Search results for: economic and regulatory trends

Authors: Ryan B. Simpson, Margaret A. Waskow, Aishwarya Venkat, Elena N. Naumova

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that 31 known foodborne pathogens cause 9.4 million cases of these illnesses annually in US. Over 90% of these illnesses are associated with exposure to Campylobacter, Cryptosporidium, Cyclospora, Listeria, Salmonella, Shigella, Shiga-Toxin Producing E.Coli (STEC), Vibrio, and Yersinia. Contaminated products contain parasites typically causing an intestinal illness manifested by diarrhea, stomach cramping, nausea, weight loss, fatigue and may result in deaths in fragile populations. Since 1998, the National Outbreak Reporting System (NORS) has allowed for routine collection of suspected and laboratory-confirmed cases of food poisoning. While retrospective analyses have revealed common pathogen-specific seasonal patterns, little is known concerning the stability of those patterns over time and whether they can be used for preventative forecasting. The objective of this study is to construct a calendar of foodborne outbreaks of nine infections based on the peak timing of outbreak incidence in the US from 1996 to 2017. Reported cases were abstracted from FoodNet for Salmonella (135115), Campylobacter (121099), Shigella (48520), Cryptosporidium (21701), STEC (18022), Yersinia (3602), Vibrio (3000), Listeria (2543), and Cyclospora (758). Monthly counts were compiled for each agent, seasonal peak timing and peak intensity were estimated, and the stability of seasonal peaks and synchronization of infections was examined. Negative Binomial harmonic regression models with the delta-method were applied to derive confidence intervals for the peak timing for each year and overall study period estimates. Preliminary results indicate that five infections continue to lead as major causes of outbreaks, exhibiting steady upward trends with annual increases in cases ranging from 2.71% (95%CI: [2.38, 3.05]) in Campylobacter, 4.78% (95%CI: [4.14, 5.41]) in Salmonella, 7.09% (95%CI: [6.38, 7.82]) in E.Coli, 7.71% (95%CI: [6.94, 8.49]) in Cryptosporidium, and 8.67% (95%CI: [7.55, 9.80]) in Vibrio. Strong synchronization of summer outbreaks were observed, caused by Campylobacter, Vibrio, E.Coli and Salmonella, peaking at 7.57 ± 0.33, 7.84 ± 0.47, 7.85 ± 0.37, and 7.82 ± 0.14 calendar months, respectively, with the serial cross-correlation ranging 0.81-0.88 (p < 0.001). Over 21 years, Listeria and Cryptosporidium peaks (8.43 ± 0.77 and 8.52 ± 0.45 months, respectively) have a tendency to arrive 1-2 weeks earlier, while Vibrio peaks (7.8 ± 0.47) delay by 2-3 weeks. These findings will be incorporated in the forecast models to predict common paths of the spread, long-term trends, and the synchronization of outbreaks across etiological agents. The predictive modeling of foodborne outbreaks should consider long-term changes in seasonal timing, spatiotemporal trends, and sources of contamination.

Keywords: foodborne outbreak, national outbreak reporting system, predictive modeling, seasonality

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Authors: Samuel Faboyede, Obiamaka Nwobu, Samuel Fakile, Dickson Mukoro

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In the present dynamic business environment of corporate governance and regulations, financial reporting is an inevitable and extremely significant process for every business enterprise. Several financial elements such as Annual Reports, Quarterly Reports, ad-hoc filing, and other statutory/regulatory reports provide vital information to the investors and regulators, and establish trust and rapport between the internal and external stakeholders of an organization. Investors today are very demanding, and emphasize greatly on authenticity, accuracy, and reliability of financial data. For many companies, the Internet plays a key role in communicating business information, internally to management and externally to stakeholders. Despite high prominence being attached to external reporting, it is disconnected in most companies, who generate their external financial documents manually, resulting in high degree of errors and prolonged cycle times. Chief Executive Officers and Chief Financial Officers are increasingly susceptible to endorsing error-laden reports, late filing of reports, and non-compliance with regulatory acts. There is a lack of common platform to manage the sensitive information – internally and externally – in financial reports. The Internet financial reporting language known as eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) continues to develop in the face of challenges and has now reached the point where much of its promised benefits are available. This paper looks at the emergence of this revolutionary twenty-first century language of digital reporting. It posits that today, the world is on the brink of an Internet revolution that will redefine the ‘business reporting’ paradigm. The new Internet technology, eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), is already being deployed and used across the world. It finds that XBRL is an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) based information format that places self-describing tags around discrete pieces of business information. Once tags are assigned, it is possible to extract only desired information, rather than having to download or print an entire document. XBRL is platform-independent and it will work on any current or recent-year operating system, or any computer and interface with virtually any software. The paper concludes that corporate stakeholders and the government cannot afford to ignore the XBRL. It therefore recommends that all must act locally and think globally now via the adoption of XBRL that is changing the face of worldwide business reporting.

