Search results for: quality enhancement

Authors: Ben Salah Nahla

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The problem of water in Tunisia affects the quality and quantity. Tunisia is in a situation of water shortage. It was estimated that 4.6 Mm3/an. Moreover, the quality of water in Tunisia is also mediocre. In fact, 50% of the water has a high salinity (> 1.5g/l). There are several parameters which affect water quality such as sodium, fluoride. An excess of this parameter may induce some human health. Furthermore, the mining basin area has a problem of industrial waste. This problem may affect the water quality of the groundwater. Therefore, the purpose of this work is to assess the water quality in Basin Mining and the impact of fluorine. For this research, some water samples were done in the field and specific water analysis was implemented in the laboratory. Sampling is carried out on eight drilling in the area of the mining region. In the following, we will look at water view composition, physical and chemical quality. A physical-chemical analysis of water from a survey of the Mining area of Tunisia was performed and showed an excess for the following items: fluorine, sodium, sulfate. So many chemicals may be present in water. However, only a small number of them immediately concern in terms of health in all circumstances. Fluorine (F) is one particular chemical that is considered both necessary for the human body, but an excess of the rate of this chemical causes serious diseases. Sodium fluoride and sodium silicofluoride are more soluble and may spread in animals and plants where their toxicity largest organizations. The more complex particles such as cryolite and fluorite, almost insoluble, are more stable and less toxic. Thereafter, we will study the problem of excess fluorine in the water. The latter intended for human consumption must always comply with the limits for microbiological quality parameters and physical-chemical parameters defined by European standards (1.5 mg/l) and Tunisian (2 mg/l).

Keywords: water, minier basin, fluorine, silicofluoride

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Authors: Naser Ahmadi Sani, Karim Solaimani, Lida Razaghnia, Jalal Zandi

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In recent decades, rapid and incorrect changes in land-use have been associated with consequences such as natural resources degradation and environmental pollution. Detecting changes in land-use is one of the tools for natural resource management and assessment of changes in ecosystems. The target of this research is studying the land-use changes in Haraz basin with an area of 677000 hectares in a 15 years period (1996 to 2011) using LANDSAT data. Therefore, the quality of the images was first evaluated. Various enhancement methods for creating synthetic bonds were used in the analysis. Separate training sites were selected for each image. Then the images of each period were classified in 9 classes using supervised classification method and the maximum likelihood algorithm. Finally, the changes were extracted in GIS environment. The results showed that these changes are an alarm for the HARAZ basin status in future. The reason is that 27% of the area has been changed, which is related to changing the range lands to bare land and dry farming and also changing the dense forest to sparse forest, horticulture, farming land and residential area.

Keywords: Haraz basin, change detection, land-use, satellite data

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Authors: M. Kamal, Y. Wang, R. Kennon

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Quality Function Deployment is a useful tool in product development with the application of voice of customer. In this paper, it aims to be applied as a product development tool in redesigning fashion and textile product. The purpose of these studies is to apply the effective use of Voice of Customer in redesigning cultural fashion product. The data collection from Voice of Customer or consumers’ feedback might help the producer to improve the quality of merchandise ahead. Voice of Customer could give a specific detailing for quality which needs to be redesigned according to customers’ requirements. Meanwhile, the next objective is to differentiate design specifications and characteristics using House of Quality. In product designing phase, it is very important to distinguish each specification and characteristic which translated from Voice of Customer to House of Quality matrix. This matrix would help designers to development according to qualities that customer wants for the better and successful product in the market. It is hope this research would indicate the customers’ requirements and production team idea might be measured and translated to a systematic data. The specific technical data could be planned ahead with specific design details as well. This could be a sustainable approach for a traditional product which could control the material that they use and sustain the quality as the past production. As a conclusion, this study would benefit the Small Medium Enterprises design team or the designers to style an item from customers view with organised projection of the product. The finding also could assist designers or batik producers’ to recognise specific details Batik sarong from consumers as well as in in advertising and marketing strategy plan.

Keywords: house of quality, Malaysia batik sarong, quality function deployment, voice of customer

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Authors: Gilang Maulana, Dhika Rahma Qomariah, Yasin Fadil

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Purpose: This research meant to measure the magnitude of the influence of the quality of the presentation to the targeted audience perception in catching information presentation. Design/Methodology/Approach: This research uses a quantitative research method. The kind of data that uses in this research is the primary data. The population in this research are students the economics faculty of Semarang State University. The sampling techniques uses in this research is purposive sampling. The retrieving data uses questionnaire on 30 respondents. The data analysis uses descriptive analysis. Result: The quality of presentation influential positive against perception of the audience. This proved that the more qualified presentation will increase the perception of the audience. Limitation: Respondents were limited to only 30 people.

