Abstract: Development of a Robust Supply Chain for Dynamic
Operating Environment as we move further into the twenty first
century, organisations are under increasing pressure to deliver a high
product variation at a reasonable cost without compromise in quality.
In a number of cases this will take the form of a customised or high
variety low volume manufacturing system that requires prudent
management of resources, among a number of functions, to achieve
competitive advantage. Purchasing and Supply Chain management is
one of such function and due to the substantial interaction with
external elements needs to be strategically managed. This requires a
number of primary and supporting tools that will enable the
appropriate decisions to be made rapidly. This capability is
especially vital in a dynamic environment as it provides a pivotal role
in increasing the profit margin of the product. The management of
this function can be challenging by itself and even more for Small
and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) due to the limited resources and
expertise available at their disposal.
This paper discusses the development of tools and concepts
towards effectively managing the purchasing and supply chain
function. The developed tools and concepts will provide a cost
effective way of managing this function within SMEs. The paper
further shows the use of these tools within Contechs, a manufacturer
of luxury boat interiors, and the associated benefits achieved as a
result of this implementation. Finally a generic framework towards
use in such environments is presented.
Abstract: Directive 2009/28/CE establishes, as obligatory objective, a share of renewable energies on energetic consumption of 20%, in European Union, in 2020 However, such European normative gives freedom to member states in the selection of the renewable promotion mechanism that allows them to obtain that objective. In this paper, we analyze the main characteristics of the promotion mechanisms of renewable energy used in the countries that shape the Electricity Iberian Market (Spain and Portugal) and the results in employment. The importance of these countries is given by the great increasing of the renewable energies which suppose a share higher than 30% of the overall generation in 2010. Therefore, this research paper can serve as the basis for the learning of other countries with regard to the main advantages that entail the use of a feed-in tariff system.
Abstract: This paper provides a scheme to improve the read efficiency of anti-collision algorithm in EPCglobal UHF Class-1 Generation-2 RFID standard. In this standard, dynamic frame slotted ALOHA is specified to solve the anti-collision problem. Also, the Q-algorithm with a key parameter C is adopted to dynamically adjust the frame sizes. In the paper, we split the C parameter into two parameters to increase the read speed and derive the optimal values of the two parameters through simulations. The results indicate our method outperforms the original Q-algorithm.
Abstract: In this paper, we study on finite projective Hjelmslev planes M(Zq) coordinatized by Hjelmslev ring Zq (where prime power q = pk). We obtain finite hyperbolic Klingenberg planes from these planes under certain conditions. Also, we give a combinatorical result on M(Zq), related by deleting a line from lines in same neighbour.
Abstract: The industrial process of the sugar cane crystallization produces a residual that still contains a lot of soluble sucrose and the objective of the factory is to improve its extraction. Therefore, there are substantial losses justifying the search for the optimization of the process. Crystallization process studied on the industrial site is based on the “three massecuites process". The third step of this process constitutes the final stage of exhaustion of the sucrose dissolved in the mother liquor. During the process of the third step of crystallization (Ccrystallization), the phase that is studied and whose control is to be improved, is the growing phase (crystal growth phase). The study of this process on the industrial site is a problem in its own. A control scheme is proposed to improve the standard PID control law used in the factory. An auto-tuning PID controller based on instantaneous linearization of a neural network is then proposed.
Abstract: True stress-strain curve of railhead steel is required to
investigate the behaviour of railhead under wheel loading through elasto-plastic Finite Element (FE) analysis. To reduce the rate of wear, the railhead material is hardened through annealing and
quenching. The Australian standard rail sections are not fully hardened and hence suffer from non-uniform distribution of the
material property; usage of average properties in the FE modelling can potentially induce error in the predicted plastic strains. Coupons
obtained at varying depths of the railhead were, therefore, tested under axial tension and the strains were measured using strain gauges as well as an image analysis technique, known as the Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). The head hardened steel exhibit existence of three distinct zones of yield strength; the yield strength as the ratio of the average yield strength provided in the standard (σyr=780MPa) and
the corresponding depth as the ratio of the head hardened zone along
the axis of symmetry are as follows: (1.17 σyr, 20%), (1.06 σyr, 20%-80%) and (0.71 σyr, > 80%). The stress-strain curves exhibit limited plastic zone with fracture occurring at strain less than 0.1.
