Search results for: quality cost

Authors: S. Hameed, S. Anwer, M. Saad, M. Saady

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For autonomic recovery with server virtualization, a cogent plan that includes recovery techniques and backups with virtualized servers can be developed instead of assigning an idle server to backup operations. In addition to hardware cost reduction and data center trail, the disaster recovery plan can ensure system uptime and to meet objectives of high availability, recovery time, recovery point, server provisioning, and quality of services. This autonomic solution would also support disaster management, testing, and development of the recovery site. In this research, a workflow plan is proposed for supporting disaster recovery with virtualization providing virtual monitoring, requirements engineering, solution decision making, quality testing, and disaster management. This recovery model would make disaster recovery a lot easier, faster, and less error prone.

Keywords: autonomous intelligence, disaster recovery, cloud computing, server virtualization

Procedia PDF Downloads 139

Authors: S. P. Koko, K. Kusakana, H. J. Vermaak

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Standalone micro-hydrokinetic river (MHR) system is one of the promising technologies to be used for remote rural electrification. It simply requires the flow of water instead of elevation or head, leading to expensive civil works. This paper demonstrates an economic benefit offered by a standalone MHR system when compared to the commonly used standalone systems such as solar, wind and diesel generator (DG) at the selected study site in Kwazulu Natal. Wind speed and solar radiation data of the selected rural site have been taken from national aeronautics and space administration (NASA) surface meteorology database. The hybrid optimization model for electric renewable (HOMER) software was used to determine the most feasible solution when using MHR, solar, wind or DG system to supply 5 rural houses. MHR system proved to be the best cost-effective option to consider at the study site due to its low cost of energy (COE) and low net present cost (NPC).

Keywords: economic analysis, micro-hydrokinetic, rural-electrification, cost of energy (COE), net present cost (NPC)

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Authors: Hninn Thiri Naing

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In Myanmar, there are many regions that are far away from the national grid. For these areas, isolated regional micro-grids are one of the solutions. The study area in this paper is also operating in such way. The main difficulty in such regions is the high cost of electrical energy. This paper will be approached to cost-effective or cost-optimization by energy planning with renewable energy resources and natural gas. Micro-grid will be set up for performance in the Dawei region since it is economic zone in lower Myanmar and so far from national grids. The required metrological and geographical data collections are done. Currently, the status is electric unit rate is higher than the other. For microgrid planning and optimization, Homer Pro-software is employed in this research.

Keywords: energy planning, renewable energy, homer pro, cost of energy

Procedia PDF Downloads 109

Authors: Martin Cai, Khadijah B. Hashim, Leng Leo, Edmund F. Tian

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Analysis of traditional Chinese medicinal (TCM) supplements has always been a laborious task, particularly in the case of multi‐ingredient formulations. Traditionally, herbal extracts are analysed using one or few markers compounds. In the recent years, however, pharmaceutical companies are introducing health supplements of TCM active ingredients to cater to the needs of consumers in the fast-paced society in this age. As such, new problems arise in the aspects of composition identification as well as quality analysis. In most cases of products or supplements formulated with multiple TCM herbs, the chemical composition, and nature of each raw material differs greatly from the others in the formulation. This results in a requirement for individual analytical processes in order to identify the marker compounds in the various botanicals. Thin-layer Chromatography (TLC) is a simple, cost effective, yet well-regarded method for the analysis of natural products, both as a Pharmacopeia-approved method for identification and authentication of herbs, and a great analytical tool for the discovery of chemical compositions in herbal extracts. Recent technical advances introduced High-Performance TLC (HPTLC) where, with the help of automated equipment and improvements on the chromatographic materials, both the quality and reproducibility are greatly improved, allowing for highly standardised analysis with greater details. Here we report an industrial consultancy project with ONI Global Pte Ltd for the analysis of LAC Liver Protector, a TCM formulation aimed at improving liver health. The aim of this study was to identify 4 key components of the supplement using HPTLC, following protocols derived from Chinese Pharmacopeia standards. By comparing the TLC profiles of the supplement to the extracts of the herbs reported in the label, this project proposes a simple and cost-effective analysis of the presence of the 4 marker compounds in the multi‐ingredient formulation by using 4 different HPTLC methods. With the increasing trend of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) bringing natural products and health supplements into the market, it is crucial that the qualities of both raw materials and end products be well-assured for the protection of consumers. With the technology of HPTLC, science can be incorporated to help SMEs with their quality control, thereby ensuring product quality.

