Search results for: sector coupling

Authors: Mehdi Shami Zanjani, Shohreh Mehrasa, Mandana Modiri

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In the current economy of increasing global competition, many organizations are attempting to use knowledge as one of the means to gain sustainable competitive advantage. Besides large organizations, the success of SMEs can be linked to how well they manage their knowledge. Despite the profusion of research about knowledge management within large organizations, fewer studies tried to analyze KM in SMEs. This research proposes a new framework showing the determinant role of organizational dimensions onto KM approaches. The paper and its propositions are based on a literature review and analysis. In this research, personalization versus codification, individualization versus institutionalization and IT-based versus non IT-based are highlighted as three distinct dimensions of knowledge management approaches. The study contributes to research by providing a more nuanced classification of KM approaches and provides guidance to managers about the types of KM approaches that should be adopted based on the size, geographical dispersion and task nature of SMEs. To the author-s knowledge, the paper is the first of its kind to examine if there are suitable configurations of KM approaches for SMEs with different dimensions. It gives valuable information, which hopefully will help SME sector to accomplish KM.

Keywords: Knowledge Management, Knowledge Management Approach, SME, Organizational Dimension.

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Authors: Francesco Coraci, Abdul-Hadi G. Abulrub

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Digital technology is transforming the landscape of the industrial sector at a precedential level by connecting people, processes, and machines in real-time. It represents the means for a new pathway to achieve innovative, dynamic competitive advantages, deliver unique customers’ values, and sustain critical relationships. Thus, success in a constantly changing environment is governed by the ability of an organization to revolutionize their business models, deliver innovative solutions, and capture values from big data analytics and insights. Businesses need to re-strategize operations and develop extra capabilities to cope with the necessity for additional flexibility and agility. The traditional “command and control” leadership style is structurally and operationally incompatible with the digital era. In this paper, the authors discuss how transformational leaders can act as a glue in the social, organizational context, which is crucial to enable the workforce and develop a psychological attachment to the digital vision.

Keywords: Internet of things, strategy, change leadership, dynamic competitive advantage, digital transformation.

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Authors: Siphiwe P. Mandina, Tinashe Shamuyashe

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Tourism has become a topical issue amongst academics and practitioners due to its potential to contribute significantly towards an economy’s GDP. The problem underpinning this research is the fact that the major attraction, Victoria Falls, is being marketed in neighboring countries like South Africa, Botswana and Zambia with tour operators providing just day trips to the Victoria Falls. This has deprived Zimbabwe of income from tourism with tourists making day trips and actually not spending nights in Zimbabwe. This therefore calls for cutting edge marketing strategies that are superior to or inimitable by competing nations such as South Africa and Zambia. This study proposes a shift towards an experience management paradigm in the tourism sector. A qualitative research was adopted for this study, and findings of this study were generalized across different tourism contexts, therefore making the survey based research design more appropriate. The target population for this study is tourists visiting Zimbabwe over the period 2016 and ZTA visitor database acquired from the Department of Immigration will form the sampling frame for the purposes of this study.

Keywords: Competitiveness, tourist arrivals, tourist experience, Zimbabwe.

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Authors: Yousef Abu Nahleh, Alhasan Hakami, Arun Kumar, Fugen Daver

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This study considers the problem of calculating safety stocks in disaster situations inventory systems that face demand uncertainties. Safety stocks are essential to make the supply chain, which is controlled by forecasts of customer needs, in response to demand uncertainties and to reach predefined goal service levels. To solve the problem of uncertainties due to the disaster situations affecting the industry sector, the concept of Emergency Safety Stock (ESS) was proposed. While there exists a huge body of literature on determining safety stock levels, this literature does not address the problem arising due to the disaster and dealing with the situations. In this paper, the problem of improving the Order Quantity Model to deal with uncertainty of demand due to disasters is managed by incorporating a new idea called ESS which is based on the probability of disaster occurrence and uses probability matrix calculated from the historical data. 

Keywords: Emergency Safety Stocks, Safety stocks, Order Quantity Model, Supply chain.

