Search results for: relations management

Authors: Sergey Chirun

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Using of a combination of institutional analysis and network access has allowed the author to identify the characteristics of the informal institutions of regional political power and political regimes. According to the author, ‘field’ of activity of post-Soviet regimes, formed under the influence of informal institutions, often contradicts democratic institutional regional changes which are aimed at creating of a legal-rational type of political domination and balanced model of separation of powers. This leads to the gap between the formal structure of institutions and the real nature of power, predetermining the specific character of the existing political regimes.

Keywords: authoritarianism, institutions, political regime, social networks, transformation

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Authors: Helga Martins, Idália Matias

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Background:Multiple sclerosis is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune demyelinating disease that affects young adults. Multiple sclerosis is a chronic disease in which the patient needs to self-manage the disease and the therapeutic regimen. Consequently, the promotion of health literacy assumes a relevant role for the accessibility, understanding, and use of information in order to promote and maintain the health of patients with multiple sclerosis. Aim: To determine the impact of lower health literacy in the self-management of patients with a multiple sclerosis. Methods: Literature review based on a search on the following electronic databases: CINAHLand MEDLINE; comprising all results published between September 2016 and September 2021. The search strategy was: (“Self-management [MeSH]” AND “Multiple sclerosis[MeSH]”AND “Health literacy[MeSH]”). The inclusion criteria were: original papers reporting about multiple sclerosis patients; participants with age above 18 years old, written in English, Spanish, French, or Portuguese. Two independent reviewers have done the screening and analysis of the results. 38 citations were identified, and after duplicates removal, a total of 25 results were screened; 14 were included after the application of the inclusion criteria. Results: The lower health literacy in the self-management of patients with a multiple sclerosis is related toless healthy choices, riskier health behavior, poor health outcomes, decreased of adhering to the therapeutic regimen after discharge, less self-management of chronic illness, and increased the time of hospitalization. Conclusion: Inadequate levels of health literacy contribute to poor health outcomes, unsuccessful self-management of chronic illness, and inadequate adherence to the therapeutic regimen. Therefore, health literacy is important for health policy and the healthcare services, as it can be understood as a mediator of self-management of multiple sclerosis disease.

Keywords: health literacy, multiple sclerosis, review, self-management

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Authors: Noury Bakrim

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From the point of view of language morphodynamics, interpretative Readability of the text-result (the stasis) is not the external hermeneutics of its various potential reading events but the paradigmatic, semantic immanence of its dynamics. In other words, interpretative Readability articulates the potential tension between projection (intentionality of the discursive event) and the result (Readability within the syntagmatic stasis). We then consider that translation represents much more a metalinguistic conversion of neurocognitive bilingual sub-routines and modular relations than a semantic equivalence. Furthermore, the actualizing Readability (the process of rewriting a target text within a target language/genre) builds upon the descriptive level between the generative syntax/semantic from and its paradigmatic potential translatability. Translation corpora reveal the evidence of a certain focusing on the positivist stasis of the source text at the expense of its interpretative Readability. For instance, Fluchere's brilliant translation of Miller's Tropic of cancer into French realizes unconsciously an inversion of the hierarchical relations between Life Thought and Fable: From Life Thought (fable) into Fable (Life Thought). We could regard the translation of Bernard Kreiss basing on Canetti's work die englischen Jahre (les annees anglaises) as another inversion of the historical scale from individual history into Hegelian history. In order to describe and test both translation process and result, we focus on the pedagogical practice which enables various principles grounding in interpretative/actualizing Readability. Henceforth, establishing the analytical uttering dynamics of the source text could be widened by other practices. The reversibility test (target - source text) or the comparison with a second translation in a third language (tertium comparationis A/B and A/C) point out the evidence of an impossible event. Therefore, it doesn't imply an uttering idealistic/absolute source but the irreducible/non-reproducible intentionality of its production event within the experience of world/discourse. The aim of this paper is to conceptualize translation as the tension between interpretative and actualizing Readability in a new approach grounding in morphodynamics of language and Translatability (mainly into French) within literary and non-literary texts articulating theoretical and described pedagogical corpora.

