Abstract: The objective of this research is to study plant layout
of iron manufacturing based on the systematic layout planning
pattern theory (SLP) for increased productivity. In this case study,
amount of equipments and tools in iron production are studied. The
detailed study of the plant layout such as operation process chart,
flow of material and activity relationship chart has been investigated.
The new plant layout has been designed and compared with the
present plant layout. The SLP method showed that new plant layout
significantly decrease the distance of material flow from billet
cutting process until keeping in ware house.
Abstract: The research objective aims to search information about storytelling and fable associated with fireflies in Amphawa community, in order to design and create a story book which is appropriate for the interests of children in early childhood. This book should help building the development of learning about the natural environment, imagination, and creativity among children, which then, brings about the promotion of the development, conservation and dissemination of cultural values and uniqueness of the Amphawa community. The population used in this study were 30 students in early childhood aged between 6-8 years-old, grade 1-3 from the Demonstration School of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University. The method used for this study was purposive sampling and the research conducted by the query and analysis of data from both the document and the narrative field tales and fable associated with the fireflies of Amphawa community. Then, using the results to synthesize and create a conceptual design in a form of 8 visual images which were later applied to 1 illustrated children’s book and presented to the experts to evaluate and test this media.
Abstract: The paper presents an investigation into the role of virtual reality and web technologies in the field of distance education. Within this frame, special emphasis is given on the building of web-based virtual learning environments so as to successfully fulfill their educational objectives. In particular, basic pedagogical methods are studied, focusing mainly on the efficient preparation, approach and presentation of learning content, and specific designing rules are presented considering the hypermedia, virtual and educational nature of this kind of applications. The paper also aims to highlight the educational benefits arising from the use of virtual reality technology in medicine and study the emerging area of web-based medical simulations. Finally, an innovative virtual reality environment for distance education in medicine is demonstrated. The proposed environment reproduces conditions of the real learning process and enhances learning through a real-time interactive simulator.
Abstract: The work reported in this paper is motivated by the fact that there is a need to apply autonomic computing concepts to parallel computing systems. Advancing on prior work based on intelligent cores [36], a swarm-array computing approach, this paper focuses on 'Intelligent agents' another swarm-array computing approach in which the task to be executed on a parallel computing core is considered as a swarm of autonomous agents. A task is carried to a computing core by carrier agents and is seamlessly transferred between cores in the event of a predicted failure, thereby achieving self-ware objectives of autonomic computing. The feasibility of the proposed swarm-array computing approach is validated on a multi-agent simulator.
Abstract: Participation in global trade means that Chinas vegetables and fruits industry faces international food safety standards and increased scrutiny worldwide. The objectives of this paper were to investigate how existing food safety standards and regulations in the importing countries impact the export of vegetables and fruits from China. This paper discussed the current and historical situations of Chinas vegetables and fruits export from 1996 to 2010, analyzed the Maximum Residual Limit (MRL) standards of pesticides imposed by importing countries, quantitatively estimated the impacts of food safety standards on Chinas vegetables and fruits export based on a gravity model. The results showed that although transportation distance between trade partners and tariff rates on vegetables and fruits were still the importantly resistant factors for China export, vegetables and fruits export was sensitive to the number of regulated pesticides, the strictness, and the level of food safety standards imposed by importing countries, which showed a significant trade flow effect, stricter food safety standards, increased number of regulated pesticides significantly inhibit China export of vegetables and fruits. Moreover, Chinas food safety standards also showed a significantly effect on vegetables and fruits export, which inhibited export to some extent. KeywordsFood safety standards, MRL, Vegetables, Fruits, Export.
Abstract: The company-s ability to draw on a range of external
sources to meet their needs for innovation, has been termed 'open
innovation' (OI). Very few empirical analyses have been conducted
on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to the extent that they
describe and understand the characteristics and implications of this
new paradigm.
The study's objective is to identify and characterize different
modes of OI, (considering innovation process phases and the variety
and breadth of the collaboration), determinants, barriers and
motivations in SMEs. Therefore a survey was carried out among
Italian manufacturing firms and a database of 105 companies was
obtained. With regard to data elaboration, a factorial and cluster
analysis has been conducted and three different OI modes have
emerged: selective low open, unselective open upstream, and mid-
partners integrated open. The different behaviours of the three
clusters in terms of determinants factors, performance, firm-s
technology intensity, barriers and motivations have been analyzed
and discussed.
