Search results for: Change Management

Authors: V. Vassiliou, M. Charalambides, M. Menicou

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Fish-feed is a major cost component of operating expenses for any aquaculture farm. Due to soaring prices of fish-feed ingredients, the need for better feeding schedule management has become imperative. On such factor that influences the utilization rate of fish-feed are sea currents. Up to now, practical monitoring of fishfeed loss due to sea currents is not exercised. This paper gives a description of an economic methodology that aims at quantifying the amount of fish-feed lost due to sea currents and draws on data from a Mediterranean aquaculture farm to formulate the associated model.

Keywords: Aquaculture, economic model, fish-feed loss, sea currents.

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Authors: Michael Gerges, Ograbe Ahiakwo, Martin Jaeger, Ahmad Asaad

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Recent advances of Building Information Modeling (BIM) especially in the Middle East have increased remarkably. Dubai has been taking a lead on this by making it mandatory for BIM to be adopted for all projects that involve complex architecture designs. This is because BIM is a dynamic process that assists all stakeholders in monitoring the project status throughout different project phases with great transparency. It focuses on utilizing information technology to improve collaboration among project participants during the entire life cycle of the project from the initial design, to the supply chain, resource allocation, construction and all productivity requirements. In view of this trend, the paper examines the extent of applying BIM in the State of Kuwait, by exploring practitioners’ perspectives on BIM, especially their perspectives on main barriers and main advantages. To this end structured interviews were carried out based on questionnaires and with a range of different construction professionals. The results revealed that practitioners perceive improved communication and mitigated project risks by encouraged collaboration between project participants. However, it was also observed that the full implementation of BIM in the State of Kuwait requires concerted efforts to make clients demanding BIM, counteract resistance to change among construction professionals and offer more training for design team members. This paper forms part of an on-going research effort on BIM and its application in the State of Kuwait and it is on this basis that further research on the topic is proposed.

Keywords: Building Information Modeling, BIM, construction industry, Kuwait.

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Authors: Papon Thamvasupong, Kwanchanok Viravaidya-Pasuwat

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Osteoarthritis affects a lot of people worldwide. Local injection of glucosamine is one of the alternative treatment methods to replenish the natural lubrication of cartilage. However, multiple injections can potentially lead to possible bacterial infection. Therefore, a drug delivery system is desired to reduce the frequencies of injections. A hydrogel is one of the delivery systems that can control the release of drugs. Thermo-reversible hydrogels can be beneficial to the drug delivery system especially in the local injection route because this formulation can change from liquid to gel after getting into human body. Once the gel is in the body, it will slowly release the drug in a controlled manner. In this study, various formulations of Pluronic-based hydrogels were synthesized for the controlled release of glucosamine. One of the challenges of the Pluronic controlled release system is its fast dissolution rate. To overcome this problem, alginate and calcium sulfate (CaSO₄) were added to the polymer solution. The characteristics of the hydrogels were investigated including the gelation temperature, gelation time, hydrogel dissolution and glucosamine release mechanism. Finally, a mathematical model of glucosamine release from Pluronic-alginate-hyaluronic acid hydrogel was developed. Our results have shown that crosslinking Pluronic gel with alginate did not significantly extend the dissolution rate of the gel. Moreover, the gel dissolution profiles and the glucosamine release mechanisms were best described using the zeroth-order kinetic model, indicating that the release of glucosamine was primarily governed by the gel dissolution.

Keywords: Controlled release, drug delivery system, glucosamine, Pluronic® F-127, thermoreversible hydrogel.

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Authors: Jing Zhou, Weiqun Su, Naying Luo, Min Shang, Li Wu

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The coupling of land use system in geographical research is mainly the coupling of pattern and process, which is essentially the human-land coupling, and is an important part of the research and discussion of human-land relationship. Based on the Web of Science database, the paper titles, authors, keywords, and references from 1997-2020 related to land use coupling were used as data sources to explore the research progress of land use coupling. Cite Space bibliometric tool was used for co-occurrence analysis of the issuing country, issuing institution, co-cited author, disciplinary institution, and keywords. The results are shown as follows: (1) From 1997 to 2020, the United States, China, and Germany rank the top, with more than 250 published papers. Although China ranks second in the number of published papers on foreign literature, it has less centrality and less influence. (2) The top 10 institutions (universities) in the number of published papers (more than 300 articles) are mainly from the United States and China, and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences has the highest output of papers. At the same time, the phenomenon of multi-institutional cooperation has increased in the field of land use coupling research. (3) From 1997 to 2020, land sensitivity research and the impact of climate change on land use patterns are the main directions of land use coupling research. However, in the past five years, scholars have mainly focused on the coupling research methods of land use and the coupling relationship between ecological and environmental factors and land use.

