Search results for: policy objective

Authors: Farhad Shafiepour Motlagh, Narges Salehi

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Purpose: The aim of the present study was a paradigm model of educational policy review strategies for the development of Professional schools in Iran. Research Methodology: The research method was based on Grounded theory. The statistical population included all articles of the ten years 2022-2010 and the method of sampling in a purposeful manner to the extent of theoretical saturation to 31 articles. For data analysis, open coding, axial coding and selective coding were used. Results: The results showed that causal conditions include social requirements (social expectations, educational justice, social justice); technology requirements (use of information and communication technology, use of new learning methods), educational requirements (development of educational territory, Development of educational tools and development of learning methods), contextual conditions including dual dimensions (motivational-psychological context, context of participation and cooperation), strategic conditions including (decentralization, delegation, organizational restructuring), intervention conditions (poor knowledge) Human resources, centralized system governance) and outcomes (school productivity, school professionalism, graduate entry into the labor market) were obtained. Conclusion: A review of educational policy is necessary to develop Iran's Professional schools, and this depends on decentralization, delegation, and, of course, empowerment of school principals.

Keywords: school productivity, professional schools, educational policy, paradigm

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Authors: Charles Simplice Mbatsogo Mebo

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With growth picking up again, Africa seems increasingly attractive for its own nationals who return home through new opportunities available for them. The purpose of our research paper is to understand the role of the international partners in Cameroon, with regards to their support for the return and reintegration of migrants. We, therefore, questioned the relevance and effectiveness and efficacy of international instruments in reintegrating returnees to Cameroon. After our analysis that was conducted on the basis of a documentary exploration, interviews, and field surveys, it appears that the contribution of the international partners in Cameroon is proven in relation to their participation in the financing and placement of returned experts. However, their contribution remains insufficient due to their low level of deployment and the insignificant impact of their investments on the reintegration of Cameroonian Diasporas. The research also reveals some exogenous and endogenous constraints that hinder international institutions' actions in terms of accompanying migrants returning to Cameroon. Finally, for a better management of the returnees' issue, it is necessary to set up a mechanism to raise awareness and a coordination system of all international actors involved. It is also relevant to reform the migration policy, build institutional capacities, and improve the juridical-administrative and economic environment so as to favor co-development in Cameroon.

Keywords: international partners, returnees, diaspora, migration policy, co-development

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Authors: Sima Saadi, Carolyn Johns

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The concept of a "Smart Water City" is emerging as a framework to address critical urban water challenges, integrating technology, data, and sustainable management practices to enhance water quality, conservation, and accessibility. This paper explores the definition of a Smart Water City, examines the pressing need for such cities in Canada, and proposes policy pathways for their development. Smart Water Cities utilize advanced monitoring systems, data analytics, and integrated water resources management to optimize water usage, anticipate and mitigate environmental impacts, and engage citizens in sustainable practices. Global examples from regions such as Europe, Asia, and Australia illustrate how Smart Water City models can transform urban water systems by enhancing resilience, improving resource efficiency, and driving economic development through job creation in environmental technology sectors. For Canada, adopting Smart Water City principles could address pressing challenges, including climate-induced water stress, aging infrastructure, and the need for equitable water access across diverse urban and rural communities. Building on Canada's existing water policies and technological expertise, it propose strategic investments in digital water infrastructure, data-driven governance, and community partnerships. Through case studies, this paper offers insights into how Canadian cities could benefit from cross-sector collaboration, policy development, and funding for smart water technology. By aligning national policy with smart urban water solutions, Canada has the potential to lead globally in sustainable water management, ensuring long-term water security and environmental stewardship for its cities and communities.

Keywords: smart water city, urban water resilience, water management technology, sustainable water infrastructure, canada water policy, smart city initiatives

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Authors: Xinhuang Wu, Yousef Sardahi

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A hybrid and optimal multi-loop control structure combining linear and nonlinear control algorithms are introduced in this paper to regulate the position of a quadcopter unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) driven by four brushless DC motors. To this end, a nonlinear mathematical model of the UAV is derived and then linearized around one of its operating points. Using the nonlinear version of the model, a sliding mode control is used to derive the control laws of the motor thrust forces required to drive the UAV to a certain position. The linear model is used to design two controllers, XG-controller and YG-controller, responsible for calculating the required roll and pitch to maneuver the vehicle to the desired X and Y position. Three attitude controllers are designed to calculate the desired angular rates of rotors, assuming that the Euler angles are minimal. After that, a many-objective optimization problem involving 20 design parameters and ten objective functions is formulated and solved by HypE (Hypervolume estimation algorithm), one of the widely used many-objective optimization algorithms approaches. Both stability and performance constraints are imposed on the optimization problem. The optimization results in terms of Pareto sets and fronts are obtained and show that some of the design objectives are competing. That is, when one objective goes down, the other goes up. Also, Numerical simulations conducted on the nonlinear UAV model show that the proposed optimization method is quite effective.

