Search results for: Central Business District (CBD)

Authors: Ming-Jen Huang, Chun-Fang Huang, Chiching Wei

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With the recent advance of the deep neural network, we observe new applications of NLP (natural language processing) and CV (computer vision) powered by deep neural networks for processing business documents. However, creating a real-world document processing system needs to integrate several NLP and CV tasks, rather than treating them separately. There is a need to have a unified approach for processing documents containing textual and graphical elements with rich formats, diverse layout arrangement, and distinct semantics. In this paper, a framework that fulfills this unified approach is presented. The framework includes a representation model definition for holding the information generated by various tasks and specifications defining the coordination between these tasks. The framework is a blueprint for building a system that can process documents with rich formats, styles, and multiple types of elements. The flexible and lightweight design of the framework can help build a system for diverse business scenarios, such as contract monitoring and reviewing.

Keywords: Document processing, framework, formal definition, machine learning.

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Authors: N. Samarinas, C. Evangelides, C. Vrekos

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The aim of this paper is the comparison of three different methods, in order to produce fuzzy tolerance relations for rainfall data classification. More specifically, the three methods are correlation coefficient, cosine amplitude and max-min method. The data were obtained from seven rainfall stations in the region of central Greece and refers to 20-year time series of monthly rainfall height average. Three methods were used to express these data as a fuzzy relation. This specific fuzzy tolerance relation is reformed into an equivalence relation with max-min composition for all three methods. From the equivalence relation, the rainfall stations were categorized and classified according to the degree of confidence. The classification shows the similarities among the rainfall stations. Stations with high similarity can be utilized in water resource management scenarios interchangeably or to augment data from one to another. Due to the complexity of calculations, it is important to find out which of the methods is computationally simpler and needs fewer compositions in order to give reliable results.

Keywords: Classification, fuzzy logic, tolerance relations, rainfall data.

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Authors: Kulin Dave, Kapil Mohan

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Earthquakes are considered to be the most destructive rapid-onset disasters human beings are exposed to. The amount of loss it brings in is sufficient to take careful considerations for designing of structures and facilities. Seismic Hazard Analysis is one such tool which can be used for earthquake resistant design. Ground Response Analysis is one of the most crucial and decisive steps for seismic hazard analysis. Rapar district of Kutch, Gujarat falls in Zone 5 of earthquake zone map of India and thus has high seismicity because of which it is selected for analysis. In total 8 bore-log data were studied at different locations in and around Rapar district. Different soil engineering properties were analyzed and relevant empirical correlations were used to calculate maximum shear modulus (Gmax) and shear wave velocity (Vs) for the soil layers. The soil was modeled using Pressure-Dependent Modified Kodner Zelasko (MKZ) model and the reference curve used for fitting was Seed and Idriss (1970) for sand and Darendeli (2001) for clay. Both Equivalent linear (EL), as well as Non-linear (NL) ground response analysis, has been carried out with Masing Hysteretic Re/Unloading formulation for comparison. Commercially available DEEPSOIL v. 7.0 software is used for this analysis. In this study an attempt is made to quantify ground response regarding generated acceleration time-history at top of the soil column, Response spectra calculation at 5 % damping and Fourier amplitude spectrum calculation. Moreover, the variation of Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA), Maximum Displacement, Maximum Strain (in %), Maximum Stress Ratio, Mobilized Shear Stress with depth is also calculated. From the study, PGA values estimated in rocky strata are nearly same as bedrock motion and marginal amplification is observed in sandy silt and silty clays by both analyses. The NL analysis gives conservative results of maximum displacement as compared to EL analysis. Maximum strain predicted by both studies is very close to each other. And overall NL analysis is more efficient and realistic because it follows the actual hyperbolic stress-strain relationship, considers stiffness degradation and mobilizes stresses generated due to pore water pressure.

Keywords: DEEPSOIL v 7.0, Ground Response Analysis, Pressure-Dependent Modified KodnerZelasko (MKZ) model, Response Spectra, Shear wave velocity.

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Authors: Srikanth L., Neelima Satyam D.

