Search results for: resource and environmental carrying capacity

Authors: Robin Molinier

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Industrial symbiosis (I.S) deals with both substitution synergies (exchange of waste materials, fatal energy and utilities as resources for production) and infrastructure/service sharing synergies. The latter is based on the intensification of use of an asset and thus requires to balance capital costs increments with snowball effects (network externalities) for its implementation. Initial investors must specify ex-ante arrangements (cost sharing and pricing schedule) to commit toward investments in capacities and transactions. Our model investigate the decision of 2 actors trying to choose cooperatively a level of infrastructure capacity oversizing to set a plug-and-play offer to a potential entrant whose capacity requirement is randomly distributed while satisficing their own requirements. Capacity cost exhibits sub-additive property so that there is room for profitable overcapacity setting in the first period. The entrant’s willingness-to-pay for the access to the infrastructure is dependent upon its standalone cost and the capacity gap that it must complete in case the available capacity is insufficient ex-post (the complement cost). Since initial capacity choices are driven by ex-ante (expected) yield extractible from the entrant we derive the expected complement cost function which helps us defining the investors’ objective function. We first show that this curve is decreasing and convex in the capacity increments and that it is shaped by the distribution function of the potential entrant’s requirements. We then derive the general form of solutions and solve the model for uniform and triangular distributions. Depending on requirements volumes and cost assumptions different equilibria occurs. We finally analyze the effect of a per-unit subsidy a public actor would apply to foster such sharing synergies.

Keywords: capacity, cooperation, industrial symbiosis, pricing

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Authors: Rachmat Mudiyono, Siti Sumiati

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In the next few years, traffic will happen most of the time. This was triggered by the growing rate of vehicles againts the road capacity which is not balance. All the time the congestion in the city of Semarang has been occured at peak hours. Congestion also occured in between Teuku Umar and Setia Budi road Jatingaleh because of a plot intersection (Kesatrian intersection, PLN intersection and Jatingaleh intersection) with the Toll Road. Jatingaleh is located in the southern city of Semarang which is a central meeting point between the upper and lower Semarang where the vehicle flows in through a combination of local current and regional traffic, and the flow of vehicles coming in and out from highway. The main cause of the problems that occurred in the area of Jatingaleh is due to the numbers of vehicles movement that occurs at the intersections. With the above issues, it is necessary to analyse the existing conditions and look into some solutions. Before carrying out an analysis of field surveys at peak hours for example morning (06:00 to 08:00 am) and for the afternoon (04:00 to 06:00 pm)should be conducted, then the number of vehicles is counted manually with “short-breakcounting” according to types of vehicles. From the analysis we found that the degree of saturation (DS) is 1.61 between Teuku Umar and Setia Budi road during the morning peak hours and 1.56 during the afternoon peak hours. This means that the capacity of the existing road is no longer able to accommodate the traffic flow. One of the solutions for the congestion that occurs at the intersection of Jatingaleh is to apply the efficiency of the intersection that is not in a plot with a Fly over, Underpass and the combination of Fly Over-Underpass. Base on the flow reduction calculation with 3 comparative modeling it shows that the Fly Over is the most technically efficient to be applied in this research.

Keywords: single fly over, congestion, intersection, interchange

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Authors: Eid Abo Hamza, Ahmed Helal

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Purpose: The objective is to measure the capacity of the working memory, ie. the maximum number of elements that can be retrieved and processed, by measuring the basic functions of working memory (inhibition/transfer/update), and also to investigate its relationship to life stress and depressive thoughts. Methods: The study sample consisted of 50 students from Egypt. A cognitive task was designed to measure the working memory capacity based on the determinants found in previous research, which showed that cognitive tasks are the best measurements of the functions and capacity of working memory. Results: The results indicated that there were statistically significant differences in the level of life stress events (high/low) on the task of measuring the working memory capacity. The results also showed that there were no statistically significant differences between males and females or between academic major on the task of measuring the working memory capacity. Furthermore, the results reported that there was no statistically significant effect of the interaction of the level of life stress (high/low) and gender (male/female) on the task of measuring working memory capacity. Finally, the results showed that there were significant differences in the level of depressive thoughts (high/low) on the task of measuring working memory. Conclusions: The current research concludes that neither the interaction of stressful life events, gender, and academic major, nor the interaction of depressive thoughts, gender, and academic major, influence on working memory capacity.

Keywords: working memory, depression, stress, life event

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Authors: Ignatio Madanhire, Charles Mbohwa

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This research examines the effect of a human resource strategy and the overall equipment effectiveness as well as assessing how the combination of the two can increase a firm’s productivity. The human resource aspect is looked at in detail to assess motivation of operators through training to reduce wastage on the manufacturing shop floor. The waste was attributed to operators, maintenance personal, idle machines, idle manpower and break downs. This work seeks to investigate the concept of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) in addressing these short comings in the manufacturing case study. The impact of TPM to increase production while, as well as increasing employee morale and job satisfaction is assessed. This can be resource material for practitioners who seek to improve overall equipment efficiency (OEE) to achieve higher level productivity and competitiveness.

