Search results for: global literature

Authors: Lucy Patricia Onundo, Wilfred Njoroge Mwema

Abstract:

The rapidly diminishing fossil fuel reserves, their exorbitant cost and the increasingly apparent negative effect of fossil fuels to climate changes is a wake-up call to explore renewable energy. Wind, bio-fuel and solar power have already become staples of Kenyan electricity mix. The potential of electric power generation from marine tidal currents is enormous, with oceans covering more than 70% of the earth. However, attempts to harness marine tidal energy in Kenya, has yet to be studied thoroughly due to its promising, cyclic, reliable and predictable nature and the vast energy contained within it. The high load factors resulting from the fluid properties and the predictable resource characteristics make marine currents particularly attractive for power generation and advantageous when compared to others. Global-level resource assessments and oceanographic literature and data have been compiled in an analysis of the technology-specific requirements for tidal energy technologies and the physical resources. Temporal variations in resource intensity as well as the differences between small-scale applications are considered.

Keywords: Energy data assessment, environmental legislation, renewable energy, tidal-in-stream turbines.

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Authors: Alfred L. Guiffrida

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A review of the literature on supply chain delivery models which use delivery windows to measure delivery performance is presented. The review herein serves to meet the following objectives: (i) provide a synthesis of previously published literature on supply chain delivery performance models, (ii) provide in one paper a consolidation of research that can serve as a single source to keep researchers up to date with the research developments in supply chain delivery models, and (iii) identify gaps in the modeling of supply chain delivery performance which could stimulate new research agendas.

Keywords: Delivery performance, Delivery window, Supply chain delivery models, Supply chain performance.

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Authors: Chalise Kiran

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The learning difficulties of children with disabilities are always a matter of concern when we talk about educational needs and quality education of children with disabilities. This paper is the outcome of the review of the literature focused on the educational needs and learning difficulties of children with disabilities. For the paper, different studies written on children with disabilities and their education were collected through search engines. The literature put together were analyzed from the angle of learning difficulties faced by children with disabilities and the same were used as a precursor to arrive at the findings on the learning of the children. The analysis showed that children with disabilities face learning difficulties. The reasons for these difficulties could be attributed to factors in terms of authority, structure, school environment and behaviors of teachers and parents and the society as a whole.

Keywords: Children with disabilities, learning difficulties, education of children with disabilities, disabled children.

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Authors: Mohammad Reza Karami Nejad

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A hybrid learning automata-genetic algorithm (HLGA) is proposed to solve QoS routing optimization problem of next generation networks. The algorithm complements the advantages of the learning Automato Algorithm(LA) and Genetic Algorithm(GA). It firstly uses the good global search capability of LA to generate initial population needed by GA, then it uses GA to improve the Quality of Service(QoS) and acquiring the optimization tree through new algorithms for crossover and mutation operators which are an NP-Complete problem. In the proposed algorithm, the connectivity matrix of edges is used for genotype representation. Some novel heuristics are also proposed for mutation, crossover, and creation of random individuals. We evaluate the performance and efficiency of the proposed HLGA-based algorithm in comparison with other existing heuristic and GA-based algorithms by the result of simulation. Simulation results demonstrate that this paper proposed algorithm not only has the fast calculating speed and high accuracy but also can improve the efficiency in Next Generation Networks QoS routing. The proposed algorithm has overcome all of the previous algorithms in the literature.

Keywords: Routing, Quality of Service, Multicaset, Learning Automata, Genetic, Next Generation Networks.

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Authors: Francis Jegede

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This paper examines essential issues relating to the rise and nature of violent extremism involving non-state actors and groups in the early 21^st century. The global trends in terrorism and violent extremism are examined in relation to Western governments’ counter terror operations. The paper analyses the existing legal framework for fighting violent extremism and terrorism and highlights the inherent limitations of the current International Law of War in dealing with the growing challenges posed by terrorists and violent extremist groups. The paper discusses how terrorist groups use civilians, women and children as tools and weapon of war to fuel their campaign of terror and suggests ways in which the international community could deal with the challenge of fighting terrorist groups without putting civilians, women and children in harm way. The paper emphasises the need to uphold human rights values and respect for the law of war in our response to global terrorism. The paper poses the question as to whether the current legal framework for dealing with terrorist groups is sufficient without contravening the essential provisions and ethos of the International Law of War and Human Rights. While the paper explains how terrorist groups flagrantly disregard the rule of law and disrespect human rights in their campaign of terror, it also notes instances in which the current Western strategy in fighting terrorism may be viewed or considered as conflicting with human rights and international law.

