Search results for: capital employed

Authors: Chun-Wei Huang, Jyh-Cherng Gu, Ming-Ta Yang

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Non-synchronous breakage or line failure in power systems with light or no loads can lead to core saturation in transformers or potential transformers. This can cause component and capacitance matching resulting in the formation of resonant circuits, which trigger ferroresonance. This study employed a wavelet transform for the detection of ferroresonance. Simulation results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed method.

Keywords: ferroresonance, wavelet transform, intelligent electronic device, transformer

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Authors: Savita, Anurag Sharma, Harsukhpreet Singh

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Fetal Electrocardiogram (fECG) is a widely used technique to assess the fetal well-being and identify any changes that might be with problems during pregnancy and to evaluate the health and conditions of the fetus. Various techniques or methods have been employed to diagnose the fECG from abdominal signal. This paper describes the facile approach for the estimation of the fECG known as Adaptive Comb. Filter (ACF). The ACF can adjust according to the temporal variations in fundamental frequency by itself that used for the estimation of the quasi periodic signal of ECG signal.

Keywords: aECG, ACF, fECG, mECG

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Authors: Patricia Sanz-Cordoba, Bernd Theilen

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This article analyzes the conditions where decentralization and partial tax harmonization in a coalition of asymmetric jurisdictions plays a role in the fight of fiscal competition (i.e. the race to bottom). Starting from a centralized economies, we use the ZM-W model to analyze the fiscal competition and coordination among three countries. We find that the asymmetry of jurisdictions facilitates partial tax harmonization between jurisdictions when these asymmetries are not too large. Furthermore, when the asymmetries are large enough, the level of labor tax plays an important role in the decision of decentralize capital tax. Accordingly, decentralization is achievable when labor tax is low. This result indicates that decentralization and partial tax harmonization between jurisdictions can be possible results in order to fight the negative externalities from fiscal competition, and more in the European Union countries where the asymmetries are substantial.

Keywords: centralization, decentralization, fiscal competition, partial tax harmonization

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Authors: Marvelyn F. Carolino, Charlene R. Cunanan, Gellien Faith O. Masongsong, Berlinda A. Ofrecio

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This study delves into the language usage differences among men, women, and individuals with other gender preferences. It specifically centers on the sociolinguistic aspects within the English majors at the College of Education of Rizal Technological University-Pasig, spanning from the first-year to fourth-year levels. The researchers employed a triangulation approach for data collection, utilizing a validated self-made questionnaire, interviews, and observations. The results revealed that language usage among different genders is influenced by a combination of cultural norms, social dynamics, and technological factors. Cultural norms significantly shape how respondents use language, as they conform to expected speech patterns based on their gender. Social factors, such as peer pressure, were found to impact language usage for individuals of all genders. This influence was viewed as constructive for personal development rather than inhibiting performance or communication. In terms of technological factors, respondents strongly agreed that the time spent on social media and educational applications influenced their language use. These platforms provided opportunities to expand and enhance their vocabulary. Additionally, the study employed hypothesis testing through the z-test formula to assess the impact of demographic profiles on language usage differences among genders. The results indicated that gender, economic status, locality, and ethnicity did not show statistically significant differences in language use. This lack of significant variation in findings was attributed to the relatively homogeneous demographic profile of respondents, primarily composed of females with low-income backgrounds and Tagalog ethnicity. This demographic similarity likely minimized the diversity of responses.

Keywords: gender, language, sociolinguistics, differences

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Authors: Dhaksha Vivekanandan

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DeFi is a network that avoids reliance on financial intermediaries through its peer-to-peer financial network. DeFi operates outside of government control; hence it is important for us to understand its impacts. This study employs a literature review to understand DeFi and its emergence, as well as its implications on transparency, social impact, and regulation. Further, 3 case studies are analysed within the context of these categories. DeFi’s provision of increased transparency poses environmental and storage costs and can lead to user privacy being endangered. DeFi allows for the provision of entrepreneurial incentives and protection against monetary censorship and capital control. Despite DeFi's transparency issues and volatility costs, it has huge potential to reduce poverty; however, regulation surrounding DeFi still requires further tightening by governments.

