Search results for: tax planning

Authors: Mehdi Ganjkhani, Sobhan Badakhshan, Seyedvahid Hosseini

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Power plants exploit striking proportion of underground water consumption. Correspondingly, natural gas-fired power plants need less water than the other conventional power plants. Therefore, shifting unit commitment planning toward these power plants would help to save water consumption. This paper discusses the impacts of water consumption limitation on natural gas consumption and vice versa as a short-term water consumption management solution. To do so, conventional unit commitment problem is extended by adding water consumption and natural gas constraints to the previous constrains. The paper presents the impact of water saving on natural gas demands as well as natural gas shortage on water demand. Correspondingly, the additional cost of electricity production according to the aforementioned constraints is evaluated. Finally, a test system is applied to investigate potentials and impacts of water saving and natural gas shortage. Different scenarios are conducted and the results are presented. The results of the study illustrate that in order to use less water for power production it needs to use more natural gas. Meanwhile, natural gas shortage causes to utilize more amount of water in aggregate.

Keywords: electric energy generation system, underground water sources, unit commitment, water consumption saving, natural gas

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Authors: Gerson E. Cornejo, Luis A. Gamarra, David S. Mauricio

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The Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP) allows the integration of all the business processes of the functional areas of the companies, in order to automate and standardize the processes, obtain accurate information and improve decision making in time real. In Peru, 79% of medium and small companies (SMEs) do not use any management software, this is because it is believed that ERPs are expensive, complex and difficult to implement. However, for more than 20 years there have been Open Source ERPs, which are more accessible and have the same benefit as proprietary ERPs, but there is little information on the implementation process. In this work is made a case of study, in order to show the implementation process of an Open Source ERP, Odoo, based on the ASAP methodology (Accelerated SAP) and applied to a company of corrective and preventive maintenance services of vehicles. The ERP allowed the SME to standardize its business processes, increase its productivity, reducing up to 40% certain processes. The study of this case shows that it is feasible and profitable to implement an Open Source ERP in SMEs in the Automotive Sector of Peru. In addition, it is shown that the ASAP methodology is adequate to carry out Open Source ERPs implementation projects.

Keywords: ASAP, automotive sector, ERP implementation, open source

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Authors: Pooja Pandey

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The role of communication plays an integral part in the management of any disaster, whether natural or human-induced, both require effective and strategic delivery of information. The way any information is conveyed carries the most weight while dealing with the disaster. Hence, integrating communication strategies in disaster risk management (DRM) are extensively acknowledged however, these integration and planning are missing from the practical books. Researchers are continuously exploring integrated DRM and have established substantial vents between research and implementation of the strategies (gaps between science and policy). For this reason, this paper reviews the communication barriers that obstruct effective management of the disaster. Communication between first responders (government agencies, police, medical services) and the public (people directly affected by the disaster) is most critical and lacks proper delivery during a disaster. And these challenges can only be resolved if the foundation of the problem is properly dealt with, which is resolving the issues within the organizations. Through this study, it was found that it is necessary to build the communication gap between the organizations themselves as most of the hindrances occur during the mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery phase of the disaster. The study is concluded with the main aim to review the communication barriers within and at the organizational, technological, and social levels that impact effective DRM. In the end, some suggestions are made to strengthen the knowledge for future improvement in communication between the responders and their organizations.

Keywords: communication, organization, barriers, first responders, disaster risk management

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Authors: Nwachukwu M. A., Nwachukwu J. I., Anyanwu J., Emeka U., Okorondu J., Acholonu C.

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Actualization of the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) conceived by the United Nations in 2015 is a global challenge that may not be feasible in sub-Saharan Africa by the year 2030, except universities play a committed role. This is because; there is a need to educate the people about the concepts of sustainability and sustainable development in the region to make the desired change. Here is a sensitization paper with a model of intervention and curricular planning to allow advancement in understanding and knowledge of SDGs. This Model Center for Sustainability Studies (MCSS) will enable partnerships with institutions in Africa and in advanced nations, thereby creating a global network for sustainability studies not found in sub-Saharan Africa. MCSS will train and certify public servants, government agencies, policymakers, entrepreneurs and personnel from organizations, and students on aspects of the SDGs and sustainability science. There is a need to add sustainability knowledge into environmental education and make environmental education a compulsory course in higher institutions and a secondary school certificate exam subject in sub-Saharan Africa. MCSS has 11 training modules that can be replicated anywhere in the world.

