Search results for: budget share

Authors: Mohammad Mahdi Hajiali

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Many of construction projects estimated in Iran have been influenced by the limitations of financial resources. As for Iran, a country that is developing, and to follow this development-oriented approach which many numbers of projects each year run in, if we can reduce the cost of projects by applying a method we will help greatly to minimize the cost of major construction projects and therefore projects will finish faster and more efficiently. One of the components of transportation infrastructure are roads that are considered to have a considerable share of the country budget. In addition, major budget of the related ministry is spending to repair, improve and maintain roads. Value Engineering is a simple and powerful methodology over the past six decades that has been successful in reducing the cost of many projects. Specific solution for using value engineering in the stage of project implementation is called value engineering change proposal (VECP). It was tried in this research to apply VECP in one of the road-building projects in Iran in order to enhance the value of this kind of projects and reduce their cost. In this case study after applying VECP, an idea was raised. It was about use of concrete pavement instead of hot mixed asphalt (HMA) and also using fiber in order to improve concrete pavement performance. VE group team made a decision that for choosing the best alternatives, get expert’s opinions in pavement systems and use Fuzzy TOPSIS (Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) for ranking opinions of the experts. Finally, Jointed Plain Concrete Pavement (JPCP) was selected. Group also experimented concrete samples with available fibers in Iran and the results of experiments showed a significant increment in concrete specifications such as flexural strength. In the end, it was shown that by using of fiber-reinforced concrete pavement instead of asphalt pavement, we can achieve a significant saving in cost, time and also increment in quality, durability, and longevity.

Keywords: road-building projects, value engineering change proposal (VECP), Jointed Plain Concrete Pavement (JPCP), Fuzzy TOPSIS, fiber-reinforced concrete

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Authors: Hanna Schübel, Ivo Wallimann-Helmer

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In order to reach the goal of the Paris Agreement to not overshoot 1.5°C of warming above pre-industrial levels, various countries including the UK and Switzerland have committed themselves to net zero emissions by 2050. The employment of negative emission technologies (NETs) is very likely going to be necessary for meeting these national objectives as well as other internationally agreed climate targets. NETs are methods of removing carbon from the atmosphere and are thus a means for addressing climate change. They range from afforestation to technological measures such as direct air capture and carbon storage (DACCS), where CO2 is captured from the air and stored underground. As all so-called geoengineering technologies, the development and deployment of NETs are often subject to moral hazard arguments. As these technologies could be perceived as an alternative to mitigation efforts, so the argument goes, they are potentially a dangerous distraction from the main target of mitigating emissions. We think that this is a dangerous argument to make as it may hinder the development of NETs which are an essential element of net zero emission targets. In this paper we argue that the moral hazard argument is only problematic if we do not reflect upon which levels of emissions are at stake in order to meet net zero emissions. In response to the moral hazard argument we develop an account of which levels of emissions in given societies should be mitigated and not be the target of NETs and which levels of emissions can legitimately be a target of NETs. For this purpose, we define four different levels of emissions: the current level of individual emissions, the level individuals emit in order to appear in public without shame, the level of a fair share of individual emissions in the global budget, and finally the baseline of net zero emissions. At each level of emissions there are different subjects to be assigned responsibilities if societies and/or individuals are committed to the target of net zero emissions. We argue that all emissions within one’s fair share do not demand individual mitigation efforts. The same holds with regard to individuals and the baseline level of emissions necessary to appear in public in their societies without shame. Individuals are only under duty to reduce their emissions if they exceed this baseline level. This is different for whole societies. Societies demanding more emissions to appear in public without shame than the individual fair share are under duty to foster emission reductions and are not legitimate to reduce by introducing NETs. NETs are legitimate for reducing emissions only below the level of fair shares and for reaching net zero emissions. Since access to NETs to achieve net zero emissions demands technology not affordable to individuals there are also no full individual responsibilities to achieve net zero emissions. This is mainly a responsibility of societies as a whole.

Keywords: climate change, mitigation, moral hazard, negative emission technologies, responsibility

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Authors: Martin Klepek

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This paper presents results of primary quantitative research on viral advertising with focus on popularity and willingness to share viral video among Czech Internet population. It starts with brief theoretical debate on viral advertising, which is used for the comparison of the results. For purpose of collecting data, online questionnaire survey was given to 384 respondents. Statistics utilized in this research included frequency, percentage, correlation and Pearson’s Chi-square test. Data was evaluated using SPSS software. The research analysis disclosed high popularity of viral advertising video among Czech Internet population but implies lower willingness to share it. Significant relationship between likability of viral video technique and age of the viewer was found.