Abstract: The log periodogram regression is widely used in empirical
applications because of its simplicity, since only a least squares
regression is required to estimate the memory parameter, d, its good
asymptotic properties and its robustness to misspecification of the
short term behavior of the series. However, the asymptotic distribution
is a poor approximation of the (unknown) finite sample distribution
if the sample size is small. Here the finite sample performance of different
nonparametric residual bootstrap procedures is analyzed when
applied to construct confidence intervals. In particular, in addition to
the basic residual bootstrap, the local and block bootstrap that might
adequately replicate the structure that may arise in the errors of the
regression are considered when the series shows weak dependence in
addition to the long memory component. Bias correcting bootstrap
to adjust the bias caused by that structure is also considered. Finally,
the performance of the bootstrap in log periodogram regression based
confidence intervals is assessed in different type of models and how
its performance changes as sample size increases.
Abstract: The goal of speech parameterization is to extract the relevant information about what is being spoken from the audio signal. In speech recognition systems Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) and Relative Spectral Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (RASTA-MFCC) are the two main techniques used. It will be shown in this paper that it presents some modifications to the original MFCC method. In our work the effectiveness of proposed changes to MFCC called Modified Function Cepstral Coefficients (MODFCC) were tested and compared against the original MFCC and RASTA-MFCC features. The prosodic features such as jitter and shimmer are added to baseline spectral features. The above-mentioned techniques were tested with impulsive signals under various noisy conditions within AURORA databases.
Abstract: Efficient modulo 2n+1 adders are important for
several applications including residue number system, digital signal
processors and cryptography algorithms. In this paper we present a
novel modulo 2n+1 addition algorithm for a recently represented
number system. The proposed approach is introduced for the
reduction of the power dissipated. In a conventional modulo 2n+1
adder, all operands have (n+1)-bit length. To avoid using (n+1)-bit
circuits, the diminished-1 and carry save diminished-1 number
systems can be effectively used in applications. In the paper, we also
derive two new architectures for designing modulo 2n+1 adder, based
on n-bit ripple-carry adder. The first architecture is a faster design
whereas the second one uses less hardware. In the proposed method,
the special treatment required for zero operands in Diminished-1
number system is removed. In the fastest modulo 2n+1 adders in
normal binary system, there are 3-operand adders. This problem is
also resolved in this paper. The proposed architectures are compared
with some efficient adders based on ripple-carry adder and highspeed
adder. It is shown that the hardware overhead and power
consumption will be reduced. As well as power reduction, in some
cases, power-delay product will be also reduced.
Abstract: Wireless Sensor Network is Multi hop Self-configuring
Wireless Network consisting of sensor nodes. The deployment of
wireless sensor networks in many application areas, e.g., aggregation
services, requires self-organization of the network nodes into clusters.
Efficient way to enhance the lifetime of the system is to partition the
network into distinct clusters with a high energy node as cluster head.
The different methods of node clustering techniques have appeared in
the literature, and roughly fall into two families; those based on the
construction of a dominating set and those which are based solely on
energy considerations. Energy optimized cluster formation for a set
of randomly scattered wireless sensors is presented. Sensors within a
cluster are expected to be communicating with cluster head only. The
energy constraint and limited computing resources of the sensor nodes
present the major challenges in gathering the data. In this paper we
propose a framework to study how partially correlated data affect the
performance of clustering algorithms. The total energy consumption
and network lifetime can be analyzed by combining random geometry
techniques and rate distortion theory. We also present the relation
between compression distortion and data correlation.
