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The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of the camber on gliding and hovering performance of two-dimensional corrugated airfoils. While the flying mechanism of natural flyers remains a myth up to nowadays, the simulation serves as a minor step toward understanding the steady and unsteady aerodynamics of the dragonfly flight.

The lattice Boltzmann method is used to simulate the flow past the cambered corrugated dragonfly airfoil at low Reynolds numbers. For gliding flight, the maximum camber, the distance of the location of maximum camber point from the leading edge and Reynolds number are regarded as control variables; for hovering flight, the maximum camber, the flapping amplitude and trajectory are considered as control variables. Then corresponding simulations are performed to evaluate the implications of these factors.

Greater gliding ratio can be reached by increasing the maximum camber of the dragonfly wing section. When the location of the maximum camber moves backward along the wing chord, large scale flow separation can be delayed. These two effects result in better gliding performances. For hovering performances, it is found that for different flapping amplitudes along an inclined plane, the horizontal force exerted on the airfoils increases with the camber, and the drag growths first but then drops. It is also found that the elliptic flapping trajectory is most sensitive to the camber of the cambered corrugated dragonfly wing section.

The effects of the camber on gliding and hovering performance of the cambered dragonfly wing section are explored in detail. The data obtained can be helpful when designing micro aerial vehicles.

This study investigates how finance contributes to socioeconomic development through an inclusive financial system and the impact of financial inclusion programs pursued by non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) in Ghana.

In this study, we leverage a rich, nationally representative household survey (ICPSR, 2014) from 17 Ghanaian MFIs (1,629 households), sponsored by the World Bank, to analyze microfinance impacts using a generalized method of moment (GMM) and channel analysis.

Our findings reveal a statistically significant positive impact of donor-funded financial inclusion projects on targeted households’ welfare, regardless of implementing agency (donor, government or microfinance institution). The channel analysis further suggests that credit unions and savings and loan (S&L) institutions may be particularly effective conduits for delivering these welfare gains through financial inclusion programs. These findings hold valuable insights for funders seeking to maximize the welfare impact of such interventions: credit unions and S&Ls may be preferential channels for delivering financial inclusion programs aimed at improving household well-being.

The poverty-reducing impact of informal non-bank financial intermediaries like credit unions and susu groups highlights the need for policies that integrate these institutions into the formal financial system. Therefore, donor-funded initiatives should not rely solely on local government implementation. Since the focus of this study is on Ghana, we caution readers to exercise caution when generalizing the findings to other jurisdictions.

The World Bank/IMF-backed financial sector reform in Ghana has many important implications for financial inclusion and welfare impacts which are rare in other jurisdictions. Our finding has policy implications for agencies that wish to translate financial inclusion into significant economic inclusion, especially in middle- and low-income countries (LICs) where the COVID-19 pandemic and the global impact of the recent war in Ukraine could exacerbate the exclusion gap.

The focus of this study is to understand if MFIs, funded by different sources, can contribute to inclusive growth and welfare. This research employs channel analysis, considering that donor and government programs are often channeled through community-based NBFIs and offer key contributions to the existing body of knowledge on financial inclusion and household welfare. This study extends the current literature by providing a deeper understanding of the role of each NBFI type in deepening financial inclusion and improving household welfare and allows policymakers, donors and governments to target inclusion efforts for maximum impact.

Regulations to promote sanity in microfinance institutions and improve their operational problems yielded some results but lacked equal voice for effective implementation for its full realization. Much therefore has not changed in sub-Sahara African countries, though various types of regulation for microfinance exist. The nature and implementation of such policies therefore matter more than their mere presence. This paper aims to evaluate the nature of microfinance financial policies, given their social nature and the dynamism of their operational environment, and explores factors mitigating effective implementation of microfinance policy in Ghana.

A structured questionnaire was used to obtain data from the management and other officials of 63 microfinance institutions, and the outcome was organized into graphs and tables for descriptive analysis.

The results identified adequate adapted prudential regulation for microfinance institutions, but the formulation process lacked user input and adequate supervision, hindering effective sector policy implementation. The author therefore recommends a more inclusive and participatory policy formulation approach, creation of information platform for complete microfinance data through semi-autonomous supervisory body for microfinance services and regular full stakeholder engagement.

