Search results for: fire and rescue services

Authors: Shuen-Tai Wang, Hsi-Ya Chang

Abstract:

Cloud computing is becoming more and more matured over the last few years and consequently the demands for better cloud services is increasing rapidly. One of the research topics to improve cloud services is the desktop computing in virtualized environment. This paper aims at the development of an adaptive virtual desktop service in cloud computing platform based on our previous research on the virtualization technology. We implement cloud virtual desktop and application software streaming technology that make it possible for providing Virtual Desktop as a Service (VDaaS). Given the development of remote desktop virtualization, it allows shifting the user’s desktop from the traditional PC environment to the cloud-enabled environment, which is stored on a remote virtual machine rather than locally. This proposed effort has the potential to positively provide an efficient, resilience and elastic environment for online cloud service. Users no longer need to burden the platform maintenances and drastically reduces the overall cost of hardware and software licenses. Moreover, this flexible remote desktop service represents the next significant step to the mobile workplace, and it lets users access their desktop environments from virtually anywhere.

Keywords: Cloud Computing, Virtualization, Virtual Desktop, VDaaS.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2487

Authors: Khelood A. Mkalaf, Peter Gibson, John Flanagan

Abstract:

This study investigates the relationship between the reliability of critical medical equipment (CME) and the effectiveness of CME maintenance management strategies in relation to patient outcomes in 84 public hospitals of a top 20 OECD country. The work has examined the effectiveness of CME maintenance management strategies used by the public hospital system of a large state run health organization. The conceptual framework was designed to examine the significance of the relationship between six variables: (1) types of maintenance management strategies, (2) maintenance services, (3) maintenance practice, (4) medical equipment reliability, (5) maintenance costs and (6) patient outcomes. The results provide interesting insights into the effectiveness of the maintenance strategies used. For example, there appears to be about a 1 in 10 000 probability of failure of anesthesia equipment, but these seem to be confined to specific maintenance situations. There are also some findings in relation to outsourcing of maintenance. For each of the variables listed, results are reported in relation to the various types of maintenance strategies and services. Decision-makers may use these results to evaluate more effective maintenance strategies for their CME and generate more effective patient outcomes.

Keywords: Critical medical equipment, maintenance strategy, patient outcomes, reliability.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4914

Authors: Armando Cartenì, Ilaria Henke

Abstract:

The perceived public transport quality is an important driver that influences both customer satisfaction and mobility choices. The competition among transport operators needs to improve the quality of the services and identify which attributes are perceived as relevant by passengers. Among the “traditional” public transport quality attributes there are, for example: travel and waiting time, regularity of the services, and ticket price. By contrast, there are some “non-conventional” attributes that could significantly influence customer satisfaction jointly with the “traditional” ones. Among these, the beauty/aesthetics of the transport terminals (e.g. rail station and bus terminal) is probably one of the most impacting on user perception. Starting from these considerations, the point stressed in this paper was if (and how munch) the travel experience of the overall travel (e.g. how long is the travel, how many transport modes must be used) influences the perception of the public transport quality. The aim of this paper was to investigate the weight of the terminal quality (e.g. aesthetic, comfort and service offered) within the overall travel experience. The case study was the extra-urban Italian bus network. The passengers of the major Italian terminal bus were interviewed and the analysis of the results shows that about the 75% of the travelers, are available to pay up to 30% more for the ticket price for having a high quality terminal. A travel experience effect was observed: the average perceived transport quality varies with the characteristic of the overall trip. The passengers that have a “long trip” (travel time greater than 2 hours) perceived as “low” the overall quality of the trip even if they pass through a high quality terminal. The opposite occurs for the “short trip” passengers. This means that if a traveler passes through a high quality station, the overall perception of that terminal could be significantly reduced if he is tired from a long trip. This result is important and if confirmed through other case studies, will allow to conclude that the “travel experience impact" must be considered as an explicit design variable for public transport services and planning.

Keywords: Transportation planning, sustainable mobility, decision support system, discrete choice model, design problem.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1179

Authors: P. Vijaya Laxmi, V. Goswami, V. Suchitra

Abstract:

This paper presents a finite buffer renewal input single working vacation and vacation interruption queue with state dependent services and state dependent vacations, which has a wide range of applications in several areas including manufacturing, wireless communication systems. Service times during busy period, vacation period and vacation times are exponentially distributed and are state dependent. As a result of the finite waiting space, state dependent services and state dependent vacation policies, the analysis of these queueing models needs special attention. We provide a recursive method using the supplementary variable technique to compute the stationary queue length distributions at pre-arrival and arbitrary epochs. An efficient computational algorithm of the model is presented which is fast and accurate and easy to implement. Various performance measures have been discussed. Finally, some special cases and numerical results have been depicted in the form of tables and graphs. 