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Authors: Gheorghe Romanescu, IonuŃ V. Jora, Cristian Constantin Stoleriu

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The influence of human activities produced by dams along the river beds is minor, but the location of accumulation of water directly influences the hydrological regime. The most important effect of the influence of damming on the way water flows decreases the frequency of floods. The water rate controls the water flow of the dams. These natural reservoirs become dysfunctional and, as a result, a new distribution of flow in the downstream sector, where maximum flow is, brings about, in this case, higher values. In addition to fishing, middle and lower courses of rivers located by accumulation also have a role in mitigating flood waves, thus providing flood protection. The Vaslui also ensures a good part of the needs of the town water supply. The most important lake is Solesti, close to the Vaslui River, opened in 1974. A hydrological regime of accumulation is related to an anthropogenic and natural drainage system. The design conditions and their manoeuvres drain or fill the water courses.

Keywords: Hydraulic works, hydrological regime, average flow, repeat flow.

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Authors: W. A. D. P. Wanigasundera, P. C. B. Alahakoon

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Kandy district in Sri Lanka, has small scale and rain-fed paddy farming, and highly vulnerable to climate change. In this study, the status of climate change was assessed using meteorological data and compared with the perceptions of paddy farming community. Factors affecting the adaptation to the climate smart farming were also assessed.

 Meteorological data for 33 years were collected and the changes over time compared with the perceptions of farmers. The temperature, rainfall and number of rainy days have increased in both locations. The onset of rains also has shifted. The perceptions of the majority of the farmers were in line with the actual changes. The knowledge and attitudes about the causes of climate change and adaptation were medium and related to level of adoption. Formulating effective communication strategies, and a collaborative approach involving state, private sector, civil society to make Sri Lankan agriculture ‘climate-smart’ is urgently needed.

Keywords: Adaptation of climate-smart technology, climate change, perception, rain-fed paddy.

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Authors: Rachel Bardy Prado, Vinícius de Melo Benites, José Carlos Polidoro, Carlos Eduardo Gonçalves, Alexey Naumov

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Most agricultural crops cultivated in Brazil are highly nutrient demanding. Brazilian soils are generally acidic with low base saturation and available nutrients. Demand for fertilizer application has increased because the national agricultural sector expansion. To improve productivity without environmental impact, there is the need for the utilization of novel procedures and techniques to optimize fertilizer application. This includes the digital soil mapping and GIS application applied to mapping in different scales. This paper is based on research, realized during 2005 to 2010 by Brazilian Corporation for Agricultural Research (EMBRAPA) and its partners. The purpose was to map soil fertility in national and regional scales. A soil profile data set in national scale (1:5,000,000) was constructed from the soil archives of Embrapa Soils, Rio de Janeiro and in the regional scale (1:250,000) from COMIGO Cooperative soil data set, Rio Verde, Brazil. The mapping was doing using ArcGIS 9.1 tools from ESRI.

Keywords: agricultural sustainability, fertilizer optimization, GIS, soil attributes.

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Authors: Waldemiro Francisco Sorte Junior

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The Japanese integrative approach to social systems can be observed in supply chain management as well as in the relationship between public and private sectors. Both the Lean Production System and the Developmental State Model are characterized by efforts towards the achievement of mutual goals, resulting in initiatives for capacity building which emphasize the system level. In Brazil, although organizations undertake efforts to build capabilities at the individual and organizational levels, the system level is being neglected. Fieldwork data confirmed the findings of other studies in terms of the lack of integration in supply chain management in the Brazilian automobile industry. Moreover, due to the absence of an active role of the Brazilian state in its relationship with the private sector, automakers are not fully exploiting the opportunities in the domestic and regional markets. For promoting a higher level of economic growth as well as to increase the degree of spill-over of technologies and techniques, a more integrative approach is needed.

Keywords: Integration, Lean Production System, DevelopmentalState Model, Brazilian automobile industry.

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Authors: J.-P. Skön, M. Johansson, O. Kauhanen, M. Raatikainen, K. Leiviskä, M. Kolehmainen

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The building sector is the largest energy consumer and CO2 emitter in the European Union (EU) and therefore the active reduction of energy consumption and elimination of energy wastage are among the main goals in it. Healthy housing and energy efficiency are affected by many factors which set challenges to monitoring, control and research of indoor air quality (IAQ) and energy consumption, especially in old buildings. These challenges include measurement and equipment costs, for example. Additionally, the measurement results are difficult to interpret and their usage in the ventilation control is also limited when taking into account the energy efficiency of housing at the same time. The main goal of this study is to develop a cost-effective building monitoring and control system especially for old buildings. The starting point or keyword of the development process is a wireless system; otherwise the installation costs become too high. As the main result, this paper describes an idea of a wireless building monitoring and control system. The first prototype of the system has been installed in 10 residential buildings and in 10 school buildings located in the City of Kuopio, Finland.

