Search results for: Hadoop framework
312 A Systems Modeling Approach to Support Environmentally Sustainable Business Development in Manufacturing SMEs
Authors: Manuel Seidel, Rainer Seidel, Des Tedford, Richard Cross, Logan Wait
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Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in many economies. In New Zealand, for example, 97% of all manufacturing companies employ less than 100 staff, and generate the predominant part of this industry sector-s economic output. Manufacturing SMEs as a group also have a significant impact on the environment. This situation is similar in many developed economies, including the European Union. Sustainable economic development therefore needs to strongly consider the role of manufacturing SMEs, who generally find it challenging to move towards more environmentally friendly business practices. This paper presents a systems thinking approach to modelling and understanding the factors which have an influence on the successful uptake of environmental practices in small and medium sized manufacturing companies. It presents a number of causal loop diagrams which have been developed based on primary action research, and a thorough understanding of the literature in this area. The systems thinking model provides the basis for further development of a strategic framework for the successful uptake of environmental innovation in manufacturing SMEs.
Keywords: Environmentally benign manufacturing, SMEs, Systems modeling.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2072311 Managing Truck Drivers’ Fatigue: A Critical Review of the Literature and Recommended Remedies
Authors: Mozhgan Aliakbari, Sara Moridpour
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In recent years, much attention has been given to truck drivers’ fatigue management. Long working hours negatively influence truck drivers’ physiology, health, and safety. However, there is little empirical research in the heavy vehicle transport sector in Australia to identify the influence of working hours’ management on drivers’ fatigue and consequently, on the risk of crashes and injuries. There is no national legislation regulating the number of hours or kilometres travelled by truck drivers. Consequently, it is almost impossible to define a standard number of hours or kilometres for truck drivers in a safety management system. This paper reviews the existing studies concerning safe system interventions such as tachographs in relation to fatigue caused by long working hours. This paper also reviews the literature to identify the influence of frequency of rest breaks on the reduction of work-related road transport accidents involving trucks. A framework is presented to manage truck drivers’ fatigue, which may result in the reduction of injuries and fatalities involving heavy vehicles.Keywords: Fatigue, time management, trucks, traffic safety.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1441310 Effect of the Tidal Charge Parameter on Temperature Anisotropies of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
Authors: Evariste Norbert Boj, Jan Schee
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We present the calculations of the temperature anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR) caused by an inhomogeneous region (the clump) within the Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) model of the Universe build in the framework of the Randall-Sundrum one brane model. We present two spherically symmetrical and statical models of the clump, the braneworld Reissner-Nordstrom black hole (bRNBH) and the perfect fluid sphere of uniform density matched to the FLRW spacetime via an external bRNBH. The boundary of the vacuum region expands, which induces an additional frequency shift to a photon of the CMBR passing through this inhomogeneity in comparison to the case of a photon propagating through a pure FLRW spacetime. This frequency shift is associated with an effective change of temperature of the CMBR in the corresponding direction. We give estimates on the changes of the effective temperature of the CMBR’s photon with the change of parameters describing the brane and the induced tidal forces from the bulk.
Keywords: Braneworld, CMBR, Randall-Sundrum model, Rees-Sciama effect, Reissner-Nordstrom black hole.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 338309 Development of Maximum Entropy Method for Prediction of Droplet-size Distribution in Primary Breakup Region of Spray
Authors: E. Movahednejad, F. Ommi
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Droplet size distributions in the cold spray of a fuel are important in observed combustion behavior. Specification of droplet size and velocity distributions in the immediate downstream of injectors is also essential as boundary conditions for advanced computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and two-phase spray transport calculations. This paper describes the development of a new model to be incorporated into maximum entropy principle (MEP) formalism for prediction of droplet size distribution in droplet formation region. The MEP approach can predict the most likely droplet size and velocity distributions under a set of constraints expressing the available information related to the distribution. In this article, by considering the mechanisms of turbulence generation inside the nozzle and wave growth on jet surface, it is attempted to provide a logical framework coupling the flow inside the nozzle to the resulting atomization process. The purpose of this paper is to describe the formulation of this new model and to incorporate it into the maximum entropy principle (MEP) by coupling sub-models together using source terms of momentum and energy. Comparison between the model prediction and experimental data for a gas turbine swirling nozzle and an annular spray indicate good agreement between model and experiment.Keywords: Droplet, instability, Size Distribution, Turbulence, Maximum Entropy
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2566308 QoS Expectations in IP Networks: A Practical View
Authors: S. Arrizabalaga, A. Salterain, M. Domínguez, I. Alvaro
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Traditionally, Internet has provided best-effort service to every user regardless of its requirements. However, as Internet becomes universally available, users demand more bandwidth and applications require more and more resources, and interest has developed in having the Internet provide some degree of Quality of Service. Although QoS is an important issue, the question of how it will be brought into the Internet has not been solved yet. Researches, due to the rapid advances in technology are proposing new and more desirable capabilities for the next generation of IP infrastructures. But neither all applications demand the same amount of resources, nor all users are service providers. In this way, this paper is the first of a series of papers that presents an architecture as a first step to the optimization of QoS in the Internet environment as a solution to a SMSE's problem whose objective is to provide public service to internet with certain Quality of Service expectations. The service provides new business opportunities, but also presents new challenges. We have designed and implemented a scalable service framework that supports adaptive bandwidth based on user demands, and the billing based on usage and on QoS. The developed application has been evaluated and the results show that traffic limiting works at optimum and so it does exceeding bandwidth distribution. However, some considerations are done and currently research is under way in two basic areas: (i) development and testing new transfer protocols, and (ii) developing new strategies for traffic improvements based on service differentiation.
