Search results for: traffic information quality

Authors: Pramod Ghadge, Swadesh Srivastava

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Revenue generation of a logistics company depends on how the logistics cost of a shipment is calculated. Logistics cost of a shipment is a function of distance & speed of the shipment travel in a particular network, its volumetric size and dead weight. Logistics billing is based mainly on the consumption of the scarce resource (space or weight carrying capacity of a carrier). Shipment’s size or deadweight is a function of product and packaging weight, dimensions and flexibility. Hence, to arrive at a standard methodology to compute accurate cost to bill the customer, the interplay among above mentioned physical attributes along with their measurement plays a key role. This becomes even more complex for an ecommerce company, like Flipkart, which caters to shipments from both warehouse and marketplace in an unorganized non-standard market like India. In this paper, we will explore various methodologies to define a standard way of billing the non-standard shipments across a wide range of size, shape and deadweight. Those will be, usage of historical volumetric/dead weight data to arrive at a factor which can be used to compute the logistics cost of a shipment, also calculating the real/contour volume of a shipment to address the problem of irregular shipment shapes which cannot be solved by conventional bounding box volume measurements. We will also discuss certain key business practices and operational quality considerations needed to bring standardization and drive appropriate ownership in the ecosystem.

Keywords: contour volume, logistics, real volume, volumetric weight

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Authors: Piush Verma, Y. R. Sood

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This paper provides the information on the diagnostics techniques for condition monitoring of power transformer (PT). This paper deals with the practical importance of the transformer diagnostic in the Electrical Engineering field. The life of the transformer depends upon its insulation i.e paper and oil. The major testing techniques applies on transformer oil and paper i.e dissolved gas analysis, furfural analysis, radio interface, acoustic emission, infra-red emission, frequency response analysis, power factor, polarization spectrum, magnetizing currents, turn and winding ratio. A review has been made on the modern development of this practical technology.

Keywords: temperature, condition monitoring, diagnostics methods, paper analysis techniques, oil analysis techniques

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Authors: M. D. Antoine

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When a child is diagnosed with an illness, condition, or developmental disorder, the process involved in understanding and accepting this diagnosis can be a very stressful and isolating experience for parents and families. The healthcare providers’ ability to effectively communicate in such situations represents a vital lifeline for parents. In this context, communication becomes a crucial element not only for getting through the period of grief but also for the future. We mobilized the five stages of grief model to summarize existing literature regarding the ways in which the experience ofan autism spectrum disorder diagnosis disclosurealigns with the experience of grief to explore how this can inform best practices for effective communication with parents through the diagnosis disclosure. Fifteen publications met inclusion criteria. Findings from the scoping review of empirical studies show that parents/families experience grief-like emotions during the diagnosis disclosure. However, grief is not an outcome of the encounter itself. In fact, the experience of the encounter can help mitigate the grief experience. The way parents/families receive and react to the ‘news’ depends on their preparedness, knowledge, and the support received through the experience. Individual communication skills, as well as policies and regulations, should be examined to alleviate adverse reactions in this context. These findings highlight the importance of further research into effective parent-provider communication strategies and their place in supporting quality autism care.

Keywords: autism spectrum disorder, autism spectrum disorder diagnosis, diagnosis disclosure, parent-provider communication, parental grief

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Authors: Zehra Aytac, Nurdilek Gulmezoglu

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Safflower has been grown for centuries for many purposes worldwide. Especially it is important for the orange-red dye from its petal and for its high-quality oil obtained from the seeds. The crop is high adaptable to areas with insufficient rainfall and poor soil conditions. The plant has a deep taproot that can draw moisture and plant nutrients from deep to the subsoil. The research was carried out to study the nitrogen (N) uptake of different safflower cultivars and lines at different stages of growth and different plant parts in the experimental field of Faculty of Agriculture, Eskişehir Osmangazi University under semi-arid conditions. Different safflower cultivars and lines of varied origins were used as the material. The cultivars and lines were planted in a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. Two different growth stages (flowering and harvest) and three different plant parts (head, stem+leaf and seed) were determined. The nitrogen concentration of different plant parts was determined by the Kjeldahl method. Statistical analysis were performed by analysis of variance for each growth stage and plant parts taking a level of p < 0.05 and p < 0.01 as significant according to the LSD test. As a result, N concentration showed significant differences among different plant parts and different growth stages for different safflower genotypes of varied origins.

