Search results for: ANOVA (Analysis of Variance)

Authors: Lynmar M. Didal, Ramises G. Manzano Jr., Jacque Bon-Isaac C. Aboy

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This study analyzes the performance of global minimum variance and naive portfolios across different economic periods, using monthly stock returns from the Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PSEI), S&P 500, and Dow Jones Industrial Average (DOW). The performance is evaluated through the Sharpe ratio, Sortino ratio, Jensen’s Alpha, Treynor ratio, and Information ratio. Additionally, the study investigates the impact of short selling on portfolio performance. Six-time periods are defined for analysis, encompassing events such as the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings indicate that the Naive portfolio generally outperforms the GMV portfolio in the S&P 500, signifying higher returns with increased volatility. Conversely, in the PSEI and DOW, the GMV portfolio shows more efficient risk-adjusted returns. Short selling significantly impacts the GMV portfolio during mid-GFC and mid-COVID periods. The study offers insights for investors, suggesting the Naive portfolio for higher risk tolerance and the GMV portfolio as a conservative alternative.

Keywords: portfolio performance, global minimum variance, naïve portfolio, risk-adjusted metrics, short-selling

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Authors: Madhuri, H. R. Tewari, P. K. Bhowmick

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The study attempts to find out the role of the community and the government support, flood experience, flood education, and education of the male-headed households in their livelihood resilience. The study is based on a randomly drawn sample of 472 households from the river basins of Ganga and Kosi in the district of Bhagalpur, Bihar. Structural equation modeling (SEM) and analysis of variance (ANOVA) methods are used to analyze the data. The findings of the study reveal that the role(s) of the community support though is found to be more significant in comparison to the government supports for its stand by position in rescue and livelihood resilience of the affected households whereas the government support arrives late and in far less quantity than what is required. However, the government's support is equally vital due its control over resources, which essentially needed in rescue and rehabilitation of the affected households. The study unravels the strategic value of households' indigenous knowledge and their flood experience in livelihood resilience.

Keywords: flood education, flood experience, livelihood resilience, community support, government support

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Authors: Uzma Ayaz, Sanam Bashir, Shahid Iqbal Awan, Muhammad Ilyas, Muhammad Fareed Khan

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Drought stress directly affects growth along with the productivity of plants by altering plant water status. Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.), an oilseed crop, is adversely affected by abiotic stresses. The present study was carried out to characterize the genetic variability for seedling and morpho-physiological parameters in different sunflower genotypes under water-stressed conditions. A total of twenty-seven genotypes, including two hybrids, eight advanced lines and seventeen accessions of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) were tested against drought stress at Seedling stages by Polyethylene glycol (PEG). Significant means were calculated among traits using analysis of variance (ANOVA) whereas, correlation and principal component analysis also confirmed that germination percentage, root length, shoot length, chlorophyll content, stomatal frequency are positively linked with each other hence, these traits were responsible for most of the variation among genotypes. The cluster analysis results showed that genotypes Ausun, line-3, line-2, and 17578, line-1, line-7, line-6 and 17562 as more diverse among all the genotypes. These most divergent genotypes could be utilized in the development of drought-tolerant inbreed lines which could be subsequently used in future heterosis breeding programs.

Keywords: sunflower, drought, stress, polyethylene- glycol, screening

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Authors: Pei-Chen Wu

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Both preexisting cross-sectional and longitudinal studies of personality-depression relationship have suffered from one main limitation: they ignored the stability of the construct of interest (e.g., personality and depression) can be expected to influence the estimate of the association between personality and depression. To address this limitation, the Trait-State-Occasion (TSO) modeling was adopted to analyze the sources of variance of the focused constructs. A TSO modeling was operated by partitioning a state variance into time-invariant (trait) and time-variant (occasion) components. Within a TSO framework, it is possible to predict change on the part of construct that really changes (i.e., time-variant variance), when controlling the trait variances. 750 high school students were followed for 4 waves over six-month intervals. The baseline data (T1) were collected from the senior high schools (aged 14 to 15 years). Participants were given Beck Depression Inventory and Big Five Inventory at each assessment. TSO modeling revealed that 70~78% of the variance in personality (five constructs) was stable over follow-up period; however, 57~61% of the variance in depression was stable. For personality construct, there were 7.6% to 8.4% of the total variance from the autoregressive occasion factors; for depression construct there were 15.2% to 18.1% of the total variance from the autoregressive occasion factors. Additionally, results showed that when controlling initial symptom severity, the time-invariant components of all five dimensions of personality were predictive of change in depression (Extraversion: B= .32, Openness: B = -.21, Agreeableness: B = -.27, Conscientious: B = -.36, Neuroticism: B = .39). Because five dimensions of personality shared some variance, the models in which all five dimensions of personality were simultaneous to predict change in depression were investigated. The time-invariant components of five dimensions were still significant predictors for change in depression (Extraversion: B = .30, Openness: B = -.24, Agreeableness: B = -.28, Conscientious: B = -.35, Neuroticism: B = .42). In sum, the majority of the variability of personality was stable over 2 years. Individuals with the greater tendency of Extraversion and Neuroticism have higher degrees of depression; individuals with the greater tendency of Openness, Agreeableness and Conscientious have lower degrees of depression.