Keywords: DeFi, transparency, regulation, social impact

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Authors: Meghry Nazarian, Ibrahim Duyar

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Effective management of a diverse workforce in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) presents peculiar importance as two-thirds of residents are expatriates who have diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Like any other organization in the country, UAE schools have become upmost diverse settings in the world. The purpose of this study was to examine whether principals’ cultural intelligence has direct and indirect (moderating) influences on teachers’ perceived diversity climate. A quantitative causal-comparative research design was employed to analyze the data. Participants included random samples of principals and teachers working in the private and charter schools in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. The data-gathering online questionnaires included previously developed and validated scales as the measures of study variables. More specifically, the multidimensional short-form measure of Cultural Intelligence (CQ) and the diversity climate scale were used to measure the study variables. Multivariate statistics, including the analysis of multivariate analysis of variance (MANCOVA) and structural equation modeling (SEM), were employed to examine the relationships between the study variables. The preliminary analyses of data showed that principals and teachers have differing views of diversity management and climate in schools. Findings also showed that principals’ cultural intelligence has both direct and moderating influences on teachers’ perceived diversity climate. The study findings are expected to inform policymakers and practicing educational leaders in addressing diversity management in a country where the majority of the residents are the minority who have diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

Keywords: diversity management, united arab emirates, school principals’ cultural intelligence (CQ), teachers’ perceived diversity climate

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Authors: Simon Mauma Efange

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The main aims of this research were to describe, in co-relational terms, the relationship, if any, between reading comprehension and academic achievement in science studied at the secondary level and, secondly, to find out possible trends in gender differences, such as whether boys would perform better than girls or vice versa. This research employed a quantitative design. Two kinds of instruments were employed: the Oxford Online Placement Test and the Local Assessment System Test. The Oxford Online Placement Test assesses students' English level quickly and easily. The results of these tests were subjected to statistical analysis using a special statistical software called SPSS. Statistical tools such as mean, standard deviation, percentages, frequencies, t-tests, and Pearson’s coefficient of correlation were used for the analysis of the results. Results of the t-test showed that the means are significantly different. Calculating the p-value revealed that the results were extremely statistically significant at p <.05. The value of r (Pearson correlation coefficient) was 0.2868. Although technically there is a positive correlation, the relationship between the variables is only weak (the closer the value is to zero, the weaker the relationship). However, in conclusion, calculations from the t-test using SPSS revealed that the results were statistically significant at p <.05, confirming a relationship between the two variables, and high scores in reading will give rise to slightly high scores in science. The research also revealed that having a high score in reading comprehension doesn’t necessarily mean having a high score in science or vice versa. Female subjects performed much better than male subjects in both tests, which is in line with the literature reviewed for this research.

Keywords: achievement in science, achievement in English, and bilingual students, relationship

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Authors: Aishath Shakeela

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At a global level, water stewardship, water stress and water security are crucial factors in tourism planning and development considerations. Challenges associated with water is of particular concern to the Maldives as there is limited availability of freshwater, high dependency on desalinated water, and high unit cost associated with desalinating water. While the Maldives is promoted as an example of sustainable tourism, a key sustainability challenge facing tourism dependent communities is the efficient use and management of available water resources. A water crisis event in the capital island of Maldives highlighted how precarious water related issues are in this tourism dependent destination. Applying netnography, the focus of this working paper is to present community perceptions of how government policies addressed Malé Water and Sewerage Company (MWSC) water crisis event.

Keywords: crisis management, government policies, Maldives, tourism, water

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Authors: Ying-Hsiu Chen, Pao-Peng Hsu

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This paper adopts a two-stage data envelopment analysis to explore the impacts of financial development and bank operational scale on bank efficiencies. The sample comprises of unbalanced panel data of 32 Taiwanese enlisted in domestic commercial banks over the period 1998 to 2013. Empirical results show that technical efficiency is positively related to financial development, whereas the effect of financial development on scale efficiency is insignificant. The effect of operational scale exerts a significantly positive effect on bank efficiencies, but the gain of efficiency is decreased gradually when operational scale increases. Furthermore, increase in capital adequacy ratio and market power of banks leads to a growth of bank efficiencies.

