B.K. Chakraborty, S. (Mrs.) and A.K. Vasishtha
In surface coatings, no single resin binder possesses all the desirable properties. It is, therefore, a general practice to blend different polymers or copolymers having suitable…
Abstract
In surface coatings, no single resin binder possesses all the desirable properties. It is, therefore, a general practice to blend different polymers or copolymers having suitable complimentary properties in order to get the desired film characteristics provided that the blended polymers are compatible with each other. Hence, a wide range of performance characteristics can be achieved by blending.
Gizem Kaya Aydın, Denizhan Guven and M. Ozgur Kayalica
This study aims to empirically verify that gender equality, one of the indicators of equitable development in countries, has a positive effect on reducing CO2 emissions per capita…
Abstract
This study aims to empirically verify that gender equality, one of the indicators of equitable development in countries, has a positive effect on reducing CO2 emissions per capita in emerging markets economies. It also aims to determine and rank the countries that are inefficient in terms of CO2 emissions per capita (metric tons). For this purpose, the panel data stochastic frontier model is estimated. The Global Gender Gap Index, which measures gender equality, primary energy consumption per capita (gigajoule), and GDP per capita (constant 2010 US$) are used as independent variables of 24 countries from 2006 to 2018. The authors test the negative impact of gender equity on CO2 emissions. The results of the model support this hypothesis. This study indicates that gender equity can be suggested both as a driving force for economic development and sustainable environmental efficiency in which growth can be linked to lower emissions of CO2.
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Robert J. Eger III and Bruce D. McDonald III
The current classifications for public school costs are provided by the National Center for Educational Statistics. To improve comparability between school districts, we provided…
Abstract
The current classifications for public school costs are provided by the National Center for Educational Statistics. To improve comparability between school districts, we provided an alternative classification with fewer numbers of expenditure categories, distinctions between school-based and non-school based administration costs, and school levels. The new classification was then applied to five comparable urban school districts. We found (1) that teacher salaries per student are affected by school level disaggregation; (2) that separating administrative costs into school-based and nonschool- based provides for an observable cost relationship; and (3) that curriculum and instructional support per student differ by school level disaggregation. The alternative classification may assist auditors and investigators whose role is to assess the costs performance of urban school districts by providing comparable school level and cost type.
Prashant Kumar Sinha, Sagar Bhimrao Gajbe, Sourav Debnath, Subhranshubhusan Sahoo, Kanu Chakraborty and Shiva Shankar Mahato
This work provides a generic review of the existing data mining ontologies (DMOs) and also provides a base platform for ontology developers and researchers for gauging the…
Abstract
Purpose
This work provides a generic review of the existing data mining ontologies (DMOs) and also provides a base platform for ontology developers and researchers for gauging the ontologies for satisfactory coverage and usage.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses a systematic literature review approach to identify 35 DMOs in the domain between the years 2003 and 2021. Various parameters, like purpose, design methodology, operations used, language representation, etc. are available in the literature to review ontologies. Accompanying the existing parameters, a few parameters, like semantic reasoner used, knowledge representation formalism was added and a list of 20 parameters was prepared. It was then segregated into two groups as generic parameters and core parameters to review DMOs.
Findings
It was observed that among the 35 papers under the study, 26 papers were published between the years 2006 and 2016. Larisa Soldatova, Saso Dzeroski and Pance Panov were the most productive authors of these DMO-related publications. The ontological review indicated that most of the DMOs were domain and task ontologies. Majority of ontologies were formal, modular and represented using web ontology language (OWL). The data revealed that Ontology development 101, METHONTOLOGY was the preferred design methodology, and application-based approaches were preferred for evaluation. It was also observed that around eight ontologies were accessible, and among them, three were available in ontology libraries as well. The most reused ontologies were OntoDM, BFO, OBO-RO, OBI, IAO, OntoDT, SWO and DMOP. The most preferred ontology editor was Protégé, whereas the most used semantic reasoner was Pellet. Even ontology metrics for 16 DMOs were also available.
Originality/value
This paper carries out a basic level review of DMOs employing a parametric approach, which makes this study the first of a kind for the review of DMOs.