Keywords: maintenance, TPM, efficiency, productivity, strategy

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Authors: Qamar Ul Haq, Talat Hussain, Mufti Fahad Ahmed Qureshi

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From the Islamic perspective, managing human resource meets various challenges, especially in the modern organizations. The adoption of Western practices in various aspects of management have caused gaps in justice, trustworthy, responsibility and other values of workers in Muslim countries. Thus, the interference of Islamic principles in human resource management (HRM) can be considered as a great solution for treating employees fairly and justly. This research aims to examine the level of Islamic practices in HRM, in which includes recruitment and selection, training and development, career development, performance management and rewards. The paper will analyze the relationships between HRM practices and organizational justice which focus on three elements, which are distributive justice, procedure justice and interactional justice. The data will be collected from selected Malaysian Government-Linked Company (GLC). Convenience sampling will be used to select the respondents for completing questionnaires. This conceptual paper essentially provides organizations with effective ways of understanding and implementing HRM by using Islamic principles. It also can be used as guidance for decision-making and day-today HR activities and will help organization to face uncertainties in the business world as well.

Keywords: human resource management, organizational justice, Islam, Islamic banking

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Authors: Ngoc Minh Quynh Pham, Quan V. Vuong, Michael C. Bowyer, Christopher J. Scarlett

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Tuckeroo (Cupaniopsis anacardioides) is an Australian native plant and is grown in the coastal regions in New South Wales, Queensland and Northern Australia. Its fruits have been eaten by birds; however there is no information on phytochemical and antioxidant capacity of these fruits. This study aimed to determine the phenolic compounds (TPC), flavonoids (TFC), proanthocyanidins (TPro) and antioxidant capacity in the whole or different parts of tuckeroo fruit including skin, flesh and seed. Whole and partly tuckeroo fruits were collected and immediately freeze dried to constant weight and then ground to small particle sizes (<1mm mesh). Samples were extracted in 50% methanol using an ultrasonic bath set at temperature 40 °C for 30 minutes. TPC, TFC, TPro and antioxidant capacity were measured by spectrophotometric analysis. The results showed that the whole fruits contained 106.23 mg GAE/g of TPC, 67.67 mg CAE/g of TFC and 56.74 mg CAE/g of TPro. These fruits also possessed high antioxidant capacity (DPPH: 263.78 mg TroE/g, ABTS: 346.98 mg TroE/g, CUPRAC: 370.12 mg TroE/g and FRAP: 176.30 mg TroE/g), revealing that these fruits are rich source of antioxidants. The results also showed that distribution of the antioxidants was varied in different parts of the fruits. Skin had the highest levels of TPC, TFC, and TPro as well as antioxidant properties, followed by the seed and flesh had the lowest levels of phenolic compounds and antioxidant capacity. Of note, levels of phenolic compounds and antioxidant capacity of the skin were significantly higher than those of the whole fruits. Therefore, the skin of tuckeroo fruits is recommended as a starting material for extraction and purification of phenolic compounds as potential antioxidants for further utilisation in the food and pharmaceutical industries.

Keywords: antioxidant capacity, Cupaniopsis anacardioides, phenolic compounds, tuckeroo fruit

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Authors: N. S. Kubanza, D. Simatele, D. K. Das

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The purpose of this paper is to understand the urban environmental problems in Kinshasa and the consequences of these for the poor. This paper particularly examines the concept of environmental injustice in solid waste management in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The urban low-income communities in Kinshasa face multiple consequences of poor solid waste management associated with unhealthy living conditions. These situations stemmed from overcrowding, poor sanitary, accumulation of solid waste, resulting in the prevalence of water and air borne diseases. Using a mix of reviewed archival records, scholarly literature, a semi-structured interview conducted with the local community members and qualitative surveys among stakeholders; it was found that solid waste management challenge in Kinshasa is not only an environmental and health risk issues, but also, a problem that generates socio-spatial disparities in the distribution of the solid waste burden. It is argued in the paper that the urban poor areas in Kinshasa are often hardest affected by irregularities of waste collection. They lack sanitary storage capacities and have undermined organizational capacity for collective action within solid waste management. In view of these observations, this paper explores mechanisms and stakeholders’ engagement necessary to lessen environmental injustice in solid waste management (SWM) in Kinshasa.

