Search results for: Large enterprises
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 2451

Search results for: Large enterprises

1761 Trapping Efficiency of Diesel Particles Through a Square Duct

Authors: Francis William S, Imtiaz Ahmed Choudhury, Ananda Kumar Eriki, A. John Rajan

Abstract:

Diesel Engines emit complex mixtures of inorganic and organic compounds in the form of both solid and vapour phase particles. Most of the particulates released are ultrafine nanoparticles which are detrimental to human health and can easily enter the body by respiration. The emissions standards on particulate matter release from diesel engines are constantly upgraded within the European Union and with future regulations based on the particles numbers released instead of merely mass, the need for effective aftertreatment devices will increase. Standard particulate filters in the form of wall flow filters can have problems with high soot accumulation, producing a large exhaust backpressure. A potential solution would be to combine the standard filter with a flow through filter to reduce the load on the wall flow filter. In this paper soot particle trapping has been simulated in different continuous flow filters of monolithic structure including the use of promoters, at laminar flow conditions. An Euler Lagrange model, the discrete phase model in Ansys used with user defined functions for forces acting on particles. A method to quickly screen trapping of 5 nm and 10 nm particles in different catalysts designs with tracers was also developed. Simulations of square duct monoliths with promoters show that the strength of the vortices produced are not enough to give a high amount of particle deposition on the catalyst walls. The smallest particles in the simulations, 5 and 10 nm particles were trapped to a higher extent, than larger particles up to 1000 nm, in all studied geometries with the predominant deposition mechanism being Brownian diffusion. The comparison of the different filters designed with a wall flow filter does show that the options for altering a design of a flow through filter, without imposing a too large pressure drop penalty are good.

Keywords: Diesel Engine trap, thermophoresis, Exhaust pipe, PM-Simulation modeling.

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1760 Financing - Scheduling Optimization for Construction Projects by using Genetic Algorithms

Authors: Hesham Abdel-Khalek, Sherif M. Hafez, Abdel-Hamid M. el-Lakany, Yasser Abuel-Magd

Abstract:

Investment in a constructed facility represents a cost in the short term that returns benefits only over the long term use of the facility. Thus, the costs occur earlier than the benefits, and the owners of facilities must obtain the capital resources to finance the costs of construction. A project cannot proceed without an adequate financing, and the cost of providing an adequate financing can be quite large. For these reasons, the attention to the project finance is an important aspect of project management. Finance is also a concern to the other organizations involved in a project such as the general contractor and material suppliers. Unless an owner immediately and completely covers the costs incurred by each participant, these organizations face financing problems of their own. At a more general level, the project finance is the only one aspect of the general problem of corporate finance. If numerous projects are considered and financed together, then the net cash flow requirements constitute the corporate financing problem for capital investment. Whether project finance is performed at the project or at the corporate level does not alter the basic financing problem .In this paper, we will first consider facility financing from the owner's perspective, with due consideration for its interaction with other organizations involved in a project. Later, we discuss the problems of construction financing which are crucial to the profitability and solvency of construction contractors. The objective of this paper is to present the steps utilized to determine the best combination of minimum project financing. The proposed model considers financing; schedule and maximum net area .The proposed model is called Project Financing and Schedule Integration using Genetic Algorithms "PFSIGA". This model intended to determine more steps (maximum net area) for any project with a subproject. An illustrative example will demonstrate the feature of this technique. The model verification and testing are put into consideration.

Keywords: Project Management, Large-scale ConstructionProjects, Cash flow, Interest, Investment, Loan, Optimization, Scheduling, Financing and Genetic Algorithms.

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1759 Hydrogen Production by Gasification of Biomass from Copoazu Waste

Authors: Emilio Delgado, William Aperador, Alis Pataquiva

Abstract:

Biomass is becoming a large renewable resource for power generation; it is involved in higher frequency in environmentally clean processes, and even it is used for biofuels preparation. On the other hand, hydrogen – other energy source – can be produced in a variety of methods including gasification of biomass. In this study, the production of hydrogen by gasification of biomass waste is examined. This work explores the production of a gaseous mixture with high power potential from Amazonas´ specie known as copoazu, using a counter-flow fixed-bed bioreactor.

