Abstract: Ancillary services are support services which are
essential for humanizing and enhancing the reliability and security of
the electric power system. Reactive power ancillary service is one of
the important ancillary services in a restructured electricity market
which determines the cost of supplying ancillary services and finding
of how this cost would change with respect to operating decisions.
This paper presents a new formation that can be used to minimize the
Independent System Operator (ISO)’s total payment for reactive
power ancillary service. The modified power flow tracing algorithm
estimates the availability of reserve reactive power for ancillary
service. In order to find optimum reactive power dispatch,
Biogeography based optimization method (BPO) is proposed. Market
Reactive Clearing Price (MRCP) is then estimated and it encourages
generator companies (GENCOs) to participate in an ancillary service.
Finally, optimal weighting factor and real time utilization factor of
reactive power give the minimum ISO’s total payment. The
effectiveness of proposed design is verified using IEEE 30 bus
system.
Abstract: In MANET, mobile nodes communicate with each
other using the wireless channel where transmission takes place with
significant interference. The wireless medium used in MANET is a
shared resource used by all the nodes available in MANET. Packet
reserving is one important resource management scheme which
controls the allocation of bandwidth among multiple flows through
node cooperation in MANET. This paper proposes packet reserving
and clogging control via Routing Aware Packet Reserving (RAPR)
framework in MANET. It mainly focuses the end-to-end routing
condition with maximal throughput. RAPR is complimentary system
where the packet reserving utilizes local routing information
available in each node. Path setup in RAPR estimates the security
level of the system, and symbolizes the end-to-end routing by
controlling the clogging. RAPR reaches the packet to the destination
with high probability ratio and minimal delay count. The standard
performance measures such as network security level,
communication overhead, end-to-end throughput, resource utilization
efficiency and delay measure are considered in this work. The results
reveals that the proposed packet reservation and clogging control via
Routing Aware Packet Reserving (RAPR) framework performs well
for the above said performance measures compare to the existing
methods.
Abstract: Innovations not only contribute to competitiveness of
the company but have also positive effects on revenues. On average,
product innovations account to 14 percent of companies’ sales.
Innovation management has substantially changed during the last
decade, because of growing reliance on external partners. As a
consequence, a new task for purchasing arises, as firms need to
understand which suppliers actually do have high potential
contributing to the innovativeness of the firm and which do not.
Proper organization of the purchasing function is important since
for the majority of manufacturing companies deal with substantial
material costs which pass through the purchasing function. In the past
the purchasing function was largely seen as a transaction-oriented,
clerical function but today purchasing is the intermediate with supply
chain partners contributing to innovations, be it product or process
innovations. Therefore, purchasing function has to be organized
differently to enable firm innovation potential.
However, innovations are inherently risky. There are behavioral
risk (that some partner will take advantage of the other party),
technological risk in terms of complexity of products and processes
of manufacturing and incoming materials and finally market risks,
which in fact judge the value of the innovation. These risks are
investigated in this work. Specifically, technological risks which deal
with complexity of the products, and processes will be investigated
more thoroughly. Buying components or such high edge technologies
necessities careful investigation of technical features and therefore is
usually conducted by a team of experts. Therefore it is hypothesized
that higher the technological risk, higher will be the centralization of
the purchasing function as an interface with other supply chain
members.
Main contribution of this research lies is in the fact that analysis
was performed on a large data set of 1493 companies, from 25
countries collected in the GMRG 4 survey. Most analyses of
purchasing function are done by case study analysis of innovative
firms. Therefore this study contributes with empirical evaluations that
can be generalized.
Abstract: In the culture of Thailand, the Yak serve as a mediated
icon representing strength, power, and mystical protection not only
for the Buddha, but for population of worshipers. Originating from
the forests of China, the Yak continues to stand guard at the gates of
Buddhist temples. The Yak represents Thai culture in the hearts of
Thai people. This paper presents a qualitative study regarding the
curious mix of media, culture, and religion that projects the Yak of
Thailand as a larger than life message throughout the political,
cultural, and religious spheres. The gate guardians, or gods as they
are sometimes called, appear throughout the religious temples of
Asian cultures. However, the Asian cultures demonstrate differences
in artistic renditions (or presentations) of such sentinels. Thailand
gate guards (the Yak) stand in front of many Buddhist temples, and
these iconic figures display unique features with varied symbolic
significance. The temple (or wat), plays a vital role in every
community; and, for many people, Thailand’s temples are the
country’s most endearing sights. The authors applied folknography as
a methodology to illustrate the importance of the Thai Yak in serving
as meaningful icons that transcend not only time, but the culture,
religion, and mass media. The Yak represents mythical, religious,
artistic, cultural, and militaristic significance for the Thai people.