Keywords: Differentiated Services, Linux, Quality of Service, queueing disciplines, web application.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1914307 Education for Sustainability Using PBL on an Engineering Course at the National University of Colombia
Authors: Hernán G. Cortés-Mora, José I. Péna-Reyes, Alfonso Herrera-Jiménez
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This article describes the implementation experience of Project-Based Learning (PBL) in an engineering course of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, with the aim of strengthening student skills necessary for the exercise of their profession under a sustainability framework. Firstly, we present a literature review on the education for sustainability field, emphasizing the skills and knowledge areas required for its development, as well as the commitment of the Faculty of Engineering of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, and other engineering faculties of the country, regarding education for sustainability. This article covers the general aspects of the course, describes how students team were formed, and how their experience was during the first semester of 2017. During this period two groups of students decided to develop their course project aiming to solve a problem regarding a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) that works with head-of-household mothers in a low-income neighborhood in Bogota (Colombia). Subsequently, we show how sustainability is involved in the course, how tools are provided to students, and how activities are developed as to strengthen their abilities, which allows them to incorporate sustainability in their projects while also working on the methodology used to develop said projects. Finally, we introduce the results obtained by the students who sent the prototypes of their projects to the community they were working on and the conclusions reached by them regarding the course experience.Keywords: Sustainability, project based learning, engineering education, higher education for sustainability.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 812306 Developing Marketing Strategy in Nonmetallic Mineral Industry at the Business Level
Authors: Nader Gharibnavaz, Naser Gharibnavaz
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This study extends research on the relationship between marketing strategy and market segmentation by investigating on market segments in the cement industry. Competitive strength and rivals distance from the factory were used as business environment. A three segment (positive, neutral or indifferent and zero zones) were identified as strategic segments. For each segment a marketing strategy (aggressive, defensive and decline) were developed. This study employed data from cement industry to fulfill two objectives, the first is to give a framework to the segmentation of cement industry and the second is developing marketing strategy with varying competitive strength. Fifty six questionnaires containing close-and open-ended questions were collected and analyzed. Results supported the theory that segments tend to be more aggressive than defensive when competitive strength increases. It is concluded that high strength segments follow total market coverage, concentric diversification and frontal attack to their competitors. With decreased competitive strength, Business tends to follow multi-market strategy, product modification/improvement and flank attack to direct competitors for this kind of segments. Segments with weak competitive strength followed focus strategy and decline strategy.Keywords: Marketing strategy, Competitive strength, Market Segmentation
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1752305 On-line Recognition of Isolated Gestures of Flight Deck Officers (FDO)
Authors: Deniz T. Sodiri, Venkat V S S Sastry
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The paper presents an on-line recognition machine (RM) for continuous/isolated, dynamic and static gestures that arise in Flight Deck Officer (FDO) training. RM is based on generic pattern recognition framework. Gestures are represented as templates using summary statistics. The proposed recognition algorithm exploits temporal and spatial characteristics of gestures via dynamic programming and Markovian process. The algorithm predicts corresponding index of incremental input data in the templates in an on-line mode. Accumulated consistency in the sequence of prediction provides a similarity measurement (Score) between input data and the templates. The algorithm provides an intuitive mechanism for automatic detection of start/end frames of continuous gestures. In the present paper, we consider isolated gestures. The performance of RM is evaluated using four datasets - artificial (W TTest), hand motion (Yang) and FDO (tracker, vision-based ). RM achieves comparable results which are in agreement with other on-line and off-line algorithms such as hidden Markov model (HMM) and dynamic time warping (DTW). The proposed algorithm has the additional advantage of providing timely feedback for training purposes.Keywords: On-line Recognition Algorithm, IsolatedDynamic/Static Gesture Recognition, On-line Markovian/DynamicProgramming, Training in Virtual Environments.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1322304 RadMote: A Mobile Framework for Radiation Monitoring in Nuclear Power Plants
Authors: Javier Barbaran, Manuel Dıaz, Inaki Esteve, Bartolome Rubio