Keywords: readability, translation as deverbalization, translation as conversion, Tertium Comparationis, uttering actualization, translation pedagogy

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Authors: Iftikhar Ahmad, Youssef Elkezza

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Sarir oilfield is in North Africa. It has facilities for oil and gas production. The assets of the Sarir oilfield can be divided into five following categories, namely: (i) well bore and wellheads; (ii) vessels such as separators, desalters, and gas processing facilities; (iii) pipelines including all flow lines, trunk lines, and shipping lines; (iv) storage tanks; (v) other assets such as turbines and compressors, etc. The nature of the petroleum industry recognizes the potential human, environmental and financial consequences that can result from failing to maintain the integrity of wellheads, vessels, tanks, pipelines, and other assets. The importance of effective asset integrity management increases as the industry infrastructure continues to age. The primary objective of assets integrity management (AIM) is to maintain assets in a fit-for-service condition while extending their remaining life in the most reliable, safe, and cost-effective manner. Corrosion management is one of the important aspects of successful asset integrity management. It covers corrosion mitigation, monitoring, inspection, and risk evaluation. External corrosion on pipelines, well bores, buried assets, and bottoms of tanks is controlled with a combination of coatings by cathodic protection, while the external corrosion on surface equipment, wellheads, and storage tanks is controlled by coatings. The periodic cleaning of the pipeline by pigging helps in the prevention of internal corrosion. Further, internal corrosion of pipelines is prevented by chemical treatment and controlled operations. This paper describes the integrity management system used in the Sarir oil field for its oil and gas production facilities based on standard practices of corrosion mitigation and inspection.

Keywords: assets integrity management, corrosion prevention in oilfield assets, corrosion management in oilfield, corrosion prevention, inspection activities

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Authors: Elkington Sibusiso Mnguni

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The Mokolo-Crocodile Water Augmentation Project (MCWAP) is located in the Limpopo Province in the northern-western part of South Africa. Its purpose is to increase water supply by 30 million cubic meters per year to meet current and future demand for users, including power stations, mining houses, and the local municipality in the Lephalale area. This paper documents the planning and implementation aspects of the MCWAP infrastructure project. The study will add to the body of knowledge with respect to bulk water infrastructure development in water-scarce regions. The method used to gather and collate relevant data and information was the desktop study. The key finding was that the project was successfully completed in 2015 using conventional project management and construction methods. The project is currently being operated and maintained by the National Department of Water and Sanitation.

Keywords: construction, contract management, infrastructure project, project management

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Authors: Perpetual Onyejelem, Kenichi Matsui

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Solid waste management has recently posed urgent challenges to environmental sustainability and public health in emerging Sub-Saharan urban centers. This paper examines solid waste management in Port Harcourt, the rapidly growing city in Nigeria, with a focus on current solid waste management practices and its health implications. To do so we analyzed past academic papers and official documents. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) statement and its four-stage inclusion/exclusion criteria were utilized as part of a systematic literature review technique to identify papers related to solid waste management practices (Scopus and Google Scholar). In terms of policy documents, we focused on information about the implementation between 2014 and 2023. We found that the Rivers State Waste Management Policy and the National Policy on Solid Waste Management were the two most important documents to understand Port Harcourt’s practices. Past studies, however, highlighted that residents continued to dump waste in drainages as they were largely unaware of the policies that encourage them to sort waste. The studies tend to blame the city of its lack of political commitment to monitoring waste sites. Another study highlighted inefficient waste collection practices, the absence of community participation and poor resident awareness of 3R practices. Government documents and past studies tend to agree that an increase in disorderly waste management practices and the emergence of vector-borne diseases (e.g., malaria, lassa fever, cholera) co-incided in Port Harcourt. This led to increased spending for healthcare for locals, particularly low-income households. This study concludes by making some remedial recommendations.

Keywords: health effects, solid waste management practices, environmental pollution, Port Harcourt

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Authors: S. Maddi Muhammed, Paul Davis, John Geraghty, Mabruk Derbesh

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This study discusses the probability of using electronic management in higher education institutions in Libya. This could be as sampled by creating an electronic gate at the faculties of Engineering and Computing "Information Technology" at Zaytuna University or any other university in Libya. As we all know, the competitive advantage amongst universities is based on their ability to use information technology efficiently and broadly. Universities today value information technology as part of the quality control and assurance and a ranking criterion for a range of services including e-learning and e-Registration. This could be done by developing email systems, electronic or virtual libraries, electronic cards, and other services provided to all students, faculty or staff. This paper discusses a range of important topics that explain how to apply the gate "E" with the faculties at Zaytuna University, Bani Walid colleges in Libya.

Keywords: e-management, educational institutions (EI), Libya, Zaytuna, information technology

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Authors: Vitor Gomes, Maria João Santos

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The research carried out aimed to analyze how human resources management professionals manage their careers. It investigates the protean career and boundaryless career attitudes of these professionals and the extent to which socio-demographic dimensions (salary, gender, and academic degree, amongst others) influence their attitudes. A total of 732 professionals in the field of human resources who work for other private companies in Portugal participated in this study. The results show that as far as the professionals studied are concerned, protean attitudes and boundaryless careers prevail. Other research findings show that: (1) those with higher salaries have higher levels of protean and boundaryless career attitudes; (2) male professionals and (3) with higher education have a higher prevalence of protean and boundaryless attitudes when compared to female professionals and professionals without higher education.

