Search results for: embedded into core business

Authors: Yiea Funk Te, Daniel Mueller, Irena Pletikosa Cvijikj

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Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in the economy of many countries. When the overall world economy is considered, SMEs represent 95% of all businesses in the world, accounting for 66% of the total employment. Existing studies show that the current business environment is characterized as highly turbulent and strongly influenced by modern information and communication technologies, thus forcing SMEs to experience more severe challenges in maintaining their existence and expanding their business. To support SMEs at improving their competitiveness, researchers recently turned their focus on applying data mining techniques to build risk and growth prediction models. However, data used to assess risk and growth indicators is primarily obtained via questionnaires, which is very laborious and time-consuming, or is provided by financial institutes, thus highly sensitive to privacy issues. Recently, web mining (WM) has emerged as a new approach towards obtaining valuable insights in the business world. WM enables automatic and large scale collection and analysis of potentially valuable data from various online platforms, including companies’ websites. While WM methods have been frequently studied to anticipate growth of sales volume for e-commerce platforms, their application for assessment of SME risk and growth indicators is still scarce. Considering that a vast proportion of SMEs own a website, WM bears a great potential in revealing valuable information hidden in SME websites, which can further be used to understand SME risk and growth indicators, as well as to enhance current SME risk and growth prediction models. This study aims at developing an automated system to collect business-relevant data from the Web and predict future growth trends of SMEs by means of WM and data mining techniques. The envisioned system should serve as an 'early recognition system' for future growth opportunities. In an initial step, we examine how structured and semi-structured Web data in governmental or SME websites can be used to explain the success of SMEs. WM methods are applied to extract Web data in a form of additional input features for the growth prediction model. The data on SMEs provided by a large Swiss insurance company is used as ground truth data (i.e. growth-labeled data) to train the growth prediction model. Different machine learning classification algorithms such as the Support Vector Machine, Random Forest and Artificial Neural Network are applied and compared, with the goal to optimize the prediction performance. The results are compared to those from previous studies, in order to assess the contribution of growth indicators retrieved from the Web for increasing the predictive power of the model.

Keywords: data mining, SME growth, success factors, web mining

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Authors: I Made Gatot Karohika, Shigeyuki Haruyama, Ken Kaminishi

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In this study, we proposed a three-layer metal gasket with Al, Cu, and SUS304 as the material, respectively. A finite element method was employed to develop simulation solution and design of experiment (DOE). Taguchi method was used to analysis the effect of each parameter design and predicts optimal design of new 25A-size three layer corrugated metal gasket. The L18 orthogonal array of Taguchi method was applied to design experiment matrix for eight factors with three levels. Based on elastic mode and plastic mode, optimum design gasket is gasket with core metal SUS304, surface layer aluminum, p1 = 4.5 mm, p2 = 4.5 mm, p3 = 4 mm, Tg = 1.2 mm, R = 3.5 mm, h = 0.4 mm and Ts = 0.3 mm.

Keywords: contact width, contact stress, layer, metal gasket, corrugated, simulation

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Authors: Alan Bhekisisa Buthelezi

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The aim of this paper is to explore African management and leadership philosophies at secondary schools in post-apartheid South Africa. The research was conducted in the King Cetshwayo district of KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa. Apart from the literature on participative management, the paper reports on a research in which an empirical investigation based on a quantitative research paradigm was used to collect data from secondary school principals. The literature findings revealed that secondary school principals need to rethink their management and leadership philosophies in the twenty-first century. The findings of this research further reveal that ubuntu (humanness) and lekgotla (Sesotho term for “an African participatory approach to decision-making”) should be embedded in the art of school management and leadership in the South African context. The paper concludes with the submission that ongoing capacity-building workshops should be fast-tracked on matters pertaining to management and leadership.

Keywords: distributed leadership, team leadership, decentralization of power, transformational leadership

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Authors: Alan Bhekisisa Buthelezi

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The aim of this paper is to explore African management and leadership philosophies at secondary schools in post-apartheid South Africa. The research was conducted in the King Cetshwayo district of KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa. Apart from the literature on participative management, the paper reports on research in which an empirical investigation based on a quantitative research paradigm was used to collect data from secondary school principals. The literature findings revealed that secondary school principals need to rethink their management and leadership philosophies in the twenty-first century. The findings of this research further reveal that ubuntu (humanness) and lekgotla (Sesotho term for ‘an African participatory approach to decision-making’) should be embedded in the art of school management and leadership in the South African context. The paper concludes with the submission that ongoing capacity-building workshops should be fast-tracked on matters pertaining to management and leadership.

