Abstract: As a company competitiveness depends more and more on the relationship with its stakeholders, the topic of companystakeholder fit is becoming increasingly important. This fit affects the extent to which a stakeholder perceives CSR company commitment, values and behaviors and, therefore, stakeholder identification in a company and his/her loyalty to it. Consequently, it is important to measure the alignment or the gap between stakeholder CSR demands, values, preferences and perceptions, and the company CSR disclosed commitment, values and policies. In this paper, in order to assess the company-stakeholder fit about corporate responsibility, an innovative CSR fit positioning matrix is proposed. This matrix is based on the measurement of a company CSR disclosed commitment and stakeholder perceived and required commitment. The matrix is part of a more complex methodology based on Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) indicators, content analysis and stakeholder questionnaires. This methodology provides appropriate indications for helping companies to achieve CSR company-stakeholder fit, by leveraging both CSR commitment and communication. Moreover, it could be used by top management for comparing different companies and stakeholders, and for planning specific CSR strategies, policies and activities.
Abstract: The incidences of dengue hemorrhagic disease (DHF)
over the long term exhibit a seasonal behavior. It has been
hypothesized that these behaviors are due to the seasonal climate
changes which in turn induce a seasonal variation in the incubation
period of the virus while it is developing the mosquito. The standard
dynamic analysis is applied for analysis the Susceptible-Exposed-
Infectious-Recovered (SEIR) model which includes an annual
variation in the length of the extrinsic incubation period (EIP). The
presence of both asymptomatic and symptomatic infections is
allowed in the present model. We found that dynamic behavior of the
endemic state changes as the influence of the seasonal variation of
the EIP becomes stronger. As the influence is further increased, the
trajectory exhibits sustained oscillations when it leaves the chaotic
region.
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to highlight the
importance of the concept of competitiveness in the supply chain and
to present a conceptual framework for Supply Chain Competitiveness
(SCC). The framework is based on supply chain activities, which are
inputs, necessary for SCC and the benefits which are the outputs of
SCC. A literature review is conducted on key supply chain
competitiveness issues, its determinants, its various dimensions
followed by exploration for SCC. Based on the insights gained, a
conceptual framework for SCC is presented based on activities for
SCC, SCC environment and outcomes of SCC. The information flow
in the conceptual framework is bi-directional at all levels and the
activities are interrelated in a global competitive environment. The
activities include the activities of suppliers, manufacturers and
distributors, giving more emphasis on manufacturers- activities.
Further, implications of various factors such as economic, politicolegal,
technical, socio-cultural, competition, demographic etc. are
also highlighted. The SCC framework is an attempt to cover the
relatively less explored area of supply chain competitiveness. It is
expected that this work will further motivate researchers,
academicians and practitioners to work in this area and offers
conceptual help in providing a directions for supply chain
competitiveness which leads to improvement in the supply chain and
supply chain performance.
Abstract: This article is a piece of the doctoral thesis
"Syncretism of traditional Kazakh culture in the light of the
innovation direction of circus and choreographic art of Kazakhstan
and its integration into the world civilization", and reveals the
features of the creative personalities of the traditional culture of
shamans, sals, seris, paluans in the comparative characteristic of the
European histriones and Russian skomorokhs.
Abstract: Although there are many theories and discussion of leadership, the necessity of having a new leadership paradigm was emphasized. The existing leadership characteristic of instruction and control revealed its limitations. Market competition becomes fierce and economic recession never ends worldwide. Of the leadership theories, servant leadership was introduced recently and is in line with the environmental changes of the organization. Servant leadership is a combination of two words, 'servant' and 'leader' and can be defined as the role of the leader who focuses on doing voluntary work for others with altruistic ethics, makes members, customers, and local communities a priority, and makes a commitment to satisfying their needs. This leadership received attention as one field of leadership in the late 1990s and secured its legitimacy. This study discusses the existing research trends of leadership, the concept, behavior characteristics, and lower dimensions of servant leadership, compares servant leadership with the existing leadership researches and diagnoses if servant leadership is a useful concept for further leadership researches. Finally, this study criticizes the limitations in the existing researches on servant leadership.
Abstract: Three dimensional analysis of thermal model in laser
full penetration welding, Nd:YAG, by transparent mode DP600 alloy
steel 1.25mm of thickness and gap of 0.1mm. Three models studied
the influence of thermal dependent temperature properties, thermal
independent temperature and the effect of peak value of specific heat
at phase transformation temperature, AC1, on the transient
temperature. Another seven models studied the influence of
discretization, meshes on the temperature distribution in weld plate.
It is shown that for the effects of thermal properties, the errors less
4% of maximum temperature in FZ and HAZ have identified. The
minimum value of discretization are at least one third increment per
radius for temporal discretization and the spatial discretization
requires two elements per radius and four elements through thickness
of the assembled plate, which therefore represent the minimum
requirements of modeling for the laser welding in order to get
minimum errors less than 5% compared to the fine mesh.
