Abstract: Base on extenics theory, the statistical physical and mechanical properties from laboratory experiments are used to evaluate the bearing capacity of lateritic soil foundation. The properties include water content, bulk density, liquid limit, cohesion, and so on. The matter-element and the dependent function are defined. Then the synthesis dependent degree and the final grade index are calculated. The results show that predicted outcomes can be matched with the in-situ test data, and a evaluate grade associate with bearing capacity can be deduced. The results provide guidance to assess and determine the bearing capacity grade of lateritic soil foundation.
Abstract: In this paper, a method for deriving a group priority vector in the Fuzzy Analytic Network Process (FANP) is proposed. By introducing importance weights of multiple decision makers (DMs) based on their experiences, the Fuzzy Preferences Programming Method (FPP) is extended to a fuzzy group prioritization problem in the FANP. Additionally, fuzzy pair-wise comparison judgments are presented rather than exact numerical assessments in order to model the uncertainty and imprecision in the DMs- judgments and then transform the fuzzy group prioritization problem into a fuzzy non-linear programming optimization problem which maximize the group satisfaction. Unlike the known fuzzy prioritization techniques, the new method proposed in this paper can easily derive crisp weights from incomplete and inconsistency fuzzy set of comparison judgments and does not require additional aggregation producers. Detailed numerical examples are used to illustrate the implement of our approach and compare with the latest fuzzy prioritization method.
Abstract: The development of sustainable utilization water resources is crucial. The ecological environment and water resources systems form the foundation of the existence and development of the social economy. The urban ecological support system depends on these resources as well. This research studies the vulnerability, criticality, and risk of climate change on water supply and demand in the main administrative district of the Taijiang Area (Tainan City). Based on the two situations set in this paper and various factors (indexes), this research adopts two kinds of weights (equal and AHP) to conduct the calculation and establish the water supply and demand risk map for the target year 2039. According to the risk analysis result, which is based on equal weight, only one district belongs to a high-grade district (Grade 4). Based on the AHP weight, 16 districts belong to a high-grade or higher-grade district (Grades 4 and 5), and from among them, two districts belong to the highest grade (Grade 5). These results show that the risk level of water supply and demand in cities is higher than that in towns. The government generally gives more attention to the adjustment strategy in the “cities." However, it should also provide proper adjustment strategies for the “towns" to be able to cope with the risks of water supply and demand.
Abstract: The main problem is that there is a very low innovation performance in Latvia. Since Latvia is a Member State of European Union, it also shall have to fulfill the set targets and to improve innovative results.Universities are one of the main performers to provide innovative capacity of country. University, industry and government need to cooperate for getting best results.The intellectual property is one of the indicators to determine innovation level in the country or organization, and patents are one of the characteristics of intellectual property.The objective of the article is to determine indicators characterizing innovative environment in Latvia and influence of the development of universities on them.The methods that will be used in the article to achieve the objectives are quantitative and qualitative analysis of the literature, statistical data analysis and graphical analysis methods.
Abstract: Information is power. Geographical information is an
emerging science that is advancing the development of knowledge to
further help in the understanding of the relationship of “place" with
other disciplines such as crime. The researchers used crime data for
the years 2004 to 2007 from the Baguio City Police Office to
determine the incidence and actual locations of crime hotspots.
Combined qualitative and quantitative research methodology was
employed through extensive fieldwork and observation, geographic
visualization with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Global
Positioning Systems (GPS), and data mining. The paper discusses
emerging geographic visualization and data mining tools and
methodologies that can be used to generate baseline data for
environmental initiatives such as urban renewal and rejuvenation.
The study was able to demonstrate that crime hotspots can be
computed and were seen to be occurring to some select places in the
Central Business District (CBD) of Baguio City. It was observed that
some characteristics of the hotspot places- physical design and milieu
may play an important role in creating opportunities for crime. A list
of these environmental attributes was generated. This derived
information may be used to guide the design or redesign of the urban
environment of the City to be able to reduce crime and at the same
time improve it physically.
Abstract: As networking has become popular, Web-learning
tends to be a trend while designing a tool. Moreover, five-axis
machining has been widely used in industry recently; however, it has
potential axial table colliding problems. Thus this paper aims at
proposing an efficient web-learning collision detection tool on
five-axis machining. However, collision detection consumes heavy
resource that few devices can support, thus this research uses a
systematic approach based on web knowledge to detect collision. The
methodologies include the kinematics analyses for five-axis motions,
separating axis method for collision detection, and computer
simulation for verification. The machine structure is modeled as STL
format in CAD software. The input to the detection system is the
g-code part program, which describes the tool motions to produce the
part surface. This research produced a simulation program with C
programming language and demonstrated a five-axis machining
example with collision detection on web site. The system simulates the
five-axis CNC motion for tool trajectory and detects for any collisions
according to the input g-codes and also supports high-performance
web service benefiting from C. The result shows that our method
improves 4.5 time of computational efficiency, comparing to the
conventional detection method.