Keywords: State Dependent Service, Vacation Interruption, Supplementary Variable, Single Working Vacation, Blocking Probability.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2158

Authors: Shun Hattori

Abstract:

In recent years, many researches to mine the exploding Web world, especially User Generated Content (UGC) such as weblogs, for knowledge about various phenomena and events in the physical world have been done actively, and also Web services with the Web-mined knowledge have begun to be developed for the public. However, there are few detailed investigations on how accurately Web-mined data reflect physical-world data. It must be problematic to idolatrously utilize the Web-mined data in public Web services without ensuring their accuracy sufficiently. Therefore, this paper introduces the simplest Web Sensor and spatiotemporallynormalized Web Sensor to extract spatiotemporal data about a target phenomenon from weblogs searched by keyword(s) representing the target phenomenon, and tries to validate the potential and reliability of the Web-sensed spatiotemporal data by four kinds of granularity analyses of coefficient correlation with temperature, rainfall, snowfall, and earthquake statistics per day by region of Japan Meteorological Agency as physical-world data: spatial granularity (region-s population density), temporal granularity (time period, e.g., per day vs. per week), representation granularity (e.g., “rain" vs. “heavy rain"), and media granularity (weblogs vs. microblogs such as Tweets).

Keywords: Granularity analysis, knowledge extraction, spatiotemporal data mining, Web credibility, Web mining, Web sensor.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1882

Authors: Mohamed R. Mhereeg

Abstract:

The paper discusses the implementation of the MultiAgent classification System (MACS) and utilizing it to provide an automated and accurate classification of end users developing applications in the spreadsheet domain. However, different technologies have been brought together to build MACS. The strength of the system is the integration of the agent technology with the FIPA specifications together with other technologies, which are the .NET widows service based agents, the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) services, the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), and Oracle Data Mining (ODM). The Microsoft's .NET widows service based agents were utilized to develop the monitoring agents of MACS, the .NET WCF services together with SOA approach allowed the distribution and communication between agents over the WWW. The Monitoring Agents (MAs) were configured to execute automatically to monitor excel spreadsheets development activities by content. Data gathered by the Monitoring Agents from various resources over a period of time was collected and filtered by a Database Updater Agent (DUA) residing in the .NET client application of the system. This agent then transfers and stores the data in Oracle server database via Oracle stored procedures for further processing that leads to the classification of the end user developers.

Keywords: MACS, Implementation, Multi-Agent, SOA, Autonomous, WCF.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1709

Authors: Ari Lindeman, Melina Maunula, Jani Kiviranta, Ronja Pölkki

Abstract:

The aim of this paper is to build a vision of the utilization of creative industry competences in industrial and services firms connected to Kymenlaakso region, Finland, smart specialization focus areas. Research indicates that creativity and the use of creative industry’s inputs can enhance innovation and competitiveness. Currently creative methods and services are underutilized in regional businesses and the added value they provide is not well grasped. Methodologically, the research adopts a qualitative exploratory approach. Data is collected in multiple ways including a survey, focus groups, and interviews. Theoretically, the paper contributes to the discussion about the use creative industry competences in regional development, and argues for building regional creative economy ecosystems in close co-operation with regional strategies and traditional industries rather than as treating regional creative industry ecosystem initiatives separate from them. The practical contribution of the paper is the creative vision for the use of regional authorities in updating smart specialization strategy as well as boosting industrial and creative & cultural sectors’ competitiveness. The paper also illustrates a research-based model of vision building.

Keywords: Business, cooperation, creative economy, regional development, vision.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 825

Authors: Supattra Kanchanopast

Abstract:

The purpose of this research was to study the customers’ behavioral trend for online accommodation system at Bangkonthi District, Samutsongkhram province. The research collected data from 400 online users. A questionnaire was utilized as the tool in collecting information. Descriptive statistics included frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation. Independent- sample t- test, analysis of variance and Pearson Correlation were also used. The findings of this research revealed that the majority of the respondents were male, 25-32 years old, and graduated a bachelor degree. The respondents mostly worked in private sectors and had monthly income between 10,001-15,000 baht. The regular online users, visiting this system between 3-4 times/month, spending 1-2 hours/time, searched for online accommodation information. This result showed that the users had good and high attitude towards the system. According to the hypothesis testing, the number of online usage had positive related to the behavioral trends: accommodation purchasing intention and recommend the accommodation to others. Furthermore, both the number of online usage and overall attitude had a significant correlation to accommodation purchase intention and recommend the accommodation to others.

