Search results for: social capital theory
2272 The Didactic Transposition in Brazilian High School Physics Textbooks: A Comparative Study of Didactic Materials
Authors: Leandro Marcos Alves Vaz
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In this article, we analyze the different approaches to the topic Magnetism of Matter in physics textbooks of Brazilian schools. For this, we compared the approach to the concepts of the magnetic characteristics of materials (diamagnetism, paramagnetism, ferromagnetism and antiferromagnetism) in different sources of information and in different levels of education, from Higher Education to High School. In this sense, we used as reference the theory of the Didactic Transposition of Yves Chevallard, a French educational theorist, who conceived in his theory three types of knowledge – Scholarly Knowledge, Knowledge to be taught and Taught Knowledge – related to teaching practice. As a research methodology, from the reading of the works used in teacher training and those destined to basic education students, we compared the treatment of a higher education physics book, a scientific article published in a Brazilian journal of the educational area, and four high school textbooks, in order to establish in which there is a greater or lesser degree of approximation with the knowledge produced by the scholars – scholarly knowledge – or even with the knowledge to be taught (to that found in books intended for teaching). Thus, we evaluated the level of proximity of the subjects conveyed in high school and higher education, as well as the relevance that some textbook authors give to the theme.Keywords: Magnetism of matter, teaching of physics, didactic transposition, Brazilian physics books.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12742271 Water Crisis Management in a Tourism Dependent Community
Authors: Aishath Shakeela
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At a global level, water stewardship, water stress and water security are crucial factors in tourism planning and development considerations. Challenges associated with water is of particular concern to the Maldives as there is limited availability of freshwater, high dependency on desalinated water, and high unit cost associated with desalinating water. While the Maldives is promoted as an example of sustainable tourism, a key sustainability challenge facing tourism dependent communities is the efficient use and management of available water resources. A water crisis event in the capital island of Maldives highlighted how precarious water related issues are in this tourism dependent destination. Applying netnography, the focus of this working paper is to present community perceptions of how government policies addressed Malé Water and Sewerage Company (MWSC) water crisis event.Keywords: Crisis management, government policies, Maldives, tourism, water.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21172270 Social, Group and Individual Mind extracted from Rule Bases of Multiple Agents
Authors: P. Cermak
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This paper shows possibility of extraction Social, Group and Individual Mind from Multiple Agents Rule Bases. Types those Rule bases are selected as two fuzzy systems, namely Mambdani and Takagi-Sugeno fuzzy system. Their rule bases are describing (modeling) agent behavior. Modifying of agent behavior in the time varying environment will be provided by learning fuzzyneural networks and optimization of their parameters with using genetic algorithms in development system FUZNET. Finally, extraction Social, Group and Individual Mind from Multiple Agents Rule Bases are provided by Cognitive analysis and Matching criterion.Keywords: Mind, Multi-agent system, Cognitive analysis, Fuzzy system, Neural network, Genetic algorithm, Rule base.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12532269 Experimental Testing of Statistical Size Effect in Civil Engineering Structures
Authors: Jana Kaděrová, Miroslav Vořechovský
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The presented paper copes with an experimental evaluation of a model based on modified Weibull size effect theory. Classical statistical Weibull theory was modified by introducing a new parameter (correlation length lp) representing the spatial autocorrelation of a random mechanical properties of material. This size effect modification was observed on two different materials used in civil engineering: unreinforced (plain) concrete and multi-filament yarns made of alkaliresistant (AR) glass which are used for textile-reinforced concrete. The behavior under flexural, resp. tensile loading was investigated by laboratory experiments. A high number of specimens of different sizes was tested to obtain statistically significant data which were subsequently corrected and statistically processed. Due to a distortion of the measured displacements caused by the unstiff experiment device, only the maximal load values were statistically evaluated. Results of the experiments showed a decreasing strength with an increasing sample length. Size effect curves were obtained and the correlation length was fitted according to measured data. Results did not exclude the existence of the proposed new parameter lp.
