Search results for: Hierarchical Bayesian framework

Authors: Imelda Smit

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Systems Analysis and Design is a key subject in Information Technology courses, but students do not find it easy to cope with, since it is not “precise" like programming and not exact like Mathematics. It is a subject working with many concepts, modeling ideas into visual representations and then translating the pictures into a real life system. To complicate matters users who are not necessarily familiar with computers need to give their inputs to ensure that they get the system the need. Systems Analysis and Design also covers two fields, namely Analysis, focusing on the analysis of the existing system and Design, focusing on the design of the new system. To be able to test the analysis and design of a system, it is necessary to develop a system or at least a prototype of the system to test the validity of the analysis and design. The skills necessary in each aspect differs vastly. Project Management Skills, Database Knowledge and Object Oriented Principles are all necessary. In the context of a developing country where students enter tertiary education underprepared and the digital divide is alive and well, students need to be motivated to learn the necessary skills, get an opportunity to test it in a “live" but protected environment – within the framework of a university. The purpose of this article is to improve the learning experience in Systems Analysis and Design through reviewing the underlying teaching principles used, the teaching tools implemented, the observations made and the reflections that will influence future developments in Systems Analysis and Design. Action research principles allows the focus to be on a few problematic aspects during a particular semester.

Keywords: Action Research, Project Development, Systems Analysis and Design, Technology in Teaching.

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Authors: Amira Kheriji Abbes, Faouzi Bouani, Mekki Ksouri

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Model Predictive Control (MPC) is an established control technique in a wide range of process industries. The reason for this success is its ability to handle multivariable systems and systems having input, output or state constraints. Neverthless comparing to PID controller, the implementation of the MPC in miniaturized devices like Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) and microcontrollers has historically been very small scale due to its complexity in implementation and its computation time requirement. At the same time, such embedded technologies have become an enabler for future manufacturing enterprisers as well as a transformer of organizations and markets. In this work, we take advantage of these recent advances in this area in the deployment of one of the most studied and applied control technique in the industrial engineering. In this paper, we propose an efficient firmware for the implementation of constrained MPC in the performed STM32 microcontroller using interior point method. Indeed, performances study shows good execution speed and low computational burden. These results encourage to develop predictive control algorithms to be programmed in industrial standard processes. The PID anti windup controller was also implemented in the STM32 in order to make a performance comparison with the MPC. The main features of the proposed constrained MPC framework are illustrated through two examples.

Keywords: Embedded software, microcontroller, constrainedModel Predictive Control, interior point method, PID antiwindup, Keil tool, C/Cµ language.

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Authors: S. Brahim, M. S. Mohamad, E. Zakaria, N. Sarnon@Kusenin

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This study aimed to explore the practical experience of child welfare caseworkers and professionalism in child case management in Malaysia. This paper discussed the specific social work practice competency and the challenges faced by child caseworkers in the fieldwork. This research was qualitative with grounded theory approach. Four sessions of focused group discussion (FGD) were conducted involving a total of 27 caseworkers (child protector and probation officers) in the Klang Valley. The study found that the four basic principles of knowledge in child case management namely: 1. knowledge in child case management; 2. professional values of caseworkers towards children; 3. skills in managing cases; and 4. culturally competent practice in child case management. In addition, major challenges faced by the child case manager are the capacity and commitment of the family in children’s rehabilitation program, the credibility of caseworkers are being challenged, and the challenges of support system from intra and interagency. This study is important for policy makers to take into account the capacity and the needs of the child’s caseworker in accordance with the national social work competency framework. It is expected that case management services for children will improve systematically in line with national standards.

Keywords: Social work practice, child case management, competency-based knowledge, and professionalism.

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Authors: Abilio Avila, Orestis Terzidis

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A fundamental principle of Grounded Theory (GT) is to prevent the formation of preconceived theories. This implies the need to start a research study with an open mind and to avoid being absorbed by the existing literature. However, to start a new study without an understanding of the research domain and its context can be extremely challenging. This paper presents a research approach that simultaneously supports a researcher to identify and to focus on critical areas of a research project and prevent the formation of prejudiced concepts by the current body of literature. This approach comprises of four stages: Selection of secondary case studies, analysis of secondary case studies, development of an initial conceptual framework, development of an initial interview guide. The analysis of secondary case studies as a starting point for a research project allows a researcher to create a first understanding of a research area based on real-world cases without being influenced by the existing body of theory. It enables a researcher to develop through a structured course of actions a firm guide that establishes a solid starting point for further investigations. Thus, the described approach may have significant implications for GT researchers who aim to start a study within a given research area.

Keywords: Grounded theory, qualitative research, secondary case studies, secondary data analysis, interview guide.