Keywords: traditional Chinese medicine supplement, high performance thin layer chromatography, active ingredients, product quality

Procedia PDF Downloads 254

Authors: Getachew Demeissie Ayalew, Yongtao Sun, Yang Yang

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The spiral welded pipe manufacturing industry requires strict production standards for automated grinders for welding seams. However, traditional grinding machines in this sector are insufficient due to a lack of quality control protocols and inconsistent performance. This research aims to improve the quality of spiral welded pipes by developing intelligent automated abrasive belt grinding equipment. The system has equipped with six degrees of freedom (6 DOF) KUKA KR360 industrial robots, enabling concurrent grinding operations on both internal and external welds. The grinding robot control system is designed with a PLC, and a human-machine interface (HMI) system is employed for operations. The system includes an electric speed controller, data connection card, DC driver, analog amplifier, and HMI for input data. This control system enables the grinding of spiral welded pipe. It ensures consistent production quality and cost-effectiveness by reducing the product life cycle and minimizing risks in the working environment.

Keywords: Intelligent Systems, Spiral Welded Pipe, Grinding, Industrial Robot, End-Effector, PLC Controller System, 3D Laser Sensor, HMI.

Procedia PDF Downloads 261

Authors: Marie-Laure Mimoun-Sorel

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Scholars concerned with the destiny of human species point out that our future will not only depend on progress made in technology and sciences but above all it will depend on human progress understood as quality of being. Teachers are significant force in developing a knowledgeable, creative, productive and democratic society. The values that underpin their profession are integrity, respect and responsibility. Therefore, being a teacher in the context of the 21st century requires embracing a Transdisciplinary Attitude which is about venturing within, between, across and beyond disciplines in order to bring forth quality of being in every learning process. In this article, the Transdisciplinary Attitude is defined and its benefits are shown through examples of Transdisciplinary inquiries in an Australian school. Finally, the conclusion invites to reflect on quality of teaching in regard to the development of individual autonomy, community participation and awareness of belonging to the human species.

Keywords: human progress, quality of being, quality of teaching, transdisciplinary attitude in education

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Authors: Chandra Shekhar Verma, Umesh Chandra Mishra

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Blast Furnace performance mainly depends on the quality of sinter as a major portion of iron-bearing material occupies by it hence its quality w.r.t. Tumbler Index (TI), Reducibility Index (RI) and Reduction Degradation Index (RDI) are the key performance indicators of sinter plant. Now it became very tough to maintain the desired quality with the increasing alumina (Al₂O₃) content in iron fines and study is focused on it. Alumina is a refractory material and required more heat input to fuse thereby affecting the desired sintering temperature, i.e. 1300°C. It goes in between the grain boundaries of the bond and makes it weaker. Sinter strength decreases with increasing alumina content, and weak sinter generates more fines thereby reduces the net sinter production as well as plant productivity. Presence of impurities beyond the acceptable norm: such as LOI, Al₂O₃, MnO, TiO₂, K₂O, Na₂O, Hydrates (Goethite & Limonite), SiO₂, phosphorous and zinc, has led to greater challenges in the thrust areas such as productivity, quality and cost. The ultimate aim of this study is maintaining the sinter strength even with high Al₂O without hampering the plant productivity. This study includes mineralogy test of iron fines to find out the fraction of different phases present in the ore and phase analysis of product sinter to know the distribution of different phases. Corrections were done focusing majorly on varying Al₂O₃/SiO₂ ratio, basicity: B2 (CaO/SiO₂), B3 (CaO+MgO/SiO₂) and B4 (CaO+MgO/SiO₂+Al₂O₃). The concept of Alumina / Silica ratio, B3 & B4 found to be useful. We used to vary MgO, Al₂O₃/SiO₂, B2, B3 and B4 to get the desired sinter strength even at high alumina (4.2 - 4.5%) in sinter. The study concludes with the establishment of B4, and Al₂O₃/SiO₂ ratio in between 1.53-1.60 and 0.63- 0.70 respectively and have achieved tumbler index (Drum Index) 76 plus with the plant productivity of 1.58-1.6 t/m2/hr. at JSPL, Raigarh. Study shows that despite of high alumina in sinter, its physical quality can be controlled by maintaining the above-mentioned parameters.