Keywords: Energy efficiency, Indoor air quality, Monitoring system, Building automation

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Authors: Oscar Javier Herrera Ochoa, Ivan Dario Romero Fonseca

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This paper presents a design of a model for planning the distribution logistics operation. The significance of this work relies on the applicability of this fact to the analysis of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) of dry freight in Bogotá. Two stages constitute this implementation: the first one is the place where optimal planning is achieved through a hybrid model developed with mixed integer programming, which considers the transhipment operation based on a combined load allocation model as a classic transshipment model; the second one is the specific routing of that operation through the heuristics of Clark and Wright. As a result, an integral model is obtained to carry out the step by step planning of the distribution of dry freight for SMEs in Bogotá. In this manner, optimum assignments are established by utilizing transshipment centers with that purpose of determining the specific routing based on the shortest distance traveled.

Keywords: Transshipment model, mixed integer programming, saving algorithm, dry freight transportation.

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Authors: Syed Munvar Ali, V. Vijaya Kumar Reddy, M. Surya Kalavathi

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In this paper, a dual inverter configuration has been implemented for induction motor drive. This isolated dual inverter is capable to produce high quality of output voltage and minimize common mode voltage (CMV). To this isolated dual inverter a decoupled space vector based pulse width modulation (PWM) technique is proposed. Conventional space vector based PWM (SVPWM) techniques require reference voltage vector calculation and sector identification. The proposed decoupled SVPWM technique generates gating pulses from instantaneous phase voltages and gives a CMV of ±v_dc/6. To evaluate proposed algorithm MATLAB based simulation studies are carried on indirect vector controlled open end winding induction motor drive.

Keywords: Inverter configuration, decoupled SVPWM, common mode voltage, vector control.

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Authors: Teryima Oralu, Babatunde Kasim Oladele

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This paper looks at the management and funding of education in Nigeria. The concept of management and administration has been concisely defined. Also the historical background of educational management in Nigeria has been discussed alongside the management of primary education, secondary education and tertiary education in Nigeria. Furthermore, the funding of education has also been concisely discussed in this paper alongside the various sources of funds available to education in Nigeria. The sources include government grant, school fees, external aids, school revenue yielding businesses and so on. The budgetary allocation of Nigeria to education from 1999 to 2013 was also highlighted in this in paper and it was discovered that the lowest allocation was in 1999 with 4.46% while the highest allocation was in 2006 with 10.43%. It is also of note that, Nigeria is still yet to meet the recommendation of UNESCO of 26% budgetary allocation to education by developing countries. Recommendations have been drawn that the government should increase budgetary allocation to this sector in a consistent manner because of its importance to the national economy, hoping that with proper monitoring of fund, it would contribute more significantly to the development of the country. An effective utilization of such funds is also advocated for greater achievements. All organs of the government should exhibit good corporate governance and transparency and so on.

Keywords: Education, funding, management, Nigeria.

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Authors: Jan Pavel

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Public procurement is one of the most important areas in the public sector that introduces a possibility for a corruption. Due to the volume of the funds that are allocated through this institution (in the EU countries it is between 10 – 15% of GDP), it has very serious implications for the efficiency of public expenditures and the overall economic efficiency as well. Indicators that are usually used for the measurement of the corruption (such as Corruption Perceptions Index - CPI) show that the worst situation is in the post-communist countries and Mediterranean countries. The presented paper uses the Czech Republic as an example of a post-communist country and analyses the factors which influence the scope of corruption in public procurement. Moreover, the paper discusses indicators that could point at the public procurement market inefficiency. The presented results show that post-communist states use the institute of public contracts significantly more than the old member countries of the continental Europe. It has a very important implication because it gives more space for corruption. Furthermore, it appears that the inefficient functioning of public procurement market is clearly manifested in the low number of bids, low level of market transparency and an ineffective control system. Some of the observed indicators are statistically significantly correlated with the CPI.

