Abstract: The purposes of this research were to study concepts
and strategies of human resource development in the automotive
manufacturers and to articulate the proposals against the government
about the human resource development for automotive industry. In
the present study, qualitative study was an in-depth interview in
which the qualitative data were collected from the executive or the
executive of human resource division from five automotive
companies - Toyota Motor (Thailand) Co., Ltd., Nissan Motor
(Thailand) Co., Ltd., Mitsubishi Motors (Thailand) Co., Ltd., Honda
Automobile (Thailand) Co., Ltd., and Suzuki Motor (Thailand) Co.,
Ltd. Qualitative data analysis was performed by using inter-coder
agreement technique. The research findings were as follows:
The external factors included the current conditions of the
automotive industry, government’s policy related to the automotive
industry, technology, labor market and human resource development
systems of the country. The internal factors included management,
productive management, organizational strategies, leadership,
organizational culture and philosophy of human resource
development. These factors were affected to the different concept of
human resources development -the traditional human resource
development and the strategies of human resource development. The
organization focuses on human resources as intellectual capital and
uses the strategies of human resource development in all
development processes. The strategies of human resource
development will enhance the ability of human resources in the
organization and the country.
Abstract: Lightning protection systems (LPS) for wind power
generation is becoming an important public issue. A serious damage
of blades, accidents where low-voltage and control circuit
breakdowns are frequently occur in many wind farms. A grounding
system is one of the most important components required for
appropriate LPSs in wind turbines WTs. Proper design of a wind
turbine grounding system is demanding and several factors for the
proper and effective implementation must taken into account. In this
paper proposed procedure of proper design of grounding systems for
a wind turbine was introduced. This procedure depends on measuring
of ground current of simulated wind farm under lightning taking into
consideration the soil ionization. The procedure also includes the
Ground Potential Rise (GPR) and the voltage distributions at ground
surface level and Touch potential. In particular, the contribution of
mitigating techniques, such as rings, rods and the proposed design
were investigated.
Abstract: The growth of wireless devices affects the availability
of limited frequencies or spectrum bands as it has been known that
spectrum bands are a natural resource that cannot be added.
Meanwhile, the licensed frequencies are idle most of the time.
Cognitive radio is one of the solutions to solve those problems.
Cognitive radio is a promising technology that allows the unlicensed
users known as secondary users (SUs) to access licensed bands
without making interference to licensed users or primary users (PUs).
As cloud computing has become popular in recent years, cognitive
radio networks (CRNs) can be integrated with cloud platform. One of
the important issues in CRNs is security. It becomes a problem since
CRNs use radio frequencies as a medium for transmitting and CRNs
share the same issues with wireless communication systems. Another
critical issue in CRNs is performance. Security has adverse effect to
performance and there are trade-offs between them. The goal of this
paper is to investigate the performance related to security trade-off in
CRNs with supporting cloud platforms. Furthermore, Queuing
Network Models with preemptive resume and preemptive repeat
identical priority are applied in this project to measure the impact of
security to performance in CRNs with or without cloud platform. The
generalized exponential (GE) type distribution is used to reflect the
bursty inter-arrival and service times at the servers. The results show
that the best performance is obtained when security is disabled and
cloud platform is enabled.
Abstract: In many communication and signal processing
systems, it is highly desirable to implement an efficient narrow-band
filter that decimate or interpolate the incoming signals. This paper
presents hardware efficient compensated CIC filter over a narrow
band frequency that increases the speed of down sampling by using
multiplierless decimation filters with polyphase FIR filter structure.
The proposed work analyzed the performance of compensated CIC
filter on the bases of the improvement of frequency response with
reduced hardware complexity in terms of no. of adders and
multipliers and produces the filtered results without any alterations.
CIC compensator filter demonstrated that by using compensation
with CIC filter improve the frequency response in passed of interest
26.57% with the reduction in hardware complexity 12.25%
multiplications per input sample (MPIS) and 23.4% additions per
input sample (APIS) w.r.t. FIR filter respectively.
Abstract: Heating, cooling and lighting appliances in buildings
account for more than one third of the world’s primary energy
demand. Therefore, main components of the building heating systems
play an essential role in terms of energy consumption. In this context,
efficient energy and exergy utilization in HVAC-R systems has been
very essential, especially in developing energy policies towards
increasing efficiencies. The main objective of the present study is to
assess the performance of a family house with a volume of 326.7 m3
and a net floor area of 121 m2, located in the city of Izmir, Turkey in
terms of energetic, exergetic and sustainability aspects. The indoor
and exterior air temperatures are taken as 20°C and 1°C, respectively.
In the analysis and assessment, various metrics (indices or indicators)
such as exergetic efficiency, exergy flexibility ratio and sustainability
index are utilized. Two heating options (Case 1: condensing boiler
and Case 2: air heat pump) are considered for comparison purposes.
