Search results for: strategy management

Authors: Siti Anis Nadia Abu Bakar, Vani Tanggamani

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Over recent years, the quality and environmental management practices are the necessary tasks in hospitality industry in order to provide high quality services, a comfortable and safe environment for occupants as well as innovative nature and shareholders' satisfaction, its environmental and social added value sustainable. Numerous studies have observed and measured quality management program (QMProg) and environmental management practices (EMPrac) independently. This paper analyzed the level of QMProg, and EMPrac in hospitality industry, particularly on hotel performance, specifically in the context of Malaysia as hotel industry in Malaysia has contributed tremendously to the development in the Malaysia tourism industry.The research objectives are; (1) to analyze how the level of QMProg influences on firm performance; (2) to investigate the level of EMPrac and its influence on firm performance. This paper contributes to the literature by providing added-value to the service industry strategic decision-making processes by helping to predict the varying impacts of positive and negative corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities on financial performance in their respective industries. Further, this paper also contributes to develop more applicable CSR strategies. As a matter of fact, the findings of this paper has contributed towards an integrated management system that will assist a firm in implementation of their environmental strategy by creating a higher level of accountability for environmental performance. The best results in environmental systems have instigated managers to explore more options when dealing with problems, especially problems involving the reputation of their hotel. In conclusion, the results of the study infer that the best CSR strategies of the quality and environmental management practices influences hotel performance.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility (CSR), environmental management practices (EMPrac), performance (PERF), quality management program (QMProg)

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Authors: Doaa Saad, Igor Verner, Rinat B. Rosenberg-Kima

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This case study demonstrates how the Task-Centered Instructional Strategy can be used to develop robotics competencies in middle-school science teachers without programming knowledge, thereby reducing their anxiety about robotics. Sixteen middle school science teachers participated in a teachers’ professional development program. The strategy combines the progression of real-world tasks with explicit instruction that serves as the backbone of instruction. The designed progression includes three tasks that integrate building and programming robots, pedagogy, and science knowledge, with an increasing level of complexity and decreasing level of support. We used EV3 LEGO kits and programming blocks, a new technology for most of the participating teachers. Pre-post questionnaires were used to examine teachers’ anxiety in performing robotics tasks before the program began and after the program ended. In addition, post-program questionnaires were used to obtain teachers’ feedback on the program’s overall quality. The case study results showed that teachers were less anxious about performing robotics tasks after the program and were highly satisfied with the professional development program. Overall, our research findings indicate a positive effect of the Task-Centered Instructional Strategy for preparing in-service science teachers to integrate robotics activities into their science classes.

Keywords: competencies, educational robotics, task-centered instructional strategy, teachers’ professional development

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Authors: Marie Pavelková, Hana Lukášová

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Pupils´ inquisitiveness at the beginning of their school attendance is reflected by characteristics of the questions they ask. Clearly most of the classroom communication sequences are initiated by the teacher. But the teaching process also includes questions initiated by pupils in the need to satisfy their need for knowledge. The purpose of our research is to present the results of our pre-research strategy of occurrence of pupil-initiated questions in math lessons at the lower elementary school level, and to reveal the extent to which they are influenced by the teacher´s teaching strategy. We used the research methods of direct and indirect observations of fifth year classes in primary school. We focused on questions asked by the pupils in their math lessons. Our research sample for the pre-research observation method was a collection of video recordings available online. We used them for analysing the nature of pupils´ questions identified there. On the basis of the analysis, we hereby present the results concerning the nature of pupils´ questions asked in math lessons on the lower elementary school level. The interpretation of the collected results will be the starting point for the selection of research strategies in the next research stages concerning pupils’ questions in the future.

Keywords: beginning of schooling, pre-research, questions of pupils, teaching strategy

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Authors: Kitti Leangkrua

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This paper presents a risk-based maintenance strategy of a power transformer in order to optimize operating and maintenance costs. The methodology involves the study and preparation of a database for the collection the technical data and test data of a power transformer. An evaluation of the overall condition of each transformer is performed by a program developed as a result of the measured results; in addition, the calculation of the main equipment separation to the overall condition of the transformer (% HI) and the criteria for evaluating the importance (% ImI) of each location where the transformer is installed. The condition assessment is performed by analysis test data such as electrical test, insulating oil test and visual inspection. The condition of the power transformer will be classified from very poor to very good condition. The importance is evaluated from load criticality, importance of load and failure consequence. The risk matrix is developed for evaluating the risk of each power transformer. The high risk power transformer will be focused firstly. The computerized program is developed for practical use, and the maintenance strategy of a power transformer can be effectively managed.