Keywords: assessment, depression, personality, trait-state-occasion model

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Authors: Hussaini Tunde Subairu

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Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) sectors serve as catalyst for employment generation, national growth, poverty reduction and economic development in developing and developed countries. However, in Nigeria despite copious and plethora of government policies and stimulus schemes directed at SMEs, the sector is still characterized by high rate of failure and discontinuities. This study therefore investigated owners/managers profile, firms characteristics and external factors as possible determinants of SMEs growth from selected SMEs in Kwara State. Primary data were sourced from 200 SMEs respondents registered with the National Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASMES) in Kwara State Central Senatorial District. Multiple Regressions Analysis (MRA) was used to analyze the relationship between dependent and independent variables, and pair wise correlation was employed to examine the relationship among independent variables. The Analysis of Variable (ANOVA) was employed to indicate the overall significant of the model The findings revealed that Analysis of variance (ANOVA) put the value of F-statistics at 420.45 and p-value at 0.000 was significant. The values of R2 and Adjusted R2 of 0.9643 and 0.9620 respectively suggested that 96 percent of variations in employment growth were explained by the explanatory variables. The level of technical and managerial education has t- value of 24.14 and p-value of 0.001, length of managers/owners experience in similar trade with t- value of 21.37 and p-value of 0.001, age of managers/owners with t- value of 42.98 and p-value of 0.001, firm age with t- value of 25.91 and p-value of 0.001, numbers of firms in a cluster with t- value of 7.20 and p-value of 0.001, access to formal finance with t-value of 5.56 and p-value of 0.001, firm technology innovation with t- value of 25.32 and p-value of 0.01, institutional support with t- value of 18.89 and p-value of 0.01, globalization with t- value of 9.78 and p-value of 0.01, and infrastructure with t-value of 10.75 and p-value of 0.01. The result also indicated that initial size has t-value of -1.71 and p-value of 0.090 which is consistent with Gibrat’s Law. The study concluded that owners/managers profile, firm specific characteristics and external factors substantially influenced employment growths of SMEs in the study area. Therefore, policy implication should enhance human capital development of SMEs owners/managers, and strengthen fiscal policy thrust through imposition on tariff regime to minimize effect of globalization. Governments at all level must support SMEs growth radically and enhance institutional support for SMEs growth and radically and significantly upgrading key infrastructure as rail/roads, rail, telecommunications, water and power.

Keywords: external factors, firm specific characteristics, owners / manager profile, small and medium enterprises

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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: Seyed Habib Shojaei, Reza Eivazi, Mir Sajad Shojaei, Alireza Akbari, Pooria Mazloom, Seyede Mitra Sadati, Mir Zeinalabedin Shojaei, Farnaz Farbakhsh

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To study the genetic diversity in rapeseeds and agronomic traits, an experiment was conducted using multivariate statistical methods at Agricultural Research Station of Kashmar in 2012-2013.In this experiment, ten genotypes of rapeseed in a Randomized Complete Block designs with three replications were evaluated. The following traits were studied: seed yield, number of days to the fifty percent of flowering, plant height, number of pods on main stem, length of the pod, seed yield per plant, number of seed in pod, harvest index, weight of 100 seeds, number of pods on lateral branch, number of lateral branches. In analyzing the variance, differences between cultivars were significant. The average comparative revealed that the most valuable variety was Licord regarding to the traits while the least valuable variety was Opera. In stepwise regression, harvest index, grain yield per plant and number of pods per lateral branches were entering to model. Correlation analysis showed that the grain yield with the number of pods per lateral branches and seed yield per plant have positive and significant correlation. In the factor analysis, the first five components explained more than 83% of the variance in the data. In the first factor, seed yield and the number of pods per lateral branches were of the highest importance. The traits, seed yield per plant, and pod per main stem were of a great significance in the second factor. Moreover, in the third factor, plant height and the number of lateral branches were more important. In the fourth factor, plant height and one hundred seeds weight were of the highest variance. Finally, days to fifty percent of flowering and one hundred seeds weight were more important in fifth factor.