Keywords: Czech Republic, Corruption, Public Procurement, Post-Communist Countries

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Authors: Saurabh Chanana, Monika Arora

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Demand response is getting increased attention these days due to the increase in electricity demand and introduction of renewable resources in the existing power grid. Traditionally demand response programs involve large industrial consumers but with technological advancement, demand response is being implemented for small residential and commercial consumers also. In this paper, demand response program aims to reduce the peak demand as well as overall energy consumption of the residential customers. Air conditioners are the major reason of peak load in residential sector in summer, so a dynamic model of air conditioning load with thermostat action has been considered for applying demand response programs. A programmable communicating thermostat (PCT) is a device that uses real time pricing (RTP) signals to control the thermostat setting. A new model incorporating PCT in air conditioning load has been proposed in this paper. Results show that introduction of PCT in air conditioner is useful in reducing the electricity payments of customers as well as reducing the peak demand. 

Keywords: Demand response, Home energy management Programmable communicating thermostat, Thermostatically controlled appliances.

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Authors: Su-Hyun Cho, Chang-U Chae

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Environmental impact assessment techniques have been developed as a result of the worldwide efforts to reduce the environmental impact of global warming. By using the quantification method in the construction industry, it is now possible to manage the greenhouse gas is to systematically evaluate the impact on the environment over the entire construction process. In particular, the proportion of greenhouse gas emissions at the production stage of construction material occupied is high, and efforts are needed in particular in the construction field. In this research, intended for concrete products for the construction materials, by using the LCA method, we compared the results of environmental impact assessment and carbon emissions of developing products that have been applied low-carbon technologies compared to existing products. As a results, by introducing a raw material of industrial waste, showed carbon reduction. Through a comparison of the carbon emission reduction effect of low carbon technologies, it is intended to provide academic data for the evaluation of greenhouse gases in the construction sector and the development of low carbon technologies of the future.

Keywords: CO2 Emissions, CO2 Reduction, Ready-mixed Concrete, Environmental Impact Assessment.

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Authors: Kati Kõrbe Kaare, Kristjan Kuhi, Ott Koppel

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Transportation authorities need to provide the services and facilities that are critical to every country-s well-being and development. Management of the road network is becoming increasingly challenging as demands increase and resources are limited. Public sector institutions are integrating performance information into budgeting, managing and reporting via implementing performance measurement systems. In the face of growing challenges, performance measurement of road networks is attracting growing interest in many countries. The large scale of public investments makes the maintenance and development of road networks an area where such systems are an important assessment tool. Transportation agencies have been using performance measurement and modeling as part of pavement and bridge management systems. Recently the focus has been on extending the process to applications in road construction and maintenance systems, operations and safety programs, and administrative structures and procedures. To eliminate failure and dysfunctional consequences the importance of obtaining objective data and implementing evaluation instrument where necessary is presented in this paper

Keywords: Key performance indicators, performance measurement system, evaluation, system architecture.

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Authors: Dinesh Khandujaa, Pardeep Kumar Sharma

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Education, as the most important resource in any country, has multiplying effects on all facets of development in a society. The new social realities, particularly the interplay between democratization of education; unprecedented developments in IT sector; emergence of knowledge society, liberalization of economy and globalization have greatly influenced the educational process of all nations. This turbulence entails upon education to undergo dramatic changes to keep up with the new expectations. Growth of entrepreneurship among Indian women is highly important for empowering them and this is highly essential for socio-economic development of a society. Unfortunately in India there is poor acceptance of entrepreneurship among women as unfounded myths and fears restrain them to be enterprising. To remove these inhibitions, education system needs to be re-engineered to make entrepreneurship more acceptable. This paper empirically analyses the results of a survey done on around 500 female graduates in North India to measure and evaluate various entrepreneurial traits present in them. A formative model has been devised in this context, which should improve the teaching-learning process in our education system, which can lead to sustainable growth of women entrepreneurship in India.

Keywords: Women Empowerment, Entrepreneurship, Education System, Women Entrepreneurship, Sustainable Development.

