Search results for: consequence%20of%20co-recovery

Authors: K. Berhanu

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Improper land use results in land degradation and decline in agricultural productivity. Hence, in order to get maximum benefits out of land, proper utilization of its resources is inevitable. The present study was aimed at identifying the landcover changes in the study area in the last 25 years and determines the extent and direction of change that has occurred. The study made use of Landsat TM 1986 and 2011 Remote Sensing Satellite Image for analysis to determine the extent and pattern of rangeland change. The results of the landuse/landcover change detection showed that in the last 25 years, 3 major changes were observed, grassland and open shrub-land resource significantly decreased at a rate of 17.1km2/year and 12 km2/year/, respectively. On the other hand in 25 years dense bushland, open bush land, dense shrubland and cultivated land has shown increment in size at a rate of 0.23km2/year,13.5 km2/year, 6.3 km2/year and 0.2 km2/year, respectively within 25 years. The expansion of unpalatable woody species significantly reduced the rangeland size and availability of grasses. The consequence of the decrease in herbaceous biomass production might result in high risk of food insecurity in the area unless proper interventions are made in time.

Keywords: GIS and remote sensing, Dire District, land use/land cover, land sat TM

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Authors: Lokes Parvatha Kumaran S., Sakthi Jay Mahenthar C., Sathyaprakash P., Jayakumar V., Shobanadevi A.

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With the evolution of technology, the need to solve complex computational problems like machine learning and deep learning has shot up. But even the most powerful classical supercomputers find it difficult to execute these tasks. With the recent development of quantum computing, researchers and tech-giants strive for new quantum circuits for machine learning tasks, as present works on Quantum Machine Learning (QML) ensure less memory consumption and reduced model parameters. But it is strenuous to simulate classical deep learning models on existing quantum computing platforms due to the inflexibility of deep quantum circuits. As a consequence, it is essential to design viable quantum algorithms for QML for noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) devices. The proposed work aims to explore Variational Quantum Circuits (VQC) for Deep Reinforcement Learning by remodeling the experience replay and target network into a representation of VQC. In addition, to reduce the number of model parameters, quantum information encoding schemes are used to achieve better results than the classical neural networks. VQCs are employed to approximate the deep Q-value function for decision-making and policy-selection reinforcement learning with experience replay and the target network.

Keywords: quantum computing, quantum machine learning, variational quantum circuit, deep reinforcement learning, quantum information encoding scheme

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Authors: Kunto Wibowo Agung Prodjonoto

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Occasionally, opportunities occur not due to chances but threats. This, however, is often not realized because a greater threat is perceived to be anything that threatens, endangers, or harms, resulting in bad impacts that are also part of the risk and consequence. As a result, more focus tends to direct towards the bad impacts. Risk, in this case, shall be seen rather as something challenging, which can turn to be an opportunity to tackle an obstacle. Therefore, it does not seem exaggerating if later, risk can be considered as a challenge that presents an opportunity. So as in the context of the threat of natural disasters which gives an idea that opportunities exist. Nature referred to in a fashion as 'natural disasters' captured an expression to picture the 'threats' aspect, which instructively implying a chance of opportunity. This is quite logical, as SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis can evaluate the situation at hand related to the analysis of various factors in formulating strategies to deal with natural disaster situations. The analytical method created by Albert Humphrey is indeed not an analytical tool to provide solutions, but certainly 'opportunities and challenges' are discussed therein on a vertical line, where opportunities are posited on the positive axis, and threats are posed on the negative axis. Observing this dynamism, the challenges and threats of disasters are having opportunity relevance to moralizing opportunities, that by quality poses universalism populist characteristics, universalism characteristics, and regional characteristics. Here, universalism appears as an opportunity domain underneath the threats and challenges of natural disasters.

Keywords: universality, opportunities, threats, challenges of natural disasters

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Authors: Hamed Mohammed Al Gheilani

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Red tide, one of the harmful algal blooms (HABs) is a natural ecological phenomenon and often this event is accompanied by severe impacts on coastal resources, local economies, and public health. The occurrence of red tides has become more frequent in Omani waters in recent years. Some of them caused fish kill, damaged fishery resources and mariculture, threatened the marine environment and the osmosis membranes of desalination plants. However, a number of them have been harmless. The most common dinoflagellate Noctiluca scintillans is associated with the red tide events in Omani waters. Toxic species like Karenia selliformis, Prorocentrum arabianum, and Trichodesmium erythraeum have also been reported recently. Although red tides in Oman have been considered a consequence of upwelling in the summer season (May to September), recent phytoplankton outbreaks in Oman are not restricted to summer. Frequent algal blooms have been reported during winter (December to March). HABs may have contributed to hypoxia and/or other negative ecological impacts. The effects of HABs on desalination plan were increased in last three years, by blooms of Cochlodinium, noctiluca species, and blooms of jellyfish. Most of these blooms were affected Al Batinah and Muscat coast. These effects include millions of Omani Rials and several shutdowns of desalination plans during these years.

