Search results for: Business process model and notation

Authors: M. Sreedhar Babu, Vishal Garg, S. B. Akella, Shibu Clement, N. K. S Rajan

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Producer gas is a biomass derived gaseous fuel which is extensively used in internal combustion engines for power generation application. Unlike the conventional hydrocarbon fuels (Gasoline and Natural gas), the combustion properties of producer gas fuel are much different. Therefore, setting of optimal spark time for efficient engine operation is required. Owing to the fluctuating tendency of producer gas composition during gasification process, the heat release patterns (dictating the power output and emissions) obtained are quite different from conventional fuels. It was found that, valve lift timing is yet another factor which influences the burn rate of producer gas fuel, and thus, the heat release rate of the engine. Therefore, the present study was motivated to estimate the influence of valve lift timing analytically (Wiebe model) on the burn rate of producer gas through curve fitting against experimentally obtained mass fraction burn curves of several producer gas compositions. Furthermore, Wiebe models are widely used in zero-dimensional codes for engine parametric studies and are quite popular. This study also addresses the influence of hydrogen and methane concentration of producer gas on combustion trends, which are known to cause dynamics in engine combustion.

Keywords: Combustion Duration, crank angle, mass fraction burnt, producer gas, wiebe combustion model, wide open throttle.

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Authors: C.W. Kan

Abstract:

This paper investigates the use of atmospheric pressure plasma for improving the surface hydrophobicity of polyurethane synthetic leather with tetramethylsilane (TMS). The atmospheric pressure plasma treatment with TMS is a single-step process to enhance the hydrophobicity of polyurethane synthetic leather. The hydrophobicity of the treated surface was examined by contact angle measurement. The physical and chemical surface changes were evaluated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The purpose of this paper is to provide learning materials for understanding how to use atmospheric pressure plasma in the textile finishing process to transform a hydrophilic surface to hydrophobic.

Keywords: Learning materials, atmospheric pressure plasma treatment, hydrophobic, hydrophilic, surface.

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Authors: A. Charlangsut, M. Boonthienthong, N. Rugthaicharoencheep

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This paper proposes a mathematical model for transmission expansion employing optimization method with scenario analysis approach. Economic transmission planning, on the other hand, seeks investment opportunities so that network expansions can generate more economic benefits than the costs. This approach can be used as a decision model for building new transmission lines added to the existing transmission system minimizing costs of the entire system subject to various system’s constraints and consider of loss value of transmission system and N-1 checking. The results show that the proposed model is efficient to be applied for the larger scale of power system topology.

Keywords: Transmission Expansion Planning, Economic Dispatch, Scenario Analysis, Contingency.

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Authors: M. Othman, N. Bhuiyan, G. J. Gouw

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In today-s global and competitive market, manufacturing companies are working hard towards improving their production system performance. Most companies develop production systems that can help in cost reduction. Manufacturing systems consist of different elements including production methods, machines, processes, control and information systems. Human issues are an important part of manufacturing systems, yet most companies do not pay sufficient attention to them. In this paper, a workforce planning (WP) model is presented. A non-linear programming model is developed in order to minimize the hiring, firing, training and overtime costs. The purpose is to determine the number of workers for each worker type, the number of workers trained, and the number of overtime hours. Moreover, a decision support system (DSS) based on the proposed model is introduced using the Excel-Lingo software interfacing feature. This model will help to improve the interaction between the workers, managers and the technical systems in manufacturing.

Keywords: Decision Support System, Human Factors, Manufacturing System, Workforce Planning.