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Authors: W. A. Pamungkas, R. B. Setyawati, A. F. Rifai, C. P. Setiawan, A. W. Budiman, Inayati, J. Waluyo, S. H. Pranolo

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The increase in LPG consumption in Indonesia is not balanced with the amount of supply. The high demand for LPG due to the success of the government's kerosene-to-LPG conversion program and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 led to an increase in LPG consumption in the household sector and caused Indonesia's trade balance to experience a deficit. The high consumption of LPG encourages the need for alternative fuels which aims to substitute LPG. Dimethyl Ether (DME) is an organic compound with the chemical formula CH3OCH3, has a high cetane number and has characteristics similar to LPG. DME can be produced from various sources such as coal, biomass and natural gas. Based on the economic analysis conducted at 10% Internal Rate of Return (IRR), coal has the largest Net Present Value (NPV) of Rp. 20,034,837,497,241 with a payback period of 3.86 years, then biomass with an NPV of Rp. 10,401,526,072,850 and payback period of 5.16. The latter is natural gas with an NPV of IDR 7,401,272,559,191 and a payback period of 6.17 years. Of the three sources of raw materials used, if the sensitivity is calculated using the selling price of DME equal to the selling price of LPG, it will get an NPV value that is greater than the NPV value when using the current DME price. The advantages of coal as a raw material for DME are profitableness, low price and abundant resources, but it has high greenhouse gas emission.

Keywords: LPG, DME, coal, biomass, natural gas.

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Authors: Gergely Géczi

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In the modern world, ice-hockey (and in a broader sense, team sports) is becoming an increasingly popular field of entertainment. Although the main element is most likely perceived as the show itself, winning is an inevitable part of the successful operation of any sports team. In this paper, the author creates a research design allowing to develop and validate an ice-hockey team-focused diagnostics scale, which enables researchers and practitioners to identify the problems associated with underperforming teams. The construction of the scale starts with personal interviews with experts of the field, carefully chosen from Hungarian ice-hockey sector. Based on the interviews, the author is shown to be in the position to create the categories and the relevant items for the scale. When constructed, the next step is the validation process on a Hungarian sample. Data for validation are acquired through reaching the licensed database of the Hungarian Ice-Hockey Federation involving Hungarian ice-hockey coaches and players. The Ice-Hockey Team Diagnostics Scale is to be created to orientate practitioners in understanding both effective and underperforming team work.

Keywords: Diagnostics Scale, effective versus underperforming team work, ice-hockey, research design.

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Authors: Marina Sartor Hoffer

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The multicultural composition of today's societies poses new challenges to educational contexts. Schools are therefore called first to develop dialogic aptitudes and communicative skills adapted to the complex reality of post-modern societies. It is indispensable for educators and for young people to learn theoretical and practical tools during their scholastic path, in order to allow the knowledge of themselves and of the others with the aim of recognizing the value of the others regardless of their culture. Dialogic Skills help to understand and manage individual differences by allowing the solution of problems and preventing conflicts. The Educational Sector of Eric Berne’s Transactional Analysis offers a range of methods and techniques for this purpose. Educational Transactional Analysis is firmly anchored in the Personalist Philosophy and deserves to be promoted as a theoretical frame suitable to face the challenges of contemporary education. The goal of this paper is therefore to outline some conceptual and methodological signposts for the education to dialogue by drawing concepts and methodologies from educational transactional analysis.

Keywords: Dialogic process, education to dialogue, educational transactional analysis, personalism, the good of the relationship.

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Authors: Mazila Md-Yusuf, Fauziah Mohamad Yunus, Nur Zahraatul Lail Md Supaat

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Capital structure is one of the most important financial decisions in corporate financing strategy. It involves the choice of debt and equity level in financing a company-s operations. This study aims to investigate whether the capital structure choice of Malaysian electrical and electronic manufacturing companies that are listed in the Bursa Malaysia can be explained by factors that have been found by most studies as dominant determinants of capital structure (company size, profitability, asset tangibility, liquidity and growth). Using debt ratio as the proxy for capital structure and applying pooled ordinary least square multiple regression estimation, the results showed that on average, Malaysian electrical and electronic manufacturing companies used less debt in funding their business operations. The findings also showed that size and asset tangibility has a significant positive relationship with debt level, while liquidity has a negative significant relationship with leverage.

Keywords: Capital structure, capital structure theories, leverage, manufacturing companies.