Keywords: Carthamus tinctorius L., growth stages, head N, leaf N, N uptake, seed N, Safflower

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Authors: Nivon P. Alejandra, Valencia P. L. Rodrigo, Vivanco V. Martin, Morita A. Adelina

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Technological innovation is fundamental to reach and maintain the levels of competitiveness of agricultural producers, the detection of actors, their activities, resources and capacities of an innovation system is needed for the development of technological packages that adapt to each type of crops, local circumstances and characteristics of the producer. The growing development of the viticulture and wine sector in Mexico prospects an increase in its national market participation for 2020, this is the reason to consider it a fertile field for the technological packages adoption that promote Precision Agriculture (PA) in a harmonic and sustainable development. A viability inspection of technological packages adoption by viticulture and wine sector is made following the methodology proposed by SAGARPA in 2015 and the World Bank in 2008: the history, actors, strengths and opportunities are analyzed in this particular agroindustrial sector, also its technological innovation system is inspected in order to improve technological capacities and innovation networks taking into account local and regional resources. PA and technological packages adoption can help improving the conditions and quality of the grape for winemaking: increasing the wine's storage potential and its nutraceutical nature. The assertive diagnosis in vineyard opportunity areas will help the management of the crop by applying natural treatments at the right time in the right place.

Keywords: technological packages, precision farming, sustainable development, innovation

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Authors: Wei-Hwa Chiang, Wei-Ting Hsu, Yuan-Chi Liu, Cheng-Che Tsai

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A sustainable built environment aims for minimizing both regional and global environmental impact while maintaining a healthy living for individuals. Sustainability of performing venues has rarely been discussed when compared with residential, office, and other popular building types. Life-cycle carbon emission due to the high standard requirements in acoustics, stage engineering, HVAC, and building structure need to be carefully examined. This can be complicated by social-economic and cultural concerns in addition to technical excellence. This paper reported case-based study and statistics of performing venues regarding urban connectivity and spatial layouts in enhancing facility usage and promoting cultural vitality. Interviews conducted for a major venue at Taipei indicated high linkage with surrounding leisure activity and the need for quality pedestrian and additional spaces open to the general public. Statistics of venues with various size and function suggested the possibility and strategies limit the size and height of reception and foyer spaces, and to maximize their use when there are no performances. Design strategies are identified to increase visual contact or facility sharing between the artists and the audience or the general public in reducing facility size and promoting potential involvement in cultural activities.

Keywords: sustainability, performing venue, design, operation

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Authors: C. C. Igwe

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Several parts of Neem tree (Azadirachta indica) are used in traditional medicine in many West African countries for the treatment of various human diseases. The leaf, stem - bark and seed were air dried for 8, 5 and 7 days, respectively. The shells were carfully separated from the seeds, each powdered sample obtained with mechanical miller and 250 mm sieve. The neem samples were individually subjected to extraction with acetone, n-hexane for 48hr and 72 hr, respectively. Physico-chemical and antibacterial evaluation were carried out using standard methods. Results of physico - chemical analyses of the extracted oil from the seed shows that it has a brownish colour, with a smell similar to garlic while the moisture content, refractive index are 0.76% and 1.47 respectively. Other vital chemical results obtained from the neem oil such as saponification value (234.62), acid value (10.84 %), free fatty acid (5.84 %) and peroxide value (10.52%) indicated the oil extracted satisfied standard oils parameters for quality soap and cosmetics production. The antibacterial screening by disc diffusion revealed the oil demonstrated high activity against Staphylococcus aureus. Both the physio-chemical and antibacterial of samples have been certified by National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control. The preliminary results of this study may validate the medicinal value of the plant. Further studies are in progress to clarify the in vivo potentials of neem extracts in the management of human communicable diseases and this is a subject of investigation in our group.

Keywords: anti-bacterial, neem extract, physico-chemical analyses, staphylococcus aureus

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Authors: S. Srikiran, Dharmala Venkata Padmaja, P. N. L. Pavani, R. Pola Rao, K. Ramji

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Technological advancements in the development of cutting tools and coolant/lubricant chemistry have enhanced the machining capabilities of hard materials under higher machining conditions. Generation of high temperatures at the cutting zone during machining is one of the most important and pertinent problems which adversely affect the tool life and surface finish of the machined components. Generally, cutting fluids and solid lubricants are used to overcome the problem of heat generation, which is not effectively addressing the problems. With technological advancements in the field of tribology, nano-level particulate solid lubricants are being used nowadays in machining operations, especially in the areas of turning and grinding. The present investigation analyses the effect of using nano-particulate graphite powder as lubricant in the turning of AISI 1040 steel under variable machining conditions and to study its effect on cutting forces, tool temperature and surface roughness of the machined component. Experiments revealed that the increase in cutting forces and tool temperature resulting in the decrease of surface quality with the decrease in the size of nano-particulate graphite powder as lubricant.

