Abstract: This paper presents a model for an unreliable
production line, which is operated according to demand with constant
work-in-process (CONWIP). A simulation model is developed based
on the discrete model and several case problems are analyzed using
the model. The model is utilized to optimize storage space capacities
at intermediate stages and the number of kanbans at the last stage,
which is used to trigger the production at the first stage. Furthermore,
effects of several line parameters on production rate are analyzed
using design of experiments.
Abstract: The paper deals with the possibilities of modelling
vapour propagation of explosive substances in the FLUENT
software. With regard to very low tensions of explosive substance
vapours the experiment has been verified as exemplified by
mononitrotoluene. Either constant or time variable meteorological
conditions have been used for calculation. Further, it has been
verified that the eluent source may be time-dependent and may reflect
a real situation or the liberation rate may be constant. The execution
of the experiment as well as evaluation were clear and it could also
be used for modelling vapour and aerosol propagation of selected
explosive substances in the atmospheric boundary layer.
Abstract: There is strong evidence that water channel proteins
'aquaporins (AQPs)' are central components in plant-water relations
as well as a number of other physiological parameters. We had
previously reported the isolation of 24 plasma membrane intrinsic
protein (PIP) type AQPs. However, the gene numbers in rice and the
polyploid nature of bread wheat indicated a high probability of
further genes in the latter. The present work focused on identification
of further AQP isoforms in bread wheat. With the use of altered
primer design, we identified five genes homologous, designated
PIP1;5b, PIP2;9b, TaPIP2;2, TaPIP2;2a, TaPIP2;2b. Sequence
alignments indicate PIP1;5b, PIP2;9b are likely to be homeologues of
two previously reported genes while the other three are new genes
and could be homeologs of each other. The results indicate further
AQP diversity in wheat and the sequence data will enable physical
mapping of these genes to identify their genomes as well as genetic to
determine their association with any quantitative trait loci (QTLs)
associated with plant-water relation such as salinity or drought
tolerance.
Abstract: In this paper, the melting of a semi-infinite body as a
result of a moving laser beam has been studied. Because the Fourier
heat transfer equation at short times and large dimensions does not
have sufficient accuracy; a non-Fourier form of heat transfer
equation has been used. Due to the fact that the beam is moving in x
direction, the temperature distribution and the melting pool shape are
not asymmetric. As a result, the problem is a transient threedimensional
problem. Therefore, thermophysical properties such as
heat conductivity coefficient, density and heat capacity are functions
of temperature and material states. The enthalpy technique, used for
the solution of phase change problems, has been used in an explicit
finite volume form for the hyperbolic heat transfer equation. This
technique has been used to calculate the transient temperature
distribution in the semi-infinite body and the growth rate of the melt
pool. In order to validate the numerical results, comparisons were
made with experimental data. Finally, the results of this paper were
compared with similar problem that has used the Fourier theory. The
comparison shows the influence of infinite speed of heat propagation
in Fourier theory on the temperature distribution and the melt pool
size.
Abstract: Managers as the key employees have a very important role in maintaining the workforce performance which is critical to the
construction companies- success in the future. If motivated employees start with motivated managers probably it would seem
plausible if the de-motivated ones start with de-motivated managers. This study aims to analyze the importance of motivated managers to
their successes and construction companies- successes. In this study,
a quantitative method was used and the study area was in Medan, North Sumatera. Questionnaire survey was distributed directly to
construction companies in Medan which are listed in the
Construction Services Development Board. A total of 60 managers responded and the completed questionnaires were analyzed using the
descriptive analysis. The results indicated that the respondents acknowledge the importance of motivation among themselves to the
projects and construction companies- success, implying that it is vital o maintain the motivation and good performance of the workforce.
Abstract: In this study, the hydrogen transport phenomenon was
numerically evaluated by using hydrogen-enhanced localized
plasticity (HELP) mechanisms. Two dominant governing equations,
namely, the hydrogen transport model and the elasto-plastic model,
were introduced. In addition, the implicitly formulated equations of
the governing equations were implemented into ABAQUS UMAT
user-defined subroutines. The simulation results were compared to
published results to validate the proposed method.
Abstract: Nowadays in applications of renewable energy sources
it is important to develop powerful and energy-saving photovoltaic
converters and to keep the prescriptions of the standards. In grid
connected PV converters the obvious solution to increase the
efficiency is to reduce the switching losses. Our new developed
control method reduces the switching losses and keeps the limitations
of the harmonic distortion standards. The base idea of the method is
the utilization of 3-state control causing discontinuous current mode
at low input power. In the following sections the control theory, the
realizations and the simulation results are presented.
