Search results for: strategy transfer

Authors: Antonio Piga

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The study of language strategies in financial and corporate discourse has always been vital for understanding how companies manage to communicate effectively with a wider customer base and offers new perspectives on how companies interact with key stakeholders, not only to convey transparency and an image of trustworthiness, but also to create affiliation and attract investment. In the light of Systemic Functional Linguistics, the purpose of this study is to examine and analyse the annual reports of Asian and Western joint-stock companies involved in oil refining and power generation from the point of view of the functions and frequency of grammatical metaphors. More specifically, grammatical metaphor - through the lens of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) - is used as a theoretical tool for analysing a synchronic cross-cultural study of the communicative strategies adopted by Asian and Western companies to communicate social and environmental sustainability and showcase their ethical values, performance and competitiveness to local and global communities and key stakeholders. According to Systemic Functional Linguistics, grammatical metaphor can be divided into two broad areas: ideational and interpersonal. This study focuses on the first type, ideational grammatical metaphor (IGM), which includes de-adjectival and de-verbal nominalisation. The dominant and more effective grammatical tropes used by Asian and Western corporations in their annual reports were examined from both a qualitative and quantitative perspective. The aim was to categorise and explain how ideational grammatical metaphor is constructed cross-culturally and presented through structural language patterns involving re-mapping between semantics and lexico-grammatical features. The results show that although there seem to be more differences than similarities in terms of the categorisation of the ideational grammatical metaphors conceptualised in the two case studies analysed, there are more similarities than differences in terms of the occurrence, the congruence of process types and the role and function of IGM. Through the immediacy and essentialism of compacting and condensing information, IGM seems to be an important linguistic strategy adopted in the rhetoric of corporate annual reports, contributing to the ideologies and actions of companies to report and promote efficiency, profit and social and environmental sustainability, thus advocating the engagement and investment of key stakeholders.

Keywords: corporate annual reports, cross-cultural perspective, ideational grammatical metaphor, rhetoric, systemic functional linguistics

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Authors: Marco Camilli

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This article examines the impact of the pandemic outbreak of COVID-19 in the tourism sector in Italy, analyzing the current scenario, the government decisions and the private company reaction for the summer season 2020. The framework of the data analyzed shows how massive it’s the impact of the pandemic outbreak in the tourism revenue, and the weaknesses of the measures proposed. Keywords Travel &Tourism, Transportation, Sustainability, COVID-19, Businesses Introduction The current COVID-19 scenario shows a shocking situation for the tourism and transportation sectors: it could be the most affected by the Coronavirus in Italy. According to forecasts, depending on the duration of the epidemic outbreak and the lockdown strategy applied by the Government, businesses in the supply chain could lose between 24 and 66 billion in turnover in the period of 2020-21, with huge diversified impacts at the national and regional level. Many tourist companies are on the verge of survival and if there are no massive measures by the government they risk closure. Data analysis The tourism and transport sector could be among the sectors most damaged by Covid-19 in Italy. Considering the two-year period 2020-21, companies operating in the travel & tourism sector (Tour operator, Travel Agencies, Hotel, Guides, Bus Company, etc..) could in suffer losses in revenues of 24 to 64 billion euros, especially in the sectors such as the travel agencies, hotel and rental. According to Statista Research Department, from April 2020 estimated that the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic will have a significant impact on revenues of the tourism industry in Italy. Revenues are expected to decrease by over 40 billion euros in the first semester of 2020, compared to the same period of the previous year. According to the study, hotel and non-hotel accommodations will experience the highest loss. Revenues of this sector are expected to decrease by 13 billion euros compared to the first semester of 2019 when accommodations registered revenues for about 17 billion euros. According to Statista.com, in 2020, Italy is expected to register a decrease of roughly 28.5 million tourist arrivals due to the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) on the country's tourist sector. According to the estimate, the region of Veneto will record the highest drop with a decrease of roughly 4.61 million arrivals. Similarly, Lombardy is expected to register a decrease of about 3.87 million arrivals in 2020.

Keywords: travel and tourism, sustainability, COVID-19, businesses, transportation

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

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

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

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Authors: Moses Jenkins

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Much of the focus when improving energy efficiency in buildings fall on the raising of standards within new build dwellings. However, as a significant proportion of the building stock across Europe is of historic or traditional construction, there is also a pressing need to improve the thermal performance of structures of this sort. On average, around twenty percent of buildings across Europe are built of historic masonry construction. In order to meet carbon reduction targets, these buildings will require to be retrofitted with insulation to improve their thermal performance. At the same time, there is also a need to balance this with maintaining the ability of historic masonry construction to allow moisture movement through building fabric to take place. This moisture transfer, often referred to as 'breathable construction', is critical to the success, or otherwise, of retrofit projects. The significance of this paper is to demonstrate that substantial thermal improvements can be made to historic buildings whilst avoiding damage to building fabric through surface or interstitial condensation. The paper will analyze the results of a wide range of retrofit measures installed to twenty buildings as part of Historic Environment Scotland's technical research program. This program has been active for fourteen years and has seen interventions across a wide range of building types, using over thirty different methods and materials to improve the thermal performance of historic buildings. The first part of the paper will present the range of interventions which have been made. This includes insulating mass masonry walls both internally and externally, warm and cold roof insulation and improvements to floors. The second part of the paper will present the results of monitoring work which has taken place to these buildings after being retrofitted. This will be in terms of both thermal improvement, expressed as a U-value as defined in BS EN ISO 7345:1987, and also, crucially, will present the results of moisture monitoring both on the surface of masonry walls the following retrofit and also within the masonry itself. The aim of this moisture monitoring is to establish if there are any problems with interstitial condensation. This monitoring utilizes Interstitial Hygrothermal Gradient Monitoring (IHGM) and similar methods to establish relative humidity on the surface of and within the masonry. The results of the testing are clear and significant for retrofit projects across Europe. Where a building is of historic construction the use of materials for wall, roof and floor insulation which are permeable to moisture vapor provides both significant thermal improvements (achieving a u-value as low as 0.2 Wm²K) whilst avoiding problems of both surface and intestinal condensation. As the evidence which will be presented in the paper comes from monitoring work in buildings rather than theoretical modeling, there are many important lessons which can be learned and which can inform retrofit projects to historic buildings throughout Europe.

