Search results for: polycentric water resource management

Authors: N. Seyedrazi, S. H. Razavi, Z. Emam-Djomeh

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In this research, natural canthaxanthin as one of the most important carotenoids was extracted from Dietzia natronolimnaea HS-1. The changes of canthaxanthin enriched in oilin- water emulsions with vegetable oil (5 mg/ 100 mL), Arabic gum (5 mg/100 mL), and potassium sorbate (0.5 g/100 mL) was investigated. The effects of different pH (3, 5 and 7), as well as, time treatment (3, 18 and 33 days) in the environmental temperature (24°C) on the degradation were studied by response surface methodology (RSM). The Hunter values (L*, a*, and b*) and the concentration of canthaxanthin (C, mg/L) illustrated more degradation of this pigment at low pHs (pH≤ 4) by passing the time (days≥10) with R² 97.00%, 91.31%, 97.60%, and 99.54% for C, L*, a*, and b* respectively. The predicted model were found to be significant (p<0.05).

Keywords: Degradation, Emulsion, Response SurfaceMethodology (RSM)

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Authors: B. Likar, K. Širok

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The paper presents a new method for efficient innovation process management. Even though the innovation management methods, tools and knowledge are well established and documented in literature, most of the companies still do not manage it efficiently. Especially in SMEs the front end of innovation - problem identification, idea creation and selection - is often not optimally performed. Our eMIPS methodology represents a sort of "umbrella methodology" - a well-defined set of procedures, which can be dynamically adapted to the concrete case in a company. In daily practice, various methods (e.g. for problem identification and idea creation) can be applied, depending on the company's needs. It is based on the proactive involvement of the company's employees supported by the appropriate methodology and external experts. The presented phases are performed via a mixture of face-to-face activities (workshops) and online (eLearning) activities taking place in eLearning Moodle environment and using other e-communication channels. One part of the outcomes is an identified set of opportunities and concrete solutions ready for implementation. The other also very important result is connected to innovation competences for the participating employees related with concrete tools and methods for idea management. In addition, the employees get a strong experience for dynamic, efficient and solution oriented managing of the invention process. The eMIPS also represents a way of establishing or improving the innovation culture in the organization. The first results in a pilot company showed excellent results regarding the motivation of participants and also as to the results achieved.

Keywords: Creativity, distance learning, front end, innovation, problem.

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Authors: Dong Xie, Jun Zhao, Yiming Weng

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The objective of this study was to synthesize and characterize the poly(alkenoic acid)s with different molecular structures, use these polymers to formulate a dental cement restorative, and study the effect of molecular structures on reaction kinetics, viscosity, and mechanical strengths of the formed polymers and cement restoratives. In this study, poly(alkenoic acid)s with different molecular structures were synthesized. The purified polymers were formulated with commercial Fuji II LC glass fillers to form the experimental cement restoratives. The reaction kinetics was studied via 1HNMR spectroscopy. The formed restoratives were evaluated using compressive strength, diametral tensile strength, flexural strength, hardness and wear-resistance tests. Specimens were conditioned in distilled water at 37oC for 24 h prior to testing. Fuji II LC restorative was used as control. The results show that the higher the arm number and initiator concentration, the faster the reaction was. It was also found that the higher the arm number and branching that the polymer had, the lower the viscosity of the polymer in water and the lower the mechanical strengths of the formed restorative. The experimental restoratives were 31-53% in compressive strength, 37- 55% in compressive modulus, 80-126% in diametral tensile strength, 76-94% in flexural strength, 4-21% in fracture toughness and 53-96% in hardness higher than Fuji II LC. For wear test, the experimental restoratives were only 5.4-13% of abrasive and 6.4-12% of attritional wear depths of Fuji II LC in each wear cycle. The aging study also showed that all the experimental restoratives increased their strength continuously during 30 days, unlike Fuji II LC. It is concluded that polymer molecular structures have significant and positive impact on mechanical properties of dental cement restoratives.

Keywords: Poly(alkenoic acid)s, molecular structures, dental cement, mechanical strength.

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Authors: Salha Alshamrani, Maha Aljohni, Eman Aldhaheri

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With the proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices in various industries, there has been a concurrent rise in security vulnerabilities, particularly spoofing attacks. This study explores the potential of blockchain technology in enhancing the security of IoT systems and mitigating these attacks. Blockchain's decentralized and immutable ledger offers significant promise for improving data integrity, transaction transparency, and tamper-proofing. This research develops and implements a blockchain-based IoT architecture and a reference network to simulate real-world scenarios and evaluate a blockchain-integrated intrusion detection system. Performance measures including time delay, security, and resource utilization are used to assess the system's effectiveness, comparing it to conventional IoT networks without blockchain. The results provide valuable insights into the practicality and efficacy of employing blockchain as a security mechanism, shedding light on the trade-offs between speed and security in blockchain deployment for IoT. The study concludes that despite minor increases in time consumption, the security benefits of incorporating blockchain technology into IoT systems outweigh potential drawbacks, demonstrating a significant potential for blockchain in bolstering IoT security.

