Abstract: This article discusses the passage of RDB to XML
documents (schema and data) based on metadata and semantic
enrichment, which makes the RDB under flattened shape and is
enriched by the object concept. The integration and exploitation of
the object concept in the XML uses a syntax allowing for the
verification of the conformity of the document XML during the
creation. The information extracted from the RDB is therefore
analyzed and filtered in order to adjust according to the structure of
the XML files and the associated object model. Those implemented
in the XML document through a SQL query are built dynamically. A
prototype was implemented to realize automatic migration, and so
proves the effectiveness of this particular approach.
Abstract: The purposes of this study were to: 1) investigate
operation conditions of SME automotive part industry in Bangkok
and vicinity and 2) to compare operation problem levels of SME
automotive part industry in Bangkok and vicinity according to the
sizes of the enterprises. Samples in this study included 196
entrepreneurs of SME automotive part industry in Bangkok and
vicinity derived from simple random sampling and calculation from
R. V. Krejcie and D. W. Morgan’s tables. Research statistics included
frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and T-test. The
results revealed that in general the problem levels of SME automotive
part industry in Bangkok and vicinity were high. When considering
in details, it was found that the problem levels were high at every
aspect, i.e. personal, production, export, finance, and marketing
respectively. The comparison of the problem levels according to the
sizes of the enterprises revealed statistically significant differences at
.05. When considering on each aspect, it was found that the aspect
with the statistical difference at .05 included 5 aspects, i.e.
production, marketing, finance, personal, and export. The findings
also showed that small enterprises faced more severe problems than
those of medium enterprises.
Abstract: The increase in electric power demand in face of
environmental issues has intensified the participation of renewable
energy sources such as photovoltaics, in the energy matrix of various
countries. Due to their operational characteristics, they can generate
time-varying harmonic and inter-harmonic distortions. For this
reason, the application of methods of measurement based on
traditional Fourier analysis, as proposed by IEC 61000-4-7, can
provide inaccurate results. Considering the aspects mentioned herein,
came the idea of the development of this work which aims to present
the results of a comparative evaluation between a methodology
arising from the combination of the Prony method with the Kalman
filter and another method based on the IEC 61000-4-30 and IEC
61000-4-7 standards. Employed in this study were synthetic signals
and data acquired through measurements in a 50kWp photovoltaic
installation.
Abstract: A sign pattern is a matrix whose entries belong to the set
{+,−, 0}. An n-by-n sign pattern A is said to allow an eventually
positive matrix if there exist some real matrices A with the same
sign pattern as A and a positive integer k0 such that Ak > 0 for all
k ≥ k0. It is well known that identifying and classifying the n-by-n
sign patterns that allow an eventually positive matrix are posed as two
open problems. In this article, the tree sign patterns of small order
that allow an eventually positive matrix are classified completely.
Abstract: The quality of concrete is usually defined by compressive strength, but flexural strength is the most important characteristic of concrete in a pavement which control the mix design of concrete instead of compressive strength. Therefore, the aggregates which are selected for the pavements are affected by higher flexural strength. Roller Compacting Concrete Pavement (RCCP) is not a new construction method. The other characteristic of this method is no bleeding and less shrinkage due to the lower amount of water. For this purpose, a roller is needed for placing and compacting. The surface of RCCP is not smooth; therefore, the most common use of this pavement is in an industrial zone with slower traffic speed which requires durable and tough pavement. For preparing a smoother surface, it can be achieved by asphalt paver. RCCP decrease the finishing cost because there are no bars, formwork, and the lesser labor need for placing the concrete. In this paper, different aspect of RCCP such as mix design, flexural, compressive strength and focus on the different part of RCCP on detail have been investigated.
