Search results for: Empirical mode decomposition (EMD)
655 Social Entrepreneurship: The Role of Intangible Resources in the Resource Scarce Environment
Authors: Seham Ghalwash, Ayman Ismail
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Resources are crucial to the development and sustainability of social ventures. Thus, resources and resources scarcity are central concepts to study and understand the phenomenon of social entrepreneurship specially in developing countries where resources are very limited. Social entrepreneurs in developing countries face bigger challenges because financial resources are scarce. The empirical findings in this paper suggest that social enterprises in poor resources environments survive and grow because of the existence of social and human capitals in which they serve as prerequisites for the physical resources required for sustainability. This research paper explores how governments and policymakers might take nativities to support and foster social entrepreneurial activities in a resource-constraints environment reflecting on the experiences of Egypt-based social enterprises.
Keywords: Social ventures, financial constraints, intangible resources, scarce resources, legitimacy, developing countries, Egypt.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 407654 Opening up Government Datasets for Big Data Analysis to Support Policy Decisions
Authors: K. Hardy, A. Maurushat
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Policy makers are increasingly looking to make evidence-based decisions. Evidence-based decisions have historically used rigorous methodologies of empirical studies by research institutes, as well as less reliable immediate survey/polls often with limited sample sizes. As we move into the era of Big Data analytics, policy makers are looking to different methodologies to deliver reliable empirics in real-time. The question is not why did these people do this for the last 10 years, but why are these people doing this now, and if the this is undesirable, and how can we have an impact to promote change immediately. Big data analytics rely heavily on government data that has been released in to the public domain. The open data movement promises greater productivity and more efficient delivery of services; however, Australian government agencies remain reluctant to release their data to the general public. This paper considers the barriers to releasing government data as open data, and how these barriers might be overcome.
Keywords: Big data, open data, productivity, transparency.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1634653 Design and Motion Control of a Two-Wheel Inverted Pendulum Robot
Authors: Shiuh-Jer Huang, Su-Shean Chen, Sheam-Chyun Lin
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Two-wheel inverted pendulum robot (TWIPR) is designed with two-hub DC motors for human riding and motion control evaluation. In order to measure the tilt angle and angular velocity of the inverted pendulum robot, accelerometer and gyroscope sensors are chosen. The mobile robot’s moving position and velocity were estimated based on DC motor built in hall sensors. The control kernel of this electric mobile robot is designed with embedded Arduino Nano microprocessor. A handle bar was designed to work as steering mechanism. The intelligent model-free fuzzy sliding mode control (FSMC) was employed as the main control algorithm for this mobile robot motion monitoring with different control purpose adjustment. The intelligent controllers were designed for balance control, and moving speed control purposes of this robot under different operation conditions and the control performance were evaluated based on experimental results.
Keywords: Balance control, speed control, intelligent controller and two wheel inverted pendulum.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1175652 Starting Pitcher Rotation in the Chinese Professional Baseball League based on AHP and TOPSIS
Authors: Chih-Cheng Chen, Meng-Lung Lin, Yung-Tan Lee, Tien-Tze Chen
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The rotation of starting pitchers is a strategic issue which has a significant impact on the performance of a professional team. Choosing an optimal starting pitcher from among many alternatives is a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. In this study, a model using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Technique for Order Performance by Similarity to the Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) is proposed with which to arrange the starting pitcher rotation for teams of the Chinese Professional Baseball League. The AHP is used to analyze the structure of the starting pitcher selection problem and to determine the weights of the criteria, while the TOPSIS method is used to make the final ranking. An empirical analysis is conducted to illustrate the utilization of the model for the starting pitcher rotation problem. The results demonstrate the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed model.Keywords: AHP, TOPSIS, starting pitcher rotation, CPBL
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2358651 Hydrothermal Behavior of G-S Magnetically Stabilized Beds Consisting of Magnetic and Non-Magnetic Admixtures
Authors: Z. Al-Qodah, M. Al-Busoul, A. Khraewish