Keywords: Customer Behavior, Information System Management, Online Accommodation Services.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1720

Authors: Phatthanan Chaiyabut

Abstract:

The purposes of this research were to identify the perception of customers towards Krung Thai Bank’s image and to understand the customer attitude towards Krung Thai Bank’s image in Bangkok, Thailand. This research utilized quantitative approach and used questionnaire as data collection tool. A sample size of 420 respondents was selected by simple random sampling. The findings revealed that the majority of respondents received information, news, and feeds concerning the bank through televisions the most. This information channel had significantly influenced on the customers and their decisions to utilize the bank’s products and services.

From the information concerning the attitudes towards overall image of the bank, it was found that the majority respondents rated the bank’s image at the good level. The top three average attitudes included the bank’s images in supports government's monetary policies, being renowned and stable, and contributing in economical amendments and developments, with the mean average of 4.01, 3.96 and 3.81 respectively. The attitudes toward the images included a business leader in banking, marketing, and competitions. Offering prompt services, and provided appropriate servicing time were rated moderate with the attitudes of 3.36 and 3.30 respectively.

Keywords: Attitude, Image, Krung Thai bank, Perception.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1629

Authors: Liwen Hou

Abstract:

The booming mobile business has been penetrating the taxi industry worldwide with P2P (peer to peer) taxi services, as an emerging business model, transforming the industry. Parallel with other mobile businesses, member recommendations and online reviews are believed to be very effective with regard to acquiring new users for P2P taxi services. Based on an empirical dataset of the taxi industry in China, this study aims to reveal which factors influence users’ recommendations and review-writing behaviors. Differing from the existing literature, this paper takes the taxi driver’s perspective into consideration and hence selects a group of variables related to the drivers. We built two models to reflect the factors that influence the number of recommendations and reviews posted on the platform (i.e., the app). Our models show that all factors, except the driver’s score, significantly influence the recommendation behavior. Likewise, only one factor, passengers’ bad reviews, is insignificant in generating more drivers’ reviews. In the conclusion, we summarize the findings and limitations of the research.

Keywords: Online recommendation, P2P taxi service, review-writing, word of mouth.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1378

Authors: E. Asgharizadeh, M. Ajalli, S.R. Safavi.M.M, A. Medghalchi

Abstract:

Electronic Government is one of the special concepts which has been performed successfully within recent decades. Electronic government is a digital, wall-free government with a virtual organization for presenting of online governmental services and further cooperation in different political/social activities. In order to have a successful implementation of electronic government strategy and benefiting from its complete potential and benefits and generally for establishment and applying of electronic government, it is necessary to have different infrastructures as the basics of electronic government with lack of which it is impossible to benefit from mentioned services. For this purpose, in this paper we have managed to recognize relevant obstacles for establishment of electronic government in Iran. All required data for recognition of obstacles were collected from statistical society of involved specialists of Ministry of Communications & Information Technology of Iran and Information Technology Organization of Tehran Municipality through questionnaire. Then by considering of five-point Likert scope and μ =3 as the index of relevant factors of proposed model, we could specify current obstacles against electronic government in Iran along with some guidelines and proposal in this regard. According to the results, mentioned obstacles for applying of electronic government in Iran are as follows: Technical & technological problems, Legal, judicial & safety problems, Economic problems and Humanistic Problems.