Keywords: red tide, environment, hypoxia, noctiluca

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Authors: Sabiha Shahid Antora, Young Ki Chang

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Along with various farm management technologies, imagery is an important tool that facilitates crop assessment, monitoring, and management. As a consequence, drone imaging technology is playing a vital role to capture the state of the entire field for yield mapping, crop scouting, weed detection, and so on. Although it is essential to inspect the cultivable lands in real-time for making rapid decisions regarding field variable inputs to combat stresses and diseases, drone imagery is still evolving in this area of interest. Cost margin and post-processing complexions of the image stream are the main challenges of imaging technology. Therefore, this proposed project involves the cost-effective field programmable gate array (FPGA) based image processing device that would process the image stream in real-time as well as providing the processed output to support on-the-spot decisions in the crop field. As a result, the real-time FPGA-based image processing system would reduce operating costs while minimizing a few intermediate steps to deliver scalable field decisions.

Keywords: real-time, FPGA, drone imagery, image processing, crop monitoring

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Authors: R. Domínguez, A. Castro, N. Fernandez, F. Hidalgo, F. Ortiz

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Aims: Study musculoskeletal disorders produced by excess physical exertion in marines Introduction: Musculoskeletal injuries during military training are an important medical problem faced by military organizations throughout the world. Military occupations are physically demanding, which represents a high risk of injury "and subsequent disability, these injuries represent important risk factors for hospitalization, disability, and discharge Methodology: This is a causal correlational study in which data were collected in order to find a cause-effect relationship between the physical effort in marines during their career in the Chilean Navy and the musculoskeletal disorders that occur in some from them. Results:100% had experienced musculoskeletal pain in some part of the body and 73.52% of the respondents had experienced limitations in the ability to work, as a consequence forced to change jobs due to musculoskeletal pain. The neck, shoulders and the lumbar dorsal region were the regions with the highest prevalence of pain, as well as pain that limit the ability to work. Conclusion: Musculoskeletal injuries and illnesses related to injuries are common in marines, both in those who operate in campus Charles, as in another operational unit due to the nature of the work. Many of these injuries occur during physical training and sports and various studies have dealt with the descriptive epidemiology of musculoskeletal injuries in military personnel.

Keywords: physical effort, marines, musculoskeletal disorders produced (MSD), training

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Authors: Smita Singh

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Through the constructivist perspective, this paper explores the transformation of India’s nuclear identity from an irresponsible nuclear weapon power to a ‘de-facto nuclear power’ in the emerging international nuclear order From a nuclear abstainer to a bystander and finally as a ‘de facto nuclear weapon state’, India has put forth its case as a unique and exceptional nuclear power as opposed to Iran, Iraq and North Korea with similar nuclear ambitions, who have been snubbed as ‘rogue states’ by the international community. This paper investigates the reasons behind international community’s gradual acceptance of India’s nuclear weapons capabilities and nuclear identity after the Indo-U.S. Nuclear Deal. In this paper, the central concept of analysis is the inter-subjective nature of identity in the nuclear arena. India’s nuclear behaviour has been discursively constituted by India through evolving images of the ‘self’ and the ‘other.’ India’s sudden heightened global status is not solely the consequence of its 1998 nuclear tests but a calibrated projection as a responsible stakeholder in other spheres such as economic potential, market prospects, democratic credentials and so on. By examining India’s nuclear discourse this paper contends that India has used its material and discursive power in presenting a n striking image as a responsible nuclear weapon power (though not yet a legal nuclear weapon state as per the NPT). By historicising India’s nuclear trajectory through an inter-subjective analysis of identities, this paper moves a step ahead in providing a theoretical interpretation of state actions and nuclear identity construction.

Keywords: nuclear identity, India, constructivism, international stakeholder

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Authors: A. Khan, H. Mahmood

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In Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs), sensor nodes close to water surface (final destination) are often preferred for selection as forwarders. However, their frequent selection makes them depleted of their limited battery power. In consequence, these nodes die during early stage of network operation and create energy holes where forwarders are not available for packets forwarding. These holes severely affect network throughput. As a result, system performance significantly degrades. In this paper, a routing protocol is proposed to avoid energy holes during packets forwarding. The proposed protocol does not require the conventional position information (localization) of holes to avoid them. Localization is cumbersome; energy is inefficient and difficult to achieve in underwater environment where sensor nodes change their positions with water currents. Forwarders with the lowest water pressure level and the maximum number of neighbors are preferred to forward packets. These two parameters together minimize packet drop by following the paths where maximum forwarders are available. To avoid interference along the paths with the maximum forwarders, a packet holding time is defined for each forwarder. Simulation results reveal superior performance of the proposed scheme than the counterpart technique.

