nutrient broth Muller Hinton. The interaction between the bacteria and the essential oil is expressed by a zone of inhibition with diameters of MIC indirectly expression of. And we used the PDA medium to determine the fungal activity. The extraction of the aromatic fraction (essentially oil- hydrolat) of the fresh aerian part of the Eucalyptus camendulensis was performed by hydrodistillation. The average essential oil yield is 0.99%. The antimicrobial and fungal study of the essential oil and hydrosol showed a high inhibitory effect on the growth of pathogens.

Keywords: essential oil, Eucalyptus camendulensis, bacteria and fungi, red river gum

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Authors: Thozama Kwinana-Mandindi

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The contribution made by wild edible plants to the livelihoods, food baskets and diets of the indigenous people, particularly among the rural dwellers is invaluable. These wild vegetables are among the non-conventional crops which are widely distributed throughout the wild regions in South Africa, indigenous communities have always exploited for micro-nutrient supply. They also supply significant complex, recently discovered compounds, naturally occurring phytonutrients. In order to protect and promote sustainable use of these plants for household food security, there is a need to better understand them through studies and innovations. Assessment of the wild edible plants’ safety is very key to the promotion as an agricultural product which can be utilised during dry seasons and periods of food scarcity to alleviate nutrient insecurity. Through the use of Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDXS), the study is seen as the vital step in taking a holistic view of the value of the four most consumed wild vegetables in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa as they were analysed for safety and appraised for components that can influence utilisation. Results indicate that they can be relied upon and cultivation be promoted.

Keywords: nature’s resource, wild vegetables, appraisal for safety, SEM

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Authors: Jirarat Teeravaraprug, Tarathorn Podcharathitikull

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Nowadays, Ministry of Industry has given an attention to develop Eco-industrial towns in Thailand. Eco-industrial towns are a way of demonstrating the application of industrial ecology and are subjects of increased interest as government, business and society. This concept of Eco-industrial town is quite new in Thailand. It is used as a way of achieving more sustainable industrial development. However, many firms or organizations have misunderstood the concept and treated with suspicion. The planning and development of Eco-industrial towns is a significant challenge for the developers and public agencies. This research then gives an attempt to determine current problems of being Eco-Industrial towns and determine success factors for developing Eco-Industrial towns in Thailand. The research starts with giving knowledge about Eco-industrial towns to stakeholders and conducting public hearing in order to acquire the problems of being Eco-industrial towns. Then, factors effecting the development of Eco-Industrial town are collected. The obtained factors are analyzed by using the concept of IOC. Then, the remained factors are categorized and structured based on the concept of AHP. A questionnaire is constructed and distributed to the experts who are involved in the Eco-industrial town project. The result shows that the most significant success criterion is management teams of industrial parks or groups and the second most significant goes to governmental policies.

Keywords: AHP, Eco-Industrial town, success factors, Thailand

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Authors: Shaheeb Abdul Azeez, Siong-Choy Chong

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Background: Talent retention is increasingly becoming a major challenge for many industries due to the high turnover rate. Public higher learning institutions in the Maldives have a similar situation with the turnover of their employees'. This paper is to identify whether Human Resource Management (HRM) practices have any impact on employee retention in public higher learning institutions in the Maldives. Purpose: This paper aims to identify the influence of HRM practices on employee retention in public higher learning institutions in the Maldives. A total of 15 variables used in this study; 11 HRM practices as independent variables (leadership, rewards, salary, employee participation, compensation, training and development, career development, recognition, appraisal system and supervisor support); job satisfaction and motivation as mediating variables; demographic profile as moderating variable and employee retention as dependent variable. Design/Methodology/Approach: A structured self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. A total of 300 respondents were selected as the study sample, representing the academic and administrative from public higher learning institutions using a stratified random sampling method. AMOS was used to test the hypotheses constructed. Findings: The results suggest that there is no direct effect between the independent variable and dependent variable. Also, the study concludes that no moderate effects of demographic profile between independent and dependent variables. However, the mediating effects of job satisfaction and motivation in the relationship between HRM practices and employee retention were significant. Salary had a significant influence on job satisfaction, whilst both compensation and recognition have significant influence on motivation. Job satisfaction and motivation were also found to significantly influence employee retention. Research Limitations: The study consists of many variables more time consuming for the respondents to answer the questionnaire. The study is focussed only on public higher learning institutions in the Maldives due to no participation from the private sector higher learning institutions. Therefore, the researcher is unable to identify the actual situation of the higher learning industry in the Maldives. Originality/Value: To our best knowledge, no study has been conducted using the same framework throughout the world. This study is the initial study conducted in the Maldives in this study area and can be used as a baseline for future researches. But there are few types of research conducted on the same subject throughout the world. Some of them concluded with positive findings while others with negative findings. Also, they have used 4 to 7 HRM practices as their study framework.

