Search results for: business process management

Authors: Ludovic Favre, Thibaut M. Schafer, Jean-Luc Robyr, Elena-Lavinia Niederhäuser

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This paper presents an optimization method based on genetic algorithm for the energy management inside buildings developed in the frame of the project Smart Living Lab (SLL) in Fribourg (Switzerland). This algorithm optimizes the interaction between renewable energy production, storage systems and energy consumers. In comparison with standard algorithms, the innovative aspect of this project is the extension of the smart regulation over three simultaneous criteria: the energy self-consumption, the decrease of greenhouse gas emissions and operating costs. The genetic algorithm approach was chosen due to the large quantity of optimization variables and the non-linearity of the optimization function. The optimization process includes also real time data of the building as well as weather forecast and users habits. This information is used by a physical model of the building energy resources to predict the future energy production and needs, to select the best energetic strategy, to combine production or storage of energy in order to guarantee the demand of electrical and thermal energy. The principle of operation of the algorithm as well as typical output example of the algorithm is presented.

Keywords: Building’s energy, control system, energy management, modelling, genetic optimization algorithm, renewable energy, greenhouse gases, energy storage.

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Authors: R. Andreola, O. A. A. Santos, L. M. M, Jorge

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An industrial system for the production of white liquor of a paper industry, Klabin Paraná Papéis, formed by ten reactors was modeled, simulated, and analyzed. The developed model considered possible water losses by evaporation and reaction, in addition to variations in volumetric flow of lime mud across the reactors due to composition variations. The model predictions agreed well with the process measurements at the plant and the results showed that the slaking reaction is nearly complete at the third causticizing reactor, while causticizing ends by the seventh reactor. Water loss due to slaking reaction and evaporation occurs more pronouncedly in the slaking reaction than in the final causticizing reactors; nevertheless, the lime mud flow remains nearly constant across the reactors.

Keywords: Causticizing, lime, prediction, process.

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Authors: Sae-Rom Pak, Seung Hwan Park, Jeong Ho Cho, Daewoong An, Cheong-Sool Park, Jun Seok Kim, Jun-Geol Baek

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It is important to predict yield in semiconductor test process in order to increase yield. In this study, yield prediction means finding out defective die, wafer or lot effectively. Semiconductor test process consists of some test steps and each test includes various test items. In other world, test data has a big and complicated characteristic. It also is disproportionably distributed as the number of data belonging to FAIL class is extremely low. For yield prediction, general data mining techniques have a limitation without any data preprocessing due to eigen properties of test data. Therefore, this study proposes an under-sampling method using support vector machine (SVM) to eliminate an imbalanced characteristic. For evaluating a performance, randomly under-sampling method is compared with the proposed method using actual semiconductor test data. As a result, sampling method using SVM is effective in generating robust model for yield prediction.

Keywords: Yield Prediction, Semiconductor Test Process, Support Vector Machine, Under Sampling

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Authors: R. Simutis, V. Galvanauskas, D. Levisauskas, J. Repsyte, V. Grincas

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This paper deals with advanced state estimation algorithms for estimation of biomass concentration and specific growth rate in a typical fed-batch biotechnological process. This biotechnological process was represented by a nonlinear mass-balance based process model. Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) and Particle Filter (PF) was used to estimate the unmeasured state variables from oxygen uptake rate (OUR) and base consumption (BC) measurements. To obtain more general results, a simplified process model was involved in EKF and PF estimation algorithms. This model doesn’t require any special growth kinetic equations and could be applied for state estimation in various bioprocesses. The focus of this investigation was concentrated on the comparison of the estimation quality of the EKF and PF estimators by applying different measurement noises. The simulation results show that Particle Filter algorithm requires significantly more computation time for state estimation but gives lower estimation errors both for biomass concentration and specific growth rate. Also the tuning procedure for Particle Filter is simpler than for EKF. Consequently, Particle Filter should be preferred in real applications, especially for monitoring of industrial bioprocesses where the simplified implementation procedures are always desirable.

Keywords: Biomass concentration, Extended Kalman Filter, Particle Filter, State estimation, Specific growth rate.

