Search results for: strictly positive realness property

Authors: Petra Fridrichová, Eva Balážová

Abstract:

Ethical Education is a compulsorily optional subject in primary and secondary schools. The Ethical Education objective is the education of a personality with one´s own identity, with interiorized ethical standards, with mature moral judgement and therefore with the behaviour determined by one´s own beliefs; with a positive attitude to himself/herself and other people and that is why he/she is able to cooperate and to initiate cooperation. In the paper we describe the contents and the principles of Ethical education. We also shows that Ethical education is subject supported primary socialpathological prevention and education to citizenship. In this context we try to show that ethical education contributes to the education of good people who are aware of the necessity to respect social norms and are able to assume responsibility for their own behaviour in any situation at present and in the future.

Keywords: Ethical education, Curriculum of Ethical education, The Contents of Ethical education in Slovakia, The principles of Ethical education

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Authors: Dinara B. Dauyen, Nurzhamal A. Aldabek

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The purpose of this work is to identify the positive and negative aspects of parties- participation in the country-s modernization, which in turn, will help a country to determine the necessary steps to improve the social-economic development. The article considers a question of the role of the dominating party of Kazakhstan and ruling party of China in the country-s modernization. Using a comparative analysis reveals differences between the People's Democratic Party “Nur Otan" and the Communist Party of China. It is discussed the policy of carrying out of modernization, the main actions of political parties of both countries with a view of modernization implementation.

Keywords: China's modernization, dominant party, ruling party, modernization of Kazakhstan.

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Authors: I. M. Mungadi, M. S. Argungu

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This study delves into the transformative impact of telecommunication in Africa, illuminating its role in connecting nations and empowering lives across the continent. Over recent decades, the rapid expansion of telecommunication infrastructure has become a powerful force, fostering socio-economic growth and development. Beyond the exchange of information, this digital revolution has influenced education, healthcare, commerce, governance, and social interaction. The abstract explores the multifaceted dimensions of telecommunication's influence on Africa, addressing both its positive transformations and the challenges it presents. By examining the dynamic interplay between technological advancements and societal changes, this research contributes to a nuanced understanding of how telecommunication is shaping a more interconnected, informed, and empowered Africa.

Keywords: Transformative, telecommunication, nations, empowering, connecting.

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Authors: Anatoli Torokhti, Stanley Miklavcic

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Suppose KY and KX are large sets of observed and reference signals, respectively, each containing N signals. Is it possible to construct a filter F : KY → KX that requires a priori information only on few signals, p  N, from KX but performs better than the known filters based on a priori information on every reference signal from KX? It is shown that the positive answer is achievable under quite unrestrictive assumptions. The device behind the proposed method is based on a special extension of the piecewise linear interpolation technique to the case of random signal sets. The proposed technique provides a single filter to process any signal from the arbitrarily large signal set. The filter is determined in terms of pseudo-inverse matrices so that it always exists.

Keywords: Wiener filter, filtering of stochastic signals.

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Authors: G. Bhushan

Abstract:

Multilobe bearings are found to be more stable than circular bearings. A three lobe bearing also possesses good stability characteristics. Sometimes the line of action of the load does not pass through the axis of a bearing and is shifted on either side by a few degrees. Load orientation is one of the factors that affect the stability of a three lobe bearing. The effect of load orientation on the stability of a three-lobe has been discussed in this paper. The results show that stability of a three-lobe bearing supporting either rigid or flexible rotor is increased for the positive values of load orientation i.e. when the load line is shifted in the opposite direction of rotation.

Keywords: Thee-lobe bearing, load orientation, finite element method.

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Authors: H. Mahmood, M. W. Siddiqi, A. Iqbal, M. A. Tabassum

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This study examines the relationships between foreign aid, levels of schooling and democracy for Pakistan using the ARDL cointegration approach. The results of study provide strong evidence for fairly robust long run as well as short run relationships among these variables for the period 1973-2008. The results state that foreign aid and primary school enrollments have negative impact on democracy index and high school enrollments have positive impact on democracy index in Pakistan. The study suggests for promotion of education levels and relies on local resources instead of foreign aid for a good quality of political institutions in Pakistan.

