Search results for: same-subject study design

Authors: Razan Salem

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Men and women have different approaches towards investing, both in terms of strategies and risk attitudes. This study aims to focus mainly on investigating the financial risk behaviors of Arab women investors and to examine the financial risk tolerance levels of Arab women relative to Arab men investors. Using survey data on 547 Arab men and women investors, the results of Wilcoxon Signed-Rank (One-Sample) test Mann-Whitney U test reveal that Arab women are risk-averse investors and have lower financial risk tolerance levels relative to Arab men. Such findings can be explained by the fact of women's nature and lower investment literacy levels. Further, the current political uncertainty in the Arab region may be considered as another explanation of Arab women’s risk aversion behavior. The study's findings support the existing literature by validating the stereotype of “women are more risk-averse than men” in the Arab region. Overall, when it comes to investment and financial behaviors, women around the world behave similarly.

Keywords: Arab region, culture, financial risk behavior, gender differences, women investors

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Authors: Bamidele Wale-Oshinowo, Doris Akyere Boateng, Lebura Sorbarikor

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Women play significant roles when it comes to the survival of family businesses; however, their efforts are less acknowledged across the developing world. In the case where these businesses are started by husbands, women in many instances work as hard as the men to build up the business. In spite of this, the benefits women receive are not equal to their inputs. For instance, the profits accruing from ownership of these businesses are mainly enjoyed by husbands, as they are deemed to be the legal owners of family businesses in most developing economies. Though the number of women involvement in the ownership, management, and direction of family businesses keeps increasing over the years, their efforts sometimes are ‘invisible’ and not rewarded. Using a phenomenological approach, this study purposively selected 20 businesswomen each from Ghana and Nigeria for in-depth interviews on the different roles they play in ensuring the success of their family businesses (FBs). This study also explored the challenges and opportunities that these women have within their family businesses. Among the major findings of this study is the important strategic direction that women give in terms of providing both tangible and intangible resources such as transfer of transit knowledge to the next generation. Women were also found to play a significant role in the implementation of entrepreneurial orientation within small family businesses in Ghana and Nigeria. However, the study revealed that women experience various challenges as stakeholders in family businesses, among which are: work-life balance issues, succession issues, and culture-related presuppositions about gender roles both within the business and in their families. In the light of the study’s findings, critical recommendations made include encouraging founders and/or owners of family businesses to create a conducive and viable platform for women to grow into key leadership positions within Family businesses; doing this would impact strongly on the growth rate of these form of businesses within the African Region.

Keywords: emerging economies, control, management, resources, strategy, women

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Authors: Olia Kanevskaia

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Standardization has been in the limelight of numerous academic studies. Typically described as ‘any set of technical specifications that either provides or is intended to provide a common design for a product or process’, standards do not only set quality benchmarks for products and services, but also spur competition and innovation, resulting in advantages for manufacturers and consumers. Their contribution to globalization and technology advancement is especially crucial in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and telecommunications sector, which is also characterized by a weaker state-regulation and expert-based rule-making. Most of the standards developed in that area are interoperability standards, which allow technological devices to establish ‘invisible communications’ and to ensure their compatibility and proper functioning. This type of standard supports a large share of our daily activities, ranging from traffic coordination by traffic lights to the connection to Wi-Fi networks, transmission of data via Bluetooth or USB and building the network architecture for the Internet of Things (IoT). A large share of ICT standards is developed in the specialized voluntary platforms, commonly referred to as Standards Development Organizations (SDOs), which gather experts from various industry sectors, private enterprises, governmental agencies and academia. The institutional architecture of these bodies can vary from semi-public bodies, such as European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), to industry-driven consortia, such as the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). The past decades witnessed a significant shift of standard setting to those institutions: while operating independently from the states regulation, they offer a rather informal setting, which enables fast-paced standardization and places technical supremacy and flexibility of standards above other considerations. Although technical norms and specifications developed by such nongovernmental platforms are not binding, they appear to create significant regulatory impact. In the United States (US), private voluntary standards can be used by regulators to achieve their policy objectives; in the European Union (EU), compliance with harmonized standards developed by voluntary European Standards Organizations (ESOs) can grant a product a free-movement pass. Moreover, standards can de facto manage the functioning of the market when other regulative alternatives are not available. Hence, by establishing (potentially) mandatory norms, SDOs assume regulatory functions commonly exercised by States and shape their own legal order. The purpose of this paper is threefold: First, it attempts to shed some light on SDOs’ institutional architecture, focusing on private, industry-driven platforms and comparing their regulatory frameworks with those of formal organizations. Drawing upon the relevant scholarship, the paper then discusses the extent to which the formulation of technological standards within SDOs constitutes a private legal order, operating in the shadow of governmental regulation. Ultimately, this contribution seeks to advise whether a state-intervention in industry-driven standard setting is desirable, and whether the increasing regulatory importance of SDOs should be addressed in legislation on standardization.

