Technical Efficiency in the Malaysian Gill Net Artisanal Fishery

Artisanal fishing communities include some of the poorest fishers in Malaysia. The paper presents the first technical efficiency study, whichfinds that artisanal fishers are poor, but enjoy a higher level of technical efficiency than found in the other Malaysian gill net fisheries. It suggests that targeted development assistance to the harvesting sector may be better directed to other priorities in artisanal fishing communities.artisanal fisheries, fisheries development, technical efficiency

EXAMINES ACADEMIC LIBRARY USERS’ EXPERIENCE TOWARDS LIBRARY PATRONAGE IN STATE UNIVERSITIES IN SRI LANKA

Libraries and information centers are service units held with the responsibility of providing varied information services based on a number of resources. It covers tangible assets, namely library building, equipment, furniture, information resources and staff. The intangible element has been the information services provided by the libraries. The tangible assets and intangible services of libraries are changing greatly due to the development and changes in the area of information technology. The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate to accomplish the relationship between Service Quality dimensions, customer experience (CE) library patronage (LP) and library user attitude (LUA) in the context of university library service quality in Sri Lanka. In addition, it investigates the mediating effect of customer experience in the relationship between dimensions of library service quality and the library patronage.  Article visualizations

Correction to: Siddika et al. Waste Glass in Cement and Geopolymer Concretes: A Review on Durability and Challenges. (Polymers (2021), 13, 2071

The authors wish to make the following corrections to this paper [1]: in the original version of our article, the unit of production rate of glass and waste glass was mistakenly written in “metric tons” but should be corrected to “million tons”. The corrected sentences are presented below: In Abstract: Every year, the world is producing around 100 million tons of waste glass (WG), the majority of them are going to landfills that create massive environmental problems. In Introduction: (first sentence of second paragraph) Globally, around 130 million tons of glass are being produced each year among which approximately 100 million tons are being discarded as waste. The authors apologize for this error and state that the scientific conclusions are unaf-fected. The original article has been updated

ACADEMIC LIBRARY USERS’ EXPERIENCE: A REVIEW ON RELATED CONCEPTS AND EMPIRICAL IMPLICATION

In order to answer the questions raised to guide this study, there is need to review previous literature that relates to variables understudied. Also, to operationally define key concepts used for this study to ensure clarity of the concepts. Literature review shows a vibrant section and significant untouched materials to structure the infrastructure of a precise subject component in whichever category of a research study. It is conducted to obtain a clear consideration about the precise area of study. The literature review is arranged developing themes directly drawn from the literature, chronologically and thematically in this study. Researchers followed literature Review as the main methodology to review the existing empirical knowledge to build conceptual content to support for the proposed research directions. The findings provide the insights on how empirical findings being shared in literature reviews connecting the concept of Band Citizenship behavior and related concepts and implications. Based on the discussion, postulate the future research directions in line with the empirical knowledge gaps found within.  Article visualizations

Potential impact and controversy of stem cells in public health

Stem cells are versatile in the bodies which are able to both reproduce themselves and to produce more specialized cells. As such, they are of great potential values in repairing and regenerating damaged cells and tissues. Many different kinds of stem cells have been discovered. The most common are embryonic, foetal and adult stem cells. Stem cell research has the potential to provide an increased understanding of development and differentiation, as well as leading to treatments and cures for many diseases. They are important to the future of medicine and public health because with adequate research, stem cells have the potential to treat degenerative conditions through transplanting human stem cells into patients. With sufficient development of stem cell medicine, chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and Parkinson’s disease will be effectively managed. Embryonic stem cell (ESC) research has been a source of ethical, legal, and social controversy which has slowed the pace of stem cell science and shaped many aspects of its subsequent development

Optimal design for epoxy polymer concrete based on mechanical properties and durability aspects