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The transmission line towers are one of the important life line structures in the distribution of power from the source to the various places for several purposes. The predominant external loads which act on these towers are wind and earthquake loads. In this present study tower is analyzed using Indian Standards IS: 875:1987(Wind Load), IS: 802:1995(Structural steel), IS:1893:2002 (Earthquake) and dynamic analysis of tower has been performed considering ground motion of 2001 Bhuj Earthquake (India). The dynamic analysis was performed considering a tower system consisting two towers spaced 800m apart and 35m height each. This analysis has been performed using numerical time stepping finite difference method which is central difference method were employed by a developed MATLAB program to get the normalized ground motion parameters includes acceleration, frequency, velocity which are important in designing the tower. The tower is analyzed using response spectrum analysis.

Keywords: Response Spectra, Dynamic Analysis, Central Difference Method, Transmission Tower.

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Authors: Aykut Bedük, Kemalettin Eryeşil

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Together with the industrialization, women began to be included in business life by peeling off of the tasks given them by society and they have become a factor of production creating value in economic and social sense. Thus, women have taken place in the labor market, majority of which has been formed by men. In this study, the experiences of women entrepreneurs, who succeed in business activities, will be analyzed. By the study, current state of the women entrepreneurs in the labor market of Turkey will be put down, as a result of interferences obtained from the shared experiences of women entrepreneurs. Findings obtained at the end of the study are thought to light the way of future studies for increasing women entrepreneurship.

Keywords: Women Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship, Turkey.

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

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

Keywords: Business settings, Can-do statements, English language training programs, Self-assessment, Task experience.

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Authors: Masaru Furukawa, Shigeki Hirobayashi, Tadanobu Misawa

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Nowadays, IT/Business strategy alignment is still a key topic of concern among managers worldwide. Change has always being considered the primary challenge affecting the strategy alignment. Planning for alignment in uncertain and dynamic changing environments is burdened with risk as organizations seek to understand how much flexibility to build in their management information system so as to maintain high levels of alignment. The literature review showed that there is a tight relationship between IT infrastructure flexibility and the strategy alignment with strategic information systems (SIS) planning serving as a moderator of this relationship, and that emphasized the needs for organizations to use SIS planning consistently and to monitor the relationship between IS flexibility and the alignment. This paper presents the procedure of SIS planning with IS flexibility renovation via future oriented analysis of POC (penalty of change) as a function of cost and time. Using this SIS planning and monitoring IS flexibility and the alignment during periods of increased change in dynamic and uncertain environments reduces the risk that could transform IT into an inhibitor rather than an enabler of change.

Keywords: IT/Business strategy alignment, strategic information systems (SIS) planning, IS flexibility, penalty of change (POC).

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Authors: Vineet Kansal

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Enterprise Wide Information Systems (EWIS) implementation involves the entire business and will require changes throughout the firm. Because of the scope, complexity and continuous nature of ERP, the project-based approach to managing the implementation process resulted in failure rates of between 60% and 80%. In recent years ERP systems have received much attention. The organizational relevance and risk of ERP projects make it important for organizations to focus on ways to make ERP implementation successful. Once these systems are in place, however, their performance depends on the identified macro variables viz. 'Business Process', 'Decision Making' and 'Individual / Group working'. The questionnaire was designed and administered. The responses from 92 organizations were compiled. The relationship of these variables with EWIS performance is analyzed using inferential statistical measurements. The study helps to understand the performance of model presented. The study suggested in keeping away from the calamities and thereby giving the necessary competitive edge. Whenever some discrepancy is identified during the process of performance appraisal care has to be taken to draft necessary preventive measures. If all these measures are taken care off then the EWIS performance will definitely deliver the results.