Abstract: This report shows the performance of composite
biodegradable film from chitosan, starch and sawdust fiber. The main
objectives of this research are to fabricate and characterize composite
biodegradable film in terms of morphology and physical properties.
The film was prepared by casting method. Sawdust fiber was used as
reinforcing agent and starch as polymer matrix in the casting
solution. The morphology of the film was characterized using atomic
force microscope (AFM). The result showed that the film has
smooth structure. Chemical composition of the film was investigated
using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) where the result revealed
present of starch in the film. The thermal properties were
characterized using thermal gravimetric analyzer (TGA) and
differential scanning calorimetric (DSC) where the results showed
that the film has small difference in melting and degradation
temperature.
Abstract: Nowadays, several techniques such as; Fuzzy
Inference System (FIS) and Neural Network (NN) are employed for
developing of the predictive models to estimate parameters of water
quality. The main objective of this study is to compare between the
predictive ability of the Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System
(ANFIS) model and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model to
estimate the Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) on data from 11
sampling sites of Saen Saep canal in Bangkok, Thailand. The data is
obtained from the Department of Drainage and Sewerage, Bangkok
Metropolitan Administration, during 2004-2011. The five parameters
of water quality namely Dissolved Oxygen (DO), Chemical Oxygen
Demand (COD), Ammonia Nitrogen (NH3N), Nitrate Nitrogen
(NO3N), and Total Coliform bacteria (T-coliform) are used as the
input of the models. These water quality indices affect the
biochemical oxygen demand. The experimental results indicate that
the ANN model provides a higher correlation coefficient (R=0.73)
and a lower root mean square error (RMSE=4.53) than the
corresponding ANFIS model.
Abstract: This research aims to study employment trends in
printing industry for prepress support by Suan Sunandha University
Fund. The objectives of this research are to explain the trends of the
employment in Thai Printing Industry for prepress in Bangkok and
the description of different personnel that prepress entrepreneur need
and also the problems of employment.
The population of prepress entrepreneurs is about 100
organizations in the area of Bangkok. The questionnaires has been
taken and analyzed with SPSS program by using the average
percentage and standard deviation.
This research is multiple case studies. The conceptual framework
is developed on the basis of the open systems theory.
The research result show that
1. The most of prepress entrepreneur have trend to choose the
employee by any sex, the age 25-29 years old, bachelor degree
and have 1-2 years experience.
2. The most problems are the understanding in job,
communication/relation and the understanding in new
technology.
3. The trends aims to employment in 1-3 years have 57.8% for
prepress industry in Bangkok.
This research suggests that:
1. Thai printing industry for prepress in Bangkok need quality
employee that expert in printing technology.
2. Prepress entrepreneur should have agreement to development
with university for practice the employee.
3. Prepress entrepreneur should support personal to fulfill the
knowledge.
Abstract: The hospital and the health-care center of a
community, as a place for people-s life-care and health-care settings,
must provide more and better services for patients or residents. After
Establishing Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system -which is a
necessity- in the hospital, providing pervasive services is a further
step. Our objective in this paper is to use pervasive computing in a
case study of healthcare, based on EMR database that coordinates
application services over network to form a service environment for
medical and health-care. Our method also categorizes the hospital
spaces into 3 spaces: Public spaces, Private spaces and Isolated
spaces. Although, there are many projects about using pervasive
computing in healthcare, but all of them concentrate on the disease
recognition, designing smart cloths, or provide services only for
patient. The proposed method is implemented in a hospital. The
obtained results show that it is suitable for our purpose.
Abstract: An enhanced particle swarm optimization algorithm
(PSO) is presented in this work to solve the non-convex OPF
problem that has both discrete and continuous optimization variables.