Keywords: Government, Electronic Government, InformationTechnology, Obstacles, Iran.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1448

Authors: Javed Parvez, Mushtaq Ahmad Peer

Abstract:

Mobile Ad hoc networks (MANETs) are collections of wireless mobile nodes dynamically reconfiguring and collectively forming a temporary network. These types of networks assume existence of no fixed infrastructure and are often useful in battle-field tactical operations or emergency search-and-rescue type of operations where fixed infrastructure is neither feasible nor practical. They also find use in ad hoc conferences, campus networks and commercial recreational applications carrying multimedia traffic. All of the above applications of MANETs require guaranteed levels of performance as experienced by the end-user. This paper focuses on key challenges in provisioning predetermined levels of such Quality of Service (QoS). It also identifies functional areas where QoS models are currently defined and used. Evolving functional areas where performance and QoS provisioning may be applied are also identified and some suggestions are provided for further research in this area. Although each of the above functional areas have been discussed separately in recent research studies, since these QoS functional areas are highly correlated and interdependent, a comprehensive and comparative analysis of these areas and their interrelationships is desired. In this paper we have attempted to provide such an overview.

Keywords: Bandwidth Reservation, Congestion, DynamicNetwork Topology, End-to-End Delay, Flexible QoS Model forMANET(FQMM), Hidden Terminal, Mobile AdhocNetwork(MANET), Packet Jitter, Queuing, Quality-of-Service(QoS), Relative Bandwidth Service Differentiation(RBSD), Resource ReSerVation Protocol (RSVP).

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2146

Authors: Prasansha Kumari

Abstract:

This paper intends to identify and analyze customer adoption and attitudes towards mobile banking facilities. The study uses six perceived characteristics of innovation that can be used to form a favorable or unfavorable attitude toward an innovation, namely: Relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trailability, risk, and observability. Collected data were analyzed using Pearson Chi-Square test. The results showed that mobile bank users were predominantly males. There is a growing trend among young, educated customers towards converting to mobile banking in Sri Lanka. The research outcomes suggested that all the six factors are statistically highly significant in influencing mobile banking adoption and attitude formation towards mobile banking in Sri Lanka. The major reasons for adopting mobile banking services are the accessibility and availability of services regardless of time and place. Over the 75 percent of the respondents mentioned that savings in time and effort and low financial costs of conducting mobile banking were advantageous. Issue of security was found to be the most important factor that motivated consumer adoption and attitude formation towards mobile banking. Main barriers to mobile banking were the lack of technological skills, the traditional cash‐carry banking culture, and the lack of awareness and insufficient guidance to using mobile banking.

Keywords: Compatibility, complexity, mobile banking, risk.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2682

Authors: Aishwarya Shekhar, Devesh Kumar Srivastava

Abstract:

Cloud computing has emerged as a promising direction for cost efficient and reliable service delivery across data communication networks. The dynamic location of service facilities and the virtualization of hardware and software elements are stressing the communication networks and protocols, especially when data centres are interconnected through the internet. Although the computing aspects of cloud technologies have been largely investigated, lower attention has been devoted to the networking services without involving IT operating overhead. Cloud computing has enabled elastic and transparent access to infrastructure services without involving IT operating overhead. Virtualization has been a key enabler for cloud computing. While resource virtualization and service abstraction have been widely investigated, networking in cloud remains a difficult puzzle. Even though network has significant role in facilitating hybrid cloud scenarios, it hasn't received much attention in research community until recently. We propose Network as a Service (NaaS), which forms the basis of unifying public and private clouds. In this paper, we identify various challenges in adoption of hybrid cloud. We discuss the design and implementation of a cloud platform.

Keywords: Cloud computing, networking, infrastructure, hybrid cloud, open stack, Naas.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2317

Authors: J. D. D. Daniel, K. N. Goh, S. M. Yusop

Abstract:

Trends in business intelligence, e-commerce and remote access make it necessary and practical to store data in different ways on multiple systems with different operating systems. As business evolve and grow, they require efficient computerized solution to perform data update and to access data from diverse enterprise business applications. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the capability of DTS [1] as a database solution for automatic data transfer and update in solving business problem. This DTS package is developed for the sales of variety of plants and eventually expanded into commercial supply and landscaping business. Dimension data modeling is used in DTS package to extract, transform and load data from heterogeneous database systems such as MySQL, Microsoft Access and Oracle that consolidates into a Data Mart residing in SQL Server. Hence, the data transfer from various databases is scheduled to run automatically every quarter of the year to review the efficient sales analysis. Therefore, DTS is absolutely an attractive solution for automatic data transfer and update which meeting today-s business needs.

Keywords: Data Transformation Services (DTS), ObjectLinking and Embedding Database (OLEDB), Data Mart, OnlineAnalytical Processing (OLAP), Online Transactional Processing(OLTP).