Keywords: rapeseed, variance analysis, regression, factor analysis

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Authors: Alan Wan

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In recent years, the body of literature on frequentist model averaging in statistics has grown significantly. Most of this work focuses on models with different mean structures but leaves out the variance consideration. In this paper, we consider a regression model with multiplicative heteroscedasticity and develop a model averaging method that combines maximum likelihood estimators of unknown parameters in both the mean and variance functions of the model. Our weight choice criterion is based on a minimisation of a plug-in estimator of the model average estimator's squared prediction risk. We prove that the new estimator possesses an asymptotic optimality property. Our investigation of finite-sample performance by simulations demonstrates that the new estimator frequently exhibits very favourable properties compared to some existing heteroscedasticity-robust model average estimators. The model averaging method hedges against the selection of very bad models and serves as a remedy to variance function misspecification, which often discourages practitioners from modeling heteroscedasticity altogether. The proposed model average estimator is applied to the analysis of two real data sets.

Keywords: heteroscedasticity-robust, model averaging, multiplicative heteroscedasticity, plug-in, squared prediction risk

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Authors: Fasanmi Samuel Sunday, Awosusi Omojola

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The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of abusive supervision, interactional justice and supportive workplace supervision burnout among health workers in Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria. Three hundred and twenty (320) health workers were sampled within Makurdi metropolis, Benue State, Nigeria. Standardized questionnaire on abusive supervision scale, interactional justice scale, supportive workplace supervision scale and employee burnout scale were used in the study. The research was a 2x2x2 factorial design. Four hypotheses were generated and were tested using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Scheffe’s post-hoc analysis was used to know the direction of the findings. Results revealed that there was a significant main effect of perceived abusive supervision on employee burnout among health workers. Also, there was a significant main effect of interactional justice on employee burnout among health workers. It was also found out that there was a significant interaction effect of supportive workplace supervision, interactional justice, and abusive supervision on employee burnout among health workers. Results were discussed in line with hypotheses; and recommendations on how to reduce employee burnout were suggested.

Keywords: employee burnout, abusive supervision, interactional justice, supportive workplace supervision

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Authors: Reza Salehi, Peter L. Dold, Yves Comeau

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The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of a total of 6 operating parameters including pH (X1), temperature (X2), stirring speed (X3), chemical oxygen demand (COD) (X4), volatile suspended solids (VSS) (X5) and time (X6) on anaerobic orthophosphate release from enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) sludge. An 8-run Plackett Burman design was applied and the statistical analysis of the experimental data was performed using Minitab16.2.4 software package. The Analysis of variance (ANOVA) results revealed that temperature, COD, VSS and time had a significant effect with p-values of less than 0.05 whereas pH and stirring speed were identified as non-significant parameters, but influenced orthophosphate release from the EBPR sludge. The mathematic expression obtained by the first-order multiple linear regression model between orthophosphate release from the EBPR sludge (Y) and the operating parameters (X1-X6) was Y=18.59+1.16X1-3.11X2-0.81X3+3.79X4+9.89X5+4.01X6. The model p-value and coefficient of determination (R2) value were 0.026 and of 99.87%, respectively, which indicates the model is significant and the predicted values of orthophosphate release from the EBPR sludge have been excellently correlated with the observed values.

Keywords: anaerobic, operating parameters, orthophosphate release, Plackett-Burman design

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Authors: Kiurski S. Jelena, Kecić S. Vesna, Oros B. Ivana

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Experimental results confirmed the temporal variation of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide concentration during the working shift of the photocopying process in a small photocopying shop in Novi Sad, Serbia. The statistically significant differences of target gases were examined with two-way analysis of variance without replication followed by Scheffe's post hoc test. The existence of statistically significant differences was obtained for carbon monoxide emission which is pointed out with F-values (12.37 and 31.88) greater than F_crit (6.94) in contrary to carbon dioxide emission (F-values of 1.23 and 3.12 were less than F_crit).  Scheffe's post hoc test indicated that sampling point A (near the photocopier machine) and second time interval contribute the most on carbon monoxide emission.