Abstract: Highly stable and homogeneously dispersed amino
acid coated silver nanoparticles (ANP) of ≈ 10 nm diameter, ranging
from 420 to 430 nm are prepared on AgNO3 solution addition to gum
of Azadirachta indica solution at 373.15 K. The amino acids were
selected based on their polarity. The synthesized nanoparticles were
characterized by UV-Vis, FTIR spectroscopy, HR-TEM, XRD, SEM
and 1H-NMR. The coated nanoparticles were used as catalyst for the
reduction of methylene blue dye in presence of Sn(II) in aqueous,
anionic and cationic micellar media. The rate of reduction of dye was
determined by measuring the absorbance at 660 nm,
spectrophotometrically and followed the order: Kcationic > Kanionic >
Kwater. After 12 min and in absence of the ANP, only 2%, 3% and 6%
of the dye reduction was completed in aqueous, anionic and cationic
micellar media respectively while, in presence of ANP coated by
polar neutral amino acid with non-polar -R group, the reduction
completed to 84%, 95% and 98% respectively. The ANP coated with
polar neutral amino acid having non-polar -R group, increased the
rate of reduction of the dye by 94, 3205 and 6370 folds in aqueous,
anionic and cationic micellar media respectively. Also, the rate of
reduction of the dye increased by three folds when the micellar media
was changed from anionic to cationic when the ANP is coated by a
polar neutral amino acid having a non-polar -R group.
Abstract: Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral disease endemic in
many countries in the tropics and sub-tropics. The state of Punjab in
India shows cyclical and seasonal variation in dengue cases. The
Case Fatality Rate of Dengue has ranged from 0.6 to 1.0 in the past
years. The department has initiated review of the cases that have died
due to dengue in order to know the exact cause of the death in a case
of dengue. The study has been undertaken to know the other
associated co-morbidities and factors causing death in a case of
dengue. The study used the predesigned proforma on which the
records (medical and Lab) were recorded and reviewed by the expert
committee of the doctors. This study has revealed that cases of
dengue having co-morbidities have longer stay in hospital. Fluid
overload and co-morbidities have been found as major factors leading
to death, however, in a confirmed case of dengue hepatorenal
shutdown was found to be major cause of mortality. The data
obtained will help in sensitizing the treating physicians in order to
decrease the mortality due to dengue in future.
Abstract: This paper presents the effect of the orbit inclination
on the pointing error of the satellite antenna and consequently on its
footprint on earth for a typical Ku- band payload system. The performance assessment is examined using both analytical
simulations and practical measurements, taking into account all the
additional sources of the pointing errors, such as East-West station
keeping, orbit eccentricity, and actual attitude control performance. An implementation and computation of the sinusoidal biases in
satellite roll and pitch used to compensate the pointing error of the
satellite antenna coverage is studied and evaluated before and after
the pointing corrections performed. A method for evaluation of the performance of the implemented
biases has been introduced through measuring satellite received level
from a mono-pulse tracking 11.1m transmitting antenna before and
after the implementation of the pointing corrections.
Abstract: A myriad of environmental issues face the Nigerian
industrial region, resulting from; oil and gas production, mining,
manufacturing and domestic wastes. Amidst these, much effort has
been directed by stakeholders in the Nigerian oil producing regions,
because of the impacts of the region on the wider Nigerian economy.
Although collaborative environmental management has been noted as
an effective approach in managing environmental issues, little
attention has been given to the roles and practices of stakeholders in
effecting a collaborative environmental management framework for
the Nigerian oil-producing region. This paper produces a framework
to expand and deepen knowledge relating to stakeholders aspects of
collaborative roles in managing environmental issues in the Nigeria
oil-producing region. The knowledge is derived from analysis of
stakeholders’ practices – studied through multiple case studies using
document analysis. Selected documents of key stakeholders –
Nigerian government agencies, multi-national oil companies and host
communities, were analyzed. Open and selective coding was
employed manually during document analysis of data collected from
the offices and websites of the stakeholders. The findings showed
that the stakeholders have a range of roles, practices, interests, drivers
and barriers regarding their collaborative roles in managing
environmental issues. While they have interests for efficient resource
use, compliance to standards, sharing of responsibilities, generating
of new solutions, and shared objectives; there is evidence of major
barriers and these include resource allocation, disjointed policy,
ineffective monitoring, diverse socio- economic interests, lack of
stakeholders’ commitment and limited knowledge sharing. However,
host communities hold deep concerns over the collaborative roles of
stakeholders for economic interests, particularly, where government
agencies and multi-national oil companies are involved. With these
barriers and concerns, a genuine stakeholders’ collaboration is found
to be limited, and as a result, optimal environmental management
practices and policies have not been successfully implemented in the
Nigeria oil-producing region. A framework is produced that describes
practices that characterize collaborative environmental management
might be employed to satisfy the stakeholders’ interests. The
framework recommends critical factors, based on the findings, which
may guide a collaborative environmental management in the oil
producing regions. The recommendations are designed to re-define
the practices of stakeholders in managing environmental issues in the
oil producing regions, not as something wholly new, but as an
approach essential for implementing a sustainable environmental
policy. This research outcome may clarify areas for future research as
well as to contribute to industry guidance in the area of collaborative
environmental management.
