Search results for: sustainable business model

Authors: Babak H. Tabrizi, Seyed Farid Ghaderi

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Concurrent planning of project scheduling and material ordering can provide more flexibility to the project scheduling problem, as the project execution costs can be enhanced. Hence, the issue has been taken into account in this paper. To do so, a mixed-integer mathematical model is developed which considers the aforementioned flexibility, in addition to the materials quantity discount and space availability restrictions. Moreover, the activities duration has been treated as decision variables. Finally, the efficiency of the proposed model is tested by different instances. Additionally, the influence of the aforementioned parameters is investigated on the model performance.

Keywords: material ordering, project scheduling, quantity discount, space availability

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Authors: Murat Gunduz, Mustafa Ozdemir

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In this research, a framework is to be proposed to model the safety performance in construction sites. Determinants of safety performance are to be defined through extensive literature review and a multidimensional safety performance model is to be developed. In this context, a questionnaire is to be administered to construction companies with sites. The collected data through questionnaires including linguistic terms are then to be defuzzified to get concrete numbers by using fuzzy set theory which provides strong and significant instruments for the measurement of ambiguities and provides the opportunity to meaningfully represent concepts expressed in the natural language. The validity of the proposed safety performance model, relationships between determinants of safety performance are to be analyzed using the structural equation modeling (SEM) which is a highly strong multi variable analysis technique that makes possible the evaluation of latent structures. After validation of the model, a safety performance index assessment tool is to be proposed by the help of software. The proposed safety performance assessment tool will be based on the empirically validated theoretical model.

Keywords: Fuzzy set theory, safety performance assessment, safety index, structural equation modeling (SEM), construction sites

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Authors: Martina Kovalcikova, Adriana Estokova

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Today, concrete belongs to the most frequently used materials in the civil engineering industry for many years. Consuming energy in cement industry is very high and CO₂ emissions generated during the production of Portland cement has serious environmental threatens. Therefore, utilization of pozzolanic material as a supplementary cementitious material has a direct relationship with the sustainable development. The paper presents the results of the comparative study of the resistance of the Slovak origin zeolite based cement composites with addition of silica fume exposed to the sulfate environment. The various aggressive media were used for the experiment: sulfuric acid with pH 4, distilled water and magnesium sulfate solution with a concentration of 3 g/L of SO₄²−. The laboratory experiment proceeded during 180 days under model conditions. The changes in the elemental concentrations of calcium and silicon in liquid leachates were observed.

Keywords: concrete, leaching, silica fume, sulfuric acid, zeolite

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Authors: Burak Erkayman

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The manufacturing and service organizations are in the need of using ERP systems to integrate many functions from purchasing to storage, production planning to calculation of costs. Using ERP systems by the integration in the level of information provides companies remarkable advantages in terms of profitability, productivity and efficiency in processes. Cloud computing is one of the most significant changes in information and communication technology. The developments in Cloud Computing attract business world to take advantage of this field. Cloud Computing means much more storage area, more cost saving and faster data transfer rate. In addition to these, it presents new business models, new field of study and practicable solutions for anyone’s use. These developments make inevitable the implementation of ERP systems to cloud environment. In this study, the performance of ERP systems in cloud environment is analyzed through various performance criteria and a comparison between traditional and cloud-ERP systems is presented. At the end of study the transformation and the future of ERP systems is discussed.

Keywords: cloud-ERP, ERP system performance, information system transformation

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Authors: Lee Kar Heng

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Activists are people who use strong actions such as public protests or social media accusations in support of or opposition to controversial issues. While activism is the act of using such vigorous campaigns and actions to achieve political or social changes by the activists, today, the pressure and stresses from activism do not only grow in terms of civil rights but also in racial justice, labour reforms, and environmental change, to name a few. Some activism acts are constructive, but many are destructive, and they affect businesses as activists direct their sights on corporations, business entities, and organizations to achieve their supporting objectives beyond reasonable means. The paper attempts to share experiences of businesses being attacked by activists and how the attacks are mitigated. In sharing, this paper will discuss the effectiveness of the activist action and ways to react to them. The positive and negative impacts caused by activists' support action against corporations are also discussed.