Keywords: Enterprise Systems, performance, technology

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Authors: Dalia Suša Vugec

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Business process management (BPM) is widely used approach focused on designing, mapping, changing, managing and analyzing business processes of an organization, which eventually leads to better performance and derives many other benefits. Since every organization strives to improve its performance in order to be sustainable and to remain competitive on the market in long-term period, numerous organizations are nowadays adopting and implementing BPM. However, not all organizations are equally successful in that. One of the ways of measuring BPM success is by measuring its maturity by calculating Process Performance Index (PPI) using ten BPM success factors. Still, although BPM is a holistic concept, organizational culture is not taken into consideration in calculating PPI. Hence, aim of this paper is twofold; first, it aims to explore and analyze the current state of BPM success factors within the big organizations from Slovenia, Croatia, and Austria and second, it aims to analyze the structure of organizational culture within the observed companies, focusing on the link with BPM success factors as well. The presented study is based on the results of the questionnaire conducted as the part of the PROSPER project (IP-2014-09-3729) and financed by Croatian Science Foundation. The results of the questionnaire reveal differences in the achieved levels of BPM success factors and therefore BPM maturity in total between the three observed countries. Moreover, the structure of organizational culture across three countries also differs. This paper discusses the revealed differences between countries as well as the link between organizational culture and BPM success factors.

Keywords: Business process management, BPM maturity, BPM success factors, organizational culture, process performance index.

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Authors: Theodosios Tsiakis, George Stephanides, George Pekos

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The growth of open networks created the interest to commercialise it. The establishment of an electronic business mechanism must be accompanied by a digital-electronic payment system to transfer the value of transactions. Financial organizations are requested to offer a secure e-payment synthesis with equivalent levels of trust and security served in conventional paper-based payment transactions. The paper addresses the challenge of the first trade problem in e-commerce, provides a brief literature review on electronic payment and attempts to explain the underlying concept and method of trust in relevance to electronic payment.

Keywords: Electronic payment, security, trust, electronic business mechanism.

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Authors: Elmamy Ahmedsalem

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The world has witnessed the collapse of many corporate giants as a result of unethical behavior in recent decades. This has induced a series of questions by the global community on why such occurrences could happen, even with corporate governance in place. This paper attempts to propose a philosophical approach from an Islamic perspective to be consolidated with current corporate governance in order to confront contemporary dilemmas. In this paper, ethical theories are presented as a discussion followed by their applications to modern cases of financial collapses. Virtue ethics by Aristotle, justice and fairness by John Rawls, deontology by Immanuel Kant, and utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill, are the four theories which can then be contrasted with the paradigm of Muslim scholars. Despite the differences between the fundamental principles of Islamic and Western worldviews, their ethical theories are aimed at making right decisions and solving ethical dilemmas based on what is good for society. Therefore, Islamic principles should be synthesized with Western philosophy to form a more coherent framework. The integration of Islamic and western ethical theories into business is important for sound corporate governance.

Keywords: Business ethics, Islamic philosophy, western philosophy, Western and Islamic Worldview of Ethics.

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Authors: M. Raciti Castelli, S. De Betta, E. Benini

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This paper presents a numerical analysis of the performance of a five-bladed Darrieus vertical-axis water turbine, based on the NACA 0025 blade profile, for both bare and shrouded configurations. A complete campaign of 2-D simulations, performed for several values of tip speed ratio and based on RANS unsteady calculations, has been performed to obtain the rotor torque and power curves. Also the effect of a NACA-shaped central hydrofoil has been investigated, with the aim of evaluating the impact of a solid blockage on the performance of the shrouded rotor configuration. The beneficial effect of the shroud on rotor overall performances has clearly been evidenced, while the adoption of the central hydrofoil has proved to be detrimental, being the resulting flow slow down (due to the presence of the obstacle) much higher with respect to the flow acceleration (due to the solid blockage effect).

Keywords: CFD, vertical axis water turbine, shroud, NACA 0025

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Authors: Suleyman Gokhan Gunay, Gulsevim Yumuk Gunay

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One of the most important secrets of succesful companies is the fact that cooperation with NGOs will create a good reputation for them so that they can be immunized to economic crisis. The performance of the most admired companies in the world based on the ratings of Forbes and Fortune show us that most of these firms also have close relationships with their NGOs. Today, if companies do something wrong this information spreads very quickly to do the society. If people do not like the activities of a company, it can find itself in public relations nightmare that can threaten its repuation. Since the cost of communication has dropped dramatically due to the vast use of internet, the increase in communication among stakeholders via internet makes companies more visible. These multiple and interdependent interactions among the network of stakeholders is called as the network relationships. NGOs play the role of catalyst among the stakeholders of a firm to enhance the awareness. Succesful firms are aware of this fact that NGOs have a central role in today-s business world. Firms are also aware of the fact that they can enhance their corporate reputation via cooperation with the NGOs. This fact will be illustrated in this paper by examining some of the actions of the most succesful companies in terms of their cooperations with the NGOs.

