Abstract: This paper deals with bifurcation analyses in current programmed DC/DC Boost converter and exhibition of chaotic behavior. This phenomenon occurs due to variation of a set of the studied circuit parameters (input voltage and a reference current). Two different types of bifurcation paths have been observed as part as part of another bifurcation arising from variation of suitable chosen parameter.
Abstract: In present days market environment, supply chains has to be competitive enough to handle pressures like varying customer’s expectations, low cost high quality products to be delivered at the minimum time and the most important is throat cutting competition at world wide scale. Recently, supply chain competitiveness has been, therefore, accepted as one of the most important philosophies in the supply chain literature. Various researchers and practitioners have tried to identify and implement enablers in supply chains which can bring competitiveness in the supply chains i.e. supply chain competitiveness. The purpose of this paper is to suggest select enablers for supply chain competitiveness in the Indian manufacturing sector using an integrated approach of literature review and exploratory interviews with eminent professionals from the supply chain area in various industries, academia and research. The aim of the paper is to highlight the important enablers in the area of supply chain competitiveness and suggest recommendations to the industry and managers of manufacturing supply chains with a view to encourage more efforts in this wider domain area.
Abstract: The conventional routing protocol designed for MANET fail to handle dynamic movement and self-starting behavior of the node effectively. Every node in MANET is considered as forward as well receiver node and all of them participate in routing the packet from source to the destination. While the interconnection topology is highly dynamic, the performance of the most of the routing protocol is not encouraging. In this paper, a reliable broadcast approach for MANET is proposed for improving the transmission rate. The MANET is considered with asymmetric characteristics and the properties of the source and destination nodes are different. The non-forwarding node list is generated with a downstream node and they do not participate in the routing. While the forwarding and non-forwarding node is constructed in a conventional way, the number of nodes in non-forwarding list is more and increases the load. In this work, we construct the forwarding and non-forwarding node optimally so that the flooding and broadcasting is reduced to certain extent. The forwarded packet is considered as acknowledgements and the non-forwarding nodes explicitly send the acknowledgements to the source. The performance of the proposed approach is evaluated in NS2 environment. Since the proposed approach reduces the flooding, we have considered functionality of the proposed approach with AODV variants. The effect of network density on the overhead and collision rate is considered for performance evaluation. The performance is compared with the AODV variants found that the proposed approach outperforms all the variants.
Abstract: The performance of any cooperative communication system depends largely on the selection of a proper partner. Another important factor to consider is an efficient allocation of resource like power by the source node to help it in forwarding information to the destination. In this paper, we look at the concepts of partner selection and resource (power) allocation for a distributed communication network. A type of non-cooperative game referred to as Trade-Off game is employed so as to jointly consider the utilities of the source and relay nodes, where in this case, the source is the node that requires help with forwarding of its information while the partner is the node that is willing to help in forwarding the source node’s information, but at a price. The approach enables the source node to maximize its utility by selecting a partner node based on (i) the proximity of the partner node to the source and destination nodes, and (ii) the price the partner node will charge for the help being rendered. Our proposed scheme helps the source locate and select the relay nodes at ‘better’ locations and purchase power optimally from them. It also aids the contending relay nodes maximize their own utilities as well by asking proper prices. Our game scheme is seen to converge to unique equilibrium.
Abstract: An adder is one of the most integral component of a digital system like a digital signal processor or a microprocessor. Being an extremely computationally intensive part of a system, the optimization for speed and power consumption of the adder is of prime importance. In this paper we have designed a 1 bit full adder cell based on dynamic TSPC logic to achieve high speed operation. A high threshold voltage sleep transistor is used to reduce the static power dissipation in standby mode. The circuit is designed and simulated in TSPICE using TSMC 180nm CMOS process. Average power consumption, delay and power-delay product is measured which showed considerable improvement in performance over the existing full adder designs.
Abstract: This paper proposes an innovative approach to represent the Pictogram Chinese Characters. The advantage of this representation is using an extraordinary representation to represent the pictogram Chinese character. This extraordinary representation is created accordingly to the original pictogram Chinese characters revolution or transition. The purpose of this innovative creation is to assist the learner to learn Chinese as second language (CSL) in Chinese language learning, specifically on memorizing Chinese characters. Commonly, the CSL will give up and frustrate easily while memorizing the Chinese characters by rote. So, our innovative representation helps on memorizing the Chinese character by visual storytelling. This innovative representation enhances the Chinese language learning experience of the CSL.
Abstract: While the European Union (EU) harmonized methodology is a benchmark of worldwide used business survey (BS) methodology, the choice of variables that are components of the confidence indicators, as the leading indicators, is not strictly determined and unique. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to investigate and to quantify the relationship between all business survey variables in manufacturing industry and industrial production as a reference macroeconomic series in Croatia. The assumption is that there are variables in the business survey, that are not components of Industrial Confidence Indicator (ICI) and which can accurately (and sometimes better then ICI) predict changes in Croatian industrial production. Empirical analyses are conducted using quarterly data of BS variables in manufacturing industry and Croatian industrial production over the period from the first quarter 2005 to the first quarter 2013. Research results confirmed the assumption: three BS variables which is not components of ICI (competitive position, demand and liquidity) are the best leading indicator then ICI, in forecasting changes in Croatian industrial production instantaneously, with one, two or three quarter ahead.
