Search results for: Supply chain performance.

Authors: Hamid R. S. Mojaveri, Seyed S. Mousavi, Mojtaba Heydar, Ahmad Aminian

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The aim of this paper is to present a methodology in three steps to forecast supply chain demand. In first step, various data mining techniques are applied in order to prepare data for entering into forecasting models. In second step, the modeling step, an artificial neural network and support vector machine is presented after defining Mean Absolute Percentage Error index for measuring error. The structure of artificial neural network is selected based on previous researchers' results and in this article the accuracy of network is increased by using sensitivity analysis. The best forecast for classical forecasting methods (Moving Average, Exponential Smoothing, and Exponential Smoothing with Trend) is resulted based on prepared data and this forecast is compared with result of support vector machine and proposed artificial neural network. The results show that artificial neural network can forecast more precisely in comparison with other methods. Finally, forecasting methods' stability is analyzed by using raw data and even the effectiveness of clustering analysis is measured.

Keywords: Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), bullwhip effect, demand forecasting, Support Vector Machine (SVM).

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Authors: A. Bakhtiar, B. Purwanggono, N. Metasari

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PT XYZ is a bottled drinking water company. To preserve production resources owned by the company so that the resources could be utilized well, it has implemented maintenance management system, which has important role in company's profitability, and is one of the factors influenced overall company's performance. Yet, up to now the company has never measured maintenance activities' contribution to company's performance. Performance evaluation is done according to adapted Balanced Scorecard model fitted to maintenance function context. This model includes six perspectives: innovation and growth, production, maintenance, environment, costumer, and finance. Actual performance measurement is done through Analytic Hierarchy Process and Objective Matrix. From the research done, we can conclude that the company's maintenance function is categorized in moderate performance. But, there are some indicators which has high priority but low performance, which are: costumers' complain rate, work lateness rate, and Return on Investment.

Keywords: Maintenance, performance, balanced scorecard, objective matrix.

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Authors: Frantisek Bozek, Alena Bumbova, Eduard Bakos

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Paper is dealing with vulnerability concerning elements of hydrological structures and elements of technological equipments which are acceptable for groundwater resources. The vulnerability assessment stems from the application of the register of hazards and a potential threat to individual water source elements within each type of hazard. The proposed procedure is pattern for assessing the risks of disturbance, damage, or destruction of water source by the identified natural or technological hazards and consequently for classification of these risks in relation to emergency water supply. Using of this procedure was verified on selected groundwater resource in particular region, which seems to be as potentially useful for crisis planning system.

Keywords: Hazard, Hydrogeological Structure, Elements, Index, Sensitivity, Water Source, Vulnerability

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Authors: Mariayee Doraisamy, Suhaimi Bin Ibrahim, Mohd Naz’ri Mahrin

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There are several methods to monitor software projects and the objective for monitoring is to ensure that the software projects are developed and delivered successfully. A performance measurement is a method that is closely associated with monitoring and it can be scrutinized by looking at two important attributes which are efficiency and effectiveness both of which are factors that are important for the success of a software project. Consequently, a successful steering is achieved by monitoring and controlling a software project via the performance measurement criteria and metrics. Hence, this paper is aimed at identifying the performance measurement criteria and the metrics for monitoring the performance of a software project by using the Goal Question Metrics (GQM) approach. The GQM approach is utilized to ensure that the identified metrics are reliable and useful. These identified metrics are useful guidelines for project managers to monitor the performance of their software projects.

Keywords: Software project performance, Goal Question Metrics, Performance Measurement Criteria, Metrics.

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Authors: K. Mondal, S. Talapatra, M. Terrones, S. Pokhrel, C. Frizzel, B. Sumpter, V. Meunier, A. L. Elias

