Search results for: global market

Authors: Pezhman Taghipour Birgani, Mehdi Shekarzadeh

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In this paper, the propagation of lamb waves in three-layer joints is investigated using global matrix method. Theoretical boundary value problem in three-layer adhesive joints with perfect bond and traction free boundary conditions on their outer surfaces is solved to find a combination of frequencies and modes with the lowest attenuation. The characteristic equation is derived by applying continuity and boundary conditions in three-layer joints using global matrix method. Attenuation and phase velocity dispersion curves are obtained with numerical solution of this equation by a computer code for a three-layer joint, including an aluminum repair patch bonded to the aircraft aluminum skin by a layer of viscoelastic epoxy adhesive. To validate the numerical solution results of the characteristic equation, wave structure curves are plotted for a special mode in two different frequencies in the adhesive joint. The purpose of present paper is to find a combination of frequencies and modes with minimum attenuation in high and low frequencies. These frequencies and modes are recognizable by transducers in inspections with Lamb waves because of low attenuation level.

Keywords: three-layer adhesive joints, viscoelastic, lamb waves, global matrix method

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Authors: Hayriye Anıl, Görkem Kar

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In addition to being rich in renewable energy resources, Turkey is one of the countries that promise potential in geothermal energy production with its high installed power, cheapness, and sustainability. Increasing imbalance penalties become an economic burden for organizations since geothermal generation plants cannot maintain the balance of supply and demand due to the inadequacy of the production forecasts given in the day-ahead market. A better production forecast reduces the imbalance penalties of market participants and provides a better imbalance in the day ahead market. In this study, using machine learning, deep learning, and, time series methods, the total generation of the power plants belonging to Zorlu Natural Electricity Generation, which has a high installed capacity in terms of geothermal, was estimated for the first one and two weeks of March, then the imbalance penalties were calculated with these estimates and compared with the real values. These modeling operations were carried out on two datasets, the basic dataset and the dataset created by extracting new features from this dataset with the feature engineering method. According to the results, Support Vector Regression from traditional machine learning models outperformed other models and exhibited the best performance. In addition, the estimation results in the feature engineering dataset showed lower error rates than the basic dataset. It has been concluded that the estimated imbalance penalty calculated for the selected organization is lower than the actual imbalance penalty, optimum and profitable accounts.

Keywords: machine learning, deep learning, time series models, feature engineering, geothermal energy production forecasting

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Authors: Enayatollah Yazdani

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Globalization is the most significant change in today’s world. It has caused remarkable growth in different aspects of human life. Such a strong contribution to the development would not have occurred without the role that each country and particularly great powers play in the globalization process. Among those powers is China, whose role in the globalization trend is growing fast. With its rapid economic and technological development, China has moved from a regional economic power to a global powerhouse. Accordingly, China has been supporting the development of global infrastructure through new initiatives and institutions such as the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank and the New Development Bank, among them, the most ambitious manifestation of these efforts is China Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). BRI is seen as an important vehicle that helps China to play a more proactive role in the globalization process. China started Belt and Road initiative as a global drive in more than 65 (now more than 140) countries in Asia, the Middle East, Central Asia, Latin America, Africa, and Europe, offering the world a unique state of bigger openness, integration, and interdependence with a comprehensive approach to shared development, shared future, and shared opportunities. As a result, one can say that BRI is an attempt by China to promote international cooperation and enhance globalization. However, in this regard, China may face some challenges as well. This paper aims to address: how China is playing a role in globalization through BRI and how BRI will support the Chinese role in the globalization process. And what are the major challenges that China might be faced? Based on the analytical methodology, the paper argues that BRI is a cornucopia of international projects that offer mammoth opportunities for more economic cooperation and deeper regional and global integration, primarily among emerging economies. The paper discusses that at a time when globalization from the West appears to be in retreat, the BRI is a potent symbol of the rise of China-based globalization.

