Search results for: and virtual learning environment.
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 4785

Search results for: and virtual learning environment.

1395 The Effect of Material Properties and Volumetric Changes in Phase Transformation to the Final Residual Stress of Welding Process

Authors: Djarot B. Darmadi

Abstract:

The wider growing Finite Element Method (FEM) application is caused by its benefits of cost saving and environment friendly. Also, by using FEM a deep understanding of certain phenomenon can be achieved. This paper observed the role of material properties and volumetric change when Solid State Phase Transformation (SSPT) takes place in residual stress formation due to a welding process of ferritic steels through coupled Thermo- Metallurgy-Mechanical (TMM) analysis. The correctness of FEM residual stress prediction was validated by experiment. From parametric study of the FEM model, it can be concluded that the material properties change tend to over-predicts residual stress in the weld center whilst volumetric change tend to underestimates it. The best final result is the compromise of both by incorporates them in the model which has a better result compared to a model without SSPT.

Keywords: Residual stress, ferritic steels, SSPT, coupled-TMM.

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1394 A Real Time Collision Avoidance Algorithm for Mobile Robot based on Elastic Force

Authors: Kyung Hyun, Choi, Minh Ngoc, Nong, M. Asif Ali, Rehmani

Abstract:

This present paper proposes the modified Elastic Strip method for mobile robot to avoid obstacles with a real time system in an uncertain environment. The method deals with the problem of robot in driving from an initial position to a target position based on elastic force and potential field force. To avoid the obstacles, the robot has to modify the trajectory based on signal received from the sensor system in the sampling times. It was evident that with the combination of Modification Elastic strip and Pseudomedian filter to process the nonlinear data from sensor uncertainties in the data received from the sensor system can be reduced. The simulations and experiments of these methods were carried out.

Keywords: Collision avoidance, Avoidance obstacle, Elastic Strip, Real time collision avoidance.

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1393 Islamic Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Reputation and Performance

Authors: Roshayani Arshad, Suaini Othman, Rohana Othman

Abstract:

This study examines the effect of Islamic Corporate Social Responsibility disclosure and on corporate reputation as well as performance. These relationships are examined based on content analysis of of annual reports of 17 Islamic banks in Malaysia for 2008, 2009 and 2010. Results of this study provide evidence that CSR activities communicated in corporate annual reports are significantly positively related with corporate reputation as well as firm performance. These results indicate that CSR activities and disclosure from Islamic perspectives are equally important business strategies in creating continuous superior performance for organisations. In addition, it also highlights that organisations need to develop a stakeholder orientation particularly in an environment of increasing pressure from jurisdictions dominated by Islamic stakeholders on organisations engaging in Islamic products to increase their social responsibilities from the Islamic perspectives.

Keywords: Islamic Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Reputation, Firm Performance, Islamic Banks

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1392 Providing Medical Information in Braille: Research and Development of Automatic Braille Translation Program for Japanese “eBraille“

Authors: Aki Sugano, Mika Ohta, Mineko Ikegami, Kenji Miura, Sayo Tsukamoto, Akihiro Ichinose, Toshiko Ohshima, Eiichi Maeda, Masako Matsuura, Yutaka Takao

Abstract:

Along with the advances in medicine, providing medical information to individual patient is becoming more important. In Japan such information via Braille is hardly provided to blind and partially sighted people. Thus we are researching and developing a Web-based automatic translation program “eBraille" to translate Japanese text into Japanese Braille. First we analyzed the Japanese transcription rules to implement them on our program. We then added medical words to the dictionary of the program to improve its translation accuracy for medical text. Finally we examined the efficacy of statistical learning models (SLMs) for further increase of word segmentation accuracy in braille translation. As a result, eBraille had the highest translation accuracy in the comparison with other translation programs, improved the accuracy for medical text and is utilized to make hospital brochures in braille for outpatients and inpatients.

Keywords: Automatic Braille translation, Medical text, Partially sighted people.

