Search results for: power management

Authors: M. A. Putera, N. Yasufuku, A. Alowaisy, R. Ishikura, J. G. Hussary, A. Rifa’i

Abstract:

Indonesia’s government has planned a project for a high-speed railway connecting the capital cities, Jakarta and Surabaya, about 700 km. Based on that location, it has been planning construction above the lowland soil region. The lowland soil region comprises cohesive soil with high water content and high compressibility index, which in fact, led to a settlement problem. Among the variety of railway track structures, the adoption of the ballastless track was used effectively to reduce the settlement; it provided a lightweight structure and minimized workspace. Contradictorily, deploying this thin layer structure above the lowland area was compensated with several problems, such as lack of bearing capacity and deflection behavior during traffic loading. It is necessary to combine with ground improvement to assure a settlement behavior on the clayey soil. Reflecting on the assurance of strength increment and working period, those were convinced by adopting methods such as cement-treated soil as the substructure of railway track. Particularly, evaluating mechanical properties in the field has been well known by using the plate load test and cone penetration test. However, observing an increment of mechanical properties has uncertainty, especially for evaluating cement-treated soil on the substructure. The current quality control of cement-treated soils was established by laboratory tests. Moreover, using small strain devices measurement in the laboratory can predict more reliable results that are identical to field measurement tests. Aims of this research are to show an intercorrelation of confining pressure with the initial condition of the Young’s modulus (E0), Poisson ratio (υ0) and Shear modulus (G0) within small strain ranges. Furthermore, discrepancies between those parameters were also investigated. Experimental result confirmed the intercorrelation between cement content and confining pressure with a power function. In addition, higher cement ratios have discrepancies, conversely with low mixing ratios.

Keywords: Cement content, confining pressure, high-speed railway, small strain ranges.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 423

Authors: Carlo Bellettini, Alessandro Marchetto, Andrea Trentini

Abstract:

Web applications have become complex and crucial for many firms, especially when combined with areas such as CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and BPR (Business Process Reengineering). The scientific community has focused attention to Web application design, development, analysis, testing, by studying and proposing methodologies and tools. Static and dynamic techniques may be used to analyze existing Web applications. The use of traditional static source code analysis may be very difficult, for the presence of dynamically generated code, and for the multi-language nature of the Web. Dynamic analysis may be useful, but it has an intrinsic limitation, the low number of program executions used to extract information. Our reverse engineering analysis, used into our WAAT (Web Applications Analysis and Testing) project, applies mutational techniques in order to exploit server side execution engines to accomplish part of the dynamic analysis. This paper studies the effects of mutation source code analysis applied to Web software to build application models. Mutation-based generated models may contain more information then necessary, so we need a pruning mechanism.

Keywords: Validation, Dynamic Analysis, MutationAnalysis, Reverse Engineering, Web Applications

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1624

Authors: Lily Ingsrisawang, Supawadee Ingsriswang, Saisuda Somchit, Prasert Aungsuratana, Warawut Khantiyanan

Abstract:

This paper presents the methodology from machine learning approaches for short-term rain forecasting system. Decision Tree, Artificial Neural Network (ANN), and Support Vector Machine (SVM) were applied to develop classification and prediction models for rainfall forecasts. The goals of this presentation are to demonstrate (1) how feature selection can be used to identify the relationships between rainfall occurrences and other weather conditions and (2) what models can be developed and deployed for predicting the accurate rainfall estimates to support the decisions to launch the cloud seeding operations in the northeastern part of Thailand. Datasets collected during 2004-2006 from the Chalermprakiat Royal Rain Making Research Center at Hua Hin, Prachuap Khiri khan, the Chalermprakiat Royal Rain Making Research Center at Pimai, Nakhon Ratchasima and Thai Meteorological Department (TMD). A total of 179 records with 57 features was merged and matched by unique date. There are three main parts in this work. Firstly, a decision tree induction algorithm (C4.5) was used to classify the rain status into either rain or no-rain. The overall accuracy of classification tree achieves 94.41% with the five-fold cross validation. The C4.5 algorithm was also used to classify the rain amount into three classes as no-rain (0-0.1 mm.), few-rain (0.1- 10 mm.), and moderate-rain (>10 mm.) and the overall accuracy of classification tree achieves 62.57%. Secondly, an ANN was applied to predict the rainfall amount and the root mean square error (RMSE) were used to measure the training and testing errors of the ANN. It is found that the ANN yields a lower RMSE at 0.171 for daily rainfall estimates, when compared to next-day and next-2-day estimation. Thirdly, the ANN and SVM techniques were also used to classify the rain amount into three classes as no-rain, few-rain, and moderate-rain as above. The results achieved in 68.15% and 69.10% of overall accuracy of same-day prediction for the ANN and SVM models, respectively. The obtained results illustrated the comparison of the predictive power of different methods for rainfall estimation.