Keywords: private order, standardization, standard-setting organizations, transnational law

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Authors: Aisha M. Memon, Arabella Bhutto, Zahid A. Memon, Adnan Pitafi

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This study aims to identify the existing and non-existing elements in the entrepreneurial ecosystem which include finance, institutions, laws and regulations, human capital, culture, and markets, to measure the level of effectiveness of existing elements and to develop recommendations for improving the ecosystem to facilitate the women entrepreneurs in Jamshoro, Pakistan. The nature of this study is qualitative. Data were drawn from 25 in-depth, semi-structured interviews and a focus group discussion with women entrepreneurs in rural Jamshoro, Pakistan. The findings show the lack of awareness and knowledge among women entrepreneurs about available financial resources, lack of knowledge about laws, an absence of familial and societal support for women in accessing the entrepreneurial ecosystem, the absence of business and innovation enablers in rural areas, communication gaps, and unskilled human capital. The study found that institutions like non-for-profit organizations are playing an active role in the growth of women entrepreneurs. The existing entrepreneurial ecosystem in Jamshoro can be improved through culturally sensitive coordinated approach, interventions aimed at increasing awareness about the resources, promoting an understanding about the laws and regulations, making business enablers more effective, establishing public-private partnerships, and providing the women entrepreneurs easy access to market and financial resources.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship ecosystem, Pakistan, women entrepreneurs

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Authors: Mulak Moses Yokdi

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Correct use of leisure time has suffered neglect in our society and the people ignorantly think that the trend does not matter. The researcher felt concerned about the issue and went on to find out why using FCE, Pankshin workers as a case study. Four hypotheses were used, considering such variables as leadership, traditional activities, stress due to work pressure and time constraint. The participants selected for the study were one hundred and ten members of FCE, Pankshin staff. A self-developed questionnaire was the instrument used. Chi-square (x2) was employed to test the hypotheses at P = 0.005; df = 3. The statistics of percentages was also used to describe the situation as implicated by the data. The results showed that all hypotheses were significant (P = 0.05). It was concluded that the four variables were impediments to effective participation in physically oriented leisure time activities among the FCE, Staff. Based on the findings, it was recommended that the FCE should get good leadership, create good awareness for people to understand why they should be effectively involved in physically oriented leisure time activities.

Keywords: barriers, effective participation, leisure time, physically oriented, work pressure, time constraint

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Authors: Mohammad Maruf Hasan

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Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has been increased at a remarkable position around the globe in which emerging economies are getting more FDI compared to industrialized economies. This study aims to examine the determinants of inward FDI flows in Bangladesh. To estimate the long and short-run impact of the FDI determinants for 1996-2020, we employed the Autoregressive-Distributed Lag (ARDL) model. Results show that: (1) macroeconomic determinants, such as economic growth, infrastructure, and market size, have a significant and strong positive effect.(2) Inflation exchange rate shows insignificant effects, while trade openness has mixed (short-run negative, long-run positive) effects on FDI inflows in both the long and short run. (3) Current institutional determinants rule of law has a positive effect on FDI inflows but is statistically insignificant, political stability has a negative, and the rule of law has a considerable beneficial impact on inflows of FDI. (4) The macroeconomic factors have been determined to impact Bangladesh's FDI inflows. Finally, a stable macroeconomic climate is more effective at luring FDI, as this study confirms. From a policy perspective, this study will help the government and policymakers to make a new investment policy.

Keywords: determinants, FDI, ARDL, Bangladesh

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Authors: Dagmar Monett, Sven-Erik Kujat, Marvin Hartmann

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This paper discusses the use of a template-based approach for documenting high-quality requirements as part of course projects in an undergraduate Software Engineering course. In order to ease some of the Requirements Engineering activities that are performed when defining requirements by using the template, a new CASE tool, RED:WIRE, was first developed and later tested by students attending the course. Two questionnaires were conceived around a study that aims to analyze the new tool’s learnability as well as other obtained results concerning its usability in particular and the Requirements Engineering skills developed by the students in general.

Keywords: CASE tool, requirements engineering, SOPHIST template, undergraduate course

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Authors: Rashid Masoud Ali Al-Mazrui, Ramadhani Mashaka Shabani

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Islamic banks and financial institutions are exposed to the same risks as conventional banking. These risks include the rate return risk, credit or market risk, liquidity risk, and operational risk among others. However, being a financial institution that operates Islamic banking and finance operations, there is additional risk associated with its operations different from conventional finance, such as displacing commercial risk. They face Shari'ah compliance risks because of their failure to follow Shari'ah principles. To have proper mitigation and risk management, banks should have proper risk management policies to mitigate risks. This paper aims to study the risk management taken by Islamic banks in comparison with conventional banks. Also, the study evaluates the provisions for risk management taken by selected Islamic banks and conventional banks. The study employs qualitative analysis using secondary data by applying a content analysis approach with a sample size of 4 Islamic banks and four conventional banks ranging from 2010 to 2020. We find that these banks all use the same technique, except for the associated risk. The extra ways are used, but only for additional risks that are available to Islamic banking and finance.

