SOCIAL ECONOMY ENTITIES IN SHAPING SOCIAL POLICY – DIFFERENT ROLES AND AREAS OF INFLUENCE

This paper analyses a myriad of roles played by the social economy entities in selected sub-areas of social policy, such as family and foster care support, senior citizen policy or prevention of poverty and social exclusion. The author points out the role of social economy entities in programming and implementation, monitoring and evaluation of performance, analysis of challenges and development scenarios, and advocacy for the rights and interests of various groups in need of social policy support.

Nusselt Number and Friction Factor Correlations Development for Arc-Shape Apex Upstream Artificial Roughness in Solar Air Heater

In the present work an outdoor experimental investigation for solar air heater with arc-shaped apex-upstream flow by the use of circular cross section wires as roughness elements has been carried out. The roughness-element have been expressed in non-dimensionalizing geometric parameters as relative roughness-pitch (P/e), relative roughness-height (e/D) and flow attack-angle (α/60), and the range of these parameters varies from 8 to 15, 0.0454, and 0.75 to 1.25, respectively. For evaluation of performance of the roughened SAH, a novel parameter has been proposed and introduced in the present investigation which is Thermo-Hydraulic Improvement Parameter (THIP). With the use of present roughness geometry, considerably Nusselt number enhancement ratio (NNER) and friction factor enhancement ratio (FFER) have been observed. The maximum NNER and FFER values obtained experimentally is about 2.83 and 1.79 times, respectively. While, the maximum THIP has been obtained 157.49% higher than the smooth SAH. Using the experimental results correlations for the output parameters (Nusselt number and friction factor) as a function of input parameters (flow and roughness) have been developed.

Improving the Performance Management of Public Institutions: Is it Difficult to Measure Performance in Public Institutions?

In recent years, measuring the performance of public institutions has become a topic much studied by researchers, as questions arise about its structure and role in the economy and society, whether it is effectively put in the public service and whether it is effective or not. To improve the management system, there is a need to introduce a performance management whose main goal is the evaluation of performance at individual and organizational level along with the improvement of the efficiency of public expenditures and the orientation towards achieving the results. This paper aims to highlight the importance of performance measurement and explain the role of it in the development of the public institutions. The results were obtained after analyzing numerous qualitative and quantitative data and an extensive research was conducted to filter the information found in various research platforms, official electronic resources and numerous books related to performance management, performance evaluation system, characteristics and possible barriers that may occur while trying to measure the performance in the public sector. Moreover, since public sector performance is closely linked to the overall economic performance of different countries this research paper comes to complete the existing literature, leaving room for further research on the topic discussed.

Signal Processing and Classification for Electroencephalography Based Motor Imagery Brain Computer Interface

Brain Computer Interface (BCI) is a fast growing area of research to enable communication between our brains and computers. EEG based motor imagery BCI involves the user imagining movement, the subsequent recording and signal processing on the electroencephalogram signals from the brain, and the translation of those signals into specific commands. Ultimately, motor imagery BCI has the potential to be applied to helping those with special abilities recover motor control. This paper presents an evaluation of performance for EEG based motor imagery BCI with a classification accuracy of 80.2%, making use of features extracted using the Fast Fourier Transform and the Discrete Wavelet Transform, and classification is done using an Artificial Neural Network. It goes on to conclude how the performance is affected by the particular feature sets and neural network parameters.

Numerical simulation to analyze the physical behavior of centrifugal pumps as a turbine

In this research, a methodology based on the development of numerical simulations is proposed to analyze the physical behavior of centrifugal pumps such as a turbine. Numerical simulations were carried out using OpenFOAM software. For the validation of the numerical model, the construction of an experimental test bench was carried out. The analysis carried out involves the evaluation of performance parameters of the pump as a turbine, such as head, power, and efficiency. Additionally, the effect of the rotation speed on the previous parameters is evaluated. From the results obtained, it was shown that the maximum relative error was 4%, 3.4%, and 3.8% for the head, power, and efficiency parameters, respectively. In general, it was evidenced that the proposed numerical simulation has the ability to describe the real trends of the pump as a turbine for different flow conditions. In addition, an 11% increase in rotational speed was shown to cause a 12%, 1.9%, and 3% increase in head, power, and maximum efficiency. The proposed methodology is considered an adequate tool to analyze performance and identify the best efficiency point of pump systems such as a turbine. In this way, greater energy use is guaranteed.