Search results for: Business Process Modeling Notation

Authors: Duong Vannak, Mohd Shahir Liew, Guo Zheng Yew

Abstract:

Data of wave height and wind speed were collected from three existing oil fields in South China Sea – offshore Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak and Sabah regions. Extreme values and other significant data were employed for analysis. The data were recorded from 1999 until 2008. The results show that offshore structures are susceptible to unacceptable motions initiated by wind and waves with worst structural impacts caused by extreme wave heights. To protect offshore structures from damage, there is a need to quantify descriptive statistics and determine spectra envelope of wind speed and wave height, and to ascertain the frequency content of each spectrum for offshore structures in the South China Sea shallow waters using measured time series. The results indicate that the process is nonstationary; it is converted to stationary process by first differencing the time series. For descriptive statistical analysis, both wind speed and wave height have significant influence on the offshore structure during the northeast monsoon with high mean wind speed of 13.5195 knots (
= 6.3566 knots) and the high mean wave height of 2.3597 m (
= 0.8690 m). Through observation of the spectra, there is no clear dominant peak and the peaks fluctuate randomly. Each wind speed spectrum and wave height spectrum has its individual identifiable pattern. The wind speed spectrum tends to grow gradually at the lower frequency range and increasing till it doubles at the higher frequency range with the mean peak frequency range of 0.4104 Hz to 0.4721 Hz, while the wave height tends to grow drastically at the low frequency range, which then fluctuates and decreases slightly at the high frequency range with the mean peak frequency range of 0.2911 Hz to 0.3425 Hz.

Keywords: Metocean, Offshore Engineering, Time Series, Descriptive Statistics, Autospectral Density Function, Wind, Wave.

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Authors: Carlos Gonzalez

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This paper describes the use of the Internet as a feature to enhance the security of our software that is going to be distributed/sold to users potentially all over the world. By placing in a secure server some of the features of the secure software, we increase the security of such software. The communication between the protected software and the secure server is done by a double lock algorithm. This paper also includes an analysis of intruders and describes possible responses to detect threats.

Keywords: Internet, secure software, threats, cryptography process.

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Authors: C. S. Quah, S. P. L. Sim

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This study examined how individuals in their respective teams contributed to innovation performance besides defining the term of innovation in their own respective views. This study also identified factors that motivated University staff to contribute to the innovation products. In addition, it examined whether there is a significant relationship between professional training level and the length of service among university staff towards innovation and to what extent do the two variables contributed towards innovative products. The significance of this study is that it revealed the strengths and weaknesses of the university staff when contributing to innovation performance. Stratified-random sampling was employed to determine the samples representing the population of lecturers in the study, involving 123 lecturers in one of the local universities in Malaysia. The method employed to analyze the data is through categorizing into themes for the open-ended questions besides using descriptive and inferential statistics for the quantitative data. This study revealed that two types of definition for the term “innovation” exist among the university staff, namely, creation of new product or new approach to do things as well as value-added creative way to upgrade or improve existing process and service to be more efficient. This study found that the most prominent factor that propels them towards innovation is to improve the product in order to benefit users, followed by selfsatisfaction and recognition. This implies that the staff in the organization viewed the creation of innovative products as a process of growth to fulfill the needs of others and also to realize their personal potential. This study also found that there was only a significant relationship between the professional training level and the length of service of 4 - 6 years among the university staff. The rest of the groups based on the length of service showed that there was no significant relationship with the professional training level towards innovation. Moreover, results of the study on directional measures depicted that the relationship for the length of service of 4- 6 years with professional training level among the university staff is quite weak. This implies that good organization management lies on the shoulders of the key leaders who enlighten the path to be followed by the staff.

Keywords: Innovation, length of service, performance, professional training level, motivation.