Abstract: This paper deals with using of prevailing operation
system MS Office (SmartArt...) for mathematical models, using
DYVELOP (Dynamic Vector Logistics of Processes) method. It
serves for crisis situations investigation and modelling within the
organizations of critical infrastructure. In first part of paper, it will be
introduced entities, operators, and actors of DYVELOP method. It
uses just three operators of Boolean algebra and four types of the
entities: the Environments, the Process Systems, the Cases, and the
Controlling. The Process Systems (PrS) have five “brothers”:
Management PrS, Transformation PrS, Logistic PrS, Event PrS and
Operation PrS. The Cases have three “sisters”: Process Cell Case,
Use Case, and Activity Case. They all need for the controlling of
their functions special Ctrl actors, except ENV – it can do without
Ctrl. Model´s maps are named the Blazons and they are able
mathematically - graphically express the relationships among entities,
actors and processes. In second part of this paper, the rich blazons of
DYVELOP method will be used for the discovering and modelling of
the cycling cases and their phases. The blazons need live PowerPoint
presentation for better comprehension of this paper mission. The
crisis management of energetic crisis infrastructure organization is
obliged to use the cycles for successful coping of crisis situations.
Several times cycling of these cases is necessary condition for the
encompassment for both emergency events and the mitigation of
organization´s damages. Uninterrupted and continuous cycling
process brings for crisis management fruitfulness and it is good
indicator and controlling actor of organizational continuity and its
sustainable development advanced possibilities. The research reliable
rules are derived for the safety and reliable continuity of energetic
critical infrastructure organization in the crisis situation.
Abstract: Customer’ needs, quality, and value creation while
reducing costs through supply chain management provides challenges
and opportunities for companies and researchers. In the light of these
challenges, modern ideas must contribute to counter these challenges
and exploit opportunities. Therefore, this paper discusses the impact
of the quality cost on revenue sharing as a most important incentive
to configure business networks. This paper develops the quality cost approach to align with the
modern era. It develops a model to measure quality costs which
might enable firms to manage revenue sharing in a supply chain. The
developed model includes five categories; besides the well-known
four categories (namely prevention costs, appraisal costs, internal
failure costs, and external failure costs), a new category has been
developed in this research as a new vision of the relationship between
quality costs and innovations in industry. This new category is
Recycle Cost. This paper also examines whether such quality costs in
supply chains influence the revenue sharing between partners. Using the author's quality cost model, the relationship between
quality costs and revenue sharing among partners is examined using a
case study in an Egyptian manufacturing company which is a part of
a supply chain. This paper argues that the revenue-sharing proportion
allocated to supplier increases as the recycle cost of supplier
increases, and the revenue-sharing proportion allocated to
manufacturer increases as the prevention and appraisal costs increase,
as well as the failure costs, the recycle costs of manufacturer, and the
recycle costs of suppliers decrease. However, the results present
surprising findings. The purposes of this study are developing quality cost approach
and understanding the relationships between quality costs and
revenue sharing in supply chains. Therefore, the present study
contributes to theory and practice by explaining how the cost of
recycling can be combined in quality cost model to better
understanding the revenue sharing among partners in supply chains.
Abstract: Recently, Job Recommender Systems have gained
much attention in industries since they solve the problem of
information overload on the recruiting website. Therefore, we
proposed Extended Personalized Job System that has the capability of
providing the appropriate jobs for job seeker and recommending
some suitable information for them using Data Mining Techniques
and Dynamic User Profile. On the other hands, company can also
interact to the system for publishing and updating job information.
This system have emerged and supported various platforms such as
web application and android mobile application. In this paper, User
profiles, Implicit User Action, User Feedback, and Clustering
Techniques in WEKA libraries were applied and implemented. In
additions, open source tools like Yii Web Application Framework,
Bootstrap Front End Framework and Android Mobile Technology
were also applied.