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Authors: Ashiquer Rahman, Hares Mohammad, Ummey Salma

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A country’s hourly compensation and unemployment rates are two of its most crucial components. They are not merely statistics but they have profound effects on individual, families, country, and the economy. They are inversely related to one another. The increased hourly compensation in the manufacturing sector can have a favorable effect on job changing issues. Moreover, the relationship between hourly compensation and unemployment is complex and influenced by broader economic factors. In this paper, in order to determine the effect of hourly compensation on unemployment rate, we use the panel data regression models and evaluate the expected link between hourly compensation and unemployment rate. We estimate the fixed effects model (FEM), evaluate the error components model (ECM), and determine which model (the FEM or ECM) is better through pooling all 60 observations. We then analyze and review the data by comparing countries (United States, Canada and the United Kingdom) using panel data regression models. Finally, we provide result, analysis and a summary of this extensive research on how the hourly compensation affects unemployment rate. Additionally, this paper offers relevant and useful guideline for the government and academic community to use an econometrics and social approach for the hourly compensation on unemployment rate to eliminate the problem.

Keywords: Hourly compensation, unemployment rate, panel data regression models, dummy variables, random effects model, fixed effects model, the linear regression model.

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Authors: K.Ramesh, A.Nirmalkumar, G.Gurusamy

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In this paper, a new model order reduction phenomenon is introduced at the design stage of linear phase digital IIR filter. The complexity of a system can be reduced by adopting the model order reduction method in their design. In this paper a mixed method of model order reduction is proposed for linear IIR filter. The proposed method employs the advantages of factor division technique to derive the reduced order denominator polynomial and the reduced order numerator is obtained based on the resultant denominator polynomial. The order reduction technique is used to reduce the delay units at the design stage of IIR filter. The validity of the proposed method is illustrated with design example in frequency domain and stability is also examined with help of nyquist plot.

Keywords: Error index (J), Factor division method, IIR filter, Nyquist plot, Order reduction.

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Authors: S. Gao, S. Srirattayawong

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In this study, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model has been developed for studying the effect of surface roughness profile on the EHL problem. The cylinders contact geometry, meshing and calculation of the conservation of mass and momentum equations are carried out using the commercial software packages ICEMCFD and ANSYS Fluent. The user defined functions (UDFs) for density, viscosity and elastic deformation of the cylinders as the functions of pressure and temperature are defined for the CFD model. Three different surface roughness profiles are created and incorporated into the CFD model. It is found that the developed CFD model can predict the characteristics of fluid flow and heat transfer in the EHL problem, including the main parameters such as pressure distribution, minimal film thickness, viscosity, and density changes. The results obtained show that the pressure profile at the center of the contact area directly relates to the roughness amplitude. A rough surface with kurtosis value of more than 3 has greater influence over the fluctuated shape of pressure distribution than in other cases.

Keywords: CFD, EHL, Kurtosis, Surface roughness.

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Authors: M. Norouzi, M. H. Kayhani, M. R. H. Nobari, M. Karimi Demneh

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In this paper, fully developed flow and heat transfer of viscoelastic materials in curved ducts with square cross section under constant heat flux have been investigated. Here, staggered mesh is used as computational grids and flow and heat transfer parameters have been allocated in this mesh with marker and cell method. Numerical solution of governing equations has being performed with FTCS finite difference method. Furthermore, Criminale-Eriksen- Filbey (CEF) constitutive equation has being used as viscoelastic model. CEF constitutive equation is a suitable model for studying steady shear flow of viscoelastic materials which is able to model both effects of the first and second normal stress differences. Here, it is shown that the first and second normal stresses differences have noticeable and inverse effect on secondary flows intensity and mean Nusselt number which is the main novelty of current research.

Keywords: Viscoelastic, fluid flow, heat convection, CEF model, curved duct, square cross section.

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Authors: N. Sopipan, A. Intarasit, K. Chuarkham

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 In this paper, we forecast the volatility of Baht/USDs using Markov Regime Switching GARCH (MRS-GARCH) models. These models allow volatility to have different dynamics according to unobserved regime variables. The main purpose of this paper is to find out whether MRS-GARCH models are an improvement on the GARCH type models in terms of modeling and forecasting Baht/USD volatility. The MRS-GARCH is the best performance model for Baht/USD volatility in short term but the GARCH model is best perform for long term.

