Abstract: The design of Reverse logistics Network has attracted
growing attention with the stringent pressures from both
environmental awareness and business sustainability. Reverse
logistical activities include return, remanufacture, disassemble and
dispose of products can be quite complex to manage. In addition,
demand can be difficult to predict, and decision making is one of the
challenges task in such network. This complexity has amplified the
need to develop an integrated architecture for product return as an
enterprise system. The main purpose of this paper is to design Multi
Agent System (MAS) architecture using the Prometheus
methodology to efficiently manage reverse logistics processes. The
proposed MAS architecture includes five types of agents: Gate
keeping Agent, Collection Agent, Sorting Agent, Processing Agent
and Disposal Agent which act respectively during the five steps of
reverse logistics Network.
Abstract: HR is a department that enhances the power of
employee performance in regard with their services, and to make the
organization strategic objectives. The main concern of HR
department is to organize people, focus on policies and their system.
The empirical study shows the relationship between HRM (Human
Resource Management practices) and their Job Satisfaction. The
Hypothesis is testing on a sample of overall 320 employees of 5
different Pharmaceutical departments of different organizations in
Pakistan. The important thing as Relationship of Job satisfaction with
HR Practices, Impact on Job Satisfaction with HR Practices,
Participation of Staff of Different Departments, HR Practices effects
the Job satisfaction, Recruitment or Hiring and Selection effects the
Job satisfaction, Training and Development, Performance and
Appraisals, Compensation affects the Job satisfaction , and Industrial
Relationships affects the Job satisfaction. After finishing all data
analysis, the conclusion is that lots of Job related activities raise the
confidence of Job satisfaction of employees with their salary and
other benefits.
Abstract: This article presents a vibration diagnostic method
designed for Permanent Magnets (PM) electrical machines–traction
motors and generators. Those machines are commonly used in traction
drives of electrical vehicles and small wind or water systems. The
described method is very innovative and unique. Specific structural
properties of machines excited by permanent magnets are used in this
method - electromotive force (EMF) generated due to vibrations. There
was analyzed number of publications, which describe vibration
diagnostic methods, and tests of electrical machines and there was no
method found to determine the technical condition of such machine
basing on their own signals. This work presents field-circuit model,
results of static tests, results of calculations and simulations.
Abstract: Currently, green rating systems are mainly utilized for
correctly sizing mechanical and electrical systems, which have short
lifetime expectancies. In these systems, passive solar and bio-climatic
architecture, which have long lifetime expectancies, are neglected.
Urban rating systems consider buildings and services in addition to
neighborhoods and public transportation as integral parts of the built
environment. The main goal of this study was to develop a more
consistent point allocation system for urban building standards by
using six different lifetime shearing layers: Site, Structure, Skin,
Services, Space, and Stuff, each reflecting distinct environmental
damages. This shearing-layer concept was applied to internationally
well-known rating systems: Leadership in Energy and Environmental
Design (LEED) for Neighborhood Development, BRE
Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) for Communities
and Comprehensive Assessment System for Building Environmental
Efficiency (CASBEE) for Urban Development. The results showed
that LEED for Neighborhood Development and BREEAM for
Communities focused on long-lifetime-expectancy building designs,
whereas CASBEE for Urban Development gave equal importance to
the Building and Service Layers. Moreover, although this rating
system was applied using a building-scale assessment, “Urban Area +
Buildings” focuses on a short-lifetime-expectancy system design,
neglecting to improve the architectural design by considering bioclimatic
and passive solar aspects.
Abstract: This paper presents the local mesh co-occurrence
patterns (LMCoP) using HSV color space for image retrieval system.
HSV color space is used in this method to utilize color, intensity and
brightness of images. Local mesh patterns are applied to define the
local information of image and gray level co-occurrence is used to
obtain the co-occurrence of LMeP pixels. Local mesh co-occurrence
pattern extracts the local directional information from local mesh
pattern and converts it into a well-mannered feature vector using gray
level co-occurrence matrix. The proposed method is tested on three
different databases called MIT VisTex, Corel, and STex. Also, this
algorithm is compared with existing methods, and results in terms of
precision and recall are shown in this paper.