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Authors: Edlira Donefski, Lorenc Ekonomi, Tina Donefski

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Edgeworth approximation is one of the most important statistical methods that has a considered contribution in the reduction of the sum of standard deviation of the independent variables’ coefficients in a Quantile Regression Model. This model estimates the conditional median or other quantiles. In this paper, we have applied approximating statistical methods in an economical problem. We have created and generated a quantile regression model to see how the profit gained is connected with the realized sales of the cosmetic products in a real data, taken from a local business. The Linear Regression of the generated profit and the realized sales was not free of autocorrelation and heteroscedasticity, so this is the reason that we have used this model instead of Linear Regression. Our aim is to analyze in more details the relation between the variables taken into study: the profit and the finalized sales and how to minimize the standard errors of the independent variable involved in this study, the level of realized sales. The statistical methods that we have applied in our work are Edgeworth Approximation for Independent and Identical distributed (IID) cases, Bootstrap version of the Model and the Edgeworth approximation for Bootstrap Quantile Regression Model. The graphics and the results that we have presented here identify the best approximating model of our study.

Keywords: Bootstrap, Edgeworth approximation, independent and Identical distributed, quantile.

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Authors: Bibiana Hlebova

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The Slovak Republic is a democratic and plural society consisting of people differing in language and culture, and its citizens should already be well prepared for the coexistence of multiple nations, nationalities or ethnic groups. Reflection on culture, art and literature of the Roma minority has taken on a new dimension in Slovakia in the past two decades when it comes to social, cultural and arts integration of this ethnic group with the plural society. Non-Roma view Roma as a specific ethnic group with their own culture, language, customs and traditions, social norms and coexistence that has retained archetypal qualities of Roma identity (romipen) in their real lives as well as in the literary world. Roma characters in works of art are specific and distinguishable from other literary characters simply by being Roma, that is, of a different origin and social status, they represent a different way of life, a distinctive hierarchy of values. The portrayal of Roma and the life of Roma ethnic group in the most dominant genre of Roma literature for children and youth, a Roma fairy tale (paramisi), can work as a suitable means to learn about, accept and tolerate the otherness of Roma in the conditions of school inclusion of students coming from the Roma ethnic group, and to support their identification with their own ethnic group and its cultural traditions. The paper aims to point out not only the specific nature of Roma identity (romipen) through the selected Roma fairy tale (paramisa) – Children of the Sun, but also the diversity of its uses in the educational process within primary education of pupils at elementary schools, advocating the philosophy of inclusive education. Through the suggestions of multi-cultural, emotional, and language and communication education of pupils through the work with the selected Roma fairy tale (paramisa), the author is exploring ways to overcome the issues stemming from the coexistence of Roma and Non-Roma pupils, which are burdened with prejudice, intolerance, aggression and racism on both sides, in the education process.

Keywords: Inclusive education, otherness, Roma Pupils, Roma identity, Roma fairy tale.

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Authors: Xun Liang

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In this paper, we probe into the traffic assignment problem by the chromosome-learning-based path finding method in simulation, which is to model the driver' behavior in the with-in-a-day process. By simply making a combination and a change of the traffic route chromosomes, the driver at the intersection chooses his next route. The various crossover and mutation rules are proposed with extensive examples.

Keywords: Chromosome learning, crossover, mutation, traffic path finding.

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Authors: Masoud Mahdavi, Mojtaba Farzaneh Moghadam

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The seismic forces caused by the waves created in the depths of the earth during the earthquake hit the structure and cause the building to vibrate. Creating large seismic forces will cause low-strength sections in the structure to suffer extensive surface damage. The use of new steel shear walls in steel structures has caused the strength of the building and its main members (columns) to increase due to the reduction and depreciation of seismic forces during earthquakes. In the present study, an attempt was made to evaluate a type of steel shear wall that has regular holes in the inner sheet by modeling the finite element model with Abacus software. The shear wall of the steel plate, measuring 6000 × 3000 mm (one floor) and 3 mm thickness, was modeled with four different pores with a cross-sectional area. The shear wall was dynamically subjected to a time history of 5 seconds by three accelerators, El Centro, Imperial Valley and Kobe. The results showed that increasing the distance between the geometric center of the hole and the geometric center of the inner plate in the steel shear wall (increasing the R_CS index) caused the total maximum acceleration to be transferred from the perimeter of the hole to horizontal and vertical beams. The results also show that there is no direct relationship between R_CS index and total acceleration in steel shear wall and R_CS index is separate from the peak ground acceleration value of earthquake.