Keywords: XBRL, financial reporting, internet, internal and external reports

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Authors: Eyad H. R. Fadda, Jawaher K. Al Rashdieah, Aysha H. Al Rashdieh

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Urban Sprawl is a phenomenon that many regions in the Sultanate of Oman suffer from in general and in Welayat Barka in particular. It is considered a human phenomenon that causes many negative effects as it has increased in the last time clearly, and this study aims to diagnose the current status of urban growth taking place in Walayat Barka. The objective of this study is to monitor and follow up on the most prominent changes and developments taking place in Barka in the period from 2002 to 2019 and provide suggestions to the decision-makers to reduce the negative effects of the phenomenon. The study methodology depends on the descriptive and analytical approach to describe the phenomenon and its analysis and knowledge of the factors that helped in urban expansion in the Barka, using a number of studies and interviews with the specialists, both in governmental and private institutions, as well as with individuals who own land, real estate, and others. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing (ERDAS software) have been used to analyze the satellite images that helped in obtaining results that reflect the changes Barka, in addition to knowing the natural and human determinants that stand on Urban Sprawl Expansion. The study concluded that the geographical location of Barka has a significant role in its urban expansion, as it is the closest state to the capital Muscat, as this expansion continues toward the southern and south-western directions, as this expansion has significant negative effects represented in the low number of agricultural lands due to the continuous change in land use. In addition, it was found that there are two types of natural determinants of urban expansion in Barka, which are consumed land from the Sea of Oman and from the western sands.

Keywords: GIS applications, remote sensing, urbanization, urban sprawl expansion trends

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Authors: Nassim Salmi

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This study aimed to identify the administrative, social, cultural, economic and psychological challenges facing the nursing s ector in the Tebessa Algeria. It also seeks to identify whether there are differences between the opinions of managers in public and private hospitals about these challenges. To achieve the objectives of the study, the descriptive analytical method was adopted. The study also used the questionnaire as a tool for collecting the necessary data and information, which was applied to a sample of directors of public and private hospitals in the Tebessa, which amounted to (114) individuals. The study reached a set of results, including: that there are no statistically significant differences between the opinions of managers in public and private hospitals about the administrative, social, cultural, economic and psychological challenges facing the nursing sector in the Tebessa . The results also showed agreement between the views of managers in private public hospitals that the most important administrative challenges are the lack of training programs that affect the efficiency and performance of nursing work, and that the most important social and cultural challenges are the hospital’s failure to provide suitable nurseries for Saudi female nurses, and that the most important economic challenges are the lack of Availability of medical equipment and devices, and the most important psychological challenge is the tense relationship between the administration and the hospital's nursing staff. The study recommended focusing on the importance of rehabilitation and training together, activating the role of training in the ministry and making it compulsory and a condition of renewal for practicing and continuing the nursing profession, and providing the social and economic needs of the nursing staff.

Keywords: postoperative care, gynecology, nursing documentation, database

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Authors: Elron Fouten

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Recently, debates surrounding the social relevance of psychology in South Africa have focussed on how the growing neoliberal rationality within academia has again resulted in the discipline catering to the needs of powerful social groupings to protect its own economic interests, rather than producing socially relevant knowledge. Consequently, this study aimed to conduct a content analysis of the recent research output of psychology masters students, to establish whether it has produced research that addresses local and national psychosocial issues and as such deemed socially relevant knowledge. The study sampled clinical, counselling, and research psychology masters theses from 16 South African universities submitted between 1998 and 2017. Overall, 2001 theses were sampled, which were analysed using qualitative content analysis predominantly based on the descriptive categories identified in similar studies using published journal articles. Results indicated that empirical qualitative theses, using systems-oriented theory and post-modern frameworks were most prevalent. Further, traditional topics within psychology had relatively more weighting compared to more social topics. Although a significant number of theses recruited participants from working-class or poor backgrounds, there was an overreliance on participants from urban areas located in some of the country’s wealthiest provinces. Despite a strong adult-centric focus, trends regarding participants’ race and gender roughly resembled current population demographics. Overall, the results indicate that psychology in South Africa, at least at university-level, is to some extent trying to engage with national psychosocial concerns. However, there are still several key areas which need to be addressed to ensure the continued social relevance of the discipline.

Keywords: adult-centric, content analysis, relevance, psychosocial

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Authors: Syed Hassan Amjad

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In today’s competitive environment, in order for a company to exist, it must continually improve its Performance by reducing cost, improving quality and productivity, and easy access to market.The purpose of this thesis is to check the firm financial growth and performance and which type of factors affect the firm financial performance. This paper examines the key determinants of firm financial performance. We will differentiate between financial and non financial drivers of the firm financial performance. For the measurement of the firm financial performance there are many ways but all the measure had been taken in aggregation, such as debt, tax rate, operating expenses, earning per share and economic conditions. This study has also been done in developed countries but these researches show that foreign companies face many difficulties inimproving the firm financial performance. In findings we found that marketing expenditures and international diversification had a positive impact on firm valuation. In research also found that a firm's ownership composition, particularly the level of equity ownership by Domestic Financial Institutions and Dispersed Public Shareholders, and the leverage of the firm, tax rate and economic conditions were important factors affecting its financial performance.

Keywords: debt, tax rate, firm financial performance, operating expenses, dividend per share, economic conditions

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Authors: Abdelmagid Basyouny Sakr

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Terminological variation is a reality and it is now recognized by terminologists. This paper investigates the terminological variation in the context of specialized economic texts in Italian. It aims to find whether certain patterns or tendencies can be derived from the analysis of these texts. Term variants pose two different kinds of difficulties. The first one is being able to recognize linguistic expressions that denote the same concept in running text. Another one lies in knowing which variant should be considered and for what purpose. This would help to differentiate between variants that could be candidates for inclusion in terminological resources and the ones which are synonyms or contextual variants. New insights about terminological variation in specialized texts could contribute to improve specialized dictionaries which will better account for the different ways in which a given thought is expressed.