Keywords: insulation, condensation, masonry, historic

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Authors: Noor Ismael, Somaya Malkawi, Sherin Al Awady, Taleb Ismael

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Background/Significance: Cancer is a serious health condition that affects individuals’ quality of life during and after the course of this condition. Children who have survived cancer and their caregivers may deal with residual physical, cognitive or social disabilities. There is little research on caregivers’ health and wellbeing after cancer. To the authors’ best knowledge; there is no specific research about how caregivers cope with everyday stressors after cancer. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the coping strategies that caregivers of children who have survived cancer utilize to overcome everyday stressors. Methods: This study utilized a descriptive survey design. The sample consisted of 103 caregivers, who visited the health and wellness clinic at a national cancer center (additional demographics are presented in the results). The sample included caregivers of children who were off cancer treatments for at least two years from the beginning of data collection. The institution’s internal review board approved this study. Caregivers who agreed to participate completed the survey. The survey collected caregiver reported demographic information and the Brief COPE which measures caregivers' frequency of engaging in certain coping strategies. The Brief COPE consisted of 14 coping sub-scales, which are self-distraction, active coping, denial, substance use, use of emotional support, use of instrumental support, behavioral disengagement, venting, positive reframing, planning, humor, acceptance, religion, and self-blame. Data analyses included calculating sub-scales’ scores for the fourteen coping strategies and analysis of frequencies of demographics and coping strategies. Results: The 103 caregivers who participated in this study were 62% mothers, 80% married, 45% finished high school, 50% do not work outside the house, and 60% have low family income. Result showed that religious coping (66%) and acceptance (60%) were the most utilized coping strategies, followed by positive reframing (45%), active coping (44%) and planning (43%). The least utilized coping strategies in our sample were humor (5%), behavioral disengagement (8%), and substance-use (10%). Conclusions: Caregivers of children who have survived cancer mostly utilize religious coping and acceptance in dealing with everyday stressors. Because these coping strategies do not directly solve stressors like active coping and planning coping strategies, it is important to support caregivers in choosing and implementing effective coping strategies. Knowing from our results that some caregivers may utilize substance use as a coping strategy, which has negative health effects on caregivers and their children, there must be direct interventions that target these caregivers and their families.

Keywords: caregivers, cancer, stress, coping

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Authors: Taro Komori, Toshiki Gushi, Akihito Anzai, Taku Hirose, Kaoru Toko, Shinji Isogami, Takashi Suemasu

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Ferrimagnetic antiperovskite Mn₄₋ₓNiₓN thin film exhibits both small saturation magnetization and rather large perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) when x is small. Both of them are suitable features for application to current induced domain wall motion devices using spin transfer torque (STT). In this work, we successfully grew antiperovskite 30-nm-thick Mn₄₋ₓNiₓN epitaxial thin films on MgO(001) and STO(001) substrates by MBE in order to investigate their crystalline qualities and magnetic and magneto-transport properties. Crystalline qualities were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The magnetic properties were measured by vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) at room temperature. Anomalous Hall effect was measured by physical properties measurement system. Both measurements were performed at room temperature. Temperature dependence of magnetization was measured by VSM-Superconducting quantum interference device. XRD patterns indicate epitaxial growth of Mn₄₋ₓNiₓN thin films on both substrates, ones on STO(001) especially have higher c-axis orientation thanks to greater lattice matching. According to VSM measurement, PMA was observed in Mn₄₋ₓNiₓN on MgO(001) when x ≤ 0.25 and on STO(001) when x ≤ 0.5, and MS decreased drastically with x. For example, MS of Mn₃.₉Ni₀.₁N on STO(001) was 47.4 emu/cm³. From the anomalous Hall resistivity (ρAH) of Mn₄₋ₓNiₓN thin films on STO(001) with the magnetic field perpendicular to the plane, we found out Mr/MS was about 1 when x ≤ 0.25, which suggests large magnetic domains in samples and suitable features for DW motion device application. In contrast, such square curves were not observed for Mn₄₋ₓNiₓN on MgO(001), which we attribute to difference in lattice matching. Furthermore, it’s notable that although the sign of ρAH was negative when x = 0 and 0.1, it reversed positive when x = 0.25 and 0.5. The similar reversal occurred for temperature dependence of magnetization. The magnetization of Mn₄₋ₓNiₓN on STO(001) increases with decreasing temperature when x = 0 and 0.1, while it decreases when x = 0.25. We considered that these reversals were caused by magnetic compensation which occurred in Mn₄₋ₓNiₓN between x = 0.1 and 0.25. We expect Mn atoms of Mn₄₋ₓNiₓN crystal have larger magnetic moments than Ni atoms do. The temperature dependence stated above can be explained if we assume that Ni atoms preferentially occupy the corner sites, and their magnetic moments have different temperature dependence from Mn atoms at the face-centered sites. At the compensation point, Mn₄₋ₓNiₓN is expected to show very efficient STT and ultrafast DW motion with small current density. What’s more, if angular momentum compensation is found, the efficiency will be best optimized. In order to prove the magnetic compensation, X-ray magnetic circular dichroism will be performed. Energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry is a candidate method to analyze the accurate composition ratio of samples.

Keywords: compensation, ferrimagnetism, Mn₄N, PMA

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Authors: Chia-Ling Hsieh, Kankanit Potikit

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Metadiscourse refers to linguistic resources employed by writers to organize text and interact with readers. While metadiscourse has received considerable attention within the field of discourse analysis, few studies have explored the use of metadiscourse in email, one of the most popular forms of computer-mediated communication. Furthermore, the diversity of cross-linguistic research required to uncover the influence of cultural factors on metadiscourse use is lacking. The present study compares metadiscourse markers employed in Chinese and Thai-language request emails with the purpose of discovering cross-cultural similarities and differences that are meaningful and applicable to foreign language teaching. The analysis is based on a corpus of 200 request emails: 100 composed in Chinese and 100 in Thai, with half of the emails from each language data set addressed to professors and the other half addressed to classmates. Adopting Hyland’s model as an analytical framework, two primary categories of metadiscourse are identified. Textual metadiscourse helps to create text coherence, while interpersonal metadiscourse functions to convey authorial stance. Results of the study make clear that both Chinese and Thai-language emails use significantly more interpersonal markers than textual markers, indicating that email, as a unique communicative medium, is characterized by high degrees of concision and interactivity. Users of both languages further deploy similar patterns in writing emails to recipients of different social statuses. Compared with emails addressed to classmates, emails addressed to professors are notably longer and include more transition and engagement markers. Nevertheless, cultural factors do play a role. Emails composed in Thai, for example, include more textual markers than those in Chinese, as Thai favors formal expressions and detailed explanations, while in contrast, emails composed in Chinese employ more interpersonal markers than those in Thai, since Chinese tends to emphasize recipient involvement and attitudinal warmth. These findings thereby demonstrate the combined effects of email as a communicative medium, social status, and cultural values on metadiscourse usage. The study concludes by applying these findings to pedagogical suggestions for teaching email writing to Chinese and Thai language learners based on similarities and differences in metadiscourse strategy between the two languages.

Keywords: discourse analysis, email, metadiscourse, writing instruction

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Authors: Bing Xu, Kerry Lee, Jason M. Stephen

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Collaborative learning (CL) has been regarded as a way to facilitate students to gain knowledge and improve social skills. In China, lecturers in higher education institutions have commonly adopted CL in their daily practice. However, such a strategy could not be effective when it is designed and applied in an inappropriate way. Previous research hardly focused on how CL was applied in Chinese universities. This present study aims to gain a deep understanding of how Chinese lecturers design and implement CL tasks. The researchers interviewed ten lecturers from different faculties in various universities in China and usedGroup Learning Activity Instructional Design (GLAID) framework to analyse the data. We found that not all lecturers pay enough attention to eight essential components (proposed by GLAID) when they designed CL tasks, especially the components of Structure and Guidance. Meanwhile, only a small part of lecturers made formative assessment to help students improve learning. We also discuss the strengths and limitations and CL design and further provide suggestions to the lecturers who intend to use CL in class. Research Objectives: The aims of the present research are threefold. We intend to 1) gain a deep understanding of how Chinese lecturers design and implement collaborative learning (CL) tasks, 2) find strengths and limitations of CL design in higher education, and 3) give suggestions about how to improve the design and implement. Research Methods: This research adopted qualitative methods. We applied the semi-structured interview method to interview ten Chinese lecturers about how they designed and implemented CL tasks in their courses. There were 9 questions in the interview protocol focusing on eight components of GLAID. Then, underpinning the GLAID framework, we utilized the coding reliability thematic analysis method to analyse the research data. The coding work was done by two PhD students whose research fields are CL, and the Cohen’s Kappa was 0.772 showing the inter-coder reliability was good. Contribution: Though CL has been commonly adopted in China, few studies have paid attention to the details about how lecturers designed and implemented CL tasks in practice. This research addressed such a gap and found not lecturers were aware of how to design CL and felt it difficult to structure the task and guide the students on collaboration, and further ensure student engagement in CL. In summary, this research advocates for teacher training; otherwise, students may not gain the expected learning outcomes.

