Bhabani K. Satapathy and Amar Patnaik
The abrasive wear performance of fly ash filled aramid fibre reinforced phenolic based composites has been investigated on a rubber wheel abrasive wear tester (RWAT). The design…
Abstract
The abrasive wear performance of fly ash filled aramid fibre reinforced phenolic based composites has been investigated on a rubber wheel abrasive wear tester (RWAT). The design of the experiment approach which uses Taguchi’s orthogonal arrays is adopted to objectively evaluate and prioritize five influencing factors that are taken as experimental variables. A predictive mathematical model for damage assessment in wear rate is developed and validated by a well designed set of experiments. The study reveals that sliding distance, external abrading particle size and fly ash content show greater influence on the specific wear rate of the composites. An investigation on worn surface morphology with a scanning electron microscope (SEM) has been carried out to understand the plausible wear mechanisms. The study thus carried out has revealed the decisive role of quartz particles and photovoltaic (PV) conditions in terms of their influence not only on the alterations of topographical attributes, but also surface ploughing, micro-pitting and sub-surface damage as the various modes of wear of these composites.
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Amar Patnaik, Sachin Tejyan and Amit Rawal
The paper describes a series of preliminary experiments that are conducted to investigate the mechanical properties and erosive wear behavior of needlepunched nonwoven…
Abstract
The paper describes a series of preliminary experiments that are conducted to investigate the mechanical properties and erosive wear behavior of needlepunched nonwoven polypropylene (PP) fibre reinforced epoxy based composites. The tests are conducted on an air jet erosion test rig and design of an experimental approach which utilizes Taguchi’s orthogonal arrays is adopted for an analysis of the results. The findings of the experiments indicate that fiber content in needlepunched nonwovens, impingement angle and impact velocity are significant factors in descending importance with regard to their influence on the wear rate. It is confirmed from a steady state erosion study that PP fiber reinforced epoxy nonwoven composites mostly exhibit a semi-ductile erosion response. An optimal parameter combination has been determined for minimization of erosive wear rate. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and S/N (signal-to-noise) ratios have been performed on the measured data. The results of Taguchi’s experimental design are proposed as empirical equations for the estimation of the erosion wear rate of these composites. It is demonstrated that the predicted results obtained using the empirical model are consistent with experimental observations.
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This chapter looks at the experiments of the Aam Aadmi Party led government’s initiatives in building teacher quality for its government schools in the capital city. Outlining the…
Abstract
This chapter looks at the experiments of the Aam Aadmi Party led government’s initiatives in building teacher quality for its government schools in the capital city. Outlining the contours of neoliberal influence on Indian education policy and its consequences on teacher quality, the chapter explores the political rationality that governs the case of Delhi. It does this by understanding the changing subjectivities of the school teachers within the educational reforms. The government schools in Delhi have been blamed for worsening school performance especially in student learning outcomes through basic educational tests conducted by various assessment and evaluation surveys. Among other reasons, poor teacher quality has been identified as one of the major causes of this poor performance of government school children. Therefore, gaps were identified in the teacher support system and efforts were made to revamp the system. The chapter brings out in detail how the state’s initiatives in educational reforms have produced paradoxical situations and unintended effects in practice as the state has retained a controlling role even though the reform strategies show a shift toward increasing autonomy and deregulation.
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Aissa Boucedra and Madani Bederina
This paper aims to characterize and develop a new ecological lightweight concrete reinforced by addition of palm plant fibers (from vegetal waste) to be used in the thermal and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to characterize and develop a new ecological lightweight concrete reinforced by addition of palm plant fibers (from vegetal waste) to be used in the thermal and acoustical insulation of local constructions. The date palm plant fibers are characterized by their low sensitivity to chemical reactions, low cost and large availability in local regions. Therefore, the newly obtained lightweight concrete may suggest a great interest, as it seems to be able to achieve good solutions for local construction problems, technically, economically and ecologically.
Design/methodology/approach
The experimental program focused on developing the composition of palm-fiber-reinforced concrete, by studying the effect of the length of the fibers (10, 20, 30 and 40 mm) and their mass percentage (0.5%, 1%, 1.5% and 2%), on the mechanical and acoustical properties of the composite. The main measured parameters were the compressive strength and flexural strength, sound absorption coefficient, noise reduction coefficient (NRC), etc. These tests were also borne out by the measure of density and water absorption, as well as microstructure analyses. To fully appreciate the behavior of the material, visualizations under optical microscope and scanning electron microscope analyses were carried out.
