Search results for: international marketing strategy

Authors: Henry Venter, Murali Thyloth, Alceu Casseb

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Historically, mental and substance use disorders were not a global health priority. Since the 1993 World Development Report, the importance of the contribution of mental health and substance abuse on the relative global burden associated with disease morbidity has been recognized with 300 million people worldwide suffering from depression alone. This led to an international effort to improve the mental health of populations around the world. Despite these efforts some countries remain at the top of the list of countries with the highest rate of mental illness. Important research questions were asked: Would there be commonalities regarding mental health between these countries; would there be common factors leading to the high prevalence of mental illness; and how prepared are these countries with mental health delivery? Findings from this research can aid organizations and institutions preparing mental health service providers to focus training and preparation to address specific needs revealed by the study. Methods: Researchers decided to compare three distinctly different countries at the top of the list of countries with the highest rate of mental illness, the USA, India and Brazil, situated on three different continents with different economies and lifestyles. Data were collected using archival research methodology, reviewing records and findings of international and national health and mental health studies to subtract and compare data and findings. Results: The findings indicated that India is the most depressed country in the world, followed by the USA (and China) with Brazil in Latin America with the greatest number of depressed individuals. By 2020 roughly 20% of India, acountry of over one billion citizens, will suffer from some form of mental illnees, yet there are less than 4,000 experts available. In the USA 164.8 million people were substance abusers and an estimate of 47.6 million adults, 18 or older, had any mental illness in 2018. That means that about one in five adults in the USA experiences some form of mental illness each year, but only 41% of those affected received mental health care or services in the past year. Brazil has the greatest number of depressed individuals, in Latin America. Adults living in Sao Paulo megacity has prevalence of mental disorders at greater levels than similar surveys conducted in other areas of the world with more than one million adults with serious impairment levels. Discussion: The results show that, despite the vast socioeconomic differences between the three countries, there are correlations regarding mental health prevalence and difficulty to provide adequate services including a lack of awareness of how serious mental illness is, stigma for seeking mental illness, with comorbidity a common phenomenon, and a lack of partnership between different levels of service providers, which weakens mental health service delivery. The findings also indicate that mental health training institutions have a monumental task to prepare personnel to address the future mental health needs in each of the countries compared, which will constitute the next phase of the research.

Keywords: mental health epidemiology, mental health disorder, mental health prevalence, mental health treatment

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Authors: V. Naciti, L. Pulejo, F. Cesaroni

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This study empirically analyzes whether the composition of the board of directors (BoD) enhances sustainability performance, in order to understand how the BoD contribute to the integration of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their businesses. Hypotheses are developed based on the agency theory and stakeholder theory. Using a system generalized method of the moment (SGMM) two-step estimator, with data from Sustainalytics and Compustat databases for 362 firms in six regions, we find that firms with more diversity on the board and a separation of chair and CEO roles have higher sustainability performance. Moreover, our findings provide that a higher number of independent directors is negatively associated with sustainability performance. This study contributes to the literature on corporate governance and the firm’s performance by demonstrating that the composition of the board of directors contributes to a better sustainability performance: by the implementation of a particular corporate governance mechanism, it is possible to integrate SDGs in the corporate strategy.

Keywords: sustainable development goals, corporate governance, board of directors, sustainability performance

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Authors: Jordan Shuler

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The goal of this study is to determine whether real-time language translation benefits ESL learners by contributing to overall equity in the classroom. Equity will be measured quantitatively through assessment performance and qualitatively through student survey. Two separate sections of students studying the same course will receive identical curriculum: one group, the control, will be taught in English and the other group in English with real-time translation into the students' first languages. The professor will use Microsoft Translator during lectures, in-class discussions, and Q&A time. The college is committed to finding new ways of teaching and learning, as outlined in Strategy 2022. If this research finds a positive relationship between language translation and student academic success, the technology will surely be encouraged for adoption by all George Brown College faculty. With greater acceptance, this technology could influence equity and pedagogy in the larger educational community.

