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Found 6407 publications

Implications of Financial Literacy on Pawnshop Usage

Omar A. Guirette-Barbosa Selene Castañeda-Burciaga Csongor Czipf Absalón J. Salmerón-Zapata José G. Vargas-Hernandez

Publication Name: Policy Implications on International Financial Economics and Banking

Publication Date: 2025-01-01

Volume: Unknown

Issue: Unknown

Page Range: 441-464

Description:

This chapter aims to analyze financial literacy implications on pawnshop usage. The analysis departs from the assumption that individuals and micro-organizations lacking financial literacy and lower opportunities to have access to short-term credit provided by formal financing and banking institutions, are more likely to use pawnshops to get easily and fastest financial resources urgently needed for survival, living expenses and other required matters. The method used is the semi-structured interviews to borrowers followed by meta-analysis and meta-cognitive approaches based on conceptual, theoretical and empirical literature review. The chapter concludes that the financial literacy of undeserved individuals and micro-organizations, tend to reduce their access to formal financial and banking institutions to get credit, driving them to use pawnshops.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.4018/979-8-3373-3725-8.ch015

Stability of Fixed-Point Values in Reduced Fuzzy Cognitive Map Models

Miklós F. Hatwágner Laszlo T. Koczy

Publication Name: Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing

Publication Date: 2021-01-01

Volume: 393

Issue: Unknown

Page Range: 359-372

Description:

The authors have already presented their method for reducing oversized FCM models, and also have analyzed the prediction error of the reduced models. These investigations assumed that models have a single fixed-point attractor. The novelty of this paper is that it deals with the stability behavior of the fixed-point attractor value of original-reduced model pairs and compares the number of fixed-point attractors found, the asymptotic values of the concepts, and also checks if any limit cycles or chaotic behavior occur. The method of comparison and also the first results made with two real-life and one synthetic model are presented and some conclusions are taken.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-47124-8_29

Experimental Study on Vibration Transmissibility of Pre-loaded XPE and PE Packaging Cushioning Material

Péter Böröcz Péter Csavajda

Publication Name: Fme Transactions

Publication Date: 2021-01-01

Volume: 49

Issue: 4

Page Range: 962-968

Description:

Most of the shipped products are sensitive against shock and vibration events during the distribution. Various cushioning materials are usually used to prevent the product damages. During the design process the protective packaging system is developed by the engineers based on the cushion and vibration transmissibility features (ie. cushion curve) of the material used. However, after the assembly of the packaged-product, these are stored for various long periods in warehouse. During this time the products pre-load the cushioning material and its parameters can be changed. The main goal of this study is to evaluate the vibration transmissibility of PE and XPE cushioning material at varied storage (preloaded) time and static load conditions. Four different kinds of duration (1 hour, 10 hours, 100 hours and 1000 hours) were used for the pre-loading period at three different static loads (3.488 kPa, 4.651 kPa, and 6.976 kPa), and then at 0.5 oct/min sine sweep vibration the peak frequencies of response and vibration transmissibility, and damping ratio were determined. The results show that the effect of pre-loading is minimal by PE material, but can influence the resonance frequencies by XPE cushioning material. The findings of this study help the packaging engineers to understand better the mechanism of these cushioning materials and to design suitable protective packaging systems.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.5937/FME2104962C

A Pilot Study of the Effect of Locomotor and Mechanical Loads on Elite Rowers During Competition Days

Ferenc Ihász Robert Podstawski Johanna Takács Antonio Ferraz István Barthalos Lili Kósa Zsolt Bálint Katona Bożena Hinca Zoltán Alföldi

Publication Name: Sports

Publication Date: 2025-08-01

Volume: 13

Issue: 8

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

(1) Background: Fatigue impacts neuromuscular performance, especially in endurance sports like rowing. The aim is to explore how continuous workload affects explosiveness and fatigue progression. This study examines acute fatigue during repeated race events by assessing vertical jump height, force output, and subjective fatigue over three consecutive days at the 2024 Hungarian National Rowing Championships. (2) Methods: Nine rowers (five women, four men; mean age 20.17 ± 1.73 years) competed in multiple 2000 m races over three days. Lower limb explosiveness was measured via countermovement jump (CMJ) using a Kistler force plate, pre- and post-race. Heart rate data were recorded with Polar Team Pro®. Subjective fatigue was assessed using the ‘Daily Wellness Questionnaire’. (3) Results: We found a significant difference in the pattern of the medians of the force exerted by males during the jump between the results of the Thursday preliminaries (ThuQMe = 13.3) and the second final (ThuF2Me = −75.5). Women showed no notable changes. (4) Conclusion: Repeated high-intensity races induce neuromuscular fatigue in men, reflected in reduced explosiveness and increased subjective fatigue. Future research should incorporate biochemical markers to deepen the understanding of fatigue mechanisms.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.3390/sports13080254

