Search results for: location decision

Authors: H. Erbiyik, A. Bal, M. Sirakaya, Ö. Yesildal, E. Yolcu

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The emergence of many environmental issues began with the Industrial Revolution. The depletion of natural resources and emerging environmental challenges over time requires enterprises and managers to take into consideration environmental factors while managing business. If we take notice of these causes; the design and implementation of environmentally friendly green purchasing, production and waste management systems become very important at green logistics systems. Companies can adopt green supply chain with the awareness of these facts. The concept of green supply chain constitutes from green purchasing, green production, green logistics, waste management and reverse logistics. In this study, we wanted to identify the concept of green supply chain and why green supply chain should be applied. In the practice part of the study an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) study is conducted on an aluminum production company to evaluate suppliers.

Keywords: Aluminum sector, analytic hierarchy process, decision making, green logistics.

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Authors: Mădălina Maria Gîrbină, Cătălin Nicolae Albu, Nadia Albu

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The IFRS for Small and Medium-sized Entities (SMEs) was issued in July 2009 and currently regulators are considering various implementation strategies of this standard. Romania is a member of the European Union since 2007, thus accounting regulations were issued in order to ensure compliance with the European Accounting Directives. As the European Commission rejected recently the mandatory use of IFRS for SMEs, regulatory bodies from the Member States have to decide if the standard will affect or not the accounting practices of SMEs from their countries. Recently IASB invited stakeholders to discuss the revision of IFRS for SMEs. Empirical studies on the differences and similarities between national standards and IFRS for SMEs could inform decision makers on the actual level of convergence in different countries. The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidences on the convergence of the Romanian regulations with IFRS for SMEs analyzing the results in the context of the last revisions proposed to the EU Accounting Directives.

Keywords: EU Accounting Directives, IFRS for SMEs, national regulations

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Authors: N. Yuvaraj, V. B. Prakash, D. Venkatraj

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This paper may be considered as combination of both pervasive computing and Differential GPS (global positioning satellite) which relates to control automatic traffic signals in such a way as to pre-empt normal signal operation and permit lifesaving vehicles. Before knowing the arrival of the lifesaving vehicles from the signal there is a chance of clearing the traffic. Traffic signal preemption system includes a vehicle equipped with onboard computer system capable of capturing diagnostic information and estimated location of the lifesaving vehicle using the information provided by GPS receiver connected to the onboard computer system and transmitting the information-s using a wireless transmitter via a wireless network. The fleet management system connected to a wireless receiver is capable of receiving the information transmitted by the lifesaving vehicle .A computer is also located at the intersection uses corrected vehicle position, speed & direction measurements, in conjunction with previously recorded data defining approach routes to the intersection, to determine the optimum time to switch a traffic light controller to preemption mode so that lifesaving vehicles can pass safely. In case when the ambulance need to take a “U" turn in a heavy traffic area we suggest a solution. Now we are going to make use of computerized median which uses LINKED BLOCKS (removable) to solve the above problem.

Keywords: Ubiquitous computing, differential GPS, fleet management system, wireless transmitter and receiver computerized median i.e. linked blocks (removable).

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Authors: Ibrahim H. Kilic, A. B. Tugrul

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Energy is a fundamental component in economic development and energy consumption is an index of prosperity and the standard of living. The consumption of energy per capita has increased significantly over the last decades, as the standard of living has improved. Turkey’s geographical location has several advantages for extensive use of wind power. Among the renewable sources, Turkey has very high wind energy potential. Information such as installation capacity of wind power plants in installation, under construction and license stages in the country are reported in detail. Some suggestions are presented in order to increase the wind power installation capacity of Turkey. Turkey’s economic and social development has led to a massive increase in demand for electricity over the last decades. Since the Turkey has no major oil or gas reserves, it is highly dependent on energy imports and is exposed to energy insecurity in the future. But Turkey does have huge potential for renewable energy utilization. There has been a huge growth in the construction of wind power plants and small hydropower plants in recent years. To meet the growing energy demand, the Turkish Government has adopted incentives for investments in renewable energy production. Wind energy investments evaluated the impact of feed-in tariffs (FIT) based on three scenarios that are optimistic, realistic and pessimistic with APLUS software that is developed for rational evaluation for energy market. Results of the three scenarios are evaluated in the view of electricity market for Turkey.

