Abstract: This article outlines a hybrid method, incorporating
multiple techniques into an evaluation process, in order to select
competitive suppliers in a supply chain. It enables a purchaser to do
single sourcing and multiple sourcing by calculating a combined
supplier score, which accounts for both qualitative and quantitative
factors that have impact on supply chain performance.
Abstract: An automatic method for the extraction of feature points for face based applications is proposed. The system is based upon volumetric feature descriptors, which in this paper has been extended to incorporate scale space. The method is robust to noise and has the ability to extract local and holistic features simultaneously from faces stored in a database. Extracted features are stable over a range of faces, with results indicating that in terms of intra-ID variability, the technique has the ability to outperform manual landmarking.
Abstract: Adjacent Hall microsensors, comprising a silicon
substrate and four contacts, providing simultaneously two supply inputs and two differential outputs, are characterized. The voltage
related sensitivity is in the order of 0.11T-1, and a cancellation method for offset compensation is used, achieving residual offset in
the micro scale which is also compared to a single Hall plate.
Abstract: We created the tool, which combines the powerful
GENESIS (GEneral NEural SImulation System) simulation language
with the up-to-date visualisation and internet techniques. Our
solution resides in the connection between the simulation output from
GENESIS, which is converted to the data-structure suitable for
WWW browsers and VRML (Virtual Reality Modelling Language)
viewers. The selected GENESIS simulations are once exported into
the VRML code, and stored in our neurovisualisation portal
(webserver). There, the loaded models, demonstrating mainly the
spread of electrical signal (action potentials, postsynaptic potentials)
along the neuronal membrane (axon, dendritic tree, neuron) could be
displayed in the client-s VRML viewer, without interacting with
original GENESIS environment. This enables the visualisation of
basic neurophysiological phenomena designed for GENESIS
simulator on the independent OS (operation system).
Abstract: The Baltic States regained independence and started
the pathway from command economy to market economy and
entered European Union at the same time. Latter internationally
recognized evaluations for the countries are diverse. The present
diversity of the Baltic States -Economic Development is a subject of
interest because of the similarities – all three are small, open
economies, countries have similar geographic location and initially
likewise historical and political backgrounds. This article explains
relationship between social environment, business environment and
economic growth. It argues that the elements of social environment
underlie more successful economic development. It researches the
causes, why Estonia has performed better in economic outcomes and
development. The article analyses selection of socio-economic
indicators of all three Baltic States – Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia
for the time period of ten years to include the influence of economic
cycles.
Abstract: This study assessed the productivity and performance of the barangays in the Heritage City of Vigan in terms of the barangays- resource requirements, management of resources, produced goods and services, and outcomes of service delivery. The descriptive research design was used in the study employing the input-process-output-outcomes model. Findings of this study showed that the barangays were strong in terms of resource requirements which enabled them to produce goods and services. The barangays were also strong in terms of management of resources in development planning. They also showed great potential along fiscal administration, and had a moderately high capability in organization and management. However, the barangays appeared to be most wanting in the area of barangay legislation, but they were strong in community mobilization and they had strong linkages with POs, NGOs and educational institutions. In the delivery of social services, the barangays favored the maintenance of day care centers. However, the barangays seem to be weak in the delivery of economic services. They fared well along providing protective services such as in establishing a Barangay Disaster Coordinating Council and organizing a group of Barangay Tanod. In terms of environmental services, the barangays performed garbage collection and disposal; however, garbage still found their way in the streets in some barangays. The services delivered had effected an improved status of the barangays. However, the barangays are still facing some problems.
Abstract: A study was conducted to formally characterize
notebook computer performance under various environmental and
usage conditions. Software was developed to collect data from the
operating system of the computer. An experiment was conducted to
evaluate the performance parameters- variations, trends, and
correlations, as well as the extreme value they can attain in various
usage and environmental conditions. An automated software script
was written to simulate user activity. The variability of each
performance parameter was addressed by establishing the empirical
relationship between performance parameters. These equations were
presented as baseline estimates for performance parameters, which
can be used to detect system deviations from normal operation and
for prognostic assessment. The effect of environmental factors,
including different power sources, ambient temperatures, humidity,
and usage, on performance parameters of notebooks was studied.
Abstract: Reno-pin contact test is a method that is controlled by
DC motor used to characterize electronic chips. This method is used in
electronic and telecommunication devices. A new electric
performance testing system is developed in which the testing method
is controlled by using Piezoelectric Transducer (PZT) instead of DC
motor which reduces vibration and noise. The vertical displacement of
the Reno-pin is very short in the Reno-pin contact testing system. Now
using a flexible guide in the new Reno-pin contact system, the vertical
movement of the Reno-pin is increased many times of the existing
Reno-pin contact testing method using DC motor. Using the present
electric performance testing system with a flexible hinge and PZT
instead of DC motor, manufacturing of electronic chips are able to
characterize chips with low cost and high speed.