Keywords: boundaryless careeer, careeer management, human resource management, protean career, portugal

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Authors: Gichun Cha, Dongwan Lee, Junkyeong Kim, Aoqi Zhang, Seunghee Park

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All the world are studying the construction technology of double deck tunnel in order to respond to the increasing urban traffic demands and environmental changes. Advanced countries have the construction technology of the double deck tunnel structure. but the domestic country began research on it. Construction technologies are important. But Safety evaluation of structure is necessary to prevent possible accidents during construction. Thus, the double deck tunnel was required the shape management of middle slabs. The domestic country is preparing the construction of double deck tunnel for an alternate route and a pleasant urban environment. Shape management of double deck tunnel has been no research because it is a new attempted technology. The present, a similar study is bridge structure for the shape management. Bridge is implemented shape model using terrestrial laser scanning(TLS). Therefore, we proceed research on the bridge slabs because there is a similar structure of double deck tunnel. In the study, we develop shape management method of bridge slabs using TLS. We select the Test-bed for measurement site. This site is bridge located on Sungkyunkwan University Natural Sciences Campus. This bridge has a total length of 34m, the vertical height of 8.7m from the ground. It connects Engineering Building #1 and Engineering Building #2. Point cloud data for shape management is acquired the TLS and We utilized the Leica ScanStation C10/C5 model. We will confirm the Maximum displacement area of middle slabs using Least-Squares Fitting. We expect to raise stability for double deck tunnel through shape management for middle slabs.

Keywords: bridge slabs, least squares, safety evaluation, shape management method, terrestrial laser scanning

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Authors: Zhengyang Ma

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Mongolia is a significant country bordered by China and Russia. The Mongolian people are the descendants of Genghis Khan. Mongolia has a glorious history and possesses strategic mineral resources. Throughout history, the Qing empire of China has always considered this region as part of China’s hegemony. Due to a series of historical events, Mongolia successfully achieved its independence from China in 1945. In order to clearly understand the status quo in Mongolia today better, it is necessary to explore the reasons that caused Mongolia to achieve its independence from a historical context. Therefore, this essay will analyze and describe the crucial events and reasons that led to the independence of Mongolia through different historical periods.

Keywords: Mongolia, history, power bargain, Sino-Russia relations

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Authors: Wakkai Hosanna Hussaini

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A formal structure of the English clause is composed of at least two elements – subject and verb, in structural grammar and at least one element – predicate, in systemic (functional) and generative grammars. Each of the elements can be represented by a word or group (of words). In modern English structure, very often speakers merge two words as one with the use of an apostrophe. Each of the two words can come from different elements or belong to the same element. In either case, result of the merger is called contraction. Although contractions constitute a part of modern English structure, they are considered informal in nature (more frequently used in spoken than written English) that is why they were initially viewed as constituting an evidence of language deterioration. To our knowledge, no formal syntactic theory yet has been particular on the contractions because of its deviation from the formal rules of syntax that seek to identify the elements that form a clause in English. The inconsistency between the formal rules and a contraction is established when two words representing two elements in a non-contraction are merged as one element to form a contraction. Thus the paper presents the various syntactic issues as effects arising from converting non-contracted to contracted forms. It categorizes English contractions and describes each category according to its syntactic relations (position and relationship) and morphological formation (form and content) as integral part of modern structure of English. This is a position paper as such the methodology is observational, descriptive and explanatory/analytical based on existing related literature. The inventory of English contractions contained in books on syntax forms the data from where specific examples are drawn. It is noted as conclusion that the existing syntactic theories were not originally established to account for English contractions. The paper, when published, will further expose the inadequacies of the existing syntactic theories by giving more reasons for the establishment of a more comprehensive syntactic theory for analyzing English clause/sentence structure involving contractions. The method used reveals the extent of the inadequacies in applying the three major syntactic theories: structural, systemic (functional) and generative, on the English contractions. Although no theory is without scope, shying away from the three major theories from recognizing the English contractions need to be broken because of the increasing popularity of its use in modern English structure. The paper, therefore, recommends that as use of contraction gains more popular even in formal speeches today, there is need to establish a syntactic theory to handle its patterns of syntactic relations and morphological formation.