Keywords: sustainability, higher institutions, training, SDGs, collaboration, sub-Saharan Africa

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Authors: Qurat Ul Ain Bashir

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Since the inception of Pakistan Tourism industry was not on developed level but afterwards 9/11 the tourism has declined rapidly in the country. Despite Northern areas full potential, rich historical and cultural heritage, natural beauty, museums, art galleries, hiking tracks, tourism is not getting that response in Pakistan, which it deserves. In fact Pakistan has been blessed with all the features that could make her a tourist destination. On the other side the attitude of the local people, socio-political condition, lack of facilities of international standards, media’s way of reporting about country, governments’ negligence etc has more adversely affected the international tourism than domestic tourism. From 2013 onward some developments in the said industry has been shown but that is not much encouraging. In 2017 approximately two million tourist visited Pakistan in comparison to 1.75 million in 2016. In the light of above debate the paper attempts to diagnose the causes which are not allowing the reasonable growth of tourism in Pakistan and suggests steps which must be taken to develop the industry through a large scale campaign and long term planning. The methodology about this research is quantitative with reference to description, analysis and recommendations. The material would be collected from the government publications, articles, surveys, tourist accounts, books, internet, magazines.

Keywords: tourism, terrorism, barriers, infrastructure, culture, northern areas

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Authors: Mohammad Rusdi Mohd Nasir, Ismail Hafiz Salleh

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Kota Bharu, as an Islamic City, represents a symbolic icon in the urban development of the Islamic state of Kelantan, Malaysia. This research seeks to provide a basis for new approaches to landscape planning that shows greater respect for the traditional vernacular landscape. In addition, this research also intends to distinguish the prospects for the future Kelantan Malay cultural landscape, building upon the multiple historical influences in the evolution of the cultural landscape using multiple methods including literature review, observation, document analysis and content analysis. The study of the Kelantan Malay cultural landscape is particularly important in view of its distinctive contribution to Malay heritage by identifying the elements, characteristics, history and their influences. As a result, this research recognizes the importance of incorporating the existing heritage alongside contemporary design as well as further research on the Kelantan Malay cultural landscape. Optimistically, there will be better landscape practices in the future to understand the past, the present and the future prospects of the vernacular tradition, in order to ensure that our architecture, landscape and urbanism practices express its values.

Keywords: Malay culture, Malay heritage, cultural landscape, Islamic concept

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Authors: Omar Amoudi, Mariya Khalid

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The limitation of the public funds for the infrastructure projects and with the deterioration of international oil prices and the negative consequences on the economies of oil producing and exporting countries, Oman has encouraged the partnership between the public and private sectors. As the private sector has a role in planning, financing, designing, operating and the maintenance of the public services. There is no doubt that, the adoption of Public Private Partnership (PPP) strategy faces many challenges which might affect the project seriously if it is not overcome in earlier time. These challenges depend on the level of understanding of the strategy, the roles and regulations and the availability of resources as well. This research aims at identifying the challenges facing the PPP infrastructure projects in Oman based on the similar previous studies supported by questionnaire survey and semi structured interviews. It also seeks to discuss the rationale for adoption in Oman and uncover the current status of PPP strategy. The identified challenges were ranked according to the importance index of each challenge. After analysis of data, it has observed that, the main challenges facing PPPs projects in Oman are high participation cost, high projects cost and regulation changes. The PPP strategy has to be adopted well and with a high level of experience in order to ensure a successful implementation of PPP projects in Oman.

Keywords: public private partnership (PPP), challenges, infrastructure, Oman

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Authors: Mohammadjavad Mahdavinejad, Hadi Yazdi

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The greatest influence we have from the world is shaped through the visual form, thus light is an inseparable element in human life. The use of daylight in visual perception and environment readability is an important issue for users. With regard to the hazards of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels, and in line with the attitudes on the reduction of energy consumption, the correct use of daylight results in lower levels of energy consumed by artificial lighting, heating and cooling systems. Windows are usually the starting points for analysis and simulations to achieve visual comfort and energy optimization; therefore, attention should be paid to the orientation of buildings to minimize electrical energy and maximize the use of daylight. In this paper, by using the Design Builder Software, the effect of the orientation of an 18m²(3m*6m) room with 3m height in city of Tehran has been investigated considering the design constraint limitations. In these simulations, the dimensions of the building have been changed with one degree and the window is located on the smaller face (3m*3m) of the building with 80% ratio. The results indicate that the orientation of building has a lot to do with energy efficiency to meet high-performance architecture and planning goals and objectives.