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Authors: F. Saptouw

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This paper will examine the digitization process of the |Xam and !Kun notebooks, authored by Lucy Lloyd, Dorothea Bleek and Wilhelm Bleek, and their collaborators |a!kunta, ||kabbo, ≠kasin, Dia!kwain, !kweiten ta ||ken, |han≠kass'o, !nanni, Tamme, |uma, and Da during the 19th century. Detail will be provided about the status of the archive, the creation of the digital archive and selected research projects linked to the archive. The Digital Bleek and Lloyd project is an example of institutional collaboration by the University of Cape Town, University of South Africa, Iziko South African Museum, the National Library of South Africa and the Western Cape Provincial Archives and Records Service. The contemporary value of the archive will be discussed in relation to its current manifestation as a collection of archival and digital objects, each with its own set of properties and archival risk factors. This tension between the two ways to access the archive will be interrogated to shed light on the slippages between the digital object and the archival object. The primary argument is that the process of digitization generates an ontological shift in the status of the archival object. The secondary argument is an engagement with practices to curate the encounters with these ontologically shifted objects and how to relate to each as a contemporary viewer. In conclusion this paper will argue for regarding these archival objects according to the interpretive framework utilized to engage secular relics.

Keywords: Archive, curatorship, digitization, The Digital Bleek and Lloyd.

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Authors: Sabina Jordan, Miha Tomšič, Friderik Knez, Marjana Šijanec Zavrl

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To determine the possibilities for the implementation of sustainable building indicators in Slovenia, testing of the first version of the indicators, developed in the CARE4CLIMATE project and based on the EU Level(s) framework, was carried out in 2022. Invited and interested stakeholders of the construction process were provided with video content and instructions on the Slovenian e-platform of sustainable building indicators. In addition, workshops and lectures with individual subjects were also performed. The final phase of the training and testing procedure included a questionnaire, which was used to obtain information about the participants' opinions regarding the indicators. The analysis of the results of the testing, which was focused on level 2, confirmed the key preliminary finding of the development group, namely that currently, due to the lack of certain knowledge, data, and tools, all indicators for this level are not yet feasible in practice. The research also highlighted the greater need for training and specialization of experts in this field. At the same time, it showed that the testing of the first version itself was a big challenge: only 30 experts fully participated and filled out the online questionnaire. This number seems alarmingly low at first glance, but compared to level(s) testing in the EU member states, it is much more than 50 times higher. However, for the further execution of the indicators in Slovenia, it will therefore be necessary to invest a lot of effort and engagement. It is likely that state support will also be needed, for example, in the form of financial mechanisms or incentives and/or legislative background.

Keywords: Sustainability, building indicator, project CARE4CLIMATE, alpha version SLO kTG, Level(s), sustainable construction stakeholders.

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Authors: P. Kaladevi, N. Giridharan

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The system for analyzing and eliciting public grievances serves its main purpose to receive and process all sorts of complaints from the public and respond to users. Due to the more number of complaint data becomes big data which is difficult to store and process. The proposed system uses HDFS to store the big data and uses MapReduce to process the big data. The concept of cache was applied in the system to provide immediate response and timely action using big data analytics. Cache enabled big data increases the response time of the system. The unstructured data provided by the users are efficiently handled through map reduce algorithm. The processing of complaints takes place in the order of the hierarchy of the authority. The drawbacks of the traditional database system used in the existing system are set forth by our system by using Cache enabled Hadoop Distributed File System. MapReduce framework codes have the possible to leak the sensitive data through computation process. We propose a system that add noise to the output of the reduce phase to avoid signaling the presence of sensitive data. If the complaints are not processed in the ample time, then automatically it is forwarded to the higher authority. Hence it ensures assurance in processing. A copy of the filed complaint is sent as a digitally signed PDF document to the user mail id which serves as a proof. The system report serves to be an essential data while making important decisions based on legislation.

Keywords: Big Data, Hadoop, HDFS, Caching, MapReduce, web personalization, e-governance.

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Authors: Ehi E. Aimiuwu

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As of 2017, many online learning professionals, institutions, and journals are still wondering how instructors can keep student engaged in the online learning environment to facilitate active learning effectively. The purpose of this qualitative single-case and narrative research is to explore whether online professors understand their role as mentors and facilitators of students’ academic success by keeping students engaged in active learning based on personalized experience in the field. Data collection tools that were used in the study included an NVivo 12 Plus qualitative software, an interview protocol, a digital audiotape, an observation sheet, and a transcription. Seven online professors in the United States from LinkedIn and residencies were interviewed for this study. Eleven online teaching techniques from previous research were used as the study framework. Data analysis process, member checking, and key themes were used to achieve saturation. About 85.7% of professors agreed on rubric as the preferred online grading technique. About 57.1% agreed on professors logging in daily, students logging in about 2-5 times weekly, knowing students to increase accountability, email as preferred communication tool, and computer access for adequate online learning. About 42.9% agreed on syllabus for clear class expectations, participation to show what has been learned, and energizing students for creativity.

