Compliance

Even though the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been applauded for several decades, the concept of stakeholder engagement is relatively new to the Ghanaian mining sector. This study investigates the CSR process of an …

Modern history is witness to several infectious disease pandemics which have shaped our knowledge of their epidemiology, transmission, and management (Shearer et al. 2020 ). In the past 200 years, at least four strains of influenza, seven waves of …

With the continued appeal and adoption of cloud computing, an assessment of cloud run costs and migration affordability prior to adoption would assist enterprises that have several legacy applications targeted for cloud migration. However, as …

Halal Supply Chain Management requires an assurance that the entire process of procurement, distribution, handling, and processing materials, spare parts, livestock, work-in-process, or finished inventory to be well documented and performed fit to …

Data visualizations are a valuable tool used during both statistical analysis and the interpretation of results as they graphically reveal useful information about the structure, properties and relationships between variables, which may otherwise …

Technological advancements in the field of transportation are gradually enabling cooperative, connected and automated mobility (CCAM). The progress in information and communication technology (ICT) has provided mature solutions for …

Automation is widely regarded as a disruptive force that will shape many of the aspects of our daily lives in the next decades and driving is no exception. In literature and among stakeholders, it is quite accepted that some form of automation …

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is like a chameleon, that changes its colour according to the context it is in. In the developed economy, it takes the form of sustainability and/ or philanthropy, whereas, in emerging economies, it speaks the …

A transformed approach has been made to predict the impression of inclusion geogrid on the reinforced soil’s bearing capacity underneath the strip foundation. The influence of the friction factor of the tensile strength of the reinforcement …

In this study, the age-dependent splitting and flexural tensile strength have been investigated by incorporating the various percentages of fly ash in the plain concrete mixes. The partial replacement of cement by fly ash was varied from 0 to 60% …

Simulation organizational adjustment management processes in the balanced scorecard (BSC) of the city district heating using fuzzy logic methods. The work engaged a system of balanced scorecard as a tool for strategic performance management, which …

Although recent studies on the Semantic Web have focused on crisp ontologies and knowledge representation, they have paid less attention to imprecise knowledge. However, the results of these studies constitute a Semantic Web that can answer …

A computational system is called autonomous if it is able to make its own decisions, or take its own actions, without human supervision or control. The capability and spread of such systems have reached the point where they are beginning to touch …

Cyber technologies are offering new horizons for quality control in manufacturing and safety assurance in-service of physical assets. The line between non-destructive evaluation (NDE) and Industry 4.0 is getting blurred since both are sensory …

Convolutional neural networks were used for multiclass segmentation in thermal infrared face analysis. The principle is based on existing image-to-image translation approaches, where each pixel in an image is assigned to a class label. We show …

The main objective of this paper is to study the structural behaviour of hybrid fibre-reinforced concrete beams strengthened with glass fibre-reinforced polymer (GFRP) laminates. For the above purpose, three distinct groups of beam elements were …

The goal of visual surface inspection is to analyze an object’s surface and detect defects by looking at it from different angles. Developments over the past years have made it possible to partially automate this process. Inspection systems use …

Mit Einführung der Euro-7-Abgasnorm wird eine weitere Verschärfung der NO _x -Emissionsgrenzwerte und der Regularien für die Realfahremissionen erwartet. Die Kaltstartphase gilt zur Erfüllung dieser Grenzwerte als besonders herausfordernd.

Model-based calculation tools are for early design evaluation. They can only be used in a meaningful way if thermodynamic processes can be represented realistically, for which a sufficiently deep understanding is required. For this reason, the …

With the introduction of the Euro 7 emission standard, a further tightening of the NO _x emission limits and the regulations for real driving emissions is expected. The cold-start phase is regarded as particularly challenging in meeting these …

We investigate whether enforcement is influenced by politics by comparing the severity of PCAOB sanctions of individual CPAs to the severity of related state-level disciplinary actions imposed by boards of accountancy (BOAs). Our results provide …

Non-profit organizations (NPOs) have been recognized as critical performers not only in the enhancement of social values and civic integration but also in the construction of a global civil society, which can impact shareholders’ policies and …

Technological change that arises outside an industry and is used within it affects entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial ecosystems, but remains understudied. In this project we assess the role of financial technology (fintech) innovation in the …

Homogenization theory forms the basis for solving the topology optimization problem (TOP) formulated for designing composite materials. Homogenization is proved to be an efficient approach to effectively determine the equivalent macroscopic …

In this study a modeling approach for short fiber-reinforced composites is presented which allows one to consider information from the microstructure of the compound while modeling on the component level. The proposed technique is based on the …

