Search results for: profitability measures
648 Recycling-Oriented Product Assessment during Design Process with Usage of Agent Technology
Authors: Ewa Dostatni, Jacek Diakun, Damian Grajewski, Radosław Wichniarek, Anna Karwasz
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In the paper the method of product analysis from recycling point of view has been described. The analysis bases on set of measures that assess a product from the point of view of final stages of its lifecycle. It was assumed that such analysis will be performed at the design phase – in order to conduct such analysis the computer system that aids the designer during the design process has been developed. The structure of the computer tool, based on agent technology, and example results has been also included in the paper.Keywords: Agent technology, PLM, design for environment, ecodesign.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1674647 Technological Innovation Persistence Organizational Innovation Matters
Authors: H. Naciba, C. Le Bas, C. Mothe, T.U. Nguyen-Thi
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Organizational innovation favors technological innovation, but does it also influence technological innovation persistence? This article investigates empirically the pattern of technological innovation persistence and tests the potential impact of organizational innovation using firm-level data from three waves of the French Community Innovation Surveys. Evidence shows a positive effect of organizational innovation on technological innovation persistence, according to various measures of organizational innovation. Moreover, this impact is more significant for complex innovators (i.e., those who innovate in both products and processes). These results highlight the complexity of managing organizational practices with regard to the firm-s technological innovation. They also add to comprehension of the drivers of innovation persistence, through a focus on an often forgotten dimension of innovation in a broader sense.Keywords: Organizational Innovation, Technological Innovation, Persistence
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1467646 Modeling the Uncertainty of the Remanufacturing Process for Consideration of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)
Authors: Michael R. Johnson, Ian P. McCarthy
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There is a growing body of evidence to support the proposition of product take back for remanufacturing particularly within the context of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). Remanufacturing however presents challenges unlike that of traditional manufacturing environments due to its high levels of uncertainty which may further distract organizations from considering its potential benefits. This paper presents a novel modeling approach for evaluating the uncertainty of part failures within the remanufacturing process and its impact on economic and environmental performance measures. This paper presents both the theoretical modeling approach and an example of its use in application.Keywords: Remanufacturing, Demanufacturing, Extended Producer Responsibility, Sustainability, Uncertainty.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1739645 Intersectional Bullying, LGBT Youth and the Construction of Power
Authors: Elle Hilke Dominski
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This paper explores the impact of intersectional bullying of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) youth from a multi-layered experience perspective within bullying incidents at school. Present inclusionary measures at school may not be designed as a continuous process of finding better methods for responding to diversity, rather remain ‘fixed’ as singular solutions applied universally. This paper argues recognizing education through a lens of inclusion begins to realize most educational systems are poorly equipped to handle diversity.
Keywords: Education, inclusion and exclusion, bullying, intersectional bullying, LGBT, power paradigms.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1653644 Sustainability Reporting and Performances of the Companies in the Istanbul Stock Exchange Sustainability Index
Authors: Zeynep Şahin, Züleyha Yılmaz, Fikret Çankaya
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In today's business world, in which it is difficult to survive, the economic life of products, services or knowledge is considerably reduced. Competitors produce similar products or extra-featured ones instantly. In this environment, the contribution of companies to the social and economic environment is a preferred criterion by consumers alongside products or services. Therefore, consumers need to obtain more detailed information about companies. Besides, this drastic change in the market encourages companies to become sustainable. Sustainable business means the company puts consumed products back. Corporate sustainability, corresponds to sustainability at the level of the company, and gives equal importance to company growth and profitability together with environmental and social issues. The BIST Sustainability Index started to be calculated by the Istanbul Stock Exchange (BIST) in 2014 to evaluate the sustainability performance of companies in Turkey. The main objective of this study is to present the importance of sustainability reports in Turkey. To this aim, the performances of 15 companies in the BIST Sustainability Index were compared the periods before and after entering the index. On the other hand, sustainability reporting practices should be encouraged to increase studies on this issue. In this context, to remain on the agenda of the issue is a further objective of this study. To achieve these objectives, the financial data of the companies in the period before and after entering to the BIST Sustainability Index were analyzed using t-test in Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) package. The results of the study showed that no significant difference between the performances of the companies in terms of the net profit margin, the return on assets and equity capital in these periods could be found. Therefore, it can be said that insufficient importance is given to sustainability issues in Turkey. The reasons for this situation might be considered as a lack of awareness due to the recent introduction and calculation of the index. It is expected that the awareness of firms and investors about sustainability will increase, and that they will demonstrate the necessary importance to this issue over time.