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Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have attracted the attention of many researchers. This has resulted in their rapid integration in very different areas such as precision agriculture,environmental monitoring, object and event detection and military surveillance. Due to the current WSN characteristics this technology is specifically useful in industrial areas where security, reliability and autonomy are basic, such as nuclear power plants, chemical plants, and others. In this paper we present a system based on WSNs to monitor environmental conditions around and inside a nuclear power plant, specifically, radiation levels. Sensor nodes, equipped with radiation sensors, are deployed in fixed positions throughout the plant. In addition, plant staff are also equipped with mobile devices with higher capabilities than sensors such as for example PDAs able to monitor radiation levels and other conditions around them. The system enables communication between PDAs, which form a Mobile Ad-hoc Wireless Network (MANET), and allows workers to monitor remote conditions in the plant. It is particularly useful during stoppage periods for inspection or in the event of an accident to prevent risk situations.Keywords: MANETs, Mobile computing, Radiation monitoring, Wireless Sensor Networks.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2002303 Development of EREC IF Model to Increase Critical Thinking and Creativity Skills of Undergraduate Nursing Students
Authors: Kamolrat Turner, Boontuan Wattanakul
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Critical thinking and creativity are prerequisite skills for working professionals in the 21st century. A survey conducted in 2014 at the Boromarajonani College of Nursing, Chon Buri, Thailand, revealed that these skills within students across all academic years was at a low to moderate level. An action research study was conducted to develop the EREC IF Model, a framework which includes the concepts of experience, reflection, engagement, culture and language, ICT, and flexibility and fun, to guide pedagogic activities for 75 sophomores of the undergraduate nursing science program at the college. The model was applied to all professional nursing courses. Prior to implementation, workshops were held to prepare lecturers and students. Both lecturers and students initially expressed their discomfort and pointed to the difficulties with the model. However, later they felt more comfortable, and by the end of the project they expressed their understanding and appreciation of the model. A survey conducted four and eight months after implementation found that the critical thinking and creativity skills of the sophomores were significantly higher than those recorded in the pretest. It could be concluded that the EREC IF model is efficient for fostering critical thinking and creativity skills in the undergraduate nursing science program. This model should be used for other levels of students.
Keywords: Critical thinking, creativity, undergraduate nursing students, EREC IF model.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2161302 Business Intelligence for N=1 Analytics using Hybrid Intelligent System Approach
Authors: Rajendra M Sonar
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The future of business intelligence (BI) is to integrate intelligence into operational systems that works in real-time analyzing small chunks of data based on requirements on continuous basis. This is moving away from traditional approach of doing analysis on ad-hoc basis or sporadically in passive and off-line mode analyzing huge amount data. Various AI techniques such as expert systems, case-based reasoning, neural-networks play important role in building business intelligent systems. Since BI involves various tasks and models various types of problems, hybrid intelligent techniques can be better choice. Intelligent systems accessible through web services make it easier to integrate them into existing operational systems to add intelligence in every business processes. These can be built to be invoked in modular and distributed way to work in real time. Functionality of such systems can be extended to get external inputs compatible with formats like RSS. In this paper, we describe a framework that use effective combinations of these techniques, accessible through web services and work in real-time. We have successfully developed various prototype systems and done few commercial deployments in the area of personalization and recommendation on mobile and websites.Keywords: Business Intelligence, Customer Relationship Management, Hybrid Intelligent Systems, Personalization and Recommendation (P&R), Recommender Systems.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2061301 Driving Mechanism of Urban Sprawl in Chinese Context from the Perspective of Domestic and Overseas Comparison
Authors: Tingke Wu, Yaping Huang
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Many cities in China have been experiencing serious urban sprawl since the 1980s, which pose great challenges to a country with scare cultivated land and huge population. Because of different social and economic context and development stage, driving forces of urban sprawl in China are quite different from developed countries. Therefore, it is of great importance to probe into urban sprawl driving mechanism in Chinese context. By a comparison study of the background and features of urban sprawl between China and developed countries, this research establishes an analytical framework for sprawl dynamic mechanism in China. By literature review and analyzing data from national statistical yearbook, it then probes into the driving mechanism and the primary cause of urban sprawl. The results suggest that population increase, economic growth, traffic and information technology development lead to rapid expansion of urban space; defects of land institution and lack of effective guidance give rise to low efficiency of urban land use. Moreover, urban sprawl is ultimately attributed to imperfections of policy and institution. On this basis, this research puts forward several sprawl control strategies in Chinese context.
