Search results for: performance measurement framework

Authors: Mehwish Jawaad

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Purpose: The concept of GrSCM (Green Supply Chain Management) in the academic and research field is still thought to be in the development stage especially in Asian Emerging Economies. The purpose of this paper is to contribute significantly to the first wave of empirical investigation on GrSCM Practices and Firm Performance measures in Pakistan. The aim of this research is to develop a more holistic approach towards investigating the impact of Green Supply Chain Management Practices (Ecodesign, Internal Environmental Management systems, Green Distribution, Green Purchasing and Cooperation with Customers) on multiple dimensions of Firm Performance Measures (Economic Performance, Environmental Performance and Operational Performance) with a mediating role of Investment Recovery and Competitiveness. This paper also serves as an initiative to identify if the relationship between Investment Recovery and Firm Performance Measures is mediated by Competitiveness. Design/ Methodology/Approach: This study is based on survey Data collected from 272, ISO (14001) Certified Textile Firms Based in Lahore, Faisalabad, and Karachi which are involved in Spinning, Dyeing, Printing or Bleaching. A Theoretical model was developed incorporating the constructs representing Green Activities and Firm Performance Measures of a firm. The data was analyzed using Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling. Senior and Mid-level managers provided the data reflecting the degree to which their organizations deal with both internal and external stakeholders to improve the environmental sustainability of their supply chain. Findings: Of the 36 proposed Hypothesis, 20 are considered valid and significant. The statistics result reveal that GrSCM practices positively impact Environmental Performance followed by Economic and Operational Performance. Investment Recovery acts as a strong mediator between Intra organizational Green activities and performance outcomes. The relationship of Reverse Logistics influencing outcomes is significantly mediated by Competitiveness. The pressure originating from customers exert significant positive influence on the firm to adopt Green Practices consequently leading to higher outcomes. Research Contribution/Originality: Underpinning the Resource dependence theory and as a first wave of investigating the impact of Green Supply chain on performance outcomes in Pakistan, this study intends to make a prominent mark in the field of research. Investment and Competitiveness together are tested as a mediator for the first time in this arena. Managerial implications: Practitioner is provided with a framework for assessing the synergistic impact of GrSCM practices on performance. Upgradation of Accreditations and Audit Programs on regular basis are the need of the hour. Making the processes leaner with the sale of excess inventories and scrap helps the firm to work more efficiently and productively.

Keywords: economic performance, environmental performance, green supply chain management practices, operational performance, sustainability, a textile sector of Pakistan

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Authors: Mustafa Gultekin

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It is believed that drama can be used in language classes to create a positive atmosphere for students to use the target language in an interactive way. Thus, drama has been extensively used in many settings in language classes. Although happening has been generally used as a performance art of theatre, this new kind of performance has not been widely known in language teaching area. Therefore, it can be an innovative idea to use happening in language classes, and thus a positive environment can be created for students to use the language in an interactive way. Happening can be defined as an art performance that puts emphasis on interaction in an audience. Because of its interactive feature, happening can also be used in language classes to motivate students to use the language in an interactive environment. The present study aims to explain how a happening performance can be applied to a learning environment to teach vocabulary in English. In line with this purpose, a learning environment was designed for a vocabulary presentation lesson. At the end of the performance, students were asked to compare the traditional way of teaching and happening performance in terms of effectiveness. It was found that happening performance provided the students with a more creative and interactive environment to use the language. Therefore, happening can be used in language classrooms as an innovative tool for education.

Keywords: English, happening, language learning, vocabulary teaching

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Authors: Lu Si, Jie Yu, Shasha Li, Jun Ma, Lei Luo, Qingbo Wu, Yongqi Ma, Zhengji Liu

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Instance selection (IS) technique is used to reduce the data size to improve the performance of data mining methods. Recently, to process very large data set, several proposed methods divide the training set into some disjoint subsets and apply IS algorithms independently to each subset. In this paper, we analyze the limitation of these methods and give our viewpoint about how to divide and conquer in IS procedure. Then, based on fast condensed nearest neighbor (FCNN) rule, we propose a large data sets instance selection method with MapReduce framework. Besides ensuring the prediction accuracy and reduction rate, it has two desirable properties: First, it reduces the work load in the aggregation node; Second and most important, it produces the same result with the sequential version, which other parallel methods cannot achieve. We evaluate the performance of FCNN-MR on one small data set and two large data sets. The experimental results show that it is effective and practical.