Keywords: asset management, risk-based maintenance, power transformer, health index

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Authors: Mohammed Alassim

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In 2014, a UN survey stated that: "The greatest challenge to the adoption of whole-of government, which fundamentally rests on increased collaboration, is resistance to change among government actors". Change management has experienced both theoretically and practically many transformation over the years. When organizations have to implement radical changes, they have to encounter a plethora of issues which leads to ineffective or inefficient implementation of change in most cases. 70% of change projects fail because of human issues. It has been cited that” most studies still show a 60-70% failure rate for organizational change projects — a statistic that has stayed constant from the 1970’s to the present.”. E-government involves not just technical change but cultural, policy, social and organizational evolution. Managing change and overcoming resistance to change is seen as crucial in the success of E-government projects. Resistance can be from different levels in the organization (top management, middle management or employees at operational levels). There can be many reasons for resistance including fear of change and insecurity, lack of knowledge and absence of commitment from management to implement the change. The purpose of this study is to conduct in-depth research to understand the process of change and to identify the critical factors that have led to resistance from employees at different levels (top management, Middle management and operational employees) during e-government initiatives in the public sector in Saudi Arabia. The study is based on qualitative and empirical research methods conducted in the public sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This research will use triangulation in data method (interview, group discussion and document review). This research will contribute significantly to knowledge in this field and will identify the measures that can be taken to reduce resistance to change, Upon analysis recommendations or model will be offered which can enable decision makers in public sector in Saudi Arabia how to plan, implement and evaluate change in e-government initiatives via change management strategy.

Keywords: change management, e-government, managing change, resistance to change

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Authors: Ehab AbdulRazzaq Hussein

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Quantum cryptography (QC) is an emerging technology for secure key distribution with single-photon transmissions. In contrast to classical cryptographic schemes, the security of QC schemes is guaranteed by the fundamental laws of nature. Their security stems from the impossibility to distinguish non-orthogonal quantum states with certainty. A potential eavesdropper introduces errors in the transmissions, which can later be discovered by the legitimate participants of the communication. In this paper, the modeling approach is proposed for QC protocol BB84 using polarization coding. The single-photon system is assumed to be used in the designed models. Thus, Eve cannot use beam-splitting strategy to eavesdrop on the quantum channel transmission. The only eavesdropping strategy possible to Eve is the intercept/resend strategy. After quantum transmission of the QC protocol, the quantum bit error rate (QBER) is estimated and compared with a threshold value. If it is above this value the procedure must be stopped and performed later again.

Keywords: security, key distribution, cryptography, quantum protocols, Quantum Cryptography (QC), Quantum Key Distribution (QKD).

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Authors: Adel Ali Elshaibani

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Risk management indicators augment the reporting infrastructure, particularly for the board and senior management, to identify, monitor, and manage risks. This enhancement facilitates improved decision-making throughout the banking organization. Decision tree analysis is a tool that visually outlines potential outcomes, costs, and consequences of complex decisions. It is particularly beneficial for analyzing quantitative data and making decisions based on numerical values. By calculating the expected value of each outcome, decision tree analysis can help assess the best course of action. In the context of banking, decision tree analysis can assist lenders in evaluating a customer’s creditworthiness, thereby preventing losses. However, applying these tools in developing countries may face several limitations, such as data availability, lack of technological infrastructure and resources, lack of skilled professionals, cultural factors, and cost. Moreover, decision trees can create overly complex models that do not generalize well to new data, known as overfitting. They can also be sensitive to small changes in the data, which can result in different tree structures and can become computationally expensive when dealing with large datasets. In conclusion, while risk management indicators and decision tree analysis are beneficial for decision-making in banks, their effectiveness is contingent upon how they are implemented and utilized by the board of directors, especially in the context of developing countries. It’s important to consider these limitations when planning to implement these tools in developing countries.

Keywords: risk management indicators, decision tree analysis, developing countries, board of directors, bank performance, risk management strategy, banking institutions

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Authors: Soheib Fergani

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This paper concerns with the formal asymptotic stability guarantees, analysis and evaluation of a nonlinear controlled unmanned aerial vehicles (uav) for trajectory tracking purpose. As the system has been recognised as an under-actuated non linear system, the control strategy has been oriented towards a hierarchical control. The dynamics of the system and the mission purpose make it mandatory to provide an absolute proof of the vehicle stability during the maneuvers. For this sake, this work establishes the complete theoretical proof for an implementable control oriented strategy that asymptotically stabilizes (GAS and LISS) the system and has never been provided in previous works. The considered model is reorganized into two partly decoupled sub-systems. The concidered control strategy is presented into two stages: the first sub-system is controlled by a nonlinear backstepping controller that generates the desired control inputs to stabilize the second sub-system. This methodology is then applied to a harware in the loop uav simulator (SiMoDrones) that reproduces the realistic behaviour of the uav in an indoor environment has been performed to show the efficiency of the proposed strategy.

