Search results for: Quality of Research

Authors: Prateek Maheshwari, Nitin Seth, Anoop Kumar Gupta

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In today’s highly competitive, dynamic and technology driven business circumstances, marketers are under steady pressure to deliver the best. Organizations are continuously improving and upgrading themselves to meet customer expectations and demands. Technology has not only changed the way in which business is done in modern times but has also transformed the way to reach out to target audience. Marketers have identified most recent media options to communicate and convince potential customers. Numerous scholars have studied the research domain of advertising and have tried to recognize different measures of advertisement effectiveness in context of various media. The objective of this paper is to critically review accessible literature on advertisement effectiveness in context of varied advertising media, recognize major gaps in the literature and identify future research prospects on the basis of critical analysis of literature.

Keywords: Advertising, Advertising Media, Competition, Effectiveness Measurement.

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Authors: Abhinandan Singh Gill

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Paper mill sludge is one of the major economic and environmental problems for paper and board industry, million tonnes quantity of sludge is produced in the world. It is essential to dispose these wastes safely without affecting health of human being, environment, fertile land; sources of water bodies, economy as it adversely affect the strength, durability and other properties of building materials based on them. Moreover, in developing countries like India where there is low availability of non-renewable resources and large need of building material like cement therefore it is essential to develop eco-efficient utilization of paper sludge. Primarily in functional terms paper sludge comprises of cellulose fibers, calcium carbonate, china clay, low silica, residual chemical bonds with water. The material is sticky and full of moisture content which is hard to dry. The manufacturing of paper usually produce loads of solid waste. These paper fibers are recycled in paper mills to limited number of times till they become weak to produce high quality paper. Thereafter, these left out small and weak pieces called as low quality paper fibers are detached out to become paper sludge. The material is by-product of de-inking and re-pulping of paper. This hypo sludge includes all kinds of inks, dyes, coating etc inscribed on the paper. This paper presents an overview of the published work on the use of hypo sludge in M25 concrete formulations as a supplementary cementitious material exploring its properties such as compressive strength, splitting and parameters like modulus of elasticity, density, applications and most importantly investigation of low cost concrete by using hypo sludge are presented.

Keywords: Concrete, sludge waste, hypo sludge, supplementary cementitious material.

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Authors: Zulaikha Reesha Rashaad

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One of the major factors which can contribute greatly to success of catering businesses is to employ food and beverage staff having sound hygiene knowledge. Individuals having sound knowledge of hygiene has a higher chance of following safe food practices in food production. One of the leading causes of food poisoning and food borne illnesses has been identified as lack of hygiene knowledge among food and beverage staff working in catering establishments and restaurants. This research aims to analyze the hygiene knowledge among food and beverage staff working in top five restaurants of Male’, in relation to their age, educational background, occupation and training. The research uses quantitative and descriptive methods in data collection and in data analysis. Data was obtained through random sampling technique with self-administered survey questionnaires which was completed by 60 respondents working in 5 different restaurants operating at top level in Male’. The respondents of the research were service staff and chefs working in these restaurants. The responses to the questionnaires have been analyzed by using SPSS. The results of the research indicated that age, education level, occupation and training correlated with hygiene knowledge perception scores.

Keywords: Food and beverage staff, food poisoning, food production, hygiene knowledge.

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Authors: Juan A. Ferriz-Papi, Simon Thomas

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The construction industry generates large amounts of waste, usually mixed, which can be composed of different origin materials, most of them catalogued as non-hazardous. The European Union targets for this waste for 2020 have been already achieved by the UK, but it is mainly developed in downcycling processes (backfilling) whereas upcycling (such as recycle in new concrete batches) still keeps at a low percentage. The aim of this paper is to explore further in the use of recycled aggregates from construction and demolition waste (CDW) in concrete mixes so as to improve upcycling. A review of most recent research and legislation applied in the UK is developed regarding the production of concrete blocks. As a case study, initial tests were developed with a CDW recycled aggregate sample from a CDW plant in Swansea. Composition by visual inspection and sieving tests of two samples were developed and compared to original aggregates. More than 70% was formed by soil waste from excavation, and the rest was a mix of waste from mortar, concrete, and ceramics with small traces of plaster, glass and organic matter. Two concrete mixes were made with 80% replacement of recycled aggregates and different water/cement ratio. Tests were carried out for slump, absorption, density and compression strength. The results were compared to a reference sample and showed a substantial reduction of quality in both mixes. Despite that, the discussion brings to identify different aspects to solve, such as heterogeneity or composition, and analyze them for the successful use of these recycled aggregates in the production of concrete blocks. The conclusions obtained can help increase upcycling processes ratio with mixed CDW as recycled aggregates in concrete mixes.

