Search results for: scoring based risk assessment method

Authors: Mariam Kutateladze

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In the twenty-first century, in the customer service settings for hospitality institution’s employee management and their well-being have become a core issue since it is linked to the customers' increased demand for high-quality service. Employees' positive attitude to customers plays an essential role in the serving process; for this reason, in the hospitality institutions service with a smile is a job requirement. This research is devoted to the issues of employee management systems improvement and its effect of the genuine smile as a positive attitude expressed by the employees to the customer. Different researchers work about the effect of the genuine smile, which is analyzed in the present paper. Based on it, the link between satisfied employees from service climate and their genuine smile is determined. An investigation in local resort hotels which are located in the regions of Georgia is conducted. In the methodology of the paper, we have used linkage research, which stated that employee satisfaction in a working place depends on the existing service climate in an organization. We have prepared questioners according to eight dimensions of good service climate by linkage research, and extra questions about the effect of the smile on customers were added. Questionnaires were distributed among employees, and the results have shown that dissatisfaction from organizations’ service climate led to employees' false smile toward customers. Demanding positive emotions from frustrated employees was the mistake of the hotel management. The false smile was easily recognized by the customers, and the frustrated employee with a false smile could not provide high-quality service. The findings of the paper will help managers to realize the importance of forming the positive service climate within the institutions since it is linked to employees' well-being who are the creators of high-quality service. The conclusion drawn from this study indicates there are core issues those managers need to take into account when planning their organizations’ profit. Managers should know their employees very well, their feelings and attitudes toward work before asking them expressing a smile since forced smile does not have a good result and quite often has bad outcomes; therefore, first of all, managers should investigate service climate in the organization. Managers should take into consideration employees’ opinions about the service climate in the organization, motivate their employees, and respect their ideas. Also, they should satisfy employees' basic needs and stress more value on extrinsic goals such as competence, relatedness, and autonomy. Managers should create a positive working environment, positive service climate, which will lead to employee satisfaction and genuine feelings, as well as improve the working environment since negative working climate will cause customers disappointment because of low-quality service provided by the unsatisfied employees.

Keywords: employee management, hotel, quality of service, service climate

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Authors: Lamia Emam

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The attractiveness of entrepreneurship education stems from its perceived value as a venue through which students can develop an entrepreneurial mindset, skill set, and practice, which may not necessarily lead to them starting a new business, but could, more importantly, be manifested as a life skill that could be applied to all types of organizations and career endeavors. This, in turn, raises important questions about what happens in our classrooms; our role as educators, the role of students, center of learning, and the instructional approach; all of which eventually contribute to achieving the desired EE outcomes. With application to an undergraduate entrepreneurship course -Entrepreneurship as Practice- the current paper aims to explore the effect of entrepreneurship education on the development of students’ general entrepreneurial tendencies. Towards that purpose, the researcher herein uses a pre-test and post-test quasi-experimental research design where the Durham University General Enterprising Tendency Test (GET2) is administered to the same group of students before and after course delivery. As designed and delivered, the Entrepreneurship as Practice module is a highly applied and experiential course where students are required to develop an idea for a start-up while practicing the entrepreneurship-related knowledge, mindset, and skills that are taught in class, both individually and in groups. The course is delivered using a combination of short lectures, readings, group discussions, case analysis, guest speakers, and, more importantly, actively engaging in a series of activities that are inspired by diverse methods for developing successful and innovative business ideas, including design thinking, lean-start up and business feasibility analysis. The instructional approach of the course particularly aims at developing the students' critical thinking, reflective, analytical, and creativity-based problem-solving skills that are needed to launch one’s own start-up. The analysis and interpretation of the experiment’s outcomes shall simultaneously incorporate the views of both the educator and students. As presented, the study responds to the rising call for the application of experimental designs in entrepreneurship in general and EE in particular. While doing so, the paper presents an educator’s perspective of EE to complement the dominant stream of research which is constrained to the students’ point of view. Finally, the study sheds light on EE in the MENA region, where the study is applied.

Keywords: entrepreneurship education, andragogy and heutagogy, scholarship of teaching and learning, experiment

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Authors: Paolo Guzzini, Emad Samuel M. Ebeid

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Bridges and Railways are critical infrastructures. Ensuring safety for transports using such assets is a primary goal as it directly impacts the lives of people. By the way, improving safety could require increased investments in O&M, and therefore optimizing resource usage for asset maintenance becomes crucial. Drones4Safety (D4S), a European project funded under the H2020 Research and Innovation Action (RIA) program, aims to increase the safety of the European civil transport by building a system that relies on 3 main pillars: • Drones operating autonomously in swarm mode; • Drones able to recharge themselves using inductive phenomena produced by transmission lines in the nearby of bridges and railways assets to be inspected; • Data acquired that are analyzed with AI-empowered algorithms for defect detection This paper describes the business model behind this disruptive project. The Business Model is structured in 2 parts: • The first part is focused on the design of the business model Canvas, to explain the value provided by the Drone4safety project; • The second part aims at defining a detailed financial analysis, with the target of calculating the IRR (Internal Return rate) and the NPV (Net Present Value) of the investment in a 7 years plan (2 years to run the project + 5 years post-implementation). As to the financial analysis 2 different points of view are assumed: • Point of view of the Drones4safety company in charge of designing, producing, and selling the new system; • Point of view of the Utility company that will adopt the new system in its O&M practices; Assuming the point of view of the Drones4safety company 3 scenarios were considered: • Selling the drones > revenues will be produced by the drones’ sales; • Renting the drones > revenues will be produced by the rental of the drones (with a time-based model); • Selling the data acquisition service > revenues will be produced by the sales of pictures acquired by drones; Assuming the point of view of a utility adopting the D4S system, a 4th scenario was analyzed taking into account the decremental costs related to the change of operation and maintenance practices. The paper will show, for both companies, what are the key parameters affecting most of the business model and which are the sustainable scenarios.

Keywords: a swarm of drones, AI, bridges, railways, drones4safety company, utility companies

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Authors: Indunil Jayatilake, Warna Karunasena, Weena Lokuge

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An Australian manufacturer has fabricated an innovative GFRP sandwich panel made from E-glass fiber skin and a modified phenolic core for structural applications. Debonding, which refers to separation of skin from the core material in composite sandwiches, is one of the most common types of damage in composites. The presence of debonding is of great concern because it not only severely affects the stiffness but also modifies the dynamic behaviour of the structure. Generally, it is seen that the majority of research carried out has been concerned about the delamination of laminated structures whereas skin-core debonding has received relatively minor attention. Furthermore, it is observed that research done on composite slabs having multiple skin-core debonding is very limited. To address this gap, a comprehensive research investigating dynamic behaviour of composite panels with single and multiple debonding is presented. The study uses finite-element modelling and analyses for investigating the influence of debonding on free vibration behaviour of single and multilayer composite sandwich panels. A broad parametric investigation has been carried out by varying debonding locations, debonding sizes and support conditions of the panels in view of both single and multiple debonding. Numerical models were developed with Strand7 finite element package by innovatively selecting the suitable elements to diligently represent their actual behavior. Three-dimensional finite element models were employed to simulate the physically real situation as close as possible, with the use of an experimentally and numerically validated finite element model. Comparative results and conclusions based on the analyses are presented. For similar extents and locations of debonding, the effect of debonding on natural frequencies appears greatly dependent on the end conditions of the panel, giving greater decrease in natural frequency when the panels are more restrained. Some modes are more sensitive to debonding and this sensitivity seems to be related to their vibration mode shapes. The fundamental mode seems generally the least sensitive mode to debonding with respect to the variation in free vibration characteristics. The results indicate the effectiveness of the developed three-dimensional finite element models in assessing debonding damage in composite sandwich panels