Polymer concrete has shown a number of promising applications in building and construction, but its mix design process remains arbitrary due to lack of understanding of how constituent materials influence performance. This paper investigated the effect of resin-to-filler ratio and matrix-to-aggregate ratio on mechanical and durability properties of epoxy-based polymer concrete in order to optimise its mix design. A novel combination of fire-retardant, hollow microsphere and fly ash fillers were used and specimens were prepared using resin-to-filler ratios by volume from 100:0 to 40:60 at 10% increment. Another group of specimens were prepared using matrix-to-aggregate ratios from 1:0 decreasing to 1:0.45, 1:0.90 and 1:1.35 by weight at constant resin-to-filler ratio. The specimens were inspected and tested under compressive, tensile and flexural loading conditions. The epoxy polymer matrix shows excellent durability in air, water, saline solution, and hygrothermal environments. Results show that the resin-to-filler ratio has significant influence on the spatial distribution of aggregates. Severe segregation occurred when the matrix contained less than 40% filler while a uniform aggregate distribution was obtained when the matrix had at least 40% filler. Moreover, the tensile strength, flexural strength and ductility decreased with decrease in matrix-to-aggregate ratio. Empirical models for polymer concrete were proposed based on the experimental results. The optimal resin-to-filler ratio was 70:30 and 60:40 for non-uniform and uniform distribution of aggregates, respectively, while a matrix-to-aggregate ratio of 1:1.35 was optimal in terms of achieving a good balance between performance and cost

Quantification of temporal fault trees based on fuzzy set theory

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014. Fault tree analysis (FTA) has been modified in different ways to make it capable of performing quantitative and qualitative safety analysis with temporal gates, thereby overcoming its limitation in capturing sequential failure behaviour. However, for many systems, it is often very difficult to have exact failure rates of components due to increased complexity of systems, scarcity of necessary statistical data etc. To overcome this problem, this paper presents a methodology based on fuzzy set theory to quantify temporal fault trees. This makes the imprecision in available failure data more explicit and helps to obtain a range of most probable values for the top event probability

Early phase trials of novel hearing therapeutics: Avenues and opportunities

Novel hearing therapeutics are rapidly progressing along the innovation pathway and into the clinical trial domain. Because these trials are new to the hearing community, they come with challenges in terms of trial design, regulation and delivery. In this paper, we address the key scientific and operational issues and outline the opportunities for interdisciplinary and international collaboration these trials offer. Vital to the future successful implementation of these therapeutics is to evaluate their potential for adoption into healthcare systems, including consideration of their health economic value. This requires early engagement with all stakeholder groups along the hearing innovation pathway

Solar energy for all? Understanding the successes and shortfalls through a critical comparative assessment of Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Mozambique, Sri Lanka and South Africa

Lanterns, homes systems, hot water systems and micro-grids based on small-scale solar have become prominent ways to address the energy access challenge. As momentum grows for this form of energy transition this paper draws together research on small-scale solar in six different countries – Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Mozambique, Sri Lanka and South Africa – to argue for a need to understand how, when, and for whom solar provides energy access. It argues that an assemblage perspective can provide vital insights into the diversity and dynamism of energy access. The paper demonstrates that the diverse ways in which solar provides energy access is a function of the flexibility/fixity of the socio-technical assemblage and the de/centralisation of agency. The central thesis of this paper is that energy access is fluid and ever changing and we need fluid, easily maintainable, locally modifiable ‘assemblages’ for providing such access. Using this perspective, we find three common features of solar energy access across our case studies. First, there are significant gaps between what solar projects are designed to achieve and what they deliver, which are highly contingent on the flexibility of their structure and the decentralisation of agency within them. Second, access needs to endure continuously. Third, to foster enduring access, projects should embed logics of improvisation. This paper is based on six separate qualitative research projects conducted during 2010–2016. It draws data from 482 interviews, 91 home tours and 12 group discussions

Supplier strategies to compensate for knowledge asymmetries in buyer-supplier relationships: implications for economic upgrading

This paper explores a special form of international outsourcing relationship in which suppliers make recurrent discrete transactions with the same buyers over a long period of time without the existence of any original legally binding written agreement. The study examines three research questions: (1) Can suppliers in such relationships access any of their buyers' tacit knowledge? (2) What implications does their access or the lack thereof have for their economic upgrading? (3) What strategies do suppliers adopt to compensate for existing knowledge asymmetries? The case analysis of three small Bangladeshi garment manufacturers reveals the following key findings. The studied firms only have access to their buyers' explicit/codified knowledge. Notwithstanding this, they have successfully developed relevant knowledge that has allowed them to engage in process upgrading