Search results for: Concept learning

Authors: Raksha Sharma, Vishnu Kant Soni, Manoj Kumar Mishra, Prachet Bhuyan

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Grid computing is a form of distributed computing that involves coordinating and sharing computational power, data storage and network resources across dynamic and geographically dispersed organizations. Scheduling onto the Grid is NP-complete, so there is no best scheduling algorithm for all grid computing systems. An alternative is to select an appropriate scheduling algorithm to use in a given grid environment because of the characteristics of the tasks, machines and network connectivity. Job and resource scheduling is one of the key research area in grid computing. The goal of scheduling is to achieve highest possible system throughput and to match the application need with the available computing resources. Motivation of the survey is to encourage the amateur researcher in the field of grid computing, so that they can understand easily the concept of scheduling and can contribute in developing more efficient scheduling algorithm. This will benefit interested researchers to carry out further work in this thrust area of research.

Keywords: Grid Computing, Job Scheduling, ResourceScheduling.

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Authors: Chiara Mansanta, Daniela Sani

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This paper studies the concept of intrapreneurship discovery for innovation and technology development related to the manufacturing industries set up in the center of Italy, in Marche Region. The study underlined the key drivers of the innovation process and the main factors that influence innovation. Starting from a literature study on open innovation, this paper examines the role of human capital to support company’s development. The empirical part of the study is based on a survey to 151 manufacturing companies that represent the 34% of that universe at the regional level. The survey underlined the main KPI’s that influence companies in their decision processes; then tools for these decision processes are presented.

Keywords: Business model, decision making, intrapreneurship discovery, open innovation, standard methodology.

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Authors: Mohammad ALAmro

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The most crucial aspect that is closely related to vocabulary and the one that needs to be emphasized and investigated more than it has been up until now, is the ability to combine words that co-occur frequently in the language. Pedagogically, collocation is one of the error-provoking aspects in foreign language learning. This is indicative of the dire need to provide L2 learners with tools to help them improve their collocational knowledge. This paper pinpoints the role that collocations play in the English language. Furthermore, it presents pedagogical implications for ESL/EFL learners.

Keywords: Collocation, pedagogy, vocabulary knowledge.

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Authors: Shatirah Akib, Teuku K. Syamsura, S.M. Shirazi, Moatasem M. Fayyadh, Budhi Primasari

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The purpose of this paper is to summarize the following protection of scouring countermeasures by using Bentonite-Enhanced Sand (BES) mixtures. The concept of underground improvement is being used in this study to reduce the void of the sand. The sand bentonite mixture was used to bond the ground soil conditions surrounding the pile of integral bridge. The right composition of sand bentonite mixture was proposed based on previous findings. The swelling effect of bentonite also was investigated to ensure there is no adverse impact to the structure of the integral bridge. ScourScour, another name for severe erosion, occurs when the erosive capacity of water resulting from natural and manmade events exceeds the ability of earth materials to resist its effects. According to AASHTO LRFD Specifications (Section C3.7.5), scour is the most common reason for the collapse of highway bridges in the United States

Keywords: bentonite, integral bridge, possible protection, scouring

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Authors: Kenneth I.Eshiet, Yong Sheng

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The sand production problem has led researchers into making various attempts to understand the phenomenon. The generally accepted concept is that the occurrence of sanding is due to the in-situ stress conditions and the induced changes in stress that results in the failure of the reservoir sandstone during hydrocarbon production from wellbores. By using a hypothetical cased (perforated) well, an approach to the problem is presented here by using Finite Element numerical modelling techniques. In addition to the examination of the erosion problem, the influence of certain key parameters is studied in order to ascertain their effect on the failure and subsequent erosion process. The major variables investigated include: drawdown, perforation depth, and the erosion criterion. Also included is the determination of the optimal mud pressure for given operational and reservoir conditions. The improved understanding between parameters enables the choice of optimal values to minimize sanding during oil production.

Keywords: Equivalent Plastic Strain, Erosion, Hydrocarbon Production.

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Authors: Shouzhen Zeng

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We present a new intuitionistic fuzzy aggregation operator called the intuitionistic fuzzy ordered weighted averaging-weighted average (IFOWAWA) operator. The main advantage of the IFOWAWA operator is that it unifies the OWA operator with the WA in the same formulation considering the degree of importance that each concept has in the aggregation. Moreover, it is able to deal with an uncertain environment that can be assessed with intuitionistic fuzzy numbers. We study some of its main properties and we see that it has a lot of particular cases such as the intuitionistic fuzzy weighted average (IFWA) and the intuitionistic fuzzy OWA (IFOWA) operator. Finally, we study the applicability of the new approach on a financial decision making problem concerning the selection of financial strategies.

