Search results for: agricultural development policy.

Authors: Citlali Aguilera Lira, David Lynch Steinicke, Andrea León Garcia

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One of the challenges that higher education faces is to find how to approach the sustainability in an inclusive way to the student within all the different academic areas, how to move the sustainable development from the abstract field to the operational field. This research comes from the ecoliteracy and the pedagogical praxis as tools for rebuilding the teaching processes inside of universities. The purpose is to determine and describe which are the factors involved in the process of learning particularly in the Greenhouse-School Siembra UV. In the Greenhouse-School Siembra UV, of the University of Veracruz, are cultivated vegetables, medicinal plants and small cornfields under the usage of eco-technologies such as hydroponics, Wickingbed and Hugelkultur, which main purpose is the saving of space, labor and natural resources, as well as function as agricultural production alternatives in the urban and periurban zones. The sample was formed with students from different academic areas and who are actively involved in the greenhouse, as well as institutes from the University of Veracruz and governmental and nongovernmental departments. This project comes from a pedagogic praxis approach, from filling the needs that the different professional profiles of the university students have. All this with the purpose of generate a pragmatic dialogue with the sustainability. It also comes from the necessity to understand the factors that intervene in the students’ praxis. In this manner is how the students are the fundamental unit in the sphere of sustainability. As a result, it is observed that those University of Veracruz students who are involved in the Greenhouse-school, Siembra UV, have enriched in different levels the sense of urban and periurban agriculture because of the diverse academic approaches they have and the interaction between them. It is concluded that the ecotechnologies act as fundamental tools for ecoliteracy in society, where it is strengthen the nutritional and food security from a sustainable development approach.

Keywords: Farming eco-technologies, food security, multidisciplinary, pedagogical praxis.

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Authors: W. Munyoka, F. M. Manzira

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The purpose of this study is to analyze how varying alignment of e-Government policies in four countries in Sub-Saharan Africa Region, namely South Africa, Seychelles, Mauritius and Cape Verde lead to the success or failure of e-Government; and what should be done to ensure positive alignment that lead to e-Government project growth. In addition, the study aims to understand how various governments’ efforts in e-Government awareness campaign strategies, international cooperation, functional literacy and anticipated organizational change can influence implementation.

This study extensively explores contemporary research undertaken in the field of e-Government and explores the actual respective national ICT policies, strategies and implemented e-Government projects for in-depth comprehension of the status core. Data is analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively to reach a conclusion.

The study found that resounding successes in strategic e-Government alignment was achieved in Seychelles, Mauritius, South Africa and Cape Verde - (Ranked number 1 to 4 respectively).

The implications of the study is that policy makers in developing countries should put mechanisms in place for constant monitoring and evaluation of project implementation in line with ICT policies to ensure that e-Government projects reach maturity levels and do not die mid-way implementation as often noticed in many countries. The study recommends that countries within the region should make consented collaborative efforts and synergies with the private sector players and international donor agencies to achieve the implementation part of the set ICT policies.

Keywords: E-Government, ICT-Policy Alignment, Implementation, Sub-Saharan Africa.

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Authors: Peter Burggräf, Moritz Krunke, Hanno Voet

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Due to shortening product and technology lifecycles, many companies use standardization approaches in product development and factory planning to reduce costs and time to market. Unlike large companies, where modular systems are already widely used, small and medium-sized companies often show a much lower degree of standardization due to lower scale effects and missing capacities for the development of these standards. To overcome these challenges, the development of industry sector specific standards in cooperations or by third parties is an interesting approach. This paper analyzes which branches that are mainly dominated by small or medium-sized companies might be especially interesting for the development of factory standards using the example of the German industry. For this, a key performance indicator based approach was developed that will be presented in detail with its specific results for the German industry structure.

Keywords: Factory planning, factory standards, industry sector specific standardization, production planning.

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Authors: Hasan.O. Farahneh, Ayman A. Issa

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Software development is moving towards agility with use cases and scenarios being used for requirements stories. Estimates of software costs are becoming even more important than before as effects of delays is much larger in successive short releases context of agile development. Thus, this paper reports on the development of new linear use case based software cost estimation model applicable in the very early stages of software development being based on simple metric. Evaluation showed that accuracy of estimates varies between 43% and 55% of actual effort of historical test projects. These results outperformed those of wellknown models when applied in the same context. Further work is being carried out to improve the performance of the proposed model when considering the effect of non-functional requirements.

