Search results for: Performance Measurement Criteria

Authors: Hasnida Abdul Wahab, Shahrina Md Nordin, Lai Fong Woon, Hasrina Mustafa

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There has been a growing emphasis in communication management from simple coordination of promotional tools to a complex strategic process. This study will examine the current marketing communications and engagement strategies used in addressing the key stakeholders. In the case of fertilizer industry in Malaysia, there has been little empirical research on stakeholder communication when major challenges facing the modern corporation is the need to communicate its identity, its values and products in order to distinguish itself from competitors. The study will employ both quantitative and qualitative methods and the use of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to establish a causal relationship amongst the key factors of stakeholder communication strategies and increment in consumers- choice/acceptance and impact on financial performance. One of the major contributions is a conceptual framework for communication strategies and engagement in increasing consumers- acceptance level and the firm-s financial performance.

Keywords: Consumers' acceptance, financial performance, stakeholder communication strategies.

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Authors: Tristan O’Neill, Trina Myers, Jarrod Trevathan

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The Tropical Data Hub (TDH) is a virtual research environment that provides researchers with an e-research infrastructure to congregate significant tropical data sets for data reuse, integration, searching, and correlation. However, researchers often require data and metadata synthesis across disciplines for cross-domain analyses and knowledge discovery. A triplestore offers a semantic layer to achieve a more intelligent method of search to support the synthesis requirements by automating latent linkages in the data and metadata. Presently, the benchmarks to aid the decision of which triplestore is best suited for use in an application environment like the TDH are limited to performance. This paper describes a new evaluation tool developed to analyze both features and performance. The tool comprises a weighted decision matrix to evaluate the interoperability, functionality, performance, and support availability of a range of integrated and native triplestores to rank them according to requirements of the TDH.

Keywords: Virtual research environment, Semantic Web, performance analysis, tropical data hub.

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Authors: Yuan-Jye Tseng, Shin-Han Lin

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In this research, a mathematical model for integrated evaluation of green design and green manufacturing processes is presented. To design a product, there can be alternative options to design the detailed components to fulfill the same product requirement. In the design alternative cases, the components of the product can be designed with different materials and detailed specifications. If several design alternative cases are proposed, the different materials and specifications can affect the manufacturing processes. In this paper, a new concept for integrating green design and green manufacturing processes is presented. A green design can be determined based the manufacturing processes of the designed product by evaluating the green criteria including energy usage and environmental impact, in addition to the traditional criteria of manufacturing cost. With this concept, a mathematical model is developed to find the green design and the associated green manufacturing processes. In the mathematical model, the cost items include material cost, manufacturing cost, and green related cost. The green related cost items include energy cost and environmental cost. The objective is to find the decisions of green design and green manufacturing processes to achieve the minimized total cost. In practical applications, the decision-making can be made to select a good green design case and its green manufacturing processes. In this presentation, an example product is illustrated. It shows that the model is practical and useful for integrated evaluation of green design and green manufacturing processes.

Keywords: Supply chain management, green supply chain, green design, green manufacturing, mathematical model.

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Authors: Yongzhong Wu, Ping Ji

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This paper proposes a genetic algorithm based on a new replacement strategy to solve the quadratic assignment problems, which are NP-hard. The new replacement strategy aims to improve the performance of the genetic algorithm through well balancing the convergence of the searching process and the diversity of the population. In order to test the performance of the algorithm, the instances in QAPLIB, a quadratic assignment problem library, are tried and the results are compared with those reported in the literature. The performance of the genetic algorithm is promising. The significance is that this genetic algorithm is generic. It does not rely on problem-specific genetic operators, and may be easily applied to various types of combinatorial problems.

Keywords: Quadratic assignment problem, Genetic algorithm, Replacement strategy, QAPLIB.