Abstract: Checkpointing is one of the commonly used techniques to provide fault-tolerance in distributed systems so that the system can operate even if one or more components have failed. However, mobile computing systems are constrained by low bandwidth, mobility, lack of stable storage, frequent disconnections and limited battery life. Hence, checkpointing protocols having lesser number of synchronization messages and fewer checkpoints are preferred in mobile environment. There are two different approaches, although not orthogonal, to checkpoint mobile computing systems namely, time-based and index-based. Our protocol is a fusion of these two approaches, though not first of its kind. In the present exposition, an index-based checkpointing protocol has been developed, which uses time to indirectly coordinate the creation of consistent global checkpoints for mobile computing systems. The proposed algorithm is non-blocking, adaptive, and does not use any control message. Compared to other contemporary checkpointing algorithms, it is computationally more efficient because it takes lesser number of checkpoints and does not need to compute dependency relationships. A brief account of important and relevant works in both the fields, time-based and index-based, has also been included in the presentation.
Abstract: We present a new algorithm for nonlinear dimensionality reduction that consistently uses global information, and that enables understanding the intrinsic geometry of non-convex manifolds. Compared to methods that consider only local information, our method appears to be more robust to noise. Unlike most methods that incorporate global information, the proposed approach automatically handles non-convexity of the data manifold. We demonstrate the performance of our algorithm and compare it to state-of-the-art methods on synthetic as well as real data.
Abstract: There are a lot of extensions made to the classic model of multi-layer perceptron (MLP). A notable amount of them has been designed to hasten the learning process without considering the quality of generalization. The paper proposes a new MLP extension based on exploiting topology of the input layer of the network. Experimental results show the extended model to improve upon generalization capability in certain cases. The new model requires additional computational resources to compare to the classic model, nevertheless the loss in efficiency isn-t regarded to be significant.
Abstract: Dill (Anethum graveolens L.) is a popular herb used in
many regions, including Baltic countries. Dill is widely used for
flavoring foods and beverages due to its pleasant spicy aroma. The
aim of this work was to determine the best blanching method for
processing of dill prior to microwave vacuum drying based on
sensory properties, color and volatile compounds in dried product.
Two blanching mediums were used – water and steam, and for part of
samples microwave pretreatment was additionally used. Evaluation of
dried dill volatile aroma compounds, color changes and sensory
attributes was performed. Results showed that blanching significantly
influences the quality of dried dill. After evaluation of volatile aroma
compounds, color and sensory properties of microwave vacuum dried
dill, as the best method for dill pretreatment was established
blanching at 90 °C for 30 s.
Abstract: In this paper we present our results on the performance analysis of a multi-product manufacturing line. We study the influence of external perturbations, intermediate buffer content and the number of manufacturing stages on the production tracking error of each machine in the multi-product line operated under a surplusbased production control policy. Starting by the analysis of a single machine with multiple production stages (one for each product type), we provide bounds on the production error of each stage. Then, we extend our analysis to a line of multi-stage machines, where similarly, bounds on each production tracking error for each product type, as well as buffer content are obtained. Details on performance of the closed-loop flow line model are illustrated in numerical simulations.
Abstract: Security management has changed from the
management of security equipments and useful interface to manager.
It analyzes the whole security conditions of network and preserves the
network services from attacks. Secure router technology has security
functions, such as intrusion detection, IPsec(IP Security) and access
control, are applied to legacy router for secure networking. It controls
an unauthorized router access and detects an illegal network intrusion.
This paper relates to a security engine management of router based on
a security policy, which is the definition of security function against a
network intrusion. This paper explains the security policy and designs
the structure of security engine management framework.
Abstract: This paper presents an analytical model to estimate
the cost of an optimized design of reinforced concrete isolated
footing base on structural safety. Flexural and optimized formulas for
square and rectangular footingare derived base on ACI building code
of design, material cost and optimization. The optimization
constraints consist of upper and lower limits of depth and area of
steel. Footing depth and area of reinforcing steel are to be minimized
to yield the optimal footing dimensions. Optimized footing materials
cost of concrete, reinforcing steel and formwork of the designed
sections are computed. Total cost factor TCF and other cost factors
are developed to generalize and simplify the calculations of footing
material cost. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the
model capability of estimating the material cost of the footing for a
desired axial load.