Keywords: Land use coupling, cite space, knowledge graph, visual analysis, research progress.

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Authors: Anton A. Bykov, Irina O. Glot, Igor N. Shardakov, Alexey P. Shestakov

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This paper presents the results of experimental and theoretical investigations of the mechanisms of crack formation in reinforced concrete beams subjected to quasi-static bending. The boundary-value problem has been formulated in the framework of brittle fracture mechanics and has been solved by using the finite-element method. Numerical simulation of the vibrations of an uncracked beam and a beam with cracks of different size serves to determine the pattern of changes in the spectrum of eigenfrequencies observed during crack evolution. Experiments were performed on the sequential quasistatic four-point bending of the beam leading to the formation of cracks in concrete. At each loading stage, the beam was subjected to an impulse load to induce vibrations. Two stages of cracking were detected. At the first stage the conservative process of deformation is realized. The second stage is an active cracking, which is marked by a sharp change in eingenfrequencies. The boundary of a transition from one stage to another is well registered. The vibration behavior was examined for the beams strengthened by carbon-fiber sheet before loading and at the intermediate stage of loading after the grouting of initial cracks. The obtained results show that the vibrodiagnostic approach is an effective tool for monitoring of cracking and for assessing the quality of measures aimed at strengthening concrete structures.

Keywords: Crack formation. experiment. mathematical modeling. reinforced concrete. vibrodiagnostics.

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Authors: Yeung C.L., Cheung C.F., Wang W.M., Tsui E.

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Narratives are invaluable assets of human lives. Due to the distinct features of narratives, they are useful for supporting human reasoning processes. However, many useful narratives become residuals in organizations or human minds nowadays. Researchers have contributed effort to investigate and improve narrative generation processes. This paper attempts to contemplate essential components in narratives and explore a computational approach to acquire and extract knowledge to generate narratives. The methodology and significant benefit for decision support are presented.

Keywords: Decision Support, Knowledge Management, Knowledge-based Systems, Narrative Generation

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Authors: Aisha Hassan Abdalla Hashim, Fauzana Ridzuan, Nazreen Rusli

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Mobile IPv6 (MIPv6) describes how mobile node can change its point of attachment from one access router to another. As a demand for wireless mobile devices increases, many enhancements for macro-mobility (inter-domain) protocols have been proposed, designed and implemented in Mobile IPv6. Hierarchical Mobile IPv6 (HMIPv6) is one of them that is designed to reduce the amount of signaling required and to improve handover speed for mobile connections. This is achieved by introducing a new network entity called Mobility Anchor Point (MAP). This report presents a comparative study of the Hierarchical Mobility IPv6 and Mobile IPv6 protocols and we have narrowed down the scope to micro-mobility (intra-domain). The architecture and operation of each protocol is studied and they are evaluated based on the Quality of Service (QoS) parameter; handover latency. The simulation was carried out by using the Network Simulator-2. The outcome from this simulation has been discussed. From the results, it shows that, HMIPv6 performs best under intra-domain mobility compared to MIPv6. The MIPv6 suffers large handover latency. As enhancement we proposed to HMIPv6 to locate the MAP to be in the middle of the domain with respect to all Access Routers. That gives approximately same distance between MAP and Mobile Node (MN) regardless of the new location of MN, and possible shorter distance. This will reduce the delay since the distance is shorter. As a future work performance analysis is to be carried for the proposed HMIPv6 and compared to HMIPv6.

Keywords: Intra-domain mobility, HMIPv6, Handover Latency, proposed HMIPv6.