Keywords: Recycled aggregate, concrete, concrete block, construction and demolition waste, recycling.

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Authors: Marlene Weber, Joseph Giacomin, Alessio Malizia, Lee Skrypchuk, Voula Gkatzidou

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Technological and sociological developments in the automotive sector are shifting the focus of design towards developing a better understanding of driver needs, desires and emotions. Human centred design methods are being more frequently applied to automotive research, including the use of systems to detect human emotions in real-time. One method for a non-contact measurement of emotion with low intrusiveness is Facial-Expression Analysis (FEA). This paper describes a research study investigating emotional responses of 22 participants in a naturalistic driving environment by applying a multi-method approach. The research explored the possibility to investigate emotional responses and their frequencies during naturalistic driving through real-time FEA. Observational analysis was conducted to assign causes to the collected emotional responses. In total, 730 emotional responses were measured in the collective study time of 440 minutes. Causes were assigned to 92% of the measured emotional responses. This research establishes and validates a methodology for the study of emotions and their causes in the driving environment through which systems and factors causing positive and negative emotional effects can be identified.

Keywords: Affective computing, case study, emotion recognition, human computer interaction.

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Authors: Chantana Insra

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The research objective focuses on creating a prototype media of the tactile texture of muscles for educational institutes to help visually impaired students learn massage extra learning materials further than the ordinary curriculum. This media is designed as an extra learning material. The population in this study was 30 blinded students between 4th - 6th grades who were able to read Braille language. The research was conducted during the second semester in 2012 at The Bangkok School for the Blind. The method in choosing the population in the study was purposive sampling. The methodology of the research includes collecting data related to visually impaired people, the production of the tactile texture media, human anatomy and Thai traditional massage from literature reviews and field studies. This information was used for analyzing and designing 14 tactile texture pictures presented to experts to evaluate and test the media.

Keywords: Blind, Tactile Texture, Muscle.

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Authors: Bella Llego

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The purpose of this research is: a) to investigate how the HR practices influence psychological contracts, b) to examine the influence of psychological contracts to individual behavior and to contribute individually, c) to study the psychological contact through leadership. This research using mixed methods, qualitative and quantitative research methods were utilized to gather the data collected using a qualitative method by the HR Manager who is in charge of the trainings from the staffs and quantitative method (survey) by using questionnaire was utilized to draw upon and to elaborate on the recurring themes present during the interviews. The survey was done to 400 staffs of the company. The study found that leadership styles supporting the firm’s HR strategy is the key in making psychological contracts that benefit both the firm and its members.

Keywords: Human Resource Performance Practice, and Leadership, Psychological Contacts, Relationship of Managers and staffs.

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Authors: Somtop Keawchuer

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This research aims to study (1) the relationship between competency-based learning and learning efficiency of new media communication students at Suan Sunandha University (2) the demographic factor effect on learning efficiency of students at Suan Sunandha University. This research method will use quantitative research; data was collected by questionnaires distributed to students from new media communication in management science faculty of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University for 1340 sample by purposive sampling method. Data was analyzed by descriptive statistic including percentage, mean, standard deviation and inferential statistic including T-test, ANOVA and Pearson correlation for hypothesis testing. The results showed that the competency-based learning in term of ability to communicate, ability to think and solve the problem, life skills and ability to use technology has a significant relationship with learning efficiency in term of the cognitive domain, psychomotor domain and affective domain at the 0.05 level and which is in harmony with the research hypotheses.

