Abstract: This paper attempted to assess whether the size of the regional economic bloc has an impact to the flow of trade to a particular country. Two different sized blocs (COMESA and EAC) and one country (Tanzania) have been used as the point of references. Using the results from of the analyses, the paper also was anticipated to establish whether it was rational for Tanzania to withdraw its membership from COMESA (the larger bloc) to join EAC (the small one). Gravity model has been used to estimate the relationship between the variables, from which the bilateral trade flows between Tanzania and the eighteen member countries of the two blocs (COMESA and EAC) was employed for the time between 2000 and 2013. In the model, the dummy variable for regional bloc (bloc) at which the Tanzania trade partner countries belong are also added to the model to understand which trade bloc exhibit higher trade flow with Tanzania. From the findings, it was noted that over the period of study (2000-2013) Tanzania acknowledged more than 257% of trade volume in EAC than in COMESA. Conclusive, it was noted that the flow of trade is explained by many other variables apart from the size of regional bloc; and that the size by itself offer insufficient evidence in causality relationship. The paper therefore remain neutral on such staggered switching decision since more analyses are required to establish the country’s trade flow, especially when if it had been in multiple membership of COMESA and EAC.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to develop an empirical
research on the nature and consequences of corporate governance on
Eurozone Insurance Industry risk taking attitude. More particularly,
we analyzed the effect of public ownership on risk taking with
respect to privately held Insurance Companies. We also analyzed the
effects on risk taking attitude of different degrees of ownership
concentration, directors compensation, and the dimension/diversity of
the Board of Directors. Our results provide quite strong evidence that,
coherently with the Agency Theory, publicly traded insurance
companies with more concentrated ownership are less risky than the
corresponding privately held.
Abstract: Mumbai, being traditionally the epicenter of India's
trade and commerce, the existing major ports such as Mumbai and
Jawaharlal Nehru Ports (JN) situated in Thane estuary are also
developing its waterfront facilities. Various developments over the
passage of decades in this region have changed the tidal flux
entering/leaving the estuary. The intake at Pir-Pau is facing the
problem of shortage of water in view of advancement of shoreline,
while jetty near Ulwe faces the problem of ship scheduling due to
existence of shallower depths between JN Port and Ulwe Bunder. In
order to solve these problems, it is inevitable to have information
about tide levels over a long duration by field measurements.
However, field measurement is a tedious and costly affair;
application of artificial intelligence was used to predict water levels
by training the network for the measured tide data for one lunar tidal
cycle. The application of two layered feed forward Artificial Neural
Network (ANN) with back-propagation training algorithms such as
Gradient Descent (GD) and Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) was used to
predict the yearly tide levels at waterfront structures namely at Ulwe
Bunder and Pir-Pau. The tide data collected at Apollo Bunder, Ulwe,
and Vashi for a period of lunar tidal cycle (2013) was used to train,
validate and test the neural networks. These trained networks having
high co-relation coefficients (R= 0.998) were used to predict the tide
at Ulwe, and Vashi for its verification with the measured tide for the
year 2000 & 2013. The results indicate that the predicted tide levels
by ANN give reasonably accurate estimation of tide. Hence, the
trained network is used to predict the yearly tide data (2015) for
Ulwe. Subsequently, the yearly tide data (2015) at Pir-Pau was
predicted by using the neural network which was trained with the
help of measured tide data (2000) of Apollo and Pir-Pau. The analysis of measured data and study reveals that: The
measured tidal data at Pir-Pau, Vashi and Ulwe indicate that there is
maximum amplification of tide by about 10-20 cm with a phase lag
of 10-20 minutes with reference to the tide at Apollo Bunder
(Mumbai). LM training algorithm is faster than GD and with increase
in number of neurons in hidden layer and the performance of the
network increases. The predicted tide levels by ANN at Pir-Pau and
Ulwe provides valuable information about the occurrence of high and
low water levels to plan the operation of pumping at Pir-Pau and
improve ship schedule at Ulwe.
