Abstract: Positioning the organization in the strategic
environment of its industry is one of the first and most important
phases of the organizational strategic planning and in today
knowledge-based economy has its importance been duplicated for
higher education institutes as the centers of education, knowledge
creation and knowledge worker training. Up to now, various models
with diverse approaches have been applied to investigate
organizations- strategic position in different industries. Regarding the
essential importance and strategic role of quality in higher education
institutes, in this study, a quality-oriented approach has been
suggested to positioning them in their strategic environment. Then
the European Foundation of Quality Management (EFQM) model has
been adopted to position the top Iranian business schools in their
strategic environment. The result of this study can be used in strategic
planning of these institutes as well as the other Iranian business
schools.
Abstract: Bioprocesses are appreciated as difficult to control because their dynamic behavior is highly nonlinear and time varying, in particular, when they are operating in fed batch mode. The research objective of this study was to develop an appropriate control method for a complex bioprocess and to implement it on a laboratory plant. Hence, an intelligent control structure has been designed in order to produce biomass and to maximize the specific growth rate.
Abstract: Traditional multivariate control charts assume that measurement from manufacturing processes follows a multivariate normal distribution. However, this assumption may not hold or may be difficult to verify because not all the measurement from manufacturing processes are normal distributed in practice. This study develops a new multivariate control chart for monitoring the processes with non-normal data. We propose a mechanism based on integrating the one-class classification method and the adaptive technique. The adaptive technique is used to improve the sensitivity to small shift on one-class classification in statistical process control. In addition, this design provides an easy way to allocate the value of type I error so it is easier to be implemented. Finally, the simulation study and the real data from industry are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the propose control charts.
Abstract: The simple methods used to plan and measure non
patterned production system are developed from the basic definition
of working efficiency. Processing time is assigned as the variable
and used to write the equation of production efficiency.
Consequently, such equation is extensively used to develop the
planning method for production of interest using one-dimensional
stock cutting problem. The application of the developed method
shows that production efficiency and production planning can be
determined effectively.
Abstract: Infrared communication in the wavelength band 780-
950 nm is very suitable for short-range point-to-point communications.
It is a good choice for vehicle-to-vehicle communication in several
intelligent-transportation-system (ITS) applications such as cooperative
driving, collision warning, and pileup-crash prevention. In this
paper, with the aid of a physical model established in our previous
works, we explore the communication area of an infrared intervehicle
communication system utilizing a typical low-cost cormmercial lightemitting
diodes (LEDs) as the emitter and planar p-i-n photodiodes
as the receiver. The radiation pattern of the emitter fabricated by
aforementioned LEDs and the receiving pattern of the receiver are
approximated by a linear combination of cosinen functions. This
approximation helps us analyze the system performance easily. Both
multilane straight-road conditions and curved-road conditions with
various radius of curvature are taken into account. The condition of
a small car communicating with a big truck, i.e., there is a vertical
mounting height difference between the emitter and the receiver, is
also considered. Our results show that the performance of the system
meets the requirement of aforementioned ITS applications in terms
of the communication area.
Abstract: The problem of complex use of water resources in
Central Asia by taking into consideration the sovereignty of the states
and increasing demand on use of water for economic aspects are
considered. Complex program with appropriate mathematical
software intended for calculation of possible variants of using the
Amudarya up-stream water resources according to satisfaction of
incompatible requirements of the national economics in irrigation
and energy generation is proposed.
Abstract: A numerical study is presented on convective heat transfer in enclosures. The results are addressed to automotive headlights containing new-age light sources like Light Emitting Diodes (LED). The heat transfer from the heat source (LED) to the enclosure walls is investigated for mixed convection as interaction of the forced convection flow from an inlet and an outlet port and the natural convection at the heat source. Unlike existing studies, inlet and outlet port are thermally coupled and do not serve to remove hot fluid. The input power of the heat source is expressed by the Rayleigh number. The internal position of the heat source, the aspect ratio of the enclosure, and the inclination angle of one wall are varied. The results are given in terms of the global Nusselt number and the enclosure Nusselt number that characterize the heat transfer from the source and from the interior fluid to the enclosure walls, respectively. It is found that the heat transfer from the source to the fluid can be maximized if the source is placed in the main stream from the inlet to the outlet port. In this case, the Reynolds number and heat source position have the major impact on the heat transfer. A disadvantageous position has been found where natural and forced convection compete each other. The overall heat transfer from the source to the wall increases with increasing Reynolds number as well as with increasing aspect ratio and decreasing inclination angle. The heat transfer from the interior fluid to the enclosure wall increases upon decreasing the aspect ratio and increasing the inclination angle. This counteracting behaviour is caused by the variation of the area of the enclosure wall. All mixed convection results are compared to the natural convection limit.
Abstract: In this paper, we introduce a new method for elliptical
object identification. The proposed method adopts a hybrid scheme
which consists of Eigen values of covariance matrices, Circular
Hough transform and Bresenham-s raster scan algorithms. In this
approach we use the fact that the large Eigen values and small Eigen
values of covariance matrices are associated with the major and minor
axial lengths of the ellipse. The centre location of the ellipse can be
identified using circular Hough transform (CHT). Sparse matrix
technique is used to perform CHT. Since sparse matrices squeeze zero
elements and contain a small number of nonzero elements they
provide an advantage of matrix storage space and computational time.