Keywords: Volatility, Markov Regime Switching, Forecasting.

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Authors: Ren-Hua Kung, Jen-Chieh Liu , Chih-Teng Chang, Pei-Ti Chen

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The consumption capability of people in China has been a big issue to tourism business. Due to the increasing of China tourists, Taiwan-s government rescinded the category of people in China and opened up the non-stopped airline from China to Taiwan. The “one-day traveling style between China and Taiwan" has formed, hoping to bring business to Taiwan. Night market, which shows foreigners the very local character of Taiwan, contains various merchandise for consumers to purchase. With the increasing numbers of non-stopped airline, visiting Taiwan-s night markets has also been one of major activities to China-s tourists. The purpose of the present study is to understand the consumer behavior of China tourists in tourist night markets in Taipei and analyze that if their shopping motives cause the different shopping behaviors and post-purchase satisfaction and revisiting intention. The results reveled that for the China tourists, the motives of significant influence to the shopping behaviors. Also, the shopping behaviors significant influence to the whole satisfaction and the whole satisfaction significant influence to post-purchase behavior.

Keywords: Shopping Motivation, Shopping Behavior, Satisfaction, Post-Purchase Behavior

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Authors: Fuyang Peng, Donghong Li

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The aim of information systems integration is to make all the data sources, applications and business flows integrated into the new environment so that unwanted redundancies are reduced and bottlenecks and mismatches are eliminated. Two issues have to be dealt with to meet such requirements: the software architecture that supports resource integration, and the adaptor development tool that help integration and migration of legacy applications. In this paper, a service-enabled dependable integration environment (SDIE), is presented, which has two key components, i.e., a dependable service integration platform and a legacy application integration tool. For the dependable platform for service integration, the service integration bus, the service management framework, the dependable engine for service composition, and the service registry and discovery components are described. For the legacy application integration tool, its basic organization, functionalities and dependable measures taken are presented. Due to its service-oriented integration model, the light-weight extensible container, the service component combination-oriented p-lattice structure, and other features, SDIE has advantages in openness, flexibility, performance-price ratio and feature support over commercial products, is better than most of the open source integration software in functionality, performance and dependability support.

Keywords: Application integration, dependability, legacy, SOA.

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Authors: Zoran Constantinescu, Monica Vlâdoiu

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Lately there has been a significant boost of interest in music digital libraries, which constitute an attractive area of research and development due to their inherent interesting issues and challenging technical problems, solutions to which will be highly appreciated by enthusiastic end-users. We present here a DL that we have developed to support users in their quest for classical music pieces within a particular collection of 18,000+ audio recordings. To cope with the early DL model limitations, we have used a refined socio-semantic and contextual model that allows rich bibliographic content description, along with semantic annotations, reviewing, rating, knowledge sharing etc. The multi-layered service model allows incorporation of local and distributed information, construction of rich hypermedia documents, expressing the complex relationships between various objects and multi-dimensional spaces, agents, actors, services, communities, scenarios etc., and facilitates collaborative activities to offer to individual users the needed collections and services.

Keywords: audio recordings, music metadata, music digitallibrary, socio-semantic model

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Authors: Yunyong Guo, Sudhakar Ganti, Bryan Guo

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The rapid growth of telehealth Internet of Things (IoT) devices has raised concerns about energy consumption and efficient data processing. This paper presents an energy-efficient model that integrates telehealth IoT devices with a fog and cloud computing-based platform, offering a sustainable and robust solution to overcome these challenges. Our model employs fog computing as a localized data processing layer while leveraging cloud computing for resource-intensive tasks, significantly reducing energy consumption. We incorporate adaptive energy-saving strategies. Simulation analysis validates our approach's effectiveness in enhancing energy efficiency for telehealth IoT systems integrated with localized fog nodes and both private and public cloud infrastructures. Future research will focus on further optimization of the energy-saving model, exploring additional functional enhancements, and assessing its broader applicability in other healthcare and industry sectors.

