Abstract: In any trust model, the two information sources that a peer relies on to predict trustworthiness of another peer are direct experience as well as reputation. These two vital components evolve over time. Trust evolution is an important issue, where the objective is to observe a sequence of past values of a trust parameter and determine the future estimates. Unfortunately, trust evolution algorithms received little attention and the proposed algorithms in the literature do not comply with the conditions and the nature of trust. This paper contributes to this important problem in the following ways: (a) presents an algorithm that manages and models trust evolution in a P2P environment, (b) devises new mechanisms for effectively maintaining trust values based on the conditions that influence trust evolution , and (c) introduces a new methodology for incorporating trust-nurture incentives into the trust evolution algorithm. Simulation experiments are carried out to evaluate our trust evolution algorithm.
Abstract: This paper explores the sense of place in the Vredefort Dome World Heritage site, South Africa, as an essential input for the formulation of spatial planning proposals for the area. Intangible aspects such as personal and symbolic meanings of sites are currently not integrated in spatial planning in South Africa. This may have a detrimental effect on local inhabitants who have a long history with the site and built up a strong place identity. Involving local inhabitants at an early stage of the planning process and incorporating their attitudes and opinions in future intervention in the area, may also contribute to the acceptance of the legitimacy of future policy. An interdisciplinary and mixed-method research approach was followed in this study in order to identify possible ways to anchor spatial planning proposals in the identity of the place. In essence, the qualitative study revealed that inhabitants reflect a deep and personal relationship with and within the area, which contributes significantly to their sense of emotional security and selfidentity. Results include a strong conservation-orientated attitude with regard to the natural rural character of the site, especially in the inner core.
Abstract: This paper presents the comparative study of coded
data methods for finding the benefit of concealing the natural data
which is the mercantile secret. Influential parameters of the number
of replicates (rep), treatment effects (τ) and standard deviation (σ)
against the efficiency of each transformation method are investigated.
The experimental data are generated via computer simulations under
the specified condition of the process with the completely
randomized design (CRD). Three ways of data transformation consist
of Box-Cox, arcsine and logit methods. The difference values of F
statistic between coded data and natural data (Fc-Fn) and hypothesis
testing results were determined. The experimental results indicate
that the Box-Cox results are significantly different from natural data
in cases of smaller levels of replicates and seem to be improper when
the parameter of minus lambda has been assigned. On the other hand,
arcsine and logit transformations are more robust and obviously,
provide more precise numerical results. In addition, the alternate
ways to select the lambda in the power transformation are also
offered to achieve much more appropriate outcomes.
Abstract: Solar power plants(SPPs) have shown a lot of good outcomes
in providing a various functions depending on industrial expectations by
deploying ad-hoc networking with helps of light loaded and battery powered
sensor nodes. In particular, it is strongly requested to develop an algorithm to
deriver the sensing data from the end node of solar power plants to the sink node
on time. In this paper, based on the above observation we have proposed an
IEEE802.15.4 based self routing scheme for solar power plants. The proposed
beacon based priority routing Algorithm (BPRA) scheme utilizes beacon
periods in sending message with embedding the high priority data and thus
provides high quality of service(QoS) in the given criteria. The performance
measures are the packet Throughput, delivery, latency, total energy
consumption. Simulation results under TinyOS Simulator(TOSSIM) have
shown the proposed scheme outcome the conventional Ad hoc On-Demand
Distance Vector(AODV) Routing in solar power plants.
Abstract: In the highly competitive and rapidly changing global
marketplace, independent organizations and enterprises often come
together and form a temporary alignment of virtual enterprise in a
supply chain to better provide products or service. As firms adopt the
systems approach implicit in supply chain management, they must
manage the quality from both internal process control and external
control of supplier quality and customer requirements. How to
incorporate quality management of upstream and downstream supply
chain partners into their own quality management system has recently
received a great deal of attention from both academic and practice.
This paper investigate the collaborative feature and the entities-
relationship in a supply chain, and presents an ontology of
collaborative supply chain from an approach of aligning
service-oriented framework with service-dominant logic. This
perspective facilitates the segregation of material flow management
from manufacturing capability management, which provides a
foundation for the coordination and integration of the business process
to measure, analyze, and continually improve the quality of products,
services, and process. Further, this approach characterizes the different
interests of supply chain partners, providing an innovative approach to
analyze the collaborative features of supply chain. Furthermore, this
ontology is the foundation to develop quality management system
which internalizes the quality management in upstream and
downstream supply chain partners and manages the quality in supply
chain systematically.
