JMASM17: An Algorithm And Code For Computing Exact Critical Values For Friedman’s Nonparametric ANOVA

Provided in this article is an algorithm and code for computing exact critical values (or percentiles) for Friedman’s nonparametric rank test for k related treatment populations using Visual Basic (VB.NET). This program has the ability to calculate critical values for any number of treatment populations ( k ) and block sizes (b) at any significance level (α ) . We developed an exact critical value table for k = 2(1)5 and b = 2(1)15. This table will be useful to practitioners since it is not available in standard nonparametric statistics texts. The program can also be used to compute any other critical values

JMASM25: Computing Percentiles of Skew-Normal Distributions

An algorithm and code is provided for computing percentiles of skew-normal distributions with parameter λ using Monte Carlo methods. A critical values table was created for various parameter values of λ at various probability levels of α . The table will be useful to practitioners as it is not available in the literature

An analytical tale of the social media discursive enactment of networked everyday resistance during the #feesmustfall social movement in South Africa

Social media are a space for discussions, debates and deliberations about personality, culture, society, and actual experiences of social actors in South Africa. They offer an unexpected opportunity for the broader consideration and inclusion of community members’ voices in governance decision making and policy processes. They also offer opportunities to engage, mobilise and change people and society in impressive scale, speed and effect: They have mobilising and transformative powers emanating from their interaction with the impetus of the agency of community members seeking better conditions of living. The magnitude of the effects of these powers makes it imperative to have a better understanding of their workings. Social media have been used in numerous social movements as the medium of communication to mobilise, coordinate, and broadcast protests. However, social media were never a guarantee of success as most movements using them did not achieve significant results. Yet, governments in developed and developing countries tend to engage inadequately with social media supported movements. The research problem is that the contribution of social media to the transformation of the social practice of discourse, which causes SSA community members’ agential impetus (collective intentionality for action) to generate a discourse of resistance on social media during social movements, is not well understood. The main research question is: Why are South African community members using social media to enact online discursive resistance during social movements? The aim of the research is to explain, from a critical realism point of view, Sub-Saharan African community members’ emergent usage of social media during social movements, by providing a contextualised social history (a tale) of South African community members’ practice of online discursive enactment of resistance. The emergent usage of social media of concern is conceptualised as “discursive enactment of networked everyday resistance” within a dialectical space of interaction conceptualised as “space of autonomous resistance”; an instance of a communication space allowing for transformative negation to occur. The research follows Bhaskar’s Critical Realism as a philosophical paradigm. Critical Realism seeks to explain phenomena by retroducing (retrospective inference) causal explanations from empirically observable phenomena to the generative mechanisms which caused them. The research was designed as a qualitative, processual and retroductive inquiry based on the Morphogenetic/Morphostasis approach with two phases: an empirical research developing the case of South African community members’ emergent usage of social media during the #feesmustfall social movement, looking for demi-regularities in social media discourse; and a transcendental research reaching into the past to identified significant events, objects and entities which tendencies are responsible for the shape of observed discourse. In the first phase, a case study was developed from data collected on the social media platform Twitter™, documents, and in-depth interviews of South African community members. The data collected were analysed using qualitative content analysis (QCA) and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to unveil demi-regularities; moving from the observable individual strategic orientation of messages to discourses, thus to the tendencies of relational emergent properties of systemic magnitude which structure local discourses and are transformed by them. Then, the social mediainduced morphogenesis or transformation of South African community members’ discursive action was postulated in an analytical history of emergence (or analytical tale) of their usage of social media within a “space of autonomous resistance” during social movements. The findings of the research suggest that South African community members authored 3 discourses of resistance on Twitter™: #feesmustfall discourses of struggle, identity and oppression. They identified as “student qua black-child” stepping into the “Freedom fighter” role against the hegemonic post-apartheid condition curtailing their aspirations. It was found that social media socio-cultural embeddedness and under-design (Western European socio-cultural globalising underpinning features and functional features of the platforms) which interaction with the local socio-cultural mix (postapartheid socio-cultural tendencies for domination/power, spiral of silence, and legitimacy/identification) resulted in misfits and workarounds enhancing individual emotional conflict and aligning towards a socio-cultural opportunistic contingent complementarity integration in the deployment of discourse. That integration was actualised as a mediatization emergent property through asignification/signification of mainstream discourses of liberal democracy, colonial capitalism, national democratic revolution, free and decolonised education, black consciousness and Fallism. That mediatization through re-signification of the struggle for freedom created a communication “space of autonomous resistance” where networked freedom fighters enacted discursive everyday resistance against the hegemonic forces of students’ precariousness. The contribution of the research includes a realist model of social media discursive action (ReMDA); an explanation of South African community members’ deployment of discourse over social media during social movement and telling the tale of the transformation of discursive practices with the advent of social media in South Africa

Analytical Investigation for Determining Ressilient Modulus for Interface Layer of Aggregates

Quality road aggregates have become rare and costly in many places in India due to massive construction activities required for the development of new infrastructure facilities. The pavement industry seeks ways of improving lower quality materials that are readily available for use in roadway construction. Cement treatment has become an accepted method for increasing the strength and durability of soils and marginal aggregates. However, cement-stabilized bases can also be the source of shrinkage cracks in the stabilized base layer, which can reflect through the asphalt surface. Introducing “Interface Layer of Aggregates (ILA)” between stabilized base and bituminous concrete (BC) layer appears to be very favorable. The present paper presents the determination of resilient modulus of ILA using FPAVE software. Figures have been developed to determine resilient modulus, varying the CBR value, the thickness of cement treated base and the thickness of interface layer of aggregates which is useful to determine the pavement thickness for cement treated base