Abstract: Atrial Fibrillation is the most common sustained
arrhythmia encountered by clinicians. Because of the invisible
waveform of atrial fibrillation in atrial activation for human, it is
necessary to develop an automatic diagnosis system. 12-Lead ECG
now is available in hospital and is appropriate for using Independent
Component Analysis to estimate the AA period. In this research, we
also adopt a second-order blind identification approach to transform
the sources extracted by ICA to more precise signal and then we use
frequency domain algorithm to do the classification. In experiment,
we gather a significant result of clinical data.
Abstract: In this note, some properties of potentially powerpositive sign patterns are established, and all the potentially powerpositive sign patterns of order ≤ 3 are classified completely.
Abstract: Prediction of bacterial virulent protein sequences can
give assistance to identification and characterization of novel
virulence-associated factors and discover drug/vaccine targets against
proteins indispensable to pathogenicity. Gene Ontology (GO)
annotation which describes functions of genes and gene products as a
controlled vocabulary of terms has been shown effectively for a
variety of tasks such as gene expression study, GO annotation
prediction, protein subcellular localization, etc. In this study, we
propose a sequence-based method Virulent-GO by mining informative
GO terms as features for predicting bacterial virulent proteins.
Each protein in the datasets used by the existing method
VirulentPred is annotated by using BLAST to obtain its homologies
with known accession numbers for retrieving GO terms. After
investigating various popular classifiers using the same five-fold
cross-validation scheme, Virulent-GO using the single kind of GO
term features with an accuracy of 82.5% is slightly better than
VirulentPred with 81.8% using five kinds of sequence-based features.
For the evaluation of independent test, Virulent-GO also yields better
results (82.0%) than VirulentPred (80.7%). When evaluating single
kind of feature with SVM, the GO term feature performs much well,
compared with each of the five kinds of features.
Abstract: The term private equity usually refers to any type of
equity investment in an asset in which the equity is not freely
tradable on a public stock market. Some researchers believe that
private equity contributed to the extent of the crisis and increased
the pace of its spread over the world. We do not agree with this.
On the other hand, we argue that during the economic recession
private equity might become an important source of funds for firms
with special needs (e.g. for firms seeking buyout financing, venture
capital, expansion capital or distress debt financing). However,
over-regulation of private equity in both the European Union and
the US can slow down this specific funding channel to the
economy and deepen credit crunch during global crises.
Abstract: Manufacturing processes demand tight dimensional
tolerances. The paper concerns a transducer for precise measurement
of displacement, based on a camera containing a linescan chip.
When tests were conducted using a track of black and white stripes
with a 2mm pitch, errors in measuring on individual cycle amounted
to 1.75%, suggesting that a precision of 35 microns is achievable.
Abstract: Complex engineering design problems consist of
numerous factors of varying criticalities. Considering fundamental features of design and inferior details alike will result in an extensive
waste of time and effort. Design parameters should be introduced gradually as appropriate based on their significance relevant to the
problem context. This motivates the representation of design parameters at multiple levels of an abstraction hierarchy. However, developing abstraction hierarchies is an area that is not well
understood. Our research proposes a novel hierarchical abstraction methodology to plan effective engineering designs and processes. It
provides a theoretically sound foundation to represent, abstract and stratify engineering design parameters and tasks according to causality and criticality. The methodology creates abstraction
hierarchies in a recursive and bottom-up approach that guarantees no
backtracking across any of the abstraction levels. The methodology consists of three main phases, representation, abstraction, and layering to multiple hierarchical levels. The effectiveness of the
developed methodology is demonstrated by a design problem.
Abstract: Concerns about low levels of children-s physical activity and motor skill development, prompted the Ministry of Education to trial a physical activity pilot project (PAPP) in 16 New Zealand primary schools. The project comprised professional development and training in physical education for lead teachers and introduced four physical activity coordinators to liaise with and increase physical activity opportunities in the pilot schools. A survey of generalist teachers (128 baseline, 155 post-intervention) from these schools looked at timetabled physical activity sessions and issues related to teaching physical education. The authors calculated means and standard deviations of data relating to timetabled PE sessions and used a one-way analysis of variance to determine significant differences. Results indicated time devoted to physical activity related subjects significantly increased over the course of the intervention. Teacher-s reported improved confidence and competence, which resulted in an improvement in quality physical education delivered more often.
Abstract: A diamond-like carbon (DLC) based solid-lubricant
film was designed and DLC films were successfully prepared using a
microwave plasma enhanced magnetron sputtering deposition
technology. Post-test characterizations including Raman
spectrometry, X-ray diffraction, nano-indentation test, adhesion test,
friction coefficient test were performed to study the influence of
substrate bias voltage on the mechanical properties of the W- and
S-doped DLC films. The results indicated that the W- and S-doped
DLC films also had the typical structure of DLC films and a better
mechanical performance achieved by the application of a substrate
bias of -200V.