Keywords: quality of presentation, presentation, audience, perception, semarang state university

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Authors: Patrick Velte

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Sustainability reporting has become a central element of modern corporate governance practice. This paper is the first to recognize supervisory board independence, sustainable expertise and gender diversity in two European two tier countries and their impact on sustainability reporting quality. For a sample of 188 German and Austrian companies which are listed at the Prime Standard of the Frankfurt and Vienna Stock Exchange for the business years 2012-2013, descriptive findings show that CSR reporting quality is still low in both countries. Furthermore, multiple regressions state that independent and female members in the supervisory board do have a positive impact on CSR reporting quality in Germany and Austria. However, the existence of sustainable experts in the supervisory board both in Germany and Austria shows a positive but insignificant impact. Our findings suggest that the current European corporate governance regulations can be a useful instrument to increase the quality of modern CSR reporting for the stakeholders.

Keywords: sustainability reporting, corporate governance, gender diversity, board independence

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Authors: Shady Gamal Aziz Shehata

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Difficulty in defining construction quality arises due to perception based on the nature and requirements of the market, the different partners themselves and the results they want. Quantitative research was used in this constructivist research. A case-based study was conducted to assess the structures of positive attitudes and expectations in the context of quality improvement. A survey based on expert opinions was analyzed among construction organizations/companies operating in the construction industry in Pakistan. The financial strength, management structure and construction experience of the construction companies formed the basis of their selection. A good concept is visible at the project level and is seen as the most valuable part of the construction project. Each quality improvement technique was expected to increase the user's profits by improving the efficiency of the construction project. The Survey is useful for construction professionals to evaluate current construction concepts and expectations for the application of quality improvement techniques in construction projects.

Keywords: correlation analysis, lean construction tools, lean construction, logistic regression analysis, risk management, safety construction quality, expectation, improvement, perception

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Authors: É. Kónya, E. Szabó, I. Bata-Vidács, T. Deák, M. Ottucsák, N. Adányi, A. Székács

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Spice paprika is a major spice commodity in the European Union (EU), produced locally and imported from non-EU countries, reported not only for chemical and microbiological contamination, but also for fraud. The effective interaction between producers’ quality management practices and government and EU activities is described on the example of spice paprika production and control in Hungary, a country of leading spice paprika producer and per capita consumer in Europe. To demonstrate the importance of various contamination factors in the Hungarian production and EU trade of spice paprika, several aspects concerning food safety of this commodity are presented. Alerts in the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) of the EU between 2005 and 2013, as well as Hungarian state inspection results on spice paprika in 2004 are discussed, and quality non-compliance claims regarding spice paprika among EU member states are summarized in by means of network analysis. Quality assurance measures established along the spice paprika production technology chain at the leading Hungarian spice paprika manufacturer, Kalocsai Fűszerpaprika Zrt. are surveyed with main critical control points identified. The structure and operation of the Hungarian state food safety inspection system is described. Concerted performance of the latter two quality management systems illustrates the effective interaction between internal (manufacturer) and external (state) quality control measures.

Keywords: spice paprika, quality control, reporting mechanisms, RASFF, vulnerable points, HACCP

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Authors: Fayza M. Obied-Allah

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Customer’ needs, quality, and value creation while reducing costs through supply chain management provides challenges and opportunities for companies and researchers. In the light of these challenges, modern ideas must contribute to counter these challenges and exploit opportunities. Perhaps this paper will be one of these contributions. This paper discusses the impact of the quality cost on revenue sharing as a most important incentive to configure business networks. No doubt that the costs directly affect the size of income generated by a business network, so this paper investigates the impact of quality costs on business networks revenue, and their impact on the decision to participate the revenue among the companies in the supply chain. This paper develops the quality cost approach to align with the modern era, the developed model includes five categories besides the well-known four categories (namely prevention costs, appraisal costs, internal failure costs, and external failure costs), a new category has been developed in this research as a new vision of the relationship between quality costs and innovations of industry. This new category is Recycle Cost. This paper is organized into six sections, Section I shows quality costs overview in the supply chain. Section II discusses revenue sharing between the parties in supply chain. Section III investigates the impact of quality costs in revenue sharing decision between partners in supply chain. The fourth section includes survey study and presents statistical results. Section V discusses the results and shows future opportunities for research. Finally, Section VI summarizes the theoretical and practical results of this paper.