Keywords: APLUS, energy policy, renewable energy, wind power, Turkey.

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Authors: Elias K. Maragos, Petros E. Maravelakis

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In Dynamic Data Envelopment Analysis (DDEA), which is a subfield of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), the productivity of Decision Making Units (DMUs) is considered in relation to time. In this case, as it is accepted by the most of the researchers, there are outputs, which are produced by a DMU to be used as inputs in a future time. Those outputs are known as intermediates. The common models, in DDEA, do not take into account the shape of the distribution of those inputs, outputs or intermediates data, assuming that the distribution of the virtual value of them does not deviate from linearity. This weakness causes the limitation of the accuracy of the analytical power of the traditional DDEA models. In this paper, the authors, using the concept of piecewise linear inputs and outputs, propose an extended DDEA model. The proposed model increases the flexibility of the traditional DDEA models and improves the measurement of the dynamic performance of DMUs.

Keywords: Data envelopment analysis, Dynamic DEA, Piecewise linear inputs, Piecewise linear outputs.

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Authors: Suzanne Yaganeh, Janni Nielsen, Leif Bloch Rasmussen

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This paper invites to dialogue and reflections on innovation and entrepreneurship by presenting concepts of innovation leading to the introduction of a complex theoretical framework; Cooperative Innovation (CO-IN). CO-IN is a didactic model enhancing and scaffolding processes of cooperation creating innovation drawing on a Scandinavian tradition. CO-IN is based on a cross-sectorial and multidisciplinary approach. We introduce the concept of complementarity to help capture the validity of diversity and we suggest the concept of “the space in between" to understand the creation of identity as a collective mind. We see dialogue and the use of multi modal techniques as essential tools for conceptualizations giving possibility for clarification of the complexity and diversity leading to decision making based on knowledge as commons. We introduce the didactic design and present our empirical findings from an innovation workshop in Argentina. In a final paragraph we reflect on the design as a support of the development of common ground, collective mind and collective action and the creation of knowledge as commons to facilitate innovation and entrepreneurship.

Keywords: CO-operative Innovation, didactic design, dialogue and ICT.

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

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

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

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Authors: B. Bakken, O. Boe

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The Norwegian Military Academy (Army) has initiated a project with the main ambition to explore possible avenues to enhancing operational effectiveness through an increased use of simulation-based training and exercises. Within a cost/benefit framework, we discuss opportunities and limitations of vertical and horizontal integration of the existing tactical training system. Vertical integration implies expanding the existing training system to span the full range of training from tactical level (platoon, company) to command and staff level (battalion, brigade). Horizontal integration means including other domains than army tactics and staff procedures in the training, such as military ethics, foreign languages, leadership and decision making. We discuss each of the integration options with respect to purpose and content of training, "best practice" for organising and conducting simulation-based training, and suggest how to evaluate training procedures and measure learning outcomes. We conclude by giving guidelines towards further explorative work and possible implementation.

Keywords: Effectiveness, integration, simulation, training.

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Authors: Aryana Collins Jackson, Elisabetta Bevacqua, Pierre De Loor, Ronan Querrec

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This paper presents a taxonomy of non-technical skills, communicative intentions, and behavior for an individual acting as a medical coordinator. In medical emergency situations, a leader among the group is imperative to both patient health and team emotional and mental health. Situational Leadership is used to make clear and easy-to-follow guidelines for behavior depending on circumstantial factors. Low-level leadership behaviors belonging to two different styles, directive and supporting, are identified from literature and are included in the proposed taxonomy. The high-level information in the taxonomy consists of the necessary non-technical skills belonging to a medical coordinator: situation awareness, decision making, task management, and teamwork. Finally, communicative intentions, dimensions, and functions are included. Thus this work brings high-level and low-level information - medical non-technical skills, communication capabilities, and leadership behavior - into a single versatile taxonomy of behavior.

Keywords: Medical, leadership styles, taxonomy, human behavior.