Keywords: Cointegration, Democracy, Education, Foreign Aid

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Authors: B. O. Diyaolu

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The stadium transcends a field of play to cultural heritage of a club especially when there is security of life and property and a conducive environment with exciting media facilities, CCTV and adequate field of play. Football fans love watching their clubs’ matches especially when nothing discourages their presence in the stadium. This study investigated the influence of security on fans’ attendance during Nigeria Professional Football League matches. Descriptive survey research design was used and the population consists of all Nigeria Professional Football League fans. Simple random sampling technique was used to pick a state from the six geo-political zones. 600 respondents comprising male and female fans were sampled from the ten selected vendors’ stands in each selected state. A structured questionnaire on Security and Fan attendance scale (SFAS) was used. The instrument consists of two sections. Section A seeks information on demographic data of the respondents, while section B was used to elicit information on security and fans’ attendance. The modified instrument which consists of 20 items has a reliability coefficient of 0.73. The hypothesis was tested at 0.05 significance level. The completed questionnaire was collated, coded and analyzed using descriptive statistics of frequency counts and percentage and inferential statistics of chi-square (X²). Findings of this study revealed that adequate security significantly influences fan attendance during Nigeria Professional Football League matches. There is no sport that can develop if the facilities in use are inadequate. Improving the condition of the stadium in Nigeria is paramount to the development of the Nigeria Professional Football League. All stakeholders in the organization of the League must put into consideration the need to improve the standard of the stadium as it will help to increase the attendance of fans during matches. Only the standard ones should be used during matches.

Keywords: Adequate Security, fans attendance, football fans, football stadium, Nigeria Professional Football League.

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Authors: Khaled M. Nabil

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This paper introduces the Nested Vortexes conception of the universe structure and interprets all the physical phenomena according this conception. The paper first reviews recent physics theories, either in microscopic scale or macroscopic scale, to collect evidence that the space is not empty. But, these theories describe the property of the space medium without determining its structure. Determining the structure of space medium is essential to understand the mechanism that leads to its properties. Without determining the space medium structure, many phenomena; such as electric and magnetic fields, gravity, or wave-particle duality remain uninterpreted. Thus, this paper introduces a conception about the structure of the universe. It assumes that the universe is a medium of ultra-tiny homogeneous particles which are still undiscovered. Like any medium with certain movements, possibly because of a great asymmetric explosion, vortexes have occurred. A vortex condenses the ultra-tiny particles in its center forming a bigger particle, the bigger particles, in turn, could be trapped in a bigger vortex and condense in its center forming a much bigger particle and so on. This conception describes galaxies, stars, protons as particles at different levels. Existing of the particle’s vortexes make the consistency of the speed of light postulate is not true. This conception shows that the vortex motion dynamic agrees with the motion of all the universe particles at any level. An experiment has been carried out to detect the orbiting effect of aggregated vortexes of aligned atoms of a permanent magnet. Based on the described particle’s structure, the gravity force of a particle and attraction between particles as well as charge, electric and magnetic fields and quantum mechanics characteristics are interpreted. All augmented physics phenomena are solved.

Keywords: Astrophysics, cosmology, particles’ structure model, particles’ forces, vortex dynamics.

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Authors: Hanan Alshaher, Jinsheng Xu

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Large amounts of data on the web can provide valuable information. For example, product reviews help business owners measure customer satisfaction. Sentiment analysis classifies texts into two polarities: positive and negative. This paper examines movie reviews and tweets using a new term weighting scheme, called one-over-sigma (1/sigma), on benchmark datasets for sentiment classification. The proposed method aims to improve the performance of sentiment classification. The results show that 1/sigma is more accurate than the popular term weighting schemes. In order to verify if the entropy reflects the discriminating power of terms, we report a comparison of entropy values for different term weighting schemes.

Keywords: Sentiment analysis, term weighting scheme, 1/sigma.

