Abstract: Well-developed strategic marketing planning is the essential
prerequisite for establishment of the right and unique competitive
advantage. Typical market, however, is a heterogeneous
and decentralized structure with natural involvement of individual
or group subjectivity and irrationality. These features cannot be
fully expressed with one-shot rigorous formal models based on,
e.g. mathematics, statistics or empirical formulas. We present an
innovative solution, extending the domain of agent based computational
economics towards the concept of hybrid modeling in service
provider and consumer market such as telecommunications. The
behavior of the market is described by two classes of agents -
consumer and service provider agents - whose internal dynamics
are fundamentally different. Customers are rather free multi-state
structures, adjusting behavior and preferences quickly in accordance
with time and changing environment. Producers, on the contrary,
are traditionally structured companies with comparable internal processes
and specific managerial policies. Their business momentum is
higher and immediate reaction possibilities limited. This limitation
underlines importance of proper strategic planning as the main
process advising managers in time whether to continue with more
or less the same business or whether to consider the need for future
structural changes that would ensure retention of existing customers
or acquisition of new ones.
Abstract: A generic and extendible Multi-Agent Data Mining
(MADM) framework, MADMF (the Multi-Agent Data Mining
Framework) is described. The central feature of the framework is that
it avoids the use of agreed meta-language formats by supporting a
framework of wrappers.
The advantage offered is that the framework is easily extendible,
so that further data agents and mining agents can simply be added to
the framework. A demonstration MADMF framework is currently
available. The paper includes details of the MADMF architecture and
the wrapper principle incorporated into it. A full description and
evaluation of the framework-s operation is provided by considering
two MADM scenarios.
Abstract: Desert regions around the Nile valley in Upper Egypt
contain great extent of swelling soil. Many different comment
procedures of treatment of the swelling soils for construction such as
pre-swelling, load balance OR soil replacement. One of the measure
factors which affect the level of the aggressiveness of the swelling
soil is the direction of the infiltration water directions within the
swelling soils. In this paper a physical model was installed to
measure the effect of water on the swelling soil with replacement
using fatty acid distillation residuals (FADR) mixed with sand as
thick sand-FADR mixture to prevent the water pathway arrive to the
swelling soil. Testing program have been conducted on different
artificial samples with different sand to FADR contents ratios (4%,
6%, and 9%) to get the optimum value fulfilling the impermeable
replacement. The tests show that a FADR content of 9% is sufficient
to produce impermeable replacement.
Abstract: Asphalt surfaces are exposed to various weather
conditions and dynamic loading caused by passing trucks and
vehicles. In such situations, asphalt cement shows so different
rheological-mechanical behavior. If asphalt cement isn-t compatible
enough, asphalt layer will be damaged immediately and expensive
repairing procedures should be performed then. To overcome this
problem, researchers study on mechanical improved asphalt cement.
In this study, bentonite was used in order to modify bitumen
characteristics and the modified bitumen's characteristics were
investigated by asphalt cement tests. Then, the optimal bitumen
content in various compounds was determined and asphalt samples
with different contents of additives were prepared and tested. Results
show using this kind of additive not only has caused improvement in
bitumen mechanical properties, but also improvement in Marshall
Parameters was achieved.
Abstract: Phaseolus coccineus L. is the third most important
cultivated Phaseolus species in the world. It is widely grown in
Latvia due to its earliness, good taste and uniform and qualitative
yield. Experiments were carried out in the laboratories of Department
of Food Technology and Agronomical Analysis Scientific Laboratory
at Latvia Universityof Agriculture. Beans (Phaseolus coccineus L.)
crude protein, crude ash content as well as colour measurements were
analyzed. Results show, that brown coloured beans have less crude
protein content than others, and ash content have significant
differences.
Abstract: There are a many of needs for the development of
SiC-based hydrogen sensor for harsh environment applications. We
fabricated and investigated Pd/Ta2O5/SiC-based hydrogen sensors
with MOS capacitor structure for high temperature process monitoring
and leak detection applications in such automotive, chemical and
petroleum industries as well as direct monitoring of combustion
processes. In this work, we used silicon carbide (SiC) as a substrate to
replace silicon which operating temperatures are limited to below
200°C. Tantalum oxide was investigated as dielectric layer which has
high permeability for hydrogen gas and high dielectric permittivity,
compared with silicon dioxide or silicon nitride. Then, electrical
response properties, such as I-V curve and dependence of capacitance
on hydrogen concentrations were analyzed in the temperature ranges
of room temperature to 500°C for performance evaluation of the
sensor.
Abstract: Kwashiorkor is one of nutritional problem in
Indonesia, which lead to decrease immune system. This condition
causes susceptibility to infectious disease, especially tuberculosis.
