Abstract: Technology changes have been acknowledged as a
critical factor in determining competitiveness of organization. Under
such environment, the right anticipation of technology change has
been of huge importance in strategic planning. To monitor technology
change, technology forecasting (TF) is frequently utilized. In
academic perspective, TF has received great attention for a long time.
However, few researches have been conducted to provide overview of
the TF literature. Even though some studies deals with review of TF
research, they generally focused on type and characteristics of various
TF, so hardly provides information about patterns of TF research and
which TF method is used in certain technology industry. Accordingly,
this study profile developments in and patterns of scholarly research in
TF over time. Also, this study investigates which technology
industries have used certain TF method and identifies their
relationships. This study will help in understanding TF research trend
and their application area.
Abstract: This paper identifies five key design characteristics of
production scheduling software systems in printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturing. The authors consider that, in addition to an effective scheduling engine, a scheduling system should be able to
process a preventative maintenance calendar, to give the user the
flexibility to handle data using a variety of electronic sources, to run
simulations to support decision-making, and to have simple and
customisable graphical user interfaces. These design considerations
were the result of a review of academic literature, the evaluation of
commercial applications and a compilation of requirements of a PCB manufacturer. It was found that, from those systems that were evaluated, those that effectively addressed all five characteristics
outlined in this paper were the most robust of all and could be used in
PCB manufacturing.
Abstract: The zero inflated models are usually used in modeling
count data with excess zeros where the existence of the excess zeros
could be structural zeros or zeros which occur by chance. These type
of data are commonly found in various disciplines such as finance,
insurance, biomedical, econometrical, ecology, and health sciences
which involve sex and health dental epidemiology. The most popular
zero inflated models used by many researchers are zero inflated
Poisson and zero inflated negative binomial models. In addition, zero
inflated generalized Poisson and zero inflated double Poisson models
are also discussed and found in some literature. Recently zero
inflated inverse trinomial model and zero inflated strict arcsine
models are advocated and proven to serve as alternative models in
modeling overdispersed count data caused by excessive zeros and
unobserved heterogeneity. The purpose of this paper is to review
some related literature and provide a variety of examples from
different disciplines in the application of zero inflated models.
Different model selection methods used in model comparison are
discussed.
Abstract: This paper presents the review of past studies
concerning mathematical models for rescheduling passenger railway
services, as part of delay management in the occurrence of railway
disruption. Many past mathematical models highlighted were aimed
at minimizing the service delays experienced by passengers during
service disruptions. Integer programming (IP) and mixed-integer
programming (MIP) models are critically discussed, focusing on the
model approach, decision variables, sets and parameters. Some of
them have been tested on real-life data of railway companies
worldwide, while a few have been validated on fictive data. Based
on selected literatures on train rescheduling, this paper is able to
assist researchers in the model formulation by providing
comprehensive analyses towards the model building. These analyses
would be able to help in the development of new approaches in
rescheduling strategies or perhaps to enhance the existing
rescheduling models and make them more powerful or more
applicable with shorter computing time.
Abstract: The increasingly sophisticated technologies have now been able to provide assistance for surgeons to improve surgical
performance through various training programs. Equally important to learning skills is the assessment method as it determines the learning and technical proficiency of a trainee. A consistent and
rigorous assessment system will ensure that trainees acquire the specific level of competency prior to certification. This paper
reviews the methods currently in use for assessment of surgical
skill and some modern techniques using computer-based
measurements and virtual reality systems for more quantitative
measurements
Abstract: Rapid prototyping (RP) techniques are a group of
advanced manufacturing processes that can produce custom made
objects directly from computer data such as Computer Aided Design
(CAD), Computed Tomography (CT) and Magnetic Resonance
Imaging (MRI) data. Using RP fabrication techniques, constructs
with controllable and complex internal architecture with appropriate
mechanical properties can be achieved. One of the attractive and
promising utilization of RP techniques is related to tissue engineering
(TE) scaffold fabrication. Tissue engineering scaffold is a 3D
construction that acts as a template for tissue regeneration. Although
several conventional techniques such as solvent casting and gas
forming are utilized in scaffold fabrication; these processes show
poor interconnectivity and uncontrollable porosity of the produced
scaffolds. So, RP techniques become the best alternative fabrication
methods of TE scaffolds. This paper reviews the current state of the
art in the area of tissue engineering scaffolds fabrication using
advanced RP processes, as well as the current limitations and future
trends in scaffold fabrication RP techniques.
Abstract: Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) initially introduced
during WW-II, has revolutionized the world with its numerous
benefits and plethora of implementations in diverse areas ranging
from manufacturing to agriculture to healthcare to hotel management.
This work reviews the current research in this area with emphasis
on applications for supply chain management and to develop a
taxonomic framework to classify literature which will enable swift
and easy content analysis and also help identify areas for future
research.
Abstract: Social interest and demand on Home-Network has
been increasing greatly. Although various services are being
introduced to respond to such demands, they can cause serious
security problems when linked to the open network such as Internet.