Keywords: Metrics, Software Cost Estimation, Use Cases

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Authors: Kati Skarp, Keijo Varis, Juha Kettunen

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The purpose of this paper is to examine and evaluate the top-down and bottom-up leadership development programs focused on human capital that improve the performance of a company. This study reports on the external top-down leadership development program supported by a consulting company and the internal participatory action research of the bottom-up program. The sickness rate and the lost time incident failure rate decreased and the ideas produced for cost savings improved, leading to increased earnings during the top-down program. The estimated cost savings potential of the bottom-up program was 3.8 million euro based on the cost savings of meeting habits, maintenance practices and the way of working in production. The results of this study are useful for those who plan and evaluate leadership development and human capital productivity consultation programs to improve the performance of a company.

Keywords: Leadership, development, human resources, company, indicators, evaluation.

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Authors: Juha Kettunen

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This study presents a project that tests and adjusts active European learning and teaching methods in Indonesian universities to increase their external impact on enterprises and other organizations; it also assesses the implementation of the Erasmus+ projects funded by the European Union. The project is based on the approach of innovation pedagogy that responds to regional development needs and integrates applied research and development projects into education to create capabilities for students to participate in development work after graduation. The assessment of the Erasmus+ project resulted in many improvements that can be made to achieve higher quality and innovativeness. The results of this study are useful for those who want to improve the applied research and development projects of higher education institutions.

Keywords: Higher education, innovations, project management, networks.

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Authors: Ebere U. Okolo, Eunice C. Okpalaojiego, Chimaobi V. Okolo

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Some investors prefer to keep their money in the bank rather than invest in Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) due to the high cost of running small and medium scale enterprise in Enugu State. This cost primarily concerns multiple-taxation, enormous tax burdens, levies and charges. This study examines the effect of multiple-taxation on the investments in SMEs. The study used survey design with SME population of 80. Questionnaire was used to collect data. Simple percentages/frequencies were used to analyze the data and the research hypotheses were tested with ANOVA. It was found that multiple taxation has negative effect on SMEs investment. Furthermore, the relationship between SMEs investment and its ability to pay tax is significant. The researcher recommends that government should develop a tax policy that considers the enhancement of SMEs’ capital allowance when imposing taxes. Government should also consider a tax policy that encourages investment in SMEs by consolidating all taxes in one slot and latter disseminate to various government purses rather than having many closely related but different taxes at the same time.

Keywords: Investments, multiple taxation, small and medium enterprises.

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Authors: Pintipa Seubsang, Suttipong Boonphadung

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Recently, Thai education system is engaged in serious and promising reforms. One of the crucial elements in most of these educational reforms is the teacher professional development. Teachers today are under growing pressure to perform. However, most new teachers are not adequately prepared to meet the expectation. Consequently, this paper seeks to investigate the opinion of mentor teachers and university supervisors about professional development in the aspect of learning management skill of the preservice teachers in Rajabhat Universities, then compare the opinion between the mentor teachers and university supervisors about professional development in the aspect of learning management skill of the pre-service teachers. The study involved a cohort of 40 university supervisors and 77 mentor teachers. The research concludes by showing that mentor teachers viewed pre-service teacher as a professional teacher with an effective learning management skill. However, in the perspective of the university supervisor, pre-service teachers still have inadequate learning management skill.

Keywords: Learning management, Professional development, Pre-service teacher.

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Authors: Burja C., Burja V.

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For Romania, the fulfilment of the obligations undertaken as a member state of the European Union in accordance with the Treaty of Accession requires the effective implementation of sustainable development principles and practices, this being the only reasonable development option, which adequately draws in on the economic, social and environment resources. Achieving this objective is based on a profound analysis of the realities in the Romanian economy, which will reflect the existent situation and the action directions for the future. The paper presents an analysis of the Romanian economic performances compared to the EU economy, based on the sustainable value (SV) model. The analysis highlighted the considerable gap between Romania and the EU regarding the sustainable capitalization of resources, the provided information being useful to justify strategic development decisions at a micro and macro levels.

Keywords: Sustainable value, sustainable development, opportunity cost, economic performance.