Keywords: Copoazu, Gasification, Hydrogen production.

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1758 Thermoelectric Generators as Alternative Source for Electric Power

Authors: L. C. Ding, Bradley. G. Orr, K. Rahaoui, S. Truza, A. Date, A. Akbarzadeh

Abstract:

The research on thermoelectric has been a blooming field of research for the latest decade, owing to large amount of heat source available to be harvested, being eco-friendly and static in operation. This paper provides the performance of thermoelectric generator (TEG) with bulk material of bismuth telluride, Bi2Te3. Later, the performance of the TEGs is evaluated by considering attaching the TEGs on a plastic (polyethylene sheet) in contrast to the common method of attaching the TEGs on the metal surface.

Keywords: Electric power, heat transfer, renewable energy, thermoelectric generator.

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1757 Simulating Action Potential as a Linear Combination of Gating Dynamics

Authors: S. H. Sabzpoushan

Abstract:

In this research we show that the dynamics of an action potential in a cell can be modeled with a linear combination of the dynamics of the gating state variables. It is shown that the modeling error is negligible. Our findings can be used for simplifying cell models and reduction of computational burden i.e. it is useful for simulating action potential propagation in large scale computations like tissue modeling. We have verified our finding with the use of several cell models.

Keywords: Linear model, Action potential, gating dynamics.

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1756 Multigrid Bilateral Filter

Authors: Zongqing Lu

Abstract:

It has proved that nonlinear diffusion and bilateral filtering (BF) have a closed connection. Early effort and contribution are to find a generalized representation to link them by using adaptive filtering. In this paper a new further relationship between nonlinear diffusion and bilateral filtering is explored which pays more attention to numerical calculus. We give a fresh idea that bilateral filtering can be accelerated by multigrid (MG) scheme which likes the nonlinear diffusion, and show that a bilateral filtering process with large kernel size can be approximated by a nonlinear diffusion process based on full multigrid (FMG) scheme.

Keywords: Bilateral filter, multigrid

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1755 Open Cloud Computing with Fault Tolerance

Authors: K. Zuva, T. Zuva, K. O. M. Mapoka

Abstract:

Cloud Computing (CC) has become one of the most talked about emerging technologies that provides powerful computing and large storage environments through the use of the Internet. Cloud computing provides different dynamically scalable computing resources as a service. It brings economic benefits to individuals and businesses that adopt the technology. In theory adoption of cloud computing reduces capital and operational expenditure on information technology. For this to be a reality there is need to solve some challenges and at the same time addressing concerns that consumers have about cloud computing. This paper looks at Cloud Computing in general then highlights the challenges of Cloud Computing and finally suggests solutions to some of the challenges.

Keywords: Cloud Computing, SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, Internet.

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1754 Clustering Categorical Data Using Hierarchies (CLUCDUH)

Authors: Gökhan Silahtaroğlu

Abstract:

Clustering large populations is an important problem when the data contain noise and different shapes. A good clustering algorithm or approach should be efficient enough to detect clusters sensitively. Besides space complexity, time complexity also gains importance as the size grows. Using hierarchies we developed a new algorithm to split attributes according to the values they have and choosing the dimension for splitting so as to divide the database roughly into equal parts as much as possible. At each node we calculate some certain descriptive statistical features of the data which reside and by pruning we generate the natural clusters with a complexity of O(n).

Keywords: Clustering, tree, split, pruning, entropy, gini.

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1753 Influence of Model Hydrometeor Form on Probability of Discharge Initiation from Artificial Charged Water Aerosol Cloud

Authors: A. G. Temnikov, O. S. Belova, L. L. Chernensky, T. K. Gerastenok, N. Y. Lysov, A. V. Orlov, D. S. Zhuravkova

Abstract:

