Search results for: Yemeni revolution

Authors: S. Schröder, P. Ennen, T. Langer, S. Müller, M. Shehadeh, M. Haberstroh, F. Hees

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Since a bit over a year ago, Festo AG and Co. KG, Festo Didactic SE, robomotion GmbH, the researchers of the Cybernetics-Lab IMA/ZLW and IfU, as well as the Human-Computer Interaction Center at the RWTH Aachen University, have been working together in the focal point of assembly competences to realize different scenarios in the field of human-machine interaction (HMI). In the framework of project ARIZ, questions concerning the future of production within the fourth industrial revolution are dealt with. There are many perspectives of human-robot collaboration that consist Industry 4.0 on an individual, organization and enterprise level, and these will be addressed in ARIZ. The aim of the ARIZ projects is to link AI-Approaches to assembly problems and to implement them as prototypes in demonstrators. To do so, island and flow based production scenarios will be simulated and realized as prototypes. These prototypes will serve as applications of flexible robotics as well as AI-based planning and control of production process. Using the demonstrators, human interaction strategies will be examined with an information system on one hand, and a robotic system on the other. During the tests, prototypes of workspaces that illustrate prospective production work forms will be represented. The human being will remain a central element in future productions and will increasingly be in charge of managerial tasks. Questions thus arise within the overall perspective, primarily concerning the role of humans within these technological revolutions, as well as their ability to act and design respectively to the acceptance of such systems. Roles, such as the 'Trainer' of intelligent systems may become a possibility in such assembly scenarios.

Keywords: human-machine interaction, information technology, island based production, assembly competences

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Authors: Rajarshi Motilal

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The birth of the Internet and the rise of social media marked an important chapter in the history of humankind. Often termed the fourth scientific revolution, the Internet has changed human lives and cognisance. The birth of Web 2.0, followed by the launch of social media and social networking sites, added another milestone to these technological advancements where connectivity and influx of information became dominant. With billions of individuals using the internet and social media sites in the 21st century, “users” became “consumers”, and orthodox marketing reshaped itself to digital marketing. Furthermore, organisations started using sophisticated algorithms to predict consumer purchase behaviour and manipulate it to sustain themselves in such a competitive environment. The rampant storage and analysis of individual data became the new normal, raising many questions about data privacy. The excessive usage of the Internet among individuals brought in other problems of them becoming addicted to it, scavenging for societal approval and instant gratification, subsequently leading to a collective dualism, isolation, and finally, depression. This study aims to determine the relationship between social media usage in the modern age and the rise of psychological and cognitive imbalances in human minds. The literature review is positioned timely as an addition to the existing work at a time when the world is constantly debating on whether social media resignation is the only way to protect user data and restore the decaying cognitive balance.

Keywords: social media, digital marketing, consumer behaviour, internet addiction, data privacy

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Authors: Habes Moh’d Khalifeh Hatamleh, Shukri Refai Ibrahim Marashdh

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The study came with the aim of identifying the most prominent quantitative, qualitative, and technological challenges facing the higher education system in Jordan as a dilemma in light of the technological revolution that had a radical contribution to changing the face of science and knowledge in various fields of higher education in Jordan. Human societies that require the adoption of scientific research and its basics as a clear entrance aimed at serving the community and upgrading it civilly. The number of private and public universities has increased, and many students have been accepted for all levels of study in the bachelor’s, higher diploma, master’s and doctoral programs, and the quantitative growth has been accompanied by many negatives, which requires renewal and development in the field of higher education, which led to the emergence of many challenges, and the qualitative challenge in terms of relevance, quality and goodness constitutes an important requirement for the improvement of teaching, scientific research and services in light of the social demand for higher education, in order to reach the quality. The real challenge facing our country is to enter the civilization of advanced technology, which has become the main factor and the starting point for preparing staff capable of accomplishing this transformation and creating an appropriate educational environment for the student to help him to use the sources of knowledge. This study can provide a set of recommendations and proposals that may contribute to addressing challenges and contributing to improving educational outcomes in light of the requirements of the labor market and the needs of society.

Keywords: quantitative, qualitative, technological, challenges, higher education

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Authors: Habes Moh’d Khalifeh Hatamleh, Shukri Refai Ibrahim Marashdh

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The study came with the aim of identifying the most prominent quantitative, qualitative, and technological challenges facing the higher education system in Jordan as a dilemma in light of the technological revolution that had a radical contribution to changing the face of science and knowledge in various fields of higher education in Jordan. Human societies that require the adoption of scientific research and its basics as a clear entrance aimed at serving the community and upgrading it civilly. The number of private and public universities has increased, and many students have been accepted for all levels of study in the bachelor’s, higher diploma, master’s and doctoral programs, and the quantitative growth has been accompanied by many negatives, which requires renewal and development in the field of higher education, which led to the emergence of many challenges, and the qualitative challenge in terms of relevance, quality and goodness constitutes an important requirement for the improvement of teaching, scientific research and services in light of the social demand for higher education, in order to reach the quality. The real challenge facing our country is to enter the civilization of advanced technology, which has become the main factor and the starting point for preparing staff capable of accomplishing this transformation and creating an appropriate educational environment for the student to help him to use the sources of knowledge. This study can provide a set of recommendations and proposals that may contribute to addressing challenges and contributing to improving educational outcomes in light of the requirements of the labor market and the needs of society.

