Abstract: The objective of this research is to calculate the
optimal inventory lot-sizing for each supplier and minimize the total
inventory cost which includes joint purchase cost of the products,
transaction cost for the suppliers, and holding cost for remaining
inventory. Genetic algorithms (GAs) are applied to the multi-product
and multi-period inventory lot-sizing problems with supplier
selection under storage space. Also a maximum storage space for the
decision maker in each period is considered. The decision maker
needs to determine what products to order in what quantities with
which suppliers in which periods. It is assumed that demand of
multiple products is known over a planning horizon. The problem is
formulated as a mixed integer programming and is solved with the
GAs. The detailed computation results are presented.
Abstract: Fractional delay FIR filters design method based on
the differential evolution algorithm is presented. Differential evolution
is an evolutionary algorithm for solving a global optimization problems in the continuous search space. In the proposed approach,
an evolutionary algorithm is used to determine the coefficients of
a fractional delay FIR filter based on the Farrow structure. Basic
differential evolution is enhanced with a restricted mating technique,
which improves the algorithm performance in terms of convergence
speed and obtained solution. Evolutionary optimization is carried out by minimizing an objective function which is based on the amplitude
response and phase delay errors. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm leads to a reduction in the amplitude response and phase delay errors relative to those achieved with the Least-Squares
method.
Abstract: Artifact free photoplethysmographic (PPG) signals are
necessary for non-invasive estimation of oxygen saturation (SpO2) in
arterial blood. Movement of a patient corrupts the PPGs with motion
artifacts, resulting in large errors in the computation of Sp02. This
paper presents a study on using Kalman Filter in an innovative way
by modeling both the Artillery Blood Pressure (ABP) and the
unwanted signal, additive motion artifact, to reduce motion artifacts
from corrupted PPG signals. Simulation results show acceptable
performance regarding LMS and variable step LMS, thus
establishing the efficacy of the proposed method.
Abstract: Truss optimization problem has been vastly studied
during the past 30 years and many different methods have been
proposed for this problem. Even though most of these methods
assume that the design variables are continuously valued, in reality,
the design variables of optimization problems such as cross-sectional
areas are discretely valued. In this paper, an improved hill climbing
and an improved simulated annealing algorithm have been proposed
to solve the truss optimization problem with discrete values for crosssectional
areas. Obtained results have been compared to other
methods in the literature and the comparison represents that the
proposed methods can be used more efficiently than other proposed
methods
Abstract: Deniable authentication is a new protocol which not only enables a receiver to identify the source of a received message but also prevents a third party from identifying the source of the message. The proposed protocol in this paper makes use of bilinear pairings over elliptic curves, as well as the Diffie-Hellman key exchange protocol. Besides the security properties shared with previous authentication protocols, the proposed protocol provides the same level of security with smaller public key sizes.
Abstract: The sustainability of a place depends on a series of factors which contribute to the quality of life, sense of place and recognition of identity. An activity like walking, which in itself is obviously ''sustainable'', can become non sustainable if the context in which it is carried out does not meet the conditions for an adequate quality of life. This work is aimed at proposing the analytical method of Place Maker to identify the elements that do not feature in traditional mapping and which constitute the contemporary identity of the places, and the relative complex map to represent those elements and support sustainable urban identity design. The method's potential for areas with a predominantly pedestrian vocation is illustrated by means of the case study of the Ramblas in Barcelona.
Abstract: This paper aims to explain the project carried out at
the University of Cordoba, specifically at the High Polytechnic
School in collaboration with two other organizations belonging to the
Andalusian Ministry of Innovation, Science and Business:
Andalusian Innovation and Development Agency (IDEA agency) [1]
and the Territorial Net of Entrepreneurship Support (in Spanish Red
Territorial de Apoyo al Emprendedor) [11].
The project is being developed in several stages of which only the
first one has already been completed. However, several important
preliminary results derive from it, based mainly in the description of
the nature of entrepreneurship in the field of university education and
its impact on student-s competency as recommended by the European
Higher Education Area. Some problems holding back the correct
future development will also be shown as derived from the specific
context of application of the project.
