A Maritime Doughnut Hole in the Caribbean Sea: The International Court of Justice Establishes Maritime Boundary between Nicaragua and Colombia

The Kay Bailey Hutchison Center for Energy, Law, and Busines

Population dynamics of Terapon jarbua (Forskal) in coastal area of Pakistani waters

Terapon jarbua is a widely distributed species in Pakistani inshore waters. It is well cherished by local coastal population. Present study is an attempt to determine some parameters of the population dynamics of the species in Pakistani waters. Analysis of data shows that the species attains asymptotic length (Loo) at 33.2 cm and have growth curve (K) of 0.62. Total mortality coefficient (Z) comes to 1. 67 per year, natural mortality coefficient (M) is estimated as 1.23 per year. The fishing mortality (F) is about 0.44 per year; whereas exploitation rate E=0.26

Control Freak: How an injured esports athlete got back into the game

This capstone profiles Aziz Hax Al-Yami, a professional Super Smash Bros. Melee player. Melee is a video game and Al-Yami is an esports competitor, i.e. a professional gamer. In this world, gamers compete as athletes, pushing their skills to their absolute limit to become the best in the world. Al-Yami, at 21, suffered from a wrist injury. This injury put him out of the game for over a year. His injury was so bad that doctor\u27s told him that he could never compete again. But through his own research, Al-Yami surmised that if he were to get his FCU tendon removed, then he could compete again. But doctors were unwilling to perform such a procedure. Eventually Al-Yami found a doctor willing to remove his FCU tendon. But that was only half the battle. His new doctor still said with the FCU tendon removal, he would be unable to play. That\u27s when Al-Yami set out to create his own controller, one that would lessen stress on his fingers and wrist. Al-Yami did so, and is slowly making his way back to the top. For this piece I do extensive interviews with Al-Yami, his childhood friends, and Dr. Ratliff, the doctor who performed his surgery. I also go into the controversies surrounding his new controller and the challenges he faces outside of his injury. In many ways this is a Rocky style sports story, but instead of boxing, it\u27s gaming. http://www.polygonalslant.com/control-freak-how-an-injured-esports-athlete-got-back-into-the-game

Modelling of porosity defects in high pressure die casting with a neural network

High Pressure Die Casting (HPDC) is a complex process that results in casting defects if configured improperly. However, finding out the optimal configuration is a non-trivial task as eliminating one of the casting defects (for example, porosity) can result in occurrence of other casting defects. The industry generally tries to eliminate the defects by trial and error which is an expensive and error -prone process. This paper aims to improve current modelling and understanding of defects formation in HPDC machines. We have conducted conventional die casting tests with a neural network model of HPDC machine and compared the obtained results with the current understanding of formation of porosity. While most of our findings correspond well to established knowledge in the field, some of our findings are in conflict with the previous studies of die casting.<br /

Improving the quality of die castings by using artificial neural networks for porosity defect modelling

The aim of this work is to improve the quality of castings by minimizing defects and scrap through the analysis of the data generated by High Pressure Die Casting (HPDC) Machines using computational intelligence techniques. Casting is a complex process that is affected by the interdependence of die casting process parameters on each other such that changes in one parameter results in changes in other parameters. Computational intelligence techniques have the potential to model accurately this complex relationship. The project has the potential to generate optimal configurations for HPDC Machines and explain the relationships between die casting process parameters.<br /

Mixed transfer function neural networks for knowledge acquistition

Modeling helps to understand and predict the outcome of complex systems. Inductive modeling methodologies are beneficial for modeling the systems where the uncertainties involved in the system do not permit to obtain an accurate physical model. However inductive models, like artificial neural networks (ANNs), may suffer from a few drawbacks involving over-fitting and the difficulty to easily understand the model itself. This can result in user reluctance to accept the model or even complete rejection of the modeling results. Thus, it becomes highly desirable to make such inductive models more comprehensible and to automatically determine the model complexity to avoid over-fitting. In this paper, we propose a novel type of ANN, a mixed transfer function artificial neural network (MTFANN), which aims to improve the complexity fitting and comprehensibility of the most popular type of ANN (MLP - a Multilayer Perceptron).<br /

