Search results for: exploratory factor

Authors: Siddhant Sahu, P. James Daniel Paul

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Technical analysis comprised by various technical indicators is a holistic way of representing price movement of stocks in the market. Various forms of indicators have evolved from the primitive ones in the past decades. There have been many attempts to introduce volume as a major determinant to determine strong patterns in market forecasting. The law of demand defines the relationship between the volume and price. Most of the traders are familiar with the volume game. Including the time dimension to the law of demand provides a different visualization to the theory. While attempting the same, it was found that there are different thresholds in the market for different companies. These thresholds have a significant influence on the price. This article is an attempt in determining the thresholds for companies using the three dimensional graphs for optimizing the portfolios. It also emphasizes on the magnitude of importance of volumes as a key factor for determining of predicting strong price movements, bullish and bearish markets. It uses a comprehensive data set of major companies which form a major chunk of the Indian automotive sector and are thus used as an illustration.

Keywords: technical analysis, expert system, law of demand, stocks, portfolio analysis, Indian automotive sector

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Authors: S. Chee Choy, Pauline Swee Choo Goh, Yow Lin Liew

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The purpose of this study is to evaluate the English version and a Malay translation of the 21-item Learner Awareness Questionnaire for its application to assess student learning in higher education. The Learner Awareness Questionnaire, originally written in English, is a quantitative measure of how and why students learn. The questionnaire gives an indication of the process and motives to learn using four scales: survival, establishing stability, approval, and loving to learn. Data in the present study came from 680 university students enrolled in various programs in Malaysia. The Malay version of the questionnaire supported a similar four-factor structure and internal consistency to the English version. The four factors of the Malay version also showed moderate to strong correlations with those of the English versions. The results suggest that the Malay version of the questionnaire is similar to the English version. However, further refinement for the questions is needed to strengthen the correlations between the two questionnaires.

Keywords: student learning, learner awareness, questionnaire development, instrument validation

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Authors: Abdulrahman Abdulrahman, Abir Abdulrahman

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Free over-fall is an instrument for measuring discharge in open channels by measuring end depth. A comprehensive researchers investigated theoretically and experimentally brink phenomenon with various approaches for different cross-sectional shapes. Anderson's method, based on Boussinq's approximation and energy approach was used to derive a pressure distribution factor at end depth. Applying the one-dimensional momentum equation and the principles of limit slope analysis, a relevant analytical solution may be derived for brink depth ratio (EDR) in prismatic rectangular channel. Also relationships between end depth ratio and slope ratio for a given non-dimensional normal or critical depth with upstream supercritical flow regime are presented. Simple indirect procedure is used to estimate the end depth discharge ratio (EDD) for subcritical and supercritical flow using measured end depth. The comparison of this analysis with all previous theoretical and experimental studies showed an excellent agreement.

Keywords: analytical solution, brink depth, end depth, flow measurement, free over fall, hydraulics, rectangular channel

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Authors: Happy Kumar Das, Md. Shahriar Shafiq

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This paper portrays an assumed change in the primary teacher education program in Bangladesh. An initiative has been taken with a vision to ensure an integrated approach to developing trainee teachers’ knowledge and understanding about learning at a deeper level, and with that aim, the Diploma in Primary Education (DPEd) program replaces the Certificate-in-Education (C-in-Ed) program in Bangladeshi context for primary teachers. The stated professional values of the existing program such as ‘learner-centered’, ‘reflective’ approach to pedagogy tend to contradict the practice exemplified through the delivery mechanism. To address the challenges, through the main two components (i) Training Institute-based learning and (ii) School-based learning, the new program tends to cover knowledge and value that underpin the actual practice of teaching. These two components are given approximately equal weighting within the program in terms of both time, content and assessment as the integration seeks to combine theoretical knowledge with practical knowledge and vice versa. The curriculum emphasizes a balance between the taught modules and the components of the practicum. For example, the theories of formative and summative assessment techniques are elaborated through focused reflection on case studies as well as observation and teaching practice in the classroom. The key ideology that is reflected through this newly developed program is teacher’s belief in ‘holistic education’ that can lead to creating opportunities for skills development in all three (Cognitive, Social and Affective) domains simultaneously. The proposed teacher education program aims to address these areas of generic skill development alongside subject-specific learning outcomes. An exploratory study has been designed in this regard where 7 Primary Teachers’ Training Institutes (PTIs) in 7 divisions of Bangladesh was used for experimenting DPEd program. The analysis was done based on document analysis, periodical monitoring report and empirical data gathered from the experimental PTIs. The findings of the study revealed that the intervention brought positive change in teachers’ professional beliefs, attitude and skills along with improvement of school environment. Teachers in training schools work together for collective professional development where they support each other through lesson study, action research, reflective journals, group sharing and so on. Although the DPEd program addresses the above mentioned factors, one of the challenges of the proposed program is the issue of existing capacity and capabilities of the PTIs towards its effective implementation.

