Search results for: Facilities availability

Authors: Aminu J. A. Koguna, Aliyu M. Aliyu, Olawale T. Fajemidupe, Yahaya D. Baba

Abstract:

Production fluids are transported from the platform to tankers or process facilities through transfer pipelines. Water being one of the heavier phases tends to settle at the bottom of pipelines especially at low flow velocities and this has adverse consequences for pipeline integrity. On restart after a shutdown, this could result in corrosion and issues for process equipment, thus the need to have the heavier liquid dispersed into the flowing lighter fluid. This study looked at the flow regime of low water cut and low flow velocity oil and water flow using conductive film thickness probes in a large diameter 4-inch pipe to obtain oil and water interface height and the interface structural velocity. A wide range of 0.1–1.0 m/s oil and water mixture velocities was investigated for 0.5–5% water cut. Two fluid model predictions were used to compare with the experimental results.

Keywords: Interface height, liquid-liquid flow, two-fluid model, water cut.

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Authors: Mohammad Reza Ghanbari, Parham Azimi, Farrokh Abdollahi

Abstract:

Since the last two decades, container transportation system has been faced under increasing development. This fact shows the importance of container transportation system as a key role of container terminals to link between sea and land. Therefore, there is a continuous need for the optimal use of equipment and facilities in the ports. Regarding the complex structure of container ports, this paper presents a simulation model that compares tow storage strategies for storing containers in the yard. For this purpose, we considered loading and unloading norm as an important criterion to evaluate the performance of Shahid Rajaee container port. By analysing the results of the model, it will be shown that using marshalling yard policy instead of current storage system has a significant effect on the performance level of the port and can increase the loading and unloading norm up to 14%.

Keywords: Simulation Modeling, Container Port, Marshaling Yard, Storage Policy

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Authors: M. W. Siddiqi, M. Ilyas

Abstract:

Availability and mobilization of revenue is the main essential with which an economy is managed and run. While planning or while making the budgets nations set revenue targets to be achieved. But later when the accounts are closed the actual collections of revenue through taxes or even the non-tax revenue collection would invariably be different as compared to the initial estimates and targets set to be achieved. This revenue-gap distorts the whole system and the economy disturbing all the major macroeconomic indicators. This study is aimed to find out short and long term impact of revenue gap on budget deficit, debt burden and economic growth on the economy of Pakistan. For this purpose the study uses autoregressive distributed lag approach to cointegration and error correction mechanism on three different models for the period 1980 to 2009. The empirical results show that revenue gap has a short and long run relationship with economic growth and budget deficit. However, revenue gap has no impact on debt burden.

Keywords: Revenue Gap, Economic Growth, Budget Deficit, Debt Burden

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Authors: Florian Mach, Eric Hund, Malte Stonis

Abstract:

The dismantling of disused industrial facilities such as nuclear power plants or refineries is an enormous challenge for the planning and control of the logistic processes. Existing control models do not meet the requirements for a proper dismantling of industrial plants. Therefore, the paper presents an approach for the control of dismantling and post-processing processes (e.g. decontamination) in plant decommissioning. In contrast to existing approaches, the dismantling sequence and depth are selected depending on the capacity utilization of required post-processing processes by also considering individual characteristics of respective dismantling tasks (e.g. decontamination success rate, uncertainties regarding the process times). The results can be used in the dismantling of industrial plants (e.g. nuclear power plants) to reduce dismantling time and costs by avoiding bottlenecks such as capacity constraints.

Keywords: Dismantling management, logistics planning and control models, nuclear power plant dismantling, reverse logistics.

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Authors: Hossein Pazhoumand-Dar, Amir Mohsen Toliyat Abolhassani, Ehsan Saeedi

Abstract:

Speed estimation is one of the important and practical tasks in machine vision, Robotic and Mechatronic. the availability of high quality and inexpensive video cameras, and the increasing need for automated video analysis has generated a great deal of interest in machine vision algorithms. Numerous approaches for speed estimation have been proposed. So classification and survey of the proposed methods can be very useful. The goal of this paper is first to review and verify these methods. Then we will propose a novel algorithm to estimate the speed of moving object by using fuzzy concept. There is a direct relation between motion blur parameters and object speed. In our new approach we will use Radon transform to find direction of blurred image, and Fuzzy sets to estimate motion blur length. The most benefit of this algorithm is its robustness and precision in noisy images. Our method was tested on many images with different range of SNR and is satisfiable.