Keywords: globalization, China, belt, and road initiative

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Authors: Hossein Rezaie

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Academic institutions, esp. universities, have been known as cradles of learning and teaching great thinkers while creating the type of knowledge that is supposed to be bereft of utilitarian motives. Nonetheless, it seems that such intellectual centers have entered into a competition with each other for attracting the attention of potential clients. The traditional values of (higher) education such as nurturing criticality and fostering intellectuality in students have been replaced with strategic planning, quality assurance, performance assessment, and academic audits. Not being immune from the whims and wishes of marketization, the system of higher education in the UK has been recalibrated by policy makers to address the demand and supply of student education, academic research and other university activities on the basis of monetary factors. As an immediate example in this vein, the Russell Group in the UK, which is comprised of 24 leading UK research universities, has explicitly expressed it policy on its official website as follows: ‘Russell Group universities are global businesses competing for staff, students and funding with the best in the world’. Furthermore, certain attempts have been made to corporatize the system of HE which have been manifested in remodeling of university governing bodies on corporate lines and developing measurement scales for indicating the performance of teaching practitioners. Nevertheless, it seems that such structural changes in policies toward the system of HE have bearing on the practices of practitioners and educators as well as the identity of students who are the customers of educational services. The effects of marketization have been examined mainly in terms of students’ perceptions and motivation, institutional policies and university management. However, the teaching practitioner side seems to be an under-studied area with regard to any changes in its expectations, satisfaction and perception of professional identity in the aftermath of introducing market-wise values into HE of the UK. As a result, this research aims to investigate the possible outcomes of market-driven values on the practitioner side of HE in the UK and finally seeks to address the following research questions: 1-How is the change in the mission of HE in the UK reflected in institutional documents? 1-A- How is the change of mission represented in job adverts? 1-B- How is the change of mission represented in university prospectuses? 2-How are teaching practitioners represented regarding their roles and obligations in the prospectuses and job ads published by UK HE institutions? In order to address these questions, the researcher will analyze 30 prospectuses and job ads published by Russel Group universities by taking Critical Discourse Analysis as his point of departure and the analytical methods of genre analysis and Systemic Functional Linguistics to probe into the generic features and representation of participants, in this case teaching practitioners, in the selected corpus.

Keywords: higher education, job advertisements, marketization of higher education, prospectuses

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Authors: Tangyie Evani, Edmond Biloa, Emmanuel Nforbi, Lem Lilian Atanga, Kom Beatrice

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The dynamics of languages in contact necessitates a close study of how its users negotiate meanings from shared values in the process of cross-cultural communication. A transverse analysis of the situation demonstrates the existence of complex efforts on connecting cultural knowledge to cross-linguistic competencies within a widening range of communicative exchanges. This paper sets to examine the psychology of cross-cultural communication in a multi-linguistic setting like Cameroon where many local and international languages are in close contact. The paper equally analyses the pertinence of existing macro sociological concepts as fundamental knowledge traits in literal and idiomatic cross semantic mapping. From this point, the article presents a path model of connecting sociolinguistics to the increasing adoption of a widening range of communicative genre piloted by the on-going globalisation trends with its high-speed information technology machinery. By applying a cross cultural analysis frame, the paper will be contributing to a better understanding of the fundamental changes in the nature and goals of cross-cultural knowledge in pragmatics of communication and cultural acceptability’s. It emphasises on the point that, in an era of increasing global interchange, a comprehensive inclusive global culture through bridging gaps in cross-cultural communication would have significant potentials to contribute to achieving global social development goals, if inadequacies in language constructs are adjusted to create avenues that intertwine with sociocultural beliefs, ensuring that meaningful and context bound sociolinguistic values are observed within the global arena of communication.

Keywords: cross-cultural communication, customary language, literalisms, primary meaning, subclasses, transubstantiation

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Authors: Alireza Zabihi, Saeed Peyghami, Hossein Mokhtari

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With the increasing deployment of renewable power plants, such as solar and wind, it is crucial to measure the harmonic situation of the grid. This paper proposes a global voltage harmonic index to measure the harmonic situation of the power grid with a focus on power transformers. The power electronics systems used to connect these plants to the network can introduce harmonics, leading to increased losses, reduced efficiency, false operation of protective relays, and equipment damage due to harmonic intensifications. The proposed index considers the losses caused by harmonics in power transformers which are of great importance and value to the network, providing a comprehensive measure of the harmonic situation of the grid. The effectiveness of the proposed index is evaluated on a real-world distribution network, and the results demonstrate its ability to identify the harmonic situation of the network, particularly in relation to power transformers. The proposed index provides a comprehensive measure of the harmonic situation of the grid, taking into account the losses caused by harmonics in power transformers. The proposed index has the potential to support power companies in optimizing their power systems and to guide researchers in developing effective mitigation strategies for harmonics in the power grid.

Keywords: global voltage harmonic index, harmonics, power grid, power quality, power transformers, renewable energy

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Authors: Tan Swee Liang

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This paper estimates bank and stock market efficiency associations with real per capita GDP growth by examining panel-data across three different regions using Panel-Corrected Standard Errors (PCSE) regression developed by Beck and Katz (1995). Data from five economies in ASEAN (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, and Indonesia), five economies in Asia (Japan, China, Hong Kong SAR, South Korea, and India) and seven economies in OECD (Australia, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom U.K., and United States U.S.), between 1990 and 2017 are used. Empirical findings suggest one, for Asia-5 high bank net interest margin means greater bank profitability, hence spurring economic growth. Two, for OECD-7 low bank overhead costs (as a share of total assets) may reflect weak competition and weak investment in providing superior banking services, hence dampening economic growth. Three, stock market turnover ratio has negative association with OECD-7 economic growth, but a positive association with Asia-5, which suggest the relationship between liquidity and growth is ambiguous. Lastly, for ASEAN-5 high bank overhead costs (as a share of total assets) may suggest expenses have not been channelled efficiently to income generating activities. One practical implication of the findings is that policy makers should take necessary measures toward financial liberalisation policies that boost growth through the efficiency channel, so that funds are efficiently allocated through the financial system between financial and real sectors.

