Abstract: The supply chains (SCs) have to appeal to new management paradigms to improve their ability to respond rapidly and cost effectively to unpredictable changes in markets and increasing levels of environmental turbulence, both in terms of volume and variety. In this highly demanded context, the Agile paradigm provides the capabilities to SC quickly adapt to changes in the market requirements. The purpose of this paper is to suggest an Agile Index to assess the agility of the automotive companies and corresponding SCs. The proposed integrated assessment model incorporates Agile practices weighted according to their importance to the automotive SC competitiveness and obtained from the Delphi technique.
Abstract: Sensor Network are emerging as a new tool for
important application in diverse fields like military surveillance,
habitat monitoring, weather, home electrical appliances and others.
Technically, sensor network nodes are limited in respect to energy
supply, computational capacity and communication bandwidth. In
order to prolong the lifetime of the sensor nodes, designing efficient
routing protocol is very critical. In this paper, we illustrate the
existing routing protocol for wireless sensor network using data
centric approach and present performance analysis of these protocols.
The paper focuses in the performance analysis of specific protocol
namely Directed Diffusion and SPIN. This analysis reveals that the
energy usage is important features which need to be taken into
consideration while designing routing protocol for wireless sensor
network.
Abstract: The issue of real-time and reliable report delivery is extremely important for taking effective decision in a real world mission critical Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) based application. The sensor data behaves differently in many ways from the data in traditional databases. WSNs need a mechanism to register, process queries, and disseminate data. In this paper we propose an architectural framework for data placement and management. We propose a reliable and real time approach for data placement and achieving data integrity using self organized sensor clusters. Instead of storing information in individual cluster heads as suggested in some protocols, in our architecture we suggest storing of information of all clusters within a cell in the corresponding base station. For data dissemination and action in the wireless sensor network we propose to use Action and Relay Stations (ARS). To reduce average energy dissipation of sensor nodes, the data is sent to the nearest ARS rather than base station. We have designed our architecture in such a way so as to achieve greater energy savings, enhanced availability and reliability.
Abstract: Group key management is an important functional
building block for any secure multicast architecture.
Thereby, it has been extensively studied in the literature.
In this paper we present relevant group key management
protocols. Then, we compare them against some pertinent
performance criteria.
Abstract: Promoting critical thinking (CT) in an educational
setting has been appraised in order to enhance learning and
intellectual skills. In this study, a pedagogical course in a vocational
teacher education program in Turkey was designed by integrating CT
skill-based strategies/activities into the course content and CT skills
were means leading to intended course objectives. The purpose of the
study was to evaluate the importance of the course objectives, the
attainment of the objectives, and the effectiveness of teachinglearning
strategies/activities from prospective teachers- points of
view. The results revealed that although the students mostly
considered the course objectives important, they did not feel
competent in the attainment of all objectives especially in those
related to the main topic of Learning and those requiring higher order
thinking skills. On the other hand, the students considered the course
activities effective for learning and for the development of thinking
skills, especially, in interpreting, comparing, questioning,
contrasting, and forming relationships.
Abstract: In this paper, a novel corner detection method is
presented to stably extract geometrically important corners.
Intensity-based corner detectors such as the Harris corner can detect
corners in noisy environments but has inaccurate corner position and
misses the corners of obtuse angles. Edge-based corner detectors such
as Curvature Scale Space can detect structural corners but show
unstable corner detection due to incomplete edge detection in noisy
environments. The proposed image-based direct curvature estimation
can overcome limitations in both inaccurate structural corner detection
of the Harris corner detector (intensity-based) and the unstable corner
detection of Curvature Scale Space caused by incomplete edge
detection. Various experimental results validate the robustness of the
proposed method.
Abstract: Binder drainage test is widely used to set an upper
limit to the design binder content of porous asphalt. However, the
presence of high amount of fine particles in the drained binder may
affect the accuracy of the test result. This paper presents a study to
characterize the composition and particle size distribution of fine
particles accumulated in the drained binder. Fine aggregates and filler
in the drained binder were extracted using a suitable solvent. Then,
wet and dry sieve analysis was carried out to identify the actual
composition of the extracted fine aggregates and filler. From the
results, almost half of the drained binder consisted of fine aggregates
and this significantly affects the accuracy of the design binder content
of porous asphalt mix. This simple finding highlights the importance
of taking into account the presence of fine aggregates in the
calculation of drained binder.