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The hydrothermal behavior of a bed consisting of magnetic and shale oil particle admixtures under the effect of a transverse magnetic field is investigated. The phase diagram, bed void fraction are studied under wide range of the operating conditions i.e., gas velocity, magnetic field intensity and fraction of the magnetic particles. It is found that the range of the stabilized regime is reduced as the magnetic fraction decreases. In addition, the bed voidage at the onset of fluidization decreases as the magnetic fraction decreases. On the other hand, Nusselt number and consequently the heat transfer coefficient is found to increase as the magnetic fraction decreases. An empirical equation is investigated to relate the effect of the gas velocity, magnetic field intensity and fraction of the magnetic particles on the heat transfer behavior in the bed.Keywords: Magnetic stabilization; Magnetic stabilized fluidizedbeds; Gas-fluidized beds.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1353650 Power Electronic Solution for High Energetic Efficiency of a Thermo Plant
Authors: Aziza Benaboud, Alfred Rufer
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In this paper the authors propose a flexible electronic solution, to improve the energetic efficiency of a thermo plant. This is achieved by replacing the mechanical gear box, placed traditionally between a gas turbine and a synchronous generator; by a power electronic converter. After reminding problematic of gear boxes and interest of a proposed electronic solution in high power plants, the authors describe a new control strategy for an indirect frequency converter, which is characterized by its high efficiency due to the use of SWM: Square Wave Modulation. The main advantage of this mode is the quasi absence of switching losses. A control method is also proposed to resolve some problems incurred by using square wave modulation, in particular to reduce the harmonics distortion of the output inverter voltage and current. Simulation examples as well as experimental results are included.
Keywords: Angle shift, high efficiency, indirect converter, gas turbine, NPC three level converter, square wave modulation SWM, switching angle.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1869649 Evaluation for Punching Shear Strength of Slab-Column Connections with Ultra High Performance Fiber-Reinforced Concrete Overlay
Authors: H. S. Youm, S. G. Hong
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This paper presents the test results on 5 slab-column connection specimens with Ultra High Performance Fiber-Reinforced Concrete (UHPFRC) overlay including 1 control specimen to investigate retrofitting effect of UHPFRC overlay on the punching shear capacity. The test parameters were the thickness of the UHPFRC overlay and the amount of steel re-bars in it. All specimens failed in punching shear mode with abrupt failure aspect. The test results showed that by adding a thin layer of UHPFRC over the Reinforced Concrete (RC) substrates, considerable increases in global punching shear resistance up to 82% and structural rigidity were achieved. Furthermore, based on the cracking patterns the composite systems appeared to be governed by two failure modes: 1) diagonal shear failure in RC section and 2) debonding failure at the interface.
Keywords: Punching shear strength, retrofit, slab-column connection, UHPFRC, UHPFRC overlay.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1026648 Bias Optimization of Mach-Zehnder Modulator Considering RF Gain on OFDM Radio-Over-Fiber System
Authors: Ghazi Al Sukkar, Yazid Khattabi, Shifen Zhong
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Most of the recent wireless LANs, broadband access networks, and digital broadcasting use Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing techniques. In addition, the increasing demand of Data and Internet makes fiber optics an important technology, as fiber optics has many characteristics that make it the best solution for transferring huge frames of Data from a point to another. Radio over fiber is the place where high quality RF is converted to optical signals over single mode fiber. Optimum values for the bias level and the switching voltage for Mach-Zehnder modulator are important for the performance of radio over fiber links. In this paper, we propose a method to optimize the two parameters simultaneously; the bias and the switching voltage point of the external modulator of a radio over fiber system considering RF gain. Simulation results show the optimum gain value under these two parameters.
Keywords: OFDM, Mach Zehnder Bias Voltage, switching voltage, radio-over-fiber, RF gain.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1573647 Attention Multiple Instance Learning for Cancer Tissue Classification in Digital Histopathology Images
Authors: Afaf Alharbi, Qianni Zhang
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The identification of malignant tissue in histopathological slides holds significant importance in both clinical settings and pathology research. This paper presents a methodology aimed at automatically categorizing cancerous tissue through the utilization of a multiple instance learning framework. This framework is specifically developed to acquire knowledge of the Bernoulli distribution of the bag label probability by employing neural networks. Furthermore, we put forward a neural network-based permutation-invariant aggregation operator, equivalent to attention mechanisms, which is applied to the multi-instance learning network. Through empirical evaluation on an openly available colon cancer histopathology dataset, we provide evidence that our approach surpasses various conventional deep learning methods.