Keywords: optimal control, many-objective optimization, sliding mode control, linear control, cascade controllers, UAV, drones

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Authors: Zohreh Khojasteh-Ghamari, Takashi Irohara

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One of the efficient ways in supply chain risk management is avoiding the interruption in Supply Chain (SC) before it occurs. Although the majority of the organizations focus on their first-tier suppliers to avoid risk in the SC, studies show that in only 60 percent of the disruption cases the reason is first tier suppliers. In the 40 percent of the SC disruptions, the reason is downstream SC, which is the second tier and lower. Due to the increasing complexity and interrelation of modern supply chains, the SC elements have become difficult to trace. Moreover, studies show that there is a vital need to better understand the integration of risk and visibility, especially in the context of multiple objectives. In this study, we propose a multi-objective programming model to avoid disruption in SC. The objective of this study is evaluating the effect of downstream SCV on managing supply chain risk. We propose a multi-objective mathematical programming model with the objective functions of minimizing the total cost and maximizing the downstream supply chain visibility (SCV). The decision variable is supplier selection. We assume there are several manufacturers and several candidate suppliers. For each manufacturer, our model proposes the best suppliers with the lowest cost and maximum visibility in downstream supply chain. We examine the applicability of the model by numerical examples. We also define several scenarios for datasets and observe the tendency. The results show that minimum visibility in downstream SC is needed to have a safe SC network.

Keywords: downstream supply chain, optimization, supply chain risk, supply chain visibility

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Authors: Yen-Luan Chen

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Maintenance has a great impact on the capacity of production and on the quality of the products, and therefore, it deserves continuous improvement. Maintenance procedure done before a failure is called preventive maintenance (PM). Sequential PM, which specifies that a system should be maintained at a sequence of intervals with unequal lengths, is one of the commonly used PM policies. This article proposes a generalized sequential PM policy for a system subject to shocks with imperfect maintenance and random working time. The shocks arrive according to a non-homogeneous Poisson process (NHPP) with varied intensity function in each maintenance interval. As a shock occurs, the system suffers two types of failures with number-dependent probabilities: type-I (minor) failure, which is rectified by a minimal repair, and type-II (catastrophic) failure, which is removed by a corrective maintenance (CM). The imperfect maintenance is carried out to improve the system failure characteristic due to the altered shock process. The sequential preventive maintenance-last (PML) policy is defined as that the system is maintained before any CM occurs at a planned time Ti or at the completion of a working time in the i-th maintenance interval, whichever occurs last. At the N-th maintenance, the system is replaced rather than maintained. This article first takes up the sequential PML policy with random working time and imperfect maintenance in reliability engineering. The optimal preventive maintenance schedule that minimizes the mean cost rate of a replacement cycle is derived analytically and determined in terms of its existence and uniqueness. The proposed models provide a general framework for analyzing the maintenance policies in reliability theory.

Keywords: optimization, preventive maintenance, random working time, minimal repair, replacement, reliability

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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: Liwiusz Wojciechowski

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Research background: The current knowledge does not give a clear answer to the question of the impact of FDI on productivity. Results of the empirical studies are still inconclusive, no matter how extensive and diverse in terms of research approaches or groups of countries analyzed they are. It should also take into account the possibility that FDI and productivity are linked and that there is a bidirectional relationship between them. This issue is particularly important because on one hand FDI can contribute to changes in productivity in the host country, but on the other hand its level and dynamics may imply that FDI should be undertaken in a given country. As already mentioned, a two-way relationship between the presence of foreign capital and productivity in the host country should be assumed, taking into consideration the endogenous nature of FDI. Purpose of the article: The overall objective of this study is to determine the causality between foreign direct investment and total factor productivity in host county in terms of different relative absorptive capacity across countries. In the classic sense causality among variables is not always obvious and requires for testing, which would facilitate proper specification of FDI models. The aim of this article is to study endogeneity of selected macroeconomic variables commonly being used in FDI models in case of Visegrad countries: main recipients of FDI in CEE. The findings may be helpful in determining the structure of the actual relationship between variables, in appropriate models estimation and in forecasting as well as economic policymaking. Methodology/methods: Panel and time-series data techniques including GMM estimator, VEC models and causality tests were utilized in this study. Findings & Value added: The obtained results allow to confirm the hypothesis states the bi-directional causality between FDI and total factor productivity. Although results differ from among countries and data level of aggregation implications may be useful for policymakers in case of providing foreign capital attracting policy.