Keywords: internet advertising, internet population, promotion, marketing communication, viral advertising, viral video

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Authors: Agnieszka P. Regiec

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Capital companies are based on monetary capital. In the traditional model, the capital is the sum of the nominal values of all shares issued. For a few years within the European countries, the limited liability companies’ (LLC) regulations are leaning towards liberalization of the capital structure in order to provide higher degree of autonomy regarding the intra-corporate governance. Reforms were based primarily on the legal system of the USA. In the USA, the tradition of no-par shares is well-established. Thus, as a point of reference, the American legal system is being chosen. Regulations of Germany, Great Britain, France, Netherlands, Finland, Poland and the USA will be taken into consideration. The analysis of the share capital is important for the development of science not only because the capital structure of the corporation has significant impact on the shareholders’ rights, but also it reflects on relationships between creditors of the company and the company itself. Multi-level comparative approach towards the problem will allow to present a wide range of the possible outcomes stemming from the novelization. The dogmatic method was applied. The analysis was based on the statutes, secondary sources and judicial awards. Both the substantive and the procedural aspects of the capital structure were considered. In Germany, as a result of the regulatory competition, typical for the EU, the structure of LLCs was reshaped. New LLC – Unternehmergesellschaft, which does not require a minimum share capital, was introduced. The minimum share capital for Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung was lowered from 25 000 to 10 000 euro. In France the capital structure of corporations was also altered. In 2003, the minimum share capital of société à responsabilité limitée (S.A.R.L.) was repealed. In 2009, the minimum share capital of société par actions simplifiée – in the “simple” version of S.A.R.L. was also changed – there is no minimum share capital required by a statute. The company has to, however, indicate a share capital without the legislator imposing the minimum value of said capital. In Netherlands the reform of the Besloten Vennootschap met beperkte aansprakelijkheid (B.V.) was planned with the following change: repeal of the minimum share capital as the answer to the need for higher degree of autonomy for shareholders. It, however, preserved shares with nominal value. In Finland the novelization of yksityinen osakeyhtiö took place in 2006 and as a result the no-par shares were introduced. Despite the fact that the statute allows shares without face value, it still requires the minimum share capital in the amount of 2 500 euro. In Poland the proposal for the restructuration of the capital structure of the LLC has been introduced. The proposal provides among others: devaluation of the capital to 1 PLN or complete liquidation of the minimum share capital, allowing the no-par shares to be issued. In conclusion: American solutions, in particular, balance sheet test and solvency test provide better protection for creditors; European no-par shares are not the same as American and the existence of share capital in Poland is crucial.

Keywords: balance sheet test, limited liability company, nominal value of shares, no-par shares, share capital, solvency test

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Authors: Lei Zhang

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The carbon cycle greatly influences global change, and the land cover changes contribute to the status and rate of the carbon budget in ecosystems. This paper proposes a land cover classification system for mapping land cover, the national ecological environment assessment, and estimating carbon storage in ecosystems. The classification system consists of basic land cover classes at levels Ⅰ and Ⅱ and auxiliary features at level III. The basic 38 classes characterizing land cover features are derived from 19 criteria referring to composition, structure, pattern, phenology, etc. The basic classes reflect the status of carbon storage in ecosystems. The auxiliary classes at level III complement the attributes of higher levels by 9 criteria. The 5 environmental criteria of temperature, moisture, landform, aspect and slope mainly reflect the potential and intensity of carbon storage in ecosystems. The disturbance of vegetation succession caused by land use type influences the vegetation carbon budget. The other 3 vegetation cover criteria, growth period, and species characteristics further refine the vegetation types. The hierarchical structure of the land cover map (the classes of levels Ⅰ and Ⅱ) is independent of the products of level III, which is helpful for land cover product management and applications. The classification system has been adopted in the Chinese national land cover database for the carbon budget in ecosystems at a 30 m scale.

Keywords: classification system, land cover, ecosystem, carbon storage, object based

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Authors: Michael N. O'Sullivan, Con Sheahan

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Mass customization is the idea of offering custom products or services to satisfy the needs of each individual customer while maintaining the efficiency of mass production. Technologies like 3D printing and artificial intelligence have many start-ups hoping to capitalize on this dream of creating personalized products at an affordable price, and well established companies scrambling to innovate and maintain their market share. However, the majority of them are failing as they struggle to understand one key question – where does customization make sense? Customization and personalization only make sense where the value of the perceived benefit outweighs the cost to implement it. In other words, will people pay for it? Looking at the Kano Model makes it clear that it depends on the product. In products where customization is an inherent need, like prosthetics, mass customization technologies can be highly beneficial. However, for products that already sell as a standard, like headphones, offering customization is likely only an added bonus, and so the product development team must figure out if the customers’ perception of the added value of this feature will outweigh its premium price tag. This can be done through the use of a ‘serious game,’ whereby potential customers are given a limited budget to collaboratively buy and bid on potential features of the product before it is developed. If the group choose to buy customization over other features, then the product development team should implement it into their design. If not, the team should prioritize the features on which the customers have spent their budget. The level of customization purchased can also be translated to an appropriate production method, for example, the most expensive type of customization would likely be free-form design and could be achieved through digital fabrication, while a lower level could be achieved through short batch production. Twenty-five teams of final year students from design, engineering, construction and technology tested this methodology when bringing a product from concept through to production specification, and found that it allowed them to confidently decide what level of customization, if any, would be worth offering for their product, and what would be the best method of producing it. They also found that the discussion and negotiations between players during the game led to invaluable insights, and often decided to play a second game where they offered customers the option to buy the various customization ideas that had been discussed during the first game.

