Search results for: global language

Authors: Shashank. S. Bagane, H. N. Rajendra Prasad

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Building Information Modeling (BIM) has currently developed into a potent solution. The consistent development of BIM technology in the sphere of Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry has enhanced the effectiveness of construction and decision making. However, aggrandized global warming and energy crisis has impacted on building energy analysis. It is now becoming an important factor to be considered in the AEC industry. Amalgamating energy analysis in the planning and design phase of a structure has become a necessity. In the current construction industry, estimating energy usage and reducing its footprint is of high priority. The construction industry is giving more prominence to sustainability alongside energy efficiency. This demand is compelling the designers, planners, and engineers to inspect the sustainable performance throughout the building's life cycle. The current study primarily focuses on energy consumption, space arrangement, and spatial geometry of a residential building. Most commonly residential structures in India are constructed considering Vastu Shastra. Vastu designs are intended to integrate architecture with nature and utilizing geometric patterns, symmetry, and directional alignments. In the current study, a residential brick masonry structure is considered for BIM analysis, Architectural model of the structure will be created using Revit software, later the orientation and spatial arrangement will be finalized based on Vastu principles. Furthermore, the structure will be investigated for the impact of building orientation and spatial arrangements on energy using Green Building Studio software. Based on the BIM analysis of the structure, energy consumption of subsequent building orientations will be understood. A well-orientated building having good spatial arrangement can save a considerable amount of energy throughout its life cycle and reduces the need for heating and lighting which will prove to diminish energy usage and improve the energy efficiency of the residential building.

Keywords: building information modeling, energy impact, spatial geometry, vastu

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Authors: Marko Kolakovic, Mihaela Mikic, Martina Taborin

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Women entrepreneurship is often regarded as the unused economical potential in many countries, including Republic of Croatia. Although women represent a majority in the population, they are still a minority in the field of entrepreneurship and face many challenges in fulfilling their entrepreneurship potential. The reasons are often hided in historical distorted perceptions about value, credibility, competitiveness, responsibility and knowledge which women have, or can have. This is significant for at least two reasons. First, in terms of global economic crisis, the economy needs more quality, more skilled and educated people willing to face entrepreneurial challenges and create new jobs, new opportunities and higher living standards. Second, in the entrepreneurial activity, women finally have a chance to highlight their own abilities, such as knowledge, relentless work, organizational skills, communication and negotiation skills, responsibility, flexibility, etc., in order to insure their economic independence, for a better social position, and to increase confidence and faith in their own abilities. This paper empirically analyses characteristics of women entrepreneurship in Croatia and conducted policies for it improvement. An empirical research was conducted with the goal of discovering real life experiences and attitudes of Croatian women entrepreneurs. Results show that Croatian women entrepreneurs are usually highly educated, have previous work experience and operate in service sector, due to lower need for start-up capital. The biggest obstacle on their entrepreneurial path represents government bureaucracy. Although the number of women entrepreneurs is rising today and the gap between male and women entrepreneurs in Croatia, as well as women entrepreneurship levels lower than the European average, we believe that there is still a long way to reach potential and successful women entrepreneurship development. Research showed that by breaking down the barriers as access to finance, education investments, knowledge, skills and confidence development, women will be able to accomplish more significant and more efficient entrepreneurial outcome.

Keywords: Croatia, policy, SMEs, women entrepreneurial strategy, women entrepreneurship

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Authors: Pankaj Dhiman, Simranjeet Kaur

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This research paper presents a comprehensive sentiment analysis of social media responses to videos on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram during the 2024 Indian general elections. The study focuses on the sentiment patterns of voters towards the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) on these platforms. The analysis aims to understand the impact of social media on voter sentiment and its correlation with the election outcome. The study employed a mixed-methods approach, combining both quantitative and qualitative methods. With a total of 200 posts analysed during general election-2024 final phase, the sentiment analysis was conducted using natural language processing (NLP) techniques, including sentiment dictionaries and machine learning algorithms. The results show that NDA received significantly more positive sentiment responses across all platforms, with a positive sentiment score of 47% compared to INDIA's score of 38.98 %. The analysis also revealed that Twitter and YouTube were the most influential platforms in shaping voter sentiment, with 60% of the total sentiment score coming from these two platforms. The study's findings suggest that social media sentiment analysis can be a valuable tool for understanding voter sentiment and predicting election outcomes. The results also highlight the importance of social media in shaping public opinion and the need for political parties to engage effectively with voters on these platforms. The study's implications are significant, as they indicate that social media can be a key factor in determining the outcome of elections. The findings also underscore the need for political parties to develop effective social media strategies to engage with voters and shape public opinion.

Keywords: Indian Elections-2024, NDA, INDIA, sentiment analysis, social media, democracy

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Authors: Mehrangiz Rezaee, Zabih Charrahi

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In the last decade, with increasing tourism destinations and tourism growth, we are witnessing the widespread impacts of tourism on the economy, environment and society. Tourism and its related economy are now undergoing a transformation and as one of the key pillars of business economics, it plays a vital role in the world economy. Activities related to tourism and providing services appropriate to it in an area, like many economic sectors, require the necessary context on its origin. Given the importance of tourism industry and tourism potentials of Yazd province in Iran, it is necessary to use a proper procedure for prioritizing different areas for proper and efficient planning. One of the most important goals of planning is foresight and creating balanced development in different geographical areas. This process requires an accurate study of the areas and potential and actual talents, as well as evaluation and understanding of the relationship between the indicators affecting the development of the region. At the global and regional level, the development of tourist resorts and the proper distribution of tourism destinations are needed to counter environmental impacts and risks. The main objective of this study is the sustainable development of suitable tourism areas. Given that tourism activities in different territorial areas require operational zoning, this study deals with the evaluation of territorial tourism using concepts such as land use, fitness and sustainable development. It is essential to understand the structure of tourism development and the spatial development of tourism using land use patterns, spatial planning and sustainable development. Tourism spatial planning implements different approaches. However, the development of tourism as well as the spatial development of tourism is complex, since tourist activities can be carried out in different areas with different purposes. Multipurpose areas have great important for tourism because it determines the flow of tourism. Therefore, in this paper, by studying the development and determination of tourism suitability that is related to spatial development, it is possible to plan tourism spatial development by developing a model that describes the characteristics of tourism. The results of this research determine the suitability of multi-functional territorial tourism development in line with spatial planning of tourism.

