Search results for: participating banks

Authors: Rafiqul Tarefder, Mohiuddin Ahmad, Mohammad Hossain

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While millings materials from old pavement surface can be an important component of cost effective maintenance operation, their use in maintenance projects are not uniform and well documented. This study documents the different maintenance practices followed by four transportation districts of New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT) in an attempt to find whether millings are being used in maintenance projects by those districts. Based on existing literature, a questionnaire was developed related to six common maintenance practices. NMDOT district personal were interviewed face to face to discuss and get answers to that questionnaire. It revealed that NMDOT districts mainly use chip seal and patching. Other maintenance procedures such as sand seal, scrub seal, slurry seal, and thin overlay have limited use. Two out of four participating districts do not have any documents on chip sealing; rather they employ the experiences of the chip seal crew. All districts use polymer modified high float emulsion (HFE100P) for chip seal with an application rate ranging from 0.4 to 0.56 gallons per square yard. Chip application rate varies from 15 to 40 lb/ square yard. State wide, the thickness of chip seal varies from 3/8'' to 1'' and life varies from 3 to 10 years. NMDOT districts mainly use three type of patching: pothole, dig-out and blade patch. Pothole patches are used for small potholes and during emergency, dig-out patches are used for all type of potholes sometimes after pothole patching, and blade patch is used when a significant portion of the pavement is damaged. Pothole patches last as low as three days whereas, blade patch lasts as long as 3 years. It was observed that all participating districts use millings in maintenance projects.

Keywords: Chip seal, sand seal, scrub seal, slurry seal, overlay, patching, millings.

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Authors: Sajed A. Habib

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Problem-based learning (PBL) is a student-centered pedagogy that originated in the medical field and has also been used extensively in other knowledge disciplines with recognized advantages and limitations. PBL has been used in various undergraduate engineering programs with mixed outcomes. The current fourth industrial revolution (digital era or Industry 4.0) has made it essential for many science and engineering students to receive effective training in advanced courses such as industrial automation and robotics. This paper presents a case study at Assumption University of Thailand, where a PBL-like approach was used to teach some aspects of automation and robotics to selected groups of undergraduate engineering students. These students were given some basic level training in automation prior to participating in a subsequent training session in order to solve technical problems with increased complexity. The participating students’ evaluation of the training sessions in terms of learning effectiveness, skills enhancement, and incremental knowledge following the problem-solving session was captured through a follow-up survey consisting of 14 questions and a 5-point scoring system. From the most recent training event, an overall 70% of the respondents indicated that their skill levels were enhanced to a much greater level than they had had before the training, whereas 60.4% of the respondents from the same event indicated that their incremental knowledge following the session was much greater than what they had prior to the training. The instructor-facilitator involved in the training events suggested that this method of learning was more suitable for senior/advanced level students than those at the freshmen level as certain skills to effectively participate in such problem-solving sessions are acquired over a period of time, and not instantly.

Keywords: Automation, industry 4.0, model-based design training, problem-based learning.

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Authors: Joel S. Akintayo, Ramat T. Salman

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The stakeholders’ pressure on corporate managers to maintain firm’s profitability has created economic incentives for management to engage in earnings management practices. Therefore, this study examines the effects of audit quality and corporate governance on earnings management of quoted deposit money banks (DMBs) in Nigeria. This study specifically investigates the influence of audit tenure, audit fee, board independence, and board size on earnings management of DMBs. Explanatory research design was employed in carrying out the study while secondary data were sourced from the annual reports and accounts of all the 15 quoted DMBs in Nigerian Stock Exchange as at December 31, 2015 for a period of 10 years covering from 2006 to 2015. The data obtained for the study were analyzed using panel regression analysis approach. The findings reveal that board independence has a negative significant effect on earnings management at a 5% level of significance (p=0.002), while audit fee has a positive significant effect on earnings management at a 5% level of significance (p=0.013) and audit tenure has a negative significant effect on earnings management of DMBs at a 5% level of significance (p=0.003). Surprisingly, board size was statistically not significant at a 5% level of significance (p=0.086). The study concludes that high audit quality and sound corporate governance could improve the earnings quality of DMBs. Hence, the study recommends that the authorities saddled with the responsibility of banking supervision in Nigeria such the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and CBN to advise the National Assembly in Nigeria to pass into law the three years professional requirement for audit tenure.