Keywords: environmental justice, solid waste management, urban environmental problems, urban poor

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Authors: Kyungsuk Cho, Seungun Chae, Jihun Choi

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Elevators are examined as one of evacuation methods in super-tall buildings. However, data on the use of elevators for evacuation at a fire are extremely scarce. Therefore, a test to measure delay time in using an evacuation elevator was conducted. In the test, time taken to get on and get off an elevator was measured and the case in which people gave up boarding when the capacity of the elevator was exceeded was also taken into consideration. 170 men and women participated in the test, 130 of whom were young people (20 ~ 50 years old) and 40 were senior citizens (over 60 years old). The capacity of the elevator was 25 people and it travelled between the 2nd and 4th floors. A video recording device was used to analyze the test. An elevator at an ordinary building, not a super-tall building, was used in the test to measure delay time in getting on and getting off an elevator. In order to minimize interference from other elements, elevator platforms on the 2nd and 4th floors were partitioned off. The elevator travelled between the 2nd and 4th floors where people got on and off. If less than 20 people got on the elevator which was empty, the data were excluded. If the elevator carrying 10 passengers stopped and less than 10 new passengers got on the elevator, the data were excluded. Getting-on an empty elevator was observed 49 times. The average number of passengers was 23.7, it took 14.98 seconds for the passengers to get on the empty elevator and the load factor was 1.67 N/s. It took the passengers, whose average number was 23.7, 10.84 seconds to get off the elevator and the unload factor was 2.33 N/s. When an elevator’s capacity is exceeded, the excessive number of people should get off. Time taken for it and the probability of the case were measure in the test. 37% of the times of boarding experienced excessive number of people. As the number of people who gave up boarding increased, the load factor of the ride decreased. When 1 person gave up boarding, the load factor was 1.55 N/s. The case was observed 10 times, which was 12.7% of the total. When 2 people gave up boarding, the load factor was 1.15 N/s. The case was observed 7 times, which was 8.9% of the total. When 3 people gave up boarding, the load factor was 1.26 N/s. The case was observed 4 times, which was 5.1% of the total. When 4 people gave up boarding, the load factor was 1.03 N/s. The case was observed 5 times, which was 6.3% of the total. Getting-on and getting-off time data for people who can walk freely were obtained from the test. In addition, quantitative results were obtained from the relation between the number of people giving up boarding and time taken for getting on. This work was supported by the National Research Council of Science & Technology (NST) grant by the Korea government (MSIP) (No. CRC-16-02-KICT).

Keywords: evacuation elevator, super tall buildings, evacuees, delay time

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Authors: Othman S. Alsheraida, Sherif El-Gamal

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Fiber Reinforced Polymers (FRP) is a composite material with exceptional properties that are capable of replacing conventional steel reinforcement in reinforced and pre-stressed concrete structures. However, the main obstacle for their wide use in the pre-stressed concrete application is the anchorage system. Due to the weakness of FRP in the transverse direction, the pre-stressing capacity of FRP bars is limited. This paper investigates the modification of the conventional wedge anchorage system to be used for stressing of FRP bars in pre-stressed applications. Epoxy adhesive material with glass FRP (GFRP) bars and conventional steel wedge were used in this paper. The GFRP bars are encased with epoxy at the anchor zone and the wedge system was used in the pull-out test. The results showed a loading capacity of 47.6 kN which is 69% of the bar ultimate capacity. Additionally, nylon wedge was made with the same dimensions of the steel wedge and tested for GFRP bars without epoxy layer. The nylon wedge showed a loading capacity of 19.7 kN which is only 28.5% of the ultimate bar capacity.

Keywords: anchorage, concrete, epoxy, frp, pre-stressed

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Authors: Kenji Gwee

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The Mental Capacity Act is a new legislation that allows for lasting powers of attorney and court-appointed deputies, in respect of people who lack legal capacity. While the UK Act, after which the Singapore Act is modeled, has been shown to be therapeutic to donors, the Singapore Act differs from its UK counterpart and it is unclear if the Singapore Act can be beneficial to donors as purported. The purpose of this study was to determine what the perceptions of three groups of stakeholders (patients, caregivers and psychiatrists) are about the aspects of the Mental Capacity Act that are therapeutic to donors. In addition, ways to increase the therapeutic value of the Act to donors are sought. A qualitative methodology was used and the research was guided by two theoretical frameworks: therapeutic jurisprudence and an interpretive constructive framework. Interviews with 12 psychiatrists, and focus groups with twenty three patients and seven caregivers showed agreement that, allowing donors to nominate more than one decision- maker, and whistle-blowing mechanisms for recourse for abuse, were therapeutic to donors. To further increase the therapeutic value of the Act, 2 suggestions were made: the Act should provide for (i) advanced healthcare directives- allowing donors to make advance decisions to refuse treatment, or cease existing treatment, and (ii) independent advocacy services- to have a case worker to represent people who have no family or friends and are thus unable to find suitable donees.

