Search results for: irrigation performance

Authors: Seyed-Ali Sadegh-Zadeh, Kaveh Kavianpour, Hamed Atashbar, Elham Heidari, Saeed Shiry Ghidary, Amir M. Hajiyavand

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Evaluation metrics play a critical role in assessing the performance of machine learning models. In this review paper, we provide a comprehensive overview of performance measurement approaches for machine learning models. For each category, we discuss the most widely used metrics, including their mathematical formulations and interpretation. Additionally, we provide a comparative analysis of performance measurement approaches for metric combinations. Our review paper aims to provide researchers and practitioners with a better understanding of performance measurement approaches and to aid in the selection of appropriate evaluation metrics for their specific applications.

Keywords: evaluation metrics, performance measurement, supervised learning, unsupervised learning, reinforcement learning, model robustness and stability, comparative analysis

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Authors: Mohammad Mahdi Mousavi

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Bankruptcy prediction models have been implemented for continuous evaluation and monitoring of firms. With the huge number of bankruptcy models, an extensive number of studies have focused on answering the question that which of these models are superior in performance. In practice, one of the drawbacks of existing comparative studies is that the relative assessment of alternative bankruptcy models remains an exercise that is mono-criterion in nature. Further, a very restricted number of criteria and measure have been applied to compare the performance of competing bankruptcy prediction models. In this research, we overcome these methodological gaps through implementing an extensive range of criteria and measures for comparison between dynamic and static bankruptcy models, and through proposing a multi-criteria framework to compare the relative performance of bankruptcy models in forecasting firm distress for UK firms.

Keywords: bankruptcy prediction, data envelopment analysis, performance criteria, performance measures

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Authors: Ivan Ramos Sampe Immanuel, Linung Kresno Adikusumo, Liston Sitanggang

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Achieving the production targets of oil and gas in an upstream oil and gas company represents a complex undertaking necessitating collaborative engagement from a multidisciplinary team. In addition to conducting exploration activities and executing well intervention programs, an upstream oil and gas enterprise must assess the feasibility of attaining predetermined production goals. The monitoring of production performance serves as a critical activity to ensure organizational progress towards the established oil and gas performance targets. Subsequently, decisions within the upstream oil and gas management team are informed by the received information pertaining to the respective production performance. To augment the decision-making process, the implementation of a production performance dashboard emerges as a viable solution, providing an integrated and centralized tool. The deployment of a production performance dashboard manifests as an instrumental mechanism fostering a user-friendly interface for monitoring production performance, while concurrently preserving the intrinsic characteristics of granular data. The integration of diverse data sources into a unified production performance dashboard establishes a singular veritable source, thereby enhancing the organization's capacity to uphold a consolidated and authoritative foundation for its business requisites. Additionally, the heightened accessibility of the production performance dashboard to business users constitutes a compelling substantiation of its consequential impact on facilitating the monitoring of organizational targets.

Keywords: production, performance, dashboard, data analytics

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Authors: Ali Abdullah Albezaghi

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This article aims to introduce a conceptual framework that can facilitate investigations concerning the role of risk management practices in the relationship between construction risks and the construction project's performance. This article is structured based on the extant literature; it reviews theoretical perspectives, highlights the gaps, and illustrates the significance of developing a framework of suggested relationships. Despite growing interest in the role of risks in construction project performance, previous studies have paid little attention to investigating the moderating role of risk management practices on the risk-performance link. This has left researchers and construction project managers with minimal information to explain the conditions under which risk management practices can reduce the impact of project-related risks and improve performance. In this context, this article suggests a viable research model with propositions that assess risk-performance relationships and discusses the potential moderating effects on the domain relationship. This paper adds to the risk management literature by focusing on risk variables that directly impact performance. Further, it also considers the moderating role of risk management practices in such relationships.

Keywords: risk management practices, external risks, internal risks, project risks, project performance

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Authors: Jamal A. Radaideh, A. J. Radaideh

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Being a problem threatening the planet and its ecosystems, the climate change has been considered for a long time as a disturbing topic impacting water resources in Jordan. Jordan is expected for instance to be highly vulnerable to climate change consequences given its unbalanced distribution between water resources availability and existing demands. Thus, action on adaptation to climate impacts is urgently needed to cope with the negative consequences of climate change. Adaptation to global change must include prudent management of treated wastewater as a renewable resource, especially in regions lacking groundwater or where groundwater is already over exploited. This paper highlights the expected negative effects of climate change on the already scarce water sources and to motivate researchers and decision makers to take precautionary measures and find alternatives to keep the level of water supplies at the limits required for different consumption sectors in terms of quantity and quality. The paper will focus on assessing the potential for wastewater recycling as an adaptation measure to cope with water scarcity in Jordan and to consider wastewater as integral part of the national water budget to solve environmental problems. The paper also identified a research topic designed to help the nation progress in making the most appropriate use of the resource, namely for agricultural irrigation. Wastewater is a promising alternative to fill the shortage in water resources, especially due to climate changes, and to preserve the valuable fresh water to give priority to securing drinking water for the population from these resources and at the same time raise the efficiency of the use of available resources. Jordan has more than 36 wastewater treatment plants distributed throughout the country and producing about 386,000 CM/day of reclaimed water. According to the reports of water quality control programs, more than 85 percent of this water is of a quality that is completely identical to the quality suitable for irrigation of field crops and forest trees according to the requirements of Jordanian Standard No. 893/2006.

