Search results for: costs of environmental protection

Authors: K. Alese Boniface, K. Adu Michael, K. Owa Victor

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Security can be defined as the degree of resistance to, or protection from harm. It applies to any vulnerable and valuable assets, such as persons, dwellings, communities, nations or organizations. Cybercrime is any crime committed or facilitated via the Internet. It is any criminal activity involving computers and networks. It can range from fraud to unsolicited emails (spam). It includes the distant theft of government or corporate secrets through criminal trespass into remote systems around the globe. Nigeria like any other nations of the world is currently having her own share of the menace that has been used even as tools by terrorists. This paper is an attempt at presenting cyber security as an issue that requires a coordinated national response. It also acknowledges and advocates the key roles to be played by stakeholders and the importance of forging strong partnerships to prevent and tackle cybercrime in Nigeria. 

Keywords: Security, Cybercrime, Internet, Government, Stakeholders, Partnerships.

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Authors: Zeynep Ayfer Bozat

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As traditional innovation has already taken its place in managers’ to do lists; managers and companies have started to look for new ways to go beyond the traditional innovation. Because of its cost, traditional innovation became a burden for companies since they only use inner sources. Companies have intended to use outer innovation sources to decrease the innovation costs and Open Innovation has become a new solution for companies at this point. Crowdsourcing is a tool of Open Innovation and it consists of two words: Outsourcing and crowd. Crowdsourcing aims to benefit from the efforts and ideas of a virtual crowd via Internet technologies. In addition to that, crowdsourcing can help entrepreneurs to innovate and grow their businesses. They can crowd source anything they can use to grow their businesses: Ideas, investment, new business, new partners, new solutions, new policies, data, insight, marketing or talent. Therefore, the aim of the study is to be able to show some possible ways for entrepreneurs to benefit from crowdsourcing to expand or foster their businesses. In the study, the term crowdsourcing has been given in details and these possible ways have been searched and given.

Keywords: Crowdsourcing, entrepreneurship, innovation, open innovation.

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Authors: Ali Akbar Jamali

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This paper discusses site selection process for biological soil conservation planning. It was supported by a valuefocused approach and spatial multi-criteria evaluation techniques. A first set of spatial criteria was used to design a number of potential sites. Next, a new set of spatial and non-spatial criteria was employed, including the natural factors and the financial costs, together with the degree of suitability for the Bonkuh watershed to biological soil conservation planning and to recommend the most acceptable program. The whole process was facilitated by a new software tool that supports spatial multiple criteria evaluation, or SMCE in GIS software (ILWIS). The application of this tool, combined with a continual feedback by the public attentions, has provided an effective methodology to solve complex decisional problem in biological soil conservation planning.

Keywords: GIS, Biological soil conservation planning, Spatial multi-criteria evaluation, Iran

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Authors: Anshu Gupta

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Quality evaluation of urban environment is an integral part of efficient urban environment planning and management. The development of fuzzy set theory (FST) and the introduction of FST to the urban study field attempts to incorporate the gradual variation and avoid loss of information. Urban environmental quality assessment pertain to interpretation and forecast of the urban environmental quality according to the national regulation about the permitted content of contamination for the sake of protecting human health and subsistence environment . A strategic motor vehicle control strategy has to be proposed to mitigate the air pollution in the city. There is no well defined guideline for the assessment of urban air pollution and no systematic study has been reported so far for Indian cities. The methodology adopted may be useful in similar cities of India. Remote sensing & GIS can play significant role in mapping air pollution.

Keywords: GIS, Pollution, Remote Sensing, Urban.

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Authors: Dong Wook Lee

Abstract:

This paper describes a method for analyzing penetration for composite material using an explicit nonlinear Finite Element Analysis (FEA). This method may be used in the early stage of design for the protection of military vehicles, aircraft engines and nuclear power plant structures made of composite materials. This paper deals with simple ballistic penetration tests for composite materials and the FEA modeling method and results. The FEA was performed to interpret the ballistic field test phenomenon regarding the damage propagation in the structure subjected to local foreign object impact.