Keywords: analysis of variance, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, photocopying indoor, Scheffe's test

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Authors: Gamze Karanfil Celep, Kevser Dincer

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The effects of polymer concentration and electrospinning process parameters on the average diameters of electrospun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers were experimentally investigated. Besides, mechanical and thermal properties of PAN nanofibers were examined by tensile test and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), respectively. For this purpose, the polymer concentration, solution feed rate, supply voltage and tip-to-collector distance were determined as the control factors. To succeed these aims, Taguchi’s L16 orthogonal design (4 parameters, 4 level) was employed for the experimental design. Optimal electrospinning conditions were defined using the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio that was calculated from diameters of the electrospun PAN nanofibers according to "the-smaller-the-better" approachment. In addition, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was evaluated to conclude the statistical significance of the process parameters. The smallest diameter of PAN nanofibers was observed. According to the S/N ratio response results, the most effective parameter on finding out of nanofiber diameter was determined. Finally, the Taguchi design of experiments method has been found to be an effective method to statistically optimize the critical electrospinning parameters used in nanofiber production. After determining the optimum process parameters of nanofiber production, electrical conductivity and fuel cell performance of electrospun PAN nanofibers on the carbon papers will be evaluated.

Keywords: nanofiber, electrospinning, polyacrylonitrile, Taguchi method

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Authors: Shraddha Digole, Swarali Hingse, Uday Annapure

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Mycophenolic acid (MPA) is an immunosuppressant; produced by Penicillium Sp. Box-Behnken statistical experimental design was employed to optimize the condition of Penicillium brevicompactum NRRL 2011 for mycophenolic acid (MPA) production. Initially optimization of various physicochemical parameters and media components was carried out using one factor at a time approach and significant factors were screened by Taguchi L-16 orthogonal array design. Taguchi design indicated that glucose, KH2PO4 and MgSO4 had significant effect on MPA production. These variables were selected for further optimization studies using Box-Behnken design. Optimised fermentation condition, glucose (60 g/L), glycine (28 g/L), L-leucine (1.5g/L), KH2PO4 (3g/L), MgSO4.7H2O (1.5g/L), increased the production of MPA from 170 mg/L to 1032.54 mg/L. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed a high value of coefficient of determination R2 (0.9965), indicating a good agreement between experimental and predicted values and proves validity of the statistical model.

Keywords: Box-Behnken design, fermentation, mycophenolic acid, Penicillium brevicompactum

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Authors: Gultekin Gurcay

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In this paper, effects and responses of stock were analyzed. This analysis was done periodically. The dimensions of the financial crisis impact on the stock market were investigated by GARCH model. In this context, S&P 500 stock market is modeled with DAX, NIKKEI and BIST100. In this way, The effects of the changing in S&P 500 stock market were examined on European and Asian stock markets. Conditional variance coefficient will be calculated through garch model. The scope of the crisis period, the conditional covariance coefficient will be analyzed comparatively.

Keywords: conditional variance coefficient, financial crisis, garch model, stock market

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Authors: Nancy Ibrahim Abdalla, Abdelaziz Karamalla Gaiballa

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Rangelands in semi-arid areas provide a good source for feeding huge numbers of animals and serving environmental, economic and social importance; therefore, these areas are considered economically very important for the pastoral sector in Sudan. This paper investigates the means of differentiating between different rangelands sites according to soil types using principal component analysis to assist in monitoring and assessment purposes. Three rangeland sites were identified in the study area as flat sandy sites, sand dune site, and hard clay site. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to reduce the number of factors needed to distinguish between rangeland sites and produce a new set of data including the most useful spectral information to run satellite image processing. It was performed using selected types of data (two vegetation indices, topographic data and vegetation surface reflectance within the three bands of MODIS data). Analysis with PCA indicated that there is a relatively high correspondence between vegetation and soil of the total variance in the data set. The results showed that the use of the principal component analysis (PCA) with the selected variables showed a high difference, reflected in the variance and eigenvalues and it can be used for differentiation between different range sites.