Keywords: application, effects, English contractions, syntactic theories

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Authors: Md. Wasiul Islam, Md. Jamius Shams Sowrov

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The Sundarbans is the largest single tract of mangrove forest in the world. This is located in the southwest corner of Bangladesh. This is a unique ecosystem which is a great breeding and nursing ground for a great biodiversity. It supports the livelihood of about 3.5 million coastal dwellers and also protects the coastal belt and inland areas from various natural calamities. Historically, the management of the Sundarbans was controlled by the Bangladesh Forest Department following top-down approach without the involvement of local communities. Such fence and fining-based blue-print approach was not effective to protect the forest which caused Sundarbans to degrade severely in the recent past. Fifty percent of the total tree cover has been lost in the last 30 years. Therefore, local multi-stakeholder based bottom-up co-management approach was introduced at some of the parts of the Sundarbans in 2006 to improve the biodiversity status by enhancing the protection level of the forest. Various co-management organizations were introduced under co-management approach where the local community people could actively involve in various activities related to the management and welfare of the Sundarbans including the decision-making process to achieve the goal. From this backdrop, the objective of the study was to assess the performance of co-management organizations to facilitate sustainable management of the Sundarbans mangrove forests. The qualitative study followed face-to-face interview to collect data using two sets of semi-structured questionnaires. A total of 40 respondents participated in the research that was from eight villagers under two forest ranges. 32 representatives from the local communities as well as 8 official representatives involved in co-management approach were interviewed using snowball sampling technique. The study shows that the co-management approach improved governance system of the Sundarbans through active participation of the local community people and their interactions with the officials via the platform of co-management organizations. It facilitated accountability and transparency system to some extent through following some formal and informal rules and regulations. It also improved the power structure of the management process by fostering local empowerment process particularly the women. Moreover, people were able to learn from their interactions with and within the co-management organizations as well as interventions improved environmental awareness and promoted social learning. The respondents considered good governance as the most important factor for achieving the goal of sustainable management and biodiversity conservation of the Sundarbans. The success of co-management planning process also depends on the active and functional participation of different stakeholders including the local communities where co-management organizations were considered as the most functional platform. However, the governance system was also facing various challenges which resulted in barriers to the sustainable management of the Sundarbans mangrove forest. But still there were some members involved in illegal forest operations and created obstacles against sustainable management of the Sundarbans. Respondents recommended greater patronization from the government, financial and logistic incentives for alternative income generation opportunities with effective participatory monitoring and evaluation system to improve sustainable management of the Sundarbans.

Keywords: Bangladesh, co-management approach, co-management organizations, governance, Sundarbans, sustainable management

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Authors: Daniel Mokatsanyane, Johnny Jansen Van Rensburg

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This paper is a concise introduction of the risk management on the water derivatives market. Water, a new commodity in the market, is one of the most important commodity on earth. As important to life and planet as crops, metals, and energy, none of them matters without water. This paper presents a brief overview of water as a tradable commodity via a new first of its kind futures contract on the Nasdaq Veles California Water Index (NQH2O) derivative instrument, TheGeneralised Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity (GARCH) statistical model will be the used to measure the water price volatility of the instrument and its performance since it’s been traded. describe the main products and illustrate their usage in risk management and also discuss key challenges with modeling and valuation of water as a traded commodity and finally discuss how water derivatives may be taken as an alternative asset investment class.

Keywords: water derivatives, commodity market, nasdaq veles california water Index (NQH2O, water price, risk management

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Authors: Berk Ecer, Ebru Akcapinar Sezer

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Traditional management models of intersections, such as no-light intersections or signalized intersection, are not the most effective way of passing the intersections if the vehicles are intelligent. To this end, Dresner and Stone proposed a new intersection control model called Autonomous Intersection Management (AIM). In the AIM simulation, they were examining the problem from a multi-agent perspective, demonstrating that intelligent intersection control can be made more efficient than existing control mechanisms. In this study, autonomous intersection management has been investigated. We extended their works and added a potential-based lane organization layer. In order to distribute vehicles evenly to each lane, this layer triggers vehicles to analyze near lanes, and they change their lane if other lanes have an advantage. We can observe this behavior in real life, such as drivers, change their lane by considering their intuitions. Basic intuition on selecting the correct lane for traffic is selecting a less crowded lane in order to reduce delay. We model that behavior without any change in the AIM workflow. Experiment results show us that intersection performance is directly connected with the vehicle distribution in lanes of roads of intersections. We see the advantage of handling lane management with a potential approach in performance metrics such as average delay of intersection and average travel time. Therefore, lane management and intersection management are problems that need to be handled together. This study shows us that the lane through which vehicles enter the intersection is an effective parameter for intersection management. Our study draws attention to this parameter and suggested a solution for it. We observed that the regulation of AIM inputs, which are vehicles in lanes, was as effective as contributing to aim intersection management. PLO-AIM model outperforms AIM in evaluation metrics such as average delay of intersection and average travel time for reasonable traffic rates, which is in between 600 vehicle/hour per lane to 1300 vehicle/hour per lane. The proposed model reduced the average travel time reduced in between %0.2 - %17.3 and reduced the average delay of intersection in between %1.6 - %17.1 for 4-lane and 6-lane scenarios.