Keywords: Terrorism, law of war, international law, violent extremism.

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Authors: Aftab

Abstract:

This paper is a theory-oriented study that seeks to generalize the process through which terrorism leads to the disruption of international peace. For this, it scrutinizes 9/11 terrorism based on five analytical domains of threat—security disorder, political tensions, economic adversity, socio-ideological intolerance, and the fear and cost of counterterrorism—each of which is explored in light of specific indicators. By applying qualitative correlation method, the paper finds that terrorism immediately entails five distinct kinds of negative impacts that lead to both internal disorders caused by state weakness and global disorder caused by international tensions, which in consequence, causes international peace to be disrupted. Thus, in following inductive process, the findings of this paper help to make a general inference that terrorism is a threat to international peace. 

Keywords: Domains, global disorder, internal disorder, international peace, terrorism, threat.

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Authors: Yongkun Li, Meng Hu

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A stage-structured predator-prey system with two time delays is considered. By analyzing the corresponding characteristic equation, the local stability of a positive equilibrium is investigated and the existence of Hopf bifurcations is established. Formulae are derived to determine the direction of bifurcations and the stability of bifurcating periodic solutions by using the normal form theory and center manifold theorem. Numerical simulations are carried out to illustrate the theoretical results. Based on the global Hopf bifurcation theorem for general functional differential equations, the global existence of periodic solutions is established.

Keywords: Predator-prey system, stage structure, time delay, HOPF bifurcation, periodic solution, stability.

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Authors: Fahim A., Mutahira N. Naseem

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Spam is any unwanted electronic message or material in any form posted too many people. As the world is growing as global world, social networking sites play an important role in making world global providing people from different parts of the world a platform to meet and express their views. Among different social networking sites Facebook become the leading one. With increase in usage different users start abusive use of Facebook by posting or creating ways to post spam. This paper highlights the potential spam types nowadays Facebook users’ faces. This paper also provide the reason how user become victim to spam attack. A methodology is proposed in the end discusses how to handle different types of spam.

Keywords: Artificial neural networks, Facebook spam, social networking sites, spam filter.

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Authors: Jagannath Aryal, Don Kulasiri, Garth A. Carnaby

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This paper provides an overview of auction theory literature. We present a general review on literature of various auctions and focus ourselves specifically on an English auction. We are interested in modelling bidder-s behavior in an English auction environment. And hence, we present an overview of the New Zealand wool auction followed by a model that would describe a bidder-s decision making behavior from the New Zealand wool auction. The mathematical assumptions in an English auction environment are demonstrated from the perspective of the New Zealand wool auction.

Keywords: Bidder, English auction, New Zealand, Wool

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Authors: B. A. A. Paixão, J. V. B. Gomide

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This work aims to analyze the locative structure used by the locative games of the company Niantic. To fulfill this objective, a literature review on the representation and simulation of cities was developed; interviews with Ingress players and playing Ingress. Relating these data, it was possible to deepen the relationship between the virtual and the real to create the simulation of cities and their cultural objects in locative games. Cities representation associates geo-location provided by the Global Positioning System (GPS), with augmented reality and digital image, and provides a new paradigm in the city interaction with its parts and real and virtual world elements, homeomorphic to real world. Bibliographic review of papers related to the representation and simulation study and their application in locative games was carried out and is presented in the present paper. The cities representation and simulation concepts in locative games, and how this setting enables the flow and immersion in urban space, are analyzed. Some examples of games are discussed for this new setting development, which is a mix of real and virtual world. Finally, it was proposed a Locative Structure for electronic games using the concepts of heterotrophic representations and isotropic representations conjoined with immediacy and hypermediacy.

Keywords: Cities representation, city simulation, games simulation, locative games.