Keywords: Blur Analysis, Fuzzy sets, Speed estimation.

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Authors: O. Ansari, H. Hafs, A. Bah, M. Asbik, M. Malha, M. Bakhouya

Abstract:

Water is one of the most important and vulnerable natural resources due to human activities and climate change. Water-level continues declining year after year and it is primarily caused by sustained, extensive, and traditional usage methods. Improving water utilization becomes an urgent issue in order satisfy the increasing population needs. Desalination of seawater or brackish water could help in increasing water potential. However, a cost-effective desalination process is required. The most appropriate method for performing this desalination is solar-driven distillation, given its simplicity, low cost and especially the availability of the solar energy source. The main objective of this paper is to demonstrate the influence of coupling integrated basin plate by fins with preheating by solar collector on the performance of solar still. The energy balance equations for the various elements of the solar still are introduced. A numerical example is used to show the efficiency of the proposed solution.

Keywords: Active solar still, Brackisch water, desalination, fins, solar collector.

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Authors: Miyoun Won, Youngkyung Choi

Abstract:

In the meantime, there were lots of hardware solutions like products or urban facilities for crime prevention in the public design area. Meanwhile, people have growing interest in public design so by making a village; community design in public design is getting active by the society. The system for crime prevention is actively done by the citizens who created the community. Regarding the social situation, in this project, we saw it as a kind of community design practices and researched about 'how does community design influence Crime prevention?' The purpose of this study is to propose the community design as a way of preventing the crime in the city. First, we found out about the definition, elements and methods of community design by reviewing the theory. And then, this study analyzed the case that was enforced in Seoul and organize the elements and methods of community design. This study can be refer to Public Design based on civil participation and make the community design area contribute to expand the way of solving social problems.

Keywords: Public Design, Sustainable Community Design, Crime Prevention, Participatory Design.

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Authors: N. Singh, N. Sharma, J. K. Katnoria

Abstract:

Water a vital component for all living forms is derived from variety of sources, including surface water (rivers, lakes, reservoirs and ponds) and ground water (aquifers). Over the years of time, water bodies are subjected to human interference regularly resulting in deterioration of water quality. Therefore, pollution of water bodies has become matter of global concern. As the water quality closely relate to human health, water analysis before usage is of immense importance. Improper management of water bodies can cause serious problems in availability and quality of water. The quality of water may be described according to their physico-chemical and microbiological characteristics. For effective maintenance of water quality through appropriate control measures, continuous monitoring of metals, physico-chemical and biological parameter is essential for the establishment of baseline data for the water quality in any study area. The present study has focused on to explore the status of water pollution in various areas and to estimate the magnitude of its toxicity using different bioassay.

Keywords: Genotoxicity, Heavy metals, Mutagenicity, Physico-chemical analysis.

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Authors: Ali Ihtiyar, Serdar Durdyev, Syuhaida Ismail

Abstract:

Marketing is an essential issue to the survival of any real estate company in Turkey. There are some factors which are constraining the achievements of the marketing and sales strategies in the Turkey real estate industry. This study aims to identify and prioritise the most significant constraints to marketing in real estate sector and new strategies based on those constraints. This study is based on survey method, where the respondents such as credit counsellors, real estate investors, consultants, academicians and marketing representatives in Turkey were asked to rank forty seven sub-factors according to their levels of impact. The results of Multiattribute analytical technique indicated that the main subcomponents having impact on marketing in real estate sector are interest rates, real estate credit availability, accessibility, company image and consumer real income, respectively. The identified constraints are expected to guide the marketing team in a sales-effective way.

Keywords: Marketing, marketing constraints, Real estate marketing, Turkey real estate sector

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Authors: Pianpian Zhang, Qingping Luo

Abstract:

Currently, there is a great tendency that more and more villages in China are trying to increase income by development of tourism. Especially in Zhejiang Province, 'Beautiful Rural Construction' provides an excellent opportunity for the development of tourism. In this context, development orientation, transportation routes and tourism service facilities are analyzed under the perspective of water resources protection and regional integration based on the development tourism industry of the six villages in Pujiang County, Zhejiang Province as a research object. In the program, the biggest issue is the contradiction between the ecological protection of the water and the development of economy. How to deal with the relationship between protection and development is the key to the design of this case. Furthermore, the six villages are regarded as a whole, connecting to each other by the system of five-path and the landscape along the lake. Every village has its own features, but cannot develop without one another. The article is actively exploring for suggestions and countermeasures to promote the development premised on protection and based on a regional view.