Keywords: Basicity-2, Basicity-3, Basicity-4, Sinter

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Authors: Saem Lee, Thanh Nguyen, Hio-Jung Shin, Thomas Koellner

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Land-use management has an influence on the provision of ecosystem service in dynamic, agricultural landscapes. Agricultural land use is important for maintaining the productivity and sustainability of agricultural ecosystems. However, in Korea, intensive farming activities in this highland agricultural zone, the upper stream of Soyang has led to contaminated soil caused by over-use pesticides and fertilizers. This has led to decrease in water and soil quality, which has consequences for ecosystem services and human wellbeing. Conventional farming has still high percentage in this area and there is no special measure to prevent low water quality caused by farming activities. Therefore, the adoption of environmentally friendly farming has been considered one of the alternatives that lead to improved water quality and increase in biomass production. Concurrently, farm households with environmentally friendly farming have occupied still low rates. Therefore, our research involved a farm household survey spanning conventional farming, the farm in transition and organic farming in Soyang watershed. Another purpose of our research was to compare economic advantage of the farmers adopting environmentally friendly farming and non-adaptors and to investigate the different factors by logistic regression analysis with socio-economic and benefit-cost ratio variables. The results found that farmers with environmentally friendly farming tended to be younger than conventional farming and farmer in transition. They are similar in terms of gender which was predominately male. Farmers with environmentally friendly farming were more educated and had less farming experience than conventional farming and farmer in transition. Based on the benefit-cost analysis, total costs that farm in transition farmers spent for one year are about two times as much as the sum of costs in environmentally friendly farming. The benefit of organic farmers was assessed with 2,800 KRW per household per year. In logistic regression, the factors having statistical significance are subsidy and district, residence period and benefit-cost ratio. And district and residence period have the negative impact on the practice of environmentally friendly farming techniques. The results of our research make a valuable contribution to provide important information to describe Korean policy-making for agricultural and water management and to consider potential approaches to policy that would substantiate ways beneficial for sustainable resource management.

Keywords: organic farming, logistic regression, profitability, agricultural land-use

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Authors: Anil Kumar Tripathi, Ratneshwer Gupta

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All the software engineering researches and best industry practices aim at providing software products with high degree of quality and functionality at low cost and less time. These requirements are addressed by the Component Based Software Engineering (CBSE) as well. CBSE, which deals with the software construction by components’ assembly, is a revolutionary extension of Software Engineering. CBSE must define and describe processes to assure timely completion of high quality software systems that are composed of a variety of pre built software components. Though these features provide distinct and visible benefits in software design and programming, they also raise some challenging problems. The aim of this work is to summarize the pertinent issues and considerations in CBSE to make an understanding in forms of concepts and observations that may lead to development of newer ways of dealing with the problems and challenges in CBSE.

Keywords: software component, component based software engineering, software process, testing, maintenance

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Authors: Matias Micheletto, Rodrigo Santos, Sergio F. Ochoa

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In developing countries, the most roads in rural areas are dirt road. They require frequent maintenance since are affected by erosive events, such as rain or wind, and the transit of heavy-weight trucks and machinery. Early detection of damages on the road condition is a key aspect, since it allows to reduce the main-tenance time and cost, and also the limitations for other vehicles to travel through. Most proposals that help address this problem require the explicit participation of drivers, a permanent internet connection, or important instrumentation in vehicles or roads. These constraints limit the suitability of these proposals when applied into developing regions, like in Latin America. This paper proposes an alternative method, based on unattended crowdsensing, to determine the quality of dirt roads in rural areas. This method involves the use of a mobile application that complements the road condition surveys carried out by organizations in charge of the road network maintenance, giving them early warnings about road areas that could be requiring maintenance. Drivers can also take advantage of the early warnings while they move through these roads. The method was evaluated using information from a public dataset. Although they are preliminary, the results indicate the proposal is potentially suitable to provide awareness about dirt roads condition to drivers, transportation authority and road maintenance companies.