Keywords: endogeneity, foreign direct investment, multi-equation models, total factor productivity

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Authors: Iman Shabanzadeh

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Earthquake is known as one of the most frequent natural hazards in Iran. Therefore, policy making to improve the strengthening of structures is one of the requirements of the approach to prevent and reduce the risk of the destructive effects of earthquakes. In order to choose the optimal policy in the face of earthquakes, this article tries to examine the cost of financial damages caused by earthquakes in the building sector and compare it with the costs of retrofitting. In this study, the results of adopting the scenario of "action after the earthquake" and the policy scenario of "strengthening structures before the earthquake" have been collected, calculated and finally analyzed by putting them together. Methodologically, data received from governorates and building retrofitting engineering companies have been used. The scope of the study is earthquakes occurred in the geographical area of Iran, and among them, eight earthquakes have been specifically studied: Miane, Ahar and Haris, Qator, Momor, Khorasan, Damghan and Shahroud, Gohran, Hormozgan and Ezgole. The main basis of the calculations is the data obtained from retrofitting companies regarding the cost per square meter of building retrofitting and the data of the governorate regarding the power of earthquake destruction, the realized costs for the reconstruction and construction of residential units. The estimated costs have been converted to the value of 2021 using the time value of money method to enable comparison and aggregation. The cost-benefit comparison of the two policies of action after the earthquake and retrofitting before the earthquake in the eight earthquakes investigated shows that the country has suffered five thousand billion Tomans of losses due to the lack of retrofitting of buildings against earthquakes. Based on the data of the Budget Law's of Iran, this figure was approximately twice the budget of the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development and five times the budget of the Islamic Revolution Housing Foundation in 2021. The results show that the policy of retrofitting structures before an earthquake is significantly more optimal than the competing scenario. The comparison of the two policy scenarios examined in this study shows that the policy of retrofitting buildings before an earthquake, on the one hand, prevents huge losses, and on the other hand, by increasing the number of earthquake-resistant houses, it reduces the amount of earthquake destruction. In addition to other positive effects of retrofitting, such as the reduction of mortality due to earthquake resistance of buildings and the reduction of other economic and social effects caused by earthquakes. These are things that can prove the cost-effectiveness of the policy scenario of "strengthening structures before earthquakes" in Iran.

Keywords: disaster economy, earthquake economy, cost-benefit analysis, resilience

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Authors: Akintayo Opawole, Godwin O. Jagboro

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Research efforts on infrastructure development in Nigeria had not provided adequate assessment of issues essential for policy response by the government to address infrastructure deficiency. One major gap existing in previous studies is the assessment of challenges facing the budgetary financing model. Based on a case study of Osun State in Southwestern Nigeria, factors affecting budgetary financing of public infrastructure were identified from literature and brainstorming. Respondents were: 6 architects, 4 quantity surveyors, 6 town planners, 5 estate surveyors, 4 builders, 21 engineers and 26 economists/accountants ranging from principal to director who have been involved in policy making process with respect to infrastructure development in the public service of Osun state. The identified variables were subjected to factor analysis. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy tests carried out (KMO, 0.785) showed that the data collected were adequate for the analysis and the Bartlett’s test of sphericity (0.000) showed the data upon which the analysis was carried out was reliable. Results showed that factors such as poor collaboration between the state and local government establishments, absence of credible database system and inadequate funding of maintenance were the most significant to infrastructure development in the State. Policy responses to address challenges of infrastructure development in the state were identified to focus on creation of legal framework for liberation policy, enforcement of ‘due process’ in the procurement and establishment of monitoring system for project delivery.