Abstract: Analytically the effect of polarization dependent loss on a high speed fiber optic communication link has been investigated. PDL and the signal's incoming state of polarization (SOP) have a significant co-relation between them and their various combinations produces different effects on the system behavior which has been inspected. Pauli's spin operator and PDL parameters are combined together to observe the attenuation effect induced by PDL in a link containing multiple PDL elements. It is found that in the presence of PDL the Q-factor and BER at the receiver undergoes fluctuation causing the system to be unstable and results show that it is mainly due to optical-signal-to-parallel-noise ratio (OSNItpar) that these parameters fluctuate. Generally the Q-factor, BER deteriorates as the value of average PDL in the link increases except for depolarized light for which the system parameters improves when PDL increases.
Abstract: Establishing pumping stations is one of the most common ways of providing water from rivers. There are many issues involved in the design and operation of pumping stations most important of which is the problem of sedimentation. One of the significant issues which must be taken into consideration in designing pumping stations is the operation method and technical matters related to it. Safety and convenience of operation is one of the issues that must be always considered by the designer. Some of the major issues in making decisions regarding the type of design for the station are geographical condition, the location of the station and availability of experts in maintenance and operation of the station. Dimensions of the station must allow free movement for checking and operating pumps after installation of pumps and plumbing system.
Abstract: This paper proposes a location-aware system for
household robots which allows users to paste predefined paper tags at
different locations according to users- comprehension of the house. In this system a household robot may be aware of its location and the
attributes thereof by visually recognizing the tags when the robot is moving. This paper also presents a novel user interface to define a
moving path of the robot, which allows users to draw the path in the air
with a finger so as to generate commands for following motions.
Abstract: The approaches to make an agent generate intelligent actions in the AI field might be roughly categorized into two ways–the classical planning and situated action system. It is well known that each system have its own strength and weakness. However, each system also has its own application field. In particular, most of situated action systems do not directly deal with the logical problem. This paper first briefly mentions the novel action generator to situatedly extract a set of actions, which is likely to help to achieve the goal at the current situation in the relaxed logical space. After performing the action set, the agent should recognize the situation for deciding the next likely action set. However, since the extracted action is an approximation of the action which helps to achieve the goal, the agent could be caught into the deadlock of the problem. This paper proposes the newly developed hybrid architecture to solve the problem, which combines the novel situated action generator with the conventional planner. The empirical result in some planning domains shows that the quality of the resultant path to the goal is mostly acceptable as well as deriving the fast response time, and suggests the correlation between the structure of problems and the organization of each system which generates the action.
Abstract: Culinary culture differences can cause health
problems for international tourists in Thailand. This paper drew upon
data collected from an international tourist survey conducted in
Bangkok, Thailand during summer of 2012. Summer is the period
that a variety food safety issues and incidents are often publicized in
Thailand. The survey targeted European Union tourists- concerns
toward a variety of food safety issues that they encountered during
their trip in Thailand. A total of 400 respondents were elicited as data
input for t-test, and one way ANOVA test. The findings revealed an
astonishing result that up to 46.5 percent of respondents were sick at
least one time or more in Thailand. However, the majority of
respondents trusted that the Thai hotel and Thai restaurants would
ensure food safety, but they did not trust street vendors to ensure food
safety. The level of food safety concern can be ranked from most
concern to least concern by using the value of mean scores as
follows: 1) artificial coloring, 2) use of preservatives, 3) antibiotics,
4) growth hormones, 5) chemical residues, and 6) bacterial
contamination. The overall mean score for level of concerns was
3.493 with standard deviation of 1.677 which did not indicate a very
high level of concern. In addition, the result for t-test and one way
ANOVA test revealed that there was not much effect from the
demographic differences to level of food safety concerns.
Abstract: Nowadays companies in all sectors are looking for the
sources of competitive advantages. Holistic marketing approach
searches for their emergence based on the integration of all
components and elements across the organization. Modern marketing
sees the sources of competitive advantage in implementing the latest
managerial practices, motivation, intelligent project management,
knowledge management, collaborative marketing, CSR and, in the
recent years, also in the business process optimization. With the use
of modern tools including business process management and business
process modelling the company can markedly increase its internal
efficiency which can lead not only to lowering the costs but to
creating the environment for optimal customer care, positive
corporate culture and for origination of innovations as well. In the
article the authors analyze the recent trend in this area and introduce
suggestions to companies to identify and optimize the key processes
that have a significant impact of the company´s competitiveness.