Keywords: Energy-efficient, fog computing, IoT, telehealth.

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Authors: Christiono Utomo, Arazi Idrus, Madzlan Napiah, Mohd. Faris Khamidi

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This paper presents a conceptual model of agreement options on negotiation support for civil engineering decision. The negotiation support facilitates the solving of group choice decision making problems in civil engineering decision to reduce the impact of mud volcano disaster in Sidoarjo, Indonesia. The approach based on application of analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method for multi criteria decision on three level of decision hierarchy. Decisions for reducing impact is very complicated since many parties involved in a critical time. Where a number of stakeholders are involved in choosing a single alternative from a set of solution alternatives, there are different concern caused by differing stakeholder preferences, experiences, and background. Therefore, a group choice decision support is required to enable each stakeholder to evaluate and rank the solution alternatives before engaging into negotiation with the other stakeholders. Such civil engineering solutions as alternatives are referred to as agreement options that are determined by identifying the possible stakeholder choice, followed by determining the optimal solution for each group of stakeholder. Determination of the optimal solution is based on a game theory model of n-person general sum game with complete information that involves forming coalitions among stakeholders.

Keywords: Agreement options, AHP, agent, negotiation, multicriteria, game theory, and coalition.

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Authors: Halil Ibrahim Demir, Abdullah Hulusi Kokcam, Fuat Simsir, Özer Uygun

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Traditionally, three important manufacturing functions which are process planning, scheduling and due-date assignment are performed sequentially and separately. Although there are numerous works on the integration of process planning and scheduling and plenty of works focusing on scheduling with due date assignment, there are only a few works on integrated process planning, scheduling and due-date assignment. Although due-dates are determined without taking into account of weights of the customers in the literature, here weighted due-date assignment is employed to get better performance. Jobs are scheduled according to weighted earliest due date dispatching rule and due dates are determined according to some popular due date assignment methods by taking into account of the weights of each job. Simulated Annealing, Evolutionary Strategies, Random Search, hybrid of Random Search and Simulated Annealing, and hybrid of Random Search and Evolutionary Strategies, are applied as solution techniques. Three important manufacturing functions are integrated step-by-step and higher integration levels are found better. Search meta-heuristics are found to be very useful while improving performance measure.

Keywords: Evolutionary strategies, hybrid searches, process planning, simulated annealing, weighted due-date assignment, weighted scheduling.

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Authors: Pucheng Zhou, Bingrong Hong

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How to coordinate the behaviors of the agents through learning is a challenging problem within multi-agent domains. Because of its complexity, recent work has focused on how coordinated strategies can be learned. Here we are interested in using reinforcement learning techniques to learn the coordinated actions of a group of agents, without requiring explicit communication among them. However, traditional reinforcement learning methods are based on the assumption that the environment can be modeled as Markov Decision Process, which usually cannot be satisfied when multiple agents coexist in the same environment. Moreover, to effectively coordinate each agent-s behavior so as to achieve the goal, it-s necessary to augment the state of each agent with the information about other existing agents. Whereas, as the number of agents in a multiagent environment increases, the state space of each agent grows exponentially, which will cause the combinational explosion problem. Profit sharing is one of the reinforcement learning methods that allow agents to learn effective behaviors from their experiences even within non-Markovian environments. In this paper, to remedy the drawback of the original profit sharing approach that needs much memory to store each state-action pair during the learning process, we firstly address a kind of on-line rational profit sharing algorithm. Then, we integrate the advantages of modular learning architecture with on-line rational profit sharing algorithm, and propose a new modular reinforcement learning model. The effectiveness of the technique is demonstrated using the pursuit problem.

Keywords: Multi-agent learning; reinforcement learning; rationalprofit sharing; modular architecture.

