bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Carcass Yields and Physicochemical Meat Quality Characteristics of Namibian Springbok (Antidorcas marsupialis) as Influenced by Muscle, Sex and Age
Authors: Hoffman Louwrens C. , van Schalkwyk Diana L. , Muller Nina M. , van Rensburg Berndt J. , McMillin Kenneth W.
Published: October 2019

This investigation determined the carcass yields of Namibian springbok and compared the physicochemical meat quality characteristics of 6 different muscles (biceps femoris, infraspinatus, Longissimus thoracis et lumborum, semimembranosus, semitendinosus, and supraspinatus) from different sex and age groups. Although the adult male slaughter weights (40.44 ± 1.88 kg) did not differ from that of the adult female slaughter weights (36.61 ± 0.50), the adult males were heavier than both sexes from the sub-adults. No differences were observed for dressing percentages between sex nor age groups. The infraspinatus muscle showed the lowest shear force values in adult male springbok and in both sub-adult male and female springbok and can be described as the more tender muscle. The infraspinatus and Longissimus thoracis et lumborum muscles of the adult male springbok group showed the lowest cooking losses. The supraspinatus and semitendinosus muscles from the sub-adult groups tended to have the highest L* and thus the lightest meat. No major differences were observed for protein content between the different sex and age groups although the muscles of the different sex and age groups had a noticeably higher fat content (above 3%). Discriminant analysis revealed no differentiation among the different muscle groups for the variables measured. Neither springbok sex nor age influenced any of the meat quality parameters although older animals tended to have heavier carcasses, therefore the decision of which sex and/or age group to cull will depend on the springbok management strategy.
School governance: Insights from the Italian case
Authors: Liberatore Assia
Published: October 2019

The Italian school system is organised according to the principles of subsidiarity with a high degree of autonomy (Eurydice, 2019). Starting from the legal frame provided at national level (DPR 275/1999), state schools have increasingly gained relevant administrative and management functions. However, in the last five years, the Italian government implemented duties and responsibilities of schools (Baldacci et al., 2016). In particular, the so-called “La Buona Scuola” reform (Law 107/2015) increased the powers of school heads, establishing a teacher evaluation system. Following the literature in management and education (among other see Samkange, 2013, Hofman et al., 2002), the main purpose of the research work is to draw out the role of state schools in effective governance. Thereupon, this work deeply describes school governance structure in Italy. On the one hand, we review the various reforms of school governance in order to assess the strengths and weaknesses of each reform. On the other hand, we involve a quantitative research methodology to evaluate effective school governance. Basing upon empirical data, we analyse how school governance reflects social culture, students’ well-being and educational outcomes. According to Burns and Koster (OECD, 2016) we confirm the significant role of State in triggering education reform. Finally, we provide policy suggestions to Italian Ministry of Education
Contemporary financial reporting and intangible resources: Implications for corporate governance
Authors: Grove Hugh , Clouse Maclyn
Published: October 2019

The key question of this paper is what are the implications for corporate governance from the emergence of contemporary financial reporting and intangible resources? Going beyond traditional financial reporting, Boards of Directors and corporate executives should investigate the intangible resources for contemporary financial reporting, because this resources (like global brand names, global licensing, customer loyalty, product quality, and product innovation) can causing huge price to earnings ratio gaps and the huge market to book ratio gaps for their companies. This paper has analyzed issues of asset value migration to intangibles, five major future business value drivers (all intangibles), forward-looking measures for intangible resources, market gaps for “old economy” versus “new economy” companies (all driven by intangibles), hidden intangible values made visible, international views on contemporary financial reporting, and conclusions
Independent directors in Sweden and their influence on earnings through accounting and cash flow management
Authors: Björklund Fredrik , Collin Sven-Olof Yrjö , Krieg David , Ponomareva Yuliya
Published: October 2019

In this paper we distinguish between the two domains of monitoring arguing that CFM revolves around long-term action for corporate value creation, and ultimately affects shareholder profit, thus being at the heart of an independent directors’ duty. Empirical results indicate that the share of independent directors is positively correlated with AM and negatively with CFM and remain consistent against several robustness checks. Our theory and empirical results put into question the generally accepted notion that AM is an indicator of opportunism. It could be suggested, on the contrary, that the positive correlation with AM could be an indicator of directors’ performing their fiduciary duty of reducing information asymmetry
The result of cultural and legislative change: The new monistic model of UBI Banca
Authors: Magli Francesca , Nobolo Alberto
Published: October 2019

This study analysed dualistic and monistic systems of the corporate governance and theirs application in Italian quoted companies, especially in the banking sector
Women on the board and the ethical behaviour: The case of Latin American listed companies
Authors: Briano Turrent Guadalupe del Carmen
Published: October 2019

