Search results for: partial order theory

Authors: Eurico Lima Basto, Ofélia Pinto, Anabela Silva, Amélia Ferreira-Da-Silva

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The purpose if this study is two-fold: on the one hand, to identify the accounting information systems implemented in third sector organizations, as well as its components, its tools and the decisions and control purposes they serve; on the other hand, and by confronting these two theories - institutional theory versus rational choice – we intent to go further by understanding the reasons behind the adoption of the aforementioned tools. Data has been collected from third sector organizations operating in Portugal. Our sample includes all juridical types of organizations such as foundations, cooperative, associations or private institutions of social solidarity. The questionnaire contained sixteen close-ended questions and four open-questions. Results confirm the theoretical perspective of institutionalism. Most third sector organizations operating in Portugal implemented only traditional accounting tools like standard accounting statements, cost accounting, budgeting. Moreover, there is clear evidence that the decisions about the implementation of these tools were coercive oriented. With this study it is intended to contribute to a better understanding of the context of third sector organizations in Portugal, in particular the role that accounting plays in this sector, with a special focus on management accounting tools, and the factors that influence their use and the degree of their usefulness in the process of decision making.

Keywords: third sector, accounting tools, institutional theory, Portugal, descriptive research

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Authors: Mohd Azraei Pangah Pa'at, Mohd Ruzlin Mohd Mokhtar, Norhidayu Rameli, Tashia Marie Anthony, Huzainie Shafi Abd Halim

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Partial Discharge (PD) diagnostic mapping testing is one of the main diagnostic testing techniques that are widely used in the field or onsite testing for underground power cable in medium voltage level. The existence of PD activities is an early indication of insulation weakness hence early detection of PD activities can be determined and provides an initial prediction on the condition of the cable. To effectively manage the results of PD Mapping test, it is important to have acceptable criteria to facilitate prioritization of mitigation action. Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) through Distribution Network (DN) division have developed PD severity model name Severity Index (SI) for offline PD mapping test since 2007 based on onsite test experience. However, this severity index recommendation action had never been revised since its establishment. At presence, PD measurements data have been extensively increased, hence the severity level indication and the effectiveness of the recommendation actions can be analyzed and verified again. Based on the new revision, the recommended action to be taken will be able to reflect the actual defect condition. Hence, will be accurately prioritizing preventive action plan and minimizing maintenance expenditure.

Keywords: partial discharge, severity index, diagnostic testing, medium voltage, power cable

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Authors: Darius Jakimavicius

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Artificial intelligence is the subject of intense debate in the international arena, identified both as a technological breakthrough and as a component of the strategic stability effect. Both the kinetic and non-kinetic development of AI and its application in the national strategies of the great powers may trigger a change in the security situation. Artificial intelligence is generally faster, more capable and more efficient than humans, and there is a temptation to transfer decision-making and control responsibilities to artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence, which, once activated, can select and act on targets without further intervention by a human operator, blurs the boundary between human or robot (machine) warfare, or perhaps human and robot together. Artificial intelligence acts as a force multiplier that speeds up decision-making and reaction times on the battlefield. The role of humans is increasingly moving away from direct decision-making and away from command and control processes involving the use of force. It is worth noting that the autonomy and precision of AI systems make the process of strategic stability more complex. Deterrence theory is currently in a phase of development in which deterrence is undergoing further strain and crisis due to the complexity of the evolving models enabled by artificial intelligence. Based on the concept of strategic stability and deterrence theory, it is appropriate to develop further research on the development and impact of AI in order to assess AI from both a scientific and technical perspective: to capture a new niche in the scientific literature and academic terminology, to clarify the conditions for deterrence, and to identify the potential uses, impacts and possibly quantities of AI. The research problem is the impact of artificial intelligence developed by great powers on strategic stability. This thesis seeks to assess the impact of AI on strategic stability and deterrence principles, with human exclusion from the decision-making and control loop as a key axis. The interaction between AI and human actions and interests can determine fundamental changes in great powers' defense and deterrence, and the development and application of AI-based great powers strategies can lead to a change in strategic stability.

Keywords: artificial inteligence, strategic stability, deterrence theory, decision making loop

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Authors: Andrea Musumeci

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General theory of translation has suffered the lack of a homogeneous academic dialect, a holistic methodology to account for the diversity of factors involved in the discipline. An underlying pattern amongst theories of translation belonging to different periods and schools has been identified. Such pattern, which is linguistics oriented, could play a role towards unified academic and professional environments, both in terms of research and as a professional category. The implementation of such an approach has also led to a critique of the concept of equivalence, as being not the best of ways to account for translating phenomena.