Keywords: financial development, banking system, capital markets, economic growth

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Authors: Hala S. Mekawy

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Affordable housing delivery for low and lower middle income families is a prominent problem in many developing countries; governments alone are unable to address this challenge due to diverse financial and regulatory constraints, and the private sector's contribution is rare and assists only middle-income households even when institutional and legal reforms are conducted to persuade it to go down market. Also, the market-enabling policy measures advocated by the World Bank since the early nineties have been strongly criticized and proven to be inappropriate to developing country contexts, where it is highly unlikely that the formal private sector can reach low income population. In addition to governments and private developers, affordable housing delivery systems involve an intricate network of relationships between diverse ranges of actors. Collaboration between them was proven to be vital, and hence, an approach towards partnership schemes for affordable housing delivery has emerged. The basic premise of this paper is that addressing housing affordability challenges in Egypt demands direct public support, as markets and market actors alone would never succeed in delivering decent affordable housing to low and lower middle income groups. It argues that this support would ideally be through local level partnership schemes, with a leading decentralized local government role, and partners being identified according to specific local conditions. It attempts to identify major attributes that would ensure the fulfilment of the goals of such schemes in the Egyptian context. This is based upon evidence from diversified worldwide experiences, in addition to the main outcomes of a questionnaire that was conducted to specialists and chief actors in the field.

Keywords: affordable housing, partnership schemes, housing, urban environments

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Authors: C. Fernanda da S. Sampaio, M. Gabriela Sadith Perez Paredes, V. Antonio de O. Martins

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Today the transport sector is undergoing a revolution, with the rise of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), industry and society itself will undergo a major transformation. However, the technological development of these applications is a challenge that requires new techniques and great machine learning and artificial intelligence. The study proposes to develop a vehicular perception system called Veibra, which consists of two front cameras for day/night viewing and an embedded device capable of working with Yolov2 image processing algorithms with low computational cost. The strategic version for the market is to assist the driver on the road with the detection of day/night objects, such as road signs, pedestrians, and animals that will be viewed through the screen of the phone or tablet through an application. The system has the ability to perform real-time driver detection and recognition to identify muscle movements and pupils to determine if the driver is tired or inattentive, analyzing the student's characteristic change and following the subtle movements of the whole face and issuing alerts through beta waves to ensure the concentration and attention of the driver. The system will also be able to perform tracking and monitoring through GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) technology and the cameras installed in the vehicle.

Keywords: advanced driver assistance systems, tracking, traffic signal detection, vehicle perception system

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Authors: Ann Mariya Jose, Ashfina T.

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Construction and demolition waste is one of the rising concerns globally due to the amount of waste generated annually, the area taken up by landfills, and the adverse environmental impacts that follow. One of the primary causes of the rise in construction and demolition waste is a lack of facilities and knowledge for incorporating recycled materials into new construction. Bricks are a conventional material that has been used for construction for centuries, and Autoclave Aerated Concrete (AAC) blocks are a new emergent material in the market. This study evaluates the impact brick walls, and AAC block walls have on the environment using the tool One Click LCA, considering three End of Life (EoL) scenarios: the materials are landfilled, recycled, and reused in a new building. The final objective of the study is to evaluate the environmental impact caused by these two different walls on the environmental factors such as Global Warming Potential (GWP), Acidification Potential (AP), Eutrophication Potential (EP), Ozone Depletion Potential (ODP), and Photochemical Ozone Creation Potential (POCP). The findings revealed that the GWP caused by landfilling is 16 times higher in bricks and 22 times higher in AAC blocks when compared to the reuse of materials. The study recommends the effective use of AAC blocks in construction and reuse of the same to reduce the overall emissions to the environment.