Keywords: Hollow Steel plate shear wall, time history analysis, finite element method, Abaqus Software.

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Authors: Golnaz Rezai, Zainalabidin Mohamed, Mad Nasir Shamsudin

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The Malaysian government is promoting entrepreneurship development skills amongst farmers through informal courses. These courses will concentrate on teaching managerial skills as inevitable means for small farms to succeed by making farmers more creative and innovative. Therefore it is important to assess the effect of informal agri-entrepreneurial training in developing entrepreneurship among the farmers in Malaysia. Seven hundred and ninety six farmers (796) farmers were interviewed via structured questionnaire to define their opinion on whether the current informal educational and training establishments are sufficient to teach and develop entrepreneurial skills. Factor analysis and logic regression analysis were used to determine the motivating factors and predict their impact on the development of entrepreneurial skills. The result from the factor analysis led us to investigate the association between these factors and farmers- opinions about the development of entrepreneurial skills and traits through participating in informal entrepreneurship training or education. The outcome has shown us that the importance of informal training to promote entrepreneurship among farmers is crucial. The training should be intensified to encourage farmers to not only focus on the modern technologies but also on the fundamental changes in their attitude towards agriculture as a business. DOA: KMO: Kaiser- Meyer- Olkin Test MOA: Ministry of Agriculture NMP: Ninth Malaysia Plan NAP: Third National Agricultural Policy (2000-2010)

Keywords: Entrepreneurial skills, farmers, informal education, Malaysia

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Authors: Mohamed Bendahmane, Brahim Elfalaki, Mohammed Benattou

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One of the major sources of learners' professional difficulties is their heterogeneity. Whether on cognitive, social, cultural or emotional level, learners being part of the same group have many differences. These differences do not allow to apply the same learning process at all learners. Thus, an optimal learning path for one, is not necessarily the same for the other. We present in this paper a model-oriented service to offer to each learner a personalized learning path to acquire the targeted skills.

Keywords: Service-oriented architecture, learning path, web service, personalization, trace analysis.

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Authors: K. Petcharat, Y. Areepong, S. Sukparungsri, G. Mititelu

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These paper, we approximate the average run length (ARL) for CUSUM chart when observation are an exponential first order moving average sequence (EMA1). We used Gauss-Legendre numerical scheme for integral equations (IE) method for approximate ARL0 and ARL1, where ARL in control and out of control, respectively. We compared the results from IE method and exact solution such that the two methods perform good agreement.

Keywords: Cumulative Sum Chart, Moving Average Observation, Average Run Length, Numerical Approximations.

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Authors: Ashwini V. Chavan, Sukhanand S. Bhosale

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Challenges of weak soil subgrade are often resolved either by stabilization or reinforcing it. However, it is also practiced to reinforce the granular fill to improve the load-settlement behavior of it over weak soil strata. The inclusion of reinforcement in the engineered granular fill provided a new impetus for the development of enhanced Soil-Structure Interaction (SSI) models, also known as mechanical foundation models or lumped parameter models. Several researchers have been working in this direction to understand the mechanism of granular fill-reinforcement interaction and the response of weak soil under the application of load. These models have been developed by extending available SSI models such as the Winkler Model, Pasternak Model, Hetenyi Model, Kerr Model etc., and are helpful to visualize the load-settlement behavior of a physical system through 1-D and 2-D analysis considering beam and plate resting on the foundation, respectively. Based on the literature survey, these models are categorized as ‘Reinforced Pasternak Model,’ ‘Double Beam Model,’ ‘Reinforced Timoshenko Beam Model,’ and ‘Reinforced Kerr Model’. The present work reviews the past 30+ years of research in the field of SSI models for reinforced foundation systems, presenting the conceptual development of these models systematically and discussing their limitations. A flow-chart showing procedure for compution of deformation and mobilized tension is also incorporated in the paper. Special efforts are taken to tabulate the parameters and their significance in the load-settlement analysis, which may be helpful in future studies for the comparison and enhancement of results and findings of physical models. 

