Abstract: This paper examines the link between gender equality
and climate change policies in Australia. It critically analyses the
extent to which gender mainstreaming and gender dimensions have
been taken into account in the national policy processes for climate
change in Australia. The paper argues that climate change adaptation
and mitigation policies in Australia neglect gender dimensions. This
endangers the advances made in gender equality and works against
socially equitable and effective climate change strategies.
Abstract: Nagaland, the 16th state of India in order of
statehood, is situated between 25° 6' and 27° 4' latitude north and
between 93º 20' E and 95º 15' E longitude of equator in the North
Eastern part of the India. Endowed with varied topography, soil and
agro climatic conditions it is known for its potentiality to grow all
most all kinds of horticultural crops. Pineapple being grown since
long organically by default is one of the most promising crops of the
state with emphasis being laid for commercialization by the
government of Nagaland. In light of commercialization, globalization
and scope of setting small-scale industries, a research study was
undertaken to examine the socio-economic and personal
characteristics, entrepreneurial characteristics and attitude of the
pineapple growers towards improved package of practices of
pineapple cultivation. The study was conducted in Medziphema
block of Dimapur district of the Nagaland state of India following ex
post facto research design. Ninety pineapple growers were selected
from four different villages of Medziphema block based on
proportionate random selection procedure. Findings of the study
revealed that majority of the respondents had medium level of
entrepreneurial characteristics in terms of knowledge level, risk
orientation, self confidence, management orientation, farm decision
making ability and leadership ability and most of them had
favourable attitude towards improved package of practices of
pineapple cultivation. The variables age, education, farm size, risk
orientation, management orientation and sources of information
utilized were found important to influence the attitude of the
respondents. The study revealed that favourable attitude and
entrepreneurial characteristics of the pineapple cultivators might be
harnessed for increased production of pineapple in the state thereby
bringing socio economic upliftment of the marginal and small-scale
farmers.
Abstract: This paper proposes the hypothesis that multilateralism and regionalism are complementary, and that regional income convergence is likely with a like minded and committed regionalism that often has links geographically and culturally. The association between international trade, income per capita, and regional income convergence in founder members of ASEAN and SAARC, is explored by applying the Lumsdaine, and Papell approach. The causal relationships between the above variables are also studied in respective trade blocs by using Granger causality tests. The conclusion is that global reforms have had a greater impact on increasing trade for both trade blocs and induced convergence only in ASEAN-5 countries. The experience of ASEAN countries shows a two-way causal relationship between the flow from trade to regional income convergence, and vice versa. There is no evidence in SAARC countries for income convergence and causality.
Abstract: Academia-industry relationship is not like that of
technology donator-acceptor, but is of interactive and collaborative
nature, acknowledging and ensuring mutual respect for each other-s
role and contributions with an eye to attaining the true purpose of
such relationships, namely, bringing about research-outcome
synergy. Indeed, academia-industry interactions are a system that
requires active and collaborative participations of all the
stakeholders.
This paper examines various issues associated with academic
institutions and industry collaboration with special attention to the
nature of resources and potentialities of stakeholders in the context of
knowledge management. This paper also explores the barriers of
academia-industry interaction. It identifies potential areas where
industry-s participation with academia would be most effective for
synergism. Lastly, this paper proposes an integrated model of several
new collaborative approaches that are possible, mainly in the Indian
scenario to strengthen academia-industry interface.
Abstract: The association between emotional inhibition strategies linked to depression has been showed inconsistent among studies. Mild emotional inhibition maybe benefit for social interaction, especially for female among East Asian cultures. The present study aimed to examine whether the inhibition–depression relationship is dependent on level of emotion inhibition and gender context, given differing value of suppressing emotional displays. We hypothesized that the negative associations between inhibition and adolescent depression would not directly, in which affected by interaction between emotion inhibition and gender. To test this hypothesis, we asked 309 junior high school students which age range from 12 to14 years old to report on their use of emotion inhibition and depression syndrome. A multiple regressions analysis revealed that significant interaction that gender as a moderator to the relationships between emotion inhibition and adolescent depression. The group with the highest level of depression was girls with high levels of emotion inhibition, whose depression score was higher than that of boys with high levels of emotion inhibition. The result highlights that the importance of context in understanding the inhibition-depression relationship.