Keywords: debonding, free vibration behaviour, GFRP sandwich panels, three dimensional finite element modelling

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Authors: Hamideh Sadat Zekri, Seyed Mojtaba Hosseinalipour, Mohammadreza Hafezi

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Nowadays, an organization cannot usually overcome all tasks singly due to the increasing complexity and vast expanse of projects, increment in uncertainty of activities, fast advances in technology, advent and influence of various factors in decision-making and implication of projects, and competitive atmosphere of different affairs. Thus, firms proceed to outsource the tasks to subcontractors. Nevertheless, large Iranian contracting companies suffer from extra consumed costs and time owing to conflicts between the activities of suppliers and subcontractors. The paucity of coordination in planning and execution, scarcity of coordination among suppliers, subcontractors, and the main contractor during the implementation of construction activities and also the lack of proper management of the aforesaid situation result in the growth of contradictions, number of claims, and legal issues in a project and consequently impose enormous expenses on those companies. Regarding the prosperity of supply chain management in other industries, its importance is increasingly getting appreciated in the field of construction. The ultimate aim of supply chain management is an effective delivery of the best value for customers, which is achievable by encouraging the members to interact and collaborate. In the present research, there was an effort to obtain a set of relevant challenges in the managing of subcontractors by identifying the main contractors and subcontractors and their role in the execution of projects and the supply chain management in the construction industry. Then, some of those challenges were selected in accordance with the views of industry professionals and academic experts. In the next step, a questionnaire was prepared and completed based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and the challenges were prioritized. When it comes to subcontractors, the findings of the research demonstrate that difficulties in timely payments, alterations in approved drawings and the lack of rectification of job after completion by the subcontractor, paucity of a predetermined and legal process for qualifications of subcontractors, neglecting the supply chain processes in material procurement from producers, and delays in delivery of works by a subcontractor are the most significant problems. Finally, some solutions for encountering, eradicating, or reducing of mentioned problems are presented in accordance with previous studies and a survey from specialists.

Keywords: main contractors, subcontractors, supply chain management, construction supply chain, analytic hierarchy process, solution

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Authors: Ashish Trivedi, Amol Singh

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In the recent years, the magnitude and frequency of disasters have increased at an alarming rate. Every year, more than 400 natural disasters affect global population. A large-scale disaster leads to destruction or damage to houses, thereby rendering a notable number of residents homeless. Since humanitarian response and recovery process takes considerable time, temporary establishments are arranged in order to provide shelter to affected population. These shelter areas are vital for an effective humanitarian relief; therefore, they must be strategically planned. Choosing the locations of temporary shelter areas for accommodating homeless people is critical to the quality of humanitarian assistance provided after a large-scale emergency. There has been extensive research on the facility location problem both in theory and in application. In order to deliver sufficient relief aid within a relatively short timeframe, humanitarian relief organisations pre-position warehouses at strategic locations. However, such approaches have received limited attention from the perspective of providing shelters to disaster-affected people. In present research work, this aspect of humanitarian logistics is considered. The present work proposes a hybrid decision support model to determine relative preference of potential shelter locations by assessing them based on key subjective criteria. Initially, the factors that are kept in mind while locating potential areas for establishing temporary shelters are identified by reviewing extant literature and through consultation from a panel of disaster management experts. In order to determine relative importance of individual criteria by taking into account subjectivity of judgements, a hybrid approach of fuzzy sets and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was adopted. Further, Technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) was applied on an illustrative data set to evaluate potential locations for establishing temporary shelter areas for homeless people in a disaster scenario. The contribution of this work is to propose a range of possible shelter locations for a humanitarian relief organization, using a robust multi criteria decision support framework.

Keywords: AHP, disaster preparedness, fuzzy set theory, humanitarian logistics, TOPSIS, temporary shelters

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Authors: Gunnar Oskarsson, Gudjon Helgi Egilsson

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Due to globalization, small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) increasingly offer their products and services in foreign markets. The main reasons are either to compensate for a decreased market share in their home market or to exploit opportunities in foreign markets, which are becoming less distant and better accessible than before. International markets are particularly important for companies located in a small economy and offering specialized products. Although more accessible, entering international markets is both expensive and difficult. In order to select the most appropriate markets, it is, therefore, important to gain an insight into the factors that have an impact on success, or potential failure. Although there has been a reasonable volume of research into the theory of internationalization, there is still a need to gain further understanding of the decision-making process of SMEs in small economies and the most important characteristics that distinguish between success and failure. The main objective of this research is to enhance knowledge on the internationalization of SMEs, including the drivers for the decision to internationalize, and the most important factors contributing to success in their internationalization activities. A qualitative approach was found to be most appropriate for this kind of research, with the objective of gaining a deeper understanding and discovering factors which impact a company’s decision-making and potential success. In-depth interviews were conducted with 14 companies in different industries located in Iceland, a country extensively dependent on export revenues. The interviews revealed several factors as drivers of internationalization and, not surprisingly, the most frequently mentioned source of motivation was that the local market is inadequate to maintain a sustainable operation. Good networking relationships were seen as a particular priority for potential success, searching for new markets was mainly carried out through the internet, although sales exhibitions and sales trips were also considered important. When it comes to the final decision as to whether a market should be considered for further analysis, economy, labor cost, legal environment, and cultural barriers were the most common factors to be weighted. The ultimate answer to successful internationalization, however, is largely dependent on a coordinated and experienced management team. The main contribution of this research is offering an insight into factors affecting decision-making in the internationalization process of SMEs, based on the opinion and experience of managers of SMEs in a small economy.

Keywords: internationalization, success factors, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), drivers, decision making

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Authors: Lo Kai Chung

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Fathers in the family of disabled children play a crucial role in fostering child development. Previous studies addressing emotions of father involvement in rearing children with special needs have been rare. With reference to the cultural orientation and masculine idea of Chinese fathers, shame and guilt are probable causal emotions that affect fathers’ psycho-behavioral reactions and, thus, father involvement. Based on the findings of our earlier qualitative studies, the current study aims to develop and validate a multi-item scale of guilt or shame and explore their relations with and fatherhood in families with children with special needs. A model is proposed to understand the roles that shame and guilt play in affecting fathers’ involvement in their family system. The severity and type of the child’s special needs are regarded as independent variables affecting the father’s emotional responses – shame and guilt. It is hypothesized that shame and guilt, under the influence of masculinity, lead to avoidance and compensation, respectively, which subsequently decrease and increase father involvement with children with special needs. A cross-sectional online questionnaire survey of fathers with children with special needs recruited by convenience sampling was conducted. Potential participants were reached by bulk emails, related groups on the Internet and education/social services providers. Totally 537 valid sets of online questionnaires were collected from fathers of children with special needs. EFA on the items pool of shame and guilt was performed, resulting in an x-item single-factor solution and y-item single-factor solution, respectively. Further path model analysis revealed that shame and guilt, under the influence of masculinity, showed differential avoidance and compensation responses and resulted in a decrease and increase in father involvement with special needs children. Demographic and key confounding variables were controlled in the analysis. The shame and guilt scales developed show good psychometric properties. Furthermore, they showed significant differential impacts, under the influence of masculinity, on avoidance and compensation behaviours, consequently resulting in a decrease/increase in father involvement in the expected directions. The findings have important theoretical and practical implications. At the community and policy level, the findings inform the design of strategies for strengthening the role of men in families with special needs children.