Keywords: Statistical size effect, concrete, multi filaments yarns, experiment, autocorrelation length.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19852268 Supporting Technology Transfer with Communities and Social Software Solutions
Authors: G. Schuh, S. Aghassi
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In order to bridge the gap between research and industry, promoting technology and knowledge transfer becomes increasingly important. Especially small- and medium-sized enterprises, having only little R&D resources themselves, depend on external technology development activities for remaining innovative. Academia research on the other hand needs potential industrial partners, who are capable and willing to commercialize their technologies as most public funding programs require some sort of technology transfer or dissemination activities. Modern web technologies offer more and more “social” functionalities and open up new ways of user interaction. In the past years several technology transfer platforms were developed, making use of modern web technologies in order to enable and support technology transfer. In this paper we report on the results of a state-of-the art analyses of existing technology transfer platforms, point out their advantages and deficits and give a perspective to the development of an improved technology transfer platform.
Keywords: Knowledge transfer, social software, technology management, technology transfer.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16982267 Promoting Authenticity in Employer Brands to Address the Global-Local Problem in Complex Organisations: The Case of a Developing Country
Authors: Saud A. Taj
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Employer branding is considered as a useful tool for addressing the global-local problem facing complex organisations that have operations scattered across the globe and face challenges of dealing with the local environment alongside. Despite being an established field of study within the Western developed world, there is little empirical evidence concerning the relevance of employer branding to global companies that operate in the under-developed economies. This paper fills this gap by gaining rich insight into the implementation of employer branding programs in a foreign multinational operating in Pakistan dealing with the global-local problem. The study is qualitative in nature and employs semistructured and focus group interviews with senior/middle managers and local frontline employees to deeply examine the phenomenon in case organisation. Findings suggest that authenticity is required in employer brands to enable them to respond to the local needs thereby leading to the resolution of the global-local problem. However, the role of signaling theory is key to the development of authentic employer brands as it stresses on the need to establish an efficient and effective signaling environment where in signals travel in both directions (from signal designers to receivers and backwards) and facilitate firms with the global-local problem. The paper also identifies future avenues of research for the employer branding field.
Keywords: Authenticity, Counter-signals, Employer Branding, Global-Local Problem, Signaling Theory.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18082266 A Preference-Based Multi-Agent Data Mining Framework for Social Network Service Users' Decision Making
Authors: Ileladewa Adeoye Abiodun, Cheng Wai Khuen
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Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) emerged in the pursuit to improve our standard of living, and hence can manifest complex human behaviors such as communication, decision making, negotiation and self-organization. The Social Network Services (SNSs) have attracted millions of users, many of whom have integrated these sites into their daily practices. The domains of MAS and SNS have lots of similarities such as architecture, features and functions. Exploring social network users- behavior through multiagent model is therefore our research focus, in order to generate more accurate and meaningful information to SNS users. An application of MAS is the e-Auction and e-Rental services of the Universiti Cyber AgenT(UniCAT), a Social Network for students in Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), Kampar, Malaysia, built around the Belief- Desire-Intention (BDI) model. However, in spite of the various advantages of the BDI model, it has also been discovered to have some shortcomings. This paper therefore proposes a multi-agent framework utilizing a modified BDI model- Belief-Desire-Intention in Dynamic and Uncertain Situations (BDIDUS), using UniCAT system as a case study.
