Search results for: participatory action research.

Authors: Juan-Gabriel Cegarra-Navarro, Alexeis Garcia-Perez, Denise Bedford

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This paper provides guidelines for what constitutes a knowledge worker. Many graduates from non-managerial domains adopt, at some point in their professional careers, management roles at different levels, ranging from team leaders through to executive leadership. This is particularly relevant for professionals from an engineering background. Moving from a technical to an executive-level requires an understanding of those behaviour management techniques that can motivate and support individuals and their performance. Further, the transition to management also demands a shift of contextual enablers from tangible to intangible resources, which allows individuals to create new capacities, competencies, and capabilities. In this dynamic process, the knowledge worker becomes that key individual who can help members of the management board to transform information into relevant knowledge. However, despite its relevance in shaping the future of the organization in its transition to the knowledge economy, the role of a knowledge worker has not yet been studied to an appropriate level in the current literature. In this study, the authors review both the contextual enablers and behaviour outputs related to the role of the knowledge worker and relate these to their ability to deal with everyday management issues such as knowledge heterogeneity, varying motivations, information overload, or outdated information. This study highlights that the aggregate of capacities, competences and capabilities (CCCs) can be defined as knowledge structures, the study proposes several contextual enablers and behaviour outputs that knowledge workers can use to work cooperatively, acquire, distribute and knowledge. Therefore, this study contributes to a better comprehension of how CCCs can be managed at different levels through their contextual enablers and behaviour outputs.

Keywords: Knowledge workers, capacities, competences, capabilities, knowledge structures.

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Authors: Ramin Mirzada, Takuya Maruyama

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Kabul is the heart of political, commercial, cultural, educational and social life in Afghanistan and the fifth fastest growing city in the world. Minimum income inclined most of Kabul residents to use public transport, especially buses, although there is no proper bus system, beside that there is no proper fare exist in Kabul city Due to wars. From 1992 to 2001 during civil wars, Kabul suffered damage and destruction of its transportation facilities including pavements, sidewalks, traffic circles, drainage systems, traffic signs and signals, trolleybuses and almost all of the public transport system (e.g. Millie bus). This research is mainly focused on Kabul city’s transportation system. In this research, the data used have been gathered by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in 2008 and this data will be used to find demand and fare structure, additionally a survey was done in 2016 to find satisfaction level of Kabul residents for fare structure. Aim of this research is to observe the demand for Large Buses, compare to the actual supply from the government, analyze the current fare structure and compare it with the proposed fare (distance based fare) structure which has already been analyzed. Outcome of this research shows that the demand of Kabul city residents for the public transport (Large Buses) exceeds from the current supply, so that current public transportation (Large Buses) is not sufficient to serve public transport in Kabul city, worth to be mentioned, that in order to overcome this problem, there is no need to build new roads or exclusive way for buses. This research proposes government to change the fare from fixed fare to distance based fare, invest on public transportation and increase the number of large buses so that the current demand for public transport is met.

Keywords: Transportation, planning, public transport, large buses, fixed fare, distance based fare, Kabul, Afghanistan.

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Authors: Yuyun, Fritz Akhmad Nuzir, Bart Julien Dewancker

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Check-in locations on social media provide information about an individual’s location. The millions of units of data generated from these sites provide knowledge for human activity. In this research, we used a geolocation service and users’ texts posted on Twitter social media to analyze human mobility. Our research will answer the questions; what are the movement patterns of a citizen? And, how far do people travel in the city? We explore the people trajectory of 201,118 check-ins and 22,318 users over a period of one month in Makassar city, Indonesia. To accommodate individual mobility, the authors only analyze the users with check-in activity greater than 30 times. We used sampling method with a systematic sampling approach to assign the research sample. The study found that the individual movement shows a high degree of regularity and intensity in certain places. The other finding found that the average distance an urban inhabitant can travel per day is as far as 9.6 km.

Keywords: Mobility, check-in, distance, Twitter.

