Abstract: The development, operation and maintenance of
Integrated Waste Management Systems (IWMS) affects essentially
the sustainable concern of every region. The features of such systems
have great influence on all of the components of sustainability. In
order to reach the optimal way of processes, a comprehensive
mapping of the variables affecting the future efficiency of the system
is needed such as analysis of the interconnections among the
components and modeling of their interactions. The planning of a
IWMS is based fundamentally on technical and economical
opportunities and the legal framework. Modeling the sustainability
and operation effectiveness of a certain IWMS is not in the scope of
the present research. The complexity of the systems and the large
number of the variables require the utilization of a complex approach
to model the outcomes and future risks. This complex method should
be able to evaluate the logical framework of the factors composing
the system and the interconnections between them. The authors of
this paper studied the usability of the Fuzzy Cognitive Map (FCM)
approach modeling the future operation of IWMS’s. The approach
requires two input data set. One is the connection matrix containing
all the factors affecting the system in focus with all the
interconnections. The other input data set is the time series, a
retrospective reconstruction of the weights and roles of the factors.
This paper introduces a novel method to develop time series by
content analysis.
Abstract: The study is a review of the literature concerning the
consequences of non-standard monetary policy, which are used by
central banks during unconventional periods, threatening banking
sector instability. In particular, the attention was paid to the effects of
non-standard monetary policy tools for financial markets. However,
the empirical evidence about their effects and real consequences for
financial markets is still not final. The main aim of the study is to
survey consequences of standard and non-standard monetary policy
instruments, implemented during the global financial crisis in the
United States, United Kingdom and euro area, with particular
attention to the results for the stabilization of global financial
markets. The study consists mainly of the empirical review,
indicating the impact of the implementation of these tools for
financial markets. The following research methods were used in the
study: literature studies, including domestic and foreign literature,
cause and effect analysis and statistical analysis.
Abstract: In Brazil, neonatal mortality rate is considered
incompatible with the country development conditions, and has been
a Public Health concern. Reduction in infant mortality rates has also
been part of the Millennium Development Goals, a commitment
made by countries, members of the Organization of United Nations
(OUN), including Brazil. Fetal mortality rate is considered a highly
sensitive indicator of health care quality. Suitable actions, such as
good quality and access to health services may contribute positively
towards reduction in these fetal and neonatal rates. With appropriate
antenatal follow-up and health care during gestation and delivery,
some death causes could be reduced or even prevented by means of
early diagnosis and intervention, as well as changes in risk factors
and interventions. Objectives: To study the quality of maternal and
infant health care based on fetal and neonatal mortality, as well as the
possible actions to prevent those deaths in Botucatu (Brazil).
Methods: Classification of prevention according to the International
Classification of Diseases and the modified Wigglesworth´s
classification. In order to evaluate adequacy, indicators of quality of
antenatal and delivery care were established by the authors. Results:
Considering fetal deaths, 56.7% of them occurred before delivery,
which reveals possible shortcomings in antenatal care, and 38.2% of
them were a result of intra- labor changes, which could be prevented
or reduced by adequate obstetric management. These findings were
different from those in the group of early neonatal deaths which were
also studied. Adequacy of health services showed that antenatal and
childbirth care was appropriate for 24% and 33.3% of pregnant
women, respectively, which corroborates the results of prevention.
These results revealed that shortcomings in obstetric and antenatal
care could be the causes of deaths in the study. Early and late
neonatal deaths have similar characteristics: 76% could be prevented
or reduced mainly by adequate newborn care (52.9%) and adequate
health care for gestational women (11.7%). When adequacy of care
was evaluated, childbirth and newborn care was adequate in 25.8%
and antenatal care was adequate in 16.1%. In conclusion, direct
relationship was found between adequacy and quality of care
rendered to pregnant women and newborns, and fetal and infant
mortality. Moreover, our findings highlight that deaths could be
prevented by an adequate obstetric and neonatal management.
Abstract: Text mining techniques are generally applied for
classifying the text, finding fuzzy relations and structures in data
sets. This research provides plenty text mining capabilities. One
common application is text classification and event extraction,
which encompass deducing specific knowledge concerning incidents
referred to in texts. The main contribution of this paper is the
clarification of a concept graph generation mechanism, which is based
on a text classification and optimal fuzzy relationship extraction.
