Search results for: return of premiums clauses

Authors: Aiyeloja A.A, Ogunjinmi A.A

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The recurring decimal of rural and urban poverty in Nigeria, resulting from lack of sustainable livelihood activities by the people due to non-diversification of the economy, necessitated this study. One hundred snail farmers were randomly selected in Akure North and Akure South Local Government areas of Ondo State, Southwest Nigeria where snail farming is widely practised. Data collection was through questionnaires administration and onsite observation of farms. Data obtained were subjected to descriptive statistics, Student-s t-test and regression analysis. Cost benefit ratio (CBR) and rate of return on investment (RORI) were calculated in order to determine the poverty alleviation potentials of snail farming in the study areas. Although snail farming was profitable and viable, it was below poverty line. With time and more knowledge in its farming activities, and with more people taking to snail production, its poverty alleviation and reduction potentials will increase.

Keywords: Alleviation, farming, Nigeria, potential, poverty, snail.

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Authors: Leslie J.C.Bluck, Sarah J.Jackson, Georgios Vlasakakis, Adrian Mander

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The use of a Bayesian Hierarchical Model (BHM) to interpret breath measurements obtained during a 13C Octanoic Breath Test (13COBT) is demonstrated. The statistical analysis was implemented using WinBUGS, a commercially available computer package for Bayesian inference. A hierarchical setting was adopted where poorly defined parameters associated with a delayed Gastric Emptying (GE) were able to "borrow" strength from global distributions. This is proved to be a sufficient tool to correct model's failures and data inconsistencies apparent in conventional analyses employing a Non-linear least squares technique (NLS). Direct comparison of two parameters describing gastric emptying ng ( tlag -lag phase, t1/ 2 -half emptying time) revealed a strong correlation between the two methods. Despite our large dataset ( n = 164 ), Bayesian modeling was fast and provided a successful fitting for all subjects. On the contrary, NLS failed to return acceptable estimates in cases where GE was delayed.

Keywords: Bayesian hierarchical analysis, 13COBT, Gastricemptying, WinBUGS.

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Authors: Atefeh Pourshafie, Mohsen. Saniei, S. S. Mortazavi, A. Saeedian

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In this paper optimal capacitor placement problem has been formulated in a restructured distribution network. In this scenario the distribution network operator can consider reactive energy also as a service that can be sold to transmission system. Thus search for optimal location, size and number of capacitor banks with the objective of loss reduction, maximum income from selling reactive energy to transmission system and return on investment for capacitors, has been performed. Results is influenced with economic value of reactive energy, therefore problem has been solved for various amounts of it. The implemented optimization technique is genetic algorithm. For any value of reactive power economic value, when reverse of investment index increase and change from zero or negative values to positive values, the threshold value of selling reactive power has been obtained. This increasing price of economic parameter is reasonable until the network losses is less than loss before compensation.

Keywords: capacitor placement, deregulated electric market, distribution network optimization.

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Authors: G. Kalpanadevi, S. Ravimaran, M. Shanmugapriya

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In this paper, a modified Wilkinson power divider for GSM application is presented. The quarter–wavelength microstrip lines in the conventional Wilkinson power divider (WPD) are replaced by one-eighth wavelength transmission line. Wilkinson power divider is designed using λ/4 and λ/8 transmission line. It has the operating frequency of 915 MHz which is used in the GSM standard. The proposed Wilkinson Power Divider is designed using the simulation tool Advanced Design System. The results of λ/8 transmission line are very close to the results of λ/4 transmission line. The isolation loss of λ/8 transmission line is improved by introducing a capacitor between the output ports. The proposed Wilkinson power divider has the best return loss of greater than -10 dB and isolation loss of -15.25 dB. The λ/8 transmission line Wilkinson power divider has the reduced size of 53.9 percentages than λ/4 transmission line WPD. The proposed design has simple structure, better isolation loss and good insertion loss.

Keywords: Wilkinson Power Divider, Quarter wave line, one eighth wave transmission line, microstrip line.