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1391 Algorithm for Information Retrieval Optimization

Authors: Kehinde K. Agbele, Kehinde Daniel Aruleba, Eniafe F. Ayetiran

Abstract:

When using Information Retrieval Systems (IRS), users often present search queries made of ad-hoc keywords. It is then up to the IRS to obtain a precise representation of the user’s information need and the context of the information. This paper investigates optimization of IRS to individual information needs in order of relevance. The study addressed development of algorithms that optimize the ranking of documents retrieved from IRS. This study discusses and describes a Document Ranking Optimization (DROPT) algorithm for information retrieval (IR) in an Internet-based or designated databases environment. Conversely, as the volume of information available online and in designated databases is growing continuously, ranking algorithms can play a major role in the context of search results. In this paper, a DROPT technique for documents retrieved from a corpus is developed with respect to document index keywords and the query vectors. This is based on calculating the weight (

Keywords: Internet ranking,

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1390 The Knowledge Representation of the Genetic Regulatory Networks Based on Ontology

Authors: Ines Hamdi, Mohamed Ben Ahmed

Abstract:

The understanding of the system level of biological behavior and phenomenon variously needs some elements such as gene sequence, protein structure, gene functions and metabolic pathways. Challenging problems are representing, learning and reasoning about these biochemical reactions, gene and protein structure, genotype and relation between the phenotype, and expression system on those interactions. The goal of our work is to understand the behaviors of the interactions networks and to model their evolution in time and in space. We propose in this study an ontological meta-model for the knowledge representation of the genetic regulatory networks. Ontology in artificial intelligence means the fundamental categories and relations that provide a framework for knowledge models. Domain ontology's are now commonly used to enable heterogeneous information resources, such as knowledge-based systems, to communicate with each other. The interest of our model is to represent the spatial, temporal and spatio-temporal knowledge. We validated our propositions in the genetic regulatory network of the Aarbidosis thaliana flower

Keywords: Ontological model, spatio-temporal modeling, Genetic Regulatory Networks (GRNs), knowledge representation.

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1389 Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, Flash Flooding and Organisational Resilience Capacity: Qualitative Findings on Implications of the Catastrophic 2017 Flash Flood Event in Mandra, Greece

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

Abstract:

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 to 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 behavioural 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, organisational resilience capacity, disaster preparedness, qualitative study.

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1388 The Effect of the National Culture on the International Business

Authors: Phatthanan Chaiyabut

Abstract:

The aim for this research is to deliberately discuss how and why the contexts of culture are the main significant factors which need to be considered when conducting the international business oversea. As a consequence of understanding these various factors, the researcher would be able to infer some suggestions to the international organizations. With this in mind, the results of the understanding in a national culture environment can support the organizations to settle its international strategies which may be useful to develop the national export and import effectiveness. This data collecting methods will be concentrated upon 5-10 interviews from the senior members and business officers in the international company in Thailand by e-mail interview and analyses the individual manager’s viewpoint. As well as, focus on the questionnaires which the respondents were selected randomly around 100 samples from UK and Thailand, together with providing a functional sample size and comparable to data. The results of the study question the role of national culture, which contributed to in international business effectiveness and emphasize the positive and negative aspects, as well as suggestions to business investors are informed.

Keywords: Contexts of culture, International business effectiveness, International strategies, National Culture.

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1387 Improved Feature Extraction Technique for Handling Occlusion in Automatic Facial Expression Recognition

Authors: Khadijat T. Bamigbade, Olufade F. W. Onifade

Abstract:

The field of automatic facial expression analysis has been an active research area in the last two decades. Its vast applicability in various domains has drawn so much attention into developing techniques and dataset that mirror real life scenarios. Many techniques such as Local Binary Patterns and its variants (CLBP, LBP-TOP) and lately, deep learning techniques, have been used for facial expression recognition. However, the problem of occlusion has not been sufficiently handled, making their results not applicable in real life situations. This paper develops a simple, yet highly efficient method tagged Local Binary Pattern-Histogram of Gradient (LBP-HOG) with occlusion detection in face image, using a multi-class SVM for Action Unit and in turn expression recognition. Our method was evaluated on three publicly available datasets which are JAFFE, CK, SFEW. Experimental results showed that our approach performed considerably well when compared with state-of-the-art algorithms and gave insight to occlusion detection as a key step to handling expression in wild.