Keywords: Class facilitation, class management, online teaching, online education, pedagogy.

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Authors: Loai AbdAllah, Mahmoud Kaiyal

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Missing values in real-world datasets are a common problem. Many algorithms were developed to deal with this problem, most of them replace the missing values with a fixed value that was computed based on the observed values. In our work, we used a distance function based on Bhattacharyya distance to measure the distance between objects with missing values. Bhattacharyya distance, which measures the similarity of two probability distributions. The proposed distance distinguishes between known and unknown values. Where the distance between two known values is the Mahalanobis distance. When, on the other hand, one of them is missing the distance is computed based on the distribution of the known values, for the coordinate that contains the missing value. This method was integrated with Wikaya, a digital health company developing a platform that helps to improve prevention of chronic diseases such as diabetes and cancer. In order for Wikaya’s recommendation system to work distance between users need to be measured. Since there are missing values in the collected data, there is a need to develop a distance function distances between incomplete users profiles. To evaluate the accuracy of the proposed distance function in reflecting the actual similarity between different objects, when some of them contain missing values, we integrated it within the framework of k nearest neighbors (kNN) classifier, since its computation is based only on the similarity between objects. To validate this, we ran the algorithm over diabetes and breast cancer datasets, standard benchmark datasets from the UCI repository. Our experiments show that kNN classifier using our proposed distance function outperforms the kNN using other existing methods.

Keywords: Missing values, distance metric, Bhattacharyya distance.

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Authors: Siqing Chen

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The vast rural landscape in the southern United States is conspicuously characterized by the hedgerow trees or groves. The patchwork landscape of fields surrounded by high hedgerows is a traditional and familiar feature of the American countryside. Hedgerows are in effect linear strips of trees, groves, or woodlands, which are often critical habitats for wildlife and important for the visual quality of the landscape. As landscape interfaces, hedgerows define the spaces in the landscape, give the landscape life and meaning, and enrich ecologies and cultural heritages of the American countryside. Although hedgerows were originally intended as fences and to mark property and townland boundaries, they are not merely the natural or man-made additions to the landscape--they have gradually become “naturalized" into the landscape, deeply rooted in the rural culture, and now formed an important component of the southern American rural environment. However, due to the ever expanding real estate industry and high demand for new residential development, substantial areas of authentic hedgerow landscape in the southern United States are being urbanized. Using Hudson Farm as an example, this study illustrated guidelines of how hedgerows can be integrated into town planning as green infrastructure and landscape interface to innovate and direct sustainable land use, and suggest ways in which such vernacular landscapes can be preserved and integrated into new development without losing their contextual inspiration.

Keywords: Hedgerow, Town planning, Sustainable design, Ecological infrastructure

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Authors: T. Sattarpour, D. Nazarpour

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This paper investigates the effect of simultaneous placement of DGs and smart meters (SMs), on voltage profile improvement in active distribution networks (ADNs). A substantial center of attention has recently been on responsive loads initiated in power system problem studies such as distributed generations (DGs). Existence of responsive loads in active distribution networks (ADNs) would have undeniable effect on sizing and siting of DGs. For this reason, an optimal framework is proposed for sizing and siting of DGs and SMs in ADNs. SMs are taken into consideration for the sake of successful implementing of demand response programs (DRPs) such as direct load control (DLC) with end-side consumers. Looking for voltage profile improvement, the optimization procedure is solved by genetic algorithm (GA) and tested on IEEE 33-bus distribution test system. Different scenarios with variations in the number of DG units, individual or simultaneous placing of DGs and SMs, and adaptive power factor (APF) mode for DGs to support reactive power have been established. The obtained results confirm the significant effect of DRPs and APF mode in determining the optimal size and site of DGs to be connected in ADN resulting to the improvement of voltage profile as well.

Keywords: Active distribution network (ADN), distributed generations (DGs), smart meters (SMs), demand response programs (DRPs), adaptive power factor (APF).

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Authors: Mizan Ahmed, Srikanth Venkatesan

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Geological and tectonic framework indicates that Bangladesh is one of the most seismically active regions in the world. The Bengal Basin is at the junction of three major interacting plates: the Indian, Eurasian, and Burma Plates. Besides there are many active faults within the region, e.g. the large Dauki fault in the north. The country has experienced a number of destructive earthquakes due to the movement of these active faults. Current seismic provisions of Bangladesh are mostly based on earthquake data prior to the 1990. Given the record of earthquakes post 1990, there is a need to revisit the design provisions of the code. This paper compares the base shear demand of three major cities in Bangladesh: Dhaka (the capital city), Sylhet, and Chittagong for earthquake scenarios of magnitudes 7.0MW, 7.5MW, 8.0MW, and 8.5MW using a stochastic model. In particular, the stochastic model allows the flexibility to input region specific parameters such as shear wave velocity profile (that were developed from Global Crustal Model CRUST2.0) and include the effects of attenuation as individual components. Effects of soil amplification were analysed using the Extended Component Attenuation Model (ECAM). Results show that the estimated base shear demand is higher in comparison with code provisions leading to the suggestion of additional seismic design consideration in the study regions.