Keywords: instance selection, data reduction, MapReduce, kNN

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Authors: Mohammed H. Rasheed, Hussein Nadhem Fadhel, Mohammed M. Siddeq

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In this paper we suggested image quality measuring metrics tools that can provide an accurate and close to the perceived quality sense of the tested images. Such tools give metrics that can be used to compare the performance of image compression algorithms. In this paper, two new metrics to measure the quality of decompressed images are proposed. The metric measurement based on combined data (CD) between an originals and decompressed images. Compared with other e.g., PSNR and RMSE, the proposed metrics gives values with the closest reflection of image quality perception by the human eye.

Keywords: RMSE, PSNR, image quality metrics, image compression

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Authors: Gong Zhang, Hong Cai, Bin Dong, Jifang Tao, Aiqun Liu, Dim-Lee Kwong, Yuandong Gu

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An on-chip refractive index sensor with high sensitivity and large measurement range is demonstrated in this paper. The sensing structures are based on Mach-Zehnder interferometer configuration, built on the SOI substrate. The wavelength sensitivity of the sensor is estimated to be 3129 nm/RIU. Meanwhile, according to the interference pattern period changes, the measured period sensitivities are 2.9 nm/RIU (TE mode) and 4.21 nm/RIU (TM mode), respectively. As such, the wavelength shift and the period shift can be used for fine index change detection and larger index change detection, respectively. Therefore, the sensor design provides an approach for large index change measurement with high sensitivity.

Keywords: Mach-Zehnder interferometer, nanotechnology, refractive index sensing, sensors

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Authors: Abdulrahman S. Alqahtani

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The revolution of computing and networks could revolutionise terrorism in the same way that it has brought about changes in other aspects of life. The modern technological era has faced countries with a new set of security challenges. There are many states and potential adversaries who have the potential and capacity in cyberspace, which makes them able to carry out cyber-attacks in the future. Some of them are currently conducting surveillance, gathering and analysis of technical information, and mapping of networks and nodes and infrastructure of opponents, which may be exploited in future conflicts. This poster presents the results of the quantitative study (survey) to test the validity of the proposed theoretical framework for the cyber terrorist threats. This theoretical framework will help to in-depth understand these new digital terrorist threats. It may also be a practical guide for managers and technicians in critical infrastructure, to understand and assess the threats they face. It might also be the foundation for building a national strategy to counter cyberterrorism. In the beginning, it provides basic information about the data. To purify the data, reliability and exploratory factor analysis, as well as confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were performed. Then, Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was utilised to test the final model of the theory and to assess the overall goodness-of-fit between the proposed model and the collected data set.

Keywords: cyberterrorism, critical infrastructure, , national security, theoretical framework, terrorism

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Authors: Ibrahim Cil, Onur Kurtcu, H. Ibrahim Demir, Furkan Yener, Yusuf. S. Turkan, Muharrem Unver, Ramazan Evren

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Fuzzy AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) method is decision-making way at the end of integrating the current AHP method with fuzzy structure. In this study, the processes of production planning, inventory management and purchasing department of a system were analysed and were requested to decide the performance criteria of each area. At this point, the current work processes were analysed by various decision-makers and comparing each criteria by giving points according to 1-9 scale were completed. The criteria were listed in order to their weights by using Fuzzy AHP approach and top three performance criteria of each department were determined. After that, the performance criteria of supply chain consisting of three departments were asked to determine. The processes of each department were compared by decision-makers at the point of building the supply chain performance system and getting the performance criteria. According to the results, the criteria of performance system of supply chain by using Fuzzy AHP were determined for which will be used in the supply chain performance system in the future.