Keywords: BIST sustainability index, firm performance, sustainability, sustainability reporting.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 949643 A Comparative Analysis of Activity-Based Costing and Traditional Costing
Authors: Derya Eren Akyol, Gonca Tuncel, G. Mirac Bayhan
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Activity-Based Costing (ABC) which has become an important aspect of manufacturing/service organizations can be defined as a methodology that measures the cost and performance of activities, resources and cost objects. It can be considered as an alternative paradigm to traditional cost-based accounting systems. The objective of this paper is to illustrate an application of ABC method and to compare the results of ABC with traditional costing methods. The results of the application highlight the weak points of traditional costing methods and an S-Curve obtained is used to identify the undercosted and overcosted products of the firm.
Keywords: Activity-based costing, cost drivers, overheads, traditional costing.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12641642 Simulation Programs to Education of Crisis Management Members
Authors: Jiri Barta
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This paper deals with a simulation programs and technologies using in the educational process for members of the crisis management. Risk analysis, simulation, preparation and planning are among the main activities of workers of crisis management. Made correctly simulation of emergency defines the extent of the danger. On this basis, it is possible to effectively prepare and plan measures to minimize damage. The paper is focused on simulation programs that are trained at the University of Defence. Implementation of the outputs from simulation programs in decision-making processes of crisis staffs is one of the main tasks of the research project.
Keywords: Crisis Management, Continuity, Critical Infrastructure, Dangerous substance, Education, Flood, Simulation Programs.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1732641 Financial Regulations in the Process of Global Financial Crisis and Macroeconomics Impact of Basel III
Authors: M. Okan Tasar
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Basel III (or the Third Basel Accord) is a global regulatory standard on bank capital adequacy, stress testing and market liquidity risk agreed upon by the members of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision in 2010-2011, and scheduled to be introduced from 2013 until 2018. Basel III is a comprehensive set of reform measures. These measures aim to; (1) improve the banking sector-s ability to absorb shocks arising from financial and economic stress, whatever the source, (2) improve risk management and governance, (3) strengthen banks- transparency and disclosures. Similarly the reform target; (1) bank level or micro-prudential, regulation, which will help raise the resilience of individual banking institutions to periods of stress. (2) Macro-prudential regulations, system wide risk that can build up across the banking sector as well as the pro-cyclical implication of these risks over time. These two approaches to supervision are complementary as greater resilience at the individual bank level reduces the risk system wide shocks. Macroeconomic impact of Basel III; OECD estimates that the medium-term impact of Basel III implementation on GDP growth is in the range -0,05 percent to -0,15 percent per year. On the other hand economic output is mainly affected by an increase in bank lending spreads as banks pass a rise in banking funding costs, due to higher capital requirements, to their customers. Consequently the estimated effects on GDP growth assume no active response from monetary policy. Basel III impact on economic output could be offset by a reduction (or delayed increase) in monetary policy rates by about 30 to 80 basis points. The aim of this paper is to create a framework based on the recent regulations in order to prevent financial crises. Thus the need to overcome the global financial crisis will contribute to financial crises that may occur in the future periods. In the first part of the paper, the effects of the global crisis on the banking system examine the concept of financial regulations. In the second part; especially in the financial regulations and Basel III are analyzed. The last section in this paper explored the possible consequences of the macroeconomic impacts of Basel III.Keywords: Banking Systems, Basel III, Financial regulation, Global Financial Crisis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2287640 A Comparison of Deterministic and Probabilistic Methods for Determining the Required Amount of Spinning Reserve
Authors: A. Ehsani, A. Karimizadeh, H. Fallahi, A. Jalali
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In an electric power system, spinning reserve requirements can be determined by using deterministic and/or probabilistic measures. Although deterministic methods are usual in many systems, application of probabilistic methods becomes increasingly important in the new environment of the electric power utility industry. This is because of the increased uncertainty associated with competition. In this paper 1) a new probabilistic method is presented which considers the reliability of transmission system in a simplified manner and 2) deterministic and probabilistic methods are compared. The studied methods are applied to the Roy Billinton Test System (RBTS).Keywords: Reliability, Spinning Reserve, Risk, Transmission, Unit Commitment.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2039639 Performance Modeling for Web based J2EE and .NET Applications
Authors: Shankar Kambhampaty, Venkata Srinivas Modali
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When architecting an application, key nonfunctional requirements such as performance, scalability, availability and security, which influence the architecture of the system, are some times not adequately addressed. Performance of the application may not be looked at until there is a concern. There are several problems with this reactive approach. If the system does not meet its performance objectives, the application is unlikely to be accepted by the stakeholders. This paper suggests an approach for performance modeling for web based J2EE and .Net applications to address performance issues early in the development life cycle. It also includes a Performance Modeling Case Study, with Proof-of-Concept (PoC) and implementation details for .NET and J2EE platforms.