Keywords: corpus linguistics, specialized communication, terms and concepts, terminological variation

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Authors: Juan Wang, Xiuxiu Wang, Di Wang

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Engineers are an important force supporting the economic and social development of a country. As China has the largest scale of engineering education in the world, the career choice of engineering students will affect the contribution of human capital to national scientific and technological progress and economic development. A questionnaire survey shows the following: on the whole, the students surveyed were willing to engage in an engineering career, but their willingness needed to be enhanced, and their willingness was affected by such factors as their understanding of the value of the engineering career; the resources from individual benefits, resources from career and individual strengths. Also, based on in-depth interviews with some engineering students, it is found that engineering students’ career choice behaviors totally based on survival rationality, economic rationality, social rationality and other combinations. Based on this, policy support should be given to the enrollment, training, employment and other aspects of engineering education; improve the professional status and treatment of engineers through multiple measures; ensure a smooth career path to enhance the willingness of engineering students to choose careers.

Keywords: engineering students, career choice, engineer, human capital

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Authors: Pallavi Kishore, Mariam Aslam

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The sharp decline in oil prices that started in 2014 affected most economies in the world either positively or negatively. In some economies, particularly the oil exporting countries, the effects were felt immediately. The Gulf Cooperation Council’s (GCC henceforth) countries are oil and gas-dependent with the largest oil reserves in the world. UAE (United Arab Emirates) has been striving to diversify away from oil and expects higher non-oil growth in 2018. These two factors, falling oil prices and the economy strategizing away from oil dependence, make a compelling case to study the financial performance of various sectors in the economy. Among other sectors, the insurance sector is widely recognized as an important indicator of the health of the economy. An expanding population, surge in construction and infrastructure, increased life expectancy, greater expenditure on automobiles and other luxury goods translate to a booming insurance sector. A slow-down of the insurance sector, on the other hand, may indicate a general slow-down in the economy. Therefore, a study on the insurance sector will help understand the general nature of the current economy. This study involves calculations and comparisons of ratios pre and post the fall in oil prices in the insurance sector in the UAE. A sample of 33 companies listed on the official stock exchanges of UAE-Dubai Financial Market and Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange were collected and empirical analysis employed to study the financial performance pre and post fall in oil prices. Ratios were calculated in 5 categories: Profitability, Liquidity, Leverage, Efficiency, and Investment. The means pre- and post-fall are compared to conclude that the profitability ratios including ROSF (Return on Shareholder Funds), ROCE (Return on Capital Employed) and NPM (Net Profit Margin) have all taken a hit. Parametric tests, including paired t-test, concludes that while the fall in profitability ratios is statistically significant, the other ratios have been quite stable in the period. The efficiency, liquidity, gearing and investment ratios have not been severely affected by the fall in oil prices. This may be due to the implementation of stronger regulatory policies and is a testimony to the diversification into the non-oil economy. The regulatory authorities can use the findings of this study to ensure transparency in revealing financial information to the public and employ policies that will help further the health of the economy. The study will also help understand which areas within the sector could benefit from more regulations.

Keywords: UAE, insurance sector, ratio analysis, oil price, profitability, liquidity, gearing, investment, efficiency

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Authors: Blessings Masuku

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This study positions itself within the nascent of street food vending that plays a crucial role in addressing urban household food security across the urban landscape of South Africa. The study aimed to understand how various forms of infrastructure systems (i.e., energy, water and sanitation, housing, and transport, among others) intersect with food and urban informality and how vendors and households’ choices and decisions made around food are influenced by infrastructure assemblages. This study noted that most of the literature studies on food security have mainly focused on the rural agricultural sector, with limited attention to urban food security, notably the role of informality practices in addressing urban food insecurity at the household level. This study pays close attention to how informal informality practices such as street food vending can be used as a catalyst to address urban poverty and household food security and steer local economies for sustainable livelihoods of the urban poor who live in the periphery of the city in Johannesburg. This study deconstructs the infrastructure needs of street food vendors, and the aim was to understand how such infrastructure needs intersect with food and policy that governs urban informality practices. The study argues that the decisions and choices of informality actors in the city of Johannesburg are chiefly determined by the assemblages of infrastructure, including regulatory frameworks that govern the informal sector in the city of Johannesburg. A qualitative approach that includes surveys (open-ended questions), archival research (i., e policy and other key document reviews), and key interviews mainly with city officials and informality actors. A thematic analysis was used to analyze the data collected. This study contributes to greater debates on urban studies and burgeoning literature on urban food security in many ways that include Firstly, the pivotal role that the informal food sector, notably street food vending, plays within the urban economy to address urban poverty and household food security, therefore questioning the conservative perspectives that view the informal sector as a hindrance to a ‘modern city’ and an annoyance to ‘modern’ urban spaces. Secondly, this study contributes to the livelihood and coping strategies of the urban poor who, despite harsh and restrictive regulatory frameworks, devise various agentive ways to generate incomes and address urban poverty and food insecurities.

Keywords: urban food security, street food vending, informal food sector, infrastructure systems, livelihood strategies, policy framework and governance

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Authors: Ikpechukwu Njoku

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The study examined appraisal of shipping trade influence on the economic growth in Nigeria from 1981-2016 by the use of secondary data collected from the Central Bank of Nigeria. The main objectives are to examine the trend of shipping trade in Nigeria as well as determine the influence of economic growth on gross domestic product (GDP). The study employed both descriptive and influential tools. The study adopted cointegration regression method for the analysis of each of the variables (shipping trade, external reserves and external debts). The results show that there is a statistically significant relationship between GDP and external reserves with p-value 0.0190. Also the result revealed that there is a statistically significant relationship between GDP and shipping trade with p-value 0.000. However, shipping trade and external reserves contributed positively at 1% and 5% level of significance respectively while external debts impacted negatively to GDP at 5% level of significance with a long run variance of cointegration regression. Therefore, the study suggests that government should do all it can to curtail foreign dominance and repatriation of profit for a more sustainable economy as well as upgrade port facilities, prevent unnecessary delays and encourage exportable goods for maximum deployment of ships.