Keywords: climate change effects on water resources, adaptation on climate change, treated wastewater recycling, arid and semi-arid regions, Jordan

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Authors: Dina Tamazin, Nicoleta Tipi, Sahar Validi

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The oil refining industry plays vital role in the world economy. Oil refining companies operate in a more complex and dynamic environment than ever before. In addition, oil refining companies and the public are becoming more conscious of crude oil scarcity and climate changes. Hence, sustainability in the oil refining industry is becoming increasingly critical to the industry's long-term viability and to the environmental sustainability. Mainly, it is relevant to the measurement and evaluation of the company's sustainable performance to support the company in understanding their performance and its implication more objectively and establishing sustainability development plans. Consequently, the oil refining companies attempt to re-engineer their supply chain to meet the sustainable goals and standards. On the other hand, this research realized that previous research in oil refining sustainable supply chain performance measurements reveals that there is a lack of studies that consider the integration of sustainability in the supply chain performance measurement practices in the oil refining industry. Therefore, there is a need for research that provides performance guidance, which can be used to measure sustainability and assist in setting sustainable goals for oil refining supply chains. Accordingly, this paper aims to present a comprehensive oil refining sustainable supply chain performance measurement theoretical framework. In development of this theoretical framework, the main characteristics of oil refining industry have been identified. For this purpose, a thorough review of relevant literature on performance measurement models and sustainable supply chain performance measurement models has been conducted. The comprehensive oil refining sustainable supply chain performance measurement theoretical framework introduced in this paper aims to assist oil refining companies in measuring and evaluating their performance from a sustainability aspect to achieve sustainable operational excellence.

Keywords: oil refining industry, oil refining sustainable supply chain, performance measurement, sustainability

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Authors: Abolfazl Ghelichi, Ghasem Modarresi

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The problem with interpretation courses arises from the fact that Interpretation Courses at University levels are presented by most of the instructors based on listening activities and testing listening performance while interpretation strategies have been underrated. The data are gathered from30 students majoring in Translation Studies to fulfill the major aims of the study including. The study aimed at: 1) examining the significant relationship between specific interpretation strategies and interpretation performance of translation students in interpretation courses, 2) investigating the significant difference between males and females in their interpretation performance, and 3) exploring the interpretation strategies which are more effective for the translation students to improve their interpretation performance from students’ opinions. The results of the study revealed that there was a statistically significant difference in the mean scores for the two groups. The experimental group outperformed the control group in their interpretation performance and the effect size was large. However, there was no significant difference between male and female with respect to their cognition [t (28) =.79, p<.05]. As for the results obtained from the interviews with the students, the commonalities emerged from the students’ responses were analyzed and reported by the researchers.

Keywords: anticipation, interpretation performance, interpretation strategy, shadowing

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Authors: C. V. Chen, Y. H. Jeng, S. J. Wang

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Leadership is essential to enhancing followers’ psychological empowerment and has an effect on their willingness to take on extra-role behavior and aim for greater performance. Authentic leadership is confirmed to promote employees’ positive affect, psychological empowerment, well-being, and performance. Employees’ spontaneous undertaking of organizationally desired behaviors allows organizations’ gaining the edge in the fiercely competitive business environment. Apart from the contextual factor of leadership, individuals’ goal orientation is found to be highly related to his/her performance. To better understand the psychological process and potential moderation of personal goal orientation, this study investigates the effect of authentic leadership on employees’ task performance and organizational citizenship behavior by including psychological empowerment as the mediating factor and goal orientation as the moderating factor.