Abstract: Energy has a prominent role for development of
nations. Countries which have energy resources also have strategic
power in the international trade of energy since it is essential for all
stages of production in the economy. Thus, it is important for
countries to analyze the weaknesses and strength of the system. On
the other side, international trade is one of the fields that are analyzed
as a complex network via network analysis. Complex network is one
of the tools to analyze complex systems with heterogeneous agents
and interaction between them. A complex network consists of nodes
and the interactions between these nodes. Total properties which
emerge as a result of these interactions are distinct from the sum of
small parts (more or less) in complex systems. Thus, standard
approaches to international trade are superficial to analyze these
systems. Network analysis provides a new approach to analyze
international trade as a network. In this network, countries constitute
nodes and trade relations (export or import) constitute edges. It
becomes possible to analyze international trade network in terms of
high degree indicators which are specific to complex networks such
as connectivity, clustering, assortativity/disassortativity, centrality,
etc. In this analysis, international trade of crude oil and coal which
are types of fossil fuel has been analyzed from 2005 to 2014 via
network analysis. First, it has been analyzed in terms of some
topological parameters such as density, transitivity, clustering etc.
Afterwards, fitness to Pareto distribution has been analyzed via
Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Finally, weighted HITS algorithm has
been applied to the data as a centrality measure to determine the real
prominence of countries in these trade networks. Weighted HITS
algorithm is a strong tool to analyze the network by ranking countries
with regards to prominence of their trade partners. We have
calculated both an export centrality and an import centrality by
applying w-HITS algorithm to the data. As a result, impacts of the
trading countries have been presented in terms of high-degree
indicators.
Abstract: The question of legal liability over injury arising out
of the import and the introduction of GM food emerges as a crucial
issue confronting to promote GM food and its derivatives. There is a
greater possibility of commercialized GM food from the exporting
country to enter importing country where status of approval shall not
be same. This necessitates the importance of fixing a liability
mechanism to discuss the damage, if any, occurs at the level of
transboundary movement or at the market. There was a widespread consensus to develop the Cartagena
Protocol on Biosafety and to give for a dedicated regime on liability
and redress in the form of Nagoya Kuala Lumpur Supplementary
Protocol on the Liability and Redress (‘N-KL Protocol’) at the
international context. The national legal frameworks based on this
protocol are not adequately established in the prevailing food
legislations of the developing countries. The developing economy
like India is willing to import GM food and its derivatives after the
successful commercialization of Bt Cotton in 2002. As a party to the
N-KL Protocol, it is indispensable for India to formulate a legal
framework and to discuss safety, liability, and regulatory issues
surrounding GM foods in conformity to the provisions of the
Protocol. The liability mechanism is also important in the case where
the risk assessment and risk management is still in implementing
stage. Moreover, the country is facing GM infiltration issues with its
neighbors Bangladesh. As a precautionary approach, there is a need
to formulate rules and procedure of legal liability to discuss any kind
of damage occurs at transboundary trade. In this context, the
proposed work will attempt to analyze the liability regime in the
existing Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 from the applicability
and domestic compliance and to suggest legal and policy options for
regulatory authorities.
Abstract: The traditional rhythms of the West African country
of Guinea have played a centuries-long role in defining the different
people groups that make up the country. Throughout their history,
before and since colonization by the French, the different ethnicities
have used their traditional music as a distinct part of their historical
identities. That is starting to change. Guinea is an impoverished
nation created in the early twentieth-century with little regard for the
history and cultures of the people who were included. The traditional
rhythms of the different people groups and their heritages have
remained. Fifteen individual traditional Guinean rhythms were
chosen to represent popular rhythms from the four geographical
regions of Guinea. Each rhythm was traced back to its native village
and video recorded on-site by as many different local performing
groups as could be located. The cyclical patterns rhythms were
transcribed via a circular, spatial design and then copied into a box
notation system where sounds happening at the same time could be
studied. These rhythms were analyzed for their consistency-overperformance
in a Fundamental Rhythm Pattern analysis so rhythms
could be compared for how they are changing through different
performances. The analysis showed that the traditional rhythm
performances of the Middle and Forest Guinea regions were the most
cohesive and showed the least evidence of change between
performances. The role of music in each of these regions is both
limited and focused. The Coastal and High Guinea regions have
much in common historically through their ethnic history and
modern-day trade connections, but the rhythm performances seem to
be less consistent and demonstrate more changes in how they are
performed today. In each of these regions the role and usage of music
is much freer and wide-spread. In spite of advances being made as a
country, different ethnic groups still frequently only respond and
participate (dance and sing) to the music of their native ethnicity.
There is some evidence that this self-imposed musical barrier is
beginning to change and evolve, partially through the development of
better roads, more access to electricity and technology, the nationwide
Ebola health crisis, and a growing self-identification as a
unified nation.