Keywords: UAV application, trajectory tracking, backstepping, sliding mode control, input to state stability, stability evaluation

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Authors: Changtong Wang, Lingyun Wei

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The combination of auctions and supply chains is of great significance in improving the supply chain management system and enhancing the efficiency of economic and social operations. To address the gap in research on supply chain strategies under the auction mechanism, a model is developed for the 1-N auction model in a complete information environment, and it is concluded that the two-part contract auction model for retailers in this model can achieve supply chain coordination. The model is validated by substituting the model into the scenario of a fresh-cut flower industry flower auction in exchange for arithmetic examples to further prove the validity of the conclusions.

Keywords: auction mechanism, supply chain coordination strategy, fresh cut flowers industry, supply chain management

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Authors: M. Mourad, K. Mahmoud

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Recently hybrid vehicles have become a major concern as one alternative vehicles. This type of hybrid vehicle contributes greatly to reducing pollution. Therefore, this work studies the influence of electrification phase of hybrid electric vehicle on emission of vehicle at different road conditions. To accomplish this investigation, a simulation model was used to evaluate the external characteristics of the hybrid electric vehicle according to variant conditions of road resistances. Therefore, this paper reports a methodology to decrease the vehicle emission especially greenhouse gas emission inside cities. The results show the effect of electrification on vehicle performance characteristics. The results show that CO₂ emission of vehicle decreases up to 50.6% according to an urban driving cycle due to applying the electrification strategy for hybrid electric vehicle.

Keywords: electrification strategy, hybrid electric vehicle, driving cycle, CO2 emission

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Authors: Rafla Hchaichi

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The public administration is currently experiencing in the field of quality unprecedented effervescence. However, in a globalized world more and more competitive, public services are confronted with the need to improve their performances which push public companies to implement quality approaches. Quality approaches have taken diverse forms such as service commitment, labels, certifications and the Common Assessment Framework. This paper provides an overview on the strategy for administrative development in Tunisia since the Carthaginian civilization until today. It outlines the evolution of quality management in the Tunisian public context while focusing on the National Referential of Quality of Administrative Services.

Keywords: quality approach, the common assessment framework, service commitment, label, certification, quality of public service, performance of public service, Tunisian Public Service

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Authors: Omar Amoudi, Mariya Khalid

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The limitation of the public funds for the infrastructure projects and with the deterioration of international oil prices and the negative consequences on the economies of oil producing and exporting countries, Oman has encouraged the partnership between the public and private sectors. As the private sector has a role in planning, financing, designing, operating and the maintenance of the public services. There is no doubt that, the adoption of Public Private Partnership (PPP) strategy faces many challenges which might affect the project seriously if it is not overcome in earlier time. These challenges depend on the level of understanding of the strategy, the roles and regulations and the availability of resources as well. This research aims at identifying the challenges facing the PPP infrastructure projects in Oman based on the similar previous studies supported by questionnaire survey and semi structured interviews. It also seeks to discuss the rationale for adoption in Oman and uncover the current status of PPP strategy. The identified challenges were ranked according to the importance index of each challenge. After analysis of data, it has observed that, the main challenges facing PPPs projects in Oman are high participation cost, high projects cost and regulation changes. The PPP strategy has to be adopted well and with a high level of experience in order to ensure a successful implementation of PPP projects in Oman.

Keywords: public private partnership (PPP), challenges, infrastructure, Oman

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Authors: Deborah O. Ajumobi, Michael Kyobe

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Studies show that women entrepreneurs are constrained and faced with challenges that inhibit the growth and performance of their businesses. However, with their human competencies, mobile technology and the appropriate business strategy, women-led SMEs can steer their businesses to better performance. While the need for SMEs to align these three elements has been suggested, there is limited knowledge on how SMEs can achieve this and no studies to the authors’ knowledge have examined this in women-led SMEs. This study therefore seeks to fill this gap by investigating how Women-led SMEs can best align these three elements to enhance business performance. In light of this, extensive literature review and theoretical work on the phenomenon has been conducted. Given the existence of the interplay between these three elements, we argue that the perspective of alignment as gestalts is most appropriate in determining the best way women-Led SMEs may align these aspects.