Keywords: Performance Measures, Performance Modeling, Performance Testing, Resource Utilization, Response Time, Throughput.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2258638 African Traditional Method of Social Control Mechanism: A Sociological Review of Native Charms in Farm Security in Ayetoro Community, Ogun State, Nigeria
Authors: Adebisi A. Sunday, Babajide Adeokin
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The persistent rise in farm theft in rural region of Nigeria is attributed to the lack of adequate and effective policing in the regions; thus, this brought about the inevitable introduction of native charms on farmlands as a means of fortification of harvests against theft in Ayetoro community. The use of charm by farmers as security on farmlands is a traditional crime control mechanism that is largely based on unwritten laws which greatly influenced the lives of people, and their attitudes toward the society. This research presents a qualitative sociological study on how native charms are deployed by farmers for protection against theft. The study investigated the various types of charms that are employed as security measures among farmers in Ayetoro community and the rationale behind the use of these mechanisms as farm security. The study utilized qualitative method to gather data in the research process. Under the qualitative method, in-depth interview method was adopted to generate a robust and detailed data from the respondents. Also the data generated were analysed qualitatively using thematic content analysis and simple description which was preceded by transcription of data from the recorder. It was revealed that amidst numerous charms known, two major charms are used on farmlands as a measure of social control in Ayetoro community, Ogun state South West Nigeria. Furthermore, the result of this study showed that, the desire for safekeeping of harvest from pilferers and the heavy punishments dispense on offenders by native charms are the reasons why farmers deploy charms on their farms. In addition, findings revealed that the adoption of these charms for protection has improved yields among farmers in the community because the safety of harvest has been made possible by virtue of the presence of various charms in the farm lands. Therefore, based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that such measures should be recognized in mainstream social control mechanisms in the fight against crime in Nigeria and the rest of the world. Lastly, native charms could be installed in all social and cooperate organisation and position of authority to prevent theft of valuables and things hold with utmost importance.Keywords: Farm theft, native charms, mechanism, Ayetoro, pilferer.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1726637 Financing - Scheduling Optimization for Construction Projects by using Genetic Algorithms
Authors: Hesham Abdel-Khalek, Sherif M. Hafez, Abdel-Hamid M. el-Lakany, Yasser Abuel-Magd
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Investment in a constructed facility represents a cost in the short term that returns benefits only over the long term use of the facility. Thus, the costs occur earlier than the benefits, and the owners of facilities must obtain the capital resources to finance the costs of construction. A project cannot proceed without an adequate financing, and the cost of providing an adequate financing can be quite large. For these reasons, the attention to the project finance is an important aspect of project management. Finance is also a concern to the other organizations involved in a project such as the general contractor and material suppliers. Unless an owner immediately and completely covers the costs incurred by each participant, these organizations face financing problems of their own. At a more general level, the project finance is the only one aspect of the general problem of corporate finance. If numerous projects are considered and financed together, then the net cash flow requirements constitute the corporate financing problem for capital investment. Whether project finance is performed at the project or at the corporate level does not alter the basic financing problem .In this paper, we will first consider facility financing from the owner's perspective, with due consideration for its interaction with other organizations involved in a project. Later, we discuss the problems of construction financing which are crucial to the profitability and solvency of construction contractors. The objective of this paper is to present the steps utilized to determine the best combination of minimum project financing. The proposed model considers financing; schedule and maximum net area .The proposed model is called Project Financing and Schedule Integration using Genetic Algorithms "PFSIGA". This model intended to determine more steps (maximum net area) for any project with a subproject. An illustrative example will demonstrate the feature of this technique. The model verification and testing are put into consideration.Keywords: Project Management, Large-scale ConstructionProjects, Cash flow, Interest, Investment, Loan, Optimization, Scheduling, Financing and Genetic Algorithms.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2220636 An Investigation of Adjustment of Solar Shading Devices in Office Buildings
Authors: Jian Yao
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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the adjust- ment of solar shading devices in office buildings in two different seasons by occupants, and its influence on the lighting control and indoor illuminance levels. The results show that occupants take inappropriate measures both in reducing solar radiation in summer and in admitting solar gains in winter, resulting in an increase in lighting energy and a reduction in indoor illuminance. Therefore, movable shading devices, controlled automatically, are suitable for building applications to reduce energy consumption.Keywords: Solar shading, adjustment, lighting control, indoor illuminance.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1606635 Potential of Solar Energy in Zarqa Region