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Authors: Iva Košek Bartošová, Andrea Jokešová, Eva Kozlová, Helena Matějová

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The paper presents results of a research team from Faculty of Education, University of Hradec Králové in the Czech Republic. It introduces with the most reading methods used in the 1^st classes of a primary school and presents results of a pilot research focused on mastering reading techniques and the quality of reading comprehension of pupils in the first half of a school year during training in teaching reading by an analytic-synthetic method and by a genetic method. These methods of practicing reading skills are the most used ones in the Czech Republic. During the school year 2015/16 there has been a measurement made of two groups of pupils of the 1^st year and monitoring of quantitative and qualitative parameters of reading pupils’ outputs by several methods. Both of these methods are based on different theoretical basis and each of them has a specific educational and methodical procedure. This contribution represents results during a piloting project and draws pilot conclusions which will be verified in the subsequent broader research at the end of the school year of the first class of primary school.

Keywords: Analytic-synthetic method of reading, genetic method of reading, reading comprehension, reading literacy, reading methods, reading speed.

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Authors: Wullapa Wongsinlatam

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Back propagation algorithm (BP) is a widely used technique in artificial neural network and has been used as a tool for solving the time series problems, such as decreasing training time, maximizing the ability to fall into local minima, and optimizing sensitivity of the initial weights and bias. This paper proposes an improvement of a BP technique which is called IM-COH algorithm (IM-COH). By combining IM-COH algorithm with cuckoo search algorithm (CS), the result is cuckoo search improved control output hidden layer algorithm (CS-IM-COH). This new algorithm has a better ability in optimizing sensitivity of the initial weights and bias than the original BP algorithm. In this research, the algorithm of CS-IM-COH is compared with the original BP, the IM-COH, and the original BP with CS (CS-BP). Furthermore, the selected benchmarks, four time series samples, are shown in this research for illustration. The research shows that the CS-IM-COH algorithm give the best forecasting results compared with the selected samples.

Keywords: Artificial neural networks, back propagation algorithm, time series, local minima problem, metaheuristic optimization.

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Authors: Kamila Tišlerová

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This contribution aims to outline some topics around the process of introduction of compulsory electronic exchange of documents (so called e-Boxes) in public administration. The research was conducted in order to gauge the difference between the expectation of those using internal email and their experience in reality. Both qualitative and quantitative research is employed to lead also to an estimation of the willingness and readiness of government bodies, business units and citizens to adopt new technologies. At the same time the most potent barriers to successful e-communication through the e-Boxes are identified.

Keywords: E-Box, e-Government, electronic document exchange, digitalisation, public administration.

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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: Irfah Najihah Basir Malan, Norhana Salamudin, Noryati Ahmad

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Corporate ownership structure is an important factor influencing firm performance. This study aims to answer the question whether pyramid structure has negative effect on firm value. This study is important because the ownership of public listed companies in Malaysia is highly concentrated. The concentrated ownership such as Malaysia, agency conflict is prevalent between controlling shareholders and minority shareholders. Accordingly, the dominant role of shareholders in firms allows the controlling shareholders (including managers) to expropriate the interest of the minority shareholders for their own private advantage. This research is conducted on pyramidal firms in Malaysia. Applying the Attig Model as the underlying statistical test, it is found that firm value is negatively related to pyramid ownership of Malaysian public listed firms due to the mismatch between cash flow rights and control rights. Future research needs to focus on identifying the heterogeneous factors that improve the generalizability of research.

Keywords: Pyramid structure, Cash flow right, Control right, Firm value, Attig model.

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Authors: A.R.Rizulla, F.S.Tashimova, A.R. Massalimova, A.K.Mynbayeva, G.S.Abdiraiymova

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The importance of happiness understanding research is caused by cardinal changes experiences in system of people values in the post-Soviet countries territory. «The time of changes», which characterized with destruction of old values and not creativeness of new, stimulating experiences by the person of existential vacuum. The given research is actual not only in connection with sense formation, but also in connection with necessity creatively to adapt in integrative space. According to numerous works [1,2,3], we define happiness as the peak experience connected with satisfaction correlated system of needs, dependent on style of subject's coping behavior.

