Abstract: In the past decade, artificial neural networks (ANNs)
have been regarded as an instrument for problem-solving and
decision-making; indeed, they have already done with a substantial
efficiency and effectiveness improvement in industries and businesses.
In this paper, the Back-Propagation neural Networks (BPNs) will be
modulated to demonstrate the performance of the collaborative
forecasting (CF) function of a Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and
Replenishment (CPFR®) system. CPFR functions the balance between
the sufficient product supply and the necessary customer demand in a
Supply and Demand Chain (SDC). Several classical standard BPN will
be grouped, collaborated and exploited for the easy implementation of
the proposed modular ANN framework based on the topology of a
SDC. Each individual BPN is applied as a modular tool to perform the
task of forecasting SKUs (Stock-Keeping Units) levels that are
managed and supervised at a POS (point of sale), a wholesaler, and a
manufacturer in an SDC. The proposed modular BPN-based CF
system will be exemplified and experimentally verified using lots of
datasets of the simulated SDC. The experimental results showed that a
complex CF problem can be divided into a group of simpler
sub-problems based on the single independent trading partners
distributed over SDC, and its SKU forecasting accuracy was satisfied
when the system forecasted values compared to the original simulated
SDC data. The primary task of implementing an autonomous CF
involves the study of supervised ANN learning methodology which
aims at making “knowledgeable" decision for the best SKU sales plan
and stocks management.
Abstract: The Ad Hoc on demand distance vector (AODV) routing protocol is designed for mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs). AODV offers quick adaptation to dynamic link conditions; it is characterized by low memory overhead and low network utilization. The security issues related to the protocol remain challenging for the wireless network designers. Numerous schemes have been proposed for establishing secure communication between end users, these schemes identify that the secure operation of AODV is a bi tier task (routing and secure exchange of information at separate levels). Our endeavor in this paper would focus on achieving the routing and secure data exchange in a single step. This will facilitate the user nodes to perform routing, mutual authentications, generation and secure exchange of session key in one step thus ensuring confidentiality, integrity and authentication of data exchange in a more suitable way.
Abstract: Nagaland, the 16th state of India in order of
statehood, is situated between 25° 6' and 27° 4' latitude north and
between 93º 20' E and 95º 15' E longitude of equator in the North
Eastern part of the India. Endowed with varied topography, soil and
agro climatic conditions it is known for its potentiality to grow all
most all kinds of horticultural crops. Pineapple being grown since
long organically by default is one of the most promising crops of the
state with emphasis being laid for commercialization by the
government of Nagaland. In light of commercialization, globalization
and scope of setting small-scale industries, a research study was
undertaken to examine the socio-economic and personal
characteristics, entrepreneurial characteristics and attitude of the
pineapple growers towards improved package of practices of
pineapple cultivation. The study was conducted in Medziphema
block of Dimapur district of the Nagaland state of India following ex
post facto research design. Ninety pineapple growers were selected
from four different villages of Medziphema block based on
proportionate random selection procedure. Findings of the study
revealed that majority of the respondents had medium level of
entrepreneurial characteristics in terms of knowledge level, risk
orientation, self confidence, management orientation, farm decision
making ability and leadership ability and most of them had
favourable attitude towards improved package of practices of
pineapple cultivation. The variables age, education, farm size, risk
orientation, management orientation and sources of information
utilized were found important to influence the attitude of the
respondents. The study revealed that favourable attitude and
entrepreneurial characteristics of the pineapple cultivators might be
harnessed for increased production of pineapple in the state thereby
bringing socio economic upliftment of the marginal and small-scale
farmers.
Abstract: Academia-industry relationship is not like that of
technology donator-acceptor, but is of interactive and collaborative
nature, acknowledging and ensuring mutual respect for each other-s
role and contributions with an eye to attaining the true purpose of
such relationships, namely, bringing about research-outcome
synergy. Indeed, academia-industry interactions are a system that
requires active and collaborative participations of all the
stakeholders.
This paper examines various issues associated with academic
institutions and industry collaboration with special attention to the
nature of resources and potentialities of stakeholders in the context of
knowledge management. This paper also explores the barriers of
academia-industry interaction. It identifies potential areas where
industry-s participation with academia would be most effective for
synergism. Lastly, this paper proposes an integrated model of several
new collaborative approaches that are possible, mainly in the Indian
scenario to strengthen academia-industry interface.