Keywords: construction and demolition waste, environmental impact, life cycle impact assessment, material recycling

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Authors: José Batista de Souza Neto

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This research project has as its theme the implementation of public policies to support micro and small businesses (MSEs). The research problem defined was how public policies for access to markets that drive the entrepreneurial ecosystem of MSEs are implemented. The general objective of this research is to understand the process of implementing a public policy to support the entrepreneurial ecosystem of MSEs by the Support Service for Micro and Small Enterprises of the State of São Paulo (SEBRAESP). Public policies are constituent elements of entrepreneurship ecosystems that influence the creation and development of ventures from the action of the entrepreneur. At the end of the research, it is expected to achieve the results for the following specific objectives: (a) understand how the entrepreneurial ecosystem of MSEs is constituted; (b) understand how market access public policies for MSEs are designed and implemented; (c) understand SEBRAE's role in the entrepreneurship ecosystem; and (d) offer an action plan and monitor its execution up to march, 2023. The field research will be conducted based on Action Research, with a qualitative and longitudinal approach to the data. Data collection will be based on narratives produced since 2019 when the decision to implement Comércio Brasil program, a public policy focused on generating market access for 4280 MSEs yearly, was made. The narratives will be analyzed by the method of document analysis and narrative analysis. It is expected that the research will consolidate the relevance of public policies to market access for MSEs and the role of SEBRAE as a protagonist in the implementation of these public policies in the entrepreneurship ecosystem will be demonstrated. Action research is recognized as an intervention method, it is expected that this research will corroborate its role in supporting management processes.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship ecosystem, public policies, SEBRAE, action research

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Authors: Maider Gómez Palmero, Ana Carrasco Pérez, Paula de la Sen de la Cruz, Francisco Javier Royo Herrer, Sonia Ascaso Malo

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The production of bio-based products for different purposes is one of the strategies that has grown the most at European and even global levels, seeking to contribute to mitigating the impacts associated with climate change and to achieve the ambitious objectives set in this regard. However, the substitution of fossil-based products for bio-based products requires a challenging and deep transformation and adaptation of the secondary and primary sectors and, more specifically, in the latter, the agro-industries. The first step to developing a bio-based value chain focuses on the availability of a resource with the right characteristics for the substitution sought. This, in turn, requires a significant reshaping of the forestry/agricultural sector but also of the agro-industry, which has a relevant potential to be deployed as a supplier and develop a robust logistical supply chain and to market a biobased raw material at a competitive price. However, this transformation may involve a profound restructuring of its traditional business model to incorporate biorefinery concepts. In this sense, agro-industries that generate by-products in their processes that are currently not valorized, such as potato processing rejects or the starch found in washing water, constitute a potential raw material that can be used for different bio-applications. This article aims to explore this potential to evaluate the most suitable bio applications to target and identify opportunities and challenges.

Keywords: starch valorisation, biorefinery, bio-based raw materials, bio-applications

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Authors: P. Nayak, Shakeel Shaikh

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In this paper, we analyse the apparel export performance of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the world market. The study covers the 2003-2012 period at the sector as well as product levels (6 digit HS) and analysis is based HS 2002 nomenclature. We measure export similarity among Southeast Asian nations for the apparel sector (two digit HS-61 & 62), besides analysing the products performance in the world through Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) technique. Coupled with RCA, the price as a factor of competitiveness was examined from the available Unit Value Realizations (UVR). Further to this, the resource availability or outsourced from the region was considered as an extension to the analysis of competitiveness between the nations. With the help of these methodologies, we examine the degree of competition between the exports of southeast nations in the world market. Our results show that Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam are well performing states within ASEAN. The paper further delves into sustainability of the export performing countries within ASEAN.

Keywords: export competitiveness, export similarity index, revealed comparative advantage, unit value realisation

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Authors: Sylwia Frydrych, Jörg Prokop, Michał Buszko

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This study investigates the complex relationship between corporate ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) performance and stock price risk within the European market context. By analyzing a dataset of 435 companies across 19 European countries, the research assesses the impact of both combined ESG performance and its individual components on various risk measures, including volatility, idiosyncratic risk, systematic risk, and downside risk. The findings reveal that while overall ESG scores do not significantly influence stock price risk, disaggregating the ESG components uncovers significant relationships. Governance practices are shown to consistently reduce market risk, positioning them as critical in risk management. However, environmental engagement tends to increase risk, particularly in times of regulatory shifts like those introduced in the EU post-2018. This research provides valuable insights for investors and corporate managers on the nuanced roles of ESG factors in financial risk, emphasizing the need for careful consideration of each ESG pillar in decision-making processes.

Keywords: ESG performance, ESG factors, ESG pillars, ESG scores

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Authors: Cinthia C. Costa, Heloisa L. Burnquist, Joaquim J. M. Guilhoto

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This study identified the impact of special agricultural safeguards (SSG) for the global market of meat and for the Brazilian economy. The tariff lines subject to SSG were selected and the period of analysis was 1995 (when the rules about the SSGs were established) to 2015 (more recent period for which there are notifications). The value of additional tariff was calculated for each of the most important tariff lines. The import volume and the price elasticities for imports were used to estimate the impacts of each additional tariff estimated on imports. Finally, the effect of Brazilian exports of meat without SSG taxes was calculated as well as its impact in the country’s economy by using an input-output matrix. The most important markets that applied SSGs were the U.S. for beef and European Union for poultry. However, the additional tariffs could be estimated in only two of the sixteen years that the U.S. applied SSGs on beef imports, suggesting that its use has been enforced when the average annual price has been higher than the trigger price level. The results indicated that the value of the bovine and poultry meat that could not be exported by Brazil due to SSGs to both markets (EU and the U.S.) was equivalent to BRL 804 million. The impact of this loss in trade was about: BRL 3.7 billion of the economy’s production value (at 2015 prices) and almost BRL 2 billion of the Brazilian Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Keywords: beef, poultry meat, SSG tariff, input-output matrix, Brazil