Hypothesis of the lightning initiation on the arrays of large hydrometeors are in the consideration. There is no agreement about the form the hydrometeors that could be the best for the lightning initiation from the thundercloud. Artificial charged water aerosol clouds of the positive or negative polarity could help investigate the possible influence of the hydrometeor form on the peculiarities and the probability of the lightning discharge initiation between the thundercloud and the ground. Artificial charged aerosol clouds that could create the electric field strength in the range of 5-6 kV/cm to 16-18 kV/cm have been used in experiments. The array of the model hydrometeors of the volume and plate form has been disposed near the bottom cloud boundary. It was established that the different kinds of the discharge could be initiated in the presence of the model hydrometeors array – from the cloud discharges up to the diffuse and channel discharges between the charged cloud and the ground. It was found that the form of the model hydrometeors could significantly influence the channel discharge initiation from the artificial charged aerosol cloud of the negative or positive polarity correspondingly. Analysis and generalization of the experimental results have shown that the maximal probability of the channel discharge initiation and propagation stimulation has been observed for the artificial charged cloud of the positive polarity when the arrays of the model hydrometeors of the cylinder revolution form have been used. At the same time, for the artificial charged clouds of the negative polarity, application of the model hydrometeor array of the plate rhombus form has provided the maximal probability of the channel discharge formation between the charged cloud and the ground. The established influence of the form of the model hydrometeors on the channel discharge initiation and from the artificial charged water aerosol cloud and its following successful propagation has been related with the different character of the positive and negative streamer and volume leader development on the model hydrometeors array being near the bottom boundary of the charged cloud. The received experimental results have shown the possibly important role of the form of the large hail particles precipitated in thundercloud on the discharge initiation.

Keywords: Cloud and channel discharges, hydrometeor form, lightning initiation, negative and positive artificial charged aerosol cloud.

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1752 Wireless Backhauling for 5G Small Cell Networks

Authors: Abdullah A. Al Orainy

Abstract:

Small cell backhaul solutions need to be cost-effective, scalable, and easy to install. This paper presents an overview of small cell backhaul technologies. Wireless solutions including TV white space, satellite, sub-6 GHz radio wave, microwave and mmWave with their backhaul characteristics are discussed. Recent research on issues like beamforming, backhaul architecture, precoding and large antenna arrays, and energy efficiency for dense small cell backhaul with mmWave communications is reviewed. Recent trials of 5G technologies are summarized.

Keywords: Backhaul, Small Cells, Wireless, 5G.

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1751 A New Modification of Nonlinear Conjugate Gradient Coefficients with Global Convergence Properties

Authors: Ahmad Alhawarat, Mustafa Mamat, Mohd Rivaie, Ismail Mohd

Abstract:

Conjugate gradient method has been enormously used to solve large scale unconstrained optimization problems due to the number of iteration, memory, CPU time, and convergence property, in this paper we find a new class of nonlinear conjugate gradient coefficient with global convergence properties proved by exact line search. The numerical results for our new βK give a good result when it compared with well known formulas.

Keywords: Conjugate gradient method, conjugate gradient coefficient, global convergence.

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1750 IKEv1 and IKEv2: A Quantitative Analyses

Authors: H.Soussi, M.Hussain, H.Afifi, D.Seret

Abstract:

Key management is a vital component in any modern security protocol. Due to scalability and practical implementation considerations automatic key management seems a natural choice in significantly large virtual private networks (VPNs). In this context IETF Internet Key Exchange (IKE) is the most promising protocol under permanent review. We have made a humble effort to pinpoint IKEv2 net gain over IKEv1 due to recent modifications in its original structure, along with a brief overview of salient improvements between the two versions. We have used US National Institute of Technology NIIST VPN simulator to get some comparisons of important performance metrics.

Keywords: Quantitative Analyses, IKEv1, IKEv2, NIIST.

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1749 Ergonomics Aspects of Work with Computers

Authors: Leena Korpinen, Rauno Pääkkönen, Fabriziomaria Gobba

Abstract:

This paper is based on a large questionnaire study. The paper presents how all participants and subgroups (upper- and lower-level white-collar workers) answered the question, “Have you had an ache, pain, or numbness, which you associate with desktop computer use, in the different body parts during the last 12 months?’ 14.6% of participants (19.4% of women and 8.2% of men) reported that they had often or very often physical symptoms in the neck. Even if our results cannot prove a causal relation of symptoms with computer use, show that workers believe that computer use can influence their wellbeing: this is important when devising treatment modalities to decrease these physical symptoms.

Keywords: Ergonomics, work, computer, symptoms.