Keywords: ESL learners, equity, innovative teaching strategies, language translation

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Authors: G. Khasaev, S. Ashmarina , A. Zotova

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The priority of Russian enterprises development has been given to the optimization process of industrial enterprise activity for their sustainable development in a long-term period. The assessment of sustainable development level as one of the most efficient instruments of sustainable development management at the industrial enterprise gives a complex view of its state. In order to perform accurate analysis of the current state of the industrial enterprise, it is necessary to perform the assessment of its sustainable development and using its results to elaborate the further tactic of enterprise functioning. The assessment of sustainable development level of the enterprise may help the effective management of strategy development only if the corresponding indicators system is created. The elaboration and usage the sustainable development indicators allows the enterprise to implement analysis of its activity results and monitoring of sustainable enterprise functioning. The authors’ methods are based on general aspects of the industrial enterprise functioning such as finance, customers, inner economic process, and staff system.

Keywords: assessment methods, indicators system, industrial enterprise, sustainable development

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Authors: Agrinë Baraku

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This paper focuses on the convergence of the internet, fake news, and democracy. This paper will examine the convergence of these concepts, the tenets of democracy which are affected by the ever-increasing exposure to fake news, and whether the impact strengthens or can further weaken countries with fragile democracies. To demonstrate the convergence and the impact and to further the discussion about this topic, the case of Kosovo is explored. Its position in the Western Balkans makes it even more susceptible to the pressure stemming from geopolitical interests, which intersect with the generation of fake news by different international actors. Domestically, through data generated by Kantar (Index) Kosova Longitudinal Study on Media Measurement Survey (MMS), which focused on media viewership, the trend among Kosovar citizens is traced and then inserted into a bigger landscape, which is compounded by tenuous circumstances and challenges that Kosovo faces. Attention will be paid to what this can tell about where Kosovo currently is and the possibilities of what can be done regarding the phenomenon that is taking place.

Keywords: democracy, disinformation, internet, social media, fake news

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Authors: Jelena Zivkovic, Haidar Mohammed, Elaf Saeed

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Student affairs services play a critical role in contributing to the wholistic development and success of students as they progress through their academic careers. The study encompasses a multifaceted examination of student affairs service offerings amongst 10 private and 3 public Baghdad universities. Student affairs administrators (13) were surveyed along with over 300 students to determine university-sponsored services and student satisfaction and awareness. The student affairs service research findings varied significantly between private and public institutions and those that followed a national and international curriculum. Universities need to persist to adapt to changing demographics and technological advancements to enhance students' personal and academic successes, and student affairs services are key to preparing graduates to thrive in a diverse global world.

Keywords: student affairs, student success, higher education, Iraq, universities, Baghdad

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Authors: Agholor Deborah Ewere, Emmanuel Ade, Seriki Idowu

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The role women entrepreneur plays to combat unemployment should not be underestimated, especially in countries with growing unemployment rates such as South Africa. Women entrepreneurs contribute significantly to economic development in South Africa, but their contribution has not been adequately studied and developed. Hence, the study identified business strategies adopted by women entrepreneurs to sustain growth and development of entrepreneurship. Survey research design approach was adopted and convenience sampling method was used for sample selection. The structured questionnaire was used to elicit information from the respondents. The findings revealed some of the operational challenges women entrepreneur faced to include lack of finance, marketing skills and planning and also showed that the strategies adopted by women entrepreneurs have a positive effect on the success of small businesses. It was recommended among others that the women entrepreneurs should take some time to study the nature of challenges other women have faced in business and possibly provide solutions to such issues before starting their own business. It was however concluded that unless the operational challenges named above are resolved, the role of women entrepreneurs in the developing nations will continue to experience deprived economic growth, development and display substandard competitiveness.

Keywords: business, entrepreneurs, small, strategies, success, women

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Authors: Yeshona Sewsynker

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This study presents three microwave-assisted alkalic salt pretreatments to enhance delignification and enzymatic saccharification of corn cobs. The effects of process parameters of salt concentration (0-15%), microwave power intensity (0-800 W) and pretreatment time (2-8 min) on reducing sugar yield from corn cobs were investigated. Pretreatment models were developed with the high coefficient of determination values (R2>0.85). Optimization gave a maximum reducing sugar yield of 0.76 g/g. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier Transform Infrared analysis (FTIR) showed major changes in the lignocellulosic structure after pretreatment. A 7-fold increase in the sugar yield was observed compared to previous reports on the same substrate. The developed pretreatment strategy was effective for enhancing enzymatic saccharification from lignocellulosic wastes for microbial biofuel production processes and value-added products.