Abstract: When evaluating the capacity of a generation park to
cover the load in transmission systems, traditional Loss of Load
Expectation (LOLE) and Expected Energy not Served (EENS)
indices can be used. If those indices allow computing the annual
duration and severity of load non covering situations, they do not take
into account the fact that the load excess is generally shifted from one
penury state (hour or quarter of an hour) to the following one. In this
paper, a sequential Monte Carlo framework is introduced in order to
compute adjusted LOLE and EENS indices. Practically, those
adapted indices permit to consider the effect of load excess transfer
on the global adequacy of a generation park, providing thus a more
accurate evaluation of this quantity.
Abstract: This paper presents the development of a mobile
application for students at the Faculty of Information Technology,
Rangsit University (RSU), Thailand. RSU upgrades an enrollment
process by improving its information systems. Students can
download the RSU APP easily in order to access the RSU substantial
information. The reason of having a mobile application is to help
students to access the system regardless of time and place. The objectives of this paper include: 1. To develop an application
on iOS platform for those students at the Faculty of Information
Technology, Rangsit University, Thailand. 2. To obtain the students’
perception towards the new mobile app. The target group is those
from the freshman year till the senior year of the faculty of
Information Technology, Rangsit University. The new mobile application, called as RSU APP, is developed by
the department of Information Technology, Rangsit University. It
contains useful features and various functionalities particularly on
those that can give support to students. The core contents of the app
consist of RSU’s announcement, calendar, events, activities, and ebook.
The mobile app is developed on the iOS platform. The user
satisfaction is analyzed from the interview data from 81 interviewees
as well as a Google application like a Google form which 122
interviewees are involved. The result shows that users are satisfied
with the application as they score it the most satisfaction level at 4.67
SD 0.52. The score for the question if users can learn and use the
application quickly is high which is 4.82 SD 0.71. On the other hand,
the lowest satisfaction rating is in the app’s form, apps lists, with the
satisfaction level as 4.01 SD 0.45.
Abstract: Hydrogen produced by means of polymer electrolyte
membrane electrolyzer (PEME) is one of the most promising
methods due to clean and renewable energy source. In the process,
some energy loss due to mass transfer through a PEM is caused by
diffusion, electro-osmotic drag, and the pressure difference between
the cathode channel and anode channel. In PEME, water molecules
and ionic particles transferred between the electrodes from anode to
cathode, Extensive mixing of the hydrogen and oxygen at anode
channel due to gases cross-over must be avoided. In recent times the
consciousness of safety issue in high pressure PEME where the
oxygen mix with hydrogen at anode channel could create, explosive
conditions have generated a lot of concern. In this paper, the steady
state and simulation analysis of gases crossover in PEME on the
temperature and pressure effect are presented. The simulations have
been analysis in MATLAB based on the well-known Fick’s Law of
molecular diffusion. The simulation results indicated that as
temperature increases, there is a significant decrease in operating
voltage.
Abstract: As one of the convenient and noninvasive sensing
approaches, the automatic limb girth measurement has been applied
to detect intention behind human motion from muscle deformation.
The sensing validity has been elaborated by preliminary researches
but still need more fundamental studies, especially on kinetic
contraction modes. Based on the novel fabric strain sensors, a soft
and smart limb girth measurement system was developed by the
authors’ group, which can measure the limb girth in-motion.
Experiments were carried out on elbow isometric flexion and elbow
isokinetic flexion (biceps’ isokinetic contractions) of 90°/s, 60°/s, and
120°/s for 10 subjects (2 canoeists and 8 ordinary people). After
removal of natural circumferential increments due to elbow position,
the joint torque is found not uniformly sensitive to the limb
circumferential strains, but declining as elbow joint angle rises,
regardless of the angular speed. Moreover, the maximum joint torque
was found as an exponential function of the joint’s angular speed.
This research highly contributes to the application of the automatic
limb girth measuring during kinetic contractions, and it is useful to
predict the contraction level of voluntary skeletal muscles.