Keywords: Machine learning, decision tree, artificial neural network, support vector machine, root mean square error.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3230

Authors: A. Dashti, M. Eskandari, L. Farahmand, P. Parvin, A. Jafargholi

Abstract:

Breast Cancer is one of the most considerable diseases in the United States and other countries and is the second leading cause of death in women. Common breast cancer treatments would lead to adverse side effects such as loss of hair, nausea, and weakness. These complications arise because these cancer treatments damage some healthy cells while eliminating the cancer cells. In an effort to address these complications, laser radiation was utilized and tested as a targeted cancer treatment for breast cancer. In this regard, tissue engineering approaches are being employed by using an electrospun scaffold in order to facilitate the growth of breast cancer cells. Polycaprolacton (PCL) was used as a material for scaffold fabricating because of its biocompatibility, biodegradability, and supporting cell growth. The specific breast cancer cells have the ability to create a three-dimensional cell cluster due to the spontaneous accumulation of cells in the porosity of the scaffold under some specific conditions. Therefore, we are looking for a higher density of porosity and larger pore size. Fibers showed uniform diameter distribution and final scaffold had optimum characteristics with approximately 40% porosity. The images were taken by SEM and the density and the size of the porosity were determined with the Image. After scaffold preparation, it has cross-linked by glutaraldehyde. Then, it has been washed with glycine and phosphate buffer saline (PBS), in order to neutralize the residual glutaraldehyde. 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromidefor (MTT) results have represented approximately 91.13% viability of the scaffolds for cancer cells. In order to create a cluster, Michigan Cancer Foundation-7 (MCF-7, breast cancer cell line) and Michigan Cancer Foundation-10A (MCF-10A, human mammary epithelial cell line) cells were cultured on the scaffold in 24 well plate for five days. Then, we have exposed the cluster to the laser diode 808 nm radiation to investigate the effect of laser on the tumor with different power and time. Under the same conditions, cancer cells lost their viability more than the healthy ones. In conclusion, laser therapy is a viable method to destroy the target cells and has a minimum effect on the healthy tissues and cells and it can improve the other method of cancer treatments limitations.

Keywords: Breast cancer, electrospun scaffold, polycaprolacton, laser diode, cancer treatment.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 820

Authors: C. Papapicco

Abstract:

Motherhood is an existential human relationship that lasts for the whole life and is always interwoven with subjectivity and culture. As a result of the brain drain, the motherhood becomes motherhood at distance. Starting from the hypothesis that re-signification of the mother at distance practices is culturally relevant; the research aims to understand the experience of mother at a distance in order to extrapolate the strategies of management of the empty nest. Specifically, the research aims to evaluate the experience of a brain drain’s mother, who created a blog that intends to take care of other parents at a distance. Actually, the blog is the only artifact symbol of the Italian culture of motherhood at distance. In the research, a Netnographic Analysis of the blog mammedicervelliinfuga.com is offered with the aim of understanding if the online world becomes an opportunity to manage the role of mother at a distance. A narrative interview with the blog creator was conducted and then the texts were analyzed by means of a Diatextual Analysis approach. It emerged that the migration projects of talented children take on different meanings and representations for parents. Thus, it is shown that the blog becomes a new form of understanding and practicing motherhood at a distance.