Keywords: Intuitionistic fuzzy numbers, Weighted average, OWA operator, Financial decision making

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Authors: J.L. Castro, K. Benghazi, M.V. Hurtado, M. Navarro, J.M. Zurita

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Nowadays, quick technological changes force companies to develop innovative products in an increasingly competitive environment. Therefore, how to enhance the time of new product development is very important. This design problem often lacks the exact formula for getting it, and highly depends upon human designers- past experiences. For these reasons, in this work, a Casebased reasoning (CBR) system to assist in new product development is proposed. When a case is recovered from the case base, the system will take into account not only the attribute-s specific value and how important it is. It will also take into account if the attribute has a positive influence over the product development. Hence the manufacturing time will be improved. This information will be introduced as a new concept called “adaptability". An application to this method for hearing instrument new design illustrates the proposed approach.

Keywords: Case based reasoning, Fuzzy logic, New product development, Retrieval stage, Similarity.

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Authors: Yip Mei Loh

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Plato, as a poet, employs muthos extensively to express his philosophical dialectical development, so the majority of his dialogues are comprised of muthoi. We cannot separate his muthos from his philosophical thought, since the former has great influence in the latter. So the methodology of this paper is first to discuss the dialogue Theaetetus to find out why he compares Socrates to the Greek goddess Artemis; then his concept of Maieutikē will be investigated. At the beginning of Plato’s Theaetetus, Socrates first likens himself to the goddess Artemis, who, though unmarried, has a duty to assist women in labour. Socrates’ role, as Plato portrays, is the same as that of Artemis; and the technē he possesses is Maieutikē, which is to assist his students in giving birth to their mental offspring. This paper will focus on discussion on the Socratic mythological role in Platonic interpretation and dialectics so as to reveal the philosophical meaning of Socratic ignorance.

Keywords: Artemis, Ignorance, Logos, Maieutikē, Muthos.

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Authors: S. Madhavi, S. Abirami, C. Bharathi, B. Ekambaram, T. Krishna Sankar, A. Nattudurai, N. Vijayarangan

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The high utilization rate of Automated Teller Machine (ATM) has inevitably caused the phenomena of waiting for a long time in the queue. This in turn has increased the out of stock situations. The ATM utilization helps to determine the usage level and states the necessity of the ATM based on the utilization of the ATM system. The time in which the ATM used more frequently (peak time) and based on the predicted solution the necessary actions are taken by the bank management. The analysis can be done by using the concept of Data Mining and the major part are analyzed based on the predictive data mining. The results are predicted from the historical data (past data) and track the relevant solution which is required. Weka tool is used for the analysis of data based on predictive data mining.

Keywords: ATM, Bank Management, Data Mining, Historical data, Predictive Data Mining, Weka tool.

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Authors: Jian Tang

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In this paper, we first introduce the new concept of completely semiprime fuzzy ideals of an ordered semigroup S, which is an extension of completely semiprime ideals of ordered semigroup S, and investigate some its related properties. Especially, we characterize an ordered semigroup that is a semilattice of simple ordered semigroups in terms of completely semiprime fuzzy ideals of ordered semigroups. Furthermore, we introduce the notion of semiprime fuzzy ideals of ordered semigroup S and establish the relations between completely semiprime fuzzy ideals and semiprime fuzzy ideals of S. Finally, we give a characterization of prime fuzzy ideals of an ordered semigroup S and show that a nonconstant fuzzy ideal f of an ordered semigroup S is prime if and only if f is twovalued, and max{f(a), f(b)} = inf f((aSb]), ∀a, b ∈ S.

Keywords: Ordered fuzzy point, fuzzy left (right) ideal of anordered semigroup, completely semiprime fuzzy ideal, semiprimefuzzy ideal, prime fuzzy ideal.