Keywords: Kano model, mass customization, new product development, serious game

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Authors: Kim Dongwon, Yu Songjin

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This study identifies the business value of VOC (Voice of Customer) on the business. Precisely, we intend to demonstrate how much negative and positive sentiment of VOC has an influence on car sales market share in the unites states. We extract 7 emotions such as sadness, shame, anger, fear, frustration, delight and satisfaction from the VOC data, 23,204 pieces of opinions, that had been posted on car-related on-line community from 2007 to 2009(a part of data collection from 2007 to 2015), and intend to clarify the correlation between negative and positive sentimental keywords and contribution to market share. In order to develop a lexicon for each category of negative and positive sentiment, we took advantage of Corpus program, Antconc 3.4.1.w and on-line sentimental data, SentiWordNet and identified the part of speech(POS) information of words in the customers' opinion by using a part-of-speech tagging function provided by TextAnalysisOnline. For the purpose of this present study, a total of 45,741 pieces of customers' opinions of 28 car manufacturing companies had been collected including titles and status information. We conducted an experiment to examine whether the inclusion, frequency and intensity of terms with negative and positive emotions in each category affect the adoption of customer opinions for vehicle organizations' market share. In the experiment, we statistically verified that there is correlation between customer ideas containing negative and positive emotions and variation of marker share. Particularly, "Anger," a domain of negative domains, is significantly influential to car sales market share. The domain "Delight" and "Satisfaction" increased in proportion to growth of market share.

Keywords: data mining, opinion mining, sentiment analysis, VOC

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Authors: Wildan Syafitri

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The main purpose of the development is to embody public welfare. Its indication is shown by the increasing of the public prosperity in which it will be related to the consumption level as a consequence of the increasing of public income. One of the government’s efforts to increase public welfare is to create development equity in order to alleviate poor people. Poverty’s problem is not merely about the number and percentage of the poor people, but also it includes the gap and severity of poverty.the analysis method used is Benefit Incidence Analysis (BIA) that is an analysis method used to disclose the impact of government policy or individual access based on the income distribution in society. Further, the finding of the study revealed is that the highest number of the poor people in the village is those who are unemployed and have family members who are still in the Junior High School. The income distribution calculation shows a fairly good budget allocation applied with good mass ratio that is 0.31. In addition, the finding of this study also discloses that Indonesian Government policy to subsidize education cost for Elementary and Junior High School students has reached the right target. It is indicated by more benefits received by Elementary and Junior High School students who are poor and very poor than other income group.

Keywords: benefit incidence analysis, budget allocation, poverty, education

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Authors: Jemima C. A. Sumboh

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Given the urgency and consensus for countries to move towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC), health financing systems need to be accurately and consistently monitored to provide valuable data to inform policy and practice. Most of the indicators for monitoring UHC, particularly catastrophe and impoverishment, are established based on the impact of out-of-pocket health payments (OOPHP) on households’ living standards, collected through varied household surveys. These surveys, however, vary substantially in survey methods such as the length of the recall period or the number of items included in the survey questionnaire or the farming of questions, potentially influencing the level of OOPHP. Using different survey instruments can provide inaccurate, inconsistent, erroneous and misleading estimates of UHC, subsequently influencing wrong policy decisions. Using data from a household budget survey conducted by the Navrongo Health Research Center in Ghana from May 2017 to December 2018, this study intends to explore the potential implications of using surveys with varied levels of disaggregation of OOPHP data on estimates of financial risk protection. The household budget survey, structured around food and non-food expenditure, compared three OOPHP measuring instruments: Version I (existing questions used to measure OOPHP in household budget surveys), Version II (new questions developed through benchmarking the existing Classification of the Individual Consumption by Purpose (COICOP) OOPHP questions in household surveys) and Version III (existing questions used to measure OOPHP in health surveys integrated into household budget surveys- for this, the demographic and health surveillance (DHS) health survey was used). Version I, II and III contained 11, 44, and 56 health items, respectively. However, the choice of recall periods was held constant across versions. The sample size for Version I, II and III were 930, 1032 and 1068 households, respectively. Financial risk protection will be measured based on the catastrophic and impoverishment methodologies using STATA 15 and Adept Software for each version. It is expected that findings from this study will present valuable contributions to the repository of knowledge on standardizing survey instruments to obtain estimates of financial risk protection that are valid and consistent.

Keywords: Ghana, household budget surveys, measuring financial risk protection, out-of-pocket health payments, survey instruments, universal health coverage

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Authors: H. M. Anitha, Anusha N. Rao

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The current developments in technology and ideas have given entirely new dimensions to the field of research and education. New delivery methods are proposed which is an added feature to the engineering education. Particularly, more importance is given to new teaching practices such as Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). It is vital to adopt the new ICT methods which lead to the emergence of novel structure and mode of education. The flipped classroom, think pair share and peer instruction are the latest pedagogical methods which give students to learn the course. This involves students to watch video lectures outside the classroom and solve the problems at home. Students are engaged in group discussions in the classroom. These are the active learning methods wherein the students are involved diversely to learn the course. This paper gives a comprehensive study of past and present research which is going on with flipped classroom, thinks pair share activity and peer instruction.