Keywords: Distributed Data Mining, Multi-Agent Systems, Preference-Based, SNS.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15032265 The Role of Paraphrase in Interpreting Students’ Writing
Authors: Maya Lisa Aryanti, S. S. M. Hum
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To improve students’ skill, writing is the most challenging skill to be developed. The reason is that besides helping the students to develop their skill, this activity also helps them to express themselves. This paper depicts how paraphrasing is very helpful to interpret students’ writing. Syntactic units, used tenses and meanings will indeed change once the writings were paraphrased. The objectives of this research are to reveal the inappropriate structure of syntactic units, to show what types of sentences the students often make, and to show how paraphrasing can help to infer the message. The methodology of this research is descriptive qualitative research. In addition, theories of linguistics are also included. This includes theory of Syntax to describe syntactic units and tenses and theory of Semantics to describe theories of meaning and how paraphrasing works. The theories of general linguistics, grammar and writing are also provided to support the theories of Syntax and Semantics. The results of this research are concerned with how the message is received in the end. The message written in the students’ essay is not clear because of the improper structure of syntactic units and use of incorrect of tenses. The students tend to use simple sentences, compound sentences and complex sentences with a few mistakes in their writing. In addition, they tend to create unnecessary phrases. The last point is that this research shows how paraphrase works to attain complete meaning of a sentence.
Keywords: Paraphrase, meanings, syntactic units and tenses.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 10172264 Features for Measuring Credibility on Facebook Information
Authors: Kanda Runapongsa Saikaew, Chaluemwut Noyunsan
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Nowadays social media information, such as news, links, images, or VDOs, is shared extensively. However, the effectiveness of disseminating information through social media lacks in quality: less fact checking, more biases, and several rumors. Many researchers have investigated about credibility on Twitter, but there is no the research report about credibility information on Facebook. This paper proposes features for measuring credibility on Facebook information. We developed the system for credibility on Facebook. First, we have developed FB credibility evaluator for measuring credibility of each post by manual human’s labelling. We then collected the training data for creating a model using Support Vector Machine (SVM). Secondly, we developed a chrome extension of FB credibility for Facebook users to evaluate the credibility of each post. Based on the usage analysis of our FB credibility chrome extension, about 81% of users’ responses agree with suggested credibility automatically computed by the proposed system.
Keywords: Facebook, social media, credibility measurement.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 36692263 Discrimination in Primary Education in the Slums of Turkey: Problems about Equity of Education
Authors: Erten Gokce
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This study was carried out in Ankara, the capital city of Turkey, in order to determine how people living in the slums of Ankara benefit from educational equality. Within the scope of the research, interviews were made with 64 families whose children have been getting education from the primary schools of these parts and the data of the study was collected by the researcher. The results of the research demonstrate that the children getting education in the slums of Ankara can not experience educational equality and justice. The results of this study show that the opportunities of the schools in the slums of Ankara are very limited, so the individuals in these districts can not equally benefit from the education. The families are aware of the problem they are faced with. KeywordsDiscrimination, inequality, primary education, slums of Turkey.
Keywords: Discrimination, inequality, primary education, slums of Turkey.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16092262 Collaborative E-Learning with Multiple Imaginary Co-Learner: Design, Issues and Implementation
Authors: Melvin Ballera, Mosbah Mohamed Elssaedi, Ahmed Khalil Zohdy
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Collaborative problem solving in e-learning can take in the form of discussion among learner, creating a highly social learning environment and characterized by participation and interactivity. This paper, designed a collaborative learning environment where agent act as co-learner, can play different roles during interaction. Since different roles have been assigned to the agent, learner will assume that multiple co-learner exists to help and guide him all throughout the collaborative problem solving process, but in fact, alone during the learning process. Specifically, it answers the questions what roles of the agent should be incorporated to contribute better learning outcomes, how agent will facilitate the communication process to provide social learning and interactivity and what are the specific instructional strategies that facilitate learner participation, increased skill acquisition and develop critical thinking.Keywords: Collaborative e-learning, collaborative problem solving, , imaginary co-learner, social learning.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16042261 Enhancing Customer Loyalty towards Corporate Social Responsibility of Thai Mobile Service Providers
Authors: Wichai Onlaor, Siriluck Rotchanakitumnuai
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The aim of this research is to develop the understanding of corporate social responsibility (CSR) from consumers- perspective toward Thai mobile service providers. Based on the survey from 400 mobile customers, the result shows that four dimensions of CSR of Thai mobile service providers consist of economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic responsibility. These four CSR factors have positive impacts on enhancing customer satisfaction except one item of economic responsibility - profitability to shareholders. Ethical dimension has the strongest impact on customer satisfaction. Economic, legal, ethical, philanthropic responsibility and customer satisfaction have major impact on loyalty, whilst philanthropic component mostly affects loyalty.Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility, PriceFairness, Service Quality, Privacy Concern, CustomerSatisfaction, Customer Loyalty