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Authors: Fatemeh Cheraghali, Saeedeh Shojaee-Aliabadi, Seyede Marzieh Hosseini, Leila Mirmoghtadaie

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In recent years, the field of natural antimicrobial and antioxidant compounds is one of the main research topics in the food industry. Application of agricultural residues is mainly cheap, and available resources are receiving increased attention. Walnut green husk is one of the agricultural residues that is considered as natural compounds with biological properties because of phenolic compounds. In this study, maltodextrin 10% was used for microencapsulation of walnut green husk extract. At first, the extract was examined to consider extraction yield, total phenolic compounds, and antioxidant activation. The results showed the extraction yield of 81.43%, total phenolic compounds of 3997 [mg GAE/100 g], antioxidant activity [DPPH] of 84.85% for walnut green husk extract. Antioxidant activity is about 75%-81% and by DPPH. At the next stage, microencapsulation was done by spry-drying method. The microencapsulation efficiency was 72%-79%. The results of SEM tests confirmed this microencapsulation process. In addition, microencapsulated and free extract was more effective on gram-positive bacteria’s rather than the gram-negative ones. According to the study, walnut green husk can be used as a cheap antioxidant and antimicrobial compounds due to sufficient value of phenolic compounds.

Keywords: Biopolymer, microencapsulation, Spray-drying, Walnut green husk.

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Authors: Kenichiro Hida, Shin-Ichi Kuribayashi

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In a conventional network, most network devices, such as routers, are dedicated devices that do not have much variation in capacity. In recent years, a new concept of network functions virtualisation (NFV) has come into use. The intention is to implement a variety of network functions with software on general-purpose servers and this allows the network operator to select their capacities and locations without any constraints. This paper focuses on the allocation of NFV-based routing functions which are one of critical network functions, and presents the virtual routing function allocation algorithm that minimizes the total power consumption. In addition, this study presents the useful allocation policy of virtual routing functions, based on an evaluation with a ladder-shaped network model. This policy takes the ratio of the power consumption of a routing function to that of a circuit and traffic distribution between areas into consideration. Furthermore, the present paper shows that there are cases where the use of NFV-based routing functions makes it possible to reduce the total power consumption dramatically, in comparison to a conventional network, in which it is not economically viable to distribute small-capacity routing functions.

Keywords: Virtual routing function, NFV, resource allocation, minimum power consumption.

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Authors: Steve Fish, Chris Lambert

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Cumbria is a geo-political county in Northwest England within which the Lake District National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site is located. Whilst the area has a formidable reputation for natural beauty and historic assets, the innovation ecosystem is described as ‘patchy’ for a number of reasons. The county is one of the largest in England by area and is sparsely populated. This paper describes the needs, development and delivery of an SME business-support programme funded by the European Regional Development Fund, Lancaster University and the University of Cumbria. The Cumbria Innovations Platform (CUSP) Project has been designed to respond to the nuanced needs of SMEs in this locale, whilst promoting the adoption of research and innovation. CUSP utilizes a funnel method to support rural businesses with access to university innovation intervention. CUSP has been built on a three-tier model: Communicate, Collaborate and Create. The paper describes this project in detail and presents results in terms of output indicators achieved, a beneficiary telephone survey and wider economic forecasts. From a pragmatic point-of-view, the paper provides experiences and reflections of those people who are delivering and evaluating knowledge exchange. The authors discuss some of the benefits, challenges and implications for both policy makers and practitioners. Finally, the paper aims to serve as an invitation to others who may consider adopting a similar method of university-industry collaboration in their own region.

Keywords: Regional business support, rural business support, university-industry collaboration, collaborative R&D, SMEs, knowledge exchange.

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Authors: Alemu Moges Belay

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In the 1980s, companies began to feel the effect of three major influences on their product development: newer and innovative technologies, increasing product complexity and larger organizations. And therefore companies were forced to look for new product development methods. This paper tries to focus on the two of new product development methods (DFM and CE). The aim of this paper is to see and analyze different product development methods specifically on Design for Manufacturability and Concurrent Engineering. Companies can achieve and be benefited by minimizing product life cycle, cost and meeting delivery schedule. This paper also presents simplified models that can be modified and used by different companies based on the companies- objective and requirements. Methodologies that are followed to do this research are case studies. Two companies were taken and analysed on the product development process. Historical data, interview were conducted on these companies in addition to that, Survey of literatures and previous research works on similar topics has been done during this research. This paper also tries to show the implementation cost benefit analysis and tries to calculate the implementation time. From this research, it has been found that the two companies did not achieve the delivery time to the customer. Some of most frequently coming products are analyzed and 50% to 80 % of their products are not delivered on time to the customers. The companies are following the traditional way of product development that is sequentially design and production method, which highly affect time to market. In the case study it is found that by implementing these new methods and by forming multi disciplinary team in designing and quality inspection; the company can reduce the workflow steps from 40 to 30.

