Search results for: oil company’s revenue

Authors: Catalina Iticescu, Lucian Georgescu, Mihaela Timofti, Dumitru Dima, Gabriel Murariu

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The amounts of sludge resulting from the treatment of domestic and industrial wastewater can create serious environmental problems if no solutions are found to eliminate them. At present, the predominant method of sewage sludge disposal is to store and use them in agricultural applications. The sewage sludge has fertilizer properties and can be used to enrich agricultural soils due to the nutrient content. In addition to plant growth (nitrogen and phosphorus), the sludge also contains heavy metals in varying amounts. An increasingly used method is the incineration of sludge. Thermal processes can be used to convert large amounts of sludge into useful energy. The sewage sludge analyzed for the present paper was extracted from the Wastewater Treatment Station (WWTP) Galati, Romania. The physico-chemical parameters determined were: pH (upH), nutrients and heavy metals. The determination methods were electrochemical, spectrophotometric and energy dispersive X–ray analyses (EDX). The results of the tests made on the content of nutrients in the sewage sludge have shown that existing nutrients can be used to increase the fertility of agricultural soils. The conclusion reached was that these sludge can be safely used on agricultural land and with good agricultural productivity results. To be able to use sewage sludge as a fuel, we need to know its calorific values. For wet sludge, the caloric power is low, while for dry sludge it is high. Higher calorific value and lower calorific value are determined only for dry solids. The apparatus used to determine the calorific power was a Parr 6755 Solution Calorimeter Calorimeter (Parr Instrument Company USA 2010 model). The calorific capacities for the studied sludge indicate that they can be used successfully in incinerators. Mixed with coal, they can also be used to produce electricity. The advantages are: it reduces the cost of obtaining electricity and considerably reduces the amount of sewage sludge.

Keywords: agriculture, incinerators, properties, sewage sludge

Procedia PDF Downloads 162

Authors: Timo Miebach, Kirsten Hoeper, Carolin Felix

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In times of competitive pressures and demographic change, hospitals have to reconsider their strategies as a company. Due to the fact, that operations are one of the main income and one of the primary cost drivers otherwise, a process-oriented approach and an efficient use of resources seems to be the right way for getting a consistent market position. Thus, the efficient operation room occupancy planning is an important cause variable for the success and continued the existence of these institutions. A high utilization of resources is essential. This means a very high, but nevertheless sensible capacity-oriented utilization of working systems that can be realized by avoiding downtimes and a thoughtful occupancy planning. This engineering approach should help hospitals to reach her break-even point. Firstly, the aim is to establish a strategy point, which can be used for the generation of a planned throughput time. Secondly, the operation planning and control should be facilitated and implemented accurately by the generation of time modules. More than 100,000 data records of the Hannover Medical School were analyzed. The data records contain information about the type of conducted operation, the duration of the individual process steps, and all other organizational-specific data such as an operating room. Based on the aforementioned data base, a generally valid model was developed by an analysis to define a strategy point which takes the conflict of capacity utilization and low overtime into account. Furthermore, time modules were generated in this work, which allows a simplified and flexible operation planning and control for the operation manager. By the time modules, it is possible to reduce a high average value of the idle times of the operation rooms. Furthermore, the potential is used to minimize the idle time spread.

Keywords: capacity, operating room, surgery planning and control, utilization

Procedia PDF Downloads 243

Authors: Masoud Ghahvechi Pour

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Risk management is a systematic and regular process of identifying, analyzing and responding to risks throughout the project's life cycle in order to achieve the optimal level of elimination, reduction or control of risk. The purpose of project risk management is to increase the probability and effect of positive events and reduce the probability and effect of unpleasant events on the project. Risk management is one of the most fundamental parts of project management, so that unmanaged or untransmitted risks can be one of the primary factors of failure in a project. Effective risk management does not apply to risk regression, which is apparently the cheapest option of the activity. However, the main problem with this option is the economic sensitivity, because what is potentially profitable is by definition risky, and what does not pose a risk is economically interesting and does not bring tangible benefits. Therefore, in relation to the implemented project, effective risk management is finding a "middle ground" in its management, which includes, on the one hand, protection against risk from a negative direction by means of accurate identification and classification of risk, which leads to analysis And it becomes a comprehensive analysis. On the other hand, management using all mathematical and analytical tools should be based on checking the maximum benefits of these decisions. Detailed analysis, taking into account all aspects of the company, including stakeholder analysis, will allow us to add what will become tangible benefits for our project in the future to effective risk management. Identifying the risk of the project is based on the theory that which type of risk may affect the project, and also refers to specific parameters and estimating the probability of their occurrence in the project. These conditions can be divided into three groups: certainty, uncertainty, and risk, which in turn support three types of investment: risk preference, risk neutrality, specific risk deviation, and its measurement. The result of risk identification and project analysis is a list of events that indicate the cause and probability of an event, and a final assessment of its impact on the environment.

Keywords: risk, management, knowledge, risk management

Procedia PDF Downloads 50

Authors: V. R. Sadasivam, M. Vipin, P. Vineeth, M. Sajith, G. Sathiskumar, R. Manikandan, N. Vijayarangan

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Global positioning system technology is what leads to such things as navigation systems, GPS tracking devices, GPS surveying and GPS mapping. All that GPS does is provide a set of coordinates which represent the location of GPS units with respect to its latitude, longitude and elevation on planet Earth. It also provides time, which is accurate. The tracking devices themselves come in different flavors. They will contain a GPS receiver, and GPS software, along with some way of transmitting the resulting coordinates. GPS in mobile tend to use radio waves to transmit their location to another GPS device. The purpose of this prototype “Mobi Navi Tour for Rescue Operation” timely communication, and lightning fast decision-making with a group of people located in different places with a common goal. Timely communication and tracking the people are a critical issue in many situations, environments. Expedited can find missing person by sending the location and other related information to them through mobile. Information must be drawn from the caller and entered into the system by the administrator or a group leader and transferred to the group leader. This system will locate the closest available person, a group of people working in an organization/company or vehicle to determine availability and their position to track them. Misinformation cannot lead to the wrong decision in the rapidly paced environment in a normal and an abnormal situation. In “Mobi Navi Tour for Rescue Operation” we use Google Cloud Messaging for android (GCM) which is a service that helps developers send data from servers to their android applications on android devices. The service provides a simple, lightweight mechanism that servers can use to tell mobile applications to contact the server directly, to fetch updated application or user data.