Keywords: financial development, operational scale, efficiency, DEA

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Authors: Moyera Sanganeria

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In the highly competitive landscape of contemporary sports, sportspersons worldwide encounter formidable challenges, often practicing for extensive hours while contending with limited social and physical resources. A growing number of sportspersons globally are sharing their struggles with depression, anxiety, and stress arising from the complex journey and identity associated with being a sportsperson. This qualitative study aims to investigate the challenges faced by sportspersons in individual versus team sports and explore potential gender-based variations in coping strategies. It attempts to do so by recognizing the imperative to comprehend the root causes and coping mechanisms for these stressors. By employing purposive sampling, MMA and Kabaddi players from training academies across Mumbai were selected for the study. Twelve participants were interviewed through semi-structured interviews guided by an interview guide. Reflective thematic analysis was employed to discern diverse stressors and coping strategies. Key stressors encountered by young Indian sportspersons encompass injuries, socio-economic challenges, financial constraints, escalating competition, and performance anxiety. Notably, individuals engaged in team sports tended to adopt emotion-focused coping mechanisms, while those in individual sports leaned more towards problem-focused coping strategies in response to these stressors. There were no prominent gender differences found in coping strategies employed by sportspersons. This study underscores the critical issue of declining mental health among sportspersons in India, emphasizing the necessity for a structured and customized mental health intervention strategy tailored to the unique needs of this population.

Keywords: stressors, coping strategies, sports psychology, sportspersons, mental health

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Authors: Ismail Borazan, Ayse Celik Bedeloglu, Ali Demir, David Carroll

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In this project, PEDOT:PSS layer was treated with formic acid, sulphuric acid, and hydrochloric acid, methanol, acetone, and dichlorobenzene:methanol. The resistivity measurements with 2-probes were carried out and the best-chosen method was employed to make an organic solar cell device.

Keywords: organic solar cells, PEDOT:PSS, polymer electrodes, resistivity

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Authors: Muhammad Abid

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Utilization of renewable energy resources for energy conservation, pollution prevention, resource efficiency and systems integration is very important for sustainable development. In this study, we perform energy and exergy analyses of a wind turbine, located on the roof of Mechanical Engineering Department, King Saud University, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The turbine is part of a hybrid photovoltaic (PV)-wind system with hydrogen storage. The power output from this turbine varies between 1.5 and 5.5 kW with a rated wind speed of 12 m/s and a cut-in wind speed of 2.4 m/s. We utilize a wide range of experimental data in the analysis and assessment. We determine energy and exergy efficiencies. The energy efficiency changes between 0% to 45% while the exergy efficiency varies between 0% and 31.3%. We also determined some of the exergoeconomic parameters that are the ratios of energy and exergy loss rates to the capital cost (R en and R ex), respectively. (R en) changes between 0.96% and 59.03% for different values of velocity while R ex has a maximum value of 53.62% for the highest wind speed.

Keywords: exergy, efficiency, performance evaluation, wind energy

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Authors: Sabur Mollah, Asma Mobarek

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This study aims to explore the endogenous relationship between Shari’ah governance and board governance for Islamic banks to identify complementary or substituting relationship between these governance parameters. By using a sample of 161 Islamic Banks from 24 countries for the period of 2005-2013, we show an endogenous relationship between Shari’ah Supervisory Board (SSB) and Board of Directors (BoD). In this relationship, SSB and BoD complement each other. We also show that this complementary relationship between SSB and BoD helps enhance both management and asset quality, but mitigates capital adequacy, earnings, and liquidity in Islamic banks. The study has important implications for financial stability in the Islamic banking system.

Keywords: Shari’ah Supervisory Board, Boards of Directors, Islamic banking, financial stability

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Authors: Ahmed Omar Bali, Sherko Jabar, Hazhar Jalal, Mahdi Sofi-Karim

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For a long while in Iraq, media organizations were owned by political parties, particularly the ruling parties, because media traditional organizations required big capital and human resources. This paper has examined the dynamics of Iraqi media market transformation with emphasizing on factors that help to merge media entrepreneurs and digital media firms which target audience on social media. A qualitative method was adopted in this study using open, in-depth interviews with 19 media entrepreneurs and three managers of media firms. The study revealed that relative freedom and advanced communication technologies have encouraged media entrepreneurs to drive the new media on producing short videos and broadcast them on social media which has become popular among media consumers.