Abstract: Service innovations are central concerns in fast
changing environment. Due to the fitness in customer demands and
advances in information technologies (IT) in service management, an
expanded conceptualization of e-service innovation is required.
Specially, innovation practices have become increasingly more
challenging, driving managers to employ a different open innovation
model to maintain competitive advantages. At the same time, firms
need to interact with external and internal customers in innovative
environments, like the open innovation networks, to co-create values.
Based on these issues, an important conceptual framework of e-service
innovation is developed. This paper aims to examine the contributing
factors on e-service innovation and firm performance, including
financial and non-financial aspects. The study concludes by showing
how e-service innovation will play a significant role in growing the
overall values of the firm. The discussion and conclusion will lead to a
stronger understanding of e-service innovation and co-creating values
with customers within open innovation networks.
Abstract: The recognition of human faces, especially those with
different orientations is a challenging and important problem in image
analysis and classification. This paper proposes an effective scheme
for rotation invariant face recognition using Log-Polar Transform and
Discrete Cosine Transform combined features. The rotation invariant
feature extraction for a given face image involves applying the logpolar
transform to eliminate the rotation effect and to produce a row
shifted log-polar image. The discrete cosine transform is then applied
to eliminate the row shift effect and to generate the low-dimensional
feature vector. A PSO-based feature selection algorithm is utilized to
search the feature vector space for the optimal feature subset.
Evolution is driven by a fitness function defined in terms of
maximizing the between-class separation (scatter index).
Experimental results, based on the ORL face database using testing
data sets for images with different orientations; show that the
proposed system outperforms other face recognition methods. The
overall recognition rate for the rotated test images being 97%,
demonstrating that the extracted feature vector is an effective rotation
invariant feature set with minimal set of selected features.
Abstract: An investigation of noise in a micro stepping motor is
considered to study in this article. Because of the trend towards higher
precision and more and more small 3C (including Computer,
Communication and Consumer Electronics) products, the micro
stepping motor is frequently used to drive the micro system or the
other 3C products. Unfortunately, noise in a micro stepped motor is
too large to accept by the customs. To depress the noise of a micro
stepped motor, the dynamic characteristics in this system must be
studied. In this article, a Visual Basic (VB) computer program speed
controlled micro stepped motor in a digital camera is investigated.
Karman KD2300-2S non-contract eddy current displacement sensor,
probe microphone, and HP 35670A analyzer are employed to analyze
the dynamic characteristics of vibration and noise in a motor. The
vibration and noise measurement of different type of bearings and
different treatment of coils are compared. The rotating components,
bearings, coil, etc. of the motor play the important roles in producing
vibration and noise. It is found that the noise will be depressed about
3~4 dB and 6~7 dB, when substitutes the copper bearing with plastic
one and coats the motor coil with paraffin wax, respectively.
Abstract: Modern retailers such as hypermarket/supermarket
need to be more customer-oriented in order to survive in today-s
competitive business world. As a result, the investigation of
determinant factors of store loyalty becomes important issue for
modern retailing players. This study suggests that consumers- store
loyalty in the modern retailing market (hypermarkets and
supermarkets) is influenced by environmental factors (such as store
image, store personnel). Using a model of stimulus-organismresponse
(S-O-R), this research examines S-R relationship of store
loyalty. S-O-R framework is derived from the existence literature and
tested empirically based on Indonesian consumers- experience. The
stimuli for this study are store image, store personnel, satisfaction
and culture factors. Affect, or the consumers- liking to modern
retailing stores, mediates the chosen environmental factors on
consumer-s store loyalty. The findings showed that store image, store
satisfaction and culture have significant positive relationship to store
loyalty via affect.
