Search results for: business process adaptation

Authors: Fayza M. Obied-Allah

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Customer’ needs, quality, and value creation while reducing costs through supply chain management provides challenges and opportunities for companies and researchers. In the light of these challenges, modern ideas must contribute to counter these challenges and exploit opportunities. Perhaps this paper will be one of these contributions. This paper discusses the impact of the quality cost on revenue sharing as a most important incentive to configure business networks. No doubt that the costs directly affect the size of income generated by a business network, so this paper investigates the impact of quality costs on business networks revenue, and their impact on the decision to participate the revenue among the companies in the supply chain. This paper develops the quality cost approach to align with the modern era, the developed model includes five categories besides the well-known four categories (namely prevention costs, appraisal costs, internal failure costs, and external failure costs), a new category has been developed in this research as a new vision of the relationship between quality costs and innovations of industry. This new category is Recycle Cost. This paper is organized into six sections, Section I shows quality costs overview in the supply chain. Section II discusses revenue sharing between the parties in supply chain. Section III investigates the impact of quality costs in revenue sharing decision between partners in supply chain. The fourth section includes survey study and presents statistical results. Section V discusses the results and shows future opportunities for research. Finally, Section VI summarizes the theoretical and practical results of this paper.

Keywords: quality cost, recycle cost, revenue sharing, supply chain management

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Authors: Heng Chia Ying, Charmaine Tan Chai Nie, Burra Venkata Durga Kumar

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Process scheduling is the method of process management that determines which process the CPU will proceed with for the next task and how long it takes. Some issues were found in process management, particularly for Priority Scheduling (PS) and Round Robin Scheduling (RR). The proposed recommendations made for IPRRS are to combine the strengths of both into a combining algorithm while they draw on others to compensate for each weakness. A significant improvement on the combining technique of scheduler, Incorporating Priority Round-Robin Scheduler (IPRRS) address an algorithm for both high and low priority task to sustain the indefinite blocking issue faced in the priority scheduling algorithm and minimize the average turnaround time (ATT) and average waiting time (AWT) in RR scheduling algorithm. This paper will delve into the simple rules introduced by IPRRS and enhancements that both PS and RR bring to the execution of processes in the operating system. Furthermore, it incorporates the best aspects of each algorithm to build the optimum algorithm for a certain case in terms of prioritized processes, ATT, and AWT.

Keywords: round Robin scheduling, priority scheduling, indefinite blocking, process management, sustain, turnaround time

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Authors: Valeria Bondarenko

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We proposed algorithms for: estimation of parameters fBm (volatility and Hurst exponent) and for the approximation of random time series by functional of fBm. We proved the consistency of the estimators, which constitute the above algorithms, and proved the optimal forecast of approximated time series. The adequacy of estimation algorithms, approximation, and forecasting is proved by numerical experiment. During the process of creating software, the system has been created, which is displayed by the hierarchical structure. The comparative analysis of proposed algorithms with the other methods gives evidence of the advantage of approximation method. The results can be used to develop methods for the analysis and modeling of time series describing the economic, physical, biological and other processes.

Keywords: mathematical model, random process, Wiener process, fractional Brownian motion

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Authors: Deepika Verma, Runa Sarkar

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One of the prominent debates in the social entrepreneurship literature has been to establish whether entrepreneurial work for social well-being by for-profit organizations can be classified as social entrepreneurship or not. Of late, the scholarship has reached a consensus. It concludes that there seems little sense in confining social entrepreneurship to just non-profit organizations. Boosted by this research, increasingly a lot of businesses engaged in filling the social infrastructure gaps in developing countries are calling themselves social enterprise. These organizations are diverse in their ownership, size, objectives, operations and business models. The lack of a comprehensive definition of social enterprise leads to three issues. Firstly, researchers may face difficulty in creating a database for social enterprises because the choice of an entity as a social enterprise becomes subjective or based on some pre-defined parameters by the researcher which is not replicable. Secondly, practitioners who use ‘social enterprise’ in their vision/mission statement(s) may find it difficult to adjust their business models accordingly especially during the times when they face the dilemma of choosing social well-being over business viability. Thirdly, social enterprise and social entrepreneurship attract a lot of donor funding and venture capital. In the paucity of a comprehensive definitional guide, the donors or investors may find assigning grants and investments difficult. It becomes necessary to develop an exhaustive and objective definition of social enterprise and examine whether the understanding of the academicians and practitioners about social enterprise match. This paper develops a dictionary of words often associated with social enterprise or (and) social entrepreneurship. It further compares two lexicographic definitions of social enterprise imputed from the abstracts of academic journal papers and trade publications extracted from the EBSCO database using the ‘tm’ package in R software.

