The current paper aims to identify the individual competencies of collaborators in Industry 4.0 projects. We used the Delphi method with three rounds as a research methodology. Sixty-three experts engaged with Industry 4.0 projects, professionals and academics, participated in the study. A set of individual competencies related to Industry 4.0 was identified: 1) technical (technical skills, systemic process comprehension, IT security skills, project management tendency, analytical skills, and business knowledge); 2) personal (flexibility, learning motivation, decision-making, ambiguity tolerance, and ability to work under pressure); 3) methodological (creativity, digital mindset, and entrepreneur thinking); 4) social aspects (communication skills, team-working skills, being committed and proactive, conflict resolution, and leadership skills). The findings led to a list of competencies for project managers and other team members in the Industry 4.0' context. This result provides new insights related to personnel development in project-managed environments and educational guidance for the future workforce.
Construction project suspension is known to be one of the big issues that have a significant negative impact on the project and its participants. The paper's key goal is to adhere to the degree to which the project achieves its goals (timely and budgetary implementation). It also helps to understand the obstacles, challenges and causes that the project faces explicitly or implicitly, thereby providing background information for the delay. These factors will lead to a reduction in economic viability, forcing projects particularly in developing countries, to overrun and decrease in growth opportunities. Finally, the paper puts in a quantitative framework to calculate the delay effects and to predict the possible losses, using GSA algorithm to find the best solution for certain delays in construction projects. The unavailability of the client's serious evaluation of the bidders' 'real' technical capabilities through the tendering phase prioritises the awarding of bids to incompetent contractors, bringing them forward and winning the bids. GSA is a very easy solution to find, as most of its velocity is about zero.
This paper discusses the gradation and thickness effect on plates made up of functionally graded material (FGM) under the action of coupled thermo-mechanical loading. In this study, a plate made up of FGM is applied with a coupled thermo-mechanical loading and the combined effect of temperature gradient along with the action of mechanical loading is observed on the plate. Using obtained results, a material can be tuned for specific kinds of applications by varying the volume fraction exponent and plate thickness. Further, efforts have been made to reduce the mass of the structure preventing the failure of the FGM plate thermally and from stress point of view. The whole analysis is carried out in finite element tool ABAQUS. Results obtained can act as a guiding principle for selection of a particular type of gradation and the limiting value of thickness of the structure for a specific kind of application.
Despite the growth of media content on the web, the necessity of a user-agent that renders media content is becoming prominent. Considering the needs of persons with disability, WAI recommended guidelines on how web content is to be specified. Along with user-agents playing a major role in making inaccessible content accessible, the user-agents must ensure the web content must be accessible to all users by providing the requirements through its interface and by communicating with other assistive technologies. In this paper, we have seen the problems for the persons with disabilities. We have studied the media players which are recently developed and in what way they followed the guidelines to make the content accessible to users. We designed an estimated metric based on the requirements identified from the guidelines issued in WAI. Using these metrics, we have calculated the accessibility score of each player and concluded that the most improvement is in video player designs.
In this paper, we have compared the most important modulation formats used in optical communications, in terms of bit error rate (BER) and Q-factor, in the aim of assessing their weaknesses, advantages, and explore the functionality of these formats to meet potential network needs and tackle the growth of data traffic. Two basic formats in optical communication systems exist: non-return-to-zero (NRZ) and return-to-zero (RZ). Here, a device consisting of downstream optical fibre connectivity processing was used, and the system performance has been investigated using NRZ and RZ formats operating by varying bit rates, the length of the fibre, power of continuous wave (CW) laser and number of users. The analysis showed how exceptional the RZ modulation format compared with the conventional NRZ modulation design due to preferable inviolability to average peak power and nonlinearity fibre. The results were assessed by the value of the quality (Q) factor, the bit error rate of BER and average eye opening using Optisystem.