Keywords: emerging risk, risk management, Islamic banking, conventional bank

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Authors: Efi Koutantou

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The foundation of successful therapy is the bond between the psychotherapist and the patient, Psychoanalysis would argue. The present study explores lived experiences of a psychotherapeutic relationship in different moments, initial and final with special reference to the transference love developed through the process. The fight between moments of ‘leaving a self’ behind and following ‘lines of flight’ in the process of creating a new subjectivity and ‘becoming-other’ will be explored. Moments between de-territorialisation – surpassing given constraints such as gender, family and religion, kinship bonds - freeing the space in favor of re-territorialisation – creation of oneself creation of oneself will also be analyzed. The generation of new possibilities of being, new ways of self-actualization for this patient will be discussed. The second part of this study will explore the extent to which this ‘transference love’ results for this specific patient to become ‘the discourse of the other’; it is a desideratum whether the patient finally becomes a subject of his/her own through his/her own self-exploration of new possibilities of existence or becomes alienated within the thought of the therapist. The way in which the patient uses or is (ab)used by the transference love in order to experience and undergo alienation from an ‘authority’ which may or may not sacrifice his/her own thought in favor of satisfying the therapist will be investigated. Finally, from an observer’s perspective and from the analysis of the results of this therapeutic relationship, the counter-transference will also be analyzed, in terms of an attempt of the analyst to relive and satisfy his/her own desires through the life of the analysand. The accession and fall of an idealized self will be analyzed, the turn of the transference love into ‘hate’ will conclude this case study through a lived experience in the therapeutic procedure; a relationship which can be called to be a mixture of a real relationship and remnants from a past object relationship.

Keywords: alienation, authority, counter-transference, hate, transference love

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Authors: Ikram Kamal, Mohamed Blaghen

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Pollution caused by petroleum hydrocarbons in terrestrial and aquatic environment is a common phenomenon that causes significant ecological and social problems. Biosurfactant applications in the environmental industries are promising due to their biodegradability, low toxicity and effectiveness in enhancing biodegradation and solubilization of low solubility compounds. Currently, the main application is for enhancement of oil recovery and hydrocarbon bioremediation due to their biodegradability and low critical micelle concentration (CMC). In this study we have investigated the potential of bacterial strains collected aseptically from the lagoon Marchika (water and soil) in Nador, Morocco; for the production of biosurfactants. This study also aimed to optimize the biosurfactant production process by changing the variables that influence the type and amount of biosurfactant produced by these microorganisms such as: carbon sources and also other physical and chemical parameters such as temperature and pH. Emulsification index, methylene blue test and thin layer chromatography (TLC) revealed the ability of strains used in this study to produce compounds that could emulsify gasoline. In addition a GC/MS was used to separate and identify different biosurfactants purified.

Keywords: petroleum hydrocarbons, biosurfactant, biodegradability, critical micelle concentration, lagoon Marchika

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Authors: Ila Shrestha

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Bridim Village Development Committee (VDC) is one of the medicinal plants hot spots of Nepal. It is located on a ridge above the lower Langtang Khola, steep and narrow spot in between 1944 m to 4833 m altitude. The study area is homogeneously inhabited by Tamang communities. An investigation on folk herbal medicine on the basis of traditional uses of medicinal plants was done in 2014. The local traditional healers, elder men and women, traders and teachers, were consulted as key informants for documentation of indigenous knowledge on the medicinal plants. It was found that altogether seventy-one medicinal plant species belonging to sixty genera and thirty-three families were used by local people for twenty-seven diseases. Roots of thirty-four species were the most frequently used plant parts and bigger numbers of species were found to be used in fever of ten species. Most medicines were prepared in the form of juice of forty species. The attempt of the study was to document ethno medicinal practices to treat different diseases in the study area for conservation of indigenous knowledge.

Keywords: Bridim village, ethnomedicine, national park, plants

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Authors: Mahani Razali, Nordin Mamat

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The purpose of this research is to identify the teacher’s role and parent’s participation to develop children`s socio emotion through play activities. This research is based on three main objectives which are to identify children`s socio emotion during play activities, teacher’s role and parent’s participation to develop children`s socio emotion. This qualitative study was carried out among 25 pre-school children, three teachers and three parents as the research sample. On the other hand, parent’s support was obtained from their discussions, supervisions and communication at home. The data collection procedures involved structured observation which was to identify socio emotional development element among pre-school children through play activities; as for semi-structured interviews, it was done to study the perception of the teachers and parents on the acquired socio emotional development among the children. Besides, documentation analysis method was used as to triangulate acquired information with observations and interviews. In this study, the qualitative data analysis was tabulated in descriptive manner with frequency and percentage format. This study primarily focused on five main socio emotional elements among the pre-school children: 1) Cooperation, 2) Confidence and Courage, 3) Ability to communicate, 4) patience, and 5) Tolerance. The findings of this study were presented in the form of case to case manner from the researches sample. Findings revealed that the children showed positive outcomes on the socio emotional development during their play. Both teachers and parents showed positive perceptions towards the acquired socio emotional development during their play activities. In conclusion, this research summarizes that teacher’s role and parent’s support can improve children`s socio emotional development through play activities. As a whole, this research highlighted the significance of play activities as to stimulate socio emotional development among the pre-school children.