Keywords: authentic leadership, task performance, organizational citizenship behavior, goal orientation

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Authors: Endalew Jibat, Feyera Senbeta, Tesfaye Zeleke, Fitsum Hagos

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Water governance considers multi-sector participation beyond the state; and for sustainable use of water resources, appropriate laws, policies, regulations, and institutions needs to be developed and put in place. Water policy, a critical and integral instrument of water governance, guided water use schemes and ensures equitable water distribution among users. The Ethiopian Central Rift Valley (CRV) is wealthy of water resources, but these water resources are currently under severe strain owing to an imbalance in human-water interactions. The main aim of the study was to examine the state of water resources governance in the CRV of Ethiopia, and the impact of the Ethiopian Water Resources Management Policy on water governance. Key informant interviews (KII), focused group discussions, and document reviews were used to gather data for the study. The NVivo 11 program was used to organize, code, and analyze the data. The results revealed that water resources governance practices such as water allocation and apportionment, comprehensive and integrated water management plans, water resources protection, and conservation activities were rarely implemented. Water resources management policy mechanisms were not fully put in place. Lack of coherence in water policy implementation, absence of clear roles and responsibilities of stakeholders, absence of transparency and accountability in irrigation water service delivery, and lack of meaningful participation of key actors in water governance decision-making were the primary shortcomings observed. Factors such as over-abstraction, deterioration of buffer zone, and chemical erosion from surrounding farming have contributed to the reduction in water volume and quality in the CRV. These challenges have influenced aquatic ecosystem services and threaten the livelihoods of the surrounding communities. Hence, reforms relating to policy coherence and enforcement, stakeholder involvement, water distribution strategies, and the application of water governance principles must be given more emphasis.

Keywords: water resources, irrigation, governance, water allocation, governance principles, stakeholders engagement, central rift valley

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Authors: S. K. Kakraliya, R. D. Jat, H. S. Jat, P. C. Sharma, M. L. Jat

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The traditional rice-wheat (RW) system in the IGP of South Asia is tillage, water, energy, and capital intensive. Coupled with more pumping of groundwater over the years to meet the high irrigation water requirement of the RW system has resulted in over-exploitation of groundwater. Replacement of traditional rice with less water crops such as maize under climate-smart agriculture (CSA) based management (tillage, crop establishment and residue management) practices are required to promote sustainable intensification. Furthermore, inefficient nutrient management practices are responsible for low crop yields and nutrient use efficiencies in maize-wheat (MW) system. A 7-year field experiment was conducted in farmer’s participatory strategic research mode at Taraori, Karnal, India to evaluate the effects of tillage and crop establishment (TCE) methods, residue management, mungbean integration, and nutrient management practices on crop yields, water productivity and profitability of MW system. The main plot treatments included four combinations of TCE, residue and mungbean integration [conventional tillage (CT), conventional tillage with mungbean (CT + MB), permanent bed (PB) and permanent bed with MB (PB + MB] with three nutrient management practices [farmer’s fertilizer practice (FFP), recommended dose of fertilizer (RDF) and site-specific nutrient management (SSNM)] using Nutrient Expert® as subplot treatments. System productivity, water use efficiency (WUE) and net returns under PB + MB were significantly increased by 25–30%, 28–31% and 35–40% compared to CT respectively, during seven years of experimentation. The integration of MB in MW system contributed ~25and ~ 28% increases in system productivity and net returns compared with no MB, respectively. SSNM based nutrient management increased the mean (averaged across 7 yrs) system productivity by 12- 15% compared with FFP. The study revealed that CSA based sustainable intensification (PB + MB) and SSNM approach provided opportunities for enhancing crop productivity, WUE and profitability of the MW system in India.

Keywords: Conservation Agriculture, Precision water and nutrient management, Permanent beds, Crop yields

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Authors: Amizawati Mohd Amir, Ruhanita Maelah, Zaidi Mohd Noor

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As part of the Malaysia Higher Institutions' Strategic Plan in promoting high-quality research and education, the Ministry of Higher Education has introduced various instrument to assess the universities performance. The aims are that university will produce more commercially-oriented research and continue to contribute in producing professional workforce for domestic and foreign needs. Yet the spirit of the success lies in the commitment of university particularly the academic staff to translate the vision into reality. For that reason, the element of fairness and justice in assessing individual academic staff performance is crucial to promote directly linked between university and individual work goals. Focusing on public research universities (RUs) in Malaysia, this study observes at the issue through the practice of university contemporary performance measurement system. Accordingly management control theory has conceptualized that contemporary performance measurement consisting of three dimension namely strategic, comprehensive and dynamic building upon equity theory, the relationships between contemporary performance measurement system and organizational justice and in turn the effect on academic staff work performance are tested based on online survey data administered on 365 academic staff from public RUs, which were analyzed using statistics analysis SPSS and Equation Structure Modeling. The findings validated the presence of strategic, comprehensive and dynamic in the contemporary performance measurement system. The empirical evidence also indicated that contemporary performance measure and procedural justice are significantly associated with work performance but not for distributive justice. Furthermore, procedural justice does mediate the relationship between contemporary performance measurement and academic staff work performance. Evidently, this study provides evidence on the importance of perceptions of justice towards influencing academic staff work performance. This finding may be a fruitful input in the setting up academic staff performance assessment policy.