Furthermore, the work presented in this paper explains the application
of fuzzy relationship extraction and branch and bound (BB) method
to simplify the texts.
Abstract: As the current status and growth of Indian automobile
industry is remarkable, transportation sectors are the main concern in
terms of energy security and climate change. Due to rising demand of
fuel and its dependency on foreign countries that affects the GDP of
nation, suggests that penetration of electrical vehicle will increase in
near future. So in this context analysis is done if the 10 percent of
conventional vehicles including cars, three wheelers and two
wheelers becomes electrical vehicles in near future which is also a
part of Nations Electric Mobility Mission Plan then the saving which
improves the nation’s economy is analyzed in detail. Whether the
Indian electricity grid is capable of taking this load with current
generation and demand all over the country is also analyzed in detail.
Current situation of Indian grid is analyzed and how the gap between
generation and demand can be reduced is discussed in terms of
increasing generation capacity and energy conservation measures.
Electrical energy conservation measures in Industry and especially in
rural areas have been analyzed to improve performance of Indian
electricity grid in context of electrical vehicle penetration in near
future. Author was a part of Vishvakarma yojna in which energy
losses were measured in 255 villages of Gujarat and solutions were
suggested to mitigate them and corresponding reports was submitted
to the authorities of Gujarat government.
Abstract: Food is widely packaged with plastic materials to
prevent microbial contamination and spoilage. Ionizing radiation is
widely used to sterilize the food-packaging materials. Sterilization by
γ-radiation causes degradation such as embrittlement, stiffening,
softening, discoloration, odour generation, and decrease in molecular
weight. Many antioxidants can prevent γ-degradation but most of
them are toxic. The migration of antioxidants to its environment
gives rise to major concerns in case of food packaging plastics. In
this attempt, we have aimed to utilize synergistic mixtures of
stabilizers which are approved for food-contact applications.
Ethylene-propylene-diene terpolymer has been melt-mixed with
hindered amine stabilizers (HAS), phenolic antioxidants and organophosphites
(hydroperoxide decomposer). Results were discussed by
comparing the stabilizing efficiency of mixtures with and without
phenol system. Among phenol containing systems where we mostly
observed discoloration due to the oxidation of hindered phenol, the
combination of secondary HAS, tertiary HAS, organo-phosphite and
hindered phenol exhibited improved stabilization efficiency than
single or binary additive systems. The mixture of secondary HAS and
tertiary HAS, has shown antagonistic effect of stabilization.
However, the combination of organo-phosphite with secondary HAS,
tertiary HAS and phenol antioxidants have been found to give
synergistic even at higher doses of Gamma-irradiation. The effects
have been explained through the interaction between the stabilizers.
After γ-irradiation, the consumption of oligomeric stabilizer
significantly depends on the components of stabilization mixture. The
effect of the organo-phosphite antioxidant on the overall stability has
been discussed.
Abstract: The article deals with one of the most significant
issues concerning the functioning of the public sector in the European
Union. The objectives of good governance were formulated by the
EU itself and also the Scholars in reaction to the discussion that
started a decade ago and concerned the role of the government in 21st
century, the future of integration processes and globalization
challenges in Europe. Currently, the concept of good governance is
mainly associated with the improvement of management of public
policies in the European Union, concerning both domestic and EU
policies. However, it goes beyond the issues of state capacity and
effectiveness of management. Good governance relates also to
societal participation in the public administration and verification of
decisions made in public authorities’ (including public
administration). Indirectly, the concept and practice of good
governance are connected to societal legitimisation of public bodies
in the European Union.
Abstract: Fugitive particulate matter (PM) is a major source of
airborne pollution in the Middle East countries. The meteorological
conditions and topography of the area makes it highly susceptible to
wind-blown particles which raise many air quality concerns. Air
quality tools such as field monitoring, emission factors and dispersion
modeling have been used in previous research studies to analyze the
release and impacts of fugitive PM in the region. However, these
tools have been originally developed based on experiments made for
European and North American regions. In this work, an experimental
campaign was conducted on April-May 2014 in a construction site in
Doha city, Qatar. The ultimate goal is to evaluate the applicability of
the existing emission factors for construction sites in dry and arid
areas like the Middle East.