Keywords: Network relationships, cooperative behaviors, corporate reputation, immunization to crisis.

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Authors: Vahid Hosseinpour, Mohammad Kazemini, Alireza Mohammadrezaee

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carbonylation of methanol in homogenous phase is one of the major routesfor production of acetic acid. Amongst group VIII metal catalysts used in this process iridium has displayed the best capabilities. To investigate effect of operating parameters like: temperature, pressure, methyl iodide, methyl acetate, iridium, ruthenium, and water concentrations on the reaction rate, experimental design for this system based upon central composite design (CCD) was utilized. Statistical rate equation developed by this method contained individual, interactions and curvature effects of parameters on the reaction rate. The model with p-value less than 0.0001 and R2 values greater than 0.9; confirmeda satisfactory fitness of the experimental and theoretical studies. In other words, the developed model and experimental data obtained passed all diagnostic tests establishing this model as a statistically significant.

Keywords: Acetic Acid, Carbonylation of Methanol, Central Composite Design, Experimental Design, Iridium/Ruthenium

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Authors: Danielle Morin, Jennifer D. E. Thomas, Raafat G. Saade, Daniela Petrachi

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Over the past few decades, more and more students choose to enroll in online classes instead of attending in-class lectures. While past studies consider students’ attitudes towards online education and how their grades differed from in-class lectures, the profile of the online student remains a blur. To shed light on this, an online survey was administered to about 1,500 students enrolled in an undergraduate Fundamental Business Technology course at a Canadian University. The survey was comprised of questions on students’ demographics, their reasons for choosing online courses, their expectations towards the course, the communication channels they use for the course with fellow students and with the instructor. This paper focused on the research question: Do the perspectives of online students concerning the online experience, in general, and in the course in particular, differ according to age profile? After several statistical analyses, it was found that age does have an impact on the reasons why students select online classes instead of in-class. For example, it was found that the perception that an online course might be easier than in-class delivery was a more important reason for younger students than for older ones. Similarly, the influence of friends is much more important for younger students, than for older students. Similar results were found when analyzing students’ expectation about the online course and their use of communication tools. Overall, the age profile of online users had an impact on reasons, expectations and means of communication in an undergraduate Fundamental Business Technology course. It is left to be seen if this holds true across other courses, graduate and undergraduate.

Keywords: Communication channels, fundamentals of business technology, online classes, pedagogy, user age profile, user perspectives.

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Authors: Mirjana Radman-Funarić, Katarina Potnik Galić

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The paper presents an analysis of linkages and structures of co-operation and their intensity like the potential for the establishment of clusters in the Central and Eastern (Pannonian) Croatian. Starting from the theoretical elaboration of the need for entrepreneurs to organize through the cluster model and the terms of their self-actualization, related to the importance of traditional values in terms of benefits, social capital and assess where the company now is, in order to prove the need to create their own identity in terms of clustering. The institutional dimensions of social capital where the public sector has the best role in creating the social structure of clusters, and social dimensions of social capital in terms of trust, cooperation and networking will be analyzed to what extent the trust and coherency are present between companies in the Brod posavina and Pozega slavonia County, expressed through the readiness of inclusion in clusters in the NUTS II region - Central and Eastern (Pannonian) Croatia, as a homogeneous economic entity, with emphasis on limiting factors that stand in the way of greater competitiveness.