Keywords: optimal, translating, research translation theory, methodology, descriptive analysis

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Authors: Rama Debbarma

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The present study deals with the performance of Linear base isolation system to mitigate seismic response of structures characterized by random system parameters. This involves optimization of the tuning ratio and damping properties of the base isolation system considering uncertain system parameters. However, the efficiency of base isolator may reduce if it is not tuned to the vibrating mode it is designed to suppress due to unavoidable presence of system parameters uncertainty. With the aid of matrix perturbation theory and first order Taylor series expansion, the total probability concept is used to evaluate the unconditional response of the primary structures considering random system parameters. For this, the conditional second order information of the response quantities are obtained in random vibration framework using state space formulation. Subsequently, the maximum unconditional root mean square displacement of the primary structures is used as the objective function to obtain optimum damping parameters Numerical study is performed to elucidate the effect of parameters uncertainties on the optimization of parameters of linear base isolator and system performance.

Keywords: linear base isolator, earthquake, optimization, uncertain parameters

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Authors: Qiuhu Shao

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Community home-based care service system, which is based on the family pension, supported by community pension and supplied by institutions pension, is an effective pension system to solve the current situation of China's accelerated aging. However, due to the fundamental realities of our country, the government is not able to bear the unilateral supply of the old-age service of the community. Therefore, based on the theory of welfare pluralism, the participation of social organizations in the home-based care service center has become an important part of the diversified supply of the old-age service for the elderly. Meanwhile, the home-based care service industry is still in the early stage, the management is relatively rough, which resulted in a large number of social resources waste. Thus, scientific, objective and long-term implementation is needed for social organizations to participate in home-based care services to guide its performance management. In order to realize the design of the performance management system, the author has done a research work that clarifies the research status of social organization's participation in home-based care service. Relevant theories such as welfare pluralism, community care theory, and performance management theory have been used to demonstrate the feasibility of data envelopment analysis method in social organization performance research. This paper analyzes the characteristics of the operation mode of the home-based care service center, and hackles the national as well as local documents, standards and norms related to the development of the home-based care industry, particularly studies those documents in Nanjing. Based on this, the paper designed a set of performance management PDCA system for home-based care service center in Nanjing and clarified each step of the system in detail. Subsequently, the research methods of performance evaluation and performance management and feedback, which are two core steps of performance management have been compared and screened in order to establish the overall framework of the performance management system of the home-based care service center. Through a large number of research, the paper summarized and analyzed the characteristics of the home-based care service center. Based on the research results, combined with the practice of the industry development in Nanjing, the paper puts forward a targeted performance evaluation index system of home-based care service center in Nanjing. Finally, the paper evaluated and sub-filed the performance of 186 home-based care service centers in Nanjing and then designed the performance optimization direction and performance improvement path based on the results. This study constructs the index system of performance evaluation of home-based care service and makes the index detailed to the implementation level, and constructs the evaluation index system which can be applied directly. Meanwhile, the quantitative evaluation of social organizations participating in the home-based care service changed the subjective impression in the previous practice of evaluation.

Keywords: data envelopment analysis, home-based care, performance management, social organization

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Authors: S. Gómez, G. Sánchez, J. Zarama, M. Castañeda Ramos, J. Escoto Alcántar, J. Torres, A. Núñez, S. Santana, F. Nájera, J. A. Lopez

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This paper shows in detail the mathematical model of direct and inverse kinematics for a robot manipulator (welding type) with four degrees of freedom. Using the D-H parameters, screw theory, numerical, geometric and interpolation methods, the theoretical and practical values of the position of robot were determined using an optimized algorithm for inverse kinematics obtaining the values of the particular joints in order to determine the virtual paths in a relatively short time.

Keywords: kinematics, degree of freedom, optimization, robot manipulator

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Authors: Jeremy Attard, Jordan François, Serge Lazzarini, Thierry Masson