Keywords: dirt roads automatic quality assessment, collaborative system, unattended crowdsensing method, roads quality awareness provision

Procedia PDF Downloads 180

Authors: Salami Akeem Olanrewaju

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The transportation models or problems are primarily concerned with the optimal (best possible) way in which a product produced at different factories or plants (called supply origins) can be transported to a number of warehouses or customers (called demand destinations). The objective in a transportation problem is to fully satisfy the destination requirements within the operating production capacity constraints at the minimum possible cost. The objective of this study is to determine ways of minimizing transport cost in order to maximum profit. Data were gathered from the records of the Distribution Department of 7-Up Bottling Company Plc. Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria. The data were analyzed using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) while applying the three methods of solving a transportation problem. The three methods produced the same results; therefore, any of the method can be adopted by the company in transporting its final products to the wholesale dealers in order to minimize total production cost.

Keywords: cost minimization, resources utilization, distribution system, allocation problem

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Authors: Ammatu Alhassan

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Quality healthcare delivery is a crucial indicator in assessing the overall developmental status of a country. There are many limitations in the Ghanaian healthcare supply chain due to the lack of studies about the correlation between quality health service and the healthcare supply chain. Patients who visit various healthcare providers face unpleasant experiences such as delays in the availability of their medications. In this study, an assessment of the quality of services provided to Ghanaian outpatients who visit public healthcare providers was investigated to establish its effect on the healthcare supply chain using a conceptual model. The Donabedian’s structure, process, and outcome theory for service quality evaluation were used to analyse 20 Ghanaian hospitals. The data obtained was tested using the structural equation model (SEM). The findings from this research will help us to improve the overall quality of the Ghanaian healthcare supply chain. The model which will be developed will help us to understand better the linkage between quality healthcare and the healthcare supply chain as well as serving as a reference tool for future healthcare research in Ghana.

Keywords: Ghana, healthcare, outpatients, supply chain

Procedia PDF Downloads 148

Authors: Milica Karadžić, Lidija Jevrić, Sanja Podunavac-Kuzmanović, Strahinja Kovačević, Anamarija Mandić, Aleksandar Oklješa, Andrea Nikolić, Marija Sakač, Katarina Penov Gaši

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Using chemometric approach, the relationships between the chromatographic lipophilicity and in silico molecular descriptors for twenty-nine selected steroid derivatives were studied. The chromatographic lipophilicity was predicted using artificial neural networks (ANNs) method. The most important in silico molecular descriptors were selected applying stepwise selection (SS) paired with partial least squares (PLS) method. Molecular descriptors with satisfactory variable importance in projection (VIP) values were selected for ANN modeling. The usefulness of generated models was confirmed by detailed statistical validation. High agreement between experimental and predicted values indicated that obtained models have good quality and high predictive ability. Global sensitivity analysis (GSA) confirmed the importance of each molecular descriptor used as an input variable. High-quality networks indicate a strong non-linear relationship between chromatographic lipophilicity and used in silico molecular descriptors. Applying selected molecular descriptors and generated ANNs the good prediction of chromatographic lipophilicity of the studied steroid derivatives can be obtained. This article is based upon work from COST Actions (CM1306 and CA15222), supported by COST (European Cooperation and Science and Technology).

Keywords: artificial neural networks, chemometrics, global sensitivity analysis, liquid chromatography, steroids

Procedia PDF Downloads 318

Authors: Laila Oubahman, Duleba Szabolcs

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Public transport stakeholders aim to increase the ridership ratio by encouraging citizens to use common transportation modes. For this sight, improving service quality is a crucial option to reach the quality desired by users and reduce the gap between desired and perceived quality. Multi-criteria decision aid has been applied in literature in recent decades because it provides efficient models to assess the most impacting criteria on the overall assessment. In this paper, the PROMETHEE method is combined with the best-worst approach to construct a consensual model that avoids rank reversal to support stakeholders in ameliorating service quality.