Keywords: land use change, spatial planning, sustainability, territorial tourist, Yazd

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Authors: M. A. Mabasa, O. Ramokolo, M. Z. Mnikathi, D. Mathabatha, T. Manyapelo

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The study examines the importance of translating South African folklore from Oral into Written Literature in a Multilingual Education. Therefore, the study postulates that translation can be regarded as a valuable tool when oral and written literature is transmitted from one generation to another. The study entails that translation does not take place in a haphazard fashion; for that reason, skills such as translation principles are required to translate folklore significantly and effectively. The purpose of the study is to indicate the significance of using translation relating to folklore in teaching and learning. The study also observed that Modernism in literature should be shared amongst varieties of cultures because folklore is interactive in narrating stories, folktales and myths to sharpen the reader’s knowledge and intellect because they are informative and educative in nature. As a technological tool, the study points out that translation is of paramount importance in the sense that the meanings of different data can be made available in all South African official languages using oral and written forms of folklore. The study opines that tradition and customary beliefs and practices in the institution of higher learning. The study envisages the way in which literature of folklore can be juxtaposed to ensure that translated folklore is of quality assured standards. The study alludes that well-translated folklore can serve as oral and written literature, which may contribute to the child’s learning and acquisition of knowledge and insights during cognitive development toward maturity. Methodologically, the study selects a qualitative research approach and selects content analysis as an instrument for data gathering, which will be analyzed qualitatively in consideration of the significance of translating folklore as written and spoken literature in a documented way. The study reveals that the translation of folktales promotes functional multilingualism in high-function formal contexts like a university. The study emphasizes that translated and preserved literary folklore may serve as a language repository from one generation to another because of the archival and storage of information in the form of a term bank.

Keywords: translation, editing, teaching, learning, folklores

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Authors: Akhila Potluru

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Worldwide, more than 250 bodies of water are transboundary, meaning they cross the political boundaries of multiple countries. This creates a system of hydrological, economic, and social interdependence between communities reliant on these water sources. Transboundary water conflicts can occur as a result of this intense interdependence. Many factors contribute to the sparking of transboundary water conflicts, ranging from natural hydrological factors to hydro-political interactions. Previous attempts to predict transboundary water conflicts by analysing changes or trends in the contributing factors have typically failed because patterns in the data are hard to identify. However, there is potential for artificial intelligence and machine learning to fill this gap and identify future ‘hotspots’ up to a year in advance by identifying patterns in data where humans can’t. This research determines the extent to which AI can be used to predict and prevent transboundary water conflicts. This is done via a critical literature review of previous case studies and datasets where AI was deployed to predict water conflict. This research not only delivered a more nuanced understanding of previously undervalued factors that contribute toward transboundary water conflicts (in particular, culture and disinformation) but also by detecting conflict early, governance bodies can engage in processes to de-escalate conflict by providing pre-emptive solutions. Looking forward, this gives rise to significant policy implications and water-sharing agreements, which may be able to prevent water conflicts from developing into wide-scale disasters. Additionally, AI can be used to gain a fuller picture of water-based conflicts in areas where security concerns mean it is not possible to have staff on the ground. Therefore, AI enhances not only the depth of our knowledge about transboundary water conflicts but also the breadth of our knowledge. With demand for water constantly growing, competition between countries over shared water will increasingly lead to water conflict. There has never been a more significant time for us to be able to accurately predict and take precautions to prevent global water conflicts.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, machine learning, transboundary water conflict, water management

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Authors: Avanika Gupta

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Education plays a significant and remedial role in balancing the socio-economic fabric of a country. Inclusive education is considered as the most appropriate mode of teaching students with hearing impairment (SwHI) by various national and international legislations. But inclusive education is still an evolving concept among the disability studies scholars and policy makers in India. The study aimed to examine accessibility of SwHI in mainstream schools if there are special provisions for SwHI. The study also intended to identify if the provisions are same for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. Using stratified random sampling technique, a school was selected from each of the six administrative zones of Nagpur city. All the selected schools had primary and secondary level education and were co-educational in nature. Interview with principals of these schools and focused-group- observation method showcased lack of accessibility for SwHI in attending schools. Not even a single school had a hearing impaired student, either deaf or hard-of-hearing depicting the double marginalization of SwHI. This is despite the fact that the right to education is a fundamental right in India, and national legislation on disability has special provisions for ensuring educational opportunities to SwHI. None of the schools even had an Indian Sign Language (ISL) instructor. Both observations seemed cause and effect of one another. One of the principals informed that they have seats for all students with disabilities but they usually lie vacant due to lack of awareness among the parents. One school had 2 students with locomotive impairment while another had a student with visual impairment. Principals of two special schools were also interviewed to understand the reason behind the low enrollment rate of SwHI in mainstream schools. Guardian preference, homogeneity, relatable faculty, familiar environment were some of the chief reasons mentioned. Few suggestions for the policymakers, teachers, guardians and the students are also recommended so that Indian education system could become inclusive in true sense.