Keywords: AHP, fuzzy, performance evaluation, supply chain

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Authors: Veljko Jeremic, Milica Kostic Stankovic, Aleksandar Markovic, Milan Martic

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Evaluating the efficiency of decision making units has been frequently elaborated on in numerous publications. In this paper, the theoretical framework for a novel method of Distance Based Analysis (DBA) is presented. In addition, the method is performed on a sample of the ARWU’s top 54 Universities of the United States, the findings of which clearly demonstrate that the best ranked Universities are far from also being the most efficient.

Keywords: evaluating efficiency, distance based analysis, ranking of universities, ARWU

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Authors: Muhammad Atif, Cang Yan

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The enhancement of low-light images is a significant area of study aimed at enhancing the quality of captured images in challenging lighting environments. Recently, methods based on convolutional neural networks (CNN) have gained prominence as they offer state-of-the-art performance. However, many approaches based on CNN rely on increasing the size and complexity of the neural network. In this study, we propose an alternative method for improving low-light images using an autoencoder-based multiscale knowledge transfer model. Our method leverages the power of three autoencoders, where the encoders of the first two autoencoders are directly connected to the decoder of the third autoencoder. Additionally, the decoder of the first two autoencoders is connected to the encoder of the third autoencoder. This architecture enables effective knowledge transfer, allowing the third autoencoder to learn and benefit from the enhanced knowledge extracted by the first two autoencoders. We further integrate the proposed model into the PIX to PIX GAN framework. By integrating our proposed model as the generator in the GAN framework, we aim to produce enhanced images that not only exhibit improved visual quality but also possess a more authentic and realistic appearance. These experimental results, both qualitative and quantitative, show that our method is better than the state-of-the-art methodologies.

Keywords: low light image enhancement, deep learning, convolutional neural network, image processing

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Authors: Ashish James, Anusha James

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The impressive predictive performance of deep learning techniques on a wide range of tasks has led to its widespread use. Estimating the confidence of these predictions is paramount for improving the safety and reliability of such systems. However, the uncertainty estimates provided by neural networks (NNs) tend to be overconfident and unreasonable. Ensemble of NNs typically produce good predictions but uncertainty estimates tend to be inconsistent. Inspired by these, this paper presents a framework that can quantitatively estimate the uncertainties by leveraging the advances in transfer learning through slight modification to the existing training pipelines. This promising algorithm is developed with an intention of deployment in real world problems which already boast a good predictive performance by reusing those pretrained models. The idea is to capture the behavior of the trained NNs for the base task by augmenting it with the uncertainty estimates from a supplementary network. A series of experiments with known and unknown distributions show that the proposed approach produces well calibrated uncertainty estimates with high quality predictions.

Keywords: uncertainty estimation, neural networks, transfer learning, regression

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Authors: Sedigheh Samimian, Sadra Ashrafi, Tahereh Khaleghdoost Mohammadi, Mohammad Reza Yeganeh, Ali Ashraf, Hamideh Hakimi, Maryam Dehghani

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Introduction: The recommended position for measuring Intra-Abdominal Pressure (IAP) is the supine position. However, patients put in this position are prone to Ventilator-associated pneumonia. This study was done to evaluate the relationship between bed head angle and IAP measurements of intubated patients in the intensive care unit. Methods: In this clinical trial, seventy-six critically ill patients under mechanical ventilation were enrolled. IAP measurement was performed every 8 hours for 24 hours using the KORN method in three different degrees of the head of bed (HOB) elevation (0°, 15°, and 30°). Bland-Altman analysis was performed to identify the bias and limits of agreement among the three HOBs. According to World Society of the Abdominal Compartment Syndrome (WSACS), we can consider two IAP techniques equivalent if a bias of <1 mmHg and limits of agreement of - 4 to +4 were found between them. Data were analyzed using SPSS statistical software (v. 19), and the significance level was considered as 0.05. Results: The prevalence of intra-abdominal hypertension was 18.42%. Mean ± standard deviation (SD) of IAP were 8.44 ± 4.02 mmHg for HOB angle 0°, 9.58 ± 4.52 for HOB angle 15°, and 11.10 ± 4.73 for HOB angle 30o (p = 0.0001). The IAP measurement bias between HOB angle 0◦ and HOB angle 15° was 1.13 mmHg. This bias was 2.66 mmHg between HOB angle 0° and HOB angle 30°. Conclusion: Elevation of HOB angle from 0 to 30 degree significantly increases IAP. It seems that the measurement of IAP at HOB angle 15° was more reliable than 30°.