Keywords: Development, integration, protection, rural tourism.

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Authors: Saseyi Olaitan Olaoluwa, Osifeko Olalekan Remigious

Abstract:

The study was meant to identify the impediments to female sports management and participation in the selected colleges. Seven colleges of education in the south west parts of the country were selected for the study. A total of one hundred and five subjects were sampled to supply data. Only one hundred adequately completed and returned, copies of the questionnaire were used for data analysis. The collected data were analysed descriptively. The result of the study showed that inadequate fund, personnel, facilities equipment, supplies, management of sports, supervision and coaching were some of the impediments to female sports management and participation. Athletes were not encouraged to participate. Based on the findings, it was recommended that the government should come to the aid of the colleges by providing fund and other needs that will make sports attractive for enhanced participation.

Keywords: Female sports, impediments, management, Nigeria, south west, colleges.

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Authors: Andreas Savvides, Chloe Kadi

Abstract:

The objective of this study is to investigate how the planning and design of open parks within neighborhoods and communities can promote physical activity in order to enhance the health of the local population. A review of relevant literature was conducted for studies regarding the relationship between health and physical activity and the park characteristics that can promote physical activity among people. The findings of the literature review were then compared and analyzed, in order to identify the main characteristics of urban parks that can promote physical activity and enhance public health. In order to find out how the characteristics identified in the literature were applied in real life, an analysis of three existing parks in three different countries was conducted. The parks, apart from their geographical location, also vary in size and layout. The parks were chosen because they are urban open parks and they include facilities for physical activity.

Keywords: Urban planning, active living behavior, open parks, sustainable mobility.

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Authors: A. Oliveira-Brochado, R. Silva, C. Paulino

Abstract:

The aim of this paper is to use an experiential view of wine tourism to develop a battery of items that can potentially capture the overall Douro Valley experience from the tourist’s perspective. The Douro Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage region located in Portugal, was the target of this study. The research took a mixed approach using both qualitative and quantitative designs. Firstly, we combine the literature review on service quality scales with a content analysis of five in-depth interviews with winery managers and a focus group with wine tourists to identify the main dimensions of the overall tourism experience and to develop a battery of items for each dimension. Eight dimensions of the overall wine tourism experience came out, as follows: winery service and staff, winery facilities, winery service, wine product, wine region environment, wine region accessibilities, wine region´s offerings, and the wine region and winery reputation.

Keywords: Wine tourism, Douro region, survey, wineries, experience.

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Authors: Manan’Iarivo Rasolonjanahary, Chris Bingham, Nigel Schofield, Masoud Bazargan

Abstract:

This paper presents the research and application of model predictive scheduled charging of electric vehicles (EV) subject to limited available power resource. To focus on algorithm and operational characteristics, the EV interface to the source is modelled as a battery state equation during the charging operation. The researched methods allow for the priority scheduling of EV charging in a multi-vehicle regime and when subject to limited source power availability. Priority attribution for each connected EV is described. The validity of the developed methodology is shown through the simulation of different scenarios of charging operation of multiple connected EVs including non-scheduled and scheduled operation with various numbers of vehicles. Performance of the developed algorithms is also reported with the recommendation of the choice of suitable parameters.

Keywords: Model predictive control, non-scheduled, power limited sources, scheduled and stop-start battery charging.

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Authors: B. Belfuguais, S. Larbi

Abstract:

The work presented in this study is related to an energy system analysis based on passive cooling system for dwellings. It consists to solar chimney energy performances determination versus geometrical and environmental considerations as the size and inlet width conditions of the chimney. Adrar site located in the southern region of Algeria is chosen for this study according to ambient temperature and solar irradiance technical data availability. Obtained results are related to the glazing temperature distributions, the chimney air flow and internal wall temperatures. The air room change per hour (ACH) parameter, the outlet air velocity and mass air flow rate are also determined. It is shown that the chimney width has a significant effect on energy performances compared to its entry size. A good agreement is observed between these results and those obtained by others from the literature.