In this paper, we propose a skinning approach for the virtual hand deformation. This is an implicit skinning approach based on the spherical primitives. Our approach presents a new idea of skinning, which aims to correct the undesirable effects introduced by geometric skinning techniques such as linear blending skinning (LBS) or dual quaternions skinning (DQS). In this paper, we propose the use of volumetric shape as a new geometric representation to better capture the behaviour of the skin. We present a real-time method producing a deformation of the mesh which takes into account the contact of the skin and the simulation of the muscles swelling. Our hand mesh is approximated with a volumetric structure which allows us to deform it in a plausible way while dealing with collisions and retaining the mesh details.
Harmine and its derivatives are an important class of natural molecules for fighting cancer. Researching for the physical characteristics involved in this activity provides crucial keys to develop new derivatives which are more active and less toxic. For this purpose, a series of 50 harmine derivatives were studied using molecular modelling, namely 2D-QSAR analysis and molecular docking. The best 2D-QSAR model was developed correlating the three most important descriptors with the cytotoxic activity using MLR and ANN. The statistical analysis indicates high performance of the established models (R2MLR = 0.77, q2MLR = 0.73, R2extMLR = 0.81, Q2F3MLR = 0.70, r2mMLR = 0.71 and CCCMLR = 0.88, R2ANN = 0.86, q2ANN = 0.79 and R2extANN = 0.76). The analysis of the selected three descriptors showed that the lipophilicity remains the crucial property on which cytotoxic activity depends. Moreover, molecular docking of the most active compound (44) shows that it takes up a good pose into the active site of DYRKA1 kinase, as reflected by the low binding energy (-10.5 kcal/mol) and the various interactions formed with the amino acids. Thus, these results were exploited to design six new derivatives having high predicted pIC50, low binding energy and exciting pharmacokinetics properties.
This paper proposes a novel approach to face recognition using string of minimum values (SMV) as a new face feature extractor for face representation. Unlike most of the face representative methods, which focus only on micro-structures information in image analysis, by surrounding the treated pixel with a mask. The proposed descriptor uses the chains of unit vectors in four directions, by moving from the current pixel to the next one, from which to a new next pixel, and so on, in order to encode also the global appearance of the face image. Furthermore, seven distance metrics from the nearest neighbour classifier are evaluated in the classification stage. The experimental results show which metrics perform well and demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed approach in terms of recognition rate compared to the existing face recognition methods.
In this paper we study the quality (Q) factor used by the receivers of APD and PIN photodiodes in wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) system with 32 number of users and compare the efficiency of the bit error rate (BER). The research is conducted using avalanche photodiode (APD) P-insulator-N and PIN photodiodes receivers of different wavelengths. Interpretation and description of the Optisystem's simulation results through the optical high debit communication system, optical fibre of different lengths, bit rate, continuous wave (CW) laser power and number of users, chosen to evaluate the APD and PIN photodiodes performances in function of Q-factor and BER in order to provide new perspectives for the future transmission. The simulation values show that the performance of the APD diode and the Q and BER factor obtained from APD is better than the performance of the PIN, and could be expected because APD is more sensitive than PIN.
This paper concerns the design of an optimal stabiliser/tracker for the quadrotor UAV. Firstly, kinematic and dynamic equations of the aerial vehicle are yielded through Newton-Euler formalism. Then, the backstepping (BS) technique is adopted to sustain a controllable and stable behaviours of the quadrotor attitude. However, designing a high-precision flight controller essentially necessitates an optimal selection of its internal parameters. The improper configuration of these parameters can negatively influence the flight performances and sometimes leads to the instability of the quadrotor system. Ant colony optimisation algorithm (ACO) is used to configure the adopted stabilised technique, and a modified cost function is proposed to improve the response of the quadrotor system. In view to corroborate the accuracy of the suggested method, a series of numerical experiments were done and comparison with other control approaches is also given.
Optimisation algorithms are increasingly used by electronic circuit designers to optimally design and size the performance of their circuits. Multi-objective optimisation algorithms have a great interest, since in most cases the problems of sizing analogue, RF and mixed-signal ICs include at least two conflicting and contradictory objectives. In the present paper, we present two evolutionary algorithms (EA) well known in the literature for their better performance in solving more difficult multi-objective problems (MOP). The performances of these proposed algorithms are first applied to some well-known mathematical benchmark functions and then to deal with the optimal sizing of current conveyor transistors in the framework of 0.18 μm technology. The most important objectives are to maximise the cut-off frequency and minimise the parasitic resistance of X-port. Pareto fronts are generated, and optimised solutions are chosen. Performance metrics of the optimisation results obtained are carried out by the CADENCE Virtuoso software. This paper discusses and shows that AEs are a priori the most adapted class of metaheuristics to be used in the field of optimal electronic circuit sizing.