Keywords: transformational leadership, distributed leadership, team leadership, decentralisation of power

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Authors: Cumhur Cansever, Selcuk Er

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There is an increasing cooperation and interaction between the military logistic systems and civil organizations operating in today's market. While the scope and functions of civilian logistics have different characteristics, military logistics tries to import some applications that are conducted by private sectors successfully. Also, at this point, the determination of the optimal point of integration and interaction between civilian and military logistics has emerged as a key issue. In this study, the mutual effects between military and civilian logistics and their most common integration areas, (Supply Chain Management (SCM), Integrated Logistics Support (ILS) and Outsourcing) will be examined with risk analysis and determination of basic skills evaluation methods for determining the optimum point in the integration.

Keywords: core competency, integrated logistics support, outsourcing, supply chain management

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Authors: H. Mousavi, M. Sharifi, H. Pourvaziri

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Redundancy Allocation Problem (RAP) is a well-known mathematical problem for modeling series-parallel systems. It is a combinatorial optimization problem which focuses on determining an optimal assignment of components in a system design. In this paper, to be more practical, we have considered the problem of redundancy allocation of series system with interval valued reliability of components. Therefore, during the search process, the reliabilities of the components are considered as a stochastic variable with a lower and upper bounds. In order to optimize the problem, we proposed a simulated annealing based on cloud theory (CBSAA). Also, the Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) is embedded to the CBSAA to handle the random variable components’ reliability. This novel approach has been investigated by numerical examples and the experimental results have shown that the CBSAA combining MCS is an efficient tool to solve the RAP of systems with interval-valued component reliabilities.

Keywords: redundancy allocation problem, simulated annealing, cloud theory, monte carlo simulation

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Authors: Haseen Siddiqui, Sanjay M. Mahajani

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Various important reactions in chemical and metallurgical industries fall in the category of gas-solid reactions. These reactions can be categorized as catalytic and non-catalytic gas-solid reactions. In gas-solid reaction systems, heat and mass transfer limitations put an appreciable influence on the rate of the reaction. The consequences can be unavoidable for overlooking such effects while collecting the reaction rate data for the design of the reactor. Pyrolysis reaction comes in this category that involves the production of gases due to the interaction of heat and solid substance. Pyrolysis is also an important step in the gasification process and therefore, the gasification reactivity majorly influenced by the pyrolysis process that produces the char, as a feed for the gasification process. Therefore, in the present study, a non-isothermal transient 1-D model is developed for a single biomass pellet to investigate the effect of heat and mass transfer limitations on the rate of pyrolysis reaction. The obtained set of partial differential equations are firstly discretized using the concept of ‘method of lines’ to obtain a set of ordinary differential equation with respect to time. These equations are solved, then, using MATLAB ode solver ode15s. The model is capable of incorporating structural changes, porosity variation, variation in various thermal properties and various pellet shapes. The model is used to analyze the effectiveness factor for different values of Lewis number and heat of reaction (G factor). Lewis number includes the effect of thermal conductivity of the solid pellet. Higher the Lewis number, the higher will be the thermal conductivity of the solid. The effectiveness factor was found to be decreasing with decreasing Lewis number due to the fact that smaller Lewis numbers retard the rate of heat transfer inside the pellet owing to a lower rate of pyrolysis reaction. G factor includes the effect of the heat of reaction. Since the pyrolysis reaction is endothermic in nature, the G factor takes negative values. The more the negative value higher will be endothermic nature of the pyrolysis reaction. The effectiveness factor was found to be decreasing with more negative values of the G factor. This behavior can be attributed to the fact that more negative value of G factor would result in more energy consumption by the reaction owing to a larger temperature gradient inside the pellet. Further, the analytical expressions are also derived for gas and solid concentrations and effectiveness factor for two limiting cases of the general model developed. The two limiting cases of the model are categorized as the homogeneous model and unreacted shrinking core model.

Keywords: effectiveness factor, G-factor, homogeneous model, lewis number, non-catalytic, shrinking core model

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Authors: Y. C. Ching, K. H. Chong

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The increasing of environmental awareness has led to grow interest in the expansion of materials with eco-friendly attributes. In this study, a 3 ply sandwich layer of kenaf fiber reinforced unsaturated polyester with various fiber orientations was developed. The effect of the fiber orientation on mechanical and thermal stability properties of polyester was studied. Unsaturated polyester as a face sheets and kenaf fibers as a core was fabricated with combination of hand lay-up process and cold compression method. Tested result parameters like tensile, flexural, impact strength, melting point, and crystallization point were compared and recorded based on different fiber orientation. The failure mechanism and property changes associated with directional change of fiber to polyester composite were discussed.