Abstract: Based on the fact that volatility is time varying in high frequency data and that periods of high volatility tend to cluster, the most successful and popular models in modeling time varying volatility are GARCH type models. When financial returns exhibit sudden jumps that are due to structural breaks, standard GARCH models show high volatility persistence, i.e. integrated behavior of the conditional variance. In such situations models in which the parameters are allowed to change over time are more appropriate. This paper compares different GARCH models in terms of their ability to describe structural changes in returns caused by financial crisis at stock markets of six selected central and east European countries. The empirical analysis demonstrates that Markov regime switching GARCH model resolves the problem of excessive persistence and outperforms uni-regime GARCH models in forecasting volatility when sudden switching occurs in response to financial crisis.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to raise general awareness of transparency importance for audit firms and for audit services’ users. This paper analyzes transparency of audit firms that audited financial statements of listed companies, for year 2011 and 2012. We use this two years because in the meantime Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants has been adopted. This paper investigates whether transparency reports of audit firms are in accordance with the Croatian Audit Act and whether there is a difference on transparency in observed years. For this paper quality index of transparency report and financial indicators of audit firms are used to get conclusion about condition of audit firms transparency reporting. Results of our study indicate that audit firms are not fully transparent, looking for both years. Transparency of audit firms in 2012 has improved significantly, compared with transparency in 2011.
Abstract: This work aims to introduce an efficient and to standardize the measuring system analyses for automotive industrial. The study started by literature reviewing about the management and analyses measurement system. The approach of measuring system management, then, was constructed. Such approach was validated by collecting the current measuring system data using the equipments of interest including vernier caliper and micrometer. Their accuracy and precision of measurements were analyzed. Finally, the measuring system was improved and evaluated. The study showed that vernier did not meet its measuring characteristics based on the linearity whereas all equipments were lacking of the measuring precision characteristics. Consequently, the causes of measuring variation via the equipments of interest were declared. After the improvement, it was found that their measuring performance could be accepted as the standard required. Finally, the standardized approach for analyzing the measuring system of automotive was concluded.
Abstract: Rice grain is Sierra Leone’s staple food and the nation
imports over 120,000 metric tons annually due to a shortfall in its
cultivation. Thus, the insufficient level of the crop's cultivation in
Sierra Leone is caused by many problems and this led to the
endlessly widening supply and demand for the crop within the
country. Consequently, this has instigated the government to spend
huge money on the importation of this grain that would have been
otherwise cultivated domestically at a cheaper cost. Hence, this
research attempts to explore the response of rice supply with respect
to its demand in Sierra Leone within the period 1980-2010.
The Nerlovian adjustment model to the Sierra Leone rice data set
within the period 1980-2010 was used. The estimated trend equations
revealed that time had significant effect on output, productivity
(yield) and area (acreage) of rice grain within the period 1980-2010
and this occurred generally at the 1% level of significance. The
results showed that, almost the entire growth in output had the
tendency to increase in the area cultivated to the crop. The time trend
variable that was included for government policy intervention
showed an insignificant effect on all the variables considered in this
research. Therefore, both the short-run and long-run price response
was inelastic since all their values were less than one.
From the findings above, immediate actions that will lead to
productivity growth in rice cultivation are required.
To achieve the above, the responsible agencies should provide
extension service schemes to farmers as well as motivating them on
the adoption of modern rice varieties and technology in their rice
cultivation ventures.
Abstract: The concern with sustainability brought the need for optimization of the buildings to reduce consumption of natural resources. Almost 1/3 of energy demanded by Brazilian housings is used to provide thermal solutions. AEC sector may contribute applying bioclimatic strategies on building design. The aim of this research is to investigate the viability of applying some alternative solutions in residential buildings. The research was developed with computational simulation on single family social housing, examining envelope type, absorptance, and insolation. The analysis of the thermal performance applied both Brazilian standard NBR 15575 and degree-hour method, in the scenery of Porto Alegre, a southern Brazilian city. We used BIM modeling through Revit/Autodesk and used Energy Plus to thermal simulation. The payback of the investment was calculated comparing energy savings and building costs, in a period of 50 years. The results shown that with the increment of envelope’s insulation there is thermal comfort improvement and energy economy, with a pay-back period of 24 to 36 years, in some cases.