Keywords: pretreatment, lignocellulosic biomass, enzymatic hydrolysis, delignification

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Authors: Yumei Han, Naiqing Song, Xiaoping Yang, Yuping Han

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This study explores the conceptualization of key competencies that children are expected to develop in three year preschools (age 3-6) and the assessment practices of such key competencies in China. Assessment of children development has been put into the central place of early childhood education quality evaluation system in China. In the context of students key competencies development centered education reform in China, defining and selecting key competencies of children in preschools are of great significance in that they would lay a solid foundation for children’s lifelong learning path, and they would lead to curriculum and instruction reform, teacher development reform as well as quality evaluation reform in the early childhood education area. Based on sense making theory and framework, this study adopted multiple stakeholders’ (early childhood educators, parents, evaluation administrators, scholars in the early childhood education field) perspectives and grass root voices to conceptualize and operationalize key competencies for children in preschools in Southwest China. On the ground of children development theories, Chinese and international literature related to children development and key competencies, and key competencies frameworks by UNESCO, OECD and other nations, the authors designed a two-phase sequential mixed method study to address three main questions: (a) How is early childhood key competency defined or labeled from literature and from different stakeholders’ views? (b) Based on the definitions explicated in the literature and the surveys on different stakeholders, what domains and components are regarded to constitute the key competency framework of children in three-year preschools in China? (c) How have early childhood key competencies been assessed and measured, and how such assessment and measurement contribute to enhancing early childhood development quality? On the first phase, a series of focus group surveys were conducted among different types of stakeholders around the research questions. Moreover, on the second phase, based on the coding of the participants’ answers, together with literature synthesis findings, a questionnaire survey was designed and conducted to select most commonly expected components of preschool children’s key competencies. Semi-structured open questions were also included in the questionnaire for the participants to add on competencies beyond the checklist. Rudimentary findings show agreeable concerns on the significance and necessity of conceptualization and assessment of key competencies for children in preschools, and a key competencies framework composed of 7 domains and 25 indicators was constructed. Meanwhile, the findings also show issues in the current assessment practices of children’s competencies, such as lack of effective assessment tools, lack of teacher capacity in applying the tools to evaluating children and advancing children development accordingly. Finally, the authors put forth suggestions and implications for China and international communities in terms of restructuring early childhood key competencies framework, and promoting child development centered reform in early childhood education quality evaluation and development.

Keywords: assessment, conceptualization, early childhood education quality in China, key competencies

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Authors: Dr Elliroma Gardiner

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Extending the working life of older workers is one important strategy in alleviating the social and economic challenges associated with the ageing population. The Australian government has implemented several strategies to improve the participation rates of older workers, however, the success of these initiatives has been limited. The aim of this project is to identify what workplace practices influence the workforce participation decisions of older workers. Thirty semi-structured interviews were conducted with older Australians who were either recently retired or currently working. Participants were asks about the factors that influenced their decision to retire/continue working and their current (or former) workplace practices. The results of the thematic analysis identified several factors which either supported (i.e., job autonomy and managerial support) or hindered (i.e., perceptions of age discrimination and age-based stereotypes) continued workplace participation. This research has several important applications for organisation managing intergenerational workforces, as well as policy makers interested in increasing the working life of ageing workers.

Keywords: ageing workers, older workers, age discrimination, age diversity

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Authors: Wu Xingchun, Chen Xi

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Nowadays, China's building energy consumption constitutes 25% of the total energy consumption, half of which was caused by air conditioning in both summer and winter. The ventilation system in Chinese traditional residence, which is totally passive and environmentally friendly, works effectively to create comfortable indoor environment. The research on the ventilation system in Chinese traditional residence can provide advancements to architecture design and energy savings to the society. Through field investigation, case analysis, strategy proposing and other methods, it comes out that the location and layout, the structure system and the design of atrium are the most important elements for a good ventilation system. Taking every factor into consideration, techniques are deployed extensively such as the organization of draught, the design of the thermal pressure ventilation system and the application of modern materials. With the enlightenment of the ventilation system in Chinese traditional residence, we can take effective measures to achieve low energy consumption and sustainable architecture.