Abstract: The experimental design was 4 x 5 factorial with three
replications in fully controlled research greenhouse in Department of
Soil Sciences and Plant Nutrition, Faculty of Agriculture, University
of Selcuk in the year of 2009. Determination of tolerant chickpea
genotypes to drought was made in the research. Additionally,
sophisticated effects of drought on plant growth and development,
biochemical and physical properties or physical defense mechanisms
were presented. According to the results, the primary genotypes were
Ilgın YP (0.0063 g/gh) for leaf water capacity, 22235 70.44(%) for
relative water content, 22159 (82.47%) for real water content,
22159 (5.03 mg/l) for chlorophyll a+b, Ilgın YP (125.89 nmol
H2O2.dak-1/ mg protein-1) for peroxidase, Yunak YP (769.67
unit/ mg protein-1) for superoxide dismutase, Seydişehir YP
(16.74 μg.TA-1) for proline, Gökçe (80.01 nmol H2O2.dak-1/ mg
protein-1) for catalase. Consequently, all the genotypes
increased their enzyme activity depending on the increasing of
drought stress consider with the effects of drought stress on leaf
enzyme activity. Chickpea genotypes are increasing enzyme
activity against to drought stress.
Abstract: Today-s children, who are born into a more colorful,
more creative, more abstract and more accessible communication
environment than their ancestors as a result of dizzying advances in
technology, have an interesting capacity to perceive and make sense
of the world. Millennium children, who live in an environment where
all kinds of efforts by marketing communication are more intensive
than ever are, from their early childhood on, subject to all kinds of
persuasive messages. As regards advertising communication, it
outperforms all the other marketing communication efforts in
creating little consumer individuals and, as a result of processing of
codes and signs, plays a significant part in building a world of seeing,
thinking and understanding for children. Children who are raised with
metaphorical expressions such as tales and riddles also meet that fast
and effective meaning communication in advertisements.
Children-s perception of metaphors, which help grasp the “product
and its promise" both verbally and visually and facilitate association
between them is the subject of this study. Stimulating and activating
imagination, metaphors have unique advantages in promoting the
product and its promise especially in regard to print advertisements,
which have certain limitations. This study deals comparatively with
both literal and metaphoric versions of print advertisements
belonging to various product groups and attempts to discover to what
extent advertisements are liked, recalled, perceived and are
persuasive. The sample group of the study, which was conducted in
two elementary schools situated in areas that had different socioeconomic
features, consisted of children aged 12.
Abstract: Aerospace vehicles are subjected to non-uniform
thermal loading that may cause thermal buckling. A study was
conducted on the thermal post-buckling of shape memory alloy
composite plates subjected to the non-uniform tent-like temperature
field. The shape memory alloy wires were embedded within the
laminated composite plates to add recovery stress to the plates. The
non-linear finite element model that considered the recovery stress of
the shape memory alloy and temperature dependent properties of the
shape memory alloy and composite matrix along with its source
codes were developed. It was found that the post-buckling paths of
the shape memory alloy composite plates subjected to various tentlike
temperature fields were stable within the studied temperature
range. The addition of shape memory alloy wires to the composite
plates was found to significantly improve the post-buckling behavior
of laminated composite plates under non-uniform temperature
distribution.
Abstract: Using strength Pulse Electrical Field (PEF) in food
industries is a non-thermal process that can deactivate
microorganisms and increase penetration in plant and animals tissues
without serious impact on food taste and quality. In this paper designing and fabricating of a PEF generator has been presented. Pulse generation methods have been surveyed and the best of them
selected. The equipment by controller set can generate square pulse with adjustable parameters such as amplitude 1-5kV, frequency 0.1-10Hz, pulse width 10-100s, and duty cycle 0-100%. Setting the number of pulses, and presenting the output voltage and current
waveforms on the oscilloscope screen are another advantages of this
equipment. Finally, some food samples were tested that yielded the satisfactory results. PEF applying had considerable effects on potato, banana and purple cabbage. It caused increase Brix factor from 0.05
to 0.15 in potato solution. It is also so effective in extraction color material from purple cabbage. In the last experiment effects of PEF
voltages on color extraction of saffron scum were surveyed (about 6% increasing yield).
Abstract: The construction of original functional sample of the portable device for fast analysis of energetic materials has been described in the paper. The portable device consisting of two parts – an original miniaturized microcolumn liquid chromatograph and a unique chemiluminescence detector – has been proposed and realized. In a very short time, this portable device is capable of identifying selectively most of military nitramine- and nitroesterbased explosives as well as inorganic nitrates occurring in trace concentrations in water or in soil. The total time required for the identification of extracts is shorter than 8 minutes.
