The use of cement concrete as a stronger and more durable material than asphalt concrete in construction of the pavements has been increased during the past decades. This review paper investigates the effect of various input variables for the design of continuously reinforced concrete pavements. A literature review is prepared based on the efforts performed by many researchers to investigate the effect of different factors including temperature change, shrinkage, material properties of the concrete, and concrete slab/ subbase bond properties on the displacements and stresses in the concrete slab. It is found that the important role of concrete slab/ subbase bond strength has not been investigated properly as compared to other input variables.

In this paper, an imperfect production inventory system with multi-production run for single vendor and single buyer is studied where the defective items are reworked after several production processes and there is no break down during the rework process. The model is considered for deteriorating items under two delivery policies in order to determine the delivery policy leading to the minimum holding cost of system. The objective of this model is to determine the optimal production setup, number of deliveries and lot size by minimizing the total relevant cost of the proposed vendor-buyer integrated system. To minimize the manufacturer’s and buyer’s holding cost, the supply of finished products are made in small quantities. The total relevant cost of the vendor and the buyer is derived and a numerical example is presented to demonstrate the utility of the model.

In this study, the behavior of two buildings designed with steel structures Buckling Restrained Braced (BRB) and conventional bending frame was studied to analyze their strengths against progressive collapse. The structures were designed and analyzed in accordance with Iranian regulation No. 2800 for the design of buildings. Using nonlinear static pushover analysis, the performance of the structure after removal of the center and the corner columns were investigated and it was demonstrated that removing the corner column provides more critical conditions for the investigated buildings. Furthermore, the use of BRB elements provides better performance for the analyzed buildings due to the ability of BRB in absorbing and dissipating more energy induced from the external loading sources like the earthquake.

This article presents a broad review of Hub location problem (HLP), and its applications. The goal of this article is to provide a review on the newest and most recent publications on Hub location and its application in real world practices since 2013. While, there are some articles which reviewed hub location problem literature but some models were not covered in those articles. In this paper, we try to include capacitated models. We survey advances in analysis and modeling of the hub location problem including its variants and solution algorithm of HLPs. We emphasize the most applicable areas for Marine Transpiration. We show that first, majority of the articles consider network domain, while there are some articles which execute HLP in discrete and continuous domain. Also, the capacitated case attracts more attention in recent years. Finally, the contribution of any type of HLP in the literature is shown schematically.

The novel funding sources turn out to be important for the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) sector all over the world especially after 2007-2008 world financial crisis. Thus, to develop a new business idea and start-ups, SMEs need a sufficient amount of capital. However, after the financial crisis in 2008, SME sector faced the challenges of attracting new capital. Therefore, an innovative method of fundraising for SME was introduced as crowdfunding. Crowdfunding indicates financing a project or an idea via the internet owing the help from the many investors or donors of a society. Since there are limited works about the influence of Crowdfunding on Entrepreneur Self-efficacy (ESE), hence, to minimize the research gap and to achieve the objective of the study, we conduct a quantitative research among 190 entrepreneurs in Bangladesh using crowdfunding based on Social Cognitive theory. The data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) in IBM-SPSS-Amos 25.0 and the stated hypotheses were tested. The study found a direct and positive effect of Crowdfunding on Entrepreneur’s Self-efficacy (β=0.924, P=.001). Overall, the result has landed support for crowdfunding, which indicates that it can influence on self-efficacy of entrepreneur. In order to determine the need of crowdfunding, we have explained and statistically demonstrated how crowdfunding can provide a supplementary channel where firms can gain finance and to create self-efficacy of entrepreneurs through exploiting the potential of internet.