Keywords: Attention Multiple Instance Learning, Multiple Instance Learning, transfer learning, histopathological slides, cancer tissue classification.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 221646 Application of Fuzzy Logic in Fault Diagnosis in Transformers using Dissolved Gas based on Different Standards
Authors: Rahmatollah Hooshmand, Mahdi Banejad
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One of the problems in fault diagnosis of transformer based on dissolved gas, is lack of matching the result of fault diagnosis of different standards with the real world. In this paper, the result of the different standards is analyzed using fuzzy and the result is compared with the empirical test. The comparison between the suggested method and existing methods indicate the capability of the suggested method in on-line fault diagnosis of the transformers. In addition, in some cases the existing standards are not able to diagnose the fault. In theses cases, the presented method has the potential of diagnosing the fault. The information of three transformers is used to the show the capability of the suggested method in diagnosing the fault. The results validate the capability of the presented method in fault diagnosis of the transformer.Keywords: Fault Diagnosis of Transformer, Dissolved Gas, Fuzzy Logic.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2309645 Regression Test Selection Technique for Multi-Programming Language
Authors: Walid S. Abd El-hamid, Sherif S. El-Etriby, Mohiy M. Hadhoud
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Regression testing is a maintenance activity applied to modified software to provide confidence that the changed parts are correct and that the unchanged parts have not been adversely affected by the modifications. Regression test selection techniques reduce the cost of regression testing, by selecting a subset of an existing test suite to use in retesting modified programs. This paper presents the first general regression-test-selection technique, which based on code and allows selecting test cases for any programs written in any programming language. Then it handles incomplete program. We also describe RTSDiff, a regression-test-selection system that implements the proposed technique. The results of the empirical studied that performed in four programming languages java, C#, Cµ and Visual basic show that the efficiency and effective in reducing the size of test suit.Keywords: Regression testing, testing, test selection, softwareevolution, software maintenance.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1533644 Antecedent and Outcome of New Product Development in the Leather Industry, Bangkok and Vicinity, Thailand
Authors: Bundit Pungnirund
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The purposes of this research were to develop and to monitor the antecedent factors which directly affected the success rate of new product development. This was a case study of the leather industry in Bangkok, Thailand. A total of 350 leather factories were used as a sample group. The findings revealed that the new product development model was harmonized with the empirical data at the acceptable level, the statistic values are: χ2=6.45, df= 7, p-value = .48856; RMSEA = .000; RMR = .0029; AGFI = .98; GFI = 1.00. The independent variable that directly influenced the dependent variable at the highest level was marketing outcome which had a influence coefficient at 0.32 and the independent variables that indirectly influenced the dependent variables at the highest level was a clear organization policy which had a influence coefficient at 0.17, whereas, all independent variables can predict the model at 48 percent.
Keywords: Antecedent, New Product Development, Leather Industry.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1735643 Empirical Analysis of Private Listed Companies- Debt Financing and Business Performance in Jiangsu Province
Authors: Chengxuan Geng, Haitao E, Yijie Jiang
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According to the theory of capital structure, this paper uses principal component analysis and linear regression analysis to study the relationship between the debt characteristics of the private listed companies in Jiangsu Province and their business performance. The results show that the average debt ratio of the 29 private listed companies selected from the sample is lower. And it is found that for the sample whose debt ratio is lower than 80%, its debt ratio is negatively related to corporate performance, while for the sample whose debt ratio is beyond 80%, the relationship of debt financing and enterprise performance shows the different trends. The conclusions reflect the drawbacks may exist that the debt ratio is relatively low and having not take full advantage of debt governance effect of the private listed companies in Jiangsu Province.