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Authors: J.J. Cooke, S. Gu, L.M. Armstrong, K.H. Luo

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Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS) is one of the various methods that can be used to reduce the carbon footprint of the energy sector. This paper focuses on the absorption of CO2 from flue gas using packed columns, whose efficiency is highly dependent on the structure of the liquid films within the column. To study the characteristics of liquid films a CFD solver, OpenFOAM is utilised to solve two-phase, isothermal film flow using the volume-of-fluid (VOF) method. The model was validated using existing experimental data and the Nusselt theory. It was found that smaller plate inclination angles, with respect to the horizontal plane, resulted in larger wetted areas on smooth plates. However, only a slight improvement in the wetted area was observed. Simulations were also performed using a ridged plate and it was observed that these surface textures significantly increase the wetted area of the plate. This was mainly attributed to the channelling effect of the ridges, which helped to oppose the surface tension forces trying to minimise the surface area. Rivulet formations on the ridged plate were also flattened out and spread across a larger proportion of the plate width.

Keywords: CCS, liquid film flow, packed columns, wetted area

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Authors: Saif Ul Haq

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The current study intends to examine the safety and quality considerations of clients of housing projects and their impact on the adoption of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) by the construction firm. Mixed method research technique has been used to collect and analyze the data wherein a survey was conducted to collect the data from 220 clients of housing projects in Saudi Arabia. Then, the telephonic and Skype interviews were conducted to collect data of 15 professionals working in the top ten real estate companies of Saudi Arabia. Data were analyzed by using partial least square (PLS) and thematic analysis techniques. Findings reveal that today’s customer prioritizes the safety and quality requirements of their houses and as a result, construction firms adopt QFD to address the needs of customers. The findings are of great importance for the clients of housing projects as well as for the construction firms as they could apply QFD in housing projects to address the safety and quality concerns of their clients.

Keywords: Construction industry, quality considerations, quality function deployment, safety considerations.

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Authors: Hussain Ali Bekhet, Endang Jati Mat Sahid

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For the past few decades, the Malaysian economy has expanded at an impressive pace, whilst, the Malaysian population has registered a relatively high growth rate. These factors had driven the growth of final energy demand. The ballooning energy demand coupled with the country’s limited indigenous energy resources have resulted in an increased of the country’s net import. Therefore, acknowledging the precarious position of the country’s energy self-sufficiency, this study has identified three main concerns regarding energy security, namely; over-dependence on fossil fuel, increasing energy import dependency, and increasing energy consumption per capita. This paper discusses the recent energy demand and supply trends, highlights the policies that are affecting energy security in Malaysia and suggests strategic options towards achieving energy security. The paper suggested that diversifying energy sources, reducing carbon content of energy, efficient utilization of energy and facilitating low-carbon industries could further enhance the effectiveness of the measures as the introduction of policies and initiatives will be more holistic.

Keywords: Energy security, electricity, energy policy, renewable energy, energy efficiency, Malaysia.

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Authors: A. Leśniak, E. Plebankiewicz, K. Zima

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Construction projects can be implemented under various contractual and organizational systems. They can be divided into two groups: systems without the managing company where the Client manages the process, and systems with the managing company, where management is entrusted to an external company. In the public sector of the Polish market there are two ways of delivery of construction projects with the participation of the manager: one is to assign operations to another party, the so called Project Supervisor, whilst the other results from the application of FIDIC conditions of contract, which entail appointment of the Engineer. The decision is to be made by the Client and depends on various factors. On the public procurement market in Poland the selection of construction project manager boils down to awarding the contract for such a service. The selection can be done by one of eight public procurement procedures identified by the procurement law. The paper provides the analysis of 96 contracts for services awarded in 2011, which employed construction management. The study aimed to investigate the methods and criteria for selecting managers, applied in practice by the Polish public Clients.

Keywords: construction management, construction services, methods and criteria of tender selection, public procurement