Abstract: The ability of the brain to organize information and generate the functional structures we use to act, think and communicate, is a common and easily observable natural phenomenon. In object-oriented analysis, these structures are represented by objects. Objects have been extensively studied and documented, but the process that creates them is not understood. In this work, a new class of discrete, deterministic, dissipative, host-guest dynamical systems is introduced. The new systems have extraordinary self-organizing properties. They can host information representing other physical systems and generate the same functional structures as the brain does. A simple mathematical model is proposed. The new systems are easy to simulate by computer, and measurements needed to confirm the assumptions are abundant and readily available. Experimental results presented here confirm the findings. Applications are many, but among the most immediate are object-oriented engineering, image and voice recognition, search engines, and Neuroscience.
Abstract: The eco-efficient use of “waste" makes sense from
economic, social, and environmental perspectives. By efficiency diverting “waste" products back into useful and/or profitable inputs,
industries and entire societies can reap the benefits of improved financial profit, decreased environmental degradation, and overall
well-being of humanity.
In this project, several material flows at
Company Limited were investigated. Principles of "industrial ecology" were applied to improve the management of waste rubbers that are used in the jewelry manufacturing process. complete this project, a brief engineering analysis stream, and investigated eco-efficient principles for more efficient
handling of the materials and wastes were conducted, and the result were used to propose implementation strategies.
Abstract: Describes the current situation of educational Robotics
"the State of the art" its concept, its evolution their niches of
opportunity, academic and business and the importance of education
and academic outreach. It shows that the development of high-tech
automated educational materials influence the teaching-learning
process and that communication between machines and humans is a
reality.
Abstract: The introduction of sowing technologies into minimum- or no-tillage soil has a number of economical and environmental virtues, such as improving soil properties, decreasing soil erosion and degradation, and saving working time and fuel. However, the main disadvantage of these technologies is that plant residues on the soil surface reduce the quality of the planted crop seeds, thus requiring plant residues to be removed or cut. This paper presents a analysis of disc coulter parameters and an experimental investigation of cutting spring barley straw containing various amounts of moisture with different disc coulters (smooth and notched).
Abstract: With increasing complexity in electronic systems
there is a need for system level anomaly detection and fault isolation.
Anomaly detection based on vector similarity to a training set is used
in this paper through two approaches, one the preserves the original
information, Mahalanobis Distance (MD), and the other that
compresses the data into its principal components, Projection Pursuit
Analysis. These methods have been used to detect deviations in
system performance from normal operation and for critical parameter
isolation in multivariate environments. The study evaluates the
detection capability of each approach on a set of test data with known
faults against a baseline set of data representative of such “healthy"
systems.
Abstract: Majority of researches conducted on Iranian urban
development plans indicate that they have been almost unsuccessful
in terms of draft, execution and goal achievement. Lack or shortage
of essential statistics and information can be listed as an important
reason of the failure of these plans. Lack of figures and information
has turned into an obvious part of the country-s statistics officials.
This problem has made urban planner themselves to embark on
physical surveys including real estate and land pricing, population
and economic census of the city. Apart from the problems facing
urban developers, the possibility of errors is high in such surveys.
In the present article, applying the interview technique, it has
been mentioned that utilizing multipurpose cadastre system as a land
information system is essential for urban development plans in Iran.
It can minimize or even remove the failures facing urban
development plans.
Abstract: This study presents a mathematical modeling approach to the planning of HIV therapies on an individual basis. The model replicates clinical data from typical-progressors to AIDS for all stages of the disease with good agreement. Clinical data from rapid-progressors and long-term non-progressors is also matched by estimation of immune system parameters only. The ability of the model to reproduce these phenomena validates the formulation, a fact which is exploited in the investigation of effective therapies. The therapy investigation suggests that, unlike continuous therapy, structured treatment interruptions (STIs) are able to control the increase in both the drug-sensitive and drug-resistant virus population and, hence, prevent the ultimate progression from HIV to AIDS. The optimization results further suggest that even patients characterised by the same progression type can respond very differently to the same treatment and that the latter should be designed on a case-by-case basis. Such a methodology is presented here.