Keywords: Internet of Thing, Spoofing, IoT, Access control, Blockchain, Raspberry pi.

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Authors: Alexander Goncharenko, Andrey Denisov, Sergey Alyamkin, Evgeny Terentev

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The neural network quantization is highly desired procedure to perform before running neural networks on mobile devices. Quantization without fine-tuning leads to accuracy drop of the model, whereas commonly used training with quantization is done on the full set of the labeled data and therefore is both time- and resource-consuming. Real life applications require simplification and acceleration of quantization procedure that will maintain accuracy of full-precision neural network, especially for modern mobile neural network architectures like Mobilenet-v1, MobileNet-v2 and MNAS. Here we present a method to significantly optimize training with quantization procedure by introducing the trained scale factors for discretization thresholds that are separate for each filter. Using the proposed technique, we quantize the modern mobile architectures of neural networks with the set of train data of only ∼ 10% of the total ImageNet 2012 sample. Such reduction of train dataset size and small number of trainable parameters allow to fine-tune the network for several hours while maintaining the high accuracy of quantized model (accuracy drop was less than 0.5%). Ready-for-use models and code are available in the GitHub repository.

Keywords: Distillation, machine learning, neural networks, quantization.

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Authors: Feng Xiao, Zhou Hongyu, YuCaixia

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Based on an analysis of the current research and application of Road maintenance, geographic information system (WebGIS) and ArcGIS Server, the platform overhead construction for Road maintenance development is studied and the key issues are presented, including the organization and design of spatial data on the basis of the geodatabase technology, middleware technology, tiles cache index technology and dynamic segmentation of WebGIS. Road maintenance geographic information platform is put forward through the researching ideas of analysis of the system design. The design and application of WebGIS system are discussed on the basis of a case study of BaNan district of Chongqing highway maintenance management .The feasibility of the theories and methods are validated through the system.

Keywords: WebGIS, Tile, Road maintenance, dynamic segmentation

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Authors: Ahmed Amin Mousa, M. Abd El-Salam

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This study discusses a simple solution for the problem of shortage in learning resources for kindergarten teachers. Occasionally, kindergarten teachers cannot access proper resources by usual search methods as libraries or search engines. Furthermore, these methods require a long time and efforts for preparing. The study is expected to facilitate accessing learning resources. Moreover, it suggests a potential direction for using QR code inside the classroom. The present work proposes that QR code can be used for digitizing kindergarten curriculums and accessing various learning resources. It investigates using QR code for saving information related to the concepts which kindergarten teachers use in the current educational situation. The researchers have established a guide for kindergarten teachers based on the Egyptian official curriculum. The guide provides different learning resources for each scientific and mathematical concept in the curriculum, and each learning resource is represented as a QR code image that contains its URL. Therefore, kindergarten teachers can use smartphone applications for reading QR codes and displaying the related learning resources for students immediately. The guide has been provided to a group of 108 teachers for using inside their classrooms. The results showed that the teachers approved the guide, and gave a good response.

Keywords: Kindergarten, child, learning resources, QR code, smart phone, mobile.

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Authors: A. Buruzs, M. F. Hatwágner, A. Torma, L. T. Kóczy

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The development, operation and maintenance of Integrated Waste Management Systems (IWMS) affects essentially the sustainable concern of every region. The features of such systems have great influence on all of the components of sustainability. In order to reach the optimal way of processes, a comprehensive mapping of the variables affecting the future efficiency of the system is needed such as analysis of the interconnections among the components and modeling of their interactions. The planning of a IWMS is based fundamentally on technical and economical opportunities and the legal framework. Modeling the sustainability and operation effectiveness of a certain IWMS is not in the scope of the present research. The complexity of the systems and the large number of the variables require the utilization of a complex approach to model the outcomes and future risks. This complex method should be able to evaluate the logical framework of the factors composing the system and the interconnections between them. The authors of this paper studied the usability of the Fuzzy Cognitive Map (FCM) approach modeling the future operation of IWMS’s. The approach requires two input data set. One is the connection matrix containing all the factors affecting the system in focus with all the interconnections. The other input data set is the time series, a retrospective reconstruction of the weights and roles of the factors. This paper introduces a novel method to develop time series by content analysis.