Keywords: EBSCO database, lexicographic definition, social enterprise, text mining

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Authors: Fadilah Fadilah, Sperisa Distantina, Santi T. Wijayanti, Rahmawati Andayani

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Chemical modification process on glucomannan from porang via carboxymethylation have been conducted. The process was done in two stages, the alkalization, and the carboxymethylation. The alkalization was done by adding NaOH solution into the medium which was contained glucomannan and then stirred it in ambient temperature for thirty minutes. The carboxymethylation process was done by adding sodium mono chloroacetate solution into the alkalization product. The carboxymethylation process was conducted for a certain time, and the product was then analyzed for determining the degree of substitution. In this research, the influence of medium to the degree of substitution was studied. Three different medium were used, namely water, 70% ethanol, and 90% ethanol. The results show that 70% ethanol was a better medium than two others because give a higher degree of substitution. Using 70% ethanol as a medium, the experiments for studying the influence of temperature on the carboxymethylation stages were conducted. The results show that the degree of substitution at 65°C is higher than at 45°C.

Keywords: carboxymethylation, degree of substitution, ethanol medium, glucomannan

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Authors: J. L. Andrade-Pineda, J.M. León-Blanco, M. Calle, P. L. González-R

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The enrollment in current Master's degree programs usually pursues gaining the expertise required in real-life workplaces. The experience we present here concerns the learning process of "Project Management Methodology (PMM)", around a cooperative/collaborative mechanism aimed at affording students measurable learning goals and providing the teacher with the ability of focusing on the weaknesses detected. We have designed a mixed summative/formative evaluation, which assures curriculum engage while enriches the comprehension of PMM key concepts. In this experience we converted the students into active actors in the evaluation process itself and we endowed ourselves as teachers with a flexible process in which along with qualifications (score), other attitudinal feedback arises. Despite the high level of self-affirmation on their discussion within the interactive assessment sessions, they ultimately have exhibited a great ability to review and correct the wrong reasoning when that was the case.

Keywords: cooperative-collaborative learning, educational management, formative-summative assessment, leadership training

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Authors: Mareen Brosterhaus, Antje Hammer, Steffen Kalina, Stefan Grau, Anjali A. Roeth, Hany Ashmawy, Thomas Gross, Marcel Binnebosel, Wolfram T. Knoefel, Tanja Manser

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Background: The identification of critical incidents in hospitals is an essential component of improving patient safety. To date, various methods have been used to measure and characterize such critical incidents. These methods are often viewed by physicians and nurses as external quality assurance, and this creates obstacles to the reporting events and the implementation of recommendations in practice. One way to overcome this problem is to use tools that directly involve staff in measuring indicators of quality and safety of care in the department. One such instrument is the global trigger tool (GTT), which helps physicians and nurses identify adverse events by systematically reviewing randomly selected patient records. Based on so-called ‘triggers’ (warning signals), indications of adverse events can be given. While the tool is already used internationally, its implementation in German hospitals has been very limited. Objectives: This study aimed to assess the feasibility and potential of the global trigger tool for identifying adverse events in German hospitals. Methods: A total of 120 patient records were randomly selected from two surgical, and one neurosurgery, departments of three university hospitals in Germany over a period of two months per department between January and July, 2017. The records were reviewed using an adaptation of the German version of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement Global Trigger Tool to identify triggers and adverse event rates per 1000 patient days and per 100 admissions. The severity of adverse events was classified using the National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention. Results: A total of 53 adverse events were detected in the three departments. This corresponded to adverse event rates of 25.5-72.1 per 1000 patient-days and from 25.0 to 60.0 per 100 admissions across the three departments. 98.1% of identified adverse events were associated with non-permanent harm without (Category E–71.7%) or with (Category F–26.4%) the need for prolonged hospitalization. One adverse event (1.9%) was associated with potentially permanent harm to the patient. We also identified practical challenges in the implementation of the tool, such as the need for adaptation of the global trigger tool to the respective department. Conclusions: The global trigger tool is feasible and an effective instrument for quality measurement when adapted to the departmental specifics. Based on our experience, we recommend a continuous use of the tool thereby directly involving clinicians in quality improvement.

Keywords: adverse events, global trigger tool, patient safety, record review

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Authors: Dejan Tanikić, Miodrag Manić, Jelena Đoković, Saša Kalinović

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This paper deals with the determination of the optimum machining parameters, according to the measured and modelled data of the cutting temperature and surface roughness, during the turning of the AISI 4140 steel. The high cutting temperatures are unwanted occurences in the metal cutting process. They impact negatively on the quality of the machined part. The machining experiments were performed using different cutting regimes (cutting speed, feed rate and depth of cut), with different values of the workpiece hardness, which causes different values of the measured cutting temperature as well as the measured surface roughness. The temperature and surface roughness data were modelled after that using Response Surface Methodology (RSM). The obtained RSM models are used in the process of optimization of the cutting regimes using the Genetic Algorithms (GA) tool, which enables the metal cutting process in the optimum conditions.