Keywords: Bangladesh, effective implementation, primary teacher education, reflective approach

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Authors: Francesco Colcerasa, Fabio Pisani

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We contribute to the subjective well-being literature testing the relationship between life satisfaction and inequality of opportunity in health, measured through the Human Opportunity Index calculated at the national level using individual socio-economic data from the cross-country European Social Survey sample. We compute several indexes of opportunity inequality in health, each obtained according to a different combination of circumstances (gender, immigrant status, parents’ education). We find a robust and significant relationship where life satisfaction is higher in correspondence with low levels of health opportunity inequality. The result is twofold. On the one hand, the importance of the well-being of other types of inequality than income inequality emerges. On the other hand, the socioeconomic roots of inequality in health are investigated, suggesting that circumstances at birth have a role in future well-being. Several rationales for the nexus between life satisfaction and inequality of opportunity in health are possible, which we investigate by splitting the sample. Among others, we find a prominent role of pro-social preferences – formalized as interest towards own offspring (which can be interpreted as intergenerational justice) – as a mediating factor of the relationship.

Keywords: Inequality of opportunity, subjective wellbeing, health, health inequality, inequality of opportunity in health

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Authors: K. Suresh, M. Padmavathi, N. Darga Kumar

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The objective of this study is to investigate the significance of coal mine waste and improved clay soil when used as a fill and for the construction of embankment. To determine the bearing capacities of coal mine waste and improved clay soil, tests are conducted apart from laboratory experiments. PLAXIS 2D software is used to make the analysis simpler. Depending upon the bearing capacities obtained for different cases, a conclusion can be drawn. Load carrying capacities are determined for coal mine waste, clay and by altering their height ratio when clay (H2) is at the bottom, and coal mine waste (H1) is on the top with three different cases (H = 0.25H1 + 0.75H2, 0.5H1 + 0.5H2, 0.75H1 + 0.25H2) in addition to this bearing capacity of improved clay soil (by replacing clay with 10% CMW, 30% CMW and 50% CMW in addition polycom) is also determined. The safe height of the embankment that can be constructed with the improved clay for different slopes, i.e., for 1:1, 1.5: 1, 2: 1 is also determined by using PLAXIS 2D software by limiting the factor of safety to 1.5.

Keywords: cohesion, angle of shearing resistance, elastic modulus, coefficient of consolidation, coal mine waste

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Authors: Yue-Tzu Yang, Peng-Jen Chen

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The present study deals with the numerical optimization of wavy channel with the help of genetic algorithm (GA). Three design variables related to the wave amplitude (A), the wavelength (λ) and the channel aspect ratio (α) are chosen and their ranges are decided through preliminary calculations of three-dimensional Navier-stokes and energy equations. A parametric study is also performed to show the effects of different design variables on the overall performance of the wavy channel. Objective functions related to the heat transfer and pressure drop, performance factor (PF) is formulated to analyze the performance of the wavy channel. The numerical results show that the wave amplitude and the channel aspect ratio have significant effects on the thermal performance. It can improve the performance of the wavy channels by increasing wave amplitude or decreasing the channel aspect ratio. Increasing wavelengths have no significant effects on the heat transfer performance.