Keywords: collaborative learning, higher education, task design, GLAID framework

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Authors: Miraji H. Mohamed

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The purpose of this study is to critique ‘radicalisation’ and more particularly ‘youth radicalisation’ by exploring its usage in online newspapers. ‘Radicalisation’ and ‘extremism’ have become the most common terms in terrorism studies since the 9/11 attacks. Regardless of the geographic location, when the word terrorism is used the terms ‘radicalisation’ and ‘extremism’ always follow to attempt to explore the journey of the perpetrators towards violence. These terms have come to represent a discourse of dominantly pejorative traits often used to describe spaces, groups, and processes identified as problematic. Even though ambiguously defined they feature widely in government documents, political statements, news articles, academic research, social media platforms, religious gatherings, and public discussions. Notably, ‘radicalisation’ and ‘extremism’ have been closely conflated with the term youth to form ‘youth radicalisation’ to refer to a discourse of ‘youth at risk’. The three terms largely continue to be used unquestioningly and interchangeably hence the reason why they are placed in single quotation marks to deliberately question their conventional usage. Albeit this comes timely in the Kenyan context where there has been a proliferation of academic and expert research on ‘youth radicalisation’ (used as a neutral label) without considering the political, cultural and socio-historical contexts that inform this label. This study seeks to draw these nuances by employing a genealogical approach that historicises and deconstructs ‘youth radicalisation’; and by applying a Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA) of Critical Discourse Analysis to analyse Kenyan online newspaper - The Daily Nation between 2015 and 2018. By applying the concept of representation to analyse written texts, the study reveals that the use of ‘youth radicalisation’ as a discursive strategy disproportionately affects young people especially those from cultural/ethnic/religious minority groups. Also, the ambiguous use of ‘radicalisation’ and ‘youth radicalisation’ by the media reinforces the discourse of ‘youth at risk’ which has become the major framework underpinning Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) interventions. Similarly, the findings indicate that the uncritical use of ‘youth radicalisation’ has been used to serve political interests; and has become an instrument of policing young people, thus contributing to their cultural shaping. From this, it is evident that the media could thwart rather than assist CVE efforts. By exposing the political nature of the three terms through evidence-based research, this study offers recommendations on how critical reflective reporting by the media could help to make CVE more nuanced.

Keywords: discourse, extremism, radicalisation, terrorism, youth

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Authors: Muritala Babatunde Hassan

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In the contemporary global political economy, foreign direct investment (FDI) is gaining currency on daily basis. Notably, the end of the Cold War has brought about the dominance of neoliberal ideology with its mantra of private-sector-led economy. As such, nation-states now see FDI attraction as an important element in their approach to national development. Governments and policy makers are preoccupying themselves with unraveling the best strategies to not only attract more FDI but also to attain the desired socio-economic development status. In Nigeria, the perceived development potentials of FDI have brought about aggressive hunt for foreign investors, most especially since transition to civilian rule in May 1999. Series of liberal and market oriented strategies are being adopted not only to attract foreign investors but largely to stimulate private sector participation in the economy. It is on this premise that this study interrogates the politics of FDI attraction for domestic development in Nigeria between 1999 and 2014, with the ultimate aim of examining the nexus between regime type and the ability of a state to attract and benefit from FDI. Building its analysis within the framework of institutional utilitarianism, the study posits that the essential FDI strategies for achieving the greatest happiness for the greatest number of Nigerians are political not economic. Both content analysis and descriptive survey methodology were employed in carrying out the study. Content analysis involves desk review of literatures that culminated in the development of the study’s conceptual and theoretical framework of analysis. The study finds no significant relationship between transition to democracy and FDI inflows in Nigeria, as most of the attracted investments during the period of the study were market and resource seeking as was the case during the military regime, thereby contributing minimally to the socio-economic development of the country. It is also found that the country placed much emphasis on liberalization and incentives for FDI attraction at the neglect of improving the domestic investment environment. Consequently, poor state of infrastructure, weak institutional capability and insecurity were identified as the major factors seriously hindering the success of Nigeria in exploiting FDI for domestic development. Given the reality of the currency of FDI as a vector of economic globalization and that Nigeria is trailing the line of private-sector-led approach to development, it is recommended that emphasis should be placed on those measures aimed at improving the infrastructural facilities, building solid institutional framework, enhancing skill and technological transfer and coordinating FDI promotion activities by different agencies and at different levels of government.

Keywords: foreign capital, politics, socio-economic development, FDI attraction strategies

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Authors: Medha Talpade, Salil Talpade

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The intent of this quantitative project was to compare the values and perceptions of students from a predominantly white college (PWI) to those from a historically black college (HBCU) about culturally relevant teaching and learning practices in the academic realm. The reason for interrelating student culture with teaching practices is to enable a pedagogical response to the low retention rates of African American students and first generation Caucasian students in high schools, colleges, and their low rates of social mobility and educational achievement. Culturally relevant pedagogy, according to related research, is deemed rewarding to students, teachers, the local and national community. Critical race theory (CRT) is the main framework used in this project to explain the ubiquity of a culturally relevant pedagogy. The purpose of this quantitative study was to test the critical race theory that relates the presence of the factors associated with culturally relevant teaching strategies with perceived relevance. The culturally relevant teaching strategies were identified based on the recommendations and findings of past research. Participants in this study included approximately 145 students from a HBCU and 55 students from the PWI. A survey consisting of 37 items related to culturally relevant pedagogy was administered. The themes used to construct the items were: Use of culturally-specific examples in class whenever possible; use of culturally-specific presentational models, use of relational reinforcers, and active engagement. All the items had a likert-type response scale. Participants reported their degree of agreement (5-point scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree) and importance (3-point scale ranging from not at all important to very important) with each survey item. A new variable, Relevance was formed based on the multiplicative function of importance and presence of a teaching and learning strategy. A set of six demographic questions were included in the survey. A consent form based on NIH and APA ethical standards was distributed prior to survey administration to the volunteers. Results of a Factor Analyses on the data from the PWI and the HBCU, and a ANOVA indicated significant differences on ‘Relevance’ related to specific themes. Results of this study are expected to inform educational practices and improve teaching and learning outcomes.