Keywords: Content analysis, factors, integrated waste management system, time series.

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Authors: DaeWon Lee, HeonChang Yu

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Next generation wireless/mobile networks will be IP based cellular networks integrating the internet with cellular networks. In this paper, we propose a new architecture for a high speed transport system and a mobile management protocol for mobile internet users in a transport system. Existing mobility management protocols (MIPv6, HMIPv6) do not consider real world fast moving wireless hosts (e.g. passengers in a train). For this reason, we define a virtual organization (VO) and proposed the VO architecture for the transport system. We also classify mobility as VO mobility (intra VO) and macro mobility (inter VO). Handoffs in VO are locally managed and transparent to the CH while macro mobility is managed with Mobile IPv6. And, from the features of the transport system, such as fixed route and steady speed, we deduce the movement route and the handoff disruption time of each handoff. To reduce packet loss during handoff disruption time, we propose pre-registration scheme using pre-registration. Moreover, the proposed protocol can eliminate unnecessary binding updates resulting from sequence movement at high speed. The performance evaluations demonstrate our proposed protocol has a good performance at transport system environment. Our proposed protocol can be applied to the usage of wireless internet on the train, subway, and high speed train.

Keywords: Binding update, HMIPv6, packet loss, transport system, virtual organization.

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Authors: Manisha Chaudhary, Joydip Dhar, Govind Prasad Sahu

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A mathematical model is proposed considering the forest biomass density B(t), density of wood based industries W(t) and density of synthetic industries S(t). It is assumed that the forest biomass grows logistically in the absence of wood based industries, but depletion of forestry biomass is due to presence of wood based industries. The growth of wood based industries depends on B(t), while S(t) grows at a constant rate, independent of B(t). Further there is a competition between W(t) and S(t) according to market demand. The proposed model has four ecologically feasible steady states, namely, E1: forest biomass free and wood industries free equilibrium; E2: wood industries free equilibrium and two coexisting equilibria E∗1 , E∗2 . Behavior of the system near all feasible equilibria is analyzed using the stability theory of differential equations. In the proposed model, the natural depletion rate h1 is a crucial parameter and system exhibits Hopf-bifurcation about the non-trivial equilibrium with respect to h1. The analytical results are verified using numerical simulation.

Keywords: A mathematical model, Competition between wood based and synthetic industries, Hopf-bifurcation, Stability analysis.

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Authors: Henrik Prinzhorn, Peter Nyhuis, Johannes Wagner, Peter Burggräf, Torben Schmitz, Christina Reuter

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Assembling large-scale products, such as airplanes, locomotives, or wind turbines, involves frequent process interruptions induced by e.g. delayed material deliveries or missing availability of resources. This leads to a negative impact on the logistical performance of a producer of xxl-products. In industrial practice, in case of interruptions, the identification, evaluation and eventually the selection of an alternative order of assembly activities (‘assembly alternative’) leads to an enormous challenge, especially if an optimized logistical decision should be reached. Therefore, in this paper, an innovative, optimization model for the identification of assembly alternatives that addresses the given problem is presented. It describes make-to-order, large-scale product assembly processes as a resource constrained project scheduling (RCPS) problem which follows given restrictions in practice. For the evaluation of the assembly alternative, a cost-based definition of the logistical objectives (delivery reliability, inventory, make-span and workload) is presented.

Keywords: Assembly scheduling, large-scale products, make-to-order, rescheduling, optimization.

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Authors: Dalia Suša Vugec

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Business process management (BPM) is widely used approach focused on designing, mapping, changing, managing and analyzing business processes of an organization, which eventually leads to better performance and derives many other benefits. Since every organization strives to improve its performance in order to be sustainable and to remain competitive on the market in long-term period, numerous organizations are nowadays adopting and implementing BPM. However, not all organizations are equally successful in that. One of the ways of measuring BPM success is by measuring its maturity by calculating Process Performance Index (PPI) using ten BPM success factors. Still, although BPM is a holistic concept, organizational culture is not taken into consideration in calculating PPI. Hence, aim of this paper is twofold; first, it aims to explore and analyze the current state of BPM success factors within the big organizations from Slovenia, Croatia, and Austria and second, it aims to analyze the structure of organizational culture within the observed companies, focusing on the link with BPM success factors as well. The presented study is based on the results of the questionnaire conducted as the part of the PROSPER project (IP-2014-09-3729) and financed by Croatian Science Foundation. The results of the questionnaire reveal differences in the achieved levels of BPM success factors and therefore BPM maturity in total between the three observed countries. Moreover, the structure of organizational culture across three countries also differs. This paper discusses the revealed differences between countries as well as the link between organizational culture and BPM success factors.