Keywords: Automatic facial expression analysis, local binary pattern, LBP-HOG, occlusion detection.

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1386 Effect of UV Radiation to Change the Properties of the Composite PA+GF

Authors: Lenka Markovičová, Viera Zatkalíková, Tomasz Garbacz

Abstract:

The development of composite materials and the related design and manufacturing technologies is one of the most important advances in the history of materials. Composites are multifunctional materials having unprecedented mechanical and physical properties that can be tailored to meet the requirements of a particular application. Some composites also exhibit great resistance to high-temperature corrosion, oxidation, and wear. Polymers are widely used indoors and outdoors, therefore they are exposed to a chemical environment which may include atmospheric oxygen, acidic fumes, acidic rain, moisture heat and thermal shock, ultra-violet light, high energy radiation, etc. Different polymers are affected differently by these factors even though the amorphous polymers are more sensitive. Ageing is also important and it is defined as the process of deterioration of engineering materials resulting from the combined effects of atmospheric radiation, heat, oxygen, water, microorganisms and other atmospheric factors.

Keywords: Composites with glass fibres, mechanical properties, polyamides, UV degradation.

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1385 Preparing Entrepreneurial Women: A Challenge for Indian Education System

Authors: Dinesh Khandujaa, Pardeep Kumar Sharma

Abstract:

Education, as the most important resource in any country, has multiplying effects on all facets of development in a society. The new social realities, particularly the interplay between democratization of education; unprecedented developments in IT sector; emergence of knowledge society, liberalization of economy and globalization have greatly influenced the educational process of all nations. This turbulence entails upon education to undergo dramatic changes to keep up with the new expectations. Growth of entrepreneurship among Indian women is highly important for empowering them and this is highly essential for socio-economic development of a society. Unfortunately in India there is poor acceptance of entrepreneurship among women as unfounded myths and fears restrain them to be enterprising. To remove these inhibitions, education system needs to be re-engineered to make entrepreneurship more acceptable. This paper empirically analyses the results of a survey done on around 500 female graduates in North India to measure and evaluate various entrepreneurial traits present in them. A formative model has been devised in this context, which should improve the teaching-learning process in our education system, which can lead to sustainable growth of women entrepreneurship in India.

Keywords: Women Empowerment, Entrepreneurship, Education System, Women Entrepreneurship, Sustainable Development.

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1384 Institutionalising Corporate Social Responsibility: A Study on the CSR Statements on Corporate Websites of Malaysian and Singapore Corporations

Authors: Shahrina Md Nordin, Zulhamri Abdullah, Yuhanis Abdul Aziz

Abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to examine the current state of corporate social responsibility statements on corporate websites of Malaysian and Singaporean corporations and analyze how the CSR statements contribute in building a unique corporate identity of corporations. Content analysis is employed to examine the websites of Malaysian and Singaporean consumer corporations. It is believed that generally most companies tend to publish and communicate their CSR statements visibly to general stakeholders. However, there is a significantly different outcome of the articulation of CSR on practices on websites between Malaysian and Singaporean consumer corporations. A number of Singaporean organizations were found less concerned with CSR practices as compared to Malaysian organizations. The findings indicate a need for corporations in Malaysia and Singapore to orchestrate their core competence of CSR activities in order to develop a unique corporate identity in a global business environment.

Keywords: Corporate identity, Corporate Social Responsibility, Asian country.