Keywords: Solar chimney, Energy performances, Passive ventilation, Numerical simulation

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Authors: Doseong Eom, Jeongmin Kim, Kwang Ryel Ryu

Abstract:

Large exhibition halls require a lot of energy to maintain comfortable atmosphere for the visitors viewing inside. One way of reducing the energy cost is to have thermal energy storage systems installed so that the thermal energy can be stored in the middle of night when the energy price is low and then used later when the price is high. To minimize the overall energy cost, however, we should be able to decide how much energy to save during which time period exactly. If we can foresee future energy load and the corresponding cost, we will be able to make such decisions reasonably. In this paper, we use machine learning technique to obtain models for predicting weather conditions and the number of visitors on hourly basis for the next day. Based on the energy load thus predicted, we build a cost-optimal daily operation plan for the thermal energy storage systems and cooling and heating facilities through simulation-based optimization.

Keywords: Building energy management, machine learning, simulation-based optimization, operation planning.

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Authors: M. Fotuhi-Firuzabad, A. Salehi Dobakhshari

Abstract:

This paper presents a reliability-based approach to select appropriate wind turbine types for a wind farm considering site-specific wind speed patterns. An actual wind farm in the northern region of Iran with the wind speed registration of one year is studied in this paper. An analytic approach based on total probability theorem is utilized in this paper to model the probabilistic behavior of both turbines- availability and wind speed. Well-known probabilistic reliability indices such as loss of load expectation (LOLE), expected energy not supplied (EENS) and incremental peak load carrying capability (IPLCC) for wind power integration in the Roy Billinton Test System (RBTS) are examined. The most appropriate turbine type achieving the highest reliability level is chosen for the studied wind farm.

Keywords: Wind Turbine Generator, Wind Farm, Power System Reliability, Wind Turbine Type Selection

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Authors: Victor Onomza Waziri, John K. Alhassan, Idris Ismaila, Moses Noel Dogonyaro

Abstract:

This paper describes the problem of building secure computational services for encrypted information in the Cloud Computing without decrypting the encrypted data; therefore, it meets the yearning of computational encryption algorithmic aspiration model that could enhance the security of big data for privacy, confidentiality, availability of the users. The cryptographic model applied for the computational process of the encrypted data is the Fully Homomorphic Encryption Scheme. We contribute a theoretical presentations in a high-level computational processes that are based on number theory and algebra that can easily be integrated and leveraged in the Cloud computing with detail theoretic mathematical concepts to the fully homomorphic encryption models. This contribution enhances the full implementation of big data analytics based cryptographic security algorithm.

Keywords: Data Analytics, Security, Privacy, Bootstrapping, and Fully Homomorphic Encryption Scheme.

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Authors: M. Erol Genevois, D. Celik, H. Z. Ulukan

Abstract:

Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) can be considered among one of the most important service facilities in the banking industry. The investment in ATMs and the impact on the banking industry is growing steadily in every part of the world. The banks take into consideration many factors like safety, convenience, visibility, and cost in order to determine the optimum locations of ATMs. Today, ATMs are not only available in bank branches but also at retail locations. Another important factor is the cash management in ATMs. A cash demand model for every ATM is needed in order to have an efficient cash management system. This forecasting model is based on historical cash demand data which is highly related to the ATMs location. So, the location and the cash management problem should be considered together. This paper provides a general review on studies, efforts and development in ATMs location and cash management problem.

Keywords: ATM location problem, cash management problem, ATM cash replenishment problem, literature review in ATMs.

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Authors: Iman Mazinani, Zubaidah Ismail, Ahmad Mustafa Hashim, Amirreza Saba

Abstract:

Two tragic tsunamis that devastated the west coast of Sumatra Island, Indonesia in 2004 and North East Japan in 2011 had damaged bridges to various extents. Tsunamis have resulted in the catastrophic deterioration of infrastructures i.e. coastal structures, utilities and transportation facilities. A bridge structure performs vital roles to enable people to perform activities related to their daily needs and for development. A damaged bridge needs to be repaired expeditiously. In order to understand the effects of tsunami forces on bridges, experimental tests are carried out to measure the characteristics of hydrodynamic force at various wave heights. Coastal bridge models designed at a 1:40 scale are used in a 24.0 m long hydraulic flume with a cross section of 1.5 m by 2.0 m. The horizontal forces and uplift forces in all cases show that forces increase nonlinearly with increasing wave amplitude.

Keywords: Tsunami, bridge, horizontal force, uplift force.