Keywords: culturally relevant pedagogy, college students, cross-cultural, applied psychology

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Authors: Mclee Kerolle

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

Keywords: Colorado, Hawaii, Netherlands, space policy

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Authors: Kuhorfah Emmanuel Mawuli

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Generally, for firms to enhance their operational efficiency of logistics, it is imperative to assess the logistics function. The cost of logistics conventionally represents a key consideration in the pricing decisions of firms, which suggests that cost efficiency in logistics can go a long way to improve margins. Warehousing, which is a key part of logistics operations, has the prospect of influencing operational efficiency in logistics management as well as customer value, but this potential has often not been recognized. It has been found that there is a paucity of research that evaluates the efficiency of warehouses. Indeed, limited research has been conducted to examine potential barriers to effective warehousing management. Due to this paucity of research, there is limited knowledge on how to address the obstacles associated with warehousing management. In order for warehousing management to become profitable, there is the need to integrate, balance, and manage the economic inputs and outputs of the entire warehouse operations, something that many firms tend to ignore. Management of warehousing is not solely related to storage functions. Instead, effective warehousing management requires such practices as maximum possible mechanization and automation of operations, optimal use of space and capacity of storage facilities, organization through "continuous flow" of goods, a planned system of storage operations, and safety of goods. For example, there is an important need for space utilization of the warehouse surface as it is a good way to evaluate the storing operation and pick items per hour. In the setting of Mantrac Ghana, not much knowledge regarding the management of the warehouses exists. The researcher has personally observed many gaps in the management of the warehouse facilities in the case organization Mantrac Ghana. It is important, therefore, to assess the warehouse facility management of the case company with the objective of identifying weaknesses for improvement. The study employs an in-depth qualitative research approach using interviews as a mode of data collection. Respondents in the study mainly comprised warehouse facility managers in the studied company. A total of 10 participants were selected for the study using a purposive sampling strategy. Results emanating from the study demonstrate limited warehousing effectiveness in the case company. Findings further reveal that the major barriers to effective warehousing facility management comprise poor layout, poor picking optimization, labour costs, and inaccurate orders; policy implications of the study findings are finally outlined.

Keywords: assessing, warehousing, facility, management

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Authors: W. Hajuthman, R. Warner, S. Rahman, M. Abraham, H. Helliwell, D. Bodiwala

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Context: Prostate cancer is a prevalent cancer in males in Europe and the US, with diagnosis primarily relying on PSA testing, mpMRI, and subsequent biopsies. However, this diagnostic strategy may lead to complications for patients. Research Aim: The aim of this study is to assess compliance with trust guidelines for antibiotic prophylaxis in patients undergoing transperineal template biopsies of the prostate and evaluate the rate of post-procedure complications. Methodology: This study is conducted retrospectively over an 8-month period. Data collection includes patient demographics, compliance with trust guidelines, associated risk factors, and post-procedure complications such as infection, haematuria, and urinary retention. Findings: The audit includes 100 patients with a median age of 66.11. The compliance with pre-procedure antibiotics was 98%, while compliance with antibiotic prophylaxis recommended by trust guidelines was 68%. Among the patients, 3% developed post-procedure sepsis, with 2 requiring admission for intravenous antibiotics. No evident risk factors were identified in these cases. Additionally, post-procedure urinary retention occurred in 3% of patients and post-procedure haematuria in 2%. Theoretical Importance: This study highlights the increasing use of transperineal template biopsies across UK centres and suggests that having a standardized protocol and compliance with guidelines can reduce confusion, ensure appropriate administration of antibiotics, and mitigate post-procedure complications. Data Collection and Analysis Procedures: Data for this study is collected retrospectively, involving the extraction and analysis of relevant information from patient records over the specified 8-month period. Question Addressed: This study addresses the following research questions: (1) What is the compliance rate with trust guidelines for antibiotic prophylaxis in transperineal template biopsies of the prostate? (2) What is the rate of post-procedure complications, such as infection, haematuria, and urinary retention? Conclusion: Transperineal template biopsies are becoming increasingly prevalent in the UK. Implementing a standardized protocol and ensuring compliance with guidelines can reduce confusion, ensure proper administration of antibiotics, and potentially minimize post-procedure complications. Additionally, considering that studies show no difference in outcomes when prophylactic antibiotics are not used, the reminder to follow trust guidelines may prompt a re-evaluation of antibiotic prescribing practices.

Keywords: prostate, transperineal template biopsies of prostate, antibiotics, complications, microbiology, guidelines

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Authors: Olubisi Friday Oluduro

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The Paris Agreement 2015, the result of negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), after Kyoto Protocol expiration, sets a long-term goal of limiting the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and of pursuing efforts to limiting this temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius. An advancement on the erstwhile Kyoto Protocol which sets commitments to only a limited number of Parties to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions, it includes the goal to increase the ability to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change and to make finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low GHGs emissions. For it achieve these goals, the Agreement requires all Parties to undertake efforts towards reaching global peaking of GHG emissions as soon as possible and towards achieving a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks in the second half of the twenty-first century. In addition to climate change mitigation, the Agreement aims at enhancing adaptive capacity, strengthening resilience and reducing the vulnerability to climate change in different parts of the world. It acknowledges the importance of addressing loss and damage associated with the adverse of climate change. The Agreement also contains comprehensive provisions on support to be provided to developing countries, which includes finance, technology transfer and capacity building. To ensure that such supports and actions are transparent, the Agreement contains a number reporting provisions, requiring parties to choose the efforts and measures that mostly suit them (Nationally Determined Contributions), providing for a mechanism of assessing progress and increasing global ambition over time by a regular global stocktake. Despite the somewhat global look of the Agreement, it has been fraught with manifold limitations threatening its very existential capability to produce any meaningful result. Considering these obvious limitations some of which were the very cause of the failure of its predecessor—the Kyoto Protocol—such as the non-participation of the United States, non-payment of funds into the various coffers for appropriate strategic purposes, among others. These have left the developing countries largely threatened eve the more, being more vulnerable than the developed countries, which are really responsible for the climate change scourge. The paper seeks to examine the mitigation and adaptation measures under the Paris Agreement 2015, appraise the present situation since the Agreement was concluded and ascertain whether the developing countries have been better or worse off since the Agreement was concluded, and examine why and how, while projecting a way forward in the present circumstance. It would conclude with recommendations towards ameliorating the situation.

Keywords: mitigation, adaptation, climate change, Paris agreement 2015, framework

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Authors: Mohamed Raouf Benmakrelouf, Joseph Rynkiewicz

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Targeted maximum likelihood estimation (TMLE) is well-established method for causal effect estimation with desirable statistical properties. TMLE is a doubly robust maximum likelihood based approach that includes a secondary targeting step that optimizes the target statistical parameter. A causal interpretation of the statistical parameter requires assumptions of the Rubin causal framework. The causal effect of binary variable, E, on outcomes, Y, is defined in terms of comparisons between two potential outcomes as E[YE=1 − YE=0]. Our aim in this paper is to present an adaptation of TMLE methodology to estimate the causal effect of a non-binary categorical variable, providing a large application. We propose coding on the initial data in order to operate a binarization of the interest variable. For each category, we get a transformation of the non-binary interest variable into a binary variable, taking value 1 to indicate the presence of category (or group of categories) for an individual, 0 otherwise. Such a dummy variable makes it possible to have a pair of potential outcomes and oppose a category (or a group of categories) to another category (or a group of categories). Let E be a non-binary interest variable. We propose a complete disjunctive coding of our variable E. We transform the initial variable to obtain a set of binary vectors (dummy variables), E = (Ee : e ∈ {1, ..., |E|}), where each vector (variable), Ee, takes the value of 0 when its category is not present, and the value of 1 when its category is present, which allows to compute a pairwise-TMLE comparing difference in the outcome between one category and all remaining categories. In order to illustrate the application of our strategy, first, we present the implementation of TMLE to estimate the causal effect of non-binary variable on outcome using simulated data. Secondly, we apply our TMLE adaptation to survey data from the French Political Barometer (CEVIPOF), to estimate the causal effect of education level (A five-level variable) on a potential vote in favor of the French extreme right candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen. Counterfactual reasoning requires us to consider some causal questions (additional causal assumptions). Leading to different coding of E, as a set of binary vectors, E = (Ee : e ∈ {2, ..., |E|}), where each vector (variable), Ee, takes the value of 0 when the first category (reference category) is present, and the value of 1 when its category is present, which allows to apply a pairwise-TMLE comparing difference in the outcome between the first level (fixed) and each remaining level. We confirmed that the increase in the level of education decreases the voting rate for the extreme right party.