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2038

Authors: R. Nayak, T. Panwar, R. Padhye

Abstract:

Protective textiles get soiled, stained and even worn during their use, which may not be usable after a certain period due to the loss of protective performance. They need regular cleaning and maintenance, which helps to extend the durability of the clothing, retains their useful properties and ensures that fresh clothing is ready to wear when needed. Generally, the cleaning processes used for various protective clothing include dry-cleaning (using solvents) or wet cleaning (using water). These cleaning processes can alter the fabric surface properties, dimensions, and physical, mechanical and performance properties. The technology of laundering and dry-cleaning has undergone several changes. Sustainable methods and products are available for faster, safer and improved cleaning of protective textiles. We performed a comprehensive and systematic review of green technologies and eco-friendly products for sustainable cleaning of protective textiles. Special emphasis is given on the care and maintenance procedures of protective textiles for protection from fire, bullets, chemical and other types of protective clothing.

Keywords: Sustainable cleaning, protective textiles, eco-friendly cleaning, ozone laundering, ultrasonic cleaning.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1330

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

Abstract:

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.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1442

Authors: L. Dahmani, M.Kouane

Abstract:

In this paper are illustrated the principal aspects connected with the numerical evaluation of thermal stress induced by high gradient temperature in the concrete beam. The reinforced concrete beam has many advantages over steel beam, such as high resistance to high temperature, high resistance to thermal shock, Better resistance to fatigue and buckling, strong resistance against, fire, explosion, etc. The main drawback of the reinforced concrete beam is its poor resistance to tensile stresses. In order to investigate the thermal induced tensile stresses, a numerical model of a transient thermal analysis is presented for the evaluation of thermo-mechanical response of concrete beam to the high temperature, taking into account the temperature dependence of the thermo physical properties of the concrete like thermal conductivity and specific heat.

Keywords: Cracking, Gradient Temperature, Reinforced Concrete beam, Thermo-mechanical analysis.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3693

Authors: Nazym Shedenova, Aigul Beimisheva

Abstract:

The market transformation in Kazakhstan during the last two decades has essentially strengthened a gap between development of urban and rural areas. Implementation of market institutes, transition from public financing to paid rendering of social services, change of forms of financing of social and economic infrastructure have led to strengthening of an economic inequality of social groups, including growth of stratification of the city and the village. Sociological survey of urban and rural households in Almaty city and villages of Almaty region has been carried out within the international research project “Livelihoods Strategies of Private Households in Central Asia: A Rural–Urban Comparison in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan" (Germany, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan). The analysis of statistical data and results of sociological research of urban and rural households allows us to reveal issues of territorial development, to investigate an availability of medical, educational and other services in the city and the village, to reveal an evaluation urban and rural dwellers of living conditions, to compare economic strategies of households in the city and the village.

Keywords: Urban and rural households, social and economic infrastructure, territorial availability.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2169

Authors: Ghada A. El Khayat

Abstract:

This paper argues that a product development exercise involves in addition to the conventional stages, several decisions regarding other aspects. These aspects should be addressed simultaneously in order to develop a product that responds to the customer needs and that helps realize objectives of the stakeholders in terms of profitability, market share and the like. We present a framework that encompasses these different development dimensions. The framework shows that a product development methodology such as the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is the basic tool which allows definition of the target specifications of a new product. Creativity is the first dimension that enables the development exercise to live and end successfully. A number of group processes need to be followed by the development team in order to ensure enough creativity and innovation. Secondly, packaging is considered to be an important extension of the product. Branding strategies, quality and standardization requirements, identification technologies, design technologies, production technologies and costing and pricing are also integral parts to the development exercise. These dimensions constitute the proposed framework. The paper also presents a mathematical model used to calculate the design targets based on the target costing principle. The framework is used to study a case of a new product development in the telecommunications services sector.

Keywords: Product Development Framework, Quality FunctionDeployment, Mathematical Models, Telecommunications.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1559

Authors: Maassoumeh Javadi Baygi, Abdul Rahman B Ramli, Borhanuddin Mohd Ali, Syamsiah Mashohor

Abstract:

The expectation of network performance from the early days of ARPANET until now has been changed significantly. Every day, new advancement in technological infrastructure opens the doors for better quality of service and accordingly level of perceived quality of network services have been increased over the time. Nowadays for many applications, late information has no value or even may result in financial or catastrophic loss, on the other hand, demands for some level of guarantee in providing and maintaining quality of service are ever increasing. Based on this history, having a QoS aware routing system which is able to provide today's required level of quality of service in the networks and effectively adapt to the future needs, seems as a key requirement for future Internet. In this work we have extended the traditional AntNet routing system to support QoS with multiple metrics such as bandwidth and delay which is named Q-Net. This novel scalable QoS routing system aims to provide different types of services in the network simultaneously. Each type of service can be provided for a period of time in the network and network nodes do not need to have any previous knowledge about it. When a type of quality of service is requested, Q-Net will allocate required resources for the service and will guarantee QoS requirement of the service, based on target objectives.