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Authors: Ömer Faruk Baykoç, Ümit Sami Sakalli

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In this paper, we propose a fuzzy aggregate production planning (APP) model for blending problem in a brass factory which is the problem of computing optimal amounts of raw materials for the total production of several types of brass in a period. The model has deterministic and imprecise parameters which follows triangular possibility distributions. The brass casting APP model can not always be solved by using common approaches used in the literature. Therefore a mathematical model is presented for solving this problem. In the proposed model, the Lai and Hwang-s fuzzy ranking concept is relaxed by using one constraint instead of three constraints. An application of the brass casting APP model in a brass factory shows that the proposed model successfully solves the multi-blend problem in casting process and determines the optimal raw material purchasing policies.

Keywords: Aggregate production planning, Blending, brasscasting, possibilistic programming.

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Authors: Wenjuan Du

Abstract:

The phase compensation method was proposed based on the concept of the damping torque analysis (DTA). It is a method for the design of a PSS (power system stabilizer) to suppress local-mode power oscillations in a single-machine infinite-bus power system. This paper presents the application of the phase compensation method for the design of a PSS in a multi-machine power system. The application is achieved by examining the direct damping contribution of the stabilizer to the power oscillations. By using linearized equal area criterion, a theoretical proof to the application for the PSS design is presented. Hence PSS design in the paper is an example of stable tending control by localized method.

Keywords: Phase compensation method, power system small-signal stability, power system stabilizer.

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Authors: Faiza Belbachir, Thibault Schienhinski

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The massive development of online social networks allows users to post and share their opinions on various topics. With this huge volume of opinion, it is interesting to extract and interpret these information for different domains, e.g., product and service benchmarking, politic, system of recommendation. This is why opinion detection is one of the most important research tasks. It consists on differentiating between opinion data and factual data. The difficulty of this task is to determine an approach which returns opinionated document. Generally, there are two approaches used for opinion detection i.e. Lexical based approaches and Machine Learning based approaches. In Lexical based approaches, a dictionary of sentimental words is used, words are associated with weights. The opinion score of document is derived by the occurrence of words from this dictionary. In Machine learning approaches, usually a classifier is trained using a set of annotated document containing sentiment, and features such as n-grams of words, part-of-speech tags, and logical forms. Majority of these works are based on documents text to determine opinion score but dont take into account if these texts are really correct. Thus, it is interesting to exploit other information to improve opinion detection. In our work, we will develop a new way to consider the opinion score. We introduce the notion of trust score. We determine opinionated documents but also if these opinions are really trustable information in relation with topics. For that we use lexical SentiWordNet to calculate opinion and trust scores, we compute different features about users like (numbers of their comments, numbers of their useful comments, Average useful review). After that, we combine opinion score and trust score to obtain a final score. We applied our method to detect trust opinions in TRIPADVISOR collection. Our experimental results report that the combination between opinion score and trust score improves opinion detection.

Keywords: Tripadvisor, Opinion detection, SentiWordNet, trust score.

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Authors: Seyed Mohammad Hossein Moossavizadeh, Mehran Mohsenzadeh, Nasrin Arshadi

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the data quality is a kind of complex and unstructured concept, which is concerned by information systems managers. The reason of this attention is the high amount of Expenses for maintenance and cleaning of the inefficient data. Such a data more than its expenses of lack of quality, cause wrong statistics, analysis and decisions in organizations. Therefor the managers intend to improve the quality of their information systems' data. One of the basic subjects of quality improvement is the evaluation of the amount of it. In this paper, we present a precautionary method, which with its application the data of information systems would have a better quality. Our method would cover different dimensions of data quality; therefor it has necessary integrity. The presented method has tested on three dimensions of accuracy, value-added and believability and the results confirm the improvement and integrity of this method.

Keywords: Data quality, precaution, information system, measurement, improvement.

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Authors: Y. Harold Robinson, E. Golden Julie, P. Joyce Beryl Princess

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Image segmentation is the concept of splitting the images into several images. Image Segmentation algorithm is used to manipulate the process of image segmentation. The advantage of ABC is that it conducts every worldwide exploration and inhabitant exploration for iteration. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Evolutionary Particle Swarm Optimization (EPSO) encompass a number of search problems. Cleverness Artificial Bee Colony algorithm has been imposed to increase the performance of a neighborhood search. The simulation results clearly show that the presented ABC methods outperform the existing methods. The result shows that the algorithms can be used to implement the manipulator for grasping of colored objects. The efficiency of the presented method is improved a lot by comparing to other methods.

Keywords: Color information, EPSO, ABC, image segmentation, particle swarm optimization, active contour, GMM.