Keywords: kenaf fiber, polyester, tensile, thermal stability

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Authors: Michelle Rippy

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Medicolegal death investigation historically is a field that does not receive much research attention or advancement, as all of the subjects are deceased. Public health threats, drug epidemics and contagious diseases are typically recognized in decedents first, with thorough and accurate death investigations able to assist in epidemiology research and prevention programs. One vital component of medicolegal death investigation is determining the decedent’s time of death. An accurate time of death can assist in corroborating alibies, determining sequence of death in multiple casualty circumstances and provide vital facts in civil situations. Popular television portrays an unrealistic forensic ability to provide the exact time of death to the minute for someone found deceased with no witnesses present. The actuality of unattended decedent time of death determination can generally only be narrowed to a 4-6 hour window. In the mid- to late-20th century, liver temperatures were an invasive action taken by death investigators to determine the decedent’s core temperature. The core temperature was programmed into an equation to determine an approximate time of death. Due to many inconsistencies with the placement of the thermometer and other variables, the accuracy of the liver temperatures was dispelled and this once common place action lost scientific support. Currently, medicolegal death investigators utilize three major after death or post-mortem changes at a death scene. Many factors are considered in the subjective determination as to the time of death, including the cooling of the decedent, stiffness of the muscles, release of blood internally, clothing, ambient temperature, disease and recent exercise. Current research is utilizing non-invasive hospital grade tympanic thermometers to measure the temperature in the each of the decedent’s ears. This tool can be used at the scene and in conjunction with scene indicators may provide a more accurate time of death. The research is significant and important to investigations and can provide an area of accuracy to a historically inaccurate area, considerably improving criminal and civil death investigations. The goal of the research is to provide a scientific basis to unwitnessed deaths, instead of the art that the determination currently is. The research is currently in progress with expected termination in December 2018. There are currently 15 completed case studies with vital information including the ambient temperature, decedent height/weight/sex/age, layers of clothing, found position, if medical intervention occurred and if the death was witnessed. This data will be analyzed with the multiple variables studied and available for presentation in January 2019.

Keywords: algor mortis, forensic pathology, investigations, medicolegal, time of death, tympanic

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Authors: Reim A. Almotiri, Manal M. Alkhamisi

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Ternary nanocomposites based on hydroxyapatite (HAP) and alumina (Al2O3) were embedded through graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets to be investigated for medical applications. The composition of the preparations has been confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray analysis, and Fourier-Transform infrared spectroscopy. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy have shown the typical morphologies of the components of the nanocomposites with hydroxyapatite nanorods reaching an average diameter of 22.26±2 nm and an average length of 69.56±19.25 nm in the ternary nanocomposites. The ternary nanocomposite has a microhardness of 5.8±0.1 GPa and a higher average roughness of 6.5 nm compared to pure HAP preparation with an average roughness of 2.7 nm. All preparations have shown an acceptable cytotoxicity profile with a percent osteoblasts cell viability of 98.6±1.3% after culturing with the ternary nanocomposite. The TNC has also shown the highest antibacterial activity compared to preparations of each of its constituents and their nanocomposites, with a zone of inhibition’s diameter of 14.1±0.8 mm and 13.6±0.6 mm against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, respectively, compared to no zone of inhibition for the pure hydroxyapatite preparation.

Keywords: hydroxypatite, cytotoxicity, nanocomposites, X-ray analysis

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Authors: Isabel Martins, Orlando Pereira, Ana Martins

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This study aims to highlight that, in changing environments, organisations need to adapt their behaviours to the demands of the new economic reality. The main purpose of this study focuses on the relationship between entrepreneurship, innovation with learning as the mediating factor. It is within this entrepreneurial spirit that literature reveals a concern with the current economic perspective towards knowledge and considers it as both the production factor par excellence and a source of entrepreneurial capacity and innovation. Entrepreneurship is a mind-set focused on identifying opportunities of economic value and translates these into the pursuit of business opportunities through innovation. It connects art and science and is a way of life, as opposed to a simple mode of business creation and profiteering. This perspective underlines the need to develop the global individual for the globalised world, the strategic key to economic and social development. The objective of this study is to explore the notion that relational capital which is established between the entrepreneur and all the other economic role players both inside and outside the organization, is indeed determinant in developing the entrepreneurial capacity. However, this depends on the organizational culture of innovation. In this context, entrepreneurship is an ‘entrepreneurial capital’ inherent in the organization that is not limited to skills needed for work. This study is a critique of extant literature review which will be also be supported by primary data collection gathered to study graduates’ perceptions towards their entrepreneurial capital. Limitations are centered on both the design and of the sample of this study. This study is of added value for both scholars and organisations in the current innovation economy.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, innovation, learning, relational capital

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Authors: Gaurav Bansod, Swapnil Sutar, Abhijit Patil, Jagdish Patil

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This paper proposes an ultra-lightweight cipher NUX. NUX is a generalized Feistel network. It supports 128/80 bit key length and block length of 64 bit. For 128 bit key length, NUX needs only 1022 GEs which is less as compared to all existing cipher design. NUX design results into less footprint area and minimal memory size. This paper presents security analysis of NUX cipher design which shows cipher’s resistance against basic attacks like Linear and Differential Cryptanalysis. Advanced attacks like Biclique attack is also mounted on NUX cipher design. Two different F function in NUX cipher design results in high diffusion mechanism which generates large number of active S-boxes in minimum number of rounds. NUX cipher has total 31 rounds. NUX design will be best-suited design for critical application like smart grid, IoT, wireless sensor network, where memory size, footprint area and the power dissipation are the major constraints.