Abstract: In this paper, we provided a literature survey on the
artificial stock problem (ASM). The paper began by exploring the
complexity of the stock market and the needs for ASM. ASM
aims to investigate the link between individual behaviors (micro
level) and financial market dynamics (macro level). The variety of
patterns at the macro level is a function of the AFM complexity. The
financial market system is a complex system where the relationship
between the micro and macro level cannot be captured analytically.
Computational approaches, such as simulation, are expected to
comprehend this connection. Agent-based simulation is a simulation
technique commonly used to build AFMs. The paper proceeds by
discussing the components of the ASM. We consider the roles
of behavioral finance (BF) alongside the traditionally risk-averse
assumption in the construction of agent’s attributes. Also, the
influence of social networks in the developing of agents interactions is
addressed. Network topologies such as a small world, distance-based,
and scale-free networks may be utilized to outline economic
collaborations. In addition, the primary methods for developing
agents learning and adaptive abilities have been summarized.
These incorporated approach such as Genetic Algorithm, Genetic
Programming, Artificial neural network and Reinforcement Learning.
In addition, the most common statistical properties (the stylized facts)
of stock that are used for calibration and validation of ASM are
discussed. Besides, we have reviewed the major related previous
studies and categorize the utilized approaches as a part of these
studies. Finally, research directions and potential research questions
are argued. The research directions of ASM may focus on the macro
level by analyzing the market dynamic or on the micro level by
investigating the wealth distributions of the agents.
Abstract: Nowadays, several research studies point up that an
active lifestyle is essential for physical and mental health benefits.
Mobile phones have greatly influenced people’s habits and attitudes
also in the way they exercise. Our research work is mainly focused on
investigating how to exploit mobile technologies to favour people’s
exertion experience. To this end, we developed an exertion framework
users can exploit through a real world mobile application, called
EverywhereSport Run (EWRun), designed to act as a virtual personal
trainer to support runners during their trainings. In this work, inspired
by both previous findings in the field of interaction design for people
with visual impairments, feedback gathered from real users of our
framework, and positive results obtained from two experimentations,
we present some new interaction facilities we designed to enhance
the interaction experience during a training. The positive obtained
results helped us to derive some interaction design recommendations
we believe will be a valid support for designers of future mobile
systems conceived to be used in circumstances where there are limited
possibilities of interaction.
Abstract: The development of electric vehicle batteries have
resulted in very high energy density lithium-ion batteries. However,
this progress is accompanied by the risk of thermal runaway, which
can result in serious accidents. Heat pipes are heat exchangers that
are suitable to be applied in electric vehicle battery thermal
management for their lightweight, compact size and do not require
external power supply. This paper aims to examine experimentally a
Flat Plate Loop Heat Pipe (FPLHP) performance as a heat exchanger
in thermal management system of lithium-ion battery for electric
vehicle application. The heat generation of the battery was simulated
using a cartridge heater. Stainless steel screen mesh was used as the
capillary wick. Distilled water, alcohol and acetone were used as
working fluids with a filling ratio of 60%. It was found that acetone
gives the best performance that produces thermal resistance of 0.22
W/°C with 50°C evaporator temperature at heat flux load of 1.61
W/cm2.
Abstract: Currently there are many use of threaded reinforcing
bars in construction fields because those do not need additional screw
processing when connecting reinforcing bar by threaded coupler. In
this study, reinforced concrete bridge piers using threaded rebar
coupler system at the plastic hinge area were tested to evaluate seismic
performance. The test results showed that threads of the threaded rebar
coupler system could be loosened while under tension-compression
cyclic loading because tolerance and rib face angle of a threaded rebar
coupler system are greater than that of a conventional ribbed rebar
coupler system. As a result, cracks were concentrated just outside of
the mechanical coupler and stiffness of reinforced concrete bridge pier
decreased. Therefore, it is recommended that connection ratio of
mechanical couplers in one section shall be below 50% in order that
cracks are not concentrated just outside of the mechanical coupler.