Big Data Analytics (BDA) is a rapidly emerging area for both business and IT professionals involving technology, people and organisations (Alharthi et al. 2017 ) and generally refers to the use of analytical applications that process a wide variety …

Wildlife value orientations (WVOs) are used to address human–wildlife conflicts by developing value-framed messaging. However, little is known about whether WVOs (i.e., mutualism, domination) are useful in distance-related wildlife safety …

Beaches are under increasing pressure from a wide range of anthropogenic threats, including human trampling, vehicular crushing, and horse riding/training. The impacts of horses on beaches are unknown. We index the relative abundance, diversity …

Biological monitoring is the evaluating changes in the environment using the biological responses with the intent of using such information in quality control of the ecosystem. Biomarkers and bioindicators are two main components of the hierarchy …

Roll forming is a continuous process in which a moving metal sheet passes through numerous pairs of opposing forming rolls. The shafts of the roll forming mill are equipped with these rolls and must be set up and aligned to achieve the required …

Without proper flow channelization, congestion and overcrowding in pedestrian traffic may lead to significant inefficiency and safety hazards. Thus, the design of guideway networks that provide a fine balance between traffic congestion and …

The wide use of ionization radiation in healthcare and increasing high radiation procedures like computed tomography [CT] and interventional radiology [IR] procedures have raised serious safety and health concerns for both patients and health …

This paper argues that Quaker business ethics can be understood as a MacIntyrean tradition. To do so, it draws on three key MacIntyrean concepts: community, compartmentalisation, and the critique of management. The emphasis in Quaker business …

In this study, it was aimed to investigate teachers’ acceptance and use of interactive whiteboard (IWB), technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK), transition to use IWB effects on teacher performance. A causal pattern was used based on …

The intensification of the Baltic Sea eutrophication is associated with the increase of anthropogenic nutrients loads, mainly nitrogen and phosphorus introduced into surface waters from a diffuse, point and natural background sources. Despite the …

Three urethane methacrylates, one monofunctional derivative and two di-functional derivatives with different chain lengths were used as reactive diluents in UV-curable polyester powder coatings. Each reactive diluent was formulated with a …

Fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) rebars can be the futuristic potential reinforcing material in place of mild steel (MS) rebars which are highly prone to corrosion. However, the bond properties of the FRP rebars are not consistent with those of mild …

The capacity of drilled shafts is strongly related to the method and adequacy of drilling practices. Despite the accumulated knowledge and experience, there is significant variability in the measured performance of drilled shafts. This paper …

Health Technology Assessment (HTA) has been increasingly used to inform healthcare policy decisions [ 1 ]. Through systematic evaluation of health interventions, decision-makers can support their policies in health care resource allocation by …

Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is the most common autoinflammatory disorder. FMF is a lifelong disease. Having to deal with the disease throughout life, receiving continuous therapy and experiencing a sustained disease course can be …

Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are standardized instruments used to collect data about the subjective assessment of medical care from the patient perspective [ 1 – 4 ]. In this context, PROMs represent “any report of the patient’s health …

Currently, computer-based tests are widely used in large-scale assessments in education. However, the effective participation of people with visual impairments (PwVI) through the use of Assistive Technologies (ATs) to take these tests equitably …

The global economic transformation has brought about a revolution that is driving economic excellence not only in the UK context but also all over the world. Businesses are facing a range of challenges such as global competition, raising awareness …

Bureau of Energy Efficiency, Government of India, initiated energy conservation building codes (ECBCs) in 2007 to enhance building energy efficiency in the country. ECBC, 2017, for commercial buildings and Eco-Niwas Samhita, 2018, (Part-1) for …

This study aims at investigating the nonlinear dynamic behavior of rotating blade with transverse crack. A novel nonlinear rotating cracked blade model (NRCBM), which contains the spinning softening, centrifugal stiffening, Coriolis force, and …

Machining distortion has been a long-term obstacle in the machining of aircraft monolithic parts. Furthermore, its stability has to be considered. The machining distortion stability represents the fluctuation degree of the machining distortion.

