Search results for: financial planning
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 5941

Search results for: financial planning

1831 Design and Development of Tandem Dynamometer for Testing and Validation of Motor Performance Parameters

Authors: Vedansh More, Lalatendu Bal, Ronak Panchal, Atharva Kulkarni

Abstract:

The project aims at developing a cost-effective test bench capable of testing and validating the complete powertrain package of an electric vehicle. Emrax 228 high voltage synchronous motor was selected as the prime mover for study. A tandem type dynamometer comprising of two loading methods; inertial, using standard inertia rollers and absorptive, using a separately excited DC generator with resistive coils was developed. The absorptive loading of the prime mover was achieved by implementing a converter circuit through which duty of the input field voltage level was controlled. This control was efficacious in changing the magnetic flux and hence the generated voltage which was ultimately dropped across resistive coils assembled in a load bank with all parallel configuration. The prime mover and loading elements were connected via a chain drive with a 2:1 reduction ratio which allows flexibility in placement of components and a relaxed rating of the DC generator. The development will aid in determination of essential characteristics like torque-RPM, power-RPM, torque factor, RPM factor, heat loads of devices and battery pack state of charge efficiency but also provides a significant financial advantage over existing versions of dynamometers with its cost-effective solution.

Keywords: absorptive load, chain drive, chordal action, DC generator, dynamometer, electric vehicle, inertia rollers, load bank, powertrain, pulse width modulation, reduction ratio, road load, testbench

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1830 Atomic Town: History and Vernacular Heritage at the Mary Kathleen Uranium Mine in Australia

Authors: Erik Eklund

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Mary Kathleen was a purpose-built company town located in northwest Queensland in Australia. It was created to work on a rich uranium deposit discovered in the area in July 1954. The town was complete by 1958, possessing curved streets, modern materials, and a progressive urban planning scheme. Formed in the minds of corporate executives and architects and made manifest in arid zone country between Cloncurry and Mount Isa, Mary Kathleen was a modern marvel in the outback, a town that tamed the wild country of northwest Queensland, or so it seemed. The town was also a product of the Cold War. In the context of a nuclear arms race between the Soviet Union and her allies, and the United States of America (USA) and her Allies, a rapid rush to locate, mine, and process uranium after 1944 led to the creation of uranium towns in Czechoslovakia, Canada, the Soviet Union, USA and Australia of which Mary Kathleen was one such example. Mary Kathleen closed in 1981, and most of the town’s infrastructure was removed. Since then, the town’s ghostly remains have attracted travellers and tourists. Never an officially-sanctioned tourist site, the area has nevertheless become a regular stop for campers and day trippers who have engaged with the site often without formal interpretation. This paper explores the status of this vernacular heritage and asks why it has not gained any official status and what visitors might see in the place despite its uncertain status.

Keywords: uranium mining, planned communities, official heritage, vernacular heritage, Australian history

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1829 Using Genetic Algorithm to Organize Sustainable Urban Landscape in Historical Part of City

Authors: Shahab Mirzaean Mahabadi, Elham Ebrahimi

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The urban development process in the historical urban context has predominately witnessed two main approaches: the first is the Preservation and conservation of the urban fabric and its value, and the second approach is urban renewal and redevelopment. The latter is generally supported by political and economic aspirations. These two approaches conflict evidently. The authors go through the history of urban planning in order to review the historical development of the mentioned approaches. In this article, various values which are inherent in the historical fabric of a city are illustrated by emphasizing on cultural identity and activity. In the following, it is tried to find an optimized plan which maximizes economic development and minimizes change in historical-cultural sites simultaneously. In the proposed model, regarding the decision maker’s intention, and the variety of functions, the selected zone is divided into a number of components. For each component, different alternatives can be assigned, namely, renovation, refurbishment, destruction, and change in function. The decision Variable in this model is to choose an alternative for each component. A set of decisions made upon all components results in a plan. A plan developed in this way can be evaluated based on the decision maker’s point of view. That is, interactions between selected alternatives can make a foundation for the assessment of urban context to design a historical-cultural landscape. A genetic algorithm (GA) approach is used to search for optimal future land use within the historical-culture landscape for a sustainable high-growth city.

Keywords: urban sustainability, green city, regeneration, genetic algorithm

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1828 Using Monte Carlo Model for Simulation of Rented Housing in Mashhad, Iran

Authors: Mohammad Rahim Rahnama

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The study employs Monte Carlo method for simulation of rented housing in Mashhad second largest city in Iran. A total number of 334 rental residential units in Mashhad, including both apartments and houses (villa), were randomly selected from advertisements placed in Khorasan Newspapers during the months of July and August of 2015. In order to simulate the monthly rent price, the rent index was calculated through combining the mortgage and the rent price. In the next step, the relation between the variables of the floor area and that of the number of bedrooms for each unit, in both apartments and houses(villa), was calculated through multivariate regression using SPSS and was coded in XML. The initial model was called using simulation button in SPSS and was simulated using triangular and binominal algorithms. The findings revealed that the average simulated rental index was 548.5$ per month. Calculating the sensitivity of rental index to a number of bedrooms we found that firstly, 97% of units have three bedrooms, and secondly as the number of bedrooms increases from one to three, for the rent price of less than 200$, the percentage of units having one bedroom decreases from 10% to 0. Contrariwise, for units with the rent price of more than 571.4$, the percentage of bedrooms increases from 37% to 48%. In the light of these findings, it becomes clear that planning to build rental residential units, overseeing the rent prices, and granting subsidies to rental residential units, for apartments with two bedrooms, present a felicitous policy for regulating residential units in Mashhad.