Keywords: activism, conflicts, business, social responsibility

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Authors: Min Kyung An

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In this paper, we study the data collection problem in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) adopting the two interference models: The graph model and the more realistic physical interference model known as Signal-to-Interference-Noise-Ratio (SINR). The main issue of the problem is to compute schedules with the minimum number of timeslots, that is, to compute the minimum latency schedules, such that data from every node can be collected without any collision or interference to a sink node. While existing works studied the problem with unit-sized and unbounded-sized message models, we investigate the problem with the bounded-sized message model, and introduce a constant factor approximation algorithm. To the best known of our knowledge, our result is the first result of the data collection problem with bounded-sized model in both interference models.

Keywords: data collection, collision-free, interference-free, physical interference model, SINR, approximation, bounded-sized message model, wireless sensor networks

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Authors: Jaroslav Krutil, František Pochylý, Simona Fialová, Vladimír Habán

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A mathematical model of the additional effects of the liquid in the hydrodynamic gap is presented in the paper. An in-compressible viscous fluid is considered. Based on computational modeling are determined the matrices of mass, stiffness and damping. The mathematical model is experimentally verified.

Keywords: computational modeling, mathematical model, hydrodynamic gap, matrices of mass, stiffness and damping

Procedia PDF Downloads 563

Authors: Md. Jahoor Alam

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Recent studies suggest that Glucose controls several lifesaving pathways. Glucose molecule is reported to be responsible for the production of ROS (reactive oxygen species). In the present work, a p53-MDM2-Glucose model is developed in order to study spatiotemporal properties of the p53 pathway. The systematic model is mathematically described. The model is numerically simulated using high computational facility. It is observed that the variation in glucose concentration level triggers the system at different states, namely, oscillation death (stabilized), sustain and damped oscillations which correspond to various cellular states. The transition of these states induced by glucose is phase transition-like behaviour. Further, the amplitude of p53 dynamics with the variation of glucose concentration level follows power law behaviour, As(k) ~ kϒ, where, ϒ is a constant. Further Stochastic approach is needed for understanding of realistic behaviour of the model. The present model predicts the variation of p53 states under the influence of glucose molecule which is also supported by experimental facts reported by various research articles.

Keywords: oscillation, temporal behavior, p53, glucose

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Authors: Emiliano Lustrissimi, Bonifacio Bianco, Sebastiano Caravaggi, Antonio Rosato

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A mathematical framework has been designed to enhance the configuration of an end-of-production-line (EOL) test bench. This system can be used to assess the performance of electric motors or axles intended for electric vehicles. The model has been developed to predict the behaviour of EOL test benches and electric motors/axles under various boundary conditions, eliminating the need for extensive physical testing and reducing the corresponding power consumption. The suggested model is versatile, capable of being utilized across various types of electric motors or axles, and adaptable to accommodate varying power ratings of electric motors or axles. The maximum performance to be guaranteed by the EMs according to the car maker's specifications are taken as inputs in the model. Then, the required performance of each main EOL test bench component is calculated, and the corresponding systems available on the market are selected based on manufacturers’ catalogues. In this study, an EOL test bench has been designed according to the proposed model outputs for testing a low-power (about 22 kW) electric axle. The performance of the designed EOL test bench has been measured and used to validate the proposed model and assess both the consistency of the constraints as well as the accuracy of predictions in terms of electric demands. The comparison between experimental and predicted data exhibited a reasonable agreement, allowing to demonstrate that, despite some discrepancies, the model gives an accurate representation of the EOL test benches' performance.

Keywords: electric motors, electric vehicles, end-of-production-line test bench, mathematical model, field tests

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Authors: Yuan Zheng

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3D model-based vehicle matching provides a new way for vehicle recognition, localization and tracking. Its key is to construct an evaluation function, also called fitness function, to measure the degree of vehicle matching. The existing fitness functions often poorly perform when the clutter and occlusion exist in traffic scenarios. In this paper, we present a practical and efficient fitness function. Unlike the existing evaluation functions, the proposed fitness function is to study the vehicle matching problem from both local and global perspectives, which exploits the pixel gradient information as well as the silhouette information. In view of the discrepancy between 3D vehicle model and real vehicle, a weighting strategy is introduced to differently treat the fitting of the model’s wireframes. Additionally, a normalization operation for the model’s projection is performed to improve the accuracy of the matching. Experimental results on real traffic videos reveal that the proposed fitness function is efficient and robust to the cluttered background and partial occlusion.

