Search results for: Quality of Research

Authors: Saeid Rabiei Majd, Motahareh Alvandi, Mehrad Rabiei

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The rapid economic and technological development of any country depends on access to cheap sources of energy. Competition for access to petroleum resources is always accompanied by numerous environmental risks. These factors have caused more attention to environmental issues and sustainable development in petroleum contracts and activities. Nowadays, a sign of developed countries is adhering to the principles and rules of international environmental law and sustainable development of commercial contracts. China has entered into play through the massive project plan, One Belt, One Road. China is becoming a new emerging power in the world. China's bilateral investment treaties have an impact on environmental rights and sustainable development through regional and international foreign direct investment. The aim of this research is to examine China's key position to promote and improve environmental principles and international law and sustainable development in the energy sector in the world through the initiative, One Belt, One Road. Based on this hypothesis, it seems that in the near future, China's investment bilateral investment treaties will become popular investment model used in global trade, especially in the field of energy and sustainable development. They will replace the European and American models. The research method is including literature review, analytical and descriptive methods.

Keywords: Principles of sustainable development, oil and gas law, Chinas BITs, one belt one road, environmental rights.

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Authors: G. S. Dangayach

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For any country the project management has been a vital part for its development. The highly competitive business world has created tremendous pressure on the project managers to achieve success. The pressure is derived from survival and profit building in business organizations which compels the project managers to pursue unethical practices. As a result unethical activities in business projects can be found easily where situations or issues arise due to dubious business practice, high corruption, or absolute violation of the law. The recent spur on Commonwealth games to be organized in New Delhi indicates towards the same. It has been seen that the project managers mainly focus on cost, time, and quality rather than social impact and long term effects of the project. Surprisingly the literature as well as the practitioner-s perspective also does not identify the role of ethics in project success. This paper identifies ethics as the fourth most important dimension in the project based organizations. The paper predicts that the approach of considering ethics will result in sustainability of the project. It will increase satisfaction and loyalty of the customers as well as create harmony, trust, brotherhood, values and morality among the team members. This paper is conceptual in nature as inadequate literature exists linking the project success with an ethical approach.

Keywords: Ethics, Loyalty, Morality, Project success

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Authors: R. Kandiah, K. Miyamoto

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In Sri Lanka, the Jaffna area is a high drought affected area and depends mainly on groundwater aquifers for water needs. Water for daily activities is extracted from wells. As households manually extract water from the wells, it is not drawn from mid evening to early morning. The water inflow at night provides the maximum water level that decreases during the daytime due to extraction. The storage volume of water in wells is limited or at its lowest level during the dry season. This study analyzes the domestic water budget during the dry season in the Jaffna area. In order to evaluate the water inflow rate into wells, storage volume and extraction volume from wells over time, water pressure is measured at the bottom of three wells, which are located in coastal area denoted as well A, in nonspecific area denoted as well B, and agricultural area denoted as well C. The water quality at the wells A, B, and C, are mostly fresh, modest fresh, and saline respectively. From the monitoring, we can find that the daily inflow amount of water into the wells and daily water extraction depend on each other, that is, higher extraction yields higher inflow. And, in the dry season, the daily inflow volume and the daily extraction volume of each well are almost in balance.

Keywords: Domestic water, water balance, water budget, ground water, shallow well.

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Authors: Mahmoud A. Rabah

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The present study shows a method to recover lead metal from wastewater of wet scrubber in secondary lead smelter. The wastewater is loaded with 42,000 ppm of insoluble lead compounds (TSP) submicron in diameter. The technical background benefits the use of cationic polyfloc solution to flocculate these colloidal solids before press filtration. The polymer solution is injected in the wastewater stream in a countercurrent flow design. The study demonstrates the effect of polymer dose, temperature, pH, flow velocity of the wastewater and different filtration media on the filtration extent. Results indicated that filtration rate (¦_r), quality of purified water, purifying efficiency (¦_e) and floc diameter decrease regularly with increase in mass flow rate and velocity up to turbulence of 0.5 m.sec^-1. Laminar flow is in favor of flocculation. Polyfloc concentration of 0.75 – 1.25 g/m³ wastewater is convenient. Increasing temperature of the wastewater and pneumatic pressure of filtration enhances ¦_r. High pH value deforms floc formation and assists degradation of the filtration fabric. The overall efficiency of the method amounts to 93.2 %. Lead metal was recovered from the filtrate cake using carbon as a reducing agent at 900°C.