Keywords: Design for manufacturability, Concurrent Engineering, Time-to-Market, Product development

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Authors: Ganesan V.

Abstract:

Application of Expert System in the area of agriculture would take the form of Integrated Crop Management decision aids and would encompass water management, fertilizer management, crop protection systems and identification of implements. In order to remain competitive, the modern farmer often relies on agricultural specialists and advisors to provide information for decision-making. An expert system normally composed of a knowledge base (information, heuristics, etc.), inference engine (analyzes knowledge base), and end user interface (accepting inputs, generating outputs). Software named 'CROP-9-DSS' incorporating all modern features like, graphics, photos, video clippings etc. has been developed. This package will aid as a decision support system for identification of pest and diseases with control measures, fertilizer recommendation system, water management system and identification of farm implements for leading crops of Kerala (India) namely Coconut, Rice, Cashew, Pepper, Banana, four vegetables like Amaranthus, Bhindi, Brinjal and Cucurbits. 'CROP-9-DSS' will act as an expert system to agricultural officers, scientists in the field of agriculture and extension workers for decision-making and help them in suggesting suitable recommendations.

Keywords: Diagnostic, inference engine, knowledge base and user interface.

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Authors: E. A. Tkachenko, E. M. Rogova, V. V. Klimov

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One of the basic issues of development management is connected with performance measurement as a prerequisite for identifying the achievement of development objectives. The aim of our research is to develop an improved model of assessing a company’s development results. The model should take into account the cyclical nature of development and the high degree of uncertainty in dealing with numerous management tasks. Our hypotheses may be formulated as follows: Hypothesis 1. The cycle of a company’s development may be studied from the standpoint of a project cycle. To do that, methods and tools of project analysis are to be used. Hypothesis 2. The problem of the uncertainty when justifying managerial decisions within the framework of a company’s development cycle can be solved through the use of the mathematical apparatus of fuzzy logic. The reasoned justification of the validity of the hypotheses made is given in the suggested article. The fuzzy logic toolkit applies to the case of technology shift within an enterprise. It is proven that some restrictions in performance measurement that are incurred to conventional methods could be eliminated by implementation of the fuzzy logic apparatus in performance measurement models.

Keywords: Fuzzy logic, fuzzy sets, performance measurement, project analysis.

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Authors: Samaila Balarabe

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Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has opened up new and robust ways of sending and receiving information at global level. Any type of information including voice and video is sent to the diverse publics, who equally have variety of choices. Thus, the development of any nation is tied to efficient information dissemination. In Nigeria, television broadcasting started in 1959 with the establishment of the Western Nigeria Television (WNTV) by the opposition leader, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Later on, the government took over the station and fully controlled it. Subsequently, regional stations were opened to propagate government policies and programs. The television industry in Nigeria continued to grow in terms of viewership and number with over fifty national television stations and twenty five private ones. Thus, existing documents on digitization of television broadcasting industry and related literature were used as the main source of information. Therefore, this paper analyses the efforts being made by the Nigerian government through its ICT policy towards digitization of its television broadcasting in order to cope with the global trend. Recommendations are proffered with a view to achieving the target goal.

Keywords: Broadcasting, Digitization, Information, Television.

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Authors: Sriaroonnirun Sittha, Rotchanakitumnuai Siriluck

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This paper addresses a current problem that occurs among Thai internet service providers with regard to bandwidth network quality management. The IPSTAR department of Telecom Organization of Thailand public company (TOT); the largest internet service provider in Thailand, is the case study to analyze the problem that exists. The Internet bandwidth network quality management (iBWQM) framework is mainly applied to the problem that has been found. Bandwidth management policy (BMP) and quality of service (QoS) are two antecedents of iBWQM. This paper investigates internet user behavior, marketing demand and network operation views in order to determine bandwidth management policy (e.g. quota management, scheduling and malicious management). The congestion of bandwidth is also analyzed to enhance quality of service (QoS). Moreover, the iBWQM framework is able to improve the quality of service and increase bandwidth utilization, minimize complaint rate concerns to slow speed, and provide network planning guidelines through Thai Internet services providers.

Keywords: Internet bandwidth management, Internet serviceprovider, Internet usage behavior, Quality of Service.

