Abstract: Business and IT alignment has continued as a
top concern for business and IT executives for almost three
decades. Many researchers have conducted empirical studies on
the relationship between business-IT alignment and performance.
Yet, these approaches, lacking a social perspective, have had little
impact on sustaining performance and competitive advantage. In
addition to the limited alignment literature that explores
organisational learning that is represented in shared understanding,
communication, cognitive maps and experiences.
Hence, this paper proposes an integrated process that enables
social and intellectual dimensions through the concept of
organisational learning. In particular, the feedback and feedforward
process which provide a value creation across dynamic
multilevel of learning. This mechanism enables on-going
effectiveness through development of individuals, groups and
organisations, which improves the quality of business and IT
strategies and drives to performance.
Abstract: Organization of video databases is becoming difficult
task as the amount of video content increases. Video classification
based on the content of videos can significantly increase the speed of
tasks such as browsing and searching for a particular video in a
database. In this paper, a content-based videos classification system
for the classes indoor and outdoor is presented. The system is
intended to be used on a mobile platform with modest resources. The
algorithm makes use of the temporal redundancy in videos, which
allows using an uncomplicated classification model while still
achieving reasonable accuracy. The training and evaluation was done
on a video database of 443 videos downloaded from a video sharing
service. A total accuracy of 87.36% was achieved.
Abstract: In the traditional concept of product life cycle management, the activities of design, manufacturing, and assembly are performed in a sequential way. The drawback is that the considerations in design may contradict the considerations in manufacturing and assembly. The different designs of components can lead to different assembly sequences. Therefore, in some cases, a good design may result in a high cost in the downstream assembly activities. In this research, an integrated design evaluation and assembly sequence planning model is presented. Given a product requirement, there may be several design alternative cases to design the components for the same product. If a different design case is selected, the assembly sequence for constructing the product can be different. In this paper, first, the designed components are represented by using graph based models. The graph based models are transformed to assembly precedence constraints and assembly costs. A particle swarm optimization (PSO) approach is presented by encoding a particle using a position matrix defined by the design cases and the assembly sequences. The PSO algorithm simultaneously performs design evaluation and assembly sequence planning with an objective of minimizing the total assembly costs. As a result, the design cases and the assembly sequences can both be optimized. The main contribution lies in the new concept of integrated design evaluation and assembly sequence planning model and the new PSO solution method. The test results show that the presented method is feasible and efficient for solving the integrated design evaluation and assembly planning problem. In this paper, an example product is tested and illustrated.
Abstract: M. Kemal Ataturk was a great leader who was fond of art and he had displayed his being fond of art many times. In his speeches and writings you can see that he had showed his approval to art and the importance of artists and art for the society. During the foundation of republic, he also wanted renovation in art as in other fields and ordered many novelties both in art and society. One of the greatest steps in realizing this was to prepare a national Turkish opera. In this study, it was studied how a Turkish opera, Özsoy was prepared in the context of social and political conditions of that time and what kind of processes it passed. As a result, it is seen that there was two main aims for Ataturk with this opera. First, Ataturk wanted to abolish the sectarian conflict between Iran and Turkey going on for centuries. The second and maybe the most important is that he wanted to make a revolution in the field of art and aimed to reach the level of civilized countries.
Abstract: In recent years Malaysia has included renewable
energy as an alternative fuel to help in diversifying the country-s
energy reliance on oil, natural gas, coal and hydropower with
biomass and solar energy gaining priority. The scope of this paper is
to look at the designing procedures and analysis of a solar thermal
parabolic trough concentrator by simulation utilizing meteorological
data in several parts of Malaysia. Parameters which include the
aperture area, the diameter of the receiver and the working fluid may
be varied to optimize the design. Aperture area is determined by
considering the width and the length of the concentrator whereas the
geometric concentration ratio (CR) is obtained by considering the
width and diameter of the receiver. Three types of working fluid are
investigated. Theoretically, concentration ratios can be very high in
the range of 10 to 40 000 depending on the optical elements used and
continuous tracking of the sun. However, a thorough analysis is
essential as discussed in this paper where optical precision and
thermal analysis must be carried out to evaluate the performance of
the parabolic trough concentrator as the theoretical CR is not the only
factor that should be considered.