Keywords: Mental Capacity Act, therapeutic jurisprudence, qualitative methodology, the UK Act

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Authors: Hakeem Ade Omokayode Idowu

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The extent of the role played by human capabilities developments as well as knowledge management on employees’ performance in the nuclear energy sector of Nigeria remains unclear. This is in view of the important role which human resource capabilities could play in the desire to generate energy using nuclear resources. This study appraised the extent of human resource capabilities available in the nuclear energy sector of Nigeria. It further examined the relationship between knowledge management and employees’ performance in the nuclear energy sector. The study adopted a descriptive research design with a population that comprised all the 1736 members of staff of the selected centres, institutes, and the headquarters of the Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission (NAEC), Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA), and Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN) and a sample size of 332 employees was selected using purposive and convenience sampling techniques. Data collected were subjected to analysis using frequency counts and simple regression. The results showed that majority of the employees perceived that they have to a high extent of availability of knowledge (118, 35.5%), credibility (134, 40.4%), alignment (130, 39.2%), performance (126, 38%) and innovation (138, 41.6%) The result of the hypothesis tested indicated that knowledge management has a positive and significant effect on employees’ performance (Beta weight = 0.336, R2 =0.113, F-value = 41.959, p-value = 0.000< 0.05). The study concluded that human resource capabilities and knowledge management could enhance employee performance within the nuclear energy sector of Nigeria.

Keywords: human resource capabilities, knowledge management, employees productivity, national development

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Authors: I. Elrouby

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The continued growth of tourism in the future relies on maintaining a clean environment by achieving sustainable development. The erosion and degradation of beaches, the deterioration of coastal water quality, visual pollution of coastlines by massive developments, all this has contributed heavily to the loss of the natural attractiveness for tourism. In light of this, promoting the concept of sustainable coastal development is becoming a central goal for governments and private sector. An ecolodge is a small hotel or guesthouse that incorporates local architectural, cultural and natural characteristics, promotes environmental conservation through minimizing the use of waste and energy and produces social and economic benefits for local communities. Egypt has some scattered attempts in some areas like Sinai in the field of ecolodging. This research tends to investigate the potentials of the North West Coast (NWC) in Alexandria as a new candidate for ecolodging investments. The area is full of primitive natural and man-made resources. These, if used in an environmental-friendly way could achieve cost reductions as a result of successful resource management for investors on the one hand, and coastal preservation on the other hand. In-depth interviews will be conducted with stakeholders in the tourism sector to examine their opinion about the potentials of the research area for ecolodging developments. The candidates will be also asked to rate the importance of the availability of certain environmental aspects in such establishments such as the uses of resources that originate from local communities, uses of natural power sources, uses of an environmental-friendly sewage disposal, forbidding the use of materials of endangered species and enhancing cultural heritage conservation. The results show that the area is full of potentials that could be effectively used for ecolodging investments. This if efficiently used could attract ecotourism as a supplementary type of tourism that could be promoted in Alexandria aside cultural, recreational and religious tourism.

Keywords: Alexandria, ecolodging, ecotourism, sustainability

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Authors: Atiq U. Zaman, Juliet Arnott

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This paper analyses the various benefits and barriers of residential deconstruction in the context of environmental performance and circular economy based on a case study project in Christchurch, New Zealand. The case study project “Whole House Deconstruction” which aimed, firstly, to harvest materials from a residential house, secondly, to produce new products using the recovered materials, and thirdly, to organize an exhibition for the local public to promote awareness on resource conservation and sustainable deconstruction practices. Through a systematic deconstruction process, the project recovered around 12 tonnes of various construction materials, most of which would otherwise be disposed of to landfill in the traditional demolition approach. It is estimated that the deconstruction of a similar residential house could potentially prevent around 27,029 kg of carbon emission to the atmosphere by recovering and reusing the building materials. In addition, the project involved local designers to produce 400 artefacts using the recovered materials and to exhibit them to accelerate public awareness. The findings from this study suggest that the deconstruction project has significant environmental benefits, as well as social benefits by involving the local community and unemployed youth as a part of their professional skills development opportunities. However, the project faced a number of economic and institutional challenges. The study concludes that with proper economic models and appropriate institutional support a significant amount of construction and demolition waste can be reduced through a systematic deconstruction process. Traditionally, the greatest benefits from such projects are often ignored and remain unreported to wider audiences as most of the external and environmental costs have not been considered in the traditional linear economy.