The total heat loss rate of the family house is determined to be
3770.72 W. The overall energy efficiencies of the studied cases are
calculated to be 49.4% for Case 1 and 54.7% for Case 2. The overall
exergy efficiencies, the flexibility factor and the sustainability index
of Cases 1 and 2 are computed to be around 3.3%, 0.17 and 1.034,
respectively.
Abstract: In this paper the issue of dimensionality reduction is
investigated in finger vein recognition systems using kernel Principal
Component Analysis (KPCA). One aspect of KPCA is to find the
most appropriate kernel function on finger vein recognition as there
are several kernel functions which can be used within PCA-based
algorithms. In this paper, however, another side of PCA-based
algorithms -particularly KPCA- is investigated. The aspect of
dimension of feature vector in PCA-based algorithms is of
importance especially when it comes to the real-world applications
and usage of such algorithms. It means that a fixed dimension of
feature vector has to be set to reduce the dimension of the input and
output data and extract the features from them. Then a classifier is
performed to classify the data and make the final decision. We
analyze KPCA (Polynomial, Gaussian, and Laplacian) in details in
this paper and investigate the optimal feature extraction dimension in
finger vein recognition using KPCA.
Abstract: Analysis of real life problems often results in linear
systems of equations for which solutions are sought. The method to
employ depends, to some extent, on the properties of the coefficient
matrix. It is not always feasible to solve linear systems of equations
by direct methods, as such the need to use an iterative method
becomes imperative. Before an iterative method can be employed
to solve a linear system of equations there must be a guaranty that
the process of solution will converge. This guaranty, which must
be determined apriori, involve the use of some criterion expressible
in terms of the entries of the coefficient matrix. It is, therefore,
logical that the convergence criterion should depend implicitly on the
algebraic structure of such a method. However, in deference to this
view is the practice of conducting convergence analysis for Gauss-
Seidel iteration on a criterion formulated based on the algebraic
structure of Jacobi iteration. To remedy this anomaly, the Gauss-
Seidel iteration was studied for its algebraic structure and contrary
to the usual assumption, it was discovered that some property of the
iteration matrix of Gauss-Seidel method is only diagonally dominant
in its first row while the other rows do not satisfy diagonal dominance.
With the aid of this structure we herein fashion out an improved
version of Gauss-Seidel iteration with the prospect of enhancing
convergence and robustness of the method. A numerical section is
included to demonstrate the validity of the theoretical results obtained
for the improved Gauss-Seidel method.
Abstract: The high Peak to Average Power Ratio (PAR) in Filter
Bank Multicarrier with Offset Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
(FBMC-OQAM) can significantly reduce power efficiency and
performance. In this paper, we address the problem of PAPR
reduction for FBMC-OQAM systems using Tone Reservation (TR)
technique. Due to the overlapping structure of FBMCOQAM signals,
directly applying TR schemes of OFDM systems to FBMC-OQAM
systems is not effective. We improve the tone reservation (TR)
technique by employing sliding window with Active Constellation
Extension for the PAPR reduction of FBMC-OQAM signals, called
sliding window tone reservation Active Constellation Extension
(SW-TRACE) technique. The proposed SW-TRACE technique uses
the peak reduction tones (PRTs) of several consecutive data
blocks to cancel the peaks of the FBMC-OQAM signal inside a
window, with dynamically extending outer constellation points in
active(data-carrying) channels, within margin-preserving constraints,
in order to minimize the peak magnitude. Analysis and simulation
results compared to the existing Tone Reservation (TR) technique for
FBMC/OQAM system. The proposed method SW-TRACE has better
PAPR performance and lower computational complexity.
Abstract: Lead (Pb) poisoning is one of the most common and
preventable environmental health problems. There are different
sources of environmental pollution with lead as lead alkyl additives
in petrol and manufacturing processes. Pb in the atmosphere can be
deposited in urban soils, and may then be re-suspended to re-enter the
atmosphere. This could increase human exposure to Pb and cause
long-term health effects. Thus, monitoring Pb pollution is considered
one of the major tasks in controlling pollution. Scalp hair can be
utilized for the determination of lead (Pb) concentration. It provides a
lasting record of metal intakes of weeks or even months, and for most
metals, their accumulation in hair reflects their accumulation in the
whole body. This work was conducted to investigate the
concentration of lead in male scalp hair of Cairo (residential-traffic
and residential-industrial) and rural residents after twenty years of
phasing out of leaded gasoline. Results indicated that the mean
concentration of lead in hair of residential-traffic (9.7552 μg/g ±0.71)
and residential-industrial (12.3288 μg/g ±1.13) was significantly
higher than that in rural residents (4.7327 μg/g ±0.67). The mean
concentration of lead in hair of resident’s industrial areas was the
highest among Cairo residents and not the traffic areas as it was
before phasing out of leaded gasoline. Twenty years of phasing out of
leaded gasoline in Cairo has greatly improved the lead pollution
among residents of traffic areas, but industrial areas residents were
still suffering from lead pollution, which needs more efforts to
control the sources of lead pollution.