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Worldwide energy independence is reliant on the ability to leverage locally available resources for fuel production. Recently, syngas produced through gasification of carbonaceous materials provided a gateway to a host of processes for the production of various chemicals including transportation fuels. The basis of the production of gasoline and diesel-like fuels is the Fischer Tropsch Synthesis (FTS) process: A catalyzed chemical reaction that converts a mixture of carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen (H₂) into long chain hydrocarbons. Until now, it has been argued that only transition metal catalysts (usually Co or Fe) are active toward the CO hydrogenation and subsequent chain growth in the presence of hydrogen. In this paper, we demonstrate that carbon nanotube (CNT) surfaces are also capable of hydro-deoxygenating CO and producing long chain hydrocarbons similar to that obtained through the FTS but with orders of magnitude higher conversion efficiencies than the present state-of-the-art FTS catalysts. We have used advanced experimental tools such as XPS and microscopy techniques to characterize CNTs and identify C-O functional groups as the active sites for the enhanced catalytic activity. Furthermore, we have conducted quantum Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations to confirm that C-O groups (inherent on CNT surfaces) could indeed be catalytically active towards reduction of CO with H₂, and capable of sustaining chain growth. The DFT calculations have shown that the kinetically and thermodynamically feasible route for CO insertion and hydro-deoxygenation are different from that on transition metal catalysts. Experiments on a continuous flow tubular reactor with various nearly metal-free CNTs have been carried out and the products have been analyzed. CNTs functionalized by various methods were evaluated under different conditions. Reactor tests revealed that the hydrogen pre-treatment reduced the activity of the catalysts to negligible levels. Without the pretreatment, the activity for CO conversion as found to be 7 µmol CO/g CNT/s. The O-functionalized samples showed very activities greater than 85 µmol CO/g CNT/s with nearly 100% conversion. Analyses show that CO hydro-deoxygenation occurred at the C-O/O-H functional groups. It was found that while the products were similar to FT products, differences in selectivities were observed which, in turn, was a result of a different catalytic mechanism. These findings now open a new paradigm for CNT-based hydrogenation catalysts and constitute a defining point for obtaining clean, earth abundant, alternative fuels through the use of efficient and renewable catalyst.

Keywords: CNT, CO hydro-deoxygenation, DFT, liquid fuels, XPS, XTL.

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Authors: Gu Wei, Gao Wei

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In this report, an OTA which is used in fully differential pipelined ADC was described. Using gain-boost architecture with difference-ended amplifier, this OTA achieve high-gain and high-speed. Besides, the CMFB circuit is also used, and some methods are concerned to improve the performance. Then, by optimization the layout design, OTA-s mismatch was reduced. This design was using TSMC 0.18um CMOS process and simulation both schematic and layout in Cadence. The result of the simulation shows that the OTA has a gain up to 80dB,a unity gain bandwidth of about 1.437GHz for a 2pF load, a slew rate is about 428V/μs, a output swing is 0.2V~1.35V, with the power supply of 1.8V, the power consumption is 88mW. This amplifier was used in a 10bit 150MHz pipelined ADC.

Keywords: OTA, common drain, CMFB, pipelined ADC

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Authors: Aditya K, Dinesh P, Ramesh Bhakthavatchalu

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This paper explains a project based learning method where autonomous mini-robots are developed for research, education and entertainment purposes. In case of remote systems wireless sensors are developed in critical areas, which would collect data at specific time intervals, send the data to the central wireless node based on certain preferred information would make decisions to turn on or off a switch or control unit. Such information transfers hardly sums up to a few bytes and hence low data rates would suffice for such implementations. As a robot is a multidisciplinary platform, the interfacing issues involved are discussed in this paper. The paper is mainly focused on power supply, grounding and decoupling issues.

Keywords: CPLD, power supply, decoupling, grounding.

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Authors: Myagmarsuren Soronzonjav, N. Togtokhbayar, L. Davaahuu, B. Minjigdorj, Seong Gu Hwang

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The number of natural or organic product consumers is increased in recent years and this healthy demand pushes to increase usage of healthy meat. At the same time, consumers pay more attention on the healthy fat, especially on unsaturated fatty acids. These long chain carbohydrates reduce heart diseases, improve memory and eye sight and activate the immune system. One of the important issues to be solved for our Mongolia’s food security is to provide healthy, fresh, widely available and cheap meat for the population. Thus, an importance of the Selenge breed meat production is increasing in order to supply the quality meat food security since the Selenge breed cattle are rapidly multiplied, beneficial in term of income, the same quality as Mongolian breed, and well digested for human body. We researched the lipid, unsaturated and saturated fatty acid contents of meat of Selenge breed younger cattle by their muscle types. Result of our research reveals that 11 saturated fatty acids are detected. For the content of palmitic acid among saturated fatty acids, 23.61% was in the sirloin meat, 24.01% was in the round and chuck meat, and 24.83% was in the short loin meat.