Keywords: quality cost, recycle cost, revenue sharing, supply chain management

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Authors: Probir Kumar Banerjee

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Though the revised DeLone and McLean (DM) model of IS success is found to be effective at the individual level of analysis, there is lack of consensus in regard to its effectiveness at the organisational level. This research reviews the DM model in the light of business/IT alignment theory and supporting literature, and suggests its reconceptualization. Specifically, arguments are made for augmenting it with business process quality. Business process quality, it is argued, captures the effect of intent to use, use and user satisfaction interactions, thus eliminating the need to capture their interaction effects in explaining organisational IS success. It is also argued that ‘operational performance’ driven by systems and business process quality, and higher order measures of organisational performance tied to operational performance are appropriate measures of ‘net benefit’. Suggestions are made for reconceptualisation of the other constructs and an adapted model of organisational IS success is proposed.

Keywords: organisational IS success, business/IT alignment, systems quality, business process quality, operational performance, market performance

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Authors: Kamyar Kabirifar, Majid Azarniush, Behbood Maashkar

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A proper house is a suitable residential area which provides comfort, proper accessibility, security, stability and permanence of structure, enough lighting, Proper initial infrastructures and ventilation for its inhabitants and the most important of all, it should be proportional to the family’s financial power. Saving energy and making optimal usage of it and also taking advantage of stable energies are the bases of green buildings. Making green building will help the health of a person living in it and in its surrounding. It will support the people and provoke their satisfaction. Not only it will bring about the raise of level of the quality of life for building inhabitants, but also it will cause the promotion of quality level of life of the people living in the surrounding area and the society.

Keywords: quality of life, green building, environment pollution, sick building

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Authors: Ahmad Masduki Bin Selamat, Kang Chia Yang

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The International Standard Organization (ISO) is an international consensus on good management practice. It is derived from the Greek word “isos” meaning equal. ISO is aimed to give organization guidelines on what bring quality management system that leads to continuous improvement. The need of quality product is essential these days, especially in the manufacturing and service sectors. The requirement to produce good product is demanded, hence the certification of ISO enables the company to gain the trust from the public. Due to this, organizations whether government or private sectors in Malaysia are going for the ISO certification. However recently there has been an introduction of Islamic standard known as Islamic Standard Institute 2020 (ISI 2020). The ISI standards emphasize more on values that should be in the employees’ mind. By possessing good values, employees will work only for the betterment of the company. Currently only the feelings of being paid for the job exist in the employees’ mind. The non-Malays like Chinese and others, which comprise 40% of the sample size, are not aware about the existence of any Islamic quality system. As for the Malay managers, they support the Islamic quality systems. For them such values are encouraged by religion. By imitating religion, Allah promises a better life in this world and hereafter. Even though ISI 2020 is still new but the majority of Malays would support the need of Islamic quality system. Our findings suggest that integration of these two-quality systems running parallel would bring a better result.

Keywords: International Standard Organization (ISO), Islamic standard, quality, ISI 2020

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Authors: Mohamed Khali Zidi, Mohsen Henchiri, Walid Ben Ahmed

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In the context of a hypogene hydrothermal travertine system, including low-porosity brittle bedrock and rock-mass permeability in Aptian dolostone of Boulaaba, Kasserine is enhanced through faulting and fracturing. This permeability enhancement related to the deformation modes along faults and fractures is likely to be in competition with permeability reduction when microcracks, fractures, and faults all become infilled with breccias and low-permeability hydrothermal precipitates. So that, fault continual or intermittent reactivation is probably necessary for them to keep their potential as structural high-permeability conduits. Dilational normal faults in strong mechanical stratigraphy associated with fault segments with dip changes are sites for porosity and permeability in groundwater infiltration and flow, hydrocarbon reservoirs, and also may be important sources of mineralization. The brecciation mechanism through dilational faulting and gravitational collapse originates according to hosting lithologies chaotic clast-supported breccia in strong lithologies such as sandstones, limestones, and dolostones, and matrix-supported cataclastic in weaker lithologies such as marls and shales. Breccias contribute to controlling fluid flow when the porosity is sealed either by low-permeability hydrothermal precipitates or by fine matrix materials. All these mechanisms of fault-related rock-mass permeability enhancement and reduction can be observed and analyzed in the region of Sidi Boulaaba, Kasserine, central Tunisia, where dilational normal faulting occurs in mechanical strong dolostone layering alternating with more weak marl and shale lithologies, has originated a variety of fault voids (fluid conduits) breccias (chaotic, crackle and mosaic breccias) and carbonate cement.