Keywords: Coping behavior, happiness, overcoming, psychological defense.

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Authors: M. Stoklasa, H. Starzyczna, L. Zotykova

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This article deals with consumer ethnocentrism in the Moravian-Silesian region in the Czech Republic. Research was focused on finding out how strong consumer ethnocentrism is in the region and how it depends on demographic factors. The used method is CETSCALE and the data were obtained by questionnaire survey, analyzed by IBM SPSS. From the thousands of respondents the representative sample of 414 for MS region was created based on demographic factors of gender, age, education and income. The research analysis disclosed that consumer ethnocentrism in MS region depends on education and income and is independent on gender and age.

Keywords: Consumer ethnocentrism, demographic factors, foreign products, local products.

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Authors: Roza Dastres, Mohsen Soori

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Networks are vulnerable devices due to their basic feature of facilitating remote access and data communication. The information in the networks needs to be kept secured and safe in order to provide an effective communication and sharing device in the web of data. Due to challenges and threats of the data in networks, the network security is one of the most important considerations in information technology infrastructures. As a result, the security measures are considered in the network in order to decrease the probability of accessing the secured data by the hackers. The purpose of network security is to protect the network and its components from unauthorized access and abuse in order to provide a safe and secured communication device for the users. In the present research work a review in recent development of network threats and security measures is presented and future research works are also suggested. Different attacks to the networks and security measured against them are discussed in order to increase security in the web of data. So, new ideas in the network security systems can be presented by analyzing the published papers in order to move forward the research field.

Keywords: Network threats, network security, security measures, firewalls.

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Authors: Fruzsina Pataki-Bittó, Edit Németh

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On the one hand, new technologies and communication tools improve employee productivity and accelerate information and knowledge transfer, while on the other hand, information overload and continuous interruptions make it even harder to concentrate at work. It is a great challenge for companies to find the right balance, while there is also an ongoing demand to recruit and retain the talented employees who are able to adopt the modern work style and effectively use modern communication tools. For this reason, this research does not focus on the objective measures of office interruptions, but aims to find those disruption factors which influence the comfort and job satisfaction of employees, and the way how they feel generally at work. The focus of this research is on how employees feel about the different types of interruptions, which are those they themselves identify as hindering factors, and those they feel as stress factors. By identifying and then reducing these destructive factors, job satisfaction can reach a higher level and employee turnover can be reduced. During the research, we collected information from depth interviews and questionnaires asking about work environment, communication channels used in the workplace, individual communication preferences, factors considered as disruptions, and individual steps taken to avoid interruptions. The questionnaire was completed by 141 office workers from several types of workplaces based in Hungary. Even though 66 respondents are working at Hungarian offices of multinational companies, the research is about the characteristics of the Hungarian labor force. The most important result of the research shows that while more than one third of the respondents consider office noise as a disturbing factor, personal inquiries are welcome and considered useful, even if in such cases the work environment will not be convenient to solve tasks requiring concentration. Analyzing the sizes of the offices, in an open-space environment, the rate of those who consider office noise as a disturbing factor is surprisingly lower than in smaller office rooms. Opinions are more diverse regarding information communication technologies. In addition to the interruption factors affecting the employees' job satisfaction, the research also focuses on the role of the offices in the 21^st century.

Keywords: Information overload, interruption, job satisfaction, office environment, work efficiency.