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Authors: Sakul Jariyachamsit, Kevin Wongleedee

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There has been considerable growth in the issue of food & beverage safety in Thailand. This is important because the level of satisfaction in food & beverage safety has impacts on travel decision made by foreign tourists. Therefore, this paper was aimed to test if there is any significant gender effect in the level of satisfaction of food & beverage safety made by foreign tourists in Thailand. In addition, this paper utilized the Chi Square test of independent to test if there was an association between gender and sickness because of food and if there was an association between gender and the perception of food safety standard. During January to June, 2012, a total of 400 foreign tourist respondents, 200 male as well as 200 female foreign tourists, were interviewed at the departure lounge at Suvarnabhumi airport, Thailand. The findings revealed the astonishing result that there was no significant effect of gender. Also, there was no significant difference in the association between gender and being sick because of food as well as the association between gender and the perception on the standard of food safety during their trip in Thailand.

Keywords: Food & Beverage, Gender Effect, Safety Standard, Satisfaction.

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Authors: Mouataz Zreika, Maria Estela Varua

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Stock investment decisions are often made based on current events of the global economy and the analysis of historical data. Conversely, visual representation could assist investors’ gain deeper understanding and better insight on stock market trends more efficiently. The trend analysis is based on long-term data collection. The study adopts a hybrid method that combines the Clustering algorithm and Force-directed algorithm to overcome the scalability problem when visualizing large data. This method exemplifies the potential relationships between each stock, as well as determining the degree of strength and connectivity, which will provide investors another understanding of the stock relationship for reference. Information derived from visualization will also help them make an informed decision. The results of the experiments show that the proposed method is able to produced visualized data aesthetically by providing clearer views for connectivity and edge weights.

Keywords: Clustering, force-directed, graph drawing, stock investment analysis.

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Authors: Anju Shri, Parvinder S. Sandhu, Vikas Gupta, Sanyam Anand

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In literature, there are metrics for identifying the quality of reusable components but the framework that makes use of these metrics to precisely predict reusability of software components is still need to be worked out. These reusability metrics if identified in the design phase or even in the coding phase can help us to reduce the rework by improving quality of reuse of the software component and hence improve the productivity due to probabilistic increase in the reuse level. As CK metric suit is most widely used metrics for extraction of structural features of an object oriented (OO) software; So, in this study, tuned CK metric suit i.e. WMC, DIT, NOC, CBO and LCOM, is used to obtain the structural analysis of OO-based software components. An algorithm has been proposed in which the inputs can be given to K-Means Clustering system in form of tuned values of the OO software component and decision tree is formed for the 10-fold cross validation of data to evaluate the in terms of linguistic reusability value of the component. The developed reusability model has produced high precision results as desired.

Keywords: CK-Metric, Desicion Tree, Kmeans, Reusability.

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Authors: Mona M. Salem, Khaled S. Al-Hagla, Hany M. Ayad

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The concept of urban metabolism has increasingly been employed in a diverse range of disciplines as a mean to analyze and theorize the city. Urban ecology has a particular focus on the implications of applying the metabolism concept to the urban realm. This approach has been developed by a few researchers, though it has rarely if ever been used in policy development for city planning. The aim of this research is to use ecologically informed urban planning interventions to increase the sustainability of urban metabolism; with special focus on land stock as a most important city resource by developing a system dynamic based DSS. This model identifies two critical management strategy variables for the Strategic Urban Plan Alexandria SUP 2032. As a result, this comprehensive and precise quantitative approach is needed to monitor, measure, evaluate and observe dynamic urban changes working as a decision support system (DSS) for policy making.

Keywords: Alexandria SUP 2032, DSS, ecology, land resource, LULCC, management, metabolism, model, scenarios, System dynamics, urban development.

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Authors: Eleni Giouli

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Distance learning provides a flexible approach to education, enabling busy learners to complete their coursework at their own pace, on their own schedule, and from a convenient location. This flexibility combined with a series of other issues; make the benefits of lifelong distance learning numerous. The purpose of the paper is to investigate whether distance education can contribute to the improvement of adult skills in Greece, highlighting in this way the necessity of the lifelong distance learning. To investigate this goal, a questionnaire is constructed and analyzed based on responses from 3,016 attendees of lifelong distance learning programs in the e-learning of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in Greece. In order to do so, a series of relationships is examined including the effects of a) the gender, b) the previous educational level, c) the current employment status, and d) the method used in the distance learning program, on the development of new general, technical, administrative, social, cultural, entrepreneurial and green skills. The basic conclusions that emerge after using a binary logistic framework are that the following factors are critical in order to develop new skills: the gender, the education level and the educational method used in the lifelong distance learning program. The skills more significantly affected by those factors are the acquiring new skills in general, as well as acquiring general, language and cultural, entrepreneurial and green skills, while for technical and social skills only gender and educational method play a crucial role. Moreover, routine skills and social skills are not affected by the four factors included in the analysis.