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Authors: J. Sakano, Y. Yajima, W. Ono, Y. Yamazaki, S. Sasahara, Y. Tomotsune, Y. Ohi, S. Suzuki, A. Seki, I. Matsuzaki

Abstract:

The study aimed to verify a hypothesis that a sense of fulfillment in student life and perceived stress in training in the facilities could affect vocational identity among social welfare university students, in order to acquire implications for enhancing the vocational consciousness. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 388 third- and fourth-year students of training course for certified social workers in three universities in A prefecture in Japan. The questionnaire was returned by 338 students, and 288 responses (85.2%) were valid and used for the analysis. As a SEM result, the hypothesized model proved to be fit to the data. Path coefficient of sense of fulfillment of student life to vocational identity was statistically positive. Path coefficient of training stress to vocational identity was statistically negative.

Keywords: Training stress, Physical health, Sense of fulfillment of student life, structural equation modeling (SEM)

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Authors: Tristan O'Neill, Trina Myers, Jarrod Trevathan

Abstract:

The Tropical Data Hub (TDH) is a virtual research environment that provides researchers with an e-research infrastructure to congregate significant tropical data sets for data reuse, integration, searching, and correlation. However, researchers often require data and metadata synthesis across disciplines for crossdomain analyses and knowledge discovery. A triplestore offers a semantic layer to achieve a more intelligent method of search to support the synthesis requirements by automating latent linkages in the data and metadata. Presently, the benchmarks to aid the decision of which triplestore is best suited for use in an application environment like the TDH are limited to performance. This paper describes a new evaluation tool developed to analyze both features and performance. The tool comprises a weighted decision matrix to evaluate the interoperability, functionality, performance, and support availability of a range of integrated and native triplestores to rank them according to requirements of the TDH.

Keywords: Virtual research environment, Semantic Web, performance analysis, tropical data hub.

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Authors: Ali Nadi, Ali Edrissi

Abstract:

Relief demand and transportation links availability is the essential information that is needed for every natural disaster operation. This information is not in hand once a disaster strikes. Relief demand and network condition has been evaluated based on prediction method in related works. Nevertheless, prediction seems to be over or under estimated due to uncertainties and may lead to a failure operation. Therefore, in this paper a stochastic programming model is proposed to evaluate real-time relief demand and network condition at the onset of a natural disaster. To address the time sensitivity of the emergency response, the proposed model uses reinforcement learning for optimization of the total relief assessment time. The proposed model is tested on a real size network problem. The simulation results indicate that the proposed model performs well in the case of collecting real-time information.

Keywords: Disaster management, real-time demand, reinforcement learning, relief demand.

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Authors: Erik Delarue, David Bekaert, Ronnie Belmans, William D'haeseleer

Abstract:

This paper presents the development of an electricity simulation model taking into account electrical network constraints, applied on the Belgian power system. The base of the model is optimizing an extensive Unit Commitment (UC) problem through the use of Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP). Electrical constraints are incorporated through the implementation of a DC load flow. The model encloses the Belgian power system in a 220 – 380 kV high voltage network (i.e., 93 power plants and 106 nodes). The model features the use of pumping storage facilities as well as the inclusion of spinning reserves in a single optimization process. Solution times of the model stay below reasonable values.

Keywords: Electricity generation modeling, Unit Commitment(UC), Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP), DC load flow.

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Authors: Guilan Huang

Abstract:

In 2013 and 2014, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) collected data from selected fast food restaurants and full service restaurants for tracking changes in the occurrence of foodborne illness risk factors. This paper discussed how we customized spatial random sampling method by considering financial position and availability of FDA resources, and how we enriched restaurants data with location. Location information of restaurants provides opportunity for quantitatively determining random sampling within non-government units (e.g.: 240 kilometers around each data-collector). Spatial analysis also could optimize data-collectors’ work plans and resource allocation. Spatial analytic and processing platform helped us handling the spatial random sampling challenges. Our method fits in FDA’s ability to pinpoint features of foodservice establishments, and reduced both time and expense on data collection.

Keywords: Geospatial technology, restaurant, retail food risk factors study, spatial random sampling.