Keywords: Competency-based learning, learning efficiency, new media communication students, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University.

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Authors: Chengxuan Geng, Chenxi Liu

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this article conducts a research about the relationship between cash dividend policy and enterprise value based on the data coming from the A-share listed companies over period 2005-2009. In conclusion, the enterprise value has a negative correlation with the incremental and the degressive cash dividend per share, and has a positive correlation with the stable cash dividend per share.

Keywords: Cash dividend policy, enterprise value, stability.

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Authors: Yongxian Jin, Jingzhou Huang

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In an open real-time system environment, the coexistence of different kinds of real-time and non real-time applications makes the system scheduling mechanism face new requirements and challenges. One two-level scheduling scheme of the open real-time systems is introduced, and points out that hard and soft real-time applications are scheduled non-distinctively as the same type real-time applications, the Quality of Service (QoS) cannot be guaranteed. It has two flaws: The first, it can not differentiate scheduling priorities of hard and soft real-time applications, that is to say, it neglects characteristic differences between hard real-time applications and soft ones, so it does not suit a more complex real-time environment. The second, the worst case execution time of soft real-time applications cannot be predicted exactly, so it is not worth while to cost much spending in order to assure all soft real-time applications not to miss their deadlines, and doing that may cause resource wasting. In order to solve this problem, a novel two-level real-time scheduling mechanism (including scheduling profile and scheduling algorithm) which adds the process of dealing with soft real-time applications is proposed. Finally, we verify real-time scheduling mechanism from two aspects of theory and experiment. The results indicate that our scheduling mechanism can achieve the following objectives. (1) It can reflect the difference of priority when scheduling hard and soft real-time applications. (2) It can ensure schedulability of hard real-time applications, that is, their rate of missing deadline is 0. (3) The overall rate of missing deadline of soft real-time applications can be less than 1. (4) The deadline of a non-real-time application is not set, whereas the scheduling algorithm that server 0 S uses can avoid the “starvation" of jobs and increase QOS. By doing that, our scheduling mechanism is more compatible with different types of applications and it will be applied more widely.

Keywords: Hard real-time, two-level scheduling profile, open real-time system, non-distinctive schedule, soft real-time

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Authors: Jan Sedlacek

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The paper focuses on the implementation phase of the strategy of the European Union and the national strategy of the Czech Republic to promote academic and research staff with the potential to produce results that provide innovation useful for economic growth. It deals with the use of financial resources of the Operational Program Education for Competitiveness at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen. The author presents an example of two strategic projects in the field of human resources – Excellence in Human Resources as a Source of Competitiveness and New Excellence of Human Resources. The subject of this paper is the potential contribution of newly recruited postdoctoral within these projects for the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen and its internal environment.

Keywords: EU funds, public universities, human resources, results of research, funding.

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Authors: Mohammed-Aminu Sanda, Emmanuel K. Mawuena

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Frontline workers performing client service duties in finance-oriented firms in most sub-Saharan African countries, such as Ghana, are known to be challenged in the conduct of their activities. The challenge is attributed to clients’ continued demand for real-time services from such workers, despite the introduction of technological interventions to offset the situation. This has caused such frontline workers to experience increases in their work-induced emotions with consequential effects on their work-induced happiness. This study, therefore, explored the effect of frontline workers’ work-induced emotions on their worked-induced happiness when providing tellering services to clients. A cross-sectional design and quantitative technique were used. Data were collected from a sample of 280 frontline workers using questionnaire. Based on the analysis, it was found that an increase in the frontline workers’ work-induced emotions, caused by their feelings of strain, burnout, frustration, and hard work, had consequential effect on their work-induced happiness. This consequential effect was also found to be aggravated by the workers’ senses of being stretched beyond limit, being emotionally drained, and being used up by their work activities. It is concluded that frontline workers in finance-oriented firms can provide quality real-time services to clients without increases in their work-induced emotions, but with enhanced work-induced happiness, when the psychological and physiological emotional factors associated with the challenged work activities are understood and remedied. Management of the firms can use such understanding to redesign the activities of their frontline workers and improve the quality of their service delivery interactivity with clients.