Keywords: Audit quality, audit tenure, audit fee, board independence, corporate governance, earnings management.

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Authors: Nada Azhar

Abstract:

The aim of the paper is to investigate the effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) CSR on the National Commercial Bank (NCB) in Saudi Arabia. In order to achieve this, a case study was made of the CSR activities of this bank from the perspective of its branch managers. The NCB was chosen as it was one of the first Saudi banks to engage in CSR and currently has a wide range of CSR initiatives. A qualitative research method was used. Open-ended questionnaires were administered to eighty branch managers of the NCB, with fifty-five usable questionnaires returned and twenty managers were interviewed as part of the primary research. Data from both questionnaires and interviews were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Six themes emerged from the questionnaire findings were used to develop the interview questions. These themes are the following: Awareness of employees about CSR in the NCB; CSR activities as a type of investment; Government and media support; Increased employee loyalty in the NCB; Prestige and profit to the NCB; and View of CSR in Islam. This paper makes a theoretical contribution in that it investigates and increases understanding of the effect of CSR on the NCB in Saudi Arabia. In addition, it makes a practical contribution by making recommendations which can support the development of CSR in the NCB. A limitation of the paper is that it is a case study of only one bank. It is therefore recommended that future research could be conducted with other banks in Saudi Arabia, or indeed, with a range of other types of firm within the financial services area in Saudi Arabia. In this way, the same issues could be explored but with a greater potential generalisability of findings of CSR within the Saudi Arabian financial services industry. In addition, this paper takes a qualitative approach and it is suggested that future research be carried out using mixed methods, which could provide a greater depth of analysis.

Keywords: Branch managers, corporate social responsibility. national commercial bank, Saudi Arabia.

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Authors: Paolo Pietro Biancone

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The spread of Islamic financial instruments is an opportunity to offer integration for the immigrant population and to attract, through the specific products, the richness of sovereign funds from the "Arab" countries. However, it is important to consider the possibility of comparing a traditional finance model, which in recent times has given rise to many doubts, with an "alternative" finance model, where the ethical aspect arising from religious principles is very important.

Keywords: Banks, Europe, Islamic Finance, Italy.

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Authors: M. Kargar, A. Isazadeh, F. Fartash, T. Saderi

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In this paper we suggest a method for setting electronic credits for the customers. In this method banks and market-sites help each other to make doing large shopping through internet so easy. By developing this system, the people who have less money to buy most of the things they want, become able to buy all of them just through a credit. This credit is given by market-sites through a banking control on it. The method suggested can stop being imprisoned because of banking debts.

Keywords: E-Business, E-Credit, Market-site, Buy-site, Bank, E-Commerce.

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Authors: Pradeep Kulshrestha, Maulana Ayoub Ali

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The level of penetration of Islamic banking products and services has recorded a reasonable growth at an exponential rate in many parts of the world. There are many factors which have contributed to this growth including, but not limited to the rapid growth of number of Muslims who are uncomfortable with the conventional ways of banking, interest and higher interest rates scheduled by conventional banks and financial institutions as well as the financial inclusion campaign conducted in many countries. The system is facing legal challenges which open the research fdoor for practitioners and academicians for the sake of finding out solutions to those challenges. This paper tries to investigate the development of the Islamic banking system in the United Kingdom (UK), Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Iran, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda in order to understand the modalities which have been employed to run an Islamic banking system in the aforementioned countries. The methodology which has been employed in doing this research paper is Doctrinal, of which legislations, policies and other legal tools have been carefully studied and analysed. Again, papers from academic journals, books and financial reports have been deeply analysed for the purpose of enriching the paper and come up with a tangible results. The paper found that in Asia, Malaysia has created the smoothest legal platform for Islamic banking system to work properly in the country. The United Kingdom has tried harder to smooth the banking system without affecting the conventional banking methods and without favouring the operations of Islamic banks. It also tries harder to make UK as an Islamic banking and finance hub in Europe. The entire banking system in Iran is Islamic, while Nigeria has undergone several legal reforms to suit Islamic banking system in the country. Kenya and Uganda are at a different pace in making Islamic Banking system work alongside the conventional banking system.  