Keywords: Wastewater, wet scrubbers, filtration, secondary lead.

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Authors: Andrey V. Osipov, Sergey A. Kukushkin, Andrey V. Luk’yanov

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A method is developed for the solid-phase synthesis of epitaxial layers when the substrate itself is involved into a topochemical reaction and the reaction product grows in the interior of substrate layer. It opens up new possibilities for the relaxation of the elastic energy due to the attraction of point defects formed during the topochemical reaction in anisotropic media. The presented method of silicon carbide (SiC) formation employs a topochemical reaction between the single-crystalline silicon (Si) substrate and gaseous carbon monoxide (CO). The corresponding theory of interaction of point dilatation centers in anisotropic crystals is developed. It is eliminated that the most advantageous location of the point defects is the direction (111) in crystals with cubic symmetry. The single-crystal SiC films with the thickness up to 200 nm have been grown on Si (111) substrates owing to the topochemical reaction with CO. Grown high-quality single-crystal SiC films do not contain misfit dislocations despite the huge lattice mismatch value of ~20%. Also the possibility of growing of thick wide-gap semiconductor films on these templates SiC/Si(111) and, accordingly, its integration into Si electronics, is demonstrated. Finally, the ab initio theory of SiC formation due to the topochemical reaction has been developed.

Keywords: Epitaxy, silicon carbide, topochemical reaction, wide-bandgap semiconductors.

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Authors: G. Sevilla, S. Zapata, F. Giraldo, E. Torres, C. Collazos

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This work describes a framework for teaching of global software engineering (GSE) in university undergraduate programs. This framework proposes a method of teaching that incorporates adequate techniques of software requirements elicitation and validated tools of communication, critical aspects to global software development scenarios. The use of proposed framework allows teachers to simulate small software development companies formed by Latin American students, which build information systems. Students from three Latin American universities played the roles of engineers by applying an iterative development of a requirements specification in a global software project. The proposed framework involves the use of a specific purpose Wiki for asynchronous communication between the participants of the process. It is also a practice to improve the quality of software requirements that are formulated by the students. The additional motivation of students to participate in these practices, in conjunction with peers from other countries, is a significant additional factor that positively contributes to the learning process. The framework promotes skills for communication, negotiation, and other complementary competencies that are useful for working on GSE scenarios.

Keywords: Requirements analysis, distributed requirements engineering, practical experiences, collaborative support.

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Authors: M. F. Chow, M. F. Abu Bakar

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Green roof system is considered a relatively new concept in Malaysia even though it has been implemented widely in the developed countries. Generally, green roofs provide many benefits such as enhancing aesthetical quality of the built environment, reduce urban heat island effect, reduce energy consumption, improve stormwater attenuation, and reduce noise pollution. A better understanding on the implementation of green roof system in Malaysia is crucial, as Malaysia’s climate is different if compared with the climate in temperate countries where most of the green roof studies have been conducted. This study has concentrated on the technical aspect of green roof system which focuses on i) types of plants and method of planting; ii) engineering design for green roof system; iii) its hydrological performance on reducing stormwater runoff; and iv) benefits of green roofs with respect to energy. Literature review has been conducted to identify the development and obstacles associated with green roofs systems in Malaysia. The study had identified the challenges and potentials of green roofs development in Malaysia. This study also provided the recommendations on standard design and strategies on the implementation of green roofs in Malaysia in the near future.

Keywords: Engineering design, green roof, sustainable development, tropical countries.

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Authors: Edward Pol

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All companies are confronted with the need to innovate in order to meet market demands. In so doing they are challenged with the dilemma of whether to aim to be first into the market with a new innovative product, or to deliberately wait and learn from a pioneers’ mistakes; potentially avoiding higher risks. It is therefore important to critically understand from a first mover advantage and disadvantage perspective the decision-making implications of defence industry transformation onset by an innovative paradigm shift. This paper will argue that the type of industry characteristics matter, especially when considering what role the clients play in the innovation process and what their level of influence is. Through investigation of qualitative case study research, this inquiry will focus on first mover advantages and first mover disadvantages with a view to establish practical and value-added academic findings by focusing on specific industries where the clients play an active role in cooperation with the supplier innovation. The resulting findings will help managers to mitigate risk in innovative technology introduction. A selection from several defence industry innovations is specifically chosen because of the client–supplier relationship that typically differs from traditional first mover research. In this instance, case studies will be used referencing vertical-take-off-and-landing defence equipment innovations. 