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Kathleen Overton, Seong-Jong Joo and Philipp A. Stoeberl
There are elevated debates on the role of teacher unions on the effectiveness of education in the USA. The purpose of this paper is to examine if the unionization of education has…
Abstract
Purpose
There are elevated debates on the role of teacher unions on the effectiveness of education in the USA. The purpose of this paper is to examine if the unionization of education has an impact on the comparative performance of public education in the USA.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors classify states into two groups such as highly unionized states and less unionized states for comparing their performance differences. The analyses consist of two stages. First, the authors apply data envelopment analysis (DEA) to the key performance indicators of the groups. Next, the authors use statistical analysis for confirming the statistical significance of the performance differences that may exist between two groups.
Findings
The authors have confirmed the adverse impact of unionization on public education using DEA models and non-parametric rank-sum tests. However, the authors are cautious for generalizing the finding due to the limitations described in the research limitation section.
Research limitations/implications
The finding is limited within the selection of the variables and model specification and requires additional studies using different variables and models. The authors hope that the study motivates researchers to conduct further studies in this area.
Originality/value
Major contributions of the study include a novel approach for measuring the performance of primary and secondary schools at the state level by classifying and choosing less or highly unionized states and suggesting insights for improvements.
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Luiza Helena da Silva Martins, João Moreira Neto, Paulo Weslem Portal Gomes, Ana Vânia Carvalho, Antônio Manoel da Cruz Rodrigues and Alessandra Santos Lopes
The purpose of this paper is to use Amazon River shrimp meal and cassava flour as the raw materials for the production of an extruded product. Both these raw materials are highly…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to use Amazon River shrimp meal and cassava flour as the raw materials for the production of an extruded product. Both these raw materials are highly consumed foods in the northern region of Brazil, but are not processed industrially, only being used for local consumption and there is little in the literature concerning their use.
Design/methodology/approach
The study was carried out using a full 23 factorial central composite rotational experimental design with three independent variables, which were shrimp meal; feed moisture content and temperature, with four replicates at the central point and six axial points. The dependent variables were: expansion index (EI), bulk density (BD) and specific length (SL). The principal component analysis (PCA) was applied for the sensory analysis.
Findings
Almost all the parameters studied had a significant influence (p<0.10) on the responses analysed. The product was well accepted by 78.11 per cent of the volunteers. Increases in the shrimp meal and feed moisture contents strongly influenced the physical analyses (EI, BD and SL) of the extruded product. In the application of the PCA for the sensory analysis, the influence of the variables aroma, appearance and purchase intention corresponded to PC1, and that of the variables flavour, texture, global acceptance and colour to PC2.
Social implications
The development of a product based on animal protein which is more available than common snacks, as a way of reducing the negative environmental impact caused by the disposal of Macrobrachium amazonicum, which is considered as accompanying fauna to artisan fishery.
Originality/value
The originality of this paper lies in the quest for the development and/or application of technologies that allow for the use of raw materials from the Amazon as a way of aggregating value to the existing wealth of this region.
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Khurrum Mahmood and Norilmi Amilia Ismail
This paper aims to optimize the mass of a tethered aerostat to achieve optimum hull volume, and fins to generate aerodynamic lift to reduce the blow-by.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to optimize the mass of a tethered aerostat to achieve optimum hull volume, and fins to generate aerodynamic lift to reduce the blow-by.
Design/methodology/approach
The design code of aerostat involving structure, aerostatics, aerodynamics and stability has been developed using MATLAB®. The design code is used to obtain the baseline configuration for a tactical aerostat mission by using the statistical values of the hull fineness ratio and the fin parameters of in-service aerostats. The effect of the design variables that include the hull fineness ratio, fin area and fin position on the aerostat mass and blow-by is determined through sensitivity analysis. The aerostat is optimized with an objective function of minimization of mass for the bounded values of design variables and taking blow-by limit as a constraint.
Findings
This study reveals that the simultaneous optimization of the aerostat hull fineness ratio, fin area and fin position results in an improvement in the design. The aerostat design with optimum values of these parameters helps in a reduction in its size and mass without compromising the blow-by limits.
Research limitations/implications
This study has been conducted by keeping the hull shape constant by selecting standard National Physics Laboratory envelope shape. The aerodynamic model used in the design code is based on empirical relationships that can be improved in future studies that can use high fidelity aerodynamic models using CFD based surrogate models.