Keywords: wavy channel, genetic algorithm, optimization, numerical simulation

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Authors: R. Chouatah, E. G. Filali, B. Zouzou

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It has been well established that there are no differences between microscale and macroscale flows of incompressible liquids. However, surface roughness has been known to impact the transport phenomena. The effect of structured roughness on the dynamics and heat transfer of water flowing through minichannel was numerically investigated in this study. Our study consists in characterizing the dynamic field and heat transfer aspect of a flow in circular minichannel equipped with structured roughness using CFD software, CFX. The study is performed to understand the effect of various roughness elements (rectangular, triangular), roughness height and roughness pitch on the friction factor and heat transfer coefficient. Our work focuses on a water flow inside a circular mini-channel of 1 mm in diameter and 10 cm in length. The speed entry into the mini-channel varies from 0.1 m/s to 25 m/s. The wall of the mini-channel is submitted to a constant heat flux; q=100,000 W/m². The simulations results are compared to those obtained with smooth minichannel and the existing experimental and numerical results in the literature.

Keywords: heat transfer, laminar and turbulent flow, minichannel, structured roughness

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Authors: Parvin Foroughifar

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The concept of sense of community refers to residents’ sense of attachment and commitment to the other residents in a residential community. It is implicitly indicative of the mental image of a physical environment in which the residents enjoy strong social ties. Sense of community, a crucial factor in improving quality of life and social welfare, leads to life satisfaction in a residential community. Despite the important functions of such a notion, few empirical studies, to the best of the authors' knowledge, have been so far carried out in Iran to investigate the effective factors in sharpening the sense of community in residential communities. This survey research examined sense of community in 360 above 20-year old residents of three residential communities in Tehran, Iran using cluster sampling and questionnaire. The study yielded the result that variables of local social ties, social control and trust, sense of security, length of residence, use of public spaces, and mixed land use have a significant relationship with sense of community.

Keywords: sense of community, local social ties, sense of security, public space, residential community, Tehran

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Authors: Chih-Wen Wu

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This study examines the antecedents of heritage tourism loyalty and its relation to destination image, consumer travel experience, and destination satisfaction in the tourism context. In this respect, a number of important questions concerning how destination image, consumer travel experience, and destination satisfaction impact destination loyalty are raised. This study attempts to identify three key antecedents of loyalty in the heritage context. The author empirically tests predicted relationships by using personal interview data from 475 foreign tourists. The conceptual model investigated the relevant relationships among the constructs by using confirmatory factor analysis(CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) approach. Findings from the research sample support the argument that destination image, consumer travel experience, destination satisfaction are the key determinants of destination loyalty. Destination image and consumer travel experience influence destination satisfaction. The author also discusses theoretical and managerial implications of research findings for marketing the heritage globally.

Keywords: heritage, destination loyalty, destination image, consumer travel experience, destination satisfaction, tourism

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Authors: Filipa Lancastre, Carmen Lages, Filipe Santos

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The concept of social entrepreneurship (SE) remains ambiguous and deprived of a widely accepted operational definition. We argue that an awareness about the consensual constituent elements of SE from all key players from its ecosystem as well as a deeper understanding of apparently divergent perspectives will allow the different stakeholders (social entrepreneurs, corporations, investors, policymakers, the beneficiaries themselves) to bridge and cooperate for societal value co-creation in trying to solve our most pressing societal issues. To address our research question –what are the dimensions of SE that are consensual and controversial across existing perspectives? – We designed a two-step qualitative study. In a first step, we conducted an extensive literature review, collecting and analyzing 155 different SE definitions. From this initial step, we extracted and characterized three consensual and six controversial dimensions of the SE concept. In a second step, we conducted 20 semi-structured interviews with practitioners that are actively involved in the SE field. The goal of this second step was to verify if the literature did not capture any key dimension, understand how the dimensions related to each other and to understand the rationale behind them. The dimensions of the SE concept were extracted based on the relevance of each theme and on the theoretical relationship among them. To identify the relevance, we used as a proxy the frequency of each theme was referred to in our sample of definitions. To understand relationships, as identified in the previous section, we included concepts from both the management and psychology literature, such as the Entrepreneurial Orientation concept from the entrepreneurship literature, the Subjective Well Being construct from psychology literature, and the Resource-Based Theory from the strategy literature. This study has two main contributions; First, the identification of (consensual and controversial) dimensions of SE that exist across scattered definitions from the academic and practitioner literature. Second, a framework that parsimoniously synthesizes four dominant perspectives of SE and relates them with the SE dimensions. Assuming the contested nature of the SE concept, it is not expected that these views will be reconciled at the academic or practitioner field level. In future research, academics can, however, be aware of the existence of different understandings of SE and avoid bias towards a single view, developing holistic studies on SE phenomena or comparing differences by studying their underlying assumptions. Additionally, it is important that researchers make explicit the perspective they are embracing to ensure consistency among the research question, sampling procedures and implications of results. At the practitioner level, individuals or groups following different logics are predictably mutually suspicious and might benefit from taking stock of other perspectives on SE, building bridges and fostering cross-fertilization to the benefit of the SE ecosystem for which all contribute.