In this study, the idea of recycling the concrete wastes and reuse of them for reproduction of green concrete has been presented. Thus, we have tried to study mechanical parameters using recycled aggregate concrete. For this purpose, three mix …

The entrepreneurial motivation is a previous and indispensable step to the act of starting a company. This paper aims to find the factors that determine the motivation of university students in business degrees to become an entrepreneur. To that …

We document 45 specific allegations related to audit deficiencies based on GAAS, as detailed in 141 AAERs and 153 securities class action lawsuits over the violation years 1978–2016. Next, we use these allegations to validate popular proxies of …

Service composition and supporting transactions across composed services are among the major challenges characterizing service-oriented computing. REpresentational State Transfer (REST) is one of the approaches used for implementing Web services …

Structural topology optimization considering both performance and manufacturability is very attractive in engineering applications. This work proposes a formulation for structural topology optimization to achieve such a design, in which material …

In the context of South Africa, what we do know is that huge amount of healthcare data does exist and that they are consciously and unconsciously scattered in bits and pieces across facilities within the country. This has directly or indirectly …

This paper presents a new method for optimizing the layout of post-tensioned cables in concrete slabs. The cables are modeled using three-dimensional B-splines so that the prestressing forces are derived according to the exact geometry and …

Who worries first about an invasive alien species: scientists or the general public, or do both become concerned simultaneously? Taking thirteen invasive alien species in the Netherlands, this article reconstructs the development of their public …

Distributed load-management is seen as a means to enhance the integration of fluctuating renewable energy sources into the energy system and address the increasing strain on the German electricity grid. However, the advantages and disadvantages of …

Although Cloud computing is gaining popularity by supporting data analysis in an outsourced and cost-effective way, it brings serious privacy issues when sending the original data to Cloud servers. Sensitive data have a significant value, and any …

In an unmanned aerial vehicle ad-hoc network (UANET), sparse and rapidly mobile unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)/nodes can dynamically change the UANET topology. This may lead to UANET service performance issues. In this study, for planning rapidly …

A new portable blood flow volume (BFV) sensor is developed from the function of estimating oxygen saturation (SpO2) implemented inherently to maximize the accuracy of predicting BFV. The sensor is designed to estimate BFV in high accuracy at the …

The impact of viscous dissipation in hybrid nanofluid plays a prominent role in industrial applications, for instance, in polymer processing flows and aerodynamic heating. Thus, the current investigation scrutinises the heat transfer performance …

The complex relationship that exists between water resources and agricultural production has been increasing constantly globally. Several factors are interacting to influence the management of water resources making the system complex and dynamic.

Belgium and the Netherlands recovered fast from the historic economic crisis of 2008. It is imperative for governments to garner some lessons from the experiences over the Great Recession. For this reason, the purpose of this article is to assess …

Given the need to understand both the negative and positive psychological consequences of the current global COVID-19 pandemic (Brewin et al. in Perspectives in Public Health https://doi.org/10.1177/1757913920957365 2020), the aim of this study …

The article presents a vibration analysis of a laminated composite sandwich plate containing viscoelastic layers in the core and faces of the plate. The sandwich plate includes magnetostrictive actuating layers, rests on a three-parameter …

We revisit the incompatibility of anonymity and neutrality in single-valued social choice. We first analyze the irresoluteness outlook these two axioms together with Pareto efficiency impose on social choice rules and deliver a method to refine …

Problems of calibrating the instruments for measuring infrasound fluctuations in the atmosphere are considered. The influence of external conditions, including atmospheric pressure, relative humidity and air temperature, on the sound pressure …

Viewing animals as a disposable resource is by no means novel, but does milking the cow for all its worth now represent a previously unimaginable level of exploitation? New technology has intensified milk production fourfold over the last 50 …

This paper aims to explore challenges of the Aristotelian friendship (philia) in multicultural society and in the specific industrial and organizational contexts. Data was collected from forty-eight participant interviews with managers and …

A model for calculating the sliding friction force between a surface with regular relief and a viscoelastic foundation in dry conditions is suggested. The Winkler type viscoelastic foundation with both normal and tangential compliances is …

A great deal of progress has been made in recent years to investigate the chemical characteristics of beachrocks. Beachrocks found in Krakal-Sadranan Beach (Yogyakarta, Indonesia) are spread locally, parallel to the coastline with a breadth of …

Auditors increasingly employ technologies to improve audit quality. Using a design science approach, we examine whether using drones and automated counting software can improve audit quality and thus financial reporting. We assess three dimensions …

An approach for the topology optimization of structures composed of nonlinear beam elements under time-varying excitation is presented. Central to this approach is a hysteretic beam finite element model that accounts for distributed plasticity and …

In this paper, topology optimization of structures is achieved through integrating the element free Galerkin (EFG) method and the solid isotropic method with penalization (SIMP). The strain energy is minimized as objective function. In the …

Requirement engineering (RE) is the process of discovering stakeholders’ requirements and needs and documenting them in such a way that they can serve as the basis for all other system development activities. Despite recent advances in RE …

The purpose of this work is to investigate how the crystallinity degree of carbon fiber / poly(ether-ether-ketone (CF/PEEK) composites affects their performance when exposed to ultraviolet radiation, hygrothermal, and salt fog conditionings.