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Authors: Jörg Lassig, Stefanie Thiem

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The objective of this paper is the introduction to a unified optimization framework for research and education. The OPTILIB framework implements different general purpose algorithms for combinatorial optimization and minimum search on standard continuous test functions. The preferences of this library are the straightforward integration of new optimization algorithms and problems as well as the visualization of the optimization process of different methods exploring the search space exclusively or for the real time visualization of different methods in parallel. Further the usage of several implemented methods is presented on the basis of two use cases, where the focus is especially on the algorithm visualization. First it is demonstrated how different methods can be compared conveniently using OPTILIB on the example of different iterative improvement schemes for the TRAVELING SALESMAN PROBLEM. A second study emphasizes how the framework can be used to find global minima in the continuous domain.

Keywords: Global Optimization Heuristics, Particle Swarm Optimization, Ensemble Based Threshold Accepting, Ruin and Recreate

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Authors: Zhichao Jiao, Craig Farnham, Jihui Yuan, Kazuo Emura

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It is common to use the outdoor design weather data to select the air-conditioning capacity in the building design stage. The meteorological elements of outdoor design weather data are usually selected based on their excess frequency separately while the dependency between the elements is not well considered. It means that the simultaneous occurrence probability of these elements is smaller than the original excess frequency which may cause an overestimation of selecting air-conditioning capacity. Therefore, the copula approach which can capture the dependency between multivariate data was used to model the joint distributions of the meteorological elements, like air temperature and global solar radiation. We suggest a method based on the specific simultaneous occurrence probability of these two elements of selecting more credible outdoor design conditions. The hourly weather data at 12 noon from 2001 to 2010 in Tokyo, Japan are used to analyze the dependency structure and joint distribution, the Gaussian copula represents the dependence of data best. According to calculating the air temperature and global solar radiation in specific simultaneous occurrence probability and the common exceeding, the results show that both the air temperature and global solar radiation based on simultaneous occurrence probability are lower than these based on the conventional method in the same probability.

Keywords: Copula approach, Design weather database, energy conservation, HVAC.

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Authors: Chaghoub Soraya, Zhang Xiaoyan

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This research presents the first constant approximation algorithm to the p-median network design problem with multiple cable types. This problem was addressed with a single cable type and there is a bifactor approximation algorithm for the problem. To the best of our knowledge, the algorithm proposed in this paper is the first constant approximation algorithm for the p-median network design with multiple cable types. The addressed problem is a combination of two well studied problems which are p-median problem and network design problem. The introduced algorithm is a random sampling approximation algorithm of constant factor which is conceived by using some random sampling techniques form the literature. It is based on a redistribution Lemma from the literature and a steiner tree problem as a subproblem. This algorithm is simple, and it relies on the notions of random sampling and probability. The proposed approach gives an approximation solution with one constant ratio without violating any of the constraints, in contrast to the one proposed in the literature. This paper provides a (21 + 2)-approximation algorithm for the p-median network design problem with multiple cable types using random sampling techniques.

Keywords: Approximation algorithms, buy-at-bulk, combinatorial optimization, network design, p-median.

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Authors: Mst. Nilufa Sultana, Shatirah Akib, Muhammad Aqeel Ashraf, Mohamed Roseli Zainal Abidin

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Most people today are aware that global climate change is not just a scientific theory but also a fact with worldwide consequences. Global climate change is due to rapid urbanization, industrialization, high population growth and current vulnerability of the climatic condition. Water is becoming scarce as a result of global climate change. To mitigate the problem arising due to global climate change and its drought effect, harvesting rainwater from green roofs, an environmentally-friendly and versatile technology, is becoming one of the best assessment criteria and gaining attention in Malaysia. This paper addresses the sustainability of green roofs and examines the quality of water harvested from green roofs in comparison to rainwater. The factors that affect the quality of such water, taking into account, for example, roofing materials, climatic conditions, the frequency of rainfall frequency and the first flush. A green roof was installed on the Humid Tropic Centre (HTC) is a place of the study on monitoring program for urban Stormwater Management Manual for Malaysia (MSMA), Eco-Hydrological Project in Kuala Lumpur, and the rainwater was harvested and evaluated on the basis of four parameters i.e., conductivity, dissolved oxygen (DO), pH and temperature. These parameters were found to fall between Class I and Class III of the Interim National Water Quality Standards (INWQS) and the Water Quality Index (WQI). Some preliminary treatment such as disinfection and filtration could likely to improve the value of these parameters to class I. This review paper clearly indicates that there is a need for more research to address other microbiological and chemical quality parameters to ensure that the harvested water is suitable for use potable water for domestic purposes. The change in all physical, chemical and microbiological parameters with respect to storage time will be a major focus of future studies in this field.