Keywords: Computer Aided Engineering, CAE, Finite Element Analysis, FEA, impact analysis, penetration analysis, composite material.

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Authors: M. Sedighizadeh, A. Rezazadeh

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Due to the increasing penetration of wind energy, it is necessary to possess design tools that are able to simulate the impact of these installations in utility grids. In order to provide a net contribution to this issue a detailed wind park model has been developed and is briefly presented. However, the computational costs associated with the performance of such a detailed model in describing the behavior of a wind park composed by a considerable number of units may render its practical application very difficult. To overcome this problem integral manifolds theory has been applied to reduce the order of the detailed wind park model, and therefore create the conditions for the development of a dynamic equivalent which is able to retain the relevant dynamics with respect to the existing a.c. system. In this paper integral manifold method has been introduced for order reduction. Simulation results of the proposed method represents that integral manifold method results fit the detailed model results with a higher precision than singular perturbation method.

Keywords: Wind, Reduced Order, Integral Manifold.

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Authors: Flavio Araujo, Paulo Scalize, Julio Lima, Natalia Vieira, Antonio Albuquerque, Isabela Santos

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From a concern regarding the environmental impacts caused by the disposal of residues generated in Water Treatment Plants (WTP's), alternatives ways have been studied to use these residues as raw material for manufacture of building materials, avoiding their discharge on water streams, disposal on sanitary landfills or incineration. This paper aims to present the results of a research work, which is using WTR for replacing the soil content in the manufacturing of soil-cement floor with proportions of 0, 5, 10 and 15%. The samples tests showed a reduction mechanical strength in so far as has increased the amount of waste. The water absorption was below the maximum of 6% required by the standard. The application of WTR contributes to the reduction of the environmental damage in the water treatment industry.

Keywords: Residue, soil-cement floor, sustainable, WTP.

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Authors: F. Benkaci-Ali, R. Mekaoui, G. Eppe, E. De Pau, J. F. Faucont

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Team distillation assisted by microwave extraction (SDAM) considered as accelerated technique extraction is a combination of microwave heating and steam distillation, performed at atmospheric pressure. SDAM has been compared with the same technique coupled with the cryogrinding of seeds (SDAM -CG). Isolation and concentration of volatile compounds are performed by a single stage for the extraction of essential oil from Cuminum cyminum seeds. The essential oils extracted by these two methods for 5 min were quantitatively (yield) and qualitatively (aromatic profile) no similar. These methods yield an essential oil with higher amounts of more valuable oxygenated compounds, and allow substantial savings of costs, in terms of time, energy and plant material. SDAM and SDAM-CG is a green technology and appears as a good alternative for the extraction of essential oils from aromatic plants.

Keywords: Steam distillation, microwave extraction, Cuminum cyminum, chromatography, mass spectrometry

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Authors: Sushovan Sarkar, Debabrata Mazumder

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Solid waste management in steel industry is broadly classified in “4 Rs” i.e. reduce, reuse, recycle and restore the materials. Reuse and recycling the entire solid waste generated in the process of steel making is a viable solution in targeting a clean, green and zero waste technology leading to sustainable development of the steel industry. Solid waste management has gained importance in steel industry in view of its uncertainty, volatility and speculation due to world competitive standards, rising input costs, scarcity of raw materials and solid waste generated like in other sectors. The challenges that the steel Industry faces today are the requirement of a sustainable development by meeting the needs of our present generation without compromising the ability of future generations. Technologies are developed not only for gainful utilization of solid wastes in manufacture of conventional products but also for conversion of same in to completely new products.

Keywords: Reuse, recycle, solid waste, sustainable development.