Keywords: Brain drain, diatextual analysis, distance motherhood blog, online and offline narrations.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 466

Authors: Amir Ikram, Qin Su, Muhammad Fiaz, Muhammad Waqas Shabbir

Abstract:

Women entrepreneurship witnessed a healthy rise in the last decade or so, and the scenario in Pakistan is not different. However female leaders are facing various, cultural, career oriented, and professional challenges. The study investigates the impact of social and industry-specific challenges on female entrepreneurship; social challenges was evaluated in terms of culture, and industry-specific challenges was measured in terms of team management and career growth. Purposive sampling was employed to collect data from 75 multicultural organizations operating in the culturally diverse and historic city of Lahore, Pakistan. Cronbach’s alpha was conducted to endorse the reliability of survey questionnaire, while correlation and regression analysis were used to test hypotheses. Industry-specific challenges were found to be more significant as compared to cultural factors. The paper also highlights the importance of female entrepreneurship for emerging economies, and suggests that bringing women to mainstream professions can lead to economic success.

Keywords: Cultural challenges, emerging economy, female entrepreneurship, leadership.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1925

Authors: Wei-Yi Yang, Li-Hui Lee, Hsiao-Li Gien, Hsing-Yi Chu, Yi-Ting Chou, Der-Ming Liou

Abstract:

The American Health Level Seven (HL7) Reference Information Model (RIM) consists of six back-bone classes that have different specialized attributes. Furthermore, for the purpose of enforcing the semantic expression, there are some specific mandatory vocabulary domains have been defined for representing the content values of some attributes. In the light of the fact that it is a duplicated effort on spending a lot of time and human cost to develop and modify Clinical Information Systems (CIS) for most hospitals due to the variety of workflows. This study attempts to design and develop sharing RIM-based components of the CIS for the different business processes. Therefore, the CIS contains data of a consistent format and type. The programmers can do transactions with the RIM-based clinical repository by the sharing RIM-based components. And when developing functions of the CIS, the sharing components also can be adopted in the system. These components not only satisfy physicians- needs in using a CIS but also reduce the time of developing new components of a system. All in all, this study provides a new viewpoint that integrating the data and functions with the business processes, it is an easy and flexible approach to build a new CIS.

Keywords: HL7, Reference Information Model (RIM), web service, process management.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1886

Authors: Bruce K. Ferguson

Abstract:

The design requirements for successful human accommodation in urban spaces are well known; and the range of facilities available for meeting urban water quality and quantity requirements is also well established. Their competing requirements must be reconciled in order for urban spaces to be successful for both. This paper outlines the separate human and water imperatives and their interactions in urban spaces. Stormwater management facilities- relative potential contributions to urban spaces are contrasted, and design choices for achieving those potentials are described. This study uses human success of urban space as the evaluative criterion of stormwater amenity: human values call on stormwater facilities to contribute to successful human spaces. Placing water-s contribution under the overall idea of successful urban space is an evolution from previous subjective evaluations. The information is based on photographs and notes from approximately 1,000 stormwater facilities and urban sites collected during the last 35 years in North America and overseas, and the author-s experience on multi-disciplinary design teams. This conceptual study combines the disciplinary roles of engineering, landscape architecture, and sociology in effecting successful urban design.

Keywords: Stormwater, SUDS, Urban design, Values, Urban space.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1840

Authors: Tahvilian R., Siahi Shadbad MR., Hamishehkar H., Aghababa Gharehbagh V.

Abstract:

Nowadays pharmaceutical care departments located in hospitals are amongst the important pillars of the healthcare system. The aim of this study was to evaluate quality of hospital drugstores affiliated with Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences. In this cross-sectional study a validated questionnaire was used. The questionnaire was filled in by the one of the researchers in all seventeen hospital drugstores located in the teaching and nonteaching hospitals affiliated with Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences. The results shows that in observed hospitals,24% of pharmacy environments, 25% of pharmacy store and storage conditions, 49% of storage procedure, 25% of ordering drugs and supplies, 73% of receiving supplies (proper procedure are fallowed for receiving supplies), 35% of receiving supplies (prompt action taken if deterioration of drugs received is suspected), 23.35% of drugs delivery to patients and finally 0% of stock cards are used for proper inventory control have full compliance with standards.

