Search results for: small hydropower

Authors: Richard Grünwald, Wenling Wang, Yan Feng

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The presented paper explores the changing dynamics of regional water security in the Mekong River Basin and examines the contemporary water-related challenges from a critical hydropolitical perspective. By drawing on the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation and Conflict Database (LMCCD) recording more than 3000 water-related events within the basin in the last 30 years, we identified several trends changing the dynamics of the regional water security in the Mekong River Basin. Firstly, there is growing politicization of water that is no longer interpreted as abundant. While some scientists blame the rapid basin development, particularly in upstream countries, other researchers consider climate change and cumulative environmental impacts of various water projects as the main culprit for changing the water flow. Secondly, there is an increasing securitization of large-scale hydropower dams with questionable outcomes. Despite hydropower dams raise many controversies, many riparian states push the development at all cost. Such water security dilemma can be especially traced to Laos and Cambodia, which highly invest in the hydropower sector even at the expense of the local environment and good relations with neighbouring countries situated lower on the river. Thirdly, there is a lack of accountable transboundary water governance that will effectively face a looming water crisis. To date, most of the existing cooperation mechanisms are undermined by the geopolitical interests of foreign donors and increasing mistrust to scientific approaches dealing with water insecurity. Our findings are beneficial for the policy-makers and other water experts who want to grasp the broader hydropolitical context in the Mekong River Basin and better understand the new water security threats, including misinterpretation of the hydrological data and legitimization of the pro-development narratives.

Keywords: critical hydropolitics, mekong river, politicization of science, water governance, water security

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Authors: Contimi Kenfack Mouafo, Sebastian Klick

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In the rural and remote areas of Cameroon, access to electricity is very limited since most of the population is not connected to the main utility grid. Throughout the country, efforts are underway to not only expand the utility grid to these regions but also to provide reliable off-grid access to electricity. The Cameroonian company Solahydrowatt is currently working on the design and planning of one of the first hybrid solar-hydropower plants of Cameroon in Fotetsa, in the western region of the country, to provide the population with reliable access to electricity. This paper models and proposes a design for the low-voltage network with a hybrid solar-hydropower plant in Fotetsa. The modelling takes into consideration the voltage compliance of the distribution network, the maximum load of operating equipment, and most importantly, the ability for the network to operate as an off-grid system. The resulting modelled distribution network does not only comply with the Cameroonian voltage deviation standard, but it is also capable of being operated as a stand-alone network independent of the main utility grid.

Keywords: Cameroon, rural electrification, hybrid solar-hydro, off-grid electricity supply, network simulation

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Authors: Fatemeh Behrouzi, Adi Maimun, Mehdi Nakisa

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The growth of population, rising fossil fuel prices which the fossil fuels are limited and decreased day by day, pollution problem due to use of fossil fuels and electrical demand are important role to encourage of using the green energy and renewable technologies. Among different renewable energy technologies, hydro power generation (large and small scale) is the prime choice in terms of contribution to the world's electricity generation by using water current turbines. Nowadays, researchers focus on design and development of different kind of turbines to capture hydro-power electricity generation as clean and reliable energy. This article is review about statues of water current turbines carried out to generate electricity from hydro-kinetic energy especially places that they do not have electricity, but they have access to the current water.

Keywords: water current turbine, renewable energy, hydro-power, mechanic

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Authors: Thiago Ribeiro De Alencar, Jacyro Gramulia Junior, Patricia Teixeira Leite Asano

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The area of the electricity sector that deals with energy needs by the hydropower and thermoelectric in a coordinated way is called Planning Operating Hydrothermal Power Systems. The aim of this area is to find a political operative to provide electrical power to the system in a specified period with minimization of operating cost. This article proposes a computational tool for solving the planning problem. In addition, this article will be introducing a methodology to find new transfer points between reservoirs increasing energy production in hydroelectric power plants cascade systems. The computational tool proposed in this article applies: i) genetic algorithms to optimize the water transfer and operation of hydroelectric plants systems; and ii) Ant Colony algorithm to find the trajectory with the least energy pumping for the construction of pipes transfer between reservoirs considering the topography of the region. The computational tool has a database consisting of 35 hydropower plants and 41 reservoirs, which are part of the southeastern Brazilian system, which has been implemented in an individualized way.