Keywords: best-worst method, MCDA, PROMETHEE, public transport

Procedia PDF Downloads 176

Authors: Siham Rahoui, Amr Mahfouz, Amr Arisha

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In a highly competitive environment characterised by uncertainty and disruptions, such as the recent COVID-19 outbreak, supply chains (SC) face the challenge of maintaining their cost at minimum levels while continuing to provide customers with high-quality products and services. More importantly, businesses in such an economic context strive to maintain survival by keeping the cost of undertaken activities (such as logistics) low and in-house. To do so, managers need to understand the costs associated with different products and services in order to have a clear vision of the SC performance, maintain profitability levels, and make strategic decisions. In this context, SC literature explored different costing models that sought to determine the costs of undertaking supply chain-related activities. While some cost accounting techniques have been extensively explored in the SC context, more contributions are needed to explore the potential of time driven activity-based costing (TDABC). More specifically, more applications are needed in the manufacturing context of the SC, where the debate is ongoing. The aim of the study is to assess the capability of the technique to assess the operational performance of the logistics function. Through a case study methodology applied to a manufacturing company operating in the automotive industry, TDABC evaluates the efficiency of the current configuration and its logistics processes. The study shows that monitoring the process efficiency and cost efficiency leads to strategic decisions that contributed to improve the overall efficiency of the logistics processes.

Keywords: efficiency, operational performance, supply chain costing, time driven activity based costing

Procedia PDF Downloads 130

Authors: Jack R. McKenzie, Peter A. Appleby, Thomas House, Neil Walton

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Cold-start is a notoriously difficult problem which can occur in recommendation systems, and arises when there is insufficient information to draw inferences for users or items. To address this challenge, a contextual bandit algorithm – the Fast Approximate Bayesian Contextual Cold Start Learning algorithm (FAB-COST) – is proposed, which is designed to provide improved accuracy compared to the traditionally used Laplace approximation in the logistic contextual bandit, while controlling both algorithmic complexity and computational cost. To this end, FAB-COST uses a combination of two moment projection variational methods: Expectation Propagation (EP), which performs well at the cold start, but becomes slow as the amount of data increases; and Assumed Density Filtering (ADF), which has slower growth of computational cost with data size but requires more data to obtain an acceptable level of accuracy. By switching from EP to ADF when the dataset becomes large, it is able to exploit their complementary strengths. The empirical justification for FAB-COST is presented, and systematically compared to other approaches on simulated data. In a benchmark against the Laplace approximation on real data consisting of over 670, 000 impressions from autotrader.co.uk, FAB-COST demonstrates at one point increase of over 16% in user clicks. On the basis of these results, it is argued that FAB-COST is likely to be an attractive approach to cold-start recommendation systems in a variety of contexts.

Keywords: cold-start learning, expectation propagation, multi-armed bandits, Thompson Sampling, variational inference

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Authors: Mingyu Xie, Mietek Brdys

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The paper develops a non-linear model predictive control (NMPC) of water quality in drinking water distribution systems (DWDS) based on the advanced non-linear quality dynamics model including disinfections by-products (DBPs). A special attention is paid to the analysis of an impact of the flow trajectories prescribed by an upper control level of the recently developed two-time scale architecture of an integrated quality and quantity control in DWDS. The new quality controller is to operate within this architecture in the fast time scale as the lower level quality controller. The controller performance is validated by a comprehensive simulation study based on an example case study DWDS.

Keywords: model predictive control, hierarchical control structure, genetic algorithm, water quality with DBPs objectives

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Authors: Norul Husna A. Kasim, Siva K. Balasundram

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The gap between ‘actual yield’ and ‘potential yield’ has remained a problem in the Malaysian oil palm industry. Ineffective maturity assessment and untimely harvesting have compounded this problem. Typically, the traditional method of palm oil quality and yield assessment is destructive, costly and laborious. Fluorescence-sensing offers a new means of assessing palm oil quality and yield non-destructively. This work describes the estimation of palm oil quality and yield using a multi-parametric fluorescence sensor (Multiplex®) to quantify the concentration of secondary metabolites, such as anthocyanin and flavonoid, in fresh fruit bunches across three different palm ages (6, 9, and 12 years-old). Results show that fluorescence sensing is an effective means of assessing FFB maturity, in terms of palm oil quality and yield quantifications.