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Authors: V. Prasannavenkadesan, A. Elango, S. Chockalingam

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During machining process, chatter is an unavoidable phenomenon. Boring bars possess the cantilever shape and due to this, it is subjected to chatter. The adverse effect of chatter includes the increase in temperature which will leads to excess tool wear. To overcome these problems, in this investigation, Cartridge brass (Cu – 70% and Zn – 30%) is passively fixed on the boring bar and also clearance is provided in order to reduce the displacement, tool wear and cutting temperature. A conventional all geared lathe is attached with vibrometer and pyrometer is used to measure the displacement and temperature. The influence of input parameters such as cutting speed, depth of cut and clearance on temperature, tool wear and displacement are investigated for various cutting conditions. From the result, the optimum conditions to obtain better damping in boring process for chatter reduction is identified.

Keywords: Boring, chatter, mass damping, passive damping.

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Authors: George Yungchih Wang

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Real options theory suggests that managerial flexibility embedded within irreversible investments can account for a significant value in project valuation. Although the argument has become the dominant focus of capital investment theory over decades, yet recent survey literature in capital budgeting indicates that corporate practitioners still do not explicitly apply real options in investment decisions. In this paper, we explore how real options decision criteria can be transformed into equivalent capital budgeting criteria under the consideration of uncertainty, assuming that underlying stochastic process follows a geometric Brownian motion (GBM), a mixed diffusion-jump (MX), or a mean-reverting process (MR). These equivalent valuation techniques can be readily decomposed into conventional investment rules and “option impacts", the latter of which describe the impacts on optimal investment rules with the option value considered. Based on numerical analysis and Monte Carlo simulation, three major findings are derived. First, it is shown that real options could be successfully integrated into the mindset of conventional capital budgeting. Second, the inclusion of option impacts tends to delay investment. It is indicated that the delay effect is the most significant under a GBM process and the least significant under a MR process. Third, it is optimal to adopt the new capital budgeting criteria in investment decision-making and adopting a suboptimal investment rule without considering real options could lead to a substantial loss in value.

Keywords: real options, capital budgeting, geometric Brownianmotion, mixed diffusion-jump, mean-reverting process

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Authors: Mustapha Shitu Suleiman, Francis Neshamba, Nestor Valero-Silva

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Small businesses are considered as engine of economic growth, contributing to employment generation, wealth creation, and poverty alleviation and food security in both developed and developing countries. Nigeria is facing many socio-economic problems and it is believed that by supporting small business development, as propellers of new ideas and more effective users of resources, often driven by individual creativity and innovation, Nigeria would be able to address some of its economic and social challenges, such as unemployment and economic diversification. Using secondary literature, this paper examines the role small businesses can play in the creation of jobs in North-West Nigeria to overcome issues of unemployment, which is the most devastating economic challenge facing the region. Most studies in this area have focused on Nigeria as a whole and only a few studies provide a regional focus, hence, this study will contribute to knowledge by filling this gap by concentrating on North-West Nigeria. It is hoped that with the present administration’s determination to improve the economy, small businesses would be used as vehicles for diversification of the economy away from crude oil to create jobs that would lead to a reduction in the country’s high unemployment level.

Keywords: Job creation, North-West Nigeria, small business, unemployment.

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Authors: Aspasia Koutsokosta, Stefanos Katsavounis