Keywords: geosynthetics, mathematical modeling, reinforced foundation, soil-structure interaction, ground improvement, soft soil

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Authors: I. Abuiziah, A. Oulhaj, K. Sebari, D. Ouazar, A. A. Saber

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In water pipeline systems, the flow control is an integrated part of the operation, for instance, opening and closing the valves, starting and stopping the pumps, when these operations very quickly performed, they shall cause the hydraulic transient phenomena, which may cause pump and, valve failures and catastrophic pipe ruptures. Fluid transient analysis is one of the more challenging and complicated flow problems in the design and the operation of water pipeline systems. Transient control has become an essential requirement for ensuring safe operation of water pipeline systems. An accurate analysis and suitable protection devices should be used to protect water pipeline systems. The fourth-order Runge-Kutta method has been used to solve the dynamic and continuity equations in the rigid column method, while the characteristics method used to solve these equations in the full elastic methods. This paper presents the problem of modeling and simulating of transient phenomena in conveying pipeline systems based on the rigid column and full elastic methods. Also, it provides the influence of using the protection devices to protect the pipeline systems from damaging due to the gain pressure which occur in the transient state. The results obtained provide that the model is an efficient tool for flow transient analysis and provide approximately identical results by using these two methods. Moreover; using the closed surge tank reduces the unfavorable effects of transients.

Keywords: Flow transient, Pipeline, Air chamber, Numerical model, Protection devices, Elastic method, Rigid column method.

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Authors: Guerrero Ramírez Sandra, Ramos Salinas Norma Maricela, Muriel Amezcua Vanesa

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This article presents the beginning of a wider study that intends to demonstrate how within organizations of the automotive industry from the city of Querétaro. Knowledge management and technological management are required, as well as people’s initiative and the interaction embedded at the interior of it, with the appropriate environment that facilitates information conversion with wide information technologies management (ITM) range. A company was identified for the pilot study of this research, where descriptive and inferential research information was obtained. The results of the pilot suggest that some respondents did noted entity the knowledge management topic, even if staffs have access to information technology (IT) that serve to enhance access to knowledge (through internet, email, databases, external and internal company personnel, suppliers, customers and competitors) data, this implicates that there are Knowledge Management (KM) problems. The data shows that academically well-prepared organizations normally do not recognize the importance of knowledge in the business, nor in the implementation of it, which at the end is a great influence on how to manage it, so that it should guide the company to greater in sight towards a competitive strategy search, given that the company has an excellent technological infrastructure and KM was not exploited. Cultural diversity is another factor that was observed by the staff.

Keywords: Knowledge management, technological knowledge management, technology information management.

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Authors: Alexandru Balog, Costin Pribeanu, Dragos Iordache

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Formative usability evaluation aims at finding usability problems during the development process. The earlier these problems are identified, the less expensive to fix they are. This paper presents some preliminary results from a formative usability testing of the 1st prototype developed for the ARiSE (Augmented Reality in School Environments) project.

Keywords: AR-based educational systems, formative evaluation, usability evaluation, user testing.

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Authors: Mahinda P. Pathegama, Özdemir Göl

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Extraction of edge-end-pixels is an important step for the edge linking process to achieve edge-based image segmentation. This paper presents an algorithm to extract edge-end pixels together with their directional sensitivities as an augmentation to the currently available mathematical models. The algorithm is implemented in the Java environment because of its inherent compatibility with web interfaces since its main use is envisaged to be for remote image analysis on a virtual instrumentation platform.