Abstract: In this paper we will develop a sequential life test approach applied to a modified low alloy-high strength steel part used in highway overpasses in Brazil.We will consider two possible underlying sampling distributions: the Normal and theInverse Weibull models. The minimum life will be considered equal to zero. We will use the two underlying models to analyze a fatigue life test situation, comparing the results obtained from both.Since a major chemical component of this low alloy-high strength steel part has been changed, there is little information available about the possible values that the parameters of the corresponding Normal and Inverse Weibull underlying sampling distributions could have. To estimate the shape and the scale parameters of these two sampling models we will use a maximum likelihood approach for censored failure data. We will also develop a truncation mechanism for the Inverse Weibull and Normal models. We will provide rules to truncate a sequential life testing situation making one of the two possible decisions at the moment of truncation; that is, accept or reject the null hypothesis H0. An example will develop the proposed truncated sequential life testing approach for the Inverse Weibull and Normal models.
Abstract: Over the years, there is a growing trend towards
quality-based specifications in highway construction. In many
Quality Control/Quality Assurance (QC/QA) specifications, the
contractor is primarily responsible for quality control of the process,
whereas the highway agency is responsible for testing the acceptance
of the product. A cooperative investigation was conducted in Illinois
over several years to develop a prototype End-Result Specification
(ERS) for asphalt pavement construction. The final characteristics of
the product are stipulated in the ERS and the contractor is given
considerable freedom in achieving those characteristics. The risk for
the contractor or agency depends on how the acceptance limits and
processes are specified. Stochastic simulation models are very useful
in estimating and analyzing payment risk in ERS systems and these
form an integral part of the Illinois-s prototype ERS system. This
paper describes the development of an innovative methodology to
estimate the variability components in in-situ density, air voids and
asphalt content data from ERS projects. The information gained from
this would be crucial in simulating these ERS projects for estimation
and analysis of payment risks associated with asphalt pavement
construction. However, these methods require at least two parties to
conduct tests on all the split samples obtained according to the
sampling scheme prescribed in present ERS implemented in Illinois.
Abstract: A key element of many distribution systems is the
routing and scheduling of vehicles servicing a set of customers. A
wide variety of exact and approximate algorithms have been
proposed for solving the vehicle routing problems (VRP). Exact
algorithms can only solve relatively small problems of VRP, which is
classified as NP-Hard. Several approximate algorithms have proven
successful in finding a feasible solution not necessarily optimum.
Although different parts of the problem are stochastic in nature; yet,
limited work relevant to the application of discrete event system
simulation has addressed the problem. Presented here is optimization
using simulation of VRP; where, a simplified problem has been
developed in the ExtendSimTM simulation environment; where,
ExtendSimTM evolutionary optimizer is used to minimize the total
transportation cost of the problem. Results obtained from the model
are very satisfactory. Further complexities of the problem are
proposed for consideration in the future.
Abstract: Deoxyribonucleic Acid or DNA computing has
emerged as an interdisciplinary field that draws together chemistry,
molecular biology, computer science and mathematics. Thus, in this
paper, the possibility of DNA-based computing to solve an absolute
1-center problem by molecular manipulations is presented. This is
truly the first attempt to solve such a problem by DNA-based
computing approach. Since, part of the procedures involve with
shortest path computation, research works on DNA computing for
shortest path Traveling Salesman Problem, in short, TSP are reviewed.
These approaches are studied and only the appropriate one is adapted
in designing the computation procedures. This DNA-based
computation is designed in such a way that every path is encoded by
oligonucleotides and the path-s length is directly proportional to the
length of oligonucleotides. Using these properties, gel electrophoresis
is performed in order to separate the respective DNA molecules
according to their length. One expectation arise from this paper is that
it is possible to verify the instance absolute 1-center problem using
DNA computing by laboratory experiments.
Abstract: The Internet and the ever growing applications enable
communities to share and collaborate through common platforms.
However, this growing pattern is not witnessed yet even for elearning.