Keywords: AIM project, autonomous intersection management, lane organization, potential-based approach

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Authors: Daningsih Sulaeman, Achmad Sjarmidi, Djoko T. Iskandar

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Komodo National Park can be associated with the implementation of ecotourism program. The result of Principal Components Analysis is synthesized, tested, and compared to the basic concept of ecotourism with some field adjustments. Principal aspects of professional management should involve ecotourism and wildlife welfare. The awareness should be focused on the future of the Natural Park as 7^th Wonder Natural Heritage and its wildlife components, free from human wastes and beneficial to wildlife and local people. According to perceptions and expectations of visitors from various results of tourism programs, the visitor’s perceptions showed that the tourism management in Komodo National Park should pay more attention to visitor's satisfaction and expectation and gives positive impact directly to the ecosystem sustainability, local community and transparency to the conservation program.

Keywords: 7th wonders of nature, ecotourism, Komodo dragon, visitor’s perceptions, wildlife management

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Authors: Dirk Winkler, Leon Koevener, Lamees AlHayary

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This paper contributes to the improvement of the municipal wastewater systems in Jordan. An important goal is increased energy efficiency in wastewater treatment plants and therefore lower expenses due to reduced electricity consumption. The chosen way to achieve this goal is through the implementation of Technical Sustainable Management adapted to the Jordanian context. Three wastewater treatment plants in Jordan have been chosen as a case study for the investigation. These choices were supported by the fact that the three treatment plants are suitable for average performance and size. Beyond that, an energy assessment has been recently conducted in those facilities. The project succeeded in proving the following hypothesis: Energy efficiency in wastewater treatment plants can be improved by implementing principles of Technical Sustainable Management adapted to the Jordanian context. With this case study, a significant increase in energy efficiency can be achieved by optimization of operational performance, identifying and eliminating shortcomings and appropriate plant management. Implementing Technical Sustainable Management as a low-cost tool with a comparable little workload, provides several additional benefits supplementing increased energy efficiency, including compliance with all legal and technical requirements, process optimization, but also increased work safety and convenient working conditions. The research in the chosen field continues because there are indications for possible integration of the adapted tool into other regions and sectors. The concept of Technical Sustainable Management adapted to the Jordanian context could be extended to other wastewater treatment plants in all regions of Jordan but also into other sectors including water treatment, water distribution, wastewater network, desalination, or chemical industry.

Keywords: energy efficiency, quality management system, technical sustainable management, wastewater treatment

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Authors: K. P. Fasalu Rahman

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The financial services industry of Islam include large number of institutions, such as investment banks and commercial banks, investment companies and mutual insurance companies. All types of these financial institutions should have to deal with many issues and risks in their field of work. Islamic banks should expect to face two types of risks: risks that are similar to those faced by conventional financial intermediaries and risks that are unique to the Islamic Banks due to their compliance with the Shariah. The use of financial services and products that comply with the Shariah principles cause special issues for supervision and risk management. Risks are uncertain future events that could influence the achievement of the bank’s objectives, including strategic, operational, financial and compliance objectives. In Islamic banks, effective risk management deserves special attention. As an operational problem, risk management is the classification and identification of methods, processes, and risks in banks to supervise, monitor and measure them. In comparison to conventional banks, Islamic banks face big difficulties in identifying and managing risks due to bigger complexities emerging from the profit loss sharing (PLS) concept and nature of particular risks of Islamic financing. As the developing of managing risks tool becomes very essential, especially in Islamic banking as most of the products are depending on PLS principle, identifying and measuring each type of risk is highly important and critical in any Islamic finance based systems. This paper highlights the special and general risks surrounding Islamic banking. And it investigates in detail the need for risk management in Islamic banks. In addition to analyzing the effectiveness of risk management strategies adopted by Islamic financial institutions at present, this research is also suggesting strategies for improving risk management process of Islamic banks in future.