Keywords: women-led SMEs, human Competencies, mobile technology, business strategy, alignment

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Authors: Omar A. Shaneb, Adell S. Amer

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Reduction of CO2 emissions has become a priority for several countries due to increasing concerns about global warming and climate change, especially in the developed countries. Residential sector is considered one of the most important sectors for considerable reduction of CO2 emissions since it represents a significant amount of the total consumed energy in those countries. A significant CO2 reduction cannot be achieved unless some initiatives have been adopted in the policy of these countries. Introducing micro combined heat and power (µCHP) systems into residential energy systems is one of these initiatives, since such a technology offers several advantages. Moreover, µCHP technology has the opportunity to be operated not only by natural gas but it could also be operated by renewable fuels. However, this technology can be operated by different operation strategies. Each strategy has some advantages and disadvantages. This paper provides a review of different operation strategies of such a technology used for residential energy systems, especially for single dwellings. The review summarizes key points that outline the trend of previous research carried out in this field.

Keywords: energy management, µCHP systems, residential energy systems, sustainable houses, operation strategy.

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Authors: Christian T. Lystbaek

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Background: The importance of innovation management has traditionally been ascribed to private production companies, however, there is an increasing interest in public services innovation management. One of the major theoretical challenges arising from this situation is to understand public values justifying public services innovation management. However, there is not single and stable definition of public value in the literature. The research question guiding this paper is: What is the supposed added value operating in the public sphere? Methodology: The study takes an action research strategy. This is highly contextualized methodology, which is enacted within a particular set of social relations into which on expects to integrate the results. As such, this research strategy is particularly well suited for its potential to generate results that can be applied by managers. The aim of action research is to produce proposals with a creative dimension capable of compelling actors to act in a new and pertinent way in relation to the situations they encounter. The context of the study is a workshop on public services innovation within elderly care. The workshop brought together different actors, such as managers, personnel and two groups of users-citizens (elderly clients and their relatives). The process was designed as an extension of the co-construction methods inherent in action research. Scenario methods and focus groups were applied to generate dialogue. The main strength of these techniques is to gather and exploit as much data as possible by exposing the discourse of justification used by the actors to explain or justify their points of view when interacting with others on a given subject. The approach does not directly interrogate the actors on their values, but allows their values to emerge through debate and dialogue. Findings: The public values related to public services innovation management in elderly care were identified in two steps. In the first step, identification of values, values were identified in the discussions. Through continuous analysis of the data, a network of interrelated values was developed. In the second step, tracking group consensus, we then ascertained the degree to which the meaning attributed to the value was common to the participants, classifying the degree of consensus as high, intermediate or low. High consensus corresponds to strong convergence in meaning, intermediate to generally shared meanings between participants, and low to divergences regarding the meaning between participants. Only values with high or intermediate degree of consensus were retained in the analysis. Conclusion: The study shows that the fundamental criterion for justifying public services innovation management is the capacity for actors to enact public values in their work. In the workshop, we identified two categories of public values, intrinsic value and behavioural values, and a list of more specific values.

Keywords: public services innovation management, public value, co-creation, action research

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Authors: Heba Mustafa Abdullah

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The research aimed at examining the effect of a using a quest based learning strategy on developing EFL Pre-Master Students. The study adopted the quasi-experimental design. The sample of the research consists of a group of 30 students enrolled in Pre-Master program, Curriculum and EFL Instruction Department, Faculty of Graduate Studies in Education Tools of the study included a EFL research skills checklist and EFL research skills test. Results revealed that there were statistically significant differences at 0.01 levels with regard to some research skills. Results were discussed in relation to several factors that affected the language learning process. Finally, the research provided beneficial contributions in relation to manipulating e-learning technologies in general and Quest based learning strategy in particular with respect to EFL research skills.

Keywords: English as foreign language, e-Learning, research skills, quest based learning

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Authors: Marc S. Paolella, Pawel Polak

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The paper proposes a framework for large-scale portfolio optimization which accounts for all the major stylized facts of multivariate financial returns, including volatility clustering, dynamics in the dependency structure, asymmetry, heavy tails, and non-ellipticity. It introduces a so-called risk fear portfolio strategy which combines portfolio optimization with active risk monitoring. The former selects optimal portfolio weights. The latter, independently, initiates market exit in case of excessive risks. The strategy agrees with the stylized fact of stock market major sell-offs during the initial stage of market downturns. The advantages of the new framework are illustrated with an extensive empirical study. It leads to superior multivariate density and Value-at-Risk forecasting, and better portfolio performance. The proposed risk fear portfolio strategy outperforms various competing types of optimal portfolios, even in the presence of conservative transaction costs and frequent rebalancing. The risk monitoring of the optimal portfolio can serve as an early warning system against large market risks. In particular, the new strategy avoids all the losses during the 2008 financial crisis, and it profits from the subsequent market recovery.