Keywords: energy holes, interference, routing, underwater

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Authors: Girish Sambhaji Gund

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The controlled nanostructure growth and its strong coupling with the current collector are key factors to achieve good electrochemical performance of faradaic-dominant electroactive materials. We employed binder-less and additive-free hydrothermal and physical vapor doping methods for the synthesis of nickel (Ni) and cobalt (Co) based compounds nanostructures (NiO, NiCo2O4, NiCo2S4) deposited on different conductive substrates such as carbon nanotube (CNT) on stainless steel, and reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and N-doped rGO on nickel foam (NF). The size and density of Ni- and Co-based compound nanostructures are controlled through the strong coupling with carbon allotropes on stainless steel and NF substrates. This controlled nanostructure of Ni- and Co-based compounds with carbon allotropes leads to stable faradaic electrochemical reactions at the material/current collector interface and within the electrode, which is consequence of strong coupling of nanostructure with functionalized carbon surface as a buffer layer. Thus, it is believed that the results provide the synergistic approaches to stabilize electrode materials physically and chemically, and hence overall electrochemical activity of faradaic dominating battery-type electrode materials through buffer layer engineering.

Keywords: metal compounds, carbon allotropes, doping, electrochemicstry, hybrid supercapacitor

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Authors: Kamila Mazur-Oleszczuk, Rafal Banasiuk, Dawid Krasnowski, Maciej Pek, Marcin Podgorski, Krzysztof Rykaczewski, Sabina Zoledowska, Dawid Nidzworski

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Workout safety is one of the most significant challenges of recreational sports. Loss of water and electrolytes is a consequence of thermoregulatory sweating during exercise. The rate of sweat loss and its chemical composition can fluctuate within and among individuals. That is why we propose our sportband 'Flow' as a device for monitoring these parameters. 'Flow' consists of two parts: an intelligent module and a mobile application. The application allows verifying the training progress and data archiving. The sportband intelligent module includes temperature, heart rate and pulse measurement (non-invasive, continuous methods of workout monitoring). Apart from the standard components, the device will consist of a sweat composition analyzer situated in sportband intelligent module. Sweat is a water solution of numerous compounds such as ions (sodium up to 1609 µg/ml, potassium up to 274 µg/ml), lactic acid (skin pH is between 4.5 - 6) and a small amount of glucose. Awareness of sweat composition allows personalizing electrolyte intake after training. A comprehensive workout monitoring (sweat composition, heart rate, blood oxygen level) will provide improvement in the training routine and time management, which is our goal for the development of the sweat composition analyzer.

Keywords: flow, sportband, sweat, workout monitoring

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Authors: Nancy Elizabeth Naranjo Garcia

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Canoa (1976) by Felipe Cazals is a film that exposes the consequences of power that the Mexican State exercised over the 1968 student movement. The film, in this particular way, approaches the Tlatelolco Massacre from a point of view that takes into consideration the events that led up to it. Nonetheless, the reference to the political tension in Canoa remains ambiguous. Thus, the cinematographic representation refers to an event that leaves space for reflection, and as a consequence leaves evidence of an image that signals the notion of survival as Georges Didi-Huberman points out. In addition to denouncing the oppressive force by the Mexican State, the images in Canoa also emphasize what did not happen in Tlatelolco and its condensation with the student activists. To observe the images that Canoa offers in a new light, this work proposes further exploration with the following questions; How do the images in Canoa narrate? How are the images inserted in the film? In this fashion, a more profound comprehension of the objective and the essence of the images becomes feasible. As a result, it is possible to analyze the images of Canoa with the real killing at San Miguel Canoa in literature. The film visualizes a testimony of the event that once seemed unimaginable, an image that anticipates and structures the proceeding event. Therefore, this study takes a second look at how Canoa considers not only the killing at San Miguel Canoa and the Tlatlelolco Massacre, but goes further on contextualize an unimaginable image.