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 34092260 Network Effects and QoS as Determining Factors in Selection of Mobile Operator: A Case Study from Higher Learning Institution in Dodoma Municipality in Tanzania
Authors: Justinian Anatory, Ekael Stephen Manase
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The use of mobile phones is growing tremendously all over the world. In Tanzania there are a number of operators licensed by Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) aiming at attracting customers into their networks. So far telecommunications market competition has been very stiff. Various measures are being taken by mobile operators to survive in the market. Such measure include introducing of different air time bundles on daily, weekly and monthly at lower tariffs. Other measures include the introduction of normal tariff, tourist package and one network. Despite of all these strategies, there is a dynamic competition in the market which needs to be explored. Some influences which attract customers to choose a certain mobile operator are of particular interest. This paper is investigating if the network effects and Quality of Services (QoS) influence mobile customers in selection of their mobile network operators. Seventy seven students from high learning institutions in Dodoma Municipality in Tanzania participated in responding to prepared questionnaires. The data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) Software. The results indicate that, network coverage does influence customers in selection of mobile operators. In addition, this paper proposes further research in some areas especially where the study came up with different findings from what the theory has in place.
Keywords: Network effects, Quality of services, Consumer Buying, mobile operators.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23422259 Agreement Options on Multi Criteria Group Decision and Negotiation
Authors: Christiono Utomo, Arazi Idrus, Madzlan Napiah, Mohd. Faris Khamidi
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This paper presents a conceptual model of agreement options on negotiation support for civil engineering decision. The negotiation support facilitates the solving of group choice decision making problems in civil engineering decision to reduce the impact of mud volcano disaster in Sidoarjo, Indonesia. The approach based on application of analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method for multi criteria decision on three level of decision hierarchy. Decisions for reducing impact is very complicated since many parties involved in a critical time. Where a number of stakeholders are involved in choosing a single alternative from a set of solution alternatives, there are different concern caused by differing stakeholder preferences, experiences, and background. Therefore, a group choice decision support is required to enable each stakeholder to evaluate and rank the solution alternatives before engaging into negotiation with the other stakeholders. Such civil engineering solutions as alternatives are referred to as agreement options that are determined by identifying the possible stakeholder choice, followed by determining the optimal solution for each group of stakeholder. Determination of the optimal solution is based on a game theory model of n-person general sum game with complete information that involves forming coalitions among stakeholders.Keywords: Agreement options, AHP, agent, negotiation, multicriteria, game theory, and coalition.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16422258 An Integrated Planning Framework for Sustainable Tourism: Case Study of Tunisia
Authors: S. Halioui, I. Arikan, M. Schmidt
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Tourism sector in Tunisia faces several problems that range from economic challenges to environmental degradation and social instability. These problems have been intensified because of the increased competition in the tourism market, the political instability, financial crises, and recently terrorism problems have aggravated the situation. As a consequence, a new framework that promotes sustainable tourism in the country and increases its competitiveness is urgently needed. Planning for sustainable tourism sector requires the integration of complex interactions between economic, social and environmental aspects. Sustainable tourism principles can be implemented with the help of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) process, which ensures the full integration of economic, social and environmental considerations while planning for the tourism sector in Tunisia. Results of the paper have broad implications for policy makers and tourism professionals.Keywords: Sustainable tourism, strategic environmental assessment, tourism planning, policy.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15042257 Experimental Investigation of Surface Roughness Effect on Single Phase Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer in Micro-Tube
Authors: Mesbah. M. Salem, Mohamed. H. Elhsnawi, Saleh B. Mohamed
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An experimental investigation was conducted to study the effect of surface roughness on friction factor and heat transfer characteristics in single-phase fluid flow in a stainless steel micro-tube having diameter of 0.85 mm and average internal surface roughness of 1.7 μm with relative surface roughness of 0.002. Distilled water and R134a liquids were used as the working fluids and testing was conducted with Reynolds numbers ranging from 100 to 10,000 covering laminar, transition and turbulent flow conditions. The experiments were conducted with the micro-tube oriented horizontally with uniform heat fluxes applied at the test section. The results indicated that the friction factor of both water and R134a can be predicted by the Hagen-Poiseuille equation for laminar flow and the modified Miller correlation for turbulent flow and early transition from laminar to turbulent flows. The heat transfer results of water and R134a were in good agreement with the conventional theory in the laminar flow region and lower than the Adam’s correlation for turbulent flow region which deviates from conventional theory.