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Gauge theories are the natural background for describing geometrically fundamental interactions using principal and associated fiber bundles as dynamical entities. The central notion of these theories is their local gauge symmetry implemented by the local action of a Lie group H. There exist several methods used to reduce the symmetry of a gauge theory, like gauge fixing, bundle reduction theorem or spontaneous symmetry breaking mechanism (SSBM). This paper is a presentation of another method of gauge symmetry reduction, distinct from those three. Given a symmetry group H acting on a fiber bundle and its naturally associated fields (Ehresmann (or Cartan) connection, curvature, matter fields, etc.) there sometimes exists a way to erase (in whole or in part) the H-action by just reconfiguring these fields, i.e. by making a mere change of field variables in order to get new (‘composite‘) fields on which H (in whole or in part) does not act anymore. Two examples: the re-interpretation of the BEHGHK (Higgs) mechanism, on the one hand, and the top-down construction of Tractor and Penrose's Twistor spaces and connections in the framework of conformal Cartan geometry, one the other, will be discussed. They have, of course, nothing to do with each other but the dressing field method can be applied on both to get a new insight. In the first example, it turns out, indeed, that generation of masses in the Standard Model can be separated from the symmetry breaking, the latter being a mere change of field variables, i.e. a dressing. This offers an interpretation in opposition with the one usually found in textbooks. In the second case, the dressing field method applied to the conformal Cartan geometry offer a way of understanding the deep geometric nature of the so-called Tractors and Twistors. The dressing field method, distinct from a gauge transformation (even if it can have apparently the same form), is a systematic way of finding and erasing artificial symmetries of a theory, by a mere change of field variables which redistributes the degrees of freedom of the theories.

Keywords: BEHGHK (Higgs) mechanism, conformal gravity, gauge theory, spontaneous symmetry breaking, symmetry reduction, twistors and tractors

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Authors: Mei-Hsiu Chi, Jyh-Yang Wu, Sheng-Gwo Chen

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The diffusion-reaction equations are important Partial Differential Equations in mathematical biology, material science, physics, and so on. However, finding efficient numerical methods for diffusion-reaction systems on curved surfaces is still an important and difficult problem. The purpose of this paper is to present a convergent geometric method for solving the reaction-diffusion equations on closed surfaces by an O(r)-LTL configuration method. The O(r)-LTL configuration method combining the local tangential lifting technique and configuration equations is an effective method to estimate differential quantities on curved surfaces. Since estimating the Laplace-Beltrami operator is an important task for solving the reaction-diffusion equations on surfaces, we use the local tangential lifting method and a generalized finite difference method to approximate the Laplace-Beltrami operators and we solve this reaction-diffusion system on closed surfaces. Our method is not only conceptually simple, but also easy to implement.

Keywords: closed surfaces, high-order approachs, numerical solutions, reaction-diffusion systems

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Authors: Andrey Egorov

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A product of the specific Lagrangian and the entropy factor is defined. Its positive definiteness is stated for the proper coupling constant. The passage from statistical mechanics to quantum field theory is performed by Wick rotation. The Green function (a convolution of the spectral amplitude and the propagator) is positive. Masses of quasiparticles are computed as residues. The role of the zeta derivative at zeta zeros is then highlighted, and the correspondent low bound is obtained.

Keywords: mass gap, positive definite kernels, quantum fields, Riemann zeta zeros

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Authors: Toufic Sarieddine

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As the belt and road Initiative (henceforth, BRI) enters its 9th year, Iran and China are forging stronger ties on economic and military fronts, a development which has not only caused alarm in Washington but also risks staining China’s relationships with the oil-rich Gulf monarchies. World-systems theory has been used to examine the impact of the BRI on the current world order, with scholarship split on the capacity of China to emerge as a hegemon contending with the US or even usurping it. This paper argues the emergence of a new China-centered world-system comprised of states/areas and processes participating in the BRI and overlapping with the global world-system under (shaky) US hegemony. This world-system centers around China as core and hegemon via economic domination, capable new institutions (Shanghai Cooperation Council), legal modi operandi, the common goal of infrastructure development to rally support among developing states, and other indicators of hegemony outlined in world-systems theory. In this regard, while states like Pakistan could become peripheries to China in the BRI-bound world-system via large-scale projects such as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, Iran has greater capacities and influence in the Middle East, making it superior to a periphery. This paper thus argues that the increasing proximity between Iran and China sees the former becoming a semi-periphery with respect to China within the BRI-bound world-system, having economic dependence on its new core and hegemon while simultaneously wielding political and military influence on weaker states such as Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, and Syria. The indicators for peripheralization as well as the characteristics of a semi-periphery outlined in world-systems theory are used to examine the current economic, political, and militaristic dimensions of Iran and China’s growing relationship, as well as the trajectory of these dimensions as part of the BRI-bound world-system.

