Smart Manufacturing and Jobs

The proper use of new technologies, together with a good management of these by the workers, makes the workplace become a melting pot of new ideas, where professional development and motivation [1] make a difference with past and present times where monotonous and repetitive work was the constant. With the use of artificial intelligence, the cloud and big data, a set of intelligent sensors is necessary, which can monitor a critical variable within the production line, which requires an encrypted communication infrastructure and with information that can be monitored in real time, which allows a better performance of the company, making it a more pleasant place for staff and with working conditions that help to overcome them when performing complex tasks. Due to the educational level that many of the workers currently have and the fact of being born in a technified society, it causes them to be more interested in carrying out activities where they develop their creativity and skills, resulting in economic and psychological well-being.

Kleptocracy and Foreign Loan Decision-Making Process: Insights From Malaysia's Deals and Renegotiations With China

One the largest cases of kleptocracy is attributed to the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal involving the former Malaysian Prime Minister, Najib Razak. As a result of the pressure to pay the debt, Najib signed multiple inflated infrastructure loans from China in 2016. This study analyses the manipulation of Public Service Bargains as a critical variable influencing the foreign loan decision-making of the kleptocrat leader. It concludes that Najib's manipulation strategies transformed the established Trustee-type to kleptocratic-type bargains in Malaysia's foreign loan decision-making process. The post-Najib's restoration of Trustee-type bargains under the new Malaysian government, followed by a series of successful renegotiations with China, attest to the significance of the Public Service Bargains system on the foreign loan decision-making process. This analysis also contributes to the wider discussion on the critical side of China's Belt and Road Initiative amidst a global call for good governance.

Treasury Single Account And Financial Discipline: A Causality Analysis

Government revenue is the most critical variable that determines the level of expenditure, investment and growth of the economy. This study assessed the pre government revenue and the post government revenue generation outcomes using Treasury Single Account’s effective year of implementation as the baseline in Nigeria. The study sought to assess whether or not government revenue had changed significantly on the adoption of TSA. To drive this objective, government revenues were collated for 2010 – 2014 (pre TSA) and 2015-2019 (post TSA) from the Statistical Bulletin of the Central Bank of Nigeria. The study applied the paired sampled t-test to determine whether or not government revenue had increased significantly in the post TSA years of adoption. Findings showed that there is a significant increase in government revenue after the adoption of TSA in Nigeria. Following this finding, the study recommended that internal control system should be strengthened in government Ministries and Parastatals to forestall revenue leakages, and that public servants should be properly trained on the efficient application of TAS software. Also, the federal government should put in place Budget Monitoring Group to constantly monitor revenue targets and control expenditure limits.

Indirect estimate of in loco moisture via normative mineralogy calculation with correction of seasonal effect on itabirite (banded iron formation) of the Pico complex, Quadrilátero Ferrífero, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Moisture is a critical variable in iron-ore processing, handling and transportation. During beneficiation, excessive moisture may lead to screen and chute clogging. In transportation, moisture values above transportable moisture limit may cause cargo instabilities, especially in regard to vessels. Moisture is a non-stationary variable that depends on spatial and time distributions. Therefore, classical estimate methods such as ordinary kriging are not appropriate to calculate moisture values. Here, we present an extension of the Normative Mineralogy Calculation to indirectly estimate moisture, considering seasonal influence. This study in based on three iron-ore mines, Galinheiro, Pico and Sapecado. They are located in the Quadrilátero Ferrífero of Minas Gerais, Brazil, a world-class iron-ore district. The method proposed herein provides useful information that can be applied elsewhere. Our results indicate that compact ores show low moisture values with little seasonal influence, while soft ores and canga (iron-rich duricrust) are strongly influenced seasonally due to higher porosity and greater capacity of retaining water in the crystal structure of minerals, such as goethite. Moisture variations may exceed 2% along the year. Such variations are enough to preclude the beneficiation of certain iron ores during the rainy season. For this reason, moisture has been regarded as an essential variable in short-term mining. Article Highlights Moisture is a critical variable in iron-ore processing, handling and transportation. Moisture depends on spatial and time distributions; hence classical methods are not appropriate to quantitatively estimate it. This study proposes an indirectly estimate of moisture considering seasonal influence. Compact iron ores are little influenced seasonally, while soft iron ores and canga (duricrust) are strongly affected by the rainy season due to their higher porosity and greater capacity of retaining water. The seasonal effect on moisture is an essential variable that must be consider to better effectiveness of iron-ore mining sequencing and beneficiation.

The Plasticity of Our Fears: Affective Politics in the European Migration Crisis

In the field of migration politics, a dominant rhetoric argues that liberal immigration and asylum policies must be avoided because they will inevitably lead to anti-immigration backlashes that exacerbate the very conditions they were supposed to remedy. Drawing on the work of German sociologist Heinrich Popitz and empirical data on the aftereffects of the European migration crisis, the article criticizes this “rhetoric of reaction” (Albert Hirschman) for ignoring the many variables shaping the consequences of more open borders. Backlashes to immigration are real and pose a constraint for liberal immigration policies, but these backlashes are not necessarily politically successful. Societies react neither uniformly nor automatically to rising immigration. A critical variable is the fear engendered by the (real, expected, or imagined) arrival of large numbers of migrants, and this fear can be either ramped up to paranoid levels or calmed by a politics of hope aimed at restoring what Popitz called the “human openness to the world.”

Train Braking Time Variations Changing the Pressurized Air Temperature

Braking time in a moving train at standard speeds has become a critical variable that increasingly concerns the industry. The present paper discusses the possible option of temperature variation to cut down the response time of the whole pneumatic braking system in a train installation. A pneumatic system, considered equivalent to the system existing in a real train, was experimentally analyzed to account for the time and characteristics of a sonic pressure wave moving in the pipes. The available system behavior was compared for two different air temperatures. The obtained results point to a relevant temperature effect on the pressure wave transmission, which may promote time or distance shortening in a standard braking process. Although in the experimental campaign only two initial temperatures could be set, the study shows a possible research path for future improvements. A parallel theoretical calculation corrected by the effect of the relevant elements in the pipes was performed to allow a comparison with the experiments.