Ethical issues such as social inclusion and gender equality are among the most relevant global challenges and have attracted the attention in the academic literature. Within the literature on board composition, one of the recent and emerging issues, which have been rapidly gaining attention from both academics and practitioners, is the board diversity (Catanzariti & Lo, 2011). Gender diversity on the board has shown advantages from economic and ethical dimensions. This study contributes to the debate on gender equality on top positions and its effect on ethical behaviour. Differently from other studies, was included in the study three variables that reflect the ethical dimension: 1) corporate governance compliance, 2) ethical corporate values, and 3) stakeholder strategy orientation. This study has practical implications for policymakers, companies and boards since findings show that firms with women on their boards tend to be more ethically responsible, suggesting the necessity to increase their representation on the private sector
How to improve the pension fund engagement: A research proposal for Italian pension funds
Authors: Cucari Nicola , Tapino Giorgia , Drigo Francesco , Carbonara Sergio
Published: October 2019

Given the economic weight of the assets managed and their social importance (due to their fiduciary duty towards their policyholders), PFs can influence and participate actively in the investee company’s decisions and literature has shown the importance of activism of this type of institutional investors (Gillan & Starks, 2000; Clark & Hebb, 2004). Institutional investors’ activism may be promoted through favourable legislation, but also through the adoption of good governance practices. Based on this framework, our aim is to understand what key issues that prevent PFs from being active owners and what possible solutions PFs could adopt in order to play an active role in the corporate governance of investee companies. Starting from pension funds’ difficulties, this paper develops a research proposal for describing and analysing the behaviour taken by pension funds and aims to present possible best practice.
Corporate governance mechanism in the context of Portugal
Authors: Vieira Elisabete , Neiva Joaquim
Published: October 2019

Corporate governance is a mechanism to protect investors in the markets around the world. This study analyses the board of directors’ specificities in the context of Portuguese corporate governance. The results show that the Latin Model (Two-Tier Model) is the most (least) adopted by Portuguese firms. The percentage of executive members is higher than that of non-executive members. In the year of 2014, women held only 9.5% of positions on board, which is very low. With this study, we contribute to the state of art of Corporate Governance in a country in which investigation is still scarce
Network corporate governance: Information and risk-return sharing of connected stakeholders
Authors: Moro Visconti Roberto
Published: October 2019

Traditional corporate governance patterns are based on the interaction among composite stakeholders and the various forms of separation between ownership and control. Shareholders, debtholders, managers, employees, suppliers, and clients cooperate around the Coasian firm represented by a nexus of increasingly complex contracts. These well-known occurrences have been deeply investigated by growing literature and nurtured by composite empirical evidence. Apparently unrelated network theory is concerned with the study of graphs as a representation of (a)symmetric relations between discrete objects (nodes connected by links). Network theory is highly interdisciplinary, and its versatile nature is fully consistent with the complex interactions of (networked) stakeholders, even in terms of game theoretic patterns. The connection between traditional corporate governance issues and network theory properties is however still under-investigated. Hence, the importance of an innovative reinterpretation that brings to “network governance”. Innovation may for instance, concern the principal-agent networked relationships and their conflicts of interest or the risk contagion and value drivers – three core governance issues. To the extent that network properties can be mathematically measured, governance issues may be quantified and traced with recursive patterns of expected occurrences
Corporate social responsibility guiding sustainable innovation in the fashion system: The role of standards
Authors: Iannone Floriana , De Chiara Alessandra
Published: October 2019

The theme of sustainability is an interesting topic in the fashion industry. This industry has one of the highest levels of pollution and also from a social outline is responsible for serious injuries to human dignity, given the poor working conditions in many factories in developing countries. The paper deepens the relation between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and innovation in the Italian fashion system. Which is the level of sustainable innovation in the Italian fashion industry? This is the research question deepened through the analysis of the degree of the social and environmental standards in the fashion system. Standards represent an important driver of organizational, process and product innovations, they impose the use of new technologies, new processes, new materials, but also a different organization of supply chains, and allow evaluating fashion companies’ concrete commitment in CSR. The research intends to explore this relation in order to contribute to the debate on this topic
SPACS as an instrument of beneficial change in corporate governance, aimed at company growth: The first Italian insurtech-based insurance company
Authors: Sanguigni Vincenzo
Published: October 2019

The paper begins with the definition of the concept of SPAC (“Special Purpose Acquisition Companies”), as a corporate vehicles constituted with the objective to carry out after raising capital an investment in one or more existing operating companies (“target company”). We focus on the peculiar aspects of the SPAC as an instrument of beneficial change in corporate governance, aimed at company growth. Therefore, a summary picture of the situation of the SPACs in the Italian context is provided, proceeding, finally, to the analysis of the case of NET SPA, the first insurtech based Italian insurance company, created through the SPAC tool
Ownership structures and corporate performance: A literature review
Authors: Lepore Luigi , Di Vaio Assunta , Sorrentino Marco , Palladino Rosa
Published: October 2019