Keywords: quantitative, qualitative, technological, challenges, higher education

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Authors: Kevin William Taylor

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This work used industry-standard practices and technologies as a foundation to explore current and future advancements in modularity for 3D environmental production. Covering environmental generation, and AI-assisted generation, this study investigated how these areas will shape the industries goal to achieve full immersion within augmented reality environments. This study will explore modular environmental construction techniques utilized in large scale 3D productions. This will include the reasoning behind this approach to production, the principles in the successful development, potential pitfalls, and different methodologies for successful implementation of practice in commercial and proprietary interactive engines. A focus will be on the role of the 3D artists in the future of environmental development, requiring adaptability to new approaches, as the field evolves in response to tandem technological advancements. Industry findings and projections theorize how these factors will impact the widespread utilization of augmented reality in daily life. This will continue to inform the direction of technology towards expansive interactive environments. It will change the tools and techniques utilized in the development of environments for game, film, and VFX. This study concludes that this technology will be the cornerstone for the creation of AI-driven AR that is able to fully theme our world, change how we see and engage with one another. This will impact the concept of a virtual self-identity that will be as prevalent as real-world identity. While this progression scares or even threaten some, it is safe to say that we are seeing the beginnings of a technological revolution that will surpass the impact that the smartphone had on modern society.

Keywords: virtual reality, augmented reality, training, 3D environments

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Authors: Baker Ssekitto, Ambrose Mbogo

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The study reveals that indeed agriculture employs over 70% of Uganda’s population, of which majority are youth and women. The study further reveals that over 70% of the farmers are smallholder farmers based in rural areas, whose operations are greatly affected by; climate change, weak digital skills, limited access to productivity knowledge along value chains, limited access to quality farm inputs, weak logistics systems, limited access to quality extension services, weak business intelligence, limited access to quality markets among others. It finds that the emerging 4th industrial revolution powered by artificial intelligence, 5G and data science will provide possibilities of addressing some of these challenges. Furthermore, the study finds that despite rapid development of ICT4Agric Innovation, their uptake is constrained by a number of factors including; limited awareness of these innovations, low internet and smart phone penetration especially in rural areas, lack of appropriate digital skills, inappropriate programmes implementation models which are project and donor driven, limited articulation of value addition to various stakeholders among others. Majority of farmers and other value chain actors lacked knowledge and skills to harness the power of ICTs, especially their application of ICTs in monitoring and evaluation on quality of service in the extension system and farm level processes.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, productivity, ICT4agriculture, value chain, logistics

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Authors: Peijen Pamela Chuang, Tzu-Hua Wang

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To address the notion of educational equity, undergo the global pandemic, a digital learning system was cross-disciplinarily designed by a 15-year-experienced teaching practitioner. A study was performed on students through the use of this pioneering e-learning system, in which Taiwanese students with different learning styles and special needs have a foreign language- English as the target subject. 121 students are particularly selected from an N= 580 sample spread across 20 inclusive and special education schools throughout districts of Taiwan. To bring off equity, the participants are selected from a mix of different socioeconomic statuses. Grouped data, such as classroom observation, individual learning preference, prerequisite knowledge, learning interest, and learning performance of the population, is carefully documented for further analyzation. The paper focuses on documenting the awareness and needs of this pedagogical methodology revolution, data analysis of UX (User Experience), also examination and system assessment of this system. At the time of the pilot run, this newly-developed e-learning system had successfully applied for and received a national patent in Taiwan. This independent research hoped to expand the awareness of the importance of individual differences in SDG4 (Substantial Development Goals 4) as a part of the ripple effect, and serve as a comparison for future scholars in the pedagogical research with an interdisciplinary approach.

Keywords: e-learning, educational equity, foreign language acquisition, inclusive education, individual differences, interdisciplinary innovation, learning preferences, SDG4

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Authors: Tsetsegmaa A., Bayarsuren B., Altantsetseg Ts.

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To make the best decision on reducing harmful emissions from buses, we need to have a clear understanding of the current state of their actual emissions. The emissions from city buses running on high sulfur fuel, particularly particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) from the exhaust gases of conventional diesel engines, have been studied and measured with and without diesel particulate filter (DPF) in Ulaanbaatar city. The study was conducted by using the PEMS (Portable Emissions Measurement System) and gravimetric method in real traffic conditions. The obtained data were used to determine the actual emission rates and to evaluate the effectiveness of the selected particulate filters. Actual road and daily PM emissions from city buses were determined during the warm and cold seasons. A bus with an average daily mileage of 242 km was found to emit 166.155 g of PM into the city's atmosphere on average per day, with 141.3 g in summer and 175.8 g in winter. The actual PM of the city bus is 0.6866 g/km. The concentration of NOx in the exhaust gas averages 1410.94 ppm. The use of DPF reduced the exhaust gas opacity of 24 buses by an average of 97% and filtered a total of 340.4 kg of soot from these buses over a period of six months. Retrofitting an old conventional diesel engine with cassette-type silicon carbide (SiC) DPF, despite the laboriousness of cleaning, can significantly reduce particulate matter emissions. Innovation: First comprehensive road PM and NOx emission dataset and actual road emissions from public buses have been identified. PM and NOx mathematical model equations have been estimated as a function of the bus technical speed and engine revolution with and without DPF.