Keywords: flipped classroom, think pair share, peer instruction, active learning

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Authors: Alexis D'Agostino, Amanda Pomeroy

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Background: Resource availability is essential to effective implementation of national nutrition policies. To this end, the SPRING Project has collected and analyzed budget data from government ministries in Uganda, international donors, and other nutrition implementers to provide data for the first time on what funding is actually allocated to implement nutrition activities named in the national nutrition plan. Methodology: USAID’s SPRING Project used the Uganda Nutrition Action Plan (UNAP) as the starting point for budget analysis. Thorough desk reviews of public budgets from government, donors, and NGOs were mapped to activities named in the UNAP and validated by key informants (KIs) across the stakeholder groups. By relying on nationally-recognized and locally-created documents, SPRING provided a familiar basis for discussions to increase credibility and local ownership of findings. Among other things, the KIs validated the amount, source, and type (specific or sensitive) of funding. When only high-level budget data were available, KIs provided rough estimates of the percentage of allocations that were actually nutrition-relevant, allowing creation of confidence intervals around some funding estimates. Results: After validating data and narrowing in on estimates of funding to nutrition-relevant programming, researchers applied a formula to estimate overall nutrition allocations. In line with guidance by the SUN Movement and its three-step process, nutrition-specific funding was counted at 100% of its allocation amount, while nutrition sensitive funding was counted at 25%. The vast majority of nutrition funding in Uganda is off-budget, with over 90 percent of all nutrition funding is provided outside of the government system. Overall allocations are split nearly evenly between nutrition-specific and –sensitive activities. In FY 2013/14, the two-year study’s baseline year, on- and off-budget funding for nutrition was estimated to be around 60 million USD. While the 60 million USD allocations compare favorably to the 66 million USD estimate of the cost of the UNAP, not all activities are sufficiently funded. Those activities with a focus on behavior change were the most underfunded. In addition, accompanying qualitative research suggested that donor funding for nutrition activities may shift government funding into other areas of work, making it difficult to estimate the sustainability of current nutrition investments.Conclusions: Beyond providing figures, these estimates can be used together with the qualitative results of the study to explain how and why these amounts were allocated for particular activities and not others, examine the negotiation process that occurred, and suggest options for improving the flow of finances to UNAP activities for the remainder of the policy tenure. By the end of the PBN study, several years of nutrition budget estimates will be available to compare changes in funding over time. Halfway through SPRING’s work, there is evidence that country stakeholders have begun to feel ownership over the ultimate findings and some ministries are requesting increased technical assistance in nutrition budgeting. Ultimately, these data can be used within organization to advocate for more and improved nutrition funding and to improve targeting of nutrition allocations.

Keywords: budget, nutrition, financing, scale-up

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Authors: Babatunde Akeem Lawal

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In any organization, the primary aim is to maximize profit, but the major challenges facing them is the increase in cost of operation because of this there is increase in cost of production that could lead to inevitable cost control and cost reduction scheme which make it difficult for most organizations to operate at the cost efficient frontier. The study aims to critically examine and evaluate the application of cost control and cost reduction in organization performance and also to review budget as an effective tool of cost control and cost reduction. A descriptive survey research was adopted. A total number of 40 respondent retrieved were used for the study. The analysis of data collected was undertaken by applying appropriate statistical tools. Regression analysis was used to test the hypothesis with the use of SPSS. Based on the findings; it was evident that cost control has a positive impact on organizational performance and also the style of management has a positive impact on organizational performance.

Keywords: organization, cost reduction, cost control, performance, budget, profit

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Authors: Awa Diouf

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Since 2004, inputs specific to the agricultural sector have been exempt from VAT in Senegal. This paper measures, using the Naatal Mbay survey, the impact of this reform on agricultural productivity. The survey covers a sample of 3,122 rice, millet and maize farms for the 2016 crop year. The regressions show that tax incentives are ineffective in improving partial productivity of the land factor: the higher the share of the value of exemptions in the higher the production costs, the less productive the operation. The negative effect of the exemptions on productivity is accentuated for the most intensive agricultural area: the Senegal River Delta, and the most intensive crop: irrigated rice. This relationship could stem from a decrease in allocative efficiency: farmers have overinvested in the most accessible inputs. The loose budget constraint syndrome, therefore, explains this result: farmers who benefit more from exemptions reduce their managerial effort. The results suggest a removal of the VAT exemptions applied to finished products and agricultural inputs for a better efficiency of this tax, which typically taxes final consumption and should be neutral for the producer.

Keywords: agricultural productivity, agricultural taxation, Senegal, tax incentives

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Authors: Prateep Wajeetongratana

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The objectives of the research were to examine that how management accounting techniques were perceived and used by companies listed on the stock exchange and to investigate similarities or differences of management accounting practices between companies listed on the stock exchange and Thai SMEs. Descriptive and inferential statistics were employed. The finding found that almost all of the companies used traditional management accounting techniques more than advanced management accounting techniques. Four management accounting techniques having no significant association with business characteristic were standard costing, job order costing, process costing. The barriers that Thai SMEs encountered were a lack of proper accounting system and the insufficient knowledge in management accounting of the accountants. The comparison results revealed that both companies listed on the stock exchange and Thai SMEs used traditional management accounting techniques more than advanced techniques.