Keywords: circular economy, construction and demolition waste, resource recovery, systematic deconstruction, sustainable waste management

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Authors: Sanjay Kumar Srivastava, Rajesh Srivastava

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Human resource is the key point of success of any economy. From the past few decades, policies started to move in the route of expanding inclusive education with effective involvement of government.Governments of developing nations are generating policies for educational upliftment. Applying educational policies, the motive of the government is to maintain and develop the effective human resource within a society. The attention of the government includes primary education to higher education. It also involves professional training programmes related to every discipline. The aim of this paper is to find out the government policies in terms of expenditure and achievements for inclusive education to develop human resources in developing countries. A case of Indian experience has been taken into consideration. This approach generates a picture as to how India is enriching its educational system for human resource development and this research study will be useful for the policy makers to determine the appropriate level of overall spending of government and achievements in the education system for human resource development. Analytical research methodology has been adopted.

Keywords: government policies, inclusive education, National Educational Policy, NCERT

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Authors: Mallikarjuna Rao Yamarthy, Subramanyam Makam Venkata, Satya Prasad Kodati

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The main objective of the proposed work is to reduce the overall network traffic incurred by mobility management, packet delivery cost and to increase the resource utilization. The proposed algorithm, An Efficient Resource Management Algorithm (ERMA) for mobility management in wireless mesh networks, relies on pointer based mobility management scheme. Whenever a mesh client moves from one mesh router to another, the pointer is set up dynamically between the previous mesh router and current mesh router based on the distance constraints. The algorithm evaluated for signaling cost, data delivery cost and total communication cost performance metrics. The proposed algorithm is demonstrated for both internet sessions and intranet sessions. The proposed algorithm yields significantly better performance in terms of signaling cost, data delivery cost, and total communication cost.

Keywords: data delivery cost, mobility management, pointer forwarding, resource management, wireless mesh networks

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Authors: Milad Abbasi

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Carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite structures are increasingly being utilized in the automotive industry due to their lightweight and specific energy absorption capabilities. Although it is impossible to predict composite mechanical properties directly using theoretical methods, various research has been conducted so far in the literature for accurate simulation of CFRP structures' energy-absorbing behavior. In this research, axial compression experiments were carried out on hand lay-up unidirectional CFRP composite tubes. The fabrication method allowed the authors to extract the material properties of the CFRPs using ASTM D3039, D3410, and D3518 standards. A neural network machine learning algorithm was then utilized to build a robust prediction model to forecast the axial compressive properties of CFRP tubes while reducing high-cost experimental efforts. The predicted results have been compared with the experimental outcomes in terms of load-carrying capacity and energy absorption capability. The results showed high accuracy and precision in the prediction of the energy-absorption capacity of the CFRP tubes. This research also demonstrates the effectiveness and challenges of machine learning techniques in the robust simulation of composites' energy-absorption behavior. Interestingly, the proposed method considerably condensed numerical and experimental efforts in the simulation and calibration of CFRP composite tubes subjected to compressive loading.

Keywords: CFRP composite tubes, energy absorption, crushing behavior, machine learning, neural network

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Authors: E. K. Soyele

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This study is on capacity building and motivation as determinants of productivity among library personnel in colleges of education in South West, Nigeria. This study made use of a descriptive research design of survey type. A total enumeration sampling technique was used for the selected sample. The research sample consisted of 40 library personnel. The instrument used for the study was a structured questionnaire divided into four parts. Statistics data analysis used were descriptive statistics with frequencies, percentages, and regression statistics analysis. Findings from this study revealed that capacity building and motivation have positive impact on library personnel productivity with their percentages greater than 50% acceptance level. A test of null hypotheses at P < 0.05 significant level was tested to see the significance between capacity building and productivity, which was positive at P < 0.05 significant level. This implies that capacity building and motivation significantly determine productivity among library personnel in selected college libraries in Nigeria. The study concluded that there is need for institutions to equip their library personnel via training programmes, in-service, digital training, ICT training, seminars, and conferences, etc. Incentives should be provided to motivate personnel for high productivity. The study, therefore, recommends that government, institutions and library management should fund college libraries adequately so as to enhance capacity building, staff commitment and training for further education

Keywords: capacity building, library personnel, motivation, productivity

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Authors: B. G. Abiona, O. E. Fapojuwo, T. Akinlawon

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This study assessed the influence of human resource management practices on agricultural employees’ behavior. Data were collected from 75 randomly selected respondents using a well-structured questionnaire. The mean age of the employees’ was 43.2 years. Major human resource management practices that influence employees behaviors were: In-service training are given to employees on a regular basis (average value of x=3.44), management reward employees who are committed to their job (average value of x =3.41) and reward are designed to encourage wide participation and activity (average value of x=3.41). Also, major employees’ behavior include: Managers and employees’ wants to create better job performance (average value of x=3.13) and administrator provides praise and recognition for effective performance and show appreciation for special effort (average value of x=3.05). Major factors affecting employees’ behavior were: inadequate training (average value of x=2.93), inadequate local and international training (average value of x=2.87), inadequate grants for training programmes (average value of x= 2.81). A significant relationship was found between gender (χ2 = 37.204, P<0.05), educational qualification (χ2 = 59.093, P<0.05), income (r =0.122, P<0.05) and human resource management practices (r = 0.573, P< 0.05) of the respondents and employees’ behavior. Management should encourage employees who are committed to their job through awards and recognition.