Keywords: media entrepreneur, Iraq, journalists, media technicians, digital media firms, media market

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Authors: Chiara Mansanta, Daniela Sani

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This paper studies the concept of intrapreneurship discovery for innovation and technology development related to the manufacturing industries set up in the center of Italy, in Marche Region. The study underlined the key drivers of the innovation process and the main factors that influence innovation. Starting from a literature study on open innovation, this paper examines the role of human capital to support company’s development. The empirical part of the study is based on a survey to 151 manufacturing companies that represent the 34% of that universe at the regional level. The survey underlined the main KPI’s that influence companies in their decision processes; then tools for these decision processes are presented.

Keywords: business model, decision making, intrapreneurship discovery, standard methodology

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Authors: Richard Sogah

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The significance of transport infrastructure investments for economic growth and development has been central to the World Bank’s strategy for poverty reduction. Among the conventional surface transport infrastructures, road infrastructure is significant in facilitating the movement of human capital goods and services. When transport projects (i.e., roads, super-highways) are implemented, they come along with some negative social values (costs), such as increased noise and air pollution for local residents living near these facilities, displaced individuals, etc. However, these projects also facilitate better utilization of existing capital stock and generate other observable benefits that can be easily quantified. For example, the improvement or construction of roads creates employment, stimulates revenue generation (toll), reduces vehicle operating costs and accidents, increases accessibility, trade expansion, safety improvement, etc. Aside from these benefits, travel time savings (TTSs) which are the major economic benefits of urban and inter-urban transport projects and therefore integral in the economic assessment of transport projects, are often overlooked and omitted when estimating the benefits of transport projects, especially in developing countries. The absence of current and reliable domestic travel data and the inability of replicated models from the developed world to capture the actual value of travel time savings due to the large unemployment, underemployment, and other labor-induced distortions has contributed to the failure to assign value to travel time savings when estimating the benefits of transport schemes in developing countries. This omission of the value of travel time savings from the benefits of transport projects in developing countries poses problems for investors and stakeholders to either accept or dismiss projects based on schemes that favor reduced vehicular operating costs and other parameters rather than those that ease congestion, increase average speed, facilitate walking and handloading, and thus save travel time. Given the complex reality in the estimation of the value of travel time savings and the presence of widespread informal labour activities in Sub-Saharan Africa, we construct a “nationally ranked distribution of time values” and estimate the value of travel time savings based on the area beneath the distribution. Compared with other approaches, our method captures both formal sector workers and individuals/people who work outside the formal sector and hence changes in their time allocation occur in the informal economy and household production activities. The dataset for the estimations is sourced from the World Bank, the International Labour Organization, etc.

Keywords: road infrastructure, transport projects, travel time savings, congestion, Sub-Sahara Africa

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Authors: Bhavani Veasuvalingam

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Case-based learning (CBL) is a popular instructional method aimed to bridge theory to clinical practice. This study aims to explore CBL mixed modality curriculum in influencing students’ learning styles and strategies that support learning. An explanatory sequential mixed method study was employed with initial phase, 44-itemed Felderman’s Index of Learning Style (ILS) questionnaire employed across year one medical students (n=142) using convenience sampling to describe the preferred learning styles. The qualitative phase utilised three focus group discussions (FGD) to explore in depth on the multimodal learning style exhibited by the students. Most students preferred combination of learning stylesthat is reflective, sensing, visual and sequential i.e.: RSVISeq style (24.64%) from the ILS analysis. The frequency of learning preference from processing to understanding were well balanced, with sequential-global domain (66.2%); sensing-intuitive (59.86%), active- reflective (57%), and visual-verbal (51.41%). The qualitative data reported three major themes, namely Theme 1: CBL mixed modalities navigates learners’ learning style; Theme 2: Multimodal learners active learning strategies supports learning. Theme 3: CBL modalities facilitating theory into clinical knowledge. Both quantitative and qualitative study strongly reports the multimodal learning style of the year one medical students. Medical students utilise multimodal learning styles to attain the clinical knowledge when learning with CBL mixed modalities. Educators’ awareness of the multimodal learning style is crucial in delivering the CBL mixed modalities effectively, considering strategic pedagogical support students to engage and learn CBL in bridging the theoretical knowledge into clinical practice.