Originality/value
The previous studies on optimization of aerostats are limited to hull envelope shape only, whereas this paper presents the optimization of the hull and fin together. The optimized configuration obtained has a reduced mass and can operate within the specified blow-by limits.
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Shelf‐life of cultured milk products is longer than milk but it is still limited. Shelf‐life of cultured milk products could be enhanced by adopting various techniques. The…
Abstract
Purpose
Shelf‐life of cultured milk products is longer than milk but it is still limited. Shelf‐life of cultured milk products could be enhanced by adopting various techniques. The purpose of this paper is to describe how the longer shelf‐life thus attained would extend the market reach and would be economically beneficial to both producers and consumers.
Design/methodology/approach
Attempt has been made to enlighten the various techniques such as bacteriocin (nisin, MicrogardTM, natamycin, etc.), lactoperoxidase‐thiocyanate‐hydrogen peroxide system (LP‐system), high pressure treatment, post‐production heat‐treatment (thermization, microwave heating), ultra‐violet (UV) irradiation, carbonization, etc.
Findings
Application of more than one bacteriocin may be advantageous to minimize the possibility of survival of microflora resistant to a particular bacteriocin. Pasteurization, being more detrimental to dietetic properties of cultured milk products than thermization, its application is not suggested as a method of preservation. Microwave heating may be better than conventional pasteurization.
Originality/value
Conjugated application of various techniques would be more efficacious in extending the shelf‐life of cultured milk products. Extension in shelf‐life of cultured milk products would be economically beneficial for producers and consumers.
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The purpose of the research presented in this paper is to measure the relative market efficiency of the top listed companies in Egypt.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the research presented in this paper is to measure the relative market efficiency of the top listed companies in Egypt.
Design/methodology/approach
Applying a two‐stage approach, this study uses production frontier analysis (PFA) to measure the relative market efficiency of 62 listed companies in Egypt, and Tobit regression to examine the dependence of efficiency on the specific operating environment of these companies.
Findings
The results indicate that the performance of several companies is sub‐optimal, suggesting the potential for significant improvements over both profitability and marketability dimensions. Separate benchmarks were derived for possible reductions in resources used, and the results indicate that several companies deploy a much larger number of employees than required by a best practice company, and significant savings are possible on this account.
Originality/value
From a policy perspective, this study highlights the economic importance of encouraging increased market efficiency throughout the business sector in Egypt.
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Tommaso Agasisti, Francesca Bonomi and Piergiacomo Sibiano
The purpose of this paper is to suggest a methodology to calculate efficiency scores for a sample of Italian primary and middle schools. The main aim is to relate these measures…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to suggest a methodology to calculate efficiency scores for a sample of Italian primary and middle schools. The main aim is to relate these measures of efficiency to a set of “external” factors that can affect schools’ performance, such as the average socio-economic background of their students, their location in an urban/non urban setting, etc. After presenting this analysis, the paper proposes a procedure to calculate “adjusted” efficiency measures – which take in the role of external variables – in order to assess the “pure” management efficiency of each school, and so to avoid confusing the institution's performance with the aspects relating to its background.
Design/methodology/approach
Efficiency is defined in its technical sense that is, the ability to transform inputs (financial and human resources) into outputs (results achieved by students in standardized test scores). A two-stage quantitative procedure was used to investigate “managerial” efficiency, so that the impact of external variables on educational efficiency could be suitably taken into account.
Findings
The results show that the average efficiency score is quite high in the sample of schools considered, but potential savings can still be made: overall, with the schools’ available resources, achievement scores could be increased by about 20 percent. Efficiency and educational equity are complementary in primary public (state) schools, and the most efficient schools are those with the lowest internal variance between the students’ achievement scores; the same does not hold for middle school students’ results in mathematics. Lastly, several schools appeared to be efficient when the external variables were not taken into consideration, while their background actually favored them, and they are not efficient from a purely managerial perspective.
Originality/value
The most important piece of innovation is the investigation of managerial efficiency and its implications on policies. This study confirms and suggests that there could be an inverse relationship between apparent (baseline) and true (managerial) efficiency, that is, between the efficiency scores achieved before and after the “correction” made for external variables.