Keywords: Mashhad, Monte Carlo, simulation, rent price, residential unit

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1827 Coastal Adaptation to Climate Change: A Review of EU Tools, Legislation, National Strategies and Projects in the Mediterranean Basin

Authors: Dimitris Kokkinos, Panagiotis Prinos

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In the last three decades, climate change has been studied extensively from scientific community, and its consequences are more than clear all around the world. Most countries have carried out a great effort to reduce global warming rates with the ratification and implementation of several international treaties. Moreover, many of them have already adopted national plans in order to adapt to climate change effects and mitigate human and economic losses. Coastal environments, with their inherent physical sensitivity, will face important challenges as a result of projected changes in climate conditions and hundreds of millions of people will be affected. Coastal zones are of high social and economic value and this research focuses on the Mediterranean basin, which is a densely populated and highly urbanized area. With 40% of its land used for human activity and the inevitability of the impacts of the climate change, it is obvious that some form of adaptation measures will be necessary. In this regard, the EU tools, policies and legislation concerning adaptation to climate change are presented. Additionally, the National Adaptation Strategies of State members of the Mediterranean basin are compared and analyzed concerning the coastal areas, along with an overview of projects and programs results focused on coastal issues at different spatial scales. The purpose of this research is to stress the differences between Mediterranean State members at methodologies implemented, to highlight the possible gaps in co-ordination and to emphasize on research initiatives that EU can build upon moving towards an integrated adaptation planning on a region-wide basis.

Keywords: coastal adaptation, Mediterranean Basin, climate change, coastal environments

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1826 A Supervised Learning Data Mining Approach for Object Recognition and Classification in High Resolution Satellite Data

Authors: Mais Nijim, Rama Devi Chennuboyina, Waseem Al Aqqad

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Advances in spatial and spectral resolution of satellite images have led to tremendous growth in large image databases. The data we acquire through satellites, radars and sensors consists of important geographical information that can be used for remote sensing applications such as region planning, disaster management. Spatial data classification and object recognition are important tasks for many applications. However, classifying objects and identifying them manually from images is a difficult task. Object recognition is often considered as a classification problem, this task can be performed using machine-learning techniques. Despite of many machine-learning algorithms, the classification is done using supervised classifiers such as Support Vector Machines (SVM) as the area of interest is known. We proposed a classification method, which considers neighboring pixels in a region for feature extraction and it evaluates classifications precisely according to neighboring classes for semantic interpretation of region of interest (ROI). A dataset has been created for training and testing purpose; we generated the attributes by considering pixel intensity values and mean values of reflectance. We demonstrated the benefits of using knowledge discovery and data-mining techniques, which can be on image data for accurate information extraction and classification from high spatial resolution remote sensing imagery.

Keywords: remote sensing, object recognition, classification, data mining, waterbody identification, feature extraction

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1825 Measuring Social Dimension of Sustainable Development in New Zealand Cities

Authors: Taimaz Larimian

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During recent years, sustainable development has increasingly influenced urban policy, housing and planning in cities all over the world. Debates about sustainability no longer consider it solely as an environmental concern, but also incorporate social and economic dimensions. However, while a social dimension of sustainability is extensively accepted, the exact definition of the concept is still vague and unclear. This study is addressing this lack of specificity through a detailed exploration of social sustainability as the least studied pillar of sustainable development and sheds light on the debate over the definition of social sustainability through developing a measurement model of the constitutive dimensions of the concept. With this aim, a conceptual framework is developed based on the existing literature, determining seven main dimensions of the social sustainability concept namely: social interaction, safety and security, social equity, social participation, neighborhood satisfaction, housing satisfaction and sense of place. The validity and reliability of the model is then tested using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. In order to do so, five case study neighborhoods from Dunedin city with a range of urban forms and characters are investigated, to define social sustainability concept and its consisting dimensions from people’s perspective. The findings of this study present a clear definition of social sustainability at neighborhood scale and highlight all different dimensions of the concept in the context of New Zealand cities. According to the results, among the investigated dimensions, neighborhood satisfaction and safety and security had the most influence on people’s feeling of social sustainability in their neighborhood.

Keywords: social sustainability, factor analysis, neighborhood level, New Zealand cities

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1824 The Changing Role of the Chief Academic Officer in American Higher Education: Causes and Consequences

Authors: Michael W. Markowitz, Jeffrey Gingerich

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The landscape of higher education in the United States has undergone significant changes in the last 25 years. What was once a domain of competition among prospective students for a limited number of college and university seats has become a marketplace in which institutions vie for the enrollment of educational consumers. A central figure in this paradigm shift has been the Chief Academic Officer (CAO), whose institutional role has also evolved beyond academics to include such disparate responsibilities as strategic planning, fiscal oversight, student recruitment, fundraising and personnel management. This paper explores the scope and impact of this transition by, first, explaining its context: the intersection of key social, economic and political factors in neo-conservative, late 20th Century America that redefined the value and accountability of institutions of higher learning. This context, in turn, is shown to have redefined the role and function of the CAO from a traditional academic leader to one centered on the successful application of corporate principles of organizational and fiscal management. Information gathered from a number of sitting Provosts, Vice-Presidents of Academic Affairs and Deans of Faculty is presented to illustrate the parameters of this change, as well as the extent to which today’s academic officers feel prepared and equipped to fulfill this broader institutional role. The paper concludes with a discussion of the impact of this transition on the American academy and whether it serves as a portend of change to come in higher education systems around the globe.