Keywords: genetic algorithms, machining parameters, response surface methodology, turning process

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Authors: Chothmal

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In this paper, we present a route discovery process which uses the signal strength on a link as a parameter of its inclusion in the route discovery method. The proposed signal-to-interference and noise ratio (SINR) based multipath reactive routing protocol is named as SINR-MP protocol. The proposed SINR-MP routing protocols has two following two features: a) SINR-MP protocol selects routes based on the SINR of the links during the route discovery process therefore it select the routes which has long lifetime and low frame error rate for data transmission, and b) SINR-MP protocols route discovery process is multipath which discovers more than one SINR based route between a given source destination pair. The multiple routes selected by our SINR-MP protocol are node-disjoint in nature which increases their robustness against link failures, as failure of one route will not affect the other route. The secondary route is very useful in situations where the primary route is broken because we can now use the secondary route without causing a new route discovery process. Due to this, the network overhead caused by a route discovery process is avoided. This increases the network performance greatly. The proposed SINR-MP routing protocol is implemented in the trail version of network simulator called Qualnet.

Keywords: ad hoc networks, quality of service, video streaming, H.264/SVC, multiple routes, video traces

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Authors: Juliana Bastos dos Santos, Francisca Dantas Mendes, Abdul Jabbar Mohammad Khatri, Adam Abdul Jabbar Khatri

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This research aims to describe the experimentation of color extraction from household waste, for the application of the natural vegetable dyeing technique, as a more sustainable option for the upcycling process. Based on the research of the case study, this article intends to record the process of collecting the materials, extracting the colors and their applicability. The study aims to deepen the knowledge about possible alternatives that generate less impact on the environment throughout the process of plant stamping and, also, to spread the concepts of sustainability in fashion. Therefore, this content becomes relevant for valuing an artisanal production process, reconnecting with ancestral knowledge. This article also intends to serve as a record of ancestral artisanal processes, based on the indigenous and African matrices that are pillars of Brazilian culture.

Keywords: natural dyeing, sustainability, organic residue, fashion, reuse

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Authors: Aiman Mazhar Qureshi, Ahmed Rachid

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Extreme heat events are emerging human environmental health concerns in dense urban areas due to anthropogenic activities. High spatial and temporal resolution heat maps are important for urban heat adaptation and mitigation, helping to indicate hotspots that are required for the attention of city planners. The Heat Vulnerability Index (HVI) is the important approach used by decision-makers and urban planners to identify heat-vulnerable communities and areas that require heat stress mitigation strategies. Amiens is a medium-sized French city, where the average temperature has been increasing since the year 2000 by +1°C. Extreme heat events are recorded in the month of July for the last three consecutive years, 2018, 2019 and 2020. Poor air quality, especially ground-level ozone, has been observed mainly during the same hot period. In this study, we evaluated the HVI in Amiens during extreme heat days recorded last three years (2018,2019,2020). The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) technique is used for fine-scale vulnerability mapping. The main data we considered for this study to develop the HVI model are (a) socio-economic and demographic data; (b) Air pollution; (c) Land use and cover; (d) Elderly heat-illness; (e) socially vulnerable; (f) Remote sensing data (Land surface temperature (LST), mean elevation, NDVI and NDWI). The output maps identified the hot zones through comprehensive GIS analysis. The resultant map shows that high HVI exists in three typical areas: (1) where the population density is quite high and the vegetation cover is small (2) the artificial surfaces (built-in areas) (3) industrial zones that release thermal energy and ground-level ozone while those with low HVI are located in natural landscapes such as rivers and grasslands. The study also illustrates the system theory with a causal diagram after data analysis where anthropogenic activities and air pollution appear in correspondence with extreme heat events in the city. Our suggested index can be a useful tool to guide urban planners and municipalities, decision-makers and public health professionals in targeting areas at high risk of extreme heat and air pollution for future interventions adaptation and mitigation measures.