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Authors: Emelia Akashah P.A, Sharifah Nadiah S.A

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Knowledge sharing enables the information or knowledge to be transmitted from one source to another. This paper demonstrates the needs of having the online book catalogue which can be used to facilitate disseminating information on textbook used in the university. This project is aimed to give access to the students and lecturers to the list of books in the bookstore and at the same time to allow book reviewing without having to visit the bookstore physically. Research is carried out according to the boundaries which accounts to current process of new book purchasing, current system used by the bookstore and current process the lecturers go through for reviewing textbooks. The questionnaire is used to gather the requirements and it is distributed to 100 students and 40 lecturers. This project has enabled the improvement of a manual process to be carried out automatically, through a web based platform. It is shown based on the user acceptance survey carried out that target groups found that this web service is feasible to be implemented in Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP), and they have shown positive signs of interest in utilizing it in the future.

Keywords: bookstore, knowledge sharing, online bookcatalogue, textbook

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Authors: Khondokar Farid Ahmmed, Robin Bown

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It is widely recognized that the formal financing of Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs) by Private Commercial Banks (PCBs) is restricted. Due to changing financial market competition, SMEs are now important customers to PCBs in the member countries of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Various initiatives in enhancing the efficiency of risk assessment of PCBs have failed in increasing financing accessibility in the traditional financing system where information asymmetry is a key constraint. In this circumstance, PCBs need to undertake a holistic approach. Holistic approach refers to methods that attempt to fundamentally change established traditions. To undertake holistic approach, this study intends to find the entire established financing culture between PCBs and SMEs in a new lens beyond the tradition on the basis of two basic questions: “What is the traditional lending culture between PCBs and SMEs” and “What could be potential role of PCBs to develop that culture where focusing on SME financing to PCBs". This study considered formal SME financing in Bangladesh by focusing on SMEs applying for their first loan. Bangladesh is a member country of ADB. The data collection method is semi-structured and we utilized face-to-face interviews with in-depth branch managers, higher officials and owner-managers of SME customers of PCBs and higher officials of SME Foundation and the Bangladesh central bank. Discourse analysis method was used for data analysis on the frame of thematic discussion fully based on participants’ views. The research found that branch managers and loan officers have a high level of power in assessing and financing decision-making. There is a changing attitude in PCB sector in requiring flexible collateral assets. Branch managers (Loan Officers) consider value of business prospect of owner-mangers as complementary of collateral assets. However, the study found the assessment process of business prospect is entirely unstructured and linked with socio-cultural settings that does not support PCBs’ changing manner in terms of collateral requirement. The study redefined and classified collateral assets to include all financing constructs in a structure. The degree of value of the collateral assets determines the degree of business prospects. This study suggested applying an outside classroom-learning paradigm such as “knowledge tour” to enhance the value of the kinds of collateral assets. This is the scope of PCBs in increasing SMEs’ financing eligibility in win-win basis. The findings and proposition could be effective in other ADB member countries and audiences in the field.

Keywords: CCA, financing, information asymmetry, PCA, PCB, financing.

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Authors: K. Knüppel, G. Meyer, P. Nyhuis

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The increasing interconnectedness and complexity of  production processes raise the susceptibility of production systems to  failure. Therefore, the ability to respond quickly to failures is  increasingly becoming a competitive factor. The research project  "Sustainable failure management in manufacturing SMEs" is  developing a methodology to identify failures in the production and  select preventive and reactive measures in order to correct failures  and to establish sustainable failure management systems.

 

Keywords: Failure categorization, failure management, logistic performance, production optimization.

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Authors: Reza Hayati, Maryam Sadi, Saeid Shokri, Mehdi Ahmadi Marvast, Saeid Hassan Boroojerdi, Amin Hamzavi Abedi

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Efficient and safe plant operation can only be achieved if the operators are able to monitor all key process parameters. Instrumentation is used to measure many process variables, like temperatures, pressures, flow rates, compositions or other product properties. Therefore Performance monitoring is a suitable tool for operators. In this paper, we integrate rigorous simulation model, data reconciliation and parameter estimation to monitor process equipments and determine key performance indicator (KPI) of them. The applied method here has been implemented in two case studies.

Keywords: Data Reconciliation, Measurement, Optimization, Parameter Estimation, Performance Monitoring.