Keywords: cinematographic representation, student movement, Tlatelolco Massacre, unimaginable image

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Authors: Shahzamani Kiana, Esmaeil Lashgarian Hamed, Merat Shahin

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HCV and GBV-C belong to the Flaviviridae family of viruses and GBV-C is the closest virus to HCV genetically. Accumulative research is in progress all over the world to clarify clinical aspects of GBV-C. Possibility of interaction between HCV and GBV-C and also its consequence with other liver diseases are the most important clinical aspects which encourage researchers to develop a technique for simultaneous detection of these viruses. In this study a SYBR Green multiplex real time RT-PCR technique as a new economical and sensitive method was optimized for simultaneous detection of HCV/GBV-C in HCV positive plasma samples. After designing and selection of two pairs of specific primers for HCV and GBV-C, SYBR Green Real time RT-PCR technique optimization was performed separately for each virus. Establishment of multiplex PCR was the next step. Finally our technique was performed on positive and negative plasma samples. 89 cirrhotic HCV positive plasma samples (29 of genotype 3 a and 27 of genotype 1a) were collected from patients before receiving treatment. 14% of genotype 3a and 17.1% of genotype 1a showed HCV/GBV-C co-infection. As a result, 13.48% of 89 samples had HCV/GBV-C co-infection that was compatible with other results from all over the world. Data showed no apparent influence of HGV co-infection on the either clinical or virological aspect of HCV infection. Furthermore, with application of multiplex Real time RT-PCR technique, more time and cost could be saved in clinical-research settings.

Keywords: HCV, GBV-C, cirrhotic patients, multiplex real time RT- PCR

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Authors: Mengyu Lu, Yongsheng Guo

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This study investigates how employee incentives affect employee performance in financing from customers. This study followed a grounded theory approach where data were collected through 29 interviews. Main themes and categories were identified through the coding processes. This study found that casual conditions, including financial barriers, informal finance, business location, customer base and customer relationship, influenced the adoption of customer finance in the case of SMEs. The SMEs build and maintain long-term relationships with customers through personal communications. The SMEs engage and motivate employees in customer communications and business financing strategy through financial incentives programs, including bonuses, salary rises, rewards and non-financial incentives, including training opportunities, extra holiday leave, and flexible working hours. Employee performance was measured through financing contribution and job contribution. As a consequence, customers will be well served by employees and get a better customer experience. SMEs can get benefits such as employee engagement, employee satisfaction and sustainable financing sources. This study gets in sight of employee incentives in improving employee performance in customer finance and makes implications to human capital theories. Suggestions are provided to the decision-makers in businesses as incentive programs improve employee performance that, eventually contributes to overall business performance.

Keywords: SMEs, financing from customers, employee incentives, performance-based measurement

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Authors: Nidhi Chouhan

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Burgeoning demand of ‘Secularism’ has shaken the pillars of cultural studies in the contemporary literature. The perplexity of the culturally estranged term ‘secular’ gives rise to temporal ideologies across the world. Hence, it is high time to scan this concept in the context of Indian lifestyle which is a blend of assimilated cultures woven in multiple religious fabrics. The infliction of such secular taste is depicted in literary productions like ‘Satanic Verses’ and ‘An Area of Darkness’. The paper conceptually makes a cross-cultural analysis of anti-religious Indian literary texts, assessing its revitalization in current times. Further, this paper studies the increasing popularity of secular sensibility in the contemporary times. The mushrooming elements of secularism such as abstraction, spirituality, liberation, individualism give rise to a seemingly newer idea i.e. ‘Plurality’ making the literature highly hybrid. This approach has been used to study Indian modernity reflected in its literature. Seminal works of stalwarts are used to understand the consequence of this cultural synthesis. Conclusively, this theoretical research inspects the efficiency of secular culture, intertwined with internal coherence and throws light on the plurality of texts in Indian literature.

Keywords: culture, indian, literature, plurality, secular, secularism

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Authors: Ted Gournelos

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Marketing approaches in practice and academic literature usually foreground the importance of product and brand awareness in strategy. Decisions emphasize justifications and promotions of existing projects, which has the unintended consequence of pushing marketing, public relations, and other communications to secondary strategies and tactics rather than as inherent pieces of organizational development. In other words, marketers implement what others have already decided. This is a challenge not only for the communications field, but also for the organizations themselves, since integrated communications employees are often the primary, if not the only, touchpoints for client/customer/user research and interaction. Organizations thus become increasingly out of touch, raising the risk of public or human resources crisis and decreasing the focus on opportunities for development and growth. This paper will discuss the potential for social entrepreneurship to refocus marketing and communications professionals on primary strategy, and suggest best practices for developing initiatives not only to impact marketing efforts themselves, but also the guiding organizational approaches to project management, human resources, corporate social responsibility, and research. It will provide a comparative analysis of social media marketing efforts conducted by food security non-governmental organizations from several countries, pointing out both flaws and areas of opportunity for integration with for-profit organizational strategy, and discuss the implications of descriptive, proactive, and interactive messaging.