Keywords: external debts, external reserve, GDP, shipping trade

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Authors: Michael Kenomore, Mohamed Hassan, Amjad Shah, Hom Dhakal

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Shale gas reservoirs have been of greater importance compared to shale oil reservoirs since 2009 and with the current nature of the oil market, understanding the technical and economic performance of shale gas reservoirs is of importance. Using the Barnett shale as a case study, an economic model was developed to quantify the effect of finding and development costs and gas prices on the basins in the Barnett shale using net present value as an evaluation parameter. A rate of return of 20% and a payback period of 60 months or less was used as the investment hurdle in the model. The Barnett was split into four basins (Strawn Basin, Ouachita Folded Belt, Forth-worth Syncline and Bend-arch Basin) with analysis conducted on each of the basin to provide a holistic outlook. The dataset consisted of only horizontal wells that started production from 2008 to at most 2015 with 1835 wells coming from the strawn basin, 137 wells from the Ouachita folded belt, 55 wells from the bend-arch basin and 724 wells from the forth-worth syncline. The data was analyzed initially on Microsoft Excel to determine the estimated ultimate recoverable (EUR). The range of EUR from each basin were loaded in the Palisade Risk software and a log normal distribution typical of Barnett shale wells was fitted to the dataset. Monte Carlo simulation was then carried out over a 1000 iterations to obtain a cumulative distribution plot showing the probabilistic distribution of EUR for each basin. From the cumulative distribution plot, the P10, P50 and P90 EUR values for each basin were used in the economic model. Gas production from an individual well with a EUR similar to the calculated EUR was chosen and rescaled to fit the calculated EUR values for each basin at the respective percentiles i.e. P10, P50 and P90. The rescaled production was entered into the economic model to determine the effect of the finding and development cost and gas price on the net present value (10% discount rate/year) as well as also determine the scenario that satisfied the proposed investment hurdle. The finding and development costs used in this paper (assumed to consist only of the drilling and completion costs) were £1 million, £2 million and £4 million while the gas price was varied from $2/MCF-$13/MCF based on Henry Hub spot prices from 2008-2015. One of the major findings in this study was that wells in the bend-arch basin were least economic, higher gas prices are needed in basins containing non-core counties and 90% of the Barnet shale wells were not economic at all finding and development costs irrespective of the gas price in all the basins. This study helps to determine the percentage of wells that are economic at different range of costs and gas prices, determine the basins that are most economic and the wells that satisfy the investment hurdle.

Keywords: shale gas, Barnett shale, unconventional gas, estimated ultimate recoverable

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Authors: Bachir Bentouati, Lakhdar Chaib, Saliha Chettih, Gai-Ge Wang

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The problem of economic dispatch (ED) is the basic problem of power framework, its main goal is to find the most favorable generation dispatch to generate each unit, reduce the whole power generation cost, and meet all system limitations. A heuristic algorithm, recently developed called Stud Krill Herd (SKH), has been employed in this paper to treat non-convex ED problems. The proposed KH has been modified using Stud selection and crossover (SSC) operator, to enhance the solution quality and avoid local optima. We are demonstrated SKH effects in two case study systems composed of 13-unit and 40-unit test systems to verify its performance and applicability in solving the ED problems. In the above systems, SKH can successfully obtain the best fuel generator and distribute the load requirements for the online generators. The results showed that the use of the proposed SKH method could reduce the total cost of generation and optimize the fulfillment of the load requirements.

Keywords: stud krill herd, economic dispatch, crossover, stud selection, valve-point effect

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Authors: Muzaffer Topgul, Hasan Atac

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In case of explaining the migration concept, although it is not a new phenomenon, it is easy to understand that communities have migrated for variety of reasons such as natural disasters, famine, wars, economic problems, and several theories have been put forth to define and find solution for migration within its changing nature. Examining of migration theories denotes that the circumstances under which they appear reflect political, social, and economic conditions of the age they appear. In this day and time, security is considered not only from military perspective but also from economic, political, sociological dimensions. Based on the changing security environment new impacts of migration has occurred; the migration is proceed to be conferred as a type of war, qualified as a transnational crime because of its outcomes and interpreted in a different dimension owing to its effects on the health and education areas. Social security dimension in the context of expanding concept of security; when dealing with the safety of people and social groups with the assumption that national unity and identity are threatened, it sees immigrants as a source of threat. The human security assesses the safety of individuals in terms of survival and quality of life. Changes in the standard of living under the influence of immigrants and possible terrorist acts can be seen as a threat source in this type of security. Economic security of the individuals and the regional changes at the micro level created by the immigrants are covered issues of economic security. Due to the factors such as terrorism and civil war, the increasing numbers of displaced people who have taken refugee status affect the countries, whether it is near or far to the crisis areas, in the new and different dimensions of security day by day. In this study, the term of immigration through the eyes of national and international law will be evaluated, the place of the irregular and illegal immigration in the changing security sphere will be revealed and the effects of the irregular migration to short-term, mid-term and long-term security issues will be assessed through human and social security aspects. In order to analyze the threats for the human security; the parameters such as living conditions of the immigrants, the ratio of the genders, birth rate occasions, the education circumstances of the immigrant children and the effects of the illegal passing on the public order will be evaluated. The outcomes of the problem areas for the human security and the demographic alteration resulting from the human flow of displaced people will be discussed thorough social security extent. The fizzling economic diversity, which has shown up by irregular migration, will be presented within the scope of economic dimension of security.