In the last decades, the phenomenon of separation between ownership and control has attracted the most attention from researchers and professionals. Indeed, proprietary concentration can play an asymmetrical role in helping to influence corporate performance, whereby large shareholders can use their power both to expropriate wealth due to minority shareholders and to benefit minority shareholders, controlling the discretion of the management. However, there is still a lack of research that has integrated and systematized the empirical research carried out on the relationship between proprietary concentration and company performance given that there is still no convergence of results regarding the sign and the form of this relationship. Therefore, the purpose of this work is to present the results of a systematic review of the literature on the subject, proposing a possible innovative interpretation of the relationship mentioned above that takes into account additional interaction variables linked to the institutional structures of the countries in which the investigated companies operate
Executive authorities in Euroland during the financial crisis. A comparison between European commission and national governments
Authors: Kallandranis Christos , Kaldis Panagiotis
Published: October 2019

The issue of trust or social capital, that is, the generalized trust, is important both in sociology and in economics. Trust is an important factor for creating and stabilizing support for political institutions. On the contrary, lack of trust in institutions denotes their failure to function according to the official standards, leading to a weak-state society relation. A lot of research was focusing especially on causal relationship between the individual-level social capital and the amount of trust people have in their institutions. The purpose of this study is first to shed light on this debate for a homogeneous number of democratic countries in the EU. Secondly to provide evidence that tight economic conditions serve as a hastening mechanism of distrust in institutions. In addition, the aims if this paper is understand the determinants of trust along with the impact of the economic crisis on this tendency to trust or not. (Roth et al., 2011)
Board independence and voluntary financial disclosure: The moderating role of ownership structure
Authors: Lepore Luigi , Pisano Sabrina , D’Amore Gabriella , Di Guida Carmela
Published: October 2019

Voluntary disclosure and corporate governance variables are considered important mechanisms for the reduction of the information asymmetries and conflicts of interest potentially arising between competing parties of the firms. This paper aims at investigating the relationship between board independence and quality of voluntary financial disclosure and how previous relationship is moderated by the level of ownership concentration. The analysis has been conducted on a sample of Italian non-financial listed companies and the results show that there is a significant positive relationship between board independence and the quality of voluntary financial disclosure. Moreover, our findings reveal that ownership concentration plays a relevant moderating role in that relationship, highlighting the necessity to consider the interaction effects of different governance mechanisms when studying corporate governance effectiveness
Reasons and opportunism control in public grants policies for development and innovations of businesses
Authors: Esposito De Falco Salvatore , Cucari Nicola
Published: October 2019

n this paper we would to analyze the mechanism of public grants on economic growth. In particular this topic has been the subject of scientific interest by economists and, recently, also by business economics scholars. The studies of the economists focused on the motivations of the intervention itself; the business economic studies, on the other hand, have analyzed the impact both on the behavior of entrepreneurs and on the firms themselves by public grants. The studies examined so far highlight two basic conceptual dimensions, different, but also complementary to each other: on the one hand the economic-oriented to investigate the motivations and effectiveness of the public intervention; the second, business-oriented, focused on the firm’s behavior following public grant. Based on these arguments, our research question arises: could the effectiveness of public intervention for funding development and business innovation be influenced by the differences in the various socio-political and institutional contexts in which they are applied? The aim of paper is analyze the motivations of public grants policies and their influence on the behavior of firms. In this way we want to identify a solutions scheme able to recover efficiency and effectiveness of public actions to support development. It is therefore possible to identify some corrective mechanisms on public intervention policies. In particular with reference to the behaviors induced by the grants policies, the idea is to re-design the grants policies in consideration of the different forms of pre and post contractual opportunism. With reference, instead, to the motivations underlying the public grants policies, it is necessary to examine the relationship between the State (Principal) and the beneficiary firms (Agent) in relation to the respective dimensions of the contractual force
Corporate governance and firm efficiency: The role of board composition
Authors: Vacca Andrea , Iazzi Antonio , Fait Monica
Published: October 2019

This paper investigates the role of a different composition of board of directors on firm’s performance. The study is based on the analysis of 149 Italian listed firms over the 2011-2017 period. Our regression results show that size board, gender diversity, independent directors and CEO gender have a significant effect on firm’s performance. This analysis uses as measure of firm’s performance two accounting-based measures ROE and ROA and one market-based measure TobinQ. The study shows that gender diversity, independent directors and CEO gender are associated positively respectively with ROE, ROA and TobinQ, while size board is negatively associated with ROE and TobinQ.
Ownership structure, firm performance and corruption: An empirical analysis of EU countries
Authors: D’Amore Gabriella , Lepore Luigi , Landriani Loris , Paolone Francesco , Pozzoli Matteo
Published: October 2019