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Authors: Intan Maisarah Abd Rahim, Herlina Abdul Rahim, Rashidah Ghazali

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Diabetes is a medical condition that can lead to various diseases such as stroke, heart disease, blindness and obesity. In clinical practice, the concern of the diabetic patients towards the blood glucose examination is rather alarming as some of the individual describing it as something painful with pinprick and pinch. As for some patient with high level of glucose level, pricking the fingers multiple times a day with the conventional glucose meter for close monitoring can be tiresome, time consuming and painful. With these concerns, several non-invasive techniques were used by researchers in measuring the glucose level in blood, including ultrasonic sensor implementation, multisensory systems, absorbance of transmittance, bio-impedance, voltage intensity, and thermography. This paper is discussing the application of the near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy as a non-invasive method in measuring the glucose level and the implementation of the linear system identification model in predicting the output data for the NIR measurement. In this study, the wavelengths considered are at the 1450 nm and 1950 nm. Both of these wavelengths showed the most reliable information on the glucose presence in blood. Then, the linear Autoregressive Moving Average Exogenous model (ARMAX) model with both un-regularized and regularized methods was implemented in predicting the output result for the NIR measurement in order to investigate the practicality of the linear system in this study. However, the result showed only 50.11% accuracy obtained from the system which is far from the satisfying results that should be obtained.

Keywords: Diabetes, glucose level, linear, near-infrared (NIR), non-invasive, prediction system.

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Authors: Kee-Young Kwahk

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Previous studies have indicated that one of the most critical failure reasons of enterprise systems is the lack of knowledge sharing and utilization across organizations. As a consequence, many information systems researchers have paid attention to examining the effect of absorptive capacity closely associated with knowledge sharing and transferring on IS usage performance. A lack of communications and interactions due to a lack of organizational citizenship behavior might lead to weak absorptive capacity and thus negatively influence knowledge sharing across organizations. In this study, a theoretical model which delves into the relationship between usage performance of enterprise systems and its determinants was established.

Keywords: Usage performance of information systems, Social exchanges, Enterprise systems.

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Authors: Carolin Lutz, Jörg Matthes, Patrick Waibel, Ulrich Precht, Krassimir Garbev, Günter Beuchle, Uwe Schweike, Peter Stemmermann, Hubert B. Keller

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Online measurement of the product quality is a challenging task in cement production, especially in the production of Celitement, a novel environmentally friendly hydraulic binder. The mineralogy and chemical composition of clinker in ordinary Portland cement production is measured by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF), where only crystalline constituents can be detected. But only a small part of the Celitement components can be measured via XRD, because most constituents have an amorphous structure. This paper describes the development of algorithms suitable for an on-line monitoring of the final processing step of Celitement based on NIR-data. For calibration intermediate products were dried at different temperatures and ground for variable durations. The products were analyzed using XRD and thermogravimetric analyses together with NIR-spectroscopy to investigate the dependency between the drying and the milling processes on one and the NIR-signal on the other side. As a result, different characteristic parameters have been defined. A short overview of the Celitement process and the challenging tasks of the online measurement and evaluation of the product quality will be presented. Subsequently, methods for systematic development of near-infrared calibration models and the determination of the final calibration model will be introduced. The application of the model on experimental data illustrates that NIR-spectroscopy allows for a quick and sufficiently exact determination of crucial process parameters.

Keywords: Calibration model, celitement, cementitious material, NIR spectroscopy.

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Authors: Kornchanok Chidchaisuwan

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This project is a study of learning activities of creating experience from actual work performance to enhance career skills and technological usage abilities for uses in advertising career work performance for undergraduate students who enroll in the Creative Strategies for Advertising Course. The instructional model consisted of two learning approaches: (1) simulation-based learning, which is the learning with the use of simulations of working in various sections of creative advertisement work with their own work process and steps as well as the virtual technology learning in advertising companies; and (2) project-based learning, which is the learning that the learners engage in actual work performance based on the process of creating and producing creative advertisement works to be present on new media channels. The results of learning management showed that the effects on the students in various aspects were as follows: (1) the students had experience in the advertising process at the higher level; and (2) the students had work performance skills from the actual work performance that enabled them to possess the abilities to create and present their own work; also, they had created more efficient work outcomes and disseminated them on new media channels at a better level.

Keywords: Technical literacy, career skill, experience, simulation-based learning.