Keywords: Hospital pharmacy standards, Kermanshah, pharmacy management

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1854

Authors: Mukesh Singh Boori, Venerando Eustáquio Amaro, Helenice Vital

Abstract:

The present study has been carried out with a view to calculate the coastal vulnerability index (CVI) to know the high and low sensitive areas and area of inundation due to future SLR. Both conventional and remotely sensed data were used and analyzed through the modelling technique. Out of the total study area, 8.26% is very high risk, 14.21% high, 9.36% medium, 22.46% low and 7.35% in the very low vulnerable category, due to costal components. Results of the inundation analysis indicate that 225.2 km² and 397 km² of the land area will be submerged by flooding at 1m and 10m inundation levels. The most severely affected sectors are expected to be the residential, industrial and recreational areas. As this coast is planned for future coastal developmental activities, measures such as industrializations, building regulation, urban growth planning and agriculture, development of an integrated coastal zone management, strict enforcement of the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Act, monitoring of impacts and further research in this regard are recommended for the study area.

Keywords: Coastal planning, land use, satellite data, vulnerability.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1986

Authors: Paul O. Udofot, Emem B. Inyang

Abstract:

The study investigated the variability in aptitude amidst interactive effects of several social and environmental factors that could influence individual tendencies to engage in entrepreneurship in Nigeria. Consequently, the study targeted a population having similar backgrounds in type and level of higher education that are tailored toward enterprise management and development in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. A two-stage sampling procedure was used to select 67 respondents. Primarily, the study assessed the salient pattern of entrepreneurship aptitude of respondents, and estimated and analyzed the index against their personal characteristics. Male respondents belonged to two extremes of aptitude index ranges (poor and high). Though female respondents did not exhibit a poor entrepreneurship aptitude index, the incidence percentage of the high index range of entrepreneurship aptitude among male trainees was more than the combined incidence percentage of their female counterparts. Respondents’ backgrounds outside gender presented a serious influence on entrepreneurship uptake likelihood if all situations were normal.

Keywords: Aptitude, entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial orientation, gender divide, intention, trainee.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 933

Authors: F. Simba, L. Trojer, N.H. Mvungi, B.M. Mwinyiwiwa, E.M. Mjema

Abstract:

In response to address different development challenges, Tanzania is striving to achieve its fourth attribute of the National Development Vision, i.e. to have a well educated and learned society by the year 2025. One of the most cost effective methods that can reach a large part of the society in a short time is to integrate ICT in education through e-learning initiatives. However, elearning initiatives are challenged by limited or lack of connectivity to majority of secondary schools, especially those in rural and remote areas. This paper has explores the possibility for rural secondary school to access online e-Learning resources from a centralized e- Learning Management System (e-LMS). The scope of this paper is limited to schools that have computers irrespective of internet connectivity, resulting in two categories schools; those with internet access and those without. Different connectivity configurations have been proposed according to the ICT infrastructure status of the respective schools. However, majority of rural secondary schools in Tanzania have neither computers nor internet connection. Therefore this is a challenge to be addressed for the disadvantaged schools to benefit from e-Learning initiatives.

Keywords: connectivity, configuration, e-Learning, replication, rural.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1967

Authors: Dongfang Qiu, Yilin Lu

Abstract:

The measurement of enterprise-university-research cooperative efficiency has important meanings in improving the cooperative efficiency, strengthening the effective integration of regional resource, enhancing the ability of regional innovation and promoting the development of regional economy. The paper constructs the DEA method and DEA-Malmquist productivity index method to research the cooperation efficiency of Hubei by making comparisons with other provinces in China. The study found out the index of technology efficiency is 0.52 and the enterprise-universityresearch cooperative efficiency is Non-DEA efficient. To realize the DEA efficiency of Hubei province, the amount of 1652.596 R&D employees and 638.368 R&D employees’ full time equivalence should be reduced or 137.89 billion yuan of new products’ sales income be increased. Finally, it puts forward policy recommendations on existing problems to strengthen the standings of the cooperation, realize the effective application of the research results, and improve the level of management of enterprise-university-research cooperation efficiency.