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Authors: Kang-Hung Yang, Jin-Yuan Hsu

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In recent years, several severe large-scale influenza outbreaks happened in many countries, such as SARS in 2005 or H1N1 in 2009. Those influenza Epidemics have greatly impacts not only on people-s life and health, but medical systems in different countries. Although severe diseases are more experienced, they are not fully controlled. Governments have different policies to control the spreads of diseases. However, those policies have both positive and negative social or economical influence on people and society. Therefore, it is necessary and essential to develop an appropriate model for evaluations of policies. Consequently, a proper measure can be implemented to confront the diseases. The main goal of this study is to develop a SIR-based model for the further evaluations of the candidate policies during the influenza outbreaks.

Keywords: SIR, influenza, systems dynamic model, H1N1

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Authors: Naoki Okamura

Abstract:

From a perspective of moral education, this study has examined the experiences of a group of college students who volunteered in disaster areas after the magnitude 9.0 Earthquake, which struck the Northeastern region of Japan in March, 2011. The research, utilizing the method of grounded theory, has uncovered that most of the students have gone through positive changes in their development of moral and social characters, such as attaining deeper sense of empathy and caring personalities. The study expresses, in identifying the nature of those transformations, that the importance of volunteer work should strongly be recognized by the colleges and universities in Japan, in fulfilling their public responsibility of creating and building learning communities that are responsible and caring.

Keywords: Moral development, moral education, service learning, volunteer learning.

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Authors: Shishen Xie, Yingda L. Xie

Abstract:

Tuberculosis (TB) is a potentially serious infectious disease that remains a health concern. The Interferon Gamma Release Assay (IGRA) is a blood test to find out if an individual is tuberculous positive or negative. This study applies statistical analysis to the clinical data of interferon-gamma levels of seventy-three subjects who diagnosed pulmonary TB in an anti-tuberculous treatment. Data analysis is performed to determine if there is a significant decline in interferon-gamma levels for the subjects during a period of six months, and to infer if the anti-tuberculous treatment is effective.

Keywords: Data analysis, interferon gamma release assay, statistical methods, tuberculosis infection.

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Authors: Mohamad Sukeri Khalid, Che Su Mustaffa, Mohd Najib Marzuki, Mohd Fo’ad Sakdan, Sapora Sipon, Mohd Taib Ariffin, Shazwani Shafiai

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This paper describes the issues relating to the role of the flash flood early warning system provided by the Malaysian Government to the communities in Malaysia, specifically during the flash flood disaster in the Cameron Highlands, Malaysia. Normally, flash flood disasters can occur as a result of heavy rainfall in an area, and that water may possibly cause flooding via streams or narrow channels. The focus of this study is the flash flood disaster which occurred on 23 October 2013 in the Cameron Highlands, and as a result the Sungai Bertam overflowed after the release of water from the Sultan Abu Bakar Dam. This release of water from the dam caused flash flooding which led to damage to properties and also the death of residents and livestock in the area. Therefore, the effort of this study is to identify the perceptions of the flash flood victims on the role of the flash flood early warning system. For the purposes of this study, data were gathered through face-to-face interviews from those flood victims who were willing to participate in this study. This approach helped the researcher to glean in-depth information about their feelings and perceptions of the role of the flash flood early warning system offered by the government. The data were analysed descriptively and the findings show that the respondents of 22 flood victims believe strongly that the flash flood early warning system was confusing and dysfunctional, and communities had failed to response positively to it. Therefore, most of the communities were not well prepared for the releasing of water from the dam which caused property damage, and 3 people were killed in the Cameron Highland flash flood disaster.

Keywords: Communities affected, disaster management, early warning system, flash flood disaster.

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Authors: Magdalena Meusburger, Caroline Maria Hofer

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The advancement of women entrepreneurship in the last decade has been a vital driver for social and economic development. Despite the positive evolution, women entrepreneurs are still underrepresented in entrepreneurial ecosystems. Fear-of-failure is a major factor inhibiting their entrepreneurial activity. This survey-based research focused on aspiring and established entrepreneurial women in Austria and in the USA. It explored and compared the extent to which entrepreneurial fear-of-failure influences their self-employment and their aspirations to become self-employed. The results demonstrate that entrepreneurial fear-of-failure is significantly higher for women with the wish for self-employment than it is for women who are already self-employed. In terms of the geographical and cultural setting no major differences were confirmed.

Keywords: Entrepreneurial ecosystems, fear-of-failure, female entrepreneurship, women entrepreneurship.