Abstract: The relationship dependence between RSS and distance
in an enclosed environment is an important consideration because it is
a factor that can influence the reliability of any localization algorithm
founded on RSS. Several algorithms effectively reduce the variance of
RSS to improve localization or accuracy performance. Our proposed
algorithm essentially avoids this pitfall and consequently, its high
adaptability in the face of erratic radio signal. Using 3 anchors in
close proximity of each other, we are able to establish that RSS can be
used as reliable indicator for localization with an acceptable degree of
accuracy. Inherent in this concept, is the ability for each prospective
anchor to validate (guarantee) the position or the proximity of the
other 2 anchors involved in the localization and vice versa. This
procedure ensures that the uncertainties of radio signals due to
multipath effects in enclosed environments are minimized. A major
driver of this idea is the implicit topological relationship among
sensors due to raw radio signal strength. The algorithm is an area
based algorithm; however, it does not trade accuracy for precision
(i.e the size of the returned area).
Abstract: This paper tries to answer to the questions whether or
not trade openness causes economic growth and trade policy changes
are good for Turkey as a developing country in global economy
before and after 1980. We employ Johansen co-integration and
Granger causality tests with error correction modeling based on
vector autoregressive. Using WDI data from the pre-1980 and the
post-1980, we find that trade openness and economic growth are cointegrated
in the second term only. Also the results suggest a lack of
long-run causality between our two variables. These findings may
imply that trade policy of Turkey should concentrate more on extra
complementary economic reforms.
Abstract: The Portuguese footwear industry had in the last five years a remarkable performance in the exportation values, the trade balance and others economic indicators. After a long period of difficulties and with a strong reduction of companies and employees since 1994 until 2009, the Portuguese footwear industry changed the strategy and is now a success case between the international players of footwear. Only the Italian industry sells footwear with a higher value than the Portuguese and the distance between them is decreasing year by year. This paper analyses how the Portuguese footwear companies innovate and make innovation, according the classification proposed by the Oslo Manual. Also, analyses the strategy follow in the innovation process and shows the linkage between the type of innovation and the strategy of innovation. The research methodology was qualitative and the strategy for data collection was the case study. The qualitative data will be analyzed with the MAXQDA software. The economic results of the footwear companies studied shows differences between all of them and these differences are related with the innovation strategy adopted. The companies focused in product and marketing innovation, oriented to their target market, have higher ratios “turnover per worker” than the companies focused in process innovation. However, all the footwear companies in this “low-tech” industry create value and contribute to a positive foreign trade of 1.310 million euros in 2013. The growth strategies implemented has the participation of the sectorial organizations in several innovative projects. And it’s obvious that cooperation between all of them is a critical element to the performance achieved by the companies and the innovation observed. The Portuguese footwear sector has in the last years an excellent performance (economic results, exportation values, trade balance, brands and international image) and his performance is strongly related with the strategy in innovation followed, the type of innovation and the networks in the cluster. A simplified model, called “Ace of Diamonds”, is proposed by the authors and explains the way how this performance was reached by the seven companies that participate in the study (two of them are the leaders in the setor), and if this model can be used in others traditional and “low-tech” industries.
Abstract: In this paper, we report the development of the device
for diagnostics of cardiovascular system state and associated
automated workstation for large-scale medical measurement data
collection and analysis. It was shown that optimal design for the
monitoring device is wristband as it represents engineering trade-off
between accuracy and usability. Monitoring device is based on the
infrared reflective photoplethysmographic sensor, which allows
collecting multiple physiological parameters, such as heart rate and
pulsing wave characteristics. Developed device uses BLE interface
for medical and supplementary data transmission to the coupled
mobile phone, which processes it and send it to the doctor's
automated workstation. Results of this experimental model
approbation confirmed the applicability of the proposed approach.
Abstract: Based on Business and Consumer Survey (BCS) data,
the European Commission (EC) regularly publishes the monthly
Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) for each EU member state. ESI
is conceptualized as a leading indicator, aimed ad tracking the overall
economic activity. In calculating ESI, the EC employs arbitrarily
chosen weights on 15 BCS response balances. This paper raises the
predictive quality of ESI by applying nonlinear programming to find
such weights that maximize the correlation coefficient of ESI and
year-on-year GDP growth. The obtained results show that the highest
weights are assigned to the response balances of industrial sector
questions, followed by questions from the retail trade sector. This
comes as no surprise since the existing literature shows that the
industrial production is a plausible proxy for the overall Croatian
economic activity and since Croatian GDP is largely influenced by
the aggregate personal consumption.