Keywords: comfort, financial crises, portfolio optimization, risk monitoring

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Authors: Helga Martins, Idália Matias

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Background:Multiple sclerosis is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune demyelinating disease that affects young adults. Multiple sclerosis is a chronic disease in which the patient needs to self-manage the disease and the therapeutic regimen. Consequently, the promotion of health literacy assumes a relevant role for the accessibility, understanding, and use of information in order to promote and maintain the health of patients with multiple sclerosis. Aim: To determine the impact of lower health literacy in the self-management of patients with a multiple sclerosis. Methods: Literature review based on a search on the following electronic databases: CINAHLand MEDLINE; comprising all results published between September 2016 and September 2021. The search strategy was: (“Self-management [MeSH]” AND “Multiple sclerosis[MeSH]”AND “Health literacy[MeSH]”). The inclusion criteria were: original papers reporting about multiple sclerosis patients; participants with age above 18 years old, written in English, Spanish, French, or Portuguese. Two independent reviewers have done the screening and analysis of the results. 38 citations were identified, and after duplicates removal, a total of 25 results were screened; 14 were included after the application of the inclusion criteria. Results: The lower health literacy in the self-management of patients with a multiple sclerosis is related toless healthy choices, riskier health behavior, poor health outcomes, decreased of adhering to the therapeutic regimen after discharge, less self-management of chronic illness, and increased the time of hospitalization. Conclusion: Inadequate levels of health literacy contribute to poor health outcomes, unsuccessful self-management of chronic illness, and inadequate adherence to the therapeutic regimen. Therefore, health literacy is important for health policy and the healthcare services, as it can be understood as a mediator of self-management of multiple sclerosis disease.

Keywords: health literacy, multiple sclerosis, review, self-management

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Authors: Iftikhar Ahmad, Youssef Elkezza

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Sarir oilfield is in North Africa. It has facilities for oil and gas production. The assets of the Sarir oilfield can be divided into five following categories, namely: (i) well bore and wellheads; (ii) vessels such as separators, desalters, and gas processing facilities; (iii) pipelines including all flow lines, trunk lines, and shipping lines; (iv) storage tanks; (v) other assets such as turbines and compressors, etc. The nature of the petroleum industry recognizes the potential human, environmental and financial consequences that can result from failing to maintain the integrity of wellheads, vessels, tanks, pipelines, and other assets. The importance of effective asset integrity management increases as the industry infrastructure continues to age. The primary objective of assets integrity management (AIM) is to maintain assets in a fit-for-service condition while extending their remaining life in the most reliable, safe, and cost-effective manner. Corrosion management is one of the important aspects of successful asset integrity management. It covers corrosion mitigation, monitoring, inspection, and risk evaluation. External corrosion on pipelines, well bores, buried assets, and bottoms of tanks is controlled with a combination of coatings by cathodic protection, while the external corrosion on surface equipment, wellheads, and storage tanks is controlled by coatings. The periodic cleaning of the pipeline by pigging helps in the prevention of internal corrosion. Further, internal corrosion of pipelines is prevented by chemical treatment and controlled operations. This paper describes the integrity management system used in the Sarir oil field for its oil and gas production facilities based on standard practices of corrosion mitigation and inspection.

Keywords: assets integrity management, corrosion prevention in oilfield assets, corrosion management in oilfield, corrosion prevention, inspection activities

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Authors: Hamed Sarbazy, Zohre Gholipour Haftkhani, Ali Safari, Pejman Hosseiniun

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Scientific and industrial progress in the past two decades has resulted in energy distribution systems based on power electronics, as an enabling technology in various industries and building management systems can be considered. Grading and standardization module power electronics systems and its use in a distributed control system, a strategy for overcoming the limitations of using this system. The purpose of this paper is to investigate strategies for scheduling and control structure of standard modules is a power electronic systems. This paper introduces the classical control methods and disadvantages of these methods will be discussed, The hierarchical control as a mechanism for distributed control structure of the classification module explains. The different levels of control and communication between these levels are fully introduced. Also continue to standardize software distribution system control structure is discussed. Finally, as an example, the control structure will be presented in a DC distribution system.