Keywords: Pressure drop, heat transfer, distilled water, R134a, micro-tube, laminar and turbulent flow.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 38552256 User Selections on Social Network Applications
Authors: C. C. Liang
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MSN used to be the most popular application for communicating among social networks, but Facebook chat is now the most popular. Facebook and MSN have similar characteristics, including usefulness, ease-of-use, and a similar function, which is the exchanging of information with friends. Facebook outperforms MSN in both of these areas. However, the adoption of Facebook and abandonment of MSN have occurred for other reasons. Functions can be improved, but users’ willingness to use does not just depend on functionality. Flow status has been established to be crucial to users’ adoption of cyber applications and to affects users’ adoption of software applications. If users experience flow in using software application, they will enjoy using it frequently, and even change their preferred application from an old to this new one. However, no investigation has examined choice behavior related to switching from Facebook to MSN based on a consideration of flow experiences and functions. This investigation discusses the flow experiences and functions of social-networking applications. Flow experience is found to affect perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness; perceived ease of use influences information ex-change with friends, and perceived usefulness; information exchange influences perceived usefulness, but information exchange has no effect on flow experience.Keywords: Consumer behavior, social media, technology acceptance model.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14062255 Investigating Cultural, Artistic and Architectural Consequences of Mongolian Invasion of Iran and Establishment of Ilkhanate Dynasty
Authors: Hamid Mamani, Negin Sharifi, Nangkula Utaberta
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Social, culture and artistic status of a society in various historical eras is affected by numerous, and sometimes imposed, factors that better understanding requires analysis of such conditions. Throughout history Iran has been involved with determining and significant events that examining each of these events can improve the understanding of social conditions of this country in the intended time. Mongolian conquest of Iran is one of most significant events in the history of Iran with consequences that never left Iranian societies. During this tragic invasion and subsequent devastating wars, which led to establishment of Ilkhanate dynasty, numerous cultural and artistic changes occurred both in Mongolian conquerors and Iranian society. This study examines these changes with a glimpse towards art and architecture as important part of cultural aspects and social communication.Keywords: Art and Architecture, Exchanging cultures, Ilkhanates, War
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23082254 Culture Dimensions of Information Systems Security in Saudi Arabia National Health Services
Authors: Saleh Alumaran, Giampaolo Bella, Feng Chen
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The study of organisations’ information security cultures has attracted scholars as well as healthcare services industry to research the topic and find appropriate tools and approaches to develop a positive culture. The vast majority of studies in Saudi national health services are on the use of technology to protect and secure health services information. On the other hand, there is a lack of research on the role and impact of an organisation’s cultural dimensions on information security. This research investigated and analysed the role and impact of cultural dimensions on information security in Saudi Arabia health service. Hypotheses were tested and two surveys were carried out in order to collect data and information from three major hospitals in Saudi Arabia (SA). The first survey identified the main cultural-dimension problems in SA health services and developed an initial information security culture framework model. The second survey evaluated and tested the developed framework model to test its usefulness, reliability and applicability. The model is based on human behaviour theory, where the individual’s attitude is the key element of the individual’s intention to behave as well as of his or her actual behaviour. The research identified a set of cultural and sub-cultural dimensions in SA health information security and services.