Based on the complementary potential energy variational principle, in this work, we proposed a stress-driven homogenization procedure to compute overall effective material properties for elastic composites with locally heterogenous …

Business process modelling languages typically enable the representation of business process models by employing (graphical) symbols. These symbols can vary depending upon the verbosity of the language, the modelling paradigm, the focus of the …

A robust three-dimensional multiscale structural optimization framework with concurrent coupling between scales is presented. Concurrent coupling ensures that only the microscale data required to evaluate the macroscale model during each iteration …

Services Oriented Architecture provides Web Services (WSs) as reusable software components that can be applied to create more complicate composite services for users according to the specified QoS limitations. However, considering many WSs that …

In times of increasing concerns and extensive political debates about social and environmental problems, incumbent firms are obliged to reduce their negative environmental impact by implementing sustainable business model innovation. Yet …

In real practice, the construction of drainage wells is always accompanied by smear effect, whereas it is scarcely discussed in the field of unsaturated soils. In this case, on the basis of the widely-accepted consolidation theory for unsaturated …

For fitness-for-service assessment of pipeline cracks, it is necessary to examine toughness values of pipeline steels and their variations with temperature. In this study, experimental values of toughness (KJC) at room temperature have been …

We present a novel indirect adaptive fuzzy-regulated optimal control scheme for continuous-time nonlinear systems with unknown dynamics, mismatches, and disturbances. Initially, the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equation associated with its …

We deal with event-triggered H∞ controller design for discrete-time piecewise-affine systems subject to actuator saturation. By considering saturation information, a novel event-triggered strategy is proposed to conserve communication resources. A …

A 0.20–2.43 GHz fractional-N frequency synthesizer is presented for multi-band wireless communication systems, in which the scheme adopts low phase noise voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) and a charge pump (CP) with reduced current mismatch.

Ubiquitous power Internet of Things (IoT) is a smart service system oriented to all aspects of the power system, and has the characteristics of universal interconnection, human-computer interaction, comprehensive state perception, efficient …

An experimental-numerical methodology was proposed for the parameter identification of constitutive laws, when applied to hot forging. Industrial presses were directly used to generate the reference experiments for identification. The strain and …

Different residual stress magnitude and profile are generated after every crankshaft manufacturing stage. The processes are often investigated separately, regardless of their possible influence. The acknowledgement of the stress evolution can be …

This article presents the design and validation of a regression model for the identification of dynamic parameters in manipulator robots. The model exhibits implementation advantages as it is based on the acquisition of position, speed and voltage …

In engineering structures, such as large fluid-filled pipelines, continuous monitoring for damage detection is needed. To address this issue, we study the generation of guided waves in pipes by using a circumferential strip of macro fiber …

High-speed turbocharger rotors are often supported on double film floating ring bearings. In recent times, foil bearings are increasingly used as an alternative to floating ring bearings for supporting such lightweight rotors. Present work aims at …

The fractal tree structure exists in nature for conduction and transport [ 1 ]. Based on the fractal symmetric tree structure, West et al. [ 2 ] proposed an original mathematical model referred to as the West-Brown-Enquist (WBE) model to support …

An updated comprehensive exploratory survey of the literature on elastic cusped standard and prismatic shells and bars, in particular, cusped plates, and to the corresponding singular partial differential equations and systems is given. The …

According to the World Health Organization, cardiovascular diseases contribute to 17.7 million deaths per year and are rising with a growing ageing population. In order to handle these challenges, the evolved countries are now evolving workable …

This paper addresses multi-objective optimization and the truss optimization problem employing a novel meta-heuristic that is based on the real-world water cycle behavior in rivers, rainfalls, streams, etc. This meta-heuristic is called …

This article presents an extended algorithm for topology optimization of compliant mechanisms and structures with design-dependent pressure loadings using the moving iso-surface threshold (MIST) method. In this algorithm, the fluid-structure …

Design optimization of beam structures is a significant topic as beams are an efficient load-carrying component in engineering applications. Most of the earlier researches concentrate on the structural optimization of beams with invariant …

The majority of topology optimization methods for porous infill designs is based on the assumption of deterministic loads. However, in practice, quantities such as positions, weights, and directions of applied loads may change accidentally.