Keywords: irregular migration, the changing dimensions of security, human security, social security

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Authors: S. K. Dewangan, K. R. Sahu, S. Soni

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Unemployment is today’s basic socio-economic problem eroding national income and living standards, aggravating national development and poverty alleviation. The farmers are encouraged to take up non-agriculture practices which are integrated with Sericulture. Sericulture is one of the primary occupations for livelihood of poor people in tribal area. Most of tribal are involved in Sericulture. Tasar, Eri are the main forest-based cultivation. Among these sericultures is the major crop adopted by the Tribal’s and practiced in respective areas. Out of the 6, 38,588 villages in India, sericultures are practiced in about 69000 villages providing employment to about 7.85 million people. Sericulture is providing livelihood for 9, 47,631 families. India continues to be the second largest producer of silk in the World. Among the four varieties of silk produced, as in 2012-13, Mulberry accounts for 18,715 MT, Eri 3116 MT, Tasar 1729 MT and Muga 119MT of the total raw silk production in the country. Sericulture with its unique features plays an important role in upgrading the socio-economic conditions of the rural folk and with employment opportunities to the educated rural youth and women. In view of the importance of sericulture enterprise for the biodiversity conservation as well as its cultural bondage, the paper tries to enlighten and discuss the significance of sericulture and strategies to be taken for the employment generation in Indian sericulture industry. The present paper explores the possible employment opportunities derived from problem analysis and strategies to be adopted aiming at revolutionary biodiversity conservation in the study area. The paper highlights the sericulture is a way for biodiversity conservation, employment generation in Raigarh district, their utilization and needs as they act as a tool for socio-economic change for tribal. The study concludes with some suggestions to improve the feasibility of sericulture in long term.

Keywords: bio-diversity, employment, sericulture, tribal, income, socio-economic

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Authors: Dixit Garg, S. Luthra, A. Haleem

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During recent years, the natural environment has become a challenging topic that business organizations must consider due to the economic and ecological impacts and increasing awareness of environment protection among society. Organizations are trying to achieve the goals of improvement in environment, low cost, high quality, flexibility and more customer satisfaction. Performance measurement frameworks are very useful to monitor the performance of any organization. The basic goal of this paper is to identify performance measures and ranking of these performance measures of GSCM performance measurement towards sustainability framework. Five perspectives (Environment, Economic, Social, Operational and Cost performances) and nineteen performance measures of GSCM performance towards sustainability have been have been identified from extensive literature review. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique has been utilized for ranking of these performance perspectives and measures. All pair comparisons in AHP have been made on the basis on the experts’ opinions (selected from academia and industry). Ranking of these performance perspectives and measures will help to understand the importance of environmental, economic, social, operational performances, and cost performances in the supply chain.

Keywords: analytical hierarchy process, green supply chain management, performance measures, sustainability

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Authors: Adejoke Omowumi Adediran

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The commitment of African states to liberalise civil aviation in Africa through the implementation of the Yamoussoukro Decision of 1999 was reiterated in 2015 at the African Union Assembly meeting. A declaration was made by African Heads of government at the meeting to ensure the immediate implementation of the decision towards the establishment of a Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) by 2017. A SAATM will imply among others, a removal of all commercial restrictions for African airlines in Africa; access to any route in Africa by African airlines without any required permit or authorisation; and a common set of regulations for airlines in African member states. As the envisioned 2017 date for launching the SAATM could not be met, a new date of January 2018 has been set. The lack of political will by African States, however, remains a prominent challenge to the realisation of the SAATM. As at June 2017, only twenty-one states had signed the commitment to actualise the decision creating the SAATM. In actualisation of the SAATM, a regulatory framework has been established to efficiently manage the new African airline industry, and regulatory texts have been adopted as part of the legal regime. This legal regime is to regulate both interstate and domestic operations. Airlines in Nigeria are currently faced with certain challenges which ultimately affect their effectiveness and passengers as well do not enjoy utmost customer satisfaction with services rendered by the airlines. Although Nigeria has demonstrated support for the SAATM since 2015, as Nigeria alongside ten other states, signed the initial commitment, whether or not SAATM will eventually be beneficial to airlines and passengers has become an issue in the light of the challenges of the Nigerian airline industry. Remarkably, the benefit of the SAATM is to a large extent ultimately determined by its legal framework. Using doctrinal research, this paper examines the legal implications of the SAATM on airlines and passengers in Nigeria. This paper analyses the legal framework of SAATM and juxtaposes this with the particular issues affecting airlines and passengers in Nigeria such as financial difficulties on the part of airlines and consumer protection as regards passengers. Among others, it can be asserted that the legal regime affords an opportunity for business expansion and creates a fair environment for competition. This is beneficial not only to the airlines but to passengers as well. In addition, in the interest of passengers, consumer rights are prescribed, and the regulations also cater for situations where airlines interrupt their services, as losses arising from these situations will be mitigated. There is indeed no doubt that the SAATM will be of great utility to both airlines and passengers in Nigeria.

Keywords: airlines, civil aviation, competition, consumer protection, passengers, single African air transport market, yamoussoukro decision

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Authors: Karla N. Penna, Eloise J. Hoffman, Tonya R. Carter

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This paper suggests that effective cultural landscape management plans in an Indigenous context should be undertaken using multidisciplinary approach taken into consideration context-related social and cultural aspects. In relation to working in Indigenous and mining contexts, we draw upon and contribute to International policies on human rights that promote the development of management plans on that are co-designed through genuine engagement processes. We suggest that the production of management plans that are built upon culturally relevant frameworks, lead to more inclusive economic development, a greater sense of trust, and shared managerial responsibilities. In this paper, three issues related to Indigenous engagement and cultural landscape management plans will be addressed: (1) the need for effective communication channels between proponents and Traditional Owners (Australian original Aboriginal peoples who inhabited specific regions), (2) the use of a culturally sensitive approach to engage local representatives in the decision making processes, and (3) how design of new management plans can help in establishing shared management.