Keywords: Business process management, BPM maturity, BPM success factors, organizational culture, process performance index.

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Authors: Jamie Otelsberg, Nagarajan Akshay, Rao R. Bhavani

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This paper discusses our preliminary experiences in the design of a user interface of a computerized content-rich vocational training courseware meant for users with little or no computer experience. In targeting a growing population with limited access to skills training of any sort, we faced numerous challenges, including language and cultural differences, resource limits, gender boundaries and, in many cases, the simple lack of trainee motivation. With the size of the unskilled population increasing much more rapidly than the numbers of sufficiently skilled teachers, there is little choice but to develop teaching techniques that will take advantage of emerging computer-based training technologies. However, in striving to serve populations with minimal computer literacy, one must carefully design the user interface to accommodate their cultural, social, educational, motivational and other differences. Our work, which uses computer based and haptic simulation technologies to deliver training to these populations, has provided some useful insights on potential user interface design approaches.

Keywords: User interface design, digitally illiterate, vocational training, navigation issues, computer human interaction, human factors.

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Authors: Jing Fang, Yao Cui, Mingming Wang, Shengli She, Jianping Yuan

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Wearable robotics is a potential solution in aiding gait rehabilitation of lower limbs dyskinesia patients, such as knee osteoarthritis or stroke afflicted patients. Many wearable robots have been developed in the form of rigid exoskeletons, but their bulk devices, high cost and control complexity hinder their popularity in the field of gait rehabilitation. Thus, the development of a portable, compliant and low-cost wearable robot for gait rehabilitation is necessary. Inspired by Chinese traditional folding fans and balloon inflators, the authors present an inflatable, foldable and variable stiffness knee exosuit (IFVSKE) in this paper. The pneumatic actuator of IFVSKE was fabricated in the shape of folding fans by using thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) fabric materials. The geometric and mechanical properties of IFVSKE were characterized with experimental methods. To assist the knee joint smartly, an intelligent control profile for IFVSKE was proposed based on the concept of full-cycle energy management of the biomechanical energy during human movement. The biomechanical energy of knee joints in a walking gait cycle of patients could be collected and released to assist the joint motion just by adjusting the inner pressure of IFVSKE. Finally, a healthy subject was involved to walk with and without the IFVSKE to evaluate the assisting effects.

Keywords: Biomechanical energy management, gait rehabilitation, knee exosuit, wearable robotics.

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Authors: C. M. Balaceanu, G. Suciu, C. S. Bosoc, O. Orza, C. Fernandez, Z. Viniczay

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The Internet of Things (IoT) represents the best option for smart vineyard applications, even if it is necessary to integrate the technologies required for the development. This article is based on the research and the results obtained in the DISAVIT project. For Smart Agriculture, the project aims to provide a trustworthy, intelligent, integrated vineyard management solution that is based on the IoT. To have interoperability through the use of a multiprotocol technology (being the future connected wireless IoT) it is necessary to adopt an agnostic approach, providing a reliable environment to address cyber security, IoT-based threats and traceability through blockchain-based design, but also creating a concept for long-term implementations (modular, scalable). The ones described above represent the main innovative technical aspects of this project. The DISAVIT project studies and promotes the incorporation of better management tools based on objective data-based decisions, which are necessary for agriculture adapted and more resistant to climate change. It also exploits the opportunities generated by the digital services market for smart agriculture management stakeholders. The project's final result aims to improve decision-making, performance, and viticulturally infrastructure and increase real-time data accuracy and interoperability. Innovative aspects such as end-to-end solutions, adaptability, scalability, security and traceability, place our product in a favorable situation over competitors. None of the solutions in the market meet every one of these requirements by a unique product being innovative.

Keywords: Blockchain, IoT, smart agriculture, vineyard.

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Authors: Philip Doganis, Eleni Aggelogiannaki, Haralambos Sarimveis

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Model Predictive Control has been previously applied to supply chain problems with promising results; however hitherto proposed systems possessed no information on future demand. A forecasting methodology will surely promote the efficiency of control actions by providing insight on the future. A complete supply chain management framework that is based on Model Predictive Control (MPC) and Time Series Forecasting will be presented in this paper. The proposed framework will be tested on industrial data in order to assess the efficiency of the method and the impact of forecast accuracy on overall control performance of the supply chain. To this end, forecasting methodologies with different characteristics will be implemented on test data to generate forecasts that will serve as input to the Model Predictive Control module.

Keywords: Forecasting, Model predictive control, production planning.