Abstract: In general, small-scale vegetables farmers experience
problems in improving the safety and quality of vegetables supplied
to high-class consumers in modern retailers. They also lack of
information to access market. The farmers group and/or cooperative
(FGC) should be able to assist its members by providing training in
handling and packing vegetables and enhancing marketing
capabilities to sell commodities to the modern retailers. This study
proposes an agri-food supply chain (ASC) model that involves the
corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities to cultivate the
capabilities of farmers to access market. Multi period ASC model is
formulated as Weighted Goal Programming (WGP) to analyze the
impacts of CSR programs to empower the FGCs in managing the
small-scale vegetables farmers. The results show that the proposed
model can be used to determine the priority of programs in order to
maximize the four goals to be achieved in the CSR programs.
Abstract: The eco-efficient use of “waste" makes sense from
economic, social, and environmental perspectives. By efficiency diverting “waste" products back into useful and/or profitable inputs,
industries and entire societies can reap the benefits of improved financial profit, decreased environmental degradation, and overall
well-being of humanity.
In this project, several material flows at
Company Limited were investigated. Principles of "industrial ecology" were applied to improve the management of waste rubbers that are used in the jewelry manufacturing process. complete this project, a brief engineering analysis stream, and investigated eco-efficient principles for more efficient
handling of the materials and wastes were conducted, and the result were used to propose implementation strategies.
Abstract: In the paper it is questioned whether effective state
social policy provides happiness and social progress. For this purpose
selected correlations between Human Development Index (HDI),
share of public social expenditures in GDP, the Happy Planet Index
(HPI), GDP per capita, and Government Effectiveness are examined
and the results are graphically presented. It is shown how a
government can affect well-being and happiness in different countries
of modern world. Also, it is tested the hypothesis about existence of a
certain optimum of well-being and public social expenditures, which
affect direction of social progress. It is concluded that efficient social
policy and wealth are not the only factors determining human
happiness.
Abstract: In this paper, we investigate the appearance of the giant component in random subgraphs G(p) of a given large finite graph family Gn = (Vn, En) in which each edge is present independently with probability p. We show that if the graph Gn satisfies a weak isoperimetric inequality and has bounded degree, then the probability p under which G(p) has a giant component of linear order with some constant probability is bounded away from zero and one. In addition, we prove the probability of abnormally large order of the giant component decays exponentially. When a contact graph is modeled as Gn, our result is of special interest in the study of the spread of infectious diseases or the identification of community in various social networks.
Abstract: During the last couple of years, the degree of dependence on IT systems has reached a dimension nobody imagined to be possible 10 years ago. The increased usage of mobile devices (e.g., smart phones), wireless sensor networks and embedded devices (Internet of Things) are only some examples of the dependency of modern societies on cyber space. At the same time, the complexity of IT applications, e.g., because of the increasing use of cloud computing, is rising continuously. Along with this, the threats to IT security have increased both quantitatively and qualitatively, as recent examples like STUXNET or the supposed cyber attack on Illinois water system are proofing impressively. Once isolated control systems are nowadays often publicly available - a fact that has never been intended by the developers. Threats to IT systems don’t care about areas of responsibility. Especially with regard to Cyber Warfare, IT threats are no longer limited to company or industry boundaries, administrative jurisdictions or state boundaries. One of the important countermeasures is increased cooperation among the participants especially in the field of Cyber Defence. Besides political and legal challenges, there are technical ones as well. A better, at least partially automated exchange of information is essential to (i) enable sophisticated situational awareness and to (ii) counter the attacker in a coordinated way. Therefore, this publication performs an evaluation of state of the art Intrusion Detection Message Exchange protocols in order to guarantee a secure information exchange between different entities.