Keywords: culture-centred approach, Holons’ hierarchy, inclusive economic development, indigenous engagement

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Authors: Alexander Vaninsky

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The objective of this paper is finding the way of economic restructuring - that is, change in the shares of sectoral gross outputs - resulting in the maximum possible increase in the gross domestic product (GDP) combined with decreases in energy consumption and CO2 emissions. It uses an input-output model for the GDP and factorial models for the energy consumption and CO2 emissions to determine the projection of the gradient of GDP, and the antigradients of the energy consumption and CO2 emissions, respectively, on a subspace formed by the structure-related variables. Since the gradient (antigradient) provides a direction of the steepest increase (decrease) of the objective function, and their projections retain this property for the functions' limitation to the subspace, each of the three directional vectors solves a particular problem of optimal structural change. In the next step, a type of factor analysis is applied to find a convex combination of the projected gradient and antigradients having maximal possible positive correlation with each of the three. This convex combination provides the desired direction of the structural change. The national economy of the United States is used as an example of applications.

Keywords: economic restructuring, input-output analysis, divisia index, factorial decomposition, E3 models

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Authors: Nur Aziza Luxfiati

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Clustering is partitioning data sets into sub-sets or groups in such a way that elements certain properties have shared property settings with a high level of similarity within one group and a low level of similarity between groups. . The K-Means algorithm is one of thealgorithmsclustering as a grouping tool that is most widely used in scientific and industrial applications because the basic idea of the kalgorithm is-means very simple. In this research, applying the technique of clustering using the k-means algorithm as a method of solving the problem of national development imbalances between regions in Central Java Province based on macroeconomic indicators. The data sample used is secondary data obtained from the Central Java Provincial Statistics Agency regarding macroeconomic indicator data which is part of the publication of the 2019 National Socio-Economic Survey (Susenas) data. score and determine the number of clusters (k) using the elbow method. After the clustering process is carried out, the validation is tested using themethodsBetween-Class Variation (BCV) and Within-Class Variation (WCV). The results showed that detection outlier using z-score normalization showed no outliers. In addition, the results of the clustering test obtained a ratio value that was not high, namely 0.011%. There are two district/city clusters in Central Java Province which have economic similarities based on the variables used, namely the first cluster with a high economic level consisting of 13 districts/cities and theclustersecondwith a low economic level consisting of 22 districts/cities. And in the cluster second, namely, between low economies, the authors grouped districts/cities based on similarities to macroeconomic indicators such as 20 districts of Gross Regional Domestic Product, with a Poverty Depth Index of 19 districts, with 5 districts in Human Development, and as many as Open Unemployment Rate. 10 districts.

Keywords: clustering, K-Means algorithm, macroeconomic indicators, inequality, national development

Procedia PDF Downloads 158

Authors: Patrick Innocenti, Elias Montini, Silvia Menato, Marzio Sorlini

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Documented experiences of industrial symbiosis are always triggered and driven only by economic goals: environmental and (even rarely) social results are sometimes assessed and declared as effects of virtuous behaviours, but are merely casual and un-pursued side externalities. Even worse: all the symbiotic project candidates entailing economic loss for just one of the (also dozen) partners are simply stopped without considering the overall benefit for the whole partnership. The here-presented approach aims at providing methodologies and tools to effectively manage these situations and fostering the implementation of virtuous symbiotic investments in manufacturing aggregations for a more sustainable production.

Keywords: business model, industrial symbiosis, industrial agglomerations, sustainability

Procedia PDF Downloads 290

Authors: Jae Hyun Park, Sangmi Chai, Minkyun Kim

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As users spend more time on the Internet, the probability of their personal information being exposed has been growing. This research has a main purpose of investigating factors and examining relationships when Internet users recognize their value of private information with a perspective of an economic asset. The study is targeted on Internet users, and the value of their private information will be converted into economic figures. Moreover, how economic value changes in relation with individual attributes, dealer’s traits, circumstantial properties will be studied. In this research, the changes in factors on private information value responding to different situations will be analyzed in an economic perspective. Additionally, this study examines the associations between users’ perceived risk and value of their personal information. By using the cost-benefit analysis framework, the hypothesis that the user’s sense in private information value can be influenced by individual attributes and situational properties will be tested. Therefore, this research will attempt to provide answers for three research objectives. First, this research will identify factors that affect value recognition of users’ personal information. Second, it provides evidences that there are differences on information system users’ economic value of information responding to personal, trade opponent, and situational attributes. Third, it investigates the impact of those attributes on individuals’ perceived risk. Based on the assumption that personal, trade opponent and situation attributes make an impact on the users’ value recognition on private information, this research will present the understandings on the different impacts of those attributes in recognizing the value of information with the economic perspective and prove the associative relationships between perceived risk and decision on the value of users’ personal information. In order to validate our research model, this research used the regression methodology. Our research results support that information breach experience and information security systems is associated with users’ perceived risk. Information control and uncertainty are also related to users’ perceived risk. Therefore, users’ perceived risk is considered as a significant factor on evaluating the value of personal information. It can be differentiated by trade opponent and situational attributes. This research presents new perspective on evaluating the value of users’ personal information in the context of perceived risk, personal, trade opponent and situational attributes. It fills the gap in the literature by providing how users’ perceived risk are associated with personal, trade opponent and situation attitudes in conducting business transactions with providing personal information. It adds to previous literature that the relationship exists between perceived risk and the value of users’ private information in the economic perspective. It also provides meaningful insights to the managers that in order to minimize the cost of information breach, managers need to recognize the value of individuals’ personal information and decide the proper amount of investments on protecting users’ online information privacy.

