Research Paper
Economics
Mohammad Hadi Zohdi; Morteza Shafiee; Fariborz Evazzadeh Fath
Abstract
Despite its known importance, relatively few studies have focused on studying the effects of Intellectual Capital Components (ICC) on the economic competitiveness, determining related elements and relationships exists between them to assess its consequences. This study was designed to provide a comprehensive ...
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Despite its known importance, relatively few studies have focused on studying the effects of Intellectual Capital Components (ICC) on the economic competitiveness, determining related elements and relationships exists between them to assess its consequences. This study was designed to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the problem. After a literature review, fifteen related elements, obtained from the previous studies, were collected. A Fuzzy Cognitive Map (FCM) was used to determine the relations exists between the elements, where the opinions of fifteen experts were applied when making related decisions. Data were analyzed using statistical analysis. The results showed relations exist between all fifteen elements, where all of them were confirmed using FCM representation.
Research Paper
Other
Muhammad Ali Rehman; Turab Jafri
Abstract
In geotechnical engineering, soil stabilization provides practical and cost-effective solutions related to problematic soils. With the growing necessity for environmentally friendly and sustainable materials, researchers have been exploring alternative methods such as biological approaches for soil stabilization. ...
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In geotechnical engineering, soil stabilization provides practical and cost-effective solutions related to problematic soils. With the growing necessity for environmentally friendly and sustainable materials, researchers have been exploring alternative methods such as biological approaches for soil stabilization. Biopolymers are produced from living organisms and are considered to be environmentally friendly soil stabilizers. A detailed study on stabilization of soil using Guar Gum biopolymer was carried out through intensive laboratory testing. For this purpose, low plastic (CL) and high plastic (CH) clays were treated with varying contents of Guar Gum biopolymer (1%, 2%, 3% and 4%) by the weight of dry soil. The experimental program mainly focused on compaction characteristics, unconfined compressive strength, California Bearing Ratio (CBR) and swell potential tests. All the samples were prepared on dry mix basis. The UCS of cured and soaked samples was tested after 2, 7, 14 and 28 days of curing and soaking. Strengthening effect of Guar Gum biopolymer was observed with the increasing biopolymer content and curing period. An increase of 182.64% and 243.30% was observed in the UCS of CL and CH respectively at the end of curing period using 2% biopolymer content. The results indicated a significant increase in the CBR of both CL and CH under soaked and unsoaked conditions. The incorporation of Guar Gum biopolymer has shown significant improvement in geotechnical properties of low plastic and high plastic clays and can be adopted as a potentially sustainable soil stabilizer.
Research Paper
Engineering Optimization
Okwuchi Smith Onyekwere; Mobolaji Humphrey Oladeinde; Kindness Alfred Uyanga
Abstract
There is great interest in application of natural fibres, such as bamboo fibre, as reinforcement in composite production. Herein, to achieve high performance under optimum process conditions, experimental design and optimization techniques are used to investigate the best parameter settings for processing ...
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There is great interest in application of natural fibres, such as bamboo fibre, as reinforcement in composite production. Herein, to achieve high performance under optimum process conditions, experimental design and optimization techniques are used to investigate the best parameter settings for processing bamboo fibre polyester composites. Single response optimization of the properties of bamboo fibre polyester composites using Taguchi orthogonal array, analysis of variance and Post hoc test was carried out. The test samples comprised of untreated, mercerized, acetylated and mercerized-acetylated bamboo fibre composites at fibre contents of 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 wt %. All composite samples were fabricated using conventional hand lay-up process on randomly oriented long bamboo fibres. It was found that optimum parameter setting for impact strength was achieved at mercerization treatment and 30wt% fibre content with impact strength of 158.23 J/cm. For flexural strength, optimum parameter setting was found to be mercerization treatment at 50 wt % level of fibre content which resulted to flexural strength of 62.7 MPa. The optimum parameter setting for tensile strength is observed at mercerized-acetylation treatment at 50 wt% fibre content with tensile strength of 72.96 MPa. However, no significant difference, (P <.005) was observed in flexural strength, tensile strength and impact strength of mercerized and mercerized-acetylated fibre composites. This study established a research approach to improve bamboo fibre composite properties for more extended applications and to obtain optimal operating conditions by using optimization techniques. It will also serve as a guide for composite manufacturers on parameter settings selection.