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Authors: Bruno Škrinjarić

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Rapid technological developments and increase in organizations’ interdependence on international scale are changing the traditional workplace paradigm. A key feature of knowledge based economy is that employers are looking for individuals that possess both specific academic skills and knowledge, and also capability to be proactive and respond to problems creatively and autonomously. The focus of this paper is workers with Economics and Business background and its goals are threefold: (1) to explore wide range of competences and identify which are the most important to employers; (2) to investigate the existence and magnitude of gap between required and possessed level of a certain competency; and (3) to inquire how this gap is connected with performance of a company. A study was conducted on a representative sample of Croatian enterprises during the spring of 2016. Results show that generic, rather than specific, competences are more important to employers and the gap between the relative importance of certain competence and its current representation in existing workforce is greater for generic competences than for specific. Finally, results do not support the hypothesis that this gap is correlated with firms’ performance.

Keywords: Competency gap, competency matching, key competences, firm performance.

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Authors: Zhaopeng Xuan, Yuan Bian, C. Cailleaux, Jing Qin, S. Traore

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Traditional software engineering allows engineers to propose to their clients multiple specialized software distributions assembled from a shared set of software assets. The management of these assets however requires a trade-off between client satisfaction and software engineering process. Clients have more and more difficult to find a distribution or components based on their needs from all of distributed repositories.

This paper proposes a software engineering for a user-driven software product line in which engineers define a Feature Model but users drive the actual software distribution on demand. This approach makes the user become final actor as a release manager in software engineering process, increasing user product satisfaction and simplifying user operations to find required components. In addition, it provides a way for engineers to manage and assembly large software families.

As a proof of concept, a user-driven software product line is implemented for Eclipse, an integrated development environment. An Eclipse feature model is defined, which is exposed to users on a cloud-based built platform from which clients can download individualized Eclipse distributions.

Keywords: Software Product Line, Model-driven Development, Reverse Engineering and Refactoring, Agile Method

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Authors: Isa Nakhai Kamal Abadi, Esmaeel Saberi, Ehsan Mirjafari

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While financial institutions have faced difficulties over the years for a multitude of reasons, the major cause of serious banking problems continues to be directly related to lax credit standards for borrowers and counterparties, poor portfolio risk management, or a lack of attention to changes in economic or other circumstances that can lead to a deterioration in the credit standing of a bank's counterparties. Credit risk is most simply defined as the potential that a bank borrower or counterparty will fail to meet its obligations in accordance with agreed terms. The goal of credit risk management is to maximize a bank's risk-adjusted rate of return by maintaining credit risk exposure within acceptable parameters. Banks need to manage the credit risk inherent in the entire portfolio as well as the risk in individual credits or transactions. Banks should also consider the relationships between credit risk and other risks. The effective management of credit risk is a critical component of a comprehensive approach to risk management and essential to the long-term success of any banking organization. In this research we also study the relationship between credit risk indices and borrower-s timely payback in Karafarin bank.

Keywords: Financial Ratios; Spearman Test; Bank OperationsRisk

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Authors: Yasin Tadayonrad, Alassane Ballé Ndiaye

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Most of the supply chain networks have many nodes starting from the suppliers’ side up to the customers’ side that each node sends/receives the raw materials/products from/to the other nodes. One of the major concerns in this kind of supply chain network is finding the best schedule for loading/unloading the shipments through the whole network by which all the constraints in the source and destination nodes are met and all the shipments are delivered on time. One of the main constraints in this problem is the loading/unloading capacity in each source/destination node at each time slot (e.g., per week/day/hour). Because of the different characteristics of different products/groups of products, the capacity of each node might differ based on each group of products. In most supply chain networks (especially in the Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry), there are different planners/planning teams working separately in different nodes to determine the loading/unloading timeslots in source/destination nodes to send/receive the shipments. In this paper, a mathematical problem has been proposed to find the best timeslots for loading/unloading the shipments minimizing the overall delays subject to respecting the capacity of loading/unloading of each node, the required delivery date of each shipment (considering the lead-times), and working-days of each node. This model was implemented on Python and solved using Python-MIP on a sample data set. Finally, the idea of a heuristic algorithm has been proposed as a way of improving the solution method that helps to implement the model on larger data sets in real business cases, including more nodes and shipments.

Keywords: Supply chain management, transportation, multiple-multiple network, timeslots management, mathematical modeling, mixed integer programming.