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Authors: Natalia Moreira, Trevor Wood-Harper

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The acceptance of sustainable products by the final consumer is still one of the challenges of the industry, which constantly seeks alternative approaches to successfully be accepted in the global market. A large set of methods and approaches have been discussed and analysed throughout the literature. Considering the current need for sustainable development and the current pace of consumption, the need for a combined solution towards the development of new products became clear, forcing researchers in product development to propose alternatives to the previous standard product development models. This paper presents, through a systemic analysis of the literature on product development, eco-design and consumer involvement, a set of alternatives regarding consumer involvement towards the development of sustainable products and how these approaches could help improve the sustainable industry’s establishment in the general market. Still being developed in the course of the author’s PhD, the initial findings of the research show that the understanding of the benefits of sustainable behaviour lead to a more conscious acquisition and eventually to the implementation of sustainable change in the consumer. Thus this paper is the initial approach towards the development of new sustainable products using the fashion industry as an example of practical implementation and acceptance by the consumers. By comparing the existing literature and critically analysing it, this paper concluded that the consumer involvement is strategic to improve the general understanding of sustainability and its features. The use of consumers and communities has been studied since the early 90s in order to exemplify uses and to guarantee a fast comprehension. The analysis done also includes the importance of this approach for the increase of innovation and ground breaking developments, thus requiring further research and practical implementation in order to better understand the implications and limitations of this methodology.

Keywords: Consumer involvement, Products development, Sustainability.

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Authors: Nan Li, Ying Wang

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Using entropy weight and TOPSIS method, a comprehensive evaluation is done on the development level of Chinese regional service industry in this paper. Firstly, based on existing research results, an evaluation index system is constructed from the scale of development, the industrial structure and the economic benefits. An evaluation model is then built up based on entropy weight and TOPSIS, and an empirical analysis is conducted on the development level of service industries in 31 Chinese provinces during 2006 and 2009 from the two dimensions or time series and cross section, which provides new idea for assessing regional service industry. Furthermore, the 31 provinces are classified into four categories based on the evaluation results, and deep analysis is carried out on the evaluation results.

Keywords: Chinese regional service industry, Development level, Entropy weight, TOPSIS Evaluation Method

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Authors: Fadzilah Abdul Rahman

Abstract:

Emotional development is developed between the parents and their child. Behavioural development is also developed between the parents and their child. Social Development is how parents can help their special needs child to adapt to society and to face challenges. In promoting a lifelong learning mindset, enhancing skill sets and readiness to face challenges, parents would be able to counter balance these challenges during their care giving process and better manage their expectations through understanding the hierarchy of needs modality towards a positive attitude, and in turn, improve their quality of life and participation in society. This paper aims to demonstrate how the hierarchy of needs can be applied in various situations of caregiving for parents with a special needs child.

Keywords: Hierarchy of needs, parents, special needs, care-giving.

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Authors: Fathi Taibi, Fouad Mohammed Abbou, Md. Jahangir Alam

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The complexity of today-s software systems makes collaborative development necessary to accomplish tasks. Frameworks are necessary to allow developers perform their tasks independently yet collaboratively. Similarity detection is one of the major issues to consider when developing such frameworks. It allows developers to mine existing repositories when developing their own views of a software artifact, and it is necessary for identifying the correspondences between the views to allow merging them and checking their consistency. Due to the importance of the requirements specification stage in software development, this paper proposes a framework for collaborative development of Object- Oriented formal specifications along with a similarity detection approach to support the creation, merging and consistency checking of specifications. The paper also explores the impact of using additional concepts on improving the matching results. Finally, the proposed approach is empirically evaluated.

Keywords: Collaborative Development, Formal methods, Object-Oriented, Similarity detection

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Authors: Khaled Ramadan Elbeydi

Abstract:

This study is carried out to provide an insight into the analysis of the impact of selected macro-economic variables on gross fixed capital formation in Libya using annual data over the period (1970-2010). The importance of this study comes from the ability to show the relative important factors that impact the Libyan gross fixed capital formation. This understanding would give indications to decision makers on which policy they must focus to stimulate the economy. An Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) modeling process is employed to investigate the impact of the Gross Domestic Product, Monetary Base and Trade Openness on Gross Fixed Capital Formation in Libya. The results of this study reveal that there is an equilibrium relationship between capital formation and its determinants. The results also indicate that GDP and trade openness largely explain the pattern of capital formation in Libya. The findings and recommendations provide vital information relevant for policy formulation and implementation aimed to improve capital formation in Libya.