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This paper reviews the model-based qualitative and quantitative Operations Management research in the context of Construction Supply Chain Management (CSCM). Construction industry has been traditionally blamed for low productivity, cost and time overruns, waste, high fragmentation and adversarial relationships. The construction industry has been slower than other industries to employ the Supply Chain Management (SCM) concept and develop models that support the decision-making and planning. However the last decade there is a distinct shift from a project-based to a supply-based approach of construction management. CSCM comes up as a new promising management tool of construction operations and improves the performance of construction projects in terms of cost, time and quality. Modeling the Construction Supply Chain (CSC) offers the means to reap the benefits of SCM, make informed decisions and gain competitive advantage. Different modeling approaches and methodologies have been applied in the multi-disciplinary and heterogeneous research field of CSCM. The literature review reveals that a considerable percentage of the CSC modeling research accommodates conceptual or process models which present general management frameworks and do not relate to acknowledged soft Operations Research methods. We particularly focus on the model-based quantitative research and categorize the CSCM models depending on their scope, objectives, modeling approach, solution methods and software used. Although over the last few years there has been clearly an increase of research papers on quantitative CSC models, we identify that the relevant literature is very fragmented with limited applications of simulation, mathematical programming and simulation-based optimization. Most applications are project-specific or study only parts of the supply system. Thus, some complex interdependencies within construction are neglected and the implementation of the integrated supply chain management is hindered. We conclude this paper by giving future research directions and emphasizing the need to develop optimization models for integrated CSCM. We stress that CSC modeling needs a multi-dimensional, system-wide and long-term perspective. Finally, prior applications of SCM to other industries have to be taken into account in order to model CSCs, but not without translating the generic concepts to the context of construction industry.

Keywords: Construction supply chain management, modeling, operations research, optimization and simulation.

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Authors: Numtip Trakulmaykee, Ahmad Suhaimi Baharudin, Muhammad Rafie Mohd. Arshad

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This study investigates theoretical model of tourist intention in the context of mobile tourism guide. The research model consists of three constructs: mobile design quality, innovation characteristics, and intention to use mobile tourism guide. In order to investigate the effects of determinants and examine the relationships, partial least squares is employed for data analysis and research model development. The results show that mobile design quality and innovation quality significantly impact on tourists’ intention to use mobile tourism guide. Furthermore, mobile design quality has a strong influence on innovation characteristics, and cannot be the moderator on the relationship between innovation characteristics and tourists’ intention to use mobile tourism guide. Our findings propose theoretical model for mobile research and provide an important guideline for developing mobile application.

Keywords: Design quality, Innovation characteristics, Intention, Mobile tourism guide.

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Authors: A. Miss May Thu Zar Myint, B. Dr. Kay Thi Lwin

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This research focuses on the effect of weight percentage variation and size variation of MgFeSi added, gating system design and reaction chamber design on inmold process. By using inmold process, well-known problem of fading is avoided because the liquid iron reacts with magnesium in the mold and not, as usual, in the ladle. During the pouring operation, liquid metal passes through the chamber containing the magnesium, where the reaction of the metal with magnesium proceeds in the absence of atmospheric oxygen [1].In this paper, the results of microstructural characteristic of ductile iron on this parameters are mentioned. The mechanisms of the inmold process are also described [2]. The data obtained from this research will assist in producing the vehicle parts and other machinery parts for different industrial zones and government industries and in transferring the technology to all industrial zones in Myanmar. Therefore, the inmold technology offers many advantages over traditional treatment methods both from a technical and environmental, as well as an economical point of view. The main objective of this research is to produce ductile iron castings in all industrial sectors in Myanmar more easily with lower costs. It will also assist the sharing of knowledge and experience related to the ductile iron production.

Keywords: ductile iron, inmold process, magnesiumtreatment, microstructural characteristics.

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Authors: Lidon Lashley

Abstract:

This paper presents how the social model of disability can be used to reshape inclusive education practices in Guyana. Inclusive education in Guyana is metamorphosizing but still firmly held in the tenets of the Medical Model of Disability which influences the experiences of children with Special Education Needs and/or Disabilities (SEN/D). An ethnographic approach to data gathering was employed in this study. Qualitative data were gathered from the voices of children with and without SEN/D as well as their mainstream teachers to present the interplay of discourses and subjectivities in the situation. The data were analyzed using Adele Clarke's situational analysis. The data suggest that it is possible but will be challenging to fully contextualize and adopt Loreman's synthesis and Booths and Ainscow's Index in the two mainstream schools studied. In addition, the data paved the way for the presentation of the 'Southern Inclusive Education Framework for Guyana' and its support tool 'The Inclusive Checker created for Southern mainstream primary classrooms'.