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1748 New Insights for Soft Skills Development in Vietnamese Business Schools: Defining Essential Soft Skills for Maximizing Graduates’ Career Success

Authors: Hang T. T. Truong, Ronald S. Laura, Kylie Shaw

Abstract:

Within Vietnam's system of higher education, its schools of business play a vital role in supporting the country’s economic objectives. However, the crucial contribution of soft skills for maximal success within the business sector has to date not been adequately recognized by its business schools. This being so, the development of the business school curriculum in Vietnam has not been able to 'catch up', so to say, with the burgeoning need of students for a comprehensive soft skills program designed to meet the national and global business objectives of their potential employers. The burden of the present paper is first to reveal the results of our survey in Vietnam which make explicit the extent to which major Vietnamese industrial employers’ value the potential role that soft skill competencies can play in maximizing business success. Our final task will be to determine which soft skills employers discern as best serving to maximize the economic interests of Vietnam within the global marketplace. Semi-structured telephone interviews have been conducted with the 15 representative Head Employers of Vietnam's reputedly largest and most successful of the diverse business enterprises across Vietnam. The findings of the study indicate that all respondents highly value the increasing importance of soft skills in business success. Our critical analysis of respondent data reveals that 19 essential soft skills are deemed by employers as integral to business workplace efficacy and should thus be integrated into the formal business curriculum. We are confident that our study represents the first comprehensive and specific survey yet undertaken within the business sector in Vietnam which accesses and analyses the opinions of representative employers from major companies across the country in regard to the growing importance of 19 specific soft skills essential for maximizing overall business success. Our research findings also reveal that the integration into business school curriculums nationwide of the soft skills we have identified is of paramount importance to advance the national and global economic interests of Vietnam.

Keywords: Business curriculum, business graduates, employers’ perception, soft skills.

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1747 Saudi Twitter Corpus for Sentiment Analysis

Authors: Adel Assiri, Ahmed Emam, Hmood Al-Dossari

Abstract:

Sentiment analysis (SA) has received growing attention in Arabic language research. However, few studies have yet to directly apply SA to Arabic due to lack of a publicly available dataset for this language. This paper partially bridges this gap due to its focus on one of the Arabic dialects which is the Saudi dialect. This paper presents annotated data set of 4700 for Saudi dialect sentiment analysis with (K= 0.807). Our next work is to extend this corpus and creation a large-scale lexicon for Saudi dialect from the corpus.

Keywords: Arabic, Sentiment Analysis, Twitter, annotation.

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1746 Comparison of the DC/DC-Converters for Fuel Cell Applications

Authors: Oleksandr Krykunov

Abstract:

The source voltage of high-power fuel cell shows strong load dependence at comparatively low voltage levels. In order to provide the voltage of 750V on the DC-link for feeding electrical energy into the mains via a three phase inverter a step-up converter with a large step-up ratio is required. The output voltage of this DC/DC-converter must be stabile during variations of the load current and the voltage of the fuel cell. This paper presents the methods and results of the calculation of the efficiency and the expense for the realization for the circuits of the DC/DC-converter that meet these requirements.

Keywords: DC/DC-converter, calculation, efficiency, fuel cell.

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1745 An Asymptotic Formula for Pricing an American Exchange Option

Authors: Hsuan-Ku Liu

Abstract:

In this paper, the American exchange option (AEO) valuation problem is modelled as a free boundary problem. The critical stock price for an AEO is satisfied an integral equation implicitly. When the remaining time is large enough, an asymptotic formula is provided for pricing an AEO. The numerical results reveal that our asymptotic pricing formula is robust and accurate for the long-term AEO.

Keywords: Integral equation, asymptotic solution, free boundary problem, American exchange option.

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1744 Calculus-based Runtime Verification

Authors: Xuan Qi, Changzhi Zhao

Abstract:

In this paper, a uniform calculus-based approach for synthesizing monitors checking correctness properties specified by a large variety of logics at runtime is provided, including future and past time logics, interval logics, state machine and parameterized temporal logics. We present a calculus mechanism to synthesize monitors from the logical specification for the incremental analysis of execution traces during test and real run. The monitor detects both good and bad prefix of a particular kind, namely those that are informative for the property under investigation. We elaborate the procedure of calculus as monitors.