Keywords: social enterprise, strategy, innovation, social media

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Authors: M. Linda Phooko, Phesheya E. Dlamini, Vusumuzi E. Mbanjwa, Rhandu Chauke

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The decline of yields as a consequence of miss-informed land-use decisions poses a threat to sustainable agriculture in South Africa. The non-uniform growth pattern of wheat crop and the yields below expectations has been one of the main concerns for Timatjatji community farmers. This study was then conducted to characterize, classify, and evaluate soils of the farm for sustainable land use planning. A detailed free survey guided by surface features was conducted on a 25 ha farm to check soil variation. It was revealed that Sepane (25%), Bonheim (21%), Rensburg (18%), Katspruit (15%), Arcadia (12%) and Dundee (9%) were the dominant soil forms found across the farm. Field soil description was done to determine morphological characteristics of the soils which were matched with slope percentage and climate to assess the potential of the soils. The land capability results showed that soils were generally shallow due to high clay content in the B horizon. When the climate of the area was factored in (i.e. land potential), it further revealed that the area has low cropping potential due to heat, moisture stress and shallow soils. This implies that the farm is not suitable for annual cropping but can be highly suitable for planted pastures.

Keywords: characterization, land capability, land evaluation, land potential

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Authors: Bin Liu

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MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNA molecules, functioning in transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. The discrimination of the real pre-miRNAs from the false ones (such as hairpin sequences with similar stem-loops) is necessary for the understanding of miRNAs’ role in the control of cell life and death. Since both their small size and sequence specificity, it cannot be based on sequence information alone but requires structure information about the miRNA precursor to get satisfactory performance. Kmers are convenient and widely used features for modeling the properties of miRNAs and other biological sequences. However, Kmers suffer from the inherent limitation that if the parameter K is increased to incorporate long range effects, some certain Kmer will appear rarely or even not appear, as a consequence, most Kmers absent and a few present once. Thus, the statistical learning approaches using Kmers as features become susceptible to noisy data once K becomes large. In this study, we proposed a Gapped k-mer approach to overcome the disadvantages of Kmers, and applied this method to the field of miRNA prediction. Combined with the structure status composition, a classifier called imiRNA-GSSC was proposed. We show that compared to the original imiRNA-kmer and alternative approaches. Trained on human miRNA precursors, this predictor can achieve an accuracy of 82.34 for predicting 4022 pre-miRNA precursors from eleven species.

Keywords: gapped k-mer, imiRNA-GSSC, microRNA precursor, support vector machine

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Authors: Thiago Viana

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Eventually train accidents occur on railways and for some specific cases it is necessary to use a train rescue with a crane positioned under a platform wagon. These tumbled machines are collected and sent to the machine shop or scrap yard. In one of these cranes that were being used to rescue a wagon, occurred a fall of hoist due to fracture of two large pins. The two pins were collected and sent for failure analysis. This work investigates the main cause and the secondary causes for the initiation of the fatigue crack. All standard failure analysis procedures were applied, with careful evaluation of the characteristics of the material, fractured surfaces and, mainly, metallographic tests using an optical microscope to compare the geometry of the peaks and valleys of the thread of the pins and their respective seats. By metallographic analysis, it was concluded that the fatigue cracks were started from a notch (stress concentration) in the valley of the threads of the pin applied to the right side of the crane (pin 1). In this, it was verified that the peaks of the threads of the pin seat did not have proper geometry, with sharp edges being present that caused such notches. The visual analysis showed that fracture of the pin on the left side of the crane (pin 2) was brittle type, being a consequence of the fracture of the first one. Recommendations for this and other railway cranes have been made, such as nondestructive testing, stress calculation, design review, quality control and suitability of the mechanical forming process of the seat threads and pin threads.

Keywords: crane, fracture, pin, railway

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Authors: Enkelejda Shkurti, Diamant Shtiza

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Background: Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is a significant consequence in health care. The objective of our study was to recognize features related to lower HRQoL scores in children with anorectal malformation (ARM) and Hirschsprung disease (HD). Methods: Children younger than 18 years, with HD or ARM, that were assessed at our private clinic in Tirana, Albania, from December 2018 to October 2019, were acknowledged. The outcomes of broad questionnaires concerning diagnosis, symptoms, and preceding health/surgical history and authenticated tools to measure urinary status, stooling grade, and HRQoL were appraised. Results: In patients aged 0-6 years, vomiting and abdominal enlargement were allied with a substantial decrease in total HRQoL scores. In children > 6 years of age, vomiting, abdominal swelling, and abdominal discomfort were also linked to a considerably lower HRQoL. The main indicator of lower HRQoL scores on regression tree analysis in all age clusters was the occurrence of psychosomatic, behavioral, or progressive comorbidity. Conclusion: Children with both HD or ARM that have a psychosomatic, behavioral, or growing problem experience considerably lower HRQoL than patients deprived of such problems, proposing that establishment of behavioral/growing sustenance as part of the care of these patients may have a considerable influence on their HRQoL.