Keywords: innovation, pioneer, first mover advantage, first mover disadvantage, risk

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Authors: Shuen-Tai Wang, Ying-Chuan Chen, Yu-Ching Lin

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There has been renewal of interest in the relation between Green IT and cloud computing in recent years. Cloud computing has to be a highly elastic environment which provides stable services to users. The growing use of cloud computing facilities has caused marked energy consumption, putting negative pressure on electricity cost of computing center or data center. Each year more and more network devices, storages and computers are purchased and put to use, but it is not just the number of computers that is driving energy consumption upward. We could foresee that the power consumption of cloud computing facilities will double, triple, or even more in the next decade. This paper aims at resource allocation and scheduling technologies that are short of or have not well developed yet to reduce energy utilization in cloud computing platform. In particular, our approach relies on recalling services dynamically onto appropriate amount of the machines according to user’s requirement and temporarily shutting down the machines after finish in order to conserve energy. We present initial work on integration of resource and power management system that focuses on reducing power consumption such that they suffice for meeting the minimizing quality of service required by the cloud computing platform.

Keywords: Cloud computing, energy utilization, power consumption, resource allocation.

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Authors: Muhibul Haque Bhuyan

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In the current context, the engineering program educators need to think about how to develop the concepts and complex engineering problem-solving skills through various complex engineering activities by the undergraduate engineering students in various engineering courses. But most of them are facing challenges to assess and evaluate these skills of their students. In this study, detailed assessment and evaluation methods for the undergraduate Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE) program are stated using the Outcome-Based Education (OBE) approach. For this purpose, a final year course titled control systems has been selected. The assessment and evaluation approach, course contents, course objectives, course outcomes (COs), and their mapping to the program outcomes (POs) with complex engineering problems and activities via the knowledge profiles, performance indicators, rubrics of assessment, CO and PO attainment data, and other statistics, are reported for a student-cohort of control systems course registered by the students of BSc in EEE program in Spring 2021 Semester at the EEE Department of Southeast University (SEU). It is found that the target benchmark was achieved by the students of that course. Several recommendations for the continuous quality improvement (CQI) process are also provided.

Keywords: Complex engineering problem, knowledge profiles, OBE, control systems course, COs, PIs, POs, assessment rubrics.

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Authors: Walter Beck

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Jharkhand is newly constituted 28th State in the eastern part of India which is known for the oldest settlement of the indigenous people. In the State of Jharkhand in which broadly three language family are found namely, Austric, Dravidian, and Indo-European. Ex-Mundari, kharia, Ho Santali come from the Austric Language family. Kurukh, Malto under Dravidian language family and Nagpuri Khorta etc. under Indo-European language family. There are 32 Indigenous Communities identified as Scheduled Tribe in the State of Jharkhand. Santhal, Munda, Kahria, Ho and Oraons are some of the major Tribe of the Jharkhand state. Jharkhand has a Rich Cultural heritage which includes Folk art, folklore, Folk Dance, Folk Music, Folk Songs for which diversity can been seen from place to place, season to season and all traditional Culture and practices. The languages as well as the songs are vulnerable to dominant culture and hence needed to be protected. The collection and documentation of these songs in their natural setting adds significant contribution to the conservation and propagation of the cultural elements. This paper reflects to bring out the Originality of the Collected Songs from remote areas of the plateau of Sothern Jharkhand as a rich intangible Cultural heritage of the Country. The research was done through participatory observation. In this research project more than 100 songs which were never documented before.

Keywords: Cultural heritage, India, Indigenous people, songs.

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Authors: Nesapriya. P., S. Rajalaxmi

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This paper is based on the bridgeless single-phase Ac–Dc Power Factor Correction (PFC) converters with Fuzzy Logic Controller. High frequency isolated Cuk converters are used as a modular dc-dc converter in Discontinuous Conduction Mode (DCM) of operation of Power Factor Correction. The aim of this paper is to simplify the program complexity of the controller by reducing the number of fuzzy sets of the Membership Functions (MFs) and to improve the efficiency and to eliminate the power quality problems. The output of Fuzzy controller is compared with High frequency triangular wave to generate PWM gating signals of Cuk converter. The proposed topologies are designed to work in Discontinuous Conduction Mode (DCM) to achieve a unity power factor and low total harmonic distortion of the input current. The Fuzzy Logic Controller gives additional advantages such as accurate result, uncertainty and imprecision and automatic control circuitry. Performance comparisons between the proposed and conventional controllers and circuits are performed based on circuit simulations.