The aim of the paper is to analyse the interaction effect corruption play in the relation between ownership structure and firm performance. This paper analyses whether and how the Corruption Perception Index affects the relationship between corporate performance and ownership structure in 2,035 firms operating in eight European countries (Denmark, Sweden, Germany, France, Finland, The Netherland, Italy, and Spain) during 2010-2017 period (10,915 firm year observations). Our findings show that level of corruption perceived by investors is relevant to the relationship between ownership concentration and firm performance. This result suggests that institutional context variables should be taken into consideration from corporate governance scholars in their empirical investigations. The contribution of the paper is twofold: first, our results evidence the relevant role played by the interaction effects between firm-level and country-level variables; second, it suggests important managerial and policy implications related to the interaction between internal and external corporate governance mechanisms.
Gender diversity in corporate governance: Organizational implications of regulations for company performance in Italy
Authors: Perna Giuseppe , Varriale Luisa , Briganti Paola
Published: October 2019

Gender gap in the labour market, wages and business top positions significantly persists worldwide, especially in Italy where women are systematically underrepresented. Otherwise, it is interesting to investigate the link between the increasing percentage of women in corporate boards (leadership positions) and the company performance. Most studies analyse if female members in the board of directors are easily “tokens”, who have this positions only because they enjoy a family-bond with the entrepreneur or the shareholders. This explorative study investigates the status quo of gender diversity within Italian companies, focusing the attention on the relationship between gender diversity within corporate boards and the corporate performance of Italian companies
Key audit matters: A preliminary survey on relations with the corporate governance. An analysis in the Italian institutional setting
Authors: Moscariello Nicola , Pizzo Michele , Ricciardi Giorgio , Vinciguerra Rosa
Published: October 2019

The intention of this study is to investigate the interaction, if any, between the external auditor and corporate governance of the client company, trying to figure out if a relationship exists between the quality of corporate governance and the quantity of the KAMs disclosed. Taking into account both the mentioned results (explaining the existence of a relationship between corporate governance and the audit process) and the change introduced by the ISA 701 (introducing KAM), the intention of this study is to conduct a preliminary investigation in order to understand if, after controlling for some specific variables affecting the accounting quality, there is a relationship between the quality of the corporate governance (meant as board composition) and the amount of disclosed KAM in the audit report
Do corporate governance ratings change investor expectations? Evidence from announcements by institutional shareholder services
Authors: Guest Paul , Nerino Marco
Published: October 2019

This paper examines empirically the announcement effect of commercial corporate governance ratings on share returns. Rating downgrades by Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) are associated with negative returns of -1.14% over a 3-day announcement window. The returns are highly correlated with the proprietary analysis of ISS and are decreasing in agency costs, consistent with ratings providing independent information on underlying corporate governance quality. We thus show that the influence and impact of ISS extends beyond proxy recommendations and subsequent voting outcomes. Our findings contrast with the insignificant price impact of Daines, Gow, and Larcker (2010), whose analysis we replicate and successfully reconcile to ours by differentiating rating upgrades from downgrades
Environmental, social, and governance disclosure: The role of religiosity at a cross-country level
Authors: Mari Libero Mario , Terzani Simone , Turzo Teresa
Published: October 2019

Some studies highlight the influence of religiosity on corporate decisions defining religion as a proxy of culture and as a key factor in affecting beliefs and behavior (Kennedy & Lawton, 1998), on the cost of debt (Chen, Huang, Lobo, & Wang, 2016), on financial reporting irregularities and accruals-based earnings manipulation (Du et al., 2014; Dyreng et al., 2012; Kanagaretnam et al., 2015; McGuire et al., 2012), on risk exposure (Hilary & Hui, 2009; Jiang et al., 2015), on tax avoidance (Boone et al., 2012), on the volatility of the stock price (Blau, 2017; Callen & Fang, 2015), on attitudes toward business ethics (Mazzi et al., 2017), and on Integrated Report development (Gelmini, 2017). This is study extends this stream of research by investigating the relationship between religiosity and ESG disclosure at the cross-country level, more preciously, by arguing that the salience of the religious social norms in the local community affects corporate behaviors, thus the extent of the ESG disclosure. The conclusions of this study may also help standard-setters, regulators, and managers. As religious social norms potentially represent a mechanism in enhancing ESG disclosure, providing evidence on the positive association between religiosity and ESG disclosure could be relevant for shaping appropriate non-financial reporting standards
Editorial: New challenges in theory and practice of corporate governance
Authors: Esposito De Falco Salvatore , Alvino Federico , Kostyuk Alexander
Published: October 2019

Interest in corporate governance continues to increase, both inside and outside academia, together with recognition of its importance. Despite advances in research on corporate governance, many questions remain regarding good governance and factors contributing to good decision-making. The aim of international conference “New Challenges in Corporate Governance: Theory And Practice” is to move the field closer to a global theory by advancing our understanding of corporate governance, which combines insights from the literature on firm governance bundles with insights from the national governance systems literature, investigating new perspectives and challenges for corporate governance and outlining possible scenarios of its development. The conference calls for more attention to ESG factors and voluntary disclosure and calls to explore how good governance can help boards enhance their decision making and improve performance
Clinical and epidemiological characteristics of measles in adults residents of the Altai territory
Authors: Saldan I. P. , Karbysheva N. V. , Bobrovsky E. A. , Nikonorova M. A. , Pashchenko I. G. , Beskhlebova O. V. , Kiushkina I. N. , Kalinina U. V.
Published: October 2019