Keywords: 3D-2D matching, fitness function, 3D vehicle model, local image gradient, silhouette information

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Authors: Xu Du, Aparna S. Varde

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In this research, we propose to conduct diagnostic and predictive analysis about the key factors and consequences of urban population relocation. To achieve this goal, urban simulation models extract the urban development trends as land use change patterns from a variety of data sources. The results are treated as part of urban big data with other information such as population change and economic conditions. Multiple data mining methods are deployed on this data to analyze nonlinear relationships between parameters. The result determines the driving force of population relocation with respect to urban sprawl and urban sustainability and their related parameters. Experiments so far reveal that data mining methods discover useful knowledge from the multicity urban data. This work sets the stage for developing a comprehensive urban simulation model for catering to specific questions by targeted users. It contributes towards achieving sustainability as a whole.

Keywords: data mining, environmental modeling, sustainability, urban planning

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Authors: Zhaoan Wang

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Research in predictive maintenance modeling has improved in the recent years to predict failures and needed maintenance with high accuracy, saving cost and improving manufacturing efficiency. However, classic prediction models provide little valuable insight towards the most important features contributing to the failure. By analyzing and quantifying feature importance in predictive maintenance models, cost saving can be optimized based on business goals. First, multiple classifiers are evaluated with cross-validation to predict the multi-class of failures. Second, predictive performance with features provided by different feature selection algorithms are further analyzed. Third, features selected by different algorithms are ranked and combined based on their predictive power. Finally, linear explainer SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations) is applied to interpret classifier behavior and provide further insight towards the specific roles of features in both local predictions and global model behavior. The results of the experiments suggest that certain features play dominant roles in predictive models while others have significantly less impact on the overall performance. Moreover, for multi-class prediction of machine failures, the most important features vary with type of machine failures. The results may lead to improved productivity and cost saving by prioritizing sensor deployment, data collection, and data processing of more important features over less importance features.

Keywords: automated supply chain, intelligent manufacturing, predictive maintenance machine learning, feature engineering, model interpretation

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Authors: Tamar Arieli

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Cross-border cooperation has long been hailed as a means for stabilizing and normalizing relations between former enemies. Cooperation in problem-solving and realizing of local interests in post-conflict environments can indeed serve as a basis for developing dialogue and meaningful relations between neighbors across borders. Hence the potential for formerly sealed borders to serve as a basis for generating local and national perceptions of interdependence and as a buffer against the resume of conflict. Central questions which arise for policy-makers and third parties are how to facilitate cross-border cooperation and which areas of cooperation best serve to normalize post-conflict border regions. The Israel-Jordan border functions as a post-conflict border, in that it is a peaceful border since the 1994 Israel-Jordan peace treaty yet cross-border relations are defined but the highly securitized nature of the border region and the ongoing Arab-Israel regional conflict. This case study is based on long term qualitative research carried out in the border regions of both Israel and Jordan, which mapped and analyzed cross-border in a wide range of activities – social interactions sponsored by peace-facilitating NGOs, government sponsored agricultural cooperation, municipal initiated emergency planning in cross-border continuous urban settings, private cross-border business ventures and various environmental cooperative initiatives. These cooperative initiatives are evaluated through multiple interviews carried out with initiators and partners in cross-border cooperation as well as analysis of documentation, funding and media. These cooperative interactions are compared based on levels of cross-border local and official awareness and involvement as well as sustainability over time. This research identifies environmental cooperation as the most sustainable area of cross- border cooperation and as most conducive to generating perceptions of regional interdependence. This is a variation to the ‘New Middle East’ vision of business-based cooperation leading to conflict amelioration and regional stability. Environmental cooperation serving the public good rather than personal profit enjoys social legitimization even in the face of widespread anti-normalization sentiments common in the post-conflict environment. This insight is examined in light of philosophical and social aspects of the natural environment and its social perceptions. This research has theoretical implications for better understanding dynamics of cooperation and conflict, as well as practical ramifications for practitioners in border region policy and management.