Keywords: Shariah, Islamic banking, law, alternative banking.

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Authors: Pradeep Kulshrestha, Maulana Ayoub Ali

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The concept of financial inclusion has been tabled in the whole world where practitioners, academicians, policy makers and economists are working hard to look for the best possible opportunities in order to enable the whole society to be in the banking cycle. The Islamic banking system is considered to be one of the said opportunities. Countries like the United Kingdom, United States of America, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, the whole of the United Arab Emirates and many African countries have accommodated the aspect of Islamic banking in the conventional banking system as one of the financial inclusion strategies. This paper tries to analyse the current state of affairs of the Islamic Banking system in Tanzania in order to understand the improvement of the provision of Islamic banking products and services in the said country. The paper discusses the historical background of the banking system in Tanzania, the level of penetration of banking products and services and the coming of the Islamic banking system in the country. Furthermore, the paper discusses banking regulatory bodies, legal instruments governing banking operations as well as number of legal challenges facing Islamic banking operations in the country. Following a critical literature review, the paper discovered that there is no legal instrument which talks about the introduction and provision of Islamic banking system in Tanzania. Furthermore, the Islamic banking system was considered as a banking product which is absolutely incorrect because Islamic banking is considered to be as a banking system of its own. In addition to that, it has been discovered that lack of a proper regulatory system and legal instruments to harmonize the conventional and Islamic banking systems has resulted in the closure of one Islamic window in the country, which in the end affects the credibility of the newly introduced banking system. In its conclusive remarks, the paper suggests that Tanzania should work on all legal challenges affecting the smooth operations of the Islamic banking system. This can be in a way of adopting various Islamic banking legal models which are used in countries like Malaysia and others, or a borrowing legal harmonization process which has been adopted by the UK, Uganda, Nigeria and Kenya.

Keywords: Islamic banking, Islamic Windows, regulations, banks.

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Authors: Tamara Tallman

Abstract:

Collaboration is a powerful tool for professional development and central for creating opportunities for teachers to reflect on their practice. However, school districts continue to have difficulty both implementing and sustaining collaboration. The purpose of this research was to investigate the experience of the teacher in a creative, instructional collaboration. The teachers in this study found that teacher-initiated collaboration offered them trust and they were more open with their partners. An interpretative phenomenological analysis was used for this study as it told the story of the teacher’s experience. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was chosen for this study to capture the complex and contextual nature of the teacher experience from a creative, instructional collaborative experience. This study sought to answer the question of how teachers in a private, faith-based school experience collaboration. In particular, the researcher engaged the study’s participants in interviews where they shared their unique perspectives on their experiences in relation to this phenomenon. Through the use of interpretative phenomenological analysis, the researcher interpreted the experiences of each participant in an attempt to gain deeper insight into how teachers made sense of their understanding of collaboration. In addition to the researcher’s interpreting the meaning of this construct for each research participant, this study gave a voice to the individual experiences and positionality of each participant at the research site. Moreover, the key findings presented in this study shed light on how teachers within this particular context participated in and made sense of their experience of creating an instructional collaborative. The research presented the findings that speak to the meaning that each research participant experienced in their relation to participating in building a collaborative culture and its effect on professional and personal growth. The researcher provided recommendations for future practice and research possibilities. The research findings demonstrated the unique experiences of each participant as well as a connection to the literature within the field of teacher professional development. The results also supported the claim that teacher collaboration can facilitate school reform. Participating teachers felt less isolation and developed more teacher knowledge.