Abstract: Higher productivity and less cost in the ship
manufacturing process are required to maintain the international
competitiveness of morden manufacturing industries. In shipbuilding,
however, the Engineering To Order (ETO) production method and
production process is very difficult. Thus, designs change frequently.
In accordance with production, planning should be set up according
to scene changes. Therefore, fixed production planning is very
difficult. Thus, a scheduler must first make sketchy plans, then
change the plans based on the work progress and modifications.
Thus, data sharing in a shipbuilding block assembly shop is very
important. In this paper, we proposed to scheduling method
applicable to the shipbuilding industry and decision making support
system through web based visualization system.
Abstract: Speckle phenomena results from when coherent
radiation is reflected from a rough surface. Characterizing the speckle
strongly depends on the measurement condition and experimental
setup. In this paper we report the experimental results produced with
different parameters in the setup. We investigated the factors which
affects the speckle contrast, such as, F-number, gamma value and
exposure time of the camera, rather than geometric factors like the
distance between the projector lens to the screen, the viewing distance,
etc. The measurement results show that the speckle contrast decreases
by decreasing F-number, by increasing gamma value, and slightly
affects by exposure time of the camera and the gain value of the
camera.
Abstract: This paper discusses the performance modeling and availability analysis of Yarn Dyeing System of a Textile Industry. The Textile Industry is a complex and repairable engineering system. Yarn Dyeing System of Textile Industry consists of five subsystems arranged in series configuration. For performance modeling and analysis of availability, a performance evaluating model has been developed with the help of mathematical formulation based on Markov-Birth-Death Process. The differential equations have been developed on the basis of Probabilistic Approach using a Transition Diagram. These equations have further been solved using normalizing condition in order to develop the steady state availability, a performance measure of the system concerned. The system performance has been further analyzed with the help of decision matrices. These matrices provide various availability levels for different combinations of failure and repair rates for various subsystems. The findings of this paper are therefore, considered to be useful for the analysis of availability and determination of the best possible maintenance strategies which can be implemented in future to enhance the system performance.
Abstract: This paper proposes a novel game theoretical
technique to address the problem of data object replication in largescale
distributed computing systems. The proposed technique draws
inspiration from computational economic theory and employs the
extended Vickrey auction. Specifically, players in a non-cooperative
environment compete for server-side scarce memory space to
replicate data objects so as to minimize the total network object
transfer cost, while maintaining object concurrency. Optimization of
such a cost in turn leads to load balancing, fault-tolerance and
reduced user access time. The method is experimentally evaluated
against four well-known techniques from the literature: branch and
bound, greedy, bin-packing and genetic algorithms. The experimental
results reveal that the proposed approach outperforms the four
techniques in both the execution time and solution quality.
Abstract: Nano sized zirconium dioxide in monoclinic phase (m-ZrO2) has been synthesized in pure form through co-precipitation processing at different calcination temperatures and has been characterized by several techniques such as XRD, FT-IR, UV-Vis Spectroscopy and SEM. The dielectric and capacitance values of the pelletized samples have been examined at room temperature as the functions of frequency. The higher dielectric constant value of the sample having larger grain size proves the strong influence of grain size on the dielectric constant.
Abstract: One of research issues in social network analysis is to
evaluate the position/importance of users in social networks. As the
information diffusion in social network is evolving, it seems difficult
to evaluate the importance of users using traditional approaches. In
this paper, we propose an evaluation approach for user importance
with fractal view in social networks. In this approach, the global importance
(Fractal Importance) and the local importance (Topological
Importance) of nodes are considered. The basic idea is that the bigger
the product of fractal importance and topological importance of a
node is, the more important of the node is. We devise the algorithm
called TFRank corresponding to the proposed approach. Finally, we
evaluate TFRank by experiments. Experimental results demonstrate
our TFRank has the high correlations with PageRank algorithm
and potential ranking algorithm, and it shows the effectiveness and
advantages of our approach.
Abstract: The catalytic dehydroxylation of glycerol to propylene
glycol was investigated over Cu-ZnO/Al2O3 prepared by incipient
wetness impregnation (IWI) method with different purity feedstocks -
refined glycerol and technical grade glycerol. The main purpose is to
investigate the effects of feed impurities that cause the catalyst
deactivation. The prepared catalyst were tested for its catalytic
activity and selectivity in a continuous flow fixed bed reactor at 523
K, 500 psig, H2/feed molar ratio of 4 and WHSV of 3 h-1. The results
showed that conversion of refined glycerol and technical grade
glycerol at time on stream 6 hour are 99% and 71% and selectivity to
propylene glycol are 87% and 56% respectively. The ICP-EOS and
TPO results indicated that the cause of catalyst deactivation was the
amount of impurities in the feedstock. The higher amount of
impurities (especially Na and K) the lower catalytic activity.