Keywords: development, infrastructure, financing, procurement

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Authors: Samanwita Paul

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Borrowing from Kabeer’s framework of empowerment, participation of women at Panchayat level politics (grassroots level of politics in India) has been conceptualized as a resource in the study and the impact of the same in influencing the policies at the grassroots as an agency. The study attempts to examine such intricacies in the dynamics of participation and policy formulation at the Panchayat level and to assess its overall impact in altering the recognition and redistribution of women. A conscious attempt has been made to go beyond formal politics and consider participants of the informal political processes as subjects of the study. Primary surveys were conducted for data collection in 4 Panchayat villages (from Jalpaiguri district in West Bengal) of which 2 wards from each were selected based on the nature of reservation of the panchayat seats. In-depth interviews with the Panchayat members and an approximate of 80 voters from each of the villages were conducted. This has been further analyzed with the aid of appropriate statistical tools and narratives. Preliminary findings show that women from vulnerable sections tend to participate more in the political process since it offers them a means of negotiating with their vulnerabilities however in case of its impact on policy formulation, the effect of women’s participation does to appear to be as profound.

Keywords: recognition, redistribution, political participation, women

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Authors: Stefano Fantin

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The present analysis outcomes from the research undertaken in the course of the European-funded project EUNITY, which targets the gaps in research and development on cybersecurity and privacy between Europe and Japan. Under these auspices, the research presents a study on the policy approach of Japan, the EU and a number of Member States of the Union with regard to the handling and discovery of software vulnerabilities, with the aim of identifying methodological differences and similarities. This research builds upon a functional comparative analysis of both public policies and legal instruments from the identified jurisdictions. The result of this analysis is based on semi-structured interviews with EUNITY partners, as well as by the participation of the researcher to a recent report from the Center for EU Policy Study on software vulnerability. The European Union presents a rather fragmented legal framework on software vulnerabilities. The presence of a number of different legislations at the EU level (including Network and Information Security Directive, Critical Infrastructure Directive, Directive on the Attacks at Information Systems and the Proposal for a Cybersecurity Act) with no clear focus on such a subject makes it difficult for both national governments and end-users (software owners, researchers and private citizens) to gain a clear understanding of the Union’s approach. Additionally, the current data protection reform package (general data protection regulation), seems to create legal uncertainty around security research. To date, at the member states level, a few efforts towards transparent practices have been made, namely by the Netherlands, France, and Latvia. This research will explain what policy approach such countries have taken. Japan has started implementing a coordinated vulnerability disclosure policy in 2004. To date, two amendments can be registered on the framework (2014 and 2017). The framework is furthermore complemented by a series of instruments allowing researchers to disclose responsibly any new discovery. However, the policy has started to lose its efficiency due to a significant increase in reports made to the authority in charge. To conclude, the research conducted reveals two asymmetric policy approaches, time-wise and content-wise. The analysis therein will, therefore, conclude with a series of policy recommendations based on the lessons learned from both regions, towards a common approach to the security of European and Japanese markets, industries and citizens.

Keywords: cybersecurity, vulnerability, European Union, Japan

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Authors: Sonveer Singh, Sanjay Agrawal, D. V. Avasthi, Jayant Shekhar

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The aim of this paper is to improve the efficiency of photovoltaic thermal (PVT) system with the help of Genetic Algorithms with multi-objective function. There are some parameters that affect the efficiency of PVT system like depth and length of the channel, velocity of flowing fluid through the channel, thickness of the tedlar and glass, temperature of inlet fluid i.e. all above parameters are considered for optimization. An attempt has been made to the model and optimizes the parameters of glazed hybrid single channel PVT module when two objective functions have been considered separately. The two objective function for optimization of PVT module is overall electrical and thermal efficiency. All equations for PVT module have been derived. Using genetic algorithms (GAs), above two objective functions of the system has been optimized separately and analysis has been carried out for two cases. Two cases are: Case-I; Improvement in electrical and thermal efficiency when overall electrical efficiency is optimized, Case-II; Improvement in electrical and thermal efficiency when overall thermal efficiency is optimized. All the parameters that are used in genetic algorithms are the parameters that could be changed, and the non-changeable parameters, like solar radiation, ambient temperature cannot be used in the algorithm. It has been observed that electrical efficiency (14.08%) and thermal efficiency (19.48%) are obtained when overall thermal efficiency was an objective function for optimization. It is observed that GA is a very efficient technique to estimate the design parameters of hybrid single channel PVT module.