Neighborhood suppression scheme is used to find the valid Hough
peaks. The accurate position of circumference pixels is identified
using raster scan algorithm which uses the geometrical symmetry
property. This method does not require the evaluation of tangents or
curvature of edge contours, which are generally very sensitive to
noise working conditions. The proposed method has the advantages of
small storage, high speed and accuracy in identifying the feature. The
new method has been tested on both synthetic and real images.
Several experiments have been conducted on various images with
considerable background noise to reveal the efficacy and robustness.
Experimental results about the accuracy of the proposed method,
comparisons with Hough transform and its variants and other
tangential based methods are reported.
Abstract: This paper presents the results of an analytical study
on the seismic response of a Multi-Span-Simply-Supported precast
bridge in Washington State. The bridge was built in the early 1960's
along Interstate 5 and was widened the first time in 1979 and the
second time in 2001. The primary objective of this research project
is to determine the seismic vulnerability of the bridge in order to
develop the required retrofit measure. The seismic vulnerability of
the bridge is evaluated using two seismic evaluation methods
presented in the FHWA Seismic Retrofitting Manual for Highway
Bridges, Method C and Method D2. The results of the seismic
analyses demonstrate that Method C and Method D2 vary markedly
in terms of the information they provide to the bridge designer
regarding the vulnerability of the bridge columns.
Abstract: Business rules and data warehouse are concepts and
technologies that impact a wide variety of organizational tasks. In
general, each area has evolved independently, impacting application
development and decision-making. Generating knowledge from data
warehouse is a complex process. This paper outlines an approach to
ease import of information and knowledge from a data warehouse
star schema through an inference class of business rules. The paper
utilizes the Oracle database for illustrating the working of the
concepts. The star schema structure and the business rules are stored
within a relational database. The approach is explained through a
prototype in Oracle-s PL/SQL Server Pages.
Abstract: This paper proposes a simple model of economic geography within the Dixit-Stiglitz-Iceberg framework that may be used to analyze migration patterns among three cities. The cost–benefit tradeoffs affecting incentives for three types of migration, including echelon migration, are discussed. This paper develops a tractable, heterogeneous-agent, general equilibrium model, where agents share constant human capital, and explores the relationship between the benefits of echelon migration and gross human capital. Using Chinese numerical solutions, we study the manifestation of echelon migration and how it responds to changes in transportation cost and elasticity of substitution. Numerical results demonstrate that (i) there are positive relationships between a migration-s benefit-and-wage ratio, (ii) there are positive relationships between gross human capital ratios and wage ratios as to origin and destination, and (iii) we identify 13 varieties of human capital convergence among cities. In particular, this model predicts population shock resulting from the processes of migration choice and echelon migration.
Abstract: The spores of entomopathogenic fungi, Beauveria bassiana was evaluated for their compatibility with four surfactants; SDS (sodium dodyl sulphate) and CABS-65 (calcium alkyl benzene sulphonate), Tween 20 (polyethylene sorbitan monolaureate) and Tween 80 (polyoxyethylene sorbitan monoleate) at six different concentrations (0.1%, 0.5%, 1%, 2.5%, 5% and 10%). Incubated spores showed decrease in concentrations due to conversion of spores to hyphae. The maximum germination recorded in 72 h incubated spores varied with surfactant concentration at 49-68% (SDS), 39- 53% (CABS), 78-92% (Tween 80) and 80-92% (Tween 20), while the optimal surfactant concentration for spore germination was found to be 2.5-5%. The surfactant effect on spores was more pronounced with SDS and CABS-65, where significant deterioration and loss in viability of the incubated spores was observed. The effect of Tween 20 and Tween 80 were comparatively less inhibiting. The results of the study would help in surfactant selection for B. bassiana emulsion preparation.
Abstract: Data stream analysis is the process of computing
various summaries and derived values from large amounts of data
which are continuously generated at a rapid rate. The nature of a
stream does not allow a revisit on each data element. Furthermore,
data processing must be fast to produce timely analysis results. These
requirements impose constraints on the design of the algorithms to
balance correctness against timely responses. Several techniques
have been proposed over the past few years to address these
challenges. These techniques can be categorized as either dataoriented
or task-oriented. The data-oriented approach analyzes a
subset of data or a smaller transformed representation, whereas taskoriented
scheme solves the problem directly via approximation
techniques. We propose a hybrid approach to tackle the data stream
analysis problem. The data stream has been both statistically
transformed to a smaller size and computationally approximated its
characteristics. We adopt a Monte Carlo method in the approximation
step. The data reduction has been performed horizontally and
vertically through our EMR sampling method. The proposed method
is analyzed by a series of experiments. We apply our algorithm on
clustering and classification tasks to evaluate the utility of our
approach.