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Authors: Adriana Ávila Zúñiga Nordfjeld

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This paper provides a literature review to document the state of the art with respect to handling “human bias” in decision making within the established quality management systems (QMS) and LEAN theory, in the context of shipbuilding. Previous research shows that in shipbuilding there is a huge deviation from the planned man-hours under the project management to the actual man-hours used because of errors in planning and reworks caused by human bias in the information flows, among others. This reduces the efficiency, and increases operational costs. Thus, the research question is how QMS and LEAN handle biases. The findings show the gap in studying the integration of methods to handle human bias in decision making into QMS and lean, not only within shipbuilding, but in general. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed for researchers and practitioners in the areas of decision making, QMS and LEAN, and future research is suggested.

Keywords: Human bias, decision making, LEAN Shipbuilding, quality management systems.

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Authors: Emmanuel U. Oleka, Anil Khanal, Ali R. Osareh, Gary L. Lebby

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Synchrophasor technology is fast being deployed in electric power grids all over the world and is fast changing the way the grids are managed. This trend is to continue until the entire power grids are fully connected so they can be monitored and controlled in real-time. Much achievement has been made in the synchrophasor technology development and deployment, and there are still much more to be achieved. For instance, real-time power grid control and protection potentials of synchrophasor are yet to be explored. It is of necessity that researchers keep in view the various challenges that still need to be overcome in expanding the frontiers of synchrophasor technology. This paper outlines the major challenges that should be dealt with in order to achieve the goal of total power grid visualization, monitoring, and control using synchrophasor technology.

Keywords: Electric power grid, Grid Visualization, Phasor Measurement Unit, Synchrophasor Technology.

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Authors: H. Shayeghi, H. Hosseini, A. Shabani, M. Mahdavi

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In this paper, optimal generation expansion planning (GEP) is investigated considering purchase prices, profits of independent power producers (IPPs) and reliability criteria using a new method based on hybrid coded Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). In this approach, optimal purchase price of each IPP is obtained by HCGA and reliability criteria are calculated by PSO technique. It should be noted that reliability criteria and the rate of carbon dioxide (CO2) emission have been considered as constraints of the GEP problem. Finally, the proposed method has been tested on the case study system. The results evaluation show that the proposed method can simply obtain optimal purchase prices of IPPs and is a fast method for calculation of reliability criteria in expansion planning. Also, considering the optimal purchase prices and profits of IPPs in generation expansion planning are caused that the expansion costs are decreased and the problem is solved more exactly.

Keywords: GEP Problem, IPPs, Reliability Criteria, GA, PSO.

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Authors: Norma Rodrigues Gomes

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This paper presents initiatives of Knowledge Management (KM) applied to Forensic Sciences field, especially developed at the Forensic Science Institute of the Brazilian Federal Police. Successful projects, related to knowledge sharing, drugs analysis and environmental crimes, are reported in the KM perspective. The described results are related to: a) the importance of having an information repository, like a digital library, in such a multidisciplinary organization; b) the fight against drug dealing and environmental crimes, enabling the possibility to map the evolution of crimes, drug trafficking flows, and the advance of deforestation in Amazon rain forest. Perspectives of new KM projects under development and studies are also presented, tracing an evolution line of the KM view at the Forensic Science Institute.

Keywords: Business Intelligence, Digital Library, Forensic Science, Knowledge Management

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Authors: Y. Fathi, B. Karimi, S. M. J. Mirzapour Al-e-Hashem

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Cross-docking includes receiving products supplied by a set of suppliers, unloading them from inbound trucks (ITs) at strip doors, consolidating and handling these products to stack doors based on their destinations, loading them into outbound trucks (OTs); then, delivering these products to customers. An effective assignment of the trucks to the doors would enhance the advantages of the cross-docking (e.g. reduction of the handling costs). This paper addresses the truck-to-door assignment problem in a cross-dock in which assignment of the ITs to the strip doors as well as assignment of the OTs to the stacks doors is determined so that total material handling cost in the cross-dock is minimized. Capacity constraints are applied for the ITs, OTs, strip doors, and stack doors. We develop a Quadratic Programming (QP) to formulate the problem. To solve it, the model is coded in LINGO software to specify the best assignment of the trucks to the doors.

