Search results for: marketing theory and applications

Authors: Boce Zhang, Yaguang Luo

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Ripening of climacteric fruits, such as bananas and avocados, are usually initiated days prior to the retail marketing. However, upon the onset of irreversible ripening, they undergo rapid spoilage if not consumed within a narrow climacteric time window. Controlled ripening of climacteric fruits is a critical step to provide consumers with high-quality products while reducing postharvest losses and food waste. There is a high demand for technologies that can retard the ripening process or enable accelerated ripening immediately before consumption. In this work, metal−organic framework (MOF) was developed as a solid porous matrix to encapsulate gaseous hormone, including ethylene, for subsequent application. The feasibility of the on-demand stimulated ripening of bananas and avocados is also evaluated. MOF was synthesized and loaded with ethylene gas. The MOF−ethylene was placed inside sealed containers with preclimacteric bananas and avocados and stored at 16 °C. The fruits were treated for 24-48 hours, and evaluated for ripening progress. Results indicate that MOF−ethylene treatment significantly accelerated the ripening-related changes of color and textural properties in treated bananas and avocados. The average ripening period for both avocados and bananas were reduced in half by using this method. No significant differences of quality characteristics at respective ripening stages were observed between produce ripened via MOF-ethylene versus exogenously supplied ethylene gas or endogenously produced ethylene. Solid MOF matrices could have multiple advantages compared to existing systems, including easy to transport and safe to use by minimally trained produce handlers and consumers. We envision that this technology can help tackle food waste challenges at the critical retail and consumer stages in the food supply chain.

Keywords: climacteric produce, controllable ripening, food waste challenge, metal organic framework

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Authors: Juan Manuel Real-Espinosa

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This paper addresses the first step to evaluate language learning apps: what theoretical framework to adopt when designing the app evaluation framework. The answer is not just one since there are several options that could be proposed. However, the question to be clarified is to what extent the learning design of apps is based on a specific learning approach, or on the contrary, on a fusion of elements from several theoretical proposals and paradigms, such as m-learning, mobile assisted language learning, and a number of theories about language acquisition. The present study suggests that the reality is closer to the second assumption. This implies that the theoretical framework against which the learning design of the apps should be evaluated must also be a hybrid theoretical framework, which integrates evaluation criteria from the different theories involved in language learning through mobile applications.

Keywords: mobile-assisted language learning, action-oriented approach, apps evaluation, post-method pedagogy, second language acquisition

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Authors: G. S. Sudha, Smita Mohanty, S. K. Nayak

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Epoxidized oils can replace petroleum derived materials in numerous industrial applications, because of their respectable oxirane oxygen content and high reactivity of oxirane ring. Epoxidized castor oil (ECO) has synthesized in the presence of a sulphonated polystyrene type cation exchange resin. The formation of the oxirane ring was confirmed by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis. The epoxidation reaction was evaluated by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) studies. ECO is used as a toughening phase to increase the toughness of petroleum-based epoxy resin.

Keywords: epoxy resin, epoxidized castor oil, sulphonated polystyrene type cation exchange resin, petroleum derived materials

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Authors: Zahara Abdulhussan Al-Awadai

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In recent years, serious games have started to gain an increasing interest as a tool to support learning across different educational and training fields. It began to serve as a powerful educational tool for improving learning outcomes. In this research, we discuss the potential of virtual experiences and games research outside of the games industry and explore the multifaceted impact of serious games and related technologies on various aspects of our lives. We highlight the usage of serious games as a tool to improve education and other applications with a purpose beyond the entertainment industry. One of the main contributions of this research is proposing a model that facilitates the design and development of serious games in a flexible and easy-to-use way. This is achieved by exploring different requirements to develop a model that describes a serious game structure with a focus on both aspects of serious games (educational and entertainment aspects).