Abstract: In hydrocyclones, the particle separation efficiency is
limited by the suspended fine particles, which are discharged with the
coarse product in the underflow. It is well known that injecting water
in the conical part of the cyclone reduces the fine particle fraction in
the underflow. This paper presents a mathematical model that
simulates the water injection in the conical component. The model
accounts for the fluid flow and the particle motion. Particle
interaction, due to hindered settling caused by increased density and
viscosity of the suspension, and fine particle entrainment by settling
coarse particles are included in the model. Water injection in the
conical part of the hydrocyclone is performed to reduce fine particle
discharge in the underflow. The model demonstrates the impact of
the injection rate, injection velocity, and injection location on the
shape of the partition curve. The simulations are compared with
experimental data of a 50-mm cyclone.
Abstract: In this work, we solve multipoint boundary value
problems where the boundary value conditions are equations using
the Newton-Broyden Shooting method (NBSM).The proposed
method is tested upon several problems from the literature and the
results are compared with the available exact solution. The
experiments are given to illustrate the efficiency and implementation
of the method.
Abstract: Lack of resources for road infrastructure financing is a
problem that currently affects not only eastern European economies
but also many other countries especially in relation to the impact of
global financial crisis. In this context, we are talking about the socalled
short-investment problem as a result of long-term lack of
investment resources. Based on an analysis of road infrastructure
financing in the Czech Republic this article points out at weaknesses
of current system and proposes a long-term planning methodology
supported by system approach. Within this methodology and using
created system dynamic model the article predicts the development of
short-investment problem in the Country and in reaction on the
downward trend of certain sources the article presents various
scenarios resulting from the change of the structure of financial
sources. In the discussion the article focuses more closely on the
possibility of introduction of tax on vehicles instead of taxes with
declining revenue streams and estimates its approximate price in
relation to reaching various solutions of short-investment in time.
Abstract: As the Textile Industry is the second largest industry
in Egypt and as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) make up
a great portion of this industry therein it is essential to apply the
concept of Cleaner Production for the purpose of reducing pollution.
In order to achieve this goal, a case study concerned with ecofriendly
stone-washing of jeans-garments was investigated. A raw
material-substitution option was adopted whereby the toxic
potassium permanganate and sodium sulfide were replaced by the
environmentally compatible hydrogen peroxide and glucose
respectively where the concentrations of both replaced chemicals
together with the operating time were optimized. In addition, a
process-rationalization option involving four additional processes
was investigated. By means of criteria such as product quality,
effluent analysis, mass and heat balance; and cost analysis with the
aid of a statistical model, a process optimization treatment revealed
that the superior process optima were 50%, 0.15% and 50min for
H2O2 concentration, glucose concentration and time, respectively.
With these values the superior process ought to reduce the annual
cost by about EGP 105 relative to the currently used conventional
method.
Abstract: One of the main concerns about parallel mechanisms
is the presence of singular points within their workspaces. In singular
positions the mechanism gains or loses one or several degrees of
freedom. It is impossible to control the mechanism in singular
positions. Therefore, these positions have to be avoided. This is a
vital need especially in computer controlled machine tools designed
and manufactured on the basis of parallel mechanisms. This need has
to be taken into consideration when selecting design parameters. A
prerequisite to this is a thorough knowledge about the effect of
design parameters and constraints on singularity. In this paper,
quality condition index was introduced as a criterion for evaluating
singularities of different configurations of a hexapod mechanism
obtainable by different design parameters. It was illustrated that this
method can effectively be employed to obtain the optimum
configuration of hexapod mechanism with the aim of avoiding
singularity within the workspace. This method was then employed to
design the hexapod table of a CNC milling machine.
Abstract: Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) consist of number
of tiny, low cost and low power sensor nodes to monitor some physical phenomenon. The major limitation in these networks is the use of non-rechargeable battery having limited power supply. The
main cause of energy consumption in such networks is
communication subsystem. This paper presents an energy efficient
Cluster Cooperative Caching at Sensor (C3S) based upon grid type clustering. Sensor nodes belonging to the same cluster/grid form a
cooperative cache system for the node since the cost for
communication with them is low both in terms of energy
consumption and message exchanges. The proposed scheme uses
cache admission control and utility based data replacement policy to
ensure that more useful data is retained in the local cache of a node.
Simulation results demonstrate that C3S scheme performs better in
various performance metrics than NICoCa which is existing
cooperative caching protocol for WSNs.
Abstract: This paper applies fuzzy clustering algorithm in classifying real estate companies in China according to some general financial indexes, such as income per share, share accumulation fund, net profit margins, weighted net assets yield and shareholders' equity. By constructing and normalizing initial partition matrix, getting fuzzy similar matrix with Minkowski metric and gaining the transitive closure, the dynamic fuzzy clustering analysis for real estate companies is shown clearly that different clustered result change gradually with the threshold reducing, and then, it-s shown there is the similar relationship with the prices of those companies in stock market. In this way, it-s great valuable in contrasting the real estate companies- financial condition in order to grasp some good chances of investment, and so on.