Keywords: deaf, hard-of-hearing, inclusive education, India, Nagpur, students with hearing impairment

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Authors: Omotoyosi Bilikies Ilori, Adekunle Saheed Ajisebiyawo

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After the Second World War, there was an emergence of a new stage of capitalist globalization with its Neo-liberal ideology. There were global economic and political restructurings that affected third-world countries like Nigeria. Neo-liberalism is the driving force of globalization, which is the latest manifestation of imperialism that engenders endemic poverty in Nigeria. Poverty is severe and widespread in Nigeria. Poverty entails a situation where a person lives on less than one dollar per day and has no access to basic necessities of life. Poverty is inhuman and a breach of human rights. The Nigerian government initiated some strategies in the past to help in poverty reduction. Neo-liberalism manifested in the Third World, such as Nigeria, through the privatization of public enterprises, trade liberalization, and the rollback of the state investments in providing important social services. These main ideas of Neo-liberalism produced poverty in Nigeria and also encouraged the abandonment of the social contract between the government and the people. There is thus a gap in the provision of social services and subsidies for the masses, all of which Neo-liberal ideological positions contradict. This paper is a qualitative study which draws data from secondary sources. The theoretical framework is anchored on the market theory of capitalist globalization and public choice theory. The objectives of this study are to (i) examine the impacts of Neo-liberalism on poverty in Nigeria as a typical example of a Third World country and (ii) find out the effects of Neo-liberalism on the provision of social services and subsidies and employment. The findings from this study revealed that (i) the adoption of the Neo-liberal ideology by the Nigerian government has led to increased poverty and poor provision of social services and employment in Nigeria; and (ii) there is an increase in foreign debts which compounds poverty situation in Nigeria. This study makes the following recommendations: (i) Government should adopt strategies that are pro-poor to eradicate poverty; (ii) The Trade Unions and the masses should develop strategies to challenge Neo-liberalism and reject Neo-liberal ideology.

Keywords: neo-liberalism, poverty, employment, poverty reduction, structural adjustment programme

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Authors: Iuliana-Erika Köpeczi

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‘Language is no longer regarded as peripheral to our grasp of the world we live in, but as central to it. Words are not mere vocal labels or communicational adjuncts superimposed upon an already given order of things. They are collective products of social interaction, essential instruments through which human beings constitute and articulate their world’, said Roy Harris. If we were to accept the above-mentioned premise, then we surely must accept that discourse, generally, - and political discourse, specifically -, bears a crucial importance to one’s perception of reality. The way in which political rhetoric constructs reality changes the relationship between the voter and his/her view of the world, which, in turn, influences greatly the future trends of political participation. In this context, our inquiry focuses on the role of populist discourses in the post 9/11 political rhetoric, and how this led to the formation, construction and reconstruction of identity within the ‘us’ vs. ‘them’ dichotomy. It is our hypothesis that anti-intellectualistic elements played a significant role in the manner in which identity construction had been carried out on a discursive level. By adopting a comparative approach, we intend to identify the similarities and differences between the use of such anti-intellectualist elements in the United States of America on one hand – within the discourse of Rick Santorum, – and France on the other – with Marine le Pen’s discourse. Our methodological approach uses close textual analysis of primary source material (discourse analysis); historical contextualization of both primary documents and broader socio-political and cultural framework through archival research and secondary sources; as well as interpretation of primary texts through theoretical frameworks (qualitative research). We hope that the output of our endeavor will be useful in better understanding the different correlations that exist between anti-intellectualism and populism and how the interactions between these two elements aids in political identity construction through discourse.

Keywords: anti-intellectualism, discourse theory, France, identity construction, populism, United States of America

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Authors: Pratiwi Retnaningdyah, Sofie Dewayani

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Foreign domestic workers are arguably one of the most exploited and subordinated groups of women in the labor division under global capitalism. However, foreign domestic workers (FDWs) actively engage in activities to negotiate the prevailing structures of power in the transnational labor market. This paper seeks to understand the significance of Indonesian Domestic Workers (IDWs) cultural representations in relation to the themes of literacy and space. In particular, this paper addresses the issue of how IDWs in Hong Kong make use of the practice of suitcase libraries to make meaning of space within material limits. The term ‘suitcase libraries’ is used to refer to a literacy practice of book borrowing at outdoor public spaces in Hong Kong during IDWs’ days off. The books are displayed in open suitcases and mats, with IDWs both as administrators and consumers engaged in the practice. This paper argues that suitcase libraries can be considered representing Thirdspace in the form of a vernacular, grassroots literacy practice that creates a productive space of resistance and community empowerment. Employing participant observation and a textual analysis of IDWs’ literacy narratives, the study traced IDWs’ literacy trajectories to the period of IDWs’ permanent return to Indonesia. Through extended engagement in community literacy practices in their hometowns, former IDWs develop their literacy capital and break the stereotypes of uneducated and passive maids and change them into literate figures. In the context of literacy movement that has gained momentum in Indonesia recently, the practice of IDWs’ suitcase libraries is also useful as a reference point to further investigate how community literacy sponsors in Indonesia also create Thirdspace and develop literacy capital through community libraries (TBM, Taman Baca Masyarakat).

Keywords: identity, Indonesian domestic workers, literacy narratives, Thirdspace

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Authors: Francesca Radice

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Domestic and sexual violence provokes, on average in Australia, one female death per week due to intimate violence behaviours. 83% of couples meet online, and intercepting domestic and sexual violence at this level would be beneficial. It has been observed that violent or coercive behaviour has been apparent from initial conversations on dating apps like Tinder. Child pornography, stalking, and coercive control are some criminal offences from dating apps, including women murdered after finding partners through Tinder. Police databases and predictive policing are novel approaches taken to prevent crime before harm is done. This research will investigate how police databases can be used in a privacy-preserving way to characterise users in terms of their potential for violent crime. Using the COPS database of NSW Police, we will explore how the past criminal record can be interpreted to yield a category of potential danger for each dating app user. It is up to the judgement of each subscriber on what degree of the potential danger they are prepared to enter into. Sentiment analysis is an area where research into natural language processing has made great progress over the last decade. This research will investigate how sentiment analysis can be used to interpret interchanges between dating app users to detect manipulative or coercive sentiments. These can be used to alert law enforcement if continued for a defined number of communications. One of the potential problems of this approach is the potential prejudice a categorisation can cause. Another drawback is the possibility of misinterpreting communications and involving law enforcement without reason. The approach will be thoroughly tested with cross-checks by human readers who verify both the level of danger predicted by the interpretation of the criminal record and the sentiment detected from personal messages. Even if only a few violent crimes can be prevented, the approach will have a tangible value for real people.