Keywords: borders, cooperation, post-conflict, security

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Authors: Wu Xingchun, Chen Xi

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Nowadays, China's building energy consumption constitutes 25% of the total energy consumption, half of which was caused by air conditioning in both summer and winter. The ventilation system in Chinese traditional residence, which is totally passive and environmentally friendly, works effectively to create comfortable indoor environment. The research on the ventilation system in Chinese traditional residence can provide advancements to architecture design and energy savings to the society. Through field investigation, case analysis, strategy proposing and other methods, it comes out that the location and layout, the structure system and the design of atrium are the most important elements for a good ventilation system. Taking every factor into consideration, techniques are deployed extensively such as the organization of draught, the design of the thermal pressure ventilation system and the application of modern materials. With the enlightenment of the ventilation system in Chinese traditional residence, we can take effective measures to achieve low energy consumption and sustainable architecture.

Keywords: ventilation system, chinese traditional residence, energy consumption, sustainable architecture

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Authors: Guannan Ren, Thomas Mazzuchi, Shahram Sarkani

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Electric vehicle battery recycling has emerged as a critical process in the transition toward sustainable transportation. As the demand for electric vehicles continues to rise, so does the need to address the end-of-life management of their batteries. Electric vehicle battery recycling benefits resource recovery and supply chain stability by reclaiming valuable metals like lithium, cobalt, nickel, and graphite. The reclaimed materials can then be reintroduced into the battery manufacturing process, reducing the reliance on raw material extraction and the environmental impacts of waste. Current battery recycling rates are insufficient to meet the growing demands for raw materials. While significant progress has been made in electric vehicle battery recycling, many areas can still improve. Standardization of battery designs, increased collection and recycling infrastructures, and improved efficiency in recycling processes are essential for scaling up recycling efforts and maximizing material recovery. This work delves into key factors, such as regulatory frameworks, economic incentives, and technological processes, that influence the cost-effectiveness and efficiency of battery recycling systems. A system dynamics model that considers variables such as battery production rates, demand and price fluctuations, recycling infrastructure capacity, and the effectiveness of recycling processes is created to study how these variables are interconnected, forming feedback loops that affect the overall supply chain efficiency. Such a model can also help simulate the effects of stricter regulations on battery disposal, incentives for recycling, or investments in research and development for battery designs and advanced recycling technologies. By using the developed model, policymakers, industry stakeholders, and researchers may gain insights into the effects of applying different policies or process updates on electric vehicle battery recycling rates.

Keywords: environmental engineering, modeling and simulation, circular economy, sustainability, transportation science, policy

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Authors: Jorge Luis Morales Romero, Enrique Murillo Othón

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Business to business (B2B) relationships generally go beyond a purely profit-based result, with firms seeking to maintain a relationship for many years because a breakup or getting a new supplier can be very costly. Therefore, identifying the factors which determine a successful relationship in the long term is of great interest to companies. That is why their reputation and the brand image that customers have of them are among the main factors that can achieve a successful relationship; Because of the positive effect which is driven by the client’s loyalty. Additionally, the perception that a customer may have about a brand is different when it is related to goods or to services. Thereby, they create in their minds their own brand image of it based on the past experiences they have had; Thus, a positive relationship is established between goods-related brand image, service-related brand image, and customer loyalty. The present investigation examines the boundary conditions of said relationship by testing the moderating effects of trust, commitment, and relationship value in a B2B environment. All the variables were tested independently as moderators for service-related brand image/loyalty and for goods-related brand image/loyalty, as they are assumed to be separate variables. Survey data was collected through interviews with customers that have both a product-buying relationship and a service relationship with a global B2B brand of healthcare equipment operating in the Mexican healthcare market. Interviewed respondents were either the user or the purchasing manager and/or the responsible for the equipment maintenance for the customer organization. Hence, they were appropriate informants regarding the B2B relationship with this healthcare brand. The moderation models were estimated using the PROCESS macro for the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences Software (SPSS). Results show statistical evidence that both Relationship Value and Trust are significant moderators for the service-related brand image/loyalty relation but not significant for the goods-related brand/loyalty relation. On the other hand, Commitment results in a significant moderator for the goods-related brand/loyalty relation but is not significant for the service-related brand image/loyalty relation.

Keywords: commitment, trust, relationship value, loyalty, B2B, moderator

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Authors: M. Kamal M. Shah, Noorhifiantylaily Ahmad, O. Irma Wani, J. Sahari

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This paper presents the computationally mechanics analysis of energy absorption for cylindrical and square thin wall tubed structure by using ABAQUS/explicit. The crashworthiness behavior of AISI 1020 mild steel thin-walled tube under axial loading has been studied. The influence effects of different model’s cross-section, as well as model length on the crashworthiness behavior of thin-walled tube, are investigated. The model was placed on loading platform under axial loading with impact velocity of 5 m/s to obtain the deformation results of each model under quasi-static loading. The results showed that model undergoes different deformation mode exhibits different energy absorption performance.