Keywords: Analysis of linkages, structures of co-operation, Cluster, Region

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Authors: Raziah Bi Mohamed Sadique, Jamal Roudaki, Murray B. Clark, Norhayati Alias

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Economic crime (i.e. corporate fraud) has a significant impact on business. This study analyzes the fraud cases reported by the Malaysian Securities Commission. Frauds involving market manipulation and/or illegal share trading are the most common types of fraud reported over the 6 years analyzed. The highest number of frauds reported involved investment and fund holding companies. Alarmingly the results indicate quite a high number of frauds cases are committed by management. The higher number of Chinese perpetrators may be due to fact that they are the dominant group in Malaysian business. The result also shows that more than half of companies involved with fraud are privately held companies in the investment/fund/finance sector. The results of this study highlight general characteristic of perpetrators (person and company) that commit fraud which could help the regulators in their monitoring and enforcement activities. To investors, this would help in analyzing their business investment or portfolio risk.

Keywords: Corporate fraud, economic crime, fraudcharacteristic, perpetrators

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Authors: Bhaskar Basu

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Universities and higher education institutes are finding it increasingly difficult to engage students fruitfully through traditional pedagogic tools. Web 2.0 technologies comprising social networking sites (SNSs) offer a platform for students to collaborate and share information, thereby enhancing their learning experience. Despite the potential and reach of SNSs, its use has been limited in academic settings promoting higher education. The purpose of this paper is to assess the perception of social networking sites among business school students in India and analyze its role in enhancing quality of student experiences in a business school leading to the proposal of an agenda for future research. In this study, more than 300 students of a reputed business school were involved in a survey of their preferences of different social networking sites and their perceptions and attitudes towards these sites. A questionnaire with three major sections was designed, validated and distributed among  a sample of students, the research method being descriptive in nature. Crucial questions were addressed to the students concerning time commitment, reasons for usage, nature of interaction on these sites, and the propensity to share information leading to direct and indirect modes of learning. It was further supplemented with focus group discussion to analyze the findings. The paper notes the resistance in the adoption of new technology by a section of business school faculty, who are staunch supporters of the classical “face-to-face” instruction. In conclusion, social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn provide new avenues for students to express themselves and to interact with one another. Universities could take advantage of the new ways  in which students are communicating with one another. Although interactive educational options such as Moodle exist, social networking sites are rarely used for academic purposes. Using this medium opens new ways of academically-oriented interactions where faculty could discover more about students' interests, and students, in turn, might express and develop more intellectual facets of their lives. hitherto unknown intellectual facets.  This study also throws up the enormous potential of mobile phones as a tool for “blended learning” in business schools going forward.

Keywords: Business school, India, learning, social media, social networking, university.

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Authors: Nophaket Napong

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Rooted in the study of social functioning of space in architecture, Space Syntax (SS) and the more recent Network Pattern (NP) researches demonstrate the 'spatial structures' of city, i.e. the hierarchical patterns of streets, junctions and alley ends. Applying SS and NP models, planners can conceptualize the real city-s patterns. Although, both models yield the optimal path of the city their underpinning displays of the city-s spatial configuration differ. The Axial Map analyzes the topological non-distance-based connectivity structure, whereas, the Central-Node Map and the Shortcut-Path Map, in contrast, analyze the metrical distance-based structures. This research contrasts and combines them to understand various forms of city-s structures. It concludes that, while they reveal different spatial structures, Space Syntax and Network Pattern urban models support each the other. Combining together they simulate the global access and the locally compact structures namely the central nodes and the shortcuts for the city.

Keywords: Street pattern, space syntax, syntactic and metrical models, network pattern models.

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Authors: K. F. Khan, Samsuddin Khan

