Search results for: express delivery industry

Authors: Vasantha Gouri Prathapagiri

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Innovations in ICT sector facilitate qualitative life style for citizens across the globe. Countries that facilitate usage of new techniques in ICT, i.e., big data analytics find it easier to fulfil the needs of their citizens. Big data is characterised by its volume, variety, and speed. Analytics involves its processing in a cost effective way in order to draw conclusion for their useful application. Big data also involves into the field of machine learning, artificial intelligence all leading to accuracy in data presentation useful for public policy making. Hence using data analytics in public policy making is a proper way to march towards all round development of any country. The data driven insights can help the government to take important strategic decisions with regard to socio-economic development of her country. Developed nations like UK and USA are already far ahead on the path of digitization with the support of Big Data analytics. India is a huge country and is currently on the path of massive digitization being realised through Digital India Mission. Internet connection per household is on the rise every year. This transforms into a massive data set that has the potential to improvise the public services delivery system into an effective service mechanism for Indian citizens. In fact, when compared to developed nations, this capacity is being underutilized in India. This is particularly true for administrative system in rural areas. The present paper focuses on the need for big data analytics adaptation in Indian rural administration and its contribution towards development of the country on a faster pace. Results of the research focussed on the need for increasing awareness and serious capacity building of the government personnel working for rural development with regard to big data analytics and its utility for development of the country. Multiple public policies are framed and implemented for rural development yet the results are not as effective as they should be. Big data has a major role to play in this context as can assist in improving both policy making and implementation aiming at all round development of the country.

Keywords: Digital India Mission, public service delivery system, public policy, Indian administration

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Authors: Tomasz Sapiński, Dorota Kamińska, Adam Pelikant, Egils Avots, Cagri Ozcinar, Gholamreza Anbarjafari

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People express emotions through different modalities. Integration of verbal and non-verbal communication channels creates a system in which the message is easier to understand. Expanding the focus to several expression forms can facilitate research on emotion recognition as well as human-machine interaction. In this article, the authors present a Polish emotional database composed of three modalities: facial expressions, body movement and gestures, and speech. The corpora contains recordings registered in studio conditions, acted out by 16 professional actors (8 male and 8 female). The data is labeled with six basic emotions categories, according to Ekman’s emotion categories. To check the quality of performance, all recordings are evaluated by experts and volunteers. The database is available to academic community and might be useful in the study on audio-visual emotion recognition.

Keywords: body movement, emotion recognition, emotional corpus, facial expressions, gestures, multimodal database, speech

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Authors: Chattrarat Hotrawaisaya

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This research aims to formulate the logistics collaborative model which is the management tool for orchid flower exporter. The researchers study logistics activities in orchid supply chain that stakeholders can collaborate and develop, including demand forecasting, inventory management, warehouse and storage, order-processing, and transportation management. The research also explores logistics collaboration implementation into orchid’s stakeholders. The researcher collected data before implementation and after model implementation. Consequently, the costs and efficiency were calculated and compared between pre and post period of implementation. The research found that the results of applying the logistics collaborative model to orchid exporter reduces inventory cost and transport cost. The model also improves forecasting accuracy, and synchronizes supply chain of exporter. This research paper contributes the uniqueness logistics collaborative model which value to orchid industry in Thailand. The orchid exporters may use this model as their management tool which aims in competitive advantage.

Keywords: logistics, orchid, supply chain, collaboration

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Authors: Nisha Harry, Keshia Sing

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Orientation: The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLF) and the sense of coherence-29 (SCS) is an effective tools to assess the prevalence and underlying structures of empirically based taxonomies related to leadership and wellbeing. Research purpose: The purpose of the study was to test the psychometric properties of the SCS and Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) to screen for psychological wellness indices within the banking industry in South Africa. Motivation for the study: The contribution of these two instruments for the purpose of determining psychological wellness in a banking work environment is unique. Research design, approach, or method: The sample consisted of (N = 150) financial staff employed in a South African banking organisation. The age of the sample was: 37% (30 -40 yrs), 31% (20-30 yrs), 26% (40- 50 yrs), and 6% (50+yrs), of which 52% were males, 48% were females. The white race group was the majority at 29%, African at 26%, Coloured at 23%, and Indian was 22%. Main findings: Results from the exploratory factor analysis revealed a two-factor structure as the most satisfactory. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed the two-factor model displayed better good of-fit indices. Practical implications: The factor structure of the Sense of Coherence-29 scale (SCS), and the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ), have a value-added focus to determine psychological wellness within banking staff. It is essential to take into account these constructs when developing employee wellness interventions. Contribution/value add: Understanding the psychometric properties of the SCS, the self-reported form, and the MLQ questionnaire contributes to screening psychological wellness indices such as coping within the banking industry in a developing country like South Africa. Leaders are an important part of the implementation process of organisational employee wellness practices.