The objective functions considered are the conventional quadratic
function and the augmented quadratic function. The latter model
presents non-differentiable and non-convex regions that challenge
most gradient-based optimization algorithms. The optimization
variables to be optimized are the generator real power outputs and
voltage magnitudes, discrete transformer tap settings, and discrete
reactive power injections due to capacitor banks. The set of equality
constraints taken into account are the power flow equations while the
inequality ones are the limits of the real and reactive power of the
generators, voltage magnitude at each bus, transformer tap settings,
and capacitor banks reactive power injections. The proposed
algorithm combines PSO with Newton-Raphson algorithm to
minimize the fuel cost function. The IEEE 30-bus system with six
generating units is used to test the proposed algorithm. Several cases
were investigated to test and validate the consistency of detecting
optimal or near optimal solution for each objective. Results are
compared to solutions obtained using sequential quadratic
programming and Genetic Algorithms.
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: The application of a Static Synchronous Series Compensator (SSSC) controller to improve the transient stability performance of a power system is thoroughly investigated in this paper. The design problem of SSSC controller is formulated as an optimization problem and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) Technique is employed to search for optimal controller parameters. By minimizing the time-domain based objective function, in which the deviation in the oscillatory rotor angle of the generator is involved; transient stability performance of the system is improved. The proposed controller is tested on a weakly connected power system subjected to different severe disturbances. The non-linear simulation results are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed controller and its ability to provide efficient damping of low frequency oscillations. It is also observed that the proposed SSSC controller improves greatly the voltage profile of the system under severe disturbances.
Abstract: The objective of this paper is to study the analysis and testing for determining the torsional stiffness of the student formula-s space frame. From past study, the space frame for Chulalongkorn University Student Formula team used in 2011 TSAE Auto Challenge Student Formula in Thailand was designed by considering required mass and torsional stiffness based on the numerical method and experimental method. The numerical result was compared with the experimental results to verify the torsional stiffness of the space frame. It can be seen from the large error of torsional stiffness of 2011 frame that the experimental result can not verify by the numerical analysis due to the different between the numerical model and experimental setting. In this paper, the numerical analysis and experiment of the same 2011 frame model is performed by improving the model setting. The improvement of both numerical analysis and experiment are discussed to confirm that the models from both methods are same. After the frame was analyzed and tested, the results are compared to verify the torsional stiffness of the frame. It can be concluded that the improved analysis and experiments can used to verify the torsional stiffness of the space frame.
Abstract: Since the actuator capacity is limited, in the real
application of active control systems under sever earthquakes it is
conceivable that the actuators saturate, hence the actuator saturation
should be considered as a constraint in design of optimal controllers.
In this paper optimal design of active controllers for nonlinear
structures by considering actuator saturation, has been studied. The
proposed method for designing optimal controllers is based on
defining an optimization problem which the objective has been to
minimize the maximum displacement of structure when a limited
capacity for actuator has been used. To this end a single degree of
freedom (SDF) structure with a bilinear hysteretic behavior has been
simulated under a white noise ground acceleration of different
amplitudes. Active tendon control mechanism, comprised of prestressed
tendons and an actuator, and extended nonlinear Newmark
method based instantaneous optimal control algorithm have been
used. To achieve the best results, the weights corresponding to
displacement, velocity, acceleration and control force in the
performance index have been optimized by the Distributed Genetic
Algorithm (DGA). Results show the effectiveness of the proposed
method in considering actuator saturation. Also based on the
numerical simulations it can be concluded that the actuator capacity
and the average value of required control force are two important
factors in designing nonlinear controllers which consider the actuator
saturation.
Abstract: The objective of this paper is to propose an adaptive multi threshold for image segmentation precisely in object detection. Due to the different types of license plates being used, the requirement of an automatic LPR is rather different for each country. The proposed technique is applied on Malaysian LPR application. It is based on Multi Layer Perceptron trained by back propagation. The proposed adaptive threshold is introduced to find the optimum threshold values. The technique relies on the peak value from the graph of the number object versus specific range of threshold values. The proposed approach has improved the overall performance compared to current optimal threshold techniques. Further improvement on this method is in progress to accommodate real time system specification.