Keywords: conventional diesel, silicon carbide, real-time onboard measurements, particulate matter, diesel retrofit, fuel sulphur

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Authors: Omil Nady Mahrous Maximous

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The construction industry is currently experiencing a shift towards digitisation. This transformation is driven by adopting technologies like Building Information Modelling (BIM), drones, and augmented reality (AR). These advancements are revolutionizing the process of designing, constructing, and operating projects. BIM, for instance, is a new way of communicating and exploiting technology such as software and machinery. It enables the creation of a replica or virtual model of buildings or infrastructure projects. It facilitates simulating construction procedures, identifying issues beforehand, and optimizing designs accordingly. Drones are another tool in this revolution, as they can be utilized for site surveys, inspections, and even deliveries. Moreover, AR technology provides real-time information to workers involved in the project. Implementing these technologies in the construction industry has brought about improvements in efficiency, safety measures, and sustainable practices. BIM helps minimize rework and waste materials, while drones contribute to safety by reducing workers' exposure to areas. Additionally, AR plays a role in worker safety by delivering instructions and guidance during operations. Although the digital transformation within the construction industry is still in its early stages, it holds the potential to reshape project delivery methods entirely. By embracing these technologies, construction companies can boost their profitability while simultaneously reducing their environmental impact and ensuring safer practices.

Keywords: architectural education, construction industry, digital learning environments, immersive learning BIM, digital construction, construction technologies, digital transformation artificial intelligence, collaboration, digital architecture, digital design theory, material selection, space construction

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Authors: Ramin Rostamkhani, Thurasamy Ramayah

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One of the most important topics of today’s industrial organizations is the challenging issue of supply chain management. In this field, scientists and researchers have published numerous practical articles and models, especially in the last decade. In this research, to our best knowledge, the discussion of data modeling of supply chain management components using well-known statistical distribution functions has been considered. The world of science owns mathematics, and showing the behavior of supply chain data based on the characteristics of statistical distribution functions is innovative research that has not been published anywhere until the moment of doing this research. In an analytical process, describing different aspects of functions including probability density, cumulative distribution, reliability, and failure function can reach the suitable statistical distribution function for each of the components of the supply chain management. It can be applied to predict the behavior data of the relevant component in the future. Providing a model to adapt the best statistical distribution function in the supply chain management components will be a big revolution in the field of the behavior of the supply chain management elements in today's industrial organizations. Demonstrating the final results of the proposed model by introducing the process capability indices before and after implementing it alongside verifying the approach through the relevant assessment as an acceptable verification is a final step. The introduced approach can save the required time and cost to achieve the organizational goals. Moreover, it can increase added value in the organization.

Keywords: analyzing, process capability indices, statistical distribution functions, supply chain management components

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Authors: Prakash Singh, Piet Maphodisa Kgohlo

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Knowledge-worker productivity is one of the biggest leadership challenges facing all organizations in the twenty-first century. It cannot be denied that knowledge-worker productivity affects all organizations. The work and the workforce are both undergoing greater changes currently than at any time, since the beginning of the industrial revolution two centuries ago. Employees welcome collegial teaming (CT) as an innovative way to develop their work-integrated learning competencies. Human resource development policies must evoke the symbiotic relationship between CT and work-integrated learning, seeing that employees need to be endowed with the competence to move from one skill to another, as each one becomes obsolete, and to simultaneously develop their cognitive and emotional intelligence. The outcome of this relationship must culminate in the development of highly productive knowledge-workers. While this study focuses on teachers, the conceptual framework and the findings of this research can be beneficial for any organization, public or private sector, business or non-business. Therefore, in this quantitative study, the benefits of CT are considered in developing human resources to sustain knowledge-worker productivity. The ANOVA p-values reveal that the majority of teachers agree that CT can empower them to overcome the challenges of managing curriculum change. CT can equip them with continuous and sustained learning, growth and improvement, necessary for knowledge-worker productivity. This study, therefore, confirms that CT benefits all workers, immaterial of their age, gender or experience. Hence, this exploratory research provides a new perspective of CT in addressing knowledge-worker productivity when organizational change alters the vision of the organization.

Keywords: collegial teaming, human resource development, knowledge-worker productivity, work-integrated learning

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Authors: Hatice Idil Gorgen

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This paper argues that discourses and textuality which is literary tool of Western ethnocentrism create aggressive foreign policy against the West by Non-West countries. Quasi-colonial experiences create an inferiority complex on officially or not colonized areas by reconstructing their identity. This reconstructed identity leads revolution and resistance movement to feel secure themselves as a psychological defense against colonial powers. Knowledge learned by successful implementation of discourses grants right to has power for authority, in addition to serving as a tool to reinforce power of authority by its cognitive traits on foreign policy decision making. The combination of these points contributes to shaping and then make predictable state policies. In the methodology of paper, secondary data was firstly reviewed through university library using a range of sources such as academic abstract, OPAC system, bibliography databases and internet search engines. The film of Argo was used to strengthen and materialize theoretical explanations as a metaphor. This paper aims to highlight the cumulative effects on the construction of the identity throughout embedded discourses by textuality. To demonstrate it by a metaphor, Argo will be used as a primary source for good story-telling about history. U.S-Iran hostage crisis is mainly applied by aiming to see foundations Iran’s behavior in the context of its revolutionary identity and major influences of actions of U.S on it.