Keywords: companies listed on the stock exchange, financial budget, management accounting, operating budget

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Authors: Francis O. Iyoha, Daniel E. Gberevbie, Charles T. Iruonagbe, Matthew E. Egharevba

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Cost of governance in Nigeria has become a challenge to development and concern to practitioners and scholars alike in the field of business and social science research. It has been observed that it takes 70 percent of the nation’s revenue to maintain less than 20 percent of the Nigerian population that are public servants. Furthermore, it has been observed that on a consistent yearly basis, the recurrent expenditure of government from the national budget keeps rising, while capital expenditure meant for development keeps falling. The implication is that development is stagnated in the country. For instance, in the 2010 national budget of NGN4.60tn or USD28.75b, only NGN1.80tn or USD11.15b was set aside for capital expenditure. Also, in the 2013 national budget of NGN4.92tn or USD30.75b, only NGN1.50tn or USD9.38b was set aside for capital expenditure. Therefore, with the analysis of secondary data, this study examined the reasons for the high cost of governance in Nigeria. It observed that the high cost of governance in the country is in the interest of the ruling class, arising from their unethical behaviour – corrupt practices and the poor management of public resources. As a result, the study recommends the need to intensify the war against corruption and mismanagement of public resources by government officials as possible solution to overcome the high cost of governance in Nigeria. This could be achieved by strengthening the constitutional powers of the various anti-corruption agencies in the area of arrest, investigation and prosecution of offenders without the interference of the executive arm of government either at the local, state or federal level.

Keywords: cost of governance, capital expenditure, recurrent expenditure, unethical behavior, Nigeria

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Authors: Pau Rausell-Koster, Jordi Sanjuan-Belda

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The economic crisis of 2008 had a special impact on cultural consumption in Spain. It fell by almost 30% in a few years, and its share of total family spending decreased from 3.19% in 2007 to 2.38% in 2015. In 2017, unlike other indicators, cultural consumption levels were still far from recovering their pre-crisis values. In times of economic difficulties, the satisfaction of primary subsistence needs takes priority over that of social, cultural and experiential needs, among which cultural consumption would mostly be framed. However, its evolution cannot be attributed exclusively to macroeconomic trends. In parallel to these, technological advances mainly related to the Internet have been disseminated in recent years, which have a very marked impact on the consumption patterns of some cultural sectors. Thus, the aim of this study is to define the causes of the decline in cultural consumption in Spain in recent years, and analyse what type of products, territories and population profiles suffered it especially. From the data analysis of the Family Budget Survey, the study seeks to improve the understanding of the determinants of cultural consumption and their behaviour in the face of macroeconomic trends, as well as identify and extract some policy implications regarding to the upcoming crisis caused by COVID-19.

Keywords: consume patterns, cultural consumption, economic crisis, economic trends

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Authors: Tom D. Gedeon, Ujala Rampaul

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The evaluation of electronic consumer goods are most often done from the perspective of analysing the latest models, comparing their advantages and disadvantages with respect to price. This style of evaluation is often performed by one or a few product experts on a wide range of features that may not be applicable to each user. We instead used a scenario-based approach to evaluate a number of e-readers. The setting is similar to a user who is interested in a new product or technology and has allocated a limited budget. We evaluate the quality and usability of e-readers available within that budget range. This is based on the assumption of a rational market which prices older second hand devices the same as functionally equivalent new devices. We describe our evaluation and comparison of four branded eReaders, as the initial stage of a larger project. The scenario has a range of tasks approximating a busy person who does not bother to read the manual. We found that navigation within books to be the most significant differentiator between the eReaders in our scenario based evaluation process.

Keywords: eReader, scenario based, price comparison, Kindle, Kobo, Nook, Sony, technology adoption

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Authors: Abderrahmane Khiat, Moussa Benaissa

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Due to the increasing number of sources of information available on the web and their distribution and heterogeneity, ontology alignment became a very important and inevitable problem to ensure semantic interoperability. Instance-based ontology alignment is based on the comparison of the extensions of concepts; and represents a very promising technique to find semantic correspondences between entities of different ontologies. In practice, two situations may arise: ontologies that share many common instances and ontologies that share few or do not share common instances. In this paper, we describe an approach to manage the latter case. This approach exploits the reasoning on ontologies in order to create a corpus of common instances. We show that it is theoretically powerful because it is based on description logics and very useful in practice. We present the experimental results obtained by running our approach on ontologies of OAEI 2012 benchmark test. The results show the performance of our approach.

Keywords: description logic inference, instance-based ontology alignment, semantic interoperability, semantic web

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Authors: Magdalena Orth, Gunnar Gotz

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Background: Domestic accountability, budget transparency and public financial management (PFM) are considered vital components of good governance in developing countries. The aid modality budget support (BS) promotes these governance functions in developing countries. BS engages in political decision-making and provides financial and technical support to poverty reduction strategies of the partner countries. Nevertheless, many donors have withdrawn their support from this modality due to cases of corruption, fraud or human rights violations. This exit from BS is leaving a finance and governance vacuum in the countries. The evaluation team analyzed the consequences of terminating the use of this modality and found particularly negative effects for good governance outcomes. Methodology: The evaluation uses a qualitative (theory-based) approach consisting of a comparative case study design, which is complemented by a process-tracing approach. For the case studies, the team conducted over 100 semi-structured interviews in Malawi, Uganda, Rwanda and Zambia and used four country-specific, tailor-made budget analysis. In combination with a previous DEval evaluation synthesis on the effects of BS, the team was able to create a before-and-after comparison that yields causal effects. Main Findings: In all four countries domestic accountability and budget transparency declined if other forms of pressure are not replacing BS´s mutual accountability mechanisms. In Malawi a fraud scandal created pressure from the society and from donors so that accountability was improved. In the other countries, these pressure mechanisms were absent so that domestic accountability declined. BS enables donors to actively participate in political processes of the partner country as donors transfer funds into the treasury of the partner country and conduct a high-level political dialogue. The results confirm that the exit from BS created a governance vacuum that, if not compensated through external/internal pressure, leads to a deterioration of good governance. For example, in the case of highly aid dependent Malawi did the possibility of a relaunch of BS provide sufficient incentives to push for governance reforms. Overall the results show that the three good governance areas are negatively affected by the exit from BS. This stands in contrast to positive effects found before the exit. The team concludes that the relationship is causal, because the before-and-after comparison coherently shows that the presence of BS correlates with positive effects and the absence with negative effects. Conclusion: These findings strongly suggest that BS is an effective modality to promote governance and its abolishment is likely to cause governance disruptions. Donors and partner governments should find ways to re-engage in closely coordinated policy-based aid modalities. In addition, a coordinated and carefully managed exit-strategy should be in place before an exit from similar modalities is considered. Particularly a continued framework of mutual accountability and a high-level political dialogue should be aspired to maintain pressure and oversight that is required to achieve good governance.