Keywords: Attenuation, earthquake, ground motion, stochastic, seismic hazard.

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Authors: P. C. Saxena, D. K. Tayal

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The join dependency provides the basis for obtaining lossless join decomposition in a classical relational schema. The existence of Join dependency shows that that the tables always represent the correct data after being joined. Since the classical relational databases cannot handle imprecise data, they were extended to fuzzy relational databases so that uncertain, ambiguous, imprecise and partially known information can also be stored in databases in a formal way. However like classical databases, the fuzzy relational databases also undergoes decomposition during normalization, the issue of joining the decomposed fuzzy relations remains intact. Our effort in the present paper is to emphasize on this issue. In this paper we define fuzzy join dependency in the framework of type-1 fuzzy relational databases & type-2 fuzzy relational databases using the concept of fuzzy equality which is defined using fuzzy functions. We use the fuzzy equi-join operator for computing the fuzzy equality of two attribute values. We also discuss the dependency preservation property on execution of this fuzzy equi- join and derive the necessary condition for the fuzzy functional dependencies to be preserved on joining the decomposed fuzzy relations. We also derive the conditions for fuzzy join dependency to exist in context of both type-1 and type-2 fuzzy relational databases. We find that unlike the classical relational databases even the existence of a trivial join dependency does not ensure lossless join decomposition in type-2 fuzzy relational databases. Finally we derive the conditions for the fuzzy equality to be non zero and the qualification of an attribute for fuzzy key.

Keywords: Fuzzy - equi join, fuzzy functions, fuzzy join dependency, type-1 fuzzy relational database, type-2 fuzzy relational database.

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Authors: Tomás Speziale

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This paper aims to analyse how Ian Hacking states the theoretical basis of his research on the classification of people. Although all his early philosophical education had been based in Foucault, it is also true that Erving Goffman’s perspective provided him with epistemological and methodological tools for understanding face-to-face relationships. Hence, all his works must be thought of as social science texts that combine the research on how the individuals are constituted ‘top-down’ (as in Foucault), with the inquiry into how people renegotiate ‘bottom-up’ the classifications about them. Thus, Hacking´s proposal constitutes a middle ground between the French Philosopher and the American Sociologist. Placing himself between both authors allows Hacking to build a frame that is expected to adjust to Social Sciences’ main particularity: the fact that they study interactive kinds. These are kinds of people, which imply that those who are classified can change in certain ways that prompt the need for changing previous classifications themselves. It is all about the interaction between the labelling of people and the people who are classified. Consequently, understanding the way in which Hacking uses Foucault’s and Goffman’s theories is essential to fully comprehend the social dynamic between individuals and concepts, what Bert Hansen had called dialectical realism. His theoretical proposal, therefore, is not only valuable because it combines diverse perspectives, but also because it constitutes an utterly original and relevant framework for Sociological theory and particularly for Criminology.

Keywords: Classification of people, Foucault`s archaeology, Goffman`s interpersonal sociology, interactive kinds.

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Authors: Chun-Der Chen, Yi-Wen Fan, Cheng-Kiang Farn

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In today-s competitive global business environment, the concept of supply chain management (SCM) continues to become increasingly market-oriented, shifting the primary driver of the value chain from supply to demand. Recent recommendations encourage researchers to focus investigations on the supply chain process integration (SCPI) capabilities that integrate a focal firm with its network of suppliers and business customers to create value for it. However, theoretical and empirical researches pertaining to the antecedents and consequences of a focal firm-s SCPI capabilities have been limited and piecemeal. The purpose of this study is to investigate the critical determinants and consequences of a focal firm-s SCPI capabilities. We test our proposed research framework using a sample of 139 sales managers of manufacturing industries in Taiwan, our research findings show that (1) both perceived business customer-s power and focal firm-s market-oriented culture positively influences a focal firm-s SCPI capabilities, and (2) SCPI capabilities positively influence a focal firm-s SCM performance, both operational and strategic benefits. Implications for practitioners and researchers and suggestions for future research are also addressed in this study.

Keywords: Supply chain process integration capabilities, Perceived business customer's power, Market-oriented culture, Supply chain management performance.