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Authors: Ravi Kiran Pothamsetty, Radha Rani Ghosh, Baby Paul Thaliath

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Radiation therapy has undergone many advancements and evloved from 2D to 3D. Recently, with rapid pace of drug discoveries, cutting edge technology, and clinical trials has made innovative advancements in computer technology and treatment planning and upgraded to intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) which delivers in homogenous dose to tumor and normal tissues. The present study was a hospital-based experience comparing two different conformal radiotherapy techniques for brain tumors. This analytical study design has been conducted at Regional Cancer Centre, India from January 2014 to January 2015. Ten patients have been selected after inclusion and exclusion criteria. All the patients were treated on Artiste Siemens Linac Accelerator. The tolerance level for maximum dose was 6.0 Gyfor lenses and 54.0 Gy for brain stem, optic chiasm and optical nerves as per RTOG criteria. Mean and standard deviation values of PTV98%, PTV 95% and PTV 2% in IMRT were 93.16±2.9, 95.01±3.4 and 103.1±1.1 respectively; for 3DCRT were 91.4±4.7, 94.17±2.6 and 102.7±0.39 respectively. PTV max dose (%) in IMRT and 3D-CRT were 104.7±0.96 and 103.9±1.0 respectively. Maximum dose to the tumor can be delivered with IMRT with acceptable toxicity limits. Variables such as expertise, location of tumor, patient condition, and TPS influence the outcome of the treatment.

Keywords: IMRT, 3D CRT, Brain, tumors, OARs, RTOG.

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Authors: Gang Li, Ghulam Mubashar Hassan, Arcady Dyskin, Cara MacNish

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Digital image correlation (DIC) is a contactless fullfield displacement and strain reconstruction technique commonly used in the field of experimental mechanics. Comparing with physical measuring devices, such as strain gauges, which only provide very restricted coverage and are expensive to deploy widely, the DIC technique provides the result with full-field coverage and relative high accuracy using an inexpensive and simple experimental setup. It is very important to study the natural patterns effect on the DIC technique because the preparation of the artificial patterns is time consuming and hectic process. The objective of this research is to study the effect of using images having natural pattern on the performance of DIC. A systematical simulation method is used to build simulated deformed images used in DIC. A parameter (subset size) used in DIC can have an effect on the processing and accuracy of DIC and even cause DIC to failure. Regarding to the picture parameters (correlation coefficient), the higher similarity of two subset can lead the DIC process to fail and make the result more inaccurate. The pictures with good and bad quality for DIC methods have been presented and more importantly, it is a systematic way to evaluate the quality of the picture with natural patterns before they install the measurement devices.

Keywords: Digital image correlation (DIC), Deformation simulation, Natural pattern, Subset size.

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Authors: Maged Ahmed, Ahmed El-Mahdy

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In this paper, Selective Adaptive Parallel Interference Cancellation (SA-PIC) technique is presented for Multicarrier Direct Sequence Code Division Multiple Access (MC DS-CDMA) scheme. The motivation of using SA-PIC is that it gives high performance and at the same time, reduces the computational complexity required to perform interference cancellation. An upper bound expression of the bit error rate (BER) for the SA-PIC under Rayleigh fading channel condition is derived. Moreover, the implementation complexities for SA-PIC and Adaptive Parallel Interference Cancellation (APIC) are discussed and compared. The performance of SA-PIC is investigated analytically and validated via computer simulations.

Keywords: Adaptive interference cancellation, communicationsystems, multicarrier signal processing, spread spectrum

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Authors: Umair Baig, Kohei Nagai

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At highly congested reinforcement regions, which is common at beam-column joint area, clear spacing between parallel bars becomes less than maximum normal aggregate size (20mm) which has not been addressed in any design code and specifications. Limited clear spacing between parallel bars (herein after thin cover) is one of the causes which affect anchorage performance. In this study, an experimental investigation was carried out to understand anchorage performance of reinforcement in Self-Compacting Concrete (SCC) and Normal Concrete (NC) at highly congested regions under uni-axial tensile loading.  Column bar was pullout whereas; beam bars were offset from column reinforcement creating thin cover as per site condition. Two different sizes of coarse aggregate were used for NC (20mm and 10mm). Strain gauges were also installed along the bar in some specimens to understand the internal stress mechanism. Test results reveal that anchorage performance is affected at highly congested reinforcement region in NC with maximum aggregate size 20mm whereas; SCC and Small Aggregate (10mm) gives better structural performance. 

Keywords: Anchorage capacity, bond, Normal Concrete, self-compacting concrete.