Keywords: Client-service activity, finance industrial sector, frontline workers, work-induced emotion, work-induced happiness.

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Authors: B. Ferdousi

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This study examines the adoption of digital technology in academic assessment or e-assessment in higher education. The main focus of this research is to determine the impact of advanced digital technology on different assessment techniques such as formative assessment and summative assessment. The goal of this study is to critically evaluate the selection of different assessment methods using digital technology to enhance assessment for more effective learning. Given the increasing use of digital technology in the assessment of students' achievement in the learning process, this research is significant. Based on a literature review of different assessment techniques using technology, this study focuses on the formative and summative techniques of e-assessment. The paper offers an in-depth analysis of the innovative and creative use of digital technology in assessment. The findings of this research will enhance knowledge and in-depth understanding of using technology in assessment, especially in active learning environments, in higher academic institutions.

Keywords: E-assessment techniques, assessment for learning, assessment of learning, digital technology.

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Authors: Jonathan N. Nayga, Emelita B. Valdez, Mila R. Andres, Beulah B. Estrada, Emelina A. Lopez, Rogelio B. Tamayo, Aubrey Joy M. Balbin

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Goat production is one of the activities included in integrated farming in the Philippines. Goats are raised for its meat and regardless of breed the animal is slaughtered for this purpose. In order to document the carcass yield of different goats slaughtered, five (5) different breeds of goats to include Purebred Boer and Anglo-nubian, Crossbred Boer and Anglo-nubian and Philippine Native goat were used in the study. Data on slaughter parameters, carcass characteristics, and sensory evaluation were gathered and analyzed using Complete Random Design (CRD) at 5% level of significance and the results of carcass conformation were assessed descriptively. Results showed that slaughter data such as slaughter/live weight, hot and chilled carcass weights, dressing percentage and percentage drip loss were significantly different (P>0.05) among breeds. On carcass and meat characteristics, pure breed and upgraded Boer were found to be moderately muscular while Native goat was rated as thin muscular. The color of the carcass also revealed that Purebred and crossbred Boer were described dark red, while Native goat was noted to be slightly pale. On sensory evaluation, the results indicated that there was no significant difference (P>0.05) among breeds evaluated. It is therefore concluded that purebred goat has heavier carcass, while both purebred Boer and upgrade are rated slightly muscular. It is further confirms that regardless of breed, goat will have the same sensory characteristics. Thus, it is recommended to slaughter heavier goats to obtain more carcasses with better conformation and quality.

Keywords: Carcass quality, goat, sensory evaluation, slaughter.

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Authors: Daniel Kade, Oğuzhan Özcan, Rikard Lindell

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Motion capturing technology has been used for quite a while and several research has been done within this area. Nevertheless, we discovered open issues within current motion capturing environments. In this paper we provide a state-of-the-art overview of the addressed research areas and show issues with current motion capturing environments. Observations, interviews and questionnaires have been used to reveal the challenges actors are currently facing in a motion capturing environment. Furthermore, the idea to create a more immersive motion capturing environment to improve the acting performances and motion capturing outcomes as a potential solution is introduced. It is hereby the goal to explain the found open issues and the developed ideas which shall serve for further research as a basis. Moreover, a methodology to address the interaction and systems design issues is proposed. A future outcome could be that motion capture actors are able to perform more naturally, especially if using a non-body-worn solution.

Keywords: Immersive acting environment, Interaction in a mediated environment, Motion capturing, MoCap.

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Authors: Taneli Eisto, Venlakaisa Hölttä

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Customer-supplier collaboration enables firms to achieve greater success than acting independently. Nevertheless, not many firms have fully utilized the potential of collaboration. This paper presents organizational and human related success factors for collaboration in manufacturing supply chains in casting industry. Our research approach was a case study including multiple cases. Data was gathered by interviews and group discussions in two different research projects. In the first research project we studied seven firms and in the second five. It was found that the success factors are interrelated, in other words, organizational and human factors together enable success but not any of them alone. Some of the found success factors are a culture of following agreements, and a speed of informing the partner about changes affecting to the product or the delivery chain.