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Authors: Zulkeflee Kusin, Mohamad Shanudin Zakaria

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Hierarchical Mobile IPv6 (HMIPv6) was designed to support IP micro-mobility management in the Next Generation Networks (NGN) framework. The main design behind this protocol is the usage of Mobility Anchor Point (MAP) located at any level router of network to support hierarchical mobility management. However, the distance MAP selection in HMIPv6 causes MAP overloaded and increase frequent binding update as the network grows. Therefore, to address the issue in designing MAP selection scheme, we propose a dynamic load control mechanism integrates with a speed detection mechanism (DMS-DLC). From the experimental results we obtain that the proposed scheme gives better distribution in MAP load and increase handover speed.

Keywords: Dynamic load control, HMIPv6, Mobility AnchorPoint, MAP selection scheme

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Authors: O. Chaudhari, A. N. Ghafar, G. Zirgulis, M. Mousavi, T. Ellison, S. Pousette, P. Fontana

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In Swedish tunnel construction, a critical issue that has been repeatedly acknowledged is corrosion and, consequently, failure of the rock bolts in rock support systems. The defective installation of rock bolts results in the formation of cavities in the cement mortar that is regularly used to fill the area under the dome plates. These voids allow for water-ingress to the rock bolt assembly, which results in corrosion of rock bolt components and eventually failure. In addition, the current installation technique consists of several manual steps with intense labor works that are usually done in uncomfortable and exhausting conditions, e.g., under the roof of the tunnels. Such intense tasks also lead to a considerable waste of materials and execution errors. Moreover, adequate quality control of the execution is hardly possible with the current technique. To overcome these issues, a non-shrinking/expansive cement-based mortar filled in the paper packaging has been developed in this study which properly fills the area under the dome plates without or with the least remaining cavities, ultimately that diminishes the potential of corrosion. This article summarizes the development process and the experimental evaluation of this technique for the installation of rock bolts. In the development process, the cementitious mortar was first developed using specific cement and shrinkage reducing/expansive additives. The mechanical and flow properties of the mortar were then evaluated using compressive strength, density, and slump flow measurement methods. In addition, isothermal calorimetry and shrinkage/expansion measurements were used to elucidate the hydration and durability attributes of the mortar. After obtaining the desired properties in both fresh and hardened conditions, the developed dry mortar was filled in specific permeable paper packaging and then submerged in water bath for specific intervals before the installation. The tests were enhanced progressively by optimizing different parameters such as shape and size of the packaging, characteristics of the paper used, immersion time in water and even some minor characteristics of the mortar. Finally, the developed prototype was tested in a lab-scale rock bolt assembly with various angles to analyze the efficiency of the method in real life scenario. The results showed that the new technique improves the performance of the rock bolts by reducing the material wastage, improving environmental performance, facilitating and accelerating the labor works, and finally enhancing the durability of the whole system. Accordingly, this approach provides an efficient alternative for the traditional way of tunnel bolt installation with considerable advantages for the Swedish tunneling industry.

Keywords: corrosion, durability, mortar, rock bolt

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Authors: Tomáš Brabenec

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Cost contribution arrangements (CCAs) and Cost sharing agreements (CCAs) belong to the tools of modern finance management. Costs spend by associated enterprises on developing producing or obtaining assets, services or rights (in general - benefits) are used for tax optimizing too. The main purpose of joint research and development, producing or obtaining benefits is to lower these costs as much as possible or to maximize the benefits. In this article is mentioned the problematic of transfer pricing and arm's length principle with connection of CCAs, CSAs. Next, there is mentioned how to settle participation shares of the total cost and benefits contributions with respect to the OECD Transfer pricing for MNEs Guidelines and with respect to other significant regulations.

Keywords: Arm's length principle, Cost contribution arrangements, Cost sharing agreements, Reasonable anticipated benefits, Relevant costs, Transfer prices.

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Authors: Ljubica Dokić, Ivana Nikolić, Dragana Šoronja–Simović, Zita Šereš, Biljana Pajin, Nils Juul, Nikola Maravić