Keywords: travertine, Aptian dolostone, Boulaaba, fracturing

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Authors: Chiedza Lebogang Gutu, Nester Rufaro Manuwa, Jean-Marie Mbuya

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In Johannesburg, Metropolitan customer expectations in the hospitality industry have rapidly been increasing which has lead to the need of improving service quality to help satisfy customer expectations. Businesses need to make sure that customer expectations are met, or find ways to control customer expectations. Therefore the purpose of the study is to investigate how customer expectations of services in bed and breakfast establishments affect the perceived quality of service. A quantitative approach was used through random sampling to collect descriptive and correlation study between customer expectations and perceived quality. Findings of the study indicated that customers at bed and breakfast generally expect a clean, friendly and safe environment that has a homely feel, while they are away from home. In addition, findings of the study also emphasised that the age-groups between 20 and 35 are more likely to travel, for business and vacation purposes, staying for more or less 3, have high expectations towards modern facilities and extras in the room such as coffee machines, and are more concerned about the service being provided quickly and right, and taking extra care to deal with problems promptly.

Keywords: Customer satisfaction, Service quality, Bed and breakfast, Customer retention

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Authors: Jose Flores, Nadia Gamboa

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A proper water quality management requires the establishment of a monitoring network. Therefore, evaluation of the efficiency of water quality monitoring networks is needed to ensure high-quality data collection of critical quality chemical parameters. Unfortunately, in some Latin American countries water quality monitoring programs are not sustainable in terms of recording historical data or environmentally representative sites wasting time, money and valuable information. In this study, multivariate statistical techniques, such as principal components analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), are applied for identifying the most significant monitoring sites as well as critical water quality parameters in the monitoring network of the Jequetepeque River basin, in northern Peru. The Jequetepeque River basin, like others in Peru, shows socio-environmental conflicts due to economical activities developed in this area. Water pollution by trace elements in the upper part of the basin is mainly related with mining activity, and agricultural land lost due to salinization is caused by the extensive use of groundwater in the lower part of the basin. Since the 1980s, the water quality in the basin has been non-continuously assessed by public and private organizations, and recently the National Water Authority had established permanent water quality networks in 45 basins in Peru. Despite many countries use multivariate statistical techniques for assessing water quality monitoring networks, those instruments have never been applied for that purpose in Peru. For this reason, the main contribution of this study is to demonstrate that application of the multivariate statistical techniques could serve as an instrument that allows the optimization of monitoring networks using least number of monitoring sites as well as the most significant water quality parameters, which would reduce costs concerns and improve the water quality management in Peru. Main socio-economical activities developed and the principal stakeholders related to the water management in the basin are also identified. Finally, water quality management programs will also be discussed in terms of their efficiency and sustainability.

Keywords: PCA, HCA, Jequetepeque, multivariate statistical

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Authors: Mohammad Mushir Khan, C. Satyanarayana

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Education is considered as one of the prime bottlenecks in the economic growth of India. The Ministry of Human Resource & Development, Government of India has, therefore, given special attention to this issue and the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) in Higher Education has increased marginally during last five years, with the efforts and various policy decisions like Right to Education (RTE) and other fee reimbursement schemes, initiated by the State Governments. But still this is one of the lowest, if assessed at the global level. It is true that the GER has improved but the survey reveals that the quality has been badly affected. This paper tries to assess the impact of lack of quality education in various sectors that affects Indian Economy and thereby signifies the need of immediate policy decision at the government level. It is to be noted that in higher education, science, management, engineering and technology plays vital role as far as shaping country’s economy is concerned and as such the quality needs to be addressed, particularly, in these streams. The paper, after carefully studying lots of survey reports and other government/ non-government documents recommends measures to be initiated by the Central Government, on priority, for improving quality of education. The quality up-gradation in higher education single handedly provides real fuel to the India’s growth Engine, as it has potential to touch each and every sector that strengthens country’s economy.

Keywords: higher education, economy, accreditation, industry, technology

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Authors: Hilal Al Shamsi, Abdullah Almutairi

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Introduction: As primary healthcare centres play an important role in implementing Saudi Arabia’s health strategy, this paper offers a review of publications on the quality of the country’s primary health care. With the aim of deciding on solutions for improvement, it provides an overview of healthcare quality in this context and indicates barriers to quality. Method: Using two databases, ProQuest and Scopus, data extracted from published articles were systematically analysed for determining the care quality in Saudi primary health centres and obstacles to achieving higher quality. Results: Twenty-six articles met the criteria for inclusion in this review. The components of healthcare quality were examined in terms of the access to and effectiveness of interpersonal and clinical care. Good access and effective care were identified in such areas as maternal health care and the control of epidemic diseases, whereas poor access and effectiveness of care were shown for chronic disease management programmes, referral patterns (in terms of referral letters and feedback reports), health education and interpersonal care (in terms of language barriers). Several factors were identified as barriers to high-quality care. These included problems with evidence-based practice implementation, professional development, the use of referrals to secondary care and organisational culture. Successful improvements have been implemented by other systems, such as mobile medical units, electronic referrals, online translation tools and mobile devices and their applications; these can be implemented in Saudi Arabia for improving the quality of the primary healthcare system in this country. Conclusion: The quality of primary health care in Saudi Arabia varies among the different services. To improve quality, management programmes and organisational culture must be promoted in primary health care. Professional development strategies are also needed for improving the skills and knowledge of healthcare professionals. Potential improvements can be implemented to improve the quality of the primary health system.