Keywords: Casting industry, collaboration success factors, customer-supplier collaboration, supply chain collaboration.

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Authors: Justin D. Olmanson, Fitsum F. Abebe, Valerie Jones, Eric Kyle, Lyrica Lucas, Katherine Robbins, Guieswende Rouamba, Xianquan Liu

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While emerging technologies continue to emerge, research into their use in learning contexts often focuses on a subset of educational practices and ways of using technologies. In this study we begin to explore the extent to which educational designs are influenced by larger societal and education-related factors not usually explicitly considered when designing or identifying technology-supported education experiences for research study. We examine patterns within and between factors via a content analysis across ten years and 19 different journals of published peer-reviewed research on technology-supported writing. Our findings have implications for how researchers, designers, and educators approach technology-supported educational design within and beyond the field of writing and literacy.

Keywords: Writing, emerging technology, learning, curriculum, pedagogy.

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Authors: Renata Martins Pacheco, João Claro

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Wildfires are becoming an increasing concern worldwide, causing substantial social, economic, and environmental disruptions. This situation is especially relevant in Mediterranean-climate regions, present in all the five continents of the world, in which fire is not only a natural component of the environment but also perhaps one of the most important evolutionary forces. The rise in wildfire occurrences and their associated impacts suggests the need for identifying knowledge gaps and enhancing the basis of scientific evidence on how managers and policymakers may act effectively to address them. Considering that the main goal of a systematic map is to collate and catalog a body of evidence to describe the state of knowledge for a specific topic, it is a suitable approach to be used for this purpose. In this context, the aim of this study is to systematically map the research trends in wildfire management practices in Mediterranean-climate regions. A total of 201 wildfire management studies were analyzed and systematically mapped in terms of their: Year of publication; Place of study; Scientific outlet; Research area (Web of Science) or Research field (Scopus); Wildfire phase; Central research topic; Main objective of the study; Research methods; and Main conclusions or contributions. The results indicate that there is an increasing number of studies being developed on the topic (most from the last 10 years), but more than half of them are conducted in few Mediterranean countries (60% of the analyzed studies were conducted in Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy or France), and more than 50% are focused on pre-fire issues, such as prevention and fuel management. In contrast, only 12% of the studies focused on “Economic modeling” or “Human factors and issues,” which suggests that the triple bottom line of the sustainability argument (social, environmental, and economic) is not being fully addressed by fire management research. More than one-fourth of the studies had their objective related to testing new approaches in fire or forest management, suggesting that new knowledge is being produced on the field. Nevertheless, the results indicate that most studies (about 84%) employed quantitative research methods, and only 3% of the studies used research methods that tackled social issues or addressed expert and practitioner’s knowledge. Perhaps this lack of multidisciplinary studies is one of the factors hindering more progress from being made in terms of reducing wildfire occurrences and their impacts.

Keywords: Management Mediterranean-climate regions, policy, wildfire.

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Authors: Oriyomi M. Okeyinka, David A. Oloke, Jamal M. Khatib

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Large quantities of solid wastes being generated worldwide from sources such as household, domestic, industrial, commercial and construction demolition activities, leads to environmental concerns. Utilization of these wastes in making building construction materials can reduce the magnitude of the associated problems. When these waste products are used in place of other conventional materials, natural resources and energy are preserved and expensive and/or potentially harmful waste disposal is avoided. Recycling which is regarded as the third most preferred waste disposal option, with its numerous environmental benefits, stand as a viable option to offset the environmental impact associated with the construction industry. This paper reviews the results of laboratory tests and important research findings, and the potential of using these wastes in building construction materials with focus on sustainable development. Research gaps, which includes; the need to develop standard mix design for solid waste based building materials; the need to develop energy efficient method of processing solid waste use in concrete; the need to study the actual behavior or performance of such building materials in practical application and the limited real life application of such building materials have also been identified. A research is being proposed to develop an environmentally friendly, lightweight building block from recycled waste paper, without the use of cement, and with properties suitable for use as walling unit. This proposed research intends to incorporate, laboratory experimentation and modeling to address the identified research gaps.