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Authors: Evgeniia Surkova, Manal Assaad, Hleb Makeyeu, Juho Makio

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The main objective of STIMEY (Science, Technology, Innovation, Mathematics, Engineering for the Young) project is the delivery of a hybrid learning environment that combines multi-level components such as social media concepts, robotic artefacts, and radio, among others. It is based on a well-researched pedagogical framework to attract European youths to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education and careers. To develop and integrate these various components, STIMEY is executed in iterative research cycles leading to progressive improvements. Scrum was the development methodology of choice in the project, as studies indicated its benefits as an agile methodology in global software development, especially of e-learning and integrated learning projects. This paper describes the project partners’ experience with the Scrum framework, discussing the challenges faced in its implementation and the mitigation practices employed. The authors conclude with exploring user experience tools and principles for future research, as a novel direction in supporting the Scrum development team.

Keywords: e-learning, global software development, scrum, STEM education

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Authors: Thinh Huu Nguyen, Shahab Sharfaei, Jindřich Soukup

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In the pursuit of reducing production costs, offshoring has been a major trend throughout global value chains for many decades. However, with the rise of advanced technologies, new opportunities to automate their production are changing the motivation of multinational firms to go offshore. Instead, many firms are working to relocate their offshored activities from developing economies back to their home countries. This phenomenon, known as reshoring, has recently garnered much attention as it becomes clear that automation in advanced countries might have major implications not only on their own economies but also through international trade on the economy of low-income countries, including their labor market outcomes and their comparative advantages. Thus, while using robots to substitute human labor may lower the relative costs of producing at home, it has the potential to decrease employment and demand for exports from developing economies through reshoring. In this paper, we investigate the recent literature to provide a further understanding of the relationships between robotization and the reshoring of production. Moreover, we analyze the impact of robot adoption on international trade in both developed and emerging markets. Finally, we identify the research gaps and provide avenues for future research in international economics. This study is a part of the project funded by the Internal Grant Agency (IGA) of the Faculty of Business Administration, Prague University of Economics and Business.

Keywords: automation, robotization, reshoring, international trade

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Authors: Swasti Singh Ghai

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Creativity is understood as an intersubjective phenomenon shaped by socio-cultural values and economic forces. Creativity as a means to achieve progress is a very modern concept, driven by a global capitalist market economy. The dominant urban, often first-world articulations of creativity, overshadow the rural, local and cultural notions of people in the developing nations. Artisanal practices of making grounded in preindustrial and pre-capitalist contexts hold varying cultural and region-specific concepts and standards for ascribing creativity to a person or product, or process. These notions reflect the underlying philosophy that constitutes their worldview. The process of colonization through western education has blurred or overlapped some of these key philosophical concepts. This article adopts a post-colonial stance to understand the perceptions of skill, intelligence and creativity among tradition rooted textile craft practitioners of Kutch, Gujarat in India. The artisans, while negotiating their space in the contemporary markets, are making efforts to include the modern categories of art, craft, and design in their worldview. The paper will first review theories of creativity that throw light on the link between skill, intelligence and creativity. Then the paper will use secondary research and data from interviews to share crafts person notions of skill, creativity and intelligence and their interrelationship.

Keywords: traditional craft, textile, creativity, skill, intelligence

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Authors: Mwehe Mathenge, Ben G. J. S. Sonneveld, Jacqueline E. W. Broerse

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Smallholder farmers are important drivers of agriculture productivity, food security, and poverty reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, they are faced with myriad challenges in their efforts at participating in agribusiness markets. How the geographic explicit factors existing at the local level interact to impede smallholder farmers' decision to participates (or not) in agribusiness markets is not well understood. Deconstructing the spatial complexity of the local environment could provide a deeper insight into how geographically explicit determinants promote or impede resource-poor smallholder farmers from participating in agribusiness. This paper’s objective was to identify, map, and analyze local spatial autocorrelation in factors that impede poor smallholders from participating in agribusiness markets. Data were collected using geocoded researcher-administered survey questionnaires from 392 households in Western Kenya. Three spatial statistics methods in geographic information system (GIS) were used to analyze data -Global Moran’s I, Cluster and Outliers Analysis (Anselin Local Moran’s I), and geographically weighted regression. The results of Global Moran’s I reveal the presence of spatial patterns in the dataset that was not caused by spatial randomness of data. Subsequently, Anselin Local Moran’s I result identified spatially and statistically significant local spatial clustering (hot spots and cold spots) in factors hindering smallholder participation. Finally, the geographically weighted regression results unearthed those specific geographic explicit factors impeding market participation in the study area. The results confirm that geographically explicit factors are indispensable in influencing the smallholder farming decisions, and policymakers should take cognizance of them. Additionally, this research demonstrated how geospatial explicit analysis conducted at the local level, using geographically disaggregated data, could help in identifying households and localities where the most impoverished and resource-poor smallholder households reside. In designing spatially targeted interventions, policymakers could benefit from geospatial analysis methods in understanding complex geographic factors and processes that interact to influence smallholder farmers' decision-making processes and choices.