Keywords: emotions, father involvement, guilt, shame, special needs

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Authors: Subhankar Karmakar, Madhan Kumar Vasudevan, Manivannan Muniyandi

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Thermal Grill Illusion (TGI) elicits a strong and often painful sensation of burn when interlacing warm and cold stimuli that are individually non-painful, excites thermoreceptors beneath the skin. Among several theories of TGI, the “disinhibition” theory is the most widely accepted in the literature. According to this theory, TGI is the result of the disinhibition or unmasking of the pain-sensitive HPC (Heat-Pinch-Cold) nerve fibers due to the inhibition of cold-sensitive nerve fibers that are responsible for masking HPC nerve fibers. Although researchers focused on understanding TGI throughexperiments and models, none of them investigated the prediction of TGI pain intensity through a computational model. Furthermore, the comparison of psychophysically perceived TGI intensity with neurophysiological models has not yet been studied. The prediction of pain intensity through a computational model of TGI can help inoptimizing thermal displays and understanding pathological conditions related to temperature perception. The current studyfocuses on developing a computational model to predict the intensity of TGI pain and experimentally observe the perceived TGI pain. The computational model is developed based on the disinhibition theory and by utilizing the existing popular models of warm and cold receptors in the skin. The model aims to predict the neuronal activity of the HPC nerve fibers. With a temperature-controlled thermal grill setup, fifteen participants (ten males and five females) were presented with five temperature differences between warm and cold grills (each repeated three times). All the participants rated the perceived TGI pain sensation on a scale of one to ten. For the range of temperature differences, the experimentally observed perceived intensity of TGI is compared with the neuronal activity of pain-sensitive HPC nerve fibers. The simulation results show a monotonically increasing relationship between the temperature differences and the neuronal activity of the HPC nerve fibers. Moreover, a similar monotonically increasing relationship is experimentally observed between temperature differences and the perceived TGI intensity. This shows the potential comparison of TGI pain intensity observed through the experimental study with the neuronal activity predicted through the model. The proposed model intends to bridge the theoretical understanding of the TGI and the experimental results obtained through psychophysics. Further studies in pain perception are needed to develop a more accurate version of the current model.

Keywords: thermal grill Illusion, computational modelling, simulation, psychophysics, haptics

Procedia PDF Downloads 173

Authors: Ahmed Slami, Med El Amine Brixi Nigassa, Nassima Labdelli, Sofiane Soulimane, Arnaud Pothier

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Many people suffer from diabetes, a disease marked by abnormal levels of sugar in the blood; 285 million people have diabetes, 6.6% of the world adult population (in 2010), according to the International Diabetes Federation. Insulin medicament is invented to be injected into the body. Generally, the injection requires the patient to do it manually. However, in many cases he will be unable to inject the drug, saw that among the side effects of hyperglycemia is the weakness of the whole body. The researchers designed a medical device that injects insulin too autonomously by using micro-pumps. Many micro-pumps of concepts have been investigated during the last two decades for injecting molecules in blood or in the body. However, all these micro-pumps are intended for slow infusion of drug (injection of few microliters by minute). Now, the challenge is to develop micro-pumps for fast injections (1 microliter in 10 seconds) with accuracy of the order of microliter. Recently, studies have shown that only piezoelectric actuators can achieve this performance, knowing that few systems at the microscopic level were presented. These reasons lead us to design new smart microsystems injection drugs. Therefore, many technological advances are still to achieve the improvement of materials to their uses, while going through their characterization and modeling action mechanisms themselves. Moreover, it remains to study the integration of the piezoelectric micro-pump in the microfluidic platform features to explore and evaluate the performance of these new micro devices. In this work, we propose a new micro-pump model based on piezoelectric actuation with a new design. Here, we use a finite element model with Comsol software. Our device is composed of two pumping chambers, two diaphragms and two actuators (piezoelectric disks). The latter parts will apply a mechanical force on the membrane in a periodic manner. The membrane deformation allows the fluid pumping, the suction and discharge of the liquid. In this study, we present the modeling results as function as device geometry properties, films thickness, and materials properties. Here, we demonstrate that we can achieve fast injection. The results of these simulations will provide quantitative performance of our micro-pumps. Concern the spatial actuation, fluid rate and allows optimization of the fabrication process in terms of materials and integration steps.

Keywords: COMSOL software, piezoelectric, micro-pump, microfluidic

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Authors: Seyeon Lee, Suyeon Lee, Julia Rogers

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This research investigates and records post-flood and typhoon conditions of low income housing in the Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam; area prone to extreme flooding in Central Vietnam. The cost of rebuilding houses after flood and typhoon has been always a burden for low income households. These costs often lead to the elimination of essential construction practices for disaster resistance. Despite relief efforts from international non-profit organizations and Vietnam government, the impacts of flood and typhoon damages to residential construction has been reoccurring to the same neighborhood annually. Notwithstanding its importance, this topic has not been systematically investigated. The study is limited to assistance provided to low income households documenting existing conditions of low income homes impacted by post flood and typhoon conditions in the Thua Thien Hue Province. The research identifies leading causes of the building failure from the natural disasters. Relief efforts and progress made since the last typhoon is documented. The quality of construction and repairs are assessed based on Home Builders Guide to Coastal Construction by Federal Emergency Management Agency. Focus group discussions and individual interviews with local residents from four different communities were conducted to get incites on repair effort by the non-profit organizations and Vietnam government, and their needs post flood and typhoon. The findings from the field study informed that many of the local people are now aware of the importance of improving housing conditions as one of the key coping strategies to withstand flood and typhoon events as it makes housing and community more resilient to future events. While there has been a remarkable improvement of housing and infrastructure with the support from the local government as well as the non-profit organizations, many households in the study areas are found to still live in weak and fragile housing conditions without gaining access to the aid to repair and strengthen the houses. Given that the major immediate recovery action taken by the local people tends to focus on repairing damaged houses, and on this ground, low-income households spend a considerable amount of their income on housing repair, providing proper and applicable construction practices will not only improve the housing condition, but also contribute to reducing poverty in Vietnam.

Keywords: disaster coping mechanism, housing welfare, low-income housing, recovery reduction

Procedia PDF Downloads 271

Authors: J. B. Athavale, Sean Clarke

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Introduction According to ancient Indian scriptures, a person’s consciousness includes the physical body, the vital energy sheath (Pranshakti), the mental body (which includes one’s feelings and emotions), the intellectual body (which refers to one’s decision-making ability), and the Soul (which is the God Principle that resides in every person). Apart from the physical body, all the other aspects are subtle in nature. In today’s world, much attention is given to one’s physical appearance and intellectual prowess. While there have been improvements in the attention given to mental health, its complete nature is not understood, and in many cultures, mental ill health is considered taboo and looked down upon. Regarding the spiritual well-being of a person, our spiritual research has shown that people’s understanding and efforts are mostly lacking and superficial as they do not conform to Universal Spiritual Principles. Also, true well-being occurs only when all the bodies are healthy. Methodology The spiritual research team at the University has found that the spiritual aspect of a person’s life affects all the physical, psychological, and intellectual bodies of a person resulting in ill health. Cleansing these bodies at a spiritual level is essential to regain well-being. Using Aura and Energy Scanners and advanced sixth sense, we studied what causes spiritual impurity in various bodies and how to cleanse them. We measured the spiritual vibrations of a person and how they get affected due to various daily activities. For example, we studied the difference in a person’s aura before and after applying chemical-based makeup vs. natural makeup. Key Findings From the various spiritual research experiments we conducted, we found that: • All our actions and our thoughts affect our various bodies and have the potential to change the aura for the better or worse. • When there is an increase in negative vibrations around a person, negative energies from the subtle dimension are more likely to affect a person. • As the person’s spiritual level increases, the positivity in their aura also increases, and it is much easier to cleanse the various bodies spiritually. • Spiritual practice is like a general spiritual tonic that increases the positivity in one’s aura. The benefits of this are that it leads to mental stability and intellectual clarity. • Spiritual healing remedies augment any spiritual practice to obtain a faster healing effect. Conclusion Taking care of oneself spiritually has a positive halo effect on all one’s bodies. Spiritual cleansing is required regularly if one wants to attain a state of well-being. Spiritual practice and spiritual healing lead to spiritual growth, stability of mind, and less stress and reactions. Spiritually purer people affect the environment positively, and there is less unrest and more harmony between man and nature.