Keywords: academic administration, higher education, leadership, organizational management

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1823 Comparison of the Existing Damage Indices in Steel Moment-Resisting Frame Structures

Authors: Hamid Kazemi, Abbasali Sadeghi

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Assessment of seismic behavior of frame structures is just done for evaluating life and financial damages or lost. The new structural seismic behavior assessment methods have been proposed, so it is necessary to define a formulation as a damage index, which the damage amount has been quantified and qualified. In this paper, four new steel moment-resisting frames with intermediate ductility and different height (2, 5, 8, and 12-story) with regular geometry and simple rectangular plan were supposed and designed. The three existing groups’ damage indices were studied, each group consisting of local index (Drift, Maximum Roof Displacement, Banon Failure, Kinematic, Banon Normalized Cumulative Rotation, Cumulative Plastic Rotation and Ductility), global index (Roufaiel and Meyer, Papadopoulos, Sozen, Rosenblueth, Ductility and Base Shear), and story (Banon Failure and Inter-story Rotation). The necessary parameters for these damage indices have been calculated under the effect of far-fault ground motion records by Non-linear Dynamic Time History Analysis. Finally, prioritization of damage indices is defined based on more conservative values in terms of more damageability rate. The results show that the selected damage index has an important effect on estimation of the damage state. Also, failure, drift, and Rosenblueth damage indices are more conservative indices respectively for local, story and global damage indices.

Keywords: damage index, far-fault ground motion records, non-linear time history analysis, SeismoStruct software, steel moment-resisting frame

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1822 Effect of Cultural Factors on Small and Medium Scale Enterprises Performance: A Study of Selected SMEs in Keffi Local Government Area, Nasarawa State

Authors: Kadiri Kayode Ibrahim

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Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) play significant roles in the economic development of Nigeria. However, the performance of these SMEs is influenced by various factors, including cultural factors. Keffi Local Government Area (LGA) in Nasarawa State, Nigeria, has a large number of registered SMEs. Understanding the impact of cultural factors on the performance of these SMEs in Keffi LGA is essential for their growth and sustainability. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effect of cultural factors on the performance of selected SMEs in Keffi LGA, Nasarawa State. A cross-sectional survey research design was used to collect data from 165 purposefully selected SME owners out of the 283 registered SMEs in Keffi LGA. The data was collected using a questionnaire divided into three sections, and analysed using descriptive and ordinary least square regression (OLS). The results indicate that socio-cultural factors and ethical values have a positive and significant effect on the performance of SMEs in Keffi LGA, while attitude has a negative and significant effect on the performance of SMEs in Keffi LGA. Therefore, the study recommends that SMEs in Keffi LGA should understand the socio-cultural elements of their operating environment, adopt socio-cultural factors as elements to guide their planning and strategizing and take into consideration the ethical values of the business environment when offering new products or services. Additionally, SME Managers should take cognisance of people’s attitudes and use them to gauge their activities and ensure they support the overall performance of the business.

Keywords: cultural, factors, performance, SMEs

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1821 Next Generation UK Storm Surge Model for the Insurance Market: The London Case

Authors: Iacopo Carnacina, Mohammad Keshtpoor, Richard Yablonsky

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Non-structural protection measures against flooding are becoming increasingly popular flood risk mitigation strategies. In particular, coastal flood insurance impacts not only private citizens but also insurance and reinsurance companies, who may require it to retain solvency and better understand the risks they face from a catastrophic coastal flood event. In this context, a framework is presented here to assess the risk for coastal flooding across the UK. The area has a long history of catastrophic flood events, including the Great Flood of 1953 and the 2013 Cyclone Xaver storm, both of which led to significant loss of life and property. The current framework will leverage a technology based on a hydrodynamic model (Delft3D Flexible Mesh). This flexible mesh technology, coupled with a calibration technique, allows for better utilisation of computational resources, leading to higher resolution and more detailed results. The generation of a stochastic set of extra tropical cyclone (ETC) events supports the evaluation of the financial losses for the whole area, also accounting for correlations between different locations in different scenarios. Finally, the solution shows a detailed analysis for the Thames River, leveraging the information available on flood barriers and levees. Two realistic disaster scenarios for the Greater London area are simulated: In the first scenario, the storm surge intensity is not high enough to fail London’s flood defences, but in the second scenario, London’s flood defences fail, highlighting the potential losses from a catastrophic coastal flood event.

Keywords: storm surge, stochastic model, levee failure, Thames River

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1820 Gender Inequality in the Workplace: A Literature Review on the Discrimination of Women by Human Resources Instruments

Authors: Katja Wiedemann, Melinda Gainschnigg

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This paper deals with gender inequality in companies. In the context of this paper, it is analyzed how women are discriminated by means of Human Resources instruments. The existing gender inequality is made apparent by the ‘Equal Pay Day. Women in Austria work without payment from 20 October onwards, which represents inequality of 21.7 percent points. This gender pay gap is due to the unequal distribution of paid and unpaid work between men and women. Since the majority of activities related to the family and care are carried out by women, there are human capital deficits on women’s side. In addition to the discrimination of women in compensation, there are also discrimination cases caused by other Human Resources instruments. The aim of this paper is to analyze the use of Human Resources instruments with regard to the discrimination of women and to identify measures to counteract this discrimination. Within the scope of this paper, possible instructions for companies on how to design and implement Human Resources instruments will be elaborated. Therefore personnel planning, recruiting, workforce management, compensation, and leadership are used as the basis for that analysis. The data were collected by a literature review and evaluated by means of a summary content analysis. The literature analysis includes papers of scientific journals from various business fields. On the basis of the results of the literature review, it is clear that women are discriminated by all analyzed Human Resources instruments. As a result, existing potentials are not optimally used. In order to limit or even prevent this loss of potential, companies must take specific measures to counteract the discrimination of women.