Keywords: agribusiness markets, GIS, smallholder farmers, spatial statistics, disaggregated spatial data

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Authors: Mădălina Elena Mavrodin, Gabriela Andreea Despescu, Gheorghe Lăzăroiu

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Long term trend of global warming has brought a very deep interest in climate change, which is due most likely to increasing concentrations of anthropogenic greenhouse gases. 0f these, particular attention is paid to carbon dioxide, which has led in desire for obtaining carbon footprint products. Automotive industry is one of the world’s most important economic sectors with a great impact over the environment through all range of activities. Its impact over the environment has been studied, researcher trying as much as possible to reduce it and to offer environmental friendly solution for the using, but also manufacturing cars. In the global endeavour to meet the international commitments in order to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions, many companies integrate environmental issues into their management systems, with potential effects in their entire production chains. Several tools and calculators have been developed to measure the environmental impact of a product in the life cycle perspective of the whole product chain. There were a lot of ways to obtain the carbon footprint of driving a car, but the total carbon footprint of a car includes also the carbon footprint of all the components and accessories. In the automotive industry, one of the challenges is to calculate the carbon footprint of a car from ‘cradle to grave’; this meaning not only for driving the car, but also manufacturing it, so there can be an overview over the entire process of production.

Keywords: carbon footprint, global warming potential, greenhouse gases, manufacture, plastic air ducts

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Authors: Kwabena Asare, Ezekiel N. N. Nortey, Felix O. Mettle

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Modelling of extreme events has always been of interest in fields such as hydrology and meteorology. However, after the recent global financial crises, appropriate models for modelling of such rare events leading to these crises have become quite essential in the finance and risk management fields. This paper models the extreme values of the Ghana Stock Exchange All-Shares indices (2000-2010) by applying the Extreme Value Theory to fit a model to the tails of the daily stock returns data. A conditional approach of the EVT was preferred and hence an ARMA-GARCH model was fitted to the data to correct for the effects of autocorrelation and conditional heteroscedastic terms present in the returns series, before EVT method was applied. The Peak Over Threshold (POT) approach of the EVT, which fits a Generalized Pareto Distribution (GPD) model to excesses above a certain selected threshold, was employed. Maximum likelihood estimates of the model parameters were obtained and the model’s goodness of fit was assessed graphically using Q-Q, P-P and density plots. The findings indicate that the GPD provides an adequate fit to the data of excesses. The size of the extreme daily Ghanaian stock market movements were then computed using the Value at Risk (VaR) and Expected Shortfall (ES) risk measures at some high quantiles, based on the fitted GPD model.

Keywords: extreme value theory, expected shortfall, generalized pareto distribution, peak over threshold, value at risk

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Authors: András Medve, Katalin Szabad, István Patkó

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According to the International Energy Association the previous principles of the energy sector should be reassessed, in which renewable energy sources have a significant role. We might witness the exchange of roles of countries from importer to exporter, which look for the main resources of market needs. According to the World Energy Outlook 2013, the duration of high oil prices is exceptionally long in the history of the energy market. Forecasts also point at the expected great differences between the regional prices of gas and electric energy. The energy need of the world will grow by its third. two thirds of which will appear in China, India, and South-East Asia, while only 4 per cent of which will be related to OECD countries. Current trends also forecast the growth of the price of energy sources and the emission of glasshouse gases. As a reflection of these forecasts alternative energy sources will gain value, of which geothermic energy is one of the cheapest and most economical. Hungary possesses outstanding resources of geothermic energy. The aim of the study is to research the environmental effects of geothermic energy and the opportunities of its exploitation in Hungary, related to „Horizon 2020” project.