Though the study is limited to tier-two microfinance institutions in Accra, it is evident that the results can be applied to the entire sector and across national borders because microfinance institutions exhibit similar or same characteristics.

This paper has not been submitted to or published by any other journal. The author certifies that the content of this paper is the product of his own work, and that other sources used in preparing this paper and their respective sources have been duly acknowledged.

Drawing on the reciprocity principle of social exchange theory situated within Service-dominant Logic, this study aims to examine how customers’ perception of knowledge sharing in co-production, their inherent scepticism and prosocial orientation relate to their willingness to co-create and provide feedback on services. The authors also explored the interplay between these factors to identify conditions in configurations comprising scepticism, which may help navigate its adverse effects.

The authors surveyed 556 online and offline mobile payment service users. They used a combination of partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) to assess the relationships among variables, and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to identify configurations associated with feedback behaviour.

The study determined that customer perception of co-production knowledge sharing is positively associated with willingness to co-create and feedback behaviour. Additionally, prosocial orientation positively affects this relationship, while scepticism has an adverse effect. Willingness to co-create mediates the relationship between customer perception of co-production knowledge sharing and feedback behaviour. The fsQCA findings revealed configurations for potentially navigating doubts regarding feedback. To encourage valuable customer feedback, businesses may consider promoting a collaborative and supportive atmosphere, emphasising shared advantages or building trust even among hesitant and doubtful individuals.

This study uniquely examines how both prosocial tendencies and scepticism relate to customer feedback behaviour in co-creation by using a hybrid PLS-SEM/fsQCA approach to identify co-existing conditions in configurations comprising scepticism that may help navigate its adverse effects and leverage customer feedback for business improvement.

Different types of wood (ash, oak and beech) have been activated by new activation method. The aim of this work is to study the effect of different types of wood on the physical and chemical properties of Ni/Pd coatings.

The wood was activated by ablation of the Pd target using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. Different diagnostic techniques such as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), attenuated total reflection (ATR) spectroscopy and energy dispersed X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), in parallel with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to achieve this goal.

The XPS technique confirmed that the highest concentration of Pd was found in the Pd/beech sample, which is associated to the texture of the beech wood substrate surface. EDS results confirmed the absence of any contamination related to electroless plating method. It is concluded that the wood morphology and its surface roughness play a conclusive role to obtain different quantity of metal by PLD and electroless plating methods.

Although several works have been performed to study the influence of substrates on the coated metals and away of the traditional methods in activating non-catalytic surface, in this paper, PLD method is used to obtain a good quantity of Pd distributed on the entire surface and inside the porous of the wood. This study could be considered as a step investigation for understanding the role of the wood substrate morphology on the physical and chemical properties of films. To our knowledge, there are no works of combining a coated Ni/Pd by electroless plating and PLD methods on wood.

First, the purpose of this paper is to develop some policies as an alternative scenario to increase the performance of the Indonesian dairy milk supply chain so it can fulfil the target of the government. Second, this study aims to find the best alternative scenario based on the performance resulted from the simulation.

The paper develops a system dynamics-based model by using six approaches, i.e. “population and consumption of dairy milk”, “national milk production”, “dairy cattle feed”, “dairy cattle population”, “profit gained by the dairy farmer”, and “government policy”.

There is no best scenario; however, the combined scenario can give the better condition to achieve the targets set by the government.

The limitations of this study include: the relationship between the levels of welfare of farmers and the desire being a dairy farmer is not modelled; the quality of milk is only determined by the content of fat and protein in one litre of milk, and the level of milk consumption per capita increases naturally without any intervention or policy from the government.

This study provides essential insights into the context of implementing the policies in the Indonesian dairy supply chain.

The research revealed that good policies scenario could be built after simulating and analysing the effect of each scenario on the performance of a dairy supply chain carefully.

This study does not test one policy in isolation. It simultaneously tests various combinations of policy that related to dairy cattle import, operational assistance for dairy cooperative and dairy farmer that may help maximise the performance of the Indonesian dairy milk supply chain.