Keywords: employment issues, gender inequality , women's studies, workplace

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1819 Future Sustainable Mobility for Colorado

Authors: Paolo Grazioli

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In this paper, we present the main results achieved during an eight-week international design project on Colorado Future Sustainable Mobilitycarried out at Metropolitan State University of Denver. The project was born with the intention to seize the opportunity created by the Colorado government’s plan to promote e-bikes mobility by creating a large network of dedicated tracks. The project was supported by local entrepreneurs who offered financial and professional support. The main goal of the project was to engage design students with the skills to design a user-centered, original vehicle that would satisfy the unarticulated practical and emotional needs of “Gen Z” users by creating a fun, useful, and reliablelife companion that would helps users carry out their everyday tasks in a practical and enjoyable way. The project was carried out with the intention of proving the importance of the combination of creative methods with practical design methodologies towards the creation of an innovative yet immediately manufacturable product for a more sustainable future. The final results demonstrate the students' capability to create innovative and yet manufacturable products and, especially, their ability to create a new design paradigm for future sustainable mobility products. The design solutions explored n the project include collaborative learning and human-interaction design for future mobility. The findings of the research led students to the fabrication of two working prototypes that will be tested in Colorado and developed for manufacturing in the year 2024. The project showed that collaborative design and project-based teaching improve the quality of the outcome and can lead to the creation of real life, innovative products directly from the classroom to the market.

Keywords: sustainable transportation design, interface design, collaborative design, user -centered design research, design prototyping

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1818 Sustainable Affordable Housing Development in Indonesia

Authors: Gina Cynthia Raphita Hasibuan

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The housing sector in Indonesia is in critical condition where majority of low-income citizens live in substandard dwellings, and the number housing backlog is increasing every year. The housing problem becomes more urgent when the term 'sustainability' is considered, and sustainable affordable housing is yet to gain its successful implementation. Global urbanization develops fastest in developing countries like Indonesia where informal settlements are rapidly escalating, hence, making sustainable affordable housing strategies very critical in this context. The problem in developing countries like Indonesia lies on the institutional capacity of newly-established local governments having greater power to determine a development policy but apparently still lacking institutional capability and coordination with the central government and collaborative governance are still not established yet. The concept of upgrading informal settlements are seen changed over time and inconsistent. Despite much research on theme such as sustainable housing concept within Indonesian context, there has been a dearth of research examining the role of collaborative governance, as the current approach still shows fragmented approach between the stakeholders and the lack of community participation as the end user, and thus this research attempts to fill the gap on the aforementioned problems. By using case study with multi-methods conducted in Jakarta, this research has an overall aim to critically assess the role of collaborative governance in addressing sustainable affordable housing in Indonesia and to understand informal settlements and interventions in Indonesia rather than imposing a framework from western perspectives.

Keywords: affordable housing, collaborative governance, sustainability, urban planning

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1817 Challenges of Sustainable Development of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Georgia

Authors: Kharaishvili Eteri

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The article highlights the importance of small and medium-sized enterprises in achieving the goals of sustainable development of the economy and increasing the well-being of the population. The opinion is put forward that it is necessary to adapt the activities of small and medium-sized firms in Georgia to sustainable business models. Therefore, it is important to identify the challenges that will ensure compliance with the goals and requirements of sustainable development of small and mediumsized enterprises. Objectives. The goal of the study is to reveal the challenges of sustainable development in small and medium-sized enterprises in Georgia and to develop recommendations for strategic development opportunities. Methodologies The challenges of sustainable development of small and medium-sized enterprises are investigated with the following methodology: bibliographic research of scientific works and reports of organizations is carried out; Based on the grouping of sustainable development goals, the performance indicators of these goals are studied; Differences with respect to the corresponding indicators of European countries are determined by the comparison method; The matrix scheme establishes the conditions and tools for sustainable development; Challenges of sustainable development are identified by factor analysis. Contributions Trends in the sustainable development of small and medium-sized enterprises are studied from the point of view of economic, social and environmental factors; To ensure sustainability, the conditions and tools for sustainable development are established (certified supply chains and global markets, allocation of financial resources necessary for sustainable development, proper public procurement, highly qualified workforce, etc.); Several main challenges have been identified in the sustainable development of small and medium-sized enterprises, including: limited internal resources; Institutional factors, especially vague and imperfect regulations, bureaucracy; low level of investments; Low level of qualification of human capital and others.

Keywords: small and medium-sized enterprises, sustainable development, conditions of sustainable development, strategic directions of sustainable development.