Keywords: android, gps, tour, communication, service

Procedia PDF Downloads 389

Authors: Seyedamir Makinejadsanij

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One of the most important factors in the production of quality steel is to know the exact weight of steel in the steelmaking area. In this study, a calculation method is presented to estimate the exact weight of the melt as well as the objects transported by the overhead crane. Iran Alloy Steel Company's steelmaking area has three 90-ton cranes, which are responsible for transferring the ladles and ladle caps between 34 areas in the melt shop. Each crane is equipped with a Disomat Tersus weighing system that calculates and displays real-time weight. The moving object has a variable weight due to swinging, and the weighing system has an error of about +-5%. This means that when the object is moving by a crane, which weighs about 80 tons, the device (Disomat Tersus system) calculates about 4 tons more or 4 tons less, and this is the biggest problem in calculating a real weight. The k-means algorithm is an unsupervised clustering method that was used here. The best result was obtained by considering 3 centers. Compared to the normal average(one) or two, four, five, and six centers, the best answer is with 3 centers, which is logically due to the elimination of noise above and below the real weight. Every day, the standard weight is moved with working cranes to test and calibrate cranes. The results are shown that the accuracy is about 40 kilos per 60 tons (standard weight). As a result, with this method, the accuracy of moving weight is calculated as 99.95%. K-means is used to calculate the exact mean of objects. The stopping criterion of the algorithm is also the number of 1000 repetitions or not moving the points between the clusters. As a result of the implementation of this system, the crane operator does not stop while moving objects and continues his activity regardless of weight calculations. Also, production speed increased, and human error decreased.

Keywords: k-means, overhead crane, melt weight, weight estimation, swing problem

Procedia PDF Downloads 82

Authors: Sunday Paul Bako, Augustine Uwanekwu Ezealor, Yahuza Tanimu

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In a study to evaluate the response of indigenous ruderal plants to the metal deposition regime imposed by anthropogenic modification in the Southern Guinea Savanna of north Western Nigeria during the dry and wet seasons, herbaceous plants and samples of soils were collected in three 5m by 5m quadrats laid around the environs of the Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Company and the banks of River Kaduna. Heavy metal concentration (Cd, Ni, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn) in soil and plant samples was determined using Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence. Concentrations of heavy metals in soils were generally observed to be higher during the wet season in both locations although the differences were not statistically significant (P > 0.05). Concentrations of Cd, Zn, Cr, Cu and Ni in all the plants observed were found to be below levels described as phytotoxic to plants. However, above ‘normal’ concentrations of Cr was observed in most of the plant species sampled. The concentrations of Cr, Cu, Ni and Zn in soils around the KRPC and RKB were found to be above the acceptable limits. Although no hyper accumulator plant species was encountered in this study, twenty (20) plant species were identified to have high bioconcentration (BCF > 1.0) of Cd and Cu, which indicated tolerance of these plants to excessive or phytotoxic concentrations of these metals. In addition, they generally produce high above ground biomass, due to rapid vegetative growth. These are likely species for phytoextraction. Elevated concentration of metals in both soil and plant materials may cause a decrease in biodiversity due to direct toxicity. There are also risks to humans and other animals due to bioaccumulation across the food chain. There are further possibilities of further evaluating and genetically improving metal tolerance traits in some of these plant species in relation to their potential use in phytoremediation programmes in metal polluted sites.

Keywords: bioprospecting, phytoremediation, heavy metals, Nigeria

Procedia PDF Downloads 270

Authors: Abonti Mehtaz

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The utmost controversial issue that Bollywood movies deal with is religious conflicts and the representation of Islam and or Muslims. The main objective of this paper is to examine that, how Muslim identity is constructed in Bollywood commercial films through the representation of Muslims and/or Islam. Two hypotheses are developed for this study, i.e., (1) Bollywood commercial films often portray the stereotypical image of Muslims. (2) The portrayal of Muslims and Islam in Bollywood commercial films is often negative. (3) Bollywood commercial films frequently construct a wrong and fake identity of Muslims through an inappropriate representation of Muslims and Islam. This study employs qualitative research techniques. To examine the hypotheses of this paper, 10 Bollywood commercial films produced in between 2000-2018 are selected purposively such as Fiza (2000), Gadar: Ek Prem Katha (2001), Company (2002), Aamir (2008), Kurbaan (2009), Anwar (2010), My name is Khan (2010), Raanjhanaa (2013), Omerta (2017) and Pari (2018). By conducting textual analyses of the above mentioned Bollywood commercial films, this paper focuses on different approaches of Muslim identity and their construction as well as representation in Bollywood commercial films in the light of scholarly work in film and cultural studies. Though 10 Bollywood commercial films are selected for contextual analysis, other Bollywood films by other directors are also mentioned in order to establish the hypotheses of this study. Framing theory is used to analyze the media contents. Findings of this study show that all hypotheses are accepted. Bollywood commercial films continually represent Islam and Muslims in incorrect ways and by doing so Bollywood commercial films construct a fallacious Muslim identity. Though the sample size of contents can be considered as a limitation of this study, the findings of the study reveal that how Bollywood commercial film is setting agenda to manipulate the image of Muslims and Islam not only in India but all over the world.

Keywords: Bollywood commercial films, Muslim identity, misrepresentation, representation, stereotypical

Procedia PDF Downloads 197

Authors: Ilgoun Kim, Jongpil Jeong

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Recently, a connected industrial parks (CIPs) architecture using new technologies such as RFID, cloud computing, CPS, Big Data, 5G 5G, IIOT, VR-AR, and ventral AI algorithms based on IoT has been proposed. This researcher noted the vehicle junction problem (VJP) as a more specific detail of the CIPs architectural models. The VJP noted by this researcher includes 'efficient AI physical connection challenges for vehicles' through ventilation, 'financial and financial issues with complex vehicle physical connections,' and 'welfare and working conditions of the performing personnel involved in complex vehicle physical connections.' In this paper, we propose a public solution architecture for the 'electronic financial problem of complex vehicle physical connections' as a detailed task during the vehicle junction problem (VJP). The researcher sought solutions to businesses, consumers, and Korean social problems through technological advancement. We studied how the beneficiaries of technological development can benefit from technological development with many consumers in Korean society and many small and small Korean company managers, not some specific companies. In order to more specifically implement the connected industrial parks (CIPs) architecture using the new technology, we noted the vehicle junction problem (VJP) within the smart factory industrial complex and noted the process of achieving the vehicle junction problem performance among several electronic processes. This researcher proposes a more detailed, integrated public finance enterprise architecture among the overall CIPs architectures. The main details of the public integrated financial enterprise architecture were largely organized into four main categories: 'business', 'data', 'technique', and 'finance'.