Keywords: budget support, domestic accountability, public financial management and budget transparency, Sub-Sahara Africa

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Authors: Elmira Aliyeva, Dadash Huseynov, Robert Hoogendoorn, Salomon Kroonenberg

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The Kura River is the major water artery in the Southern Caucasus; it is a third river in the Caspian Sea basin in terms of length and size of the catchment area, the second in terms of the water budget, and the first in the volume of sediment load. Understanding of major controls on the Kura fluvial- deltaic system is valuable for efficient management of the highly populated river basin and coastal zone. We have studied grain size of sediments accumulated in the river channels and delta and dated by 210Pb method, astrophotographs, old topographic and geological maps, and archive data. At present time sediments are supplied by the Kura River to the Caspian Sea through three distributary channels oriented north-east, south-east, and south-west. The river is dominated by the suspended load - mud, silt, very fine sand. Coarse sediments are accumulated in the distributaries, levees, point bar, and delta front. The annual suspended sediment budget in the time period 1934-1952 before construction of the Mingechavir water reservoir in 1953 in the Kura River midstream area was 36 mln.t/yr. From 1953 to 1964, the suspended load has dropped to 12 mln.t/yr. After regulation of the Kura River discharge the volume of suspended load transported via north-eastern channel reduced from 35% of the total sediment amount to 4%, and through the main south-eastern channel increased from 65% to 96% with further fall to 56% due to creation of new south-western channel in 1964. Between 1967-1976 the annual sediment budget of the Kura River reached 22,5 mln. t/yr. From 1977 to 1986, the sediment load carried by the Kura River dropped to 17,6 mln.t/yr. The historical data show that between 1860 and 1907, during relatively stable Caspian Sea level two channels - N and SE, appear to have distributed an equal amount of sediments as seen from the bilateral geometry of the delta. In the time period 1907-1929, two new channels - E and NE, appeared. The growth of three delta lobes - N, NE, and SE, and rapid progradation of the delta has occurred on the background of the Caspian Sea level rise as a result of very high sediment supply. Since 1929 the Caspian Sea level decline was followed by the progradation of the delta occurring along the SE channel. The eastern and northern channels have been silted up. The slow rate of progradation at its initial stage was caused by the artificial reduction in the sediment budget. However, the continuous sea-level fall has brought to this river bed gradient increase, high erosional rate, increase in the sediment supply, and more rapid progradation. During the subsequent sea-level rise after 1977 accompanied by the decrease in the sediment budget, the southern part of the delta has turned into a complex of small, shallow channels oriented to the south. The data demonstrate that behaviour of the Kura fluvial – deltaic system and variations in the sediment budget besides anthropogenic regulation are strongly governed by the Caspian Sea level very rapid changes.

Keywords: anthropogenic control on sediment budget, Caspian sea-level variations, Kura river sediment load, morphology of the Kura river delta, sedimentation in the Kura river delta

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Authors: Siriraks Khawchaimaha, Sangwian Boonto

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Sport Authority of Thailand (SAT) is the state enterprise, promotes and supports all sports kind both professional and athletes for competitions, and administer under government policy and government officers and therefore, all financial supports whether cash inflows and cash outflows are strictly committed to government budget and limited to the planned projects at least 12 to 16 months ahead of reality, as results of ineffective in sport events, administration and competitions. In order to retain in the sports challenges around the world, SAT need to has its own sports business services model by each stadium, region and athletes’ competencies. Based on the HMK model of Khawchaimaha, S. (2007), this research study is formalized into each 10 regional stadiums to details into the characteristics root of fans, athletes, coaches, equipments and facilities, and stadiums. The research designed is firstly the evaluation of external factors: hardware whereby competition or practice of stadiums, playground, facilities, and equipments. Secondly, to understand the software of the organization structure, staffs and management, administrative model, rules and practices. In addition, budget allocation and budget administration with operating plan and expenditure plan. As results for the third step, issues and limitations which require action plan for further development and support, or to cease that unskilled sports kind. The final step, based on the HMK model and modeling canvas by Alexander O and Yves P (2010) are those of template generating Sports Business Services Model for each 10 SAT’s regional stadiums.