The aim of the study is to determine the clinical and epidemiological features of measles in the Altai territory. Materials and methods: a retrospective analysis of 92 medical histories of inpatient patients with a confirmed diagnosis of «Measles» at the age of 17 to 54 years, who were treated in the Infectious Departments of City Hospitals № 5 and №11 in Barnaul in 2015–2018, was made. Results: the epidemic situation of measles in the Altai territory is characterized by an increase of morbidity rate in 2015, as well as isolated cases in 2017–2018. The peculiarity of the outbreak of the disease was in-hospital infection of patients upon admission to medical hospitals and late diagnosis of measles, as well as the importation of infection from adjacent territories (regions of Russia and the Republic of Kazakhstan), which is confirmed by genotyping of the virus in patients. The development of the disease in 23,9% of those,who were vaccinated, was routinely observed in the age group older than 30 years. In the clinical picture of measles at the present stage, along with the classical manifestations, in 15.2% of patients in the first days of the disease gastroenteritis was marked, in 40,2% of patients the signs of hepatitis (cytolysis syndrome) were observed. Conclusion: the prevalence among the patientspersons, older than 30 years, may indicate the extinction of post-vaccination immunity. Timely immunization against measles in adulthood (after 30 years), will increase the effectiveness of measures to implement the program of elimination of measles in the Altai territory. The development of gastroenteritis up to the 5 days of the disease (on average 2,5±0.9 days), hepatitis in the period of height of the disease (in 15,2% and 40,2% of patients, respectively), determined the erroneous diagnosis of «Enterovirus infection», pseudotuberculosis, etc. and deserved the attention of practitioners.
Privacy-preserving multi-authority attribute-based encryption with dynamic policy updating in PHR
Authors: Yan Xixi , Ni Hao , Liu Yuan , Han Dezhi
Published: October 2019

As a new kind of patient-centred health-records model, the personal health record (PHR) system can support the patient in sharing his/her health information online. Attribute-Based Encryption (ABE), as a new public key cryptosystem that guarantees fine-grained access control of outsourced encrypted data, has been used to design the PHR system. Considering that privacy preservation and policy updating are the key problems in PHR, a privacy-preserving multiauthority attribute-based encryption scheme with dynamic policy updating in PHR was proposed. In the scheme, each of the patient?s attributes is divided into two parts: attribute name and attribute value. The values of the user?s attributes will be hidden to prevent them from being revealed to any third parties. In addition, the Linear Secret-Sharing Scheme (LSSS) access structure and policy-updating algorithms are designed to support all types of policy updating (based on ?and?, ?or?, and ?not? operations). Finally, the scheme is demonstrated to be secure against chosen-plaintext attack under the standard model. Compared to the existing related schemes, the sizes of the user?s secret key and ciphertext are reduced, and the lower computing cost makes it more effective in the PHR system.
A framework for Fog-assisted healthcare monitoring
Authors: Hu Jianqiang , Liang Wei , Zeng Zhiyong , Xie Yong , Yang Jianxun
Published: October 2019

In order to tackle some challenges in ubiquitous healthcare monitoring such as mobility, scalability, and network latency, a framework for Fog-assisted healthcare monitoring is proposed in this paper. This framework is composite of body-sensing layer, Fog layer (Fog-assisted gateway), Cloud layer (health Cloud). And then, this paper makes an intensive study in some key technologies of the proposed framework such as an IPv6-based network architecture, intelligent warning model based on subband energy feature, security framework of HL7 RIM-based data exchange, health risk assessment based on fusion of grey model and Markov model. Finally, results of experiment depict that the proposed intelligent warning model can make immediate distinction abnormal signals. Moreover, the proposed health assessment model confirms its effectiveness with respect to 245 patients in Xiamen District of Jimei.
Diabetic Ketoacidosis at Diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes in Colorado Children, 2010–2017
Authors: Alonso G. Todd , Coakley Alex , Pyle Laura , Manseau Katherine , Thomas Sarah , Rewers Arleta
Published: October 2019

OBJECTIVE

We examined trends in diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) at diagnosis of type 1 diabetes at a large pediatric diabetes center between 2010 and 2017, overlapping with the Affordable Care Act’s overhaul of U.S. health care.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

Colorado residents <18 years old who were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes from 2010 to 2017 and subsequently followed at the Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes were included. Logistic regression models were used to test associations among age, sex, race/ethnicity, insurance, language, year of diagnosis, and rural/nonrural residence and DKA at diagnosis. Linear regression models were used to test the association of each predictor with HbA1c at diagnosis.