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Authors: Fouzia Brihmat

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Economic planning models, which are used to build microgrids and Distributed Energy Resources (DER), are the current norm for expressing such confidence. These models often decide both short-term DER dispatch and long-term DER investments. This research investigates the most cost-effective hybrid (photovoltaic-diesel) renewable energy system (HRES) based on Total Net Present Cost (TNPC) in an Algerian Saharan area, which has a high potential for solar irradiation and has a production capacity of 1 GW/h. Lead-acid batteries have been around much longer and are easier to understand, but have limited storage capacity. Lithium-ion batteries last longer, are lighter, but generally more expensive. By combining the advantages of each chemistry, we produce cost-effective high-capacity battery banks that operate solely on AC coupling. The financial implications of this research describe the corrosion process that occurs at the interface between the active material and grid material of the positive plate of a lead-acid battery. The best cost study for the HRES is completed with the assistance of the HOMER Pro MATLAB Link. Additionally, during the course of the project's 20 years, the system is simulated for each time step. In this model, which takes into consideration decline in solar efficiency, changes in battery storage levels over time, and rises in fuel prices above the rate of inflation, the trade-off is that the model is more accurate, but the computation takes longer. We initially utilized the optimizer to run the model without multi-year in order to discover the best system architecture. The optimal system for the single-year scenario is the Danvest generator, which has 760 kW, 200 kWh of the necessary quantity of lead-acid storage, and a somewhat lower Cost Of Energy (COE) of $0.309/kWh. Different scenarios that account for fluctuations in the gasified biomass generator's production of electricity have been simulated, and various strategies to guarantee the balance between generation and consumption have been investigated.

Keywords: Battery, Corrosion, Diesel, Economic planning optimization, Hybrid energy system, HES, Lead-acid battery, Li-ion battery, multi-year planning, microgrid, price forecast, total net present cost, wind.

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Authors: Rajkishore Nayak, Tarun Panwar, Majo George, Irfan Ulhaq, Soumik Parida

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Factors related to the growth of fashion and textile manufacturing in the Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries are analyzed in this paper. Important factors associated with the growth of fashion and textile manufacturing in the SSA countries are being identified, underlined, and evaluated in this study. This research performed a SWOT analysis of the garment industries in the SSA region by exploring into various literature in the garment manufacturing and export data. SSA countries need to grow a lot in the fashion and textile manufacturing and export to come in par with the developments in the sector globally. Unlike the developing countries such as Vietnam and Bangladesh, the total export to the US, the EU and other parts of the world has declined. On the other hand, the total supply of fashion and textiles to the domestic market has been in rise. However, the local communities still need to rely on other countries to meet their demand. Import of cheaper clothes from countries like Bangladesh China and Vietnam is one of the main challenges local manufacturers are facing as it is very difficult to be competitive in pricing.

Keywords: Sub-Saharan Africa, apparel industry, sustainable fashion, developing countries, fashion, textiles.

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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: Yoke-Mui Lim, Yahaya Ahmad

Abstract:

Conservation works in Malaysia that is procured by public organisation usually follow the traditional approach where the works are tendered based on Bills of Quantities (BQ). One of the purposes of tendering is to enable the selection of a competent contractor that offers a competitive price. While competency of the contractors are assessed by their technical knowledge, experience and track records, the assessment of pricing will be dependent on the tender amount. However, the issue currently faced by the conservation works sector is the difficulty in assessing the competitiveness and reasonableness of the tender amount due to the high variance between the tenders amount. Thus, this paper discusses the factors that cause difficulty to the tenderers in pricing competitively in a bidding exercise for conservation tenders. Data on tendering is collected from interviews with conservation works contractors to gain in-depth understanding of the barriers faced in pricing tenders of conservation works. Findings from the study lent support to the contention that the variance of tender amount is very high amongst tenderers. The factors identified in the survey are the format of BQ, hidden works, experience and labour and material costs.

Keywords: Building Conservation, Malaysia, Bill of Quantities, Tender.

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Authors: XhevrieMamaqi

Abstract:

Organization capacity learning is a process referring to the sum total of individual and collective learning through training programs, experience and experimentation, among others. Today, in-business ongoing training is one of the most important strategies for human capital development and it is crucial to sustain and improve workers’ knowledge and skills. Many organizations, firms and business are adopting a strategy of continuous learning, encouraging employees to learn new skills continually to be innovative and to try new processes and work in order to achieve a competitive advantage and superior business results. This paper uses the Resource Based View and Capacities (RBV) approach to construct a hypothetical relationships model between training and business results. The test of the model is applied on transversal data. A sample of 266 business of Spanish sector service has been selected. A Structural Equation Model (SEM) is used to estimate the relationship between ongoing training, represented by two latent dimension denominated Human and Social Capital resources and economic business results. The coefficients estimated have shown the efficient of some training aspectsexplaining the variation in business results.

Keywords: Business results, Human and Social Capital resources, training, RBV Theory, SEM.

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