Keywords: edge-end pixels, image processing, imagesegmentation, pixel extraction

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Authors: M. Bastanfard, S. Jafari, B.Jalaeian

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Ultrasound images are very useful diagnostic tool to distinguish benignant from malignant masses of the breast. However, there is a considerable overlap between benignancy and malignancy in ultrasonic images which makes it difficult to interpret. In this paper, a new noise removal algorithm was used to improve the images and classification process. The masses are classified by wavelet transform's coefficients, morphological and textural features as a novel feature set for this goal. The Bayesian estimation theory is used to classify the tissues in three classes according to their features.

Keywords: Bayesian estimation theory, breast, ultrasound, wavelet.

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Authors: Yong-can Cao, Wei-dong Zhang

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To deal with random delays in Networked Control System (NCS), Modified Fuzzy PID Controller is introduced in this paper to implement real-time control adaptively. Via adjusting the control signal dynamically, the system performance is improved. In this paper, the design process and the ultimate simulation results are represented. Finally, examples and corresponding comparisons prove the significance of this method.

Keywords: Fuzzy Control, Networked Control System, PID, Random Delays

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Authors: Lucie Valečková

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In contemporary global and dynamically developing environment there is a need of the strategic planning fundamental. It is complicated, but at the same time important process from the point of view of continual keeping of competitive advantage. The aim of the paper is formulation of strategic goals for the needs of the small enterprises. There will be used Balanced Scorecard as a balanced system of the indicators for the clearing and transferring vision into particular goals. In particular perspectives the theme will be focused on strategic goals. Consequently will be mention the concept of the competitiveness IDINMOSU. This connect to Balanced Scorecard.

Keywords: Corporate strategic management, strategic goals, Balanced Scorecard, strategic operations

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Authors: T.C. Manjunath, B. Bandyopadhyay

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This paper features the modeling and design of a Fast Output Sampling (FOS) Feedback control technique for the Active Vibration Control (AVC) of a smart flexible aluminium cantilever beam for a Single Input Single Output (SISO) case. Controllers are designed for the beam by bonding patches of piezoelectric layer as sensor / actuator to the master structure at different locations along the length of the beam by retaining the first 2 dominant vibratory modes. The entire structure is modeled in state space form using the concept of piezoelectric theory, Euler-Bernoulli beam theory, Finite Element Method (FEM) and the state space techniques by dividing the structure into 3, 4, 5 finite elements, thus giving rise to three types of systems, viz., system 1 (beam divided into 3 finite elements), system 2 (4 finite elements), system 3 (5 finite elements). The effect of placing the sensor / actuator at various locations along the length of the beam for all the 3 types of systems considered is observed and the conclusions are drawn for the best performance and for the smallest magnitude of the control input required to control the vibrations of the beam. Simulations are performed in MATLAB. The open loop responses, closed loop responses and the tip displacements with and without the controller are obtained and the performance of the proposed smart system is evaluated for vibration control.

Keywords: Smart structure, Finite element method, State spacemodel, Euler-Bernoulli theory, SISO model, Fast output sampling, Vibration control, LMI

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Authors: F. Rezaie Moghaddam, T. Rezaie Moghaddam, M. Pasbani Khiavi, M. Ali Ghorbani

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Identifying and classifying intersections according to severity is very important for implementation of safety related counter measures and effective models are needed to compare and assess the severity. Highway safety organizations have considered intersection safety among their priorities. In spite of significant advances in highways safety, the large numbers of crashes with high severities still occur in the highways. Investigation of influential factors on crashes enables engineers to carry out calculations in order to reduce crash severity. Previous studies lacked a model capable of simultaneous illustration of the influence of human factors, road, vehicle, weather conditions and traffic features including traffic volume and flow speed on the crash severity. Thus, this paper is aimed at developing the models to illustrate the simultaneous influence of these variables on the crash severity in urban highways. The models represented in this study have been developed using binary Logit Models. SPSS software has been used to calibrate the models. It must be mentioned that backward regression method in SPSS was used to identify the significant variables in the model. Consider to obtained results it can be concluded that the main factor in increasing of crash severity in urban highways are driver age, movement with reverse gear, technical defect of the vehicle, vehicle collision with motorcycle and bicycle, bridge, frontal impact collisions, frontal-lateral collisions and multi-vehicle crashes in urban highways which always increase the crash severity in urban highways.