Keywords: sustainable energy, renewable energy, development of geothermic energy in Hungary

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Authors: Despina Yiakoumi, Agathe Rouaix

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Laboratory experiments were run to investigate the impact of different design characteristics of the auctions, which have been implemented to procure capacity in the UK’s reformed electricity markets. The experiment studies competition among bidders in procurement multi-unit discrete descending clock auctions under different feedback policies and pricing rules. Theory indicates that feedback policy in combination with the two common pricing rules; last-accepted bid (LAB) and first-rejected bid (FRB), could affect significantly the auction outcome. Two information feedback policies regarding the bidding prices of the participants are considered; with feedback and without feedback. With feedback, after each round participants are informed of the number of items still in the auction and without feedback, after each round participants have no information about the aggregate supply. Under LAB, winning bidders receive the amount of the highest successful bid and under the FRB the winning bidders receive the lowest unsuccessful bid. Based on the theoretical predictions of the alternative auction designs, it was decided to run three treatments. First treatment considers LAB with feedback; second treatment studies LAB without feedback; third treatment investigates FRB without feedback. Theoretical predictions of the game showed that under FRB, the alternative feedback policies are indifferent to the auction outcome. Preliminary results indicate that LAB with feedback and FRB without feedback achieve on average higher clearing prices in comparison to the LAB treatment without feedback. However, the clearing prices under LAB with feedback and FRB without feedback are on average lower compared to the theoretical predictions. Although under LAB without feedback theory predicts the clearing price will drop to the competitive equilibrium, experimental results indicate that participants could still engage in cooperative behavior and drive up the price of the auction. It is showed, both theoretically and experimentally, that the pricing rules and the feedback policy, affect the bidding competitiveness of the auction by providing opportunities to participants to engage in cooperative behavior and exercise market power. LAB without feedback seems to be less vulnerable to market power opportunities compared to the alternative auction designs. This could be an argument for the use of LAB pricing rule in combination with limited feedback in the UK capacity market in an attempt to improve affordability for consumers.

Keywords: descending clock auctions, experiments, feedback policy, market design, multi-unit auctions, pricing rules, procurement auctions

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Authors: Sahar Jami, Iman Valizadeh

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Today banks not only should seek for new customers but also should consider previous maintenance and retention and establish a stable relationship with them. In this term, relationship-manner marketing seeks to make, maintain, and promote the relationship between customers and other stakeholders in benefits to fulfill all involved parties. This fact is possible just by interactive transaction and promises fulfillment. According to the importance of relationship-manner marketing in banks, making context to make relationship-manner marketing has high importance. Therefore, the present study aims at exploring intention condition to relationship-manner marketing in Iran Province Iran Limited bank, and also prioritizing its variables using hierarchical analysis (AHP). There is questionnaire designed in this research to paired comparison of relationship-manner marketing elements. After distributing this questionnaire among statistical society members who are 20 of Iran Limited bank experts, data analysis has been done by Expert Choice software.

Keywords: relationship marketing, relationship market orientation, Saderat Bank of Iran, hierarchical analysis

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Authors: Mohammed Saleem Tariq

Abstract:

The enthusiasm for gluten avoidance in a growing market is met by improvements in sensitive detection methods for analysing gluten content. Paradoxically, manufacturers employ no such systems in the production process but continue to market their product as gluten free, a significant risk posed to an undetermined coeliac population. The paper resonates with an immunological response that causes gastrointestinal scarring and villous atrophy with the conventional description of personal injury. The current developing regime in the UK however, it is discussed, has avoided creating specific rules to provide an adequate level of protection for this type of vulnerable ‘characteristic’. Due to the struggle involved with identifying an appropriate cause of action, this paper analyses whether a claim brought in misrepresentation, negligence and/or under the Consumer Protect Act 1987 could be sustained. A necessary comparison is then made with the approach adopted by the Americans with Disability Act 1990 which recognises this chronic disease as a disability. The ongoing failure to introduce a level of protection which matches that afforded to those who fall into any one of the ‘protected characteristics’ under the Equality Act 2010, is inconceivable given the outstanding level of legal vulnerability.

Keywords: coeliac, litigation, misrepresentation, negligence

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Authors: V. Churkin, M. Lopatin

Abstract:

The purpose of the paper is to estimate the US small wind turbines market potential and forecast the small wind turbines sales in the US. The forecasting method is based on the application of the Bass model and the generalized Bass model of innovations diffusion under replacement purchases. In the work an exponential distribution is used for modeling of replacement purchases. Only one parameter of such distribution is determined by average lifetime of small wind turbines. The identification of the model parameters is based on nonlinear regression analysis on the basis of the annual sales statistics which has been published by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) since 2001 up to 2012. The estimation of the US average market potential of small wind turbines (for adoption purchases) without account of price changes is 57080 (confidence interval from 49294 to 64866 at P = 0.95) under average lifetime of wind turbines 15 years, and 62402 (confidence interval from 54154 to 70648 at P = 0.95) under average lifetime of wind turbines 20 years. In the first case the explained variance is 90,7%, while in the second - 91,8%. The effect of the wind turbines price changes on their sales was estimated using generalized Bass model. This required a price forecast. To do this, the polynomial regression function, which is based on the Berkeley Lab statistics, was used. The estimation of the US average market potential of small wind turbines (for adoption purchases) in that case is 42542 (confidence interval from 32863 to 52221 at P = 0.95) under average lifetime of wind turbines 15 years, and 47426 (confidence interval from 36092 to 58760 at P = 0.95) under average lifetime of wind turbines 20 years. In the first case the explained variance is 95,3%, while in the second –95,3%.