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Authors: Farag Azzedin, Ahmad Ridha

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The need for reputation assessment is particularly strong in peer-to-peer (P2P) systems because the peers' personal site autonomy is amplified by the inherent technological decentralization of the environment. However, the decentralization notion makes the problem of designing a peer-to-peer based reputation assessment substantially harder in P2P networks than in centralized settings.Existing reputation systems tackle the reputation assessment process in an ad-hoc manner. There is no systematic and coherent way to derive measures and analyze the current reputation systems. In this paper, we propose a reputation assessment process and use it to classify the existing reputation systems. Simulation experiments are conducted and focused on the different methods in selecting the recommendation sources and retrieving the recommendations. These two phases can contribute significantly to the overall performance due to communication cost and coverage.

Keywords: P2P Systems, Trust, Reputation, Performance.

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Authors: D. Garg, S. Luthra, A. Haleem

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Reverse logistics (RL) is supposed to be a systematic procedure that helps in improving the environmental hazards and maintain business sustainability for industries. Industries in Indian are now opting for adoption of RL techniques in business. But, RL practices are not popular in Indian industries because of many barriers for its successful implementation. Therefore, need arises to identify and evaluate the barriers to implement RL practices by taking an Indian industries perspective. Literature review approach and case study approach have been adapted to identify relevant barriers to implement RL practices. Further, Fuzzy Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory methodology has been brought into use for evaluating causal relationships among the barriers to implement RL practices. Seven barriers out of ten barriers have been categorized into the cause group and remaining into effect group. This research will help Indian industries to manage these barriers towards effective implementing RL practices.

Keywords: Barriers, decision making trial and evaluation laboratory, fuzzy set theory, Indian industries, reverse logistics.

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Authors: Fredrik Pettersson

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The paper applies a discourse analytical approach to investigate important concepts influencing the infrastructure planning process in the region of Scania in southern Sweden. Two discourses, one concerning regional development and one concerning sustainability are identified, discussed and contrasted. It is argued that the perceptions of problems and their suggested solutions related to transportation are based on specific ideas, in turn dependent on the importance given to certain concepts, such as regional enlargement, Scania as a transit region, the national environmental quality goals and regional attractiveness. These concepts, their underlying meaning structures and their relevance for the infrastructure planning process are analyzed. The handling of conflicting interests in the planning process, and the possible implications this may have is also discussed. The results indicate that the regional development discourse is dominant and although the solutions to the problems caused by transport are framed in similar ways in the two discourses a harmonization between conflicting goals is proving difficult to achieve.

Keywords: Discourse analysis, Infrastructure planning, Regional development, Sustainability.

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Authors: Mandeep Kumar, Hari Singh

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The effective optimization of machining process parameters affects dramatically the cost and production time of machined components as well as the quality of the final products. This paper presents the optimization aspects of a Wire Electrical Discharge Machining operation using Inconel X-750 as work material. The objective considered in this study is minimization of the dimensional deviation. Six input process parameters of WEDM namely spark gap voltage, pulse-on time, pulse-off time, wire feed rate, peak current and wire tension, were chosen as variables to study the process performance. Taguchi's design of experiments methodology has been used for planning and designing the experiments. The analysis of variance was carried out for raw data as well as for signal to noise ratio. Four input parameters and one two-factor interaction have been found to be statistically significant for their effects on the response of interest. The confirmation experiments were also performed for validating the predicted results.

Keywords: ANOVA, DOE, inconel, machining, optimization.

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Authors: Wanhyun Cho, Soonja Kang, Sangkyoon Kim, Soonyoung Park

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In this paper, we propose the variational EM inference algorithm for the multi-class Gaussian process classification model that can be used in the field of human behavior recognition. This algorithm can drive simultaneously both a posterior distribution of a latent function and estimators of hyper-parameters in a Gaussian process classification model with multiclass. Our algorithm is based on the Laplace approximation (LA) technique and variational EM framework. This is performed in two steps: called expectation and maximization steps. First, in the expectation step, using the Bayesian formula and LA technique, we derive approximately the posterior distribution of the latent function indicating the possibility that each observation belongs to a certain class in the Gaussian process classification model. Second, in the maximization step, using a derived posterior distribution of latent function, we compute the maximum likelihood estimator for hyper-parameters of a covariance matrix necessary to define prior distribution for latent function. These two steps iteratively repeat until a convergence condition satisfies. Moreover, we apply the proposed algorithm with human action classification problem using a public database, namely, the KTH human action data set. Experimental results reveal that the proposed algorithm shows good performance on this data set.

Keywords: Bayesian rule, Gaussian process classification model with multiclass, Gaussian process prior, human action classification, laplace approximation, variational EM algorithm.