Keywords: solid lubricant, graphite, minimum quantity lubrication (MQL), nano–particles

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Authors: Carmen Silvia Gabriel, Maria de Fátima Paiva Brito, Mariane de Paula Candido, Vanessa Barato Oliveira

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Patient identification is a necessary practice to ensure patient safety in any healthcare environment, including emergency care units, test laboratories, home care and clinics. The present study aimed to provide evidence that can effectively contribute to practices concerning patient identification. Its objective was to investigate patient identification in basic healthcare units through patient safety standards. To do so, a descriptive and non-experimental research outline study was carried out to inquire how patient identification takes place in a particular situation. All technical manager nurses from the chosen healthcare facilities were included in the sample for the study. Data was collected in September of 2014 after approval from the Committee of Ethics. All researched institutions fit the same profile: they’re public facilities for general care with observation beds. None of them has a wristband identification protocol or policy. Only one institution mentioned using some kind of visual identification; namely, body tags separated by colors according to the type of care, but it still does not apply the recommended tags by the Brazilian Ministry of Health. This study allowed the authors to acknowledge how important the commitment from the whole healthcare team in the patient identification process is and also acknowledge how necessary it is to implement institutional policies that may aid the healthcare units in this area to promote a quality and safe patient care.

Keywords: patient safety, identification, nursing, emergency care units

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Authors: Maricon E. Gepolani, Edna A. Aguilar, Pearl B. Sanchez, Enrico P. Supangco

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Intercropping farming system and biofertilizer application are sustainable agricultural practices that increase farm productivity by improving the yield performance of the components involved in the production system. Thus, this on-farm trial determined the yield and forage quality of corn and cowpea with and without biofertilizer application when intercropped with ratooned sugarcane. Intercropping corn and cowpea without biofertilizer application had no negative effect on the vegetative growth of sugarcane. However, application of biofertilizer on intercrops decreased tiller production at 117 days after stubble shaving (DASS), consequently reducing the estimated tonnage yield of sugarcane. The yield of intercrops and forage production of Cp3 cowpea variety increased when intercropped to ratooned sugarcane. In contrast, intercropping PSB 97-92 corn variety to ratooned sugarcane reduced its forage production, but when biofertilizer was applied to intercropped Cp5 cowpea variety, the forage production increased. Profitability (income equivalent ratio) of intercropping for both corn and cowpea are higher than monocropping and are thus suitable intercrops to ratooned sugarcane. Unaffected tiller count (a determinant of sugarcane tonnage yield) when biofertilizer was not applied to intercrops and a reduced tiller count with biofertilizer application to intercrops implies the need to develop a nutrient management practices specific for intercropping systems.

Keywords: biofertilizer, corn, cowpea, intercropping system, ratooned sugarcane

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Authors: Juei-Hsin Wang, Yen-Ting Chen

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The paper examines teacher professional learning community theory and implementation by using technology and media tools in Taiwan. After literature review, the researcher concluded in five elements of teacher professional learning community theory. They are ‘sharing the vision and value', ‘collaborative cooperation’, ‘ to support the situation', ‘to share practice' and 'Pay Attention to Student Learning Effectiveness' five levels by using technology and media in flipped education. Teacher professional learning community is one kind of models for teacher professional development in flipped education. Due to Taiwan education culture, there is no summative evaluation for teachers. So, there are multiple kinds of ways and education practice in teacher professional learning community nowadays. This study used literature review and quality analysis to analyze the connection theory and practice and discussed the official and non‐official strategies on teacher professional learning community by using technology and media in flipped education. The tablet is used as a camera tool for classroom students to solve problems. The students can instantly see and enable other students to watch the whole class discussion by operating the tablet. This would allow teachers and students to focus on discussing the connotation of subjects, especially bottom‐up and non‐official cases from teachers become an important influence in Taiwan.