Keywords: comprehensive, dynamic, distributive justice, contemporary performance measurement system, strategic, procedure justice, work performance

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Authors: Ibraheem A. K. Mahameed

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The aim of this study is to identify the risks affecting time performance of building construction projects in the West Bank in Palestine from contractors’ viewpoint. 38 risks that might affect time performance of building construction projects were defined through a detailed literature review. These risks have been classified into 6 groups: project, managerial, consultant, financial, external, and construction items. A questionnaire survey was performed to rank the considered risks in terms of severity and frequency. The analysis of the survey indicated that the top five risks affecting time performance of building construction projects in Palestine are: award project to the lowest price, political situation, poor communication and coordination between construction parties, change orders, and financial status of contractor.

Keywords: delay, time performance, construction, building

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Authors: Antonio D. Lee, Steven X. Jiang

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A variety of techniques and methods are available to evaluate cognitive performance in Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) applications. However, traditional cognitive performance evaluation techniques typically incorporate either the conscious or systematic aspect, failing to take into consideration the subconscious or intuitive aspect. This leads to incomplete measures and produces ineffective designs. In order to fill the gaps in past research, this study developed a theoretical framework to facilitate the integration of situation awareness (SA) and intuitive pattern recognition (IPR) to enhance the cognitive performance representation in USAR applications. This framework provides guidance to integrate both SA and IPR in order to evaluate the cognitive performance of the USAR responders. The application of this framework will help improve the system design.

Keywords: cognitive performance, intuitive pattern recognition, situation awareness, urban search and rescue

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Authors: H. Naccache, R. Hleiss

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The aim of this research is to study the relationship between the performance of engineering students in different math courses and their performance in specific engineering courses. The considered courses are taken mainly by engineering students during the first two years of their major. Several factors are being studied, such as gender and final grades in the math and specific engineering courses. Participants of this study comprised a sample of more than thousands of engineering students at Lebanese University during their tertiary academic years. A significant relationship tends to appear between these factors and the performance of students in engineering courses. Moreover, female students appear to outperform their male counterparts in both the math and engineering courses, and a high correlation was found between their grades in math courses and their grades in specific engineering courses. The results and implications of the study were being discussed.

Keywords: education, engineering, math, performance

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Authors: Sunyoung Park

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Context: Talent management is a strategic approach that has received considerable attention in recent years to improve employee competency and organizational performance in many organizations. The implementation of talent management involves identifying objectives and positions within the organization, developing a pool of high-potential employees, and establishing appropriate HR functions to promote high employee and organizational performance. This study aims to investigate the relationship between talent management, HR functions, employee competency, and organizational performance in the South Korean context. Research Aim: The main objective of this study is to investigate the structural relationships among talent management, human resources (HR) functions, employee competency, and organizational performance. Methodology: To achieve the research aim, this study used a quantitative research method. Specifically, a total of 1,478 responses were analyzed using structural equation modeling based on data obtained from the Human Capital Corporate Panel (HCCP) survey in South Korea. Findings: The study revealed that talent management has a positive influence on HR functions and employee competency. Additionally, HR functions directly affect employee competency and organizational performance. Employee competency was found to be related to organizational performance. Moreover, talent management and HR functions indirectly affect organizational performance through employee competency. Theoretical Importance: This study provides empirical evidence of the relationship between talent management, HR functions, employee competency, and organizational performance in the South Korean context. The findings suggest that organizations should focus on developing appropriate talent management and HR functions to improve employee competency, which, in turn, will lead to better organizational performance. Moreover, the study contributes to the existing literature by emphasizing the importance of the relationship between talent management and HR functions in improving organizational performance.

Keywords: employee competency, HR functions, organizational performance, talent management

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Authors: M. Zaitoun, S. Cumming, A. Purcell

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This study aims to determine if audiologists' experience characteristics in ABR (Auditory Brainstem Response) reading is associated with their performance in interpreting ABR results. Fifteen ABR traces with varying degrees of hearing level were presented twice, making a total of 30. Audiologists were asked to determine the hearing threshold for each of the cases after completing a brief survey regarding their experience and training in ABR administration. Sixty-one audiologists completed all tasks. Correlations between audiologists’ performance measures and experience variables suggested significant associations (p < 0.05) between training period in ABR testing and audiologists’ performance in terms of both sensitivity and accuracy. In addition, the number of years conducting ABR testing correlated with specificity. No other correlations approached significance. While there are relatively few significant correlations between ABR performance and experience, accuracy in ABR reading is associated with audiologists’ length of experience and period of training. To improve audiologists’ performance in reading ABR results, an emphasis on the importance of training should be raised and standardized levels and period for audiologists training in ABR testing should also be set.