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Authors: Saleh Komies, Mona Alharbi, Razan Alhayyani, Mozah Almulhim, Roseanne Khawaja, Ahmed Alradhi

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One of the proposed solutions that face some challenges is encouraging sustainable energy consumption across Saudi Arabia through crowdfunding platforms. To address these challenges, we need to determine the level of awareness of crowdfunding and green projects, as well as the preferences and willingness of Saudis to utilize crowdfunding as an alternative funding source for green projects in Saudi Arabia. In this study, we aim to determine the influence of environmental awareness and concern on the propensity to crowdfund green projects. The survey is being conducted as part of environmental initiatives to assess public perceptions and opinions on crowdfunding green projects in Saudi Arabia. A total of 450 responses to an online questionnaire distributed via convenience and snowball sampling were utilized for data analysis. The survey reveals that Saudis have a low understanding of crowdfunding concepts and a relatively high understanding of implementing green projects. The public is interested in crowdfunding green projects if there is a return on investment.

Keywords: Crowdfunding, green projects, renewable energy, Saudi Arabia, solar farms, wind resources.

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Authors: Azmi Hamid, Rozainun Aziz

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The study aims to investigate the impact on board and audit committee characteristics and firm performance before and after the revision of MCCG (2007) on GLCs over the period 2005-2010. We used Return on Assets (ROA) as a proxy for firm performance. The data consists of two groups; data collected before and after the amendments of MCCG (2007). Findings show that boards of directors with accounting / finance qualifications (BEXP) are statistically significant with performance for period before the amendments. As for audit committee members with accounting or finance qualifications (ACEXP), correlation results indicate a negative association and non-significant results for the years before amendments. However, the years after the amendments show positive relationship with highly significant correlations (1%) to ROA. This indicates that the amendments of MCCG 2007 on the audit committee members- literacy in accounting have impacted the governance structures and performance of GLCs.

Keywords: BOD and Audit Committees, firm performance, GLCs.

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Authors: Jin Xu, Albert Y.S. Lam, Victor O.K. Li

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Stock portfolio selection is a classic problem in finance, and it involves deciding how to allocate an institution-s or an individual-s wealth to a number of stocks, with certain investment objectives (return and risk). In this paper, we adopt the classical Markowitz mean-variance model and consider an additional common realistic constraint, namely, the cardinality constraint. Thus, stock portfolio optimization becomes a mixed-integer quadratic programming problem and it is difficult to be solved by exact optimization algorithms. Chemical Reaction Optimization (CRO), which mimics the molecular interactions in a chemical reaction process, is a population-based metaheuristic method. Two different types of CRO, named canonical CRO and Super Molecule-based CRO (S-CRO), are proposed to solve the stock portfolio selection problem. We test both canonical CRO and S-CRO on a benchmark and compare their performance under two criteria: Markowitz efficient frontier (Pareto frontier) and Sharpe ratio. Computational experiments suggest that S-CRO is promising in handling the stock portfolio optimization problem.

Keywords: Stock portfolio selection, Markowitz model, Chemical Reaction Optimization, Sharpe ratio

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Authors: K. Badron, A. F. Ismail, A. L. Asnawi, N. F. A. Malik, S. Z. Abidin, S. Dzulkifly

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The occurrences of precipitation, also commonly referred as rain, in the form of "convective" and "stratiform" have been identified to exist worldwide. In this study, the radar return echoes or known as reflectivity values acquired from radar scans have been exploited in the process of classifying the type of rain endured. The investigation use radar data from Malaysian Meteorology Department (MMD). It is possible to discriminate the types of rain experienced in tropical region by observing the vertical characteristics of the rain structure. .Heavy rain in tropical region profoundly affects radiowave signals, causing transmission interference and signal fading. Required wireless system fade margin depends on the type of rain. Information relating to the two mentioned types of rain is critical for the system engineers and researchers in their endeavour to improve the reliability of communication links. This paper highlights the quantification of percentage occurrences over one year period in 2009.

Keywords: Stratiform, convective, tropical region, attenuation radar reflectivity.

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Authors: G.Kabashi, K.Kadriu, A.Gashi, S.Kabashi, G, Pula, V.Komoni

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This paper focuses on PSS/E modeling of wind farms of Doubly-fed Induction Generator (DFIG) type and their impact on issues of power system operation. Since Wind Turbine Generators (WTG) don-t have the same characteristics as synchronous generators, the appropriate modeling of wind farms is essential for transmission system operators to analyze the best options of transmission grid reinforcements as well as to evaluate the wind power impact on reliability and security of supply. With the high excepted penetration of wind power into the power system a simultaneous loss of Wind Farm generation will put at risk power system security and reliability. Therefore, the main wind grid code requirements concern the fault ride through capability and frequency operation range of wind turbines. In case of grid faults wind turbines have to supply a definite reactive power depending on the instantaneous voltage and to return quickly to normal operation.