Keywords: Backward regression, crash severity, speed, urbanhighways.

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Authors: A. Faro, D. Giordano, M. Pennisi, G. Scarciofalo, C. Spampinato, F. Tramontana

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The paper proposes a methodology to process the signals coming from the Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) in order to identify the pathology and evaluate the therapy to treat the patients affected by demency diseases. In particular, a fuzzy model is developed to identify the demency of the patients affected by Subcortical Ischemic Vascular Dementia and to measure the positive effect, if any, of a repetitive TMS on their motor performances. A tool is also presented to support the mentioned analysis.

Keywords: TMS, SIVD, Electromiography , Fuzzy Logic.

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Authors: Perumal Kumar, Rajamohan Ganesan

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Addition of milli or micro sized particles to the heat transfer fluid is one of the many techniques employed for improving heat transfer rate. Though this looks simple, this method has practical problems such as high pressure loss, clogging and erosion of the material of construction. These problems can be overcome by using nanofluids, which is a dispersion of nanosized particles in a base fluid. Nanoparticles increase the thermal conductivity of the base fluid manifold which in turn increases the heat transfer rate. Nanoparticles also increase the viscosity of the basefluid resulting in higher pressure drop for the nanofluid compared to the base fluid. So it is imperative that the Reynolds number (Re) and the volume fraction have to be optimum for better thermal hydraulic effectiveness. In this work, the heat transfer enhancement using aluminium oxide nanofluid using low and high volume fraction nanofluids in turbulent pipe flow with constant wall temperature has been studied by computational fluid dynamic modeling of the nanofluid flow adopting the single phase approach. Nanofluid, up till a volume fraction of 1% is found to be an effective heat transfer enhancement technique. The Nusselt number (Nu) and friction factor predictions for the low volume fractions (i.e. 0.02%, 0.1 and 0.5%) agree very well with the experimental values of Sundar and Sharma (2010). While, predictions for the high volume fraction nanofluids (i.e. 1%, 4% and 6%) are found to have reasonable agreement with both experimental and numerical results available in the literature. So the computationally inexpensive single phase approach can be used for heat transfer and pressure drop prediction of new nanofluids.

Keywords: Heat transfer intensification, nanofluid, CFD, friction factor

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Authors: A. Čelan, M. Ćosić, D. Rušić, N. Kuzmanić

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Conducting crystallization in an agitated vessel requires a proper selection of mixing parameters that would result in a production of crystals of specific properties. In dual impeller systems, which are characterized by a more complex hydrodynamics due to the possible fluid flow interactions, revealing a clear link between mixing parameters and crystallization kinetics is still an open issue. The aim of this work is to establish this connection by investigating how fluid flow patterns, generated by two impellers mounted on the same shaft, reflect on metastable zone width of borax decahydrate, one of the most important parameters of the crystallization process. Investigation was carried out in a 15-dm³ bench scale batch cooling crystallizer with an aspect ratio (H/T) equal to 1.3. For this reason, two radial straight blade turbines (4-SBT) were used for agitation. Experiments were conducted at different impeller spacings at the state of complete suspension. During the process of an unseeded batch cooling crystallization, solution temperature and supersaturation were continuously monitored what enabled a determination of the metastable zone width. Hydrodynamic conditions in the vessel achieved at different impeller spacings investigated were analyzed in detail. This was done firstly by measuring the mixing time required to attain the desired level of homogeneity. Secondly, fluid flow patterns generated in a described dual impeller system were both photographed and simulated by VisiMix Turbulent software. Also, a comparison of these two visualization methods was performed. Experimentally obtained results showed that metastable zone width is definitely affected by the hydrodynamics in the crystallizer. This means that this crystallization parameter can be controlled not only by adjusting the saturation temperature or cooling rate, as is usually done, but also by choosing a suitable impeller spacing that will result in a formation of crystals of wanted size distribution.