Keywords: Cooperation Ability, DEA Method, Enterprise-university-research Cooperation, Malmquist Efficiency Index.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1688

Authors: Jiri F. Urbanek, Jiri Barta, Oldrich Svoboda, Jiri J. Urbanek

Abstract:

The organizations of European and Czech critical infrastructure have specific position, mission, characteristics and behaviour in European Union and Czech state/business environments, regarding specific requirements for regional and global security environments. They must respect policy of national security and global rules, requirements and standards in all their inherent and outer processes of supply - customer chains and networks. A controlling is generalized capability to have control over situational policy. This paper aims and purposes are to introduce the controlling as quite new necessary process attribute providing for critical infrastructure is environment the capability and profit to achieve its commitment regarding to the effectiveness of the quality management system in meeting customer/ user requirements and also the continual improvement of critical infrastructure organization’s processes overall performance and efficiency, as well as its societal security via continual planning improvement via DYVELOP modelling.

Keywords: Added Value, DYVELOP, Controlling, Environments, Process Approach.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1756

Authors: Rosidah Musa, Rezian-na Muhammad Kassim

Abstract:

The purpose of this research is to disentangle and validate the underlying factorial-structure of Ecotourism Experiential Value (EEV) measurement scale and subsequently investigate its psychometric properties. The analysis was based on a sample of 225 eco-tourists, collected at the vicinity of Taman Negara National Park (TNNP) via interviewer-administered questionnaire. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed to determine the factorial structure of EEV. Subsequently, to confirm and validate the factorial structure and assess the psychometric properties of EEV, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was executed. In addition, to establish the nomological validity of EEV a structural model was developed to examine the effect of EEV on Total Eco-tourist Experience Quality (TEEQ). It is unveiled that EEV is a secondorder six-factorial structure construct and it scale has adequately met the psychometric criteria, thus could permit interpretation of results confidently. The findings have important implications for future research directions and management of ecotourism destination.

Keywords: ecotourism, experiential value, experience quality, national park,

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2026

Authors: C. Adam, G. Henri, T. Levent, J.-B. Mauro, A. -L. Mayet

Abstract:

This paper is concerning the application of a deterministic decisional pattern to a multi-agent system which would provide intelligence to a distributed energy smart grid at local consumer level. Development of multi-agent application involves agent specifications, analysis, design and realization. It can be implemented by following several decisional patterns. The purpose of present article is to suggest a new approach to control the smart grid system in a decentralized competitive approach. The proposed algorithmic solution results from a deterministic dichotomous approach based on environment observation. It uses an iterative process to solve automatic learning problems. Through memory of collected past tries, the algorithm monotonically converges to very steep system operation point in attraction basin resulting from weak system nonlinearity. In this sense, system is given by (local) constitutive elementary rules the intelligence of its global existence so that it can self-organize toward optimal operating sequence.

Keywords: Decentralized Competitive System, Distributed Smart Grid, Multi-Agent System

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1686

Authors: Thitaporn Thoopputra, Tipaporn Pongmesa, Shuchuen Li

Abstract:

Aims: To evaluate the application of non-invasive diabetes risk assessment tool in community pharmacy setting. Methods: Thai diabetes risk score was applied to assess individuals at risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Interactive computer-based risk screening (IT) and paper-based risk screening (PT) tools were applied. Participants aged over 25 years with no known diabetes were recruited in six participating pharmacies. Results: A total of 187 clients, mean aged (+SD) was 48.6 (+10.9) years. 35% were at high risk. The mean value of willingness-to-pay for the service fee in IT group was significantly higher than PT group (p=0.013). No significant difference observed for the satisfaction between groups. Conclusions: Non-invasive risk assessment tool, whether paper-based or computerized-based can be applied in community pharmacy to support the enhancing role of pharmacists in chronic disease management. Long term follow up is needed to determine the impact of its application in clinical, humanistic and economic outcomes.

Keywords: Community pharmacy, intervention, prevention, risk assessment, type 2 diabetes.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2204

Authors: Jirarat Teeravaraprug, Tarathorn Podcharathitikull

Abstract:

Nowadays, Ministry of Industry has given an attention to develop Eco-industrial towns in Thailand. Eco-industrial towns are a way of demonstrating the application of industrial ecology and are subjects of increased interest as government, business and society. This concept of Eco-industrial town is quite new in Thailand. It is used as a way of achieving more sustainable industrial development. However, many firms or organizations have misunderstood the concept and treated with suspicion. The planning and development of Eco-industrial towns is a significant challenge for the developers and public agencies. This research then gives an attempt to determine current problems of being Eco-Industrial towns and determine success factors for developing Eco-Industrial towns in Thailand. The research starts with giving knowledge about Eco-industrial towns to stakeholders and conducting public hearing in order to acquire the problems of being Eco-industrial towns. Then, factors effecting the development of Eco-Industrial town are collected. The obtained factors are analyzed by using the concept of IOC. Then, the remained factors are categorized and structured based on the concept of AHP. A questionnaire is constructed and distributed to the experts who are involved in the Eco-industrial town project. The result shows that the most significant success criterion is management teams of industrial parks or groups and the second most significant goes to governmental policies.

