Sustainability of global and international business operations during the adversity and hardship

The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the way business is conducted. The widespread closure of commercial organizations presents opportunities to reset the way business activities are conducted. Regardless of the organization’s size or its status as a domestic or international firm, due diligence is required to find solutions that will allow firms to sustain their business activities in uncertain times. This study addresses this issue and attempts to identify issues that require urgent attention so that organizations can be effective and efficient in their global operations. In this context, the study proposes three imperatives for global/international businesses to sustain their operations in the long term. These imperatives include having a strong reserve fund, access to a local mutual fund, and networking to form alliances in host countries. Other implications are discussed, and we identify areas for future research.

Civil engineering materials

For any construction project to prove satisfactory, it is essential to understand the properties of materials during both the design and construction phases. It is crucial to consider the economic viability and sociological and environmental impact of a project. During this initial design phase, possible alternative locations and a preliminary assessment of suitable construction materials are taken into account. The decision of which structural form and material choice is most appropriate depends on a number of factors including cost, physical properties, durability and availability of materials. Buildings can contain wood, metals, concrete, bituminous materials, polymers, and bricks and blocks. Some of these can only be used in non-structural elements, while others can be used alone or in combination with structural elements. The actual materials used in the structural members will depend on both the structural form and other factors mentioned earlier. In this study, various materials such as metal, timber, concrete floor and polymer used in civil engineering were examined, the properties and usage areas of these materials were examined.

Assessing the thermal performance of a conventional architecture in a dry warm climate

In this article, we present the results of the evaluation of the thermal performance of a conventional home in a dry warm climate, a case study in Bucaramanga, Colombia. This simulation, evaluation, and analysis make it necessary since currently in the case study area there is no thermal assessment of the dwellings, which are old houses built with resistive and mechanical analyses, but without regard to thermal behavior or thermal housing comfort. This evaluation is done by means of software simulation. Thus, a valid simulation identifies the weather data present in a dry warm climate zone and determines the geographical location and behavior in the solar diagram. Likewise, the thermal characterization of the soil and the construction materials of support and envelopes of the architecture is performed, to establish its thermal transmittance, thermal resistance, and thermal capacity. As a result of the research, the thermal behavior of the house is presented by means of the calculations made that determine the thermal behavior of the envelopes, energy load balancing, and housing thermal comfort based on the ASHRAE 55 standard by Fanger's method. Consequently, with the above, the results of the simulation and a detailed analysis of the recorded data are presented in the document.

Architectural design enhancement of gardens/parks in Yerevan

In Yerevan, as well as in a number of other Armenian cities, gardens were designed and constructed mainly during the Soviet era, and most of them were transformed, distorted and devastated in the first decade of the period of independence. In the last decade, a unique number of gardens/parks have been built or reconstructed in Yerevan. The city of Yerevan needs this kind of investigation. To observe and analyse the current state of gardens and parks, architectural and design structures as well as compositional design issues and problems concerning Yerevan’s gardens and parks can be the first study in the Armenian history of design and architecture We still do not have any information about similar research efforts in the given sphere carried out in the countries neighbouring Armenia and other foreign countries. This article presents the right process of modernization and/or construction of gardens/parks based on the study of the best models envisions and requires application and implementation of different tools of compositional design and modification not only in the design proper of gardens/parks, but also in the external design and aesthetic nuances of the adjacent surrounding, leaving any compositional design setup unchanged.

The effects of frequent flyer programs in the airline industry on customer loyalty

Customer Loyalty Programs are one of the handiest tools to raise brand awareness, and secure long-term and strong ties between a brand and existing consumers. Airline companies have been using frequent flyer programs (FFPs) to retain customers with the expectation of increasing passengers’ loyalty levels. The purpose of this study was to examine the significance of FFPs for customer loyalty, which is of great help for customer retention in the civil aviation industry in the sample of passengers flying from the new Istanbul Airport. Furthermore, we questioned the effectiveness of various services and products offered within FFPs for loyalty, which is decomposed into two main components, behavioral, and attitudinal commitment of loyalty. We evaluated the significance of various demographic factors on passengers’ perception of FFPs services and privileges, and customer loyalty. The study confirmed the vital role of FFPs to build up brand loyalty, where profession, duration of the membership to FFPs, and gender are essential factors.