Keywords: pressure, intra-abdominal hypertension, head of bed, critical care, compartment syndrome, supine position

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Authors: Khlifa El Atrash, Gabriel Assaf

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Most developing countries use volumetric analysis in designing asphalt mixtures, which can also be upgraded in hot arid weather. However, in order to be effective, it should include many important aspects which are materials, environment, and method of construction. The overall intent of the work reported in this study is to test different asphalt mixtures while taking into consideration the environment, type and source of material, tools, equipment, and the construction method. In this study, several tests were conducted on many samples that were carefully prepared under the expected traffic loads and temperatures in a dry hot climate. Several asphalt concrete mixtures were designed using two different binders. These mixtures were analyzed under two types of tests - Complex Modulus and Rutting test - to evaluate the hot mix asphalt properties under the represented temperatures and traffic load in Libya. These factors play an important role to improve the pavement performances in a hot climate weather based on the properties of the asphalt mixture, climate, and traffic load. This research summarized some recommendations for making asphalt mixtures used in hot dry areas. Such asphalt mixtures should use asphalt binder which is less affected by pavement temperature change and traffic load. The properties of the mixture, such as durability, deformation, air voids and performance, largely depend on the type of materials, environment, and mixing method. These properties, in turn, affect the pavement performance. Therefore, this study is aimed to develop a method for designing an asphalt mixture that takes into account field loading, various stresses, and temperature spectrums.

Keywords: volumetric analysis, pavement performances, hot climate, asphalt mixture, traffic load

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Authors: Vinod Kumar Jaysaval, Prateek Agarwal

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Performance prediction of airborne radar is a challenging and cumbersome task in clutter scenario for different types of targets. A generalized model requires to predict the performance of Radar for air targets as well as ground moving targets. In this paper, we propose a generalized model to bring out the performance of airborne radar for different Pulsed Repetition Frequency (PRF) as well as different type of targets. The model provides a platform to bring out different subsystem parameters for different applications and performance requirements under different types of clutter terrain.

Keywords: airborne radar, blind zone, clutter, probability of detection

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Authors: Bouwer Kleynhans

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The built environment is responsible for about 40% of the world’s energy consumption and generates one third of global carbon dioxide emissions. The Green Building Council of South Africa’s (GBCSA) current rating tools are all for new buildings. By far the largest portion of buildings exist stock and therefore the need to develop a certification tool for existing buildings. Direct energy measurement comprises 27% of the total available points in this tool. The aim of this paper is to describe the development process of a green star certification tool for existing buildings in South Africa with specific emphasis on the energy measurement criteria. Successful implementation of this tool within the property market will ensure a reduced carbon footprint of buildings.

Keywords: certification tool, development process, energy consumption, green buildings

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Authors: Felipe Haleyson Ribeiro dos Santos, Edson Ronaldo Guarido Filho

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This article aims to review the literature on performance in police organizations. For that, the inOrdinatio method was adopted, which defines the form of selection and classification of articles. The search was carried out in databases, which resulted in a total of 619 documents that were cataloged and classified with the support of the Mendeley software. The theoretical scope intended here is to identify how performance in police organizations has been studied. After deepening the analysis and focusing on management, it was possible to classify the articles into three levels: individual, organizational, and institutional. However, to our best knowledge, no studies were found that addressed the performance relationship between the levels, which can be seen as a suggestion for further research.