Keywords: quality, primary health care, Saudi Arabia, health centres, general medical

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Authors: Jamal Ayour, Mohamed Benichou

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Fruit quality is one of the main concerns of consumers, producers, and distributors. The evolution of apricot fruits undergoes a strong acceleration during maturation, and the rapidity of post-harvest evolution of the ripe fruit is particularly selective in the apricot. The objective of this study is to identify new cultivars with an interesting quality as well as a better yield allowing a more prolonged production over time. The evaluation of the fruit quality of new apricot cultivars from the Marrakech region was carried out by analyzing their physical and biochemical attributes during ripening. The results obtained clearly show a great diversity of the physicochemical attributes of the selected clones. Also, some genotypes of apricots showed contents of sugars, organic acids (vitamin C) and β carotene significantly higher than those of the most famous varieties of Morocco: Canino, Delpatriarca, and Maoui. Principal component analysis (PCA), taking into account the maturity stage and the diversity of cultivars, made it possible to define three groups with similar physicochemical attributes. The results of this study are of great use, particularly for the selection of genotypes with a better quality of fruit, both for consumption or industrial processing and with important contents of physicochemical attributes.

Keywords: apricot, acidity, carotenoids, color, sugar, quality, vitamin C

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Authors: Faezeh Mohammadi, Ebrahim Ebrahimi, Neda Azimi

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Use of ultrasound waves is one of the techniques for increasing the mixing and mass transfer in the microdevices. Ultrasound propagation into liquid medium leads to stimulation of the fluid, creates turbulence and so increases the mixing performance. In this study, CFD modeling of two-phase flow in a pitted micromixer equipped with a piezoelectric with frequency of 1.7 MHz has been studied. CFD modeling of micromixer at different velocity of fluid flow in the absence of ultrasound waves and with ultrasound application has been performed. The hydrodynamic of fluid flow and mixing efficiency for using ultrasound has been compared with the layout of no ultrasound application. The result of CFD modeling shows well agreements with the experimental results. The results showed that the flow pattern inside the micromixer in the absence of ultrasound waves is parallel, while when ultrasound has been applied, it is not parallel. In fact, propagation of ultrasound energy into the fluid flow in the studied micromixer changed the hydrodynamic and the forms of the flow pattern and caused to mixing enhancement. In general, from the CFD modeling results, it can be concluded that the applying ultrasound energy into the liquid medium causes an increase in the turbulences and mixing and consequently, improves the mass transfer rate within the micromixer.

Keywords: CFD modeling, ultrasound, mixing, mass transfer

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Authors: Panpan Xu, Qiying Zhang, Hui Qian

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Groundwater is main source of water supply in the Guanzhong Basin, China. To investigate the quality of groundwater for agricultural purposes in Jiaokou Irrigation District located in the east of the Guanzhong Basin, 141 groundwater samples were collected for analysis of major ions (K⁺, Na⁺, Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺, SO₄^2-, Cl^-, HCO₃^-, and CO₃^2-), pH, and total dissolved solids (TDS). Sodium percentage (Na%), residual sodium carbonate (RSC), magnesium hazard (MH), and potential salinity (PS) were applied for irrigation water quality assessment. In addition, multivariate statistical techniques were used to identify the underlying hydrogeochemical processes. Results show that the content of TDS mainly depends on Cl^-, Na⁺, Mg²⁺, and SO₄^2-, and the HCO₃^- content is generally high except for the eastern sand area. These are responsible for complex hydrogeochemical processes, such as dissolution of carbonate minerals (dolomite and calcite), gypsum, halite, and silicate minerals, the cation exchange, as well as evaporation and concentration. The average evaluation levels of Na%, RSC, MH, and PS for irrigation water quality are doubtful, good, unsuitable, and injurious to unsatisfactory, respectively. Therefore, it is necessary for decision makers to comprehensively consider the indicators and thus reasonably evaluate the irrigation water quality.