Keywords: body, spirituality, cleansing, consciousness

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Authors: Ali Alahmari

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Urban drainage in Saudi Arabia is an increasingly challenging issue due to factors such as climate change and rapid urban expansion. The existing infrastructure, based on traditional drainage systems, is not always able to cope with the increased precipitation, sometimes leading to rainwater runoff and floods causing disturbances and damage to property. Therefore, there is a need to find new ways of managing drainage, such as Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS). The research has highlighted the main driving forces behind the need for change, revealed by the participants, to the need to adopt new ideas and approaches for urban drainage. However, while moving towards this, certain factors that may hinder the aim of using the experiences of other countries and taking advantage of innovative solutions. The research illustrates an initial conceptual model for these factors emerging from the analysis. It identifies some of the fundamental issues affecting the resistance to change towards the adoption of the concept of sustainability in Saudi Arabia, with Riyadh city as a case study. This was by using a qualitative approach, whereby, through two phases of fieldwork during 2013 and 2014, twenty-six semi-structured interviews were conducted with a number of representative officials and professionals from key government departments and organisations related to urban drainage management. Grounded Theory approach was followed to analyse the qualitative data obtained. Resistance to change was classified to: firstly: individual inertia (e.g. familiarity with the conventional solutions and approaches, lack of awareness, and considering sustainability as a marginal matter in urban planning). This resulted in not paying the desired attention, and impact on planning and setting priorities for development. Secondly: institutionalised inertia (e.g. lack of technical and design specifications for other unconventional drainage solutions, lack of consideration by decision makers in other disciplines such as contributions from environmental and geographical studies, and routine work and bureaucracy). This contributes to the weakness of decision-making, weakness in the role of research, and a lack of human resources. It seems that attitudes towards change may have reduced the ability to move forward towards sustainable development, in addition to contributing towards difficulties in some aspects of the decision-making process. Thus, the chapter provides insights into the current situation in Saudi Arabia and contributes to understanding the decisions that are made regarding change.

Keywords: climate change, new knowledge and approaches, resistance to change, Saudi Arabia, SUDS, urban drainage, urban expansion

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Authors: Xianwei Zheng, Yuan Yan Tang

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Classical window Fourier transform has been widely used in signal processing, image processing, machine learning and pattern recognition. The related Gabor transform is powerful enough to capture the texture information of any given dataset. Recently, in the emerging field of graph signal processing, researchers devoting themselves to develop a graph signal processing theory to handle the so-called graph signals. Among the new developing theory, windowed graph Fourier transform has been constructed to establish a time-frequency analysis framework of graph signals. The windowed graph Fourier transform is defined by using the translation and modulation operators of graph signals, following the similar calculations in classical windowed Fourier transform. Specifically, the translation and modulation operators of graph signals are defined by using the Laplacian eigenvectors as follows. For a given graph signal, its translation is defined by a similar manner as its definition in classical signal processing. Specifically, the translation operator can be defined by using the Fourier atoms; the graph signal translation is defined similarly by using the Laplacian eigenvectors. The modulation of the graph can also be established by using the Laplacian eigenvectors. The windowed graph Fourier transform based on these two operators has been applied to obtain time-frequency representations of graph signals. Fundamentally, the modulation operator is defined similarly to the classical modulation by multiplying a graph signal with the entries in each Fourier atom. However, a single Laplacian eigenvector entry cannot play a similar role as the Fourier atom. This definition ignored the relationship between the translation and modulation operators. In this paper, a new definition of the modulation operator is proposed and thus another time-frequency framework for graph signal is constructed. Specifically, the relationship between the translation and modulation operations can be established by the Fourier transform. Specifically, for any signal, the Fourier transform of its translation is the modulation of its Fourier transform. Thus, the modulation of any signal can be defined as the inverse Fourier transform of the translation of its Fourier transform. Therefore, similarly, the graph modulation of any graph signal can be defined as the inverse graph Fourier transform of the translation of its graph Fourier. The novel definition of the graph modulation operator established a relationship of the translation and modulation operations. The new modulation operation and the original translation operation are applied to construct a new framework of graph signal time-frequency analysis. Furthermore, a windowed graph Fourier frame theory is developed. Necessary and sufficient conditions for constructing windowed graph Fourier frames, tight frames and dual frames are presented in this paper. The novel graph signal time-frequency analysis framework is applied to signals defined on well-known graphs, e.g. Minnesota road graph and random graphs. Experimental results show that the novel framework captures new features of graph signals.

Keywords: graph signals, windowed graph Fourier transform, windowed graph Fourier frames, vertex frequency analysis

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Authors: Mouna Ettoumi, Jouini Marouen, Carmen Mihaela Neculita, Salah Bouhlel, Lucie Coudert, Mostafa Benzaazoua, Y. Taha

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In the context of sustainable development and circular economy, waste valorization is considered a promising alternative to overcome issues related to their disposal or elimination. The aim of this study is to evaluate the potential use of phosphate sludges (tailings) from the Kef Shfeir mine site (Gafsa, Tunisia) as an alternative material in the production of fired bricks. To do so, representative samples of raw phosphate treatment sludges were collected and characterized for their physical, chemical, mineralogical and environmental characteristics. Then, the raw materials were baked at different temperatures (900°C, 1000°C, and 1100°C) for bricks making. Afterward, fired bricks were characterized for their physical (particle size distribution, density, and plasticity), chemical (XRF and digestion), mineralogical (XRD) and mechanical (flexural strength) properties as well as for their environmental behavior (TCLP, SPLP, and CTEU-9) to ensure whether they meet the required construction standards. Results showed that the raw materials had low density (2.47g/cm 3), were non-plastic and were mainly composed of fluoroapatite (15.6%), calcite (23.1%) and clays (22.2% - mainly as heulandite, vermiculite and palygorskite). With respect to the environmental behavior, all metals (e.g., Pb, Zn, As, Cr, Ba, Cd) complied with the requirements set by the USEPA. In addition, fired bricks had varying porosity (9-13%), firing shrinking (5.2-7.5%), water absorption (12.5-17.2%) and flexural strength (3.86-13.4 MPa). Noteworthy, an improvement in the properties (porosity, firing shrinking, water absorption, and flexural strength) of manufactured fired bricks was observed with the increase of firing temperature from 900 to 1100°C. All the measured properties complied with the construction norms and requirements. Moreover, regardless of the firing temperature, the environmental behavior of metals obeyed the requirements of the USEPA standards. Finally, fired bricks could be produced at high temperatures (1000°C) based on 100% of phosphate sludge without any substitution or addition of either chemical agents or binders. This sustainable brick-making process could be a promising approach for the Phosphate Company to partially manage these wastes, which are considered “non-profitable” for the moment and preserve soils that are exploited presently.