Abstract: This paper proposes a cooperative Alamouti space time
transmission scheme with low relay complexity for the cooperative
communication systems. In the proposed scheme, the source node
combines the data symbols to construct the Alamouti-coded form at
the destination node, while the conventional scheme performs the
corresponding operations at the relay nodes. In simulation results,
it is shown that the proposed scheme achieves the second order
cooperative diversity while maintaining the same bit error rate (BER)
performance as that of the conventional scheme.
Abstract: In remote sensing, shadow causes problems in many
applications such as change detection and classification. It is caused
by objects which are elevated, thus can directly affect the accuracy of
information. For these reasons, it is very important to detect shadows
particularly in urban high spatial resolution imagery which created a
significant problem. This paper focuses on automatic shadow
detection based on a new spectral index for multispectral imagery
known as Shadow Detection Index (SDI). The new spectral index
was tested on different areas of WorldView-2 images and the results
demonstrated that the new spectral index has a massive potential to
extract shadows with accuracy of 94% effectively and automatically.
Furthermore, the new shadow detection index improved road
extraction from 82% to 93%.
Abstract: There is an essential need for obtaining the mathematical representation of fish body undulations, which can be used for designing and building new innovative types of marine propulsion systems with less environmental impact. This research work presents a case study to derive the mathematical model for fish body movement. Observation and capturing image methods were used in this study in order to obtain a mathematical representation of Clariasbatrachus fish (catfish). An experiment was conducted by using an aquarium with dimension 0.609 m x 0.304 m x 0.304 m, and a 0.5 m ruler was attached at the base of the aquarium. Progressive Scan Monochrome Camera was positioned at 1.8 m above the base of the aquarium to provide swimming sequences. Seven points were marked on the fish body using white marker to indicate the fish movement and measuring the amplitude of undulation. Images from video recordings (20 frames/s) were analyzed frame by frame using local coordinate system, with time interval 0.05 s. The amplitudes of undulations were obtained for image analysis from each point that has been marked on fish body. A graph of amplitude of undulations versus time was plotted by using computer to derive a mathematical fit. The function for the graph is polynomial with nine orders.
Abstract: The Analytic Hierarchy Process is frequently used
approach for solving decision making problems. There exists wide
range of software programs utilizing that approach. Their main
disadvantage is that they are relatively expensive and missing
intermediate calculations. This work introduces a Microsoft Excel
add-in called DAME – Decision Analysis Module for Excel.
Comparing to other computer programs DAME is free, can work
with scenarios or multiple decision makers and displays intermediate
calculations. Users can structure their decision models into three
levels – scenarios/users, criteria and variants. Items on all levels can
be evaluated either by weights or pair-wise comparisons. There are
provided three different methods for the evaluation of the weights of
criteria, the variants as well as the scenarios – Saaty’s Method,
Geometric Mean Method and Fuller’s Triangle Method.
Multiplicative and additive syntheses are supported. The proposed
software package is demonstrated on couple of illustrating examples
of real life decision problems.
Abstract: Turbulent flow in complex geometries receives considerable attention due to its importance in many engineering applications. It has been the subject of interest for many researchers. Some of these interests include the design of storm water channels. The design of these channels requires testing through physical models. The main practical limitation of physical models is the so called “scale effect”, that is, the fact that in many cases only primary physical mechanisms can be correctly represented, while secondary mechanisms are often distorted. These observations form the basis of our study, which centered on problems associated with the design of storm water channels near the Dead Sea, in Israel. To help reach a final design decision we used different physical models. Our research showed good coincidence with the results of laboratory tests and theoretical calculations, and allowed us to study different effects of fluid flow in an open channel. We determined that problems of this nature cannot be solved only by means of theoretical calculation and computer simulation. This study demonstrates the use of physical models to help resolve very complicated problems of fluid flow through baffles and similar structures. The study applies these models and observations to different construction and multiphase water flows, among them, those that include sand and stone particles, a significant attempt to bring to the testing laboratory a closer association with reality.
