2,922 research outputs found
The role of genes involved in the biosynthesis of scopoletin in cassava post-harvest physiological deterioration
Liquidity of General Motor Company due to their Internal and External factor
GM is also known as General Motors Company is America famous high-end automobile producer. In September 2019 GM facing a strike by its employees about terms in a contract. To get employees back to work after more than a month on strike GM offers a 3 percent pay rise for two years of the four-year contract, and similar-sized bonuses for two years. They also hammered out a deal to make permanent temporary workers with three years on the job. This strike cause GM factories paralyzed across the country with losing $90 million a day and thousands of auto workers are draining their savings since they stop working on 16 September. This study aims to find out the internal and external factors affect liquidity in General Motor Company from 2014 to 2018. 5 years annual report of General Motors Company which starts from 2014 to 2018 is to calculate the relationship by using this formula (return on asset, current ratio, quick ratio, average-collection period, debt to income, operational ratio and operating margin) In this study, I have found out that strong corporate governance is applied in GM. However, it founds that quick ratio have a significant relationship with the liquidity of GM
Liquidity of General Motor Company due to their Internal and External factor
GM is also known as General Motors Company is America famous high-end automobile producer. In September 2019 GM facing a strike by its employees about terms in a contract. To get employees back to work after more than a month on strike GM offers a 3 percent pay rise for two years of the four-year contract, and similar-sized bonuses for two years. They also hammered out a deal to make permanent temporary workers with three years on the job. This strike cause GM factories paralyzed across the country with losing $90 million a day and thousands of auto workers are draining their savings since they stop working on 16 September. This study aims to find out the internal and external factors affect liquidity in General Motor Company from 2014 to 2018. 5 years annual report of General Motors Company which starts from 2014 to 2018 is to calculate the relationship by using this formula (return on asset, current ratio, quick ratio, average-collection period, debt to income, operational ratio and operating margin) In this study, I have found out that strong corporate governance is applied in GM. However, it founds that quick ratio have a significant relationship with the liquidity of GM
Assessing the expected current and future competencies of quantity surveyors in the Malaysian built environment
Purpose: Quantity surveying is a profession that blends engineering, construction and economics. To be competent is to have the ability to apply the set of related knowledge, skills and abilities to perform a task effectively. This paper examines the competency requirements for quantity surveyors (QSs) in the face of changing and increasing client needs. Design/methodology/approach: Based on a detailed meta-analysis of the literature, 12 basic/core and 16 evolving competencies are identified. Primary data were gathered through a field survey involving practicing QSs from client, consultant and contractor organisations, and university students undertaking QS programmes in Malaysia. The data obtained were analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistical tools. Findings: The significance of the basic/core and evolving competencies are presented. Overall, the most important contemporary skills are cost planning, valuation of works, measurement/quantification and contract documentation. The evolved roles require expertise in communication and negotiation, ethics and professional conduct and value management. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicates there are misaligned expectations of the proficiency levels needed to provide contemporary and future services between practitioners in client/consultant organisations, contractors and new generation students. Originality/value: The findings provide guidance on the education, training and practice of quantity surveying to deal with emerging challenges in the dynamic built environments in Malaysia and beyond.</p
Monotone Interval Fuzzy Inference Systems
—In this paper, we introduce the notion of a monotone
fuzzy partition, which is useful for constructing a monotone zeroorder Takagi–Sugeno–Kang Fuzzy Inference System (ZOTSKFIS). It is known that a monotone ZOTSK-FIS model can always be produced when a consistent, complete, and monotone fuzzy rule base is used. However, such an ideal situation is not always available in practice, because a fuzzy rule base is susceptible to uncertainties, e.g., inconsistency, incompleteness, and nonmonotonicity. As a result, we devise an interval method to model these uncertainties by considering the minimum interval of acceptability of a fuzzy rule, resulting in a set of monotone interval-valued fuzzy
rules. This further leads to the formulation of a Monotone Interval Fuzzy Inference System (MIFIS) with a minimized uncertainty measure. The proposed MIFIS model is analyzed mathematically and evaluated empirically for the Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) application. The results indicate that MIFIS outperforms ZOTSK-FIS, and allows effective decision making using uncertain