Keywords: game development, requirements, serious games, serious game model

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Authors: N. Khelloul, N. Benhalima, A. Chouaih, F. Hamzaoui

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The monomer and dimer structures of the title molecule have been obtained from density functional theory (DFT) B3LYP method with 6-31G (d,p) as basis set calculations. The optimized geometrical parameters obtained by B3LYP/6-31G (d,p) method shows good agreement with experimental X-ray data. The polarizability and first order hyperpolarizabilty of the title molecule were calculated and interpreted. The intermolecular N–H•••O hydrogen bonds are discussed in dimer structure of the molecule. The vibrational wave numbers and their assignments were examined theoretically using the Gaussian 09 set of quantum chemistry codes. The predicted frontier molecular orbital energies at B3LYP/6-31G(d,p) method set show that charge transfer occurs within the molecule. The frontier molecular orbital calculations clearly show the inverse relationship of HOMO–LUMO gap with the total static hyperpolarizability. The results also show that 2-Chloro-N-(2-methylphenyl) benzamide 2 molecule may have nonlinear optical (NLO) comportment with non-zero values.

Keywords: DFT, HOMO, LUMO, NLO

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Authors: Gabouze Nourredine, Saloua Merazga

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Due to their exceptional durability, low-cost, high-power density, and reliability, cathodes based on titanium dioxide, and more specifically spinel LTO (Li4Ti5O12), present an attractive alternative to conventional lithium cathode materials for multiple applications. The aim of this work is to synthesize and characterize the nanopowders of titanium dioxide (TiO₂) and lithium titanate (Li₄Ti5O₁₂) by the hydrothermal method and to use them as a cathode in a lithium-ion battery. The structural and morphological characterizations of the synthesized powders were performed by XRD, SEM, EDS, and FTIR-ATR. Nevertheless, the study of the electrochemical performances of the elaborated electrode materials was carried out by: cyclic voltametry (CV) and galvanostatic charge/discharge (CDG). The prepared electrode by the powder annealed at 800 °C has a good specific capacity of about 173 mAh/g and a good cyclic stability

Keywords: lithuim-ion, battery, LTO, tio2, capacity

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Authors: Marilyn S. Painagan

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This general objective of the study was to apply the AquaCrop model to the conditions in the municipality of Carmen, North Cotabato in terms of predicting corn yields in this area and determine the influence of rainfall and soil depth on simulated yield. The study revealed wide disparity in monthly yields as a consequence of similarly varying monthly rainfall magnitudes. It also found out that simulated yield varies with the depth of soil, which in this case was clay loam, the predominant soil in the study area. The model was found to be easy to use even with limited data and shows a vast potential for various farming and policy applications, such as formulation of a cropping calendar.

Keywords: aquacrop, evapotranspiration, crop modelling, crop simulation

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Authors: K. Sever, Y. Seki, Z. Yenier, İ. Şen, M. Sarikanat

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It is known that Chitosan, as a natural polymer, has many excellent properties such as bicompotability, biodegradability and nontoxicity. Besides it has some limitations such as poor solubility in water and low conductivity in electrical devices and sensor applications. In order to improve electrical conductivity properties grapheme loading was conducted into chitosan. For this aim, chitosan solution was prepared in acidic condition and Graphene at different ratios was mixed with chitosan solution by the help of homogenizator. After film formation electrical conductivity values of chitosan and graphene loaded chitosan were determined. After grapheme loading into chitosan,solution significant increases in surface resistivity value of chitosan were observed. Besides variations on viscoeleastic properties with graphene loading was determined by dynamic mechanical analysis. Storage and Loss moduli were obtained for chitosan and grapheme loaded chitosan samples.

Keywords: chitosan, graphene, viscoelastic properties, electrical conductivity

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Authors: Feng-jie Xie, Jian-hong Yan

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Based on the complex network theory, we construct the air cargo network of the Belt and Road area, analyze its regional distribution and structural characteristics, measure the robustness of the network. The regional distribution results show that Southeast Asia and China have the most prominent development in the air cargo network of the Belt and Road area, Central Asia is the least developed. The structure characteristics found that the air cargo network has obvious small-world characteristics; the degree distribution has single-scale property; it shows a significant rich-club phenomenon simultaneously. The network robustness is measured by two attack strategies of degree and betweenness, but the betweenness of network nodes has a greater impact on network connectivity. And identified 24 key cities that have a large impact on the robustness of the network under the two attack strategies. Based on these results, recommendations are given to maintain the air cargo network connectivity in the Belt and Road area.