Findings
The addition of plant fibers to concrete made it possible to formulate a new lightweight concrete having interesting properties. The addition of date palm fibers significantly decreased the density of the concrete and consequently reduced its mechanical strength, particularly in compression. Acceptable compressive strength values were possible, according to the fibers content, while better values have been obtained in flexion. On the other hand, good acoustical performances were obtained: a considerable increase in the sound absorption coefficient and the NRC was recorded, according to the content and length of fibers. Even the rheological behavior has been improved with the addition of fibers, but with short fibers only.
Originality/value
Over the recent decades, many studies have attempted to search for more sustainable and environmentally friendly building materials. Therefore, this work aims to study the possibility of using waste from date palm trees as fibers in concrete instead of the conventionally used fibers. Although many researches have already been conducted on the effect of palm plant fibers on the mechanical/physical properties of concrete, no information is available neither on the formulation of this type of concrete nor on its acoustical properties. Indeed, due to the scarcity of raw materials and the excessive consumption of energy, the trend of plant fibers as resources, which are natural and renewable, is very attractive. It is therefore a major recycling project of waste and recovery of local materials.
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Walid Ben-Amar, Breeda Comyns and Isabelle Martinez
The purpose of this paper is to reflect on how climate change risk reporting might evolve in various world regions in the post COVID-19 pandemic era.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to reflect on how climate change risk reporting might evolve in various world regions in the post COVID-19 pandemic era.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a multiple-case study approach and adopting an institutional theory lens, we assess whether the pandemic is likely to strengthen or weaken institutional pressures for climate change risk disclosures and predict how climate-related risk reporting will evolve post-pandemic.
Findings
The authors find that climate change risk reporting is likely to evolve differently according to geographical location. The authors predict that disclosure levels will increase in regions with ambitious climate policy and where economic stimulus packages support sustainable economic recovery. Where there has been a weakening of environmental commitments and economic stimulus packages support resource intensive business, climate change risk reporting will stagnate or even decline. The authors discuss the scenarios for climate change risk reporting expected to play out in different parts of the world.
Originality/value
The authors contribute to the nascent literature on climate change risk disclosure and identify future directions in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The purpose of this paper is to study how board attributes impact corporate social responsibility (CSR). In particular, this paper aims to empirically examine the impact of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study how board attributes impact corporate social responsibility (CSR). In particular, this paper aims to empirically examine the impact of financial performance on the relationship between board attributes and CSR. Board attributes such as board size, board independence, female board representation and CEO-chair duality are included.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses panel data set of 200 French companies listed during 2007–2018 period. The direct and moderating effects were tested by using multiple regression technique.
Findings
The results indicate that significant direct relationships exist among board attributes and CSR. Board independence and female board representation are positively linked with CSR. However, board size and CEO duality are negatively associated with CSR. Findings show, also, that corporate financial performance accentuates significantly the effect of board size, board independence and CEO-duality on CSR, but does not moderate the relationship between female board representation and CSR.
Practical implications
The findings may be of interest to different stakeholders and policy-makers and regulatory bodies interested in enhancing CG initiatives to strengthen corporate social responsibility because it suggests thinking about implementing a broadly accepted framework of good CG practices to meet the demand for greater transparency and accountability. As an extension to this research, further study can examine the impact of ownership structure and audit quality on CSR issues.
Originality/value
This study extends the dynamic relationship between CG mechanisms and CSR by offering new evidence on how corporate financial moderates this relationship.
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Laouni Djafri, Djamel Amar Bensaber and Reda Adjoudj
This paper aims to solve the problems of big data analytics for prediction including volume, veracity and velocity by improving the prediction result to an acceptable level and in…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to solve the problems of big data analytics for prediction including volume, veracity and velocity by improving the prediction result to an acceptable level and in the shortest possible time.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is divided into two parts. The first one is to improve the result of the prediction. In this part, two ideas are proposed: the double pruning enhanced random forest algorithm and extracting a shared learning base from the stratified random sampling method to obtain a representative learning base of all original data. The second part proposes to design a distributed architecture supported by new technologies solutions, which in turn works in a coherent and efficient way with the sampling strategy under the supervision of the Map-Reduce algorithm.