Keywords: ant colony system, genetic algorithms, hydroelectric, hydrothermal systems, optimization, water transfer between rivers

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Authors: Dimeji Abe, Nonso Okoye, Gideon Ikpimi, Prince Idemudia

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Multi-reservoir optimization operation has been a critical issue for river basin management. Water, as a scarce resource, is in high demand and the problems associated with the reservoir as its storage facility are enormous. The complexity in balancing the supply and demand of this prime resource has created the need to examine the best way to solve the problem using optimization techniques. The objective of this study is to evaluate the performance of the multi-objective meta-heuristic algorithm for the operation of Gariep Dam for satisfying ecological flow requirements. This study uses an evolutionary algorithm called backtrack search algorithm (BSA) to determine the best way to optimise the dam operations of hydropower production, flood control, and water supply without affecting the environmental flow requirement for the survival of aquatic bodies and sustain life downstream of the dam. To achieve this objective, the operations of the dam that corresponds to different tradeoffs between the objectives are optimized. The results indicate the best model from the algorithm that satisfies all the objectives without any constraint violation. It is expected that hydropower generation will be improved and more water will be available for ecological flow requirements with the use of the algorithm. This algorithm also provides farmers with more irrigation water as well to improve their business.

Keywords: BSA evolutionary algorithm, metaheuristics, optimization, river basin management

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Authors: Riki H. Patel, Arpan H. Desai, Trushit Upadhyaya

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This paper presents a new small electrically antenna rectangular X- band micro-strip patch antenna loaded with material Rogers RT/duroid 5870 (tm). The present discussion focuses on small Electrically antenna which are electrically small compared to wave length the performance of electrically small antenna are closely related to their electrical size, the gain can be increased to maintain the efficiency of the radiator. Basically micro-strip Patch antennas have been used in satellite communications and for their good characteristics such as lightness, low cost, and so on. Here in the design H- shape folded dipole, which increase the band width of the antenna.

Keywords: electrically small antennas, X-band application, antenna, micro-strip patch, frequency antenna, feed, gain

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Authors: Jae-Young Lee, Woo-Young Jung, Myeong-Jun Nam

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Water hammer is a hydraulic transient problem which is commonly encountered in the penstocks of hydropower plants. The numerical model was developed to estimate the transient behavior of pressure waves in pipe systems. The computational algorithm was proposed to model the water hammer phenomenon in a pipe system with pump shutdown at midstream and sudden valve closure at downstream. To predict the pressure head and flow velocity as a function of time as a result of rapidly closing a valve and pump shutdown, two boundary conditions at the ends considering pump operation and valve control can be implemented as specified equations of the pressure head and flow velocity based on the characteristics method. It was shown that the effects of transient flow make it determine the needs for protection devices, such as surge tanks, surge relief valves, or air valves, at various points in the system against overpressure and low pressure. It produced reasonably good performance with the results of the proposed transient model for pipeline systems. The proposed numerical model can be used as an efficient tool for the safety assessment of hydropower plants due to water hammer.

Keywords: water hammer, hydraulic transient, pipe systems, characteristics method

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Authors: Tarek A. Mekail, Walid M. A. Elmagid

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Many researches have concentrated on improving the aerodynamic performance of wind turbine blade through testing and theoretical studies. A small wind turbine blade is designed, fabricated and tested. The power performance of small horizontal axis wind turbines is simulated in details using Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD). The three-dimensional CFD models are presented using ANSYS-CFX v13 software for predicting the performance of a small horizontal axis wind turbine. The simulation results are compared with the experimental data measured from a small wind turbine model, which designed according to a vehicle-based test system. The analysis of wake effect and aerodynamic of the blade can be carried out when the rotational effect was simulated. Finally, comparison between experimental, numerical and analytical performance has been done. The comparison is fairly good.

