Search results for: Rural areas

Authors: Md. Noman Habib Khan, S. Khan, T. S. Gunawan, R. I. Boby

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The photovoltaic (PV) panel with no galvanic isolation system is well known technique in the world which is effective and delivers power with enhanced efficiency. The PV generation presented here is for stand-alone system installed in remote areas when as the resulting power gets connected to electronic load installation instead of being tied to the grid. Though very small, even then transformer-less topology is shown to be with leakage in pico-ampere range. By using PWM technique PWM, leakage current in different situations is shown. The results shown in this paper show how the pico-ampere current is reduced to femto-ampere through use of inductors and capacitors of suitable values of inductor and capacitors with the load.

Keywords: Photovoltaic (PV) panel, Duty cycle, Pulse Duration Modulation (PDM), Leakage current.

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Authors: Sarah Abdourraziq, Rachid El Bachtiri

Abstract:

The solar power source for pumping water is one of the most promising areas in photovoltaic applications. The implementation of these systems allows to protect the environment and reduce the CO₂ gas emission compared to systems trained by diesel generators. This paper presents a comparative study between the photovoltaic pumping system driven by DC motor, and AC motor to define the optimum design of this application. The studied system consists of PV array, DC-DC Boost Converter, inverter, motor-pump set and storage tank. The comparison was carried out to define the characteristics and the performance of each system. Each subsystem is modeled in order to simulate the whole system in MATLAB/ Simulink. The results show the efficiency of the proposed technique.

Keywords: Photovoltaic water pumping system, DC motor-pump, AC motor-pump, DC-DC boost converter.

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Authors: Yvonne T. Haigh

Abstract:

Public sector corruption has long-term and damaging effects that are deep and broad. Addressing corruption relies on understanding the drivers that precipitate acts of corruption and developing educational programs that target areas of vulnerability. This paper provides an innovative approach to explore the nature of corruption by drawing on the perceptions and ideas of a group of public servants who have been part of a corruption investigation. The paper examines these reflections through the ideas of Pierre Bourdieu and Alfred Schutz to point to some of the steps that can lead to corrupt activity. The paper demonstrates that phenomenological inquiry is useful in the exploration of corruption and, as a theoretical framework, it highlights that corruption emerges through a combination of conflict, doubt and uncertainty. The paper calls for anti-corruption education programs to be attentive to way in which these conditions can influence the steps into corruption.

Keywords: Phenomenology, choice, conflict, corruption.

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Authors: Azah Kamilah Muda, Siti Mariyam Shamsuddin, Maslina Darus

Abstract:

Writer identification is one of the areas in pattern recognition that attract many researchers to work in, particularly in forensic and biometric application, where the writing style can be used as biometric features for authenticating an identity. The challenging task in writer identification is the extraction of unique features, in which the individualistic of such handwriting styles can be adopted into bio-inspired generalized global shape for writer identification. In this paper, the feasibility of generalized global shape concept of complimentary binding in Artificial Immune System (AIS) for writer identification is explored. An experiment based on the proposed framework has been conducted to proof the validity and feasibility of the proposed approach for off-line writer identification.

Keywords: Writer identification, generalized global shape, individualistic, pattern recognition.

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Authors: A. Evcin, N. Çiçek Bezir, R. Duman, N. Duman

Abstract:

Nowadays, a great concern is placed on the harmfulness of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) which attacks human bodies. Nanocarbon materials, such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs), carbon nanofibers (CNFs) and graphene, have been considered promising alternatives to shielding materials because of their excellent electrical conductivities, very high surface areas and low densities. In the present work, carbon nanofibers have been synthesized from solutions of Polyacrylonitrile (PAN)/ N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) by electrospinning method. The carbon nanofibers have been stabilized by oxidation at 250 °C for 2 h in air and carbonized at 750 °C for 1 h in H2/N2. We present the fabrication and characterization of transparent and ultraviolet (UV) shielding CNF/polymer composites. The content of CNF filler has been varied from 0.2% to 0.6 % by weight. UV Spectroscopy has been performed to study the effect of composition on the transmittance of polymer composites.

Keywords: Electrospinning, carbon nanofiber, characterization, composites, nanofiber, ultraviolet radiation.