Keywords: Green roofs, INWQS, MSMA-SME, Rainwater harvesting.

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Authors: Jiří F. Urbánek, Jiří Barta

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Societal security, continuity scenarios and methodological cycling approach explained in this article. Namely societal security organizational challenges ask implementation of international standards BS 25999-2 & global ISO 22300 which is a family of standards for business continuity management system. Efficient global organization system is distinguished of high entity´s complexity, connectivity & interoperability, having not only cooperative relations in a fact. Competing business have numerous participating ´enemies´, which are in apparent or hidden opponent and antagonistic roles with prosperous organization system, resulting to a crisis scene or even to a battle theatre. Organization business continuity scenarios are necessary for such ´a play´ preparedness, planning, management & overmastering in real environments.

Keywords: Business Continuity, Societal Security Crisis Scenarios Cycles.

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Authors: M. Garcia-Alsina, J. Cobarsí

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The role of controlled vocabularies in information retrieval is broadly recognized as a relevant feature. Besides, there is a standing demand that editors and databases should consider the effective introduction of controlled vocabularies in their procedures to index scientific literature. That is especially important because information retrieval is pointed out as a significant point to drive systematic literature review. Hence, a first question emerges: Are the controlled vocabularies at this moment considered? On the other hand, subject searching in the catalogs is complex mainly due to the dichotomy between keywords from authors versus keywords based on controlled vocabularies. Finally, there is some demand to unify the terminology related to health to make easier the medical history exploitation and research. Considering these features, this paper focuses on controlled vocabularies related to the health field and their role for storing, classifying, and retrieving relevant literature. The objective is knowing which role plays the controlled vocabularies related to the health field to index and retrieve research literature in data bases such as Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus. So, this exploratory research is grounded over two research questions: 1) Which are the terms considered in specific controlled vocabularies of the health field; and 2) How papers are indexed in relevant databases to be easily retrieved, considering keywords vs specific health’ controlled vocabularies? This research takes as fieldwork the controlled vocabularies related to health and the scientific interest for 1918 flu pandemic, also known equivocally as ‘Spanish flu’. This interest has been fostered by the emergence in the early 21st of epidemics of pneumonic diseases caused by virus. Searches about and with controlled vocabularies on WoS and Scopus databases are conducted. First results of this work in progress are surprising. There are different controlled vocabularies for the health field, into which the terms collected and preferred related to ‘1918 pandemic’ are identified. To summarize, ‘Spanish influenza epidemic’ or ‘Spanish flu’ are collected as not preferred terms. The preferred terms are: ‘influenza’ or ‘influenza pandemic, 1918-1919’. Although the controlled vocabularies are clear in their election, most of the literature about ‘1918 pandemic’ is retrievable either by ‘Spanish’ or by ‘1918’ disjunct, and the dominant word to retrieve literature is ‘Spanish’ rather than ‘1918’. This is surprising considering the existence of suitable controlled vocabularies related to health topics, and the modern guidelines of World Health Organization concerning naming of diseases that point out to other preferred terms. A first conclusion is the failure of using controlled vocabularies for a field such as health, and in consequence for WoS and Scopus. This research opens further research questions about which is the role that controlled vocabularies play in the instructions to authors that journals deliver to documents’ authors.

Keywords: Controlled vocabularies, indexing, 1918 influenza, information retrieval, keywords, 1918 pandemic, scientific databases.

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Authors: V. Rednic, N. Aldea, P. Marginean, D. Macovei, C. M. Teodorescu, E. Dorolti, F. Matei

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The supported Pd catalysts were analyzed by X-ray diffraction and X-ray absorption spectroscopy in order to determine their global and local structure. The average particle size of the supported Pd catalysts was determined by X-ray diffraction method. One of the main purposes of the present contribution is to focus on understanding the specific role of the Pd particle size determined by X-ray diffraction and that of the support oxide. Based on X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy analysis we consider that the whole local structure of the investigated samples are distorted concerning the atomic number but the distances between atoms are almost the same as for standard Pd sample. Due to the strong modifications of the Pd cluster local structure, the metal-support interface may influence the electronic properties of metal clusters and thus their reactivity for absorption of the reactant molecules.