Keywords: phosphate treatment sludge, mine waste, backed bricks, waste valorization

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Authors: Raymond Treacy, Paul Humphreys, Ronan McIvor, Trevor Cadden, Alan McKittrick

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This study employed event study methodology to examine the role of institutions, resources and dynamic capabilities in the relationship between the Environmental Management System ISO 14001 adoption and firm performance. Utilising financial data from 140 ISO 14001 certified firms and 320 non-certified firms, the results of the study suggested that the UK and Irish manufacturers were not implementing ISO 14001 solely to gain legitimacy. In contrast, the results demonstrated that firms were fully integrating the ISO 14001 standard within their operations as certified firms were able to improve both financial and operating performance when compared to non-certified firms. However, while there were significant and long lasting improvements for employee productivity, manufacturing cost efficiency, return on assets and sales turnover, the sample firms operating cycle and fixed asset efficiency displayed evidence of diminishing returns in the long-run, underlying the observation that no operating advantage based on incremental improvements can be everlasting. Hence, there is an argument for investing in dynamic capabilities which help renew and refresh the resource base and help the firm adapt to changing environments. Indeed, the results of the regression analysis suggest that dynamic capabilities for innovation acted as a moderator in the relationship between ISO 14001 certification and firm performance. This, in turn, will have a significant and symbiotic influence on sustainability practices within the participating organisations. The study not only provides new and original insights, but demonstrates pragmatically how firms can take advantage of environmental management systems as a moderator to significantly enhance firm performance. However, while it was shown that firm innovation aided both short term and long term ROA performance, adaptive market capabilities only aided firms in the short-term at the marketing strategy deployment stage. Finally, the results have important implications for firms operating in an economic recession as the results suggest that firms should scale back investment in R&D while operating in an economic downturn. Conversely, under normal trading conditions, consistent and long term investments in R&D was found to moderate the relationship between ISO 14001 certification and firm performance. Hence, the results of the study have important implications for academics and management alike.

Keywords: supply chain management, environmental management systems, quality management, sustainability, firm performance

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Authors: Ruben L. Tagare, Jr

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This study was conducted to determine the parents’ motivating factors for their deaf and mute children to participate in physical and recreational activities. Data were collected from the 17 parents of the deaf and mute children using a specifically designed survey questionnaire as the primary instrument used in the study. Data analysis and interpretation were done with the aid of descriptive statistics, such as frequency, percentage, weighted mean and multiple responses. Most of the respondents were female with a mean average age of 38 years old. The average age of their children was 10 years old. In terms of monthly income, the respondents had an average monthly income of PhP 13,945. Furthermore, most of the respondents lived in the urban area and were all Catholic by faith or religion. As to the factors that parents used to motivate their deaf and mute children to engage in physical and recreational activities, these included the followings: First; to make my child experience and explore more meaningful things through physical and recreational activities; second; to gain other’s respect; third; to build friendship and interact with his peers; fourth; to experience the feeling of belongingness; and fifth: to learn and discover new things. On the other hand, the least chosen factors were: first; to help achieve and maintain a healthy weight; second; to reduce fats and lowering blood pressure; third; to improve balance, coordination and strength; fourth; to improve posture; and fifth; to assist the child in the development of gross motor and fine motor skills. Based on the findings of the study, it is hereby recommended that since the first factor is 'to make my child experience and explore more meaningful things through physical and recreational activities' and the other top factors are more on social aspect, the school should design extra-curricular activities such as theatrical play and other similar activities that the students will find interesting while the parents will be more motivated to engage their children into physical and recreational activities. Also, since the least chosen factors are more on physical aspect, the school should organize or conduct a seminar for the parents to be aware of the benefits of participating in physical and recreational activities for their deaf and mute children. They can also conduct an information campaign to encourage the other parents of deaf and mute children, whom they keep only inside their home to enroll in the school and let their children be exposed to the natural world. Considering that parents are the primary motivators that can best help their children become more interested in physical and recreational activities for their own development, the school should always remain motivated by creating activities for the deaf and mute children with their parents. The study also recommends conducting further study on the level of knowledge/understanding of the parents on the benefits that can be derived from participating in physical and recreational activities.

Keywords: deaf and mute, participation, physical and recreational activities, adaptive PE

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Authors: N. Jena, Nitin Seth

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Globalization and free trade has forced the organizations to continuously rethink and rework on the increasing cost of logistics. World wide, it is visualized that on one side the steel sector is witnessing rapid growth and on the other side it is facing huge challenges in terms of availability of raw materials for uninterrupted production. Inbound logistics also gains significant importance for ensuring the timely availability of raw materials. It is seen that in Indian steel sector logistic cost is still very large and challenging. Effectively managing the inbound logistics in steel decides the profitability and serviceability of the organization. Effective management of inbound logistics also has a major role on the inventory of the organization. Since, the logistics for the steel industry in India is evolving rapidly and it is the interplay of infrastructure, technology and new types of service providers that will define whether the industry is able to help its customers to reduce their logistics costs. Integration of Logistics has been treated as one of the most potential area for the companies to provide a base for cost reduction. In spite of the proven area for benefits for the industry, it is very surprising that none of the researchers have explored this area. Although, many researchers explored the subject of logistics in steel industry, but their perspective varied from exploring and understanding the associated cost and finding out the relations between them. Visualizing a potential gap, the present research is under taken to explore the integration opportunities in inbound logistics for steel sector. Typically in Indian steel sector where in most of the manufacturers depend on imported materials for processing the logistics is very challenging and accounts for transactions at supplier – who is situated in different country, shipper- who is transporting the material to the host country, regulators in both countries-that include customs and various clearing agents, local logistics service providers and local transporters/handlers. It is seen that In bound logistics cost in the steel sector is very high and accounts for about 15-16% of the turn over, integration of information across different channels provides and opportunity for improvements and growth of the organization. In the present paper, a case of leading steel manufacturer has been taken and the potentials for integration of information across various partners have been identified. The paper provides the identification of grey area in steel sector for major improvements in cycle time and lowering the inventories by integration of information. Finally, based on integration of information, the paper presents a business information framework for steel sector.

Keywords: integration, steel sectors, suppliers, shippers, customs and cargo agents, transporters

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Authors: Ioanna H. Lioliou, Despoina D. Zavraka

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The radical reformation that Greek urban space, has undergone over the last century, due to the socio-historical developments, technological development and political–geographic factors, has left its imprint on the urban landscape. While the big cities struggle to regain urban landscape balance, small towns are considered to offer high quality lifescapes, ensuring sustainable development potential. However, their unplanned urbanization process led to the loss of significant areas of nature, lack of essential infrastructure, chaotic built environment, incompatible land uses and urban cohesiveness. Natural environment reference points, such as springs, streams, rivers, forests, suburban greenbelts, and etc.; seems to be detached from urban space, while the public, open and green spaces, unequally distributed in the built environment, they are no longer able to offer a complete experience of nature in the city. This study focuses on Greek mainland, a small town Elassona, and aims to restore spatial coherence between the city’s homonymous river and its urban space surroundings. The existence of a linear aquatic ecosystem, is considered a precious greenway, also referred as blueway, able to initiate natural penetrations and ecosystems empowering. The integration of disconnected natural ecosystems forms the basis of a strategic intervention scheme, where the river becomes the urban integration tool / feature, constituting the main urban corridor and an indispensible part of a wider green network that connects open and green spaces, ensuring the function of all the established networks (transportation, commercial, social) of the town. The proposed intervention, introduces a green network highlighting the old stone bridge at the ‘entrance’ of the river in the town and expanding throughout the town with strategic uses and activities, providing accessibility for all the users. The methodology used, is based on the collection of design tools used in related urban river-design interventions around the world. The reinstallation/reactivation of the balance between natural and urban landscape, besides the environmental benefits, contributes decisively to the illustration/projection of urban green identity and re-enhancement of the quality of lifescape qualities and social interaction.