Abstract: An original Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) method to tackle the problem of particulate flows at moderate to high concentration and finite Reynolds number is presented. Our method is built on the framework established by Glowinski and his coworkers [1] in the sense that we use their Distributed Lagrange Multiplier/Fictitious Domain (DLM/FD) formulation and their operator-splitting idea but differs in the treatment of particle collisions. The novelty of our contribution relies on replacing the simple artificial repulsive force based collision model usually employed in the literature by an efficient Discrete Element Method (DEM) granular solver. The use of our DEM solver enables us to consider particles of arbitrary shape (at least convex) and to account for actual contacts, in the sense that particles actually touch each other, in contrast with the simple repulsive force based collision model. We recently upgraded our serial code, GRIFF 1 [2], to full MPI capabilities. Our new code, PeliGRIFF 2, is developed under the framework of the full MPI open source platform PELICANS [3]. The new MPI capabilities of PeliGRIFF open new perspectives in the study of particulate flows and significantly increase the number of particles that can be considered in a full DNS approach: O(100000) in 2D and O(10000) in 3D. Results on the 2D/3D sedimentation/fluidization of isometric polygonal/polyedral particles with collisions are presented.
Abstract: The parametrical study of Shrouded Contra-rotating
Rotor was done in this paper based on 2D axisymmetric simulations.
The calculations were made with an actuator disk as double rotor
model. It objects to explore and quantify the effects of different shroud
geometry parameters mainly using the performance of power loading
(PL), which could evaluate the whole propulsion system capability as
5 Newtontotal thrust generationfor hover demand. The numerical
results show that:The increase of nozzle radius is desired but limited
by the flow separation, its optimal design is around 1.15 times rotor
radius, the viscosity effects greatly constraint the influence of nozzle
shape, the divergent angle around 10.5° performs best for chosen
nozzle length;The parameters of inlet such as leading edge curvature,
radius and internal shape do not affect thrust great but play an
important role in pressure distribution which could produce most part
of shroud thrust, they should be chosen according to the reduction of
adverse pressure gradients to reduce the risk of boundary separation.
Abstract: The development of One Tambon One Product
(OTOP) became the policy of the government in 1997 after the
former Prime Minister had been in power. The strategy of sections is
currently set for the policy. OTOP has become the part of the way of
community lives around the country. OTOP may be developed under
changing into ASEAN economic community in 2015 because of the
flow of capitals, productions, and many workers in the region. All
sectors are improved for the change. The purposes of study were to
study the strength and weakness of the OTOP-creating process via its
policy and to lead to the strategy to be able to apply before changing.
The methodology is qualitative to study its policy including
document and to interview experienced persons. The findings showed
that the effort of improvement of all sectors obviously involves with
OTOP development. Particularly, the strategic administration of
OTOP is in every level of the state, central sector, region, and
community.
Abstract: The nickel and gold nanoclusters as supported
catalysts were analyzed by XAS, XRD and XPS in order to
determine their local, global and electronic structure. The present
study has pointed out a strong deformation of the local structure of
the metal, due to its interaction with oxide supports. The average
particle size, the mean squares of the microstrain, the particle size
distribution and microstrain functions of the supported Ni and Au
catalysts were determined by XRD method using Generalized Fermi
Function for the X-ray line profiles approximation. Based on EXAFS
analysis we consider that the local structure of the investigated
systems is strongly distorted concerning the atomic number pairs.
Metal-support interaction is confirmed by the shape changes of the
probability densities of electron transitions: Ni K edge (1s →
continuum and 2p), Au LIII-edge (2p3/2 → continuum, 6s, 6d5/2 and
6d3/2). XPS investigations confirm the metal-support interaction at
their interface.
Abstract: The design of weight is one of the important parts in
fuzzy decision making, as it would have a deep effect on the evaluation
results. Entropy is one of the weight measure based on objective
evaluation. Non--probabilistic-type entropy measures for fuzzy set
and interval type-2 fuzzy sets (IT2FS) have been developed and applied
to weight measure. Since the entropy for (IT2FS) for decision
making yet to be explored, this paper proposes a new objective
weight method by using entropy weight method for multiple attribute
decision making (MADM). This paper utilizes the nature of IT2FS
concept in the evaluation process to assess the attribute weight based
on the credibility of data. An example was presented to demonstrate
the feasibility of the new method in decision making. The entropy
measure of interval type-2 fuzzy sets yield flexible judgment and
could be applied in decision making environment.