Keywords: calculus, eagle logic, monitor synthesis, runtime verification

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1743 Simulation of the Large Hadrons Collisions Using Monte Carlo Tools

Authors: E. Al Daoud

Abstract:

In many cases, theoretical treatments are available for models for which there is no perfect physical realization. In this situation, the only possible test for an approximate theoretical solution is to compare with data generated from a computer simulation. In this paper, Monte Carlo tools are used to study and compare the elementary particles models. All the experiments are implemented using 10000 events, and the simulated energy is 13 TeV. The mean and the curves of several variables are calculated for each model using MadAnalysis 5. Anomalies in the results can be seen in the muons masses of the minimal supersymmetric standard model and the two Higgs doublet model.

Keywords: Feynman rules, hadrons, Lagrangian, Monte Carlo, simulation.

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1742 Structural Parsing of Natural Language Text in Tamil Using Phrase Structure Hybrid Language Model

Authors: Selvam M, Natarajan. A M, Thangarajan R

Abstract:

Parsing is important in Linguistics and Natural Language Processing to understand the syntax and semantics of a natural language grammar. Parsing natural language text is challenging because of the problems like ambiguity and inefficiency. Also the interpretation of natural language text depends on context based techniques. A probabilistic component is essential to resolve ambiguity in both syntax and semantics thereby increasing accuracy and efficiency of the parser. Tamil language has some inherent features which are more challenging. In order to obtain the solutions, lexicalized and statistical approach is to be applied in the parsing with the aid of a language model. Statistical models mainly focus on semantics of the language which are suitable for large vocabulary tasks where as structural methods focus on syntax which models small vocabulary tasks. A statistical language model based on Trigram for Tamil language with medium vocabulary of 5000 words has been built. Though statistical parsing gives better performance through tri-gram probabilities and large vocabulary size, it has some disadvantages like focus on semantics rather than syntax, lack of support in free ordering of words and long term relationship. To overcome the disadvantages a structural component is to be incorporated in statistical language models which leads to the implementation of hybrid language models. This paper has attempted to build phrase structured hybrid language model which resolves above mentioned disadvantages. In the development of hybrid language model, new part of speech tag set for Tamil language has been developed with more than 500 tags which have the wider coverage. A phrase structured Treebank has been developed with 326 Tamil sentences which covers more than 5000 words. A hybrid language model has been trained with the phrase structured Treebank using immediate head parsing technique. Lexicalized and statistical parser which employs this hybrid language model and immediate head parsing technique gives better results than pure grammar and trigram based model.

Keywords: Hybrid Language Model, Immediate Head Parsing, Lexicalized and Statistical Parsing, Natural Language Processing, Parts of Speech, Probabilistic Context Free Grammar, Tamil Language, Tree Bank.

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1741 Semantic Web as an Enabling Technology for Better e-Services Addoption

Authors: Luka Pavlič, Marjan Heričko

Abstract:

E-services have significantly changed the way of doing business in recent years. We can, however, observe poor use of these services. There is a large gap between supply and actual eservices usage. This is why we started a project to provide an environment that will encourage the use of e-services. We believe that only providing e-service does not automatically mean consumers would use them. This paper shows the origins of our project and its current position. We discuss the decision of using semantic web technologies and their potential to improve e-services usage. We also present current knowledge base and its real-world classification. In the paper, we discuss further work to be done in the project. Current state of the project is promising.

Keywords: E-Services, E-Services Repository, Ontologies, Semantic Web

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1740 Parallel Block Backward Differentiation Formulas For Solving Large Systems of Ordinary Differential Equations

Authors: Zarina Bibi, I., Khairil Iskandar, O.

Abstract:

In this paper, parallelism in the solution of Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs) to increase the computational speed is studied. The focus is the development of parallel algorithm of the two point Block Backward Differentiation Formulas (PBBDF) that can take advantage of the parallel architecture in computer technology. Parallelism is obtained by using Message Passing Interface (MPI). Numerical results are given to validate the efficiency of the PBBDF implementation as compared to the sequential implementation.

Keywords: Ordinary differential equations, parallel.