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The possibility of application the dietary fibers in production of crackers was observed in this work, as well as their influence on rheological and textural properties on the dough for crackers and influence on sensory properties of obtained crackers. Three different dietary fibers, oat, potato and pea fibers, replaced 10% of wheat flour. Long fermentation process and baking test method were used for crackers production. The changes of dough for crackers were observed by rheological methods of determination the viscoelastic dough properties and by textural measurements. Sensory quality of obtained crackers was described using quantity descriptive method (QDA) by trained members of descriptive panel. Additional analysis of crackers surface was performed by videometer. Based on rheological determination, viscoelastic properties of dough for crackers were reduced by application of dietary fibers. Manipulation of dough with 10% of potato fiber was disabled, thus the recipe modification included increase in water content at 35%. Dough compliance to constant stress for samples with dietary fibers decreased, due to more rigid and stiffer dough consistency compared to control sample. Also, hardness of dough for these samples increased and dough extensibility decreased. Sensory properties of final products, crackers, were reduced compared to control sample. Application of dietary fibers affected mostly hardness, structure and crispness of the crackers. Observed crackers were low marked for flavor and taste, due to influence of fibers specific aroma. The sample with 10% of potato fibers and increased water content was the most adaptable to applied stresses and to production process. Also this sample was close to control sample without dietary fibers by evaluation of sensory properties and by results of videometer method.

Keywords: Crackers, dietary fibers, rheology, sensory properties.

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Authors: Helen S. Ghali, Engy Serag, A. Samer Ezeldin

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In many countries, the construction industry relies heavily on outsourcing models in executing their projects and expanding their businesses to fit in the diverse market. Such extensive integration of subcontractors is becoming an influential factor in contractor’s cash flow management. Accordingly, subcontractors’ financial terms are important phenomena and pivotal components for the well-being of the contractor’s cash flow. The aim of this research is to study the contractor’s cash flow with respect to the owner and subcontractor’s payment management plans, considering variable advance payment, payment frequency, and lag and retention policies. The model is developed to provide contractors with a decision support tool that can assist in selecting the optimum subcontracting plan to minimize the contractor’s financing limits and optimize the profit values. The model is built using Microsoft Excel VBA coding, and the genetic algorithm is utilized as the optimization tool. Three objective functions are investigated, which are minimizing the highest negative overdraft value, minimizing the net present worth of overdraft, and maximizing the project net profit. The model is validated on a full-scale project which includes both self-performed and subcontracted work packages. The results show potential outputs in optimizing the contractor’s negative cash flow values and, in the meantime, assisting contractors in selecting suitable subcontractors to achieve the objective function.

Keywords: Cash flow optimization, payment plan, procurement management, subcontracting plan.

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Authors: K. Beheshti Maal, R. Shafiee

Abstract:

According to FDA (Food and Drug Administration of the United States), vinegar is definedas a sour liquid containing at least 4 grams acetic acid in 100 cubic centimeter (4% solution of acetic acid) of solution that is produced from sugary materials by alcoholic fermentation. In the base of microbial starters, vinegars could be contained of more than 50 types of volatile and aromatic substances that responsible for their sweet taste and smelling. Recently the vinegar industry has a great proportion in agriculture, food and microbial biotechnology. The acetic acid bacteria are from the family Acetobacteraceae. Regarding to the latest version of Bergy-s Mannual of Systematic Bacteriology that has categorized bacteria in the base of their 16s RNA differences, the most important acetic acid genera are included Acetobacter (genus I), Gluconacetobacter (genus VIII) and Gluconobacter (genus IX). The genus Acetobacter that is primarily used in vinegar manufacturing plants is a gram negative, obligate aerobe coccus or rod shaped bacterium with the size 0.6 - 0.8 X 1.0 - 4.0 μm, nonmotile or motile with peritrichous flagella and catalase positive – oxidase negative biochemically. Some strains are overoxidizer that could convert acetic acid to carbon dioxide and water.In this research one Acetobacter native strain with high acetic acid productivity was isolated from Iranian white – red cherry. We used two specific culture media include Carr medium [yeast extract, 3%; ethanol, 2% (v/v); bromocresol green, 0.002%; agar, 2% and distilled water, 1000 ml], Frateur medium [yeast extract, 10 g/l; CaCO3, 20 g/l; ethanol, 20 g/l; agar, 20 g/l and distilled water, 1000 ml] and an industrial culture medium. In addition to high acetic acid production and high growth rate, this strain had a good tolerance against ethanol concentration that was examined using modified Carr media with 5%, 7% and 9% ethanol concentrations. While the industrial strains of acetic acid bacteria grow in the thermal range of 28 – 30 °C, this strain was adapted for growth in 34 – 36 °C after 96 hours incubation period. These dramatic characteristics suggest a potential biotechnological strain in production of cherry vinegar with a sweet smell and different nutritional properties in comparison to recent vinegar types. The lack of growth after 24, 48 and 72 hours incubation at 34 – 36 °C and the growth after 96 hours indicates a good and fast thermal flexibility of this strain as a significant characteristic of biotechnological and industrial strains.