Keywords: Chromatogram, gas chromatography, organic resolving, saturated and unsaturated fatty acids.

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Authors: Melek Oktay, Ayşe Betül Gülbağcı, Mustafa Sarıöz

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Enterprise applications are complex systems that are hard to develop and deploy in organizations. Although software application development tools, frameworks, methodologies and patterns are rapidly developing; many projects fail by causing big costs. There are challenging issues that programmers and designers face with while working on enterprise applications. In this paper, we present the three of the significant issues: Architectural, technological and performance. The important subjects in each issue are pointed out and recommendations are given. In architectural issues the lifecycle, meta-architecture, guidelines are pointed out. .NET and Java EE platforms are presented in technological issues. The importance of performance, measuring performance and profilers are explained in performance issues.

Keywords: Enterprise Applications, Architecture, Technology, Performance.

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Authors: Naomi Grigoryan, Alexandros Loutsioli Daskalakis, Anna Elisse Uy, Yihe Huang, Aude Laurent (Webanck)

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In response to the building and construction sectors accounting for a third of all energy demand and emissions, the European Union has placed new laws and regulations in the construction sector that emphasize material circularity, energy efficiency, biodiversity, and social impact. Existing design tools assess sustainability in early-stage design for products or buildings; however, there is no standardized methodology for measuring the circularity performance of building components. Existing assessment methods for building components focus primarily on carbon footprint but lack the comprehensive analysis required to design for circularity. The research conducted in this paper covers the parameters needed to assess sustainability in the design process of architectural products such as doors, windows, and facades. It maps a framework for a tool that assists designers with real-time sustainability metrics. Considering the life cycle of building components such as façades, windows, and doors involves the life cycle stages applied to product design and many of the methods used in the life cycle analysis of buildings. The current industry standards of sustainability assessment for metal building components follow cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment (LCA), track Global Warming Potential (GWP), and document the parameters used for an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD). Expanding on the MCI with additional indicators such as the Water Circularity Index (WCI), the Energy Circularity Index (ECI), the Social Circularity Index (SCI), Life Cycle Economic Value (EV), and calculating biodiversity risk and uncertainty, the assessment methodology of an architectural product's impact can be targeted more specifically based on product requirements, performance, and lifespan. Broadening the scope of LCA calculation for products to incorporate aspects of building design allows product designers to account for the disassembly of architectural components. For example, the MCI for architectural products such as windows and facades is typically low due to the impact of glass, as 70% of glass ends up in landfills due to damage in the disassembly process. The low MCI can be combatted by expanding beyond cradle-to-grave assessment and focusing the design process on disassembly, recycling, and repurposing with the help of real-time assessment tools. Design for Disassembly and Urban Mining has been integrated within the construction field on small scales as project-based exercises, not addressing the entire supply chain of architectural products. By adopting more comprehensive sustainability metrics and incorporating uncertainty calculations, the sustainability assessment of building components can be more accurately assessed with decarbonization and disassembly in mind, addressing the large-scale commercial markets within construction, some of the most significant contributors to climate change.

Keywords: Architectural products, early-stage design, life cycle assessment, material circularity indicator.

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Authors: Gupta Amit, Kumar Ramesh, Tewari P. C.

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Globalization is putting enormous pressure on the business organizations specially manufacturing one to rethink the supply chain in innovative manners. Inventory consumes major portion of total sale revenue. Effective and efficient inventory management plays a vital role for the successful functioning of any organization. Selection of inventory policy is one of the important purchasing activities. This paper focuses on selection and ranking of alternative inventory policies. A deterministic quantitative model based on Distance Based Approach (DBA) method has been developed for evaluation and ranking of inventory policies. We have employed this concept first time for this type of the selection problem. Four inventory policies economic order quantity (EOQ), just in time (JIT), vendor managed inventory (VMI) and monthly policy are considered. Improper selection could affect a company’s competitiveness in terms of the productivity of its facilities and quality of its products. The ranking of inventory policies is a multi-criteria problem. There is a need to first identify the selection criteria and then processes the information with reference to relative importance of attributes for comparison. Criteria values for each inventory policy can be obtained either analytically or by using a simulation technique or they are linguistic subjective judgments defined by fuzzy sets, like, for example, the values of criteria. A methodology is developed and applied to rank the inventory policies.