Keywords: Cross-docking, truck-to-door assignment, supply chain, quadratic programming.

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Authors: Latha Parthiban, R. Subramanian

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Heart disease (HD) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the modern society. Medical diagnosis is an important but complicated task that should be performed accurately and efficiently and its automation would be very useful. All doctors are unfortunately not equally skilled in every sub specialty and they are in many places a scarce resource. A system for automated medical diagnosis would enhance medical care and reduce costs. In this paper, a new approach based on coactive neuro-fuzzy inference system (CANFIS) was presented for prediction of heart disease. The proposed CANFIS model combined the neural network adaptive capabilities and the fuzzy logic qualitative approach which is then integrated with genetic algorithm to diagnose the presence of the disease. The performances of the CANFIS model were evaluated in terms of training performances and classification accuracies and the results showed that the proposed CANFIS model has great potential in predicting the heart disease.

Keywords: CANFIS, genetic algorithms, heart disease, membership function.

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Authors: Ron Bishop, Jim Mitchell, Talitha Best

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The increase in air travel worldwide has resulted in a pilot shortage. To increase student pilot capacity and lower costs, flight schools have increased the use of recreational aircraft (RA) with technological advanced cockpits in flight schools. The impact of RA based training compared to general aviation (GA) aircraft training on student mental workload is not well understood. This research investigated student pilot (N = 17) awareness of mental workload between technologically advanced cockpit equipped RA training with analogue gauge equipped GA training. The results showed a significantly higher rating of mental workload across subscales of mental and physical demand on the NASA-TLX in recreational aviation aircraft training compared to GA aircraft. Similarly, thematic content analysis of follow-up questions identified that mental workload of the student pilots flying the RA was perceived to be more than the GA aircraft.

Keywords: Glass cockpit, flight training, mental workload, student pilot.

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Authors: Ahmed Z. Gabr, Ahmed A. Helal, Hussein E. Said

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With the incessant increase of power systems capacity and voltage grade, the safety of grounding grid becomes more and more prominent. In this paper, the designing substation grounding grid is presented by means of genetic algorithm (GA). This approach purposes to control the grounding cost of the power system with the aid of controlling grounding rod number and conductor lengths under the same safety limitations. The proposed technique is used for the design of the substation grounding grid in Khalda Petroleum Company “El-Qasr” power plant and the design was simulated by using CYMGRD software for results verification. The result of the design is highly complying with IEEE 80-2000 standard requirements.

Keywords: Genetic algorithm, optimum grounding grid design, power system analysis, power system protection, single layer model, substation.

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Authors: Khashayar Kashani Jou

Abstract:

Transportation is one of the most fundamental challenges of urban development in contemporary world. On the other hand, sustainable urban development has received tremendous public attention in the last few years. This trend in addition to other factors such as energy cost, environmental concerns, traffic congestion and the feeling of lack of belonging have contributed to the development of pedestrian areas. The purpose of this paper is to study the role of walkable streets in sustainable development of cities. Accordingly, a documentary research through valid sources has been utilized to substantiate this study. The findings demonstrate that walking can lead to sustainable urban development from physical, social, environmental, cultural, economic and political aspects. Also, pedestrian areas –which are the main context of walking- act as focal points of development in cities and have a great effect on modifying and stimulating of their adjacent urban spaces.

Keywords: Pedestrian area, Sustainable urban development, Walking, Woonerf

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Authors: Tuğrul Varol, Halil Barış Özel

Abstract:

In this study which has been conducted in Akçasu Forest Range District of Devrek Forest Directorate; 3 methods (weed control with labourer power, cover removal with Hitachi F20 Excavator, and weed control with agricultural equipment mounted on a Ferguson 240S agriculture tractor) were utilized in weed control efforts in regeneration of degraded oriental beech forests have been compared. In this respect, 3 methods have been compared by determining certain work hours and standard durations of unit areas (1 hectare). For this purpose, evaluating the tasks made with human and machine force from the aspects of duration, productivity and costs, it has been aimed to determine the most productive method in accordance with the actual ecological conditions of research field. Within the scope of the study, the time studies have been conducted for 3 methods used in weed control efforts. While carrying out those studies, the performed implementations have been evaluated by dividing them into business stages. Also, the actual data have been used while calculating the cost accounts. In those calculations, the latest formulas and equations which are also used in developed countries have been utilized. The variance of analysis (ANOVA) was used in order to determine whether there is any statistically significant difference among obtained results, and the Duncan test was used for grouping if there is significant difference. According to the measurements and findings carried out within the scope of this study, it has been found during living cover removal efforts in regeneration efforts in demolished oriental beech forests that the removal of weed layer in 1 hectare of field has taken 920 hours with labourer force, 15.1 hours with excavator and 60 hours with an equipment mounted on a tractor. On the other hand, it has been determined that the cost of removal of living cover in unit area (1 hectare) was 3220.00 TL for labourer power, 1250 TL for excavator and 1825 TL for equipment mounted on a tractor. According to the obtained results, it has been found that the utilization of excavator in weed control effort in regeneration of degraded oriental beech regions under actual ecological conditions of research field has been found to be more productive from both of aspects of duration and costs. These determinations carried out should be repeated in weed control efforts in degraded forest fields with different ecological conditions, it is compulsory for finding the most efficient weed control method. These findings will light the way of technical staff of forestry directorate in determination of the most effective and economic weed control method. Thus, the more actual data will be used while preparing the weed control budgets, and there will be significant contributions to national economy. Also the results of this and similar studies are very important for developing the policies for our forestry in short and long term.

Keywords: Artificial regeneration, weed control, oriental beech, productivity, mechanization, man power, cost analysis.

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Authors: Yong ZHANG, Xiamu NIU, Dongning ZHAO

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With the development of Internet and databases application techniques, the demand that lots of databases in the Internet are permitted to remote query and access for authorized users becomes common, and the problem that how to protect the copyright of relational databases arises. This paper simply introduces the knowledge of cloud model firstly, includes cloud generators and similar cloud. And then combined with the property of the cloud, a method of protecting relational databases copyright with cloud watermark is proposed according to the idea of digital watermark and the property of relational databases. Meanwhile, the corresponding watermark algorithms such as cloud watermark embedding algorithm and detection algorithm are proposed. Then, some experiments are run and the results are analyzed to validate the correctness and feasibility of the watermark scheme. In the end, the foreground of watermarking relational database and its research direction are prospected.

Keywords: cloud watermark, copyright protection, digitalwatermark, relational database

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Authors: Peter Burggräf, Moritz Krunke, Hanno Voet

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Due to shortening product and technology lifecycles, many companies use standardization approaches in product development and factory planning to reduce costs and time to market. Unlike large companies, where modular systems are already widely used, small and medium-sized companies often show a much lower degree of standardization due to lower scale effects and missing capacities for the development of these standards. To overcome these challenges, the development of industry sector specific standards in cooperations or by third parties is an interesting approach. This paper analyzes which branches that are mainly dominated by small or medium-sized companies might be especially interesting for the development of factory standards using the example of the German industry. For this, a key performance indicator based approach was developed that will be presented in detail with its specific results for the German industry structure.

Keywords: Factory planning, factory standards, industry sector specific standardization, production planning.

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Authors: M. Brandt, A. Peniak, J. Makarovič, P. Rafajdus

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This paper deals with a novel approach of power transformers diagnostics. This approach identifies the exact location and the range of a fault in the transformer and helps to reduce operation costs related to handling of the faulty transformer, its disassembly and repair. The advantage of the approach is a possibility to simulate healthy transformer and also all faults, which can occur in transformer during its operation without its disassembling, which is very expensive in practice. The approach is based on creating frequency dependent impedance of the transformer by sweep frequency response analysis measurements and by 3D FE parametrical modeling of the fault in the transformer. The parameters of the 3D FE model are the position and the range of the axial short circuit. Then, by comparing the frequency dependent impedances of the parametrical models with the measured ones, the location and the range of the fault is identified. The approach was tested on a real transformer and showed high coincidence between the real fault and the simulated one.