Keywords: statistical inference, causal inference, super learning, targeted maximum likelihood estimation

Procedia PDF Downloads 103

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

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

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

Procedia PDF Downloads 145

Authors: Tas Yong Koh, Steve Rowlinson, Yuzhong Shen

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In construction safety management, safety climate has long been linked to workers' safety behaviors and performance. For this reason, safety climate concept and tools have been used as heuristics to diagnose a range of safety-related issues by some progressive contractors in Hong Kong and elsewhere. However, as a diagnostic tool, safety climate tends to treat the different components of the climate construct in a linear fashion. Safety management in construction projects, in reality, is a multi-faceted and multilevel phenomenon that resembles a complex system. Hence, understanding safety management in construction projects requires not only the understanding of safety climate but also the organizational-systemic nature of the phenomenon. Our involvement, diagnoses, and interpretations of a range of safety climate-related issues which culminated in the project’s sub-optimum safety performance in an infrastructure construction project have brought about such revelation. In this study, a range of data types had been collected from various hierarchies of the project site organization. These include the frontline workers and supervisors from the main and sub-contractors, and the client supervisory personnel. Data collection was performed through the administration of safety climate questionnaire, interviews, observation, and document study. The findings collectively indicate that what had emerged in parallel of the seemingly linear climate-based exploration is the exposition of the organization-systemic nature of the phenomenon. The results indicate the negative impacts of climate perceptions mismatch, insufficient work planning, and risk management, mixed safety leadership, workforce negative attributes, lapsed safety enforcement and resources shortages collectively give rise to the project sub-optimum safety performance. From the dynamic causation and multilevel perspective, the analyses show that the individual, group, and organizational levels issues are interrelated and these interrelationships are linked to negative safety climate. Hence the adoption of both perspectives has enabled a fuller understanding of the phenomenon of safety management that point to the need for an organizational-systemic intervention strategy. The core message points to the fact that intervention at an individual level will only meet with limited success if the risks embedded in the higher levels in group and project organization are not addressed. The findings can be used to guide the effective development of safety infrastructure by linking different levels of systems in a construction project organization.

Keywords: construction safety management, dynamic causation, multilevel analysis, safety climate

Procedia PDF Downloads 175

Authors: Abdul Mutolib, Yonariza Mahdi, Hanung Ismono

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The existence of forests is essential to human lives on earth, but its existence is threatened by forest deforestations and degradations. Forest deforestations and degradations in Indonesia is not only caused by the illegal activity by the company or the like, even today many cases in Indonesia forest damage caused by human activities, one of which cut down forests for agriculture and plantations. In West Sumatra, community forest management are the result supported the enactment of customary land tenure, including ownership of land within the forest. Indigenous forest management have a positive benefit, which gives the community an opportunity to get livelihood and income, but if forest management practices by indigenous peoples is not done wisely, then there is the destruction of forests and cause adverse effects on the environment. Based on intensive field works in Dhamasraya District employing some data collection techniques such as key informant interviews, household surveys, secondary data analysis, and satellite image interpretation. This paper answers the following questions; how the impact of forest management by local communities on forest conditions (foccus in Forest Production and Limited Production Forest) and knowledge of the local community on the benefits of forests. The site is a Nagari Bonjol, Dharmasraya District, because most of the forest in Dharmasraya located and owned by Nagari Bonjol community. The result shows that there is damage to forests in Dharmasraya because of forest management activities by local communities. Damage to the forest area of 33,500 ha in Dharmasraya because forests are converted into oil palm and rubber plantations with monocultures. As a result of the destruction of forests, water resources are also diminishing, and the community has experienced a drought in the dry season due to forest cut down and replaced by oil palm plantations. Knowledge of the local community on the benefits of low forest, the people considered that the forest does not have better benefits and cut down and converted into oil palm or rubber plantations. Local people do not understand the benefits of ecological and environmental services that forests. From the phenomena in Dharmasraya on land ownership, need to educate the local community about the importance of protecting the forest, and need a strategy to integrate forests management to keep the ecological functions that resemble the woods and counts the economic benefits for the welfare of local communities. One alternative that can be taken is to use forest management models agroforestry smallholders in accordance with the characteristics of the local community who still consider the economic, social and environmental.

Keywords: community, customary land, farmer plantations, and forests

Procedia PDF Downloads 335

Authors: Majid Farsadrouh Rashti, Amir Shafiee Kisomi, Parisa Jahani

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The direct ethanol fuel cells (DEFCs) are contemplated as a promising energy source because, In addition to being used in portable electronic devices, it is also used for electric vehicles. The synthesis of bimetallic nanostructures due to their novel optical, catalytic and electronic characteristic which is precisely in contrast to their monometallic counterparts is attracting extensive attention. Galvanic replacement (sometimes is named to as cementation or immersion plating) is an uncomplicated and effective technique for making nanostructures (such as core-shell) of different metals, semiconductors, and their application in DEFCs. The replacement of galvanic does not need any external power supply compared to electrodeposition. In addition, it is different from electroless deposition because there is no need for a reducing agent to replace galvanizing. In this paper, a fast method for the palladium (Pd) wire nanostructures synthesis with the great surface area through galvanic replacement reaction utilizing copper nanowires (CuNWS) as a template by the assistance of ultrasound under room temperature condition is proposed. To evaluate the morphology and composition of Pd@ Copper nanowires/MultiWalled Carbon nanotubes-Chitosan, emission scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy were applied. In order to measure the phase structure of the electrocatalysts were performed via room temperature X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) applying an X-ray diffractometer. Various electrochemical techniques including chronoamperometry and cyclic voltammetry were utilized for the electrocatalytic activity of ethanol electrooxidation and durability in basic solution. Pd@ Copper nanowires/MultiWalled Carbon nanotubes-Chitosan catalyst demonstrated substantially enhanced performance and long-term stability for ethanol electrooxidation in the basic solution in comparison to commercial Pd/C that demonstrated the potential in utilizing Pd@ Copper nanowires/MultiWalled Carbon nanotubes-Chitosan as efficient catalysts towards ethanol oxidation. Noticeably, the Pd@ Copper nanowires/MultiWalled Carbon nanotubes-Chitosan presented excellent catalytic activities with a peak current density of 320.73 mAcm² which was 9.5 times more than in comparison to Pd/C (34.2133 mAcm²). Additionally, activation energy thermodynamic and kinetic evaluations revealed that the Pd@ Copper nanowires/MultiWalled Carbon nanotubes-Chitosan catalyst has lower compared to Pd/C which leads to a lower energy barrier and an excellent charge transfer rate towards ethanol oxidation.