Keywords: case-based learning, learnign style, medical students, learning

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Authors: Aamir Hasan, Subhash Mishra

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The purpose of the study was to determine the key drivers which influence the shopping behavior of the customers in the retail store. In today‟s competitive world with increasing number of retail stores, the retailers need to be more customer oriented. Retail has changed and expanded in all lines of business, be it apparel,jewelry, footwear, groceries etc. The modern consumer is posing a challenging task for the Indian retailer. More aware, more confident and much more demanding, therefore the retailers are looking for ways to deliver better consumer value and to increase consumer purchase intention. Retailers tend to differentiate themselves by making their service easier to consumers. The study aims to study the key drivers that can influence shopping behavior in retail store. A survey (store intercept) method was employed to elicit primary information from 300 shoppers in different retail stores of Lucknow. The findings reveal the factors that play a greater role in influencing the shopping behavior of customers in retail store. As such, a survey of retail store customers‟ attitude towards reduced price, sales promotion, quality of the products, proximity to the home, customer service, store atmospherics were analyzed to identify the key drivers influencing shopping behavior in retail store. A questionnaire based on a five-item Likert scale, as well as random sampling, was employed for data collection. Data analysis was accomplished using SPSS software. The paper has found shopping experience, store image and value for money as three important variable out of which shopping experience emerged as a dominant factor which influences the consumer's shopping behavior in the retail store. Since the research has established empirical evidences in determining the key drivers which influences the shopping behavior of the customers in the retail store, it serves as a foundation for a deeper probe into the shopping behavior of the customers in the retail store research domain in the Indian context.

Keywords: retail, shopping, customers, questionnaire

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Authors: Rahime Hülya Öztürk

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Along with the development of globalization, the relationship between economic, politic and commercial behaviors became unlimited. The liberalization of capital has many advantages for countries, but it also has some disadvantages. In these disadvantages the most important one is corruption. Especially in Developing Countries and Underdeveloped countries, corruption is very extensive. Corruption causes inefficient use of resources and promotes income inequality. Especially in the transition period of economies corruption increases and sometimes governments don’t interfere. To fight against corruption domestic and international measures are taken. Corruption is an economic problem, but it also has social and moral effects. The aim of this study is to define the relationship between corruption and income in Independent Turkish State. In the first part of the study, the concept of corruption is examined. In the second part of the study, information about The Independent Turkish Republic is given. In the third part of the study, country’s relationship between corruption and income is analyzed with panel data analysis.

Keywords: corruption, income, independent Turkish Republic, distribution of income

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Authors: Min-Ming Wen

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Applying the U.S. lodging and tourism industry as a research sample, we examine the relation between the corporate governance structure and managerial risk-taking behavior. In light of the global financial crisis, the importance of effective governance structures is essential in protecting claimholder interests. We propose a governance structure consisting of shareholder governance measured by anti-takeover provisions to examine whether the governance structure has a significant impact on managerial risk-taking behaviors in terms of the investment policy. We will use capital expenditure and R&D investment to measure managerial risk-taking and the firm’s investment policy. In addition, we will examine whether the effects of governance on investment policy differ significantly between speculative and investment-grade firms.

Keywords: corporate governance, risk-taking, firm value, lodging industry

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Authors: Muhammad Zeeshan

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This case study is about a 54 years man named Mr. U, referred to Capital Hospital, Islamabad, with the presenting complaints of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). Contrary to his complaints, the client reported psychological symptoms such as restlessness, low mood and fear of darkness and fear from closed places from the last 30 days. He also had a fear of death and his existence in the grave. His sleep was also disturbed due to excessive urination due to diabetes. He was also suffering from semantic symptoms such as headache, numbness of feet and pain in the chest and blockage of the nose. A complete history was taken and informal assessment (clinical interview and MSE) and formal testing (BAI) was applied that showed the clear diagnosis of Generalized Anxiety Disorder. CBT, relaxation techniques, prayer chart and behavioural techniques were applied for the treatment purposes.