Keywords: enterprise architecture, IT Finance, smart logistics, CIPs

Procedia PDF Downloads 153

Authors: Amrashaa Singh

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In the digital age and the large cyberspace, Data Protection and Privacy have become major issues in this technological era. There was a time when social media and online shopping websites were treated as a blessing for the people. But now the tables have turned, and the people have started to look at them with suspicion. They are getting aware of the privacy implications, and they do not feel as safe as they used to initially. When Edward Snowden informed the world about the snooping United States Security Agencies had been doing, that is when the picture became clear for the people. After the Cambridge Analytica case where the data of Facebook users were stored without their consent, the doubts arose in the minds of people about how safe they actually are. In India, the case of spyware Pegasus also raised a lot of concerns. It was used to snoop on a lot of human right activists and lawyers and the company which invented the spyware claims that it only sells it to the government. The paper will be dealing with the privacy concerns in the Indian perspective with an analytical methodology. The Supreme Court here had recently declared a right to privacy a Fundamental Right under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. Further, the Government is also working on the Data Protection Bill. The point to note is that India is still a developing country, and with the bill, the government aims at data localization. But there are doubts in the minds of many people that the Government would actually be snooping on the data of the individuals. It looks more like an attempt to curb dissenters ‘lawfully’. The focus of the paper would be on these issues in India in light of the European Union (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The Indian Data Protection Bill is also said to be loosely based on EU GDPR. But how helpful would these laws actually be is another concern since the economic and social conditions in both countries are very different? The paper aims at discussing these concerns, how good or bad is the intention of the government behind the bill, and how the nations can act together and draft common regulations so that there is some uniformity in the laws and their application.

Keywords: Article 21, data protection, dissent, fundamental right, India, privacy

Procedia PDF Downloads 108

Authors: Fedil Jemal Ahmed

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This conference abstract paper presents a study that aimed to explore the impact of talent management and business skills on performance improvement in mini markets located in Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa. Mini markets are small retail stores that play a crucial role in providing essential goods and services to communities. However, due to their small size, they often face significant challenges in terms of resources and management. The study conducted interviews with mini market owners and managers in Johannesburg and Cape Town to understand their approach to talent management, business skills, and their impact on business performance. The results showed that effective talent management practices, including recruitment, training, and retention, along with strong business skills, had a significant positive impact on business performance in mini markets. Furthermore, the study found that the use of technology, such as point of sale systems and inventory management software, can also contribute to business performance improvement in mini markets. The results suggest that mini market owners and managers should prioritize talent management, business skills, and invest in technology to improve their business performance. Comparing the improvements made by mini markets in Johannesburg and Cape Town to those made by others, the study found that the adoption of effective talent management practices and strong business skills were key factors in driving performance improvement. Mini market owners and managers who invested in these areas were better equipped to manage their resources, enhance their customer service, and increase their profitability. When comparing the personal experiences of the fedil jemal who improved their business performance from a small market to a large one, they found that effective talent management practices and strong business skills were crucial in achieving success. Through the adoption of effective talent management practices, the fedil was able to attract and retain top talent, ensuring that the business was managed effectively. Furthermore, the fedil invested in improving their business skills, such as financial management, marketing, and customer service, which helped to increase their revenue and profitability. In terms of technology adoption, the author found that the use of point-of-sale systems and inventory management software were essential in managing their inventory and improving their customer service. By investing in technology, the fedil was able to streamline their operations and enhance their overall business performance. In conclusion, this study provides valuable insights into the importance of talent management, business skills, and technology adoption in improving business performance in mini markets. It highlights the need for mini market owners and managers to prioritize these areas and invest in them to enhance their business performance. The findings of this study have practical implications for mini market owners and managers who are looking to improve their business performance and compete in a highly competitive market. By adopting effective talent management practices, developing strong business skills, and investing in technology, mini market owners and managers can improve their operations and increase their profitability.

Keywords: talent management, business skills, technology adoption, mini markets

Procedia PDF Downloads 93

Authors: Patricia Girrbach

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Currently, our society is facing a new and incremental upheaval technological revolution named digitalization. In order to face the relating challenges organizations have to be prepared. They need appropriate circumstances in order to cope with current issues concerning digital transformation processes. Nowadays digitalization emerged as top issues for companies and business leaders. In this context, it is a pressure on companies to have a positive, productive digital culture. And indeed, Organizations realize that they need to address this important issue. In this context 87 percent of organizations quote culture and engagement as one of their top challenges in terms of any change process, but especially in terms of the digital turn. Executives can give their company a competitive advantage and attract top talent by having a strong workplace culture that supports digitalization. Many current studies attest that fact. Digital-oriented companies can hire more easily, they have the lowest voluntary turnover rates, deliver better customer service, and are more profitable over the long run. Based on this background it is important to provide companies starting points and practical measurements how to reach this goal. The major findings are that firms need to make sense out of digitalization. In this context, they should focus on internal but also on external stakeholders. Furthermore, they should create certain working conditions and they should support the qualification of employees, e.g. by Virtual Reality. These measurements can create positive experiences in terms of digitalization in order to ensure the support of stuff in terms of the digital turn. Based on several current studies and literature research this paper provides concrete measurements for companies in order to enable the digital turn. Therefore, the aim of this paper is providing possible practical starting points which support both the education of employees by digitalization as well as the digital turn itself within the organization.

Keywords: digitalization, industry 4.0, education 4.0, virtual reality

Procedia PDF Downloads 145

Authors: Sawarni Hasibuan, Juliza Hidayati

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Competitiveness and sustainability issues not only put pressure on big companies, but also small and medium enterprises (SMEs). SMEs Batik Bogor is one of the local culture-based creative industries in Bogor city which is also dealing with the issue of sustainability. The purpose of this research is to develop framework of sustainability at SMEs Batik Indonesia case of SMEs Batik Bogor by integrating innovation of cleaner production in its supply chain. The approach used is desk study, field survey, in-depth interviews, and benchmarking best practices of SMEs sustainability. In-depth interviews involve stakeholders to identify the needs and standards of sustainability of SMEs Batik. Data analysis was done by benchmarking method, Multi Dimension Scaling (MDS) method, and Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat (SWOT) analysis. The results recommend the framework of sustainability for SMEs Batik in Indonesia. The sustainability status of SMEs Batik Bogor is classified as Moderate Sustainable. Factors that support the sustainability of SMEs Batik Bogor such is a strong commitment of top management in adopting cleaner production innovation and creativity approach. Successful cleaner production innovations are implemented primarily in the substitution of dye materials from toxic to non-toxic, reducing the intensity of non-renewable energy use, as well as the reuse and recycle of solid waste. “Mosaic Batik” is one of the innovations of solid waste utilization of batik waste produced by company R&D center that gives benefit to three pillars of sustainability, that is financial benefit, environmental benefit, and social benefit. The sustainability of SMEs Batik Bogor cannot be separated from the support of Bogor City Government which proactively facilitates the promotion of sustainable innovation produced by SMEs Batik Bogor.