Keywords: ABR, audiology, performance, training, experience

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Authors: Evisa Mitrou, Nicholas Tsitsianis, Supriya Shinde

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In the age of digitisation and globalisation, businesses have shifted online and are investing in big data analytics (BDA) to respond to changing market conditions and sustain their performance. Our study shifts the focus from the adoption of BDA to the impact of BDA on financial performance. We explore the financial performance of both BDA-vendors (business-to-business) and BDA-clients (business-to-customer). We distinguish between the five BDA-technologies (big-data-as-a-service (BDaaS), descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive analytics) and discuss them individually. Further, we use four perspectives (internal business process, learning and growth, customer, and finance) and discuss the significance of how each of the five BDA-technologies affects the performance measures of these four perspectives. We also present the analysis of employee engagement, average turnover, average net income, and average net assets for BDA-clients and BDA-vendors. Our study also explores the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on business continuity for both BDA-vendors and BDA-clients.

Keywords: BDA-clients, BDA-vendors, big data analytics, financial performance

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Authors: Ibrahim Halil Korkmaz, Eren Özceylan, Cihan Çetinkaya

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Logistics function has great potential for increasing sustainable competitive advantage, profitability, productivity, customer satisfaction and decreasing costs in all sectors. The performance of logistics sector, which has such great influence on the overall performance of the economy, attracts more attention of both researchers and sector representatives day by day. The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of research and development expenditures which spent by enterprises operating in the transportation and storage sectors on Turkey’s logistic performance index (LPI). To do so, research and development investment expenditure among the years 2009-2015 of Turkish transportation and storage firms data from the Turkish Statistical Institute and Turkeys country points in the World Bank logistics performance index in the same years data were examined. As the result of the parametric evaluation, it is seen that the research and development expenditures made have a positive effect on the logistic performance of Turkey.

Keywords: logistics performance index, R&D investments, transportation, storage, Turkey

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Authors: Mehrzad Soltani, Pegah Rezaei

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In response to the escalating challenges posed by resource scarcity, urban congestion, and the dearth of green spaces, contemporary urban areas have undergone a remarkable transformation into smart cities. This evolution necessitates a strategic and forward-thinking approach to urban development, with the primary objective of diminishing and eventually eradicating dependence on non-renewable energy sources. This steadfast commitment to sustainable development is geared toward the continual enhancement of our global urban milieu, ensuring a healthier and more prosperous environment for forthcoming generations. This transformative vision has been meticulously shaped by an extensive research framework, incorporating in-depth field studies and investigations conducted at both neighborhood and city levels. Our holistic strategy extends its purview to encompass major cities and states, advocating for the realization of exceptional development firmly rooted in the principles of sustainable intelligence. At its core, this approach places a paramount emphasis on stringent pollution control measures, concurrently safeguarding ecological equilibrium and regional cohesion. Central to the realization of this vision is the widespread adoption of environmentally friendly materials and components, championing the cultivation of plant life and harmonious green spaces, and the seamless integration of intelligent lighting and irrigation systems. These systems, including solar panels and solar energy utilization, are deployed wherever feasible, effectively meeting the essential lighting and irrigation needs of these dynamic urban ecosystems. Overall, the transformation of urban areas into smart cities necessitates a holistic and innovative approach to urban development. By actively embracing sustainable intelligence and adhering to strict environmental standards, these cities pave the way for a brighter and more sustainable future, one that is marked by resilient, thriving, and eco-conscious urban communities.

Keywords: smart city, green urban, sustainability, urban management

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Authors: M. Hilmi Ozdemir, Gokhan Ozkan

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Performance Based Logistics (PBL) is a strategic approach that enables creating long-term and win-win relations among stakeholders in the acquisition. Contrary to the traditional single transactions, the expected value is created by the performance of the service pertaining to the strategic relationships in this approach. PBL motivates all relevant stakeholders to focus on their core competencies to produce the desired outcome in a collective way. The desired outcome can only be assured with a cost effective way as long as it is periodically measured with the right performance parameters. Thus, defining these parameters is a crucial step for the PBL contracts. In performance parameter determination, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), which is a multi-criteria decision making methodology for complex cases, was used within this study for a complex system. AHP has been extensively applied in various areas including supply chain, inventory management, outsourcing, and logistics. This methodology made it possible to convert end-user’s main operation and maintenance requirements to sub criteria contained by a single performance parameter. Those requirements were categorized and assigned weights by the relevant stakeholders. Single performance parameter capable of measuring the overall performance of a complex system is the major outcome of this study. The parameter deals with the integrated assessment of different functions spanning from training, operation, maintenance, reporting, and documentation that are implemented within a complex system. The aim of this study is to show the methodology and processes implemented to identify a single performance parameter for measuring the whole performance of a complex system within a PBL contract. AHP methodology is recommended as an option for the researches and the practitioners who seek for a lean and integrated approach for performance assessment within PBL contracts. The implementation of AHP methodology in this study may help PBL practitioners from methodological perception and add value to AHP in becoming prevalent.