This paper reviews the security requirements to protect the service
users with assumption that the Home-Network environment is
connected to Internet and then proposes the security model based on
the requirement. The proposed security model can satisfy most of the
requirements and further can be dynamically applied to the future
ubiquitous Home-Networks.
Abstract: The importance of inter-organizational system (IOS)
has been increasingly recognized by organizations. However, IOS
adoption has proved to be difficult and, at this stage, why this is so is
not fully uncovered. In practice, benefits have often remained
concentrated, primarily accruing to the dominant party, resulting in
low rates of adoption and usage, and often culminating in the failure
of the IOS. The main research question is why organizations initiate
or join IOS and what factors influence their adoption and use levels.
This paper reviews the literature on IOS adoption and proposes a
theoretical framework in order to identify the critical factors to
capture a complete picture of IOS adoption. With our proposed
critical factors, we are able to investigate their relative contributions
to IOS adoption decisions. We obtain findings that suggested that
there are five groups of factors that significantly affect the adoption
and use decision of IOS in the Supply Chain Management (SCM)
context: 1) interorganizational context, 2) organizational context, 3)
technological context, 4) perceived costs, and 5) perceived benefits.
Abstract: MABENA model is a complementary model in
comparison with traditional models such as HCMS, CMS and etc.
New factors, which have effects on preparation of strategic plans and
their sequential order in MABENA model is the platform of
presented road map in this paper.Study review shows, factors such as
emerging new critical success factors for strategic planning,
improvement of international strategic models, increasing the
maturity of companies and emerging new needs leading to design a
new model which can be responsible for new critical factors and
solve the limitations of previous strategic management models.
Preparation of strategic planning need more factors than introduced
in traditional models. The needed factors includes determining future
Critical Success Factors and competencies, defining key processes,
determining the maturity of the processes, considering all aspects of
the external environment etc. Description of aforementioned
requirements, the outcomes and their order is developing and
presenting the MABENA model-s road map in this paper. This study
presents a road map for strategic planning of the Iranian
organizations.
Abstract: Possible advantages of technology in educational
context required the defining boundaries of formal and informal
learning. Increasing opportunity to ubiquitous learning by
technological support has revealed a question of how to discover
the potential of individuals in the spontaneous environments such as
social networks. This seems to be related with the question of what
purposes in social networks have been being used? Social networks
provide various advantages in educational context as collaboration,
knowledge sharing, common interests, active participation and
reflective thinking. As a consequence of these, the purpose of this
study is composed of proposing a new model that could determine
factors which effect adoption of social network applications for usage
in educational context. While developing a model proposal, the
existing adoption and diffusion models have been reviewed and they
are thought to be suitable on handling an original perspective instead
of using completely other diffusion or acceptance models because of
different natures of education from other organizations. In the
proposed model; social factors, perceived ease of use, perceived
usefulness and innovativeness are determined four direct constructs
that effect adoption process. Facilitating conditions, image,
subjective norms and community identity are incorporated to model
as antecedents of these direct four constructs.
Abstract: Perishable goods constitute a large portion of retailer inventory and lose value with time due to deterioration and/or obsolescence. Retailers dealing with such goods required considering the factors of short shelf life and the dependency of sales on inventory displayed in determining optimal procurement policy. Many retailers follow the practice of using two bins - primary bin sales fresh items at a list price and secondary bin sales unsold items at a discount price transferred from primary bin on attaining certain age. In this paper, mathematical models are developed for primary bin and for secondary bin that maximizes profit with decision variables of order quantities, optimal review period and optimal selling price at secondary bin. The demand rates in two bins are assumed to be deterministic and dependent on displayed inventory level, price and age but independent of each other. The validity of the model is shown by solving an example and the sensitivity analysis of the model is also reported.
Abstract: With the rapid growth in business size, today's businesses orient towards electronic technologies. Amazon.com and e-bay.com are some of the major stakeholders in this regard. Unfortunately the enormous size and hugely unstructured data on the web, even for a single commodity, has become a cause of ambiguity for consumers. Extracting valuable information from such an everincreasing data is an extremely tedious task and is fast becoming critical towards the success of businesses. Web content mining can play a major role in solving these issues. It involves using efficient algorithmic techniques to search and retrieve the desired information from a seemingly impossible to search unstructured data on the Internet. Application of web content mining can be very encouraging in the areas of Customer Relations Modeling, billing records, logistics investigations, product cataloguing and quality management. In this paper we present a review of some very interesting, efficient yet implementable techniques from the field of web content mining and study their impact in the area specific to business user needs focusing both on the customer as well as the producer. The techniques we would be reviewing include, mining by developing a knowledge-base repository of the domain, iterative refinement of user queries for personalized search, using a graphbased approach for the development of a web-crawler and filtering information for personalized search using website captions. These techniques have been analyzed and compared on the basis of their execution time and relevance of the result they produced against a particular search.