Keywords: sentiment analysis, data mining, predictive policing, virtual manipulation

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Authors: Diksha Sapkota, Kathleen Baird, Amornrat Saito, Debra Anderson

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Background: Violence during pregnancy is global public health problem incurring huge amount of social, economic and human costs. It is of particular concern as it affects health of mother, neonates and also disrupt family functioning. Mental illness is one of its commonest consequences affecting both mother and baby and likely to be chronic if left unattended. Past decade has seen advances in knowledge about different forms of violence, its health impacts and intervention/s helping to confront the violence. However, limited range and lack of consistency in measurable outcomes undermine overall effect of interventions, and available evidence are largely slanted towards high-income countries. Despite recognition of integrating screening and counselling for abused pregnant women in health settings, there is a dearth of evidence on its effectiveness from developing countries limiting its applicability and feasibility. This study intends to summarise the high-quality evidence on intimate partner violence interventions in reducing violence and improving mental health and implement the promising intervention in our context. Methods: Quantitative systematic review will be done using PRISMA statement and based on its finding; randomised controlled intervention will be carried out. The study will be conducted among women attending ANC clinic of Dhulikhel Hospital, Nepal. Being the pilot study, samples just adequate to draw the inferences i.e. not less than 30 in each arm will be taken. Phenomological approach will be used to explore the strengths and weaknesses of tested intervention and recommendations for better planning in future. Conclusion: This study intends to provide concrete evidence on what works best in our context and will assist policymakers, programme planners, donors in informed decision making.

Keywords: intimate partner violence/prevention and control, mental health, Nepal, pregnant

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Authors: Vahid Ramezankhani, Keith J. Stevenson, Stanislav. S. Fedotov

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Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) play a pivotal role in achieving the key objective “zero-carbon emission” as countries agreed to reach a 1.5ᵒC global warming target according to the Paris agreement. Nowadays, due to the tremendous mobile and stationary consumption of small/large-format LIBs, the demand and consequently the price for such energy storage devices have been raised. The aforementioned challenges originate from the shrinkage of the major applied critical materials in these batteries, such as cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), Lithium (Li), graphite (G), and manganese (Mn). Therefore, it is imperative to consider alternative elements to address issues corresponding to the limitation of resources around the globe. Potassium (K) is considered an effective alternative to Li since K is a more abundant element, has a higher operating potential, a faster diffusion rate, and the lowest stokes radius in comparison to the closest neighbors in the periodic table (Li and Na). Among all reported materials for metal-ion batteries, some of them possess the general formula AMXO4L [A = Li, Na, K; M = Fe, Ti, V; X = P, S, Si; L= O, F, OH] is of potential to be applied both as anode and cathode and enable researchers to investigate them in the full symmetric battery format. KTiPO4F (KTP structural material) has been previously reported by our group as a promising cathode with decent electronic properties. Herein, we report a synthesis, crystal structure characterization, morphology, as well as K-ion storage properties of KTiPO4F. Our investigation reveals that KTiPO4F delivers discharge capacity > 150 mAh/g at 26.6 mA/g (C/5 current rate) in the potential window of 0.001-3 V. Surprisingly, the cycling performance of C-KTiPO4F//K cell is stable for 1000 cycles at 130 mA/g (C current rate), presenting capacity > 130 mAh/g. More interestingly, we achieved to assemble full symmetric batteries where carbon-coated KTiPO4F serves as both negative and positive electrodes, delivering >70 mAh/g in the potential range of 0.001-4.2V.

Keywords: anode material, potassium battery, chemical characterization, electrochemical properties

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Authors: David Lloyd, David Owen, Martin Jardine

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Introduction: European weight regulations with respect to food products require a full understanding of regulation guidelines to assure regulatory compliance. It is suggested that the complexity of regulation leads to practices which result to over filling of food packages by food processors. Purpose: To establish current practices by food processors and the financial, sustainable and societal impacts on the food supply chain of ineffective food production practices. Methods: An analysis of food packing controls with 10 companies of varying food categories and quantitative based research of a further 15 food processes on the confidence in weight control analysis of finished food packs within their organisation. Results: A process floor analysis of manufacturing operations focussing on 10 products found over fill of packages ranging from 4.8% to 20.2%. Standard deviation figures for all products showed a potential for reducing average weight of the pack whilst still retain the legal status of the product. In 20% of cases, an automatic weight analysis machine was in situ however weight packs were still significantly overweight. Collateral impacts noted included the effect of overfill on raw material purchase and added food miles often on a global basis with one raw material alone creating 10,000 extra food miles due to the poor weight control of the processing unit. A case study of a meat and bakery product will be discussed with the impact of poor controls resulting from complex legislation. The case studies will highlight extra energy costs in production and the impact of the extra weight on fuel usage. If successful a risk assessment model used primarily on food safety but adapted to identify waste /sustainability risks will be discussed within the presentation.