Keywords: Power System transients, PSS/E dynamic simulationDouble-fed Induction Generator.

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Authors: P.S. Prakash, S. Selvan

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IP networks are evolving from data communication infrastructure into many real-time applications such as video conferencing, IP telephony and require stringent Quality of Service (QoS) requirements. A rudimentary issue in QoS routing is to find a path between a source-destination pair that satisfies two or more endto- end constraints and termed to be NP hard or complete. In this context, we present an algorithm Multi Constraint Path Problem Version 3 (MCPv3), where all constraints are approximated and return a feasible path in much quicker time. We present another algorithm namely Delay Coerced Multi Constrained Routing (DCMCR) where coerce one constraint and approximate the remaining constraints. Our algorithm returns a feasible path, if exists, in polynomial time between a source-destination pair whose first weight satisfied by the first constraint and every other weight is bounded by remaining constraints by a predefined approximation factor (a). We present our experimental results with different topologies and network conditions.

Keywords: Routing, Quality-of-Service (QoS), additive constraints, shortest path, delay coercion.

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Authors: Tin Seong Kam, Ketan Barshikar, Shaun Tan

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The advances in location-based data collection technologies such as GPS, RFID etc. and the rapid reduction of their costs provide us with a huge and continuously increasing amount of data about movement of vehicles, people and goods in an urban area. This explosive growth of geospatially-referenced data has far outpaced the planner-s ability to utilize and transform the data into insightful information thus creating an adverse impact on the return on the investment made to collect and manage this data. Addressing this pressing need, we designed and developed DIVAD, a dynamic and interactive visual analytics dashboard to allow city planners to explore and analyze city-s transportation data to gain valuable insights about city-s traffic flow and transportation requirements. We demonstrate the potential of DIVAD through the use of interactive choropleth and hexagon binning maps to explore and analyze large taxi-transportation data of Singapore for different geographic and time zones.

Keywords: Geographic Information System (GIS), MovementData, GeoVisual Analytics, Urban Planning.

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Authors: Xueqin Shan, Chuanming Wu, Wenhua Hou, Xiaosu Ye

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Successful public-private-partnership (PPP) implementation can not be achieved without the active participation of private sector companies. This paper examines the decision-making of private sector companies in public works delivered by the PPP model on the basis of social responsibility theory. It proposes that private sector companies should indentify objectives of entering into PPP projects, and shoulder relevant social responsibilities, while a minimum return should also be guaranteed in their favor, so as to compensate for their assumed risk and support them to take on responsibilities in the future. The paper also gives a calculation regarding the appropriate scale and reasonable degree of private sector involvement in PPP projects through the cost-benefit analysis in a specific case study, with the purpose to guide the private sector companies to create a cooperation environment resembling “symbiosis" and facilitate the smooth implementation of public works delivered by the PPP model.

Keywords: Social Responsibility Theory, Cost-benefit Analysis, PPP Projects, Private Sector Companies, Decision-making Modell

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Authors: Jalil Emadi, Masoud Nasri, Ali Najafi, Yousef Moradi Shahgharyeh

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Development of cities and villages, agricultural farms and industrial regions in abutment and/or in the course of streams and rivers or in prone flood lands has been caused more notations in hydrology problems and city planning topics. In order to protection of cities against of flood damages, embankment construction is a desired and scientific method. The cities that located in arid zones may damage by floods periodically. Zavvareh city in Ardestan township(Isfahan province) with 7704 people located in Ardestan plain that has been damaged by floods that have flowed from dominant mountainous watersheds in past years with regard to return period. In this study, according to flowed floods toward Zavvareh city, was attempt to plan suitable hydraulic structures such as canals, bridges and collectors in order to collection, conduction and depletion of city surface runoff.

Keywords: Flood, flood way, executive consideration, embankment, surface runoff network, Zavvareh.

