Empirical Investigation of Treatment of Sour Gas by Novel Technology: Energy Optimization

The sour gas sweetening is one of the main processes in gas industries. Gas sweetening is done through chemical processes. Therefore, it requires high cost and energy. The results show that increasing the operating temperature increases the mass transfer coefficient and increases the mass transfer rate. Theoretical and experimental data show that sulfur removal in 4.5 W magnetic field is desirable. The increase in sulfur removal percentage in the magnetic field of 4.5 W and 6.75 W is about 16.4% and 15.2%, respectively. According to the obtained results, the effect of temperature increase from 18.8°C to 23.4°C is more evident than the effect of temperature change from 23.4°C to 32.2°C. Because more thermal energy is needed to provide higher temperatures. Therefore, the temperature of 23.4°C is reported as the optimal temperature. The results of this research show that the percentage of sulfur removal is also high at this temperature.

Financial Effectiveness of Greek Municipalities： An Empirical Investigation

Municipalities are autonomous economic and administrative entities, with common actions and responsibilities. Moreover, all Municipalities are quite different considering specific characteristics, such as geographic, demographic, and economic. The aim of this research is to separate the entire sample of Municipalities in Greece into categories, based on the effectiveness of financial management and financial performance into effective and ineffective ones. For the separation of the sample into groups, cluster analysis was preferred. For this reason, three variables were used： the lending capacity of the Municipality, flexibility in making non-investment costs, and flexibility in investment spending. These three variables were considered to be the key dimensions of effectiveness in financial management and therefore their use, representatively describes the effectiveness of Greek Municipalities. Thus, this paper presents the literature review of the financial effectiveness of Municipalities and the methodology of an empirical research through structured questionnaire that was sent to the entire population of Greek Municipalities, characterized in this way with considerable heterogeneity. In this way, it investigates the views of Mayors in the two categories of Municipalities （effective and non effective financial management and financial performance） as regards： （a） the biggest problems faced by the citizens in their Municipality, and （b） the biggest personnel problems faced by their Municipality. Concluding, the prioritization of both problems seems to be the same for both groups of Municipalities. The frequency of responses differs slightly and differences are not so large that financial performance can be considered to affect respondents＇ opinions.

Estimating network effects in China’s mobile telecommunications

A model is proposed along with empirical investigation to prove the existence of network effects in China’s mobile telecommunications market. Futhernore, network effects on China’s mobile telecommunications are estimated with a dynamic model. The structural parameters are identified from regression coefficients and the results are analyzed and compared with another literature. Data and estimation issues are also discussed. Conclusions are drawn that network effects are significant in China’s mobile telecommunications market, and that ignoring network effects leads to bad policy making.

Financial Effectiveness and Areas of Improvement in Greek Municipalities

The aim of this research is to separate the entire sample of Municipalities in Greece into categories, based on the effectiveness of financial management and financial performance into effective and ineffective ones. In this study, it investigated the existence of differences between the characteristics of these two categories. The main objective is to investigate the influence of financial effectiveness regarding those areas falling under state jurisdiction with the greatest room for improvement. Specifically, in Municipalities with ineffective financial management, local employment was notably considered to be the area with the greatest margin for improvement. Additionally, 21% of mayors of Municipalities with effective fmancial management consider that the state area of responsibility with the greatest capacity for improvement is that of attracting private investment. Moreover, the influence of financial effectiveness regarding the areas of competence of Greek Municipalities with the greatest room for improvement has a similar pattern. According to responses from mayors in Municipalities with ineffective fmancial administration, the areas of competence with the greatest room for improvement are provision and maintenance of infrastructure （23% of responses） and attraction of private investment （19% of responses）. Accordingly, responses from mayors in Municipalities with the highest financial performance indicate that the areas of competence with the greatest room for improvement are provision and maintenance of infrastructure （21% of responses） and attraction of private investment （20% of responses）.

Separating Municipalities Regarding Their Financial Performance Evidence From Greece

Municipalities are autonomous economic and administrative entities, with common actions and responsibilities. Additionally, all Municipalities are quite different considering specific characteristics, such as geographic, demographic, and economic. The aim of this research is to separate the entire sample of Municipalities in Greece into categories, based on the effectiveness of financial management and financial performance into effective and ineffective ones. This investigation is substantial because it is very interesting in-depth observation of current situation of the financial management capabilities of Municipalities, and additionally because it is crucial to extract the differences in specific characteristics between economical efficient and inefficient Municipalities. For the separation of the sample into groups, cluster analysis was preferred. For this reason, three variables were used： the lending capacity of the municipality, flexibility in making non-investment costs, and flexibility in investment spending. These three variables were considered to be the key dimensions of effectiveness in financial management and therefore their use, representatively describes the effectiveness or not of Greek Municipalities. In this study, it investigated the existence of differences between the characteristics of these two categories. The features are ＂how Municipalities are working with specialist consultants＂ and ＂how Municipalities are using modem technologies＂. The main objective is to investigate the influence of these two characteristics in the efficiency of managing financial resources.

Critical Success Factors to Improve the Game Development Process from a Developer＇s Perspective

The growth of the software game development industry is enormous and is gaining importance day by day. This growth imposes severe pressure and a number of issues and challenges on the game development community. Game development is a complex process, and one important game development choice is to consider the developer＇s perspective to produce good-quality software games by improving the game development process. The objective of this study is to provide a better understanding of the developer＇s dimension as a factor in software game success. It focuses mainly on an empirical investigation of the effect of key developer＇s factors on the software game development process and eventually on the quality of the resulting game. A quantitative survey was developed and conducted to identify key developer＇s factors for an enhanced game development process. For this study, the developed survey was used to test the research model and hypotheses. The results provide evidence that game development organizations must deal with multiple key factors to remain competitive and to handle high pressure in the software game industry. The main contribution of this paper is to investigate empirically the influence of key developer＇s factors on the game development process.