Keywords: social emotional, children, play activities, stimulating

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Authors: Dattatray Gadkari, Dilip Maske, Manisha Joshi, Rashmi Choudhari, Brij Mohan Arora

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The vertical directional solidification (VDS) technique has been applied to the growth of bulk InSb crystals. The concept of practical stability is applied to the case of detached bulk crystal growth on earth in a simplified design. By optimization of the set up and growth parameters, 32 ingots of 65-75 mm in length and 10-22 mm in diameter have been grown. The results indicate that the wetting angle of the melt on the ampoule wall and the pressure difference across the interface are the crucial factors effecting the meniscus shape and stability. Taking into account both heat transfer and capillarity, it is demonstrated that the process is stable in case of convex menisci (seen from melt), provided that pressure fluctuations remain in a stable range. During the crystal growth process, it is necessary to keep a relationship between the rate of the difference pressure controls and the solidification to maintain the width of gas gap. It is concluded that practical stability gives valuable knowledge of the dynamics and could be usefully applied to other crystal growth processes, especially those involving capillary shaping. Optoelectronic properties were investigated in relation to the type of solidification attached and detached ingots growth. These samples, room temperature physical properties such as Hall mobility, FTIR, Raman spectroscopy and microhardness achieved for antimonide samples grown by VDS technique have shown the highest values gained till at this time. These results reveal that these crystals can be used to produce InSb with high mobility for device applications.

Keywords: alloys, electronic materials, semiconductors, crystal growth, solidification, etching, optical microscopy, crystal structure, defects, Hall effect

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Authors: Mohamed Salah El-Din Mahmoud, Ahmed Hamed, Asmaa Anwar Mohamed

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Purpose: To study the tear film parameters, total corneal thickness (CT), corneal epithelial thickness and, corneal power in Juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus (JSLE) patients compared to age-matched controls using anterior segment optical coherence tomography (AS-OCT). Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. Study participants were divided into 2 groups: Group A: 75 eyes of JSLE patients, Group B: 75 eyes of healthy controls. Tear meniscus height (TMH), tear meniscus depth (TMD), and tear meniscus area (TMA) were the lower tear meniscus parameters that were measured. The corneal power, CT, and epithelial thickness were all determined automatically. Results: In the JSLE group, the range of age was 10 to 15 years while the control group was 11 to 16 years. TMH, TMA, and TMD were 527.7±46.8, 0.059±0.015 and 343.3±59.9 respectively in JSLE group while 525.4±44.6, 0.058±0.011 and 340.6±58.0 respectively in control group without significant difference (p-value<0.001). The corneal power was 43.3±0.55 in the JSLE while 43.2±0.54 in the control group without significant difference (p-value= 0.407). CT was 551.1±13.5 in JSLE group while 551.2±15.3 in control group without significant difference (p-value= 0.982). Epithelial thickness was 52.66±1.35 in the JSLE group while 52.60±1.36 in the control group without significant difference (p-value= 0.765). Conclusion: We demonstrated no significant difference in tear meniscus dimensions, CT, epithelial thickness, and corneal power in the JSLE patients compared to age-matched controls using AS-OCT.

Keywords: tear film, ASOCT, JSLE, pachymetry, corneal thickness

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Authors: Seyed Ali Mohammadiborna, Mehdi Ravanshadnia

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Project delays usually detrimentally affect perceptions of project success and can in some instances, result in increased costs and other time-related damages to project stakeholders. One of the realities in the national infrastructure projects is that since the primary stakeholders are state-affiliated, the delay factors of the projects have not been seriously taken into account despite the importance of on-time completion of projects. Project postponement has different economic and social consequences and leads to the technical and economic infeasibility of the infrastructure projects in the form of reduced productivity and exploitation capacity. The present study aimed at investigating delay factors of Iranian national infrastructure projects according to regulatory reports of the Plan and Budget Organization (BPO) of Iran. The present study scrutinized the influence of each of the factors that caused delays in national Iranian infrastructure projects according to the supervision reports of the planning and budget organization in 8 years. For this purpose, the study analyzed the information regarding the impact of 12 key delay factors causing delays in average 4867 projects per year in all provinces. The said factors were classified into the three groups of executive, credit, and financial and environmental-procurement factors.