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Authors: Un-Hwan Park, Jun-Hyeok Heo, In-Sung Lee, Tae-Hyeon Oh, Dae-Kyu Park

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Sound absorbing material is used as automotive interior material. Sound absorption coefficient should be predicted to design it. But it is difficult to predict sound absorbing coefficient because it is comprised of several material layers. So, its targets are achieved through many experimental tunings. It causes a lot of cost and time. In this paper, we propose the process to estimate the sound absorption coefficient with multi-layer structure. In order to estimate the coefficient, physical properties of each material are used. These properties also use predicted values by Foam-X software using the sound absorption coefficient data measured by impedance tube. Since there are many physical properties and the measurement equipment is expensive, the values predicted by software are used. Through the measurement of the sound absorption coefficient of each material, its physical properties are calculated inversely. The properties of each material are used to calculate the sound absorption coefficient of the multi-layer material. Since the absorption coefficient of multi-layer can be calculated, optimization design is possible through simulation. Then, we will compare and analyze the calculated sound absorption coefficient with the data measured by scaled reverberation chamber and impedance tubes for a prototype. If this method is used when developing automotive interior materials with multi-layer structure, the development effort can be reduced because it can be optimized by simulation. So, cost and time can be saved.

Keywords: Optimization design, multi-layer nonwoven, sound absorption coefficient, scaled reverberation chamber, impedance tubes.

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Authors: Suwicha Chankapoe, Nattawat Winya, Narupon Pittayaprasertkul

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In order to determine the performance and key design parameters of rocket, the erosion of nozzle throat during solid rocket motor burning have to be calculated. This study aims to predict the nozzle throat erosion in solid rocket motors according to the thrust profile of motor in operating conditions and develop a model for optimum performance of rocket. We investigate the throat radius change in the static test programs. The standard method and thrust coefficient  are used for adjusting into the ideal performance for conical nozzles. Pressure and thrust data acquired from the tests are analyzed to determine the instantaneous nozzle throat diameter variation throughout the test duration. The result shows good agreement of calculated correlation comparing with measured erosion rate data showing agreement within 1.6 mm/s. Nozzle thrust coefficient loss is found approximately 24% form nozzle throat erosion during burning.

Keywords: Erosion, nozzle throat, thrust coefficient.

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Authors: Safia Hocine, Zina Benouaret, Djamil A¨ıssani

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In this paper, we study the performance of the strong stability method of the univariate classical risk model. We interest to the stability bounds established using two approaches. The first based on the strong stability method developed for a general Markov chains. The second approach based on the regenerative processes theory . By adopting an algorithmic procedure, we study the performance of the stability method in the case of exponential distribution claim amounts. After presenting numerically and graphically the stability bounds, an interpretation and comparison of the results have been done.

Keywords: Markov Chain, regenerative processes, risk models, ruin probability, strong stability.

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Authors: Carey Curtis

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There is a renewed interest in land use transport integration as a means of achieving sustainable accessibility. Such accessibility requires designing more than simply the transport network; it also requires attention to place (built form). Transitoriented development would appear to capture many of the criteria deemed important in land use transport integration. In Perth, Australia, there have been planning policies for the past 20 years requiring transit-oriented development around railway stations throughout the metropolitan area. While the policy intent, particularly at the State level, is clear the implementation of policy has been fairly ineffective. The first part of this paper provides an examination of state and local government planning and transport policies, evaluating them using a set of land use transport integration criteria considered all encompassing. This provides some insight into the extent of state and local government capacity to deliver land use transport integration. The second part of this paper examines the extent of implementation by examining existing and proposed land use around station precincts throughout metropolitan Perth. The findings of this research suggest that the capacity of state and local government to deliver land use transport integration is reasonable in a planning policy sense. Implementation, despite long policy lead times, has been lacking. It appears to be more effective where local planning controls have been suspended with new redevelopment authorities given powers to develop land around railway stations.

Keywords: Transit-oriented development, sustainable transport, transport policy.

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Authors: Bhanu Gupta

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In this paper, the criteria of Ψ-eventual stability have been established for generalized impulsive differential systems of multiple dependent variables. The sufficient conditions have been obtained using piecewise continuous Lyapunov function. An example is given to support our theoretical result.