Keywords: Dual impeller crystallizer, fluid flow pattern, metastable zone width, mixing time, radial impeller.

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Authors: Marlon Luz, Daniel Gazineu, Mauro Teófilo

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This paper describes the two actual tendencies in the software development process usage: 'Scrum' and 'work in home office'. It-s exposed the four main challenges to adopt Scrum framework for distributed teams in this cited kind of work. The challenges are mainly based on the communication problems due distances since the Scrum encourages the team to work together in the same room, and this is not possible when people work distributed in their homes.

Keywords: Agile, Scrum, Distributed Work, Home Office.

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Authors: Mohamed Ghorab

Abstract:

Local generated and distributed system for thermal and electrical energy is sighted in the near future to reduce transmission losses instead of the centralized system. Distributed Energy Resources (DER) is designed at different sizes (small and medium) and it is incorporated in energy distribution between the hubs. The energy generated from each technology at each hub should meet the local energy demands. Economic and environmental enhancement can be achieved when there are interaction and energy exchange between the hubs. Network energy system and CO₂ optimization between different six hubs presented Canadian community level are investigated in this study. Three different scenarios of technology systems are studied to meet both thermal and electrical demand loads for the six hubs. The conventional system is used as the first technology system and a reference case study. The conventional system includes boiler to provide the thermal energy, but the electrical energy is imported from the utility grid. The second technology system includes combined heat and power (CHP) system to meet the thermal demand loads and part of the electrical demand load. The third scenario has integration systems of CHP and Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) where the thermal waste energy from the CHP system is used by ORC to generate electricity. General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS) is used to model DER system optimization based on energy economics and CO₂ emission analyses. The results are compared with the conventional energy system. The results show that scenarios 2 and 3 provide an annual total cost saving of 21.3% and 32.3 %, respectively compared to the conventional system (scenario 1). Additionally, Scenario 3 (CHP & ORC systems) provides 32.5% saving in CO₂ emission compared to conventional system subsequent case 2 (CHP system) with a value of 9.3%.  

Keywords: Distributed energy resources, network energy system, optimization, microgeneration system.

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Authors: Tania Elena González Alvarado, Ma. Antonieta Martín Granados

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The aim of this paper is to explain what a multienterprise tie is, what evidence its analysis provides and how does the cooperation mechanism influence the establishment of a multienterprise tie. The study focuses on businesses of smaller dimension, geographically dispersed and whose businessmen are learning to cooperate in an international environment. The empirical evidence obtained at this moment permits to conclude the following: The tie is not long-lasting, it has an end; opportunism is an opportunity to learn; the multi-enterprise tie is a space to learn about the cooperation mechanism; the local tie permits a businessman to alternate between competition and cooperation strategies; the disappearance of a tie is an experience of learning for a businessman, diminishing the possibility of failure in the next tie; the cooperation mechanism tends to eliminate hierarchical relations; the multienterprise tie diminishes the asymmetries and permits SME-s to have a better position when they negotiate with large companies; the multi-enterprise tie impacts positively on the local system. The collection of empirical evidence was done trough the following instruments: direct observation in a business encounter to which the businesses attended in 2003 (202 Mexican agro industry SME-s), a survey applied in 2004 (129), a questionnaire applied in 2005 (86 businesses), field visits to the businesses during the period 2006-2008 and; a survey applied by telephone in 2008 (55 Mexican agro industry SME-s).