Thin-walled beams are extensively applied in the engineering structures, in which the conceptual design of cross-sectional shape and topology is the most important issue. Traditional topology optimization methods cannot easily obtain the …

A vital necessity when employing state-of-the-art deep neural networks (DNNs) for topology optimization is to predict near-optimal structures while satisfying pre-defined optimization constraints and objective function. Existing studies, on the …

High-temperature alloys usually refer to one kind of metallic materials that can be long term used above 600 °C in a certain stressed condition. Customarily, high-temperature alloys are called as “superalloys” due to their high …

Platinum (Pt)-based alloys have potential applications in the ultra-high-temperature domain because of their high melting temperature, good oxidation and corrosion resistance, and outstanding comprehensive mechanical behaviors [ 1 – 4 ]. Pt-based …

In this paper, we present a low-cost distance-spoofing attack on a millimeter-wave frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar. It uses only a replica radar chipset and a single compact microcontroller board in mass production. No expensive …

Privacy has emerged as a key concern for business and social computing as security breaches have compromised personal data for millions. Despite this, much of existing work on privacy requirements deal with them as a special case of security …

We consider adversarial games solved by a continuous version of the simultaneous gradient descent method, whose associated differential system is induced by a Hamiltonian function. In this case the solution obtained by training does never converge …

Hemorrhage is the phenomenon of blood loss caused by vascular trauma or other pathological reasons, which is life-threatening in severe cases. Because microhemorrhage is difficult to visually monitor and pre-treat in vivo, it is necessary to …

We investigate the degree of internationalization of Chinese service multinational enterprises (MNEs) and their performance relative to global peers operating in the same industries, using the benchmarking method with the industry financial data.

Bilateral and multilateral development agencies spend a great deal of time, money, and effort trying to shape the reform priorities and processes of their counterpart countries. However, the means by which development agencies can achieve these …

The purpose of the article is to describe the trainings implemented as part of the project “E-Active Residents of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian and Łódź Voivodeships” and to present the results of partial assessment of the level of digital competence of …

Most studies evaluating the effectiveness of treatments targeting shoulder pathologies use subjective outcome measures such as self-administered questionnaires. To date, there are no validated tools that objectively measure shoulder-specific …

This paper responds to the Radical Behavioral Challenge (RBC) to normative business ethics. According to RBC, recent research on bounded ethicality shows that it is psychologically impossible for people to follow the prescriptions of normative …

While a corporate ethics program is expected to reduce employees’ unethical behavior, understanding the effects of the ethics program elements on reducing the unethical behavior is a crucial issue. This study aims to explore how a corporate ethics …

With over 4.57 billion people using the Internet in 2020, the amount of data being generated has exceeded 2.5 quintillion bytes per day. This rapid increase in the generation of data has pushed the applications of big data to new heights; one of …

In this paper, the free vibration of an aluminum beam coated with imperfect and damaged functionally graded material is investigated. The imperfections consist of porosities, while 4 evenly distributed cracks represent the damage profile. A …

Evidence shows there is a need to ensure that health and social care professionals (i.e. teachers/trainers/workers, for theory and practice, in health and social care settings) are capable to deliver care and support to lesbian, gay, bisexual, and …

Parenting is a challenging life-cycle transition, particularly for lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) persons who have to deal with prejudice and discrimination. Considering this position of social disadvantage and the potential protective role of …

In this work, the effects of 120 MeV Ag ion irradiation on the switching properties of Au/HfO2/Au-based Resistive Random Access Memory (RRAM) devices are reported. The ion fluence is varied between 5 × 1010 and 5 × 1012 ions/cm2 while two device …

A distinguishing feature of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) is its “whole-of-society” approach, which includes states, but also engages a “broad multi-stakeholder” partnership to address global migration “in all …

Because finite elements and density elements are separated in multi-resolution topology optimization (MTOP), a relatively fewer number of finite elements can be used, thereby significantly reducing computing cost in finite element analysis (FEA) …

While previous research has shown that during mental imagery participants look back to areas visited during encoding it is unclear what happens when information presented during encoding is incongruent. To investigate this research question, we …

With the growing public attention on sustainable development and green ecosystems, the efficient management of fuzzy sewage treatment processes (FSTPs) has been a major concern in academia. Characterized by strong abstraction and analysis …

The work is devoted to the numerical aspects of the modeling tool elaborated to simulate the phenomenon of solid phase transformation in shape memory alloys. Particularly, a nonlocal approach, namely the bond based variant of peridynamics, is of …

Fiber reinforced materials are used in assorted engineering application and for this reason, new additive manufacturing technologies have been developed for this type of materials. With these technologies, it is possible to construct composite …

This study aims to examine the paths between excessive Internet use, school burnout and parental monitoring and their predictor effects in peer bullying and victimization among Turkish adolescents. The relational survey design was employed in the …