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Authors: Y. Laaroussi, Z. Guennoun, A. Amar

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Modeling and forecasting dynamics of rainfall occurrences constitute one of the major topics, which have been largely treated by statisticians, hydrologists, climatologists and many other groups of scientists. In the same issue, we propose, in the present paper, a new hybrid method, which combines Extreme Values and fractal theories. We illustrate the use of our methodology for transformed Emberger Index series, constructed basing on data recorded in Oujda (Morocco). The index is treated at first by Peaks Over Threshold (POT) approach, to identify excess observations over an optimal threshold u. In the second step, we consider the resulting excess as a fractal object included in one dimensional space of time. We identify fractal dimension by the box counting. We discuss the prospect descriptions of rainfall data sets under Generalized Pareto Distribution, assured by Extreme Values Theory (EVT). We show that, despite of the appropriateness of return periods given by POT approach, the introduction of fractal dimension provides accurate interpretation results, which can ameliorate apprehension of rainfall occurrences.

Keywords: Extreme values theory, Fractals dimensions, Peaks Over Threshold, Rainfall occurrences.

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Authors: Drago Jakovcevic, Mihovil Andelinovic, Igor Husak

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The aim of this paper is to explore the economic circumstances in which the selective credit policy, the least used instrument of four types of instruments on disposal to central banks, should be used. The most significant example includes the use of selective credit policies in response to the emergence of the global financial crisis by the FED. Specifics of the potential use of selective credit policies as the instigator of economic growth in Croatia, a small open economy, are determined by high euroization of financial system, fixed exchange rate and long-term trend growth of external debt that is related to the need to maintain high levels of foreign reserves. In such conditions, the classic forms of selective credit policies are unsuitable for the introduction. Several alternative approaches to implement selective credit policies are examined in this paper. Also, thorough analysis of distribution of selective monetary policy loans among economic sectors in Croatia is conducted in order to minimize the risk of investing funds and maximize the return, in order to influence the GDP growth.

Keywords: Global crisis, Selective credit policy, Small open economy.

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Authors: Javier Parra-Domínguez, Juan Manuel Corchado

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At present, public efficiency is a concept that intends to maximize return on public investment focus on minimizing the use of resources and maximizing the outputs. The concept takes into account statistical criteria drawn up according to techniques such as DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis). The purpose of the current work is to consider, more precisely, the theoretical application of CBR (Case-Based Reasoning) from economics and computer science, as a preliminary step to improving the efficiency of law enforcement agencies (public sector). With the aim of increasing the efficiency of the public sector, we have entered into a phase whose main objective is the implementation of new technologies. Our main conclusion is that the application of computer techniques, such as CBR, has become key to the efficiency of the public sector, which continues to require economic valuation based on methodologies such as DEA. As a theoretical result and conclusion, the incorporation of CBR systems will reduce the number of inputs and increase, theoretically, the number of outputs generated based on previous computer knowledge.

Keywords: Case-based reasoning, knowledge, police, public efficiency.

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Authors: Siyanee Hirunsalee, Paola Rizziand Hidehiko Kanegae

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The fundamental objective of the university is to genuinely provide a higher education to mankind and society. Higher education institutions earn billions of dollars in research funds, granted by national government or related institutions, which literally came from taxpayers. Everyday universities consume those grants; in return, provide society with a human resource and research developments. However, not all taxpayers have their major concerns on those researches, other than that they are more curiously to see the project being build tangibly and evidently to certify what they pay for. This paper introduces the concept of University – Community Business Continuity Management for Disaster – Resilient City, which modified the concept of Business Continuity Management (BCM) toward university community to create advancing collaboration leading to the disaster – resilient community and city. This paper focuses on describing in details the backgrounds and principles of the concept and discussing the advantages and limitations of the concept.

Keywords: Business Continuity Management, Disaster ResilientCity, Disaster Management, University – Community Collaboration.

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Authors: Isa Nakhai Kamal Abadi, Esmaeel Saberi, Ehsan Mirjafari

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While financial institutions have faced difficulties over the years for a multitude of reasons, the major cause of serious banking problems continues to be directly related to lax credit standards for borrowers and counterparties, poor portfolio risk management, or a lack of attention to changes in economic or other circumstances that can lead to a deterioration in the credit standing of a bank's counterparties. Credit risk is most simply defined as the potential that a bank borrower or counterparty will fail to meet its obligations in accordance with agreed terms. The goal of credit risk management is to maximize a bank's risk-adjusted rate of return by maintaining credit risk exposure within acceptable parameters. Banks need to manage the credit risk inherent in the entire portfolio as well as the risk in individual credits or transactions. Banks should also consider the relationships between credit risk and other risks. The effective management of credit risk is a critical component of a comprehensive approach to risk management and essential to the long-term success of any banking organization. In this research we also study the relationship between credit risk indices and borrower-s timely payback in Karafarin bank.