Keywords: axial loading, computational mechanics, energy absorption performance, crashworthiness behavior, deformation mode

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Authors: Usman Jilani, Ibad Khurram, Irshad Hussain

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Environmentally sustainable waste management is a challenging task as it involves multiple and diverse economic, environmental, technical and regulatory issues. Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) is more challenging in developing countries like Pakistan due to lack of awareness, technology and human resources, insufficient funding, inefficient collection and transport mechanism resulting in the lack of a comprehensive waste management system. This work presents an overview of current MSWM practices in Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan and proposes a better and sustainable integrated solid waste management system with incineration (Waste to Energy) option. The diverted waste would otherwise generate revenue; minimize land fill requirement and negative impact on the environment. The proposed optimized solution utilizing scientific techniques (like mathematical modeling, optimization algorithms and GIS) as decision support tools enhances the technical & institutional efficiency leading towards a more sustainable waste management system through incorporating: - Improved collection mechanisms through optimized transportation / routing and, - Resource recovery through incineration and selection of most feasible sites for transfer stations, landfills and incineration plant. These proposed methods shift the linear waste management system towards a cyclic system and can also be used as a decision support tool by the WSSP (Water and Sanitation Services Peshawar), agency responsible for the MSWM in Peshawar.

Keywords: municipal solid waste management, incineration, mathematical modeling, optimization, GIS, Peshawar

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Authors: Kaouther Selmi, Alaeddine Sridi, Mohamed Bouallegue, Kais Bouallegue

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Neurons are the fundamental units of the brain and the nervous system. The variable structure model of neurons consists of a system of differential equations with various parameters. By optimizing these parameters, we can create a unique model that describes the dynamic behavior of a single neuron. We introduce a neural network based on neurons with multiple dendrites employing an activation function with a variable structure. In this paper, we present a model for heart behavior. Finally, we showcase our successful simulation of the heart's ECG diagram using our Variable Structure Neuron Model (VSMN). This result could provide valuable insights into cardiology.

Keywords: neural networks, neuron, dendrites, heart behavior, ECG

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Authors: Emma Serwaa Obobisaa, Haibo Chen

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International trade and outward foreign direct investment are important factors which are generally recognized in the economic growth and development. Though several scholars have struggled to reveal the influence of trade and outward foreign direct investment (FDI) on economic growth, most studies utilized common econometric models such as vector autoregression and aggregated the variables, which for the most part prompts, however, contradictory and mixed results. Thus, there is an exigent need for the precise study of the trade and FDI effect of economic growth while applying strong econometric models and disaggregating the variables into its separate individual variables to explicate their respective effects on economic growth. This will guarantee the provision of policies and strategies that are geared towards individual variables to ensure sustainable development and growth. This study, therefore, seeks to examine the causal effect of China-Africa trade and Outward Foreign Direct Investment on the economic growth of Africa using a robust and recent econometric approach such as system dynamics model. Our study impanels and tests an ensemble of a group of vital variables predominant in recent studies on trade-FDI-economic growth causality: Foreign direct ınvestment, international trade and economic growth. Our results showed that the system dynamics method provides accurate statistical inference regarding the direction of the causality among the variables than the conventional method such as OLS and Granger Causality predominantly used in the literature as it is more robust and provides accurate, critical values.

Keywords: economic growth, outward foreign direct investment, system dynamics model, international trade

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Authors: Chothmal, Basant Agarwal

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Sentiment analysis means to classify a given review document into positive or negative polar document. Sentiment analysis research has been increased tremendously in recent times due to its large number of applications in the industry and academia. Sentiment analysis models can be used to determine the opinion of the user towards any entity or product. E-commerce companies can use sentiment analysis model to improve their products on the basis of users’ opinion. In this paper, we propose a new One-class Support Vector Machine (One-class SVM) based sentiment analysis model for movie review documents. In the proposed approach, we initially extract features from one class of documents, and further test the given documents with the one-class SVM model if a given new test document lies in the model or it is an outlier. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed sentiment analysis model.