Keywords: belt and road initiative, China, China-Middle East relations, Iran, world-systems analysis

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Authors: Zubdahe Noor, Haseeb Athar

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In this article, first a relation for conditional expectation is developed and then is used to characterize a general class of distributions F(x) = 1-e^(-ah(x)) through conditional expectation of difference of pair of generalized order statistics. Some results are reduced for particular cases. In the end, a list of distributions is presented in the form of table that are compatible with the given general class.

Keywords: generalized order statistics, order statistics, record values, conditional expectation, characterization

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Authors: Mahmoudi Noureddine

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In this study the use of two variable refined plate theories of laminated composite plates to static response of laminated plates. The plate theory accounts for parabolic distribution of the transverse shear strains, and satisfies the zero traction boundary conditions on the surfaces of the plate without using shear correction factor. The validity of the present theory is demonstrated by comparison with solutions available in the literature and finite element method. The result is presented for the static response of simply supported rectangular plates under uniform sinusoidal mechanical loadings.

Keywords: bending, composite, laminate, plates, fem

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Authors: Ming Liu, Chong Wu, Bingquan Liu, Lei Chen

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Internet users have to face the massive amount of textual data every day. Organizing texts into categories can help users dig the useful information from large-scale text collection. Clustering, in fact, is one of the most promising tools for categorizing texts due to its unsupervised characteristic. Unfortunately, most of traditional clustering algorithms lose their high qualities on large-scale text collection. This situation mainly attributes to the high- dimensional vectors generated from texts. To effectively and efficiently cluster large-scale text collection, this paper proposes a vector reconstruction based clustering algorithm. Only the features that can represent the cluster are preserved in cluster’s representative vector. This algorithm alternately repeats two sub-processes until it converges. One process is partial tuning sub-process, where feature’s weight is fine-tuned by iterative process. To accelerate clustering velocity, an intersection based similarity measurement and its corresponding neuron adjustment function are proposed and implemented in this sub-process. The other process is overall tuning sub-process, where the features are reallocated among different clusters. In this sub-process, the features useless to represent the cluster are removed from cluster’s representative vector. Experimental results on the three text collections (including two small-scale and one large-scale text collections) demonstrate that our algorithm obtains high quality on both small-scale and large-scale text collections.

Keywords: vector reconstruction, large-scale text clustering, partial tuning sub-process, overall tuning sub-process

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Authors: Misbah Javaid, Vladimir Estivill-Castro, Rene Hexel

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The field of robotics is advancing rapidly to the point where robots have become an integral part of the modern society. These robots collaborate and contribute productively with humans and compensate some shortcomings from human abilities and complement them with their skills. Effective teamwork of humans and robots demands to investigate the critical issue of trust. The field of human-computer interaction (HCI) has already examined trust humans place in technical systems mostly on issues like reliability and accuracy of performance. Early work in the area of expert systems suggested that automatic generation of explanations improved trust and acceptability of these systems. In this work, we augmented a robot with the user-invoked explanation generation proficiency. To measure explanations effect on human’s level of trust, we collected subjective survey measures and behavioral data in a human-robot team task into an interactive, adversarial and partial information environment. The results showed that with the explanation capability humans not only understand and recognize robot as an expert team partner. But, it was also observed that human's learning and human-robot team performance also significantly improved because of the meaningful interaction with the robot in the human-robot team. Moreover, by observing distinctive outcomes, we expect our research outcomes will also provide insights into further improvement of human-robot trustworthy relationships.

Keywords: explanation interface, adversaries, partial observability, trust building

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Authors: Abilio Avila, Orestis Terzidis

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A fundamental principle of Grounded Theory (GT) is to prevent the formation of preconceived theories. This implies the need to start a research study with an open mind and to avoid being absorbed by the existing literature. However, to start a new study without an understanding of the research domain and its context can be extremely challenging. This paper presents a research approach that simultaneously supports a researcher to identify and to focus on critical areas of a research project and prevent the formation of prejudiced concepts by the current body of literature. This approach comprises of four stages: Selection of secondary case studies, analysis of secondary case studies, development of an initial conceptual framework, development of an initial interview guide. The analysis of secondary case studies as a starting point for a research project allows a researcher to create a first understanding of a research area based on real-world cases without being influenced by the existing body of theory. It enables a researcher to develop through a structured course of actions a firm guide that establishes a solid starting point for further investigations. Thus, the described approach may have significant implications for GT researchers who aim to start a study within a given research area.