Keywords: Quality of Service, Routing, Ant Colony Optimization, Ant-based algorithms.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1327

Authors: Anu Paul, Varghese Paul

Abstract:

The focal aspire of e-Government (eGovt) is to offer citizen-centered service delivery. Accordingly, the citizenry consumes services from multiple government agencies through national portal. Thus, eGovt is an enterprise with the primary business motive of transparent, efficient and effective public services to its citizenry and its logical structure is the eGovernment Enterprise Architecture (eGEA). Since eGovt is IT oriented multifaceted service-centric system, EA doesn’t do much on an automated enterprise other than the business artifacts. Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) manifestation led some governments to pertain this in their eGovts, but it limits the source of business artifacts. The concurrent use of EA and SOA in eGovt executes interoperability and integration and leads to Service-Oriented e-Government Enterprise (SOeGE). Consequently, agile eGovt system becomes a reality. As an IT perspective eGovt comprises of centralized public service artifacts with the existing application logics belong to various departments at central, state and local level. The eGovt is renovating to SOeGE by apply the Service-Orientation (SO) principles in the entire system. This paper explores IT perspective of SOeGE in India which encompasses the public service models and illustrated with a case study the Passport service of India.

Keywords: Enterprise Architecture, Service-Oriented e-Government Enterprise, Service Interface Layer, Service Model.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2505

Authors: Taru Hakanen, Mervi Murtonen

Abstract:

This study aims to increase understanding of the transition of business models in servitization. The significance of service in all business has increased dramatically during the past decades. Service-dominant logic (SDL) describes this change in the economy and questions the goods-dominant logic on which business has primarily been based in the past. A business model canvas is one of the most cited and used tools in defining end developing business models. The starting point of this paper lies in the notion that the traditional business model canvas is inherently goods-oriented and best suits for product-based business. However, the basic differences between goods and services necessitate changes in business model representations when proceeding in servitization. Therefore, new knowledge is needed on how the conception of business model and the business model canvas as its representation should be altered in servitized firms in order to better serve business developers and interfirm co-creation. That is to say, compared to products, services are intangible and they are co-produced between the supplier and the customer. Value is always co-created in interaction between a supplier and a customer, and customer experience primarily depends on how well the interaction succeeds between the actors. The role of service experience is even stronger in service business compared to product business, as services are co-produced with the customer. This paper provides business model developers with a service business model canvas, which takes into account the intangible, interactive, and relational nature of service. The study employs a design science approach that contributes to theory development via design artifacts. This study utilizes qualitative data gathered in workshops with ten companies from various industries. In particular, key differences between Goods-dominant logic (GDL) and SDLbased business models are identified when an industrial firm proceeds in servitization. As the result of the study, an updated version of the business model canvas is provided based on service-dominant logic. The service business model canvas ensures a stronger customer focus and includes aspects salient for services, such as interaction between companies, service co-production, and customer experience. It can be used for the analysis and development of a current service business model of a company or for designing a new business model. It facilitates customer-focused new service design and service development. It aids in the identification of development needs, and facilitates the creation of a common view of the business model. Therefore, the service business model canvas can be regarded as a boundary object, which facilitates the creation of a common understanding of the business model between several actors involved. The study contributes to the business model and service business development disciplines by providing a managerial tool for practitioners in service development. It also provides research insight into how servitization challenges companies’ business models.