Keywords: Adult skills, distance learning, education, lifelong learning.

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Authors: Bogusław Schreyer

Abstract:

The paper enquires on the two methods of the wheeled robot braking torque control. Those two methods are applied when the adhesion coefficient under left side wheels is different from the adhesion coefficient under the right side wheels. In case of the select-low (SL) method the braking torque on both wheels is controlled by the signals originating from the wheels on the side of the lower adhesion. In the select-high (SH) method the torque is controlled by the signals originating from the wheels on the side of the higher adhesion. The SL method is securing stable and secure robot behaviors during the braking process. However, the efficiency of this method is relatively low. The SH method is more efficient in terms of time and braking distance but in some situations may cause wheels blocking. It is important to monitor the velocity of all wheels and then take a decision about the braking torque distribution accordingly. In case of the SH method the braking torque slope may require significant decrease in order to avoid wheel blocking.

Keywords: Select-high method, select-low method, torque distribution, wheeled robot.

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Authors: Ehsan Amid, Sina Rezaei Aghdam, Hamidreza Amindavar

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Steel surface defect detection is essentially one of pattern recognition problems. Support Vector Machines (SVMs) are known as one of the most proper classifiers in this application. In this paper, we introduce a more accurate classification method by using SVMs as our final classifier of the inspection system. In this scheme, multiclass classification task is performed based on the "one-againstone" method and different kernels are utilized for each pair of the classes in multiclass classification of the different defects. In the proposed system, a decision tree is employed in the first stage for two-class classification of the steel surfaces to "defect" and "non-defect", in order to decrease the time complexity. Based on the experimental results, generated from over one thousand images, the proposed multiclass classification scheme is more accurate than the conventional methods and the overall system yields a sufficient performance which can meet the requirements in steel manufacturing.

Keywords: Steel Surface Defect Detection, Support Vector Machines, Kernel Methods.

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Authors: Murad A, Baker H, Mahmoud S, Gabr A

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The groundwater is one of the main sources for sustainability in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Intensive developments in Al-Ain area lead to increase water demand, which consequently reduced the overall groundwater quantity in major aquifers. However, in certain residential areas within Al-Ain, it has been noticed that the groundwater level is rising, for example in Sha-ab Al Askher area. The reasons for the groundwater rising phenomenon are yet to be investigated. In this work, twenty four seismic refraction profiles have been carried out along the study pilot area; as well as field measurement of the groundwater level in a number of available water wells in the area. The processed seismic data indicated the deepest and shallowest groundwater levels are 15m and 2.3 meters respectively. This result is greatly consistent with the proper field measurement of the groundwater level. The minimum detected value may be referred to perched subsurface water which may be associated to the infiltration from the surrounding water bodies such as lakes, and elevated farms. The maximum values indicate the accurate groundwater level within the study area. The findings of this work may be considered as a preliminary help to the decision makers.

Keywords: groundwater, shallow seismic method, United Arab Emirates

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Authors: Hsien-Chou Liao, Yu-Shiang Wang

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Surveillance system is widely used in the traffic monitoring. The deployment of cameras is moving toward a ubiquitous camera (UbiCam) environment. In our previous study, a novel service, called GPS-VT, was firstly proposed by incorporating global positioning system (GPS) and visual tracking techniques for the UbiCam environment. The first prototype is called GODTA (GPS-based Moving Object Detection and Tracking Approach). For a moving person carried GPS-enabled mobile device, he can be tracking when he enters the field-of-view (FOV) of a camera according to his real-time GPS coordinate. In this paper, GPS-VT service is applied to the tracking of vehicles. The moving speed of a vehicle is much faster than a person. It means that the time passing through the FOV is much shorter than that of a person. Besides, the update interval of GPS coordinate is once per second, it is asynchronous with the frame rate of the real-time image. The above asynchronous is worsen by the network transmission delay. These factors are the main challenging to fulfill GPS-VT service on a vehicle.In order to overcome the influence of the above factors, a back-propagation neural network (BPNN) is used to predict the possible lane before the vehicle enters the FOV of a camera. Then, a template matching technique is used for the visual tracking of a target vehicle. The experimental result shows that the target vehicle can be located and tracking successfully. The success location rate of the implemented prototype is higher than that of the previous GODTA.