Keywords: ventilation system, chinese traditional residence, energy consumption, sustainable architecture

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Authors: Jiawei Li

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How cooperation emerges and persists in a population of selfish agents is a fundamental question in evolutionary game theory. Our research shows that Collective Strategies with Master-Slave Mechanism (CSMSM) defeat Tit-for-Tat and other well-known strategies in spatial iterated prisoner’s dilemma. A CSMSM identifies kin members by means of a handshaking mechanism. If the opponent is identified as non-kin, a CSMSM will always defect. Once two CSMSMs meet, they play master and slave roles. A mater defects and a slave cooperates in order to maximize the master’s payoff. CSMSM outperforms non-collective strategies in spatial IPD even if there is only a small cluster of CSMSMs in the population. The existence and performance of CSMSM in spatial iterated prisoner’s dilemma suggests that cooperation first appears and persists in a group of collective agents.

Keywords: Evolutionary game theory, spatial prisoners dilemma, collective strategy, master-slave mechanism

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Authors: Modestus Queen

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As we know, diplomatic languages carry the political ideology and cultural stance of the country. Knowing that China's diplomatic discourse is complicated and is heavily flavored with Chinese characteristics, one of the core goals of President Xi's administration is to properly tell the story of China. This cannot be done without proper translation or interpretation of major Chinese diplomatic concepts. Therefore, this research seeks to interpret the relevance of "Yi" as used in "Zhèngquè Yì Lì Guān". The author argues that it is not enough to translate a document but that it must be properly interpreted to portray it as political, economic, cultural and diplomatic relevant to the target audience, in this case, African people. The first finding in the current study indicates that literal translation is a bad strategy, especially in Chinese diplomatic discourses. The second finding indicates that "Yi" can be used as a framework to analyze Sino-Africa relations from economic, social and political perspectives, and the third finding indicates that "Yi" is the guiding principle of China's foreign policy towards Africa.

Keywords: Yi, justice, China-Africa, interpretation, diplomatic discourse, discourse reconstruction

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Authors: Mamiza Haq

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This paper examines the relevance of bank capital and charter value on bank insolvency and liquidity risks. Using an unbalanced panel of 2,111 unique local banks across 22 countries over 1998-2012, we find that both bank capital and charter value lower insolvency and liquidity risks, but this effect varies among conventional, Islamic, and Islamic-window banks. The risk constraining effect of bank capital becomes more prominent in the post 2007-2008 global financial crisis. Moreover, the relationships vary when conditioned upon other key bank-specific characteristics. For instance, the effect of capital on risk-reduction diminishes in the presence of high charter value for conventional-G7 and Islamic-window banks, during-GFC and pre-GFC period; respectively. Our findings have important policy implications related to bank safety. The results are robust to a range of robustness tests.

Keywords: bank capital, charter value, risk, financial crisis

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Authors: Marianna Nigra, Maicol Negrello

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Efficiency, productivity, and sustainability are important factors for structure and the application of processes in green building. Various previous studies have addressed efficiency, productivity, and sustainability separately. This research study aims to investigate the implications of these three factors taking together. Frequency analysis and the ranking techniques are carried out to explore the connection between these factors. The interconnection matrix has been developed and functional grouping is made based upon data from expert opinion and field professionals. The existence of a relationship, the type of relationship and the scaled impact have been drawn. Additionally, a system diagram has been developed to show the variable correlation. The results of expert opinion show that efficiency, productivity, and sustainability have a stronger impact on green buildings.