Geopathogenic zones, mobile phones and their influence on human organism, animals and trees

Geopathogenic zones are defined as inhomogeneities in the Earth's crust that emit electromagnetic radiation. These zones can also affect people without awareness and perception. Currently, the animal and plant kingdom as well as the human population live in a time with many electronic devices that can also affect us to some extent. Therefore, geopathogenic zones (GPZ) can also be one of the theoretical triggers of various diseases. The study aimed to determine the theoretical occurrence of geopathogenic zones and their effect on plants, animals, and the human body. Theoretically approach the occurrence of geopathogenic zones. In this study, data were obtained by using an anonymous questionnaire. A total of 202 respondents participated in the study, of which 56 were men and 146 women. The questionnaire consisted of 34 questions divided into 5 sections. Each of our respondents uses a mobile phone, which can to some extent affect our sleep, but also our health. Geopathogenic zones also occur near the dwellings where our respondents live. We assume that the animals of our respondents avoid geopathogenic zones as observed and predicted by studies. Geological research on the land can show us the presence of groundwater, changes in soil composition, and the possible occurrence of geopathogenic zones. All these arguments should be found even better to examine the issue since geopathogenic zones in the world are very under-represented. GPZ is one of the possible factors that can cause feelings of discomfort, various anomalies, or even health problems.

Cost efficient internet of things based smart farm system for rural farmers: Leveraging design thinking approach

Farmers are faced with challenges of producing enough food and the use of traditional methods seems not to keep pace with the ever-growing demand of the populace thus creating increased concern in food scarcity. Although it has been identified that smart tools will enhance the production pace needed in the Agricultural sector, unfortunately, most of these tools are designed for farmers without their inputs, thus creating tools that are not meeting demands. This study focused on a farmer-centered design, development, and deployment approach to improving farm productivity. The design thinking approach was used to identify the specific need of the farmers in selected areas, ideas were created using brainstorming sessions involving experts in the field, and prototypes were developed and deployed to evaluate the impact performance. The result shows that the proposed system improved the cost-benefit ratio of crop farming from 2.14 to 2.26. This is a 12% productivity increase.

Facial image denoising using AutoEncoder and UNET

Image denoising is a crucial topic in image processing. Noisy images are generated due to technical and environmental errors. Therefore, it is reasonable to consider image denoising an important topic to study, as it also helps to resolve other image processing issues. However, the challenge is that the classical techniques used are time-consuming and not flexible enough. This article compares the two major neural network architecture which looks promising to resolve this issues. The AutoEncoder and UNET is now the most researched subject in deep learning for image denoising. Multiple model architectures are designed, implement, and evaluated. The dataset is preprocessed and then it is used to train and test the model. It is clearly shown in this paper which model performs the best in this task by comparing both models using the most used parameters to evaluate image quality PSNR and SSIM.

Extended galleries above the porch in two mosques: Qualitative analysis of mosques with wooden minaret in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Among the many mosques from the Ottoman period in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the most numerous are modest and predominantly wooden mosques covered by a hip roof with an integrated wooden minaret. Although they originate in the long tradition of Turkish single-space mosques, their appearance and construction represent the expression of Bosnian autochthonous architecture. They were mostly built for the needs of the neighborhood (mahala) in smaller and larger towns, but also in rural areas. Due to the perishable materials and various other reasons, they had been renovated several times so changes in appearance were in some cases quite certain. These structures have been insufficiently researched and very few valuable publications are available so far. Qualitative analysis of significant examples, in addition to the common features by which these mosques differ from large monumental mosques, differences in the spatial concept, as well as the construction of individual elements, were observed. Concerning the shape of the entrance, these mosques have four characteristic solutions: a mosque with a porch, with a porch and a gallery, without a porch, and with a closed vestibule. The analysis also showed that the two mahala mosques in Tuzla had a specific gallery form that deviated from the typical solution. These galleries are extended over the porch on three sides by the application of ingenious carpentry solutions and covered with elongated eaves. In addition, this study showed that thanks to available sources, it was possible to re-establish the original form of the two mosques, which had since been altered.

Newcomb-Benford law analysis on COVID-19 daily infection cases and deaths in Indonesia and Malaysia

Each country has been racing to contain the spread of COVID-19. The published data of daily infection and death cases can be used to measure the effectiveness of the control interventions. We focus our study in two Southeast Asia countries: Indonesia and Malaysia during period between March and November 2020. Newcomb-Benford law has been commonly used to analyze the probabilities of the first significant digits in natural occurrences since the late 19th century. It is a prominent statistical tool for its capability to detect frauds in datasets. A chi-squared test was recruited to quantify the closeness of the data and Newcomb-Benford law distributions. The results revealed that the distributions of daily infection and death cases in Indonesia followed Newcomb-Benford law while the opposite results were obtained for Malaysia. We have done the analysis of verifying the daily COVID-19 infection and death cases in Indonesia and Malaysia using Newcomb-Benford law. It can be inferred that, between March and November 2020, the control interventions in Indonesia was less effective compared to Malaysia.