Keywords: Inventory Policy, Ranking, DBA, Selection criteria.

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Authors: Michael Torggler

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IT consultants often take over an important role as an interface between technological, organizational and managerial structures. As a result, the services offered are in many cases assigned to different disciplines which can cause a lack of transparency on the market for consulting services. However, not all consulting products are suitable for every company because of different frameworks and business processes. In this context the questions arises as to what consulting products are currently offered and how they can be compared as well as how the market for IT consulting services is structured on the supply side. The presented study aims to shed light on the IT consulting market by giving an overview of the current structure of the supply-side for IT consulting services as well as proposing a categorization of the currently available consulting services (consulting fields) in order to provide a theoretical background for the empirical study. Apart from these theoretical considerations, the empirical results of field surveys on the Austrian IT consulting market are presented and analyzed.

Keywords: IT Consulting, Management Consulting, ISConsulting, Consulting Fields, Market study.

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Authors: M. Sedighizadeh, A. Rezazadeh

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Wind turbines with double output induction generators can operate at variable speed permitting conversion efficiency maximization over a wide range of wind velocities. This paper presents the performance analysis of a wind driven double output induction generator (DOIG) operating at varying shafts speed. A periodic transient state analysis of DOIG equipped with two converters is carried out using a hybrid induction machine model. This paper simulates the harmonic content of waveforms in various points of drive at different speeds, based on the hybrid model (dqabc). Then the sinusoidal and trapezoidal pulse-width–modulation control techniques are used in order to improve the power factor of the machine and to weaken the injected low order harmonics to the supply. Based on the frequency spectrum, total harmonics distortion, distortion factor and power factor. Finally advantages of sinusoidal and trapezoidal pulse width modulation techniques are compared.

Keywords: DOIG, Harmonic Analysis, Wind.

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Authors: Andreas Jede, Frank Teuteberg

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Cloud computing (CC) has already gained overall appreciation in research and practice. Whereas the willingness to integrate cloud services in various IT environments is still unbroken, the previous CC procurement processes run mostly in an unorganized and non-standardized way. In practice, a sufficiently specific, yet applicable business process for the important acquisition phase is often lacking. And research does not appropriately remedy this deficiency yet. Therefore, this paper introduces a field-tested approach for CC procurement. Based on an extensive literature review and augmented by expert interviews, we designed a model that is validated and further refined through an in-depth real-life case study. For the detailed process description, we apply the event-driven process chain notation (EPC). The gained valuable insights into the case study may help CC research to shift to a more socio-technical area. For practice, next to giving useful organizational instructions we will provide extended checklists and lessons learned.

Keywords: Cloud Procurement Process, IT-Organization, Event-driven Process Chain, In-depth Case Study.

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Authors: Sama’ila Idi Ningi, Abubakar Yusuf Dutse

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The banking sector poses a lot of problems in Nigeria in general and the non-oil export sector in particular. The banks' lack effectiveness in handling small, medium or long-term credit risk (lack of training of loan officers, lack of information on borrowers and absence of a reliable credit registry) results in non-oil exporters being burdened with high requirements, such as up to three years of financial statements, enough collateral to cover both the loan principal and interest (including a cash deposit that may be up to 30% of the loans' net present value), and to provide every detail of the international trade transaction in question. The stated problems triggered this research. Consequently, information on bank financing of non-oil exports was collected from 100 respondents from the 20 Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) in Nigeria. The data was analysed by the use of descriptive statistics correlation and regression. It is found that, Nigerian banks are participants in the financing of non-oil exports. Despite their participation, the rate of interest for credit extended to non-oil export is usually high, ranging between 15-20%. Small and medium sized non-oil export businesses lack the credit history for banks to judge them as reputable. Banks also consider the non-oil export sector very risky for investment. The banks actually do grant less credit than the exporters may require and therefore are not properly funded by banks. Banks grant very low volume of foreign currency loan in addition to, unfavorable exchange rate at which Naira is exchanged to the Dollar and other currencies in the country. This makes importation of inputs costly and negatively impacted on the non-oil export performance in Nigeria.

Keywords: Supply Side Factors, Bank Financing, Non-Oil Exports.