Keywords: green roof regulation, architecture, climate adaptation, resilience, innovation management

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Authors: Aymen Laadhari, Gábor Székely

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This paper is concerned with the development of a fully implicit and purely Eulerian fluid-structure interaction method tailored for the modeling of the large deformations of elastic membranes in a surrounding Newtonian fluid. We consider a simplified model for the mechanical properties of the membrane, in which the surface strain energy depends on the membrane stretching. The fully Eulerian description is based on the advection of a modified surface tension tensor, and the deformations of the membrane are tracked using a level set strategy. The resulting nonlinear problem is solved by a Newton-Raphson method, featuring a quadratic convergence behavior. A monolithic solver is implemented, and we report several numerical experiments aimed at model validation and illustrating the accuracy of the presented method. We show that stability is maintained for significantly larger time steps.

Keywords: finite element method, implicit, level set, membrane, Newton method

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Authors: Gabriel Adegbite

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Corruption has become one of the most notoriously persistent and progressively worsening social problems afflicting most of the African states. It has permeated virtually all institutions and has become a way of life and principal method of accumulating wealth on the continent. While major cause of this pandemic has been traced to the post-colonial antecedents of many African leaders, some highlights during the colonial era have shown that activities during the period gave impetus for its entrenchment. There is also a growing study establishing an intersection between corruption and governance. However, any comprehensive analysis of factors responsible for the emergence and entrenchment of corruption in Africa must take a holistic view of the practice. It must examine the role played by colonialism and neo-colonialism in African countries. This study presents few elements and historical view of corruption in sub-Sahara Africa. It analyse the reason for corruption eruption in most of the African states while suggesting some anti-corruption strategy that may be peculiar to the continent. This study makes a contribution to the growing literature in the area of corruption and panacea in developing countries.

Keywords: Africa, fighting corruption, antidote, governance

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Authors: Uchenna Patricia Ekwugha, Cornelius Aghadiegwu Ukwueze

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Global communication has changed life at the international scene affecting on the whole social, cultural and political life of individuals in a global community. It has brought about a changing trend in the field of communication and allowed people to learn, create and process information through mainline media and new media technologies. The paper debates that music is an integral form of global communication that cannot be overlooked because it is a beautiful and powerful tool in relating information to the people which they gladly imbibe. It is worrisome that through global communication there has been consistent clash of values on information’s disseminated to the global community of which the developing countries like Nigerians are the sufferers. Particularly involved in this vicious social dogma are the Nigerian youths, who learn defiant behaviour through global communication and lose touch of African cultural values.

Keywords: global communication, trends, impact, unbalanced information

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Authors: Guang-Ho Cha

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This paper presents a context-sensitive media similarity search algorithm. One of the central problems regarding media search is the semantic gap between the low-level features computed automatically from media data and the human interpretation of them. This is because the notion of similarity is usually based on high-level abstraction but the low-level features do not sometimes reflect the human perception. Many media search algorithms have used the Minkowski metric to measure similarity between image pairs. However those functions cannot adequately capture the aspects of the characteristics of the human visual system as well as the nonlinear relationships in contextual information given by images in a collection. Our search algorithm tackles this problem by employing a similarity measure and a ranking strategy that reflect the nonlinearity of human perception and contextual information in a dataset. Similarity search in an image database based on this contextual information shows encouraging experimental results.

Keywords: context-sensitive search, image search, similarity ranking, similarity search

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Authors: Olha Oleshchuk

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Such companies as Apple, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Samsung are well-known, but most people do not know about their economic and political influence on society at national and international levels. This ignorance is beneficial for transnational corporations because it reduces the risk of possible resistance of the society and creates favourable conditions for the formation of a new governmental political form. The aim of the research to analyse the opportunity of creating of a new governmental political form. The aim of the research is realized by implementation of such objectives: 1) to consider the possibility of the formation of new political forms of government; 2) to determine the influence of TNCs on the state, which is necessary for a mature, aware citizen; 3) to learn the roles of TNCs, which provide the awareness in the spheres of the world politics, economics, and everyday life. The relevance of the research is confirmed by the fact that new political forms of government are poorly studied.