Keywords: AHP, Eco-industrial town, success factors, Thailand.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1885

Authors: Giacomo Barbieri

Abstract:

In soilless culture, the management of the nutrient solution is the most important aspect for crop growing. Fertigation dose, frequency and nutrient concentration must be planned with the objective of reaching an optimal crop growth by limiting the utilized resources and the associated costs. The definition of efficient fertigation strategies is a complex problem since fertigation requirements vary on the basis of different factors, and crops are sensitive to small variations on fertigation parameters. To the best of author knowledge, a small-scale test bench that is flexible for both nutrient solution preparation and precise irrigation is currently missing, limiting the investigations in standard practices for soilless culture. Starting from the analysis of the state of the art, this paper proposes a small-scale system that is potentially able to concurrently test different fertigation strategies. The system will be designed and implemented throughout a three year project started on August 2018. However, due to the importance of the topic within current challenges as food security and climate change, this work is spread considering that may inspire other universities and organizations.

Keywords: Soilless culture, fertigation, test bench, small-scale, automation.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1072

Authors: Simon E. Uguru, Victor E. Idigo, Obinna S. Oguejiofor, Naveed Nawaz

Abstract:

As the deployment of the Fifth Generation (5G) mobile communication networks take shape all over the world, achieving spectral efficiency, energy efficiency, and dealing with interference are among the greatest challenges encountered so far. The aim of this study is to mitigate inter-cell interference (ICI) in a multi-cell multi-antenna system while maximizing the spectral efficiency of the system. In this study, a system model was devised that showed a miniature representation of a multi-cell multi-antenna system. Based on this system model, a convex optimization problem was formulated to maximize the spectral efficiency of the system while mitigating the ICI. This optimization problem was solved using CVX, which is a modeling system for constructing and solving discipline convex programs. The solutions to the optimization problem are sub-optimal coordinated beamformers. These coordinated beamformers direct each data to the served user equipments (UEs) in each cell without interference during downlink transmission, thereby maximizing the system-wide spectral efficiency.

Keywords: coordinated beamforming, convex optimization, inter-cell interference, multi-antenna, multi-cell, spectral efficiency

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 450

Authors: Masaru Furukawa, Shigeki Hirobayashi, Tadanobu Misawa

Abstract:

Nowadays, IT/Business strategy alignment is still a key topic of concern among managers worldwide. Change has always being considered the primary challenge affecting the strategy alignment. Planning for alignment in uncertain and dynamic changing environments is burdened with risk as organizations seek to understand how much flexibility to build in their management information system so as to maintain high levels of alignment. The literature review showed that there is a tight relationship between IT infrastructure flexibility and the strategy alignment with strategic information systems (SIS) planning serving as a moderator of this relationship, and that emphasized the needs for organizations to use SIS planning consistently and to monitor the relationship between IS flexibility and the alignment. This paper presents the procedure of SIS planning with IS flexibility renovation via future oriented analysis of POC (penalty of change) as a function of cost and time. Using this SIS planning and monitoring IS flexibility and the alignment during periods of increased change in dynamic and uncertain environments reduces the risk that could transform IT into an inhibitor rather than an enabler of change.

Keywords: IT/Business strategy alignment, strategic information systems (SIS) planning, IS flexibility, penalty of change (POC).