Keywords: cleaner production innovation, creativity, SMEs Batik, sustainability supply chain

Procedia PDF Downloads 267

Authors: Aminah Salim, Idrees Ahmed Nasir, Abdul Qayyum Rao, Muhammad Ali, Muhammad Sohail Anjum, Ayesha Hameed, Bushra Tabassum, Anwar Khan, Arfan Ali, Mariyam Zameer, Tayyab Husnain

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Risk assessment of transgenic herbicide tolerant sugarcane having CEMB codon optimized cp4EPSPS gene was done in present study. Fifteen days old chicks taken from K&Ns Company were randomly assorted into four groups with eight chicks in each group namely control chicken group fed with commercial diet, non-transgenic group fed with non-experimental sugarcane and transgenic group fed with transgenic sugarcane with minimum and maximum level. Body weights, biochemical analysis for Urea, alkaline phosphatase, alanine transferase, aspartate transferase, creatinine and bilirubin determination and histological examination of chicks fed with four types of feed was taken at fifteen days interval and no significant difference was observed in body weight biochemical and histological studies of all four groups. Protein isolated from the serum sample was analyzed through dipstick and SDS-PAGE, showing the absence of transgene protein in the serum sample of control and experimental groups. Moreover the amplification of cp4EPSPS gene with gene specific primers of DNA isolated from chicks blood and also from commercial diet was done to determine the presence and mobility of any nucleotide fragment of the transgene in/from feed and no amplification was obtained in feed as well as in blood extracted DNA of any group. Also no mRNA expression of cp4EPSPS gene was obtained in any tissue of four groups of chicks. From the results it is clear that there is no deleterious or harmful effect of the CEMB codon optimized transgenic cp4EPSPS sugarcane on the chicks health.

Keywords: chicks, cp4EPSPS, glyphosate, sugarcane

Procedia PDF Downloads 360

Authors: Oksana Razina, Shakeel Ahmad, Jessie Qun Ren, Olufemi Isiaq

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The modern life of businesses is categorically reliant on their established position online, where digital (and particularly website) content plays a significant role as the first point of information. Digital content, therefore, becomes essential – from making the first impression to the building and development of client relationships. Despite a number of valuable papers suggesting a strategic approach when dealing with digital data, other sources often do not view or accept the approach to digital content as a holistic or continuous process. Associations are frequently made with merely a one-off marketing campaign or similar. The challenge is to establish an agreed definition for the notion of Digital Content Strategy, which currently does not exist, as DCS is viewed from an excessive number of different angles. A strategic approach to content, nonetheless, is required, both practically and contextually. The researchers, therefore, aimed at attempting to identify the key content components comprising a digital content strategy to ensure all the aspects were covered and strategically applied – from the company’s understanding of the content value to the ability to display flexibility of content and advances in technology. This conceptual project evaluated existing literature on the topic of Digital Content Strategy (DCS) and related aspects, using the PRISMA Systematic Review Method, Document Analysis, Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria, Scoping Review, Snow-Balling Technique and Thematic Analysis. The data was collected from academic and statistical sources, government and relevant trade publications. Based on the suggestions from academics and trading sources related to the issues discussed, the researchers revealed the key actions for content creation and attempted to define the notion of DCS. The major finding of the study presented Key Content Components of Digital Content Strategy and can be considered for implementation in a business retail setting.

Keywords: digital content strategy, key content components, websites, digital marketing strategy

Procedia PDF Downloads 131

Authors: Arindam Roy

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Public policy is an intriguing terrain, which involves complex interplay of administrative, social political and economic components. There is hardly any fit-for all formulation of public policy as Lindbloom has aptly categorized it as a science of muddling through. In fact, policies are both temporally and contextually determined as one the proponents of policy sciences Harold D Lasswell has underscored it in his ‘contextual-configurative analysis’ as early as 1950s. Though, a lot of theoretical efforts have been made to make sense of this intricate dynamics of policy making, at the end of the day the applied area of public policy negates any such uniform, planned and systematic formulation. However, our policy makers seem to have learnt very little of that. Until recently, policy making was deemed as an absolutely specialized exercise to be conducted by a cadre of professionally trained seasoned mandarin. Attributes like homogeneity, impartiality, efficiency, and neutrality were considered as the watchwords of delivering common goods. Citizen or clientele was conceptualized as universal political or economic construct, to be taken care of uniformly. Moreover, policy makers usually have the proclivity to put anything into straightjacket, and to ignore the nuances therein. Hence, least attention has been given to the ground level reality, especially the socio-cultural milieu where the policy is supposed to be applied. Consequently, a substantial amount of public money goes in vain as the intended beneficiaries remain indifferent to the delivery of public policies. The present paper in the light of Reproductive Health Care policy in rural West Bengal has tried to underscore the criticality of socio-cultural factors in public health delivery. Indian health sector has traversed a long way. From a near non-existent at the time of independence, the Indian state has gradually built a country-wide network of health infrastructure. Yet it has to make a major breakthrough in terms of coverage and penetration of the health services in the rural areas. Several factors are held responsible for such state of things. These include lack of proper infrastructure, medicine, communication, ambulatory services, doctors, nursing services and trained birth attendants. Policy makers have underlined the importance of supply side in policy formulation and implementation. The successive policy documents concerning health delivery bear the testimony of it. The present paper seeks to interrogate the supply-side oriented explanations for the failure of the delivery of health services. Instead, it identified demand side to find out the answer. The state-led and bureaucratically engineered public health measures fail to engender demands as these measures mostly ignore socio-cultural nuances of health and well-being. Hence, the hiatus between supply side and demand side leads to huge wastage of revenue as health infrastructure, medicine and instruments remain unutilized in most cases. Therefore, taking proper cognizance of these factors could have streamlined the delivery of public health.