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1739 Effect of Implementation of Nonlinear Sequence Transformations on Power Series Expansion for a Class of Non-Linear Abel Equations

Authors: Javad Abdalkhani

Abstract:

Convergence of power series solutions for a class of non-linear Abel type equations, including an equation that arises in nonlinear cooling of semi-infinite rods, is very slow inside their small radius of convergence. Beyond that the corresponding power series are wildly divergent. Implementation of nonlinear sequence transformation allow effortless evaluation of these power series on very large intervals..

Keywords: Nonlinear transformation, Abel Volterra Equations, Mathematica

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1738 Face Recognition: A Literature Review

Authors: A. S. Tolba, A.H. El-Baz, A.A. El-Harby

Abstract:

The task of face recognition has been actively researched in recent years. This paper provides an up-to-date review of major human face recognition research. We first present an overview of face recognition and its applications. Then, a literature review of the most recent face recognition techniques is presented. Description and limitations of face databases which are used to test the performance of these face recognition algorithms are given. A brief summary of the face recognition vendor test (FRVT) 2002, a large scale evaluation of automatic face recognition technology, and its conclusions are also given. Finally, we give a summary of the research results.

Keywords: Combined classifiers, face recognition, graph matching, neural networks.

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1737 Banking Union: A New Step towards Completing the Economic and Monetary Union

Authors: Marijana Ivanov, Roman Šubić

Abstract:

This study analyzes the critical gaps in the architecture of European stability and the expected role of the banking union as the new important step towards completing the Economic and Monetary Union that should enable the creation of safe and sound financial sector for the euro area market. The single rulebook together with the Single Supervisory Mechanism and the Single Resolution Mechanism - as two main pillars of the banking union, should provide a consistent application of common rules and administrative standards for supervision, recovery and resolution of banks – with the final aim of replacing the former bail-out practice with the bail-in system through which possible future bank failures would be resolved by their own funds, i.e. with minimal costs for taxpayers and real economy. In this way, the vicious circle between banks and sovereigns would be broken. It would also reduce the financial fragmentation recorded in the years of crisis as the result of divergent behaviors in risk premium, lending activities and interest rates between the core and the periphery. In addition, it should strengthen the effectiveness of monetary transmission channels, in particular the credit channels and overflows of liquidity on the money market which, due to the fragmentation of the common financial market, has been significantly disabled in period of crisis. However, contrary to all the positive expectations related to the future functioning of the banking union, major findings of this study indicate that characteristics of the economic system in which the banking union will operate should not be ignored. The euro area is an integration of strong and weak entities with large differences in economic development, wealth, assets of banking systems, growth rates and accountability of fiscal policy. The analysis indicates that low and unbalanced economic growth remains a challenge for the maintenance of financial stability and this problem cannot be resolved just by a single supervision. In many countries bank assets exceed their GDP by several times and large banks are still a matter of concern, because of their systemic importance for individual countries and the euro zone as a whole. The creation of the Single Supervisory Mechanism and the Single Resolution Mechanism is a response to the European crisis, which has particularly affected peripheral countries and caused the associated loop between the banking crisis and the sovereign debt crisis, but has also influenced banks’ balance sheets in the core countries, as the result of crossborder capital flows. The creation of the SSM and the SRM should prevent the similar episodes to happen again and should also provide a new opportunity for strengthening of economic and financial systems of the peripheral countries. On the other hand, there is a potential threat that future focus of the ECB, resolution mechanism and other relevant institutions will be extremely oriented towards large and significant banks (whereby one half of them operate in the core and most important euro area countries), and therefore it remains questionable to what extent will the common resolution funds will be used for rescue of less important institutions. Recent geopolitical developments will be the optimal indicator to show whether the previously established mechanisms are sufficient enough to maintain the adequate financial stability in the euro area market.

Keywords: Banking Union, financial integration, single supervisory mechanism (SSM).

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1736 3D CFD Modelling of the Airflow and Heat Transfer in Cold Room Filled with Dates

Authors: Zina Ghiloufi, Tahar Khir

Abstract:

A transient three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is developed to determine the velocity and temperature distribution in different positions cold room during pre-cooling of dates. The turbulence model used is the k-ω Shear Stress Transport (SST) with the standard wall function, the air. The numerical results obtained show that cooling rate is not uniform inside the room; the product at the medium of room has a slower cooling rate. This cooling heterogeneity has a large effect on the energy consumption during cold storage.