Keywords: lightweight cryptography, Feistel cipher, block cipher, IoT, encryption, embedded security, ubiquitous computing

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Authors: Melanie Verhovnik

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School shootings are a well-known phenomenon in Germany, 14 of which have occurred to date. The first case happened half a year after the April 20th, 1999 Columbine shooting in the United States, which was at the time the most serious school shooting to have occurred anywhere in the world. The German media gave only scant attention to the subject of school shootings prior to Columbine, even though there were numerous instances of it throughout the world and several serious instances in the United States during the 1990s. A mixed method design of qualitative and quantitative content analysis was employed in order to demonstrate the main features and characteristics of core German media’s coverage of Columbine.

Keywords: Columbine, media coverage, qualitative, quantitative content analysis, school shooting

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Authors: Sita Yuliastuti Amijaya, Wiyatiningsih Wiyatiningsih, Paulus Bawole

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Weaving skills were not originally a way to earn money for the traditional people on Sumba Island. Weaving is a leisure activity carried out between farming and caring for families. It is quite understandable if the weavers are women. At this time, weaving crafts become a unique potential inherent in an area, so that the weaver women also have the potential to drive economic activity in regional tourism sector. This study aims to measure the sustainability of traditional weaving business activities in Anajiaka Village, Umbu Ratu Nggay Barat, Central Sumba Regency, which is able to support the creative economy. The analysis was performed using qualitative descriptive methods by comparing the criteria of smart living and smart economy in the study of smart city. This study found that business sustainability will be better maintained if it is bound in a joint commitment, for example by forming a group of craftsmen. Other challenges besides the commitment of the group members are aspects of local government support and related agencies, in the form of guidance, funding, and promotion. In addition, fabric order targets, maintaining family and community balance, are recognized as obstacles for craftsmen. The modern marketing model is not yet mastered by the craftsmen group, so it needs assistance for future development.

Keywords: agriculture, craftsmen, creativepreneur, smart economy, smart living

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Authors: Ronald Blough

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Hospitals, clinics, and medical facilities are the core of the Health Services sector providing 24/7 medical care to those in need. Any disruption of these important medical services highlights the vulnerabilities in the medical system. An internal or external event can create a catastrophic incident paralyzing the medical services causing the facility to shift into emergency operations with the possibility of evacuation. The hospital administrator and government officials must decide in a very short amount of time whether to shelter in place or evacuate. This presentation will identify best practice recommendations regarding the hospital evacuation decision and response analyzing previous hospital evacuations to encourage hospitals in the region to review or develop their own emergency evacuation plans.

Keywords: disaster preparedness, hospital evacuation, shelter-in-place, incident containment, health services vulnerability, hospital resources

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Authors: M. Celeska, K. Najdenkoski, V. Dimchev, V. Stoilkov

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Accurate determination of wind turbine performance is necessary for economic operation of a wind farm. At present, the procedure to carry out the power performance verification of wind turbines is based on a standard of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). In this paper, nonparametric statistical inference is applied to designing a simple, inexpensive method of verifying the power performance of a wind turbine. A statistical test is explained, examined, and the adequacy is tested over real data. The methods use the information that is collected by the SCADA system (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) from the sensors embedded in the wind turbines in order to carry out the power performance verification of a wind farm. The study has used data on the monthly output of wind farm in the Republic of Macedonia, and the time measuring interval was from January 1, 2016, to December 31, 2016. At the end, it is concluded whether the power performance of a wind turbine differed significantly from what would be expected. The results of the implementation of the proposed methods showed that the power performance of the specific wind farm under assessment was acceptable.

Keywords: canonical correlation analysis, power curve, power performance, wind energy

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Authors: Murtaza Hassan Sheikh, Ahmed A. A. AlSaleh, Naser H. N. Jasem

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Kuwait has not yet made its mark in the world of technology and research. Therefore, advancements have been made to fill in this gap. Since Robotics covers a wide variety of fields and helps innovation, efforts have been made to promote its education. Despite of the efforts made in Kuwait, robotics education is still on hold. The paper discusses the issues and obstacles in the implementation of robotics education in Kuwait and how a robotics kit “E-Robot” is making an impact in the Kuwait’s future education and innovation. Problems such as robotics competitions rather than education, complexity of robot programming and lack of organized open source platform are being addressed by the introduction of the E-Robot Kit in Kuwait. Due to its success since 2012 a total of 15 schools have accepted the Kit as a core subject, with 200 teaching it as an extracurricular activity.