Keywords: small wind turbine, CFD of wind turbine, CFD, performance of wind turbine, test of small wind turbine, wind turbine aerodynamic, 3D model

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Authors: Y. Boulaksil, J. C. Fransoo, E.E. Blanco, S. Koubida

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In this paper, we study the small traditional retailers that are located in the neighborhoods of big cities in emerging markets. Although modern retailing has grown in the last two decades in these markets, the number of small retailers is still increasing and serving a substantial part of the daily demand for many basic products, such as bread, milk, and cooking oil. We conduct an empirical study to understand the business environment of these small traditional retailers in emerging markets by collecting data from 333 small retailers, spread over 8 large cities in Morocco. We analyze the data and describe their business environment with a focus on the informal credits they offer to their customers. We find that smaller small retailers that are funded from personal savings and managed by the owner himself offer relatively the most credits. Our study also provides interesting insights about these small retailers that will help FMCG manufacturers that are (planning to be) active in Morocco and other emerging markets. We also discuss a number opportunities to improve the efficiency of the supply chains that serve them.

Keywords: small retailers, big cities, emerging markets, empirical study, supply chain management, Morocco

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Authors: Kien-Trinh Thi Bui, Cuong Manh Nguyen

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In order to simulate and reproduce the operational characteristics of a dam visually, it is necessary to capture the displacement at different measurement points and analyze the observed movement data promptly to forecast the dam safety. The accuracy of forecasts is further improved by applying machine learning methods to data analysis progress. In this study, the horizontal displacement monitoring data of the Ialy hydroelectric dam was applied to machine learning algorithms: Gaussian processes, multi-layer perceptron neural networks, and the M5-rules algorithm for modelling and forecasting of horizontal displacement of the Ialy hydropower dam (Vietnam), respectively, for analysing. The database which used in this research was built by collecting time series of data from 2006 to 2021 and divided into two parts: training dataset and validating dataset. The final results show all three algorithms have high performance for both training and model validation, but the MLPs is the best model. The usability of them are further investigated by comparison with a benchmark models created by multi-linear regression. The result show the performance which obtained from all the GP model, the MLPs model and the M5-Rules model are much better, therefore these three models should be used to analyze and predict the horizontal displacement of the dam.

Keywords: Gaussian processes, horizontal displacement, hydropower dam, Ialy dam, M5-Rules, multi-layer perception neural networks

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Authors: Milan Paudel, Fook Fah Yap, Anil K. Bastola

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The difficulties in riding small wheel bicycles and their lesser stability have been perceived for a long time. Although small wheel bicycles are designed using the similar approach and guidelines that have worked well for big wheel bicycles, the performance of the big wheelers and the smaller wheelers are markedly different. Since both the big wheelers and small wheelers have same fundamental geometry, most blame the small wheel for this discrepancy in the performance. This paper reviews existing guidelines for bicycle design, especially the front steering geometry for the bicycle, and provides a systematic and quantitative analysis of different wheel sized bicycles. A validated mathematical model has been used as a tool to assess the dynamic performance of the bicycles in term of their self-stability. The results obtained were found to corroborate the subjective perception of cyclists for small wheel bicycles. The current approach for small wheel bicycle design requires higher speed to be self-stable. However, it was found that increasing the headtube angle and selecting a proper trail could improve the dynamic performance of small wheel bicycles. A range of parameters for front steering geometry has been identified for small wheel bicycles that have comparable stability as big wheel bicycles. Interestingly, most of the identified geometries are found to be beyond the ISO recommended range and seem to counter the current approach of small wheel bicycle design. Therefore, it was successfully shown that the guidelines for big wheelers do not translate directly to small wheelers, but careful selection of the front geometry could make small wheel bicycles as stable as big wheel bicycles.