Keywords: Islamic banking, management, risk, risk management

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Authors: Puspa Maharani, Hendy Muagiri Margono, Izzatul Fithriyah

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Contraception is a medium used to prevent conception, aimed at couples who do not want pregnancy to occur. Unintended pregnancies have a prevalence of 48% per year of the total pregnancies that occur throughout the world. Schizophrenia sufferers have a high probability of being involved in unwanted sexual relations, but are not supported by adequate knowledge and use of contraception, so they are vulnerable to experiencing unwanted pregnancies. Unwanted pregnancy can pose significant health risks for patients with schizophrenia. There are many types of contraception that can be discussed and considered for patients with schizophrenia in order to improve the quality and well- being of their lives. Choosing the right contraceptive for patients with schizophrenia requires consideration of its use by taking into account the many factors that influence it.

Keywords: schizophrenia, contraception, pregnancy, mental health

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Authors: Lucian J. Pitt

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The primary purpose of this study is to understand the differences in the relationship between working capital management efficiency, working capital investment decisions and working capital finance decisions and the profitability of firms within the context of two African developing economies, Kenya and Nigeria. The study finds that there is a significant difference in the relationship between the firm’s profitability and the working capital variables which suggests different challenges for working capital management in each of these countries.

Keywords: working capital management, working capital investment, working capital finance, profitability, cash conversion cycle

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Authors: K. S. Suganya, R. Nedunchezhian

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In recent years, blockchain technology has been found to be the most significant discovery in this digital era, after the discovery of the Internet and Cloud Computing. Blockchain is a simple, distributed public ledger that contains all the user’s transaction details in a block. The global copy of the block is then shared among all its peer-peer network users after validation by the Blockchain miners. Once a block is validated and accepted, it cannot be altered by any users making it a trust-free transaction. It also resolves the problem of double-spending by using traditional cryptographic methods. Since the advent of bitcoin, blockchain has been the backbone for all its transactions. But in recent years, it has found its roots and uses in many fields like Smart Contracts, Smart City management, healthcare, etc. Identity management against digital identity theft has become a major concern among financial and other organizations. To solve this digital identity theft, blockchain technology can be employed with existing identity management systems, which maintain a distributed public ledger containing details of an individual’s identity containing information such as Digital birth certificates, Citizenship number, Bank details, voter details, driving license in the form of blocks verified on the blockchain becomes time-stamped, unforgeable and publicly visible for any legitimate users. The main challenge in using blockchain technology to prevent digital identity theft is ensuring the pseudo-anonymity and privacy of the users. This survey paper will exert to study the blockchain concepts, consensus protocols, and various blockchain-based Digital Identity Management systems with their research scope. This paper also discusses the role of Blockchain in COVID-19 pandemic management by self-sovereign identity and supply chain management.

Keywords: blockchain, consensus protocols, bitcoin, identity theft, digital identity management, pandemic, COVID-19, self-sovereign identity

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Authors: Lucas Barbosa Da Silva, Jun Okamoto Jr.

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Precision Agriculture has long being benefited from crop fields’ aerial imagery. This important tool has allowed identifying patterns in crop fields, generating useful information to the production management. Reflectance intensity data in different ranges from the electromagnetic spectrum may indicate presence or absence of nutrients in the soil of an area. Different relations between the different light bands may generate even more detailed information. The knowledge of the nutrients content in the soil or in the crop during its growth is a valuable asset to the farmer that seeks to optimize its yield. However, small farmers in Brazil often lack the resources to access this kind information, and, even when they do, it is not presented in a comprehensive and/or objective way. So, the challenges of implementing this technology ranges from the sampling of the imagery, using aerial platforms, building of a mosaic with the images to cover the entire crop field, extracting the reflectance information from it and analyzing its relationship with the parameters of interest, to the display of the results in a manner that the farmer may take the necessary decisions more objectively. In this work, it’s proposed an analysis of soil nutrient contents based on image processing of satellite imagery and comparing its outtakes with commercial laboratory’s chemical analysis. Also, sources of satellite imagery are compared, to assess the feasibility of using Google Earth data in this application, and the impacts of doing so, versus the application of imagery from satellites like Landsat-8 and Pleiades. Furthermore, an algorithm for building mosaics is implemented using Google Earth imagery and finally, the possibility of using unmanned aerial vehicles is analyzed. From the data obtained, some soil parameters are estimated, namely, the content of Potassium, Phosphorus, Boron, Manganese, among others. The suitability of Google Earth Imagery for this application is verified within a reasonable margin, when compared to Pleiades Satellite imagery and to the current commercial model. It is also verified that the mosaic construction method has little or no influence on the estimation results. Variability maps are created over the covered area and the impacts of the image resolution and sample time frame are discussed, allowing easy assessments of the results. The final results show that easy and cheaper remote sensing and analysis methods are possible and feasible alternatives for the small farmer, with little access to technological and/or financial resources, to make more accurate decisions about soil nutrient management.