Data collection included interviews, focus groups, and natural
observations. This paper summarizes the perceptions of the Thai
people concerning their gate sentries and the relationship,
communication, connection, and the enduring respect that Thai
people hold for their guardians of the gates.
Abstract: The goal of this article is the analysis of knowledge
transfer at the regional level of the Czech Republic. We show how
goals of enterprises´ innovative activities are related to the rate of
cooperation with different actors within regional innovative systems
as well as in other world regions. The results show that the most
important partners of enterprises are their suppliers and clients in
most Czech regions. The cooperation rate of enterprises correlates
significantly mainly with enterprises´ efforts to enter new markets
and reduce labour costs per unit output. The meaning of this
cooperation decreases with the increase of partner’s distance.
Regarding the type of a cooperating partner, cooperation within an
enterprise had to do with the increase of market share and decrease of
labour costs. On the other hand, cooperation with clients had to do
with efforts to replace outdated products or processes or enter new
markets. We can pay less attention to the cooperation with
government authorities and organizations. The reasons for
marginalization of this cooperation should be submitted to further
detailed investigation.
Abstract: The use of IT equipment has become a part of every
day. However, each device that is part of cyberspace should be
secured against unauthorized use. It is very important to know the
basics of these security devices, but also the basics of safe conduct
their owners. This information should be part of every curriculum
computer science education in primary and secondary schools.
Therefore, the work focuses on the education of pupils in primary and
secondary schools on the Internet. Analysis of the current state
describes approaches to the education of pupils in security issues on
the Internet. The paper presents a questionnaire-based survey which
was carried out in the Czech Republic, whose task was to ascertain
the level of opinion pupils in primary and secondary schools on the
issue of communication in social networks. The research showed that
awareness of socio-pathological phenomena on the Internet
environment is very low. Based on the results it was proposed
appropriate ways of teaching to this issue and its inclusion a proposal
of curriculum for primary and secondary schools.
Abstract: Characterization of the engineering behavior of
unsaturated soil is dependent on the soil-water characteristic curve
(SWCC), a graphical representation of the relationship between water
content or degree of saturation and soil suction. A reasonable
description of the SWCC is thus important for the accurate prediction
of unsaturated soil parameters. The measurement procedures for
determining the SWCC, however, are difficult, expensive, and timeconsuming.
During the past few decades, researchers have laid a
major focus on developing empirical equations for predicting the
SWCC, with a large number of empirical models suggested. One of
the most crucial questions is how precisely existing equations can
represent the SWCC. As different models have different ranges of
capability, it is essential to evaluate the precision of the SWCC
models used for each particular soil type for better SWCC estimation.
It is expected that better estimation of SWCC would be achieved via
a thorough statistical analysis of its distribution within a particular
soil class. With this in view, a statistical analysis was conducted in
order to evaluate the reliability of the SWCC prediction models
against laboratory measurement. Optimization techniques were used
to obtain the best-fit of the model parameters in four forms of SWCC
equation, using laboratory data for relatively coarse-textured (i.e.,
sandy) soil. The four most prominent SWCCs were evaluated and
computed for each sample. The result shows that the Brooks and
Corey model is the most consistent in describing the SWCC for sand
soil type. The Brooks and Corey model prediction also exhibit
compatibility with samples ranging from low to high soil water
content in which subjected to the samples that evaluated in this study.
Abstract: Caused by shorter product life cycles and higher
product variety the importance of production ramp ups is increasing.
Even though companies are aware of that fact, up to 40% of the ramp
up projects still miss technical and economical requirements. The
success of a ramp up depends on the planning of human factors,
organizational aspects and technological solutions. Since only partly
considered in scientific literature, this paper lays its focus on the
human factor during production ramp up. There are only incoherent
methods which address the problems in this area. A systematic and
holistic method to improve the capabilities of the employees during
ramp up is missing. The Harada Method is a relatively young
approach for developing highly-skilled workers. It consists of
different worksheets which help employees to set guidelines and
reach overall objectives. This approach is going to be transferred into
a tool for ramp up management.