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Authors: K. Matušínská, H. Starzyczná, M. Stoklasa

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The paper deals with behaviour of the segment 50+ in the financial market in the Czech Republic. This segment could be said as the strong market power and it can be a crucial business potential for financial business units. The main defined objective of this paper is analysis of the customers´ behaviour of the segment 50- 60 years in the financial market in the Czech Republic and proposal making of the suitable marketing approach to satisfy their demands in the area of product, price, distribution and marketing communication policy. This paper is based on data from one part of primary marketing research. Paper determinates the basic problem areas as well as definition of financial services marketing, defining the primary research problem, hypothesis and primary research methodology. Finally suitable marketing approach to selected sub segment at age of 50-60 years is proposed according to marketing research findings.

Keywords: Population aging in the Czech Republic, Segment 50-60 years, Financial services marketing, Marketing research, Marketing approach.

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Authors: Yusuf Garba Baba

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The construction industry and housing subsector are fraught with risks that have the potential of negatively impacting on the achievement of project objectives. The success or otherwise of most construction projects depends to large extent on how well these risks have been managed. The recent paradigm shift by the subsector to use of formal risk management approach in contrast to hitherto developed rules of thumb means that risks must not only be identified but also properly assessed and responded to in a systematic manner. The study focused on identifying risks associated with housing development projects and prioritisation assessment of the identified risks in order to provide basis for informed decision. The study used a three-step identification framework: review of literature for similar projects, expert consultation and questionnaire based survey to identify potential risk factors. Delphi survey method was employed in carrying out the relative prioritization assessment of the risks factors using computer-based Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) software. The results show that 19 out of the 50 risks significantly impact on housing development projects. The study concludes that although significant numbers of risk factors have been identified as having relevance and impacting to housing construction projects, economic risk group and, in particular, ‘changes in demand for houses’ is prioritised by most developers as posing a threat to the achievement of their housing development objectives. Unless these risks are carefully managed, their effects will continue to impede success in these projects. The study recommends the adoption and use of the combination of multi-technique identification framework and AHP prioritization assessment methodology as a suitable model for the assessment of risks in housing development projects.

Keywords: Risk identification, risk assessment, analytical hierarchical process, multi-criteria decision.

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Authors: Zayed N. Alsulami, Asma F. Aldosseri, Ahmed S. Ezziden, Abdulrahman K. Alonazi

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Children are more susceptible to medication errors than adults. Medication administration process is the last stage in the medication treatment process and most of the errors detected in this stage. Little research has been undertaken about medication errors in children in the Middle East countries. This study was aimed to evaluate how the paediatric nurses adhere to the medication administration policy and also to identify any medication preparation and administration errors or any risk factors. An observational, prospective study of medication administration process from when the nurses preparing patient medication until administration stage (May to August 2014) was conducted in Saudi Arabia. Twelve paediatric nurses serving 90 paediatric patients were observed. 456 drug administered doses were evaluated. Adherence rate was variable in 7 steps out of 16 steps. Patient allergy information, dose calculation, drug expiry date were the steps in medication administration with lowest adherence rates. 63 medication preparation and administration errors were identified with error rate 13.8% of medication administrations. No potentially life-threating errors were witnessed. Few logistic and administrative factors were reported. The results showed that the medication administration policy and procedure need an urgent revision to be more sensible for nurses in practice. Nurses’ knowledge and skills regarding to the medication administration process should be improved.

Keywords: Double checking, Medication administration errors, Medication safety, Nurses.

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Authors: Saeed Sayyad Hagh Shomar

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Traffic congestion pricing – as a strategy in travel demand management in urban areas to reduce traffic congestion, air pollution and noise pollution – has drawn many attentions towards itself. Unlike the satisfying findings in this method, there are still problems in determining the best functional congestion pricing scheme with regard to the situation. The so-called problems in this process will result in further complications and even the scheme failure. That is why having proper knowledge of the significance of congestion pricing schemes and the effective factors in choosing them can lead to the success of this strategy. In this study, first, a variety of traffic congestion pricing schemes and their components are introduced; then, their functional usage is discussed. Next, by analyzing and comparing the barriers, limitations and advantages, the selection criteria of pricing schemes are described. The results, accordingly, show that the selection of the best scheme depends on various parameters. Finally, based on examining the effective parameters, it is concluded that the implementation of area-based schemes (cordon and zonal) has been more successful in non-diversion of traffic. That is considering the topology of the cities and the fact that traffic congestion is often created in the city centers, area-based schemes would be notably functional and appropriate.