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Authors: Sorana M. Manoiu, Razvan V. Mustata, Jiří Strouhal, Carmen G. Bonaci, Dumitru Matis, Jiřina Bokšová

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In the current context of globalization, accountability has become a key subject of real interest for both, national and international business areas, due to the need for comparability and transparency of the economic situation, so we can speak about the harmonization and convergence of international accounting. The paper presents a qualitative research through content analysis of several reports concerning the roadmap for convergence. First, we develop a conceptual framework for the evolution of standards’ convergence and further we discuss the degree of standards harmonization and convergence between US GAAP and IAS/IFRS as to October 2012. We find that most topics did not follow the expected progress. Furthermore there are still some differences in the long-term project that are in process to be completed and other that were reassessed as a lower priority project.

Keywords: Convergence, harmonization, FASB, IASB, IFRS, US GAAP.

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Authors: G. Jelic Mrcelic, M. Sliskovic

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In Croatia, the majority of cultured marine fish species are reared in net cages. The intensive production of the fish in net cages may generate the considerable amount of bio waste and change water quality especially in enclosed and semi-enclosed coastal areas. The aim of this paper is to assess the potential impact of sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax L.) cage farm on water quality. The weak relationship between food supply and water quality parameters (nutrient content and phytoplankton biomass) was found, but significant changes in oxygen saturation was observed in the cages during the warmer period of a year especially in the morning (occasionally it dropped below 70 %). Despite of, satisfactory results of water quality parameters, it is necessary to establish comprehensive monitoring process, especially to include quality assessment of fouling communities.

Keywords: Mariculture, monitoring, fish cages, water quality parameters.

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Authors: Syed Musharaf Ali, Muhammad Younus Javed, Naveed Sarfraz Khattak, Athar Mohsin, UmarFarooq

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This paper introduces the effective speckle reduction of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images using inner product spaces in undecimated wavelet domain. There are two major areas in projection onto span algorithm where improvement can be made. First is the use of undecimated wavelet transformation instead of discrete wavelet transformation. And second area is the use of smoothing filter namely directional smoothing filter which is an additional step. Proposed method does not need any noise estimation and thresholding technique. More over proposed method gives good results on both single polarimetric and fully polarimetric SAR images.

Keywords: Directional Smoothing, Inner product, Length ofvector, Undecimated wavelet transformation.

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Authors: M. A. Adeboyejo, O. O. Adeosun

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Pioneer networked systems assume that connections are reliable, and a faulty operation will be considered in case of losing a connection. Transient connections are typical of mobile devices. Areas of application of data sharing system such as these, lead to the conclusion that network connections may not always be reliable, and that the conventional approaches can be improved. Nigerian commercial banking industry is a critical system whose operation is increasingly becoming dependent on information technology (IT) driven information system. The proposed solution to this problem makes use of a hierarchically clustered network structure which we selected to reflect (as much as possible) the typical organizational structure of the Nigerian commercial banks. Representative transactions such as data updates and replication of the results of such updates were used to simulate the proposed model to show its applicability.

Keywords: Dependability, reliability, data redundancy.

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Authors: Frederick Wedzerai Nyakudya

Abstract:

In this paper, we examine the relationship between human capital, personal wealth and social capital to explain the differences in start-up rates between female and male entrepreneurs. Since our dependent variable is dichotomous, we examine the determinants of these using a maximum likelihood logit estimator. We used the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor database covering the period 2006 to 2009 with 421 usable cases drawn from the Lower Layer Super Output Areas in East Midlands in the United Kingdom. We found evidence indicating that a female positively moderates the positive relationships between indicators of human capital and personal wealth with start-up activity. The findings have implications for programs, policies, and practices to encourage more females to engage in start-up activity.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, gender gap, women's entrepreneurship.

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Authors: Jang-Hee Yoo, Doosung Hwang, Jong-Wook Han, Ki-Young Moon

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The ability to recognize humans and their activities by computer vision is a very important task, with many potential application. Study of human motion analysis is related to several research areas of computer vision such as the motion capture, detection, tracking and segmentation of people. In this paper, we describe a segmentation method for extracting human body contour in modified HLS color space. To estimate a background, the modified HLS color space is proposed, and the background features are estimated by using the HLS color components. Here, the large amount of human dataset, which was collected from DV cameras, is pre-processed. The human body and its contour is successfully extracted from the image sequences.