Keywords: air cargo, complex network, robustness, structure properties, The Belt and Road

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Authors: M. Kowalik, J. Masternak, K. Kazimierczuk, O. V. Khavryuchenko, B. Kupcewicz, B. Barszcz

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Recently, the growing interest of chemists in metal-organic coordination polymers (MOCPs) is primarily derived from their intriguing structures and potential applications in catalysis, gas storage, molecular sensing, ion exchanges, nonlinear optics, luminescence, etc. Currently, we are devoting considerable effort to finding the proper method of synthesizing new coordination polymers containing S- or N-heteroaromatic carboxylates as linkers and characterizing the obtained Pb(II) compounds according to their structural diversity, luminescence, and thermal properties. The choice of Pb(II) as the central ion of MOCPs was motivated by several reasons mentioned in the literature: i) a large ionic radius allowing for a wide range of coordination numbers, ii) the stereoactivity of the 6s2 lone electron pair leading to a hemidirected or holodirected geometry, iii) a flexible coordination environment, and iv) the possibility to form secondary bonds and unusual non-covalent interactions, such as classic hydrogen bonds and π···π stacking interactions, as well as nonconventional hydrogen bonds and rarely reported tetrel bonds, Pb(lone pair)···π interactions, C–H···Pb agostic-type interactions or hydrogen bonds, and chelate ring stacking interactions. Moreover, the construction of coordination polymers requires the selection of proper ligands acting as linkers, because we are looking for materials exhibiting different network topologies and fluorescence properties, which point to potential applications. The reaction of Pb(NO₃)₂ with 1H-pyrrole-2-carboxylic acid (2prCOOH) leads to the formation of a new four-nuclear Pb(II) polymer, [Pb4(2prCOO)₈(H₂O)]ₙ, which has been characterized by CHN, FT-IR, TG, PL and single-crystal X-ray diffraction methods. In view of the primary Pb–O bonds, Pb1 and Pb2 show hemidirected pentagonal pyramidal geometries, while Pb2 and Pb4 display hemidirected octahedral geometries. The topology of the strongest Pb–O bonds was determined as the (4·8²) fes topology. Taking the secondary Pb–O bonds into account, the coordination number of Pb centres increased, Pb1 exhibited a hemidirected monocapped pentagonal pyramidal geometry, Pb2 and Pb4 exhibited a holodirected tricapped trigonal prismatic geometry, and Pb3 exhibited a holodirected bicapped trigonal prismatic geometry. Moreover, the Pb(II) lone pair stereoactivity was confirmed by DFT calculations. The 2D structure was expanded into 3D by the existence of non-covalent O/C–H···π and Pb···π interactions, which was confirmed by the Hirshfeld surface analysis. The above mentioned interactions improve the rigidity of the structure and facilitate the charge and energy transfer between metal centres, making the polymer a promising luminescent compound.

Keywords: coordination polymers, fluorescence properties, lead(II), lone electron pair stereoactivity, non-covalent interactions

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Authors: Iman Dwi Almunandar, Nellawaty A. Tewu, Anshari Al Ghaniyy

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The emergence of academic procrastination behavior among students in Indonesian, especially the students of Faculty of Psychology at YARSI University becomes a habit to be underestimated, so often interfere with the effectiveness of learning process. The lecturers at the Faculty of Psychology YARSI University have very often warned students to be able to do and collect assignments accordance to predetermined deadline. However, they are still violated it. According to researchers, this problem needs to do a proper training for the solution to minimize academic procrastination behavior on students. In this study, researchers conducted analyze needs for deciding whether need the training or not. Number of sample is 30 respondents which being choose with a simple random sampling. Measurement of academic procrastination behavior is using the theory by McCloskey (2011), there are six dimensions: Psychological Belief about Abilities, Distractions, Social Factor of Procrastination, Time Management, Personal Initiative, Laziness. Methods of analyze needs are using Questioner, Interview, Observations, Focus Group Discussion (FGD), Intelligence Tests. The result of analyze needs shows that psychology students generation of 2015 at the Faculty of Psychology YARSI University need for training on Time Management.