Abstract: Cenozoic basalts found in Jiangsu province of eastern
China include tholeiites and alkali basalts. The present paper analyzed
the major, trace elements, rare earth elements of these Cenozoic
basalts and combined with Sr-Nd isotopic compositions proposed by
Chen et al. (1990)[1] in the literatures to discuss the petrogenesis of
these basalts and the geochemical characteristics of the source mantle.
Based on major, trace elements and fractional crystallization model
established by Brooks and Nielsen (1982)[2] we suggest that the
basaltic magma has experienced olivine + clinopyroxene fractionation
during its evolution. The chemical compositions of basaltic rocks from
Jiangsu province indicate that these basalts may belong to the same
magmatic system. Spidergrams reveal that Cenozoic basalts from
Jiangsu province have geochemical characteristics similar to those of
ocean island basalts(OIB). The slight positive Nb and Ti anomalies
found in basaltic rocks of this study suggest the presence of Ti-bearing
minerals in the mantle source and these Ti-bearing minerals had
contributed to basaltic magma during partial melting, indicating a
metasomatic event might have occurred before the partial melting.
Based on the Sr vs. Nd isotopic ratio plots, we suggest that Jiangsu
basalts may be derived from partial melting of mantle source which
may represent two-end members mixing of DMM and EM-I. Some
Jiangsu basaltic magma may be derived from partial melting of EM-I
heated by the upwelling asthenospheric mantle or asthenospheric
diapirism.
Abstract: Roundabout work on the principle of circulation and
entry flows, where the maximum entry flow rates depend largely on
circulating flow bearing in mind that entry flows must give away to
circulating flows. Where an existing roundabout has a road hump
installed at the entry arm, it can be hypothesized that the kinematics
of vehicles may prevent the entry arm from achieving optimum
performance. Road humps are traffic calming devices placed across
road width solely as speed reduction mechanism. They are the
preferred traffic calming option in Malaysia and often used on single
and dual carriageway local routes. The speed limit on local routes is
30mph (50 km/hr). Road humps in their various forms achieved the
biggest mean speed reduction (based on a mean speed before traffic
calming of 30mph) of up to 10mph or 16 km/hr according to the UK
Department of Transport. The underlying aim of reduced speed
should be to achieve a 'safe' distribution of speeds which reflects the
function of the road and the impacts on the local community.
Constraining safe distribution of speeds may lead to poor drivers
timing and delayed reflex reaction that can probably cause accident.
Previous studies on road hump impact have focused mainly on speed
reduction, traffic volume, noise and vibrations, discomfort and delay
from the use of road humps. The paper is aimed at optimal entry and
circulating flow induced by road humps. Results show that
roundabout entry and circulating flow perform better in
circumstances where there is no road hump at entrance.
Abstract: This paper introduces a hand gesture recognition system to recognize real time gesture in unstrained environments. Efforts should be made to adapt computers to our natural means of communication: Speech and body language. A simple and fast algorithm using orientation histograms will be developed. It will recognize a subset of MAL static hand gestures. A pattern recognition system will be using a transforrn that converts an image into a feature vector, which will be compared with the feature vectors of a training set of gestures. The final system will be Perceptron implementation in MATLAB. This paper includes experiments of 33 hand postures and discusses the results. Experiments shows that the system can achieve a 90% recognition average rate and is suitable for real time applications.
Abstract: Quality Function Deployment (QFD) is an expounded, multi-step planning method for delivering commodity, services, and processes to customers, both external and internal to an organization. It is a way to convert between the diverse customer languages expressing demands (Voice of the Customer), and the organization-s languages expressing results that sate those demands. The policy is to establish one or more matrices that inter-relate producer and consumer reciprocal expectations. Due to its visual presence is called the “House of Quality" (HOQ). In this paper, we assumed HOQ in multi attribute decision making (MADM) pattern and through a proposed MADM method, rank technical specifications. Thereafter compute satisfaction degree of customer requirements and for it, we apply vagueness and uncertainty conditions in decision making by fuzzy set theory. This approach would propound supervised neural network (perceptron) for MADM problem solving.
Abstract: The problem of FIR system parameter estimation has been considered in the paper. A new robust recursive algorithm for simultaneously estimation of parameters and scale factor of prediction residuals in non-stationary environment corrupted by impulsive noise has been proposed. The performance of derived algorithm has been tested by simulations.