Keywords: green network, rehabilitation scheme, urban landscape, urban streams

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Authors: Tomilola J. Ajayi

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A category of nanovalves system containing the α-cyclodextrin (α-CD) ring on a stalk tethered to the pores of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN) is theoretically and computationally modelled. This functions to control opening and blocking of the MSN pores for efficient targeted drug release system. Modeling of the nanovalves is based on the interaction between α-CD and the stalk (p-anisidine) in relation to pH variation. Conformational analysis was carried out prior to the formation of the inclusion complex, to find the global minimum of both neutral and protonated stalk. B3LYP/6-311G**(d, p) basis set was employed to attain all theoretically possible conformers of the stalk. Six conformers were taken into considerations, and the dihedral angle (θ) around the reference atom (N17) of the p-anisidine stalk was scanned from 0° to 360° at 5° intervals. The most stable conformer was obtained at a dihedral angle of 85.3° and was fully optimized at B3LYP/6-311G**(d, p) level of theory. The most stable conformer obtained from conformational analysis was used as the starting structure to create the inclusion complexes. 9 complexes were formed by moving the neutral guest into the α-CD cavity along the Z-axis in 1 Å stepwise while keeping the distance between dummy atom and OMe oxygen atom on the stalk restricted. The dummy atom and the carbon atoms on α-CD structure were equally restricted for orientation A (see Scheme 1). The generated structures at each step were optimized with B3LYP/6-311G**(d, p) methods to determine their energy minima. Protonation of the nitrogen atom on the stalk occurs at acidic pH, leading to unsatisfactory host-guest interaction in the nanogate; hence there is dethreading. High required interaction energy and conformational change are theoretically established to drive the release of α-CD at a certain pH. The release was found to occur between pH 5-7 which agreed with reported experimental results. In this study, we applied the theoretical model for the prediction of the experimentally observed pH-responsive nanovalves which enables blocking, and opening of mesoporous silica nanoparticles pores for targeted drug release system. Our results show that two major factors are responsible for the cargo release at acidic pH. The higher interaction energy needed for the complex/nanovalve formation to exist after protonation as well as conformational change upon protonation are driving the release due to slight pH change from 5 to 7.

Keywords: nanovalves, nanogate, mesoporous silica nanoparticles, cargo

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Authors: Selisha A. Sooklal, Phelelani Mpangase, Shaun Aron, Karl Rumbold

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Organically bound fluorine (C-F bond) is extremely rare in nature. Despite this, the first fluorinated secondary metabolite, fluoroacetate, was isolated from the plant Dichapetalum cymosum (commonly known as Gifblaar). However, the enzyme responsible for fluorination (fluorinase) in Gifblaar was never isolated and very little progress has been achieved in understanding this process in higher plants. Fluorinated compounds have vast applications in the pharmaceutical, agrochemical and fine chemicals industries. Consequently, an enzyme capable of catalysing a C-F bond has great potential as a biocatalyst in the industry considering that the field of fluorination is virtually synthetic. As with any biocatalyst, a range of these enzymes are required. Therefore, it is imperative to expand the exploration for novel fluorinases. This study aimed to gain molecular insights into secondary metabolite biosynthesis in Gifblaar using a high-throughput sequencing-based approach. Mechanical wounding studies were performed using Gifblaar leaf tissue in order to induce expression of the fluorinase. The transcriptome of the wounded and unwounded plant was then sequenced on the Illumina HiSeq platform. A total of 26.4 million short sequence reads were assembled into 77 845 transcripts using Trinity. Overall, 68.6 % of transcripts were annotated with gene identities using public databases (SwissProt, TrEMBL, GO, COG, Pfam, EC) with an E-value threshold of 1E-05. Sequences exhibited the greatest homology to the model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana (27 %). A total of 244 annotated transcripts were found to be differentially expressed between the wounded and unwounded plant. In addition, secondary metabolic pathways present in Gifblaar were successfully reconstructed using Pathway tools. Due to lack of genetic information for plant fluorinases, a transcript failed to be annotated as a fluorinating enzyme. Thus, a local database containing the 5 existing bacterial fluorinases was created. Fifteen transcripts having homology to partial regions of existing fluorinases were found. In efforts to obtain the full coding sequence of the Gifblaar fluorinase, primers were designed targeting the regions of homology and genome walking will be performed to amplify the unknown regions. This is the first genetic data available for Gifblaar. It has provided novel insights into the mechanisms of metabolite biosynthesis and will allow for the discovery of the first eukaryotic fluorinase.

Keywords: biocatalyst, fluorinase, gifblaar, transcriptome

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Authors: Trude Tørset, María Díez Gutiérrez

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The west coast of Norway features numerous islands and fjords. Ferry services connect the roads when these features make the construction challenging. Currently, scientific effort is designated to assess potential ferry replacement projects along the European road E-39. The inconvenience of ferry dependency is imprecisely represented in the transport models, thus transport analyses of ferry replacement projects appear as guesstimates rather than reliable input to decision-making processes of such costly projects. Trips including ferry connections imply more inconvenient elements than just travel time and cost. The goal of this paper is to understand and explain the extra inconveniences associated to the dependency of the ferry. The first scientific approach is to identify the characteristics of the ferry travelers and their trips’ features, as well as whether the ferry represents an obstacle for some specific trip types. In doing so, a survey was conducted in 2011 in eight E-39 ferries and in 2013 in 18 ferries connecting different road categories. More than 20,000 passengers answered with their trip and socioeconomic characteristics. The travel patterns in the different ferry connections were compared. The analysis showed that the trip features differed based on the location of the ferry connections, yet independently of the road category. Additionally, the patterns were compared to the national travel survey to detect differences in the travel patterns due to the use of the ferry connections. The results showed that the share of commuting trips within the same travel time was lower if the ferry was part of the trip. The second scientific approach is to know how the different travelers perceive potential benefits for a ferry replacement project. In the 2011 survey, some of the questions were about the relevance of nine different benefits this project might bring. Travelers identified the better access to public services and job market as the most valuable benefits, followed by the reduced planning of the trip. In 2016, a follow-up survey in some of the ferry connections was carried out in order to investigate variations in travelers’ perceptions. The growing interest in ferry replacement projects might make travelers more aware of the potential benefits these would bring to their daily lives. This paper describes the travel behaviour of travelers using a ferry connection as part of their trips, as well as the potential inconveniences associated to these trips. The findings might provide valuable input to further development of transport models, concept evaluations and cost benefit analysis methods.

Keywords: ferry connections, ferry trip, inconvenience costs, travel behaviour

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Authors: Eva de Mingo-Fernández, Lourdes Rubio Rico, Carmen Ortega-Segura, Montserrat Querol-García, Raúl González-Jauregui

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Today, one of the great challenges that the university faces is to get closer to society and transfer knowledge. The competency-based training approach favours a continuous interaction between practice and theory, which is why it is essential to establish real experiences with reflection and debate and to contrast them with personal and professional knowledge. Service-learning (SL) consists of an integration of academic learning with service in the community, which enables teachers to transfer knowledge with social value and students to be trained on the basis of experience of real needs and problems with the aim of solving them. SLE combines research, teaching, and social value knowledge transfer with the real social needs and problems of a community. Goal: The objective of this study was to design, implement, and evaluate a service-learning program in the subject of adult nursing for second-year nursing students. Methodology: After establishing collaboration with eight associations of people with different pathologies, the students were divided into eight groups, and each group was assigned an association. The groups were made up of 10-12 students. The associations willing to participate were for the following conditions: diabetes, multiple sclerosis, cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, fibromyalgia, heart, lung, and kidney diseases. The methodological design consisting of 5 activities was then applied. Three activities address personal and individual reflections, where the student initially describes what they think it is like to live with a certain disease. They then express their reflections resulting from an interview conducted by peers, in person or online, with a person living with this particular condition, and after sharing the results of their reflections with the rest of the group, they make an oral presentation in which they present their findings to the other students. This is followed by a service task in which the students collaborate in different activities of the association, and finally, a third individual reflection is carried out in which the students express their experience of collaboration. The evaluation of this activity is carried out by means of a rubric for both the reflections and the presentation. It should be noted that the oral presentation is evaluated both by the rest of the classmates and by the teachers. Results: The evaluation of the activity, given by the students, is 7.80/10, commenting that the experience is positive and brings them closer to the reality of the people and the area.