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Authors: Suguru Ochiai, Toru Yabuki, Yoshiki Yamaguchi, Yuetsu Kodama

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In this paper, we propose a Connect6 solver which adopts a hybrid approach based on a tree-search algorithm and image processing techniques. The solver must deal with the complicated computation and provide high performance in order to make real-time decisions. The proposed approach enables the solver to be implemented on a single Spartan-6 XC6SLX45 FPGA produced by XILINX without using any external devices. The compact implementation is achieved through image processing techniques to optimize a tree-search algorithm of the Connect6 game. The tree search is widely used in computer games and the optimal search brings the best move in every turn of a computer game. Thus, many tree-search algorithms such as Minimax algorithm and artificial intelligence approaches have been widely proposed in this field. However, there is one fundamental problem in this area; the computation time increases rapidly in response to the growth of the game tree. It means the larger the game tree is, the bigger the circuit size is because of their highly parallel computation characteristics. Here, this paper aims to reduce the size of a Connect6 game tree using image processing techniques and its position symmetric property. The proposed solver is composed of four computational modules: a two-dimensional checkmate strategy checker, a template matching module, a skilful-line predictor, and a next-move selector. These modules work well together in selecting next moves from some candidates and the total amount of their circuits is small. The details of the hardware design for an FPGA implementation are described and the performance of this design is also shown in this paper.

Keywords: Connect6, pattern matching, game-tree reduction, hardware direct computation

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Authors: Mei He, Ying Ge, Jingyu Qian

Abstract:

Let (U;D) be a Gr-covering approximation space (U; C) with covering lower approximation operator D and covering upper approximation operator D. For a subset X of U, this paper investigates the following three conditions: (1) X is a definable subset of (U;D); (2) X is an inner definable subset of (U;D); (3) X is an outer definable subset of (U;D). It is proved that if one of the above three conditions holds, then the others hold. These results give a positive answer of an open problem for definable subsets of covering approximation spaces.

Keywords: Covering approximation space, covering approximation operator, definable subset, inner definable subset, outer definable subset.

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Authors: A. Beduk, K. Eryesil, O. Esmen

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The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between organizational commitment which is defined as a strong belief in and acceptance of the organization’s goals and values, and burnout syndrome and organizational cynicism. Accordingly, a field research based on survey method was conducted on the employees of a health institution operating in the province of Konya. The findings of the research show that there is a positive statistically significant relationship between organizational cynicism and burnout while there is a negative statistically significant relationship between organizational commitment and burnout. Furthermore, it has been also realized that there is a negative and statistically significant relationship between organizational commitment and organizational cynicism.

Keywords: Burnout, organizational commitment, organizational cynicism, healthcare management.

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Authors: Doo-chul Choi, Yong-Ju Jeon, Jong Pil Yun, Sung Wook Yun, Sang Woo Kim

Abstract:

In this study, we developed an algorithm for detecting seam cracks in a steel plate. Seam cracks are generated in the edge region of a steel plate. We used the Gabor filter and an adaptive double threshold method to detect them. To reduce the number of pseudo defects, features based on the shape of seam cracks were used. To evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm, we tested 989 images with seam cracks and 9470 defect-free images. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is suitable for detecting seam cracks. However, it should be improved to increase the true positive rate.

Keywords: Defect detection, Gabor filter, machine vision, surface inspection.

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Authors: Seung Yeon Son

Abstract:

In today’s rapidly changing and increasingly complex environment, organizations have relied on their members’ positive attitude toward their employers. In particular, employees’ organizational commitment (primarily, the affective component) has been recognized as an essential component of organizational functioning and success. Hence, identifying the determinants of affective commitment is one of the most important research issues. This study tested the influence of leader-member exchange (LMX) and exchange ideology on employee’s affective commitment. In addition, the interactive effect of LMX and exchange ideology was examined. Data from 198 members of the Korean military supports each of the hypotheses. Lastly, implications for research and directions for future research are discussed.

Keywords: Affective commitment, exchange ideology, leader-member exchange, commitment.