Keywords: delays, infrastructure, projects, regulatory

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Authors: Mahmoud Amer, Ibrahim El-Sharkawy, Shinichi Ookawara, Ahmed Elwardany

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Gasification and carbonization are two of the most common ways for biomass utilization. Both processes are using part of the waste to be accomplished, either by incomplete combustion or for heating for both gasification and carbonization, respectively. The focus of this paper is to minimize the part of the waste that is used for heating biomass for gasification and carbonization. This will occur by combining both gasifiers and carbonization reactors in a single unit to utilize the heat in the product biogas to heating up the wastes in the carbonization reactors. Three different designs are proposed for the combined gasification/carbonization (CGC) reactor. These include a parallel combination of two gasifiers and carbonized syngas, carbonizer and combustion chamber, and one gasifier, carbonizer, and combustion chamber. They are tested numerically using ANSYS Fluent Computational Fluid Dynamics to ensure homogeneity of temperature distribution inside the carbonization part of the CGC reactor. 2D simulations are performed for the three cases after performing both mesh-size and time-step independent solutions. The carbonization part is common among the three different cases, and the difference among them is how this carbonization reactor is heated. The simulation results showed that the first design could provide only partial homogeneous temperature distribution, not across the whole reactor. This means that the produced carbonized biomass will be reduced as it will only fill a specified height of the reactor. To keep the carbonized product production high, a series combination is proposed. This series configuration resulted in a uniform temperature distribution across the whole reactor as it has only one source for heat with no temperature distribution on any surface of the carbonization section. The simulations provided a satisfactory result that either the first parallel combination of gasifier and carbonization reactor could be used with a reduced carbonized amount or a series configuration to keep the production rate high.

Keywords: numerical simulation, carbonization, gasification, biomass, reactor

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Authors: T. Aragaw, P. Gari

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In spite of social, political, and economic marginalization, women are still considered as the backbone of Ethiopia, one of the least developed countries in the world. The general purpose of this study was to assess factors that affect participation of women in politics, social and economic decisions at Kelem-Wollega Administrative Zone of Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia. Data used in this paper is mainly primary, and a few secondary data were incorporated. Respondents were selected using a systematic random sampling method and were placed questionnaires containing open-ended and closed-ended. Focus group discussion was also used for the study subjects in two offices. According to the information collected from the KWAZ Development and Social Service Office, a total of 18,473 tax-paying employees are present in the Zone, which is 14% of the total population of the Zone. Among the total number of employees in the Zone, 2,617 have been recruited for this study based on the criteria stated. This showed 1.8% of them were comprised of several churches and religious owned integrated development projects in the KWAZ. The 2,103 (80.34%) study participants responded personally, and they completed and returned the questionnaire to the researchers. The study revealed that in public institutions existed in KWAZ, the majority of women were having an educational status of diploma and lower, practicing lower non-decision making and leadership positions. Conclusion: Major barriers hindering women include: Socio-cultural attitudes, lack of necessary experience, education, the burden of domestic responsibilities, and lack of role models of women leaders in the Zone. Empowerment of women via social organizations, critical involvement of the government, and Affirmative action for women is critical. Further research is needed on the scope and challenges in implementing the strategies.

Keywords: women, affirmative action, leadership, empowerment, Ethiopia

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Authors: Mohand Yaghi, O. Kehinde

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Background: For the diagnosis of prostate cancer Trans-rectal prostate biopsy (TRPB) is used commonly, the procedure is associated with infective complications. There is evidence that antibiotics (ABx) decrease infective events after TRPB, but different regimens are used. Aim: To systematically review different regimens of prophylactic oral antibiotics in TRPB. Design: Medline, Embase, Clinical trials site, and Cochrane library were searched, experts were consulted about relevant studies. Randomized clinical trials (RCT) conducted in the last twenty years, which investigated different oral antibiotic regimens in TRPB, and compared their efficacy to reduce infectious complications were analyzed. Measurements: Primary outcomes were bacteriuria, urinary tract infection (UTI), fever, bacteremia, sepsis. Secondary outcomes were hospitalization rate, and the prevalence of ABx-resistant bacteria. Results: Nine trials were eligible with 3012 patients. Antibiotics prevented bacteriuria (3.5% vs. 9.88%), UTI (4.46% vs. 9.75%), and hospitalization (0.21% vs. 2.13%) significantly in comparison with placebo or no treatment. No significant difference was found in all outcomes of the review between the single dose regimen and the 3 days. The single dose regimen was as effective as the multiple dose except in Bacteriuria (6.75% vs. 3.25%), and the prevalence of ABx-resistant bacteria (1.57% vs. 0.27%). Quinolones reduced only UTI significantly in comparison with other antibiotics. Lastly, Ciprofloxacin is the best Quinolone to prevent UTI, and hospitalization. Conclusion: it is essential to prescribe prophylactic Antibiotics in TRPB. No conclusive evidence could be claimed about the superiority of the multiple or the 3 days regimens to the single dose regimen. Unexpectedly, ABx-resistant bacteria was identified more often in the single dose cohorts.