Keywords: Collaboration, professional development, teacher, growth.

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Authors: S. Anastasiou, C. Nathanailides, P. Logothetis, G. Kanlis

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The purpose of the present work is to review some data for the management challenges that the aquaculture industry in Greece is currently facing. The results indicate that Greek aquaculture fish farms apply Human Resources Management (HRM) practices which can increase motivation, commitment and job satisfaction of their personnel. In turn, these practices can increase the productivity of the business. The Greek fish farms appear to invest in research and technological innovation with a good record in research activities and the generation of patents. Interestingly, the results of the present work were carried out during the period of the recent economic crisis in Greece. Several sectors of the Greek economy were severely affected by the financial problems of the Greek government and the Greek banks. Under the adverse economical conditions created by the Greek economic crisis, even the Greek aquaculture industry, which historically is considered as a thriving national exporting business sector, experienced harsh economic and market conditions. As a result of the global, European and national economic crisis, consumption of fish dropped while companies had to hold most of their stocked fish in order to regulated the flow to the market and the price. This occurred at a time where Banks in Greece had their own financial crisis – banking crisis - which resulted in limited access to lending for the all business sectors of the national economy including the Greek aquaculture industry. In spite of these economic conditions, the Greek aquaculture industry, after a series of mergers and acquisitions, has now stabilized production and exhibits very good prospects for future growth. Evidently, the firms had to cut salaries and on some occasions even pay their staff in arrears. Nevertheless, the results presented in this paper indicate that during the economic crisis, the surveyed fish farms maintained their HRM practices, investing in their human capital and technological input. In fact, human capital and technological input are the ticket for future success of companies in any business sector.

Keywords: Aquaculture, Human Resources Management.

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Authors: Carole Salis, Marie F. Wilson, Fabrizio Murgia, Cristian Lai, Franco Atzori, Giulia M. Orrù

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ANDASA is a knowledge management platform for the capitalization of knowledge and cultural assets for the artistic and cultural sectors. It was built based on the priorities expressed by the participating artists. Through mapping artistic activities and specificities, it enables to highlight various aspects of the artistic research and production. Such instrument will contribute to create networks and partnerships, as it enables to evidentiate who does what, in what field, using which methodology. The platform is accessible to network participants and to the general public.

Keywords: Cultural promotion, knowledge representation, cultural mapping, ICT.

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Authors: Teerada Apibunyopas, Nithinant Thammakoranonta

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Many organizations bring e-Learning to use as a tool in their training and human development department. It is getting more popular because it is easy to access to get knowledge all the time and also it provides a rich content, which can develop the employees’ skill efficiently. This study is focused on the factors that affect using e-Learning efficiently, so it will make job satisfaction increasing. The questionnaires were sent to employees in large commercial banks, which use e-Learning located in Bangkok, the results from multiple linear regression analysis showed that employee’s characteristics, characteristics of e-Learning, learning and growth have influence on job satisfaction.

Keywords: e-Learning, Job Satisfaction, Learning and growth.

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Authors: Tamara Kelly

Abstract:

The past decade has witnessed a good opportunities for city development schemes in UK. The government encouraged restoration of city centers to comprise mixed use developments with high density residential apartments. Investments in regeneration areas were doing well according to the analyses of Property Databank (IPD). However, more recent analysis by IPD has shown that since 2007, property in regeneration areas has been more vulnerable to the market downturn than other types of investment property. The early stages of a property market downturn may be felt most in regeneration where funding, investor confidence and occupier demand would dissipate because the sector was considered more marginal or risky when development costs rise. Moreover, the Bank of England survey shows that lenders have sequentially tightened the availability of credit for commercial real estate since mid-2007. A sharp reduction in the willingness of banks to lend on commercial property was recorded. The credit crunch has already affected commercial property but its impact has been particularly severe in certain kinds of properties where residential developments are extremely difficult, in particular city centre apartments and buy-to-let markets. Commercial property – retail, industrial leisure and mixed use were also pressed, in Birmingham; tens of mixed use plots were built to replace old factories in the heart of the city. The purpose of these developments was to enable young professionals to work and live in same place. Thousands of people lost their jobs during the recession, moreover lending was more difficult and the future of many developments is unknown. The recession casts its shadow upon the society due to cuts in public spending by government, Inflation, rising tuition fees and high rise in unemployment generated anger and hatred was spreading among youth causing vandalism and riots in many cities. Recent riots targeted many mixed used development in the UK where banks, shops, restaurants and big stores were robbed and set into fire leaving residents with horror and shock. This paper examines the impact of the recession and riots on mixed use development in UK.