Keywords: Acetobacte, acetic acid bacteria, white – red cherry, food and agriculture biotechnology, industrial fermentation, vinegar

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Authors: K. Muthukannan, P. Latha

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In addition to environmental parameters like rain, temperature diseases on crop is a major factor which affects production quality & quantity of crop yield. Hence disease management is a key issue in agriculture. For the management of disease, it needs to be detected at early stage. So, treat it properly & control spread of the disease. Now a day, it is possible to use the images of diseased leaf to detect the type of disease by using image processing techniques. This can be achieved by extracting features from the images which can be further used with classification algorithms or content based image retrieval systems. In this paper, color image is used to extract the features such as mean and standard deviation after the process of region cropping. The selected features are taken from the cropped image with different image size samples. Then, the extracted features are taken in to the account for classification using Fuzzy Inference System (FIS).

Keywords: Image Cropping, Classification, Color, Fuzzy Rule, Feature Extraction.

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Authors: J. Vilgerts, L. Timma, D. Blumberga

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The objective of the paper is to develop the forecast model for the HW flows. The methodology of the research included 6 modules: historical data, assumptions, choose of indicators, data processing, and data analysis with STATGRAPHICS, and forecast models. The proposed methodology was validated for the case study for Latvia. Hypothesis on the changes in HW for time period of 2010-2020 have been developed and mathematically described with confidence level of 95.0% and 50.0%. Sensitivity analysis for the analyzed scenarios was done. The results show that the growth of GDP affects the total amount of HW in the country. The total amount of the HW is projected to be within the corridor of – 27.7% in the optimistic scenario up to +87.8% in the pessimistic scenario with confidence level of 50.0% for period of 2010-2020. The optimistic scenario has shown to be the least flexible to the changes in the GDP growth.

Keywords: Forecast models, hazardous waste management, sustainable development, waste management indicators.

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Authors: Chia-Jung Chen, Rong-Shine Lin, Rong-Guey Chang

Abstract:

As networking has become popular, Web-learning tends to be a trend while designing a tool. Moreover, five-axis machining has been widely used in industry recently; however, it has potential axial table colliding problems. Thus this paper aims at proposing an efficient web-learning collision detection tool on five-axis machining. However, collision detection consumes heavy resource that few devices can support, thus this research uses a systematic approach based on web knowledge to detect collision. The methodologies include the kinematics analyses for five-axis motions, separating axis method for collision detection, and computer simulation for verification. The machine structure is modeled as STL format in CAD software. The input to the detection system is the g-code part program, which describes the tool motions to produce the part surface. This research produced a simulation program with C programming language and demonstrated a five-axis machining example with collision detection on web site. The system simulates the five-axis CNC motion for tool trajectory and detects for any collisions according to the input g-codes and also supports high-performance web service benefiting from C. The result shows that our method improves 4.5 time of computational efficiency, comparing to the conventional detection method.

Keywords: Collision detection, Five-axis machining, Separating axis.

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Authors: María Jesús Luengo-Valderrey, Mónica Moso-Díez

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In the knowledge-based economy, innovation is considered essential in order to achieve survival and growth in organizations. On the other hand, knowledge management is currently understood as one of the keys to innovation process. Both factors are generally admitted as generators of competitive advantage in organizations. Specifically, activities on R&D&I and those that generate internal knowledge have a positive influence in innovation results. This paper examines this effect and if it is similar or not is what we aimed to quantify in this paper. We focus on the impact that proportion of knowledge workers, the R&D&I investment, the amounts destined for ICTs and training for innovation have on the variation of tangible and intangibles returns for the sector of high and medium technology in Spain. To do this, we have performed an empirical analysis on the results of questionnaires about innovation in enterprises in Spain, collected by the National Statistics Institute. First, using clusters methodology, the behavior of these enterprises regarding knowledge management is identified. Then, using SEM methodology, we performed, for each cluster, the study about cause-effect relationships among constructs defined through variables, setting its type and quantification. The cluster analysis results in four groups in which cluster number 1 and 3 presents the best performance in innovation with differentiating nuances among them, while clusters 2 and 4 obtained divergent results to a similar innovative effort. However, the results of SEM analysis for each cluster show that, in all cases, knowledge workers are those that affect innovation performance most, regardless of the level of investment, and that there is a strong correlation between knowledge workers and investment in knowledge generation. The main findings reached is that Spanish high and medium technology companies improve their innovation performance investing in internal knowledge generation measures, specially, in terms of R&D activities, and underinvest in external ones. This, and the strong correlation between knowledge workers and the set of activities that promote the knowledge generation, should be taken into account by managers of companies, when making decisions about their investments for innovation, since they are key for improving their opportunities in the global market.