Keywords: China, driving forces, driving mechanism, land institution, urban expansion, urban sprawl.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 750300 Design and Implementation of Medium Access Control Based Routing on Real Wireless Sensor Networks Testbed
Authors: Smriti Agarwal, Ashish Payal, B. V. R. Reddy
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IEEE 802.15.4 is a Low Rate Wireless Personal Area Networks (LR-WPAN) standard combined with ZigBee, which is going to enable new applications in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) and Internet of Things (IoT) domain. In recent years, it has become a popular standard for WSNs. Wireless communication among sensor motes, enabled by IEEE 802.15.4 standard, is extensively replacing the existing wired technology in a wide range of monitoring and control applications. Researchers have proposed a routing framework and mechanism that interacts with the IEEE 802.15.4 standard using software platform. In this paper, we have designed and implemented MAC based routing (MBR) based on IEEE 802.15.4 standard using a hardware platform “SENSEnuts”. The experimental results include data through light and temperature sensors obtained from communication between PAN coordinator and source node through coordinator, MAC address of some modules used in the experimental setup, topology of the network created for simulation and the remaining battery power of the source node. Our experimental effort on a WSN Testbed has helped us in bridging the gap between theoretical and practical aspect of implementing IEEE 802.15.4 for WSNs applications.
Keywords: IEEE 802.15.4, routing, wireless sensor networks, ZigBee.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1571299 Optimizing Dialogue Strategy Learning Using Learning Automata
Authors: G. Kumaravelan, R. Sivakumar
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Modeling the behavior of the dialogue management in the design of a spoken dialogue system using statistical methodologies is currently a growing research area. This paper presents a work on developing an adaptive learning approach to optimize dialogue strategy. At the core of our system is a method formalizing dialogue management as a sequential decision making under uncertainty whose underlying probabilistic structure has a Markov Chain. Researchers have mostly focused on model-free algorithms for automating the design of dialogue management using machine learning techniques such as reinforcement learning. But in model-free algorithms there exist a dilemma in engaging the type of exploration versus exploitation. Hence we present a model-based online policy learning algorithm using interconnected learning automata for optimizing dialogue strategy. The proposed algorithm is capable of deriving an optimal policy that prescribes what action should be taken in various states of conversation so as to maximize the expected total reward to attain the goal and incorporates good exploration and exploitation in its updates to improve the naturalness of humancomputer interaction. We test the proposed approach using the most sophisticated evaluation framework PARADISE for accessing to the railway information system.Keywords: Dialogue management, Learning automata, Reinforcement learning, Spoken dialogue system
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1596298 Application of the Transtheoretical Model of Exercise Behavior Change Plan in High School Students
Authors: Frank C. Pan, Chih-Hao Chen
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The purpose of this study is to discuss the effect of the intervention of exercise behavior change plan for high school students on study subjects- social and psychological factors and exercise stages. This research uses the transtheoretical model as the research framework. One experiment group and one control group were used in a quasi-experimental design research. The experimental group accepted health-related physical fitness course and the traditional course; the control group accepted traditional physical education course. There is a significant difference before and after the intervention in the experimental group. Karl-s test shows the experimental group gained a better improvement than that in the control group. The Analysis of Covariance had shown the exercise stages (F=7.62, p<0.05), and the perceived exercise benefit (F=16.91, p<0.05) of the experimental group were obviously larger than those of the control group. There was no major effect on the perceived exercise barrier (F=0.61, p>0.05) after the intervention of exercise behavior change plan. However, the rate of high school students the practical implementation of the exercise is not high, obviously influenced by the exercise barrier. The academic and examination pressure may be the major causes of the exercise barrier in the high school.Keywords: Transtheoretical model (TTM), High school students, exercise behavior
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3963297 Design and Implementation a Fully Autonomous Soccer Player Robot
Authors: S. H. Mohades Kasaei, S. M. Mohades Kasaei, S. A. Mohades Kasaei, M. Taheri, M. Rahimi, H. Vahiddastgerdi, M. Saeidinezhad