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Authors: P. H. Le, J. Molina, S. Hirai

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In this work, we propose the application of Japanese “Origami” art for a floating function of a small aerial vehicle such as a hexarotor. A preliminary experiment was conducted using Origami magic balls mounted under a hexarotor. This magic ball can expand and shrink using an air pump during free flying. Using this interesting and functional concept, it promises to reduce the resistance of wind as well as reduce the energy consumption when the Origami balls are deflated. This approach can be particularly useful in rescue emergency situations. Furthermore, there are many unexpected reasons that may cause the multi-rotor has to land on the surface of water due to problems with the communication between the aircraft and the ground station. In addition, a complementary experiment was designed to prove that the hexarotor can fly maintaining the stability and also, takes off and lands on the surface of water using air balloons.

Keywords: Helicopter, Japanese Origami ball, Floating, Aerial Robots, Rescue.

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Authors: Sotirios Raptis

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Health and Social care (HSc) services planning and scheduling are facing unprecedented challenges, due to the pandemic pressure and also suffer from unplanned spending that is negatively impacted by the global financial crisis. Data-driven approaches can help to improve policies, plan and design services provision schedules using algorithms that assist healthcare managers to face unexpected demands using fewer resources. The paper discusses services packing using statistical significance tests and machine learning (ML) to evaluate demands similarity and coupling. This is achieved by predicting the range of the demand (class) using ML methods such as Classification and Regression Trees (CART), Random Forests (RF), and Logistic Regression (LGR). The significance tests Chi-Squared and Student’s test are used on data over a 39 years span for which data exist for services delivered in Scotland. The demands are associated using probabilities and are parts of statistical hypotheses. These hypotheses, as their NULL part, assume that the target demand is statistically dependent on other services’ demands. This linking is checked using the data. In addition, ML methods are used to linearly predict the above target demands from the statistically found associations and extend the linear dependence of the target’s demand to independent demands forming, thus, groups of services. Statistical tests confirmed ML coupling and made the prediction statistically meaningful and proved that a target service can be matched reliably to other services while ML showed that such marked relationships can also be linear ones. Zero padding was used for missing years records and illustrated better such relationships both for limited years and for the entire span offering long-term data visualizations while limited years periods explained how well patients numbers can be related in short periods of time or that they can change over time as opposed to behaviours across more years. The prediction performance of the associations were measured using metrics such as Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC), Area Under Curve (AUC) and Accuracy (ACC) as well as the statistical tests Chi-Squared and Student. Co-plots and comparison tables for the RF, CART, and LGR methods as well as the p-value from tests and Information Exchange (IE/MIE) measures are provided showing the relative performance of ML methods and of the statistical tests as well as the behaviour using different learning ratios. The impact of k-neighbours classification (k-NN), Cross-Correlation (CC) and C-Means (CM) first groupings was also studied over limited years and for the entire span. It was found that CART was generally behind RF and LGR but in some interesting cases, LGR reached an AUC = 0 falling below CART, while the ACC was as high as 0.912 showing that ML methods can be confused by zero-padding or by data’s irregularities or by the outliers. On average, 3 linear predictors were sufficient, LGR was found competing well RF and CART followed with the same performance at higher learning ratios. Services were packed only when a significance level (p-value) of their association coefficient was more than 0.05. Social factors relationships were observed between home care services and treatment of old people, low birth weights, alcoholism, drug abuse, and emergency admissions. The work found  that different HSc services can be well packed as plans of limited duration, across various services sectors, learning configurations, as confirmed by using statistical hypotheses.

Keywords: Class, cohorts, data frames, grouping, prediction, probabilities, services.

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Authors: Sushma Satpute, Vaishali Katkar, Nilesh Sahare

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XML files contain data which is in well formatted manner. By studying the format or semantics of the grammar it will be helpful for fast retrieval of the data. There are many algorithms which describes about searching the data from XML files. There are no. of approaches which uses data structure or are related to the contents of the document. In these cases user must know about the structure of the document and information retrieval techniques using NLPs is related to content of the document. Hence the result may be irrelevant or not so successful and may take more time to search.. This paper presents fast XML retrieval techniques by using new indexing technique and the concept of RXML. When indexing an XML document, the system takes into account both the document content and the document structure and assigns the value to each tag from file. To query the system, a user is not constrained about fixed format of query.