Keywords: Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC), Bridgeless rectifier, Cuk converter, Pulse Width Modulation (PWM), Power Factor Correction, Total Harmonic Distortion (THD).

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Authors: A. P. Kulkarni, P. Randive, A. R. Mache

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In today-s era of plasma and laser cutting, machines using oxy-acetylene flame are also meritorious due to their simplicity and cost effectiveness. The objective to devise a Computer controlled Oxy-Fuel profile cutting machine arose from the increasing demand for metal cutting with respect to edge quality, circularity and lesser formation of redeposit material. The System has an 8 bit micro controller based embedded system, which assures stipulated time response. A new window based Application software was devised which takes a standard CAD file .DXF as input and converts it into numerical data required for the controller. It uses VB6 as a front end whereas MS-ACCESS and AutoCAD as back end. The system is designed around AT89C51RD2, powerful 8 bit, ISP micro controller from Atmel and is optimized to achieve cost effectiveness and also maintains the required accuracy and reliability for complex shapes. The backbone of the system is a cleverly designed mechanical assembly along with the embedded system resulting in an accuracy of about 10 microns while maintaining perfect linearity in the cut. This results in substantial increase in productivity. The observed results also indicate reduced inter laminar spacing of pearlite with an increase in the hardness of the edge region.

Keywords: Computer-Control, Profile, Oxy-Fuel.

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Authors: Azadeh Maroufmashat, Sourena Sattari Khavas, Halle Bakhteeyar

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Multi-energy systems will enhance the system reliability and power quality. This paper presents an integrated approach for the design and operation of distributed energy resources (DER) systems, based on energy hub modeling. A multi-objective optimization model is developed by considering an integrated view of electricity and natural gas network to analyze the optimal design and operating condition of DER systems, by considering two conflicting objectives, namely, minimization of total cost and the minimization of environmental impact which is assessed in terms of CO2 emissions. The mathematical model considers energy demands of the site, local climate data, and utility tariff structure, as well as technical and financial characteristics of the candidate DER technologies. To provide energy demands, energy systems including photovoltaic, and co-generation systems, boiler, central power grid are considered. As an illustrative example, a hotel in Iran demonstrates potential applications of the proposed method. The results prove that increasing the satisfaction degree of environmental objective leads to increased total cost.

Keywords: Multi objective optimization, DER systems, Energy hub, Cost, CO2 emission.

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Authors: Malay K. Pakhira, Rajat K. De

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In this paper, a pipelined version of genetic algorithm, called PLGA, and a corresponding hardware platform are described. The basic operations of conventional GA (CGA) are made pipelined using an appropriate selection scheme. The selection operator, used here, is stochastic in nature and is called SA-selection. This helps maintaining the basic generational nature of the proposed pipelined GA (PLGA). A number of benchmark problems are used to compare the performances of conventional roulette-wheel selection and the SA-selection. These include unimodal and multimodal functions with dimensionality varying from very small to very large. It is seen that the SA-selection scheme is giving comparable performances with respect to the classical roulette-wheel selection scheme, for all the instances, when quality of solutions and rate of convergence are considered. The speedups obtained by PLGA for different benchmarks are found to be significant. It is shown that a complete hardware pipeline can be developed using the proposed scheme, if parallel evaluation of the fitness expression is possible. In this connection a low-cost but very fast hardware evaluation unit is described. Results of simulation experiments show that in a pipelined hardware environment, PLGA will be much faster than CGA. In terms of efficiency, PLGA is found to outperform parallel GA (PGA) also.

Keywords: Hardware evaluation, Hardware pipeline, Optimization, Pipelined genetic algorithm, SA-selection.