Keywords: context, policy, socio-cultural factor, uniformity

Procedia PDF Downloads 306

Authors: Pablo Andres Flores Siguenza, Noe Rodrigo Guaman Guachichullca

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Sustainable practices have received increasing attention from academics and companies in recent decades due to, among many factors, the market advantages they generate, global commitments, and policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, addressing resource scarcity, and rethinking waste management. The search for ways to promote sustainability leads industries to abandon classical methods and resort to the use of innovative strategies, which in turn are based on quantitative analysis methods and tools such as life cycle analysis (LCA), which is the basis for sustainable production and consumption, since it is a method that analyzes objectively, methodically, systematically, and scientifically the environmental impact caused by a process/product during its entire life cycle. The objective of this study is to develop an LCA of the antibacterial gel product throughout its entire supply chain (SC) under the methodology of ISO 14044 with the help of Gabi software and the Recipe 2016 method. The selection of the case study product was made based on its relevance in the current context of the COVID-19 pandemic and its exponential increase in production. For the development of the LCA, data from a Mexican company are used, and 3 scenarios are defined to obtain the midpoint and endpoint environmental impacts both by phases and globally. As part of the results, the most outstanding environmental impact categories are climate change, fossil fuel depletion, and terrestrial ecotoxicity, and the stage that generates the most pollution in the entire SC is the extraction of raw materials. The study serves as a basis for the development of different sustainability strategies, demonstrates the usefulness of an LCA, and agrees with different authors on the role and importance of this methodology in sustainable development.

Keywords: sustainability, sustainable development, life cycle analysis, environmental impact, antibacterial gel

Procedia PDF Downloads 37

Authors: Lucilla Crosta, Anthony Edwards

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Companies and the market place nowadays struggle to find employees with adequate skills in relation to anticipated growth of their businesses. At least half of workers will need to undertake some form of up-skilling process in the next five years in order to remain aligned with the requests of the market . In order to meet these challenges, there is a clear need to explore the potential uses of AI (artificial Intelligence) based tools in assessing transversal skills (critical thinking, communication and soft skills of different types in general) of workers and adult students while empowering them to develop those same skills in a reliable trustworthy way. Companies seek workers with key transversal skills that can make a difference between workers now and in the future. However, critical thinking seems to be the one of the most imprtant skill, bringing unexplored ideas and company growth in business contexts. What employers have been reporting since years now, is that this skill is lacking in the majority of workers and adult students, and this is particularly visible trough their writing. This paper investigates how critical thinking and communication skills are currently developed in Higher Education environments through use of AI tools at postgraduate levels. It analyses the use of a branch of AI namely Machine Learning and Big Data and of Neural Network Analysis. It also examines the potential effect the acquisition of these skills through AI tools and what kind of effects this has on employability This paper will draw information from researchers and studies both at national (Italy & UK) and international level in Higher Education. The issues associated with the development and use of one specific AI tool Edulai, will be examined in details. Finally comparisons will be also made between these tools and the more recent phenomenon of Chat GPT and forthcomings and drawbacks will be analysed.

Keywords: critical thinking, artificial intelligence, higher education, soft skills, chat GPT

Procedia PDF Downloads 92

Authors: Izabel Cristina Zattar, Gilberto Passos Lima, Guilherme Schünemann de Oliveira

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In Brazil, there are several institutions committed to the development of new businesses based on product innovation. Among them are business incubators, universities and science institutes. Business incubators can be defined as nurseries for new companies, which may be in the technology segment, discussed in this article. Business incubators provide services related to infrastructure, such as physical space and meeting rooms. Besides these services, incubators also offer assistance in the form of information and communication, access to finance, relationship networks and business monitoring and mentoring processes. Business incubators support not all technology companies. One of the business incubators tasks is to assess the nature and feasibility of new business proposals. To assist this goal, this paper proposes a methodology for evaluating new business using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). This paper presents the concepts used in the assessing methodology application for new business, concepts that have been tested with positive results in practice. This study counts on three main steps: first, a hierarchy was built, based on new business manuals used by the business incubators. These books and manuals relate business selection requirements, such as the innovation status and other technological aspects. Then, a questionnaire was generated, in order to guide incubator experts in the parity comparisons at all hierarchy levels. The weights of each requirement are calculated from information obtained from the questionnaire responses. Finally, the proposed method was applied to evaluate five new business proposals, which were applying to be part of a company incubator. The main result is the classification of these new businesses, which helped the incubator experts to decide what companies were more eligible to work with. This classification may also be helpful to the decision-making process of business incubators in future selection processes.

Keywords: Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), Brazilian companies incubators, technology companies, incubator

Procedia PDF Downloads 361

Authors: Azusa Katsumata

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Where there is collaboration between universities and companies in the educational context, companies seek ‘knowledge’ from universities and provide a ‘place of practice’ to them. Several universities have introduced activities aimed at the mutual enlightenment of a diversity of people in career education. However, several programs emphasize on delivering results, and on practicing the prepared materials as planned. Few programs focus on unexpected failures and setbacks. This way of learning is important in career education so that classmates can help each other, overcome difficulties, draw out each other’s strengths, and learn from them. Seijo University in Tokyo offered Tokyo Tourism, a Project-Based Learning course, as a first-year career education course until 2016. In cooperation with a travel agency, students participate in planning actual tourism products for foreigners visiting Japan, undertake tours serving as guides. This paper aims to study the 'learning platform' created by a series of processes such as the fieldwork, planning tours, the presentation, selling the tourism products, and guiding the tourists. We conducted a questionnaire to measure the development of work-related skills in class. From the results of the questionnaire, we can see, in the example of this class, that students demonstrated an increased desire to be pro-active and an improved motivation to learn. Students have not, however, acquired policy or business skills. This is appropriate for first-year careers education, but we need to consider how this can be incorporated into future courses. In the questionnaire filled out by the students after the class, the following results were found. Planning and implementing travel products while learning from each other, and helping the teams has led to improvements in the student workforce. This course is a collaborative project between Japanese universities and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympic Games committee.

Keywords: university career education, platform of learning, project-based learning, collaboration between university and company

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Authors: Shakhawath Hossain, Tazkia Tahsin

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Introduction/Background: Intellectual disability is a disability characterized by significant limitations both in intellectual functioning and in adaptive behavior, which covers many everyday social and practical skills. Vocational education is a multi-professional approach that is provided to individuals of working age with health-related impairments, limitations, or restrictions with work functioning and whose primary aim is to optimize work participation. Instrumental Activities of Daily Living activities to support daily life within the home and community. Like as community mobility, financial management, meal preparation, and clean-up, shopping. Material and Method: Electronic searches of Medline, PubMed, Google scholar, OT Seeker literature using the key terms of intellectual disability, vocational rehabilitation, instrumental activities of daily living and Occupational Therapy, as well as a thorough manual search for relevant literature. Results: There were 13 articles, all qualitative and quantitative, which are included in this review. All studies were mixed methods in design. To take the Occupational Therapy services, there is a significant improvement in their children's various areas like as sensory issues, cognitive abilities, perceptual skills, visual, motor planning, and group therapy. After taking the vocational and instrumental activities of daily living training children with intellectual disabilities to participate in their daily activities and work as an employee different company or organizations. Conclusion: The persons with intellectual disability are an integral part of our society who deserves social support and opportunities like other human beings. From the result section of the project papers, it is found that the significant benefits of Occupational Therapy services in the aspects of vocational and instrumental activities of daily living.