Keywords: generalized anxiety disorder, presenting complaints, formal and informal assessment, diagnosis

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Authors: Mark Herman Sumagang Potoy

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State of the City Address (SOCA) is a speech, modelled after the State of the Nation Address, given not as mandated by law but usually a matter of practice or tradition delivered before the chief executive’s constituents. Through this, the general public is made to know the performance of the local government unit and its agenda for the coming year. Therefore, it is imperative for SOCAs to clearly convey its message and carry out the myriad function of enlightening its readers which could be achieved through the proper use of reference. Anaphora and cataphora are the two major types of reference; the former refer back to something that has already been mentioned while the latter points forward to something which is yet to be said. This paper seeks to identify the types of reference employed on the SOCAs from 2014 to 2016 of Hon. Rosalina Garcia Jalosjos, Mayor of Dapitan City and look into how the references contribute to the clarity of the message of the text. The qualitative method of research is used in this study through an in-depth analysis of the corpus. As soon as the copies of the SOCAs are secured from the Office of the City Mayor, they are then analyzed using documentary technique categorizing the types of reference as to anaphora and cataphora, counting each of these types and describing the implications of the dominant types used in the addresses. After a thorough analysis, it is found out that the two reference types namely, anaphora and cataphora are both employed on the three SOCAs, the former being used more frequently than the latter accounting to 80% and 20% of actual usage, respectively. Moreover, the use of anaphors and cataphora on the three addresses helps in conveying the message clearly because they primarily become aids to avoid the repetition of the same element in the text especially when there wasn’t a need to emphasize a point. Finally, it is recommended that writers of State of the City Addresses should have a vast knowledge on how reference should be used and the functions they take in the text since this is a vital tool to clearly transmit a message. Moreover, English teachers should explicitly teach the proper usage of anaphora and cataphora, as instruments to develop cohesion in written discourse, to enable students to write not only with sense but also with fluidity in tying utterances together.

Keywords: anaphora, cataphora, reference, State of the City Address

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Authors: Catalina Florentina Pricope

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The last two decades witnessed a movement towards harmonization of international financial reporting standards (IFRS) throughout the global economy. This investigation seeks to identify the factors that could explain the adoption of IFRS by poor jurisdictions. While there has been a considerable amount, of literature published on the effects and key drivers of IFRS adoption in both developed and developing countries, little attention has been paid to jurisdictions with less developed capital markets and low-income levels exclusively. Drawing upon the Institutional Isomorphism theory and analyzing a sample of 45 poor jurisdictions between 2008 and 2013, the study empirically shows that poor jurisdictions are driven by legitimacy concerns rather than by economic reasoning to adopt an international accounting perspective. This in turn has implications for the IASB, as it should seek to influence institutional pressures within a particular jurisdiction in order to promote IFRS adoption.

Keywords: IFRS adoption, isomorphism, poor jurisdictions, accounting harmonization

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Authors: Tom Turner

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The recent financial crisis in 2008 and the growing inequality in developed industrial societies would appear to present significant challenges to capitalism and the free market. Yet there have been few substantial mainstream political or economic challenges to the dominant capitalist and market paradigm to-date. There is no dearth of critical and theoretical (academic) analyses regarding the prevailing systems failures. Yet despite the growing inequality in the developed industrial societies and the financial crisis in 2008 few commentators have advocated the comprehensive socialization or state ownership of the means of production to our knowledge – a core principle of radical Marxism in the 19th and early part of the 20th century. Undoubtedly the experience in the Soviet Union and satellite countries in the 20th century has cast a dark shadow over the notion of centrally controlled economies and state ownership of the means of production. In this paper, we explore the history of a doctrine advocating the socialization or state ownership of the means of production that was central to Marxism and socialism generally. Indeed this doctrine provoked an intense and often acrimonious debate especially for left-wing parties throughout the 20th century. The debate within the political economy tradition has historically tended to divide into a radical and a revisionist approach to changing or reforming capitalism. The radical perspective views the conflict of interest between capital and labor as a persistent and insoluble feature of a capitalist society and advocates the public or state ownership of the means of production. Alternatively, the revisionist perspective focuses on issues of distribution rather than production and emphasizes the possibility of compromise between capital and labor in capitalist societies. Over the 20th century, the radical perspective has faded and even the social democratic revisionist tradition has declined in recent years. We conclude with the major challenges that confront both the radical and revisionist perspectives in the development of viable policy agendas in mature developed democratic societies. Additionally, we consider whether state ownership of the means of production still has relevance in the 21st century and to what extent state ownership is off the agenda as a political issue in the political mainstream in developed industrial societies. A central argument in the paper is that state ownership of the means of production is unlikely to feature as either a practical or theoretical solution to the problems of capitalism post the financial crisis among mainstream political parties of the left. Although the focus here is solely on the shifting views of the radical and revisionist socialist perspectives in the western European tradition the analysis has relevance for the wider socialist movement.