Keywords: police management, performance, management, multi-level

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Authors: Liu Yao, B. T. Wan Maseri, Wan Mohd, B. T. Nurul Izzah, Mohd Shah, Wei Wei

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Effectively managing knowledge has become a vital weapon for businesses to survive or to succeed in the increasingly competitive market. But do they perform environmental analysis when managing knowledge? If yes, how is the level and significance? This paper established a conceptual framework covering the basic knowledge management activities (KMA) to examine their contribution towards organizational performance (OP). Environmental analysis (EA) was then investigated from both internal and external aspects, to identify its effects on that contribution. Data was collected from 400 Chinese SMEs by questionnaires. Cronbach's α and factor analysis were conducted. Regression results show that the external analysis presents higher level than internal analysis. However, the internal analysis mediates the effects of external analysis on the KMA-OP relation and plays more significant role in the relation comparing with the external analysis. Thus, firms shall improve environmental analysis especially the internal analysis to enhance their KM practices.

Keywords: knowledge management, environmental analysis, performance, mediating, small sized enterprises, medium sized enterprises

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Authors: S. Limpattayanate, M. Hunsom

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A comparison of activity and stability of the as-formed Pt/C, Pt-Co, and Pt-Pd/C electrocatalysts, prepared by a combined approach of impregnation and seeding, was performed. According to the activity test in a single proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell, the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity of the Pt-M/C electro catalyst was slightly lower than that of Pt/C. The j0.9 V and E10 mA/cm2 of the as-prepared electrocatalysts increased in the order of Pt/C>Pt-Co/C>Pt-Pd/C. However, in the medium-to-high current density region, Pt-Pd/C exhibited the best performance. With regard to their stability in a 0.5 M H2SO4 electrolyte solution, the electro chemical surface area decreased as the number of rounds of repetitive potential cycling increased due to the dissolution of the metals within the catalyst structure. For long-term measurement, Pt-Pd/C was the most stable than the other three electrocatalysts.

Keywords: ORR activity, stability, Pt-based electrocatalysts, PEM fuel cell

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Authors: A. Ramalho, L. Romeiro, R. Ventura, A. Suleman

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A real-time path planning framework for Unmanned Air Vehicles, and in particular multi-rotors is proposed. The framework is designed to provide feasible trajectories from the current UAV position to a goal state, taking into account constraints such as obstacle avoidance, problem kinematics, and vehicle limitations such as maximum speed and maximum acceleration. The framework computes feasible paths online, allowing to avoid new, unknown, dynamic obstacles without fully re-computing the trajectory. These features are achieved using an iterative process in which the robot computes and optimizes the trajectory while performing the mission objectives. A first trajectory is computed using a modified Rapidly-Exploring Random Tree (RRT) algorithm, that provides trajectories that respect a maximum curvature constraint. The trajectory optimization is accomplished using the Interior Point Optimizer (IPOPT) as a solver. The framework has proven to be able to compute a trajectory and optimize to a locally optimal with computational efficiency making it feasible for real-time operations.

Keywords: interior point optimization, multi-rotors, online path planning, rapidly exploring random trees, trajectory optimization

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Authors: Rasool Sadeghi, Sayed Mahdi Faghih Imani, Negar Najafi

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The inherent features of Named Data Networking (NDN) provides a robust solution for Internet of Thing (IoT). Therefore, NDN-IoT has emerged as a combined architecture which exploits the benefits of NDN for interconnecting of the heterogeneous objects in IoT. In NDN-IoT, caching schemes are a key role to improve the network performance. In this paper, we consider the effectiveness of cache replacement schemes in NDN-IoT scenarios. We investigate the impact of replacement schemes on average delay, average hop count, and average interest retransmission when replacement schemes are Least Frequently Used (LFU), Least Recently Used (LRU), First-In-First-Out (FIFO) and Random. The simulation results demonstrate that LFU and LRU present a stable performance when the cache size changes. Moreover, the network performance improves when the number of consumers increases.