Keywords: discourse, post colonialism, post modernism, objectivity

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Authors: Yiping Meng, Yiming Sun

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The traditional construction industry is unable to meet the requirements for novel fabrication and construction. Automated construction and digital design have emerged as industry development trends that compensate for this shortcoming under the backdrop of Industrial Revolution 4.0. Benefitting from more flexible working space and more various end-effector tools compared to CNC methods, robot fabrication and construction techniques have been used in irregular architectural design. However, there is a lack of a systematic and comprehensive design and optimisation workflow considering geometric form, material, and fabrication methods. This paper aims to propose a design optimisation workflow for improving the rationality of a free-form timber structure fabricated by the robotic arm. Firstly, the free-form surface is described by NURBS, while its structure is calculated using the finite element analysis method. Then, by considering the characteristics and limiting factors of robotic timber fabrication, strain energy and robustness are set as optimisation objectives to optimise structural morphology by gradient descent method. As a result, an optimised structure with axial force as the main force and uniform stress distribution is generated after the structure morphology optimisation process. With the decreased strain energy and the improved robustness, the generated structure's bearing capacity and mechanical properties have been enhanced. The results prove the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed optimisation workflow for free-form timber structure morphology design.

Keywords: robotic fabrication, free-form timber structure, Multi-objective optimisation, Structural morphology, rational design

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Authors: Seyedeh Rozhano Azimi Hashemi

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There is no doubt that ‘Art’ is a social phenomena and cinema is the most social kind of art. Hence, it’s clear that we can analyze the relation’s of cinema and art from different aspects. In this paper sociological cinema will be investigated which, is a subdivision of sociological art. This term will be discussed by two main approaches. One of these approaches is focused on the effects of cinema on the society, which is known as “Effects Theory” and the second one, which is dealing with the reflection of social issues in cinema is called ” Reflection Theory”. "Reflect theory" approach, unlike "Effects theory" is considering movies as documents, in which social life is reflected, and by analyzing them, the changes and tendencies of a society are understood. Criticizing these approaches to cinema and society doesn’t mean that they are not real. Conversely, it proves the fact that for better understanding of cinema and society’s relation, more complicated models are required, which should consider two aspects. First, they should be bilinear and they should provide a dynamic and active relation between cinema and society, as for the current concept social life and cinema have bi-linear effects on each other, and that’s how they fit in a dialectic and dynamic process. Second, it should pay attention to the role of inductor elements such as small social institutions, marketing, advertisements, cultural pattern, art’s genres and popular cinema in society. In the current study, image of middle class in cinema of Iran and changing the role of women in cinema and society which were two bold issue that cinema and society faced since 1979 revolution till 80s are analyzed. Films as an artwork on one hand, are reflections of social changes and with their effects on the society on the other hand, are trying to speed up the trends of these changes. Cinema by the illustration of changes in ideologies and approaches in exaggerated ways and through it’s normalizing functions, is preparing the audiences and public opinions for the acceptance of these changes. Consequently, audience takes effect from this process, which is a bi-linear and interactive process.

Keywords: Iranian Cinema, Cinema and Society, Middle Class, Woman’s Role

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Authors: Mai Anh Tuan, Wenlong Liu, Meng Li

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Despite warnings and concerns about the use of fast food that has health effects, the fast-food industry is actually a source of profit for the global food industry. Obviously, in the face of such huge economic benefits, investors will not hesitate to continuously add recipes, processing methods, menu diversity, etc., to improve and apply information technology in enhancing the diners' experience; the ultimate goal is still to attract diners to find their brand and give them the fastest, most convenient and enjoyable service. In China, as the achievements of the industrial revolution 4.0, big data and artificial intelligence are reaching new heights day by day, now fast-food diners can instantly pay the bills only by identifying the biometric signature available on the self-ordering kiosk, using their own face without any additional form of confirmation. In this study, the author will evaluate the acceptance level of customers with this new form of payment through a survey of customers who have used and witnessed the use of smart kiosks and biometric payments within the city of Nanjing, China. A total of 200 valid volunteers were collected in order to test the customers' intentions and feelings when choosing and experiencing payment through AI services. 55% think that it bothers them because of the need for personal information, but more than 70% think that smart kiosk brings out many benefits and convenience. According to the data analysis findings, perceived innovativeness has a positive influence on satisfaction which in turn affects behavioral intentions, including reuse and word-of-mouth intentions.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, catering industry, smart kiosks, technology acceptance

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Authors: Sedat Simsek, Tugay Arat

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Today's communication concept, which has a great revolution with the printing press which has been found by Gutenberg, has no boundary thanks to advanced communication devices and the internet. It is possible to take advantage in many areas, such as from medicine to social sciences or from mathematics to education, from the computers that was first produced for the purpose of military services. The use of these developing technologies in the field of education has created a great vision changes in both training and having education. Materials, which can be considered as basic communication resources and used in traditional education has begun to lose its significance, and some technologies have begun to replace them such as internet, computers, smart boards, projection devices and mobile phone. On the other hand, the programs and applications used in these technologies have also been developed. University students use virtual books instead of the traditional printed book, use cell phones instead of note books, use the internet and virtual databases instead of the library to research. They even submit their homework with interactive methods rather than printed materials. The traditional education system, these technologies, which increase productivity, have brought a new dimension to education. The aim of this study is to determine the influence of technologies in the learning process of students and to find whether is there any similarities and differences that arise from the their faculty that they have been educated and and their learning process. In addition to this, it is aimed to determine the level of ICT usage of students studying at the university level. In this context, the advantages and conveniences of the technology used by students are also scrutinized. In this study, we used surveys to collect data. The data were analyzed by using SPSS 16 statistical program with the appropriate testing.