Keywords: genetic algorithm, energy, exergy, PVT module, optimization

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Authors: Do-Jin Jang, Sung-Ah Kim

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A kinetic façade responds to user requirements and environmental conditions.  In designing a kinetic façade, kinetic patterns play a key role in determining its performance. This paper proposes a biomimetic method for the multi-objective optimization for kinetic façade design. The autonomous decentralized control system is combined with flocking algorithm. The flocking agents are autonomously reacting to sensor values and bring about kinetic patterns changing over time. A series of experiments were conducted to verify the potential and limitations of the flocking based decentralized control. As a result, it could show the highest performance balancing multiple objectives such as solar radiation and openness among the comparison group.

Keywords: biomimicry, flocking algorithm, autonomous decentralized control, multi-objective optimization

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Authors: Thomas Suarez, Anne-Sophie Grenouilleau, Erwan Autin, Alexandre Biosse-Duplan, Emmanuelle Blondet, Laurence Chazalette, Marie Coniel, Agnes Dessaigne, Sylvie Lascols, Andrea Lasserre, Candice Legris, Pierre Liot, Aline Metais, Karine Petitprez, Christophe Varlet, Christian Saout

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Background: The role of biological sex and gender identity -whether assigned or chosen- as health determinants are far from a recent discovery: several reports have stressed out how being a woman or a man could affect health on various scales. However, taking it into consideration beyond stereotypes and rigid binary assumptions still seems to be a work in progress. Method: The report is a synthesis on a variety of specific topics, each of which was studied by a specialist from the French National Authority for Health (HAS), through an analysis of existing literature on both healthcare policy construction process and instruments (norms, data analysis, clinical trials, guidelines, and professional practices). This work also implied a policy analysis of French recent public health laws and a retrospective study of guidelines with a gender mainstreaming approach. Results: The analysis showed that though sex and gender were well-known determinants of health, their consideration by both public policy and health operators was often incomplete, as it does not incorporate how sex and gender interact, as well as how they interact with other factors. As a result, the health and social care systems and their professionals tend to reproduce some stereotypical and inadequate habits. Though the data available often allows to take sex and gender into consideration, such data is often underused in practice guidelines and policy formulation. Another consequence is a lack of inclusiveness towards transgender or intersex persons. Conclusions: This report first urges for raising awareness of all the actors of health, in its broadest definition, that sex and gender matter beyond first-look conclusions. It makes a series of recommendations in order to reshape policy construction in the health sector on the one hand and to design public health instruments to make them more inclusive regarding sex and gender on the other hand. The HAS finally committed to integrate sex and gender preoccupations in its workings methods, to be a driving force in the spread of these concerns.

Keywords: biological sex, determinants of health, gender, healthcare policy instruments, social accompaniment

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Authors: Abimbola A. Adebayo, Kikelomo I. Adebayo

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Green buildings provide serious challenges for governments all over the world with regard to achieving energy efficiency in buildings. Energy efficient buildings are needed to keep up with minimal impacts on the environment throughout their cycle and to enhance sustainable development. The lack of awareness and benefits of energy efficient buildings have given rise to NGO’s playing important role in filling data gaps, publicizing information, and undertaking awareness raising and policy engagement activities. However, these roles are countered by concerns about subsidies for evaluations, incentives to facilitate data-sharing, and incentives to finance independent research. On the basis of literature review on experiences with NGO’s involvement in energy efficient buildings, this article identifies governance strategies that stimulate the harmonization of NGO’s roles in green buildings with the objective to increase energy efficiency in buildings.

Keywords: energy efficiency, green buildings, NGOs, sustainable development

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Authors: Risikat Oladoyin S. Dauda, Onyebuchi Iwegbu

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This study investigates the response of human development outcomes to selected macroeconomic indicators in Nigeria. Human development outcomes is measured by human development index while the selected macroeconomic variables are inflation rate, real interest rate, government capital expenditure, real exchange rate, current account balance, and savings. Structural Vector Autoregression (SVAR) technique is employed in examining the response of human development index to the macroeconomic shocks. The result from the forecast error variance decomposition and Impulse-Response analysis reveals that fiscal policy (government capital expenditure) shock is the greatest determinant of human development outcomes. This result reiterates the role which the government plays in improving the welfare of the citizenry. The fiscal policy tool is pivotal in human development which comes in the form of investment in education, health, housing, and infrastructure. Further conclusion drawn from this study is that human development outcome positively and significantly responds to shocks from real interest rate, a monetary policy transmission variable and is felt greatly in the short run period. The policy implication of this study is that if capital budget implementation falls below expectations, human development will be engendered. Hence, efforts should be made to ensure that full implementation and appraisal of government capital expenditure is taken sacrosanct as any shock from such plan, engenders human development outcome.