Abstract: In this paper, a PSO-based approach is proposed to
derive a digital controller for redesigned digital systems having an interval plant based on resemblance of the extremal gain/phase
margins. By combining the interval plant and a controller as an interval system, extremal GM/PM associated with the loop transfer function
can be obtained. The design problem is then formulated as an optimization problem of an aggregated error function revealing the deviation on the extremal GM/PM between the redesigned digital
system and its continuous counterpart, and subsequently optimized by
a proposed PSO to obtain an optimal set of parameters for the digital controller. Computer simulations have shown that frequency
responses of the redesigned digital system having an interval plant bare a better resemblance to its continuous-time counter part by the incorporation of a PSO-derived digital controller in comparison to those obtained using existing open-loop discretization methods.
Abstract: Not with standing the importance of foreign highly
skilled professionals for host economies, there is a paucity of
research studies investigating the role of the corporate social context
during the integration process. This research aims to address this
paucity by exploring the role of social capital in the integration of
foreign health professionals. It does so by using a qualitative research
approach. In this pilot study the hospital sector forms this study-s
sample and interviews were conducted with HR managers, foreign
health professionals and external HR consultants. It was found that
most of the participating hospitals had not established specific HR
practices and had only partly linked the development of
organisational social capital with a successful integration process.
This research contributes, for example, to the HR literature on the
integration of self-initiated expatriates by analysing the role of HRM
in generating organisational social capital needed for a successful
integration process.
Abstract: Dual phase steels (DPS)s have a microstructure
consisting of a hard second phase called Martensite in the soft Ferrite
matrix. In recent years, there has been interest in dual-phase steels,
because the application of these materials has made significant usage;
particularly in the automotive sector Composite microstructure of
(DPS)s exhibit interesting characteristic mechanical properties such
as continuous yielding, low yield stress to tensile strength
ratios(YS/UTS), and relatively high formability; which offer
advantages compared with conventional high strength low alloy
steels(HSLAS). The research dealt with the characterization of
damage in (DPS)s. In this study by review the mechanisms of failure
due to volume fraction of martensite second phase; a new method is
introduced to identifying the mechanisms of failure in the various
phases of these types of steels. In this method the acoustic emission
(AE) technique was used to detect damage progression. These failure
mechanisms consist of Ferrite-Martensite interface decohesion and/or
martensite phase fracture. For this aim, dual phase steels with
different volume fraction of martensite second phase has provided by
various heat treatment methods on a low carbon steel (0.1% C), and
then AE monitoring is used during tensile test of these DPSs. From
AE measurements and an energy ratio curve elaborated from the
value of AE energy (it was obtained as the ratio between the strain
energy to the acoustic energy), that allows detecting important
events, corresponding to the sudden drops. These AE signals events
associated with various failure mechanisms are classified for ferrite
and (DPS)s with various amount of Vm and different martensite
morphology. It is found that AE energy increase with increasing Vm.
This increasing of AE energy is because of more contribution of
martensite fracture in the failure of samples with higher Vm. Final
results show a good relationship between the AE signals and the
mechanisms of failure.
Abstract: The main objective of this project is to build an
autonomous microcontroller-based mobile robot for a local robot
soccer competition. The black competition field is equipped with
white lines to serve as the guidance path for competing robots. Two
prototypes of soccer robot embedded with the Basic Stamp II
microcontroller have been developed. Two servo motors are used as
the drive train for the first prototype whereas the second prototype
uses two DC motors as its drive train. To sense the lines, lightdependent
resistors (LDRs) supply the analog inputs for the
microcontroller. The performances of both prototypes are evaluated.
The DC motor-driven robot has produced better trajectory control
over the one using servo motors and has brought the team into the
final round.