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Authors: T. Lantharthong, N. Rugthaicharoencheep

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This paper presents an efficient algorithm for optimization of radial distribution systems by a network reconfiguration to balance feeder loads and eliminate overload conditions. The system load-balancing index is used to determine the loading conditions of the system and maximum system loading capacity. The index value has to be minimum in the optimal network reconfiguration of load balancing. A method based on Tabu search algorithm, The Tabu search algorithm is employed to search for the optimal network reconfiguration. The basic idea behind the search is a move from a current solution to its neighborhood by effectively utilizing a memory to provide an efficient search for optimality. It presents low computational effort and is able to find good quality configurations. Simulation results for a radial 69-bus system with distributed generations and capacitors placement. The study results show that the optimal on/off patterns of the switches can be identified to give the best network reconfiguration involving balancing of feeder loads while respecting all the constraints.

Keywords: Network reconfiguration, Distributed generation Capacitor placement, Load balancing, Optimization technique

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Authors: Wipada Chaiwchan, Patcharee Klinhom

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This research is aimed to develop the online-class scheduling management system and improve as a complex problem solution, this must take into consideration in various conditions and factors. In addition to the number of courses, the number of students and a timetable to study, the physical characteristics of each class room and regulations used in the class scheduling must also be taken into consideration. This system is developed to assist management in the class scheduling for convenience and efficiency. It can provide several instructors to schedule simultaneously. Both lecturers and students can check and publish a timetable and other documents associated with the system online immediately. It is developed in a web-based application. PHP is used as a developing tool. The database management system was MySQL. The tool that is used for efficiency testing of the system is questionnaire. The system was evaluated by using a Black-Box testing. The sample was composed of 2 groups: 5 experts and 100 general users. The average and the standard deviation of results from the experts were 3.50 and 0.67. The average and the standard deviation of results from the general users were 3.54 and 0.54. In summary, the results from the research indicated that the satisfaction of users were in a good level. Therefore, this system could be implemented in an actual workplace and satisfy the users’ requirement effectively.

Keywords: Timetable, schedule, management system, online.

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Authors: Seyedehfatemeh Golrizgashti, Seyedali Dalil

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The goal of this paper is proposing a supply chain value dashboard in home appliance manufacturing firms to create more value for all stakeholders via balanced scorecard approach. Balanced scorecard is an effective approach that managers have used to evaluate supply chain performance in many fields but there is a lack of enough attention to all supply chain stakeholders, improving value creation and, defining correlation between value indicators and performance measuring quantitatively. In this research the key stakeholders in home appliance supply chain, value indicators with respect to create more value for stakeholders and the most important metrics to evaluate supply chain value performance based on balanced scorecard approach have been selected via literature review. The most important indicators based on expert’s judgment acquired by in survey focused on creating more value for. Structural equation modelling has been used to disclose relations between value indicators and balanced scorecard metrics. The important result of this research is identifying effective value dashboard to create more value for all stakeholders in supply chain via balanced scorecard approach and based on an empirical study covering ten home appliance manufacturing firms in Iran. Home appliance manufacturing firms can increase their stakeholder's satisfaction by using this value dashboard.

Keywords: Supply chain management, balanced scorecard, value, Structural modeling, Stakeholders.

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Authors: Philip Symonds, Jon Taylor, Zaid Chalabi, Michael Davies

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Average temperatures worldwide are expected to continue to rise. At the same time, major cities in developing countries are becoming increasingly populated and polluted. Governments are tasked with the problem of overheating and air quality in residential buildings. This paper presents the development of a model, which is able to estimate the occupant exposure to extreme temperatures and high air pollution within domestic buildings. Building physics simulations were performed using the EnergyPlus building physics software. An accurate metamodel is then formed by randomly sampling building input parameters and training on the outputs of EnergyPlus simulations. Metamodels are used to vastly reduce the amount of computation time required when performing optimisation and sensitivity analyses. Neural Networks (NNs) have been compared to a Radial Basis Function (RBF) algorithm when forming a metamodel. These techniques were implemented using the PyBrain and scikit-learn python libraries, respectively. NNs are shown to perform around 15% better than RBFs when estimating overheating and air pollution metrics modelled by EnergyPlus.

Keywords: Neural Networks, Radial Basis Functions, Metamodelling, Python machine learning libraries.