Keywords: infection, prostate cancer, sepsis, TRPB

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Authors: Cupian

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The expansion of Islamic banking industry seems to emphasize the banking competition in Indonesia where conventional and Islamic banks coexist. In addition, the 2007/2008 global financial crisis and deregulation have the effect on competitive conditions in Islamic banking market. In this context, this study aims at investigating competitive conditions and market power of Islamic banks in Indonesia using firm level data over the period 2006-2013. The study also attempts to identify the factors that represent the power of banking market to better study the degree of competition in this banking industry. Using samples of 27 Islamic commercial banks, the study uses a variety of structural and non-structural measures related to the traditional approach and the new empirical approach of the industrial organization (NEIO). The methodology is based on the set of measures of the competition and market power. The first measure is a set of concentration ratios (CR4) and Herfindahl-Hirschman index (HHI).The second measures are the Panzar and Ross H-statistic and the Lerner index based on econometric estimations with the aim of evaluating the market structure and measuring its power in terms of price setting. The results of the competition analysis suggest that the Islamic banking markets in Indonesia cannot be characterized by the bipolar cases of either perfect competition or monopoly over 2006-2013. That is, banks earned their revenues operating under conditions of monopolistic competition in that period. Overall, Islamic banks in Indonesia operate in a relatively less competitive environment or in high market power. It is also indicated that Islamic bank that hope to achieve higher returns should operate in the competitive environment.

Keywords: bank competition, islamic banks, market structure, profitability

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Authors: Matthias Feiner, Francisco Javier Fernández García, Michael Arneman, Martin Kipfmüller

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To ensure reliability in miniaturized devices or processes with increased heat fluxes, very efficient cooling methods have to be employed in order to cope with small available cooling surfaces. To address this problem, a certain type of evaporator/heat exchanger was developed: It is called a swirl evaporator due to its flow characteristic. The swirl evaporator consists of a concentrically eroded screw geometry in which a capillary tube is guided, which is inserted into a pocket hole in components with high heat load. The liquid refrigerant R32 is sprayed through the capillary tube to the end face of the blind hole and is sucked off against the injection direction in the screw geometry. Its inner diameter is between one and three millimeters. The refrigerant is sprayed into the pocket hole via a small tube aligned in the center of the bore hole and is sucked off on the front side of the hole against the direction of injection. The refrigerant is sucked off in a helical geometry (twisted flow) so that it is accelerated against the hot wall (centrifugal acceleration). This results in an increase in the critical heat flux of up to 40%. In this way, more heat can be dissipated on the same surface/available installation space. This enables a wide range of technical applications. To optimize the design for the needs in various fields of industry, like the internal tool cooling when machining nickel base alloys like Inconel 718, a correlation-based model of the swirl-evaporator was developed. The model is separated into 3 subgroups with overall 5 regimes. The pressure drop and heat transfer are calculated separately. An approach to determine the locality of phase change in the capillary and the swirl was implemented. A test stand has been developed to verify the simulation.

Keywords: helically-shaped, oil-free, R-32, swirl-evaporator, twist-flow

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Authors: Laurie Prange-Martin, Romeo Turcan, Norman Fraser

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The aim of this study is to identify the conditions required and describe the process of emergence for a new economic sector created from new or established businesses. A systematic literature review of English-language studies published from 1983 to 2016 was conducted using the following databases: ABI/INFORM Complete; Business Source Premiere; Google Scholar; Scopus; and Web of Science. The two main terms of business sector and emergence were used in the systematic literature search, along with another seventeen synonyms for each these main terms. From the search results, 65 publications met the requirements of an empirical study discussing and reporting the conditions of new sector emergence. A meta-analysis of the literature examined suggest that there are six favourable conditions and five key individuals or groups required for new sector emergence. In addition, the results from the meta-analysis showed that there are eighteen theories used in the literature to explain the phenomenon of new sector emergence, which can be grouped in three study disciplines. With such diversity in theoretical frameworks used in the 65 empirical studies, the authors of this paper propose the development of a new theory of sector emergence.

Keywords: economic geography, new sector emergence, economic diversification, regional economies

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Authors: Ademola Ibukunolu Atanda, Gbenga Nathaniel Adeola

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The study examined awareness of child rights as a determinant of effective student personnel services in public secondary schools in Southwestern Nigeria. It was survey research. The sample comprised 433 teachers, 137 school administrators, and 968 students who were drawn by simple random sampling techniques. The respondents were given copies of questionnaires tagged “school administrator/teacher’s awareness of child’s rights and student personnel services elements inventory.” Key Informant Interview (KII) was also employed. The data were analysed using frequency count, percentages, weighted average, grand mean, standard deviation, and Pearson Product Moment Correlation, while KII was qualitatively analysed. The findings of the study revealed that public secondary school administrator awareness of child rights was at a moderate level, but the awareness of child rights was low among the teachers. The study equally revealed that student personnel services are moderately provided in public secondary schools in Southwestern Nigeria, but security remains a major challenge. It was also found that there was a significant relationship between awareness of child rights and effective student personnel services. It was therefore recommended, based on the findings, that attention should be given to heightening awareness of child rights among public secondary school administrators and teachers for effective student personnel services. Copies of the Child Right Act 2003 should also be made available in all public secondary schools in Southwestern Nigeria, as the study revealed that the documents were not available.

