Abstract: As widely accepted, didactic multiple-choice tests are referred as a tool providing feedback easily and quickly. Despite the final test scores are corrected by a special formula and number of high plausibility distractors is taken into consideration, the results may be influenced by the random choice. The survey was held in three academic years at the Faculty of Informatics and Management, University of Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic, where the multiple-choice test scores were compared to the open-answer ones. The research sample included 567 respondents. The collected data were processed by the NCSS2007 statistic software by the method of frequency and multiple regression analysis and presented in the form of figures and tables. The results proved statistically significant differences in test scores in academic years 2 and 3, and were discussed from the point of the credit system and conditions for teaching/learning English in the Czech education system.
Abstract: One of the major thrusts of the Bus Rapid Transit System is to reduce the commuter’s dependency on private vehicles and increase the shares of public transport to make urban transportation system environmentally sustainable. In this study, commuter mode choice analysis is performed that examines behavioral responses to the proposed Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) in Surat, with estimation of the probable shift from private mode to public mode. Further, evaluation of the BRTS scenarios, using Surat’s transportation ecological footprint was done. A multi-modal simulation model was developed in Biogeme environment to explicitly consider private users behaviors and non-linear environmental impact. The data of the different factors (variables) and its impact that might cause modal shift of private mode users to proposed BRTS were collected through home-interview survey using revealed and stated preference approach. A multi modal logit model of mode-choice was then calibrated using the collected data and validated using proposed sample. From this study, a set of perception factors, with reliable and predictable data base, to explain the variation in modal shift behaviour and their impact on Surat’s ecological environment has been identified. A case study of the proposed BRTS connecting the Surat Industrial Hub to the coastal area is provided to illustrate the approach.
Abstract: Just-In-Time (JIT) is a lean manufacturing tool, which provides the benefits of efficiency, and of minimizing unnecessary costs for many organisations. However, the risks arising from these benefits have been disregarded. These risks impact on system processes disrupting the whole supply chain. This paper proposes an inventory model that can simultaneously reduce costs and risks in JIT systems. This model is developed to ascertain an optimal ordering strategy for procuring raw materials by using regular multi-external and local backup suppliers to reduce the total cost of the products, and at the same time to reduce the risks arising from this cost reduction within production systems. Some results that will be illustrated in the second part of this paper are presented.
Abstract: The Salman Farsi dam project is constructed on the Ghareh Agahaj River about 140km south of Shiraz city in the Zagros Mountains of southwestern Iran. This tectonic province of south-western Iran is characterized by a simple folded sedimentary sequence. The dam foundation rocks compose of the Asmari Formation of Oligo-miocene and generally comprise of a variety of karstified carbonate rocks varying from strong to weak rocks. Most of the rocks exposed at the dam site show a primary porosity due to incomplete diagenetic recrystallization and compaction. In addition to these primary dispositions to weathering, layering conditions (frequency and orientation of bedding) and the subvertical tectonic discontinuities channeled preferably the infiltrating by deep-sited hydrothermal solutions. Consequently the porosity results to be enlarged by dissolution and the rocks are expected to be karstified and to develop cavities in correspondence of bedding, major joint planes and fault zones. This kind of karsts is named hypogenic karsts which associated to the ascendant warm solutions. Field observations indicate strong karstification and vuggy intercalations especially in the middle part of the Asmari succession. The biggest karst in the dam axis which identified by speleological investigations is Golshany Cave with volume of about 150,000 m3. The tendency of the Asmari limestone for strong dissolution can alert about the seepage from the reservoir and area of the dam locality.
Abstract: Yogyakarta, as the capital city of Yogyakarta Province, has important roles in various sectors that require good provision of public transportation system. Ideally, a good transportation system should be able to accommodate the amount of travel demand. This research attempts to develop a trip generation model to predict the number of public transport passenger in Yogyakarta city. The model is built by using multiple linear regression analysis, which establishes relationship between trip number and socioeconomic attributes. The data consist of primary and secondary data. Primary data was collected by conducting household surveys which randomly selected. The resulted model is further applied to evaluate the existing TransJogja, a new Bus Rapid Transit system serves Yogyakarta and surrounding cities, shelters.
Abstract: The Implementation of the Union law faces major
challenges today. If for a long period of time, the Community and the
Union have persevered in their legislative vocation, now one can
notice that this large legislative quantity has complicated the task of
knowledge and of application the European standards. Under these
circumstances, it became necessary, in order to give effectiveness to
the European legislation, the development of some operational
application criteria and the generation of some new implementation
tools. The correct application of the European Union legislation by
the national public administrations was considered by the European
Commission as being crucial for further integration and proper
functioning of the internal market. Among the initiatives launched in
the past years to promote the exchange of good administrative
practices in the correct application of European Union legislation,
SOLVIT net has proved to be one of the most effective.