Keywords: Numerical simulation, CFD, k-ω (SST), cold room, dates, cooling rate.

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1735 Circular Economy Maturity Models: A Systematic Literature Review

Authors: D. Kreutzer, S. Müller-Abdelrazeq, I. Isenhardt

Abstract:

Resource scarcity, energy transition and the planned climate neutrality pose enormous challenges for manufacturing companies. In order to achieve these goals and a holistic sustainable development, the European Union has listed the circular economy as part of the Circular Economy Action Plan. In addition to a reduction in resource consumption, reduced emissions of greenhouse gases and a reduced volume of waste, the principles of the circular economy also offer enormous economic potential for companies, such as the generation of new circular business models. However, many manufacturing companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, do not have the necessary capacity to plan their transformation. They need support and strategies on the path to circular transformation because this change affects not only production but also the entire company. Maturity models offer an approach to determine the current status of companies’ transformation processes. In addition, companies can use the models to identify transformation strategies and thus promote the transformation process. While maturity models are established in other areas, e.g., IT or project management, only a few circular economy maturity models can be found in the scientific literature. The aim of this paper is to analyze the identified maturity models of the circular economy through a systematic literature review (SLR) and, besides other aspects, to check their completeness as well as their quality. For this purpose, circular economy maturity models at the company's (micro) level were identified from the literature, compared, and analyzed with regard to their theoretical and methodological structure. A specific focus was placed, on the one hand, on the analysis of the business units considered in the respective models and, on the other hand, on the underlying metrics and indicators in order to determine the individual maturity level of the entire company. The results of the literature review show, for instance, a significant difference in the number and types of indicators as well as their metrics. For example, most models use subjective indicators and very few objective indicators in their surveys. It was also found that there are rarely well-founded thresholds between the levels. Based on the generated results, concrete ideas and proposals for a research agenda in the field of circular economy maturity models are made.

Keywords: Circular economy, maturity model, maturity assessment, systematic literature review.

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1734 IVE: Virtual Humans AI Prototyping Toolkit

Authors: Cyril Brom, Zuzana Vlckova

Abstract:

IVE toolkit has been created for facilitating research,education and development in the ?eld of virtual storytelling andcomputer games. Primarily, the toolkit is intended for modellingaction selection mechanisms of virtual humans, investigating level-of-detail AI techniques for large virtual environments, and for exploringjoint behaviour and role-passing technique (Sec. V). Additionally, thetoolkit can be used as an AI middleware without any changes. Themain facility of IVE is that it serves for prototyping both the AI andvirtual worlds themselves. The purpose of this paper is to describeIVE?s features in general and to present our current work - includingan educational game - on this platform.Keywords? AI middleware, simulation, virtual world.

Keywords: AI middleware, simulation, virtual world

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1733 Strategic Software Development: Productivity Comparisons of General Development Programs

Authors: Craig Comstock, Zhizhong Jiang, Peter Naudé

Abstract:

Productivity has been one of the major concerns with the increasingly high cost of software development. Choosing the right development language with high productivity is one approach to reduce development costs. Working on the large database with 4106 projects ever developed, we found the factors significant to productivity. After the removal of the effects of other factors on productivity, we compare the productivity differences of the ten general development programs. The study supports the fact that fourth-generation languages are more productive than thirdgeneration languages.

Keywords: Functional point, language, productivity, software engineering.

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1732 Impact of Scale on Rock Strength

Authors: Roland Pusch, Richard Weston

Abstract:

The scale dependence of the strength of virtually homogeneous rock is usually considered to be insignificant but the spectrum of discontinuities plays a very important role for the strength of differently sized rock elements and also controls the rock creep strain. Large-scale load tests comprised recording of the creep strain rate that was found to be strongly retarded and negligible for stresses lower than about 1/3 of the failure load. For higher stresses creep took place according to a log time law representing secondary creep that ultimately changed to tertiary creep and failure.

Keywords: Impact of scale, rock strength.

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