Abstract: The purpose of this research is to increase our
knowledge as regards how Small-and-Medium-Sized Enterprises
(SMEs) tackle ERP implementation projects to achieve successful
adoption and use of these systems within the organization. SMEs
have scare resources to handle these kinds of projects which have
proved to be risky and costly. There are several studies focusing on
ERP implementation in larger companies, however, few studies
report on challenges experienced by SMEs. Our research seeks to
bridge this gap. Through a multiple case study of four companies, we
identified challenges and critical elements within the different phases
(pre-implementation, implementation and post-implementation) of
the ERP life cycle. To interpret our findings, we utilize a well-know
ERP life cycle model and critical success factors developed for larger
companies which are reported in former research literature. We
discuss if these models are relevant for SMEs and suggest additional
critical elements identified in this study to make a framework more
adapted to the SME context.
Abstract: Vickers indentation is used to measure the hardness
of materials. In this study, numerical simulation of Vickers
indentation experiment was performed for Diamond like Carbon
(DLC) coated materials. DLC coatings were deposited on stainless
steel 304 substrates with Chromium buffer layer using RF Magnetron
and T-shape Filtered Cathodic Vacuum Arc Dual system The
objective of this research is to understand the elastic plastic
properties, stress strain distribution, ring and lateral crack growth and
propagation, penetration depth of indenter and delamination of
coating from substrate with effect of buffer layer thickness. The
effect of Poisson-s ratio of DLC coating was also analyzed. Indenter
penetration is more in coated materials with thin buffer layer as
compared to thicker one, under same conditions. Similarly, the
specimens with thinner buffer layer failed quickly due to high
residual stress as compared to the coated materials with reasonable
thickness of 200nm buffer layer. The simulation results suggested the
optimized thickness of 200 nm among the prepared specimens for
durable and long service.
Abstract: Artificial Neural Network (ANN)s can be modeled for
High Energy Particle analysis with special emphasis on shower core
location. The work describes the use of an ANN based system which
has been configured to predict locations of cores of showers in the
range 1010.5 to 1020.5 eV. The system receives density values as
inputs and generates coordinates of shower events recorded for values
captured by 20 core positions and 80 detectors in an area of 100
meters. Twenty ANNs are trained for the purpose and the positions
of shower events optimized by using cooperative ANN learning. The
results derived with variations of input upto 50% show success rates
in the range of 90s.
Abstract: This paper aims to study at the use of local knowledge
to develop community self-protection in flood prone residential area,
Ayutthaya Island has been chosen as a case study. This study tries to
examine the strength of local knowledge which is able to develop
community self-protection and cope with flood disaster. In-depth, this
paper focuses on the influence of social network on knowledge
transfer. After conducted the research, authors reviewed the strength
of local knowledge and also mentioned the obstacles of community to
use and also transfer local knowledge. Moreover, the result of the
study revealed that local knowledge is not always transferred by the
strongest-tie social network (family or kinship) as we used to believe.
Surprisingly, local knowledge could be also transferred by the
weaker-tie social network (teacher/ monk) with the better
effectiveness in some knowledge.
Abstract: Saccharomyces cerevisiae (baker-s yeast) can exhibit
sustained oscillations during the operation in a continuous bioreactor
that adversely affects its stability and productivity. Because of
heterogeneous nature of cell populations, the cell population balance
models can be used to capture the dynamic behavior of such cultures.
In this paper an unstructured, segregated model is used which is
based on population balance equation(PBE) and then in order to
simulation, the 4th order Rung-Kutta is used for time dimension and
three methods, finite difference, orthogonal collocation on finite
elements and Galerkin finite element are used for discretization of the
cell mass domain. The results indicate that the orthogonal collocation
on finite element not only is able to predict the oscillating behavior of
the cell culture but also needs much little time for calculations.
Therefore this method is preferred in comparison with other methods.
In the next step two controllers, a globally linearizing control (GLC)
and a conventional proportional-integral (PI) controller are designed
for controlling the total cell mass per unit volume, and performances
of these controllers are compared through simulation. The results
show that although the PI controller has simpler structure, the GLC
has better performance.
Abstract: The power transformer is the most expensive, indispensable and arguably the most important equipment item in a power system Insulation failure in transformers can cause long term interruption to supply and loss of revenue and the condition assessment of the insulation is thus an important maintenance procedure. Oil-impregnated transformer insulation consists of mainly organic materials including mineral oil and cellulose-base paper and pressboard. The operating life of cellulose-based insulation, as with most organic insulation, depends heavily on its operating temperature rise above ambient. This paper reports results of a laboratory-based experimental investigation of partial discharge (PD) activity at high temperature in oil-impregnated insulation. The experiments reported here are part an on-going programme aimed at investigating the way in which insulation deterioration can be monitored and quantified by use of partial discharge diagnostics. Partial discharge patterns were recorded and analysed during increasing and decreasing phases of the temperature. The effect of ageing of the insulation on the PD patterns in oil and oil-impregnated insulation are also considered.