Keywords: professional learning community, collaborative cooperation, flipped education, technology application, media application

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Authors: Liping Li, Wenan Tan, Na Wang

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With the rapid development of information technology, project management has gained more and more attention recently. Based on CDIO, this paper proposes some teaching reform ideas for software project management curriculum. We first change from Teacher-centered classroom to Student-centered and adopt project-driven, scenario animation show, teaching rhythms, case study and team work practice to improve students' learning enthusiasm. Results showed these attempts have been well received and very effective; as well, students prefer to learn with this curriculum more than before the reform.

Keywords: CDIO, teaching reform, engineering education, project-driven, scenario animation simulation

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Authors: George Mariano Soriano

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In this study, a Rapid Earthquake Risk Ranking Criteria was formulated by integrating various existing maps and databases by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS). Utilizing Geographic Information System (GIS) software, the above-mentioned maps and databases were used in extracting seismic hazard parameters and bridge vulnerability characteristics in order to rank the seismic damage risk rating of bridges in the National Capital Region.

Keywords: bridge, earthquake, GIS, hazard, risk, vulnerability

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Authors: MD. Kamruzzaman

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As a developing country, Bangladesh has seen an increase in total GDP in recent years. But it can be further improved by developing “Health-Care” (HC) services because it has enormous infrastructure problems all over the country. Bangladesh's HC system is now clearly poised to undergo reform at any process level, including prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Although the Bangladeshi government is trying to develop the HC sector, due to health corruption in this sector, the improvement has not accelerated yet. For this reason, lots of Bangladeshi people are facing acute diseases. Regarding the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, this research will illustrate the law relating to health and HC to ensure excellent health and well-being. Firstly, this paper investigates health under Bangladeshi law from different perspectives related to the HC system. A massive gap has been investigated in this research after comparing Bangladeshi and international health law (HL). Secondly, a practical scenario is investigated and compared with international HC law. It is evident that the Bangladeshi HC system did not achieve a satisfactory standard level concerning international law. A staggering 70% of Bangladesh's population lives in rural areas, with no restrictions on access to hospitals and clinics. However, it is clear that proper HC infrastructure and some new medical practices are urgently needed to ensure HC quality. Finally, this research provides suggestions for developing a HC system to ensure the health of all Bangladeshi people that needs to be immediately implemented by the Bangladeshi government. This research has practical implications in the HC system for any developing country to maintain their citizen's safety.

Keywords: HC system, law relating, bangladeshi HL, international HL, human HC suggestions

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Authors: John Abraham, Ramesh Saravana Kumar, Francis, Xavier, Deepak Mathew

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Broiler slaughter waste has become a major source of pollution throughout the world. Utilization of broiler slaughter waste by dry rendering process produced Rendered Chicken Oil (RCO) a cheap raw material for biodiesel production and Carcass Meal a feed ingredient for pets and fishes. Conversion of RCO into biodiesel may open new vistas for generating wealth from waste besides controlling the major havoc of environmental pollution. A two-step process to convert RCO to good quality Biodiesel was invented. Acid catalysed esterification of FFA followed by base catalysed transesterification of triglycerides was carried out after meticulously standardising the methanol molar ratio, catalyst concentration, reaction temperature and reaction time to obtain the maximum biodiesel yield of 97.62% and lowest glycerol yield of 6.96%. RCO biodiesel blended was tested in a Mahindra Scorpio CRDI engine. The results revealed that the blending of commercial diesel with 20% RCO biodiesel lead to less engine wear, a quieter engine and better fuel economy. The better lubricating qualities of RCO B20 prevented over heating of engine, which prolongs the engine life. The blending of biodiesel at 20% to commercial diesel can reduce the import of costly crude oil and simultaneously, substantially reduce the engine emissions as proved by significantly lower smoke levels, thus mitigating climatic changes.

Keywords: broiler waste, rendered chicken oil, biodiesel, engine testing

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Authors: Muhammad Abu-Khaizaran, Ahmad Faza’, Tariq Othman, Yahia Yousef