Keywords: Cooperation, multi-enterprise tie, links, networks.

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Authors: Rajiv Kumar, Arthanariee A. M.

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Image segmentation is the process to segment a given image into several parts so that each of these parts present in the image can be further analyzed. There are numerous techniques of image segmentation available in literature. In this paper, authors have been analyzed the edge-based approach for image segmentation. They have been implemented the different edge operators like Prewitt, Sobel, LoG, and Canny on the basis of their threshold parameter. The results of these operators have been shown for various images.

Keywords: Edge Operator, Edge-based Segmentation, Image Segmentation, Matlab 10.4.

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Authors: Iliana Marinova, Valentin Mateev

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In this paper a computer system for electromagnetic properties measurements is designed. The system employs Agilent 4294A precision impedance analyzer to measure the amplitude and the phase of a signal applied over a tested biological tissue sample. Measured by the developed computer system data could be used for tissue characterization in wide frequency range from 40Hz to 110MHz. The computer system can interface with output devices acquiring flexible testing process.

Keywords: Electromagnetic properties, human tissue, bioimpedance, measurement system.

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Authors: Zeineb Deymi-Gheriani

Abstract:

In the last two decades, one can clearly observe a boom of interest for e-learning and web-supported programs. However, one can also notice that many of these programs focus on the accumulation and delivery of content generally as a business industry with no much concern for theoretical underpinnings. The existing research, at least in online English language teaching (ELT), has demonstrated a lack of an effective online teaching pedagogy anchored in a well-defined theoretical framework. Hence, this paper comes as an attempt to present constructivism as one of the theoretical bases for the design of an effective online language teaching pedagogy which is at the same time technologically intelligent and theoretically informed to help envision how education can best take advantage of the information and communication technology (ICT) tools. The present paper discusses the key principles underlying constructivism, its implications for online language teaching design, as well as its limitations that should be avoided in the e-learning instructional design. Although the paper is theoretical in nature, essentially based on an extensive literature survey on constructivism, it does have practical illustrations from an action research conducted by the author both as an e-tutor of English using Moodle online educational platform at the Virtual University of Tunis (VUT) from 2007 up to 2010 and as a face-to-face (F2F) English teaching practitioner in the Professional Certificate of English Language Teaching Training (PCELT) at AMIDEAST, Tunisia (April-May, 2013).

Keywords: Active learning, constructivism, experiential learning, Piaget, Vygotsky.

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Authors: R. Estrada, A. Henriquez, R. Becerra, C. Laguna

Abstract:

Spatial Augmented Reality is a variation of Augmented Reality where the Head-Mounted Display is not required. This variation of Augmented Reality is useful in cases where the need for a Head-Mounted Display itself is a limitation. To achieve this, Spatial Augmented Reality techniques substitute the technological elements of Augmented Reality; the virtual world is projected onto a physical surface. To create an interactive spatial augmented experience, the application must be aware of the spatial relations that exist between its core elements. In this case, the core elements are referred to as a projection system and an input system, and the process to achieve this spatial awareness is called system calibration. The Spatial Augmented Reality system is considered calibrated if the projected virtual world scale is similar to the real-world scale, meaning that a virtual object will maintain its perceived dimensions when projected to the real world. Also, the input system is calibrated if the application knows the relative position of a point in the projection plane and the RGB-depth sensor origin point. Any kind of projection technology can be used, light-based projectors, close-range projectors, and screens, as long as it complies with the defined constraints; the method was tested on different configurations. The proposed procedure does not rely on a physical marker, minimizing the human intervention on the process. The tests are made using a Kinect V2 as an input sensor and several projection devices. In order to test the method, the constraints defined were applied to a variety of physical configurations; once the method was executed, some variables were obtained to measure the method performance. It was demonstrated that the method obtained can solve different arrangements, giving the user a wide range of setup possibilities.

Keywords: Color depth sensor, human computer interface, interactive surface, spatial augmented reality.

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