Abstract: This paper explores gender related barriers to interagency collaboration in statutory children safeguard partnerships against a theoretical framework that considers individuals, professions and organisations interacting as part of a complex adaptive system. We argue that gender-framed obstacles to effective communication between culturally discrepant agencies can ultimately impact on the effectiveness of policy delivery,. We focused our research on three partnership structures in Sefton Metropolitan Borough in order to observe how interactions occur, whether the agencies involved perceive their occupational environment as being gender affected and whether they believe this can hinder effective collaboration with other biased organisations. Our principal empirical findings indicate that there is a general awareness amongst professionals of the role that gender plays in each of the agencies reviewed, that gender may well constitute a barrier to effective communication, but there is a sense in which there is little scope for change in the short term. We aim to signal here, however, the need to change against the risk of service failure.
Abstract: This paper describes the shape optimization of impeller
blades for a anti-heeling bidirectional axial flow pump used in ships.
In general, a bidirectional axial pump has an efficiency much lower
than the classical unidirectional pump because of the symmetry of the
blade type. In this paper, by focusing on a pump impeller, the shape of
blades is redesigned to reach a higher efficiency in a bidirectional axial
pump. The commercial code employed in this simulation is CFX v.13.
CFD result of pump torque, head, and hydraulic efficiency was
compared. The orthogonal array (OA) and analysis of variance
(ANOVA) techniques and surrogate model based optimization using
orthogonal polynomial, are employed to determine the main effects
and their optimal design variables. According to the optimal design,
we confirm an effective design variable in impeller blades and explain
the optimal solution, the usefulness for satisfying the constraints of
pump torque and head.
Abstract: This paper proposes a simple model of economic geography within the Dixit-Stiglitz-Iceberg framework that may be used to analyze migration patterns among three cities. The cost–benefit tradeoffs affecting incentives for three types of migration, including echelon migration, are discussed. This paper develops a tractable, heterogeneous-agent, general equilibrium model, where agents share constant human capital, and explores the relationship between the benefits of echelon migration and gross human capital. Using Chinese numerical solutions, we study the manifestation of echelon migration and how it responds to changes in transportation cost and elasticity of substitution. Numerical results demonstrate that (i) there are positive relationships between a migration-s benefit-and-wage ratio, (ii) there are positive relationships between gross human capital ratios and wage ratios as to origin and destination, and (iii) we identify 13 varieties of human capital convergence among cities. In particular, this model predicts population shock resulting from the processes of migration choice and echelon migration.
Abstract: Communication is an important factor and a prop in
directing corporate activities efficiently, in ensuring the flow of
knowledge which is necessary for the continuity of the institution, in
creating a common language in the institution, in transferring
corporate culture and ultimately in corporate success. The idea of
transmitting the knowledge among the workers in a healthy manner
has revived knowledge communication. Knowledge communication
can be defined as the act of mutual creation and communication of
intuitions, assessments, experiences and capabilities, as long as
maintained effectively, can provide advantages such as corporate
continuity, access to corporate objectives and making true
administrative decisions. Although the benefits of the knowledge
communication to corporations are known, and the necessary worth
and care is given, some hardships may arise which makes it difficult
or even block it. In this article, difficulties that prevent knowledge
communication will be discussed and solutions will be proposed.
Abstract: This study considers the problem of determining
operation and maintenance schedules for a containership equipped
with components during its sailing according to a pre-determined
navigation schedule. The operation schedule, which specifies work
time of each component, determines the due-date of each maintenance
activity, and the maintenance schedule specifies the actual start
time of each maintenance activity. The main constraints are component
requirements, workforce availability, working time limitation,
and inter-maintenance time. To represent the problem mathematically,
a mixed integer programming model is developed. Then,
due to the problem complexity, we suggest a heuristic for the objective
of minimizing the sum of earliness and tardiness between the
due-date and the starting time of each maintenance activity. Computational
experiments were done on various test instances and the
results are reported.
Abstract: Network-Centric Air Defense Missile Systems
(NCADMS) represents the superior development of the air defense
missile systems and has been regarded as one of the major research
issues in military domain at present. Due to lack of knowledge and
experience on NCADMS, modeling and simulation becomes an effective
approach to perform operational analysis, compared with
those equation based ones. However, the complex dynamic interactions
among entities and flexible architectures of NCADMS put forward
new requirements and challenges to the simulation framework
and models. ABS (Agent-Based Simulations) explicitly addresses
modeling behaviors of heterogeneous individuals. Agents have capability
to sense and understand things, make decisions, and act on the
environment. They can also cooperate with others dynamically to
perform the tasks assigned to them. ABS proves an effective approach
to explore the new operational characteristics emerging in
NCADMS. In this paper, based on the analysis of network-centric
architecture and new cooperative engagement strategies for
NCADMS, an agent-based simulation framework by expanding the
simulation framework in the so-called System Effectiveness Analysis
Simulation (SEAS) was designed. The simulation framework specifies
components, relationships and interactions between them, the
structure and behavior rules of an agent in NCADMS. Based on scenario
simulations, information and decision superiority and operational
advantages in NCADMS were analyzed; meanwhile some
suggestions were provided for its future development.