Abstract: Native American communities are struggling with unemployment and depressed economies. A major cause is a lack of business knowledge, education, and cultural desire. And yet, in the history of the American West, Native Americans were considered the best traders and negotiators for everything from furs to weapons to buffalo. To improve these economies, there has been an effort to reintroduce that heritage to todays and tomorrows generation of tribal members, such Crow, Cheyenne, and Blackfeet. Professors at the College of Business Montana State University-Billings (MSUB) teach tribal students in Montana to create business plans. These plans have won national small business plan competitions. The teaching and advising method used at MSUB is uniquely successful as theses business students are now five time national champions. This article reviews the environment and the method of learning to achieve a winning small business plan with Native American students. It discusses the five plans that became national champions. And it discusses the problems and solutions discovered in the process of achieving results. Students who participated in this endeavor have graduated and become CPAs, MBAs, and gainfully employed in their chosen professions. They have also worked to improve the economies of their native lands and homes. By educating members of these communities with business strategy and plan development, they are better able to impact their own economies.
Abstract: Supply chains are the backbone of trade and
commerce. Their logistics use different transport corridors on regular
basis for operational purpose. The international supply chain
transport corridors include different infrastructure elements (e.g.
weighbridge, package handling equipments, border clearance
authorities, and so on). This paper presents the use of multi-agent
systems (MAS) to model and simulate some aspects of transportation
corridors, and in particular the area of weighbridge resource
optimization for operational profit. An underlying multi-agent model
provides a means of modeling the relationships among stakeholders
in order to enable coordination in a transport corridor environment.
Simulations of the costs of container unloading, reloading, and
waiting time for queuing up tracks have been carried out using data
sets. Results of the simulation provide the potential guidance in
making decisions about optimal service resource allocation in a trade
corridor.
Abstract: In this paper, the goal programming methodology for
solving multiple objective problem of the technological variants and
production plan optimization has been applied. The optimization
criteria are determined and the multiple objective linear programming
model for solving a problem of the technological variants and
production plan optimization is formed and solved. Then the obtained
results are analysed. The obtained results point out to the possibility
of efficient application of the goal programming methodology in
solving the problem of the technological variants and production plan
optimization. The paper points out on the advantages of the
application of the goal programming methodology compare to the
Surrogat Worth Trade-off method in solving this problem.
Abstract: Experimental economics is subject to criticism with
regards to frequently discussed the trade-off between internal and
external validity requirements, which seems to be critically flawed.
This paper evaluates incompatibility of trade-off condition and
condition of internal validity as a prerequisite for external validity. In
addition, it outlines the imprecise concept of artificiality, which is
found to be rather improving the external validity and seems to
strengthen the illusory status of external versus internal validity
tension. Internal validity is further analyzed with regards to Duhem-
Quine problem, where unpredictability argument is significantly
weakened trough application of inductivism within the illustrative
hypothetical-deductive model. Our discussion partially weakens
critical arguments related to the robustness of results in experimental
economics, if the perfectly controlled experimental environment is
secured.
Abstract: As technology-based service industries grow
drastically worldwide; companies are recognizing the importance of
market preoccupancy and have made an effort to capture a large
market to gain the upper hand. To this end, a focus on patents can be
used to determine the properties of a technology, as well as to capture
advantages in technical skills, in comparison with the firm’s
competitors. However, technology-based services largely depend not
only on their technological value but also their economic value, due
to the recognized worth that is passed to a plurality of users. Thus, it
is important to determine whether there are any competitors in the
target areas and what services they provide in any field. Despite this
importance, little effort has been made to systematically benchmark
competitors in order to identify business opportunities. Thus, this
study aims to not only identify each position of technology-centered
service companies in complex market dynamics, but also to discover
new business opportunities. For this, we try to consider both
technology and market environments simultaneously by utilizing
patent data as a representative proxy for technology and trademark
dates as an index for a firm’s target goods and services. Theoretically,
this is one of the earliest attempts to combine patent data and
trademark data to analyze corporate strategies. In practice, the
research results are expected to be used as a decision criterion to
diagnose the economic value that companies can obtain by entering
the market, as well as the technological value to be passed onto their
customers. Thus, the proposed approach can be useful to support
effective technology and business strategies in a firm.