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1816 GIS Based Public Transport Accessibility of Lahore using PTALs Model

Authors: Naveed Chughtai, Salman Atif, Azhar Ali Taj, Murtaza Asghar Bukhari

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Accessible transport systems play a crucial role in infrastructure management and ease of access to destinations. Thus, the necessity of knowledge of service coverage and service deprived areas is a prerequisite for devising policies. Integration of PTALs model with GIS network analysis models (Service Area Analysis, Closest Facility Analysis) facilitates the analysis of deprived areas. In this research, models presented determine the accessibility. The empirical evidence suggests that current bus network system caters only 18.5% of whole population. Using network analysis results as inputs for PTALs, it is seen that excellent accessibility indexed bands cover a limited areas, while 78.8% of area is totally deprived of any service. To cater the unserved catchment, new route alignments are proposed while keeping in focus the Socio-economic characteristics, land-use type and net population density of the deprived area. Change in accessibility with proposed routes show a 10% increment in service delivery and enhancement in terms of served population is up to 20.4%. PTALs result shows a decrement of 60 Km2 in unserved band. The result of this study can be used for planning, transport infrastructure management, allocation of new route alignments in combination with future land-use development and for adequate spatial distribution of service access points.

Keywords: GIS, public transport accessibility, PTALs, accessibility index, service area analysis, closest facility analysis

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1815 Sustainable Tourism Development and Attitudes of Local Residents: A Case Study of Backo Podunavlje Biosphere Reserve, Serbia

Authors: Sanja Obradovic, Vladimir Stojanovic

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The purpose of this paper is to examine the attitudes of residents toward sustainable tourism development in the Bačko Podunavlje Biosphere Reserve (BPBR) in northwestern Serbia. BPBR is a part of 'the European Amazon', world's first five-country Transboundary UNESCO Biosphere Reserve 'Mura-Drava-Danube'. Sustainable tourism development requires the engagement of local residents. Within the initial stage of tourism development, it is important to address residents' attitudes from the early beginning, thus further involve the local community through all phases of development, which in return will largely influence overall success. Data were collected through in-person (face-to-face) questionnaire. The research also addresses the quality of the sustainable tourism attitude scale (SUS-TAS), perceived as an instrument to measure local communities' attitudes towards sustainable tourism development. SUS-TAS has seven variables, which are named as environmental sustainability, perceived social cost, long-term planning, perceived economic benefit, community center economy, ensuring visitor satisfaction, and maximizing community participation. Data were analyzed using SPSS. Findings indicate that residents have a positive attitude toward the development of sustainable tourism in the BPBR. They also recognized the importance of environmental sustainability and preservation for future generations. The study shows that BPBR has a very good community to support sustainable tourism activities in each area considered.

Keywords: biosphere reserve, local resident's attitude, sustainable tourism attitude scale, SUS-TAS, sustainable tourism

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1814 Financing Innovation: Differences across National Innovation Systems

Authors: Núria Arimany Serrat, Xavier Ferràs Hernández, Petra A. Nylund, Eric Viardot

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Innovation is an increasingly important antecedent to firm competitiveness and growth. Successful innovation, however, requires a significant financial commitment and the means of financing accessible to the firm may affect its ability to innovate. The access to equity financing such as venture capital has been connected to innovativeness for young firms. For established enterprises, debt financing of innovation may be a more realistic option. Continuous innovation and growth would otherwise require a constant increase of equity. We, therefore, investigate the relation between debt financing and innovation for large firms and hypothesize that those firms that carry more debt will be more innovative. The need for debt financing of innovation may be reduced for very profitable firms, which can finance innovation with cash flow. We thus hypothesize a moderating effect of profitability on the relationship between debt financing and innovation. We carry out an empirical investigation using a longitudinal data set including 167 large European firms over five years, resulting in 835 firm years. We apply generalized least squares (GLS) regression with fixed firm effects to control for firm heterogeneity. The findings support our hypotheses and we conclude that access to debt finding is an important antecedent of innovation, with profitability as a moderating factor. The results do however differ across national innovation systems and we find a strong relationship for British, Dutch, French, and Italian firms but not for German and Spanish entities. We discuss differences in the national systems of innovation and financing which contextualize the variations in the findings and thus make a nuanced contribution to the research in innovation financing. The cross-country differences calls for differentiated advice to managers, institutions, and researchers depending on the national context.

Keywords: innovation, R&D, national innovation systems, financing

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1813 Political Agency of Women Voters in India: Dependent or Independent Voters

Authors: Priyanka Sharma

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The women voter turnout in India is increasing. The rising female voter turnout is explained in part by men intimidating women in the household to vote. Women are more likely than men to be guided before voting. What is perhaps more significant is that the gender gap has shrunk significantly over the years. However, there are layers and categories of women voters in India. Some women are much more likely than the average woman to follow advice. Against this backdrop, this paper investigates the variation among women voters during the national elections of 2019 in India. The central question of this research paper is whether or not the development of greater political opinion among women would offset guided voting and allow them to emerge as more independent voters. So the independent variable of the study is Indian women’s opinion on politics, and the dependent variable is their voting behavior. The methodology used in this paper is both quantitative and qualitative. This study investigated and examined Lokniti’s election survey data. The sample size used in this survey is 11568. The analysis of this study has revealed that there is a considerable impact of women having a political opinion on their voting behavior. The Bivariate analysis of the variables states that 83% of Indian women who have opinions on political issues do not seek advice while going to vote. This proves the hypothesis of this paper that women with an opinion on politics are more likely to be independent voters. To check the statistical significance of the finding, a chi-square test was done and the p-value found is 0.009737, which shows it is statistically significant. Furthermore, a regression test has been done by controlling certain variables like age, educational qualification, caste, and financial position of the women to probe the influence on the dependent variable. The findings provide worthwhile insights into the relationship between these control variables and the women voting behavior in India.