Abstract: Gene, principal unit of inheritance, is an ordered
sequence of nucleotides. The genes of eukaryotic organisms include
alternating segments of exons and introns. The region of
Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) within a gene containing instructions
for coding a protein is called exon. On the other hand, non-coding
regions called introns are another part of DNA that regulates gene
expression by removing from the messenger Ribonucleic acid (RNA)
in a splicing process. This paper proposes to determine splice
junctions that are exon-intron boundaries by analyzing DNA
sequences. A splice junction can be either exon-intron (EI) or intron
exon (IE). Because of the popularity and compatibility of the
artificial neural network (ANN) in genetic fields; various ANN
models are applied in this research. Multi-layer Perceptron (MLP),
Radial Basis Function (RBF) and Generalized Regression Neural
Networks (GRNN) are used to analyze and detect the splice junctions
of gene sequences. 10-fold cross validation is used to demonstrate
the accuracy of networks. The real performances of these networks
are found by applying Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC)
analysis.
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to present two different
approaches of financial distress pre-warning models appropriate for
risk supervisors, investors and policy makers. We examine a sample
of the financial institutions and electronic companies of Taiwan
Security Exchange (TSE) market from 2002 through 2008. We
present a binary logistic regression with paned data analysis. With
the pooled binary logistic regression we build a model including
more variables in the regression than with random effects, while the
in-sample and out-sample forecasting performance is higher in
random effects estimation than in pooled regression. On the other
hand we estimate an Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System
(ANFIS) with Gaussian and Generalized Bell (Gbell) functions and
we find that ANFIS outperforms significant Logit regressions in both
in-sample and out-of-sample periods, indicating that ANFIS is a
more appropriate tool for financial risk managers and for the
economic policy makers in central banks and national statistical
services.
Abstract: Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with their high mechanical,
electrical, thermal and chemical properties are regarded as promising
materials for many different potential applications. Having unique
properties they can be used in a wide range of fields such as
electronic devices, electrodes, drug delivery systems, hydrogen
storage, textile etc. Catalytic chemical vapor deposition (CCVD) is a
common method for CNT production especially for mass production.
Catalysts impregnated on a suitable substrate are important for
production with chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. Iron
catalyst and MgO substrate is one of most common catalyst-substrate
combination used for CNT. In this study, CNTs were produced by
CCVD of acetylene (C2H2) on magnesium oxide (MgO) powder
substrate impregnated by iron nitrate (Fe(NO3)3•9H2O) solution. The
CNT synthesis conditions were as follows: at synthesis temperatures
of 500 and 800°C multiwall and single wall CNTs were produced
respectively. Iron (Fe) catalysts were prepared by with Fe:MgO ratio
of 1:100, 5:100 and 10:100. The duration of syntheses were 30 and
60 minutes for all temperatures and catalyst percentages. The
synthesized materials were characterized by thermal gravimetric
analysis (TGA), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Raman
spectroscopy.
Abstract: This paper aims to (1) analyze the profiles of
transgressors (detected evaders); (2) examine reason(s) that triggered a
tax audit, causes of tax evasion, audit timeframe and tax penalty
charged; and (3) to assess if tax auditors followed the guidelines as
stated in the 'Tax Audit Framework' when conducting tax audits. In
2011, the Inland Revenue Board Malaysia (IRBM) had audited and
finalized 557 company cases. With official permission, data of all the
557 cases were obtained from the IRBM. Of these, a total of 421 cases
with complete information were analyzed. About 58.1% was small and
medium corporations and from the construction industry (32.8%). The
selection for tax audit was based on risk analysis (66.8%), information
from third party (11.1%), and firm with low profitability or fluctuating
profit pattern (7.8%). The three persistent causes of tax evasion by
firms were over claimed expenses (46.8%), fraudulent reporting of
income (38.5%) and overstating purchases (10.5%). These findings
are consistent with past literature. Results showed that tax auditors
took six to 18 months to close audit cases. More than half of tax
evaders were fined 45% on additional tax raised during audit for the
first offence. The study found tax auditors did follow the guidelines in
the 'Tax Audit Framework' in audit selection, settlement and penalty
imposition.