Keywords: human resources management, agricultural employees, behaviour research institutes, Nigeria

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Authors: Shada Bennbaia, Elsadig Mahdi

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In this paper, the effect of changing the interior angle of a hexagonal passive energy absorber is investigated. Aluminum hexagonal structures have been tested under in-plane quasi-static compression tests. These hexagonal structures are designed to have varying interior angle values to study their crushing behavior and the relationship between the angle and the energy absorption capability. It was found that the structures with angles 40° and 45° showed an almost perfectly stable crushing mechanism with low initial peak force. Thus, hexagonal structures with these angels can be used in the vehicle's crumple zones to absorb energy during collisions. The larger angles required high initial peak force to start crushing, which indicates that these structures are best suited in applications where high load carrying capacity is needed.

Keywords: energy absorption, crushing force efficiency, crushing mechanism, hexagonal angle, peak force

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Authors: Yutae Lee

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This paper considers a discrete-time bulk-arrival bulkservice queueing system, where service capacity varies depending on the previous service time. By using the generating function technique and the supplementary variable method, we compute the distributions of the queue length at an arbitrary slot boundary and a departure time.

Keywords: discrete-time queue, bulk queue, variable service capacity, queue length distribution

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Authors: Kesi Widjajanti

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To develop the growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), it is important to unlock potential resources that can improve their performance. Business Partnerships (BP) are currently an interesting topic of strategy to use to expand markets and maximize financial and marketing performance. However, many business partnerships have not quite a role among small and medium companies in the creative industry in the Batik Craft sector in Indonesia. This study is rooted in the Resource Advantage Theory of Competition ( RAToC), which emphasizes that the advantage of company resources can be sourced from organizational and relational resources. With the basis of this theory, SMEs can optimize the allocation of relational resources and organizational goals, improve operational efficiency, and gain a strategic advantage in the market. Companies that are able to actualize organizational and relational resources better than other market players can be used for the process of increasing their superior performance. This study explores key elements from the RAToC perspective and shows how Business Partnerships have the potential to drive SMEs' growth. By aligning visions, and organizational resources, sharing knowledge and leveraging complementary relational resources, SMEs can increase their competitiveness, enter new markets, and achieve superior performance. The theoretical contribution of RAToC in small companies is due to the role of Pro-Grow Business Partnership strength as an important antecedent for improving SMEs' performance. The benefits (scenarios) of a Business Partnership to grow together are directed at optimizing resources that can create additional value for customers so that they can outperform competitors. Furthermore, managerial implications for SMEs who wish to unlock their resource potential can encourage the role of Pro-Grow Business Partnerships, which have specific characteristics, can absorb experience/knowledge capacity and utilize this knowledge for the development of "together" business ventures.

Keywords: pro grow business partnership, performance, SMEs, resources advantage theory of competition, industry kreatif batik handycraft indonesia

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Authors: S. A. Naeini, A. Mahigir

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Naturally occurring cohesive soil deposits are inherently anisotropic with respect to different properties amongst which is the shear strength. The anisotropy is primary due to the process of sedimentation followed by predominantly one-dimensional consolidation. However, most soils in their natural states exhibit some anisotropy with respect to shear strength and some non-homogeneity with respect to depth. In this paper the standard Mohr-Coulomb yield criterion was modified to consider the anisotropic shear strength properties. The term non-homogeneity used in this paper refers to only the cohesion intercept which is assumed to vary linearly with depth. The effect of both anisotropy and deterministic non-homogeneity on bearing capacity of shallow foundation was investigated using finite difference method. Result of numerical analysis indicates that the cohesion anisotropy has a significant effect on bearing capacity of shallow foundation. Furthermore, the linear and bilinear heterogeneity affects the bearing capacity in a similar way although the anisotropy issue emerges to be more important as far as shallow foundations are considered.

Keywords: anisotropic ratio, finite difference analysis, bearing capacity, heterogeneity

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Authors: Abbas Vahedian, Rijun Shrestha, Keith Crews

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The bond mechanism between timber and fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) is relatively complex and is influenced by a number of variables including bond thickness, bond width, bond length, material properties, and geometries. This study investigates the influence of bond thickness on the behaviour of interface, failure mode, and bond strength of externally bonded FRP-to-timber interface. In the present study, 106 single shear joint specimens have been investigated. Experiment results showed that higher layers of FRP increase the ultimate load carrying capacity of interface; conversely, such increase led to decrease the slip of interface. Moreover, samples with more layers of FRPs may fail in a brittle manner without noticeable warning that collapse is imminent.