Keywords: feature selection methods, machine learning, NB, one-class SVM, sentiment analysis, support vector machine

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Authors: Loreine Makki, Marc Anthony Mannah, Christophe Batard, Nicolas Ginot, Julien Weckbrodt

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Planar transformers are extensively utilized in high-frequency, high power density power electronic converters. The breakthrough of wide-bandgap technology compelled power electronic system miniaturization while inducing pivotal effects on system modeling and manufacturing within the power electronics industry. A significant consideration to simulate and model the unanticipated parasitic parameters emerges with the requirement to mitigate electromagnetic disturbances. This paper will present an equivalent circuit model of a shielded pulse planar transformer quantifying leakage inductance and resistance in addition to the interwinding capacitance of the primary and secondary windings. ANSYS Q3D Extractor was utilized to model and simulate the transformer, intending to study the immunity of the simulated equivalent model to high dv/dt occurrences. A convenient correlation between simulation and experimental results is presented.

Keywords: Planar transformers, wide-band gap, equivalent circuit model, shielded, ANSYS Q3D Extractor, dv/dt

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Authors: Antonis Skouloudis, Georgios Deligiannakis, Panagiotis Vouros, Konstantinos Evangelinos, Loannis Nikolaou

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On November 15th, 2017, a catastrophic flash flood devastated the city of Mandra in Central Greece, resulting in 24 fatalities and extensive damages to the built environment and infrastructure. It was Greece's deadliest and most destructive flood event for the past 40 years. In this paper, we examine the consequences of this event too small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in Mandra during the flood event, which were affected by the floodwaters to varying extents. In this context, we conducted semi-structured interviews with business owners-managers of 45 SMEs located in flood inundated areas and are still active nowadays, based on an interview guide that spanned 27 topics. The topics pertained to the disaster experience of the business and business owners-managers, knowledge and attitudes towards climate change and extreme weather, aspects of disaster preparedness and related assistance needs. Our findings reveal that the vast majority of the affected businesses experienced heavy damages in equipment and infrastructure or total destruction, which resulted in business interruption from several weeks up to several months. Assistance from relatives or friends helped for the damage repairs and business recovery, while state compensations were deemed insufficient compared to the extent of the damages. Most interviewees pinpoint flooding as one of the most critical risks, and many connect it with the climate crisis. However, they are either not willing or unable to apply property-level prevention measures in their businesses due to cost considerations or complex and cumbersome bureaucratic processes. In all cases, the business owners are fully aware of the flood hazard implications, and since the recovery from the event, they have engaged in basic mitigation measures and contingency plans in case of future flood events. Such plans include insurance contracts whenever possible (as the vast majority of the affected SMEs were uninsured at the time of the 2017 event) as well as simple relocations of critical equipment within their property. The study offers fruitful insights on latent drivers and barriers of SMEs' resilience capacity to flash flooding. In this respect, findings such as ours, highlighting tensions that underpin behavioral responses and experiences, can feed into a) bottom-up approaches for devising actionable and practical guidelines, manuals and/or standards on business preparedness to flooding, and, ultimately, b) policy-making for an enabling environment towards a flood-resilient SME sector.

Keywords: flash flood, small and medium-sized enterprises, organizational resilience capacity, disaster preparedness, qualitative study

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Authors: Kanica Goel, Nilam

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Infectious diseases are a leading cause of death worldwide and hence a great challenge for every nation. Thus, it becomes utmost essential to prevent and reduce the spread of infectious disease among humans. Mathematical models help to better understand the transmission dynamics and spread of infections. For this purpose, in the present article, we have proposed a nonlinear time-delayed SVIRS (Susceptible-Vaccinated-Infected-Recovered-Susceptible) mathematical model with nonlinear type incidence rate and nonlinear type treatment rate. Analytical study of the model shows that model exhibits two types of equilibrium points, namely, disease-free equilibrium and endemic equilibrium. Further, for the long-term behavior of the model, stability of the model is discussed with the help of basic reproduction number R₀ and we showed that disease-free equilibrium is locally asymptotically stable if the basic reproduction number R₀ is less than one and unstable if the basic reproduction number R₀ is greater than one for the time lag τ≥0. Furthermore, when basic reproduction number R₀ is one, using center manifold theory and Casillo-Chavez and Song theorem, we showed that the model undergoes transcritical bifurcation. Moreover, numerical simulations are being carried out using MATLAB 2012b to illustrate the theoretical results.