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This paper presents a study to provide sufficient and reliable information about constructing a Photovoltaic energy profile of the Birzeit University campus (BZU) based on the weather forecast. The developed Photovoltaic energy profile helps to predict the energy yield of the Photovoltaic systems based on the weather forecast and hence helps planning energy production and consumption. Two models will be developed in this paper; a Clear Sky Irradiance model and a Cloud-Cover Radiation model to predict the irradiance for a clear sky day and a cloudy day, respectively. The adopted procedure for developing such models takes into consideration two levels of abstraction. First, irradiance and weather data were acquired by a sensory (measurement) system installed on the rooftop of the Information Technology College building at Birzeit University campus. Second, power readings of a fully operational 51kW commercial Photovoltaic system installed in the University at the rooftop of the adjacent College of Pharmacy-Nursing and Health Professions building are used to validate the output of a simulation model and to help refine its structure. Based on a comparison between a mathematical model, which calculates Clear Sky Irradiance for the University location and two sets of accumulated measured data, it is found that the simulation system offers an accurate resemblance to the installed PV power station on clear sky days. However, these comparisons show a divergence between the expected energy yield and actual energy yield in extreme weather conditions, including clouding and soiling effects. Therefore, a more accurate prediction model for irradiance that takes into consideration weather factors, such as relative humidity and cloudiness, which affect irradiance, was developed; Cloud-Cover Radiation Model (CRM). The equivalent mathematical formulas implement corrections to provide more accurate inputs to the simulation system. The results of the CRM show a very good match with the actual measured irradiance during a cloudy day. The developed Photovoltaic profile helps in predicting the output energy yield of the Photovoltaic system installed at the University campus based on the predicted weather conditions. The simulation and practical results for both models are in a very good match.

Keywords: clear-sky irradiance model, cloud-cover radiation model, photovoltaic, weather forecast

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Authors: Lukas Reznak, Maria Reznakova

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Recession of an economy has a profound negative effect on all involved stakeholders. It follows that timely prediction of recessions has been of utmost interest both in the theoretical research and in practical macroeconomic modelling. Current mainstream of recession prediction is based on standard OLS models of continuous GDP using macroeconomic data. This approach is not suitable for two reasons: the standard continuous models are proving to be obsolete and the macroeconomic data are unreliable, often revised many years retroactively. The aim of the paper is to explore a different branch of recession forecasting research theory and verify the findings on real data of the Czech Republic and Germany. In the paper, the authors present a family of discrete choice probit models with parameters estimated by the method of maximum likelihood. In the basic form, the probits model a univariate series of recessions and expansions in the economic cycle for a given country. The majority of the paper deals with more complex model structures, namely dynamic and bivariate extensions. The dynamic structure models the autoregressive nature of recessions, taking into consideration previous economic activity to predict the development in subsequent periods. Bivariate extensions utilize information from a foreign economy by incorporating correlation of error terms and thus modelling the dependencies of the two countries. Bivariate models predict a bivariate time series of economic states in both economies and thus enhance the predictive performance. A vital enabler of timely and successful recession forecasting are reliable and readily available data. Leading indicators, namely the yield curve and the stock market indices, represent an ideal data base, as the pieces of information is available in advance and do not undergo any retroactive revisions. As importantly, the combination of yield curve and stock market indices reflect a range of macroeconomic and financial market investors’ trends which influence the economic cycle. These theoretical approaches are applied on real data of Czech Republic and Germany. Two models for each country were identified – each for in-sample and out-of-sample predictive purposes. All four followed a bivariate structure, while three contained a dynamic component.

Keywords: bivariate probit, leading indicators, recession forecasting, Czech Republic, Germany

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Authors: Karim Akkouche, Amine Nekmouche, Leyla Bouzid

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This study focuses on the development of a multifunctional Expert System (ES) called post-seismic damage inspection tool (PSDIT), a powerful tool which allows the evaluation, the processing, and the archiving of the collected data stock after earthquakes. PSDIT can be operated by two user types; an ordinary user (ingineer, expert, or architect) for the damage visual inspection and an administrative user for updating the knowledge and / or for adding or removing the ordinary user. The knowledge acquisition is driven by a hierarchical knowledge model, the Information from investigation reports and those acquired through feedback from expert / engineer questionnaires are part.