Keywords: bass model, generalized bass model, replacement purchases, sales forecasting of innovations, statistics of sales of small wind turbines in the United States

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Authors: A. Hol

Abstract:

Even in the well developed countries like Australia, Small to Medium Farmers do not often have the power over the market prices as they are more often than not set by the farming agents. This in turn creates problems as farmers only get to know for how much their produce has been sold for by the agents three to four weeks after the sale has taken the place. To see and identify if and how peri-urban Sydney farmers could be assisted, carefully selected group of peri-urban Sydney farmers of the stone fruit has been interviewed. Following the case based interviews collected data was analyzed in detail using the Scenario Based Transformation principles. Analyzed data was then used to create a most common transformation case. The case identified that a mobile web based system could be develop so that framers can monitor agent earnings and in turn gain more power over the markets. It is expected that after the system has been in action for six months to a year, farmers will become empowered and they will gain means to monitor the market and negotiate agent prices.

Keywords: mobile applications, farming, scenario-based analysis, scenario-based transformation, user empowerment

Procedia PDF Downloads 381

Authors: Aliyu Mohammed Lawal, Dahiru Ya'u Gital

Abstract:

The problems placed on the environment as a result of energy generation and usage in Nigeria are: Potential damage to the environment health by Co, Co2, Sox and Nox effluent gas emissions and global warming. For instance in the year 2004 in Nigeria energy consumption was 58% oil and 34% natural gas but about 94 million metric tons of Co2 was emitted out of which 64% came from fossil fuels while about 35% came from fuel wood. The findings from this research on how to alleviate these problems are that long term sustainable development solutions should be enhanced globally; energy should be used more rationally renewable energy resources should be exploited and the existing emissions should be controlled to tolerate limits because the increase in energy demand in Nigeria places enormous strain on current energy facilities.

Keywords: energy generation, environmental health, effluent gas emission, global warming, fossil fuel

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Authors: Akinwale Adeyinka

Abstract:

Critical natural resources such as clean ground water, fertile topsoil, and biodiversity are diminishing at an exponential rate, orders of magnitude above that at which they can be regenerated. Based on news on world population record, over 6 billion people on earth, and almost a quarter million added each day, the scale of human activity and environmental impact is unprecedented. Soaring human population growth over the past century has created a visible challenge to earth’s life support systems. In addition, the world faces an onslaught of other environmental threats including degenerated global climate change, global warming, intensified acid rain, stratospheric ozone depletion and health threatening pollution. Overpopulation and the use of deleterious technologies combine to increase the scale of human activities to a level that underlies these entire problems. These intensifying trends cannot continue indefinitely, hopefully, through increased understanding and valuation of ecosystems and their services, earth’s basic life-support system will be protected for the future.To say the fact, human civilization is now the dominant cause of change in the global environment. Now that our relationship to the earth has change so utterly, we have to see that change and understand its implication. These are actually 2 aspects to the challenges which we should believe. The first is to realize that our power to harm the earth can indeed have global and even permanent effects. Second is to realize that the only way to understand our new role as a co-architect of nature is to see ourselves as part of a complex system that does operate according to the same simple rules of cause and effect we are used to. So understanding the physical/biological dimension of earth system is an important precondition for making sensible policy to protect our environment. Because we believe Sustainable Development Is a matter of reconciling respect for the environment, social equity and economic profitability. Also, we strongly believe that environmental protection is naturally about reducing air and water pollution, but it also includes the improvement of the environmental performance of existing process. That is why we should always have it at the heart of our business that the environmental problem is not our effect on the environment so much as our relationship with the environment. We should always think of being environmental friendly in our operation.

Keywords: Stratospheric ozone depletion ion , Climate Change, global warming, social equity and economic profitability

Procedia PDF Downloads 334

Authors: Mohammed Belloufi, Rachid Benzine, Badreddine Sellami

Abstract:

Conjugate gradient methods is useful for solving large scale optimization problems in scientific and engineering computation, characterized by the simplicity of their iteration and their low memory requirements. It is well known that the search direction plays a main role in the line search method. In this paper, we propose a search direction with the Wolfe line search technique for solving unconstrained optimization problems. Under the above line searches and some assumptions, the global convergence properties of the given methods are discussed. Numerical results and comparisons with other CG methods are given.

Keywords: unconstrained optimization, conjugate gradient method, strong Wolfe line search, global convergence

Procedia PDF Downloads 416