RESULTS

There were 2,429 subjects who met the inclusion criteria. From 2010 to 2017, the rate of DKA increased from 41 to 58%. It increased from 35.3 to 59.6% among patients with private insurance (odds ratio 1.10 [95% CI 1.05–1.15]; P < 0.0001) but remained unchanged (52.2–58.8%) among children with public insurance (1.03 [0.97–1.09]; P = 0.36). In the multivariable model, public insurance (1.33 [1.08–1.64]; P = 0.007), rural address (1.42 [1.08–1.86]; P = 0.013), and HbA1c (1.32 [1.26–1.38]; P < 0.0001) were positively associated with DKA, whereas age, race/ethnicity, sex, and primary language were not.

CONCLUSIONS

The increase in the rate of DKA in patients with newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes was driven by patients with private insurance. This paradoxically occurred during a time of increasing health insurance coverage. More study is needed to understand the factors driving these changes.
Educational value of Systematic Mapping Studies: A replication study.
Authors: Barros-Justo Jose L. , Martínez-Araujo Nelson , Olivieri David N. , González-García Alejandro
Published: October 2019

Contribution: The goal of this study is to validate the results of a prior study on the educational value of systematic mapping studies (SMS) and evaluate the possibility of generalizing those results to similar contexts. Background: since the inception of the Evidence Based Software Engineering (EBSE) paradigm in 2004, few studies have aimed at evaluating their impact in the academic field, and the educational values that SMS can offer to the students. In 2010, three renowned researchers presented an article on this subject at ICSE'10. The study made interesting contributions. We believe that, after 8 years, a replication of that study can be useful to assess the original findings and to guide future educational interventions. Research Questions: What educational value does a SMS provide? Methodology: a replication of a multi-case holistic study. Findings: This replication confirms all but two of the results from the original work. The differences may be due to slight variations in the context. The experience of undertaking an SMS provided the students with both research skills and a broad understanding of a research area. We encourage other researchers to replicate this study, to gain further insights into the educational value of this method.
The Power Cepstrum Calculation with Convolutional Neural Networks
Authors: García Mario Alejandro , Destéfanis Eduardo Atilio
Published: October 2019

A model of neural network with convolutional layers that calculates the power cepstrum of the input signal is proposed. To achieve it, the network calculates the discrete-time short-term Fourier transform internally, obtaining the spectrogram of the signal as an intermediate step. The weights of the neural network can be calculated in a direct way or they can be obtained through training with the gradient descent method. The behaviour of the training is analysed. The model originally proposed cannot be trained in a complete way, but both the part that calculates the spectrogram and also a variant of the cepstrum equivalent to the autocovariance that keeps a big part of its usefulness can be trained. For the cases of successful training, an analysis of the obtained weights is done. The main conclusions indicate, on the one hand, that it is possible to calculate the power cepstrum with a neural network; on the other hand, that it is possible to use these networks as the initial layers of a deep learning model for the case of trainable models. In these layers, weights are initialised with the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) coefficients and they are trained to adapt to specific classification or regression problems.
Applying an Improving Strategy that embeds Functional and Non-Functional Requirements Concepts
Authors: Becker Pablo , Tebes Guido , Peppino Denis , Olsina Luis
Published: October 2019

Organizations should set and reach business goals for varied purposes using the suitable strategies. Basically, a strategy specifies the activities, methods and another related resources that should be considered in order to achieve a given goal purpose. Goal purposes and their associated strategies can aim at evaluating, testing, developing, or maintaining some entity. Some concrete evaluation purposes such as to understand or monitor can be achieved by strategies embracing non-functional requirements definition, measurement, evaluation and analysis activities. Other specific evaluation purposes such as to improve or control also imply changing the target entity; therefore, strategies should embrace functional requirements definition activities as well. Moreover, specific development and maintenance purposes always involve functional requirements. In this work, we relate business and information need goals with functional and non- functional requirements concepts, which are paramount for well-defined strategies. Therefore, we specify vocabularies for them, and illustrate the applicability of an improving strategy –which embeds these concepts- in the context of a running example. Having well-structured vocabularies serving as common ground for diverse strategies may promote a more effective operationalization of projects dealing with evaluation, testing, development and maintenance goal purposes.
An Architecture Model for a Distributed Virtualization System
Authors: Pessolani Pablo Andrés
Published: October 2019