Abstract: The aim of present experiment was to evaluate the
influence of cultivar to quality parameters of dried potato chips and
sticks produced in microwave-vacuum drier. The potatoes before
drying were blanched in oil and water at 180ºC and at 85ºC
respectively. The moisture content, crispiness, the colour (CIE
L*a*b*), the content of ascorbic acid, total carotenoids and total fat
content of dried potato chips and sticks was determined The highest
ascorbic acid content, high content of carotenoids, low total fat
content, low acrylamide content and good crispiness (low breaking
force) especially for sticks was determined in the samples of Gundega
cultivar.
Abstract: This article experimentally investigates the
thermal performance of thermoelectric air-cooling module
which comprises a thermoelectric cooler (TEC) and an
air-cooling heat sink. The influences of input current and heat
load are determined. And performances under each situation
are quantified by thermal resistance analysis. Since TEC
generates Joule heat, this nature makes construction of thermal
resistance network difficult. To simplify the analysis, this
article emphasizes on the resistance heat load might meet when
passing through the device. Therefore, the thermal resistances
in this paper are to divide temperature differences by heat load.
According to the result, there exists an optimum input current
under every heating power. In this case, the optimum input
current is around 6A or 7A. The performance of the heat sink
would be improved with TEC under certain heating power and
input current, especially at a low heat load. According to the
result, the device can even make the heat source cooler than the
ambient. However, TEC is not always effective at every heat
load and input current. In some situation, the device works
worse than the heat sink without TEC. To determine the
availability of TEC, this study figures out the effective
operating region in which the TEC air-cooling module works
better than the heat sink without TEC. The result shows that
TEC is more effective at a lower heat load. If heat load is too
high, heat sink with TEC will perform worse than without TEC.
The limit of this device is 57W. Besides, TEC is not helpful if
input current is too high or too low. There is an effective range
of input current, and the range becomes narrower when the heat
load grows.
Abstract: The three-time-scale plant model of a wind power
generator, including a wind turbine, a flexible vertical shaft, a Variable
Inertia Flywheel (VIF) module, an Active Magnetic Bearing (AMB)
unit and the applied wind sequence, is constructed. In order to make
the wind power generator be still able to operate as the spindle speed
exceeds its rated speed, the VIF is equipped so that the spindle speed
can be appropriately slowed down once any stronger wind field is
exerted. To prevent any potential damage due to collision by shaft
against conventional bearings, the AMB unit is proposed to regulate
the shaft position deviation. By singular perturbation order-reduction
technique, a lower-order plant model can be established for the
synthesis of feedback controller. Two major system parameter
uncertainties, an additive uncertainty and a multiplicative uncertainty,
are constituted by the wind turbine and the VIF respectively.
Frequency Shaping Sliding Mode Control (FSSMC) loop is proposed
to account for these uncertainties and suppress the unmodeled
higher-order plant dynamics. At last, the efficacy of the FSSMC is
verified by intensive computer and experimental simulations for
regulation on position deviation of the shaft and counter-balance of
unpredictable wind disturbance.
Abstract: The main focus of the work was concerned with hydrodynamic and thermal analysis of the plate heat exchanger channel with corrugation patterns suggested to be triangular, sinusoidal, and square corrugation. This study was to numerically model and validate the triangular corrugated channel with dimensions/parameters taken from open literature, and then model/analyze both sinusoidal, and square corrugated channel referred to the triangular model. Initially, 2D modeling with local extensive analysis for triangular corrugated channel was carried out. By that, all local pressure drop, wall shear stress, friction factor, static temperature, heat flux, Nusselt number, and surface heat coefficient, were analyzed to interpret the hydrodynamic and thermal phenomena occurred in the flow. Furthermore, in order to facilitate confidence in this model, a comparison between the values predicted, and experimental results taken from literature for almost the same case, was done. Moreover, a holistic numerical study for sinusoidal and square channels together with global comparisons with triangular corrugation under the same condition, were handled. Later, a comparison between electric, and fluid cooling through varying the boundary condition was achieved. The constant wall temperature and constant wall heat flux boundary conditions were employed, and the different resulted Nusselt numbers as a consequence were justified. The results obtained can be used to come up with an optimal design, a 'compromise' between heat transfer and pressure drop.