Keywords: academic learning integration, knowledge transfer, service-learning, teaching methodology

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Authors: Seval Kizildag, Ozge Can Aran

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The effective intervention of counselors’ in conflict between spouses may be effective in increasing the quality of marital relationship. At this point, it is necessary for counselors to consider their own value systems at first and then reflect this correctly to the counseling process. For this reason, it is primarily important to determine the needs of counselors. Starting from this point of view, in this study, it is aimed to reveal the perspective of counselor candidates about the universal values in marriage relation. The study group of the survey was formed by sampling, which is one of the prospective sampling methods. As a criterion being a candidate for counseling area and having knowledge of the concepts of the Marriage and Family Counseling course is based, because, that candidate students have a comprehensive knowledge of the field and that students have mastered the concepts of marriage and family counseling will strengthen the findings of this study. For this reason, 61 counselor candidates, 32 (52%) female and 29 (48%) male counselor candidates, who were about to graduate from a university in south-east Turkey and who took a Marriage and Family Counseling course, voluntarily participated in the study. The average age of counselor candidates’ is 23. At the same time, 70 % of the parents of these candidates brought about their marriage through arranged marriage, 13% through flirting, 8% by relative marriage, 7% through friend circles and 2% by custom. The data were collected through Demographic Information Form and a form titled ‘Universal Values Form in Marriage’ which consists of six questions prepared by researchers. After the data were transferred to the computer, necessary statistical evaluations were made on the data. The qualitative data analysis was used on the data which was obtained in the study. The universal values which include six basic values covering trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, citizenship, determined under the name as ‘six pillar of character’ are used as base and frequency values of the data were calculated trough content analysis. According to the findings of the study, while the value which most students find the most important value in marriage relation is being reliable, the value which they find the least important is to have citizenship consciousness. Also in this study, it is found out that counselor candidates associate the value of being trustworthiness ‘loyalty’ with (33%) as the highest in terms of frequency, the value of being respect ‘No violence’ with (23%), the value of responsibility ‘in the context of gender roles and spouses doing their owns’ with (35%) the value of being fairness ‘impartiality’ with (25%), the value of being caring ‘ being helpful’ with (25%) and finally as to the value of citizenship ‘love of country’ with (14%) and’ respect for the laws ‘ with (14%). It is believed that these results of the study will contribute to the arrangements for the development of counseling skills for counselor candidates regarding value in marriage and family counseling curricula.

Keywords: caring, citizenship, counselor candidate, fairness, marriage relationship, respect, responsibility, trustworthiness, value system

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Authors: Irati Barandiaran, Xabier Velasco-Iza, Galder Kortaberria

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Hybrid inorganic/organic nanostructured materials based on block copolymers are of considerable interest in the field of Nanotechnology, taking into account that these nanocomposites combine the properties of polymer matrix and the unique properties of the added nanoparticles. The use of block copolymers as templates offers the opportunity to control the size and the distribution of inorganic nanoparticles. This research is focused on the surface modification of inorganic nanoparticles to reach a good interface between nanoparticles and polymer matrices which hinders the nanoparticle aggregation. The aim of this work is to obtain a good and selective dispersion of Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles into different types of block copolymers such us, poly(styrene-b-methyl methacrylate) (PS-b-PMMA), poly(styrene-b-ε-caprolactone) (PS-b-PCL) poly(isoprene-b-methyl methacrylate) (PI-b-PMMA) or poly(styrene-b-butadiene-b-methyl methacrylate) (SBM) by using different grafting strategies. Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles have been surface-modified with polymer or block copolymer brushes following different grafting methods (grafting to, grafting from and grafting through) to achieve a selective location of nanoparticles into desired domains of the block copolymers. Morphology of fabricated hybrid nanocomposites was studied by means of atomic force microscopy (AFM) and with the aim to reach well-ordered nanostructured composites different annealing methods were used. Additionally, nanoparticle amount has been also varied in order to investigate the effect of the nanoparticle content in the morphology of the block copolymer. Nowadays different characterization methods were using in order to investigate magnetic properties of nanometer-scale electronic devices. Particularly, two different techniques have been used with the aim of characterizing synthesized nanocomposites. First, magnetic force microscopy (MFM) was used to investigate qualitatively the magnetic properties taking into account that this technique allows distinguishing magnetic domains on the sample surface. On the other hand, magnetic characterization by vibrating sample magnetometer and superconducting quantum interference device. This technique demonstrated that magnetic properties of nanoparticles have been transferred to the nanocomposites, exhibiting superparamagnetic behavior similar to that of the maghemite nanoparticles at room temperature. Obtained advanced nanostructured materials could found possible applications in the field of dye-sensitized solar cells and electronic nanodevices.

Keywords: atomic force microscopy, block copolymers, grafting techniques, iron oxide nanoparticles

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Authors: É. Vincze

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Demand on plant oils has increased to an enormous extent that is due to the change of human nutrition habits on the one hand, while on the other hand to the increase of raw material demand of some industrial sectors, just as to the increase of biofuel production. Besides the determining importance of sunflower in Hungary the production area, just as in part the average yield amount of rapeseed has increased among the produced oil crops. The variety/hybrid palette has changed significantly during the past decade. The available varieties’/hybrids’ palette has been extended to a significant extent. It is agreed that rapeseed production demands professionalism and local experience. Technological elements are successive; high yield amounts cannot be produced without system-based approach. The aim of the present work was to execute the complex study of one of the most critical production technology element of rapeseed production, that was sowing technology. Several sowing technology elements are studied in this research project that are the following: biological basis (the hybrid Arkaso is studied in this regard), sowing time (sowing time treatments were set so that they represent the wide period used in industrial practice: early, optimal and late sowing time) plant density (in this regard reaction of rare, optimal and too dense populations) were modelled. The multifactorial experimental system enables the single and complex evaluation of rapeseed sowing technology elements, just as their modelling using experimental result data. Yield quality and quantity have been determined as well in the present experiment, just as the interactions between these factors. The experiment was set up in four replications at the Látókép Plant Production Research Site of the University of Debrecen. Two different sowing times were sown in the first experimental year (2014), while three in the second (2015). Three different plant densities were set in both years: 200, 350 and 500 thousand plants ha-1. Uniform nutrient supply and a row spacing of 45 cm were applied. Winter wheat was used as pre-crop. Plant physiological measurements were executed in the populations of the Arkaso rapeseed hybrid that were: relative chlorophyll content analysis (SPAD) and leaf area index (LAI) measurement. Relative chlorophyll content (SPAD) and leaf area index (LAI) were monitored in 7 different measurement times.