Abstract: Attitude control of aerospace system with liquid containers may face to a problem associate with fuel sloshing. The sloshing phenomena can degrade the stability of control system and in the worst case, interaction between the attitude control system and fuel vibration leading to resonance. In this paper, a full process of nonlinear dynamic modeling of an aerospace launch vehicle with fuel sloshing is given. Then, a new control system based on model reference adaptive filter is proposed and its algorithm is extracted. This controller implemented on the main attitude control system. Finally, numerical simulation of nonlinear model and control system is carried out to examine the performance of the new controller. Results of simulations show that the inconvenient effects of the fuel sloshing by augmenting this control system are reduced and attitude control system performs, satisfactorily.
Abstract: This research is a collaborative narrative research, which is mixed with issues of selected papers and researcher's experience as an anonymous user on social networking sites. The objective of this research is to understand the reasons of the regular users who reject to contact with anonymous users, and to study the communication traditions used in the selected studies. Anonymous users are rejected by regular users, because of the fear of cyber bully, the fear of unpleasant behaviors, and unwillingness of changing communication norm. The suggestion for future research design is to use longitudinal design or quantitative design; and the theory in rhetorical tradition should be able to help develop a strong trust message.
Abstract: The objective of this research is to examine the shear thinning behaviour of mixing flow of non-Newtonian fluid like toothpaste in the dissolution container with rotating stirrer. The problem under investigation is related to the chemical industry. Mixing of fluid is performed in a cylindrical container with rotating stirrer, where stirrer is eccentrically placed on the lid of the container. For the simulation purpose the associated motion of the fluid is considered as revolving of the container, with stick stirrer. For numerical prediction, a time-stepping finite element algorithm in a cylindrical polar coordinate system is adopted based on semi-implicit Taylor-Galerkin/pressure-correction scheme. Numerical solutions are obtained for non-Newtonian fluids employing power law model. Variations with power law index have been analysed, with respect to the flow structure and pressure drop.
Abstract: The policies governing the business of any
organization are well reflected in her business rules. The business
rules are implemented by data validation techniques, coded during
the software development process. Any change in business
policies results in change in the code written for data validation
used to enforce the business policies. Implementing the change in
business rules without changing the code is the objective of this
paper. The proposed approach enables users to create rule sets at
run time once the software has been developed. The newly defined
rule sets by end users are associated with the data variables for
which the validation is required. The proposed approach facilitates
the users to define business rules using all the comparison
operators and Boolean operators. Multithreading is used to
validate the data entered by end user against the business rules
applied. The evaluation of the data is performed by a newly
created thread using an enhanced form of the RPN (Reverse Polish
Notation) algorithm.
Abstract: Modern times call organizations to have an active role
in the social arena, through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
The objective of this research was to test the hypothesis that there is a
positive relation between social performance and economic
performance, and if there is a positive correlation between social
performance and financial-economic performance. To test these
theories a measure of social performance, based on the Green Book
of Commission of the European Community, was used in a group of
nineteen Portuguese top companies, listed on the PSI 20 index,
through a period of five years, since 2005 to 2009. A clusters
analysis was applied to group companies by their social performance
and to compare and correlate their economic performance. Results
indicate that companies that had a better social performance are not
the ones who had a better economic performance, and suggest that
the middle path might provide a good relation CSR-Economic
performance, as a basis to a sustainable development.
Abstract: The paper discusses European Lifelong Learning policy in the European enlargement to the Balkan. The European Lifelong Learning policy with Human Capital approach is researched in the country case of Macedonia. The paper argues that Human Capital approach focusing on instrumental and economic importance of learning for employability and economic growth needs to be complemented with Capability Approach for intrinsic and noneconomic needs of learning among the ethnic minorities. The paper identifies two dimensions of importance – minority languages and civic education – that the Capability Approach may develop to guarantee equal opportunities to all to benefit from European educational and lifelong learning development and to build an inclusive and socially just democracy in Macedonia.