fuzzy rules solicited from human experts in tackling real-world FMEA problems
Multi-expert decision-making with incomplete and noisy fuzzy rules and the monotone test
The use of Fuzzy Inference System (FIS) in decision making problems has received little attention so far. This may be due to the difficulty in gathering a complete set of fuzzy rules, which is free from noise, and the complexity in constructing an FIS model that is able to satisfy a number of important properties, including the monotonicity property. Previously, we have proposed a single-input Monotone-Interval FIS (MI-FIS) model, which can handle incomplete and non-monotone fuzzy rules. Besides that, we have proposed the idea of a monotone test (MT) for a set of fuzzy rules, which give an indication pertaining to the degree of monotonicity of a fuzzy rules set. In this paper, a multi-input MI-FIS model is firstly presented. The focus of this paper is on the use of MI-FIS and MT for undertaking multi expert decision-making (MEDM) problems. A three-phase MEDM framework consists of modelling, aggregation, and exploitation phases is proposed. In the modelling phase, an MT index for each fuzzy rule base from each expert, which is potentially non-monotone and incomplete, is obtained. The provided fuzzy rule bases are also modelled as MI-FISs. In the aggregation phase, an overall collective rating score of an alternative from a number of experts is obtained through the fuzzy weighted averaging operator. We suggest including MT as part of the aggregation phase. In exploitation phase, a rank ordering procedure among the alternatives is established using a possibility method. The developed framework is evaluated with simulated information. The results show that including the MT index in the aggregation phase is able to increase the robustness of the proposed FIS-MEDM model in the presence of noisy fuzzy rule sets
Parametric Conditions for a Monotone TSK Fuzzy Inference System to be an n-Ary Aggregation Function
Despite the popularity and practical importance of
the fuzzy inference system (FIS), the use of an FIS model as an
n-ary aggregation function, which is characterized by both the
monotonicity and boundary properties, is yet to be established.
This is because research on ensuring that FIS models satisfy the
monotonicity property, i.e., monotone FIS, is relatively new, not
to mention the additional requirement of satisfying the boundary
property. The aim of this article, therefore, is to establish the
parametric conditions for the Takagi–Sugeno–Kang (TSK) FIS
model to operate as an n-ary aggregation function (hereafter denoted as n-TSK-FIS) via the specifications of fuzzy membership
functions and fuzzy rules. An absorption property with fuzzy rules
interpretation is outlined, and the use of n-TSK-FIS as a uninorm
is explained. Exploiting the established parametric conditions, a
framework for which an n-TSK-FIS model can be constructed from
data samples is formulated and analyzed, along with a number
of remarks. Synthetic data sets and a benchmark example on
education assessment are presented and discussed. To be best of
the authors’ knowledge, this article serves as the first use of the
TSK-FIS model as an n-ary aggregation function
Parametric Conditions for a Monotone TSK Fuzzy Inference System to be an n-Ary Aggregation Function
Despite the popularity and practical importance of the Fuzzy Inference System (FIS), the use of an FIS model as an n -ary aggregation function, which is characterized by both the monotonicity and boundary properties, is yet to be established. This is because research on ensuring that FIS models satisfy the monotonicity property, i.e., monotone FIS, is relatively new, not to mention the additional requirement of satisfying the boundary property. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to establish the parametric conditions for the Takagi-Sugeno-Kang (TSK) FIS model to operate as an n -ary aggregation function (hereafter denoted as n -TSK-FIS) via the specifications of fuzzy membership functions (FMFs) and fuzzy rules. An absorption property with fuzzy rules interpretation is outlined, and the use of n -TSK-FIS as a uni-norm is explained. Exploiting the established parametric conditions, a framework for which an n -TSK-FIS model can be constructed from data samples is formulated and analyzed, along with a number of remarks. Synthetic data sets and a benchmark example on education assessment are presented and discussed. To be best of the authors' knowledge, this study serves as the first use of the TSK-FIS model as an n -ary aggregation function
Tabernacles of the Spirit
In the classic tradition of the exploratory essay, George Gammack examines the theme of community in this paper. He details varied aspects of the creation of community among those who are retired, taking as its focus the Men’s Sheds movement. The paper explores the relationship between persons and community in later years, looking in particular at how those with a lifetime’s worth of skills and knowledge can continue to contribute to the life of a community. Along the way we are introduced to the work of authors such as Charles Taylor, Richard Niebuhr, Primo Levi, Seamus Heaney and Richard Sennett on the subject of work and what comes after it.Publisher PD
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