Keywords: nonlinear incidence rate, nonlinear treatment rate, stability, time delayed SVIRS epidemic model

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Authors: Ridha Salhi, Mondher Labidi, Fethi Choubani

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Metamaterials have attracted much attention in recent years because of their electromagnetic exquisite proprieties. We will present, in this paper, the modeling of three metamaterial structures by equivalent circuit model. We begin by modeling the SRR (Split Ring Resonator), then we model the HIS (High Impedance Surfaces), and finally, we present the model of the CPW (Coplanar Wave Guide). In order to validate models, we compare the results obtained by an equivalent circuit models with numerical simulation.

Keywords: metamaterials, SRR, HIS, CPW, IDC

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Authors: Aid Abdelkrim

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A method of fatigue damage accumulation based upon application of energy parameters of the fatigue process is proposed in the paper. Using this model is simple, it has no parameter to be determined, it requires only the knowledge of the curve W–N (W: strain energy density N: number of cycles at failure) determined from the experimental Wöhler curve. To examine the performance of nonlinear models proposed in the estimation of fatigue damage and fatigue life of components under random loading, a batch of specimens made of 6082 T 6 aluminium alloy has been studied and some of the results are reported in the present paper. The paper describes an algorithm and suggests a fatigue cumulative damage model, especially when random loading is considered. This work contains the results of uni-axial random load fatigue tests with different mean and amplitude values performed on 6082T6 aluminium alloy specimens. The proposed model has been formulated to take into account the damage evolution at different load levels and it allows the effect of the loading sequence to be included by means of a recurrence formula derived for multilevel loading, considering complex load sequences. It is concluded that a ‘damaged stress interaction damage rule’ proposed here allows a better fatigue damage prediction than the widely used Palmgren–Miner rule, and a formula derived in random fatigue could be used to predict the fatigue damage and fatigue lifetime very easily. The results obtained by the model are compared with the experimental results and those calculated by the most fatigue damage model used in fatigue (Miner’s model). The comparison shows that the proposed model, presents a good estimation of the experimental results. Moreover, the error is minimized in comparison to the Miner’s model.

Keywords: damage accumulation, energy model, damage indicator, variable loading, random loading

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Authors: Raymond Chi Fai Si Tou, Jacey Ja Young Choe, Amy Siu Ian So

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Smart hotels can be defined as the hotel which has an intelligent system, through digitalization and networking which achieve hotel management and service information. In addition, smart hotels include high-end designs that integrate information and communication technology with hotel management fulfilling the guests’ needs and improving the quality, efficiency and satisfaction of hotel management. The purpose of this study is to identify appropriate factors that may influence guests’ satisfaction and intention to revisit Smart Hotels based on service quality measurement of lodging quality index and extended UTAUT theory. Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) is adopted as a framework to explain technology acceptance and use. Since smart hotels are technology-based infrastructure hotels, UTATU theory could be as the theoretical background to examine the guests’ acceptance and use after staying in smart hotels. The UTAUT identifies four key drivers of the adoption of information systems: performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions. The extended UTAUT modifies the definitions of the seven constructs for consideration; the four previously cited constructs of the UTAUT model together with three new additional constructs, which including hedonic motivation, price value and habit. Thus, the seven constructs from the extended UTAUT theory could be adopted to understand their intention to revisit smart hotels. The service quality model will also be adopted and integrated into the framework to understand the guests’ intention of smart hotels. There are rare studies to examine the service quality on guests’ satisfaction and intention to revisit in smart hotels. In this study, Lodging Quality Index (LQI) will be adopted to measure the service quality in smart hotels. Using integrated UTAUT theory and service quality model because technological applications and services require using more than one model to understand the complicated situation for customers’ acceptance of new technology. Moreover, an integrated model could provide more perspective insights to explain the relationships of the constructs that could not be obtained from only one model. For this research, ten in-depth interviews are planned to recruit this study. In order to confirm the applicability of the proposed framework and gain an overview of the guest experience of smart hotels from the hospitality industry, in-depth interviews with the hotel guests and industry practitioners will be accomplished. In terms of the theoretical contribution, it predicts that the integrated models from the UTAUT theory and the service quality will provide new insights to understand factors that influence the guests’ satisfaction and intention to revisit smart hotels. After this study identifies influential factors, smart hotel practitioners could understand which factors may significantly influence smart hotel guests’ satisfaction and intention to revisit. In addition, smart hotel practitioners could also provide outstanding guests experience by improving their service quality based on the identified dimensions from the service quality measurement. Thus, it will be beneficial to the sustainability of the smart hotels business.