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Authors: M. Bernasconi, M. Grothkopp, T. Friedli

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The objective of this paper is to examine the relationships between technical and social lean bundles as well as operational performance in the context of the pharmaceutical industry. We investigate the direct and mediating effects of the lean bundles Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), Total Quality Management (TQM), Just-In-Time (JIT), and Human Resource Management (HRM) on operational performance. Our analysis relies on 113 manufacturing facilities from the St.Gallen OPEX benchmarking database. The results show that HRM has a positive indirect effect on operational performance mediated by the technical lean bundles.

Keywords: Human resource management, operational performance, pharmaceutical industry, technical lean practices.

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Authors: Tomáš Melichar, Jiří Bydžovský, Vít Černý

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In this article our research focused on study of basic physical and mechanical parameters of polymer-cement repair materials is presented. Namely the influence of applied aggregates in combination with active admixture is specially considered. New formulas which were exposed in ambient with temperature even to 1000°C were suggested. Subsequently densities and strength characteristics including their changes were evaluated. Selected samples were analyzed using electron microscope. The positive influence of porous aggregates based on sintered ash was definitely demonstrated. Further it was found than in terms of thermal resistance the effective micro silica amount represents 5% to 7.5% of cement weight.

Keywords: Aggregate, ash, high, lightweight, microsilica, mortar, polymer-cement, repair, temperature.

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Authors: Dimitrie Marinceu

Abstract:

The newest Canadian Used Fuel Container (UFC)- (called also “Mark II”) modifies the design approach for its Assembly Robotic Cell (ARC) in the Canadian Used (Nuclear) Fuel Packing Plant (UFPP). Some of the robotic design solutions are presented in this paper. The design indicates that robots and manipulators are expected to be used in the Canadian UFPP. As normally, the UFPP design will incorporate redundancy of all equipment to allow expedient recovery from any postulated upset conditions. Overall, this paper suggests that robot usage will have a significant positive impact on nuclear safety, quality, productivity, and reliability.

Keywords: Used fuel packing plant, robotic assembly cell, used fuel container, deep geological repository.

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Authors: Rica Jell de Laza, Jose Alberto Fernandez, Andrea Marie Mendoza, Qristin Jeuel Regalado

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This study investigates whether participants experience different levels of persuasion depending on the hemisphere of the brain and the tone of voice. The experiment was performed on 96 volunteer undergraduate students taking an introductory course in psychology. The participants took part in a 2 x 3 (Hemisphere: left, right x Tone of Voice: positive, neutral, negative) Mixed Factorial Design to measure how much a person was persuaded. Results showed that the hemisphere of the brain and the tone of voice used did not significantly affect the results individually. Furthermore, there was no interaction effect. Therefore, the hemispheres of the brain and the tone of voice employed play insignificant roles in persuading a person.

Keywords: Dichotic listening, brain hemisphere, tone of voice, persuasion.

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Authors: Pierre Parrend, Stephane Frenot

Abstract:

Providing Services at Home has become over the last few years a very dynamic and promising technological domain. It is likely to enable wide dissemination of secure and automated living environments. We propose a methodology for identifying threats to Services at Home Delivery systems, as well as a threat analysis of a multi-provider Home Gateway architecture. This methodology is based on a dichotomous positive/preventive study of the target system: it aims at identifying both what the system must do, and what it must not do. This approach completes existing methods with a synthetic view of potential security flaws, thus enabling suitable measures to be taken into account. Security implications of the evolution of a given system become easier to deal with. A prototype is built based on the conclusions of this analysis.

Keywords: Security requirements, Connected Home, OSGi, Sofware Components.

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Authors: Pankaj, Sonia R. Bansal

Abstract:

Creep stresses and strain rates have been obtained for a thin rotating disc having variable density with inclusion by using Seth-s transition theory. The density of the disc is assumed to vary radially, i.e. ( ) 0 ¤ü ¤ü r/b m - = ; ¤ü 0 and m being real positive constants. It has been observed that a disc, whose density increases radially, rotates at higher angular speed, thus decreasing the possibility of a fracture at the bore, whereas for a disc whose density decreases radially, the possibility of a fracture at the bore increases.

Keywords: Elastic-Plastic, Inclusion, Rotating disc, Stress, Strain rates, Transition, variable density.