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Authors: Pedro Padilha Gonçalves, Doris C. C. K. Kowaltowski, Benjamin Cleveland

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Trends in education affect schooling, needing incorporation into design concepts to support desired learning processes with appropriate and stimulating environments. A design process for school architecture demands research, debates, reflections, and efficient decision-making methods. This paper presents research on evidence-based design, related to middle schools, based on a systematic literature review and the elaboration of a set of architectural design patterns, through a graphic translation of new concepts for classroom configurations, to support programming debates and the synthesis phase of design. The investigation resulted in nine patterns that configure the concepts of boundaries, flexibility, levels of openness, mindsets, neighborhoods, movement and interaction, territories, opportunities for learning, and sightlines for classrooms. The research is part of a continuous investigation of design methods, on contemporary school architecture to produce an architectural pattern matrix based on scientific information translated into an insightful graphic design language.

Keywords: School architecture, design process, design patterns, evidence-based design.

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Authors: Robson C. Santos, Julio C. P. Ribeiro, Iorran M. de Castro, Luan C. F. Rodrigues, Sandro R. L. Silva, Diego M. Quesada

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The work aims to develop a robot in the form of autonomous vehicle to detect, inspection and mapping of underground pipelines through the ATmega328 Arduino platform. Hardware prototyping is very similar to C / C ++ language that facilitates its use in robotics open source, resembles PLC used in large industrial processes. The robot will traverse the surface independently of direct human action, in order to automate the process of detecting buried pipes, guided by electromagnetic induction. The induction comes from coils that send the signal to the Arduino microcontroller contained in that will make the difference in intensity and the treatment of the information, and then this determines actions to electrical components such as relays and motors, allowing the prototype to move on the surface and getting the necessary information. This change of direction is performed by a stepper motor with a servo motor. The robot was developed by electrical and electronic assemblies that allowed test your application. The assembly is made up of metal detector coils, circuit boards and microprocessor, which interconnected circuits previously developed can determine, process control and mechanical actions for a robot (autonomous car) that will make the detection and mapping of buried pipelines plates. This type of prototype can prevent and identifies possible landslides and they can prevent the buried pipelines suffer an external pressure on the walls with the possibility of oil leakage and thus pollute the environment.

Keywords: Robotic, metal detector, embedded system, pipeline.

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Authors: Chutima Klaysung

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This research aims to study the factors that influence the decision to choose the spa service of consumers in Amphawa, Samut Songkhram, Thailand. The research method will use quantitative research; data were collected by questionnaires distributed to spa consumers, both female and male, aged between 20 years and 70 years in the Amphawa, Samut Songkhram area for 400 samples by convenience sampling method. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics including percentage, mean, standard deviation and inferential statistics, including Pearson correlation for hypothesis testing. The results showed that the demographic variables including age, education, occupation, income and frequency of access to service spa were related to the decision to choose the spa service of consumers in Amphawa, Samut Songkhram. In addition, the researchers found the marketing mixed factors such as products, prices, places, promotion, personnel selling, physical evidence and processes were associated with the decision to choose the spa service of consumers in Amphawa, Samut Songkhram, Thailand.

Keywords: Consumers in Amphawa, Samut Songkhram, Thailand, decision to choose a spa service, marketing mixed factor, spa service.

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Authors: Tariq Rahim Soomro, Muhammad Sarwar

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During recent years, attention in 'Green Computing' has moved research into energy-saving techniques for home computers to enterprise systems' Client and Server machines. Saving energy or reduction of carbon footprints is one of the aspects of Green Computing. The research in the direction of Green Computing is more than just saving energy and reducing carbon foot prints. This study provides a brief account of Green Computing. The emphasis of this study is on current trends in Green Computing; challenges in the field of Green Computing and the future trends of Green Computing.

Keywords: Energy consumption, e-waste recycling, Green Computing, Green IT

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Authors: L. Richter, J. Lübkemann, P. Nyhuis

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In order to remain competitive in what is a turbulent environment; businesses must be able to react rapidly to change. The past response to volatile market conditions was to introduce an element of flexibility to production. Nowadays, what is often required is a redesign of factory structures in order to cope with the state of constant flux. The Institute of Production Systems and Logistics is currently developing a descriptive and causal model for the redesign of plant structures as part of an ongoing research project. This article presents the first research findings attained in devising this model.