Keywords: impulsive differential equations, Lyapunov function, eventual stability

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Authors: O. Kratochvíl, J. Križan

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The paper deals with the analysis of the dynamic response of footbridges under human - induced dynamic loads. This is a frequently occurring and often dominant load for footbridges as it stems from the very purpose of a footbridge - to convey pedestrian. Due to the emergence of new materials and advanced engineering technology, slender footbridges are increasingly becoming popular to satisfy the modern transportation needs and the aesthetical requirements of the society. These structures however are always lively with low stiffness, low mass, low damping and low natural frequencies. As a consequence, they are prone to vibration induced by human activities and can suffer severe vibration serviceability problems, particularly in the lateral direction. Pedestrian bridges are designed according to first and second limit states, these are the criteria involved in response to static design load. However, it is necessary to assess the dynamic response of bridge design load on pedestrians and assess it impact on the comfort of the user movement. Usually the load is considered a person or a small group which can be assumed in perfect motion synchronization. Already one person or small group can excite significant vibration of the deck. In order to calculate the dynamic response to the movement of people, designer needs available and suitable computational model and criteria. For the calculation program ANSYS based on finite element method was used.

Keywords: Footbridge, dynamic analysis, vibration serviceability of footbridges, lateral vibration, stiffness, dynamic force, walking force, slender suspension footbridges, natural frequencies and vibration modes, rhythm jumping, normal walking.

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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

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Authors: Ali Z a'fari

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Voltage flicker is a disturbance in electrical power systems. The reason for this disturbance is mainly the large nonlinear loads such as electric arc furnaces. Synchronous static compensator (STATCOM) is considered as a proper technique to mitigate the voltage flicker. Application of more suitable and precise power electronic converter leads to a more precise performance of the compensator. In this paper a three-level 12-pulse voltage source inverter (VSI) with a 12-terminal transformer connected to the ac system is studied and the obtained results are compared with the performance of a STATCOM using a simple two-level VSI and an optimal and more precise performance of the proposed scheme is achieved.

Keywords: Flicker mitigation, STATCOM, Inverter, 12-pulse, 3- level

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Authors: Xu Chen, Zhao Caiqi

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In addition to the advantages of light weight, resistant corrosion and ease of processing, aluminum is also applied to the long-span spatial structures. However, the elastic modulus of aluminum is lower than that of the steel. This paper combines the high performance aluminum honeycomb panel with the aluminum latticed shell, forming a new panel-and-rod composite shell structure. Through comparative analysis between the static and dynamic performance, the conclusion that the structure of composite shell is noticeably superior to the structure combined before.

Keywords: Combination of aluminum honeycomb panel and rod latticed shell, dynamic performance, response spectrum analysis, seismic properties.

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Authors: Somdech Rungsrisawas

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The objectives of this study are to examine the relationship between the competitive advantage of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and their overall performance. A mixed method has been applied to identify the effect of determinants toward competitive advantage. The sample is composed of SMEs in product and service businesses. The study has been tested at an organizational level with samples of SME entrepreneurs, business successors, and board of directors or management team. Quantitative analysis has been conducted through multiple regression analysis with 400 samples. The findings illustrate that each aspect of competitive advantage needs a different set of driving factors to explain either the direct or the indirect effect on firm performance. Interestingly, technological capability is a perfect mediator and interorganizational cooperation toward competitive advantage. In addition, differentiation is difficult to be perceived by customers, as well as difficult to manage; however, it is considered important to develop an SMEs product or service for firm sustainably.

Keywords: Competitive advantage, firm performance, technological capability, small and medium enterprise, SMEs.

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Authors: Tomoko Fukuyama, Osamu Senbu