Keywords: big wheel bicycle, design approach, ISO requirements, small wheel bicycle, stability and performance

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Authors: Vimuckthi Charika Wickramaratne, Prasansha Kumari

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Sport tourism refers to travel which involves either observing or participating in a sporting event apart from their usual environment. Sport tourism in a fast growing sector of the Sri Lankan travelling industry since Cricket are more popular sport game in the country. This study intends to analyze the impact of these popular sport events for creating and developing small scale business in the country. Primary data gathered from 100 small entrepreneurs around Keththarama Cricket Ground in Sri Lanka. Collected data analyzed using descriptive research methods. The study revealed that local and international visitors for cricket games had impacted on small scale business activities such as retail, handicraft, transport, vehicle parking, small restaurant, hotels, foods and beverage industry. In addition, it was identified that these type of small business are sessional income generating activities for the short period.

Keywords: sport tourism, small scale business, cricket, entrepreneurs

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Authors: Khodijah Ismail, Elfindri

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Tourism development have many environmental, economically and sociocultural benefits. Small islands have a lot of potential for marine tourism development. But, stereotype gender issues still dominate the social and cultural life of rural communities that have an impact on the gap in benefits of local development. The purpose of this study is to found development strategy concept of marine tourism in small islands gender-based. This study found in the marine tourism development of small islands not involved women, from planning to monitor marine tourism development in small islands. It's affects to the low of socio-economic of women in the coastal village and small islands. This condition is not advantage for sustainable development of marine tourism in small islands. Therefore, strengthening of livelihood assets by gender based through the marine tourism development in small islands is very important to attention, that women can contributed to household welfare, bargaining positioned in social culture was better and increase broad access to local government development policies. To realize it requires the full support of the government and relevant stakeholders through gender empowerment and strengthening of accessibility, connectivity, regulation, and design institution.

Keywords: gender inequality, marine tourism, development, tourism management

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Authors: Sunil Kumar Singal, Manoj Sood, Upendra Bajpai

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Instream technology is the upcoming sustainable approach in the hydro sector for energy harnessing. With well-known cross-sections and regulated supply, open channels are the most prominent locations for the installation of hydrokinetic turbines. The fluctuation in generated torque varies with site condition (flow depth and flow velocity), as well as with the type of turbine. The present experimental study aims to investigate the torque/power fluctuations of crossflow hydrokinetic turbines operating at different flow velocities and water depths. The flow velocity is varied from 1.0 m/s to 2.0 m/s. The complete assembly includes an open channel having dimensions of 0.3 m (depth) x 0.71 m (width) x 4.5 m (length), along with a lifting mechanism for varying the channel slope, a digital transducer for monitoring the torque, power, and rpm, a digital handheld water velocity meter for measuring the flow velocity. Further, a time series of torque, power, and rpm is plotted for a duration of 30 minutes showing the continuous operation of the turbine. A comparison of Savonius, Darrieus, and their improved twisted and helical blades is also presented in the study. A correlation has also been developed for assessing the hydropower generation from the installed turbine. The developed correlations will be very useful in the decision-making process for development at a site.

Keywords: darrieus turbine, flow velocity, open channel, savoinus turbine, water depth, hydropower

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Authors: Itiola Kehinde Adeniran

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The study examined the effect of employees’ training on the performance of small scale enterprises in Oyo State. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 150 respondents through purposive sampling method. Linear regression was used with the aid of statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 20 to analyze the data collected in order to examine the effect of independent variable, employees’ training on dependent variable, performance (profit) of small scale enterprises. The result revealed that employees’ training has a significant effect on the performance of small scale enterprises. It was concluded that predictor variable namely (training) is 55.5% variance of enterprises performance (profitability). Therefore, the paper recommended that all small scale enterprises in Nigeria should embrace manpower training and development in order to improve employees’ performance leading to organizational profitability.