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Authors: W. Mughees, M. Al-Ahmad, M. Naeem

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This research involves the design and analysis of pinch-based water/wastewater networks to minimize water utility in the petrochemical and petroleum industries. A study has been done on Tehran Oil Refinery to analyze feasibilities of regeneration, reuse and recycling of water network. COD is considered as a single key contaminant. Amount of freshwater was reduced about 149m3/h (43.8%) regarding COD. Re-design (or retrofitting) of water allocation in the networks was undertaken. The results were analyzed through graphical method and mathematical programming technique which clearly demonstrated that amount of required water would be determined by mass transfer of COD.

Keywords: Minimization, Water Pinch, Water Management, Pollution Prevention.

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Authors: Isaias Teklia Berhe

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A decision that deals with international disputes, be it arbitral or judicial, has to properly reflect objectivity and coherence with existing rules of international law. This paper shows the decision of the Ethio-Eritrea Claims Commission on the jus ad bellum case is bereft of objectivity and coherence, which contributed a disservice to international law on many aspects. The Commission’s decision that holds Eritrea in contravention to Art 2(4) of the UN Charter based on Ethiopia’s contention is flawed. It fails to consider: the illegitimacy of an actual authority established over contested territory through hostile acts, the proper determination of effectivites under international law, the sanctity of colonially determined boundaries, Ethiopia’s prior firm political recognition and undergirds to respect colonial boundary, and Ethio-Eritrea Border Commission’s decision. The paper will also argue that the Commission confused Eritrea’s right of self-defense with the rule against the non-use of force to settle territorial disputes; wherefore its decision sanitizes or sterilizes unlawful change of territory resulted through unlawful use of force to the effect of advantaging aggressions. The paper likewise argues that the decision is so sacrilegious that it disregards the ossified legal finality of colonial boundaries. Moreover, its approach toward armed attack does not reflect the peculiarity of the jus ad bellum case rather it brings about definitional uncertainties and sustains the perception that the law on self-defense is unsettled.

Keywords: Armed attack, self-defense, territorial integrity, use of force.

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Authors: Kyomin Lee, Joohee Kim, Sangho Kang

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The commercial nuclear power reactor in South Korea, Kori Unit 1, which was a 587 MWe pressurized water reactor that started operation since 1978, was permanently shut down in June 2017 without an additional operating license extension. The Kori 1 Unit is scheduled to become the nuclear power unit to enter the decommissioning phase. In this study, the preliminary evaluation of the decommissioning wastes for the Kori Unit 1 was performed based on the following series of process: firstly, the plant inventory is investigated based on various documents (i.e., equipment/ component list, construction records, general arrangement drawings). Secondly, the radiological conditions of systems, structures and components (SSCs) are established to estimate the amount of radioactive waste by waste classification. Third, the waste management strategies for Kori Unit 1 including waste packaging are established. Forth, selection of the proper decontamination and dismantling (D&D) technologies is made considering the various factors. Finally, the amount of decommissioning waste by classification for Kori 1 is estimated using the DeCAT program, which was developed by KEPCO-E&C for a decommissioning cost estimation. The preliminary evaluation results have shown that the expected amounts of decommissioning wastes were less than about 2% and 8% of the total wastes generated (i.e., sum of clean wastes and radwastes) before/after waste processing, respectively, and it was found that the majority of contaminated material was carbon or alloy steel and stainless steel. In addition, within the range of availability of information, the results of the evaluation were compared with the results from the various decommissioning experiences data or international/national decommissioning study. The comparison results have shown that the radioactive waste amount from Kori Unit 1 decommissioning were much less than those from the plants decommissioned in U.S. and were comparable to those from the plants in Europe. This result comes from the difference of disposal cost and clearance criteria (i.e., free release level) between U.S. and non-U.S. The preliminary evaluation performed using the methodology established in this study will be useful as a important information in establishing the decommissioning planning for the decommissioning schedule and waste management strategy establishment including the transportation, packaging, handling, and disposal of radioactive wastes.

Keywords: Characterization, classification, decommissioning, decontamination and dismantling, Kori 1, radioactive waste.