Keywords: Behaviour theory, Culture dimensions, Electronic health records, Information security.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23382253 Philosophy of Education: The Challenges of Globalization and Innovation in the Information Society
Authors: Shattyk Aliyev, Zhakypbek Altayev, Zuchra Ismagambetova, Yerkin Massanov
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Information society is an absolutely new public formation at which the infrastructure and the social relations correspond to the socialized essence of «information genotype» mankind. Information society is a natural social environment which allows the person to open completely the information nature, to use intelligence for joint creation with other people of new information on the basis of knowledge earlier saved up by previous generations.
Keywords: Information society, Philosophy, Education, Globalization and innovation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19562252 Cost Benefit Analysis and Adjustments of Corporate Social Responsibility in the Airline Industry
Authors: Roman Asatryan
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The decision-making processes in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) among firms in the airlines industry borders on the benefits that accrue to firms through those investments. The crux of the matter is how firms can quantify the benefits derived from such investments. This paper analyses the cost benefit adjustment strategies for firms in the airline industry in their CSR strategy adoption and implementation. The paper discusses the CBA model in order to understand the ways airlines can reduce costs and increase returns on CSR, or balance the cost and benefits. The analysis indicates that, economic concepts especially the CBA are useful, though they are not without challenges. This paper concludes that the CBA model gives a basic understanding of the motivations for investing in intangible assets like CSR. It sets the tone for formulating relevant hypothesis in empirical studies in investment in CSR and other intangible assets in business operations.
Keywords: Cost Benefit Analysis, Corporate Social Responsibility, airline industry.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 50692251 An Analysis of Language Borrowing among Algerian University Students Using Online Facebook Conversations
Authors: Messaouda Annab
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The rapid development of technology has led to an important context in which different languages and structures are used in the same conversations. This paper investigates the practice of language borrowing within social media platform, namely, Facebook among Algerian Vernacular Arabic (AVA) students. In other words, this study will explore how Algerian students have incorporated lexical English borrowing in their online conversations. This paper will examine the relationships between language, culture and identity among a multilingual group. The main objective is to determine the cultural and linguistic functions that borrowing fulfills in social media and to explain the possible factors underlying English borrowing. The nature of the study entails the use of an online research method that includes ten online Facebook conversations in the form of private messages collected from Bachelor and Masters Algerian students recruited from the English department at the University of Oum El-Bouaghi. The analysis of data revealed that social media platform provided the users with opportunities to shift from one language to another. This practice was noticed in students’ online conversations. English borrowing was the most relevant language performance in accordance with Arabic which is the mother tongue of the chosen sample. The analysis has assumed that participants are skilled in more than one language.Keywords: Borrowing, language performance, linguistic background, social media.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12972250 Parametric Analysis on Information Technology Adoption and Organizational Efficiency in Northern Nigeria
Authors: A. Y. Dutse, S. I. Ningi
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The adoption and diffusion of Information Technology (IT) is one of the fastest growing trends in organizations operating within Nigeria’s economy. Public and private organizations make huge capital investments in an attempt acquire and adopt the state-of-the-art IT for improving operational efficiency. In this study the level of IT adoption is considered the primary driver of efficiency witnessed by organizations. The research gathered data on the intensity of IT usage, and resultant efficiency increase in the organizations’ operations. The data was analyzed using multiple regression analysis and reveals that high level of IT usage has enhance efficiency of private and public organizations in Northern part of Nigeria with organizations having strategic intent on IT adoption indicating higher efficiency gains.