Keywords: social entrepreneurship, conceptualization, dimensions, perspectives

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Authors: Hilya Mudrika Arini, Nur Aini Masruroh, Budi Hartono

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There are more than 20 terrorist threats from 2002 to 2012 in Indonesia. Despite of this fact, preventive solution through studies in the field of national security in Indonesia has not been conducted comprehensively. This study aims to provide a preventive solution by developing prediction model of the terrorist threat in Indonesia by using Bayesian network. There are eight stages to build the model, started from literature review, build and verify Bayesian belief network to what-if scenario. In order to build the model, four experts from different perspectives are utilized. This study finds several significant findings. First, news and the readiness of terrorist group are the most influent factor. Second, according to several scenarios of the news portion, it can be concluded that the higher positive news proportion, the higher probability of terrorist threat will occur. Therefore, the preventive solution to reduce the terrorist threat in Indonesia based on the model is by keeping the positive news portion to a maximum of 38%.

Keywords: Bayesian network, decision analysis, national security system, text mining

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Authors: Elvan Ender, Murat Zencirkıran

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One of the most important criteria that increase the success of design in landscape architecture is the visual effect. The characteristics that affect visual appearance in plant design vary depending on the phenological periods of the plants. In plants, although different effects are observed in different periods of the year, this effect is felt most prominently in flowering periods. For this reason, knowing the flowering time, duration and flower characteristics should be considered as a factor increasing the success of plant design. In this study, flower characteristics of natural woody plants with attractive flowers have been examined. Because of the variability of these characteristics of plants in the region, consideration of these criteria in the planting design processes in the region may increase the success of the design. At the same time, when species selection is made considering the obtained data, visuality and sustainability of natural species can be possible in Bursa city with planting design.

Keywords: Bursa, flower characteristics, natural plants, planting design

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Authors: Pius A. Onobhayedo, Eugene A. Ohu

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Nigeria has one of the fastest growing mobile telecommunications industry in the world. In the absence of fixed connection access to the Internet, access to the Internet is primarily via mobile devices. It, therefore, provides a test case for how to penetrate the mobile market in an emerging economy. We also hope to contribute to a sparse literature on strategies employed in building successful data-driven mobile businesses in emerging economies. We, therefore, sought to identify and analyse the strategic approach taken in a successful locally born mobile data-driven business in Nigeria. The analysis was carried out through the framework of strategic intent and competitive advantages developed from the conception of the company to date. This study is based on an exploratory investigation of an innovative digital company based in Nigeria specializing in the mobile advertising business. The projected growth and high adoption of mobile in this African country, coinciding with the smartphone revolution triggered by the launch of iPhone in 2007 opened a new entrepreneurial horizon for the founder of the company, who reached the conclusion that ‘the future is mobile’. This dream led to the establishment of three digital businesses, designed for convergence and complementarity of medium and content. The mobile Ad subsidiary soon grew to become a truly African network with operations and campaigns across West, East and South Africa, successfully delivering campaigns in several African countries including Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and Zambia amongst others. The company recently declared a 40% year-end profit which was nine times that of the previous financial year. This study drew from an in-depth interview with the company’s founder, analysis of primary and secondary data from and about the business, as well as case studies of digital marketing campaigns. We hinge our analysis on the strategic intent concept which has been proposed to be an engine that drives the quest for sustainable strategic advantage in the global marketplace. Our goal was specifically to identify the strategic intents of the founder and how these were transformed creatively into processes that may have led to some distinct competitive advantages. Along with the strategic intents, we sought to identify the respective absorptive capacities that constituted favourable antecedents to the creation of such competitive advantages. Our recommendations and findings will be pivotal information for anybody wishing to invest in the world’s fastest technology business space - Africa.