Keywords: dependent voter, independent voter, political opinion, voting behavior, women voter

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1812 Implementing an English Medium of Instruction Policy in Algerian Higher Education: A Study of Teachers’ Attitudes, Agency, and Professional Identity

Authors: Ikram Metalsi

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English as a Medium of Instruction known as (EMI) is expanding rapidly in the world. A growing volume of research has been dedicated to investigating its implementation. However, considerably less attention has been given to understanding EMI in a context where its implementation has been discussed but not yet put into practice. One such context is Algeria, where talks about a possible implementation of EMI have been going on for some time. The present study examines the current discourses and university lecturers’ attitudes towards the potential implementation of EMI as well as investigating the current implicit and explicit language policies in scientific courses in Algerian state universities. The focus is specifically on Engineering departments, as this field has gained worldwide importance in EMI research (Macaro et al. 2018), and, traditionally, French has been the MOI for Engineering in Algerian universities. Using the ROADMAPPING framework (Dafouz and Smit 2016) and the mixed method research approach, the present work explores the language in education policy (LEP) and planning situation in Algeria, the current media of instruction as well as the status and use of the English language in the scientific courses of the tertiary sector. Finally, the current study explores the perceived challenges and benefits of the implementation of EMI programmes from teachers’ perspectives with a particular focus on agency and how this potential policy implementation and teachers’ perceptions of agency around it may reflexively influence their professional identity.

Keywords: media of instruction, language in education policy, lecturers attitudes, teacher agency, professional identity

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1811 Demographic Diversity in the Boardroom and Firm Performance: Empirical Evidence in the French Context

Authors: Elhem Zaatir, Taher Hamza

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Several governments seek to implement gender parity on boards, but the results of doing so are not clear and could harm corporations and economies. The present paper aims to investigate the relationship between women’s presence on boards and firms’ performance in the context of the French listed firms during the quota period. A dynamic panel generalized method of moment estimation is applied to control the endogenous effect of board structure and reverse the causality impact of the financial performance. Our results show that the impact of gender diversity manifests in conflicting directions, positively affecting accounting performance and negatively influencing market performance. These results suggest that female directors create economic value, but the market discounts their impact. Apparently, they are subject to a biased evaluation by the market, which undervalues their presence on boards. Added to that, our results confirm a twofold nature of female representation in the French market. The effect of female directorship on firm performance varies with the affiliation of the directors. In other words, the positive impact of gender diversity on return on assets primarily originates from the positive effect of non-family-affiliated women directors on market performance rather than on the effect of family-affiliated women directors on ROA. Finally, according to our results, women’s demographic attributes namely the level of education and multiple directorships strongly and positively impact firm performance as measured by return on assets (ROA). Obviously, women directors seem to be appointed to the business case rather than as token directors.

Keywords: corporate governance, board of directors, women, gender diversity, demographic attributes, firm performance

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1810 Critical Design Futures: A Foresight 3.0 Approach to Business Transformation and Innovation

Authors: Nadya Patel, Jawn Lim

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Foresight 3.0 is a synergistic methodology that encompasses systems analysis, future studies, capacity building, and forward planning. These components are interconnected, fostering a collective anticipatory intelligence that promotes societal resilience (Ravetz, 2020). However, traditional applications of these strands can often fall short, leading to missed opportunities and narrow perspectives. Therefore, Foresight 3.0 champions a holistic approach to tackling complex issues, focusing on systemic transformations and power dynamics. Businesses are pivotal in preparing the workforce for an increasingly uncertain and complex world. This necessitates the adoption of innovative tools and methodologies, such as Foresight 3.0, that can better equip young employees to anticipate and navigate future challenges. Firstly, the incorporation of its methodology into workplace training can foster a holistic perspective among employees. This approach encourages employees to think beyond the present and consider wider social, economic, and environmental contexts, thereby enhancing their problem-solving skills and resilience. This paper discusses our research on integrating Foresight 3.0's transformative principles with a newly developed Critical Design Futures (CDF) framework to equip organisations with the ability to innovate for the world's most complex social problems. This approach is grounded in 'collective forward intelligence,' enabling mutual learning, co-innovation, and co-production among a diverse stakeholder community, where business transformation and innovation are achieved.

Keywords: business transformation, innovation, foresight, critical design

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1809 The Risk of In-work Poverty and Family Coping Strategies

Authors: A. Banovcinova, M. Zakova

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Labor market activity and paid employment should be a key factor in protecting individuals and families from falling into poverty and providing them with sufficient resources to meet the needs of their members. However, due to various processes in the labor market as well as the influence of individual factors and often insufficient social capital, there is a relatively large group of households that cannot eliminate paid employment and find themselves in a state of so-called working poverty. The aim of the research was to find out what strategies families use in managing poverty and meeting their needs and which of these strategies prevail in the Slovak population. A quantitative research strategy was chosen. The method of data collection was a structured interview focused on finding out the use of individual management strategies and also selected demographic indicators. The research sample consisted of members of families in which at least one member has a paid job. The condition for inclusion in the research was that the family's income did not exceed 60% of the national median equalized disposable income. The analysis of the results showed 5 basic areas to which management strategies are related - work, financial security, needs, social contacts and perception of the current situation. The prevailing strategies were strategies aimed at increasing and streamlining labor market activity and the planned and effective management of the family budget. Strategies that were rejected were mainly related to debt creation. The results make it possible to identify the preferred ways of managing poverty in individual areas of life, as well as the factors that influence this behavior. This information is important for working with families living in a state of working poverty and can help professionals develop positive ways of coping for families.