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1383 Combining Fuzzy Logic and Neural Networks in Modeling Landfill Gas Production

Authors: Mohamed Abdallah, Mostafa Warith, Roberto Narbaitz, Emil Petriu, Kevin Kennedy

Abstract:

Heterogeneity of solid waste characteristics as well as the complex processes taking place within the landfill ecosystem motivated the implementation of soft computing methodologies such as artificial neural networks (ANN), fuzzy logic (FL), and their combination. The present work uses a hybrid ANN-FL model that employs knowledge-based FL to describe the process qualitatively and implements the learning algorithm of ANN to optimize model parameters. The model was developed to simulate and predict the landfill gas production at a given time based on operational parameters. The experimental data used were compiled from lab-scale experiment that involved various operating scenarios. The developed model was validated and statistically analyzed using F-test, linear regression between actual and predicted data, and mean squared error measures. Overall, the simulated landfill gas production rates demonstrated reasonable agreement with actual data. The discussion focused on the effect of the size of training datasets and number of training epochs.

Keywords: Adaptive neural fuzzy inference system (ANFIS), gas production, landfill

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1382 To Know the Way to the Unknown: A Semi-Experimental Study on the Implication of Skills and Knowledge for Creative Processes in Higher Education

Authors: Mikkel Snorre Wilms Boysen

Abstract:

From a theoretical perspective, expertise is generally considered a precondition for creativity. The assumption is that an individual needs to master the common and accepted rules and techniques within a certain knowledge-domain in order to create something new and valuable. However, real life cases, and a limited amount of empirical studies, demonstrate that this assumption may be overly simple. In this article, this question is explored through a number of semi-experimental case studies conducted within the fields of music, technology, and youth culture. The studies indicate that, in various ways, expertise plays an important part in creative processes. However, the case studies also indicate that expertise sometimes leads to an entrenched perspective, in the sense that knowledge and experience may work as a path into the well-known rather than into the unknown. In this article, these issues are explored with reference to different theoretical approaches to creativity and learning, including actor-network theory, the theory of blind variation and selective retention, and Csikszentmihalyi’s system model. Finally, some educational aspects and implications of this are discussed.

Keywords: Creativity, education, expertise, technology.

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1381 Low-Cost Pre-Treatment of Pharmaceutical Wastewater

Authors: A. Abu-Safa, S. Abu-Salah, M. Mosa, S. Gharaibeh

Abstract:

Pharmaceutical industries and effluents of sewage treatment plants are the main sources of residual pharmaceuticals in water resources. These emergent pollutants may adversely impact the biophysical environment. Pharmaceutical industries often generate wastewater that changes in characteristics and quantity depending on the used manufacturing processes. Carbamazepine (CBZ), {5Hdibenzo [b,f]azepine-5-carboxamide, (C15H12N2O)}, is a significant non-biodegradable pharmaceutical contaminant in the Jordanian pharmaceutical wastewater, which is not removed by the activated sludge processes in treatment plants. Activated carbon may potentially remove that pollutant from effluents, but the high cost involved suggests that more attention should be given to the potential use of low-cost materials in order to reduce cost and environmental contamination. Powders of Jordanian non-metallic raw materials namely, Azraq Bentonite (AB), Kaolinite (K), and Zeolite (Zeo) were activated (acid and thermal treatment) and evaluated by removing CBZ. The results of batch and column techniques experiments showed around 46% and 67% removal of CBZ respectively.

Keywords: Azraq bentonite, carbamazepine, pharmaceutical wastewater, zeolite.

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1380 Performance Analysis of a Series of Adaptive Filters in Non-Stationary Environment for Noise Cancelling Setup

Authors: Anam Rafique, Syed Sohail Ahmed

Abstract:

One of the essential components of much of DSP application is noise cancellation. Changes in real time signals are quite rapid and swift. In noise cancellation, a reference signal which is an approximation of noise signal (that corrupts the original information signal) is obtained and then subtracted from the noise bearing signal to obtain a noise free signal. This approximation of noise signal is obtained through adaptive filters which are self adjusting. As the changes in real time signals are abrupt, this needs adaptive algorithm that converges fast and is stable. Least mean square (LMS) and normalized LMS (NLMS) are two widely used algorithms because of their plainness in calculations and implementation. But their convergence rates are small. Adaptive averaging filters (AFA) are also used because they have high convergence, but they are less stable. This paper provides the comparative study of LMS and Normalized NLMS, AFA and new enhanced average adaptive (Average NLMS-ANLMS) filters for noise cancelling application using speech signals.