Abstract: Natural disasters, including earthquake, kill many people around the world every year. Society rescue actions, which start after the earthquake and are called LAST in abbreviation, include locating, access, stabilization and transportation. In the present article, we have studied the process of local accessibility to the injured and transporting them to health care centers. With regard the heavy traffic load due to earthquake, the destruction of connecting roads and bridges and the heavy debris in alleys and street, which put the lives of the injured and the people buried under the debris in danger, accelerating the rescue actions and facilitating the accessibilities are of great importance, obviously. Tehran, the capital of Iran, is among the crowded cities in the world and is the center of extensive economic, political, cultural and social activities. Tehran has a population of about 9.5 millions and because of the immigration of people from the surrounding cities. Furthermore, considering the fact that Tehran is located on two important and large faults, a 6 Richter magnitude earthquake in this city could lead to the greatest catastrophe during the entire human history. The present study is a kind of review and a major part of the required information for it, has been obtained from libraries all of the rescue vehicles around the world, including rescue helicopters, ambulances, fire fighting vehicles and rescue boats, and their applied technology, and also the robots specifically designed for the rescue system and the advantages and disadvantages of them, have been investigated. The studies show that there is a significant relationship between the rescue team-s arrival time at the incident zone and the number of saved people; so that, if the duration of burial under debris 30 minutes, the probability of survival is %99.3, after a day is %81, after 2days is %19 and after 5days is %7.4. The exiting transport systems all have some defects. If these defects are removed, more people could be saved each hour and the preparedness against natural disasters is increased. In this study, transport system has been designed for the rescue team and the injured; which could carry the rescue team to the incident zone and the injured to the health care centers. In addition, this system is able to fly in the air and move on the earth as well; so that the destruction of roads and the heavy traffic load could not prevent the rescue team from arriving early at the incident zone. The system also has the equipment required firebird for debris removing, optimum transport of the injured and first aid.
Abstract: Magnetic Nanoparticles (MNPs) have great potential
to overcome many of the shortcomings of the present diagnostic and
therapeutic approaches used in cancer diagnosis and treatment. This
Literature review discusses the use of Magnetic Nanoparticles
focusing mainly on Iron oxide based MNPs in cancer imaging using
MRI.
Abstract: Groundwater has become the most dependable source
of fresh water for agriculture, domestic and industrial uses in the past
few decades. This wide use of groundwater if left uncontrolled and
unseen will lead to overexploitation causing sea water intrusion in the
coastal areas and illegal water marketing. Several Policies and Acts
have been enacted to regulate and manage the use of this valuable
resource. In spite of this the over extraction of groundwater beyond
the recharging capacity of aquifers and depletion in the quality of
groundwater is continuing. The current study aims at reviewing the
Acts and Policies existing in the State of Tamil Nadu and in the
National level regarding groundwater regulation and management.
Further an analysis is made on the rights associated with the usage of
groundwater resources and the gaps in these policies have been
analyzed. Some suggestions are made to reform the existing
groundwater policies for better management and regulation of the
resource.
Abstract: Coverage is one of the main research interests in wireless sensor networks (WSN), it is used to determine the quality of service (QoS) of the networks. Therefore this paper aims to review the common strategies use in solving coverage problem in WSN. The strategies studied are used during deployment phase where the coverage is calculated based on the placement of the sensors on the region of interest (ROI). The strategies reviewed are categorized into three groups based on the approaches used, namely; force based, grid based or computational geometry based approach.
Abstract: Response surface methodology (RSM) is a very
efficient tool to provide a good practical insight into developing new
process and optimizing them. This methodology could help
engineers to raise a mathematical model to represent the behavior of
system as a convincing function of process parameters.
Through this paper the sequential nature of the RSM surveyed for process
engineers and its relationship to design of experiments (DOE), regression
analysis and robust design reviewed. The proposed four-step procedure in
two different phases could help system analyst to resolve the parameter
design problem involving responses. In order to check accuracy of the
designed model, residual analysis and prediction error sum of squares
(PRESS) described.
It is believed that the proposed procedure in this study can resolve a
complex parameter design problem with one or more responses. It can be
applied to those areas where there are large data sets and a number of
responses are to be optimized simultaneously. In addition, the proposed
procedure is relatively simple and can be implemented easily by using
ready-made standard statistical packages.
Abstract: The linear methods of heart rate variability analysis
such as non-parametric (e.g. fast Fourier transform analysis) and
parametric methods (e.g. autoregressive modeling) has become an
established non-invasive tool for marking the cardiac health, but their
sensitivity and specificity were found to be lower than expected with
positive predictive value
Abstract: Abstraction of water from the dry river sand-beds is
well-known as an alternative source of water during dry seasons.
Internally, because of the form of sand particles, voids are created
which can store water in the riverbeds. Large rivers are rare in South
Africa. Many rivers are sand river types and without water during the
prolonged dry periods. South Africa has not taken full advantage of
water storage in sand as a solution to the growing water scarcity both
in urban and rural areas. The paper reviews the benefits of run-off
storage in sand reservoirs gained from other arid areas and need for
adoption in rural areas of South Africa as an alternative water supply
where it is probable.