Although several prior research projects have focused on the factors that impact on the adoption of information technology, there are limited empirical research works that simultaneously capture technology factors (UTAUT2) and customer specific factors (perceived technology security and intention to recommend) helping users adopt internet banking. Thus, the current study aims to develop an integrated technology adoption model with extended UTAUT model and perceived technology security to predict and explain user’s intention to adopt internet banking and intention to recommend internet banking in social networks. A quantitative approach based survey was conducted to collect the data from 398 internet banking users. For statistical analysis, structural equation model (SEM) approach was used. Convergence and divergence with earlier findings were found, confirming that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, hedonic motivation and perceived technology security had significant influence on user’s intention to adopt internet banking. Additionally, IPMA analysis show that among all constructs hedonic motivation and perceived technology security had the highest impact on user’s intention to adopt internet banking. For researcher, this study provides a basis for further refinement of technology adoption model while for practitioner improving security factor (perceived technology security) may turn users towards adoption of internet banking.

This study perused the impact of E-banking services on customer satisfaction of selected bank customers in bank branches located in Challenge, Dugbe, Agbeni, Gbagi, Ojoo, and Secretariat districts in Ibadan metropolis. The study employed a cross-sectional survey design and convenience sampling technique. One hundred (100) bank customers were surveyed through a self-report questionnaire. Four research questions and two hypotheses were tested using Pearson correlation analysis and, t-test for independence at p≤ 0.05. The results revealed high utilization of electronic banking products (ATM (98%), internet banking (85%), electronic transfer (97%). Constraints experienced include internet network failure, bank fraud and business loss due to failed e-transactions. Customers were satisfied with e-banking due to its cashless nature, cash accessibility, saves time from bank visitation and seamless transactions. The study exhibited that customers used and were glad with e-banking products. Customers’ segmentation and more investment in e-banking infrastructure were advised for promoting electronic banking services.

The general objective of this study is to examine the relationship among financial accountability, ethical issues and organizational citizenship behaviour, in a national economic system. The null hypothesis of the study examined the inverted trajectories of the variables. The work is situated within the context of Nigeria’s national economy, which typifies a fragile economic system. We have argued in the work that the fragility of the Nigerian national economic system (which is representative of similar economies among developing nations) is a function of its input-output processes. The study essentially finds that to reverse the trend of fragility in an economic system (a national economic system) in the context of developing economies, the issues of financial accountability, ethical questions and great organizational citizenship behaviour must in their combinatory format, be elevated to the status of a national imperative. We found in the work, that ethical regeneration is antecedent to institutional reform, in the schemata of mechanisms, for reversing the tendency of fragility, in troubled economic systems, classifiable as developing or underdeveloped.

The productivity of labor and wages are two important variables in the market. Identification of the relationship between the labor and the wages can help policymakers and employers make important decisions about workers' wages. This research uses the statistical data from 1974 to 2014 in Iran to explore the effect of the total labor productivity as well as the productivity of skilled and unskilled labor on the wage level. The results of the research in the long-run indicate that, for the case of skilled and unskilled labor productivity, skilled labor productivity maintained a negative effect on the wage level and the unskilled labor productivity had a positive effect on the wage level. In addition, the total labor productivity had a positive impact on the wage level; the results also indicate that the level of education had a positive impact on the wage level and the impact of government size on the level of wage was negative and statistically insignificant.

Accounting plays a very crucial role in the management and success or failure of most organizations. As a system, automated information system records and processes data of transaction and events into useful information for use in planning, controlling and operation of businesses. Kenya is a growing economy, and the global pressure has forced it to embrace E-Governance practices. As a result, ways to improve their operations have been placed. This study aimed at establishing the effect of implementing Automated Information Systems (AIS) on the County Government’s operations. The County operations were classified in terms of transparency and record keeping as well as supervision while the AIS was operationalized in terms of the Zizi System, the County Pro System and the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS). This study employed complete enumeration survey method to collect data from all the twelve sub-counties in Kiambu, Kenya. The respondents were the IT managers, Financial Officers, and the Revenue Officers. Multiple regression was used to test the effect of AIS on the Kenya County Governments’ operation. The findings of this study indicate that implementing the Automated Information Systems had a significant positive effect on the county government’s operations.