Abstract: In the present work homogeneous silica film on
silicon was fabricated by colloidal silica sol. The silica sol precursor
with uniformly granular particle was derived by the alkaline
hydrolysis of tetraethoxyorthosilicate (TEOS) in presence of glycerol
template. The film was prepared by dip coating process. The
templated hetero-structured silica film was annealed at elevated
temperatures to generate nano- and meso porosity in the film. The
film was subsequently annealed at different temperatures to make it
defect free and abrasion resistant. The sol and the film were
characterized by the measurement of particle size distribution,
scanning electron microscopy, XRD, FTIR spectroscopy,
transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy,
measurement of the refractive index, thermal conductivity and
abrasion resistance. The porosity of the films decreased whereas
refractive index and dielectric constant of it `increased with the
increase in the annealing temperature. The thermal conductivity of
the films increased with the increase in the film thickness. The
developed porous silica film holds strong potential for use in
different areas.
Abstract: Combustion of sprays is of technological importance, but its flame behavior is not fully understood. Furthermore, the multiplicity of dependent variables such as pressure, temperature, equivalence ratio, and droplet sizes complicates the study of spray combustion. Fundamental study on the influence of the presence of liquid droplets has revealed that laminar flames within aerosol mixtures more readily become unstable than for gaseous ones and this increases the practical burning rate. However, fundamental studies on turbulent flames of aerosol mixtures are limited particularly those under near mono-dispersed droplet conditions. In the present work, centrally ignited expanding flames at near atmospheric pressures are employed to quantify the burning rates in gaseous and aerosol flames. Iso-octane-air aerosols are generated by expansion of the gaseous pre-mixture to produce a homogeneously distributed suspension of fuel droplets. The effects of the presence of droplets and turbulence velocity in relation to the burning rates of the flame are also investigated.
Abstract: Corner detection and optical flow are common techniques for feature-based video stabilization. However, these algorithms are computationally expensive and should be performed at a reasonable rate. This paper presents an algorithm for discarding irrelevant feature points and maintaining them for future use so as to improve the computational cost. The algorithm starts by initializing a maintained set. The feature points in the maintained set are examined against its accuracy for modeling. Corner detection is required only when the feature points are insufficiently accurate for future modeling. Then, optical flows are computed from the maintained feature points toward the consecutive frame. After that, a motion model is estimated based on the simplified affine motion model and least square method, with outliers belonging to moving objects presented. Studentized residuals are used to eliminate such outliers. The model estimation and elimination processes repeat until no more outliers are identified. Finally, the entire algorithm repeats along the video sequence with the points remaining from the previous iteration used as the maintained set. As a practical application, an efficient video stabilization can be achieved by exploiting the computed motion models. Our study shows that the number of times corner detection needs to perform is greatly reduced, thus significantly improving the computational cost. Moreover, optical flow vectors are computed for only the maintained feature points, not for outliers, thus also reducing the computational cost. In addition, the feature points after reduction can sufficiently be used for background objects tracking as demonstrated in the simple video stabilizer based on our proposed algorithm.
Abstract: This article proposes a voltage-mode
multifunction filter using differential voltage current
controllable current conveyor transconductance amplifier
(DV-CCCCTA). The features of the circuit are that: the
quality factor and pole frequency can be tuned independently
via the values of capacitors: the circuit description is very
simple, consisting of merely 1 DV-CCCCTA, and 2
capacitors. Without any component matching conditions, the
proposed circuit is very appropriate to further develop into
an integrated circuit. Additionally, each function response
can be selected by suitably selecting input signals with
digital method. The PSpice simulation results are depicted.
The given results agree well with the theoretical anticipation.
Abstract: In this article, we aim to discuss the formulation of two explicit group iterative finite difference methods for time-dependent two dimensional Burger-s problem on a variable mesh. For the non-linear problems, the discretization leads to a non-linear system whose Jacobian is a tridiagonal matrix. We discuss the Newton-s explicit group iterative methods for a general Burger-s equation. The proposed explicit group methods are derived from the standard point and rotated point Crank-Nicolson finite difference schemes. Their computational complexity analysis is discussed. Numerical results are given to justify the feasibility of these two proposed iterative methods.