Keywords: Social Model of Disability, Medical Model of Disability, subjectivities, metamorphosis, special education needs, postcolonial Guyana, Quasi-inclusion practices, Guyanese cultural challenges, mainstream primary schools, Loreman's Synthesis, Booths and Ainscow's Index.

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Authors: Fathollah Ommi, Golnaz Pourabedin, Koros Nekofa

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In recent years fuel cell vehicles are rapidly appearing all over the globe. In less than 10 years, fuel cell vehicles have gone from mere research novelties to operating prototypes and demonstration models. At the same time, government and industry in development countries have teamed up to invest billions of dollars in partnerships intended to commercialize fuel cell vehicles within the early years of the 21st century. The purpose of this study is evaluation of model and performance of fuel cell hybrid electric vehicle in different drive cycles. A fuel cell system model developed in this work is a semi-experimental model that allows users to use the theory and experimental relationships in a fuel cell system. The model can be used as part of a complex fuel cell vehicle model in advanced vehicle simulator (ADVISOR). This work reveals that the fuel consumption and energy efficiency vary in different drive cycles. Arising acceleration and speed in a drive cycle leads to Fuel consumption increase. In addition, energy losses in drive cycle relates to fuel cell system power request. Parasitic power in different parts of fuel cell system will increase when power request increases. Finally, most of energy losses in drive cycle occur in fuel cell system because of producing a lot of energy by fuel cell stack.

Keywords: Drive cycle, Energy efficiency, energy consumption, Fuel cell system.

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Authors: Almutasim Billa A. Alanazi, Hal S. Tharp

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Artificial Intelligence (AI), specifically Reinforcement Learning (RL), has proven helpful in many control path planning technologies by maximizing and enhancing their performance, such as navigation systems. Since it learns from experience by interacting with the environment to determine the optimal policy, the optimal policy takes the best action in a particular state, accounting for the long-term rewards. Most navigation systems focus primarily on "arriving faster," overlooking safety and efficiency while estimating the optimum path, as safety and efficiency are essential factors when planning for a long-distance journey. This paper represents an RL control model that proposes a control mechanism for improving navigation systems. Also, the model could be applied to other control path planning applications because it is adjustable and can accept different properties and parameters. However, the navigation system application has been taken as a case and evaluation study for the proposed model. The model utilized a Q-learning algorithm for training and updating the policy. It allows the agent to analyze the quality of an action made in the environment to maximize rewards. The model gives the ability to update rewards regularly based on safety and efficiency assessments, allowing the policy to consider the desired safety and efficiency benefits while making decisions, which improves the quality of the decisions taken for path planning compared to the conventional RL approaches.

Keywords: Artificial intelligence, control system, navigation systems, reinforcement learning.

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Authors: Ei Ei Myat, Ni Lar Thein

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With the tremendous growth of World Wide Web (WWW) data, there is an emerging need for effective information retrieval at the document level. Several query languages such as XML-QL, XPath, XQL, Quilt and XQuery are proposed in recent years to provide faster way of querying XML data, but they still lack of generality and efficiency. Our approach towards evolving a framework for querying semistructured documents is based on formal query algebra. Two elements are introduced in the proposed framework: first, a generic and flexible data model for logical representation of semistructured data and second, a set of operators for the manipulation of objects defined in the data model. In additional to accommodating several peculiarities of semistructured data, our model offers novel features such as bidirectional paths for navigational querying and partitions for data transformation that are not available in other proposals.

Keywords: Algebra, Semistructured data, Query Algebra.

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Authors: G. Kehl, P. Wagner

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A novel simulation method to determine the displacements of machine tools due to thermal factors is presented. The specific characteristic of this method is the employment of original CAD data from the design process chain, which is interpreted by an algorithm in terms of geometry-based allocation of convection and radiation parameters. Furthermore analogous models relating to the thermal behaviour of machine elements are automatically implemented, which were gained by extensive experimental testing with thermography imaging. With this a transient simulation of the thermal field and in series of the displacement of the machine tool is possible simultaneously during the design phase. This method was implemented and is already used industrially in the design of machining centres in order to improve the quality of herewith manufactured workpieces.