Keywords: daylight, window, orientation, energy consumption, design builder

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Authors: Guyue Zhu, Liangping Hong

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Chinese overall urban design faces a large number of problems such as the neglect of urban characteristics, generalization of content, and difficulty in implementation. Focusing on these issues, this paper proposes the main points of shaping urban characteristics in overall urban design: focuses on core problems in city function and scale, landscape pattern, historical culture, social resources and modern city style and digs the urban characteristic genes. Then, we put forward “core problem location and characteristic gene enhancement” as a kind of overall urban design technical method. Firstly, based on the main problems in urban space as a whole, for the operability goal, the method extracts the key genes and integrates into the multi-dimension system in a targeted manner. Secondly, hierarchical management and guidance system is established which may be in line with administrative management. Finally, by converting the results, action plan is drawn up that can be dynamically implemented. Based on the above idea and method, a practical exploration has been performed in the case of Xiangyang central city.

Keywords: city characteristics, overall urban design, planning implementation, Xiangyang central city

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Authors: Vishal A. S. Salelkar, Sumitra S. Kandolkar

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Golden ratio (ф) or Golden mean or Golden section, as it is often referred to, is a proportion or a mean, which is often used by architects while conceiving the aesthetics of a structure. Golden Ratio (ф) is an irrational number that can be roughly rounded to 1.618 and is derived out of quadratic equation x2-x-1=0. The use of Golden Ratio (ф) can be observed throughout history, as far as ancient Egyptians, which later peaked during the Greek golden age. The use of this design technique is very much prevalent. At present, architects around the world prefer this as one of the primary techniques to decide aesthetics. In this study, an analysis has been performed to investigate whether the use of the golden ratio while planning a structure has any effects on the seismic behavior of the structure. The structure is modeled and analyzed on ETABS (by Computers and Structures, Inc.) for Seismic requirements equivalent to Zone III (Region: Goa-India) as per Indian Standard Code IS-1893. The results were compared to that of an identical structure modeled along the lines of normal design philosophy, not using the Golden Ratio tools. The results were then compared for Story Shear, Story Drift, and Story Displacement Readings. Improvement in performance, although slight, but was observed. Similar improvements were also observed in subsequent iterations, performed using time-acceleration data of previous major earthquakes matched to Zone III as per IS-1893.

Keywords: ETABS, golden ratio, seismic design, structural behavior

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Authors: Silvia Baralla, Raffaella Zucaro, Romina Lorenzetti

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Water management needs to cope with economic, societal, and environmental changes. This could be guaranteed through 'shifting from government to governance'. In the last decades, it was applied in Europe through and within important legislative pillars (Water Framework Directive and Common Agricultural Policy) and their measures focused on resilience and adaptation to climate change, with particular attention to the creation of synergies among policies and all the actors involved at different levels. Within the climate change context, the agricultural sector can play, through sustainable water management, a leading role for climate-resilient growth and environmental integrity. A recent analysis on the water management governance of different countries identified some common gaps dealing with administrative, policy, information, capacity building, funding, objective, and accountability. The ability of a country to fill these gaps is an essential requirement to make some of the changes requested by Europe, in particular the improvement of the agro-ecosystem resilience to the effect of climatic change, supporting green and digital transitions, and sustainable water use. This research aims to contribute in sharing examples of water governances and related advantages useful to fill the highlighted gaps. Italy has developed a strong and exhaustive model of water governance in order to react with strategic and synergic actions since it is one of the European countries most threatened by climate change and its extreme events (drought, floods). In particular, the Italian water governance model was able to overcome several gaps, specifically as concerns the water use in agriculture, adopting strategies as a systemic/integrated approach, the stakeholder engagement, capacity building, the improvement of planning and monitoring ability, and an adaptive/resilient strategy for funding activities. They were carried out, putting in place regulatory, structural, and management actions. Regulatory actions include both the institution of technical committees grouping together water decision-makers and the elaboration of operative manuals and guidelines by means of a participative and cross-cutting approach. Structural actions deal with the funding of interventions within European and national funds according to the principles of coherence and complementarity. Finally, management actions regard the introduction of operational tools to support decision-makers in order to improve planning and monitoring ability. In particular, two cross-functional and interoperable web databases were introduced: SIGRIAN (National Information System for Water Resources Management in Agriculture) and DANIA (National Database of Investments for Irrigation and the Environment). Their interconnection allows to support sustainable investments, taking into account the compliance about irrigation volumes quantified in SIGRIAN, ensuring a high level of attention on water saving, and monitoring the efficiency of funding. Main positive results from the Italian water governance model deal with a synergic and coordinated work at the national, regional, and local level among institutions, the transparency on water use in agriculture, a deeper understanding from the stakeholder side of the importance of their roles and of their own potential benefits and the capacity to guarantee continuity to this model, through a sensitization process and the combined use of management operational tools.