Keywords: sate ownership, ownership means of production, radicals, revisionists

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Authors: Shota Gulbani

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At the present stage, for the countries with developing economies, studying, and researching financial markets, gains special importance, because the situation of financial markets shapes an exact views about the carried out economic policy of the country. Besides, it’s unimaginable any country with developed economy, without healthy and functioning financial markets, whereas, for any kind of business it has got a great importance in terms of finding diversified and alternative capital. In this regard; it should be noted that the segments of Georgian financial markets are developed quite unequally, as evidenced by the fact that the Georgian financial sector is represented by 93% of commercial banks, what does not create an conformable environment for non-bank financial institutions development. In spite of the fact that Georgia has got one of the best banking system of region, it is important to properly analyze that this system should not hinder the development of other participants of Georgian financial sector.

Keywords: financial markets, macroeconomics, investments, stock exchange

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Authors: Chun-Min Lin, Yuh-Jen Wu, Ching-Ting Chung

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The formulation of tourism policies requires objective academic research and evidence as support, especially research from local academia. Taiwan is a small island, and its economic growth relies heavily on tourism revenue. Taiwanese government has been devoting to the promotion of the tourism industry over the past few decades. Scientific research outcomes by Taiwanese scholars may and will help lay the foundations for drafting future tourism policy by the government. In this study, a total of 120 full journal articles published between 2008 and 2016 from the Journal of Tourism and Leisure Studies (JTSL) were examined to explore the scientific research trend of tourism study in Taiwan. JTSL is one of the most important Taiwanese journals in the tourism discipline which focuses on tourism-related issues and uses traditional Chinese as the study language. The method of co-word analysis from bibliometrics approaches was employed for semantic analysis in this study. When analyzing Chinese words and phrases, word segmentation analysis is a crucial step. It must be carried out initially and precisely in order to obtain meaningful word or word chunks for further frequency calculation. A word segmentation system basing on N-gram algorithm was developed in this study to conduct semantic analysis, and 100 groups of meaningful phrases with the highest recurrent rates were located. Subsequently, co-word analysis was employed for semantic classification. The results showed that the themes of tourism research in Taiwan in recent years cover the scope of tourism education, environmental protection, hotel management, information technology, and senior tourism. The results can give insight on the related issues and serve as a reference for tourism-related policy making and follow-up research.

Keywords: bibliometrics, co-word analysis, word segmentation, tourism research, policy

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Authors: José Alberto García Fernández, Zhimin Du, Xinqiao Jin

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Nowadays, data center industry faces strong challenges for increasing the speed and data processing capacities while at the same time is trying to keep their devices a suitable working temperature without penalizing that capacity. Consequently, the cooling systems of this kind of facilities use a large amount of energy to dissipate the heat generated inside the servers, and developing new cooling techniques or perfecting those already existing would be a great advance in this type of industry. The installation of a temperature sensor matrix distributed in the structure of each server would provide the necessary information for collecting the required data for obtaining a temperature profile instantly inside them. However, the number of temperature probes required to obtain the temperature profiles with sufficient accuracy is very high and expensive. Therefore, other less intrusive techniques are employed where each point that characterizes the server temperature profile is obtained by solving differential equations through simulation methods, simplifying data collection techniques but increasing the time to obtain results. In order to reduce these calculation times, complicated and slow computational fluid dynamics simulations are replaced by simpler and faster finite element method simulations which solve the Burgers‘ equations by backward, forward and central discretization techniques after simplifying the energy and enthalpy conservation differential equations. The discretization methods employed for solving the first and second order derivatives of the obtained Burgers‘ equation after these simplifications are the key for obtaining results with greater or lesser accuracy regardless of the characteristic truncation error.