Keywords: IT Adoption, Nigeria, Organizational efficiency.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13732249 The Significance of Awareness about Gender Diversity for the Future of Work: A Multi-Method Study of Organizational Structures and Policies Considering Trans and Gender Diversity
Authors: Robin C. Ladwig
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The future of work becomes less predictable which requires increasing adaptability of organizations to social and work changes. Society is transforming regarding gender identity in the sense that more people come forward to identify as trans and gender diverse (TGD). Organizations are ill-equipped to provide a safe and encouraging work environment by lacking inclusive organizational structures. The qualitative multi-method research about TGD inclusivity in the workplace explores the enablers and barriers for TGD individuals to satisfactorily engage in the work environment and organizational culture. Furthermore, these TGD insights are analyzed based on organizational implications and awareness from a leadership and management perspective. The semi-structured online interviews with TGD individuals and the photo-elicit open-ended questionnaire addressed to leadership and management in diversity, career development, and human resources have been analyzed with a critical grounded theory approach. Findings demonstrated the significance of TGD voices, the support of leadership and management, as well as the synergy between voices and leadership. Hence, it indicates practical implications such as the revision of exclusive language used in policies, data collection, or communication and reconsideration of organizational decision-making by leaders to include TGD voices.
Keywords: Future of work, occupational identity, organizational decision-making, trans and gender diverse identity.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4652248 A Mathematical Investigation of the Turkevich Organizer Theory in the Citrate Method for the Synthesis of Gold Nanoparticles
Authors: Emmanuel Agunloye, Asterios Gavriilidis, Luca Mazzei
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Gold nanoparticles are commonly synthesized by reducing chloroauric acid with sodium citrate. This method, referred to as the citrate method, can produce spherical gold nanoparticles (NPs) in the size range 10-150 nm. Gold NPs of this size are useful in many applications. However, the NPs are usually polydisperse and irreproducible. A better understanding of the synthesis mechanisms is thus required. This work thoroughly investigated the only model that describes the synthesis. This model combines mass and population balance equations, describing the NPs synthesis through a sequence of chemical reactions. Chloroauric acid reacts with sodium citrate to form aurous chloride and dicarboxy acetone. The latter organizes aurous chloride in a nucleation step and concurrently degrades into acetone. The unconsumed precursor then grows the formed nuclei. However, depending on the pH, both the precursor and the reducing agent react differently thus affecting the synthesis. In this work, we investigated the model for different conditions of pH, temperature and initial reactant concentrations. To solve the model, we used Parsival, a commercial numerical code, whilst to test it, we considered various conditions studied experimentally by different researchers, for which results are available in the literature. The model poorly predicted the experimental data. We believe that this is because the model does not account for the acid-base properties of both chloroauric acid and sodium citrate.
Keywords: Gold nanoparticles, Citrate method, Turkevich organizer theory, population balance modelling.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 10032247 The Western Resource-Oriented Strategic Perspective Meets the Eastern Tai-Chi Thinking
Authors: Tzu-Hsin Liu
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This study adopts a qualitative approach, which engages in the dialectical discussion on two levels of dyad opposite views. The first level of the dyad opposite views is the Western strategic perspective and the Eastern Tai-Chi thinking. The second level of the dyad opposite views is resource-based view and resource dependence theory. This study concludes the resource-oriented actions for competitive advantage as the metaphor of Tai-Chi consisted of yin and yang. This study argues that the focal firm should adopt bridging strategy during the core competence development period because its core competence development is likely to meet its competitor’s needs of exploring strategy during the competitor’s external resource development stage. In addition, the focal firm should adopt buffering strategy during the external resource development period to prevent its competitor’s the exploiting strategy from attack during the competitor’s core competence development stage. Consequently, this study takes a significant first step toward a novel contextualize understanding of resource development based on strategic perspective and Tai-Chi thinking providing more fully sustainable strategy for competitive advantage.