Keywords: private information, value, users, perceived risk, online information privacy, attributes

Procedia PDF Downloads 239

Authors: Inda Annisa Fauzani, Rahayu Setyawati Arifin

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The development of Special Economic Zones in Indonesia cannot be separated from the development of the communities in them. In accordance with the SEZ's objectives as a driver of economic growth, the focus of SEZ development does not only prioritize investment receipts and infrastructure development. The community as one of the stakeholders must also be considered. This becomes a challenge when the development of an SEZ has the potential to have an impact on the community in it. These impacts occur due to changes in the development of the area in the form of changes in the main regional industries and changes in the main livelihoods of the community. As a result, people can feel threats and disturbances. The community as the object of development is required to be able to have resilience in order to achieve a synergy between regional development and community development. A lack of resilience in the community can eliminate the ability to recover from disturbances and difficulty to adapt to changes that occur in their area. Social resilience is the ability of the community to be able to recover from disturbances and changes that occur. The achievement of social resilience occurs when the community gradually has the capacity in the form of coping capacity, adaptive capacity, and transformative capacity. It is hoped that when social resilience is achieved, the community will be able to develop linearly with regional development so that the benefits of this development can have a positive impact on these communities. This study aims to identify and analyze social factors that influence the achievement of social resilience in the community in Special Economic Zones in Indonesia and develop a program framework for achieving social resilience capacity in the community so that it can be used as a strategy to support the successful development of Special Economic Zones in Indonesia that provide benefits to the local community. This study uses a quantitative research method approach. Questionnaires are used as research instruments which are distributed to predetermined respondents. Respondents in this study were determined by using purposive sampling of the people living in areas that were developed into Special Economic Zones. Respondents were given a questionnaire containing questions about the influence of social factors on the achievement of social resilience. As x variables, 42 social factors are provided, while social resilience is used as y variables. The data collected from the respondents is analyzed in SPSS using Spearman Correlation to determine the relation between x and y variables. The correlated factors are then used as the basis for the preparation of programs to increase social resilience capacity in the community.

Keywords: community development, program management, social factor, social resilience

Procedia PDF Downloads 111

Authors: Albert Herve Nkolo Mpoko

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The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) landscape in Cameroon has garnered significant attention from both European and Asian nations due to perceived benefits such as capital infusion, technology transfer, and potential for economic expansion. However, it is noteworthy that South Africa's investment presence remains comparatively subdued in Cameroon, lagging behind that of Europe and Asia. Equally surprising is the limited footprint of Africa's economic powerhouse within other African economies. This study delved into four specific facets of South African investment in Cameroon. Initially, it focused on identifying South African companies operating within Cameroon. Subsequently, the analysis encompassed assessing the correlation between South African investment and poverty alleviation. Additionally, the study examined the nexus between South African investment and technological advancement, and underscored the significance of investment incentives in both countries Key findings of the research shed light on several crucial points. South Africa ought to reassess its economic engagement with Francophone Africa, particularly Cameroon. Despite existing policies aimed at fostering investment, there remains substantial ground to cover in this realm. The proliferation of South African enterprises in Cameroon holds the potential to ameliorate poverty and foster employment opportunities across both nations. The advent of South African firms in Cameroon can catalyse technological advancements within the region. Data collection involved surveying 100 executives from the respective administrations and conducting ten interviews. The gathered data underwent triangulation, wherein quantitative findings were juxtaposed with qualitative insights. In conclusion, the study underscores the underutilization of Cameroon by South Africa, emphasizing the untapped potential for mutual economic growth. Furthermore, it posits that the success of South Africa's multinational corporations abroad could serve as a pivotal pillar for sustaining its domestic economy.

Keywords: FDI, transfer of technology, South-South cooperation, mutual economic growth

Procedia PDF Downloads 46

Authors: M. A. Badr, M. N. El Kordy, A. N. Mohib, M. M. Ibrahim

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The basic objective of the research is to study the effect of hybrid wind energy on the cost of generated electricity considering the cost of reduction CO₂ emissions. The system consists of small wind turbine(s), storage battery bank and a diesel generator (W/D/B). Using an optimization software package, different system configurations are investigated to reach optimum configuration based on the net present cost (NPC) and cost of energy (COE) as economic optimization criteria. The cost of avoided CO₂ is taken into consideration. The system is intended to supply the electrical load of a small community (gathering six families) in a remote Egyptian area. The investigated system is not connected to the electricity grid and may replace an existing conventional diesel powered electric supply system to reduce fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions. The simulation results showed that W/D energy system is more economic than diesel alone. The estimated COE is 0.308$/kWh and extracting the cost of avoided CO₂, the COE reached 0.226 $/kWh which is an external benefit of wind turbine, as there are no pollutant emissions through operational phase.