Keywords: procrastination, psychology, analyze needs, behavior

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Authors: Huawei Ma, Wencai Du, Shengbin Liang

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Smart Home Healthcare technologies for the elderly represent a transformative paradigm that leverages emerging technologies to provide the elderly’ health indicators and daily life monitoring, emergency calls, environmental monitoring, behavior perception, and other services to ensure the health and safety of the elderly who are aging in their own home. However, the excessive complexity in the main adopted framework has affected the acceptance and adoption of the elderly. Therefore, this paper proposes a lightweight synergy architecture of IoT data and service for elderly home smart health environment. It includes the modeling of IoT applications and their workflows, data interoperability, interaction, and storage paradigms to meet the growing needs of older people so that they can lead an active, fulfilling, and quality life.

Keywords: smart home healthcare, IoT, independent living, lightweight framework

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Authors: Saowanit Sukparungsee

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Generally, the traditional Shewhart p chart has been developed by for charting the binomial data. This chart has been developed using the normal approximation with condition as low defect level and the small to moderate sample size. In real applications, however, are away from these assumptions due to skewness in the exact distribution. In this paper, a modified Exponentially Weighted Moving Average (EWMA) control chat for detecting a change in binomial data by improving square root transformations, namely ISRT p EWMA control chart. The numerical results show that ISRT p EWMA chart is superior to ISRT p chart for small to moderate shifts, otherwise, the latter is better for large shifts.

Keywords: number of defects, exponentially weighted moving average, average run length, square root transformations

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Authors: Kashifa Khalid, Eesham Fatima

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This study aims to analyze the loss of identity and its impact on one’s life in ‘The Last White Man’ by Mohsin Hamid. The theory of Alienation Effect by Bertolt Brecht has been applied to the text as Hamid offers the readers a unique perspective, alluding to significant themes like identity, race, and death. The aspects of defamiliarization align impeccably with the plot, as existence and the corresponding concept of identity seem to have dissolved into utter chaos. This extends from the unexplained transformation to the way the entire world unravels from its general norm into a dystopian mayhem. The characters, starting with the protagonist Anders, have lost their center. One’s own self transforms into the ‘other,’ and the struggle is to get refamiliarized with one’s own self. Alienation and isolation only rise as the construct of race and identity is taken apart brick by brick, ironically at its own pace as many new realities are blown to bits. The inseparable relationship between identity and grief under the ever-looming cloud of ‘death’ is studied in detail. The theoretical framework and thematic aspects harmonize in accordance with the writing style put forth by Hamid, tying all the loose ends together.

Keywords: alienation, chaos, identity, transformation

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Authors: Sonia Alberti

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The Regional Conference to Restructure Psychiatric Care in Latin America, convened by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in 1990, oriented the Brazilian Federal Act in 2001 that stipulated the psychiatric reform which requires deinstitutionalization and community-based treatment. Since then, the 15 years’ experience of different working teams in mental health led an academic working group – supervisors from personal practices, professors and researchers – to discuss certain clinical issues, as well as supervisions, and to organize colloquia in different cities as a methodology. These colloquia count on the participation of different working teams from the cities in which they are held, with team members with different levels of educational degrees and prior experiences, in order to increase dialogue right where it does not always appear to be possible. The principal aim of these colloquia is to gain interlocution between practitioners and academics. Working with the theory of case constructions, this methodology revealed itself helpful in unfolding new solutions. The paper also observes that there is not always harmony between what the psychiatric reform demands and clinical ethics.