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Authors: Apinan Aurasopon, Worawat Sa-ngiavibool

Abstract:

This paper proposes a synchronized random switching frequency pulse width modulation (SRSFPWM). In this technique, the clock signal is used to control the random noise frequency which is produced by the feedback voltage of a hysteresis circuit. These make the triangular carrier frequency equaling to the random noise frequency in each switching period with the symmetrical positive and negative slopes of triangular carrier. Therefore, there is no error voltage in PWM signal. The PSpice simulated results shown the proposed technique improved the performance in case of low frequency harmonics of PWM signal comparing with conventional random switching frequency PWM.

Keywords: Random switching frequency pulse - width modulation.

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Authors: G. Chung, B. Choi

Abstract:

Very few studies have examined performance implications of strategic alliance announcements in the information technologies industry from a resource-based view. Furthermore, none of these studies have investigated resource congruence and alliance motive as potential sources of abnormal firm performance. This paper extends upon current resource-based literature to discover and explore linkages between these concepts and the practical performance of strategic alliances. This study finds that strategic alliance announcements have provided overall abnormal positive returns, and that marketing alliances with marketing resource incongruence have also contributed to significant firm performance.

Keywords: Event study methodology, resource-based theory, resource relatedness, strategic alliance.

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Authors: F. J. Moral García, P. Valiente González, F. López Rodríguez

Abstract:

Ground-level tropospheric ozone is one of the air pollutants of most concern. It is mainly produced by photochemical processes involving nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds in the lower parts of the atmosphere. Ozone levels become particularly high in regions close to high ozone precursor emissions and during summer, when stagnant meteorological conditions with high insolation and high temperatures are common. In this work, some results of a study about urban ozone distribution patterns in the city of Badajoz, which is the largest and most industrialized city in Extremadura region (southwest Spain) are shown. Fourteen sampling campaigns, at least one per month, were carried out to measure ambient air ozone concentrations, during periods that were selected according to favourable conditions to ozone production, using an automatic portable analyzer. Later, to evaluate the ozone distribution at the city, the measured ozone data were analyzed using geostatistical techniques. Thus, first, during the exploratory analysis of data, it was revealed that they were distributed normally, which is a desirable property for the subsequent stages of the geostatistical study. Secondly, during the structural analysis of data, theoretical spherical models provided the best fit for all monthly experimental variograms. The parameters of these variograms (sill, range and nugget) revealed that the maximum distance of spatial dependence is between 302-790 m and the variable, air ozone concentration, is not evenly distributed in reduced distances. Finally, predictive ozone maps were derived for all points of the experimental study area, by use of geostatistical algorithms (kriging). High prediction accuracy was obtained in all cases as cross-validation showed. Useful information for hazard assessment was also provided when probability maps, based on kriging interpolation and kriging standard deviation, were produced.

Keywords: Kriging, map, tropospheric ozone, variogram.

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Authors: Walaa Mohammed Metwally

Abstract:

This case study used the action research concept as a tool to integrate the innovation in a learning experience on a design course. The action research was investigated at Prince Sultan University, College of Engineering in the Interior Design and Architecture Department in January 2015, through the Higher Education Academy program. The action research was presented first with the definition of the research, leading to how it was used and how solutions were found. It concluded by showing that once the action research application in interior design and architecture were studied it was an effective tool to improve student’s learning, develop their practice in design courses, and it discussed the negative and positive issues that were encountered.

Keywords: Action research, innovation, intervention, learning experience, peer review.

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Authors: René Díaz-Pichardo, Cecilia Cantú-González, Patricia López-Hernández

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The development of entrepreneurial competences of farmers has been pointed out as a necessary condition for the modernization of land in facing the phenomenon of globalization. However, the educational processes involved in such a development have been studied little, especially in emerging economies. This research aims to enlighten some of the critical issues behind the early stages of the transformation of farmers into entrepreneurs, through in depth interviews with farmers, entrepreneurial promoters and public officials participating in a public pilot project in Mexico. Although major impacts were expected only in the long run, important positive changes in the mind set of farmers and other participants were found in early stages of the intervention. Apparently, the farmers started a process of becoming more conscious about the importance of preserving the aquiferous resources, as well as more market and entrepreneurial oriented.

Keywords: entrepreneurial training, farmers, land development.

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