Keywords: Fault, finite element method, parametrical model of transformer, sweep frequency response analysis, transformer.

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Authors: H. Al-Baghli, F. Al-Asfour

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The current applied asphalt technology for Kuwait roads pavement infrastructure is the hot mix asphalt (HMA) pavement, including both pen grade and polymer modified bitumen (PMBs), that is produced and compacted at high temperature levels ranging from 150 to 180 °C. There are no current specifications for warm and cold mix asphalts in Kuwait’s Ministry of Public Works (MPW) asphalt standard and specifications. The process of the conventional HMA is energy intensive and directly responsible for the emission of greenhouse gases and other environmental hazards into the atmosphere leading to significant environmental impacts and raising health risk to labors at site. Warm mix asphalt (WMA) technology, a sustainable alternative preferred in multiple countries, has many environmental advantages because it requires lower production temperatures than HMA by 20 to 40 °C. The reduction of temperatures achieved by WMA originates from multiple technologies including foaming and chemical or organic additives that aim to reduce bitumen and improve mix workability. This paper presents a literature review of WMA technologies and techniques followed by an experimental study aiming to compare the results of produced WMA samples, using a water containing additive (foaming process), at different compaction temperatures with the HMA control volumetric properties mix designed in accordance to the new MPW’s specifications and guidelines.

Keywords: Warm-mix asphalt, water-bearing additives, foaming-based process, chemical additives, organic additives.

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Authors: A. O. Salami

Abstract:

The transportation problems are primarily concerned with the optimal way in which products produced at different plants (supply origins) are transported to a number of warehouses or customers (demand destinations). The objective in a transportation problem is to fully satisfy the destination requirements within the operating production capacity constraints at the minimum possible cost. The objective of this study is to determine ways of minimizing transportation cost in order to maximum profit. Data were sourced from the records of the Distribution Department of 7-Up Bottling Company Plc., Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria. The data were computed and analyzed using the three methods of solving transportation problem. The result shows that the three methods produced the same total transportation costs amounting to N1, 358, 019, implying that any of the method can be adopted by the company in transporting its final products to the wholesale dealers in order to minimize total production cost. 

Keywords: Allocation problem, Cost Minimization, Distribution system, Resources utilization.

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Authors: Kamalendu Pal

Abstract:

Supply chains are the backbone of trade and commerce. Their logistics use different transport corridors on regular basis for operational purpose. The international supply chain transport corridors include different infrastructure elements (e.g. weighbridge, package handling equipments, border clearance authorities, and so on). This paper presents the use of multi-agent systems (MAS) to model and simulate some aspects of transportation corridors, and in particular the area of weighbridge resource optimization for operational profit. An underlying multi-agent model provides a means of modeling the relationships among stakeholders in order to enable coordination in a transport corridor environment. Simulations of the costs of container unloading, reloading, and waiting time for queuing up tracks have been carried out using data sets. Results of the simulation provide the potential guidance in making decisions about optimal service resource allocation in a trade corridor.

Keywords: Multi-agent systems, simulation, supply chain, transport corridor, weighbridge.

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Authors: M. Schulze, P. Crespo Del Granado

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This paper considers the influence of promotion instruments for renewable energy sources (RES) on a multi-energy modeling framework. In Europe, so called Feed-in Tariffs are successfully used as incentive structures to increase the amount of energy produced by RES. Because of the stochastic nature of large scale integration of distributed generation, many problems have occurred regarding the quality and stability of supply. Hence, a macroscopic model was developed in order to optimize the power supply of the local energy infrastructure, which includes electricity, natural gas, fuel oil and district heating as energy carriers. Unique features of the model are the integration of RES and the adoption of Feed-in Tariffs into one optimization stage. Sensitivity studies are carried out to examine the system behavior under changing profits for the feed-in of RES. With a setup of three energy exchanging regions and a multi-period optimization, the impact of costs and profits are determined.