Keywords: education, communication technologies, role of technology, teaching

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Authors: Lian Yang

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Object-oriented programming (OOP) is the dominant programming paradigm in today’s software industry and it has literally enabled average software developers to develop millions of commercial strength software applications in the era of INTERNET revolution over the past three decades. On the other hand, the lack of strict mathematical model and domain constraint features at the language level has long perplexed the computer science academia and OOP engineering community. This situation resulted in inconsistent system qualities and hard-to-understand designs in some OOP projects. The difficulties with regards to fix the current situation are also well known. Although the power of OOP lies in its unbridled flexibility and enormously rich data modeling capability, we argue that the ambiguity and the implicit facade surrounding the conceptual model of a class and an object should be eliminated as much as possible. We listed the five major usage of class and propose to separate them by proposing new language constructs. By using well-established theories of set and FSM, we propose to apply certain simple, generic, and yet effective constraints at OOP language level in an attempt to find a possible solution to the above-mentioned issues regarding OOP. The goal is to make OOP more theoretically sound as well as to aid programmers uncover warning signs of irregularities and domain-specific issues in applications early on the development stage and catch semantic mistakes at runtime, improving correctness verifiability of software programs. On the other hand, the aim of this paper is more practical than theoretical.

Keywords: new language constructs, set theory, FSM theory, user defined value type, function groups, membership qualification attribute (MQA), check-constraint (CC)

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Authors: Muge Unal, Ahmet Cilek

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Urban identity, having a dynamic characteristic spatial and semantic aspects, is a phenomenon in an ever-changing. Urban identity formation includes not only a process of physical nature but also development and change processes that take place in the political, economic, social and cultural values, whether national and international level. Although the concept of urban transformation is basically regarded as the spatial transformation; in fact, it reveals a holistic perspective and transformation based on dialectical relationship existing between the spatial and social relationship. For this reason, urban renewal needs to address as not only spatial but also the impact of spatial transformation on social, cultural and economic. Implementation tools used in the perception of urban transformation are varied concepts such as urban renewal, urban resettlement, urban rehabilitation, urban redevelopment, and urban revitalization. The phenomenon of urban transformation begins with the Industrial Revolution. Until the 1980s, it was interpreted as reconsidering physical fossil on urban environment factor like occurring in rapid urbanization, changing in the spatial structure of the city, concentrating of the population in urban areas. However, after the 1980s, it has resided in a conceptual structure which requires to be addressed physical, economic, social, technological and integrity of information. In conclusion, urban transformation, when it enter the literature as a practice of planning, has been up to date in terms of the conceptual structure and content and also hasn’t remained behind converting itself. Urban transformation still maintains its simplest expression, while it transforms so fast converts the contents. In this study, the relationship between urban design and components of urban transformation were discussed with strategies used as a place in the historical process of urban transformation besides a general evaluation of the concept of urban renewal.

Keywords: conceptual approach, urban identity, urban regeneration, urban renewal

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Authors: N. Hedayat, E. Karamifar

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Sustainable food and fiber production is emerging as an irresistible option in agrarian planning. Although one should not underestimate the successes of the Green Revolution in enhancing crop production, its adverse environmental and ecosystem consequences have also been remarkable. The aim of this paper is to identify ways of improving crop production to ensure agricultural sustainability and environmental integrity. Systematic observations are used for data collection on intensive farming, deforestation and the environmental implications of industrial pollutants on agricultural sustainability at national and international levels. These were achieved within a comparative analytical model of data interpretation. Results show that while multiple factors enhance yield, they have a simultaneous effect in undermining the ecosystem and environmental integrity. Results show that application of excessive agrichemical have been one of the major cause of polluting the surface and underground water bodies as well as soil layers in affected croplands. Results consider rapid deforestation in the tropical regions has been the underlying cause of impairing the integrity of biodiversity and oxygen-generation regime. These, coupled with production of greenhouse gasses, have contributed to global warming and hydrological irregularities. Continuous production of pollutants and effluents has affected marine and land biodiversity arising from acid rains generated by modern farming and deforestation. Continuous production of greenhouse gases has also been instrumental in affecting climatic behavior manifested in recurring draughts and contraction of lakes and ponds as well as emergence of potential flooding of waterways and floodplains in the future.