Keywords: Accuracy, design process, finite element analysis, machine tools, thermal simulation.

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Authors: Salavati, Adel, Ebadi Shaghayegh

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This study examines knowledge management in the public organizations in Iran. The purpose of this article is to provide a conceptual framework for application of knowledge management in public organizations. The study indicates that an increasing tendency for implementation of knowledge management in organizations is emerging. Nonetheless knowledge management in public organizations is toddler and little has been done to bring the subject to use in the public sector. The globalization of change and popularization of some values like participation, citizen-orientation and knowledge-orientation in the new theories of public administration requires that the knowledge management is considered and attend to in the public sector. This study holds that a knowledge management framework for public organizations is different from this in the public sector, because public sector is stakeholder-dependent while the private is shareholder-dependent. Based on the research, we provide a conceptual model. The model proposed involves three factors: Organizational, knowledge citizens and contextual factors. The study results indicate these factors affect on knowledge management in public organizations in Iran.

Keywords: Knowledge management, public organizations in Iran, model of knowledge management.

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Authors: Noor Asma Husain, Mohd Shafry Mohd Rahim, Abdullah Bade

Abstract:

Subdivision surfaces were applied to the entire meshes in order to produce smooth surfaces refinement from coarse mesh. Several schemes had been introduced in this area to provide a set of rules to converge smooth surfaces. However, to compute and render all the vertices are really inconvenient in terms of memory consumption and runtime during the subdivision process. It will lead to a heavy computational load especially at a higher level of subdivision. Adaptive subdivision is a method that subdivides only at certain areas of the meshes while the rest were maintained less polygons. Although adaptive subdivision occurs at the selected areas, the quality of produced surfaces which is their smoothness can be preserved similar as well as regular subdivision. Nevertheless, adaptive subdivision process burdened from two causes; calculations need to be done to define areas that are required to be subdivided and to remove cracks created from the subdivision depth difference between the selected and unselected areas. Unfortunately, the result of adaptive subdivision when it reaches to the higher level of subdivision, it still brings the problem with memory consumption. This research brings to iterative process of adaptive subdivision to improve the previous adaptive method that will reduce memory consumption applied on triangular mesh. The result of this iterative process was acceptable better in memory and appearance in order to produce fewer polygons while it preserves smooth surfaces.

Keywords: Subdivision surfaces, adaptive subdivision, selectioncriteria, handle cracks, smooth surface

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Authors: Jozef Mindas, Jaroslav Skvarenina, Jana Skvareninova

Abstract:

Study of the effects of climate change on Norway Spruce (Picea abies) forests has mainly focused on the diversity of tree species diversity of tree species as a result of the ability of species to tolerate temperature and moisture changes as well as some effects of disturbance regime changes. The tree species’ diversity changes in spruce forests due to climate change have been analyzed via gap model. Forest gap model is a dynamic model for calculation basic characteristics of individual forest trees. Input ecological data for model calculations have been taken from the permanent research plots located in primeval forests in mountainous regions in Slovakia. The results of regional scenarios of the climatic change for the territory of Slovakia have been used, from which the values are according to the CGCM3.1 (global) model, KNMI and MPI (regional) models. Model results for conditions of the climate change scenarios suggest a shift of the upper forest limit to the region of the present subalpine zone, in supramontane zone. N. spruce representation will decrease at the expense of beech and precious broadleaved species (Acer sp., Sorbus sp., Fraxinus sp.). The most significant tree species diversity changes have been identified for the upper tree line and current belt of dwarf pine (Pinus mugo) occurrence. The results have been also discussed in relation to most important disturbances (wind storms, snow and ice storms) and phenological changes which consequences are little known. Special discussion is focused on biomass production changes in relation to carbon storage diversity in different carbon pools.

Keywords: Biodiversity, climate change, Norway spruce forests, gap model.

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