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Authors: R. M. Chandima Ratnayake, Daniel Dyakov

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Super steel materials play a vital role in the construction and fabrication of structural, piping and pipeline components. In assuring the integrity of onshore and offshore operating systems, they enable life cycle costs to be minimized. In this context, Duplex stainless steel (DSS) material related welding on constructions and fabrications plays a significant role in maintaining and assuring integrity at an optimal expenditure over the life cycle of production and process systems as well as associated structures. In DSS welding, factors such as gap geometry, shielding gas supply rate, welding current, and type of the welding process are vital to the final joint performance. Hence, an experimental investigation has been performed using an engineering robust design approach (ERDA) to investigate the optimal settings that generate optimal super DSS (i.e. UNS S32750) joint performance. This manuscript illustrates the mathematical approach and experimental design, optimal parameter settings and results of the verification experiment.

Keywords: Duplex stainless steel welding, engineering robust design, mathematical framework, optimal parameter settings.

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Authors: Nikhil Byanna, Abdolghani Ebrahimi, Diego Klabjan

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In this paper we objectively measure the performance of an individual offensive lineman in the NFL. The existing literature proposes various measures that rely on subjective assessments of game film, but has yet to develop an objective methodology to evaluate performance. Using a variety of statistics related to an offensive lineman’s performance, we develop a framework to objectively analyze the overall performance of an individual offensive lineman and determine specific linemen who are overvalued or undervalued relative to their salary. We identify eight players across the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 NFL seasons that are considered to be overvalued or undervalued and corroborate the results with existing metrics that are based on subjective evaluation. To the best of our knowledge, the techniques set forth in this work have not been utilized in previous works to evaluate the performance of NFL players at any position, including offensive linemen.

Keywords: offensive lineman, player performance, NFL, machine learning

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Authors: Shan Gao

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This paper treats a discrete-time finite buffer batch arrival queue with a single working vacation and partial batch rejection in which the inter-arrival and service times are, respectively, arbitrary and geometrically distributed. The queue is analyzed by using the supplementary variable and the imbedded Markov-chain techniques. We obtain steady-state system length distributions at prearrival, arbitrary and outside observer-s observation epochs. We also present probability generation function (p.g.f.) of actual waiting-time distribution in the system and some performance measures.

Keywords: Discrete-time, finite buffer, single working vacation, batch arrival, partial rejection.

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Authors: Ian A. Grout

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In this paper, the design and development of a system to provide hand motion and gesture control of laboratory test equipment is considered and discussed. The Leap Motion controller is used to provide an input to control a laboratory power supply as part of an electronic circuit experiment. By suitable hand motions and gestures, control of the power supply is provided remotely and without the need to physically touch the equipment used. As such, it provides an alternative manner in which to control electronic equipment via a PC and is considered here within the field of human computer interaction (HCI).

Keywords: Control, hand gesture, human computer interaction, test equipment.

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Authors: Lv Xiaopeng, Bian Qiang, Yue Suge

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A fully on-chip low drop-out (LDO) voltage regulator with 100pF output load capacitor is presented. A novel frequency compensation scheme using current buffer is adopted to realize single dominant pole within the unit gain frequency of the regulation loop, the phase margin (PM) is at least 50 degree under the full range of the load current, and the power supply rejection (PSR) character is improved compared with conventional Miller compensation. Besides, the differentiator provides a high speed path during the load current transient. Implemented in 0.18μm CMOS technology, the LDO voltage regulator provides 100mA load current with a stable 1.8V output voltage consuming 80μA quiescent current.

Keywords: capacitor-less LDO, frequency compensation, transient response, power supply rejection

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Authors: Hideki Igawa, Yoshinori Kitsutaka, Takashi Yokomuro, Hideo Eguchi

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In this study, the crack self-healing performance of the heavyweight concrete used in the walls of containers and structures designed to shield radioactive materials was investigated. A steam curing temperature that preserves self-healing properties and demolding strength was identified. The presented simultaneously mixing method using the expanding material and the fly ash in the process of admixture can maximize the self-curing performance. Also adding synthetic fibers in the heavyweight concrete improved the self-healing performance.

Keywords: Expanding material, heavyweight concrete, self-healing performance, synthetic fiber.