Keywords: copying strategies, family, in-work poverty, quantitative research

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1808 Feasibility Study of Constructed Wetlands for Wastewater Treatment and Reuse in Asmara, Eritrea

Authors: Hagos Gebrehiwet Bahta

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Asmara, the capital city of Eritrea, is facing a sanitation challenge because the city discharges its wastewater to the environment without any kind of treatment. The aim of this research is to conduct a pre-feasibility study of using constructed wetlands in the peri-urban areas of Asmara for wastewater treatment and reuse. It was found that around 15,000 m³ of wastewater is used daily for agricultural activities, and products are sold in the city's markets, which are claimed to cause some health effects. In this study, three potential sites were investigated around Mai-Bela and an optimum location was selected on the basis of land availability, topography, and geotechnical information. Some types of local microphytes that can be used in constructed wetlands have been identified and documented for further studies. It was found that subsurface constructed wetlands can provide a sufficient pollutant removal with careful planning and design. Following the feasibility study, a preliminary design of screening, grit chamber and subsurface constructed wetland was prepared and cost estimation was done. In the cost estimation part, the filter media was found to be the most expensive part and consists of around 30% percent of the overall cost. The city wastewater drainage runs in two directions and the selected site is located in the southern sub-system, which only carries sewage (separate system). The wastewater analysis conducted particularly around this area (Sembel) indicates high heavy metal levels and organic concentrations, which reveals that there is a high level of industrial pollution in addition to the domestic sewage.

Keywords: agriculture, constructed wetland, Mai-Bela, wastewater reuse

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1807 A Case Study of the Political Determinant of Health on the Public Health Crisis of Malaria in Nigeria

Authors: Bisola Olumegbon

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Globally, there were about 229 million cases of malaria in 2022. The sub-Saharan African region accounted for 92% of the reported cases and 94% of deaths. Nigeria had the highest number of malaria cases and deaths, representing 27% of global cases. This scholarly project was a case study guided by the political determinants of health. Triangulation of data using thematic analysis was used to identify the political determinants of malaria in Nigeria and to understand how the concept of interaction contributes to the persistence of the disease. The analysis involved a deductive and inductive approach based on the literature review and the evidence of political determinants gathered in the data. Participants’ in-depth interviews were used to collect data from frontline personnel. Data triangulation was done using thematic analysis, a method used to identify patterns and themes in qualitative data. The study findings revealed a correlation between political determinants of health and malaria management efforts in Nigeria. Some influencing factors included voting challenges, inadequate funding, lack of health priority from the government, noncompliance among patients, and hurdles to effective communication. The findings suggest a need to deliberately increase dedication to the political agenda, provide sufficient financial resources, enhance communication, and active community involvement to address the persistent malaria endemic effectively. Further study is recommended to identify interventions to address identified factors of political determinants of health to reduce malaria in Nigeria. Such intervention must involve collaboration with diverse stakeholders such as policymakers, healthcare professionals, community leaders, and researchers.

Keywords: malaria, malaria management, health worker, stakeholders, political determinant of health

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1806 Evaluation of the Mechanical Behavior of a Retaining Wall Structure on a Weathered Soil through Probabilistic Methods

Authors: P. V. S. Mascarenhas, B. C. P. Albuquerque, D. J. F. Campos, L. L. Almeida, V. R. Domingues, L. C. S. M. Ozelim

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Retaining slope structures are increasingly considered in geotechnical engineering projects due to extensive urban cities growth. These kinds of engineering constructions may present instabilities over the time and may require reinforcement or even rebuilding of the structure. In this context, statistical analysis is an important tool for decision making regarding retaining structures. This study approaches the failure probability of the construction of a retaining wall over the debris of an old and collapsed one. The new solution’s extension length will be of approximately 350 m and will be located over the margins of the Lake Paranoá, Brasilia, in the capital of Brazil. The building process must also account for the utilization of the ruins as a caisson. A series of in situ and laboratory experiments defined local soil strength parameters. A Standard Penetration Test (SPT) defined the in situ soil stratigraphy. Also, the parameters obtained were verified using soil data from a collection of masters and doctoral works from the University of Brasília, which is similar to the local soil. Initial studies show that the concrete wall is the proper solution for this case, taking into account the technical, economic and deterministic analysis. On the other hand, in order to better analyze the statistical significance of the factor-of-safety factors obtained, a Monte Carlo analysis was performed for the concrete wall and two more initial solutions. A comparison between the statistical and risk results generated for the different solutions indicated that a Gabion solution would better fit the financial and technical feasibility of the project.