This paper is based on a doctoral research which aimed at
researching the ways students interact in an online campus and the
supports that they look for and require. Content analysis, based on the
Panchoo/Jaillet methodology, was done on four synchronous
meetings between a tutor and his ten students. The UNIV-Rct ecampus,
analogical to a physical campus, was found to be user
friendly and the students enrolled in a master-s course faced no
difficulties in using it. In addition to the environmental aspects, the
pedagogical implementation of the course has driven the students to
interact and collaborate significantly and this has contributed to
overcome the problems faced by the distance learners. This
completely online model was found to be fruitful in helping distant
learners fight their loneliness and brave their difficulties in a socioconstructivism
approach.
Abstract: In this paper, we propose use of convolutional codes
for file dispersal. The proposed method is comparable in complexity
to the information Dispersal Algorithm proposed by M.Rabin and for
particular choices of (non-binary) convolutional codes, is almost as
efficient as that algorithm in terms of controlling expansion in the
total storage. Further, our proposed dispersal method allows string
search.
Abstract: This paper aims to present a framework for the
organizational knowledge management, which seeks to deploy a
standardized structure for the integrated management of knowledge is
a common language based on domains, processes and global
indicators inspired by the COBIT framework 5 (ISACA, 2012),
which supports the integration of three technologies, enterprise
information architecture (EIA), the business process modeling (BPM)
and service-oriented architecture (SOA). The Gomak Framework is a
management platform that seeks to integrate the information
technology infrastructure, the structure of applications, information
infrastructure, and business logic and business model to support a
sound strategy of organizational knowledge management, low
process-based approach and concurrent engineering. Concurrent
engineering (CE) is a systematic approach to integrated product
development that respond to customer expectations, involving all
perspectives in parallel, from the beginning of the product life cycle.
(European Space Agency, 2000).
Abstract: In this paper, we first introduce the new concept of completely semiprime fuzzy ideals of an ordered semigroup S, which is an extension of completely semiprime ideals of ordered semigroup S, and investigate some its related properties. Especially, we characterize an ordered semigroup that is a semilattice of simple ordered semigroups in terms of completely semiprime fuzzy ideals of ordered semigroups. Furthermore, we introduce the notion of semiprime fuzzy ideals of ordered semigroup S and establish the relations between completely semiprime fuzzy ideals and semiprime fuzzy ideals of S. Finally, we give a characterization of prime fuzzy ideals of an ordered semigroup S and show that a nonconstant fuzzy ideal f of an ordered semigroup S is prime if and only if f is twovalued, and max{f(a), f(b)} = inf f((aSb]), ∀a, b ∈ S.
Abstract: An acoustic emission (AE) technique is useful for
detection of partial discharges (PDs) at a joint and a terminal section of
a cross-linked polyethylene (XLPE) cable. For AE technique, it is not
difficult to detect a PD using AE sensors. However, it is difficult to
grasp whether the detected AE signal is owing to a single discharge or
not. Additionally, when an AE technique is applied at a terminal
section of a XLPE cable in salt pollution district, for example, there is
possibility of detection of AE signals owing to creeping discharges on
the surface of electric power apparatus. In this study, we evaluated AE
signals in order to grasp what kind of information we can get from
detected AE signals. The results showed that envelop detection of AE
signal and a period which some AE signals were continuously detected
were good indexes for estimating state-of-discharge.
Abstract: This paper presents a new Hybrid Fuzzy (HF) PID type controller based on Genetic Algorithms (GA-s) for solution of the Automatic generation Control (AGC) problem in a deregulated electricity environment. In order for a fuzzy rule based control system to perform well, the fuzzy sets must be carefully designed. A major problem plaguing the effective use of this method is the difficulty of accurately constructing the membership functions, because it is a computationally expensive combinatorial optimization problem. On the other hand, GAs is a technique that emulates biological evolutionary theories to solve complex optimization problems by using directed random searches to derive a set of optimal solutions. For this reason, the membership functions are tuned automatically using a modified GA-s based on the hill climbing method. The motivation for using the modified GA-s is to reduce fuzzy system effort and take large parametric uncertainties into account. The global optimum value is guaranteed using the proposed method and the speed of the algorithm-s convergence is extremely improved, too. This newly developed control strategy combines the advantage of GA-s and fuzzy system control techniques and leads to a flexible controller with simple stricture that is easy to implement. The proposed GA based HF (GAHF) controller is tested on a threearea deregulated power system under different operating conditions and contract variations. The results of the proposed GAHF controller are compared with those of Multi Stage Fuzzy (MSF) controller, robust mixed H2/H∞ and classical PID controllers through some performance indices to illustrate its robust performance for a wide range of system parameters and load changes.