Keywords: AFA, ANLMS, LMS, NLMS.

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1379 Agent-Based Simulation for Supply Chain Transport Corridors

Authors: Kamalendu Pal

Abstract:

Supply chains are the backbone of trade and commerce. Their logistics use different transport corridors on regular basis for operational purpose. The international supply chain transport corridors include different infrastructure elements (e.g. weighbridge, package handling equipments, border clearance authorities, and so on). This paper presents the use of multi-agent systems (MAS) to model and simulate some aspects of transportation corridors, and in particular the area of weighbridge resource optimization for operational profit. An underlying multi-agent model provides a means of modeling the relationships among stakeholders in order to enable coordination in a transport corridor environment. Simulations of the costs of container unloading, reloading, and waiting time for queuing up tracks have been carried out using data sets. Results of the simulation provide the potential guidance in making decisions about optimal service resource allocation in a trade corridor.

Keywords: Multi-agent systems, simulation, supply chain, transport corridor, weighbridge.

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1378 Adaptive Fuzzy Routing in Opportunistic Network (AFRON)

Authors: Payam Nabhani, Sima Radmanesh

Abstract:

Opportunistic network is a kind of Delay Tolerant Networks (DTN) where the nodes in this network come into contact with each other opportunistically and communicate wirelessly and, an end-to-end path between source and destination may have never existed, and disconnection and reconnection is common in the network. In such a network, because of the nature of opportunistic network, perhaps there is no a complete path from source to destination for most of the time and even if there is a path; the path can be very unstable and may change or break quickly. Therefore, routing is one of the main challenges in this environment and, in order to make communication possible in an opportunistic network, the intermediate nodes have to play important role in the opportunistic routing protocols. In this paper we proposed an Adaptive Fuzzy Routing in opportunistic network (AFRON). This protocol is using the simple parameters as input parameters to find the path to the destination node. Using Message Transmission Count, Message Size and Time To Live parameters as input fuzzy to increase delivery ratio and decrease the buffer consumption in the all nodes of network.

Keywords: Opportunistic Routing, Fuzzy Routing, Opportunistic Network, Message Routing.

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1377 Anomaly Detection with ANN and SVM for Telemedicine Networks

Authors: Edward Guillén, Jeisson Sánchez, Carlos Omar Ramos

Abstract:

In recent years, a wide variety of applications are developed with Support Vector Machines -SVM- methods and Artificial Neural Networks -ANN-. In general, these methods depend on intrusion knowledge databases such as KDD99, ISCX, and CAIDA among others. New classes of detectors are generated by machine learning techniques, trained and tested over network databases. Thereafter, detectors are employed to detect anomalies in network communication scenarios according to user’s connections behavior. The first detector based on training dataset is deployed in different real-world networks with mobile and non-mobile devices to analyze the performance and accuracy over static detection. The vulnerabilities are based on previous work in telemedicine apps that were developed on the research group. This paper presents the differences on detections results between some network scenarios by applying traditional detectors deployed with artificial neural networks and support vector machines.

Keywords: Anomaly detection, back-propagation neural networks, network intrusion detection systems, support vector machines.