Keywords: core-shell structure, electrocatalyst, ethanol oxidation, galvanic replacement reaction

Procedia PDF Downloads 147

Authors: Han-Mei Chen, Rongxin Zhou, Taige Wang

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Glass is widely used in everyday life, from glass bottles for beverages to architectural glass for various forms of glazing. Although the mainstream of used glass is recycled in the UK, the single-use and then recycling procedure results in a lot of waste as it incorporates intact glass with smashing, re-melting, and remanufacturing. These processes bring massive energy consumption with a huge loss of high embodied energy and economic value, compared to re-use, which’s towards a ‘zero carbon’ target. As a tourism city, Liverpool has more glass bottle consumption than most less leisure-focused cities. It’s therefore vital for Liverpool to find an upgrading approach for the single-use glass bottles with low carbon output. This project aims to assess the feasibility of industrial symbiosis and upgrading the framework of glass and to investigate the ways of achieving them. It is significant to Liverpool’s future industrial strategy since it provides an opportunity to target economic recovery for post-COVID by industry symbiosis and up-grading waste management in Liverpool to respond to the climate emergency. In addition, it will influence the local government policy for glass bottle reuse and recycling in North West England and as a good practice to be further recommended to other areas of the UK. First, a critical literature review of glass waste strategies has been conducted in the UK and worldwide industrial symbiosis practices. Second, mapping, data collection, and analysis have shown the current life cycle chain and the strong links of glass reuse and upgrading potentials via site visits to 16 local waste recycling centres. The results of this research have demonstrated the understanding of the influence of key factors on the development of a circular industrial symbiosis business model for beverage glass bottles. The current waste management procedures of the glass bottle industry, its business model, supply chain, and material flow have been reviewed. The various potential opportunities for glass bottle up-valuing have been investigated towards an industrial symbiosis in Liverpool. Finally, an up-valuing business model has been developed for an industrial symbiosis framework of glass in Liverpool. For glass bottles, there are two possibilities 1) focus on upgrading processes towards re-use rather than single-use and recycling and 2) focus on ‘smart’ re-use and recycling, leading to optimised values in other sectors to create a wider industry symbiosis for a multi-level and circular economy.

Keywords: glass bottles, industry symbiosis, smart re-use, waste upgrading

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Authors: Stefano Iannello, Massimiliano Materazzi

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Fluidized bed reactor technologies are one of the most valuable pathways for thermochemical conversions of biogenic fuels due to their good operating flexibility. Nevertheless, there are still issues related to the mixing and separation of heterogeneous phases during operation with highly volatile feedstocks, including biomass and waste. At high temperatures, the volatile content of the feedstock is released in the form of the so-called endogenous bubbles, which generally exert a “lift” effect on the particle itself by dragging it up to the bed surface. Such phenomenon leads to high release of volatile matter into the freeboard and limited mass and heat transfer with particles of the bed inventory. The aim of this work is to get a better understanding of the behaviour of a single reacting particle in a hot fluidized bed reactor during the devolatilization stage. The analysis has been undertaken at different fluidization regimes and temperatures to closely mirror the operating conditions of waste-to-energy processes. Beechwood and polypropylene particles were used to resemble the biomass and plastic fractions present in waste materials, respectively. The non-invasive X-ray technique was coupled to particle tracking algorithms to characterize the motion of a single feedstock particle during the devolatilization with high resolution. A high-energy X-ray beam passes through the vessel where absorption occurs, depending on the distribution and amount of solids and fluids along the beam path. A high-speed video camera is synchronised to the beam and provides frame-by-frame imaging of the flow patterns of fluids and solids within the fluidized bed up to 72 fps (frames per second). A comprehensive mathematical model has been developed in order to validate the experimental results. Beech wood and polypropylene particles have shown a very different dynamic behaviour during the pyrolysis stage. When the feedstock is fed from the bottom, the plastic material tends to spend more time within the bed than the biomass. This behaviour can be attributed to the presence of the endogenous bubbles, which drag effect is more pronounced during the devolatilization of biomass, resulting in a lower residence time of the particle within the bed. At the typical operating temperatures of thermochemical conversions, the synthetic polymer softens and melts, and the bed particles attach on its outer surface, generating a wet plastic-sand agglomerate. Consequently, this additional layer of sand may hinder the rapid evolution of volatiles in the form of endogenous bubbles, and therefore the establishment of a poor drag effect acting on the feedstock itself. Information about the mixing and segregation of solid feedstock is of prime importance for the design and development of more efficient industrial-scale operations.

Keywords: fluidized bed, pyrolysis, waste feedstock, X-ray

Procedia PDF Downloads 172

Authors: Ahmed Hossam ElMolla, Mohamed Hatem Saleh, Hamza Mostafa, Lara Mamdouh, Yassin Wael

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Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping industries, and its potential to revolutionize renewable energy and data center operations is immense. By harnessing AI's capabilities, we can optimize energy consumption, predict fluctuations in renewable energy generation, and improve the efficiency of data center infrastructure. This convergence of technologies promises a future where energy is managed more intelligently, sustainably, and cost-effectively. The integration of AI into renewable energy systems unlocks a wealth of opportunities. Machine learning algorithms can analyze vast amounts of data to forecast weather patterns, solar irradiance, and wind speeds, enabling more accurate energy production planning. AI-powered systems can optimize energy storage and grid management, ensuring a stable power supply even during intermittent renewable generation. Moreover, AI can identify maintenance needs for renewable energy infrastructure, preventing costly breakdowns and maximizing system lifespan. Data centers, which consume substantial amounts of energy, are prime candidates for AI-driven optimization. AI can analyze energy consumption patterns, identify inefficiencies, and recommend adjustments to cooling systems, server utilization, and power distribution. Predictive maintenance using AI can prevent equipment failures, reducing energy waste and downtime. Additionally, AI can optimize data placement and retrieval, minimizing energy consumption associated with data transfer. As AI transforms renewable energy and data center operations, modified Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) will emerge. Traditional metrics like energy efficiency and cost-per-megawatt-hour will continue to be relevant, but additional KPIs focused on AI's impact will be essential. These might include AI-driven cost savings, predictive accuracy of energy generation and consumption, and the reduction of carbon emissions attributed to AI-optimized operations. By tracking these KPIs, organizations can measure the success of their AI initiatives and identify areas for improvement. Ultimately, the synergy between AI, renewable energy, and data centers holds the potential to create a more sustainable and resilient future. By embracing these technologies, we can build smarter, greener, and more efficient systems that benefit both the environment and the economy.