Abstract: Document image processing has become an
increasingly important technology in the automation of office
documentation tasks. During document scanning, skew is inevitably
introduced into the incoming document image. Since the algorithm
for layout analysis and character recognition are generally very
sensitive to the page skew. Hence, skew detection and correction in
document images are the critical steps before layout analysis. In this
paper, a novel skew detection method is presented for binary
document images. The method considered the some selected
characters of the text which may be subjected to thinning and Hough
transform to estimate skew angle accurately. Several experiments
have been conducted on various types of documents such as
documents containing English Documents, Journals, Text-Book,
Different Languages and Document with different fonts, Documents
with different resolutions, to reveal the robustness of the proposed
method. The experimental results revealed that the proposed method
is accurate compared to the results of well-known existing methods.
Abstract: This paper discusses E-government, in particular the
challenges that face adoption in Saudi Arabia. E-government can be
defined based on an existing set of requirements. In this research we
define E-government as a matrix of stakeholders: governments to
governments, governments to business and governments to citizens,
using information and communications technology to deliver and
consume services. E-government has been implemented for a
considerable time in developed countries. However, E-government
services still face many challenges in their implementation and
general adoption in many countries including Saudi Arabia. It has
been noted that the introduction of E-government is a major
challenge facing the government of Saudi Arabia, due to possible
concerns raised by its citizens. In addition, the literature review and
the discussion identify the influential factors that affect the citizens’
intention to adopt E-government services in Saudi Arabia.
Consequently, these factors have been defined and categorized
followed by an exploratory study to examine the importance of these
factors. Therefore, this research has identified factors that determine
if the citizen will adopt E-government services and thereby aiding
governments in accessing what is required to increase adoption.
Abstract: Structural representation and technology mapping of
a Boolean function is an important problem in the design of nonregenerative
digital logic circuits (also called combinational logic
circuits). Library aware function manipulation offers a solution to
this problem. Compact multi-level representation of binary networks,
based on simple circuit structures, such as AND-Inverter Graphs
(AIG) [1] [5], NAND Graphs, OR-Inverter Graphs (OIG), AND-OR
Graphs (AOG), AND-OR-Inverter Graphs (AOIG), AND-XORInverter
Graphs, Reduced Boolean Circuits [8] does exist in
literature. In this work, we discuss a novel and efficient graph
realization for combinational logic circuits, represented using a
NAND-NOR-Inverter Graph (NNIG), which is composed of only
two-input NAND (NAND2), NOR (NOR2) and inverter (INV) cells.
The networks are constructed on the basis of irredundant disjunctive
and conjunctive normal forms, after factoring, comprising terms with
minimum support. Construction of a NNIG for a non-regenerative
function in normal form would be straightforward, whereas for the
complementary phase, it would be developed by considering a virtual
instance of the function. However, the choice of best NNIG for a
given function would be based upon literal count, cell count and
DAG node count of the implementation at the technology
independent stage. In case of a tie, the final decision would be made
after extracting the physical design parameters.
We have considered AIG representation for reduced disjunctive
normal form and the best of OIG/AOG/AOIG for the minimized
conjunctive normal forms. This is necessitated due to the nature of
certain functions, such as Achilles- heel functions. NNIGs are found
to exhibit 3.97% lesser node count compared to AIGs and
OIG/AOG/AOIGs; consume 23.74% and 10.79% lesser library cells
than AIGs and OIG/AOG/AOIGs for the various samples considered.
We compare the power efficiency and delay improvement achieved
by optimal NNIGs over minimal AIGs and OIG/AOG/AOIGs for
various case studies. In comparison with functionally equivalent,
irredundant and compact AIGs, NNIGs report mean savings in power
and delay of 43.71% and 25.85% respectively, after technology
mapping with a 0.35 micron TSMC CMOS process. For a
comparison with OIG/AOG/AOIGs, NNIGs demonstrate average
savings in power and delay by 47.51% and 24.83%. With respect to
device count needed for implementation with static CMOS logic
style, NNIGs utilize 37.85% and 33.95% lesser transistors than their
AIG and OIG/AOG/AOIG counterparts.
Abstract: Complaints today have the ability to retain
customer loyalty using state of the art systems and strategies
in customer relationship management to analyze and respond
to a plethora of customer perception. The Majority of
companies are not aware of the beneficiary utilization of
customer complaints for the sake of quality improvements.