Keywords: occupational therapy, daily living activities, intellectual disabilities, instrumental ADL

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Authors: Lisete Barlach, Guilherme Ary Plonski

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Innovative ideas are not always synonymous with business opportunities. Any idea can be creative and not recognized as a potential project in which money and time will be invested, among other resources. Even in firms that promote and enhance innovation, there are two 'check-points', the first corresponding to the acknowledgment of the idea as creative and the second, its consideration as a business opportunity. Both the recognition of new business opportunities or new ideas involve cognitive and psychological frameworks which provide individuals with a basis for noticing connections between seemingly independent events or trends as if they were 'connecting the dots'. It also involves prototypes-representing the most typical member of a certain category–functioning as 'templates' for this recognition. There is a general assumption that these kinds of evaluation processes develop through experience, explaining why expertise plays a central role in this process: the more experienced a professional, the easier for him (her) to identify new opportunities in business. But, paradoxically, an increase in expertise can lead to the inflexibility of thought due to automation of procedures. And, besides this, other cognitive biases can also be present, because new ideas or business opportunities generally depend on heuristics, rather than on established algorithms. The paper presents a literature review about the Einstellung effect by tracking famous cases of rejected ideas, extracted from historical records. It also presents the results of empirical research, with data upon rejected ideas gathered from two different environments: projects rejected during first semester of 2017 at a large incubator center in Sao Paulo and ideas proposed by employees that were rejected by a well-known business company, at its Brazilian headquarter. There is an implicit assumption that Einstellung effect tends to be more and more present in contemporaneity, due to time pressure upon decision-making and idea generation process. The analysis discusses desirability, viability, and feasibility as elements that affect decision-making.

Keywords: cognitive biases, Einstellung effect, recognition of business opportunities, rejected ideas

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Authors: Maximilian Engelhardt, Stephan Seeck

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The COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating the already growing field of e-commerce. The resulting urban freight transport volume leads to traffic and negative environmental impact. Furthermore, the service level of parcel logistics service provider is lacking far behind the expectations of consumer. These challenges can be solved by radically reorganize the urban last mile distribution structure: parcels could be consolidated in a micro hub within the inner city and delivered within time windows by cargo bike. This approach leads to a significant improvement of consumer satisfaction with their overall delivery experience. However, this approach also leads to significantly increased costs per parcel. While there is a relevant share of online shoppers that are willing to pay for such a delivery service there are no deeper insights about this target group available in the literature. Being aware of the importance of knowing target groups for businesses, the aim of this paper is to elaborate the most important factors that determine the willingness to pay for sustainable and service-oriented parcel delivery (factor analysis) and to derive customer segments (cluster analysis). In order to answer those questions, a data set is analyzed using quantitative methods of multivariate statistics. The data set was generated via an online survey in September and October 2020 within the five largest cities in Germany (n = 1.071). The data set contains socio-demographic, living-related and value-related variables, e.g. age, income, city, living situation and willingness to pay. In a prior work of the author, the data was analyzed applying descriptive and inference statistical methods that only provided limited insights regarding the above-mentioned research questions. The analysis in an exploratory way using factor and cluster analysis promise deeper insights of relevant influencing factors and segments for user behavior of the mentioned parcel delivery concept. The analysis model is built and implemented with help of the statistical software language R. The data analysis is currently performed and will be completed in December 2021. It is expected that the results will show the most relevant factors that are determining user behavior of sustainable and service-oriented parcel deliveries (e.g. age, current service experience, willingness to pay) and give deeper insights in characteristics that describe the segments that are more or less willing to pay for a better parcel delivery service. Based on the expected results, relevant implications and conclusions can be derived for startups that are about to change the way parcels are delivered: more customer-orientated by time window-delivery and parcel consolidation, more environmental-friendly by cargo bike. The results will give detailed insights regarding their target groups of parcel recipients. Further research can be conducted by exploring alternative revenue models (beyond the parcel recipient) that could compensate the additional costs, e.g. online-shops that increase their service-level or municipalities that reduce traffic on their streets.

Keywords: customer segmentation, e-commerce, last mile delivery, parcel service, urban logistics, willingness-to-pay

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Authors: Shatakshi Garg

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As the world continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, India, one of the most populous democratic federal developing nation, continues to report the highest active cases and deaths, as well as struggle to let its health infrastructure not succumb to the exponentially growing requirements of hospital beds, ventilators, oxygen to save thousands of lives daily at risk. In this context, the paper outlines the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic since it first hit India in January 2020 – the policy decisions taken by the Union and the State governments from the larger perspective of its federal structure. The Constitution of India adopted in 1950 enshrined the federal relations between the Union and the State governments by way of the constitutional division of revenue-raising and expenditure responsibilities. By way of the 72nd and 73rd Amendments in the Constitution, powers and functions were devolved further to the third tier, namely the local governments, with the intention of further strengthening the federal structure of the country. However, with time, several constitutional amendments have shifted the scales in favour of the union government. The paper briefly traces some of these major amendments as well as some policy decisions which made the federal relations asymmetrical. As a result, data on key fiscal parameters helps establish how the union government gained upper hand at the expense of weak state governments, reducing the local governments to mere constitutional bodies without adequate funds and fiscal autonomy to carry out the assigned functions. This quasi-federal structure of India with the union government amassing the majority of power in terms of ‘funds, functions and functionaries’ exposed the perils of weakening sub-national governments post COVID-19 pandemic. With a complex quasi-federal structure and a heterogeneous population of over 1.3 billion, the announcement of a sudden nationwide lockdown by the union government was followed by a plight of migrants struggling to reach homes safely in the absence of adequate arrangements for travel and safety-net made by the union government. With limited autonomy enjoyed by the states, they were mostly dictated by the union government on most aspects of handling the pandemic, including protocols for lockdown, re-opening post lockdown, and vaccination drive. The paper suggests that certain policy decisions like demonetization, the introduction of GST, etc., taken by the incumbent government since 2014 when they first came to power, have further weakened the states and local governments, which have amounted to catastrophic losses, both economic and human. The role of the executive, legislature and judiciary are explored to establish how all these three arms of the government have worked simultaneously to further weaken and expose the fault-lines of the federal structure of India, which has lent the nation incapacitated to handle this pandemic. The paper then suggests the urgency of re-looking at the federal structure of the country and undertaking measures that strengthen the sub-national governments and restore the federal spirit as was enshrined in the constitution to avoid mammoth human and economic losses from a pandemic of this sort.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic, India, federal structure, economic losses