Keywords: remote sensing, precision agriculture, mosaic, soil, nutrient content, satellite imagery, aerial imagery

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Authors: Aneri Mehta, Krunal Mehta

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The unpredictable and vacillating relationship between India and Pakistan since days of Independence struggle is known world over. And this instability has never lost its magnitude to decrease the tensions between the two countries. Since India aspires to run for the race of future superpower and Pakistan struggles to remove the tag of a highly fickle and under developed economy; ruined largely not by the outsiders, but its own people and systems; it becomes really important to gauge what steps would these neighbors take in years to come. The progress and stability of both countries heavily relies on the favorable equations between the two nations. Therefore the paper tries to trace some roots of their faltering relationship and attempts to predict their future in a multidimensional perspective.

Keywords: economy, faltering relationship, multidimensional perspective, international relations

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Authors: Chandralal Shrestha

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In the developing countries like Nepal, the community based forest management approach has often been glorified as one of the best forest management alternatives to maximize the forest benefits. Though the approach has succeeded to construct a local level institution and conserve the forest biodiversity, how the local communities perceived about the forest benefits, the question always remains silent among the researchers and policy makers. The paper aims to explore the understanding of forest benefits from the perspective of local communities who used the forests in terms of institutional stability, equity and livelihood opportunity, and ecological stability. The paper revealed that the local communities have mixed understanding over the forest benefits. The institutional and ecological activities carried out by the local communities indicated that they have better understanding over the forest benefits. However, inequality while sharing the forest benefits, low pricing strategy and its negative consequences in valuation of forest products and limited livelihood opportunities indicated the poor understanding.

Keywords: community based forest management, forest benefits, lowland, Nepal

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Authors: Ashraf Ibrahim Awad

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It is important to formulate suitable learning environments ca-pable to be customized according to value perceptions of the university. In this paper, light is shed on the concepts of integration between knowledge management (KM), and e-learning (EL) in the higher education sector of the economy in Abu Dhabi Emirate, United Arab Emirates (UAE). A discussion on and how KM and EL can be integrated and leveraged for effective education and training is presented. The results are derived from the literature and interviews with 16 of the academics in eight universities in the Emirate. The conclusion is that KM and EL have much to offer each other, but this is not yet reflected at the implementation level, and their boundaries are not always clear. Interviews have shown that both concepts perceived to be closely related and, responsibilities for these initiatives are practiced by different departments or units.

Keywords: knowledge management, e-learning, learning integration, universities, UAE

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Authors: İsmail Ay

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In this study, it was aimed to determine the relations between need for psychological help and psychological symptoms. The sample of the study consists of 530 university students getting educated in University of Atatürk in 2015-2016 academic years. Need for Psychological Help Scale and Brief Symptom Inventory were used to collect data in the study. In data analysis, correlation analysis and structural equation model with latent variables were used. Normality and homogeneity analyses were used to analyze the basic conditions of parametric tests. The findings obtained from the study show that as the psychological symptoms increase, need for psychological help also increases. The findings obtained through the study were approached according to the literature.

Keywords: psychological symptoms, need for psychological help, structural equation model, correlation

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Authors: Nikolett Deutsch, Éva Pintér, Péter Bagó, Miklós Hetényi

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Strategic technology management has emerged and evolved parallelly with strategic management paradigms. It focuses on the opportunity for organizations operating mainly in technology-intensive industries to explore and exploit technological capabilities upon which competitive advantage can be obtained. As strategic technology management involves multifunction within an organization, requires broad and diversified knowledge, and must be developed and implemented with business objectives to enable a firm’s profitability and growth, excellence in strategic technology management provides unique opportunities for organizations in terms of building a successful future. Accordingly, a framework supporting the evaluation of the technological readiness level of management can significantly contribute to developing organizational competitiveness through a better understanding of strategic-level capabilities and deficiencies in operations. In the last decade, several innovation maturity assessment models have appeared and become designated management tools that can serve as references for future practical approaches expected to be used by corporate leaders, strategists, and technology managers to understand and manage technological capabilities and capacities. The aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art innovation maturity frameworks, to investigate the critical lessons learned from their application, to identify the similarities and differences among the models, and identify the main aspects and elements valid for the field and critical functions of technology management. To this end, a systematic literature review was carried out considering the relevant papers and articles published in highly ranked international journals around the 27 most widely known innovation maturity models from four relevant digital sources. Key findings suggest that despite the diversity of the given models, there is still room for improvement regarding the common understanding of innovation typologies, the full coverage of innovation capabilities, and the generalist approach to the validation and practical applicability of the structure and content of the models. Furthermore, the paper proposes an initial structure by considering the maturity assessment of the technological capacities and capabilities - i.e., technology identification, technology selection, technology acquisition, technology exploitation, and technology protection - covered by strategic technology management.