The adoption of digitally enabled manufacturing requires new strategies for managing information about the construction materials beyond the traditional project-driven perspective. This paper contributes an approach to improving transparency and …

In this study, the effect of high temperature on the flexural and compressive strength of mortars containing waste PET aggregates was investigated experimentally. The mortar samples prepared in 5 different concentrations with a total of 2.5%, 5% …

As robots begin to occupy our social spaces, touch will increasingly become part of human–robot interactions. This paper examines the impact of observing a robot touch a human on trust in that robot. In three online studies, observers watched …

After the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) were adopted in 2011, an international treaty has been being negotiated since 2014. The two instruments reveal similarities and also conflicts regarding the adequate organization …

Many original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) carry out collecting operations by themselves or a third party. Most of the existing research papers in the literature consider the collecting mode selection problem from an economic perspective.

While there are regulatory requirements that regulators should assess the impact of landscape-scale changes on the success of US Clean Water Act wetland compensatory mitigation sites, these requirements are poorly specified and very little work …

Persistently, high workload may raise sickness absence with associated costs to firms and society. We proxy workload by the number of adults per child in Norwegian child care centers and find that more educated teachers per child are associated …

The overall time-dependent and nonlinear responses of two-phase magnetostrictive polymer composites are obtained by coupling micromechanical analysis for magnetoelastic coupled composites with a time-integration algorithm for thermorheologically …

The preparation of chitosan-aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) composite thin films for transparent resistive random access memory applications is reported. The variation in optical transmission, refractive index and optical bandgap of the composite …

Topology optimization of structures subject to self-weight loading has received considerable attention in the last decades. However, by using standard formulations based on compliance minimization under volume constraint, several difficulties …

The increasing competition between China and the United States in the South China Sea necessitates that some important issues be resolved. What are China and the US fighting over? What is causing the two sides to increasingly diverge on this issue …

Governments are increasingly focusing their efforts on stimulating innovation within small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). As a result, university-industry-government collaboration is gaining importance among the agenda of policymakers to …

The substitution of standard clays to residues, in this case copper smelter slag and fly ashes coming from the incineration process of MSW in traditional ceramics manufacturing, could suppose cost savings due to the use of recycling by-products as …

With the emergence of cloud computing and to better satisfy users’ complex requirements in front of the huge number of cloud services, these latter may be combined while considering the virtualized environment’s constraints, including quality of …

We propose a model of flexural elastic plates accounting for boundary layer effects due to the most usual boundary conditions or to geometrical defects, constructed via matched asymptotic expansions. In particular, considering a rectangular plate …

Trade law scholars have often argued that international institutions can serve a useful domestic political role by providing a constraint against domestic demands for protection. In this paper, I identify a new way in which such institutions and …

The purpose of this research is to analyze the influence of the state legitimacy on of the different countries’ entrepreneurial activity’s development, the opportunities’ perception and the entrepreneurship’s motivations. This paper is set into …

Offshore wind energy has been gaining a lot of attention in the renewable energy sector in recent years. A large number of offshore wind turbines have been installed recently due to more stable and steady flow of wind and less noise and visual …

The special features of project design for spillway structures of the Krasnogorskaya small HPP-1 and HPP-2 are studied, as was the selection of a variant of the layout of hydromechanical equipment and the criteria for selection of the basic …

The analysis of the possibility of temporary operation of a steam pipeline with defects in knot welded joints was performed on a specific example. Based on the conservative approach, the tensile stresses in the working sections of the pipeline …

This article presents a description of the complex engineering surveying conducted by the company Mosoblgidroproekt JSC as well as the design and operational documentation for the infrastructure in the Lunnaya Polyana and Romantik settlements of …

Both evaluating students’ design works and also understanding their cognition in the industrial design process are equally important for students’ learning. This study used the design activities and design competencies required by the industrial …

In a general equilibrium model where individuals voluntarily provide offsets which compensate for degradation of environmental quality by consuming differentiated goods produced by monopolistically competitive firms, this paper examines how the …

We examine the impact of managerial characteristics on the choice of risk-decreasing and risk-increasing/-constant strategies. Using unique data on firm-, year-, and currency-specific FX exposure before and after hedging with corresponding hedging …

Decreasing fuel consumption and tailpipe emissions have been an important issue nowadays for automotive industry after new regulations. Fuel consumption is also an important parameter that highly affects the customers’ choice. Reduction of total …

We study the relationship between session types and behavioural contracts, representing Communicating Finite State Machines (CFSMs), under the assumption that processes communicate asynchronously. Session types represent a syntax-based approach …

Avionics are highly critical systems that require extensive testing to comply with international safety standards. Cockpit display systems (CDS) are a mandatory part of modern cockpits of both manned and unmanned aircraft. The information from …