Keywords: factorial structure, leadership, measurement invariance, psychological wellness, sense of coherence

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Authors: Virginia Chika Okafor

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The pastoral letter, an open letter addressed by a bishop to members of his diocese for the purpose of promoting faith and good Christian living, constitutes a persuasive religious discourse characterized by numerous rhetorical devices. Previous studies on Christian religious language have concentrated mainly on sermons, liturgy, prayers, theology, scriptures, hymns, and songs to the exclusion of the persuasive power of pastoral letters. This study, therefore, examined major rhetorical devices in selected Roman Catholic bishops’ Lenten pastoral letters in the Ecclesiastical Province of Onitsha, with a view to determining their persuasive discourse functions. Aristotelian Rhetoric was adopted as the framework because of its emphasis on persuasion through three main rhetorical appeals: logos, pathos, and ethos. Data were drawn from 10 pastoral letters of five Roman Catholic bishops in five dioceses (two letters from each) out of the seven in the Ecclesiastical of Onitsha. The five dioceses (Onitsha arch-diocese, Nnewi, Awka, Enugu, and Awgu dioceses) were chosen because pastoral letters are regularly published there. The 10 pastoral letters were published between 2000 and 2010 and range between 20 and 104 pages. They were selected, through purposive sampling, based on consistency in the publication and rhetorical content. Data were subjected to discourse analysis. Three categories of rhetorical devices were identified: those relating to logos (logical devices), those relating to pathos (pathetical devices), and those relating to ethos (ethical devices). Major logical devices deployed were: testimonial reference functioning as authority to validate messages; logical arguments appealing to the rationality of the audience; nominalization and passivation objectifying the validity of ideas; and modals of obligation/necessity appealing to the audience’s sense of responsibility and moral duty. Prominent among the pathetical devices deployed were: use of Igbo language to express solidarity with the audience; inclusive pronoun (we) to create a feeling of belonging, collectivism and oneness with them; prayers to inspire them; and positive emotion-laden words to refer to the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) to keep the audience emotionally attached to it. Finally, major ethical devices deployed were: use of first-person singular pronoun (I) and imperatives to invoke the authority of the bishops’ office; Latinisms to show learnedness; greetings and appreciation to express goodwill; and exemplary Biblical characters as models of faith, repentance, and love. The rhetorical devices were used in relation to the bishops’ messages of faith, repentance, love and loyalty to the Roman Catholic Church. Roman Catholic bishops’ pastoral letters in the Ecclesiastical Province of Onitsha are thus characterized by logos-, pathos-, and ethos-related rhetorical devices designed to persuade the audience to live according to the bishops’ messages of faith, love, repentance, and loyalty to the Roman Catholic Church. The rhetorical devices, therefore, establish the pastoral letters as a significant form of persuasive religious discourse.

Keywords: ecclesiastical province of Onitsha, pastoral letters, persuasive discourse functions, rhetorical devices, Roman Catholic bishops

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Authors: Nurzahidah Haji Jaapar, Anis Husna Abdul Halim, Mohd Faiz Mohamed Yusof, Mohd Dani Muhamad, Sharifah Fadylawaty Syed Abdullah

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The growing size of Muslim is recognised with significant increasing of purchasing power in the market. The realm of trade and business has embedded religious values as the new market segments are emerging in offering food products to meet needs and demands of Muslim consumer. The emergence of new market in food industry, advertising is charged with all sort of negative effects includes promoting controversial unsafety and harmful products, wasteful spending and exploiting women and kids. Therefore, this research attempts to examine between previous examinations of advertising standardisation in ancient era and current practices in the market. This paper is based on content analysis of the literature. The results show that there are a bridge gap between the implementation of practices as the advent in industrial 4.0 in using digital advertising by food industry. Thus, this paper is able to recognize the differences between two era and significant in determining the best practices in advertising by following Islamic principles.

Keywords: Islamic advertising, unethical advertising, ethical advertising, Islamic principles

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Authors: Lim Lie Pin, Lin Hui Wen

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Rural tourism has become popular in Taiwan, the villages based on agriculture including fishery have to follow the trend to develop the local economy and achieve the sustainable development of the rural areas. Through cultural festivals, the tourist could experience the benefit while promoting and stimulating the local development of rural tourism. Cigu is famous for salt history and abundant natural resources, such as lagoon, black-faced spoonbills and other fishery products. Digging clam has become the most special parent-child activities in Tainan and increasing awareness since it was initiated. Therefore, festival organizers and regional destination marketers need to identify visitors’ experiences attributes which lead to opportunities for industry professionals, community involvement to plan and organize regional festivals and their programmes for effective destination branding finding out more potential rural resources encouraging the local industry growth and sustainable development.

Keywords: rural tourism, cultural festival, destination branding, tourist experience, sustainable development

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Authors: H. M. Wang, C. J. Chang

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As the threat of global climate change is more seriously, "net zero emissions by 2050" has become a common global goal. In order to reduce the consumption of petrochemical raw materials and reduce carbon emissions, low-carbon fiber materials have become key materials in the future global textile supply chain. This project uses polyolefin raw materials to modify through synthesis and amination to develop low-temperature dyeable polypropylene fibers, endow them with low-temperature dyeability and high color fastness that can be combined with acid dyes, and improve the problem of low coloring strength. The color fastness to washing can reach the requirement of commerce with 3.5 level or more. Therefore, we realize the entry of polypropylene fiber into the clothing textile supply chain, replace existing fiber raw materials, solve the problem of domestic chemical fiber, textile, and clothing industry's plight of no low-carbon alternative new material sources, and provide the textile industry with a solution to achieve the goal of net zero emissions in 2050.