Keywords: Background Subtraction, Human Silhouette Extraction, HLS Color Space, and Object Segmentation

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Authors: Pichayut Peerasathien, Hiroshi Nagahashi

Abstract:

Subdivision is a method to create a smooth surface from a coarse mesh by subdividing the entire mesh. The conventional ways to compute and render surfaces are inconvenient both in terms of memory and computational time as the number of meshes will increase exponentially. An adaptive subdivision is the way to reduce the computational time and memory by subdividing only certain selected areas. In this paper, a new adaptive subdivision method for triangle meshes is introduced. This method defines a new adaptive subdivision rules by considering the properties of each triangle's neighbors and is embedded in a traditional Loop's subdivision. It prevents some undesirable side effects that appear in the conventional adaptive ways. Models that were subdivided by our method are compared with other adaptive subdivision methods

Keywords: Subdivision, loop subdivision, handle cracks, smooth surface.

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Authors: Dahlila Kamat, Ismail Mohd Saaid, Iskandar Dzulkarnain

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This paper presents a review on published literature and experimental works on local sands for possible use as proppant, specifically those from Terengganu coastal area. This includes examination on characteristics of sand samples and selection of experiments for proppant testing. Sand samples from identified areas were tested according to particle size distribution, density, roundness and sphericity, turbidity and mineralogy. Results from sand samples were compared against proppant specifications set by API RP 56 and selected commercial proppants. The present study found that the size distribution, sphericity, turbidity and bulk density of Terengganu sands are at par with some of commercial proppants. Nevertheless, Terengganu sand samples do not completely surpass the required roundness for use as proppant.

Keywords: Hydraulic fracturing, Malaysia sand, proppant, wellstimulation.

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Authors: A. U. Haque, W. Asrar, A. A. Omar, E. Sulaeman, J. S Mohamed Ali

Abstract:

Open jet testing is a valuable testing technique which provides the desired results with reasonable accuracy. It has been used in past for the airships and now has recently been applied for the hybrid ones, having more non-buoyant force coming from the wings, empennage and the fuselage. In the present review work, an effort has been done to review the challenges involved in open jet testing. In order to shed light on the application of this technique, the experimental results of two different configurations are presented. Although, the aerodynamic results of such vehicles are unique to its own design; however, it will provide a starting point for planning any future testing. Few important testing areas which need more attention are also highlighted. Most of the hybrid buoyant aerial vehicles are unconventional in shape and there experimental data is generated, which is unique to its own design.

Keywords: Open jet testing, aerodynamics, hybrid buoyant aerial vehicles, airships.

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Authors: Krushna Mahapatra, Atefeh Dadvar, Brijesh Mainali

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Alabastern, a multicultural rental housing area in the Växjö city of Sweden, was identified as poor at recycling household waste compared to other housing areas in the town. In this paper, a qualitative and quantitative analysis is conducted to understand the underlying causes of waste recycling behavior of the tenants. Results showed that majority of the studied participants perceived themselves to be environmentally friendly. They reported that they recycled household waste quite often, but it was the other tenants who did not sort their waste properly. The respondents identified the causes of the improper waste recycling as lack of attitude and awareness, limitation of communication, sense of insecurity, lack of means to transport bulky waste, limitation of the recycling room, and inadequate action by the housing company Växjöbostäder.

Keywords: Household behavior, multicultural, waste management, waste recycling.

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Authors: Emad T. Khalaf, Norrozila Sulaiman

Abstract:

Many researchers are working on information hiding techniques using different ideas and areas to hide their secrete data. This paper introduces a robust technique of hiding secret data in image based on LSB insertion and RSA encryption technique. The key of the proposed technique is to encrypt the secret data. Then the encrypted data will be converted into a bit stream and divided it into number of segments. However, the cover image will also be divided into the same number of segments. Each segment of data will be compared with each segment of image to find the best match segment, in order to create a new random sequence of segments to be inserted then in a cover image. Experimental results show that the proposed technique has a high security level and produced better stego-image quality.