Keywords: robotics education, Kuwait's education, e-robot kit, research and development, innovation and creativity

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Authors: Sulalit Bandyopadhyay, Muhammad Awais Ashfaq Alvi, Anuvansh Sharma, Wilhelm R. Glomm

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Release of drugs from nanogels and nanogel-based systems can occur under the influence of external stimuli like temperature, pH, magnetic fields and so on. pNIPAm-AAc nanogels respond to the combined action of both temperature and pH, the former being mostly determined by hydrophilic-to-hydrophobic transitions above the volume phase transition temperature (VPTT), while the latter is controlled by the degree of protonation of the carboxylic acid groups. These nanogels based systems are promising candidates in the field of drug delivery. Combining nanogels with magneto-plasmonic nanoparticles (NPs) introduce imaging and targeting modalities along with stimuli-response in one hybrid system, thereby incorporating multifunctionality. Fe@Au core-shell NPs possess optical signature in the visible spectrum owing to localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of the Au shell, and superparamagnetic properties stemming from the Fe core. Although there exist several synthesis methods to control the size and physico-chemical properties of pNIPAm-AAc nanogels, yet, there is no comprehensive study that highlights the dependence of incorporation of one or more layers of NPs to these nanogels. In addition, effective determination of volume phase transition temperature (VPTT) of the nanogels is a challenge which complicates their uses in biological applications. Here, we have modified the swelling-collapse properties of pNIPAm-AAc nanogels, by combining with Fe@Au NPs using different solution based methods. The hydrophilic-hydrophobic transition of the nanogels above the VPTT has been confirmed to be reversible. Further, an analytical method has been developed to deduce the average VPTT which is found to be 37.3°C for the nanogels and 39.3°C for nanogel coated Fe@Au NPs. An opposite swelling –collapse behaviour is observed for the latter where the Fe@Au NPs act as bridge molecules pulling together the gelling units. Thereafter, Cyt C, a model protein drug and L-Dopa, a drug used in the clinical treatment of Parkinson’s disease were loaded separately into the nanogels and nanogel coated Fe@Au NPs, using a modified breathing-in mechanism. This gave high loading and encapsulation efficiencies (L Dopa: ~9% and 70µg/mg of nanogels, Cyt C: ~30% and 10µg/mg of nanogels respectively for both the drugs. The release kinetics of L-Dopa, monitored using UV-vis spectrophotometry was observed to be rather slow (over several hours) with highest release happening under a combination of high temperature (above VPTT) and acidic conditions. However, the release of L-Dopa from nanogel coated Fe@Au NPs was the fastest, accounting for release of almost 87% of the initially loaded drug in ~30 hours. The chemical structure of the drug, drug incorporation method, location of the drug and presence of Fe@Au NPs largely alter the drug release mechanism and the kinetics of these nanogels and Fe@Au NPs coated with nanogels.

Keywords: controlled release, nanogels, volume phase transition temperature, l-dopa

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Authors: Jae-Soo Do, Kyoung-Seok Kim

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The crisis theory of Samsung Electronics is becoming a hot topic today. Due to its performance deterioration, the share of Samsung Electronics lost its driving power. Considering the public opinion about the bad rumors circulating within the company, it is quite probable that the company is currently facing crisis. Then, what company has challenged the stronghold of Samsung Electronics? At the core of the crisis is 'Xiaomi' who snatched the first place of the market share, pushing Samsung Electronics aside in the Chinese market. In June 2010, Xiaomi, established by eight co-founders, has been showing a miraculous growth as the smart device manufacturer, taking the first place in the Chinese market and coming in fifth worldwide in just four years after its establishment. How did Xiaomi instantaneously achieve enough growth to overtake Samsung? Thus, we have conducted a comparative analysis on the competitive strategies of Samsung and Xiaomi.

Keywords: Samsung, Xiaomi, industrial attractiveness, VIRO

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Authors: Katarina Revocati Mteule