Keywords: intention to revisit, guest satisfaction, qualitative interviews, smart hotels

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Authors: Mehdi Rastegari Ghiri, Mohammad Reza Baradaran, Zahra Mirsanjari

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The aim of the present study was the investigation of DNA Corporate General Administration of Sports and Youth in Fars province. The descriptive research method is a survey that was conducted by field survey. For data collection, questionnaires were used that designed based on Hnald and Silverman model. In this model the organizational DNA model is stated in four types: objective, individualistic, field-oriented and Spiritual. The reliability of the questionnaire by the researcher obtained by using Cronbach's alpha equal to 89/0 respectively. The statistical population includes all managers and specialists of Fars Province Directorate of Youth and Sport that 48 of them were selected as the samples of the research. The results showed the organizational DNA Directorate General for Youth and Sports Organization of Fars province has a field –oriented and nearly field-oriented DNA.

Keywords: organizational, DNA, Hnald, Silverman model

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Authors: Mohamed Rajab Peer Mohamed, Thiruvenkatasamy Kannabiran

Abstract:

In the present investigation, the scour around a circular pier subjected to a steady current were studied numerically using two-dimensional MIKE21 Flow Model (FM) and Sand Transport (ST)Modulewhich is developed by Danish Hydraulic Institute (DHI), Denmark. The unstructured flexible mesh generated with rectangular flume dimension of 10 m wide, 1 m deep, and 30 m long. The grain size of the sand was d50 = 0.16 mm, sediment size, sediment gradation=1.16, pier diameter D= 30 mm and depth-averaged current velocity, U = 0.449 m/s are considered in the model. The estimated scour depth obtained from this model is validated and it is observed that the results of the model have good agreement with flume experimental results.In order to estimate the scour depth, several simulations were made for three cases viz., Case I:change in sediment transport model description in the numerical model viz, i) Engelund-Hansen model, ii) Engelund-Fredsøe model, and iii) Van Rijn model, Case II: change in current velocity for keeping constant pile diameter D=0.03 m and Case III:change in pier diameter for constant depth averaged current speed U=0.449 m/s.In case I simulations, the results indicate that the scour depth S/D is the order of 1.73 for Engelund-Hansen model, 0.64 for Engelund-Fredsøe model and 0.46 for VanRijn model. The scour depth estimates using Engelund-Hansen method compares well the experimental results.In case II, simulations show that the scour depth increases with increasing current component of the flow.In case III simulations, the results indicate that the scour depth increases with increase in pier diameter and it stabilize attains steady value when the Froude number> 2.71.All the results of the numerical simulations are clearly matches with reported values of the experimental results. Hence, this MIKE21 FM –Sand Transport model can be used as a suitable tool to estimate the scour depth for field applications. Moreover, to provide suitable scour protection methods, the maximum scour depth is to be predicted, Engelund-Hansen method can be adopted to estimate the scour depth in the steady current region.

Keywords: circular pier, MIKE21, numerical model, scour, sediment transport

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Authors: Shef Amir Arasy

Abstract:

In 2023, the world's population will be 7.8 billion, which has increased significantly in the last 20 years. Every country in the world is experiencing the impacts of climate change directly and indirectly. However, the community still needs to build massive infrastructure and buildings. The massive CO2 emissions which lead to climate change come from cement usage in construction activity. Bamboo is one of the most sustainable materials for reducing carbon emissions and releasing more than 30% oxygen compared to the mass of trees. Besides, bamboo harvest time is faster than other sustainable materials, around 3-4 years. Furthermore, Bamboo has a high tensile strength, which can provide ductility effectively to prevent damage to buildings during an earthquake. By the finite element method, this research analyzes bamboo configuration and connection for tall building structures under different earthquake frequencies and fire. The aim of this research is to provide proper design and connection of bamboo buildings that can be more reliable than concrete structures.

Keywords: bamboo, concrete, ductility, earthquake.

Procedia PDF Downloads 75