Keywords: anthocyanin, flavonoid fluorescence sensor, palm oil yield and quality

Procedia PDF Downloads 778

Authors: Mahnaz Sanjari, Sedigheh Salemi, Mohammad Mirzabeigi

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Nowadays, the world is facing a crisis of workforce and one of the most striking examples is the shortage of nurses. Nursing workforce productivity is related by various factors such as absenteeism, professional effectiveness and quality care. This cross-sectional study was conducted in 700 nurses who work in government hospitals from 35 hospitals of 9 provinces in Iran. The study was approved by the Nursing Council and was carried out with the authorization of the Research Ethics Committee. The questionnaire included 33 questions and 4 sub categories such as human resource, education and management. The reliability was evaluated by Cronbach's alpha (α=0/85). Statistical analyzes were performed, using SPSS version 16. The result showed that nurses emphasized on "respect to nurse-to-bed ratio" and less importance item was "using less experienced nurse". In addition, another important factor in clinical productivity is "Proper physical structure and amenities","good communication with colleagues" and "having good facilities". Also, "human resources at all levels of standard", "promoting on merit" and "well defined relationship in health system" are another important factors in productivity from nurse` view. The main managerial factor is "justice between employees" and the main educational component of productivity is “updating nursing knowledge”. The results show that more than half of the participants emphasized on the management and educational factors. Productivity as one of the main part of the health care quality leads to appropriate use of human and organizational resources, reduce cost services, and organizational development.

Keywords: productivity, nursing services, workforce, cost services

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Authors: Salahaeddine Sbai

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Air quality analysis using machine learning models is a method employed to assess and predict air pollution levels. This approach leverages the capabilities of machine learning algorithms to analyze vast amounts of air quality data and extract valuable insights. By training these models on historical air quality data, they can learn patterns and relationships between various factors such as weather conditions, pollutant emissions, and geographical features. The trained models can then be used to predict air quality levels in real-time or forecast future pollution levels. This application of machine learning in air quality analysis enables policymakers, environmental agencies, and the general public to make informed decisions regarding health, environmental impact, and mitigation strategies. By understanding the factors influencing air quality, interventions can be implemented to reduce pollution levels, mitigate health risks, and enhance overall air quality management. Climate change is having significant impacts on Morocco, affecting various aspects of the country's environment, economy, and society. In this study, we use some machine learning models under python environment to predict and analysis air quality change over North of Morocco to evaluate the climate change impact on agriculture.

Keywords: air quality, machine learning models, pollution, pollutant emissions

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Authors: Eva Nedeliakova, Jaroslav Masek, Juraj Camaj

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This article describes the results of research focused on quality of railway freight transport services. Improvement of these services has a crucial importance in customer considering on the future use of railway transport. Processes filling the customer demands and output quality assessment were defined as a part of the research. In this, contribution is introduced the map of quality planning and the algorithm of applied methodology. It characterises a model which takes into account characters of transportation with linking a perception services quality in ordinary and extraordinary operation. Despite the fact that rail freight transport has its solid position in the transport market, lots of carriers worldwide have been experiencing a stagnation for a couple of years. Therefore, specific results of the research have a significant importance and belong to numerous initiatives aimed to develop and support railway transport not only by creating a single railway area or reducing noise but also by promoting railway services. This contribution is focused also on the application of dynamic quality models which represent an innovative method of evaluation quality services. Through this conception, time factor, expected and perceived quality in each moment of the transportation process can be taken into account.

Keywords: quality, railway, transport, service

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Authors: Nizar Ghali, Bernard Fortin, Guy Lacroix

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In Quebec, colonoscopies volumes have continued to rise in recent years in the absence of effective monitoring mechanism for the appropriateness and the quality of these exams. In 2010, November, Quebec Government introduced the colorectal cancer-screening program in the objective to control for volume and cost imperfection. This program is based on clinical standards and was initiated for first group of institutions. One year later, Government adds financial incentives for participants institutions. In this analysis, we want to assess for the causal effect of the two components of this program: clinical pathways and financial incentives. Especially we assess for the reform effect on healthcare quality and population health in the context that medical remuneration is not directly dependent on this additional funding offered by the program. We have data on admissions episodes and deaths for 8 years. We use multistate model analog to difference in difference approach to estimate reform effect on the transition probability between different states for each patient. Our results show that the reform reduced length of stay without deterioration in hospital mortality or readmission rate. In the other hand, the program contributed to decrease the hospitalization rate and a less invasive treatment approach for colorectal surgeries. This is a sign of healthcare quality and population health improvement. We demonstrate in this analysis that physicians’ behavior can be affected by both clinical standards and financial incentives even if offered to facilities.