Abstract: The drastic increase in the usage of SMS technology
has led service providers to seek for a solution that enable users of
mobile devices to access services through SMSs. This has resulted in
the proposal of solutions towards SMS-based service invocation in
service oriented environments. However, the dynamic nature of
service-oriented environments coupled with sudden load peaks
generated by service request, poses performance challenges to
infrastructures for supporting SMS-based service invocation. To
address this problem we adopt load balancing techniques. A load
balancing model with adaptive load balancing and load monitoring
mechanisms as its key constructs is proposed. The load balancing
model then led to realization of Least Loaded Load Balancing
Framework (LLLBF). Evaluation of LLLBF benchmarked with round
robin (RR) scheme on the queuing approach showed LLLBF
outperformed RR in terms of response time and throughput.
However, LLLBF achieved better result in the cost of high
processing power.
Abstract: This study aims to investigate empirically the valuerelevance
of accounting information to domestic investors in Tehran
stock exchange from 1999 to 2006. During the present research
impacts of two factors, including positive vs. negative earnings and
the firm size are considered as well. The authors used earnings per
share and annual change of earnings per share as the income
statement indices, and book value of equity per share as the balance
sheet index. Return and Price models through regression analysis are
deployed in order to test the research hypothesis. Results depicted
that accounting information is value-relevance to domestic investors
in Tehran Stock Exchange according to both studied models.
However, income statement information has more value-relevance
than the balance sheet information. Furthermore, positive vs. negative
earnings and firm size seems to have significant impact on valuerelevance
of accounting information.
Abstract: The development of the power electronics has allowed
increasing the precision and reliability of the electrical trainings,
thanks to the adjustable inverters, as the Pulse Wide Modulation
(PWM) five level inverters, which is the object of study in this
article.The authors treat the relation between the law order adopted for
a given system and the oscillations of the electrical and mechanical
parameters of which the tolerance depends on the process with which
they are integrated (paper factory, lifting of the heavy loads,
etc.).Thus the best choice of the regulation indexes allows us to
achieve stability and safety training without investment (management
of existing equipment).
Abstract: As is needless to say; a majority of accidents, which occur, are due to drunk driving. As such, there is no effective mechanism to prevent this. Here we have designed an integrated system for the same purpose. Alcohol content in the driver-s body is detected by means of an infrared breath analyzer placed at the steering wheel. An infrared cell directs infrared energy through the sample and any unabsorbed energy at the other side is detected. The higher the concentration of ethanol, the more infrared absorption occurs (in much the same way that a sunglass lens absorbs visible light, alcohol absorbs infrared light). Thus the alcohol level of the driver is continuously monitored and calibrated on a scale. When it exceeds a particular limit the fuel supply is cutoff. If the device is removed also, the fuel supply will be automatically cut off or an alarm is sounded depending upon the requirement. This does not happen abruptly and special indicators are fixed at the back to avoid inconvenience to other drivers using the highway signals. Frame work for integration of sensors and control module in a scalable multi-agent system is provided .A SMS which contains the current GPS location of the vehicle is sent via a GSM module to the police control room to alert the police. The system is foolproof and the driver cannot tamper with it easily. Thus it provides an effective and cost effective solution for the problem of drunk driving in vehicles.
Abstract: In this paper, a class of impulsive BAM fuzzy cellular neural networks with time delays in the leakage terms is formulated and investigated. By establishing a delay differential inequality and M-matrix theory, some sufficient conditions ensuring the existence, uniqueness and global exponential stability of equilibrium point for impulsive BAM fuzzy cellular neural networks with time delays in the leakage terms are obtained. In particular, a precise estimate of the exponential convergence rate is also provided, which depends on system parameters and impulsive perturbation intention. It is believed that these results are significant and useful for the design and applications of BAM fuzzy cellular neural networks. An example is given to show the effectiveness of the results obtained here.