A Rough Number-Based Copula-Dombi Aggregation Framework for Selection of Agile Methods for Software Development Projects

Jurate Sliogeriene Seifedine Kadry Prasenjit Chatterjee Abhijit Saha Bibhas Chandra Giri

Publication Name: Informatica Netherlands

Publication Date: 2026-06-01

Volume: 37

Issue: 2

Page Range: 489-515

Description:

Agile methodology follows the Agile Manifesto, encompassing principles, frameworks, and tools for implementation. Selecting an appropriate agile method is a complex multi-criteria decision problem. To address uncertainty objectively, this study employs rough number theory, while Copula-Dombi aggregation operators preserve information and capture interrelationships. A group decision-making framework is developed, with criteria weights derived using cross-entropy and dispersion measures. A case study is conducted to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed framework. The results indicate Dynamic System Development Model as the most suitable method, while project vision and customer involvement emerged as the most influential criteria, demonstrating robustness and practical relevance.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.15388/26-INFOR630

Special reinforcement solutions of railway permanent ways’ soil substructures

Muayad Habashneh

Publication Name: Acta Technica Jaurinensis

Publication Date: 2021-08-25

Volume: 14

Issue: 3

Page Range: 339-363

Description:

This mini review aims to summarize relevant international publications. Thus, based on this, giving a comprehensive review about the reinforcement solutions of permanent ways' soil substructure. Generally, the core weakness of soil is its inadequacy to resist tensile stresses. The main target of strengthening the soil is to enhance the engineering characteristics of the soil to build up specific parameters such as shear strength, compressibility, density, and hydraulic conductivity. In addition, special reinforcement techniques of railway permanent ways' soil substructures will be considered in this paper due to the increasing demand of improving railways and rehabilitation process. The main findings of this study that there are a lot of special reinforcement techniques which can be considered as effective solution for soil stabilization such as geosynthetic reinforcement.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.14513/actatechjaur.00612

Estimation of Thermodynamic and Emission Characteristics of a Sustainable Hydrogen-Gasoline Engine Through Simulation

András Lajos Nagy Péter Németh György Marton Barna Hanula

Publication Name: Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems

Publication Date: 2025-01-01

Volume: 1345 LNNS

Issue: Unknown

Page Range: 21-32

Description:

Hydrogen is expected to play a significant role in mobility and transportation as a form of energy source. To assess the effects of hydrogen as a gradual replacement fuel for internal combustion engines, a preliminary 1D thermodynamic simulation was carried out using AVL Boost for 0 vol%, 4 vol% and 8 vol% hydrogen content. Calculations were based on independently published research results, and focused on peak firing temperature (PFT), brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC), nitrous oxide emission (NOx), and carbon monoxide (CO) emission values. Results showed a decrease in BSFC of up to 3 g/kWh and ca. 5 mg/kWh decrease in CO emission with 8 vol% hydrogen, but also highlight an increase of PFT by 14 K, and ca. 0.5 g/kWh additional NOx production at high loads.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-87620-2_3

A Learning Factory Environment for Human–Robot Collaboration-Based Remanufacturing Supported by Artificial Intelligence Solutions

Imre Paniti Zsolt Kemény Mátyás Hajós János Nacsa

Publication Name: Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems

Publication Date: 2025-01-01

Volume: 1546 LNNS

Issue: Unknown

Page Range: 296-303

Description:

In contrast to one-way assembly of products, simple disassembly and more complex remanufacturing present additional challenges and unknowns on several levels, often requiring human capabilities to be combined with machines—thereby becoming a rewarding deployment field for human–robot collaboration, supported by artificial intelligence, advanced planning and extended reality for improved human–machine interrelations. While the industry has realized little benefit of these—still evolving—areas, learning factories can contribute to closing gaps in skills and mindset of future engineers likely to actively shape the aforementioned fields at the time they begin to notably penetrate industrial production. The paper proposes an approach for building up a portfolio of learning factory resources supporting students in acquiring and independently refining knowledge and practice related to collaborative remanufacturing. The paper presents an incremental approach extending manufacturing knowledge to diagnostics and disassembly in collaborative environments, with an outlook on more comprehensive remanufacturing.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-98883-7_36

Minimum of Constrained OWA Aggregation Problem with a Single Constraint

Lucian Coroianu Robert Fuller

Publication Name: Lecture Notes in Computer Science Including Subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics

Publication Date: 2019-01-01

Volume: 11291 LNAI

Issue: Unknown

Page Range: 183-192

Description:

In a recent paper we found an analytical formula for the constrained ordered weighted aggregation problem (OWA) when we need to maximize the objective function. In this note we prove that the method works in the case when we need to minimize the objective function. If in the case of the maximization problem we need to rearrange the coefficients in the constrained in nondecreasing order, for the nontrivial minimization problem, it suffice to rearrange them in nonincreasing order.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-12544-8_15