Keywords: Burgers' equations, CFD simulation, data center, discretization methods, FEM simulation, temperature profile

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Authors: Y. Trantafyllou, C. Alexandraki

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Music interpretation accounts to the way musicians shape their performance by deliberately deviating from composers’ intentions, which are commonly communicated via some form of music transcription, such as a music score. For transcribed and non-improvised music, music expression is manifested by introducing subtle deviations in tempo, dynamics and articulation during the evolution of performance. This paper presents an application, named FlameCens, which, given two recordings of the same piece of music, presumably performed by different musicians, allow visualising deviations in tempo and dynamics during playback. The application may also compare a certain performance to the music score of that piece (i.e. MIDI file), which may be thought of as an expression-neutral representation of that piece, hence depicting the expressive queues employed by certain performers. FlameCens uses the Dynamic Time Warping algorithm to compare two audio sequences, based on CENS (Chroma Energy distribution Normalized Statistics) audio features. Expressive deviations are illustrated in a moving flame, which is generated by an animation of particles. The length of the flame is mapped to deviations in dynamics, while the slope of the flame is mapped to tempo deviations so that faster tempo changes the slope to the right and slower tempo changes the slope to the left. Constant slope signifies no tempo deviation. The detected deviations in tempo and dynamics can be additionally recorded in a text file, which allows for offline investigation. Moreover, in the case of monophonic music, the color of particles is used to convey the pitch of the notes during performance. FlameCens has been implemented in Python and it is openly available via GitHub. The application has been experimentally validated for different music genres including classical, contemporary, jazz and popular music. These experiments revealed that FlameCens can be a valuable tool for music specialists (i.e. musicians or musicologists) to investigate the expressive performance strategies employed by different musicians, as well as for music audience to enhance their listening experience.

Keywords: audio synchronization, computational music analysis, expressive music performance, information visualization

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Authors: Pabasara H. Gamage, Sisira K. Weliwegamage, Sameera R. Gunatilake, Hondamuni I. C De Silva, Parakrama Karunaratne

Abstract:

Green diesel is an upcoming category of biofuels, which has more practical advantages than biodiesel. Production of green diesel involves production of hydrocarbons from various fatty acid sources. Though green diesel is chemically similar to fossil fuel hydrocarbons, it is more environmentally friendly. Decarboxylation of fatty acid sources is one of green diesel production methods and is less expensive and more energy efficient compared to hydrodeoxygenation. Free fatty acids (FFA), undergo decarboxylation readily than triglycerides. Waste coconut oil, which is a rich source of FFA, can be easily decarboxylated than other oils which have lower FFA contents. These free fatty acids can be converted to hydrocarbons by decarboxylation. Experiments were conducted to carry out decarboxylation of waste coconut oil in a high pressure hastealloy reactor (Toption Goup LTD), in the presence of soda lime and mixtures of soda lime and alumina. Acid value (AV) correlates to the amount of FFA available in a sample of oil. It can be shown that with the decreasing of AV, FFAs have converted to hydrocarbons. First, waste coconut oil was reacted with soda lime alone, at 150 °C, 200 °C, and 250 °C and 1.2 MPa pressure for 2 hours. AVs of products at different temperatures were compared. AV of products decreased with increasing temperature. Thereafter, different mixtures of soda lime and alumina (100% Soda lime, 1:1 soda lime and alumina and 100% alumina) were employed at temperatures 150 °C, 200 °C, and 250 °C and 1.2 MPa pressure. The lowest AV of 2.99±0.03 was obtained when 1:1 soda lime and alumina were employed at 250 °C. It can be concluded with respect to the AV that the amount of FFA decreased when decarboxylation temperature was increased. Soda lime:alumina 1:1 mixture showed the lowest AV among the compositions studied. These findings lead to formulate a method to successfully synthesize hydrocarbons by decarboxylating waste coconut oil in the presence of soda lime and alumina (1:1) at elevated tempertaures such as 250 °C.

Keywords: acid value, free fatty acids, green diesel, high pressure reactor, waste coconut oil

Procedia PDF Downloads 292

Authors: Mohammad Reza Ramezani, Shahriyar Afandizadeh

Abstract:

Since the intersections play a crucial role in traffic delay, it is significant to evaluate them precisely. In this paper, three critical intersections in Tehran (Capital of Iran) had been simulated. The main purpose of this paper was to optimize the public transit delay. The simulation had three different phase in three intersections of Tehran. The first phase was about the current condition of intersection; the second phase was about optimized signal timing and the last phase was about prioritized public transit access. The Aimsun software was used to simulate all phases, and the Synchro software was used to optimization of signals as well. The result showed that the implement of optimization and prioritizing system would reduce about 50% of delay for public transit.

Keywords: transit signal priority, intersection optimization, public transit, simulation

Procedia PDF Downloads 462