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Authors: Joseph C. Chen, Venkata Karthik Jakka

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The main objective of this research is to optimize tensile strength and dimensional accuracy in injection molding processes using Taguchi Parameter Design. An L16 orthogonal array (OA) is used in Taguchi experimental design with five control factors at four levels each and with non-controllable factor vibration. A total of 32 experiments were designed to obtain the optimal parameter setting for the process. The optimal parameters identified for the shrinkage are shot volume, 1.7 cubic inch (A4); mold term temperature, 130 ºF (B1); hold pressure, 3200 Psi (C4); injection speed, 0.61 inch3/sec (D2); and hold time of 14 seconds (E2). The optimal parameters identified for the tensile strength are shot volume, 1.7 cubic inch (A4); mold temperature, 160 ºF (B4); hold pressure, 3100 Psi (C3); injection speed, 0.69 inch3/sec (D4); and hold time of 14 seconds (E2). The Taguchi-based optimization framework was systematically and successfully implemented to obtain an adjusted optimal setting in this research. The mean shrinkage of the confirmation runs is 0.0031%, and the tensile strength value was found to be 3148.1 psi. Both outcomes are far better results from the baseline, and defects have been further reduced in injection molding processes.

Keywords: Injection molding processes, Taguchi Parameter Design, tensile strength, shrinkage test, high-density polyethylene, HDPE.

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Authors: Morten Stigaard Laursen, Rasmus Nyholm Jørgensen, Henrik Skov Midtiby, Anders Krogh Mortensen, Sanmohan Baby

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This work contributes a statistical model and simulation framework yielding the best estimate possible for the potential herbicide reduction when using the MoDiCoVi algorithm all the while requiring a efficacy comparable to conventional spraying. In June 2013 a maize field located in Denmark were seeded. The field was divided into parcels which was assigned to one of two main groups: 1) Control, consisting of subgroups of no spray and full dose spraty; 2) MoDiCoVi algorithm subdivided into five different leaf cover thresholds for spray activation. In addition approximately 25% of the parcels were seeded with additional weeds perpendicular to the maize rows. In total 299 parcels were randomly assigned with the 28 different treatment combinations. In the statistical analysis, bootstrapping was used for balancing the number of replicates. The achieved potential herbicide savings was found to be 70% to 95% depending on the initial weed coverage. However additional field trials covering more seasons and locations are needed to verify the generalisation of these results. There is a potential for further herbicide savings as the time interval between the first and second spraying session was not long enough for the weeds to turn yellow, instead they only stagnated in growth.

Keywords: Weed crop discrimination, macrosprayer, herbicide reduction, site-specific, sprayer-boom.

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Authors: Jiaqi Yan, Sherry Sun, Huaiqing Wang, Zhongsheng Hua

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In the highly competitive and rapidly changing global marketplace, independent organizations and enterprises often come together and form a temporary alignment of virtual enterprise in a supply chain to better provide products or service. As firms adopt the systems approach implicit in supply chain management, they must manage the quality from both internal process control and external control of supplier quality and customer requirements. How to incorporate quality management of upstream and downstream supply chain partners into their own quality management system has recently received a great deal of attention from both academic and practice. This paper investigate the collaborative feature and the entities- relationship in a supply chain, and presents an ontology of collaborative supply chain from an approach of aligning service-oriented framework with service-dominant logic. This perspective facilitates the segregation of material flow management from manufacturing capability management, which provides a foundation for the coordination and integration of the business process to measure, analyze, and continually improve the quality of products, services, and process. Further, this approach characterizes the different interests of supply chain partners, providing an innovative approach to analyze the collaborative features of supply chain. Furthermore, this ontology is the foundation to develop quality management system which internalizes the quality management in upstream and downstream supply chain partners and manages the quality in supply chain systematically.

Keywords: Ontology, supply chain quality management, service-oriented architecture, service-dominant logic.

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Authors: A. Aravind, M. Vetrivel, P. Abhimanyu, C. A. Akaash Emmanuel Raj, K. Sundararaj, V. R. S. Kumar

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The choice of high-speed, low budget hatchback car with diversified options is increasing for meeting the new generation buyers trend. This paper is aimed to augment the current speed of the hatchback cars through the aerodynamic drag reduction technique. The inverted airfoils are facilitated at the bottom of the car for generating the downward force for negating the lift while increasing the current speed range for achieving a better road performance. The numerical simulations have been carried out using a 2D steady pressure-based    k-ɛ realizable model with enhanced wall treatment. In our numerical studies, Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes model and its code of solution are used. The code is calibrated and validated using the exact solution of the 2D boundary layer displacement thickness at the Sanal flow choking condition for adiabatic flows. We observed through the parametric analytical studies that the inverted airfoil integrated with the bottom surface at various predesigned locations of Hatchback cars can improve its overall aerodynamic efficiency through drag reduction, which obviously decreases the fuel consumption significantly and ensure an optimum road performance lucratively with maximum permissible speed within the framework of the manufactures constraints.