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Authors: David Wiese

Abstract:

In order to maximize efficiency of an information management platform and to assist in decision making, the collection, storage and analysis of performance-relevant data has become of fundamental importance. This paper addresses the merits and drawbacks provided by the OLAP paradigm for efficiently navigating large volumes of performance measurement data hierarchically. The system managers or database administrators navigate through adequately (re)structured measurement data aiming to detect performance bottlenecks, identify causes for performance problems or assessing the impact of configuration changes on the system and its representative metrics. Of particular importance is finding the root cause of an imminent problem, threatening availability and performance of an information system. Leveraging OLAP techniques, in contrast to traditional static reporting, this is supposed to be accomplished within moderate amount of time and little processing complexity. It is shown how OLAP techniques can help improve understandability and manageability of measurement data and, hence, improve the whole Performance Analysis process.

Keywords: Data Warehousing, OLAP, Multidimensional Navigation, Performance Diagnosis, Performance Management, Performance Tuning.

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Authors: Y. Gholipour

Abstract:

In this paper, supply policy and procurement of shared resources in some kinds of concurrent construction projects are investigated. This could be oriented to the problems of holding construction companies who involve in different projects concurrently and they have to supply limited resources to several projects as well as prevent delays to any project. Limits on transportation vehicles and storage facilities for potential construction materials and also the available resources (such as cash or manpower) are some of the examples which affect considerably on management of all projects over all. The research includes investigation of some real multi-storey buildings during their execution periods and surveying the history of the activities. It is shown that the common resource demand variation curve of the projects may be expanded or displaced to achieve an optimum distribution scheme. Of course, it may cause some delay to some projects, but it has minimum influence on whole execution period of all projects and its influence on procurement cost of the projects is considerable. These observations on investigation of some multistorey building which are built in Iran will be presented in this paper.

Keywords: Construction Management, Supply Management, Resources Sharing, Multi-Project, Resource Procurement.

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Authors: Ilias Spais, George Bafas

Abstract:

Natural Language Understanding Systems (NLU) will not be widely deployed unless they are technically mature and cost effective to develop. Cost effective development hinges on the availability of tools and techniques enabling the rapid production of NLU applications through minimal human resources. Further, these tools and techniques should allow quick development of applications in a user friendly way and should be easy to upgrade in order to continuously follow the evolving technologies and standards. This paper presents a visual tool for the structuring and editing of dialog forms, the key element of driving conversation in NLU applications based on IBM technology. The main focus is given on the basic component used to describe Human – Machine interactions of that kind, the Dialogue Manager. In essence, the description of a tool that enables the visual representation of the Dialogue Manager mainly during the implementation phase is illustrated.

Keywords: Conversational Applications, Forms Dialogue Manager (FDM), Natural Language Processing, Natural Language Understanding.

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Authors: Shunichiro Morishita

Abstract:

This study examines the factors for attracting foreign guests in the Japanese lodging industry and discusses some measures taken for accepting foreign guests. It reviews three different accommodation providers acclaimed highly by foreign guests, Yamashiroya, Sawanoya and Fuji-Hakone Guest House, and identifies their characteristics. The common points for attracting foreign guests were: 1) making the best use of the old facilities, 2) multilingual signs, guidance and websites, 3) necessary and sufficient communication in English, 4) events and opportunities to experience Japanese culture, 5) omotenashi, warm and homely Japanese hospitality. These findings indicate that foreign guests’ dissatisfaction level can be decreased through internationalization utilizing ICT and by offering multilingual support. On the other hand, their satisfaction level can be increased by encouraging interaction with other guests and local Japanese people, providing events and opportunities to experience Japanese culture and omotenashi, home-style Japanese hospitality.

Keywords: Hospitality management, foreign guests, Japanese lodging industry, Omotenashi.

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Authors: Y. Abdelrazig

Abstract:

Evolutionary optimization methods such as genetic algorithms have been used extensively for the construction site layout problem. More recently, ant colony optimization algorithms, which are evolutionary methods based on the foraging behavior of ants, have been successfully applied to benchmark combinatorial optimization problems. This paper proposes a formulation of the site layout problem in terms of a sequencing problem that is suitable for solution using an ant colony optimization algorithm. In the construction industry, site layout is a very important planning problem. The objective of site layout is to position temporary facilities both geographically and at the correct time such that the construction work can be performed satisfactorily with minimal costs and improved safety and working environment. During the last decade, evolutionary methods such as genetic algorithms have been used extensively for the construction site layout problem. This paper proposes an ant colony optimization model for construction site layout. A simple case study for a highway project is utilized to illustrate the application of the model.

Keywords: Construction site layout, optimization, ant colony.

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