Keywords: XML Retrieval, Indexed Search, Information Retrieval.

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Authors: Yin Jie, Qin Qiming, Yin Yong

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As a tool for human spatial cognition and thinking, the map has been playing an important role. Maps are perhaps as fundamental to society as language and the written word. Economic and social development requires extensive and in-depth understanding of their own living environment, from the scope of the overall global to urban housing. This has brought unprecedented opportunities and challenges for traditional cartography . This paper first proposed the concept of scaleless-map and its basic characteristics, through the analysis of the existing multi-scale representation techniques. Then some strategies are presented for automated mapping compilation. Taking into account the demand of automated map compilation, detailed proposed the software - WJ workstation must have four technical features, which are generalization operators, symbol primitives, dynamically annotation and mapping process template. This paper provides a more systematic new idea and solution to improve the intelligence and automation of the scaleless cartography.

Keywords: scaleless-map, strategy, map generalization, automated compilation, WJ workstation.

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Authors: Xu Zhao

Abstract:

Text categorization techniques are widely used to many Information Retrieval (IR) applications. In this paper, we proposed a simple but efficient method that can automatically find the relationship between any pair of terms and documents, also an indexing matrix is established for text categorization. We call this method Indexing Matrix Categorization Machine (IMCM). Several experiments are conducted to show the efficiency and robust of our algorithm.

Keywords: Text categorization, Sub-space learning, Latent Semantic Space

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Authors: Pavol Molnar, Martin Dolinsky

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Paper deals with environmental metrics and assessment systems devoted to Small and Medium Sized Enterprises. Authors are presenting proposed assessment model which has an ability to discover current environmental strengths and weaknesses of Small and Middle Sized Enterprise. Suggested model has also an ambition to become a Sustainability Decision Tool. Model is able to identify "best environmental devision" in the company, and to quantify how this decision contributed into overall environmental improvement. Authors understand environmental improvements as environmental innovations (product, process and organizational). Suggested model is based on its own concept; however, authors are also utilizing already existing environmental assessment tools.

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility, (e)IMPACT model, Environmental metrics, , Small and Middle Sized Enterprises

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Authors: Mohammad Modarres, Shirin Aslani

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The goal of this paper is to develop a model to integrate “pricing" and “advertisement" for short life cycle products, such as branded fashion clothing products. To achieve this goal, we apply the concept of “Dynamic Pricing". There are two classes of advertisements, for the brand (regardless of product) and for a particular product. Advertising the brand affects the demand and price of all the products. Thus, the model considers all these products in relation with each other. We develop two different methods to integrate both types of advertisement and pricing. The first model is developed within the framework of dynamic programming. However, due to the complexity of the model, this method cannot be applicable for large size problems. Therefore, we develop another method, called hieratical approach, which is capable of handling the real world problems. Finally, we show the accuracy of this method, both theoretically and also by simulation.

Keywords: Advertising, Dynamic programming, Dynamic pricing, Promotion.

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Authors: Safak Baykal

Abstract:

The purpose of this study is analyzing the relationship between trust and social capital of people with using Social Network Analysis. In this study, two aspects of social capital will be focused: Bonding, homophilous social capital (BoSC), and Bridging, heterophilous social capital (BrSC). These two aspects diverge each other regarding to the social theories. The other concept of the study is Trust (Tr), namely interpersonal trust, willing to ascribe good intentions to and have confidence in the words and actions of other people. In this study, the sample group, 61 people, was selected from a private firm from the defense industry. The relation between BoSC/BrSC and Tr is shown by using Social Network Analysis (SNA) and statistical analysis with Likert type-questionnaire. The results of the analysis show the Cronbach’s alpha value is 0.756 and social capital values (BoSC/BrSC) is not correlated with Tr values of the people.

Keywords: Social capital, interpersonal trust, social network analysis (SNA).

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Authors: Sholpan Zhandossova, Erden Ordabek, Yelbolsyn Nazarov

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the article analyzes the national security as a scientific and practical problem, characterized by the state's political institutions to ensure effective action to maintain optimal conditions for the existence and development of the individual and society. National security, as a category of political science reflects the relationship between the security to the nation, including public relations and social consciousness, social institutions and their activities, ensuring the realization of national interests in a particular historical situation. In national security are three security levels: individual, society and state. Their role and place determined by the nature of social relations, political systems, the presence of internal and external threats. In terms of content in the concept of national security is taken to provide political, economic, military, environmental, information security and safety of the cultural development of the nation.