Keywords: Aerodynamics of commercial cars, downward force, hatchback car, inverted airfoil.

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Authors: Rabia Bibi, Muhammad Shahzad Faisal, Khalid Iqbal, Atif Inayat

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Internet is growing rapidly and new community-based content is added by people every second. With this fast-growing community-based content, if a user requires answers of particular questions, then reviews are required from experts or community. However, it is difficult to get quality answers. The Muslim community all over the world is seeking help to get their questions and issues discussed to get answers. Online web portals of religious schools and community-based question answering sites are two big platforms to solve the issues of users. In the case of religious schools, there are experts and qualified religious scholars (mufti) who can give the expert opinion. However, the quality of community-based content cannot be guaranteed as it may not be an answer that satisfies the question of a user. Users on CQA sites may include spammers or individual criticizing the questioner instead of providing useful answers. In this paper, we research strategies to naturally distinguish the right content. As an experiment, we concentrate on Yahoo! Answers, and Quora, popular online QA sites, where questions are asked, answered, edited, and organized by a large community of users. We present the classification of data to categorize both relevant and irrelevant answers. Specifically, we demonstrate that the proposed framework can isolate quality answers from the rest with an exactness near that of people.

Keywords: Community-based question and answering, evaluation and prediction of quality answer, answer classification, Islamic content, answer ranking.

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Authors: Ananya Das, Arun Kumar, Gazala Habib, Vivekanandan Perumal

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Regulatory bodies has proposed limits on Particulate Matter (PM) concentration in air; however, it does not explicitly indicate the incorporation of effects of toxicities of constituents of PM in developing regulatory limits. This study aimed to provide a structured approach to incorporate toxic effects of components in developing regulatory limits on PM. A four-step human health risk assessment framework consists of - (1) hazard identification (parameters: PM and its constituents and their associated toxic effects on health), (2) exposure assessment (parameters: concentrations of PM and constituents, information on size and shape of PM; fate and transport of PM and constituents in respiratory system), (3) dose-response assessment (parameters: reference dose or target toxicity dose of PM and its constituents), and (4) risk estimation (metric: hazard quotient and/or lifetime incremental risk of cancer as applicable). Then parameters required at every step were obtained from literature. Using this information, an attempt has been made to determine limits on PM using component-specific information. An example calculation was conducted for exposures of PM_2.5 and its metal constituents from Indian ambient environment to determine limit on PM values. Identified data gaps were: (1) concentrations of PM and its constituents and their relationship with sampling regions, (2) relationship of toxicity of PM with its components.

Keywords: Air, component-specific toxicity, human health risks, particulate matter.

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Authors: F. Laaouad, M. Bouguerra, A. Hafaifa, A. Iratni

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In this work, we treat the problems related to chemical and petrochemical plants of a certain complex process taking the centrifugal compressor as an example, a system being very complex by its physical structure as well as its behaviour (surge phenomenon). We propose to study the application possibilities of the recent control approaches to the compressor behaviour, and consequently evaluate their contribution in the practical and theoretical fields. Facing the studied industrial process complexity, we choose to make recourse to fuzzy logic for analysis and treatment of its control problem owing to the fact that these techniques constitute the only framework in which the types of imperfect knowledge can jointly be treated (uncertainties, inaccuracies, etc..) offering suitable tools to characterise them. In the particular case of the centrifugal compressor, these imperfections are interpreted by modelling errors, the neglected dynamics, no modelisable dynamics and the parametric variations. The purpose of this paper is to produce a total robust nonlinear controller design method to stabilize the compression process at its optimum steady state by manipulating the gas rate flow. In order to cope with both the parameter uncertainty and the structured non linearity of the plant, the proposed method consists of a linear steady state regulation that ensures robust optimal control and of a nonlinear compensation that achieves the exact input/output linearization.

Keywords: Compressor, Fuzzy logic, Surge control, Bilinearcontroller, Stability analysis, Nonlinear plant.

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Authors: Kostas Siozios, Dimitrios Soudris, Antonios Thanailakis

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Modern applications realized onto FPGAs exhibit high connectivity demands. Throughout this paper we study the routing constraints of Virtex devices and we propose a systematic methodology for designing a novel general-purpose interconnection network targeting to reconfigurable architectures. This network consists of multiple segment wires and SB patterns, appropriately selected and assigned across the device. The goal of our proposed methodology is to maximize the hardware utilization of fabricated routing resources. The derived interconnection scheme is integrated on a Virtex style FPGA. This device is characterized both for its high-performance, as well as for its low-energy requirements. Due to this, the design criterion that guides our architecture selections was the minimal Energy×Delay Product (EDP). The methodology is fully-supported by three new software tools, which belong to MEANDER Design Framework. Using a typical set of MCNC benchmarks, extensive comparison study in terms of several critical parameters proves the effectiveness of the derived interconnection network. More specifically, we achieve average Energy×Delay Product reduction by 63%, performance increase by 26%, reduction in leakage power by 21%, reduction in total energy consumption by 11%, at the expense of increase of channel width by 20%.