Keywords: metal-support interaction, supported metal catalysts, synchrotron radiation, X-ray absorption spectroscopy, X-raydiffraction

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Authors: I. Tiryakioglu, M. A. Ugur, C. Ozkaymak

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The development of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) technology has led to increasingly widely and successful applications of GNSS surveys for monitoring crustal movements. Instead of the multi-period GNSS solutions, this study utilizes GNSS time series that are required to more precisely determine the vertical deformations in the study area. In recent years, the surface deformations that are parallel and semi-parallel to Bolvadin fault have occurred in Western Anatolia. These surface deformations have continued to occur in Bolvadin settlement area that is located mostly on alluvium ground. Due to these surface deformations, a number of cracks in the buildings located in the residential areas and breaks in underground water and sewage systems have been observed. In order to determine the amount of vertical surface deformations, two continuous GNSS stations have been established in the region. The stations have been operating since 2015 and 2017, respectively. In this study, GNSS observations from the mentioned two GNSS stations were processed with GAMIT/GLOBK (GNSS Analysis Massachusetts Institute of Technology/GLOBal Kalman) program package to create coordinate time series. With the time series analyses, the GNSS stations’ behaviour models (linear, periodical, etc.), the causes of these behaviours, and mathematical models were determined. The study results from the time series analysis of these two 2 GNSS stations show approximately 50-90 mm/yr vertical movement.

Keywords: Bolvadin fault, GAMIT, GNSS time series, surface deformations.

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Authors: J. Aryal, D. Kulasiri, G. A. Carnaby

Abstract:

This paper provides an overview of auction theory literature. We present a general review on literature of various auctions and focus ourselves specifically on an English auction. We are interested in modelling bidder's behavior in an English auction environment. And hence, we present an overview of the New Zealand wool auction followed by a model that would describe a bidder's decision making behavior from the New Zealand wool auction. The mathematical assumptions in an English auction environment are demonstrated from the perspective of the New Zealand wool auction.

Keywords: Bidder, English auction, New Zealand, wool.

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Authors: Zohreh Bang Tavakoli, Shuktika Chatterjee

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This study investigates the fiscal policy impact on countries’ economic growth in developing countries with a different external debt level. The fiscal policy effectiveness has been re-emphasized in the global financial crisis of 2008 with the external debt as its new contemporary driver. Different theories have proposed the economic consequence of fiscal policy, specifically for developing countries. However, fiscal policy literature is lacking research regarding the fiscal policy’s effectiveness with the external debt’s contributions through comprehensive study. Also, high levels of external debt will influence economic growth. Through foreign resources and channel of investment in which high level of debt decreases the amount of foreign investment in the developing countries. The finding of this study suggests that only countries with a low external debt level and appropriate fiscal policies and good quality institutions can gain the proper quantity and quality of foreign investors in which will help the economic growth. For this, this research is examining the impact of fiscal policy on developing countries' economic growth in the situation of different external debt levels.

Keywords: fiscal policy, external debt, gross domestic product, developing countries

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Authors: G.Wiselin Jiji, L.Ganesan

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Textures are replications, symmetries and combinations of various basic patterns, usually with some random variation one of the gray-level statistics. This article proposes a new approach to Segment texture images. The proposed approach proceeds in 2 stages. First, in this method, local texture information of a pixel is obtained by fuzzy texture unit and global texture information of an image is obtained by fuzzy texture spectrum. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the usefulness of fuzzy texture spectrum for texture Segmentation. The 2nd Stage of the method is devoted to a decision process, applying a global analysis followed by a fine segmentation, which is only focused on ambiguous points. The above Proposed approach was applied to brain image to identify the components of brain in turn, used to locate the brain tumor and its Growth rate.

Keywords: Fuzzy Texture Unit, Fuzzy Texture Spectrum, andPattern Recognition, segmentation.