Pavement Design for Rural Low Volume Roads Using Cement and Lime Treatment Base

Quantity road aggregates have become rare and costly in many places in India due to massive construction activities required for the development of new infrastructure facilities. The pavement industry looks for ways of improving lower quality materials that are readily available for use in roadway construction. Cement/ lime treatment has become an accepted method for increasing the strength and durability of soils and marginal aggregates, reducing quantity of aggregates. Indian Roads Congress (IRC) developed a Special Publication (SP) for mix design of lime/cement treated base/subgrade. No pavement design guideline is presently available for cement/lime treated base. To overcome this problem, the objective of the present research work is to develop a pavement design chart using cement and lime stabilized base for rural roads with light to medium traffic (Traffic level up to 5 million standard axles). Based on this objective ,the scope of the present research work is limited to develop a pavement design chart varying California Bearing Ratio (CBR) of subgrade and thickness of stabilized material as well as axle load repetition up to 5 million standard axles (MSA).Charts have been developed using FPAVE software. Results indicated that at known particular resilient modulus of stabilized base and CBR of subgrade, thickness of soil-cement base and that of soil-lime sub-base increase with increasing the allowable number of load repetitions. Thickness of soil-cement base and that of soil-lime sub-base decrease as moduli of soil-cement base and soil-lime base increase. For each modulus of soil-cement base and soil-lime sub-base, as CBR is increased, thickness of soil-cement base and that of soil-lime sub-base decreased significantly. At a particular resilient modulus, CBR and N, the thickness of soil-cement base is less than that of granular base. Finally, design curves have been developed to estimate thickness of soil-cement base and that of soil-lime sub-base for different N-values and different values of modulus of soil-cement and soil-lime mix

Risk Analysis for a BOT Project

There are several risks in a BOT project. Major critical risks are total project cost and revenue/tollable traffic. This paper presents a sensitivity analysis for a BOT project with a real case study varying equity from 10% to 90%.Traffic and cost are varied ± 20% and financial analysis is carried out with spread sheet, and test results are prepared in graphical forms and presented. Total Project Cost (TPC), Net Present Value (NPV) and Financial Internal Rate of Return (FIRR) are plotted with various percentages of equity. Linear and non-linear graphs are found. FIRR decreases with increasing TPC/Equity, and probability of project risk increases with increasing percentage of equity up to 30 % and decreases beyond this value

Support Loan Concept for the Viability of a BOT Road Project

This paper presents the viability of a Build Operate Transfer (BOT) road project based on support loan concept. Interest of debt is one of the most important parameters for the viability of a project. In India, interest rate is in the range of 13 -18 % annually for infrastructure project. The road project with low traffic and high project cost may be infeasible. In order to make the project viable, support loan concept has been proposed in this paper. This paper presents the changes in values of various financial viable parameters with the use of support loan with a real case study. This paper presents the results of normal debt and support loan with different interest rates and different payback periods and develops a methodology for support loan for the viability of a project. It has been found that longer payback period is also more beneficial. Financial return is more with low rate of interest of debt. The real case study has been compared with support loan and subsidy provision and found out the best option after projecting both values at the end of payback period. It has been found that support loan provision is more beneficial for the government instead of subsidy option for the viability of a project. Support loan concept is recommended for the viability of the project

Optimization of Glare Block Spacing

Glare screen barrier is an important element in highway safety engineering. Height and spacing of glare screen barrier block are important parameters in highway design, since vehicles of different driver eye heights with different head light heights are plying on highways. Selection of spacing of glare block is a complex problem. A model has been proposed to determine optimum spacing of glare block for horizontal alignment. Glare block can be placed perpendicular to the road or inclined by a certain angle to obtain optimum cost. It is found that spacing is optimal when the sum of inclination angle(x) and degree of curvature (θ) is 70º; i.e., x+ θ = 70°

Road Project Investment Evaluation Using Net Present Value ( NPV ) at Risk Method

Strategic capital investment decisions are crucial and require careful analysis and consideration. This is due to the characteristics of infrastructure projects that are vulnerable to risks and uncertainties. Net Present Value (NPV)-at-Risk model developed by Ye and Tiong (2000) is a tool for investment evaluation under uncertainties. This paper presents an extension of the model to determine NPV at risk proposed by Ye and Tiong (2000). NPV at risk has been determined using three discount methods, cash flow after payment of tax, interest and principal debt, and the results were compared to choose the best one. NPV at risk was also determined using normal distribution and Monte Carlo simulation method with varying debt equity ratio. The evaluation of the road project shows that the NPV-at-risk method can provide a better decision for risk evaluation and investment in privately financed road projects. This paper presents NPV at risk and return at this NPV with a real case stud

Three-Dimensional Analysis for Determination of Anti-Glare Screen Barrier Height

Few models are available to determine the height of anti-glare screen barrier based on two-dimensional analysis. Very limited research works have been carried out considering three-dimensional analysis. A model has been developed herein to determine the height of anti-glare screen barrier considering three-dimensional analysis. Height of anti-glare screen barrier has been determined considering plane, parabolic and spherical surfaces based on three-dimensional analysis. Height of anti-glare screen barrier has been found to be constant for plane surface, and it depends on the eye height of the driver and the height of vehicle head light only and varies for other surfaces. The model has also been modified for two-dimensional analysis and is reported herein. Height of anti-glare screen barrier obtained from two-dimensional analysis is also reported herein. There is no significant change in the height of anti-glare screen barrier in case of surface with large radius. Height of anti-glare screen barrier has been recommended as 1.85 m for Indian situation