Research Paper
Eshetu Dadi Gurmu; Boka Kumsa Bole; Purnachandra Rao Koya
Abstract
The aim of study is to formulate and analyze a mathematical model for coinfection of sexually transmitted diseases HPV, HIV, and HSV-II. The well possedness of the developed model equations was proved and the equilibrium points of the model have been identified. Qualitative analysis of the formulated ...
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The aim of study is to formulate and analyze a mathematical model for coinfection of sexually transmitted diseases HPV, HIV, and HSV-II. The well possedness of the developed model equations was proved and the equilibrium points of the model have been identified. Qualitative analysis of the formulated model equations was proved and the equilibrium points of the model have been identified. Qualitative analysis of the formulated model was established using basic reproduction number. The results show that the disease free equilibrium is locally asymptotically stable if the basic reproduction is less than one. The endemic states are considered to exist when the basic reproduction number for each disease is greater than one. Finally, numerical simulations of the model equations are carried out using the software MATLAB R2015b with ODE45 solver. Numerical simulations illustrated that all infection solutions converge to zero when the basic reproduction number is less than unity.
Research Paper
Decision analysis and methods
Niloofar Khalili; Parisa Shahnazari Shahrezaei; Amir Gholm Abri
Abstract
The current study, according to ergonomic factors, aims to model the nurses’ work shift scheduling problem. Considering the urgent needs of the hospitals in providing better services to patients, it seems significant to take the preferences of nurses in scheduling shifts into account. Therefore, ...
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The current study, according to ergonomic factors, aims to model the nurses’ work shift scheduling problem. Considering the urgent needs of the hospitals in providing better services to patients, it seems significant to take the preferences of nurses in scheduling shifts into account. Therefore, in this paper, a multi-objective model of nurses’ scheduling with emphasis on reducing their fatigue during the career shift is presented. To evaluate the outputs of the model, two numerical instances in small and large sizes with real data of Labbafinejad Hospital were designed in 18-person and 90-person wards. To solve a small size problem, a comprehensive standard decision method is employed, the results of which showed that nurses take their most rest during the night shift and in the middle of their working hours to reduce fatigue. Furthermore, due to the NP-Hard nature of the nurses' scheduling problem, in the problem of the 90-person ward, MOPSO and NSGA II algorithms are applied based on the design of a new chromosome. Using the TOPSIS method and entropy weighting method shows that the designed NSGA II algorithm can solve the nurses’ scheduling problem of Labbafinejad Hospital faster and better.
Research Paper
Computational Intelligence
Bhawesh Rajpal; Nitin Prasad; Kaushal Kishore Rao Mangalore; Nikhitha Pradeep; Ravi Shastri
Abstract
This paper consists of analysis of an algorithm dealing with facial expressions recognition. The algorithm has three major steps, initially image is processed, then the facial features are extracted and finally facial expression is recognized. In the initial processing stage the facial region is identified ...
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This paper consists of analysis of an algorithm dealing with facial expressions recognition. The algorithm has three major steps, initially image is processed, then the facial features are extracted and finally facial expression is recognized. In the initial processing stage the facial region is identified using a Haar cascade classifier. This facial region is passed on to the model trained by a CNN where facial features are matched with the features specified in the model. In the final step on the basis of comparison in the previous step the image is labelled and results are displayed. By the experiment results it is clear that the method specified in the paper can detect facial expressions very well.
Research Paper
Systems and service modeling and simulation
Anis Shabani; Amir Hossein Refahi Sheikhani; Hossein Aminikhah
Abstract
In this article, we investigated the robust control approach for variable-order fractional time fractional butterfly- shaped chaotic attractor system that the fractional derivative is considered in Atangana-Baleanu-Caputo sense. We show the computational algorithm with high accuracy for solving the proposed ...
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In this article, we investigated the robust control approach for variable-order fractional time fractional butterfly- shaped chaotic attractor system that the fractional derivative is considered in Atangana-Baleanu-Caputo sense. We show the computational algorithm with high accuracy for solving the proposed systems. For the suggested system, Adams-Bashforth-Moulton approach applied for converting the system of the equations into a system of linear or nonlinear algebraic equations. The existence and uniqueness of the solution are shown and also asymptotically stable is investigated in this article. At the end, a number of statistical indicators were presented in order efficiency, accuracy and simple applicability of the proposed method.