Keywords: acid dyes, dyeing, low-temperature, polypropylene fiber

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Authors: Heesu Kim

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This paper determines the varieties of state roles played in East Asia’s telecommunication market, regarding broadband industry. Technological capacity and the relationship between state and market affect the varieties of state role. In explaining the state’s engagement in the market, technology has always been considered as a necessary and sufficient condition. However technology variable has been useful in only explaining the extent of state’s involvement. This paper contributes by bringing in the political-economic factor, which is the relationship between state and market. This factor aids in distinguishing the varieties of state role played in emerging industries. Interaction between these two variables distinguishes 4 types of state roles played in the broadband industry. These roles are distinguished and characterized by the intensity of state’s intervention and the existence of technological capacity. This paper classifies four types of state role through the case of Singapore, China, Taiwan and Korea’s broadband industrial policy.

Keywords: East Asia, entrpreneurial state, industrial policy, regulatory state, technological capacity

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Authors: Garry Miller, Thomas Alexander, Cameron Lee

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There is belief that Building Information Modelling (BIM) will improve performance of the New Zealand (NZ) Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) sector, however, widespread use of BIM is yet to be seen. Previous research indicates there are many issues affecting the uptake of BIM in NZ; nevertheless the underlying benefits, drawbacks, and barriers preventing more widespread uptake are not fully understood. This investigation aimed to understand these factors more clearly and make suggestions on how to improve the uptake of BIM in NZ. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a range of industry professionals to gather a qualitative understanding. Findings indicated the ability to incorporate better information into a BIM model could drive many benefits. However scepticism and lack of positive incentives in NZ are affecting its widespread use. This concluded that there is a need for the government to produce a number of BIM case studies and develop a set of BIM standards to resolve payment issues surrounding BIM use. This study provides useful information for those interested in BIM and members of government interested in improving the performance of the construction industry. This study may also be of interest to small, developed countries such as NZ where the level of BIM maturity is relatively low.

Keywords: BIM, New Zealand, AEC sector, building information modelling

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Authors: Olanrewaju Aladeitan, Obiageli Phina Anaghara-Uzor

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Despite the abundance of natural gas deposits in Nigeria and the immense potential, this presents both for the domestic and export oriented revenue, there exists an imbalance in the preference for export as against the development and optimal utilization of natural gas for the domestic industry. Considerable amounts of gas are still being wasted by flaring in the country to this day. Although the government has set in place initiatives to harness gas at the flare and thereby reduce volumes flared, the gas producers would rather direct the gas produced to the export market whereas gas apportioned to the domestic market is often marred by the low domestic gas price which is often discouraging to the gas producers. The exported fraction of gas production no doubt yields healthy revenues for the government and an encouraging return on investment for the gas producers and for this reason export sales remain enticing and preferable to the domestic sale of gas. This export pull impacts negatively if left unchecked, on the domestic market which is in no position to match the price at the international markets. The issue of gas price remains critical to the optimal development of the domestic gas industry, in that it comprises the basis for investment decisions of the producers on the allocation of their scarce resources and to what project to channel their output in order to maximize profit. In order then to rebalance the domestic industry and streamline the market for gas, the Gas Aggregation Company of Nigeria, also known as the Strategic Aggregator was proposed under the Nigerian Gas Master Plan of 2008 and then established pursuant to the National Gas Supply and Pricing Regulations of 2008 to implement the domestic gas supply obligation which focuses on ramping-up gas volumes for domestic utilization by mandatorily requiring each gas producer to dedicate a portion of its gas production for domestic utilization before having recourse to the export market. The 2008 Regulations further stipulate penalties in the event of non-compliance. This study, in the main, assesses the adequacy of the legal framework for the Nigerian Gas Industry, given that the operational laws are structured more for oil than its gas counterpart; examine the legal basis for the Strategic Aggregator in the light of the Domestic Gas Supply and Pricing Policy 2008 and the National Domestic Gas Supply and Pricing Regulations 2008 and makes a case for a review of the pivotal role of the Aggregator in the Nigerian Gas market. In undertaking this assessment, the doctrinal research methodology was adopted. Findings from research conducted reveal the reawakening of the Federal Government to the immense potential of its gas industry as a critical sector of its economy and the need for a sustainable domestic natural gas market. A case for the review of the ownership structure of the Aggregator to comprise a balanced mix of the Federal Government, gas producers and other key stakeholders in order to ensure the effective implementation of the domestic supply obligations becomes all the more imperative.