Keywords: Financial Ratios; Spearman Test; Bank OperationsRisk

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Authors: Frantisek Bozek, Pavel Budinsky, Ignac Hoza, Alexandr Bozek, Magdalena Naplavova

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A cleaner production project was implemented in a bakery. The project is based on the substitution of the best available technique for an obsolete leaven production technology. The new technology enables production of durable, high-quality leavens. Moreover, 25% of flour as the original raw material can be replaced by pastry from the previous day production which has not been sold. That pastry was previously disposed in a waste incineration plant. Besides the environmental benefits resulting from less waste, lower consumption of energy, reduction of sewage waters quantity and floury dustiness there are also significant economic benefits. Payback period of investment was calculated with help of static method of financial analysis about 2.6 years, using dynamic method 3.5 years and an internal rate of return more than 29%. The supposed annual average profit after taxationin the second year of operation was incompliance with the real profit.

Keywords: Bakery, best available technology, cleaner production, costs, economic benefit, efficiency, energy, environmental benefit, investment, savings.

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Authors: Bruno Henrique Rocha Fernandes, Amir Rezaee, Jucelia Appio

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The relation between Human Resource Management (HRM) practices and organizational performance remains the subject of substantial literature. Though many studies demonstrated positive relationship, still major influencing variables are not yet clear. This study considers the Person-Environment Fit (PE Fit) and its components, Person-Supervisor (PS), Person-Group (PG), Person-Organization (PO) and Person-Job (PJ) Fit, as possible explanatory variables. We analyzed PE Fit as a moderator between HRM practices and financial performance in the “best companies to work” in Brazil. Data from HRM practices were classified through the High Performance Working Systems (HPWS) construct and data on PE-Fit were obtained through surveys among employees. Financial data, consisting of return on invested capital (ROIC) and price earnings ratio (PER) were collected for publicly traded best companies to work. Findings show that PO Fit and PJ Fit play a significant moderator role for PER but not for ROIC.

Keywords: Financial performance, human resource management, high performance working systems, person-environment fit.

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Authors: Mojtaba Rezaei, Elham Heydari

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This paper highlights the empirical results of analyzing the correlation between accounting information and systematic risk. This association is analyzed among financial ratios and systematic risk by considering the financial statement of 39 companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) for five years (2014-2018). Financial ratios have been categorized into four groups and to describe the special features, as representative of accounting information we selected: Return on Asset (ROA), Debt Ratio (Total Debt to Total Asset), Current Ratio (current assets to current debt), Asset Turnover (Net sales to Total assets), and Total Assets. The hypotheses were tested through simple and multiple linear regression and T-student test. The findings illustrate that there is no significant relationship between accounting information and market risk. This indicates that in the selected sample, historical accounting information does not fully reflect the price of stocks.

Keywords: Accounting information, market risk, systematic risk, efficient market hypothesis, EMH, Tehran Stock Exchange, TSE.

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Authors: W. A. Pamungkas, R. B. Setyawati, A. F. Rifai, C. P. Setiawan, A. W. Budiman, Inayati, J. Waluyo, S. H. Pranolo

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The increase in LPG consumption in Indonesia is not balanced with the amount of supply. The high demand for LPG due to the success of the government's kerosene-to-LPG conversion program and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 led to an increase in LPG consumption in the household sector and caused Indonesia's trade balance to experience a deficit. The high consumption of LPG encourages the need for alternative fuels which aims to substitute LPG. Dimethyl Ether (DME) is an organic compound with the chemical formula CH3OCH3, has a high cetane number and has characteristics similar to LPG. DME can be produced from various sources such as coal, biomass and natural gas. Based on the economic analysis conducted at 10% Internal Rate of Return (IRR), coal has the largest Net Present Value (NPV) of Rp. 20,034,837,497,241 with a payback period of 3.86 years, then biomass with an NPV of Rp. 10,401,526,072,850 and payback period of 5.16. The latter is natural gas with an NPV of IDR 7,401,272,559,191 and a payback period of 6.17 years. Of the three sources of raw materials used, if the sensitivity is calculated using the selling price of DME equal to the selling price of LPG, it will get an NPV value that is greater than the NPV value when using the current DME price. The advantages of coal as a raw material for DME are profitableness, low price and abundant resources, but it has high greenhouse gas emission.