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The background of this research arises from global demands for fair business opportunities. As one of responses to these demands, nations embarked on reforms in commercial laws. In 1990s Tanzania resorted to economic transformation through liberalization to attract more investments included reform in commercial laws enforcement. This research scrutinizes the effectiveness of reforms in Tanzania in comparison with Canada and Singapore and the role of technology. The methodology to be used is doctrinal legal research mixed with international comparative legal research. It involves comparative analysis of library, online, and internet resources as well as Case Laws and Statutory Laws. Tanzania, Canada and Singapore are sampled comparators basing on their distinct level of economic development. The criteria of analysis includes the nature of reforms, type of technology, technological infrastructure and human resource technical competence in each country. As the world progresses towards reforms in commercial laws, improvements in law, policy, and regulatory frameworks are paramount. Specifically, commercial laws are essential in contract enforcement and dispute resolution and how it copes with modern technologies is a concern. Harnessing the best technology is necessary to cope with the modernity in world businesses. In line with this, Tanzania is improving its business environment, including law enforcement mechanisms that are supportive to investments. Reforms such as specialized commercial law enforcement coupled with alternative dispute resolutions such as arbitration, mediation, and reconciliation are emphasized. Court technology as one of the reform tools given high priority. This research evaluates the progress and the effectiveness of the reforms in Commercial Laws towards friendly business environment in Tanzania in comparison with Canada and Singapore. The experience of Tanzania is compared with Canada and Singapore to see what to improve for each country to enhance quick and fair enforcement of commercial law. The research proposes necessary global standards of procedures and in national laws to offer a business-friendly environment and the use of appropriate technology. Solutions are proposed in tackling the challenges of delays in enforcing Commercial Laws such as case management, funding, legal and procedural hindrances, laxity among staff, and abuse of Court process among litigants, all in line with modern technology. It is the finding of the research that proper use of technology has managed to reduce case backlogs and time taken to resolve a commercial dispute, to increase court integrity by minimizing human contacts in commercial law enforcement which may lead to solicitation of favors and saving of parties’ time due to online service. Among the three countries, each one is facing a distinct challenge due to the level of poverty and remoteness from online service. How solutions are found in one country is a lesson to another. To conclude, this paper is suggesting solutions for improving the commercial law enforcement mechanisms in line with modern technology. The call for technological transformation is essential for the enforcement of commercial laws.

Keywords: commercial law, enforcement, technology

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Authors: Francis E. Idachaba, Sarah Uyimeh Tommy

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This paper describes the design of an RFID laptop monitoring and management system. Laptops embedded with RFID chips are monitored and tracked to provide a monitoring system for the purpose of tracking as well as monitoring movement of the laptops in and out of a building. The proposed system is implemented with both hardware and software components. The hardware architecture consists of RFID passive tag, RFID module (reader), and a server hosting the application and database. The RFID readers are distributed at major exits of a building or premises. The tags are programmed with owner laptop details are concealed in the laptops. The software architecture consists of application software that has the APIs (Applications Programming Interface) necessary to interface the RFID system with the PC, to achieve automated laptop monitoring system. A friendly graphic user interface (GUI) and a database that saves all readings and owners details. The system is capable of reducing laptop theft especially in students’ hostels as laptops can be monitored as they are taken either in or out of the building.

Keywords: asset tracking, GUI, laptop monitoring, radio frequency identification, passive tags

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Authors: B. Afsari, M. Hassanpour, M. Shabani

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This study aimed to investigate the phase morphology of ternary blends comprising PP, PA6, and a blend of EPDM and EPDM-g-MA in a 70/15/15 ratio. Varying ratios of EPDM to EPDM-g-MA were examined. As the proportion of EPDM-g-MA increased, an interlayer phase formed between the dispersed PA6 domains and the PP matrix. This resulted in the development of a core-shell encapsulation morphology within the blends. The concentration of the EPDM-g-MA component is inversely correlated with the average size of PA6 particles. Additionally, blends containing higher proportions of the EPDM-g-MA rubbery phase exhibited an aggregated structure of the modifier particles. Notably, as the concentration of EPDM-g-MA increased from 0% to 15% in the blend, there was a consistent monotonic reduction in the size of PA6 particles.

Keywords: phase morphology, rubbery phase, rubber functionality, ternary blends

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Authors: S. Sakthivel

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Currently, the global economy is based on the hydrocarbon economy, which is referencing the global hydrocarbon industry. Problems of using these fossil fuels (like oil, NG, coal) are emitting greenhouse gases (GHGs) and price fluctuation, supply/distribution, etc. These challenges can be overcome by using clean energy as hydrogen. The hydrogen economy is the use of hydrogen as a low carbon fuel, particularly for hydrogen vehicles, alternative industrial feedstock, power generation, and energy storage, etc. Engineering consulting firms have a significant role in this ambition and green hydrogen value chain (i.e., integration of renewables, production, storage, and distribution to end-users). Typically, the cost of green hydrogen is a function of the price of electricity needed, the cost of the electrolyser, and the operating cost to run the system. This article focuses on economic viability and explores the alluring business scenarios globally. Break-even analysis was carried out for green hydrogen production and in order to evaluate and compare the impact of the electricity price on the production costs of green hydrogen and relate it to fossil fuel-based brown/grey/blue hydrogen costs. It indicates that the cost of green hydrogen production will fall drastically due to the declining costs of renewable electricity prices and along with the improvement and scaling up of electrolyser manufacturing. For instance, in a scenario where electricity prices are below US$ 40/MWh, green hydrogen cost is expected to reach cost competitiveness.