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

Authors: Faheem Ahmed, Piers Campbell, Ahmad Jaffar, Luiz Capretz

Abstract:

Free and open source software is gaining popularity at an unprecedented rate of growth. Organizations despite some concerns about the quality have been using them for various purposes. One of the biggest concerns about free and open source software is post release software defects and their fixing. Many believe that there is no appropriate support available to fix the bugs. On the contrary some believe that due to the active involvement of internet user in online forums, they become a major source of communicating the identification and fixing of defects in open source software. The research model of this empirical investigation establishes and studies the relationship between open source software defects and online public forums. The results of this empirical study provide evidence about the realities of software defects myths of open source software. We used a dataset consist of 616 open source software projects covering a broad range of categories to study the research model of this investigation. The results of this investigation show that online forums play a significant role identifying and fixing the defects in open source software.

Keywords: About Open source software, software engineering, software defect management, empirical software engineering.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1777

Authors: Anjaneyulu M.V.L.R., Harikrishna M., Chenchuobulu S.

Abstract:

Rapid urbanization, industrialization and population growth have led to an increase in number of automobiles that cause air pollution. It is estimated that road traffic contributes 60% of air pollution in urban areas. A case by case assessment is required to predict the air quality in urban situations, so as to evolve certain traffic management measures to maintain the air quality levels with in the tolerable limits. Calicut city in the state of Kerala, India has been chosen as the study area. Carbon Monoxide (CO) concentration was monitored at 15 links in Calicut city and air quality performance was evaluated over each link. The CO pollutant concentration values were compared with the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), and the CO values were predicted by using CALINE4 and IITLS and Linear regression models. The study has revealed that linear regression model performs better than the CALINE4 and IITLS models. The possible association between CO pollutant concentration and traffic parameters like traffic flow, type of vehicle, and traffic stream speed was also evaluated.

Keywords: CO pollution, Modelling, Traffic stream parameters.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2366

Authors: Kalum Priyanath Udagepola, Zuo Decheng, Wu Zhibo, Yang Xiaozong

Abstract:

Modern spatial database management systems require a unique Spatial Access Method (SAM) in order solve complex spatial quires efficiently. In this case the spatial data structure takes a prominent place in the SAM. Inadequate data structure leads forming poor algorithmic choices and forging deficient understandings of algorithm behavior on the spatial database. A key step in developing a better semantic spatial object data structure is to quantify the performance effects of semantic and outlier detections that are not reflected in the previous tree structures (R-Tree and its variants). This paper explores a novel SSRO-Tree on SAM to the Topo-Semantic approach. The paper shows how to identify and handle the semantic spatial objects with outlier objects during page overflow/underflow, using gain/loss metrics. We introduce a new SSRO-Tree algorithm which facilitates the achievement of better performance in practice over algorithms that are superior in the R*-Tree and RO-Tree by considering selection queries.

Keywords: Outlier, semantic spatial object, spatial objects, SSRO-Tree, topo-semantic.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1695

Authors: D. O. Omondi, M. K. Walingo, G. M. Mbagaya, L. O. A. Othuon

Abstract:

Understanding patient factors related to physical activity behavior is important in the management of Type 2 Diabetes. This study applied the Theory of Planned Behavior model to understand physical activity behavior among sampled Type 2 diabetics in Kenya. The study was conducted within the diabetic clinic at Kisii Level 5 Hospital and adopted sequential mixed methods design beginning with qualitative phase and ending with quantitative phase. Qualitative data was analyzed using grounded theory analysis method. Structural equation modeling using maximum likelihood was used to analyze quantitative data. The common fit indices revealed that the theory of planned behavior fitted the data acceptably well among the Type 2 diabetes and within physical activity behavior {¤ç2 = 213, df = 84, n=230, p = .061, ¤ç2/df = 2.53; TLI = .97; CFI =.96; RMSEA (90CI) = .073(.029, .08)}. This theory proved to be useful in understanding physical activity behavior among Type 2 diabetics.

Keywords: Physical activity, Theory of Planned Behavior, Type2 diabetes, Kenya.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1984

Authors: R. Rajabpour, N. Talebbeydokhti, M. H. Ahmadi

Abstract:

Carefully scheduling the operations of pumps can be resulted to significant energy savings. Schedules can be defined either implicit, in terms of other elements of the network such as tank levels, or explicit by specifying the time during which each pump is on/off. In this study, two new explicit representations based on timecontrolled triggers were analyzed, where the maximum number of pump switches was established beforehand, and the schedule may contain fewer switches than the maximum. The optimal operation of pumping stations was determined using a Jumping Particle Swarm Optimization (JPSO) algorithm to achieve the minimum energy cost. The model integrates JPSO optimizer and EPANET hydraulic network solver. The optimal pump operation schedule of VanZyl water distribution system was determined using the proposed model and compared with those from Genetic and Ant Colony algorithms. The results indicate that the proposed model utilizing the JPSO algorithm is a versatile management model for the operation of realworld water distribution system.