Keywords: Kazakhstan, national security, religious extremism

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Authors: E. Mulliner, V. Maliene

Abstract:

The concept of housing affordability is a contested issue, but a pressing and widespread problem for many countries. Simple ratio measures based on housing expenditure and income are habitually used to defined and assess housing affordability. However, conceptualising and measuring affordability in this manner focuses only on financial attributes and fails to deal with wider issues such as housing quality, location and access to services and facilities. The research is based on the notion that the housing affordability problem encompasses more than the financial costs of housing and a households ability to meet such costs and must address larger issues such as social and environmental sustainability and the welfare of households. Therefore, the need arises for a broad and more encompassing set of attributes by which housing affordability can be assessed. This paper presents a system of criteria by which the affordability of different housing locations could be assessed in a comprehensive and sustainable manner. Moreover, the paper explores the way in which such criteria could be measured.

Keywords: Affordable housing, attributes, housing affordability, sustainable communities

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Authors: Zicheng Wang

Abstract:

Offshore wind energy provides a huge potential for the expansion of renewable energies to the coastal countries. High demands are required concerning the shape and type of foundations for offshore wind turbines (OWTs) to find an economically, technically and environmentally-friendly optimal solution. A promising foundation concept is the hybrid foundation system, which consists of a steel plate attached to the outer side of a hollow steel pipe pile. In this study, the bearing behavior of a large diameter foundation is analyzed using a 3-dimensional finite element (FE) model. Non-linear plastic soil behavior is considered. The results of the numerical simulations are compared to highlight the priority of the hybrid foundation to the conventional monopile foundation.

Keywords: Hybrid foundation system, mechanical parameters, plastic soil behaviors, numerical simulations.

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Authors: Alan Walsh, Peter Walker

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Differences in commercial, professional and personal cultural traditions between western consultants and project sponsors in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region are potentially significant in the workplace, and this can impact on project outcomes. These cultural differences can, for example, result in conflict amongst senior managers, which can negatively impact the megaproject. New entrants to the GCC often experience ‘culture shock’ as they attempt to integrate into their unfamiliar environments. Megaprojects are unique ventures with individual project characteristics, which need to be considered when managing their associated risks. Megaproject research to date has mostly ignored the significance of the absence of cultural congruence in the GCC, which is surprising considering that there are large volumes of megaprojects in various stages of construction in the GCC. An initial step to dealing with cultural issues is to acknowledge culture as a significant risk factor (SRF). This paper seeks to understand the criticality for western consultants to address these risks. It considers the cultural barriers that exist between GCC sponsors and western consultants and examines the cultural distance between the key actors. Initial findings suggest the presence to a certain extent of ethnocentricity. Other cultural clashes arise out of a lack of appreciation of the customs, practices and traditions of ‘the Other’, such as the need for avoiding public humiliation and the hierarchal significance rankings. The concept and significance of cultural shock as part of the integration process for new arrivals are considered. Culture shock describes the state of anxiety and frustration resulting from the immersion in a culture distinctly different from one's own. There are potentially substantial project risks associated with underestimating the process of cultural integration. This paper examines two distinct but intertwined issues: the societal and professional culture differences associated with expatriate assignments. A case study examines the cultural congruences between GCC sponsors and American, British and German consultants, over a ten-year cycle. This provides indicators as to which nationalities encountered the most profound cultural issues and the nature of these. GCC megaprojects are typically intensive fast track demanding ventures, where consultant turnover is high. The study finds that building trust-filled relationships is key to successful project team integration and therefore, to successful megaproject execution. Findings indicate that both professional and social inclusion processes have steep learning curves. Traditional risk management practice is to approach any uncertainty in a structured way to mitigate the potential impact on project outcomes. This research highlights cultural risk as a significant factor in the management of GCC megaprojects. These risks arising from high staff turnover typically include loss of project knowledge, delays to the project, cost and disruption in replacing staff. This paper calls for cultural risk to be recognised as an SRF, as the first step to developing risk management strategies, and to reduce staff turnover for western consultants in GCC megaprojects.

Keywords: Western consultants in megaprojects, national culture impacts on GCC Megaprojects, significant risk factors in megaprojects, professional culture in megaprojects.