Keywords: Design Methodology, FPGA, Interconnection, Low-Energy, High-Performance, CAD tool.

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Authors: Ibrahim Hamidu Magem

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Employee engagement has continued to gain popularity among practitioners, consultants and academicians recent years. This is due to the fact that the engaged employees are central to organizational success in today’s highly competitive and rapidly changing business environment. Employee engagement depicts a situation whereby employee’s harnessed themselves to their work roles. The importance of employee engagement to organizations cannot be overemphasized in today’s rapidly changing business environment. Organizations both large and small are constantly striving to improve their performance, retain employees, reduce absenteeism, and create loyal customers among others. To be able to achieve these organizations need a team of highly engaged employees. In line with this, the study attempts to provide a valuable framework for understanding the antecedents and consequences of employee engagement in organizations. The paper categorizes the antecedents of employee engagement into individual and organizational factors which it is assumed that the existence of such factors could result into engaged employees that will be of benefit to organizations. Therefore, it is recommended that organizations should revisit and redesign its employee engagement system to enable them attain their organizational goals and objectives. In addition, organizations should note that engagement is personal but organizational engagement programmes should be about everyone in the organization. The findings from this paper adds to existing studies about employee engagement and also provide awareness to academics and practitioners about the importance of employee engagement to improve organizations efficiency and effectiveness, as well as to impact to overall firm performance.

Keywords: Antecedent, employee engagement, job involvement, organization.

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Authors: Mohd. Noor Md. Sap, A. Majid Awan

Abstract:

Intelligent systems based on machine learning techniques, such as classification, clustering, are gaining wide spread popularity in real world applications. This paper presents work on developing a software system for predicting crop yield, for example oil-palm yield, from climate and plantation data. At the core of our system is a method for unsupervised partitioning of data for finding spatio-temporal patterns in climate data using kernel methods which offer strength to deal with complex data. This work gets inspiration from the notion that a non-linear data transformation into some high dimensional feature space increases the possibility of linear separability of the patterns in the transformed space. Therefore, it simplifies exploration of the associated structure in the data. Kernel methods implicitly perform a non-linear mapping of the input data into a high dimensional feature space by replacing the inner products with an appropriate positive definite function. In this paper we present a robust weighted kernel k-means algorithm incorporating spatial constraints for clustering the data. The proposed algorithm can effectively handle noise, outliers and auto-correlation in the spatial data, for effective and efficient data analysis by exploring patterns and structures in the data, and thus can be used for predicting oil-palm yield by analyzing various factors affecting the yield.

Keywords: Pattern analysis, clustering, kernel methods, spatial data, crop yield

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Authors: Jong-Moon Chung, Hyung-Weon Cho, Ki-Yong Jin, Min-Hee Cho

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In this paper, we present an analytical framework for the evaluation of the uplink performance of multihop cellular networks based on dynamic time division duplex (TDD). New wireless broadband protocols, such as WiMAX, WiBro, and 3G-LTE apply TDD, and mobile communication protocols under standardization (e.g., IEEE802.16j) are investigating mobile multihop relay (MMR) as a future technology. In this paper a novel MMR TDD scheme is presented, where the dynamic range of the frame is shared to traffic resources of asymmetric nature and multihop relaying. The mobile communication channel interference model comprises of inner and co-channel interference (CCI). The performance analysis focuses on the uplink due to the fact that the effects of dynamic resource allocation show significant performance degradation only in the uplink compared to time division multiple access (TDMA) schemes due to CCI [1-3], where the downlink results to be the same or better.The analysis was based on the signal to interference power ratio (SIR) outage probability of dynamic TDD (D-TDD) and TDMA systems,which are the most widespread mobile communication multi-user control techniques. This paper presents the uplink SIR outage probability with multihop results and shows that the dynamic TDD scheme applying MMR can provide a performance improvement compared to single hop applications if executed properly.

Keywords: Co-Channel Interference, Dynamic TDD, MobileMultihop Reply, Cellular Network, Time Division Multiple Access.