Keywords: Diversity, mixed use development, outdoor comfort, public realm, safe places, safety by design.

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Authors: M. Schukat, M.P. Cullen, D. O'Beirne

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This paper describes a UDP over IP based, server-oriented redundant host configuration protocol (RHCP) that can be used by collaborating embedded systems in an ad-hoc network to acquire a dynamic IP address. The service is provided by a single network device at a time and will be dynamically reassigned to one of the other network clients if the primary provider fails. The protocol also allows all participating clients to monitor the dynamic makeup of the network over time. So far the algorithm has been implemented and tested on an 8-bit embedded system architecture with a 10Mbit Ethernet interface.

Keywords: Ad-Hoc Networks, Collaborating Embedded Systems, Dynamic Host Configuration, Redundancy.

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Authors: M. Okan Tasar

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Basel III (or the Third Basel Accord) is a global regulatory standard on bank capital adequacy, stress testing and market liquidity risk agreed upon by the members of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision in 2010-2011, and scheduled to be introduced from 2013 until 2018. Basel III is a comprehensive set of reform measures. These measures aim to; (1) improve the banking sector-s ability to absorb shocks arising from financial and economic stress, whatever the source, (2) improve risk management and governance, (3) strengthen banks- transparency and disclosures. Similarly the reform target; (1) bank level or micro-prudential, regulation, which will help raise the resilience of individual banking institutions to periods of stress. (2) Macro-prudential regulations, system wide risk that can build up across the banking sector as well as the pro-cyclical implication of these risks over time. These two approaches to supervision are complementary as greater resilience at the individual bank level reduces the risk system wide shocks. Macroeconomic impact of Basel III; OECD estimates that the medium-term impact of Basel III implementation on GDP growth is in the range -0,05 percent to -0,15 percent per year. On the other hand economic output is mainly affected by an increase in bank lending spreads as banks pass a rise in banking funding costs, due to higher capital requirements, to their customers. Consequently the estimated effects on GDP growth assume no active response from monetary policy. Basel III impact on economic output could be offset by a reduction (or delayed increase) in monetary policy rates by about 30 to 80 basis points. The aim of this paper is to create a framework based on the recent regulations in order to prevent financial crises. Thus the need to overcome the global financial crisis will contribute to financial crises that may occur in the future periods. In the first part of the paper, the effects of the global crisis on the banking system examine the concept of financial regulations. In the second part; especially in the financial regulations and Basel III are analyzed. The last section in this paper explored the possible consequences of the macroeconomic impacts of Basel III.

Keywords: Banking Systems, Basel III, Financial regulation, Global Financial Crisis.

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Authors: Sheng-Min Cheng

Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between parent involvement and preschool disabled children’s development. Parents of 3 year old disabled children (N=440) and 5 year old disabled children (N=937) participating in the Special Needs Education Longitudinal Study were interviewed or answered the web design questionnaire about their actions in parenting their disabled children. These children’s developments were also evaluated by their teachers. Data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling. Results were showed by tables and figures. Based on the results, the researcher made some suggestions for future studies.

Keywords: Child development, longitudinal data analysis, parent involvement, preschool disabled children.