Keywords: Causal model, change driven factory redesign, factory planning, plant structure.

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Authors: B. Kettana

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Nowadays, financial and economic crises are growing more and reach more countries and sectors. These events have, as a result, a considerable impact on the activities of the firms which think unstable and in danger. But besides this heavy uncertainty which weighs on the different firms, the family firm, object of our research, is not only confronted with these external difficulties but also with an internal challenge and of size: that of transmission. Indeed, the transmission of an organization from one generation to another can succeed as it can fail; leaving considerable damage. Our research registers as part of these problems since we tried to understand relation between the behavior of two main actors of the process of succession, predecessor and successor; and the success of transmission.

Keywords: Family business, transmission, success, predecessor, successor.

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Authors: Anna Dolinayova, Juraj Camaj, Martin Loch

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Presently, it is necessary to ensure the sustainable development of passenger and freight transport. Increasing performance of road freight has had a negative impact to environment and society. It is therefore necessary to increase the competitiveness of intermodal transport, which is more environmentally friendly. The study describes the effectiveness of logistical centers realization for companies and society and research how the partial internalization of external costs reflected in the efficient use of these centers and increase the competitiveness of intermodal transport to road freight. In our research, we use the method of comparative analysis and market research to describe the advantages of logistic centers for their users as well as for society as a whole. Method normal costing is used for calculation infrastructure and total costs, method of conversion costing for determine the external costs. We modelled total society costs for road freight transport and inter modal transport chain (we assumed that most of the traffic is carried by rail) with different loading schemes for condition in the Slovak Republic. Our research has shown that higher utilization of inter modal transport chain do good not only for society, but for companies providing freight services too. Increase in use of inter modal transport chain can bring many benefits to society that do not bring direct immediate financial return. They often bring the multiplier effects, such as greater use of environmentally friendly transport mode and reduce the total society costs.

Keywords: Delivery time, economy effectiveness, logistical centers, ecological efficiency, optimization, society.

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Authors: Martins Sabovics, Karina Ruse, Evita Straumite, Ruta Galoburda

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The research was accomplished on triticale flour blend, which was made from whole grain triticale, rye, hull-less barley flour and rice, maize flour. The aim of this research was to evaluate physico-chemical and sensory properties of triticale flour blend dough in the mixing and fermentation processes. For dough making was used triticale flour blend, yeast, sugar, salt, and water. In the mixing process ware evaluated moisture, acidity, pH, and dough sensory properties (softness, viscosity, and stickiness), but in the fermentation process ware evaluated volume, moisture, acidity, and pH. During present research was established that increasing fermentation temperature and time, increase dough temperature, volume, moisture, and acidity. The mixing time and fermentation time and temperature have significant effect (p<0.05) on triticale flour blend dough physico-chemical and sensory properties.

Keywords: Dough quality, dough fermentation, dough mixing, triticale flour blend.

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Authors: Dmitriy Yu. Korulkin, Ravshan M. Nuraliev, Raissa A. Muzychkina

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In this research paper were investigated the main regularities of a radical bromination reaction of decalin. There had been studied the temperature effect, durations of reaction, frequency rate of process, a ratio of initial components, type and number of the initiator on decalin bromination degree. There were specified optimum conditions of synthesis of a perbromodecalin by the method of a decalin bromination. There are developed the technological flowchart of receiving a perbromodecalin and the mass balance of process on the first and the subsequent loadings of components. The results of research of antibacterial and antifungal activity of synthesized bromoderivatives have been represented.

Keywords: Decalin, optimum technology, perbromodecalin, radical bromination.