Keywords: hybrid wind turbine systems, remote areas electrification, simulation of hybrid energy systems, techno-economic study

Procedia PDF Downloads 400

Authors: A. W. Chalmers, O. M. van den Broek

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This article examines the relationship between the global financial crisis and corporate social responsibility activities of financial services firms. It challenges the general consensus in existing studies that firms, when faced with economic hardship, tend to jettison CSR commitments. Instead, and building on recent insights into the institutional determinants of CSR, it is argued that firms are constrained in their ability to abandon CSR by the extent to which they are subject to intense public scrutiny by regulators and the news media. This argument is tested in the context of the European sovereign debt crisis drawing on a unique dataset of 170 firms in 15 different countries over a six-year period. Controlling for a battery of alternative explanations and comparing financial service providers to firms operating in other economic sectors, results indicate considerable evidence supporting the main argument. Rather than abandoning CSR during times of economic hardship, financial industry firms ramp up their CSR commitments in order to manage their public image and foster public trust in light of intense public scrutiny.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility (CSR), public scrutiny, global financial crisis, financial services firms

Procedia PDF Downloads 306

Authors: Virgo Sulakatko

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The reduction of energy consumption of the built environment has been one of the topics tackled by European Commission during the last decade. Increased energy efficiency requirements have increased the renovation rate of apartment buildings covered with External Thermal Insulation Composite System (ETICS). Due to fast and optimized application process, a large extent of quality assurance is depending on the specific activities of artisans and are often not controlled. The on-site degradation factors (DF) have the technical influence to the façade and cause future costs to the owner. Besides the thermal conductivity, the building envelope needs to ensure the mechanical resistance and stability, fire-, noise-, corrosion and weather protection, and long-term durability. As the shortcomings of the construction phase become problematic after some years, the common value of the renovation is reduced. Previous work on the subject has identified and rated the relevance of DF to the technical requirements and developed a method to reveal the economic value of repair works. The future costs can be traded off to increased the quality assurance during the construction process. The proposed framework is describing the joint simulation of the technical importance and economic value of the on-site DFs of ETICS. The model is providing new knowledge to improve the resource allocation during the construction process by enabling to identify and diminish the most relevant degradation factors and increase economic value to the owner.

Keywords: ETICS, construction technology, construction management, life cycle costing

Procedia PDF Downloads 419

Authors: Sirus Mohammadi, Sara Ansari, Darush dehghan, Habib Hoshyari

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Batteries for storage of electricity from solar and wind generation farms are a key element in the success of sustainability. In recent years, due to large integration of Renewable Energy Sources (RESs) like wind turbine and photovoltaic unit into the Micro-Grid (MG), the necessity of Battery Energy Storage (BES) has increased dramatically. The BES has several benefits and advantages in the MG-based applications such as short term power supply, power quality improvement, facilitating integration of RES, ancillary service and arbitrage. This paper presents the cost-based formulation to determine the optimal size of the BES in the operation management of MG. Also, some restrictions, i.e. power capacity of Distributed Generators (DGs), power and energy capacity of BES, charge/discharge efficiency of BES, operating reserve and load demand satisfaction should be considered as well. In this paper, a methodology is proposed for the optimal allocation and economic analysis of ESS in MGs on the basis of net present value (NPV). As the optimal operation of an MG strongly depends on the arrangement and allocation of its ESS, economic operation strategies and optimal allocation methods of the ESS devices are required for the MG.

Keywords: microgrid, energy storage system, optimal sizing, net present value

Procedia PDF Downloads 493

Authors: Moustafa Osman Mohammed

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The resilient and sustainable of construction ecology is essential to world’s socio-economic development. Environmental resilience is crucial in relating construction ecology to topology of spatial-economic model. Sustainability of spatial-economic model gives attention to green business to comply with Earth’s System for naturally exchange patterns of ecosystems. The systems ecology has consistent and periodic cycles to preserve energy and materials flow in Earth’s System. When model structure is influencing communication of internal and external features in system networks, it postulated the valence of the first-level spatial outcomes (i.e., project compatibility success). These instrumentalities are dependent on second-level outcomes (i.e., participant security satisfaction). These outcomes of model are based on measuring database efficiency, from 2015 to 2025. The model topology has state-of-the-art in value-orientation impact and correspond complexity of sustainability issues (e.g., build a consistent database necessary to approach spatial structure; construct the spatial-economic model; develop a set of sustainability indicators associated with model; allow quantification of social, economic and environmental impact; use the value-orientation as a set of important sustainability policy measures), and demonstrate environmental resilience. The model is managing and developing schemes from perspective of multiple sources pollutants through the input–output criteria. These criteria are evaluated the external insertions effects to conduct Monte Carlo simulations and analysis for using matrices in a unique spatial structure. The balance “equilibrium patterns” such as collective biosphere features, has a composite index of the distributed feedback flows. These feedback flows have a dynamic structure with physical and chemical properties for gradual prolong of incremental patterns. While these structures argue from system ecology, static loads are not decisive from an artistic/architectural perspective. The popularity of system resilience, in the systems structure related to ecology has not been achieved without the generation of confusion and vagueness. However, this topic is relevant to forecast future scenarios where industrial regions will need to keep on dealing with the impact of relative environmental deviations. The model attempts to unify analytic and analogical structure of urban environments using database software to integrate sustainability outcomes where the process based on systems topology of construction ecology.

Keywords: system ecology, construction ecology, industrial ecology, spatial-economic model, systems topology

Procedia PDF Downloads 19

Authors: Othman Saleh Al-Razgan

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Obesity establishes an epidemic along with an array of comorbidities and this call for careful clinical assessment, to identify causal factors and comprehensive management. In Kuwait, this epidemic reflects the progressive, socio-economic and age-related issues, along with the shift of nutrition from traditional to modern-style. The current research attempts to narrate the obesity and related health issues in Kuwait, with a special emphasis on the magnitude of the issue in Kuwait, nutrition transition over the past three decades, change in life-style, and possible solution for this issue.

Keywords: clinical assessment, comorbidities, obesity, socio-economic

Procedia PDF Downloads 442