Keywords: NDN-IoT, cache replacement, performance, ndnSIM

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Authors: Tina Pujara

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Urban and regional research in the new emerging inter-disciplinary field of happiness is seemingly limited. However, it is progressively being recognized that there is enormous potential for social and behavioral scientists to add a spatial dimension to it. In fact, the happiness of communities can be notably influenced by the design and maintenance of the neighborhoods they inhabit. The probable key reasons being that places can facilitate human social connections and relationships. While it is increasingly being acknowledged that some neighborhood designs appear better suited for social connectedness than others, the plausible reasons for places to deter these characteristics and perhaps their influence on happiness are outwardly unknown. In addition, an explicit step wise methodology to assess neighborhood designs for happiness (of their communities) is not known to exist. This paper is an attempt towards developing such a methodological framework. The paper presents the development of a methodological framework for assessing neighborhood designs for happiness, with a particular focus on the outdoor shared spaces in neighborhoods. The developed methodological framework of investigation follows a mixed method approach and draws upon four different sources of information. The framework proposes an empirical examination of the contribution of neighborhood factors, particularly outdoor shared spaces, to individual happiness. One of the main tools proposed for this empirical examination is Jan Gehl’s Public Space Public Life (PSPL) Survey. The developed framework, as presented in the paper, is a contribution towards the development of a consolidated methodology for assessing neighborhood designs for happiness, which can further serve as a unique tool to inform urban designers, architects and other decision makers.

Keywords: happiness, methodology, neighbourhood design, outdoor shared spaces

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Authors: Mazyar Taghavi

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This research examines middle-level managers’ involvement in strategy process in 15 manufacturing and service companies in Iran. We considered two dominant theoretical arguments for expecting a positive association. According to the first direction involvement improves organizational performance by improving the quality of strategic decisions. According to the second track, middle managers contribute to increased levels of performance through strategic consensus among them. Results indicate that involvement in the strategy is related to organizational performance. Involvement is associated with consensus (i.e. strategic understanding and commitment) among middle-level managers. However, findings indicate that consensus is not related to the organizational performance.

Keywords: middle-level management, strategy process, organizational performance, strategy consensus

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Authors: Hussain Abdullah Al-Salamin, Elias Ogutu Azariah Tembe

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Supply chain (SC) is an operational research (OR) approach and technique which acts as catalyst within central nervous system of business today. Without SC, any type of business is at doldrums, hence entropy. SC is the lifeblood of business today because it is the pivotal hub which provides imperative competitive advantage. The paper present a conceptual framework dubbed as Homomorphic Conceptual Framework for Effective Supply Chain Strategy (HCEFSC).The term homomorphic is derived from abstract algebraic mathematical term homomorphism (same shape) which also embeds the following mathematical application sets: monomorphism, isomorphism, automorphisms, and endomorphism. The HCFESC is intertwined and integrated with wide and broad sets of elements.

Keywords: homomorphism, isomorphism, monomorphisms, automorphisms, epimorphisms, endomorphism, supply chain, operational research (OR)

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Authors: Kuanrong Qiu, Sebnem Madrali, Evgueniy Entchev

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To achieve the satisfactory objectives in deploying integrated renewable energy systems, it is crucial to consider all the related parameters affecting the design and decision-making. The multi-criteria evaluation method is a reliable and efficient tool for achieving the most appropriate solution. The approach considers the influential factors and their relative importance in prioritizing the alternatives. In this paper, a multi-criteria decision framework, based on the criteria including technical, economic, environmental and reliability, is developed to evaluate and prioritize renewable energy technologies and configurations of their integrated systems for community applications, identify their viability, and thus support the adoption of the clean energy technologies and the decision-making regarding energy transitions and transition patterns. Case studies for communities in Canada show that resource availability and the configurations of the integrated systems significantly impact the economic performance and environmental performance.