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Authors: Frank C. Pan

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The Taiwan Health Literacy Scale (THLS) was developed to cope with the need of measuring heath literacy of Chinese-speaking adults in Taiwan. Although the scale was proven having good reliability and validity, it was not popularly adopted by the practitioners due to the length, and the time required completing. Based on the THLS, this research further invited healthcare professionals to review the original scale for a possible shorten work. Under the logic of THLS, the research adopted an analytic hierarchy process technique to consolidate the healthcare experts- assessments to shorten the original scale. There are fifteen items out of the original 66 items were identified having higher loadings. Confirmed by the experts and passed a pilot test with 40 undergraduate students, a short form of THLS is then introduced. This research then used 839 samples from the major cities of the Hua-lien county in the eastern part of Taiwan to test the reliability and validity of this new scale. The reliability of the scale is high and acceptable. The current scale is also highly correlated with the original, of which provide evidence for the validity of the scale.

Keywords: Health literacy, THLS, health education, STHLS.

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Authors: Richard L. Summers

Abstract:

The advanced computational analysis of biological systems is becoming increasingly dependent upon an understanding of the information-theoretic structure of the materials, energy and interactive processes that comprise those systems. The stability and survival of these living systems is fundamentally contingent upon their ability to acquire and process the meaning of information concerning the physical state of its biological continuum (biocontinuum). The drive for adaptive system reconciliation of a divergence from steady state within this biocontinuum can be described by an information metric-based formulation of the process for actionable knowledge acquisition that incorporates the axiomatic inference of Kullback-Leibler information minimization driven by survival replicator dynamics. If the mathematical expression of this process is the Lagrangian integrand for any change within the biocontinuum then it can also be considered as an action functional for the living system. In the direct method of Lyapunov, such a summarizing mathematical formulation of global system behavior based on the driving forces of energy currents and constraints within the system can serve as a platform for the analysis of stability. As the system evolves in time in response to biocontinuum perturbations, the summarizing function then conveys information about its overall stability. This stability information portends survival and therefore has absolute existential meaning for the living system. The first derivative of the Lyapunov energy information function will have a negative trajectory toward a system steady state if the driving force is dissipating. By contrast, system instability leading to system dissolution will have a positive trajectory. The direction and magnitude of the vector for the trajectory then serves as a quantifiable signature of the meaning associated with the living system’s stability information, homeostasis and survival potential.

Keywords: Semiotic meaning, Shannon information, Lyapunov, living systems.

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Authors: Ilham Benali, Nasser Hajji, Nawfal Acha

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Given the fact that the pharmaceutical industry is a commonly studied sector in the context of innovation, the majority of innovation research is devoted to the developed markets known by high research and development (R&D) assets and intensive innovation. In contrast, in developing countries where R&D assets are very low, there is relatively little research to mention in the area of pharmaceutical sector innovation, characterized mainly by two principal elements which are the presence of foreign-owned firms and licensed manufacturing agreements between local firms and multinationals. With the scarcity of research in this field, this paper attempts to study the effect of these two elements on the firms’ innovation tendencies. Other traditional factors that influence innovation, which are the age and the size of the firm, the R&D activities and the market structure, revealed in the literature review, will be included in the study in order to try to make this work more exhaustive. The study starts by examining innovation tendency in pharmaceutical firms located in developing countries before analyzing the effect of foreign-owned firms and licensed manufacturing agreements between local firms and multinationals on technological, organizational and marketing innovation. Based on the related work and on the theoretical framework developed, there is a probability that foreign-owned firms and licensed manufacturing agreements between local firms and multinationals have a negative influence on technological innovation. The opposite effect is possible in the case of organizational and marketing innovation.

Keywords: Developing countries, foreign owned firms, innovation, licensed manufacturing agreements, pharmaceutical industry.