Keywords: Congestion pricing, demand management, flat toll, variable toll.

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Authors: Chuen Tse Kuah, Kuan Yew Wong, Farzad Behrouzi

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This paper is aimed to give an illustration on the application of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) as a tool to assess Quality Management (QM) efficiency. A variant of DEA, slack based measure (SBM) is used for this purpose. From this study, it is found that DEA is suitable to measure QM efficiency and give improvement suggestions to the inefficient QM.

Keywords: Quality Management, Data Envelopment Analysis, Slack Based Measure, Efficiency Measurement.

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Authors: Sourabh Jain, Sukhvir Singh Jain, Gaurav V. Jain

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Intelligent Transportation System is an integrated application of communication, control and monitoring and display process technologies for developing a user–friendly transportation system for urban areas in developing countries. In fact, the development of a country and the progress of its transportation system are complementary to each other. Urban traffic has been growing vigorously due to population growth as well as escalation of vehicle ownership causing congestion, delays, pollution, accidents, high-energy consumption and low productivity of resources. The development and management of urban transport in developing countries like India however, is at tryout stage with very few accumulations. Under the umbrella of ITS, urban corridor management strategy have proven to be one of the most successful system in accomplishing these objectives. The present study interprets and figures out the performance of the 27.4 km long Urban Bus route having six intersections, five flyovers and 29 bus stops that covers significant area of the city by causality analysis. Performance interpretations incorporate Passenger Boarding and Alighting, Dwell time, Distance between Bus Stops and Total trip time taken by bus on selected urban route.

Keywords: Congestion, Dwell time, delay, passengers boarding alighting, travel time.

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Authors: A. Bachrata, N. Marie, F. Bertrand, J. B. Droin

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The in-depth understanding of severe accident propagation in Generation IV of nuclear reactors is important so that appropriate risk management can be undertaken early in their design process. This paper is focused on model improvements in the SIMMER code in order to perform studies of severe accident mitigation of Sodium Fast Reactor. During the design process of the mitigation devices dedicated to extraction of molten fuel from the core region, the molten fuel propagation from the core up to the core catcher has to be studied. In this aim, analytical as well as the complex thermohydraulic simulations with SIMMER-III code are performed. The studies presented in this paper focus on physical phenomena and associated physical models that influence the corium relocation. Firstly, the molten pool heat exchange with surrounding structures is analyzed since it influences directly the instant of rupture of the dedicated tubes favoring the corium relocation for mitigation purpose. After the corium penetration into mitigation tubes, the fuel-coolant interactions result in formation of debris bed. Analyses of debris bed fluidization as well as sinking into a fluid are presented in this paper.

Keywords: Corium, mitigation tubes, SIMMER-III, sodium fast reactor (SFR).

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Authors: Palang Wongtanasuporn

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Rural villagers in Thailand have unique skill for producing craft using local materials. However, the appearance and function of their products are not suited to the demand of international market. The Thai government policy on sustainable economy emphasises the necessity to incorporate a design strategy that will draw out the unique qualities and add value to the products, while raising the satisfaction of international consumer. As an industrial designer, the author sees opportunities that design can enhance sustainability of Thai local products through the potentials that available in village-based enterprises. This research attempts to address, how best use design to practically solve the problems in the development of Thais product in. The privilege solution is expressed through the design of design strategy that supports sustain economic development of microenterprise in Thailand in the way that aligns with product design development. This consideration integrates together with global business outlook in the development of products from rural communities.

Keywords: Community Development, Sufficiency Economy Philosophy, Product Design, Strategy Management.

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Authors: Joel S. Akintayo, Ramat T. Salman

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The stakeholders’ pressure on corporate managers to maintain firm’s profitability has created economic incentives for management to engage in earnings management practices. Therefore, this study examines the effects of audit quality and corporate governance on earnings management of quoted deposit money banks (DMBs) in Nigeria. This study specifically investigates the influence of audit tenure, audit fee, board independence, and board size on earnings management of DMBs. Explanatory research design was employed in carrying out the study while secondary data were sourced from the annual reports and accounts of all the 15 quoted DMBs in Nigerian Stock Exchange as at December 31, 2015 for a period of 10 years covering from 2006 to 2015. The data obtained for the study were analyzed using panel regression analysis approach. The findings reveal that board independence has a negative significant effect on earnings management at a 5% level of significance (p=0.002), while audit fee has a positive significant effect on earnings management at a 5% level of significance (p=0.013) and audit tenure has a negative significant effect on earnings management of DMBs at a 5% level of significance (p=0.003). Surprisingly, board size was statistically not significant at a 5% level of significance (p=0.086). The study concludes that high audit quality and sound corporate governance could improve the earnings quality of DMBs. Hence, the study recommends that the authorities saddled with the responsibility of banking supervision in Nigeria such the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and CBN to advise the National Assembly in Nigeria to pass into law the three years professional requirement for audit tenure.

