Abstract: Collaborative Planning and Forecasting is an innovative and systematic approach towards productive integration and assimilation of data synergized into information. The changing and variable market dynamics have persuaded global business chains to incorporate Collaborative Planning and Forecasting as an imperative tool. Thus, it is essential for the supply chains to constantly improvise, update its nature, and mould as per changing global environment.
Abstract: Spatial dimension in development planning is becoming more topical in 21st century as a result of changes in population structure. Sustainable spatial development focuses on identifying and using territorial advantages to foster the harmonized development of the entire country, reducing negative effects of population concentration, increasing availability and mobility. EU and national development planning documents state polycentrism as main tool for balance spatial development, including investment concentration in growth centres. If mutual cooperation of growth centres as well as urban–rural cooperation is not fostered, then territorial differences can deepen and create unbalanced development.
The aim of research: to evaluate the urban–rural interaction, elaborating spatial development scenarios in framework of Latvian regional policy. To perform the research monographic, comparison, abstract–logical method, synthesis and analysis will be used when studying the theoretical aspects of research aiming at collecting the ideas of scientists from different countries, concepts, regulations as well as to create meaningful scientific discussion. Hierarchy analysis process (AHP) will be used to state further scenarios of spatial development in Latvia.
Experts from various institutions recognized urban – rural interaction and co-operation as an essential tool for the development. The most important factors for balanced spatial development in Latvia are availability of public transportation and improvement of service availability. Evaluating the three alternative scenarios, it was concluded that the urban – rural partnership will ensure a balanced development in Latvian regions.
Abstract: Article presents a short overview of the architects’ profession over time with outlined work of the architectural theoreticians.
In the continuation is described a former affiliation of Slovenia as well as the spatial planning documents that were in use until the Slovenia joint Yugoslavia (last part in 1919). This legislation from former Austro-Hungarian monarchy was valid almost until 1950 in some parts of Yugoslavia even longer. Upon that will be mentioned some valid Slovenian spatial documents which will be compared with the German legislation.
Analyzed will be the number of architect and spatial planners in Slovenia and also their number upon certain region in Slovenia. Based on that will be given also the number from statistical office of Slovenia of the number of buildings between years 2007 and 2012, and described also the collapse of the major construction companies in Slovenia and consequences of that.
At the end will be outlined the morality and ethics by spatial interventions and lack of the architectural law in Slovenia as well as the problematic of minimal collaboration between the Ministry of infrastructure and spatial planning with the profession.
Abstract: Seventy-nine accessions, including two local wild species (Chenopodium album and C. murale) and several cultivated quinoa lines developed through recurrent selection in Morocco were screened for their resistance against Peronospora farinose, the causal agent of downy mildew disease. The method of artificial inoculation on detached healthy leaves taken from the middle stage of the plant was used. Screened accessions showed different levels of quantitative resistance to downy mildew as they were scored through the calculation of their area under disease progress curve and their two resistance components, the incubation period and the latent period. Significant differences were found between accessions regarding the three criteria (Incubation Period, Latent Period and Area Under Diseases Progress Curve). Accessions M2a and S938/1 were ranked resistant as they showed the longest Incubation Period (7 days) and Latent Period (12 days) and the lowest area under diseases progress curve (4). Therefore, M24 is the most susceptible accession as it has presented the highest area under diseases progress curve (34.5) and the shortest Incubation Period (1 day) and Latent Period (3 days). In parallel to this evaluation approach, the accession resistance was confirmed under the field conditions through natural infection by using the tree-leaf method. The high correlation found between detached leaf inoculation method and field screening under natural infection allows us to use this laboratory technique with sureness in further selection works.
Abstract: Thermal radiation plays a very important role in the heat transfer combination through the various components of the SOFC fuel cell operating at high temperatures. Lattice Boltzmann method is used for treating conduction-radiation heat transfer in the electrolyte. The thermal radiation heat transfer is coupled to the overall energy conservation equations through the divergence of the local radiative flux. The equation of energy in one dimension is numerically resolved by using the Lattice Boltzmann method. A computing program (FORTRAN) is developed locally for this purpose in order to obtain fields of temperature in every element of the cell. The parameters investigated are: functioning temperature, cell voltages and electrolyte thickness. The results show that the radiation effect increases with increasing the electrolyte thickness, also increases with increasing the functioning temperature and decreases with the increase of the voltage of the cell.
Abstract: This paper describes the design optimization of ferrocement-laminated plate made up of reinforcing steel wire mesh(es) and cement mortar. For the improvement of the designing process, the plate is modeled as a multi-layer medium, dividing the ferrocement plate into layers of mortar and ferrocement. The mortar layers are assumed to be isotropic in nature and the ferrocement layers are assumed to be orthotropic. The ferrocement layers are little stiffer, but much more costlier, than the mortar layers due the presence of steel wire mesh. The optimization is performed for minimum weight design of the laminate using a genetic algorithm. The optimum designs are discussed for different plate configurations and loadings, and it is compared with the worst designs obtained at the final generation. The paper provides a procedure for the designers in decision-making process.