Abstract: For improving the efficiency of human 3D tracking, we
present an algorithm to track 3D Arm Motion. First, the Hierarchy
Limb Model (HLM) is proposed based on the human 3D skeleton
model. Second, via graph decomposition, the arm motion state space,
modeled by HLM, can be discomposed into two low dimension
subspaces: root nodes and leaf nodes. Finally, Rao-Blackwellised
Particle Filter is used to estimate the 3D arm motion. The result of
experiment shows that our algorithm can advance the computation
efficiency.
Abstract: This paper analyzes the effect of a single uniform accounting rule on reporting quality by investigating the influence of IFRS on earnings management. This paper examines whether earnings management is reduced after IFRS adoption through the use of “loss avoidance thresholds”, a method that has been verified in earlier studies. This paper concentrates on two European countries: one that represents the continental code law tradition with weak protection of investors (France) and one that represents the Anglo-American common law tradition, which typically implies a strong enforcement system (the United Kingdom).
The research investigates a sample of 526 companies (6822 firm-year observations) during the years 2000 – 2013. The results are different for the two jurisdictions. This study demonstrates that a single set of accounting standards contributes to better reporting quality and reduces the pervasiveness of earnings management in France. In contrast, there is no evidence that a reduction in earnings management followed the implementation of IFRS in the United Kingdom. Due to the fact that IFRS benefit France but not the United Kingdom, other political and economic factors, such legal system or capital market strength, must play a significant role in influencing the comparability and transparency cross-border companies’ financial statements. Overall, the result suggests that IFRS moderately contribute to the accounting quality of reported financial statements and bring benefit for stakeholders, though the role played by other economic factors cannot be discounted.
Abstract: This paper examines economic and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) development influence on recently increasing Internet purchases by individuals for European Union member states. After a growing trend for Internet purchases in EU27 was noticed, all possible regression analysis was applied using nine independent variables in 2011. Finally, two linear regression models were studied in detail. Conducted simple linear regression analysis confirmed the research hypothesis that the Internet purchases in analyzed EU countries is positively correlated with statistically significant variable Gross Domestic Product per capita (GDPpc). Also, analyzed multiple linear regression model with four regressors, showing ICT development level, indicates that ICT development is crucial for explaining the Internet purchases by individuals, confirming the research hypothesis.
Abstract: Sixteen selected deep-sea fish obtained from Southern
Java Ocean and Western Sumatra Ocean was analyzed to determine
its proximate, fatty acid and mineral composition. The moisture
content was ranged from 64.38 to 86.04 %, ash from 0.17 to 0.69 %,
the fat content was 1.54 – 13.30 % while the protein content varied
from 15.84 to 23.60%. Among the fatty acids, oleic acid and palmitic
acid was the dominant MUFA and SFA. Linoleic acid was the
highest PUFA found at the selected deep-sea fish. Phospor was the
highest macroelement concentration on selected deep-sea fish,
followed by K, Ca, Mg and Iod, Fe and Zn among microelement. The
trace concentration was found at Se microelement.
Abstract: The alternative technique for sterilization of culture
medium to replace autoclaving was carried out. For sterilization of
culture medium without autoclaving, some commercial pure essential
oils, bergamot oil, betel oil, cinnamon oil, lavender oil and turmeric
oil, were tested alone or in combinations with some disinfectants,
10% povidone-iodine and 2% iodine + 2.4% potassium iodide. Each
essential oil or combination was added to 25-mL Murashige and
Skoog (MS) medium before medium was solidified in a 120-mL
container, kept for 2 weeks before evaluating sterile conditions.
Treated media, supplemented with essential oils, were compared to
control medium, autoclaved at 121 degree Celsius for 15 min. In
vitro sterile conditions were found 20 – 100% from these treated
media compared to 100% sterile condition from autoclaved medium.
Treated media obtained 100% sterile conditions were chosen for
culturing chrysanthemum shoots. It was found that 10% povidoneiodine
in combination with cinnamon oil (3:1) and 2% iodine + 2.4%
potassium iodide in combination with lavender oil (1:3) at the
concentration of 36 3L/25 mL medium provided the promising
growth of shoot explants.