Keywords: agricultural sustainability, governance model, water management, water policies

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Authors: Minsu Kim, Hae-Chang Cho, Jae Hoon Chung, Inwook Heo, Kang Su Kim

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For safe design of the UHPC flexural members, accurate estimations of their shear strengths are very important. However, since the shear strengths are significantly affected by various factors such as tensile strength of concrete, shear span to depth ratio, volume ratio of steel fiber, and steel fiber factor, the accurate estimations of their shear strengths are very challenging. In this study, therefore, the Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy System (ANFIS), which has been widely used to solve many complex problems in engineering fields, was introduced to estimate the shear strengths of UHPC flexural members. A total of 32 experimental results has been collected from previous studies for training of the ANFIS algorithm, and the well-trained ANFIS algorithm provided good estimations on the shear strengths of the UHPC test specimens. Acknowledgement: This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning(NRF-2016R1A2B2010277).

Keywords: ultra-high-performance concrete, ANFIS, shear strength, flexural member

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Authors: Swapna Begum, Higano Yoshiro

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Dhaka is the capital city of Bangladesh. It is considered as one of the traffic congested cities in the world. The growth of the population of this city is increasing day by day. The land use pattern and the increased socio-economic characteristics increase the motor vehicle ownership of this city. The rapid unplanned urbanization and poor transportation planning have deteriorated the transport environment of this city. Also, the huge travel demand with non-motorized traffics on streets is accounted for enormous traffic congestion in this city. The land transport sector in Dhaka is mainly dependent on road transport comprised of both motorized and non-motorized modes of travel. This improper modal mix and the un-integrated system have resulted in huge traffic congestion in this city. Moreover, this city has no well-organized public transport system and any Mass Transit System to cope with this ever increasing demand. Traffic congestion causes serious air pollution and adverse impact on the economy by deteriorating the accessibility, level of service, safety, comfort and operational efficiency. Therefore, there is an imperative need to introduce a well-organized, properly scheduled mass transit system like (Bus Rapid Transit) BRT minimizing the existing problems.

Keywords: air pollution, BRT, mass transit, traffic congestion

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Authors: Mazlynda Md Yusuf, Wafa' Mahadzir, Mohamad Yazis Ali Basah

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Nowadays, financing long-term care for elderly people is a crucial issue, either towards the family members or the care institution. Corresponding with the growing number of ageing population in Malaysia, there’s a need of concern on the uncertaintiness of future family care and the need for long-term care services. Moreover, with the increasing cost of living, children feels the urge of needing to work and receive a fixed monthly income that results to sending their elderly parents to care institutions. Currently, in Malaysia, the rates for private nursing homes can amount up to RM 4,000 per month excluding medical treatments and other recurring expenses. These costs are expected to be paid using their Employees Provident Fund (EPF) savings that they accumulate during their working years, especially for those working under private sectors. Hence, this study identifies the adequacy of EPF in funding the cost of long-term care service during old age. This study used a hypothetical simulation model to simulate different scenarios. The findings of this study could be used for individuals to prepare on the importance of planning for retirement, especially with the increasing cost of long-term care services.

Keywords: long-term care cost, employees provident fund Malaysia, ageing population, Malaysian elderly

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Authors: Seyedeh Mersedeh Banijamali, Ali Rajabzadeh

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Industrial development in recent centuries has been replaced by a sustainable development. The industry executives, particularly in the development countries are looking for procedures to protect the environment, improve their organization's performance. One of these approaches is the green supply chain management. Green supply chain management approach as a comprehensive approach to environmental management that contains all flows from suppliers to producers and ultimately to consumers, in many industries, particularly in the Steel industry, which has a strategic role in the country's industrial and economic development, has been receiving significant attention. The purpose of this study is examining the impact of green supply chain on chain operational performance in the Steel industry and formulating model for it. In this way, first the components of green supply chain (in 5 dimensions, planning, sourcing, making, delivery and return) have been prioritized through TOPSIS decision technique and then impact of these components on operational performance has been modeled with model dynamic systems and Vensim software. This research shows that green supply chain has a positive impact on operational performance and improve it.

Keywords: green supply chain, the dimensions of the green supply chain, operational performance, steel industry, dynamical systems

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Authors: Varun Singh, Mainak Bandyopadhyay, Maharana Pratap Singh

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The shortest path (SP) problem concerns with finding the shortest path from a specific origin to a specified destination in a given network while minimizing the total cost associated with the path. This problem has widespread applications. Important applications of the SP problem include vehicle routing in transportation systems particularly in the field of in-vehicle Route Guidance System (RGS) and traffic assignment problem (in transportation planning). Well known applications of evolutionary methods like Genetic Algorithms (GA), Ant Colony Optimization, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) have come up to solve complex optimization problems to overcome the shortcomings of existing shortest path analysis methods. It has been reported by various researchers that PSO performs better than other evolutionary optimization algorithms in terms of success rate and solution quality. Further Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have emerged as key information systems for geospatial data analysis and visualization. This research paper is focused towards the application of PSO for solving the shortest path problem between multiple points of interest (POI) based on spatial data of Allahabad City and traffic speed data collected using GPS. Geovisualization of results of analysis is carried out in GIS.