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Authors: E. Happ, A. Albert Tóth

Abstract:

The aim of the research is to investigate the forms of the demands of leisure tourism in a West-Hungarian industrial city, Győr. Today, Győr is still a traditional industrial city, its industry is mainly based on vehicle industry, but the role of tourism is increasing in the life of the city as well. Because of the industrial nature and the strong economy of the city, the ratio of business tourists is high. It can be stated that MICE tourism is dominating in Győr. Developments of the last decade can help the city with new tourism products to increase the leisure tourism. The new types of tourism – besides business tourism – can help the providers to increase the occupancy rates and the demand at the weekends. The research demonstrates the theoretical background of the topic, and it shows the present situation of the tourism in Győr with secondary data. The secondary research contains statistical data from the Hungarian Statistical Office and the city council, and it is based on the providers’ data. The next part of the paper shows the potential types of leisure tourism with the help of primary research. The primary research contains the results of an online questionnaire with a sample of 1000 potential customers. It is completed with 10 in-depth interviews with tourism experts, who explained their opinions about the opportunities of leisure tourism in Győr from the providers’ side. The online questionnaire was filled out in spring 2017 by customers, who have already stayed in Győr or plan to visit the city. At the same time in-depth interviews were made with hotel managers, head of touristic institutions and employees at the council. Based on the research it can be stated that the touristic supply of Győr allows the increase of the leisure tourism ratio in the city. Primarily, the cultural and health tourism show potential development, but the supply side of touristic services can be developed in order to increase the number of guest nights. The tourism marketing needs to be strengthened in the city, and a distinctive marketing activity - from other cities - is needed as well. To conclude, although Győr is an industrial city, it has a transforming industrial part, and tourism is also strongly present in its economy. Besides the leading role of business tourism, different types of leisure tourism have the opportunity to take place in the city.

Keywords: Business Tourism, Győr, industrial city, leisure tourism, touristic demand.

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Authors: Oktavian Muhammad Rizki, Appiah Rita, Lastres Oscar, Miller True, Chapman Alec, Tsoukalas Lefteri H.

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The Purdue University Research Reactor-1 (PUR-1) is a 10 kWth pool-type research reactor located at Purdue University’s West Lafayette campus. The reactor was recently upgraded to use entirely digital instrumentation and control systems. However, currently, there is no automated control system to regulate the power in the reactor. We propose a fuzzy logic controller as a form of digital twin to complement the existing digital instrumentation system to monitor and stabilize power control using existing experimental data. This work assesses the feasibility of a power controller based on a Fuzzy Rule-Based System (FRBS) by modelling and simulation with a MATLAB algorithm. The controller uses power error and reactor period as inputs and generates reactivity insertion as output. The reactivity insertion is then converted to control rod height using a logistic function based on information from the recorded experimental reactor control rod data. To test the capability of the proposed fuzzy controller, a point-kinetic reactor model is utilized based on the actual PUR-1 operation conditions and a Monte Carlo N-Particle simulation result of the core to numerically compute the neutronics parameters of reactor behavior. The Point Kinetic Equation (PKE) was employed to model dynamic characteristics of the research reactor since it explains the interactions between the spatial and time varying input and output variables efficiently. The controller is demonstrated computationally using various cases: startup, power maneuver, and shutdown. From the test results, it can be proved that the implemented fuzzy controller can satisfactorily regulate the reactor power to follow demand power without compromising nuclear safety measures.

Keywords: Fuzzy logic controller, power controller, reactivity, research reactor.

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Authors: Kunyanuth Kularbphettong, Cholticha Tongsiri

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The purpose of this research aims to discover the knowledge for analysis student motivation behavior on e-Learning based on Data Mining Techniques, in case of the Information Technology for Communication and Learning Course at Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University. The data mining techniques was applied in this research including association rules, classification techniques. The results showed that using data mining technique can indicate the important variables that influence the student motivation behavior on e-Learning.