Keywords: human development outcome, macroeconomic outcomes, structural vector autoregression, SVAR

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Authors: Anisa Duraj

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As usually acknowledged, cultural heritage is the weakest component in EIA studies. The role of heritage impact assessment (HIA) in development projects is not often accounted for, and in those cases where it is, HIA is considered as a reactive response and not as a solutions provider. Because of continuous development projects, in most cases, heritage is unconsidered and often put under threat. Cultural protection and development challenges ask for prudent legal regulation and appropriate policy implementation. The challenges become even more peculiar in underdeveloped countries or endangered areas, which are generally characterized by numerous legal constraints. Therefore, the need for strategic proposals for HIA is of high importance. In order to trigger HIA as a proactive operation in the IA process and make sure to cover cultural heritage in the whole EIA framework, an appropriate system of evaluation of impacts should be provided. To obtain the required results for HIA, this last must be part of a regional policy, which will address and guide development projects toward a proper evaluation of their impacts affecting heritage. In order to get a clearer picture of existing gabs but also new possibilities for HIA, this paper will focus on the Western Balkans region and the undergoing changes that it faces. Concerning continuous development pressure in the region and within the aspiration of the Western Balkans countries to join the European Union (EU) as member states, attention should be paid to new development policies under the EU directives for conducting EIAs, and accurate support is required for the restructuration of existing policies as well as for the implementation of the UN Agenda for SDGs. In the framework of new emerging needs, if HIA is taken into account, the outcome would be an inclusive regional program that would help to overcome marginality issues of spaces and people.

Keywords: cultural heritage, impact assessment, SDGs, urban development, western Balkans, regional policy, HIA, EIA

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Authors: Melissa James Maceachern

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This study examines a financial aid program that is designed to “keep residents at home” to attend higher education by providing financial aid as an incentive or discount in their first year of university following high school graduation. This study offers insight into financial matters for higher education students that can assist in providing policy direction for student financing. In particular, this study found that students appeared to value the bursary but none of the key metrics related to participation or conversion to the home institution indicated that the bursary impacted enrolment or participation. One key metric, student loans received by direct entry high school students did indicate a decline in the number of recipients. This study also identified accessibility issues to higher education that are of importance when considering the declining youth populations, future labour market needs and the need to sustain higher education institutions. This is undoubtedly a challenging period of time given the changing social and demographic forces within Canada. A comprehensive examination of the policy and programs to address these forces needs to be undertaken. This study highlights the importance of utilizing financial aid in combination with other policy to assist students in accessing higher education.

Keywords: accessibility, participation, financing, government

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Authors: Muhammad Rehan Usman, Muhammad Arslan Usman, Soo Young Shin

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The new era of digital communication has brought up many challenges that network operators need to overcome. The high demand of mobile data rates require improved networks, which is a challenge for the operators in terms of maintaining the quality of experience (QoE) for their consumers. In live video transmission, there is a sheer need for live surveillance of the videos in order to maintain the quality of the network. For this purpose objective algorithms are employed to monitor the quality of the videos that are transmitted over a network. In order to test these objective algorithms, subjective quality assessment of the streamed videos is required, as the human eye is the best source of perceptual assessment. In this paper we have conducted subjective evaluation of videos with varying spatial and temporal impairments. These videos were impaired with frame freezing distortions so that the impact of frame freezing on the quality of experience could be studied. We present subjective Mean Opinion Score (MOS) for these videos that can be used for fine tuning the objective algorithms for video quality assessment.

Keywords: frame freezing, mean opinion score, objective assessment, subjective evaluation

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Authors: Mausumi Chetia

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One of the main causes of impoverishment of the rural areas of Assam has been the recurrent floods and riverbank erosion. One of the life-changing consequences is displacement. This results not only in a loss of livelihoods but also has wide-reaching socio-economic and cultural effects. Thus, due to such disasters, not only families but communities too are being displaced at large. This compels them to find temporary shelter and begin life from scratch. The role of the state has been highly negligible, with a displacement not being perceived as an ‘issue’ to be addressed. A more holistic approach is thus needed to take socio-economic, cultural, political as well as ecological considerations into account.