Keywords: particle swarm optimization, GIS, traffic data, outliers

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Authors: Anu Soikkelii, Laura Sorri

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Finnish national research project, User- and Business-oriented Suburb Renovation Concept (KLIKK), was started in January 2012 and will end in June 2014. The perspective of energy efficiency is emphasised in the project, but also it addresses what improving the energy efficiency of suburban apartment buildings means from the standpoint of architecturally valuable buildings representing different periods. The project will also test the impacts of stricter energy efficiency requirements on renovation projects. The primary goal of the project is to develop a user-oriented, industrial, economic renovation concept for suburban apartment building renovation, extension and construction of additional storeys. The concept will make it possible to change from performance- and cost-based operation to novel service- and user-oriented, site-specifically tailored renovation methods utilizing integrated order and delivery chains.The present project is collaborating with Ministry of the Environment and participating cities in developing a new type of lighter town planning model for suburban renovations and in-fill construction. To support this, the project will simultaneously develop practices for environmental impact assessment tools in renovation and suburban supplementary and in-fill construction.

Keywords: energy efficiency, prefabrication, renovation concept, suburbs, sustainability, user-orientated

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Authors: Shaker A. Aladwan

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This paper aims to explore the Barriers to innovation leadership in Jordanian public sector organizations. Qualitative approach was adopted, and content analysis was used to analyze the 18 assessment reports which are extracted from the public innovation award in Jordan, then, 20 semi-structured interviews were conducted with the key persons who are involved with innovation initiatives in the public sector organizations in Jordan. Several Barriersthat face the innovation leadership in the Jordanian public sector organizations. Managerially, the challenges include lack of innovation vision, implementation lack of innovation core values, lack of strategic planning for innovation, bad bureaucracy culture, and excessive centralization. Technically, the challenges include lack of task assignment for employees, lack of resources, lack of innovative training programs, lack of knowledge sharing, and the failure of governments to formulate policies and regulations. most of the studies focused on innovation in the non-public sector organizations, and most of them were conducted in the American and Western countries, which are different in terms of culture, kinds of innovation, barriers, and drivers. Thus, this paper provides new insights into barriers to innovation leadership in the public sector and in a new research context. This paper also provides a theoretical contribution by diagnosing the barriers facing innovation within the context of public administration in developing countries.

Keywords: innovation, excellence award, challenges, public sector, jordan

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Authors: Mohammad Ayub Khan

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With increased market segmentation and competition in the hotel industry, a hotel’s ability to constantly renovate its services and amenities is a business practice that can be termed as an attitude that is not only flexible but also malleable as a result of which a hotel/property is continually poised to face the ever-changing nature of the hospitality industry and upgrades that keep the hotel or brand in competition with current competitors. One such challenge is to competitively and creatively market value-added amenities, upgraded technology, and marketing all of these as a package to not only stay relevant in the market but also to retain and enhance revenues to ensure the future financial health of a hotel. This delicate balance between staying relevant and financially viable is a crucial challenge that this poster will explore, analyze, and present by specifically looking at the ability of a hotel/brand to effectively translate its theoretical need and practice of constantly staying updated, including strategically renovating, upgrading, modifying its services, into a tangible business practice. In what ways do hotels face this challenge? In what areas of the hotel is this business concept/action most effective and profitable are just some questions that this paper will attempt to answer.

Keywords: hospitality theory, renovations, value-added amenities, strategic planning

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Authors: Harold Jideofor Nnachetam

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Maintenance management in Nigeria Polytechnic faced many issues due to poor service delivery, inadequate finance, and poor maintenance plan and maintenance backlogs. The purpose of this study is to improve the conventional method practices which tend to be ineffective in Nigeria Polytechnic. The case study was conducted with eight Polytechnics in Nigeria. The selected Polytechnic is based on conventional method practices and its major problems, attempt to implement computerized technology and the willingness of staff to share their experiences. All feedbacks from respondents through semi-structured interview were recorded using video camera and transcribed verbatim. The overall findings of this research indicated; poor service delivery, inadequate financial, poor maintenance planning and maintenance backlogs. There is also need to overcome less man power competencies of maintenance management practices which existed with all eight Polytechnics. In addition, the study also found that the Polytechnics still use conventional maintenance management processes in managing building facility condition. As a result, the maintenance management staff was not able to improve the maintenance management performance at the Polytechnics. The findings are intended to be used for maintenance management practices at Nigeria Polytechnics in order to provide high-quality of building facility with safe and healthy environments.