Keywords: principal component analysis, PCA, rangeland sites, semi-arid areas, soil types

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Authors: Balwinder Singh

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The present research is a paper on the characterization of aluminum alloy-6063 hybrid metal matrix composites using three different reinforcement materials (SiC, red mud, and fly ash) through stir casting method. The red mud was used in solid form, and particle size range varies between 103-150 µm. During this investigation, fly ash is received from Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant (GNDTP), Bathinda. The study has been done by using Taguchi’s L9 orthogonal array by taking fraction wt.% (SiC 5%, 7.5%, and 10% and Red Mud and Fly Ash 2%, 4%, and 6%) as input parameters with their respective levels. The study of the mechanical properties (tensile strength, impact strength, and microhardness) has been done by using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) with the help of MINITAB 17 software. It is revealed that silicon carbide is the most significant parameter followed by red mud and fly ash affecting the mechanical properties, respectively. The fractured surface morphology of the composites using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) shows that there is a good mixing of reinforcement particles in the matrix. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) was performed to know the presence of the phases of the reinforced material.

Keywords: reinforcement, silicon carbide, fly ash, red mud

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Authors: Mandeep Kumar, Hari Singh

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The effective optimization of machining process parameters affects dramatically the cost and production time of machined components as well as the quality of the final products. This paper presents the optimization aspects of a Wire Electrical Discharge Machining operation using Inconel X-750 as work material. The objective considered in this study is minimization of the dimensional deviation. Six input process parameters of WEDM namely spark gap voltage, pulse-on time, pulse-off time, wire feed rate, peak current and wire tension, were chosen as variables to study the process performance. Taguchi's design of experiments methodology has been used for planning and designing the experiments. The analysis of variance was carried out for raw data as well as for signal to noise ratio. Four input parameters and one two-factor interaction have been found to be statistically significant for their effects on the response of interest. The confirmation experiments were also performed for validating the predicted results.

Keywords: ANOVA, DOE, inconel, machining, optimization

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Authors: Gholamhossein Hosseini

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Two earliness cotton genotypes I and II, which had been developed by hybridization and backcross methods between sindise-80 as an early maturing gene parent and two other lines i.e. Red leaf and Bulgare-557 as a second parent, are subjected to different environmental conditions. The early maturing genotypes with coded names of I and II were compared with four native cotton cultivars in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with four replications in three ecological regions of Iran from 2016-2017. Two early maturing genotypes along with four native cultivars viz. Varamin, Oltan, Sahel and Arya were planted in Agricultural Research Station of Varamin, Moghan and Kashmar for evaluation. Earliness data were collected for six treatments during two years in the three regions except missing data for the second year of Kashmar. Therefore, missed data were estimated and imputed. For testing the homogeneity of error variances, each experiment at a given location or year is analyzed separately using Hartley and Bartlett’s Chi-square tests and both tests confirmed homogeneity of variance. Combined analysis of variance showed that genotypes I and II were superior in Varamin, Moghan and Kashmar regions. Earliness means and their interaction effects were compared with Duncan’s multiple range tests. Finally combined analysis of variance showed that genotypes I and II were superior in Varamin, Moghan and Kashmar regions. Earliness means and their interaction effects are compared with Duncan’s multiple range tests.

Keywords: cotton, combined, analysis, earliness

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Authors: Nada Jasim Habeeb, Rana Saad Mohammed, Muntaha Khudair Abbass

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For more efficient and fast video summarization, this paper presents a surveillance video summarization method. The presented method works to improve video summarization technique. This method depends on temporal differencing to extract most important data from large video stream. This method uses histogram differencing and Sum Conditional Variance which is robust against to illumination variations in order to extract motion objects. The experimental results showed that the presented method gives better output compared with temporal differencing based summarization techniques.

Keywords: temporal differencing, video summarization, histogram differencing, sum conditional variance

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Authors: Semra Çoruh, Yusuf Tibet

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Dyes are widely used in industries such as textiles, paper, paints, leather, rubber, plastics, cosmetics, food, and drug etc, to color their products. Due to their chemical structures, dyes are resistant to fading on exposure to light, water and many chemicals and, therefore, are difficult to be decolorized once released into the aquatic environment. Many of the organic dyes are hazardous and may affect aquatic life and even the food chain. This study deals with the adsorption of malachite green dye onto fly ash and red mud. The effects of experimental factors (adsorbent dosage, initial concentration, pH and temperature) on the adsorption process were examined by using 24 full factorial design. The results were statistically analyzed by using the student’s t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and an F-test to define important experimental factors and their levels. A regression model that considers the significant main and interaction effects was suggested. The results showed that initial dye concentration an pH is the most significant factor that affects the removal of malachite green.