Development of new tuberculosis vaccine will be an important
strategy to eliminate tuberculosis in kwashiorkor. Previous research
showed that 38-kDa Mycobacterium tuberculosis protein is one of the
potent immunogen. However, the role of oral immunization with 38-
kDa Mycobacterium tuberculosis protein to the number of
lymphocytes in the rat model of kwashiorkor is still unknown. We
used kwashiorkor rat model groups with 4% and 2% low protein diet.
Oral immunization with 38-kDa Mycobacterium tuberculosis protein
given with 2 booster every week. The lymphocytes number were
measured by flowcytometry. There was no significant difference
between the number of lymphocytes in the normal rat group and the
kwashiorkor rat groups. It may reveal the role of 38-kDa
Mycobacterium tuberculosis protein as a potent immunogen that can
increase the lymphocytes number from kwashiorkor rat model same
as normal rat.
Abstract: The urban transformation processes in its framework
and its general significance became a fundamental and vital subject
of consideration for both the developed and the developing societies.
It has become important to regulate the architectural systems adopted
by the city, to sustain the present development on one hand, and on
the other hand, to facilitate its future growth.
Thus, the study dealt with the phenomenon of urban
transformation of the Mediterranean cities, and the city of Alexandria
in particular, because of its significant historical and cultural legacy,
its historical architecture and its contemporary urbanization.
This article investigates the entirety of cities in the Mediterranean
region through the analysis of the relationship between inflation and
growth of these cities and the extent of the complexity of the city
barriers. We hope to analyze not only the internal transformations,
but the external relationships (both imperial and post-colonial) that
have shaped Alexandria city growth from the nineteenth century until
today.
Abstract: Manufacturing companies are facing a broad variety
of challenges caused by a dynamic production environment. To
succeed in such an environment, it is crucial to minimize the loss of
time required to trigger the adaptation process of a company-s
production structures. This paper presents an approach for the
continuous monitoring of production structures by neurologic
principles. It enhances classical monitoring concepts, which are
principally focused on reactive strategies, and enables companies to
act proactively. Thereby, strategic aspects regarding the
harmonization of certain life cycles are integrated into the decision
making process for triggering the reconfiguration process of the
production structure.
Abstract: Internet application in China has maintained a constant
development tendency in the past decade. China is now one of the
most populous countries in terms of internet user population. While
offering enormous opportunities, the dramatic digitalization also
brings about a series of challenges that demand urgent attention.
Digital divide is one of the challenges that affect China as well as other
countries in the world. This paper examines digital divide in the
Chinese context from the perspective of development communication.
Through a case study of a rural township under the backdrop of the
rapid internet development in China, the paper discusses the
economic, psychological and cultural roots of digital divide; and
explores development communication strategies addressing the roots
of digital divide. It is argued that development communication must be
responsive to the potentialities and preferences of the specific society
and serve the purposes of participation and sustainability.
Abstract: Importance of strategic planning is unquestionable. However, the practical implementation of a strategic plan faces too many obstacles. The aim of the article is explained the importance of strategic planning and to find how companies in Moravian-Silesian Region deal with strategic planning, and to introduce the model, which helps to set strategic goals in financial indicators area. This model should be part of the whole process of strategic planning and can be use to predict the future values of financial indicators of the company with regard to the factor, which influence these indicators.
Abstract: This paper presents results of measurements campaign
carried out at a carrier frequency of 24GHz with the help of TPLINK
router in indoor line-of-sight (LOS) scenarios. Firstly, the
radio wave propagation strategies are analyzed in some rooms with
router of point to point Ad hoc network. Then floor attenuation is
defined for 3 floors in experimental region. The free space model and
dual slope models are modified by considering the influence of
corridor conditions on each floor. Using these models, indoor signal
attenuation can be estimated in modeling of indoor radio wave
propagation. These results and modified models can also be used in
planning the networks of future personal communications services.
Abstract: This paper presents a subjective job scheduler based
on a 3-layer Backpropagation Neural Network (BPNN) and a greedy
alignment procedure in order formulates a real-life situation. The
BPNN estimates critical values of jobs based on the given subjective
criteria. The scheduler is formulated in such a way that, at each time
period, the most critical job is selected from the job queue and is
transferred into a single machine before the next periodic job arrives.
If the selected job is one of the oldest jobs in the queue and its
deadline is less than that of the arrival time of the current job, then
there is an update of the deadline of the job is assigned in order to
prevent the critical job from its elimination. The proposed
satisfiability criteria indicates that the satisfaction of the scheduler
with respect to performance of the BPNN, validity of the jobs and the
feasibility of the scheduler.