Keywords: training, employee performance, small scale enterprise, organizational profitability

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Authors: Anyapak Prapannetivuth

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The purpose of this research is to investigate the marketing mix that is perceived to be important for the small sized hotels in Pattaya. Unlike previous studies, this research provides insights through a review of the marketing activities performed by the small sized hotels. Nine owners and marketing manager of small sized hotels and resorts, all local Chonburi people, were selected for an in-depth interview. A snowball sampling process was employed. The research suggests that seven marketing mixes (e.g. Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Physical Evidence and Process) were commonly used by these hotels, however, three types – People, price and physical evidence were considered most important by the owners.

Keywords: marketing mix, marketing tools, small sized hotels, pattaya

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Authors: Ewa Rak

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This paper utilises literature studies and author’s research conducted in small enterprises using survey. The purpose of the study is to identify conditions of employee development in small enterprises. More specifically, it will be barriers to employee development, needs for development expressed by interested employees themselves and the attitude of the company to employee development. Moreover, the enterprises participation in funding and initiating development activities will be presented. Paper presents the results of comparative studies conducted with employees of small enterprises in Poland and Finland in 2015-2016.

Keywords: employee development, Finland, human resources development, Poland, small enterprises

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Authors: Elias Jemal Abdella

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The Blue Nile River is an important shared resource of Ethiopia, Sudan and also, because it is the major contributor of water to the main Nile River, Egypt. Despite the potential benefits of regional cooperation and integrated joint basin management, all three countries continue to pursue unilateral plans for development. Besides, there is great uncertainty about the likely impacts of climate change in water availability for existing as well as proposed irrigation and hydropower projects in the Blue Nile Basin. The main objective of this study is to quantitatively assess the impact of climate change on the hydrological regime of the upper Blue Nile basin, western Ethiopia. Three models were combined, a dynamic Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) regional climate model (RCM) that is used to determine climate projections for the Upper Blue Nile basin for Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) 4.5 and 8.5 greenhouse gas emissions scenarios for the period 2021-2050. The outputs generated from multimodel ensemble of four (4) CORDEX-RCMs (i.e., rainfall and temperature) were used as input to a Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) hydrological model which was setup, calibrated and validated with observed climate and hydrological data. The outputs from the SWAT model (i.e., projections in river flow) were used as input to a Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) water resources model which was used to determine the water resources implications of the changes in climate. The WEAP model was set-up to simulate three development scenarios. Current Development scenario was the existing water resource development situation, Medium-term Development scenario was planned water resource development that is expected to be commissioned (i.e. before 2025) and Long-term full Development scenario were all planned water resource development likely to be commissioned (i.e. before 2050). The projected change of mean annual temperature for period (2021 – 2050) in most of the basin are warmer than the baseline (1982 -2005) average in the range of 1 to 1.4oC, implying that an increase in evapotranspiration loss. Subbasins which already distressed from drought may endure to face even greater challenges in the future. Projected mean annual precipitation varies from subbasin to subbasin; in the Eastern, North Eastern and South western highland of the basin a likely increase of mean annual precipitation up to 7% whereas in the western lowland part of the basin mean annual precipitation projected to decrease by 3%. The water use simulation indicates that currently irrigation demand in the basin is 1.29 Bm3y-1 for 122,765 ha of irrigation area. By 2025, with new schemes being developed, irrigation demand is estimated to increase to 2.5 Bm3y-1 for 277,779 ha. By 2050, irrigation demand in the basin is estimated to increase to 3.4 Bm3y-1 for 372,779 ha. The hydropower generation simulation indicates that 98 % of hydroelectricity potential could be produced if all planned dams are constructed.