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Authors: Kriddikorn Kaewwongsri, Nikom Suvonvorn

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In the deep south of Thailand, checkpoints for people verification are necessary for the security management of risk zones, such as official buildings in the conflict area. In this paper, we propose an automatic checkpoint system that verifies persons using information from ID cards and facial features. The methods for a person’s information abstraction and verification are introduced based on useful information such as ID number and name, extracted from official cards, and facial images from videos. The proposed system shows promising results and has a real impact on the local society.

Keywords: Face comparison, card recognition, OCR, checkpoint system, authentication.

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Authors: Nazira Kakulia

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The analysis of transformation of institutional changes outlines two important characteristics. These are: the speed of the changes and their sequence. Successful transformation must be carried out in three different stages; On the first stage, macroeconomic stabilization must be achieved with the help of fiscal and monetary tools. Two-tier banking system should be established and the active functions of central bank should be replaced by the passive ones (reserve requirements and refinancing rate), together with the involvement growth of private sector. Fiscal policy by itself here means the creation of tax system which must replace previously existing direct state revenues; the share of subsidies in the state expenses must be reduced also. The second stage begins after reaching the macroeconomic stabilization at a time of change of formal institutes which must stimulate the private business. Corporate legislation creates a competitive environment at the market and the privatization of state companies takes place. Bankruptcy and contract law is created. he third stage is the most extended one, which means the formation of all state structures that is necessary for the further proper functioning of a market economy. These three stages about the cycle period of political and social transformation and the hierarchy of changes can also be grouped by the different methodology: on the first and the most short-term stage the transfer of power takes place. On the second stage institutions corresponding to new goal are created. The last phase of transformation is extended in time and it includes the infrastructural, socio-cultural and socio-structural changes. The main goal of this research is to explore and identify the features of such kind of models.

Keywords: Competitive, environment, fiscal policy, macro-economic stabilization.

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Authors: Larry Powell, Seth Polsley, Drew Casey, Tracy Hammond

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Human activity recognition (HAR) systems have shown positive performance when recognizing repetitive activities like walking, running, and sleeping. Water-based activities are a reasonably new area for activity recognition. However, water-based activity recognition has largely focused on supporting the elite and competitive swimming population, which already has amazing coordination and proper form. Beginner swimmers are not perfect, and activity recognition needs to support the individual motions to help beginners. Activity recognition algorithms are traditionally built around short segments of timed sensor data. Using a time window input can cause performance issues in the machine learning model. The window’s size can be too small or large, requiring careful tuning and precise data segmentation. In this work, we present a method that uses a time window as the initial segmentation, then separates the data based on the change in the sensor value. Our system uses a multi-phase segmentation method that pulls all peaks and valleys for each axis of an accelerometer placed on the swimmer’s lower back. This results in high recognition performance using leave-one-subject-out validation on our study with 20 beginner swimmers, with our model optimized from our final dataset resulting in an F-Score of 0.95.

Keywords: Time window, peak/valley segmentation, feature extraction, beginner swimming, activity recognition.

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Authors: Denisa Ferenčíková, Petr Briš

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Customer audits are generally used to ensure customer that supplier is continuously able to meet his requirements while supplying him required products and services. However, customer audits can be considered as a very useful quality control tool for suppliers as well. In our paper, we analyzed the process of customer audits realized in Czech companies from both perspectives: a supplier´s viewpoint and customer´s viewpoint. At the end, we tried to emphasize some areas that should not be omitted during the audit process.

Keywords: Customer Audit, Quality Control, Quality Management, Product Quality, Service Quality, Process Quality.

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Authors: Mayada Alqaisi, Nasser Al-Shanti, Quiyu Wang, William S. Gilmore