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Omni directional mobile robots have been popularly employed in several applications especially in soccer player robots considered in Robocup competitions. However, Omni directional navigation system, Omni-vision system and solenoid kicking mechanism in such mobile robots have not ever been combined. This situation brings the idea of a robot with no head direction into existence, a comprehensive Omni directional mobile robot. Such a robot can respond more quickly and it would be capable for more sophisticated behaviors with multi-sensor data fusion algorithm for global localization base on the data fusion. This paper has tried to focus on the research improvements in the mechanical, electrical and software design of the robots of team ADRO Iran. The main improvements are the world model, the new strategy framework, mechanical structure, Omni-vision sensor for object detection, robot path planning, active ball handling mechanism and the new kicker design, , and other subjects related to mobile robotKeywords: Mobile robot, Machine vision, Omni directional movement, Autonomous Systems, Robot path planning, Object Localization.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2139296 Detection of Cyberattacks on the Metaverse Based on First-Order Logic
Authors: Sulaiman Al Amro
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There are currently considerable challenges concerning data security and privacy, particularly in relation to modern technologies. This includes the virtual world known as the Metaverse, which consists of a virtual space that integrates various technologies, and therefore susceptible to cyber threats such as malware, phishing, and identity theft. This has led recent studies to propose the development of Metaverse forensic frameworks and the integration of advanced technologies, including machine learning for intrusion detection and security. In this context, the application of first-order logic offers a formal and systematic approach to defining the conditions of cyberattacks, thereby contributing to the development of effective detection mechanisms. In addition, formalizing the rules and patterns of cyber threats has the potential to enhance the overall security posture of the Metaverse and thus the integrity and safety of this virtual environment. The current paper focuses on the primary actions employed by avatars for potential attacks, including Interval Temporal Logic (ITL) and behavior-based detection to detect an avatar’s abnormal activities within the Metaverse. The research established that the proposed framework attained an accuracy of 92.307%, resulting in the experimental results demonstrating the efficacy of ITL, including its superior performance in addressing the threats posed by avatars within the Metaverse domain.
Keywords: Cyberattacks, detection, first-order logic, Metaverse, privacy, security.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 27295 Students' Acceptance of Incorporating Emerging Communication Technologies in Higher Education in Kuwait
Authors: Bashaiar Alsanaa
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Never has a revolution affected all aspects of humanity as the communication revolution during the past two decades. This revolution, with all its advances and utilities, swept the world thus becoming an integral part of our lives, hence giving way to emerging applications at the social, economic, political, and educational levels. More specifically, such applications have changed the delivery system through which learning is acquired by students. Interaction with educators, accessibility to content, and creative delivery options are but a few facets of the new learning experience now being offered through the use of technology in the educational field. With different success rates, third world countries have tried to pace themselves with use of educational technology in advanced parts of the world. One such country is the small rich-oil state of Kuwait which has tried to adopt the e-educational model, however, an evaluation of such trial is yet to be done. This study aimed to fill the void of research conducted around that topic. The study explored students' acceptance of incorporating communication technologies in higher education in Kuwait. Students' responses to survey questions presented an overview of the e-learning experience in this country, and drew a framework through which implications and suggestions for future research were discussed to better serve the advancement of e-education in developing countries.Keywords: Communication technologies, E-learning, Kuwait, Social media
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1691294 A Follow–Up Study of Bachelor of Science Graduates in Applied Statistics from Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University during the 1999-2012 Academic Years
Authors: Somruedee Pongsena
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The purpose of this study is to follow – up the graduated students of Bachelor of Science in Applied Statistics from Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University (SSRU) during the 1999 – 2012 academic years and to provide the fundamental guideline for developing the current curriculum according to Thai Qualifications Framework for Higher Education (TQF: HEd). The sample was collected from 75 graduates by interview and online questionnaire. The content covered 5 subjects were Ethics and Moral, Knowledge, Cognitive Skills, Interpersonal Skill and Responsibility, Numerical Analysis as well as Communication and Information Technology Skills. Data were analyzed by using statistical methods as percentiles, means, standard deviation, t- tests, and F- tests. The findings showed that samples were mostly female had less than 26 years old. The majority of graduates had income in the range of 10,001-20,000 Baht and experience range were 2-5 years. In addition, overall opinions from receiving knowledge to apply to work were at agree; mean score was 3.97 and standard deviation was 0.40. In terms of, the hypothesis testing’s result indicate gender only had different opinion at a significance level of 0.05.