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Authors: Zeeshan Hamid, Sarwar Mehmood Azhar, Hammad Basir

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In today’s era, it is no news that organizations should demonstrate honest conduct as well as ethical administration. Therefore, the concept of corporate social responsibility (subsequently CSR) has created its tag upon the company’s focal point as well as marketing communications, and will continue in the future. The importance of CSR has increased in the last decade, and this concept has attracted global attention. The notion of CSR has strategic significance for many organizations. However, businesses are not adapting the activities of CSR that benefit to all of its stakeholders (including society). The main reason is the practitioners are unfortunately unable to comprehend its importance; and therefore, the activities of the CSR are so detached from the business activities. Hence, it is required to develop an understanding that the activities of CSR are not only beneficial for the society but it also benefit to business. This paper focuses on the concept of strategic CSR, and develops a theoretical framework that will help practitioners to filter and chose the activities of CSR that are strategic in nature.

Keywords: Economic responsibility, ethical responsibility, legal responsibility, philanthropic responsibility, strategic corporate social responsibility, value chain activities filter.

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Authors: Layal Al Ait, Eduardo Corel, Kifah Tout, Burkhard Morgenstern

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Background: Dialign is a DNA/Protein alignment tool for performing pairwise and multiple pairwise alignments through the comparison of gap-free segments (fragments) between sequence pairs. An alignment of two sequences is a chain of fragments, i.e local gap-free pairwise alignments, with the highest total score. METHOD: A new approach is defined in this article which relies on the concept of using three-dimensional fragments – i.e. local threeway alignments -- in the alignment process instead of twodimensional ones. These three-dimensional fragments are gap-free alignments constituting of equal-length segments belonging to three distinct sequences. RESULTS: The obtained results showed good improvments over the performance of DIALIGN.

Keywords: DIALIGN, Multiple sequence alignment, Threedimensional fragments.

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Authors: Pirada Techaratpong

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This research aims to study value-creation process of producing monk-s bowls, Thai traditional handicrafts, which is facing problems in adapting to the changing society. It also aims to identify problems and obstacles to value creation. This research is based on a case study of monk-s bowl manufactures from Ban-Baat Village, Bangkok. The conceptual framework is based on the model of value chain to analyze the process. The research methodology is qualitative. This research found that the value-creation process of monk-s bowls consists of eight activities contributing to adding value to the products and increasing profits to the producers in return. Five major problems and obstacles are found. The research suggests that these problems and obstacles limit the manufacturers- potential for creating more valued product and lead to business stagnation. These problems should be addressed and solved with collaboration among the government, the private sector and the manufacturers.

Keywords: Craft manufacturing, problems and obstacles, value chain, value creation.

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Authors: Meryem Kanzari, Rabah Boukhanouf, Hatem G. Ibrahim

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Indirect Evaporative Cooling process has the advantage of supplying cool air at constant moisture content. However, such system can only supply air at temperatures above wet bulb temperature. This paper presents a mathematical model for a Sub-wet bulb temperature indirect evaporative cooling arrangement that can overcome this limitation and supply cool air at temperatures approaching dew point and without increasing its moisture content. In addition, the use of porous ceramics as wet media materials offers the advantage of integration into building elements. Results of the computer show the proposed design is capable of cooling air to temperatures lower than the ambient wet bulb temperature and achieving wet bulb effectiveness of about 1.17.

Keywords: Indirect evaporative cooling, porous ceramic, sub-wet bulb temperature.

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Authors: Fernanda M. Assef, Maria Teresinha A. Steiner, David Gabriel F. de Barros

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Review researches are useful in terms of analysis of research problems. Between the types of review documents, we commonly find bibliometric studies. This type of application often helps the global visualization of a research problem and helps academics worldwide to understand the context of a research area better. In this document, a bibliometric view surrounding clustering techniques and sustainability problems is presented. The authors aimed at which issues mostly use clustering techniques and even which sustainability issue would be more impactful on today’s moment of research. During the bibliometric analysis, we found 10 different groups of research in clustering applications for sustainability issues: Energy; Environmental; Non-urban Planning; Sustainable Development; Sustainable Supply Chain; Transport; Urban Planning; Water; Waste Disposal; and, Others. Moreover, by analyzing the citations of each group, it was discovered that the Environmental group could be classified as the most impactful research cluster in the area mentioned. After the content analysis of each paper classified in the environmental group, it was found that the k-means technique is preferred for solving sustainability problems with clustering methods since it appeared the most amongst the documents. The authors finally conclude that a bibliometric assessment could help indicate a gap of researches on waste disposal – which was the group with the least amount of publications – and the most impactful research on environmental problems.