Keywords: legislation, overfill, profile, waste

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Authors: Lakhoua Najeh

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Introduction: In most situations, an industrial system already existing, conditioned by its history, its culture and its context are in difficulty facing the necessity to restructure itself in an organizational and technological environment in perpetual evolution. This is why all operations of restructuring first of all require a diagnosis based on a functional analysis. After a presentation of the functionality of a supervisory system for complex processes, we present the concepts of industrial automation and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA). Methods: This global analysis exploits the various available documents on the one hand and takes on the other hand in consideration the various testimonies through investigations, the interviews or the collective workshops; otherwise, it also takes observations through visits as a basis and even of the specific operations. The exploitation of this diagnosis enables us to elaborate the project of restructuring thereafter. Leaving from the system analysis for the restructuring of industrial systems, and after a technical diagnosis based on visits, an analysis of the various technical documents and management as well as on targeted interviews, a focusing retailing the various levels of analysis has been done according a general methodology. Results: The methodology adopted in order to contribute to the restructuring of industrial systems by its participative and systemic character and leaning on a large consultation a lot of human resources that of the documentary resources, various innovating actions has been proposed. These actions appear in the setting of the TQM gait requiring applicable parameter quantification and a treatment valorising some information. The new management environment will enable us to institute an information and communication system possibility of migration toward an ERP system. Conclusion: Technological advancements in process monitoring, control and industrial automation over the past decades have contributed greatly to improve the productivity of virtually all industrial systems throughout the world. This paper tries to identify the principles characteristics of a process monitoring, control and industrial automation in order to provide tools to help in the decision-making process.

Keywords: automation, supervision, SCADA, TQM

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Authors: Stephen Acheampong Amoafoh

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In today's dynamic economic landscape, businesses face multifaceted challenges that demand strategic foresight and informed decision-making. This abstract explores the pivotal role of financial analytics in driving business performance amidst evolving market conditions. By integrating accounting principles with economic insights, organizations can harness the power of data-driven strategies to optimize resource allocation, mitigate risks, and capitalize on emerging opportunities. This presentation will delve into the practical applications of financial analytics across various sectors, highlighting case studies and empirical evidence to underscore its efficacy in enhancing operational efficiency and fostering sustainable growth. From predictive modeling to performance benchmarking, attendees will gain invaluable insights into leveraging advanced analytics tools to drive profitability, streamline processes, and adapt to changing market dynamics. Moreover, this abstract will address the ethical considerations inherent in financial analytics, emphasizing the importance of transparency, integrity, and accountability in data-driven decision-making. By fostering a culture of ethical conduct and responsible stewardship, organizations can build trust with stakeholders and safeguard their long-term viability in an increasingly interconnected global economy. Ultimately, this abstract aims to stimulate dialogue and collaboration among scholars, practitioners, and policymakers, fostering knowledge exchange and innovation in the realms of accounting, business, and economics. Through interdisciplinary insights and actionable recommendations, participants will be equipped to navigate the complexities of today's business environment and seize opportunities for sustainable success.

Keywords: financial analytics, business performance, data-driven strategies, sustainable growth

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Authors: Satu Lautamäki

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This paper presents findings from a multidisciplinary course (bachelor level) implemented at Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences, Finland. The course aims to develop innovative thinking of students, by having projects given by companies, using design thinking methods as a tool for creativity and by integrating students into multidisciplinary teams working on the given projects. The course is obligatory for all first year bachelor students across four faculties (business and culture, food and agriculture, health care and social work, and technology). The course involves around 800 students and 30 pedagogical coaches, and it is implemented as an intensive one-week course each year. The paper discusses the pedagogy, structure and coordination of the course. Also, reflections on methods for the development of creative skills are given. Experts in contemporary, global context often work in teams, which consist of people who have different areas of expertise and represent various professional backgrounds. That is why there is a strong need for new training methods where multidisciplinary approach is at the heart of learning. Creative learning takes place when different parties bring information to the discussion and learn from each other. When students in different fields are looking for professional growth for themselves and take responsibility for the professional growth of other learners, they form a mutual learning relationship with each other. Multidisciplinary team members make decisions both individually and collectively, which helps them to understand and appreciate other disciplines. Our results show that creative and multidisciplinary project learning can develop diversity of knowledge and competences, for instance, students’ cultural knowledge, teamwork and innovation competences, time management and presentation skills as well as support a student’s personal development as an expert. It is highly recommended that higher education curricula should include various studies for students from different study fields to work in multidisciplinary teams.

Keywords: multidisciplinary learning, creative skills, innovative thinking, project-based learning

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Authors: Getaneh Berie Tarekegn

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A precise localization system is crucial for many artificial intelligence Internet of Things (AI-IoT) applications in the era of smart cities. Their applications include traffic monitoring, emergency alarming, environmental monitoring, location-based advertising, intelligent transportation, and smart health care. The most common method for providing continuous positioning services in outdoor environments is by using a global navigation satellite system (GNSS). Due to nonline-of-sight, multipath, and weather conditions, GNSS systems do not perform well in dense urban, urban, and suburban areas.This paper proposes a generative AI-based positioning scheme for large-scale wireless settings using fingerprinting techniques. In this article, we presented a novel semi-supervised deep convolutional generative adversarial network (S-DCGAN)-based radio map construction method for real-time device localization. We also employed a reliable signal fingerprint feature extraction method with t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding (t-SNE), which extracts dominant features while eliminating noise from hybrid WLAN and long-term evolution (LTE) fingerprints. The proposed scheme reduced the workload of site surveying required to build the fingerprint database by up to 78.5% and significantly improved positioning accuracy. The results show that the average positioning error of GAILoc is less than 39 cm, and more than 90% of the errors are less than 82 cm. That is, numerical results proved that, in comparison to traditional methods, the proposed SRCLoc method can significantly improve positioning performance and reduce radio map construction costs.

