Wavelet-Based Prediction for Governance, Diversification and Value Creation Variables

We study the possibility of completing data bases of a sample of governance, diversification and value creation variables by providing a well adapted method to reconstruct the missing parts in order to obtain a complete sample to be applied for testing the ownership-structure/diversification relationship. It consists of a dynamic procedure based on wavelets. A comparison with Neural Networks, the most used method, is provided to prove the efficiency of the here-developed one. The empirical tests are conducted on a set of French firms.Comment: 22 page

The Role of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the Telecommunications Industry : An Overview of the Case of "Orange Tunisie" Operator

The aim of this paper is to present new orientations for research in the field of information systems in the context of CSR. It offers an original conceptual analysis that integrates the CSR approach, which enables decision making, governance and strategic alignment of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), business and sustainability. In the actual context of the changing environment, a consensus regarding the need to change the pattern of development and growth comes to light. The CSR emerges as a new paradigm for economics. Its alliance with other economic concepts seems to become a necessity that aims at an approach for a global and sustainable performance for the company. As long as the firms’ IT departments are energy consumers, it is of paramount importance to reconcile the new technologies and the CSR. Hence, in order for the company to stand out and increase its competitiveness, it has to think in terms of global, economic, social and environmental performance that would ensure a sustainable growth. The importance of the small and medium-sized enterprises in the Maghreb’s economies and the challenges of the CSR implementation in such institutions should prompt us to wonder about the incentives and the engagement factors of managers in favor of the CSR while incorporating the ICT. It seems interesting, then, to discover the way to combine the ICT and the social practices, in order to ensure a sustainable performance for the company. An illustration of the case of "Orange Tunisie" operator will be advanced

Formal Specification and Verification of Mobile Agent Systems

Mobile agent systems offer efficiency and flexibility as a design paradigm. These two characteristics allow to these systems to be an adequate solution for many problems. These systems are used in many critical domains. This expansion, in use, obliges designers to insure the reliability and correctness of such systems. Formal methods can be used to verify thecorrectness of these systems. This paper presents a formal specification and verification of mobile agent systems using the High Order π-calculus. The verification exploits the twotools UPPAAL and SPIN

A new Itinerary planning approach among multiple mobile agents in wireless sensor networks (WSN) to reduce energy consumption

one of the important challenges in wireless sensors networks (WSN) resides in energy consumption. In order to resolve this limitation, several solutions were proposed. Recently, the exploitation of mobile agent technologies in wireless sensor networks to optimize energy consumption attracts researchers. Despite their advantage as an ambitious solution, the itineraries followed by migrating mobile agents can surcharge the network and so have an impact on energy consumption. Many researches have dealt with itinerary planning in WSNs through the use of a single agent (SIP: Single agent Itinerary Planning) or multiple mobile agents (MIP: Multiple agents Itinerary Planning). However, the use of multi-agents causes the emergence of the data load unbalancing problem among mobile agents, where the geographical distance is the unique factor motivating to plan the itinerary of the agents. The data balancing factor has an important role especially in Wireless sensor networks multimedia that owns a considerable volume of data size. It helps to optimize the tasks duration and thus optimizes the overall answer time of the network.  In this paper, we provide a new MIP solution (GIGM-MIP) which is based not only on geographic information but also on the amount of data provided by each node to reduce the energy consumption of the network. The simulation experiments show that our approach is more efficient than other approaches in terms of task duration and the amount of energy consumption

Tribological performance and corrosion behavior of CoCrMo alloy

The present work focuses on the Tribological properties and corrosion behavior evaluation of sintered CoCrMo alloy. The CoCrMo alloy was elaborated by Powder metallurgy process at various sintering temperatures (1200°C, 1250°C and 1300°C). The structural properties were characterized by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The tribological characteristics were measured using a dry disc-ball tribometer. The corrosion behavior of the samples was studied using different electrochemical tests in a simulated physiological environment (Hank’s solution). The obtained results show that higher sintering temperatures have a positive impact on the tribological behavior as well as the corrosion resistance of CoCrMo alloys. The sintered samples at 1300°C showed a better resistance to friction wear and a lower corrosion rate

