Abstract: In this study, we have defined slant helix according to
Bishop frame in Euclidean 3-Space. Furthermore, we have given
some necassary and sufficient conditons for the slant helix.
Abstract: The concept of flexible manufacturing is highly
appealing in gaining a competitive edge in the market by quickly
adapting to the changing customer needs. Scheduling jobs on flexible
manufacturing systems (FMSs) is a challenging task of managing the
available flexibility on the shop floor to react to the dynamics of the
environment in real-time. In this paper, an agent-oriented scheduling
framework that can be integrated with a real or a simulated FMS is
proposed. This framework works in stochastic environments with a
dynamic model of job arrival. It supports a hierarchical cooperative
scheduling that builds on the available flexibility of the shop floor.
Testing the framework on a model of a real FMS showed the
capability of the proposed approach to overcome the drawbacks of
the conventional approaches and maintain a near optimal solution
despite the dynamics of the operational environment.
Abstract: This study analyses store layout among the many
factors that underlie supermarket store design, this; in terms of what to
display in a shop and where to place the items. This report examines
newly-opened stores and evaluates their interior shop floor layouts,
which we then attempt to categorize by various styles. We then
consider the interaction between shop floor layout and customer
behavior from the perspective of the supermarket as the seller. At this
point, we focus on the “store magnets"–the main sections within the
shop likely to attract customers into the store.
Abstract: In nature, electromagnetic fields always appear like
atmosphere static electric field, the earth's static magnetic field and
the wide-rang frequency electromagnetic field caused by lightening.
However, besides natural electromagnetic fields (EMF), today human
beings are mostly exposed to artificial electromagnetic fields due to
technology progress and outspread use of electrical devices. To
evaluate nuisance of EMF, it is necessary to know field intensity for
every frequency which appears and compare it with allowed values.
Low frequency EMF-s around transmission and distribution lines are
time-varying quasi-static electromagnetic fields which have
conservative component of low frequency electrical field caused by
charges and eddy component of low frequency magnetic field caused
by currents. Displacement current or field delay are negligible, so
energy flow in quasi-static EMF involves diffusion, analog like heat
transfer. Electrical and magnetic field can be analyzed separately.
This paper analysis the numerical calculations in ELF-400 software
of EMF in distribution substation in shopping center. Analyzing the
results it is possible to specify locations exposed to the fields and
give useful suggestion to eliminate electromagnetic effect or reduce it
on acceptable level within the non-ionizing radiation norms and
norms of protection from EMF.
Abstract: People from different cultures favor web pages
characterized by the values of their culture and, therefore, tend to
prefer different characteristics of a website according to their cultural
values in terms of navigation, security, product information, customer
service, shopping and design tools. For a company aiming to
globalize its market it is useful to implement country specific cultural
interfaces and different web sites for countries with different cultures.
This paper, following the conclusions proposed by two models of
Hall and Hofstede, and the studies of Marcus and Gould, defines,
through an empirical analysis, the guidelines of web design for both
the Scandinavian countries and Malaysia.
Abstract: We examine the maximum theorem by Berge from the
point of view of Bishop style constructive mathematics. We will show
an approximate version of the maximum theorem and the maximum
theorem for functions with sequentially locally at most one maximum.
Abstract: This study aims at investigating the empirical
relationships between risk preference, internet preference, and
internet knowledge which are known as user characteristics, in
addition to perceived risk of the customers on the internet purchase
intention. In order to test the relationships between the variables of
model 174, a questionnaire was collected from the students with
previous online experience. For the purpose of data analysis,
confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation model
(SEM) was used.
Test results show that the perceived risk affects the internet
purchase intention, and increase or decrease of perceived risk
influences the purchase intention when the customer does the internet
shopping. Other factors such as internet preference, knowledge of the
internet, and risk preference affect the internet purchase intention.
Abstract: The product development process (PDP) in the
Technology group plays a very important role in the launch of any
product. While a manufacturing process encourages the use of certain
measures to reduce health, safety and environmental (HSE) risks on
the shop floor, the PDP concentrates on the use of Geometric
Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T) to develop a flawless design.
Furthermore, PDP distributes and coordinates activities between
different departments such as marketing, purchasing, and
manufacturing. However, it is seldom realized that PDP makes a
significant contribution to developing a product that reduces HSE
risks by encouraging the Technology group to use effective GD&T.
The GD&T is a precise communication tool that uses a set of
symbols, rules, and definitions to mathematically define parts to be
manufactured. It is a quality assurance method widely used in the oil
and gas sector. Traditionally it is used to ensure the
interchangeability of a part without affecting its form, fit, and
function. Parts that do not meet these requirements are rejected
during quality audits.
This paper discusses how the Technology group integrates this
quality assurance tool into the PDP and how the tool plays a major
role in helping the HSE department in its goal towards eliminating
HSE incidents. The PDP involves a thorough risk assessment and
establishes a method to address those risks during the design stage.