Keywords: irrigation water quality, multivariate statistical analysis, groundwater, hydrogeochemical process

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Authors: E. Elgohary, R. Abdelazyz

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The research aims to clarify the effect of the marketing culture on improving the e-service quality for foreign and domestic information technology companies in the Arab Republic of Egypt. So the researcher sought to include the dimensions of the marketing culture, which are (customer service, management style, sales mission, internal communications, technology, wages and rewards, innovation) as measures of marketing culture for its effect on improving the e-service quality in this research. The research population consists of employees and customers of the companies under study. The research problem was the following question: What is the effect of the actual application of marketing culture on improving the e-service quality? To answer that, three main hypotheses were adopted, and they were tested by statistical means for the data collected through a questionnaire prepared and distributed for this purpose. Accordingly, the research presented a set of results, the most important of which are: the need to pay attention to the dimensions of the marketing culture to improve the e-service quality, foreign companies were the most popular companies in applying the marketing culture compared to local companies. The research also recommends designing a system to continuously measure the performance of electronic service providers and work on spreading the culture of innovation among employees, linking reward programs to the extent of commitment to applying the elements of marketing culture while doing business.

Keywords: marketing culture, e-service quality, measurement models, quality measurements

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Authors: Yao Wu

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In the context of financial globalization, China has put forward the policy goal of high-quality development, and the digital economy, with its advantage of information resources, is driving China's export trade to achieve high-quality development. Due to the long-standing financing constraints of small and medium-sized export enterprises, how to expand the export scale of small and medium-sized enterprises has become a major threshold for the development of China's export trade. This paper firstly adopts the hierarchical analysis method to establish the evaluation system of high-quality development of China's export trade; secondly, the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2011 to 2018 are selected for empirical analysis to establish the impact model of digital inclusive finance on the high-quality development of China's export trade; based on the analysis of heterogeneous enterprise trade model, a mediating effect model is established to verify the mediating role of credit constraint in the development of high-quality export trade in China. Based on the above analysis, this paper concludes that inclusive digital finance, with its unique digital and inclusive nature, alleviates the credit constraint problem among SMEs, enhances the binary marginal effect of SMEs' exports, optimizes their export scale and structure, and promotes the high-quality development of regional and even national export trade. Finally, based on the findings of this paper, we propose insights and suggestions for inclusive digital finance to promote the high-quality development of export trade.

Keywords: digital inclusive finance, high-quality development of export trade, fixed effects, binary marginal effects

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Authors: Béchir Wanassi, Béchir Azzouz, Taher Halimi, Mohamed Ben Hassen

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Mechanical recycling of post-industrial cotton yarn wastes, as well as the effects of passage number on the properties of reclaimed fibers, have been investigated. A new Modified Fiber Quality Index (MFQI) and Spinning Consistency Index (MSCI) for the characterization of the quality are presented. This index gives the real potential of spinnability according to its physical properties. The best quality of reclaimed fibers (after 7th passage) was used to produce rotor yarns. 100% recycling cotton yarns were produced in open-end spinning system with different rotor speed (i.e. 65000, 70000, and 80000 rpm), opening roller speed (i.e. 7700, 8200, and 8700 rpm) and twist factor (i.e. 137, 165, and 183). The effects of spinning parameters were investigated to evaluate a 100% recycling cotton yarns quality (TQI, hairiness, thin places, and thick places) using DOE method.

Keywords: cotton wastes, DOE, mechanical recycling, rotor spinning

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Authors: Reza Vakili

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The aim of this experiment was to optimize the effect of moisture, the production rate, grain particle size and steam conditioning temperature on pellet quality in broiler feed using Taguchi method and a 43 fractional factorial arrangement was conducted. Production rate, steam conditioning temperatures, particle sizes and moisture content were performed. During the production process, sampling was done, and then pellet durability index (PDI) and hardness evaluated in broiler feed grower and finisher. There was a significant effect of processing parameters on PDI and hardness. Based on the results of this experiment Taguchi method can be used to find the best combination of factors for optimal pellet quality.

Keywords: broiler, feed physical quality, hardness, processing parameters, PDI

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Authors: F. Hiouani, M. Henouda, A. Masmoudi, M. Rechachi

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The objective of this study was to evaluate the quality of irrigation water of some underground water resources in the region of Lioua (Biskra, Algéria). Analysis of cations (Ca++, Mg++, Na+, K+), anions (Cl-, SO4--, CO3--, HCO3-, NO3-), pH and electrical conductivity (EC) of ten water samples taken during March 2015. The resulted showed that water samples are designated salty and very salty. On the other hand, average SAR values show that there is no alkalinity risk of soil. According to Riverside diagram water samples are grouped into five classes (C3-S1, C4-S1, C4-S3, C5-S2 and C5-S3).