Abstract: Tensile armour wires provide a flexible pipe's
resistance to longitudinal stresses. Flexible pipe manufacturers need
to know the effect of defects such as scratches and cracks, with
dimensions less than 0.2mm which is the limit of the current nondestructive
detection technology, on the fracture stress and fracture
strain of the wire for quality assurance purposes. Recent research
involving the determination of the fracture strength of cracked wires
employed laboratory testing and classical fracture mechanics
approach using non-standardised fracture mechanics specimens
because standard test specimens could not be manufactured from the
wires owing to their sizes. In this work, the effect of miniature
cracks on the fracture properties of tensile armour wires was
investigated using laboratory and finite element tensile testing
simulations with the phenomenological shear fracture model. The
investigation revealed that the presence of cracks shallower than
0.2mm is worse on the fracture strain of the wire.
Abstract: This was the first document revealing the
investigation of protein hydrolysate production optimization from J.
curcas cake. Proximate analysis of raw material showed 18.98%
protein, 5.31% ash, 8.52% moisture and 12.18% lipid. The
appropriate protein hydrolysate production process began with
grinding the J. curcas cake into small pieces. Then it was suspended
in 2.5% sodium hydroxide solution with ratio between solution/ J.
curcas cake at 80:1 (v/w). The hydrolysis reaction was controlled at
temperature 50 °C in water bath for 45 minutes. After that, the
supernatant (protein hydrolysate) was separated using centrifuge at
8000g for 30 minutes. The maximum yield of resulting protein
hydrolysate was 73.27 % with 7.34% moisture, 71.69% total protein,
7.12% lipid, 2.49% ash. The product was also capable of well
dissolving in water.
Abstract: Achievement motivation is believed to promote
giftedness attracting people to invest in many programs to adopt
gifted students providing them with challenging activities.
Intellectual giftedness is founded on the fluid intelligence and
extends to more specific abilities through the growth and inputs from
the achievement motivation. Acknowledging the roles played by the
motivation in the development of giftedness leads to an effective
nurturing of gifted individuals. However, no study has investigated
the direct and indirect effects of the achievement motivation and
fluid intelligence on intellectual giftedness. Thus, this study
investigated the contribution of motivation factors to giftedness
development by conducting tests of fluid intelligence using Cattell
Culture Fair Test (CCFT) and analytical abilities using culture
reduced test items covering problem solving, pattern recognition,
audio-logic, audio-matrices, and artificial language, and self report
questionnaire for the motivational factors. A number of 180 highscoring
students were selected using CCFT from a leading university
in Malaysia. Structural equation modeling was employed using Amos
V.16 to determine the direct and indirect effects of achievement
motivation factors (self confidence, success, perseverance,
competition, autonomy, responsibility, ambition, and locus of
control) on the intellectual giftedness. The findings showed that the
hypothesized model fitted the data, supporting the model postulates
and showed significant and strong direct and indirect effects of the
motivation and fluid intelligence on the intellectual giftedness.
Abstract: Inter-organizational Workflow (IOW) is commonly
used to support the collaboration between heterogeneous and
distributed business processes of different autonomous organizations
in order to achieve a common goal. E-government is considered as an
application field of IOW. The coordination of the different
organizations is the fundamental problem in IOW and remains the
major cause of failure in e-government projects. In this paper, we
introduce a new coordination model for IOW that improves the
collaboration between government administrations and that respects
IOW requirements applied to e-government. For this purpose, we
adopt a Multi-Agent approach, which deals more easily with interorganizational
digital government characteristics: distribution,
heterogeneity and autonomy. Our model integrates also different
technologies to deal with the semantic and technologic
interoperability. Moreover, it conserves the existing systems of
government administrations by offering a distributed coordination
based on interfaces communication. This is especially applied in
developing countries, where administrations are not necessary
equipped with workflow systems. The use of our coordination
techniques allows an easier migration for an e-government solution
and with a lower cost. To illustrate the applicability of the proposed
model, we present a case study of an identity card creation in Tunisia.