Keywords: anorectal malformation, Hirsch Sprung disease, quality of life, Albania

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Authors: Cuma Şimşek

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Nowadays our globalized world is in a very rapid and sophisticated change. In the information age, notion of ‘information’ has begun to spread faster than ever also in this age, changes and transformation has gained tremendous momentum with technology boom. This continuous change and transformation, increased the competition between existing organizations and corporations. Besides, the organizations which show resistance to change has been put out of action in this competitive environment. It is not possible to sustain the existence of organizations without adapting to change and transformation by isolating itself from developments. As a consequence of improved communication and dialog possibilities by means of increasing knowledge level, there has been made a change of scene in administrative mentality, style and activation, especially in 21th century. Leaders emerge as the most important factor in this process of perception and success. At the same time it is not enough to adapt the alteration with conventional leadership abilities and behaviors. In parallel with alteration, new types of leadership are coming up. The optimal leadership type for our era and a trending topic "Transformational Leadership" is in great demand now. In this research, current situation of the Air Forces which use high-technology weapons efficiently, operates in an environment full of threats and is analyzed. It is evaluated that in order to be ready for war continuously and adjusting itself to changing terms of warfare atmosphere , Air Forces need ‘transformational leaders’ who are innovative, foreseeing and having a vision so that they can develop new methods and strategies for complex problems. Because it is the Air Force which is responsible for being the deterrent force of its country.

Keywords: transformational, change, air force, leadership

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Authors: Jolanta Brodowska-Szewczuk

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The article includes the results and conclusions from empirical researches that had been done. The research focuses on the impact of investments made in small and medium-sized enterprises financed from EU funds on the competitiveness of these companies. The researches includes financial results in sales revenue and net income, expenses, and many other new products/services on offer, higher quality products and services, more modern methods of production, innovation in management processes, increase in the number of customers, increase in market share, increase in profitability of production and provision of services. The main conclusions are that, companies with direct investments under this measure shall apply the modern methods of production. The consequence of this is to increase the quality of our products and services. Furthermore, both small and medium-sized enterprises have introduced new products and services. Investments were carried out, thus enabling better work organization in enterprises. Entrepreneurs would guarantee higher quality of service, which would result in better relationships with their customers, what is more, noting the rise in number of clients. More than half of the companies indicated that the investments contributed to the increase in market share. Same thing as for market reach and brand recognition of particular company. An interesting finding is that, investments in small enterprises were more effective than medium-sized enterprises.

Keywords: competitiveness, efficiency, EU funds, small and medium-sized enterprises

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Authors: Amira Abdelrasoul, Huu Doan, Ali Lohi

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The goal of the present study was to minimize the ultrafiltration fouling of latex effluent using Cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) as a cationic surfactant. Hydrophilic Polysulfone and Ultrafilic flat heterogeneous membranes, with MWCO of 60,000 and 100,000, respectively, as well as hydrophobic Polyvinylidene Difluoride with MWCO of 100,000, were used under a constant flow rate and cross-flow mode in ultrafiltration of latex solution. In addition, a Polycarbonate flat membrane with uniform pore size of 0.05 µm was also used. The effect of CTAB on the latex particle size distribution was investigated at different concentrations, various treatment times, and diverse agitation duration. The effects of CTAB on the zeta potential of latex particles and membrane surfaces were also investigated. The results obtained indicated that the particle size distribution of treated latex effluent showed noticeable shifts in the peaks toward a larger size range due to the aggregation of particles. As a consequence, the mass of fouling contributing to pore blocking and the irreversible fouling were significantly reduced. The optimum results occurred with the addition of CTAB at the critical micelle concentration of 0.36 g/L for 10 minutes with minimal agitation. Higher stirring rate had a negative effect on membrane fouling minimization.

Keywords: cationic surfactant, latex particles, membrane fouling, ultrafiltration, zeta potential

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Authors: Taiwo Frances Gbadegesin

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Children’s capacity to contribute to social and economic status of a nation has been given more recognition than ever. Global policy priority aimed at ensuring sustainable development has been extended to the developing nations of the world. However, many developing countries have continued to puzzle out the extent and possibilities of exploring sustainability within their socio-economic environment. This paper considers ways in which the theoretical framework of Dahlberg, Moss and Pence (1999; 2007) and Moss (2007; 2012) that embraces meaning-making, social construction of childhood experiences and democratic perspectives can be used to understand children’s capacity for building a sustainable future. This paper presents data collected through interviews and observations from ECCE teachers and children in Lagos, Nigeria. A distinct finding is that children’s participation in building sustainable future is a consequence of the knowledge of the workings of their social, economic and cultural nuances and not a matter of economic wealth per se. It further argues that sustainability is situated within a complex network of local and global contexts. It thus challenges the present neo-liberal approach and advocates a democratic approach to preparing children for a sustainable society. It concludes that sustainability cannot be built on what may be seen as decontextualized responses by relevant stakeholders to the needs and experiences of the “whole child”.