Abstract: Constructivism, the latest teaching and learning theory in western countries which is based on the premise that cognition (learning) is the result of "mental construction", lays emphasis on the learner's active learning. Guided by constructivism, this thesis discusses the teaching plan and its application in extensive reading course. In extensive reading classroom, emphasis should be laid on the activation of students' prior knowledge, grasping the skills of fast reading and the combination of reading and writing to check extracurricular reading. With three factors supplementing each other, students' English reading ability can be improved effectively.
Abstract: Demanding structural safety under various loading conditions, has focused attention on their variation and structural elements behavior due to these variations. Jacket structures are designed for a specific water level (LAT). One of the important issues about these kinds of structures is the water level rise. For example, the level of water in the Caspian Sea has risen by 2.5m in the last fifteen years and is continuing to rise. In this paper, the structural behavior of one typical shallow or medium water jacket platform (a four-leg steel jacket platform in 55m water depth) under water level rise has been studied. The time history of Von Mises stress and nodal displacement has chosen for evaluating structural behavior. The results show that dependent on previous water depth and structural elements position; different structural elements have different behavior due to water level rise.
Abstract: In order to host the Football Euro in 2016, many French cities have launched architectural competitions in recent years to improve the quality of their stadiums. The winning project in Nice was designed by Wilmotte architects together with Elioth structural engineers. It has a capacity of 35,000 seats.Its roof structure consists of a complex 3D shape timber and steel lattice and is covered by 25,000m² of ETFE, 10,500m² of PES-PVC fabric and 8,500m² of photovoltaic panels.
This paper focuses on the ETFE part of the cover. The stadium is one of the first constructions to use flat single layer ETFE on such a big area. Due to its relatively recent appearance in France, ETFE structures are not yet covered by any regulations and the existing codes for fabric structures cannot be strictly applied. Rather, they are considered as cladding systems and therefore have to be approved by an “Appréciation Technique d’Expérimentation” (ATEx), during which experimental tests have to be performed. We explain the method that we developed to justify the ETFE, which eventually led to bi-axial tests to clarify the allowable stress in the film.
Abstract: This paper proposes and analyzes an SIRS epidemic model incorporating the effects of the awareness programs driven by the media. Media and media driven awareness programs play a promising role in disseminating the information about outbreak of any disease across the globe. This motivates people to take precautionary measures and guides the infected individuals to get hospitalized. Timely hospitalization helps to reduce diagnostic delays and hence results in fast recovery of infected individuals. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of the media on the spread and control of infectious diseases. This model is analyzed using stability theory of differential equations. The sensitivity of parameters has been discussed and it has been found that the awareness programs driven by the media have positive impact in reducing the infection prevalence of the infective population in the region under consideration.
Abstract: This analysis is performed to study the momentum, heat and mass transfer characteristics of MHD mixed convective flow past inclined porous plate in porous medium, including the effect of fluid suction. The fluid is assumed to be steady, incompressible and dense. Similarity solution is used to transform the problem under consideration into coupled nonlinear boundary layer equations which are then solved numerically by using the Runge-Kutta sixth-order integration scheme together with Nachtsheim-Swigert shooting iteration technique. Numerical results for the various types of parameters entering into the problem for velocity, temperature and concentration distributions are presented graphically and analyzed thereafter. Moreover, expressions for the skin-friction, heat transfer co-efficient and mass transfer co-efficient are discussed with graphs against streamwise distance for various governing parameters.
Abstract: This paper presents a set of artificial potential field functions that improves upon, in general, the motion planning and posture control, with theoretically guaranteed point and posture stabilities, convergence and collision avoidance properties of the general3-trailer system in a priori known environment. We basically design and inject two new concepts; ghost walls and the distance optimization technique (DOT) to strengthen point and posture stabilities, in the sense of Lyapunov, of our dynamical model. This new combination of techniques emerges as a convenient mechanism for obtaining feasible orientations at the target positions with an overall reduction in the complexity of the navigation laws. Simulations are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the controls laws.
Abstract: Microarray gene expression data play a vital in biological processes, gene regulation and disease mechanism. Biclustering in gene expression data is a subset of the genes indicating consistent patterns under the subset of the conditions. Finding a biclustering is an optimization problem. In recent years, swarm intelligence techniques are popular due to the fact that many real-world problems are increasingly large, complex and dynamic. By reasons of the size and complexity of the problems, it is necessary to find an optimization technique whose efficiency is measured by finding the near optimal solution within a reasonable amount of time. In this paper, the algorithmic concepts of the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Shuffled Frog Leaping (SFL) and Cuckoo Search (CS) algorithms have been analyzed for the four benchmark gene expression dataset. The experiment results show that CS outperforms PSO and SFL for 3 datasets and SFL give better performance in one dataset. Also this work determines the biological relevance of the biclusters with Gene Ontology in terms of function, process and component.