Abstract: Among all geo-hydrological relationships, rainfallrunoff
relationship is of utmost importance in any hydrological
investigation and water resource planning. Spatial variation, lag time
involved in obtaining areal estimates for the basin as a whole can
affect the parameterization in design stage as well as in planning
stage. In conventional hydrological processing of data, spatial aspect
is either ignored or interpolated at sub-basin level. Temporal
variation when analysed for different stages can provide clues for its
spatial effectiveness. The interplay of space-time variation at pixel
level can provide better understanding of basin parameters.
Sustenance of design structures for different return periods and their
spatial auto-correlations should be studied at different geographical
scales for better management and planning of water resources.
In order to understand the relative effect of spatio-temporal
variation in hydrological data network, a detailed geo-hydrological
analysis of Betwa river catchment falling in Lower Yamuna Basin is
presented in this paper. Moreover, the exact estimates about the
availability of water in the Betwa river catchment, especially in the
wake of recent Betwa-Ken linkage project, need thorough scientific
investigation for better planning. Therefore, an attempt in this
direction is made here to analyse the existing hydrological and
meteorological data with the help of SPSS, GIS and MS-EXCEL
software. A comparison of spatial and temporal correlations at subcatchment
level in case of upper Betwa reaches has been made to
demonstrate the representativeness of rain gauges. First, flows at
different locations are used to derive correlation and regression
coefficients. Then, long-term normal water yield estimates based on
pixel-wise regression coefficients of rainfall-runoff relationship have
been mapped. The areal values obtained from these maps can
definitely improve upon estimates based on point-based
extrapolations or areal interpolations.
Abstract: The aims of this study were to compare the
differences of being good membership behavior among faculties and
staffs of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University with different sex, age,
income, education, marital status, and working period, and
investigate the relationships between organizational commitment and
being good membership behavior. The research methodology
employed a questionnaire as a quantitative method. The respondents
were 305 faculties and staffs of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University.
This research used Percentage, Mean, Standard Deviation, t-test,
One-Way ANOVA Analysis of Variance, and Pearson’s Product
Moment Correlation Coefficient in data analysis. The results showed
that organizational commitment among faculties and staffs of Suan
Sunandha Rajabhat University was at a high level. In addition,
differences in sex, age, income, education, marital status, and
working period revealed differences in being good membership
behavior. The results also indicated that organizational commitment
was significantly related to being good membership behavior.
Abstract: This study investigated the relationships between the
active learning strategies (discussion, video clips, game show, role–
play, five minute paper, clarification pauses, and small group) and
academic achievement among a sample of 158 undergraduate
psychology students in The University of the West Indies (UWI),
Barbados. Results revealed statistically significant positive
correlations between active learning strategies and students’
academic achievement; so also the active learning strategies
contributed 22% (Rsq=0.222) to the variance being accounted for in
academic achievement and this was found to be statistically
significant (F(7,150) = 6.12, p < .05). Additionally, group work
emerged as the best active learning strategy and had the highest
correlation with the students’ academic achievement. These results
were discussed in the light of the importance of the active learning
strategies promoting academic achievement among the university
students.
Abstract: This paper proposes an analytical method for the
dynamics of generating firms- alliance networks along with business
phases. Dynamics in network developments have previously been
discussed in the research areas of organizational strategy rather than in
the areas of regional cluster, where the static properties of the
networks are often discussed. The analytical method introduces the
concept of business phases into innovation processes and uses
relationships called prior experiences; this idea was developed in
organizational strategy to investigate the state of networks from the
viewpoints of tradeoffs between link stabilization and node
exploration. This paper also discusses the results of the analytical
method using five cases of the network developments of firms. The
idea of Embeddedness helps interpret the backgrounds of the
analytical results. The analytical method is useful for policymakers of
regional clusters to establish concrete evaluation targets and a
viewpoint for comparisons of policy programs.
Abstract: Educational institutions increasingly adopt the
students-as-customers concept to satisfy their students.
Understanding students- perspectives on the use of this business
concept in educational institutions is necessary for the institutions to
effectively align these perspectives with their management practice.
The study investigates whether students in technology and business
disciplines have significantly different attitudes toward using the
students-as-customers concept in educational institutions and
explores the impact of treating students as customers in technology
disciplines under students- perspectives. The results from
quantitative and qualitative data analyses show that technology
students, in contrast to business students, fairly disagree with
educational institutions to treat students as customers. Treating
students as customers in technology disciplines will have a negative
influence on teaching performance, instructor-student relationships
and educational institutions- aim, but a positive influence on service
quality in educational institutions. The paper discusses the findings
and concludes with implications and limitations of the study.