Keywords: .disaster, damaged structures, damage assessment, expert system

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Authors: Krasimir Ivanov, Tonyo Tonev, Nguyen Nguyen, Alexander Peltekov, Anyo Mitkov

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Maize is among the most economically important crops and at the same time one of the most sensitive to soil deficiency in zinc. In this paper, the impact of the foliar zinc application in the form of zinc hydroxy nitrate suspension on the micro and macro elements partitioning in maize leaves and grain was studied during spring maize season, 2017. The impact of the foliar zinc fertilization on the grain yield and quality was estimated too. The experiment was performed by the randomized block design with 8 variants in 3 replications. Seven suspension solutions whit different Zn concentration were used, including ZnO suspension and zinc hydroxyl nitrate alone or nixed with other nutrients. Fertilization and irrigation were the same for all variants. The Zn content and the content of selected micro (Cu, Fe) and macro (Ca, Mg, P and K) elements in maize leaves were determined two weeks after the first spraying (5-6 sheets), two weeks after the second spraying (9-10 sheets) and after harvesting. It was concluded that the synthesized zinc hydroxy nitrate demonstrates potential as the long-term foliar fertilizer. A significant (p < 0.05) effect of zinc accumulation in maize leaves by foliar zinc application during the first growth stage was found, followed by its reutilization to other plants organs during the second growth stage. Significant export of Cu, P, and K from lower and middle leaves was observed. The content of Ca and Mg remains constant in the whole longevity period, while the content of Fe decreases sharply.

Keywords: foliar fertilization, zinc hydroxy nitrate, maize, zinc

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Authors: Pin Yu Chen, Puay Chuan Lee, Yu Jen Loo, Ju Xia Zhang, Deborah Teo, Jack Wei Chieh Tan, Biauw Chi Ong

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Background: Synchronous communication, such as telephone calls, remains the standard communication method between nurses and other healthcare professionals in Singapore public hospitals despite advances in asynchronous technological platforms, such as instant messaging. Although miscommunication is one of the most common causes of lapses in patient care, there is a scarcity of research characterizing baseline inter-professional healthcare communications in a hospital setting due to logistic difficulties. Objective: This study aims to characterize the frequency and patterns of communication behaviours among healthcare professionals. Methods: The one-week observational study was conducted on Monday through Sunday at the nursing station of a cardiovascular medicine and cardiothoracic surgery inpatient ward at the National Heart Centre Singapore. Subjects were shadowed by two physicians for sixteen hours or consecutive morning and afternoon nursing shifts. Communications were logged and characterized by type, duration, caller, and recipient. Results: A total of 1,023 communication events involving the attempted use of the common telephones at the nursing station were logged over a period of one week, corresponding to a frequency of one event every 5.45 minutes (SD 6.98, range 0-56 minutes). Nurses initiated the highest proportion of outbound calls (38.7%) via the nursing station common phone. A total of 179 face-to-face communications (17.5%), 362 inbound calls (35.39%), 481 outbound calls (47.02%), and 1 emergency alert (0.10%) were captured. Average response time for task-oriented communications was 159 minutes (SD 387.6, range 86-231). Approximately 1 in 3 communications captured aimed to clarify patient-related information. The total duration of time spent on synchronous communication events over one week, calculated from total inbound and outbound calls, was estimated to be a total of 7 hours. Conclusion: The results of our study showed that there is a significant amount of time spent on inter-professional healthcare communications via synchronous channels. Integration of patient-related information and use of asynchronous communication channels may help to reduce the redundancy of communications and clarifications. Future studies should explore the use of asynchronous mobile platforms to address the inefficiencies observed in healthcare communications.

Keywords: healthcare communication, healthcare management, nursing, qualitative observational study

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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: Michael Heuer, Ayoub Al-Hamadi, Alexander Rain, Marc-Michael Meinecke

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Vulnerable road users, e.g. pedestrians, have a high impact on fatal accident numbers. To reduce these statistics, car manufactures are intensively developing suitable safety systems. Hereby, fast and reliable environment recognition is a major challenge. In this paper we describe a tracking approach that is only based on a 24 GHz radar sensor. While common radar signal processing loses much information, we make use of a track-before-detect filter to incorporate raw measurements. It is explained how the Range-Doppler spectrum can help to indicated pedestrians and stabilize tracking even in occultation scenarios compared to sensors in series.

Keywords: radar, pedestrian detection, active safety, sensor

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Authors: Ezgi Şendil

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Information extracted from social media has received great attention since it has become an effective alternative for collecting people’s opinions and emotions based on specific experiences in a faster and easier way. The paper aims to put data in a meaningful way to analyze users’ posts and get a result in terms of the experiences and opinions of the users during and after natural disasters. The posts collected from Reddit are classified into nine different categories, including injured/dead people, infrastructure and utility damage, missing/found people, donation needs/offers, caution/advice, and emotional support, identified by using labelled Twitter data and four different machine learning (ML) classifiers.