Keywords: Africa, competitive advantage, competitive strategy, digital, mobile business, marketing, strategic intent

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Authors: Mahsa Pishdar

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Food traceability through the supply chain is facing increased demand. IoT and blockchain are among the tools under consideration in the Industry 4.0 era that could be integrated to help implementation of the Circular Economy (CE) principles while enhancing food traceability solutions. However, such tools need intellectual system, and infrastructureto be settled as guidance through the way, helping overcoming obstacles. That is why the critical success factors for implementing Industry 4.0 and circular economy principles in food traceability concept are analyzed in this paper by combination of interval type 2 fuzzy Worst Best Method and Measurement Alternatives and Ranking according to Compromise Solution (Interval Type 2 fuzzy WBM-MARCOS). Results indicate that “Knowledge of Industry 4.0 obligations and CE principle” is the most important factor that is the basis of success following by “Management commitment and support”. This will assist decision makers to seize success in gaining a competitive advantage while reducing costs through the supply chain.

Keywords: food traceability, industry 4.0, internet of things, block chain, best worst method, marcos

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Authors: Ho Yeon Park, Kyoung-Jae Kim

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The purpose of this study is to investigate whether friendship in social media can be an important factor in recommender system through social scientific analysis of friendship in popular social media such as Facebook and Twitter. For this purpose, this study analyzes data on friendship in real social media using component analysis and clique analysis among sub-group analysis in social network analysis. In this study, we propose an algorithm to reflect the results of sub-group analysis on the recommender system. The key to this algorithm is to ensure that recommendations from users in friendships are more likely to be reflected in recommendations from users. As a result of this study, outcomes of various subgroup analyzes were derived, and it was confirmed that the results were different from the results of the existing recommender system. Therefore, it is considered that the results of the subgroup analysis affect the recommendation performance of the system. Future research will attempt to generalize the results of the research through further analysis of various social data.

Keywords: sub-group analysis, social media, social network analysis, recommender systems

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Authors: Iman Farasat, Howard M. Salis

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Engineered genetic circuits reprogram cellular behavior to act as living computers with applications in detecting cancer, creating self-controlling artificial tissues, and dynamically regulating metabolic pathways. Phenemenological models are often used to simulate and design genetic circuit behavior towards a desired behavior. While such models assume that each circuit component’s function is modular and independent, even small changes in a circuit (e.g. a new promoter, a change in transcription factor expression level, or even a new media) can have significant effects on the circuit’s function. Here, we use statistical thermodynamics to account for the several factors that control transcriptional regulation in bacteria, and experimentally demonstrate the model’s accuracy across 825 measurements in several genetic contexts and hosts. We then employ our first principles model to design, experimentally construct, and characterize a family of signal amplifying genetic circuits (genetic OpAmps) that expand the dynamic range of cell sensors. To develop these models, we needed a new approach to measuring the in vivo binding free energies of transcription factors (TFs), a key ingredient of statistical thermodynamic models of gene regulation. We developed a new high-throughput assay to measure RNA polymerase and TF binding free energies, requiring the construction and characterization of only a few constructs and data analysis (Figure 1A). We experimentally verified the assay on 6 TetR-homolog repressors and a CRISPR/dCas9 guide RNA. We found that our binding free energy measurements quantitatively explains why changing TF expression levels alters circuit function. Altogether, by combining these measurements with our biophysical model of translation (the RBS Calculator) as well as other measurements (Figure 1B), our model can account for changes in TF binding sites, TF expression levels, circuit copy number, host genome size, and host growth rate (Figure 1C). Model predictions correctly accounted for how these 8 factors control a promoter’s transcription rate (Figure 1D). Using the model, we developed a design framework for engineering multi-promoter genetic circuits that greatly reduces the number of degrees of freedom (8 factors per promoter) to a single dimensionless unit. We propose the Ptashne (Pt) number to encapsulate the 8 co-dependent factors that control transcriptional regulation into a single number. Therefore, a single number controls a promoter’s output rather than these 8 co-dependent factors, and designing a genetic circuit with N promoters requires specification of only N Pt numbers. We demonstrate how to design genetic circuits in Pt number space by constructing and characterizing 15 2-repressor OpAmp circuits that act as signal amplifiers when within an optimal Pt region. We experimentally show that OpAmp circuits using different TFs and TF expression levels will only amplify the dynamic range of input signals when their corresponding Pt numbers are within the optimal region. Thus, the use of the Pt number greatly simplifies the genetic circuit design, particularly important as circuits employ more TFs to perform increasingly complex functions.