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Prestressed concrete is used a lot in infrastructures such as roads or bridges. However, poor grout filling and PC steel corrosion are currently major issues of prestressed concrete structures. One of the problems with nondestructive corrosion detection of PC steel is a plastic pipe which covers PC steel. The insulative property of pipe makes a nondestructive diagnosis difficult; therefore a practical technology to detect these defects is necessary for the maintenance of infrastructures. The goal of the research is a development of an electrochemical technique which enables to detect internal defects from the surface of prestressed concrete nondestructively. Ideally, the measurements should be conducted from the surface of structural members to diagnose non-destructively. In the present experiment, a prestressed concrete member is simplified as a layered specimen to simulate a current path between an input and an output electrode on a member surface. The specimens which are layered by mortar and the prestressed concrete constitution materials (steel, polyethylene, stainless steel, or galvanized steel plates) were provided to the alternating current impedance measurement. The magnitude of an applied electric field was 0.01-volt or 1-volt, and the frequency range was from 106 Hz to 10-2 Hz. The frequency spectrums of impedance, which relate to charge reactions activated by an electric field, were measured to clarify the effects of the material configurations or the properties. In the civil engineering field, the Nyquist diagram is popular to analyze impedance and it is a good way to grasp electric relaxation using a shape of the plot. However, it is slightly not suitable to figure out an influence of a measurement frequency which is reciprocal of reaction time. Hence, Bode diagram is also applied to describe charge reactions in the present paper. From the experiment results, the alternating current impedance method looks to be applicable to the insulative material measurement and eventually prestressed concrete diagnosis. At the same time, the frequency spectrums of impedance show the difference of the material configuration. This is because the charge mobility reflects the variety of substances and also the measuring frequency of the electric field determines migration length of charges which are under the influence of the electric field. However, it could not distinguish the differences of the material thickness and is inferred the difficulties of prestressed concrete diagnosis to identify the amount of an air void or a layer of corrosion product by the technique.

Keywords: Prestressed concrete, electric charge, impedance, phase shift.

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Authors: K. Metaxiotis, K. Liagkouras

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This study presents an Expert System specially designed to be used with Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithms (MOEAs) for the solution of the portfolio selection problem. The validation of the proposed hybrid System is done by using data sets from Hang Seng 31 in Hong Kong, DAX 100 in Germany and FTSE 100 in UK. The performance of the proposed system is assessed in comparison with the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGAII). The evaluation of the performance is based on different performance metrics that evaluate both the proximity of the solutions to the Pareto front and their dispersion on it. The results show that the proposed hybrid system is efficient for the solution of this kind of problems.

Keywords: Expert Systems, Multiobjective optimization, Evolutionary Algorithms, Portfolio Selection.

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Authors: Wan Hasrulnizzam Wan Mahmood, Mohd Nizam Ab Rahman, Baba Md Deros

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Green supply chain management is an increasingly recognized practice among companies that are seeking to improve environmental performance. Of particular concern is how to arouse organizational awareness and put green activities into practice in order to enhance manufacturing performances. This paper investigates the correlation of green supply chain practices and manufacturing performances in Malaysian certified MS ISO 14000 manufacturing firms. The findings shows that green supply chain practices which that can be denominated product recycling, environmental compliance and optimization have significant influence to some of the manufacturing performances.

Keywords: Green supply chain practice, Manufacturing system performance, Malaysia

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Authors: O. Chaudhari, A. N. Ghafar, G. Zirgulis, M. Mousavi, T. Ellison, S. Pousette, P. Fontana

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In Swedish tunnel construction, a critical issue that has been repeatedly acknowledged is corrosion and, consequently, failure of the rock bolts in rock support systems. The defective installation of rock bolts results in the formation of cavities in the cement mortar that is regularly used to fill the area under the dome plates. These voids allow for water-ingress to the rock bolt assembly, which results in corrosion of rock bolt components and eventually failure. In addition, the current installation technique consists of several manual steps with intense labor works that are usually done in uncomfortable and exhausting conditions, e.g., under the roof of the tunnels. Such intense tasks also lead to a considerable waste of materials and execution errors. Moreover, adequate quality control of the execution is hardly possible with the current technique. To overcome these issues, a non-shrinking/expansive cement-based mortar filled in the paper packaging has been developed in this study which properly fills the area under the dome plates without or with the least remaining cavities, ultimately that diminishes the potential of corrosion. This article summarizes the development process and the experimental evaluation of this technique for the installation of rock bolts. In the development process, the cementitious mortar was first developed using specific cement and shrinkage reducing/expansive additives. The mechanical and flow properties of the mortar were then evaluated using compressive strength, density, and slump flow measurement methods. In addition, isothermal calorimetry and shrinkage/expansion measurements were used to elucidate the hydration and durability attributes of the mortar. After obtaining the desired properties in both fresh and hardened conditions, the developed dry mortar was filled in specific permeable paper packaging and then submerged in water bath for specific intervals before the installation. The tests were enhanced progressively by optimizing different parameters such as shape and size of the packaging, characteristics of the paper used, immersion time in water and even some minor characteristics of the mortar. Finally, the developed prototype was tested in a lab-scale rock bolt assembly with various angles to analyze the efficiency of the method in real life scenario. The results showed that the new technique improves the performance of the rock bolts by reducing the material wastage, improving environmental performance, facilitating and accelerating the labor works, and finally enhancing the durability of the whole system. Accordingly, this approach provides an efficient alternative for the traditional way of tunnel bolt installation with considerable advantages for the Swedish tunneling industry.