Keywords: Blue Nile River, climate change, hydropower, SWAT, WEAP

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Authors: Marin Mandić, Elis Sutlović, Tonći Modrić, Luka Stanić

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With the restructuring and deregulation of the power system, storage owners, generation companies or private producers can offer their multiple services on various power markets and earn income in different types of markets, such as the day-ahead, real-time, ancillary services market, etc. During the COVID-19 pandemic, electricity prices, as well as ancillary services prices, increased significantly. The optimization of the energy storage operation was performed using a suitable model for simulating the operation of a pumped storage hydropower plant under market conditions. The objective function maximizes the income earned through energy arbitration, regulation-up, regulation-down and spinning reserve services. The optimization technique used for solving the objective function is mixed integer linear programming (MILP). In numerical examples, the pumped storage hydropower plant operation has been optimized considering the already achieved hourly electricity market prices from Nord Pool for the pre-pandemic (2019) and the pandemic (2020 and 2021) years. The impact of the electricity market prices during the COVID-19 pandemic on energy storage operation is shown through the analysis of income, operating hours, reserved capacity and consumed energy for each service. The results indicate the role of energy storage during a significant fluctuation in electricity and services prices.

Keywords: electrical market prices, electricity market, energy storage optimization, mixed integer linear programming (MILP) optimization

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Authors: Abdullah Karaman, Kursad Sayin

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

Keywords: information technologies, managers, performance, small hotels

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Authors: Theresa Robinson Harris

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Small businesses are important to the United States economy, yet the majority struggle to remain relevant and close before their fifth year. This qualitative study explored small business failure by comparing the experiences of small-business owners to understand their involvement with leadership during the early stages of the business, and the impact of this on the firms’ ability to survive. Participants’ experiences from two groups were compared to glean an understanding of the leadership process, how leadership differs between the groups, and to see what themes or constructs emerged that could help to explain the high failure rate. Leadership was perceived to be important when envisioning a path for the future and when providing a platform for employees to succeed. Those who embraced leadership as a skillset were more likely to get through the challenges of the early developmental years while those ignoring the importance of leadership were more likely to close prematurely. These findings suggest a disconnect with regards to the understanding, role, and benefits of leadership in small organizations, particularly young organizations in the early stages of development.

Keywords: leadership, small business, entrepreneurship, success, failure

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Authors: Seungwon Han, Sung young Yoo, Tae Wan Kim

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The objective of this study was to measure the changes in the photochemical response in the leaves of red pepper (Capsium annuum L.) after foliar fertilization of amino acid and small peptides derived from the waste egg. As a nitrogen fertilizer, waste eggs were incubated over one 1week and then degraded as amino acids and small peptides. The smaller peptides less than 20 kDa were identified by matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS). MALDI-TOF-MS as a rapid analysis method was to show the molecular mass of degraded egg protein. The sequences of peptides were identified as follows; γ-Glu- Cys-γ-Glu-Cys-γ-Glu-Cys)-Ser and γ-Glu-Cys-γ-Glu-Cys-γ-Glu- Cys)-Gly. It was clearly illuminated that the parameters related to quantum yields for PSI electron transport (ΦRE1O, ΨRE1O, δRE1O) and RC/ABS have increased tendency by small peptide application. On the other hand, phenomenological energy fluxes (ABSO/CSM, TRO/CSM, ET2O/CSM, RE1O/CSM, DIO/CSM) have considerably fluctuated with foliar fertilization of small peptides. In conclusion, the small peptides can enhance the photochemical activities from photosystem II to photosystem I. This study was financially supported by RDA Agenda Project PJ 016196012022.

Keywords: electron transport, foliar fertilization, small peptide, waste egg

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Authors: Janusz K. Grabara, Bartłomiej Okwiet, Sebastian Kot

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The purpose of the article is presentation and analysis of the aspect of job security in small and medium-size enterprises in Poland with reference to other EU countries. We show the theoretical aspects of the risk with reference to managing small and medium enterprises, next risk management in small and medium enterprises in Poland, which were subjected to a detailed analysis. We show in detail the risk associated with the operation of the mentioned above companies, as well as analyses its levels on various stages and for different kinds of conducted activity.