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Authors: Julio Cesar Lopes de Oliveira, Carlos Henrique Gonc¸alves Treviso

Abstract:

The shortage of the automotive market in relation to options for sources of high power car audio systems, led to development of this work. Thus, we developed a source with stabilized voltage with 4320 W effective power. Designed to the voltage of 14.4 V and a choice of two currents: 30 A load option in battery banks and 300 A at full load. This source can also be considered as a source of general use dedicated commercial with a simple control circuit in analog form based on discrete components. The assembly of power circuit uses a methodology for higher power than the initially stipulated.

Keywords: DC-DC power converters, converters, power convertion, pulse width modulation converters.

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Authors: Richard Joseph, Nerey Mvungi

Abstract:

An electric power system includes a generating, a transmission, a distribution, and consumers subsystems. An electrical power network in Tanzania keeps growing larger by the day and become more complex so that, most utilities have long wished for real-time monitoring and remote control of electrical power system elements such as substations, intelligent devices, power lines, capacitor banks, feeder switches, fault analyzers and other physical facilities. In this paper, the concept of automation of management of power systems from generation level to end user levels was determined by using Power System Simulator for Engineering (PSS/E) version 30.3.2.

Keywords: Automation, Distribution subsystem, Generating subsystem, PSS/E, TANESCO, Transmission subsystem.

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Authors: J. Levendovszky, I. Koncz, P. Boros

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The paper is concerned with developing stochastic delay mechanisms for efficient multicast protocols and for smooth mobile handover processes which are capable of preserving a given Quality of Service (QoS). In both applications the participating entities (receiver nodes or subscribers) sample a stochastic timer and generate load after a random delay. In this way, the load on the networking resources is evenly distributed which helps to maintain QoS communication. The optimal timer distributions have been sought in different p.d.f. families (e.g. exponential, power law and radial basis function) and the optimal parameter have been found in a recursive manner. Detailed simulations have demonstrated the improvement in performance both in the case of multicast and mobile handover applications.

Keywords: Multicast communication, stochactic delay mechanisms.

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Authors: René Díaz-Pichardo, Cecilia Cantú-González, Patricia López-Hernández

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The development of entrepreneurial competences of farmers has been pointed out as a necessary condition for the modernization of land in facing the phenomenon of globalization. However, the educational processes involved in such a development have been studied little, especially in emerging economies. This research aims to enlighten some of the critical issues behind the early stages of the transformation of farmers into entrepreneurs, through in depth interviews with farmers, entrepreneurial promoters and public officials participating in a public pilot project in Mexico. Although major impacts were expected only in the long run, important positive changes in the mind set of farmers and other participants were found in early stages of the intervention. Apparently, the farmers started a process of becoming more conscious about the importance of preserving the aquiferous resources, as well as more market and entrepreneurial oriented.

Keywords: entrepreneurial training, farmers, land development.

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Authors: Faisal Asad Aburub

Abstract:

Many organizations are investing in web applications and technologies in order to be competitive, some of them could not achieve its goals. The quality of web-based applications could play an important role for organizations to be competitive. So the aim of this study is to investigate the impact of quality of web-based applications to achieve a competitive advantage. A new model has been developed. An empirical investigation was performed on a banking sector in Jordan to test the new model. The results show that impact of web-based applications on competitive advantage is significant. Finally, further work is planned to validate and evaluate the proposed model using several domains.

Keywords: Competitive advantage, web-based applications, empirical investigation.

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Authors: R. S. Al Abri, M. H. Albadi, M. H. Al Abri, U. K. Al Rasbi, M. H. Al Hasni, S. M. Al Shidi

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This paper presents an analysis study on the impacts of the changes of the capacitor banks, the loss of a transformer, and the installation of distributed generation on the voltage total harmonic distortion and harmonic resonance. The study is applied in a real system in Oman, Sohar Industrial Port–C Substation Network. Frequency scan method and Fourier series analysis method are used with the help of EDSA software. Moreover, the results are compared with limits specified by national Oman distribution code.