Keywords: economical analysis, probability of failure, retaining walls, statistical analysis

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1805 Regression Approach for Optimal Purchase of Hosts Cluster in Fixed Fund for Hadoop Big Data Platform

Authors: Haitao Yang, Jianming Lv, Fei Xu, Xintong Wang, Yilin Huang, Lanting Xia, Xuewu Zhu

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Given a fixed fund, purchasing fewer hosts of higher capability or inversely more of lower capability is a must-be-made trade-off in practices for building a Hadoop big data platform. An exploratory study is presented for a Housing Big Data Platform project (HBDP), where typical big data computing is with SQL queries of aggregate, join, and space-time condition selections executed upon massive data from more than 10 million housing units. In HBDP, an empirical formula was introduced to predict the performance of host clusters potential for the intended typical big data computing, and it was shaped via a regression approach. With this empirical formula, it is easy to suggest an optimal cluster configuration. The investigation was based on a typical Hadoop computing ecosystem HDFS+Hive+Spark. A proper metric was raised to measure the performance of Hadoop clusters in HBDP, which was tested and compared with its predicted counterpart, on executing three kinds of typical SQL query tasks. Tests were conducted with respect to factors of CPU benchmark, memory size, virtual host division, and the number of element physical host in cluster. The research has been applied to practical cluster procurement for housing big data computing.

Keywords: Hadoop platform planning, optimal cluster scheme at fixed-fund, performance predicting formula, typical SQL query tasks

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1804 Through Seligman’s Lenses: Creating a Culture of Well-Being in Higher-Education

Authors: Neeru Deep, Kimberly McAlister

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Mental health issues have been increasing worldwide for many decades, but the COVID-19 pandemic has brought mental health issues into the spotlight. Within higher education, promoting the well-being of students has dramatically increased in focus. The Northwestern State University of Louisiana opened the Center for Positivity, Well-being, and Hope using the action research process of reflecting, planning, acting, and observing. The study’s purpose is two-fold: First, it highlights how to create a collaborative team to reflect, plan, and act to develop a well-being culture in higher education institutions. Second, it investigates the efficacy of the center through Seligman’s lenses. The researchers shared their experience in the first three phases of the action research process and then applied an identical concurrent mixed methods design. A purposive sample evaluated the efficacy of the center through Seligman’s lenses. The researcher administered PERMA-Profiler Measure, the PERMA-Profiler Measure overview, the CoPWH Evaluation I, and the CoPWH Evaluation II questionnaires to collect qualitative and quantitative data. The thematic analysis for qualitative and descriptive statistics for quantitative data concluded that the center creates a well-being culture and promotes well-being in college students. In conclusion, this action research shares the successful implementation of the cyclic process of research in promoting a well-being culture in higher education with the implications for promoting a well-being culture in various educational settings, workplaces, and communities.

Keywords: action research, mixed methods research design, Seligman, well-being.

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1803 Projections of Climate Change in the Rain Regime of the Ibicui River Basin

Authors: Claudineia Brazil, Elison Eduardo Bierhals, Francisco Pereira, José Leandro Néris, Matheus Rippel, Luciane Salvi

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The global concern about climate change has been increasing, since the emission of gases from human activities contributes to the greenhouse effect in the atmosphere, indicating significant impacts to the planet in the coming years. The study of precipitation regime is fundamental for the development of research in several areas. Among them are hydrology, agriculture, and electric sector. Using the climatic projections of the models belonging to the CMIP5, the main objective of the paper was to present an analysis of the impacts of climate change without rainfall in the Uruguay River basin. After an analysis of the results, it can be observed that for the future climate, there is a tendency, in relation to the present climate, for larger numbers of dry events, mainly in the winter months, changing the pluviometric regime for wet summers and drier winters. Given this projected framework, it is important to note the importance of adequate management of the existing water sources in the river basin, since the value of rainfall is reduced for the next years, it may compromise the dynamics of the ecosystems in the region. Facing climate change is fundamental issue for regions and cities all around the world. Society must improve its resilience to phenomenon impacts, and spreading the knowledge among decision makers and citizens is also essential. So, these research results can be subsidies for the decision-making in planning and management of mitigation measures and/or adaptation in south Brazil.

Keywords: climate change, hydrological potential, precipitation, mitigation

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1802 The Relationships between Market Orientation and Competitiveness of Companies in Banking Sector

Authors: Patrik Jangl, Milan Mikuláštík

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The objective of the paper is to measure and compare market orientation of Swiss and Czech banks, as well as examine statistically the degree of influence it has on competitiveness of the institutions. The analysis of market orientation is based on the collecting, analysis and correct interpretation of the data. Descriptive analysis of market orientation describe current situation. Research of relation of competitiveness and market orientation in the sector of big international banks is suggested with the expectation of existence of a strong relationship. Partially, the work served as reconfirmation of suitability of classic methodologies to measurement of banks’ market orientation. Two types of data were gathered. Firstly, by measuring subjectively perceived market orientation of a company and secondly, by quantifying its competitiveness. All data were collected from a sample of small, mid-sized and large banks. We used numerical secondary character data from the international statistical financial Bureau Van Dijk’s BANKSCOPE database. Statistical analysis led to the following results. Assuming classical market orientation measures to be scientifically justified, Czech banks are statistically less market-oriented than Swiss banks. Secondly, among small Swiss banks, which are not broadly internationally active, small relationship exist between market orientation measures and market share based competitiveness measures. Thirdly, among all Swiss banks, a strong relationship exists between market orientation measures and market share based competitiveness measures. Above results imply existence of a strong relation of this measure in sector of big international banks. A strong statistical relationship has been proven to exist between market orientation measures and equity/total assets ratio in Switzerland.

Keywords: market orientation, competitiveness, marketing strategy, measurement of market orientation, relation between market orientation and competitiveness, banking sector

Procedia PDF Downloads 461