Abstract: Locating Radio Controlled (RC) devices using their
unintended emissions has a great interest considering security
concerns. Weak nature of these emissions requires near field
localization approach since it is hard to detect these signals in far
field region of array. Instead of only angle estimation, near field
localization also requires range estimation of the source which makes
this method more complicated than far field models. Challenges of
locating such devices in a near field region and real time environment
are analyzed in this paper. An ESPRIT like near field localization
scheme is utilized for both angle and range estimation. 1-D search
with symmetric subarrays is provided. Two 7 element uniform linear
antenna arrays (ULA) are employed for locating RC source.
Experiment results of location estimation for one unintended emitting
walkie-talkie for different positions are given.
Abstract: In-memory database systems are becoming popular
due to the availability and affordability of sufficiently large RAM and
processors in modern high-end servers with the capacity to manage
large in-memory database transactions. While fast and reliable inmemory
systems are still being developed to overcome cache misses,
CPU/IO bottlenecks and distributed transaction costs, disk-based data
stores still serve as the primary persistence. In addition, with the
recent growth in multi-tenancy cloud applications and associated
security concerns, many organisations consider the trade-offs and
continue to require fast and reliable transaction processing of diskbased
database systems as an available choice. For these
organizations, the only way of increasing throughput is by improving
the performance of disk-based concurrency control. This warrants a
hybrid database system with the ability to selectively apply an
enhanced disk-based data management within the context of inmemory
systems that would help improve overall throughput.
The general view is that in-memory systems substantially
outperform disk-based systems. We question this assumption and
examine how a modified variation of access invariance that we call
enhanced memory access, (EMA) can be used to allow very high
levels of concurrency in the pre-fetching of data in disk-based
systems. We demonstrate how this prefetching in disk-based systems
can yield close to in-memory performance, which paves the way for
improved hybrid database systems. This paper proposes a novel EMA
technique and presents a comparative study between disk-based EMA
systems and in-memory systems running on hardware configurations
of equivalent power in terms of the number of processors and their
speeds. The results of the experiments conducted clearly substantiate
that when used in conjunction with all concurrency control
mechanisms, EMA can increase the throughput of disk-based systems
to levels quite close to those achieved by in-memory system. The
promising results of this work show that enhanced disk-based
systems facilitate in improving hybrid data management within the
broader context of in-memory systems.
Abstract: Cost of governance in Nigeria has become a challenge
to development and concern to practitioners and scholars alike in the
field of business and social science research. In the 2010 national
budget of NGN4.6 trillion or USD28.75billion for instance, only a
pantry sum of NGN1.8trillion or USD11.15billion was earmarked for
capital expenditure. Similarly, in 2013, out of a total national budget
of NGN4.92trillion or USD30.75billion, only the sum of
NGN1.50trllion or USD9.38billion was voted for capital expenditure.
Therefore, based on the data sourced from the Nigerian Office of
Statistics, Central bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin as well as from
the United Nations Development Programme, this study examined
the causes of high cost of governance in Nigeria. It found out that the
high cost of governance in the country is in the interest of the ruling
class, arising from their unethical behaviour – corrupt practices and
the poor management of public resources. As a result, the study
recommends the need to intensify the war against corruption and
mismanagement of public resources by government officials as
possible solution to overcome the high cost of governance in Nigeria.
This could be achieved by strengthening the constitutional powers of
the various anti-corruption agencies in the area of arrest, investigation
and prosecution of offenders without the interference of the executive
arm of government either at the local, state or federal level.
Abstract: Since large part of electricity is generated by using
fossil based resources, energy is an important agenda for countries. In
this context, renewable energy sources are alternative to conventional
sources due to the depletion of fossil resources, increasing awareness
of climate change and global warming concerns. Solar, wind and
hydropower energy are the main renewable energy sources. Among
of them, since installed capacity of wind power has increased
approximately eight times between 2008 - November of 2014, wind
energy is a promising source for Turkey. Furthermore, signing of
Kyoto Protocol can be accepted as a milestone for Turkey's energy
policy. Turkish Government has announced Vision 2023 (energy
targets by 2023) in 2010-2014 Strategic Plan prepared by Ministry of
Energy and Natural Resources (MENR). Energy targets in this plan
can be summarized as follows: Share of renewable energy sources in
electricity generation is 30% of total electricity generation by 2023.