Keywords: Power quality, capacitor bank, voltage total harmonics distortion, harmonic resonance, frequency scan.

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Authors: Chechen Liao, Chin Yi Yang

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Although several factors that affect learning to program have been identified over the years, there continues to be no indication of any consensus in understanding why some students learn to program easily and quickly while others have difficulty. Seldom have researchers considered the problem of how to help the students enhance the programming learning outcome. The research had been conducted at a high school in Taiwan. Students participating in the study consist of 330 tenth grade students enrolled in the Basic Computer Concepts course with the same instructor. Two types of training methods-instruction-oriented and exploration-oriented were conducted. The result of this research shows that the instruction-oriented training method has better learning performance than exploration-oriented training method.

Keywords: Learning performance, programming learning, TDD, training method.

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Authors: Swapna Bhargavi Gantasala

Abstract:

If teamwork is the key to organizational learning, productivity and growth, then, why do some teams succeed in achieving these, while others falter at different stages? Building teams in higher education institutions has been a challenge and an open-ended constructivist approach was considered on an experimental basis for this study to address this challenge. For this research, teams of students from the MBA program were chosen to study the effect of teamwork in learning, the motivation levels among student team members, and the effect of collaboration in achieving team goals. The teams were built on shared vision and goals, cohesion was ensured, positive induction in the form of faculty mentoring was provided for each participating team and the results have been presented with conclusions and suggestions.

Keywords: Collaboration, Leadership, Motivation, Reinforcement Teamwork.

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Authors: Yassine Jadi, Lin Jie

Abstract:

In order to serve the society in an electronic manner, many developing countries have launched tremendous e-government projects. The strategies of development and implementation e-government system have reached different levels, and to ensure consistency of development, the governments need to evaluate e-government performance. The United nation has design e-government development ranking index (EGDI) that rely on three indexes, Online service index (OSI), Telecommunication Infrastructure index (TII), and human capital index( HCI) which are not reflecting the interaction between a government and their citizens. Based on data envelopment analyses (DEA) technique, we are using E-participating index (EPI) as an output of government effort to evaluate the performance of e-government system. Therefore, the ranking index can be achieved in efficiency manner.

Keywords: E-government, DEA, efficiency measurement, EGDI.

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Authors: N. Bhalaji, A. R. Sivaramkrishnan, Sinchan Banerjee, V. Sundar, A. Shanmugam

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Nodes in mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) do not rely on a central infrastructure but relay packets originated by other nodes. Mobile ad hoc networks can work properly only if the participating nodes collaborate in routing and forwarding. For individual nodes it might be advantageous not to collaborate, though. In this conceptual paper we propose a new approach based on relationship among the nodes which makes them to cooperate in an Adhoc environment. The trust unit is used to calculate the trust values of each node in the network. The calculated trust values are being used by the relationship estimator to determine the relationship status of nodes. The proposed enhanced protocol was compared with the standard DSR protocol and the results are analyzed using the network simulator-2.

Keywords: Reliable Routing, DSR, Grudger, Adhoc network.

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Authors: Hamzah Hussein Al-mawali, Yuserrie Zainuddin, Noor Nasir Kader Ali

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The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the body of knowledge in the area of management accounting, particularly performance measurement systems within the BSC framework, by investigating empirically the extent of multiple performance measures usage and their effects on the financial performance of Jordanian banks in the branches level. Nevertheless, the result of this study shows that the non-financial measures usages, particularly, customer oriented indicators and product/ service oriented indicators, appears to be important as it enhances firm performance. Remarkably, the findings reveal that there is positive relationship between the usages of multiple performance measures via overall BSC measures and financial performance in the branches level.

Keywords: Performance measurements systems, BalancedScorecard, Jordan.