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1376 Eco-Connectivity: Sustainable Practices in Telecom Networks Using Big Data

Authors: Tharunika Sridhar

Abstract:

This paper addresses sustainable eco-connectivity within the telecommunications sector studying its importance to tackle the contemporary challenges and data regulation issues. The paper also investigates the role of Big Data and its integration in this context, specific to telecom industry. One of the major focus areas in this paper is studying and examining the pathways explored, that are state-of-the-art ecological infrastructure solutions and sector-led measures derived from expert analyses and reviews. Additionally, the paper analyses critical factors involving cost-effective route planning, and the development of green telecommunications infrastructure that adds qualitative reasoning to the research idea. Furthermore, the study discusses in detail a potential green roadmap towards sustainability by exploring green routing software, eco-friendly infrastructure and other eco-focused initiatives. The paper is also directed at the special linguistic needs of the telecommunications sector by focusing on targeted select range of telecom environment.

Keywords: Big Data, telecom, sustainable telecom sector, telecom networks.

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1375 A Framework for Evaluating the QoS and Cost of Web Services Based on Its Functional Performance

Authors: M. Mohemmed Sha, T. Manesh, A. Mohamed Mustaq Ahmed

Abstract:

In this corporate world, the technology of Web services has grown rapidly and its significance for the development of web based applications gradually rises over time. The success of Business to Business integration rely on finding novel partners and their services in a global business environment. However, the selection of the most suitable Web service from the list of services with the identical functionality is more vital. The satisfaction level of the customer and the provider’s reputation of the Web service are primarily depending on the range it reaches the customer’s requirements. In most cases, the customer of the Web service feels that he is spending for the service which is undelivered. This is because the customer always thinks that the real functionality of the web service is not reached. This will lead to change of the service frequently. In this paper, a framework is proposed to evaluate the Quality of Service (QoS) and its cost that makes the optimal correlation between each other. In addition, this research work proposes some management decision against the functional deviancy of the web service that is guaranteed at time of selection.

Keywords: Web service, service level agreement, quality of a service, cost of a service, QoS, CoS, SOA, WSLA, WsRF.

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1374 Dynamic Construction Site Layout Using Ant Colony Optimization

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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1373 Studying the Causes and Affecting Factors of Motorcycle Accidents A Case Study on the Road Accidents in Zanjan Province (IRAN) - 2007

Authors: A. Beheshti, S. Salkhordeh, H. Amini

Abstract:

Based on statistics released by Islamic Republic of Iran Police (IRIP), from among the total 9555 motorcycle accidents that happened in 2007, 857 riders died and 11219 one got injured. If we also consider the death toll and injuries of other vehicles' accidents resulted from traffic violation by motorcycle riders, then paying attention to the motorcycle accidents seems to be very necessary. Therefore, in this study we tried to investigate the traits and issues related to production, application, and training, along with causes of motorcycle accidents from 4 perspectives of road, human, environment and vehicle and also based on statistical and geographical analysis of accident-sheets prepared by Iran Road Patrol Department (IRPD). Unfamiliarity of riders with regulations and techniques of motorcycling, disuse of safety equipments, inefficiency of roads and design of junctions for safe trafficking of motorcycles and finally the lack of sufficient control of responsible organizations are among the major causes which lead to these accidents.

Keywords: Motorcycle, Motorcycle riders, Road accidents, Statistical analysis of accidents.

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1372 Inter-Organizational Knowledge Transfer Through Malaysia E-government IT Outsourcing: A Theoretical Review

Authors: Nor Aziati Abdul Hamid, Juhana Salim

Abstract:

The main objective of this paper is to contribute the existing knowledge transfer and IT Outsourcing literature specifically in the context of Malaysia by reviewing the current practices of e-government IT outsourcing in Malaysia including the issues and challenges faced by the public agencies in transferring the knowledge during the engagement. This paper discusses various factors and different theoretical model of knowledge transfer starting from the traditional model to the recent model suggested by the scholars. The present paper attempts to align organizational knowledge from the knowledge-based view (KBV) and organizational learning (OL) lens. This review could help shape the direction of both future theoretical and empirical studies on inter-firm knowledge transfer specifically on how KBV and OL perspectives could play significant role in explaining the complex relationships between the client and vendor in inter-firm knowledge transfer and the role of organizational management information system and Transactive Memory System (TMS) to facilitate the organizational knowledge transferring process. Conclusion is drawn and further research is suggested.