Abstract: This paper describes a new algorithm of arrangement
in parallel, based on Odd-Even Mergesort, called division and
concurrent mixes. The main idea of the algorithm is to achieve that
each processor uses a sequential algorithm for ordering a part of the
vector, and after that, for making the processors work in pairs in
order to mix two of these sections ordered in a greater one, also
ordered; after several iterations, the vector will be completely
ordered. The paper describes the implementation of the new
algorithm on a Message Passing environment (such as MPI). Besides,
it compares the obtained experimental results with the quicksort
sequential algorithm and with the parallel implementations (also on
MPI) of the algorithms quicksort and bitonic sort. The comparison
has been realized in an 8 processors cluster under GNU/Linux which
is running on a unique PC processor.
Abstract: This paper introduces our first efforts of developing a
new team for RoboCup Middle Size Competition. In our robots we
have applied omni directional based mobile system with omnidirectional
vision system and fuzzy control algorithm to navigate
robots. The control architecture of MRL middle-size robots is a three
layered architecture, Planning, Sequencing, and Executing. It also
uses Blackboard system to achieve coordination among agents.
Moreover, the architecture should have minimum dependency on low
level structure and have a uniform protocol to interact with real
robot.
Abstract: This paper presents a new and efficient approach for
capacitor placement in radial distribution systems that determine
the optimal locations and size of capacitor with an objective of
improving the voltage profile and reduction of power loss. The
solution methodology has two parts: in part one the loss sensitivity
factors are used to select the candidate locations for the capacitor
placement and in part two a new algorithm that employs Plant growth
Simulation Algorithm (PGSA) is used to estimate the optimal size
of capacitors at the optimal buses determined in part one. The main
advantage of the proposed method is that it does not require any
external control parameters. The other advantage is that it handles the
objective function and the constraints separately, avoiding the trouble
to determine the barrier factors. The proposed method is applied to 9
and 34 bus radial distribution systems. The solutions obtained by the
proposed method are compared with other methods. The proposed
method has outperformed the other methods in terms of the quality
of solution.
Abstract: Low power consumption is a major constraint for battery-powered system like computer notebook or PDA. In the past, specialists usually designed both specific optimized equipments and codes to relief this concern. Doing like this could work for quite a long time, however, in this era, there is another significant restraint, the time to market. To be able to serve along the power constraint while can launch products in shorter production period, objectoriented programming (OOP) has stepped in to this field. Though everyone knows that OOP has quite much more overhead than assembly and procedural languages, development trend still heads to this new world, which contradicts with the target of low power consumption. Most of the prior power related software researches reported that OOP consumed much resource, however, as industry had to accept it due to business reasons, up to now, no papers yet had mentioned about how to choose the best OOP practice in this power limited boundary. This article is the pioneer that tries to specify and propose the optimized strategy in writing OOP software under energy concerned environment, based on quantitative real results. The language chosen for studying is C# based on .NET Framework 2.0 which is one of the trendy OOP development environments. The recommendation gotten from this research would be a good roadmap that can help developers in coding that well balances between time to market and time of battery.
Abstract: Paper deals with environmental metrics and assessment systems devoted to Small and Medium Sized Enterprises. Authors are presenting proposed assessment model which has an ability to discover current environmental strengths and weaknesses of Small and Middle Sized Enterprise. Suggested model has also an ambition to become a Sustainability Decision Tool. Model is able to identify "best environmental devision" in the company, and to quantify how this decision contributed into overall environmental improvement. Authors understand environmental improvements as environmental innovations (product, process and organizational). Suggested model is based on its own concept; however, authors are also utilizing already existing environmental assessment tools.
Abstract: This paper explores the changing trend in citizenship
norms among young citizens from various ethnic groups in Malaysia
and the extent to which it influences the participation of young
citizens in political and civil issues. Embedded in democratic
constitutions are the rights and freedoms that accompany citizenship,
and these rights and freedoms include participation. Participation in
democracies should go beyond voting; it should include taking part in
the governance process. The political process is not at risk even
though politics does not work as it did in the past. A national sample
of 1697 respondents between the ages of 21 and 40 years were
interviewed in January 2011. The findings show that respondents
embrace an engaged-citizenship norm more than they do the
traditional duty-citizen norm. Among the ethnic groups, the Chinese
show lower means in both citizenship norms compared with other
ethnic groups, namely, the Malays and the Indians. The duty-citizen
norm correlates higher with political participation than with civic
participation. On the other hand, the engaged-citizen norm correlates
higher with civic participation than with political participation.