Keywords: location-aware services, feature extraction technique, generative adversarial network, long short-term memory, support vector machine

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Authors: Timea Harmath-Tánczos

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Drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE) is defined as the persistence of seizures despite at least two syndrome-adapted antiseizure drugs (ASD) used at efficacious daily doses. About a third of patients with epilepsy suffer from drug resistance. Cognitive assessment has a crucial role in the diagnosis and clinical management of epilepsy. Previous studies have addressed the clinical targets and indications for measuring neuropsychological functions; best to our knowledge, no studies have examined it in a Hungarian therapy-resistant population. To fill this gap, we investigated the Hungarian diagnostic protocol between 18 and 65 years of age. This study aimed to describe and analyze neuropsychological functions in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy and identify factors associated with neuropsychology deficits. We perform a prospective case-control study comparing neuropsychological performances in 50 adult patients and 50 healthy individuals between March 2023 and July 2023. Neuropsychological functions were examined in both patients and controls using a full set of specific tests (general performance level, motor functions, attention, executive facts., verbal and visual memory, language, and visual-spatial functions). Potential risk factors for neuropsychological deficit were assessed in the patient group using a multivariate analysis. The two groups did not differ in age, sex, dominant hand and level of education. Compared with the control group, patients with drug-resistant epilepsy showed worse performance on motor functions and visuospatial memory, sustained attention, inhibition and verbal memory. Neuropsychological deficits could therefore be systematically detected in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy in order to provide neuropsychological therapy and improve quality of life. The analysis of the classical and complex indices of the special neuropsychological tasks presented in the presentation can help in the investigation of normal and disrupted memory and executive functions in the DRE.

Keywords: drug-resistant epilepsy, Hungarian diagnostic protocol, memory, executive functions, cognitive neuropsychology

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Authors: Farzam Fatolazadeh, Kalifa Goita, Mehdi Eshagh, Shusen Wang

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The Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) is a satellite mission with twin satellites for the precise determination of spatial and temporal variations in the Earth’s gravity field. The products of this mission are monthly global gravity models containing the spherical harmonic coefficients and their errors. These GRACE models can be used for estimating terrestrial water storage (TWS) variations across the globe at large scales, thereby offering an opportunity for surface and groundwater storage (GWS) assessments. Yet, the ability of GRACE to monitor changes at smaller scales is too limited for local water management authorities. This is largely due to the low spatial and temporal resolutions of its models (~200,000 km2 and one month, respectively). High-resolution GRACE data products would substantially enrich the information that is needed by local-scale decision-makers while offering the data for the regions that lack adequate in situ monitoring networks, including northern parts of Canada. Such products could eventually be obtained through downscaling. In this study, we extended the spectral combination theory to simultaneously downscale spatiotemporally the 3o spatial coarse resolution of GRACE to 0.25o degrees resolution and monthly coarse resolution to daily resolution. This method combines the monthly gravity field solution of GRACE and daily hydrological model products in the form of both low and high-frequency signals to produce high spatiotemporal resolution TWSA and GWSA products. The main contribution and originality of this study are to comprehensively and simultaneously consider GRACE and hydrological variables and their uncertainties to form the estimator in the spectral domain. Therefore, it is predicted that we reach downscale products with an acceptable accuracy.

Keywords: GRACE satellite, groundwater storage, spectral combination, terrestrial water storage

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Authors: Ola Jon Mork, Irina Emily Hansen

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The European Growth Strategy Program calls for more efficient methods for knowledge creation and innovation. This study contributes with new insights into the Singapore Innovation System; more precisely how knowledge processes are facilitated. The research material is collected by visiting the different innovation locations in Singapore and depth interview with key persons. The different innovation actors web sites and brochures have been studied. Governmental reports and figures have also been studied. The findings show that facilitation of Knowledge Processes in the Singapore Innovation System has a basic structure with three processes, which is 1) Idea capturing – 2)Technology and Business Execution – 3)Idea Realization. Dedicated innovation parks work with the most promising entrepreneurs; more precisely: finding the persons with the motivation to 'change the world'. The innovation park will facilitate these entrepreneurs for 100 days, where they also will be connected to a global network of venture capital. And, the entrepreneurs will have access to mentors from these venture companies. Research institutes parks work with the development of world leading technology. To facilitate knowledge development they connect with industrial companies which are the most promising applicators of their technology. Knowledge facilitation is the main purpose, but this cooperation/testing is also serving as a platform for funding. Probably this is cooperation is also attractive for world leading companies. Dedicated innovation parks work with facilitation of innovators of new applications and perfection of products for the end- user. These parks can be specialized in special areas, like health products and life science products. Another example of this is automotive companies giving research call for these parks to develop and innovate new products and services upon their technology. Common characteristics for the knowledge facilitation in the Singapore Innovation System are a short trial period for promising actors, normally 100 days. It is also a strong focus on training of the entrepreneurs. Presentations and diffusion of knowledge is an important part of the facilitation. Funding will be available for the most successful entrepreneurs and innovators.

Keywords: knowledge processes, facilitation, innovation, Singapore innovation web

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Authors: Aurore Lechevallier, Mohend Chaouche, Jerome Soudier, Guillaume Renaudin

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The cement industry accounts for 8% of the global CO₂ emissions, and approximately 60% of these emissions are associated with the Portland cement clinker production from the decarbonization of limestone (CaCO3). Their impact on the greenhouse effect results in growing social awareness. Therefore, CO2 footprint becomes a product selection choice, and substituting Portland cement with a lower CO2-footprint alternative binder is sought. In this context, new hydraulic binders have been studied as a potential Ordinary Portland Cement substitute. Many of them are composed of iron oxides and aluminum oxides, present in the Ca₄Al₂-xFe₂+ₓO₁₀-like phase and forming Ca-LDH (i.e. AFM) as a hydration product. It has become essential to study the possible existence of Fe/Al AFM solid solutions to characterize the hydration process properly. Ca₂Al₂-xFex(OH)₆.X.nH₂O layered AFM samples intercalated with either nitrate or chloride X anions were synthesized based on the co-precipitation method under a nitrogen atmosphere to avoid the carbonation effect.AFM samples intercalated with carbonate anions were synthesized based on the anionic exchange process, using AFM-NO₃ as the source material. These three AFM samples were synthesized with varying Fe/Al molar ratios. The experimental conditions were optimized to make possible the formation of Al-AFM and Fe-AFM using the same parameters (namely pH value and salt concentration). Rietveld refinements were performed to demonstrate the existence of a solid solution between the two trivalent metallic end members. Spectroscopic analyses were used to confirm the intercalation of the targeted anion; secondary electron images were taken to analyze the AFM samples’ morphology, and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) was carried out to determine the elemental composition of the AFM samples. Results of this study make it possible to quantify the Al/Fe ratio of the AFM phases precipitated in our hydraulic binder, thanks to the determined Vegard's law characteristic to the corresponding solid solutions