Keywords: agricultural sustainability, environmental integrity, pollution, eco-system

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Authors: J. B. Frisch, D. Evandiloff, P. Martin, N. Ouizille, F. Pires

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Smart Beta strategies intend to be an asset management revolution with reference to classical cap-weighted indices. Indeed, these strategies allow a better control on portfolios risk factors and an optimized asset allocation by taking into account specific risks or wishes to generate alpha by outperforming indices called 'Beta'. Among many strategies independently used, this paper focuses on four of them: Minimum Variance Portfolio, Equal Risk Contribution Portfolio, Maximum Diversification Portfolio, and Equal-Weighted Portfolio. Their efficiency has been proven under constraints like momentum or market phenomenon, suggesting a reconsideration of cap-weighting.
 To further increase strategy return efficiency, it is proposed here to compare their strengths and weaknesses inside time intervals corresponding to specific identifiable market phases, in order to define adapted strategies depending on pre-specified situations. 
Results are presented as performance curves from different combinations compared to a benchmark. If a combination outperforms the applicable benchmark in well-defined actual market conditions, it will be preferred. It is mainly shown that such investment 'rules', based on both historical data and evolution of Smart Beta strategies, and implemented according to available specific market data, are providing very interesting optimal results with higher return performance and lower risk.
 Such combinations have not been fully exploited yet and justify present approach aimed at identifying relevant elements characterizing them.

Keywords: smart beta, minimum variance portfolio, equal risk contribution portfolio, maximum diversification portfolio, equal weighted portfolio, combinations

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Authors: Leili Nekounazar

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Since 2009, when the Green movement, Iran’s most significant political uprising in post-Islamic revolution materialized, the term 'soft war' has become an integral part of the Iranian regime’s lexicon when addressing the media propaganda waged by the west and the regime’s so-called 'enemies'. Iran’s authorities describe soft war as a western campaign aiming at undermining the revolutionary values by covert activities, deploying cultural tools and purposeful dissemination of information. With this respect, Internet and in particular, the social media networks, and oppositional radio-television broadcasts have been considered as the west’s soft war conduits. With the rising of the underground fashion industry in the past couple of years that does not conform to the compulsory dress codes prescribed by the state, the Islamic regime expands the soft war narrative to include any undesired fashion-related activities and frames the rising fashion industry as a cultural war intoxicating the Iranian-Islamic identity. Accordingly, fashion products created by the Iranian fashion intermediators have been attributed to the westerners and outsiders and are regarded as the matter of national security. This study examines the reactive and proactive measures deployed by the Iranian regime to control the rise of fashion industry. It further puts under the scrutiny how the state as a part of its proactive measure shapes the narrative of 'soft war' in relation to fashion in Iran and explores how the notion of soft war has been articulated in relation to the modeling and fashion in the state’s political rhetoric. Through conducting a content analysis of the authorities’ statements, it describes how the narrative of soft war assists the state policing the fashion industry.

Keywords: censorship, fashion, Iran, soft war

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Authors: Kishor K. Podh

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Agriculture in India treated as the backbone of its economy. It has been accommodated to more than 60 percent of its population as their economic base, directly or indirectly for their livelihood. Besides its significant role, the sharp declines in public investment and development in agriculture have witnessed. After independence Hirakud Command Area (HCA) popularly known as the Rice Bowl of State, due to its fabulous production and provides food to a larger part of the state. After the great green revolution and then liberalization agrarian families become overburden with the loan. They started working as wage laborer in other’s field and non-farm sectors to overcome from the uninvited indebtedness. Although production increases at present, still the youths of this area migrating outsides for job Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, etc. Because agriculture no longer remains a profitable occupation; increasing input costs, the uncertainty of crops, improper pricing, poor marketing, etc. compels the youths to choose the alternative occupations. They work in industries (under contractors), construction workers and other menial jobs due to lack of skills and degrees. Kharmunda a village within HCA selected as per the convenience and 100 youth migrants were interviewed purposively selected who were present during data collection. The study analyses the types of migration; its similarity/differentiations, its determining factors, in tow geographical areas of Western Odisha, i.e., single crop and double crops in relation to agricultural situations.

Keywords: agrarian distress, double crops, Hirakud Command Area, indebtedness, out migration, Western Odisha

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Authors: Svetlana Gudkova

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The Internet of Things experiences a rapid growth bringing inevitable changes into many spheres of human activities. As the Internet has changed the social and business landscape, IoT as its extension, can bring much more profound changes in economic value creation and competitiveness of the economies. It has been already recognized as the next industrial revolution. However, the development of IoT is in a great extent stimulated by the entrepreneurial activity. To expand and reach its full potential it requires proactive entrepreneurs, who explore the potential and create innovative ideas pushing the boundaries of IoT technologies' application further. The goal of the research is to analyze, how entrepreneurs utilize the opportunities created by IoT and how do they stimulate the development of IoT through discovering of new ways of generating economic value and creating opportunities, which attract other entrepreneurs. The qualitative research methods have been applied to prepare the case studies. Entrepreneurs are recognized as an engine of economic growth. They introduce innovative products and services into the market through the creation of a new combination of the existing resources and utilizing new knowledge. Entrepreneurs not only create economic value but what is more important, they challenge the existing business models and invent new ways of value creation. Through identification and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities, they create new opportunities for other entrepreneurs. It makes the industry more attractive to other profit/innovation-driven start-ups. IoT creates numerous opportunities for entrepreneurs in the different industries. Smart cities, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, agriculture, smart vehicles and smart buildings benefit a lot from IoT-based breakthrough innovations introduced by entrepreneurs. They reinvented successfully the business models and created new entrepreneurial opportunities for other start-ups to introduce next innovations.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, internet of things, breakthrough innovations, start-ups

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Authors: D. Kurt, İ. F. Barut, Z. Ü. Yümün, E. Kam