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Authors: Shadi Alghaffari, Hong-Oanh Nguyen, Peggy Chen, Hossein Enshaei

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The main purpose of this study was to explore the role of organisational effectiveness (OE) in seaports. OE is an important managerial concept, one that is necessary for leaders and directors in any organisation to understand the output of their work. OE has been applied in many organisations; however, it is a vital concept in the port business. This paper examines various approaches and applications of the OE concept to business management, and describes benefits that are important and applicable to seaport management. This research reviews and classifies articles published in relevant journals and books between 1950 and 2016; from the general literature on OE to the narrower field of OE in seaports. Based on the extensive literature review, this study identifies and discusses several issues relevant to both practices and theories of this concept. The review concludes by presenting a gap in the literature, as it found only a limited amount of research that endeavours to clarify OE in the seaport sector. As a result of this gap, seaports suffer from a lack of empirical study and are largely neglected in this subject area. The implementation of OE in this research has led to the maritime sector interfacing with different disciplines in order to acquire the advantage of enhancing managerial knowledge and competing successfully in the international marketplace.

Keywords: Maritime, organisational effectiveness, seaport management.

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Authors: T. Niracharapa, W. Angkana

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Since information and communication technology (ICT) plays a critical role in enhancing national competitiveness, it is a driving force for social and economic growth and prosperity. The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) will integrate this into ASEAN countries as a new mechanism and a measure that will improve economic performance as a global economy. Government policies may support or impede such harmonization. This study was to investigate, analyze the status of Thai IT entrepreneurs and define key strategies to enhance their competitive advantage. Data were collected based on in-depth interviews, questionnaires, focus groups, seminars and fieldwork on information technology excluding communication. SWOT was used as a tool to analyze the study. The results of this study can be used to enable the government to guide policy, measures and strategies for creating a competitive advantage for Thailand’s IT entrepreneurs in the global market.

Keywords: AEC, ASEAN, competitive advantage, IT entrepreneurs.

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Authors: Om Pal, Amit Kumar Gupta, R. K. Garg

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An effective supplier selection process is very important to the success of any manufacturing organization. The main objective of supplier selection process is to reduce purchase risk, maximize overall value to the purchaser, and develop closeness and long-term relationships between buyers and suppliers in today’s competitive industrial scenario. The literature on supplier selection criteria and methods is full of various analytical and heuristic approaches. Some researchers have developed hybrid models by combining more than one type of selection methods. It is felt that supplier selection criteria and method is still a critical issue for the manufacturing industries therefore in the present paper the literature has been thoroughly reviewed and critically analyzed to address the issue.

Keywords: Supplier selection, AHP, ANP, TOPSIS, Mathematical Programming

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Authors: M. van der Bank

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This study involves a legal analysis of the case Earthlife Africa Johannesburg v Minister of Environmental Affairs and Others. The case considered the impact of the Thabametsi Power Project if it operated to the expected year 2060 on the global climate and ever-changing climate, in South Africa. This judgment highlights the significance, place and principles of climate change and where climate change impacts the South African environmental law which has its founding principles in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. This paper seeks to examine the advances for climate change regulation and application in terms of international law, in South Africa, through a qualitative study involving comparative national and international case law. A literature review study was conducted to compare and contrast the various aspects of law in order to support the argument undertaken. The paper presents a detailed discussion of the current legislation and the position as it currently stands with reference to international law and interpretation. The relevant protections as outlined in the National Environmental Management Act will be discussed. It then proceeds to outline the potential liability of the Minister in the interpretation and application of international law.

Keywords: Climate change, environment, environmental review, international law, principles.

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Authors: Hasan Şahan Arel

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In this study, literature related to the replacement of cement with waste marble and the use of waste marble as an aggregate in concrete production was examined. Workability of the concrete decreased when marble powder was used as a substitute for fine aggregate. Marble powder contributed to the compressive strength of concrete because of the CaCO₃ and SiO₂ present in the chemical structure of the marble. Additionally, the use of marble pieces in place of coarse aggregate revealed that this contributed to the workability and mechanical properties of the concrete. When natural standard sand was replaced with marble dust at a ratio of 15% and 75%, the compressive strength and splitting tensile strength of the concrete increased by 20%-26% and 10%-15%, respectively. However, coarse marble aggregates exhibited the best performance at a 100% replacement ratio. Additionally, there was a greater improvement in the mechanical properties of concrete when waste marble was used in a coarse aggregate form when compared to that of when marble was used in a dust form. If the cement was replaced with marble powder in proportions of 20% or more, then adverse effects were observed on the compressive strength and workability of the concrete. This study indicated that marble dust at a cement-replacement ratio of 5%-10% affected the mechanical properties of concrete by decreasing the global annual CO₂ emissions by 12% and also lowering the costs from US$40/m³ to US$33/m³.