Also, some companies have problems determining how
resolution of complaints can be profitable. In this study, we
will define the problems and ascertain the importance of
customer management system on the companies. Furthermore,
we will determine the impact of such a system on efficiency,
confidence, profitability and customer complaints. Eventually,
we will develop methods and address the issues. In this paper,
we used an open-ended questionnaire and distributed that to
30 randomly chosen respondents which were the passengers in
an airport. We also define three hypotheses for our study and
we will validate each of them. Then using frequency, Chi-
Square and quality control method we optimized the size of
customers- negative feedback and improved the process of
customer retention.
Abstract: One of the most important areas of knowledge management studies is knowledge sharing. Measured in terms of number of scientific articles and organization-s applications, knowledge sharing stands as an example of success in the field. This paper reviews the related papers in the context of the underlying individual behavioral variables to providea direction framework for future research and writing.
Abstract: Nowadays, quick technological changes force companies
to develop innovative products in an increasingly competitive
environment. Therefore, how to enhance the time of new product
development is very important. This design problem often lacks
the exact formula for getting it, and highly depends upon human
designers- past experiences. For these reasons, in this work, a Casebased
reasoning (CBR) system to assist in new product development
is proposed. When a case is recovered from the case base, the system
will take into account not only the attribute-s specific value and
how important it is. It will also take into account if the attribute
has a positive influence over the product development. Hence the
manufacturing time will be improved. This information will be
introduced as a new concept called “adaptability". An application to
this method for hearing instrument new design illustrates the proposed
approach.
Abstract: As embedded and portable systems were emerged power consumption of circuits had been major challenge. On the other hand latency as determines frequency of circuits is also vital task. Therefore, trade off between both of them will be desirable. Modulo 2n+1 adders are important part of the residue number system (RNS) based arithmetic units with the interesting moduli set (2n-1,2n, 2n+1). In this manuscript we have introduced novel binary representation to the design of modulo 2n+1 adder. VLSI realization of proposed architecture under 180 nm full static CMOS technology reveals its superiority in terms of area, power consumption and power-delay product (PDP) against several peer existing structures.
Abstract: Transpedicular screw fixation in spinal fractures,
degenerative changes, or deformities is a well-established procedure.
However, important rate of fixation failure due to screw bending,
loosening, or pullout are still reported particularly in weak bone stock
in osteoporosis. To overcome the problem, mechanism of failure has
to be fully investigated in vitro. Post-mortem human subjects are less
accessible and animal cadavers comprise limitations due to different
geometry and mechanical properties. Therefore, the development of a
synthetic model mimicking the realistic human vertebra is highly
demanded. A bone surrogate, composed of Polyurethane (PU) foam
analogous to cancellous bone porous structure, was tested for 3
different densities in this study. The mechanical properties were
investigated under uniaxial compression test by minimizing the end
artifacts on specimens. The results indicated that PU foam of 0.32
g.cm-3 density has comparable mechanical properties to human
cancellous bone in terms of young-s modulus and yield strength.
Therefore, the obtained information can be considered as primary
step for developing a realistic cancellous bone of human vertebral
body. Further evaluations are also recommended for other density
groups.
Abstract: Sediment loads transfer in hydraulic installations and their consequences for the O&M of modern canal systems is emerging as one of the most important considerations in hydraulic engineering projects apriticularly those which are inteded to feed the irrigation and draiange schemes of large command areas such as the Dez and Mogahn in Iran.. The aim of this paper is to investigate the applicability of the vortex tube as a viable means of extracting sediment loads entering the canal systems in general and the water inatke structures in particulars. The Western conveyance canal of the Dez Diversion weir which feeds the Karkheh Flood Plain in Sothwestern Dezful has been used as the case study using the data from the Dastmashan Hydrometric Station. The SHARC software has been used as an analytical framework to interprete the data. Results show that given the grain size D50 and the canal turbulence the adaption length from the beginning of the canal and after the diversion dam is estimated at 477 m, a point which is suitable for laying the vortex tube.