Abstract: A psychological contract is an agreement between the
employer and an employee that covers the parties’ informal and
frequently non-verbalized obligations and expectations towards each
other. The contract is a cognitive pattern-governing employee’s
behaviour in the organization. A gap between employee’s
expectations and the organizational reality may lead to difficult-to-solve
conflicts or cause the employee to modify their behaviour
towards organizational values and goals, if they are willing and ready
to verbalize their expectations. The article discusses psychological contracts in the financial
institutions in Poland. Its theoretical part outlines the types of
psychological contracts in organizations (relational, transactional, and
balanced) and shows the process of their verbalization. The purpose
of the article is to present how the type of the psychological contract
relates to employee’s readiness to verbalize it. The article ends with
conclusions arising from the study.
Abstract: Inspired by the Formula-1 competition, IMechE
(Institute of Mechanical Engineers) and Formula SAE (Society of
Mechanical Engineers) organize annual competitions for University
and College students worldwide to compete with a single-seat racecar
they have designed and built. Design of the chassis or the frame is a
key component of the competition because the weight and stiffness
properties are directly related with the performance of the car and the
safety of the driver. In addition, a reduced weight of the chassis has
direct influence on the design of other components in the car. Among
others, it improves the power to weight ratio and the aerodynamic
performance. As the power output of the engine or the battery
installed in the car is limited to 80 kW, increasing the power to
weight ratio demands reduction of the weight of the chassis, which
represents the major part of the weight of the car. In order to reduce
the weight of the car, ION Racing team from University of
Stavanger, Norway, opted for a monocoque design. To ensure
fulfilment of the competition requirements of the chassis, the
monocoque design should provide sufficient torsional stiffness and
absorb the impact energy in case of possible collision. The study reported in this article is based on the requirements for
Formula Student competition. As part of this study, diverse
mechanical tests were conducted to determine the mechanical
properties and performances of the monocoque design. Upon a
comprehensive theoretical study of the mechanical properties of
sandwich composite materials and the requirements of monocoque
design in the competition rules, diverse tests were conducted
including 3-point bending test, perimeter shear test and test for
absorbed energy. The test panels were homemade and prepared with
equivalent size of the side impact zone of the monocoque, i.e. 275
mm x 500 mm, so that the obtained results from the tests can be
representative. Different layups of the test panels with identical core
material and the same number of layers of carbon fibre were tested
and compared. Influence of the core material thickness was also
studied. Furthermore, analytical calculations and numerical analysis
were conducted to check compliance to the stated rules for Structural
Equivalency with steel grade SAE/AISI 1010. The test results were
also compared with calculated results with respect to bending and
torsional stiffness, energy absorption, buckling, etc. The obtained results demonstrate that the material composition
and strength of the composite material selected for the monocoque
design has equivalent structural properties as a welded frame and thus
comply with the competition requirements. The developed analytical
calculation algorithms and relations will be useful for future
monocoque designs with different lay-ups and compositions.
Abstract: Opportunistic Routing (OR) increases the
transmission reliability and network throughput. Traditional routing
protocols preselects one or more predetermined nodes before
transmission starts and uses a predetermined neighbor to forward a
packet in each hop. The opportunistic routing overcomes the
drawback of unreliable wireless transmission by broadcasting one
transmission can be overheard by manifold neighbors. The first
cooperation-optimal protocol for Multirate OR (COMO) used to
achieve social efficiency and prevent the selfish behavior of the
nodes. The novel link-correlation-aware OR improves the
performance by exploiting the miscellaneous low correlated forward
links. Context aware Adaptive OR (CAOR) uses active suppression
mechanism to reduce packet duplication. The Context-aware OR
(COR) can provide efficient routing in mobile networks. By using
Cooperative Opportunistic Routing in Mobile Ad hoc Networks
(CORMAN), the problem of opportunistic data transfer can be
tackled. While comparing to all the protocols, COMO is the best as it
achieves social efficiency and prevents the selfish behavior of the
nodes.
Abstract: The study is the way to identify the problems that
occur in organizing short course’s lifelong learning in the information
and communication technology (ICT) education which are faced by
the lecturer and staff at the Mara Skill Institute and Industrial
Training Institute in Pahang Malaysia. The important aspects of these
issues are classified to five which are selecting the courses
administrative. Fifty lecturers and staff were selected as a respondent.
The sample is selected by using the non-random sampling method
purpose sampling. The questionnaire is used as a research instrument
and divided into five main parts. All the data that gain from the
questionnaire are analyzed by using the SPSS in term of mean,
standard deviation and percentage. The findings showed, there are the
problems occur in organizing the short course for lifelong learning in
ICT education.