Keywords: grounded theory, interview guide, qualitative research, secondary case studies, secondary data analysis

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Authors: Yurdum Cokadar

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The United States is the country where the majority of highly skilled immigrants are hosted. Two-thirds of foreign-born migrants from Turkey - an underrepresented and understudied immigrant group in the United States - are highly skilled. Generated by the aim of filling this gap in the literature, the motivation of this research is to understand highly skilled Turkish immigrant women’s integration into the U.S. labor market, including barriers that they face and strategies they develop to rebuild their career after relocation. The in-depth interviews of 20 highly skilled Turkish women residing in the U.S. revealed that the majority of women participants are either not integrated into the labor market, occupy positions below their skill, or cannot reach the same upper segments of the labor market in the host country, arising from a range of structural and personal barriers interplaying in their career trajectories. Furthermore, many of them cannot transfer their social and cultural capital gained in their home country into the United States. The labor market participation process of these women is analyzed in the light of Bourdieu’s theory of capital and the intersectional approach of gender, class and ethnicity in order to understand the positions of highly skilled immigrant women in the host country labor market.

Keywords: deskilling, gender, class and ethnicity, highly skilled women immigrants, integration into the U.S. the labor market, labor market participation, skilled migration, theory of capital

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Authors: Zhuoyuan Wang, Benson T. H. Lim, Imriyas Kamardeen

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Effective service quality management has long been touted as a means of improving project and organisational performance. Particularly, in construction projects, main contractors are often seen as a broker between clients and subcontractors, and their service quality is thus associated with the overall project affinity and outcomes. While a considerable amount of research has focused on the aspect of clients-main contractors, very little research has been done to explore the effect of contractors’ service quality on subcontractors’ behaviours and so project outcomes. In addressing this gap, this study surveyed 97 subcontractors in the Chinese Construction industry and data was analysed using the Partial Least Square (PLS) Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) technique. The overall findings reveal that subcontractors categorised main contractors’ service quality into three dimensions: assurance; responsiveness; reliability and empathy. Of these, it is found that main contractors’ ‘assurance’ and ‘responsiveness’ positively influence subcontractors’ intention to engage in contractual behaviours. The results further show that the subcontractors’ intention to engage in organizational citizenship behaviours is associated with how flexible and committed the main contractors are in reliability and empathy. Collectively, both subcontractors’ contractual and organizational citizenship behaviours positively influence the overall project outcomes. In conclusion, the findings inform contractors different strategies towards managing and gaining subcontractors’ behaviour commitment in a socially connected, yet complex and uncertain, business environment.

Keywords: construction firms, organisational citizenship behaviour, service quality, social exchange theory

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Authors: Huang Yong, Chen Qianting, Zhao Shurong

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In order to identify the role and effect of Characteristic Towns as an important means to promote urban-rural integration, this paper uses Flow Theory and complex network analysis methods to jointly construct the identification path of urban-rural integration capabilities of Characteristic Towns. Take the National Characteristic Towns of Yunnan Province as the empirical objects to identify their role laws. The study found that in the implementation of the National Characteristic Town Project in Yunnan Province, (1) the population is more susceptible to the impact of the Characteristic Town Project than the technical elements, but the stability is poor; (2) The flow capacity of urban and rural technical elements is weak, and the quality of the enterprise cooperation network in general; (3) Compared with the batch of Characteristic Towns in 2016, its ability to promote urban-rural integration is higher in 2017; (4) The role of the Characteristic Town Project on urban-rural integration focuses on the improvement of the number of urban and rural flow elements. This paper analyzes the mode of the role of Characteristic Towns on urban-rural integration from the perspective of ‘flow,’ establishes a research paradigm for evaluating the role of Characteristic Towns in urban-rural integration capabilities, and builds a path for the application of Characteristic Towns to support the realization of urban-rural integration goals.

Keywords: characteristic town, urban-rural integration, flow theory, complex network analysis

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Authors: Shubham Jaiswal

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In the present article, a drive is taken to compute the solution of spatial fractional order advection-dispersion equation having source/sink term with given initial and boundary conditions. The equation is converted to a system of ordinary differential equations using second-kind shifted Chebyshev polynomials, which have finally been solved using finite difference method. The striking feature of the article is the fast transportation of solute concentration as and when the system approaches fractional order from standard order for specified values of the parameters of the system.