Keywords: mental health, supervision, clinical cases, Brazilian experience

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Authors: Djehich Mohamed Yousri

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This research deals with an important issue in Islamic political thought, which is the relationship of ethics to the Islamic political system. This is done by following the legal politics books and analyzing their texts in order to reach the moral values on which the political system in Islam is based, starting from the concept of politics to the political principles and conditions of the ruler and the reasons for his removal and the conditions of those authorized to choose him, and ending with the ruler’s relationship with his people, and the relationship of the Islamic state with other countries. The research concluded that moral values are the basis of the political system in Islam, and the reason for this is due to the fact that Islam is a religion and a global and realistic human system that embraces morals and higher values in order to preserve its lofty message and calls for brotherhood, love, and justice and does not harm human morals. And if the reality of politics in the Islamic world today is not related to the moral values and the lofty message of Islam, this research tries to show the origins of political theory in Islam, and the purpose of the Islamic political system, towards the morality of politics.

Keywords: moral, politics, islam, political system, islamic political system

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Authors: Jan Busch, Peter Nyhuis

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Considering the challenges of short product life cycles and growing variant diversity, cost minimization and manufacturing flexibility increasingly gain importance to maintain a competitive edge in today’s global and dynamic markets. In this context, an aerodynamic part feeding system for high-speed industrial assembly applications has been developed at the Institute of Production Systems and Logistics (IFA), Leibniz Universitaet Hannover. The aerodynamic part feeding system outperforms conventional systems with respect to its process safety, reliability, and operating speed. In this paper, a multi-objective optimisation of the aerodynamic feeding system regarding the orientation rate, the feeding velocity and the required nozzle pressure is presented.

Keywords: aerodynamic feeding system, genetic algorithm, multi-objective optimization, workpiece orientation

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Authors: Aynura Valiyeva, Basil John Thomas

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Intra-firm communication is critical for building synergy amongst internal business units of a firm, where employees from various functional departments and ranks incorporate their decision-making, understanding of organizational objectives, as well as common norms and culture for better organizational effectiveness. This study builds on and assesses a framework of the causes and consequences of effective communication in business interactions between customer and supplier firms, and the path for efficient communication within a firm. The proposed study’s structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis based on 352 sample responses collected from firm representatives at different job positions ranging from marketing to logistics operations, reveals that, in the frame of reference of intra-organizational communication, organization characteristics and shared values, top management support and style of leadership, as well as information technology, are all significantly related to communication effectiveness. Furthermore, the frequency and variety of interactions enhance the outcome of communication, that improves a company’s performance. The results reveal that cultural factors are significantly related to communication effectiveness, as well as the shared beliefs and goals. In terms of organizational factors, leadership style, top management support and information technology are significant determinants of effective communication. Among the contextual factors, interaction frequency and diversity are found to be priority factors. This study also tests the relationship between supplier and supplier firm performance in the context of communication effectiveness, and finds that they are closely related, when trust and commitment is built between business partners. When firms do business in other multicultural contexts, language and shared values with destination country must be considered significant elements of communication process.

Keywords: business performance, intra-firm communication, inter-firm communication, structural equation modeling

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Authors: Shyh-Ming Chern, Kai-Ting Hsieh

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Organic solvents find various applications in many industrial sectors and laboratories as dilution solvents, dispersion solvents, cleaners and even lubricants. Millions of tons of Spent Organic Solvents (SOS) are generated each year worldwide, prompting the need for more efficient, cleaner and safer methods for the treatment and resource recovery of SOS. As a result, acetone, selected as a model compound for SOS, was gasified in supercritical water to assess the feasibility of resource recovery of SOS by means of supercritical water processes. Experiments were conducted with an autoclave reactor. Gaseous product is mainly consists of H2, CO, CO2 and CH4. The effects of three major operating parameters, the reaction temperature, from 673 to 773K, the dosage of oxidizing agent, from 0.3 to 0.5 stoichiometric oxygen, and the concentration of acetone in the feed, 0.1 and 0.2M, on the product gas composition, yield and heating value were evaluated with the water density fixed at about 0.188g/ml.