Keywords: Audit quality, audit tenure, audit fee, board independence, corporate governance, earnings management.

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Authors: Aptullah Karakaş, Murat Baydoğan

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In the HDA process, Al or Al-Si molten baths are mostly used. However, in this study, three different Al alloys such as Al4043 (Al-Mg), Al5356 (Al-Si) and Al7020 (Al-Zn) were used as the molten bath in order to see their effects on morphological and mechanical properties of the resulting aluminide layers. AISI 4140 low alloyed steel was used as the substrate. Parameters of the HDA process were bath composition, bath temperature, and dipping time. These parameters were considered within a Taguchi L9 orthogonal array. After the HDA process and subsequent diffusion annealing, coating thickness measurement, microstructural analysis and hardness measurement of the aluminide layers were conducted. The optimum process parameters were evaluated according to coating morphology such as cracks, Kirkendall porosity and hardness of the coatings. According to the results, smooth and clean aluminide layer with less Kirkendall porosity and cracks were observed on the sample, which was aluminized in the molten Al7020 bath at 700 C for 10 minutes, and subsequently diffusion annealed at 750 C. Hardness of the aluminide layer was in between 1100-1300 hardness of Vickers (HV) and the coating thickness was approximately 400 µm. The results were promising such that a hard and thick aluminide layer with less Kirkendall porosity and cracks could be formed. It is therefore, concluded that Al7020 bath may be used in the HDA process of AISI 4140 steel substrate.

Keywords: Aluminum alloys, coating, hot-dip aluminizing, microstructure.

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Authors: Karel Frajtak, Miroslav Bures, Ivan Jelinek

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Software testing is important stage of software development cycle. Current testing process involves tester and electronic documents with test case scenarios. In this paper we focus on new approach to testing process using automated test case generation and tester guidance through the system based on the model of the system. Test case generation and model-based testing is not possible without proper system model. We aim on providing better feedback from the testing process thus eliminating the unnecessary paper work.

Keywords: Model based testing, test automation, test generating, tester support.

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Authors: A. Diaf, H. Aburideh, Z.Tigrine, D. Tassalit, F.Alaoui

Abstract:

The tray/multi-tray distillation process is a topic that has been investigated to great detail over the last decade by many teams such as Jubran et al. [1], Adhikari et al. [2], Mowla et al. [3], Shatat et al. [4] and Fath [5] to name a few. A significant amount of work and effort was spent focusing on modeling and/simulation of specific distillation hardware designs. In this work, we have focused our efforts on investigating and gathering experimental data on several engineering and design variables to quantify their influence on the yield of the multi-tray distillation process. Our goals are to generate experimental performance data to bridge some existing gaps in the design, engineering, optimization and theoretical modeling aspects of the multi-tray distillation process.

Keywords: Distillation, Desalination, Multi-Stage still, Solar Energy

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Authors: Asish O. Mathew, Lewlyn L. R. Rodrigues

Abstract:

The organizations in the knowledge economy era have recognized the importance of building knowledge assets for sustainable growth and development. In comparison to other industries, Information Technology (IT) enterprises, holds an edge in developing an effective Knowledge Management (KM) programmethanks to their in-house technological abilities. This paper tries to study the various knowledge based incentive programmes and its effect on Knowledge Sharing and Learning in the context of the Indian IT sector. A conceptual model is developed linking KM Incentives, Knowledge Sharing and Learning. A questionnaire study is conducted to collect primary data from the knowledge workers of the IT organizations located in India. The data was analysed using Structural Equation Modeling using Partial Least Square method. The results show a strong influence of knowledge management incentives on knowledge sharing and an indirect influence on learning.

Keywords: Knowledge Management, Knowledge Management Incentives, Knowledge Sharing, Learning.

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