Keywords: inner quality, plant density, rapeseed, sowing time

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Authors: Faraj M. Elkhatri, Hana Ali Allafi

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The spatial and temporal distribution of diagenetic alterations related impact on the reservoir quality of the Sarir Formation. (present day burial depth of about 9000 feet) Depositional facies and diagenetic alterations are the main controls on reservoir quality of Sarir Formation Sirt Ba-sin Libya; these based on lithology and grain size as well as authigenic clay mineral types and their distributions. However, petrology investigation obtained on study area with five sandstone wells concentrated on main rock components and the parameters that may have impacts on reservoirs. the main authigenic clay minerals are kaolinite and dickite, these investigations have confirmed by X.R.D analysis and clay fraction. mainly Kaolinite and Dickite were extensively presented on all of wells with high amounts. As well as trace of detrital smectite and less amounts of illitized mud-matrix are possibly find by SEM image. Thin layers of clay presented as clay-grain coatings in local depth interpreted as remains of dissolved clay matrix is partly transformed into kaolinite adjacent and towards pore throat. This also may have impacts on most of the pore throats of this sandstone which are open and relatively clean with some of fine martial have been formed on occluded pores. This material is identified by EDS analysis to be collections of not only kaolinite booklets, but also small, disaggregated kaolinite platelets derived from the dis-aggregation of larger kaolinite booklets. These patches of kaolinite not only fill this pore, but also coat some of the sur-rounding framework grains. Quartz grains often enlarged by authigenic quartz overgrowths partially occlude and re-duce porosity. Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (SEM) was conducted on the post-test samples to examine any mud filtrate particles that may be in the pore throats. Semi-qualitative elemental data on select-ed minerals observed during the SEM study were obtained using an Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) unit. The samples showed mostly clean open pore throats, with limited occlusion by kaolinite.

Keywords: por throat, formation damage, porosity lose, solids plugging

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Authors: Daniel J. Patricio Jiménez

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The term 'total compensation’ refers to salary, training, innovation, and development, and of course, motivation; total compensation is an open and flexible system which must facilitate personal and family conciliation and therefore cannot be isolated from social reality. Today, the challenge for any company that wants to have a future is to be sustainable, and women play a ‘special’ role in this. Spain, in its statutory and conventional development, has not given sufficient response to new phenomena such as ‘bonuses’, ‘stock options’ or ‘fringe benefits’ (constructed dogmatically and by court decisions), the new digital reality, where cryptocurrency, new collaborative models and service provision -such as remote work-, are always ahead of the law. To talk about compensation is to talk about the gender gap, and with the entry into force of RD.902 /2020 on 14 April 2021, certain measures are necessary under the principle of salary transparency; the valuation of jobs, the pay register (Rd. 6/2019) and the pay audit, are an example of this. Analyzing the methodologies, and in particular the determination and weight of the factors -so that the system itself is not discriminatory- is essential. The wage gap in Spain is smaller than in Europe, but the sources do not reflect the reality, and since the beginning of the pandemic, there has been a clear stagnation. A living wage is not the minimum wage; it is identified with rights and needs; it is that which, based on internal equity, reflects the competitiveness of the company in terms of human capital. Spain has lost and has not recovered the relative weight of its wages; this is having a direct impact on our competitiveness, consequently on the precariousness of employment and undoubtedly on the levels of extreme poverty. Training is becoming more than ever a strategic factor; the new digital reality requires that each component of the system is connected, the transversality is imposed on us, this forces us to redefine content, to give answers to the new demands that the new normality requires because technology and robotization are changing the concept of employability. The presence of women in this context is necessary, and there is a long way to go. The so-called emotional compensation becomes particularly relevant at a time when pandemics, silence, and disruption, are leaving after-effects; technostress (in all its manifestations) is just one of them. Talking about motivation today makes no sense without first being aware that mental health is a priority, that it must be treated and communicated in an inclusive way because it increases satisfaction, productivity, and engagement. There is a clear conclusion to all this: compensation systems do not respond to the ‘new normality’: diversity, and in particular women, cannot be invisible in human resources policies if the company wants to be sustainable.

Keywords: diversity, gender gap, human resources, sustainability.

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Authors: Mclee Kerolle

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For more than 50 years, the state of Hawaii has had the beginnings of a burgeoning commercial aerospace presence statewide. While Hawaii provides the aerospace industry with unique assets concerning geographic location, lack of range safety issues and other factors critical to aerospace development, Hawaii’s strategy and commitment for aerospace have been unclear. For this reason, this paper presents a comparative analysis of Hawaii’s space sector with two of the world’s leading space sectors, Colorado and the Netherlands, in order to provide a strategic plan that establishes a firm position going forward to support Hawaii’s aerospace development statewide. This plan will include financial and other economic incentives legislatively supported by the State to help grow and diversify Hawaii’s aerospace sector. The first part of this paper will examine the business model adopted by the Colorado Space Coalition (CSC), a group of industry stakeholders working to make Colorado a center of excellence for aerospace, as blueprint for growth in Hawaii’s space sector. The second section of this paper will examine the business model adopted by the Netherlands Space Business Incubation Centre (NSBIC), a European Space Agency (ESA) affiliated program that offers business support for entrepreneurs to turn space-connected business ideas into commercial companies. This will serve as blueprint to incentivize space businesses to launch and develop in Hawaii. The third section of this paper will analyze the current policies both CSC, and NSBIC implores to promote industry expansion and legislative advocacy. The final section takes the findings from both space sectors and applies their most adaptable features to a Hawaii specific space business model that takes into consideration the unique advantage and disadvantages found in developing Hawaii’s space sector. The findings of this analysis will show that the development of a strategic plan based on a comparative analysis that creates high technology jobs and new pathways for a trained workforce in the space sector, as well as elicit state support and direction, will achieve the goal of establishing Hawaii as a center of space excellence. This analysis will also serve as a signal to the federal, private sector and international community that Hawaii is indeed serious about developing its’ aerospace industry. Ultimately this analysis and subsequent aerospace development plan will serve as a blueprint for the benefit of all space-faring nations seeking to develop their space sectors.

Keywords: Colorado, Hawaii, Netherlands, space policy

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Authors: Gebrehiwot H., Giorgis Bahita

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Firms in Africa experience less financial market in comparison to other emerging and developed countries, thus lagging behind the rest of the world in terms of innovation and growth. Though there are different factors to be considered, underdeveloped financial systems take the lion's share in hindering firm innovation and growth in Africa. Insufficient capacity to innovate is one of the problems facing African businesses. Moreover, a critical challenge faced by firms in Africa is access to finance and the inability of financially constrained firms to grow. Only little is known about how different sources of finance affect firm innovation and growth in Africa, specifically the formal and informal finance effect on firm innovation and growth. This study's aim is to address this gap by using formal and informal finance for working capital and fixed capital and its role in firm innovation and firm growth using firm-level data from the World Bank enterprise survey 2006-2019 with a total of 5661 sample firms from 14 countries based on available data on the selected variables. Additionally, this study examines factors for accessing credit from a formal financial institution. The logit model is used to examine the effect of finance on a firm’s innovation and factors to access formal finance, while the Ordinary List Square (OLS) regression mode is used to investigate the effect of finance on firm growth. 2SLS instrumental variables are used to address the possible endogeneity problem in firm growth and finance-innovation relationships. A result from the logistic regression indicates that both formal and informal finance used for working capital and investment in fixed capital was found to have a significant positive association with product and process innovation. In the case of finance and growth, finding show that positive association of both formal and informal financing to working capital and new investment in fixed capital though the informal has positive relations to firm growth as measured by sale growth but no significant association as measured by employment growth. Formal finance shows more magnitude of effect on innovation and growth when firms use formal finance to finance investment in fixed capital, while informal finance show less compared to formal finance and this confirms previous studies as informal is mainly used for working capital in underdeveloped economies like Africa. The factors that determine credit access: Age, firm size, managerial experience, exporting, gender, and foreign ownership are found to have significant determinant factors in accessing credit from formal and informal sources among the selected sample countries.

Keywords: formal finance, informal finance, innovation, growth

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