Keywords: innovation capabilities, innovation maturity models, technology audit, technology management, technology management maturity models

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Authors: Suphaphon Udomluck, Pannathorn Chachvarat

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Information Communication Technology (ICT) using management is essential for effective decision making in organization. The Concerns Based Adoption Model (CBAM) was employed as the conceptual framework. The purposes of the study were to assess the situation of Information Communication Technology (ICT) using management in College of Nursing under the Praboromarajchanok Institute. The samples were multi – stage sampling of 10 colleges of nursing that participated include directors, vice directors, head of learning groups, teachers, system administrator and responsible for ICT. The total participants were 280; the instrument used were questionnaires that include 4 parts, general information, Information Communication Technology (ICT) using management, the Stage of concern Questionnaires (SoC), and the Levels of Use (LoU) ICT Questionnaires respectively. Reliability coefficients were tested; alpha coefficients were 0.967for Information Communication Technology (ICT) using management, 0.884 for SoC and 0.945 for LoU. The data were analyzed by frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Multiple Regression. They were founded as follows: The high level overall score of Information Communication Technology (ICT) using management and issue were administration, hardware, software, and people. The overall score of the Stage of concern (SoC)ICTis at high level and the overall score of the Levels of Use (LoU) ICTis at moderate. The Information Communication Technology (ICT) using management had the positive relationship with the Stage of concern (SoC)ICTand the Levels of Use (LoU) ICT(p < .01). The results of Multiple Regression revealed that administration hardwear, software and people ware could predict SoC of ICT (18.5%) and LoU of ICT (20.8%).The factors that were significantly influenced by SoCs were people ware. The factors that were significantly influenced by LoU of ICT were administration hardware and people ware.

Keywords: information communication technology (ICT), management, the concerns-based adoption model (CBAM), stage of concern(SoC), the levels of use(LoU)

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Authors: An-an Chiu, Shaio Yan Huang, Ling-Na Chen, Wei-Hua Lin

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Research has primarily focused on listed companies, less is done regarding small and medium-sized enterprises. Under the authorities' support, Taipei Exchange (TPEx) started Go Incubation Board for Startup and Acceleration Firms (GISA) in January 2014. This platform is designed to help small-sized innovative companies grow and to enter the capital market in the future. This research yield insight into earnings management activities around seasoned equity offerings (SEO) based on Taiwan’s GISA firms and the effectiveness of external corporate governance. Data for the study come from the GISA Market Observation Post System from January 2014 to December 2016. The result finds that GISA firms prone to upward accrual-based earnings management during SEO to avoid long-term negative consequences. Especially, firms with paid-in capital more than NT$ 30 million, higher fundraising amounts, or smaller-sized firms, tend to increase discretionary accruals. Finally, consistent with prior literature, CPA firms effectively serve as the role of external corporate governances on mitigating earnings management.

Keywords: GISA, earnings　management, CPA, seasoned equity offerings

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Authors: M. Kamel El-Sayed

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The process of determining the degree of membership for an element to an uncertain concept has been found in many ways, using equivalence and symmetry relations in information systems. In the case of similarity, these methods did not take into account the degree of symmetry between elements. In this paper, we use a new definition for finding the membership based on the degree of symmetry. We provide an example to clarify the suggested methods and compare it with previous methods. This method opens the door to more accurate decisions in information systems.

Keywords: information system, uncertain concept, membership function, similarity relation, degree of similarity

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Authors: Maha Hammami, Olfa Benouda Sioud

Abstract:

This study investigates the reliability of management earnings forecasts with reference to these two ingredients: verifiability and neutrality. Specifically, we examine the biasedness (or accuracy) of management earnings forecasts and company specific characteristics that can be associated with accuracy. Based on sample of 102 IPO prospectuses published for admission on NYSE Euronext Paris from 2002 to 2010, we found that these forecasts are on average optimistic and two of the five test variables, earnings variability and financial leverage are significant in explaining ex post bias. Acknowledging the possibility that the bias is the result of the managers’ forecasting behavior, we then examine whether managers decide to under-predict, over-predict or forecast accurately for self-serving purposes. Explicitly, we examine the role of financial distress, operating performance, ownership by insiders and the economy state in influencing managers’ forecasting preferences. We find that managers of distressed firms seem to over-predict future earnings. We also find that when managers are given more stock options, they tend to under-predict future earnings. Finally, we conclude that the management earnings forecasts are affected by an intentional bias due to managers’ forecasting preferences.

Keywords: intentional bias, management earnings forecasts, neutrality, verifiability

Procedia PDF Downloads 235