Keywords: domestic supply obligations, natural gas, Nigerian gas sector, strategic gas aggregator

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Authors: Aliyu Isah Agaie, Masrah Azrifah Azmi Murad, Nurfadhlina Mohd Sharef, Aida Mustapha

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Natural Language Interfaces typically support a restricted language and also have scopes and limitations that naïve users are unaware of, resulting in errors when the users attempt to retrieve information from ontologies. To overcome this challenge, an auto-suggest feature is introduced into the querying process where users are guided through the querying process using interactive query construction system. Guiding users to formulate their queries, while providing them with an unconstrained (or almost unconstrained) way to query the ontology results in better interpretation of the query and ultimately lead to an effective search. The approach described in this paper is unobtrusive and subtly guides the users, so that they have a choice of either selecting from the suggestion list or typing in full. The user is not coerced into accepting system suggestions and can express himself using fragments or full sentences.

Keywords: auto-suggest, expressiveness, habitability, natural language interface, query interpretation, user guidance

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Authors: Yasmin Begum Mohammed

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Ketorolac tromethamine (KTM) is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug with a potent analgesic and anti-inflammatory activity due to prostaglandin related inhibitory effect of drug. It is a non-selective cyclo-oxygenase inhibitor. The drug is currently used orally and intramuscularly in multiple divided doses, clinically for the management arthritis, cancer pain, post-surgical pain, and in the treatment of migraine pain. KTM has short biological half-life of 4 to 6 hours, which necessitates frequent dosing to retain the action. The frequent occurrence of gastrointestinal bleeding, perforation, peptic ulceration, and renal failure lead to the development of other drug delivery strategies for the appropriate delivery of KTM. The ideal solution would be to target the drug only to the cells or tissues affected by the disease. Drug targeting could be achieved effectively by liposomes that are biocompatible and biodegradable. The aim of the study was to develop a parenteral liposome formulation of KTM with improved efficacy while reducing side effects by targeting the inflammation due to arthritis. PEG-anchored (stealth) and non-PEG-anchored liposomes were prepared by thin film hydration technique followed by extrusion cycle and characterized for in vitro and in vivo. Stealth liposomes (SLs) exhibited increase in percent encapsulation efficiency (94%) and 52% percent of drug retention during release studies in 24 h with good stability for a period of 1 month at -20°C and 4°C. SLs showed about maximum 55% of edema inhibition with significant analgesic effect. SLs produced marked differences over those of non-SL formulations with an increase in area under plasma concentration time curve, t₁/₂, mean residence time, and reduced clearance. 0.3% of the drug was detected in arthritic induced paw with significantly reduced drug localization in liver, spleen, and kidney for SLs when compared to other conventional liposomes. Thus SLs help to increase the therapeutic efficacy of KTM by increasing the targeting potential at the inflammatory region.

Keywords: biodistribution, ketorolac tromethamine, stealth liposomes, thin film hydration technique

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Authors: Maryam Ziaee

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This research proposes a new approach and provides an opportunity for manufacturing companies to produce large amounts of products that meet their prospective customers’ tastes, needs, and expectations and simultaneously enable manufacturers to increase their profit. Mass customization is the production of products or services to meet each individual customer’s desires to the greatest possible extent in high quantities and at reasonable prices. This process takes place at different levels such as the customization of goods’ design, assembly, sale, and delivery status, and classifies in several categories. The main focus of this study is on one class of mass customization, called optional customization, in which companies try to provide their customers with as many options as possible to customize their products. These options could range from the design phase to the manufacturing phase, or even methods of delivery. Mass customization values customers’ tastes, but it is only one side of clients’ satisfaction; on the other side is companies’ fast responsiveness delivery. It brings the concept of agility, which is the ability of a company to respond rapidly to changes in volatile markets in terms of volume and variety. Indeed, mass customization is not effectively feasible without integrating the concept of agility. To gain the customers’ satisfaction, the companies need to be quick in responding to their customers’ demands, thus highlighting the significance of agility. This research offers a different method that successfully integrates mass customization and fast production in manufacturing industries. This research is built upon the hypothesis that the success key to being agile in mass customization is to forecast demand, cooperate with suppliers, and control inventory. Therefore, the significance of the supply chain (SC) is more pertinent when it comes to this stage. Since SC behavior is dynamic and its behavior changes constantly, companies have to apply one of the predicting techniques to identify the changes associated with SC behavior to be able to respond properly to any unwelcome events. System dynamics utilized in this research is a simulation approach to provide a mathematical model among different variables to understand, control, and forecast SC behavior. The final stage is delayed differentiation, the production strategy considered in this research. In this approach, the main platform of products is produced and stocked and when the company receives an order from a customer, a specific customized feature is assigned to this platform and the customized products will be created. The main research question is to what extent applying system dynamics for the prediction of SC behavior improves the agility of mass customization. This research is built upon a qualitative approach to bring about richer, deeper, and more revealing results. The data is collected through interviews and is analyzed through NVivo software. This proposed model offers numerous benefits such as reduction in the number of product inventories and their storage costs, improvement in the resilience of companies’ responses to their clients’ needs and tastes, the increase of profits, and the optimization of productivity with the minimum level of lost sales.