Abstract: This paper discusses the use of explorative data
mining tools that allow the educator to explore new relationships
between reported learning experiences and actual activities,
even if there are multiple dimensions with a large number
of measured items. The underlying technology is based on
the so-called Compendium Platform for Reproducible Computing
(http://www.freestatistics.org) which was built on top the computational
R Framework (http://www.wessa.net).
Abstract: A review of the literature found that Domestic
violence and child maltreatment co-occur in many families, the
purpose of this study attempts to emphasize the factors relating to
intra-family relationships (order point of view) on violence against
the children, For this purpose a survey technique on the sample size
amounted 200 students of governmental guidance schools of city of
Gilanegharb in country of Iran were considered. For measurement of
violence against the children (VAC) the CTS scaled has been used
.The results showed that children have experienced the violence more
than once during the last year. degree of order in family is high.
Explanation result indicated that the order variables in family
including collective thinking, empathy, communal co-circumstance
have significant effects on VAC.
Abstract: Activity-Based Costing (ABC) represents an
alternative paradigm to traditional cost accounting system and
it often provides more accurate cost information for decision
making such as product pricing, product mix, and make-orbuy
decisions. ABC models the causal relationships between
products and the resources used in their production and traces
the cost of products according to the activities through the use
of appropriate cost drivers. In this paper, the implementation
of the ABC in a manufacturing system is analyzed and a
comparison with the traditional cost based system in terms of
the effects on the product costs are carried out to highlight the
difference between two costing methodologies. By using this
methodology, a valuable insight into the factors that cause the
cost is provided, helping to better manage the activities of the
company.
Abstract: This paper includes a positive analysis to quantitatively grasp the relationship among vulnerability, information security incidents, and the countermeasures by using data based on a 2007 questionnaire survey for Japanese ISPs (Internet Service Providers). To grasp the relationships, logistic regression analysis is used. The results clarify that there are relationships between information security incidents and the countermeasures. Concretely, there is a positive relationship between information security incidents and the number of information security systems introduced as well as a negative relationship between information security incidents and information security education. It is also pointed out that (especially, local) ISPs do not execute efficient information security countermeasures/ investment concerned with systems, and it is suggested that they should positively execute information security education. In addition, to further heighten the information security level of Japanese telecommunication infrastructure, the necessity and importance of the government to implement policy to support the countermeasures of ISPs is insisted.
Abstract: The uses of road map in daily activities are numerous
but it is a hassle to construct and update a road map whenever there
are changes. In Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, research on Automatic
Road Extraction (ARE) was explored to solve the difficulties in
updating road map. The research started with using Satellite Image
(SI), or in short, the ARE-SI project. A Hybrid Simple Colour Space
Segmentation & Edge Detection (Hybrid SCSS-EDGE) algorithm
was developed to extract roads automatically from satellite-taken
images. In order to extract the road network accurately, the satellite
image must be analyzed prior to the extraction process. The
characteristics of these elements are analyzed and consequently the
relationships among them are determined. In this study, the road
regions are extracted based on colour space elements and edge details
of roads. Besides, edge detection method is applied to further filter
out the non-road regions. The extracted road regions are validated by
using a segmentation method. These results are valuable for building
road map and detecting the changes of the existing road database.
The proposed Hybrid Simple Colour Space Segmentation and Edge
Detection (Hybrid SCSS-EDGE) algorithm can perform the tasks
fully automatic, where the user only needs to input a high-resolution
satellite image and wait for the result. Moreover, this system can
work on complex road network and generate the extraction result in
seconds.
Abstract: This study investigates the roles of knowledge
acquisition, absorptive capacity, and innovation capability in finance
and manufacturing industries. With 362 valid questionnaires from
manufactures and financial industries in Taiwan, we examine the
relationships between absorptive capacity, knowledge acquisition and
innovation capability using a structural equation model. The results
indicate that absorptive capacity is the mediator between knowledge
acquisition and innovation capability, and that knowledge acquisition
has a positive effect on absorptive capacity.
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the
relationships among students- process of study, creative self-efficacy
and creativity while attending college. A total of 60 students enrolled
in Hsiuping Institute of Technology in central Taiwan were selected as
samples for the study. The instruments for this study included three
questionnaires to explore the aforesaid aspects.
This researchers tested creative self-efficacy and process of study,
and creativity with Pearson correlation and hierarchical regression
analyses. The major findings of this research are (1) the process of
study had direct positive predictability on creativity, and (2) the
relationship between process of study and creativity is partially
mediated by creative self-efficacy.
Abstract: The cyberspace is an instrument through which
internet users could get new experiences. It could contribute to foster
one-s own growth, widening cognitive, creative and communicative
abilities and promoting relationships. In the cyberspace, in fact, it is
possible to create virtual learning communities where internet users
improve their interpersonal sphere, knowledge and skills. The main
element of e-learning is the establishment of online relationships, that
are often collaborative.