Keywords: application management, hardware management, power electronics, building blocks

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Authors: Mona M. Salem, Khaled S. Al-Hagla, Hany M. Ayad

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The concept of urban metabolism has increasingly been employed in a diverse range of disciplines as a mean to analyze and theorize the city. Urban ecology has a particular focus on the implications of applying the metabolism concept to the urban realm. This approach has been developed by a few researchers, though it has rarely if ever been used in policy development for city planning. The aim of this research is to use ecologically informed urban planning interventions to increase the sustainability of urban metabolism; with special focus on land stock as a most important city resource by developing a system dynamic based DSS. This model identifies two critical management strategy variables for the Strategic Urban Plan Alexandria SUP 2032. As a result, this comprehensive and precise quantitative approach is needed to monitor, measure, evaluate and observe dynamic urban changes working as a decision support system (DSS) for policy making.

Keywords: ecology, land resource, LULCC, management, metabolism, model, scenarios, system dynamics, urban development

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Authors: Hsiao-Ting Huang, Chang Hsueh-Sheng

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Taiwan is an island country which is affected by the monsoon deeply. Under the climate change, the frequency of extreme rainstorm by typhoon becomes more and more often Since 2000. When the extreme rainstorm comes, it will cause serious damage in Taiwan, especially in urban area. It is suffered by the flooding and the government take it as the urgent issue. On the past, the land use of urban planning does not take flood-detention into consideration. With the development of the city, the impermeable surface increase and most of the people live in urban area. It means there is the highly vulnerability in the urban area, but it cannot deal with the surface runoff and the flooding. However, building the detention pond in hydraulic engineering way to solve the problem is not feasible in urban area. The land expropriation is the most expensive construction of the detention pond in the urban area, and the government cannot afford it. Therefore, the management strategy of flooding in urban area should use the existing resource, public facilities land. It can archive the performance of flood-detention through providing the public facilities land with the detention function. As multi-use public facilities land, it also can show the combination of the land use and water agency. To this purpose, this research generalizes the factors of multi-use for public facilities land as flood-detention space with literature review. The factors can be divided into two categories: environmental factors and conditions of public facilities. Environmental factors including three factors: the terrain elevation, the inundation potential and the distance from the drainage system. In the other hand, there are six factors for conditions of public facilities, including area, building rate, the maximum of available ratio etc. Each of them will be according to it characteristic to given the weight for the land use suitability analysis. This research selects the rules of combination from the logical combination. After this process, it can be classified into three suitability levels. Then, three suitability levels will input to the physiographic inundation model for simulating the evaluation of flood-detention respectively. This study tries to respond the urgent issue in urban area and establishes a model of multi-use for public facilities land as flood-detention through the systematic research process of this study. The result of this study can tell which combination of the suitability level is more efficacious. Besides, The model is not only standing on the side of urban planners but also add in the point of view from water agency. Those findings may serve as basis for land use indicators and decision-making references for concerned government agencies.

Keywords: flooding management strategy, land use suitability analysis, multi-use for public facilities land, physiographic inundation model

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Authors: Ebrahim Gharleghi

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This paper aims to examine how customer knowledge management (CKM) can be implemented in Iranian Banks in practice, with the focus on the human resource (people, technology and processes) as important factors of CKM. A conceptual model of an analytical CKM strategy for CKM in this Iranian Banks is developed from the findings and literature review. This article has been based on interviews and distributing the questionnaire. Data were collected from 260 managers from bank managers. The paper finds that hypotheses were tested using student’s t-test (one-sample t-test), Pearson correlation analysis and regression analysis. Test of hypotheses revealed that human, technology and processes factors positively and significantly influenced the implementation of CKM practices. These findings tend to corroborate our conceptual model. Human factor of CKM was found to be more significantly affecting appropriate CKM implementation than others CKM factors, indicating that this factor is more important than the others aspects of CKM. On the other hand, this factor is appropriate in Iranian Banks. Process is in second part and technology is in final part. This indicates that technology infrastructures are so weak in Iranian Banks for CKM implementation. In this paper there is little or no empirical evidence investigating the amount of the execution of the CKM in Iranian Banks. This paper rectifies this imbalance by clarifying the significance human, technology and processes factors in CKM implementation.

Keywords: knowledge management, customer relationship management, customer knowledge management, integration, people, technology, process

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Authors: Bachir Belmadani, Rachid Taleb, M’hamed Helaimi

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Multilevel inverters are well used in high power electronic applications because of their ability to generate a very good quality of waveforms, reducing switching frequency, and their low voltage stress across the power devices. This paper presents the hybrid pulse-width modulation (HPWM) strategy of a uniform step asymmetrical cascaded H-bridge nine-level Inverter (USACHB9LI). The HPWM approach is compared to the well-known sinusoidal pulse-width modulation (SPWM) strategy. Simulation results demonstrate the better performances and technical advantages of the HPWM controller in feeding a high power induction motor.