Keywords: multi-state and multi-episode transition model, healthcare quality, length of stay, transition probability, difference in difference

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Authors: Bulatbayeva A. A., Maxutova I. O., Ergalieva A. N.

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This article presents a study of the practice of self-assessment of the quality of training cadets in a military higher specialized educational institution. The research was carried out by means of a questionnaire survey aimed at identifying the degree of satisfaction of cadets with the organization of the educational process, quality of teaching, the quality of the organization of independent work, and the system of their assessment. In general, the results of the study are of an intermediate nature. Proven tools will be incorporated into the planning and effective management of the learning process. The results of the study can be useful for the administrators and managers of the military education system for teachers of military higher educational institutions for adjusting the content and technologies of training future specialists. The publication was prepared as part of applied grant research for 2020-2022 by order of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the topic "Development of a comprehensive methodology for assessing the quality of education of graduates of military special educational institutions."

Keywords: teaching quality, quality satisfaction, learning management, quality management, process approach, classroom learning, interactive technologies, teaching quality

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Authors: Nouha Ben Salah, Mohamed Ali Omri

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This paper treats the association between disclosure level and the cost of equity capital in Tunisian’slisted firms. This relation is tested by using two models. The first is used for testing this relation directly by regressing firm specific estimates of cost of equity capital on market beta, firm size and a measure of disclosure level. The second model is used for testing this relation by introducing information asymmetry as mediator variable. This model is suggested by Baron and Kenny (1986) to demonstrate the role of mediator variable in general. Based on a sample of 21 non-financial Tunisian’s listed firms over a period from 2000 to 2004, the results prove that greater disclosure is associated with a lower cost of equity capital. However, the results of indirect relationship indicate a significant positive association between the level of voluntary disclosure and information asymmetry and a significant negative association between information asymmetry and cost of equity capital in contradiction with our previsions. Perhaps this result is due to the biases of measure of information asymmetry.

Keywords: cost of equity capital, voluntary disclosure, information asymmetry, and Tunisian’s listed non-financial firms

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Authors: Brian Romansky

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There are many practical, commercially available robots and semi-autonomous systems that are currently available for use in a wide variety of construction tasks. Adoption of these technologies has the potential to reduce the time and cost to deliver a project, reduce variability and risk in delivery time, increase quality, and improve safety on the job site. These benefits come with a cost for equipment rental or contract fees, access to specialists to configure the system, and time needed for set-up and support of the machines while in use. Calculation of the net ROI (Return on Investment) requires detailed information about the geometry of the site, the volume of work to be done, the overall project schedule, as well as data on the capabilities and past performance of available robotic systems. Assembling the required data and comparing the ROI for several options is complex and tedious. Many project managers will only consider the use of a robot in targeted applications where the benefits are obvious, resulting in low levels of adoption of automation in the construction industry. This work demonstrates how data already resident in many BIM (Building Information Model) projects can be used to automate ROI estimation for a sample set of commercially available construction robots. Calculations account for set-up and operating time along with scheduling support tasks required while the automated technology is in use. Configuration parameters allow for prioritization of time, cost, or safety as the primary benefit of the technology. A path toward integration and use of automatic ROI calculation with a database of available robots in a BIM platform is described.

Keywords: automation, BIM, robot, ROI.

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Authors: Sevde D. Karayel, Ediz Atmaca

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Supplier selection subject is vital because of development competitiveness and performance of firms which have right, rapid and with low cost procurement. Considering the fact that competition between firms is no longer on their supply chains, hence it is very clear that performance of the firms’ not only depend on their own success but also success of all departments in supply chain. For this purpose, firms want to work with suppliers which are cost effective, flexible in terms of demand and high quality level for customer satisfaction. However, diversification and redundancy of their expectations from suppliers, supplier selection problems need to be solved as a hard problem. In this study, supplier selection problem is discussed for critical piece, which is using almost all production of products in and has troubles with lead time from supplier, in a firm that produces medical devices. Analyzing policy in the current situation of the firm in the supplier selection indicates that supplier selection is made based on the purchasing department experience and other authorized persons’ general judgments. Because selection do not make based on the analytical methods, it is caused disruptions in production, lateness and extra cost. To solve the problem, AHP and TOPSIS which are multi-criteria decision making techniques, which are effective, easy to implement and can analyze many criteria simultaneously, are used to make a selection among alternative suppliers.