Keywords: maintenance management, conventional method, maintenance management system, Nigeria polytechnic

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Authors: Ozgu Turgut

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Water scarcity is a problem for many regions which requires immediate action, and solutions cannot be postponed for a long time. It is known that farming consumes a significant portion of usable water. Although in recent years, the efforts to make the transition to dripping or spring watering systems instead of using surface watering started to pay off. It is also known that this transition is not necessarily translated into an increase in the capacity dedicated to other water consumption channels such as city water or power usage. In order to control and allocate the water resource more purposefully, new watering systems have to be used with monitoring abilities that can limit the usage capacity for each farm. In this study, a decision support model which relies on a bi-objective stochastic linear optimization is proposed, which takes crop yield and price volatility into account. The model generates annual planting plans as well as water usage limits for each farmer in the region while taking the total value (i.e., profit) of the overall harvest. The mathematical model is solved using the L-shaped method optimally. The decision support model can be especially useful for regional administrations to plan next year's planting and water incomes and expenses. That is why not only a single optimum but also a set of representative solutions from the Pareto set is generated with the proposed approach.

Keywords: decision support, farming, water, tactical planning, optimization, stochastic, pareto

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Authors: Pauliina Haustein

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Improvisation was part of Western classical concert culture and performers’ skill sets until early 20th century. Historical accounts, as well as recent studies, indicate that improvisatory elements in the programme may contribute specifically towards the audiences’ experience of enhanced emotional engagement during the concert. This paper presents findings from the author’s artistic practice research, which explored re-introducing improvisation to Western classical performance practice as a musician (cellist and ensemble partner/leader). In an investigation of four concert cycles, the performer-researcher sought to gain solo and chamber music improvisation techniques (both related to and independent of repertoire), conduct ensemble improvisation rehearsals, design concerts with an improvisatory approach, and reflect on interactions with audiences after each concert. Data was collected through use of reflective diary, video recordings, measurement of sound parameters, questionnaires, a focus group, and interviews. The performer’s empirical experiences and findings from audience research components were juxtaposed and interrogated to better understand the (1) rehearsal and planning processes that enable improvisatory elements to return to Western classical concert experience and (2) the emotional experience and type of engagement that occur throughout the concert experience for both performer and audience members. This informed the development of a concert model, in which a programme of solo and chamber music repertoire and improvisations were combined according to historically evidenced performance practice (including free formal solo and ensemble improvisations based on audience suggestions). Inspired by historical concert culture, where elements of risk-taking, spontaneity, and audience involvement (such as proposing themes for fantasies) were customary, this concert model invited musicians to contribute to the process personally and creatively at all stages, from programme planning, and throughout the live concert. The type of democratic, personal, creative, and empathetic collaboration that emerged, as a result, appears unique in Western classical contexts, rather finding resonance in jazz ensemble, drama, or interdisciplinary settings. The research identified features of ensemble improvisation, such as empathy, emergence, mutual engagement, and collaborative creativity, that became mirrored in audience’s responses, generating higher levels of emotional engagement, empathy, inclusivity, and a participatory, co-creative experience. It appears that duringimprovisatory moments in the concert programme, audience members started feeling more like active participants in za\\a creative, collaborative exchange and became stakeholders in a deeper phenomenon of meaning-making and narrativization. Examining interactions between all involved during the concert revealed that performer-audience impulse exchange occurred on multiple levels of awareness and seemed to build upon each other, resulting in particularly strong experiences of both performer and audience’s engagement. This impact appeared especially meaningful for audience members who were seldom concertgoers and reported little familiarity with classical music. The study found that re-introducing improvisatory elements to Western classical concert programmes has strong potential in increasing audience’s emotional engagement with the musical performance, enabling audience members to connect more personally with the individual performers, and in reaching new-to-classical-music audiences.

Keywords: artistic research, audience engagement, audience experience, classical improvisation, ensemble improvisation, emotional engagement, improvisation, improvisatory approach, musical performance, practice research

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Authors: Zhang Tianci, Ding Meng, Zuo Hongfu, Zeng Lina, Sun Zejun

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Automation of airport operations can greatly improve ground movement efficiency. In this paper, we study the speed profile design problem for advanced airport ground movement control and guidance. The problem is constrained by the surface four-dimensional trajectory generated in taxi planning. A decomposed approach of two stages is presented to solve this problem efficiently. In the first stage, speeds are allocated at control points which ensure smooth speed profiles can be found later. In the second stage, detailed speed profiles of each taxi interval are generated according to the allocated control point speeds with the objective of minimizing the overall fuel consumption. We present a swarm intelligence based algorithm for the first-stage problem and a discrete variable driven enumeration method for the second-stage problem since it only has a small set of discrete variables. Experimental results demonstrate the presented methodology performs well on real world speed profile design problems.