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The Paleoproterozoic phosphorite deposit of Sallopat block of Banswara district of Rajasthan belongs to kalinjara formation of lunavada group of Aravalli Super Group. The phosphorites are found to occur as massive, brecciated, laminated and stromatolitic associated with calcareous quartzite, interbedded dolomite and multi coloured chert. The phosphorites are showing alternate brown and grey coloured concentric rims which are composed of phosphate, calcite and quartz minerals. Petro-mineralogical studies of phosphorite samples using petrological microscope, XRD, FEG- SEM and EDX reveal that apatite-(CaF) and apatite-(CaOH) are phosphate minerals which are intermixed with minor amount of carbonate materials. Sporadic findings of the uniform tiny granules of partially anisotropic apatite-(CaF) along with dolomite, calcite, quartz, muscovite, zeolite and other gangue minerals have been observed with the replacement of phosphate material by quartz and carbonate. The presence of microbial filaments of organic matter and alternate concentric rims of stromatolitic structure may suggest that the deposition of the phosphate took place in shallow marine oxidizing environmental conditions leading to the formation of phosphorite layers as primary biogenic precipitates by bacterial or algal activities. Different forms and texture of phosphate minerals may be due to environmental vicissitudes at the time of deposition followed by some replacement processes and biogenic activities.

Keywords: Petro-mineralogy, phosphorites, sallopat, apatite.

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Authors: Eslamizadeh, Azat., Samanirad, Shahram

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The Yazd-Ardakan basin in Central Iran has two separated aquifers. The shallow unconfined aquifer is supplies 40 Qanats. The deep saturated confined aquifer is the main water storage. Due to over-withdrawal, water table has been decreasing during last 25 years. Recent study shows that the shortage of the aquifer is about 16 meters and land subsidence is 0.5 - 1.2 meters. Long deep cracks are found just above the aquifer and devour the irrigation water and floods. Although the most cracks direction is NW-SE and could be compared to the main direction of YA basin, there is no direct evidence for relation between land subsidence and the huge cracks. Large-scale water pumping has been decreased the water pressure in aquifer. The pressure decline disturbed the balance and increased the pressure of overlying sediments. So porosity decreased and compaction started. Then, sediments compaction developed and made land subsidence and some huge cracks slowly.

Keywords: Land subsidence, Iran, Yazd, aquifer

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Authors: Bhawat Chiamjinnawat

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The agri-food market transformation has implied market growth for the fruit industry in Thailand. This article focuses on analysis of farmer competence and farm resources which affect market strategies used by fruit farmers in Chanthaburi province of Thailand. The survey data were collected through the use of face-to-face interviews with structured questionnaires. This study identified 14 drivers related to farmer competence and farm resources of which some had significant effect on the decision to use either high-value markets or traditional markets. The results suggest that farmers who used high-value markets were better educated and they had longer experience and larger sized business. Identifying the important factors that match with the market transformation provides policy with opportunities to support the fruit farmers to increase their market power. Policies that promote business expansion of agricultural cooperatives and knowledge sharing among farmers are recommended to reduce limitations due to limited knowledge, low experience, and small business sizes.

Keywords: Farmer competence, farm resources, fruit industry, high-value markets, Thailand.

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Authors: Anahita Farhang Ghahfarokhi, Alessandro Berti, Wil M.P. van der Aalst

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Process mining provides ways to analyze business processes. Common process mining techniques consider the process as a whole. However, in real-life business processes, different behaviors exist that make the overall process too complex to interpret. Process comparison is a branch of process mining that isolates different behaviors of the process from each other by using process cubes. Process cubes organize event data using different dimensions. Each cell contains a set of events that can be used as an input to apply process mining techniques. Existing work on process cubes assume single case notions. However, in real processes, several case notions (e.g., order, item, package, etc.) are intertwined. Object-centric process mining is a new branch of process mining addressing multiple case notions in a process. To make a bridge between object-centric process mining and process comparison, we propose a process cube framework, which supports process cube operations such as slice and dice on object-centric event logs. To facilitate the comparison, the framework is integrated with several object-centric process discovery approaches.

Keywords: Process mining, multidimensional process mining, multi-perspective business processes, OLAP, process cubes, process discovery.