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After development of the industrial revolution, industrial plants and settlements have spread widely on the sea coasts. This concentration also brings environmental pollution in the sea. This study focuses on the Gulf of İzmir where is located in West of Turkey and it is a fascinating natural gulf of the Eastern Aegean Sea. Investigating marine current sediment is extremely important to detect pollution. Natural radionuclides’ pollution of the marine environment which is also known as a significant environmental anxiety. Ground drilling cores (the depth of each sediment is variant) were collected from the Gulf of İzmir’s four different locations which were Karşıyaka, İnciraltı, Çeşmealtı and Bayraklı. These sediment cores were put in preserving bags with weight around 1 kg, and they were dried at room temperature in a week for moisture removal. Then, they were sieved with 1 mm sieve holes, and finally these powdered samples were relocation to polyethylene Marinelli beakers of 100 ml versions. Each prepared sediment was waited to reach radioactive equilibrium between uranium and thorium for 40 days. Gamma spectrometry measurements were settled using a HPG (High- Purity Germanium) semiconductor detector. Semiconductor detectors are very good at separating power of the energy, they are easily able to differentiate peaks that are pretty close to each other. That is why, gamma spectroscopy’s usage is common for the determination of the activities of U - 238, Th - 232, Ra - 226, Cr - 137 and K - 40 in Bq kg⁻¹. In this study, the results display that the average concentrations of activities’ values are in respectively; 2.2 ± 1.5 Bq/ kg⁻¹, 0.98 ± 0.02 Bq/ kg⁻¹, 8 ± 0.96 Bq/ kg⁻¹, 0.93 ± 0.14 Bq/ kg⁻¹, and 76.05 ± 0.93 Bq/ kg⁻¹. The outcomes of the study are able to be used as a criterion for forthcoming research and the obtained data would be pragmatic for radiological mapping of the precise areas.

Keywords: gamma, Gulf of İzmir (Eastern Aegean Sea-Turkey), natural radionuclides, pollution

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Authors: Mohammad Reza Fazeli

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Nowadays, the fourth industry, known as the digital transformation of industries, is seen as one of the top subjects in the history of structural revolution, which has led to the high-tech and tactical dominance of the organization. In the face of these profits, the undefined and non-transparent nature of the after-effects of investing in digital transformation has hindered many organizations from attempting this area of this industry. One of the important frameworks in the field of understanding digital transformation in all organizations is the maturity model of digital transformation. This model includes two main parts of digital transformation maturity dimensions and digital transformation maturity stages. Mediating factors of digital maturity and organizational performance at the individual (e.g., motivations, attitudes) and at the organizational level (e.g., organizational culture) should be considered. For successful technology adoption processes, organizational development and human resources must go hand in hand and be supported by a sound communication strategy. Maturity models are developed to help organizations by providing broad guidance and a roadmap for improvement. However, as a result of a systematic review of the literature and its analysis, it was observed that none of the 18 maturity models in the field of digital transformation fully meet all the criteria of appropriateness, completeness, clarity, and objectivity. A maturity assessment framework potentially helps systematize assessment processes that create opportunities for change in processes and organizations enabled by digital initiatives and long-term improvements at the project portfolio level. Cultural characteristics reflecting digital culture are not systematically integrated, and specific digital maturity models for the service sector are less clearly presented. It is also clearly evident that research on the maturity of digital transformation as a holistic concept is scarce and needs more attention in future research.

Keywords: digital transformation, organizational performance, maturity models, maturity assessment

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Authors: Avneet Kaur

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India is a nation of villages. Traditionally, women had enjoyed a high social status in India. Our mythology, folklore and history are full of women who were epitomes of virtue, wisdom, power, and position. The important concern about their entry into the politics is of great importance all over the world. Women have performed excellently in social, economic and political sphere. However, the fact remains that despite constituting half of the population their representation among elected post continue to remain negligible in Panchayati Raj Institutions. Women in India suffered from many social economic handicaps such as illiteracy, economically dependent, social customs, traditions and rituals that are the main causes of their inactive participation in local governance. There is still widespread patriarchal outlook in the villages and the lack of experience on the part of women leadership are some of the major issues of debate. The implementation of the 73rd Amendment Act of the Indian Constitution in 1992 reserved 1/3 rd of the seats for women empowerment. It was a major step to encourage them to take part in the village politics. This kind of revolution was the beginning of women leadership in villages. The paper intends to study the role and importance of women leadership in Panchayati Raj Institutions in India. The paper is divided into four sections. First section deals with the introduction by taking into account the available research on this particular subject. Second section talks about the role played by women leadership in these institutions after the passing of 73rd Amendment Act. Third section deals with some of the critical insights of the study by discussing the problems faced by the active women’s leadership at the grassroots. Finally, the paper concludes with policy suggestions.