An illustration shows how GD&T helped reduce safety risks by
ergonomically improving assembling operations. A brief discussion
explains how tolerances provided on a part help prevent finger injury.
This tool has equipped Technology to produce fixtures, which are
used daily in operations as well as manufacturing. By applying
GD&T to create good fits, HSE risks are mitigated for operating
personnel. Both customers and service providers benefit from
reduced safety risks.
Abstract: The paper addresses a problem of optimal staffing in
open shop environment. The problem is to determine the optimal
number of operators serving a given number of machines to fulfill the
number of independent operations while minimizing staff idle. Using
a Gantt chart presentation of the problem it is modeled as twodimensional
cutting stock problem. A mixed-integer programming
model is used to get minimal job processing time (makespan) for
fixed number of machines' operators. An algorithm for optimal openshop
staffing is developed based on iterative solving of the
formulated optimization task. The execution of the developed
algorithm provides optimal number of machines' operators in the
sense of minimum staff idle and optimal makespan for that number of
operators. The proposed algorithm is tested numerically for a real life
staffing problem. The testing results show the practical applicability
for similar open shop staffing problems.
Abstract: The paper presents the service learning project titled
DicDucFac (idea-leadership-product), that was planned and
conducted by the team of information sciences students. It was
planned as a workshop dealing with the application of modern social
media (Facebook, YouTube, Gmail) for the purposes of selfpromotion,
free advertising via social networks and marketing own
ideas and/or products in the virtual world. The workshop was
organized for highly-skilled computer literate unemployed youth.
These youth, as final beneficiaries, will be able to apply what they
learned in this workshop to “the real world“, increasing their chances
for employment and self-employment. The results of the project
reveal that the basic, active-learning principles embodied in our
teaching approach allow students to learn more effectively and gain
essential life skills (from computer applications to teamwork) that
can only be learned by doing. It also shows that our students received
the essentials of professional ethics and citizenship through direct,
personal engagement in professional activities and the life of the
community.
Abstract: This paper presents an application of 5S lean technology to a production facility. Due to increased demand, high product variety, and a push production system, the plant has suffered from excessive wastes, unorganized workstations, and unhealthy work environment. This has translated into increased production cost, frequent delays, and low workers morale. Under such conditions, it has become difficult, if not impossible, to implement effective continuous improvement studies. Hence, the lean project is aimed at diagnosing the production process, streamlining the workflow, removing/reducing process waste, cleaning the production environment, improving plant layout, and organizing workstations. 5S lean technology is utilized for achieving project objectives. The work was a combination of both culture changes and tangible/physical changes on the shop floor. The project has drastically changed the plant and developed the infrastructure for a successful implementation of continuous improvement as well as other best practices and quality initiatives.
Abstract: The increasing competitiveness in manufacturing
industry is forcing manufacturers to seek effective processing
schedules. The paper presents an optimization manufacture
scheduling approach for dependent details processing with given
processing sequences and times on multiple machines. By defining
decision variables as start and end moments of details processing it is
possible to use straightforward variables restrictions to satisfy
different technological requirements and to formulate easy to
understand and solve optimization tasks for multiple numbers of
details and machines. A case study example is solved for seven base
moldings for CNC metalworking machines processed on five
different machines with given processing order among details and
machines and known processing time-s duration. As a result of linear
optimization task solution the optimal manufacturing schedule
minimizing the overall processing time is obtained. The
manufacturing schedule defines the moments of moldings delivery
thus minimizing storage costs and provides mounting due-time
satisfaction. The proposed optimization approach is based on real
manufacturing plant problem. Different processing schedules variants
for different technological restrictions were defined and implemented
in the practice of Bulgarian company RAIS Ltd. The proposed
approach could be generalized for other job shop scheduling
problems for different applications.
Abstract: With the proliferation of multi-channel retailing, developing a better understanding of the factors that affect customers- purchase behaviors within a multi-channel retail context has become an important topic for practitioners and academics. While many studies have investigated the various customer behaviors associated with brick-and-mortar retailing, online retailing, and brick-and-click retailing, little research has explored how customer shopping value perceptions influence online purchase behaviors within the TV-and-online retail environment. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of TV and online shopping values on online patronage intention. Data collected from 116 respondents in Taiwan are tested against the research model using the partial least squares (PLS) approach. The results indicate that utilitarian and hedonic TV shopping values have indirect, positive influences on online patronage intention through their online counterparts in the TV-and-online retail context. The findings of this study provide several important theoretical and practical implications for multi-channel retailing.