Installed capacity of wind energy will be 20 GW by 2023. Other
renewable energy sources such as solar, hydropower and geothermal
are encouraged with new incentive mechanisms. Dependence on
foreign energy is reduced for sustainability and energy security. On
the other hand, since Turkey is surrounded by three coastal areas,
wind energy potential is convenient for wind power application. As
of November of 2014, total installed capacity of wind power plants is
3.51 GW and a lot of wind power plants are under construction with
capacity 1.16 GW. Turkish government also encourages the locally
manufactured equipments. In this context, one of the projects funded
by private sector, universities and TUBİTAK names as MILRES is
an important project aimed to promote the use wind energy in
electricity generation. Within this project, wind turbine with 500 kW
power has been produced and will be installed at the beginning of the
2015. After that, by using the experience obtained from the first
phase of the project, a wind turbine with 2.5 MW power will be
manufactured in an industrial scale.
Abstract: The globalization of markets, the need to develop
competitive advantages and core competencies, among other things,
lead organizations to increasingly cross borders to operate in other
countries. The expatriation of professionals who go to work in
another country besides their own becomes increasingly common. In
order to generate data about this issue, research was conducted
concerning the perception of expatriate employees concerning
expatriation success. The research method used was case study
through a qualitative approach. This research was done through
interviews with five India expatriates and five China expatriates,
interview with expatriate department heads and analysis of company
documents. It was found that there are differences between the
organizational perception and perception of expatriates of what
constitutes mission success. The paper also provides suggestions for
further research and suggestions for future expatriates.
Abstract: Exact solution of an unsteady flow of elastico-viscous
electrically conducting fluid through a porous media in a tube of
elliptical cross section under the influence of constant pressure
gradient and magnetic field has been obtained in this paper. Initially,
the flow is generated by a constant pressure gradient. After attaining
the steady state, the pressure gradient is suddenly withdrawn and the
resulting fluid motion in a tube of elliptical cross section by taking
into account of the transverse magnetic field and porosity factor of
the bounding surface is investigated. The problem is solved in twostages
the first stage is a steady motion in tube under the influence of
a constant pressure gradient, the second stage concern with an
unsteady motion. The problem is solved employing separation of
variables technique. The results are expressed in terms of a nondimensional
porosity parameter (K), magnetic parameter (m) and
elastico-viscosity parameter (β), which depends on the Non-
Newtonian coefficient. The flow parameters are found to be identical
with that of Newtonian case as elastic-viscosity parameter and
magnetic parameter tends to zero and porosity tends to infinity. It is
seen that the effect of elastico-viscosity parameter, magnetic
parameter and the porosity parameter of the bounding surface has
significant effect on the velocity parameter.
Abstract: The in-cylinder flow and mixture formations are
significant in view of today’s increasing concern on environmental
issues and stringent emission regulations. In this paper, the numerical
simulations of a SI engine at different engine speeds (2000-5000
rpm) at fixed intake flow pressure of 1 bar are studied using the AVL
FIRE software. The simulation results show that when the engine
speed at fixed intake flow pressure is increased, the volumetric
efficiency of the engine decreases. This is due to a richer fuel
conditions near the engine cylinder wall when engine speed is
increased. Significant effects of impingement are also noted on the
upper and side walls of the engine cylinder. These variations in
mixture formation before ignition could affect the thermodynamics
efficiency and specific fuel consumption that would lead to a reduced
engine performance.
Abstract: This paper aims to analyze the role of natural
language processing (NLP). The paper will discuss the role in the
context of automated data retrieval, automated question answer, and
text structuring. NLP techniques are gaining wider acceptance in real
life applications and industrial concerns. There are various
complexities involved in processing the text of natural language that
could satisfy the need of decision makers. This paper begins with the
description of the qualities of NLP practices. The paper then focuses
on the challenges in natural language processing. The paper also
discusses major techniques of NLP. The last section describes
opportunities and challenges for future research.