Keywords: uniform step asymmetrical cascaded h-bridge high-level inverter, hybrid pwm, sinusoidal pwm, high power induction motor

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Authors: Khalid M. Albarkoly, Kenneth S. Park

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The substantial development of the construction industry has forced the cement industry, its major support, to focus on achieving maximum productivity to meet the growing demand for this material. Statistics indicate that the demand for cement rose from 1.6 billion metric tons (bmt) in 2000 to 4bmt in 2013. This means that the reliability of a production system needs to be at the highest level that can be achieved by good maintenance. This paper studies the extent to which the implementation of RCM is needed as a strategy for increasing the reliability of the production systems component can be increased, thus ensuring continuous productivity. In a case study of four Libyan cement factories, 80 employees were surveyed and 12 top and middle managers interviewed. It is evident that these factories usually breakdown more often than once per month which has led to a decline in productivity, they cannot produce more than 50% of their designed capacity. This has resulted from the poor reliability of their production systems as a result of poor or insufficient maintenance. It has been found that most of the factories’ employees misunderstand maintenance and its importance. The main cause of this problem is the lack of qualified and trained staff, but in addition, it has been found that most employees are not found to be motivated as a result of a lack of management support and interest. In response to these findings, it has been suggested that the RCM strategy should be implemented in the four factories. The paper shows the importance of considering the development of maintenance strategies through the implementation of RCM in these factories. The purpose of it would be to overcome the problems that could reduce the level of reliability of the production systems. This study could be a useful source of information for academic researchers and the industrial organisations which are still experiencing problems in maintenance practices.

Keywords: Libyan cement industry, reliability centred maintenance, maintenance, production, reliability

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Authors: Krassimir Todorov

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The purpose of the paper is to redefine the levels of structure of corporate, business and functional strategies that were established over the past several decades, to a conceptual model, consisting of corporate, business and operations strategies, that are reinforced by functional strategies. We will propose a conceptual framework of different perspectives in the role of strategic operations as a separate strategic place and reposition the remaining functional strategies as supporting tools, existing at all three levels. The proposed model is called ‘the strategic engine’, since the mutual relationships of its ingredients are identical with main elements and working principle of the internal combustion engine. Based on theoretical essence, related to every strategic level, we will prove that the strategic engine model is useful for managers seeking to safeguard the competitive advantage of their companies. Each strategy level is researched through its basic elements. At the corporate level we examine the scope of firm’s product, the vertical and geographical coverage. At the business level, the point of interest is limited to the SWOT analysis’ basic elements. While at operations level, the key research issue relates to the scope of the following performance indicators: cost, quality, speed, flexibility and dependability. In this relationship, the paper provides a different view for the role of operations strategy within the overall strategy concept. We will prove that the theoretical essence of operations goes far beyond the scope of traditionally accepted business functions. Exploring the applications of Resource-based theory and Market-based theory within the strategic levels framework, we will prove that there is a logical consequence of the theoretical impact in corporate, business and operations strategy – at every strategic level, the validity of one theory is substituted to the level of the other. Practical application of the conceptual model is tested in automotive industry. Actually, the proposed theoretical concept is inspired by a leading global automotive group – Inchcape PLC, listed on the London Stock Exchange, and constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

Keywords: business strategy, corporate strategy, functional strategies, operations strategy

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Authors: Ademola Ajibade

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Previous studies have explored several rationales for hedging strategies, but the evidence provided by these studies remains ambiguous. Using a hand-collected dataset of 2460 observations of non-financial firms in eight African countries covering 2013-2022, this paper investigates the determinants and extent of corporate hedge use. In particular, this paper focuses on the link between country-specific conditions and the corporate hedging behaviour of firms. To our knowledge, this represents the first African studies investigating the association between country-specific factors and corporate hedging policy. The evidence based on both univariate and multivariate reveal that country-level corruption and government quality are important indicators of the decisions and extent of hedge use among African firms. However, the connection between country-specific factors as a rationale for corporate hedge use is stronger for firms located in highly corrupt countries. This suggest that firms located in corrupt countries are more motivated to hedge due to the large exposure they face. In addition, we test the risk management theories and observe that CEOs educational qualification and experience shape corporate hedge behaviour. We implement a lagged variables in a panel data setting to address endogeneity concern and implement an interaction term between governance indices and firm-specific variables to test for robustness. Generally, our findings reveal that institutional factors shape risk management decisions and have a predictive power in explaining corporate hedging strategy.