Keywords: data center, artificial intelligence, renewable energy, energy efficiency, sustainability, optimization, predictive analytics, energy consumption, energy storage, grid management, data center optimization, key performance indicators, carbon emissions, resiliency

Procedia PDF Downloads 33

Authors: Asim Abbasi, Muhammad Sufyan, Muhammad Kamran, Iqra

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Development of resistance in insect pests against various groups of insecticides has prompted the use of alternative integrated pest management approaches. Among these induced host plant resistance represents an important strategy as it offers a practical, cheap and long lasting solution to keep pests populations below economic threshold level (ETL). Silicon (Si) has a major role in regulating plant eco-relationship by providing strength to the plant in the form of anti-stress mechanism which was utilized in coping with the environmental extremes to get a better yield and quality end produce. Among biotic stresses, insect herbivore signifies one class against which Si provide defense. Silicon in its neutral form (H₄SiO₄) is absorbed by the plants via roots through an active process accompanied by the help of different transporters which were located in the plasma membrane of root cells or by a passive process mostly regulated by transpiration stream, which occurs via the xylem cells along with the water. Plants tissues mainly the epidermal cell walls are the sinks of absorbed silicon where it polymerizes in the form of amorphous silica or monosilicic acid. The noteworthy function of this absorbed silicon is to provide structural rigidity to the tissues and strength to the cell walls. Silicon has both direct and indirect effects on insect herbivores. Increased abrasiveness and hardness of epidermal plant tissues and reduced digestibility as a result of deposition of Si primarily as phytoliths within cuticle layer is now the most authenticated mechanisms of Si in enhancing plant resistance to insect herbivores. Moreover, increased Si content in the diet also impedes the efficiency by which insects transformed consumed food into the body mass. The palatability of food material has also been changed by Si application, and it also deters herbivore feeding for food. The production of defensive compounds of plants like silica and phenols have also been amplified by the exogenous application of silicon sources which results in reduction of the probing time of certain insects. Some studies also highlighted the role of silicon at the third trophic level as it also attracts natural enemies of insects attacking the crop. Hence, the inclusion of Si in pest management approaches can be a healthy and eco-friendly tool in future.

Keywords: defensive, phytoliths, resistance, stresses

Procedia PDF Downloads 188

Authors: Turban Kar, Maitree Bhattacharyya

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Curcumin, a dietary antioxidant has been identified as a wonder molecule to possess therapeutic properties protecting the cellular macromolecules from oxidative damage. In our experimental study, we have explored the effectiveness of curcumin in protecting the structural paradigm of Human Serum Albumin (HSA) when exposed to gamma irradiation. HSA, being an important transport protein of the circulatory system, is involved in binding of variety of metabolites, drugs, dyes and fatty acids due to the presence of hydrophobic pockets inside the structure. HSA is also actively involved in the transportation of drugs and metabolites to their targets, because of its long half-life and regulation of osmotic blood pressure. Gamma rays, in its increasing concentration, results in structural alteration of the protein and superoxide radical generation. Curcumin, on the other hand, mitigates the damage, which has been evidenced in the following experiments. Our study explores the possibility for protection by curcumin during the molecular and conformational changes of HSA when exposed to gamma irradiation. We used a combination of spectroscopic methods to probe the conformational ensemble of the irradiated HSA and finally evaluated the extent of restoration by curcumin. SDS - PAGE indicated the formation of cross linked aggregates as a consequence of increasing exposure of gamma radiation. CD and FTIR spectroscopy inferred significant decrease in alpha helix content of HSA from 57% to 15% with increasing radiation doses. Steady state and time resolved fluorescence studies complemented the spectroscopic measurements when lifetime decay was significantly reduced from 6.35 ns to 0.37 ns. Hydrophobic and bityrosine study showed the effectiveness of curcumin for protection against radiation induced free radical generation. Moreover, bityrosine and hydrophobic profiling of gamma irradiated HSA in presence and absence of curcumin provided light on the formation of ROS species generation and the protective (magical) role of curcumin. The molecular mechanism of curcumin protection to HSA from gamma irradiation is yet unknown, though a possible explanation has been proposed in this work using Thioflavin T assay. It was elucidated, that when HSA is irradiated at low dose of gamma radiation in presence of curcumin, it is capable of retaining the native characteristic properties to a greater extent indicating stabilization of molecular structure. Thus, curcumin may be utilized as a therapeutic strategy to protect cellular proteins.

Keywords: Bityrosine content, conformational change, curcumin, gamma radiation, human serum albumin

Procedia PDF Downloads 156

Authors: David Edgar

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To understand how the brain’s subconscious and conscious functions, we must conquer the physics of Unity, which leads to duality’s algorithm. Where the subconscious (bottom-up) and conscious (top-down) processes function together to produce and consume intelligence, we use terms like ‘time is relative,’ but we really do understand the meaning. In the brain, there are different processes and, therefore, different observers. These different processes experience time at different rates. A sensory system such as the eyes cycles measurement around 33 milliseconds, the conscious process of the frontal lobe cycles at 300 milliseconds, and the subconscious process of the thalamus cycle at 5 milliseconds. Three different observers experience time differently. To bridge observers, the thalamus, which is the fastest of the processes, maintains a synchronous state and entangles the different components of the brain’s physical process. The entanglements form a synchronous cohesion between the brain components allowing them to share the same state and execute in the same measurement cycle. The thalamus uses the shared state to control the firing sequence of the brain’s linear subconscious process. Sharing state also allows the brain to cheat on the amount of sensory data that must be exchanged between components. Only unpredictable motion is transferred through the synchronous state because predictable motion already exists in the shared framework. The brain’s synchronous subconscious process is entirely based on energy conservation, where prediction regulates energy usage. So, the eyes every 33 milliseconds dump their sensory data into the thalamus every day. The thalamus is going to perform a motion measurement to identify the unpredictable motion in the sensory data. Here is the trick. The thalamus conducts its measurement based on the original observation time of the sensory system (33 ms), not its own process time (5 ms). This creates a data payload of synchronous motion that preserves the original sensory observation. Basically, a frozen moment in time (Flat 4D). The single moment in time can then be processed through the single state maintained by the synchronous process. Other processes, such as consciousness (300 ms), can interface with the synchronous state to generate awareness of that moment. Now, synchronous data traveling through a separate faster synchronous process creates a theoretical time tunnel where observation time is tunneled through the synchronous process and is reproduced on the other side in the original time-relativity. The synchronous process eliminates time dilation by simply removing itself from the equation so that its own process time does not alter the experience. To the original observer, the measurement appears to be instantaneous, but in the thalamus, a linear subconscious process generating sensory perception and thought production is being executed. It is all just occurring in the time available because other observation times are slower than thalamic measurement time. For life to exist in the physical universe requires a linear measurement process, it just hides by operating at a faster time relativity. What’s interesting is time dilation is not the problem; it’s the solution. Einstein said there was no universal time.

Keywords: neural synchronization, natural intelligence, 99.95% IoT data transmission savings, artificial subconscious intelligence (ASI)

Procedia PDF Downloads 126

Authors: Wissal Ben Arfi, Jean-Michel Sahut

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The purpose of this paper is to provide a deeper understanding of the succession process from a knowledge management perspective. By doing that, succession process in family businesses, as an environment for creating and sharing knowledge, was explored. Design/Methodology/Approach: To support our reasoning, we collected qualitative data through 16 in-depth interviews conducted with all decision makers involved in the family businesses succession process in France. These open-ended responses were subsequently exposed to thematic discourse analysis. Findings: Central to this exhibit is the nature and magnitude of knowledge creation and sharing among the actors within the family succession context and how can tacit knowledge sharing facilitate the succession process. We also identified factors that inhibit down the knowledge creation and sharing processes. The sharing and creation of knowledge among members of a family business appear to be a complex process that must be part of a strategy for change. This implies that it requests trust and takes a certain amount of time because it requires organizational change and a clear and coherent strategic vision that is accepted and assimilated by all the members. Professional and leadership skills are of particular importance in knowledge sharing and creation processes. In most cases, tacit knowledge is crucial when it is shared and accumulated collectively. Our findings reveal that managers should find ways of implementing knowledge sharing and creation processes while acknowledging the succession process within family firms. This study highlights the importance of generating knowledge strategies in order to enhance the performance and the success of intergenerational succession. The empirical outcomes contribute to enrich the field of succession management process and enhance the role of knowledge in shaping family performance and longevity. To a large extent, the lessons learned from the study of succession processes in family-owned businesses are that when there is a deliberate effort to introduce a knowledge-based approach, this action becomes a seminal event in the life of the organization. Originality/Value: The paper contributes to the deep understanding of interactions among actors by examining the knowledge creation and sharing processes since current researches in family succession focused on aspects such as personal development of potential, intra-family succession intention, decision-making processes in family businesses. Besides, as succession is one of the key factors that determine the longevity and the performance of family businesses, it also contributes to literature by examining how tacit knowledge is transferred, shared and created in family businesses and how this can facilitate the intergenerational succession process.