Abstract: Since the late 1980s, the new phenomena of 'employment subcentres' or 'polycentricity' has appeared in the metropolises of North American and Western Europe and it has been an interesting topic for academics and researchers. This paper specifically uses one case study-Guangzhou to explore the development and the mechanism of employment subcentres and polycentricity in Chinese metropolises by spatial analysis method on the basis of the first economic census data. In conclusion, the paper regards that the employment subcentres and polycentricity has existed in Chinese metropolises. And that, the mechanism of them is mainly from the secondary industry instead of the tertiary industry in North American and Western Europe
Abstract: One of the long standing challenging aspect in mobile robotics is the ability to navigate autonomously, avoiding modeled and unmodeled obstacles especially in crowded and unpredictably changing environment. A successful way of structuring the navigation task in order to deal with the problem is within behavior based navigation approaches. In this study, Issues of individual behavior design and action coordination of the behaviors will be addressed using fuzzy logic. A layered approach is employed in this work in which a supervision layer based on the context makes a decision as to which behavior(s) to process (activate) rather than processing all behavior(s) and then blending the appropriate ones, as a result time and computational resources are saved.
Abstract: The recent global financial problem urges government
to play role in stimulating the economy due to the fact that private
sector has little ability to purchase during the recession. A concerned
question is whether the increased government spending crowds out
private consumption and whether it helps stimulate the economy. If
the government spending policy is effective; the private consumption
is expected to increase and can compensate the recent extra
government expense. In this study, the government spending is
categorized into government consumption spending and government
capital spending. The study firstly examines consumer consumption
along the line with the demand function in microeconomic theory.
Three categories of private consumption are used in the study. Those
are food consumption, non food consumption, and services
consumption. The dynamic Almost Ideal Demand System of the three
categories of the private consumption is estimated using the Vector
Error Correction Mechanism model. The estimated model indicates
the substituting effects (negative impacts) of the government
consumption spending on budget shares of private non food
consumption and of the government capital spending on budget share
of private food consumption, respectively. Nevertheless the result
does not necessarily indicate whether the negative effects of changes
in the budget shares of the non food and the food consumption means
fallen total private consumption. Microeconomic consumer demand
analysis clearly indicates changes in component structure of
aggregate expenditure in the economy as a result of the government
spending policy. The macroeconomic concept of aggregate demand
comprising consumption, investment, government spending (the
government consumption spending and the government capital
spending), export, and import are used to estimate for their
relationship using the Vector Error Correction Mechanism model.
The macroeconomic study found no effect of the government capital
spending on either the private consumption or the growth of GDP
while the government consumption spending has negative effect on
the growth of GDP. Therefore no crowding out effect of the
government spending is found on the private consumption but it is
ineffective and even inefficient expenditure as found reducing growth
of the GDP in the context of Thailand.
Abstract: In this paper, we analyzed the pattern of urban spatial structure of Siheung City that had been divided into two parts and presented alternative plans in order to get rid of these phenomena. Concerning patterns of urban spatial structure, we examined it through means of analyzing status of land use, population density and distribution of residence, status of distribution of main facilities, medical facilities, status of distribution of cultural facilities, distribution of land prices and traffic volume trends. The results of study revealed that status of facilities distribution and distribution of land prices, etc. were bisected by the surrounding area of former municipal office and the district of Sihwa, which were both regarded as one apex of the city divide, forming a duo-centric city. In order to get rid of this problem concerned with urban spatial structure that has been bisected, it is required that measures in order to expand facilities in Siheung City should be taken.
Abstract: Not with standing the importance of foreign highly
skilled professionals for host economies, there is a paucity of
research studies investigating the role of the corporate social context
during the integration process. This research aims to address this
paucity by exploring the role of social capital in the integration of
foreign health professionals. It does so by using a qualitative research
approach. In this pilot study the hospital sector forms this study-s
sample and interviews were conducted with HR managers, foreign
health professionals and external HR consultants. It was found that
most of the participating hospitals had not established specific HR
practices and had only partly linked the development of
organisational social capital with a successful integration process.
This research contributes, for example, to the HR literature on the
integration of self-initiated expatriates by analysing the role of HRM
in generating organisational social capital needed for a successful
integration process.