Keywords: displacement, policy-framework, human-induced disasters, marginalised communities, India, Assam

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Authors: Mahsa Oroojeni Mohammad Javad

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Globalization of economic activity and rapid growth of information technology has resulted in shorter product lifecycles, reduced transport capacity, dynamic and changing customer behaviors, and an increased focus on supply chain design in recent years. The design of the supply chain network is one of the most important supply chain management decisions. These decisions will have a long-term impact on the efficacy and efficiency of the supply chain. In this paper, a two-objective mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model is developed for designing and optimizing a closed-loop green supply chain network that, to the greatest extent possible, includes all real-world assumptions such as multi-level supply chain, the multiplicity of production technologies, and multiple modes of transportation, with the goals of minimizing the total cost of the chain (first objective) and minimizing total emissions of emissions (second objective). The ε-constraint and CPLEX Solver have been used to solve the problem as a single-objective problem and validate the problem. Finally, the sensitivity analysis is applied to study the effect of the real-world parameters’ changes on the objective function. The optimal management suggestions and policies are presented.

Keywords: closed-loop supply chain, multi-level green supply chain, mixed-integer programming, transportation modes

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Authors: M. Foysul Alam

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Land diluvion is a common phenomenon in Bangladesh. According to Bangladesh land administration manual, land gained by diluvion and alluvion are considered as Khas (state) lands. Distributing khas lands to the poorest landless people was suggested as a way of improving the livelihood by mobilizing their economic activity and improving their social status in Bangladesh. The impact of this initiative, which started in 1980 as a state policy, is perhaps one of the least experimentally documented ones in the country. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the economic and social status of some landless farmers focusing on determining whether the distribution of khas lands provide part of the explanation for possible improvement of their livelihood during this period of almost four decades. If not, the secondary objective of this study was to identify the issues and challenges of this policy, whether in strategic planning or implementation efforts. Both subjectively observable and objectively measurable data were collected from 150 households from 30 villages of 6 districts worse suffering from landlessness. A well-organized questionnaire, including 10 open ended question, were used to collect specific data and experiences of the landless farmers. Special attention was given to those who left peasantry becoming involved in other economic activities. The study found that Khas lands have very nominal or even zero influence on landless farmers due to 1. Lack of Khas land inventory 2. Lack of availability of information to the farmers 3. Complexity in application procedure for demanding Khas land and 4. Political nexus of local influential farmers makes it nearly impossible for those farmers who actually deserve it. It also found that most of the lucky farmers who eventually got a piece of Khas land had links with the local elites of their community. The research concludes that it is too early to decide how good the Khas land is for the marginalized landless farmers in Bangladesh, with actually a few numbers of them given the possession of one. This document provides crucial recommendations for overcoming the prevailing challenges.

Keywords: Khas land, land distribution, marginalized farmers, rural livelihood

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Authors: Aleksandar Savanović

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In this paper we will analyze the relationship between the neo-liberal concept of property rights and redistribution policy. This issue is back in the focus of interest due to the crisis 2008. The crisis has reaffirmed the influence of the state on the free-market processes. The interference of the state with property relations re-opened a classical question: is it legitimate to redistribute resources of a man in favor of another man with taxes? The dominant view is that the neoliberal philosophy of natural rights is incompatible with redistributive measures. In principle, this view can be accepted. However, when we look into the details of the theory of natural rights proposed by some coryphaei of neoliberal philosophy, such as Hayek, Nozick, Buchanan and Rothbard, we can see that it is not such an unequivocal view.

Keywords: economic neoliberalism, natural law, property, redistribution

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Authors: Joel Carlos Vieira Reinhardt, Mariana de Freitas Dewes, Odair Lelis Gonçalez

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This paper proposes a method to implement a strategic framework for the quality management system that considers the analysis of prospective scenarios in the determination of policy, mission, vision, objectives, processes, monitoring, and goals. Semantic categorization of qualitative testimonial research on employee perception shows it was possible to implement an effective change in the organizations at the Department of Aerospace Science and Technology through the focus on the organization's needs management, producing a rupture with the historical managerial practice.