Abstract: The classroom of the 21st century is an ever changing forum for new and innovative thoughts and ideas. With increasing technology and opportunity, students have rapid access to information that only decades ago would have taken weeks to obtain. Unfortunately, new techniques and technology is not a cure for the fundamental problems that have plagued the classroom ever since education was established. Class size has been an issue long debated in academia. While it is difficult to pin point an exact number, it is clear that in this case more does not mean better. By looking into the success and pitfalls of classroom size the true advantages of smaller classes will become clear. Previously, one class was comprised of 50 students. Being seventeen and eighteen-year-old students, sometimes it was quite difficult for them to stay focused. To help them understand and gain much knowledge, a researcher introduced “The Theory of Multiple Intelligence” and this, in fact, enabled students to learn according to their own learning preferences no matter how they were being taught. In this lesson, the researcher designed a cycle of learning activities involving all intelligences so that everyone had equal opportunities to learn.
Abstract: Multi-component data envelopment analysis (MC-DEA) is a popular technique for measuring aggregate performance of the decision making units (DMUs) along with their components. However, the conventional MC-DEA is limited to crisp input and output data which may not always be available in exact form. In real life problems, data may be imprecise or fuzzy. Therefore, in this paper, we propose (i) a fuzzy MC-DEA (FMC-DEA) model in which shared and undesirable fuzzy resources are incorporated, (ii) the proposed FMC-DEA model is transformed into a pair of crisp models using α cut approach, (iii) fuzzy aggregate performance of a DMU and fuzzy efficiencies of components are defined to be fuzzy numbers, and (iv) a numerical example is illustrated to validate the proposed approach.
Abstract: Obesity, stunting and wasting problems among Thai school-aged children are increasing due to inappropriate food consumption behavior and poor environments for desirable nutritional behavior. Because of a low school lunch budget of only 0.40 USD per person per day, food quality is not up to nutritional standards. Therefore, the Health Department with the Education Ministry and the Thai Health Promotion Foundation have developed a quality school lunch project during 2009–2013. The program objectives were development and management of public policy to increase school lunch budget. The methods used a healthy public policy motivation process and movement in 241 local administrative organizations and 538 schools. The problem and solution research was organized to study school food and nutrition management, create a best practice policy mobilization model and hold a public hearing to motivate an increase of school meal funding. The results showed that local public policy has been motivated during 2009-2011 to increase school meal budget using local budgets. School children with best food consumption behavior and exercise increased from 13.2% in 2009 to 51.6% in 2013 and stunting decreased from 6.0% in 2009 to 4.7% in 2013. As the result of national policy motivation (2012-2013), the cabinet meeting on October 22, 2013 has approved an increase of school lunch budget from 0.40 USD to 0.62 USD per person per day. Thus, 5,800,469 school children nationwide have benefited from the budget increase.
Abstract: Partial shadowing is one of the problems that are always faced in terrestrial applications of solar photovoltaic (PV). The effects of partial shadow on the energy yield of conventional mono-crystalline and multi-crystalline PV modules have been researched for a long time. With deployment of new thin-film solar PV modules in the market, it is important to understand the performance of new PV modules operating under the partial shadow in the tropical zone. This paper addresses the impacts of different partial shadowing on the operating characteristics of four different types of solar PV modules that include multi-crystalline, amorphous thin-film, CdTe thin-film and CIGS thin-film PV modules.
Abstract: With growth of PV market in tropical region, it is necessary to investigate the performance of different types of PV technology under the tropical weather conditions. Singapore Polytechnic was funded by Economic Development Board (EDB) to set up a solar PV test-bed for the research on performance of different types of PV modules in the country. The PV test-bed installed the nine different types of PV systems that are integrated to power utility grid for monitoring and analyzing their operating performances. This paper presents the 12 months operational data of nine different PV systems and analyses on performances of installed PV systems using energy yield and performance ratio. The nine types of PV systems under test have shown their energy yields ranging from 2.67 to 3.36 kWh/kWp and their performance ratios (PRs) ranging from 70% to 88%.
Abstract: Most of the PV systems are designed with transformer for safety purpose with galvanic isolation. However, the transformer is big, heavy and expensive. Also, it reduces the overall frequency of the conversion stage. Generally PV inverter with transformer is having efficiency around 92%–94% only. To overcome these problems, transformerless PV system is introduced. It is smaller, lighter, cheaper and higher in efficiency. However, dangerous leakage current will flow between PV array and the grid due to the stray capacitance. There are different types of configurations available for transformerless inverters like H5, H6, HERIC, oH5, and Dual paralleled buck inverter. But each configuration is suffering from its own disadvantages like high conduction losses, shoot-through issues of switches, dead-time requirements at zero crossing instants of grid voltage to avoid grid shoot-through faults and MOSFET reverse recovery issues. The main objective of the proposed transformerless inverter is to address two key issues: One key issue for a transformerless inverter is that it is necessary to achieve high efficiency compared to other existing inverter topologies. Another key issue is that the inverter configuration should not have any shoot-through issues for higher reliability.