Abstract: In the present study, the effect of Si, Al, Ti, Zr, and Nb addition on the microstructure and hot workability of cast M42 tool steels, basically consisting of 1.0C, 0.2Mn, 3.8Cr, 1.5W, 8.5Co, 9.2Mo, and 1.0V in weight percent has been investigated. Tool steels containing Si of 0.25 and 0.5wt.%, Al of 0.06 and 0.12wt.%, Ti of 0.3wt.%, Zr of 0.3wt.%, and Nb of 0.3wt.% were cast into ingots of 140mm ´ 140mm ´ 330mm by vacuum induction melting. After solution treatment at 1150oC for 1.5hr followed by furnace cooling, hot rolling at 1180oC was conducted on the ingots. Addition of titanium, zirconium and niobium was found to retard the decomposition of the eutectic carbides and result in the deterioration of hot workability of the tool steels, while addition of aluminum and silicon showed relatively well decomposed carbide structure and resulted in sound hot rolled plates.
Abstract: Soil contamination with radiocesium has a long-term radiological impact due to its long physical half-life (30.1 years for 137Cs and 2 years for 134Cs) and its high biological availability. 137Cs causes the largest concerns because of its deleterious effect on agriculture and stock farming, and, thus, human life for decades. One of the important aspects of the problem of contaminated soils remediation is understand of protective actions aimed at the reduction of biological migration of radionuclides in soil-plant system. The most effective way to bind radionuclides is the use of selective sorbents. The proposed research mainly aims to achieve control on transfer of 137Cs in a system growing media – plant due to counter ions variation in the polymeric sorbents. As research object Japanese basil - Perilla frutescens was chosen. Productivity of plants depending on the presence (control-without presence of polymer) and type of polymer material, as well as content of 137Cs in plant material has been determined. The character of different polymers influences on the 137Cs migration in growing media – plant system as well as accumulation in the plants has been cleared up.
Abstract: This paper presents a set of artificial potential field functions that improves upon, in general, the motion planning and posture control, with theoretically guaranteed point and posture stabilities, convergence and collision avoidance properties of 3-trailer systems in a priori known environment. We basically design and inject two new concepts; ghost walls and the distance optimization technique (DOT) to strengthen point and posture stabilities, in the sense of Lyapunov, of our dynamical model. This new combination of techniques emerges as a convenient mechanism for obtaining feasible orientations at the target positions with an overall reduction in the complexity of the navigation laws. The effectiveness of the proposed control laws were demonstrated via simulations of two traffic scenarios.
Abstract: This paper aims to reconsider relationships between animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and planning. It stresses the idea of the necessity for a methodological revolution in order to increase the chances for dialogue between different actors and various planning agencies and create possibilities to manage conflicts. The explored case of North Carolina shows limitations in environmental agencies’ actions and methods. It also calls for a more integrated approach among agencies including the local agencies.
Abstract: This study aims at identifying the practices that should be taken into consideration by audit committees as a tool of corporate governance in Libyan commercial banks by investigating various perceptions on this topic. The study is based on a questionnaire submitted to audit committees ‘members at Libyan commercial banks, directors of internal audit departments as well as members of board of directors at these banks in addition to a number of external auditors and academic staff from Libyan universities. The study reveals that the role of audit committees has to be shifted from traditional areas of accounting to a broader role including functions related to financial reporting, audit planning, support the independence of internal and external auditors, acting as a channel of communication between external auditors and board of directors, reviewing external audit, and evaluating internal control systems. Although the study is a starting point in developing a framework of good audit committees’ practices in Libya, it is believed that the adoption of its results can result in enhancing the corporate governance practices not only in the banking sector but also in the entire corporate sector in Libya.
Abstract: The present work has been carried out to evaluate the diversity of a collection of 78 quinoa accessions developed through recurrent selection from Andean germplasm introduced to Morocco in the winter of 2000. Twenty-three quantitative and qualitative characters were used for the evaluation of genetic diversity and the relationship between the accessions, and also for the establishment of a core collection in Morocco. Important variation was found among the accessions in terms of plant morphology and growth behavior. Data analysis showed positive correlation of the plant height, the plant fresh and the dry weight with the grain yield, while days to flowering was found to be negatively correlated with grain yield. The first four PCs contributed 74.76% of the variability; the first PC showed significant variation with 42.86% of the total variation, PC2 with 15.37%, PC3 with 9.05% and PC4 contributed 7.49% of the total variation. Plant size, days to grain filling and days to maturity are correlated to the PC1; and seed size, inflorescence density and mildew resistance are correlated to the PC2. Hierarchical cluster analysis rearranged the 78 quinoa accessions into four main groups and ten sub-clusters. Clustering was found in associations with days to maturity and also with plant size and seed-size traits.
Abstract: This study aims to examine the application of
occupational health and safety supervision in Turkey and EU
countries in terms of legal regulations. The results of research reveal
that occupational health and safety supervision in EU countries,
whatever the understanding of welfare state, is effectively carried out
and almost all legal regulations on this subject are consistent with the
EU directives. On the other hand, there are serious problems in
applications, not legal regulations, of occupational health and safety
supervision in Turkey by the side of EU countries. Indeed, Turkey
has modern regulations on occupational health and safety supervision
whereas there are several problems such as ignoring prevention
policy on occupational health and safety supervision, understanding
of monotype inspector, problems resulting from this understanding
and dispersed structure of occupational health and safety
organizations in workplaces. As a result, Turkey needs to carry out
effective supervision mechanisms.