Also, reduced stiffness of the specimen should be considered when
using the threaded rebar coupler system.
Abstract: Voting algorithms are extensively used to make
decisions in fault tolerant systems where each redundant module
gives inconsistent outputs. Popular voting algorithms include
majority voting, weighted voting, and inexact majority voters. Each
of these techniques suffers from scenarios where agreements do not
exist for the given voter inputs. This has been successfully overcome
in literature using fuzzy theory. Our previous work concentrated on a
neuro-fuzzy algorithm where training using the neuro system
substantially improved the prediction result of the voting system.
Weight training of Neural Network is sub-optimal. This study
proposes to optimize the weights of the Neural Network using
Artificial Bee Colony algorithm. Experimental results show the
proposed system improves the decision making of the voting
algorithms.
Abstract: Phonocardiography is important in appraisal of
congenital heart disease and pulmonary hypertension as it reflects the
duration of right ventricular systoles. The systolic murmur in patients
with intra-cardiac shunt decreases as pulmonary hypertension
develops and may eventually disappear completely as the pulmonary
pressure reaches systemic level. Phonocardiography and auscultation
are non-invasive, low-cost, and accurate methods to assess heart
disease. In this work an objective signal processing tool to extract
information from phonocardiography signal using Wavelet is
proposed to classify the murmur as normal or abnormal. Since the
feature vector is large, a Binary Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO)
with mutation for feature selection is proposed. The extracted
features improve the classification accuracy and were tested across
various classifiers including Naïve Bayes, kNN, C4.5, and SVM.
Abstract: To tackle the air pollution issues, Plug-in Hybrid
Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) are proposed as an appropriate solution.
Charging a large amount of PHEV batteries, if not controlled, would
have negative impacts on the distribution system. The control process
of charging of these vehicles can be centralized in parking lots that
may provide a chance for better coordination than the individual
charging in houses. In this paper, an optimization-based approach is
proposed to determine the optimum PHEV parking capacities in
candidate nodes of the distribution system. In so doing, a profile for
charging and discharging of PHEVs is developed in order to flatten
the network load profile. Then, this profile is used in solving an
optimization problem to minimize the distribution system losses. The
outputs of the proposed method are the proper place for PHEV
parking lots and optimum capacity for each parking. The application
of the proposed method on the IEEE-34 node test feeder verifies the
effectiveness of the method.
Abstract: In order to study the effect of different levels of triple
super phosphate chemical fertilizer and biological phosphate fertilizer
(fertile 2) on some morphological traits of corn this research was
carried out in Ahvaz in 2002 as a factorial experiment in randomized
complete block design with 4 replications). The experiment included
two factors: first, biological phosphate fertilizer (fertile 2) at three
levels of 0, 100, 200 g/ha; second, triple super phosphate chemical
fertilizer at three levels of 0, 60, 90 kg/ha of pure phosphorus (P2O5).
The obtained results indicated that fertilizer treatments had a
significant effect on some morphological traits at 1% probability
level. In this regard, P2B2 treatment (100 g/ha biological phosphate
fertilizer (fertile 2) and 60 kg/ha triple super phosphate fertilizer) had
the greatest plant height, stem diameter, number of leaves and ear
length. It seems that in Ahvaz weather conditions, decrease of
consumption of triple superphosphate chemical fertilizer to less than
a half along with the consumption of biological phosphate fertilizer
(fertile 2) is highly important in order to achieve optimal results.
Therefore, it can be concluded that biological fertilizers can be used
as a suitable substitute for some of the chemical fertilizers in
sustainable agricultural systems.