Keywords: job safety, SME, work risk, risk management

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Authors: Salman Abdulrasaq

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Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) has been considered as indices for economic development in a country economy. The development of entrepreneurship skills is therefore necessary. This study, seeks to examine the impact of Entrepreneurship on the Growth of Small Businesses Kwara State, Nigeria. The data used were primarily obtained from the questionnaire administered to the randomly selected areas in the state. Regression statistical tool was employed with aid of SPSS to test the validity of the hypothesis formulated in the study. The study therefore concludes that; the qualities of entrepreneur have impact the growth of Small Businesses s in the selected areas of the state. In view of this, the study recommends that; entrepreneurship development would serve as a tool for the growth of small business enterprises.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, growth, development, Nigeria

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Authors: M. B. Neace, Xin GAo

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Small entrepreneurs are ubiquitous. Regardless of location their success depends on several behavioral characteristics and several market conditions. In this concept paper, we extend this paradigm to include elements from the science of chaos. Our observations, research findings, literature search and intuition lead us to the proposition that all entrepreneurs seek increasing returns, as did the many small entrepreneurs we have interviewed over the years. There will be a few whose initial perturbations may create tsunami-like waves of increasing returns over time resulting in very large market consequences–the butterfly impact. When small entrepreneurs perturb the market-place and their initial efforts take root a series of phase-space transitions begin to occur. They sustain the stream of increasing returns by scaling up. Chaos theory contributes to our understanding of this phenomenon. Sustaining and nourishing increasing returns of small entrepreneurs as complex adaptive systems requires scaling. In this paper we focus on the most critical element of the small entrepreneur scaling process–the mindset of the owner-operator.

Keywords: entrepreneur, increasing returns, scaling, chaos

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Authors: Riki H. Patel, Arpan Desia, Trushit Upadhayay

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The demand of compact antenna is ever increasing since the inception of wireless communication devices. In the age of wireless communication, requirement of miniaturized antennas is quite high. It is quite often that antenna dimensions are decided based on application based requirement compared to practical antenna constraints. The tradeoff in efficiency and other antenna parameters against to antenna size is always a debatable issue. The article presents detailed review of fundamentals of electrically small antennas and its potential applications. In addition, constraints and challenges of electrically small antennas are also presented in the article.

Keywords: bandwidth, communication, electrically small antenna, communication engineering

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Authors: Awais Naeem, Osama Shakeel, Faizan Ullah, Abdul Wahid Anwer

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Introduction: To study the clinic-pathological factors, diagnostic factors and survival of extra-pulmonary small cell carcinoma. Methodology: From 1995 to 2017 all patients with a diagnosis of extra-pulmonary small cell carcinoma were included in the study. Demographic variables and clinic-pathological factors were collected. Management of disease was recorded. Short and long term oncological outcomes were recorded. All data was entered and analyzed in SPSS version 21. Results: A total of 14 patients were included in the study. Median age was 53.42 +/- 16.1 years. There were 5 male and 9 female patients. Most common presentation was dysphagia in 16 patient among esophageal small cell carcinoma and while other patient had pain in abdomen. Mean duration of symptoms was 4.23+/-2.91 months .Most common site is esophagus (n=6) followed by gall bladder(n=3). Almost all of the patients received chemo-radiotherapy. Majority of the patient presented with extensive disease. Five patients (35.7%) died during the follow up period, two (14.3%) were alive and rest of the patients were lost to follow up. Mean follow up period was 22.92 months and median follow up was 15 months. Conclusion: Extra-pulmonary small cell carcinoma is rare and needs to be managed aggressively. All patients should be treated with both systemic and local therapies.