Abstract: To explore how the brain may recognise objects in its
general,accurate and energy-efficient manner, this paper proposes the
use of a neuromorphic hardware system formed from a Dynamic
Video Sensor (DVS) silicon retina in concert with the SpiNNaker
real-time Spiking Neural Network (SNN) simulator. As a first step
in the exploration on this platform a recognition system for dynamic
hand postures is developed, enabling the study of the methods used
in the visual pathways of the brain. Inspired by the behaviours of
the primary visual cortex, Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs)
are modelled using both linear perceptrons and spiking Leaky
Integrate-and-Fire (LIF) neurons.
In this study’s largest configuration using these approaches, a
network of 74,210 neurons and 15,216,512 synapses is created and
operated in real-time using 290 SpiNNaker processor cores in parallel
and with 93.0% accuracy. A smaller network using only 1/10th of the
resources is also created, again operating in real-time, and it is able
to recognise the postures with an accuracy of around 86.4% - only
6.6% lower than the much larger system. The recognition rate of the
smaller network developed on this neuromorphic system is sufficient
for a successful hand posture recognition system, and demonstrates
a much improved cost to performance trade-off in its approach.
Abstract: Transportation of long turbine blades from one place
to another is a difficult process. Hence a feasibility study of
modularization of wind turbine blade was taken from structural
standpoint through finite element analysis. Initially, a non-segmented
blade is modeled and its structural behavior is evaluated to serve as
reference. The resonant, static bending and fatigue tests are simulated
in accordance with IEC61400-23 standard for comparison purpose.
The non-segmented test blade is separated at suitable location based
on trade off studies and the segments are joined with an innovative
double strap bonded joint configuration. The adhesive joint is
modeled by adopting cohesive zone modeling approach in ANSYS.
The developed blade model is analyzed for its structural response
through simulation. Performances of both the blades are found to be
similar, which indicates that, efficient segmentation of the long blade
is possible which facilitates easy transportation of the blades and on
site reassembling. The location selected for segmentation and
adopted joint configuration has resulted in an efficient segmented
blade model which proves the methodology adopted for segmentation
was quite effective. The developed segmented blade appears to be the
viable alternative considering its structural response specifically in
fatigue within considered assumptions.
Abstract: Waste load allocation (WLA) policies may use multiobjective
optimization methods to find the most appropriate and
sustainable solutions. These usually intend to simultaneously
minimize two criteria, total abatement costs (TC) and environmental
violations (EV). If other criteria, such as inequity, need for
minimization as well, it requires introducing more binary
optimizations through different scenarios. In order to reduce the
calculation steps, this study presents value index as an innovative
decision making approach. Since the value index contains both the
environmental violation and treatment costs, it can be maximized
simultaneously with the equity index. It implies that the definition of
different scenarios for environmental violations is no longer required.
Furthermore, the solution is not necessarily the point with minimized
total costs or environmental violations. This idea is testified for Haraz
River, in north of Iran. Here, the dissolved oxygen (DO) level of river
is simulated by Streeter-Phelps equation in MATLAB software. The
WLA is determined for fish farms using multi-objective particle
swarm optimization (MOPSO) in two scenarios. At first, the trade-off
curves of TC-EV and TC-Inequity are plotted separately as the
conventional approach. In the second, the Value-Equity curve is
derived. The comparative results show that the solutions are in a
similar range of inequity with lower total costs. This is due to the
freedom of environmental violation attained in value index. As a
result, the conventional approach can well be replaced by the value
index particularly for problems optimizing these objectives. This
reduces the process to achieve the best solutions and may find better
classification for scenario definition. It is also concluded that decision
makers are better to focus on value index and weighting its contents
to find the most sustainable alternatives based on their requirements.
Abstract: Image compression based on fractal coding is a lossy
compression method and normally used for gray level images range
and domain blocks in rectangular shape. Fractal based digital image
compression technique provide a large compression ratio and in this
paper, it is proposed using YUV colour space and the fractal theory
which is based on iterated transformation. Fractal geometry is mainly
applied in the current study towards colour image compression
coding. These colour images possesses correlations among the colour
components and hence high compression ratio can be achieved by
exploiting all these redundancies. The proposed method utilises the
self-similarity in the colour image as well as the cross-correlations
between them. Experimental results show that the greater
compression ratio can be achieved with large domain blocks but more
trade off in image quality is good to acceptable at less than 1 bit per
pixel.