Keywords: analytic hierarchy process, performance based logistics, performance measurement, performance parameters

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Authors: Carlu Van Der Westhuizen

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The South African Agricultural Sector is of major socio-economic importance to the country due to its contribution in maintaining stability in food production and food security, providing labour opportunities, eradicating poverty and earning foreign currency. Against this reality, this paper investigates within the Agricultural Sector in South Africa the changes in Land Policies that the new democratically elected government (African National Congress) brought about since their takeover in 1994. The change in the agricultural environment is decidedly dualistic, with 1) a commercial sector, and 2) a subsistence and emerging farmer sector. The future demands and challenges are mostly identified as those of land redistribution and social upliftment. Opportunities that arose from the challenge of change are, among others, the small-holder participation in the value chain, while the challenge of change in Agriculture and the opportunities that were identified could serve as a yardstick against which the Sectors’ (Agriculture) Performance could be measured in future. Unfortunately, despite all Governments’ Policies, Programmes and Projects and inputs of the Private Sector, the outcomes are, to a large extend, unsuccessful. The urgency with the Land Redistribution Programme is that, for the period 1994 – 2014, only 7.5% of the 30% aim in the redistribution of land was achieved. Another serious aspect of concern is that 90% of the Land Redistribution Projects are not in a state of productive use by emerging farmers. Several reasons may be offered for these failures, amongst others the uncoordinated way in which different stakeholders are involved in a specific farming project. These stakeholders could generally in most cases be identified as: - The Government as the policy maker; - The Private Sector that has the potential to contribute to the sustainable pre- and post-settlement stages of the Programme by cooperating the supporting services to Government; - Inputs from the communities in rural areas where the settlement takes place; - The landowners as sellers of land (e.g. a Traditional Council); and - The emerging beneficiaries as the receivers of land. Mentorship is mostly the medium with which the support are coordinated. In this paper focus will be on three scenarios of different types of mentorship (or management support) namely: - The Taung Irrigation Scheme (TIS) where multiple new land beneficiaries were established by sharing irrigation pivots and receiving mentorship support from commodity organisations within a traditional land sharing system; - Projects whereby the mentor is a strategic partner (mostly a major agricultural 'cooperative' which is also providing inputs to the farmer and responsible for purchasing/marketing all commodities produced); and - An individual mentor who is a private person focussing mainly on farm management mentorship without direct gain other than a monthly stipend paid to the mentor by Government. Against this introduction the focus of the study is investigating the process for the sustainable implementation of Governments’ Land Redistribution in South African Agriculture. To achieve this, the research paper is presented under the themes of problem statement, objectives, methodology and limitations, outline of the research process, as well as proposing possible solutions.

Keywords: land reform, role-players, failures, mentorship, management models

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Authors: Manal Elgallal, Louise Fletcher, Barbara Evans

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Water scarcity is a growing concern in many arid and semi-arid countries. The increase of water scarcity threatens economic development and sustainability of human livelihoods as well as environment especially in developing countries. Globally, agriculture is the largest water consumption sector, accounting for approximately 70% of all freshwater extraction. Growing competition between the agricultural and higher economic value in urban and industrial uses of high-quality freshwater supplies, especially in regions where water scarcity major problems, will increase the pressure on this precious resource. In this circumstance, wastewater may provide reliable source of water for agriculture and enable freshwater to be exchanged for more economically valuable purposes. Concern regarding the risks from microbial and toxic components to human health and environment quality is a serious obstacle for wastewater reuse particularly in agriculture. Although powerful approaches and tools for microbial risk assessment and management for safe use of wastewater are now available, few studies have attempted to provide any mechanism to quantitatively assess and manage the environmental risks resulting from reusing wastewater. In seeking pragmatic solutions to sustainable wastewater reuse, there remains a lack of research incorporating both health and environmental risk assessment and management with economic analysis in order to quantitatively combine cost, benefits and risks to rank alternative reuse options. This study seeks to enhance effective reuse of wastewater for irrigation in arid and semi-arid areas, the outcome of the study is an evaluation approach that can be used to assess different reuse strategies and to determine the suitable scale at which treatment alternatives and interventions are possible, feasible and cost effective in order to optimise the trade-offs between risks to protect public health and the environment and preserving the substantial benefits.

Keywords: environmental risks, management, life cycle costs, waste water irrigation

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Authors: Peter Ugbedeojo Nelson

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Despite the tremendous advancements and knowledge acquisition around entrepreneurship orientation (EO) research, there may still be more to learn on how environmental dynamics would permute organizational processes and determine the extent to which success would be achieved. Using the contingency theory, we test a model that proposes a moderating influence of external relational capital and environmental hostility on the EO-performance effect of 423 managers/owners of small and medium scale enterprises. The hypotheses were tested using Hayes simultaneous regression, and the results showed that all EO dimensions (risk-taking, innovation, and performance) had a main effect on performance while the moderating variables interacted well with risk-taking (more than other EO dimensions) to improve performance. However, external relational capital, more than environmental hostility, influences the EO-performance relationship. Our findings highlight the differential ways that EO dimensions interact with environmental contingencies to influence performance. Further studies can examine how competitive aggressiveness and autonomy are moderated by external relational capital and environmental hostility.