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In-vitro mouse co-culture of E14 embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and OP9 stromal cells can recapitulate the earliest stages of haematopoietic development, not accessible in human embryos, supporting both haemogenic precursors and their primitive haematopoietic progeny. 1α, 25-Dihydroxy-vitamin D3 (VD3) has been demonstrated to be a powerful differentiation inducer for a wide variety of neoplastic cells, and could enhance early differentiation of ESCs into blood cells in E14/OP9 co-culture. This study aims to ascertain whether VD3 is key in promoting differentiation and suppressing proliferation, by separately investigating the effects of VD3 on the proliferation phase of the E14 cell line and on stromal OP9 cells.The results showed that VD3 inhibited the proliferation of the cells in a dose-dependent manner, quantitatively by decreased cell number, and qualitatively by alkaline-phosphatase staining that revealed significant differences between VD3-treated and untreated cells, characterised by decreased enzyme expression (colourless cells). Propidium-iodide cell-cycle analyses showed no significant percentage change in VD3-treated E14 and OP9 cells within their G and S-phases, compared to the untreated controls, despite the increased percentage of G-phase compared to the S-phase in a dosedependent manner. These results with E14 and OP9 cells indicate that adequate VD3 concentration enhances cellular differentiation and inhibits proliferation. The results also suggest that if E14 and OP9 cells were co-cultured andVD3-treated, there would be furtherenhanced differentiation of ESCs into blood cells.

Keywords: Differentiation, embryonic stem cells, OP9 stromal cells, 1α, 25-dihydroxy-vitamin D3

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Authors: O. J. Olaniran, P. E. D. Love, D. J. Edwards, O. Olatunji, J. Matthews

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Cost overruns are a persistent problem in oil and gas megaprojects. Whilst the extant literature is filled with studies on incidents and causes of cost overruns, underlying theories to explain their emergence in oil and gas megaprojects are few. Yet, a way to contain the syndrome of cost overruns is to understand the bases of ‘how and why’ they occur. Such knowledge will also help to develop pragmatic techniques for better overall management of oil and gas megaprojects. The aim of this paper is to explain the development of cost overruns in hydrocarbon megaprojects through the perspective of chaos theory. The underlying principles of chaos theory and its implications for cost overruns are examined and practical recommendations proposed. In addition, directions for future research in this fertile area provided.

Keywords: Chaos theory, oil and gas, cost overruns, megaprojects.

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Authors: Rebecca Angeles

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This case study features the Kuehne + Nagel PharmaChain solution for ‘cold chain’ pharmaceutical and biologic product shipments with IOT-enabled features for shipment temperature and location tracking. Using the case study method and content analysis, this research project investigates the application of the structurational model of technology theory introduced by Orlikowski in order to interpret the firm’s entry and participation in the IOT-impelled marketplace.

Keywords: Internet of things, IoT, radio frequency identification, supply chain management, business intelligence.

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Authors: N. Sridee, S. Boonanuntanasarn

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Oxyleotris marmorata is considered as undomesticated fish, and its culture occasionally faces a problem of food deprivation. The present study aims to evaluate alteration of hematological indices, blood chemical associated with liver function during 4 weeks of fasting. A non-linear relationships between fasting days and hematological parameters (red blood cell number; y = - 0.002x2 + 0.041x + 1.249; R2=0.915, P<0.05, hemoglobin; y = - 0.002x2 + 0.030x + 3.470; R2=0.460, P>0.05), mean corpuscular volume; y = -0.180x2 + 2.183x + 149.61; R2=0.732, P>0.05, mean corpuscular hemoglobin; y = -0.041x2 + 0.862x + 29.864; R2=0.818, P>0.05 and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration; y = - 0.044x2 + 0.711x + 21.580; R2=0.730, P>0.05) were demonstrated. Significant change in hematocrit (Ht) during fasting period was observed. Ht elevated sharply increase at the first weeks of fasting period. Higher Ht also was detected during week 2-4 of fasting time. The significant reduction of hepatosomatic index was observed (y = - 0.007x2 - 0.096x + 1.414; R2=0.968, P<0.05). Moreover, alteration of enzyme associated with liver function was evaluated during 4 weeks of fasting (alkalin phosphatase; y = -0.026x2 - 0.935x + 12.188; R2=0.737, P>0.05, serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase; y = 0.005x2 – 0.201x2 + 1.297x + 33.256; R2=1, P<0.01, serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase; y = 0.007x2 – 0.274x2 + 2.277x + 25.257; R2=0.807, P>0.05). Taken together, prolonged fasting has deleterious effects on hematological indices, liver mass and enzyme associated in liver function. The marked adverse effects occurred after the first week of fasting state.