Keywords: small cell carcinoma of esophagus, extrapulmonary small cell carcinoma, small cell carcinoma of gall bladder, small cell carcinoma of rectum, small cell carcinoma of stomach

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Authors: Ahsan R. Khokhar, Fizza Hassan

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Alkali-Silica Reaction (ASR) has been recognized as a potential cause of concrete degradation in the world since the 1940s. In Pakistan, mega hydropower structures like dams, weirs constructed from aggregates extracted from a local riverbed exhibited different levels of alkali-silica reactivity over an extended service period. The concrete expansion potential due to such aggregates has been categorized as slow-reactive. Apart from hydropower structures, ASR existence has been identified in the concrete structural elements of a Textile Mill building which used aggregates extracted from the nearby riverbed. The original structure of the Textile Mill was erected in the 80s with the addition of a textile ‘sizing and wrapping’ hall constructed in the 90s. In the years to follow, intensive spalling was observed in the structural members of the subject hall; enough to threat to the overall stability of the building. Limitations such as incomplete building data posed hurdles during the detailed structural investigation. The paper lists observations made while assessing the extent of damage and its effect on the building hall structure. Core testing and Petrographic tests were carried out as per the ASTM standards for strength degradation analysis followed by the identifying its root cause. Results confirmed significant structural strength reduction because of ASR which necessitated the formulation of an immediate re-strengthening solution. The paper also discusses the possible tracks of rehabilitative measures which are being adapted to stabilize the structure and seize further concrete expansion.

Keywords: Alkali-Silica Reaction (ASR), concrete strength degradation, damage assessment, damage evaluation

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Authors: Jessada Monthasuwan, Charinsak Saetiaw, Chanchai Thongsopa

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This paper presents the development and design of the curved rectangular patch arrays antenna for small missile application. This design uses a 0.1mm flexible copper sheet on the front layer and back layer, and a 1.8mm PVC substrate on a middle layer. The study used a small missile model with 122mm diameter size with speed 1.1 Mach and frequency range on ISM 2.4 GHz. The design of curved antenna can be installation on a cylindrical object like a missile. So, our proposed antenna design will have a small size, lightweight, low cost, and simple structure. The antenna was design and analysis by a simulation result from CST microwave studio and confirmed with a measurement result from a prototype antenna. The proposed antenna has a bandwidth covering the frequency range 2.35-2.48 GHz, the return loss below -10 dB and antenna gain 6.5 dB. The proposed antenna can be applied with a small guided missile effectively.

Keywords: rectangular patch arrays, small missile antenna, antenna design and simulation, cylinder PVC tube

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Authors: Mario C. Nierras

Abstract:

This study aimed to determine the extension services’ needs of small farmers in Biliran province, Philippines. It also sought to find out other issues/concerns of the small farmers. Extension services’ needs of small farmers were gathered through personal interviewing and observational analysis of randomly-selected small farmers in Biliran, Philippines. Biliran small farmers extension services’ needs include: raising fruits, raising legumes, raising vegetables, raising swine, raising cattle, and raising chicken (as priority broad skills). For the specific skills, diagnosing symptoms on fertilizer deficiencies, controlling plant pests and diseases, diagnosing signs on specific pest and disease damage, controlling animal pests and diseases, and doing artificial insemination were the priority skills. They considered an on-farm trial of new technology as most needed to be coupled with industry and quality-orientedness, as positive behaviors needed in farming success. The farmers still adhere to the so-called wait-and-see attitude, thus they are more convinced to follow a particular technology if they see a concrete result of the introduced changes. Technical needs prioritization of Biliran small farmers showed that they have a real need for crop and animal production skills to include the other issues/concerns. Extension service program planning for small farmers should be patterned after their technical needs giving due attention to some issues/concerns so that extension work could deliver the right skills for the right needs of the farmers.

Keywords: extension, extension service, extension service needs, extension service program, farmers, small farmers, marginal farmers

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