Keywords: Boundary object, business model canvas, managerial tool, service-dominant logic.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3351

Authors: E. Mello, C. Ribellato, E. Mohamedelhassan

Abstract:

This study investigated the improvement in concrete properties with addition of cellulose, steel, carbon and PET fibers. Each fiber was added at four percentages to the fresh concrete, which was moist-cured for 28-days and then tested for compressive, flexural and tensile strengths. Changes in strength and increases in cost were analyzed. Results showed that addition of cellulose caused a decrease between 9.8% and 16.4% in compressive strength. This range may be acceptable as cellulose fibers can significantly increase the concrete resistance to fire, and freezing and thawing cycles. Addition of steel fibers to concreteincreased the compressive strength by up to 20%. Increases 121.5% and 80.7% were reported in tensile and flexural strengths respectively. Carbon fibers increased flexural and tensile strengths by up to 11% and 45%, respectively. Concrete strength properties decreased after the addition of PET fibers. Results showed that improvement in strength after addition of steel and carbon fibers may justify the extra cost of fibers.

Keywords: Concrete, compressive strength, fibers, flexural strength, tensile strength.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 11496

Authors: Rajendra M Sonar

Abstract:

The future of business intelligence (BI) is to integrate intelligence into operational systems that works in real-time analyzing small chunks of data based on requirements on continuous basis. This is moving away from traditional approach of doing analysis on ad-hoc basis or sporadically in passive and off-line mode analyzing huge amount data. Various AI techniques such as expert systems, case-based reasoning, neural-networks play important role in building business intelligent systems. Since BI involves various tasks and models various types of problems, hybrid intelligent techniques can be better choice. Intelligent systems accessible through web services make it easier to integrate them into existing operational systems to add intelligence in every business processes. These can be built to be invoked in modular and distributed way to work in real time. Functionality of such systems can be extended to get external inputs compatible with formats like RSS. In this paper, we describe a framework that use effective combinations of these techniques, accessible through web services and work in real-time. We have successfully developed various prototype systems and done few commercial deployments in the area of personalization and recommendation on mobile and websites.

Keywords: Business Intelligence, Customer Relationship Management, Hybrid Intelligent Systems, Personalization and Recommendation (P&R), Recommender Systems.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2077

Authors: Ioan Rusu

Abstract:

In the operation of power transformers of 110 kV/MV from substations, these are traveled by fault current resulting from MV line damage. Defect electrical contacts are heated when they are travelled from fault currents. In the case of high temperatures when 135 °C is reached, the electrical insulating oil in the vicinity of the electrical faults comes into contact with these contacts releases gases, and activates the electrical protection. To avoid auto-flammability of electro-insulating oil, we designed a security system thermal of electrical contact defects by pouring fire-resistant polyurethane foam, mastic or mortar fire inside a cardboard electro-insulating cylinder. From practical experience, in the exploitation of power transformers of 110 kV/MT in oil electro-insulating were recorded some passing disconnecting commanded by the gas protection at internal defects. In normal operation and in the optimal load, nominal currents do not require thermal secure contacts inside electrical transformers, contacts are made at the fabrication according to the projects or to repair by solder. In the case of external short circuits close to the substation, the contacts inside electrical transformers, even if they are well made in sizes of Rcontact = 10^‑6 Ω, are subjected to short-circuit currents of the order of 10 kA-20 kA which lead to the dissipation of some significant second-order electric powers, 100 W-400 W, on contact. At some internal or external factors which action on electrical contacts, including electrodynamic efforts at short-circuits, these factors could be degraded over time to values in the range of 10^-4 Ω to 10^-5 Ω and if the action time of protection is great, on the order of seconds, power dissipation on electrical contacts achieve high values of 1,0 kW to 40,0 kW. This power leads to strong local heating, hundreds of degrees Celsius and can initiate self-ignition and burning oil in the vicinity of electro-insulating contacts with action the gas relay. Degradation of electrical contacts inside power transformers may not be limited for the duration of their operation. In order to avoid oil burn with gas release near electrical contacts, at short-circuit currents 10 kA-20 kA, we have outlined the following solutions: covering electrical contacts in fireproof materials that would avoid direct burn oil at short circuit and transmission of heat from electrical contact along the conductors with heat dissipation gradually over time, in a large volume of cooling. Flame retardant materials are: polyurethane foam, mastic, cement (concrete). In the normal condition of operation of transformer, insulating of conductors coils is with paper and insulating oil. Ignition points of its two components respectively are approximated: 135 °C heat for oil and 200 ⁰C for paper. In the case of a faulty electrical contact, about 10^-3 Ω, at short-circuit; the temperature can reach for a short time, a value of 300 °C-400 °C, which ignite the paper and also the oil. By burning oil, there are local gases that disconnect the power transformer. Securing thermal electrical contacts inside the transformer, in cardboard tube with polyurethane foams, mastik or cement, ensures avoiding gas release and also gas protection working.