Abstract: Information Security is the most describing problem in present times. To cop up with the security of the information, the passwords were introduced. The alphanumeric passwords are the most popular authentication method and still used up to now. However, text based passwords suffer from various drawbacks such as they are easy to crack through dictionary attacks, brute force attacks, keylogger, social engineering etc. Graphical Password is a good replacement for text password. Psychological studies say that human can remember pictures better than text. So this is the fact that graphical passwords are easy to remember. But at the same time due to this reason most of the graphical passwords are prone to shoulder surfing. In this paper, we have suggested a shoulder-surfing resistant graphical password authentication method. The system is a combination of recognition and pure recall based techniques. Proposed scheme can be useful for smart hand held devices (like smart phones i.e. PDAs, iPod, iPhone, etc) which are more handy and convenient to use than traditional desktop computer systems.
Abstract: In this paper, the problem of stability criteria for Markovian jumping BAM neural networks with leakage and
discrete delays has been investigated. Some new sufficient condition
are derived based on a novel Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional
approach. These new criteria based on delay partitioning idea are
proved to be less conservative because free-weighting matrices
method and a convex optimization approach are considered. Finally,
one numerical example is given to illustrate the the usefulness and
feasibility of the proposed main results.
Abstract: This paper is concerned with the effect of Hartmann number on the free convective flow in a square cavity with different positions of heated square block. The two-dimensional Physical and mathematical model have been developed, and mathematical model includes the system of governing mass, momentum and energy equations are solved by the finite element method. The calculations have been computed for Prandtl number Pr = 0.71, the Rayleigh number Ra = 1000 and the different values of Hartmann number. The results are illustrated with the streamlines, isotherms, velocity and temperature fields as well as local Nusselt number.
Abstract: Polymer-modified bitumen is used to combat different pavement distresses and to increase the life span of pavement. Unmodified bitumen cannot perform better with the range extreme minimum and maximum pavement temperatures. The polymers commonly used to modify the bitumen are ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) styrene butadiene styrene (SBS). The aim this study to compare the performance of EVA modified bitumen with the bitumen modified by waste low density polyethylene (LDPE), polypropylene (PP) obtained from waste carry bags and waste tyre rubber (CR) to encourage the use of waste polymer whose disposal is big problem today, in place of costly virgin polymer. From the experimental study, it was found that waste polymers are also effective in improving the properties bitumen as that of virgin polymer.
Abstract: The Global Positioning System (GPS), satellite-based technology, has been utilized extensively in the last few years in a wide range of Geometrics and Geographic Information Systems’ (GIS) applications. One of the main challenges dealing with GPS-based heights consists of converting them into Mean Sea Level (MSL) heights, which is used in surveys and mapping.
In this research’s work, differences in heights of 50 points, in northern part of Libya has been carried out by using both ordinary leveling (in which Geoid is the reference datum) and GPS techniques (in which Ellipsoid is the reference datum). In addition, this study utilized the EGM2008 model to obtain the undulation values between the ellipsoidal and orthometric heights. From these values of ellipsoidal heights can be obtained from GPS observations to compute the orthomteric heights. This research presents a suitable alternative, from an economical point of view, to substitute the expensive traditional leveling technique, particularly, for topographic mapping.
Abstract: In this study, the effectiveness of an integrated aquatic
plants in phytogreen zone was studied and statistical analysis for the
promotional integrated phytogreen system approached was discussed.
It was found that's the effectiveness of using aquatic plant such as
Typha angustifolia sp., Lepironia articulata sp., Limnocharis flava
sp., Monochoria vaginalis sp., Pistia stratiotes sp., and Eichhornia
crassipes sp., in the conventional oxidation pond process in order to
comply the standard A according to Malaysia Environmental Quality
Act 1974 (Act 127); Environmental Quality (Sewage) Regulation
2009 for effluent discharge into inland water near the residential area
was successfully shown. It was concluded that the integrated
phtogreen system developed in this study has great potential for
refurbishment wastewater in conventional oxidation pond.
Abstract: It is well-known as Fitts’ law that the time for a user to point a target on a GUI screen can be modeled as a linear function of “index of difficulty (ID).” In this paper, the authors investigate whether the traditional ID formulation is appropriate independently of device screen sizes. Result of our experiment reveals that the ID formulation may not consistently capture actual difficulty: users’ pointing performances are not consistent among pointing target variations of which index of difficulty are consistent. The term A/W may not be appropriate because the term causes the observed inconsistency. Based on this finding, the authors then evaluate the applicability of possible models other than Fitts’ one. Multiple regression models are found to be able to appropriately represent the effects of target design variations. The authors next make an attempt to improve the definition of ID in Fitts’ model. Our idea is to raise the size or the distance values depending on the screen size. The modified model is found to fit well to the users’ pointing data, which supports the idea.
Abstract: This paper studies the problem of exponential stability analysis for uncertain neural networks with discrete and distributed time-varying delays. Together with a suitable augmented Lyapunov Krasovskii function, zero equalities, reciprocally convex approach and a novel sufficient condition to guarantee the exponential stability of the considered system. The several exponential stability criterion proposed in this paper is simpler and effective. Finally,numerical examples are provided to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of our results.