Keywords: fibre reinforced polymer, FRP, single shear test, bond thickness, bond strength

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Authors: Tomer Gans-Or, Shmulik Pinkert

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The determination of lateral pile capacity per unit length is a key aspect in geotechnical engineering. Traditional approaches for assessing piles lateral capacity in cohesive soils involve the application of upper-bound and lower-bound plasticity theorems. However, a comprehensive solution encompassing the entire spectrum of soil strength parameters, particularly in frictional soils with or without cohesion, is still lacking. This research introduces an innovative implementation of the slice method limit equilibrium solution for lateral capacity assessment. For any given numerical discretization of the soil's domain around the pile, the lateral capacity evaluation is based on mobilized strength concept. The critical failure geometry is then found by a unique optimization procedure which includes both factor of safety minimization and geometrical optimization. The robustness of this suggested methodology is that the solution is independent of any predefined assumptions. Validation of the solution is accomplished through a comparison with established plasticity solutions for cohesive soils. Furthermore, the study demonstrates the applicability of the limit equilibrium method to address unresolved cases related to frictional and cohesive-frictional soils. Beyond providing capacity values, the method enables the utilization of the mobilized strength concept to generate safety-factor distributions for scenarios representing pre-failure states.

Keywords: lateral pile capacity, slice method, limit equilibrium, mobilized strength

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Authors: Foruzan Taheri, Seyedeh Negar Hosseinian, Katayoon Alizadeh

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The small countryside city of Shandiz, with a population of about 13.297 is located 35 km to the west of the Mashhad metropolitan. Due to Shandiz’s natural beauty, suitable climate, and its close proximity to Mashhad which is the largest city in the eastern half of the country, many people own second houses in this area. In addition to this, Shandiz hosts millions of visitors annually. Its economic role, which is parallel and complementary to Mashhad, has caused population growth, the increase of activities, and physical expansion, all of which exceed the city’s capacity. The aim of this descriptive and analytical study was to evaluate the impact of city expansion on the environment and aid in preventing further harm to the natural environment of this perimeter. Data were collected from population and housing statistics during a different period of time-based on GIS. Results show that the existence of an integrated environmental management system in order to coordinate development projects and the expansion of tourism programs that meet environmental conditions are necessary and achieving sustainable development with quality of life in this area without considering environmental limitations and capabilities cannot be sustained.

Keywords: population growth, tourism, physical development, environmental impact, Shandiz City

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Authors: Eyasu Markos Woldesemayat, Paolo Vincenzo Genovese

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In recent years with an increase in the concentration of Green House Gases (GHG), Climate Change (CC) externalities are mounting, regardless of governments, are scrambling to implement mitigation and adaptation measures. With multiple social, economic and environmental benefits, Green Infrastructure (GI) has evolved as a highly valuable policy tool to promote sustainable development and smart growth by meeting multiple objectives towards quality of life. However, despite the wide range of benefits, it's uptake in African cities such as Addis Ababa is very low due to several constraining factors. This study, through content analysis and key informant interviews, examined barriers for the uptake of GI among spatial planners in Addis Ababa. Added to this, the study has revealed that the spatial planners had insufficient knowledge about GI planning principles such as multi-functionality, integration, and connectivity, and multiscale. The practice of implementing these holistic principles in urban spatial planning is phenomenally nonexistent. The findings also revealed 20 barriers categorized under four themes, i.e., institutional, socio-cultural, resource, and cognitive barriers. Similarly, it was identified that institutional barriers (0.756), socio-cultural barriers (0.730), cognitive barriers (0.700) and resource barriers (0.642), respectively, are the foremost impending factors for the promotion of GI in Addis Ababa. It was realized that resource barriers were the least constraining factor for enshrining the GI uptake in the city. Strategies to hasten the adoption of GI in the city mainly focus on improving political will, harmonization sectorial plans, improve spatial planning and implementation practice, prioritization of GI in all planning activities, enforcement of environmental laws, introducing collaborative GI governance, creating strong and stable institutions and raising awareness on the need to conserve environment and CC externalities through education and outreach mechanisms.