Keywords: external relational capital, entrepreneurial orientation, risk-taking, innovation, proactiveness

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Authors: Alemayehu Belay Emagnaw

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This study was conducted to investigate the relationship of mother and father involvement with students’ school performance and the effect of selected family demographic variables (mother and father education, family structure and sex of students) to the involvement of mothers and fathers in their children’s school performance. In addition, this study attempted to differentiate the level of involvement of mothers’ and fathers’ in their children’s school performance. The research was conducted in Bahirdar City, Ethiopia. A total of 175 students (boys were 85 and girls were 90) of grade 7th and 8th private primary schools were selected as respondents using stratified random sampling technique. The data were collected using a questionnaire. Analysis of the data showed that fathers and mothers have significant involvement in their children’s school performance. A significant difference was also found between mothers and fathers involvement in their children’s school performance. Mothers were better involved in their children school performance than fathers. The analysis of inter-correlation between variables showed that there is a statistically significant relationship between mother and father education, mother and father involvement, and school performance whereas, family structure and sex of the child had no significant relationship with school performance.

Keywords: family structure, parental education, parental involvement, school performance

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Authors: Mengdan Guo, Zongmin Wang, Haibo Yang

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Drought is one of the most complex and destructive natural disasters, with a huge impact on both nature and society. In recent years, adverse climate conditions and uncontrolled human activities have exacerbated the occurrence of global droughts, among which socio-economic droughts are closely related to human survival. The study of socio-economic drought risk assessment is crucial for sustainable social development. Therefore, this study comprehensively considered the risk of disaster causing factors, the exposure level of the disaster-prone environment, and the vulnerability of the disaster bearing body to construct a socio-economic drought risk assessment model for Chuxiong Prefecture in Yunnan Province. Firstly, a threedimensional frequency analysis of intensity area duration drought was conducted, followed by a statistical analysis of the drought risk of the socio-economic system. Secondly, a grid analysis model was constructed to assess the exposure levels of different agents and study the effects of drought on regional crop growth, industrial economic growth, and human consumption thresholds. Thirdly, an agricultural vulnerability model for different irrigation levels was established by using the DSSAT crop model. Industrial economic vulnerability and domestic water vulnerability under the impact of drought were investigated by constructing a standardized socio-economic drought index and coupling water loss. Finally, the socio-economic drought risk was assessed by combining hazard, exposure, and vulnerability. The results show that the frequency of drought occurrence in Chuxiong Prefecture, Yunnan Province is relatively high, with high population and economic exposure concentrated in urban areas of various counties and districts, and high agricultural exposure concentrated in mountainous and rural areas. Irrigation can effectively reduce agricultural vulnerability in Chuxiong, and the yield loss rate under the 20mm winter irrigation scenario decreased by 10.7% compared to the rain fed scenario. From the perspective of comprehensive risk, the distribution of long-term socio-economic drought risk in Chuxiong Prefecture is relatively consistent, with the more severe areas mainly concentrated in Chuxiong City and Lufeng County, followed by counties such as Yao'an, Mouding and Yuanmou. Shuangbai County has the lowest socio-economic drought risk, which is basically consistent with the economic distribution trend of Chuxiong Prefecture. And in June, July, and August, the drought risk in Chuxiong Prefecture is generally high. These results can provide constructive suggestions for the allocation of water resources and the construction of water conservancy facilities in Chuxiong Prefecture, and provide scientific basis for more effective drought prevention and control. Future research is in the areas of data quality and availability, climate change impacts, human activity impacts, and countermeasures for a more comprehensive understanding and effective response to drought risk in Chuxiong Prefecture.

Keywords: DSSAT model, risk assessment, socio-economic drought, standardized socio-economic drought index

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Authors: Mohammad Safaeipour, Yousef Amer

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This study directs its focus on developing a conceptual model to offer a systematic and integrated method to weigh the related measures and evaluate a competence of hospitals and rank of the selected hospitals that involve and consider the stakeholders’ key performance indicators (KPI’s). The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach will use to weigh the dimensions and related sub- components. The weights and performance scores will combine by using the Technique for Order Performance by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and rank the selected hospitals. The results of this study provide interesting insight into the necessity of process improvement implementation in which hospital that received the lowest ranking score.

Keywords: performance measurement system, PMS, hospitals, AHP, TOPSIS

Procedia PDF Downloads 365

Authors: Arjita Biswas, Sandeep Potnis

Abstract:

Plastic roads (bituminous roads using waste plastic in the wearing course ) have now become familiar in the Road Construction Sector in India. With the Indian Road Congress Code (IRC SP: 98 -2013), many agencies are coming forward to implement Plastic Roads in India. This paper discuss and compare about the various properties of bituminous mix with 8% waste plastic and normal bituminous mix. This paper also signifies the performance of both the types of roads after 4 months of age under loading conditions. Experiments were carried out to evaluate its performance. The result shows improved performance of plastic roads.