Abstract: The purpose of this research is to determine the
knowledge and skills possessed by instructional design (ID)
practitioners in Malaysia. As ID is a relatively new field in the
country and there seems to be an absence of any studies on its
community of practice, the main objective of this research is to
discover the tasks and activities performed by ID practitioners in
educational and corporate organizations as suggested by the
International Board of Standards for Training, Performance and
Instruction. This includes finding out the ID models applied in the
course of their work. This research also attempts to identify the
barriers and issues as to why some ID tasks and activities are rarely
or never conducted. The methodology employed in this descriptive
study was a survey questionnaire sent to 30 instructional designers
nationwide. The results showed that majority of the tasks and
activities are carried out frequently enough but omissions do occur
due to reasons such as it being out of job scope, the decision was
already made at a higher level, and the lack of knowledge and skills.
Further investigations of a qualitative manner should be conducted
to achieve a more in-depth understanding of ID practices in
Malaysia
Abstract: Access control is a critical security service in Wire- less
Sensor Networks (WSNs). To prevent malicious nodes from joining
the sensor network, access control is required. On one hand, WSN
must be able to authorize and grant users the right to access to the
network. On the other hand, WSN must organize data collected by
sensors in such a way that an unauthorized entity (the adversary)
cannot make arbitrary queries. This restricts the network access only
to eligible users and sensor nodes, while queries from outsiders will
not be answered or forwarded by nodes. In this paper we presentee
different access control schemes so as to ?nd out their objectives,
provision, communication complexity, limits, etc. Using the node
density parameter, we also provide a comparison of these proposed
access control algorithms based on the network topology which can
be flat or hierarchical.
Abstract: European Union candidate status provides a
strong motivation for decision-making in the candidate
countries in shaping the regional development policy where
there is an envisioned transfer of power from center to the
periphery. The process of Europeanization anticipates the
candidate countries configure their regional institutional
templates in the context of the requirements of the European
Union policies and introduces new instruments of incentive
framework of enlargement to be employed in regional
development schemes. It is observed that the contribution of
the local actors to the decision making in the design of the
allocation architectures enhances the efficiency of the funds
and increases the positive effects of the projects funded under
the regional development objectives. This study aims at
exploring the performances of the three regional development
grant schemes in Turkey, established and allocated under the
pre-accession process with a special emphasis given to the
roles of the national and local actors in decision-making for
regional development. Efficiency analyses have been
conducted using the DEA methodology which has proved to
be a superior method in comparative efficiency and
benchmarking measurements. The findings of this study as
parallel to similar international studies, provides that the
participation of the local actors to the decision-making in
funding contributes both to the quality and the efficiency of
the projects funded under the EU schemes.
Abstract: This paper describes a new supervised fusion (hybrid)
electrocardiogram (ECG) classification solution consisting of a new
QRS complex geometrical feature extraction as well as a new version
of the learning vector quantization (LVQ) classification algorithm
aimed for overcoming the stability-plasticity dilemma. Toward this
objective, after detection and delineation of the major events of ECG
signal via an appropriate algorithm, each QRS region and also its
corresponding discrete wavelet transform (DWT) are supposed as
virtual images and each of them is divided into eight polar sectors.
Then, the curve length of each excerpted segment is calculated
and is used as the element of the feature space. To increase the
robustness of the proposed classification algorithm versus noise,
artifacts and arrhythmic outliers, a fusion structure consisting of
five different classifiers namely as Support Vector Machine (SVM),
Modified Learning Vector Quantization (MLVQ) and three Multi
Layer Perceptron-Back Propagation (MLP–BP) neural networks with
different topologies were designed and implemented. The new proposed
algorithm was applied to all 48 MIT–BIH Arrhythmia Database
records (within–record analysis) and the discrimination power of the
classifier in isolation of different beat types of each record was
assessed and as the result, the average accuracy value Acc=98.51%
was obtained. Also, the proposed method was applied to 6 number
of arrhythmias (Normal, LBBB, RBBB, PVC, APB, PB) belonging
to 20 different records of the aforementioned database (between–
record analysis) and the average value of Acc=95.6% was achieved.
To evaluate performance quality of the new proposed hybrid learning
machine, the obtained results were compared with similar peer–
reviewed studies in this area.