Keywords: malachite green, adsorption, red mud, fly ash, full factorial design

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Authors: Tarantino E., Disciglio G., Gagliardi A., Gatta G., Tarantino A.

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Fertilizer is a critical input for improving production and increasing crop yields. Consecutive experimental trials during six years (from 2010-2015) were carried out in Apulia region (south-eastern Italy) on seven crops grown in cylinder pots. The aim was to determinate the effects of chemical and organic fertilizer on marketable yield and other parameters of processing tomato (Lycopersicum esculentum L., cv Docet), lettuce (Lactuca sativa L., cv Canasta), cauliflower (Brassica oleracea L., cv Casper), pepper (Capsicum annum L., cv Akron), fennel (Foeniculum vulgare L., cv Tarquinia), eggplant (Solanum melongena L. cv Primato F1) and chard (Beta vulgaris L., Argentata). At harvest the quail-quantitative yield characteristics of each crop were determined. All of the experimental data were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results showed that the yields for all of these crops were greater under the chemical system than the organic system whereas quite variable results were generally observed for the other characteristics of the yield.

Keywords: fertilizers, herbaceous crops, yield characteristics, succession

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Authors: Kudirat I. Zakariyyah, Iniobong B. John, Julius O. Faremi, David Adio-Moses

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One of the key contributors to firms’ growth, performance, and sustainability is entrepreneurial orientation (EO). Most studies on EO, however, are in other industries than construction and, more often, exploratory. The purpose of this study is thus to create an awareness on entrepreneurial orientation and its dimensions in contracting firms. Considering the need for sustainability, the study thus examined contracting firms’ entrepreneurial orientation dimensions that are required in order to keep pace with the demands for sustainable development. This was done by giving out questionnaires to a sample of 116 respondents from a population of 166 construction firms in Lagos state. Data were collected through a survey and analysed using mean scores and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The result revealed the prevalence of the four dimensions of EO, though in moderate proportion. In addition, the study identified review of organisational structure as the top entrepreneurial orientation dimension needed for sustainable development. The study concludes that the firms should identify the existing orientation dimensions and its relevance with sustainability so as to be able to know the required review that will be appropriate in the industry. It is recommended that the firms need to do more on raising the level of prevalence of the various orientation dimensions in order to achieve the merits of the different constructs of sustainability.

Keywords: construction, culture, entrepreneurial-orientation, dimension, sustainability

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Authors: Mustafa Altin, Gamze Fahriye Pehlivan, Sadiye Didem Boztepe Erkis, Sakir Tasdemir, Sevda Altin

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In this study, an experimental study was executed related to the strength of wooden materials which have been commonly used both in the past and present against pressure and whether fire retardant materials used against fire have any effects or not. Totally, 81 samples which included three different wood species, three different sizes, two different fire retardants and two unprocessed samples were prepared. Compressive pressure tests were applied to the prepared samples, their variance analyses were executed in accordance with the obtained results and it was aimed to determine the most convenient wooden materials and fire-retardant coating material. It was also determined that the species of wood and the species of coating caused the decrease and/or increase in the resistance against pressure.

Keywords: resistance of wood against pressure, species of wood, variance analysis, wood coating, wood fire safety

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Authors: Mirjana Dragas, Marli Gonan Bozac, Morena Paulisic

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Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a balance between strategic and financial goals of companies, as well as social needs. The integration of competitive strategy and CSR in food and beverage industry has allowed companies to find new sources of competitive advantage. The paper discusses the fact that socially responsible companies encourage co-operation with socially responsible suppliers in order to strengthen market competitiveness. In addition to the descriptive interpretation of the results obtained by a questionnaire, factor analysis was used, while principal components analysis was applied as a factor extraction method. The research results based on two multiple regression analyses show that: (1) selecting the CSR supplier explains a statistically significant part of the variance of the results on the scale of financial aspects of competitiveness (as much as 44.7% of the explained variance); and (2) selecting the CSR supplier is a significant predictor of non-financial aspects of competitiveness (explains 43.9% of the variance of the results on the scale of non-financial aspects of competitiveness). A successful competitive strategy must ultimately support the growth strategy. This implies an analytical approach to finding factors that influence competitiveness through socially sustainable solutions and satisfactory top management decisions.