Keywords: steganography; LSB Matching; RSA Encryption; data segments

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Authors: Mark Kaahwa, Chang Zhu, Moses Muhumuza

Abstract:

This study investigates the satisfaction of distance education university students (DEUS) with the use of audio media as a medium of instruction. Studying students’ satisfaction is vital because it shows whether learners are comfortable with a certain instructional strategy or not. Although previous studies have investigated the use of audio media, the satisfaction of students with an instructional strategy that combines radio teaching and podcasts as an independent teaching strategy has not been fully investigated. In this study, all lectures were delivered through the radio and students had no direct contact with their instructors. No modules or any other material in form of text were given to the students. They instead, revised the taught content by listening to podcasts saved on their mobile electronic gadgets. Prior to data collection, DEUS received orientation through workshops on how to use audio media in distance education. To achieve objectives of the study, a survey, naturalistic observations and face-to-face interviews were used to collect data from a sample of 211 undergraduate and graduate students. Findings indicate that there was no statistically significant difference in the levels of satisfaction between male and female students. The results from post hoc analysis show that there is a statistically significant difference in the levels of satisfaction regarding the use of audio media between diploma and graduate students. Diploma students are more satisfied compared to their graduate counterparts. T-test results reveal that there was no statistically significant difference in the general satisfaction with audio media between rural and urban-based students. And ANOVA results indicate that there is no statistically significant difference in the levels of satisfaction with the use of audio media across age groups. Furthermore, results from observations and interviews reveal that DEUS found learning using audio media a pleasurable medium of instruction. This is an indication that audio media can be considered as an instructional strategy on its own merit.

Keywords: Audio media, distance education, distance education university students, medium of instruction, satisfaction.

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Authors: L. Temdrara, A. Khelifi, A. Addoun

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Activated carbons were produced from olive stones by a chemical process. The activated carbon (AC) were modified by nitric acid and used as adsorbents for the removal of methylene blue dye from aqueous solution. The activated carbons were characterized by nitrogen adsorption and enthalpy of immersion. Batch adsorption experiments were carried out to study the effect of initial different concentrations solution on dye adsorption properties. Isotherms were fitted to Langmuir model, and corresponding parameters were determined. The results showed that the increase of ration of ZnCl₂ leads to increase in apparent surface areas and produces activated carbons with pore structure more developed. However, the maximum MB uptakes for all carbons were determined and correlated with activated carbons characteristics. 

Keywords: Adsorption, activated carbon, chemical activation, enthalpy of immersion.

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Authors: Ching-Sheng Wang, Xin-Mao Huang, Ming-Yu Hung

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In this paper, we present a method named Signal Level Matrix (SLM) which can improve the accuracy and stability of active RFID indoor positioning system. Considering the accuracy and cost, we use uniform distribution mode to set up and separate the overlapped signal covering areas, in order to achieve preliminary location setting. Then, based on the proposed SLM concept and the characteristic of the signal strength value that attenuates as the distance increases, this system cross-examines the distribution of adjacent signals to locate the users more accurately. The experimental results indicate that the adaptive positioning method proposed in this paper could improve the accuracy and stability of the positioning system effectively and satisfyingly.

Keywords: RFID positioning, localization, indoor, location-aware.

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Authors: L. Bokopane, K. Kusakana, H. J. Vermaark

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The success of renewable powered electric vehicle charging station in isolated areas depends highly on the availability and sustainability of renewable resources all year round at a selected location. The main focus of this paper is to discuss the possible charging strategies that could be implemented to find the best possible configuration of an electric Tuk-Tuk charging station at a given location within South Africa. The charging station is designed, modeled and simulated to evaluate its performances. The technoeconomic analysis of different feasible supply configurations of the charging station using renewable energies is simulated using HOMER software and the results compared in order to select the best possible charging strategies in terms of cost of energy consumed.

Keywords: Electric Tuk-Tuk, Renewable energy, Energy Storage, Hybrid systems, HOMER.