Keywords: acetone, gasification, SCW, supercritical water

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Authors: Hatam H. Ali, Mohd Shahrizal Sunar, Hoshang Kolivand, Mohd Azhar Bin M. Arsad

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Rendering light shafts is one of the important topics in computer gaming and interactive applications. The methods and models that are used to generate light shafts play crucial role to make a scene more realistic in computer graphics. This article discusses the image-based shadows and geometric-based shadows that contribute in generating volumetric shadows and light shafts, depending on ray tracing, radiosity, and ray marching technique. The main aim of this study is to provide researchers with background on a progress of light scattering methods so as to make it available for them to determine the technique best suited to their goals. It is also hoped that our classification helps researchers find solutions to the shortcomings of each method.

Keywords: shaft of lights, realistic images, image-based, and geometric-based

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Authors: Ju-Hong Lee, Ding-Chen Chung

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The paper deals with the optimal design of two-channel linear-phase (LP) quadrature mirror filter (QMF) banks using a metaheuristic based optimization technique. Based on the theory of two-channel QMF banks using two recursive digital all-pass filters (DAFs), the design problem is appropriately formulated to result in an objective function which is a weighted sum of the group delay error of the designed QMF bank and the magnitude response error of the designed low-pass analysis filter. Through a frequency sampling and a weighted least squares approach, the optimization problem of the objective function can be solved by utilizing a particle swarm optimization algorithm. The resulting two-channel QMF banks can possess approximately LP response without magnitude distortion. Simulation results are presented for illustration and comparison.

Keywords: quadrature mirror filter bank, digital all-pass filter, weighted least squares algorithm, particle swarm optimization

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Authors: Mariana P. Medeiros, Amanda P. Carvallo, Augusta Isaac, Milos Janecek, Peter Minarik, Mayerling Martinez Celis, Roberto. R. Figueiredo

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The effect of high pressure torsion processing on mechanical properties and corrosion behavior of pure magnesium and Mg-Zn, Mg-Zn-Ca, Mg-Li-Y, and Mg-Y-RE alloys is investigated. Micro-tomography and SEM characterization are used to estimate corrosion rate and evaluate non-uniform corrosion features. The results show the severe plastic deformation processing improves the strength of all magnesium alloys, but deformation localization can take place in the Mg-Zn-Ca and Mg-Y-RE alloys. The occurrence of deformation localization is associated with low strain rate sensitivity in these alloys and with severe corrosion localization. Pure magnesium and Mg-Zn and Mg-Li-Y alloys display good corrosion resistance with low corrosion rate and maintained integrity after 28 days of immersion in Hank`s solution.

Keywords: magnesium alloys, severe plastic deformation, corrosion, biodegradable alloys

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Authors: Jarrod Haar, David Brougham