Abstract: Sorting appears the most attention among all computational tasks over the past years because sorted data is at the heart of many computations. Sorting is of additional importance to parallel computing because of its close relation to the task of routing data among processes, which is an essential part of many parallel algorithms. Many parallel sorting algorithms have been investigated for a variety of parallel computer architectures. In this paper, three parallel sorting algorithms have been implemented and compared in terms of their overall execution time. The algorithms implemented are the odd-even transposition sort, parallel merge sort and parallel rank sort. Cluster of Workstations or Windows Compute Cluster has been used to compare the algorithms implemented. The C# programming language is used to develop the sorting algorithms. The MPI (Message Passing Interface) library has been selected to establish the communication and synchronization between processors. The time complexity for each parallel sorting algorithm will also be mentioned and analyzed.
Abstract: The efficiency of chitosan beads processed from 4
marine animal shells; white leg shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei), mud
crab (Scylla sp.), horseshoe crab (Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda),
and cuttlefish bone (Sepia sp.), for the adsorption experiments of
ammonia and formaldehyde were investigated. The porosities of
chitosan from the shells looked like beads were distinctly examined
under SEM. The original pores of those shells on the surface areas
compose of evenly fine pores. The shell beads of cuttlefish bone and
horseshoe crab show the larger probably even porosity, while on
those white leg shrimp and mud crab contain various large and fine
pores. The best adsorption at pH 9 in 18 mg/l ammonia at 2 hours
yield on cuttlefish bone, horseshoe crab, mud crab and white leg
shrimp with the average percent of 59.12, 51.45, 45.66 and 43.52,
respectively. Within 30 minutes the formaldehyde absorbers (at pH 5
in 8 μg/ml) revealed 46.27, 26.56, and 18.04 percent capacities in
cuttlefish bone, mud crab and white leg shrimp beads; while 22.44
percent in the horseshoe crab at pH 7. The adsorption capacities and
the amounts of beads showed a positive correlation. The adsorption
capacity relationship between pH and the gas concentrations were
affected by these qualities of chitosan beads.
Abstract: The regional innovative competitiveness is an integrating characteristic of the innovative sphere of the region. It depends on a big variety of different parameters connected with all kinds of economic entities- activities. But management parameters shouldn't be irregular, so in order to avoid it, an institutional system should be formed. This system should carry out strategic management of factors having the greatest influence on the region's innovative development. This article is devoted to different aspects of organization of the region's development institutional mechanism, which is based on management of regional innovative competitiveness parameters. The base of the analysis is innovatively-active Russian regions which were compared according to the level of the innovative competitiveness. After that the most important parameters of successful innovative development of the region were revealed with the help of the correlation-regression analysis. The results of the research could be used for investigation of the region's innovative policy.
Abstract: This paper presents Faults Forecasting System (FFS)
that utilizes statistical forecasting techniques in analyzing process
variables data in order to forecast faults occurrences. FFS is
proposing new idea in detecting faults. Current techniques used in
faults detection are based on analyzing the current status of the
system variables in order to check if the current status is fault or not.
FFS is using forecasting techniques to predict future timing for faults
before it happens. Proposed model is applying subset modeling
strategy and Bayesian approach in order to decrease dimensionality
of the process variables and improve faults forecasting accuracy. A
practical experiment, designed and implemented in Okayama
University, Japan, is implemented, and the comparison shows that
our proposed model is showing high forecasting accuracy and
BEFORE-TIME.
Abstract: Wavelet transform provides several important
characteristics which can be used in a texture analysis and
classification. In this work, an efficient texture classification method,
which combines concepts from wavelet and co-occurrence matrices,
is presented. An Euclidian distance classifier is used to evaluate the
various methods of classification. A comparative study is essential to
determine the ideal method. Using this conjecture, we developed a
novel feature set for texture classification and demonstrate its
effectiveness
Abstract: In this paper, supply policy and procurement of
shared resources in some kinds of concurrent construction projects
are investigated. This could be oriented to the problems of holding
construction companies who involve in different projects
concurrently and they have to supply limited resources to several
projects as well as prevent delays to any project. Limits on
transportation vehicles and storage facilities for potential
construction materials and also the available resources (such as cash
or manpower) are some of the examples which affect considerably on
management of all projects over all. The research includes
investigation of some real multi-storey buildings during their
execution periods and surveying the history of the activities. It is
shown that the common resource demand variation curve of the
projects may be expanded or displaced to achieve an optimum
distribution scheme. Of course, it may cause some delay to some
projects, but it has minimum influence on whole execution period of
all projects and its influence on procurement cost of the projects is
considerable. These observations on investigation of some
multistorey building which are built in Iran will be presented in this
paper.
Abstract: This paper presents a new spread-spectrum
watermarking algorithm for digital images in discrete wavelet
transform (DWT) domain. The algorithm is applied for embedding
watermarks like patient identification /source identification or
doctors signature in binary image format into host digital
radiological image for potential telemedicine applications.
Performance of the algorithm is analysed by varying the gain factor,
subband decomposition levels, and size of watermark. Simulation
results show that the proposed method achieves higher watermarking
capacity.