Keywords: student personnel, child right, administrator awareness, practice of child right

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Authors: Christelle Rabbat, Carole Vouebou, Sary Awad, Alan Jean-Marie

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Hydrogen has been proven to be a viable alternative to standard fuels as it is easy to produce and only generates water vapour and zero carbon emissions. However, despite the hydrogen benefits, the widespread adoption of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and internal combustion engine vehicles is impeded by several challenges. The lack of refueling infrastructures remains one of the main hindering factors due to the high costs associated with their design, construction, and operation. Besides, the lack of hydrogen vehicles on the road diminishes the economic viability of investing in refueling infrastructure. Simultaneously, the absence of accessible refueling stations discourages consumers from adopting hydrogen vehicles, perpetuating a cycle of limited market uptake. To address these challenges, the implementation of adequate policies incentivizing the use of hydrogen vehicles and the reduction of the investment and operation costs of hydrogen refueling stations (HRS) are essential to put both investors and customers at ease. Even though the transition to hydrogen cars has been rather slow, public transportation companies have shown a keen interest in this highly promising fuel. Besides, their hydrogen demand is easier to predict and regulate than personal vehicles. Due to the reduced complexity of designing a suitable hydrogen supply chain for public vehicles, this sub-sector could be a great starting point to facilitate the adoption of hydrogen vehicles. Consequently, this study will focus on designing a chain of on-site green HRS for the public transportation network in Nantes Metropole leveraging the latest relevant technological advances aiming to reduce the costs while ensuring reliability, safety, and ease of access. To reduce the cost of HRS and encourage their widespread adoption, a network of 7 H35-T40 HRS has been designed, replacing the conventional J-T valves with turbo-expanders. Each station in the network has a daily capacity of 1,920 kg. Thus, the HRS network can produce up to 12.5 tH2 per day. The detailed cost analysis has revealed a CAPEX per station of 16.6 M euros leading to a network CAPEX of 116.2 M euros. The proposed station siting prioritized Nantes metropole’s 5 bus depots and included 2 city-centre locations. Thanks to the turbo-expander technology, the cooling capacity of the proposed HRS is 19% lower than that of a conventional station equipped with J-T valves, resulting in significant CAPEX savings estimated at 708,560 € per station, thus nearly 5 million euros for the whole HRS network. Besides, the turbo-expander power generation ranges from 7.7 to 112 kW. Thus, the power produced can be used within the station or sold as electricity to the main grid, which would, in turn, maximize the station’s profit. Despite the substantial initial investment required, the environmental benefits, cost savings, and energy efficiencies realized through the transition to hydrogen fuel cell buses and the deployment of HRS equipped with turbo-expanders offer considerable advantages for both TAN and Nantes Metropole. These initiatives underscore their enduring commitment to fostering green mobility and combatting climate change in the long term.

Keywords: green hydrogen, refueling stations, turbo-expander, heavy-duty vehicles

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Authors: Taghried I. M. Abdel-Magid, Gheida T. A. Al-Khelifa, Ahmed O. Adam, Esra G. A. Mohamed, Saeed M. S. Saeed

Abstract:

The use of pozzolanic materials in concrete industry is facing challenges due to unpredictable behavior of natural materials. Corncob ash (CCA) is considered to be one of the promising plant-based materials that possess cementitious properties. Corn is one of the major planted crops in Sudan. Corncob is considered as waste and normally thrown away or burnt. The main purpose of this research was to test the hypothesis that CCA can sufficiently replace cement in a concrete mixture or a cement mortar. In this study, CCA was used to replace cement in mortar in three percentages: 0, 20, and 25%. The effect of this replacement was found to be positive in terms of long-term compressive strength, while not as such in short-term compressive strength. In the concrete mix, the introduction of CCA was found to have a positive impact on the slump test characteristics, whereas the early and late compressive strengths deteriorated by approximately 30%. More research is needed in this area to upgrade the efficient use of CCA in cement mortar and concrete properties.

Keywords: cementitious materials, compressive strength, corncob ash, pozzolanic materials

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Authors: Aimeurnadjette, Hammoudi Abd Erahmen, Bordjibaouahiba

Abstract:

For many years, the pesticides used in agriculture have been responsible for environmental degradation, particularly noticeable in the areas of intensive agriculture, particularly through contamination of surface and groundwater. Our study was conducted to isolate and identify the microflora of water polluted by pesticides in an area with an agricultural vocation (Ben M'Hidi) subject to the pesticide effect for several years. Isolated fungal strains were identified based on the morphology of their vegetative and reproductive apparatus. The micromycètes were obtained; they belong mainly to the genera Aspergillus, Penicillium and Trichoderma. Furthermore, most bacterial strains characterized in this work, are that of the genus Aeromonas, Pseudomonas that are widely represented in the study of the biodegradation of pesticides.