Keywords: green hydrogen, cost analysis, break-even analysis, renewables, electrolyzer

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Authors: Jacky Hau

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The prevalence of emerging technologies disrupts various industries as well as consumer behavior. Data collection has been in the fingertip and inherited through enabled Internet-of-things (IOT) devices. Big data analytics (BDA) becomes possible and allows real-time demand network management (DNM) through leagile supply chain. To enhance further on its resilience and predictability, governance is going to be examined to promote supply chain transparency and trust in an efficient manner. Leagility combines lean thinking and agile techniques in supply chain management. It aims at reducing costs and waste, as well as maintaining responsiveness to any volatile consumer demand by means of adjusting the decoupling point where the product flow changes from push to pull. Leagility would only be successful when collaborative planning, forecasting, and replenishment (CPFR) process or alike is in place throughout the supply chain business entities. Governance and procurement of the supply chain, however, is crucial and challenging for the execution of CPFR as every entity has to walk-the-talk generously for the sake of overall benefits of supply chain performance, not to mention the complexity of exercising the polices at both of within across various supply chain business entities on account of organizational behavior and mutual trust. Empirical survey results showed that the effective timespan on demand forecasting had been drastically shortening in the magnitude of months to weeks planning horizon, thus agility shall come first and preferably following by lean approach in a timely manner.

Keywords: governance, leagility, procure-to-pay, source-to-contract

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Authors: Frantisek Kalenda

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With the ultimate triumph of the republican movement in 1889 in Brazil and adoption of constitution promoting religious freedom, formerly dominant Roman Catholic Church entered a long period of struggle to recover its lost position, fighting both liberal and secular character of the new regime and rising competition on the “market of faith”. Spiritism in its originally Brazilian form proved to be one if its key adversaries during the First (1889-1930) and Second Republic (1930-1937), provoking significant attempt within official Church to discredit and destroy the movement. This paper explores this effort through Catholic portrayal of Spiritism in its official media, focusing, on the creation of stereotypes and both theological and “scientific” arguments used against it. Its core is based on primary sources’ analysis, mainly influential A Ordem and Mensageiro da Fé.

Keywords: Catholic Church, media, other, spiritism, stereotype

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Authors: Claudio Clemente, Valentina Gargiulo, Alessio Occhicone, Giovanni Piero Pepe, Giovanni Ausanio, Michela Alfè

Abstract:

Volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions represent a serious risk to human health and the integrity of the ecosystems, especially at high concentrations. For this reason, it is very important to continuously monitor environmental quality and develop fast and reliable portable sensors to allow analysis on site. Chemiresistors have become promising candidates for VOC sensing as their ease of fabrication, variety of suitable sensitive materials, and simple sensing data. A chemoresistive gas sensor is a transducer that allows to measure the concentration of an analyte in the gas phase because the changes in resistance are proportional to the amount of the analyte present. The selection of the sensitive material, which interacts with the target analyte, is very important for the sensor performance. The most used VOC detection materials are metal oxides (MOx) for their rapid recovery, high sensitivity to various gas molecules, easy fabrication. Their sensing performance can be improved in terms of operating temperature, selectivity, and detection limit. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have attracted a lot of attention also in the field of gas sensing due to their high porosity, high surface area, tunable morphologies, structural variety. MOFs are generated by the self-assembly of multidentate organic ligands connecting with adjacent multivalent metal nodes via strong coordination interactions, producing stable and highly ordered crystalline porous materials with well-designed structures. However, most MOFs intrinsically exhibit low electrical conductivity. To improve this property, MOFs can be combined with organic and inorganic materials in a hybrid fashion to produce composite materials or can be transformed into more stable structures. MOFs, indeed, can be employed as the precursors of metal oxides with well-designed architectures via the calcination method. The MOF-derived MOx partially preserved the original structure with high surface area and intrinsic open pores, which act as trapping centers for gas molecules, and showed a higher electrical conductivity. Core-shell heterostructures, in which the surface of a metal oxide core is completely coated by a MOF shell, forming a junction at the core-shell heterointerface, can also be synthesized. Also, nanocomposite in which MOF structures are intercalated with graphene related materials can also be produced, and the conductivity increases thanks to the high mobility of electrons of carbon materials. As MOF structures, zinc-based MOFs belonging to the ZIF family were selected in this work. Several Zn-based materials based and/or derived from MOFs were produced, structurally characterized, and arranged in a chemo resistive architecture, also exploring the potentiality of different approaches of sensing layer deposition based on PLD (pulsed laser deposition) and, in case of thermally labile materials, MAPLE (Matrix Assisted Pulsed Laser Evaporation) to enhance the adhesion to the support. The sensors were tested in a controlled humidity chamber, allowing for the possibility of varying the concentration of ethanol, a typical analyte chosen among the VOCs for a first survey. The effect of heating the chemiresistor to improve sensing performances was also explored. Future research will focus on exploring new manufacturing processes for MOF-based gas sensors with the aim to improve sensitivity, selectivity and reduce operating temperatures.