Abstract: A wireless sensor network (WSN) is a collection of
sensor nodes organized into a cooperative network. These nodes
communicate through a wireless antenna. Reduction in physical size
and multiband operation is an important requirement of WSN
antenna. Fractal antenna is used for miniaturization and multiband
operation. The self-similar or self-affine and space filling property of
fractal geometry increases the effective electrical length of the
antenna, reduces the size and make them frequency independent. This
paper elaborates on Dual band fractal antenna with Coplanar
Waveguide (CPW) feed for WSN. The proposed antenna is designed
on a FR4 substrate with the dimension of 27mm x 28.5mm x 1.6mm,
resonates at 2.4GHz and 5.2GHz with a return loss less than -10dB.
The design and simulation process is carried out using IE3D
simulation software. The simulated and measured results are found in
good agreement.
Abstract: In this paper, thick walled Cylindrical tanks or tubes
made of functionally graded material under internal pressure and
temperature gradient are studied. Material parameters have been
considered as power functions. They play important role in the
elastoplastic behavior of these materials. To clarify their role,
different materials with different parameters have been used under
temperature gradient. Finally, their effect and loading effect have
been determined in first yield point. Also, the important role of
temperature gradient was also shown. At the end the study has been
results obtained from changes in the elastic modulus and yield stress.
Also special attention is also given to the effects of this internal
pressure and temperature gradient in the creation of tensile and
compressive stresses.
Abstract: Novel bio-based polymer electrolyte was synthesized
with LiClO4 as the main source of charge carrier. Initially,
polyurethane-LiClO4 polymer electrolytes were synthesized via
prepolymerization method with different NCO/OH ratios and labelled
them as PU1, PU2, PU3 and PU4. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR)
analysis indicates the co-ordination between Li+ ion and polyurethane
in PU1. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis indicates
PU1 has the highest glass transition temperature (Tg) corresponds to
the most abundant urethane group which is the hard segment in PU1.
Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) shows the good miscibility
between lithium salt and the polymer. The study found that PU1
possessed the greatest ionic conductivity and the lowest activation
energy, Ea. All the polyurethanes exhibited linear Arrhenius
variations indicating ion transport via simple lithium ion hopping in
polyurethane. This research proves the NCO content in polyurethane
plays an important role in affecting the ionic conductivity of this
polymer electrolyte.
Abstract: This paper presents a new method to design nonlinear
feedback linearization controller for PEMFCs (Polymer Electrolyte
Membrane Fuel Cells). A nonlinear controller is designed based on
nonlinear model to prolong the stack life of PEMFCs. Since it is
known that large deviations between hydrogen and oxygen partial
pressures can cause severe membrane damage in the fuel cell,
feedback linearization is applied to the PEMFC system so that the
deviation can be kept as small as possible during disturbances or load
variations. To obtain an accurate feedback linearization controller,
tuning the linear parameters are always important. So in proposed
study NSGA (Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm)-II method
was used to tune the designed controller in aim to decrease the
controller tracking error. The simulation result showed that the
proposed method tuned the controller efficiently.
Abstract: As the human race will continue to explore the space
by creating new space transportation means and sending them to other
planets, the enhance of atmospheric reentry study is crucial. In this
context, an analysis of mass recession rate of ablative materials for
thermal shields of reentry spacecrafts is important to be carried out.
The paper describes a new estimation method for calculating the mass
recession of an ablator system made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic
materials. This method is based on Arrhenius equation for low
temperatures and, for high temperatures, on a theory applied for the
recession phenomenon of carbon fiber reinforced plastic materials,
theory which takes into account the presence of the resin inside the
materials. The space mission of USERS spacecraft is considered as a
case study.
Abstract: Due to reduced stiffness, research on second
generation titanium alloys for implant applications, like the
metastable β-titanium alloy Ti-15Mo, become more and more
important in the recent years. The machinability of these alloys is
generally poor leading to problems during implant production and
comparably large production costs. Therefore, in the present study,
Ti-15Mo was alloyed with 0.8 wt.-% of the rare earth metals
lanthanum (Ti-15Mo+0.8La) and neodymium (Ti-15Mo+0.8Nd) to
improve its machinability. Their microstructure consisted of a
titanium matrix and micrometer-size particles of the rare earth metals
and two of their oxides. The particles stabilized the microstructure as
grain growth was minimized. As especially the ductility might be
affected by the precipitates, the behavior of Ti-15Mo+0.8La and Ti-
15Mo+0.8Nd was investigated during static and dynamic
deformation at elevated temperature to develop a processing route.
The resulting mechanical properties (static strength and ductility)
were similar in all investigated alloys.