Stiffened plates are widely applied in engineering structures for its high rigidity-to-weight ratio, easy fabrication, and convenient application [ 1 , 2 ]. Previous research showed that the stiffened plate structures' static and dynamic properties …

In this paper, PAMTEL-RT, a web-based platform to provide remote health professional support and guidance during the initial assistance of emergency situations is presented. In particular, this platform focuses on the pediatric population and has …

In this work, a study case is presented in which the design of the layout for a CMOS sensor cell is partially automated by implementing a metaheuristic algorithm to find the best tradeoff between two conflicting objectives (two quantitative …

This paper studies the influence of factors such as printing speed, layer height, infill density, and type of material, over the mechanical properties of 3D printed pieces. A statistical analysis was conducted in order to determine the effect of …

In conventional level set methods for topology optimization, the evolution of level set function is solved by upwind scheme and needs to be reinitialized frequently throughout the optimization. The upwind scheme is complicated in numerical …

This paper presents a model for generating strut-based lattice structures using topology optimization and their efficient direct slicing. These structures exhibit better physical properties and can represent the partial densities at the …

Topology optimization can devise structures with superior performance, while the results produced by topology optimization are often very complex and difficult to be manufactured directly. The additive manufacturing is a free-form manufacturing …

The increasing rate of development leads to unsustainable status where future descendants cannot meet their own needs (Mota et al. 2014 ). Sustainable development (SD) has a vital role in infrastructure improvement of countries (Keshavarz and Toloo …2018

Recent studies on innovative solutions in structural engineering fields highlight the effectiveness of closed-cell aluminum foams as traditional material/architecture core replacement in sandwich structures. This study aims to investigate the …

Knowledge of material removal behavior and generated surface characteristics are crucial to improve grinding performance. A finite element model was developed using a single grit approach with the consideration of uncut chip thick variations along …

Evaluating the quality of service (QS) provided by water companies is essential to benchmark and regulate them. Composite indicators (CIs) are a useful tool for this as they consist of aggregated multiple performance indicators in a single index …

We ask what type of neutralization techniques corporations apply to allegations of human rights abuses. We proceed by undertaking a Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA) of 162 responses by ten extractives-sector firms over a period of 14 years. The …

Engaging Polanyi’s embeddedness–disembeddedness framework, this study explored the work experiences of Bhil children employed in Indian Bt cottonseed GPNs. The innovative visual technique of drawings followed by interviews was used. Migrant …

Decision support systems (DSS) have evolved significantly since the past 50 years. The existing bouquet of DSS contributions offering the prevalent emphasis and future orientations of the field also point towards several shortcomings. The existing …

Traditional gender roles that define what is feminine and masculine also imply that men have higher social status than women. These stereotypes still influence how people interact with each other and with computers. Touch behaviour, essential in …

The influence of fringing electric fields at the edges of the Capacitance Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducer’s (CMUT’s) gap and insulation layers are included into the parallel plate capacitance phenomenon. Its effect on various CMUT parameters …

The blockchain space has seen tremendous innovation and advancement, in the last few years with an explosion of functionality and use cases. However, several challenges naturally arise from the nature of these distributed systems—energy …

When deciding whether to support a political candidate, policy or cause, individuals are observed to prioritize the expression of their political identities. They even knowingly incur personal costs (a lower wage, strained family relations) to do …

In the presented work, a nonlocal gradient enhanced damage model for concrete is proposed with a stress decomposition, to account for shear induced damage. The nonlocal model is an extension of the recently proposed local plasticity damage model …

The effect of cure rate on the mechanical and fracture properties of both bulk epoxy polymers and carbon fibre-reinforced polymers (CFRP) containing reaction-induced phase-separating liquid rubber was investigated in the current work. The fracture …

Based on the network model and the regular solution model, the equilibrium surface and interface segregations are investigated for the Ni(111)2 at%(Au) nano-films under diffusion-induced stress and intrinsic stress. The size effect with respect to …

This study proposes a conceptual model for utilization of Facebook for professional integration of ethnic minorities, based on the social capital and weak social ties theories. In particular, the research focuses on differences among ethnic groups …

This work explores the effect of core-shell rubber (CSR) addition on the cure reaction and resulting mechanical and thermal properties of a highly cross-linked network made from 4,4′- tetraglycidyl diamino diphenyl methane and 3,3′-diamino …

Understanding the irreversible deformation (dislocation activation and crack formation) of functional oxides, based on which various advanced electronic devices are fabricated, is critical for the optimal structural design and mechanical …