Keywords: Power transformer, oil insulatation, electric contacts, gases, gas relay.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 648

Authors: Ileladewa Adeoye Abiodun, Cheng Wai Khuen

Abstract:

Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) emerged in the pursuit to improve our standard of living, and hence can manifest complex human behaviors such as communication, decision making, negotiation and self-organization. The Social Network Services (SNSs) have attracted millions of users, many of whom have integrated these sites into their daily practices. The domains of MAS and SNS have lots of similarities such as architecture, features and functions. Exploring social network users- behavior through multiagent model is therefore our research focus, in order to generate more accurate and meaningful information to SNS users. An application of MAS is the e-Auction and e-Rental services of the Universiti Cyber AgenT(UniCAT), a Social Network for students in Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), Kampar, Malaysia, built around the Belief- Desire-Intention (BDI) model. However, in spite of the various advantages of the BDI model, it has also been discovered to have some shortcomings. This paper therefore proposes a multi-agent framework utilizing a modified BDI model- Belief-Desire-Intention in Dynamic and Uncertain Situations (BDIDUS), using UniCAT system as a case study.

Keywords: Distributed Data Mining, Multi-Agent Systems, Preference-Based, SNS.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1502

Authors: Chanisada Choosuk, Napisporn Memongkol Runchana Sinthavalai, Fareeda Lambensah

Abstract:

The objective of this research is to explore the role of actors at the local level in managing the Pre-hospital Emergency Medical Service (EMS) system in Thailand. The research method was done through documentary research, individual interviews, and one forum conducted in each province. This paper uses the case of three provinces located in three regions in Thailand including; Ubon Ratchathani (North-eastern region), Lampang (Northern Region), and Songkhla (Southern Region). The result shows that, recently, the role of the local government in being the service provider for their local people is increasingly concerned. In identifying the key success factors towards the EMS system, it includes; (i) the local executives- vision and influence that the decisions made by them, for both PAO (Provincial Administration Organisation (PAO) and TAO (Tambon Administration Organisation), is vital to address the overall challenges in EMS development, (ii) the administrative system through reforming their working style create the flexibility in running the EMS task, (iii) the network-based management among different agencies at the local level leads to the better EMS practices, and (iv) the development in human resource is very vital in delivering the effective services.

Keywords: Local governments, Management, Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Thailand

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1623

Authors: Sabina Baraković, Dragan Jevtić, Jasmina Baraković Husić

Abstract:

Wireless mobile communications have experienced the phenomenal growth through last decades. The advances in wireless mobile technologies have brought about a demand for high quality multimedia applications and services. For such applications and services to work, signaling protocol is required for establishing, maintaining and tearing down multimedia sessions. The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is an application layer signaling protocols, based on request/response transaction model. This paper considers SIP INVITE transaction over an unreliable medium, since it has been recently modified in Request for Comments (RFC) 6026. In order to help in assuring that the functional correctness of this modification is achieved, the SIP INVITE transaction is modeled and analyzed using Colored Petri Nets (CPNs). Based on the model analysis, it is concluded that the SIP INVITE transaction is free of livelocks and dead codes, and in the same time it has both desirable and undesirable deadlocks. Therefore, SIP INVITE transaction should be subjected for additional updates in order to eliminate undesirable deadlocks. In order to reduce the cost of implementation and maintenance of SIP, additional remodeling of the SIP INVITE transaction is recommended.

Keywords: Colored Petri Nets, SIP INVITE, state space, dead marking

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2917

Authors: A. Al-Rifaie, Z. W. Guan, S. W. Jones

Abstract:

Beam to column connection can be considered as the most important structural part that affects the response of buildings to progressive collapse. However, many studies were conducted to investigate the beam to column connection under accidental loads such as fire, blast and impact load to investigate the connection response. The study is a part of a PhD plan to investigate different types of connections under lateral impact load. The conventional test setups, such as cruciform setup, were designed to apply shear forces and bending moment on the connection, whilst, in the lateral impact case, the connection is subjected to combined tension and moment. Hence, a review is presented to introduce the previous test setup that is used to investigate the connection behaviour. Then, the design and fabrication of the novel test setup is presented. Finally, some trial test results to investigate the efficiency of the proposed setup are discussed. The final results indicate that the setup was efficient in terms of the simplicity and strength.

Keywords: Connections, impact load, drop hammer, testing methods.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1197