Keywords: visual surveillance, visual tracking, globalpositioning system, intelligent transportation system

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Authors: J. K. Shrestha, A. Benta, R. B. Lopes, N. Lopes

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This paper presents a multi-objective model for addressing two main objectives in designing rural roads networks: minimization of user operation costs and maximization of population covered. As limited budgets often exist, a reasonable trade-off must be obtained in order to account for both cost and social benefits in this type of networks. For a real-world rural road network, the model is solved, where all non-dominated solutions were obtained. Afterwards, an analysis is made on the (possibly) most interesting solutions (the ones providing better trade-offs). This analysis, coupled with the knowledge of the real world scenario (typically provided by decision makers) provides a suitable method for the evaluation of road networks in rural areas of developing countries.

Keywords: Multi-objective, user operation cost, population covered, rural road network.

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Authors: Prasan Pitiranggon, Nunthika Benjathepanun, Somsri Banditvilai, Veera Boonjing

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Our study proposes an alternative method in building Fuzzy Rule-Based System (FRB) from Support Vector Machine (SVM). The first set of fuzzy IF-THEN rules is obtained through an equivalence of the SVM decision network and the zero-ordered Sugeno FRB type of the Adaptive Network Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS). The second set of rules is generated by combining the first set based on strength of firing signals of support vectors using Gaussian kernel. The final set of rules is then obtained from the second set through input scatter partitioning. A distinctive advantage of our method is the guarantee that the number of final fuzzy IFTHEN rules is not more than the number of support vectors in the trained SVM. The final FRB system obtained is capable of performing classification with results comparable to its SVM counterpart, but it has an advantage over the black-boxed SVM in that it may reveal human comprehensible patterns.

Keywords: Fuzzy Rule Base, Rule Extraction, Rule Generation, Support Vector Machine.

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Authors: Ratthapong Bunyanuwat

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The purposes of this research were to study the citizen participation in preventing illegal drugs in one of a poor and small community of Bangkok, Thailand and to compare the level of participation and concern of illegal drugs problem by using demographic variables. This paper drew upon data collected from a local citizens survey conducted in Bangkok, Thailand during summer of 2012. A total of 200 respondents were elicited as data input for, and one way ANOVA test. The findings revealed that the overall citizen participation was in the level of medium. The mean score showed that benefit from the program was ranked as the highest and the decision to participate was ranked as second while the follow-up of the program was ranked as the lowest. In terms of the difference in demographic such as gender, age, level of education, income, and year of residency, the hypothesis testing’s result disclosed that there were no difference in their level of participation. However, difference in occupation showed a difference in their level of participation and concern which was significant at the 0.05 confidence level.

Keywords: Citizen Participation, Illegal drug, Preventing drug problem, Resolving drug problem

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Authors: Chin-Yu Lee, Iau-Teh Wang

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The mountain road slope failures triggered by earthquake activities and torrential rain namely to create the disaster. Province Road No. 24 is a main route to the Wutai Township. The area of the study is located at the mileages between 46K and 47K along the road. However, the road has been suffered frequent damages as a result of landslide and slope failures during typhoon seasons. An understanding of the sliding behaviors in the area appears to be necessary. Slope failures triggered by earthquake activities and heavy rainfalls occur frequently. The study is to understand the mechanism of slope failures and to look for the way to deal with the situation. In order to achieve these objectives, this paper is based on theoretical and structural geology data interpretation program to assess the potential slope sliding behavior. The study showed an intimate relationship between the landslide behavior of the slopes and the stratum materials, based on structural geology analysis method to analysis slope stability and finds the slope safety coefficient to predict the sites of destroyed layer. According to the case study and parameter analyses results, the slope mainly slips direction compared to the site located in the southeast area. Find rainfall to result in the rise of groundwater level is main reason of the landslide mechanism. Future need to set up effective horizontal drain at corrective location, that can effective restrain mountain road slope failures and increase stability of slope.