Keywords: disaster, NLP, postdisaster management, sentiment analysis

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Authors: Farooq Anwar, Gokhan Zengin, Khalid M. Alkharfy

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Wild rice (Zizania sp.) is an annual cross-pollinated, emergent, aquatic grass that mainly grows naturally in the Great Lakes region of the North America. The nutritional quality attributes of wild rice are superior to the conventional brown rice (Oryza sativa L.) in terms of higher contents of important minerals (especially phosphorous, potassium, magnesium and calcium), B-complex vitamins, vitamin E and amino acids. In some parts of the world, wild rice is valued as a primary food source. The lipids content of wild rice is reported to be low in the range of 0.7 and 1.1%, however, the lipids are recognized as a rich source of polyunsaturated fatty acids (including linoleic and α-linolenic acid) and phytosterols in addition to containing reasonably good amount of tocols. Besides, wild rice is reported to contain an appreciable amount of high-value compounds such as phenolics with antioxidant properties. Presence of such nutritional bioactives contributes towards medicinal benefits and multiple biological activities of this specialty rice. The present lecture is mainly designed to focus on the detailed nutritional attributes, profile of high-value bioactive components and pharmaceutical/biological activities of wild rice leading to exploring functional food and nutraceutical potential of this food commodity.

Keywords: alpha-linolenic acid, phenolics, phytosterols, tocols, wild rice lipids

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Authors: Funmilayo Abiola Opadoja, Samuel Olukayode Awotona

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Nursing services costing has been a major interest to nurses for a long period of time. Determination of nursing costing is germane in order to show the effectiveness of nursing practice in an improved and affordable health care delivery system. This has been a major concern of managers that have the mind of quality and affordable health services. The treatment or intervention should be considered as ‘product’ of nursing care and should provide an explainable term for billing. The study was non-experimental, descriptive and went about eliciting the views of nurses on costing nursing care at two public hospitals namely: University College Hospital and Adeoyo Maternity Teaching Hospital. The questionnaire was the instrument used in eliciting nurse’s response. It was administered randomly on 300 selected respondents across various wards within the hospitals. The data was collected and analysed using SPSS20.0 to generate frequency, and cross-tabulations to explore the statistical relationship between variables. The result shows that 89.2% of the respondents viewed costing of nursing care as an important issued to be looked into. The study concluded that nursing care costing is germane to enhancing the status and imagery of the nurses, it is essential because it would enhance the performance of nurses in discharging their duties. There is need to have a procedural manual agreed on by nursing practitioner on costing of each care given.

Keywords: costing, health care delivery system, intervention, nursing care, practitioner

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Authors: Anju Elizbath Peter, S. M. Shiva Nagendra, Indumathi M.Nambi

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The deliberate fires initiated by dump managers and human scavengers to reduce the volume of waste and recovery of valuable metals/materials are common at municipal solid waste (MSW) disposal sites in developed country. A large amount of toxic gases released due to this act is responsible for the deterioration of regional and local air quality, which causes visibility impairment and acute respiratory diseases. The present study was aimed at the characterization of MSW and emission characteristics of burning of MSW in the laboratory. MSW samples were collected directly from the one of the open dumpsite located in Chennai city. Solid waste sampling and laboratory analysis were carried out according to American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards. Results indicated the values of moisture content, volatile solids (VS) and calorific values of solid waste samples were 16.67%,8%,9.17MJ/kg, respectively. The elemental composition showed that the municipal solid waste contains 25.84% of carbon, 3.69% of hydrogen, 1.57% of nitrogen and 0.26% of sulphur. The calorific value of MSW was found to be 9.17 MJ/Kg which is sufficient to facilitate self-combustion of waste. The characterization of emissions from the burning of 1 kg of MSW in the test chamber showed a total of 90 mg/kg of PM10 and 243 mg/kg of PM2.5. The current research study results will be useful for municipal authorities to formulate guideline and policy structure regarding the MSW management to reduce the impact of air emissions at an open dump site.

Keywords: characterization, MSW, open burning, PM10, PM2.5

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Authors: Guezouli Larbi, Belkacem Soundes

Abstract:

The automation of the text detection process can help the human in his driving task. Its application can be very useful to help drivers to have more information about their environment by facilitating the reading of road signs such as directional signs, events, stores, etc. In this paper, a system consisting of two stages has been proposed. In the first one, we used pseudo-Zernike moments to pinpoint areas of the image that may contain text. The architecture of this part is based on three main steps, region of interest (ROI) detection, text localization, and non-text region filtering. Then, in the second step, we present a convolutional neural network architecture (On-Road Text Detection Network - ORTDN) which is considered a classification phase. The results show that the proposed framework achieved ≈ 35 fps and an mAP of ≈ 90%, thus a low computational time with competitive accuracy.