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Authors: Husam El-Asfour, Fateh Adhnouss, Kenneth McIsaac, AbdulMutalib Wahaishi, Raafat Aburukba, Idris El-Feghia

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Although intelligence is commonly referred to as the observable behavior in various fields and domains, it must also be shown how it develops by exhibiting multiple forms and without observing the inherent behavior. There have been several official and informal definitions of intelligence in various areas; however, no scientific agreement on a definition has been agreed upon. There must be a single definition, structure, and precise modeling for articulating how intelligence is perceived by people and machines in order to comprehend intelligence. Another key challenge is defining the different environment types based on the integral elements (agents) and their possible interactions. On the basis of conceptualization, this paper proposes a formal model for defining and developing intelligence. Forms of intelligence are derived from an ontological view, and thus intelligence is defined, described, and modeled based on the various types of environments.

Keywords: Intelligence, forms, transformation, conceptualization, ontological view.

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Authors: Charawee Butbumrung

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The purpose of this study is to evaluate the monetary worthiness of investment and the usefulness of risk estimation as a tool employed by a production section of an electronic factory. This study employed the case study of accidents occurring in production areas. Data is collected from interviews with six production of safety coordinators and collect the information from the relevant section. The study will present the ratio of benefits compared with the operation costs for investment. The result showed that it is worthwhile for investment with the safety measures. In addition, the organizations must be able to analyze the causes of accidents about the benefits of investing in protective working process. They also need to quickly provide the manual for the staff to learn how to protect themselves from accidents and how to use all of the safety equipment.

Keywords: Cost and benefit, enterprises in Thailand, investment in safety and health, risk estimation.

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Authors: Tingan Tang, Kimmo Karhu, Matti Hamalainen

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Although in sustainable development field, innovative solutions have been sought worldwide by environmental groups, academia, governments and companies for many years, recently, citizens and communities have emerged as a new group and taken more and more active role in this field. Many scholars call for more research on the role of community and community innovation in sustainable development. This paper is to respond to the calls. In this paper, we first summarize a comprehensive set of innovation principles. Then, we do a qualitative cross case study by comparing three community innovation cases in three different areas of sustainable development according to the innovation principles. Finally, we summarize the case comparison and discuss the implications to sustainable development. A unified role model and innovation distribution map of community innovation are developed to better understand community innovation in sustainable development..

Keywords: Community innovation, grassroots innovation, sustainable development, sustainability.

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Authors: Trevor N. Haas, Thomas van der Kolf

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South Africa has some regions which are susceptible to moderate seismic activity. A peak ground acceleration of between 0.1g and 0.15g can be expected in the southern parts of the Western Cape. Unreinforced Masonry (URM) is commonly used as a construction material for 2 to 5 storey buildings in underprivileged areas in and around Cape Town. URM is typically regarded as the material most vulnerable to damage when subjected to earthquake excitation. In this study, a three-storey URM building was analysed by applying seven earthquake time-histories, which can be expected to occur in South Africa using a finite element approach. Experimental data was used to calibrate the in- and out-of-plane stiffness of the URM. The results indicated that tensile cracking of the in-plane piers was the dominant failure mode. It is concluded that URM buildings of this type are at risk of failure especially if sufficient ductility is not provided. The results also showed that connection failure must be investigated further.

Keywords: URM, Seismic Analysis, FEM.

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Authors: G. Gurguze, I. Turkoglu

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Today, the developing features of technological tools with limited energy resources have made it necessary to use energy efficiently. Energy management techniques have emerged for this purpose. As with every field, energy management is vital for robots that are being used in many areas from industry to daily life and that are thought to take up more spaces in the future. Particularly, effective power management in autonomous and multi robots, which are getting more complicated and increasing day by day, will improve the performance and success. In this study, robot management algorithms, usage of renewable and hybrid energy sources, robot motion patterns, robot designs, sharing strategies of workloads in multiple robots, road and mission planning algorithms are discussed for efficient use of energy resources by mobile robots. These techniques have been evaluated in terms of efficient use of existing energy resources and energy management in robots.

Keywords: Energy management, mobile robot, robot administration, robot management, robot planning.

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Authors: Mona Masood, Norshazlina Shaik Othman

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The purpose of this study was to investigate graduate students’ visual attention and perceptions of a Prezi presentation. Ten postgraduate master students were presented with a Prezi presentation at the Centre for Instructional Technology and Multimedia, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). The eye movement indicators such as dwell time, average fixation on the areas of interests, heat maps and focus maps were abstracted to indicate the students’ visual attention. Descriptive statistics was employed to analyze the students’ perception of the Prezi presentation in terms of text, slide design, images, layout and overall presentation. The result revealed that the students paid more attention to the text followed by the images and sub heading presented through the Prezi presentation.