Keywords: private listed companies, debt financing, business performance
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1543642 Evidence of the Long-run Equilibrium between Money Demand Determinants in Croatia
Authors: B. Skrabic, N. Tomic-Plazibat
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In this paper real money demand function is analyzed within multivariate time-series framework. Cointegration approach is used (Johansen procedure) assuming interdependence between money demand determinants, which are nonstationary variables. This will help us to understand the behavior of money demand in Croatia, revealing the significant influence between endogenous variables in vector autoregrression system (VAR), i.e. vector error correction model (VECM). Exogeneity of the explanatory variables is tested. Long-run money demand function is estimated indicating slow speed of adjustment of removing the disequilibrium. Empirical results provide the evidence that real industrial production and exchange rate explains the most variations of money demand in the long-run, while interest rate is significant only in short-run.Keywords: Cointegration, Long-run equilibrium, Money demand function, Vector error correction model.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2155641 Integration of Asian Stock Markets
Authors: Noor A. Auzairy, Rubi Ahmad, Catherine S.F. Ho, Ros Z. Z. Sapian
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This paper is to explore the relationship and the level of stock market integration of the Asian countries, primarily concentrating on Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and South Korea, with the world from January 1997 to December 2009. The degree of short-run and long-run stock market integration of those Asian countries are analyzed in order to determine the significance of series of regional and world financial crises, liberalization policies and other financial reforms in influencing the level of stock market integration. To test for cointegration, this paper applies coefficient correlation, univariate regression analyses, cointegration tests, and vector autoregressive models (VAR) by using the four Asian stock markets main indices and the MSCI World index. The empirical findings from this work reveal that there is no long-run stock market integration for the four countries and the world market. However, there is short run integration.Keywords: Asia, integration, relationship, stock market.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2478640 Impact of Strategic Emotional Intelligence to Transformational Leadership of Managers: A Case Study
Authors: L. N. A. C. Jayawardena, Ales Gregar
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Emotional Intelligence (EI) has been identified as an important factor for corporate success. However, there are few empirical findings on the impact of Strategic EI per se. The ooverall objective of the study was to empirically examine the relationship between the Strategic EI and Transformational Leadership style of managers. Sixty four managers were selected from the banking industry in Czech Republic. Genos EI Inventory, and the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire – Form 5X-Short were employed as the major research instruments of the study. Descriptive and inferential analyses of survey data were conducted using SPSS software. Variations were observed among the components of Strategic EI between males, and females. Study concludes positive a relationship between Strategic EI of Czech managers and their transformational leadership style. Improving awareness and usage of EI, will contribute to facilitate career success through enhanced levels of transformational leadership of managers.
Keywords: Strategic Emotional Intelligence, Transformational leadership, Socio-demographic factors.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2557639 Failure Analysis of a Medium Duty Vehicle Leaf Spring
Authors: Gül Çevik
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This paper summarizes the work conducted to assess the root cause of the failure of a medium commercial vehicle leaf spring failed in service. Macro- and micro-fractographic analyses by scanning electron microscope as well as material verification tests were conducted in order to understand the failure mechanisms and root cause of the failure. Findings from the fractographic analyses indicated that failure mechanism is fatigue. Crack initiation was identified to have occurred from a point on the top surface near to the front face and to the left side. Two other crack initiation points were also observed, however, these cracks did not propagate. The propagation mode of the fatigue crack revealed that the cyclic loads resulting in crack initiation and propagation were unidirectional bending. Fractographic analyses have also showed that the root cause of the fatigue crack initiation and propagation was loading the part above design stress. Material properties of the part were also verified by chemical composition analysis, microstructural analysis by optical microscopy and hardness tests.
Keywords: Leaf spring, failure analysis, fatigue, fractography.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 743638 Experimental Study on Ultrasonic Shot Peening Forming and Surface Properties of AALY12
Authors: Shi-hong Lu, Chao-xun Liu, Yi-feng Zhu
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Ultrasonic shot peening (USP) on AALY12 sheet was studied. Several parameters (arc heights, surface roughness, surface topography and micro hardness) with different USP process parameters were measured. The research proposes that radius of curvature of shot peened sheet increases with time and electric current decreasing, while increases with pin diameter increasing, and radius of curvature reaches a saturation level after a specific processing time and electric current. An empirical model of the relationship between radius of curvature and pin diameter, electric current, time was also obtained. The research shows that the increment of surface and vertical micro hardness of material is more obvious with longer time and higher value of electric current, which can be up to 20% and 28% respectively.