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The present study explores the links between supporting employee well-being and the potential benefits to employee performance. We focus on employee innovative work behaviors (IWBs), which have three stages: (1) development, (2) adoption, and (3) implementation of new ideas and work methods. We explore the role of organizational support focusing on employee well-being via High-Performance Work Systems (HPWS). HPWS are HR practices that are designed to enhance employees’ skills, commitment, and ultimately, productivity. HPWS influence employee performance through building their skills, knowledge, and abilities and there is meta-analytic support for firm-level HPWS influencing firm performance, but less attention towards employee outcomes, especially innovation. We explore HPWS-wellbeing being offered (e.g., EAPs, well-being App, etc.) to capture organizational commitment to employee well-being. Under social exchange theory, workers should reciprocate their firm's offering of HPWS-wellbeing with greater efforts towards IWBs. Further, we explore playful work design as a mediator, which represents employees proactively creating work conditions that foster enjoyment/challenge but don’t require any design change to the job itself. We suggest HPWS-wellbeing can encourage employees to become more playful, and ultimately more innovative. Finally, beyond direct effects, we examine whether these relations are similar by gender and ultimately test a moderated mediation model. Using N=1135 New Zealand employees, we established measures with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and all measures had good psychometric properties (α>.80). We controlled for age, tenure, education, and hours worked and analyzed data using the PROCESS macro (version 4.2) specifically model 8 (moderated mediation). We analyzed overall IWB, and then again across the three stages. Overall, we find HPWS-wellbeing is significantly related to overall IWBs and the three stages (development, adoption, and implementation) individually. Similarly, HPWS-wellbeing shapes playful work design and playful work design predicts overall IWBs and the three stages individually. It only partially mediates the effects of HPWS-wellbeing, which retains a significant indirect effect. Moderation effects are supported, with males reporting a more significant effect from HPWS-wellbeing on playful work design but not IWB (or any of the three stages) than females. Females report higher playful work design when HPWS-wellbeing is low, but the effects are reversed when HPWS-wellbeing is high (males higher). Thus, males respond stronger under social exchange theory from HPWS-wellbeing, at least towards expressing playful work design. Finally, evidence of moderated mediation effects is found on overall IWBs and the three stages. Males report a significant indirect effect from HPWS-wellbeing on IWB (through playful work design), while female employees report no significant indirect effect. The benefits of playful work design fully account for their IWBs. The models account for small amounts of variance towards playful work design (12%) but larger for IWBs (26%). The study highlights a gap in the literature on HPWS-wellbeing and provides empirical evidence of their importance towards worker innovation. Further, gendered effects suggest these benefits might not be equal. The findings provide useful insights for organizations around how providing HR practices that support employee well-being are important, although how they work for different genders needs further exploration.

Keywords: human resource practices, wellbeing, innovation, playful work design

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Authors: Ilya Kavalchuk, Mehdi Seyedmahmoudian, Ben Horan, Aman Than Oo, Alex Stojcevski

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The power electronic components within Electric Vehicles (EV) need to operate in several important modes. Some modes directly influence safety, while others influence vehicle performance. Given the variety of functions and operational modes required of the power electronics, it needs to meet efficiency requirements to minimize power losses. Another challenge in the control and construction of such systems is the ability to support bidirectional power flow. This paper considers the construction, operation, and feasibility of available converters for electric vehicles with feasible configurations of electrical buses and loads. This paper describes logic and control signals for the converters for different operations conditions based on the efficiency and energy usage bases.

Keywords: electric vehicles, electrical machines control, power electronics, powerflow regulations

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Authors: Moreblessings Shoko

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Polymersomes are materials which are considered as artificial counterparts of natural vesicles. The nanotechnology of such smart nanovesicles is very useful to enhance the efficiency of many therapeutic and diagnostic drugs. Those compounds show a higher stability, flexibility, and mechanical strength to the membrane compared to natural liposomes. Also, they can be designed in detail, the permeability of the membrane can be controlled by different stimuli, and the surface can be functionalized with different biological molecules to facilitate monitoring and target. For this purpose, this study demonstrates the formation of multifunctional and pH sensitive polymersomes and their functionalization with different reactive groups or biomolecules inside and outside of polymersomes´ membrane providing by crossing the membrane and docking/undocking processes for biomedical applications. Overall, they are highly versatile and thus present new opportunities for the design of targeted and selective recognition systems, for example, in mimicking cell functions and in synthetic biology.

Keywords: women, geomatics, challenges, capacity building

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Authors: Arthur Thirion

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Auxetic geometries allow the generation of a negative Poisson ratio (NPR) in conventional materials. This behaviour allows materials to have certain improved mechanical properties, including impact resistance and altered synclastic behaviour. This means these structures have significant potential when it comes to applications as chronic wound dressings. To this end, 6 different "perforated sheet" structure types were 3D printed. These structures all had variations of key geometrical features included cell length and angle. These were tested in compression and tension to assess their Poisson ratio. Both a positive and negative Poisson ratio was generated by the structures depending on the loading. The a/b ratio followed by θ has been shown to impact the Poisson ratio significantly. There is still a significant discrepancy between modelled and observed behaviour.