Abstract: The research conducted in early seventies apparently
assumed the existence of a universal decision model for union
negotiators and furthermore tended to regard financial information as
a ‘neutral’ input into a rational decision making process. However,
research in the eighties began to question the neutrality of financial
information as an input in collective bargaining rather viewing it as a
potentially effective means for controlling the labour force.
Furthermore, this later research also started challenging the simplistic
assumptions relating particularly to union objectives which have
underpinned the earlier search for universal union decision models.
Despite the above developments there seems to be a dearth of studies
in developing countries concerning the use of financial information in
collective bargaining. This paper seeks to begin to remedy this
deficiency. Utilising a case study approach based on two enterprises,
one in the public sector and the other a multinational, the universal
decision model is rejected and it is argued that the decision whether
or not to use financial information is a contingent one and such a
contingency is largely defined by the context and environment in
which both union and management negotiators work. An attempt is
also made to identify the factors constraining as well as promoting
the use of financial information in collective bargaining, these being
regarded as unique to the organisations within which the case studies
are conducted.
Abstract: This research work is concerned with the life cycle
assessment (LCA) of an expressway, as well as its infrastructure, in
Thailand. The life cycle of an expressway encompasses the raw
material acquisition phase, the construction phase, the use or service
phase, the rehabilitation phase, and finally the demolition and
disposal phase. The LCA in this research was carried out using CML
baseline 2000 and in accordance with the ISO 14040 standard. A
functional unit refers to transportation of one person over one
kilometer of a 3-lane expressway with a 50-year lifetime. This
research has revealed that the construction phase produced the largest
proportion of the environmental impact (81.46%), followed by the
service, rehabilitation, demolition and disposal phases and
transportation at 11.97%, 3.72% 0.33% and 2.52%, respectively. For
the expressway under study, the total carbon footprint over its
lifetime is equivalent to 245,639 tons CO2-eq per 1 kilometer
functional unit, with the phases of construction, service,
rehabilitation, demolition and disposal and transportation
contributing 153,690; 73,773; 3693, 755 and 13,728 tons CO2-eq,
respectively. The findings could be adopted as a benchmark against
which the environmental impacts of future similar projects can be
measured.
Abstract: Applied industrial engineering is concerned with
imparting employable skills to improve the productivity for current
situation of products and services. The purpose of this case study is to
present the results of an initial research study conducted to identify
the desired professional characteristics of an industrial engineer with
an undergraduate degree and the emerging topic areas that should be
incorporated into the curriculum to prepare industrial engineering
(IE) graduates for the future workforce. Conclusions and
recommendations for applied industrial engineering syllabus have
been gathered and reported below. A two-pronged approach was
taken which included a method of benchmarking by comparing the
applied industrial engineering curricula of various universities and an
industry survey to identify job market requirements. This
methodology produced an analysis of the changing nature of
industrial engineering from learning to practical education. A
curriculum study for engineering is a relatively unexplored area of
research in the Middle East, much less for applied industrial
engineering. This work is an effort to bridge the gap between
theoretical study in the classroom and the real world work
applications in the industrial and service sectors.
Abstract: Due to growing concern about environmental and
social consequences throughout the world, a need has been felt to
incorporate sustainability concepts in conventional manufacturing.
This paper is an attempt to identify and evaluate drivers in
implementing sustainable manufacturing in Indian context. Nine
possible drivers for successful implementation of sustainable
manufacturing have been identified from extensive review. Further,
Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL)
approach has been utilized to evaluate and categorize these identified
drivers for implementing sustainable manufacturing in to the cause
and effect groups. Five drivers (Societal Pressure and Public
Concerns; Regulations and Government Policies; Top Management
Involvement, Commitment and Support; Effective Strategies and
Activities towards Socially Responsible Manufacturing and Market
Trends) have been categorized into the cause group and four drivers
(Holistic View in Manufacturing Systems; Supplier Participation;
Building Sustainable culture in Organization; and Corporate Image
and Benefits) have been categorized into the effect group. “Societal
Pressure and Public Concerns” has been found the most critical driver
and “Corporate Image and Benefits” as least critical or the most
easily influenced driver to implementing sustainable manufacturing
in Indian context. This paper may surely help practitioners in better
understanding of these drivers and their priorities towards effective
implementation of sustainable manufacturing.