Keywords: Cement production, concrete, CO2 emission, marble, mechanical properties.

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Authors: Md. Khademul Islam Molla, Akimasa Sumi, M. Sayedur Rahman

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The empirical mode decomposition (EMD) represents any time series into a finite set of basis functions. The bases are termed as intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) which are mutually orthogonal containing minimum amount of cross-information. The EMD successively extracts the IMFs with the highest local frequencies in a recursive way, which yields effectively a set low-pass filters based entirely on the properties exhibited by the data. In this paper, EMD is applied to explore the properties of the multi-year air temperature and to observe its effects on climate change under global warming. This method decomposes the original time-series into intrinsic time scale. It is capable of analyzing nonlinear, non-stationary climatic time series that cause problems to many linear statistical methods and their users. The analysis results show that the mode of EMD presents seasonal variability. The most of the IMFs have normal distribution and the energy density distribution of the IMFs satisfies Chi-square distribution. The IMFs are more effective in isolating physical processes of various time-scales and also statistically significant. The analysis results also show that the EMD method provides a good job to find many characteristics on inter annual climate. The results suggest that climate fluctuations of every single element such as temperature are the results of variations in the global atmospheric circulation.

Keywords: Empirical mode decomposition, instantaneous frequency, Hilbert spectrum, Chi-square distribution, anthropogenic impact.

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Authors: Sujit K. Basak, Marguerite Wotto, Paul Bélanger

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This paper presents a conceptual framework on the critical success factors of e-learning implementation in higher education, derived from an in-depth survey of literature review. The aim of this study was achieved by identifying critical success factors that affect for the successful implementation of e-learning. The findings help to articulate issues that are related to e-learning implementation in both formal and non-formal higher education and in this way contribute to the development of programs designed to address the relevant issues.

Keywords: Critical success factors, e-learning, higher education, life-long learning.

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Authors: Huseyin Cetin, Halil Akmese, Sercan Aras, Vahit Aytekin

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Economic crisis, terrorism, global crisis and the relations between countries are the factors affecting tourism industry and tourism industry is vulnerable against these factors. In our study, there are two dimensions about Russian crisis. The crisis between Russia and Ukraine and decreased oil prices in global market have been entailed Russian economic crisis. This crisis has induced that the ruble, Russian currency, has depreciated against American dollars and consequently the purchasing power of Russian has weakened. This is the first dimension of our study. Second dimension is a political crisis between Turkey and Russia owing to the fact that the Russian Warcraft was brought down by Turkish army. The aim of this study is to explain the impact of the consequences of Russian crisis on Turkish tourism industry. The study has been limited only Antalya province.

Keywords: Economic crisis, Turkey-Russian crisis, Turkey's tourism industry, tourism in Turkey.

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Authors: Jakob Renko, Deja Praprotnik, Kristina Martinovič, Igor Karnjuš

Abstract:

Catheter-related bloodstream infections are a major burden for healthcare and patients. Although infections of this type cannot be completely avoided, they can be reduced by taking preventive measures. The aim of this study is to review and analyze the existing literature on preventive interventions to prevent central venous catheters (CVC) infections. A systematic literature review was carried out. The international databases CINAHL, Medline, PubMed, and Web of Science were searched using the search strategy: "catheter-related infections" AND "intensive care units" AND "prevention" AND "central venous catheter." Articles that met the inclusion and exclusion criteria were included in the study. The literature search flow is illustrated by the PRISMA diagram. The descriptive research method was used to analyze the data. Out of 554 search results, 22 surveys were included in the final analysis. We identified seven relevant preventive measures to prevent CVC infections: washing the whole body with chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) solution, disinfecting the CVC entry site with CHG solution, use of CHG or silver dressings, alcohol protective caps, CVC care education, selecting appropriate catheter and multicomponent care bundles. Both single interventions and multicomponent care bundles have been shown to be currently effective measures to prevent CVC infections in adult patients in the ICU. None of the measures identified stood out in terms of their effectiveness. Prevention work to reduce CVC infections in the ICU is a complex process that requires the simultaneous consideration of several factors.

Keywords: Central venous access, critically ill patients, hospital-acquired complications, prevention.

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