Keywords: heat vulnerability index, heat mapping, heat health-illness, remote sensing, urban heat mitigation

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Authors: Misuk Kim, Seokho Kang, Jehyuk Lee, Hyunchang Cho, Sungzoon Cho

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In semiconductor manufacturing, virtual metrology (VM) refers to methods to predict properties of a wafer based on machine parameters and sensor data of the production equipment, without performing the (costly) physical measurement of the wafer properties (Wikipedia). Additional benefits include avoidance of human bias and identification of important factors affecting the quality of the process which allow improving the process quality in the future. It is however rare to find VM applied to other areas of manufacturing. In this work, we propose to use VM to copper clad laminate (CCL) manufacturing. CCL is a core element of a printed circuit board (PCB) which is used in smartphones, tablets, digital cameras, and laptop computers. The manufacturing of CCL consists of three processes: Treating, lay-up, and pressing. Treating, the most important process among the three, puts resin on glass cloth, heat up in a drying oven, then produces prepreg for lay-up process. In this process, three important quality factors are inspected: Treated weight (T/W), Minimum Viscosity (M/V), and Gel Time (G/T). They are manually inspected, incurring heavy cost in terms of time and money, which makes it a good candidate for VM application. We developed prediction models of the three quality factors T/W, M/V, and G/T, respectively, with process variables, raw material, and environment variables. The actual process data was obtained from a CCL manufacturer. A variety of variable selection methods and learning algorithms were employed to find the best prediction model. We obtained prediction models of M/V and G/T with a high enough accuracy. They also provided us with information on “important” predictor variables, some of which the process engineers had been already aware and the rest of which they had not. They were quite excited to find new insights that the model revealed and set out to do further analysis on them to gain process control implications. T/W did not turn out to be possible to predict with a reasonable accuracy with given factors. The very fact indicates that the factors currently monitored may not affect T/W, thus an effort has to be made to find other factors which are not currently monitored in order to understand the process better and improve the quality of it. In conclusion, VM application to CCL’s treating process was quite successful. The newly built quality prediction model allowed one to reduce the cost associated with actual metrology as well as reveal some insights on the factors affecting the important quality factors and on the level of our less than perfect understanding of the treating process.

Keywords: copper clad laminate, predictive modeling, quality control, virtual metrology

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Authors: Bojana Tot, Goran BošKović, Goran Vujić

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Route optimisation is a process of planning one or multiple routes, with the purpose of minimizing overall costs, while achieving the highest possible performance under a set of given constraints. It combines routing or route planning, which is the process of creating the most cost-effective route by minimizing the distance or travelled time necessary to reach a set of planned stops, and route scheduling, which is the process of assigning an arrival and service time for each stop, with drivers being given shifts that adhere to their working hours. The objective of this paper is to provide benefits on the implementation of waste collection route optimisation and thus achieve economic efficiency for public utility companies, better service for citizens and positive environment and health.

Keywords: waste management, environment, collection route optimisation, GIS

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Authors: Maria Ostroukhova, Zhanneta Zalutskaya, Elena Ermilova

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The alternative oxidase (AOX) mediates cyanide-resistant respiration, which bypasses proton-pumping complexes III and IV of the cytochrome pathway to directly transfer electrons from reduced ubiquinone to molecular oxygen. In Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, AOX is a monomeric protein that is encoded by two genes of discrete subfamilies, AOX1 and AOX2. Although AOX has been proposed to play essential roles in stress tolerance of organisms, the role of subfamily AOX2 is largely unknown. In C. reinhardtii, AOX2 was initially identified as one of constitutively low expressed genes. Like other photosynthetic organisms C. reinhardtii cells frequently experience periods of hypoxia. To examine AOX2 transcriptional regulation and role of AOX2 in hypoxia adaptation, real-time PCR analysis and artificial microRNA method were employed. Two experimental approaches have been used to induce the anoxic conditions: dark-anaerobic and light-anaerobic conditions. C. reinhardtii cells exposed to the oxygen deprivation have shown increased AOX2 mRNA levels. By contrast, AOX1 was not an anoxia-responsive gene. In C. reinhardtii, a subset of genes is regulated by transcription factor CRR1 in anaerobic conditions. Notable, the AOX2 promoter region contains the potential motif for CRR1 binding. Therefore, the role of CRR1 in the control of AOX2 transcription was tested. The CRR1-underexpressing strains, that were generated and characterized in this work, exhibited low levels of AOX2 transcripts under anoxic conditions. However, the transformants still slightly induced AOX2 gene expression in the darkness. These confirmed our suggestions that darkness is a regulatory stimulus for AOX genes in C. reinhardtii. Thus, other factors must contribute to AOX2 promoter activity under dark-anoxic conditions. Moreover, knock-down of CRR1 caused a complete reduction of AOX2 expression under light-anoxic conditions. These results indicate that (1) CRR1 is required for AOX2 expression during hypoxia, and (2) AOX2 gene is regulated by CRR1 together with yet-unknown regulatory factor(s). In addition, the AOX2-underexpressing strains were generated. The analysis of amiRNA-AOX2 strains suggested a role of this alternative oxidase in hypoxia adaptation of the alga. In conclusion, the results reported here show that C. reinhardtii AOX2 gene is stress inducible. CRR1 transcriptional factor is involved in the regulation of the AOX2 gene expression in the absence of oxygen. Moreover, AOX2 but not AOX1 functions under oxygen deprivation. This work was supported by Russian Science Foundation (research grant № 16-14-10004).