Keywords: JPSO, operation, optimization, water distribution system.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2052

Authors: Ibrahim Cil, Onur Kurtcu, H. Ibrahim Demir, Furkan Yener, Yusuf. S. Turkan, Muharrem Unver, Ramazan Evren

Abstract:

Fuzzy AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) method is decision-making way at the end of integrating the current AHP method with fuzzy structure. In this study, the processes of production planning, inventory management and purchasing department of a system were analysed and were requested to decide the performance criteria of each area. At this point, the current work processes were analysed by various decision-makers and comparing each criteria by giving points according to 1-9 scale were completed. The criteria were listed in order to their weights by using Fuzzy AHP approach and top three performance criteria of each department were determined. After that, the performance criteria of supply chain consisting of three departments were asked to determine. The processes of each department were compared by decision-makers at the point of building the supply chain performance system and getting the performance criteria. According to the results, the criteria of performance system of supply chain by using Fuzzy AHP were determined for which will be used in the supply chain performance system in the future.

Keywords: AHP, fuzzy, performance evaluation, supply chain.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1060

Authors: Ahmed Mateen, Zhu Qingsheng, Faisal Shahzad

Abstract:

Requirement Engineering (RE) is a part being created for programming structure during the software development lifecycle. Software product line development is a new topic area within the domain of software engineering. It also plays important role in decision making and it is ultimately helpful in rising business environment for productive programming headway. Decisions are central to engineering processes and they hold them together. It is argued that better decisions will lead to better engineering. To achieve better decisions requires that they are understood in detail. In order to address the issues, companies are moving towards Software Product Line Engineering (SPLE) which helps in providing large varieties of products with minimum development effort and cost. This paper proposed a new framework for software product line and compared with other models. The results can help to understand the needs in SPL testing, by identifying points that still require additional investigation. In our future scenario, we will combine this model in a controlled environment with industrial SPL projects which will be the new horizon for SPL process management testing strategies.

Keywords: Requirements engineering, software product lines, scoping, process structure, domain specific language.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 828

Authors: Florian Wohlfeil, Orestis Terzidis, Louisa Hellmann

Abstract:

Radical technological innovations enable companies to reach strong market positions and are thus desirable. On the other hand, the innovation process is related to significant costs and risks. Hence, the knowledge of the factors that influence success is crucial for technology driven companies. Taking a previously developed framework of Critical Success Factors for radical technological innovations as a reference model, we conducted a structured and focused literature review of eleven standard books within the field of technology and innovation management. With this approach we aim to evaluate, expand, and clarify the set of Critical Success Factors detailed in this framework. Overall, the set of factors and their allocation to the main categories of the framework could be confirmed. However, the factor organizational home is not emphasized and discussed in most of the reviewed literature. On the other hand, an additional factor that has not been part of the framework is described to be important – strategy fit. Furthermore, the factors strategic alliances and platform strategy appear in the literature but in a different context compared to the reference model.

Keywords: Critical success factors, radical technological innovation, TOMP framework, innovation process.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2054

Authors: Javad Majrouhi Sardroud, Mukesh C. Limbachiya

Abstract:

Construction projects generally take place in uncontrolled and dynamic environments where construction waste is a serious environmental problem in many large cities. The total amount of waste and carbon dioxide emissions from transportation vehicles are still out of control due to increasing construction projects, massive urban development projects and the lack of effective tools for minimizing adverse environmental impacts in construction. This research is about utilization of the integrated applications of automated advanced tracking and data storage technologies in the area of environmental management to monitor and control adverse environmental impacts such as construction waste and carbon dioxide emissions. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) integrated with the Global Position System (GPS) provides an opportunity to uniquely identify materials, components, and equipments and to locate and track them using minimal or no worker input. The transmission of data to the central database will be carried out with the help of Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM).

Keywords: Clear environment, Construction industry, RFID.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1868