Keywords: USP forming, surface properties, radius of curvature, residual stress.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1913637 On the Factors Influencing the Competitiveness of Chinese Service Trade after Entering WTO
Authors: Ying Wang
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Service trade is an important force of influencing economic development. A review on the related literatures is done firstly. Then through the construction of a Diamond Model, the main factors which influence the competitiveness of Chinese service trade are determined. With three competitiveness indexes served as the reference series respectively, the influencing factors served as the comparable series, three grey incidence models are then built up to conduct an empirical analysis on the main factors influencing the competitiveness of service trade after China entering WTO. The result indicates that urbanization level, open degree of service industry and foreign direct investment have larger impacts on Chinese service trade competitiveness, followed in turn by GDP in service industry and human capital, while commodity trade has the minimum impact. Further discussion provides train of thought for the upgrade of Chinese service trade competitiveness.
Keywords: Service Trade, Competitiveness, Diamond Model, Grey Incidence Model.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1769636 The Study on the Stationarity of Energy Consumption in US States: Considering Structural Breaks, Nonlinearity, and Cross- Sectional Dependency
Authors: Wen-Chi Liu
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This study applies the sequential panel selection method (SPSM) procedure proposed by Chortareas and Kapetanios (2009) to investigate the time-series properties of energy consumption in 50 US states from 1963 to 2009. SPSM involves the classification of the entire panel into a group of stationary series and a group of non-stationary series to identify how many and which series in the panel are stationary processes. Empirical results obtained through SPSM with the panel KSS unit root test developed by Ucar and Omay (2009) combined with a Fourier function indicate that energy consumption in all the 50 US states are stationary. The results of this study have important policy implications for the 50 US states.
Keywords: Energy Consumption, Panel Unit Root, Sequential Panel Selection Method, Fourier Function, US states.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1813635 Heat and Mass Transfer in a Solar Dryer with Biomass Backup Burner
Authors: Andrew R.H. Rigit, Patrick T.K. Low
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Majority of pepper farmers in Malaysia are using the open-sun method for drying the pepper berries. This method is time consuming and exposed the berries to rain and contamination. A maintenance-friendly and properly enclosed dryer is therefore desired. A dryer design with a solar collector and a chimney was studied and adapted to suit the needs of small-scale pepper farmers in Malaysia. The dryer will provide an environment with an optimum operating temperature meant for drying pepper berries. The dryer model was evaluated by using commercially available computational fluid dynamic (CFD) software in order to understand the heat and mass transfer inside the dryer. Natural convection was the only mode of heat transportation considered in this study as in accordance to the idea of having a simple and maintenance-friendly design. To accommodate the effect of low buoyancy found in natural convection driers, a biomass burner was integrated into the solar dryer design.Keywords: Computational fluid dynamics, heat and masstransfer, solar dryer.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3664634 An Energy Efficient Digital Baseband for Batteryless Remote Control
Authors: Wei-Da Toh, Yuan Gao, Minkyu Je
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In this paper, an energy efficient digital baseband circuit for piezoelectric (PE) harvester powered batteryless remote control system is presented. Pulse mode PE harvester, which provides short duration of energy, is adopted to replace conventional chemical battery in wireless remote controller. The transmitter digital baseband repeats the control command transmission once the digital circuit is initiated by the power-on-reset. A power efficient data frame format is proposed to maximize the transmission repetition time. By using the proposed frame format and receiver clock and data recovery method, the receiver baseband is able to decode the command even when the received data has 20% error. The proposed transmitter and receiver baseband are implemented using FPGA and simulation results are presented.