Keywords: agility, manufacturing, resilience, supply chain

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Authors: Henry Lau, Dilupa Nakandala, Li Zhao

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All along the length of the supply chain, fresh food firms face the challenge of managing both product quality, due to the perishable nature of the products, and product cost. This paper develops a method to assist logistics managers upstream in the fresh food supply chain in making cost optimized decisions regarding transportation, with the objective of minimizing the total cost while maintaining the quality of food products above acceptable levels. Considering the case of multiple fresh food products collected from multiple farms being transported to a warehouse or a retailer, this study develops a total cost model that includes various costs incurred during transportation. The practical application of the model is illustrated by using several computational intelligence approaches including Genetic Algorithms (GA), Fuzzy Genetic Algorithms (FGA) as well as an improved Simulated Annealing (SA) procedure applied with a repair mechanism for efficiency benchmarking. We demonstrate the practical viability of these approaches by using a simulation study based on pertinent data and evaluate the simulation outcomes. The application of the proposed total cost model was demonstrated using three approaches of GA, FGA and SA with a repair mechanism. All three approaches are adoptable; however, based on the performance evaluation, it was evident that the FGA is more likely to produce a better performance than the other two approaches of GA and SA. This study provides a pragmatic approach for supporting logistics and supply chain practitioners in fresh food industry in making important decisions on the arrangements and procedures related to the transportation of multiple fresh food products to a warehouse from multiple farms in a cost-effective way without compromising product quality. This study extends the literature on cold supply chain management by investigating cost and quality optimization in a multi-product scenario from farms to a retailer and, minimizing cost by managing the quality above expected quality levels at delivery. The scalability of the proposed generic function enables the application to alternative situations in practice such as different storage environments and transportation conditions.

Keywords: cost optimization, food supply chain, fuzzy sets, genetic algorithms, product quality, transportation

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Authors: T. Yuri, M. Zagloel, Inaki M. Hakim, Tegu Bintang Nugraha

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In an era of customer centricity, automotive parts manufacturer in Indonesia must be able to keep up with the uncertainty and fluctuation of consumer demand. Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) is a strategy to react to predicted and unpredicted changes of demand in automotive industry. This research is about flexible mixed model assembly line design through Value Stream Mapping (VSM) and Line Balancing in mixed model assembly line prior to simulation. It uses value stream mapping to identify and reduce waste while finding the best position to add or reduce manpower. Line balancing is conducted to minimize or maximize production rate while increasing assembly line productivity and efficiency. Results of this research is a recommendation of standard work combination for specifics demand scenario which can enhance assembly line efficiency and productivity.

Keywords: automotive industry, demand uncertainty, flexible assembly system, line balancing, value stream mapping

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Authors: Ahmed Shaik

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Estimates are very critical in accounting and Financial Reporting cannot be complete without these estimates. There is a long list of accounting estimates that are required to be made to compute Net Income and to determine the value of assets and liabilities. To name a few, valuation of inventory, depreciation, valuation of goodwill, provision for bad debts and estimated warranties, etc. require the use of different valuation models and forecasts. Different business entities under the same industry may use different approaches to measure the value of financial items being reported in Income Statement and Balance Sheet. The disclosure notes do not provide enough details of the approach used by a business entity to arrive at the value of a financial item. Lack of details in the disclosure notes makes it difficult to compare the financial performance of one business entity with the other in the same industry. This paper is an attempt to identify the lack of enough information about accounting estimates in disclosure notes, the impact of the absence of details of accounting estimates on the comparability of financial data and financial analysis. An attempt is made to suggest the detailed disclosure while taking care of the cost and benefit of making such disclosure.

Keywords: accounting estimates, disclosure notes, financial reporting, transparency

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Authors: Colm Barcoe, Garvan Whelan

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This study examines how a destination marketing organisation can use social media channels to engage the interests of the US and Canadian markets in a way that maximises the number of visits (and revisits) to Ireland. The research reveals how the cultural link between Ireland and North America is exploited through the use of social media strategies. The findings are based on quantitative and qualitative empirical data obtained through a survey of North American holidaymakers in the pre, during and post trip phases coupled with in-depth interviews of 20 industry experts who are responsible for the implementation of relationship marketing strategies for this segment. The qualitative data was analysed using Netnography in order to provide insights into the effectiveness of various social media channels in developing cultural links between Ireland and North American tourists. The findings of this investigation will extend an under-researched body of literature pertaining to Ireland and North America. The empirical evidence of this study will be of value to both academics and industry practitioners.