Keywords: food deprivation, Oxyleotris marmorata, hematology, alkaline phosphatase, SGOT, SGPT

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Authors: Kashyap L. Mokariya, Varsha A. Shah, Makarand M. Lokhande

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As the current status and growth of Indian automobile industry is remarkable, transportation sectors are the main concern in terms of energy security and climate change. Due to rising demand of fuel and its dependency on foreign countries that affects the GDP of nation, suggests that penetration of electrical vehicle will increase in near future. So in this context analysis is done if the 10 percent of conventional vehicles including cars, three wheelers and two wheelers becomes electrical vehicles in near future which is also a part of Nations Electric Mobility Mission Plan then the saving which improves the nation’s economy is analyzed in detail. Whether the Indian electricity grid is capable of taking this load with current generation and demand all over the country is also analyzed in detail. Current situation of Indian grid is analyzed and how the gap between generation and demand can be reduced is discussed in terms of increasing generation capacity and energy conservation measures. Electrical energy conservation measures in Industry and especially in rural areas have been analyzed to improve performance of Indian electricity grid in context of electrical vehicle penetration in near future. Author was a part of Vishvakarma yojna in which energy losses were measured in 255 villages of Gujarat and solutions were suggested to mitigate them and corresponding reports was submitted to the authorities of Gujarat government.

Keywords: Vehicle penetration, feasibility, Energy conservation, future grid, Energy security, Automatic pf controller.

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Authors: K. Sasikala, R. S. D Wahidabanu

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Various fairness models and criteria proposed by academia and industries for wired networks can be applied for ad hoc wireless network. The end-to-end fairness in an ad hoc wireless network is a challenging task compared to wired networks, which has not been addressed effectively. Most of the traffic in an ad hoc network are transport layer flows and thus the fairness of transport layer flows has attracted the interest of the researchers. The factors such as MAC protocol, routing protocol, the length of a route, buffer size, active queue management algorithm and the congestion control algorithms affects the fairness of transport layer flows. In this paper, we have considered the rate of data transmission, the queue management and packet scheduling technique. The ad hoc network is dynamic in nature due to various parameters such as transmission of control packets, multihop nature of forwarding packets, changes in source and destination nodes, changes in the routing path influences determining throughput and fairness among the concurrent flows. In addition, the effect of interaction between the protocol in the data link and transport layers has also plays a role in determining the rate of the data transmission. We maintain queue for each flow and the delay information of each flow is maintained accordingly. The pre-processing of flow is done up to the network layer only. The source and destination address information is used for separating the flow and the transport layer information is not used. This minimizes the delay in the network. Each flow is attached to a timer and is updated dynamically. Finite State Machine (FSM) is proposed for queue and transmission control mechanism. The performance of the proposed approach is evaluated in ns-2 simulation environment. The throughput and fairness based on mobility for different flows used as performance metrics. We have compared the performance of the proposed approach with ATP and the transport layer information is used. This minimizes the delay in the network. Each flow is attached to a timer and is updated dynamically. Finite State Machine (FSM) is proposed for queue and transmission control mechanism. The performance of the proposed approach is evaluated in ns-2 simulation environment. The throughput and fairness based on not mobility for different flows used as performance metrics. We have compared the performance of the proposed approach with ATP and MC-MLAS and the performance of the proposed approach is encouraging.

Keywords: ATP, End-to-End fairness, FSM, MAC, QoS.

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Authors: Rayeheh Khatami, Toktam Hanaei, Mohammad Reza Mansouri Daneshvar

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The growth of the agricultural sector is known as an essential way to achieve development goals in developing countries. Urban agriculture is a way to reduce the vulnerability of urban populations of the world toward global environmental change. It is a sustainable and efficient system to respond to the environmental, social and economic needs of the city, which leads to urban sustainability. Today, many local and national governments are developing urban agriculture as an effective tool in responding to challenges such as poverty, food security, and environmental problems. In this study, we follow a perspective based on urban agriculture literature in order to indicate the urban agriculture’s benefits in environmental planning strategies in non-western countries like Iran. The methodological approach adopted is based on qualitative approach and documentary studies. A total of 35 articles (mixed quantitative and qualitative methods studies) were studied in final analysis, which are published in relevant journals that focus on this subject. Studies show the wide range of positive benefits of urban agriculture on food security, nutrition outcomes, health outcomes, environmental outcomes, and social capital. However, there was no definitive conclusion about the negative effects of urban agriculture. This paper provides a conceptual and theoretical basis to know about urban agriculture and its roles in environmental planning, and also conclude the benefits of urban agriculture for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers who seek to create spaces in cities for implementation urban agriculture in future.