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Authors: D. Bheenick, M. Young, M. Elmussareh, A. Ali

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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has had unprecedented effects on the healthcare system in the UK. The pandemic has impacted every service within secondary care, including urology. Our objective is to determine how COVID-19 has influenced acute urology admissions in a busy district general hospital in the UK. To conduct the study, retrospective data of patients presenting acutely to the urology department were collected between January 13 to March 22, 2020 (pre-lockdown period) and March 23 to May 31, 2020 (lockdown period). The nature of referrals, types of admission encountered, and management required in accordance with the new set of protocols established during the lockdown period were analysed and compared to the same data prior to UK lockdown. Included in the study were 1092 patients. The results show that an overall reduction of 32.5% was seen in the total number of admissions. A marked decrease was seen in non-urological pathology as compared to other categories. Urolithiasis showed the highest proportional increase. Treatment varied proportionately to the diagnosis, with conservative management accounting for the most likely treatment during lockdown. However, the proportion of patients requiring interventions during the lockdown period increased overall. No comparative differences were observed during the two periods in terms of source of referral, length of stay and patient age. The results of the study concluded that the admission rate showed a decrease, with no significant difference in the nature and timing of presentation. Our department was able to continue providing effective management to patients presenting acutely during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Keywords: COVID-19, lockdown, admissions, urology

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Authors: Quanru Pan

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How to maintain the service speeds for the business to make the biggest profit is a problem worthy of study, which is discussed in this paper with the use of queuing theory. An M/M/1/N queuing model with variable input rates, variable service rates and impatient customers is established, and the following conclusions are drawn: the stationary distribution of the model, the relationship between the stationary distribution and the probability that there are n customers left in the system when a customer leaves (not including the customer who leaves himself), the busy period of the system, the average operating cycle, the loss probability for the customers not entering the system while they arriving at the system, the mean of the customers who leaves the system being for impatient, the loss probability for the customers not joining the queue due to the limited capacity of the system and many other indicators. This paper also indicates that the following conclusion is not correct: the more customers the business serve, the more profit they will get. At last, this paper points out the appropriate service speeds the business should keep to make the biggest profit.

Keywords: variable input rates, impatient customer, variable servicerates, profit maximization.

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Authors: Collins C. Ngwakwe

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The objective of this paper is to establish a possible relationship between sustainable business practice and firm performance. Using a field survey methodology, a sample of sixty manufacturing companies in Nigeria was studied. The firms were categorised into two groups, environmentally 'responsible' and 'irresponsible' firms. An investigation was undertaken into the possible relationship between firm performance and three selected indicators of sustainable business practice: employee health and safety (EHS), waste management (WM), and community development (CD), common within the 30 'responsible' firms. Findings from empirical results reveal that the sustainable practices of the 'responsible' firms are significantly related with firm performance. In addition, sustainable practices are inversely related with fines and penalties. The paper concludes that, within the Nigerian setting at least, sustainability affects corporate performance and sustainability may be a possible tool for corporate conflict resolution as evidenced in the reduction of fines, penalties and compensations. The paper therefore recommends research into the relationship between sustainability and conflict management.

Keywords: Environmental responsibility, environmental investment, social responsibility, sustainable business, social ethics, environmental ethics.

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Authors: Krassimir Todorov

Abstract:

The purpose of the paper is to redefine the levels of structure of corporate, business and functional strategies that were established over the past several decades, to a conceptual model, consisting of corporate, business and operations strategies, that are reinforced by functional strategies. We will propose a conceptual framework of different perspectives in the role of strategic operations as a separate strategic place and reposition the remaining functional strategies as supporting tools, existing at all three levels. The proposed model is called ‘the strategic engine’, since the mutual relationships of its ingredients are identical with main elements and working principle of the internal combustion engine. Based on theoretical essence, related to every strategic level, we will prove that the strategic engine model is useful for managers seeking to safeguard the competitive advantage of their companies. Each strategy level is researched through its basic elements. At the corporate level we examine the scope of firm’s product, the vertical and geographical coverage. At the business level, the point of interest is limited to the SWOT analysis’ basic elements. While at operations level, the key research issue relates to the scope of the following performance indicators: cost, quality, speed, flexibility and dependability. In this relationship, the paper provides a different view for the role of operations strategy within the overall strategy concept. We will prove that the theoretical essence of operations goes far beyond the scope of traditionally accepted business functions. Exploring the applications of Resource-based theory and Market-based theory within the strategic levels framework, we will prove that there is a logical consequence of the theoretical impact in corporate, business and operations strategy – at every strategic level, the validity of one theory is substituted to the level of the other. Practical application of the conceptual model is tested in automotive industry. Actually, the proposed theoretical concept is inspired by a leading global automotive group – Inchcape PLC, listed on the London Stock Exchange, and constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

Keywords: Business strategy, corporate strategy, functional strategies, operations strategy.