Keywords: Ireland, marketing, North America, relationship, strategies

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Authors: Syed Muhammad Basit Ali, Usama Saleem, Irtiza Ali

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Internal combustion engines have been pioneers in the aviation industry, use of piston engines for aircraft propulsion, from propeller-driven bi-planes to turbo-prop, commercial, and cargo airliners. To provide an adequate amount of thrust piston engine rotates the propeller at a specific rpm, allowing enough mass airflow. Thrust is the only forward-acting force of an aircraft that helps heavier than air bodies to fly, depending on the mathematical model and variables included in that with the correct measurement. Test-benches have been a bench-mark in the aerospace industry to analyse the results before a flight, having paramount significance in reliability and safety engineering, depending on the mathematical model and variables included in that with the correct measurement. Calculation of thrust from a piston engine also depends on environmental changes, the diameter of the propeller, and the density of air. The project would be centered on piston engines used in the aviation industry for light aircraft and UAVs. A static thrust test bench involves various units, each performing a designed purpose to monitor and display. Static thrust tests are performed on the ground, and safety concerns hold paramount importance. The execution of this study involves research, design, manufacturing, and results based on reverse engineering initiating from virtual design, analytical analysis, and simulations. The final evaluation of results gathered from various methods such as co-relation between conventional mass-spring and digital loadcell. On average, we received 17.5kg of thrust (25+ engine run-ups – around 40 hours of engine run), only 10% deviation from analytically calculated thrust –providing 90% accuracy.

Keywords: aviation, aeronautics, static thrust, test bench, aircraft maintenance

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Authors: Eng Toon Saw, Kun Liang Ang, Wei He, Xuecheng Dong, Seeram Ramakrishna

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Solvent recovery process is receiving utmost attention in recent year due to the scarcity of natural resource and consciousness of circular economy in chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing process. Solvent dehydration process is one of the important process to recover and to purify the solvent for reuse. Due to the complexity of solvent waste or wastewater effluent produced in pharmaceutical industry resulting the wastewater treatment process become complicated, thus an alternative solution is to recover the valuable solvent in solvent waste. To treat solvent waste and to upgrade solvent purity, membrane pervaporation process is shown to be a promising technology due to the energy intensive and low footprint advantages. Ceramic membrane is adopted as solvent dehydration membrane owing to the chemical and thermal stability properties as compared to polymeric membrane. NaA zeolite membrane is generally used as solvent dehydration process because of its narrow and distinct pore size and high hydrophilicity. NaA zeolite membrane has been mainly applied in alcohol dehydration in fermentation process. At this stage, the membrane performance exhibits high separation factor with low flux using tubular ceramic membrane. Thus, defect free and ultrathin NaA membrane should be developed to increase water flux. Herein, we report a simple preparation protocol to prepare ultrathin NaA zeolite membrane supported on tubular ceramic membrane by controlling the seed size synthesis, seeding methods and conditions, ceramic substrate surface pore size selection and secondary growth conditions. The microstructure and morphology of NaA zeolite membrane will be examined and reported. Moreover, the membrane separation performance and stability will also be reported in isopropanol dehydration, ketone dehydration and ester dehydration particularly for the application in pharmaceutical industry.

Keywords: ceramic membrane, NaA zeolite, pharmaceutical industry, solvent recovery

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Authors: Zhang Xue

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Urban public green spaces have evolved from classical private gardens and have expanded into multi-dimensional space value attributes such as scale and property rights. Among them, ecological, environmental value, social interaction value, and commercial, economic value have become consensual value characteristics. From the perspective of institutional economics, urban public green spaces, as a type of non-exclusive and non-competitive public good, express the social connotation of spatial "publicness" and multiple values are its important attributes. However, due to the positive externality characteristics of public green spaces, the cost-benefit functions between subjects are inconsistent, leading to issues such as the "anti-commons tragedy" of transitional management, lack of public sense of space responsibility, and weakened public nature. It is necessary to enhance the "publicness" of urban public green spaces through effective institutional arrangements, inclusive planning participation, and humane management measures, promoting urban public openness and the enhancement of multiple values.

Keywords: public green spaces, publicness, governance, institutional economics

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Authors: John Akpesiri Olotewo

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One of the controversies in existing marketing literatures is on how to retain existing and new customers to have repurchase intention in the long-run; however, empirical answer to this question is scanty in existing studies. Thus, this study investigates the moderating effect of consumer loyalty on long-run repurchase intentions in telecommunication industry using Lagos State environs. The study adopted field survey research design using questionnaire to elicit responses from 250 respondents who were selected using random and stratified random sampling techniques from the telecommunication industry in Lagos State, Nigeria. The internal consistency of the research instrument was verified using the Cronbach’s alpha, the result of 0.89 implies the acceptability of the internal consistency of the survey instrument. The test of the research hypotheses were analyzed using Pearson Product Method of Correlation (PPMC), simple regression analysis and inferential statistics with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Science version 20.0 (SPSS). The study confirmed that customer satisfaction has a significant relationship with customer loyalty in the telecommunication industry; also Service quality has a significant relationship with customer loyalty to a brand; loyalty programs have a significant relationship with customer loyalty to a network operator in Nigeria and Customer loyalty has a significant effect on the long run repurchase intentions of the customer. The study concluded that one of the determinants of long term profitability of a business entity is the long run repurchase intentions of its customers which hinges on the level of brand loyalty of the customer. Thus, it was recommended that service providers in Nigeria should improve on factors like customer satisfaction, service quality, and loyalty programs in order to increase the loyalty of their customer to their brands thereby increasing their repurchase intentions.