Keywords: Clock and Data Recovery (CDR), Correlator, Digital Baseband, Gold Code, Power-On-Reset.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2023633 Analysis of Critical Success Factors of Six Sigma in Pakistani Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises
Authors: Zanjbeel Tabassum, Cahit Ali Bayraktar, Asfa Muhammad Din, Murat Durucu
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Six Sigma is a widely adapted quality improvement methodology applied throughout the world. Through this paper, an attempt has been made to identify Critical Success Factors (CSF) for successful implementation of Six Sigma in Pakistani Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). A survey methodology was used to collect the data from SMEs in Pakistan. The results of this exploratory empirical research reflect the importance of different CSFs of Six Sigma implementation in SMEs in Pakistan. On the basis of extracted factors, a framework has been proposed for successful Six Sigma implementation in Pakistani SMEs. This study will provide a base for Pakistani SMEs and future researchers working in Six Sigma implementation and help them to prepare a road map to eradicate the hurdles in Six Sigma implementation.Keywords: Critical success factors, small and medium-sized enterprises, Six Sigma, Pakistan.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1530632 Development of a Rating Scale for Elementary EFL Writing
Authors: Mohammed S. Assiri
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In EFL programs, rating scales used in writing assessment are often constructed by intuition. Intuition-based scales tend to provide inaccurate and divisive ratings of learners’ writing performance. Hence, following an empirical approach, this study attempted to develop a rating scale for elementary-level writing at an EFL program in Saudi Arabia. Towards this goal, 98 students’ essays were scored and then coded using comprehensive taxonomy of writing constructs and their measures. An automatic linear modeling was run to find out which measures would best predict essay scores. A nonparametric ANOVA, the Kruskal-Wallis test, was then used to determine which measures could best differentiate among scoring levels. Findings indicated that there were certain measures that could serve as either good predictors of essay scores or differentiators among scoring levels, or both. The main conclusion was that a rating scale can be empirically developed using predictive and discriminative statistical tests.
Keywords: Analytic scoring, rating scales, writing assessment, writing performance.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3500631 Achievements of Healthcare Services Vis-À-Vis the Millennium Development Goals Targets: Evidence from Pakistan
Authors: Saeeda Batool, Ather Maqsood Ahmed
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This study investigates the impact of public healthcare facilities and socio-economic circumstances on the status of child health in Pakistan. The complete analysis is carried out in correspondence with fourth and sixth millennium development goals. Further, the health variables chosen are also inherited from targeted indicators of the mentioned goals (MDGs). Trends in the Human Opportunity Index (HOI) for both health inequalities and coverage are analyzed using the Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement (PLSM) data set for 2001-02 to 2012-13 at the national and provincial level. To reveal the relative importance of each circumstance in achieving the targeted values for child health, Shorrocks decomposition is applied on HOI. The annual point average growth rate of HOI is used to simulate the time period for the achievement of target set by MDGs and universal access also. The results indicate an improvement in HOI for a reduction in child mortality rates from 52.1% in 2001-02 to 67.3% in 2012-13, which confirms the availability of healthcare opportunities to a larger segment of society. Similarly, immunization against measles and other diseases such as Diphtheria, Polio, Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG), and Hepatitis has also registered an improvement from 51.6% to 69.9% during the period of study at the national level. On a positive note, no gender disparity has been found for child health indicators and that health outcome is mostly affected by the parental and geographical features and availability of health infrastructure. However, the study finds that this achievement has been uneven across provinces. Pakistan is not only lagging behind in achieving its health goals, disappointingly with the current rate of health care provision, but it will take many additional years to achieve its targets.Keywords: Socio-economic circumstances, unmet MDGs, public healthcare services, child and infant mortality.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1125630 Integrating Blockchain and Internet of Things Platforms: An Empirical Study on Immunization Cold Chain
Authors: F. Abujalala, A. Elmangoush, M. Ashibani
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The adoption of Blockchain technology introduces the possibility to decentralize cold chain systems. This adaptation enhances them to be more efficient, accessible, verifiable, and data security. Additionally, the Internet of Things (IoT) concept is considered as an added-value to various application domains. Cargo tracking and cold chain are a few to name. However, the security of the IoT transactions and integrated devices remains one of the key challenges to the IoT application’s success. Consequently, Blockchain technology and its consensus protocols have been used to solve many information security problems. In this paper, we discuss the advantages of integrating Blockchain technology into IoT platform to improve security and provide an overview of existing literature on integrating Blockchain and IoT platforms. Then, we present the immunization cold chain solution as a use-case that could be applied to any critical goods based on integrating Hyperledger fabric platform and IoT platform.