Keywords: Follow up, Graduates, knowledge, opinion, Work performance.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1447293 Key Issues in Transfer Stage of BOT Project: Experience from China
Authors: Wang Liguang, Zhang Xueqing
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The build-operate-transfer (BOT) project delivery system has provided effective routes to mobilize private sector funds, innovative technologies, management skills and operational efficiencies for public infrastructure development and have been widely used in China during the last 20 years. Many BOT projects in China will be smoothly transferred to the government soon and the transfer stage, which is considered as the last stage, must be studied carefully and handled well to achieve the overall success of BOT projects. There will be many issues faced by both the public sector and private sector in the transfer stage of BOT projects, including project post-assessment, technology and documents transfer, personal training and staff transition, etc. and sometimes additional legislation is needed for future operation and management of facilities. However, most previous studies focused on the bidding, financing, and building and operation stages instead of transfer stage. This research identifies nine key issues in the transfer stage of BOT projects through a comprehensive study on three cases in China, and the expert interview and expert discussion meetings are held to validate the key issues and give detail analysis. A proposed framework of transfer management is prepared based on the experiences derived and lessons drawn from the case studies and expert interview and discussions, which is expected to improve the transfer management of BOT projects in practice.
Keywords: BOT project, key issues, transfer management transfer stage.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1032292 Matching-Based Cercospora Leaf Spot Detection in Sugar Beet
Authors: Rong Zhou, Shun’ich Kaneko, Fumio Tanaka, Miyuki Kayamori, Motoshige Shimizu
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In this paper, we propose a robust disease detection method, called adaptive orientation code matching (Adaptive OCM), which is developed from a robust image registration algorithm: orientation code matching (OCM), to achieve continuous and site-specific detection of changes in plant disease. We use two-stage framework for realizing our research purpose; in the first stage, adaptive OCM was employed which could not only realize the continuous and site-specific observation of disease development, but also shows its excellent robustness for non-rigid plant object searching in scene illumination, translation, small rotation and occlusion changes and then in the second stage, a machine learning method of support vector machine (SVM) based on a feature of two dimensional (2D) xy-color histogram is further utilized for pixel-wise disease classification and quantification. The indoor experiment results demonstrate the feasibility and potential of our proposed algorithm, which could be implemented in real field situation for better observation of plant disease development.
Keywords: Cercospora Leaf Spot (CLS), Disease detection, Image processing, Orientation Code Matching (OCM), Support Vector Machine (SVM).
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2187291 Harnessing the Power of AI: Transforming DevSecOps for Enhanced Cloud Security
Authors: Ashly Joseph, Jithu Paulose
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The increased usage of cloud computing has revolutionized the IT landscape, but it has also raised new security concerns. DevSecOps emerged as a way for tackling these difficulties by integrating security into the software development process. However, the rising complexity and sophistication of cyber threats need more advanced solutions. This paper looks into the usage of artificial intelligence (AI) techniques in the DevSecOps framework to increase cloud security. This study uses quantitative and qualitative techniques to assess the usefulness of AI approaches such as machine learning, natural language processing, and deep learning in reducing security issues. This paper thoroughly examines the symbiotic relationship between AI and DevSecOps, concentrating on how AI may be seamlessly integrated into the continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipeline, automated security testing, and real-time monitoring methods. The findings emphasize AI's huge potential to improve threat detection, risk assessment, and incident response skills. Furthermore, the paper examines the implications and challenges of using AI in DevSecOps workflows, considering factors like as scalability, interpretability, and adaptability. This paper adds to a better understanding of AI's revolutionary role in cloud security and provides valuable insights for practitioners and scholars in the field.