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Authors: B. F. Oliveira, T. I. Gonçalves, M. M. Sousa, S. M. Pimenta, O. F. Ramalho, J. B. Cruz, F. V. Barbosa

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The EU Circular Economy action plan, launched in 2020, is one of the major initiatives to promote the transition into a more sustainable industry. The circular economy is a popular concept used by many companies nowadays. Some industries are better forwarded to this reality than others, and the tannery industry is a sector that needs more attention due to its strong environmental impact caused by its dimension, intensive resources consumption, lack of recyclability, and second use of its products, as well as the industrial effluents generated by the manufacturing processes. For these reasons, the zero-waste goal and the European objectives are further being achieved. In this context, a need arises to provide an effective methodology that allows to determine the level of circularity of tannery companies. Regarding the complexity of the circular economy concept, few factories have a specialist in sustainability to assess the company’s circularity or have the ability to implement circular strategies that could benefit the manufacturing processes. Although there are several methodologies to assess circularity in specific industrial sectors, there is not an easy go-to methodology applied in factories aiming for cleaner production. Therefore, a straightforward methodology to assess the level of circularity, in this case of a tannery industry, is presented and discussed in this work, allowing any company to measure the impact of its activities. The methodology developed consists in calculating the Overall Circular Index (OCI) by evaluating the circularity of four key areas -energy, material, economy and social- in a specific factory. The index is a value between 0 and 1, where 0 means a linear economy, and 1 is a complete circular economy. Each key area has a sub-index, obtained through key performance indicators (KPIs) regarding each theme, and the OCI reflects the average of the four sub-indexes. Some fieldwork in the appointed company was required in order to obtain all the necessary data. By having separate sub-indexes, one can observe which areas are more linear than others. Thus, it is possible to work on the most critical areas by implementing strategies to increase the OCI. After these strategies are implemented, the OCI is recalculated to check the improvements made and any other changes in the remaining sub-indexes. As such, the methodology in discussion works through continuous improvement, constantly reevaluating and improving the circularity of the factory. The methodology is also flexible enough to be implemented in any industrial sector by adapting the KPIs. This methodology was implemented in a selected Portuguese small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) tannery industry and proved to be a relevant tool to measure the circularity level of the factory. It was witnessed that it is easier for non-specialists to evaluate circularity and identify possible solutions to increase its value, as well as learn how one action can impact their environment. In the end, energetic and environmental inefficiencies were identified and corrected, increasing the sustainability and circularity of the company. Through this work, important contributions were provided, helping the Portuguese SMEs to achieve the European and UN 2030 sustainable goals.

Keywords: Circular economy, circularity index, sustainability, tannery industry, zero-waste.

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Authors: Alluri Swaroopa, Lakkakula Venkata Narasimha Prasad

Abstract:

Alone with fast urbanization in world, traffic control became a big issue in urban construction. Having an efficient and reliable traffic control system is crucial to macro-traffic control. Traffic signal is used to manage conflicting requirement by allocating different sets of mutually compatible traffic movement during distinct time interval. Many approaches have been made proposed to solve this discrete stochastic problem. Recognizing the need to minimize right-of-way impacts while efficiently handling the anticipated high traffic volumes, the proposed alternative system gives effective design. This model allows for increased traffic capacity and reduces delays by eliminating a step in maneuvering through the freeway interchange. The concept proposed in this paper involves construction of bridges and ramps at intersection of four roads to control the vehicular congestion and to prevent traffic breakdown.

Keywords: Bridges, junctions, ramps, urban traffic control.

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Authors: B. Selma, S. Chouraqui

Abstract:

The pancreas is an elongated organ that extends across the abdomen, below the stomach. In addition, it secretes certain enzymes that aid in food digestion. The pancreas also manufactures hormones responsible for regulating blood glucose levels. In the present paper, we propose a mathematical model to study the homeostasis of glucose and insulin in healthy human, and a simulation of this model, which depicts the physiological events after a meal, will be represented in ordinary humans. The aim of this paper is to design an algorithm which regulates the level of glucose in the blood. The algorithm applied the concept of expert system for performing an algorithm control in the form of an "active" used to prescribe the rate of insulin infusion. By decomposing the system into subsystems, we have developed parametric models of each subsystem by using a forcing function strategy. The results showed a performance of the control system.

Keywords: Modeling, algorithm, regulation, glucose-insulin, blood, control system.

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