Keywords: alternative oxidase 2, artificial microRNA approach, chlamydomonas reinhardtii, hypoxia

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Authors: Dena A. Hussain

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The objective of this project is to design an Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) tool based on a standardized platform to assist the work-integrated learning process of caretakers of disabled children. The tool should assist the intercommunication between caretakers and improve the learning process through knowledge bridging between all involved caretakers. Some children are born with disabilities while others have special needs after an illness or accident. Special needs children often need help in their learning process and require tools and services in a different way. In some cases the child has multiple disabilities that affect several capabilities in different ways. These needs are to be transformed into different learning techniques that the staff or personal (called caretakers in this project) caring for the child needs to learn and adapt. The caretakers involved are also required to learn new learning or training techniques and utilities specialized for the child’s needs. In many cases the number of people caring for the child’s development is rather large; the parents, specialist pedagogues, teachers, therapists, psychologists, personal assistants, etc. Each group of specialists has different objectives and in some cases the merge between theses specifications is very unique. This makes the synchronization between different caretakers difficult, resulting often in low level cooperation. By better intercommunication between professions both the child’s development could be improved but also the caretakers’ methods and knowledge of each other’s work processes and their own profession. This introduces a unique work integrated learning environment for all personnel involve, merging learning and knowledge in the work environment and at the same time assist the children’s development process. Creating an iterative process generates a unique learning experience for all involved. Using a work integrated platform will help encourage and support the process of all the teams involved in the process.We believe that working with children who have special needs is a continues learning/working process that is always integrated to achieve one main goal, which is to make a better future for all children.

Keywords: information and communication technologies (ICT), work integrated learning (WIL), sustainable learning, special needs children

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Authors: Carol S. Binnekade, Deon Scott, Christina C. Shuttleworth, Annelien A. Van Rooyen

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Higher education institutions are constantly challenged to deliver skilled graduates into the workplace. Employers expect graduates to have the required technical knowledge as well as various pervasive skills. This also applies to accountants who need to know the technical requirements of financial reporting and be able to communicate with individuals, teams and clients at a high level. Accountants need to develop effective business conversational skills and use these skills to communicate up, down and across organizations, taking into consideration cultural and gender diversity. In addition, they need to master business writing and presentation skills. However, providing students with these skills in a distance-learning environment where interaction between students and instructors is limited, is a challenge for academics. The study on which this paper reports, forms part of a larger body of research, which explored the perceptions of accounting practitioners of the communication skills (or lack thereof) of recently qualified accounting students. Feedback (qualitative and quantitative) was obtained from various accounting practitioners in South Africa. Taking into consideration that distance learners communicate mainly with their instructors via email communication and their assignments are submitted using various word processor software, the researchers were of the opinion that the accounting graduates would be capable of communicating effectively once they entered the workplace. However, the research findings, inter alia, suggested that the accounting graduates lacked communication skills and that training was needed to differentiate between business and social communication once they entered the workplace. Recommendations on how these communication challenges may be addressed by higher education institutions are provided.

Keywords: accounting practitioners, communication skills, distance education, pervasive skills

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Authors: Stevens Phaphadi Mamorobela

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The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the use of social media in SMEs to stay abreast with information about the latest news and developments and to predict the future world of business. The national shutdown regulations for curbing the spread of the Covid-19 virus resulted in SMEs having to distribute large volumes of information through social media platforms to collaborate and conduct business remotely. How much of the information shared on social media is used by SMEs as significant knowledge for economic rent is yet to be known. This study aims to investigate the facilitating conditions that enable SMEs’ intention to use social media as a knowledge-sharing platform to create economic rent and to cope with the Covid-19 challenges. A qualitative research approach was applied where semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 SME owners located in the Gauteng province in South Africa to identify and explain the facilitating conditions of SMEs towards their intention to use social media as a knowledge-sharing tool in the Covid-19 era. The study discovered that the national lockdown regulations towards curbing the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic had compelled SMEs to adopt digital technologies that enabled them to quickly transform their business processes to cope with the challenges of the pandemic. The facilitating conditions, like access to high bandwidth internet coverage in the Gauteng region, enable SMEs to have strong intentions to use social media to distribute content and to reach out to their target market. However, the content is shared informally using diverse social media platforms without any guidelines for transforming content into rent-yielding knowledge.

Keywords: facilitating conditions, knowledge sharing, social media, intention to use, SME

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Authors: Vahdettin Sariyel, Birol Dag

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In this research, it is aimed to determine the effects of several environmental factors on adaptation and some yield parameters of Saanen goats reared under intensive conditions at a private farm in Konya province. Gestation rate, twins rate and litter size were evaluated as reproductive traits. Gestation rate was determined as 93.8% and 90.5% for 2011 and 2012 years respectively. Twins rate was determined as 59.35 % and 70.00 % for 2011 and 2012 years respectively. Litter size was 1.49 and 1.46 for 2011 and 2012 years respectively. Survival rates of kids from birth to weaning at three months of age were found as 87.74 % and 98.54 % for 2011 and 2012 years respectively.