Procedia PDF Downloads 162

Authors: Huan-Chieh Chiu, Hung-Shuo Wu, Chien-Hao Wang, Yu-Cheng Yang, Ching-Ya Tseng, Joe-Air Jiang

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Power failure resulting from tower collapse due to violent seismic events might bring enormous and inestimable losses. The Chi-Chi earthquake, for example, strongly struck Taiwan and caused huge damage to the power system on September 21, 1999. Nearly 10% of extra high voltage (EHV) transmission towers were damaged in the earthquake. Therefore, seismic hazards of EHV transmission towers should be monitored and evaluated. The ultimate goal of this study is to establish a damage level assessment model for EHV transmission towers. The data of earthquakes provided by Taiwan Central Weather Bureau serve as a reference and then lay the foundation for earthquake simulations and analyses afterward. Some parameters related to the damage level of each point of an EHV tower are simulated and analyzed by the data from monitoring stations once an earthquake occurs. Through the Fourier transform, the seismic wave is then analyzed and transformed into different wave frequencies, and the data would be shown through a response spectrum. With this method, the seismic frequency which damages EHV towers the most is clearly identified. An estimation model is built to determine the damage level caused by a future seismic event. Finally, instead of relying on visual observation done by inspectors, the proposed model can provide a power company with the damage information of a transmission tower. Using the model, manpower required by visual observation can be reduced, and the accuracy of the damage level estimation can be substantially improved. Such a model is greatly useful for health and construction monitoring because of the advantages of long-term evaluation of structural characteristics and long-term damage detection.

Keywords: damage level monitoring, drift ratio, fragility curve, smart grid, transmission tower

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Authors: Jasna Prester, Ivana Rašić Bakarić, Božidar Matijević

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Various prominent scholars and substantial practitioner-oriented literature on innovation orientation have shown positive effects on firm performance. There is a myriad of factors that influence and enhance innovation but it has been found in the literature that new product innovations accounted for an average of 14 percent of sales revenues for all firms. If there is one thing that has changed in innovation management during the last decade, it is the growing reliance on external partners. As a consequence, a new task for purchasing arises, as firms need to understand which suppliers actually do have high potential contributing to the innovativeness of the firm and which do not. Purchasing function in an organization is extremely important as it deals on an average of 50% or more of a firm's expenditures. In the nineties the purchasing department was largely seen as a transaction-oriented, clerical function but today purchasing integration provides a formal interface mechanism between purchasing and other firm functions that services other functions within the company. Purchasing function has to be organized differently to enable firm innovation potential. However, innovations are inherently risky. There are behavioral risk (that some partner will take advantage of the other party), technological risk in terms of complexity of products and processes of manufacturing and incoming materials and finally market risks, which in fact judge the value of the innovation. These risks are investigated in this work since it has been found in the literature that the higher the technological risk, higher will be the centralization of the purchasing function as an interface with other supply chain members. Most researches on organization of purchasing function were done by case study analysis of innovative firms. This work actually tends to prove or discard results found in the literature based on case study method. A large data set of 1493 companies, from 25 countries collected in the GMRG 4 survey served as a basis for analysis.

Keywords: purchasing function organization, innovation, technological risk, GMRG 4 survey

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Authors: Michael Anthony Doherty

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Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) is a significant topic in the construction industry; while reviewing (MMC) over different fields that are significant in the modern construction world, the following areas were assessed where (MMC) is developing, supply chain management, automation, digital technology, and new construction technologies. Different methods were considered as an approach to research and exploring areas highlighted within the construction industry that are making advancements using Modern Methods of Construction Methods and Technologies (MCMTs). The research was conducted using the following methodologies, literature review of academic sources, primary and secondary data sources, questionaries, and interviews. The paper is composed of two parts, firstly a literature review and secondly a questionnaire used as the basis for interviews were utilised to achieve the following key objectives: to identify (MCMTs) being implemented in the construction industry, research and compile information with regards to these methods, determine their purpose and their application in the industry, establishing what (MCMTs) are being used in the industry while also determining the success of the methods. The research considers the evolution and development of these methods in projects and within the industry itself. Major findings were as follows; automation technologies such as robotics, offsite fabrication utilising automated production lines are increasingly part of project execution, digital technologies such as AR and VR are increasingly utilised in project co-ordination, (MMCTs) are proving to be a solution to the construction industry problems such as a lack of skilled workforce, hazardous work tasks, and situations, new construction technologies are available and finding their place in mainstream construction, (SCM) and (GSCM) are evolving to new levels using new systems and technologies such as block chain technology as well as Company Size and Project size influence the use of (MMCTs) and the adoption of (MMCTS). In summary the paper endeavours to identify and detail how areas of (MMCTs) are developing and are gaining traction within mainstream construction.

Keywords: automation, digital technology, new construction technologies, supply chain management

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Authors: Luisa Kynast

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It is obvious that buildings and infrastructure are highly impacted by climate change (CC). Both, design and material of buildings need to be resilient to weather events in order to shelter humans, animals, or goods. As well as buildings and infrastructure are exposed to weather events, the construction process itself is generally carried out outdoors without being protected from extreme temperatures, heavy rain, or storms. The production process is restricted by technical limitations for processing materials with machines and physical limitations due to human beings (“outdoor-worker”). In future due to CC, average weather patterns are expected to change as well as extreme weather events are expected to occur more frequently and more intense and therefore have a greater impact on production processes and on the construction businesses itself. This research aims to examine this impact by analyzing an association between responses to CC and financial performance of businesses within the construction industry. After having embedded the above depicted field of research into the resource dependency theory, a literature review was conducted to expound the state of research concerning a contingent relation between climate change adaptation measures (CCAM) and corporate financial performance for construction businesses. The examined studies prove that this field is rarely investigated, especially for construction businesses. Therefore, reports of the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) were analyzed by applying content analysis using the software tool MAXQDA. 58 construction companies – located worldwide – could be examined. To proceed even more systematically a coding scheme analogous to findings in literature was adopted. Out of qualitative analysis, data was quantified and a regression analysis containing corporate financial data was conducted. The results gained stress adaptation measures as a response to CC as a crucial proxy to handle climate change impacts (CCI) by mitigating risks and exploiting opportunities. In CDP reports the majority of answers stated increasing costs/expenses as a result of implemented measures. A link to sales/revenue was rarely drawn. Though, CCAM were connected to increasing sales/revenues. Nevertheless, this presumption is supported by the results of the regression analysis where a positive effect of implemented CCAM on construction businesses´ financial performance in the short-run was ascertained. These findings do refer to appropriate responses in terms of the implemented number of CCAM. Anyhow, still businesses show a reluctant attitude for implementing CCAM, which was confirmed by findings in literature as well as by findings in CDP reports. Businesses mainly associate CCAM with costs and expenses rather than with an effect on their corporate financial performance. Mostly companies underrate the effect of CCI and overrate the costs and expenditures for the implementation of CCAM and completely neglect the pay-off. Therefore, this research shall create a basis for bringing CC to the (financial) attention of corporate decision-makers, especially within the construction industry.