The Thesis is about an architecture model for a Distributed Virtualization System, which could expand a virtual execution environment from a single physical machine to several nodes of a cluster. With current virtualization technologies, computing power and resource usage of Virtual Machines (or Containers) are limited to the physical machine where they run. To deliver high levels of performance and scalability, cloud applications are usually partitioned in several Virtual Machines (or Containers) located on different nodes of a virtualization cluster. Developers often use that processing model because the same instance of the operating system is not available on each node where their components run. The proposed architecture model is suitable for new trends in software development because it is inherently distributed. It combines and integrates Virtualization and Distributed Operating Systems technologies with the benefits of both worlds, providing the same isolated instance of a Virtual Operating System on each cluster node. Although it requires the introduction of changes in existing operating systems, thousands of legacy applications would not require modifications to obtain their benefits. A Distributed Virtualization System is suitable to deliver high-performance cloud services with provider-class features, such as high-availability, replication, migration, and load balancing. Furthermore, it is able to concurrently run several isolated instances of different guest Virtual Operating Systems, allocating a subset of nodes for each instance and sharing nodes between them. Currently, a prototype is running on a cluster of commodity hardware provided with two kinds of Virtual Operating Systems tailored for internet services (web server) as a proof of concept.
A Moment inequality to class used better than aged in convex ordering upper tail (UBACT) of life distributions and its applications
Authors: Eltoony Asmaa , Youssef S E Abu
Published: October 2019

The class of life distributions used better than aged in convex order upper tail ordering (UBACT) is introduced. A Moment inequality to this class (UBACT) of life distribution is given. In addition testing exponentiality versus (UBACT) class of life distribution based on a moment inequality is presented. Simulation such as critical values, Pitmans asymptotic efficiency and the power of test are discussed. Medical applications are given at the end of the paper.
WEIBULL SEMIPARAMETRIC REGRESSION MODELS UNDER RANDOM CENSORSHIP
Authors: Abd El-Monsef Mohamed , Rady Elhoussainy , Sobhy Ayat
Published: October 2019

Semiparametric regression is concerned with the flexible combination of non-linear functional relationships in regression analysis. The main advantage of the semiparametric regression models is that any application benefits from regression analysis can also benefit from the semiparametric regression. In this paper, we derived a consistent estimator of parametric portion and nonparametric portion in Weibull semi-parametric regression models under random censorship.
Pseudo-Slant Submanifolds of a Locally Decomposable Riemannian Manifold
Authors: Atceken Mehmet , Dirik SÃ„uleyman , Yildirim Ã„Umit
Published: October 2019

In this paper, we study pseudo-slant submanifolds of a locally decom- posable Riemannian manifold. We give necessary and suffcient conditions for distributions which are involued in the definition of pseudo-slant sub- manifold to be integrable. We search these type submanifolds with parallel canonical structures and we obtain some new results.
Novedades florísticas y corológicas para la provincia de Córdoba (España). II
Authors: Martínez Sagarra Gloria , Reyes Sepúlveda Emilio , López Tirado Javier , Devesa Alcaraz Juan Antonio
Published: October 2019

Se comentan 7 taxones de plantas vasculares de interés para la flora de Córdoba, bien porque se amplía significativamente su conocimiento corológico en la provincia (Rubus caesius L., Bupleurum lancifolium Hornem., Artemisia verlotiorum Lamotte), porque se confirma su presencia en el territorio (Geranium pusillum L.), o su presencia constituye una novedad provincial (Cyperus difformis L.) o para la flora de Andalucía [Potentilla supina L., Amsinckia calycina (Moris) Chater]. Todos los pliegos-testimonio se encuentran depositados en el Herbario de la Facultad de Ciencias de la Universidad de Córdoba (COFC).Palabras clave: Flora vascular, Corología, Córdoba. Notes on some plants of the province of Cordoba (Spain).Keywords: Vascular flora, Chorology, Córdoba.
Business models innovation based on crowds: a comparative study
Authors: Kubiak Katarzyna , Wziątek-Kubiak Anna
Published: October 2019

With arrival of information technology, interaction between consumers and companies become more common. It has implications for the way business function and for business models. The aim of the paper is to analyze crowdsourcing and compare crowdsourcing business models of three product and content crowdsourcing companies, their common features and differences. These companies differ considerably in many respects. The business model framework used is based on Osterwalder and Pigneur’s approach. The paper shows various consequences of using crowds. It shows that having crowds as a key asset implies a necessity to take care of the crowd and network effect before launching a crowdsourcing initiative. The paper gives those involved in crowdsourcing insight about factors crucial for their company and points to where they need to concentrate their resources.
Analysis of Clustering for Grouping of Productive Industry by K-Medoid Method
Authors: Dewi Indah Cahya , Gautama Bara Yuda , Mertasana Putu Arya
Published: October 2019

With the number of existing data, would have difficulty in doing the classification and the classification of the existing data. To resolve the issue, one way to do clustering is with data mining using clustering technique. The purpose of this research is the importance of knowing the pattern of the production of an industry that can provide the decision and the construction of clustering patterns for development and industrial progress. The results of this research can provide recommendations to improve the development of industry, help the owners of industry to develop the industry to an increase in the number of production and product quality, improve the competitiveness of the owner of the industry in developing its products. In this research will use the K-Medoids algorithm for data grouping of the industry so that it will be found the information that can be used for the recommendations of the improvement of marketing. The results of clustering with the number of cluster 3 produces the first group contains 85 members, the second group contains 222 members and the third group numbered 3 members. The third group are classified as productive because it has a combination of the value of the production of the most high the results of clustering have the quality of purity worth 1 means good cluster quality.
HIDRAULIČKA ANALIZA BILANSA VODA RTB-A BOR
Authors: Damnjanović Nikola , Stipić Matija
Published: October 2019