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Authors: Nada Azhar

Abstract:

This paper is drawn from a wider study of the management of gender, age and disability diversity in the banking sector in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), which aims to develop a framework for diversity management (DM) in this sector. The paper focuses on the management of disability diversity. The purpose of the paper is to assist in understanding disability DM in the banking sector in KSA and to make suggestions for its enhancement. Hence, it contributes to filling a research gap, as there is a dearth of literature on disability DM, in KSA in general, and in the banking sector specifically. Discrimination against people with disabilities is a social issue that has not been entirely overcome in any society. However, in KSA, Islam informs almost every aspect of daily life including work, and Islam is against discrimination. Hence, in KSA, there are regulations to accommodate people with disabilities; however, employers are still free not to hire job applicants with disabilities specifically because of their condition. Indeed, disabled people are almost entirely absent from the labour market. There are 12 Saudi-owned or part-Saudi-owned banks in KSA and two managers from each of these were interviewed, making a total of 24. The interviews aimed to investigate empirically the understanding of managers in the banking sector in KSA of diversity management, including disability DM, in the banking sector. The interview data were analysed using thematic analysis. Two interviewees stated that banks used the employment of people with disabilities to enhance their corporate image, while five expressed the opinion that disabled employees could contribute to the bank provided they did not have to deal with customers face-to-face. Nine of the interviewees perceived that disabled employees could be of value to the bank for their own sake, not only in ‘behind the scenes’ roles. Another two interviewees mentioned that employing disabled people could be part of the bank’s community service programme and one thought it would be part of the bank’s Saudisation efforts. The remaining five interviewees did not know how disabled people could contribute to the bank. The findings show that disability DM in the banking sector in KSA is a relatively new concept, and is not yet well understood. In the light of the findings, in order to achieve the purpose of the paper, the following suggestions were made for the enhancement of disability DM in the banking sector in KSA. A change in attitudes towards disabled people is necessary. Such a change in the workplace can only be achieved if a top-down approach is taken to the integration of disabled people. Hence, it is suggested that management and employees follow a course in disability awareness. Further, a diversity officer in the HR department could enhance the integration of disabled people into the banking workforce. It is also suggested that greater government support is required through closely monitored and enforced anti-discrimination legislation. Moreover, flexible working arrangements such as part-time work would facilitate the employment of disabled people and benefit other groups of employees.

Keywords: Banking, disability, diversity management, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

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Authors: D. Seenivasan, K. Shanthi

Abstract:

Botnets are one of the most serious and widespread cyber threats. Today botnets have been facilitating many cybercrimes, especially financial, top secret thefts. Botnets can be available for lease in the market and are utilized by the cybercriminals to launch massive attacks like DDoS, click fraud, phishing attacks etc., Several large institutions, hospitals, banks, government organizations and many social networks such as twitter, facebook etc., became the target of the botmasters. Recently, noteworthy researches have been carried out to detect bot, C&C channels, botnet and botmasters. Using many sophisticated technologies, botmasters made botnet a titan of the cyber world. Innumerable challenges have been put forth by the botmasters to the researchers in the detection of botnet. In this paper we present a survey of different types of botnet C&C channels and also provide a comparison of various botnet categories. Finally we hope that our survey will create awareness for forthcoming botnet research endeavors.

Keywords: Bot, Botmaster, Botnet, Botnet cloud, Mobile Botnet.

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Authors: Yin-Ling, Lin

Abstract:

This paper suggests a rethinking of the existing research about Genetically Modified (GM) food. Since the first batch of GM food was commercialised in the UK market, GM food rapidly received and lost media attention in the UK. Disagreement on GM food policy between the US and the EU has also drawn scholarly attention to this issue. Much research has been carried out intending to understand people-s views about GM food and the shaping of these views. This paper was based on the data collected in twenty-nine semi-structured interviews, which were examined through Erving Goffman-s idea of self-presentation in interactions to suggest that the existing studies investigating “consumer attitudes" towards GM food have only considered the “front stage" in the dramaturgic metaphor. This paper suggests that the ways in which people choose to present themselves when participating these studies should be taken into account during the data analysis.

Keywords: Boundary work, demarcation of science, GM food, self-presentation

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