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Authors: Adarsh Patil, David A. Power, John P. Morrison

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Grid environments consist of the volatile integration of discrete heterogeneous resources. The notion of the Grid is to unite different users and organisations and pool their resources into one large computing platform where they can harness, inter-operate, collaborate and interact. If the Grid Community is to achieve this objective, then participants (Users and Organisations) need to be willing to donate or share their resources and permit other participants to use their resources. Resources do not have to be shared at all times, since it may result in users not having access to their own resource. The idea of reward-based computing was developed to address the sharing problem in a pragmatic manner. Participants are offered a reward to donate their resources to the Grid. A reward may include monetary recompense or a pro rata share of available resources when constrained. This latter point may imply a quality of service, which in turn may require some globally agreed reservation mechanism. This paper presents a platform for economybased computing using the WebCom Grid middleware. Using this middleware, participants can configure their resources at times and priority levels to suit their local usage policy. The WebCom system accounts for processing done on individual participants- resources and rewards them accordingly.

Keywords: WebCom, Economy-based computing, WebComGrid Bank Reward, Condensed Graph, Distributor, Accounting, GridPoint.

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Authors: Pavel Adámek

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This study examines perception of environmental approach in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – the process by which firms integrate environmental concern into business. Based on a review of the literature, the paper synthesizes focus on environmental issues with the reflection in a case study in the Czech Republic. Two themes of corporate environmentalism are discussed – corporate environmental orientation and corporate stances toward environmental concerns. It provides theoretical material on greening organizational culture that is helpful in understanding the response of contemporary business to environmental problems. We integrate theoretical predictions with empirical findings confronted with reality. Scales to measure these themes are tested in a survey of managers in 229 Czech firms. We used the process of in-depth questioning. The research question was derived and answered in the context of the corresponding literature and conducted research. A case study showed us that environmental approach is variety different (depending on the size of the firm) in SMEs sector. The results of the empirical mapping demonstrate Czech company’s approach to environment and define the problem areas and pinpoint the main limitation in the expansion of environmental aspects. We contribute to the debate for recognition of the particular role of environmental issues in business reality.

Keywords: Corporate environmentalism, Czech Republic, empirical mapping, environmental performance.

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Authors: Seema Biday, Udhav Bhosle

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Repeated observation of a given area over time yields potential for many forms of change detection analysis. These repeated observations are confounded in terms of radiometric consistency due to changes in sensor calibration over time, differences in illumination, observation angles and variation in atmospheric effects. This paper demonstrates applicability of an empirical relative radiometric normalization method to a set of multitemporal cloudy images acquired by Resourcesat1 LISS III sensor. Objective of this study is to detect and remove cloud cover and normalize an image radiometrically. Cloud detection is achieved by using Average Brightness Threshold (ABT) algorithm. The detected cloud is removed and replaced with data from another images of the same area. After cloud removal, the proposed normalization method is applied to reduce the radiometric influence caused by non surface factors. This process identifies landscape elements whose reflectance values are nearly constant over time, i.e. the subset of non-changing pixels are identified using frequency based correlation technique. The quality of radiometric normalization is statistically assessed by R2 value and mean square error (MSE) between each pair of analogous band.

Keywords: Correlation, Frequency domain, Multitemporal, Relative Radiometric Correction

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Authors: Amin Kamal Akhnoukh, Lois Zaki Kamel, Magued Mourad Barsoum

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The objective of this research is to mitigate and prevent the alkali silica reactivity (ASR) in highway construction projects. ASR is a deleterious reaction initiated when the silica content of the aggregate reacts with alkali hydroxides in cement in the presence of relatively high moisture content. The ASR results in the formation of an expansive white colored gel-like material which forms the destructive tensile stresses inside hardened concrete. In this research, different types of local aggregates available in the State of Arkansas were mixed and mortar bars were poured according to the ASTM specifications. Mortar bars expansion was measured versus time and aggregates with potential ASR problems were detected. Different types of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) were used in remixing mortar bars with highly reactive aggregates. Length changes for remixed bars proved that different types of SCMs can be successfully used in reducing the expansive effect of ASR. SCMs percentage by weight is highly dependent on the SCM type. The result of this study will help avoiding future losses due to ASR cracking in construction project and reduce the maintenance, repair, and replacement budgets required for highways network.

Keywords: Alkali Silica Reaction, Aggregates, Moisture, Cracks, Mortar Bar Test supplementary cementitious materials.