Keywords: Addis Ababa, climate change, green infrastructure, spatial planning, spatial planners

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Authors: Yasser Aldali, Farag Ahwide

Abstract:

This paper investigates the application of large scale (LS-PV) two-axis tracking photovoltaic power plant in Al-Jagbob, Libya. A 50MW PV-grid connected (two-axis tracking) power plant design in Al-Jagbob, Libya has been carried out presently. A hetero-junction with intrinsic thin layer (HIT) type PV module has been selected and modeled. A Microsoft Excel-VBA program has been constructed to compute slope radiation, dew-point, sky temperature, and then cell temperature, maximum power output and module efficiency for this system, for tracking system. The results for energy production show that the total energy output is 128.5 GWh/year. The average module efficiency is 16.6%. The electricity generation capacity factor (CF) and solar capacity factor (SCF) were found to be 29.3% and 70.4% respectively. A 50MW two axis tracking power plant with a total energy output of 128.5 GWh/year would reduce CO2 pollution by 85,581 tonnes of each year. The payback time for the proposed LS-PV photovoltaic power plant was found to be 4 years.

Keywords: large PV power plant, solar energy, environmental impact, dual-axis tracking system

Procedia PDF Downloads 376

Authors: Rowane May A. Fesalbon, Greyland C. Agno, Jodel L. Cuasay, Dindo A. Malonzo, Ma. Rosario Concepcion O. Ang

Abstract:

The Department of Energy of the Republic of the Philippines estimates that the country’s energy reserves for 2015 are dwindling– observed in the rotating power outages in several localities. To aid in the energy crisis, a national hydropower resource assessment scheme is developed. Hydropower is a resource that is derived from flowing water and difference in elevation. It is a renewable energy resource that is deemed abundant in the Philippines – being an archipelagic country that is rich in bodies of water and water resources. The objectives of this study is to develop a methodology for a national hydropower resource assessment using hydrologic modeling and geospatial techniques in order to generate resource maps for future reference and use of the government and other stakeholders. The methodology developed for this purpose is focused on two models – the implementation of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) for the river discharge and the use of geospatial techniques to analyze the topography and obtain the head, and generate the theoretical hydropower potential sites. The methodology is highly coupled with Geographic Information Systems to maximize the use of geodatabases and the spatial significance of the determined sites. The hydrologic model used in this workflow is SWAT integrated in the GIS software ArcGIS. The head is determined by a developed algorithm that utilizes a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)-derived digital elevation model (DEM) which has a resolution of 10-meters. The initial results of the developed workflow indicate hydropower potential in the river reaches ranging from pico (less than 5 kW) to mini (1-3 MW) theoretical potential.

Keywords: ArcSWAT, renewable energy, hydrologic model, hydropower, GIS

Procedia PDF Downloads 292

Authors: Kristin Drexler

Abstract:

Climate change has exacerbated food and livelihood insecurity for Mayan milpa farmers in Central America. For centuries, milpa farming has been sustainable for subsistence; however, in the last 50 years, milpas have become less reliable due to accelerating climate change, resource degradation, declining markets, poverty, and other factors. Using interviews with extension leaders and milpa farmers in Belize, this qualitative study examines the capacity for increasing climate-smart agriculture (CSA) aspects of existing traditional milpa practices, specifically no-burn mulching, soil enrichment, and the use of cover plants. Applying community capitals and socio-ecological systems frameworks, this study finds four key capitals were perceived by farmers and agriculture extension leaders as barriers for increasing CSA practices: (1) human-capacity, (2) financial, (3) infrastructure, and (4) governance-justice capitals. The key barriers include a lack of CSA technology and pest management knowledge-sharing (human-capacity), unreliable roads and utility services (infrastructure), the closure of small markets and crop-buying programs in Belize (financial), and constraints on extension services and exacerbating a sense of marginalization in Maya communities (governance-justice). Recommendations are presented for government action to reduce barriers and facilitate an increase in milpa crop productivity, promote food and livelihood security, and enable climate resilience of Mayan milpa communities in Belize.

Keywords: socio-ecological systems, community capitals, climate-smart agriculture, food security, milpa, Belize

Procedia PDF Downloads 70

Authors: Liya Shan, Qing Liao, Qinyue Hu, Shantao Jiang, Tao Wang

Abstract:

In this paper, a Quality of Experience (QoE)-driven cross-layer resource allocation scheme for high traffic service over Open Wireless Network (OWN) downlink is proposed, and the related problem about the users in the whole cell including the users in overlap region of different cells has been solved.A method, in which assess models of the BestEffort service and the no-reference assess algorithm for video service are adopted, to calculate the Mean Opinion Score (MOS) value for high traffic service has been introduced. The cross-layer architecture considers the parameters in application layer, media access control layer and physical layer jointly. Based on this architecture and the MOS value, the Binary Constrained Particle Swarm Optimization (B_CPSO) algorithm is used to solve the cross-layer resource allocation problem. In addition,simulationresults show that the proposed scheme significantly outperforms other schemes in terms of maximizing average users’ MOS value for the whole system as well as maintaining fairness among users.

Keywords: high traffic service, cross-layer resource allocation, QoE, B_CPSO, OWN

Procedia PDF Downloads 524