Keywords: corrosion, durability, mortar, rock bolt

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Authors: Amandeep Singh Dhaliwal

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Networking solutions, particularly wireless local area networks have revolutionized the technological advancement. Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) have gained a lot of popularity as they provide location-independent network access between computing devices. There are a number of access methods used in Wireless Networks among which DCF and PCF are the fundamental access methods. This paper emphasizes on the impact of DCF and PCF access mechanisms on the performance of the IEEE 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g standards. On the basis of various parameters viz. throughput, delay, load etc performance is evaluated between these three standards using above mentioned access mechanisms. Analysis revealed a superior throughput performance with low delays for 802.11g standard as compared to 802.11 a/b standard using both DCF and PCF access methods.

Keywords: DCF, IEEE, PCF, WLAN.

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Authors: Paua Ketan, Bhagate Rajkumar, Adiga Ganesh, M. Kiran

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Low gear noise is an important sound quality feature in modern passenger cars. Annoying gear noise from the gearbox is influenced by the gear design, gearbox shaft layout, manufacturing deviations in the components, assembly errors and the mounting arrangement of the complete gearbox. Geometrical deviations in the form of profile and lead errors are often present on the flanks of the inspected gears. Ghost frequencies of a gear are very challenging to identify in standard gear measurement and analysis process due to small wavelengths involved. In this paper, gear whine noise occurring at non-integral multiples of gear mesh frequency of passenger car gearbox is investigated and the root cause is identified using the displacement deviation analysis (DDA) method. DDA method is applied to identify ghost frequency excitations on the flanks of gears arising out of generation grinding. Frequency identified through DDA correlated with the frequency of vibration and noise on the end-of-line machine as well as vehicle level measurements. With the application of DDA method along with standard lead profile measurement, gears with ghost frequency geometry deviations were identified on the production line to eliminate defective parts and thereby eliminate ghost frequency noise from a vehicle. Further, displacement deviation analysis can be used in conjunction with the manufacturing process simulation to arrive at suitable countermeasures for arresting the ghost frequency.

Keywords: Displacement deviation analysis, gear whine, ghost frequency, sound quality.

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Authors: Alfred Kamate Siviri, Angelus Mafikiri Tsongo, Jean Robert Kala Kamdjoug

Abstract:

Well organized digitalization and information systems have been selected as relevant measures to mitigate operational risks within organizations. Unfortunately, information system comes with new threats that can cause severe damage and quick organization lockout. This study aims to measure perceived information system risks and their effects on operational risks within the microfinance institution in D.R. Congo. Also, the factors influencing the operational risk are to be identified, and the link between operational risk with other risks and performance is to be assessed. The study proposes a research model drawn on the combination of Resources-Based-View, dynamic capabilities, the agency theory, the Information System Security Model, and social theories of risk. Therefore, we suggest adopting a mixed methods research with the sole aim of increasing the literature that already exists on perceived operational risk assessment and its link with other risk and performance, with a focus on information system risks.

Keywords: information system risk, operational risk, microfinance performance, DR Congo

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Authors: Herbert Ugrinowitsch, Suziane Peixoto dos Santos-Naves, Michele Viviene Carbinatto, Rodolfo NovellinoBenda, Go Tani

Abstract:

An experiment was conducted to examine the effect of the level of performance stabilization on the human adaptability to perceptual-motor perturbation in a complex coincident timing task. Three levels of performance stabilization were established operationally: pre-stabilization, stabilization, and super-stabilization groups. Each group practiced the task until reached its level of stabilization in a constant sequence of movements and under a constant time constraint before exposure to perturbation. The results clearly showed that performance stabilization is a pre-condition for adaptation. Moreover, variability before reaching stabilization is harmful to adaptation and persistent variability after stabilization is beneficial. Moreover, the behavior of variability is specific to each measure.

Keywords: Adaptation, motor skill, perturbation, stabilization.

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