Keywords: AFm phase, iron-rich binder, low-carbon cement, solid solution

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Authors: Kuo-Chun Chien, Chia-Hui Chang, Ren-Der Sun

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Legal Judgment Prediction (LJP) is a subtask for legal AI. Its main purpose is to use the facts of a case to predict the judgment result. In Taiwan's criminal procedure, when prosecutors complete the investigation of the case, they will decide whether to prosecute the suspect and which article of criminal law should be used based on the facts and evidence of the case. In this study, we collected 305,240 indictments from the public inquiry system of the procuratorate of the Ministry of Justice, which included 169 charges and 317 articles from 21 laws. We take the crime facts in the indictments as the main input to jointly learn the prediction model for law source, article, and charge simultaneously based on the pre-trained Bert model. For single article cases where the frequency of the charge and article are greater than 50, the prediction performance of law sources, articles, and charges reach 97.66, 92.22, and 60.52 macro-f1, respectively. To understand the big performance gap between articles and charges, we used a bipartite graph to visualize the relationship between the articles and charges, and found that the reason for the poor prediction performance was actually due to the wording precision. Some charges use the simplest words, while others may include the perpetrator or the result to make the charges more specific. For example, Article 284 of the Criminal Law may be indicted as “negligent injury”, "negligent death”, "business injury", "driving business injury", or "non-driving business injury". As another example, Article 10 of the Drug Hazard Control Regulations can be charged as “Drug Control Regulations” or “Drug Hazard Control Regulations”. In order to solve the above problems and more accurately predict the article and charge, we plan to include the article content or charge names in the input, and use the sentence-pair classification method for question-answer problems in the BERT model to improve the performance. We will also consider a sequence-to-sequence approach to charge prediction.

Keywords: legal judgment prediction, deep learning, natural language processing, BERT, data visualization

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Authors: Gabriela Macera DiFilippo

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The world watched in disbelief as George Floyd was killed by a policeman. The images from the scene were made more memorable by Mr. Floyd’s pleas and cries for his mother. In the aftermath of this tragedy, the Black Lives Matter movement gained momentum. Weeks and months after the protests, global interest in learning about tackling systemic racism erupted. One must wonder how school children of color viewed and processed this trauma. This study will examine the kinds of trauma experienced by children of color and the opportunity for school mental health providers to support these children. This study used literature searches that were previously conducted for proven and practical assessment methods that can help deal with racial trauma for children. As part of the assessment, trauma symptoms experienced by children of color were summarized and characterized in a non-imperial manner. The research was also will be done in practical ways to make adequate and effective mental health services available in schools and lessen the stigma. This research study found that there is a need to provide an analysis of the ongoing racial trauma of children of color after the death of George Floyd. Impactful and appropriate assessment methods, such as surveys, were presented to all school professionals. Lastly, this paper attempted to provide mental health professionals with the tools to screen and provide guidance based on unequivocal, unbiased methods for helping these children. There is a need for both schools and community leaders to ensure that every child has access to mental health care and is being assessed for their overall well-being. There is a need to educate the communities about racial trauma and its impact on individuals, especially children. School mental health professionals are encouraged to offer and educate schools and communities about racial trauma awareness, its importance, and ways to cope with it in different settings. The delivery of these informed services should focus on behavioral health and must be sensitive to children of color and different ways of self-care.

Keywords: trauma, children, black psychology, students

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Authors: Sima Saadi, Carolyn Johns

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

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

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Authors: Zewdneh Zana Zate

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The study focuses on the evolutionary and ecological genomics of both wild and cultivated Coffea arabica L. at its center of origin, Ethiopia, aiming to uncover how this vital species may withstand future climate changes. Utilizing bioclimatic models, we project the future distribution of Arabica under varied climate scenarios for 2050 and 2080, identifying potential conservation zones and immediate risk areas. Through whole-genome resequencing of accessions from Ethiopian gene banks, this research assesses genetic diversity and divergence between wild and cultivated populations. It explores relationships, demographic histories, and potential hybridization events among Coffea arabica accessions to better understand the species' origins and its connection to parental species. This genomic analysis also seeks to detect signs of natural or artificial selection across populations. Integrating these genomic discoveries with ecological data, the study evaluates the current and future ecological and genomic vulnerabilities of wild Coffea arabica, emphasizing necessary adaptations for survival. We have identified key genomic regions linked to environmental stress tolerance, which could be crucial for breeding more resilient Arabica varieties. Additionally, our ecological modeling predicted a contraction of suitable habitats, urging immediate conservation actions in identified key areas. This research not only elucidates the evolutionary history and adaptive strategies of Arabica but also informs conservation priorities and breeding strategies to enhance resilience to climate change. By synthesizing genomic and ecological insights, we provide a robust framework for developing effective management strategies aimed at sustaining Coffea arabica, a species of profound global importance, in its native habitat under evolving climatic conditions.

Keywords: coffea arabica, climate change adaptation, conservation strategies, genomic resilience

Procedia PDF Downloads 39

Authors: Rose A. Yemson, Ping Jiang, Oyedeji L. Inumoh

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The deployment of wireless sensor network has rapidly increased, however with the increased capacity and diversity of sensors, and applications ranging from biological, environmental, military etc. generates tremendous volume of data’s where more attention is placed on the distributed sensing and little on how to manage, analyze, retrieve and understand the data generated. This makes it more quite difficult to process live sensor data, run concurrent control and update because sensor data are either heavyweight, complex, and slow. This work will focus on developing a web service platform for automatic detection of sensors, acquisition of sensor data, storage of sensor data into a database, processing of sensor data using reconfigurable software components. This work will also create a web service based sensor data management system to monitor physical movement of an individual wearing wireless network sensor technology (SunSPOT). The sensor will detect movement of that individual by sensing the acceleration in the direction of X, Y and Z axes accordingly and then send the sensed reading to a database that will be interfaced with an internet platform. The collected sensed data will determine the posture of the person such as standing, sitting and lying down. The system is designed using the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and implemented using Java, JavaScript, html and MySQL. This system allows real time monitoring an individual closely and obtain their physical activity details without been physically presence for in-situ measurement which enables you to work remotely instead of the time consuming check of an individual. These details can help in evaluating an individual’s physical activity and generate feedback on medication. It can also help in keeping track of any mandatory physical activities required to be done by the individuals. These evaluations and feedback can help in maintaining a better health status of the individual and providing improved health care.