Keywords: Urban agriculture, environmental planning, urban planning, literature.

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Authors: Dale Dzemydiene, Aurelija Burinskiene, Arunas Miliauskas, Kristina Ciziuniene

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Data flow and the purpose of reporting the data are different and dependent on business needs. Different parameters are reported and transferred regularly during freight delivery. This business practices form the dataset constructed for each time point and contain all required information for freight moving decisions. As a significant amount of these data is used for various purposes, an integrating methodological approach must be developed to respond to the indicated problem. The proposed methodology contains several steps: (1) collecting context data sets and data validation; (2) multi-objective analysis for optimizing freight transfer services. For data validation, the study involves Grubbs outliers analysis, particularly for data cleaning and the identification of statistical significance of data reporting event cases. The Grubbs test is often used as it measures one external value at a time exceeding the boundaries of standard normal distribution. In the study area, the test was not widely applied by authors, except when the Grubbs test for outlier detection was used to identify outsiders in fuel consumption data. In the study, the authors applied the method with a confidence level of 99%. For the multi-objective analysis, the authors would like to select the forms of construction of the genetic algorithms, which have more possibilities to extract the best solution. For freight delivery management, the schemas of genetic algorithms' structure are used as a more effective technique. Due to that, the adaptable genetic algorithm is applied for the description of choosing process of the effective transportation corridor. In this study, the multi-objective genetic algorithm methods are used to optimize the data evaluation and select the appropriate transport corridor. The authors suggest a methodology for the multi-objective analysis, which evaluates collected context data sets and uses this evaluation to determine a delivery corridor for freight transfer service in the multi-modal transportation network. In the multi-objective analysis, authors include safety components, the number of accidents a year, and freight delivery time in the multi-modal transportation network. The proposed methodology has practical value in the management of multi-modal transportation processes.

Keywords: Multi-objective decision support, analysis, data validation, freight delivery, multi-modal transportation, genetic programming methods.

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Authors: Patrycja J. Haupt

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Today we tend to go back to the past to our root relation to nature. Therefore in search of friendly spaces there are elements of natural environment introduced as elements of spatial composition. Though reinvented through the use of the new substance such as greenery, water etc. made possible by state of the art technologies, still, in principal, they remain the same. As a result, sustainable design, based upon the recognized means of composition in addition to the relation of architecture and urbanism vs. nature introduces a new aesthetical values into architectural and urban space.

Keywords: architectural composition, biodiversity, elements of composition, green architecture, sustainable design, urban composition, water management.

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Authors: Nuo Duan, Yi Pik Cheng

Abstract:

This paper presents the data of a series of two-dimensional Discrete Element Method (DEM) simulations of a large-diameter rigid monopile subjected to cyclic loading under a high gravitational force. At present, monopile foundations are widely used to support the tall and heavy wind turbines, which are also subjected to significant from wind and wave actions. A safe design must address issues such as rotations and changes in soil stiffness subject to these loadings conditions. Design guidance on the issue is limited, so are the availability of laboratory and field test data. The interpretation of these results in sand, such as the relation between loading and displacement, relies mainly on empirical correlations to pile properties. Regarding numerical models, most data from Finite Element Method (FEM) can be found. They are not comprehensive, and most of the FEM results are sensitive to input parameters. The micro scale behaviour could change the mechanism of the soil-structure interaction. A DEM model was used in this paper to study the cyclic lateral loads behaviour. A non-dimensional framework is presented and applied to interpret the simulation results. The DEM data compares well with various set of published experimental centrifuge model test data in terms of lateral deflection. The accumulated permanent pile lateral displacements induced by the cyclic lateral loads were found to be dependent on the characteristics of the applied cyclic load, such as the extent of the loading magnitudes and directions.

Keywords: Cyclic loading, DEM, numerical modelling, sands.