Keywords: multi-criteria, renewables, integrated energy systems, decision-making, model

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Authors: Athirat Intajorn

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According to the ASEAN free trade areas (AFTA), Thailand has applied the AFTA agreement for reducing tariffs and reflecting changes in business processes. The reflection of changes in agribusiness processes, in particular, has accumulated as production costs for producers. Palm Oil industry has become an important industry to Thailand economic. Thailand currently ranks the 3rd in the world for Crude Palm Oil CPO. Therefore, the scope of this paper presents a research framework to investigate the supply chain management practices in Thailand palm oil industry. This research is limit to literature review. And the proposed framework identifies the criteria of supply chain management for Thailand palm oil industry in order for linkage among entities within logistics management involving plantation, mill, collection port, refinery and cookie from the data utilization. The Supply Chain Management Practices in Thailand Palm Oil Industry framework has a somewhat different view due to the high complexity of agribusiness logistics management.

Keywords: supply chain management, practice, palm oil industry, Thailand palm oil industry

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Authors: A. Elsehemy, M. Abdeen , T. Nazmy

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Since the appearance of the Semantic web, many semantic search techniques and models were proposed to exploit the information in ontology to enhance the traditional keyword-based search. Many advances were made in languages such as English, German, French and Spanish. However, other languages such as Arabic are not fully supported yet. In this paper we present a framework for ontology based information retrieval for Arabic language. Our system consists of four main modules, namely query parser, indexer, search and a ranking module. Our approach includes building a semantic index by linking ontology concepts to documents, including an annotation weight for each link, to be used in ranking the results. We also augmented the framework with an automatic document categorizer, which enhances the overall document ranking. We have built three Arabic domain ontologies: Sports, Economic and Politics as example for the Arabic language. We built a knowledge base that consists of 79 classes and more than 1456 instances. The system is evaluated using the precision and recall metrics. We have done many retrieval operations on a sample of 40,316 documents with a size 320 MB of pure text. The results show that the semantic search enhanced with text classification gives better performance results than the system without classification.

Keywords: Arabic text classification, ontology based retrieval, Arabic semantic web, information retrieval, Arabic ontology

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Authors: Itiola Kehinde Adeniran

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The study examined the effect of employees’ training on the performance of small scale enterprises in Oyo State. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 150 respondents through purposive sampling method. Linear regression was used with the aid of statistical package for social science (SPSS) version 20 to analyze the data collected in order to examine the effect of independent variable, employees’ training on dependent variable, performance (profit) of small scale enterprises. The result revealed that employees’ training has a significant effect on the performance of small scale enterprises. It was concluded that predictor variable namely (training) is 55.5% variance of enterprises performance (profitability). Therefore, the paper recommended that all small scale enterprises in Nigeria should embrace manpower training and development in order to improve employees’ performance leading to organizational profitability.

Keywords: training, employee performance, small scale enterprise, organizational profitability

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Authors: Emin Gundogar, Aysegul Yilmaz

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Strategic performance control is a significant procedure in management. There are various methods to improve this procedure. This study introduces an information system that is developed to score performance for municipal management. The application of the system is clarified by exemplifying municipal processes.

Keywords: management information system, municipal management, performance control

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Authors: Subarna Ferdous, Mitsuru Ikeda

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For the shrimp companies to remain relevant to its local and international consumers, they must offer new shrimp product and services. It must work actively not just to create value for the consumer, but to involve the consumer in co-creating value for shrimp product innovation in the market. In this theoretical work, we conceptualize the business concept of value co-creation in the context of shrimp products, and propose a framework of value co-creation for shrimp product innovation in shrimp industries. With guidance on value co-creation in in shrimp industry, and shrimp value chain actors mapped to the co-creation cycle, companies can use the framework to offer new shrimp product to consumer communities. Although customer co-creation is known approach in the world, it is not commonly used by the companies in Bangladesh. This paper makes an original contribution by conceptualizing co-creation and set the examples of best co-creation practices in food sector. The results of the study provide management with guidelines for successful co-creation projects with an innovation- and market-oriented approach. The framework also provides a basis for further research in this area.