Keywords: Cloud Security, DevSecOps, Artificial Intelligence, AI, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, NLP, cybersecurity, AI-driven Security.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 86290 Extraction of Craniofacial Landmarks for Preoperative to Intraoperative Registration
Authors: M. Gooroochurn, D. Kerr, K. Bouazza-Marouf, M. Vloeberghs
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This paper presents the automated methods employed for extracting craniofacial landmarks in white light images as part of a registration framework designed to support three neurosurgical procedures. The intraoperative space is characterised by white light stereo imaging while the preoperative plan is performed on CT scans. The registration aims at aligning these two modalities to provide a calibrated environment to enable image-guided solutions. The neurosurgical procedures can then be carried out by mapping the entry and target points from CT space onto the patient-s space. The registration basis adopted consists of natural landmarks (eye corner and ear tragus). A 5mm accuracy is deemed sufficient for these three procedures and the validity of the selected registration basis in achieving this accuracy has been assessed by simulation studies. The registration protocol is briefly described, followed by a presentation of the automated techniques developed for the extraction of the craniofacial features and results obtained from tests on the AR and FERET databases. Since the three targeted neurosurgical procedures are routinely used for head injury management, the effect of bruised/swollen faces on the automated algorithms is assessed. A user-interactive method is proposed to deal with such unpredictable circumstances.Keywords: Face Processing, Craniofacial Feature Extraction, Preoperative to Intraoperative Registration, Registration Basis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1404289 The Transfer of Low-Cost Housing in South Africa: Problems and Impediments
Authors: Gert Van Schalkwyk, Chris Cloete
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South Africa is experiencing a massive housing backlog in urban low-cost housing. A backlog in the transfer of low-cost housing units is exacerbated by various impediments and delays that exist in the current legal framework. Structured interviews were conducted with 45 practicing conveyancers and 15 deeds office examiners at the Deeds Office in Pretoria, South Africa. One of the largest, the Deeds Office in Pretoria implements a uniform registration process and can be regarded as representative of other deeds offices in South Africa. It was established that a low percentage of low-cost properties are freely transferable. The main economic impediments are the absence of financing and the affordability or payment of rates and taxes to local government. Encroachment of buildings on neighbouring stands caused by enlargement of existing small units on small stands also cause long-term unresolved legal disputes. In addition, as transfer of properties is dependent on the proper functioning of administrative functions of various government departments, the adverse service delivery of government departments hampers transfer. Addressing the identified problems will contribute to a more sustainable process for the transfer of low-cost housing units in South Africa.
Keywords: Conveyancing, low-cost housing, South Africa, tenure, transfer, titling.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 263288 Recognition Machine (RM) for On-line and Isolated Flight Deck Officer (FDO) Gestures
Authors: Deniz T. Sodiri, Venkat V S S Sastry
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The paper presents an on-line recognition machine (RM) for continuous/isolated, dynamic and static gestures that arise in Flight Deck Officer (FDO) training. RM is based on generic pattern recognition framework. Gestures are represented as templates using summary statistics. The proposed recognition algorithm exploits temporal and spatial characteristics of gestures via dynamic programming and Markovian process. The algorithm predicts corresponding index of incremental input data in the templates in an on-line mode. Accumulated consistency in the sequence of prediction provides a similarity measurement (Score) between input data and the templates. The algorithm provides an intuitive mechanism for automatic detection of start/end frames of continuous gestures. In the present paper, we consider isolated gestures. The performance of RM is evaluated using four datasets - artificial (W TTest), hand motion (Yang) and FDO (tracker, vision-based ). RM achieves comparable results which are in agreement with other on-line and off-line algorithms such as hidden Markov model (HMM) and dynamic time warping (DTW). The proposed algorithm has the additional advantage of providing timely feedback for training purposes.Keywords: On-line Recognition Algorithm, IsolatedDynamic/Static Gesture Recognition, On-line Markovian/DynamicProgramming, Training in Virtual Environments.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1452287 Effects of Double Delta Doping on Millimeter and Sub-millimeter Wave Response of Two-Dimensional Hot Electrons in GaAs Nanostructures
Authors: N. Basanta Singh, Sanjoy Deb, G. P Mishra, Subir Kumar Sarkar
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Carrier mobility has become the most important characteristic of high speed low dimensional devices. Due to development of very fast switching semiconductor devices, speed of computer and communication equipment has been increasing day by day and will continue to do so in future. As the response of any device depends on the carrier motion within the devices, extensive studies of carrier mobility in the devices has been established essential for the growth in the field of low dimensional devices. Small-signal ac transport of degenerate two-dimensional hot electrons in GaAs quantum wells is studied here incorporating deformation potential acoustic, polar optic and ionized impurity scattering in the framework of heated drifted Fermi-Dirac carrier distribution. Delta doping is considered in the calculations to investigate the effects of double delta doping on millimeter and submillimeter wave response of two dimensional hot electrons in GaAs nanostructures. The inclusion of delta doping is found to enhance considerably the two dimensional electron density which in turn improves the carrier mobility (both ac and dc) values in the GaAs quantum wells thereby providing scope of getting higher speed devices in future.Keywords: Carrier mobility, Delta doping, Hot carriers, Quantum wells.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1665286 A Simulation Study of Bullwhip Effect in a Closed-Loop Supply Chain with Fuzzy Demand and Fuzzy Collection Rate under Possibility Constraints