Keywords: airport ground movement, fuel consumption, particle swarm optimization, smoothness, speed profile design

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Authors: Isa Muhammad Zumo

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The African Great Green Wall (GGW) is a significant initiative in northern Nigeria because it promotes land restoration and conservation utilizing both commercial and species of forest trees while also helping to mitigate desertification and hazards from the sand dunes and shifting Sahara deserts. Conflicts and weather, however, pose a significant danger to the achievement of these goals. The scientific method for monitoring the vegetation dynamics since inception has not received the required attention, despite the African Development Bank (ADB)'s help in funding the project and its integration into the state's development plans for GGW initiatives. This study will monitor the changes in the vegetation cover of the great green wall within Yobe State Nigeria from 2014 to 2023. The vegetation dynamics will be monitored using Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) for 6 years at 2 years intervals. The result will show the fluctuations in the vegetation cover density within the period of study. This will guide the design and implementation of policies of the GGW in achieving its objectives. The result can also contribute to the realization of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 13.2: Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies, and planning.

Keywords: monitoring, green wall, Landsat 8, Nigeria

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Authors: A. Shebani, C. Pislaru

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Wear of materials is an everyday experience and has been observed and studied for long time. The prediction of wear is a fundamental problem in the industrial field, mainly correlated to the planning of maintenance interventions and economy. Pin-on-disc test is the most common test which is used to study the wear behaviour. In this paper, the pin-on-disc (AEROTECH UNIDEX 11) is used for the investigation of the effects of normal load and hardness of material on the wear under dry and sliding conditions. In the pin-on-disc rig, two specimens were used; one, a pin which is made of steel with a tip, is positioned perpendicular to the disc, where the disc is made of aluminium. The pin wear and disc wear were measured by using the following instruments: The Talysurf instrument, a digital microscope, and the alicona instrument; where the Talysurf profilometer was used to measure the pin/disc wear scar depth, and the alicona was used to measure the volume loss for pin and disc. After that, the Archard model, American Society for Testing and Materials model (ASTM), and neural network model were used for pin/disc wear modelling and the simulation results are implemented by using the Matlab program. This paper focuses on how the alicona can be considered as a powerful tool for wear measurements and how the neural network is an effective algorithm for wear estimation.

Keywords: wear modelling, Archard Model, ASTM Model, Neural Networks Model, Pin-on-disc Test, Talysurf, digital microscope, Alicona

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Authors: Ziwei Huang

Abstract:

In order to promote Inventory development in Shenzhen, the market-oriented real estate development mode has occupied a dominant position in the urban renewal activities of Shenzhen. This research is based on the theory of role relationship and urban regime, taking the Mutoulong community as the research object. Carries on the case depth analysis found that: Under the situation of absence and dislocation of the government's role, land property rights disputes and lack of communication platforms is the main reason for the problems of nail households and market failures, and the long-term delay in the progress of old city reconstruction. Through the analysis of the cause of the transformation problem and the upper planning and interest coordination mechanism, the optimization strategy of the old city transformation is finally proposed as follows: the establishment of interest coordination platform, the risk assessment of the government's intervention in the preliminary construction of the land, the adaptive construction of laws and regulations, and the re-examination of the interest relationship between the government and the market.

Keywords: Shenzhen city, Mutoulong community, urban regeneration, urban regime theory, role relationship theory

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Authors: Lateefat Amao, Misagh Faezipour

Abstract:

Implementing electronic health records (EHR) in healthcare is a pivotal transition aimed at digitizing and optimizing patient health information management. The expectations associated with this transition are high, even towards other health information systems (HIS) and health technology. This multifaceted process involves careful planning and execution to improve the quality and efficiency of patient care, especially as healthcare technology is a sensitive niche. Key considerations include a thorough needs assessment, judicious vendor selection, robust infrastructure development, and training and adaptation of healthcare professionals. Comprehensive training programs, data migration from legacy systems and models, interoperability, as well as security and regulatory compliance are imperative for healthcare staff to navigate EHR systems adeptly. The purpose of this work is to offer a comprehensive review of the literature on EHR implementation. It explores the impact of this health technology on health practices, highlights challenges and barriers to its successful utility, and offers practical strategies that can impact its success in healthcare. This paper provides a thorough review of studies on the adoption of EHRs, emphasizing the wide range of experiences and results connected to EHR use in the medical field, especially across different types of healthcare organizations.

