International Journal of Human Capital in Urban Management
Volume:5 Issue: 4, Autumn 2020

In this study, an integrated phase change material drying system was designed to evaluate the efficiency of the system with the use of renewable solar energy for different types of sludge with different moisture content.

This study was performed on the wastewater treatment plant sludge, paint, and marble sludge. By distributing the screws on the sludge tray, covering the system floor with a black trash bag, and mounting the reflector around the absorber tubes has increased the efficiency of the system.

All the types of equipment used in the construction of the system are used as heat storage material and increase the internal air temperature, and the sludge temperature of the system. Temperature is transferred sequentially through air and objects. This research was conducted in winter by 1156 Wh/m2 mean internal cumulative solar radiation. Due to the reduction of solar radiation, as the system was upgraded, more water was released from the sludge surfaces. By Scanning Electron Microscopy imaging, the porous surface was observed after sludge drying.

In this study, the waste sludge moisture decreased from 80% to 52.2% during three improvement stages. The paint sludge moisture content reduced from 56% to 25%, and marble sludge moisture in the final stage reached from 26% to 5.2%. The proposed solar dryer system is an economical way to reduce the sludge volume in the transportation process.

An emerging type of innovation that leads to dramatic improvement in management processes and methods, and at the same time promotes innovation, is entrepreneurship for preserving cleaner production. However, few studies have been conducted to examine the impact of entrepreneurial orientation, knowledge management, and market orientation on sustainable competitive advantage and cleaner production that indicates the necessity and importance of conducting such research. Therefore, the present study aimed to determine the impact of entrepreneurship, market, and knowledge management on sustainable competitive advantage and cleaner production.

 The study is a descriptive research based on the method and an applied one in terms of the purpose. The statistical sample includes 289 senior executives of small and medium enterprises which are selected by random stratified method. The Structural Equation Model was used for inferential analysis and Analytic Network Process was used for prioritization.

According to the obtained results, entrepreneurial orientation, market orientation, and knowledge management affect cleaner production with the 0.75, 0.85, and 0.51 scores, respectively, and also, cleaner production leads to improvement of competitive advantage. As a result, companies operate more successfully when using a set of strategic guidelines for cleaner production and achieve the significant development, which produce a sustainable competitive advantage over competitors. The Analytic Network Process output also indicates that the knowledge orientation got first rank with the weight of 0.307, followed by entrepreneurial orientation and market orientation with the weight of 0.229 in the second rank, and cleaner production (0.141) and sustainable competitive advantage (0.095) ranked third and fourth, respectively.

it seems that the existing knowledge of manufacturing operations is insufficient at this level to cover the rapid growth of this field, and many small and medium enterprises are still lagging behind in taking advantage of these new opportunities.

Climate change is one of the existential threats of modern times, which deserves urgent attention by policymakers. The objective of this paper is to comprehend the impact of climate change on the Gambian economy both in the short and long-run.

This paper analyses time series data from 1969 to 2016. The study incorporated rainfall and temperature as proxies of climate change into the Cobb-Douglas production function. The Augmented Dickey-Fuller and the Phillips-Perron stationarity test for unit root found that the growth rate of rainfall is not statistically significant with the Mackinnon approximate p-value for z (t) =0.2306. The first lag is significant at 5% and 10% but has a negative coefficient in the first differential up to the fourth lag. In contrast, the growth rate of temperature is statistically significant with a p-value of 0.0196.

The findings revealed that human capital growth is not significantly related to economic growth in The Gambia. In the long-run, the growth rates of climate change variables are all statistically significant and associated with a negative impact on economic growth. For the short-run, the lag difference of rainfall against its own lag is statistically significant and has a positive impact on economic growth. The lag difference in the growth rate of the Gross Domestic Product is not statistically significantly related to the growth rate of rainfall.

The Gambia is vulnerable to climate change shocks, consequently climate change will negatively impact economic growth resulting in high unemployment, low productivity, and high poverty rate.

The main objective of this paper is to propose a performance measurement framework for Iranian municipalities as a public institution.

By selecting Karaj Municipality and referring to Balanced Score-Card Methodology, an attempt has been made to provide a framework that can be used in public institutions as an efficient tool for measuring performance. The research used analytical methods and stand-alone questionnaire survey techniques, a case study approach by cross-sectional method. The research environment was the central municipality of Karaj and the relevant deputies. Content validity was used to determine the validity of the questionnaire. The reliability of the questionnaire was determined based on Cronbach's alpha. Also, the Balanced Score-Card framework is integrated with an Analytic Hierarchy Process.

The results show that through the citizenship viewpoint, the satisfaction level of personal investors and makers is almost 7 times more important than citizens’ satisfaction. The Municipality of Karaj pays more attention to the interests of the private sector than the public interests which comes from the municipality money making target. The improved implemented projects index was, through the internal processes of business, about 3 times more important than the number of new projects index. It seems more logical to focus on the process improvement plan and project management improvement. Completion of the current projects can increase the added value to Karaj municipality. Also proper performance of Information Technology unit shows the growing importance of e-government to improve the performance of municipalities and process improvement plan.

Finally, it seems a continuous process of such framework has the ability to bring together all key internal and external shareholders and rulemakings can be shaped during time and this process can be accepted by Iran’s municipal management with methodologies that compare relative importance in performance criteria.