Keywords: association rule mining, classification techniques, e- Learning, Moodle log Motivation Behavior

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Authors: Van Chung Nguyen

Abstract:

The purpose of this research is to study the current status of the value chain for fish distribution at Quang Binh Fishing Port with 360 research samples, in which the research subjects are fishermen, traders, retailers, and businesses. The research uses the approach of applying the value chain theoretical framework of Kaplinsky and Morris to quantify and describe market channels and actors participating in the value chain and analyze the value-added process of these companies according to market channels. The analysis results show that fishermen directly catch fish with high economic efficiency, but processing enterprises and, especially retailers, are the agents to obtain higher added value. Processing enterprises play a role that is not really clear due to outdated processing technology; in contrast, retailers have the highest added value. This shows that the added value of the fish supply chain at Quang Binh fishing port is still limited, leading to low output quality. Therefore, the selling price of fish to the market is still high compared to the abundant fish resources, leading to low consumption and limiting exports due to the quality of processing enterprises. This reduces demand and fishing capacity, and productivity is lower than potential. To improve the fish value chain at fishing ports, it is necessary to focus on improving product quality, strengthening linkages between actors, building brands and product consumption markets at the same time, improving the capacity of export processing enterprises.

Keywords: Quang Binh fishing port, value chain, fish market, distributions channel.

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Authors: Vesna Bosilj Vukšić, Lucija Ivančić, Dalia Suša Vugec

Abstract:

While struggling to succeed in today’s complex market environment and provide better customer experience and services, enterprises encompass digital transformation as a means for reaching competitiveness and foster value creation. A digital transformation process consists of information technology implementation projects, as well as organizational factors such as top management support, digital transformation strategy, and organizational changes. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is little evidence about digital transformation endeavors in organizations and how they perceive it – is it only about digital technologies adoption or a true organizational shift is needed? In order to address this issue and as the first step in our research project, a literature review is conducted. The analysis included case study papers from Scopus and Web of Science databases. The following attributes are considered for classification and analysis of papers: time component; country of case origin; case industry and; digital transformation concept comprehension, i.e. focus. Research showed that organizations – public, as well as private ones, are aware of change necessity and employ digital transformation projects. Also, the changes concerning digital transformation affect both manufacturing and service-based industries. Furthermore, we discovered that organizations understand that besides technologies implementation, organizational changes must also be adopted. However, with only 29 relevant papers identified, research positioned digital transformation as an unexplored and emerging phenomenon in information systems research. The scarcity of evidence-based papers calls for further examination of this topic on cases from practice.

Keywords: Digital strategy, digital technologies, digital transformation, literature review.

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Authors: Hossein Tavallali, Mohammad Ali Karimi, Gohar Deilamy-Rad

Abstract:

The proposed method for speciation, preconcentration and determination of Fe(II) and Fe(III) in pharmaceutical products was developed using of alumina-coated magnetite nanoparticles (Fe₃O₄/Al₂O₃ NPs) as solid phase extraction (SPE) sorbent in magnetic mixed hemimicell solid phase extraction (MMHSPE) technique followed by flame atomic absorption spectrometry analysis. The procedure is based on complexation of Fe(II) with 1, 10-phenanthroline (OP) as complexing reagent for Fe(II) that immobilized on the modified Fe₃O₄/Al₂O₃ NPs. The extraction and concentration process for pharmaceutical sample was carried out in a single step by mixing the extraction solvent, magnetic adsorbents under ultrasonic action. Then, the adsorbents were isolated from the complicated matrix easily with an external magnetic field. Fe(III) ions determined after facility reduced to Fe(II) by added a proper reduction agent to sample solutions. Compared with traditional methods, the MMHSPE method simplified the operation procedure and reduced the analysis time. Various influencing parameters on the speciation and preconcentration of trace iron, such as pH, sample volume, amount of sorbent, type and concentration of eluent, were studied. Under the optimized operating conditions, the preconcentration factor of the modified nano magnetite for Fe(II) 167 sample was obtained. The detection limits and linear range of this method for iron were 1.0 and 9.0 - 175 ng.mL⁻¹, respectively. Also the relative standard deviation for five replicate determinations of 30.00 ng.mL^-1 Fe²⁺ was 2.3%.

Keywords: Alumina-coated magnetite nanoparticles, magnetic mixed hemimicell solid-phase extraction, Fe(ΙΙ) and Fe(ΙΙΙ), pharmaceutical sample.

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