Keywords: AHP-TOPSIS methods, multi-criteria decision making, supplier selection problem, supply chain management

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Authors: Malki Fatima Zahra Nadia, Kellal Chaimaa, Brahimi Houria

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The following research aims to measure the impact of innovative marketing in achieving product quality in the Algerian Petroleum Company. In order to achieve the aim of the study, a random sample of 60 individuals was selected and the answers were analyzed using structural equation modeling to test the study hypotheses. The research concluded that there is a strong relationship between innovative marketing and the quality of petroleum products.

Keywords: marketing, innovation, quality, petroleum products

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Authors: O. Vanijajiva, K. Oumaree, N. Ngampak

Abstract:

This research aims to study the level of perception and participation of Phranakhon Rajabhat University staff and to study the relationship between the levels of perception and participation with the score of University evaluation of quality assurance in education. The respondents were composed of 479 staffs. The tool used in this research is perceived and participation questionnaire of quality assurance in education of Phranakhon Rajabhat University. The results found that the most staffs are female with undergraduate education. Most 2 respondents are revealing educational staffs without academic position. The fact of times to gain knowledge of quality assurance in education is 1-3 times. The perception of knowledge about quality assurance in education is moderate (3.74 ± 0.65) with most respondent are more focus on university activity than quality assurance in education activity. The participation of quality assurance in education activities involved in moderate (3.17 ± 0.88), with most respondents more involved in student affair than quality assurance in education motion. For assessment of the relationship of perception and participation of quality assurance in education are average score (4.31 ± 0.16) showed that the level of perception and participation was associated with university evaluation in very low level (r = -0.103 and -0.121, respectively), while perception and participation are correlated with the moderate level (r = 0.691).

Keywords: quality assurance education, awareness, participation, higher education, Thailand

Procedia PDF Downloads 346

Authors: Pawitchaya Srijaiwong, Surin Khomfoi

Abstract:

There are several solutions to supply electricity to an island in Thailand such as diesel generation, submarine power cable, and renewable energy power generation. However, each alternative has its own limitation like fuel and pollution of diesel generation, submarine power cable length resulting in loss of cable and cost of investment, and potential of renewable energy in the local area. This paper shows microgrid system which is a new alternative for power supply to an island. It integrates local power plant from renewable energy, energy storage system, and microgrid controller. The suitable renewable energy power generation on an island is selected from geographic location and potential evaluation. Thus, photovoltaic system and hydro power plant are taken into account. The capacity of energy storage system is also estimated by transient stability study in order to supply electricity demand sufficiently under normal condition. Microgrid controller plays an important role in conducting, communicating and operating for both sources and loads on an island so that its functions are discussed in this study. The conceptual design of microgrid operation is investigated in order to analyze the reliability and power quality. The result of this study shows that microgrid is able to operate in parallel with the main grid and in case of islanding. It is applicable for electricity supply to an island and a remote area. The advantages of operating microgrid on an island include the technical aspect like improving reliability and quality of power system and social aspects like outage cost saving and CO₂ reduction.

Keywords: energy storage, islanding, microgrid, renewable energy

Procedia PDF Downloads 305

Authors: H. Ashrafi, S. Ebrahimi, H. Kamalzadeh

Abstract:

With the development of business competition, it is important for healthcare providers to improve their service qualities. In order to improve service quality of a clinic, four important dimensions are defined: tangibles, responsiveness, empathy, and reliability. Moreover, there are several service stages in hospitals such as financial screening and examination. One of the most challenging limitations for improving service quality is budget which impressively affects the service quality. In this paper, we present an approach to address budget uncertainty and provide guidelines for service resource allocation. In this paper, a service quality improvement approach is proposed which can be adopted to multistage service processes to improve service quality, while controlling the costs. A multi-objective function based on the importance of each area and dimension is defined to link operational variables to service quality dimensions. The results demonstrate that our approach is not ultra-conservative and it shows the actual condition very well. Moreover, it is shown that different strategies can affect the number of employees in different stages.

Keywords: allocation, budget uncertainty, healthcare resource, service quality assessment, robust optimization

Procedia PDF Downloads 159