Authors: Ali M. Jawarneh, Ahmad S. AL-Shyyab
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The purpose of this work is to present the potential of solar energy in Zarqa region. The solar radiation along year 2009 was obtained from Pyranometer which measures the global radiation over horizontal surfaces. Solar data in several different forms, over period of 5 minutes, hour-by-hour, daily and monthly data radiation have been presented. Briefly, the yearly global solar radiation in Zarqa is 7297.5 MJ/m2 (2027 kWh/m²) and the average annual solar radiation per day is 20 MJ/m2 (5.5 Kwh/m2). More specifically, the average annual solar radiation per day is 12.9 MJ/m2 (3.57 Kwh/m2) in winter and 25 MJ/m2 (7 Kwh/m2) in summer.Keywords: Solar Energy, Pyranometer, Zarqa Region
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1921634 Assessment of Performance Measures of Large-Scale Power Systems
Authors: Mohamed A. El-Kady, Badr M. Alshammari
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In a recent major industry-supported research and development study, a novel framework was developed and applied for assessment of reliability and quality performance levels in reallife power systems with practical large-scale sizes. The new assessment methodology is based on three metaphors (dimensions) representing the relationship between available generation capacities and required demand levels. The paper shares the results of the successfully completed stud and describes the implementation of the new methodology on practical zones in the Saudi electricity system.
Keywords: Power systems; large-scale analysis, reliability; performance assessment, linear programming.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1846633 Framework for Improving Manufacturing "Implicit Competitiveness" by Enhancing Monozukuri Capability
Authors: Takahiro Togawa, Nguyen Huu Phuc, Shigeyuki Haruyama, Oke Oktavianty
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Our research focuses on a framework which analyses the relationship between product/process architecture, manufacturing organizational capability and manufacturing "implicit competitiveness" in order to improve manufacturing implicit competitiveness. We found that 1) there is a relationship between architecture-based manufacturing organizational capability and manufacturing implicit competitiveness, and 2) analysis and measures conducted in manufacturing organizational capability proved effective to improve manufacturing implicit competitiveness.
Keywords: Implicit competitiveness, QCD, Monozukuri capability.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1257632 Measuring Pressure Wave Velocity in a Hydraulic System
Authors: Lari Kela, Pekka Vähäoja
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Pressure wave velocity in a hydraulic system was determined using piezo pressure sensors without removing fluid from the system. The measurements were carried out in a low pressure range (0.2 – 6 bar) and the results were compared with the results of other studies. This method is not as accurate as measurement with separate measurement equipment, but the fluid is in the actual machine the whole time and the effect of air is taken into consideration if air is present in the system. The amount of air is estimated by calculations and comparisons between other studies. This measurement equipment can also be installed in an existing machine and it can be programmed so that it measures in real time. Thus, it could be used e.g. to control dampers.Keywords: Bulk modulus, pressure wave, sound velocity.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4302631 Spectral Analysis of Speech: A New Technique
Authors: Neeta Awasthy, J.P.Saini, D.S.Chauhan
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ICA which is generally used for blind source separation problem has been tested for feature extraction in Speech recognition system to replace the phoneme based approach of MFCC. Applying the Cepstral coefficients generated to ICA as preprocessing has developed a new signal processing approach. This gives much better results against MFCC and ICA separately, both for word and speaker recognition. The mixing matrix A is different before and after MFCC as expected. As Mel is a nonlinear scale. However, cepstrals generated from Linear Predictive Coefficient being independent prove to be the right candidate for ICA. Matlab is the tool used for all comparisons. The database used is samples of ISOLET.Keywords: Cepstral Coefficient, Distance measures, Independent Component Analysis, Linear Predictive Coefficients.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1957630 A New Similarity Measure Based On Edge Counting
Authors: T. Slimani, B. Ben Yaghlane, K. Mellouli
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In the field of concepts, the measure of Wu and Palmer [1] has the advantage of being simple to implement and have good performances compared to the other similarity measures [2]. Nevertheless, the Wu and Palmer measure present the following disadvantage: in some situations, the similarity of two elements of an IS-A ontology contained in the neighborhood exceeds the similarity value of two elements contained in the same hierarchy. This situation is inadequate within the information retrieval framework. To overcome this problem, we propose a new similarity measure based on the Wu and Palmer measure. Our objective is to obtain realistic results for concepts not located in the same way. The obtained results show that compared to the Wu and Palmer approach, our measure presents a profit in terms of relevance and execution time.