Keywords: Blockchain, Hyperledger fabric, internet of things, security, traceability.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 748629 Antecedents and Loyalty of Foreign Tourists towards Attractions in Bangkok Metropolitan Area, Thailand
Authors: Arunroong Wongkungwan
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This study aimed to investigate the influence of selected antecedents, which were tourists’ satisfaction towards attractions in Bangkok, perceived value of the attractions, feelings of engagement with the attractions, acquaintance with the attractions, push factors, pull factors and motivation to seek novelty, on foreign tourist’s loyalty towards tourist attractions in Bangkok. By using multi stage sampling technique, 400 international tourists were sampled. After that, Semi Structural Equation Model was utilized in the analysis stage by LISREL. The Semi Structural Equation Model of the selected antecedents of tourist’s loyalty attractions had a correlation with the empirical data through the following statistical descriptions: Chi- square = 3.43, df = 4, P- value = 0.48893; RMSEA = 0.000; CFI = 1.00; CN = 1539.75; RMR = 0.0022; GFI = 1.00 and AGFI = 0.98. The findings indicated that all antecedents were able together to predict the loyalty of the foreign tourists who visited Bangkok at 73 percent.
Keywords: Antecedents, Loyalty, Foreign Tourists, Tourist Attractions, Bangkok.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2121628 Does Corporate Governance or Transparency Affect Foreign Direct Investment?
Authors: Haksoon Kim
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The paper investigates the relationship between the foreign direct investment (FDI) and the corporate governance or transparency by investigating the country-level FDI flows, FDI inward performance, corporate governance and transparency variables. From the regression analysis with Newey-West estimator of 28 country panel data from 1990- 2002, we find strong positive relationships between corporate governance or transparency level of hosting countries and FDI inward performance within hosting countries. A strong positive relationship is found between anti-director rights level or number of analysts of hosting countries and FDI inward performance within hosting countries. Also, we find a positive relationship between the number of analysts of hosting countries and FDI inflows. The empirical results are consistent with stock market liberalizations and corporate governance explanations of reasons for FDI.
Keywords: corporate governance, corporate transparency, FDIflows, FDI inward performance
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2761627 Experimental Analysis of Control in Electric Vehicle Charging Station Based Grid Tied Photovoltaic-Battery System
Authors: A. Hassoune, M. Khafallah, A. Mesbahi, T. Bouragba
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This work presents an improved strategy of control for charging a lithium-ion battery in an electric vehicle charging station using two charger topologies i.e. single ended primary inductor converter (SEPIC) and forward converter. In terms of rapidity and accuracy, the power system consists of a topology/control diagram that would overcome the performance constraints, for instance the power instability, the battery overloading and how the energy conversion blocks would react efficiently to any kind of perturbations. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed topologies operated with a power management algorithm based on voltage/peak current mode controls. In order to provide credible findings, a low power prototype is developed to test the control strategy via experimental evaluations of the converter topology and its controls.
Keywords: Battery charger, forward converter, lithium-ion, management algorithm, SEPIC.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 741626 Modeling and Simulating of Gas Turbine Cooled Blades
Authors: А. Pashayev, D. Askerov, R. Sadiqov, A. Samedov, C. Ardil
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In contrast to existing methods which do not take into account multiconnectivity in a broad sense of this term, we develop mathematical models and highly effective combination (BIEM and FDM) numerical methods of calculation of stationary and quasistationary temperature field of a profile part of a blade with convective cooling (from the point of view of realization on PC). The theoretical substantiation of these methods is proved by appropriate theorems. For it, converging quadrature processes have been developed and the estimations of errors in the terms of A.Ziqmound continuity modules have been received. For visualization of profiles are used: the method of the least squares with automatic conjecture, device spline, smooth replenishment and neural nets. Boundary conditions of heat exchange are determined from the solution of the corresponding integral equations and empirical relationships. The reliability of designed methods is proved by calculation and experimental investigations heat and hydraulic characteristics of the gas turbine first stage nozzle blade.
Keywords: Modeling, Simulating, Gas Turbine, Cooled Blades.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1606