Keywords: corporate hedging, governance quality, corruption, derivatives

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Authors: Hoda Manafian, Stephen Holland

Abstract:

Problem statement: Rural areas in Iran are one of the most popular tourism destinations. Abyaneh Village is one of them with a long history behind it (more than 1500 years) which is a national heritage site and also is nominated as a world heritage site in UNESCO tentative list from 2007. There is a considerable foundation of religious-cultural heritage and also agricultural history and activities. However, this heritage site suffers from mass tourism which is beyond its social and physical carrying capacity, since the annual number of tourists exceed 500,000. While there are four adjacent villages around Abyaneh which can benefit from advantages of tourism. Local managers also can at the same time prorate the tourists’ flux of Abyaneh on those other villages especially in high-season. The other villages have some cultural and natural tourism attractions as well. Goal: The main goal of this study is to identify a feasible development strategy according to the current strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of rural tourism in this area (Abyaneh Village and four adjacent villages). This development strategy can lead to sustainable management of these destinations. Method: To this end, we used SWOT analysis as a well-established tool for conducting a situational analysis to define a sustainable development strategy. The procedures included following steps: 1) Extracting variables of SWOT chart based on interviewing tourism experts (n=13), local elites (n=17) and personal observations of researcher. 2) Ranking the extracted variables from 1-5 by 13 tourism experts in Isfahan Cultural Heritage, Handcrafts and Tourism Organization (ICHTO). 3) Assigning weights to the ranked variables using Expert Choice Software and the method of Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP). 4) Defining the Total Weighted Score (TWS) for each part of SWOT chart. 5) Identifying the strategic position according to the TWS 6) Selecting the best development strategy based on the defined position using the Strategic Position and Action Evaluation (SPACE) matrix. 7) Assessing the Probability of Strategic Success (PSS) for the preferred strategy using relevant formulas. 8) Defining two feasible alternatives for sustainable development. Results and recommendations: Cultural heritage attractions were first-ranked variable in strength chart and also lack of sufficient amenities for one-day tourists (catering, restrooms, parking, and accommodation) was firs-ranked weakness. The strategic position was in ST (Strength-Threat) quadrant which is a maxi-mini position. According this position we would suggest ‘Competitive Strategy’ as a development strategy which means relying on strengths in order to neutralization threats. The result of Probability of Strategic Success assessment which was 0.6 shows that this strategy could be successful. The preferred approach for competitive strategy could be rebranding the market of tourism in this area. Rebranding the market can be achieved by two main alternatives which are based on the current strengths and threats: 1) Defining a ‘Heritage Corridor’ from first adjacent village to Abyaneh as a final destination. 2) Focus on ‘educational tourism’ versus mass tourism and also green tourism by developing agritourism in that corridor.

Keywords: Abyaneh village, rural tourism, SWOT analysis, sustainable strategies

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Authors: V. V. Prasada Rao P., K. Venkata Subbaiah, J. Sudhir Kumar

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Most Indian cities or townships are facing greater challenges in proper disposal of their municipal solid wastes, which are growing exponentially with the rising urban population and improvement in the living standards. As per the provisional figures, 377 million people live in the urban areas accounting for 31.16 % of the Country’s total population, and expected to grow by 3.74% every year. In India, the municipal authority is liable for the safe management & disposal of Municipal Solid Wastes. However, even with the current levels of MSW generation, a majority of the local governments are unable to comply with their constitutional responsibility due to reasons ranging from cultural aspects to technological and financial constraints. In contrast, it is expected that the MSW generation in India is likely to increase from 68.8 MTD in 2011 to 160.5 MTD by 2041. Thus, the immediate challenge before the urban local bodies in India is to evolve suitable strategies not only to cope up with the current levels, but also to address the anticipated generation levels of MSW. This paper discusses the reasons for the low levels of enforcement of MSW Rules and suggests effective management strategies for the safe disposal of MSW.

Keywords: biodegradable waste, dumping sites, management strategy, municipal solid waste (MSW), MSW rules, vermicompost

Procedia PDF Downloads 290

Authors: O. G. Omogunloye, J. B. Olaleye, O. E. Abiodun, J. O. Odumosu, O. G. Ajayi

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The focus of the study is to proffer easy formulation and computation of least square observation equation’s design matrix by using an efficient book keeping strategy. Usually, for a large network of many triangles and stations, a rigorous task is involved in the computation and placement of the values of the differentials of each observation with respect to its station coordinates (latitude and longitude), in their respective rows and columns. The efficient book keeping strategy seeks to eliminate or reduce this rigorous task involved, especially in large network, by simple skillful arrangement and development of a short program written in the Matlab environment, the formulation and computation of least square observation equation’s design matrix can be easily achieved.

Keywords: design, differential, geodetic, matrix, network, station

Procedia PDF Downloads 344