Keywords: Distributed generation, optimization methods, power system modeling, renewable energy.

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Authors: Haitham A. Haloush

Abstract:

Debtors' imprisonment in Jordan is a problematic issue since it impinges upon required financial guarantees that are presumably offered by debtors on the one hand, and infringes flagrantly the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on the other hand. Jordan lacks regulatory provisions in this respect and debtors' imprisonment is indirectly exercised in Jordan without giving a special legal attention to this concern. From this perspective, this research reviews the available regulations, standard laws and codes of conduct that might guide the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in the Jordanian context. Furthermore, this article will examine the suitability of the Jordanian legal system in providing sufficient protection for debtors. The author argues that there are serious obstacles in this aspect.

Keywords: The Jordanian Civil Code, the Jordanian Execution Law, imprisonment for debt, good faith, the Jordanian Constitution, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

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Authors: Y. Abdelrazig

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Evolutionary optimization methods such as genetic algorithms have been used extensively for the construction site layout problem. More recently, ant colony optimization algorithms, which are evolutionary methods based on the foraging behavior of ants, have been successfully applied to benchmark combinatorial optimization problems. This paper proposes a formulation of the site layout problem in terms of a sequencing problem that is suitable for solution using an ant colony optimization algorithm. In the construction industry, site layout is a very important planning problem. The objective of site layout is to position temporary facilities both geographically and at the correct time such that the construction work can be performed satisfactorily with minimal costs and improved safety and working environment. During the last decade, evolutionary methods such as genetic algorithms have been used extensively for the construction site layout problem. This paper proposes an ant colony optimization model for construction site layout. A simple case study for a highway project is utilized to illustrate the application of the model.

Keywords: Construction site layout, optimization, ant colony.

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Authors: Porntip Ruengtam

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This article is an extension of previous research presenting the relevant factors related to environmental perceptions, residential community, and the design of a healing environment, which have effects on the well-being and requirements of Thai elderly. Research methodology began with observations and interviews in three case studies in terms of the management processes and environment design of similar existing projects in Thailand. The interview results were taken to summarize with related theories and literature. A questionnaire survey was designed for data collection to confirm the factors of requirements in a residential community intended for the Thai elderly. A structural equation model (SEM) was formulated to explain the cause-effect factors for the requirements of a residential community for Thai elderly. The research revealed that the requirements of a residential community for Thai elderly were classified into three groups when utilizing a technique for exploratory factor analysis. The factors were comprised of (1) requirements for general facilities and activities, (2) requirements for facilities related to health and security, and (3) requirements for facilities related to physical exercise in the residential community. The results from the SEM showed the background of elderly people had a direct effect on their requirements for a residential community from various aspects. The results should lead to the formulation of policies for design and management of residential communities for the elderly in order to enhance quality of life as well as both the physical and mental health of the Thai elderly.

Keywords: Elderly, environmental design, residential community, structural equation modeling.

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Authors: N. Ravi Kumar, R. Kamalakannan

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The advancement of hybrid energy resources such as solar and wind power leading to the emergence of customer owned grid. It provides an opportunity to regulars to obtain low energy costs as well as enabling the power supplier to regulate the utility grid. There is a need to develop smart systems that will automatically submit energy demand schedule and monitors energy price signals in real-time without the prompt of customers. In this paper, a demand side energy management for a grid connected household and also smart preparation of electrical appliance have been presented. It also reduces electricity bill for the consumers in the grid. In addition to this, when production is high, the surplus energy fashioned in the customer owned grid is given to main grid or neighboring micro grids. The simulation of the entire system is presented using LabVIEW software.

Keywords: Distributed renewable energy resource, power storage devices, scheduling, smart meters, smart micro grid, electric vehicle.

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