Keywords: Competitive advantage, resource-based view, resource dependence theory, strategic perspective, Tai-Chi thinking.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19312246 Relationship between Facebook Usage and the Student Engagement of Sri Lankan Management Undergraduates
Authors: L. C. H. Jayarathna, W. M. N. Fernando
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Academics and researchers are interested in the effects of social media on college students, with a specific focus on the most popular social media website; Facebook. Previous studied have found contradictory result on the relationship between Facebook usage and the student engagement with positive, detrimental and no significant relationships. However, these studies were limited to western higher education system. This paper fills a gap in the literature by using a sample (300) of Sri Lankan management undergraduates to examine the relationship between Facebook usage and student engagement. Student engagement was measured 35 item scale based on the National Survey of Student Engagement and Facebook usage by Facebook intensity scale. Descriptive statistics, path analysis and structural equation modeling were applied as statistical tools and techniques. Results indicate that student engagement scale was significantly negatively related with the Facebook usage with the influence from student engagement on Facebook usage.
Keywords: Facebook Intensity, Social Networking Sites, Student Engagement.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 37482245 The Use of Local Knowledge and its Transferfor Community Self-Protection Development in Flood Prone Residential Area
Authors: Siyanee Hirunsalee, Hidehiko Kanegae
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This paper aims to study at the use of local knowledge to develop community self-protection in flood prone residential area, Ayutthaya Island has been chosen as a case study. This study tries to examine the strength of local knowledge which is able to develop community self-protection and cope with flood disaster. In-depth, this paper focuses on the influence of social network on knowledge transfer. After conducted the research, authors reviewed the strength of local knowledge and also mentioned the obstacles of community to use and also transfer local knowledge. Moreover, the result of the study revealed that local knowledge is not always transferred by the strongest-tie social network (family or kinship) as we used to believe. Surprisingly, local knowledge could be also transferred by the weaker-tie social network (teacher/ monk) with the better effectiveness in some knowledge.Keywords: Community Self-Protection Development, FloodRisk Reduction, Knowledge Transfer, Local Knowledge
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16992244 Numerical Investigation of Non Fourier Heat Conduction in a Semi-infinite Body due to a Moving Concentrated Heat Source Composed with Radiational Boundary Condition
Authors: M. Akbari, S. Sadodin
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In this paper, the melting of a semi-infinite body as a result of a moving laser beam has been studied. Because the Fourier heat transfer equation at short times and large dimensions does not have sufficient accuracy; a non-Fourier form of heat transfer equation has been used. Due to the fact that the beam is moving in x direction, the temperature distribution and the melting pool shape are not asymmetric. As a result, the problem is a transient threedimensional problem. Therefore, thermophysical properties such as heat conductivity coefficient, density and heat capacity are functions of temperature and material states. The enthalpy technique, used for the solution of phase change problems, has been used in an explicit finite volume form for the hyperbolic heat transfer equation. This technique has been used to calculate the transient temperature distribution in the semi-infinite body and the growth rate of the melt pool. In order to validate the numerical results, comparisons were made with experimental data. Finally, the results of this paper were compared with similar problem that has used the Fourier theory. The comparison shows the influence of infinite speed of heat propagation in Fourier theory on the temperature distribution and the melt pool size.Keywords: Non-Fourier, Enthalpy technique, Melt pool, Radiational boundary condition
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19802243 Renovation of Industrial Zones in Ho Chi Minh City: An Approach from Changing Function of Processing to Urban Warehousing
Authors: Thu Le Thi Bao
Abstract:
Industrial parks have both active roles in promoting economic development, and source of appearance of boarding houses and slums in the adjacent area, lacking infrastructure, causing many social matters. The context of recent pandemic and climate change on a global scale pose issues that need to be resolved for sustainable development. Ho Chi Minh city aims to develop housing for migrant workers to stabilize human resources and at the same time, solve problems of social evils caused by poor living conditions. The paper focuses on the content of renovating existing industrial parks and worker accommodation in Ho Chi Minh city to propose appropriate models, contributing to the goal of urban embellishment and solutions for industrial parks to adapt to decree 29/2008/ND-CP abnormal impact conditions such as pandemics, climate change, crises.
Keywords: Industrial park, social housing, accommodation, distribution centre.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 191