Keywords: HTML, java, javascript, MySQL, sunspot, UML, web-based, wireless network sensor

Procedia PDF Downloads 210

Authors: Thiago Spilborghs Bueno Meyer, Plinio Thomaz Aquino Junior

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Through speech, which privileges the functional and interactive nature of the text, it is possible to ascertain the spatiotemporal circumstances, the conditions of production and reception of the discourse, the explicit purposes such as informing, explaining, convincing, etc. These conditions allow bringing the interaction between humans closer to the human-robot interaction, making it natural and sensitive to information. However, it is not enough to understand what is said; it is necessary to recognize emotions for the desired interaction. The validity of the use of neural networks for feature selection and emotion recognition was verified. For this purpose, it is proposed the use of neural networks and comparison of models, such as recurrent neural networks and deep neural networks, in order to carry out the classification of emotions through speech signals to verify the quality of recognition. It is expected to enable the implementation of robots in a domestic environment, such as the HERA robot from the RoboFEI@Home team, which focuses on autonomous service robots for the domestic environment. Tests were performed using only the Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients, as well as tests with several characteristics of Delta-MFCC, spectral contrast, and the Mel spectrogram. To carry out the training, validation and testing of the neural networks, the eNTERFACE’05 database was used, which has 42 speakers from 14 different nationalities speaking the English language. The data from the chosen database are videos that, for use in neural networks, were converted into audios. It was found as a result, a classification of 51,969% of correct answers when using the deep neural network, when the use of the recurrent neural network was verified, with the classification with accuracy equal to 44.09%. The results are more accurate when only the Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients are used for the classification, using the classifier with the deep neural network, and in only one case, it is possible to observe a greater accuracy by the recurrent neural network, which occurs in the use of various features and setting 73 for batch size and 100 training epochs.

Keywords: emotion recognition, speech, deep learning, human-robot interaction, neural networks

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Authors: Babar Rasheed, Saad Ghafoor

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Introduction: Idea campaigns are commonly held across organizations for generating employee engagement. The contribution is specifically designed to identify and solve prevalent issues. It is argued that numerous organizations fail to achieve their desired goals despite arranging for such campaigns and investing heavily in them. There are however practices that organizations use to achieve higher degree of effectiveness, and these practices may be up for exploration by research to make them usable for the other organizations. Purpose: The aim of this research is to surface the idea management practices of a leading electric company with global operations. The study involves a large sized, multi site organization that is attributed to have added challenges in terms of managing ideas from employees, in comparison to smaller organizations. The study aims to highlight the factors that are looked at as the idea management team strategies for the campaign, sets terms and rewards for it, makes follow up with the employees and lastly, evaluate and award ideas. Methodology: The study is conducted in a leading electric appliance corporation that has a large number of employees and is based in numerous regions of the world. A total of 7 interviews are carried out involving the chief innovation officer, innovation manager and members of idea management and evaluation teams. The interviews are carried out either on Skype or in-person based on the availability of the interviewee. Findings: While this being a working paper and while the study is under way, it is anticipated that valuable information is being achieved about specific details on how idea management systems are governed and how idea campaigns are carried out. The findings may be particularly useful for innovation consultants as resources they can use to promote idea campaigning. The usefulness of the best practices highlighted as a result is, in any case, the most valuable output of this study.

Keywords: employee engagement, motivation, idea campaigns, large organizations, best practices, employees input, organizational output

Procedia PDF Downloads 171

Authors: Gyorgy Deak, Marius C. Raischi, Lucian P. Georgescu, Tiberius M. Danalache, Elena Holban, Madalina G. Boboc, Monica Matei, Catalina Iticescu, Marius V. Olteanu, Stefan Zamfir, Gabriel Cornateanu

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At present, on the Lower Danube, different types of pressures have been identified that affect the anadromous sturgeons stocks with an impact that leads to their decline. This paper presents techniques and procedures used by Romanian experts in the tagging and monitoring of anadromous sturgeons, as well as unique results at international level obtained on the basis of an informational volume collected in over 7 years of monitoring on these species behavior (both for adults as well as for ultrasonically tagged juveniles) on the Lower Danube. The local impact of hydrotechnical constructions (bottom sill, maritime navigation channel), the global impact of the poaching phenomenon and the impact of the restocking programs with sturgeon juveniles were assessed. Thus, the bottom sill impact on the Bala branch, the Bastroe Channel (cross-border impact) and the poaching phenomenon at the level of the Lower Danube was analyzed on the basis of a unique informational volume obtained through the use of patented monitoring systems by the Romanian experts (DKTB respectively, DKMR-01T). At the same time, the results from the monitoring of ultrasonically tagged sturgeon juveniles from the 2015 repopulation program are presented. Conclusions resulting from research can ensure favorable premises for finding some conservation solutions for CITES-protected sturgeon species that have survived for millions of years, currently being 1 species on the brink of extinction - Russian sturgeon, 2 species in danger of extinction - Beluga sturgeon and Stellate sturgeon and 2 species already extinct from the Lower Danube, namely common sturgeon and ship sturgeon.

Keywords: Lower Danube, sturgeons monitoring (adults and juveniles), tagging, impact on conservation

Procedia PDF Downloads 239