Keywords: transcription factor, synthetic biology, genetic circuit, biophysical model, binding energy measurement

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Authors: Zhidong Zhang, Zhi-Chao Zhang

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This study investigated the structural validity of externalizing issues of Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA) via a Chinese sample. The externalizing problems consist of two sub-problems: rule-breaking behavior and aggressive behavior. The rule-breaking behavior consists of 17 items, and aggressive behavior consists of 18 items. The factor analysis model was used to examine the structure validity. For the rule breaking behavior, at the first step, the most items weighted with component 2. After the rotation, there was a clear weight on both component 1 and 2. For the aggressive behavior, at the first step, there was no clear picture about the components. After the rotation, two clusters of items were closer to component 1 and 2 respectively. It seemed that both rule breaking behavior issue and aggressive behavior issue suggested two components. Further studies should be done to examine both samples and structures of externalizing problems.

Keywords: confirmatory analysis, externalizing issue, structural validity, varimax rotations

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Authors: W. Wang, Y. Zhang, J. Shuai, Z. Lv

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The interaction between defects has an essential influence on the bearing capacity of pipelines. This work developed the finite element model of pipelines containing adjacent defects, which includes longitudinally aligned, circumferentially aligned, and diagonally aligned defects. The relationships between spacing and geometries of defects and the failure pressure of pipelines, and the interaction between defects are investigated. The results show that the orientation of defects is an influential factor in the failure pressure of the pipeline. The influence of defect spacing on the failure pressure of the pipeline is non-linear, and the relationship presents different trends depending on the orientation of defects. The increase of defect geometry will weaken the failure pressure of the pipeline, and for the interaction between defects, the increase of defect depth will enhance it, and the increase of defect length will weaken it. According to the research on the interaction rule between defects with different orientations, the interacting coefficients under different orientations of defects are compared. It is determined that the diagonally aligned defects with the overlap of longitudinal projections are the most obvious arrangement of interaction between defects, and the limited distance of interaction between defects is proposed.

Keywords: pipeline, adjacent defects, interaction between defects, failure pressure

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Authors: Muhammad Ali, Aamir Sohail, Umair Malik

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Research in entrepreneurship has gained much attention in current academic environment. Youngsters are taking interest to start their own business in spite of risk matter. The objective of the study is to explain how various personality traits (personal attitude, locus of control, instrumental readiness and perceived behavioral control) are affecting entrepreneurial intention of students. The theory of planned behavior supports out study which explains that personal attractiveness, social norms and feasibility are the main factors that affect intentions of an individual. The sample data of 120 is collected from graduating batch of three reputed universities of Islamabad through questionnaires. Our results support the hypothesis that personality traits positively influence the entrepreneurial intention. We conclude from the study that many graduating students are willing to start a new venture, but most of them are likely to do a job in their respective fields. Risk factor also exists in their minds because in our country most people are risk-averse and they do not want to lose their money in case of loss.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, instrumental readiness, locus of control, personal attitude

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Authors: T. Ito, K. Kawaguchi, R. Ohta

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The purpose of this study is to provide a guideline to assist globally-minded companies in developing task-based English-language programs for their employees. After conducting an online self-assessment questionnaire comprised of 45 job-related tasks, we analyzed responses received from 3,000 Japanese company employees and developed a checklist that considered three areas: (i) the percentage of those who need to accomplish English-language tasks in their workplace (need for English), (ii) a five-point self-assessment score (task performance level), and (iii) the impact of previous task experience on perceived performance (experience factor). The 45 tasks were graded according to five proficiency levels. Our results helped us to create a core guideline that may assist companies in two ways: first, in helping determine which tasks employees with a certain English proficiency should be able to satisfactorily carry out, and secondly, to quickly prioritize which business-related English skills they would need in future English language programs.