Keywords: ARDL, Bounds test, capital formation, Cointegration, Libya.

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Authors: Muhammad T. Alam, Zheng Da Wu

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In this paper, we provide complete end-to-end delay analyses including the relay nodes for instant messages. Message Session Relay Protocol (MSRP) is used to provide congestion control for large messages in the Instant Messaging (IM) service. Large messages are broken into several chunks. These chunks may traverse through a maximum number of two relay nodes before reaching destination according to the IETF specification of the MSRP relay extensions. We discuss the current solutions of sending large instant messages and introduce a proposal to reduce message flows in the IM service. We consider virtual traffic parameter i.e., the relay nodes are stateless non-blocking for scalability purpose. This type of relay node is also assumed to have input rate at constant bit rate. We provide a new scheduling policy that schedules chunks according to their previous node?s delivery time stamp tags. Validation and analysis is shown for such scheduling policy. The performance analysis with the model introduced in this paper is simple and straight forward, which lead to reduced message flows in the IM service.

Keywords: Instant messaging, stateless, chunking, MSRP.

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Authors: M. E. Marwan, A. R. Madar, N. Fuad

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Mobile learning (m-learning) is a new method in teaching and learning process which combines technology of mobile device with learning materials. It can enhance student's engagement in learning activities and facilitate them to access the learning materials at anytime and anywhere. In Kolej Poly-Tech Mara (KPTM), this method is seen as an important effort in teaching practice and to improve student learning performance. The aim of this paper is to discuss the development of m-learning application called Mobile EEF Learning System (MEEFLS) to be implemented for Electric and Electronic Fundamentals course using Flash, XML (Extensible Markup Language) and J2ME (Java 2 micro edition). System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) was used as an application development approach. It has three modules in this application such as notes or course material, exercises and video. MEELFS development is seen as a tool or a pilot test for m-learning in KPTM.

Keywords: Flash, mobile device, mobile learning, teaching and learning, SDLC, XML.

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Authors: Yu Zhao, Min Zhang, Yuanqian Wang, Qiuyu Yu

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The prediction of aesthetics of apparel is helpful for the development of a new type of apparel. This study is to build the quantitative relationship between the aesthetics and its design parameters. In particular, women’s pants have been preliminarily studied. This aforementioned relationship has been carried out by statistical analysis. The contributions of this study include the development of a more personalized apparel design mechanism and the provision of some empirical knowledge for the development of other products in the aspect of aesthetics.

Keywords: Aesthetics, crease line, cropped straight leg pants, knee width.

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Authors: Ahmed Tawfik, Fausto Giunchiglia, Vincenzo Maltese

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Ontologies provide a common understanding of a specific domain of interest that can be communicated between people and used as background knowledge for automated reasoning in a wide range of applications. In this paper, we address the design of multilingual ontologies following well-defined knowledge engineering methodologies with the support of novel collaborative development approaches. In particular, we present a collaborative platform which allows ontologies to be developed incrementally in multiple languages. This is made possible via an appropriate mapping between language independent concepts and one lexicalization per language (or a lexical gap in case such lexicalization does not exist). The collaborative platform has been designed to support the development of the Universal Knowledge Core, a multilingual ontology currently in English, Italian, Chinese, Mongolian, Hindi and Bangladeshi. Its design follows a workflow-based development methodology that models resources as a set of collaborative objects and assigns customizable workflows to build and maintain each collaborative object in a community driven manner, with extensive support of modern web 2.0 social and collaborative features.

Keywords: Knowledge Diversity, Knowledge Representation, Ontology Development.

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Authors: Farshad Zeinali, Sajedeh Norouzi, Nader Mokari, Eduard A. Jorswieck

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The capacity of fifth-generation (5G)vehicle-to-everything (V2X) networks poses significant challenges.To address this challenge, this paper utilizes New Radio (NR) and New Radio Unlicensed (NR-U) networks to develop a vehicular heterogeneous network (HetNet). We propose a framework, named joint BS assignment and resource allocation (JBSRA) for mobile V2X users and also consider coexistence schemes based on flexible duty cycle (DC) mechanism for unlicensed bands. Our objective is to maximize the average throughput of vehicles, while guarantying the WiFi users throughput. In simulations based on deep reinforcement learning (DRL) algorithms such as deep deterministic policy gradient (DDPG) and deep Q network (DQN), our proposed framework outperforms existing solutions that rely on fixed DC or schemes without consideration of unlicensed bands.