Keywords: management of company needs, mission, prospective scenarios, quality management, quality policy, vision

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Authors: Amirhossein Chambari

Abstract:

This article proposes a bi-objective model for the facility location problem subject to congestion (overcrowding). Motivated by implementations to locate servers in internet mirror sites, communication networks, one-server-systems, so on. This model consider for situations in which immobile (or fixed) service facilities are congested (or queued) by stochastic demand to behave as M/M/1/K queues. We consider for this problem two simultaneous perspectives; (1) Customers (desire to limit times of accessing and waiting for service) and (2) Service provider (desire to limit average facility idle-time). A bi-objective model is setup for facility location problem with two objective functions; (1) Minimizing sum of expected total traveling and waiting time (customers) and (2) Minimizing the average facility idle-time percentage (service provider). The proposed model belongs to the class of mixed-integer nonlinear programming models and the class of NP-hard problems. In addition, to solve the model, controlled elitist non-dominated sorting genetic algorithms (Controlled NSGA-II) and controlled elitist non-dominated ranking genetic algorithms (NRGA-I) are proposed. Furthermore, the two proposed metaheuristics algorithms are evaluated by establishing standard multiobjective metrics. Finally, the results are analyzed and some conclusions are given.

Keywords: bi-objective, facility location, queueing, controlled NSGA-II, NRGA-I

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Authors: Michal Stelmach

Abstract:

The aim of this paper is a critical analysis of the security policy in the field of the fight against transnational criminal groups in Central America in XXI century. We are analyzing all taken issues from several perspectives: political, anthropological, sociological and legal which allows me to confront behavior and the attitudes of the political elites against official legislative changes and declared actions, strategies and policies against practice. In the first part of paper we would like to present the genesis and characteristic of transnational gangs, called maras and next we would like to present their activities and roles within chosen sectors of organized crimes. In the second part we will analyze the government’s policy towards transnational criminal groups. The analysis will be concentrated on public safety policy implemented in specific Central American countries as well as regional international cooperation. The main intention of the author is to present the state of the security in Central America in XXI century by emphasizing failures and successes in the fight against transnational criminal organizations. Additionally we want to present and define the challenges currently facing the region now and to show the prediction of the situation’s development within next future and to define the recommendations on the design of public security policies in Central American countries.

Keywords: maras, public security, human rights, Central America

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Authors: Asma Bentaifa

Abstract:

This paper investigates the effect of ownership concentration and especially the presence of controlling shareholders on the firm’s payout decisions. Using a sample of 870 French companies during 2007 to 2012, we find that the share of dividends in total payout is negatively correlated with the size of cash flow held by controlling shareholder, and positively related to the divergence between voting rights and cash flow rights of largest shareholders. We also document that controlled firms tend to prefer dividends over repurchases to mitigate conflicts between controlling shareholders and minority shareholders related to the presence of control enhancing devices.

Keywords: ownership, payout policy, dividend, minority expropriation

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Authors: S. S. Rwanga, J. M. Ndambuki, Y. Woyessa

Abstract:

Development of a groundwater management model is an important step in the exploitation and management of any groundwater aquifer as it assists in the long-term sustainable planning of the resource. The current study was conducted in Central Limpopo province of South Africa with the overall objective of determining how much water can be withdrawn from the aquifer without producing nonreversible impacts on the groundwater quantity, hence developing a model which can sustainably protect the aquifer. The development was done through the computation of Groundwater Sustainability Index (GSI). Values of GSI close to unity and above indicated overexploitation. In this study, an index of 0.8 was considered as overexploitation. The results indicated that there is potential for higher abstraction rates compared to the current abstraction rates. GSI approach can be used in the management of groundwater aquifer to sustainably develop the resource and also provides water managers and policy makers with fundamental information on where future water developments can be carried out.

Keywords: development, groundwater, groundwater sustainability index, model

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Authors: Sunita Patel

Abstract:

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of morbidity as well as mortality in India. Objective of this study is to examine CVDs prevalence and identify their behavioral and cultural risk factors with the help of SAGE-2007 data conducted on 6th states in India. Findings reveal that 18.3% of people diagnosed with CVDs in India. Higher disease occurs in an increasing rate between ages of 30-39 having OR 2.45 (CI: 1.66-3.63) and 70+ age OR 7.45 (CI: 4.82-11.49) times higher compare to 18-29 age group respectively. Wealth quintile higher CVD occurs as 3rd in 60% (CI: 1.16-2.21) and in richest 5th quintile 58% (CI: 1.13-2.21) contrast to lowest quintile. Relative risk depicted that 22.4% in moderate and 44% in vigorous activity have less chance of diseases compare to who performed no work and those who consumed alcohol. Results reveal that policy prospect should be recommended and that it would be beneficial for awareness of people and their future.

Keywords: behavioral risk, cultural risk, cardio-vascular diseases, wealth quintile

Procedia PDF Downloads 398