Keywords: LPG, DME, coal, biomass, natural gas.

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Authors: B. Engel, Sara Salman Hassan Al-Maeeni

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Human consumption of the Earth's resources increases the need for a sustainable development as an important ecological, social, and economic theme. Re-engineering of machine tools, in terms of design and failure analysis, is defined as steps performed on an obsolete machine to return it to a new machine with the warranty that matches the customer requirement. To understand the future fatigue behavior of the used machine components, it is important to investigate the possible causes of machine parts failure through design, surface, and material inspections. In this study, the failure modes of the shaft of the rotary draw bending machine are inspected. Furthermore, stress and deflection analysis of the shaft subjected to combined torsion and bending loads are carried out by an analytical method and compared with a finite element analysis method. The theoretical fatigue strength, correction factors, and fatigue life sustained by the shaft before damaged are estimated by creating a stress-cycle (S-N) diagram. In conclusion, it is seen that the shaft can work in the second life, but it needs some surface treatments to increase the reliability and fatigue life.

Keywords: Failure analysis, fatigue life, FEM analysis, shaft, stress analysis.

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Authors: R. Babisaraswathi, N. Shanthi, S. S. Kiruthika

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Web search engines are designed to retrieve and extract the information in the web databases and to return dynamic web pages. The Semantic Web is an extension of the current web in which it includes semantic content in web pages. The main goal of semantic web is to promote the quality of the current web by changing its contents into machine understandable form. Therefore, the milestone of semantic web is to have semantic level information in the web. Nowadays, people use different keyword- based search engines to find the relevant information they need from the web. But many of the words are polysemous. When these words are used to query a search engine, it displays the Search Result Records (SRRs) with different meanings. The SRRs with similar meanings are grouped together based on Word Sense Disambiguation (WSD). In addition to that semantic annotation is also performed to improve the efficiency of search result records. Semantic Annotation is the process of adding the semantic metadata to web resources. Thus the grouped SRRs are annotated and generate a summary which describes the information in SRRs. But the automatic semantic annotation is a significant challenge in the semantic web. Here ontology and knowledge based representation are used to annotate the web pages.

Keywords: Ontology, Semantic Web, WordNet, Word Sense Disambiguation.

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Authors: Brownhilder N. Neneh, A. Van Aardt Smit

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Underpricing is one anomaly in initial public offerings (IPO) literature that has been widely observed across different stock markets with different trends emerging over different time periods. This study seeks to determine how IPOs on the JSE performed on the first day, first week and first month over the period of 1996-2011. Underpricing trends are documented for both hot and cold market periods in terms of four main sectors (cyclical, defensive, growth stock and interest rate sensitive stocks). Using a sample of 360 listed companies on the JSE, the empirical findings established that IPOs on the JSE are significantly underpriced with an average market adjusted first day return of 62.9%. It is also established that hot market IPOs on the JSE are more underpriced than the cold market IPOs. Also observed is the fact that as the offer price per share increases above the median price for any given period, the level of underpricing decreases substantially. While significant differences exist in the level of underpricing of IPOs in the four different sectors in the hot and cold market periods, interest rates sensitive stocks showed a different trend from the other sectors and thus require further investigation to uncover this pattern.

Keywords: Underpricing, hot and cold markets, South Africa, JSE.

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Authors: Yothin Sawangdee, Piyawat Katewongsa, Chutima Yousomboon, Kornkanok Pongpradit, Sakapas Saengchai, Phusit Khantikul

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Debts reconstruction under some of moratorium projects is one of important method that highly benefits to both the Banks and farmers. The method can reduce probabilities for nonprofits loan. This paper discuss about debts reconstruction and career development training for farmers in Thailand between 2011 and 2013. The research designed is mix-method between quantitative survey and qualitative survey. Sample size for quantitative method is 1003 cases. Data gathering procedure is between October and December 2013. Main results affirmed that debts reconstruction is needed. And there are numerous benefits from farmers’ career development training. Many of farmers who attend field school activities able to bring knowledge learned to apply for the farms’ work. They can reduce production costs. Framers’ quality of life and their household well-being also improve. This program should apply in any countries where farmers have highly debts and highly risks for not return the debts.