Keywords: E-government, IT Outsourcing, Knowledge Management, Knowledge Transfer

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1371 Performance Analysis of the First-Order Characteristics of Polling Systems Based on Parallel Limited (k = 1) Services Mode

Authors: Liu Yi, Bao Liyong

Abstract:

Aiming at the problem of low efficiency of pipelined scheduling in periodic query-qualified service, this paper proposes a system service resource scheduling strategy with parallel optimized qualified service polling control. The paper constructs the polling queuing system and its mathematical model; firstly, the first-order and second-order characteristic parameter equations are obtained by partial derivation of the probability mother function of the system state variables, and the complete mathematical, analytical expressions of each system parameter are deduced after the joint solution. The simulation experimental results are consistent with the theoretical calculated values. The system performance analysis shows that the average captain and average period of the system have been greatly improved, which can better adapt to the service demand of delay-sensitive data in the dense data environment.

Keywords: Polling, parallel scheduling, mean queue length, average cycle time.

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1370 Goodwill in the Current Greek Accounting Environment

Authors: Efthymios Gravas, Anastasios Alexandridis, Antonios Stavropoulos

Abstract:

The growing interest in the issue of intangible assets not only in the scientific community but also in some professional bodies internationally can be explained by several points of view. From the business perspective, enterprises are increasingly motivated by external and internal forces to measure and proactively manage their intangibles. With respect to the issue of intangibles, goodwill has been debated in many countries throughout the world. Despite the numerous efforts and the existence of international accounting standards there is not yet a common accepted accounting treatment for goodwill. This study attempts on the one hand to impress the accounting treatment of goodwill internationally, on the other hand analyses the major subjects in relation to the accounting treatment of goodwill in Greece, since 2005, year where the international accounting standards have been in use for the Greek listed companies. The results indicate that the accounting treatment for the goodwill in Greece, despite the effort for accounting harmonization in Europe from 2005, sustains many differences especially for the no listed companies.

Keywords: Intangible Assets, Goodwill, International Accounting Standards, Greek Accounting System and Law

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1369 Recovery of Post-Consumer PET Bottles in a Composite Material Preparation

Authors: Rafenomananjara Tsinjo Nirina, Tomoo Sekito, Andrianaivoravelona Jaconnet Oliva

Abstract:

Manufacturing a composite material from post-consumer bottles is an interesting outlet since Madagascar is still facing the challenges of managing plastic waste on the one hand and appropriate waste treatment facilities are not yet developed on the other hand. New waste management options are needed to divert End-Of-Life (EOL) soft plastic wastes from landfills and incineration. Waste polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles might be considered as a valuable resource and recovered into polymer concrete. The methodology is easy to implement and appropriate to the local context in Madagascar. This approach will contribute to the production of ecological building materials that might be profitable for the environment and the construction sector. This work aims to study the feasibility of using the post-consumer PET bottles as an alternative binding agent instead of the conventional Portland cement and water. Then, the mechanical and physical properties of the materials were evaluated.

Keywords: PET recycling, polymer concrete, ecological building materials, pollution mitigation.

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1368 Investigation on Performance of Change Point Algorithm in Time Series Dynamical Regimes and Effect of Data Characteristics

Authors: Farhad Asadi, Mohammad Javad Mollakazemi

Abstract:

In this paper, Bayesian online inference in models of data series are constructed by change-points algorithm, which separated the observed time series into independent series and study the change and variation of the regime of the data with related statistical characteristics. variation of statistical characteristics of time series data often represent separated phenomena in the some dynamical system, like a change in state of brain dynamical reflected in EEG signal data measurement or a change in important regime of data in many dynamical system. In this paper, prediction algorithm for studying change point location in some time series data is simulated. It is verified that pattern of proposed distribution of data has important factor on simpler and smother fluctuation of hazard rate parameter and also for better identification of change point locations. Finally, the conditions of how the time series distribution effect on factors in this approach are explained and validated with different time series databases for some dynamical system.