Keywords: customer loyalty, long run repurchase intentions, brands, service quality and customer satisfaction

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Authors: Frank Frimpong Opuni, Michael Mba Allan, Kwame Adu-Gyamfi, Michael Sarkodie Baffoe

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This paper assesses the effect of relationship marketing on service quality and customer satisfaction from the perspective of the moderating role of emotional intelligence in the insurance industry in Ghana. A descriptive quantitative research technique was employed. A random sample of 384 each of customers and service providers in 3 insurance firms in Accra were used as the source of data. According to findings, emotional intelligence makes a strong positive effect on relationship marketing at 5% significance level, r (283) = .817, p = .000. Though relationship marketing makes a strong positive effect on service quality (r = .767, p < .05) and customer satisfaction (r = .647, p < .05), this effect becomes insignificant (p > .05) when the effect of emotional intelligence on relationship marketing is controlled for. It is therefore recommended that insurance firms give priority to equipping their relationship employees with emotional intelligence to maximise service quality and customer satisfaction.

Keywords: relationship marketing, service quality, customer satisfaction, emotional intelligence

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Authors: Mariam Musaddiq, Muhammad Ali Asadullah

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Psychological safety is referred as a 'nonthreatening' and 'predictable' work environment leading employees, particularly interested to contribute positively to the organization, to engage and express their true selves at work without suffering negative results. We posit that the employee who is feeling psychologically safe experiences positive emotions, feels happy and shows helping behavior towards his coworkers and supervisors. Particularly, the supervisor reciprocates this helping behavior in form of greater satisfaction to the employee showing helping behavior. We tested our hypothesis in light of Feedback system theory and functional motive theory. We collected data from 453 employees and their supervisor in Pakistani hotels and restaurants through survey method. Result showed that positive affect and helping behavior mediate the relationship between psychological safety and supervisor satisfaction. Cross sectional design of the study is a major limitation of the study. Moreover, we focused on psychological safety only that is one of three dimensions of psychological conditions.

Keywords: affect, helping behavior, psychological safety, supervisor, supervisor satisfaction

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Authors: Mary Okocha

Abstract:

Over the past two decades, since it came into existence, the Nigerian film industry, also known as Nollywood, has taken a global phenomenon and is reckoned with by most Africans at home or in Diaspora. The themes portrayed in these movies are supposedly made to reflect the social, cultural, economic and religious situations prevalent in Nigeria as well as most African countries. Stories are especially effective in cultural processes because they involve audiences by entertaining them and by challenging them to make sense of the story's symbolic meaning. Using two Nigerian movies, Mammi and Arugba, this paper aims at critically examining the pressures that society places on the Nigerian female and how this same society fails to lend a helping hand in making this possible, but rather turns back to heap blames and question the virtues of the females if, on the long run, these expectations are not met inconsiderate of the circumstances that stood in their ways and how these pressures have stood against the progress of the Nigerian woman. Furthermore, female respondents will be randomly selected and their opinions will be sorted through questionnaires to see what they feel could be done to help in overcoming these challenges and how the movie industry can help in repositioning the Nigerian woman.

Keywords: Nollywood, Nigerian films, audiences, Nigerian woman, Nigerian society, female respondents, repositioning women, societal pressures

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Authors: Nariman O. Kandil, Ehab K. Abou-Elkheir, Amr M. Kotb

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Effective IT governance guarantees the strategic alignment of IT and business goals, risk mitigation control, and better IT and business performance. This study seeks to examine empirically the extent of IT governance implementation within the firms listed on the Egyptian stock exchange (EGX30) and its determinants. Accordingly, 18 semi-structured interviews face to face, phone, and video-conferencing interviews using various tools (e.g., WebEx, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams) were undertaken at the interviewees’ offices in Egypt between the end of November 2019 and the end of August 2020. Results suggest that there are variances in the extent of IT Governance (ITG) implementation within the firms listed on the Egyptian stock exchange (EGX30), mainly caused by the industry type and internal and external triggers. The results also suggest that the organization size, the type of auditor, the criticality of the industry, the effective processes & KPIs, and the information intensity expertise of the CIO have a significant impact on IT governance implementation within the firms.

Keywords: effective IT governance, Egyptian market, information security, risk controls

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Authors: F. Bellali, M. Kharroubi, Y. Rady, N. Bourhim