Keywords: Recycling, solid waste, construction, building materials.

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Authors: Arijit Ghos, Tony Gigargis

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QoS routing is an important component of Traffic Engineering in networks that provide QoS guarantees. QoS routing is dependent on the link state information which is typically flooded across the network. This affects both the quality of the routing and the utilization of the network resources. In this paper, we examine establishing QoS routes with partial state updates in wired sensor networks.

Keywords:

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Authors: Dyah Titisari Widyastuti

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Rail-station area development that is based on the concept of TOD (Transit Oriented Development) is principally oriented to pedestrian accessibility for daily mobility. The aim of this research is elaborating how far the existing physical elements of a rail-station district could facilitate pedestrian mobility and establish a pedestrian friendly district toward implementation of a TOD concept. This research was conducted through some steps: (i) mapping the rail-station area pedestrian sidewalk and pedestrian network as well as activity nodes and transit nodes, (ii) assessing the level of pedestrian sidewalk connectivity joining trip origin and destination. The research area coverage in this case is limited to walking distance of the rail station (around 500 meters or 10-15 minutes walking). The findings of this research on the current condition of the street and pedestrian sidewalk network and connectivity, show good preference for the foot modal share (more than 50%) is achieved. Nevertheless, it depends on the distance from the trip origin to destination.

Keywords: Accessibility of daily mobility, pedestrian friendly district, rail-station district, Transit Oriented Development.

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Authors: Mahmoud Tarek Mohamed Hammad

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Despite the importance of the role and efforts made by the universities of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in reviving and preserving heritage architecture as an important cultural heritage in the Kingdom, The idea revolves around restoration and conservation processes and neglects the architectural heritage values, whose content can be used in sustainable contemporary architectural works. Educational values based on heritage architecture and how to integrate with the contemporary requirements were investigated in this research. For this purpose, by understanding the heritage architectural values as well as educational, academic process, the researcher presented an educational model of questionnaire forms for architecture students and the staff at the Architecture Department at Al-Baha University as a case study that serves the aims of the research. The results of the research show that heritage values especially those interview results are considered as a positive indicator of the importance of these values. The students and the staff need both to gain an understanding of heritage values as well as an understanding of theories of incorporating those values into the design process of contemporary local architecture. The research concludes that a correct understanding of the heritage values, its performance, and its reintegration with modern architecture technology should be focused on architectural education.

Keywords: Heritage architecture, academic work, heritage values, sustainable contemporary local architectural.

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Authors: Christian Castro Samaniego, Daniel Icaza Alvarez, Juan Portoviejo Brito

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For this research work, hybrid wind-photovoltaic (SHEF) systems were considered as renewable energy sources that take advantage of wind energy and solar radiation to transform into electrical energy. In the present research work, the feasibility of a wind-photovoltaic hybrid generation system was analyzed for the La Tranca tourist viewpoint of the Chordeleg canton in Ecuador. The research process consisted of the collection of data on solar radiation, temperature, wind speed among others by means of a meteorological station. Simulations were carried out in MATLAB/Simulink based on a mathematical model. In the end, we compared the theoretical radiation-power curves and the measurements made at the site.

Keywords: Hybrid system, wind turbine, modeling, simulation, validation, experimental data, panel, Ecuador.

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Authors: Kee-Young Kwahk, Xi Ge, Jun-Hyung Park

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This study aims to examine the determinants of purchase intention in C2C e-commerce. Specifically the role of instant messaging in the C2C e-commerce contextis investigated. In addition to instant messaging, we brought in two antecedents of purchase intention - trust and customer satisfaction - to establish a theoretical research model. Structural equation modeling using LISREL was used to analyze the data.We discussed the research findings and suggested some implications for researchers and practitioners.