Keywords: Time series, fluctuation in statistical characteristics, optimal learning.

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1367 A Study on Early Prediction of Fault Proneness in Software Modules using Genetic Algorithm

Authors: Parvinder S. Sandhu, Sunil Khullar, Satpreet Singh, Simranjit K. Bains, Manpreet Kaur, Gurvinder Singh

Abstract:

Fault-proneness of a software module is the probability that the module contains faults. To predict faultproneness of modules different techniques have been proposed which includes statistical methods, machine learning techniques, neural network techniques and clustering techniques. The aim of proposed study is to explore whether metrics available in the early lifecycle (i.e. requirement metrics), metrics available in the late lifecycle (i.e. code metrics) and metrics available in the early lifecycle (i.e. requirement metrics) combined with metrics available in the late lifecycle (i.e. code metrics) can be used to identify fault prone modules using Genetic Algorithm technique. This approach has been tested with real time defect C Programming language datasets of NASA software projects. The results show that the fusion of requirement and code metric is the best prediction model for detecting the faults as compared with commonly used code based model.

Keywords: Genetic Algorithm, Fault Proneness, Software Faultand Software Quality.

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1366 A Real-Time Bayesian Decision-Support System for Predicting Suspect Vehicle’s Intended Target Using a Sparse Camera Network

Authors: Payam Mousavi, Andrew L. Stewart, Huiwen You, Aryeh F. G. Fayerman

Abstract:

We present a decision-support tool to assist an operator in the detection and tracking of a suspect vehicle traveling to an unknown target destination. Multiple data sources, such as traffic cameras, traffic information, weather, etc., are integrated and processed in real-time to infer a suspect’s intended destination chosen from a list of pre-determined high-value targets. Previously, we presented our work in the detection and tracking of vehicles using traffic and airborne cameras. Here, we focus on the fusion and processing of that information to predict a suspect’s behavior. The network of cameras is represented by a directional graph, where the edges correspond to direct road connections between the nodes and the edge weights are proportional to the average time it takes to travel from one node to another. For our experiments, we construct our graph based on the greater Los Angeles subset of the Caltrans’s “Performance Measurement System” (PeMS) dataset. We propose a Bayesian approach where a posterior probability for each target is continuously updated based on detections of the suspect in the live video feeds. Additionally, we introduce the concept of ‘soft interventions’, inspired by the field of Causal Inference. Soft interventions are herein defined as interventions that do not immediately interfere with the suspect’s movements; rather, a soft intervention may induce the suspect into making a new decision, ultimately making their intent more transparent. For example, a soft intervention could be temporarily closing a road a few blocks from the suspect’s current location, which may require the suspect to change their current course. The objective of these interventions is to gain the maximum amount of information about the suspect’s intent in the shortest possible time. Our system currently operates in a human-on-the-loop mode where at each step, a set of recommendations are presented to the operator to aid in decision-making. In principle, the system could operate autonomously, only prompting the operator for critical decisions, allowing the system to significantly scale up to larger areas and multiple suspects. Once the intended target is identified with sufficient confidence, the vehicle is reported to the authorities to take further action. Other recommendations include a selection of road closures, i.e., soft interventions, or to continue monitoring. We evaluate the performance of the proposed system using simulated scenarios where the suspect, starting at random locations, takes a noisy shortest path to their intended target. In all scenarios, the suspect’s intended target is unknown to our system. The decision thresholds are selected to maximize the chances of determining the suspect’s intended target in the minimum amount of time and with the smallest number of interventions. We conclude by discussing the limitations of our current approach to motivate a machine learning approach, based on reinforcement learning in order to relax some of the current limiting assumptions.

Keywords: Autonomous surveillance, Bayesian reasoning, decision-support, interventions, patterns-of-life, predictive analytics, predictive insights.

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