Ovaj rad sadrži opis sistema za snabdevanje industrijskkom vodom u okviru kompanije RTB Bor iz Bora. Takođe, u radu su obuhvaćene i rudničke vode koje se odvodnjavaju iz površinskih kopova i jamskih galerija. Dat je prikaz bilansa za 2017. godinu.
РАЗВОЈ НАУТИЧКОГ ТУРИЗМА НА ДУНАВУ У РУРАЛНИМ НАСЕЉИМА -СТУДИЈА СЛУЧАЈА БАЧКО НОВО СЕЛО-
Authors: Којић Јелена
Published: October 2019

На основу Студије мреже марина на Дунаву одабрана је локације Бачког Новог Села, у Општини Бач, као потенцијално мјесто изградње целог комплекса са свим неоходним садржајима пот­ребним за развој наутичког туризма. Циљ планиране интервенције је развој Бачког Новог Села и Општине Бач као туристичког мјеста и формирање јасног бренда који би постао идентитет овог насеља. Кориштењем савремених принципа пројектовања, одрживости, употребом еко материјала, пошто­вањем природних и културних вриједности насеља, настојало се оживјети Бачко Ново Село..
PREUREĐENJE FUTOŠKE PIJACE U NOVOM SADU
Authors: Marković Olivera
Published: October 2019

Ukoliko želite da upoznate duh nekog grada, idite na pijacu, tamo se najbolje vidi ekonomska moć, navike i kultura njegovih stanovnika. Istraživački rad bavi se samim programom pijace uzimajući u obzir istorijski aspekat i aktuelne teme. Rad pristupa rešavanju problema poput ishrane stanovnika u velikim gradovima u budućnosti i bavi se konceptom urbane agrokulture u javnim objektima, koji bi mogao da se primeni i na drugim javnim objekatima u Novom Sadu. Projekat je zamišljen kao pokretač ove ideje za dalji razvoj i na drugim projektima.
ISPITIVANJE MEĐUSOBNIH UTICAJA KLJUČNIH FAKTORA MENADŽMENTA KVALITETOM PRIMENOM DEMATEL METODE
Authors: Vasić Stana
Published: October 2019

Predmet master rada jeste istraživanje prirode odnosa između ključnih faktora menadžmenta kvalitetom. Studija je zasnovana na upitniku. Uzorak istraživanja činili su ispitanici sa različitih nivoa menadžmenta u okviru JKP "Parking servis" Novi Sad. Upitnik je konstruisan na osnovu teorijskih pretpostavki i rezultata prethodnih istraživanja u oblasti, gde su razmatrani ključni elementi menadžmenta kvalitetom, s obzirom na njihove međusobne odnose. Ovi ključni elementi su spojeni DEMATEL metodom, kako bi se identifikovali intenzitet i međuzavisnost relevantnih međusobnih veza.
Felicidad en estudiantes de la Facultad de Salud de la Universidad Surcolombiana
Authors: Salazar Piñeros Fabio Alexander
Published: October 2019

Con el fin de establecer el nivel de felicidad en los estudiantes de la Facultad de Salud de la Universidad Surcolombiana, se llevó a cabo un estudio descriptivo, de corte transversal, aplicando La Escala de Satisfacción con la Vida (SWLS) de Diener y el Cuestionario de Aproximaciones a la Felicidad de Peterson a una muestra de 285 estudiantes de los programas de Medicina, Enfermería y Psicología. Los estudiantes poseen una Vida Llena, pues alcanzaron puntuaciones elevadas en todas las dimensiones de aproximaciones a la felicidad, a saber, Vida Significativa, Vida Placentera y Vida Comprometida, al igual que en la Escala de Satisfacción con la Vida. No se hallaron diferencias por género y la edad no correlaciono con las variables de estudio excepto con la Vida Placentera con una correlación negativa. Los estudiantes de Medicina mostraron los puntajes más altos de felicidad sobre los de Enfermería y Psicología que no se diferenciaron entre sí. Se requieren otras investigaciones a través de diferentes metodologías, que aclaren la naturaleza de estas diferencias.
Discrete Sliding Mode Control Design for Piezoelectric Actuator
Authors: Huynh-Van Van , Tran-Thanh Phong
Published: October 2019

Piezoelectric bimorph actuators have been employed in several applications. In this paper, the piezoelectric actuator is discretized and its hysteresis function is studied, then a digital sliding mode controller is designed. Furthermore, a perturbation estimation technique is applied and an observer is no longer needed. In addition, simulations are performed also using the traditional PID controller in order to validate the proposed controller scheme performance.This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium provided the original work is properly cited.