This research attempted to analyze the negative and positive aspects of Coronavirus: its effect on air quality and traffic volume. The sample city of this research was Tehran and transportation behavior toward the Coronavirus and minor quarantines in specific.

Six indices were considered for Tehran city in two consecutive years (in quarantine period): carbon mono-oxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, particulate matters, air quality index, and daily traffic volume, which depart from Tehran city to other destinations. Daily traffic volume changes were examined for four roads separately, and total departed trips were also investigated. This comparison was made graphically and statistically by using the regression model and one-way t-test.

Results showed that from 20th February to 19th March, the average of produced CO, NO2, and PM10 decreased in 2020 compared to 2019, but other indices related to air pollution were increased in 2020. The average daily traffic in existing roads of Tehran City was declined significantly in 2020. Regression models and a one-way t-test showed that the growth rate of emission production was higher in 2019 compared to 2020. Also, this rate for daily traffic volume was higher from March 20 to April 19 of 2020 compared to 2020.

The regression model on indices showed valuable results. For instance, the O3 emission slope in the second month reduced from 0.6 to 0.5; however, the exiting traffic of Tehran city reduced by 47 percent that indicates the higher resident population of Tehran city compare to the last year.

Solid wastes are composed of organic and inorganic pollutants (heavy metals) that can contaminate soil, underground and surface water; resulting in serious health challenges to humans. The bioavailability of cadmium, chromium, copper, lead and nickel on dumpsite soils, were investigated during the wet and dry seasons of 2018 by a sequential extraction method (Tessier).

The soils were sampled from eight points within each of two dumpsites in Ilisan-Remo, Ogun State. Top soil of 0–15 cm depth was sampled, air-dried and sieved. The extracted soil samples were analysed for heavy metal concentrations using flame atomic absorption spectrometer.

In the dumpsite soils examined, cadmium, chromium, copper and lead were majorly bound to the residual fractions at the first and second dumpsites, respectively for both seasons with mean concentrations (mg/kg) of: Cd – 0.65 ± 0.12  and 1.20 ± 0.07, Cr – 36.83 ± 5.70  and 26.83 ± 3.57, Cu – 28.37 ± 3.69  and 8.04 ± 0.32, Pb – 12.40 ± 2.34 and 14.11 ± 2.44, but Ni was found mainly in the Fe-Mn oxide fraction during the wet season, with mean concentrations (mg/kg) of 6.22 ± 1.33 and 8.24 ± 0.78, for dumpsites A and B, respectively. The values obtained for these metals were higher during the dry season than a wet season and there were no metals in the mobile fractions for wet season. However, cadmium and lead were found in the carbonate fraction during the dry season, resulting in their bioavailability in the soils.

The speciation results revealed that heavy metals were more bioavailable in the residual fractions. The absence of mobile fractions in the soils indicated that metals are not bioavailable for plants uptake at present condition; hence, the metals obtained are of geogenic rather than anthropogenic origin.

As the population grows on the earth, transport and industrial sector have become the main parameters whose emissions increase pollutants like greenhouse gasses that have a snowballing impact on urban air quality and life in the area. This study aims to analyze the emission of greenhouse gases in the highly urbanized city of Karachi through Geographic information technique.

This study used the Inverse distance weighted technique of Geographic information system to highlight the emission of greenhouse gases in ten different sites of Karachi, Pakistan. Target areas include Baloch colony, Clifton, Civic center, Garden police headquarters, II Chundrigar, Karimabad, Korangi, Nazimabad, SITE area and SUPARCO.

Results showed that Baloch colony, Korangi, Nazimabad, SITE area and Garden police headquarter lies in the highly polluted areas among these ten sites of Karachi city. Karimabad with moderate pollution, II Chundriger and SUPARCO with low pollution rate and Clifton had very low pollution.

As all of the observed ten sites of the city have dense populations with heavy traffic and industrial pollution, there is a need to take serious steps towards areas indicated in this study to safeguard the people from the effects of GHG emission.  With the help of this study the general population and all concerned authorities with highly polluted areas, can be familiarized so that efficient and different ways to overcome the pollution, like plantation, can be applied.

Entrepreneurship has become mandatory for different societies because not only does entrepreneurship make it possible for individuals to access the financial resources generated by the idea but it also facilitates the development of a country by solving problems in a new way. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to explore and determine the relationship between entrepreneurial skills on job performance of managers and deputies working in the municipalities of Hormozgan province located in the south of Iran.

The present study is a descriptive-practical correlation in terms of how data was collected. The collected data were based on the quantitative research method used to measure job performance by means of the Standard 15 Questionnaire. For evaluating the entrepreneurship skills, the 20 researcher-made questionnaire with 20 statements was used based on the research literature. The statistical population of the study consisted of 350 managers and deputy mayors of Hormozgan province. By applying the Cochran's formula, 182 people were selected as the statistical sample. Data analysis was performed by means of SmartPLS3 software.

The results of the research indicate positive relationships among entrepreneurial (3.695), managerial (5.680) and technical (7.369) skills concerning job performance. Therefore, these hypotheses were confirmed and, on the contrary, the hypothesis related to the relationship between personal skills and job performance (1.774) was rejected.

According to the findings, the development of the relationship between entrepreneurial skills on job performance of managers and deputy mayors of Hormozgan province improves the competitive performance of organizations.