Abstract: An experimental investigation is carried out to
establish the performance characteristics of a compression ignition
engine while using cerium oxide nanoparticles as additive in neat
diesel and diesel-biodiesel blends. In the first phase of the
experiments, stability of neat diesel and diesel-biodiesel fuel blends
with the addition of cerium oxide nanoparticles is analyzed. After
series of experiments, it is found that the blends subjected to high
speed blending followed by ultrasonic bath stabilization improves the
stability. In the second phase, performance characteristics are studied
using the stable fuel blends in a single cylinder four stroke engine
coupled with an electrical dynamometer and a data acquisition
system. The cerium oxide acts as an oxygen donating catalyst and
provides oxygen for combustion. The activation energy of cerium
oxide acts to burn off carbon deposits within the engine cylinder at
the wall temperature and prevents the deposition of non-polar
compounds on the cylinder wall results reduction in HC emissions.
The tests revealed that cerium oxide nanoparticles can be used as
additive in diesel and diesel-biodiesel blends to improve complete
combustion of the fuel significantly.
Abstract: Cross-linked konjac glucomannan and kappa
carrageenan film were prepared by chemical crosslinking using
glutaraldehyde (GA) as the crosslinking agent. The effect
crosslinking on the swelling degree was investigated. Konjac
glucomannan and its mixture with kappa carrageenan film was
immersed in GA solution and then thermally cured. The obtained
cross-linked film was washed and soaked in the ethanol to remove
the unreacted GA. The obtained film was air dried at room
temperature to a constant weight. The infrared spectra and the value
of swelling degree of obtained crosslinked film showed that
glucomannan and kappa carrageenan was able to be cross-linked
using glutaraldehyde by film immersion and curing method without
catalyst. The cross-linked films were found to be pH sensitive,
indicating a potential to be used in drug delivery polymer system.
Abstract: Crops diversity and maintaining and enhancing the
fertility of agricultural lands are basic principles of organic farming.
With a wider range of crops in agroecosystem can improve the ability
to control weeds, pests and diseases, and the performance of crops
rotation and food safety. In this sense, the main objective of the
research was to study the productivity and chemical composition of
some alternative crops and their adaptability to soil and climatic
conditions of the agricultural area in Southern Romania and to
cultivation in the organic farming system. The alternative crops were:
lentil (7 genotypes); five species of grain legumes (5 genotypes); four
species of oil crops (5 genotypes). The seed production was, on
average: 1343 kg/ha of lentil; 2500 kg/ha of field beans; 2400 kg/ha
of chick peas and blackeyed peas; more than 2000 kg/ha of atzuki
beans, over 1250 kg/ha of fenugreek; 2200 kg/ha of safflower; 570
kg/ha of oil pumpkin; 2150 kg/ha of oil flax; 1518 kg/ha of camelina.
Regarding chemical composition, lentil seeds contained: 22.18%
proteins, 3.03% lipids, 33.29% glucides, 4.00% minerals, and 259.97
kcal energy values. For field beans: 21.50% proteins, 4.40% lipids,
63.90% glucides, 5.85% minerals, 395.36 kcal energetic value. For
chick peas: 21.23% proteins, 4.55% lipids, 53.00% glucides, 3.67%
minerals, 348.22 kcal energetic value. For blackeyed peas: 23.30%
proteins, 2.10% lipids, 68.10% glucides, 3.93% minerals, 350.14 kcal
energetic value. For adzuki beans: 21.90% proteins, 2.60% lipids,
69.30% glucides, 4.10% minerals, 402.48 kcal energetic value. For
fenugreek: 21.30% proteins, 4.65% lipids, 63.83% glucides, 5.69%
minerals, 396.54 kcal energetic value. For safflower: 12.60%
proteins, 28.37% lipids, 46.41% glucides, 3.60% minerals, 505.78
kcal energetic value. For camelina: 20.29% proteins, 31.68% lipids,
36.28% glucides, 4.29% minerals, 526.63 kcal energetic value. For
oil pumpkin: 29.50% proteins, 36.92% lipids, 18.50% glucides,
5.41% minerals, 540.15 kcal energetic value. For oil flax: 22.56%
proteins, 34.10% lipids, 27.73% glucides, 5.25% minerals, 558.45
kcal energetic value.