Keywords: human resource management practices, employee retention, motivation, job satisfaction

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Authors: Zilin Zhang

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Agent-based simulation has become a popular method of exploring the behavior of all kinds of urban systems. The city clearly is viewed as such a system. Many urban evolution processes, such as the development or the transaction of a piece of land, can be modeled with a set of rules. Such modeling approaches can be used to gain insight into urban-development and land market transactions in the real world. Our work contributes to such type of research by modeling the transactions of lands in a city and its surrounding suburbs. By replicating the demand and supply needs in the land market, we are able to demonstrate the different transaction patterns in three types of residential areas - downtown, city-suburban, and further suburban areas. In addition, we are also able to compare the vital roles of different activation conditions play in generating the various transaction patterns of the land market at the macro level. We use this simulation to loosely test our hypotheses about the nature of activation regimes by the replication of the Zi traders’ model. In the end, we hope our analytical results can be useful for city planners and policymakers to develop rational city plans and policies for shaping sustainable urban development.

Keywords: simulation, agent-based modeling, housing market, city

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Authors: Sarah M. Bolger

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There is a clear recognition that humanitarian and development workers are operating more and more frequently in situations of protracted crises, with conflict and violence undermining long-term development efforts. First coined at the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016, the humanitarian-development-peacebuilding nexus – or 'Triple Nexus' - seeks to promote greater cooperation and policy and program coherence amongst organizations working within and across the nexus. However, despite the clear need for such an approach, the Triple Nexus has failed to gain much traction. This is largely due to the lack of conceptual clarity for actors on the ground and the disconnect between the theory of the Triple Nexus and what that means in practice. This paper seeks to identify the key challenges in shifting from the conceptual definition of the Triple Nexus and what that can look like, particularly for multi-mandated organizations, to the operationalization of the Triple Nexus approach. It adopts a case study approach, examining a selection of organizations and programs and their approaches to the Triple Nexus in order to extract key challenges and lessons learned. Finally, key recommendations are provided on how these challenges can be overcome, allowing for the operationalization of the Triple Nexus and ultimately for a more integrated and sustainable approach to humanitarian, development, and peacebuilding work.

Keywords: development, humanitarian, peacebuilding, triple nexus

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Authors: Shengjun Yan, Xuan Wang

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Water level changes in a shallow lake always introduce dramatic land pattern changes. To achieve sustainable ecosystem service, it is necessary to evaluate habitat quality dynamic and its spatio-temporal variation resulted from water level changes, which can provide a scientific basis for protection of biodiversity and planning of wetland ecological system. Landsat data in the spring was chosen to obtain landscape data at different times based on the high, moderate and low water level of Baiyangdian Shallow Lake. We used the InVEST to evaluate the habitat quality, habitat degradation, and habitat scarcity. The result showed that: 1) the water level of shallow lake changes from high to low lead to an obvious landscape pattern changes and habitat degradation, 2) the most change area occurred in northwestward and southwest of Baiyangdian Shallow Lake, which there was a 21 percent of suitable habitat and 42 percent of moderately suitable habitat lost. Our findings show that the changes of water level in the shallow lake would have a strong relationship with the habitat quality.