Keywords: groundwater, irrigation, quality, lioua biskra

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Authors: Abdul Khalique Baloch, Ali Okatan

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The quality analysis of food and vegetable from image is hot topic now a day, where researchers make them better then pervious findings through different technique and methods. In this research we have review the literature, and find gape from them, and suggest better proposed approach, design the algorithm, developed a software to measure the quality from images, where accuracy of image show better results, and compare the results with Perouse work done so for. The Application we uses an open-source dataset and python language with tensor flow lite framework. In this research we focus to sort food and vegetable from image, in the images, the application can sorts and make them grading after process the images, it could create less errors them human base sorting errors by manual grading. Digital pictures datasets were created. The collected images arranged by classes. The classification accuracy of the system was about 94%. As fruits and vegetables play main role in day-to-day life, the quality of fruits and vegetables is necessary in evaluating agricultural produce, the customer always buy good quality fruits and vegetables. This document is about quality detection of fruit and vegetables using images. Most of customers suffering due to unhealthy foods and vegetables by suppliers, so there is no proper quality measurement level followed by hotel managements. it have developed software to measure the quality of the fruits and vegetables by using images, it will tell you how is your fruits and vegetables are fresh or rotten. Some algorithms reviewed in this thesis including digital images, ResNet, VGG16, CNN and Transfer Learning grading feature extraction. This application used an open source dataset of images and language used python, and designs a framework of system.

Keywords: deep learning, computer vision, image processing, rotten fruit detection, fruits quality criteria, vegetables quality criteria

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Authors: Ahmad Amiri, Hamed K. Arzani, S. N. Kazi, B. T. Chew

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Since graphene nanoplatelet (GNP) is a promising material due to desirable thermal properties, this paper is related to the thermophysical and heat transfer performance of covalently functionalized GNP-based water/ethylene glycol nanofluid through an annular channel. After experimentally measuring thermophysical properties of prepared samples, a computational fluid dynamics study has been carried out to examine the heat transfer and pressure drop of well-dispersed and stabilized nanofluids. The effect of concentration of GNP and Reynolds number at constant wall temperature boundary condition under turbulent flow regime on convective heat transfer coefficient has been investigated. Based on the results, for different Reynolds numbers, the convective heat transfer coefficient of the prepared nanofluid is higher than that of the base fluid. Also, the enhancement of convective heat transfer coefficient and thermal conductivity increase with the increase of GNP concentration in base-fluid. Based on the results of this investigation, there is a significant enhancement on the heat transfer rate associated with loading well-dispersed GNP in base-fluid.

Keywords: nanofluid, turbulent flow, forced convection flow, graphene, annular, annulus

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Authors: Elucir Gir, Myllena Nilce de Freitas Surmano, Laelson Rochelle Milanês Sousa, Mayra Gonçalves Menegueti, Ana Cristina de Oliveira E Silva, Renata Karina Reis

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Objective: To analyze the factors associated with the worsening of the quality of life of health professionals in the Southeast region of Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic and its associated factors. Method: Analytical cross-sectional study carried out with health professionals from the southeastern region of Brazil. Data collection took place through an online survey with a form stored on the Survey Monkey platform. Bivariate analysis was used, and the chi-square test was adopted, followed by the multiple binary logistic regression model based on the stepwise method. Results: 3,493 health professionals participated in the study. Factors associated with worsening quality of life were: Professional Category (Nursing assistant) [OR 1.851 (95%CI 1.035-3.311) p= 0.038]; types of people who provided care (people in general) [OR 1.445 (95%CI 1.072-1.945) p=0.015]; Supply of good quality PPE by the institution where he works (no) [OR 1.595 (CI 95% 1.144-2.223) p= 0.006] and Supply of good quality PPE by the institution where he works (in part) [OR 1.563 (CI 95% 1.257-1.943) p < 0.001]. Conclusion: The factors associated with the worsening of the quality of life of health professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic were: Professional Category (Nursing assistant); types of people who provided assistance (people in general); Supply of sufficient PPE by the institution where you work (no) and Supply of good quality PPE by the institution where you work (in part). Future studies should investigate to what extent QoL can be improved based on modifiable factors.