Keywords: Career development, debts reconstruction, farmers household well-being, Thailand.

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Authors: R. Bernaoui, P. Ohly

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Our research shows the use of the mobile phone that consolidates the relationship between veterinarians, and that between breeders and veterinarians. On the other hand it asserts that the tool in question is a means of economic development. The results of our survey reveal a positive return to the veterinary community, which shows that the mobile phone has become an effective means of sustainable development through the transfer of a rapid and punctual information inheritance via social networks; including many Internet applications. Our results show that almost all veterinarians use the mobile phone for interprofessional communication. We therefore believe that the use of the mobile phone by livestock operators has greatly improved the working conditions, just as the use of this tool contributes to a better management of the exploitation as long as it allows limit travel but also save time. These results show that we are witnessing a growth in the use of mobile telephony technologies that impact is as much in terms of sustainable development. Allowing access to information, especially technical information, the mobile phone, and Information and Communication of Technology (ICT) in general, give livestock sector players not only security, by limiting losses, but also an efficiency that allows them a better production and productivity.

Keywords: Algeria, Breeder-veterinarian, Digital Heritage, Networking, Mobile phone.

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Authors: Ian A. McCulloh, Madelaine Zinser, Jesse Patsolic, Michael Ramos

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Recommender systems are a common artificial intelligence (AI) application. For any given input, a search system will return a rank-ordered list of similar items. As users review returned items, they must decide when to halt the search and either revise search terms or conclude their requirement is novel with no similar items in the database. We present a statistically designed experiment that investigates the impact of similarity ratings on human judgement to conclude a search item is novel and halt the search. In the study, 450 participants were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk to render judgement across 12 decision tasks. We find the inclusion of ratings increases the human perception that items are novel. Percent similarity increases novelty discernment when compared with star-rated similarity or the absence of a rating. Ratings reduce the time to decide and improve decision confidence. This suggests that the inclusion of similarity ratings can aid human decision-makers in knowledge search tasks.

Keywords: Ratings, rankings, crowdsourcing, empirical studies, user studies, similarity measures, human-centered computing, novelty in information retrieval.

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Authors: Z. Noranai, M.Z. Md Yusof

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Building Sector is the major electricity consumer and it is costly to building owners. Therefore the application of thermal energy storage (TES) has gained attractive to reduce energy cost. Many attractive tariff packages are being offered by the electricity provider to promote TES. The tariff packages offered higher cost of electricity during peak period and lower cost of electricity during off peak period. This paper presented the return of initial investment by implementing a centralized air-conditioning plant integrated with thermal energy storage with partially operation strategies. Building load profile will be calculated hourly according to building specification and building usage trend. TES operation conditions will be designed according to building load demand profile, storage capacity, tariff packages and peak/off peak period. The Payback Period analysis method was used to evaluate economic analysis. The investment is considered a good investment where by the initial cost is recovered less than ten than seven years.

Keywords: building load profile, energy consumption, payback period, thermal energy storage

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Authors: Jamie L. Stangel

Abstract:

Increased popularity and visibility of college athletics has contributed to an environment in which institutions—most of which lack self-sufficient athletics department budgets—reallocate monies from the university general fund and seek additional funding sources to keep up with increasing levels of spending on athletics. Given the prevalence of debates on student debt levels, coach salaries, and athlete pay, empirical evidence on whether this spending yields expected return on investment is necessary. This study considered the relationship between the independent variable of winning percentage of the men’s basketball team at a mid-major university, moderated by National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament appearance, and number of applicants, number of enrollments, average SAT score of students, and donor giving to the university general and athletic funds. The results indicate that, other than a small correlation between athletic success and number of applicants, only when NCAA tournament appearance is used as a moderating variable, these purported benefits are not supported, suggesting the need for a reevaluation of athletic department spending and perceptions on tangible and intangible benefits for universities.

Keywords: Athletic success, enrollment, NCAA, private giving.

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