Keywords: business settings, can-do statements, English language training programs, self-assessment, task experience

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Authors: Jelena Bašić, Višnjica Vučetić, Mislav Anić, Tomislav Bašić

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Lack of precipitation combined with high temperatures causes great damage to the agriculture and economy in Croatia. Therefore, it is important to understand water circulation and balance. We decided to gain a better insight into the spatial distribution of water balance components (WBC) and their long-term changes in Croatia. WBC are precipitation (P), potential evapotranspiration (PET), actual evapotranspiration (ET), soil moisture content (S), runoff (RO), recharge (R), and soil moisture loss (L). Since measurements of the mentioned components in Croatia are very rare, the Palmer model has been applied to estimate them. We refined method by setting into the account the corrective factor to include influence effects of the wind as well as a maximum soil capacity for specific soil types. We will present one hundred years’ time series of PET and ET showing the trends at few meteorological stations and a comparison of components of two climatological periods. The meteorological data from 109 stations have been used for the spatial distribution map of the WBC of Croatia.

Keywords: croatia, long-term trends, the palmer method, water balance components

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Authors: Zakir Husain

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Main objective of a power transformer design optimization problem requires minimizing the total overall cost and/or mass of the winding and core material by satisfying all possible constraints obligatory by the standards and transformer user requirement. The constraints include appropriate limits on winding fill factor, temperature rise, efficiency, no-load current and voltage regulation. The design optimizations tasks are a constrained minimum cost and/or mass solution by optimally setting the parameters, geometry and require magnetic properties of the transformer. In this paper, present the above design problems have been formulated by using genetic algorithm (GA) and simulated annealing (SA) on the MATLAB platform. The importance of the presented approach is stems for two main features. First, proposed technique provides reliable and efficient solution for the problem of design optimization with several variables. Second, it guaranteed to obtained solution is global optimum. This paper includes a demonstration of the application of the genetic programming GP technique to transformer design.

Keywords: optimization, power transformer, genetic algorithm (GA), simulated annealing technique (SA)

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Authors: K. Khlifi, A. Haddouk, M. Hlaili, H. Mechergui

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The present paper provides a detailed analysis of prior methods and approaches for non-linear load identification in residential buildings. The main goal of this analysis is to decipher the distorted signals and to estimate the harmonics influence on power systems. We have performed an analytical study of non-linear loads behavior in the residential environment. Simulations have been performed in order to evaluate the distorted rate of the current and follow his behavior. To complete this work, an instrumental platform has been realized to carry out practical tests on single-phase non-linear loads which illustrate the current consumption of some domestic appliances supplied with single-phase sinusoidal voltage. These non-linear loads have been processed and tracked in order to limit their influence on the power grid and to reduce the Joule effect losses. As a result, the study has allowed to identify responsible circuits of harmonic pollution.

Keywords: distortion rate, harmonic analysis, harmonic pollution, non-linear load, power factor

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Authors: Sourabh R. Dinde, Rajshekar S. Talikoti

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According to the structural point of view Industrial Pallet rack structure can be considered typical steel framed structure. This work presents a general analysis of an industrial pallet rack structure, evaluating the influence of each of the components on the global stability. An analytical study for the sensitivity of pallet rack configuration in linear static equivalent lateral loads. The aim is to braced/unbraced frames were design and their analytical models are to be built in software. The finite element analysis is used to determine axial forces in beam and column, maximum storey displacement and buckling loads on braced/unbraced pallet rack structure. Bracing systems are mostly provided to enhance the stiffness factor of the structures with the seismic loads. Unbraced systems have mostly translational modes of failure and are very flexible due to excessive loads.

Keywords: buckling capacity, cold formed steel, finite element analysis, pallets Rrack, seismic design

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Authors: Jian Shao

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The effect of entrepreneurship on economic, innovation, and employment has been widely acknowledged by scholars and governments. As an essential factor of influencing entrepreneurship activities, entrepreneurship policy creates a conducive environment to support and develop entrepreneurship. However, the challenge in developing entrepreneurship policy is that policy is normally a combination of many different goals and instruments. Instead of examining the effect of individual policy instruments, we argue that attention to a policy mix is necessary. In recent years, much attention has been focused on comparing a single policy instrument to a policy mix, evaluating the interactions between different instruments within a mix or assessment of particular policy mixes. However, another required step in understanding policy mixes is to understand how and why mixes evolve and change over time and to determine whether any changes are an improvement. In this paper, we try to trace the development of the policy mix for entrepreneurship in China by mapping the policy goals and instruments and reveal the process of policy mix changing over time. We find two main process mechanisms of the entrepreneurship policy mix in China: patching and stretching. Compared with policy repackaging, patching and stretching are more realistic processes in the real world of the policy mix, and they are possible to achieve effectiveness by avoiding conflicts and promoting synergies among policy goals and instruments.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, China, policy design, policy mix, policy patching