Keywords: spatial fractional order advection-dispersion equation, second-kind shifted Chebyshev polynomial, collocation method, conservative system, non-conservative system

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Authors: Burcu Akyildiz, Cigdem Kadaifci, Y. Ilker Topcu, Burc Ulengin

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In today’s business environment, companies should make strategic decisions to gain sustainable competitive advantage. Order selection is a crucial issue among these decisions especially for steel production industry. When the companies allocate a high proportion of their design and production capacities to their ongoing projects, determining which customer order should be chosen among the potential orders without exceeding the remaining capacity is the major critical problem. In this study, it is aimed to identify and prioritize the evaluation factors for the customer order selection problem. Conjoint analysis is used to examine the importance level of each factor which is determined as the potential profit rate per unit of time, the compatibility of potential order with available capacity, the level of potential future order with higher profit, customer credit of future business opportunity, and the negotiability level of production schedule for the order.

Keywords: conjoint analysis, order prioritization, profit management, structural steel firm

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Authors: Abosede Priscilla Ipadeola

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The quest for egalitarian justice requires a suitable theoretical foundation that can address the problem of marginalization and subjugation arising from various forms of oppression, such as sexism, racism, classism, and others. Many thinkers and societies have appealed to contractarianism, a theory that has been widely regarded as a doctrine of egalitarianism by some political theorists for about five centuries. Despite its numerous criticisms, the social contract still enjoys a prominent status as a key theory for egalitarian justice. However, Pateman and Mills have contended that the contractarian approach legitimizes gender and racial inequalities by excluding and marginalizing women and people of color from the original agreement. Therefore, the social contract is incapable of generating or fostering equality. This study proposes postcontractarianism, which is a viable alternative to the social contract. Postcontractarianism argues that the basis for egalitarianism cannot be grounded on agreement but rather on understanding. Postcontractarianism draws on Jorge Nef’s idea of mutual vulnerability and Obiri (an African theory of cosmology) to argue for the imperative of social equality.

Keywords: postcontractarianism, obiri, mutual vulnerability, egalitarianism, the social contract

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Authors: Moez Yeddes

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The property of opacity is widely used in the formal verification of security in computer systems and protocols. Opacity is a general language-theoretic scheme of many security properties of systems. Opacity is parametrized with framework in which several security properties of a system can be expressed. A secret behaviour of a system is opaque if a passive attacker can never deduce its occurrence from the system observation. Instead of considering the case of static observability where the set of observable events is fixed off-line or dynamic observability where the set of observable events changes over time depending on the history of the trace, we introduce Orwellian partial observability where unobservable events are not revealed provided that downgrading events never occurs in the future of the trace. Orwellian partial observability is needed to model intransitive information flow. This Orwellian observability is knwon as ipurge function. We show in previous work how to verify opacity for regular secret is opaque for a regular language L w.r.t. an Orwellian projection is PSPACE-complete while it has been proved undecidable even for a regular language L w.r.t. a general Orwellian observation function. In this paper, we address two problems of opacification of a regular secret ϕ for a regular language L w.r.t. an Orwellian projection: Given L and a secret ϕ ∈ L, the first problem consist to compute some minimal regular super-language M of L, if it exists, such that ϕ is opaque for M and the second consists to compute the supremal sub-language M′ of L such that ϕ is opaque for M′. We derive both language-theoretic characterizations and algorithms to solve these two dual problems.

Keywords: security policies, opacity, formal verification, orwellian observation

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Authors: WonHo Lee, Hyo-Gyoung Kwak

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A numerical model considering slip behavior of steel-concrete composite structure is introduced. This model is based on a linear bond stress-slip relation along the interface. Single node was considered at the interface of steel and concrete member in finite element analysis, and it improves analytical problems of model that takes double nodes at the interface by adopting spring elements to simulate the partial interaction. The slip behavior is simulated by modifying material properties of steel element contacting concrete according to the derived formulation. Decreased elastic modulus simulates the slip occurrence at the interface and decreased yield strength simulates drop in load capacity of the structure. The model is verified by comparing numerical analysis applying this model with experimental studies. Acknowledgment—This research was supported by a grant(13SCIPA01) from Smart Civil Infrastructure Research Program funded by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport(MOLIT) of Korea government and Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement(KAIA) and financially supported by Korea Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport(MOLIT) as U-City Master and Doctor Course Grant Program.