Keywords: gestation rate, reproduction, saanen, twins rate, vitality

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Authors: A. S. Salimzhanova, J. C. Sardinas, O. A. Yanovskaya

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The objective of this research work is to discuss the concept of green growth in the Republic of Kazakhstan introduced by its government in the National Sustainable Development Strategy with the objective of transition to a resource-efficient, green economy. We believe that emerging economies like Kazakhstan can pursue a cleaner and more efficient development path by introducing an environmental tax system based on resource consumption rather than only income and labor. The key issues discussed in this article are the eco-efficiency, which refers to closing the gap between economic and ecological efficiencies, and the structural change of the economy toward green growth. We also strongly believe that studying the experience of East Asian countries on green reform including eco-innovation and green solutions in business is essential to the case of Kazakhstan. All of these will raise the status of Kazakhstan to the level of one of the thirty developed countries over the next decades.

Keywords: economic strategy, green growth, green solutions, natural resource management, environmental tax system

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Authors: Kimberley K. Whyte-Jones

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Public participation may improve the quality of environmental management decisions. However, the quality of such a decision is strongly dependent on the quality of the process that leads to it. In order to ensure an effective and efficient process, key features of best practice in participation should be carefully observed; this would also combat disillusionment of citizens, decision-makers and practitioners. The overarching aim of this study is to determine what constitutes an effective public participation process relevant to the Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada context, and to discover whether the public participation process that led to the 2014-2024 Provincial Sustainable Forest Management Strategy (PSFMS) met best practices criteria. The research design uses an exploratory case study strategy to consider a specific participatory process in environmental decision-making in Newfoundland and Labrador. Data collection methods include formal semi-structured interviews and the review of secondary data sources. The results of this study will determine the validity of a specific public participation best practice framework. The findings will be useful for informing citizen participation processes in general and will deduce best practices in public participation in environmental management in the province. The study is, therefore, meaningful for guiding future policies and practices in the management of forest resources in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, and will help in filling a noticeable gap in research compiling best practices for environmentally related public participation processes.

Keywords: best practices, environmental decision-making, forest management, public participation

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Authors: Neelam Kadyan, Pratima Ranga, Yogender

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Indigenous people are the One who are affected by the climate change the most, although there have contributed little to its causes. This is largely a result of their historic dependence on local biological diversity, ecosystem services and cultural landscapes as a source of their sustenance and well-being. Comprising only four percent of the world’s population they utilize 22 percent of the world’s land surface. Despite their high exposure-sensitivity indigenous peoples and local communities are actively responding to changing climatic conditions and have demonstrated their resourcefulness and resilience in the face of climate change. Traditional Indigenous territories encompass up to 22 percent of the world’s land surface and they coincide with areas that hold 80 percent of the planet’s biodiversity. Also, the greatest diversity of indigenous groups coincides with the world’s largest tropical forest wilderness areas in the Americas (including Amazon), Africa, and Asia, and 11 percent of world forest lands are legally owned by Indigenous Peoples and communities. This convergence of biodiversity-significant areas and indigenous territories presents an enormous opportunity to expand efforts to conserve biodiversity beyond parks, which tend to benefit from most of the funding for biodiversity conservation. Tapping on Ancestral Knowledge Indigenous Peoples are carriers of ancestral knowledge and wisdom about this biodiversity. Their effective participation in biodiversity conservation programs as experts in protecting and managing biodiversity and natural resources would result in more comprehensive and cost effective conservation and management of biodiversity worldwide. Addressing the Climate Change Agenda Indigenous Peoples has played a key role in climate change mitigation and adaptation. The territories of indigenous groups who have been given the rights to their lands have been better conserved than the adjacent lands (i.e., Brazil, Colombia, Nicaragua, etc.). Preserving large extensions of forests would not only support the climate change objectives, but it would respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples and conserve biodiversity as well. A climate change agenda fully involving Indigenous Peoples has many more benefits than if only government and/or the private sector are involved. Indigenous peoples are some of the most vulnerable groups to the negative effects of climate change. Also, they are a source of knowledge to the many solutions that will be needed to avoid or ameliorate those effects. For example, ancestral territories often provide excellent examples of a landscape design that can resist the negatives effects of climate change. Over the millennia, Indigenous Peoples have developed adaptation models to climate change. They have also developed genetic varieties of medicinal and useful plants and animal breeds with a wider natural range of resistance to climatic and ecological variability.