Keywords: competitiveness, corporate social responsibility, food and beverage industry, supply chain decision making

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Authors: David A. Swanson, Lucky M. Tedrow

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Taylor’s Law is a widely observed empirical pattern that relates variances to means in sets of non-negative measurements via an approximate power function, which has found application to human mortality. This study adds to this research by showing that Taylor’s Law leads to a model that reasonably describes the relationship between life expectancy at birth (e0, which also is equal to mean age at death in a life table) and variance at age of death in seven World Bank regional life tables measured at two points in time, 1970 and 2000. Using as a benchmark a non-random sample of four Japanese female life tables covering the period from 1950 to 2004, the study finds that the simple linear model provides reasonably accurate estimates of variance in age at death in a life table from e0, where the latter range from 60.9 to 85.59 years. Employing 2017 life tables from the Human Mortality Database, the simple linear model is used to provide estimates of variance at age in death for six countries, three of which have high e0 values and three of which have lower e0 values. The paper provides a substantive interpretation of Taylor’s Law relative to e0 and concludes by arguing that reasonably accurate estimates of variance in age at death in a period life table can be calculated using this approach, which also can be used where e0 itself is estimated rather than generated through the construction of a life table, a useful feature of the model.

Keywords: empirical pattern, mean age at death in a life table, mean age of a stationary population, stationary population

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Authors: Fatima Zehra Allahverdi, Nukhet Bayer

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Objective: Three questions were formulated to examine stressful working units (intensive care units, emergency unit nurses) utilizing the self-perception theory and social support theory. This study provides a distinctive input by inspecting the combination of variables regarding stressful working environments. Method: The descriptive research was conducted with the participation of 400 nurses working at Ankara City Hospital. The study used Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA), regression analysis, and a mediation model. Hypothesis one used MANOVA followed by a Scheffe post hoc test. Hypothesis two utilized regression analysis using a hierarchical linear regression model. Hypothesis three used a mediation model. Result: The study utilized mediation analyses. Findings supported the hypotheses that intensive care units have significantly high scores in virtual communication and virtual tolerance. The number of years on the job, virtual communication, virtual tolerance, and phubbing significantly predicted 51% of the variance of perception of addiction. Interestingly, the number of years on the job, while significant, was negatively related to perception of addiction. Conclusion: The reasoning behind these findings and the lack of significance in the emergency unit is discussed. Around 7% of the variance of phubbing was accounted for through working in intensive care units. The model accounted for 26.80 % of the differences in the perception of addiction.

Keywords: phubbing, social media, working units, years on the job, stress

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Authors: Emmanuel Abayomi Rotimi

Abstract:

Context: Rabbits production plays important role in increasing animal protein supply in Nigeria. Rabbit production provides a cheap, affordable, and healthy source of meat. The growth of animals involves an increase in body weight, which can change the conformation of various parts of the body. Live weight and linear measurements are indicators of growth rate in rabbits and other farm animals. Aims: This study aimed to define the body dimensions of New Zealand rabbits and also to investigate the morphometric traits variables that contribute to body conformation by the use of principal component analysis (PCA). Methods: Data were obtained from 80 New Zealand rabbits (40 bucks and 40 does) raised in Livestock Teaching and Research Farm, Federal University Dutsinma. Data were taken on body weight (BWT), body length (BL), ear length (EL), tail length (TL), heart girth (HG) and abdominal circumference (AC). Data collected were subjected to multivariate analysis using SPSS 20.0 statistical package. Key results: The descriptive statistics showed that the mean BWT, BL, EL, TL, HG, and AC were 0.91kg, 27.34cm, 10.24cm, 8.35cm, 19.55cm and 21.30cm respectively. Sex showed significant (P<0.05) effect on all the variables examined, with higher values recorded for does. The phenotypic correlation coefficient values (r) between the morphometric traits were all positive and ranged from r = 0.406 (between EL and BL) to r = 0.909 (between AC and HG). HG is the most correlated with BWT (r = 0.786). The principal component analysis with variance maximizing orthogonal rotation was used to extract the components. Two principal components (PCs) from the factor analysis of morphometric traits explained about 80.42% of the total variance. PC1 accounted for 64.46% while PC2 accounted for 15.97% of the total variances. Three variables, representing body conformation, loaded highest in PC1. PC1 had the highest contribution (64.46%) to the total variance, and it is regarded as body conformation traits. Conclusions: This component could be used as selection criteria for improving body weight of rabbits.