Abstract: The past decade has witnessed a good opportunities
for city development schemes in UK. The government encouraged
restoration of city centers to comprise mixed use developments with
high density residential apartments. Investments in regeneration areas
were doing well according to the analyses of Property Databank
(IPD). However, more recent analysis by IPD has shown that since
2007, property in regeneration areas has been more vulnerable to the
market downturn than other types of investment property. The early
stages of a property market downturn may be felt most in
regeneration where funding, investor confidence and occupier
demand would dissipate because the sector was considered more
marginal or risky when development costs rise. Moreover, the Bank
of England survey shows that lenders have sequentially tightened the
availability of credit for commercial real estate since mid-2007. A
sharp reduction in the willingness of banks to lend on commercial
property was recorded. The credit crunch has already affected
commercial property but its impact has been particularly severe in
certain kinds of properties where residential developments are
extremely difficult, in particular city centre apartments and buy-to-let
markets. Commercial property – retail, industrial leisure and mixed
use were also pressed, in Birmingham; tens of mixed use plots were
built to replace old factories in the heart of the city. The purpose of
these developments was to enable young professionals to work and
live in same place. Thousands of people lost their jobs during the
recession, moreover lending was more difficult and the future of
many developments is unknown. The recession casts its shadow upon
the society due to cuts in public spending by government, Inflation,
rising tuition fees and high rise in unemployment generated anger and
hatred was spreading among youth causing vandalism and riots in
many cities. Recent riots targeted many mixed used development in
the UK where banks, shops, restaurants and big stores were robbed
and set into fire leaving residents with horror and shock. This paper
examines the impact of the recession and riots on mixed use
development in UK.
Abstract: The study of tourist activities and the mapping of their routes in space and time has become an important issue in tourism management. Here we represent space-time paths for the tourism industry by visualizing individual tourist activities and the paths followed using a 3D Geographic Information System (GIS). Considerable attention has been devoted to the measurement of accessibility to shopping, eating, walking and other services at the tourist destination. I turns out that GIS is a useful tool for studying the spatial behaviors of tourists in the area. The value of GIS is especially advantageous for space-time potential path area measures, especially for the accurate visualization of possible paths through existing city road networks. This study seeks to apply space-time concepts with a detailed street network map obtained from Google Maps to measure tourist paths both spatially and temporally. These paths are further determined based on data obtained from map questionnaires regarding the trip activities of 40 individuals. The analysis of the data makes it possible to determining the locations of the more popular paths. The results can be visualized using 3D GIS to show the areas and potential activity opportunities accessible to tourists during their travel time.
Abstract: This study compares three meta heuristics to minimize makespan (Cmax) for Hybrid Flow Shop (HFS) Scheduling Problem with Parallel Machines. This problem is known to be NP-Hard. This study proposes three algorithms among improvement heuristic searches which are: Genetic Algorithm (GA), Simulated Annealing (SA), and Tabu Search (TS). SA and TS are known as deterministic improvement heuristic search. GA is known as stochastic improvement heuristic search. A comprehensive comparison from these three improvement heuristic searches is presented. The results for the experiments conducted show that TS is effective and efficient to solve HFS scheduling problems.
Abstract: Brand name plays a vital role for in-shop buying
behavior of consumers and mutated brand name may affect the
selling of leading branded products. In Indian market, there are many
products with mutated brand names which are either orthographically
or phonologically similar. Due to presence of such products, Indian
consumers very often fall under confusion when buying some
regularly used stuff. Authors of the present paper have attempted to
demonstrate relationship between less attention and false recognition
of mutated brand names during a product selection process. To
achieve this goal, visual attention study was conducted on 15 male
college students using eye-tracker against a mutated brand name and
errors in recognition were noted using questionnaire. Statistical
analysis of the acquired data revealed that there was more false
recognition of mutated brand name when less attention was paid
during selection of favorite product. Moreover, it was perceived that
eye tracking is an effective tool for analyzing false recognition of
brand name mutation.
Abstract: The performance of schedules released to a shop floor may greatly be affected by unexpected disruptions. Thus, this paper considers the flexible job shop scheduling problem when processing times of some operations are represented by a uniform distribution with given lower and upper bounds. The objective is to find a predictive schedule that can deal with this uncertainty. The paper compares two genetic approaches to obtain predictive schedule. To determine the performance of the predictive schedules obtained by both approaches, an experimental study is conducted on a number of benchmark problems.
Abstract: The school / university orientation interests a broad and
often badly informed public. Technically, it is an important
multicriterion decision problem, which supposes the combination of
much academic professional and/or lawful knowledge, which in turn
justifies software resorting to the techniques of Artificial Intelligence.
CORUS is an expert system of the "Conseil et ORientation
Universitaire et Scolaire", based on a knowledge representation
language (KRL) with rules and objects, called/ known as Ibn Rochd.
CORUS was developed thanks to DéGSE, a workshop of cognitive
engineering which supports this LRC. CORUS works out many
acceptable solutions for the case considered, and retains the most
satisfactory among them. Several versions of CORUS have extended
its services gradually.