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Authors: Khondokar Farid Ahmmed, Robin Bown

Abstract:

It is widely recognized that the formal financing of Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs) by Private Commercial Banks (PCBs) is restricted. Due to changing financial market competition, SMEs are now important customers to PCBs in the member countries of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Various initiatives in enhancing the efficiency of risk assessment of PCBs have failed in increasing financing accessibility in the traditional financing system where information asymmetry is a key constraint. In this circumstance, PCBs need to undertake a holistic approach. Holistic approach refers to methods that attempt to fundamentally change established traditions. To undertake holistic approach, this study intends to find the entire established financing culture between PCBs and SMEs in a new lens beyond the tradition on the basis of two basic questions: “What is the traditional lending culture between PCBs and SMEs” and “What could be potential role of PCBs to develop that culture where focusing on SME financing to PCBs". This study considered formal SME financing in Bangladesh by focusing on SMEs applying for their first loan. Bangladesh is a member country of ADB. The data collection method is semi-structured and we utilized face-to-face interviews with in-depth branch managers, higher officials and owner-managers of SME customers of PCBs and higher officials of SME Foundation and the Bangladesh central bank. Discourse analysis method was used for data analysis on the frame of thematic discussion fully based on participants’ views. The research found that branch managers and loan officers have a high level of power in assessing and financing decision-making. There is a changing attitude in PCB sector in requiring flexible collateral assets. Branch managers (Loan Officers) consider value of business prospect of owner-mangers as complementary of collateral assets. However, the study found the assessment process of business prospect is entirely unstructured and linked with socio-cultural settings that does not support PCBs’ changing manner in terms of collateral requirement. The study redefined and classified collateral assets to include all financing constructs in a structure. The degree of value of the collateral assets determines the degree of business prospects. This study suggested applying an outside classroom-learning paradigm such as “knowledge tour” to enhance the value of the kinds of collateral assets. This is the scope of PCBs in increasing SMEs’ financing eligibility in win-win basis. The findings and proposition could be effective in other ADB member countries and audiences in the field.

Keywords: CCA, financing, information asymmetry, PCA, PCB, financing.

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Authors: Nerey H. Mvungi, Mosses Makoko

Abstract:

In today-s highly globalised and competitive world access to information plays key role in having an upper hand between business rivals. Hence, proper protection of such crucial resource is core to any modern business. Implementing a successful information security system is basically centered around three pillars; technical solution involving both software and hardware, information security controls to translate the policies and procedure in the system and the people to implement. This paper shows that a lot needs to be done for countries adapting information technology to process, store and distribute information to secure adequately such core resource.

Keywords: security, information systems, controls, technology, practices.

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Authors: Jingya Liu, Yue Wu, Jiabin Luo

Abstract:

This work investigates an intermodal transportation system for delivering goods from a Regional Distribution Centre to supermarkets on the Isle of Wight (IOW) via the port of Southampton or Portsmouth in the UK. We consider this integrated logistics chain as a 3-echelon transportation system. In such a system, there are two types of transport methods used to deliver goods across the Solent Channel: one is accompanied transport, which is used by most supermarkets on the IOW, such as Spar, Lidl and Co-operative food; the other is unaccompanied transport, which is used by Aldi. Five transport scenarios are studied based on different transport modes and ferry routes. The aim is to determine an optimal delivery plan for supermarkets of different business scales on IOW, in order to minimise the total running cost, fuel consumptions and carbon emissions. The problem is modelled as a vehicle routing problem with time windows and solved by genetic algorithm. The computing results suggested that accompanied transport is more cost efficient for small and medium business-scale supermarket chains on IOW, while unaccompanied transport has the potential to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of large business scale supermarket chains.

Keywords: Genetic algorithm, intermodal transport system, Isle of Wight, optimization, supermarket.

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