Abstract: Using activity theory, organisational theory and
didactics as theoretical foundations, a comprehensive model of the
organisational dimensions relevant for learning and knowledge
transfer will be developed. In a second step, a Learning Assessment
Guideline will be elaborated. This guideline will be designed to
permit a targeted analysis of organisations to identify the status quo
in those areas crucial to the implementation of learning and
knowledge transfer. In addition, this self-analysis tool will enable
learning managers to select adequate didactic models for e- and
blended learning. As part of the European Integrated Project
"Process-oriented Learning and Information Exchange" (PROLIX),
this model of organisational prerequisites for learning and knowledge
transfer will be empirically tested in four profit and non-profit
organisations in Great Britain, Germany and France (to be finalized
in autumn 2006). The findings concern not only the capability of the
model of organisational dimensions, but also the predominant
perceptions of and obstacles to learning in organisations.
Abstract: Large volumes of fingerprints are collected and stored
every day in a wide range of applications, including forensics, access
control etc. It is evident from the database of Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) which contains more than 70 million finger
prints. Compression of this database is very important because of this
high Volume. The performance of existing image coding standards
generally degrades at low bit-rates because of the underlying block
based Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) scheme. Over the past
decade, the success of wavelets in solving many different problems
has contributed to its unprecedented popularity. Due to
implementation constraints scalar wavelets do not posses all the
properties which are needed for better performance in compression.
New class of wavelets called 'Multiwavelets' which posses more
than one scaling filters overcomes this problem. The objective of this
paper is to develop an efficient compression scheme and to obtain
better quality and higher compression ratio through multiwavelet
transform and embedded coding of multiwavelet coefficients through
Set Partitioning In Hierarchical Trees algorithm (SPIHT) algorithm.
A comparison of the best known multiwavelets is made to the best
known scalar wavelets. Both quantitative and qualitative measures of
performance are examined for Fingerprints.
Abstract: This paper provides a key driver-based conceptual framework that can be used to improve a firm-s success in commercializing technology and in new product innovation resulting from collaboration with other organizations through strategic alliances. Based on a qualitative study using an interview approach, strategic alliances of entrepreneurs in the food processing industry in Thailand are explored. This paper describes factors affecting decisions to collaborate through alliances. It identifies four issues: maintaining the efficiency of the value chain for production capability, adapting to present and future competition, careful assessment of value of outcomes, and management of innovation. We consider five driving factors: resource orientation, assessment of risk, business opportunity, sharing of benefits and confidence in alliance partners. These factors will be of interest to entrepreneurs and policy makers with regard to further understanding of the direction of business strategies.
Abstract: In this research, heat transfer of a poly Ethylene
fluidized bed reactor without reaction were studied experimentally
and computationally at different superficial gas velocities. A multifluid
Eulerian computational model incorporating the kinetic theory
for solid particles was developed and used to simulate the heat
conducting gas–solid flows in a fluidized bed configuration.
Momentum exchange coefficients were evaluated using the Syamlal–
O-Brien drag functions. Temperature distributions of different phases
in the reactor were also computed. Good agreement was found
between the model predictions and the experimentally obtained data
for the bed expansion ratio as well as the qualitative gas–solid flow
patterns. The simulation and experimental results showed that the gas
temperature decreases as it moves upward in the reactor, while the
solid particle temperature increases. Pressure drop and temperature
distribution predicted by the simulations were in good agreement
with the experimental measurements at superficial gas velocities
higher than the minimum fluidization velocity. Also, the predicted
time-average local voidage profiles were in reasonable agreement
with the experimental results. The study showed that the
computational model was capable of predicting the heat transfer and
the hydrodynamic behavior of gas-solid fluidized bed flows with
reasonable accuracy.
Abstract: 53 college students answered questions regarding the circumstances in which they first heard about the news of Wenchuan earthquake or the news of their acceptance to college which took place approximately one year ago, and answered again two years later. The number of details recalled about their circumstances for both events was high and didn-t decline two years later. However, consistency in reported details over two years was low. Participants were more likely to construct central (e.g., Where were you?) than peripheral information (What were you wearing?), and the confidence of the central information was higher than peripheral information, which indicated that they constructed more when they were more confident.