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Authors: Y. Lacroix, J.-F. Malbranque

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We present a chronological evolution for naval telecommunication networks. We distinguish periods: with or without multiplexers, with switch systems, with federative systems, with medium switching, and with medium switching with wireless networks. This highlights the introduction of new layers and technology in the architecture. These architectures are presented using layer models of transmission, in a unified way, which enables us to integrate pre-existing models. A ship of a naval fleet has internal communications (i.e. applications' networks of the edge) and external communications (i.e. the use of the means of transmission between edges). We propose architectures, deduced from the layer model, which are the point of convergence between the networks on board and the HF, UHF radio, and satellite resources. This modelling allows to consider end-to-end naval communications, and in a more global way, that is from the user on board towards the user on shore, including transmission and networks on the shore side. The new architectures need take care of quality of services for end-to-end communications, the more remote control develops a lot and will do so in the future. Naval telecommunications will be more and more complex and will use more and more advanced technologies, it will thus be necessary to establish clear global communication schemes to grant consistency of the architectures. Our latest model has been implemented in a military naval situation, and serves as the basic architecture for the RIFAN2 network.

Keywords: Equilibrium beach profile, eastern tombolo of Giens, potential function, erosion.

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Authors: Gamze Uslu, Sebnem Baydere, Alper K. Demir

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In this study, data loss tolerance of Support Vector Machines (SVM) based activity recognition model and multi activity classification performance when data are received over a lossy wireless sensor network is examined. Initially, the classification algorithm we use is evaluated in terms of resilience to random data loss with 3D acceleration sensor data for sitting, lying, walking and standing actions. The results show that the proposed classification method can recognize these activities successfully despite high data loss. Secondly, the effect of differentiated quality of service performance on activity recognition success is measured with activity data acquired from a multi hop wireless sensor network, which introduces  high data loss. The effect of number of nodes on the reliability and multi activity classification success is demonstrated in simulation environment. To the best of our knowledge, the effect of data loss in a wireless sensor network on activity detection success rate of an SVM based classification algorithm has not been studied before.

Keywords: Activity recognition, support vector machines, acceleration sensor, wireless sensor networks, packet loss.

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Authors: Napisporn Memongkol, Runchana Sinthavalai, Nattapong Seneeratanaprayune Weerawat Ounsaneha, Chanisada Choosuk

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The objective of this research is to develop the performance indicators (PIs) in operational level for the Pre-hospital Emergency Medical Service (EMS) system employing in Thailand. This research started with ascertaining the current pre-hospital care system. The team analyzed the strategies of Narerthorn, a government unit under the ministry of public health, and the existing PIs of the pre-hospital care. Afterwards, the current National Strategic Plan of EMS development (2008-2012) of the Emergency Medical Institute of Thailand (EMIT) was considered using strategic analysis to developed Strategy Map (SM) and identified the Success Factors (SFs). The analysis results from strategy map and SFs were used to develop the Performance Indicators (PIs). To verify the set of PIs, the team has interviewed with the relevant practitioners for the possibilities to implement the PIs. To this paper, it was to ascertain that all the developed PIs support the objectives of the strategic plan. Nevertheless, the results showed that the operational level PIs suited only with the first dimension of National Strategic Plan (infrastructure and information technology development). Besides, the SF was the infrastructure development (to contribute the EMS system to people throughout with standard and efficiency both in normally and disaster conditions). Finally, twenty-nine indicators were developed from the analysis results of SM and SFs.

Keywords: Emergency Medical Service, Performance Indicator, Success Factor, Thailand

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Authors: Parviz Alinezhad, Ali Sanati, Koorosh Naser Momtahen

Abstract:

Square pipes (pipes with square cross sections) are being used for various industrial objectives, such as machine structure components and housing/building elements. The utilization of them is extending rapidly and widely. Hence, the out-put of those pipes is increasing and new application fields are continually developing. Due to various demands in recent time, the products have to satisfy difficult specifications with high accuracy in dimensions. The reshaping process design of pipes with square cross sections; however, is performed by trial and error and based on expert-s experience. In this paper, a computer-aided simulation is developed based on the 2-D elastic-plastic method with consideration of the shear deformation to analyze the reshaping process. Effect of various parameters such as diameter of the circular pipe and mechanical properties of metal on product dimension and quality can be evaluated by using this simulation. Moreover, design of reshaping process include determination of shrinkage of cross section, necessary number of stands, radius of rolls and height of pipe at each stand, are investigated. Further, it is shown that there are good agreements between the results of the design method and the experimental results.