Keywords: COVID-19, quality of life, health professionals, respiratory infections

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Authors: Abdul Rashid, Varsha Rokade

Abstract:

Service Quality within retail units is pivotal for satisfying customers and retaining them. This study on customer perception towards Service Quality variables in Retail aims to identify the dimensions and their impact on customers. An analytical study of the different retail service quality variables was done to understand the relationship between them. The study tries exploring the factors that attract the customers towards the organised and unorganised retail stores in the capital city of Madhya Pradesh, India. As organised retailers are seen as offering similar products in the outlets, improving service quality is seen as critical to ensuring competitive advantage over unorganised retailers. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire on a five-point Likert scale from existing walk-in customers of selected organised and unorganised retail stores in Bhopal City of Madhya Pradesh, India. The data was then analysed by factor analysis using (SPSS) Statistical Package for the Social Sciences especially Percentage analysis, ANOVA and Chi-Square. This study tries to find interrelationship between various Retail Service Quality dimensions, which will help the retailers to identify the steps needed to improve the overall quality of service. Thus, the findings of the study prove to be helpful in understanding the service quality variables which should be considered by organised and unorganised retail stores in Capital city of Madhya Pradesh, India.Also, findings of this empirical research reiterate the point of view that dimensions of Service Quality in Retail play an important role in enhancing customer satisfaction – a sector with high growth potential and tremendous opportunities in rapidly growing economies like India’s. With the introduction of FDI in multi-brand retailing, a large number of international retail players are expected to enter the Indian market, this intern will bring more competition in the retail sector. For benchmarking themselves with global standards, the Indian retailers will have to improve their service quality.

Keywords: organized retail, unorganised retail, retail service quality, service quality dimension

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Authors: Elham S. Hasham, Anthony S. Hasham

Abstract:

The construction industry is one of Australia’s fastest growing industries and its success is a result of a firm’s client satisfaction with focus on product determinants such as price and quality. Ensuring quality at every phase is a must and building rapport with the client will go a long way. To capitalise on the growing demand for Engineering Consulting Firms (ECFs), we should “redefine the bottom line by allowing client satisfaction, high-quality standards, and profits to be the top priorities”. Consequently, the emphasis should be on improving employee skills through various training provisions. Clients seek consistency and thus expect that all services should be similar in respect to quality and the ability of the service to meet their needs. This calls for empowerment and comfortable work conditions to motivate employees and give them incentive to deliver quality and excellent output. The methodology utilized is triangulation-a combination of both quantitative and qualitative research. The case study-Australian Consulting Engineers (ACE) was established in 1995 and has operations throughout Australia, the Philippines, Europe, U.A.E., K.S.A., and Lebanon. ACE is affiliated with key agencies and support organizations in the engineering industry with International Organization for Standardization (ISO) certifications in Safety and Quality Management. The objective of this study is significant as it sheds light on employee motivation and client satisfaction as imperative determinants of the success of an organization.

Keywords: leadership, motivation, organizational behavior, satisfaction

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Authors: Jonix Owino, Heather Fuller

Abstract:

Refugees flee from their home countries due to civil unrest, war, persecution and migrate to Western countries such as the United States in search of a safe haven. Transitioning into a new society and culture can be challenging, thereby affecting refugee’s quality of life and well-being in the host communities. Moreover, as individuals age, they experience physical, cognitive and socioemotional changes that may impact their quality of life. However, little is known about the predictors of quality of life among aging refugees. It is not clear how quality of life varies by age, that is, between midlife refugees in comparison to their older counterparts. In addition to age, other sociodemographic factors such as gender, socioeconomic status, or country of origin are likely to have differential associations to quality of life, yet research on such variations among older refugees is sparse. Thus the present study seeks to explore factors associated with quality of life by asking the following research questions: 1) Do sociodemographic factors (such as age and gender) predict quality of life among older refugees, 2) Is there an association between social integration and quality of life, and 3) Is there an association between migratory related experiences (such as post migratory adjustments) and quality of life. The present study recruited 90 refugees (primarily originating from Bhutan, Somalia, Burundi, and Sudan) aged 50 or older living in the US. The participants completed a structured questionnaire which assessed factors such as participant’s sociodemographic attributes (e.g., age, gender, length of residence in the US, country of origin, employment, level of education, and marital status), and validated measures of social integration, post-migration living difficulties, and quality of life. Preliminary results suggest sociodemographic variability in quality of life among these refugees. Further analyses will be conducted using hierarchical regression analyses to address the following hypotheses: first, it is hypothesized that quality of life will vary by age and gender such that younger refugees and men will report higher quality of life. Second, it is expected that refugees with greater levels of social integration will also report better quality of life. Finally, post-migration factors such as language barriers and family stress are hypothesized to predict poorer quality of life. Further results will be analyzed, including potential moderating effects of age and gender, and resulting findings will be interpreted and discussed. The findings from this study have potential implications for communities on how they can better support older refugees as well as develop social programs that can effectively cater to their well-being. Conclusions will be drawn and discussed in light of policies related to both aging and refugee migration within the context of the US.

Keywords: aging out of place, migration, older refugees, quality of life, social integration

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