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Authors: Frantisek Jezek, Jan Sedlacek

Abstract:

This paper is concerned with the role strategic management plays in higher education and the methods it entails. Using the University of West Bohemia and the Czech Republic as examples, the paper describes the methods used in furthering strategic objectives within institutions and their different parts (faculties, institutes). The nature of the demands faced by the university dictates the need for a strategic framework which defines the basic objectives and parameters of tertiary education and research in a local, regional and national context. Sharing strategies with a wider range of actors (universities, cities, regions, the practical sphere) is key to laying the foundations for more efficient cooperation.

Keywords: Strategy, strategic plan, university, university environment.

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Authors: Omid Mirmotahari, Yngvar Berg, Mats Hovin

Abstract:

The problem discussed in this paper involves packing fresh fish fileet of the northern Cod into a standard square container. The fish is first cleaned and split and then collected on a belt ready to be stacked in a container. The aim of our work is to pack the fish into the container with constraints on the amount of overlap allowed for the fileets. The current focus is to design a packing cell that can be real-time and of practical use, while finding the optimal solution to the degree of overlap and minimise the unused space of the container.

Keywords: Facilities Planning and Management, Intelligent Systems, Manufacturing Systems, Operations Research, Production Planning and Control.

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Authors: Denys Lupshenyuk, Jean Adams

Abstract:

The current paper presents the findings of a research study on learners- barriers and motivators engaged into blended programs in a workplace context. In this study, the participants were randomly assigned to one of four parallel e-learning courses, each of which was delivered using a different learning strategy. Data were collected through web-based and telephone surveys developed by the researchers. The results showed that vague instruction, time management, and insufficient feedback were the top-most barriers to blended learning. The major motivators for blended learning included content relevance, flexibility in time, and the ability to work at own pace.

Keywords: Adult education, barriers, blended learning, motivators, workplace learning.

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Authors: Barenten Suciu, Yuya Nakamoto

Abstract:

Power generation effect, obtained by inserting a piezo- electric sheet in the backlash clearance of a circular arc helical gear, is evaluated. Such type of screw gear is preferred since, in comparison with the involute tooth profile, the circular arc profile leads to reduced stress-concentration effects, and improved life of the piezoelectric film. Firstly, geometry of the circular arc helical gear, and properties of the piezoelectric sheet are presented. Then, description of the test-rig, consisted of a right-hand thread gear meshing with a left-hand thread gear, and the voltage measurement procedure are given. After creating the tridimensional (3D) model of the meshing gears in SolidWorks, they are 3D-printed in acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resin. Variation of the generated voltage versus time, during a meshing cycle of the circular arc helical gear, is measured for various values of the center distance. Then, the change of the maximal, minimal, and peak-to-peak voltage versus the center distance is illustrated. Optimal center distance of the gear, to achieve voltage maximization, is found and its significance is discussed. Such results prove that the contact pressure of the meshing gears can be measured, and also, the electrical power can be generated by employing the proposed technique.

Keywords: Power generation, circular arc helical gear, piezo- electric sheet, contact problem, optimal center distance.

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Authors: Mohammad H. Abu-Arqoub, Ihab S. Serhed, Waheeb A. Abu-Dawwas, Rashid M. Al-Azzeh

Abstract:

This paper aims at improving web server performance by establishing a middleware layer between web and database servers, which minimizes the overload on the database server. A middleware system has been developed as a service mainly to improve the performance. This system manages connection accesses in a way that would result in reducing the overload on the database server. In addition to the connection management, this system acts as an object-oriented model for best utilization of operating system resources. A web developer can use this Service Broker to improve web server performance.

Keywords: Database server, Improve performance, Middleware, Web server.

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Authors: Zuzana Crhova, Karel Kolman, Drahomíra Pavelkova

Abstract:

Knowledge is considered as an important asset which can help organizations to create competitive advantage. The necessity of taking care of these assets is more important in these days – in days of turbulent changes in business environment. Knowledge could facilitate adaption to constant changes. The aim of this paper is to describe how the knowledge sharing can be supported in the manufacturing companies. The methods of case studies and grounded theory were used to present information gained by carrying out semistructured interviews. Results show that knowledge sharing is supported in very similar ways in respondent companies.

Keywords: Case Study, Human Resource Management, Knowledge, Knowledge Sharing.

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