Keywords: E-commerce, Online marketing, C2C, Purchase Intention

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Authors: Albana Hasimi, Edlira Tako, Partizan Malkaj, Elvin Çomo, Blerina Papajani, Mirela Ndrita, Ledjan Malaj

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Many endeavors have been exerted during the last years for developing new artificial polymeric membranes, which fulfill the demanded conditions for biomedical uses. One of the most tested polymers is Poly(vinyl alcohol) [PVA]. Our teams are based on the possibility of using PVA for personal protective equipment against COVID-19. In personal protective equipment, we explore the possibility of modifying the properties of the polymer by adding Montmorillonite [MMT]. Heat-treatment above the glass transition temperature is used to improve mechanical properties mainly by increasing the crystallinity of the polymer, which acts as a physical network. Temperature-Modulated Differential Scanning Calorimetry (TMDSC) measurements indicated that the presence of 0.5% MMT in PVA causes a higher Tg value and shaped peak of crystallinity. Decomposition is observed at two of the melting points of the crystals during heating 25-240 oC and overlap of the recrystallization ridges during cooling 240-25 oC. This is indicative of the presence of two types (quality or structure) of polymer crystals. On the other hand, some indication of improvement of the quality of the crystals by heat-treatment is given by the distinct non-reversing contribution to melting. Data on sorption and transport of water in PVA films: PVA pure and PVA/MMT matrix, modified by thermal treatment are presented. The membranes become more rigid as a result of the heat treatment and because of this the water uptake is significantly lower in membranes. That is indicated by analysis of the resulting water uptake kinetics. The presence of 0.5% w/w of MMT has no significant impact on the properties of PVA membranes. Water uptake kinetics deviate from Fick’s law due to slow relaxation of glassy polymer matrix for all types of membranes.

Keywords: Crystallinity, montmorillonite, nanocomposite, poly(vinyl alcohol).

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Authors: Blandina Šramová, Gabriela Kučeráková

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The paper is intended to declare and apply ethics, i. e. moral principles, rules in marketing environment. Ethical behavior of selected pharmaceutical companies in the Slovak Republic is the object of our research. The aim of our research is to determine perception of ethical behavior of the pharmaceutical industry in Slovakia by the medicine representatives in comparison with the assessment of doctors and patients. The experimental sample included 90 participants who were divided into three groups: medicine representatives of the pharmaceutical companies (N=30), doctors (N=30) and patients (N=30). The research method was a Questionnaire of ethical behavior, created by us, that describes individual areas included in the Code of ethics of the pharmaceutical industry in Slovakia. The results showed influence of professional status on ethical behavior perception, not gender. Higher perception was indicated at patients rather than doctors and medicine representatives.

Keywords: Ethics, corporate social responsibility, marketing, pharmaceutical industry.

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Authors: N. Ismail, O. Thammajinda, U. Thongpanya

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Games-based learning (GBL) has become increasingly important in teaching and learning. This paper explains the first two phases (analysis and design) of a GBL development project, ending up with a prototype design based on students’ and teachers’ perceptions. The two phases are part of a full cycle GBL project aiming to help secondary school students in Thailand in their study of Comprehensive Sex Education (CSE). In the course of the study, we invited 1,152 students to complete questionnaires and interviewed 12 secondary school teachers in focus groups. This paper found that GBL can serve students in their learning about CSE, enabling them to gain understanding of their sexuality, develop skills, including critical thinking skills and interact with others (peers, teachers, etc.) in a safe environment. The objectives of this paper are to outline the development of GBL variables from the research question(s) into the developers’ flow chart, to be responsive to the GBL beneficiaries’ preferences and expectations, and to help in answering the research questions. This paper details the steps applied to generate GBL variables that can feed into a game flow chart to develop a GBL prototype. In our approach, we detailed two models: (1) Game Elements Model (GEM) and (2) Game Object Model (GOM). There are three outcomes of this research – first, to achieve the objectives and benefits of GBL in learning, game design has to start with the research question(s) and the challenges to be resolved as research outcomes. Second, aligning the educational aims with engaging GBL end users (students) within the data collection phase to inform the game prototype with the game variables is essential to address the answer/solution to the research question(s). Third, for efficient GBL to bridge the gap between pedagogy and technology and in order to answer the research questions via technology (i.e. GBL) and to minimise the isolation between the pedagogists “P” and technologist “T”, several meetings and discussions need to take place within the team.