Keywords: slope stability analysis, Stereographic Projection, wedge Failure.

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Authors: Khalid Al Siyabi, Angie Al Habib

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To measure or asses any government’s efficiency we need to measure the performance of this government in regards to the quality of the service it provides. Using a technological platform in service provision became a trend and a public demand. It is also a public need to make sure these services are aligned to values and to the whole government’s strategy, vision and goals as well. Providing services using technology tools and channels can enhance the internal business process and also help establish many essential values to government services like transparency and excellence, since in order to establish e-services many standards and policies must be put in place to enable the handing over of decision making to a mature system oriented mechanism. There was no doubt that the Sultanate of Oman wanted to enhance its services and move it towards automation and establishes a smart government as well as links its services to life events. Measuring government efficiency is very essential in achieving social security and economic growth, since it can provide a clear dashboard of all projects and improvements. Based on this data we can improve the strategies and align the country goals to them.

Keywords: Government, Maturity, Oman, Performance, Service.

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Authors: Daehyoung Kim, Pervez Khan, Hoon Kim

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Efficient utilization of spectrum resources is a fundamental issue of wireless communications due to its scarcity. To improve the efficiency of spectrum utilization, the spectrum sharing for unlicensed bands is being regarded as one of key technologies in the next generation wireless networks. A number of schemes such as Listen-Before-Talk(LBT) and carrier sensor adaptive transmission (CSAT) have been suggested from this aspect, but more efficient sharing schemes are required for improving spectrum utilization efficiency. This work considers an opportunistic transmission approach and a dynamic Contention Window (CW) adjustment scheme for LTE-U users sharing the unlicensed spectrum with Wi-Fi, in order to enhance the overall system throughput. The decision criteria for the dynamic adjustment of CW are based on the collision evaluation, derived from the collision probability of the system. The overall performance can be improved due to the adaptive adjustment of the CW. Simulation results show that our proposed scheme outperforms the Distributed Coordination Function (DCF) mechanism of IEEE 802.11 MAC.

Keywords: Spectrum sharing, adaptive opportunistic transmission, unlicensed bands, heterogeneous networks.

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Authors: Lada-On Lertsuwanakul, Herwig Unger

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This paper objects to extend Jon Kleinberg-s research. He introduced the structure of small-world in a grid and shows with a greedy algorithm using only local information able to find route between source and target in delivery time O(log2n). His fundamental model for distributed system uses a two-dimensional grid with longrange random links added between any two node u and v with a probability proportional to distance d(u,v)-2. We propose with an additional information of the long link nearby, we can find the shorter path. We apply the ant colony system as a messenger distributed their pheromone, the long-link details, in surrounding area. The subsequence forwarding decision has more option to move to, select among local neighbors or send to node has long link closer to its target. Our experiment results sustain our approach, the average routing time by Color Pheromone faster than greedy method.

Keywords: Routing algorithm, Small-World network, Ant Colony Optimization, and Peer-to-peer System.

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Authors: Hamed Rafiei, Masoud Rabbani

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This paper deals with the project selection problem. Project selection problem is one of the problems arose firstly in the field of operations research following some production concepts from primary product mix problem. Afterward, introduction of managerial considerations into the project selection problem have emerged qualitative factors and criteria to be regarded as well as quantitative ones. To overcome both kinds of criteria, an analytic network process is developed in this paper enhanced with fuzzy sets theory to tackle the vagueness of experts- comments to evaluate the alternatives. Additionally, a modified version of Least-Square method through a non-linear programming model is augmented to the developed group decision making structure in order to elicit the final weights from comparison matrices. Finally, a case study is considered by which developed structure in this paper is validated. Moreover, a sensitivity analysis is performed to validate the response of the model with respect to the condition alteration.

Keywords: Analytic network process, Fuzzy sets theory, Nonlinear programming, Project selection.