Keywords: Circular Pipes, Square Pipes, Shear Deformation, Reshaping Process, Numerical Simulation.

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Authors: Janisse Vivas, Doug Stead, Davide Elmo, Charles Hunt

Abstract:

This paper presents the results of a study on the influence of varying percentages of rock bridges along a basal surface defining a biplanar failure mode. A pseudo-coupled-hydromechanical brittle fracture analysis is adopted using the state-of-the-art code Slope Model. Model results show that rock bridge failure is strongly influenced by the incorporation of groundwater pressures. The models show that groundwater pressure can promote total failure of a 5% rock bridge along the basal surface. Once the percentage of the rock bridges increases to 10 and 15%, although, the rock bridges are broken, full interconnection of the surface defining the basal surface of the biplanar mode does not occur. Increased damage is caused when the rock bridge is located at the daylighting end of the basal surface in proximity to the blast damage zone. As expected, some cracking damage is experienced in the blast damage zone, where properties representing a good quality controlled damage blast technique were assumed. Model results indicate the potential increase of permeability towards the blast damage zone.

Keywords: Slope model, lattice spring, blasting damage zone.

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Authors: Jay Patel

Abstract:

This research is about investigating the ‘image’ of the city, and asks whether this ‘image’ holds any significance that can be changed. Kevin Lynch in the book ‘The Image of the City’ develops a framework that breaks down the city’s image into five physical elements. These elements (Paths, Edge, Nodes, Districts, and Landmarks), according to Lynch assess the legibility of the urbanscapes, that emerged from his perception-based study in three different cities (New Jersey, Los Angeles, and Boston) in the USA. The aim of this research is to investigate whether Lynch’s framework can be applied within an Indian context or not. If so, what are the possibilities and whether the imageability of Indian cities can be depicted through the Lynch’s physical elements or it demands an extension to the framework by either adding or subtracting a physical attribute. For this research project, the walled city of Jaipur was selected, as it is considered one of the futuristic designed cities of all time in India. The other significant reason for choosing Jaipur was that it is a historically planned city with solid historical, touristic and local importance; allowing an opportunity to understand the application of Lynch's elements to the city's image. In other words, it provides an opportunity to examine how the disadvantages of a city's implicit program (its relics of bygone eras) can be converted into assets by improving the imageability of the city. To obtain data, a structured semi-open ended interview method was chosen. The reason for selecting this method explicitly was to gain qualitative data from the users rather than collecting quantitative data from closed-ended questions. This allowed in-depth understanding and applicability of Kevin Lynch’s framework while assessing what needs to be added. The interviews were conducted in Jaipur that yielded varied inferences that were different from the expected learning outcomes, highlighting the need for extension on Lynch’s physical elements to achieve city’s image. Whilst analyzing the data, there were few attributes found that defined the image of Jaipur. These were categorized into two: a Physical aspect (streets and arcade entities, natural features, temples and temporary/informal activities) and Associational aspects (History, culture and tradition, medium of help in wayfinding, and intangible aspects).

Keywords: Imageability, Kevin Lynch, People’s Perception, associational aspects, physical aspects.

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Authors: Avishai Sintov, Roland Menassa, Amir Shapiro

Abstract:

Industrial robotic arms utilize multiple end-effectors, each for a specific part and for a specific task. We propose a novel algorithm which will define a single end-effector’s configuration able to grasp a given set of objects with different geometries. The algorithm will have great benefit in production lines allowing a single robot to grasp various parts. Hence, reducing the number of endeffectors needed. Moreover, the algorithm will reduce end-effector design and manufacturing time and final product cost. The algorithm searches for a common grasp over the set of objects. The search algorithm maps all possible grasps for each object which satisfy a quality criterion and takes into account possible external wrenches (forces and torques) applied to the object. The mapped grasps are- represented by high-dimensional feature vectors which describes the shape of the gripper. We generate a database of all possible grasps for each object in the feature space. Then we use a search and classification algorithm for intersecting all possible grasps over all parts and finding a single common grasp suitable for all objects. We present simulations of planar and spatial objects to validate the feasibility of the approach.

Keywords: Common Grasping, Search Algorithm, Robotic End-Effector.

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