This paper proposes the usage of traceability data to enhance the continuous evaluation and monitoring of quality. The current study focuses on processing activities where it is difficult to detect and evaluate the possible degradation of quality. It has indeed a special interest in possible gaps that are not bridged by existing quality methods and practices, especially tasks that involve significant physical contact with manual labour. Therefore, this research introduces a computer-aided system that combines ontology-based knowledge with a fuzzy-based decision-making process. The proposed model can ensure the main traceability functions, including identifying, tracing, and tracking. Also, it can handle the various attributes associated with processing activities to assess the possible loss of quality. In case of unconformity, this monitoring function enables decision-makers to intervene appropriately. The developed system has also been illustrated through a fish canning case study.
In this paper, a new optimised backstepping sliding mode controller with integral action (BISMC) is proposed to achieve maximum power point tracking (MPPT) for solar photovoltaic (PV) system. The investigated PV system consists of a photovoltaic generator (PVG) as power source, a DC-DC boost converter and a resistive load. The designed controller can allow the PV system to operate around the estimated MPPT under abrupt atmospheric conditions variation. By introducing the integral action in the sliding surface, the system presents good dynamic performances. Furthermore, the proposed BISMC controller was combined with intelligent particle swarm optimisation (PSO) algorithm to improve the controller performance in terms of transition response and tracking error. Moreover, asymptotic stability is assured using Lyapunov stability analysis and MPP is achieved under varying temperature and irradiance levels. The simulation results were reported to demonstrate the performances of the considered controller.
Let Fq[e] be a finite field of q elements, where q is a power of a prime number p. In this paper, we study the Twisted Hessian curves over the ring Fq[e], where e2 = e, denoted by Ha,d(Fq[e]); (a,d) ∈ (Fq[e])2. Using the Twisted Hessian equation, we define the Twisted Hessian curves Ha,d(Fq[e]) and we will show that Hπ0(a),π0(d)(Fq) and Hπ1(a),π1(d)(Fq) are two Twisted Hessian curves over the field Fq, where π0 and π1 are respectively the canonical projection and the sum projection of coordinates from Fq[e] to Fq. Precisely, we give a bijection between the sets Ha,d(Fq[e]) and Hπ0(a),π0(d)(Fq)×Hπ1(a),π1(d)(Fq).
Mosaic video reconstruction is a technique of assembling a video cut into frames to provide a panoramic view of a captured scene. The resulting image of this technique provides a compact representation of the entire video. In this paper we propose a technique for creating image mosaics-based video scene. This technique will be used for real-time compression of videos into mosaic images.
Teaching computer science to non-specialists, forms part of the Moroccan university reform perspective. So, the new purpose of the 'teacher/accompanying person' at UCD University is to accompany the learner to be auto-effective regarding a programming language. The classic modes of teaching and the classic methodologies of research on this topic are outdated. The present article tells our experience in a contextualised way, our methodological repositioning before explaining the steps of a theoretical model which reconfigures the phase of the production to favour an accompaniment stimulating the auto-efficacy of the learner. The training games and simulation environment is a better solution for this circumstance. The scenarisation tasks in this type of game are a major issue for the development of self-efficacy; and that will be the goal of this paper.
In this paper, we bring up the problem of moving object detection which is very essential for many applications in computer vision. In fact, so many algorithms are proposed in the research field these last years. The basic idea of our paper is to propose an efficient segmentation and classification approach based on a discriminating classifier capable of distinguishing between moving objects and static objects in real time. Thus, static objects are considered to belong to the background and moving objects will be surrounded by a bounding box facilitating their tracking. In fact our proposed algorithm proves itself by the experimental results which show its strength by having the highest rate of recognition and localization precision comparing to other classical methods.