Keywords: objective factors of losing leading position by state, transnational corporations, TNCs' economic influence, TNCs' political influence

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Authors: B. Neethu, Diptesh Das

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The present study investigates the performance of a semi-active controller using magneto-rheological dampers (MR) for seismic response reduction of a multi-span bridge. The application of structural control to the structures during earthquake excitation involves numerous challenges such as proper formulation and selection of the control strategy, mathematical modeling of the system, uncertainty in system parameters and noisy measurements. These problems, however, need to be tackled in order to design and develop controllers which will efficiently perform in such complex systems. A control algorithm, which can accommodate un-certainty and imprecision compared to all the other algorithms mentioned so far, due to its inherent robustness and ability to cope with the parameter uncertainties and imprecisions, is the sliding mode algorithm. A sliding mode control algorithm is adopted in the present study due to its inherent stability and distinguished robustness to system parameter variation and external disturbances. In general a semi-active control scheme using an MR damper requires two nested controllers: (i) an overall system controller, which derives the control force required to be applied to the structure and (ii) an MR damper voltage controller which determines the voltage required to be supplied to the damper in order to generate the desired control force. In the present study a sliding mode algorithm is used to determine the desired optimal force. The function of the voltage controller is to command the damper to produce the desired force. The clipped optimal algorithm is used to find the command voltage supplied to the MR damper which is regulated by a semi active control law based on sliding mode algorithm. The main objective of the study is to propose a robust semi active control which can effectively control the responses of the bridge under real earthquake ground motions. Lumped mass model of the bridge is developed and time history analysis is carried out by solving the governing equations of motion in the state space form. The effectiveness of MR dampers is studied by analytical simulations by subjecting the bridge to real earthquake records. In this regard, it may also be noted that the performance of controllers depends, to a great extent, on the characteristics of the input ground motions. Therefore, in order to study the robustness of the controller in the present study, the performance of the controllers have been investigated for fourteen different earthquake ground motion records. The earthquakes are chosen in such a way that all possible characteristic variations can be accommodated. Out of these fourteen earthquakes, seven are near-field and seven are far-field. Also, these earthquakes are divided into different frequency contents, viz, low-frequency, medium-frequency, and high-frequency earthquakes. The responses of the controlled bridge are compared with the responses of the corresponding uncontrolled bridge (i.e., the bridge without any control devices). The results of the numerical study show that the sliding mode based semi-active control strategy can substantially reduce the seismic responses of the bridge showing a stable and robust performance for all the earthquakes.

Keywords: bridge, semi active control, sliding mode control, MR damper

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Authors: Ruben Lopez-Rodriguez

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In a microgrid, diverse energy sources (both renewable and non-renewable) are combined with energy storage units to form a localized power system. Microgrids function as independent entities, capable of meeting the energy needs of specific areas or communities. This paper introduces a Model Predictive Control (MPC) approach tailored for grid-connected microgrids, aiming to optimize their operation. The formulation employs Mixed-Integer Programming (MIP) to find optimal trajectories. This entails the fulfillment of continuous and binary constraints, all while accounting for commutations between various operating conditions such as storage unit charge/discharge, import/export from/towards the main grid, as well as asset connection/disconnection. To validate the proposed approach, a microgrid case study is conducted, and the simulation results are compared with those obtained using a rule-based strategy.

Keywords: microgrids, mixed logical dynamical systems, mixed-integer optimization, model predictive control

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Authors: Pradeep Kumar, Shibashish Chakraborty, Sasadhar Bera

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In the anticipation of demand fluctuations, services cannot be inventoried and hence it creates a difficult problem in marketing of services. The inability to meet customers (patients) requirements in healthcare context has more serious consequences than other service sectors. In order to meet patient requirements in the current uncertain environment, healthcare organizations are seeking ways for improved service delivery. Flexibility provides a mechanism for reducing variability in service encounters and improved performance. Flexibility is defined as the ability of the organization to cope with changing circumstances or instability caused by the environment. Patient satisfaction is an important performance outcome of healthcare organizations. However, the paucity of information exists in healthcare delivery context to examine the impact of flexibility on patient satisfaction and behavioral intention. The present study is an attempt to develop a conceptual foundation for investigating overall impact of flexibility on patient satisfaction and behavioral intention. Several dimensions of flexibility in healthcare context are examined and proposed to have a significant impact on patient satisfaction and intention. Furthermore, the study involves a critical examination of determinants of patient satisfaction and development of a comprehensive view the relationship between flexibility, patient satisfaction and behavioral intention. Finally, theoretical contributions and implications for healthcare professionals are suggested from flexibility perspective.