Keywords: children, ECCE, sustainable development, Nigeria

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Authors: Gabriele Iannotta

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This paper investigates credit cycles by means of an experiment based on a Kiyotaki & Moore (1997) model with heterogeneous expectations. The aim is to examine how a credit squeeze caused by high lender-level risk perceptions affects the real prices of a collateralised asset, with a special focus on the macroeconomic implications of rising price volatility in terms of total welfare and the number of bankruptcies that occur. To do that, a learning-to-forecast experiment (LtFE) has been run where participants are asked to predict the future price of land and then rewarded based on the accuracy of their forecasts. The setting includes one lender and five borrowers in each of the twelve sessions split between six control groups (G1) and six treatment groups (G2). The only difference is that while in G1 the lender always satisfies borrowers’ loan demand (bankruptcies permitting), in G2 he/she closes the entire credit market in case three or more bankruptcies occur in the previous round. Experimental results show that negative risk-driven supply shocks amplify the volatility of collateral prices. This uncertainty worsens the agents’ ability to predict the future value of land and, as a consequence, the number of defaults increases and the total welfare deteriorates.

Keywords: Behavioural Macroeconomics, Credit Cycle, Experimental Economics, Heterogeneous Expectations, Learning-to-Forecast Experiment

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Authors: Ximena Rincon Castellanos

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The research target was analyzed the education public policy of Colombia according to the content of the right to education. One problematic element of that content is the principle of progressive implementation of economic, social and cultural rights. The research included a complete study of public documents and other papers; as well as, one focus group with former combatants in a city where is located one of some 'hogares de paz', which hosts these people after leaving the illegal group. This paper presents a critical approach to the public policy strategies to guarantee education to former combatants and its tension with the right to a progressive implementation. Firstly, education is understood as a technology level without considering higher education. Former combatant attends to SENA and private institutions, which offer technology education and it is counted by the Colombian Government as higher education. Therefore, statistics report a high level of attendance of excombatant to that education level, but actually, they do not expect to study a university carrier. Secondly, the budget approved has been invested in private institutions, despite public institutions are able to include this population and they need more money to strengthen the public offer, which has been considered as a better strategy to ensure education as a human right but not a good, by the special rapporteur on the right to education. As a consequence, the progressive implementation should be a guide to change and improve current strategies, invest the budget available into the public system of education in order to give former combatants the chance to access to universities.

Keywords: higher education, progressive implementation, public service, private offering and technology education

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Authors: Bubaker F. Shareia

Abstract:

The aim of this paper is to determine a general frame of the auditor's legal responsibilities in Libya which were implied in professional codes and rules, these codes and rules were concerned with the auditor's rights and duties in conducting his professional duties. This will provide a background for the Libyan accounting profession, and the challenges in tailoring Auditors to meet third party's needs. Being informed of the kinds of legal responsibilities which the external auditors could face during conducting their duties. The study is based on a literature review and archival research, reinforced by a qualitative case study comprised of interviews, questionnaire and a study of internal documents. To reach such an understanding, the researcher designed two questionnaires for collecting the data. One questionnaire was distributed among the certified public accountant firms in Libya and the second was distributed among a group of randomly selected lawyers and judges in the same country. Most auditors agreed upon the determination of their responsibilities toward the state and they emphasized that their responsibilities toward their clients were limited to the accepted standards of auditing. Moreover, all auditors who were surveyed emphasized that there has never been any juridical claims against them, and as a consequence they have never paid any legal fines. This study focuses on one country, which does limit its generalisability. However, it also suggests fruitful research areas in considering the impact and challenge of the historic factors in the accounting profession in emerging economies.