Keywords: family-owned businesses, succession process, knowledge, performance

Procedia PDF Downloads 208

Authors: E. K. K. Agyeman, P. Mousseau, A. Sarda, D. Edelin

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During the cooling of hot metals by the circulation of water in canals formed by boring holes in the metal, the rapid phase change of the water due to the high initial temperature of the metal leads to a non homogenous distribution of the phases within the canals. The liquid phase dominates towards the entrance of the canal while the gaseous phase dominates towards the exit. As a result of the different thermal properties of both phases, the metal is not uniformly cooled. This poses a problem during the cooling of moulds, where a uniform temperature distribution is needed in order to ensure the integrity of the part being formed. In this study, the simultaneous use of multiple water jets and an airflow for the uniform and controlled cooling of a steel block is investigated. A circular hole is bored at the centre of the steel block along its length and a perforated steel pipe is inserted along the central axis of the hole. Water jets that impact the internal surface of the steel block are generated from the perforations in the steel pipe when the water within it is put under pressure. These jets are oriented in the opposite direction to that of gravity. An intermittent airflow is imposed in the annular space between the steel pipe and the surface of hole bored in the steel block. The evolution of the temperature with respect to time of the external surface of the block is measured with the help of thermocouples and an infrared camera. Due to the high initial temperature of the steel block (350 °C), the water changes phase when it impacts the internal surface of the block. This leads to high heat fluxes. The strategy used to control the cooling speed of the block is the intermittent impingement of its internal surface by the jets. The intervals of impingement and of non impingement are varied in order to achieve the desired result. An airflow is used during the non impingement periods as an additional regulator of the cooling speed and to improve the temperature homogeneity of the impinged surface. After testing different jet positions, jet speeds and impingement intervals, it’s observed that the external surface of the steel block has a uniform temperature distribution along its length. However, the temperature distribution along its width isn’t uniform with the maximum temperature difference being between the centre of the block and its edge. Changing the positions of the jets has no significant effect on the temperature distribution on the external surface of the steel block. It’s also observed that reducing the jet impingement interval and increasing the non impingement interval slows down the cooling of the block and improves upon the temperature homogeneity of its external surface while increasing the duration of jet impingement speeds up the cooling process.

Keywords: cooling speed, homogenous cooling, jet impingement, phase change

Procedia PDF Downloads 125

Authors: Ernest Nweke, Enkhtuya Bavuudorj

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The harsh realities of the scandalous failure of several notable corporations in the past two decades have inextricably resulted in a surge in corporate governance studies. Nevertheless, little or no attention has been paid to corporate governance studies in Mongolian firms and much less to the comprehension of the correlation among ownership structure, corporate governance mechanisms and trend of innovative activities. Innovation is the bed rock of enterprise success. However, the funding and support for innovative activities in many firms are to a great extent determined by the incentives provided by the firm’s internal and external governance mechanisms. Mongolia is an East Asian country currently undergoing a fast-paced transition from socialist to democratic system and it is a widely held view that private ownership as against public ownership fosters innovation. Hence, following the privatization policy of Mongolian Government which has led to the transfer of the ownership of hitherto state controlled and state directed firms to private individuals and organizations, expectations are high that sufficient motivation would be provided for firm managers to engage in innovative activities. This research focuses on the relationship between ownership structure, corporate governance on one hand and the level of innovation on the hand. The paper is empirical in nature and derives data from both reliable secondary and primary sources. Secondary data for the study was in respect of ownership structure of Mongolian listed firms and innovation trend in Mongolia generally. These were analyzed using tables, charts, bars and percentages. Personal interviews and surveys were held to collect primary data. Primary data was in respect of corporate governance practices in Mongolian firms and were collected using structured questionnaire. Out of a population of three hundred and twenty (320) companies listed on the Mongolian Stock Exchange (MSE), a sample size of thirty (30) randomly selected companies was utilized for the study. Five (5) management level employees were surveyed in each selected firm giving a total of one hundred and fifty (150) respondents. Data collected were analyzed and research hypotheses tested using Chi-Square test statistic. Research results showed that corporate governance mechanisms were better and have significantly improved overtime in privately held as opposed to publicly owned firms. Consequently, the levels of innovation in privately held firms were considerably higher. It was concluded that a significant and positive relationship exists between private ownership and good corporate governance on one hand and the level of funding provided for innovative activities in Mongolian firms on the other hand.

Keywords: corporate governance, innovation, ownership structure, stock exchange

Procedia PDF Downloads 195

Authors: Payling Harn

Abstract:

LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® is a kind of facilitated workshop of thinking and problem-solving approach. Participants built symbolic and metaphorical brick models in response to tasks given by the facilitator and presented these models to other participants. LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® applied the positive psychological mechanism of Flow and positive emotions to help participants perceiving self-experience and unknown fact and increasing the happiness of life by building bricks and narrating story. At present, LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® is often utilized for facilitating professional identity and strategy development to assist workers in career development. The researcher desires to apply LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® to the career courses of college students in order to promote their career ability. This study aimed to use the facilitative method of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® to develop the career courses of college students, then explore the effects of Taiwanese college students' positive and negative emotions, career adaptabilities, and career sense of hope by LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® career courses. The researcher regarded strength as the core concept and use the facilitative mode of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® to develop the 8 weeks’ career courses, which including ‘emotion of college life’ ‘career highlights’, ‘career strengths’, ‘professional identity’, ‘business model’, ‘career coping’, ‘strength guiding principles’, ‘career visions’,’ career hope’, etc. The researcher will adopt problem-oriented teaching method to give tasks which according to the weekly theme, use the facilitative mode of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® to guide participants to respond tasks by building bricks. Then participants will conduct group discussions, reports, and writing reflection journals weekly. Participants will be 24 second-grade college students. They will attend LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® career courses for 2 hours a week. The researcher used’ ‘Career Adaptability Scale’ and ‘Career Hope Scale’ to conduct pre-test and post-test. The time points of implementation testing will be one week before courses starting, one day after courses ending respectively. Then the researcher will adopt repeated measures one-way ANOVA for analyzing data. The results revealed that the participants significantly presented immediate positive effect in career adaptability and career hope. The researcher hopes to construct the mode of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® career courses by this study and to make a substantial contribution to the future career teaching and researches of LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®.

Keywords: LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY®, career courses, strength, positive and negative affect, career hope

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