Keywords: Games-based learning, design, engagement, pedagogy, preferences, prototype, variables.

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Authors: Amol A. Talankar, Prakash Verma, Nitin Seth

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The purpose of this study is to identify the critical success factors (CSFs) for the effective implementation of Six Sigma in non-formal service Sectors.

Based on the survey of literature, the critical success factors (CSFs) for Six Sigma have been identified and are assessed for their importance in Non-formal service sector using Delphi Technique. These selected CSFs were put forth to the panel of expert to cluster them and prepare cognitive map to establish their relationship.

All the critical success factors examined and obtained from the review of literature have been assessed for their importance with respect to their contribution to Six Sigma effectiveness in non formal service sector.

The study is limited to the non-formal service sectors involved in the organization of religious festival only. However, the similar exercise can be conducted for broader sample of other non-formal service sectors like temple/ashram management, religious tours management etc.

The research suggests an approach to identify CSFs of Six Sigma for Non-formal service sector. All the CSFs of the formal service sector will not be applicable to Non-formal services, hence opinion of experts was sought to add or delete the CSFs. In the first round of Delphi, the panel of experts has suggested, two new CSFs-“competitive benchmarking (F19) and resident’s involvement (F28)”, which were added for assessment in the next round of Delphi.  One of the CSFs-“fulltime six sigma personnel (F15)” has been omitted in proposed clusters of CSFs for non-formal organization, as it is practically impossible to deploy full time trained Six Sigma recruits.

Keywords: Critical success factors (CSFs), Quality assurance, non-formal service sectors, Six Sigma.

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Authors: Thea Freese

Abstract:

Environmental legislation to protect North and Baltic Sea areas from harmful vessel-source emissions has received increased political attention in recent years. Legislative measures are expected to show positive effects on the health of the marine environment and society. At the same time, compliance might increase the costs to industry and have effects on freight rates and volumes shipped with potential negative repercussions on the environment. Building on an exploratory sequential mixed methods approach, this research project will study the economic effects of maritime environmental legislation in two phases. In Phase I, exploratory in-depth interviews were conducted with 12 experts from various stakeholder groups aiming at identifying variables influencing the relationship between environmental legislation, freight rates and volumes shipped. Influencing factors like compliance, enforcement and modal shift were identified and studied. Phase II will comprise of a quantitative study conducted with the aim of verifying the theory build in Phase I and quantifying economic effects of rules on shipping pollution. Research in this field might inform policy-makers about determinants of behaviour of ship operators in the face of the law and might further the development of a comprehensive legal system for marine environmental protection. At the present stage of research, first tentative results from the qualitative phase may be examined and open research questions to be addressed in the quantitative phase as well as possible research designs for phase II may be discussed. Input from other researchers will be highly valuable at this point.

Keywords: Clean shipping operations, compliance, maritime environmental legislation, maritime law and economics, mixed methods research, North and Baltic Sea area.

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Authors: J. Areerut, F. Samuel

Abstract:

The purpose of this research is to analyze the pattern of television commercials and how they encourage non-governmental organizations to build their image in Thailand. It realizes how public relations can impact an organization's image. It is a truth that bad public relations management can cause hurt a reputation. On the other hand, a very small amount of work in public relations helps your organization to be recognized broadly and eventually accepted even wider. The main idea in this paper is to study and analyze patterns of television commercials that could impact non-governmental organization's images in a greater way. This research uses questionnaires and content analysis to summarize results. The findings show the aspects of how patterns of television commercials that are suited to non-governmental organization work in Thailand. It will be useful for any non-governmental organization that wishes to build their image through television commercials and also for further work based on this research.

Keywords: Television Commercial (TVC), Organization Image, Non-Governmental Organization: NGO, Public Relation.

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