Keywords: conformation, multicollinearity, multivariate, rabbits and principal component analysis

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Authors: Mai A. Ibrahim, Mohammed El-Beltagy, Motaz Khorshid

Abstract:

Emerging Markets return distributions have shown significance departure from normality were they are characterized by fatter tails relative to the normal distribution and exhibit levels of skewness and kurtosis that constitute a significant departure from normality. Therefore, the classical Markowitz Mean-Variance is not applicable for emerging markets since it assumes normally-distributed returns (with zero skewness and kurtosis) and a quadratic utility function. Moreover, the Markowitz mean-variance analysis can be used in cases of moderate non-normality and it still provides a good approximation of the expected utility, but it may be ineffective under large departure from normality. Higher moments models and median models have been suggested in the literature for asset allocation in this case. Higher moments models have been introduced to account for the insufficiency of the description of a portfolio by only its first two moments while the median model has been introduced as a robust statistic which is less affected by outliers than the mean. Tail risk measures such as Value-at Risk (VaR) and Conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR) have been introduced instead of Variance to capture the effect of risk. In this research, higher moment models including the Mean-Variance-Skewness (MVS) and Mean-Variance-Skewness-Kurtosis (MVSK) are formulated as single-objective non-linear programming problems (NLP) and median models including the Median-Value at Risk (MedVaR) and Median-Mean Absolute Deviation (MedMAD) are formulated as a single-objective mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) problems. The higher moment models and median models are compared to some benchmark portfolios and tested on real financial data in the Egyptian main Index EGX30. The results show that all the median models outperform the higher moment models were they provide higher final wealth for the investor over the entire period of study. In addition, the results have confirmed the inapplicability of the classical Markowitz Mean-Variance to the Egyptian stock market as it resulted in very low realized profits.

Keywords: Egyptian stock exchange, emerging markets, higher moment models, median models, mixed-integer linear programming, non-linear programming

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Authors: Mansour Abdi, Hadi Molaei Yasavoli

Abstract:

The purpose of this research is to comparison of self- efficacy and life satisfaction in normal users and users with internet addiction. The present study was descriptive and causal-comparative. Therefore, 304 students were selected random sampling method from students of Semnan University and completed questionnaires of internet addiction (young), Self-Efficacy Questionnaire and Life Satisfaction (SWIS). For data analysis was used the Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA). The results showed that internet addiction users have lower levels of self-efficacy and life satisfaction in comparison with normal users and the difference in p=0/0005 significantly. The findings showed that 78 percent of the variance in the dependent variables of self-efficacy and life satisfaction by grouping variables (internet addiction users and normal) is determined. Finally, considering that the rate of self-efficacy and life satisfaction is effective in the incidence of Internet addiction, it is proposed required measures are taken to enhance self-efficacy and life satisfaction in Internet users.

Keywords: self-efficacy, life satisfaction, users, internet addiction, normal users

Procedia PDF Downloads 459

Authors: Mohanad Al-Behadili, Djamila Ouelhadj

Abstract:

In this paper, a specific type of vehicle routing problem under stochastic demand (SVRP) is considered. This problem is of great importance because it models for many of the real world vehicle routing applications. This paper used a robust optimisation model to solve the problem along with the novel Simulation-Particle Swarm Optimisation (Sim-PSO) approach. The proposed Sim-PSO approach is based on the hybridization of the Monte Carlo simulation technique with the PSO algorithm. A comparative study between the proposed model and the Sim-PSO approach against other solution methods in the literature has been given in this paper. This comparison including the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to show the ability of the model and solution method in solving the complicated SVRP. The experimental results show that the proposed model and Sim-PSO approach has a significant impact on the obtained solution by providing better quality solutions comparing with well-known algorithms in the literature.

Keywords: stochastic vehicle routing problem, robust optimisation model, Monte Carlo simulation, particle swarm optimisation

Procedia PDF Downloads 248