Authors: Debabrata Das, Pankaj Dutta
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Along with forward supply chain organization needs to consider the impact of reverse logistics due to its economic advantage, social awareness and strict legislations. In this paper, we develop a system dynamics framework for a closed-loop supply chain with fuzzy demand and fuzzy collection rate by incorporating product exchange policy in forward channel and various recovery options in reverse channel. The uncertainty issues associated with acquisition and collection of used product have been quantified using possibility measures. In the simulation study, we analyze order variation at both retailer and distributor level and compare bullwhip effects of different logistics participants over time between the traditional forward supply chain and the closed-loop supply chain. Our results suggest that the integration of reverse logistics can reduce order variation and bullwhip effect of a closed-loop system. Finally, sensitivity analysis is performed to examine the impact of various parameters on recovery process and bullwhip effect.Keywords: Bullwhip Effect, Fuzzy Possibility Measures, Reverse Supply Chain, System Dynamics.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2677285 Proposals for the Thermal Regulation of Buildings in Algeria: An Energy Label for Social Housing
Authors: Marco Morini, Nicolandrea Calabrese, Dario Chello
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Despite the international commitment of Algeria towards the development of energy efficiency and renewable energy in the country, the internal energy demand has been continuously growing during the last decade due to the substantial increase of population and of living conditions, which in turn has led to an unprecedented expansion of the residential building sector. The RTB (Thermal Building Regulation) is the technical document that establishes the calculation framework for the thermal performance of buildings in Algeria, setting up minimum obligatory targets for the thermal performance of new buildings. An update of this regulation is due in the coming years and this paper discusses some proposals in this regard, with the aim to improve the energy efficiency of the building sector, particularly with regard to social housing. In particular, it proposes a methodology for drafting an energy performance label of new Algerian residential buildings, moving from the results of the thermal compliance verification and sizing of technical systems as defined in the RTB. Such an energy performance label – whose calculation method is briefly described in the paper – aims to raise citizens' awareness of the benefits of energy efficiency. It can represent the first step in a process of integrating technical installations into the calculation of the energy performance of buildings in Algeria.
Keywords: building, energy certification, energy efficiency, social housing, international cooperation, Mediterranean Region
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 583284 Electric Vehicle Market Penetration Impact on Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Policy-Making: A Case Study of United Arab Emirates
Authors: Ahmed Kiani
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The United Arab Emirates is clearly facing a multitude of challenges in curbing its greenhouse gas emissions to meet its pre-allotted framework of Kyoto protocol and COP21 targets due to its hunger for modernization, industrialization, infrastructure growth, soaring population and oil and gas activity. In this work, we focus on the bonafide zero emission electric vehicles market penetration in the country’s transport industry for emission reduction. We study the global electric vehicle market trends, the complementary battery technologies and the trends by manufacturers, emission standards across borders and prioritized advancements which will ultimately dictate the terms of future conditions for the United Arab Emirate transport industry. Based on our findings and analysis at every stage of current viability and state-of-transport-affairs, we postulate policy recommendations to local governmental entities from a supply and demand perspective covering aspects of technology, infrastructure requirements, change in power dynamics, end user incentives program, market regulators behavior and communications amongst key stakeholders.
Keywords: Electric vehicles, greenhouse gas emission reductions, market analysis, policy recommendations.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1533283 Application of GIS-Based Construction Engineering: An Electronic Document Management System
Authors: Mansour N. Jadid
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This paper describes the implementation of a GIS to provide decision support for successfully monitoring the movements and storage of materials, hence ensuring that finished products travel from the point of origin to the destination construction site through the supply-chain management (SCM) system. This system ensures the efficient operation of suppliers, manufacturers, and distributors by determining the shortest path from the point of origin to the final destination to reduce construction costs, minimize time, and enhance productivity. These systems are essential to the construction industry because they reduce costs and save time, thereby improve productivity and effectiveness. This study describes a typical supply-chain model and a geographical information system (GIS)-based SCM that focuses on implementing an electronic document management system, which maps the application framework to integrate geodetic support with the supply-chain system. This process provides guidance for locating the nearest suppliers to fill the information needs of project members in different locations. Moreover, this study illustrates the use of a GIS-based SCM as a collaborative tool in innovative methods for implementing Web mapping services, as well as aspects of their integration by generating an interactive GIS for the construction industry platform.
Keywords: Construction, coordinate, engineering, GIS, management, map.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1435