Keywords: bond-slip, composite structure, partial interaction, steel-concrete structure

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Authors: Samiha Ramdani, Abdelhamid Geuttala

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There is no doubt that the batteries increasingly used tires create environmental concerns. Algeria generates large amounts of by industrial and household waste, such as used tires and colored glass bottles and dishes, whose valuation in cementitious materials could be an interesting ecological and economical alternative for broadening eliminating cumbersome landfills. This work is a contribution to the promotion of local materials with the use of waste tires and glass bottle in the development of a new cementitious composite having the acceptable compressive strength and a capacity of improved strains. For this purpose, rubber crumb (GC) from shredding used tires were used as partial replacement of quarry sand with 10%, 20%, 40, 60%. In addition, some mixtures also contain glass powder at15% cement replacement by volume. The compressive strength, tensile strength, deformability, the water permeability and penetration Inions chlorides are studied. As results; an acceptable compressive strength was obtained with the substitution rate of 10% and 20% by volume, the deformability of the composite increases with increased replacement rate. The addition of finely ground glass as a partial replacement of cement concrete increases the resistance to penetration of Inions chloride and reduce the water permeability thereof; then increases their durability.

Keywords: crumb rubber, deformability, compressive strength, finely ground glass, durability, behavior law

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Authors: Kwasi Sarfo, Bernard Okoampah Otu

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The 1992 constitution of the Republic of Ghana recognises the authority and roles of traditional leaders and considers them as being entrusted with fiduciary responsibility over land in their respective territories. The new land act, Act 1036 of 2020, in buttressing the fiduciary role of traditional leaders in land matters, inserted the traditional leaders’ accountability clause. Many traditional leaders have expressed their misgivings about the insertion of this clause. Therefore, there appears to be a misunderstanding of the concept of fiduciary in land management in Ghana. The objective of this study is to examine the concept of fiduciary in respect of allodial rights holders in land management and administration and how this concept is perceived and applied by traditional leaders. The study seeks to provide insights into the discrepancy between fiduciary theory and its practical implementation in Ghana. The study is based on a qualitative empirical research approach and adopts in-depth interviews as a primary method of data collection. The study also adopts the theory of New Institutionalism of social anthropology in analysing and interpreting the findings. The data for this study was collected over a period of one year, from July 2022 to July 2023, as part of one of the author's PhD dissertation. The collected data were carefully analysed using the principles of thematic analysis, identifying key themes and patterns. This study does not seek to pursue the discussions from a legal standpoint but from a social anthropological perspective and argues that the concept of fiduciary in theory is far different from what pertains in practice and that traditional leaders’ assumptions and application of this concept contribute to the alienation of customary and communal land at the expense of their subjects. This study deepens our understanding of the continuous expropriation of communal landholders in many rural communities in Africa in the era of global land grabbing, which worsens their poverty levels. It also explains further the theory of new institutionalism of social anthropology by highlighting how the theory manifests in practice in the case of Ghana.

Keywords: fiduciary, customary land tenure, allodial rights, land alienation, communal land, Ghana

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Authors: Lilia Righi

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Recently, the fashion industry has demonstrated a keen interest in sustainability and the environment. Sustainable fashion has huge potential and appeals to environmentally conscious Generation Z shoppers. Meanwhile, Generation Z customers have attracted researchers' interest due to their overconsumption of clothing. However, most studies in this area focus on designing or producing sustainable clothing, with little exploration of consumers. To fill this gap, the present study aims to determine the important factors influencing Generation Z consumers' decisions to purchase sustainable fashion by mobilizing the theory of planned behavior (TPB). It uses deductive qualitative research based on 18 semi-structured interviews with Generation Z consumers in France. Qualitative data will be analyzed using reflective thematic analysis. On a theoretical level, this research contributes to enriching the literature by mobilizing, for the first time, the theory of planned behavior in the context of sustainable fashion. On a practical level, the results can help practitioners determine effective marketing strategies to persuade Generation Z to consume sustainable clothing.

Keywords: generation Z, qualitative methodology, sustainable fashion, theory of planned behavior (TPB).

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Authors: Javier Enciso-Benavides, Fredy Fabian, Carlos Castaneda, Luis Alfaro, Alex Choque, Aparicio Aguilar, Javier Enciso

Abstract:

Background: The use of biomarkers in breast cancer diagnosis, therapy, and prognosis has gained increasing interest. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are a subpopulation of tumor cells that can drive tumor initiation and may cause relapse. Therefore, due to the importance of diagnosis, therapy, and prognosis, several biomarkers that characterize CSCs have been identified; however, in treatment-naïve triple-negative breast tumors, there is an urgent need to identify new biomarkers and therapeutic targets. According to this, the aim of this study was to identify serum proteins associated with cancer stem cells and pluripotency in women with triple-negative breast tumors in order to subsequently identify a biomarker for this type of breast tumor. Material and Methods: Whole blood samples from 12 women with histopathologically diagnosed triple-negative breast tumors were used after obtaining informed consent from the patient. Blood serum was obtained by conventional procedure and frozen at -80ºC. Identification of cancer stem cell-associated proteins was performed by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation-assisted laser desorption/ionisation mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS), protein analysis was obtained using the AB Sciex TOF/TOF™ 5800 system (AB Sciex, USA). Sequences not aligned by ProteinPilot™ software were analyzed by Protein BLAST. Results: The following proteins related to pluripotency and cancer stem cells were identified by MALDI TOF/TOF mass spectrometry: A-chain, Serpin A12 [Homo sapiens], AIEBP [Homo sapiens], Alpha-one antitrypsin, AT {internal fragment} [human, partial peptide, 20 aa] [Homo sapiens], collagen alpha 1 chain precursor variant [Homo sapiens], retinoblastoma-associated protein variant [Homo sapiens], insulin receptor, CRA_c isoform [Homo sapiens], Hydroxyisourate hydrolase [Streptomyces scopuliridis], MUCIN-6 [Macaca mulatta], Alpha-actinin-3 [Chrysochloris asiatica], Polyprotein M, CRA_d isoform, partial [Homo sapiens], Transcription factor SOX-12 [Homo sapiens]. Recommendations: The serum proteins identified in this study should be investigated in the exosome of triple-negative breast cancer stem cells and in the blood serum of women without breast cancer. Subsequently, proteins found only in the blood serum of women with triple-negative breast cancer should be identified in situ in triple-negative breast cancer tissue in order to identify a biomarker to study the evolution of this type of cancer, or that could be a therapeutic target. Conclusions: Eleven cancer stem cell-related serum proteins were identified in 12 women with triple-negative breast cancer, of which MUCIN-6, retinoblastoma-associated protein variant, transcription factor SOX-12, and collagen alpha 1 chain are the most representative and have not been studied so far in this type of breast tumor. Acknowledgement: This work was supported by Proyecto CONCYTEC–Banco Mundial “Mejoramiento y Ampliacion de los Servicios del Sistema Nacional de Ciencia Tecnología e Innovacion Tecnologica” 8682-PE (104-2018-FONDECYT-BM-IADT-AV).

Keywords: triple-negative breast cancer, MALDI TOF/TOF MS, serum proteins, cancer stem cells

Procedia PDF Downloads 199

Authors: Ramzi Suleiman

Abstract:

Recently, the author proposed an observationally-based relativity theory termed information relativity theory (IRT). The theory is simple and is based only on basic principles, with no prior axioms and no free parameters. For the case of a body of mass in uniform rectilinear motion relative to an observer, the theory transformations uncovered a matter-dark matter duality, which prescribes that the sum of the densities of the body's baryonic matter and dark matter, as measured by the observer, is equal to the body's matter density at rest. It was shown that the theory transformations were successful in predicting several important phenomena in small particle physics, quantum physics, and cosmology. This paper extends the theory transformations to the cases of rotating disks and spheres. The resulting transformations for a rotating disk are utilized to derive predictions of the radial distributions of matter and dark matter densities in rotationally supported galaxies based solely on their observed rotation curves. It is also shown that for galaxies with flattening curves, good approximations of the radial distributions of matter and dark matter and of the dark matter fraction could be obtained from one measurable scale radius. Test of the model on five galaxies, chosen randomly from the SPARC database, yielded impressive predictions. The rotation curves of all the investigated galaxies emerged as accurate traces of the predicted radial density distributions of their dark matter. This striking result raises an intriguing physical explanation of gravity in galaxies, according to which it is the proximal drag of the stars and gas in the galaxy by its rotating dark matter web. We conclude by alluding briefly to the application of the proposed model to stellar systems and black holes. This study also hints at the potential of the discovered matter-dark matter duality in fixing the standard model of elementary particles in a natural manner without the need for hypothesizing about supersymmetric particles.

Keywords: dark matter, galaxies rotation curves, SPARC, rotating disk

Procedia PDF Downloads 67

Authors: Leila Motamed-Jahromi, Mohsen Hatami, Alireza Keshavarz

Abstract:

This research aims at obtaining the equations of pulse propagation in nonlinear plasmonic waveguides created with As₂S₃ chalcogenide materials. Via utilizing Helmholtz equation and first-order perturbation theory, two components of electric field are determined within frequency domain. Afterwards, the equations are formulated in time domain. The obtained equations include two coupled differential equations that considers nonlinear dispersion.

Keywords: nonlinear optics, plasmonic waveguide, chalcogenide, propagation equation

Procedia PDF Downloads 398