Keywords: habitat quality, habitat degradation, water level changes, shallow lake

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Authors: Woraya Som-Indra

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This article purposes to decode the notion of democracy embedded in the political speeches of Aung San Su Kyi by adopting critical discourse analysis approach, using Systemic Function Linguistics (SFL) and transitivity as a vital analytical tool. Two main objectives of the study are 1) to analyze linguistic strategies constituted the crucial characteristics of Su Kyi's political speeches by employing SFL and transitivity and 2) to examine ideology manifested the notion of democracy behind Su Kyi’s political speeches. The data consists of four speeches of Su Kyi delivering in different places within the year 2011 broadcasted through the website of US campaign for Burma. By employing linguistic tool and the concept of ideology as an analytical frame, the word choice selection found in the speeches assist explaining the manifestation of Su Kyi’s ideology toward democracy and power struggle. The finding revealed eight characters of word choice projected from Su Kyi’s political speeches, as follows; 1) support, hope and encouragement which render the recipients to uphold with the mutual aim to fight for democracy together and moving forwards for change and solution in the future, 2) aim and achievement evoke the recipients to attach with the purpose to fight for democracy, 3) challenge and change release energy to challenge the present political regime of Burma to change to the new political regime of democracy, 4) action, doing and taking signify the action and practical process to call for a new political regime, 5) struggle represents power struggle during the process of democracy requesting and it could refer to her long period of house arrest in Burma, 6) freedom implies what she has been long fighting for- to be released from house arrest, be able to access to the freedom of speech related to political ideology, and moreover, be able to speak out for the people of Burmese about their desirable political regime and political participation, 7) share and scarify call the recipients to have the spirit of shared value in the process of acquiring democracy, and 8) solution and achievement remind her recipients of what they have been long fighting for, and what could lead them to reach out the mutual achievement of a new political regime, i.e. democracy. Those word choice selections are plausible representation of democracy notion in Su Kyi’s terms. Due to her long journey of fighting for democracy in Burma, Suu Kyi’s political speeches always possess tremendously strong leadership characteristic, using words of wisdom and moreover, they are encoded with a wide range of words related to democracy ideology in order to push forward the future change into the Burma’s political regime.

Keywords: Aung San Su Kyi’s speeches, critical discourse analysis, democracy ideology, systemic function linguistics, transitivity

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Authors: Jingwen Shan

Abstract:

In order to explore the key factors affecting the robot program learning intention of school students, this study takes the technology acceptance model as the theoretical basis and invites 167 students from Jiading District of Shanghai as the research subjects. In the robot course, the model of school students on their learning behavior is constructed. By verifying the causal path relationship between variables, it is concluded that teachers can enhance students’ perceptual usefulness to robotics courses by enhancing subjective norms, entertainment perception, and reducing technical anxiety, such as focusing on the gradual progress of programming and analyzing learner characteristics. Students can improve perceived ease of use by enhancing self-efficacy. At the same time, robot hardware designers can optimize in terms of entertainment and interactivity, which will directly or indirectly increase the learning intention of the robot course. By changing these factors, the learning behavior of primary and secondary school students can be more sustainable.

Keywords: TAM, learning behavior intentions, robot courses, primary and secondary school students

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Authors: Francesco Pisano

Abstract:

Islam has been an important topic in Turkey’s institutional identity. Since the dawn of the Turkish Republic, at the end of the First World War, the new Turkish leadership was urged to deal with the religious heritage of the Sultanate. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Turkey’s first President, led the country in a process of internal change, substantially modifying not merely the democratic stance of it, but also the way politics was addressing the Muslim faith. Islam was banned from the public sector of the society and was drastically marginalized to the mere private sphere of citizens’ lives. Headscarves were banned from institutional buildings together with any other religious practice, while the country was proceeding down a path of secularism and Westernization. This issue is demonstrated by the fact that even a new elected Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was initially barred from taking the institutional position, because of allegations that he had read a religious text while campaigning. Over the years, thanks to this initial internal shift, Turkey has often been seen by Western partners as one of the few countries that had managed to find a perfect balance between a democratic stance and an Islamic inherent nature. In the early 2000s, this led many academics to believe that Ankara could eventually have become the next European capital. Since then, the internal and external landscape of Turkey has drastically changed. Today, religion has returned to be an important point of reference for Turkish politics, considering also the failure of the European negotiations and the always more unstable external environment of the country. This paper wants to address this issue, looking at the important role religion has covered in the Turkish society and the way it has been politicized since the early years of the Republic. It will evolve from a more theoretical debate on secularism and the path of political westernization of Turkey under Ataturk’s rule to a more practical analysis of today’s situation, passing through the failure of Ankara’s accession into the EU and the current tense political relation with its traditional NATO allies. The final objective of this research, therefore, is not to offer a meticulous opinion on Turkey’s current international stance. This issue will be left entirely to the personal consideration of the reader. Rather, it will supplement the existing literature with a comprehensive and more structured analysis on the role Islam has played on Turkish politics since the early 1920s up until the political domestic revolution of the early 2000s, after the first electoral win of the Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Keywords: democracy, Islam, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey

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Authors: Ma. Karen Jimeno, Erika Kate Co, Ma. Claudia Alexis Frani, Shane Rosshel Guzman, Marie Jaye Constance Selga

Abstract:

Home sharing continues to gain traction in the Philippines at the expense of traditional lodging options, to which the hospitality industry has reacted in stages. This study aims to describe the social and economic impact of home sharing in Metro Manila from the perspective of hosts. A cross-sectional survey questionnaire consisting of five-point Likert items was administered to 120 hosts in Metro Manila. Kruskal-Wallis test, together with Dunn’s pairwise comparison, was used in the analysis of data. Results show that there is a significant difference in the median scores between increased awareness of Filipino food/heritage and the pursuit of enjoyable life in terms of social impact. Economic-wise, the respondents, did not perceive that their businesses as an additional source of income for the local government. These findings can be used for further exploratory studies and formulation of sustainable business policies conducive for the entrepreneurs and the hospitality industry alike.

Keywords: bed-and-breakfast, home sharing, marketing, tourism

Procedia PDF Downloads 323

Authors: Lobna Hafez, Eman Elakkad

Abstract:

Sustainability is no longer a choice for firms. To achieve sustainable supply chain, all three dimensions of sustainability should be considered. Unlike the economic and environmental aspects, social sustainability has been rarely given attention. The problem surrounding social sustainability and employees’ welfare in Egypt is complex and remains unsolved. The aim of this study is to qualitatively assess the current level of application of social sustainability in the retailing sector in Egypt through using the social sustainability indicators identified in the literature. The purpose of this investigation is to gain knowledge about the complexity of the system involved. A case study is conducted on one of the largest retailers in Egypt. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with managers and employees to determine the level of application and identify the major obstacles affecting the social sustainability in the retailing context. The work developed gives insights about the details and complexities of the application of social sustainability in developing countries, from the retailing perspective. The outcomes of this study will help managers to understand the enablers of social sustainability and will direct them to methods of sound implementation.

Keywords: developing countries, Egyptian retailing sector, sustainability, social sustainability

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Authors: Mohammad Javad Shariatzadeh, Dana Grecov

Abstract:

The tribological tests were performed on a new tribometer, in order to measure the coefficient of friction of a gland seal packing material on stainless steel shafts in presence of Cellulose Nanocrystal (CNC) suspension as a sustainable, environmentally friendly, water-based lubricant. To simulate the real situation from the slurry pumps, silica sands were used as slurry particles. The surface profiles after tests were measured by interferometer microscope to characterize the surface wear. Moreover, the coefficient of friction and surface wear were measured between stainless steel shaft and chrome steel ball to investigate the tribological effects of CNC in boundary lubrication region. Alignment of nanoparticles in the CNC suspensions are the main reason for friction and wear reduction. The homogeneous concentrated suspensions showed fingerprint patterns of a chiral nematic liquid crystal. These properties made CNC a very good lubricant additive in water.

Keywords: gland seal, lubricant additives, nanocrystalline cellulose, water-based lubricants

Procedia PDF Downloads 185