Keywords: Bibliometric assessment, clustering, sustainability, territorial partitioning.

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Authors: A. Vasan

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Particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique is applied to design the water distribution pipeline network. A simulation-optimization model is formulated with the objective of minimizing cost and is applied to a benchmark water distribution system optimization problem. The benchmark problem taken for the application of PSO technique to optimize the pipe size of the water distribution network is New York City water supply system problem. The results from the analysis infer that PSO is a potential alternative optimization technique when compared to other heuristic techniques for optimal sizing of water distribution systems.

Keywords: Water distribution systems, Optimization, Particle swarm optimization, Swarm intelligence, New York water supply system.

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Authors: A. R. Malekpour, A.R. Seifi

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This paper discusses a genetic algorithm (GA) based optimal load shedding that can apply for electrical distribution networks with and without dispersed generators (DG). Also, the proposed method has the ability for considering constant and variable capacity deficiency caused by unscheduled outages in the bulked generation and transmission system of bulked power supply. The genetic algorithm (GA) is employed to search for the optimal load shedding strategy in distribution networks considering DGs in two cases of constant and variable modelling of bulked power supply of distribution networks. Electrical power distribution systems have a radial network and unidirectional power flows. With the advent of dispersed generations, the electrical distribution system has a locally looped network and bidirectional power flows. Therefore, installed DG in the electrical distribution systems can cause operational problems and impact on existing operational schemes. Introduction of DGs in electrical distribution systems has introduced many new issues in operational and planning level. Load shedding as one of operational issue has no exempt. The objective is to minimize the sum of curtailed load and also system losses within the frame-work of system operational and security constraints. The proposed method is tested on a radial distribution system with 33 load points for more practical applications.

Keywords: DG, Load shedding, Optimization, Capacity Deficiency Modelling.

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Authors: Rishabh Garg

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Traditionally, business parties build trust with a centralized operating mechanism, such as payment by letter of credit. However, the increase in cyber-attacks and malicious hacking has jeopardized business operations and finance practices. Emerging markets, due to their high banking risks and the large presence of digital financing, are looking for technology that enables transparency and traceability of any transaction in trade, finance or supply chain management. Blockchain systems, in the absence of any central authority, enable transactions across the globe with the help of decentralized applications. DApps consist of a front-end, a blockchain back-end, and middleware, that is, the code that connects the two. The front-end can be a sophisticated web app or mobile app, which is used to implement the functions/methods on the smart contract. Web apps can employ technologies such as HTML, CSS, React and Express. In this wake, fintech and blockchain products are popping up in brokerages, digital wallets, exchanges, post-trade clearance, settlement, middleware, infrastructure and base protocols. The present paper provides a technology driven solution, financial inclusion and innovative working paradigm for business and finance.

Keywords: Authentication, blockchain, channel, cryptography, DApps, data portability, Decentralized Public Key Infrastructure, Ethereum, hash function, Hashgraph, Privilege creep, Proof of Work algorithm, revocation, storage variables, Zero Knowledge Proof.

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Authors: Charles P. Mukumba, Kahilu K. Shakantu

Abstract:

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is critical to achieving transformational results that support Zambia's developmental agenda. Public procurement is integral to the government's mission to deliver goods and services in a timely and economical manner beyond the value of money spent. This study explores the link between sustainable public procurement and the SDGs in Zambia. To validate the established links with public sector procurement in Zambia, the study employed qualitative research using semi-structured interviews with 12 public procurement officials. The collected data were analysed using thematic analysis. The findings indicate that public procurement plays a fundamental role in achieving the SDGs by helping deliver core public services that support SDGs and systematizing and co-delivering added value along the way. The study further established the importance of sustainable public procurement within the development context. The interviews were limited to mainstream public sector procurement entities in Lusaka, Zambia. Sustainable public procurement actions have the potential to impact SDGs. Promoting sustainable public procurement will enhance sustainable development and significantly improve the supply chain, benefiting the economy, society and environment. Findings will inform policy-makers how to strategically design sustainable public procurement policy by attuning it to procuring entities' objectives and priorities to contribute to attaining SDGs.

Keywords: Sustainable public procurement, sustainable development goals, SDG targets, Zambia.

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