This study examined the influence of family on career choice implementation, assuming that implementation can be assessed through goal progress and satisfaction, and that family influences the latter through perceived environmental supports or …

Vegetable oils are well known for their potential applications in green chemistry, including use as hydraulic fluids. Among oilseed crops, Crambe abyssinica Hochst. EX R.E.Fr . gained attention for its low-input requirements during cultivation and …

In this study we investigate the information content of firm payout policy to shareholders. We focus on the association between a firm’s payout policy and shareholders’ satisfaction with board directors, as expressed by the percentage of negative …

This study aimed to examine a positive-oriented model of two types of motivational constructs (i.e., harmonious passion and obsessive passion) for learning a second language (L2) and their relationship to self-growth indicators. The dualistic …

The cement industry in India has witnessed a remarkable growth making India presently the second largest producer of cement in the world. However, the production of cement involves emission of pollutants that are considered to be a severe threat …

In order to enable failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) to play a better quality control role in complex manufacturing products or systems, the current research status of FMEA is reviewed from failure mode identification, risk assessment, and …

The use of expert knowledge by manufacturing companies to support everyday activities has become an emerging practice thanks to the new knowledge management tools. A big set of knowledge is available in the organizations but its profitable use to …

This article examines why and how workers adhere and contribute to the perpetuation of the freedom fantasy induced by neoliberal ideology. We turn to Hannah Arendt’s analysis of the human condition, which offers invaluable insights into the …

Although previous studies primarily claim that government-dependent firms can actively engage in compliance activities in order to achieve political legitimacy, access government resources, and build competitive advantages, these studies largely …

Cyber risk has become one of the greatest threats to firms in recent years. Accordingly, boards of directors must be continually vigilant about this danger. They have a duty to ensure that the companies adopt appropriate cybersecurity measures to …

In this work, a sol–gel method has been employed to fabricate Cr-doped ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) in the presence of starch at different annealing temperatures. The obtained products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron …

Pricing policies and fair-trade practices are critical for sustaining commercial relationships between firms and customers. Nevertheless, in current business practices, fairness has been mistakenly reduced to a minimalistic ethic wherein justice …

Research on the quality of data in a structural calculation document (SCD) is lacking, although the SCD of a bridge is used as an essential reference during the entire lifecycle of the facility. XML Schema matching enables qualitative improvement …

To realize high-speed and high-strength joining of dissimilar materials that can be used in an automobile manufacturing line, two types of dissimilar lap-joining were examined using spot forge-welding. The material combinations were high-tensile …

The presented paper focuses on the analysis of strategic documents at the level of the European Union (EU) concerning the regulation of artificial intelligence as one of the so-called disruptive technologies. In the first part of the article, we …

This paper analyzes the strategy of a monopolistic digital platform serving users from two jurisdictions with different corporate tax rates. We consider two profit-splitting rules, Separate Accounting and Formula Apportionment based on the number …

In this paper, we have presented the synthesis of nickel oxide (NiO) nanoparticles using sol–gel method and measured its structural, electrical and humidity sensing properties using different measurement tools after annealing at three different …

We report on the capacitive memory of the WO3 nanowire (NW) MOS capacitor on Si substrate synthesized by glancing angle deposition (GLAD) technique inside an electron beam evaporator system. The field-emission gun scanning electron microscope …

V6O13 cathode materials have received great attention owing to its high theoretical specific capacity and energy density; however, the poor cycle stability and rate performance have constrained their development. In this experiment, the …

Poverty-alleviation initiatives in lower-income countries are challenged by intelligence deficits that cause suboptimal designs that threaten their effectiveness, targeting, and sustainability. The uncertainty of theory and information, the …

In the present study, the mechanical properties and the residual stress–strain behavior of lightweight concrete (LWC) containing pumice coarse aggregate and rock wool waste (consisting of mineral fibers) were explored prior to and following …

Applications are evolving in ways that demand geographically distributed resources to co-operate in order to give users better Quality of Service (QoS). There is a plethora of ways to implement such systems, but a Heterogeneous Distributed System …

With the first commercially available 5G infrastructures, worldwide’s attention is shifting to the next generation of theorised technologies that might be finally deployable. In this context, the cybersecurity of edge equipment and end-devices …

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and attendant lockdown measures present serious threats to emotional well-being worldwide. Here, we examined the extent to which being outdoors (vs. indoors), the experience of loneliness, and screen-time are …

Asthma is a chronic condition that affects more than 300 million people worldwide [ 1 ], and it is the most common chronic disease during childhood, affecting around 14% of children globally [ 2 ]. The stepwise treatment approach proposed by the …

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