Findings
The representative learning base obtained by the integration of two learning bases, the partial base and the shared base, presents an excellent representation of the original data set and gives very good results of the Big Data predictive analytics. Furthermore, these results were supported by the improved random forests supervised learning method, which played a key role in this context.
Originality/value
All companies are concerned, especially those with large amounts of information and want to screen them to improve their knowledge for the customer and optimize their campaigns.
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This article aims to consider the use of high pressure processing in order to gain functional advantages through proteins structure control. High pressure processing has been used…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to consider the use of high pressure processing in order to gain functional advantages through proteins structure control. High pressure processing has been used to produce high-quality food with extended shelf life and could also be used to modify foods functionality.
Design/methodology/approach
The effect of high pressure on protein structure and functionality is looked at and comparisons are made with heat effect in places. β-lactoglobulin and whey proteins are mainly taken as examples.
Findings
A controlled partial protein unfolding through mild high pressure processing could lead to a range of intermediate molecular structures. These are distinct from the native and completely unfolded structure and have been referred to as molten globules. The partly unfolded molecular states, hence, are postulated to have increased functionality and could be interesting for the food industry.
Originality/value
The opportunity and challenges represented by these theoretical elements are discussed. In particular, the effect of protein concentration and aggregation is emphasised.
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Usama Laique, Fahad Abdullah, Rebeca GarcĂa-Ramos and Ijaz Ur Rehman
Previous studies have considered the presence of women directors on corporate boards and their impact on financial performance in isolation, disregarding their interaction with…
Abstract
Purpose
Previous studies have considered the presence of women directors on corporate boards and their impact on financial performance in isolation, disregarding their interaction with other corporate boards and firm-level attributes. Consequently, the results of such studies are largely inconclusive. This study addresses this gap by adopting a system’s approach to corporate governance characteristics and firm financial performance, rooted in a configurational approach.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis to investigate the association of outside executive women directors and family-affiliated executive women directors with financial performance in the presence of board and firm-level characteristics in 216 listed non-financial family firms in Pakistan over the period of 2014–2019.
Findings
The findings reveal that various configurations of board and firm characteristics lead to high financial performance, underscoring conjunction, equifinality and asymmetry. The authors note that, the presence of outside executive women directors on corporate boards is frequently associated with high financial performance compared to family-affiliated executive women directors. Additionally, results indicates that presence of either outside executive women directors, family-affiliated executive women directors or both on corporate board associates with low level of leverage and vice versa. Moreover, high proportion of independent directors, large board size and large firm size are frequently associated with high ROE and Tobin’s Q.
Originality/value
This study introduces a novel perspective by integrating board and firm-level characteristics using a configurational approach. Focusing on listed non-financial family firms, the study highlights the asymmetric association between women directors and financial performance, suggesting that their impact fluctuates based on their combination with other board- and firm-level attributes. The study’s findings challenge the notion of a one-size-fits-all approach to board gender diversity and call for a more contextual understanding of how different types of women directors contribute to firm performance in family firms.
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Rupjyoti Saha and Santi Gopal Maji
This study aims to examine the impact of board human capital diversity, measured by educational qualification diversity and gender diversity on the financial performance of Indian…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine the impact of board human capital diversity, measured by educational qualification diversity and gender diversity on the financial performance of Indian firms after controlling corporate governance (CG) and firm-specific variables.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is based on a panel data set of top 100 listed Indian firms for a period of five years. The authors use Blau index and Shannon index to compute qualification diversity. The authors use three-stage least square (3SLS) model to deal with the potential endogeneity issue in the association of human capital diversity variables and other CG variables with firm performance. Further, the authors adopt generalized estimating equation (GEE) model for robustness check.
Findings
The authors find a significant positive impact of board’s educational diversity as well as gender diversity on the financial performance of firms. Additionally, they extricate highly significant positive interaction impact of board’s educational diversity and gender diversity on the financial performance of firms. Further, the results indicate a significant positive impact of board size, board independence, ownership concentration, family ownership and audit committee independence on firm performance, while CEO duality exhibits a significant negative impact on firm performance.
Originality/value
This study fills the existing gap in literature by extending the performance implications of board’s human capital diversity for top listed Indian firms.