Abstract: Organic farmers across Saskatchewan face soil
phosphorus (P) shortages. Due to the restriction on inputs in organic
systems, farmers rely on crop rotation and naturally-occurring
arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) for plant P supply. Crop rotation
is important for disease, pest, and weed management. Crops that are
not colonized by AMF (non-mycorrhizal) can decrease colonization
of a following crop. An experiment was performed to quantify soil P
cycling in four cropping sequences under organic management and
determine if mustard (non-mycorrhizal) was delaying the
colonization of subsequent wheat. Soils from the four cropping
sequences were measured for inorganic soil P (Pi), AMF spore
density (SD), phospholipid fatty acid analysis (PLFA, for AMF
biomarker counts), and alkaline phosphatase activity (ALPase,
related to AMF metabolic activity). Plants were measured for AMF
colonization and P content and uptake of above-ground biomass. A
lack of difference in AMF activity indicated that mustard was not
depressing colonization. Instead, AMF colonization was largely
determined by crop type and crop rotation.
Abstract: In this paper we propose a new content-weighted
method for full reference (FR) video quality control using a region of
interest (ROI) and wherein two-component weighted metrics for Deaf
People Video Communication. In our approach, an image is
partitioned into region of interest and into region "dry-as-dust", then
region of interest is partitioned into two parts: edges and background
(smooth regions), while the another methods (metrics) combined and
weighted three or more parts as edges, edges errors, texture, smooth
regions, blur, block distance etc. as we proposed. Using another idea
that different image regions from deaf people video communication
have different perceptual significance relative to quality. Intensity
edges certainly contain considerable image information and are
perceptually significant.
Abstract: Concurrency and synchronization are becoming big
issues as every new PC comes with multi-core processors. A major
reason for Object-Oriented Programming originally was to enable
easier reuse: encode your algorithm into a class and thoroughly
debug it, then you can reuse the class again and again. However,
when we get to concurrency and synchronization, this is often not
possible. Thread-safety issues means that synchronization constructs
need to be entangled into every class involved. We contributed a
detailed literature review of issues and challenges in concurrent
programming and present a methodology that uses the Aspect-
Oriented paradigm to address this problem. Aspects will allow us to
extract the synchronization concerns as schemes to be “weaved in"
later into the main code. This allows the aspects to be separately
tested and verified. Hence, the functional components can be weaved
with reusable synchronization schemes that are robust and scalable.
Abstract: This paper presents a multiband CPW-fed slot antenna
with L-slot bowtie tuning stub. The proposed antenna has been
designed for PCS 1900, UMTS, WLAN 802.11 a/b/g and bluetooth
applications, with a cost-effective FR4 substrate. The proposed
antenna still radiate as omni-directional in azimuth plane and
sufficient bandwidth for all above mentions. The proposed antenna
works as dual-wideband, bandwidth at low frequency band and high
frequency are about 45.49 % and 22.39 % respectively. The
experimental results of the constructed prototype are presented and
also compared with simulation results using a commercial software
tool.
Abstract: Due to rapid economic growth, Indonesia's energy needs is rapidly increasing. Indonesia-s primary energy consumption has doubled in 2007 compared to 2003. Indonesia's status change from oil net-exporter to oil net-importer country recently has increased Indonesia's concern over energy security. Due to this, oil import becomes center of attention in the dynamics of Indonesia's energy security. Conventional studies addressing Indonesia's energy security have focused on energy production sector. This study explores Indonesia-s energy security considering energy import sector by modeling and simulating Indonesia-s energy-related policies using system dynamics. Simulation result of Indonesia's energy security in 2020 in Business-As-Usual scenario shows that in term of supply demand ratio, energy security will be very high, but also it poses high dependence on energy import. The Alternative scenario result shows lower energy security in term of supply demand ratio and much lower dependence on energy import. It is also found that the Alternative scenario produce lower GDP growth.
Abstract: This paper presents data annotation models at
five levels of granularity (database, relation, column, tuple, and cell) of relational data to address the problem of unsuitability of most relational databases to express annotations. These models
do not require any structural and schematic changes to the
underlying database. These models are also flexible, extensible,
customizable, database-neutral, and platform-independent. This paper also presents an SQL-like query language, named Annotation Query Language (AnQL), to query annotation documents. AnQL is simple to understand and exploits the already-existent wide knowledge and skill set of SQL.
Abstract: According to celebrated Hurwitz theorem, there exists
four division algebras consisting of R (real numbers), C (complex
numbers), H (quaternions) and O (octonions). Keeping in view
the utility of octonion variable we have tried to extend the three
dimensional vector analysis to seven dimensional one. Starting with
the scalar and vector product in seven dimensions, we have redefined
the gradient, divergence and curl in seven dimension. It is shown
that the identity n(n - 1)(n - 3)(n - 7) = 0 is satisfied only
for 0, 1, 3 and 7 dimensional vectors. We have tried to write all
the vector inequalities and formulas in terms of seven dimensions
and it is shown that same formulas loose their meaning in seven
dimensions due to non-associativity of octonions. The vector formulas
are retained only if we put certain restrictions on octonions and split
octonions.