Keywords: ancestral knowledge, cost effective conservation, management, indigenous peoples, climate change

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Authors: Aptullah Karakas, Murat Baydogan

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The hot dip aluminizing (HDA) process involves immersing a metallic substrate into a molten aluminum bath for several minutes, and removed from the bath and cooled down to room temperature. After the HDA process, various aluminide layers are formed as a result of interdiffusion between the substrate and the molten aluminum and between the aluminide layers. In order to form a uniform aluminide layer, the specimen must be covered and wet well by the molten aluminum. Surface roughness plays an important role in wettability, and thus, surface preparation is an important stage in determining the final surface roughness. In this study, different roughness values were achieved by grinding the surface with emery papers as 180, 320 and 600 grids. After the surface preparation, the HDA process was performed in a molten Al-Si bath at 700 ᴼC for 10 minutes. After the HDA process, a microstructural examination of the coating was carried out to evaluate the uniformity of the coating and adhesion between the substrate and the coating. According to the results, the best adhesion at the interface was observed on the specimen, which was prepared by 320 grid emery paper having a mean surface roughness (Ra) of 0.097 µm.

Keywords: hot-dip aluminizing, microstructure, surface roughness, coating

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Authors: Hassan Adedoyin Rasaq

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The marketing efforts of the present day business is not just geared towards meeting the consumer’s needs at a price, but ensuring good customer satisfaction, and strategizing on how to retain such customers. Customer satisfaction and retention is achievable through the co-ordination of the marketing mixes; Product, Price, Promotion and Place; Relationship Marketing; After-Sales Service; Rebates/Discounts/Price reduction policy and Total Quality Management (TQM). A first-hand customer, If well satisfied, will become a company’s repeat customer, proceeds to become a client and goes further to become an advocate of the company by applauding the company’s products/services and encouraging others to buy from it. It is the objective of this paper, therefore, to guide business organizations on how to enhance customer satisfaction, and retain existing customers as a means of long-term survival in marketing. The responses of 72 randomly selected Marketing personnel spread across three (3) food and beverage companies in Nigeria were analyzed. One hypothesis was tested using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) statistical tool, and it was discovered that Relationship marketing contributed to organizational profitability and growth.

Keywords: customer satisfaction, retention strategies, marketing, marketing mixes

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Authors: Romi Dey

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Introduction: One of the most important criteria for technology to sustain and grow is through it’s elaborate and intuitive design methodology and design thinking. Designing for enterprise applications that cater to Just in Time Technology is one of the most challenging and detailed processes any User Experience Designer would come across. Description: The basic principles of Design, when applied to tailor to these technologies, creates an immense challenge and that’s how a set of redefined and revised design principles that can be applied to designing any Just In Time manufacturing solution. Findings: The thorough process of understanding the end user, their existing pain points which they’ve faced in the real world, their responsibilities and expectations, the core needs and last but not the least the demands, creates havoc nurturing of the design methodologies for the Just in Time solutions. With respect to the business aspect, design and design principles play a strong role in any form of innovation. Conclusion: Innovation and knowledge about the latest technologies are the keywords in the manufacturing industry. It becomes crucial for the product development team to be precise in their understanding of the technology and being sure of end users expectation.

Keywords: design thinking, enterprise application, Just in Time, user experience design

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Authors: Carlos Fontanillas

Abstract:

The implementation of the lean six sigma methodology aims to implement practices to systematically improve processes by eliminating defects, making them cheaper. The implementation of projects with the methodology uses a division into five phases: definition, measurement, analysis, implementation, and control. In this process, it is understood that the implementation of said methodology generates benefits to organizations that adhere through the improvement of their processes. In the case of a telecommunications company, it was realized that the implementation of a lean six sigma project contributed to the improvement of the presented process, generating a financial return with the avoided cost. However, such study has limitations such as a specific segment of performance and procedure, i.e., it can not be defined that return under other circumstances will be the same. It is also concluded that lean six sigma projects tend to contribute to improved processes evaluated due to their methodology that is based on statistical analysis and quality management tools and can generate a financial return. It is hoped that the present study can be used to provide a clearer view of the methodology for entrepreneurs who wish to implement process improvement actions in their companies, as well as to provide a foundation for professionals working with lean six sigma projects. After the review of the processes, the completion of the project stages and the monitoring for three months in partnership with the owner of the process to ensure the effectiveness of the actions, the project was completed with the objective reached. There was an average of 60% reduction with the issuance of undue invoices generated after the deactivation and it was possible to extend the project to other companies, which allowed a reduction well above the initially stipulated target.