Keywords: auxetic materials, 3D printing, negative Poisson's ratio, tunable Poisson's ratio

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Authors: Niyi Adegoke, Saanumi Jimmy Omolou

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The prevalence rate of youth involving in cybercrime is alarming, which calls for concern among the government, parents, NGO and religious bodies, hence this paper aims at examining youth involvement in cybercrime in Nigeria. Achievement motivation theory was used to explain the activities of cyber-criminals in Nigerian society. A descriptive survey method was adopted for the study. The sample for the study was one hundred and fifty (150) respondents randomly selected from the population of the study. A questionnaire was used to gather information and data from the respondents. Data collected through the questionnaire were analyzed using percentage tool for the respondents’ bio-data while chi-square was employed to test the hypotheses. Findings from the study have revealed that parental negligence, unemployment, peer influence, and quest for materialism were responsible for cyber-crimes in Nigeria. The study concludes with the following recommendations among which are: creating employment opportunities for the youths and ensure good governance and accountability among other things will go a long way to solve the problem of cybercrime in our society.

Keywords: cybercrime, youth, Nigeria, unemployment, information communication technology

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Authors: Radegunda Kessy, Justus Ochieng, Victor Afari-Sefa, Takemore Chagomoka, Ngoni Nenguwo

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Vegetables are excellent sources of dietary fiber, vitamins, and minerals which constitute an indispensable constituent of diets, but in Tanzania and other Sub-Saharan African countries, they are not readily available all year round due to seasonal variations in the production cycle. Drying of vegetables is one of the traditional methods for food preservation known to man. The Dodoma and Singida regions of Tanzania are characterized by semi-arid agro-climate, thereby experiencing short seasonal supply of fresh vegetables followed by long drought in which dried vegetables become an alternative to meet high household demands. A primary survey of 244 of rural consumers was carried out to understand how knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of rural consumers affect consumption of dried vegetables. The sample respondents were all found to be aware of open sun drying of vegetables while less than 50% of them were aware of solar-dried vegetables. Consumers were highly concerned with the hygiene, nutritional values, taste, drying method, freshness, color of dried vegetables, timely availability and easiness of cooking as important factors they consider before they purchase dried vegetables. Logit model results show that gender, income, years of consuming dried vegetables, awareness of the importance of solar dried vegetables vis-à-vis sun-dried alternatives and employment status influenced rural consumer’s decision to purchase dried vegetables. Preference on dried vegetables differs across the regions which are also important considerations for any future planned interventions. The findings imply that development partners and policymakers need to design better social marketing and promotion techniques for the enhanced adoption of solar drying technology, which will greatly improve the quality and utilization of dried vegetables by target households.

Keywords: dried vegetables, postharvest management, sun drying, solar drying

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Authors: Francesco Nespoli

Abstract:

After having posed a theoretical framework combining framing theory and new rhetoric, the paper analyze the shift in communication both adopted by UAW and FCA during the negotiations in fall 2015. The paper argues that mistakes and adjustments played a determinant role respectively in the rejection of the first tentative agreement and in the ratification of the contract. The purpose of the paper is to set a new theoretical framework for the analysis of communication in industrial relations, by describing a narrative construction of reality from the perspective of the new rhetoric. The paper thus analyze all public text, speeches, tweets and Facebook posts by the union reading them as part of the narrative set by the organization condensed by the slogan 'it’s our time'. That narrative tried to gain consensus from the members matching the expectations due to the industry recovery after more than five years of workers' sacrifices. In doing so, the analysis points out a shift in the communication strategy of the union after the first rejection of a tentative agreement in 15 years. The findings suggest that, from the communication point of view, consultation in industrial relations can be conceived as a particular kind of political communication where identification with the audience through deliberate narrative may not be effective if it is not preceded by a listening campaign.

Keywords: communication, consultation, automotive, FCA

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Authors: Peter Ugbedeojo Nelson

Abstract:

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

Procedia PDF Downloads 35