Keywords: HMK model, not for profit organization, sport business model, sport services model

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Authors: Su Xiaohan, Jin Chicheng, Liu Yijing, Burra Venkata Durga Kumar

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Energy-aware scheduling in real-time systems aims to minimize energy consumption, but issues related to resource reservation and timing constraints remain challenges. This study focuses on analyzing two scheduling algorithms, Fair-Share Scheduling (FFS) and Priority-Driven Preemptive Scheduling (PDPS), for solving these issues and energy-aware scheduling in real-time systems. Based on research on both algorithms and the processes of solving two problems, it can be found that Fair-Share Scheduling ensures fair allocation of resources but needs to improve with an imbalanced system load, and Priority-Driven Preemptive Scheduling prioritizes tasks based on criticality to meet timing constraints through preemption but relies heavily on task prioritization and may not be energy efficient. Therefore, improvements to both algorithms with energy-aware features will be proposed. Future work should focus on developing hybrid scheduling techniques that minimize energy consumption through intelligent task prioritization, resource allocation, and meeting time constraints.

Keywords: energy-aware scheduling, fair-share scheduling, priority-driven preemptive scheduling, real-time systems, optimization, resource reservation, timing constraints

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Authors: Nattapol Pourprasert, Siriwan Manowan

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This study aims to find out what budget problems Thailand is facing with and how the results from the comparison between the budgeting reform by Thailand and the reforms by OECD member countries can be used for carrying out budgeting reform of Thailand. The findings from the study on the budget problems that Thailand is facing with reveal that the budgeting system of Thailand lacks of the assessment for the cost-effectiveness of the expenditure of borrowed money and budgets in order to determine whether the expenses are worth the taxes collected from people or not. This is because most popularity policies have unlimited budgets which can lead to the financial risks. Also, these policies create great tax burdens for the descendants in the future and affect the fair distribution of incomes but the Parliament of Thailand never considers these facts. The findings from the comparison between Thai budgeting reform and those by OECD member countries manifest that the traditional budgeting system of Thailand is the department-based budgeting, which is still used without being changed or adjusted in order to fit the new administrative regimes. This traditional budgeting system suggests that a department is responsible for budgeting tasks. Meanwhile, in OECD member countries, budgeting reforms are carried out simultaneously with the reforms of civil service systems so that they are driven in the same directions. The budgeting reforms that rely only on the analyses on economic or technical dimension can hardly lead to success. The budgeting systems of OECD member countries are designed to deal with the unique problems that each of the member countries is facing with rather than adopting the modern system developed by other countries. The budgeting system that has a complicated concept and practice has to be implemented under a flexible strategy so that the departments that implement it can learn about and adjust itself to the system. Continuous and consistent development and training for staff members are also necessary.

Keywords: budgeting reforms, Thailand, OECD member countries, budget problems

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Authors: Helen S. Ghali, Haidy S. Ghali, Salma Ibrahim, Ossama Hosny, Hatem S. Elbehairy

Abstract:

Infrastructure systems are essential assets in any community; accordingly, authorities aim to maximize its life span while minimizing the life cycle cost. This requires studying the asset conditions throughout its operation and forming a cost-efficient maintenance strategy plan. The objective of this study is to develop a highway management system that provides medium-term maintenance plans with the minimum life cycle cost subject to budget constraints. The model is applied to data collected for the highway network in India with the aim to output a 5-year maintenance plan strategy from 2019 till 2023. The main element considered is the surface coarse, either rigid or flexible pavement. The model outputs a 5-year maintenance plan for each segment given the budget constraint while maximizing the new pavement condition rating and minimizing its life cycle cost.

Keywords: infrastructure, asset management, optimization, maintenance plan

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Authors: Syhalath Xaphakdy, Toshio Nagata, Saykham Phommathat, Pavy Souwannavong, Vilayvanh Srithilat, Phoxay Sengdala, Bounaom Phetarnousone, Boualay Siharath, Xaya Chemcheng

Abstract:

The National University of Laos (NUOL) invited a group of volunteers from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to revise the physics experiments to utilize the materials that were already available to students. The intension was to review and revise the materials regularly utilized in physics class. The project had access to limited materials and a small budget for the class in the unit; however, by developing experimental textbooks related to mechanics, electricity, and wave and vibration, the group found a way to apply them in the classroom and enhance the students teaching activities. The aim was to introduce a way to incorporate the materials and practices in the classroom to enhance the students learning and teaching skills, particularly when they graduate and begin working as high school teachers.

Keywords: NUOL, JICA, physics experiment materials, small budget, mechanics, electricity

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Authors: Oliver Ikechukwu Inyiama, Boniface Uche Ugwuanyi