Abstract: Heavy metals are one of the major groups of
contaminants in the environment and many of them are toxic even at
very low concentration in plants and animals. However, some metals
play important roles in the biological function of many enzymes in
living organisms. Metals such as zinc, iron, and cooper are important
for survival and activity of enzymes in plants, however heavy metals
can inhibit enzyme which is responsible for defense system of plants.
Polyphenol oxidase (PPO) is a copper-containing metalloenzyme
which is responsible for enzymatic browning reaction of plants.
Enzymatic browning is a major problem for the handling of
vegetables and fruits in food industry. It can be increased and
effected with many different futures such as metals in the nature and
ground. In the present work, PPO was isolated and characterized
from green leaves of red poppy plant (Papaverr hoeas). Then, the
effect of some known antibrowning agents which can form
complexes with metals and metals were investigated on the red poppy
PPO activity. The results showed that glutathione was the most
potent inhibitory effect on PPO activity. Cu(II) and Fe(II) metals
increased the enzyme activities however, Sn(II) had the maximum
inhibitory effect and Zn(II) and Pb(II) had no significant effect on the
enzyme activity. In order to reduce the effect of heavy metals, the
effects of metal-antibrowning agent complexes on the PPO activity
were determined. EDTA and metal complexes had no significant
effect on the enzyme. L-ascorbic acid and metal complexes decreased
but L-ascorbic acid-Cu(II)-complex had no effect. Glutathione–metal
complexes had the best inhibitory effect on Red poppy leaf PPO
activity.
Abstract: This paper presents a comparison of reference
management software between RefWorks and Zotero. The results
were drawn by comparing two software and the novelty of this paper
is the comparative analysis of software and it has shown that
ReftWorks can import more information from the Google Scholar for
the researchers. This finding could help to know researchers to use
the reference management software.
Abstract: This paper presents an anthropometric study
conducted to 300 employees in a maquiladora industry that belongs
to the cluster of medical products as part of a research project to
pretend simulate workplace conditions under which operators
conduct their activities. This project is relevant because traditionally
performed a study to design ergonomic workspaces according to
anthropometric profile of users, however, this paper demonstrates the
importance of making decisions when the infrastructure cannot be
adapted for economic whichever put emphasis on user activity.
Abstract: No matter how much perfect we become in our
practical skills regarding the implementation of learned ideas, the
need of technical writing capability cannot be neglected being a
professional. Technical writing is a way of communicating the ideas
in written which otherwise need to be presented orally. Technical
writing skills have always been the need of the time, as they are
required for internal as well as external official communication in
both formal and informal manner. Moreover, they are the best way to
capture the attention of your customers by presenting information in
effective manner. This paper aims to analyze the importance of
technical writing skills in professional industries of Pakistan by
conducting a survey. Survey results presented in this paper clearly
depicts the importance of formal and informal written communication
media used in different professional industries in Pakistan. Analysis
and discussion of the extent to which the alternative ways of
communication besides technical writing have got importance in
Pakistan is also an important aspect of this survey.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to analyze the ability to
identify and acquire knowledge from external sources at the regional
level in the Czech Republic. The results show that the most important
sources of knowledge for innovative activities are sources within the
businesses themselves, followed by customers and suppliers.
Furthermore, the analysis of relationships between the objective of
the innovative activity and the ability to identify and acquire
knowledge implies that knowledge obtained from (1) customers aims
at replacing outdated products and increasing product quality; (2)
suppliers aims at increasing capacity and flexibility of production;
and (3) competing businesses aims at growing market share and
increasing the flexibility of production and services. Regions should
therefore direct their support especially into development and
strengthening of networks within the value chain.
Abstract: The main objective of this study was to identify
factors and conditions that motivated and encouraged students
towards the math class and the factors that made this class an
attractive and lovely one. To do this end, questionnaires consisting of
15 questions were distributed among 85 math teachers working in
schools of Zahedan. Having collected and reviewed these
questionnaires, it was shown that doing activity in math class
(activity of students while teaching) and previous math teachers'
behaviors have had much impact on encouraging the students
towards mathematics. Separation of educational classroom of
mathematics from the main classroom (which is decorated with crafts
created by students themselves with regard to math book including
article, wall newspaper, figures and formulas), peers, size and
appearance of math book, first grade teachers in each educational
level, among whom the Elementary first grade teachers had more
importance and impact, were among the most influential and
important factors in this regard. Then, school environment, family,
conducting research related to mathematics, its application in daily
life and other courses and studying the history of mathematics were
categorized as important factors that would increase the students’
interest in mathematics.