Keywords: bituminous roads, experiments, performance, plastic roads

Procedia PDF Downloads 210

Authors: Manal Elsayed Elkheshin, Rasha Saleh Mansour, Mohamed Fawzy Mohamed Eldnasury, Mamdouh Elbadry Mohamed

Abstract:

This research Aims to identify the main factors affecting the production and the fish consumption in Egypt, through the econometric estimation for various forms functions of fish production and fish consumption during the period (1991-2014), as the aim of this research to forecast the production and the fish consumption in Egypt until 2020, through determine the best standard methods using (ARIMA).This research also aims to the economic feasibility of the production of fish in aquaculture farms study; investment cost and represents the value of land, buildings, equipment and irrigation. Aquaculture requires three types of fish (Tilapia, carp fish, and mullet fish), and the total area of the farm, about an acre. The annual Fish production from this project about 3.5 tons. The annual investment costs of about 50500 pounds, Find conclude that the project can repay the cost of their investments after about 4 years and 5 months, and therefore recommend the implementation of the project, and internal rate of return reached (IRR) of about 22.1%, where it is clear that the rate of large internal rate of return, and achieves pound invested in this project annual return is estimated at 22.1 pounds, more than the opportunity cost, so we recommend the need to implement the project.Recommendations:1. Increasing the fish agriculture to decrease the gap of animal protein. 2.Increasing the number of mechanism fishing boats, and the provision of transport equipped to maintain the quality of fish production. 3.Encourage and attract the local and foreign investments, providing advice to the investor on the aquaculture field. 4. Action newsletters awareness of the importance of these projects where these projects resulted in a net profit after recovery in less than five years, IRR amounted to about 23%, which is much more than the opportunity cost of a bank interest rate is about 7%, helping to create work and graduates opportunities, and contribute to the reduction of imports of the fish, and improve the performance of the food trade balance.

Keywords: equation model, individual share, red meat, consumption, production, endogenous variable, exogenous variable, financial performance evaluates fish culture, feasibility study, fish production, aquaculture

Procedia PDF Downloads 359

Authors: Abdullah Karaman, Kursad Sayin

Abstract:

In this research, which information technologies are used in small hotel businesses, and the information technologies-performance perception of the managers are pointed out. During the research, the questionnaire was prepared and the small scale hotel managers were interviewed face to face and they filled out the questionnaire and the answers acquired were evaluated. As the result of the research, it was obtained that the managers do not care much about the information technologies usage in practice even though they accepted that the information technologies are important in terms of performance.

Keywords: information technologies, managers, performance, small hotels

Procedia PDF Downloads 483

Authors: Michael Ayodeji Boyede

Abstract:

Studies have shown that workers’ job performance is very low in Nigeria, especially in the food and beverage industry. This trend had been partially attributed to low workers’ self-efficacy, poor self-knowledge, lack of empathy and poor psychological well-being. The descriptive survey design was adopted. Four factories were purposively selected from three states in Southwestern, Nigeria (Lagos, Ogun and Oyo States). Proportionate random sampling techniques were used in selecting 1,820 junior and supervisory cadre workers in Nestle Plc (369), Coca-Cola Plc (392), Cadbury Plc (443) and Nigeria Breweries (616). The five research instruments used were: Workers’ self-efficacy (r=0.81), Workers’ self-knowledge (r=0.78), Workers’ empathy (r=0.74), Workers’ psychological well-being (r=0.70) and Workers’ performance rating (r=0.72) scales. Quantitative data were analysed using Pearson product moment correlation, Multiple regression at 0.05 level of significance. Findings show that there were significant relationships between Workers’ job performance and self-efficacy (r=.56), self-knowledge (r=.54), Empathy (r=.55) and Psychological Well-being (r=.69) respectively. Self-efficacy, self-knowledge, empathy and psychological well-being jointly predict workers’ job performance (F (4,1815) = 491.05) accounting for 52.0% of its variance. Psychological well-being (B=.52). Self-efficacy (B=.10), self-knowledge (B=.11), empathy (B=. 09) had predictive relative weights on workers’ job performance. Inadequate knowledge and training of the supervisors led to a mismatch of workers thereby reducing workers’ job performance. High self-efficacy, empathy, psychological well-being and good self-knowledge influence workers job performance in the food and beverage industry. Based on the finding employers of labour should provide work environment that would enhance and promote the development of these factors among the workers.

Keywords: self-efficacy, self-knowledge, empathy, psychological well-being, job performance

Procedia PDF Downloads 254