Keywords: healthcare, flexibility, patient satisfaction, behavioral intention

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Authors: Andrew Anis Fakhrey Mosaad

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Introduction: There are many different types of sleep disorders, each with serious implications for a person's health and a large financial burden on society. Method: This review offers a framework based on the International Classification of Sleep Disorders to aid in the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders. Differentiating between primary and secondary insomnia is covered, along with pharmacological and nonpharmacological therapy options. Common abnormalities of the circadian rhythm are mentioned along with their therapies, such as light therapy and chronotherapy. This article discusses the identification and management of periodic limb movement disorder and restless legs syndrome. The therapy of upper airway resistance syndrome and obstructive sleep apnea are the main topics of discussion. Conclusion: The range of narcolepsy symptoms and results, as well as diagnostic procedures and treatment, are discussed. The causes, outcomes, and treatments of many types of insomnias, such as sleep terrors, somnambulism, and rapid eye movement (REM) behavior sleep disorders, are discussed.

Keywords: diagnosis, treatment, sleep disorders, insomnia

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Authors: Mariel Encar H. Uy, Paula Marie G. Pacle

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The purpose of this research is to present a Single Country Comparative Contextual Description Study of Strong Islamic Influences in Relation to the Politics of Republic of Indonesia. This paper recognizes that even the coalition of secular and moderate Islamic parties protect the minority rights of all the constituents, Islam is still the dominant religion among the other recognized religions in Indonesia (Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism). In this study, it will also detail the involvement on the religions’ beliefs and techniques; participation of political actors, depending on what religion they belong and adhere to; the tensions whenever the government interferes with Islamists and other religions; the government’s solution or public policies implemented to maintain peace and order of Indonesia. This paper will develop a conceptual framework to describe how the Religion and Political Stability is interdependent with each other.

Keywords: diversity of religion in indonesia, secularization in Indonesia, motivations of political actors, voter turnouts based on religion

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Authors: Abdelkhalek Bouchikhi, Elyes Benmokhtar, Sebastien Saletzki

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The aeronautical field is experiencing issues with RF spectrum congestion due to the constant increase in the number of flights, aircrafts and telecom systems on board. In addition, these systems are bulky in size, weight and energy consumption. The cognitive radio helps particularly solving the spectrum congestion issue by its capacity to detect idle frequency channels then, allowing an opportunistic exploitation of the RF spectrum. The present work aims to propose a new use case for aeronautical spectrum sharing and to study the performances of three different detection techniques: energy detector, matched filter and cyclostationary detector within the aeronautical use case. The spectrum in the proposed cognitive radio is allocated dynamically where each cognitive radio follows a cognitive cycle. The spectrum sensing is a crucial step. The goal of the sensing is gathering data about the surrounding environment. Cognitive radio can use different sensors: antennas, cameras, accelerometer, thermometer, etc. In IEEE 802.22 standard, for example, a primary user (PU) has always the priority to communicate. When a frequency channel witch used by the primary user is idle, the secondary user (SU) is allowed to transmit in this channel. The Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) is composed of a UHF transmitter/receiver (interrogator) in the aircraft and a UHF receiver/transmitter on the ground. While the future cognitive radio will be used jointly to alleviate the spectrum congestion issue in the aeronautical field. LDACS, for example, is a good candidate; it provides two isolated data-links: ground-to-air and air-to-ground data-links. The first contribution of the present work is a strategy allowing sharing the L-band. The adopted spectrum sharing strategy is as follow: the DME will play the role of PU which is the licensed user and the LDACS1 systems will be the SUs. The SUs could use the L-band channels opportunely as long as they do not causing harmful interference signals which affect the QoS of the DME system. Although the spectrum sensing is a key step, it helps detecting holes by determining whether the primary signal is present or not in a given frequency channel. A missing detection on primary user presence creates interference between PU and SU and will affect seriously the QoS of the legacy radio. In this study, first brief definitions, concepts and the state of the art of cognitive radio will be presented. Then, a study of three communication channel detection algorithms in a cognitive radio context is carried out. The study is made from the point of view of functions, material requirements and signal detection capability in the aeronautical field. Then, we presented a modeling of the detection problem by three different methods (energy, adapted filter, and cyclostationary) as well as an algorithmic description of these detectors is done. Then, we study and compare the performance of the algorithms. Simulations were carried out using MATLAB software. We analyzed the results based on ROCs curves for SNR between -10dB and 20dB. The three detectors have been tested with a synthetics and real world signals.