Keywords: bangladesh, shrimp industry, value co-creation, shrimp product

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Authors: Murat Demir Aydin, Elanur Celebi

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Adhesively bonded joints are used as an alternative to traditional joining methods due to the important advantages they provide. The most important consideration in the use of adhesively bonded joints is that these joints have appropriate requirements for their use in terms of safety. In order to ensure control of this condition, damage analysis of the adhesively bonded joints should be performed by determining the mechanical properties of the adhesives. When the literature is investigated; it is generally seen that the mechanical properties of adhesives are determined by traditional measurement methods. In this study, to determine the mechanical properties of adhesives, the Digital Image Correlation (DIC) method, which can be an alternative to traditional measurement methods, has been used. The DIC method is a new optical measurement method which is used to determine the parameters of displacement and strain in an appropriate and correct way. In this study, tensile tests of Thick Adherent Shear Test (TAST) samples formed using DP410 liquid structural adhesive and steel materials and bulk tensile specimens formed using and DP410 liquid structural adhesive was performed. The displacement and strain values of the samples were determined by DIC method and the shear stress-strain curves of the adhesive for TAST specimens and the tensile strain curves of the bulk adhesive specimens were obtained. Various methods such as numerical methods are required as conventional measurement methods (strain gauge, mechanic extensometer, etc.) are not sufficient in determining the strain and displacement values of the very thin adhesive layer such as TAST samples. As a result, the DIC method removes these requirements and easily achieves displacement measurements with sufficient accuracy.

Keywords: structural adhesive, adhesively bonded joints, digital image correlation, thick adhered shear test (TAST)

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Authors: Miroslaw Wendeker, Piotr Kacejko, Mariusz Duk, Pawel Karpinski

Abstract:

The research in the field of aircraft internal combustion engines is currently driven by the needs of decreasing fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, while fulfilling the level of safety. Currently, reciprocating aircraft engines are found in sports, emergency, agricultural and recreation aviation. Technically, they are most at a pre-war knowledge of the theory of operation, design and manufacturing technology, especially if compared to that high level of development of automotive engines. Typically, these engines are driven by carburetors of a quite primitive construction. At present, due to environmental requirements and dealing with a climate change, it is beneficial to develop aircraft piston engines and adopt the achievements of automotive engineering such as computer-controlled low-pressure injection, electronic ignition control and biofuels. The paper describes simulation research of the innovative power and control systems for the aircraft radial engine of high power. Installing an electronic ignition system in the radial aircraft engine is a fundamental innovative idea of this solution. Consequently, the required level of safety and better functionality as compared to the today’s plug system can be guaranteed. In this framework, this research work focuses on describing a methodology for optimizing the electronically controlled ignition system. This attempt can reduce emissions of toxic compounds as a result of lowered fuel consumption, optimized combustion and engine capability of efficient combustion of ecological fuels. New, redundant elements of the control system can improve the safety of aircraft. Consequently, the required level of safety and better functionality as compared to the today’s plug system can be guaranteed. The simulation research aimed to determine the vulnerability of the values measured (they were planned as the quantities measured by the measurement systems) to determining the optimal ignition angle (the angle of maximum torque at a given operating point). The described results covered: a) research in steady states; b) velocity ranging from 1500 to 2200 rpm (every 100 rpm); c) loading ranging from propeller power to maximum power; d) altitude ranging according to the International Standard Atmosphere from 0 to 8000 m (every 1000 m); e) fuel: automotive gasoline ES95. The three models of different types of ignition coil (different energy discharge) were studied. The analysis aimed at the optimization of the design of the innovative ignition system for an aircraft engine. The optimization involved: a) the optimization of the measurement systems; b) the optimization of actuator systems. The studies enabled the research on the vulnerability of the signals to the control of the ignition timing. Accordingly, the number and type of sensors were determined for the ignition system to achieve its optimal performance. The results confirmed the limited benefits, in terms of fuel consumption. Thus, including spark management in the optimization is mandatory to significantly decrease the fuel consumption. This work has been financed by the Polish National Centre for Research and Development, INNOLOT, under Grant Agreement No. INNOLOT/I/1/NCBR/2013.

Keywords: piston engine, radial engine, ignition system, CFD model, engine optimization

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