Intravenous lidocaine as adjuvant to general anesthesia in renal surgery

The role of intraoperative intravenous lidocaine infusion has been previously evaluated for pain relief, inflammatory response, and post-operative recovery, particularly in abdominal surgery. The present study is a randomized double-blinded trial in which we evaluated whether IV lidocaine infusion reduces isoflurane requirement, intraoperative remifentanil consumption and time to post-operative recovery in non-laparoscopic renal surgery. Sixty patients scheduled to undergo elective non-laparoscopic renal surgery under general anesthesia were enrolled to receive either systemic lidocaine infusion (group L: bolus 1.5 mg/kg followed by a continuous infusion at the rate of 2 mg/kg/hr until skin closure) or normal saline (0.9% NaCl solution) (Group C). The depth of anesthesia was monitored using the Bispectral Index Scale (BIS), which is based on measurement of the patient’s cerebral electrical activity. Primary outcome of the study was End-tidal of isoflurane concentration (Et-Iso) at BIS values of 40–60. Secondary outcomes include remifentanil consumption during the operation and time to extubation. Et-Iso was significantly lower in group L than in group C (0.63% ± 0.10% vs 0.92% ± 0.11%, p < 10–3). Mean remifentanil consumption of was significantly lower in group L than in group C (0.13 ± 0.04 μg/kg/min vs 0.18 ± 0.04 μg/kg/ min, p < 10–3). Thus, IV lidocaine infusion permits a reduction of 31% in isoflurane concentration requirement and 27% in the intraoperative remifentanil need. In addition, recovery from anesthesia and extubation time was shorter in group L (5.8 ± 1.8 min vs 7.9 ± 2.0 min, p < 10–3). By reducing significantly isoflurane and remifentanil requirements during renal surgery, intravenous lidocaine could provide effective strategy to limit volatile agent and intraoperative opioids consumption especially in low and middle income countries.Keywords: intravenous lidocaine; isoflurane; remifentanil; consumption; Bispectral Index Scale (BIS); renal surger

Comparison of two doses of hypobaric bupivacaine in unilateral spinal anesthesia for hip fracture surgery: 5 mg versus 7.5 mg

Introduction: Hip fracture is a frequent and severe disease. Its prognosis depends on the perioperative hemodynamic stability which can be preserved by the unilateral spinal anesthesia especially with low doses of local anesthetics. This study aims to compare the efficacy and hemodynamic stability of two doses of hypobaric bupivacaine (7.5 mg vs 5 mg) in unilateral spinal anesthesia. Methods: In this prospective, randomized, double-blind study, 108 patients scheduled for hip fracture surgery under unilateral spinal anesthesia were enrolled to receive either 5 mg (group 1) or 7.5 mg (group 2) of hypobaric bupivacaine. Spinal anesthesia was performed in lateral position. Patients’ socio-demographic characteristics, hemodynamic profile, sensory and motor blocks parameters were recorded. Results: Both groups were comparable regarding to demographic data. Two cases of failure occurred in group 1 and one case in group 2 corresponding to a comparable efficiency rates (96.29% and 98.14% respectively; p = 0.5). A higher mean onset and lower mean regression times of sensory block were significantly noted in group 1 (7.79±3.76 min vs 5.75±2.35 min, p < 0.001 and 91.29±31.55 min vs 112.77±18.77 min, p <0.001 respectively). Incidence of bilateralization (29.62% vs 87.03%, p < 0.001), incidence of hypotensive episodes (59.25% vs 92.59%, p < 0.001) and vascular loading (1481.48±411.65 ml vs 2111.11±596.10 ml, p < 0.001) were significantly higher in group 2. Conclusion: The dosage of 5mg of hypobaric bupivacaine in unilateral spinal anesthesia is as effective as the dosage of 7.5 mg with lower bilateralization incidence and better hemodynamic stability

Wavelet-Based Prediction for Governance, Diversi cation and Value Creation Variables

We study the possibility of completing data bases of a sample of governance, diversification and value creation variables by providing a well adapted method to reconstruct the missing parts in order to obtain a complete sample to be applied for testing the ownership-structure / diversification relationship. It consists of a dynamic procedure based on wavelets. A comparison with Neural Networks, the most used method, is provided to prove the efficiency of the here-developed one. The empirical tests are conducted on a set of French firms

Wavelet-Based Prediction for Governance, Diversi cation and Value Creation Variables

We study the possibility of completing data bases of a sample of governance, diversification and value creation variables by providing a well adapted method to reconstruct the missing parts in order to obtain a complete sample to be applied for testing the ownership-structure / diversification relationship. It consists of a dynamic procedure based on wavelets. A comparison with Neural Networks, the most used method, is provided to prove the efficiency of the here-developed one. The empirical tests are conducted on a set of French firms

Cellulose Acetate Membrane Preparation for Wastewater Treatment

For a long time, humans have used cellulose, as a natural, renewable, and transformative polymer, for scientific development to create new technologies. Cellulose is the most abundant biopolymer on Earth, accounting for more than 50% of terrestrial biomass. For this reason, the treated cellulose (cellulose acetate (CA)) was used in the membrane preparation for water desalination. However, membrane preparation has recently attracted big attention of several research groups. In this case, cellulose acetate (CA), as an inexpensive hydrophilic biopolymer, was chosen as a polymer for preparing the membranes via the inversion phase, since it offers an efficient purification benefit with low energy consumption and less cost. The purpose of this chapter is to describe the various types of membrane preparation based on cellulose acetate, with pathogens, bacteria, and heavy metal (cadmium), and the applications of these membranes in the treatment of contaminated water, to ensure a clean water supply for both human and industrial uses