Keywords: Hierarchy, IS-A ontology, Semantic Web, Similarity Measure.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1488629 Restriction of Iodine Release under Severe Accident Conditions at NPP MIR.1200
Authors: V. Bezlepkin, A. Frolov, L. Lebedev, E. Kharchenko
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Iodine radionuclides in accident releases under severe accident conditions at NPP with VVER are the most radiationimportant with a view to population dose generation at the beginning of the accident. To decrease radiation consequences of severe accidents the technical solutions for severe accidents management have been proposed in MIR.1200 project, with consideration of the measures for suppression of volatile iodine forms generation in the containment. Behavior dynamics of different iodine forms in the containment under severe accident conditions has been analyzed for the purpose of these technical solutions justification.Keywords: Iodine radionuclides, VVER, severe accident.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1886628 Assessments of Internal Erosion in a Landfill Due to Changes in Groundwater Level
Authors: Siamak Feizi, Gunvor Baardvik
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Soil erosion has special consequences for landfills that are more serious than those found at conventional construction sites. Different potential heads between two sides of a landfill and the subsequent movement of water through pores within the soil body could trigger the soil erosion and construction instability. Such condition was encountered in a landfill project in the southern part of Norway. To check the risk of internal erosion due changes in the groundwater level (because of seasonal flooding in the river), a series of numerical simulations by means of Geo-Seep software were conducted. Output of this study provides a total picture of the landfill stability, possibilities of erosions and necessary measures to prevent or reduce the risk for the landfill operator.
Keywords: Erosion, seepage, landfill, stability.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 449627 Quantitative Evaluation of Frameworks for Web Applications
Authors: Thirumalai Selvi, N. V. Balasubramanian, P. Sheik Abdul Khader
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An empirical study of web applications that use software frameworks is presented here. The analysis is based on two approaches. In the first, developers using such frameworks are required, based on their experience, to assign weights to parameters such as database connection. In the second approach, a performance testing tool, OpenSTA, is used to compute start time and other such measures. From such an analysis, it is concluded that open source software is superior to proprietary software. The motivation behind this research is to examine ways in which a quantitative assessment can be made of software in general and frameworks in particular. Concepts such as metrics and architectural styles are discussed along with previously published research.Keywords: Metrics, Frameworks, Performance Testing, WebApplications, Open Source.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1754626 An Efficient Method of Shot Cut Detection
Authors: Lenka Krulikovská, Jaroslav Polec
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In this paper we present a method of abrupt cut detection with a novel logic of frames- comparison. Actual frame is compared with its motion estimated prediction instead of comparison with successive frame. Four different similarity metrics were employed to estimate the resemblance of compared frames. Obtained results were evaluated by standard used measures of test accuracy and compared with existing approach. Based on the results, we claim the proposed method is more effective and Pearson correlation coefficient obtained the best results among chosen similarity metrics.