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In Morocco, fish processing industry is an important source income for a large amount of by-products including skins, bones, heads, guts, and scales. Those underutilized resources particularly scales contain a large amount of proteins and calcium. Sardina plichardus scales from resulting from the transformation operation have the potential to be used as raw material for the collagen production. Taking into account this strong expectation of the regional fish industry, scales sardine upgrading is well justified. In addition, political and societal demands for sustainability and environment-friendly industrial production systems, coupled with the depletion of fish resources, drive this trend forward. Therefore, fish scale used as a potential source to isolate collagen has a wide large of applications in food, cosmetic, and biomedical industry. The main aim of this study is to isolate and characterize the acid solubilize collagen from sardine fish scale, Sardina pilchardus. Experimental design methodology was adopted in collagen processing for extracting optimization. The first stage of this work is to investigate the optimization conditions of the sardine scale deproteinization on using response surface methodology (RSM). The second part focus on the demineralization with HCl solution or EDTA. And the last one is to establish the optimum condition for the isolation of collagen from fish scale by solvent extraction. The advancement from lab scale to pilot scale is a critical stage in the technological development. In this study, the optimal condition for the deproteinization which was validated at laboratory scale was employed in the pilot scale procedure. The deproteinization of fish scale was then demonstrated on a pilot scale (2Kg scales, 20l NaOH), resulting in protein content (0,2mg/ml) and hydroxyproline content (2,11mg/l). These results indicated that the pilot-scale showed similar performances to those of lab-scale one.

Keywords: deproteinization, pilot scale, scale, sardine pilchardus

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Authors: Niloofar Alipoormazandarani

Abstract:

The rift environmental, efficiency and being environmental-friendly of these innovative food packaging in edible films made them as an alternative to synthetic packages. This issue has been widely studied in this experiment. Some of the greatest advances in food packaging industry is associated with nanotechnology. Recently, a polysaccharide extracted from the cell wall of soybean cotyledons: A soluble soybean polysaccharide (SSPS), a pectin-like structure. In this study, the addition (0%, 1%, 3%, and 5%) of nano silica dioxide (SiO2) film is examined SSPS in different features. The research aims to investigate the effect of nano-SiO2 on the physicochemical and electromagnetic properties of the SSPS films were sonicated and then heated to the melting point, besides the addition of plasticizer. After that, it has been cooled into the room temperature and were dried with Casting method. In final examinations,improvement in Moisture Content and Water Absorption was observed with a significant decrease.Also, in Color measurements there were some obvious differences. These reports indicate that the incorporation of nano-SiO2 and SSPS has the power to be extensively used in pharmaceutical and food packaging industry as well.

Keywords: SSPS, NanoSiO2, food packaging, renewable films

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Authors: J. Balaraju, M. Govinda Raj, C. S. N. Murthy

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Every industry is constantly looking for enhancement of its day to day production and productivity. This can be possible only by maintaining the men and machinery at its adequate level. Prediction of performance characteristics plays an important role in performance evaluation of the equipment. Analytical and statistical approaches will take a bit more time to solve complex problems such as performance estimations as compared with software-based approaches. Keeping this in view the present study deals with an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) modelling of a Load-Haul-Dump (LHD) machine to predict the performance characteristics such as reliability, availability and preventive maintenance (PM). A feed-forward-back-propagation ANN technique has been used to model the Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) training algorithm. The performance characteristics were computed using Isograph Reliability Workbench 13.0 software. These computed values were validated using predicted output responses of ANN models. Further, recommendations are given to the industry based on the performed analysis for improvement of equipment performance.

Keywords: load-haul-dump, LHD, artificial neural network, ANN, performance, reliability, availability, preventive maintenance

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Authors: Tarana Siddika, Ilka U. Heinemann, Patrick O’Donoghue

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Protein kinase B (AKT1) is a serine/threonine kinase and central transducer of cell survival pathways. Typical approaches to study AKT1 biology in cells rely on growth factor or insulin stimulation that activates AKT1 via phosphorylation at two key regulatory sites (Threonine308, Serine473), yet cell stimulation also activates many other kinases and fails to differentiate the effect of the two main activating sites of AKT1 on downstream substrate phosphorylation and cell growth. While both AKT1 activating sites are associated with disease and used as clinical markers, in some cancers, high levels of Threonine308 phosphorylation are associated with poor prognosis while in others poor survival correlates with high Serine473 levels. To produce cells with specific AKT1 activity, a system was developed to deliver active AKT1 to human cells. AKT1 phospho-variants were produced from Escherichia coli with programmed phosphorylation by genetic code expansion. Tagging of AKT1 with an N-terminal cell penetrating peptide tag derived from the human immunodeficiency virus trans-activator of transcription (TAT) helped to enter AKT1 proteins in mammalian cells. The TAT-tag did not alter AKT1 kinase activity and was necessary and sufficient to rapidly deliver AKT1 protein variants that persisted in human cells for 24 h without the need to use transfection reagents. TAT-pAKT1T308, TAT-pAKT1S473 and TAT-pAKT1T308S473 proteins induced selective phosphorylation of the known AKT1 substrate GSK-3αβ, and downstream stimulation of the AKT1 pathway as evidenced by phosphorylation of ribosomal protein S6 at Serine240/244 in transfected cells. Increase in cell growth and proliferation was observed due to the transfection of different phosphorylated AKT1 protein variants compared to cells with TAT-AKT1 protein. The data demonstrate efficient delivery of AKT1 with programmed phosphorylation to human cells, thus establishing a cell-based model system to investigate signaling that is dependent on specific AKT1 activity and phosphorylation.

Keywords: cell penetrating peptide, cell signaling, protein kinase b (AKT1), phosphorylation

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