Keywords: chemiresistors, gas sensors, graphene related materials, laser deposition, MAPLE, metal-organic frameworks, metal oxides, nanocomposites, sensing performance, transduction mechanism, volatile organic compounds

Procedia PDF Downloads 63

Authors: C. Manjula, Lilly Florence

Abstract:

Software technology is developing rapidly which leads to the growth of various industries. Now-a-days, software-based applications have been adopted widely for business purposes. For any software industry, development of reliable software is becoming a challenging task because a faulty software module may be harmful for the growth of industry and business. Hence there is a need to develop techniques which can be used for early prediction of software defects. Due to complexities in manual prediction, automated software defect prediction techniques have been introduced. These techniques are based on the pattern learning from the previous software versions and finding the defects in the current version. These techniques have attracted researchers due to their significant impact on industrial growth by identifying the bugs in software. Based on this, several researches have been carried out but achieving desirable defect prediction performance is still a challenging task. To address this issue, here we present a machine learning based hybrid technique for software defect prediction. First of all, Genetic Algorithm (GA) is presented where an improved fitness function is used for better optimization of features in data sets. Later, these features are processed through Decision Tree (DT) classification model. Finally, an experimental study is presented where results from the proposed GA-DT based hybrid approach is compared with those from the DT classification technique. The results show that the proposed hybrid approach achieves better classification accuracy.

Keywords: decision tree, genetic algorithm, machine learning, software defect prediction

Procedia PDF Downloads 329

Authors: Hafiz Md. Hasan Babu, Khandaker Mohammad Mohi Uddin, Nitish Biswas, Sarreha Tasmin Rikta, Nuzmul Hossain Nahid

Abstract:

Nanomedicine and bioengineering use biological systems that can perform computing operations. In a biocomputational circuit, different types of biomolecules and DNA (Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid) are used as active components. DNA computing has the capability of performing parallel processing and a large storage capacity that makes it diverse from other computing systems. In most processors, the multiplier is treated as a core hardware block, and multiplication is one of the time-consuming and lengthy tasks. In this paper, cost-effective DNA multipliers are designed using algorithms of molecular DNA operations with respect to conventional ones. The speed and storage capacity of a DNA multiplier are also much higher than a traditional silicon-based multiplier.

Keywords: biological systems, DNA multiplier, large storage, parallel processing

Procedia PDF Downloads 214

Authors: Anochao Phetcharat

Abstract:

This research aims to study problems of translation basic knowledge, particularly from English into Thai. The researcher used 38 2nd-year non-English speaking students of Suratthani Rajabhat University as samples. The samples were required to translate an A4-sized article from English into Thai assigned as a part of BEN0202 Translation for Business, a requirement subject for Business English Department, which was also taught by the researcher. After completion of the translation, numerous problems were found and the research grouped them into 4 major types. The normally occurred problems in English-Thai translation works are the lack of knowledge in terms of parts of speech, word-by-word translation employment, misspellings as well as the poor knowledge in English language structure. However, this research is currently under the process of data analysis and shall be completed by the beginning of August. The researcher, nevertheless, predicts that all the above-mentioned problems, will support the researcher’s hypothesizes, that are; 1) the lack of knowledge in terms of parts of speech causes the mistranslation problem; 2) employing word-by-word translation technique hugely results in the mistranslation problem; 3) misspellings yields the mistranslation problem; and 4) the poor knowledge in English language structure also brings about translation errors. The research also predicts that, of all the aforementioned problems, the following ones are found the most, respectively: the poor knowledge in English language structure, word-by-word translation employment, the lack of knowledge in terms of parts of speech, and misspellings.

Keywords: problem, student, Thai, translation

Procedia PDF Downloads 436

Authors: Fabiano Amorim Vaz, Camila Gonzaga de Araujo

Abstract:

With the growing number of personal devices such as smartphones, tablets, smart watches, among others, in addition to recent devices designed for IoT, it is observed that residential environment has potential to generate important information about our daily lives. Therefore, this work is focused on showing and evaluating a system that integrates all these technologies considering the context of a smart house. To achieve this, we define an architecture capable of supporting the amount of data generated and consumed at a residence and, mainly, the variety of this data presents. We organize it in a particular cloud containing information about robots, recreational vehicles, weather, in addition to data from the house, such as lighting, energy, security, among others. The proposed architecture can be extrapolated to various scenarios and applications. Through the core of this work, we can define new functionality for residences integrating them with more resources.

Keywords: cloud computing, IoT, robotics, smart house

Procedia PDF Downloads 381