Abstract: Green Lean Total Quality Management (TQM)
System is a system comprises of Environmental Management System
(EMS) practices which is integrated to TQM with Lean
Manufacturing (LM) principles. The ultimate goal of this system is to
focus on achieving total customer satisfaction and environmental care by removing eight wastes available in any process in an
organization. A survey questionnaire was developed and distributed to 30 highly active automotive vendors in Malaysia and analyzed by
SPSS v.17. It was found out that some vendors have been practicing TQM and LM while some have started to implement EMS. This
study is only focusing on highly active companies that have been involved in MAJAICO Program and Proton Vendor Development
Program. This is the first study conducted to know the current status of TQM, LM and EMS practices in highly active automotive companies in Malaysia. It was found out that EMS has been
practiced by 16 companies out of 30. Within these 16 companies the
approach is more holistic and green. This is a preliminary study that combined 4 awards practices, ISO/TS16949, Toyota Production
System SAEJ4000, MAJAICO Lean Production System and EMS.
Abstract: Social media has led to paradigm shifts in ways
people work and do business, interact and socialize, learn and obtain
knowledge. So much so that social media has established itself as an
important spatial extension of this nation-s historicity and challenges.
Regardless of the enabling reputation and recommendation features
through social networks embedded in the social media system, the
overflow of broadcasted and publicized media contents turns the
table around from engendering trust to doubting the trust system.
When the trust is at doubt, the effects include deactivation of
accounts and creation of multiple profiles, which lead to the overflow
of 'ghost' contents (i.e. “the abundance of abandoned ships"). In
most literature, the study of trust can be related to culture; hence the
difference between Western-s “openness" and Eastern-s “blue-chip"
concepts in networking and relationships. From a survey on issues
and challenges among Malaysian social media users, 'authenticity'
emerges as one of the main factors that causes and is caused by other
factors. The other issue that has surfaced is credibility either in terms
of message/content and source. Another is the quality of the
knowledge that is shared. This paper explores the terrains of this
critical space which in recent years has been dominated increasingly
by, arguably, social networks embedded in the social media system,
the overflow of broadcasted and publicized media content.
Abstract: Multi User Virtual Worlds are becoming a valuable educational tool. Learning experiences within these worlds focus on discovery and active experiences that both engage students and motivate them to explore new concepts. As educators, we need to explore these environments to determine how they can most effectively be used in our instructional practices. This paper explores the current application of virtual worlds to identify meaningful educational strategies that are being used to engage students and enhance teaching and learning.
Abstract: In the multi objective optimization, in the case when generated set of Pareto optimal solutions is large, occurs the problem to select of the best solution from this set. In this paper, is suggested a method to order of Pareto set. Ordering the Pareto optimal set carried out in conformity with the introduced distance function between each solution and selected reference point, where the reference point may be adjusted to represent the preferences of a decision making agent. Preference information about objective weights from a decision maker may be expressed imprecisely. The developed elicitation procedure provides an opportunity to obtain surrogate numerical weights for the objectives, and thus, to manage impreciseness of preference. The proposed method is a scalable to many objectives and can be used independently or as complementary to the various visualization techniques in the multidimensional case.
Abstract: In this research, a mathematical model for integrated evaluation of green design and green manufacturing processes is presented. To design a product, there can be alternative options to design the detailed components to fulfill the same product requirement. In the design alternative cases, the components of the product can be designed with different materials and detailed specifications. If several design alternative cases are proposed, the different materials and specifications can affect the manufacturing processes. In this paper, a new concept for integrating green design and green manufacturing processes is presented. A green design can be determined based the manufacturing processes of the designed product by evaluating the green criteria including energy usage and environmental impact, in addition to the traditional criteria of manufacturing cost. With this concept, a mathematical model is developed to find the green design and the associated green manufacturing processes. In the mathematical model, the cost items include material cost, manufacturing cost, and green related cost. The green related cost items include energy cost and environmental cost. The objective is to find the decisions of green design and green manufacturing processes to achieve the minimized total cost. In practical applications, the decision-making can be made to select a good green design case and its green manufacturing processes. In this presentation, an example product is illustrated. It shows that the model is practical and useful for integrated evaluation of green design and green manufacturing processes.
Abstract: Multi-loop (De-centralized) Proportional-Integral-
Derivative (PID) controllers have been used extensively in process
industries due to their simple structure for control of multivariable
processes. The objective of this work is to design multiple-model
adaptive multi-loop PID strategy (Multiple Model Adaptive-PID)
and neural network based multi-loop PID strategy (Neural Net
Adaptive-PID) for the control of multivariable system. The first
method combines the output of multiple linear PID controllers,
each describing process dynamics at a specific level of operation.
The global output is an interpolation of the individual multi-loop
PID controller outputs weighted based on the current value of the
measured process variable. In the second method, neural network
is used to calculate the PID controller parameters based on the
scheduling variable that corresponds to major shift in the process
dynamics. The proposed control schemes are simple in structure with
less computational complexity. The effectiveness of the proposed
control schemes have been demonstrated on the CSTR process,
which exhibits dynamic non-linearity.