Keywords: isolated, strains, polluted, pesticides

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Authors: Karwan K. Abdalrahman

Abstract:

Due to the impacts of the internet and social media, new words and expressions enter the Kurdish language, and a number of familiarized words get new meanings. The case is especially true when the technique of transliteration is taken into consideration. Through transliteration, a number of selected words widely used on social media are entering the Kurdish media discourse. In addition, a selected number of Kurdish words get new cultural and psychological meanings. The significance of this study is to delve into the process of word formation in the Kurdish language and explore how new words and expressions are formed by social media users and got public recognition. First, the study investigates the English words that enter the Kurdish language through different social media platforms. All of these words are transliterated and are used in spoken and written discourses. Second, there are a specific number of Kurdish words that got new meanings in social media. As for these words, there are psychological and cultural factors that make people use these expressions for specific political reasons. It can be argued that they have an indirect political message along with their new linguistic usages. This is a qualitative study analyzing video content that was published in the last two years on social media platforms, including Facebook and YouTube. The collected data was analyzed based on the themes discussed above. The findings of the research can be summarized as follows: the widely used transliterated words have entered both the spoken and written discourses. Authors in online and offline newspapers, TV presenters, literary writers, columnists are using these new expressions in their writings. As for the Kurdish words with new meanings, they are also widely used for psychological, cultural, and political reasons.

Keywords: Kurdish language, social media, new meanings, transliteration, vocabulary

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Authors: Pouriya Darabiyan, Kourosh Zarea, Saeed Ghanbari, Aseya Temori, Shokreya Ehsani

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Introduction: Diabetes is one of the most common metabolic disorders and is one of the top 10 leading causes of death in adults. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the epidemiological prevalence of diabetes in Afghanistan between 2015 and 2019. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed using the information of diabetics registered in the system related to the Ministry of Health of Afghanistan from 2015 to 2019. Eventually, people's information, including age, gender, and place of residence, was entered into STATA software version 12 and analyzed using descriptive statistics tests. Results: The study, which was performed on 49,339 people with diabetes in 34 provinces and 8 regions of Afghanistan, found that most of the women studied were 55.2% (272,311) women and had the highest and lowest prevalence in the region. The order is related to South East and South. The average prevalence of diabetes per 10,000 people is about 62.13. Conclusions: The prevalence of diabetes in Afghanistan over a five-year period in men and women is on the rise, requiring more attention from relevant authorities to improve public health and prevent, control and treat chronic diseases such as diabetes. Keywords: Diabetes, Prevalence, Afghanistan, Epidemiology

Keywords: diabetes, prevalence, Afghanistan, epidemiology

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Authors: Dina Alnefaie

Abstract:

This poster presents a study of a Discord private server with thirteen multilingual gamers, aiming to explore the elements that construct a multilingual online gaming community. The study focuses on the communication practices of four Saudi female and male gamers, using various data collection methods, including online observations through recorded videos and screenshots, interviews, and informal conversations for one year. The primary findings show that translanguaging was a prominent feature of their verbal and textual communication practices. Besides, these practices that mostly accompany cultural ones were used to facilitate communication and express their identities in an intercultural context.

Keywords: online community construction, perceptions, multilingualism, digital identity

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Authors: Silke Bustamante, Andrea Pelzeter, Andreas Deckmann, Rudi Ehlscheidt, Franziska Freudenberger

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Against the background of demographic changes and the need for motivated and talented employees, companies have a growing interest in being perceived as an attractive employer and gain a competitive edge in the market for talents. Research indicates that corporate social responsibility plays an important role employer choice. This is assumed to be particularly true for the cohorts of the so-called generations y younger applicants born later. Several studies identified cultural, educational and generational differences in CSR preferences. However, until now literature that links preferences for employers’ responsibility with the individual value orientation of the job applicant is scarce. This paper seeks to close this gap and analyzes the preference structure of 500 German university graduates for CSR-related and non-CSR-related employer attributes contingent on their value orientation. In a first step, we identified 17 CSR related attributes in five CSR dimensions (ecology, community, workplace, governance, and market) as well as 11 traditional attributes such as salary, reputation, personal development etc. based on literature review and focus groups. We then used an adapted Conjoint Analysis framework in order to understand the relative preference of each attribute for each participant. Additionally, we surveyed the value orientation of participants based on the European Social Survey (ESS) 21-item human values scale that allow a differentiation of participants into clusters of value orientation. The results allow us not only to operationalize preferences for CSR and other important employer attributes, but – more importantly – to answer the question how different values structures play together with CSR preferences of potential employees. They hereby allow companies to customize employee directed messages to their respective target group and design their employer brand accordingly.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, employer attractiveness, employer brand, recruiting, values

Procedia PDF Downloads 282

Authors: Maha M. Eissa, Safia M. Ali, Sonia R. Allam, Ezzat A. Badawy, Nahid M. Baddour

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The obligate follicle mite Demodex folliculorum (Df) has been demonstrated in increased numbers in patients with rosacea. The significance of this finding is still not completely understood, because many people free of skin disease may also have mites. So, the aim of this work was to study the possible role of Df in patients with rosacea. Facial punch biopsy specimens were taken from patients with rosacea (either telangiectatic, papulopustular, squamous, granulomatous form or with rhinophyma) and age and sex matched healthy subjects. Results of this study showed that 63.3% of the rosacea patients were harbouring the mite with higher incidence in patients with papulopustular form.

Keywords: Demodex folliculorum, rosacea, papulopustular, punch biopsy

Procedia PDF Downloads 116