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Authors: R. N. Begum, Ambalika Sharma, G. K. Singh

Abstract:

Identity theft has serious ramifications beyond data and personal information loss. This necessitates the implementation of robust and efficient user identification systems. Therefore, automatic biometric recognition systems are the need of the hour, and electrocardiogram (ECG)-based systems are unquestionably the best choice due to their appealing inherent characteristics. The Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are the recent state-of-the-art techniques for ECG-based user identification systems. However, the results obtained are significantly below standards, and the situation worsens as the number of users and types of heartbeats in the dataset grows. As a result, this study proposes a highly accurate and resilient ECG-based person identification system using CNN's dense learning framework. The proposed research explores explicitly the caliber of dense CNNs in the field of ECG-based human recognition. The study tests four different configurations of dense CNN which are trained on a dataset of recordings collected from eight popular ECG databases. With the highest False Acceptance Rate (FAR)  of 0.04% and the highest False Rejection Rate (FRR)  of 5%, the best performing network achieved an identification accuracy of 99.94%. The best network is also tested with various train/test split ratios. The findings show that DenseNets are not only extremely reliable, but also highly efficient. Thus, they might also be implemented in real-time ECG-based human recognition systems.

Keywords: Biometrics, dense networks, identification rate, train/test split ratio.

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Authors: Bruce X. B. Yu, Yan Liu, Keith C. C. Chan

Abstract:

We propose to record Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) of elderly people using a vision-based system so as to provide better assistive and personalization technologies. Current ADL-related research is based on data collected with help from non-elderly subjects in laboratory environments and the activities performed are predetermined for the sole purpose of data collection. To obtain more realistic datasets for the application, we recorded ADLs for the elderly with data collected from real-world environment involving real elderly subjects. Motivated by the need to collect data for more effective research related to elderly care, we chose to collect data in the room of an elderly person. Specifically, we installed Kinect, a vision-based sensor on the ceiling, to capture the activities that the elderly subject performs in the morning every day. Based on the data, we identified 12 morning activities that the elderly person performs daily. To recognize these activities, we created a HARELCARE framework to investigate into the effectiveness of existing Human Activity Recognition (HAR) algorithms and propose the use of a transfer learning algorithm for HAR. We compared the performance, in terms of accuracy, and training progress. Although the collected dataset is relatively small, the proposed algorithm has a good potential to be applied to all daily routine activities for healthcare purposes such as evidence-based diagnosis and treatment.

Keywords: Daily activity recognition, healthcare, IoT sensors, transfer learning.

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Authors: Richard C.M. Yam, William Lo, Esther P.Y. Tang, Antonio, K.W. Lau

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Technological innovation capability (TIC) is defined as a comprehensive set of characteristics of a firm that facilities and supports its technological innovation strategies. An audit to evaluate the TICs of a firm may trigger improvement in its future practices. Such an audit can be used by the firm for self assessment or third-party independent assessment to identify problems of its capability status. This paper attempts to develop such an auditing framework that can help to determine the subtle links between innovation capabilities and business performance; and to enable the auditor to determine whether good practice is in place. The seven TICs in this study include learning, R&D, resources allocation, manufacturing, marketing, organization and strategic planning capabilities. Empirical data was acquired through a survey study of 200 manufacturing firms in the Hong Kong/Pearl River Delta (HK/PRD) region. Structural equation modelling was employed to examine the relationships among TICs and various performance indicators: sales performance, innovation performance, product performance, and sales growth. The results revealed that different TICs have different impacts on different performance measures. Organization capability was found to have the most influential impact. Hong Kong manufacturers are now facing the challenge of high-mix-low-volume customer orders. In order to cope with this change, good capability in organizing different activities among various departments is critical to the success of a company.

Keywords: Hong Kong/Pearl River Delta, Innovationaudit, Manufacturing, Technological innovation capability

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Authors: Amado, M. P., Amado, A., Poggi, F., Correia de Freitas, J.

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Today is widely understood that global energy consumption patterns are directly related to the urban expansion and development process. This expansion is based on the natural growth of human activities and has left most urban areas totally dependent on fossil fuel derived external energy inputs. This status-quo of production, transportation, storage and consumption of energy has become inefficient and is set to become even more so when the continuous increases in energy demand are factored in. The territorial management of land use and related activities is a central component in the search for more efficient models of energy use, models that can meet current and future regional, national and European goals.

In this paper a methodology is developed and discussed with the aim of improving energy efficiency at the municipal level. The development of this methodology is based on the monitoring of energy consumption and its use patterns resulting from the natural dynamism of human activities in the territory and can be utilized to assess sustainability at the local scale. A set of parameters and indicators are defined with the objective of constructing a systemic model based on the optimization, adaptation and innovation of the current energy framework and the associated energy consumption patterns. The use of the model will enable local governments to strike the necessary balance between human activities and economic development and the local and global environment while safeguarding fairness in the energy sector.

Keywords: Solar urban planning, solar smart city, urban development, energy efficiency.

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