Abstract: The Composite Shear Walls (CSW) with steel encased
profiles can be used as lateral-load resisting systems for buildings
that require considerable large lateral-load capacity. The aim of this
work is to propose the experimental work conducted on CSW having
L section folded plate (L shape steel made-up sections) as
longitudinal reinforcement in boundary regions. The study in this
paper present the experimental test conducted on CSW having L
section folded plate as longitudinal reinforcement in boundary
regions. The tested 1/3 geometric scaled CSW has aspect ratio of 3.2.
L-shape structural steel materials with 2L-19x57x7mm dimensions
were placed in shear wall boundary zones. The seismic behavior of
CSW test specimen was investigated by evaluating and interpreting
the hysteresis curves, envelope curves, rigidity and consumed energy
graphs of this tested element. In addition to this, the experimental
results, deformation and cracking patterns were evaluated, interpreted
and suggestions of the design recommendations were proposed.
Abstract: Sustainability is a very important and heavily
discussed subject, expanding through tourism as well. The study
proposition was to collect data and present it to the competent bodies
so they can mold their public policies to improve the conditions of
the site. It was hypothesized that the lack of data is currently
affecting the quality of life and the sustainable development of the
site and the tourism. The research was held in Mateiros, a city in the
state of Tocantins (TO)/Brasil near Palmas, its capital city. Because
of the concentration of tourists during the high season and several
tourist attractions being around, the research took place in Mateiros.
The methodological procedure had a script of theoretical construction
and investigation of the deductive scientific method parameters
through a case study in the Jalapão/TO/Brazil region, using it as a
tool for a questionnaire given to the competent bodies in an interview
system with the UN sustainability indexes as a base. In the three
sustainable development scope: environmental, social and economic,
the results indicated that the data presented by the interviewed were
scarce or nonexistent. It shows that more research is necessary,
providing the tools for the ones responsible to propose action plans to
improve the site, strengthening the tourism and making it even more
sustainable.
Abstract: Most of the existing video streaming protocols
provide video services without considering security aspects in
decentralized mobile ad-hoc networks. The security policies adapted
to the currently existing non-streaming protocols, do not comply with
the live video streaming protocols resulting in considerable
vulnerability, high bandwidth consumption and unreliability which
cause severe security threats, low bandwidth and error prone
transmission respectively in video streaming applications. Therefore
a synergized methodology is required to reduce vulnerability and
bandwidth consumption, and enhance reliability in the video
streaming applications in MANET. To ensure the security measures
with reduced bandwidth consumption and improve reliability of the
video streaming applications, a Secure Low-bandwidth Video
Streaming through Reliable Multipath Propagation (SLVRMP)
protocol architecture has been proposed by incorporating the two
algorithms namely Secure Low-bandwidth Video Streaming
Algorithm and Reliable Secure Multipath Propagation Algorithm
using Layered Video Coding in non-overlapping zone routing
network topology. The performances of the proposed system are
compared to those of the other existing secure multipath protocols
Sec-MR, SPREAD using NS 2.34 and the simulation results show
that the performances of the proposed system get considerably
improved.
Abstract: The enormous amount of information stored on the
web increases from one day to the next, exposing the web currently
faced with the inevitable difficulties of research pertinent information
that users really want. The problem today is not limited to expanding
the size of the information highways, but to design a system for
intelligent search. The vast majority of this information is stored in
relational databases, which in turn represent a backend for managing
RDF data of the semantic web. This problem has motivated us to
write this paper in order to establish an effective approach to support
semantic transformation algorithm for SPARQL queries to SQL
queries, more precisely SPARQL SELECT queries; by adopting this
method, the relational database can be questioned easily with
SPARQL queries maintaining the same performance.