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The aim of the research is to evaluate the key financial performance indicators that help both managers and their shareholders of Nigerian Banks to determine the appropriate dividend payout to their ordinary shareholders in an accounting year. Profitability, total asset, and earnings of commercial banks were selected as key performance indicators in Nigeria Banking Sector. They represent the independent variables of the study while dividend per share is the proxy for the dividend paid on ordinary shares which represent the dependent variable. The effect of profitability, total asset and earnings on dividend per share were evaluated through the ordinary least square method of multiple regression analysis. Test for normality of frequency distribution was conducted through descriptive statistics such as Jacque Bera Statistic, skewness and kurtosis. Rate of dividend payout was subsequently applied as an alternate dependent variable to test for robustness of the earlier results. The 64% adjusted R-squared of the pooled data indicates that profitability, total asset, and earnings explain the variation in dividend per share during the period under research while the remaining 36% variation in dividend per share could be explained by changes in other variables not captured by this study as well as the error term. The study concentrated on four leading Nigeria Commercial Banks namely; First Bank of Nigeria Plc, GTBank Plc, United Bank for Africa Plc and Zenith International Bank Plc. Dividend per share was found to be positively affected by total assets and earnings of the commercial banks. However, profitability which was proxied by profit after tax had a negative effect on dividend per share. The implication of the findings is that commercial banks in Nigeria pay more dividend when they are having a dwindling fortune in order to retain the confidence of the shareholders provided their gross earnings and size is on the increase. Therefore, the management and board of directors of Nigeria commercial banks should apply decent marketing strategies to enhance earnings through investment in profitable ventures for an improved dividend payout rate.

Keywords: assets, banks, indicators, performance, profitability, shares

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Authors: Muhammad Asif ShakoorI, Maogang He, Aamir Shahzad

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Dusty (complex) plasmas contained micro-sized charged dust particles in addition to ions, electrons, and neutrals. It is typically low-temperature plasma and exists in a wide variety of physical systems. In this work, the effects of an external electric field on the diffusion coefficient and share viscosity are investigated through equilibrium molecular dynamics (EMD) simulations in three-dimensional (3D) strongly coupled (SC) dusty plasmas (DPs). The effects of constant and varying normalized electric field strength (E*) have been computed along with different combinations of plasma states on the diffusion of dust particles using EMD simulations. Diffusion coefficient (D) and share viscosity (η) along with varied system sizes, in the limit of varying E* values, is accounted for an appropriate range of plasma coupling (Γ) and screening strength (κ) parameters. At varying E* values, it is revealed that the 3D diffusion coefficient increases with increasing E* and κ; however, it decreases with an increase of Γ but within statistical limits. The share viscosity increases with increasing E*and Γ and decreases with increasing κ. New simulation results are outstanding that the combined effects of electric field and screening strengths give well-matched values of Dandη at low-intermediate to large Γ with varying small-intermediate to large N. The current EMD simulation outcomes under varying electric field strengths are in satisfactory well-matched with previous known simulation data of EMD simulations of the SC-DPs. It has been shown that the present EMD simulation data enlarged the range of E* strength up to 0.1 ≤ E*≤ 1.0 in order to find the linear range of the DPs system and to demonstrate the fundamental nature of electric field linearity of 3D SC-DPs.

Keywords: strongly coupled dusty plasma, diffusion coefficient, share viscosity, molecular dynamics simulation, electric field strength

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Authors: Gadisa Alemayehu, Muralidhar Avvari, Atkilt Mulu G.

Abstract:

Since 1962 EC, the Faffa Food Share Company has been producing and supplying flour (famix) and value-added flour (baby food) in Ethiopia. It meets nearly all of the country's total flour demand, both for relief and commercial markets. However, it is incompetent in the international market due to a poor maintenance management system. The results of recorded documents and stopwatches revealed that frequent failure machines, as well as a poor maintenance management system, cause increased production downtimes, resulting in a 29.19 percent decrease in production from the planned production. As a result, the current study's goal is to recommend newly developed software for use in and as a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS). As a result, the system increases machine reliability and decreases the frequency of equipment failure, reducing breakdown time and maintenance costs. The company's overall manufacturing performance improved by 4.45 percent, particularly after the implementation of the CMMS.

Keywords: CMMS, manufacturing performance, delivery, availability, flexibility, Faffa Food Share Company

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Authors: Mohammad H. Almomani

Abstract:

In this paper, we argue the effect of the initial sample size, and the increment in simulation samples on the performance of a sequential approach that used in selecting the top m designs when the number of alternative designs is very large. The sequential approach consists of two stages. In the first stage the ordinal optimization is used to select a subset that overlaps with the set of actual best k% designs with high probability. Then in the second stage the optimal computing budget is used to select the top m designs from the selected subset. We apply the selection approach on a generic example under some parameter settings, with a different choice of initial sample size and the increment in simulation samples, to explore the impacts on the performance of this approach. The results show that the choice of initial sample size and the increment in simulation samples does affect the performance of a selection approach.

Keywords: Large Scale Problems, Optimal Computing Budget Allocation, ordinal optimization, simulation optimization

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Authors: Chika Catherine Ayogu

Abstract:

Rehabilitation plays an important and integral part in the life of roadway rehabilitation management system. It is a systematic method for inspection and rating the roadway condition in a given area. The system performs a cost effective analysis of various maintenance and rehabilitation strategies. Finally the system prioritize and recommend roadway rehabilitation and maintenance to maximize results within a given budget amount. During execution of maintenance activity, the system also tracks labour, materials, equipment and cost for activities performed. The system implements physical assessment field inspection and rating of each street segment which is then entered into a database. The information is analyzed using a software, and provide recommendations and project future conditions. The roadway management system provides a deterioration curve for each segment based on input then assigns the most cost-effective maintenance strategy based on conditions, surface type and functional classification, and available budget. This paper investigates the roadway management system and its capabilities to assist in applying the right treatment to the right roadway at the right time so that expected service life of the roadway is extended as long as possible with acceptable cost.

Keywords: effectiveness, rehabilitation, roadway, software system

Procedia PDF Downloads 115