Keywords: healthcare, electronic health records, EHR implementation, patient care, interoperability

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Authors: Diego Sánchez, Sandra M. Aguilar, José F. Gómez, Gustavo Montaño, Laura P. Otero, Carlos V. Rey, José A. Martínez, Juliana Robles, Jorge E. Burgos, Juan S. López

Abstract:

Bogota is making efforts towards urban resilience through Nature-based Solutions (NbS) incorporation in public projects as a climate change resilience strategy. The urban renovation project on the Alhambra square includes Green Infrastructure (GI), like Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) and Urban Trees (UT), as ecosystem services (ES) boosters. This study analyzes 3 scenarios: (1) the initial situation without NbS, (2) the expected situation including NbS in the design and (3) the projection of the second one after 30 years, calculating the ecosystem services, the stormwater management benefits provided by SUDS and the cultural services. The obtained results contribute to the understanding of the urban NbS benefits in public spaces, providing valuable information to foster investment in sustainable projects and encouraging policy makers to integrate NbS in urban planning.

Keywords: ecosystem services, nature-based solutions, stormwater management, sustainable urban drainage systems

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Authors: Joanne Moyer

Abstract:

El Paso, Texas is a southwest border city that has experienced continuous growth within the last 15-years. Understanding the urban growth trends and patterns using data from the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) and landscape metrics, provides a quantitative description of growth. Past urban growth provided a basis to predict 2031 future land-use for El Paso using the CA-Markov model. As a consequence of growth, an increase in demand of resources follows. Using panel data analysis, an understanding of the relation between landscape metrics and electricity consumption is further analyzed. The studies’ findings indicate that past growth focused within three districts within the City of El Paso. The landscape metrics suggest as the city has grown, fragmentation has decreased. Alternatively, the landscape metrics for the projected 2031 land-use indicates possible fragmentation within one of these districts. Panel data suggests electricity consumption and mean patch area landscape metric are positively correlated. The study provides local decision makers to make informed decisions for policies and urban planning to ensure a future sustainable community.

Keywords: landscape metrics, CA-Markov, El Paso, Texas, panel data

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Authors: Anne Schattel, Mitja Echim, Christof Büskens

Abstract:

Trajectory planning for deep space missions has become a recent topic of great interest. Flying to space objects like asteroids provides two main challenges. One is to find rare earth elements, the other to gain scientific knowledge of the origin of the world. Due to the enormous spatial distances such explorer missions have to be performed unmanned and autonomously. The mathematical field of optimization and optimal control can be used to realize autonomous missions while protecting recourses and making them safer. The resulting algorithms may be applied to other, earth-bound applications like e.g. deep sea navigation and autonomous driving as well. The project KaNaRiA ('Kognitionsbasierte, autonome Navigation am Beispiel des Ressourcenabbaus im All') investigates the possibilities of cognitive autonomous navigation on the example of an asteroid mining mission, including the cruise phase and approach as well as the asteroid rendezvous, landing and surface exploration. To verify and test all methods an interactive, real-time capable simulation using virtual reality is developed under KaNaRiA. This paper focuses on the specific challenge of the guidance during the cruise phase of the spacecraft, i.e. trajectory optimization and optimal control, including first solutions and results. In principle there exist two ways to solve optimal control problems (OCPs), the so called indirect and direct methods. The indirect methods are being studied since several decades and their usage needs advanced skills regarding optimal control theory. The main idea of direct approaches, also known as transcription techniques, is to transform the infinite-dimensional OCP into a finite-dimensional non-linear optimization problem (NLP) via discretization of states and controls. These direct methods are applied in this paper. The resulting high dimensional NLP with constraints can be solved efficiently by special NLP methods, e.g. sequential quadratic programming (SQP) or interior point methods (IP). The movement of the spacecraft due to gravitational influences of the sun and other planets, as well as the thrust commands, is described through ordinary differential equations (ODEs). The competitive mission aims like short flight times and low energy consumption are considered by using a multi-criteria objective function. The resulting non-linear high-dimensional optimization problems are solved by using the software package WORHP ('We Optimize Really Huge Problems'), a software routine combining SQP at an outer level and IP to solve underlying quadratic subproblems. An application-adapted model of impulsive thrusting, as well as a model of an electrically powered spacecraft propulsion system, is introduced. Different priorities and possibilities of a space mission regarding energy cost and flight time duration are investigated by choosing different weighting factors for the multi-criteria objective function. Varying mission trajectories are analyzed and compared, both aiming at different destination asteroids and using different propulsion systems. For the transcription, the robust method of full discretization is used. The results strengthen the need for trajectory optimization as a foundation for autonomous decision making during deep space missions. Simultaneously they show the enormous increase in possibilities for flight maneuvers by being able to consider different and opposite mission objectives.

Keywords: deep space navigation, guidance, multi-objective, non-linear optimization, optimal control, trajectory planning.

Procedia PDF Downloads 395