Keywords: accounting, external auditor, legal responsibilities, libyan accounting profession

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Authors: Sanaa Bardaweel

Abstract:

Inorganic polyphosphate (poly P) is present in all living forms tested to date, from each of the three kingdoms of life. Studied mainly in prokaryotes, poly P and its associated enzymes are vital in diverse basic metabolism, in at least some structural functions and, notably, in stress responses. These plentiful and unrelated roles for poly P are probably the consequence of its presence in life-forms early in evolution. The genomes of many bacterial species, including pathogens, encode a homologue of a major poly P synthetic enzyme, poly P kinase 1 (PPK1). Genetic deletion of ppk1 results in reduced poly P levels and loss of pathogens virulence towards protozoa and animals. Thus far, no PPK1 homologue has been identified in higher-order eukaryotes and, therefore, PPK1 represents a novel target for chemotherapy. The idea of the current study is to purify the PPK1 from Escherichia coli to homogeneity in order to study the effect of active site point mutations on PPK1 catalysis via the application of site-directed mutagenesis strategy. The knowledge obtained about the active site of PPK1 will be utilized to characterize the catalytic and kinetic mechanism of PPK1 with model substrates. Comprehensive understanding of the enzyme kinetic mechanism and catalysis will be used to design and screen a library of synthetic compounds for potential discovery of selective PPK1-inhibitors.

Keywords: antimicobial, Escherichia coli, inorganic polyphosphate, PPK1-inhibitors

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Authors: Diba Arjmandi

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The notion of power and gender domination is one of the inseparable aspects of themes in postmodern literature. The reason of its importance has been discussed frequently since the rise of Michel Foucault and his vantage point toward the circulation of power and the transgression of forces. The language and society act as the basic grounds for the study, as all human beings are bound to the set of rules and norms which shape them in the acceptable way in the macrocosm. How different genders in different positions behave and show reactions to the provocation of social forces and superiority of one another, is of great interest to writers and literary critics. Mamet’s works are noticeable for their controversial but timely themes which illustrate the human conflict with the community and greed for power. Many critics like Christopher Bigsby and Harold Bloom have been discussing Mamet and his ideas during recent years. This paper is the study of Oleanna, Mamet’s masterpiece about teacher-student relationship and the circulation of power between a man and woman. He shows the very breakable boundaries in domination of a gender and the downfall of speech as the consequence of transgression and freedom. The failure of the language the teacher uses and the abuses of his own words by a student who seeks superiority and knowledge are the main subjects of discussion. Supported by the ideas of Foucault, the language Mamet uses to represent his characters becomes the fundamental element of this survey. As a result, language becomes both the means of achievement and also downfall.

Keywords: domination, foucault, language, mamet, oleanna, power, transgression

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Authors: Rehab Mahmoud El Sayed, Toka Fahmy Nasr, Dalia M. Rasmi

Abstract:

Environmental psychology studies the interaction between the user and the environment. This field is crucial in understanding how the built environment affects human behaviour, moods and feelings. Studying and understanding the aspects and influences of environmental psychology is a crucial key to investigating how the design can influence human behaviour to be environmentally friendly. This is known as pro-environmental behaviour where human actions are sustainable and impacts the environment positively. Accordingly, this paper aims to explore the impact of built environment design on environmental psychology to foster pro-environmental behaviour in university campus open spaces. In order to achieve this, an exploratory research method was conducted where a detailed study of the influences of environmental psychology was done and clarified its elements. Moreover, investigating the impact of design elements on human psychology took place. Besides, an empirical study of the outdoor spaces of the British University in Egypt occurred and a survey for students and staff was distributed. The research concluded that the four main psychological aspects are mostly influenced by the following design elements colours, lighting and thermal comfort respectively. Additionally, focusing on these design elements in the design process will create a sustainable environment. As a consequence, the pro-environmental behaviour of the user will be fostered.

Keywords: environmental psychology, pro-environmental behavior, sustainable environment, psychological influences

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Authors: Charuvan Kasemsap

Abstract:

This research was studied in Bangnampriao District, Chachernsao Province, Thailand. The primary data relating to flooding, drought, and saline intrusion problem on agriculture were collected by surveying, focus group, and in-depth interview with agricultural officers, technical officers of irrigation department, and local government leader of Bangnampriao District. The likelihood and consequence of risk were determined the risk index by risk assessment matrix. In addition, the risk index and the total coping capacity scores were investigated the vulnerability index by vulnerability matrix. It was found that the high-risk drought and saline intrusion was dramatically along Bang Pakong River owing to the end destination of Chao Phraya Irrigation system of Central Thailand. This leads yearly the damage of rice paddy, mango tree, orchard, and fish pond. Therefore, some agriculture avoids rice growing during January to May, and also pumps fresh water from a canal into individual storage pond. However, Bangnampriao District will be strongly affected by the impacts of climate change. Monthly precipitations are expected to decrease in number; dry seasons are expected to be more in number and longer in duration. Thus, the risk and vulnerability of agriculture are also increasing. Adaptation strategies need to be put in place in order to enhance the resilience of the agriculture.

Keywords: agriculture, bangnampriao, climate change, risk assessment

Procedia PDF Downloads 394