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Authors: Maryam Najafi, Mahdi Rajabi

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Although the rural cooperatives are an effective way for rural development in Iran, their potential is not applied effectively. The investigation of the failures of rural cooperatives helps the authorities to improve the routine procedures and eliminate the current barriers to the success of these cooperatives, and to remove the defects in order to have a more efficient policy. Therefore, this research aims to prioritize the failure factors of rural cooperatives in Isfahan province via the survey research method. For this purpose, the effective factors of these failures were investigated by the available research documents and then by the new information which was obtained from 20 questionnaires from the experts of Central Organization Rural Cooperatives in Isfahan province. The questionnaire results were analyzed by Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), Excel, and Expert Choice software. The results of this research showed that the most important failure factor of these cooperatives is the lack of the participation culture of cooperative members and then the performance of Central Organization Rural Cooperatives, and also loss of confidence of the members in the cooperation.

Keywords: cooperative, rural cooperatives, failure factors, analytical hierarchy process

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Authors: Hyeondal Jeong, Yoonjung Baek

Abstract:

The main purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of diversity sensitive orientation on job satisfaction and turnover intention. Diversity sensitive orientation is the attitude of the individual to respect and accommodate diversity. This is focused on an individual’s perception of diversity. Although being made from the most diversity related research team and organizational level, this study deals with diversity issues at the individual level. To test the proposed research model and hypothesis, the data were collected from 291 Korean employees. The study conducted a confirmatory factor analysis for the validity test. Furthermore, structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to test the hypothesized relationship in the conceptual model. The results of this paper were as followings: First, diversity sensitive orientation was positively related to job satisfaction. Second, diversity sensitive orientation was negatively related to turnover intention. In other words, the positive influence of the diversity sensitive orientation has been verified. Based on the findings, this study suggested implications and directions for future research.

Keywords: diversity sensitive orientation, job satisfaction, turnover intention, perception, cognition

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Authors: Sandra So, Mohd Roslan Ismail, Safurah Jaafar

Abstract:

With the rapid proliferation of data in healthcare has provided an opportune platform creation of Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI has brought a paradigm shift for healthcare professionals, promising improvement in delivery and quality. This study aims to determine the perception of healthcare personnel on perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and subjective norm toward attitude for artificial intelligence acceptance. A cross-sectional single institutional study of employees’ perception of adopting AI in the hospital was conducted. The survey was conducted using a questionnaire adapted from Technology Acceptance Model and a four-point Likert scale was used. There were 96 or 75.5% of the total population responded. This study has shown the significant relationship and the importance of ease of use, perceived usefulness, and subjective norm to the acceptance of AI. In the study results, it concluded that the determining factor to the strong acceptance of AI in their practices is mostly those respondents with the most interaction with the patients and clinical management.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, machine learning, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, subjective norm

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Authors: Armaghan Moravej Aleali, Seyed Bahman Ghaderian, Homeira Rashidi, Mahmoud Mapar

Abstract:

Background and Objective The metabolic syndrome (MetS) is considered the most important public health threat of the 21st century. This syndrome is characterized by a cluster of cardiovascular risk factors including increased central abdominal obesity, elevated triglycerides, reduced high-density lipoprotein, high blood pressure, increased fasting glucose, and hyperinsulinemia. MetS has been associated with hypogonadism and erectile dysfunction (ED), and MetS may be considered a risk factor for ED. The aim of this study was finding an association between metabolic syndrome and hypogonadism in Khouzestan, Iran. Subjects and Methods: In this study, 60 patients divided into two groups consisted of 30 cases (with metabolic syndrome) and 30 controls. Total and free Serum Testosterone and FBS in all of them were measured. Data was analyzed with SPSS20 program. Results: There was a significant difference between two groups about free Testosterone (P=0.01), FBS (P=0.002) and LH (P=0.03). Conclusion: According to this finding, it is thought the prevalence of hypogonadism in men with metabolic syndrome is more than the general population.

Keywords: metabolic syndrome, fasting blood sugar, hypogonadism, testosterone

Procedia PDF Downloads 400