Keywords: quality, process, lean six sigma, organization

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Authors: Mahdi Alkaeed, Adeel Ehsan

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Enterprise information systems (EIS) act as the backbone of organizations that belong to different domains. These systems not only play a major role in the efficient usage of resources and time but also throw light on the future roadmap for the enterprise. In today's rapidly expanding world of business and technology, enterprise systems from various heterogenous environments have to exchange information at some point, be it within the same organization or between different organizations. This reality strengthens the importance of interoperability between these systems, which is one of the key enablers of systems collaboration. Both information technology infrastructure and business processes have to be aligned with each other to achieve this effect. This will be difficult to attain if traditional tightly coupled architecture is used. Instead, a more loosely coupled service-oriented architecture has to be used. That would enable an effective interoperability level between different EIS. This paper discusses and presents the current work that has been done in the field of EIS interoperability. Along the way, it also discusses the challenges, solutions to tackle those challenges presented in the studied literature, and limitations, if any.

Keywords: enterprise systems interoperability, collaboration and integration, service-based architecture, open system architecture

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Authors: Sun Ailu, Zhao Wanmin

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Since the reform and opening, the urbanization process of China has entered a rapid development period. In recent years, the authors participated in some projects of urban master planning in China and found a phenomenon that the rapid urbanization area of China is experiencing frequent adjustment process of urban master planning. This phenomenon is not the natural process of urbanization development. It may be caused by different government roles from different levels. Through the methods of investigation, data comparison and case study, this paper aims to explore the reason why the rapid urbanization area is experiencing frequent adjustment of master planning and give some solution strategies. Firstly, taking Changshou district of Chongqing city as an example, this paper wants to introduce the phenomenon about frequent adjustment process in China. And then, discuss distinct roles in the process between national government, provincial government and local government of China. At last, put forward preliminary solutions strategies for this area in China from the aspects of land use, intergovernmental cooperation and so on.

Keywords: urban master planning, frequent adjustment, urbanization development, problems and strategies, China

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Authors: Saheed Olakunle Sanusi, Israel Ajibade Adedeji

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The study analysed the effect of microfinance on the profit level of small and medium scale enterprises in Lagos. The data for the study were obtained by simple random sampling, and total of one hundred and fifty (150) small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) were sampled for the study. Seventy-five (75) each are microfinance users and non-users. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, logit model, t-test and ordinary least square (OLS) regression. The mean profit of the enterprises using microfinance is ₦16.8m, while for the non-users of microfinance is ₦5.9m. The mean profit of microfinance users is statistically different from the non-users. The result of the logit model specified for the determinant of access to microfinance showed that three of specified variables- educational status of the enterprise head, credit utilisation and volume of business investment are significant at P < 0.01. Enterprises with many years of experience, highly educated enterprise heads and high volume of business investment have more potential access to microfinance. The OLS regression model indicated that three parameters namely number of school years, the volume of business investment and (dummy) participation in microfinance were found to be significant at P < 0.05. These variables are therefore significant determinants of impacts of microfinance on profit level in the study area. The study, therefore, concludes and recommends that to improve the status of small and medium scale enterprises for an increase in profit, the full benefit of access to microfinance can be enhanced through investment in social infrastructure and human capital development. Also, concerted efforts should be made to encouraged non-users of microfinance among SMEs to use it in order to boost their profit.

Keywords: credit utilisation, logit model, microfinance, small and medium enterprises

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Authors: Rifky Cahya Putra

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At this time of corona makes some countries affected difficult. As a result, many traders or companies are difficult to work in this pandemic era. So human activities in some fields must implement a new lifestyle or known as new normal. The transition from the one activity to another certainly requires high adaptation. So that almost in all sectors experience the impact of this phase, on of which is the wedding organizer. This research aims to find out what strategies are used so that the company can run in this pandemic. Techniques in data collection in the form interview to the owner of the wedding organizer and his team. Data analysis qualitative descriptive use interactive model analysis consisting of three main things, namely data reduction, data presentaion, and conclusion. For the result of the interview, the conclusion is that there are three strategies consisting of social media, sponsorship, and promotion.

Keywords: strategy, wedding organizer, pandemic, indonesia

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Authors: Agostinho Antunes

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The completion of the human genome sequencing in 2003 opened a new perspective into the importance of whole genome sequencing projects, and currently multiple species are having their genomes completed sequenced, from simple organisms, such as bacteria, to more complex taxa, such as mammals. This voluminous sequencing data generated across multiple organisms provides also the framework to better understand the genetic makeup of such species and related ones, allowing to explore the genetic changes underlining the evolution of diverse phenotypic traits. Here, recent results from our group retrieved from comparative evolutionary genomic analyses of selected marine animal species will be considered to exemplify how gene novelty and gene enhancement by positive selection might have been determinant in the success of adaptive radiations into diverse habitats and lifestyles.

Keywords: marine genomics, evolutionary bioinformatics, human genome sequencing, genomic analyses

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