Keywords: climate change adaptation measures, construction businesses, financial implication, resource dependency theory

Procedia PDF Downloads 133

Authors: Chin-Hsien Yeh, Shao-Wen Chen, Wen-Shu Huang, Chun-Fu Huang, Jong-Rong Wang, Jung-Hua Yang, Yuh-Ming Ferng, Chunkuan Shih

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In this research, a Fukushima-like conditions is simulated with TRACE and RELAP5. Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) occurred the disaster which caused by the earthquake and tsunami. This disaster caused extended loss of all AC power (ELAP). Hence, loss of ultimate heat sink (LUHS) happened finally. In order to handle Fukushima-like conditions, Taiwan Atomic Energy Council (AEC) commanded that Taiwan Power Company should propose strategies to ensure the nuclear power plant safety. One of the diverse and flexible coping strategies (FLEX) is a different water injection strategy. It can execute core injection at 20 Kg/cm2 without depressurization. In this study, TRACE and RELAP5 were used to simulate Maanshan nuclear power plant, which is a three loops PWR in Taiwan, under Fukushima-like conditions and make sure the success criteria of FLEX. Reducing core cooling ability is due to failure of emergency core cooling system (ECCS) in extended loss of all AC power situation. The core water level continues to decline because of the seal leakage, and then FLEX is used to save the core water level and make fuel rods covered by water. The result shows that this mitigation strategy can cool the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) as soon as possible under Fukushima-like conditions, and keep the core water level higher than Top of Active Fuel (TAF). The FLEX can ensure the peak cladding temperature (PCT) below than the criteria 1088.7 K. Finally, the FLEX can provide protection for nuclear power plant and make plant safety.

Keywords: TRACE, RELAP5/MOD3.3, ELAP, FLEX

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Authors: Zeina Nasr, Bashar Merheb

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The honey bee is a social insect that had driven the human interest much more than any other organism. Beekeeping practices dated the appearance of Man on earth and now it provides a hobby or a secondary work that contributes to the family revenue and requires a little time engagement and money investment. Honey production is not the only contribution of honey bees to the economy, since honey bees play an important role in the pollination. Bee keeping in Lebanon is an important part of the agricultural economy. However, a growing concern about bees is spreading globally, due to an accelerated decline of bees colonies. This raises the alert to preserve and protect local bee strains against uncontrolled introduction of foreign strains and invasive parasitic species. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) markers are commonly used in studying genetic variation in the Apis mellifera species. The DraI-COI-COII test is based on the analysis of the intergenic region between the two genes COI and COII. The different honey bee strains differ in the presence or absence of the p sequence and the number of Q sequences present. A. m. syriaca belonging to the lineage Z, is the native honey bee subspecies in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Palestine. A. m. syriaca is known for its high defensiveness, even though it has many important advantages. However, commercial breeder strains, such as the Italian (A. m. ligustica), and Carniolan (A. m. carnica) strains, have been introduced by beekeepers and regularly used for honey production. This raises worries about the disappearance of the local subspecies. It is obvious that identifying A. m. syriaca colonies and protecting them against uncontrolled mating with other bee strains is a crucial step to protect and improve the original local strain. This study aims to reveal the existing sub-species of honey bee in Akkar – Lebanon and to assess the influence of introgression on the hybridization of the local strain. This will help to identify areas of pure A.m. syriaca population over this district to be considered in choosing syriaca reserves. We collected samples of bees from different regions of Akkar district in order to perform mtDNA analysis. We determined the restriction fragments length of the intergenic region COI-COII, using the restriction enzyme DraI. The results showed both the C and the Z lineages. Four restriction patterns were identified among the restriction maps of the studied samples. The most abundant mitochondrial lineage is the Z lineage constituting about 60% of the identified samples. Al-Dreib region reported the lowest introgression with foreign mtDNA of 21% making it the most suitable area for a genetic reserve of syriaca in Akkar based on its lowest introgression and suitable environment in addition to the attitude of local beekeepers to conserve the local strain. Finally, this study is the first step in constructing conservation programs for the preservation of the local strain and should be generalized to the whole Lebanese population, consistent with the effort done in neighboring countries.

Keywords: Akkar Lebanon, Apis millefera syriaca, DraI-COI-COII test, mitochondrial DNA

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Authors: Izabel Cristina Zattar, Gilberto Passos Lima, Guilherme Schünemann de Oliveira

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In Brazil, there are several institutions committed to the development of new businesses based on product innovation. Among them are business incubators, universities and science institutes. Business incubators can be defined as nurseries for new companies, which may be in the technology segment, discussed in this article. Business incubators provide services related to infrastructure, such as physical space and meeting rooms. Besides these services, incubators also offer assistance in the form of information and communication, access to finance, relationship networks and business monitoring and mentoring processes. Business incubators support not all technology companies. One of the business incubators tasks is to assess the nature and feasibility of new business proposals. To assist in this goal, this paper proposes a methodology for evaluating new business using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). This paper presents the concepts used in the assessing methodology application for new business, concepts that have been tested with positive results in practice. This study counts on three main steps: first, a hierarchy was built, based on new business manuals used by the business incubators. These books and manuals relate business selection requirements, such as the innovation status and other technological aspects. Then, a questionnaire was generated, in order to guide incubator experts in the parity comparisons at all hierarchy levels. The weights of each requirement are calculated from information obtained from the questionnaire responses. Finally, the proposed method was applied to evaluate five new business proposals, which were applying to be part of a company incubator. The main result is the classification of these new businesses, which helped the incubator experts to decide what companies were more eligible to work with. This classification may also be helpful to the decision-making process of business incubators in future selection processes.

Keywords: Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), Brazilian companies incubators, technology companies, incubator

Procedia PDF Downloads 387