Keywords: Vehicle-to-everything, resource allocation, BS assignment, new radio, new radio unlicensed, coexistence NR-U and WiFi, deep deterministic policy gradient, Deep Q-network, Duty cycle mechanism.

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Authors: Siqing Chen

Abstract:

Megalopolis is a group of densely populated metropolitan areas that combine to form an urban complex. Since China introduced the economic reforms in late 1970s, the Chinese urban system has experienced unprecedented growth. The process of urbanisation prevailed in the 1980s, and the process of predominantly large city growth appeared to continue through 1990s and 2000s. In this study, the magnitude and pattern of urbanisation in China during 1990s were examined using remotely sensed imagery acquired by TM/ETM+ sensor onboard the Landsat satellites. The development of megalopolis areas in China was also studied based on the GIS analysis of the increases of urban and built-up area from 1990 to 2000. The analysis suggests that in the traditional agricultural zones in China, e.g., Huang-Huai-Hai Plains, Changjiang River Delta, Pearl River Delta and Sichuan Basin, the urban and built-up areas increased by 1.76 million hectares, of which 0.82 million hectares are expansion of urban areas, an increase of 24.78% compared with 1990 at the national scale. The Yellow River Delta, Changjiang River Delta and Pearl River Delta also saw an increase of urban and built-up area by 63.9%, 66.2% and 83.0% respectively. As a result, three major megalopolises were developed in China: the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong- Macau (Pearl River Delta: PRD) megalopolis area, the Shanghai- Nanjing-Hangzhou (Changjiang River Delta: CRD) megalopolis area and the Beijing-Tianjing-Tangshan-Qinhuangdao (Yellow River Delta-Bohai Sea Ring: YRD) megalopolis area. The relationship between the processed of megalopolisation and the inter-provincial population flow was also explored in the context of social-economic and transport infrastructure development in Post-reform China.

Keywords: Megalopolisation, Land use change, Spatial analysis, Post-reform China

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Authors: E. Ghabouli

Abstract:

Intermediate cities which also called medium size cities have an important role in the process of globalization. It is argued that, in some cases this type of cities may be depopulated or in otherwise may be transformed as the periphery of metropolitans, so that the personal identity of the city and its local cultural heritage could suffer from its neighbor metropolitan. Over the last decades, the role of tourism in the development process and the cultural heritage has increased. The impact of tourism on socioeconomic growth makes motivation for the study of tourism development in regional and urban planning process. There are evidences that tourism has a positive impact in local development and makes economic motivations for cultural heritage protection. In this study, by considering the role of tourism in local development, especially by its economic and socio-cultural impacts, it is tried to introduce a strategy for tourism development through a method of urban planning for intermediate cities called as Base plan. Damavand is an intermediate city located in Tehran province, Iran with a high potential in tourism by its local specific characteristic like social structure, antiquities and natural attractions. It’s selected as a suitable case study for intended strategy which is a combination of urban planning and tourism development methods. Focusing on recognition of the historical and cultural heritage of Damavand, in this paper through “base plan methodology” a strategy of urban planning toward tourism development is prepared in order to make tourism development as a support for cultural heritage of this city.

Keywords: Urban planning, tourism, cultural heritage, intermediate cities.

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Authors: Fardin Boustani, Mohammad Hosein Hojati

Abstract:

Groundwater is one of the most important water resources in Fars province. Based on this study, 95 percent of the total annual water consumption in Fars is used for agriculture, whereas the percentages for domestic and industrial uses are 4 and 1 percent, respectively. Population growth, urban and industrial growth, and agricultural development in Fars have created a condition of water stress. In this province, farmers and other users are pumping groundwater faster than its natural replenishment rate, causing a continuous drop in groundwater tables and depletion of this resource. In this research variation of groundwater level, their effects and ways to help control groundwater levels in aquifer of the Niriz plains in Fars plain were evaluated .Excessive exploitation of groundwater in this aquifer caused the groundwater levels fall too fast or to unacceptable levels. The average drawdown of the groundwater level in this plain were 9.1 meters during 1997 to 2004. The purpose of this study is to evaluate water level changes in the Niriz Aquifer in the Fars province in order to determine the areas of greatest depletion, the cause of depletion, and predict the remaining life of the aquifer.

Keywords: Aquifer, ground water depletion, water table

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