Keywords: Abrupt cut, mutual information, shot cut detection, Pearson correlation coefficient.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1934625 Evaluation of Research in the Field of Energy Efficiency and MCA Methods Using Publications Databases
Authors: Juan Sepúlveda
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Energy is a fundamental component in sustainability, the access and use of this resource is related with economic growth, social improvements, and environmental impacts. In this sense, energy efficiency has been studied as a factor that enhances the positive impacts of energy in communities; however, the implementation of efficiency requires strong policy and strategies that usually rely on individual measures focused in independent dimensions. In this paper, the problem of energy efficiency as a multi-objective problem is studied, using scientometric analysis to discover trends and patterns that allow to identify the main variables and study approximations related with a further development of models to integrate energy efficiency and MCA into policy making for small communities.Keywords: Energy efficiency, MCA, Scientometrics, trends.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1749624 Query Reformulation Guided by External Resource for Information Retrieval
Authors: Mohammed El Amine Abderrahim
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Reformulating the user query is a technique that aims to improve the performance of an Information Retrieval System (IRS) in terms of precision and recall. This paper tries to evaluate the technique of query reformulation guided by an external resource for Arabic texts. To do this, various precision and recall measures were conducted and two corpora with different external resources like Arabic WordNet (AWN) and the Arabic Dictionary (thesaurus) of Meaning (ADM) were used. Examination of the obtained results will allow us to measure the real contribution of this reformulation technique in improving the IRS performance.
Keywords: Arabic NLP, Arabic Information Retrieval, Arabic WordNet, Query Expansion.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1401623 Efficient Design of Distribution Logistics by Using a Model-Based Decision Support System
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The design of distribution logistics has a decisive impact on a company's logistics costs and performance. Hence, such solutions make an essential contribution to corporate success. This article describes a decision support system for analyzing the potential of distribution logistics in terms of logistics costs and performance. In contrast to previous procedures of business process re-engineering (BPR), this method maps distribution logistics holistically under variable distribution structures. Combined with qualitative measures the decision support system will contribute to a more efficient design of distribution logistics.
Keywords: Decision support system distribution logistics, potential analyses, supply chain management.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1823622 Topology Preservation in SOM
Authors: E. Arsuaga Uriarte, F. Díaz Martín
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The SOM has several beneficial features which make it a useful method for data mining. One of the most important features is the ability to preserve the topology in the projection. There are several measures that can be used to quantify the goodness of the map in order to obtain the optimal projection, including the average quantization error and many topological errors. Many researches have studied how the topology preservation should be measured. One option consists of using the topographic error which considers the ratio of data vectors for which the first and second best BMUs are not adjacent. In this work we present a study of the behaviour of the topographic error in different kinds of maps. We have found that this error devaluates the rectangular maps and we have studied the reasons why this happens. Finally, we suggest a new topological error to improve the deficiency of the topographic error.Keywords: Map lattice, Self-Organizing Map, topographic error, topology preservation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3011621 The Correlation between Peer Aggression and Peer Victimization: Are Aggressors Victims Too?
Authors: Glenn M. Calaguas
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To investigate the possible correlation between peer aggression and peer victimization, 148 sixth-graders were asked to respond to the Reduced Aggression and Victimization Scales (RAVS). RAVS measures the frequency of reporting aggressive behaviors or of being victimized during the previous week prior to the survey. The scales are composed of six items each. Each point represents one instance of aggression or victimization. Specifically, the Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient (PMCC) was used to determine the correlations between the scores of the sixthgraders in the two scales, both in individual items and total scores. Positive correlations were established and correlations were significant at the 0.01 levels.
Keywords: correlation, peer aggression, peer victimization, sixth-graders.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2445620 Narrowband Speech Hiding using Vector Quantization
Authors: Driss Guerchi, Fatiha Djebbar
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In this work we introduce an efficient method to limit the impact of the hiding process on the quality of the cover speech. Vector quantization of the speech spectral information reduces drastically the number of the secret speech parameters to be embedded in the cover signal. Compared to scalar hiding, vector quantization hiding technique provides a stego signal that is indistinguishable from the cover speech. The objective and subjective performance measures reveal that the current hiding technique attracts no suspicion about the presence of the secret message in the stego speech, while being able to recover an intelligible copy of the secret message at the receiver side.Keywords: Speech steganography, LSF vector quantization, fast Fourier transform
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1515619 A Comparative Case Study of the Impact of Square and Yurt-Shape Buildings on Energy Efficiency
Authors: Valeriya Tyo, Serikbolat Yessengabulov
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Regions with extreme climate conditions such as Astana city require energy saving measures to increase energy performance of buildings which are responsible for more than 40% of total energy consumption. Identification of optimal building geometry is one of key factors to be considered. Architectural form of a building has impact on space heating and cooling energy use, however the interrelationship between the geometry and resultant energy use is not always readily apparent. This paper presents a comparative case study of two prototypical buildings with compact building shape to assess its impact on energy performance.Keywords: Building geometry, energy efficiency, heat gain, heat loss.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2531