Keywords: High and medium technology sector, innovation, knowledge management, Spanish companies.

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Authors: Hebberly Ahatlan

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The process of digitizing energy systems involves transforming traditional energy infrastructure into interconnected, data-driven systems that enhance efficiency, sustainability, and responsiveness. As smart grids become increasingly integral to the efficient distribution and management of electricity from both fossil and renewable energy sources, the energy industry faces strategic challenges associated with digitalization and interoperability — particularly in the context of modern energy business models, such as virtual power plants (VPPs). The critical challenge in modern smart grids is to seamlessly integrate diverse technologies and systems, including virtualization, grid computing and service-oriented architecture (SOA), across the entire energy ecosystem. Achieving this requires addressing issues like semantic interoperability, Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) convergence, and digital asset scalability, all while ensuring security and risk management. This paper proposes a four-layer digitalization framework to tackle these challenges, encompassing persistent data protection, trusted key management, secure messaging, and authentication of IoT resources. Data assets generated through this framework enable AI systems to derive insights for improving smart grid operations, security, and revenue generation. Furthermore, this paper also proposes a Trusted Energy Interoperability Alliance as a universal guiding standard in the development of this digitalization framework to support more dynamic and interoperable energy markets.

Keywords: Digitalization, IT/OT convergence, semantic interoperability, TEIA alliance, VPP.

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Authors: Serdar Öge, Alpay Karasoy, Özlem Kara

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Although women have merit in their jobs, they still are located very few in the top management in many sectors. There are many causes of such situation. Such a situation creates obstacles; especially invisible ones are called “glass ceiling syndrome”. Also, studies which handle this subject in academic community are very few. The aim of this research is to reach the results about glass ceiling obstacles in terms of female teaching staff (academics) working in higher education institutions. To this end, our study was performed on female academics working at Selcuk University, Konya / Turkey. Our study's main aim can be expressed as to determine whether there are glass ceiling obstacles for female academics working at the higher education institution in question, to measure their glass ceiling perceptions and, thus, to identify what the glass ceiling barrier components for them to promotion to senior management positions are.

Keywords: Career, Career Barriers, Glass ceiling syndrome.

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Authors: Imen Sfaihi, Noureddine Hamdi

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In this paper, we investigate the study of techniques for scheduling users for resource allocation in the case of multiple input and multiple output (MIMO) packet transmission systems. In these systems, transmit antennas are assigned to one user or dynamically to different users using spatial multiplexing. The allocation of all transmit antennas to one user cannot take full advantages of multi-user diversity. Therefore, we developed the case when resources are allocated dynamically. At each time slot users have to feed back their channel information on an uplink feedback channel. Channel information considered available in the schedulers is the zero forcing (ZF) post detection signal to interference plus noise ratio. Our analysis study concerns the round robin and the opportunistic schemes. In this paper, we present an overview and a complete capacity analysis of these schemes. The main results in our study are to give an analytical form of system capacity using the ZF receiver at the user terminal. Simulations have been carried out to validate all proposed analytical solutions and to compare the performance of these schemes.

Keywords: MIMO, scheduling, ZF receiver, spatial multiplexing, round robin scheduling, opportunistic.

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Authors: Beena Sethi

Abstract:

This work involves the degradation of plastic waste in the presence of three different nanocatalysts. A thin film of LLDPE was formed with all three nanocatalysts separately in the solvent. Thermo Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) and Differential Scanning Calorimetric (DSC) analysis of polymers suggest that the presence of these catalysts lowers the degradation temperature and the change mechanism of degradation. Gas chromatographic analysis was carried out for two films. In gas chromatography (GC) analysis, it was found that degradation of pure polymer produces only 32% C3/C4 hydrocarbons and 67.6% C5/C9 hydrocarbons. In the presence of these catalysts, more than 80% of polymer by weight was converted into either liquid or gaseous hydrocarbons. Change in the mechanism of degradation of polymer was observed therefore more C3/C4 hydrocarbons along with valuable feedstock are produced. Adjustment of dose of nanocatalyst, use of nano-admixtures and recycling of catalyst can make this catalytic feedstock recycling method a good tool to get sustainable environment. The obtained products can be utilized as fuel or can be transformed into other useful products. In accordance with the principles of sustainable development, chemical recycling i.e. tertiary recycling of polymers along with the reuse (zero order recycling) of plastics can be the most appropriate and promising method in this direction. The tertiary recycling is attracting much attention from the viewpoint of the energy resource.

Keywords: Degradation, differential scanning calorimetry, feedstock recycling, gas chromatography, thermogravimetric analysis. DSC.

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