Keywords: Eye tracking, Prezi, visual attention, visual perception.

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Authors: Maassoumeh Bemani Naeini

Abstract:

Studies on interlanguage have long been engaged in describing the phenomenon of variation in SLA. Pursuing the same goal and particularly addressing the role of linguistic features, this study describes the use of Persian morphology in the interlanguage of two adult English-speaking learners of Persian L2. Taking the general approach of a combination of contrastive analysis, error analysis and interlanguage analysis, this study focuses on the identification and prediction of some possible instances of transfer from English L1 to Persian L2 across six elicitation tasks aiming to investigate whether any of contextual features may variably influence the learners’ order of morpheme accuracy in the areas of copula, possessives, articles, demonstratives, plural form, personal pronouns, and genitive cases.  Results describe the existence of task variation in the interlanguage system of Persian L2 learners.

Keywords: English L1, Interlanguage Analysis, Persian L2, SLA variation.

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Authors: Bertha Sânduleasa, Aniela Matei, Mihaela Ghenţa, Nicolina Racoceanu

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The increasing divorce and fertility rates outside of marriage, the changing values in the last decades have led to a high prevalence of single parent families. Currently, worldwide, singleparent families represent about a quarter of all families. Recent changes occurring in the structure of single-parent families and also the multitude of factors that influence the quality of life of these families require the development of new research tools in order to provide foundations for social policies addressed to this type of family. The purpose of this paper is to present an analysis concerning the quality of life for single parent families in Romania, based on data collected through a research methodology developed by the authors within a scientific research project funded by a national grant called Partnerships in priority areas.

Keywords: Family policies, quality of life, single-parent families, work-life balance.

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Authors: Ajay Verma, Nitin Seth

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In this era of competitiveness, there is a growing need for supply chains also to become competitive enough to handle pressures like varying customer’s expectations, low cost high quality products to be delivered at the minimum time and the most important is throat cutting competition at world wide scale. In the recent years, supply chain competitiveness has been, therefore, accepted as one of the most important philosophies in the supply chain literature and researchers have tried to identify variables of supply chain competitiveness. This paper highlights some of the concepts of supply chain competitiveness and tries to identify select variables on the basis of literature review. Further, the paper tries to highlight the importance of the identified variables in the achievement of supply chain competitiveness. The aim is to explore the concept and to motivate researchers to further investigate the unexplored areas of this important subject domain.

Keywords: Supply Chain Competitiveness, Demand Management, Integration, Inventory Management, Flexibility, Information Technology.

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Authors: Rowland M. Brucken

Abstract:

This paper argues nation-building theories that prioritize democratic governance best explain the successful postindependence development of Botswana. Three main competing schools of thought exist regarding the sequencing of policies that should occur to re-build weakened or failed states. The first posits that economic development should receive foremost attention, while democratization and a binding sense of nationalism can wait. A second group of experts identified constructing a sense of nationalism among a populace is necessary first, so that the state receives popular legitimacy and obedience that are prerequisites for development. Botswana, though, transitioned into a multi-party democracy and prosperous open economy due to the utilization of traditional democratic structures, enlightened and accountable leadership, and an educated technocratic civil service. With these political foundations already in place when the discovery of diamonds occurred, the resulting revenues were spent wisely on projects that grew the economy, improved basic living standards, and attracted foreign investment. Thus democratization preceded, and therefore provided an accountable basis for, economic development that might otherwise have been squandered by greedy and isolated elites to the detriment of the greater population. Botswana was one of the poorest nations in the world at the time of its independence in 1966, with little infrastructure, a dependence on apartheid South Africa for trade, and a largely subsistence economy. Over the next thirty years, though, its economy grew the fastest of any nation in the world. The transparent and judicious use of diamond returns is only a partial explanation, as the government also pursued economic diversification, mass education, and rural development in response to public needs. As nation-building has become a project undertaken by nations and multilateral agencies such as the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Botswana may provide best practices that others should follow in attempting to reconstruct economically and politically unstable states.

Keywords: Botswana, democratization, economic development, nation-building.

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