Keywords: text detection, CNN, PZM, deep learning

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Authors: Wlodzimierz Ogryczak, Tomasz Sliwinski, Jaroslaw Hurkala, Mariusz Kaleta, Bartosz Kozlowski, Piotr Palka

Abstract:

Implementation concepts of a decision support system for planning and management of mobile personnel tasks (sales representatives and others) are discussed. Large-scale periodic time-dependent vehicle routing and scheduling problems with complex constraints are solved for this purpose. Complex nonuniform constraints with respect to frequency, time windows, working time, etc. are taken into account with additional fast adaptive procedures for operational rescheduling of plans in the presence of various disturbances. Five individual solution quality indicators with respect to a single personnel person are considered. This paper deals with modeling issues corresponding to the problem and general solution concepts. The research was supported by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund under the Operational Programme ‘Innovative Economy’ for the years 2007-2013; Priority 1 Research and development of modern technologies under the project POIG.01.03.01-14-076/12: 'Decision Support System for Large-Scale Periodic Vehicle Routing and Scheduling Problems with Complex Constraints.'

Keywords: mobile personnel management, multiple criteria, time dependent, time windows, vehicle routing and scheduling

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Authors: Rajat Raj, Rohini S. Hallikar

Abstract:

The ever-increasing integration of renewable energy sources in the power grid necessitates the development of efficient and reliable microgrid systems. Photovoltaic (PV) systems coupled with energy storage technologies, such as batteries, offer promising solutions for sustainable and resilient power generation. This paper proposes an adaptive power control topology for a PV-battery microgrid system, aiming to optimize the utilization of available solar energy and enhance the overall system performance. In order to provide a smooth transition between the OFF-GRID and ON-GRID modes of operation with proportionate power sharing, a self-adaptive control method for a microgrid is proposed. Three different modes of operation are discussed in this paper, i.e., GRID connected, the transition between Grid-connected and Islanded State, and changing the irradiance of PVs and doing the transitioning. The simulation results show total harmonic distortion to be 0.08, 1.43 and 2.17 for distribution generation-1 and 4.22,3.92 and 2.10 for distribution generation-2 in the three modes, respectively which helps to maintain good power quality. The simulation results demonstrate the superiority of the adaptive power control topology in terms of maximizing renewable energy utilization, improving system stability and ensuring a seamless transition between grid-connected and islanded modes.

Keywords: islanded modes, microgrids, photo voltaic, total harmonic distortion

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Authors: Rasha M. Hussein, Reem M. Hashem, Laila A. Rashed

Abstract:

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common dementia disease in the elderly. It is characterized by the accumulation of extracellular amyloid β (Aβ) peptides and intracellular hyper-phosphorylated tau protein. In addition, recent evidence indicates that accumulation of intracellular amyloid β peptides may play a role in Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis. This suggests that intracellular Heat Shock Proteins (HSP) that maintain the protein quality control in the cell might be potential candidates for disease amelioration. DNAJB6, a member of DNAJ family of HSP, effectively prevented the aggregation of poly glutamines stretches associated with Huntington’s disease both in vitro and in cells. In addition, DNAJB6 was found recently to delay the aggregation of Aβ42 peptides in vitro. In the present study, we investigated the ability of DNAJB6 to prevent the aggregation of both intracellular and extracellular Aβ peptides using transfection of HEK293 cells with Aβ-GFP and recombinant Aβ42 peptides respectively. We performed western blotting and immunofluorescence techniques. We found that DNAJB6 can prevent Aβ-GFP aggregation, but not the seeded aggregation initiated by extracellular Aβ peptides. Moreover, DNAJB6 required interaction with HSP70 to prevent the aggregation of Aβ-GFP protein and its J-domain was essential for this anti-aggregation activity. Interestingly, overexpression of other DNAJ proteins as well as HSPB1 suppressed Aβ-GFP aggregation efficiently. Our findings suggest that DNAJB6 is a promising candidate for the inhibition of Aβ-GFP mediated aggregation through a canonical HSP70 dependent mechanism.

Keywords: Aβ, Alzheimer’s disease, chaperone, DNAJB6, aggregation

Procedia PDF Downloads 495