Abstract: A novel low-cost flight simulator with the development
goals cost effectiveness and high performance has been realized for
meeting the huge pilot training needs of airlines. The simulator
consists of an aircraft dynamics model, a sophisticated designed
low-profile electrical driven motion system with a subsided cabin, a
mixed reality based semi-virtual cockpit system, a control loading
system and some other subsystems. It shows its advantages over
traditional flight simulator by its features achieved with open
architecture, software solutions and low-cost hardware.
Abstract: In this paper, we present a maintenance model of a
two-unit series system with economic dependence. Unit#1 which is
considered to be more expensive and more important, is subject to
condition monitoring (CM) at equidistant, discrete time epochs and
unit#2, which is not subject to CM has a general lifetime distribution.
The multivariate observation vectors obtained through condition
monitoring carry partial information about the hidden state of unit#1,
which can be in a healthy or a warning state while operating. Only the
failure state is assumed to be observable for both units. The objective
is to find an optimal opportunistic maintenance policy minimizing
the long-run expected average cost per unit time. The problem
is formulated and solved in the partially observable semi-Markov
decision process framework. An effective computational algorithm
for finding the optimal policy and the minimum average cost is
developed, illustrated by a numerical example.
Abstract: Three similar negative differential resistance (NDR)
profiles with both high peak to valley current density ratio (PVCDR)
value and high peak current density (PCD) value in unity resonant
tunneling electronic circuit (RTEC) element is developed in this paper.
The PCD values and valley current density (VCD) values of the three
NDR curves are all about 3.5 A and 0.8 A, respectively. All PV values
of NDR curves are 0.40 V, 0.82 V, and 1.35 V, respectively. The VV
values are 0.61 V, 1.07 V, and 1.69 V, respectively. All PVCDR
values reach about 4.4 in three NDR curves. The PCD value of 3.5 A
in triple PVCDR RTEC element is better than other resonant
tunneling devices (RTD) elements. The high PVCDR value is
concluded the lower VCD value about 0.8 A. The low VCD value is
achieved by suitable selection of resistors in triple PVCDR RTEC
element. The low PV value less than 1.35 V possesses low power
dispersion in triple PVCDR RTEC element. The designed multiple
value logical level (MVLL) system using triple PVCDR RTEC
element provides equidistant logical level. The logical levels of
MVLL system are about 0.2 V, 0.8 V, 1.5 V, and 2.2 V from low
voltage to high voltage and then 2.2 V, 1.3 V, 0.8 V, and 0.2 V from
high voltage back to low voltage in half cycle of sinusoid wave. The
output level of four levels MVLL system is represented in 0.3 V, 1.1 V,
1.7 V, and 2.6 V, which satisfies the NMP condition of traditional
two-bit system. The remarkable logical characteristic of improved
MVLL system with paralleled capacitor are with four significant
stable logical levels about 220 mV, 223 mV, 228 mV, and 230 mV.
The stability and articulation of logical levels of improved MVLL
system are outstanding. The average holding time of improved MVLL
system is approximately 0.14 μs. The holding time of improved
MVLL system is fourfold than of basic MVLL system. The function of
additional capacitor in the improved MVLL system is successfully
discovered.
Abstract: In this article has been analyzed Kazakhstani
experience in organizing the system after the institute of higher education, legislative-regulative assurance of master preparation, and
statistic data in the republic. Have been the features of projecting the master programs, a condition of realization of studying credit system, have been analyzed the technologies of research teaching masters. In
conclusion have been given some recommendation on creating personal-oriented environment of research teaching masters.
Abstract: Light rail systems have proliferated in Spain in the last decade, following a tendency that is common not only in other European countries but also in other parts of the world. This paper reviews the benefits of light rail systems, both related to environmental issues and mobility issues. It analyses the evolution of light rail projects in Spain and shows that light rail systems in this country have evolved towards an extensive use of public-private partnerships. The analysis of the Spanish projects, however, does not contribute any conclusive evidence about whether public-private partnerships have been more efficient than publicly owned enterprises in building and operating light rail systems.
Abstract: Today, the preferences and participation of the TD groups such as the elderly and disabled is still lacking in decision-making of transportation planning, and their reactions to certain type of policies are not well known. Thus, a clear methodology is needed. This study aimed to develop a method to extract the preferences of the disabled to be used in the policy-making stage that can also guide to future estimations. The method utilizes the combination of cluster analysis and data filtering using the data of the Arao city (Japan). The method is a process that follows: defining the TD group by the cluster analysis tool, their travel preferences in tabular form from the household surveys by policy variableimpact pairs, zones, and by trip purposes, and the final outcome is the preference probabilities of the disabled. The preferences vary by trip purpose; for the work trips, accessibility and transit system quality policies with the accompanying impacts of modal shifts towards public mode use as well as the decreasing travel costs, and the trip rate increase; for the social trips, the same accessibility and transit system policies leading to the same mode shift impact, together with the travel quality policy area leading to trip rate increase. These results explain the policies to focus and can be used in scenario generation in models, or any other planning purpose as decision support tool.