Keywords: women, leadership, grassroots, Panchayati Raj

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Authors: Byron Joseph A. Hallar, Annjeannette Alain D. Galang, Maria Visitacion N. Gumabay

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The widespread adoption and increasing proliferation of smartphones that started during the first decade of the twenty-first century have enabled their users to communicate and access information in ways that were merely thought of as possibilities in the few years before the smartphone revolution. A product of the convergence of the cellular phone and portable computer, the smartphone provides an additional important function that used to be the exclusive domain of desktop-bound computers and portable computers: Web Browsing. For increasing numbers of users, the smartphone and allied devices such as tablet computers have become their first and often their only means of accessing the World Wide Web. This has led to the development of websites that cater to the needs of the new breed of smartphone-carrying web users. The smaller size of smartphones as compared with conventional computers has provided unique challenges to web interface designers. The smaller screen size and touchscreen interface have made it much more difficult to read and navigate through web pages that were in most part designed for traditional desktop and portable computers. Although increasing numbers of websites now provide an alternate website formatted for smartphones, problems with ease of use, reliability and usability still remain. This study focuses on the identification of the problems associated with smartphone web interfaces, the compliance with accepted standards of user-oriented web interface design, the strategies that could be utilized to ensure the design of user-centric web interfaces for smartphones, and the identification of the current trends and developments related to user-centric web interface design intended for the consumption of smartphone users.

Keywords: human-computer interaction, user-centered design, web interface, mobile, smartphone

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Authors: Moujib Bahri, Ouafa Sakka, Kallel Rahim

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This study builds on the literature about the effects of corruption on economic growth at the firm level, which analyzes how the payment of bribes affect organizational performance. Traditionally, the literature distinguishes two points of view regarding the impact of corruption: grease view and sand view. The grease view is based on the idea that corruption can compensate for the negative effect of red tape on firms’ activities such as innovation and exports. Therefore, some firms will be motivated to pay some additional money to officials in order to reduce the delay related to bureaucratic procedures. On the contrary, the second point of view considers that corruption sands the wheels of the economy and distorts resource allocation because it increases agency and transaction costs and reduces the returns on the investment. We have tested the effect of corruption on innovation and export activities on a sample of 537 Tunisian manufacturing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) using structural equation modeling and path analysis. Tunisia has undergone a revolution in 2010 and since then, the country is experiencing a political instability and economic hardships. Our results do not support the greasing hypothesis suggesting that corruption can reduce the negative effect of bureaucratic delays and the hard access of companies to public services related to exports. Instead, our results support the sanding hypothesis according to which corruption hinders SMEs’ exports through its negative influence on innovation. Furthermore, our results show that the interaction between excessive bureaucratic red tape and corruption has a negative effect on exports. However, the interaction between political instability and corruption increases exports.

Keywords: corruption, exports, SMEs, economic conditions

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Authors: Seid Ahmed Mohammed, Nedim Yalansiz

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Many historians hardly gave due attention for historical comparison as their methods of study. They were still stunt supporter of the use of their own historical research method in their studies. But this method lacks the way to analyze some worldwide dynamics of events in comparative perspectives. Some dynamics like revolution, modernization, societal change and transformation needs broader analysis for broadening our historical knowledge’s by comparing and contrasting of the causes, courses and consequences of such dynamics historical developments in the world at large. In this paper, our study focuses up on ‘the dynamics of modernization’ and the challenge of modernity of the old regimes. For instance, countries like Turkey, Ethiopia, China, Russia, Iran, Afghanistan and Thailand have almost the same dynamics in facing the challenge of modernity. In such countries, the old regimes tried to introduce modernization and ‘reform from the above’ in order to tackle the gradual decline of the empire that faced strong challenge from the outside world. The other similarity of them was that as the rulers attempted to introduce the modernization reforms the old traditional and the religious institutions strongly opposed the reforms as the reforms alienated the power and prestige of the traditional classes. Similarly, the rules introduced modernization for maintaining their own unique socio-cultural and religious dynamics not as borrowing and acculturation of the west by complete destruction of their own. Therefore, this paper attempted to give a comparative analysis of two modernizers Tewodros II (1855-1868) of Ethiopia and Sultan Selim III (1739-1808) of Ottoman Turkey who tried to modernize their empire unfortunately they paid their precious life as a result of modernization.

Keywords: comparative history, Ethiopia, modernization, Ottoman Turkey

Procedia PDF Downloads 173

Authors: Nitin Pipralia, Amit Kmar Sinha, Gudrun de Boeck

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Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations have been increasing since the beginning of the industrial revolution due to combustion of fossils fuel and many anthropogenic means. As the number of scenarios assembled by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predict a rise of pCO2 from today’s 380 μatm to approximately 900 μatm until the year 2100 and a further rise of up to 1900 μatm by the year 2300. A rise in pCO2 results in more dissolution in ocean surface water which lead to cange in water pH, This phenomena of decrease in ocean pH due to increase on pCO2 is ocean acidification is considered a potential threat to the marine ecosystems and expected to affect fish as well as calcerious organisms. The situation may get worste when the stress of salinity adds on, due to migratory movement of fishes, where fish moves to different salinity region for various specific activities likes spawning and other. Therefore, to understand the interactive impact of these whole range of two important environmental abiotic stresses (viz. pCO2 ranging from 380 μatm, 900 μatm and 1900 μatm, along with salinity gradients of 32ppt, 10 ppt and 2.5ppt) on the ecophysiologal performance of fish, we investigated various biological adaptive response in European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax), a model estuarine teleost. Overall, we hypothesize that effect of ocean acidification would be exacerbate with shift in ambient salinity. Oxygen consumption, ammonia metabolism, iono-osmoregulation, energy budget, ion-regulatory enzymes, hormones and pH amendments in plasma were assayed as the potential indices of compensatory responses.

Keywords: ocean acidification, sea bass, pH climate change, salinity

Procedia PDF Downloads 203