Keywords: aeronautic, communication, navigation, surveillance systems, cognitive radio, spectrum sensing, software defined radio

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Authors: Yuan-Yu Chiang, Yu-Han Tseng, Chin-Chen Wen

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Many southeast-Asia women migrate to Taiwan by marriage, and it usually takes 4 to 8 years for them to acquire Taiwanese citizenship. This study investigates the relationships between their citizenship acquisition and whether they develop Taiwanese identities. One hundred and ninety-two immigrant women were measured using Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure-Revised and a global 10-point ethnic identity question. Correlation tests and hierarchical regression were performed to explore whether acquiring citizenship would help immigrant women to develop Taiwanese identities. The results revealed that citizenship acquisition does help immigrant women to identify with Taiwanese society symbolically. However, the results also indicated that acquiring citizenship would not help these immigrant women become involved in deeper cultural exploration of Taiwan nor would it encourage them to make commitments to the host society.

Keywords: immigrants, international marriage, ethnic identity, Taiwan

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Authors: Wang Qian, Bian Cheng Xiang

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In recent years, with the improvement of China's urbanization level, the number of urban motor vehicles has grown rapidly. As residents' daily commuting necessities, cars cause a lot of exhaust emissions and urban traffic congestion. In the "Fourteenth Five Year Plan" of China, it is proposed to strive to reach the peak of carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. Urban transport accounts for a high proportion of carbon emission sources. It is an important driving force for the realization of China's carbon peak strategy. Some cities have introduced and implemented the policy of "car restriction" to solve related urban problems by reducing the use of cars. This paper analyzes the implementation of the "automobile restriction" policy, evaluates the relevant effects of the automobile restriction policy, and discusses how to better optimize the "automobile restriction" policy in the process of urban governance.

Keywords: carbon emission, traffic jams, vehicle restrictions, evaluate

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Authors: M. J. Gazapo Lapayese

Abstract:

It is a well-established fact that terrorism is one of the foremost threats to present-day international security. The creation of tools or mechanisms for confronting it in an effective and efficient manner will only be possible by way of an objective assessment of the phenomenon. In order to achieve this, this paper has the following three main objectives: Firstly, setting out to find the reasons that have prevented the establishment of a universally accepted definition of terrorism, and consequently trying to outline the main features defining the face of the terrorist threat in order to discover the fundamental goals of what is now a serious blight on world society. Secondly, trying to explain the differences between a terrorist movement and a terrorist organisation, and the reasons for which a terrorist movement can be led to transform itself into an organisation. After analysing these motivations and the characteristics of a terrorist organisation, an example of the latter will be succinctly analysed to help the reader understand the ideas expressed. Lastly, discovering and exposing the factors that can lead to the appearance of terrorist tendencies, and discussing the most efficient and effective responses that can be given to this global security threat.

Keywords: responses, resilience, security, terrorism

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Authors: Gaspar J. Machado, Stéphane Clain, Raphael Loubère

Abstract:

The goal of the present work is to numerically study steady-state nonlinear hyperbolic equations in the context of the finite volume framework. We will consider the unidimensional Burgers' equation as the reference case for the scalar situation and the unidimensional Euler equations for the vectorial situation. We consider two approaches to solve the nonlinear equations: a time marching algorithm and a direct steady-state approach. We first develop the necessary and sufficient conditions to obtain the existence and unicity of the solution. We treat regular examples and solutions with a steady shock and to provide very-high-order finite volume approximations we implement a method based on the MOOD technology (Multi-dimensional Optimal Order Detection). The main ingredient consists in using an 'a posteriori' limiting strategy to eliminate non physical oscillations deriving from the Gibbs phenomenon while keeping a high accuracy for the smooth part.

Keywords: Euler equations, finite volume, MOOD, steady-state

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