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Authors: A.V.Naresh Babu, S.Sivanagaraju

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A considerable progress has been achieved in transient stability analysis (TSA) with various FACTS controllers. But, all these controllers are associated with single transmission line. This paper is intended to discuss a new approach i.e. a multi-line FACTS controller which is interline power flow controller (IPFC) for TSA of a multi-machine power system network. A mathematical model of IPFC, termed as power injection model (PIM) presented and this model is incorporated in Newton-Raphson (NR) power flow algorithm. Then, the reduced admittance matrix of a multi-machine power system network for a three phase fault without and with IPFC is obtained which is required to draw the machine swing curves. A general approach based on L-index has also been discussed to find the best location of IPFC to reduce the proximity to instability of a power system. Numerical results are carried out on two test systems namely, 6-bus and 11-bus systems. A program in MATLAB has been written to plot the variation of generator rotor angle and speed difference curves without and with IPFC for TSA and also a simple approach has been presented to evaluate critical clearing time for test systems. The results obtained without and with IPFC are compared and discussed.

Keywords: Flexible alternating current transmission system (FACTS), first swing stability, interline power flow controller (IPFC), power injection model (PIM).

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Authors: Y. Rathiranee, D. M. Semasinghe

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This study attempts to identify the factors influencing on women empowerment of rural area in Sri Lanka through micro finance services. Data were collected from one hundred (100) rural women involving self-employment activities through a questionnaire using direct personal interviews. Judgment and Convenience Random sampling technique was used to select the sample size from three Divisional Secretariat divisions of Kandawalai, Poonakari and Karachchi in Kilinochchi District. The factor analysis was performed on fourteen (14) variables for screening and reducing the variables to identify the influencing factors on empowerment. Multiple regression analysis was used to identify the relationship between the three empowerment factors and the impact of micro finance on overall empowerment of rural women. The result of this study summarized the variables into three factors namely decision making, freedom to mobility and family support and which are positively associated with empowerment. In addition to this the value of adjusted R2 is 0.248 indicates that all the variables extracted can be explained 24.8% of the variation in the women empowerment through microfinance. Independent variables of these three factors have positive correlation with women empowerment as well as significant values at 5 percent level.

Keywords: Influencing factors, Micro finance, rural women and women empowerment.

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Authors: Nael Y. Zabel, Maged E. Georgy, Moheeb E. Ibrahim

Abstract:

A knowledge-based expert system with the acronym RASPE is developed as an application tool to help decision makers in construction companies make informed decisions about managing risks in pipeline construction projects. Choosing to use expert systems from all available artificial intelligence techniques is due to the fact that an expert system is more suited to representing a domain’s knowledge and the reasoning behind domain-specific decisions. The knowledge-based expert system can capture the knowledge in the form of conditional rules which represent various project scenarios and potential risk mitigation/response actions. The built knowledge in RASPE is utilized through the underlying inference engine that allows the firing of rules relevant to a project scenario into consideration. Paper provides an overview of the knowledge acquisition process and goes about describing the knowledge structure which is divided up into four major modules. The paper shows one module in full detail for illustration purposes and concludes with insightful remarks.

Keywords: Expert System, Knowledge Management, Pipeline Projects, Risk Mismanagement.

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Authors: G. Erkomaishvili, M. Kobalava, T. Lazariashvili, N. Damenia

Abstract:

Current state of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Georgia is analyzed and evaluated in the paper, the existing legislative background for regulating investments and stimulating policies to attract investments are shown. It is noted that in developing countries encouragement of investment activity, support and implementation are of the most important tasks, implying a consistent investment policy, investor-friendly tax regime and the legal system, reducing administrative barriers and restrictions, fare competitive conditions and business development infrastructure. The work deals with the determining factor of FDIs and the main directions of stimulation, as well as prospective industries where new investments are needed. Contributing and hindering factors and stimulating measures are analyzed. As a result of the research, the direct and indirect factors attracting FDI have been identified. Facilitating factors to FDI inflow are as follows: simplicity of starting business, geopolitical location, low taxes, access to credit, ease of ownership registration, natural resources, low burden of regulations, low level of corruption and low crime rates. Hindering factors to FDI inflow are as follows: small market, lack of policy for attracting investments, low qualification of the workforce (despite the large number of unemployed people it is difficult to find workers with necessary special skills and qualifications), high interest rates, instability of national currency exchange rate, presence of conflict zones within the country and so forth.

Keywords: Foreign direct investment, investment attracting policies, investor, reinvestment.

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