Effect of Environment on Entrepreneurial Culture with mediating role of Opportunity Creation

The role of entrepreneurial culture in reducing socio-economic issues of a country is emphasized by policymakers and academics alike, but the effect of the environment to promote entrepreneurial culture is scarcely studied in literature. Furthermore, a focus on the mediating role of opportunities in developing such a culture is missing in entrepreneurship literature. The current study addresses this gap by examining the potential influence of environment on entrepreneurial culture with mediating role of opportunity creation. For this research, data was gathered through questionnaire from 200 micro level enterprises in Peshawar using random sampling. Then the Structural equation modeling (SEM), a statistical technique, was used for analyzing this data. The findings of this analysis reveal a positive effect of the environment on facilitating an entrepreneurial culture. Our findings additionally reveal that opportunity creation also serves as a significant driver in enhancing an entrepreneurial culture. In this vein, environment was found to also have a significant effect on opportunity creation. Finally, as per our findings opportunity creation fully mediates the relationship between environment and entrepreneurial culture. Therefore, this research holds that friendly business environment creates opportunities, which leads to the development of entrepreneurial culture in a society. The researchers also provided future directions and various limitations in this stud

Understanding the Entrepreneurial Motivations and Barriers for Aspiring Entrepreneurs: a case of religious education institutions’ students in Pakistan

Unemployment is a global challenges and economists and scholar have recommended entrepreneurship as a solution to it. Motivations for, and barriers to, entrepreneurship play a major role in aspiring young graduates to becoming entrepreneurs.In this regard, numerous studies have focused on students’ intentions and perception to be entrepreneurs. However, there is little to no research available to understand the motivation and challenges of Pakistani religious education students to become entrepreneurs so far. Therefore, this study aims to identify the perceived entrepreneurial motivations and barriers among students of the religious education institutions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Data for this study was collected through focus group interviews from twenty (20) final year students of religious studies, who expressed interest in starting their own businesses in the near future. The study identifies seven factors, namely the lack of employment opportunity, better earning, more autonomy (freedom or independence), more flexibility, family business background, better living standards, and fulfilling ones dreams, as motivators for religious scholars to take up entrepreneurship. It also identifies six major barriers, namely financial barriers, lack of business information, lack of government support, marketing challenges, rising competition, the English language, and lack of technological knowhow, that hinder entrepreneurship in this cohort. The present study contributes to the literature by exploring the motivators and barriers that affect business formation among students of religious education institutions.&nbsp; Furthermore, it will help policy makers and academicians to ease the market access and present potential solutions to entrepreneurial challenges to bring these students into economic circle

The impact of social safety nets on the livelihood during COVID-19

This article is about the comparative analysis and social performance of social safety nets programmes of Pakistan. The article discuss operating safety nets programmes with details i.e. Benazir income support programme (BISP), Ehsaas Emergency Cash Transfer programme and other programmes. It is found that BISP, Ehsaas Emergency Cash Transfer programme and others programmes of Social Safety nets have positive social and economic impacts on the poor. It is found that Ehsaas cash transfer and BISP have played important role in protection of the livelihood during pandemic crisis. About 99 percent of the beneficiaries respond that social safety nets programmes for the poor and middle poor during crisis played important role in their life, it’s protect their livelihood, health, education, food and also poor people started small business with the help of BISP cash. About 33 percent of the beneficiaries have their own land, 7 percent have livestock, while 82 percent of the beneficiaries have their own homes. About 91 percent of the beneficiaries’ children are enrolled in school because of the BISP. According to the 52 percent beneficiaries respond that there is corruption between beneficiaries and retailers, 50 percent people respond that there is lack of facilities of cash receiving. While 65 percent of the beneficiaries said that political attitude toward current social protection programs are negatively. I concluded that social safety nets programs during Crisis COVID-19, the poor were protected and supported their livelihood