Abstract: In this paper, a numerical solution based on sinc
functions is used for finding the solution of boundary value problems
which arise from the problems of calculus of variations. This
approximation reduce the problems to an explicit system of algebraic
equations. Some numerical examples are also given to illustrate the
accuracy and applicability of the presented method.
Abstract: Due to the call of global warming effects, city planners aim at actions for reducing carbon emission. One of the approaches is to promote the usage of public transportation system toward the transit-oriented-development. For example, rapid transit system in Taipei city and Kaohsiung city are opening. However, until November 2008 the average daily patronage counted only 113,774 passengers at Kaohsiung MRT systems, much less than which was expected. Now the crucial questions: how the public transport competes with private transport? And more importantly, what factors would enhance the use of public transport? To give the answers to those questions, our study first applied regression to analyze the factors attracting people to use public transport around cities in the world. It is shown in our study that the number of MRT stations, city population, cost of living, transit fare, density, gasoline price, and scooter being a major mode of transport are the major factors. Subsequently, our study identified successful and unsuccessful cities in regard of the public transport usage based on the diagnosis of regression residuals. Finally, by comparing transportation strategies adopted by those successful cities, our conclusion stated that Kaohsiung City could apply strategies such as increasing parking fees, reducing parking spaces in downtown area, and reducing transfer time by providing more bus services and public bikes to promote the usage of public transport.
Abstract: During the last couple of years, the degree of dependence on IT systems has reached a dimension nobody imagined to be possible 10 years ago. The increased usage of mobile devices (e.g., smart phones), wireless sensor networks and embedded devices (Internet of Things) are only some examples of the dependency of modern societies on cyber space. At the same time, the complexity of IT applications, e.g., because of the increasing use of cloud computing, is rising continuously. Along with this, the threats to IT security have increased both quantitatively and qualitatively, as recent examples like STUXNET or the supposed cyber attack on Illinois water system are proofing impressively. Once isolated control systems are nowadays often publicly available - a fact that has never been intended by the developers. Threats to IT systems don’t care about areas of responsibility. Especially with regard to Cyber Warfare, IT threats are no longer limited to company or industry boundaries, administrative jurisdictions or state boundaries. One of the important countermeasures is increased cooperation among the participants especially in the field of Cyber Defence. Besides political and legal challenges, there are technical ones as well. A better, at least partially automated exchange of information is essential to (i) enable sophisticated situational awareness and to (ii) counter the attacker in a coordinated way. Therefore, this publication performs an evaluation of state of the art Intrusion Detection Message Exchange protocols in order to guarantee a secure information exchange between different entities.
Abstract: IT infrastructures are becoming more and more
difficult. Therefore, in the first industrial IT systems, the P2P
paradigm has replaced the traditional client server and methods of
self-organization are gaining more and more importance. From the
past it is known that especially regular structures like grids may
significantly improve the system behavior and performance. This
contribution introduces a new algorithm based on a biologic
analogue, which may provide the growth of several regular structures
on top of anarchic grown P2P- or social network structures.
Abstract: This paper implements the inventory model developed in the first part of this paper in a simplified problem to simultaneously reduce costs and risks in JIT systems. This model is developed to ascertain an optimal ordering strategy for procuring raw materials by using regular multi-external and local backup suppliers to reduce the total cost of the products, and at the same time to reduce the risks arising from this cost reduction within production systems. A comparison between the cost of using the JIT system and using the proposed inventory model shows the superiority of the use of the inventory model.
Abstract: Thisresearch paper is dedicated to an actual issue in Latvia and in the whole European Union – development of the secondary materials management. The goal of this paper is to research the development of the secondary materials management in Latvia as a result to point out its main positive aspects and problems. In this research paper the author regards following issues: significance of the secondary materials management, current situation of the waste generation and utilization in Latvia comparing with other EU Member States, main problems and positive aspects of the secondary materials management in Latvia. The research author concludes that in last ten years a great work is done to develop the secondary materials market. Nevertheless following improvements are necessary: implementation of the packaging deposit system, development of the separate waste collection, increasing of the recycling capacity.
Abstract: Load managing method on road became necessary
since overloaded vehicles occur damage on road facilities and existing
systems for preventing this damage still show many
problems.Accordingly, efficient managing system for preventing
overloaded vehicles could be organized by using the road itself as a
scale by applying genetic algorithm to analyze the load and the drive
information of vehicles.Therefore, this paper organized Ubiquitous
sensor network system for development of intelligent overload vehicle
regulation system, also in this study, to use the behavior of road, the
transformation was measured by installing underground box type
indoor model and indoor experiment was held using genetic algorithm.
And we examined wireless possibility of overloaded vehicle
regulation system through experiment of the transmission and
reception distance.If this system will apply to road and bridge, might
be effective for economy and convenience through establishment of
U-IT system..